74: Breakthrough

"So the plan is to just wait here or what?" Jecht said, leaning against the strange, pointed stone outcropping near the edge of the gorge. He eyed the drop. "How deep d'ya think that thing goes down, anyhow?"

"You wouldn't want to find out," Auron replied, his eyes scanning the fields behind them for any fiend movement.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jecht leaned over to look at Auron.

"Ah. He means that the Scar is where the dead are interred," Braska explained. "This enormous rift in the ground was created when High Summoner Gandof defeated Sin more than four hundred years ago."

"Sin an' a Final Aeon did all that?" Jecht looked at the gorge again with a new, wary respect. "Fine, okay, but why don't anyone wanna know how deep it goes?" He waited for a moment, but when no explanation was forthcoming, he clucked his tongue and looked at Rikku expectantly instead.

"Uh. Well. For one, Summoner Gandof died down there. Most people who come to the Calm Lands are either Summoners or Crusaders. You know, people trying to fight Sin. So… when they die, there's usually nobody left to Send them. Survivors toss the bodies over the edge to keep Unsent from overwhelming the plains."

Jecht paled. "Hell. You serious?"

Auron spun around. "Yes. This place is the graveyard of every failed Pilgrimage that ever took place. The lucky ones ended up in the Scar. The rest…" He turned back to the fields, watching a few Malboros crossing in the distance.

"Sorry I asked," Jecht muttered. "So… uh… All we gotta do is get under Sin's skin to make sure we don't end up like that, right?"

Braska sighed. "Yes." He took a deep, bracing breath, poised with his staff extended before him. "I'm beginning now."

Jecht and Rikku rose to their feet, and Auron turned around.

Closing his eyes, Braska spread his arms wide and looked up to the sky. Light bloomed around him, quickly turning into a swirling river of pyreflies that ascended into the clouds above the gorge. There was a twinkle overhead, and then three motes of light winked in the distance, closing in rapidly. They fluttered to the ground like seeds blown in the wind, landing gently around Braska's feet and blooming into bright, enormous flowers, their petals delicately closed. And then, in a violent eruption of pollen, the flowers burst open, spewing out the Magus Sisters.

Jecht and Auron stared, taking in the sight of the three odd, insect-like sisters more closely, now that they were no longer in the dusky temple of Remiem. Rikku took a step backwards, less impressed; they'd always been temperamental even when Yuna called upon them. She wondered how they were going to react to Braska.

Braska lowered his staff and bowed deeply to the three sisters. "Greetings, my ladies. Thank you for coming. I hope you will lend us your strength, for we intend to face Sin."

The red mantis at the forefront of the group looked unimpressed. With one hand on her hip, she flicked her head and her antennae twitched.

"That one's Sandy," Rikku whispered to Jecht and Auron. "She's the leader of the three, and well… she makes Shiva look nice. She usually prefers hand-to-stingblade combat."

The rotund ladybug smacked a fist into her palm, looking pleased. "And that one's Cindy," Rikku whispered. "She's kind of like the healer of the group, except when she gets pissed. Then she's a pretty decent black magician, too."

The smallest one, fluttering in the air like a wasp, buzzed uncertainly between the other two, who were waiting expectantly. "And that one's Mindy. Don't let her size fool you, she's a nasty black caster, plus she can really pack a wallop when she attacks with her stinger."

"What exactly are they doing?" Auron murmured as Braska held up a placating hand to the three girls.

"They're trying to decide whether or not to listen to Braska. They kinda do whatever they want after they're summoned. They're even weirder than Yojimbo."

Finally Mindy floated unsteadily towards Cindy, plunking down by her side and mirroring the ladybug's stubborn cross-armed pose.

"Looks like they chose to listen to Braska," Rikku observed as Sandy rolled her eyes and then shrugged. The three aeons turned eerily as one to stare at Braska, waiting to take his command.

"Ah," Braska said. "Why don't you just… do as you will?" he asked them.

The sisters looked at each other, grinning. Leaping in unison, they took to the sky and then dove into the gorge, disappearing in streams of twinkling light.

Braska crept towards the edge of the steep cliff, peering over it. "I think… they are fighting the Unsent down there," he said after a moment, his brows drawing together.

The faint sound of roars floated up from the bottom of the canyon, and then he stepped away rapidly as a prismatic sheen of light blasted upwards, the faint after-image of a triangle fading in its wake. An explosion rocked through the gorge, intense enough to shake the ground from where they stood.

"Wow, they're really going crazy down there! I think that was a Delta Attack!"

"A Delta what?" Auron asked as another explosion sounded, followed by a few more blasts of light.

"Well… they just combine their powers to attack things," Rikku said. "Y'know… they're like three mini-Animas in one big package. So when they feel up to it, their most powerful attack is like three Final Aeons blasting something at once."

Braska paled. "And that wasn't enough for Lady Belgemine to defeat Sin the first time around?"

Rikku scratched her cheek. "That's the thing. They're just really powerful kids. Sometimes they throw tantrums, or refuse to attack things, or stalk off and just argue with each other. I'm guessing they're feeling cooperative because they haven't been let out to play in a really long time."

"That don't look like playin'," Jecht observed, taking a large step back as another blast of light shone out of the canyon. "I kinda see how this might get Sin's attention, though," he muttered as the first few pyreflies began to stream upwards. They were followed by more, their numbers slowly thickening until they filled the air with their keening cries.

The Sisters continued to wreak havoc below while everyone waited tensely at the canyon lip, bathed in the rainbow glow of the dissipating pyreflies. There were so many that they were beginning to transform the normally-harsh daylight of the Calm Lands into the strange, otherworldly glow of the Farplane.

Braska was the one who felt the change in the air first. "… I think it worked," he said, scanning the horizon. "Do you feel that?"

They all fell silent as the familiar nausea rolled over them in waves.

Sin, Rikku thought, gagging while the enormous aeon rose up into view. The displaced ocean ran off of its crystalline wings in massive waterfalls. It began to meander slowly towards them, unhurried in its quest to gather even more pyreflies within its gravity field.

"We will do as we discussed," Braska said, clutching his staff tightly. "We need to get inside of its main body. We cannot hope to chip away at that armor from outside, or we'll be annihilated by Sinspawn first."

Sin still consisted of entirely too many eyeballs, but it was heartening to see that several of them remained glassy and frosted over from the encounter with The Love Boat. Beautiful, hardened crystals replaced each one of Sin's damaged limbs; they'd grown slightly larger in size than when Rikku had seen them last. She battled past her own feeling of sickness and studied the crystal formations with nervous energy. "Huh… I don't think we're going to be able to punch inside from where we hurt it before. Those crystals look too strong and they've gotten bigger!"

"There has to be a weak point," Auron muttered, drawing his sword and watching Sin approach them stoically.

Jecht held up his hands in the familiar box, casting Scan. It was useless at this distance, and likely useless on something as large and logic-defying as Sin anyhow, but he still twisted the vision-enhancing spell into a crude version of binoculars, moving carefully on along the outlines of Sin's enormous body. He stopped at its bulbous head, squinting. "… What 'bout that? Looks like there's a city growin' outta its head."

Auron nodded, clutching his sword in a white-knuckled grip, the only sign of his apprehension. "Buildings have doors."

Rikku swallowed and wished she could stop her legs from trembling; no matter how many times she faced Sin, the sight of it approaching always filled her with cold, numb fear. Sin hadn't even crossed the gorge yet, but it was drifting through the air towards them like the world's least aerodynamic airship. A swirl of clouds trailed after it, pulled along after the enormous monstrosity like a gauzy cloak. "We need to get up there first before we can bust in."

Braska nodded. "Leave it to me," he said, closing his eyes. Lights bloomed around him once again and in the place of the Sisters whom he'd dismissed, Bahamut hurled himself out of the sky. The aeon landed with a solid thud behind them.

Rikku eyed Bahamut's dragon form warily, still miffed that the Fayth hadn't once let a single clue slip about the nature of her existence. The dragon, however, chose to ignore her glare, instead dropping to one knee.

"Woah, that's… weird," Jecht said, more distracted by Bahamut's appearance than Sin's slow, ominous flight path towards them. "… He wants to carry us in," he continued after a moment, moving to Braska's side. He picked up the enraptured summoner easily and stepped into Bahamut's waiting hand. "I'll ride with B. You guys go in his other claw." Then he made a face. "C'mon man, who says 'skedaddle' anymore?"

"You… can communicate with Braska like that?" Auron asked, sheathing his sword and grasping Rikku's hand.

"Yeah… it's real weird. Not direct, like. But I can kinda feel what he's doin' to that other aeon," Jecht said uncomfortably. Bahamut's clawed fists closed gently around each of them.

"Hold me up," Rikku said to Auron, squirming and wriggling until her chest and arms were free from the dragon's clutches. Activating her Garment Grid, she felt some of her fear dissipate as Jecht's boundless confidence washed over her as Lady Luck. "If getting there's gonna be the luck of the draw, then I'm stacking the deck," she declared, blowing a kiss up to Bahamut that showered the aeon with rose petals.

"Here we go," Auron said lowly when Bahamut crouched. His fingers tightened around her waist when the dragon leapt into the sky, wings beating powerfully.

Rikku's trilling laugh of excitement changed into a battle cry as she switched dresspheres, feeling her fear return full-force. It was tempered by her absolute fury at Sin's existence, though. Digging through her Alchemist belt, she pulled out a potion and one of the Lunar Curtains she'd managed to steal from the ancient machina in Zanarkand, weaving them together in a glowing mix that she smashed into Bahamut's claw. "Time to bust out!" she yelled, bringing her gun up to her shoulder and watching Sin through narrowed eyes as the bright sphere of a defensive Wall of magic bloomed around each of them.

They soared over the seemingly bottomless pit of the gorge, but there was no time to contemplate the potential fall because Sin loomed above them. It sent an advance guard to greet them in the form of its shedding scales. They rolled and dropped off of its body, unfurling into flying monstrosities, their long tails whipping sinuously behind them. Sharp claws and mouths with far too many teeth screeched, flapping their way towards them.

Rikku cursed; the Spawn were still too far away for her gun to reach, and they'd be sitting ducks amidst the aerial assault if she didn't come up with something fast. She began speeding through her grids, feeling a queasiness that wasn't entirely just Sin's toxin as she rapidly shifted through costumes, much to Auron's dismay.

"What are you doing?" he yelled at her, his words snatched away by the buffeting winds as Bahamut flew them closer towards madness.

She didn't answer, too focused on keeping her cookies from tossing, before she returned to her Alchemist sphere. The belt was warm to the touch now, though, and faintly glowing as the energized dressphere gates activated its hidden power. Swallowing thickly, she shouted her answer: "It's just about time to start conflagrating!"

Feeling the power thrumming through her, she clasped her two hands together, forming a finger-gun. "Pew," she whispered, eyes narrowing. It was easier this time, than on Mushroom Rock; she'd grown stronger since then. The spell was still taxing, but she felt like she was better able to harness and control the raging power of the unlocked Grid.

The Flare spell shot out like a lance, exploding against the nearest Sinspawn, sending it spiraling into a mass of pyreflies.

"Pew-pew-pew!" she yelled, grinning smugly as three more Spawn went down. Bahamut changed his angle slightly, speeding them through the dissolving pyreflies. They were in the thick of it now, though, and Rikku felt sweat beginning to form on her brow. The activated Grid was still ravenous; as much as she'd grown, she could feel each Flare spell draining her of her precious energy. She tried to aim one more at a fiend, but Auron grabbed her hand and forced it down.

"Enough!" he shouted at her, seeing the waxiness of her complexion.

Grunting, she downed an ether, feeling some of the dizziness evaporate, and then pulled out her gun and began firing at the Sinspawn buffeting Bahamut. It wasn't nearly as effective as her black magic, but the bullets were still powerful enough to knock some of them away from the fist holding Jecht, who'd curled around Braska's frozen body protectively.

Her heart was in her throat even as she shimmied upwards and leaned further out, kept in place by little more than Auron's iron-fisted hold around her hips and his determination to keep her from falling out of the aeon's grasp. She tried to anticipate and stop any of the spawn from hitting Bahamut in a way that would knock Braska out of his Rapture; they were so far up in the air now that it would have meant certain death for all of them.

Thankfully, the Sinscales were mindless, attacking every part of Bahamut's body with equal fervor, unaware of the delicate burden the aeon carried. Despite that it wasn't enough; after a few moments of being swarmed by relentless assaults by the Sinscales, Bahamut roared and changed direction, charging straight up into the sky to escape the ceaseless attacks.

Even a thousand papercuts could fell the King of the Aeons, Rikku thought, desperately mixing potion after potion and smashing them into Bahamut to seal his wounds even while Auron chanted out what little curative magic he knew.

The multitude of Sinscales following them twisted like a vortex, chasing after the dragon's rapid path upwards.

She heard Auron swear, his fingers tightening painfully around her as the pressure of their sharp ascent threatened to tear them all away from Bahamut's grasp. The aeon broke through the clouds winding over Sin, leaving long trails of swirling mist in his wake. Cresting, Bahamut roared; the clouds below parted from the following swarm, still giving chase.

Somehow Rikku managed to hit her Grid, strength flooding through her bones as she donned the Samurai dressphere. A desperate resolve to live flooded through her, banishing her doubts. She watched the swarm that threatened to engulf them approach. They had to make it to Sin. There was no other way, because the alternative… was unthinkable. She gripped Bahamut's clawed finger tightly, then whispered a fierce invocation under her breath: "Hayate!"

Bahamut's wings folded and he dove, head-first, towards Sin. She wasn't sure if she screamed, because the wind tore all sound from her throat. Still, she held on fast to Bahamut, her absolute belief in their success flooding into the aeon through their shared touch.

The dragon hurtled through the Sinspawn, blowing the few that he didn't manage to avoid apart with his sheer speed and mass. They blasted through the cloud-cover, rapidly approaching the half-formed city growing out of Sin's crown faster than any of the Sinscales could keep up.

In fact they were approaching too rapidly; Rikku grit her teeth, knowing they couldn't stop in time. Bahamut wasn't even trying to. "No Fear," she whispered, tears streaming out of her eyes as the last vestiges of her magic surrounded her in a protective bubble. Just before impact Bahamut twisted, flipping his massive body over and cradling his passengers to his torso as he slammed into the half-formed city rising out of Sin's back. A few buildings rumbled and fell over from the swath they carved through the streets. Pyreflies screamed all around them and Bahamut's body dissolved.

Suddenly held aloft by nothing and traveling at speed, they each went rolling. Still in her Samurai costume, Rikku clung to Auron just as tightly as he held onto her and fought with him to take the brunt of the impact as they flew through the streets. They both hit the side of a building with a loud crack, and her protective spell shattered. Stunned and bruised they fell apart… but somehow, were still alive.

Drained, Rikku released her hold on her dressphere and let out a groan of pain, trying to sit up.

Auron was similarly battered, his hand already on his forehead, pumping white magic into himself to stop the flow of blood running down the side of this face. He shook his head once to clear it, and then grabbed her, hitting her with a Cura. "Are you—"

"I'm fine," she managed, pushing an Al Bhed potion towards him and downing one herself. It took a moment to overcome her gag reflex and keep it down, the nausea from everything still roiling through her stomach. But after a moment, the world stopped spinning and she managed wobble to her feet. "Jecht and Braska," she said, already reaching for another potion as Auron cast more restorative magic over himself and staggered to his feet, unwilling to wait.

The "city" Jecht had spotted was only a macabre imitation of life up close; the forms of recognizable buildings took shape, but their texture and material was entirely organic. Everything was composed of the same pulsing, warm flesh that was Sin's main body. More concerningly, there wasn't a single door or window to be seen. The path of destruction Bahamut's landing had left bisected the fake city with an open, pyrefly-oozing wound.

"Where are they?" Auron asked, his voice tight with worry as they reached and then raced down the makeshift avenue of destruction their landing had made, looking right and left for any sign of Jecht or Braska.

The answer came in the form of an inhuman scream; rising over the tallest of the fleshy buildings was Anima, her eye glinting dangerously. Below them, they heard the rumbling of Sin's bellow as Braska's aeon tore into it, trying to blast her way past the thick armor.

"I never thought I'd be so glad to see that thing," Rikku muttered as she raced ahead of Auron, drawing short when she saw Anima up close. The aeon was hacking away relentlessly at Sin's tough hide; every hit was melting the flesh away in twisted bursts of agitated pyreflies.

The Scales had finally caught up with them, though; Jecht was doing his best to shield both Braska and Anima as the aeon worked, eye bleeding as she shot Pain after Pain through Sin's hide.

Thinking quickly, Rikku donned her Alchemist dressphere again, swaying. The costume flickered before taking hold. She didn't have the luxury of time to second-guess herself, mixing together her strongest healing agents. A driven desire to keep Braska and Jecht alive while they tried to force their way through powered her shaking hands.

Auron ran past her, winds whipping around him as he unsheathed his sword. He spun to a stop, gathering the maelstrom, and slashed his sword into the pit Anima had already carved out. Tearing the jug from his waist, he hurled it into the abyss. A tornado of fire exploded and as it cleared, and a wall of pyreflies more dense than any they'd seen yet screamed away, nearly blinding in their intensity.

"We did it!" Rikku shouted, recognizing the transient state between the puncturing of Sin's armor and the crystalline feather-like growth that would emerge to cover it. "Jecht, we gotta move! Hurry!"

Jecht looked at Braska, and abruptly Anima dissolved as the summoner came out of Rapture, gasping. They hurried towards the edge of the pit, still beating away Sinscales that peppered their path, but Auron stopped them at the edge.

"It's too deep to just jump," he warned them, squinting into the darkness below.

"But there's no time!" Rikku told him, kicking at the crystals forming along the edge of the hole.

Braska went down to one knee, summoning rapidly again; suddenly, Ifrit rose behind them, roaring and tearing at the ground they stood on. Jecht leapt for Braska and pinned the summoner down, realizing what was happening first. Auron reacted just as swiftly, driving his sword deeply into Sin's body and dropping to one knee. He reached out a hand towards her. "Rikku!"

Ifrit tore the patch of skin cleanly off, carrying them with it. Rikku leapt to grab onto Auron's hand just as the aeon prepared to hurl the fleshy ledge – and its passengers – into the depths of the hole they'd blasted open. And then gasped with disbelief as her fingers missed; a Sinscale slammed into her, sweeping her off the platform and back onto the edge of the ravaged city.

"No!" Auron's eyes were wide as he slipped away into the depths.

Rikku twisted, smashing her Godhand into the fiend on top of her and destroying it. Even that cost her too many precious seconds, though; she scrabbled after them futilely, watching Sin's crystals weave their way over the gap more quickly than she could leap in. She still tried to follow, pounding the Godhand into the crystalline lattice. It shook but didn't break, instead continuing to thicken despite her repeated blows.

"Hu!" she screamed, furious and exhausted. "No, nope, no way!" Each shout was punctuated by another fist driving into the crystal. But she stopped when the chittering of fiends surrounded her. Glancing over her shoulder, she groaned as even more Sinscales thumped to the ground in rapid succession, their teeth snapping and their wings glowing with eerie energy. "This is not how it's going to end!" she yelled, still shell-shocked as she staggered to her feet.

Apparently Braska agreed, because a series of familiar sigils burst into the sky overhead. Valefor shot through them, snatching Rikku away from the danger with one clawed foot. They ascended rapidly, away from the agitated spawn. The aeon turned, beating her wings to hover and flipping her braid before opening her mouth.

The Energy Blast shook the surface; Rikku heard more than saw the massive crack the attack had created. Without hesitation, the aeon dove into it, shattering through the barrier – and smashing her own body into pieces, in much the same way Bahamut had.

Rikku didn't care; Valefor had brought her through. Even while she was falling, she could see the hole resealing and blocking her exit to the outside world.

She turned, the familiar, giddy sensation of rapid freefall reminding her of the Farplane. Too deep to jump, Auron had said; she activated her Grid again. For a few heart-stopping moments it flickered, and she was afraid the costume wouldn't find enough energy within herself to take hold. Then, somehow, drawing on her last dregs, she pulled out the Berserker, feeling Braska's reckless power fill her.

"Not dying today," she growled, turning her fall into a series of twists as she searched her surroundings for anything at all. One flailing foot struck something hard and she reacted instantly, digging her toes in and jackknifing her body towards it. Both claws slammed into a solid surface and she hung on, her nails screaming in pained protest as she tore a ten-fingered trail down the face of the rocky wall she'd latched onto. She was still descending too rapidly for comfort. Below, she could see Auron, Jecht, and Braska standing on the shattered remains of Ifrit's platform, already fighting a Sinspawn that had attacked them the moment they hit the ground. It was an enormous Adamantoise, rising several feet above them.

Convenient landing pad, she thought with a smirk, letting go of the wall – her abused fingers ached in gratitude for that – and angling herself to stick the landing.

She hit the fiend's back fist-first, her momentum and weight sending it sinking into the ground a few inches and splitting open the carapace protecting its back. Clouds of rubble from where she'd torn apart the wall followed, raining all around her. She forced her trembling legs, throbbing from the impact, to push off of the fiend's back. What should have been a perfect landing, though, turned into a tumble and ungraceful skid on her butt across the ground as her legs gave out from under her.

Auron charged the fiend, furious, and swung his sword in an arc so heavy that it bisected the Adamantoise's neck. The enormous turtle buckled, then collapsed into a blaze of pyreflies. He didn't stop to watch, instead throwing himself at her and grabbing onto her shoulders, his eyes wide.

Rikku coughed and smiled at him. "Still alive," she said victoriously, every part of her body aching. The dressphere flickered and faded from view, and she blinked, feeling the last of the artificial energy drain away. A surprised "Oops-" was all she managed before blacking out.

A/N:
Braska doesn't go into Rapture when he calls the Magus Sisters because just like Yojimbo, they don't take orders from him.

Magus Sisters overdrive: Delta Attack

Wall: Shell + Protect on everybody

Hayate: Haste + Evasion
No Fear: Shell + Protect

Auron's Limit Break: Tornado

Hu! = No!