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: To haboo, thanks for reviewing. Nagging works! x) To your first comment, I feel with Paine chapters, it's more about making the connection between the Paine at the end of X-2 and the one introduced in Last Mission since she seems significantly different. =p This one was to make note of her fear of never rising out of her grief what with Shuyin "failing" to do the same. Chapters like this one will show her reaction from that to what transpired last chapter. On Shuyin, yes, he actually merged with the shadow. Shuyin, having moved on from his self-loathing was stronger than the shadow and so Shuyin absorbed that part back into himself, which meant the pyreflies listen to him again, not his embittered heart which is what the shadow was. Basically, what the shadow needed was a physical body, which is what it should have gained in the merger. However, since Shuyin was stronger, the shadow's presence was absorbed back into Shuyin and Shuyin gained the unsent powers in his physical body. As for Lenne... well, you'll just have to keep reading. ;)
As I said in the last chapter, this chapter now starts a new segment to the story. Now that Shuyin's been revealed not to be an enemy to Yuna's group, it should be obvious Areth will report it. His cover is gone and pulling that stunt will most assuredly mark him as the primary target.
However, for the moment, he's safe back with the rest of the team. Will they be able to stop what's coming? Where did Shuyin go? In this chapter, a few things will be revealed and reflected. Like most of the other chapters like this one, it offers a break from the action to catch everyone up with more details and closing remarks for the previous segment.
As I said last time, Shuyin and Rikku were the co-conspirators in this plot so now we take a look at what she's been thinking about and how well their plans resulted. Did Shuyin find out everything he needed? How did they arrive at it anyway? More importantly, that plan kept the rest of the group out of the loop. *see what I did there? =D* Just how well are they going to respond to that? Let's find out!
Spira: The Eternal Discord
Chapter 39: Trump Card
Rikku
Right when Areth poofed away, I ran to Shuyin and gave him the biggest hug I had in me, telling him that, "I'm glad you're back."
Shuyin held me close and rubbed my back to show me that the worst was over. I didn't have to pretend anymore and I didn't need to worry about his safety. We had thought of a plan together in the Omega Ruins the last time we were here. I thought about how we could turn the tables on them so they'd be the ones on edge instead of us. Areth had gone to so much trouble to make us point fingers and fight each other. The shadow was always trying to get Shuyin to leave us and come back to it, completing itself so it could have the advantages of both a living body and an unsent's manipulation of the pyreflies. Shuyin told me that it wasn't going to be as simple as that. We kept thinking he was only back because of the unsents and it was the shadow's doing, but that was impossible. Even at his best, an unsent doesn't have the power to bring back the dead. The only thing that seemed capable of it was a fayth, or rather, lots of fayth. We saw it with the dream that was molded in his likeness, a fully alive growing and aging person complete with his own memories and personality. Shuyin guessed that it was a fayth that brought him back, but couldn't figure out how they could, being in the Farplane. We took a shot and said it was probably an oversight when they brought Yunie's guy back. Then, the shadow and Areth could have been awakened by a living, breathing Shuyin walking the surface of Spira again. That didn't explain Seymour, though. It was because of all those unknowns that I decided we needed to interrogate one of them, Areth or the shadow, but Shuyin said that was too dangerous.
"I'm not going to risk another of you being possessed and used as a shield. We were lucky he didn't use Yuna that way. He wasn't strong enough to maintain his hold over her and he was thinking short-term anyway." He had told me after we rescued her.
"We don't have another option, though, do we? If we want to get to the bottom of this, they obviously know more than we do about it. Somehow, we have to find a way to capture an unsent." I replied.
"The only way I've known to stay one of them is to defeat it in battle, but that only lasts for about as long as it takes the Sending to come into effect. It's not long enough for question and answer sessions."
"Maybe the Farplane Energy mining that Shinra was talking about could work. If we can find the mechanism that draws the energy out of the Farplane like they had in the Machina Cities, we could drain the unsent of its energy long enough to capture it."
"That's supposing Shinra's research kicks in right now, which I'm not holding my breath for." He retorted.
"Fine, but I'm not listening to your plan!" I told him, already knowing what he was going to say.
"There's nothing else left." He tried to reason.
"It's too dangerous and I don't want to lose you."
"You won't. I'm never going to let the shadow overcome me again. You and Yuna saved me from that once already and I have yet to return that debt. Believe me now, Rikku, I'll find out what's really been going on and then we'll end it once and for all."
"How can you be so sure the shadow's plans to merge with you is going to fail? You already said its been leading us to that conclusion anyway. It could be just what it wants you to do." I shouted, pounding my fists into his chest.
"Yes, I know, but remember this: It needs me to do this. I don't need it. That alone gives me the advantage. It can't be whole without me as its host because my core consciousness is with me. The shadow is only the fragmented anger I felt when I died. Even if it is a part of me, it isn't what's important, which is why the shadow lacks the abilities I've been capable of as an unsent. Trust me, Rikku, I can win against it."
"And if you don't?"
"If I don't, it's all up to you. I have faith that you'll make the right calls."
After that, we fought the shadow in Kilika and I could see that Shuyin was the stronger one. At first, I knew he was apprehensive about using the Bererker Dressphere because of what happened the first time he tried to use it. Even so, it was how the shadow was fighting us that made me realize just how much it did need Shuyin. It tricked us by creating a fake situation at the temple and surrounded itself with the dense jungle when it attacked. It hardly paid any attention to the others during the fight, but before it went after Shuyin, it came for me. The last time it was just me and Shuyin, I was able to use Kirin to distract the shadow. I knew it was scared that I might jeopardize what it was trying to do, but even then, Shuyin overcame his fear of the dressphere and fended the ghost off. When we were on the airship and Shuyin began telling the others to stay focused and keep up their fighting spirit, I knew it was to draw out the baddies when he turned, thinking that none of them would trust him again. I was glad he told them everything else, though, even if they weren't in total agreement. By the time we'd beaten the Bahamut mix that the shadow came up with, I knew Shuyin was ready and had no choice but to accept his plans.
At the last minute, before we entered the Den of Woe, he reminded me that, "Once this is done, you can rendezvous back with me at Mount Gagazet. You know where. If I haven't collected enough intel yet, I'll give you enough of a reason not to blow my cover."
"What if you're not strong enough?" I asked him, hoping he'd change his mind even though I knew he wouldn't.
"You'll know what to do then, too." I didn't know what else to say, but I didn't want to risk losing him like this. He did, though, "Now you'll have to be brave. Remember to lead the others astray. I need Areth and whoever he's subordinate to to believe I'm back to my old ways."
Hesitating for a little bit, I looked down only to have Shuyin pick my chin up and have me look him in the eye and say, "Roger. Understood."
Everything in the Den of Woe was just like he said it would be, hard and cruel to watch, but we had to keep going. He told me about all of it, but seeing it with my own eyes hurt so much. Worse yet was that he told me more that we didn't get to see. The shadow only wanted Shuyin to remember the most painful of them because otherwise, he might set his mind on the good intentions he had when he was unsent. Shuyin moved on, honestly he did, from what happened in his past. It was why he didn't seem bothered anymore even when the rest of us couldn't stand all the terrible events replaying in front of our eyes.
The moment Paine destroyed the remnants of the shadow and Shuyin absorbed those pyreflies back into himself, it looked to everyone else like he was being possessed, but while his hand caught them and redirected them to clear our way out of the collapsing Den of Woe, none of them noticed him wink at me. It was such a faint gesture that I almost missed it, but since he needed me for his plan to work, I was concentrating very hard. By the time we were outside and the whole cave sank down into a chasm, I knew there wasn't a single pyrefly left in it. I didn't know how well he'd take it, having loose pyreflies floating around inside of him that only contained hate and regret, but he was dealing with it mostly well. Still, there were twitches that I didn't want the others to see, especially after he said that very Dark Shuyin line of his, so I acted out being scared and "stabbed" him, pushing him down off the edge.
"Not done yet… And we'll need to prepare…" He said, pulling me away and heading for the Fahrenheit.
He'd found something and it wasn't good. If stopping Areth just now wasn't cheering him up, whoever was behind bringing them back must have been devastating. He had said only a fayth had the power to resurrect the dead, but I wondered what fayth would do such a thing. I didn't want to believe any of the fayth we had met were behind it, and they were targeted by the shadow anyway, so it only made sense to me that it was the shadow's doing if it had been those fayth. The problem with that theory was that the shadow could have wanted to be whole again and so, forced the fayth to return Shuyin's physical body to it. That didn't seem likely because of how Shuyin was acting now that the shadow had been defeated.
"I'm quite confused at all this. What just happened?" Yunie asked me, tugging at my arm before I could go and follow him back onto the airship.
"I'm sorry, Yunie. It was a plan we made up to find out just what was going on." I explained.
"Why?"
"The ideas we came up with up until now were all flawed in some way. It just didn't make enough sense. Shuyin decided the best way to find the truth was to let them get what they wanted first."
"Then, Shuyin would work his way on the inside and see just what was going on."
"Right! But I don't know what he found that's got him like this."
"It's got to be something big to get him unnerved." Paine added, coming to us.
"There's nothing they can throw at us that we can't handle!" Dream boy boasted, patting himself on the chest.
"Does that mean Areth was never trying to help us?" Yunie asked.
"No, he was just taking his revenge on Shuyin by making him lose the only friends he had made after so long stuck in that cave. He doesn't want to kill a complete Shuyin, either. Something changed in him when he became an unsent. Whatever he wants, maybe our plan helped us find that out, too." I explained.
"And he was never possessed at all, was he? The entire time, he was playing his role as the shadow to deceive Areth and whoever else." Paine enquired.
"Yup, I wouldn't have believed it either, but he winked at me when he got 'possessed' so I knew it was him."
"You two have been sneaky as of late. Now we know why." She said in a dangerously low tone.
"Uh, it was the only way to make it believable! Honest!" I yelped, hiding behind Yunie.
"Huh, really. Rikku?"
"Yea?"
"A hundred."
"Respect points?"
"Yea, you just got them." She said with a smile.
Jumping for joy, I rushed over and gave her a hug, squeezing her tight and nuzzling her arm, "Oh, thankies Dr. P!"
"Minus fifty."
"Oh…" I whined, letting her go.
"Maybe forty, but don't push your luck."
Once we made it to the bridge, we found Shuyin back on the main console, looking through files again. This time, he was taking a look at the recent reports of Vydran's guys on all the explosions that had happened all over the place. From those reports, he scanned some of the keywords and opened up different data files from weather conditions to soil content.
"What are you doing?" I finally asked him, "Did you find anything on the explosions?"
"Major factor to what's been going on, I'm afraid. I'm seeing just how unstable it's gotten, but for now, it doesn't seem that bad. Maybe that's how it was meant to be." He told me, his attention never leaving the view screen.
"So you two were collecting the pyreflies to use on a global level." Yunie asked, walking over.
"What?" That got his attention.
"We went to Mushroom Rock Road and saw the devastation of the Youth League. I tried to send them, but there were no pyreflies left in their bodies. I assumed you or Areth were taking them to go on a large scale possession or illusion ploy." She explained.
For a while, Shuyin was dumbfounded, blinking a few times at my cousin, then looking at me, then back at her, "You've read too many fantasies."
"You're saying that's not possible?"
"No, I'm saying that's too dramatic for reality. Besides, if I was after a greater expansion of pyreflies, I'd go straight for the Farplane. You saw how it was last time."
"Then, why are those people losing their pyreflies?"
Shuyin fell silent and returned to the screen. Yunie decided not to push the topic any further, but I stayed with him. He activated the navigations map grid at some point and set a destination for Besaid. When he noticed that I was looking, he said that we needed rest. If we were going to face the oncoming storm with any success, he told me that we needed time.
"Also, Areth needs to taken care of first. There can't be any distractions when the time comes because there're already going to be too many."
While the Fahrenheit made the long trip all the way back to Besaid Island, I checked up on Vydran to see if his heart was going okay with everything that happened. I knew he liked to put up a tough guy exterior being the leader of the Al Bhed and all, but he was getting too old for it and needed to let the Machine Faction take over full-time. Two year ago, he tried to be stern when we were all figuring out how to save Yuna from her Pilgrimage. I knew better than anyone that he had been very worried for our safety and the knowledge that our chances for succeeding against years of failing tradition were next to nothing. Afterwards, even though he was happy that none of us were killed, I remembered seeing him on a few nights praying that the Eternal Calm was for real. Of course, just a while ago, that's when Shuyin attacked Spira and defeated those hopeful thoughts. He tried to bury his true feelings in renovating the Zanarkand Ruins, but I saw right through him. Now, only a short time after all of that, here we were again, dealing with this mess.
"Vydran?" I said, quietly walking up to him.
With his back to me, he grunted, "So you two were playing possum with us, eh?"
"Not so much possum as covert agent." I replied, grabbing his arm, "Are you okay?"
"Sure, I'm okay! Any good soldier knows you don't win no wars playin' it honest. When they got their chips down, you swipe 'em." He told me, grabbing at air with his other fist.
"Uh yea, but what's with the misty eyes?" I said, wiping away the moisture I found on his cheek.
"Allergies! No dang engineer's been through these vents in two years. The dern thing's probably got some kind of…"
"Vydran…"
"You okay? I know when that Shuyin kid took off, you were lookin' right upset." He asked, looking over at me, "I couldn't tell one way or another if that was just part of the act."
"No, I was trying to act, but I was still upset. I was scared for him, you know? Nobody ever said being a spy was fun and simple."
"You had my ol' heart in knots."
"Sorry, but he's back now, safe and sound. We'll fight to the end and get to that dern Eternal Calm one way or another." I mused, taking his words for a spin.
"Hope so. Ain't so sure that's possible no more."
"Aw pops, we'll make it there. I promise. Then, you won't have any more to worry about." I stated with a smile.
The rest of the way to Besaid was more talkative than it had been on the airship in some time. Tensions were calming with our plan no longer in effect. There were no more theories and no more planning in the event of those theories. Instead, we had some idle chatter, some of the talks about what we could do after this was all over and done with, and most of what we used to do during Yuna's Pilgrimage, though I was kinda hoping it was for real this time. Without Shuyin telling us just what exactly he found, we were left in the dark, but that meant all we could think about was Areth, which wasn't too much of an issue now that the shadow was defeated. I think everybody started counting down the hours until we could rest and relax again.
"I can't wait to blitz again." The dream of the fayth said with a yawn.
"I can't wait for when that becomes the most intense part of my day." Yunie added.
"I think I could just go for a drink. You in Rikku?" Paine asked.
"And what pray tell does Dr. P. drink?" I mused, inching real close.
"The blood of bratty blondes who don't know they have it coming." She grunted back, narrowing her eyes at me.
With a mock shiver, I ran for cover behind my cousin, "Yunie, she's going to suck my blood!"
"Well, it might taste sweet." My cousin suggested.
"Yunie!" I whined, running over to Shuyin.
Shuyin looked up for only a few seconds before going back to the console, saying, "I'm afraid I can't save you this time."
That being said, I pretended to be struck hard in the chest and fainted backward onto the ground, my eye peeking just a crack to see the reaction. Paine stalked over to me and squatted on my stomach while Yunie went to talk to her man. Shuyin took the moment to sit back in his chair and what the two of us, going over and whispering something in Paine's ear. The next thing I knew, I felt fingers tickling my sides and had to get out of there. Unfortunately, the girl was sitting on me, leaving me no way to get any distance from her. I eventually managed to turn onto my stomach and start crawling, but that when I realized my back was even more ticklish than my front.
"No no! Stop it! Mercy!" I cried, laughing so hard I thought I was going to faint for real.
"Mercy? What's that?" She asked me coyly.
"Shuyin! Save me!" I screamed, clawing at anything I could find.
"Have no fear, Shuyin's…" He started, but upon seeing Paine's scowl, "On second thought…"
AND HE WENT BACK TO HIS SEAT! "Shuyin!"
"We're here! Less you wanna keep doin' what you're doin'." Pops grumbled, the Fahrenheit hitting Besaid's sands with a thud.
"Okay… We're… here… Am I… saved… yet?" I muttered between breaths of air since Paine stopped.
Putting a hand to her chin, she thought for a moment before saying, "Uh… sure" with a pat to the back of my head and getting off of me.
As everybody left the bridge, I stayed a little while longer to catch my breath, my only company in Shuyin who was still looking over the files. I complained about his brand of help, but he thought it was fun and it reminded him of a time when he was in Besaid with his friends. Apparently, Paine was playing his role back there.
By the time we got to the village, though, all the joking was set aside. We entered Wakka's hut quietly and told him what the present situation was and everything that led to this point. Wakka told us that he'd been keeping up with things as best he could, and that the doctor in Kilika had helped Lulu a lot.
"She's doing fine now, ya. The old guy over in Kilika, he's got some goods. She still hasn't come out of her coma, though, but she will. Lu's a fighter, ya. Don't worry." He reassured us, adding that, "Since we been on the shelf, looks like you got a lot more work to do, ya?"
"Yea, who knew that after we took down Seymour, Areth would show up." I told him.
"It was too difficult to predict, but we can hope that at the end of this calamity, the Eternal Calm will actually take place." Yunie added.
"It never should've been postponed." Shuyin argued, walking to the door and looking outside, "All of this, all of this should've become a peaceful lifestyle over a thousand years ago. It could've been that way two years ago, too."
"Never mind about that. Shuyin, tell us what you've found." Paine said, walking up to him and pulling at his shoulder.
"Yes, tell us so we can put an end to this." Yunie agreed, standing up.
"… I don't know how you're all gonna respond, but…"
I decided to step in, "Just say it. We're ready for anything."
"Shuyin, what's wrong." Yunie asked him, looking him in the eye."
Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes to find the words, he looked right at her and said in almost a whisper, "He's back… and he brought it back, too…"
"Brought what?" Dream boy asked.
At first, he only took his eyes to Paine, then back to Yunie, closing them to take another breath before looking behind all of us with a slight frown. None us knew what was going on and Yunie's guy even asked the question we all had on our minds again. All the while, Shuyin just looked behind us. His stare didn't move for a while and, one by one, we realized to turn out attention to what he was looking at. Behind Wakka, struggling to stay on her feet and stumbling towards us, Lulu came, her eyes on Shuyin just as his were on hers.
"Lulu!" All of us gasped, Wakka going to her side.
"You saw, didn't you?" Shuyin finally said.
"Yes." Was all Lulu answered with.
"Saw what?" The Blitz Ace asked one more time.
"The Age of Sin…" She replied.
Author's Note: … =)
That's right. All this was made possible by none other than the famed Yu Yevon from FFX who was painstakingly fought and painstakingly defeated and painstakingly sent popping off to the Farplane. He's back. Again.
I had been reading topics over several areas online that asked the question: Was Yu Yevon sent? Some pointed at the lone pyrefly that flew off when the Yu Yevon parasite was defeated. Many wondered if that pyrefly was all that remained of him, the representation of his soul being freed, or if he had escaped being sent all together, hence the pyrefly flying off while the rest of his body disintegrated. In Eternal Love, since I wanted to keep the original Journey's Start sphere in my story rather than the updated one in FFX-2, the text made it seem as if he was speaking to his own people. (Who cares if I steal the enemy's weapon; it's the only way to save the summoner!) Why would he tell Bevelle he was stealing "the enemy's" weapon? This was edited to "your weapon" in FFX-2, but I don't like plotholes and the original was more interesting to think about. ^_^;; So, seeing how several antagonists from that story were never punished: Haru, Gras, Mikala, Bevelle, Yu Yevon, I thought about a way to give Shuyin the opportunity and it seemed he was robbed of his chance at Yu Yevon with the time difference of FFX and X-2. As such, I decided to give him another one and began writing Spira: The Eternal Discord. You guessed it; I had every intention since the Prologue of making Yu Yevon the final boss. Likewise, "he brought it back", he's concocted another Sin. However, having a repeat of FFX with a few new characters would be pointlessly dull. How about the fact that there are no more Aeons to sacrifice? There's no more parasite to pummel. Yu Yevon was known as the most powerful summoner in all of Zanarkand, a city priding itself on its summoners. Speaking of which, those gravity spells that pulled Sin's pyreflies together? Guess what those explosions really were? =p
Yes, that is a Graviton spell. Yes, it's a rather powerful Graviton spell. Yes, Sin still needs a Final Aeon. You might wonder just how we're to get a Final Aeon when there aren't even any summoners about anymore. Leave me to that. And yes, he's the reason Shuyin's back. Yes, he brought back Seymour and Areth, too. Well, Areth was a restless unsent, but it was he who gave Areth a direction to fulfill his Focus. *whoops, wrong game* Oh, and yes, he's what actually woke the pyreflies in the Den of Woe and alerted them to Shuyin being alive again. Yes, that's why Seymour, Areth, and Dark Shuyin were together in this. Oh right, if you were thinking those fayth are behind it somehow and they could be the Final Aeon/a sacrificed Aeon/something else along those lines, you're wrong. =) I have other plans for them, which I already wrote once. Larea's not the only able-… can't say bodied, can I… fayth floating about. Now, as for how any of this is to make sense without collapsing into a plot-blackhole and pulling all this farce in, that's for next time!
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Yeah… =p