This is an FFX AU. A basic understanding of the plot is ideal, though I explain things, just not in detail. You don't need detail, though, and I'm pretty sure you can grasp what I'm getting at - or at least the basic concepts.
I don't own FFX or PL or anything, really.
A storm rages outside, and those inside the small store-slash-hotel wonder when it will end, though they know the unbearable answer: that it never will. The cruel, harsh winds and bright, shocking lightning flashes won't stop until they cross these plains.
And even though they know the truth, a young girl standing next to the Professor tries to remain blissfully ignorant of it. There could still be hope, Flora thinks, wishes, prays.
"It'd be best if we left now," the man in blue speaks up, "The storm won't end anytime soon."
"It's been storming for at least a thousand years, so of course it won't," the boy next to Flora, Luke, speaks up. He's tired, as are the rest of them. They have been travelling for many days now, and they do not get many chances to rest.
A lightning strike sounds around them and lights the whole building up. Flora whimpers in retaliation, gripping the Professor's arm.
"Are you sure it won't miraculously end?" Flora asks, hopeful. The man above her chuckles and pats her head.
"I'm afraid not, dear. As Clive said, we should leave now so we can get there sooner," as he says it, he squeezes her hand gently and begins to take her outside, the others following behind him solemnly. In their silence, Flora lets lose her thoughts unto the Professor.
"Do... you think Emmy is okay?"
He nods, albeit a bit begrudgingly. "Yes, I think so. You know she's always had a knack for finding a way out of trouble."
Flora laughs, and then a small frown finds it's way onto her face, "And... do you think she can beat Sin?"
Though a simple little girl, Flora has never been a stranger to the truth of the Summoner's Pilgrimage. She knows what Emmy will do when they reach the ruins of a city long buried, and she knows what will happen if - when, she tries to remind herself to have hope - Sin is defeated.
The Professor had told her.
And Sin will be back, too, after a period of calm. The last calm started when Flora was quite young, and back then she danced in the sun with her parents and her friends, but then it ended all too soon, and her parents were killed by Sin itself.
The Professor found Flora, a young orphan, and took her in. For a year or so, they stayed together, and then Emmy became a summoner and things changed. They left London and took to the road. Her father figure objected to her wanting to become a guardian, but Flora would have none of it. She would not leave his side, nor would she leave Emmy's. Luke came, too, and though they were young children and often looked at strangely, Flora was happy to be a guardian.
Recently, though, Emmy had been kidnapped.
The Professor in question is silent as Flora tries to get herself out of her thoughts. He nods slowly, sadly, and forever trapped in his melancholy.
She squeezes his hand, "Tell me the story, please," she begins, and at his disapproving hesitance, she starts with her words again, "Professor, you haven't kept the truth from me for a long time, and I think it's time you told not just me, but everyone here the real reason you know the truth."
Clive's eyes widen, "You're perceptive, Flora," he starts, "Though I think you should let the Professor tell you when he wants to."
Luke shakes his head at that, though, "No, Clive, I want to hear."
They continue through the plains, slowly, hiding under lightning rods when they can, as the man nods slowly, and begins to tell his story. Though long past, his words are haunting and familiar, like they belong in some fairy tale.
He tells of a young summoner named Dimitri Allen, who asked Claire and her boyfriend, Hershel, to be his guardians. Claire accepted right away, of course, and though Hershel was concerned for the safety of himself and Claire, he agreed, concerned for Dimitri's fate.
He tells Flora of how Dimitri loved Claire like Hershel did, and how his pilgrimage was very unlike Emmy's - it transitioned smoothly, getting aeons smoothly and quickly, and they did not have to worry about the Maesters proposing marriage like Maester Henry did, and they reached Zanarkand without many issues.
And Claire was the one that Lady Sophia chose to sacrifice, for Dimitri felt so strongly for her and they were close friends. Claire had no objections to it and became Dimitri's final aeon, leaving Hershel alone after Dimitri and Claire passed on.
But Flora knew better, and she now knew why the Professor wanted to destroy Sin so badly. As did the other Guardians.
"So... Claire is Sin, then?" Clive asked, "And you would destroy her, even knowing who she is?"
The Professor nodded slowly, "Yes, I would. I have heard her tell me to destroy her. She hates killing all these people, and even if I could not hear her I would know that it would be what she wants."
"Professor... That carving you wear? Is that-"
"Yes, it is a carving of her. Of Sin."
The man wears Sin on his heart, Flora realizes, and if she were a deep follower of the Yevoner's praised religion, she might have felt differently about him. But she didn't. She simply squeezed his hand again, pressing closer to him as lightning kept striking.
The guardians walked in silence towards the next temple, where they hoped to find Emmy.