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: No reviewers for me again? *sulks in Den of Woe* :(
Well, in any event, the next segment to the story will feature that impending battle from last time, but will cover some foreshadowing of things to come, though that may only play out much later. ;)
Spira: The Eternal Discord
Chapter 27: Two-Front
Yuna
Following the fight with an out of control Shuyin came yet another battle, though with his alter ego. Whatever happened with Shuyin, though, it seemed to have helped in bringing him out of his solitude. It would seem losing himself to his rage showed him what he had already been doing to himself lately and Rikku allowed him to see that he was not alone as he thought. Still, there was something else…
"Yuna, heads up!" He said, the former dream vision of the fayth.
Flipping, he sliced apart the ice block that the fiend was about to crush me with. I had lost my concentration. Paine and Rikku had already gone to engage it, spherechanged to Berserker and Samurai respectively. I noticed Shuyin stall at seeing Paine's choice, but made nothing more of it and quickly changed to Floral Fallal to cut the battle short.
While his creature attacked, Dark Shuyin would lose himself to the heat of battle and bound for us, first slicing at Rikku to push her off balance for the Byakko's claw swipe, then to my love to trade blows before taking advantage of a flunge, using the Brotherhood as a step to get to Shuyin. Shuyin would quickly deflect the next low horizontal cut and they would trade off while the rest of us remained on Byakko.
"Yunie, can you use a Great Whirl to put it up in the air? I have an idea!"
Nodding, I used my attack on it just as a barrage of icicles were to come my way and, as Rikku requested, focused the swirling particles to push the fiend up into the air. Rikku, too, ended up riding the current and it was soon after I understood her plan. The Byakko had a thick hide of flowing ice coating and replacing typical fur. Its underbelly, however, was only covered by the thinner undercoat, which my cousin wanted to exploit. It was difficult with the fiend in attack mode as it stayed low to the ground in a pouncing position. When she was close enough, she attempted Zantetsu and extended her sword. The creature grew wise to her intentions, though and spread an aura of cold around itself. Coupled with my wind attack, this created a blizzard and disoriented Rikku while covering her weapon and armor in thick frost.
"Owwie… Well, it was worth a shot." Rikku said, rubbing her bottom after she landed.
"I didn't think something Dark Shuyin would throw at us could be that simple to beat." I replied with a light smile.
Paine came next, distracting the fiend by crawling all over it, biting and scratching at anything she could. She tried a great many of Berserker's arsenal of crippling abilities, but sadly, with the powers of Shiva, the power of an Aeon, it wasn't going to be afflicted by any of them. Seeing an opening, Rikku lunged and embedded her katana into the Byakko's side, but that only enraged it and created another cold aura. Both her katana and Paine herself were frozen and Rikku's armor was doing poorly already.
"Rikku, spherechange now!" I yelled, using the Tough Leaves ability of my right pistil to aid our resistance against the ice-based attacks of the tiger.
"Right!" She returned, going Alchemist to help Paine.
Before she could use any of the capsules, Byakko attacked, knocking the gun from her hand and bounding after her. My love would step in and counter with his Spiral Cut to send the creature reeling, but it would return fire with a rain of icicles, destroying the gun and forcing both of them to duck and cover. In the middle of that assault, I intercepted with Heat Whirl, melting what I could and using the flames to surround us in a ring of fire, hopefully to buy time from the fiend.
"We have to get to Paine!" I said, but I would be too late.
Byakko's sheer cold smothered the flames by freezing the grass that allowed them to burn. Its eyes glowed a bright cerulean and the aura only spread further, coating the petals of my own dressphere in frost. Burdened by the weight and loss of integrity, Floral Fallal began to crumble and lose its hover capability. I detached myself from it, but it would strike then, sending me a few yards away and slightly paralyzed from its chilling touch against my skin.
"Yuna!"
Slice and Dice held off the Byakko from attacking me further, but it was still no permanent answer to our problem and the water properties of Brotherhood only greatened the risk of another broken weapon. I warned him to spherechange, too, and he activated his own Samurai dressphere having always favored his swordplay to anything else. The slightly more advanced special abilities of the Samurai helped him somewhat, but no sword was going to beat a creature forged by a swordsman with as much experience as Shuyin's shadow. It was predictable that he would've created safeguards for it like the ability to freeze the blades.
Taking time to catch my breath, I turned my attention to the other battle taking place. Shuyin was having a likewise difficult time besting his other, both of them matching move for move, with only differing styles being their distinguishing trait. While our Shuyin was much more flowing in his attacks, the shadow maintained the same harsh quick bursts that he'd used when the Gullwings took him on last time. Eventually, Shuyin was overpowered by the mad swings and near constant Overdrives he was capable of. However, unlike the struggle we had with him, Shuyin recovered each time and seemed almost to draw upon the relentless strikes, taking them, moving past them tired as he was, but retaliating each time.
Meanwhile, my love's chosen dressphere was bested and he took to Dark Knight, bearing smooth armor in contrast to our rough and jagged versions. His seemed to conform in the form of his body, seeping into each crevice to give him the most maneuverability for one dressed in heavy armor. The Brotherhood was also changed, though it was warped into something closer to our outfits. The exaggerated blade tore into the Byakko, but even that wasn't enough. Eventually the fiend altered its aura, opting for liquid cold to not only freeze the armor by degrees, but also corrode it until my love could barely move. It was then that it finally unleashed Diamond Dust, or rather its version of it, a tremendous blizzard with swirling winds and blankets of snow and hail. Once the assault was complete, I saw him frozen even worse than Paine. Rikku had recovered by then, but was still feeling the effects of the previous rain of ice. She managed to reach me for what it was worth. Two of us were down, Rikku was hurt, I was still unable to fully move from Byakko's potent frost, and Shuyin was otherwise occupied. Of course, then the fiend came after us.
With me and Rikku both unable to make any move to defend ourselves, I worried it could end there. Shuyin was knocked down, as well, finally tiring enough for the shadow to overcome his guard. The battle seemed bleak and our likely outcome was starting to seem clear.
"No! Don't hurt Yunie!" Rikku screamed, darting between me and the Byakko when it finally came close enough for a physical attack.
The creature's massive claw tore into the weak Alchemist wear and threw my cousin a few yards away, knocking her unconscious as blood slowly seeped out of her wounds.
"Rikku!" I shouted, reaching out for her, but unable to get to her.
At the same time, I heard her name from afar and looked to see Shuyin kick his alter ego into the creature, followed closely by a variation on his Force Rain overdrive. He rushed to Rikku's side immediately, checking her wounds to see how severe they were. I saw that he was shaking with anger at seeing the blood staining his glove, and then he would stand and finally reach for The End. Looking at it, he took a few breaths, but returned it to his pocket with a frown. He still can't bring himself to use it. Moving his sword to attack position, he lunged for the Byakko just as it recovered, shrugging the shadow off of it. Just like before, sword attacks weren't doing much against its thick and icy hide. However, Shuyin's sword was doing slightly more than any of ours had. His strikes were chipping pieces of the frosty fur and it seemed that was due to being fueled by Rikku's injury. Shuyin was angry, which made him more powerful. Likewise, it made him much more like his dark half. I could see it in his eyes, sense it surrounding him, and it frightened me.
"Shuyin, I don't think the swords are working on it! You need to spherechange!" I suggested, hoping a new class would calm him down.
Unfortunately, he ignored me, taking to his reckless striking. Eventually, this turned to calculated maneuvering as the Byakko reused the cold aura that had stopped us all before. Shuyin was slowed, but still attacking with his rage boiling inside to keep him moving. Soon, he found his way onto the fiend's back and pushed his weapon straight through its skull, tearing it out from the left side of its jaw.
Afterward, the fiend collapsed and Shuyin flipped toward me, saying when he landed, "Are you alright?"
"Yes, the effects are slowly wearing off. How is Rikku?"
"She'll be fine. Her wounds are shallow, but she'll need time to recover. When you can move again, see if you can get her to the airship. I'll go deal with the shadow."
Looking behind him, my eyes widened, "I think there's something else you'll need to worry about."
The fiend stood back up, its dangling jaw slowly freezing and pulling itself back in place. The broken pieces of its coat began to loosen and it shook all of them off itself as icy particles and powder snow. Its new coat was much more spiky and rough, almost crystalline in structure than it had been before.
Shuyin looked and growled, "That's it! You asked for it!"
Finally, Shuyin took hold of the Garment Grid I had given him and looked at the dresspheres it held. I had placed Berserker on it along with Dark Knight and Psycher for strength, but I also made sure to keep Black Mage on it, too, being the first dressphere he ever used. He smiled upon seeing it and activated that spherechange. A white light enveloped him and turned to streams of violet and black light, wrapping themselves around him to produce a pitch-black trenchcoat with matching black pants. The darkness of the clothing seemed to move as if there was a presence within them. The dressphere also manifested a slate shirt with ancient glyphs glowing against its surface. As it completed, Shuyin hovered before me, pockets of magic crackling at his fingertips.
"Now, let's see what I remember of Jurama's wrath." He growled.
"Fire element should work on it, but my Heat Whirl didn't seem effective."
"No, this is one of its creations. No doubt it put some of our resistances into the Aeon-fiend's creation. I think I'll need to step up the game." He noted, glancing at Dark Shuyin who seemed intent on simply watching the battle.
"Oh, look at you go. Got it in one, too; I'm impressed." It said.
Shuyin began casting Flares at the creature, the tremendous power of the spells searing straight through the frozen hide. Byakko, in desperation, unleashed its overdrive again. Swirls of high winds, hail, and snow covered the area, shrouding Shuyin from my sight, though I was caught in the maelstrom myself. In the distance, I made out flashes and realized it was Shuyin who had continued the Flares through the overdrive. Before long, the storm died down and a dying Byakko whimpered before exploding into pyreflies.
"Applause all around for the wonderful effort." The shadow beamed, clapping his hands.
Without saying anything, Ultima was cast against him, followed by a couple of Flares. Once it recovered, it laughed and faded into a stream of pyreflies and Shuyin returned to me.
"Let's get Rikku and the others to the airship." He said, offering me a hand and covering me in the heat of Fire to melt away my paralysis.
Together, we thawed out the two and Shuyin took hold of Rikku while using his apparently advanced Black Magic to lift the others. We began walking toward the Travel Stop and I contacted Brother to locate us via the tracker and land. Before we could get to him, though, another cloud of pyreflies suddenly bubbled from the ground to form another figure.
"My my." A sinister voice mired from behind, "What passion. Much like that interview after out big game, eh Shuyin?"
When we turned, Areth was there to greet us, his smile eerily showing both disdain and affection for us. Shuyin was about to react when Areth put up a hand to stop him, pyreflies flying all around us to show that Areth was there to show us something rather than fight. From what I'd seen of him, he was far less outwardly violent as Shuyin's darkness, though just feeling the pyreflies told me he didn't have any true benevolence to his unsent unrest. The pyreflies began changing the sky to night and the Calm Lands into a strange area very similar to the sphere of Zanarkand I saw during my pilgrimage.
"What was going through your head when Areth performed your father's technique?" A voice rang out from behind.
Shuyin and I both turned to see a crowd of people hovering over two that were hidden from view. Shuyin seemed to recognize it immediately, as well as the other group of people when he knowingly turned to his left. I could tell one face in the new group once I was alerted to their presence. Areth was among them, dressed in different attire.
"Does this mean that the Super Shot really isn't all that invincible?" Another one of the first crowd asked.
"What is this? Memory lane for you? Unlike you to replay your failures, Areth." Shuyin suddenly spoke, turning back to the unsent.
"It's been a long time. I've had a change…" He began, walking over to his own image, "… for the better, though, I assure you."
"I'm sure. So why this scene? You like ogling my girl's cute whimper at your city's crazed pack of vultures?" Shuyin mused.
I turned to look into the crowd and sure enough, I did see Lenne cowering next to a much gentler Shuyin who was tending to her while fending off the crowd. She was beautiful and he was very sweet, his soft eyes gazing lovingly at her while she strayed as far as she could from them.
"Vultures? I think you'd be honored. They were actually paying a common street rat attention." Areth's voice sounded so far away.
"Well, the street rat did do quite a number on your face, didn't he?" The macho insult trades began to die down to my ears as I paid more attention to the scene showing before me.
"This… is Lenne." He said, introducing her after another one of them asked who she was.
His gaze was completely different from how he'd looked at me, even now that he had been given a second chance. There was an innocence to him, the same innocence I felt buried deep inside of him when he told me about having lost it in his youth. My love had told me that losing his Zanarkand had threatened to change him, as well, but he was brought back by his first friendship with Rikku, then meeting the rest of us. Shuyin had had his friends, too, and Lenne was there to keep him so pure and wonderful, but they were taken from him and resulted in this… I could've cried for him then if he'd have let me.
Instead, before I could see any more, an Ultima flew into the crowd and dispersed the pyreflies as Shuyin's extended hand fumed from spell use. Why wouldn't he let me see? Why did he resent what Areth had done?
"Cool it, ace. Only here to chat for now. You think I'd give up my brother's vengeance so easy?"
Shuyin wouldn't respond to the comment, instead keeping his gaze on me from the corner of his eyes. What was wrong? Why did he want to hide the man he was, the one that I had hoped could return and give him a real life again?
"Are you there, oh ancient one?" Areth continued, snapping him fingers.
"What do you want?" Shuyin plainly answered, turning his gaze back on the unsent.
"I want what I've always wanted. I want the world to see you for who you really are, not the bright shining star you've shielded yourself behind." Areth explained, "I want to give my brother his justice."
"Shuyin is done making up his past already!" I screamed, moving in front of him with extended arms as if to protect him from the unsent.
"Oh no no no. He's far from ready to do that." Areth snickered, looking down.
When he looked back up at us, the smile was back and I visibly shuddered. What was it about him? He seemed to epitomize hidden agenda and I had only thought Shuyin was capable of so much apprehension. This was Shuyin's enemy from his past? Maybe there was a part Areth played in turning Shuyin into the monster the shadow now represented. Pyreflies covered him and the unsent was gone in a flash, leaving behind only a shiny shard. Walking over to pick it up, I noticed that it looked like a piece of a sword, though the engraving on it was ancient. What did it mean?
"Let's get these three back to the airship." Shuyin said, having already turned to board the craft that was landing.
Shuyin…
Author's Note: Areth's unsent mission has been revealed, though Shuyin seems to have a strange attitude towards things. Has his will to live on altered his previous convictions and his willingness to accept his past ill deeds? Also, Yuna seems to show genuine concern. In previous chapters, Yuna showed that she could be a kindred spirit to the former unsent despite how much Shuyin had wanted to stray. Rikku had been his newfound heart. Might Yuna be his newfound soul?
And beyond that, just where is this story going? =o