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: Haha, two simple reviews, but I'm glad I haven't lost all of you lot just yet. =p Don't worry Haruka, like I said on my profile page, I'm back in this for another go and hopefully we'll get somewhere, but I doubt I can finish it even with this round. =\ It's humourous, but the story I originally intended to be a light follow-up to my true epic ended up taking far longer. Well, we'll get to the end eventually, but I'm also thinking to go another strategy. If it works out, I might be running at least two stories together. The idea is to give me more leeway to write so my muse isn't smothered by one story that a writer's block just happened to come upon. It should allow me to refresh my mind to update in a smoother fashion.
Speaking of which, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! 元旦快樂！明けおめことよろ！I finally had myself a small break and rested so I'm hoping I'm back with a fury. =)
Now to business: We last left off with a very confident Shuyin poised to make the final kill on his evil half. However, what ever happened to the Shuyin who was getting used to living in a primitive Spira? What ever happened to the Shuyin who was contemplating a new life? While many have overlooked it, one person has not. What new turns lie ahead and what impact might it have on this story's outcome?
Spira: The Eternal Discord
Chapter 23: Shadow's Vice
Rikku
Shuyin was worrying me. Since Djose, he had kept to himself, pacing back and forth across the airship, looking up information in the onboard database Shinra had built, and spending his other time alone on the deck. Currently, though I was standing at the lift offering him something to eat, he just stared at his sword, sharpening its blade. After a while, knowing I wouldn't be getting any reply from the guy, I put the tray of food down and went back down to the cabin where Yunie and Paine were. They were sitting idly at Barkeep's bar; my guess was that they were just pooped. Last time we were out in the field, Gippal's worry and Shuyin's rampage took us for a ride. It was exhausting and it wasn't as if anything was resolved in the end. Shuyin's darkness still escaped and, that its tactic was changing to survive instead of attack, it stole some of our friends, too.
"What's our next move?" Paine asked, though her tone made her sound more like she wanted to say, "Can I sleep now?"
"Same story, I guess. Shuyin's not going to give up until the shadow is taken care of and it isn't going to rest until it kills Shuyin." Yunie replied, also with a tone in her voice trying to say, "Would it be okay if we just let him go after it? I've had enough."
Taking a sigh and knocking those thoughts out of my head, I walked over to them and took a seat on the third stool. I couldn't really think of anything to say so I just took to staring up at the ceiling. My mind was stuck on what to do with Shuyin. I understood that we were closing in on the end, but he was becoming detached from us because of it, bent on getting to the end so much that I was scared of just what he'd do for it.
"Rikku, you're awfully quiet. Not like you." Paine suddenly murmured, tapping my arm with her elbow.
"I'm just sleepy." I told her, not really sure what I could say about what was bothering me anyway.
"That's not it." Yunie mumbled, getting off the stool to talk to me directly.
When she put both her arms on either side of me and leaned in, I knew there was no getting away from talking. It only added against me when Paine slid toward me, too. I shrunk a little, still not sure what I could really say about it. It was just concern for the guy. I wasn't looking for an intervention on him or anything.
"It's nothing serious and I am sleepy." I said, looking away as they leaned closer.
"Riiikku ish worriiied about sooomeooone." Barkeep answered them for me, coming in from the back to restock.
"Worried? Let's see, could it be a certain blonde blitzer?" Paine mused, leaning in even further, "And I don't mean Yuna's little friend."
"Don't tell me you two haven't been noticing his change." I blurted back, pushing Yunie back and getting up from my stool.
"I don't know. He seems the same to me." Paine answered.
"He's closed off. It's hard to tell what might be on his mind unless he tells you. He also doesn't want to trust us because of his past." Yunie added.
"He's so focused now. Can't you guys feel it? There was a time when he was ready to live his life again." I said, turning back to them.
"I think the recent events robbed him of his chance. Shuyin has it in his mind to be alone with this struggle and he's existed for so long, I don't think there's much that can change his mind." Yunie replied, getting flustered about it, too.
"Shuyin has a lot of demons to work through." Paine suggested, "The war changed him. Losing Lenne changed him. He might not be able to get it back and maybe he's already settled on giving up. I think he just wants to beat Dark Shuyin and be done with it."
"That's what I'm afraid of. I just don't want him obsessing…"
The loud blare of the speaker interrupted me and the following voice would silence my words completely, "Everyone to the bridge. Pyrefly anomaly detected. Over and out."
We rushed to the bridge where Shuyin was waiting with his twin, Brother, and Buddy. When they noticed our arrival, Shuyin immediately went to Brother's side, his presence alone making Brother speed up the airship. Buddy was busy helping the navigation due to the faster pace of travel so it was left up to the twin to tell us what was going on.
"We found a massive signal in Zanarkand. A lot of the pyreflies there are circling one area of the ruins. Shuyin thinks it might be the big bad again. If he's in Zanarkand, though, that makes our lives easier. Nobody really there to harm." He said.
"Well, unless you count the monkeys." I quickly added as a quip.
"It's there and we can end this where I'm sure it's vulnerable. There's only one reason it would go to Zanarkand." Shuyin stated, turning his attention back to Brother soon after.
The rest of the trip was quiet. Nobody wanted to say anything that might provoke Shuyin into being more serious. To be honest, he was starting to scare me like he did before, before when he was meant to scare people. He was falling back into a harsher personality that he was learning to overcome by having a new life. If I could do anything to bring him back to me, there wouldn't be any question that I would try, but the problem was that the only way looked to be killing his evil half. I knew that killing that part of him was what could save him, but at the same time, it could destroy him first.
By the time we got to Zanarkand, Shuyin had already placed himself at the ramp and jumped off the Celsius the first chance he had. The rest of them didn't follow, opting to exit once it had landed so it was up to me to keep up with the poopiehead and keep him out of trouble. This task was much more easy to say than actually get done. Shuyin was trained to be able to dodge soldiers on the warfront. Soon after, I gave up on finding him and went to find where I knew he had to be going.
"So where are the pyreflies going?" I asked them, walking back to the Celsius.
My answer came from behind, though, "I'd say that way."
Looking back, I saw Shuyin pointing over to a pile of rubble in the distance, blocking what looked like a cave. The pyreflies were slowly being drawn to the area, digging at the rubble and clearing our path. Together, the five of us went to the area, swarms of the little life-bearing creatures our companions. The monkeys we set up in the ruins to keep tourists away seemed to have left, too, but maybe they just didn't like the new visitor they had to play with. It could also have been the ruins themselves. Since Yunie's Pilgrimage, I'd been to the Zanarkand Ruins a few times, but every time it looked just like before. This time, besides the pyrefly fog, the ruins looked a little new. The worn gold designs and the fancy patterns that were faded and cracked seemed put together again and polished. The broken bits of road I was already used to walking on were smoother than I remembered. Finally, we reached the now cleared entrance to the cave, which looked like a storefront after the renovations.
"Araboth…" Shuyin immediately muttered, surveying the entire building.
"Araboth? What's that?" I asked him, jogging to his side.
"A bar. I guess my problem felt it needed a drink." He said, his hand fiddling with the guard of his sheathed sword.
"Shuyin…" I tried to ask, reaching a hand out to touch his shoulder.
"Let's get moving." He muttered, moving on at a swift pace.
The entire inside of the building was covering in pyreflies, thicker than even when we were in the Den of Woe. What was stranger, the temperature dropped every time I came in contact with one them and a feeling would come over me that I didn't like at all. The shadow really hated Shuyin and the pyreflies in the building were soaked in it and reacting badly. Still, there was something I was being reminded of, too. From what Shuyin had been saying, his dark self was running out of options so it was running scared. But if that was true, none of the pyreflies here were showing that. I was worried.
"What is this feeling?" Yunie whispered, walking up to me slowly, one of her arms held up across her chest.
"I think the pyreflies are being forced to show us what Dark Shuyin is feeling." I told her, touching the nearest wall coated in the creatures.
"No, that's not what I mean." She explained, "It's like I can hear someone laughing."
"Laughing?" Shuyin asked, walking back toward us.
"I'm getting that, too. I'm sensing glee from these pyreflies. Are we sure Dark you is really trying to hide from us?" The Blitz Ace said, scanning the area with his hand ready to equip Brotherhood at a moment's notice.
"At this point, I wouldn't say anything for sure." Shuyin responded, "The thing's psychotic, remember? Who knows what it actually makes of the situation, but I can tell you that it's running out of options so it can be gleeful all it wants. After I destroy every inch of it, I could care less what it's feeling."
We continued to search the area, but nothing new was happening. The same feeling of Dark Shuyin's scary happiness and the swarming pyreflies stayed the whole time. That's when I got near a broken and splintered slab somewhere in the middle of room. When I bumped into it with my arm, the pyreflies moving around on it rippled and I could see a wooden surface instead. It spread from that point slowly, eventually completing what looked like a bar counter. Paine was the first to notice what happened and came over to investigate with me. She made a small joke about respect points, but this time, I couldn't hide my worry over it. Why did they change? After a while, the pyreflies started rippling near the counter, too, and the entire room began turning into something else. Unlike the counter, the rest of the room began forming in spots. A spot on the floor went from rotted and giving way to undergrowth to a sparkling polished hardwood. Another area grew a table and some chairs. Part of the wall that was coming apart healed itself and even developed a few plaques.
Shuyin immediately noticed and went to look at each new piece of the room. Walking over to the plaques, he looked like he was reading them when his attention came to the counter in front of it and he ran a finger across it. He stopped when a stool sprouted in his way and he turned in to rest his elbows on the counter, eyes trained on the back wall that was now holding shelves with filled bottles. A small glass appeared where Shuyin was leaning and he made note of it before taking a deep breath.
Before I could approach him to ask him what was going on, I saw a fist materialize behind his head and screamed to warn him. Almost like he knew it was coming for him, he ducked and elbowed the air under the fist and it turned into someone's gut while Shuyin continued, grabbing the arm. He pulled it and lifted the now completely formed guy, and went to throw him, but his hand would get caught on something and pull down on him, bringing the guy with him. The guy landed hard on his throat and his body fell on top of him while his head was still stuck pinned to the ground. Shuyin, in the meantime, was wincing on the floor holding his wrist. Paine and Yunie went to check up on the guy so I went over to Shuyin.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, tending to the wrist.
"Yea, just memories catching up to me, literally. But why this? Why now?" He asked out loud, standing up and walking over to the guy.
"He's long gone." Paine said, confirming it by rolling the guy over.
Blood covered his face and kept bubbling out of his mouth. It was a gruesome sight, but he wasn't even real, right? He had come from thin air and Shuyin was so ready to counter the attack. But the area was starting to look like something I heard about before. Shuyin told me about a time in a bar when he made a terrible mistake. He said someone who shouldn't have died was killed and, in the end, that was what made him a vicious enemy.
"Areth…" Yunie suddenly muttered.
Areth, that was the guy! But why would Yunie mention him? Was Dark Shuyin trying to replay Shuyin's regrets here to try and weaken him? "Shuyin, do you think…" I tried to ask him.
"I hope this was to your liking." A gentle voice purred nearby.
A moment later, I felt something brush by my arm and when I looked, an arm shot out to pin me by the shoulders to the someone behind me. From the corner of my eye, I saw that a dagger was pointed at my neck.
"Areth!" Shuyin growled.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" My captor sweetly replied, moving his face closer to me.
"Let her go." Shuyin said, his eyes turning cold like his dark half.
"I remember when this one was a bit more torn up." Areth continued, taking the dagger away from my neck and pressing it against my navel.
"Rikku! You let her go now!" Yunie ordered, pointing her Twin Bees at us.
I only felt the guy snicker and his grip on my shoulders tighten. The dagger started sliding gently across my waist, stopping at the side. All three of the warriors gripped their weapons, but nobody could make a move. With my shoulders pinned by his arms, there wasn't anything I could do faster than it would take him to stab his dagger into me. We were at his mercy.
"How pitiful it is to see you like this." Areth mocked, "You should never have lost your killer instinct. It was the only way you stopped me before, the only way you got away from my Trista's Aeons."
"I didn't need much to beat her band of misfits and you were done before you started, Areth. What you tried showing me here is your own guilt." Shuyin noted, pointing the tip of his weapon at him.
"My guilt? I'm not the one that killed him in cold blood, if you…"
"Yea, your guilt, for all the lives you stole in his name."
"Then, I suppose one more won't do me much more harm, will it?" He hissed, pushing the dagger's tip into my skin.
"Aw, poor kid brother. You just can't admit it to yourself. It's adorable and it was quite necessary for this to work."
Before Areth to inquire what Shuyin was talking about, I suddenly felt the dagger falling away and his grasp on me loosen while he struggled. Rolling away quickly, I turned back to see the Blitz Ace trading blows with the guy. The two of them had worked it out because he knew Areth would be focusing on Shuyin most of all so he could sneak away if Shuyin could get enough of the attention on him by getting under Areth's skin, which he's really good at.
Yunie jumped right in blasting the unsent with Trigger Happy and Paine readied for an opening of her own. Shuyin stayed back, checking my injury with a frown before standing in front to protect me instead of fighting, too. I would have argued, but I knew it wasn't the time. Shuyin must have seen Kirin again and that was a scar Areth knew very well to exploit.
Unfortunately for our side, Areth's own fighting ability was very good, and none of them could really get the upper hand over him. Eventually, he got close enough to Yunie to slice apart the weapons, but the attack seemed to catch Shuyin's attention, too, because he noticeably stiffened from it. Paine would be knocked away, too, so it ended up a one-on-one between the dream of the fayth and his counterpart's old enemy.
"You're good, for a cheap copy." Areth sneered, locked in close quarters with him.
"Oh, I'm loaded with goodies."
"I'll bet. Hopefully, you don't have the same wretchedness." The unsent added, disengaging his weapon and disassembling it back into the pyreflies around us, "This round's done, but I'll be back. Hey Shuyin, catch you around, eh old friend?"
With the said, he also faded into a stream a pyreflies and led the rest out of the area, taking Araboth with it. I went over to Yunie and Paine to see if they were alright while the Blitz Ace went to check on Shuyin who just began walking back out of the now ruined building.
Author's Note: Haha, if you thought I was going to let him off that easy, you're wrong. It just wouldn't be FFX, more specifically, it wouldn't be an FFX-2 continuation without an emo Shuyin. Now that a new adversary has revealed itself, what could it mean for the gang? Does Areth have something to do with Shuyin's return to Spira? Is he working with the shadow? Just what can an unsent Areth do? Find out more next time! See ya then! ^_~