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: If anyone has been missing battle from this fiction, now's your time. Enough planning and enough waiting. Sin cometh the end draws near. We know Shuyin went after Vegnagun. We know he intends for Yuna to use something called the Breaking. Now, without further ado, let's see what happens.

Spira: The Eternal Discord

Chapter 46: Sinfall II

Shuyin

The horizon was lit by the rising sun in the distance, the air fresh and cool with the morning breeze. It would have been almost silent if not for the roaring engines of Vegnagun blaring against our calm surroundings. I was nearly through checking the machina's function systems and operations core. The cannon was charged at thirty-five percent. The rest of the weapons systems were armed and ready. It had almost gotten to proper altitude and I could begin setting a course back to Zanarkand. Time was counting down to Sin's arrival and I knew it wouldn't be that much longer.

Once it had gotten high enough, I reset its wings and propulsion exhausts to fly it forward. All systems seemed to be working well, which meant it was time to ready the power core. Without the other machina maintaining Spira the way it had been in my time, using the power core would only drain the planet further. After Yu Yevon's stunt, Spira was already on the brink, but Vegnagun needed power to maintain itself and hope to put up a fight against Sin. I fiddled with the controls, my mind focusing on the many wailing Al Bhed I had felt perishing throughout the Age of Sin. Through their mind for mechanics, I found a way to use the power core to its fullest capacity without harming the planet too much. Once it was up, I waited the period for it to charge and then activated Vegnagun's strong defences. First were the moveable plates on its thick metal hide. The machina was designed to engage enemy forces at the heart of war. That equated to having auto-repairing armour plating, so long as it could keep the restoration modules running. The next step was to activate the nodes to raise up the shields and barriers in addition to boosting them with periodic Protect and Shield spells. Given how much more powerful this Sin was, I'd need every second of it just to stay on course. None of the standard weapons systems would be useful against it, I knew that much, but they would be a good distraction while the other defences bought me time.

As soon as I was done preparing, I began moving to my final destination. It was then, I noticed the other airship in the morning sky. The Gullwings' Celsius loomed in the distance, steadily approaching me as I was making my way back towards them. Smiling, I turned in my seat and opened a communications channel between our vessels. Another advantage to having a military vessel was the ability to transmit any signal to nearby vessels whether or not they want to receive it. There were other advantages, too, especially when dealing with a cargo ship such as the Celsius, but more on that later.

"About face, ladies and gents." I announced, "We've got minutes, if that."

"Shuyin, did you mean for me to use-" Yuna began to say.

"I'm thinking we're into 'if that'." Rikku interrupted.

Looking on the slopes of Mount Gagazet, I witnessed the start of a rockslide and just beyond that, a mass began to block out the sunlight. Within moments, the air compressed and exploded outward, sending strong currents against Vegnagun's hull. I didn't wait a second more. Going back to the controls, I set the engines into full and sped the rest of the way to Zanarkand.

"Shuyin, wait for us!" Paine ordered over the speaker, but I could care less.

The Celsius was unarmed for the most part and I knew it had no shields. If anything, that ship could only provide support and that would require Sin not to pay attention to it. For that to happen, it needed to be fixated on something else first. Vegnagun soared right above Zanarkand, just opposite the beast. The face-off was intense, you know, if either of us cared for such things. I was busy reconfiguring the machina back into attack mode. As for Sin, it sort of floated there, hanging with that vacant yet vile stare over the city.

"What's it waiting for?" Rikku asked over the coms.

"Maybe it's admiring the architecture." I mused.

"Well, it was an impressive redesign." My better responded.

"Or it could be mounting an offensive." Paine mumbled with sarcastic intent.

"How do you figure?"

Yuna would answer that for him, "Are all those things sinspawn?"

In the distance, hordes of creatures headed our way. The ones that couldn't fly on their own were carried. Every last one had come straight from Sin itself; I guess we got its attention. I knew the Celsius wasn't going to handle it well, but there was little I could do to really help them. Too many were in the air.

However, I was able to find out one thing, "They aren't all sinspawn. Some of them are fiends."

Not very useful, but at least we knew what we were up against. The dossier on Vegnagun was catching each of them, casting Libra and documenting all targets. What's more, every enemy it caught in Libra was automatically targeted by its weapon systems. All it was waiting on was my command to engage. As soon as the first rows slowed to get into position, I had Vegnagun fire its missiles. The collecting crowds made the effective range that much more worthwhile and the first wave was down within seconds. Unfortunately, the resulting cloud paved the way for the next waves to punch through without fail. Vegnagun's mechanical flaw made it unable to target anything it couldn't "see". It was more a long distance fighter and only had a few resources allotted for close quarter battle. Suddenly, energy beams shot out from the side, the power dispersing once they hit something in the cloud. Under it, a few fiends fell, exploding into pyreflies.

"Shuyin, keep firing!" Paine ordered.

"Roger, didn't know the Celsius had weapons."

"Only way to deal with pirates." Rikku suggested.

"In the sky?" I asked.

"Sure, why can't there be sky pirates?"

"Because you're lame enough." Paine answered.

"Hey! Meanie!"

"Apart from that, I'm fairly certain the original owners of that airship were part-time smugglers." I added, "Oh, and we should really be getting back to the task at hand."

With that, I fired a Lacrimosa at one of the sinspawn that had gotten too close to the Celsius' deck. They began firing the energy beams at more of the fiends, but they were getting closer. My missiles were even being counterattacked by some of the earlier waves that were close enough to begin using their acid bursts on them. I even had to have Vegnagun use its debilitating fire breath on some that got too close to the console. The Celsius wasn't doing much better. Despite how much attention I was giving to make sure nothing was going to be trouble for them, it only took attention away from protecting myself, which when I did, only allowed more swarms through to them.

"There's too many of them!" Buddy shouted through the coms.

"We are firing the lasers!" Brother screamed, almost sounding normal given the frantic tone everyone was undertaking.

Soon, our defences were breached and, on my end, an Aeshma fiend managed to land on Vegnagun's head. I was forced off the console, setting it on autopilot, and attack the demon personally. I launched myself at it, swiping it across the waist with my sword while moving behind it. Turning to see the resulting pyreflies, I realised it wasn't dying. An attempted Break spell cast my way was a further clue. Quickly, I ran and made another pass, this time jumping high to slice off its head. Unfortunately, as I looked back, it was still standing strong.

"So, that's your trick." I said, pointing the tip of my blade at it, "You don't actually take damage from things like my sword here, do you? Your physical form is out of sync with reality, isn't it? Clever little thing."

It growled at me, waving its large arms to cast Flare, but it was such a long latency period that I actually walked out of the spell's area of effect, using my pyreflies to snatch another Aeshma from the sky.

"Oops, not another one of you. I think this one's a junior." I corrected myself aloud, having used the pyreflies to scan the fiend, which told me it was the weaker Aka Manah.

Of course, from that fiend, I realised they were one in the same except that those that ascend to become Aeshma usually arose from vengeful Time Wizards, their reality altering magics eventually transferring to their fiend shells, accounting for how they can shift their existence from reality. It was a long-winded way of saying they were Aka Manah fiends that couldn't be attacked physically. Everything else was the same, which was good for me. With my pyreflies controlling it, I had the Aka Manah cast Flare on the Aeshma. As expected, the black magic worked and it grumbled at my success.

"You'll have to do better than that."

Why did I have to open my big mouth? Right after I said it, the fiend began its chanting and sigils appeared above and beneath us. It was the fiend's strongest attack, the Emblem of Thanatos. I figured if it was going to use it, I might as well have the Aka Manah use it, too. It was interesting to see the overlapping sigils, but the intense light that followed burned. I was fortunate to have my sword extended, which allowed me to absorb most of it, but despite being practically the same fiend, my Aka Manah was annihilated outright, while the Aeshma survived to send a Break my way. I dodged the stalagmite just before it appeared, but the awkward move caused me to trip on landing. In my position, I could see that some of the fiends and sinspawn weren't headed directly for us. Several of them were taking a route under us, most likely to ambush us from underneath. Big mistake. Evading a Flare from the Aeshma, I headed back for the console and had Vegnagun activate Memento Mori. From beneath us, its core node lit up and scanned all the enemies it could find. Once they were all marked, it irradiated them and burned the sky with their bodies. After their markers no longer displayed on Vegnagun's screen, I turned my attention back to the uninvited guest. The Aeshma hadn't moved since it landed, showing me how confident the wizard it was made from had been.

I nodded in agreement, "I can see that warriors and knights don't mean a thing to you. What you want is a duel of mystics, am I right? Very well."

Taking out my The End Garment Grid, I activated the Black Mage sphere. Dark light shone upon me as my clothes faded to black and my sword's glow dimmed. The darkness draped across me and reformed into a long coat. Runes scattered across my person, drifting slowly against the gray shirt I now wore. As the rest of my new attire formed, I saw the beginnings of another Flare lighting up under my black pants. I looked up at the demon and shook my head at it. With a lazy click of the fingers, I cast Dispel on it, fizzling out the sizzle of the spell before casting Ultima. It saw my draw and matched me, casting its own Ultima. Mine would take effect first, blasting the fiend with waves of powerful magic. Before its spell could hit, I changed back and absorbed it into my sword, as well, my sword vibrating in overload. After taking both an Ultima and an Emblem of Thanatos, the fiend was barely able to remain standing, but it was stubborn. It cast Silence on me, letting me know it was dazed from the damage. Since it was in such a state, I simply commanded Vegnagun to use its Redoubts and cast two Lacrimosa attacks, finishing it off.

I stood upon the head of my war machine as it continued to launch its missiles and fire its spells. It appeared that the numbers weren't going to be enough to stop us, but I knew that Yu Yevon's wouldn't be relying on such weak forces for the whole battle. A short distance away, I noticed the Celsius being invaded by a few of the sinspawn.

"Head on deck?" Rikku asked over the coms in a hasty voice.

"And fast!" Paine agreed.

"Live and let live!" Came the loud chant of my twin's… could it be counted as a war cry?

I waited for them to arrive on deck and watched their fight to see if they needed me. With an enemy like Sin looming before us, I wanted to keep Vegnagun poised. At first, it looked as if I'd have to intervene, but they were stronger than I had believed. Before long, the deck was clear, their lot looking across the gap at me as I continued to watch them. Another Memento Mori drove back most of the fiends. The Celsius' energy beams kept those that made it through at bay. It was time to make our way to Sin itself.

Pyreflies flew from my back to the controls. I had already primed the machina and it was only awaiting my final instruction. The pyreflies acted for me, triggering the remaining sequences to unleash Vegnagun's ultimate attack. Unlike the locked position and slow charge I had used in my tenure as evil unsent, this function was what I had originally intended to loose upon Bevelle over a thousand years ago.

"Now Vegnagun, Cae-" I started to exclaim, only to be stopped by our enemy.

Vegnagun shuddered, the tremors spreading to my form. Turning to the Celsius, I saw that they had felt it, too. Not only that, the fiends in the air had felt it, too, scrambling in a panic to return to the creature. One by one, they exploded into pyreflies and the shaking only worsened the more pyreflies Sin absorbed. What was worse, looking down below, I could see Zanarkand begin to warp, the tallest towers beginning to twist and bend towards the monstrous creature above. Another pulse shot out from the beast, pushing against both our vessels and slew the remaining sinspawn in the air. Vegnagun was well protected from the assault, but the shock caused its nodes to immediately cast Protect and Shell spells onto its shields and armour plating. The Celsius, on the other hand, was on full red alert. As I looked on, all of them on deck were clinging to its surface and the entire airship was creaking loudly.

"I think we're in trouble!" I heard Rikku's trembling voice say over the coms.

Looking at the city below, I saw that most of it had already shattered and crumbled back into the pyreflies I employed to make it. The loosest groupings were absorbed first, but soon, the city was returned to its current form, a desolate husk of its former glory. The only difference now was that the giant cloud of pyreflies that used to adorn the sky above it was now a part of Sin.

'Now, you will all die.' A voice echoed within my mind.

"Ah, so the crone announces itself." I said aloud, staring straight into Sin's eyes.

'If you care not for your own well being, will you not care about them, either?'

Taking my eyes back to the Celsius, I could see that its engines were buckling under the force of Sin's attack. From Rikku's tales, I had heard the Fahrenheit was able to weather the first Sin's Tera Graviton. This, on the other hand, was a new Sin and it was more powerful, which made its gravity-based magic much more potent. This sphere of intense gravity was the effect of Exa Graviton. Yu Yevon was using it just to absorb the pyreflies I'd left him. That had been Zanarkand's purpose, after all, but catching our vessels in its wake, that was a bonus.

Going back to the console, I had Vegnagun activate its nodes. Against its own programming to protect itself, I had it launch those nodes at the Celsius, effectively transferring its shielding and defensive barriers to the airship. As they were granted safety from Exa Graviton, Vegnagun began to succumb to it, its systems coming under heavy fire. The pressure of the powerful magic began crushing its operating mechanisms, but it had some fight left in it.

"Alright, let's try this again. Vegnagun! Caelum Denique!" I commanded, releasing its cannon from within.

Unlike in the Heart of the Farplane, the cannon wasn't going to have the opportunity to compact the energy it soaked over time. Caelum Denique was designed to be used in a dire situation, when any large counterattack could help turn the tide of war. There would be no time to wait for a perfect shot and no anchor to have it bide. Instead, Vegnagun would have to remain airborne and pull in as much power as it could within seconds. Normally, this would make the blast strong enough to render a machina city molten ash. Sin was no machina city, however, but luckily, I was no ordinary power source. I lifted my sword into the air and released the force I gathered within it. With both the energy collected from the massive Emblem of Thanatos and additional strength from the Aeshma's Ultima, Vegnagun had all the energy it needed, charging up a strike far more explosive than anything I had expected to use on Bevelle those many years ago. With a great howl, the cannon fired and struck Sin right in its skull. The damage rendered its face impossible to recognise, what with the gaping hole drawing much more attention. Exa Graviton's effect began to weaken, Vegnagun no longer feeling its effect. However, it wasn't finished, not by a long shot. Slowly, its face began to reform, the first of its eyes returning and glaring at me in the distance. Opening what had regrown of its mouth, it spat a storm directly in line with Vegnagun. The Final Judgement took a heavy toll on the behemoth and I could feel it failing. Many of its systems were no longer operational and the few that were, were struggling simply to keep it aloft.

"Alright, guess its showtime." I muttered, getting back into the console.

Taking it by the throttle and going against every program installed in its cortex, I steered Vegnagun forward into the heart of the storm. Lightning stung at its faltering plating and winds tore them off. The swirling gales cost me several legs and the Right Redoubt, but it wasn't going to be enough to stop this beast of war. As the last of its power died and its core failed at last, momentum was the only thing keeping it on course. I waited for my opportunity, the two monsters coming closer and closer together. Finally, Sin's reformed head roared back into life, ready to bite down on my vessel, and I leaped from it to safe ground. Vegnagun was destroyed, its pieces following the currents down into the hole Sin had sprung from. I could only guess it was headed back for the Farplane, another cycle completed. For a moment, I stood vigil over it, its destruction symbolizing my release from all the ills of the past.

Sin lurched having become aware of my presence, but that would not save it. Unsheathing my sword, I focused the remaining energies it had left and charged Force Rain through it. I gave the creature one final look, eye to eye, then I stabbed down into its hide, releasing the overdrive. It wasn't going to stop it, nothing could come that easily, but I felt satisfaction at causing it pain and, better yet, creating an entrance inside. Force Rain had torn through its skin all the way and created a deep enough wound that it wouldn't be able to close for a while. I stepped into it, dropping down the long chasm until I found myself in a strange reality, what would appear to be a nonsense world of coloured light. The first feet I walked evoked no answers. There was nothing in any direction but more light. If I hadn't been standing, I would never have guessed there was a surface beneath me. My next decision was an obvious one for me: Destroy it all. However, before I could lift my sword, a presence reverberated across my pyreflies, one I knew only too well.

"Game Over."

"Final Chapter."

Author's Note: BAM! Was that good for any of you? It was lots of fun writing it, I can tell you that. I had had this planned so long, but to have it all on paper, what a thrill it was. So, Vegnagun is gone. I wonder if any of the old forum goers ever visit, because I can recall a certain debate we had had regarding who would come out on top, Vegnagun or Sin, and I had been on the side of Vegnagun, not to say it would ever win, but not to underestimate it. In my honest opinion, if a machine could have a weapon powerful enough to raze an entire city or destroy the core of the world, it can't be too pitiful against something that can only level cities over decade-long romps. =p No, I believed it back then and I still believe it now, Vegnagun and any other machina out of the war stands no chance against Sin, not this exemplary form and not its original FFX form. However, Vegnagun did take eight to destroy, which was the same amount of people it took to defeat Sin. Regardless of how gameplay mechanics had it, that still accounts for something on a storytelling respect.

Apart from that, I enjoyed the attacks used this time. Exa Graviton was fun to think about. I had always wondered why Tera Graviton was supposedly better than Giga Graviton when it seemed too easy to dodge something as spread apart as Tera Graviton. Oh sure, it puts on a show, what with the exploding ground and shockwaves in the sky, but it only extends in a few linear streams. The other areas around it are completely safe and it was simply Cid's poor navigating that caused the Fahrenheit to fly directly into one of them. xD Giga Graviton was far more direct, though I believe it had far shorter a range and also a shorter duration. Therefore, I created Exa Graviton, an aura of gravity that crushes everything about it unless shielded. Speaking of which, did any notice how Shuyin was standing aboard an open cockpit, no shields left protecting Vegnagun, the machina actually falling to bits, and yet he was perfectly fine? No, it had nothing to do with having his unsent pyreflies with him. This was done to illustrate something that had inspired me to make Yu Yevon an enemy in the first place, when I was writing "The End of Zanarkand". If you ever scanned Shuyin in FFX-2, you'll find that he's immune to gravity spells. I found that odd, but then I thought on how Sin's power was all gravity spells. It felt right to make them enemies after that. I imagined Yu Yevon would fancy those types of spells most of all, which was how he drew all those wayward pyreflies to him to build the first Sin, after all. Final Judgement was just to make a point I made in that same chapter that Sin is feral and actually much stronger than Penance. =p

Caelum Denique was another favourite. I couldn't imagine how little sense it would make if the cannon sequence we saw in X-2 was how Shuyin planned to attack Bevelle during his life. It took forever to charge that thing to capacity and all he was fending off were eight people. Back in Bevelle, he was up against the machina army of Bevelle and I was sure, as I wrote in Eternal Love, that they would be back straight away once they knew an enemy had their strongest weapon. If eight people could stop Vegnagun from firing, how could anyone expect an advanced machina army not to? x)

Finally, as these next chapters are all battle intensive and, let's face it, one final arduous round, I've been working to finish it all so you won't have to wait so long for updates... which is why you've waited a bit longer than normal for this one. ^.^;; This final battle is three chapters long in classic Final Fantasy fashion excessively long sequences ;;;, including this one. Anyway, now that Shuyin's paved the way into Sin for the final confrontation, what's lying ahead? Find out next time, on Spira: The Eternal Discord, Chapter 47: "Final Chapter"

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*giggle* Sky pirates. *giggle*