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Part Five: Assault on Sin
After a few days on the Highroad Fox finally began to notice a change in the terrain. All they had seen for the past five days had been grassy canyons and the same worn out dirt path. The ground was becoming more rocky and hard as they grew nearer to the Mushroom Rock Road. He also noticed the fiends had been getting steadily stronger as well. They were no longer fighting weak creatures that could be brought down in a single blow.
Eventually they reached the end of the Highroad and came upon a a soldier guarding the entrance into the Mushroom Rock Road.
"He's a crusader, ya. Wonder what he's doin all the way out here?" Wakka said. Fox had been told about the Crusaders only a few days ago. Apparently they defended towns and cities from Sin. Fox thought they were a bit useless and from what he'd heard they really couldn't do anything to stop Sin.
"Can we get past sir?" Yuna asked.
"I'm sorry lady Yuna, but there is an important operation happening in the Mushroom Rock Road right now. For your own protection you'll have to wait here until its over." said the soldier.
"Can't we just go through? We'll be real quick, ya." Wakka said.
"I'm sorry but I can't." he replied.
"We don't have time for this. You are interupting a summoner's pilgrimage. Let us through." Auron told him.
"Look, i'm really sorry but i can't let anybody through. I have strict orders." he sounded sorry when he said it.
They decided it would be best to just wait it out. After a few hours however Fox had simply had enough. He looked at the others and saw they were all either asleep or out of sight. Fox decided to take this opportunity to use Lucavi. Fox approached the soldier and began to channel Lucavi to his hands.
"What are yo-" the soldier started before Fox acted. He used Lucavi to invade the man's head and overpower his will. For a few minutes they faced off in a silent battle of minds before Fox was victorious. He forced the man to open the gate and then walk back to the command center.
Fox was suprised at how hard it had been to take the man's mind away from him. Most of the difficulty was not in the act itself, but in controling Lucavi. He had fought hard to keep Lucavi from simply devouring the man. Fox decided he should not underestimate the creature that now lived inside him again. Its power had grown with his and he must be much more careful with it from now on.
Just then Auron rounded the corner and stopped. He looked at Gray Fox and then the open gate. Auron knew some thing was not right.
"Where'd the guard go?" asked Yuna as she scanned the area for him.
"Hey Fox, you must have seen where he went, ya?" Wakka asked. They had all woken up and were now interested in the missing guard. Fox tried to think up a lie to tell them but Auron spoke before he could.
"The guard got called to the command post. Something urgent." Auron said. Fox gazed at him as he walked through the gate. Why had Auron covered for him?
"Lets get moving, we've got a long way to Zanarkand." Auron said as they all tried to catch up to him. Fox was perplexed by the mans actions. He was sure Auron had seen him.
They didn't have to travel far before they saw just how big this operation was. The entire beach was lined with soldiers and cannons. Whatever they were planning it was huge. A few seconds later a crusader appeared and asked them how they had gotten in. After a few quick words the crusader decided to take them to the command post as it would be safe there.
Once they had reached the command post Fox saw the real plan. He couldn't see the huge machina before because there had been a cliff in the way. Now that he was at the higher elevation of the command post however, the machina was in plain sight. The cannons and soldiers must be for the sinspawn.
Fox paid no attention to the others until he saw the man from the blitzball game arrive. After a quick question to a soldier Fox learned his name was Seymour and that he was a maester of Yevon. This did not sit well with Fox, Seymour had a sinister air to him. If he was a maester he had great power and that made Fox uneasy.
"And whos the last colorful guardian?" Seymour said as Fox approached.
"Thats Grey Fox. He looks odd but hes a swordsman to rival Sir Auron." Yuna said. There was just a hint of red in her cheeks. Fox guessed that she might have a crush on the maester, yet another problem.
"Quite the band of warriors you have Lady Yuna. Im sure you'll have Sin defeated in no time at all." Seymour said. Just then one of the sinspawn broke out of its cage. It was a huge beast that had two heads and an excess of power.
It began to carve the feeble crusaders to bits. The others rushed at it and attacked it head on while Seymour joined them. Fox's attention was elsewhere however, he had noticed a disturbance in the water quite a ways off. His vision was better than the others and he knew Sin was coming.
"SIN!!" Fox yelled as he leapt off the ridge the command center was located on. He positioned himself at the front of the beach ready to lead them into battle. After a few moments Sin surfaced and began launching sinspawn all over hell and back.
The sinspawn came flying at them from 360 degrees as cannons went off and soldiers charged. Fox felt the rush of battle as he hacked one into a gory mess.
Fox pushed an unsuspecting crusader out of a sinspawns projectile and saved him from certain death. Fox jumped and sliced a sinspawn out of the sky and kicked its carcass into another. Just then a cannon shell exploded when it hit a sinspawn inches away from him. Fox was sent sprawling to the sand and recovered as quickly as possible. He looked around and saw just how much damage the sinspawn were causing. The crusaders were getting in some kills but the sheer number of the sinspawn was overwhelming.
Fox launched himself back into the carnage and resumed his vicious rampage. He cut down one after the other, sinspawn after sinspawn fell before him. He cut a sinspawns arm off as it tried to claw him and kept going with enough force to slice through anothers skull. A sinspawn charged him as it tossed a mangled body into the bloody waters. Fox put his sword through its head as he dashed towards another target.
The battle raged all around him as blood and bone stained the sand. It reminded him of all those wars long ago and it made him feel at home. Fox saw as chocobo riders were taken down by sinspawns and as soldiers fought off death as long as they could. Bits of flesh and blood spilled over him as he gutted a rather large sinspawn. Fox blocked a projectile that would have found a crusaders head and countered with a fatal lunge of his own.
He turned around and watched as the crusader he had just saved was swarmed by dozens of tiny sinspawn and eaten alive. Fox cut his way across the beach and tried to save as many as he could but he knew it was hopeless. He turned and watched as the gigantic Al Bhed machina was finally fired up. It began to howl as a powerful energy beam was released from it. The beam collided with Sin's shield and it looked as if it might break through. That was until Sin released an attack of its own and brought the entire machina down along with the poor souls trapped inside it.
Sin looked down at the battle and opened its mouth as if to taunt them. It was not words that came out however, it was a huge wall of energy that came rushing towards the beach at incredible speed. Fox had just enough time to call Lucavi to him and make a shield of his own before it hit. He felt pain rush over him so fast it was crazy but it left as quickly as it had come before his vision faded to white.
Some time later Fox awoke on the beach feeling quite painfull. He was sore and bleeding as he checked out the level of devistation Sin had left in its wake. For the most part the wave of energy had seemed to dematerialize the bodies entirly.
Every few feet however you could still see the bloody remains of men and beasts.
Fox picked himself up and realized Lucavi had not shielded him as well as he had hoped. Half of his left hand was simply gone.
He stumbled through the sand in the direction he thought the command post was. He held onto his bleeding stump of a left hand as he realized he would have to stop the bleeding soon before he passed out. He didn't know any magic so instead he searched a few bodies until he found a healing potion. He drank it and felt his arm mending as the blood vessels sealed themselves. Although he didn't feel his hand regrowing it didn't worry him, he thought Yuna would be able to heal it easily.
When he had finally reached the command post he saw that the wave had not made it this far. He was still low on blood so he began to look for Yuna. He thought he saw Seymour leaving but he couldn't tell as his vision was blurring. He tried to walk but only made it a few more steps before he collapsed. Fox saw as Yuna and the others stood over him and suddenly his strength returned to him.
He stood up and checked his injuries. He was right not to worry about his hand, Yuna had healed it fully. It was only once he looked down upon the beach that he saw just how much damage Sin had caused. The bodies streached along the beach for nearly a mile.
"Where were you? We lost track of you just before Sin arrived. We thought you were on the beach." Yuna said sounding worried.
"I was on the beach." Fox said.
"What!? How did you survive that?" Lulu asked him. He noticed that Auron was listening intently.
"Why where you even down there in the first place, ya? That was crazy." Wakka told him.
"Whats crazy is putting all those men down there to die. They needed someone to lead them into battle." Fox said. He watched as the injured began to arrive. Some had only minor scratches and bruises while others were missing limbs. He could hear soldiers calling out to the bodies for survivors. He could see the looks on the dying wounded's faces. It was just like all those wars and battles from his past.
They helped the crusaders the rest of the day. Yuna saved as many as she could with her white magic but most were too heavily injured. Wakka and Lulu joined the others along the beach and searched for any who might have made it. Kimahri,
Auron, and Tidus gathered supplies from the dead. Fox was givin the task of stacking body parts. Three other people had tried it before him but they were all too busy puking thier guts out now.
Fox had made a pile roughly ten feet tall before he decided to start another. He picked up an arm and saw Auron walking towards him. He didn't think Auron was goin to question him too hard, not here.
"Fox how did you survive that attack?" Auron asked as he began to stack body parts alongside Fox.
"Auron, i'm sure you have plenty of questions for me. I certainly have some for you, but we both know now is not the time.
A field of decomposing bodies is no place for this." Fox told him.
"A good point. Shall we meet at a later time and different location then?" Auron suggested. Fox knew all along that Auron was going to do this eventually.
"Fine but we do it much later and out of sight. Nothing i tell you can be spoken to the others. I'll tell them when they're ready. Agreed?" Fox said.
"Agreed. We'll meet on this beach after the others fall asleep." Auron said as he tossed a dismembered leg onto the pile. Fox watched Auron leave and wondered what secrets the man had. Fox felt Auron knew much more than he was telling so far. He put it to the back of his mind for now as he tossed more pieces of flesh onto the pile.
Later that night, Fox waited a little ways down the road for Auron to show up. After a few minutes Fox spotted Auron coming down the road and joined him. He followed Auron for a minute or two before the man picked a comfortable spot and sat down.
"So, i'll start by asking you your name. Whats your real name Grey Fox?" Auron inquired.
"It's Frank." Fox told him. He would let Auron ask the questions first.
"Well then Frank. I know your hiding something from the rest of us. Why do you sneak off at night Frank? How did you get that crusader to abandon his post? And most of all, how did you survive Sins attack?" Auron asked him.
"Those questions all have the same answer Auron. Lucavi." Fox said.
"Lucavi?" Auron said confused.
"Its a power i have not yet revealed to the rest of them. I was givin it by those who sent me here." Fox explained. Over the next ten minutes or so Fox told Auron about the room with the statues. He told Auron that he had died in his world and they had granted him new life in this one.
"But what is Lucavi then? Why not show the others?" Auron asked.
"Lucavi is not like magic Auron. It is a being in itself. If i use it too much before i learn to control it, it will devour me." Fox told him.
"I see. Have you learned to control it yet?" Auron asked.
"Not fully. I have mastered some of the more basic uses but there are countless more. Eventually it will accept me as its ruler and bend to my will." Fox told him.
"Lets get to you now Auron. There are some things i would like to ask you as well." Fox said. It was time for some answers.
"Ask away." replied Auron.
"You know something, something you saw fit to share with Tidus back in Luca. I want to know what it was." stated Fox.
"Very well. You have heard of the boy Tidus's father Jecht yes?" he asked.
"I know of him. He was Braska's guardian and a good blitzball player. What about him?" wondered Fox.
"He's Sin." said Auron quite bluntly.
"How is that possible?" Fox said suprised. How could that thing have been human once?
"Does it matter how? Just know that he is Sin." Auron said.
"Don't play with me Auron. How is Jecht Sin?" Fox asked threateningly.
"Are you really sure you want to know?" Auron asked. Fox was growing tired of this.
"I'm not going to ask you again Auron. How is Jecht Sin?" Fox stated. Auron gave him a questioning look before he started.
Auron told Fox about the pilgrimage he had went on with Braska. Auron told him about the trials they faced and how when they had finally reached Zanarkank they had discovered it was all pointless. Auron confirmed what Fox had already suspected about the final summoning. It could never kill Sin for good.
"Then why become Yuna's guardian? You must have some sort of plan." said Fox.
"I have no master plans or grand scheme. I just have a promise i need to fufill." Auron told him.
"A promise to a fellow warrior, I understand." Fox said quitely. His respect for Auron had just gone up. Fox looked at the man sitting across from him in a new light after that.
Fox watched Auron walk back towards the others as he prepared to train with Lucavi. Auron was a true warrior the same as Fox was. Fox felt Auron had not revealed everything to him but it did not upset him. Fox had told Auron nothing about his past and Fox decided he would not try to discover Auron's final secret. He would wait until Auron was ready to tell him.
Fox closed his eyes and prepared to take himself deep into his own mind. A battle with a demon awaits him there. Fox focused as he felt the world around him slide away and when he opened his eyes again he was surrounded by darkness.
"You will not become my master." Lucavi said.
"We'll see about that." Fox told the demon.
"I have been alive longer than you could fathom. Can you hear them?" Lucavi said as it raised it hand. A swirling pool of darkness formed around him. Fox could hear countless screams of pain and death escaping from the darkness.
"That is what you will be. All of them believed they could master me. Your soul will swim forever in my sea of forsaken torture." Lucavi taunted.
"Do you try to scare me for your own amusement? I wonder, is it because you fear me? Either way it all ends the same. Prepare yourself demon, you time draws to a close." Fox said as he drew his sword.
"HAHAHAHA! Then let ours be a glorious battle! I'll feast on your soul, NOW DIE!!!" the demon screamed as it pounded its chest in fury. The two charged each other as the darkness closed in.
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So...thats how Fox trains with Lucavi. This took longer than i expected but it came out good.
P.S. Don't be afraid to review.