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: Silly Shuyin, where's he gone off to now? I'm sure that's what Yuna and the gang are thinking to themselves right now. Why would their teammate keep running off like that? Well, enough about them.
This chapter will show exactly what Shuyin has on his mind and where this will lead. Are you curious? Well then, read and find out! What are you doing reading this nonsense up here for? =p
Spira: The Eternal Discord
Chapter 44: Heretic at the Helm
Shuyin
Spira's new destiny, it was almost upon us. Soon after our talk, Rikku decided she wanted to explore the second floor of Kirin's house. It allowed me the moment I had been waiting for. While recreating Zanarkand with my people's pyreflies did have coercing Yu Yevon into action, there was much more left to do than simply wait for him to arrive. That was where I was off to, a direction I hoped would be the last time I'd be facing for a while. I was, once again, on my way to Bevelle. This time would be no different than before. There would be soldiers, there would be a struggle, and there would be a shallow victory.
"Freeze!" One of the swarm of Bevelle guards said as they surrounded me.
This one seemed to be their captain, though his orders came from a superior, as well. I took my eyes from one guard to the next then set my eyes on the weapons they held. My memory of them had not faded. They were still the same foul machinations that had taken my life centuries ago. I had feared them then, feared what they could take from me. I had nothing left to take this time. I had only my hatred of them and I was ready to act.
"Are you deaf? I said freeze! Hands to the sky!" He growled again, cocking his weapon.
"No, I can hear you just fine." I said, my hand brushing the hilt of my sword, "So believe me when I tell you, 'you'll want to put those things down.'"
"Target is not cooperating. Do we have a kill order?"
I turned my head to the left and then to the right, half searching for who this moron might be asking his questions, but also…
"Thought it was you. You may have fooled Gippal and Paine, even Nooj, but you won't fool me." A very familiar voice exclaimed from afar.
Taking my eyes to the approaching Praetor of New Yevon, I lifted my hands and clapped, "And I applaud that. Still, I'm in a bit of a rush. Need to be getting aboard Vegnagun now so if you wouldn't mind…"
"Yes, you have a kill order." He answered the captain.
Locking onto me with their guns, they open fired. It was amusing that Baralai thought it would do anything to his favour. Unsheathing my sword as the bullets came, I deflected them all, making sure not to rebound them into any of them, though. I wasn't trying to be that trespasser this time. However, yes, I was looking to reclaim the machina beast Vegnagun. As I had stated earlier, raising Zanarkand from its ruins only helped draw Sin to a prepared location. That did nothing to properly equip ourselves for this battle. This Sin wasn't like before and, from the stories Rikku had told me of their encounter, even such a juvenile Sin was too dangerous to be trifled with. This time our enemy was at its strongest and still growing stronger. This time the Sin we faced was the one Yu Yevon had warned me about so many years ago, a Sin that was allowed to grow past a ten year period. The pilgrimages and Final Aeons prevented it from developing. Each time they defeated it, the parasite Yu Yevon had to rebuild it from the new Final Aeon core. That cycle maintained that it would never be powerful enough to pose a threat to Spira as a whole. Now, that madman wanted to obliterate this planet. He wanted his Sin to become feral and crumble our world into dust. I couldn't allow that to happen.
Once all their rounds were littering the grounds and they were all busy reloading, I took the opportunity to advance. Baralai and the captain of the guard took to the defensive, the Praetor arming himself with his staff while the captain unsheathed his rapier.
"You know that'll only get you both killed, right?" I stated, lifting my sword up and leaning it against my shoulder.
"You're not regaining control of Vegnagun." Baralai growled, getting into position.
"I only intend to borrow it for a while."
"The only thing intended here is that you're leaving Bevelle in pieces."
"Well, you do have a point, and I believe your machina will fulfill that intention." I said, sheathing my weapon.
Without another word, he rushed me, sweeping at my legs with his staff before spinning around and going for another swing at neck level. It was easy enough to back away from his sweep and lean back to dodge the follow-up attack, but he didn't seem to notice how little I was trying. After missing, he spun his staff into a different position and lunged, jabbing forward with the staff. I easily dodged to my right as he pulled his weapon back and went for an overhead swing. Having grown bored of the bout, I caught his attack and pulled, forcing him forward in time to catch my elbow with his chin. This sent him back a few steps and left his staff in my care. I immediately discarded it and got into my own attack position, signaling for him to make another advance.
And he did, "You know, I think I should take it back. Foolish to trust me, maybe, but none of those three had stooped to trying to fight me as a human, even when I was just a human."
"You left me with little choice." He growled, throwing a right hook.
"Doesn't mean you make the stupid choice. You're a leader now, good Praetor. It's about time you take responsibility for your charges."
My words only angered him as he sent another volley of fists my way. One straight punch came at me far too slowly and I grabbed it and flipped him to the ground. He rolled away and came at me again, this time faking a low kick and moving into a spinning heel kick once I moved to dodge it. Ducking it all the same, I landed a stiff palm against his back after he landed from the kick, which sent him tumbling forward.
"You'd think that as close as you all are, you'd have enough faith in your fellow Crimson Squad members to trust their judgement." I told him once he stood back up.
"I don't know what you said to them or how you tricked them into believing you, but I know what you are, what you've done."
"You think you know more than Nooj? You remember the good Mevyn, yes? He was the vessel I occupied for two years. I shot you with his gun."
Balling up a fist in rage, he came at me again, leaping to my left and attempting an axe kick to my shoulder. Rounding behind where his attack would land him, it was a simple task catching his shoulders and pulling him down to the ground. I got one arm around his neck and lifted, placing him in a headlock.
"And now you'd be dead. As I said, you're a leader now. You can't afford to die like this, against someone insignificant. Spira relies on you to bring it back to order. In the future, you'll need to think through you actions and make your decisions with caution. That move you just tried on me would never have worked. You left yourself wide open for counters." I said, letting him go.
"Is this what you told the others, too? You beat them in battle and then figured we'd be more useful to you alive so you deceived us into believing you are on our side?"
"What makes you think I find you useful?"
This caused him to lunge for me again, but when I tried to catch him, he surprised me and rolled under to his weapon behind me. Reclaiming it, he quickly spun it above his head, the staff extending as he did to send the rotating disc blades at its ends into me. Smiling to myself, I took the opportunity to practice my fancier maneuvers and rolled under the first volley. The second came in low so I cartwheeled against it, one of my hands landing just before reached and my other landing just after it passed, letting me lift the hand it was about to cut and getting back to my feet. The next one came at my middle so I flipped back, letting it pass harmlessly over me. Each time I dodged, I was also closing the gap between us. By the next volley I was able to grab the staff and land a high kick to the side of Baralai's skull, sending him flipping over his staff and onto the ground while I still held it in my hands. Repositioning the other end of it, I brought the sharp disc over his throat and held.
"That makes two deaths. Want to go for a third?" I asked, pulling the weapon away and tossing it to the side again.
"Why?"
"Baralai, I was never your enemy. Even when I was completely mad, I had no intention of antagonizing anyone. Granted, I did want to destroy this planet, but I was insane. I had it in my head that I was helping, not harming."
"We're not going to let you get to Vegnagun." He said lowly.
"You're mistaken. Why don't you think we've been interrupted at all since the start of this fight?" I stated.
To this, Baralai began looking around and noticed how all of his guards were standing idly by while he was taking such a beating. Walking to one of them, he began clicking his fingers at him, trying to rouse him from his trance.
"What did you do to them?"
"Oh, you should know that answer already… so, um, be a dear and lead the way." I said, gesturing for him to take me to Vegnagun of his own free will.
"That's not going to happen."
Taking a breath, I shrugged, "Can't say I didn't give you the choice."
With that, pyreflies erupted from my person and surrounded him, circling and ensnaring him. I had damaged him psychologically when I possessed him the last time. I wasn't about to do that again. However, that didn't mean I couldn't keep him occupied with my pyreflies. While he busied himself with swatting them, I took my leave and made my way towards the temple.
"You won't find it there!" I heard Baralai shout, stopping me.
Releasing him from my pyreflies, I recalled them and turned my head to look at him, but didn't bother to turn all the way around. He seemed at odds with himself. I knew he still didn't trust me and he still held thoughts that I would only use the machina to destroy Spira myself, but he began walking towards me with a different air about him.
"We moved it after Via Infinito exploded."
"I see that reconstruction is already underway." I said, noting how most of the area had been rebuilt.
"It is Via Infinito. It would be too dangerous to keep it open to the surface." He explained.
"Where is Vegnagun?"
He sighed, "Being purified."
"Via Purifico."
"It's been renovated, too. Be careful."
"I always am." I told him, "I promise you I'm not the Shuyin that possessed you and wanted to use this monster to destroy."
"Destroy us or save us, I don't care. Either way, I can't stop you."
I nodded, "You're going to be a strong leader. Don't let it go to your head."
With that said, I moved on and headed in the direction of Bevelle's highest security dungeon, the Via Purifico. I didn't know if this was a good idea, given that the Bevelle Underground was specifically designed to house the machina, while everything I knew about the Via Purifico told me it was meant only for heretics to Yevon, humans and not hulking masses of volatile metal.
"Sir!" One of the guards said from behind me.
After I heard the loading of one of their guns, Baralai placed a hand over the weapon to stop him, saying, "Contact Mevyn Nooj and Gippal."
Turning my head a little bit back to them, I smiled to myself and proceeded forth. The road to the dungeon was easy, all of the guards having been called off by their leader. It was also a simple task prying open the gates with my pyreflies. Via Purifico's main entrance had been sealed recently, no doubt after they placed Vegnagun inside. The layout of it was the same as the last time I had visited while occupying Nooj's body. In my "quest" to uncover Spira's past, I had sought the secrets hiding here, where the undesirable aspects of Yevon's Spira were disposed of. I remember reprimanding the old Yevonites for allowing such an archaic dungeon to continue to exist. It was quite a show, but I had only come here to keep up appearances. The true secrets of Spira were rotting in the Via Infinito, one of which had erupted from it recently. Though I hadn't cared to admit it at the time, the monster the shadow had concocted was what I had originally planned for the chasm, if I needed it. There was darkness hidden within that had been growing more violent since the Machina War.
My thoughts trailed off when I arrived at the first corridor. Entrants of this area usually met their end. The machina here were designed to be triggered no matter who wanted to progress, unleashing any number of Bevelle's captured fiends. As such, when I attempted to access the lift down, I was met with the howls of several Precepts Guards.
"Oh, except you boys aren't just any old Precepts Guards, are you? No, I sense something running deeper. Not guards, but masters." I said to them, my pyreflies having felt the additional power surging through them.
As I predicted, each of them oversouled, changing form to become stronger Master of Precepts. These fiends were freed from their fear of Holy and were more difficult to predict with their attack patterns. The first stabbed down with its large pincer, a distraction as the one behind me cast Ultima at my feet. The spell struck hard, but the pyreflies I held within me were strong enough to absorb them. As soon as the spell cleared, two more cast Flare, rousing me into action. Dashing to the nearest one, I stabbed it in its tail with my sword, which caused it to lift it up, swinging me quickly enough so that the momentum let me launch myself up to its head and spin horizontally, slicing it clean off. As it fractured into pyreflies, the one beside it fired a Sonic Pulse from its mouth before whipping at me with its own tail. While mid-air, I blocked the pulse, the force of it blowing me back and allowing me not only to dodge the tail, but also to grab it. When I flailed it back down, I used it to lunge forth and run it through. With my sword embedded into it, I unloaded the energy my pyreflies had collected from the Ultima, bursting it into messy chunks. Two of the remaining three cast Requiem, a stronger version of Ultima that the former Maester Seymour had taken for an overdrive. Scattering my form into pyreflies, I reformed on top of the third, slicing down the length of its back to defeat it. Finally, before its body could melt away into the ether, I took hold of its pincers with my pyreflies and sent them into the last two, ending the battle.
I took the lift down two levels past the holding cells and reaching the pool. Before I could even look into the water, a Geosgaeno fiend rose up and tried to swallow me. Using my pyreflies to keep its mouth open, I walked into it and began carving. A few deep cuts later, it roared and bathed me in its scattering pyreflies then water when I fell through. There had to be hundreds of them swimming underneath, the combined effect of uniting pyreflies of all the victims of Yevon cast into the Via Purifico and a volatile world corrupting them further. As I made my way down, I found my route. There were several locked doors lying before me in the way. I'd be needing to break through, which would have been a simpler task, but I was caught in an underwater fog of war with each of the fiends barreling into me. A few of them were actually sub-species Georapella, and several had also oversouled. I had to use every available skill I knew in the water to dodge it all. Elemental spells exploded all around, lighting up the depths to give me a better look at their positions. Another Geosgaeno tried to eat me, but I had had one following behind, readying a Stone Punch. With a quick maneuver down, I made it connect with the one trying to eat me and it was turned to dust instead. Through the debris, a few Georapella were casting Holy, a power only available to these oversouled varieties, but actually a weakness to their weaker counterparts. As they were none the wiser, it was an easy task to herd some of them into the path of the spheres white magic. Suffice it to say, by the time I reached the first lock, my path was brilliantly lit by all their dissipating bodies and I had a Force Rain ready.
The power behind my strike actually blew straight through two of the doors, blowing apart any waiting fiends between them. With the direct route cleared, I was allowed to swim right on forward past the two doorways without having more fiends to deal with, though they were all at my heel. I turned the corner to find the third door, but the swarm of the fiends on the other side had become aware of my proximity and tackled through, surprising me. There were too many of them coming at once, however, and they found themselves stuck. Unfortunately, that also barred my path with something worse than a simple metal lock and there were still more of the fiends behind me. With no options left, they all began to swallow the water, the move draining the entire pool with so many of them drinking.
"Bad move." I said, allowing myself to split into pyreflies.
As the water drained, I let my pyreflies drain with them, a small portion going to each fiend. Now, I had control of them. I had them stop swallowing up the water so they could still move. Then, I ordered the Geosgaenos to KO Punch the wall, killing each of them that had blocked my way. Water poured back into the pool from where the fiends had dammed it and I freed myself from them, swimming the rest of the way to the surface.
"Thanks boys. Couldn't have done it without you." I told them once I was on dry land.
The rest of the way wasn't too difficult. There were a few small fiends, but it wasn't any trouble to evade their advances. I had even sheathed my sword during it. Eventually I was at the secret alcove, the place a regular heretic never saw. Taking the stairs down, I reached the new chambers of Vegnagun. It lay there cold and dead, though the devices keeping it alive were giving off an eerie tone that filled the area with an ominous din.
"So, we meet again. You failed to save her, my Lenne. I had believed you were my only hope in keeping her from Bevelle, but you were the thing that sent her to them. Then, you failed me again when I wanted to be rid of this world. You have much to atone for, my old friend." I said to it, despite knowing it was just a machine.
Upon noticing my intentions, Vegnagun stirred from its sleep, its blue eyes piercing into me as the machina inside it gave off the semblance that it was chuckling, pairing well with its monstrous visage. I walked the steps toward it and used my pyreflies to release it from its shackles. Baralai must have chained it in those apparatuses almost as a punishment for the machina, locking it away instead of just hiding it like they used to. This part of Via Purifico was under nothing. Above us was dirt, the empty grounds beside Bevelle that led to the Calm Lands. I could feel it, or rather, I couldn't feel the lives above me as there were only fiends.
"Must be destiny." I mumbled, Vegnagun agreeing with me with a grunt of steam from its vents.
My presence activated it and it lowered its head for me to board. Once I was on it, I felt its surfaces. It had been some time since I had any use for the beast. How odd it felt to be on the same thing I was originally to use to destroy this world. Now, Yu Yevon was the would-be destroyer and I was actually using this device of war to stop it. As if understanding the bizarre turn of events, it groaned, its console lighting up for me to proceed. I took my old seat upon its head and brushed my fingers against the keys.
"Time to play the requiem." I said to it, placing my hands on the keyboard.
At first, the melody flowing from my fingers sounded the same. Vegnagun began activating as it had in the Farplane, unfolding its legs and releasing its tail. Next, I altered the perilous tune I had used then with quickening notes aloft in the air. I didn't need it to walk out of here. This was the melody I had originally intended to play when I used it in the Bevelle Underground over a millennium ago. My pyreflies dug at the ceiling, forcing their way out into the light. Once I could see the surface, I had Vegnagun cast Flares at it, crumbling the rest away and creating a large enough hole to free it. I played the rest of the notes, the keyboard sinking as a new console appeared, the manual controls I would need to guide its movement. Back in the Farplane, I had only needed it to use its cannon. Now…
"Safeties disengage." I commanded, the beast shuddering at what I was about to attempt.
Its engines roared to life and it faced the exit I made for it. Its wings spread out and its legs reared back to let it assume a standing position. Flicking the last switches to set it in the proper position, I took the manual controls and set it off. As it rose upward, the fiends trapped within Bevelle evaporated, caught against Vegnagun's powerful shields.
"This is it." I muttered, as it shot out into the sunlight, "What's our goal?"
Author's Note: Betcha didn't see that one coming. ^_~ Yes, what Shuyin has done was what he had original set out to do with Vegnagun. You didn't think he'd fire the cannon in that small space, did you? Besides, Bevelle would have needed to get it out of the underground, too, if they planned to use it. I doubt they'd punch a hole into the Farplane each time, eh? =p
Originally, had Shuyin's plan succeeded, he would have launched Vegnagun up through the underground and blasted the city to itty bitty bits from the sky. Of course, this is only conjecture, but I always felt that with the differences in song from how we hear it in the Shuyin and Lenne Sphere and how we hear it in the Farplane, there was a difference in activation sequence. Yes, this new tune I wrote Shuyin to be playing is the completed version of what he would have been playing on that sphere.
Additionally, when I started getting more involved with X-2's storyline and characters all those long years ago, it occurred to me that if I were to do a story like this, what with having Shuyin back after all the trouble he's caused, it would be the perfect opportunity to mend the wounds he produced. The most personal of such wounds obviously falls to those he possessed and that's one of the reasons I've gone into detail on how affected characters have been coping. Shuyin's been getting closer and closer to Rikku and setting things right with Paine, but that left out both Nooj and Baralai. On Nooj, I felt his own personality made it much easier for him to move on from that episode and I imagine in two years, no matter how nutters, some truth must have been gleamed by the deathseeker. That's why I had him accept that Shuyin returned on their side much easier than either Paine or Gippal. However, on Baralai, he's always seemed more sensitive in my opinion so to consider what he must have felt being possessed, the only result I could surmise was that Baralai was deeply scarred by the experience. That was why the entire fanfiction, I'd had him distracted by on the other situations going around Spira, even having a chapter or two of blowing up the Via Infinito. xD This chapter was not only to further the march against Sin, but to heal Baralai as much as anyone could believe him to become, though it was also to further the next era of the story, which will be figuring in his growth as a leader, especially after a few more events occur. ^_^;;;
Anyway, where exactly am I taking this? What's Shuyin going to do with Vegnagun? Lastly, what are the others doing at this time? You can't believe they'd just wallow in their Shuyinlessness, right? However, Cid took the damaged Fahrenheit away to help others after dropping them in Zanarkand. They are without an airship. Also, what was it that Baralai wanted from Nooj and Gippal? All this and more on the next exciting super special awesome chapter of Spira: The Eternal Discord!