Chapter 85 – Foiled Deception


Yuna looked at her companions to her left and right. She shouted again, emphasizing what she saw with her finger pointing towards the remnants of the explosion. She focused solely on altering them to Shuyin's whereabouts, ignoring the loud ringing in her ears. Adrenaline fired through her veins.

She yelled again before recognizing that neither Maechen nor Yojimbo could understand her. The concussion from the blast left her companions temporarily deaf. She only realized she had been deafened as well when she watched Maechen's lips move but heard none of his words. When her adrenaline dissipated, sharp pain started to shoot through her ears.

Pushing away the pain, Yuna clasped her hands against her ears and looked up at the gaping hole in the temple. She scanned the building with one eye open. Shuyin disappeared from view from the outside. He must have climbed inside, she concluded.

Still wincing in pain, some semblance of sound returned to her ears. Yuna glanced over at Yojimbo, who looked to have shrugged off the earsplitting explosion faster than her. He drew his sword, searching the plaza for any threats.

"He's inside," Yuna said again.

"What? Who is?" asked Yojimbo.

Yuna pointed to the temple. "I saw someone climb inside. It must be Shuyin."

"He's a madman!" exclaimed Machen.

Growling, Yojimbo pointed his sword at the temple's entrance. "But we can't let that stop us from tracking him down."

"Yojimbo is right. We can't let anything stop us," Yuna said.

Determination bubbled within her. She must stop Shuyin at all costs. Yet a lingering fear lurked behind her determination. How could she return to her time without Shuyin? Setting things right included returning to the present. It dawned on Yuna that she had no answer for how to return to her own time.

Her legs ran her into the temple, but fear grasped her mind, pulling her psyche out of the present situation. The thought of being stuck in this past time horrified her like nothing she had ever experienced. Her heart raced in her chest, and tension permeated her body.

Yuna entered the temple behind her companions and followed them through the many hallways until they found a way to reach the upper levels. Her body moved in whatever direction the two men led. She hardly registered her surroundings—Yuna's brain erupted with overwhelming panic.

Her heart and her breath sped faster and faster until she could no longer control herself. Yuna stopped running and stumbled over to a wall. Leaning against it, she closed her eyes. The world spun out of control. Her heart throbbed fast enough to burst inside her chest. She grasped her chest and eventually collapsed to the floor.

The world around her blurred and continued to spin. She heard a voice calling her name, but she couldn't muster an answer. A hand grasped Yuna's arm. Not in any position to resist, she willingly let it lift her back to her feet. Her vision started to clear enough to make out Maechen's concerned face.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

Yuna slowly shook her head. "No, I just got woozy is all."

Her senses returned, shoving away the overwhelming feelings of dread and fear. She inhaled deeply again. Her legs, which had wobbled like jelly, regained some semblance of steadiness. She focused her attention on the faint rattling coming from above her.

"What is that noise?" Yuna asked.

Yojimbo looked up at the ceiling. "Sounds like gunfire."

"And machina," said Maechen.

"Shuyin . . ."

On Yuna's faded words hung a drape of somberness smothering her heart. Even as she ran to the upper floors of the temple, thoughts of Shuyin consumed her mind. She could never understand what fueled Shuyin's undying drive to enact revenge. Yuna had walked dark paths in her life, but none of them led to death and destruction.

She desperately tried to form a reason behind all of his madness. Each time she thought she came to a conclusion, something inside her built up a wall. These barriers kept preventing her from remembering what drove Shuyin.

The smell of burning wood recaptured her attention. A functioning lift took Yuna and her companions to the upper floors. Even in the elevator shaft, she could smell the destruction Shuyin left in his wake. The creaking gears spun to life, blotting out the loudening gunshots echoing throughout the building.

A light haze hung low in the air. The smoke created a paper-thin wall of wispy grey shrouding the upper floor. Scanning around the hallway Yuna ventured into, she witnessed the full force of Shuyin's insanity.

Bodies of dead soldiers and Zanarkand citizens lay strewn in every direction she looked. A soldier hung half out the hole in the exterior wall. Smoke still smoldered off his body, seeping out into the world at large. A mother lay curled around her young son, blood smeared across her face. Innocent lives caught up in Shuyin's furious drive to save someone he couldn't even remember paid the ultimate price.

She observed Maechen holding his hand against his mouth. His wide eyes expressed their horror at what they were witnessing. Beside him, Yojimbo appeared barely fazed by the gruesome scene. Yuna wished to be as strong as Yojimbo, but her stomach churned. Even with all the terrible situations she had found herself in, from Sin's attack on Kilika to her own near-death encounter underneath Lake Macalania, the sight of unfettered carnage still triggered her.

Yuna placed her hands on the empty pistols she carried on her hips. Walking over to a dead soldier, she picked up his gun and emptied its chamber. She paid no mind to her companion's bewildered questions. With careful handling, she inserted the bullets into her twin pistols, clicking them back and holding them up in front of her.

"I remember how to use these," Yuna said. "So, I'm going to use them now."

Yojimbo smirked. "Glad that memory of yours is returning. Shuyin can't be too far ahead."

"How are we to stop him? Look at what he's done." Maechen motioned around the hallway.

Yuna answered, "It's never been a matter of how. Just that we do."

"I have an idea that can help us," Yojimbo said.

She asked, "What is it?"

A devious smile curled across Yojimbo's face. He explained his plan to use Yuna as bait to lure him into a false sense of security, much to Maechen's horror. The scholar vehemently objected to exposing Yuna to such a dangerous scheme. While the two men argued, she pondered. If Shuyin truly hadn't resurfaced his memories, he could be vulnerable to misinformation.

"Let's do it," said Yuna. "But I will approach him alone to start."

The two men stopped bickering in unison, both turning their heads to look at Yuna. She stood firm, not allowing either man a word in edgewise. Neither of them needed to be flung needlessly into the line of Shuyin's wrath until the exact right moment.

"I'm sorry it's come to this," murmured Maechen with his head hanging down.

Though bleak, Yuna forced a smile on her face. "Thank you, but you don't need to apologize. All of this was my doing anyway."

"You've walked a long, harrowing path," he stated. "I can see it in your eyes."

The smile melted from her face. "You're right. I have for far too long. It sucks."

"Lady Yuna . . ."

"Let's go. Who knows what mayhem Shuyin will cause next," Yojimbo said.

Nodding to him, Yuna holstered her pistols and ran behind the two men. A scream rang out from inside a large room just outside the end of the hall they ran into. The doors already hung wide open, displaying a horrific scene. Many soldiers lay dead, scattered around like heaps of discarded trash. Their blood stained the intricately carved panels on the floor.

Her eyes immediately locked onto Shuyin. He stood in the middle of the room, grasping a man by the throat while holding a gun in his other hand. A silvery-haired young woman standing nearby shouted at Shuyin, cursing at him. Her words detracted not Shuyin's focus on the man in his grasp.

"One last time. Tell me where it is!" Shuyin yelled.

The man tried to utter a reply, but Shuyin's hand around his throat prevented his words from making enough sound to be heard. The young woman stepped forward to lunge at Shuyin until he raised the gun in his hand at her. She gasped before wrenching back.

"You have no idea who you're meddling with," she said.

Shuyin cackled. "Like I care. I'm only here for one thing."

"It's not here!" shouted the woman.

"Lies! Tell me where you're hiding Vegnagun!"

Quickly realizing the situation risked spiraling out of control at any moment, Yuna motioned for Maechen and Yojimbo to hide. She stepped forward, making sure to hold her pistols behind her back. Emerging from the hallway, she slowly entered the room, stepping loud enough to attract Shuyin's attention.

"Yuna!" he shouted. "How did you—"

"It's okay," she interjected. "I'm here."

Shuyin's facial expression softened, even if his grip around the man's throat didn't. Yuna kept her distance, not wanting to interject herself too close in case Shuyin realized her ploy. She judged by his reaction that not all of his memories had returned yet.

"I . . . I'm sorry for leaving you. I didn't have a choice," he said.

Yuna shook her head. "I'm not blaming you. We were lost and confused."

He nodded. "Everything happened so fast. If we were both captured, we'd never see the light of day."

"What are you doing here?" Yuna asked.

Shuyin's gaze sharpened. "To find the reason we came back in time. When I possess Vegnagun again, I'll be able to fix everything."

Yuna walked closer without registering her movement. "How is killing all these people helping us?"

"They hide it!" exclaimed Shuyin. "In our own home, they hide the means to our future from me."

Yuna smiled at him. "Nobody is trying to hide things from us. They're just scared."

"What do they know of fear," he said, countering her calming words. "They've never ran for their lives through darkness with a regiment of soldiers chasing after them."

"You don't know what they've been through. Zanarkand and Bevelle have been at war for years now!"

Shuyin loosened his grip on the gun in his hand. "A war that's gone on long enough. It's put you in danger too often."

"If we're strong enough, we don't have to be in dangerous positions anymore," said Yuna.

She watched as Shuyin contemplated her words. In her heart, she hoped he would relent from his aggressive stance long enough for Yojimbo to get a jump on him. The gun in his hand fell to his side and his grip around the captive man's throat began to loosen. She started to signal for Yojimbo to advance until Shuyin's eyes shot up at her.

"You know what hurt me the most when I watched you leave for the front lines?" Shuyin's low voice fired panic in Yuna. "My fear of losing your songs."

"My songs?" asked Yuna, trying to put together what Shuyin meant.

He looked straight at her. "The way you would sing for me, Lenne, was always different than for anyone else. When I looked into your beautiful brown eyes—"

Shuyin abruptly cut off his sentence. His eyes filled with bewilderment before rage set in. His face became taut, and he growled quietly under his breath. Tightening his grip around the man's throat, Shuyin pointed a finger at Yuna.

"You don't have brown eyes!" he exclaimed. "Something's not right!"

"No, Shuyin. Everything will be alright!"

"No, no it's not. You're not Lenne!"

Rushing in from the hallway, Yojimbo charged at Shuyin. He drew his sword and sliced widely through the air, his blade just barely missing Shuyin's face. The man Shuyin had grasped by the throat fell to the ground and gasped for air. Shuyin raised his gun and fired two shots at Yojimbo. The bodyguard twirled to avoid the first bullet and blocked the second shot with his sword. The impact of metal on metal rang throughout the room.

Yojimbo disengaged, hopping backwards to create space between himself and his combatant. In doing so, he shielded the choked man who still knelt on the ground. Yuna unholstered the pistol on her right hip. She extended her arm, pointing it straight at Shuyin's head. The sound from the hammer clicking back into place quickly garnered his attention.

"Now I'm remembering. This isn't the first time you've tried to trick me, Yuna," Shuyin said with no emotion in his voice.

Her eyes remained locked on him. "It's not a trick to stop you from accomplishing all the heinous ideas festering inside of you."

Shuyin spat on the ground. "You don't know what heinous is. Don't talk to me until you've been consumed by darkness and lived to break free from it!"

Yuna shook her head. "You're not free from anything."

"You're right," said Shuyin. "I still cling to one thing in this world."

A tear ran down Yuna's cheek. "Lenne."

"All of people in this world, you should understand my drive."

"Drive? Your drive has led you on an eternal path of destruction and misery," Yuna declared.

Shuyin grunted. "I lied trapped in misery for a thousand years. When I emerged, I knew what I must do. Don't fault me for pressing on when you didn't have the stamina for it yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't let him get into your head!" Yojimbo interjected.

Shuyin ignored his words. "Just like me, your love was unfairly taken from you. But unlike you, I won't let the wrongs of the past stop me from what is mine."

Yuna gasped. "That's not true!"

"It is and you know it." Shuyin glared at her with fire in his eyes. "You're not half the woman Lenne was."

Her chest crumbled together like a ball of paper, squeezing all the air out of her lungs. She knew Lenne better than any other person in Spira, even more intimately than Shuyin. Just like herself, Lenne sacrificed so much to protect those she loved. And just like Yuna, Lenne's greatest fault stemmed from her loyalty.

"I may not be, but Tidus loved me regardless of my faults. He knew my faith was blind, but he was still dedicated to taking me here to defeat Sin," she responded.

Shuyin gripped his hands into fists. "At least you heard the words before . . ."

"The words? Oh, no you're wrong, Shuyin. Lenne did—"

Before Yuna could finish her sentence, Yojimbo roared, "Enough!"

He launched himself at Shuyin. Like a flash of lightning, the swordsman twirled around, slashing at Shuyin with his blade. Shuyin backflipped out of harm's way, landing softly on his feet. He fired again at Yojimbo, clipping him on the side of his hip.

"This would all end better if you just tell me where the hell you're keeping Vegnagun!" shouted Shuyin.

"You're mad!" the young woman screamed. "There's nothing here by that name!"

"You're hiding it somewhere. I remember now . . . it was underground."

"There's no underground in the city," she replied.

"Lies!" yelled Shuyin.

In a flash, he ran over to the woman and grabbed her by her hair. He yanked her head back and pressed the gun against her neck, again demanding the woman to tell him where Vegnagun hid.

"Stop!" Yuna shrieked. "She's telling the truth!"

"Then where is Vegnagun?"

"Don't tell him!" Yojimbo yelled.

Closing her eyes, Yuna took a deep breath before releasing it. In the brief second of silence it provided, she debated between her two options. If she lied, she risked Shuyin killing an innocent woman. If she told the truth, she risked Shuyin fulfilling his world-ending goal. Opening her eyes, she looked at the young woman and the man nearby.

Her expression bore no indication of fear, but his face burned with trepidation and rage. His hands shook uncontrollably. Yuna couldn't determine if they were related or not, but their appearances were close enough for her to relent.

"It's in Bevelle."

"Of course!" cried Shuyin. "Now it's coming back to me."

"Don't even think about it!" Yojimbo yelled.

Before he could make a move, Shuyin moved the gun against the temple of the woman's head. He shook his head, yet his expression dared Yojimbo to try to attack. Yuna commanded him to stop. She couldn't risk another needless death. Shuyin could still be thwarted, even if she couldn't do it in Zanarkand.

"Let him go," she said.

With the young woman in tow, Shuyin backed away from Yojimbo towards the entrance. He snickered as he crossed paths with Maechen, who lurked around the corner. The scholar sneered at him but let him pass unimpeded.

Yuna yelled, "Release her!"

Shuyin paused for a moment, contemplating his next move. He locked eyes with Yuna, thrusting a millennium of animosity at her with his sharp gaze. She met his harsh expression with one of her own. She yearned to destroy him and his mad ways once and for all. Not here, she thought to herself—not now.

He shoved the young woman out of his grasp and fled down the hallway. Yojimbo started to pursue, but Yuna extended out her arm to prevent his way. With the same fire in her eyes, she glared at him. Any intention of objection he had melted away. He instead walked over to the man to help him to his feet. The young woman quickly followed suit.

"Are you okay, father?" she asked.

He nodded, embracing his daughter tightly into his arms. When he released her, the young woman turned to Yuna.

"Thank you for saving us. You've done a great service for Zanarkand," she said.

Yuna smiled. "You're welcome, and I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I'm responsible for all of this mess, at least in part," explained Yuna.

"What is that man to you?" the woman asked.

"A foe. Someone I'm trying to stop from doing terrible things."

The woman sighed. "It's distressing that a fellow Zanarkand would attack their leader."

Yuna gasped. "Leader?"

The woman chuckled. "Yes, I realize you aren't from Zanarkand. Otherwise, you would recognize my father, Yu Yevon."

Yuna's mind succumbed to a hazy chaos once she processed the woman's words. This young woman was no ordinary Zanarkand citizen, but Yunalesca. When Yuna looked over at Yu Yevon, her vision blurred.

Instead of the man who Shuyin held in his grasp, she could only see the horrifying, hooked monstrosity she fought inside the belly of Sin. This man, the great summoner of Zanarkand's embattled age, would create the mightiest foe Spira would face. Her mind refused to register his human form.

She shook her head and focused on Yunalesca instead. "No, unlike Shuyin, I'm not from here."

Yunalesca scanned up and down her with her eyes, saying nothing in response. Yuna could tell the woman pondered what to make of her. She nervously holstered her pistol and put her hands behind her back. She desperately tried to hide the alarms blaring inside her head. Yuna had to kill what remained of Yunalesca before she destroyed her father to rid the world of Sin. Her mind could barely comprehend the living form of his daughter.

"Wherever you originate from doesn't matter. Thank you for your service to the city. It's not often that strangers are willing to do what you've done today," Yunalesca commented. "By the way, what is your name?"

"Oh, um, Yuna," she sheepishly replied.

Her eyes narrowing, Yunalesca looked thoughtfully at her for a moment. Whatever thoughts ran through the woman's mind, she seemed to quickly dismiss. She extended her hand out to Yuna.

"Is there anything we can do to help you with your pursuit?" asked Yunalesca.

"No, I know exactly where he is going."

Yunalesca smirked. "Then I wish you well."

Yuna bowed and motioned for Yojimbo and Maechen to follow her out of the temple. She wanted to waste no time in her pursuit. Bevelle would be difficult enough to infiltrate and time was of the essence. Before she exited the room, Yunalesca called out to her.

"Be safe," she said. "I believe we'll meet again someday."

Her words flabbergasted Yuna. Not knowing how to respond, she gave Yunalesca a slight nod before exiting out of the room as quickly as possible. Her mind tried to dwell on the encounter with her future advisories, but she pushed it aside. It would be a race against Shuyin to the underbelly of Bevelle, and she couldn't afford to lose.