2023-04-01: Nocturne
- Log: Nocturne
- Cast: Jecht, Tidus, Yuna, Lulu, Citan Uzuki, Fei Fong Wong, Rikku, Xantia, Elhaym van Houten, Seraph Boudicca, Pearl, Ethius Hesiod, Jacqueline Barber, Lunata Croze, Shalune Amira, Billy Lee Black, Cyre H. Lorentz, Paine
- Where: Sin
- Date: April 01, 2023
- Summary: The way is found through the labyrinth inside Sin. There are more answers. There are more questions. But, there is clarity.
<Pose Tracker> Jecht has posed.
The way through Sin revealed itself to have many questions. Pieces of Spira's past -- of Lunar's past -- of Filgaia's past -- could all be found there. The flickering red letters, making a promise, linger in the mind's eye.
But now, at the stairwell at the end of the dream, it is dark.
There is only the barest hint of the shapes of the buildings around them. Organic and curved, like those seen in Zanarkand, but not ruined. The dim light is concentrated on a long, tall stairwell.
And after gathering, the only way is up. It goes on for a long time.
But at the top, there is a platform. It has a small square section, before leading to a stone circle, dark brown with a red symbol at the center: that of Jecht, his personal sigil, carved on it.
And standing in the center, the unlit cityscape behind him, is the man himself.
Jecht looks as he did in life -- as he did in the Spheres that some have seen. Dark-skinned, in his mid-thirties, with a large black tattoo of that symbol on his chest. He is bare chested, his muscled frame made visible. A red bandana is tied about his head; he has the baggy black shorts of a Blitzball player on, but a red sash hanging from his waist.
His arms are crossed. His black hair is spiked, shaggy, nad it matches his beard.
He looks them over as they arrive. All of them -- sometimes, his dark brown eyes linger on a face, as if trying to see if he should know who it is -- but he settles on those he knows best. A brief look at Yuna; and a longer look at Tidus.
Jecht never knew how to emote well. You would have to know him, to see how his expression relaxes slightly; how his eyes soften. It isn't hard to see that there is hesitation, regret, relief, pride, and so many more feelings in his face. But it's understated, and his smile is sardonic. Distant, even when he is trying. He opens his mouth, to speak. A syllable escapes, but it doesn't become a word.
He doesn't have words. He never had words. It's part of the problem.
And he talks to his son, but he knows it's a failing even as the words leave his mouth. "You got big."
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus has had a lot of conflicting emotions while traveling through Sin. Determination--anger--exultation--fear. He still hasn't told Yuna the truth of what Bahamut's Fayth told him. It's something he doesn't like to think about, but it weighs on him anyway. It's on his mind as they climb those stairs together; he looks at Yuna, at his fellow Guardians, at all the friends and allies who've come here with them, and then finally back at Yuna again.
He can't help but smile, and reaches out to hold her hand for a moment. Just until they make it to the top, spread out among the platform... and approach the heart of Sin.
Jecht--his father.
Tidus's heart lunges into his throat when he sees him. It's frankly weird, seeing him like this. He looks exactly the way he remembers him, even though it's been ten years. It's so normal, it's unnatural. It shouldn't be like this.
Tidus glances at Auron, here within the crowd. But by the time Jecht settles his eyes on him, Tidus is returning the stare, looking him square in the eye. Even if he has to raise his chin to do it.
That's why he'd almost laugh when Jecht tells him he got big, if not for the gravity of the whole situation. He can't say he's good at reading his father's expressions, but... after all the times he's watched that sphere Jecht left behind, Tidus has improved enough to recognize that they're there at all. That it's not just disdain and arrogant contempt.
Tidus is a lot better with his words than Jecht is. But after all this time, at a time like this, what do you even say? Yuna had encouraged him to think about it, and he had. But seeing him now, it's hard to think of any one thing.
"Yeah," he thus replies, unusually subdued. "But you're still bigger." He pauses. "I got the message you left behind. The sphere in Macalania Woods."
He still has it, he doesn't say. Nor that he was just showing it to other people only a short while ago. It remains in the pocket of his overall shorts, a palpable weight he's carried for a long while.
It weighs differently now, somehow.
DC: Pearl switches forms to Aeon Leviathan!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
<SoundTracker> To Zanarkand - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d77TyPPm2gE
The mixture of Spira, Lunar and Filgaia found at the heart of Sin was incomprehensible to Yuna.
But the feelings were not.
Zanarkand, she recognizes. From Tidus' stories; from Seymour's sphere; from her pilgrimage. But the swirling obsession -- and the maelstrom of despair -- she knows as well as her own name. This darkness that they're passing through is the darkness that has haunted Spira for a thousand years. It is the darkness in Wakka's eyes when he thinks of his parents', and in Auron's when he thinks of Braska, and in Lulu's when she thinks of Chappu. It is countless -- and uncounted, when there was no one left to count -- generations of orphans, of widows and widowers. It is six high summoners, six Guardians, and six Sins.
If she had done to Lulu what her father did to Jecht, Yuna would have been the seventh.
Yuna thinks about all of this as she climbs the stairwell. She thinks about the places she's traveled to get here. The elemental shrines. Filgaia itself. Further than she ever could have imagined, further than any pilgrimage has ever gone before, and yet somehow the most alien place she visited was the place where she was born: Bevelle. Her boots are so soft and supple, in that way shoes can only become when they are well and truly worn in -- and almost worn out.
She thinks about the people she met. Those with her now -- Guardians and friends and allies -- and those not here, also. Cid, back on his airship, for whom she represents both grief and hope. Sir Leo, who she liked so much before his war, with whom she's never had the chance to reconnect. Ghaleon, who protected and warned her in turn. Belize, to whom she made a promise she has come to fulfill today...
Tidus...
She takes his hand, when he looks back; hers is very small and very pale in the larger and browner expanse of his, but they both have calluses now. They both have scars.
She smiles at him.
She is grateful for her long career at fake smiles. Before, when she was an ordinary Yevonite summoner, she would smile for the people, People with a capital P; an abstract concept and yet all too real; Yuna has never been any good at separating the needs of the many from the needs of the individual. To her achingly vulnerable heart, they are just many individual needs. Now she smiles for him, but it isn't her truest expression.
Because she's increasingly sure of what's going to happen next.
But it was his choice not to say; and it is her choice not to push any harder. If he wants to pretend, right up until the end...
...Yuna can go along with it, for his sake.
She is so very good at pretending.
And then they're at the top.
To come upon Jecht as himself is more than Yuna could have ever hoped for -- hoped for, that is, for Tidus. When he looks at her, she looks back, and is five years old again, but it's a fleeting feeling. Her smile for him is more in earnest; she is glad to see him -- truly glad -- and grateful to him also. If Sin were not Jecht, none of this would have been possible. He, too, has been fighting for such a long time.
Just like the rest of the fayth.
And also she is glad, and grateful, to feel the complexities of the moment within him. She is only an acquaintance of his face, but in this place, surrounded by the global maximum of pyreflies, she could not stop herself from feeling the imprint of his heart if she tried. It is difficult for her just to stand her. But stand she does -- and wait for Tidus to reply.
When he does, she gives him an encouraging look. And then she looks longer still; she looks at him as though memorizing him, engraving him on her heart.
This is their story, after all.
This may be her last chance.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Heavy skirts drag along the ground, leather belts crisscrossing to make something like armor, but not only against daggers and swords. Lulu walks up the stairs, into the dark, the Onion Knight under her arm, her hair ornaments glinting in what little light there is.
Lulu does not know Jecht, not really. But she has seen often enough the images of his Spheres, repeated and shown by Tidus over and over in hopes of finding some useful wisdom in them on expeditions... or maybe for other reasons.
Would Lulu share such a sphere of her own father, if she had one? Maybe. ...Maybe not. She's not Tidus.
But as they finaly reach him--Jecht--Lulu comes to a stop, an regards him for long moments. When he looks at her, she looks right back into his eyes, with an understanding that transcends the fact that she does not, really, know Jecht. But Lulu could have been Jecht. Lulu had been willing to become Yuna's Final Aeon, in that moment. And she will never forget that. ...Even as Yuna ensured that no Guardian would make such a sacrifice again.
So Lulu does not know Jecht, not really. But they are both Guardians, and she knows enough. She waits, in silence, for him to speak with his son, her red eyes settled upon him and upon Tidus both... and him and Yuna both. So much history, all entwined together. There is a great deal of it.
A message...
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Time was short, which had been all the more reason for them to make sure they were prepared. To rush was to come in unprepared, and if they did not even have the idea of what they were up against, then the odds that they would fail only increased.
They cannot fail. There is all too much riding on the conflict that lies ahead. Citan, along with Lily and Leon, had relayed what they had learned about Jecht with the others.
In many ways, Jecht is like his son. In many ways, he is not. In Spira, the man that Citan had seen had been brash but not unfeeling -- had thrown himself into everything he had attempted to do. And then as now, he is certain, Jecht still...
What had he expected, within? Some monstrous form that echoed Jecht?
Instead, there is the man himself, appearing much as he did in life -- in the recording that Tidus had lent him.
Citan is silent, permitting Tidus -- and those of his group -- to speak first. Then and only then does he address the man himself.
"You know why we have come here, I assume."
Consider it a remark from one father to another. The air around Citan brightens subtly; he shifts his weight, as if to begin to assume a defensive stance.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong is feeling more sympathy for Jecht than Seymour, even with what he heard from Tidus about the man. He is surprised to see that the Jecht inside Sin is just...a dude. In fact, a dude that look rather like the images he'd seen of him! But he does kind of rub at his neck--he doesn't even realize he's doing it this time. He's got plenty of his own complicated feelings about his own father but he's aware that trying to deal with any of that through Jecht is pretty silly.
Instead he says, "Hey," to Jecht and waves a hand at him--he probably does that much because Citan spoke up. "Um, oh, sorry for interrupting. I'll just be... uh. Over here. When you're ready."
He kind of shoves his hands into his pockets. "I'm really sorry for the inconvenience."
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
You shall be as gods
It's a haunting message that kind of sticks with you, even if you don't really know what it means. Rikku had been in plenty of machina filled ruins but this one creeped her out a little. More than a little.
What happened here?
She'd been taught to question, to figure out the answers. She's not sure if she wanted to know this one. They're at the end of the dream, and it feels like she is destined to wake up soon enough.
What would be lost when she does?
Up they go, up, and up, and up. And in the middle of the stone circle is the man Tidus described, his father, the man in the spheres, Braska's Guardian, Braska's Final Aeon. It's hard for her to separate him from the Dad that Tidus hates, Braska's Guardian who found himself along the journey.
She can see that something's changed, she can also see that some things just haven't.
They've come a long way since Mi'ihen when they first tried to kill Sin without the final Aeon. They've faced so much tragedy to get here, and now to finish off Sin there had to just be one more.
Lots of things aren't fair. What happened to 'Home' wasn't fairing, seeing Keyakku breathe his last wasn't fair. The whole idea of the pilgrimage wasn't fair. She was just hoping one thing would be like that, one thing would be fair, uncomplicated.
Nothing about life, or this, is fair.
Still, after a moment, she comes out of the funk this was putting her into as she resolves to face this as cheerfully as possible. Tidus deserves a chance to speak to his father, to say the things he couldn't say, and Jecht ought to have a chance to do the same, if Tidus wants him to.
So she waits, listens, watching with a smile.
Things aren't fair, but that doesn't mean nothing good can come out of this.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
It's been a journey and a half, getting this far. For some moreso than others, in Xantia's estimation. For those with ties to the man who became Sin, chiefly. But even Fei had to unexpectedly deal with more than he bargained for, and may need further unpacking later. Compared to that, she's had it easy, even with the symptoms of this inexplicable illness, or whatever it is that's been making her feel tired, sick, and just general malaise. She can handle it. Just push it down for now, worry about it later. Can't worry about herself, not when she needs to be worried for others.
And now here, at the end... who should they find but Jecht, in the flesh, or flesh-facsimile at least. Xantia knows, of course, the relation between that man and Tidus. How painful this must be for him. Yet she never sought to involve herself in that matter. What could she have said, really, knowing only facts, without being able to grasp the emotions behind them? She doesn't even know what a Father is supposed to be like. She would have been the least qualified to offer comfort in the form of words.
So instead, she'll do it with her actions. She will do what she can to minimize the pain that those who do have that emotional connection will have no choice but to suffer. By ending this quickly. By framing this confrontation in a black and white, detached way, and putting the focus squarely on the greater good.
Even so, she wouldn't dream of interrupting the moment between father and son. She waits in silence, until they've said all they feel they need to say. In the mean time, she stands back and takes no action, save one. Slowly, almost reverently, she takes her domino mask out of its pouch, taking her time in affixing it to her eyes. She'll be ready to play her part, soon enough.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly walked here through a strange room and a familiar tension and a strange message that she didn't want to really read or think about. She had other things to bolster her. Fei had needed her support. Xantia and Billy, too, were relying on her. And they had a promise to keep.
Journeying up the staircase was an impossible thing, but Elly had well and truly accepted that this place within Sin, whatever it is, is not obeying logical rules. She was too tired from running and leaping and vaulting around to try to make haste in excess.
Seeing Yuna and her Guardians - all of them - is a relief. So too is it to see Dr. Uzuki, and she smiles at him for a moment. And then she looks towards Jecht.
An ordinary sort of man.
But aren't they all?
"It's good to see you," Elly says to Jecht, but then she stands with Fei and Xantia, taking the moment to meaninglessly rearrange her staff and what's left in her hip pouch. Nervous tension.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Mama, look, I am like you! Listen to me, Mama! Something has gone horribly wrong! Let us go back, Mama!
My old man is Sin.
This is not her story; she is old, for a young soul, and has already lived hers.
That is why her grey-green eyes are damp as stormclouds, as she looks from father to son.
The Seraph Boudicca clasps her gauntlet-clad hands, as she watches Jecht, and she wonders: what if she had the power to save Abilene, back then? What if she were able to meet her again, here, and now?
Would she stand as silent as he?
No, she thinks, all clustered inside herself; no, surely Jecht is just unused to his voice.
"Speak with him," she encourages Jecht, through so much silence. Her voice is even; something deeper underpins it, mournful and vast. "Whilst still you have this chance. There must be more for you to settle." She knows not the details, of course; she has not pried them from Tidus's scars.
But he said he hated his father. She needs know no more than that.
And Tidus said, back then, they should take things one day at a time.
Now, the day is come. It is a complicated thing, but -- she said she would be here, to support them. Now she is here, to support him. And... she cannot bear the thought of Jecht's voice failing, face to face.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The Summoner Pearl walked onto the battlefield, her heart still full of the fears she voiced at that pillar. But voicing them means she knows them. And while her heart shakes, her soul roars.
She goes to face a stranger. She was no true yevonite, she knows Sir Jecht as a legend on tapestries, a face once seen in a sphere. All she knows his am is an enemy to be bested. Leave the speaking to him to those who knew him.
Instead, Pearl places a hand on the metal sigil on her robes, and closes her eyes. She steels her heart for what is to come. Their last battle. Her soul rages, and she shakes her head and whispers. "Not yet, my soul companion. They have their own unfinished business to put to rest."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The Lunies' (and Ethius') journey into the deeper parts of Sin were... a bit more fraught with peril than most, and once they aren't in immediate moral peril, Ethius takes his time to collect himself and consider all that he saw. The haunting message on the monitor, its surrounding environs... and what happened when the quartet he was a part of all had to hurry against a backdrop of slamming cables in order to reach it.
In the moment, Ethius seems to fall back into old habits of positioning himself like he isn't 'really' a part of what's going on, but from all he has noticed, known, and weighed of Sin's broader threat, it's not something he can afford to be neutral on.
For the moment, he's stone-faced as he uses his quarterstaff as a makeshift walking staff, held in his left hand as he comes up about the left flank of the collective group. There's nowhere to run - for anyone.
He doesn't voice it aloud, in the moment, but he doesn't impose himself on either Jecht's presence nor Tidus'. As he admitted to Tidus in a fashion, it's his lot to make sure things go as they do without further interference from malignant interests otherwise beyond accountability - looking over his shoulder sometimes, even, as if awaiting some other bad actor that doesn't (yet?) materialize.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The passage through Sin was far from easy - and, far from the expected journey. Jacqueline is so curious about everything she sees here, but she pushes those curiosities aside. The current situation is far too precarious to allow her to dwell on them, as much as she might want to.
And so, along with her closest friends and the other allies who've made it this far, Jacqueline ascends the staircase.
Eventually, the stairs end in a platform. And on this platform, there is a man.
Jecht. Tidus's father.
The awkward conversation between father and son... Jacqueline has her questions, but right now she elects not to interrupt. She stands with her hands folded in front of her, and...
...Waits.
Every moment feels like the weight of the eternity, knowing it'll be the last between them.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
What's it like?
For all that she's endured, for all that she's suffered, Lunata hasn't had to do what Tidus is going to have to do: to go through his own father. She's wracked her brain hard about it, but it's come eventually to the conclusion that, much like everything in Spira... death is an inevitable part of this conclusion. Because Jecht is Sin, and in order for Spira to win its freedom, Sin has to die too.
It doesn't need to be a rueful, gruesome treatment of death; there is release and repose in death, after all, and she doesn't doubt that that's what Jecht would want, but... at the same time, death is still death.
The quiet quip almost seems to cut through the tension, and she can't help but smile quirkily at Tidus for a moment.
She looks to Fei for a moment. "... it's okay to say what you want to say," she reassures him.
What does she want to say to him, though? She doesn't know him personally, other than what Tidus has explained of him. But it's impossible to be a part of Spira and not know of Sin, on some level, impersonal or very personal. And in many ways...
Lunata was her mother's Final Aeon, in another planet, in another rite of sacrifice that involved giving up one's life in exchange for another.
And now?
She's as dead as Jecht is, having been granted nothing but the power of destruction with her artificial, remaining time. It's impossible to not draw the contrasts and similarities, the way two completely separate cultures have come to the same conclusions about death and what it means to cheat it.
"... um, thanks for earlier," she calls out. "When you reached out to Miss Elly through that... device? And told us to keep it up with the Fayth. We didn't know what was going on, but it worked out in the end... and we dealt with Seymour too, but you probably already knew that."
Her words ended up being so practical. Should it really be? Isn't there something she wants to say? ... no, perhaps words aren't what's necessary.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune stares out at the horizon within Sin as expectation builds, her expression remarkably solemn. She's not even looking at Jecht at first but straight past him instead, her mind foggy with old memories. There's a suspicion that's been building in her mind as she's listened to Tidus' reflections on the way down here, and the way he and Jecht greet each other is familiar-yet-awkward enough to be instantly recognizable. She knows a thing or two about absent dads.
She's kind of tired, their journey rougher than she would have liked. Part of her wants to return to that derelict ship they passed through and strip it for parts. Creepy message on every monitor or no, it's such an incredible find to have come across here of all places. She's not sure if it still physically 'exists' - maybe the components will simply drift away into nothingness the moment they leave Sin's body - but she'd be willing to try staking a lot on finding that out for sure.
But in the space of three words Jecht manages to firm her resolve. Not that it wasn't already strong enough as it is; as Lunata put it, if they're going to have any hope in stopping the cycle of Ge Ramda, they're going to have to prove they can stop this cycle too. But something inside of her also curls with the thought of what they're here to do - and more importantly how to make sure that Tidus says everything he wants to.
"Don't regret anything," she mutters to Jecht and Tidus both, before swallowing softly and drawing a little closer to Lunata as she speaks her own advice aloud.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
What did it mean, those words?
Billy Lee Black had come to support his friends in a battle against a rogue god and a mad priest. These villains, he knew well.
But what came after has been perplexing. Troubling. You shall be as gods, the screen had said, a silence that rang like a scream. Fei was better now, at least, seen to by his found family.
Billy, for his part, stands with Elly and the rest. He rests his hand on a gunsmoke, but...that's not what he was expecting. Billy's world still expects things like monsters. Even Stone, at the end, tore off his face. This is simply a man, struggling to connect with his son, in the final moment.
That's also something he knows well. Somehow it makes him more anxious, not less. He should check on Prim, the next time he's back.
The pale young man forces his hand to release from his weapon.
A priest ought not to bring battle to mind in a moment like this, he decides.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
What kind of nightmare awaits them in the belly of Sin, beyond the corspe-city, the inexplicably living hull of an ancient vessel, and the terrifying message left on what he could only surmise were once its monitors?
...A man.
A man who is the core of a god. The essence at the heart of something forged into divinity to slay a divine monster-- is just a man. A father. A person who has somehow exerted his will upon the Clysmian of Obsession to buy them the victory they all so desperately fought for.
And yet, still a man.
Cyre waits in the wings, not far from Pearl. He wonders, as he watches a conversation between father and son, why it is that all of this-- the creation of gods-from-men, the ability of singular souls to exert control over those gods from their heart of hearts-- why it all seems so unsettlingly familiar.
Perhaps it calls to mind his own gods?
But then, so what if they are? Gods, like people, are more than the sum of their parts. They are what people make of them.
Or so he tells himself, as he waits for the inevitable.
Today, almost certainly, they're going to have to kill Tidus' father.
...And then... what?
That worries him, perhaps most of all.
<Pose Tracker> Jecht has posed.
Jecht's eyes shift to Boudicca. A stranger -- but with advice that he should listen to. He doesn't argue with her. Shalune tells him to not regret. It's late for that, he thinks. But he sees her point, too. He nods, once. His eyes shift back to his son's.
"I cheated. I'm Sin, now," Jecht says, and his smile at the joke to his son is fleeting. He breaks eye contact, then he looks down for a moment.
"I'm glad," he says. He looks back to Tidus. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to say it. Or that I said it to a sphere, not you. I hope... you got the top. You got to see the view from up there. I hope it's something you've shared."
His eyes shift, towards Yuna. Taller than she was; he'd never say she got bigger, though. In a way, she's still the same small girl he remembers. "Your dad would be proud, I think," Jecht tells her. "That you did this. And that Auron got you here... even if he's late."
He cuts his old friend a look -- and a smile.
He looks over Yuna's other Guardians -- Lulu, Rikku, Paine. Behind them, Auron and Wakka. He can spot them by Spiran garb; by the familiar look in their eyes. There is a look in the eyes of a Guardian has seen the pilgrimage through to the end. It isn't the end that he found, but it is still the end.
He doesn't say anything more to them, though. What is there to be said?
They both know.
Citan asks, though. Jecth looks at him -- and he nods. "Yeah. It's what you gotta do." Then, he looks at Fei. He shakes his head. "Don't be sorry. S'gotta happen."
Then, he looks at Elly. It takes him a second -- but maybe it's because he is an old pro at being a professional blitzer. Jecht knows how to spot a fan. "You, too," he says. He smiles at her. "You did good back there."
Then, he looks at Lunata. He considers her for a second -- and her words. "You bunch did the hard part," he says. "But... something like Sin. You gotta have a team, yeah?"
There are so many here that he doesn't recognize. Drifters and adventurers, from beyond Spira. People he couldn't have imagined, so many years ago. How great his journey with Braska was... but how small. He still looks them over; Xantia, Pearl, Ethius, Jay, Billy, and Cyre.
People whose journeys led them here. To help Tidus; to become a part of Spira, just the way that Jecht and Tidus both did. Jecht doesn't have to search his heart long to know that he is grateful.
Jecht's eyes turn downward. He still hesitates. There is an awkwardness there -- one that runs deeper than the moment, the terrible task that they know they're here for.
"I can't hear the Hymn so well anymore."
His voice is somber, as he speaks. Then, he looks up. "It saved me. It brought me back, when that Guado brat tried to take over. But... it can't hold me back forever. And once I become Sin, completely..."
The muscles in his neck tighten. He sets his jaw, though, and he nods -- and some of that cool, easy charisma that made him a star player in the Zanarkand of the dream is visible. "...I won't be able to hold back."
And then it's gone, regrets rising up to the surface of his expression again. But there is a resolve there, too. "I'm sorry."
He knows what this will take. He knows it is a miracle that they made it. He knows they can't hold back, this close to scoring a goal.
DC: Jecht switches forms to Braska's Final Aeon!
GS: Jecht has attacked Jecht with I Can't Hear the Hymn So Well Anymore...! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Jecht gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Jecht has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Jecht accepts Jecht's I Can't Hear the Hymn So Well Anymore... for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Hyper applied to Jecht! GS: Strain! Jecht takes 100 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus has talked to several people about his tumultuous relationship with his father, but there are enough people present that it feels odd, having so many people who know that Jecht--Sin--is his father, and nothing more than that. Even so, when Boudicca voices her support to Jecht to say everything he needs to say, Tidus casts her a grateful look. God knows Jecht wasn't going to get there on his own.
Likewise, Lunata gets a brief grin out of him, and Shalune's support gets a nod. Citan, Fei... Elly in particular, with the messages she sent--and carried back. Ethius is silent, much like Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, Paine--offering instead silent support, a chance for him to say what he needs to. Tidus lets his gaze pass over all of them as Jecht talks to the others... before he looks back at his father.
"That's not funny," he replies of his 'joke,' still quiet but with intense emotion. He settles a little as he goes on. Maybe bringing up Jecht's Spheres helped; maybe it was the encouragement. But he smiles a little. "Hey, you're looking at the star player of the Zanarkand Abes. I did just fine, old man."
Something he shared, though... His smile fades. "...Mom pined to death without you. I saw her in the Farplane."
It might be a cruel thing to say. He doesn't mean it to be cruel, though. After Seymour--after Anima and her Fayth--it doesn't feel right to not mention her. So he adds, voice trembling with a threat of tears, "I don't know how the Farplane works, but... I hope you get to see her there too. When this is over."
But Jecht soon casts his eyes down. It makes the hairs on the back of Tidus's neck stand up. It's such a humble gesture, and it's not normal, and it's just as unnatural. He hears him talk about the Hymn, and how little time he has left to be himself--and that he's sorry.
Somehow, that apology hits harder the second time.
"That's enough!!" he snaps, hands clenching into fists. "Dad... I hate you. So let's finish this--" He chokes, and his voice breaks on the last word: "--okay?"
There's so little time left. So they've got to make the most of what they've got, to the very end.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
I can't hear the Hymn so well anymore.
Every song has to fade. Every hymn has its conclusion. The people of Spira banded here today, but soon, they'll have to move on with their lives too, every single one of them. Because while they have some time now, time won't wait for them forever. Lunata's not too fussed about time, though, unlike a certain other snow fox girl who's absolutely obsessed about it.
Her face softens as Tidus shares his own pain too. There's a cruel lack of time, on their part. So many words that should've been shared over the years, that couldn't. But... he resolves himself, so she does too.
"We had the best team. We had all of Spira," Lunata calls out with pride to Jecht. She feels it welling in her chest. SHe knows what to say now. "You can rest easy, knowing that no one else was forced to go through the same choice you had to make. Knowing that the people have decided to reject this!"
She clenches her fist and says, "We'll look after Spira, so you can rest easy. So you do what you have to..."
Ge Ramda erupts from within her, that ancient bridal lich that hovers around her like an ephemeral spectre, readying herself for battle. A battle against the forces of death. But here, unlike before...
This is a death that must happen, for the sake of a rebirth.
"We won't let the people of Spira forget this story, so that they don't make the same mistake down the line. That's something I'll promise to you!"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Lunata Croze with Self-Cast! Death! GS: Lunata Croze enters a Counter stance! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 3 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Lunata Croze heals Lunata Croze! She gains 217 temporary hit points! GS: Tidus has attacked Lulu with Hastega! GS: Tidus has attacked Paine with Hastega! GS: Tidus has attacked Rikku with Hastega! GS: Tidus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Lulu accepts Tidus's Hastega for 0 hit points! GS: Lock state and Quick applied to Lulu! GS: Rikku accepts Tidus's Hastega for 0 hit points! GS: Lock state and Quick applied to Rikku! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei looks to Lunata as she speaks up to him. "..." He smiles at her. "...Are you doing alright?" He asks her. "I'm sorry I haven't checked in more. I guess I had my own stuff to deal with but... I miss you, you know, you were a good friend when we were in the Alliance together. You are a good friend."
He rubs at his neck some more. "...Weird time to say that I guess."
He looks back to Jecht. Thinking about it...
"Mmmn.... Not really sure how I'd put it exactly..." Frankly even someone else's dad is a bit intimidating to Fei sometimes. There's Citan here, of course, and he's real great but...
Anyway, unbeknownst to him
FEI PSYCHO UP
"I guess," Fei says. "I know what it's like to become a rampaging monster that destroys civilizations sometimes and lose sight of yourself so..."
He exhales. "But I don't really want to end that way so I hope you can end your time like this, like yourself rather than...As 'Sin'."
".... But I don't intend to go the same way as you." Fei tells Jecht. "I'm going to remember who I am, and I'm not going to lose myself. I'm...going to remain me."
"...Sorry," He says even though Jecht just told him to not be sorry. "I'll fight twice as hard as you had to if I gotta."
He takes in a breath as Jecht admits he can't hear the hymn anymore.
He looks to Tidus. He understands the young man's feelings.
He curls his fingers inward and clenches his fists.
"...I've got this one, Id. So don't interfere."
Heh. We'll see
"Whenever you're ready."
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Everyone is so... kind.
That is the truest miracle of all, in this place and at this time. It's not just the Spirans who've been traumatized by lifetimes of Sin. Sin has hurt everyone here; and so have other forces. There is so much pain, and so much suffering, in this world. In all the worlds. Everyone has every reason to be suspicious. To be angry. To hate.
But... they aren't.
Not even the fayth. Especially not, in a way. They've suffered more than anyone, but Jecht is one of them, so they understand his suffering more than anyone, too. They are... ready. Eager, even, particularly for what comes after Jecht's defeat. But -- Yuna's hand alights upon her breastbone, as her heart pounds with the feelings of twelve fayth -- and her own, as he addresses her.
"Thank you," she says simply. And she doesn't just mean for his kind words about her father. "For fighting for Spira. For so long. For... everything."
In a way, his battle only really began after he died.
It is time for it to end.
She listens to the other exchanges; appreciates them, deeply. As Jecht says his farewells, she bows to him, beads of her earring clicking softly as they fall over her shoulder.
And then she looks at the others.
"Everyone... it's time. No matter what... please don't forget... to take care of one another. Today, we will ensure that Sin will never take another life again... together."
GS: Yuna has attacked Tidus with Strength, Everyone!! GS: Yuna has attacked Paine with Strength, Everyone!! GS: Yuna has attacked Lulu with Strength, Everyone!! GS: Yuna has attacked Rikku with Strength, Everyone!! GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yuna has completed her action. GS: Lulu accepts Yuna's Strength, Everyone! for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz and Hyper applied to Lulu!
DC: Pearl switches forms to Six Seas Style Martial Artist Pearl!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius watches, as is his habit. The emotional moment between a son and a father who both know that there won't be much time left to share what needs to be. He wouldn't dare take a second from them with his own words and weigh-ins, though he looks back from checking over his shoulder when Jecht momentarily catches him in his sweep of those who have come to Spira's aid.
When Tidus clenches his hands into fists to share his feelings about his dad, there is a moment where Ethius' own left hand flexes and his gaze lowers. Words he'd never have gotten a chance to say, himself, for his own family's role in... enabling a tragedy that never should have befell the world of his birth, of a world he should never have been on by reckoning of a society among the stars.
This is as far as he lets his own personal history bleed through into the moment. He doesn't call out to Tidus or the others that 'we're here and ready.' By Ethius' reckoning, he doesn't need to, as Yuna shares her fondest wish for the end to the sacrifices, the cycles... together.
The most obtrusive gesture he offers is a nod as he slips into a combat-ready stance, holding his quarterstaff in both hands but his two fore-fingers on his right hand flexing and flicking as he 'chambers' the first few syllables of a Symbological spell, repeating the beginning of one over and over to take a fraction of a second off of what he intends to cast the moment the need arises.
Everything about what they're saying, doing, where they're standing, is without precedent or a blueprint to follow - which is generally how turning a dramatic new chapter into the future goes.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly's cheeks turn red and she lowers her gaze at Jecht's smile. "-- Thank you; I just, I did what I could." Her hands lace behind her back, around the grip of her staff, because somehow it feels *awkward*. The air is different, entirely, than it has been in the past. Confrontational foes at bay, or half-foiled villains revealing their true colors... she's seen a number of them, hasn't she? More than she had any right to expect.
But she did get through it. Even if it's all a big run of luck (at this point she reaches to clasp Fei's hand for a moment if he doesn't elude her), it HAS run this far. Maybe it can run a little further, despite the horrors.
Jecht says his peace to Tidus, and Tidus takes it -- and takes it to heart, if not the perfect storybook sort of way. Not all tales in reality can be perfect, and something in the back of Elly's mind suggests to her: Tidus spoke from the heart.
"I hope that you find peace," Elly says, with a deeper bow of her head. "... I'll do what I can to --" To make it quick? Elly can't finish the sentence; instead she brings round her staff again, grasping it firmly with a warm-up flick to one side and a force breath out.
Her eyes flick to Xantia, first, and then back to Fei. "Alright... I'm with you both, no matter what." A single glance and another nod to Billy, and then: Eyes front.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jecht gives his words to Tidus, to Yuna... and then, to the rest of them. Jacqueline had wondered if they really had to do this... but, what he says next seals it. If he can't hear the Hymn... then, he truly must be losing himself. Jacqueline shuts her eyes for a moment.
"You've done well to hold on so far. ...Before you go... is there anything left you'd like to say to anyone? A message, you'd like passed on?" Jacqueline asks. "I want so badly to ask about everything I've seen here - all these strange and fantastic structures... but I imagine there's hardly the time for that now."
She shakes her head - and smiles briefly to Lunata as she expresses her feelings before looking back to Jecht.
"...As you can see... Spira, and these two worlds, they're both in good hands. You can rest easy." She says. She reaches into her bags and draws out a bottle - it appears to be practically glowing with energy.
"Lunata, catch." She says, tossing it to her. Lunata already has the strength to face this fight. She's come so far... but Jacqueline can lend her a little more.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lunata Croze with Aura Bottle! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Of course there is no recognition, when Jecht looks at Xantia. That doesn't matter. It's not her he needs to see. It's what - and who - she's chosen to represent. The reason why she's once again donned that mask, the one she wore back then, when she was just one among many. It's no longer who she is, but for the sake of this moment, she'll act like it, one last time.
Ultimately, this is just a role she's chosen to play. No one asked her to do so, but, having lived through that battle, having seen that tragedy unfold... it felt like someone had to. And she's the only one here who can. She needs only remember her feelings regarding Sin, ever since that day, to find the necessary resolve. In acting this way, perhaps she'll be able to rally those who need assistance in finding their own. Hopefully they'll understand what she tried to do, at least.
Jecht apologizes for not being able to hold back. Tidus declares his intention to finish this. There couldn't have been a more clear signal that the time has come. Taking that as her cue, she steps forwards, and stretches out her hand, towards Jecht.
"Sin!" she addresses him, not about to do so by any other name. "I come here in the name of those who fell in the line of duty at Mi'ihen! Their cries for justice echoing from the Farplane shall not go unanswered! This eternal torment ends today!" Spira's, and yours, she thinks, but does not say. Taking a combat stance, she finishes:
"So says... MYSTERY CRUSADER X!!"
GS: Xantia has attacked Xantia with Undying Spirit of the Crusaders! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Xantia accepts Xantia's Undying Spirit of the Crusaders for 0 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu, too, wonders about the words that disturbed Rikku so... But there is only one thing that she can do at a time. She will attend to that in time. For now, she has nothing she needs to say to Jecht that he does ot already know.
Once, perhaps she would have thought these Otherworlders present were interlopers in a sacred moment--but she could never think that after helping Yuna to do away with the most holy of moments in Yevon's Zanarkand. No...
They speak of regret. They speak of words. They speak.
...But it is time. "...We'll handle it," Lulu says quietly when Jecht speaks of 'becoming Sin, completely'.
'I hate you', Tidus says, and there is so much in that. Once, Lulu thought it was a luxury, to think that way about one's father. ...But it is more than that, too. She does not think Tidus's situation is a luxury any longer.
Yuna remind s them to take care of each other, and Lulu knows precisely how best to do that.
"Yuna," she says. "...Together."
She focuses her will, and magic surges around Yuna, empowering her and her own magic with the power of the elements, even here, in a rush of gleaming violet energy.
"We'll see it through."
GS: Blitz! Lulu has attacked Yuna with Focus! GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lulu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The beating heart of Obsession is, at least for now, an ordinary human being. It would almost be poetic if the circumstances weren't as they were -- if this were but a story rather than the tragedy that has been playing itself out for century upon century. How many minds have lingered in the depths of Sin and eroded away as the Clysmian's urges increasingly took the stage? And still, likely, some part of them endured -- until, ventually, their place would be taken by another.
This had been a sacrifice made knowing it would buy some time. That this was how it was to end.
Touching his fingertips to the frames of his glasses, Citan bows his head. "Indeed... I had thought that you were prepared. Then..."
His hand falls away and he lifts his head as he trails off. He glances towards Tidus, towards Yuna.
This is not his decision to make. The only ones who have the right to make this decision are these two.
This is not his story. But he will see to its end, nonetheless.
"Well shall ensure... that you rest easy," Citan says, at last. "That there shall be a tomorrow."
GS: Yuna accepts Lulu's Focus for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper and Surge applied to Yuna! GS: Mighty applied to Lulu! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Ally of Mystery Crusader X Reporting! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 2 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Lunata Croze accepts Jacqueline Barber's Aura Bottle for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Lunata Croze! GS: Quick applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Jacqueline Barber's Reload! and Gleam activated! GS: Lunata Croze gains 2 Combo from Inspire! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Citan Uzuki with Kouga! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 3 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki's stances have changed from Counter to Counter and Stoic! GS: Citan Uzuki gains 16 THP from his Cautious! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action. GS: Citan Uzuki accepts Citan Uzuki's Kouga for 0 hit points! GS: Cover and Riposte applied to Citan Uzuki! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Elhaym van Houten heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 90 temporary hit points! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Ethius Hesiod with A Decent Armor Drop From Earlier! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Ethius Hesiod heals Ethius Hesiod! He gains 83 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku tries her best not to snerk on 'I cheated. I'm Sin, now,' Though she gives Tidus a look of solidarity in him having to suffer the dreaded Dad joke.
Eventually she just waves at Jecht, "Hey, I'm Rikku." It's a name he'll recognize, if not for her, then for the name of Braska's deceased spouse, "Nice to meet you. I'm Yunie's cousin."
And her Guardian, but that's obvious, so she doesn't add that, "I just wanted to let you know. We wouldn't have made it this far without Tidus. He's a good guy, and a better friend."
Rikku knows that Jecht must know this, but it's part of her duty as Tidus' friend to talk him up to his Old Man, even if Tidus' own feelings about Jecht are mixed.
So mixed he's choked up, but Rikku would never call her friend a cry baby.
Whether he can hear the Hymn or not, maybe she's talking to him to try and ground him, to try and help him resist a little longer.
"I wish you could just keep hearing the hymn. It got me through a real rough moment. I really wish we didn't have to do this. But, I guess for you it's like the end of a long journey?"
She feels Tidus' spell, a sad look in her eyes to contrast her smile. She hears Yuna's thank you, like she's sending him off on that journey.
Rikku takes up a stance, her voice taking on more energy, "I'm ready. The moment you lay a hand on any of them?"
Tossing up a concoction, it shatters, suddenly covering Yuna, Tidus, Paine and Lulu in colorful alchemical shields with gem like facets.
Yuna had asked them to take care of one another, so she takes care of all of them first.
"I'm kicking your booty like its a Blitzball!"
Perhaps it's the greatest kindness she could do in a way to him, is to let him know even if they were strangers only moments before, she won't hold back in what's coming.
No matter how sad what's coming is, she'll face it with a smile.
GS: Rikku accepts Yuna's Strength, Everyone! for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz and Hyper applied to Rikku! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Yuna with Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G!! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Tidus with Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G!! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Lulu with Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G!! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Paine with Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G!! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action. GS: Lulu accepts Rikku's Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G! for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Lulu! GS: CRITICAL! Yuna accepts Rikku's Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G! for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl can feel it. The desire- no the all consuming need to fight. To kill. It isn't something Jecht can truly suppress- it is part of his being, to fight here with all he is.
Defending Yu Yevon.
Cyre may doubt what is next, but Pearl knows. She knows much of it, anyway. Enough to know her part is to be the gentle executioner.
The sadness and pain is Tidus' voice is enough for even Pearl to feel it. The pain of loss, of having to end your own family. She has no words for him, wish as she might. She can only help make it quick.
She looks over her shoulder to Cyre. "I told you, did you not? The path was made to dispirit us." She looks forward. "Had it worked... this battle would end us all. Especially now. But after all we have faced, even such as this will not stop us, am I correct?"
Pearl starts into a dance, a fast, rushing thing, despite the large Spiran movements. It could be confused for a kata, where it not for some of the flourishes. The watery form her chi takes becomes violent and surging, like river bursting it's banks- which then flows into her body. Strengthening her for what comes next. Now she looks toward Billy. "Come. Let us show the merit of those bitter pills."
GS: Pearl has attacked Pearl with Torrent Dance! GS: Pearl has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune watches the way in which Jecht and Tidus exchange words like a hawk. Is it what she expects from the two of them - does it count as each of them saying what they need to say? In the end, that's not a question that's hers to answer. She's not arrogant enough to think that she knows how everyone must feel, or the exact words they need to say, or to expect that everything is as easy as just opening your mouth and letting them out. Everyone is different, and that's okay. The important part, she thinks, is really just getting to stand face to face with each other one last time.
And maybe it's unfair of her to draw any kind of parallel to her own father. Jecht has stood watch over Spira as part of Sin for years, has fought and still is fighting against Seymour's control, is here to take responsibility and see the end of it. Shalune is forced to admit, with a bittersweet edge, that it's almost a complete opposite to someone leaving them alone to vanish in search of a distant dream only to never return.
... she can take a little comfort and relief in that thought, perhaps. But it doesn't do anything to stop the shaky breath she finds herself sucking in when Tidus mentions his mother, and for a few seconds her knuckles turn white where she's gripping onto her staff.
Lunata's words are what bring her back to the present, and remind her that there's a lot more at stake here than a resolution between father and son. There's a faint edge of guilt at the back of her mind for narrowing her focus so much, but it's rapidly overtaken by pride - that Lunata, once so torn apart by what to do with Seymour and herself in the face of death, can be so sure of herself now. Her gaze strays to Ge Ramda for a few instants, looking for anything in the spirit's demeanour, and then she's focused back on Jecht.
"Fair warning, I might get kinda rough," she warns the man standing nonchalantly in front of them, a faint and rather wry smile playing on her face as she decides to simply get her own feelings out for good measure. "I've got a lot of old grumpy dad angst that I haven't touched in yeaaaars to work through. It's not your fault, but you look like a pretty good punching bag."
It's a dumb and badly timed joke given the circumstances, but she already has an absolute certainty set in her mind that Jecht really likes dumb and badly timed jokes.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Shalune Amira with Flux Form! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 2 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Shalune Amira accepts Shalune Amira's Flux Form for 0 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Shalune Amira! GS: Riposte applied to Shalune Amira! GS: CRITICAL! Pearl accepts Pearl's Torrent Dance for 0 hit points! GS: Burst, Hyper, and Surge applied to Pearl! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Fei Looking Just Fine! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Fei Fong Wong heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 89 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Jecht gets there, eventually. Boudicca does hope she was able to help, as she meets Tidus's eyes, in that moment. She is glad to hear him speak, too.
If that's how he feels... better he say it.
Boudicca's heart sinks, to think of the fading Hymn. There's so little time...
"I grieve, to see the Clysmian grasp you so. Were that this was not the way of Spira for so many years..." Boudicca shakes her head, and promises: "No more. We will change fate, no matter how many years choke these isles! The world of today cannot lose itself to the echoes of yesterday!"
Even so, there are tears, in her eyes. Something old, and something new. She hears Tidus's feelings, and they impress on her, too. "I am glad I was able to meet you, finally," she says, to Jecht, sincerely. "I am the Seraph, Boudicca, and I have come to aid your son." She remembers this human courtesy, of course, because of the introductions which have come before. She is relying on them, too.
She tilts her head, and asks, painfully earnest: "In this situation, do I say... 'Go, Team!'?"
She's... trying.
With a sigh and a little shake of her head, she puts a smile on her face -- it's not as good as Yuna's performances, but it will do, for an amateur. "Thousand Sky," she invokes, instead, a green glyph which summons a whimsical Seraphic breeze about Tidus. This is how she can support him, now; this is what they have to do.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Tidus with Thousand Sky! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Paine accepts Yuna's Strength, Everyone! for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz and Hyper applied to Paine! GS: CRITICAL! Paine accepts Rikku's Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G! for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Paine!
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy has little business with Jecht, per se, but he still dips his head as the man's eyes pass him. They all know, ultimately, what must happen now. And if he's honest, Billy finds it familiar.
He has spent a long time granting mercy to those who can no longer stop themselves.
His hand rises up under his traveler's habit, placing hand upon the Etone cross hanging from his neck. "It is a fate this world seems to approve, for men to become monsters. For their needs and angers to writhe beyond control."
His eyes cut to Pearl as she speaks, and he nods. One hand on his weapon, and one on his sign, he murmurs, "Lord Most High, grant us strength and conviction," he breathes, and golden light shines out from him,
"Grant me, your agent, and these, my allies, what we need to bring mercy to a soul that can no longer find redemption in this world."
Veils surround him, flickering and firming into protective layers.
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Billy Lee Black with Sacred Veil! GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Pearl with Sacred Veil! GS: Billy Lee Black has gained 2 Combo! GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Jecht is still just a man, after all these years of serving as Sin's core. How long has he had to endure? Cyre's expression is silent and grave as the others make their peace. It's the last time they'll ever be able to talk to him; the last time Jecht will still be 'Jecht' and not simply part of Sin.
And even still, the son can't tell the father how he feels. And the father can't tell the son. Two absolute meatheads, at the end of all things, still can't find the words to say 'I Love You.'
...
He can sympathize. Humans... are like this, aren't they? Too often, they're like this. He was too. Even when there's no going back, those words can be so hard to say. But that's only part of it. That's only... This--
Feels wrong. It feels wrong. It feels wrong like every other time they've had to 'sacrifice' someone to save the world. It's like he's having to act as an executioner, working like some kind of machine to put down the Enemies of the Planet again and again. Lunata has a connection to this place. These people. So do Jay and Shalune, through her. So does Boudicca. And Pearl.
And then there's him. An executioner from another world, bringing the power of a foreign god to slay an ancient devil.
Pearl's words snap him out of his navel gazing. He takes in a sharp breath-- and nods, "No. No matter what anyone thinks, this has to be done."
"We won't be holding back either," Cyre says, the wind howling in the heart of the beast as it gathers around him. "If there's anything you want to say to your son, say it now. This... is the end of your long nightmare."
"I didn't come all this way to stop now," he says-- more to himself and the god who walks at his side than anybody else-- "The Guardians will be reminded of the courage of a mortal soul, the Clysmian of Obsession WILL return to the Sea of Mud today."
"I promise. You... will be Sin's last sacrifice," he says.
It's a small consolation. But it's the most honest one he can give words to.
GS: Billy Lee Black heals Billy Lee Black! He gains 96 temporary hit points! GS: Shield and Surge applied to Billy Lee Black! GS: Blitz! Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Preparing to Execute Another 'Final' Sacrifice! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters a Counter stance! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Preparing to Execute Another 'Final' Sacrifice! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters a Counter stance! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Cyre H. Lorentz accepts Cyre H. Lorentz's Preparing to Execute Another 'Final' Sacrifice for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Figures that Tidus's dad would make a wisecrack at a time like this. The son rarely resisted such moments. But the levity feels frail today, both from him and from Tidus. When the grief and anger cracks through, it is no surprise. Tidus deserves that hand-hold from Yuna right now; Paine can't think of much else that would help. Certainly nothing Paine herself could say.
Even if Paine had the personality that would make her want to speak up, she would be ill-equipped to. Her own parents died when she was so small that she does not remember a thing about them; only basic biology demonstrates that they existed at all. She does not understand what it is like to have a father, or to hate a father, or miss a father. Perhaps it's all for the best, because it leaves her unable to even begin the task of extrapolating what it must feel like for your father to be Sin.
She did see the Jecht Spheres. The journey of the prior generation, the path she herself tread, save for a divergence at the end. And it is there that she finds what she does understand: Jecht the Sphere Recoder. Jecht, who for all his abrasiveness, wanted to preserve what he experienced. And it tugs at her, that kindred instinct to imprison a moment, to save it up. If things had gone the way they were grimly supposed to, Yuna would be dead, and probably Luly would be... Jecht. But perhaps it would be Paine's spheres that the next generation collected, one by one, as she grew older and her regrets remained fresh.
But that is not Paine's future, and Jecht is not Lulu's present. Yuna did Braska honor by doing better for herself and the world than he had managed, and now it's time for Tidus to do the same. And he doesn't have to do that alone.
"Sounds like we're up," Paine tells Rikku, as Tidus sounds the emotional starting gun. As a double-layer of machina and magic falls upon Paine from Yuna and Rikku, she tests her own body with a flex of both fists, before unslinging her rifle. "Let's protect the star player, shall we? Those too look a little dangerous to be around right now," she says, tossing her head at Lulu and Yuna. "And I'm feeling pretty dangerous myself."
GS: Paine accepts Tidus's Hastega for 0 hit points! GS: Lock state and Quick applied to Paine! GS: Blitz! Paine has attacked Paine with My Heart's Racing! GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo! GS: Paine's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Paine accepts Paine's My Heart's Racing for 0 hit points! GS: Burst and Hyper applied to Paine!
<Pose Tracker> Jecht has posed.
"Heh..." Jecht laughs, a little, when Lunata says that. "Ain't a bad team, then. Ain't a bad team at all. Just make sure they're ready to push it all the way. Can't get tired on the last play, yeah?"
Then, Jecht looks at Fei. He doesn't know his circumstances -- but he can understand the sentiment. He nods to him. "Then fight it. But remember... it ain't easy. That means you gotta fight even harder, to carry that weight."
Jecht's eyes shift to Yuna, then. He hesitates -- but he nods. "...Yeah. But I'm glad you broke the cycle, Yuna," he says. "So... you got my thanks for that. And for this."
For what is about to come.
He looks at Elly. Jecht hesitates, for only a second, before he nods again. "Yeah. I understand. See it through, yeah? No stopping now."
His eyes turn back towards Xantia -- and he seems bemused, for a moment. Then, however, he looks more serious. "Give me hell for them, then," he says. "Don't let that spirit die, you hear me?"
He looks at Citan -- and he nods, once. He won't argue about wanting to rest easy. But rest only comes after this. Then, he turns his head -- looks to Rikku -- and Jecht nods, once.
"It's the end of a journey. And I'm sure you are," he says. He glances at Paine -- another Guardian, another person who found out that means being at the end of the world and finding out what that means. He gives her a short, brief nod. And when he speaks to Rikku, he speaks to her too. "I'm counting on it."
His eyes turn towards Shalune -- and he cracks a smile. "Trash talk is part of blitz," he says. "But fair warning. This punching bag hits back."
Then, he looks to Boudicca. He nods; it's grateful. For coming with Tidus; for helping him this far. "That's about right," he says. "The Clysmian... yeah. I don't quite know the details. But do your best."
Then, Jecht turns to Cyre. He squares his shoulders. Then, he nods to the shaman. "I'm counting on it," he says. "But you gotta live up to that. You make a promise that big? You better be ready to keep it."
Then, he reaches out, interlocks his fingers, and cracks his knuckles.
"Yeah," Jecht says. He looks at Jay for a moment -- and then he smiles. "Just remember this. And who I was. And make sure they get it right. Besides, if you're on the best team--"
He looks back at Lunata, then at all of them. "I gotta give you one hell of a match."
Jecht cracks a smile to hear Tidus speak of what he accomplished. It's a moment of levity, if brief. And it must be brief.
"...Yeah. I never did right by her. And neither of us did right by you," Jecht says. He doesn't say more; he failed his wife. He won't speak ill of the dead. He watches Tidus, carefully.
And he flinches, when Tidus says that he hates him. Even if he knows, on some level. It isn't just that Tidus hates him. Hatred is simple, and nothing about this is simple.
"I know," he says. "Let's go. Don't hold anything back, you hear me? You show me... you show me what you got, son!"
And Jecht takes a step backward. With each step, a small ring of light shoots out from under his foot. Another; then another. And with each step backward, lights appear on the buildings around them. Lights in the windows -- lights on the signs -- lights on the streets.
Zanarkand lights up, as it only did in the dream. It lights up and expands outward, further and further, towards the endless horizon of Sin's void. The clouds overhead glow with the light reflected. Pyreflies swirl and swarm, beginning to gather into Jecht.
And he falls.
Jecht goes crashing down off the pillar. He falls down into the depths, and then there is a flash of light.
And he reappears, but he is changed. He is immense -- at his waist, he towers nearly four times the height of a person, and the rest of his lower body is hidden beyondthe platform. His body is dark blue, muscled and powerful, with the same tattoo in white on his chest. Portions are gold -- and his left arm is covered in carapace that looks like armor.
His hair is a stark white -- and more like a mane, wreathing his neck. Two huge horns come up beside his head.
BGM: Final Fantasy X - Otherworld
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9dEu29RY44
His eyes glow, a solid white. And he SCREAMS, a bestial roar that is not unlike Sin.
His left arm strikes first. It rakes across the front ranks -- those huge clawed fingers lashing across Tidus, Lunata, Fei, Citan, Xantia, Boudicca, and Cyre. Then, there is a flash of energy, and a rumble through the ground.
When he traveled with Braska, he used a little Earth magic; it was the element granted him by the Goddess.
Which is why, under the feet of so many others here, the earth shakes -- and then jagged lances of stone explode out, slashing and cutting at them from below.
Braska's Final Aeon towers over them, eyes ablaze with white -- and without humanity.
GS: Jecht has attacked Tidus with Left Arm Strike! GS: Jecht has attacked Lunata Croze with Left Arm Strike! GS: Jecht has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Left Arm Strike! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht has attacked Citan Uzuki with Left Arm Strike! GS: Jecht has attacked Xantia with Left Arm Strike! GS: Jecht has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Left Arm Strike! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Left Arm Strike! GS: Jecht has attacked Yuna with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Lulu with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Pearl with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Rikku with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Shalune Amira with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Billy Lee Black with Stonera! GS: Jecht has attacked Paine with Stonera! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Jecht has completed his action. GS: Billy Lee Black heals Pearl! She gains 98 temporary hit points! GS: Shield and Surge applied to Pearl! GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Jecht's Left Arm Strike for 66 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Jecht's Stonera for 146 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated! GS: COUNTER! Citan Uzuki counterattacks Jecht with Mufuu! GS: Citan Uzuki solidly guards Jecht's Left Arm Strike for 88 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: COUNTER! Yuna counterattacks Jecht with Counter Attack! GS: Yuna suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Stonera for 206 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: COUNTER! Lulu counterattacks Jecht with Counter Attack! GS: Lulu solidly guards Jecht's Stonera for 94 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: Shalune Amira takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Stonera for 79 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Rikku takes a solid hit from Jecht's Stonera for 226 hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Jecht solidly guards Citan Uzuki's Mufuu for 64 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht solidly guards Yuna's Counter Attack for 68 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht solidly guards Lulu's Counter Attack for 68 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Tidus accepts Yuna's Strength, Everyone! for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz and Hyper applied to Tidus! GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Jecht's Stonera for 67 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Gleam activated! GS: Tidus accepts Rikku's Al-Bhed Tested Rikku-Approved: Mighty G! for 0 hit points! GS: Quick and Shield applied to Tidus! GS: CRITICAL! Tidus accepts Seraph Boudicca's Thousand Sky for 0 hit points! GS: Pray grants a random effect! Lock state and Quick applied to Tidus! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: COUNTER! Cyre H. Lorentz counterattacks Jecht with Bloody Aftershock! GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Left Arm Strike for 271 hit points! GS: Tidus takes a solid hit from Jecht's Left Arm Strike for 159 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated! GS: COUNTER! Lunata Croze counterattacks Jecht with Counter Attack! GS: Lunata Croze suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Left Arm Strike for 184 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Jecht's Stonera for 147 hit points! GS: Jecht partially guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Bloody Aftershock for 89 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht solidly guards Lunata Croze's Kasumi for 71 hit points! GS: Xantia fully evades Jecht's Left Arm Strike for 0 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Left Arm Strike for 96 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated! GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Stonera for 81 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Billy Lee Black solidly guards Jecht's Stonera for 68 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Paine takes a solid hit from Jecht's Stonera for 240 hit points! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"It's been too long, huh?" Lunata says to Fei, looking at Elly, Citan and... somewhere, Emeralda as well, along with Xantia and Billy. "I've got to hang around with you guys again, sometime. I had a huge down spiral a while back, but I got out of it just fine."
She grins. "Never a weird time to say it, come on."
There's a soft nod at Yuna. "Not another life." She looks fondly to Shalune, to Jacqueline, and Ethius, since that's kind of her square of the 'party' right now, along with Pearl and Cyre. Jacqueline tosses her a glowing bottle of Easy Limit Breaks! (Is that how it works in X rules?) She downs it, and then she breathes in deep. "Okay, I'm ready!"
"You bet we won't," Lunata answers Jecht, as he tells them that he has to give them a hell of a match. "We'll be the talk of the town, when we score the goal at the last minute!"
Jecht... falls. He rises... and he's immense, screaming as his left arm rakes through and threatens to just slam her off the platform, but at the last moment--
-= L I G H T B U L B =-
--perhaps thanks to the awesome power of Jacqueline's concoction, Lunata glimmers the truth of the situation and manages to athletically spin out of the way, the blow only grazing her, delivering two solid counterslashes in response!
As a narrator dramatically explains the phenomenon known as a "Glimmer," Lunata shouts:
"Shalune, you'd best get rough! No takebacksies!" Lunata encourages her fellow Lunie, before darting forward into the air. "I'm not gonna hold back either!"
When she lands ontop of Jecht's arm, she draws Orochi-Agito in one fell swoop -- a scattering pattern of cherry blossoms in the wake of her circular, trailing slash. "Oryaaaaah!"
GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Jecht with Cherry Ronde! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Lunata Croze gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Lunata shouts that she'll make sure this story, Jecht's story, doesn't get forgotten. Fei shares his own feelings about monsterhood and makes his own promise to him. Shalune brings a bit of levity to this most dire of moments, maybe a little comfort to Jecht in the end. Boudicca expresses her gladness that she was able to meet him, that she's here to aid his son. Rikku expresses she won't hold back either, even as she's talking up his son to him. Lulu offers her quiet, dignified reassurance, stated like a fact that has simply yet to happen.
Jay and Cyre both encouraging Jecht to say his very last words, and Elly, who already helped him answer some questions before this final moment. Xantia, Billy, Citan, Pearl, Ethius... and Paine, though she doesn't address Jecht, instead declaring that it's time to get dangerous.
And Tidus finds a tidal wave of gratitude pouring over and through him, to these people who have every right to hate his dad too, and yet offer their own understanding--to both of them. They're amazing friends. This moment is so much, but their support--it's more than enough.
"Yeah," he says to Yuna, voice thick with emotion. He holds back his tears for now, but they are very much present, just behind the lids of his eyes. "You've always taken care of me, like I've always tried to take care of you. We're all in this together. This is our story, yours and mine, Yuna... but this--this will be part of everyone's stories, now!"
That's the strength he tries to bring when he stares down his father--but seeing the pyreflies surround him, seeing him begin to fall, hearing him admit that he and his mother both did him wrong--something in him snaps, something desperate that sends him launching himself forward, one arm outstretched. "NOOO!!" he screams--but it's far too late, and he grasps only empty air.
It's true that Tidus hates his dad. It wasn't a lie. To tell Jecht now 'I love you' would be to do himself a grave disservice. But there's a lot of nuance to that hatred now. In the same way he had to bring his mother up, in the same way Jecht calls him 'son,' he finds the cosmic unfairness of it all too much the bear in this moment.
Even so, when the massive Final Aeon rises up, both like and unlike Jecht in appearance, Tidus grits his teeth and draws the shimmering blue glade of Caladbolg. Boudicca's empowering wind lightens his body and Rikku's potion strengthens his defenses, and he shouts in defiance and solidarity both, "I promise we'll make it quick! Hit me with everything you've got, Dad!!"
He doesn't try to evade when Sin does precisely that, bringing down a fist to rake claws into him. Though they score painful wounds across him, he bears it, sword raised in some defense to keep those claws from cleaving him in twain rather than the slashes they otherwise make. "I won't lose! I'm gonna give this everything I've got--you'll see!!"
Sweeping his Celestial Weapon down and upwards, the magic that the Goddess granted Tidus manifests as a combined magic and technique. A spray of water follows Caladbolg's tip and shoots forward, as fast as an arrow and sharp as a blade, to impact up along Jecht's massive form.
GS: Formation! Blitz! Tidus has attacked Jecht with Riptide Cutter! GS: Tidus has gained 2 Combo! GS: Tidus's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Jecht solidly guards Lunata Croze's Cherry Ronde for 86 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Lunata Croze! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei takes Elly's hand. Of course he will. He gives it a small squeeze. He wishes he was as confident in his declaration as he sounded but Jecht says he has to fight twice as hard so...
He nods once to Jecht. He's listening. Fei readies his foot to stomp down and rock threatening to burst out of the ground underneath him but it's actually that long swing from tha giant limb coming down at him. Fei keeps his hands into open palm because even if he blocks in a closed fist stance he's going to lose a limb. Rock, as it turns out, only beats Scissor if the Scissors aren't larger than your entire body and can cleave through mountains.
Fei, handsprings into the air, throwing himself not quite over the swinging limb. Grimacing, he grabs at the one of the fingers, still taking a thin slice across his chest to swing himself around and drop on top of the arm.
He aims to run up it. His arm is thick as fuck.
(fortunately, he probably let go of Elly's arm before this).
He leaps around the should, aiming to strike with both feet slamming down in what would look like a normal landing but there is a subtle difference in the movements. It looks similar to one of his Earth Artes really.
"We'll look after him when this is over. He won't ever be alone." Fei says solemnly. It's easy to forget sometimes but he too is a dad.
As Tidus unleashes a spray of water--maybe he can make use of that if it keeps happening.
Everything he's got huh.
"Yeah," Fei murmurs. "....We gotta win this so we can do that, Lunie." He smiles. He did think it was a weird time to say it, but hearing Lunata say that is a relief.
"Thanks Lunata!" Don't be too thrilled though, Fei tells himself, you're still orphaning someone today.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Jecht with Hagan! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Lights. Lights, everywhere. Ethius finds his groove broken by the sudden increasing ambience in electrical luminosity in wake of Jecht's dive from the platform. He half-expects the entire scenery around them to coalesce into something Sin-like. He is completely wrong, but it's enough to throw off his 'chambering' groove. The emergence of the transformed Jecht sets that train of thought right.
Even if the above didn't throw off his groove, Ethius visibly winces as he braces against the deafening scream, and that he's standing towards the left side of the gathered means the swinging arm goes wide over him, but--
He catches what's going on when the seismic disturbance happens.
"The ground's moving," Ethius breaks his seeming vow of silence in the wake of Jecht's final moments of lucidity, and takes off running closer towards the center of the platform rather than the periphery. A rising lance of stone doesn't run him through but it does get just under his heel enough that he loses balance, rolls, and bumps up against another in a hard, whiplash-inducing stop.
Far preferrable to the alternative, as he slams the butt of his quarterstaff against the ground, rising with waving gestures and chanted syllables lost in the shouting and other sounds of battle that follows.
"Dust Compress!" Lights escape where Ethius' Symbological crests on his body are visible, taking the displaced dust, grime, and soot from the loosened Earth magic and then trying to slam it all, concussively, against the bulk of the Final Aeon - aiming it somewhere Lunata isn't moving, in consideration of working more like a team rather than an incidental contributor.
It might help significantly with visibility, even with the lights of a long-gone city bearing down upon them.
"I'll follow your lead," is what Ethius offers in the wake of his spell going off - to Tidus, and the others of Spira as much as anyone else, as he once again sizes up Jecht's monstrous form.
The only assurance he can give Jecht, what's left of him there, is seeing to that in action rather than word.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Jecht with Dust Compress! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Jecht solidly guards Tidus's Riptide Cutter for 74 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Jecht says his last words. At least the ones he will say to Elly. "I will," she affirms with a nod of her head. And another look towards Fei. It's a great weight, but -- none of them have to carry it alone.
And then he's backing away. Elly feels another of those queasy little thrills run through her stomach. This isn't a game or a practice match of some kind. They are far from any reasonable escape; they can't call Gears or friendly guns to their assistance. The only real way out, in the face of this city of dreams, is through.
As Jecht steps back, Elly thinks of Spira; of the kindness of strangers; of the strength of the doomed, and the courage to find new courses. She thinks about where her other comrades are standing, and what she would do.
But you can't decide until you see what the future holds, do you?
And in a moment... mystery is unveiled.
Absurdly, Elly thinks: He doesn't just look like a small Sin? Why did I expect that?
And then the ground bursting beneath her feet! Elly rocks to the side and has to shift her entire weight forwards before she gets abruptly inverted by the rending stones; just in time to nearly get skewered on a lancing eruption of brutal, cold stone, the strike hitting her leg and making her let out a "hiih!" of pain and land on one leg, hopping twice before smashing down into a lower-centered stance, staff over her shoulders.
She doesn't strike with the weapon. A sweep of one hand and another breath, and a sudden tightening of the lines of Ether, and a sudden burst of flame - a tight packet of incinerator-blue flame, burning in its own regard to scream against some of Jecht's, no, THE FINAL AEON'S hide!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Jecht with Thermo Crystalmelt! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Jecht partially guards Fei Fong Wong's Hagan for 157 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht partially guards Ethius Hesiod's Dust Compress for 134 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu is watching for Paine, too. Her attention is on Jecht and Yuna most... but she has room for her fellow Guardians, and for one in particular. Paine... who would have recorded the truth.
But then it begins. Jecht has much to say, but he must let loose, in the end. The Final Aeon...
Braska's Final Aeon. What she could have become. But she has what she 'is', instead...
"Come!" she calls to Jecht, and his stone magic crashes towards her--at which point Lulu lets it impact her so that she can throw a spell in return, a blast of watery energy that slams towards Jecht as she moves.
And move she does. She rushes for another part of the platform, keeping herself distant from other targets as best she can, coming to a stop near Citan. "Jecht. No, Sir Jecht. ...I'll show you the true power of a Black Mage."
Lulu lifts her hand to the sky, and magic surges into her, from all around. The temperature around her rises considerably, the air around her a haze.
"...Of Lady Ginnem's last student."
She throws out that hand, and a gigantic snowstorm rages; all around the Final Aeon, the air begins to frost over, the wind to bite, and then ice surrounds all, crashnig with frigid and sharp rime.
Then, in the next instant, the spell repeats, a second in the time it would take most mages to cast one.
"Of Besaid!"
GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Blitz! Lulu has attacked Jecht with Blizzaga - Double! GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lulu's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lulu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"I won't forget it." Jacqueline replies with a resolute nod - and, manages to crack a small smile. "Yes. Let's make this a match they'll talk about for ages, shall we?"
That's the best peace they can offer him, right now. She looks toward Lunata and Shalune, offering them both an encouraging smile. Ethius and Cyre, meanwhile, receive a nod of readiness.
They're all ready... and so, it seems, is Jecht.
The city around them lights up, and Jecht falls into the depths - and rises, changed. Immense and powerful... truly, this is the form of Braska's Final Aeon. Jacqueline senses the earth shift beneath her feet. So, that is his specialty, too... She wraps her cloak around her protectively as she leaps back. Stone lances rush out from the ground, crashing against the steel cloth of her cloak. She winces slightly and forces her right hand forward. Earth shatters and breaks at her command - and with a gesture, she sends all the rubble in the area rushing back toward Jecht!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Jecht with Rubble-Rouser! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Guess so!" Rikku chirps at Paine, cheerfully. "Does that make us our team's forwards this game?"
Before she nods at Jecht, with that same smile and sad look in her eyes, as if to say 'We'll take care of him.'
If only she knew. If only.
"Yeah!" She cheers as Tidus says its a part of everyone's stories now. And... Rikku looks in horror as Tidus starts to chase after Jecht falling, "Tidus!" And starts to chase after him to keep him from leaping off the edge himself.
Even as Jecht falls and the city lights up, the immense Final Aeon is huge, and Rikku's not as surprised as she thought she'd be.
After all, he's not the first Final Aeon she's seen, she realizes that now. It's just, this is one that was truly used to defeat Sin.
His roar is like a chorus in her ears, even as jagged lances of stone spear out, and catch her in the arm, and one leg, even as she rips herself off of them, with a small amount of blood spatter.
Already hurting like this from the start, part of Rikku feels a pang of fear, but they'd faced so much already. She'll face this too, she owes Tidus, Yuna...
... all of the Guardians, her all.
"That... all you got?" Rikku says, obviously pained, but forcing herself to push through it, as she hurls a grenade right towards his massive face, it bursts into a massive explosion, spreading this Al-Bhed anti-magic Alchemical all over him.
"It's going to take more than that to take one of the Al-Bhed down! You fight like a drunken Shoopuf!"
Rikku is that really the taunt you want to use? It feels like there should be a 'Are you sure? Y/N' prompt, but no she just lets that one go.
Maybe she's hoping it'll invoke a memory that will psyche him out, but it's EQUALLY RISKY that such a moment might just you know, enrage him.
GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Jecht with Use: Silence Grenade ! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Rikku's alchemy -- and Lulu's, though an alchemy of magic rather than science, and truth be told, an alchemy of heart most of all -- washes over Yuna along with the sentiments of everyone else. She looks at each of them gently, and at those who promise to take care of Tidus; to Boudicca, to Paine, to Fei.
But then there is no more time for gentleness.
Jecht leaps, and Yuna's heart leaps with him, right into her throat. Knowing what's coming doesn't make it less painful. It makes it more. Tidus' reach, Tidus' scream...
...she reaches too, to touch Tidus one last time before battle is joined... but is too late. The battlefield itself has blasted them apart. Harsh stone tears at Yuna's raiment, and she comes away from the titanic blast ragged -- bloody -- and unbowed.
And she looks across the battlefield at Pearl, her Yevonite blue and Al Bhed green eyes catching the other summoner's jade.
"Lady Pearl!" she calls, giving the former apprentice her proper title for the first time. "Let us make Summoner Belize proud -- together!"
And then Yuna takes her first step... into the dance most precious to her.
Besaid Temple feels like a lifetime ago. She prayed for days, deeply in trance -- worrying everyone, as she later found out, much to her mortification. But she didn't just gain her very first aeon there, and grow from an apprentice to a fully invested summoner.
She gained a friend.
It's heresy -- her first heresy, long before the other, more significant and fundamental, apostasies of her journey -- but she sometimes summoned that blithe spirit just to feel closer to her fayth. The other girl from the Isle of Besaid. There was a time that it felt like they had everything in common. They both loved the island. They both loved the sea. They both loved the sky. And they both were willing to die for that love... for the love of Spira... before they could ever come of age.
Secretly, silently, they soared over the horizon as one. Every time Yuna summoned their aeon, it felt like a love letter. A bridge built between two souls that spans the river of time.
It was this fayth, too, and the bond between her and her summoner, that wrought a miracle on the Ten Thousand Steps. That unforgettable sight, broadcast by sphere around the world, of at-gunpoint newlywed Yuna making an impossible escape.
Many of those here today were there back then, too.
And the memory surges back strongly...
...as the scent of peaches, so heady, so strong, and so sweet...
...fills this misbegotten monument to Zanarkand.
---
Raising Nirvana high, Yuna spins. She is a blur, Lulu's complex embroideries lost to the speed of her motion, the gorgeous ombre of her sleeves averaging out to the palest of pinks. Thrusting her arms to the sky, a Yevonite sigil -- no, a Zanarkandian sigil -- inscribes itself, aglow, around her booted feet. It spans the entirety of the platform, gigantic, supercharged.
It is so much brighter than it was at the beginning of her journey. It leaves afterimages upon the retina. Best not to look directly, and it's a good thing that it's only there long enough to pulse four times.
The sigil disgorges spheres of brilliant light, of purest energy, high into the air. They impact and detonate, and out of that explosion, an explosion from two girls' hearts and from the heavens, the aeon appears at last. Child of Besaid. The spirit of the sky.
Valefor.
BGM Start: Valefor's Theme ~ Wings - Birdy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTXDCh2YiA
The phoenixian marvel cranes its neck around so that their eyes might meet. What passes between them is silent but easy for anyone to read. If Tidus felt jealous it would not be inappropriate. But then, he's always understood Yuna's willingness to share herself, and her inability to hold anything of herself back.
Not that she'd ever want to, with the fayth of Besaid.
Spreading her wings wide, then wider, Valefor tosses her magnificent, massive braid (itself quite a bit larger than her summoner), and magic -- primal and raw, yet complex and elegant -- breathes itself into being behind its path.
Or perhaps it's her beak that's breathing magic, breathing power. Complex runes form, spinning, and the radiance pouring down on the group from where she soars high above might as well be a second sun, brighter even than the false light of Zanarkand.
It builds and builds--
-- then explodes outwards, downwards, in a ray that follows Valefor's turning head, churning across the shoulders of Braska's Final Aeon -- not Jecht, not anymore -- in a massive explosion worthy of any orbital strike.
GS: Yuna spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with Grand Summon! GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo! GS: Yuna has launched an attack Link! GS: Yuna's stances have changed to Hero!
DC: Yuna switches forms to Valefor!
GS: Yuna accepts Yuna's Grand Summon for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz and Hyper applied to Yuna! GS: Yuna spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Jecht with Energy Ray! GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo! GS: Yuna's stances have changed from Hero to Avenger! GS: Yuna gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Yuna has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia can't keep the grimace out of her expression, when Jecht encourages her. Doesn't he understand how much harder he's making things, the way he's speaking to everybody? If he'd just done as she did - embrace the act of a Villain, like she's embracing the act of a Hero - things would be so much simpler. Nobody would be forced to think about what they're doing, about the fact that they're facing a man, rather than a monster. If it has to end this way, wouldn't that be the kindest way to do it?
All that resolve that she thought she had falters briefly, forced to acknowledge the humanity at the heart of the monster she came here to end. But no - Jecht said it himself. She has to stay the course. Doing this is not wrong, even if the fact that this battle has to happen at all is. "...I hear you," she mutters, too quietly to be audible for anyone not standing nearby.
Her eyes grow wide, as she watches Jecht falls from the platform. For a moment, she wonders if he chose to end this on his own terms. But that shouldn't be possible - and indeed, Jecht rises once more, in a form far more befitting a monster. Odd as it may be to feel relief at this, looking the part of a monster helps her motivation in dealing with it tremendously.
Especially when it's first to attack. Seeing the tell-tale signs of a claw swipe in advance, Xantia is ready to backflip out of its path. An aura of flame bursts forth in response as she immediately counters, dashing forward to deliver a fiery leaping uppercut. It doesn't quite reach all of Jecht's newfound height, but she'll settle for landing one on the chest if she can.
She was going to follow that up with some heroic-sounding line or another. That was going to be her plan for the whole fight. But words seem to be failing her at the moment. She may have to settle for just looking the part, because sounding like it... she's just not feeling that 'hero' vibe anymore.
GS: Xantia has attacked Jecht with Elemental Fury! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Tidus screams, and Boudicca's heart shatters.
But that's fine. It has broken before; it will break again. That's what it means to be an ally to humanity, to walk amongst them... to, in point of fact, be much the same as them.
(She screamed, too.)
She springs backwards, as that great arm lashes out -- not quite fast enough to evade the Final Aeon, but fast enough that he tears through the silks at her left side instead of caving her armour in entirely.
"I will not hold back," she says -- to herself, perhaps, because the Final Aeon doesn't seem like to hear. She thrusts out a hand, another Seraphic glyph lighting below as she incants: "Buffeting Headwind!"
The wind which blows towards the Final Aeon is not as gentle as Tidus's breeze; Boudicca's 'red' magic may not be as destructive as Lulu's black magic par excellence, but neither is she toothless, when she elects to go on the offensive. Perhaps it is only right that she should send the wind hurtling down, here, as Valefor takes to wing.
... she owes this much to Tidus and the others -- to fight with all her strength.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Jecht with Buffeting Headwind! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Zanarkand trembles around them, coming to life with every step Jecht takes, and for Shalune it's the truest indication that this isn't a real place but a land of memory. She'd seen for herself how dead and silent the city was around them. The thought of it lighting back up like this is impossible, and at the same time a wonder. Even as Jecht's true form starts to tower over them she's stuck looking out over the twinkling lights, burning the cityscape into her mind.
It feels like a vision of the past, and a vision of the future. Or somewhere in-between, she thinks uselessly. It's a thought to pick apart later.
When she looks back it's into the empty white eyes of the Final Aeon. Her face immediately falls; she'd hoped that maybe there would be some vestige of Jecht still in there, or at least some sign of it. Of all the thoughts that have flashed through her head today, the idea that Jecht might not be able to see his son finish everything, to be there right at the very end, is definitely the saddest.
For Tidus' sake, she holds out a little hope that he's still in there, even a little.
The ground beneath her quakes in a warning sign and then erupts upwards into a jagged spike. Shalune isn't completely sure how she's so ready for it, but there's definitely a stray thought somewhere in the back of her mind that bubbles up her throat and reaches her voice. "Jay could do better than that with her eyes closed!" she blurts past a wild grin. Maybe she shouldn't sass someone in this position, but if there's any way to try to connect with the vestiges of Jecht that might still exist inside the creature in front of them, this is her choice.
She just got told that trash talk is okay. Blitzball on Spira may never be the same.
Lunata spurs her on, and Shalune braces her staff against the rising earth, ignoring the way that some of the spikes of rock rake down her legs. Before it can get too dangerous, the growing shaft of earth abruptly explodes, a detonation at the end of her staff propelling her forwards. Shalune barely even touches the ground, launched laterally across the platform - she has enough time to twist in midair and then use the force of her rush to ram the end of the staff home against Jecht's torso, just in time for another detonation to rock the surface of the Aeon.
"You're gonna be the one that has to keep up for once!" she promises Lunata past the din of the explosion. This is perhaps a bit rich of her given that she doesn't have a spirit of death hovering over her shoulder, but she certainly does at least have spirit. Her story with her father might be over, but she can at least spur this one on as best she can.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Jecht with Sudden Impact! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
A big promise. It's true. But for better or for worse, this is not the first time Cyre Lorentz has had to fight tooth and nail against something akin to a god. He watches with clear eyes as Jecht falls from the platform, and grimaces when-- too late-- Tidus finally lets a sliver of his true feelings shine through. It's hard. Fighting one's own blood is hard enough knowing that there's still a chance to drag them out of the dark.
But this? This?
He can't even imagine. He hopes to never have to imagine.
The massive form of the Final Aeon emerges from the fog, a memory of Zanarkand coming vividly to life as memory resonates with the Pyreflies. It's... massive. Just, absolutely enormous.
Its left arm swings. Cyre reacts too slow, he--
No. Wait.
He surges into it, wind howling as he makes himself into a human jacknife. The massive arm smashes into him, but in so doing, it carves into the armor of wind Cyre had surrounded himself with.
It also knocks him straight up into the air, rivulets of blood mixing with swirling wind to become blades of high-pressure, crimson fluid. With a shout, the shaman rights himself, wind gathering around his hands as he kicks off the empty air and drives down with both hands wide open. A descening, double palm-strike...
...That projects a veritable cannonball of wind directly into the Final Aeon's elbow, looking to pulverize one of the star Blitzballer's most important joints!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Jecht with Grand Pressure! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The spikes come from the ground, and for once, Pearl isn't fast enough to dodge, the jagged stones tearing into her arms and legs, blood dripping on the floor, tearing strips out of her robes and trousers. She lets out grunts of pain already- and it would be worse not for Billy's protection. This is the power a Final Aeon starts a fight with. She cannot hold back. "Lady Yuna!" Pearl calls out to the other Summoner in response. "We shall. Let us take this last chance. Hold back nothing, regret nothing!"
"...My friend, this is the final time I will call on your power." She speaks quietly, but not quietly enough to not be head. "This is the last battle we will fight as allies. The last time your waves will strenghten mine. The last time our fury and strength will be set against a foe- and the only time against a foe of this power. Today, we fulfill our oaths!"
Pearl extends her right arm out, as she gathers the pyreflies to her. Pearl's final summoning has begun. She sweeps her arm in close, as though sweeping pyreflies towards her, and then the spin becomes the pirouette, and the pyreflies bring the sea scent of the ocean. Water rises and surges into a massive pool under Pearl's feet, and she is raised on a pillar of salt water pushing upwards. In the pool beneath her, a reddish fin emerges, circling, gaining speed. Faster and faster-
"I beseech you, Lord of All Waters! Rise, Leviathan!"
The great sea serpent, companion of her soul, breaches the water explosive, soaring into the air above Pearl. Magic gathers into their mouth as the do so, and at the peak of their jump, they release it, a water blash with enough pressure to kill, sustained by the dragon's magic, right for the chest of Braska's Final Aeon. As it does so, the water summoned by Pearl lowers her to the ground, where she stands. Leviathan dives to the ground, and lands with a heavy slam near Pearl. She smiles, faintly and sadly, for a moment.
"If this is to be our final battle together, Leviathan... Let it be one that is writ into the soul of the sea itself! Let the waves tell of it to every sailor! Let them see the strength that grants freedom, and free this man from his undying prison! Let us free Spira from it's curse! This is my final request!"
Leviathan roars, and in this moment it is as if the ground is quaking. This would be the fight they have craved for all their years in stone.
DC: Pearl switches forms to Aeon Leviathan!
GS: Pearl has attacked Jecht with The Darkest Point! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"...Indeed," he says to Lunata, smiling slightly for the first time since their arrival within this place. "All things must come to an end."
It isn't a strange time to say it all, particularly given what still lies ahead.
Children are of their parents, but they do not belong to them.
It was something that his grandfather had said to him when he was still a child himself. It had taken nearly fifteen years for him to understand what it meant -- and he had only understood the moment he had held Midori in his arms for the first time and felt that weight.
He doesn't say a word -- doesn't betray a flicker of anything when Tidus says what he will to his father: all of it honest to the last. This, too, is important...
And it is not in this part of the telling of this story that he bears a role. As he had said to Leon and Lily and Tidus. As he had said to Fei and the others...
He is here as so many others are to see a tomorrow. To permit an end to come at last. To allow Jecht and all those who came before him to rest easy as promised.
Before one can rest, though... there are certain things which must first be done.
And in order for there to be a tomorrow, they must first give today all that they have.
As Jecht himself says: they must not hold back.
Then the moment arrives: he can hold on no longer to what remains of himself, as he can no longer hear the song. He becomes in truth Braska's Final Aeon.
Jecht's left arm comes in swiftly for the lot of them. Twisting as he's struck and planting his feet solidly on the ground, he misses not a beat and delivers a flurry of blows in counter.
...The Aeon is well-armored, that much Citan can determine immediately.
Here he does not hesitate, but runs for the retreating arm, his Ether fueling his flight. His hand is as a blade's edge as he drives at the Aeon's massive arm, water Ether joining the blow to be as the fury of the sea.
GS: Citan Uzuki spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Jecht with Suisei -Retsu-! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 3 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki gains 21 THP from his Cautious! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action. GS: Jecht solidly guards Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Crystalmelt for 97 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Energy Ray for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Jecht! GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage! GS: Jecht takes a solid hit from Lulu's Blizzaga - Double for 245 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Lulu! GS: Jecht solidly guards Jacqueline Barber's Rubble-Rouser for 79 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Jecht solidly guards Rikku's Use: Silence Grenade for 78 hit points! GS: Dispel! Hyper removed! GS: Mute blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
"Yevon's might," Paine subvocalizes as Jecht assumes his new form. Old habits. "Sounds about right," she tells Rikku, about them being the team's forwards now. When Tidus lunges and Rikku follows, Paine tsks in concentration but does not follow either; catching up to those two with a restraining hand is a fool's errand. But Paine can send something ahead of her... something much faster than she is.
But as she lifts her rifle, Paine is forced to lift it ALL the way up, pointing at the ceiling, to avoid getting her arm smashed by a stone spike. But as the 'star player,' Tidus, is assaulted, the thought of waiting to fire until the danger was over becomes intolerable. Besides. Paine was really looking forward to going on the offensive.
"Come on come on," she snarls, swinging her machina carbine down. For all her rough appearance and threadbare garb, she has a soldier's precision in moments like these, her posture and technique precise in a way that is at odds with Rikku's improvisation. Taking a blow across the thigh knocks her aim askew once, then a stone spike grinds across her upper arm, tearing her cloak and baring the abrasion it created. She takes it, fighting her limbs back into position and, in the last moment, holding her breath as she aims high, both to enhance the damage and to avoid accidentally shooting someone like Xantia who is attacking Jecht's tattooed torso. The moment the front sight lines up with the back, Paine squeezes her trigger, sending a bullet over Tidus's head and, hopefully, into his father's.
Her exhalation is a mixture of celebration and biological need, as Paine takes a moment to look back at Valefor. The feeling of having this sort of power at her back used to remind her of Mi'ihen, and the vast machina weapons there. But victory after victory, the mixed feelings that created have started to fade, and she has begun to trust, to feel the same sense of pride and vigor she ought to, having an ally like that. Lulu is artillery in and of herself, and the fact that she has caught the eye of a woman like that gives her not a little pride and vigor all its own. But she does feel a moment's hesitation, when Lulu cites the historic and personal origins of her might.
Paine would never be able to announce with pride about why she knows how to fight.
GS: Jecht solidly guards Xantia's Elemental Fury for 107 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Mighty applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated! GS: Blitz! Paine has attacked Jecht with Ironsights! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Jecht solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Buffeting Headwind for 63 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay applied to Jecht! GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca! GS: Jecht solidly guards Shalune Amira's Sudden Impact for 123 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Jecht partially guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Grand Pressure for 155 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Pearl's attack becomes clear! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Jecht solidly guards Pearl's Overdrive: Unyielding Torrent for 177 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated! GS: Jecht takes a solid hit from Citan Uzuki's Suisei -Retsu- for 213 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay removed! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy prays as long as he's able. To whom does he speak, now? A God invented by Solaris? It might be something even worse than that. But...
It is the one who taught him that saving people is a glory of its own, and so he will share his thanks and love, the same.
He senses more than sees that the battle is coming, and opens his eyes just as the earth begins to rumble under him. The veils around him light up as the stone trying to rip up under him shatters against it, straining his strength but not his bones.
His hand finds a pistol. "Everything I have," Billy says. That jab from Jecht hadn't been directed at him, per se, but Billy feels the resonance to his father. Jesiah Black isn't quite as rippling as Jecht, but he senses they'd get along. Once, that would have disgusted him. Now...
Now with hand on his gunsmoke, he raises his other arm instead, and a spring-loaded ether gun leaps into his palm, crackling with Wind ether. He fires, one, two, three shots of flickering kamaitachi, scything winds.
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Jecht with Sky Walker! GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Paine's Ironsights for 211 hit points! GS: Jecht solidly guards Billy Lee Black's Sky Walker for 67 hit points! GS: Break blocked! GS: Quick applied to Billy Lee Black!
<Pose Tracker> Jecht has posed.
Lunata rushes in. She lands atop the huge, clawed hand -- her blade slamming down into the armor. It bites with a spray of sparks and pyreflies, but a movement threatens to send her flying off before she can stay on.
And Tidus comes in. When Jecht's glowing eyes look down at him, there is a distance there -- an alienness. Caladbolg bites, water and blade slashing into the armor, with another burst of sparks. A pained grunt, from the Aeon. Everything he has -- but did Jecht hear him?
Xantia comes in -- without words, this time, as she charges. She lands near his chest, and her fiery uppercut smashes in near the glowing emblem on his chest. She has to bounce away, but her fight leaves a scored mark across his alien fesh for a moment.
Shalune comes in, not a moment later -- it seems Jecht's ability to do trash talk is greatly diminished -- and her staff impacts with a hard slam, leaving a mark as she bounces away. A few pyreflies drift off.
And Cyre slams down, a moment later. His palm strike hits -- the mottled, alien flesh gives -- and then the cannonball of wind explodes into him, throwing Cyre back, and leaving a gash of glimmering, prismatic light in the Final Aeon's side.
Citan leaps up, underneath his arm. His hand, Ether wrapped about it, slams into the underside of the arm -- leaving a slash across it, gleaming with prismatic light. The Final Aeon's eyes glance down, meeting Citan's, and his teeth are bared.
The massive Aeon swings up its clawed hand. It whips back through the air -- and brilliant golden light EXPLODES off t, and leaves three slashes of vibrant gold through the air. It cleaves down, slashing across Tidus and Lunata, the golden slash marks expanding in its wake to tear at Xantia and Shalune too. The tips of the bladed claws slash across Cyre -- and then the meat of the hand slams down, bodily, for Citan.
Ethius's spell sends out a blast of dust, dirt, and grime into the Final Aeon. It's like being caught in a sandblaster; the armored form is blasted into, carapace chipping in a couple pieces, mane blown back, and a few pyreflies blown free.
And then Lulu's ice slams into the Final Aeon -- blades of it catching, piercing, twice. The Final Aeon bellows, twisting, and ice shatters as it moves. Then, the very stone that the Aeon sent for Jay is hurled back -- and stone slams into his body, bludgeoning it at her command.
Rikku's grenade flies -- and explodes, alchemical fluid hurtling across him. The Final Aeon turns, blazing eyes locked down onto Rikku's. Then he ROARS again, with anger on his bearded face.
Jecht, possibly, heard that.
Boudicca summons wind, which slams into the Finale Aeon. He is not blown backward, but several scoring slashes are cut across his body.
Paine's rifle sounds. The carbine's shot slams into Jecht, machina bullet pushed into Aeon-flesh. A few pyreflies burst out; the Final Aeon sways a moment, before righting itself. Then, Billy's Ether-enhanced shots fire. This time, the Final Aeon is ready -- these slam in, but the bulk of its body takes them better, and its head turns.
It glowers down at the priest with solid white eyes.
Light surges up underneath and around Braska's Final Aeon. Yevonite runes -- inside a magical circle -- swirl alongside it. One of them sweeps through Billy, as the Final Aeon stares.
Then, the magical circle vanishes in a brilliant flash of light.
And, amidst the back ranks of the group, the platform shudders -- and cracks. Stone rips and lifts underneath Paine's feet, throwing her off; a chunk of stone comes up and crashes down for Rikku and Lulu. Jay finds that she is suddenly at a 45-degree angle -- and sent tumbling as the platform cracks, straight towards spikes that erupt from the ground to also spear at Ethius.
The rock shatters under Billy's feet, and the flagstone he was on is hurled thirty feet into the air. It rises, crests, and then comes crashing down for Boudicca.
Fei charges in. He can't quite run up that arm -- it's swung up by the time he gets there -- and his feet slam into the side of the Aeon's muscled chest, kicking off with a hard blow. Then, Elly's fire explodes up around the Final Aeon -- brilliant blue fire scoring a long hit up the waist and chest.
And in the wake of that fire, Valefor rises. The Aeon's wings open -- and a ray of light explodes across the Final Aeon, slashing through and sending up explosions of pyreflies where the beam bites deeply.
Another Aeon rises. Leviathan surges upward, the Lord of All Waters loosing a massive blast of water into the other Aeon. The blast slams into the chest, a burst of pyreflies exploding out, and the Final Aeon bellows in anger and rage.
And pain.
Jecht's brilliant white eyes flash. Then, two beams of energy explode out of them, and join together. They become a lance of blue-white light. It shoots across the battlefield, and when it touches stone, it leaves a deep gouge through it that glows red-hot until it starts to flash cool.
The beam of light lashes out across Fei, first -- and when it gets near, explodes into a THUNDEROUS shockwave-ring of crackling plasma that hurtles from him towards Elly. Then, the beam rips out.
It slashes first across Leviathan, the beam threatening to cut deep, and then ends with a sweep across Valefor. It explodes into a second shockwave of crackling blue light, before the beam fades away into a few lingering arcs of blue-white energy.
GS: Jecht spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Jecht has attacked Lunata Croze with Sweeping Blow! GS: Jecht has attacked Tidus with Sweeping Blow! GS: Jecht has attacked Xantia with Sweeping Blow! GS: Jecht has attacked Shalune Amira with Sweeping Blow! GS: Jecht has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Sweeping Blow! GS: Jecht has attacked Citan Uzuki with Sweeping Blow! GS: Jecht has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jecht has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Earthquake! GS: Jecht has attacked Lulu with Earthquake! GS: Jecht has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Earthquake! GS: Jecht has attacked Rikku with Earthquake! GS: Jecht has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Earthquake! GS: Jecht has attacked Paine with Earthquake! GS: Jecht has attacked Billy Lee Black with Earthquake! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Jecht spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Jecht has attacked Yuna with Jecht Beam! GS: Jecht has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jecht spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Jecht has attacked Pearl with Jecht Beam! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Jecht has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Jecht Beam! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Jecht has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Jecht Beam! GS: Jecht has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jecht gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Cripple and Mute expired! GS: Jecht has completed his action. GS: Rikku suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Earthquake for 189 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Earthquake for 198 hit points! GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated! GS: Lulu solidly guards Jecht's Earthquake for 87 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated! GS: CRITICAL! Citan Uzuki partially evades Jecht's Sweeping Blow for 214 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: Lunata Croze suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Sweeping Blow for 204 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lunata Croze gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Tidus takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Sweeping Blow for 140 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Shalune Amira takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Sweeping Blow for 116 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Pearl suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Jecht Beam for 514 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Xantia partially evades Jecht's Sweeping Blow for 167 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: CRITICAL! Yuna takes a solid hit from Jecht's Jecht Beam for 595 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yuna gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated! GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Jecht Beam for 288 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Jecht! GS: Paine solidly guards Jecht's Earthquake for 90 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Earthquake for 257 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Earthquake for 102 hit points! GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz fully evades Jecht's Sweeping Blow for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Cyre H. Lorentz gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Rikku runs up at his back to keep him from falling in after Jecht, but there wasn't any fear of that. Tidus stops himself before the edge. Still, when Sin makes his opening attack and they all make their counters, Tidus shoots Rikku a quick look of gratitude, even a grin and a, "Yeah, you tell 'im!" She's always been an amazing friend to him, easily his best friend, in Spira or anywhere. If he had more time, maybe she'd have become family, eventually. But--
When Fei promises Jecht that they'll all look after Tidus, the young athlete's grip tightens on the hilt of his sword. That, too, is reaching its breaking point--but right now isn't the moment for it. Instead, he shouts to Ethius, "Thanks! I'm counting on you!"
The spears of stone cut off part of the battlefield, and Tidus whirls, his eyes seeking Yuna. He sees her summoning, sees Valefor's descent, and once again he can't help but smile. Maybe he'd have cause to be jealous of the Aeon, but he never has been and never would. He made a promise to them, and he finds himself weirdly grateful to see the first who joined Yuna join them now at the end.
He turns away, confident that Yuna's Valefor--and Pearl's Leviathan--will do more than their fair share in this final battle. Likewise, he feels pride for Lulu that she feels comfortable enough announcing her magical heritage--that she's able to announce with her own pride her old Summoner. For Paine, he doesn't even look back; he trusts completely that she's got *his* back, like she's proven time and time again. She doesn't like big displays anyway, and knowing her, she'd just tell him to keep his eyes on the prize.
It's deafening, all this magic, all this swordplay, all this roaring and explosions and gunfire. It would be easy to shake a person's brain right out of their skull, but Tidus doesn't let any of it hold him back. He keeps his focus on Sin's hand, cautious for another attack. Sure enough, it glows golden and cleaves down its golden energy to slice towards him and Lunata. Tidus manages to avoid a direct hit by somersalting to one side, but Sin's attack is more than powerful enough to clip him and clip him hard as they expand and shear off in other directions, sending him into a tailspin and smashing into another pillar.
He groans from the pain--but he pushes himself up to his feet all the same. "Th-that the best you got, old man!? You won't beat me this time!" he shouts. He digs the tip of Caladbolg into a crack in the pillar behind him and uses it to launch himself in the air, swiftly and deftly pulling it out in his wake. When he nears the top, he kicks off it and vaults himself at Sin's arm. If he lands true, he'll cleave an arcing line up and through that non-flesh, digging deep as he spirals upwards towards the elbow.
A dangerous gambit, but Tidus promised he'd give it his all.
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Tidus receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Blitz! Tidus has attacked Jecht with Spiral Cut! GS: Tidus has gained 1 Combo! GS: Tidus's stances have changed from Stoic to Avenger! GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Jecht partially guards Tidus's Spiral Cut for 141 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"Anytime, Fei!" Lunata shouts, quietly appreciating the way their teamwork is improving -- Ethius' precise manoeuvring of his magic to where she isn't moving, both to cover her but also grant her some freedom in her movement, the way Jacqueline summons earth to shatter and break at her command... she can be confident she's got backup, and everyone's working in lock-step too.
Yuna and Pearl both summon, perhaps for the last time -- and she can't feel more proud at how far they've come. "Oh yeah? Then you'd better back up that talk, Shalune!" Lunata shouts, really getting into the Blitzball-vibe. Shalune is actually joining her in melee, so she's giving her space to work with as they dance about each other.
The movement does threaten to knock her off, so she jumps off ahead of time; oh shoot! The moment she lands, that arm's still coming in for a horrible sweeping blow, one that nearly knocks her off her feet as she draws the katana in for a last-minute guard that still impact and sends her bouncing off.
"Not yet! I've still got so many tricks in my bag!" Lunata shouts in defiance, as she rises into the air and--
Then there's five Lunatas, in a plus formation! They each descend one by one, crashing onto the side of Braska's Final Aeon, bombarding him with powerful blasts one after another in the shape into a cross!!
"Rosario... Impale!!"
GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lunata Croze has attacked Jecht with Rosario Impale! GS: Lunata Croze gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lunata Croze enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: Billy Lee Black takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Earthquake for 93 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Jecht partially guards Lunata Croze's Rosario Impale for 162 hit points! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Lunata Croze drains Jecht! Lunata Croze gains 77 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Shalune's praise just get a smile out of Jacqueline, even if it's in the form of trash talk. It's true - maybe that's the best way to connect to Jecht's spirit... though Jacqueline has never been much of a trash talker herself, so she'll leave it to the professionals.
The platform shudders and cracks, and Jacqueline finds that it suddenly shifts beneath her fault. She's sent stumbling down toward some very vicious looking spikes, and it takes some panicked mid-air movement to adjust her path to 'merely a painful landing'. She groans, but quickly hauls herself to her feet and re-sets her glasses.
Despite the current situation... Lunata and Shalune's banter gets a chuckle out of her. If they can keep their spirits up even in a situation like this, then she has a good feeling.
She'll have to follow suit.
With another gesture of her right hand, energy begins to build in the air - before crashing down toward Jecht as a bolt of lightning!
GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Jecht with Lightning Strike! GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Jecht solidly guards Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Strike for 110 hit points! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Tidus doesn't say it, but in Rikku's eyes, in a way...
... he already is.
Jecht possibly heard that. Mistakes, may have been made.
Or maybe not either? In the moment however, it certainly feels like one as Jecht invokes his Earth Magic again, stone ripping up and lifting and smashing down.
Rikku finds herself getting bowled over in the moment, and some UNCOMFORTABLE cracking noises, as she's momentarily seeing white from the pain.
Then getting up on one knee, she throws what looks like a candle into a potion, then adding a few reageants, she waits for it to dissolve.
"Wow you really... got us. You're just... way too much-!" She coughs, and then hits the potion against a shard of Jecht's Earth Magic, cracking it like the shell of an egg, before she tosses it up.
That alchemical potion falls apart in mid-air, flinging that healing, invigorating concoction everywhere. It doesn't even need to be consumed by mouth, as part of it falls upon Paine, Yuna, Valefor, Pearl, and Citan.
"-Psyche!" As she leaps back up, rubbing a hand across her chin, "Chin Up! Eyes Forward everyone! We're still in this, and we're taking this Old Man down!"
GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Paine with Chin Up! Eyes Forward! Ultra-Cure!! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Yuna with Chin Up! Eyes Forward! Ultra-Cure!! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Pearl with Chin Up! Eyes Forward! Ultra-Cure!! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Citan Uzuki with Chin Up! Eyes Forward! Ultra-Cure!! GS: Blitz! Rikku has attacked Rikku with Chin Up! Eyes Forward! Ultra-Cure!! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lock state expired! GS: Rikku has completed her action. GS: Rikku heals Rikku! She gains 268 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: CRITICAL! Rikku heals Yuna! She gains 705 temporary hit points! GS: Rikku heals Citan Uzuki! He gains 273 temporary hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Fei Fong Wong partially guards Jecht's Jecht Beam for 163 hit points! GS: Cover applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Ngh," Fei says as he's detoured from his target to something tougher--namely his chest. He still impacts it hard and then rolls back down to the ground in a crouch, back to square one.
So many loud emotions today.
Fei ignores it for the moment since this doesn't seem like something that requires an empath to notice. He glances over to Tidus--but he seems to be doing well enough for someone who is fighting a Final Dad. Like, sure, he's clearly not at 100 percent but it'd be stranger if he was.
As he starts to recover, Jecht unleashes the
JEEEECHT BEEEEAAAM
"Aw shit," Fei says.
What a fucking cool move. is Id's contribution.
Fei unleashes a Guided Shot that partially resists the eyelasers but not enough that he doesn't get slammed by the afterwash of it. He hisses through his teeth as he looks back up. "Really wish I had Weltall along. Maybe could've squeezed it in osmehow now..."
He never thought he'd say something like that. Nevertheless, he says, "MAybe you should try cooling off...!"
And he throws both palms out, summoning an iceberg that essentially erupts against Jecht.
Laaaaaame
"It was cool shutup..." Fei mutters.
GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Jecht with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
The flagstone shatters -- and Boudicca once again flees from the consequences, breeze at her feet, as those stones rocket down. One SLAMS into the ground where she was a moment prior; three others crash around her. A gash of stone tears another silk in two.
Call it a metaphor.
But Boudicca is the wind, and she manages to escape the devastating remnants of Earthquake.
"Both Valefor and Leviathan are come," she reflects, as she looks up to those Aeons. "So comes Fengelon, with Cyre... and I carry Moor Gault along myself. And..." She trails off, for a moment, looking Luniewards. It's... complicated. But she's glad she's here, too. "... so many spirits and great forces gather here, to end this tragic cycle."
She takes a breath -- it is a statement -- and nods, to Rikku. "We are not done, yet." She incants, as another green Seraphic glyph lights up: "Blow, storm, and stopper misery! Howling Gale!"
So comes the wind, again, in a terrible storm.
GS: Jecht partially guards Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 136 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Jecht with Howling Gale! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Under other circumstances, Lulu would have to be careful of the many fighters in and on Braska's Final Aeon. Tidus, and Lunata; Xantia and Shalune, Cyre and Citan, and all. But as it happens... There's so much of this enemy that it is not so hard to aim after all.
Lulu will take advantage of the greater surface area to use the largest spells she can, accordingly.
She is not sure taunting the Aeon is the best of strategies, but perhaps Rikku has the right of it.
Fighting alongside not one but two Aeons is an experience, to be sure; Lulu does have to weave her spells around those, around Leviathan and Valefor. She, too, remembers Lady Belize. ...She cannot honor her with an Aeon, but she can do so with her spells, well enoug. Protect her own Summoner.
Her ice slams down. But then, the platform shudders, and cracks. A chunk of stone crashes towards Lulu, but instead of dodging, she puts forth her hand and slams forth a Watera to shear through the worst of the rock's momentum, and guards herself with her bangle against the rest. "Gh--"
But she is whole enough. And she has more magic to go. Which makes her think--she attempts to catch Elly's eye, across the battlefield. "You are a mage of fire," she says. "...I know fire. I have an idea."
This time, Lulu sets down her Onion Knight to help her focus, and the little warrior raises its sword to the heavens. Lulu, too, raises her hands, channeling forth yet more magic, from all around the ambient power of Sin. Ages of unspent mana coalesce here... and afford her a chance to go beyond her old limits.
Pan out to the full sight of the battlefield. It is there that the circle of ice begins, whirling one frosty moment at a time in rapid pace. Then, air begins to freeze. Ground ices over. And the glacier begins to form above Jecht. It is huge, cold enough that mist seethes throughout the battlefield as it hits the air so hot from Jay's lightning bolt, and elsewhere, cracks forming. And then it shatters, gigantic blades of ice crashing down and down and down towards Braska's Final Aeon.
"Elhaym!" Lulu calls. "Your magic!"
She didn't practice this with her--but she knows how powerful the other sorceress is, too. If they do this together...
GS: Lulu spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Blitz! Lulu has attacked Jecht with Blizzaja! GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lulu has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Rikku heals Pearl! She gains 707 temporary hit points! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Howling Gale for 229 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's Blizzaja for 524 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Lulu! GS: Strain! Lulu takes 68 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius does his level best to reposition himself away from the swinging hand-claw as something of a rule, maneuvering around others' own strikes, spells, and shots to try and keep towards the back. He watches Lunata's splitting movements as he considers the next spell--
And is not given that grace, as the platform cracks. One of Ethius' feet is stuck for key moments, as he watches Jay at risk of tumbling.
"Jay," Ethius tries to call, but the erupting spikes on the ground have a different plan in mind. A set of slurred syllables and a crossed arm inward to try and invoke his Symbological protection spell comes up short - sliced and bludgeoned alike in a crushing blow, sending him low as the ray of light explodes around him.
When Ethius is able to get up, he shakes out the leg that was caught in the shallow fissure (didn't break his ankle, good), and has to wipe blood away from his right eye where stone cut above it. He watches how Valefor and Leviathan, loyal Aeons to Summoners poised to end this, move to stand against the Final Aeon that eclipses both of them. His approach starts with a low crawl, into a crouch, once again trying to move towards the front.
"Pardon," he asides to Tidus as he comes up his left, in a humorous echo of what happened in Seymour's last stand (and once again having to blink away blood getting in his eye).
This time, he's up close for a reason, Symbologically casting with his free hand in difficult contortions in sequence as he murmurs out the syllables leading to the terminus of the spell's name.
"Recurrent Current!" Ethius calls, trying to channel electricity through the Final Aeon's right arm before once again politely disnegaging from the front.
He understands Spiran squad tactics tend to only have so many up front at once, and even now does his best to honor that.
GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Jecht with Recurrent Current! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Jecht takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's Recurrent Current for 202 hit points! GS: Poison blocked! GS: Rikku heals Paine! She gains 273 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
A powerful opening surge. If they were lucky it might be enough to stagger the Final Aeon, set it on its metaphorical heels, give them the opportunity to finish this with the quick cleanliness that even Tidus would surely be glad to give.
Elly doesn't exactly expect them to be lucky, and she is not disappointed.
The glowing eyes make Elly's own eyes widen. There is not much time to avoid such a scintillant ray, although Elly tries to leap to the side. Is it that? Is it the sudden burst of flame around her, some sort of reflexive buffer -- superheated plasma to absorb or baffle those rays of deadly intent?
"Kyah!!" Elly cries out, the burst sending her feeling with a smell of SOMETHING smouldering. Elly can't tell what. A bit of hair? That seems plausible, it could be worse - she can see Fei there, at least, moving. Someone calls her name.
Her PROPER name. Elly blinks for a moment and turns her head. No, it isn't her mother: it's Lulu; "Right!" she calls out, raising up her staff again and sucking in another deep breath through her teeth. "Hhaaahh--"
A sweep and another streak outwards towards the blades of ice. This is a strangely shaped object of fire; it's too bright to really 'see' but it has a polygonal shape, something like a complicated cone. "I'm trying to crack - the armor!" Elly pants out.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Jecht with Thermo Calcinate! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The beam arcs across Leviathan's body, and pyreflies burst from their form at speed, and Pearl has to focus to keep them present, burning through willpower reserves- just as Rikku's cure falls on the Aeon, and brings it back from the brink. "My thanks!" Pearl yells, as Leviathan surges forward.
The Lord of All Waters can often be a straightforward Aeon. There are times for vast plans. Sometimes the plan is simple-
Bodyslam Jecht with all they might and anger, the weight of the sea crashing against Jecht as hard as they can, as swiftly as they can, before rearing up to roar again.
In her soul, Pearl can feel the feeling not of dignified combat, but an all out tavern brawl. "Ah. Even now, this is the sort of fight we face."
GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Calcinate for 195 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Weaken applied to Jecht! GS: Hyper applied to Elhaym van Houten!
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Wind batters the shaman back-- but this time, it's just the aftershock of his own attack, not the might of Braska's Final Aeon. He hits the ground in a three-point landing, skidding across the twisted flesh-stone that makes up so much of this memory-space. But he has little chance of even catching his breath when the Aeon continues its attack.
But this time...
This time, he's ready for it.
The massive limb scythes downward. Cyre rises to meet it. In the instant between contact, somewhere in the space between spaces and the time between times-- Chapapanga flips a coin.
It comes up heads.
Cyre twists, swinging up into the Aeon's strike as a phantasmal limb overlaps his own arm. For a brief instant, Fengalon's claws clash against Jecht's--
And neutralize the force of the blow before it can crush Cyre into a fine powder.
For that brief moment, three different summoned spirits were arrayed against the incarnate soul of Sin. But the moment passes, and Cyre is still airborne.
With a roar, he descends again, somersaulting mid-air into a sequence of tight rolls. The wind surges around him, surrounding his body in an eviscerating halo of hurricane-force gales as he spinballs into the massive Aeon in an emulation of the sacred techniques of one of his distant predecessors.
Though it's a little more... magical than Elder Felicia's preferred method.
He rebounds after, landing perilously near to a certain Seraphim. "Don't sell yourself short," Cyre tells Boudicca, the winds still churning all around him, "Acting like you aren't a 'great spirit' in your own right."
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Jecht with Gathering Storm! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz's stances have changed to Hero! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Pearl has attacked Jecht with Crushing Tail! GS: Pearl has gained 2 Combo! GS: Pearl has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Of course, things weren't going to be easy. Even with everyone's power combined, this incarnation at the heart of Sin would be tough enough to take a punch or two. Xantia's planning to make the second one a really good one, though.
She doesn't quite get to that right away. She sees that claw raise, and reacts appropriately... for the claw itself. She wasn't expecting the slash marks to follow after, and for it to feel much like getting struck by actual claws. It's only luck that her dodge maneuver took her out of the attack's direct path, and she 'only' gets raked across the back, which still hurts like heck. Not the first time that she regrets not opting for heavier armor. Still...
"You won't crush my spirit that easily!", she shouts, finding herself reacting to what Jecht told her earlier, rather than following the script she outlined for herself. She was always better at improvising her way through, anyway.
She looks around, briefly taking stock of the situation. She can't help but search for those she feels closest to - make sure that Fei and Elly are okay after those massive eye beams. Which are cool, it's true, but it's hard to feel that these specific ones are, given who they're aimed at. She'd sure like to literally punch his lights out, but that's a long way up.
Speaking of light, her aura quickly shifts elements, Fire making way for Light, a notable amount of which gathering in her right hand for what should be obvious reasons. "You asked for this... so I won't hear any complaints!" This one, she keeps straightforward, sticking to ground level as she launches a glowing fist directly ahead, discharging its gathered energy in the form of an explosion, with enough force to propel her backwards a bit.
GS: Xantia spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Xantia has attacked Jecht with Exploding Fist! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xantia receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Jecht takes a solid hit from Pearl's Crushing Tail for 177 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
The scent of the sea washes over Yuna and Valefor, and she inhales deeply, nostrils flaring. There's no time to simply stand and watch Pearl summon Leviathan, but there's also no way to miss the enormous torrent of water that blasts out of the Lord of All Waters and onto that massive charicature of a manly athletic chest.
"Yes!" Yuna replies fiercely, in reply to Pearl's call.
Then the counterattack -- the platform is shaking, cracking, Yuna struggles to keep her balance. Unlike the journey here, though, she doesn't fall (for once!). Her arms windmill, her sleeves flutter, her knees bend, and... she straightens! Back up! Tidus meets her eyes, then, and she looks back, cutely proud of herself for not landing on her butt!
Just in time for the gut punch of Valefor's agony to roll through her.
Feathers -- scarlet, violet, golden -- fall upon the battlefield like blossoms and like rain. The great bird, all but vivisected by the massive beam, crashes into the side of a nearby building. To go with their plumage, a plume of concrete forms like a mushroom cloud.
Yuna is white and her mouth is even whiter, a thin line of suffering. Sweat pours down her cheeks.
For a moment, she felt invulnerable, wrapped tightly in the love of the fayth. And in that moment she had forgotten something important:
This is her FATHER'S final aeon.
Underestimating him ends now.
Aeon battles are not simply might makes right. They are tactical. Strategic. She never had the opportunity to learn from her father directly...
...but she had other teachers.
And she will not fear him now, nor Yu Yevon, who's really pulling the strings.
A bit of concrete dust rolls out of Yuna's mouth when it opens, despite the physical distance between her and her aeon.
"My father," she says, for the third time, "Was wrong."
She said it to Tidus; and she said it to Seymour.
Now she says it for herself.
Rikku's healing pours through her -- and, rolling down their connection -- into Valefor, who erupts from the damaged cityscape with an ear-piercing shriek.
If the aeon is the union of summoner and fayth, then...
"Both of them!" she replies to Rikku. And to Tidus. "We're taking both our old men down... by surpassing them!" She kind of stumbles over 'old man,' normally she would have said father, but she went to her cousin and boyfriend's style of speech for both their sake. "Everybody -- plug your ears!"
She takes her own advice, as Valefor soars high into the strange sky of Sin once again, and begins to beat her mighty wings.
Once--
Twice--
And the third time shatters the sound barrier.
An absolutely monumental BOOM shakes the platform, the colossus... what feels like the whole world.
It does no damage at all.
Sonic Wings is one of the best moves in the game.
It delays. And then when you use it again -- BOOM -- it delays even more.
It's disorienting. It's disrupting.
BOOM
Valefor is shattering defenses rather than flesh, and buying that most valuable of commodities in battle: time.
It's up to everyone else to capitalize on it.
BOOM
Six uses later, Sin finally gets another turn.
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Jecht with Sonic Wings! GS: Yuna gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Yuna has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Jecht solidly guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Gathering Storm for 126 hit points! GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
The palm of Jecht's massive hand slams down, but... Citan is no longer there.
Yet, while he might have escaped becoming crushed, it does not mean he goes unscathed: a shockwave rolls out from the site of impact and catches Citan mid-flight; he stumbles, dropping to one knee. In this moment, he appears to been made woefully vulnerable.
In this moment, though, a minor miracle occurs. Rikku, feigning her defeat, hurls instead an alchemical concoction through the air.
"Is that...?" Citan murmurs, immediately invigorated by but a few traces of the potion. "Is that in exchange for the previous time, Miss Rikku?" he calls out, rising to his feet. "...Indeed, we have come too far to admit defeat. Now...!"
He takes but a breath, focusing himself. It's Elly's voice that he hears above all others, a single shout that she's trying to crack the--
There is much earth Ether to draw upon in this place, what with Jecht's own mastery of that element. And earth, in its own ways, has some particular similarities to water -- it has never been difficult for him to control.
The initial movements are slow and controlled as he pulls it inwards, channels it, makes himself the epicentre of this particular quake--
And the last few as as quick and unexpected as the shuddering of the earth itself. Citan slams a single fist to the ground and from there rumbles forward the tremblor, jagged stone erupting from below and all.
Break his armor. Perhaps this might but help.
GS: Citan Uzuki spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Jecht with Chisei -Hou-! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 4 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki gains 24 THP from his Cautious! GS: Cover and Riposte expired! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Somewhere behind her, Jecht tears apart the platform in a conflagration of heat and sound. In her own head, there's nothing but the rushing of blood and the adrenaline of the fight, and she likes to think that's how Jecht would like it.
It really seems like she might have been practising for this moment, or for a moment quite like it, the way she moves around Lunata like the two of them are acting in concert. She's had a lot of time to watch the way in which her childhood friend fights, and while she might not be as good or have quite the same instincts, the Shalune that maneuvers her staff around her in a combination of strikes is a world apart from the girl who used to hang back and pepper things with bombs.
Shalune narrowly ducks the gigantic fist that comes sweeping through the air towards them, scrambling for purchase as she nearly goes down onto her knees. When she rises it's with the full intent of pressing her attack, but what greets her instead are several clawmarks of golden light hanging in the air in exactly the way that light shouldn't, too solid and real for them to be a reflection of Zanarkand's twinkle.
"Oh, hell," she mutters under her breath, and on a wild and half-formed impulse she plants the end of her weapon into the ground as another burst of flame from the end of the staff propels her up towards them - and straight through, mere moments before the light expands and envelops her. She's dimly ready for it, arms crossed in front of her face and her legs tucked up slightly to shield her from the worst of the blast as the bulk of it propels her even higher.
The world spins disorientingly around her, half of it full of the white marble of Jecht's form, and the next wild thought is that she usually has the Little Dipper around for stuff like this, why didn't she just use the Little Dipper? And, she's going to get yelled at so hard? And, ha ha take that Lunie check me out? What happens if she plummets into Zanarkand from here, exactly?
She manages to shake the fears away as she reaches the top of her arc - and as Lunata and Jay assault the Final Aeon from its side and Ethius faces it squarely head-on (prudently for no longer than is absolutely necessary), she decides to use this moment to attack from above. Discharging everything its battery has, she rains a shower of bolts of light down upon the Final Aeon's head and shoulders before slamming down onto it with her staff.
"Come on!" she yells at the same time as the impact, almost risking biting her tongue off as Veruni metals meet stone and leave her dealing with her arms quivering like jelly and her head ringing. "You took control once, you can do it again! How much are we gonna have to beat you around?!" There's still some of the old Shalune in there at least, because the next moment Yuna yells her warning and Shalune is left yelping as she throws herself backwards, just in time to escape Valefor's counterassault.
GS: Shalune Amira spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Formation! Shalune Amira has attacked Jecht with Storm on the Wind! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Shalune Amira has launched an attack Link! GS: Shalune Amira spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Shalune Amira has attacked Jecht with Soaring Clouds! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 3 Combo! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Jecht takes a solid hit from Xantia's Exploding Fist for 216 hit points! GS: Hyper and Hyper applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Sonic Wings for 0 hit points! GS: Break, Cripple, Delay, Disrupt, and Mute applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
A few simple potshots, it should shred his defenses, and--
Billy senses incredible danger as he meets those solid eyes. He slumps into a ready posture, the wrist-mounted guns lid into his sleeve, a gunsmoke in hand. The circle sweeps toward him, and Billy breathes, "Draw."
The light explodes under him and sends all the ground he's on into the air. He throws himself to the side, off it, letting it crash down much faster than he. It does mean he takes some of the blow, though, hitting the ground hard but rolling himself up and into a stop.
Gun up. Fire, one, two. They're not ARM shots, just bullets, but Billy is a crack shot even with his shoulder stinging. His off hand swings up to catch the handle of his weapon, firing double-gripped to steady his aim. Three, four, five--
All that to disguise the coin he flicked into the air earlier, which tumbles down, between him and the titan's guard, down to--
BLAM
A bullet flies through the coin and the god, both, Billy's eyes focused to a laser's point despite the chaos.
Only after the moment ends does he slip his hand down to pluck a pair of ear plugs out of his habit so that Yuna doesn't render him deaf by 20. Bring ear pro, kids!
GS: Billy Lee Black spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Jecht with Adam's Apple! GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action. GS: Jecht takes a solid hit from Citan Uzuki's Chisei -Hou- for 200 hit points! GS: Poison applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
The bullet lands, and costs pyreflies visibly; a coup of a shot, though still just a bullet. Paine curses in a less polite way than last time as she's tossed from her footing. Tucking expertly as she falls, she manages to tumble out of it, but with plenty of bouncing against stone as she goes. Worse, her machina rifle clatters off in the other direction. With a hand now holding the abrasion on her shoulder, Paine is already rising gamely, but suffering through the wound is not necessary today. As she lets her hand drop to seek her sword-hilt, Paine finds the mist of Rikku's potion coaxing away that awful scrape on her arm, and lessening her bruises. With the sharp corner of her grin, she favors the thief with her appreciation. Combat gets her in unique moods.
A truly monstrous amount of ice magic churns past as Lulu joins her powers with that of a sorceress. "That woman," Paine admires aloud to Rikku, as if Blizzaja were a new dress rather than a spell. But when she looks back to check on Lulu, she sees, instead, the terrible injury sustained by Valefor.
If it were Yuna directly who took the blow, she might have done something uncharacteristic: run back. As it is Valefor, her eyes widen, and she rounds on Jecht, a new ferocity in her eyes. The unslinging of her sword causes her to briefly list in that direction as she runs, its weight falling and then caught up, reversed to allow it to sway back and forth behind her body like a tail. When she is close, she hears Yuna's warning, and grimaces. She has seconds before the boom and far less before she has to decide. And when Paine has no time to think, she errs on the side of attack.
Bursting into a full-on sprint, Paine cries out as if she thinks she can fend off the start of the sonic boom with her own small lungs. Swinging with both hands, she clotheslines Jecht's chest--which given his size, is akin to clotheslining herself--with her sword, and just carries on past him with the rest of her momentum. Charging the ground, she drives her ear into her own shoulder, plugs the other with the base of her hand, and closes both eyes tight.
GS: Blitz! Paine has attacked Jecht with Gravestone! GS: Paine has gained 2 Combo! GS: Lock state expired! GS: Paine has completed her action. GS: Jecht solidly guards Shalune Amira's Storm on the Wind for 103 hit points! GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated! GS: Jecht solidly guards Shalune Amira's Soaring Clouds for 123 hit points! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Billy Lee Black's Adam's Apple for 181 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Jecht! GS: Quick applied to Billy Lee Black! GS: Jecht solidly guards Paine's Gravestone for 82 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Jecht has posed.
It isn't lost on Braska's Final Aeon that it has already brought no small amount of damage to the field. The back half of the platform is broken and shattered. Huge gouges are torn into the front half.
Yuna buys them some time. There is some flicker of emotion across Jecht's face to hear that Braska was wrong. But, more than that, there is Valefor. The other Aeon takes to the skies -- and the sound barrier is shattered, a parabolic shockwave rolling through the Final Aeon. And again. And again. And it sways, momentarily stunned. It buys them a chance.
And they capitalize upon it.
Tidus calls out to him. And Jecht shakes his head -- it's violent, and he seems to hesitate, before his lips curl back into a snarl. But Tidus launches up, his blade cleaving into the arm, leaving a deep gash. The armored portions rumble; pyreflies explode out.
A quintet of Lunatas erupt about him -- and each strikes, blades slashing through in a cross formation. Flower petals and pyreflies erupt as they strike in brutally. A moment later, a bolt of lightning crashes down at Jay's command, exploding off the Final Aeon with sparks, ozone, and a few loosed pyreflies.
Its solid eyes track Rikku, eyes narrowing. There is a low, angry rumble from the Final Aeon.
Fei's ice blast slams down, smashing into the Final Aeon. Chips of ice and ice dust shoot upward; so do pyreflies, from where it struck. Then, Boudicca summons forth the wind again. It is with a terrific, cyclone-force gale that Jecht is struck.
And this time, the Final Aeon does sway backward, if only for a moment.
More ice forms -- this time, it is struck by Elly's flame and SHATTERS into huge blades of ice. Lulu's spell slams down into the Final Aeon. It roars with pain, as some sheer clean through it. Pyreflies explode off its terrific form.
Ethius sends a blast of electricity out -- it shoots out as he gets up close, lightning shooting up the right arm, with a spray of sparks and loud sizzling POPS across the Final Aeon's body. The right arm slams down -- but Ethius is mercifully scooting back by then. Then, Leviathan slams into the Final Aeon.
Aeon meets Aeon -- and Braska's is slammed backward, swaying before righting himself. There is a furious bellow into the Lord of All Waters' direction. Defiance, til the end.
Cyre leaps into the fray as Fengalon's claws fade from that terrific parry. He slams down into the Final Aeon, again -- pyreflies bursting away as he spins into it, and away.
When Xantia's punch lands -- flame exploding off her fist, leaving a blast of pyreflies to erupt off as well -- the Final Aeon bellows in pain. Perhaps it is a complaint -- but when those white eyes meet hers, they are enraged.
Citan sweeps in underneath that. His fist hits the platform -- and jagged stone explodes in a line towards the Aeon, before smashing repeatedly into it. Its armor, especially along the left arm, is chipped and broken. Pyreflies waft and dance away from its. Its eyes blaze, but with pain as much as anger.
And when Shalune calls, there isn't any control. It is as Jecht said: he cannot hear the Hymn so well.
The staff fires, a rain of energy bolts slamming into him repeatedly. Then, Billy's bullet bounces off the coin he tossed earlier -- the one the Final Aeon ignored -- and the round tears through it. The Final Aeon emerges from it with smoke and pyreflies drifting away.
And smoke and pyreflies are HURLED away as Paine's sword clotheslines its way into her chest. It cuts deep, pyreflies exploding in a gout she carves until it catches the glowing symbol on his chest.
And her blade stops as it hits steel.
The Final Aeon's right hand reaches to its chest. The symbol there glows -- white becoming a tremendous, burning glow -- and then pulls free a huge steel sword. It is black; it has chains attached to the hilt, which rattle; it has the red-stained sigil of Jecht upon it. It is like Jecht's own sword, the Iconic Blade.
But it is much, much larger.
The right hand lifts into the air. A huge ball of light forms -- brilliant blue at the center, but a swirling vortex of energy that bleeds rich violet at the edges. Then, it flies down -- slamming down between Valefor and Leviathan both, before exploding into a terrific dome of all-consuming blue energy that washes over both Aeons, then expands outwards into a massive shockwave that rolls for Elly, Fei, and Lulu.
The right hand, gripping that sword, sweeps it across the battlefield. Despite the blade's size -- it is more of a two-handed chopper than a slender one -- it's fast, and it shows Jecht's skill in life. He sweeps out mightily, the blade crashing across Lunata and Shalune, across Xantia and Cyre, into Ethius as he leaps away, and then finally SMASHING down for Tidus in an overhanded blow.
The blade is dropped -- and floats free, after -- and both left and right arm rise up. The Final Aeon holds them over his head.
And another ball of energy swirls into being. It collides together into a huge ball of reds and golds, twisting and turning, and then crashes together and condenses.
It explodes forward -- weaving between the Aeons -- and slams down between Rikku and Paine.
And it explodes into a massive shockwave. That huge blast hurtles into both Guardians; it throws up broken platform pieces at Billy and Citan; it turns the winds back onto Boudicca; it sends chunks of stone HURTLING towards Jay, the size of boulders and the speed of bullets.
GS: Jecht enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jecht has attacked Jecht with Draw Sword! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Jecht gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Jecht takes 33 damage from Poison! GS: Delay expired! GS: Jecht has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Jecht accepts Jecht's Draw Sword for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Break, Disrupt, and Poison removed! GS: Burst and Hyper applied to Jecht! GS: Jecht has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Jecht spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Jecht has attacked Xantia with Triumphant Grasp! GS: Jecht has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Triumphant Grasp! GS: Jecht has attacked Tidus with Triumphant Grasp! GS: Jecht has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Triumphant Grasp! GS: Jecht has attacked Lunata Croze with Triumphant Grasp! GS: Jecht has attacked Shalune Amira with Triumphant Grasp! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Jecht has attacked Billy Lee Black with Ultimate Jecht Shot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Jecht has attacked Citan Uzuki with Ultimate Jecht Shot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Jecht has attacked Paine with Ultimate Jecht Shot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Jecht has attacked Rikku with Ultimate Jecht Shot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Jecht has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Ultimate Jecht Shot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Jecht has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Ultimate Jecht Shot! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jecht gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Mute and Slow expired! GS: Jecht has completed his action. GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: Lunata Croze takes a solid hit from Jecht's Triumphant Grasp for 258 hit points! GS: Ruin! Cover removed! GS: FP up! Power Burst, Guard bonus, and Gleam activated! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Lunata Croze! GS: Jecht has activated Force Action: Extend! GS: Jecht spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Jecht has attacked Yuna with Jecht Bomber! GS: Jecht has attacked Pearl with Jecht Bomber! GS: Jecht has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Jecht Bomber! GS: Jecht has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Jecht Bomber! GS: Jecht has attacked Lulu with Jecht Bomber! GS: Jecht has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku takes a solid hit from Jecht's Ultimate Jecht Shot for 292 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Jecht's Ultimate Jecht Shot for 125 hit points! GS: FP up! Gleam activated! GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Shalune Amira takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Triumphant Grasp for 198 hit points! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Shalune Amira! GS: CRITICAL! Billy Lee Black solidly guards Jecht's Ultimate Jecht Shot for 176 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Billy Lee Black enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Jecht's Ultimate Jecht Shot for 277 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Citan Uzuki has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: You have activated the Force Action Accelerate! GS: Lulu takes a solid hit from Jecht's Jecht Bomber for 303 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Pearl suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Jecht Bomber for 1098 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Citan Uzuki takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Ultimate Jecht Shot for 147 hit points! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Citan Uzuki receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Jecht's Jecht Bomber for 362 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Tidus takes a solid hit from Jecht's Triumphant Grasp for 300 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Ruin! Lock state removed! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Tidus! GS: CRITICAL! Yuna suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Jecht Bomber for 1673 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Yuna gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst and SOS Overdrive activated! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Yuna receives 200 temporary hit points. GS: Yuna enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Yuna has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Jecht Bomber for 382 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Fei Fong Wong gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Jecht's Triumphant Grasp for 272 hit points! GS: Ruin! Hyper, Mighty, and Shield removed! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Xantia! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Jecht's Triumphant Grasp for 131 hit points! GS: Ruin! Hyper and Mighty removed! GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Cyre H. Lorentz! GS: Ethius Hesiod suffers a terrible blow from Jecht's Triumphant Grasp for 273 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo! GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Ethius Hesiod!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus really is grateful that Rikku's here. He's grateful that everyone's here, including those fighters who are battling just off to the side out of the camera's view, like Auron. But Rikku in particular is always so good at being positive and optimistic when even he struggles with it. Her shouts bring a smile to his lips, which glows up into a grin as Yuna follows up on it by saying they'll surpass their old men.
"We already have! Now we're just proving it!" he shouts back, raising a fist in solidarity. A sharp nod goes to Ethius as he passes him by.
But the flicker on the Final Aeon's face... the way he hesitates, for just a second... Tidus's chest clenches with emotion he doesn't have time to express. Maybe that's what makes him face his father head-on when that massive blade comes down to squash him, swinging his blade up to meet it.
It's not a *smart* maneuver, but the motion at least carries him to the side a step--all the difference between being reduced to a red paste and getting bucked up into the air from the force of impact, smashing him against the stone when he lands.
Yuna then shouts to everyone to cover their ears, and as cacophonous as the battle's been so far, he doesn't feel like pushing his luck while on the floor. He trusts his girlfriend and presses his hands to his ears.
A second later, he's glad he did as Valefor ruptures the sound barrier over and over and over and over and over. It gives him time to recover too, to pick Caladbolg up and stagger up to his feet and his many thankfully non-shattered bones. When she's done, Tidus takes ruthless advantage by sprinting up to the Final Aeon--launching himself at his broad chest--rebounding off and up away from it--and raising his sword as he arcs backwards through the air. Searing light gathers around it for a heartbeat or two as he seems almost to hover in midair. At the apex of his leap, he swings the majestic azure blade *down*, and a shower of beams hurtle down towards the Final Aeon.
Energy Rain, he calls it, but perhaps right now they might nickname it Tidus Beam.
GS: Tidus has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Tidus has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Tidus spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Tidus has attacked Jecht with Energy Rain! GS: Tidus has completed his action. GS: Paine fully evades Jecht's Ultimate Jecht Shot for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Tidus's Energy Rain for 294 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Valefor disappears within the all-consuming blue energy.
Yuna screams.
This is not typical for her, when summoning an aeon. Yes, there is a connection; yes, her connection with Valefor is greatest of all; but she's usually able to hold some kind of composure.
Not today. Not for nothing is this Braska's Final Aeon. The light of his bond with Jecht defeated the fifth Sin.
This light...
It would have been easier if Valefor had been defeated, or if Yuna had dismissed her. But neither of them wants that, and so they suffer together -- tortured by a cosmic, almost radioactive power -- summoner and aeon, united in agony, striving together to survive one more second, and another, and another. Not because they have to -- there are so many other aeons. But because they want to.
They want to live...
Yuna gasps and pants as Valefor emerges from the shockwave, gunning straight for her. There is another rush of brilliant, fiery colors as the spirit of the sky buzzes the platform. It only lasts a split second. A second of warmth and brightness and peach-blossom perfume. Of life, life that couldn't be further from this place, this place of death and obsession over death.
When she is gone, Yuna is also. But you can see her if you look, a-birdback, tiny in comparison to her aeon. Her hands are fisted in that peach-scented fluff. The wind is going to tear her jewelry off if she isn't careful.
"Lady Pearl!" Yuna calls out, her voice falling behind her from above as the two of them fly, and fly, and fly. "Leviathan's great wave -- the time is now! Let us combine the forces of sky and sea!"
Valefor swirls in midair, creating her own updraft, because she's hax like that, even at 1 HP. Then she balances on her wings, hovering with the occasional flick of her pinions... almost peaceful in the way that she soars.
That the three of them soar together... one last time.
They await the tsunami, hearts beating as one.
Wait... the three of them?
Yes.
For the first time.
Because as she leapt onto Valefor's back... Yuna extended her hands to Tidus. She's not strong enough to carry him, of course. But Valefor is more than strong enough for them both, now. That might not have always been true -- or, perhaps, one or the other of them might not have been willing.
To let someone ride Valefor with her is an act of great intimacy, from Yuna. One of the greatest acts possible. To Yuna, Valefor is joy. Valefor is freedom. And that joy and that freedom will last just... a little bit longer.
To be up here together is like the freedom of a fall. Of an exhilirating plunge into parts unknown. Especially since he'll have to hold onto her from behind in order to stay on...
Fayth help her, she loves him so much. His name slips out of her mouth, like a paean, like a prayer. The hymn of her faith.
"...Let's go together?" she asks him, breathless with affection.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Yeah! Both of them!" Rikku pumps her fist, at Yuna's cheer, before it even registers what she said. Rikku puts a hand on her hip, and grins at Yuna in appreciation. Right before she claps a hand over her ears and Yuna has Valefor USE SONIC WINGS LIKE THAT!!!
Hands off of her ears, she sends a wave Citan's way, "That and your help getting that guy off our airship, but really, I just saw you needed a hand, Doc!"
Right before she flashes a grin at Paine as if to say 'You know you appreciate me.' Even as she whistles at the effects of Blizzaja, "You really better never make her mad Paine! Chilly reception might be more literal in her case!"
Rikku doesn't like the look of Jecht right at her, but then again, the two were never gonna get along.
She's squarely on team Tidus. The chances of her ever being on team Tidus' Dad were always slim to none.
As he pulls that blade out, Rikku looks warily at it, trying to dodge out of the way preemptively of that sword, and that ball of light. Neither were aimed at her though.
Then she sees the much, much bigger, condensed ball of light. She looks sideways at Paine and, "Ah. Poopie."
In that moment the Ultimate Jecht Shot lands between them and detonates, blasting her over the broken platform, truly testing the endurance of her alchemical shields, which break apart from the sheer force of the explosion, and the shrapnel that follows.
In the aftermath, ears ringing, Rikku looks up, sees what an awful hit that everyone just took.
Eyes blurred, it's like it wiped out every single moment of forward progress. So many people are in such a bad state now.
Flight seems impossible, and she doesn't really want to disengage from the fight. There are worse ways to die, than with a smile on one's face.
But she's not counting herself out yet. "H'okay... I guess I can see you've got skills..." As her hands work, she brings together one of her most ingenius, and thus worst explosive concoctions yet, sealing it together.
From how high up Yuna is, she can't hear what she has to say to Tidus, but her smile would broaden if she could hear it.
"... but still think you've got nothing on Tidus."
It may sound like trash talk, but it's not really. Jecht may have been the better blitzball Star, but Tidus? He's got the bigger heart in her eyes. No contest.
"You said hold nothing back." Rikku says, as she hurls what would probably be banned as a war crime in several parts of Filgaia right at Braska's Final Aeon. "So... Caa oui ynuiht!"
It detonates into an awful eruption of explosive force, and toxins. Six different kind that seep in through the skin, into the lungs. Even a being of Pyreflies probably won't enjoy it.
GS: Rikku spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Rikku has attacked Jecht with CHAOS GRENADE! GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rikku has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
At the apex of Tidus's leap, he sends down all those beams of force to rain upon Jecht--and he sees force in turn SMASH into Valefor, hears Yuna scream in agony.
"YUNA!!" he shouts, half-turning--but an instant later, Yuna *and* Valefor are aloft, soaring upwards towards him as she calls to Pearl for a unison attack between sky and sea. Yuna reaches out to him, and Tidus reaches back without hesitation.
She might not be strong enough to carry him. But it's enough for her to catch him, and to let him quickly clamber aboard on Valefor's back. The Aeon is small by comparison to other Aeons, but she's big enough to hold the both of them.
Once he's astride, sitting at Yuna's back, he holds her shoulder to keep his balance, Caladbolg held to one side out of anyone's way. He smiles broadly back at her. He understands what this means to her--how much this gesture means to her.
He thinks this to himself all the time, but if he hadn't already loved Yuna already, he'd be head over heels for her now. Or maybe he's just head over heels for her all over again.
He leans in to kiss her--brief by necessity, but no less passionate for it.
"Together," he whispers back as he gazes into her heterochrome eyes, his adoration fully a match for her own.
GS: CRITICAL! Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Rikku's CHAOS GRENADE for 323 hit points! GS: Blind, Drowsy, Mute, and Poison applied to Jecht!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly breathes heavily. Yuna cries a warning.
What?
Nevertheless, range discipline fires in Elly's somewhat weatherbeaten nervous system and she muffles her ears with both hands - enough to avoid the worst of it. The noise is immense; she can feel it *rippling* through her, and by the fifth she wonders if it's actually going to injure them, but Valefor -- Valefor is a wise being, Elly thinks. (She has no evidence, but it seems to be her feeling. Perhaps a cosmic balance to Guba.)
But perhaps it's not to any avail. The Final Aeon is moving faster, stronger. Valefor's heroic flight has bought them time but has it also removed what lingering traces of the Hymn lingered in the mind of this vast, overwhelming power? A single hand smashes downwards--
A burst of blue. Elly feels something slam into her -- entirely her; something enormous. She's flying, she hit the ground, she rolls, she drags out, the world dims above her, the misty pyrefly vision of semi-consciousness swimming. Sprawled out, Elly stares upwards in futility.
Seconds pass. Perhaps it's some interior alchemy; perhaps it's just hard to bounce up from that cold. Or perhaps...
no!
Elly makes a decision, somewhere deep inside.
I'm not going to lay here.
I don't have the right.
I can hear them. They're not giving up.
come... ON!!
Her face tightens. Her eyes go wide!
And she pushes herself up to her elbows. Enough to feel how much her shoulder hurts, but as some grim and grisly Drifter once told Elly, if it hurts, that means you're still alive. And near her...
"Fuh-- Fei," Elly forces out. A pause to dry swallow. "The armor. We're just... I don't think we're really cracking it. That armor... We have to time this. I'm going to try to go as hot as I absolutely can - and... you'll have to strike it before it can cool any more than it absolutely must. I think there's - a joint there, or something, so -- I'm sorry. It's not a great plan. But..."
Elly leans forwards and forces herself up with her staff. "I guess any plan will beat no plan."
There's no more time for lollygagging. Elly twists round, although she is briefly and profoundly heartened to see how many others still stand - Valefor AND Leviathan both, for one thing -
Elly clutches her staff with both hands and hoists it up. She narrows her eyes even as her field of vision swims with strange kaleidoscopic tendrils in the corners of her eyes. Focus... the Ether tightens off to one side, to the point of being, just barely, on the edge of visible, before
ERUPTING - solar luminscence for a moment as the fire becomes something philosophical. Elly already did this trick on a moderate scale, and now, by grim will and necessity, she does it on a grander scale. A single pinpoint of burning intensity at the Final Aeon's left ribs -- aiming to burn a hot line of sheer hell through the space where flesh seems to join with elegantly ribbed metal (or something smooth anyway).
Five... four... three... two... at one the flame gutters, flares out, and turns into something less sustained, a 'mere' final burst of flame, but perhaps it will be veiling enough for something else. Elly sags forwards, leaning on her rod afterwards, gasping for breath.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Elhaym van Houten spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Jecht with Thermo Incinerate! GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Working as a team means being able to manoeuvre around what other people are doing, and it's almost without effort that Lunata hops out of the way and gives space for Jacqueline's lightning, maybe able to figure it out from her spell canting -- or perhaps from the way the air begins to crackle and spark.
She looks to Boudicca and grins. "Ge Ramtos might not be my favourite Guardian with all that's hapepned, but make no mistake, he'd be happy as chips knowing some other stagnation that's preventing the cycle of death from taking place is being shattered, Boudicca!"
That's right.
Her whole circumstance happened because the people of Hirasaka, so long ago in the Zeboim era, became obsessed with conquering death. His wrath was brought down, and the Rephaim exists today as a warning to those who would follow in those footsteps.
... would he forgive her, if she helped with this situation?
She never was a calculating sort, though; she helped Spira because Spira needed help, not because she thought it might give her a reprieve from her own patron-at-odds.
Lulu's majestic blizzard spell is one to witness, and it's combined with Elly's equally-powerful channel of fire Ether! She also waits until Ethius' spell similarly engages with Jacqueline's own to find the opening. "Thanks for the assist, Ethius, Jay!"
The battle is reaching its climax, however, and the Final Aeon reaches for its chest -- and an enormous sword that even a Gear might have trouble wielding is summoned; she grimaces as she braces through Valefor's repeated sonic blasts, but then the blade crashes through in a mighty roar!!
Lunata is vaporised on the spot from the sheer impact!!
... no... wait... she's just not there, she--
"That was..."
She planted her own sword onto the massive sword of Jecht's and went riding with it, reeling from the sheer impact of the force! Viscous black goo drips from her mouth and arms from where her body just can't quite cope with all of it, but... she's still standing (dangling!).
"...truly a brilliant strike, but... you didn't quite get me!!"
She kicks herself off and flips back towards the platform, unsteadily. She checks around her, grinning at Shalune as she says, "I knew you always had something pent up in you, just itching for a real fight. Let's get it all out of our systems, huh?"
A crackling black aura erupts around Lunata, red lightning flowing around her! "I know the score, there ain't a lot of time left on the clock, so we're going for the plays of the game! This'll be one the commentators are ranting and raving about even all the way to next season!"
Everything disappears, and contrary to expectation... there's no shakuhachi playing. The taiko drums aren't beating. The notes of the shamisen are absent... no... there's the thrum--
Of many subwoofers.
Loud, bold, blaring music starts to play as the theatrical equivalent of a phantasmal stadium erupts on sight; "Heeeeeeeeellllloooooooo Bevelle!" a voice that strangely sounds like Lunata rings through the loudspeakers. "Have we got a match for you tonight! We've got the night parade of a myriad, but we ain't on Filgaia today! The youkai you know and love ain't here, but don't just pack yourselves out just yet, sit down and enjoy the chili dogs!"
Lunata is standing ontop of the commentator's booth in this strange, and possibly noble (no) phantasmal stadium, thrusting her sword out. "I've got all the local talent with me tonight, so here they are!"
The ground shakes, and an uncountable number of eyes light up from the darkness around the stadium. "We've got King Behemoth, master of Meteoric Dunks! We've got Adamantoise on the Goalie corner! We've got the Gemini twins, their iron swords are unmatched! We even got my good ol' pal Demonolith, he's a real old hand at this game! And don't count Great Malboro out, he knows the smell of the game!"
The Fiends come into sight, as the music hits a feverish pitch. One by one, they're walking down the aisle. "Bevelle I've just got one question for you: are you readyyyyyyyyy"
The Fiends stand poised. The crowd is going mad!!
"tooooooooo"
They leap into the fray!! pew pew pewwwwwwwwwwww where the heck did she get airhorns!!
"rumbleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!"
the Fiends descend on what may be once their master, descending into a giant and fierce BRAWL that feverishly turns the screen red--
And then a damage readout pops out and Lunata steps back into her position on the frontline, acting as if nothing has happened. JRPGs are weird sometimes.
GS: Lunata Croze has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Lunata Croze spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lunata Croze has attacked Jecht with the Night Parade of the Myriad -Yaoyorozu Yagyou-! GS: Lunata Croze has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lunata Croze gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Lunata Croze has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Incinerate for 357 hit points! GS: Mute applied to Jecht! GS: Hyper applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Lunata Croze's the Night Parade of the Myriad -Yaoyorozu Yagyou- for 298 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu, of course, certainly could not hear Paine's comment about her spell over the din of Elly's magic. There's certainly no way. And yet, she winks in the other woman's direction as she turns to prepare her next, before she responds to Elly.
The strange cone of her magic... Lulu is still not an expert in Ether, but the way she can shape the spell is something she notes. "Good work!" she calls, next, because part of teamwork is positive reinforcement!
Taking their old men down... by surpassing them. It's... Certainly a way to put things. Lulu regards Yuna--and then shields her ears, as requested, before she starts hurling spell after spell in the lull offered.
But they are not the only mages here. She regards Ethius, up near (but not in) the front. She considers Citan, making use of Earth magic that's already all around, distinctly from how she draws on the ambient mana.
Hmm.
"...I will gather up the power here," Lulu says, raising her voice. "Mages of Filgaia. Together." She includes Boudicca in this, though she is Seraphim.
Lulu lifts her hands together, and lowers them, stretching up toward the sky and letting her hands fall expansively as she gathers up the energy she can. She opens herself to the elements, all of them here; Jecht's Earth, Boudicca's Wind, Ethius's Lightning, Elly's Fire. And Citan's subtle channeling that bolsters them all. There are other elements; Lulu draws on all of them.
And then she sees Yuna and Valefor hit so strongly by that powerful attack as she's charging. She is interrupted, by the attack hitting her, too--she cannot dodge in the moment, and it slams her backward, her openness to the elements causing it to explode against her in a conflagration that knocks her to one knee. "Gh," Lulu starts. And then...
And then she doesn't rise. Instead, just her head lifts, until she can stare at Braska's Final Aeon. "..." Her anger is always there, underneath the surface, boiling for all her ice. And she reaches down, to tap into it.
Lulu lifts her hands, and Onion Knight surges in turn, as she begins to gather up once again all the power she can muster. Before she finishes, she sees Elly's gigantic solar flame. It will start very well.
A sphere--more a set of rings--begins to expand around Jecht's body, swirling around as it falls down, and down, and down--until there is an explosion of violet and green and cyan, and then another, and another, as it all starts to expand, rings surrounding the explosions like a second star.
A sphere--more a set of rings--begins to expand, down around the explosion.
A sphere--
A sphere--
Lulu's ultimate magic is channeled with the full force of her FURY, again and again. Ultima is manifest five times.
GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Lulu spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Lulu has attacked Jecht with F U R Y! GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Lock state expired! GS: Lulu has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Of course!" Jacqueline calls back to Lunata with a smile.
They give the Final Aeon their best efforts, and as promised, he gives his. And then... he draws his sword. This poses an entirely new series of problems for them all... for Jacqueline, though, she has something else to worry about - the terrifying amount of energy he's charging up. It's released, and Jacqueline finds a mountains worth of stone flying her way. With a gesture, she constructs a dome of earth around herself.
It becomes something of a struggle, then - maintaining her shelter against the barrage even as it overwhelms her. It's not easy feat - the sheer amount of spellcasting it requires to turn back such an assault.
Finally, one large chunk of stone manages to crack through her shell. Inside, Jacqueline is exhausted and breathing heavily... but she's still standing. And, she's been working on a spell.
A series of spells, actually. As the dome of earth cracks and falls away around her, four wells of energy burst to life around her. Fire, earth, water, and wind... all Crest Sorcery derives from these four elements, and Jacqueline brings them all to bear now. Through her gauntlets, she takes the power and gives it form - directing searing flames, torrential waters, galeforce winds, and crushing earth toward the Final Aeon, guided like a conductor's symphony.
The elements swirl around her, then - violent and uncontrolled - until she brings them together, unites them... and then unleashes them forward in a beam of combined elemental power.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Jecht with Elemental Symphony! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 3 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius might owe his life to Leviathan's slamming interference in his attempt to reposition back, but the Final Aeon... has more tricks up its sleeve? Inside their chest.
He can't back away out of range fast enough, even as he seems to get away from the explosive blue energy enveloping some others nearby (which partially blinds him and blows his hair around something fierce).
The swinging blade clips his back, slamming him along the length, and gravity is especially unkind to how he tumbles and rolls along it as the enormous blade is being swung up towards the beginning of the overhead strike meant for the son of the man that this Final Aeon has overtaken.
Somewhere in this, Ethius' quarterstaff wrenches free from his grasp and embeds itself in the sorcery-shattered ground, where Ethius himself finds himself flung right off--
At the edge. Gloved hands grip at the edge of the platform as it shudders and shakes ever more turbulently with every expression of the Final Aeon's power - appropriate of the constructed entity fated to slay and take the place of Sin.
Some of those splintering bullets of earth overhead ensures he's not envying whoever's not dangling for dear life, but his right hand's grip loosens.
For a time, Ethius finds himself looking at the depths of the lit-up Zanarkand. How did this get here? When? (New Kasim City gave some idea of how 'it' began, but there are yet other alarming pieces.)
Blood gets in one of his eyes again. He squeezes it shut as he re-asserts the grip of his right hand anew. Yuna and her entourage are set to see a way forward for Spira, and deal with something that cannot leave Spira- no, Lunar- no, this star system under any circumstance.
There's more to that computer room with its repetitive, ominous message that he can't leave unattended, and to get to that...
He swings a leg back up, getting himself back on the platform as most of the danger passes. Putting weight on his legs again reveals a massive pain in his backside as he grabs hold of his weapon for support to stay upright.
"I'd say this doesn't belong here," Ethius coughs out, "but that... decision has been well called in advan--"
He has to cover his eyes from Ultima going off five times, and his nose for just the idea of the Great Malboro passing by once, and he is forced to wait his turn, somewhat meekly and humbly.
% r When he finds that opening, he stands up and pulls the staff out of the ground. He moves towards the right-hand side of the group, eyeing an opening...
It's a simpler thing, in comparison, taking the staff, focusing through the pain, and extending his human form to the anatomical limit as he lunges with the staff, making the most of his wingspan--
"Far Point!"
In an attempt to strike at and dislodge some of the weaker-seeming armoring in advance for another ultimate strike.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei admires the power of the Tidus Beam for a moment but is shortly thereafter blasted real hard by a--well it isn't a Jecht Beam but it is an explosive blue shockwave that sends him sprawling. He lands near Elly, blood splattering out of his back as he hits the ground. Fortunaely, he is able to get up--it looks worse than it is--but he seems pretty groggy as he shakes his head trying to clear his head from the throbbing that is now impacting against the sides of his skull.
"Mghnh?" He asks Elly.
He blinks twice and he does, in fact, suspect Guba is somehow to blame for this but he isn't going to say that out loud.
"Elly, you okay?" He says, almost simultaneously to 'the armor' before he presses his lips tightly to shut himself up.
"Oh don't say that," Fei says, because he loves Elly very much. "I'm sure it's a wonderful plan." Fei didn't even have a plan besides try to get on top of Jecht's head and hit it repeatedly. This works pretty well for a plan B.
"Alright, shouldn't be so hard..." Fei mutters and starts running towards Jecht, assuming that Elly will make her move at the right time and he just sort of has to be up in Jecht's business until he gets there.
He tries to empty his head, clear his thoughts. He doesn't have to run away. He doesn't have to like it. Because it is something that must happen.
The dream has to end sometime, and so do all cycles. Eternal stasis is not life, it's not even death really--it's nothing.
A thin blue hue of chi ripples around Fei's hands. He doesn't have to look back to Elly, their teamwork is just impeccable at this point in their lives--they can react instantly.
So as Fei unleashes that flame, Fei aims right for the center of it. He doesn't close his hand into a fist.
Instead he keeps his palm flat and strikes directly at the center of that flame as if he was going for a pressure point strike, twisting his hand around at the last moment to drill that singular point even further.
"Fight...." Fei says to himself, eyes closed. "Even harder..."
And then a followthrough eruption of bright blue chi explodes out of his hand, aimed directly at that point--the force of it sending Fei flying back--
--back
--and past Elly and onto the ground again, back first. Fei groans.
GS: Ethius Hesiod spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Jecht with Far Point! GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Jecht with Third Eye Sleepwalking! GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's F U R Y for 307 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Lulu!
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy can FEEL that howl from Valefor, rattling through him even as Jecht staggers, even as his bullet blows a chunk out of the Final Aeon, forces that are in turn discarded by subsequent combat. The battle rages. Rather than stretch out for the strength of his God, then, Billy reaches into his habit while Braska's Final Aeon prepares itself for its ultimate attack. He watches it draw that blade, and silently crosses himself.
Billy watches the Aeon strike, slashing out again and again...but that's not the attack aimed at him. His battlefield history tells him that, if nothing else. Billy reaches into his habit, and pulls out his longbarrel's....handle.
The bolt of incredible light forms, and now Billy senses proper danger. "Here it comes!" he calls out to his fellows, perhaps unhelpfully but a warning nonetheless.
When the forces from Jecht crash down, it merely has to hit nearby for him to be in trouble. He flexes his fist and thrusts it out, divine light forming in those holy veils to catch the absolute worst of the platform. Nonetheless, one might easily lose sight of Billy in the moments after, as dust and light blind the senses.
He's retreated to the far edge of the ruined platform. He's attached an entirely different barrel to his gun.
It has a tripod, and an ironsight, and the muzzle flash has been going continuously for ACTUALLY KIND OF A WHILE--
GS: Hyper added to Billy Lee Black! GS: Billy Lee Black has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Billy Lee Black spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Jecht with A Real-Ass God-Damn Minigun! GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Cover your ears, she says.
THIS IS SOMEWHAT HARDER FOR CERTAIN PEOPLE.
Cyre. It's harder for Cyre. He has big, fluffy ears, after all. How do you adequately cover those!? He tries! And in his defense, he does actually succeed fairly well, but only by ruthlessly abusing his affinity for the wind to forge a shell of buffering quietude that could absorb the ruthless pounding of Valefor's wings. But.
It looks like he's not the only one being... inconvenienced. As much as 'being buffeted by hurricane-force wingbeats' can be called 'inconvenienced.'
Wind is something Cyre knows very well. He knows exactly how painful it can be to be on the receiving end.
...Which is why he's not surprised-- though he is concerned-- at how viciously the Final Aeon retaliates.
Though he's understandably... indiscriminate with his wrath.
A colossal blade swings wide through space. Cyre feels it coming, it's so utterly massive. With a hiss, he leaps--
Only to be caught by the blade...'s flat side. He rolls over and onto it, bruising several bones before breaking into a sprint, buoyed by a jet of air blasting out from one outstretched palm. He races up the blade and leaps from it a mere moment before the aeon discards it, and onto its hand.
The elements are gathered, reforged, synthesized together and unleashed. Cyre does not have such broad mastery over the magical forces of either world. Instead, he is a person who has utterly dedicated himself to one force. A single foundation upon which he's built his skills higher and higher, and now he approaches its zenith.
Again, as he races up the Aeon's arm, dodging blasts and bolts and all manner of beasts, he winds up a fist. And, in the instant between when he throws the punch and it would connect- aimed directly into Jecht's jaw as it is-- it changes. Air hardens around his arm, glowing like an emerald comet as it solidifies into the enormous fist of the Guardian of Wind. Air rushes in to form it, creating a cylindrical, fist-shaped lance the size of a small gear.
And then Cyre punches Jecht in the face with it.
As one does, when fighting a hundreds-of-meters-tall sportsman.
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Jecht with Tornado Fang! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo! GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action. GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Jacqueline Barber's Elemental Symphony for 276 hit points! GS: Dispel! Burst, Cover, and Hyper removed! GS: Poison applied to Jecht! GS: Delay blocked! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
'Oh. It has a sword.'
That's about all Xantia has time to think before said sword is swung for her. She leaps-- but it's a leap directly in the blade's path. At least she avoided its edge by doing so, though it's hard to say whether that's actually what she meant to do. Either way, surely there was a better way out of that than getting swatted away by the flat of the Aeon's sword, with enough force to send her flying to the edge of the platform, crashing down hard on her back.
That was close. Just a little further, and she would've gone right off. Hard to feel lucky when you're hurting all over, but... she's still here. As long as she's still here, and capable of getting to her feet, she can still fight.
The getting to her feet part is a bit more of a struggle than she thought it would be. Though part of it, it's not just her injuries making it difficult. In a weakened condition, she's more aware of how terribly sick she feels. How 'wrong' this feels.
'You should not be here.'
...She's not sure where that thought came from. But the moment she has it, she realizes that it feels 'right'.
"...Oh, whatever!" Punching the ground, Xantia rises up, finding her second wind in pure frustration. Little late for that nonsense, who even cares where she's 'supposed' to be. She's here, now, so she has to do what she can. And what she can do is...
Eventually, Xantia stomps her way back over, bearing a gigantic sword of her own. Except this one is formed of Ether, shaped out of pure electricity.
"HEY!", she all she shouts, before she flings it towards Jecht's form, the weapon coming apart in an uncontrolled blast of lightning on impact.
"...It's time to go," she finishes in a softer voice, finding that she isn't completely sure whether it's Jecht she's speaking to.
GS: Burst added to Xantia! GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Amplify added to Xantia! GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Ethius Hesiod's Far Point for 178 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Xantia spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Xantia has attacked Jecht with Ethereal Weapon Construct! GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xantia gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Xantia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Well," Boudicca remarks, looking to Lunata and smiling, "I am happy as chips to know you aid us here, Lunata." A pause. "Those are the foods created from slicing vegetables finely, yes? I do not quite see how -- ahhh, now is not the time!!" She'll figure it out later!!!
Cyre calls Boudicca a great spirit, and she flusters and brings herself up to her full height (she's QUITE tall), hands clasping together. "You think so?" She asks, and lets herself feel joy for a moment, even in their present situation. "Oh! Perhaps I am a Greater Seraph, now!" With all the efforts she's made, has she earned her wings, too?
(And her wings and her wings and her wings. Don't forget why you're bidding mortals not to be afraid, Boudicca.)
She covers the sides of her horned helm -- perhaps in demonstration for her fellows -- as Yuna cries out, and Valefor beats the time from Braska's Final Aeon. She takes that time to buffet him, storm after storm; she is the wind, and it is here in force. (Multiplied force, in fact, given the Wind Shaman here.)
Lulu calls on the mages of Filgaia, and Boudicca volunteers: "Allow me to assist you, as well." She turns the wind that is her to the pan-elementalist, hot as summer from Moor Gault's blessings.
But -- Braska's Final Aeon draws a blade, and summons a great ball of light.
"Oh." Boudicca says, with precisely the metre and tone someone might say cred. (Sorry, Rikku. She's not saying it out loud today.)
And what goes up must come down, on -- "Leviathan! Valefor!" Boudicca exclaims, reaching for Pearl and Yuna as their companions are assaulted so violently. The sword, too, sweeps out, and Boudicca scarcely has time to yelp about the violence before the next blow comes down on Rikku and Paine.
Braska's Final Aeon may not have meant to intercept her, but his shockwave frustrates the healing breeze she tries to send out into the battlefield, anyway. The speed and force of it makes the winds sting, and the vibrating THRUM of power which forced them back crashes over her like a landslide.
"No," she grits out, as her heels dig into the tortured ground of the platform. "If I am to be 'Greater'... I will withstand this!" She bears it, and she does not flee the breaking.
The steel of her helm cracks; a split, down her breastplate. Another metaphor. Worry not.
"I will fight, as well--!!" More like Paine or Tidus, now, than Lulu -- but the effort is the same.
Boudicca takes her tonfa, and leaps towards Braska's Final Aeon, one of the two old men Yuna and Tidus will take down today. She strikes him low, and leaps upwards -- and she pushed him back with her winds for a moment but she cannot hope to bring him airborne with this, but it is no matter, because he is BIG. Big enough that when Boudicca slams her tonfa down, there is still Aeon to hit, as she, too, comes down.
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Jecht with Cerberus Strike! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has launched an attack Link! GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Jecht with Soaring Blast! GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action. GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Fei Fong Wong's Third Eye Sleepwalking for 286 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The massive blade slams down, and Leviathan is sent flying, then tumbling. Pearl grits her teeth but ther way the pyreflies bleed off the Lord of All Waters is obvious. Her body shakes with the effort need to keep them here- but it is nothing to Yuna's pain, as Valefor was nearly ripped from this world, in this place... Inside Sin. "Lady Yuna!"
But her cry of fear- that the war was lost in this moment- is proved wrong. She lives. She lives and she calls for aid. Pearl smiles, the full exent of her faint smile. "Very well. Leviathan..." She focuses herself. It was time. "Six seas of Spira and Lunar! Your lord summons you- show now your fealty!"
Leviathan, bloodied, beaten, pyreflies leaking, reaches their full height. Behind them rises a tsunami, towering over everyone, even over Braska's final Aeon. "Lady Yuna, strike now!"
Leviathan roars a roar that the sets the waters moving, and Pearl roars with him. "TIDAL WAVE!"
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Pearl spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Pearl has attacked Jecht with Overdrive: Tidal Wave! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Burst, Hyper, and Shield expired! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Billy Lee Black's A Real-Ass God-Damn Minigun for 268 hit points! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Tidus falls in love with Yuna over and over again, and every time... she's surprised. Every time, it's a shock to the system of the baby girl who was told by nuns that she was a filthy heathen; who was told by priests that the only way she could be worth anything to society was to die. Of course she's known love before -- her family showered her with it all the same, and her Guardians, inexorably, seem to become her family.
But there's nothing quite so powerful to silence the voices in Yuna's head -- anxious and small-feeling even when she's among the greater movers and shakers of this world -- as Tidus' expression as she looks at him and he looks back.
Except, perhaps, for his kiss.
Yuna leans back, against his chest -- smaller than his father's, but more than broad enough for her to nestle into him comfortably -- and twists her head on her neck, up and back, to accept his lips. It's a good thing she's not the one driving; Valefor has no bit and bridle, of course, and is very much in control.
The kiss smells like peaches, of course. But it also smells like a certain sharp spiciness that is Tidus' alone, more of the open plains than the locker room. For her part, Yuna smells a bit salty with her own blood -- the feedback from Valefor's severe injuries have taken their toll on her body, a price willingly paid to keep her just a little bit longer -- but also sweet, a delicate musk that is most of all reminiscent of hibiscus. A Besaid smell also; a Besaid smell, even now. With the dust of the road of two worlds upon her, she's still just an island girl. A girl who loves a boy...
Yuna feels a bit like her world has just exploded five times, but it turns out that was Ultima. The sixth, however, is Tidus' kiss, and afterwards she is a little bit dazed.
Perhaps fortunately for everyone's safety -- she may not be the DRIVER of their private aircraft, but she certainly is the ENGINE -- it's then that the tide comes in.
Yuna focuses immediately (if reluctantly) as the shadow of Leviathan's tsunami looms so high as to drown even Valefor. She soars higher still, at an angle, getting behind the wave as it grows and grows and grows.
"Hold on!" calls Yuna, leaning forward -- now her back can be for him, instead of his front for her.
And then they chase the wave as it swells forward. Faster, faster--
--so fast that they lose corporeality--
--so fast that they become energy itself, Valefor's energy, white and pure and every element--
--and as the tsunami impacts Braska's Final Aeon, the bolt that was Valefor, Tidus and Yuna explodes through the wave, then through him, piercing him through the heart like a sacred javelin.
They reform into boy, girl, and bird on the other side, and immediately begin their descent; that was the last of Valefor's strength, and pyreflies are their runway for their landing.
GS: Yuna has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Yuna has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Cyre H. Lorentz's Tornado Fang for 337 hit points! GS: Strain! Cyre H. Lorentz takes 42 damage! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Yuna spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Jecht with Aerial Ace! GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo! GS: Yuna gains 10 FP from her Daredevil! GS: Yuna has completed her action. GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Xantia's Ethereal Weapon Construct for 317 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Xantia! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
What can he do but shake his head and smile, thoroughly chagrined? "Well... that I cannot deny!" he calls back to Rikku.
Even in his prime, he would have likely struggled against a Clysmian. Now, and with his bare hands, at that...
It would be remiss for Citan to say he had not spared a prayer even as he released all that he had gathered into that singular point. They cannot fail now. They must not fail.
There will be no second chances.
The armor cracks. Or-- did it? Considering what the Aeon's body is made of, perhaps--
Valefor screams then, and as directed, he covers his ears with his hands. He spent far too long working alongside a man accustomed to using ARMs of various types to not have that sort of response ground into him by now. Even so, he grimaces faintly against the pressure of the cry, using it as its means to gauge when he should drop his hands.
It's none too soon. Jecht, wounded, drags from within himself a massive blade, at a scale that even a Gear's weapon would be hard-pressed to match. Citan takes a breath, turning; it's instinct at this point, something that even the passage of years cannot steal from him.
It serves him well when the sphere of energy detonates and sections of the platform erupt upwards into the air. He leaps, rebounding off of one shard to land in a safer spot than before.
And even this does not come without cost. He again drops to one knee, taking that much-needed moment to breathe in and size up Jecht.
There is fire at many points around them, and he can use that, borrowing fleeting filaments as he spins up many into one.
Fire: active, dry. Ephemeral. Fire, the antithesis of his core 'self', as some would put it. It glows at both of his hands as he beckons it inwards, urges it to flow but briefly like water.
No, fire and water... they are not very different at all. One may endure and one may fade, but which of this is which?
At the center of their solar system, there burns a star.
From his hands, there comes a flame that flows like a flood. All heat and brilliance, if but for an instant.
GS: Citan Uzuki has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Citan Uzuki spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Jecht with Kasei -Goku-! GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 3 Combo! GS: Citan Uzuki gains 24 THP from his Cautious! GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action. GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Blast for 97 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Slow applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Cerberus Strike for 199 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jecht gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Disrupt applied to Jecht! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Aerial Ace for 277 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Yuna! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune wasn't really expecting to get through to Jecht; wherever he might be now, if the Hymn won't reach him then a random yell from a near-stranger certainly doesn't stand much chance either. That's okay. It's more for her than it is for him.
She touches ground after her wild attack, but the rocking of the unstable platform immediately sends what's left of her balance pinwheeling and she immediately falls forwards. She's barely got time to turn it into an awkward roll and twist, bringing her staff up for whatever retribution they might suffer for the extended onslaught.
Shalune is absolutely not prepared for the answer to that to be an impossibly-large sword swing directly across the platform towards them. The mechanic lunges in the direction of its travel, ducking for her life and then dropping flat as a squealing wail and a shower of sparks somewhere barely above her head indicate how close it's come to grazing her. Her staff was not so lucky; there's no deflecting something this large, and the sparks give way as the metal that makes up the upper half of it is sheared and torn away in less than the blink of an eye.
Her heart hammering, Shalune stays where she is for a terrified moment, registering voice after voice around her. There's less panic and fear than she expected, and that helps soothe her - then Valefor roars past her vision in a triumphant circle as space seems to reassert itself around her. Gasping in a breath she pushes herself up on her arms then hauls herself up to her feet just in time for Lunata, still dangling off of the Aeon's sword, to give her a ridiculous grin.
She meets it in kind as space warps around them, possibly driven by the memory of Zanarkand in the distance. For once, the yell of 'Lunie what are you doing' is not there, even as the arena around them explodes into sound and light and a cacophony of noise. Her brain is on fire, carried forwards with the momentum of it all. Lunata tells her to get it all out of her system. For once, she takes that suggestion and runs with it.
"--it's not even you I'm mad at, but you know what?" she swings around to address the Aeon. "I'm tired! I'm tired of deadbeat parent figures who go off on their own and vanish for years upon years, and then you find out that they've actually been doing something super noble so you can't say a word against them without feeling really bad about it! It sucks, 'cause then kid-you has a bunch of pent-up feelings and nowhere to let them out! But it's good too, because otherwise you're just left going 'man my dad sure sucked huh?' and there's no resolution anywhere!"
She's not exactly speaking for Tidus, nor for herself. She's not really sure what sense she's making, if any, but at least it's from the heart.
"So I'm gonna throw everything I've got at you, because if nothing else I wanna make sure we sleep really, really well tonight! I'm gonna just take so much emotional catharsis out of this and then sit in a tent for a week and eat like a whole block of cheese on some pasta! And if I ever find my dad's remains I'm gonna be a whole lot more prepared to just go 'yep that sure happened, that's that' and be done with it!"
Going silent, all that's left is her heaving breaths. She hasn't pulled out a weapon. But her hand shifts in her pocket, and the music surrounding Lunata's stage cuts abruptly - only to become something much more sinister, a pulsing beat of impending danger. And from somewhere above the ridiculous brawl of Fiends that's unfolding around them, a new challenger's theme is playing.
A crimson shape descends. It is enormous, almost dwarfing most of the other competitors in the cloud of pummeling. "Get-- stepped on!" Shalune adds, as DIABLO plummets into the fray. Mercifully, there is no grand conflagration of fire, because who knows what it would do in this space. Whether Diablo is even actually present or just summoned from the sheer force of the mechanic's memories isn't clear. But there is an enormous crash as it elbow drops its way straight through the stadium, and the poor Great Malboro is sent flying with a x_x expression spmehow on its eyeless maw.
GS: Shalune Amira spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Jecht with The Crimson Wind - DIABLO! GS: Shalune Amira has gained 1 Combo! GS: Quick expired! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Gamble: Low! Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Pearl's Overdrive: Tidal Wave for 279 hit points! GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Pearl! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Citan Uzuki's Kasei -Goku- for 237 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst activated! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Jecht suffers a terrible blow from Shalune Amira's The Crimson Wind - DIABLO for 274 hit points! GS: Jecht has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
"I've lived longer than I expected to," Paine tells Rikku philosophically, regarding the possibility of an angry Lulu destroying her with Blizzara. She lets Rikku's pun go this time.
When the Jecht Shot lands, it tests the sincerity of Paine's readiness to die, and finds it wanting. Forced to let Rikku handle herself, Paine takes two quick steps and hacks her sword Gravestone down at the ground as she leaps, using its momentum to kick her feet up over her head. As her cloak swirls behind her, much of it is obliterated in an instant, despite not one thread of it touching the Jecht Shot, its sheer force shredding the fabric. She comes down onto her feet, stumbling a few paces as the explosive shot fades behind her. "Rikku?" she shouts into the dust. Waving it away to try and clear her sight, she wades into the impact zone hastily, until suddenly she spies the Al Bhed girl picking herself up, her shields all broken. Exhaling, she turns around before the insufferable little thief can see her looking relieved.
Smacking the side of her head a few times to try and clear lingering ringing from Valefor's attack, Paine pauses for a few moments as watches Tidus join Yuna on Valefor. Efficiently, she draws out her sphere recorder with one hand, the sword still poised in the other. She is not an artist, after all. She is a combat recorder.
She had only intended to capture this united attack, and the mystical barrage that followed. But the eye of the camera is indiscreet, and so too is youth, it seems. Tidus and Yuna share a kiss, and Paine, after a moment's accidental voyeurism, is saved from deciding whether to stop or continue the recording by the brevity of the moment. She chuckles a little, silently. Those kids.
"Hey, Lulu," she calls back, in a voice that sounds like trouble.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
Paine lets the arm she had protected herself with down, brushes dust and detritus off herself from FIVE ULTIMAS, and decides it can wait.
At any rate, it must wait. Rikku took such a blow just now. Valefor is giving everything. Lulu is attempting to muster the magical might of so many allies. And Paine, at long last, has something she wants to say.
"You!" Paine shouts, walking forward towards Jecht--towards Sin--with her blade extended. Her steps get faster with every word. "This sword tried to kill you once before, in someone else's hands!"
Breaking into a run, Paine kick-steps off her back foot as she reaches Jecht and swings her shoulders hard, ripping the blade across him.
"It's in MINE now. Less of a warrior no doubt!"
Her other foot hits the ground, and she pushes right back the other way. She's young too; her shoulders take the wrenching of reversing course so soon, drawing the second stroke of a barbaric Z.
"Tell me!"
She lets falling pull her this time, hacking the last stroke downward, a stylized final stroke of the three if written on paper. In the air it just looks sharp.
"Does it CUT!"
Paine hits the ground again with both feet and springboards back up, leading with the horizontal edge of her blade, almost as if tackling it into him.
"LESS!"
She drags Gravestone across Jecht-Sin's torso, while her own weight is holding it against him.
"DEEP?"
For a final time, Paine hits the ground again, facing away from Sin. But even as her knees compress, she reverses the blade and drives it behind her, stabbing without looking.
<Pose Tracker> Jecht has posed.
Rikku's grenade goes flying up. The Final Aeon lifts its left hand -- and catches it. Clawed fings curl around the grenade.
And then it explodes inside its fingers.
The hand bursts apart in a titanic wave of pyreflies and force, the arm sent flying backward -- minus a hand, trailing pyreflies after.
Lunata -- free of the sword -- hits the ground. Music bellows out -- and to her music, the subwoofers making it shake -- there is a rush of Fiends. They rush in a great stampede, which arches down--
--SLAMS into the Final Aeon, and then tear past. Behemoth meteors pummel; Marlboro tendrils pull; horns and fangs rip and tear, even as he swings his sword to rip through their ranks. But the sword is grabbed...
...and carried away with them, before it too puffs into so many pyreflies.
Elly makes a brilliant, white fire erupt and explode up across Braska's Final Aeon. It shoots upward -- it's bright, it's brilliant -- and it scours across its form. Then, Fei leaps in.
Bright blue chi explodes off his hand, slam into the Final Aeon -- and blasts through. Pyreflies explode out the back of the Aeon, even as Fei crumples in the wake of the attack.
Lulu directs a full barrage of magical assaults onto the Final Aeon. Spheres of many different colors erupt -- and begin exploding with fury into the Final Aeon, hurtling it about and ripping through its form. Her magical assault is joined by Jacqueline's.
Flame and water lash up; gales blast into him -- and earth smashes down into the Final Aeon. He is thrown about, chunks of his body beginning to dissolve away.
Lulu called upon the mages of Filgaia. Filgaia answered with Billy Lee Black and a minigun. The gunfire from it tears across the Final Aeon's form -- bullets riddle it, many shredding through this time; exit wounds send out bursts of pyreflies.
Filgaia also sent a Shaman, though. Cyre races up the left arm, devoid of most of its armor -- and his wind-enhanced punch SLAMS into Jecht's jaw. His face SNAPS backward, with a spray of spittle and pyreflies.
Ethius leaps in after. His staff slams into a weakened portion of armor on the side. The staff compresses into it -- and then the armored portion crumples and explodes apart into so many pyreflies under the blow.
Xantia comes next. She speaks to the Final Aeon, but there isn't any response -- not to those soft words -- before her sword strikes. Lightning explodes across him, slamming into him with a huge blast of sparks, and sending more of his form spiralling outward as pyreflies.
Boudicca leaps in, tonfas flying. She slams down into the Final Aeon. Both weapons impact, and winds slam down into him as well. When she bounces back, he sways forward, pyreflies wafting after Boudicca.
Citan sends out his own flame. It shoots over the Final Aeon, washing across it. Scorching it. And the father's flame is joined, a moment later, by a daughter's (via Golem). Diablo's fire smashes into it, and together, the two shoot through the Final Aeon.
It is smashed backward, left reeling -- and perhaps not just from the fire, but from Shalune's words.
There is a faint widening of the Final Aeon's eyes.
Recognition. From Jecht.
He manages a scream -- hoarse and raspy -- and then Paine SLAMS into him. Her blade cuts. It cuts deep -- and she answers her own question. The blade bites, and this time cuts THROUGH the sigil in the center of his chest. No steel stops.
Pyreflies erupt as Gravestone cuts through.
Jecht does remember.
Tidus leaps high into the air, straight for the Final Aeon's chest.
He bounces off it, Caladbolg swung around, and then a shower of beam lances explodes off his blade -- off him -- and into Braska's Final Aeon. Those lances of energy strike as one and they strike as one. The Final Aeon is left reeling.
And Valefor sweeps in for Tidus. He lands with Yuna upon her, and they fly up. Together.
Leviathan summons his namesake. They bring their waters forward -- they rise up, huge, but when those waters crash down...
...it is only for Braska's Final Aeon. It blasts him backward, rocketing away from the platform -- and lurching back. He is bedraggled -- half of his form blown away, holes ripped through, pyreflies rising all about him. Portions of his body are translucent.
Valefor sweeps down. Faster and faster; so fast that it's a blur of blue and violet, that it's energy itself.
And as the wave breaks, Tidus, Yuna, and Valefor shoot through Braska's Final Aeon. It crumples across that bolt, one good hand over the wound carved into it -- and then bursts apart into pyreflies.
And, falling to the center of the badly damaged platform is Jecht. He falls, prone and dazed, and stares up.
"Nngh..."
But something else rises, too. It is an insect like thing; it is oily and black, with five pairs of legs, and a white symbol across a black shell. And it flies, up high, rotating mindlessly -- just out of reach.
Jecht's eyes open. His head turns towards Tidus, and he manages a smile. It's weak. "You'll... you'll cry. You're gonna cry."
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Even as an aside, Tidus can't help but grin when Rikku once again talks him up. She's always been hardcore on his side, hasn't she? That's the number one reason why Tidus thinks of her as his best friend. She was the first person he met in Spira, and she was a latecomer to the group like he was. Paine too, which might be part of why he took a shine to *her* so quickly even though they have very opposite personalities, but Rikku's just something special--entirely separately from how Yuna's something special.
Because Yuna is special special in a way that probably everyone in their group appreciates. Their kiss is brief, but even in brevity he can taste peaches and copper, and even as he's angry that she's been hurt--that his dad hurt her--his love for her is so much more. He drinks in the taste of her, just as she does the taste of him, a girl from the tropical island of Besaid and a boy from the oceanic city of Zanarkand. They part, and she is dizzy as she leans into his chest, and he no longer has eyes for anyone but her.
The Tidal Wave rises, and Valefor streaks forward like a shooting star, both of them on her back. It's an exhilerating speed, and he holds tight onto Yuna, just as she bids him, but even if she hadn't. He's always been more attuned to the sea, but he has a healthy appreciation for the sky too, and this--
This--
Everyone's giving it their all. Of course they are. But when they pierce through to the other side of the Final Aeon and Valefor's pyreflies guide Tidus and Yuna around and down, he has a moment to take in everyone. Not just his comrades, not just his friends, but everyone, and all they've poured into this battle. To bring it to the quick end he promised.
To the remains of his father as he falls, a man once more.
All of a sudden, Tidus is overwhelmed with emotion.
He hasn't forgotten the others, per se--he certainly hasn't forgotten Yuna, and his hand lingers on her shoulder as they descend--and as that oily black shadow rises from Jecht, Tidus does see it. He just doesn't pay it any mind as he stumbles down and forward on the last of Valefor's pyreflies, advancing on momentum. Caladbolg clatters onto stone when he drops it, but he pays no mind to that either. He simply falls to his knees at his father's side.
Even before Jecht says it, tears are streaking down his bronzed cheeks. He only barely held them back before; now, in this moment of catharsis and loss, he couldn't possibly hold back his feelings, much less his tears, even if he wanted to.
He knows he'll cry. They all do. Jecht always mocked him for it when he was a boy, but it hits different now.
And that's why, with the same full sincerity as his childhood but an ocean of nuance that wasn't there in the old days, Tidus shakes his head and sobs. "I hate you, Dad..."
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
In the wake of her spells, Lulu must return to one knee, huffing for breath asthe sheer force of the magic she put out catches up with her body. Sure, each individual spell was weaker than an ordinary version of same... But it was still quite a lot of magic. ...It gives her the time to watch what else happens, to see Jay's symphony of elements, to see Yuna and Tidus share a brief moment. To hear that Paine was going to say something to her. Apparently whatever it was can wait, however.
...She also sees... Diablo, somehow. And all the Fiends. And more.
But Tidus... and Jecht. Lulu decides not to intrude upon this moment. If anyone is to comfort Tidus, it is not her. But she rises to her feet, nonetheless.
There is only one thing that she need say, as she rises and stands beside Paine, looking for only a moment to the other woman before settling into a standing position beside her.
"...Thank you," she says. "Sir Jecht."
"...We'll take it from here."
She stands with Paine, then, and watches.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Together, they combine forces and unleash their power. Together, they blow away the Final Aeon... and in the end, Jecht falls into the center of the platform.
...But he isn't the only one that appears.
"That's...!" Jacqueline gasps, staring at the insect-like creature that rises from the Final Aeon. She tears her eyes away from it, though, to Jecht.
"...It was a good fight. Thank you, Jecht. I hope this lets you rest easy." Jacqueline says. Her eyes stray again toward that horrible creature, floating just out of reach.
She approaches Lunata and Shalune, grasping both of their shoulders just briefly for support.
"...Are you two alright?" She asks quietly, looking back toward Tidus and Jecht.
...It hurts, that this is the way it has to end.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The battle screams - howls - they all move with such skill and agility. Xantia's sword, Fei's palm. The combined sorceries, guided by the woman who is surely Spira's premier Black Mage now.
And it is...
Enough.
Jecht falls, separating from something else. A clump of something, Elly thinks, her vision swimming. She glances after it but she also almost falls forwards; catching herself on the rod she had been holding, positively brandishing, and taking deep, ragged breaths.
Her eyes are watering. Memories, perhaps, of her own father.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei lays on the floor, "Are we dead?" It's probably the one place where that's a legitimite question. He pokes himself in the face. Pyreflies DON'T fly out but he's still unsure. He sits himself up, groaning nice and slowly.
He looks up at the strange insectoid thing, quirking his head at it. "Wait--what's that?"
He starts to stand up but falls flat on his butt again. He's going to need a minute before he can worry about the weird flying thing so he turns his head to watch Tidus and Jecht have their moment. He smiles faintly.
...
What, upset we didn't need your help?
...No. I just kind of admire the kid.
"...You...?" Fei is surprised enough that he actually vocalizes it.
......Heh, tricked you. No, you're both pathetic. Now shut up and leave me alone.
Fei doesn't say anything for a moment, ignorant of the context. He just watches the two say goodbyes wondering what it is that Tidus is doing here that is giving Id pause.
Was it simply beating his old man in a fight?
Or was it something else.
He just sits there, wondering.
But before he can dwell on it too far, he sees Elly and he manages to get back up to his feet and he reaches over to embrace with one arm and dry her tears with a finger.
"You'll see him again." He promises.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Finally, the last blow is struck--
And the Final Aeon dissolves into so many pyreflies, an ordinary man, and...
That... that thing. Even the sight of it turns the shaman's stomach, for some reason. But.
"...How's that for making good on a promise?" Cyre whispers to himself. Jecht and Tidus share a moment as only this particular pair of father and son can.
And Cyre... elects to give them the time they need. Someone has to keep an eye on that thing just out of reach, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
So the wave crashes, and Jecht falls down.
(It is too much -- too powerful -- too significant to allay with a line; but let us recognise the man, and not the monster that became of him.)
She looks from Jecht, to Tidus, and back again. There is that creature, rising from him -- but in these last moments, there HE is, in the flesh.
Boudicca doesn't, couldn't, interrupt Tidus's moment.
Even so, for a dying man... for the comfort of a parent they had to kill...
Boudicca hums the Hymn, carried background to the breeze.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It's enough, in the end. It can't be any more than enough.
And there he stands, his gaze tracking first the escape of that thing that erupts from the remnants of the Final Aeon even as Jecht is set free. He knows who -- or what, now -- that must be.
And in this moment, it is of secondary importance. They will handle it in due time.
Citan turns his gaze instead towards Tidus and Jecht: son and father, here, at the end.
"We shall... take it from here," he murmurs, and bows his head. He says no more. There are no other words he could give but for that promise to continue this, to see it concluded now and forever.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Having expended that much Ether all at once, Xantia drops down to one knee, needing a moment to recover after that effort. Well, that's what she'll tell anyone who asks, anyway. No point in letting on that something weird is going on with her, any more than she already has.
Looking up, she sees that Jecht reappeared in human form, and her lips press into a thin line. This is... definitely not going the way she hoped it would go. She wasn't able to spare anybody any pain at all. It was probably arrogance to think that she could.
'You're gonna cry'. He won't be the only one, she thinks. But not her. Never her.
Sighing, she removes her domino mask, gives it one last look, then lets it drop down the side of the platform. At least getting vengeance for the fallen Crusaders could be considered a success. But it doesn't make her feel any better.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius withdraws back as the pyreflies explode out from the defeated Aeon. Even without physical weight to them, having that many wailing prismatic things fly in his face is not something he can be fully desensitized to, stepping back with the others as adrenaline starts to fade and the aches and pains of a battered human body start to make their presence known.
Even so, he takes special care not to intrude upon the scene between Tidus and Jecht, not even allowing a shadow over the two of them even as a truly hideous entity manifests itself from where the defeated Jecht lies.
"Eyes up," he says in a low voice to those who have yet to notice the strange thing hovering out of reach above Jecht. Even without the cultural weight of Spira's beliefs and way of life ingrained upon him, something about that starts to poke into his fight-or-flight response, seeing him stand up far more alert even at protest of his back.
Any further calls as to how or when they act after the fact, he leaves to Yuna and her Guardians.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy is on the floor because he used his entire body to stabilize the minigun. Once Braska's Final Aeon cracks to release the man within, Billy stops; starts calmly, efficiently breaking down his weapon.
He rolls back to his feet and tucks both parts back into their slots, and then, just as silently, reloads his spent gunsmoke.
His eyes cut up, watching Tidus and Jecht say what he can tell easily will be their final farewell.
He finds himself thinking of the Buntline, its Ether power blasting through Renmazuo. Fathers seem to like the dramatic. Well, Jessie had known he'd be fine--
"Go in peace to your repose," Billy says quietly, and claps his revolver shut. He's not even, entirely, certain he means for Jecht to hear it.
"But I am not certain I can promise you the peace of the Lord."
He slips his gun away, and peers after the insectoid hovering above, to give them a moment of something like privacy. He steps up with Fei, and Elly, and their friends, but keeps his distance some. The best comfort he can offer is his silence.
"I see it," he mutters for Ethius' benefit. His gunsmoke is holstered...but his hand hasn't left the grip.
"This isn't over," he affirms, with a monster hunter's instincts.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune hasn't moved from where she's standing after her rant, watching silently as Jecht's form shatters and implodes in on itself to leave them-- here. True to her word, she feels spent, and the thought of moving even a step is too much right now. But on the other hand she knows, she just knows in her heart and in her bones that Jecht is going to say something stupid, and her grip tightens around the shattered haft of her staff, ready to deliver the lecture of a lifetime.
Only Jay's touch at her shoulder snaps her out of it; she sucks in a sudden breath, blinking twice as her brain comes back to the here and now rather than look back over memories. She gives the alchemist a confused stare like she's trying to come to terms with this new reality, then sags almost on the spot as she leans into the grip on her shoulder and all the tension drains out of her.
"Yeah, you bet he's gonna cry. You should try it sometime," her brow furrows, her voice a little thick like she's about to take her own advice. She doesn't dare interrupt the reunion happening in front of her, so she only says it under her voice, close enough for those immediately around her to hear. Still, perhaps it serves as enough of an answer to Jay's question if nothing else.
Hanging back lets her properly appreciate Ethius' warning. Habit makes her lift her staff to train it on the floating thing - but then it dawns on her that she's holding up half of what her weapon once was. 'Field Repairs' are not going to cut it-- rather, some thought makes her frown, and she tosses the useless remnant to her feet. It feels right, like closing a chapter and starting a new one.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata is a creature of black smoke and ooze by the time she settles back from her grand display of power, despite the gag about not acting like anything happened in the last pose. In the end...
She's quiet, because Tidus and Jecht deserve a moment of quiet. Boudicca's humming has her humming as well, but she can't miss the dark, viscious Thing coming out of him... it's like an insect, oily and black.
... oily and black.
... oily... and black.
The similarities are not lost on her, the way she's bleeding viscous and black.
"... our job's not done yet," she whispers, clenching the blade tightly in her hand. Ethius warns them about the insect, and she nods as well. Jacqueline asks if they're all right, and she supports her as she grasps for their shoulders. "Hey... hey, I'm here. I'm hurt, but I'm still standing," is her impartial triage. "Could use a bit more of those necromancy potions before we keep fighting, but..."
...
There's a grin on her face, marred dark with the necromantic stuff she's made of. "... can't help but think that, given a thousand years or so, I could become like that too. Promise me that's not the way it'll go, no matter how it unfolds."
She lifts Orochi-Agito and points it towards the Insect.
"Cycle's ending... both you and mine. Mine's just gonna take a bit longer."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl is quiet, as the battle ends. As the Tidal Wave fades away. As the adrenaline leaves her body. As the Final Aeon fades. As a scene between father and son she should not be here to see.
The black, oily creature rises.
She can understand the shape, and what it means. And so she moves as swiftly as she can, but she staggers as she runs, to place her hands on Leviathan's scales. The final chance she has- the final chance that the Aeon will be of his own mind. She doesn't know how long it would take... but she does know she doesn't have much time left.
"Thank you." She says, her voice shaking slightly. "For driving me forward. For setting me free." Leviathan curls back, so she can look them in the eye. Her hand is shaking, as she places her hand on his fin for the last time. "Goodbye, my soul's companion. My friend. I'll see you your freedom this day."
She looks to Yuna, as if to give her a chance to see the serpent off- and dispels him, tears welling in her eyes . Her last act as Summoner. The Last Not of Yevon.
Her duty comes next. To use her training to bring peace, as she promised Yuna. Billy was right. It's cold comfort indeed.
But cold comfort is comfort still. And we must take what little comfort we can, when we can.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna stumbles when they land, but for a second time, she does not fall. Not even to her knees at Tidus' side, which is something that she very badly wants to do -- it's almost reflexive, how the pain of others causes her to do anything, everything, to ease it. But she cannot.
Yu Yevon awaits...
Yuna gazes briefly upon her enemy. The enemy of all Spira. Of all life. Such a small thing has caused such a great amount of misery. It is almost heartening, a sort of testament to the power of a single human soul -- a reminder one should never call that a 'small thing' at all. But for that same reason it's deeply depressing instead. A man who wanted only to save his city destroyed it instead, and countless others. Until all that was left of him was an impulse to destroy.
Her battle -- the true final battle -- is about to begin. And it will be much harder on Yuna, and much worse, than the comparable effortlessness of experiencing the full wrath of Braska's Final Aeon through her bond with Valefor. If she lets herself collapse now, she knows that she will not have the strength to go on. To do what must be done. What she's been asked to do. And what she wishes, with her whole soul, could be otherwise.
So she stands strong. But not apart. Her skirts rustle quietly as she takes a few steps forward. Passing Pearl, she pauses to give the other summoner a look of pure compassion; she does not, however, bid Bikanel's fayth farewell -- that will come later, for her, when the time comes. For Pearl's sake, it can be just a little bit longer.
"They are grateful," she murmurs. "As am I."
And she is, but yes, it is cold comfort indeed, that each of them must play the role needed to bring something beautiful to a very final end.
Why does it have to be so hard?
Passing Paine and Lulu, she gives them a grave nod; and Rikku, a soulful look between cousins, somewhere between sorrow and relief. Then she rests her gentle, scarred hand on Tidus' shoulder. That much, she decided, she can be allowed to do. And if her eyes tear up a little bit for Jecht, well. It isn't only with Tidus' feelings.
She breathes in, deeply, slowly, and deliberately, trying to model for Tidus even as she gets a grip on herself. It occurs to her, in the same bargaining-before-acceptance way that she went on a second pilgrimage to make sure all the fayth bought into this plan of Bevelle's, that there is something she might do for him yet.
"Sir Jecht," she offers, quietly, "I should..."
She shouldn't. She even knows it before her exhalation departs her lips, still gently stung by Tidus' kiss. There's only one thing she SHOULD do right now, and it isn't a Sending.
Not yet.
But the offer still matters, even so. For the dead and for the living both.
<Pose Tracker> Jecht has posed.
"...yeah," Jecht says. "I know. But... ain't nothing wrong with crying. It was me, Tidus. I didn't know what to do when you cried."
He laughs, once, hoarsely.
"You did good. Better than the top," he says. "I ain't ever gotten that high. Ain't ever seen the view, from where you stand."
He looks up at Tidus for a moment more. He smiles more -- and he takes in all of these friends he made. More than friends, as he looks at Yuna for a moment longer.
To Lulu and Paine, standing and watching -- promising to see it through. To Jay -- and he smiles. "Yeah," he agrees. "Yeah, it was."
o Elly and Fei. His eyes meet hers, but he stays quiet as he looks at her. He just nods, once, to his last fan.
To Cyre and Boudicca, even as they give them that respectful distance.
To Xantia, as she looks distraught. And to Citan, who knows what this moment is; maybe the way only a father can.
To Ethius, Lunata, and Billy, even seeing they are distracted -- and Jecht knows by what.
To Shalune, who expresses that frustration. He gives her a rueful smile. "Yeah."
To Pearl, as she bids farewell to a trusted companion. He knows, too, what that will mean.
He breaks eye contact with them, to look back at Tidus -- and sees the strange, insect-like thing that floats low, hovering about with an increasing desperation.
Yuna offers to send him. He looks at her for a moment. But he knows the same thing she does.
"No time," he tells Yuna. His eyes shift to Tidus. "You gotta see it through. Don't... don't let me down, son."
Jecht fades -- it's not explosive, but a gentle thing. He vanishes into so many pyreflies, wafting up all about Tidus. But a few things are solid; the chains that once held his sword hit the ground, rattling.
His red bandana falls, a light breeze blowing it -- and it snags against Rikku's ankle, staying there. And a small picture -- a glossy but faded publicity photograph, of Jecht grinning and with a blitzball under his arm, catches that current. It falls to a stop at Elly's feet.
It has a signature scrawled across it.
Yu Yevon hovers. Then, it floats up a little higher -- as if shying away from Orochi-Agito and Lunata. As if it hears her words as prophecy.
And, after maintaining one for so long, it rejects this new one.
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Wiser heads than Paine have debated the hollowness of vengeance. She does not doubt them. But perhaps it is because Sin was so much more than a person who wronged Paine, or perhaps it is because Paine is unwise... that this does not feel hollow at all.
It is not a giddy joy. It is heavier than that. When she takes her little toll, one pound of flesh among so many, it's like she realized it fit into a hole in her own side that she had not been aware of until now. Dreaming of revenge against Sin... it had motivated her once, and motivated some of the other Guardians, she knew. But she had forgotten what it felt like to believe it was possible, right up until it happened.
She sees in the faces of the others what has happened. That Jecht bled out enough pyreflies at last, that the battle was one. A good thing too, as she had given him her back just now, gambling everything on the attacks of her allies. She quivered for a moment, adrenaline overloaded, twitching with readiness to spin, to flee, to fight. Now, with a grimace, she pulls her sword free, dropping forward onto a hand, and lets some of the tension run out of her in a hard shiver. She never gets used to that nauseous high of combat.
Never wants to.
Picking herself up, Paine is rubber-limbed enough right now to miss a little the first time she tries to sheathe Gravestone, so she just plants it in the ground instead. Her fingers hover over her sphere camera, but as Tidus begins to sob, she lets her arm loosen. She will record again perhaps, during what is to come. This is a turning point in Spiran history... not the reason she was trained to record, but perhaps a good replacement. For now, she will let Tidus be observed only by his friends. She returns Yuna's nod, expressionless in a way that feels more dependable than cold, after all they've been through.
Lulu walks up, dignified as ever. Paine, dirty and beaten up from closer combat, white-haired instead of black, seems a far less domesticated creature than Lulu. But just about everything about them that isn't opposite is identical instead, and most notable of all perhaps is their mutual comfort with silence. They are a watchful presence, side-by-side, as a young woman and a dying blitzball player negotiate the end of Spiran history as they know it.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly looks towards Fei. Briefly, mutely, she is confused, but she realizes it immediately, and she smiles. It's just weak. It was quite the battle, after all.
And yet - and yet -
Jecht looks at her. The others. He fades -
And a memento flutters towards Elly's foot. A little shakily, she crouches, to lift it up. To gaze at it for a moment, and then, less weakly, to smile.
It's tucked away into a pocket.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei says, "Was nice to get to know the man," to Jecht. "If only a little."
He waves a single hand at Jecht before turning his attention to Yu Yevon. "..."
He gives Elly a one armed hug before adding, "It's not over yet." He tells her. "Let's bring this home so tragedies like this won't have to repeat."