4. BAIT
The first thing I noticed about her was that each eye was a separate color, one a deep blue and the other a shining teal green
The first thing I noticed about her was that each eye was a separate color, one a deep blue and the other a shining teal green. I was so taken aback that I remained speechless for some time while she shifted on her feet uncomfortably before me.
I found myself quickly and asked, "Are you a Summoner?"
Clasping her hands, Yuna nodded. She seemed soft-spoken by nature, and yet it seemed she was almost mute under my scrutiny. Part of this, I reflected, was likely due in part to what had happened earlier that day. The girl was far too young to be forced to deal with such death. I realised then that she likely was caught up in the aftermath of Sin's attack on Kilika, and as the only Summoner there...
What a horrible thing to force a child to do.
"I wish to be your guardian," I told Yuna, feeling as though I should bow to her but finding myself unable to. I would not be going blindly into this pilgrimage, and I would not be taking her to the same end her father met. How, I did not yet know. The answer would come in time.
"O-of course!" she exclaimed, a smile brightening her face. I could see shades of both Braska and Ikkei in her, in the way she grinned and the way she spoke. She had turned out very much like her parents. I suppressed the sadness this thought brought and turned to face the rest of the group of guardians. My eyes met Kimahri's feline ones and we shared a silent agreement not to speak of my 'living situation' - or lack thereof.
"Any objections?" I asked her guardians, and was met with no protest. Tidus still appeared somewhat confused and, too, since the adrenaline had worn away post-fight he now looked somewhat angry. Once it was assented that I would join the group, the boy motioned for me to follow him. We descended the staircase we had found Yuna waiting on and made our way to a nearby alley. He decided this was not enough privacy and continued down the alley. We emerged on a dock used to restock the shops in the square and he stepped behind a cover of wooden crates.
Tidus turned to face me, arms crossed, glowering. "Why am I here?"
"You led me here-"
"I mean Spira. Why am I in Spira? What happened to Zanarkand and why did you just let that...that thing get me?"
I smiled. "There is quite a bit you have yet to know, Tidus. It would be foolish of me to overwhelm you with it here and now."
"I want answers!" he snarled, taking a step in my direction as if it would intimidate me into speaking. As it was, I merely blinked and removed my glasses, pain immediately overwhelming my one good eye as the light of the sun reached it. I had always given the boy what little respect I owed him as an individual, and this included looking directly into his eyes as we spoke.
This also had the fortunate side effect of making him extremely uncomfortable.
He backed down somewhat, turning to face the ocean and sighing. "I just...I don't understand why I'm here, Auron. I miss my home. I miss my stupid empty boat and the photos of me and mom."
"Don't cry," I murmured. He gave me a withering look and blinked once or twice quite purposely.
"I don't cry anymore," he told me. "Not when the children in Kilika could watch their parents die and never lose face."
"It's a harsh reality they face," I told him, remembering my own childhood fears and how I had been locked in my room for days every time I had the spine to let myself cry. The 'training' had stuck. I had cried but once in ten years, and only when the mother of the stubborn boy before me had kissed my clenched fist and then laid her head down weakly once more. Before she'd let go.
"What is Sin?" he asked me, turning to face me. Images of his mother dispersed at once, leaving me standing alone with only this stubborn child whom I had never asked to parent and yet would do so until he was safe upon the end of Sin. If he remained. It was yet to be seen, and I had only theories.
"Sin is..." I began, but the words caught in my throat. I coughed gruffly, swallowed and gazed up at him once more, my gaze meeting his. "Sin is your father."
Tidus laughed, sharply and bitterly. At first it was just once, before it turned into a peal of laughter that never once reached his eyes. And only then did I see tears in his eyes and the bitterness on his face. "You're a liar."
"I am not. Jecht took on Sin's shape in order to give this land ten years of peace. That time has expired."
He stopped laughing, his face now a mask of pain. "Jecht...stupid, pathetic Jecht is the reason Kilika was destroyed? He killed Yuna and Wakka and Lulu's parents? My father is-..." His voice hitched, and he turned away from me for a moment before wheeling around and slamming a fist into my shoulder. "You're lying! You have to be lying!" I let him continue to hit me a few times before I caught his wrist in my hand and held him at bay.
"Zanarkand is gone. It was destroyed by Sin. He brought both you and I to Spira," I looked sharply at him, "for a reason."
"What reason?" he spat, backing down for the moment. I released his wrist.
"That girl," I said, pointing back toward where Yuna stood. "He brought us back to help her."
"Yuna?" Immediately his face softened, I noted somewhat warily. "Why her? What would Jecht want with her?"
"He wants her to stop this," I told him, now speaking of my own thoughts as if Jecht had stood before me and explained some great plan and I was merely acting on his behalf. "He wants this cycle of life and death to end. And he wants to go with it."
"He...he wants us to kill him?"
I nodded solemnly. "Jecht loved this land in the short time he spent here. To destroy it every day, kill those he cared about...there is no greater Hell than what that offers. So stand up, clean your face off, and go perform your duty as a guardian."
"How is she supposed to stop Sin, if even her father couldn't?"
I was silent. How indeed. "She'll...she'll find a way," I murmured. "For now, though, we must go."
Though the group assented that it was a long walk from Luca down the Mi'ihen highroad, none saw fit to suggest that chocobos be taken due to the obvious cost. A quick word with the chocobo trainer about the pilgrimage and the importance of Yuna's role, however, and I had procured five of the large birds for our journey across the plains. Kimahri, a natural evolution of the cats inhabiting the countryside, saw more fit to run on two legs behind us. "Keeping guard of the flank," he reasoned, but I knew it was more in part due to his sheer size and weight, and the humor of a Ronso sitting astride one of the powerful but still tiny birds.
We rode for a few hours at a time, myself at the side of the group and Tidus alongside Yuna at the front. The designated watering stations set along the highroad were our break points, where we would sit in silence as our mounts recovered. Some time in the latter half of midday we were halted from continuing any further past the next watering station by a group of people surrounding a large, covered wagon.
Yuna reacted with shock, not at being halted, but at who had halted her progress. "Luzzu! Gatta!" She looked pained. "Not...Crusaders."
"Sorry, Yuna," the redhead before her murmured, unable to meet her eyes. "We support your pilgrimage, but this is our contribution to stopping Sin."
"But machina are what caused this in the first place," Yuna said, seeming almost to plead with them. Over what, I did not know. "Using machina against Sin will accomplish nothing."
"It's...not normal machina," the younger Crusader told her. He smiled encouragingly, a smile Yuna could not return. "The Al Bhed have been working it for months! It's been tested- it'll tear through Sin's hide and hit the brain before he can even react. Even if he survives, there's the entire army of the Crusaders to tear him to pieces. It'll work Yuna." His smile faltered. "It...has to."
I let their dialogue continue, finding no purpose in my standing there continuing to listen to things I knew nothing about. I made my way instead to the wagon they were guarding that lay underneath what seemed to be woven bags stitched together. All of the other guards were paused at the front of the wagon, talking amongst themselves, and I unsheathed my sword from my belt and slid it under the cover. I lifted it a few inches and was met with a startling, horrifying roar.
A larger, more evolved sinspawn snapped it's jaws against the cage's bars, its many eyes locked on me. I stumbled back, dropping my sword on the ground, and whirled to face the two boys that now turned their attention from Yuna back to that which they guarded.
"Why?" I shouted, pointing at the sinspawn that continued to try and catch me in its mouth. "Why is this here?!"
"Bait," was all Luzzu said, his face now a mask of indifference. "And we must be off. We wish you and your guardians well, Summoner Yuna." Both he and Gatta gave her a short bow before striding back to the cart and continuing down their path, taking instead a smaller road that would lead- with no breaks along the way -to the coast, to Mushroom Rock Road.
To the coast. I could not believe they would be so mad.
"What was that?" Wakka asked, somewhat panicked. "Why did they have that in the cage?"
"Bait," I said, echoing Luzzu's words in a bitter tone. "Sin will always return to it's spawn."
At this, I turned to look at Tidus, both of us understanding the true meaning of my words.
