A Generation of Aeons
Chapter Fifty-Four
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X or X-2
Last Time:
Lenne watched her guardian and fell next to him, looking for someway to help him.
Abruptly, Lenne realized something. All she had was a mild tension in her head. She was barely feeling the effects of Takoire.
He was blocking her.
She shook him. "Why are you doing this!" Lenne demanded, but he didn't hear her. "You're gonna kill yourself this way!" she continued to yell at him. "Stop blocking me! You're gonna kill yourself faster if you keep all of it to yourself!"
Takoire promptly stopped shaking and looked up at Lenne. His eyelids beginning to slowly droop until he eventually slumped over in his summoner's arms.
Lenne's eyes widened as she shook him again lightly. "Takoire!"
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"Lenne…" somebody was shaking her. "Lenne… get up. You need to leave this room. You've barely left for days…"
High Summoner Lenne didn't recall a lot at the moment about the past few days. After Takoire had fallen unconscious, she barely remembered Garren and one of her summoners helping to carry him back onto the airship where some of the white mages had a better chance to look at him.
Garren left behind a small detail of guardians at the temple, doubling the original security. The Crimson Knight had also taken a count of all the summoners and guardians that had made it back. All in all, they had lost eight total, seven guardians and one summoner.
Upon their return to Besaid, High Summoner Lenne had her guardian moved back to her apartment and hadn't been away longer than half an hour since.
Lenne lifted her head, blinking her eyes several times before recognizing who had woken her. His pale red eyes were unmistakable.
"Darka…?"
The Crimson Knight nodded, turning as Lenne sat up. He placed a tray of food on the table beside her.
She shook her head in response. "I'm not hungry."
"Too bad. I'll force feed you if I have to," Darka answered immediately, "and that'll be letting you off easy. You should hear your family talk. Eat." She continued to stare at him with a blank expression. "Look… I know you're worried about him, but you've done everything you can and more. You have to take care of yourself, Lenne, and you and I both know he'd be saying the same thing."
Lenne sighed heavily, closing her eyes. Opening them, she looked at the sleeping face of her guardian and held his left hand in both of hers. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. But it's my fault… It's my fault he's like this."
Darka touched her on the shoulder. "No it isn't. It is not your fault. Takoire knew full well what he was getting into when he blocked you."
"I can never get what I want, Darka. I can't win. If he blocks me I don't feel anything, but he could die. If he doesn't block me, I feel him, but I'll lose him anyway. I can't do it. I can't lose him. I can't take it." Tears began to roll down her face as she burying it in the sheets of the bed. "Every time I was in a situation and thought I couldn't make it through, I thought about the last thing Takoire said to me. Right before I came back, he yelled that he would find me. Even though years passed, a part of me never gave it up. He's what's kept me going all this time. And if I lose him… I don't know what I'll do. I love him, Darka…"
He nodded his head in understanding. "I know you do. That's why you have to take care of yourself." Darka pointed to Takoire's unconscious figure. "He wouldn't want that. Look… I don't know much about anything except how to live off the streets and how to fight. But when I see you and Takoire together, I know how much he's in love with you." Lenne turned her head slightly to see her friend from the corner of her eye. "He comes off as cold and distant and like he doesn't care." Darka stopped himself. "You haven't completely figured it out yet, have you?"
"What?"
Darka frowned. "He pushes you away because he cares about you. He pushes you away to protect you from him. He doesn't want to see you hurt. And every time he pushes you away it kills him. I've seen him look at you when you don't know, and he's captivated by you. You're his world, Lenne. Everything I've ever seen him do was for you."
She looked at her guardian. A part of her knew all along what Darka was telling her. A part of her also knew that Takoire was doing the right thing. A part of her regretted the feelings she had for him. But she still loved him… And a part of her knew Darka was right.
Wearily, she stood up and placed a kiss on her guardian's lips before standing up. "I guess I just have to keep going one day at a time because it's all I can handle right now."
"I'll stay with him and make sure someone's with him during all parts of the day, but I'm assuming you'll be with him at night?" Darka finished with a question.
Lenne nodded her head. "Where's the-"
"The Council's at the Gullwings' building," the Crimson Knight cut off. "Oh… and here." He threw a small pack to Lenne.
She stared at it. "What is it?"
He rolled his eyes. "Earplugs, you'll need them with all the yelling and bickering going on."
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She should have listened to Darka.
No… she definitely should have listened to Darka. Why the hell did she leave those damn earplugs in her apartment? She'd barely been in the room five minutes, and as of yet, no one had noticed her. The conference room was even messier than before she had left it… something she had formerly thought was impossible.
The walk to the Gullwings' building normally should have barely taken five minutes, but she ran into Garren on the way who had inexplicably disappeared from the council session. After chastising him thoroughly, he joined her on the walk back to the building.
The Crimson Knight of Bevelle had brought her up to speed on all the things that had occurred during her temporary leave of absence. Two days ago, Dona had brought in a new summoner as her personal assistant. The young man was called Jaren. Jaren was the same age as Garren and Gaia, and from where Lenne could see, had darkish red hair that was worn in a negligent mess that surprisingly suited him. He was a native of Kilika… and had passed Byakko's test without training of any kind. If he had passed Byakko's test, that would imply that the new Summoner Jaren had a great deal of knowledge as well as wit. And his wit was helping him win the council over.
According to her cousin, Jaren had brought up a radical idea into the council. Jaren had proposed to strike a truce with Sareth, an idea Lenne had never even brought up as an option. Her cousin had also informed her that the council was beginning to side with the new arrival.
From simply watching him from the doorway, Lenne knew she was going to have her hands full with this one.
"Why are we losing all of our guardians and summoners when we've never even opened a dialogue with this Sareth! Shouldn't we at least hear him out? If we simply give him what he wants, there's a chance he'll leave! We can't afford to lose anymore lives in this crusade! Look at High Summoner Lenne! The minute her guardian is hurt, she disappears from all the council meetings!" Jaren urged the weary council members.
Lenne frowned. "I've already lost three of my best friends all because of Sareth's madness. I am not sorry if I don't want to lose another one." It became obvious that the council members had all been ignorant regarding Lenne's presence. Jaren in particular looked caught off-guard, attacking the high summoner's image only moments ago. Lenne took a step towards him. "I've heard about you, Summoner Jaren. I have to congratulate you for the fact that you passed Byakko's test with no training, but you have no idea what you're talking about," Lenne finished, glaring at him. "There is no reasoning with Sareth. He's insane, plain and simple."
The top of Jaren's nose crinkled as he spoke. "You can't assume-"
"I'm not assuming anything," Lenne interrupted. "I don't need to. I don't mean to sound cruel or close-minded, but you can't even begin to imagine the kind of man Sareth is." The high summoner turned and stepped towards the remaining council members. "I know everyone's tired of this day after day, and all you've had to go on is my word… but you have to believe me when I say that everything unnatural that has ever happened to Spira somehow leads back to Sareth. The machine war between Zanarkand and Bevelle was begun by Sareth after he murdered his entire family. Sin was created because Sareth leaked how to create the fayth to Maester Yevon. Vegnagun was brought back from over a thousand years ago because two people who loved each other were killed unfairly. If we let Sareth go now, he could do even more damage." She paused. "What's the current situation?"
"Sareth hasn't done anything since the attack at Macalania," Nooj prompted after a slightly awkward silence. "He moved his forces back to Guadosalam after we retreated. He hasn't done anything since."
Without a though, Lenne strolled towards the conference table and swept away piles of scattered paper from one of the stations and brought a screen on the room display. "Do we have an inventory of what was taken yet?"
Gaia joined her cousin on the station opposite her and swept off the papers without a thought, bringing up a second, smaller window on the room's main display. "It's a work in progress. I have almost all of my people working on it, but we don't have much." A new window popped up with lines of titles and numbers running across. "Do you want me to narrow the search?"
"Look for small things," the high summoner answered, "something like jewelry maybe. The Bevelle royal family made three objects from the Cheribum's metal, and two of them were heirlooms. I'd think that if the royal family wanted to harness the power they'd make it something small."
At Lenne's words, Gaia immediately paused. "Lenne, I didn't get a chance to tell you, yet."
She turned to her cousin confused. "What?"
The Al Bhed opened up a third window onto the display, covering all the others. "My personal team found this, and they had to twist a lot of arms to get it."
Lenne stopped to look up at the screen. It was lengthy, and Gaia would eventually have to scroll the screen down if someone were to read it. She turned back to her Al Bhed cousin. "What is this?"
"Yes," Dona began, creating a scene that revolved around herself, Gaia, and Lenne, "what is this? Why didn't you show this to the council sooner?"
Gaia turned almost vicious. "I don't think I'd want to find out about something that affects me directly on the local news." She closed her eyes, regaining her composure. "We found it in the old records from the time of Sin." The look on Lenne's face was growing dimmer as she spoke. "Look… we think it's a fourth prophecy."
"A fourth prophecy…?"
Gaia bowed her head down. "We found out that a copy had been left behind in Bevelle."
The High Summoner Lenne quickly forgot she was looking for something on her station. She stared up at the display. "Does it have a title?"
"No."
A side of the symmetry revealed
Then shall the other, yet things will not yet come to balance
The summoner of yore, the bringer of peace to Spira
The guardian of the ages, protector of all
The destructor of ages, executioner of a virtuous Spira
One piece will fit with either
Two choices will be left:
Tranquility
Chaos
Upon the dawn of the coming of age for man
Those who are the caretakers of the universe extended a hand of friendship
Suzaku of the wind and sky
Byakko of the flame and core
Genbu of the earth and land
Seiryu of the water and sea
And the Cheribum of time and the natural order
The Cheribum, the mightiest of the aeons, offered a gift to man as a gesture of good will
The leaders of man wished to be as powerful as their allies, the aeons
From the Cheribum's gift, man made three objects against the Cheribum's judgement
For the greatest of the aeons warned them that all in the universe had a balance, one always balancing another
Separated, the three objects that were created are out of sync
But once reunited, one must be destroyed
Apart, two of the objects were given an inkling of the Cheribum's power
But the objects cannot be controlled, and will give their users great pain
As well as the ability to travel forward, but never towards the past
The third object will lay dormant
Though it holds equal power to the two others
It shall give its bearer only protection against the elements
Two were kept for the leaders of man
While the last was separate, it would determine the ultimate balance
The third will balance one of the two only in the realm that the Cheribum cannot touch
The three objects were destined to meet their fates:
The summoner of yore
The guardian of the ages
The destructor of ages
The guardian of the ages, the one to keep the balance
The destructor of ages, the one to destroy the balance
Peace or destruction
The choice is for the summoner of yore
And no one else
Gaia nodded in shame. "They told me they had cleaned everything out, so I took their word for it, but then when the attack on Macalania happened, I joined them personally so if they found anything I would know exactly what was going on, but then I found out there were still some files missing from the time of Sin so I stumbled on this, but by the time I found it you were back from Macalania, but Takoire was unconscious, and I wanted to bring it before the council, but I thought you should see it first, and-"
"Gaia," Lenne interrupted, holding up a hand.
"What?"
The high summoner rubbed her eyes in exhaustion. "We heave a whole new set of problems to deal with."
Her cousin cocked her head. "Why?"
"Because that prophecy says that I should have the third object, and Sareth knows that now."
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Author's Notes:
Final Revision