FFX-2: Ties That Bind Fanfic

Chapter 15: Regrets

'I should be happy,' 'Yuna' looked up to the sky, Paine sound asleep behind her as she peered out through the hole in the old house they were resting in. 'Yuna is my loyal pet, a fitting punishment for the one who stole the Fayth from us and doomed Tobius and Koji. And now the girl Rikku has run off on her own. It would be so easy to corner her and create another pet to protect the home they destroyed.'

She paused, looking back to Paine, the red eyed girls voice paying through her thoughts, 'The Crimson Squad was to be the Elite of the Crusaders, but the Crusaders were wiped out by Sin and the Crimson Squad turned on one another because of a single Unsent, driven to destroy. He took the body of one of them and used it to destroy not just the Crimson Squad but all of Spira...or at least he tried to...Yuna stopped that too.'

A Fiend ran past and she held her breath until it passed. She rose peeking out of the ruined wall, all seemed clear.

'Maybe I was wrong?' She mused, looking back at Paine, 'Maybe it is I who failed the Fayth?'

Shaking her head she slipped out, "I wish you were her Tobius, Koji, you would know what to do." she whispered as she looked up at the sky, the once more at Paine.

Closing her eyes she took a deep breath, slipping away, 'I can muse further as I work, I still have things that must be done to insure the safety of my home.'

As 'Yuna' slipped away Paine opened one eye, giving a wry smirk as she sphere-changed into a dark catsuit, then seemed to become a blur, sticking to the shadows as she followed 'Yuna.' 'It's time to see what you are really up to.'

'Yuna' was ambushed by a Fiend not long after leaving, Paine hung back hidden, watching her fight, if she needed to she would reveal herself and lend a hand but for now she would only watch.

"Damn it!" swore 'Yuna' as she made a quick attack with her thief blades, dodging the magical blast of her opponent. 'I need more then Berserker as my combat class, but if I change anything the Job Fiends will be effected as well.'

With a grown she sphere-changed into Berserker, launching herself at the monster, it attacked again and 'Yuna' grunted as she took the hit, she counter attacked, smirking after 'One good thing about this class is it is aggressive enough to counter physical and magical attacks reflexively. But if I don't end this quickly I'll wind up a stone statue.'

'Yuna' howled and lunged again, the Fiend dissolving into Pyreflies, wasting no time she hurried off, Paine followed. Soon Paine followed her query into a building, switching back to thief 'Yuna' vanished through a automatic door, she keep quiet as she followed careful not to reveal herself until 'Yuna' entered a chamber, lights came up as she moved to a device, after a few moments several copies of her Garment Grid were removed from the device.

'Yuna' smirked, looking down at her prize, 'Now the question just remains who would be the best subjects to use these on?'

She moved to a console and entered some commands, several liquid filled tubes lit up, exposing the occupants inside, 'Yuna' moved down the line, Paine following unseen, and stopped at the first one.

"Y-Yuna!" Paine said surprised, as she saw a familiar figure, clad only in her swimwear floating in the tube.

'Yuna' looked around quickly, "Who's there.'

Paine revealed herself with a sphere-change into Psychic, her glowing hand outstretched ready to attack, "You had Yuna here the entire time! Explain yourself!"

A smirk played across the imposters lips after her shock had subsided, "Look around."

Paine stepped back, one hand still trained on the imposter, then she gasped, each of the tubes had their own Yuna in it! "Y-You cloned her?"

'Yuna' shook her head, "In only the loosest sense. After all I am for all intents and purposes a clone."

Paine growled, "No more games, Explain yourself!"

'Yuna' rose her arms wide as she paced down the row, "Is it obvious my dear? These are Fiends and Machina that I captured then imprinted with the same means that made me who you see. Once I install the garment grid they will be able sphere-change as well. Yuna will be the ultimate protector of Libera."

Paine lowered her hand and stepped back, "Your mad, you can't just give fiends the power of the Garment Grid, they will kill you! And Machina? This system was designed for living things!"

"Ah and there you see my problem, The Machina I can control, they would be loyal and obedient, but their have a low compatibility with the system. The Fiends take to the system like a fish to water, in fact I can fuse them with a copy and turn them into even greater creatures, personifications of the dresssphere, but there is always the worry they will rebel, even WITH my control collars in place."

"C-Control Collars?" Paine wonder aloud.

'Yuna' nodded, "It slaves their minds to a set of programed commands, making them quite a bit more controllable."

"When did you find the time to do all this! Yuna hasn't been gone all that long!" Paine said aghast.

"My dear the Garment Grid system may be new but I have had to protect myself without the benefits of my magic or summoning arts for nearly three years. How do you suppose I survived when most of the Machina were damaged and the city running on reserve power?"

Paine's eyes grew wide, "You were taming Fiends?"

'Yuna' nodded, "Is that so big a surprise, your Trainer sphere calls spirits in the form of animals to aid you. That is not much different from Fiends or even Aeons."

Paine nodded apprehensively, "I suppose. But why...how do they all have Yuna's imprint."

"Again Paine you underestimate me, As soon as I realized what I had...stumbled...upon with the Garment Grid I set to work replicating it, even before I understood the inner workings. If my grid were to be destroyed where would I be without a backup. And considering the power they give it would be a fools errand to not try and replicate it for the city's defense. I did all that long before we met, it was the first thing I did, this is only the end of the experiment. Where I release pass produced Garment-Fiends or Garment-Machina." She held up the Garment Grid copies, "I have enough to complete the process, I just need to decide on the test cases: Machina or Fiends."

Paine moved closer to a tank, "This is so strange." Looking over at the line of Yunas then to the stranger, "If you use Machina they will all look like her, a bunch of exact clones?"

"In theory yes," 'Yuna' nodded.

"And the fiends, the same? We would not be able to tell the real one from your copies?"

'Yuna' smirked, "Oh on the contrary, I have already tested the procedure on the few Fiends that I had already tamed and felt the most stable. Do you remember when Yuna was consumed by the Berserker?"

Paine glared death at the stranger, "How did you know about that."

"I saw it on my monitors, at the time I wasn't sure what to make of it but it became obvious later as I met you all."

Paine was silent a moment, "Soooo the Fiends...they would become some mutation? They wouldn't look like we do?"

'Yuna' nodded.

Paine took a deep breath, "Go with that one, I don't know how Rikku would react if she ran across a dozen Yuna clones who were all mindless machines, at least she won't recognize the fiends."

'Yuna' smiled, "As you wish." moving to one of the tubes, looking at the copy a moment then to Paine, "I don't suppose I could convince you to give up your own Garment Grid so I could make some with your template."

Paine looked to the floating copies and a vision of Rikku freaking out after running into a Yuna-Fiend flashes through her eyes, shutting her eyes tight she handed over both of her garment grids, "Here! Use me instead, recall the ones you have in the field as well pattern them all on me! I don't want anything distracting us from finding Yuna, and Garment-Clones, even Fiend Clones will only make that more complicated!"

'Yuna' took a step back in surprise, then a smile grew across her features, 'This could work out perfectly. Especially with the original repatterned to Paine.'

'Yuna' reached out her hand, brushing the edge of the garment grid, but stopped pulling back, "Wait a moment...this could be the solution to my own problems as well."

"Eh?"

"Your Yuna's grid is configured mostly for support. But with you here we can configure a grid specifically tailored to the city's defense and my own survival. One grid for me to move around with, and one for my soldiers."

Paine glanced aside at one of the tanks, "I suppose."

"Great!" 'Yuna' laughed, "Let's get to work!"