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: Last time, Shuyin revealed to the group that he was, in fact, the one who won out in the end. He had full control of the pyreflies that went into him and wasn't possessed by anything. Dark Shuyin was defeated and/or had never been a threat to Shuyin's existence. Just how long had he been leading them on about his return? Had he actually fabricated the entire thing as a sick joke?

You might be asking yourselves, "Well Zera, what about all those chapters in Shuyin's point of view that show him upset by Areth's return or Seymour somehow being resurrected or all the other inner thoughts he shared in those chapters that made him appear totally reformed?" Well, not to give anything away, but just what makes you think there wasn't a piece of the old Shuyin from Eternal Love that was subconsciously present this entire time? There were many chapters not in his perspective where he performed a few impossible feats. Did no one ever think to account for them? To be honest, the real Shuyin was trapped in the Den of Woe for one thousand years and then, at the end of my last fiction, he departed into the Farplane with Lenne, his pyreflies scattered to the wind. It's not entirely fathomable that he could just return as he was in life, is it? What's to say it wasn't the residual pyreflies he left in the Farplane or with the fayth that brought him back? Hah, didn't count on that, did you? Of course, that's not to say that's what's really going on, but it could be. Hmm, this note is long. =o

And then there's Areth. The first question should really be, exactly why did he come back all of a sudden to cause trouble when it had to be that he's been an unsent just as long as Shuyin was? Was he out for brunch during the events of FFX-2? It was reasoned several times that he just wanted to defeat the "real" Shuyin, but what stopped him from going to the Den of Woe? What made him think the shadow wasn't the real Shuyin anyway? Even if that was the reason, just what made the Shuyin at the start of the fiction more real? xD Yes, I've been leading you lot all around a circle. Now, that we've gotten past that, if he wasn't trying to "defeat the real Shuyin", just what is he after? In this next chapter, we'll see if Yuna can figure it out.

By the way, I've recently rewatched the end of the latest Doctor Who series so this chapter has been influenced by the events of that episode and many many repetitions of the Doctor's new theme, Every Star, Every Planet.

Wow at haboo's MEGA review. xD! On Gippal, how did you think I envisioned the RP's Gippal anyway? =p On the Berserkeer DS, I felt that the point of the dressphere was to unleash the primal instincts and rage of the girls, hence the beastial attacks and Berserk Red Magic. For a confused Shuyin who is lashing out, I supposed Berserk's effect probably would have kicked in immediately and, since he was out of focus, the feral nature of the dressphere would have consumed him. That and it shows, like you mentioned, that he hasn't healed from going to the Farplane, only forgotten about his scars for the time being. Also, as you noted, it foreshadows what I came up with in Chapter 35. xD No, Byakko was just one of my favourite legendary beasts. The entire legend of the four guardians is present in my Velani story, but I doubt I'll ever write that one out. =p For now, it's only outlined. Also, that's technically pure fiction and doesn't even include Bahamut (yet?) so I guess it could actually be unrelated to Final Fantasy except that I deliberately modeled it after Final Fantasy to be my second Final Fantasy. xD I'm surprised you didn't notice the foreshadowing in Chapter 28 when Yuna notes his "high level of Black Magic" when he's never used magic before in his life and only accessed the Black Mage DS twice thus far. (Which, btw, he uses Ultimas then, too. ^_~) But it's good you noticed that Shuyin was hiding his past. Although, you did take note of his strange power spikes. =o "HE POSSESSED YUNA" This was the reaction I was waiting for from my readers when that happened! xD Sadly, nobody reviewed. *cries* The thank you from Fayth will come about when the day is done, not before. *hint hint* I liked the reaction to Shuyin's second death. xD

That "four headed think" is Major Numerus, the side boss that you can face in FFX-2 Last Mission. =p I just gave it a back story and also changed it to a stronger version that can fly and use Strongest Shinra's special attack.

And now, we return you to our feature programming. Enjoy! =D

Spira: The Eternal Discord

Chapter 36: De-llegiance

Yuna

How did we end up here? Lost, confused, and utterly disoriented at the recent turn of events, we had no choice but to depart Mount Gagazet and come up with another plan. When he first revealed to us that he was completely in control of himself and only chose to betray us, I didn't want to believe it. He had been so supportive and felt so genuine when he saw that Areth was back. Everything that we'd been through in these recent times made it feel like a surreal nightmare. Did he really turn on us or was that the shadow tricking us? I honestly wanted to believe the latter, but something told me that was a simple delusion. In truth, it was the most likely outcome of all this. Shuyin suddenly showing up in Besaid without any idea how he returned and then going on a crusade to make up for his past sins? That was such a fairytale and we still fell for it in the end. Shuyin was somehow able to bring himself back from the Farplane and even bring back Seymour and Areth with him. Some of his impossible stunts seemed more feasible if he had planned it all.

"How could he do it?" Rikku asked, in tears once again the moment we entered the airship.

"His mind was plagued by those things we saw in the Den of Woe for one thousand years. Even at his best, I don't think there's any way he could have come back from that. The unfortunate fate he was given destroyed his good soul and left him a monster forever." I told my cousin, rubbing her back to ease her sobs, but I knew what I was saying wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"We'll send him to the Farplane. When he's there, the nurturing atmosphere should save him eventually."

"It didn't help us last time when he was in there." Paine interjected, walking back over.

"We'll have to defeat him like we did Seymour. Fight him until there's nothing left." My love suggested.

I could feel Rikku shivering in my arms and decided to help her to her cabin. When we entered the room, Rikku decided that she'd rather be alone and shut the door on me. I could hear her whimpers and quiet sobs coming from the other side of it, but I knew she needed to be alone. Before I left her, though, I asked two of the nearby crew to stand by in case she needed something. Walking back to the bridge was horrible without her. Before the Den of Woe, we were confident. We had everything under control and were about to clear another obstacle. It was supposed to be the end of the shadow and then we'd be up to Areth, but now, not only was the problem of the shadow still there, we lost his better half along the way. My cousin was turned from a happy and jovial youthful spirit into this sullen mess despairing in her own Den of Woe.

"Why are we going there?" My love asked aloud when I arrived on the bridge.

"Until Nooj sets up permanent headquarters in Bevelle, the Youth League is still at Mushroom Rock Road." Paine explained, though I wasn't sure why we were going to the Youth League.

"I mean, do we really need to go to the Youth League?" He replied, voicing my own thoughts.

"Right now, they're the only military we have not on duty. We should consult with them and figure out a plan. The crusaders in their ranks might still have some of their old battle machina."

"Then, we should contact Lucil or Elma first. There's no point in going there on a fool's errand."

"If we do that, shouldn't we go to Bevelle? Nooj sent Lucil and Elma to aid Baralai in defending Bevelle's Underground, remember?" I said, announcing my presence.

"Bevelle then. We can tell Baralai he was right all along." Paine said, "Should put a smile on his face."

"No, we should hold off then. From what I've been hearing about the guy, he's not going to take it lightly. How much do you wanna bet he'll want to come along with us?"

"True. Of the two, even though Nooj was taken over for so long, Baralai's been the more sensitive one. He'll overreact over the news." Paine agreed.

"We should just stop at the Youth League unannounced then. Even if it doesn't do us any good, we might benefit from the time off and if Shuyin or Areth come looking for us, we'll know right away. It's a good plan." I suggested.

"Like Yuna said then." Paine accepted, walking over to the navigations and setting a course.

"You think this Shuyin kid'll be much trouble?" Cid asked us, walking over since he had overheard our conversation.

"The worst." I told him, the memories of my previous quest returning.

I went over to hug my love close, remembering how much I had wanted him there then. It was the only thing missing back then, which gave me some hope that we'd get out of this. Still, another part of me was afraid I'd lose him again, having lost him the last time because of a Spira-shattering pandemic. It was like this life was all Spira ever had in store for us, to live on the brink with every moment a possible road to the Farplane. Even back in Shuyin's time, this seemed to be the case. Otherwise, we wouldn't be dealing with it now.

"Maybe this is our fate." I absentmindedly said.

"No," My love immediately retorted, "There's a dawn coming at the end of all this darkness. Just wait for it with me. Push on!"

"How can you say that when everything seems to be working against us at every turn?"

"Them's girl talk, Yuna. Men like us know, whatever life gives ya, take it all in stride, am I right?" My uncle added, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"You see what's already happened to Rikku. Do you really think anything good will come from this and actually last?"

"Yea, I do." Was his plain reply.

"Yuna, there has to be an ending to this craziness. I'm not going to believe that we're just meant for this. I won't. We saved Spira and everyone on it two years ago. These jokers can't compare to that and you already beat that Shuyin once. It'll just take time, but once those two are gone, that'll be it. We'll get to live our lives in peace."

As much as I wanted to believe him, it just didn't seem possible. This road to salvation was far too long to believe there was an end in sight. Two years ago, we ended a thousand years of suffering for the people of Spira, but it didn't start there as we clearly saw from Shuyin's past. And likewise, it wasn't over yet anyway. It was only a short while ago that Paine, Rikku, and I defeated Shuyin for the first time and thought we had reunited him with Lenne. Now, not only was he back, he brought his past with him, resurrected our past nightmare, and put Spira in danger again. Really now, could anything convince me that we were going to end this one day?

The flight back to Mushroom Rock Road proved fruitless. Before, when Shuyin and Areth left, it seemed they had their own sights set on the Youth League. The only signs left that there had been an organization there to begin with were a few scraps of metal from broken guard machina and the torn banner of the group. We didn't find any survivors, what remained of the members there too awful to describe. Just like before, Shuyin was a step ahead of us. He must have counted on us to seek out the Youth League for help and set out to take any advantage away from us.

"Look at this." My love uttered, kneeling over the carnage.

"They didn't stand a chance." Paine added.

"Hmph, well I'll be. What kind of low-down scoundrel goes around killing so many like this?" Cid growled lowly, crushing some of the burned debris in his hand.

"We should perform a sending for them." I said, spherechanging to White Mage.

I could see my blitzer cringe when I said it. He never wanted me to have to do that again, to relive that horrid time as a summoner during the corrupt age of Yevon. The sending, however, I felt was something good that came out of my training, even if the reasons we learned for it were completely fabricated. I danced and relieved the pyreflies left in their bodies, but try as I might, nothing seemed to be happening. The bodies were just remaining there as they were. That's when I noticed it. There was a distinct absence about them. Even with my heightened spiritual senses in the White Mage dressphere, I couldn't sense any pyreflies around. None of the stragglers were floating about, either. What happened here?

"What's wrong?" Paine asked me when I reverted to Gunner.

"Their pyreflies. There aren't any. It's as if they all moved on by themselves, but that can't be right." I replied, unable to hide the surprise in my voice.

"What do you mean? You can't send them?" My love approached, looking into my eyes.

"No," I answered him, tears filling my eyes, "It's as if they've been taken. I think Areth and Shuyin absorbed their pyreflies when they were killed."

"How can that be?" He wondered, walking over to one of the bodies.

"It's one of his abilities as an unsent, isn't it? He has almost total control over pyreflies. He probably killed them and pulled the pyreflies from their bodies to use for himself." I explained, remembering what Fayth had told me.

"So what's our next move?" Paine asked, already looking back at the Fahrenheit.

Putting a finger to my chin, I thought about the remaining strategies we had left. What was Shuyin trying to do by collecting pyreflies from the dead? If it had been only the shadow, he would have gone straight for Vegnagun by now. What was Shuyin up to? However, he and Areth did give us some sort of advice when they left us at Gagazet. Shuyin said it was the end, Vegnagun or not. He said he was leaving us to comprehend how insignificant we were to the "grand design" and Areth mentioned that that was poetic. They were obviously talking about their plans to destroy Spira, but without Vegnagun. Also, it had to be poetic. Both of them were from the Machina War. The ones they killed were from the Youth League, one of the factions that were about to start a war against New Yevon until Lenne's song stopped them. Could they be planning to create a new Machina War? How would they go about it, though? We didn't have nearly the same capacity for mass destruction that they had in the past. Shuyin took their pyreflies; could he be planning to use those pyreflies on a wider spectrum of possession? With all those pyreflies, he could go to the Farplane and take full control, spread through the temples to every corner of Spira. He said we'd be irrelevant. If he was planning to possess everyone on the planet, that would make us an irrelevant piece to his plan.

"You really think he's capable of that?" Paine and my love both enquired.

"It's possible. I'm just guessing the worst for now."

"You know, with Areth's illusions, they don't even have to possess anybody." The blitz ace noted.

I hadn't even considered Areth's part in all of this, but he did have a point. While we fought, Areth had been honing his own skills, trying out his different set of powers. However, something to be said about that was that he also tried to show us Shuyin's darker side. Why would he do that if he was going to side with him? It was entirely possible that he was honestly warning us about him and every time he was nearly caught on it, Shuyin fed us another of his charming regales of suffering horribly in the past that made us feel for him. We all knew Areth was trying to defeat Shuyin back when they were both alive, so it did make sense that he would want to defeat him now, his last thought in life.

By the time I got myself out of my reverie, we had already returned to the Fahrenheit, which had taken off. Paine and Cid were debating whether or not to touch down in Bevelle and demand an audience with Nooj and Baralai. My love was busy looking over the recent tracks for signs of weakness to Shuyin or anything that wasn't going to be another dead end like everything had been lately. Rikku was still not present which meant she hadn't gathered enough strength to face us yet. The ship's crew began receiving several calls from across Spira about abrupt explosions, pyreflies traveling to their epicenters. The waters between Besaid and Kilika were sinking into a whirlpool, pyreflies looming over it. There were tremors along the major routes leading to each of the main cities, and the ruins of Zanarkand were emitting a strange sound. Through all the commotion going on, I felt smothered, clouded by it, and hatred began to well up inside of me. I knew the confusion he caused well now and realized what he had succeeded in doing to us even with just a simple departure. Shuyin manipulated our emotions, forced us to rethink our impressions, then took it all back when we had finally settled on the new ones. These separate and isolated incidents were more of them, to keep Spira's people on edge. Eventually, overcome by the disarray and discord, we would destroy the planet ourselves, the perfect plan, a grand design.

Watching the others bicker over differing strategies and ideas made me sure about my thoughts and I whistled for their attention, "Stop it!"

Once all their eyes were on me, I proceeded, hoping to use a simple statement to extend the actual reality of our situation, "We have two enemies at hand. We know their games, too. We can work with that and we'll beat them."

"Yes Yuna, but what do we do with that information? It's not like we can just guess away their attacks." Paine stated in reply.

"It's not about stopping them anymore if we can't keep ourselves focused on the situation at hand." I told them, "We're being hit by several strikes all across the planet. Two major enemies are on the loose and one faction has already been decimated. All of it is trying to keep us panicking so we rush in and die. Meanwhile, everybody else on Spira goes mad."

"They go to war…" Paine uttered, understanding me.

"And the world ends without them lifting a finger." My love added.

"We'll stop them first." I told them, walking over to the navigations console.

"Where do you think they are?" He asked me.

"It doesn't matter. If they're not there, we'll call them." I answered, setting a course for the Omega Ruins.

"Omega?"

"It's the last place Areth tried to show us Shuyin's true colors and the last place we saw what he was really like." I explained.

Author's Note: Yes, end of the world gimmick with a series of uncontrollable catastrophes and missing pyreflies that may or may not be harnessed by the major antagonist in the coming future. No, the Pandorica isn't opening and the TARDIS isn't exploding on us, but several planetary explosions, sinkholes in the water, and odd behaviour by the pyreflies still can't be good.

PS: The Yuna chapter before this opened with a particular question. Think that might influence her hypothesis of the situation's actuality? Until next time! *poof*