Disclaimer: Square-Enix Incorporated owns all copyrighted material this fanfiction may include. All other materials, such as characters, events, dialogue, et cetera, all belong to Zeshin-kun.
Author's Notes: Where have all me readers gone? I haven't gotten a review in forever. -sob-
Well, as I said in the last chapter, it's time to throw in something new. Weird is entirely up to you.
Spira: The Eternal Discord
Chapter 8: The Calm before the StormYuna
I was so mixed up. Could I trust Shuyin this time? Everything he's done up till now should have told me to have confidence in him and my heart wanted me to trust him, but my mind never let go of the prospect that he was faking this "good boy" attitude like he'd done to me as an unsent. It hurt so much to hear those evil words being spoken by the face of the man I loved with all my heart. I didn't know how I could ever come to forgive Shuyin for doing that to me and allow myself to trust him again.
A week had passed since he initially arrived here on Besaid. Since the blitzball game four days ago, Shuyin's been very hopeful in his new life. At times, he'd even leave on sphere hunts with Rikku and Paine. I was taking a break ever since I finally got him back so our YRP had become just RP. I think Lulu and Wakka were actually glad for that. I'd worried them greatly when I took off to become a Gullwing. Now that Shuyin was around, my guess is he's become the replacing member of the Gullwings. I could just picture it.
"Gullwings ready!" Shuyin'd say, pulling his pistols up in the air. Paine would swing her sword and pose to his right while Rikku leaned against them with a wink.
"So what do you think?" Rikku asked, still standing in that position with the other two.
For a minute, I thought I was still daydreaming about the new SRP. But, as I continued to stare, I realized I was seeing them and they were posing right outside my hut.
"Ah!" I screamed, falling back.
"Yuna, you okay?" Shuyin asked, the first to come to my aid.
"Yunie!" Rikku yelped, soon after.
"I told you we'd scare her doing that." Paine stated coldly, shrugging where she stood.
When I regained my bearings, I just had to ask, "When'd you formulate this new group?"
They explained to me that, since Shuyin didn't have much of a job on our Spira anymore and since he'd need more of a permanent team to be a blitzer again, he'd be better off as a sphere hunter until he could find something else to do. Besides, with so many ruins of old machine cities still unexplored, having someone who'd been in those cities at least once in his life would be helpful for navigating. I'd been replaced!
"Don't worry. It's not like I could replace you. I'm just here for the time being until you come back." Shuyin assured, offering a kind smile.
They also told me that Brother was alright with adding a member who looked so much like him because, even with the fiasco of his trying to blow up Spira, he didn't show any interest in me the way his twin did so Brother was okay with him being around. Rikku said he wasn't so sure about her status with him, but big brother overprotective syndrome would kick in only if Shuyin tried anything and not before he's done so.
"So do you want to come with us this time?" Rikku asked, hugging me close and pleading for me to say yes with her puppy eyes, "Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"
Well, I didn't really have anything planned for the day, maybe something at night, but I wasn't going to tell them that. It had been a while since I'd gone sphere hunting and I did want to spend some time with Rikku and Paine like in the blitz game.
We headed off for the Celsius just like we'd done before, except Shuyin was actually with us this time and not waiting in the heart of the Farplane. After we boarded, Buddy escorted us to the bridge where our graceful leader, Brother, awaited his troops. This time, there were sphere waves being picked up somewhere in the Moonflow, which Rikku believed was coming from the sunken machina city. It was there, over two years ago, that she had helped the Al Bhed kidnap me to prevent me from completing my pilgrimage. When Brother had wondered how they would manage to get the sphere before their oxygen tanks ran out, Rikku had suggested they see if Shuyin knew anything about the city. That's how Shuyin got involved. He'd navigate the city for us by memory and, hopefully, we'd find that sphere before our time was up.
The trip was nothing unexpected. Rikku hovered over Shuyin like his own personal shadow, desperately seeking more knowledge of his past. Paine grunted from the side while polishing her sword furiously, glancing over at the two from time to time and immediately looked away if she sensed I was following her actions. Brother would also grunt, but only because Shuyin reminded him of my special someone and Rikku's growing closeness with him only reminded Brother of how he "lost" me to him. Unfortunately, Shinra had gone back to the Al Bhed. I heard he was aiding some of the architects in the reconstruction of Home. He was making sure that the more easily exposable weaknesses of the structure were built with better shielding, reinforced steel, and all sorts of precautions that would ensure the new Home's impregnability. I would have liked Shuyin to meet the boy who helped us so many times during our quest to stop his terrorism. Perhaps after the mission, we could take him there.
"So then you sliced off his head, right?" Rikku chirped, anxious for Shuyin to finish his latest story.
He sighed, "Rikku, I've told you this story before. You already know what happened. I just rolled to the side and slammed my sword into him after he landed. The vampire didn't stand a chance."
"I know. I just can't believe how many different Aeons were around back then. Can you imagine if they were all still around? Yunie would never get them all. Then, I wouldn't have had to worry so much about getting to Zanarkand and watching her sacrifice herself to beat Sin. We'd still be stuck somewhere at a temple, figuring out the cloister and getting up to the Chamber of the Fayth. And after that fiasco in Bevelle, it would've slowed us down even more!" She cheerfully exclaimed, moving her hands to her words like she was showing him exactly what happened so long ago.
"Rikku! That wouldn't have stopped me or even slowed us down. If I needed more Aeons to be high summoner, I'd go double the pace to keep Spira safe." I countered, deciding that I might as well enter this little conversation of their's.
"Aw, Yunie. It doesn't matter. That was over two years ago. It's long over and done with so I'm gonna put all of it behind me."
"Oh? Then, how come you still talk about it that much? I think you might be making Shuyin a little bored." I joked, teasing Rikku as we always have.
"Yunie! Don't be such a meanie. Just because I talk about it doesn't mean I haven't put it behind me. You can talk about the past." With that she stuck her tongue out in her playful manner.
"My my, such animosity between you two. Kinda boosts a guy's ego, what with having two lovely girls battling it out over little old me." Shuyin interjected, using that blitzer charm.
"Who said they were fighting over you? Yuna and Rikku have always been like this. Don't flatter yourself." Paine grumbled in her spot, still polishing her sword.
"Dr. Paine, it's good to see a sign of life in you." He replied, probably not the best choice of words.
But, to my surprise, it wasn't Paine that spoke any objection to his statement. It was Brother. "Hey, newcomer! You be quiet. This my airship. Don't talk. Rule on Celsius."
Shuyin gave him a funny look, glanced over at Rikku who just waved her hands to disregard our leader, but Shuyin just smiled and walked off to the lift. It was definitely different. His eyes weren't transfixed with madness like it had been only some months ago. He seemed almost like… him, if only I hadn't the memory of what he would have done in the past. No, Shuyin was not like him and would never be. He even said himself that they were different entirely. Yes, that's right. Shuyin made up the man I loved with all my heart, but he himself could never measure up to his creation. Not in a thousand years and not even in a million. My love was special.
"Yuna… Why are you just standing there?" Paine grunted, interrupting my thinking.
"Oh… I'm sorry, Paine… Uh, how close are we?"
"We should arriving to Moonflow shortingly. Have some little rest, yes Yuna?" Brother answered, waving me off to go to the cabin.
With a nod, I turned and started for the stairs, but Paine stopped me before I got my foot on the bottom step. "Yuna, don't let him get to you. I know how he can be… He's… he's starting to get to me, too, but just keep up your guard. As much as he claims to have changed, we all still know him for the crazed unsent who wanted to destroy Spira."
Again I nodded, not sure if I really wanted to believe what she held firm in her mind. It would have been the safe road. It was just that… ah… maybe I'm just too soft. I proceeded to the lift and took it down to the cabin. The short amount of time I had was long enough for me. I still didn't trust Shuyin enough to disregard his actions in the past. It may have just been too late for that. No matter what, he still had a choice after turning into an unsent. He still could have chosen not to head down the path he did. He had two years inside Nooj's body to discover that destroying Spira was wrong, but he went ahead anyway. That meant there was some evil inside him, evil that had decided long ago to make the path for him and guide him towards it. It would take more than wisecracking and a show of sincerity to make up for his crimes.
"Hello, Mish Yuuna." Barkeep greeted as I left the lift.
"Yunie! Duck!" Rikku squealed, pointing behind me.
Was Shuyin planning on surprising me? It wouldn't have been a shock. It was a matter of time before he turned on us again. Getting him to the Moonflow from Besaid was enough of a help in getting him close to Bevelle. He probably wanted to steal Vegnagun again. That's it. I had enough…
Taking out my Twin Bees, I turned and aimed them at Shuyin before he could… dump that bucket of water on me? "Whoa! Take it easy, Yuna. It'll get you wet, but that's no reason to shoot a guy, right?"
"Oh Shuyin, I'm so sorry!" I stammered, wide-eyed at the event unfolding before me.
Just water… I was going to shoot him because he was going to pull a prank on me. "It's alright. Not like it's the first time pranks nearly got me killed." He reassured, "Oh the things Rothel and I've done. You know, we went to Bevelle before the war and pulled off this amazing joke on two of their elites. Yea, this one time, Lenne went with Kirin to Besaid and I went over to hang out with Rothel. We ended up in Bevelle and the guy pasted the back wall of an alley with a thick coat of industrial strength glue and greased up the floor. Then, he went off to get some high official to fall for it while I finished up the trap with a sign that said 'Bevelle's Finest'. Wow, that guy was upset. It was hilarious!"
Another one of his attempts at making us believe he was good. It still didn't work on me, but Rikku was rolling on her bunk, giggling like a maniac. Maybe I should have separated those two earlier. It seemed she was all for his reformation. Deep down, my heart yearned to follow in Rikku's footsteps and accept Shuyin, but my brain told me otherwise. I knew it would be a foolish thing to do to forget about the past. The future is shaped by the actions of the past and Shuyin had done nothing back then that would grant him my trust. Even though Lenne trusted him, she'd taken his back to the Farplane. The simple fact that he was here again would show that he couldn't be trusted. He claimed that he had nothing to do with it, but he's lied before. Nothing would stop him from repeating it.
"Gullwings! To the bridge right away! We have landed in Moonflow!" Brother shouted over the intercom.
"Guess we should head 'em up and move 'em out." Shuyin stated in a strange way, jogging to the lift and holding the door for us.
"Yea, let's go get 'em!" Rikku added, hopping off the bedroom area and speeding off to the lift, as well.
"Yuna… you comin'?" Shuyin asked once Rikku had boarded.
To trust him or not. Perhaps this new mission will tell me the answer I want to know. With a nod, I hurried myself up and got aboard the lift. Within a few seconds, we were back on the bridge, Rikku rushing off first, playfully grabbing Paine's arm with a giggle. Paine tried to jerk her arm away, but my cousin was persistent. Shuyin was the next to exit the lift, walking casually down the stairs and taking his seat where Shinra used to spend hours upon hours developing all his gadgets. If you're planning on stabbing us in the back… My hands locked and loaded my pistols… you'll regret it.
The Moonflow was just as swampy as I had remembered it to be since I last came. It wasn't anything new. Wakka had said that there was a machina city down below that was behind its pollution. But for Shuyin, it seemed as though it pained him to see the river as it was. He was from one thousand years in the past. Perhaps the Moonflow was still clean in those days. Either way, we all noticed him sigh as he gazed into the murky waters.
"Okay, Gullwings! Time to be getting down to busyness." Brother ordered, the Celsius pulling away to his self-made "safe zone".
"Man, Guadosalam's seen better days." Shuyin muttered.
"What? Guadosalam is over there in that tree. You should know. Leblanc's chateau is there." Rikku stated to the former unsent, pointing over to the home of the defunct syndicate's leader.
To that, Shuyin only laughed, explaining his statement. "No, I mean the old Guadosalam. Funny how they didn't change the name, but I guess they wanted to keep the machina city in memory."
"Even if it was this machina city that made the Moonflow as filthy as it is." Paine tactlessly scowled, "Well, it wouldn't be the first time the guado were responsible for an atrocity. Isn't that right, Yuna?"
That was a shock, but she was right. I did tell her about when the guado attacked and murdered countless Al Bhed just to hand me back to Seymour for his selfish purposes. Rikku was a little more closed on the subject, which wasn't surprising. She was only fifteen at the time and she had to see friends die, the only home she's ever known burn to the ground, and after all that, Seymour almost had her executed with all my other guardians.
"Actually, aside from their natural affinity towards shadiness, the original Guadosalam was very advanced and well-designed. In fact, I'm pretty sure that without their sanitation program, the Moonflow would be even worse for wear than… with all the pollution it has now." Shuyin responded.
"But Wakka told me that it was the machina city that was the major cause for the condition of the river. That's why they were all eliminated." I replied, remembering how I was taught.
"Yuna, I thought the teachings of Yevon even stated that Sin was the reason there aren't any more machina cities."
"Yes, but that was only because Sin attacked anything it saw. The machina cities were still filled with contamination."
"Machina cities may have started off pretty dirty, but that was before people knew about sanitation and pollution control. Back in my days, one of the ways to tell if a city was thriving was to see how healthy its people was. Zanarkand had the best. Of course, back then, Zanarkand had the best of nearly everything, but still, this Yevon-related anti-machina sentiment's gone from fact to folklore. The Moonflow is the chief habitat for Shoopuffs and the Hypello that raise them. It used to end up in the delta and specialized creatures were there to ingest the waste and renew the soil with it. One day, those things went extinct. I'm somewhat at a loss on the history, but Guadosalam was built there to compensate."
"But that city was only built to show the magnificence of human technology. That's why the city was built-up on flimsy bridges across the width of the Moonflow." I argued, noting what Wakka told us that day on the Shoopuff, just before Rikku helped the Al Bhed kidnap me.
Shuyin smirked slightly, "Really, and here I thought Yevon's teachings were lost on you, lady summoner. It's true, the city of Guadosalam was built on top of the Moonflow. However… flimsy bridges? How unfortunate for Spira's future not to have learned enough Physics to know about structural integrity. Guadosalam was supported on dense expanses that could have supported the weight of a city three times the size. I'm sorry, Yuna, but all these ideas you've had and been taught about the past are misinformed."
Well, he was pretty sure of himself. Rikku's always trusted machina. Actually, I trusted both airships I'd ridden in and Home itself, which was nothing more than a miniature machina city on its own. Still, I lived nineteen years of my life knowing the horrors of machina cities. They couldn't all be "folklore" as Shuyin so kindly stated.
"Yunie, don't let it bother you so much. We all learned our lesson two years ago that Yevon's teachings was a bunch of poopie." Rikku told me, patting my on the shoulder before hopping over to stand by the man she'd grown so attached to.
"Enough chitting and chatting. Mission time is on still going. Be getting to work now Gullwings!" Brother yelled from our communicators.
"SORRY!" We all shouted together, all of us jumping into the muddy water.
Shuyin seemed right at home, even in such murkiness. Almost like our sphere hunting mission was a blitz game, he waved for us to split into two groups. Rikku and he would go down to the lower levels of the city, being the stronger swimmers they were, while Paine and I would search closer to the surface, in case we lost track of time and needed to get to the surface in a hurry. Part of me wanted to go with Shuyin instead, knowing that with Rikku alone with him, she could be in danger. What better alibi would he have than running into trouble down there and Rikku running out of air? Being a professional blitzer, he could argue that his breath lasted long enough while Rikku drowned and all he could do was get her body back to the surface, something he could definitely use to solidify his case with us. A murderer would dump the body, but a friend would try to preserve anything he could. The worst knowledge about this is that his idea did still make sense. Rikku knew more about diving into the depths than either Paine or I. The two of them should be able to stay down longer than we. I had to let Rikku go with him and hope that she was ready should Shuyin try anything.
Paine and I searched the roofs of each tower the submerged, ruined city contained and for the first hour, no results…
"Yuna, you know, looking for a sphere sometimes involves actual searching through the area, not just staring at where you last saw Rikku." Paine grunted.
"Oh, sorry!" I replied.
I guess I didn't even notice it. I just worried for my cousin. As much as Shuyin hurt me before, I hadn't been possessed by him. How hard must it have been to cope with that. Paine undoubtedly remembers. Nooj has yet to talk about it. Baralai is far more diligent in his New Yevon duties after that event. What was Rikku's take? When I was about to gain the Final Aeon and lose my life like all past defeaters of Sin, she became depressed. Since then, I've noticed that she's been following up on her goal of being more like Lulu and hiding her feelings to stay more focused. In my opinion, she was too young to know how to really do that. I'm nineteen and I can't hide all my emotions. Rikku's only seventeen. What does she know about containing her feelings?
Suddenly, Paine rushed over with her communicator out, "It's Rikku!"
I quickly took the communicator, "Rikku? What's wrong?"
"Come quick! Yunie, the column snapped! Shuyin and I are trapped down here!" My fears have been realized…
Author's Notes: -gasp- So what's to become of our lovely SRP? Will Yuna trust in Shuyin after this fiasco? Will Shuyin and Rikku be alright? Is Yuna right: is this a mere trick of Shuyin's to off one of the infamous YRP that defeated him only months before? Find out next time!