AN: Yaaaay!Chapter 14! This one was a hard one to write, and he next one will be too, but once that one is over I CAN'T WAIT because I get to write some mushy stuff woohoo!

Shout outs: Badewanne13 - your reviews always make me laugh! I love your excitement! It keeps me going :)

CupOfTeaForAliceAndHatter - Yessss I love it when it's intense...intensely dramatic, and soon the story will get intensely romantic... heeheehee

And the rest of you - READ AND REVIEW...I'm struggling with writers block for the next chapter and I need your thoughts to help me keep going! Let me know if this chapter was confusing, maybe i can help clear things up. It was confusing to write...

Chapter 14

"Rikku, you mind filling us in?" Paine called out to her as they ran after her toward Besaid Temple.

"We don't have time guys, Nooj and Gippal need our help!"

"Yeah, but where are they!?" Yuna was catching up to her cousin. Rikku was pushing her weight against the temple doors.

"In the Farplane, with Vegnagun!" She shouted out to them as she started banging on ancient wood.

"...Then why are we trying to break into Besaid temple in the middle of the night?" Yuna stood with her hands on her hips. Paine's silhouette was coming up behind her with her weapon drawn.

"Rikku, arm yourself, the temple was sealed after the fiend outbreak." Paine was never one to take chances. Yuna and Rikku nodded to each other as she engaged her samurai garment and Yuna checked her guns were loaded.

"I'll explain everything once we're inside, in the Chamber of the Fayth, I promise..." She said as she squeezed herself through the gap in the door.

Shuyin was not prepared to be sent without putting up a fight. The pyreflies swarmed toward him and he crouched to the floor, drawing a sword. He chose Jecht as his first target and arched his back as he leapt at him. Auron was in no fit state to defend him and Braska was simply not a fighter. Once he had slaughtered Jecht he would turn on Braska, finally finishing with the broken man clutching to reality beside him. Then he would continue on with his mission, regarding this event as an annoying interlude before his final act.

Jecht, holding Baralai in his arms, threw the boy aside as Shuyin came at him. He raised his muscular arms in defence and rolled to the side, summoning his own broadsword from the energy of the Farplane. They clashed in heavy blows, Shuyin viciously slicing at the retired Blitzballer. Braska stood unable to do anything, gaping at the strength of the ancient spirit and Auron watched the outlines of his gloves return to solid lines. He looked at Braska who had stopped sending, and understood that as long as he wasn't being sent, the pain of separation would ease and his strength would return to him. He gathered himself to join in the fight whilst Braska's sending was on hold.

"You are not my son!" Cried Jecht as he elbowed Shuyin in the gut. Shuyin caught himself and coughed at the ground.

"Your son? Your son is a figment of my peoples imagination, just as you are!" Shuyin laughed bitterly, issuing each sentence with an unforgiving slash of his sword. "Your son lived in a peaceful Zanarkand that never existed. Your son is a pathetic impression of a memory that the Fayth had of me when they preserved Zanarkand in a dream."

Jecht's eyes grew wide. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, for as long as I am here, the boy cannot exist!" He raised his sword once more to Jecht but was stopped before he could attack by the sound of deep laughter echoing from behind him.

"Finally Jecht, some information we can use..." Said Auron as his laughter teetered out to a stop.

"Looks like we know what we have to do then..." Jechts voice was low and threatening and the two allies locked eyes before spontaneously launching into a double assault. Jecht grinned at his friend, timing himself to the swing of his sword. Just like old times, he thought to himself as he jumped back from a feeble attack. Braska watched the unlikely team thinking back on the bittersweet memories of his pilgrimage when he was alive. A drunken Blitzballer and a dishonoured warrior monk, his best friends, fighting in perfect synchronicity. Shuyin was unable to withstand attack for much longer and, seeing him weaken, Braska opened his mouth to finish the sending.

It was in that moment that Shuyin won the battle.

Yuna was leading the way through Besaid's Cloisters. She knew each and every Cloister of Trials that existed in Spira, and had revisited them many times in her dreams as she had desperately tried to relive the time spent with Tidus. Rikku kept her eyes on her, keeping her concern unhidden. It was in these moments that Paine felt exceptional jealousy at the bond Rikku and Yuna shared, but also privileged to be able to go on this journey with them. She empathised with the Yuna from two years ago who had become a summoner in this place, and who had at the same moment condemned herself to death.

They stood together on the lift as it powered up to take them to the lower level. Paine turned to Yuna.

"I'm really happy that you're here today and that you didn't..."

Yuna sighed and grasped her hand.

"I know Paine, me too..."

Never one to miss out on a tender moment, Rikku threw her arms around them in a group hug and shouted, "Me three!" as the lift clunked to a halt at their destination.

The doors opened out into the holy antechamber. Only a few weeks before had they discovered here a hostile version of Yuna's first Aeon Valefor, and defeated it. This time it was not Valefor, but her Fayth that was waiting for them.

The tiny girl with golden hair pirouetted in front of them. She stopped and grinned at them through her hair. YRP found themselves unable to move in her presence. It had been two years since Yuna had spoken with a Fayth.

"Hello," She greeted her nervously and reached her hand out to the girl. "Are you here to help us?"

You don't need our help.

"Please, tell me, the one who left when you woke up. Where can I find him?"

Believe in Yuna.

The Fayth spoke cryptically to them, not with words, but her message reverberated in their souls. It was something deeply profound that Paine had never experienced before. The Fayth looked directly at her.

Don't be afraid, believe in Yuna.

Paine's eyes widened and she quickly nodded her head. This time the Fayth turned to Rikku. She smiled sweetly at her.

We know you want him to stay.

Rikku opened her mouth in surprise. "Yes..."

Hold him in your heart, he will stay there as long as you want him to.

Rikku's heart began to beat faster.

"You mean, he can stay in Spira?" She whispered. Yuna and Paine watched with mild confusion.

His time here has passed, but he will be with you always.

"But can he stay!?" She questioned desperately.

His time here has passed, the Fayth repeated

"But he wants to stay, I know it!" Rikku cried out after her, but the Fayth had already vanished.

Yuna and Paine turned to her. "Rikku, what was that about?" Yuna asked softly.

"It was..."

"Never mind, lets go." Paine cut in, and headed into the Chamber of the Fayth with her friends following her in silence.

They stood around the pit and listen to Rikku as she prepared them for what she thought was about to happen.

"I think that Vegnagun is hiding in the Farplane, and so does Gippal and Nooj. We know from what happened in the Den of Woe, " She gave Paine a sidelong glance, "that Shuyin can possess people, and we think that Baralai is being possessed right now. That's why Nooj and Gippal are down there, right?"

"Right" Yuna and Paine said together.

"But... It looks like somehow Gippal has been seriously wounded and Nooj needs back up. He told Shinra that Vegnagun is powering up."

"So, it's now or never, right?" Said Paine.

"You betcha..." Said Rikku.

"Le Blanc is never going to let us go help Nooj without her..." Said Yuna.

"Yeah but, and I'm reluctant to admit this, we could use her help." Paine muttered.

"The more the merrier!" Rikku said optimistically.

"Alright!" Said Yuna, punching her fist in the air. "Lets gather the troops and do this thing! We'll send a message to Brother and get him to tell Le Blanc and co to meet us on the other side. Everybody ready?"

"Ready!" They shouted together, and crouched at the edge in preparation to jump.

"And when this is all over Rikku, you can tell us all about this guy you've been keeping secret from us!" Yuna giggled, sticking her tongue out at her.

"Ha! No way!" Shouted Rikku after them as she launched herself into the Farplane's abyss.

Auron's katana scored lines through the Farplane as he swung it at Shuyin. The ghost was weakening, he was unable to keep up with Jecht and Auron's perfectly timed attacks. They worked as one unit, bouncing back and forth off each other, the defences never dropping. Just a little longer... Shuyin thought to himself as he watched Braska restart his sending from the corner of his eye. Their biggest assets were the strong bonds as a team they had forged through friendship however, it was also their weakest one. He knew from the love he bore for Lenne that no one who truly cares for another person would be able to inflict such tremendous pain on a friend, let alone bring their conscious and individual existence on this plane to an end. He just had to pace himself, and soon they would force themselves to accept defeat as the crippled unsent collapses.

Auron felt his body begin to separate again. But instead of it starting as a painful ache as it had done before, it crushed his body almost immediately under another tide of withering pain. He stumbled towards Shuyin as his body gave way under him. Jecht, seeing his friend fall, reached out to grab him. Shuyin took the opportunity he had been given and brought his sword around slashing Jecht across the abdomen and impaling Auron through the torso.

Auron blinked down at the metal shard that was stuck through his body and watched as the ebony blade slowly turned the same colour as his cloak as his blood ran over it. He instinctively reached with his ungloved hand to touch his wound and wondered to himself how it was possible to feel such pain from a physical wound when he was already dead himself.

Almost as if he had read his mind, Shuyin answered his thoughts.

"As you walk the mortal plane, Unsent, your body is unable to forget the ways of the living, and you shall suffer physical pain like the mortal man you were. And you shall return to the Farplane, for now I grant you rest." And he thrust the blade in a little more. Auron's face blanched as the blade slid further through him, but using the strength he had he gripped onto the weapon and called out to Braska.

"Send us!"

Braska stood pale watching his two fallen comrades. Shuyin flicked him a smug sneer and Braska understood it was his sending that was cause this failure.

"Au-Auron... I'm sorry..." He said, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. Auron watched his friend hesitate and called out to him once again.

"It's okay, Braska, you and Jecht get out of here." He managed through his teeth. "Believe in Yuna." Braska nodded and he and Jecht vanished.

"Touching..." Shuyin flashed his teeth through is smirk. Auron's one good eye glared up at him in fury.

"Who can help you now, Unsent? The woman you so desperately want to stay with on this pitiful rock?" He gloated, squeezing the grip on his sword. "Don't worry, you'll soon find each other on the other side." Auron had had enough of Shuyin's taunting and quite frankly wished he was on the other end of the sword. But since he wasn't, he pushed himself off the ground and thrust his bare hand toward Shuyin, vice-gripping his throat, and pulled himself along the breadth of the sword so they were stood only inches apart. His adversary tried to shrink back but Auron tensed his grip even more so that Shuyin's lips trembled and his eyes popped.

"Never threaten her again." His voice rolled with thunder.

Shuyin sneered at him. "As you wish." He said, and evaporated in a mist of pyre flies.

Auron, his strength gone from him, collapsed forward head first to the ground. He rolled over onto his back and listened as Shuyin's melody of despair started up once again. His last thought before his body gave into the call of the Farplane and disintegrated into pyreflies was of one of the three woman racing along the pathways of the netherworld, and of the life he would never share with her.