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: Aw, no reviewers this time around? Well, perhaps this Dark Shuyin arc has dragged on a bit too long, but that's fine since, rejoice, it is just about over! Can you guess what's going to happen next? That's right, the final battle against Dark Shuyin is upon us and there's going to be a brilliantly gruesome bout with none other than the king of all dragons named after a fish, Bahamut! And since this is my absolute favourite Aeon, it calls for a absolutely and gratuitously long battle sequence. Enjoy! =D

Spira: The Eternal Discord

Chapter 33: Last Stand

Shuyin

There was only one place the thing could go now and there was only one more Aeon left for him. From his ploy at calling me out as a white knight to his despicable act against Valefor, he had been drawing me closer, hoping that I would reawaken back to form and help him complete himself. I knew that he realized by now his failure, but there was something to his despair. Despair was my power back when I was an unsent. When I infused it into my victims, I had complete influence over their lives and manipulated everything for total control of anything I sought fit on Spira. What if I had lost that power? What if I could no longer guide the fates of the commoners?

"You're looking a lot better, Lady Summoner." I said, entering the med bay after the others.

After nodding to her and looking at Rikku, I took to the bridge and began reviewing the documents we had on all our encounters with the shadow, Areth, and even the former Maester. Every meeting held a specific significance to their personal history. All of them seemed to have similar goals, but those were really just hiding the underlying fact: They were all distracting us from the true conspiracy. Seymour's ploys of revenge and repeating old stunts only helped catch the others on a tour of their past dealings, keeping them from thinking apart. Meanwhile, having my nightmares taunting me with ills of old made it too difficult to concentrate on anything else except to deal with them.

"It makes advancing on it really troublesome, doesn't it?" A youthful voice stated from behind me.

Pulling down the file on Vegnagun that I was looking at, I turned to the prodigious Al Bhed boy and replied, "Yes, it does."

"You were able to tame it, though."

"I was."

"Records of its construction show that it had a drive that could charge its core weapons systems with the energy of the Farplane." He said, unveiling his actual intentions.

"Most of Bevelle's old war machines could. Although, actually, it was a potential energy transformer that captured pyreflies and converted the life potential of the little creatures into their weapons' firing capacity. We learned that those transformers were the first versions of energy plantations that were used to power our Machina Cities." I told him, curious to discover his motives.

"The Farplane's Energy is something that we could harness to power the next series of Machina Cities." He said.

"I guess they could, but do you think you can be responsible enough to handle the technology?"

"Responsible?"

"Every nuance in technology brings with it several drawbacks that must be looked after and improved upon. Nothing good can come without price." I told him, knowing enough not to tamper too much in the advancement of this modern Spira, but offering the boy a word of caution from Zanarkand's experience.

"You two look busy." Rikku said, announcing her presence.

"Ugh, more of that techno-babble." Gippal added, "E zicd lyh'd kad so rayt ynuiht ed."

"Maybe you're using the wrong head." Rikku noted, patting him on the shoulder.

"Fryd'c dryd cibbucat du sayh?" He retorted.

"She probably thinks you're saluting the wrong captain." I added, going back over to Shinra and showing him the Vegnagun diagnostics and operating systems data I found on the Fahrenheit's files, "Analyze this stuff for a while and see if you can come up with a work out how it functions."

"Where to next?" Buddy asked us, noticing that we had all assembled.

"We think Zanarkand." Rikku said.

"Zanarkand?" Yuna questioned, arriving then to take part, "Why Zanarkand?"

"He's out of Aeons and he's cornered. Where else could he go?" I told her.

"Yunie, are you sure you should be out of bed?"

"I'm fine. Areth didn't even try to hurt me. Really, all he did when he possessed me was tell me to calm down and that everything would be fine. Then, I lost consciousness." She explained to us.

"That's considerate of him." I noted, surprised myself.

"I don't think consideration was the point." She said.

"Neither do I." Nooj added.

Later on, the former Crimson Squad members began discussing their next moves outside of battle. Nooj decided that Areth would be left to us as he was now in charge of the youth of Spira, guiding Spira's future on their journey towards bettering their world. Gippal was free to remain as his own organization dealt with improving technologies on the planet from their Yevon-ordered conditions. This progress was slow and Gippal had agreed to a commercial approach in dealing with it, allowing the Al Bhed Rin to focus his wealth on innovations based on accumulating more wealth rather than keep to a conglomerate method. He felt that would allow advancements to come sooner and in greater abundance, having fueled other Al Bhed to rival Rin and compete for gil. At the moment, their weakest link seemed to be their comrade, Baralai, who had been focusing most of his resources on me as soon as he discovered my return. This brought questioning to his faction since the masses depended on his spiritual leadership in following the Yevon faith. This, became particularly important with the recent destruction of the Bevelle Tower. Many had started to believe there would be no end to the Spiral of Death that Spira seemed ensnared by. Paine suggested that Nooj appoint someone that the elders trusted to act in Baralai's stead, receiving his blessing first, which would allow the Praetor to continue his own agenda while not inhibiting the progress of New Yevon on Spira's hope.

"Maybe we should send you to Bevelle first, then." I said, looking over to him.

"Not yet. I want to see this through. I think you know why." He told me.

"Your funeral. How far from Zanarkand?" I said, asking the pilot after about our location.

"We're just coming over Bevelle now." He replied, opening a screen to show me the top view from the hull.

"Last chance." I told Nooj.

Loading his gun, he stepped over to me, then looked at the pilot, "Make haste."

"Aye aye, sir!"

"This girl couldn't help you in Kilika, but I reckon she'll do well in the ruins." Cid bellowed, walking up to us.

"You've given up on the tourists, I see." Rikku said, elbowing her father in the gut a few times.

"E yeh'd hu picehaccsyh." He grunted, "You just say the word and I'll have air-support ready and waiting."

"Thanks pops!"

Seeing Yuna and my better out to the side, I decided I should see about uncovering their sudden shyness. At first, it seemed Yuna was withdrawn from me, but neither my better nor I could figure out what the cause was until she asked me out of earshot of the rest if everything Areth had shown her was true. Nodding to me, the blitz ace started to explain that Areth was filled with his own motives and would do anything to make us doubt one another further. He went on to say that Areth had already forced me to abandon them as allies once and drove me toward insanity. He said that I was brought out of that sort of thinking by Rikku's constant companionship, but it had taken from the days of having Seymour around until only recently for me to get the hint. He didn't want to repeat the same process over again with Yuna. However, I had to stop him. I told them the truth, that there were plenty of events in my past, even while living, that I regretted. Whatever Areth had shown her, it had to be real or else it would fall out of favor for him as he needed them to believe me to be untrustworthy and unstable. The resulting infighting might be able to draw out my darkness, which the shadow needed.

"Are you saying that they're working together?" Yuna asked.

"I wouldn't have believed it myself, but why else would be tearing our alliance apart like this? In the past, he would have done nothing to stay his gunblade from me, but up until now, he's focused only on me and not my stronger unsent half. Why would he favor one of us? There's more to his plot than simply breaking us apart and it ties in with the shadow. I think he isn't satisfied with the soulless pyreflies of the shadow alone. He's more invested in taking down the real me. It's possible he wants to throw us off balance and allow the shadow to regain me as its core so he can eliminate us then." I explained.

"So he's herding you towards the shadow to merge you guys together?" My fellow blitzer asked.

"Areth wasn't a fool. His subterfuge was skilled enough to make establish a façade during the whole of the Machina War. It wouldn't surprise me that he discovered the shadow's plans for me and was all too happy to oblige. It may pose a vantage point for him later if he wants to slay me then since the shadow would owe a debt."

"We already know you're not going back there, though, so we're in the clear." My better suggested.

"Don't be so sure. The shadow's got its own methods and manipulation. If we don't think through our movements, I'm not sure I can stay my will if I fall in battle." I told him.

"You have nothing to worry about. We've already beaten the guy enough times to know how to do it again. My only concern now is what Areth might do should his schemes fail him." Yuna noted.

Their trust was key to our next actions. If we were going to get to the bottom of this, a lot would have to happen that couldn't be left to chance. Everything had to go accordingly and even then, the chance of success wasn't definite. First was our victory at Zanarkand. If we force the shadow to its last, there would only be Areth and I had brought the lout to his knees on more than one occasion. His illusory powers were annoyances and that was all, but his goal to unite the shadow and I was both a great gambit and our best opportunity at exploiting a mortal weakness.

"We've arrived!" The pilot announced.

Just as he did, Fahrenheit was passed by a large creature, the only remnants it left behind being a few black feathers. Radar detected a large object circling the airship just out of visual range, which meant it had to be what we were all expecting. Moments later, a loud clang told us the creature had landed on deck and was awaiting further instructions. If we didn't hurry, it was strong enough to take down this airship, leaving us with no mode of transportation when time became scant.

Rushing up to meet it, I watched as Yuna, Rikku, and Paine changed into their special garments, each of them dressed in the proto-skins of their ultimate weapons. Once we were outside, Yuna and Paine jumped ship, releasing their flight capable machina artillery, Yuna's flowery apparatus riding the currents at our high altitude while Paine's swords rotated swiftly to create lift. Meanwhile, Rikku's heavy assault machina anchored itself to the deck's surface, its weapons systems targeting the dragon before it. Taking out my own Garment Grid, I looked at my better, before returning it, unsheathing my sword instead. Nodding to me, he unleashed Brotherhood, too, understanding I'd rather finish him off close and personal.

"Looking for me?" It said, pointing his own sword at me as he stood atop our favorite Aeon, the dragon Bahamut.

"You got that right!" My better shouted, lunging forward with a hard slash of the Brotherhood.

Bahamut caught the blade and threw its assailant upward, but that allowed him to flip above the shadow and stab downward. Rather than dodge, it simply held out the flat side of its sword and kept him at bay while Bahamut loosed Impulse at him. Rikku had the Machina Maw neutralize the energy bursts with her artillery bursts from the Howitzer mounts. Yuna and Paine circled around behind and launched Electric Whirl and Winterkill against the Aeon, forcing it to take to the sky.

Meanwhile, a separate horde of pyreflies compiled themselves in front of me, a small grouping of it extending to pat my shoulder as its form completed the body of Areth. "You'd think he would have mellowed out by now."

"Guess, like somebody, he just doesn't know when to quit." I spat back, slicing down with my sword and scattering his pyreflies as he ran.

Full Throttle came under heavy fire, with Bahamut casting Thundaga spells on its propeller swords. My better whistled to Yuna and jumped onto one of its large petals to use as a step to getting airborne again, bounding for the Aeon and managing to catch its tail. Stabbing Brotherhood into it, he was able to get on the dragon's body, allowing him to trade strokes of his blade with the shadow. However, Bahamut remained undaunted, continuing its assault on Paine. Realizing that Full Throttle wasn't going to last much longer, she turned it around and headed straight for the Aeon, jumping from it and spherechanging to Psycher when it reached, using her telekinesis to activate the armor's ultimate Swords Dance function and slicing apart the scaley flesh of the great beast.

At this point, the shadow had knocked the blitz ace off, Paine rescuing him to bring him back to the airship after. Using his own pyreflies, it mended the dragon's wounds and steered it upward, charging a MegaFlare in mid-air. Rikku set her machina on automatic and changed to Gun Mage, using the machina as a mounted cannon to launch Vajra cover fire at the Aeon. In the meantime, Rikku loaded Blue Bullets into her gun, waiting for the dragon to come within range. Riding higher into the sky, Bahamut evaded the Vajras and released the overdrive at the Fahrenheit. Quickly, Paine used Time Trip to freeze the shot and Yuna and Rikku began firing barrages of SuperNovas and Great Whirls to minimize the damage. Once the temporal magic subsided, all that was left of the Aeon's devastating attack was a small charge easily absorbed by both the Brotherhood and my sword.

Growling down at us, the shadow released some of its own pyreflies to recharge a second MegaFlare, sending it crashing into Yuna's Floral Fallal and forcing her out of the dressphere. Changing back to Gunner, she activated Death Petals in one Pistil and rode one of them down to safety while releasing the Floral and Fallal Bombs in the other Pistil to strike Bahamut, weakening its tough hide. Once she landed, we signaled Cid to fire the ship's missiles at the target, but as soon as they reached, the shadow crushed them in its pyrefly vice.

Areth reappeared then, again leaning against my shoulder, "You really know how to piss 'em off, don't you?"

"I learned from the best." I said, looking at him just in time to have Rikku Storm Cannon him away.

At last, the dragon dove in close and steadied itself just off the side of the Fahrenheit, the shadow glaring at me. "This ends here and now!"

"Couldn't agree more." With that, I snapped my fingers, unveiling the three sisters of Magus behind them.

Larea's Aeon trio used their special abilities against the dragon, forcing the unsent from it and onto the airship where I left it to the others to deal with. Leaping from the deck, I was caught by Sandy who acted as my wings as we gave chase to the dragon. As it dove underneath the ship, I had Mindy circle wide while Cindy remained close to provide support and the occasional Camisade. When Mindy was in position, it unleashed Passado, piercing Bahamut's wings with many of its stings. However, the incredible beast soared right into it, slicing it into a downward spiral. I commanded Cindy to make a swift save, using Curaga on the youngest sister to allow it to recover and return.

Pyreflies began to swarm the dragon then, however, and Areth's Doom overdrive kicked in, hurling meteors at us and putting us on the defensive while Bahamut sent Impulse after Impulse against us to worsen our evasion. Taking the opportunities to soak in oncoming meteors and Impulse charges, I pulled in enough energy to quicken, jumping onto Sandy's back and dashing forth to the next sister, slicing at the dragon with each pass using Hit & Run. Areth appeared on the dragon's back to block, but I was quite aware of his blind spots, striking him, as well as, causing major damage to the Aeon. Before long, Areth was forced to flee, his pyreflies floating back toward the Fahrenheit's deck.

Now on Cindy's back, I had Sandy get in close and use Razzia on Bahamut. However, nearing the dragon still proved difficult without speed so I had Cindy cast Slow on it, making its evasive tactics ineffective. We flew back up and over the airship, Razzia finally connecting with Bahamut and sending it plummeting onto the deck where the shadow had just finished demolishing Machina Maw, absorbing its Shockstorm and sending it back through the ship.

"Hey, take it easily up there!" Cid's voiced boomed on the external speaker.

Areth dashed straight into a Black Mage Paine, slicing apart her staff and knocking her into the entrance to the ship, but Yuna was on him immediately with Trigger Happy, the bullets forcing him to go on the defensive. Bahamut regained its footing and charged another Impulse, but sent only two of the spheres at Cindy and me while the other two struck Rikku and the blitz ace as they attempted to double-team it from the ground. Spotting Areth's movements, I had Mindy Passado him again, but Areth scattered into pyreflies and reformed behind the girl, his Zantetsuken bisecting her and dispersing her pyreflies. With one sister defeated, I no longer had the option of using Delta Attack to counter MegaFlare, and at such a close proximity to the airship, there wasn't going to be enough time to weaken it before it hit. Thinking quickly, I landed on the airship myself and had Larea keep the remaining two closer together as cover, taking to the battle personally. Paine shifted to Berserker and pounced on the shadow while Yuna kept pelting Areth in a shower of bullets. My better also spherechanged, this time to Dark Knight, using its heavy armor to take on the barrage while engaging Areth directly.

"Shuyin, you hit him low, I'll hit him high!" Rikku said, jumping off my shoulder from behind and landing on the Aeon's head with her daggers planted.

Doing as she said, I skidded to a stop just as I reached Bahamut's legs, slicing into the massive limbs as close to the ankles as I could. It shook and bashed its skull into the ship's surface, throwing Rikku off, but as soon as it did, my sword was waiting for it, slicing deep into its neck and jaw. The shadow immediately threw Paine into me before I could do any further damage and combined itself with the dragon, transforming them into a black seraph, claws like the dragon, but with a scaley likeness to my dress outfitting its chest and lower torso, the unmistakable face glaring at us as it took to the sky.

On the other side of the ship, Yuna and her man were being bested by Areth, his Zantetsuken ripping through the Dark Knight plating only to have Yuna's Trigger Happy fire rain down against it, shattering it completely. He reverted to his normal form and gave chase to the lout, but Areth set his sights on Larea, catching Cindy off guard and possessing her. I whistled to Sandy to have her use Razzia on her sister, which it did, but only at the cost of Cindy as Areth's pyreflies exhumed from her and attacked Rikku. He took hold of her hand and planted a straight shot of Heaven's Cataract directly into Sandy's chest, the wound pouring pyreflies out as Larea's innate fayth form appeared and returned to me. Paine quickly lunged for Areth, but only met with the flat side of his gunblade as he slapped her into the floor, firing his own shot at her back. Yuna shifted to Trainer then and loosed Kogoro at the snake.

The dog managed to catch Areth's sword, its miniscule form bearing little notice from him until Yuna announced, "Kogoro shock!"

Electricity pulsed from its teeth and stunned Areth, making him release his weapon just in time to come face to barrel with Rikku's Cry in the Night Blue Bullet, the terror of the Tonberry's essence tearing through the unsent and forcing it into retreat. "How do you like that?"

With Areth defeated, we only had to worry about the Bahamut Shadow. We called on Cid for another few volleys of missiles, but there was really only one thing that was going to disarm the shadow now.

"This is it…" He mouthed, his voice only audible in my mind, the link between us strengthening in the shadow's twilight hours.

With Bahamut's injuries mended by its presence within, he began charging a stronger form of the dragon's overdrive, GigaFlare. Rikku loaded Drake Slayers into her gun and fired them at him, but despite the damage the ammunition was causing him, he continued to charge. Apart from Rikku and Cid, the rest of us could only wait for it, the others hoping the massive amounts of damage being dealt would precipitate results before it finished charging.

"Game Over." He muttered in my mind, releasing the onslaught of force.

"Agreed." I replied, catching the entirety of the blast in my sword when it hit and surrounding it in my own power, redirecting it back in Force Rain.

The burst stream struck dead center and pushed the shadow's pyreflies away, sending it soaring into the distance while Bahamut's pyreflies reconstituted into the purple-veiled boy as he returned to Bevelle's temple.

Translations:

"E zicd lyh'd kad so rayt ynuiht ed."

I just can't get my head around it.

"Fryd'c dryd cibbucat du sayh? "

What's that supposed to mean?

"E yeh'd hu picehaccsyh."

I ain't no businessman.

Author's Note: If anyone caught the minute alteration of wording there towards the end, you deserve a cookie my friend. What does it mean for the upcoming chapter and the end of Dark Shuyin? Find out next time!