Notes: And, back from a holiday involving profile surfing and Sims 2, here we have the next exciting, thrilling, massively interesting chapter of the story. (cough) Ahem. By the way, I keep having to smack my hand when I type in Bender instead of Wakka every so often. Surprisingly, I didn't get as far as I thought I would in this chapter.

— Chapter 8, Zanarkand —

Zanarkand

And 'it' came, not more than thirty seconds after they left the cave system, a nasty looking fiend that sported a glimmer of intelligence in its eyes. Seymour had to wonder, given the usual quality of fiends, if this one was formed from a person all too aware of what they would become, and therefore retained more than just a lust for misplaced revenge. He mused, in the few seconds they had before the fight began in earnest, if it had once been a failed guardian or a summoner.

It was clever, attempting to use the party's protections against them, or to its own benefit, but not invincible. After a long, hard fight it exploded into a mass of pyreflies, leaving in its wake an exhausted group.

"Pretty serious, ya?" Wakka muttered.

"Hey! Can't we rest a little?" Rikku whined.

"There is no need," Seymour commented. "We reach the summit soon."

"I know, that's why I want to stop for a bit. Soon means that . . . there's not much time left."

"Rikku. . . ." Yuna said softly.

"Fine. I'll think on the way." Rikku stomped off ahead of the others, maintaining a short distance between them, like a reluctant scout.

When they reached the summit Tidus inhaled sharply and ran out onto a nearby promontory. As Seymour joined him he could hear how his mate's breathing remained affected, and he gazed out over a city he had seen once prior. The ruins of Zanarkand brought up feelings of immense sorrow, not only over the sad remains of a once proud city, but for his own experiences there, with his mother. Seymour rested a comforting hand on his mate's shoulder and squeezed lightly.

"It's not mine," Tidus whispered.

"No," he agreed. "It is the unfortunate reality. I am no more pleased to be here than you are."

Tidus turned his head and looked up, anger, curiosity, and what looked like sympathy in his gaze. "Is this where you received. . . ?"

He arched a questioning brow, then nodded.

"So I'm right, aren't I. If we go down there, if Yuna follows the same path as all the others, then one of us will . . . take my father's place."

"That is exactly what will happen," Seymour said calmly. "But not you, or me."

Tidus snorted. "No. I think of Yuna as a sister, or a very good friend, but I'm not crazy enough or emotionally invested enough to volunteer for a lifetime of madness."

Sudden footsteps made him glance over his shoulder; Yuna was standing practically behind them, and Rikku was bouncing their way with all the subtlety of a behemoth.

"Yuna, I say no! If we go down there, then you'll. . . ."

"Rikku, you're a true friend, and I thank you, but, I must go . . . down, to Zanarkand."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't go. But shouldn't we think about it some more? There's gotta be some kind of way we can save you, Yuna!"

"All my life, I knew this moment would come. . . ."

"Yunie. . . ."

Yuna stepped forward to give the girl a hug. "I'm just going to look a bit longer, and then we'll proceed."

Rikku frowned and scuffled off, at which point Yuna turned to face him directly.

"You overheard," he stated.

"Yes. Is that what this is? All that this is? Summoners come to Zanarkand to sacrifice not only themselves but one of their guardians? I had always wondered why the only guardian I knew of to come away from this was Sir Auron." A look of chagrin twisted her face briefly. "I guess I didn't want to look hard enough. Still, it is a bit suspicious when there's never anyone left to reveal the truth."

Seymour nodded. "Other guardians of a summoner have an odd habit of dying after the Final Aeon is obtained."

Yuna looked off over the ruins of the city, a pensive expression on her face. "And yet, without the pilgrimage, Sin can't ever be defeated, and the people of Spira will never know peace, even only for a few years at a time."

"Then we find another way," Tidus said.

"But how?"

"Maybe she can tell us," Tidus replied.

Yuna frowned at his mate. "If I understand any of this so far. . . . Why would Lady Yunalesca help anyone to change the way things are?"

Seymour cleared his throat softly, catching their attention. "You could . . . simply ask her many questions prior to giving her the answer she seeks of you. It may be that she will tell you something of importance, some clue that will assist us in our goal."

"You've met her," Yuna stated. "This is where your aeon comes from, is it not? The one you used in Luca."

"I have. And I was a child, in no position to question the workings of Spira. Had I been older, then perhaps. . . ?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Yuna said resolutely. "We will go down to Zanarkand and see this Lady Yunalesca. Maybe then we will have some answers. I just hope that . . . my guardians will be able to understand." She flashed a sudden smile at them, then turned and strode away. "Kimahri, let's go."

They camped after making the long walk down into the city remnants, there at the water's edge. In the distance Seymour could see the ruins where Yunalesca waited, a massive uprising from the ocean. He moved away from the camp fire to join Tidus on a slight rise and brushed shoulders to say what could not be said in words.

"That's . . . strange."

"What is?"

Tidus pointed at the ruins. "We're going there?"

"Yes."

"Why there? That's the blitzball stadium, Seymour. Was Yunalesca a diehard fan or something? This is ridiculous."

Seymour chuckled softly. "Look at it this way, my sweet, and look around you," he said, gesturing with one hand. "So very little remains, and that stadium is one of the few places that could actually house the Cloister of Trials. Can you imagine a Fayth residing in the shell of a house? Would you rather down in the sewers?"

That got him a laugh and a nudge from his mate. "Okay, okay. Point taken, oh wise one. Still, it'll be weird. I used to play in that stadium. It was such an important part of my life. It's where I was when Sin attacked." Tidus paused, then said, "If I concentrate hard enough, I can see it as it was then, in all its glory."

Seymour did not think it prudent to point out that Tidus had never lived the truth, and therefore remained silent. Eventually they wandered back to the makeshift camp, offering to take watch while the others slept. They were awakened after their own rest by a silent Lulu, and took the time to make sure they were ready for what was to come.

As they walked along a shattered road and carefully picked their way over rubble, Wakka said, "Looks like the Farplane."

"It is close enough," Seymour said as he paused briefly to look at the proliferation of pyreflies. "The Moonflow is similar, though not even close to this extent. Certain places just attract them."

Lulu shot him a look, then said, "Places of mass death?"

"How do you mean?"

She shrugged and gestured slightly. "There was once a city of sorts built over the Moonflow. Now it's a sunken ruin. I have to wonder how many people died there. And here, this whole city, was more or less wiped out."

Seymour pondered that for a moment and then shrugged. "You may well be correct."

At the entrance to the stadium they were greeted by the emergence of a man. As necessary, Seymour held back on speaking, knowing that it was something Yuna needed to deal with. He only wondered if she or anyone else would realize that the man wasn't alive.

"Journeyer of the long road, name yourself."

"I am the summoner Yuna. I have come from the island of Besaid."

"Your eyes, my dear. Show me the long road you have traveled," the man replied, gazed at her, then nodded. "Very good. You have journeyed well. Lady Yunalesca will surely welcome your arrival. Go to her now, and bring your guardians with you. Go." With that he walked past them, fading with each step until he was gone.

Yuna bit her lip and glanced at her companions, then stiffened her spine and marched on ahead, into the stadium itself. It was badly damaged, and only experience with the stadium in Luca allowed for anyone to attempt to visualize how it might have once looked. Well, with the exception of Tidus, who Seymour noted looked fairly distressed.

They had not gone far when the pyreflies swarmed, danced in a dizzying spiral, then reformed into the translucent figures of several people, one of them obviously a summoner. The group paused as a female guardian said resolutely, "If it might benefit the future of Spira, I will gladly give my life. It is the highest honor for which a guardian might ask. Use my life, Lady Yocun, and rid Spira of Sin."

"What . . . what was that?" Rikku asked.

"Many have come here," Seymour said, "such as they."

"She said 'Lady Yocun,' didn't she?" Lulu mused. "Wait! She guarded High Summoner Yocun?"

"With this many pyreflies the dome is like one gigantic sphere," Seymour offered. "People's thoughts remain here. Forever."

They continued, though Seymour was feeling a slight bit of trepidation about the whole situation. He was rewarded for that worry a short while later, as they had just finished climbing up a collapsed strut, and were preparing to use part of the blitz sphere framework as a walkway.

A boy appeared with a lady, causing Tidus to gasp softly. Seymour sighed almost imperceptibly at the sight of his younger self and mother.

"No!" his child self cried. "Mother, no! I don't want you to become a Fayth!"

"There is no other way. Use me and defeat Sin. Only then will the people accept you."

"I don't care about them! I need you, mother! No one else!"

"I don't . . . have much time left," she said wearily. A second later they both vanished in a swirl of pyreflies.

Seeing the hesitantly curious faces aimed his way, Seymour gave an emotionless half smile and said, "She was dying. It was . . . her last gift to me."

Wakka was gaping; Seymour ignored the young man and gestured for Yuna to continue, and breathed a silent sigh of relief when her movement spurred on the others.

"Your mother is . . . Anima?" Tidus whispered.

"Yes." He might not wish to talk about it, but for his mate he would. "My father wanted to exile us to Baaj Temple. After all, his public union with a woman of another race had served its purpose. I remember . . . he tried to say once that he couldn't bear to watch us suffer, but he never once did anything to ease our pain. Only Tromell did.

"In fact, it was Tromell who convinced my father not to send us away. Looking back on it, I'm fairly certain her health would have failed much more quickly had we been made to live there. She wanted to give me the power and confidence to defend myself."

"Is that . . . why Anima looks as she does?"

Seymour nodded. "Our pain. In the end, I could not do it. I could not use my mother's sacrifice to defeat Sin and leave her to suffer for years more. At least now she dreams of pleasant things, even though the Farplane is beyond her present reach."

A gasp of surprise caught their attention, and Seymour looked ahead more closely; Tidus clutched his arm briefly.

"Hey, Braska," Jecht said. "You don't have to do this."

"Thank you for your concern."

Jecht scowled. "Fine. I said my piece."

Seymour noted almost absently that Tidus was trembling, though due to anger or pain he could not determine.

"Well, I haven't!" Auron shouted. "Lord Braska, let us go back! I don't want to see you . . . die!"

"You knew this was to happen, my friend."

"Yes, but I . . . I cannot accept it."

"Auron, I am honored that you care for me so. But I have come to kill grief itself. I will defeat Sin, and lift the veil of sorrow covering Spira. Please understand, Auron."

The trio of specters continued onward; Yuna looked like she might weep, and even Kimahri was shifting restlessly, his tail flicking about wildly. The party followed, only to see them again around the next bend.

"Are the Trials ahead?" Jecht asked.

"Probably." Braska shrugged one shoulder.

"Here, too, huh? Gimme a break. I was expecting, you know, parades and . . . fireworks!"

"You can ask for them after I defeat Sin," Braska said even as they faded from sight.

Tidus snorted and kicked the nearby wall. "My old man. So stupid. Right up until the end. So blind. I swear, if I could see him again, I'd deck the bastard."

"No one told him," Lulu said quietly.

"I know, I know. Like nobody wanted to tell me," Tidus said with a halfhearted glare around. "Yeah, anyway, can we go?"

Yuna nodded and offered a smile, then began walking again. There was a long flight of stairs at the end of the hallway, stretching down into a darkness that receded as soon as they arrived. Seymour once again held back, having already been there, leaving it to the others to figure out the puzzle.

They were almost ready to move on when Rikku adopted a confused look and said, "Weren't there destruction spheres at the last two temples? Why not this one? Did the others have them too?"

That innocent query resulted in a secretive smile on Seymour's part, and another round of puzzle solving on the part of the group's remainder. He had to wonder, this being the second time he had been there, if there were unsent in the service of Lady Yunalesca whose job it was to reset all puzzles in the Cloister of Trials and replace any hidden treasures, not to mention do a bit of repair work.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the final trial appeared at the center of the lift that would take them down. Seymour couldn't properly remember how he and his mother had managed to defeat the thing, but with a full complement of fighters it went down in a reasonable amount of time, despite the sweeping attacks and necessity of having to move around frequently.

After they caught their breath he said, "Well, we're here."

"The hall of the Final Summoning," Yuna stated, her tone almost questioning. She stepped onto the lift, which immediately sank and took her out of sight. A whisper of a voice floated by, its origin indeterminate, but sounding a great deal like Jecht. "Huh? What do you mean no Final Aeon?"

The lift returned, with Yuna on it. "Everyone!"

At the bottom was a curious room, more of a hollow than anything else, with only the lift itself and a doorway to remark upon. The party swept through and stopped dead once inside.

"This isn't a Fayth. It's just an empty statue," Yuna stated, then looked up sharply as the man who greeted them outside the stadium appeared.

"That statue lost its power as a Fayth long ago," he said in a voice dusty with the ages. "It is Lord Zaon, the first Fayth of the Final Summoning. What you see before you is all that remains of him. Lord Zaon is . . . his soul is gone."

"Gone!?" said Wakka.

"You mean, there is no Final Aeon?" Rikku added.

"But fear not," the man continued as though he had not been interrupted. "Lady Yunalesca will show you the path. The Final Aeon will be yours. The summoner and the Final Aeon will join powers. Go to her now. Inside, the lady awaits." He vanished, and the door behind him opened in invitation.

Seymour felt a great deal like laughing. He could recall, during his journey, that the man said almost the exact same words to him. It was like a conversation on repeat, pausing for the expected surprised protestations, a memory called up by circumstance to voice an empty explanation.

"Yuna, wait!" Lulu cried. "Seymour, you knew this was going to happen, didn't you?"

"Of course," he said mildly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Rikku asked with a pouty frown.

"If I had told you the truth ahead of time, would that really have stopped you from coming?"

Yuna glanced at the door, then back at her companions. "Let's go see what she has to say."

Kimahri blocked her path. "Yuna."

"I'm not going back."

"Kimahri knows," he said patiently. "Kimahri go first. Yuna is safe. Kimahri protect."

She smiled and nodded, letting the him go first, then following, the others behind her. "Wow," she said softly. "This room is in decent condition. And look at all the—" She broke off as the door at the far end opened, and someone very familiar emerged and descended the short flight of stairs.

"Lady Yunalesca."

"Welcome to Zanarkand. I congratulate you, summoner. You have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow upon you that which you seek. The Final Summoning . . . will be yours. Now, choose. You must choose the one whom I will change . . . to become the Fayth for the Final Summoning. There must be a bond, between chosen and summoner, for that is what the Final Aeon embodies: the bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends.

"If that bond is strong enough, its light will conquer Sin. A thousand years ago, I chose my husband Zaon as my Fayth. Our bond was true, and I obtained the Final Aeon. There is nothing to fear. You will soon be freed of worry and pain. For once you call forth the Final Aeon, your life will end. Death is the ultimate and final liberation. Your father, Braska, chose this path."

Yunalesca turned and walked gracefully back up the steps and through the door, leaving them to stare. They were quickly distracted by another memory forming in not two feet away from them.

"It is not too late!" Auron said almost desperately. "Let us turn back!"

"If I turn back, who will defeat Sin?" Braska rejoined. "Would you have some other summoner and his guardians go through this?"

"But . . . my lord, there must be another way!"

"This is the only way we got now!" Jecht said harshly. "Fine. Make me the Fayth. I been doing some thinking. My dream is back in the other Zanarkand. I wanted to make that runt into a star blitz player. Show him the view from the top, you know. But now I know there's no way home for me. I'm never gonna see him again. My dream's never gonna come true. So make me the Fayth. I'll fight Sin with you, Braska. Then maybe my life will have meaning, you know."

"Don't do this, Jecht! If you live . . . there may be another way! We'll think of something, I know!"

"Believe me, I thought this through. Besides . . . I ain't gettin' any younger, so I might as well make myself useful."

"Jecht," Braska said softly.

"What! You're not gonna try to stop me, too?"

"Sorry. I mean . . . thank you."

"Braska still has to fight Sin, Auron. Guard him well. Make sure he gets there. Well, let's go."

"Lord Braska! Jecht!"

"What do you want now?" Jecht asked, clearly impatient.

"Sin always comes back. It comes back after the Calm every time! The cycle will continue and your deaths will mean nothing!"

"But there's always a chance it won't come back this time," Braska replied. "It's worth trying."

"I understand what you're saying, Auron. I'll find a way to break the cycle."

"You have a plan?"

Braska gazed at him curiously. "Jecht?"

"Trust me, I'll think of something."

The memories of Jecht and Braska ascended the stair and disappeared through the door. Auron dropped to one knee, seemingly in impotent anger and sorrow, then likewise vanished from their sight.

"Choose?" Yuna said, then looked directly at Seymour. "You've been here, you have heard it before. I don't wish to dredge up painful memories, but . . . Anima, she's your mother, isn't she? She sacrificed herself to become a Final Aeon, right?"

"She did. Lady Yunalesca asks the same of one of you. Your father"—he looked at Tidus—"did so for Lord Braska, which is why he is now Sin."

"But how!?"

Seymour laid a hand on his mate's arm to calm him. "I cannot say for sure, for I have never attempted to defeat Sin. I can only speculate based on what I know firsthand, and what I have learned as a maester of Yevon."

"Which is?" Tidus persisted.

He gave his mate a smile. "Lady Yunalesca herself told me that Sin will always return. It matters not how many summoners obtain the Final Aeon, how many defeat Sin, and lose their lives to become High Summoners. Sin comes back. The hope of Spira is the hope of a brief Calm, that brief peace where people can live without fear. But it always ends. On the other hand, I learned from Grand Maester Mika that Sin is nothing more than a tool of a single man known as Yu Yevon."

"Huh?"

"Yu Yevon was a summoner, the ruler of Zanarkand. Lady Yunalesca's father, actually."

Tidus's eyes lit up. "The Fayth. . . ."

Seymour nodded. "I learned from Mika that Yevon crafted the armor he designated Sin from the souls of the dead. It is not just to wreak revenge on those who use machina that Sin attacks populated areas. After all, who in Kilika ignores the teachings?

"If anyone does it's Bevelle, and yet they remain safe, much like Luca. Odd, is it not? Sin uses the souls of the dead to craft an unholy armor, to protect Yu Yevon."

"And what is Yu Yevon doing?" Lulu asked.

"Aside from directing Sin? I am not sure," Seymour replied. "Though, having again considered the Gagazet Fayth, and what I have learned from Tidus. . . ."

"Yevon is perpetuating the dream of Zanarkand?" Tidus mused. "Isn't that kinda like, I don't know, childishly twisted?"

"That does not explain why Sin comes back," Lulu said. "Its defeat is only temporary, so why is this?"

"Well," Yuna said slowly, "if Yevon has always been there, can't he be the one making the creature return? Shouldn't it be him we go after?"

"But we can't do that, ya?" Wakka said. "We gotta defeat Sin."

"And then Yu Yevon?" Rikku asked. "If we defeat him, no more Sin?"

"We must defeat Sin to get to Yu Yevon," Yuna said.

"How we supposed to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon?" Wakka protested.

"And if Yuna obtains a Final Aeon, one of you must be the sacrifice," Seymour reminded them. "And if Yuna uses that Final Aeon against Sin, she will die. Based on what happened to Jecht, whoever is the sacrifice for the Final Aeon will become Sin."

Wakka groaned and clutched at his head.

"Well, I don't think anyone here should agree to any sacrifice without some answers first," said Tidus. "I know, Seymour, you were just a child, but none of us are now. There's no reason we can't ask questions, right?"

"Yeah!" Rikku chimed in.

"Then let's go get some answers." Yuna adjusted her grip on her staff and made for the stairs.