Chapter 40: Star-Crossed Search

"You know, you're all I can count on to save Lenne."

Yuna sat on the Celsius airship's top deck with her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocked back and forth. She had been singing, dancing, and having fun, but that phrase had been repeating in her mind ever since she heard it. It had come from a sphere they had recently stolen from the Kilika temple, and it had another image that looked like Tidus. Despite her attempts to forget about it, she only became more irritated. "Who's Lenne? Why ... why am I so mad? Who the heck is Lenne?" Her outburst drew strange looks from her friends behind her. "I'm going to bed," she announced.

Yuna marched inside the airship and paced on the lift as it rose. Running down the hall to the crew's cabin and up the stairs to the loft, she went straight to her bed. She was so tired that she didn't even bother to change out of her singer dress sphere before lying down in a huff. "Lenne," she grumbled to herself and closed her eyes, hoping to fall asleep.

))((

Lenne had seen that sphere when the Gullwings found it—Shuyin's attempted acquisition of Vegnagun, which led to his initial arrest. She wanted to see it again. She wanted to see his face clearly one more time before they returned it. "Yuna?" Lenne tried to reach into her subconscience. "Can you hear me? Yuna, please don't give the sphere back. You don't understand what happened to him—to us." Lenne's spirit felt as if she were weeping, even if tears could not be shed.

Yuna winced and stirred in her sleep, but she was too deep in slumber to be aware of the voice trying to reach her, and Lenne's spirit had grown too weak in her retreat from reality in her unsent state.

"Here, I'll show you." Lenne used the pyreflies that helped make up the magical weave in her dress to recreate memories of their frantic run through the halls of the Bevelle dungeon toward Vegnagun.

Yuna's heart raced as she saw in her dreams, not Lenne and Shuyin, but herself and Tidus. They fled for their lives, stopped in front of a frighteningly large machina, and were ripped apart by the bullets of a warrior monk execution squad. That was all she could handle before she woke and sat up, wide-eyed and panicked. "What ..."

Rikku and Paine stood over her, worried.

"What 'what'?" Paine asked.

"It must have been a dream," Yuna guessed.

"A dream's a dream."

"Blame it on your new jammies." Rikku grinned.

Yuna looked down and realized she had fallen asleep in her dress, then she laughed lightly at her silly mistake.

Within the dress sphere, Lenne pouted. She had no idea what Yuna had seen, but she didn't seem to understand the message. It was tempting to reach into reality once more, but she feared that her unsent soul would become a fiend if she did. That sphere had become her sanctuary, keeping her soul safe and keeping others safe from her soul. She sometimes wondered why she continued hanging on, but she persisted because she feared Shuyin was still out there somewhere, underneath the stars, lost and alone. There was something she needed to tell him before she could rest in peace.

))((

It had taken two long years to rebuild Kilika, but now it was a bustling town—a town in which Nooj's political revolutionist party, the Youth League, was thriving. His plans to build a new headquarters there were moving along well, but for now, he had taken a semi-permanent position on the precipice overlooking Mushroom Rock Road. His tower sat over the spot where Kinoc's tent had once been the Operation Mi'ihen command center above the Den of Woe. Perhaps it was divine justice since the Youth League made an effort to make ex-communicated and disenchanted Crusaders feel welcome among their growing ranks. They were also gaining membership from other citizens across Spira.

The Church of Yevon fell into disgrace when High Summoner Yuna and her guardians exposed the teachings to be an empty tradition. But many conservatives did not want all of the temples' teachings to fade just because of a few errant ones. New praetors moved into leadership to replace the old maesters, and after some internal shuffling, Nooj wasn't surprised to find that Baralai had taken the lead in organizing a new church founded on the ideas of the old one. As Praetor, Baralai tried to assure the people of Spira that New Yevon was different, but Nooj only saw more well-guarded secrets. He still intended to break the temple one way or another to find out exactly what it was hiding.

By this time Nooj established a relationship with the Leblanc Syndicate, its flamboyant leader had become involved in the latest craze of sphere hunting. And her desire to find spheres for him would eventually unlock the magical combination of the door to the Den of Woe. Nooj was still seeking answers about what he had seen and experienced in that cavern. He almost joined the original sphere hunters' guild because, like them, he believed spheres were the key to unlocking the truth about Spira's past. However, unlike them, Nooj wanted to expose the truth, not destroy it. When the sphere hunting organization broke into individual enterprises, Leblanc was more than happy to set her goons onto finding any spheres Nooj expressed an interest in. She had no qualms about how she got them for him, and Nooj didn't question her methods. The woman doted on him, so he was content to make use of her devotion.

When he invited High Summoner Yuna to join his quest for uprooting the temples' secrets, she declined. But he later found out that she, too, had joined a sphere hunting guild—the same one as Paine. Even Gippal had returned to public life after the Al Bhed Home on Bikanel was attacked by the guado, in collaboration with Yevon. He had been right that Yevon was trying to out to wipe out as many heretics as possible. The spheres they found were proof of that. And now that the former maesters of Yevon were gone and the church no longer had the power it once did, the Al Bhed were inserting themselves and their machina back into mainstream society. Gippal's organization, the Machine Faction, had seen to that. Deep down, Nooj was grateful that his attempt to kill his friends had failed. But there was bitterness between them now. And they had not spoken to each other on a personal level since.

From fugitive to founder, the mantle of being the Youth League's meyvn sometimes felt heavy. Nooj's machina limbs sometimes made the rest of him feel lifeless and cold. His mind was still haunted by despair, still hiding the shame of his madness and his guilt concerning his friends. Sometimes he would stare into space feeling lost to another time and place, though he could never remember his exact thoughts during those times. It was like sleepwalking, being awake but not aware of what his own body was doing. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone discovered his madness, or he gave in to it again. Nooj couldn't have known that half of the despair he felt was Shuyin's.

))((

Nooj's lost moments were the times when Shuyin surfaced from the recesses of his mind. For the most part, the unsent spirit let his host live his own life and make his own decisions, actively encouraging him here and there along the way to keep him alive and well … and informed. But during those times when Shuyin grew impatient and discouraged, he dropped Vegnagun's name into Nooj's subconscious to prompt him toward more research. Disguised as guards, Leblanc's goons infiltrated the temple and copied files on the weapon that dated back to its creation. He made Nooj confront Baralai about it, asking about New Yevon's intentions in keeping it hidden. But the praetor refused to give a direct answer. So, under Shuyin's suggestion, Nooj called for a raid on the Kilika temple to gather evidence—a sphere that Leblanc said revealed a large machina weapon. Nooj didn't get the sphere; the High Summoner's guild did. But oddly enough, Lady Yuna brought it to him. She had watched it, and he advised her to forget about what she saw, to not get involved.

Shuyin listened to their discussion without participation until Yuna asked the identity of a young man in the sphere. He felt a sense of familiarity in the way that she worded her question. And he heard the disappointment in her voice when Nooj answered honestly that he didn't know. Shuyin was sure he was the one in the sphere, but why was Yuna looking for him? He gave this young woman a long, hard look, wondering if maybe ... No, if Lenne was with her somehow, the same way he was with Nooj, he would have felt it. He was sure of it. Wasn't he?

"Wait!" Shuyin stood, using Nooj's voice before the High Summoner and her companions walked out the door. "Have you seen ... I mean, ..." He paused, trying to think of a better way to inquire without giving away information. "Why do you want to know who he is?"

With a trace of sadness, Yuna's eyes shifted. "I'm ... looking for someone I lost two years ago."

Shuyin knew better than to expect much, but he was disappointed all the same. "Only two? This sphere is a thousand years old."

Yuna's expression mirrored his disappointment. "He looks so much like him. I just thought maybe ... But of course, it couldn't be him if the sphere is that old."

"No, I guess not," he quietly agreed.

In Yuna's dress sphere grid, Lenne couldn't sense Shuyin's presence. Even if Yuna had been wearing Lenne's dress sphere, she would have seen Nooj instead. Though Lenne's soul was in the same room, Shuyin could sense nothing more than some strange urge to stall Yuna's exit. But with no valid excuses to make her stay, Shuyin sat back down and watched her and her friends leave.

Picking up the sphere she had given to Nooj, Shuyin touched the activation button to play the recording. As suspected, he was the young man with Vegangun. But when he pondered Yuna's odd inquiry, he recalled the first time he saw her. It was two years ago at Operation Mi'ihen, and she was traveling with a young man that looked exactly like him. His "twin" even wore an Abes uniform. Shuyin realized his concern for finding Lenne, keeping Nooj alive, and researching Vegnagun made him forget to investigate his doppelganger. But now Yuna didn't even know where this poser was. Shuyin wished he had stalled her exit by asking more questions. But then he would have had to explain himself for being nosy. At the very least, he sympathized with the fact that she missed him, whoever he was.

It had been two years since his escape from the warding glyphs of the Den of Woe. Why had Lenne not come looking for him the way Yuna searched for her lost friend? Maybe Lenne didn't want to find him. Maybe Lenne hated him now. Perhaps Kaila and Bahamut were right, and she went to the Farplane without him because unsent souls were so easily tainted with malice. Maybe he was waiting here in one place for something that would never happen.

Shuyin set down the sphere and removed Nooj's thin wire glasses from his nose to rest his face in his palms for a dark moment. The High Summoner knew about Vegnagun now, so maybe it was time to push all that research for his other plan into action instead of waiting for Lenne. He knew where Vegnagun was hidden, and now Nooj did, too, thanks to that sphere.

))((

Though the Farplane was a place of eternal rest, the pieces of Tidus's soul spent time thinking, ... remembering. At first, he simply remembered the flow of his journey from beginning to end. Then, he focused on his favorite parts of it. Eventually, he challenged himself to remember as many fine details as he could. But this was not restful or peaceful. It was painful. He had experienced friendship and love, only to have to let it go. He ached with loneliness more than when he was the only soul among a city full of illusions. And he wished there was a way to see her again one more time. So, though it was painful, he returned to those memories, afraid that if he rested, he would lose them, too. And his thoughts continued to wander the Farplane, seeking the impossible—a way out of his banishment.

))((

The other spirits there did not interact as much as the Fayth had when bound within the dream. Souls at rest slept, or at least they were supposed to. But when Tidus's memories actively replayed within the mists, they often disturbed other spirits that happened to be near.

"That boy's going to drive us all nuts," Jecht finally spoke out.

"It's because he misses her." Dannae sympathized with her son. "He's restless because he doesn't belong here yet."

"He can't spend an eternity here if he's unable to rest," Auron agreed.

"Maybe it's because he is not whole," Kaila suggested. "He's not holding together very well without the magic of the dream. Maybe if he could merge with Shuyin again ..."

"I feel as if I have two different sons," Dannae countered. "Is it even possible for them to become one again?"

Bahamut considered this. "I'm not sure. But Shuyin is not likely to come home. He's not himself anymore. His soul is poisoned with hatred, and he refuses to rest until he finds Lenne."

"He always was a stubborn one," Jecht grumped.

"And that surprises you?" Braska arrived with a warm smile.

"He woke you, too, huh?" Jecht guessed.

Braska laughed in an amused, forgiving manner. "I'm touched by the compassion he yields for my daughter. It truly is a shame he wasn't real. I could not have picked a better person to entrust her to. He does have a good heart. And though I never met Shuyin, I believe that deep down the same must be true of him." It was a compliment for Jecht and Dannae, to cushion the painful news of what Shuyin had become.

"Maybe if we found Lenne, she could convince Shuyin to come back," Kaila suggested. "He'd listen to her."

"Where would we even begin to look? She's unsent, too," Bahamut reminded her.

))((

Tidus's thoughts roamed the netherworld mists, oblivious to their gathering and discussion about him. He could not use pyreflies to recreate his form into a ghost like they could. His soul was small and weak by comparison, a dream broken into individual thoughts. He felt everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Only one thought unified those scattered feelings into the collective consciousness that he used to be. Yuna ...

))((

Careful to avoid guards where possible, Shuyin took Nooj to Bevelle and sneaked into the temple's lower levels. He fought his way past the dungeon fiends to follow the same route that led to his death. Finally, he found the room where Vegnagun was hidden. "We meet again," he addressed it like an old friend, his own voice layered over Nooj's. "Remember me? We were going to help Lenne escape. We were going to stop Bevelle from destroying what was left of Zanarkand. But I guess I wasn't as bulletproof as you are. You saw what happened to us. You are the only one besides the firing squad who witnessed our deaths. It's been a thousand years. And though they've been forbidding the use of machina among the people of Spira all this time, they've kept you as the ace up their sleeve." He snorted with contempt for Yevon's temples, then and now. "They're afraid to use you, but they're just as afraid to destroy you. I've done my research this time, though. I know what makes you tick now. And unlike them, I have nothing to fear. I have nothing left to lose. We've both been imprisoned for a millennium, but we can still stop Bevelle. We can stop time itself. Let's end this impossible-to-win game, okay? Just you and me."

As he came near, however, the machina began to shake. It had not acted this way before when he commanded it. He walked to the doors of the gun barrel and waited for it to open to him. When it did not, he touched the keypad that had opened it before, but Vegnagun chose to override the command. Shuyin's gaze darkened. "You don't remember me."

"Hostility detected. Access denied," the machina answered.

Shuyin remembered reading in the stolen files that Vegnagun was programmed toward self-preservation, but sometimes it mistook allies for enemies. "I don't want to hurt you. I'm here to help you do what you were meant to do."

"Meyven Nooj identified. Access denied." Vegnagun suddenly disengaged itself from its power source in that room.

Shuyin frowned with disgust. "Did Baralai actually program it against me? That bastard." He supposed it was his own fault for prodding Nooj into raiding the Kilika temple and threatening to tear down others. Not ready to abandon his plan just yet, Shuyin looked down into the mysterious foggy depths beneath the machina's platform. He had no idea what was down there, and he could see no bottom, but he knew how to reprogram it based on what he studied in the stolen files. All he needed was a different body so he could get close to it and time to work without interference from guards or fiends. After a moment of undecided, anxious pacing, Shuyin went to the room's control panel and began flipping switches. The platform in the middle of the floor dropped away, and Vegnagun fell into the dark depths below. Shuyin knew it wouldn't crash because of its programming to protect itself. But with the security switches off, Baralai was bound to send guards after it. Drawing a breath and reassuring himself that Plan B would work, Shuyin hopped into the darkness to pursue the machina he freed.

Down the confusing halls he raced, down the gaping hole in the now-empty chamber of the Fayth, Shuyin ran until he came to a flower-filled glen with mystical looking waterfalls. Vegnagun was nowhere in sight. The powerful magic that surrounded him in this place called him to rest, but Nooj's living body anchored him to reality and resisted the pull that otherwise would have drawn him into the mists forever. So, this was the Farplane.

As he looked around in awe, Shuyin acknowledged this was one place he had not yet searched for Lenne. But if what Bahamut and Kaila had suggested was true, he would willingly give up his ghost right here. "Lenne?" he called, scanning the border waterfalls and meadow for some sign of her. "Lenne!" In a moment of hope, he turned a full circle and waited.

))((

"It's him!" Kaila's spirit rose from the moon lilies and soared around Nooj's body. "It doesn't look like him, but it's him! Who else would be here looking for Lenne here? Bahamut, your magic is stronger than mine. Summon enough pyreflies to speak to him."

Bahamut awakened with Shuyin's shouts, too, but it was Kaila's perception of the situation that prompted the boy's soul to inspect Nooj's face.

Shuyin anxiously watched the pyreflies swirling and gathering near Nooj's body. "Lenne?"

The boy's soul was skeptical, but he decided they had nothing to lose in speaking with this half-machina stranger. Bahamut materialized but hesitated to speak until he was certain he knew the spirit within.

Shuyin drew a breath of surprise. He seemed disappointed initially. Then, he seemed glad to see the boy. But after that brief moment of recognition, his gaze darkened, and he spoke in his own voice. "Bahamut."

"Shuyin," Bahamut returned the greeting. It was awkward, knowing he had possessed another person, and that person looked nothing like him. "Please say that you've come home."

"If I leave this body, I'll be confined to this place, won't I?" Shuyin guessed.

"The spirits of the Farplane must remain here," Bahamut confirmed. "They can wander only within the plane of magic, though that does stretch to other places on Spira—places where pyreflies are plentiful, such as Zanarkand, the Moonflow, Guadosalam ... The Farplane is peaceful but not confining," Bahamut assured him. "You can rest and not have to think or need anything."

"I need Lenne." Shuyin's composure cracked, and his former compassion revealed itself for a moment. "Is she here? Do you know where she is?"

Bahamut knew whatever he answered was crucial, but he could not bring himself to lie. "No."

It hurt to hear that, but Shuyin accepted it since he had denied it all along. "Then, this living body is more useful to me than a long rest."

"People aren't meant to live forever, Shuyin. When people go on and on, the burdens get to be too much."

"I don't intend to live forever. I intend to destroy Spira. It's the only way this world will ever truly know peace."

Bahamut became alarmed. "What? You can't still feel that way. You're ... you're thinking just like Maester Seymour, and ... Lady Yunalesca, and ... Yu Yevon, and ... Destruction is not the answer! We fought so hard to break the cycle, Shuyin! It took us a thousand years!"

"It's my understanding that Seymour intended to create a world of unsent spirits. I intend to make everything fade. No more senseless fighting. No more unsent spirits. No more Farplane. Just infinite nothingness." Nooj smiled at him—a smile that looked more like Shuyin's than his own.

Bahamut's brows rose. "Are you going to try to use Vegnagun again?"

"Where is it? I know it's down here somewhere."

The boy defiantly crossed his small arms over his chest.

"Where is it, Bahamut?" Shuyin demanded, snatching at the kid's hooded collar. But Nooj's material hands passed through the small ghost.

"Goodbye, Shuyin. Come home when you are ready to let go." Saddened, Bahamut's apparition began to fade.

"I'm not done with you yet!" Shuyin dared to cast his magic on the boy's spirit. And to his surprise, it worked!

Wild flashes of Shuyin's despair and painful memories spun in Bahamut's mind. And as the boy tried to shield himself, he wondered if this was how Jecht felt when Yevon possessed him.

Someone else was coming into the Farplane—first one person, running, then several more. Shuyin heard their voices beyond the misty veil above. Listening carefully, he recognized the voices of the Gullwings. "Damn it! I knew the High Summoner might come looking for Vegnagun, too! Well, let's give Miss Yuna a run for her money, shall we? Remember when you came to the cavern to taunt me with freedom and trick me into resting? Remember that, Bahamut? I haven't forgotten. You'll do what I say now. Keep her away from Vegnagun!"

Bahamut panicked and tried harder to muster a spell that might lock Shuyin out, but his soul was suddenly and involuntarily wrenched from the Farplane and pushed through a summoning portal. Impossible! Shuyin was not a summoner! But Bahamut did remember their last encounter in the cavern. The boy's headache grew more intense, and despite his attempt to further understand Shuyin's rare arcane powers, his thoughts were pulled back to the blitzball player's horrible flashbacks. Forced into his black dragon form and thrust into reality, Bahamut had no choice but to rise out of the Farplane's pit and spread his wings above Yuna and her friends in an ominous warning not to enter.

"No way ..." Rikku couldn't believe her eyes. The Gullwings had just arrived in Bevelle to look for Vegnagun. They had confronted Baralai in a short scuffle, but he had disappeared ahead of them.

Paine had never seen anything like it. "What is it?"

"It's an aeon!" Rikku whimpered, freaked out by both its strange appearance and the fact that it looked like it wanted to fight.

Bahamut's eyes glowed with the red fire of hate, and his body burned with the black energy of revenge, but he tried desperately to communicate with his former summoner. "Yuna! Go away! I don't want to fight you!" However, his words became a deafening roar.

"An aeon?" Yuna's eyes widened in disbelief at Bahamut's return and his hostility toward them. She raised her arms to bar her friends from attacking … and bar him from attacking them. "You must stop!" she begged, hoping the aeon would recognize her.

Paine shoved Yuna back and readied her sword. "You wanna get killed? We have no choice!"

Bahamut pleaded with her one more time to run but was then compelled to attack.

))((

Behind them, down in the Farplane, Shuyin turned his attention to another person coming through the mists.

"You have no right to be down here!" Baralai's normally soft-spoken voice barked in anger. "Get out now!"

Shuyin receded to let the Youth League meyvn answer for himself. Nooj looked around in confusion. "Baralai? What is this place?"

Baralai softened his tone but held to his warning. "You've crossed the threshold into the Farplane. No one should be here disturbing the dead. Let them rest in peace."

Nooj panicked a little, knowing he couldn't account for his decisions. "Look, something strange has been happening to me. I think I should meet with you and Gippal somewhere else to talk about it. There's something about this place ... I can't think straight."

"Then leave." Baralai lowered his double-ringed staff and pointed its bladed end toward his former friend.

Shuyin took over before Nooj could confess to hearing voices in his head. "I will leave when it's safe to leave." He lifted his eyes to indicate the battle going on above them.

Baralai's eyes followed his glance up, but then a machina fist crunched into his gut, knocked the wind out of him, and bowled him over.

Shuyin crouched over the unconscious young man and studied his features. Vegnagun had recognized Nooj's face and forbid him access. Vegnagun would recognize Baralai as the praetor. The machina weapon would probably cooperate with the praetor better than anyone else. Shuyin knew what the next step in his plan had to be, but first, he had to get Yuna off his back. Her persistence was beginning to annoy him.

Disappearing behind the mists, Shuyin walked the pathways within the plane of magic that Bahamut mentioned. This time, he summoned every one of Yuna's former aeons, stationing them in their former temples and along this path. Under his control, if the aeons couldn't stop her, they would at least attract numerous fiends to attack the villages. Yuna would volunteer to defend helpless people, keeping her distracted long enough for him to return to Vegnagun.

))((

"Shuyin! How could you!" Kaila fussed as he walked away. "What's happened to you?" Bahamut was right. Their unsent friend had turned into a monster.

She looked up to the battle where Bahamut had been forced to attack Yuna and her friends, then she looked down at the praetor of New Yevon, helpless and unconscious at her feet. If only she knew how to use magic other than illusion so she could help someone. But outside of the dream, she was no longer able to cast spells as a Fayth. She was just Kaila once more.

"Wake up!" she called out to Baralai. "Wake up and get out of here! Your life is in danger!" When he didn't respond, she tried to grab his overcoat and shake him. But her immaterial substance met no resistance. If talking to him and shaking him didn't work, what else could she do?

))((

Baralai's eyes opened with a start after he was pounced in the face by a bright swarm of pyreflies. Sitting up, he backed away from the pyreflies and clutched his ribs. Though he wondered where he was for a moment, it all came back to him, and his dark eyes narrowed with mistrust. "Nooj."

The praetor looked up at the battle going on above him. Nooj and Gippal? No. Female voices … The Gullwings. With so many possible thieves invading the temple's lower levels, he decided there was only one way to clean them out. Standing and limping toward the exit, Baralai decided to send the warrior monks on a dungeon sweep. He had to protect Vegnagun from Nooj … and anyone else who sought to get their grubby hands on it. But the security wards in the machina's chamber had been tripped, and it had escaped, so first, he had to find it.

))((

Since Yuna was wearing Lenne's dress sphere, Lenne was alert throughout the battle with the black dragon. Being a former summoner herself, she knew this creature was an aeon, even if she did not know its name. But she was astonished that it would attack the Gullwings like this, especially considering Yuna had been a summoner, too. "Aeons don't attack out of spite," Lenne tried to remind her. "He must be guarding something. The machina you seek must be down there. You can come back for it later when he is banished."

Yuna was thrown against the wall and shook her head to try to stay alert. The fight wasn't going so well. "Aeons don't attack out of spite!" she told her friends. "What's happened to him? Bahamut, please stop!"

A chill shocked Lenne's spirit. "Bahamut?" It couldn't be. Who would turn a little boy into a Fayth? Besides, she had left him in the safety of the Ronso caverns. But thanks to her unintended imprisonment and conversation with Maester Renuta, she soon began to suspect who had turned him and why. Her soul cried out in anguish. "Bahamut, can you hear me? Yuna! Please don't hurt my brother! You have to let me talk to him!"

Yuna looked down at her dress sphere grid. The gunner outfit wasn't working on this incredibly strong perversion of one of her favorite aeons. Maybe if … Perhaps … She switched to the singer sphere.

Lenne felt her sphere's magic activate and fold around Yuna until the High Summoner wore a fortified version of her own dress. "Oh, Bahamut," she cried. "What did I let them do to you? I am so sorry! Rest! Please rest. This world's problems are not yours anymore." In her lament, she tried to give Yuna a song. As the High Summoner sang, the black dragon slowed and stopped attacking to listen. The song's magic silenced his spells, but the words of the song stunned him into submission. Lenne knew why, even if no one else did. That song was one her brother always requested at her concerts.

As Yuna sang, the magic of the dress sphere lulled the dragon to sleep. Paine delivered the final offensive strike, and the tainted aeon vanished in a swirl of shimmering pyreflies. When the song ended, Rikku and Paine both looked to Yuna in mute surprise. The summoner wiped a tear from her eye.

"Well, you know what they say about music soothing the savage beast," Paine spoke.

"Where did you get that song?" Rikku asked, awed at its unusual effect on the aeon.

"I don't know. It just kind of came to me," Yuna answered. "I'm … so sorry," she apologized, hoping Bahamut heard her. Then, she changed back to her gunner outfit before falling to her knees and looking into the empty hole where Dark Bahamut had come from.

Lenne understood Yuna's confusion, fear, and frustration at seeing what had become of her aeon friend. She could offer no consolation or answers, but she could finally mourn the loss of her little brother.

))((

Back at the Youth League's headquarters, Shuyin allowed Nooj to contact Gippal and Baralai to arrange a meeting. Nooj intended to apologize and explain everything before speaking to them about Vegnagun. It couldn't remain under Bevelle in the hands of New Yevon. It needed to be destroyed.

"So, why are we here?" Gippal asked, as the three Crimson Squad survivors came together inside the chamber where Vegnagun used to be.

"There's something I needed to be sure of," Baralai spoke before Nooj could confess. "Vegnagun is gone."

"Listen to you," Nooj answered. "'Vegnagun is gone.' Are you trying to tell us that since that thing left on its own, Yevon's not to blame?"

"It's the truth," Baralai admitted. "The thing's more sensitive than its size would lead one to believe. It detects hostility, and in an instant, springs to life. Should one even think of harming it, it awakens like a frightened child."

"Hah. You did your homework," Nooj answered.

"I've had two years."

"Wait. So, you're saying that Vegnagun woke up because someone was trying to destroy it? Who?" Gippal began to aimlessly pace.

"Who indeed. I'm a little confused." Baralai looked to Nooj. "You came to claim it for yourself, didn't you? But Vegnagun awoke. Why? Because deep down, you hated it. Did you come here to use it or destroy it? Well?"

Nooj walked to the edge of the platform where Vegnagun once sat and looked over the edge into the pyrefly infested pit of darkness beneath them. He considered his answer carefully before sharing it. "Both. You probably think that's impossible. You've always been too naïve to see. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"Then, I hope you don't expect me to trust you, either." Baralai turned his back on Nooj and walked a few paces away from him. "I believed in you once, when we were training for the Crimson Squad. I thought I'd never find a better friend." Baralai closed his eyes, trying not to let emotion replace logic. "But you betrayed that ... two years ago." The praetor whipped out a gun and aimed it at Nooj.

"Baralai!" Gippal called him down for threat.

))((

Behind the doorway, the Gullwings eavesdropped on their conversation. Paine's hands clenched into fists, and she almost barged into the room to disarm Baralai herself, but Yuna, crouched near her legs, caught hold of her knee and shook her head. Putting a finger to her lips, she reminded Paine to remain hidden until they could find out what was going on. Paine's lips tightened in a thin line, but she stayed and turned her attention back to her friend's conversation.

"Why did you shoot?" Baralai demanded of Nooj. "Why did you shoot Gippal and me? We were friends, and you shot us in the back!"

Nooj was cold and silent as he met Baralai's gaze, though the gun was only inches from his face.

"Answer me!"

"Just calm down!" Gippal tried to prevent something horrible from happening again. "Nooj! Apologize already!" But Nooj wouldn't answer. "That's enough!" But Baralai wouldn't lower his gun. "Don't push me ..." Gippal warned, pulled out his own gun, and raised it to Baralai's forehead. "If this is what it takes …"

Again, Paine fought the urge to interrupt the argument before it turned bloody, but this time Rikku blocked her. "Wait, did you see that?" she whispered and pointed.

Nooj's body glowed as pyreflies began to pull away from him. Despite his machina leg, he stiffened and dropped his cane, no longer needing it. "This has turned out perfectly, wouldn't you agree? Yes, I shot you." Nooj pulled his gun and aimed it at Gippal. "You were easy targets—you and Paine."

Behind the doorway, Paine's eyes widened at the change that came over the half-machina man as he spoke. "That's not Nooj," she whispered to Yuna and Rikku. "Nooj wouldn't say something like that."

"You shot Paine, too?" Gippal couldn't believe it.

"Why?" Baralai needed answers.

Nooj laughed a slow, cynical laugh.

"Answer me!" Baralai demanded.

Nooj's body shimmered with magic again, and his voice changed. Another voice could be heard over his own. "I made him do it. He was too weak to resist me."

From the doorway, Yuna and Rikku gaped at each other. "There it goes again," Rikku whispered. "Did you see it?"

"Definitely not Nooj," Paine whispered, frowning at this disturbing situation.

"Nooj?" Gippal had noticed the shimmer and voice change, too.

"I don't expect you to present any more of a challenge. Not now." Nooj's body shimmered once more, and then the magic left his body to enter the praetor's. A gust of wind seemed to hit Baralai. He struggled to speak but seemed to be choking on something.

Behind the doorway, Rikku gasped but then quickly covered her mouth to avoid being heard.

Nooj fell to the floor, gasping for air as if breathing for the first time in a long time. Baralai stabilized, but then his body shimmered with magic, and pyreflies floated around him. After the exchange, the other voice continued to speak over Baralai's. "See, I found that the mind that hates and despairs is the easiest to break. Two years ago, it was the same with you, Nooj ... seeking your own death. Now you can have it." Baralai clicked the hammer on his revolver and prepared to fire.

"Wait!" Gippal tried to stop him.

Unable to stand this mania any longer, Paine bolted from the shadows toward them. "Stop!" Rikku and Yuna ran after her.

"Paine, get out of here!" Nooj warned, but it wasn't just their standoff that worried him.

Yuna turned to see that their noise had attracted the attention of a fiend. A huge Marlboro slid down the wall behind the girls, eager to feed.

))((

Shuyin had not expected the Gullwings to show up again in the dungeons beneath Bevelle. Surely Yuna had not defeated all of those dark aeons in the fiend-stricken villages yet … unless she had help. The High Summoner's persistence had definitely become annoying. But she was the least of his problems at the moment. Gippal's gun was poised to kill Shuyin's best chance at reprogramming Vegnagun, and the Marlboro's many tentacles were advancing quickly. Shuyin decided to use the fiend's appearance to escape.

Nooj and Gippal took off after him, leaving the Gullwings to deal with the monster.

As he ran, Shuyin searched Baralai's knowledge of the dungeons under Bevelle and used his sense of direction to lose the others in the labyrinth before ducking into Bahamut's Chamber of the Fayth and leaping down the hole into the Farplane once more. If it had only been that easy when he and Lenne were trying to escape.