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: Paine's theory, Yuna's theory, and now Rikku takes a stand against the unsent that terrorised FFX-2. Is he a victim? Is he the mastermind? Does he have what it takes to come back? Should he? This following chapter marks the end of this segment of the story. What will be the outcome and how will it affect the conclusion?
Speaking of conclusion, did any of you think that this story would be going on for so many chapters? Well, in all honesty, neither did I. However, when all these ideas and extensions started to present themselves to my muse, I found I couldn't deny them. I had had the Celsius written in as the only airship to be used throughout the story, but that was thrown out the window, wasn't it? More over, Clione'd out the window. *haha haha* Accordingly, this chapter introduces a character I never thought I'd use and even offers that character a speaking role, which I didn't account for, either. As such, the earlier draft I had of it was completely turned around and I giggle at myself for what it was formerly.
Something else of importance to make note of is Wakka and Lulu. Early on in the story, Lulu was attacked and left comatose, the culprit being noted to be Dark Shuyin. They were absent during Dark Shuyin's attack on Besaid, but should've returned to the island by now. It's been quite some time, too.
With that in mind, let's see what Shuyin has in store! =D
Spira: The Eternal Discord
Chapter 38: Betrayal's Retribution
Shuyin
"Here I am. Come get me…" She told me, the look of defiance in her eyes perfect.
Using my pyreflies, I gauged their senses, including that of my partners and noted that they were all waiting for response. It was a daring feat, after all, to be standing before a dangerous adversary. My pyreflies seeped into each of their consciousnesses, perused the varying thoughts and undeniable dread. Curious, it seemed as though Yuna believed Areth was on their side and would backstab me. As if I would let that happen again. Paine had a different take on it, believing that I was only partially the shadow I was and not the Shuyin I am. She believed that the merger between our minds did in fact occur, but I had lost to the shadow and my true nature, that being the kind and jovial Shuyin I presented myself as, was still inching away at the darkness, trying desperately to crawl out from the depths of the subconscious realm.
Rikku was astoundingly calm by all human account, her poise showed great courage and defiance in the face of such peril. However, as I became aware, her mind was frantic beyond words. She wasn't quite sure just what to do next, opting to leave that up to me, though equally, she was anxious and wanted to make a move herself. Feeling the atmosphere and the tension amongst the crowd, I held off any movement for a time, waiting to see how long I could lift their discomfort, as well as, keep Areth on his toes before an eruption occurred. Hatred, panic, and blinding frustration rose heavily in my former comrades, while equally, Areth began wondering about my hesitation.
Turning to the snake, I offered him a demure glance and proceeded to take a deep, relaxing breath of air, stepping back toward Rikku. It was incredible how little Areth actually knew of an unsent's ability. It was true that any typical unsent could only comprehend a certain amount of their own unlimited limits due to mindset and decided necessity once they focused on what they needed to accomplish. It was true that few unsent ever can move beyond themselves and utilize the full range of their power. However, with how well he'd been capable of eluding me in the past, I always supposed him to be creative enough to wield them all. Instead, he had just fallen into a similar category: He was able to produce illusions by scanning one's mind and developing the corresponding scenarios in the pyreflies. I felt I was dealing with just another Seymour, who could only merge himself with various beings or pyreflies to enhance his normal range of abilities in life. What made Areth even more amusing was that he had no idea I was probing his mind with my own pyreflies. There was no reaction or suspicion and I found myself easily perusing all the emotions his pyreflies carried to allow him into being.
An echo from Rikku's body took my eyes back to her and, accordingly, I mentioned that, "I can sense your quickening heartbeats."
Without wasting a breath, she spat back, "So? What about them?"
Curling my lips into a snarling grin, I replied, "… Fear…"
"What's the matter with you? Can't you tell already she's terrified? You don't have to tell her that." Yuna screamed at me, pointing her guns.
Before she even had the chance to think about pulling the trigger, the pyreflies I had circling her locked them along with her hands. The blitzer went to her aid, but I froze him in his step, relieving Areth of the want to do anything. Paine would be next, shifting her garment to the Dark Knight Dressphere. As her form changed, I nodded to Areth who immediately created a false environment before her, one where the rest of them were already dead, a timeframe set forward a few minutes in her relative perspective of the future.
"Areth, what were you trying to prove to me the last time we were here?" The ace of blitz demanded of my partner.
"What makes you think I intended to prove anything to you?" He replied, "In fact, I wasn't trying to prove anything. What I wanted, I got already."
"What? The murderer holding you on a leash?"
Snickering in mild amusement, though I could sense the true blip of worry underneath the surface, he would say in retort, "If anyone's on a leash, boy, it's you!"
That being said, Areth swarmed a horde of pyreflies around him, manufacturing a bizarre old age holding apparatus to bind him with. As he fell, I saw the Brotherhood sliding toward me, stopping just at Rikku's ankle. The girl, all this time, had remained ever vigilant, her arms still held out in wait. A tear welled up in one of her green eyes, overflowing and sliding down her gentle cheek. It was enough to tell me she was at her brink. If I were to push a bit further, it was certain she would collapse, her ploy broken.
"Shuyin!" Yuna cried again, "How could you live with yourself? After he killed your best friend, after what happened to Kirin, how could you!"
Turning my eyes to her, I released the pyreflies holding her arms at bay, using the last of them to disarm her. The "twin bees" as she called them, slid when they hit the ground and crawled their way right next to the Brotherhood, almost a testament to how much fate kept them together. It only made me think of how far I had to travel to recover the Songstress Dressphere of Lenne when I awoke as an unsent. Fate had played a foul game with me, forced me to search tirelessly for my love, when my better was able to return to his Lenne even after fading into nothing.
Taking another breath, I answered Yuna's question, "It's only fair considering how I butchered his friends… Didn't tell you that one, did I?"
She was struck into silence by that, though I was filled with honest abhorrence by her and the others. In their minds, I was no longer to be saved. There was no shadow. There was only Shuyin and I was just as black as any of the things I told them I regretted about my past. However, none of them had ever considered that, while I might have regretted, I still committed those acts. Did it never occur to them that at least some part of me believed my action to have been just? Did they not think about the reality behind their juvenile view of the world? It was enlightening to see that in a day when generations had past in blind faith to a corrupt theocracy, there would still be individuals that could only see good. Why hadn't we been capable of that?
"Shuyin, should we finalize our transactions?" Areth suggested to me, tightening the axles on his device on my better and calling his apparitions of the undead group to assault Paine as she despaired.
"Yes, I think it's about time, but not this way. There's finesse to be had here. Mind your new role, Areth. Being an unsent doesn't grant you the freedom to perform unwitting maneuvers before your enemy. We'll start with the most frightened of the lot. Isn't that right, Rikku?"
Rikku stirred and her step weakened while I approached her. Her arms remained in position, but she began leaning forward, an angry and insubordinate glare fixed upon my visage. Once I reached her, our eyes met and I closed the distance until I could feel her shortening breaths against my skin. Keeping to her gaze, she put her arms down and stood straight.
"Well?"
She hesitated to respond, but after taking a gulp of air and looking over to her cousin and the others, she turned back to me and muttered a single word, "Twilight."
"You sure?"
"Twilight." She repeated, more forcefully this time.
Standing back tall, I looked her deep in her eyes and took a long breath. Taking my eyes first to Paine who was eying me curiously, I smiled and thought about just how looney her life had become by being with us. My better was also staring, though he was more defensive about it than Paine. He had the same look in his eyes I had shown Lenne's enemies, like Trista, emotion I couldn't hide thinking my love was in danger. For a moment, everybody was waiting on a conclusion to what Rikku had started. Areth was comfortable in thinking that "twilight" was the girl's way of saying she wanted an end. In a way, he was right, but that's not exactly the sort of end he was considering. Taking my eyes to the night sky, I allowed my memories to trail to long ago, my pyreflies affecting what my mind saw. As we all stood on the ruins of Omega, the abandoned city came back to life and mended all of its wounds. Areth began taking steps toward me, confused as to what was happening, but he'd have his answer soon.
"Hey, remember why you're so drawn to here?" I told him, allowing my voice to trail.
"What are you doing?"
Unsheathing my sword slowly, I began examining its blade, ignoring Areth's question, "Remember what transpired here?"
"Stop."
"Life answers to no one, does it? How awful."
"Shuyin, stop this."
"What makes you think I could? We're both capable of the same things now. If you can't stop it, there's hardly any chance I'd be able to."
"This is no time for a philosophy lesson!"
"I'd argue the exact opposite." I told him, "You talked about bringing order to the endless chaos, but really now, what order are you to bring?"
"Order comes from an iron fist and unyielding judgement." He replied, his own pyreflies trying to dissipate what mine had built.
"Arrogance can only go so far." I said, reaching out and letting one of his pyreflies slide along the length of my arm.
"Beyond that is obliteration."
"But if you keep destroying what cannot be contained, evolution will be inhibited and other entropic agents have the opportunity to seep in and produce more chaos to fill the void."
"Then, they'll have to be dealt with, as well."
"I fear by then, nothing will have that power."
Areth finally lost his patience, grumbling, "I've had enough of this! We have a job to do so stop daydreaming."
To that, pyreflies pooled ahead of him, collecting themselves in a form most dear. As the former high summoner manifested, I felt Areth's emotions stutter, locking him in a standstill. He marveled at the creature before him, wanting to touch, but knowing she wasn't real. He wanted to disperse the pyreflies that made her, but couldn't bring himself to do it. A thousand years, much like my own, with his great love lost to him. He was caught between the life he used to have and the mission in death he swore to carry out.
"Shuyin, what have you done?"
Casting my eyes down toward his knees, I gave a solemn answer, "I've done nothing. Life yields no favors to any one life. The Farplane exists to send us out only to pull us back in. We live, we die, and with each cycle, it can try to do better. As for us remnants, we're nothing more than glitches, accidents who should've known better than to remain. Staying only causes us more pain. Life doesn't care what fate has dealt us. It only serves itself, to better the planet as a whole."
"Stop this nonsense!" He demanded, one of seldom moments he didn't uphold a suave demeanor.
I didn't respond. I no longer had to. The phantasm of High Summoner Trista spoke in my stead. "Areth, look at what our mistakes have done to us."
"Silence."
"Why do you go on grieving alone?" She told him, trying to put her hand to his cheek.
"You're not real."
"Out of the ashes will arise a new Spira and each time a better one."
"Bevelle burned because of Zanarkand's sin! There can be no better world born out of tainted ash!"
"You're wrong. We were both wrong. When I died, I finally saw light. How horrible it had to be during our time for Spira's future to be great, I saw it and it was wonderful."
"If you are any version of Trista, you could only be the fake." He growled.
Turning to them both, I stated, "A fake, but given life nonetheless. Fate had a destiny waiting for them, too. All of them, just like the ones in Bevelle's grand army."
"Then she's not my Trista."
"No, but your heart didn't know better. Isn't that the point?" I asked.
"She's not real. She may as well be a fantasy like this Omega you've concocted."
"Would you have another opinion had she been the original?" I asked him.
"What is your game, Shuyin? Whose side are you actually on?"
Trista spoke next, "He's on the side he was always on. The side his heart guides him to."
"I've heard enough out of you!" He growled, grabbing the girl by her shoulders.
Just as he did, she screamed and burst into a shower of blood. Areth was taken aback, the crimson liquid drenching him. The Trista whom I had killed so many many years ago had been reflecting on her murder and was given visions of Spira's plight through the centuries just as I had, but whereas I could only grant an audience to the worst this planet had seen, she saw the progress it had made, even with what followed the Machina War. Now, she had one more assignment for me. I took her heart when I killed her as a promise to Kirin. She had lost it for many years, but existing over the following age returned it to her. The real Trista hadn't been so fortunate and neither had her beau. It was now my responsibility to find Areth's heart and save him.
Using my blade while he was still frozen in confusion, I plunged it straight into his chest, "Does this look familiar?"
Areth immediately scattered into pyreflies and resumed his normal appearance a distance away, "Traitor. I should have known."
"No Areth, acknowledging betrayal only comes to those who have accepted a friend with their heart. You couldn't have known my loyalties because you've lost yours."
"There won't be any more lives for you to live!" He roared, beginning Zantetsuken.
Having pyreflies already about him, I merely reformed behind and swung my sword down, scattering him to the wind as he fled to report to his superior. With Areth's influence gone, the apparatus around my better dissipated, as well as, the phantoms haunting Paine. They all arrived before me, enquiring of me what had been presented and what had become of me. 'Why' was a word that started a great many of those sentences.
Taking my eyes to Rikku, I spread my arms just in time to catch her running into my embrace. Hugging me close, she whispered, "I'm glad you're back."
Smiling down at the sweet girl, I took another long breath and looked at each of them with weary eyes. Unknown to them, our battles had only just begun. We had been so careless and naïve. Looking back down at Rikku, I pressed her head close to my chest before moving on back to the Fahrenheit.
"Not done yet… And we'll need to prepare…" I muttered with my back to them.
Author's Note: For all those who believed Yuna, I laugh at you. Areth was never meant to be a protagonist and he never will. It's sort of like ShinRa. Even when Rufus admitted that ShinRa's activities were wrong and he seeks to right the travesties committed, he still sounds like a conniving weasel. However, I had played with the idea of an Eternal Love spin-off in Areth's words, like an Eternal Love: Areth's Story, where I'd have the chance to better define how he was led to become Shuyin's nemesis. In the end, I felt it was best to present it otherwise as that should be sufficient enough. That is why I changed copy Trista's role from being just an illusion of pyreflies made by Shuyin of the real Trista to being the copy, to then being the conscious and unsent copy who was awakened by Areth's pyreflies. Also, earlier in my drafts, I had wanted to create a scene where Trista could redeem herself, but then decided against it to keep Trista's character a proper foil to Lenne.
A note on that: Areth's "heart" that they both spoke about is not to be related to Kingdom Hearts' concept of the "heart". It is just to say Areth lost his compassion and ability to forgive and it forbids him to free himself from the past. This was true of Shuyin when he was trapped in the Den of Woe as I mentioned in the earlier fanfic. I don't think I need to explain at what point in time he lost it, but regaining it will play a role in future chapters.
For all those who believed Paine and thought Shuyin was being possessed by the shadow and couldn't break free, I also laugh at you. Don't you think twenty or so chapters of Shuyin fighting against an evil version of himself is enough? =p Besides, Shuyin's no Zero. *Megaman X reference* There's no viral entity in his mind telling him to destroy or be a God of Destruction. I'll save those chapters for the Crimson Hunter.
For the rest who came up with their own theories, I salute you. And for those who did and guessed right that Shuyin was mucking about with Areth's head this time, I give you a cookie! There were several hints to it, that being all the times Shuyin was ready for their tricks and stunts, his unusual actions as of late, and how much unwritten time he was spending with Rikku. Why do you think I hadn't made a Rikku chapter since Kilika? Why do you think I didn't have Shuyin voice the "Requiem to Shadow" chapter when he'd probably have the most to say? Oh, I didn't say it was a plan all along yet, did I? =o Well, it is! =D
Next chapter, we'll see just what that plan entailed and if it was successful. With the many hours that passed, hopefully Shuyin got something, but as seen at the end of this chapter, he obviously did find something out, at least, and seemed troubled by it. Next chapter will reveal just why he was upset and if you'll be upset by it, too. =o Hopefully, you'll think it was a good decision on my part to take the story in that direction. ^_^;;;
Keep mindful of your surroundings, my readers. Everything in the fanfiction up until now points to something in the next segment and anything said in theory might just be proved false as you've already seen. Let's see if you'll figure out the coming events.
… Now that they're gone, wonder what sort of bs I can come up with next. Hmm, perhaps I could just throw in a Gundam or something… Oh my, you're still here! *poof gone*