1. SIN

The weight of both swords, one slung loosely from my waist and the other balanced on my shoulder, weighed me down and made walking through the crumbling streets a slower process. The people of Zanarkand fled from Sin as it bore down upon them, their screams sharply ending as they either fell from the walkway that was elevated hundreds of feet in the air or were pierced by the creatures that detached themselves from the main body and extended their scythe-like arms through any flesh nearby.

Around me buildings began to churn and crumble as some invisible force pulled them toward Sin's body. The very water on the ground was beckoned by him and I myself would have followed were it not for the weight of the heavy, yet necessary, swords that I now carried. I quickened my pace, rounding each corner in the twisting streets until I finally came to stop before the stadium.

He was there. No tears. Good boy.

In an instant he noticed me, and where anger would have previously flashed there was now only relief. I was his guardian, after all. I smiled. Once a guardian, always a guardian.

The relief in his eyes disappeared as he laid eyes on Sin, on the cause of all of the disorder and fear, and simultaneously one of the barbed spawn slammed with impressive force into one of the two statues overseeing the stadium gates. It tilted, a loud creaking moan heard even overtop of the panic, and began to fall directly overtop where he stood on the stairway.

"Tidus, move!" I snarled, dropping my sword and dashing forward. He reacted too late, instead looking up at the mass of stone bearing down on him and had the gall to be surprised as I buried my shoulder in his stomach, gripped his waist and threw us as far forward as I could manage. The immense statue missed by mere inches, raising dust all around us. I pushed the boy away and got to my feet.

"What's happening?" he asked, his voice somewhat higher than usual. There were cuts- due to shrapnel, no doubt -littering his skin, marring the flesh on his cheeks and legs and making him look far more injured than he actually was. I often found myself forgetting how soft and fragile he could be, whether it was after a scrap with myself that ended in a sharp backhand or after a particularly violent game where he'd walk in with a sharp limp and fire in his eyes at the loss.

There was no fire in his eyes now. Only fear. I reached down and, gripping his arm, pulled Tidus to his feet. He gave me a look of What now?

I opened my mouth to speak and was cut off by the opposite statue now collapsing as the force from Sin pulled it away from it's base. Tidus was quick enough this time to dash down the stairs, vaulting over stone and bodies alike. He paused only in safety and only at the sound of his fellow teammates now leaving the stadium.

"Go back!" he shouted at them, but the noise was too great. Just out of range of the fallen statue, I stood by as they repeated what Tidus had done just moments ago. But this time there would be no guardian to save them; I was but one man and could only watch as the statue fell further and crushed them beneath it, a few escaping it only to shriek in pain as it crushed half their bodies. I could only imagine the agony- trapped beneath immeasurably heavy stone and being pulled upwards toward Sin simultaneously.

Tidus's eyes widened and he turned to run, pausing only when he stumbled to his knees and retched. I left the fallen where they lay as there was nothing I could do for them and yet again hauled Tidus to his feet. He followed me in a daze and stumbled as I made my way through the streets with a hand ever present on his back. I looked once more to Sin and smiled. The very sky was on fire. It would be soon.

We stood on a crumbling street moments later. Sin was only minutes behind us. I thrust the orange and black sword into the boy's hand and closed his fingers around the hilt. Taken off guard, the blade hit the ground and he struggled to keep a grip on it.

"Why?" was all he asked. I smiled and pulled the edge of my cowl downward, removed my ever present glasses. He deserved that at least.

"You'll need it." The blade flickered in his hands, or perhaps that was a reaction to being so close to the one who had possessed it so many years ago. "It was your father's."

Tidus looked stunned and then just as quickly glared, but before he could open his mouth to refuse it the road crumbled away beneath him. To his credit he kept a grip on the sword, but at the expense of a hand hold, and I caught him by the shirt only seconds before he would have fallen to his death.

"Auron, it's too close," he called, his voice drowned out by the proximity of Sin and the world falling apart around us. I could feel the glow, the hazy greeting from somewhere deep inside the monster. It grew to almost a burning pain as I hoisted the boy upwards, in view of the many-faceted eyes that bore into us deeper than any gaze I had ever felt.

"Auron!" Tidus yelled again and I watched as he screamed and writhed in my hands as his body slowly dissolved into a million shining lights that gently reunited with the flames and were no more. His scream faded and left only the cacophony of destruction. I could hear only silence.

And then the fire overtook my body, burning around me and yet not leaving a mark. A grip on my hand, there but not there, voices in my ear I couldn't make out. The road fell from beneath me and I was distinctly aware of not falling. The distance grew hazy, but I watched in slight sadness as Zanarkand burned, crumbled and was no more.

The silence became deafening then as Sin completed his work. He paused and gave a loud cry of despair, the moan of a wounded animal who could find no rest.

Thank you, friend. It is time for you to go home.

And then, nothing.