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 Note: Well, I remember a few readers said this story wasn't as action filled as my last, but that should change. There's just some ground I needed to cover so uneventful chapters were necessary. Also, this story isn't about a war like Eternal Love was, but even so, you've got me writing it and I'm not one to make uneventful stories. ;) Worry not, my readers. There be action yet.
To RidRX: Well, if you make a profile, you can add me to author alerts and it'll e-mail you automatically with updates no matter what. Wow for how much you read all at once. I've known a few of my readers to have done that. You know who you are. =P I love you lot for that.
On Auron, well, you never know. I mean, last chapter, I had habbo thinking of a Yuna betrayal. Right now, anything could happen. =P
On Vegnagun, again, never know. Actually, if I remember Int/Last Mission right, Shinra has some details with Vegnagun that might may want to add to this story so you just might see it in this one. Not sure which ultimate form you mean, though, but if you meant Seymour's Omnis form, I think I'll be including that somewhere later. If you meant Vegnagun, I'd believe you mean the cannon thing. Again, you never know. =P Cannon fodder Shinra. *snicker* habbo might like that one. She's got Strongest Shinra jitters.
By wyvern thing, I'm thinking Valefor, but Valefor wouldn't make for a good final battle, me thinks. Still, I did like the scenario I had for Valefor versus the Gullwings so we might get that going, too.
For finding Lenne and such, habbo actually made a similar comment so I'll just put those two together under her:
To habbo: Lenne appearing? Probably somewhere down the road. Your This Moment characters? (.net/s/2568837/1/) Never! MWAA!!! Anima's gonna play a good role for a while, though i don't intend on making another FFX. As always, i do intend to make mentions of certain bits from the game. There are a few more things that haven't been elaborated on in the fanfics I've read and the games themselves and so, it gives me a unique opportunity to bedazzle you lot with more story. =P
On that one, a few characters and devices from the game and my stories are probably making a comeback with some different roles. Anyway, for the future. For now, we've got Gagazet, a crazy formerly dead, formerly honourable, always sinister and lovable Maester, a hostage situation, and lots of nostalgia. =D Let's see what you guys get out of it.
Spira: The Eternal Discord
Chapter 14: Gagazet Rendezvous
Rikku
"If you'll excuse me." Shuyin mumbled, hopping off the Celsius without warning.
What happened? It was such a slow going already and just because that meanie Seymour came back, shouldn't make us point fingers at Shuyin. He came back on his own and he kept lingering on what he did, how he didn't really belong, and he was totally awkward about the new life he was given. I knew he could talk and I knew he was very crazy back then, but I couldn't believe he wasn't being real with us. Paine could vouch for that; I'm sure of it. Out of all of us, Paine was the one with the most to hate Shuyin for and she showed it. I'm sure she just wanted to let the guy go once we stopped him from using Vegnagun. It must have been so hard for her to see him back and with a new lease on life to boot. Still, the two of them struck some weird warrior deal or whatever it was that kept her from stabbing him in his sleep. Now, just because that poopiehead of a Maester had to come back, everybody was unsure of him again.
Shuyin's dumber half took off right after, hopefully focusing on Seymour like he'd been told to. Meanwhile, a Multi-Firaga struck the engines of the Celsius and Paine called for evasive maneuvers. Brother wasn't the best at piloting under fire, but he did the best he could. I looked to Yunie just as she nodded to Paine. The Celsius couldn't handle so much punishment as, even Shuyin told me, it was meant for cargo transportation and reconnaissance, so the three of us needed to go help the two blitz aces.
"Y!" Yunie started off.
"R!" I continued, running to the edge of the airship, taking Paine's hand while I was at it.
"P!"
We made the drop together, Paine spherechanging to Full Throttle to propel the three of us down. I changed to Gunner and both Yunie and I began firing at Anima and its terrible master, preventing them from making any moves. While we were at that, Shuyin had already landed and was taking Seymour's attention off us along with his double. The two of them seemed to be working well together, their sword skills forcing Seymour to cast lots of protective White Magic on himself. When Paine landed, Yunie went right away to help them. I noticed nearby the two unconscious bodies of ronso slumped next to each other further up, towards where Seymour was headed. One had blue fur while the other was a black ronso so I knew it must have been Kimahri and Garik. Seymour had gotten to them sooner than we could and already managed to knock them out. I began telling myself to concentrate since even if I was worried about Kimahri, I couldn't let myself forget about the mission. Anima needed to be taken care of first.
"Rikku, can you distract it long enough for me to get in my Fiers?" My partner asked of me as she used Fright to slow Anima, to minimal effect.
"No problem! Berserker should do!" I answered, firing a few shots to get the Dark Aeon's attention.
It launched a Pain at me, but I managed to divert it to one of my pistols, spherechanging to Berserker before getting in a Howl attack to prepare for my next move. It attacked again, but in my current dressphere, I was very quick. Within moments, I was ready to hit it with Hurt. Using my speed, I climbed behind it and used the dressphere's Hurt ability to put a serious hurting on Anima.
After I was done, Paine let me know that her attack was all charged, too. I swiftly leapt back to the ground as Full Throttle gave the Aeon another spanking. We figured that was it for it, but Seymour managed to cast Protect on it, halving the damage for his creature before taking his attention back to the dual blitzers. Yuna took her attention off him and was already in Dark Knight form, casting Demis and Drains on Anima to get its attention.
Nodding over to me, she ordered, "Rikku, get to Kimahri and Garik! I think I saw Kimahri waking up!"
I looked over and saw that Kimahri was slowly getting up, shielding Garik from the fight. Dashing over there, I saw that Garik's horn was broken. Poor guy. When Kimahri became Ronso Elder, Garik wasn't satisfied with his leadership in dealing with the guado. Eventually, Gagazet's voice told him his vengeance for what they did two years ago was wrong and he let go of it for the moment. It was obvious that Seymour showing up would make his hate come right back up. Now, he was in the same situation as Kimahri; a broken horn was bad for a ronso. It symbolized weakness for them.
"How could you!" I screamed at Seymour, going into Berserk mode.
As I stormed to him, Paine left Yuna with Anima, her wings let out a Venom Wing and Steel Feather attack on the Maester while Shuyin and his other self kept him busy dodging and casting protective spells. Getting near him, I circled to find a good opening then let him have it with both my claws, scraping a good chunk off his back. He flinched and Shuyin took advantage, but Anima got the drop on him, using a Firaga to send him a safer distance away. Kimahri started using Lancet on him, but that only got our buddy some way unneeded attention. Surprisingly, Seymour recovered from my attack very quickly and got back to Kimahri. Since he hadn't been adventuring lately, Kimahri wasn't as strong as he used to be and a single Multi-Blizzaga knocked him back off his feet, leaving both of them prey for the guy.
"Kimahri!" Yunie shouted, leaving Anima to face Seymour.
The situation wasn't pretty. Seymour held Kimahri and Garik behind him, threatening to use his Requiem spell, something much stronger than the Ultimas we knew how to make. After being beat up that much, it could do really serious damage to Kimahri and Garik so nobody made a move. Our blitzers were definitely showing how mad they were about it, the both of them clenching their swords and growling. Paine was fidgeting with her wings, not knowing if she could make a move without Seymour noticing and taking it out on the ronso.
"Seymour, don't do this." Yunie finally spoke up, holding her hands up to her heart, "If you want revenge, take it from me, not Kimahri and Garik. They've done nothing to you!"
"Oh, but my dear, he did or have you forgotten the lance he stabbed me with?" That was that meanie's response.
I growled this time, "You were already an unsent by then! And you were trying to kill us! What did you expect?"
To that, he just gave me an evil grin, "My my, feisty are we? Well, attack? I'm not forcing you not to, am I?"
The Requiem in his palm started glowing brighter, meaning it was ready and was just waiting to be released. Everybody gasped, but Seymour smiled at us and made it dimmer. It was just a feint. He wanted us to be scared so we wouldn't make a move.
"Now I have you, every last one. Anima! Pain!" He commanded.
I had to run. Unlike Yunie and Paine, all I had was my speed to keep me safe from it. Yunie's guy was also running scared like me, but Shuyin just blocked the attacks with his sword, eying Seymour as he did so for any chance of getting Kimahri and Garik to safety. We were all scattered, but I knew Shuyin had the right idea. If something could just distract Seymour long enough, I could get in there and save them both. First things first, I spherechanged back to Thief and kept dodging the Pain bursts. Almost knowing my plan, Shuyin began giving me a lot of cover, his eyes suggesting that I should keep my eyes on our target while he kept his watch over me. Everybody else was struggling to fend off Anima while still distracted by the hostage problem.
Thankfully, I noticed Garik coming to, but worried about what his first reaction might be, especially with his horn broken. I tried to get his attention, but without also getting Seymour's was hard. With a little luck, our good blitzer buddy stumbled near Seymour just in time and I threw a pebble at Garik to make him look at me. With his eyes set on me, I signaled for him to get Seymour off of us, more specifically off of me. He seemed to understand and waited until he knew Seymour was paying too much attention to the others to hit him with his own Lancet ability. With Seymour turning his attention to them, I quickly got in there and used Master Thief on him, knocking him for a loop while I got Kimahri and Garik away from him. Yunie took notice of that and capitalized on the move by sending Darkness at the Maester, stopping him from hitting me in the back with the overdrive.
"Thanks Yunie!" I waved to her, letting Garik take Kimahri to safety before getting back to the fight.
"Paine, Full Throttle's good, but it's too slow for Seymour. Get out of it!" Yunie told her, standing guard for her while a wave of Thundagas came their way.
Paine nodded and went to Dark Knight also, knowing that anything else was dangerous with Anima around. I decided that was a good idea and changed to Dark Knight myself. While the three of us took on the Aeon, Shuyin and his twin went in for Seymour. Unfortunately for him, I think Seymour knew we'd try that and had boosted Anima, making it quicker to respond than our Dark Knight armor could let us react. It knocked each of us off our feet before assaulting Shuyin with its overdrive. Before I could even get up, I watched him sinking into the ground.
"No!" I screamed, struggling back to my feet.
Meanwhile, the other him was dealing with tons of Black Magic, too much to get near the Maester. Taking a chance, I went back into Thief and hit him with a sweep kick. The two of us took on Seymour, but I kept thinking about Shuyin. How was he doing with Oblivion? Anima was one of the strongest Aeons Yunie ever used and it was really hard to fight it the last time we had to fight it in Macalania Temple. That was a bad idea, not to keep my head in the fight because I didn't have a whole lot of protection in my current dressphere. I was lucky that Seymour's Requiem dissolved before he could make use of it, but he still had an Ultima up his sleeve. Sure I got away from the major damage, but the ripples of Black Magic were still strong enough to take me out of the fight.
Soon after I fell, my partner faded, too, taking way too many hits with the Multi-spells. They eventually broke through his defense and then Seymour only needed a good Thunder to conk him out. Yunie took over then, but leaving Anima only made me worry even more. The overdrive usually didn't last this long so I was hoping they'd beat it soon and get Shuyin back. Realizing that Dark Knight was also too slow for Seymour's magic, Yunie spherechanged to Black Mage. For every spell Seymour used, Yunie countered with the element it was weak to. That let Paine have time to keep up her attack on Anima.
"A duel of the mystic arts, m'lady? You shall discover I've had much more practice with malevolent magics than you." Seymour grinned.
"That might be true, but I was a High Summoner, too. My goal was to rescue people from Sin. Yours was to destroy them with it. That alone means I can't let you come back to this world. You were sent to the Farplane. You should've stayed there." Yunie answered, a pretty confident statement, wouldn't you say?
Seymour was out of it for two years. In that time, we took on a guy who was way worse than he could ever be and my cousin started getting a voice of her own. She didn't need guardians anymore. She was her own person and even grew to be a strong leader, taking us all the way to the Farplane's heart to stop Spira's next threat. What was Maester Seymour to that? All he could do was hope and pray that Sin would absorb him so he could use its power for what he wanted. Yunie didn't need a crutch like that. In the end, Seymour was nothing more than an annoying pest during her pilgrimage. He was just the little fly that we eventually swatted and sent.
Still, his spellcasting was pretty good and I knew the Black Mage didn't have as much mana as it could. Just by enduring, Seymour outlasted Yunie and, when her magic ran out, he hit her with his strongest spells. Before she was down and out, though, Yunie changed to Alchemist and planted a Mega Phoenix, instantly getting everybody back up. Then, she followed up with a Mega Potion and we were fighting strong.
"Shouldn't underestimate your fiancé like that, good Maester. She's full of clever stunts like that." Yunie's guy commented, eagerly revving for a second go.
That's when the best part of our fight happened. Anima suddenly lurched and seemed to be in pain. Paine stood there just as awestruck as the rest of us since she hadn't done anything to have caused that kind of reaction. Without warning, Anima gave a horrified wail as light flooded through its mouth. The light grew wider, sucking pieces of the Aeon into its force. As more and more of it dissolved, we could begin seeing a shape inside the light. It looked like it was holding something up and the light was actually coming from it. A short bit later, the light began to die down and, as we looked on, Shuyin appeared, lowering his sword.
"Huh, Dark Aeon." He sneered, giving a sly glare to Seymour.
I couldn't believe it and I definitely showed it, but I also knew we had a baddie to beat so even with that display of cool, there was more to do. Shuyin immediately took off for Seymour who went back to the magical strikes. They were not much of a match for Shuyin's speed and sword, though, and it was worse on Seymour when the other blitzer joined in. Yunie and Paine also added to the one-sided battle, but that was a mistake. From the long struggle, Seymour had enough time to charge another overdrive and finally hit everybody with Requiem. Shuyin was saved when Yunie whacked him away with the butt of her gun, but I thought about our next tactics. A face-off was getting us nowhere. We could use a guerrilla tactic and that was my specialty in my current dressphere. Looking up, I could see that Seymour was near a ledge. If I could get there while Shuyin kept up his attacks, I could get the drop on him.
Turning my attention back to them for a second, I saw that Seymour finally got his staff out, using it to block the very ferocious saber strikes. It was pretty effective against Shuyin, too, since you could easily spot how much fighting Anima during its Oblivion had tired the guy. His slashing was getting slower and he looked exhausted while Seymour was going strong, what with being a master at Black Magic. The piles of spells were draining on Shuyin, which meant I needed to get up to that ledge fast.
"Don't tell me the terror of Zanarkand is nothing more than this quivering mass." Seymour taunted, pelting Shuyin with another Flare.
"Heh, just haven't caught my second wind is all."
"Or could it be you were never a worthy opponent without your powers in death."
"You think wrongly of me, oh dear Maester. I've had my fair share of victims back in the day. Tough luck, there aren't any old records of the war. You could check my stats." He corrected, lazily whipping his weapon only to be blocked by the staff.
"While you fended off humans and machina, our generation dealt with Sin itself. We're survivors, you see. I was a survivor."
"That is until you met Yuna and co. Then, you sure didn't survive too well."
"Alas, it would seem both our ambitions fell before love." Seymour threw another Multi-Thundaga at Shuyin after saying that.
The war-faring blitzer only gave a huff, "Love didn't do anything for you. You didn't care for Yuna. That guy over there, he cared. All you thought about was taking her as a tool. Unless, of course, you were speaking on Sin, but loving a stinking mass of centuries old carcasses begs the attention of psychotherapy."
Seymour didn't take too kindly to that remark and threw another multi at the guy. Tired as he was, he didn't notice the Ultima Seymour had waiting in his hand. After getting in another stroke with his sword, Seymour pulled in and planted the spell right into him. Sure enough, that was it for the guy, but I was in position. When the spell finished and Seymour began gloating over his victory, that when I dropped from my perch, landing right squat on his shoulders as I took the momentum I got to jam both my daggers into his neck.
"Rikku!" Shuyin gasped.
Pulling the weapons out of him, I twisted, locking my legs, and pulled back into a handstand, using my legs to throw Seymour right off the side of the mountain. When I landed, I could still hear his scream echoing while he fell, garbled by the blood that must've been flooding into his mouth.
"Rikku…" Shuyin gasped again, struggling to pick himself up.
"Did I do good?" I asked, going over to help him up.
"Well, that's one way to solve a problem."
"Though, if I remember right, there's a few other problems still to deal with." Paine started, helping Yunie up.
She was right. Now that I killed him, Seymour had the chance to come back as an unsent again. An unsent Seymour was even more annoying than a living patricidal one. And he still didn't give us back Lulu or Wakka. I hoped they were alright.
"C'mon. We've got work to do." Shuyin stated, waving us back to the Celsius.
Author's Note: Did you think that was how it would go? Oh, but of course, that's not the end. C'mon. We all know Seymour better than that. He' s not exactly the bad that knows to take a hint. But, there are some differences this time. Keep reading to find out. ;)
So far, the reviews have me thinking you guys want to see as follows:
-Lenne and Shuyin finding Lenne and going all swoon, love, hugs, and kisses, etc..
-Seymour forms
-Seymour Aeons
-Vegnagun
Well, I'm not much for the gamble, but I tell you what, I think there's a good chance of all that coming in this story. =P Keep your eyes open for the latest!