Final Fantasy X: Revisited

Disclaimer: Okay, you know the drill. I don't own any part of Final Fantasy X, except for the story idea.

Chapter 4: Skirmish

"We called it Sin," Auron said, turning to face the monstrosity before him.

"Sin?" Tidus asked, staring incredulously at the ball of water before him.

At that moment, Sinspawn appeared from the buildings on either side of him. In a flurry of blue, a swarm of about 50 fiends jumped down in front of them, shrieking with a loud hiss and oozing blue liquid from their mouths. One in front leaned back slightly and then, without warning, hurled himself at Tidus, who was now throwing his arms in front of him defensively.

As soon as the attack started, it stopped. The sinspawn gave no sign of defeat other than his sudden drop onto the pavement with a soft thud. Tidus opened his eyes to see the creature lying about 5 feet in front of him, with a blue mess beginning to form under it. A weapon was firmly planted into its back.

A stray wire dropped right next to Tidus with a soft click onto the pavement.

Bruce thanked his gloves for the protection as his hands buzzed with the feeling of the wire sliding through as he dropped to the ground with ease, where his boots made a ring of dust where they hit. "Good thing I was there when I was, huh?" Bruce said as he walked over to where the dead sinspawn was, grabbing his swallow just as the body began to disappear into pyreflies. 'Sweet, that sounded cool,' he thought, grimacing inwardly as he stepped into the blood that the body left behind. 'Gonna have to get used to this…'

"Hey, who are you?" Bruce turned to see Tidus staring at him, hands crossed in a offensive fashion. He looked just like Bruce imagined he would, his hair about as long as his, and that costume still confusing to look at. A wave of sadness hit Bruce unexpectedly as he stood there. 'Just look at him, unaware of the roller coaster of a ride he'll be on, and what's more, unaware of his ill-fated relationship with Yuna…' Even though he didn't like Tidus much, he still felt sorry for the guy. "Sir Auron, do you know this guy?"

"I'm Bruce. Nice to meet you." The pleasantries would have to wait, though, as a wave of creatures began to move. "Auron, the sword, please," he yelled to Auron, now right behind him, watching the sinspawn ready their charge.

Auron widened his eyes at Bruce, then narrowed them. "How in the hell…." Shaking his head, he took out a sword from behind his back, its shape reflecting the light from the posts all around. "Boy, you've got a lot of explaining to do…" then to Tidus, "Take it." He thrust it into his hands. "A gift from Jecht."

"My old man?"

Bruce sighed as he recalled the regular dialogue. He heard Auron saying, "I hope you know how to use it" before he began to hear the hisses getting closer. "Uh, guys, we don't have time for this! We've got company!" He said as he turned to face the monsters, now moving into lines of three, covering the whole highway they were now standing on. Bruce turned to face them, his face a mask of determination as he gripped the swallow with his right hand, his left resting casually on his chest, ready to move to the handle at any time for an added power boost. His right foot moved in front, poised and ready to move him in any direction. In the corner of his eye, he saw Tidus struggling with the new-found sword as he took his usual stance. Auron moved in between the two, taking out his samurai sword, and took his hand out of the pouch in front of him.

The battle began.

With a screech, the first of the creatures let out a shrill cry as it lunged for Tidus, claws outstretched. Tidus, still unused to his sword, let out a 'gaaah' and lifted the sword off the ground just as the sinspawn reached him, resulting in a metallic clang as the claw connected. With a grunt, Tidus was knocked off his stance, falling backwards unceremoniously as Auron stepped in between him and the now charging monster, slashing with liquid movement of his arms gripped firmly around the hilt. With no sign of slowing, the sword cut clean across the sinspawn, dashing it into a scatter of pyreflies.

Bruce, on the other hand, was busy on the other side of the wave, slowly watching the monster come towards him. 'Okay, it's just like before, just a quick slash and it's all over.' Bruce gripped the swallow, and leaned back slightly, ready to counterattack. 'But, man, I can't even squish a bug without freaking! Man….' He shouted in surprise as the closest sinspawn jumped at him, ready to kill. Summoning up all his courage, Bruce ducked quickly, and quickly stuck up his swallow straight in the air, serving as a perfect spike for the fiend as it jumped right over him, receiving a deep slash right across the underbelly, from top to bottom, exploding into a series of pyreflies before it hit the ground. 'See, simple,' Bruce grinned slightly, watching the swarm surround him and escape into the sky. Readying himself for another attack, he decided it would be easier if he was closer to the others, so he quickly dashed towards the other two, now surrounded by the fiends from all sides.

With a yell, Bruce jumped, his swallow, ready to hit the mark on the fiend in front of him, now turning to see whose blood it would spill next. With a downwards slash, Bruce cut the first surprised fiend across its neck, then without stopping its movement, swung the weapon around his body and dragged it upwards into the torso of the one to its left, leaving a fairly large gash before jumping back to avoid a counter. Hissing in pain, the sinspawn tried to leap forward to attack, but the slash had an effect on its maneuverability fell in front of Bruce weakly, dark blue blood dripping underneath. 'Ugh,' was all he could think as he lifted his weapon up, and with a wince let loose the blade, sticking into the exposed side of the fiend. With a loud hiss of pain, and a guttral growl, the sinspawn thrashed wildly until it floated away into pyreflies. Once the path was cleared, he ran towards the cornered two, getting into his stance again. They were doing fine, but Auron had a couple of scratches on him, and Tidus was still getting used to his sword. 'Hmm, this isn't working,' Bruce thought as he saw the endless amounts of fiends closing in on them.

"These ones don't matter, we cut through!" Auron yelled, accenting it with a stab into another fiend, who howled in protest. Tidus, now defending one's repeated jabs with his sword, yelled out, "couldn't agree more!" as he pushed one slash aside long enough to bring his sword upwards, killing the fiend quickly. Bruce, following suit, ran past a third fiend, leaving a gaping hole in its side on the way. After the three fiends became pyreflies, Auron began to move forwards in the road, towards more fiends, all ready to strike.

In the distance, Bruce saw a tanker sitting idly alongside the road.

"Move to the tanker!" Bruce said loudly, still focused on the enemies around him. "I have an idea!"

"I like the way you think, kid," Auron yelled back, raising his sword to block an attack from another sinspawn. "Tidus, move towards the tanker!"

"Oh, man, I was playing blitzball five minutes ago!" Tidus screamed angrily as he lashed out at another fiend, who dodged it easily. 'He's gotta do better than this,' Bruce thought as he began battling another fiend, steadily moving backwards under the force of Bruce's blows. After a series of blocks, Bruce swept under it, taking out its legs. It let out a piercing cry as it began to fall, putting Bruce off guard. With lightning quickness, it lashed out in a desperation attempt, and deftly struck Bruce's forearm, leaving a mark about three inches long. "OW!" Bruce yelled in surprise as he used his left arm to carry the swallow, bringing it down hard on the hurt fiend, ending its cries quickly. Bruce quickly clutched his arm where he was hit instinctively, leaving his swallow laying next to him. 'ow ow ow ow ow ow…' Bruce took in deep breaths as he struggled to cease the pulsing pain in his arm. 'Its gonna start bleeding…' he thought a little late as the blood began to flow. He had to keep moving, though. With a quick 'suck it up' pep talk, he grabbed the swallow with his left hand and rushed towards the tanker.

After twenty or so more sinspawn, the trio was 10 feet away from the tanker, with sinspawn on both sides of them now. Bruce's right arm now had a nasty bruising effect on top of the wound, but the bleeding slowed considerably. Still with the swallow in his left hand, he ran towards Tidus, who was now being double teamed by more sinspawn. After a surprise slash from behind, the other fiend turned from Tidus to him, and back to Tidus.

A smile played across Bruce's lips. "Hey, Tidus, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Tidus stood there, a look of confusion on his face. "Huh?"

Bruce readied his swallow. "Just go wide right, and cut back towards it. Hit high. On three." God, he hoped this worked.

Tidus faced the fiend again, ready to strike. "One…..two…."

And with that, they both rushed at the sinspawn at once, from either side. The sinspawn panicked, rearing up on its hind legs in defiance. Once they reached both sides, both turned sharply in, their blades poised for a swing. Just before they struck, Bruce ducked and deftly slashed towards its unguarded side, as Tidus swung his blade across its neck, an arc of blue blood mimicking the sword's path.

The fiend exploded into the pyreflies as Bruce stood up, beaming with relief. "Sweet!" Bruce hollered gallantly, giving Tidus a high five, which was reciprocated. Tidus let out a "Who else wants some" before he noticed that the sinspawn stopped attacking.

Actually, they just stood there, in a neat circle, watching them. Auron noticed it, too, as his slashes became fewer and farther between. "Something has changed…" he muttered as he moved closer to the middle of the circle. "Be on your guard."

Bruce, on the other hand, already had his swallow up for guard, unsure of the next step. 'Let's see, uh, there was Sin, sinspawn, tanker….' The fiends began to get very quiet around him. 'I'm missing something, something big.' The fiends in front of him began to step back slowly. 'Sin, sinspawn, tanker, uh…' Bruce started to dance on either foot, antsy for an answer.

Tidus was the one to notice it first. Glancing upwards, he let out a strangled cry, alerting the others to what he saw now being launched from Sin towards their location. Auron spun his head, still in his defensive stance, and Bruce turned around completely, trying to see what Tidus saw.

Oh yeah.

It was much, much larger than any of the fiends thus far. Shaped somewhat like a large blue cylinder, and tentacles in all directions splaying out from it. It was spiked at one end, the one headed for the road they were standing on. As it descended, Bruce began to feel…dreadful. As if that thing was letting off a wave of fear with every passing moment. Bruce immediately felt sick as he clutched his swallow harder. 'Well, no getting away from this one, better get to it,' he thought to himself as the large fiend came to rest in front of them with a resounding 'boom' followed by a large dust cloud. It let out a piercing cry, and both Bruce and Tidus held their ears in pain. Auron just stood there, calm as always.

"Get out of my town!" Tidus yelled, startling Bruce a little bit as he stood up again, now clearly pissed. He was now fairly good with his sword, and he looked ready to plant it firmly in this fiend's neck. Fueled with Tidus's newfound vigor, Bruce assumed his ready stance, adjusting his grip. "You're gonna get it now!" Auron joined them at the end, pausing briefly to take a vial from his jacket and taking a sip as his scratches began to heal, closing up and disappearing. Then, hoisting his sword onto his shoulders, he launched himself at the fiend, screaming "Some can't wait to die!" with his sword pointed at the monster ahead.

Sinspawn Ammes worked quickly, and swatted the sword away with a tentacle. Auron, without losing speed, used the momentum to carry his sword around him in a complete circle, whizzing into the side of the fiend, then jumped back before he could receive any damage from the counterattack.

Tidus was next, as he attacked the left side, instead, slashing all about him, cutting off several tentacles and nicking the side a little, as well. He wasn't as lucky as the beast send him flying back with a hard slap to the gut, winding him a bit as he struggled to stay standing.

Bruce's turn went about, as he ran towards it, narrowly avoiding some lazy swats to his head. With a savage series of strikes, he swung his swallow through as many tentacles as he could find, severing quite a few with surprisingly little resistance. After most of them were laying on the ground, he inched back, returning to his place alongside the others. "Well, he can't attack anymore, right? Easy as – "

As soon as he spoke, he felt suddenly queasy. The sickness was soon followed by what could only be described as a sudden surge of gravity. Bruce felt his insides lurch inside him, as if they were going through a washing machine. As soon as it started, it stopped, leaving Bruce and the others considerably weakened. Gasping, Tidus gulped. "What…was…that…ow," He grabbed his side with his free hand. "Like my…insides…stretched…" Auron, too, looked as if he had been under a bit of stress, wiping at his forehead. "It's his attack, his real one," he said as he struggled to get his breath back. "We're going to have to finish him off quickly, before that kills us."

They all attacked again, in the same order, but now aiming for the body more. After a couple of rounds of them attacking, the other sinspawn watching began to attack also, throwing themselves in front of the large one. 'Great,' Bruce thought as he sliced the new ones quickly just before Ammes attacked again, leaving them breathless and more tired then they have been. Even Auron was gasping at this point.

Bruce clutched at his heart through his clothes as he felt it surging inside him. "Gaaah," he yelled as he used his remaining strength to attack a sinspawn just feet away from him. "This has… gotta…stop," he groaned as the effects wore off. Tidus was now just getting up from his ordeal. "I've almost had enough of this…" he said, gritting his teeth as he leaned on his sword, seeming very tired. "Auron...!"

Auron, however, was not paying much attention to him though, as he stood there, just looking ahead of him. Bruce glared at him. 'What is he doing? Concentrating at a time like this?' he thought. Just then, Auron switched stances, one more crouched and with one arm pushed forward, and leaped into the air, pointing his sword downwards. With a shout, he cracked the cement with the tip, sending up a red hue of energy, followed by four red spheres, all hovering above him giving off tremedous energy. Bruce watched as they flew past him, towards the sinspawn.

After a series of shrieks and an explosion of energy, Bruce stood there, dumbfounded. 'Of course, his Overdrive must have maxed out! Man, what power.' He looked over to the explosion, and the dust settled, leaving just the large pod, now greatly bruised and cut, and a vast expansion of pyreflies, hundreds of them. "All right, Auron! That was tight!" Bruce yelled at him, and was given an odd look in return. 'Oh, yeah, no slang…' he shrugged at him, and started laughing weakly, hopeful that it would stop him from staring. It did.

Tidus was staring at Auron, too. "How did you do that?" He asked, with a grin that could have lit up Las Vegas. "That was crazy, sir Auron! It was like, blam, then it was like, blam, then it was all, boom, and –" Bruce looked at him now, amused. 'It's like another language or something…' Bruce cut him off when he saw the sinspawn begin to move. "Uh, guys, we're not through yet!" he yelled, refocusing all of their attentions on Ammes. It was clearly hurt, as it was sagging slightly, and blue blood began to ooze from its wounds. "Well, just about, but still…"

"I got it, guys," Tidus said, moving in front of the other two, sword at the ready behind him. "You're going down, creep!" he said to the wounded fiend, as he brought his sword to rest next to him. "Take this!" Without warning, Tidus soared into the air, making an intricate pattern of twists before landing, jumping up again, and with all his might, flipped so that he was above the fiend, with his sword drawn up above him. With a sickening sound, the sword split right down the middle of it, resulting in a loud cry, and another large explosion of pyreflies in his wake.

Damn. Day-umn.

"All right! Did you see that? You see that, Auron?" Tidus yelled, waving his sword around. "I whooped him!" He passed Bruce to speak with Auron, giving him a grin as he passed, not noting his downcast state. 'Jeez, this sucks,' Bruce looked down at his hands. 'These guys just whooped him with no problem, and all I did was cut some stupid body parts? I need an Overdrive, quick.' He turned towards the others. 'But how can I get one? I'm not even part of this world, do I even get an Overdrive?'

He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Auron was right next to him until he put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't be discouraged, boy, you did your part," he muttered, so quietly that Bruce might have missed it if he hadn't registered his hand on him. Bruce sighed. "Yeah…" was all he said before Auron left him to his thoughts once again. No, he wasn't mad, or upset. He was just irritated that he didn't carry his share of the load for everyone.

"What are you laughing at, old man? Auron, let's get out of here," he heard Tidus' say in the distance. Turning, he noticed Tidus was looking at something in the sky.

He moved his eyes upwards, and saw Jecht's picture, still erected on a building amidst the destruction. 'Man, that guy…' Bruce glanced over to Sin, who was still moving steadily towards them, engulfing all of the buildings in its path. 'What a sad, sad guy he is.' Glancing behind him, he saw that Auron and Tidus already were gone around the corner. He grabbed his swallow and ran to meet the next threat.

Tidus and Auron, however, already had their hands full, resuming fighting off a horde of fiends, all moving quickly around them. 'Moping will have to wait,' he thought as he resumed his stance, determined to get to that tanker.

The battle resumed again, with fiend after fiend falling to the three blades, until they were stationed close to the tanker, with still more fiends coming on either side. Bruce was next to Tidus, and Auron was facing the other side, both teams fighting desperately to keep them from being overcome. "Gimme a break, man!" Tidus yelled as he slashed into another fiend. The slash was sloppy, however, and it only cut into the fiend, not through, but it was dead nonetheless. He had acquired several new cuts, on his arm and forehead mostly, but he was still going. Auron was now hunched over, and spat angrily onto the ground. "Hmph. This could be bad."

Bruce looked around at his surroundings momentarily, and visibly sagged with relief.

The tanker was right next to them. They had gotten this far, and he hasn't died yet. "Okay, guys, the tanker! Aim for the tanker! It's the only way to kill these things!" He yelled, dodging another attack and running towards the tanker, hitting it in any way he could to move it. Tidus, confused at first, took his cue from Auron instead, who turned towards the tanker as well, slashing at the tanker with vigor. With each blow, the tanker crackled a little bit with life, giving the three more energy to attack with.

After a couple of blows, Bruce turned around to see more sinspawn crawling towards the three, all hissing and arms stretched towards them. With a steadying breath, Bruce turned from the tanker, using his swallow in any way he could to hold them off until the tanker was ready to go. At this point, his whole body felt like it was on fire, and every muscle was straining with every slash Bruce made. 'Can't give up, can't give up!' Was all that was keeping him going as he was using all of his strength to move the weapon, slashing with his right hand, then trading off to his left hand when it got tired.

It wasn't long before the fiends began to overcome him, and he was given a barrage of slashes and scrapes, making him cry out in pain. "Hurry up!" he said through gritted teeth before he gave up on killing them one by one and started swinging the swallow like a bat, just keeping them at bay until the tanker was destroyed. But, man, was he tired. The fiends hissed violently as they halted, unable to get inside the swinging blade.

Panting loudly, Bruce had only a little bit of strength left before he would be too tired to move any more. "Guys…" he rasped, still swinging his swallow with both hands, now. With another swing, he swung too hard, as the swallow went around him, taking him around with it, just before he could plant it into the ground before he fell over from exhaustion. Desperate to catch his breath, he looked over to Auron for a potion.

With a loud crackle, the tanker whirred to life, as Auron attacked it one last time.

Tidus was running over to Bruce, with a vial in his hands. "Here, drink this, quick!" He thrust it into Bruce's hands, moving on to clear a path for them to escape. Without any more instruction, Bruce popped open the cork and drank the whole thing with an inward grimace at its taste again. The chill was still new to him, as he sagged with the inward changes, way too rapid to get used to yet. After the initial chill, he felt his body return to its normal state, as if he hadn't just fought a war with a hundred fiends.

He had no time to celebrate, however, as Auron dragged him up by his collar with a jerk. Apparently, he's had a potion, too. "Run, boy, and don't stop," he said with a bit of a smirk on his face before turning towards the newly cut path Tidus laid out for them. 'Don't need to tell me twice,' Bruce thought as he scrambled after them hastily.

Behind them, the tanker was now a giant firecracker, popping and sputtering everywhere. Before long, one of the many sparks found the gas tank.

Bruce could only hear the huge explosion, but he had a good idea of what it looked like. As easily as he could, he looped the belts around his swallow before swinging it around his back. 'I need to run quick, can't be slowed down.' Doubling his efforts, he was now running alongside Tidus, panting a little from fighting before. The bridge under them began to shudder violently under them, and Tidus stumbled a bit, leaving just him and Auron in front, all running from the cloud of fire that was behind them.

Sin was right in front of them, not fifty feet away. Bruce would have stopped stupid if his instinct reminded him what would happen next. Putting his face back down he kept running, trying with no avail to keep up with Auron, who was sprinting over the bridge to the other side, expertly dodging the cement flying at him. Bruce saw the ground in front of him crack straight in two.

'I said no more Stairmasters!' Bruce thought angrily as he ran up the new slope and jumped down onto the rest of the bridge, which was now breaking up rapidly. Climbing another incline, he jumped off of that one, and landed safely on the other side, where Auron was now standing, looking at Sin, now sucking up all of Zanarkand into the white oblivion. Bruce was compelled to look too. 'There's the thing that got me here.' He watched as Sin moved the thousands of buildings as if they were made of air, and drew them into the white vortex in front of it. 'So much destructive power, and I've gotta kill it,' he thought, gray eyes hitting the light that was to draw him in.

His thoughts were interrupted, as Auron spoke. "You are sure?" Bruce sighed in recognition. Here it was, the next part of the long journey in front of him. 'What did I get myself into?' he thought, moving his bandana off of his head and stuffing it into his pouch. 'Well, beats the hell out of sitting around all day…' He looked at Auron, who was now looking at Tidus, dangling off a ledge for the second time in twenty minutes. "This is it." Auron bent over, grabbing Tidus by the collar, suspending him in midair, as Sin began his descent. "This is your story." Sin was now directly above them, sucking up all of the surroundings, save the tiny ledge they were on. "It all begins here." Auron looked at Bruce, now looking at Tidus as well, black hair swirling about him in a frenzy. "I will get answers from you, when next we meet," he told Bruce, who turned his head towards him and nodded quickly.

Bruce began to feel queasy. He looked back to Tidus, nodded, and said, "We'll meet again, real soon." Tidus looked back at him, confused, but Bruce didn't have time to notice. His head felt very light, and his entire body began to float a little bit. Bruce closed his eyes. He knew what was about to happen, and he didn't wanna see it. He felt his clothes lose their gravity, and they moved freely about him. He even felt the heat of the light through his closed eyelids. His stomach was next, turning into knots over and over again. As the light swallowed him whole, one last thought hit Bruce before he lost consciousness.

'Wait a minute, I hate water!'

Author's notes: Man, this is my first attempt at the combat stage, so be gentle in your feedback, please. I would like to thank those of you who left your feedback already, it gave me some fuel to crank this one out. It sucks though, it took 4 chapters to get through the first part alone! Just what did I get myself into?!?! Well, I hope you keep reading, peoples. In the next couple chapters, our hero gets to meet Rikku, the potential love interest in this story! Told you guys you wouldn't have to wait long!

This seems like a year long thing, so expect updates every week or so. Oh, and If you really like it, spread the word! Feedback is fuel! Tell a friend! Thanks again for reading!