To Love & Lost

Chapter 7: Dirge for a Dream

(Warnings: T, intense battle sequence]


Even though the venue had taken a steady trickle to see itself depleted, as though he were the walking embodiment of a curse did the Guado tactfully avoid the streets, children ushered away while those that did linger seemed to solely engage the effort to survey Yuna before an incorporeal sensation of avoidance filtered thickly through the city once more. Yuna, her impromptu guardians, and Seymour were allowed back within the palace for a brief respite whilst Tromell prepared for an evening of work ahead of him. Though generously allowed to stay, it was at Seymour where the invitation wasn't obviously extended. The dining room fell into an uncomfortable silence as Rikku, Chuami, and Kurgum had departed at Yuna's insistence to explore the city, something the two youngest of their party seemed eager to do. That left Rikku as chaperon to supervise the two teens, something she took on fairly receptively.

Yuna had seated herself at a table and let her eyes absently wander among the colorful assortment of foods that never seemed to be in short supply, her stomach rumbling in protest as she belatedly realized how late it really was. In the deafening silence of the room, the shuffle of Seymour's robes elicited a turn of head while his hand came along her periphery, an apple proffered for Yuna to take. "Don't worry, it's not poisoned," the man lightly teased, Yuna taking it only after a moment's deliberation. Seymour rounded into her view, stooping over as he attempted to see what was besetting the priestess. "You seem troubled."

Rolling the apple between her hands, she finally heaved a sigh and glanced up at him. "I have to go into the Farplane," she said finally, raising the fruit to her lips and taking a nibbling bite.

"There's nothing stopping you, Lady Yuna. You could go whenever you please." Gradually, a chair of his own was procured, sinking in a reasonable distance away from her, something Yuna was inwardly grateful for.

"It's not that. More...there's something I have to confirm, but I think I'm too scared to," she answered vaguely even though no question had been overtly asked. Her mind veered away from that, she then venturing, "Seymour?" This brought his frustratingly enigmatic gaze to her own. "Do you...really want to save Spira?"

Seymour looked away in profile for moment, formulating an answer he seemed to need little thought for. "No," he responded softly, then returning his gaze towards her. "Not in the way you wish. We already differ on how it might be saved, is that not so? However," he paused, inquisitively canting his head at her, "I am curious. If death has failed in saving it, I wish to see what life might do. To see what you will do."

Yuna's lips pursed, feeling slightly nauseated by his answer. She supposed there really was no way of altering what couldn't be. Her understanding of him was just beginning to scratch the surface, indecisiveness taking its toll on her. Had she made a foolish decision in allowing him under her custody?Yuna wanted to believe some good still existed in him, that it was there, buried beneath his past. But even if it was there, would he ever wish to be the good she wanted him to be? Not the good that believed destruction was the only means to the end. "I...still don't understand you," she modulated slowly, gingerly.

Seymour reached over near her, causing her to balk before his fingers gently curled in, feeling them tilt her chin to gaze frankly at him. It could easily be broken, but she was strangely allowable of it. Brows furrowing, she said, "I'm afraid that bringing you with me was a mistake. That everyone thinks what I did was a mistake, that...it was all in vain. How am I going to move forward if I fail everyone? I...don't know how I could live with it!"

Those fingers were dropped, Seymour's expression becoming thoughtful, eyes still so penetrating. "And I wonder the same," he admitted candidly, leaning back into his seat with a soft creak. "Do you believe I was brought back for a reason, Lady Yuna?"

She shook her head, these thoughts troubling her that earnestly expressed across her countenance. Her hands wrung together anxiously upon her lap, lips pursing. "I don't know. I don't understand why any of this is happening."

"Perhaps this is where I might come to your advantage. Before I returned, I believe I...remember some of the Farplane. And the spirit of Yu Yevon festering. Perhaps that has something to do with it."

Yuna's head shot up, rising from her seat and standing before Seymour, suddenly burning with revelation. "Do you think Yevon has been amassing the pyreflies to reform Sin?" she said aloud speculatively, the corners of Seymour's lips twitching upwards in amusement. "Maybe...maybe it's why the fayth haven't come back. Maybe he absorbed them, too!"

Seymour's shoulders rose in a languid shrug, eyelids drifting almost dreamily over violet eyes. "Your guess is as good as mine, my Lady." Though, it lowered, the amusement drifting away from his countenance. "However, that is an astute observation. Sin possessed such an ability even before this current incarnation. Being in the Farplane could have likely amplified that power."

"You know about this, don't you? I remember, you were the Minister of Temple Affairs, and leader of the Guado. Don't they have records of the past?" Yuna pressed, her eyes locking with his resolutely.

"Yes, but it's been years, Yuna. And I have no way of accessing them. Not now, at least," Seymour softly subverted, though he hardly seemed opposed to keeping this closure, seeming to quite revel in it.

When it dawned on Yuna how close they were, she startled back, guiltily remembering Tidus. Her hands clenched together at her breast, one lowering as she kept her head down, brows working together. Whatever barriers had been temporarily dropped were raised on their hackles again, Yuna standing crisply as she stood with her back to the unsent. "Seymour, I think it's best if we honored Lord Tromell's wishes. Please stay with Rikku, Chuami or Kurgum until we're ready to leave. In fact, I think you should get a head start on returning to the airship with them. I'll be joining you shortly."

Hearing him rise and bow before his formerly occupied seat, he replied with a low, "As you wish, Lady Yuna."


She'd needed that. To escape. The city of Guadosalam was just beginning to emerge in the wake of Seymour, she having been assured that Kurgum had been the one to guide him back, something about that alone taking a tremendous amount of trust. The tiered and sloping streets steadily disgorged the population, many of the Guado greeting her affably, perhaps there an element of distance between them. For though the Gullwings had helped spare them from extinction at the hands of vengeful Ronso, they avoided her. Not because of disdain or resentment, but maybe because assuming her previous role as Sin's vanquisher had elevated her too high again. To think, she'd thought her time as a sphere hunter would've allayed that, even a little.

The guards at the Farplane's entrance inclined their heads at her, she catching a glimpse of a stolen smile that she kindly reciprocated. Yuna came to the unnaturally formed stairwell that fed through the portal that would lead her on, the priestess' heart hammering apprehensively in her chest. It felt like the slow peal of thunder with each step she took, trudging upwards as images of Tidus filled her mind. Of his bright, sunny smile and those eyes that sparkled like the sea. But, what she dreaded was what she might see in the Farplane.

Morbid curiosity and fear drove her, a curled hand gripped over her heart as though it might burst past her sternum. Another pressed through the opaque violet barrier that kept spirits from escaping—or unsent from passing through. Like a wall of incorporeal water did it wash over her as she passed through, never having been so reluctant before. And like a dream did the meandering corridor pass her by, walking as though a phantom guided her feet.

Finally, the floating land mass was finally passed upon, that which was suspended hundreds of feet before a whorl of luminous clouds, cascading into a valley of innumerable blossoms and waterfalls that flowed beneath it. Columns of scintillating steel blue obelisks struck into what could only be called the sky, Yuna grateful to see she was the only one present.

It took considerable resolve to approach the edge, knowing exactly who she was solely there to beckon, heart tearing itself apart in her dread. Squeezing her eyes shut, she counted down from ten, feeling her anxiety rocket as her heart stormed in her throat. Her mind fixated on him, the only one able to occupy her mind.

She opened her eyes.

There, floating with a neutral smile on his countenance, was Tidus. For several long minutes she felt her mind pass in and out of reality, caught between unfocused sight and a sharply blurred view. But...that wasn't her losing consciousness. A tearful whimper broke the silence, Yuna's shoulders beginning to shake as the tears poured down her cheeks and singed them red. "I—" she stuttered out, her throat closing, "I never even got to say good-bye. Tidus—I'm so sorry!" It was gasped out as she stumbled towards the vision of him, lower lip lowering as a sob choked out from her throat. "I never got to say good-bye!"

He'd always said how their time together was limited. How there was never a certain date, but she'd known. Even if parting would've never been easy, her heart burned with sorrow and she felt as though she was beginning to drown in her remorse. Yuna wept heavily into her hands as she sank to her knees, crumpling as her strength seemed to sap away. Maybe it was more than just his loss, the culmination of many years of strife, but his was the freshest for her to feel. Yuna's shoulders shook with heavy sobs, eyes burning with rings of fire she felt so profusely.

"Yunie?" The gentle query came accompanied by a familiar hand on her shoulder, then the silent marvel of what her cousin was seeing. "I'm so sorry," Rikku murmured softly, similarly sinking to her knees and circling her arms around Yuna, the older girl succumbing to Rikku's embrace as Yuna had done for her just a little over a week ago. The illusion of Tidus continued to bob like a cork in the water, listless and unresponsive.

"I-I didn't get to say good-bye!" came Yuna's torrid whisper, hiccuping painfully. Rikku soothingly rubbed circles in her back, the priestess inwardly grateful for the comfort in spite of her distress.

"Are you...gonna be able to keep going?" Rikku asked suddenly, forlornly.

Yuna jumped from the question, extricating herself from Rikku's embrace and fiercely scrubbing away her tears, eyes raw and red. "Yes! I'm going to keep continuing; I must! I can't give up! ...He'd want me to keep going." Drawing in a shaky inhale, she gazed mournfully at Tidus, stray tears dribbling from her eyes. Rikku reached for Yuna's hands, holding them comfortingly as Yuna managed a meager smile even through the last of her mourning. "I'll be okay, Rikku. Promise." Her head lowered, sighing wistfully. "I love him. I always will. If he's in my heart, I can keep going no matter what," she promised, Rikku smiling sadly at her.

"He's never gonna really be gone, Yunie. I bet he's super proud, too. One foot in front of the other, right? We'll figure this out together, promise!" Rikku comforted with a chipper note in her voice in spite of the sympathy riddling her sunny countenance, sighing softly.

"Right," Yuna affirmed, gazing back at Tidus, a smile fondly affixed to her features. "Let's head back with the others, Rikku. And...thank you for this. It means a lot."

"Anything for you, Yunie! 'Sides, you did the same for me recently. Can't hurt to return the favor, right?"


Within about a week of the incident at Guadosalam, word had spread and reporters had been on site, avidly recording the news of what seemed to be an almost miraculous turn-around in Seymour's character. News had spread and from what Paine had informed them via CommSphere, Yuna's public image seemed to be steadying out as her travels were rapidly becoming the primary focus of media sensation. Their journey continued without incident, which made people wary. Former manifestations of Sin used be to far more ruthless, without premeditation in its attacks. Now, it seemed parallel to an army biding time to attack at just the right moment. It was partly the reason Yuna and company were wary at the prospect of venturing to Luca.

"I don't like it," Chuami stated bluntly as she scanned the skies, Kurgum peering towards the auburn-haired girl with concern writ on his features. "We've been traveling for over a week with no sign of Sin. Something's wrong. I have a bad feeling about going to Luca, Lady Yuna." It was said briefly over her shoulder as the navigational console indicated their approach to the blitzing capital of Spira, Yuna studying it intently.

"I agree. But we don't exactly have a choice, do we? They want me to speak at the opening ceremonies for the tournament, and not attending might...sour things," Yuna replied slowly, deeply contemplative as she lost her gaze in the undulating sphere.

"You shouldn't have to worry about public image! Your job is to vanquish Sin, not juggle social engagements like some socialite," Chuami fumed, knuckles blanching as her told on hhe steering column tightened in a testy vice. "I mean, it's not like you had time to worry about it even before, after Lord Braska brought in the Calm and all."

"Chuami… Things just—are the way they are. There's nothing we can really do about it," Kurgum replied gently, smile placating and his gaze honest upon his friend. That only earned him a fierce scowl from the spirited girl, she grunting her consternation.

"Whatever. We're almost in port, anyways, so I guess we might as well get ready to get off," Chuami said dismissively, earning a fractured look from Kurgum. Yuna smiled gently at him that seemed to soothe his ruffled feathers.

The hover struts of the airship carefully maneuvered on to a raised platform suspended precariously near the sea, Chuami's face screwed in concentration as the weight was finally distributed evenly and the aircraft landed soundly. Several whirs and clicks entailed the bottom gangway being lowered, the brine of the sea refreshing through the confined quarters, Rikku the first one to bound away. Yuna lingered behind, but a placating wave to Kurgum and Chuami saw them leave without questioning her.

"Are you coming?" she asked aloud, knowing he was present. At her beckon did Seymour emerge from his lingering on the stairwell, his trademark smile ever present that brought a slight pucker to her brow. "You can come out with us, you know. It's just the yearly blitzball kickoff, Seymour. I don't think it'd hurt."

Seymour gazed out at the bustling airstrip other airships were being tended to, to the cargo traveling among the many lots. Then, it returned to her. "The Lady Yuna, with a traitor at her side? My, whatever would they say about it?" he considered speculatively, long digits curling thoughtfully about his chin. Yuna shook her head and smiled at him.

"A lot of people saw your apology in Guadosalam. I think they'll leave you be, at least," she reasoned while trailing up to him, Seymour shaking his head with an indulgent smile.

"Still so naive..." he murmured to himself, gravitating closer to her that made her bristle in anticipation; though things had improved between them, it was a far cry from her trusting or feeling comfortable completely around him. "You believe I've...changed, haven't you? Through your idealistic lens I must be striving to be a better man, no? That the want to do good is surely, slowly, wiping away the evils of the past."

"What do you mean?" Yuna questioned defensively, her features becoming progressively bewildered and even angered, bristling sharply.

He paused with his back to her, watching the world outside as if they were a sphere recording, distant and faraway, transient from the ivory tower he mentally resided in. That was something Seymour did when talking to people, making her think he did so out of arrogance. And she was hardly wrong, either. "Did I not tell you? You believe I've changed since the Farplane, that I have been...humbled. That what I believed in has been utterly shaken away. Once, I wished to save Spira. Now, there is only one person I am willing to do so for. One person I cannot bear the thought of being without. That through remaining at her side I might truly save Spira as she wishes it be." His arms remained at his sides, sometimes expressively gesticulating as if to emphasize his words. "And she is quite aware of who she is," he concluded smoothly, glancing over his shoulder whereby only his eyes could be seen, Yuna's breath hitching in her throat. Poignant and desirous, Yuna dipped her head away.

"Do you still want to be like Lord Zaon?" she mustered in herself to ask, unable to bring herself to match his eyes.

"Yes. And this surprises you?" The volume of his voice easily overtook her own, then looking away again out to the air port. "Recall my words, Yuna. Even if I cannot become the end result, I will not have you deny they are there. No more of this avoidance. Child's play is for children, which we are not."

Something welled deep within her. Shyness, bewilderment, discouragement, pity, even fear—they all pedaled through her with such rapacity it could put Rikku's mixing ability to shame. In other occasions, she'd avoided it. Turned away and continued on as if she could keep erecting barriers that would one day be thick enough to repel him. But he spoke so candidly about it, even if the words she heard were what he wanted to see in her, the object to be placed on a shelf and admired. Not treated like a person. He wasn't infatuated with her. Seymour merely idealized Lord Braska's daughter, the woman whom had vanquished Sin without sacrificing herself or any of her guardians.

"You speak to me as if I'm not really there. Like a sphere that plays back what you think you see. That picture you think is the same is totally different, and you don't even realize it," Yuna began, her courage building momentum in her, raising the timbre of her voice to sound anything but meek now. She thought of what she wanted to ask, of the connotations they bore. Of the boy whom had come into her young life so unexpectedly and lit it up like a supernova, made her feel more than just the sun. Made her fall in love in a way she was sure she never would be able to ever again. That's not what Seymour saw in her and sh knew it.

"Do you love me?" she blurted, voice withdrawing to somewhere brittle again. All before she felt a flare of passion well in her. "Can you even love at all, Seymour? Even since then all I've ever felt like to you was a prize to be won, some object for you to eventually claim. Have you ever even seen me as a person?" It grew, by the Fayth, it seemed to grow and grow as all the years of reservations shed like molted feathers. Still, adrenaline caused her hands to shiver, made them cold and clammy. The tensity in the air could be sawed through with a knife.

Seymour seemed taken by surprise by it, turning around sharply with his visage guarded in a hard mask, emotions welling in his eyes before being suppressed away harshly. It wasn't stoniness, but rather, he was looking through her just then. A ghost that was more real than she for a split second. "Love." He said the word, as if to taste its syllables for the first time in years. His brows furrowed, something beginning to glimpse through the mask. Dredging its way through. "...It was taken away from me when I was only a child. Lies upon lies told me I would be accepted once I sacrificed my life for the sake of Spira. The one I believed to love me banished my mother and I, and in turn, she left me to be. Can you imagine, Yuna? A child, ushered by love to Zanarkand. His mother driven first for the slaughter." Seymour smiled grimly, a flash of teeth bitterly shown. "My father endorsed this pilgrimage, Yuna. He wished for my death. He wished for the abomination and his mother to die," Seymour hissed blithely, voice pitched an angry, vitriolic low.

Yuna was shocked into speechlessness by the time he concluded. The pyrefly memories, Anima's own testament—it didn't compare with hearing it from Seymour himself. What it did was coalesce them together in a way that juxtaposed with her own past, of what became of her own father and mother. The priestess raised her head as he slowly swiveled away, losing his elevated aura and becoming entrenched in a dark cloud Seymour would not visibly relinquish himself to.

It was a defiant wish as she appeared from his periphery, Seymour watching her silently as she stood before him, a dark cloud in his eyes that made him appear gaunt, drained. Reticently Yuna raised her hand, gingerly and incrementally reaching to cup a cheek. She flushed when he let the sensation sink in, leaning into it with a deep, laden sigh. His own massive hand engulfed hers, holding it there as Yuna could distinctly feel his skin warm to her touch, swallowing thickly while he seemed totally enraptured.

"Out of everyone in Spira, why must my greatest enemy show me the most kindness?" Seymour inquired thickly, eyes still closed in rapture as though it were merely a dream. Maybe it was. Maybe they would reawaken to before any this happened, before Seymour's reawakening or Sin's resurrection. Reverently did Seymour allow her hand to return, gazing down at Yuna with eyes that seemed calmed, but not alleviated of their inner turmoil. As if something so brief could heal away wounds so massive and irascible. "Such gentle hands that hold so much power..."

"I think I have to go. Before the others begin to worry," Yuna whispered, keeping her head bowed.

This caused her to withdraw entirely, such words making her feel alienated, reminding her of what had been said earlier. Seymour took notice as Yuna began her delicate retreat, having meant to leave his sight before he took notice. But, it failed. "Yuna," he broached, stopping her in her tracks. "Even if I cannot yet give you every secret you seek, you must know: I do want you. Even if I cannot have you, that will remain unchanged." It was no declaration of passion, but it was enough to cause a shiver to run the length of her spine. He couldn't help but scoff in amusement at her tepidness. "I see we both have things we will eventually have to face, do we not?"

Yuna simply glanced back over her shoulder once, before accelerating down the stairwell and into the main thoroughfares of Luca, intending to lose herself in the crowds before the tournament began.


"So much has happened to Spira leading up to this point in time."

Yuna's voice projected in broad diffusion into unseen microphones, the audience that encircled the stadium, her carriage true and the kindness she was known for conveyed with a quiet strength—the sort her father exerted when he'd still been alive. Momentum had been built as she did, her newfound guardians standing at her flanks. Seymour, of course, resided in the dark corner where no audience member could see him, but Yuna knew was there. How fitting it seemed it was, that he would be more akin to a shadow than one who would frankly stand at her side, in the blinding sunlight. "But even in the midst of this turmoil, this danger, Spira will remain strong! I will stand by it, and fight for you—for my home, for my friends and family...everyone! Sin will not defeat our spirit. Sin will not take away our happiness and our hope!"

The conclusion to Yuna's speech came with thunderous applause and cheering throughout the stadium, likely transcending the watery, undulating barrier above with the exuberance and hope she hoped to generate. Yuna glowed from the adulation, smiling at Rikku who whooped and cheered with the audience, Kurgum joining in more sedated than the Al Bhed while Chuami politely clapped, smiling but still resolutely stoic as her own father would've been.

No time at all passed before the beginning ceremonies flagged the first game of the blitzball season, teams amassing in the spherical, underwater field that brightly refracted sunlight. For the first several minutes, it passed without incident. Blaring horns and shrill whistles announced the first inning, though Kurgum was the first to notice. Creeping towards her, he leant over to whisper in her ear. "Lady Yuna, do you...feel that?"

Yuna's brows furrowed in bemusement, but he was right: the air seemed electrified. More than what was normal. Her hands gripped the armrests and she began to stand, only for them to be brokenly jarred by a force of incredible magnitude. Patrons in the audience screamed and the blitzball game came to a halt, referees frantically rushing for the players to evacuate the field as much as guards did the stadium. "Yuna!" Seymour called from behind her, hovering protectively while she was momentarily distracted by what had shaken them in the first place.

Sin's enormity was incalculable as it was suspended grandly above their heads, Yuna instinctively reaching for her Nirvana and her remaining guardians keeping closely by. Sin's shadow utterly blotted out the sun, casting them in a premature night. Dorsal fins and its enormous, bulbous appendages ruptured through the stadium roof while tonnes of gallons of water spilled mercilessly, cascading with deadly weight that caused Yuna to gasp. Sin was here, and it was there to attack and kill them all.

In a previous time, both of them would've begun the Summoner's dance to summon their aeons, it feeling like an impossibility to face Sin without.

"Kurgum, Chuami: please help evacuate people to safety. We're going to remain here and fight!" Yuna proclaimed with resolve, Rikku flashing her gaze between the pair but not questioning the battle that would go underway. While Chuami and Kurgum broke into matched sprints, Yuna glided her hand along the Unerring Path garment grid she'd equipped, glad she'd listened to the feeling of foreboding from before. This way, the Floral Fallal would be easily accessed as much as Rikku's Machina Maw, two she felt they'd be in dire need of. "We need to ascend higher or else we'll be at a disadvantage."

Seymour placed a hand on Yuna's shoulder, directing her to follow the point of his other forefinger, directing her gaze towards a stairwell that would take them to where they needed to be. "There!" he shouted in direction of above the cacophony, Yuna nodding sharply before taking off with Rikku and Seymour in close tow. Her breathing was hard as she sprinted fast, casting black majick to demolish their way through the lesser Sin scales that contorted to life, only to be struck down again. Seymour directed his aim above at larger aerial fiends, casting Gravity to plummet them into bursts of pyreflies. Though they were powerful in their own rights, she knew it wouldn't yet be enough.

At the highest vantage point, one of Sin's highly muscled and dexterous pectoral fins vertically cleaved through what remained of the stadium's aquatic shielding, a deafening roar and wall of white thundering down as Yuna was forcibly prostrated, crushed by the enormous weight and feeling all the air beaten from her lungs before being thrust at least two levels below, gasping as her body limply tried to recompose while she gagged on water. The crush was immeasurable, world sealed in white, heavy noise until it finally subsided. Sin bellowed with deafening dissonance, Yuna forcing herself to stand.

"Yuna!" Seymour called, vaulting over the level divisions and carefully helping her to her feet, a white wave of Cura washing over her as Yuna nodded her thanks, reeling back at the destruction.

"Seymour," she gasped, parting some ways between them. "Please, stay out of my way." In the haphazard confusion had she activated the secondary node of her special dressphere, the male spreading out as he engaged the fin of Sin with a trio of deadly black majick, Ultima and Holy cast in mere moments of each other as Seymour's brows furrowed from the exertion.

The special dressphere was activated with a dramatic, incandescent flourish of petals and the enormous flower blooming at her back, Yuna suspended in midair. It seemed to work in her favor with the debilitating affliction from before nearly gone in the wake of the transformation. Though Seymour marveled for a brief moment, Yuna was wholly concentrated on giving her all for the fin's decimation. Yuna began with a higher grade of the Lightning Whirl, concentrating raw power that she focused on what appeared to be a weak spot high above. "Alright, time to go for a whirl!" she whooped, smiling with the elemental attack unleashed in succession upon the epicenter of the fin. Lightning flared from the focal point and caused Sin to flinch in repetition, which only served to anger it. The fin began to swing like a pendulum, a great swath causing the superstructure of the ring that arced above the stadium to become wholly dislodged, steel beams and enormous plates calamitously crashing in a heap below. Yuna winced visibly as shrapnel tore open her skin, rivulets running thickly down her thighs and arms, pain shooting throughout her body.

The steel that had fallen became a conductor for Rikku's own ascension, her Mix ability prompting her to chuck several offensive concoctions, lobbing them with shouts as some landed, others fell out of reach to detonate harmlessly away. "Yunie, it's getting too high up there!" Rikku panicked, Sin bucking downwards before the tail smashed into the harbor, the screams outside denoting that several ships had been struck and likely sunk from the monstrous bludgeon. In a violent attempt of extrication, several blocks of seating were destroyed and rubble flagrantly flung, Yuna casting Shield on the trio on pure reflex, guarding them from the worst as it deflected or they were otherwise only grazed. Rikku fell with a scream, catching herself but looking on hopelessly.

"Hang on, I can do this!" Mustering the mana again, Yuna unleashed a Flare Whirl on the escaping Sin, stopping it in its tracks just long enough. Though the damage was likely infinitesimal, it was better than nothing at all. Barrages of the attack bombarded the fin, loosening greater fiends she realized would need to be defeated. Desperation colored her actions as even Seymour, engaged in the preliminary cutting down of the lesser, noticed she was losing traction on the escaping Sin.

"Yuna! There may be something yet I can do!" Seymour called above the chaos, of the derelict bellows emitted lowly by Sin. She threw an incredulous look at him, questioning.

Recognition flashed when she realized what he meant, Yuna shouting, "Please...don't make me regret this!" at him even while he smiled somberly at her. Sin roared again as Rikku had managed to land hits with the Dark Knight dressphere activated, having found a sound platform in which to wage her war, Black Sky utilized to rain chaos from above.

Walking with an eerie stride did he walk to where Sin was dealing considerable damage to the surrounding area, tail lambasting wave after wave in the surrounding harbors, screams seeming incessant. Seymour raised his staff high, smirking grimly before pyreflies of deceased victims were drawn in an unnatural osmosis to his body. With more than the previous assault years ago, there came an alteration as he roared into the scintillating transformation. The dull, statuesque persona and headpiece bacame vividly colored as a physical representation of a higher plane of power. Mortibody looked larger as well, air around them both crackling dangerously.

Without even waiting did Seymour cast Multi-Blizzaga with a flourish of an elongated hand, glacial attacks manifesting in several deadly parameters along the fin, Sin thrashing upwards. Yuna had wondered why Sin had been unable to leave, but the collapsed superstructure that had held the aqueous shield aloft trapped it, and by the sadistic glee Seymour radiated it seemed the half-Guado would wield it to his fullest advantage even at the expense of lives. It made Yuna seethe inwardly, but for now, there was nothing she could really do about it.

The Right Pistol of the Floral Fallal dispersed Tough Nuts to reduce physical damage whilst the Left struck the fiends nearby with Half-death Petals, many suffering complete loss or at least being greatly staggered. Fiends honed upon the super-powered pair, the most they could muster without the aid of long-gone aeons. Seymour's laughter tore with deranged peals, apparently it having been a time long since he's embraced power even greater than before. Banish slaughtered many fiends in successive castings, pyreflies erupting from the felled before Seymour absorbed them again. From aloft, Rikku's spam of attacks on Sin became interrupted by the frenzy of fiends, Yuna realizing with draining color that Sin was overproducing them to keep them occupied.

"Seymour! Rikku! We have to attack the fiends! Any more and Luca will be overrun!" she bewared loudly, flinching as a volley of poison barbs struck her from the scaled sinspawn. Shuddering from the pain beginning to drain her, she redoubled with an Aqua Whirl that drowned some Fire Elementals that had reared their heads, silently counting the dozens they would have to slaughter. With a final, concussive effort did Sin dislodge itself, a mighty thrash of its tail before iridescent lavender wings brought it airborne.

"No, no, where are you going?! Come, face your death, Yu Yevon!" Seymour hissed mechanically, madly with a frenzied Firestrike striking the fin one last time before it was too far from their reach. From far away, the thrum of an airship hummed above them, Yuna realizing in horror that it was their own. Piloted by Chuami and Kurgum as the duo charged the massive Al Bhed cannons affixed whereat electrical charges massively thundered until bolts of lightning arced through the air and was held in a stalemate with Sin's gravitational shield, lightning ricocheting atmospherically and violently. Thunderously did a magnified charge tear through the shield, razing against Sin's hide whilst the massive beast screamed in ghostly pain, disembodied voices that bled from the freeing pyreflies.

All before the shield amorphously ballooned towards them and a pulse of Demi, supercharged from Sin's power, struck the slowly yielding airship too slow to avoid the attack. A burst of light and showering of sparks rained heavily from the sky, the airship's nose plummeting first as explosions socked the air. Yuna cried out again, focusing her desperation into her attacks as her vision became a field of pyreflies, numbly fighting through scores of them as it became frenzied, sloppy. Hardly even noticing the damage being inflicted heavily upon herself.

Seymour regained health from those shedding pyrflies, seeming to fuel an endless want to fight. Their battle became a chaotic dance, the three of them. Rikku grimly fought on a leveled stadium where the blitzball stadium had become a hollow shell in the wake of Sin. They fought continuously, for what seemed like ages until, finally, the last was felled and the mournful song of the pyreflies dissipated into the air. Yuna deactivated the Floral Fallal and fell heavily to her feet. Seymour languished in the drunk wake of his victory, not noticing Yuna as she tried to exhaustively push her way through the rubble. From where Rikku was, she anxiously called out to Yuna, noticing her nearly prone condition. "Chuami...Kurgum! Rikku, I have… I have to—!" she uttered before collapsing to her knees. Tears bubbled in her eyes as the last of what she'd seen of them railed in her mind, of what could only be narrowly inescapable. Collapsing to all fours, her shoulders shook as she bit back a sob.

Seymour Natus had finally been revoked, the original collapsing to his knees as he weakly propped himself against a fallen cinder block, proving to be a vestibule of relief. Gasping for breath, face gaunt and eyes rheumy, the over-exertion wore at him extensively. Numbly did he watch as Yuna collapse where she she'd stood, gaze hardening with a distant sense of remorse at how he'd lost himself to the rush of power that came from his higher forms. A necessary evil, he would call it later.

Even Rikku could barely walk, breathing hard and leaning heavily on a pile of corrugated steel that might've been part of the bracer. She gazed despairingly into the sky, at the utterly ruined stadium hollowed and ballooning with debris, rubble, and enormous clouts of shrapnel. The firmament at Luca's center had been utterly ruined with nearly nothing to speak for it.

Forcing herself to a stand, Yuna wobbled to keep herself upright before collapsing to her knees again like a newborn filly. Involuntarily grounded to her knees, Seymour haplessly and despondently watched her in her despair, brow crinkling but too weak to do aught else. Rikku eventually sank to sit on the stony concrete, on rubble just smooth enough. None of them could urge themselves to stand, utterly spent from the hopeless battle.

The only things that interrupted the silence of the wailing pyreflies was the muffled sounds of Yuna's profuse sobbing.


Last thoughts: I think when it comes to this fic, something I really want to drive home is my personal belief that Tidus is someone Yuna will probably never get over, even when he is gone. They fell in love with each other when she was marching towards death, he helped her view the world differently, and they really became integral to one another in ways that's difficult to describe—hell, her closely emulating him in FFX-2 should be enormous confirmation of this. He was her first love, and that's hard to forget, let alone stop loving. Therefore, you're going to see that a lot. Because if I'm going to write this sort of fic faithfully, he's not just someone Yuna can forget. I don't think she's capable of it, even if the destined outcome of this fic won't involve him.

Conversely, as much as Seymour spoke of the bonds of love that was the focal point of his machinations, I don't think he really loved her. While I agree with the Ultimania about how he had a twisted love for her, I think it was predominantly rooted in obsession. Obsession for her power, obsession to how she was the only foil to him in Spira—obsession for her, but not her as her own person. That's why I don't think Seymour has been open to love since after his mother died in really any capacity. It's a struggle I want to highlight on, and one I can only hope I'm portraying feasibly well.

~Peace, G