2023-04-15: Devil Summoner

• Log: Devil Summoner
• Cast: Yuna, Leon Albus, Fei Fong Wong, Elhaym van Houten, Lulu, Pearl, Rikku, Ethius Hesiod, Xantia, Cyre H. Lorentz, Jacqueline Barber, Seraph Boudicca, Billy Lee Black, Citan Uzuki, Paine, Tidus
• Where: Sin
• Date: April 15, 2023
• Summary: Yuna keeps her promise to the fayth, and everyone else keeps their promise to Yuna: to execute the Yu Yevon-possessed aeons as swiftly as possible. But Yu Yevon is not going quietly, and the battle becomes more desperate than expected.

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=============================<* Great Spiran Sea *>=============================

The Spiran archipelago is, unsurprisingly, composed of a series of islands. One is large, some are fairly big, the rest are quite small. Travel between the islands is accomplished by a series of small, local ferry runs between Spira's major seaports. Each of these ferries is pretty much like the rest - a large two-masted brig equipped with a pair of paddle wheels that allow the vessel to run on chocobo power whenever the wind is low.

Because all of the ferries are basically the same, this is the one you're on. Whatever one that is. Wherever it's going. You're on it.

BGM: Final Fantasy X - The Sight of Spira

DC: Lulu switches forms to The Black Mage!
DC: Leon Albus switches forms to The Forgotten King!
DC: Tidus switches forms to Star Player of the Zanarkand Abes!
DC: Pearl switches forms to Six Seas Style Martial Artist Pearl!

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

The pyreflies that once were Jecht, fayth of High Summoner Braska's final aeon, drift towards the sorta-stone, sorta-tech, sorta-flesh roof of the core of Sin. Like so many stars, they transform that expanse, dark above a twice-dead Zanarkand whose lights all winked out upon the last beat of the Blitzballer's ghostly heart, into a scintillating night sky.

But there's something even darker against it. Void upon shadow, the parasitic Yu Yevon is more an absence than a presence. An absence of thought. An absence of feeling. The source of Spira's suffering is so... small. And squirmy. And sad to behold, though he is beyond sadness himself. A tick that feeds upon the lives of others in order to preserve the memories of his beloved deaths -- deaths that he is no longer even capable of loving.

Just an eternity. An eternity of grief. Nothing more.

Yuna wavers where she stands, on the verge of collapse from grief and from love both. Her distraught expression is the in-between thing of a person trying desperately to hold themselves together; a person not shattered but in the midst of shatterING; a person wielding that very hammer against the glass core of themselves; a person asked to wield it.

Duty was always the how of Yuna's choices, but it was never the why.

But the fayth do not hesitate. She has visited them and come to know their own loves and griefs and their collective desire -- and she has communicated that desire to others -- but here at the precipice of it, they are impatient and they are desperate and they are eager, eager in that same travesty of eagerness of a young and earnest summoner at the beginning of her pilgrimage.

It isn't the same at all. But even the most honest heart sometimes has no choice but to lie.

They clamor to be heard, heard by all present. They make Yuna their speaker, and not in the sense of lips and teeth and tongue. They make Yuna their speaker like a stretched out hide across a drum. She vibrates with their need for salvation; their need for destruction. And when the words come, they are no more said with her mouth than they are heard by the ear.

NOW -- CALL US!

Their howl is a cacophany of mingled voices, but they do have a voice, fayth, and for once they are not raised in the song of the hymn. Ancient children mingle with young mothers. All walks of Spira's life are represented -- man and woman and neither, fisherman and pirate, mercenary and nun.

The companions of Yuna's heart, to whom she gave herself away so freely, and received each of them in turn. Her family. Her friends.

When she was still a Yevonite, the most thoughtful and empathetic of her friends might have wondered as she did, in a sort of horrified awe, what it's like for a fayth to bond to a summoner knowing from the beginning how it will end. To die, and -- as the fayth already knew -- to be killed at the hands of an aeon, at that. As Jecht killed Braska, and Zeon killed Yunalesca, and the others in between.

Perhaps, the one mercy of the path of a summoner, was never having to endure the reverse.

Until now...

Yuna loves them. She looks up at her many allies, and her eyes are worlds apart in origin -- Al Bhed and Bevelle captured in a single gentle face -- yet united in misery.

Yuna loves them, and that is why she will grant their wish.

But she needs help.

"Yes," she says, more to the living than the dead. "It is time. Everyone -- the fayth feel it even more than summoners, when aeons get hurt. And they will not be themselves, which is far more painful. After their many long lifetimes resisting Yu Yevon and Sin, they will spend their last moments enslaved as the seed of the next Sin, and the next, and the next. If being a fayth is a fate worse than death, then being violated in this way, even temporarily..."

She holds up Nirvana, resolute. She always was, of course. The idea of betraying the will of the fayth now, damning Spira to another eon of Sin, just because she will miss them, was never something she could do, to them or to the world. Her momentary wavering was barely the tender bubble of a dream of finding another way. Like a detour that goes nowhere at all, just to extend the journey by just a few more heartbeats. It is over, now. This is the end.

"Pearl has promised to help them pass swiftly to their rest. Please... help her help them."

She raises her rod --

-- and Yu Yevon dives, as autonomically eager for prey as lungs are for air! He plunges for a giant sword, black with icky red veining, that was left behind on the platform, deeply embedded in it. It was no part of Jecht's life or death. It was forced upon him.

Yu Yevon's gross mandibles flex as he makes contact with the pommel, and the half-crumbled platform flexes too. And then the whole WORLD flexes, nauseatingly, and the blackened Zanarkandian landscape... fades away.

There is the faintest echo of the hymn, sung by a male voice, unfamiliar. Warped and distorted, it is not the song of anyone who is still anyone. It is the song of an anything. And it is not even song anymore.

Everyone is standing on a new platform, which is also that sword, now immense and horizontal. Did they shrink? Did it grow? All that surrounds them is an endless and bewildering storm, prismatic. Pinks and purples and yellows, the surging, raging clouds do not impede vision on the battlefield, but they do surround it impenetrably. A dimension of maelstrom. A warping of space. Yu Yevon's doing, surely.

This is his place. Only one thing happens here, of course.

Yuna must summon.

She launches into a familiar dance to everyone, because they just saw it in the battle to get into Sin in the first place. The three seedlings that become the three Magus Sisters, red and yellow and blue, drift out of the storm and towards the sword-platform, ready to flower.

But it's then that something even more unexpected happens.

When Yuna dances, she looks... strange. Hazy, like a desert mirage. And though she did spin and swirl her rod in a white wind, beckoning the blossoms to bloom and the first aeon to come forth, she somehow, she also...

...Yuna's arms held the rod vertically, bisecting her face, and an orange Zanarkandian rune flashed at her feet and then was bisected too, as though by a sword--

...and Yuna held the rod loosely downwards in one hand while raising the other to the sky, another very familiar posture, from the recent and final battle with Seymour.

Darkness is gathering overhead, pulsing, surging with the power of the Underworld.

Yet a shower of sparkles off her upthrust rod are also drifting across the Blue Star, round and full in a much more ordinarily cloudy white sky. Motes of delicate, sakura-pink light that are becoming petals in truth, of an entirely different variety than that of the Magus Sisters, who are, even now, blooming at Yuna's feet, plump with her vitality, about to unfurl themselves into full puissance...

There is only one Yuna. Her triple-dances, superimposed over one another, are impossibly simultaneous. Like a many-armed deity, she is spinning and gesturing. But this is not an expression of HER power. It is, in fact, possible that she is not even aware of what is happening. Yuna is lost to the summoning as she always is. Lost in the doing A trance of the open heart, not the open eyes.

"Time," and from Auron's lips it is a bitter curse. "This is Yu Yevon's doing -- he exists in all times at once! He is bringing the next aeons forward, to overwhelm us!"

Sandy, Mindy and Cindy appear around Yuna, replete in their strength yet delicate as insects.

And then, an instant later, they begin to... darken. Yu Yevon's black orb has merged with them. Their colors drain away to a ghastly greenish-gray. Their eyes become strange, as Jecht's were strange, at th

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

And then, an instant later, they begin to... darken. Yu Yevon's black orb has merged with them. Their colors drain away to a ghastly greenish-gray. Their eyes become strange, as Jecht's were strange, at the end. And to either side of them... twin pillars of whirling rock and ancient, blood-red rune.

A blitzball EXPLODES against Mindy, driving her backwards, away from Yuna.

"Yo!" shouts Wakka. "We got da ladies! You all take the rest!"

Kimahri and Auron soar in, beating back Sandy and Cindy from Yuna's flanks with halberd and with katana. That battle will be raged behind Yuna, and, surely, it will be fierce.

But before her...

...the chains of Anima are rising from a portal at everyone's feet, oozing hellfire. She emerges, bound tightly by bandages and by the chains of her own conviction, the icon dangling from her collar with the visage of her fayth's identity, that saintlike, sleeping mother. Both, some might say, are monsters. But no one should pretend that choices made in the era of Sin by summoners and their Guardians ever had the faintest thing to do with true consent.

And -- never before seen by anyone but her Guardians -- the sakura tree has itself instantiated, enormous and beautiful, its boughs heavy with blossom. A beast, boxy in build, brutal, made for combat -- yet, inescapably, A DOG -- scampers in to receive a headscritch from his summoner, which she is bestowing with extraordinary tenderness, a final goodbye. And from the other side of the tree... a towering figure of golds and oranges, pinks and violets. Sunset made raiment. His face, a green-eyed mask, the visage of a tengu. His hat, magnificent. A massive, unstoppable warrior: Yojimbo. He steps forth, blade sleeping yet in its sheath at his side.

Yu Yevon sinks into both of them, too, and pagodas sprout around each. Like Yuna, there are not truly multiples of him. There is only one Yu Yevon.

But the difference is irrelevant for those who must now face two nascent Sins at once.

Yojimbo's eyes invert from green to red, and Daigoro, his hound, transforms from red to green. Daigoro begins to growl, hackles raised, yet no sound emerges from him. The warrior's stillness, beside him, is the more frightening for it.

And then they strike as one.

Daigoro lunges at Boudicca, snarling -- straight for an arm. Yojimbo draws his sword, strikes, then re-sheathes it, in an impossibly rapid, fluid and perfect display of swordsmanship, the envy of the living.

Yet, strangely, each time he draws his blade, it is another sword. Sacred, powerful weapons! Excalibur glows when it's pulled, while Zantetsuken crackles. Save The Queen emits a soft hum, while Tournesol clangs like a chorus of bells. The Blood Sword drips and the Mythril Sword shines. The Icebrand freezes and the Flametongue burns.

Or..................
................do they?

None of them are what they seem. Sometimes they are even deadlier, the edge of what is still only the lesser of Yojimbo's true weapons. And sometimes the disappointment is what's deadly... when they turn out to be FAKES!

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKES D:

Anima's appearance is extra strange, when possessed by Yu Yevon; instead of darkening, she lightens, which really leans into that fallen angel imagery. The chains remain (thankfully) for now, but they're already clinking ominously. Her scream is silent -- as the other aeons are silent -- their voices are not their own. They are puppets now, and wielded cruelly, murderously. But though the sonic assault of her suffering might be reprieved from bloodying the ear, the assault of her berserkergung rage more than makes up for it.

She lashes out with a familiar eyebeam blast that chews up the battlefield like a claymore, and with a lesser version of Sin's own reality-warping gravity blast. Though bound to her chest, her fingers grasp, clenching skeletally, and curses appear, violet runes drawn in midair above heads; some burn up in an instant, bestowing the gift of her misery, while others begin to tick downward like a clock. And in some cases her strike is even stranger... like the chains that rise up around Jacqueline, with barbed ends eager to rip and tear at her... and leave behind a fate familiar to her through the eyes of another.

At last she too will know what it is to be... zombie.

DC: Yuna switches forms to Yojimbo!
DC: Lucia switches forms to Anima!

GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with Cavern Of The Stolen Fayth: To Defeat The Most Powerful Of Enemies!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna accepts Yuna's Cavern Of The Stolen Fayth: To Defeat The Most Powerful Of Enemies for 0 hit points!
GS: Burst applied to Yuna!
GS: Yuna has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Fly, Daigoro!!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked White Knight Leo with Excalibur!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Billy Lee Black with Excalibur!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Zantetsuken!
GS: Yuna has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Zantetsuken!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Lulu with Save The Queen!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Xantia with Save The Queen!
GS: Yuna has attacked Citan Uzuki with Tournesol!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Tournesol!
GS: Yuna has attacked Tidus with Brotherhood?!!
GS: Yuna has attacked Paine with Brotherhood?!!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Rikku with Blood Sword!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Leon Albus with Blood Sword!
GS: Yuna has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Mythril Sword!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has completed her action.
GS: Yuna has attacked Pearl with Flametongue!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Icebrand!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Seraph Boudicca with P A I N!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Lucia's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Lucia has attacked White Knight Leo with P A I N!
GS: Lucia has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Billy Lee Black with C U R S E!
GS: Lucia has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Zombie Attack!
GS: Lucia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with MEGA-GRAVITON!
GS: Lucia has attacked Citan Uzuki with MEGA-GRAVITON!
GS: Lucia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with MEGA-GRAVITON!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lulu with P A I N!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Lucia spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Lucia has attacked Xantia with D O O M!
GS: Lucia has launched an attack Link!
GS: Lucia spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Lucia has attacked Tidus with D O O M!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has launched an attack Link!
GS: Lucia has attacked Rikku with P A I N!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Pearl with Darkga!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Ethius Hesiod with C U R S E!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Darkra Grasp!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Paine with P A I N!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Rikku!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Lulu takes a solid hit from Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Lulu!
GS: Rikku suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's P A I N for 244 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Fei Fong Wong partially guards Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Leon Albus critically guards Yuna's Wakizashi for 63 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Elhaym van Houten partially evades Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Elhaym van Houten's Disrupt Ward may block the effect!
GS: Disease applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Disrupt blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lulu solidly guards Lucia's P A I N for 113 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Lucia's MEGA-GRAVITON for 100 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shieldbreak blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Billy Lee Black critically guards Yuna's Wakizashi for 96 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Lucia's MEGA-GRAVITON for 71 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Billy Lee Black takes a solid hit from Lucia's C U R S E for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disrupt, Hex, Poison, and Slow applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Jacqueline Barber partially guards Yuna's Wakizashi for 144 hit points!
GS: COUNTER! Citan Uzuki counterattacks Yuna with Mufuu!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Citan Uzuki partially guards Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Citan Uzuki!
GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Lucia's Zombie Attack for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Hex applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Wakizashi for 116 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Xantia solidly guards Lucia's D O O M for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Xantia's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Jam and Mute applied to Xantia!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Citan Uzuki partially evades Lucia's MEGA-GRAVITON for 172 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shieldbreak blocked!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Lucia's C U R S E for 0 hit points!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Disease, Drowsy, Hex, and Slow applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Wakizashi for 159 hit points!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's Darkra Grasp for 167 hit points!
GS: Cripple blocked!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon Albus joined them on the platform after Jecht fell. He downed an elixir; that took care of the last of his wounds. The mercenary has his shotgun out -- slung over one shoulder, and his expression is distant. But focused.

He looks to Yuna, then -- and the blonde-haired man nods. Understanding passes through his face.

"Yuna," he says. "Well follow your lead."

He sees Yu Yevon -- and he grimaces as reality shifts. It shifts more than expected; it shifts as there is something wrong. Then, he turns his head, looking at Auron, and he nods. "I understand. Then--"

He looks up. Between Anima and Yojimbo -- with his eyes finally settling on the latter. A sword slams down for him, and he tries to duck aside -- before the blade strikes, turning into a wakizashi, and leaving a gash on his coat.

"Wolves!" he shouts. "We don't hold back! For Filgaia! For Spira! For a future together!"

One of the drones floating about him -- bronze colored and triangular -- shifts, takes aim, and then fires a beam of blue light for Yojimbo. Several more do the same; a criss-cross of energy blasts raining down on the swordsman Aeon.

And his dog.

Leon Albus would shoot a dog. This is science fact, kids.

GS: Leon Albus has attacked Yuna with PMU-Z2 Raid Beam!
GS: Leon Albus has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Leon Albus's stances have changed to Stoic!
GS: Leon Albus gains 16 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Tidus accepts Yuna's Wakizashi for 385 hit points!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Seraph Boudicca solidly guards Yuna's Fly, Daigoro! for 65 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Hex applied to Seraph Boudicca!
GS: Hyper applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca partially guards Lucia's P A I N for 203 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Lucia has attacked Paine with P A I N!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Tidus takes a solid hit from Lucia's D O O M for 0 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Jam, and Mute applied to Tidus!
GS: COUNTER! Yuna counterattacks Citan Uzuki with Counter Attack!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna partially guards Citan Uzuki's Mufuu for 116 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated!
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Leon Albus's PMU-Z2 Raid Beam for 124 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Yuna has attacked Paine with Brotherhood?!!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei says, "This is it. One more God to fell and they'll all be released from the Cycle..."

He says it mostly to himself. This entity did a lot of harm to this world, aeons of it really--and it may very well have buried remnants of his past underneath the weight of Sin. Both kinds of it, really.

An Aeon comes and lashes out with a bright and shiny sword. Fei, naturally, thinks it's his job to tank it. He rushes forward and catches the blade in between his hands.

Then the sword pushes forward and bonks him in the head cartoonishly rebounding off it like an inflatable cartoon sword. Fei blinks in clear bewilderment--

--before the gravity explosion erupts underneath his feet and sending him flying up into the air--also cartoonishly in its own way but definitely more violently than the goofy ass Excalipoor.

Maybe I should just lie down until this is over, Fei thinks grimly.

But Leon has orders for him and Fei still sees him as a friend even if he does shoot dogs. Fei swings his body around in midair before crashing down towards Yojimbo, trying to slam his feet into the Aeon.

And the feet explode into flame upon impact too!

Fei spins off and drops down into a crouch before straightening back up.

"Careful!!" Fei shouts to Leon. "One of those swords...."

"Has some kind of trick to it!!"

Yeah Fei naturally thinks there's more to Excalipoor than meets the eye. A sword that DOESN'T hurt you? Seems fake.

GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: CRITICAL! Pearl suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Pearl!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yuna with Kakei!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
GS: Pearl suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's Darkga for 166 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Much of Elly's life has been running away from what she can do.

Not catching fish or taking care of Emeralda or holding Fei's hand or chatting with Lily or piloting Regulus or thinking about funny puns in the languages she knows or brushing her hair or reading books. Not any of those things.

The abilities Solaris calls 'Ether'.

Once upon a time, several years ago, a Trial Knight told Elly van Houten that she was a destroyer. She has run away from that in many ways. She didn't want to hurt people. To kill people (though she has). To make things worse.

And yet for all that time, all that agony, here and now - in the face of Yu Yevon grasping at the fayth across the horrible gulfs of space -

Who is she going to hurt?

The fayth, Pearl, Yuna, all of them are all but pleading for them all to destroy, to slay, to dissipate them. And in Spira, it isn't the end. Elly has seen it with her own eyes.

The only person who is in danger if she takes any care at all...

Is Yu Yevon, if you can call Yu Yevon a 'person' exactly.

A sword flicks past her and her gut churns as she clasps one fist. The gravitational distortion begins to form and drag her inwards but Leon speaks and Elly answers him: "Yes," as her fist tightens, the foreshortened pinky digging into the meat of her palm. Her eyes narrow.

"It is."

Elly tenses up and so does the air around her. It wavers for a moment and then the flame bursts outwards in a surging stream towards first the distorted form of Yojimbo. It balloons outwards before it begins to swirl and snake back and forth, like a veritable *firehose* -- quite literally -- as Elly lashes left, right, left again, right, and now it's reached the space between both the lightening form of Anima.

That's got to be it, right?

"That's the range," Elly says, taking a deep breath and then SCREAMING -- not with pain but with force, a ki-ai as the delineated space erupts in a vector-fan of searing, pulsating plasma. When the light fades, Elly finds she raised her right hand, and her fingers curl downwards, lowering.

She's frowning, but, somehow, she has to admit that it was a little bit 'fun'.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Yuna with Thermo Sinewave!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Lucia with Thermo Sinewave!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Death, death, and death. It dominates Spira. It dominates the lives of Spirans. Over, and over, Sin has taken from them, taken homes and loved ones and memory and truth...

But no more. It ends today.

Lulu knows there is more yet to do; she must be Yuna's sword, as she has been her shield, and she will do this. So when she ses Yu Yuevon diving... She feels the faint echo of something like the Hymn, and now she stands in a strange platform, a maelstrom. Except...

Time, Auron says. "Then we'll have to overwhelm them!" Lulu announces sharply, preparing her most potent spells for the moment. When Wakka slams a blitzball into Mindy, Lulu looks at him just the once. Just for a brief, brief moment.

"Wakka," she says. "...Fight well."

Anima rises. And Yojimbo... Yojimbo, the very Aeon her first Summoner searched for, and died in the doing so.

As to the Wolves--Lily stays behind. Lily Keil will be handling Fiends at their back, should any try to interfere. But Lulu is here.

The attacks come. Yojimbo strikes--and Lulu feels Excalipoor's spectral blade sink into her, slow her, even as it deals no strict harm. But Anima's strike is no such feint. Lulu throws her hands up before herself to protect, leaning on the magic of her brilliant bangle, and the sheer force of Anima's rage does not overcome her.

"...We will free you," Lulu promises.

She sets down the Onion Knight before herself and focuses--magic draws into her, the elements present even here in this strange maelstrom, and Lulu's red eyes flash.

"Paine!" she says. "We go!"

She will rely on the warrior--to shield her long enough to cast these spells. Lulu raises both hands, and the Onion Knight lifts his sword to the sky. In the next moment, thunder crackles all around--

A veritable storm of lightning begins to crash down into the Aeons, one after another after another.

Time may be in chaos, but space is easy enough to control; the storms are so loud, so bright that they shine the entire battlefield in yellow and white light for a time, thundering down, down, down.

"It's time!"

GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Lulu has attacked Yuna with Thundaga - Double!
GS: Lulu has attacked Lucia with Thundaga - Double!
GS: Lulu has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Pearl can hear the Fayth speak through Yuna, but one voice resonates most strongly. They demand to be called- to face their final foes. Yuna's last request of her, summoner to summoner, is made plain to everyone. "...They will be suffering- as will be Yuna. ...As will I. I ask you grant me your aid, no matter how violent- this is the final wish of the Fayth. Let us grant it, and free Spira."

    For someone not accustomed to speeches, this is a glood one, if a sad one. She nods to Yuna as the summoning begins-

    And changes. "What is..." Auron answers her. "How is that possible?" Pearl calls back. "Sustaining more than one Aeon at once should not be possible!" At least, from her incomplete learning that's the case. Yuna- or Yu Yevon- know more than her.

    Wakka bids the group leave the Magus Sisters to them. Fine. She will have to count on them. "Do not hold back anything! We *must* grant them swift death- before we are overwhelmed! Before Yuna is spent!"

    And Pearl's stance changes. It is a familiar one to some. The stance of an assassin. These were the skills Yuna asked of her. A weapon of cruelty and pain, to end the lives of those who have suffered. It is... wrong- to be using the power she sought Leviathan to best to now slay the Aeons. But once Yevon is upon them... they are no longer themselves.

    Purple ki surrounds her feet. Toxic. Corrosive. Horrid- and she steps forward into a flying kick. She doesn't need to connect, she just needs to get close. Close enough to cut them with the knife sharp aura. Close enough to infect their souls with the poisonous ki, and eat away at them- and perhaps Yu Yevon too.

DC: Pearl switches forms to Shadow Dragon Assassin Pearl!

GS: Paine fully evades Lucia's P A I N for 0 hit points!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

Rikku looks at the presence that is Yu Yevon, her face squinching up in something that looks like pity and revulsion in equal measures.
 
This is the thing that had killed so many? All to preserve...
 
In the end she can't look at it for too long, she looks at Yuna instead. She can't really understand the bond between Summoner and Aeon. She can't.
 
She just knows it's there. She knows this must hurt for her. "Yunie..." The word is mournful, but in the end, she knows it has to be done.
 
Maybe the time for questioning and skepticism could have come before they committed to this plan, but there's no time to come up with something different to defeat this THING.
 
There's no time.
 
"We're with you Yunie. Through this too."
 
Whatever horrible thing Yuna must sacrifice, she at least won't be alone.
 
The Magus Sisters appear first, engaged with the other Guardians "Good luck! You can do it!" -and she bounces nervously from foot to foot as Yojimbo took form, "Come on-! I even paid three times your Fayth's fee-!"
 
Rikku complains, whiny, even as a bloody sword drips. And a blade slices across her only for. "Huh!? What-! Hey. It didn't cut!?" Rikku looks over her form, blinking, "Okay-! I'll take my freebie!"
 
Was it a freebie though? She doesn't feel right?
 
Anima however, is more strange, as those eyebeam blasts lance down, she sees it like a Star from its eyes, even as strikes her with an awful blow.
 
She tries to leap out of the way, but in the end she has to clench down against just the sheer, unbridled pain that wracks her body. Eventually she forces herself back up. "Lulu's right. We'll free you." She vows.
 
She squares down her sights upon Yojimbo and runs up to him, Godhand extended in a terrible blow-!
 
She strikes, silhouette shot like a Samurai.
 
Now, Rikku didn't do all those Celestial Mirror sidequests for nothing. Because the moment it hits, let's call attention to a certain special ability on it.
 
GILLIONAIRE! DOUBLES ALL GIL EARNED AFTER BATTLE!
 
Rikku immediately runs back into position, and then immediately her turn on the ATB comes up, because of her speed.
 
She rushes up to Anima and does exactly the same thing!
 
"But where you're both going, there's no need for material possessions right?" She cheerfully notes.
 
What? If this is going to be a tragedy then she's going to profit off of it!

GS: Rikku has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Rikku has attacked Lucia with Nab Gil!
GS: Rikku has attacked Yuna with Nab Gil!
GS: Rikku has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.
GS: Pearl spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Pearl has attacked Yuna with Shadow Dragon Kick!
GS: Pearl has attacked Lucia with Shadow Dragon Kick!
GS: Pearl has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Yuna's attack becomes clear!
GS: Paine takes a solid hit from Yuna's Excalipoor for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt applied to Paine!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius, as per habit, tries to stand a ways away from the immediate theatrics in the final moments of Jecht's tenure as Sin, keeping eyes squarely focused on the source of a thousand years of endless misery and destruction. Here, he sneaks the proper application of a decent set of restoratives, as Yu Yevon drags them into their obsessively maintained reality and the will of the Aeons are made manifest through whom they entrust to see to their final rest.
 
     With the complication Auron points out as to how and why Yu Yevon has such power in this space, Ethius weighs in.
 
     "All times at once... except for the future envisioned." Ethius says out loud more than he intends to with a hand on his forehead as his eyes adjust to the maelstrom of lights and color. He hopes he is not quoted for it. (Those are words that should belong to a Spira, historically speaking, even if seamless operation and disengagement from local affairs is... long off the table.)
 
     Aeons are materialized and summarily overcome, and Anima's manifestation corners him where he stands among those in her reach. The deafening screams has him brace himself, as sorcerous curses impart a last will and testament soaked in hatred, pain, and misery.
 
     Lethargy threatens to overtake him, shallowing breathing while sweat escapes his brow, brought to a kneel with his quarterstaff keeping him upright. Over yonder, Leon makes a rallying cry for the Wolves. For Filgaia. For Spira--
 
     There are yet others in prospective reach.
 
     The C U R S E takes further conversational considerations out of the strange Symbologist from beyond the stars in the moment, fingers shaky as he coughs through and ruins two Symbological incantations in the moment while Anima's presence yet bears down upon them.
 
     He re-doubles the efforts, and he has long stopped hiding his face in which to show the emotion he does bring to bear under pressure. The clenched teeth pairs naturally with the unyielding stare he was known for prior to the truth that needed be shared.
 
     "Recurrent Current!" He fights through the C U R S E, with the exact same ferocity and conviction at the cusp of Demetrioi's terminal world-ending malfunction as he completes that series of gestures and chants, firing electricity to course through Anima's form over, and over, and over.
 
     It is more pain, more suffering.
 
     But he hopes for it to be among the last she bears.

GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Lucia with Recurrent Current!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

All throughout the journey through Sin, Xantia has been struggling. She did her best not to show it, since, well, ending the menace of Sin was a little more important. She needed to be there for that, and she needed everyone else to not be distracted by whatever it is that's been going on with her. She thinks she understands it better now, but explanations could wait. To this moment, where, having defeated Braska's Final Aeon, everything should be over. Or so she thought.

She was not in fact aware that there would be more to do after this. If she had been... well, she probably wouldn't have been able to afford holding back a bit either way. All this fighting has been taking its toll, and Xantia can feel it. That sense of Wrongness in her body is stronger than ever before, making her feel absolutely miserable. She can remember no previous experience with illness, but she's certain this is what it must be like. Even just moving around feels bad. After dropping to one knee following the battle, she was hoping to be able to take a breather.

It's the voices of the Fayth that prompt her to raise her head up, and finally notice the shadow of Yu Yevon for the first time. "Wh... what is...?" Yuna promptly explains what is to be done. It's... too much. How could she possibly still handle a fight like this?

And yet, once the area distorts, and everyone has been transport to a strange new location... Xantia is back on her feet. It's not a matter of 'can she still fight' anymore. She must. Even sweating profusely, breathing heavily, being visibly winded in a way she's rarely displayed in the past... there is no choice. But... she doesn't have to do this alone. Quickly, she looks around for the person she believes most capable of helping her right now. Then she calls out:

"D-doctor!"

Not 'Doc', not even 'Citan'. This is a cry for help to a physician, first and foremost. One who is sure to understand what's going on in few words.

She doesn't get to explain immediately. Her attempted approach is more sluggish than she'd wanted, stumbling as she's forced into a dodge of one of Yojimbo's blades, clipping her on the arm. She can only attempt to endure Anima's following curse, sapping her strength further.

By now, perhaps Citan has made it over to her, otherwise she'll painstakingly cross the distance herself, gasping out, "Something's wrong, it's... Ether flow, it's all mixed up..." She doesn't quite understand how she knows this, but she's sure of it now. Her own body is fighting itself. And yet... "Can't rest... please make sure... I can keep fighting...!"

With that, her fist launches forward, slamming into the surface (such as it is), sending out a large green shockwave which splits in two, heading towards each of the Aeons with tremendous force. Still using Ether, in spite of her condition. Undoubtedly this is unwise, but that's never stopped Xantia before. She will keep fighting, until she can't anymore. She can only hope that Citan can do something to help keep her going, just a little longer.

GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Xantia has attacked Yuna with Shatterstrike!
GS: Xantia has attacked Lucia with Shatterstrike!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Who would ever have thought that the core of Obsession would be such a... such a small, twisted, grotesque and pitiful thing. Cyre watches it with wary, predatory eyes. As if its every movement could spell disaster.

Small as it is, the spectre of Yu Yevon has not surived the centuries without concealing a great deal of power.

...Though exactly what it was that it would wield against them, Cyre could not have anticipated. Perhaps if he had a more thorough grounding on the fundamentals of relativity and the interrelationship between gravity and the flow of time, he might have hypothesized something of the sort? But he is a shaman, not a scientist. For all his flirtations with the intricacies of ancient machinery, his grasp on the fundamental physical laws of reality is lacking.

Blades fall. A tide of darkness swells against them. But in the course of all of it, even as he struggles to evade a tripartate onslaught of foreign divinities, all he can think about--

Is how incredibly painful this must be for Yuna.

To tie yourself to your gods, only to have them... subverted like this. Torn away-- and by design. This is the only way to truly isolate Yu Yevon, to burn through its immense reserves of strength, and finally deal the finishing blow.

And yet, they are her gods. More even than that, they are her friends. Her companions in the same way that Fengalon is his. To have to end them like this...

The pain must be excruciating.

So the least he can do is to fight as hard as he can against the divinities that were Yuna's friends.

Cyre sets his jaw as he emerges, smoldering, from the onslaught of magic. He holds aloft a silver talisman, as a wind that is so foreign to this land-- and yet inextricably connected to it-- begins to howl. Motes of emerald light, so much like pyreflies and yet not, swirl on currents of air towards the primitive glyph. "...There's no use holding back anymore. Fengalon... Once more, face your fears. The fears of an entire world. The terror that grips the Power That Sustains The World-- let us together seize it with our fangs, and tear out its throat!"

The currents of emerald wind converge, weaving together into a physical form. A spherical cyclone of jade light swirls outward, contrasting jarringly against the psychedelic colorscape. With a final roar, the divine tiger advents, clad in golden glyphs that sing praises to the Guardians.

"I won't forget your sacrifice, Yojimbo, Anima! Let these winds scatter your souls to the four corners of the world! The embers of your unlife be snuffed by the cosmic wind!" The Nahual rises, its swirling cyclone of Arcane Air compresses, imploding into a brilliant orb clutched between upheld claws-- until it all finally ignites. The nature of the power it unleashes has shifted, colors transforming into hues of brilliant sunlight and world-scourging electromagnetic chaos as a the High Priest of Fengalon calls upon a very different wind.

The Solar Wind.

"The Interstice of Wind and Heaven, unleash your fury!" Cyre roars, "Mega Windblast!!"

DC: Cyre H. Lorentz switches forms to  Nahual - Fengalon!

GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Yuna with Mega Windblast!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Lucia with Mega Windblast!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
GS: Yuna solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 120 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna solidly guards Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Sinewave for 127 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna partially guards Lulu's Thundaga - Double for 257 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Lulu!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Rikku's Nab Gil for 111 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Yuna!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Mighty applied to Rikku!
GS: FP up! Power Burst, Charge bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Kick for 178 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Xantia's Shatterstrike for 155 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Yuna!
GS: Hyper applied to Xantia!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna solidly guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Mega Windblast for 277 hit points!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: COUNTER! Lucia counterattacks Elhaym van Houten with Counter Attack!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Sinewave for 111 hit points!
GS: Lucia's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute applied to Lucia!
GS: Hyper applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Charge!! You gain 35 FP! (That's 20 more than usual!)
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Lulu's Thundaga - Double for 273 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Charge bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Rikku's Nab Gil for 133 hit points!
GS: Lucia's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute and Poison blocked!
GS: Mighty applied to Rikku!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Pearl's Shadow Dragon Kick for 168 hit points!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Recurrent Current for 150 hit points!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Charge bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Xantia's Shatterstrike for 148 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Lucia!
GS: Hyper applied to Xantia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Mega Windblast for 236 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline stares upon the lights that were once Jecht. There was time for a quiet moment - but that light has since passed, for there is a darkness still here, a void - the absence that is Yu Yevon. She focuses on him, but her attention soon turns to Yuna.

There is something they must do, now. A grim, horrible task, but one that must be done. The fayth must rest, now, and they are to help them.

...And...

"He's moving!" Jacqueline calls out a warning as Yu Yevon dives for the sword. He connects... and the world shifts and fades away. Jacqueline recoils at the warped and distorted sound, then looks down.

They're standing upon the sword, now.

"Time... I see. Then we have to defeat him here and now." Jacqueline says. And like Pearl says - they must grant the aeons rest, before they are overwhelmed and Yuna is spent.

And Yuna dances, summons - the Magus Sisters, Anima, and Yojimbo, which is unfamiliar to her. And the aeons attack - Zantetsuken swings toward her and Jacqueline gestures quickly with her left hand. A pillar of earth rises to intercept the blade. It bites into it, and through it - and then comes for her. Jacqueline raises her cloak to intercept, wincing as it strikes her.

...But in her distraction, the chains of Anima rise, striking out at her. Jacqueline gasps and stumbles, breathing in sharply. It hurts -

...But from where the wound is left, a profoundly awful feeling spreads out. Warmth and feeling flees her body, leaving her sickly pale. She feels wholly... strange. But she has an experience to connect this to, and the thought makes her heart hurt a little.

"...Is this... how Lunata feels all the time...?" Jacqueline murmurs. ...She resolves to give her a great big hug after this is all over. And with that thought to give her steel, Jacqueline readies a spell.

"...I've made a vow to ensure a similar fate doesn't befall anyone else. Not me - and I won't let it happen to you again, either. You've suffered enough!" Jacqueline declares. With a gesture of her right hand, she brings lightning down upon Anima!

"Everyone... keep fighting! With everything you have! Not just for us, but for them, and for Spira, and our worlds!" Jacqueline declares.

In the distance... a certain Paladienne had come here, too. Yulie Ahtreide struggled and vented her feelings to get here - and now, as others hold back an army of Fiends, she offers her assistance to them. She supports them with healing and protective magic. While she's here, the back line will not fall.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lucia with Lightning Strike!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    The world is changing.

    Boudicca is not human, the way Yuna is so, SO human, human from two different cultural worlds all joined together. (Even so, she shares the commonality -- the joining. She is a place where distant stars meet together; so is she here.) When reality goes sideways, she feels that lurch, in her heart -- or, perhaps, her mana lobe, a real thing Nimue definitely never made up -- as that sword gets larger, or as they get smaller, or as the caress of reality is performed with the chronicle's fingers.

    "Where have we come..?" She asks, but Auron, ever-wise and steady, has her answer.

    Everywhere.

    Her eyes are grey-green, watching Sandy, Cindy and Mindy. One wonders what transformation befell them, that they're not so strikingly green as her fellows. Still, Boudicca is possessed of herself -- inherently -- even as the Aeons are lost. And...

    "Oh, no," Boudicca gasps, as Daigoro -- who is DEFINITELY a dog -- finds himself darkened, too. Of course she wants to run away from a fight like this! But Yuna can't run, and Boudicca will not abandon her, either -- so she runs towards Daigoro, instead, to catch him even as he chomps down hard on her gauntlet. The metal buckles and punctures. It's a strikingly bloodless wound. "I am sorry," she says, as she flings that loyal hound up with the help of a blast of wind -- and if he ends up landing in Leon's firing range, well, Boudicca will feel bad about that later. It has to be done, and that means she's glad wolves like Leon are here to do it.

    (She would not shoot a dog, but she wouldn't shoot, generally speaking.)

    It's a good thing she frees up her hands -- because it's only a breath later that she has to throw her hands up, to defend herself against Anima's terrible pain. She's thrown backwards; she hits the ground, but soon rises, lighter than her armour gives her credit for. She is the wind, after all. And while she might be Lunar's wind...

    ... that doesn't mean she's not heartened, to feel Fengalon join the fray.

    "That is correct!" She insists, as she plants her greaves to step forward, with Cyre. "Lo, the wind blows against you! Buffeting Headwind!" A green Seraphic glyph alights at her feet, as she sends her own winds out to tear at Anima and -- oh, preserve her -- Yojimbo and Daigoro. Hers are not as rampantly destructive as Fengalon's, even as she draws on her latent magics to spread them wider and further; Boudicca has always been a moderate sort of woman. No, the real trick to her winds blowing against them is...

    ... well, Yuna might know this one already.

    It's the same trick Valefor uses.

GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Lucia with Buffeting Headwind!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Yuna with Buffeting Headwind!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Buffeting Headwind for 88 hit points!
GS: Delay applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia partially guards Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Strike for 158 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Buffeting Headwind for 109 hit points!
GS: Delay blocked!
GS: Quick applied to Seraph Boudicca!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

On the way here, in a moment of honesty between people whose faith had been betrayed, Pearl revealed to Billy the nature of an approaching sorrow. He watches now as the non-sky changes...and quietly, checks his weapons. Not the end. He knows. All they need to do is...

His eyes cut up. "Something wrong," he says, the moment Yuna blurs. He shifts his stance, dropping a weapon into its holster, the other in hand. Waiting for what must come.

Auron declares the enemy's technique. "So he means to summon every Aeon at once?" he wonders. Is that possible?

How foolish. With God, all things are, even a parasite of a deity as this.

Leon calls him out of it. "Right!" Billy barks back. Yojimbo's hollowed soul struck him first, so that's as good a start as any. He shrouds himself in his habit and the piercing sword slams into him, forcing him back but not slicing him through. Unfortunately, Anima's shrieks still rattle him.

"Yet more that can't control themselves. Yet another demon-god whose stomach is a pit. Heavenly Father," he breathes, and crosses himself, "is this the only end the road has?"

He strides forth, though he is slowed by Anima's howl reverberating, captured in his spirit, and twin sparks spring up into the air, a pair of coins flicked up from his unseen hand.

He fires a shot at both, bullets ricocheting off toward Yojimbo and Anima at once.

GS: Billy Lee Black has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Yuna with Double Header!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Lucia with Double Header!
GS: Billy Lee Black has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Billy Lee Black takes 32 damage from Poison!
GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Perhaps he should have anticipated it might come to this. The pieces of the puzzle were on the table: what the core of Sin truly is, what Yu Yevon appears to seek to do -- who the ancient summoner was. But even Citan Uzuki realizes it only at the same moment that Yuna does.

    Perhaps it is understandable. For all he has learned about the Spira, summoning, and the nature of Pyreflies, he is merely a quick-study and no scholar in the matters at play.

    Yu Yevon intends to possess any Aeon he can reach. And here, with a Summoner... there are quite so many of them.

    "...I understand. Do as you must, Miss Yuna. We shall... manage the rest." He spares but a nod for Leon and the rest of their merry band. Yes, this is the sort of thing that the Wolves are best at, aren't they...?

    To end this nightmare they must see that even the art of Summoning comes to an end. And so it begins--

    Here again there is Anima. Here is the warrior, Yojimbo. And here are the Magus Sisters. It would have almost been too many to handle, were it not for the rest of Yuna's Guardians, who surge into the fray against the sororial summons.

    Yojimbo, standing before them, reaches for his blade. Citan himself has gone perfectly still, watching the warrior. The fingers of his right hand twitch slightly, just the once as the Aeon draws. The arc of that swing, it isn't--

    A real sword. He moves but a fraction and sees the blade rebound off his shoulder for his trouble. But he'd left himself open simply so that he could return the favor, in a manner of speaking, trading a flurry of blows to the Aeon.

    "D-doctor!"

    He turns towards Xantia's cry for help, but it's already too late: Anima screams without sound. The world before him appears to chew itself up, though he knows it for what it is -- an echo of Sin's own gravitational sorcery. He ducks left, trying to evade the spell while moving in Xantia's direction and about halfway manages both.

    Still, he is reasonably hale and whole. By the time he reaches Xantia's side, he can see that she is neither.

    She had asked him for something similar before, as he recalls. Right now, there is no way for him to tell her to rest -- no reasonable way to order her retreat. He must enable her to fight -- to endure this.

    Still, he has no medicines on hand that would do what she wishes, being far from the pharmacy aboard the Karlsefni. But he does have something else: his own power. His Ether. Kneeling by her side he places a hand on her shoulder.

    "Relax, and breathe deeply," he tells her, insomuch as such is capable on the battlefield as spells and swords sing around them. Her Ether is blocked -- blocked, or flowing in an improper direction.

    Then it must be unblocked.

    Even a stone statue can be eroded by mist should it be enveloped long enough. And does water not excel at forging its own pathways? Whether it is to clear or reroute a path for her, he'll do what he can for her.

GS: Citan Uzuki takes a solid hit from Yuna's Counter Attack for 136 hit points!
GS: Citan Uzuki spends 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Xantia with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Xantia accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Xantia gains 2 Combo from Inspire!

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

Paine takes a moment, not intentionally, to calm herself. Yuna getting to walk away from this and have her happy ending is not just against Paine's expectations, it's against her religion. It has been difficult to believe that it might actually happen, that she can do so much good for the world without even paying the small cost of her one human life. That she can just spit in the face of doom, go home, read a book, maybe marry a pretty blitzball player. That is not how the world is supposed to work.

So this is their chance, the last in a series of them really, as Guardians. To make the world work correctly instead of right. To give Yuna what she deserves and not what she's earned. Yeah. She needs to breathe a little.

But then she moves.

Seeing the reflected light of the rune above her head, Paine flips her sword across her shoulder, holding it against the side of her face and down her opposite arm like a descending ramp. Gravestone dumps the hostile magic down itself onto the ground, and other than a wince at the magic-sizzle she feels through the metal, Paine stands up unharmed, with a bob of vigor on the balls of her feet as her sword rotates back into fighting position.

"Here," she responds simply to Lulu's exhortation, but there is a solidity in her voice one could put one's back against. Alongside Rikku, she endures the first test of that implied reassurance by attempting to engage a deceptive sword-blow. Looking down at herself, she seems as confused as the thief for a moment, before commenting "Ugh," giving (brief) voice to what they were both thinking about their health.

Planting her sword in the ground with a stab, Paine drops to one knee and unslings her rifle, dropping the barrel to rest on the sword's crossbar. "Wrong voice," she criticizes Yu Yevon (Yu Yevon!), firing off her first shot. With soldierly precision she nudges the sights correctively with her thumb. "Wrong dance." Peppering Yojimbo, Paine makes herself a noisy distraction--from Lulu, hopefully, who she remains near for now.

"Wrong girl," she concludes. BLAM.

GS: Paine has attacked Yuna with Covering Fire!
GS: Paine has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Paine has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    It *is* time. Time that seemed so long has finally run out. Tidus looks up at the churning world, at the shifting reality, and at the oily smear that is Yu Yevon sweeping around them, mindless, heartless, maybe even soulless, only perpetuating a grief that's long needed to pass. He watches it pass with clenched fists.
    
    "Yuna's right. But this is what they want--what the fayth want. They want to put an end to the long dream that Yu Yevon's been making them dream, no matter what it takes. They're just as tired of all this garbage as the rest of us are," he says, loud and tight. "So let's let them rest." He pauses.
    
    "The dream will end. We'll put an end to it."
    
    Jecht told them, through Elly, that if they take him out and then Yu Yevon, the cycle of Sin should finally be cut off. It's of course harder than it sounds, but it's a simple enough act. All they have to do is call the Aeons, beat this oily creep up, and... that's finally it. If ever there's any time for him to tell everyone the truth of what the fayth told *him*, of what will happen to him when this fight is over, it's now--
    
    But then the moment shifts as Yuna summons, the act so natural to her that it takes Tidus a moment to realize that something's wrong. Auron puts a word to it, and his handsome features twist with outrage. "That's cheating!!" he protests--but what else are they going to do? He nods fiercely at Yuna, then at Pearl. "Fine! This doesn't change anything! We still just have to take the Aeons out and force Yu Yevon to keep running 'til he's got nowhere left to hide! Yuna, we're with you--*I'm* with you 'til the end!"
    
    Wakka, Kimahri, and Auron leap in to at least handle the Magus Sisters, and Tidus shoots them all an emphatic thumbs-up. "We're counting on you guys!! Leave the rest of these guys to us!"
    
    Of course, then Yojimbo steps forth with his panoply of swords, and Tidus pauses, hearing Fei shout that there's a weird trick to one of them. He looks over at the many blades, wondering how Fei can tell--
    
    And one cuts clean through him.
    
    Or seems to, anyway. He screams in pain as the Wakizashi cuts into him, staggering back after getting caught off guard. Jecht would be laughing at him, or maybe would have once upon a time, and either way the thought of it makes him so mad that his grip on the hilt of Caladbolg redoubles. Anima's soundless scream seethes at his defenses like tiny little meathooks, but he at least won't be caught so off-guard like that again.
    
    Maybe it's not the right moment. But when will it ever be the right moment? It's going to hurt his friends no matter what, no matter when. Better for them all to know now, while they can take their emotions out on the enemy, than to have victory tainted with grief just as there was finally supposed to be joy.
    
    So: "Everyone! This is the last time we'll fight together, okay?" he calls, facing Anima--the mother of his worst enemy, a man with whom he once traveled through a dream. "I'm sorry I couldn't bring myself to say sooner, but... after we beat Yu Yevon, I'll disappear! I know it's selfish... but this is my story! So let's say our goodbyes like real blitzers--and knock out the last winning score!"
    
    With a defiant roar, even as he trails blood from his abrupt wounds--is that a pyrefly mixed in with them, or are there simply so many in this realm that it happened to be there?--he slashes Caladbolg down, around, and up towards Anima. Water magic and force technique follow in the wake of the slash and jet forward in a high-pressure attack to cut into the Yu Yevon-possessed Aeon from afar. Will it reach, though? Anima's power has already weakened him further...
    
    But even so, his determination remains undaunted.

GS: Formation! Tidus has attacked Lucia with Riptide Cutter!
GS: Tidus has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Tidus's stances have changed to Stoic!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.
GS: Yuna solidly guards Billy Lee Black's Double Header for 93 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna solidly guards Paine's Covering Fire for 29 hit points!
GS: Yuna's Weaken Ward may block the effect!
GS: Weaken blocked!
GS: Cover applied to Paine!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus, SOS Overdrive, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Billy Lee Black's Double Header for 103 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia partially guards Tidus's Riptide Cutter for 117 hit points!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus, SOS Overdrive, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

The fayth are spirits, but they're also people, and they're also places. And something of the essence of all of that is present -- which means, equally, that all of it is now feeling the tainted touch of Yu Yevon's possession.

Many explored the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and might recognize its darkness, its dry and rattling embrace of death. Its warped spiritualism. Its very twisted and distinctive brand of salvation. Yojimbo's fayth must have been the real treasure, in its deepest depths. The other treasures, were they brought by the same thieves? Or did the thieves somehow find the resting place of the fayth's hoard? He was thoroughly mercenary. And so he remains, but Yu Yevon doesn't deal in the niceties of currency. He forces Yojimbo to attack for free. Perhaps those many fake weapons were the fayth's final, at hell's heart I spit at thee, to undermine his hated puppeteer.
 
But he did HAVE gil, until Rikku took some. Anima didn't, little skeletal flies soar out of her picked pocket.

Fei meanwhile erupts a burst of flame on Yojimbo's chest; a few pyreflies are shed rather than actually catching alight. Is it that it's armor? Or that it's made of ghost? Maybe both... he seems very sturdy. More pour forth from Elly's vector-fan of gulping plasma, which lands a hair's-breadth away from Fei's retreat. She also melts one of Anima's chains, which seems a risky business.

Baaj is an even more obscure destination than the Cavern. Lost in a scattering of tiny islands, an archipelago's archipelago, it was more dank than dark. Chilly and wet. EXACTLY the sort of place to raise a kid. Was it really better than the hostility and racism of the Guado? The end of the story of Seymour and his mother would suggest the answer is 'no'.

Ethius answers her curse with a curse of his own, levying the immense suffering of his electricity against that of her existence, multiplied exponentially by her existence UNDER YU YEVON. Jacqueline, too, strikes forth with phenomenal lightning. And Lulu brings down the heavens with twin blasts so intense that -- just for an instant -- the question of possession-recoloring of the aeons becomes irrelevant, as the whole dimension turns black and white. Then it fills with the violet of Pearl's assault, the forbidden strike of the assassin, wielded again at the behest of Yuna, who pled for the other summoner to grant their aeons the ultimate mercy. The purple lingers, afterwards, even once the rest of the color pours back into the world to the sound of the highest form of black magic thunder.

Xantia, wounded, in agony, is an excellent representation of Yuna herself, in her own way. And as the shockwave splits and slams into both aeons, it is possible to glimpse Yuna, behind them, also taking the hits, both spiritually in the usual way and personally in the unique and uniquely awful way that is watching her allies use familiar assaults on her beloved soul's companions.

There is a real time pressure here: Yuna is STILL summoning, if unknowingly; is it kindness or cruelty for her to be experiencing all of these at once? The group has until the next round of stock footage^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hritual summoning finishes to deal with Anima and Yojimbo, or else they're going to be facing FOUR aeons.

Fortunately, there are a lot of allies still to go. Cyre roars as man and as tiger, ripping at Anima's bandages with the power of wind, and sending sakura petals flying around Yojimbo as the attack comes roaring in. And Boudicca is neither man nor tiger but something else, something liminal and beautiful and in pain, and if her winds rage apologetic, they are no weaker for it, and used in a way Yuna especially must truly appreciate, to the extent she is capable of appreciating anything right now...

Meanwhile, Leon shoots the dog off of Boudicca. The laser ZOTS through him, and he falls sideways, thud, as quickly as anyone could have hoped.

The dog's yelp is mercifully silenced by Yu Yevon. But he and everyone around him will now have to take to their graves what they've learned about Leon today...

Billy shoots God, at least God as invested in the deaths of others. Today, God Will Be Shot. They ricochet through the massive form of Anima and the smaller but no less intense Yojimbo trailing pyreflies in their wake out the other side.

And then Paine fills Yojimbo with more bullets still, and if she meant to be a distraction she might be surprised by the outcome. But then, this whole battle is the final chapter of a story about intent warped into the unexpected. And Tidus slashes with sword and water both, ripping Anima open--

--the collective damage is just too great; towards the end, both Yojimbo and Anima's forms were beginning to seem more obviously like bundles of pyreflies than usual, flickering and complex, gorgeous in the manner of starlings in a perfectly, impossibly aligned flock of unified flight; if the starlings were damned.

The exorcism is complete, and they spill forth into the sky.

Yojimbo, Daigoro and Anima's forms are left behind; they are silvery, insubstantial. Moonlight not so much given form as the philosophy of form. The memory of it. Maybe the dream. And for once, rather than vanishing entirely, they drift, like the corpses of ghosts, within the storm that surrounds the sword-platform of this battle.

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Which is just in the nick of time, because it's getting very HOT in here.

Ifrit thankfully does NOT erupt from DIRECTLY beneath Yuna, but it's bittersweet, too. Surely she would have enjoyed being snatched out of midair by him one last time. His flames, against her palms when she gathered them, felt warm with goodbye. Or maybe she was feeling Tidus' statement. Though she's hard to see amid the chaos, at SOME point in time he said it and she heard it, and there is an opportunity to catch a desperate look from her. But she says (said?) nothing, and there is also a sense that she already knew, even if, until now, it had been unspoken.

Nor was Yuna afforded the opportunity to catch the scarf of Shiva. Perhaps because of the timey-wimeyness that is facilitating this bizarre tag-team scenario, it is unfairly also very COLD in here. Fire and Ice are not cancelling each other out (though if they did everyone would have to worry about steam burns instead...).

Ifrit's beautiful magmic body turns obsidian black with possession, which is sad; it is like Yu Yevon has stilled the burning heart of the world itself. Shiva becomes a stranger violet than usual, then twists sharply towards green... if she is still of the glacier, it is of a glacier made of toxic waste.

This is no way to live, and even less of a way to die.

 <SoundTracker> Hope On Fire - Vienna Teng - Ifrit's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Ua5DBj6Hw

Ifrit rampages through the group like the werewolf he seems somewhat inspired by. He tries to pick Cyre up by the face and then shoulder-block him into the ground, then smashes himself up into the air only to land on Boudicca with a blast of Firaga. He snaps his clawed fingers in a swift gesture, summoning a more traditionally sorcerous blast of orange flame directly beneath Xantia; then A BUNCH MORE BIGGER BLASTS at Elly in a really rude use of the Action Meter and all combat etiquette decency, firaga firaga firaga firaga firaga!! Pearl and Ethius he tries to grab with either palm and slam into each other with a volcanic burst of heat on impact; once his hands are free he uses both of them to punch Fei at the face at the same time, ideally off his feet and up into the air, where he can leap after him, summon and jump on a meteor, then ride it back down to earth -- the blast is large enough to engulf Jacqueline as well.

Then, ominously, the flames of his mane and eyes and licking from his mouth gutter -- and roar forth again BLUE, instead of orange. The blast expands and expands, threatening to disintegrate Billy and Citan where they stand.

When the smoke clears, Ifrit is nowhere to be found.

That's because he's in the sky.

And he's sending two enormous meteors spiraling down to catch Yuna's Guardians where they stand, then explode upwards into a spiraling pillar of flame. There, if they are suspended, they will struggle to contend with a third, greater blast, which came from his mouth -- and, finally, after landing, when he RIPS A CHUNK OF THE SWORD off the platform and chucks it at them.

Anima might be from the Underworld, but the true Hellfire is Ifrit's alone.

 <SoundTracker> Apres Moi - Regina Spektor - Shiva's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbeHq1CLqJ8

There is no time to recover. Shiva was once summoned by Yuna to be more or less the size of Macalania glacier. While this incarnation is thankfully not that huge -- indeed she's a little smaller than Ifrit, and both of them are MUCH shorter than Anima was -- there is a sense that her power has been condensed. That under the pressure of her sleeker and more streamlined existence she has become a diamond.

Which is very, very bad for everyone involved. Shiva always was one of Yuna's scariest aeons. Lovely, but... scary.

She leaps into the fray, bringing her heel above her head and then axe kicking Cyre, whose poor head was only just abused by Ifrit moments ago. For Boudicca, maybe out of elementalist respect -- or maybe out of underestimation -- she bestows one of her lesser invocations of the blizzard. From the remnant snowflakes of that blast, she gestures with both arms, causing each flake to engorge massively and become a dagger-like shard; they fly at Elly en masse, a swarm of icy shuriken. Then she blows a kiss at Fei, one which has bubbles trailing behind -- a powerful sleep spell, sort of the anti-Sleeping Beauty; and another at Rikku, which starts an Anima-like Doom counter over her head, only the runes are icy blue instead of reddish black.

After that she starts successive casting like Ifrit did. Jacqueline faces the tri-spike of a Blizzaga forming beneath her, while Leon and Paine are forced to contend with a FOURTH level spell -- even Lulu doesn't throw those around often. Blizzaja, at least as cast by Yu Yevon through Shiva, apparently just acts like 'transmute blood to ice'. The way that ice shatters afterwards almost feels like an afterthought. While they're contending with that problem, she closes again, a blur of pumping icy legs, also axe kicks Lulu, pushes off of her to, in midair, point from heaven to earth to summon plummeting ice blasts that threaten to freeze Citan and Tidus into Citancicles and Tiduscicles.

Then she lands between them, and--

--uh oh--

--this is what killed Seymour in the first place--

--she spins, sending out a quick foreplay of ice to freeze their feet to the ground--

--then draws a circle of deepening cold around herself, one that shines with pure white as her arms reach their apex--

--that gathered energy, she thrusts forward, and all previous ice is a happy memory--

--as her ultimate attack grows spikes in its path as it rushes straight at Xantia, Ethius, and Pearl.

With a final snap, she shatters their icy tomb.

Afterwards, almost to add insult to injury, Shiva calmly casts Blizzard on herself, just to heal up the metaphorical sweat she broke summoning up an avalanche.

DC: Yuna switches forms to Ifrit!
DC: Lucia switches forms to Shiva!
GS: Yuna has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Kilika: Rage of the Earth!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Firaga SMASH!!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Flaming Crush!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Yuna has attacked Pearl with Burning Strike!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna's stances have changed from Avenger and Counter to Counter and Stoic!
GS: Yuna spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Yuna has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Firaga Spam!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Yuna has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Double Punch!
GS: Yuna has launched an attack Link!
GS: Yuna has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Meteor Strike!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Meteor Strike!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Leon Albus with Power Break!
GS: Yuna spends 6 Combo on Headshot, Poison, and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Yuna has attacked Billy Lee Black with Inferno!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna spends 6 Combo on Headshot, Poison, and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Yuna has attacked Citan Uzuki with Inferno!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Yuna spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Poison!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Rikku with Hellfire!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Lulu with Hellfire!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Tidus with Hellfire!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Paine with Hellfire!
GS: Yuna has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Macalania: The Frozen Mirror!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia accepts Lucia's Macalania: The Frozen Mirror for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick, Shield, and Surge applied to Lucia!
GS: Lucia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Lucia has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Axe Kick!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Lucia has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Blizzara!
GS: Lucia enters a Counter stance!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Glacial Shards!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia's stances have changed from Avenger and Counter to Counter and Stoic!
GS: Lucia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Sleepga!
GS: Lucia has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Blizzaga!
GS: Lucia has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Lucia spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Lucia has attacked Leon Albus with Blizzaja!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Heavenly Strike!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia's stances have changed from Counter and Stoic to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Lucia has attacked Rikku with Doom!
GS: Lucia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lulu with Axe Kick!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Lucia has attacked Paine with Blizzaja!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Tidus with Heavenly Strike!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Elhaym van Houten critically guards Lucia's Counter Attack for 28 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Yuna's Firaga Spam for 50 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Elhaym van Houten enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Lucia spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Lucia has attacked Xantia with Diamond Dust!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Lucia has attacked Pearl with Diamond Dust!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Lucia has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Diamond Dust!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Blizzard!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia heals Lucia! She gains 542 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper and Surge applied to Lucia!
GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Hellfire for 117 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute and Poison blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Doom for 0 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Mighty removed!
GS: Delay, Disease, and Disrupt applied to Rikku!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Lucia's Glacial Shards for 68 hit points!
GS: Riposte applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod solidly guards Yuna's Flaming Crush for 35 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: Lulu partially evades Yuna's Hellfire for 178 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Lulu's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute and Poison blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Leon Albus solidly guards Yuna's Power Break for 0 hit points!
GS: Blind, Cripple, Mute, and Weaken applied to Leon Albus!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Lulu solidly guards Lucia's Axe Kick for 88 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Lulu's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: CRITICAL! Leon Albus takes a solid hit from Lucia's Blizzaja for 233 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Burning Strike for 26 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover and Mighty applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Pearl suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's Diamond Dust for 401 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Pearl!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Jacqueline Barber suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Meteor Strike for 158 hit points!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Lucia's Blizzaga for 82 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Kilika: Rage of the Earth for 126 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz fully evades Lucia's Axe Kick for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod solidly guards Lucia's Diamond Dust for 153 hit points!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Tidus takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Hellfire for 110 hit points!
GS: Mute and Poison blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Tidus solidly guards Lucia's Heavenly Strike for 113 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Yuna's Firaga SMASH! for 148 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle blocked!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Billy Lee Black takes a solid hit from Yuna's Inferno for 204 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute and Poison applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: Seraph Boudicca solidly guards Lucia's Blizzara for 61 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna spends 6 Combo on Headshot, Poison, and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Yuna has attacked Xantia with Inferno!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Yuna's Double Punch for 52 hit points!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Meteor Strike for 152 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Inferno for 104 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute and Poison blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Lucia's Sleepga for 0 hit points!
GS: Blind, Drowsy, Mute, and Slow applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Xantia solidly guards Lucia's Diamond Dust for 121 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Hyper removed!
GS: Mute applied to Xantia!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"I see, Fei. Let's be careful!" Leon says, nodding at his friend. Then, he hears something -- something that sends a shock of surprise through him.

And, like any good surprise, it's one he should have seen coming.

He should have sensed the finality in his last conversation with Tidus -- for it was a last conversation. His silver eyes widen -- and he turns his head, looking at him for a moment. "You..." He hesitates for a moment. Then, he nods. "...If that's the choice you've made, then I'll respect it. Let's accept nothing less than absolute victory!"

Their attacks find purchase -- but Leon can see how desperate it is. How one Aeon could be overwhelming; how two pushes them to their limits. Four would be unthinkable. So Leon doesn't breathe a sigh of relief and turns, instead, as Ifrit lands. Heat blasts into his face, sending him reeling backward.

Which is when the air freezes around him -- he sucks in a gasp, and it's a mistake, as ice fills his lungs. Frost coats his beard, his skin; it makes his clothes have a sharp edge.

He shoves his way through it. He hacks and gasps, and then throws both hands out. The three bronze-colored drones around him shoot out away from him.

And a massive, brilliant field of blue-green light explodes over the battlefield, around all of the Black Wolves, and suffuses them.

"DON'T STOP!" he shouts. "We have to bring them down -- miss one beat, and they'll have us!"

GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leon Albus has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Scutum Eternal!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leon Albus has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Scutum Eternal!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leon Albus has attacked Xantia with Scutum Eternal!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leon Albus has attacked Citan Uzuki with Scutum Eternal!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leon Albus has attacked Leon Albus with Scutum Eternal!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Leon Albus has attacked Billy Lee Black with Scutum Eternal!
GS: Leon Albus has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Leon Albus gains 25 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
GS: Leon Albus heals Leon Albus! He gains 270 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen and Shield applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Leon Albus heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 67 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen and Shield applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Leon Albus heals Citan Uzuki! He gains 68 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen and Shield applied to Citan Uzuki!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Citan Uzuki solidly guards Yuna's Inferno for 97 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute and Poison applied to Citan Uzuki!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Citan Uzuki receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Leon Albus heals Xantia! She gains 274 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen and Shield applied to Xantia!
GS: Citan Uzuki partially evades Lucia's Heavenly Strike for 190 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Leon Albus heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 68 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen and Shield applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

To see Pearl draw on the martial arts she knew before Lulu met her as that apprentice summoner... Lulu regards it. She can see the cruelty in those strikes. Perhaps it will be what is needed here.

But Rikku, too, speaks of material possessions, and... "Rikku," Lulu sighs.

But she's glad Rikku is thinking of a time 'beyond' this battle. That's a form of hope, too. "...Do it."

All times at once, except the future envisioned; whether Ethius likes it or not, Lulu will remember him in this moment, as assuredly as she will remember all the other Otherworlders who have come to join them in saving their own. The way that one of the Filgaian divinities too manifests here, in Cyre. And the power of all the magic here. Jay calls to them to keep fighting, and Lulu will. She looks to Xantia and Citan for a moment, at the call of 'Doctor', because so often she is called upon to solve many issues--but Citan has this covered. The Doctor will help them here.

And Paine, of course--Paine who is solid, who is Present, and Lulu sticks close to her. They were definitely both thinking it.

"I think we can think of a better kind of dance," Lulu reflects to Paine, as she gathers up her energy for another spell. And then--And then, her entire rhythm is broken for an instant.

"Tidus?" Lulu says, looking sharply towards him. ...But she sees the determination within him. And so for once, Lulu is left to be the one to say, "I don't understand."

But she has no time to linger on it. Ifrit is come. And so is Shiva. "...But I believe you this time," Lulu says to Tidus, as she turns to face their new opponents. There is much unspoken....

Lulu shifts to the side as the flames come, relying on her bangle to handle the rest; she cannot dodge the column of fire, which surges up through her against her magical shielding, but she can avoid the gigantic rock. Even so, she is at one knee beside Paine when it finishes, gritting her teeth.

"Not done yet..."

The elements are Lulu's domain, but it has taken years and years of fruitful advancement to approach the heights that Shiva has known for centuries, and uses now. Shiva comes to her not with the magic she knows well, but a kick, and Lulu goes flying backward as a result, almost falling off the sword-platform until she crosses her arms before herself and forces herself back into the place. She rushes back to Paine's side. The things she would say to Tidus...

"If you don't lead us to victory then, Tidus..."

"I'll take the difference out of your hide!"

With that she focuses, tilting her head back and calling upon the full force of the world around her. Time and space are not so separate, really, and the space around her is full of magic. So she uses it. The Onion Knight raises his mighty sword, and Lulu calls upon the greatest power she knows. "...Using the elements on elemental Aeons is operating in their own arena..."

Her head tilts forward again, and she begins to rise from the platform, hovering. "But magic has no limits!"

Lulu throws down her hand and the magic begins. Stars begin to blossom and bloom at the feet of the Aeons, rushing outward with widening gyres and violet and green and cyan energy, cascading until they implode--and then BURST into brilliant blossoms of magic.

"Now!"

GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Lulu spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Lulu has attacked Lucia with Ultima!
GS: Lulu has attacked Yuna with Ultima!
GS: Lulu has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.
GS: COUNTER! Yuna counterattacks Lulu with Counter Attack!
GS: Yuna partially guards Lulu's Ultima for 390 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Cover and Mighty removed!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Charge bonus activated!
GS: COUNTER! Lucia counterattacks Lulu with Counter Attack!
GS: Lucia suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's Ultima for 1042 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Mighty and Riposte removed!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei says, "Tidus! Shit!" with wide eyes because he definitely feels responsibly for Tidus getting sliced there. At least he's okay! It'd suck a lot if Tidus was killed AFTER he managed to get all that dad catharsis and for a moment, Fei feared that he just got the poor kid killed.

He hears Xantia callign for a 'doctor' already. Yeah, he thinks miserably, this is going to be one of those days. He looks to Xantia for a moment. The Ether flow?

Because of the bracer, he thinks. If he gets Xantia killed too...

He doesn't even want to imagine it. He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment to push the thought out of his head. Best to do that rather than fuel the beast within.

THEN Tidus tells him that, yes, he'll DISAPPEAR after Yu Yevon is defeated.

"Wait what--" Fei begins, turning to look at him.

1. -1 FUNCTION (ANISI) NOT FOUND
   

FEI PSYCHO UP

"...What?"

AT first he thinks that the reason he's passing out is because this news hit him in the gut like a bat rather than the strange bubble that just popped against his head and really made him drowsy.

He says Elly get plenty of fire spells launched at her. "Elly...Ah...."

Hopefully Citan can doctor enough for plenty, he thinks, as he starts to lose consciousness before--

POUNDED IN THE FACE BY AN ELEMENTAL OF FIRE by Yu Yevon.
Fei is pretty resilient against fire but punching, as it turns out, is only partially fire. Now suckerpunched literally as well as metaphorically, Fei goes crashing along the floor.

Maybe he should just...

If it still goes like this at the end...

Leon says 'DON'T STOP' and more to the point, he unleashes a wave of blue-green light that seems to shake off that drowsiness. Fei stands up slowly, though he doesn't seem to quite have the vigor as he had a moment before.

If it's still going to have an unhappy ending, what's the point?

"...Alright Tidus." Fei says, tears in his eyes.

Lacan... Live!

"Like Blitzers..." He has no idea how TIdus is about to sound so... cool about it, really. Maybe he'll never know. He never had it in him.

But he can palm thrust a massive iceberg out of his arms towards Ifrit. He is getting real sick of fire elementals yelling at him, so he can work off some of the aggression at least.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yuna with Suikei!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong gains 6 THP from Regen!
GS: Disease and Disrupt expired!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
Xantia -- what's happening to Xantia? Elly glances that way. Ether feedback, she's -- but they can't tear too much attention from this, can they? This is 'righteous destruction,' Elly thinks. Dr. Uzuki will care for her...

Fei is still fighting. Elly's eyes rest on him as her wave of fire stops. There's something exhilarating and the thought in her mind, though unformed, is: If the Yojimbo swings a sword, it would be simple to --

"It isn't," says Elly in response to Billy's rhetorical question.

-- counter whatever fresh heck it might bring to bear...

But -

Tidus screams, and speaks something. Elly turns her head towards him with enormous shock. Her eyes are springing a leak - tears begin to trickle down - but she shakes her head once, biting the inside of her cheek for the note of pain. No, she thinks, you dumb crybaby. You can't. Not right now. You have to --

"-- a-alright! Tidus... Thank you, for--!!" There's no time to think further, because THEY are here.

The flame washing over Elly isn't trivial. Far from it. But she had already prepared herself; from a certain point of view she has not stopped using Ether and it is simple enough to bring back the interleaving space that was a fan, a thin cone, and to engulf herself in the potentia of flame as the bursts of fire wash over her.

The flame isn't the worst of it. The ice is...

The ice isn't coming towards Elly as hard as it could. Perhaps she has found herself equidistant between the terrors, between the apocalypses. But it is Shiva who has been the greater and she is glittering and she is already erupting in jagged ice and Elly knows that you can die just as well to ice as to fire. In some ways, more easily. It's easier to cool off; the body is used to a burn. But the cold? There is a floor. And when you reach it, everything stops.

    She's so powerful. Beautiful, like snow.
    How can I.
    I.
    I think

Elly turns to face Shiva. Her fingers curl into little fists at her side. Small and thin and pallid. Her face is flushing, but she can hear Leon, and she answers him with a dry mouth: "Y-yes." That aura around her. It's protecting her. Even now, Leon is thinking of them. Comrades, for true. And if she's protected like this, maybe...

    I think I have to.
    ... Alright--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzOTs5hXg0I

    ... if I have to be a 'destroyer'...

Elly takes a step forwards and, with a bloom of warm air, a half step up.

    ... I'll be the best 'destroyer' I can.

Staring at Shiva, Elly breathes in. She breathes out and the warm air around her begins to glow, the outer edges a limning fire. In again, out again, and it becomes fire for real, floating around her. Elly can feel it racing higher; her heart pounding. She is doing something that worries her. What if her brain is still subtly injured and she's going to --

    I CAN'T WORRY ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW

"This isn't your fault," Elly says, to Shiva, "but-- I have to do this. So..." In again - out again - and the flame is flickering upwards towards a brighter shade of pale, and the outer fringes are becoming blue, not unlike the devastating incineration Ifrit has gathered up. For Elly knows that trick too.

Want to see?

Elly throws out her right hand again with a "hhhhhAAAAAH!" of focus and the flame around her abruptly surges higher, like a hand turned the knob to open up the feed of natural gas into a freshly lit and dimly burning stove. A blue sun rises upwards with a bloom of heat and then it ripples outwards, blown into a crazed wobbling towards Shiva.

"Come on," Elly says as it reaches, flame licking and snaping forwards, because it's shaking and diaphanous and

    That won't do it

"COME ON!" Elly screams as her brow knits and she stares at the Aeon and it isn't hate she feels at all, but it's a strange kind of love; bounced through five mirrors, but transformed back into what it was, yet indescribably different.

The flame flickers, dims -- and THEN it erupts outwards, another cone, starkly blue and incinerating in intensity, aiming to wash over and engulf Shiva. And is it a single surge as she levied on the form of Jecht? No: it burns hotter, higher. Because...

Well, it's the last time her friend will be here. His last hours in the world. Is she going to just LET HIM WATCH THEM FAIL?

GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Lulu takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Counter Attack for 79 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Lulu solidly guards Lucia's Counter Attack for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Lucia with Thermo Incinerate!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Elhaym van Houten gains 8 THP from Regen!
GS: Disease expired!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: Lucia solidly guards Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Incinerate for 363 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Charge bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 195 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

Rikku pockets the gil from Yojimbo. Anima, well. In the end it may be a petty small thing but, it's also a reminder. "Already did!" She tells Lulu cheerfully.
 
As the exorcism completes of the two, she murmurs, "Bye." Remembering a conversation with Seymour. Remembering all that gil she put together for Yuna.
 
For Yuna.
 
She'll keep those memories on the inside too.
 
With the exorcism of the first pair complete, Rikku gives Paine a pat on the shoulder, and a wink as she cants her head towards Lulu, "Right dance later?"
 
As she says cheerfully, as if evidence they'll be alive later.
 
Tidus dispels that illusion instantly, as she hears that, her eyes grow wide. "You'll-" She's cut off by the dire implications, as he says let's say our goodbyes like real blitzers. "Not now." It sounds like she's imploring him.
 
Not now. No goodbyes now. No more goodbyes. There are so many ways it could be taken.
 
She can't treat this like its a sports game. "You- you told me we were going to figure out a way without her having to sacrifice herself-!" Rikku tells him, distraught, "Not like this!"
 
She never would have wanted it to happen THIS way instead. How long has he known this!? How long has he held it back, not telling them!
 
Frustrated, sad, she can't keep a smile on her face, but she also can't stay angry for long, "Just... after this is over stick around, a while longer. Just, just a little while."
 
She pleads, against reality, against the inevitable. For them all to have more time. Ifrit appears, and two enormous meters come down. And Rikku turns to look at them, before suddenly dodge rolling out of the side. The blast wave of fire kicks up and takes her away momentarily.
 
Even as Shiva double teams her and a counter appears above her head, and there's a small, broken laugh that appears out of her mouth, "Y-You can't even give me a little time can you?"
 
A count down until she disappears, even as she wonders. Time to feel. Time to process. Time to wonder about goodbyes.
 
There's no time.
 
"Isn't that how it always is?" Rikku says quietly, but one can imagine one of many memories she keeps on the inside. Even as she snaps the casing of something together, and grabs the handle of the stick.
 
It's unclear when she even started putting it together. "With a bang then." She concludes, as she tosses it, at Shiva, at Ifrit. As the Potato Masher spasms in midair then erupts into an enormous detonation.
 

GS: Rikku has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Rikku spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Rikku has attacked Yuna with Rikku-Grade BOOM!!
GS: Rikku has attacked Lucia with Rikku-Grade BOOM!!
GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "They wish to cease dreaming..? Then, we will!" Boudicca assures Tidus, all too bravely, when he speaks of the Fayth's desires. One spirit must assist another, even if the definition is strikingly different, between them. (Boudicca is not a place, aside, perhaps, from the impression of the hearth.)

    "My-- my thanks," she breathes, harrowed, as it happens that Leon shoots Daigoro off of her. It's a complicated sort of gratitude, but Leon's a complicated sort of guy. That's fine.

    But they're able to force back Anima and Yojimbo, and... one spirit must assist another -- mustn't they? Tidus finally calls through the fight, and Boudicca's eyes widen, as she looks to him. The shock blanches her face; light shines across her gaze, just as it glints from her armour. Her lips part, fall, all by degrees; her eyebrows lift, as if the component parts of her face were all trying to escape each other or the truth. "No!" She cries, despite herself. "You will fade, just the same?! It cannot be so, Tidus!" She shakes her head, hands all striking out to either side of her -- and he may well have even corrected her pronunciation on this one, once upon a time: "Hu fyo! E lyh'd pameaja ed!"

    Her eyes are grey on account of the tears, apparently. "I don't want you to go," she says, and says it the way humans of this era do, words all clustered together. She sniffs, and scrubs at her eyes with her exposed fingertips. "But... if this truly is your wish, I... I..."

    Silk burns easily. Did you know? Like so much of Boudicca it is a metaphor; Althena's Wind feeds her Fire, and so does Boudicca, in the inevitable elemental wheel of Lunar. That she feeds Filgaia's fires, now, has done nothing to ameliorate her weakness to flame.

    And all wrapped up in her emotions, she's taken entirely by surprise. (Not by storm -- that's for later.)

    Down he comes, and all too late she looks up -- "Ah!" -- and she can't possibly move quickly enough to get out of the radius of that fireball descent, though she made all the right motions to start.

    Silk burns easily; and it does. A direct hit from Ifrit's Firaga would surely make the Wind Seraph, Boudicca, disappear. It's happened before. In the manner of a spirit closer to immortality than mortality, it will surely happen again.

    Except --

    This time, when Boudicca turns into a speck of light and vanishes, as if she'd spoken her love to the world, an angel's feather settles on the scarf which flutters out as Ifrit tears away.

    And there she is, resolving into existence again. She forms around that Holy Vessel she found in Guadosalam; it weaves itself into her twin braids, as she takes physical form. The horrible, cheating truth of Boudicca is that she doesn't have to worry about having hair down to her legs, because she has magic to make it effortless.

    She's a little disorientated, coming back so quickly. Maybe that's why Shiva thinks she doesn't have to worry too much about her; Boudicca doesn't look like a threat, hand pressing against the side of her horned helm. But she recovers in time to throw up a magic barrier against the cold, a gust of wind which blows the ice off-course and has them hammer her armour where it's stronger.

    (Her silks, of course, have been restored to full glory. That's a metaphor, too.)

    "This is really our last battle together?!" She cries, to Tidus. "Then, I will fight as hard as I can! Wherever you may go -- I hope you will remember me, as well...!!"

    Boudicca doesn't have a sword, like Tidus does -- but her traditional healer's stick is a lot more martial than the norm. See, there's two of 'em, all held in her fists, just like she used to have those claws of hers. Boudicca grasps her tonfa, and runs forward, to spite Shiva's estimation with a mighty STRIKE upwards --

    -- and she twists, in midair, using the trajectories of the wind to crash down on IFRIT, instead, just the way he landed on her and crushed her entirely, tonfa striking down.

    (She probably can't pull off the reverse; wind feeds fire, fire doesn't feed wind. But it's a worthy defiance, all the same.)

GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Tidus calls something out that reaches Jacqueline over the din of battle. She pauses, for just a moment. Her blood runs cold - or maybe that's just the zombie power still in her system.

"...You'll what?" She repeats. ...He'll disappear. This is the last time they'll fight together. "That's- Tidus, I-"

...She doesn't know what to say. What can she say, to the fact that he'll disappear?

...There is nothing she can say. Instead, her attention is drawn suddenly back to the aeons as Anima, Yojimbo, and Daigoro are quieted. She whispers a silent prayer as they drift away into the storm...

...But has little time for anything else, as more Aeons appear. Ifrit and Shiva, fire and ice, afflicting them with heat and chill both. Feeling is gradually starting to return to her, just in time the feel this.

Ifrit jumps, summons a meteor, and slams it into the platform. Jacqueline winces and braces herself as the resulting shockwave consumes her, and sends her flying - and then with a gasp, rotates her body in mid-air as Shiva threatens to impale her with the sudden conjuration of Blizzaga beneath her. The ice bites into her, but it could've been worse.

She hits the ground, rolls, and rises quickly to her feet as she reaches for her right gauntlet, drawing a Crest Graph and sliding it into one of the slots. The recent news is alarming... but it's as she said. They have a lot to fight for, and they can't falter here.

She gestures once, and sends a great wave of water crashing down toward Ifrit, weaving around him - and then with a second gesture, the water flash-freezes, forming a solid sphere of ice before suddenly erupting and showering the area with shards.

This isn't the first time she's fought Ifrit, though wielded by a different Summoner - that one a lost, broken man. There was a time long, long past, before she even knew of Aeons or Spira. That was close to the beginning of her journey.

It feels appropriate somehow to be here, now, at his end - to see him off.

GS: Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Yuna with Dualcasting Sequence!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Lucia with Cerberus Strike!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has launched an attack Link!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Yuna with Soaring Blast!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hex expired!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Ethius' animation doesn't get any more lively as Anima's shape becomes that of fading silhouette, for their (un-, then re-)dying C U R S E continues to course through him. He did not keep full track of how many friends Yuna has made of her Aeons, to his detriment, but can say for certain it's 'more than this many.'
 
     Even so, he hears what Tidus has to say. The same young man of whom he shared a small handful of moments in reassurance and support, even as recent as a failed attempt to reconstruct a damaged teleportation glyph somewhere within the strange dreamy city-scape inside Sin, as Tidus talks about how he's about to disappear.
 
     "Is this certain?" Ethius realizes after saying it that the young star player would not say it at this juncture unless he was that certain, but it's enough to warrant his gaze above and beyond the spectacle and danger going on around them.
 
     He has no further opportunity to inquire in the moment, his eyes narrowing as immense heat builds (and then it becomes frigid, but still hot, and--), and it's Ifrit who emerges closer to him.
 
     Struggling to run as he is as he's a little too close to the Firagas headed for Elly, the bestial Aeon of flame scoops him up, and he has a split second to see that he might be making impact with another body (Pearl's).
 
     He knows not to seize and tense up before inevitable collision, which takes significant bite out of the impact between bodies. The residual, scorching, burning heat, well...
 
     Ethius is mostly used to operating around flames, though when released he's holding his head and making sure he didn't take yet another knock there. (After the last seven years, that's the last thing he needs...)
 
     The horrible, discolored Shiva seized by Yu Yevon gracefully leaps into it before them. The ice, stained by the ceaseless obsession that decays and ruins everything to feed into a phantom none else can ever remember, briefly cuts out Ethius' line of sight.
 
     A well-prepared heat-aligned Symbology spell misses the embodiment of Macalania in favor of a reflection off of a stray Blizzaja's crystalline structures, and in that moment, he's seized, frozen solid in a space shared between Xantia, Pearl, and himself as impaling ice spikes meet a last bit of resistance before he's suspended -
 
     An inward sweep of the arm, slurred syllables, and electrical noise and light going off that blunts the shattering impact, if only just so.
 
     This, atop the C U R S E, might yet overpower him - but over his right, he can see how Pearl's holding up. The two of them have no real chemistry or familiarity in the heat of the moment, but Ethius is aware that she is a Summoner by discipline, in a time where Yuna is struggling to hold all together against an onslaught born of all times within this space.
 
     That he recalls her name now is miraculous and necessary.
 
     "Pearl," the man from far further out than Lunar or Filgaia calls, withdrawing a Hi-Potion from his person and flinging it across the length even as the threat of Shiva's might - and the multiplicative threat value of even more Aeons coming together at once - looms nigh.
 
     For a man whose job it was - is - to often take lives to preserve a secret, to allow a society to continue to grow and live under its own direction...
 
     There are times he puts a thumb on that scale, however subtle, to see elements of them survive.

GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Pearl with Thrown Hi-Potion!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
GS: Ethius Hesiod heals Pearl! She gains 21 temporary hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

The chill of the profaned fane, the solitude of the sea-lost temple. They permeate this gods-twisted liminal space as if the world itself were undergoing some kind of fundamental revolution. But even so, the two divinities fade before the onslaught leveled against them-- in a way that cannot help but to wrench at Cyre's heartstrings. The Aeons are not merely disappearing into loose pyreflies-- their memories are being scattered, their eternities severed. The empty godheads dissolve, bereft of the spark of animating divinity.

It is... the death of a spirit. Something that Cyre wished he'd never been witness to.

And still they must fight. The rest of the Kinship has crossed space and sea alike to be here, and Cyre would not let them go on their own just because the circumstances were gutwrenching for him to be party to.

But Anima and Yojimbo were just the first. Soon, the world is caught between an antipode of unwarm heat and toxic cold. The divine tiger's winds churn the two extremes together, leaving only a tepid malaise of ambient profanity.

The Aeons have turned, and they are without mercy as they strike.

The shaman snarls as the Nahual hurls itself at Ifrit-- but is swiftly interrupted in its charge. On Lunar, fire holds dominance over wind-- and so to does it seem to be, here. Cyre is thoroughly manhandled, his transformed skull dragged across the blade-battlefield. He goes bouncing once, twice, before digging his claws into the twisted steel and skidding to a halt-- only for Shiva to rush in to deliver a punishing axe-kick.

...One that is seized at the last by an enormous claw. The divine tiger snarls from behind its grasp, before he twists his grip, grabbing hold of Shiva's slender ankle--

And unleashing a veritable storm of violence upon her. He twists to slam her into the blade before pounding into her with fist after fist after fist. A combination of hurricane-force blows rain down upon her--

Before culminating in a tornado-wreathed claw-strike that would send her hurtling away.

"...One more time, Tidus," the man within the god-beast rumbles, "No regrets, right? The last thing you want to do is to go and leave behind regrets. That's how all of this started."

GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Lucia with Tiger Rampage!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

A wheeze finds its way into Xantia's breathing following that effort, another first for her. This isn't like the times where she overexerted herself into an instant collapse. This slow deterioration of her bodily functions... that just hadn't happened before. She didn't think it could happen to her - passively compensating for it through Ether use was just second nature to her. Now, though... now, things just aren't working the way they normally do. She's feeling more and more miserable the more she keeps fighting. She can't let it happen. Not now, not when there's so much at stake. But she also can't do anything about it, she can only keep pushing herself, for as long as can keep standing.

Can she still stand though, after that? Thankfully, she doesn't need to find out before Citan kneels beside her. Breathe deeply. She can do that much still, even with the wheeze. Relaxing is more difficult. But she does trust Citan to know what he's doing. She can't regulate her own Ether, but with his assistance, perhaps...

The effect is immediately noticeable. It's as if a knot in her body was abruptly untangled. The pain and stiffness in her extremities dulls significantly, in a matter of moments. Whereas before it was a struggle to walk, or even remain upright, now... now Xantia rises effortlessly, flexing her arms and neck, expression displaying open astonishment at the sudden difference.

"Wow... thank you, Doc!" Then she frowns slightly, realizing something. "I can feel something... trying to undo what you did. But, I should be able to keep going now." She grimaces as Yuna continues summoning uncontrollably, realizing there's not much time before more's coming. She has to keep further explanation short. She settles on, "I can't put Filgaia out of my mind... I think I realize now what it means to be 'worried sick'."

That will have to do. Xantia's condition is mirrored perfectly by the appearance of Ifrit and Shiva - alternatingly feeling too hot and too cold is something she's been dealing with this whole time. But thanks to Citan, she feels confident that she can deal with this now. Especially after Leon's words bolster her resolve. That's right, there's nothing to do now but to weather this storm, and beat it down.

Ifrit dashes in first, telegraphing his attack with a snap of his finger. Feeling the heat underneath her feet, Xantia is quick to spring aside as the flame pillar bursts into being, getting singed but avoiding a full burn. This however puts her right at Ground (Absolute) Zero when Shiva's Diamond Dust is set loose in her general direction. She remembers this from the battle against Seymour. Which also helps her remember how she got through that battle.

With no time left for anything else, she crosses her arms in front of her, left bracer first, relying on her ARMs' anti-magic field to protect herself. Any ice spikes that approach Xantia significantly diminish in size upon striking an invisible barrier, but Shiva's might is impossible to stop entirely. The final detonation sends her reeling back, stumbling, then tumbling... but in the same fluent motion, she springs right back to her feet. That would've been it, in her previous condition. But for now... for now she feels great. She has to make the most of it before she loses the artificial respite she's received.

That is, she was just starting to feel in her element again, when Tidus's words reach her, and she looks back in his direction in dismay. "Wh-what do mean, 'disappear'? Why would you--" She stops herself in the middle of questioning it. No time for that, and besides, that's not something you just say, in the middle of something like this. This is something he's certain about. "...damn it," a rare curse leaves her lips, whispered at first, then shouted. "Damn it! That's... that's not fair!!"

What can she do, except follow Tidus's stated wish? Swinging her fists outward, she gathers a formidible amount of Ether in both hands, a dangerous bright white glow heralding what she is about to unleash. Then she charges, and leaps up, aiming to catch Ifrit with a direct left straight punch to the face, prompting an explosion of force that would give even a Gear pause. Using the momentum gained from the explosion to propel herself, she soars briefly through the air, and attempts to land near Shiva, driving her right fist into the surface to cause a second such explosion to try and knock the Ice Queen off her feet as well.

GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Xantia spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Xantia has attacked Yuna with Exploding Fist!
GS: Xantia has attacked Lucia with Exploding Fist!
GS: Xantia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Xantia gains 33 THP from Regen!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna solidly guards Rikku's Rikku-Grade BOOM! for 212 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Mute, Poison, and Slow applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Jacqueline Barber's Dualcasting Sequence for 154 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Blast for 109 hit points!
GS: Slow applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna takes a solid hit from Xantia's Exploding Fist for 316 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Xantia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia takes a solid hit from Rikku's Rikku-Grade BOOM! for 306 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Lucia's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Drowsy and Poison applied to Lucia!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Boudicca's Cerberus Strike for 340 hit points!
GS: Disrupt blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Tiger Rampage for 181 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Hyper, Quick, and Shield removed!
GS: Delay applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Xantia's Exploding Fist for 185 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Hyper applied to Xantia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Using this power again, it feels awful. Her hatred, her pain... these things have faded, and she throws all her negative emotions to sustain it- and even then that is a drain on her. "Very." She responds to Billy- and then Tidus makes his call.

    Even without the final summoning, Lady Yuna will lose her guardian. Her soul companions. Pieces of her heart. It is a cruelty- and a sacrifice they make. "I am honoured to be here to see the final chapter written, Sir Tidus." She didn't know the man well, but she understands what he is doing. "Let us give them something to read about out!"

    Ifrit and Shiva, twisted into the cruelest forms of their elements. Pearl moves swiftly, the brush she has with his mighty claws sears her skin- even with the protection of the Fire Shrine's thread.

    Moving to avoid Ifrit is what leaves her open to the worst- spikes of ice pierce her body, red blood seeping on them as she is encased on in a pillar of ice.

    She thought she understood cold. In the depths of Lake Macalania, in the Ice Shrine, in that winter village, in the mountains where they were ordered to train, and sleep in the snow in just their training clothes, away from the masters fire.

    But this is the ice of death. The coldness of where a soul once was. She's so cold, yet her skin burns. Her eyes are open but they can't move at all, the pain is indescribable. Her heartbeat is slowing rapidly. She can feel her skin start start to blister somewhere- where she can still feel at all. Her last half lung of air is rapidly fading away...

    And then the ice shatters and Pearl is dropped onto the ground with a thud, and doesn't move. The red thread on the on the sleeve of her robe glows, the fire magic melting the the remaining ice on her. As heat returns to her body, she does not regain consciousness. Not until Ethius hurls a potion at her, spilling over her- and she awakes enough to scream.

    Then she slowly stands. When she opens her right eye, the white is blood red. Her cauliflower ear is badly, badly blistered- as in the skin on her hand. Her entire body hurts. Every joint. Every injury. Every scar. She has plenty of pain now. She looks at the man who threw her the potion, and nods. She can barely stand, but... it's enough. It's still enough. "My thanks." Even speaking hurts. But she has to use it to use this style. And better to use hers- hers and Shivas.

    Her right hand is covered in purple ki. "Come, Shiva! Let us end each other's pain! Take mine and yours, and go beyond this realm for the final time! PAIN SURGE!"

    She drives a single open palm strike for the Aeon, aiming for a point in the pyrefly construction wher Pearl's Chi can flow in, and erupt inside and throughout the Aeon's body.

GS: Pearl has attacked Lucia with Pain Surge!
GS: Recover! Disease and Disrupt removed from Pearl!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    One of the things that had puzzled him, once, was the matter of Zanarkand. When they had arrived, there was nothing left of the city but ruins, and it had been ruins for some time. How was it, then, that Tidus had come from Zanarkand? It had not seemed a lie.

    He had realized it only recently -- what it might be, and might, only because he could not prove the hypothesis. It came down to what the Fayth could bring into reality and what Yu Yevon had sought to accomplish. Might it not be that...?

    There had indeed been finality in that conversation they had with Tidus.

    "I had... wondered if that might be the case... so that was why you had..." Briefly, still at Xantia's side, he bows his head. Then, standing, he glances in Tidus' direction. "...I see that you have made your peace with your decision. Then... let us continue this! We cannot fail here!"

    There is perhaps little time to reflect overlong on such a thing. There are more Aeons left to contend against. Anima and Yojimbo fade -- if not vanish -- and here there intrudes the Aeons of fire and ice. Ifrit and Shiva. He has seen the both of them on the field before but never has he personally been pitted against them.

    He wonders, ever so fleetingly, what Sigurd might think of this situation: the inferno to his face and the blizzard behind. He knows better than most that such antipodes do not need to conflict, but--

    "...So that is what is plaguing you," he replies to Xantia. Mind over matter, is it? He has heard tales of people thinking themselves sick -- stress can be the root of many ills -- he cannot at the moment recall a person becoming so affected that even their Ether had... "If you should feel yourself succumbing again, you need only call out!"
    Yet there is no time to worry about this now.

    As the flames begin to roar, Leon, in an expression of excellent timing, extends a barrier about the Wolves. It matters greatly for Citan when the inferno he cannot escape flares out for him; gritting his teeth and with the enchantment clinging to him, he is able to endure it largely unscathed. But what of ice?

    He does not stay put through the storm: he leaps, twisting his body as he forces his way through the descending blasts of ice. He has a coating of frost on his body when all is said and done but, at the very least, he is not flash-frozen.

    He rounds towards Ifrit, narrowing his eyes as he regards the possessed Aeon. "May it be quick," he murmurs, though to whom this sentiment is aimed may be uncertain. Rushing at the Aeon, he leaps only as he draws near enough for the heat to make it feel as if he has entered into a blast furnace and here, as he hangs in the air just long enough, does he channel Ether. His hand won't touch the Aeon.

    But the wave of water that crosses the distance between him and Ifrit just might.

GS: Citan Uzuki spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Yuna with Kasei -Goku-!
GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Citan Uzuki takes 26 damage from Poison!
GS: Disease and Disrupt expired!
GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.
GS: Leon Albus heals Billy Lee Black! He gains 267 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen and Shield applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: CRITICAL! Paine takes a solid hit from Yuna's Hellfire for 317 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Paine!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: Shield applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Paine fully evades Lucia's Blizzaja for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

Billy strikes at what the Aeons have become - egged on by a monster that can only take. He's already preparing himself for the next move, but...Tidus surprises him. He doesn't particularly know him, honestly, but...it's an entirely different kind of startling thing to be told such a thing by a stranger. "Disappear...like the Aeons, then." His eyes cut down, a moment of reflection amid the roaring and flames.

Elly speaks in aside. For all that Billy Lee Black has been through much - has in some ways had to become a man of quite refined thoughts in response to the evils wrought upon him - sometimes he can still look so frail, with his pale skin alabaster under the dark of his habit; pale hair shading his pale eyes. It is a cruel world to live in, for a boy who loves God.

"...I'll believe you," he decides, and squares his posture. "We must. For a world struggling to be born, we must."

Which is when Ifrit gets a bead on him. He responds on instincts, mostly; whirling that Etone's cape in his path, enchantments washing over the frail-looking boy in a shell. It doesn't, quite, defend him properly, and his skin is visibly burnt and reddened when he emerges - already with both gunsmokes in hand.

Twelve shots. Rapid fire, fanning the triggers to empty lead into Ifrit's body as he charges straight at the Aeon of Fire. He doesn't get to clicks; he counts the bullets, slams his feet down as he runs out, holsters, and then reaches into his habit, pulling out the longbarrel and whipping it up in a rifleman's stance.

It roars, enhanced ARM shot spattering against Ifrit's hide.

GS: Billy Lee Black spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Yuna with Gunholic!
GS: Billy Lee Black gains 25 THP from Regen!
GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

At first when Tidus announces this is their last time fighting together, Paine just nods firmly. Of course that is true. The only thing that could unite a group of such different people with such different goals is Yuna. Even if one just refers to the Guardians, they are so dissimilar that Paine the rough drifter and 'Dame Lulu' end up feeling like a matching pair. It's hard to know what comes after all this, but roaming around all together adventuring was never in the cards, and they all knew it. It was a little sad, but only a little. It was time to see what was next, for each of them.

But that is not quite what Tidus meant.

"Sorry, what?" Paine barks at Tidus. Her mind races over the idea for a few moments. Conveniently, her last bullet is the last one she'll need for now, as they helped to bring Yojimbo down. Snapping open her carbine, she dumps its shells out with a tinkle of metal and a waft of forbidden chemistry, and slides more in.

"If that was true, Auron would have said something too," she decides. Auron has a good handle on things, and she knows he and Tidus are both from Zanarkand, so. She doesn't even look to Auron, so reliable she finds him. "So cut the crap. That girl over there..."

The flame that washes over Paine, leaving smears of ash on her arms and face from her own singed clothing, is bad for her health but somewhat helpful in producing a baleful tone of voice. "Isn't waiting and hoping for Wakka to carry her home, you know."

A beat.

"No offense, big man."

Paine resumes firing, this time more carefully, reassured of the damage she can do to the Aeons. Too much fighting Sin, maybe. "Inconvenient to do this without Yuna," she muses (drolls? so hard to tell) to Lulu. "Kind of the expert. Guess that's you now."

The scale of magic that pours from Shiva turns red irises blue for a few moments in reflection. Shock at what is coming at her is a luxury unaffordable. Paine grasps Gravestone's hilt in her free hand, in the moment intending only to drag herself up, but when she feels the leverage she has she uses it, running through and kicking out. With her hand on the sword-hilt she swings around it as though it were a lamppost, and it was planted firmly enough that she manages to get where she needs to be just before her weight yanks it free. Sailing out of the way of the spell, Paine lands on her feet and walks off her momentum a few paces, a small moment playing out to the backdrop of a massive, flesh-cracking torrent of ice magic passing behind her. For a few seconds, Lulu cannot even see Paine, with all that between them.

Then, through the steam pouring off the ice, Paine steps across cracked and brittle ground. Her breath shows in the air. Selecting a new spot right next to the old hole she left, she drives Gravestone into the ground again, more firmly. She flips the collar of her cloak up closer to her jaw, gathers it a little at her neck with a squeeze of a fist, and drops right back to one knee, just a few feet from where she had been.

"What's the plan, expert?" she asks Lulu as she sets her eyes to the sights again, as if they had not been interrupted. As if she had not just managed to remain defending Lulu after Shiva threw a whole winter at her in a few seconds.

GS: Paine spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Paine has attacked Lucia with Ironsights!
GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Paine has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    For an instant, Tidus looks across the battlefield at Yuna, still locked in her summoning trance. Is it really a trance, though, when she gives him that desperate look? They'd talked a few times about it--or rather, around it, Tidus never willing to hurt Yuna by telling her the truth, just as she hadn't been willing to do the same to him about the truth of Summoners. His gaze is bittersweet, and it has the understanding he lacked back then--why she made that choice.
    
    But she'd already forgiven him, hadn't she? Or at least, he feels like she'd forgiven him. He smiles at her, and though he doesn't say anything back, that simple gesture alone conveys the words he's always telling her, the words he always feels deep to his core:
    
    I love you, Yuna.
    
    And weirdly, it's a relief to have finally said the truth. Leon looks at him with shock, but ultimately nods and voices his acceptance. Tidus grins back at him. "Right on!" Lulu threatens violence, or perhaps promises it, should he not lead them to victory now, and he laughs. "You sure know how to motivate a guy!"
    
    His mirth turns apologetic as he sees the tears forming in Fei's eyes--but still, he accepts it too, and Tidus tells him, "Thanks, Fei." And to Elly, who too begins to weep, but instead calls out her own gratitude, he calls back, "You're welcome!"
    
    But... Rikku's pleading, Boudicca's agony, Paine's sharp disbelief, aren't something that he can remain cheerful in the face of. He grimaces, for a moment unable to answer the first two. They'll see it, too, in his eyes, in the pull of his lips, that he didn't want this solution either. Ultimately, though, what he tells Rikku, quiet yet emphatic, is: "I want to." I want to stay--however long I can. For Paine, when she brings up who Yuna's hoping to carry her home, his voices rises out of that quiet into a near shout: "You think this is something I'd mess around about?!" Boudicca gets him to settle a little, and he tells her, "If I can--and I know you'll remember me too!"
    
    Jay meanwhile is so shocked that she can't even complete a sentence, can't form a sentiment. Tidus gets it. The way he looks at her, eyebrows upturned at the center, she can be sure of that. "It's okay. You don't have to say anything." Ethius meanwhile asks if he's certain, and Tidus laughs a pained little laugh--it's just like Ethius to focus on the practicalities. "Bahamut's fayth told me so." Cyre has something even more pragmatic to say about no regrets, and Tidus gives him a sharp nod. "Exactly."
    
    Xantia curses what she tells him--or maybe curses his fate. It's the same in the end, and the look Tidus gives her is grim, and at the same time, grateful that she said it for him. "I know." He grimaces at Citan--Citan, who is wholly *un*surprised by his announcement, which is terrible in its own way. "So you noticed already too, huh?" Billy... is likewise someone Tidus doesn't know well, but he knows him by company and by the orphanage, and so he always thought him a good person--one just as sharp as Citan in his own way, it looks like. "Got it in one," he admits. Pearl voices that she's honored she'll see the end of the story, and his smile revives for it. "A story for the ages!" he promises her.
    
    There's still plenty of battle left to go, though, because there's still plenty of Aeons left to go. Yojimbo and Anima fall, and Ifrit and Shiva rise in their places, turning the strange battlefield simultaneously scorching hot and freezing cold, each state of being coexisting despite the absurdity of it. This time, Tidus stays firmly on his game--which is not to say, at all, that he gets away unscathed. Hellfire is Ifrit's signature move, and as those meteors descend, Tidus has to cartwheel backwards to avoid getting caught up in the explosion that follows. Even so, his bronzed skin is seared, even mere proximity agonizing, like being roasted alive. He can't even imagine what it would be like to get hit with every thing else dead-on, especially that massive SWORD CHUNK.
    
    As he lands, it's a stumble--not cool at all, but determination isn't always 'cool'. He instead looks up at the embodiment of cool, Shiva, as she twirls and brings down her hand to freeze him solid with a descending blast of ice. He doesn't think, just raises Caladbolg up to be his shield against that glacier in miniature. It is agonizing--it feels like the Celestial Weapon will fuse with his arms, like his arms will shatter from the impact, like he will be smeared solid--but he doesn't, and more importantly, he survives it.
    
    That blade turns, not like Brotherhood's liquid but like sublimated air. Shiva's significantly taller than him, even if she's shorter than she could be, but that doesn't stop him from wheeling Caladbolg around in a circle that trails sunshine and streams in its wake. He cuts that circle short with a forward thrust aimed for Shiva's torso--followed by a bombardment of water and light that sheds a broad and growing rainbow on impact.

GS: Tidus spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Formation! Tidus has attacked Lucia with Sunshower Strike!
GS: Tidus has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Citan Uzuki's Kasei -Goku- for 228 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Shield removed!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Billy Lee Black's Gunholic for 159 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Lucia partially guards Pearl's Pain Surge for 151 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Paine's Ironsights for 84 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Poison applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Lucia receives 200 temporary hit points.
GS: Lucia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia suffers a terrible blow from Tidus's Sunshower Strike for 198 hit points!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

 <SoundTracker> Omnislash (Hurry Up!) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMHpT_kFdYg

Yuna loves the steaming jungles of Kilika. It is quite a paradox, how the aeon of flame hails from a place that is, under certain auspices, flame's opposite. But it also explains how he's so goddamn hard to kill.

Ifrit is one of Yuna's tanks.

There is no more bountiful soil in all Spira than volcanic soil; the very lava that might burn a tree to a crisp is also its food, as separated by a few thousand years. And that is why, perhaps, he endures Lulu's mightiest Ultima yet -- not without losing a few pyreflies -- but with far more composure than Shiva, who is knocked head over heels, braids flying everywhere, and comes up with half a face.

It reforms out of pyreflies and a little ice a moment later, but that really was a terrible blow.

Fei and Elly divide and conquer, with the former leveraging a chunk of Shiva's battlefield at Ifrit, and the latter conjuring a truly legendary amount of plasma at Shiva. This is a wise tactic. Unlike Anima and Yojimbo, these two aeons have elemental weaknesses to go with their strengths.

Shiva really is strong, though... exploded by Ultima and melted by Thermo Incinerate, she still comes up for more. The core of her ice is not so easily dispersed, and the core is all Yu Yevon needs to force her back into the battle for Boudicca to knock around and Rikku to blow up -- and then Boudicca descends on Ifrit even as the Al Bhed mix is catching up with her. She is strong like Macalania is strong. Yuna has surprisingly unmixed feelings about a place that was so deeply traumatic to her: it may have been the site of her first kill of someone not a fiend, but the glacier herself stood up in her defense. She loves it, too, its crackling icy river, its complex murky depths. Even the cold.

How terrible for Yu Yevon to now wield the powers of these places.

Xantia punches Ifrit in his big furry face, while Jacqueline slams into him with a water wave from behind. There's lots of mane to soak, and steam drifts off him... which she flash-freezes, then tears into him with. No matter how tough the aeon, he must have felt that.

Between Cyre grabbing her ankle and slamming into her, then punching her, and Xantia slamming the ground near her other foot, the icy aeon has little hope of keeping her feet, after only freshly regaining them. She goes down again in a puddle of glittering fabric and flowing braids and tinkling ice.

And then Pearl returns her pain inflicted to her. The effect is gorgeous in its effectiveness, and horrific too, as pyreflies rise up from all over her body, up and down each limb...

She is in little state to defend herself when Paine and Tidus close in on her. Paine further limits her avenues of escape; then it is Tidus who grants her that final release, at the end of Caladbolg. Sunshine is the kindest possible undoing of a glacier, perhaps, and she sublimates into mist and pyreflies with a look of peace.

Citan's wave of water slams into Ifrit from still another direction. His flames had re-ignited after Jay's double-attack, but maybe with less enthusiasm than before. This repetition is clearly effective. Ifrit is weary, and there's no time to be weary, not when Billy is peppering his chest with rapid fire in the name of future midwifery. Ifrit doesn't bleed blood, or there would be more of a liquid noise; but he does ooze magma...

...and that magma is turning ash gray faster than it can leave him...

...and then he's dust to dust to pyreflies.

But there's no time to celebrate.

In fact... there's no time at all.

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

 <SoundTracker> Thunderstruck - ACDC - Ixion's Theme - https:'www.youtube.comwatch?v=v2AC41dglnM

Ixion appears in not one lightning strike but a thousand; Yuna the rod of all of Djose's storms. Is Mushroom Rock Road stormy because the fayth is there, or is the fayth there because it is stormy? It matters not -- to the fisherman who gave his life for his people, the storm was once his greatest enemy. It is natural for him to harness it in death, to co-opt it into his weapon, instead. The mighty ki-rin, sometimes heretically (and a little bit shockingly) used as a steed by Yuna when needs must, explodes onto the battlefield with a magnetic blast that makes everyone's molars hurt. When he tosses his beautifully braided mane, it is his very last action of free will -- Yu Yevon enters him midway through the motion, and then his violet becomes a sickly electric blue; his white a dismal gray.

And before his comrade-aeon has even entered the battle, he's already attacking, because Yu Yevon is doing time nonsense TWICE now: though it's an attribute unique to how Yuna built Ixion, hers is, besides being an absolute beast of a glass cannon, also her time mage.

And the accelerating gears of Haste are behind his hooves... hooves that leave bright blue sparks in his wake as he lowers his horn and charges the group.

Valefor messes with the Action Meter actively, but Ixion's hax is passive; between the Slows attached to his moves and that continuous Haste, he just has an alarming tendency to go six or seven times before anyone else gets a move.

So it is that he gets to charge repeatedly. The first time, there's wind pouring from his horn, which lashes at Citan even as magnetic power gathers at its tip and explodes in a mighty ball at Pearl, a ball wider than she is tall. Thunder crashes behind him onto Xantia, and its thunder is not the aeon's voice per se, and it certainly does sound, sound with such power that it threatens to rend and tear at Ethius' whole body.

The second time, it's a blast of lightning at Cyre ahead of him, and a mind-bending crash of thunder behind, kettledrums in Elly's ears; and on his horn is a chaotic power -- a magnetic oscillator gone haywire -- which threatens to pierce Jacqueline even as it converts, in midair, to MORE LIGHTNING, which pours into Fei with great enthusiasm.

And during all this confusion, Ixion performs two Overdrives in a row.

What an asshole. Horse. Well, parasite.

Thor's Hammer is a sustained beam of lightning from his horn, shining so brightly that a sphere gathers there from which it arcs -- and burning so powerfully that magnetism trumps gravity and again tries to wrest Rikku and Paine from the ground, along with Jay and Boudicca. At the peak of their flight, the sphere finally travels along the lightning connecting them, and explodes on impact into concussive force.

But the other one is interrupted by the arrival of Leviathan.

 <SoundTracker> Pressure - Banshee - Leviathan's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSMJk-TAnbM

The Lord of All Waters is, as everyone knows, exceptionally bad news -- hard-hitting AND tough. He is so large as to coil around the whole sword, nearly Ouroboros-like in scope. His scales are so beautiful... teal, but also violet and blue, a vast and scintillating array...

...which all simply mute to a dead, flat green as Yu Yevon infects him.

He leads off by soaking the entire battlefield with the wave of his summoning, sending crackling arcs of chain lightning from Ixion into the group. Having established his preferred terrain, he strikes--!

Slithering through the group with terrible force, he gapes open a great trench beneath Billy's feet, then swirls into a spiral that tries very hard to suck Citan into it for a good long drowning. He disappears into those rippling waters entirely, then erupts out of them underneath Paine, who gets to find out what it's like to be body-slammed by an immense sea serpent. In midair, he summons another wave, which rips beneath Xantia's stance, then... grows, water that unfairly conjures still more of itself. It smells like brine and it feels like a not forgotten presence, that of Belize, as it surges around Cyre to bash at him from every attention.

Leviathan lands -- though the two words together are oxymoronic -- with a great splash, and stabs at Jacqueline with the barbed tip of his tail, hoping to extract something of her watery power, while giving Ethius a look that actually can kill.

Whatever juice he got from Jay must have been potent, because he slams his body horizontal on the platform again, opens his BIG MANY-LAYERED TOOTHY MAW, and starts chomping straight at Elly, Fei and Lulu like the unholy combination of Pac-Man and the TI-83 edition of Snake.

Whether or not he manages to eat his fill even temporarily, Leviathan encircles Leon with many coils, then blasts him out of them with a pillar of water from below.

Which he rises on...

...then rises some more...

...the tsunami's shadow falls over everyone...

...but the greatest point of force, the vanguard of the blow, falls squarely upon Tidus --

-- and Pearl.

There is no recognition in Leviathan's eyes. No connection at all.

He is gone. No, worse than gone.

He is Sin.

And he is more Sin all the time.

...

...and THEN Ixion's Judgement Bolt falls on Tidus, Billy, and Lulu, a final and greatest shock that engulfs their bodies wholly in even a single of its forks. And it has so many more than one.

DC: Lucia switches forms to Ixion!

GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Djose: Heart of the Storm!
GS: Lucia accepts Lucia's Djose: Heart of the Storm for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Blitz, and Surge applied to Lucia!
GS: Lucia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Razor Gale!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Pearl with Aerospark!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Xantia with Thunderfall!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Rolling Thunder!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS:  Blitz! Lucia has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Valhalla's Call!
GS: Lucia enters a Counter stance!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Formation! Blitz! Lucia has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Chaotic Strike!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has launched an attack Link!
GS: Lucia has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Lucia spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Thor's Hammer!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Thor's Hammer!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Rikku with Thor's Hammer!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Paine with Thor's Hammer!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Mental Break!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Lucia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Shock Strike!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: The Force Action Extend is already active!
GS:  Blitz! Lucia has attacked Lulu with Judgement Bolt!
GS: Lucia enters a Counter stance!
GS:  Blitz! Lucia has attacked Tidus with Judgement Bolt!
GS: Lucia enters a Counter stance!
GS:  Blitz! Lucia has attacked Billy Lee Black with Judgement Bolt!
GS: Lucia enters a Counter stance!
GS:  Blitz! Lucia has attacked Leon Albus with Judgement Bolt!
GS: Lucia enters a Counter stance!
GS: Lucia has gained 3 Combo!

DC: Yuna switches forms to Leviathan!

GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with Bikanel: In Memoriam!
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna accepts Yuna's Bikanel: In Memoriam for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz, Burst, and Surge applied to Yuna!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Yuna with Waterga!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna heals Yuna! She gains 536 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Yuna!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Billy Lee Black with Ocean Trench!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Yuna spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Citan Uzuki with Infinite Maelstrom!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Paine with The Sea King!
GS: Yuna has launched an attack Link!
GS: Yuna spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Xantia with Riptide!
GS: Yuna has launched an attack Link!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Spira Mirabilis!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Demon Eye!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Lancet!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Cavitastrophe!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Cavitastrophe!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Lulu with Cavitastrophe!
GS: Yuna has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Leon Albus with Lord of All Waters!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Yuna has attacked Tidus with TSUNAMI!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Yuna has attacked Pearl with TSUNAMI!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's Shock Strike for 169 hit points!
GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Yuna's Cavitastrophe for 97 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna drains Fei Fong Wong! Yuna gains 98 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Rikku partially evades Lucia's Thor's Hammer for 186 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Rikku!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Lucia's Chaotic Strike for 57 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Lucia's Thor's Hammer for 124 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Hex expired!
GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Yuna's Lancet for 99 hit points!
GS: Cover and Riposte applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Guard bonus activated!
GS: Yuna drains Jacqueline Barber! Yuna gains 104 temporary hit points!
GS: Lulu takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Judgement Bolt for 135 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disrupt blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt expired!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Lulu takes a solid hit from Yuna's Cavitastrophe for 227 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Yuna drains Lulu! Yuna gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Lulu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Mental Break for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Mute, and Weaken applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Lucia's Rolling Thunder for 204 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: Ethius Hesiod suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Demon Eye for 210 hit points!
GS: Break and Slow applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Yuna's Cavitastrophe for 126 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Elhaym van Houten enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Yuna drains Elhaym van Houten! Yuna gains 136 temporary hit points!
GS: Citan Uzuki has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: Citan Uzuki solidly guards Lucia's Razor Gale for 90 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Leon Albus takes a solid hit from Lucia's Judgement Bolt for 284 hit points!
GS: Disrupt applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Citan Uzuki has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Leon Albus takes a solid hit from Yuna's Lord of All Waters for 259 hit points!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Citan Uzuki takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Infinite Maelstrom for 114 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Blitz! Yuna has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Cavitastrophe!
GS: Yuna has gained 3 Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Thor's Hammer for 130 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Boudicca solidly guards Yuna's Cavitastrophe for 105 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna drains Seraph Boudicca! Yuna gains 104 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Xantia takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Thunderfall for 106 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: Xantia solidly guards Yuna's Riptide for 78 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xantia receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Jam expired!
GS: CRITICAL! Tidus takes a solid hit from Yuna's TSUNAMI for 371 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Tidus receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Cripple, Jam, and Mute expired!
GS: Tidus has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Tidus suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's Judgement Bolt for 243 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disrupt applied to Tidus!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Tidus has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Paine suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's Thor's Hammer for 181 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute applied to Paine!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Paine enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt expired!
GS: Paine takes a glancing hit from Yuna's The Sea King for 85 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus, SOS Overdrive, and Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Pearl suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's Aerospark for 228 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Pearl gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Pearl has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
<SoundTracker> Halo - Beyonce - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVUHWCynig

The worst happens; people begin to drop.

But almost before they are able to hit the floor...

...they feel warmth. Warmth above their heads. It starts just above their crown, then traces backwards... then forwards again... in a ring.

It is easier to see on someone else; halos have burned themselves into existence above each of them, halos that shine with flame, like laurel wreaths of burning feathers.

And Yuna can be heard speaking to Yu Yevon, her voice defiant through a tear-choked throat:

"You can summon my aeons from every future... but there is no future where those I love will not know healing!"

GS FFX FINAL BATTLE BS: Auto-Life! If you've KOed, please +heal/full and ask Tragi for some more FP!

GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Valhalla's Call for 110 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Disease and Disrupt expired!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Spira Mirabilis for 113 hit points!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Billy Lee Black solidly guards Lucia's Judgement Bolt for 161 hit points!
GS: Disrupt blocked!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Billy Lee Black takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Ocean Trench for 97 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"Fei," Leon says. He looks sideways at him.

"He knew. We've seen a lot of people sacrificed. A lot of people who died, who did not have to. Tidus... he knew." He looks forward. "He chose this. It's... different."

But it's no less sad; no less unfortunate. It is, though, a choice that Leon will respect, because it was a choice.

He looks to Tidus -- he nods -- and he continues the fight. His shield keeps shining, above him. Ixion's lightning dances across it, sparks flying with flashes of light where it hits; Leviathan's water hurtles across it. The Lord of All Waters breaks through the shield, its coils wrapping about the barrier. The shield shatters -- and the coils and water hurl Leon upward.

And Ixion's lightning crashes down into him, slamming him down to the floor. He slams into it; blood runs from a cut on his forehead, over his left eye and into his beard. His jacket is ripped and torn; he stands, ragged, and then snaps his shotgun out. The barrels unfold.

The blade extends by telescoping. Then, light erupts across it, forming a blade of white-blue energy. Leon leaps, swings Argent Divider back, and locks Ixion in his sights.

When he swings down, six arcs of white-blue energy explode off his blade -- and hurtle into the darkened Aeon.

GS: Leon Albus spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Lucia with Code.34 DURANDAL!
GS: Leon Albus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leon Albus gains 25 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Leon Albus gains 25 THP from Regen!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Pearl accepts Yuna's TSUNAMI for 472 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Pearl has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

Rikku replies with a certain desperation towards Tidus' affirmation than he wants to, "Then try. Try your hardest Mister! You're a top Blitz player! You can hold on a little longer!"
 
It's unclear what she thinks is the cause and effect between Tidus being a Blitz Ace and him not disappearing for a bit longer, but she'll take whatever loose association she can get.
 
Maybe it's like holding ones breath.
 
Ixion and Leviathan come, that parasite summoning them into the jerk move as she tries to leap out of the way, and is still caught by the leg, wrested into mid air, "OH NO- NO NO NO NOT YOU! NOT THI-!"
 
Lightning comes, Rikku shrieks even as she's blasted sideways.
 
What an extra jerk move.
 
Yuna brings people back, but she can hear her choking up after that, this is tearing her apart, so much loss, so much sacrifice.
 
Her Aeons. And now someone she loves.
 
Rikku, despite being scared, afraid, not wanting to get up, forces herself up, with tears in her eyes. She pops a pin, and hurls that grenade right between Ixion and Leviathan.
 
It's hard. Now she's not just hurting the loved ones of just one person in the room. "Sorry Pearl." Rikku says quietly, as the silence grenade detonates, explosively spreading that anti-magic concoction all over the two Aeons.
 
A tragedy in a sense, that she cannot even let herself feel the full breadth of the tragedy for everyone that is here. Not with Tidus' impending disappearance. Not with Yunie losing so much.
 
Spira tends to do this to people, just today, more than most awful days she's had since Home fell.
 
It will be a victory, she knows it, but it doesn't feel like one.

GS: Rikku has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Rikku has attacked Yuna with Use: Silence Grenade !
GS: Rikku has attacked Lucia with Use: Silence Grenade !
GS: Rikku has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei is thanked by Tidus of all people. The guy who is going to disappear is thanking HIM. Fei's eyes widen in shock.

And then he rub at his neck again--this time paying more attention to the Summons. "...Never met a man as cool nad brave as you," Fei says. "...I'll always admire you."

He knows that someone like Tidus is something he could never be. Even living to make it to the next day eems so hard sometimes with all the terrible things in the world, but vanishing by some kind of mystical edict is too much to bear.

He sees Elly's tears too, but he can't tell her it's alright. It really isn't.

Even if it is what it is.

Leon speaks to him. Fei doesn't dare speak the darkest of thoughts lingering within him so instead he says, "I know," and then... "But it till seems so unfair, that's all."

Did he really choose it? Or did he just accept it?

Live. Live. Live.

Don't let him see it, he thinks, don't let any of them see it. Don't even feel it. Push it all down down down.

Lightning crashes down upon him but Fei can't either succumb to his rage or grasp enlightenment enough to endure it.It shimmers around him before dispersing as blood pours out of his mouth.

He has better luck with the toothy maw coming down upon him. The massive teeth come down and Fei slams his feet down and pushes his hands up to catch the Hungry Hungry Leviathan.

That doesn't mean his bones don't ache or that his hands and feet don't bleed. He can't quite manage that body he's accustomed to.

Fei grits his teeth. That lingering electricity pumped into him by Ixion explodes out of his body as he attempts to take that unique form of agony and pump it into Leviathan, electricity cracking and arching out of his body into that of the Sea Serpent.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Lucia with Raijin!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong gains 27 THP from Regen!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Rikku cants her head at Lulu, and Lulu gives an arch kind of look. "Hmm," she says. ...But such levity, even hard-fought and hard-won in a battle like this, is soon gone. Tidus is going to disappear, and... Rikku is distraught. She shows the emotion that Lulu cannot, rails against the injustice of losing another friend on this path without sacrifice.

So many have had their lives touched by Tidus in a way that almost none of them can really say themselves to have touched them. Citan knew, somehow--or wondered. That doesn't surprise Lulu entirely. It's 'not fair', and that is true. It isn't. But Lulu is accustomed to unfairness. Perhaps, in her heart, she wishes she could have the same fresh wound as Rikku over this matter... But her own wound is quieter. Scars change the way one bleeds.

But make no mistake, Lulu, too, will bleed for this one.

Paine denies the possibility--but more to the point for now, she considers Lulu the expert here. Because of elements? Or for other reasons? Regardless, "Very inconvenient," Lulu agrees grimly, without much humor. But in moments, Paine is removed from sight... and then back to it, stepping across brittle ground, and readying herself for further battle.

"...We endure," Lulu says of the 'plan'. "And we ready for the next."

Pearl speaks of an end to pain... Lulu can understand her more, in a moment like this. Jay uses doubled magic, a powerful caster here who has as little to say as she does, in all of this. Even Boudicca is shocked... But...

'Then I will fight as hard as I can!'

"We will remember," Lulu promises, but she promises Tidus more than Boudicca. "That you were with us."

She wears something like a smile, at least, when Tidus says that she knows how to motivate him. She can offer that much, at least. And she can try to hurry. She sees how much effect her spells have, though her heart winces to see Shiva--her own first Aeon--to be so damaged, to be so ill-used. But that is why they must do this now.

She knows the places well; the places of Macalania and Kilika both, on which Lulu has journeyed to for more than one Pilgrimage.

However...

Djose. Djose, where she lost Chappu... and then Luzzu. Djose, where so many lost the innocence that had long been gone in her.

Lulu goes to her limits--past her limits. And finally, she takes those solid hits. The water and lightning together are enough; she can defend from one, but not the other. And so she falls. "Paine," she says, "...Finish it."

But when she hits the ground, she does not expect the warmth. She rises, suddenly, as that laurel wreath shines around her. Yuna speaks....

"Looks like I don't get off that easily," Lulu says fondly, and rises to her feet once again. The Onion Knight rises with her. "Fine. Then this will be all I have!"

Lulu brings out her arms and starts to build magic, curling them at her sides as if she can simply roll the magic around her up into her grip. Perhaps she does, because the air around her drops precipituously in temperature, colder and colder and colder as she draws heat into her palms.

"...For all those lost."

Lulu raises her hands, and the magic starts to take effect. Around the others, heat begins to draw down in a spiral. Then, suddenly, an explosion rips out below each of them, a circle of power erupting outward even as the mass of superheated air becomes a column of death.

Then it happens again, to both of them, four Flares in succession in a cascading blast of sheer magical force.

GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Lulu has attacked Yuna with Flare - Double!
GS: Lulu has attacked Lucia with Flare - Double!
GS: Lulu has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.
GS: Yuna suffers a terrible blow from Rikku's Use: Silence Grenade  for 205 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Blitz, Cover, and Riposte removed!
GS: Mute applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna suffers a terrible blow from Lulu's Flare - Double for 1113 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lulu takes 90 damage!
GS: COUNTER! Lucia counterattacks Leon Albus with Counter Attack!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia suffers a terrible blow from Leon Albus's Code.34 DURANDAL for 210 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Rikku's Use: Silence Grenade  for 161 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Amplify, Mighty, Riposte, and Surge removed!
GS: Lucia's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Charge bonus activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Raijin for 122 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
"It's a delicate thing, huh?" Elly answers Billy, floating just a little off the ground in the aftermath of her great bolt of flame.

Inwardly it feels delirious. Hot but good. Like dancing, or like a hot sauna. Elly thinks she's sweating on some level but maybe that's just psychosomatics. But even as they bring low the force of Shiva and Ifrit, who seem so familiar to Elly somehow, like looking into a distorted mirror--

There's more behind them.

A thunderous burst behind Elly. She feels it like someone is slapping her on the ground and she staggers forwards, that strange demi-levitation fading as her feet scramble on the grounds, her hands clasping over her ears as all sound disappears in chaos and pain. Whether Leon's encouragement or raw fortune, she can hear a little through it, but any hope of hearing anyone who isn't shouting near her is gone, perhaps.

    What can I do now?!
    I can't -

The sea drags her forwards and then the great snake of Leviathan, the enormous and glorious worm reduced to something flat and diseased, descends towards her and snaps as Elly shouts and can only dimly hear herself, scrambling backwards. She can see Fei in the corner of her eye as needle-fangs rip against her right arm, her stomach, tattering her clothing; she is pulling away enough to avoid being PIERCED (that would be quite bad) but it is close enough that she can feel terror...

And -- another sense. Like someone's speaking to her. No words. It's like thoughts, or memories. Even as that halo blooms over her head, Elly can hear-remember that voice. Is it - Elly brings an arm to wipe her forehead, and it's *her* arm when she's looking at it, but as it lowers and enters her peripheral vision she thinks she can see a full sleeve of dark-inked glyphic tattoos, so dense as to almost entirely eclipse skin that was a little rougher, more freckled, than her own.

A gentle scolding, with a laugh. You worry too much!

Dumbfounded, Elly looks over her shoulder for a moment (which does mean Fei gets an excellent chance to see the glamorous glisten of tears on her cheeks... but she didn't have anything to say, is that good, is that bad?) but she sees nobody.

    Flashbacks?
    After 'that incident,' I did gain a little weight.
    But... now?

Elly looks back, and on some tiny level wishes she hadn't, because there's Leviathan. But she reasons further: If this is trace elements of Drive in her system...

Well, this is probably the best time for it to happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb6DG4G8vy8

Somehow the thought is liberating. She steps forwards and that limning of flame rises around her again as she makes her hands into balled fists once again. She vocalizes 'haaaaahhhh' even if she can only barely hear it, as if at the bottom of a tinny tube, and she feels her eyes go wide --

Instead of another surging blast of incinerating heat, she spreads her arms wide, head tilting backwards. The glittering halo above her, faded though it was as the spell simply became part of her instead of being a thing-that-was-granted (and somehow she can feel Yuna on it) - the feathers shine as the flame rises upwards, mostly invisible for a moment, 'merely' superheated air that flickers - flickers again -- and forms a shape.

It rises upwards above Elly. Twice her height - four - eight - sixteen times and that seems to be about the limit, which is still fairly good. The fiery shape flickers into something nearer to coherence and curls forwards and at that point the shape starts to be more of a *bird*, or at least something with wings and a head - raising upwards, aiming to press head against Leviathan's head and engulf it in those wings.

Wings of flame, which curl inwards-- and of course, it's not a bird, and the body simply swings off of Elly like a sweeping fiery tornado that smashes inwards, aided, no doubt, by incoming flares of magic from Lulu!

GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Lulu's Flare - Double for 500 hit points!
GS: Strain! Lulu takes 79 damage!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Lucia with Thermo Phoenix!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Elhaym van Houten gains 26 THP from Regen!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Before speeding off to do what she does best, Xantia nods to Citan over her shoulder. She regrets not being able to explain things better. Due to the battle, but also because words simply fail her. But the doctor seems to understand the gist of it well enough, no doubt including the fact that there has to be more to it than simple worry. She doesn't fully understand it herself, but she realizes the truth of it.

You should not be here.

Words that keep echoing and re-echoing in her mind. Not doubt, not worry, something far stronger than a mere statement of fact. It's a condemnation of her very being. She should not, cannot, be here. Not when Filgaia is in mortal peril. Nothing should have a higher priority. No matter her promise to stick with the Wolves. She had the perfect opportunity to leave with Azoth when he stated his intentions to her - any other choice should have been invalid at that time. And yet...

She can't help but look to Tidus in this moment. Still fighting with everything he has, even knowing what will happen to him at the end of it. Her condition is nothing compared to that. For his sake too, she absolutely cannot give in, now more than ever. She will do her part to end this.

Not longer after, Ifrit and Shiva are dealt with, and two more Aeons take their place. Just how many of them are there? Xantia has no idea - but with Valefor not having shown up yet, she knows there's more to come after this. Ixion's speed blindsides her, but in a reflex, she wreathes her own body in electricity, the elemental aura reflecting a portion of the lightning crashing down all around her. She does her best to weather the storm, only to be interrupted by a flood of water, knocking out the aura and carrying her off a short distance.

And yet still, Xantia refuses to stay down for more than a second, flipping back onto her feet as if she could do this all day. She knows she's in trouble as soon as Citan's Etheric stopgap gives out, but until then, she's going to give this her all.

A gout of flame bursts upwards from her opened palms, quickly solidifying in the form of a giant lance. It's hard to keep track of Ixion's movements, but she tries her best to be one step ahead when she hurls the weapon of pure elemental might, which explodes into a sea of fire upon impact. With seemingly zero effort, she switches elements back over to lightning, forms it into the shape of a massive hammer, and proceeds to bring it crashing down upon Leviathan, whereupon it too shatters into a burst of the element it was conjured from.

GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Xantia spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Xantia has attacked Yuna with Ethereal Weapon Construct!
GS: Xantia has attacked Lucia with Ethereal Weapon Construct!
GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xantia gains 30 THP from Regen!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Tidus says it's okay. She doesn't have to say anything. ...She wants to, though. If he's going to disappear... she doesn't want him to go without her having said anything.

"...I... You won't be forgotten. That much I can promise." Jacqueline says.

Soon, Ifrit and Shiva join the others. There's no time to dwell on this, for Ixion appears in a flash with blinding speed, soon accompanied by Leviathan.

Jacqueline raises her hand as the world erupts with lightning. A barrier flashes into existence around her courtesy of her gauntlet. It wars against the lightning - and then, abruptly, Ixion acts again. Lightning coalesces into a sphere, the magnetism of which draws her toward it - and then it explodes, sending her flying. She crashes into the ground, and before she recover, Leviathan jabs his tail at her. She breathes in sharply at the impact as she feels power drained from her. And, with some effort, hauls herself to her feet. This battle has taken everything she has... but it is not yet finished.

Neither, it seems, is Yuna. People fall - but she is as ever determined to provide healing to those she loves. Even now, at this dark hour... She truly is incredible. Jacqueline can't help but admire that.

Her reserves of Sorcery are somewhat drained from Leviathan's attack and the effort of resisting the attacks thus far... but she is rarely without options.

She draws a bottle from her bag, the liquid inside the color of lavender and with a pleasant scent to match. She hurls it at Ixion, the bottle shattering upon impact - dousing the Aeon in a liquid that threatens to steal away stamina and the desire to fight.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Yuna with Diminishing Draught!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

"A quick mind is a necessity in this line of work," Billy says, with the faintest simulation of mirth, at Tidus sensing his guess. He tucks his longbarrel ARM away. "Pearl told me some of how this works. The rest is correlation. ...still." ...

"Go in peace," is what he can pull from himself. Amid the chaos, he checks his weapons; struggling to reload. He's good; he's quick. Still, this is a chaotic battle indeed.

He senses his footing turning unstable, and HURLS himself aside, landing on his shoulder hard and turning it into a roll that sees him throw wide his habit behind him in a long sweep of his arms. The ground under where he'd been sunders wide open. Unfortunately, the ground he's now on sets his hair raising from incoming static, a sign he knows of incoming lightning attack. Again, he sweeps his habit around him, its protective magic absorbing most of the blow. It sizzles and sparks afterward, injured but unbeaten. Billy breathes deeply as the sparklers from Ixion's Judgment Bolt fade away.

"Yeah," he answers Elly, low. He stays kneeled, this time, hands clasping in prayer.

"Holy Lord, O Granas On High," he whispers, as light lenses out from him, casting out across the field to wrap around his allies in defensive layers of light. Is it the power of his God? It's Billy's Ether, but...

How those two things relate is a discussion for another day.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has canceled their attack on Yuna.
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Leon Albus with Sacred Veil!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Sacred Veil!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Sacred Veil!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Xantia with Sacred Veil!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Pearl with Sacred Veil!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Citan Uzuki with Sacred Veil!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Billy Lee Black with Sacred Veil!
GS: Billy Lee Black has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Billy Lee Black gains 28 THP from Regen!
GS: Hex expired!
GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action.
GS: Billy Lee Black heals Elhaym van Houten! She gains 98 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lucia with Diminishing Draught!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Leon Albus accepts Lucia's Counter Attack for 279 hit points!
GS: Leon Albus has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Two more Aeons lost to the sands of time. Two more gods-spirits-loci stripped of their divinity, their sacred nature lost forever as their essence disperses finally into the Farplane. Each one of the Aeons is... a person, at their core. Someone who had sacrificed themselves once upon a time to protect Spira from Sin-- or perhaps just someone within Spira. Perhaps just a child, or a loved one. It was enough, enough to give themselves to service as eternal guardians.

No.

Not quite eternal. Not anymore.

Four down. Two more emerge. The divine tiger is looking haggard, its host flagging from a marathon of... How many battles? Three? Four? A journey through Zanarkand on top. Cyre is exhausted, and still he has to fight. Still he has to--

Lightning crashes. Thunder roars. Cyre's pulse quickens. Of all places on Spira, the Gandolf Thunder Plains were... not quite home, but close. Somewhere that reminded him of home. Dodging lightning was-- not a childhood passtime but.

Well.

He has a brother.

And he would, occasionally, be quite annoying as a brother.

And, you know. His brother could shoot lightning.

So as Ixion emerges and unleashes a blinding flash of electricity, Cyre reacts instantly. Reflex and instinct take over. He pivots to one side, lightning carving a scar across the divine tiger's chest-- and no more than that. No more--

Leviathan. Cyre's heart sinks. "Pearl... I'm so sorry--" A spiral of ever-duplicaing water rises around him, threatens to crush him. Lightning and water are a bad mix on a good day, and Cyre screams as the electricity courses through him. Within the core of the Wind Tiger, he grits his teeth, an arc of blue-white skyfire leaping between his molars, until finally he fights his way through the shock convulsing his limbs--

And erupts from the watery cage, claws carving tornado-like contrails through the void. He rushes for-- Ixion. Fengalon is one of the few entities present that could claim to rival Ixion's speed, even with the lightning horse's grotesque time hax. But more than that, Leviathan is not his to fight. He wouldn't... cheapen what Pearl has to do with the involvement of a different divinity.

His assault is a relentless one, each claw strike shedding razor-sharp arcs of storm-spawned winds. When one is launched, another follows. Attack. Attack. Attack attack attack!

It's the only way to keep up with a horse that is literally as quick as lightning.

GS: Billy Lee Black heals Billy Lee Black! He gains 99 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Billy Lee Black heals Leon Albus! He gains 94 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Leon Albus has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Lucia with Reaping Whirlwind!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mute expired!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.
GS: Billy Lee Black heals Xantia! She gains 95 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge applied to Xantia!
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Xantia's Ethereal Weapon Construct for 384 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Xantia!
GS: FP up! Power Burst, Charge bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Phoenix for 407 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak blocked!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia solidly guards Xantia's Ethereal Weapon Construct for 358 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Xantia!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Lucia suffers a terrible blow from Jacqueline Barber's Diminishing Draught for 141 hit points!
GS: Delay applied to Lucia!
GS: Weaken blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia solidly guards Cyre H. Lorentz's Reaping Whirlwind for 344 hit points!
GS: Entangle applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Billy Lee Black heals Fei Fong Wong! He gains 96 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    In taking the time to throw that Hi-Potion to Pearl, lay low, and re-gather himself, the Symbologist processes the rapid bludgeoning-in-fire to sharp-poking-in-ice that the human body does not tend to do well in dealing with back-to-back as much as he does process the veracity of Tidus' source, which is to say... he can't.
 
     Nonetheless.
 
     "It is yours to tell, however it ends," it's enough to get him to stand back up as the others clear out that duo of Aeons. Just in time to have his airs stand on end as a bunch of pin-pricks of electrical shocks find attraction through the Symbological shield invoked.
 
     In about the time before he dared to brave Mount Liverfeast on his own, he remembered the spell to disengage it, which he needs to do right now as Ixion's deafening entrance threatens to disperse greater voltage his way. Depending on one's point of view, he 'makes it' in so much he's not fried on the spot but it is of no difference from a clean hit.
 
     He shudders and shakes violently with that rattling rolling thunder with arms crossing inward as he tries to regain his faculties from the numbing of it, for the Lord of All Waters to make their presence known to be present through the foul machinations of Yu Yevon.
 
     Others break the wave of water ahead of them, and he's far enough back to avoid the tail stabbing to Jay, but as a view meets, a man with an infamous stare meets the eye of the Lord of All Waters bearing down on him.
 
     Something in Ethius' chest seizes as he crosses a hand in front of himself too late. This, alongside the partial paralysis of those electrical shocks keeps him seized there, as the air grows more humid and difficult to breathe while the C U R S E continues to linger beyond Anima's presence.
 
     He starts at the fingers of the hand not gripping the staff that has done more duty as a walking stick than anything. Experimentally, he flexes them. What techniques-- spells, can he access, like this. He doesn't have much time to decide, as Ixion looks like they're going to decide what's going to happen at least five times before he does - and others appear to have been decided for...
 
     Until some power seems to pull the others back up. This does not bring him comfort, because he doesn't take that for granted. Teeth grit again, as Ethius finds the spell he wants to cast that his hand movements can do, and as he focuses, he gets back more and more feeling before throwing that hand down as he completes the chant in time with those gesticulations.
 
     "Coronal Shell!" He calls, as an expanding dome of bright, blinding heat disperses around the time Leviathan's bulk would be there to take the brunt of it without endangering the others.
 
     "...If it were my perogative to decide," Ethius speaks, difficulty maintaining his emotionally neutral-sounding tone of voice in its wake as he speaks to Tidus, "I would see to it that it ends as you are seeking."
 
     That's to everyone of Spira, really.

[OOC] Ethius Hesiod says, "*bluray - removing mention of Ixion's deadly rushes so it logically only hits Leviathan"

GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Yuna with Coronal Shell!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Hex expired!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

"Works," Paine agrees to Lulu's plan. Endure she can do.

There are so many heroes here from off-Spira to help, and the Guardians themselves have grown so strong. It's shocking how readily the invincible-seeming Aeons drop, one by one, Tidus finishing Shiva decisively with Caldabog. But the battle is fierce and fast in both directions, and if it seems the Aeons might not last another ten minutes, it also seems like the heroes might not last another five at this rate.

"Tidus," Paine hisses, as the bliz captain falls, too far from her for Paine to even check if he's alive easily. Next, Pearl, so soon after things got personal for her. Paine herself nearly goes down, lifted alongside Rikku and zapped, squirming, to the ground again. When she lands, Lulu is already on the ground.

"Hey!" Paine calls, and already she's sliding to a knee next to the black mage. "That's fine," she agrees, with only the smallest tremor. "You can pass out if you have to. But Mog doesn't get to sleep, there's too many left. All right? Hey..."

Paine is taken aback, blinking as Yuna intervenes. Casting a stricken gaze at their Summoner, who finds this in herself even at a time like this, Paine feels a matching well of anger rise up at the foe who makes it necessary. Paine grasps the revived Lulu's shoulder firmly, briefly.

"I'll be back," she promises. "I'm motivated."

Shouldering the carbine, Paine no longer relies on the sights at all, marching forward with it while firing, letting the recoil kick into her shoulder whenever that foot is advancing. Relentlessly approaching, she gains ground to join the renewed Tidus closer in.

"You look like you're messing around to me," she says. "If you die before we win, I'm going to assume you were making stuff up."

Plugging shots at Leviathan, Paine glances to the side at Tidus, her eyes soft though her lips are razor-thin. "On your wing, then, captain," she says.

GS: Paine has attacked Lucia with Covering Fire!
GS: Paine has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Paine has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    "Ever will your name be carved into the bones of our worlds! So long as I live -- and I shall live a LONG TIME, Tidus!" Boudicca's voice still dips and swells with all that emotion; for two hundred years the only way she could HAVE emotion was through that voice no one heard, so no wonder it's so expressive, now. But she manages to find some measure of strength in a promise -- the promise to remember him.

    Even if he can't be sure he can return the favour. Especially if he can't be sure he can return the favour.

    Now -- now is the time to be taken by storm. Boudicca is, perhaps confusingly, friends with Ragnell; though she's tried to destroy the world Boudicca defends, though she came to her oath to defend Filgaia through Ragnell's assault, Boudicca has ever considered the Lightning Seraph a valued and charming mentor. Elementally, perhaps it's no wonder. The storm is a thing of wind and water and lightning, all married together in a maelstrom of destruction; each part conducting the next, enhancing it, building to a crescendo of violence. Wind carries the thunderclouds forward.

    If this were any other situation, a part of her would feel honoured to be part of the equation, implicitly, in the associaton of Summonings which come. The Lord of All Waters -- and the commander of Thor's own Hammer. The sea and the sky are such forbidding things, brought together.

    But the tempest which comes holds no honour, here. Yevon has taken it -- perverted it -- poached it from Yuna's heart and from Pearl's. It is a thing worth mourning, and Boudicca sheds tears for this, too.

    She gets to FEEL this, but doesn't much get to DO much about it, because dear blighted heavens above that parasitised horse is fast. She is thrown up by Thor's Hammer; she beholds so much of this in mid-air, as the lightning charges. Now, Wind Seraphs can't fly, you understand -- but they are Wind Seraphs, and that's why Boudicca manages to tech herself in the middle of what passes for this sky to dart aside from that crackling lightning, and race it back down to the ground.

    Click-clack, her metal heels hit the sword; she jumps, as the lightning bolt strikes.

    She was very good at the Djose games.

    But Leviathan, too, is here -- and he opens his great maw, and chomps down.

    This isn't the first time Boudicca's been eaten by a much larger predator. Is Leviathan a Sinner, now? Surely not -- the difference between then and now (aside from the fact that she can't simply lose half of her component parts, clattering down, unpossessed) is the lack of Malevolence in his teeth.

    Boudicca elects to retreat into her ribbon, this time, and it weaves out from between his teeth after his jaws snap shut. She reforms, again, and steps to the side. "Yevon cannot take the memories you formed," she bids Pearl, hands clasped to her heart. "You are stronger having known Leviathan -- you have strength enough to do this!"

    She draws a breath -- a deliberate expression -- and turns to Ixion and Leviathan. "I will help you, too."

    Another Seraphic glyph appears at her feet. If the wind is known to a storm -- perhaps there is little else she could do than this, as the wind picks up around her. Her magic has always been an instinctive, intuitive thing; that she changes her Arte to suit the needs of this strange battlefield is something she leaves unsaid. Unlike her invocation: "Blow, storm, and stopper misery! Howling Gale!"

    Those winds tear out, through Leviathan and Ixion both, as strong as she can muster.

GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Seraph Boudicca spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Yuna with Howling Gale!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Lucia with Howling Gale!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    The fact of the matter is that expelling that chi took it out of a woman who was already barely standing. Paine and Tidus move past her, blades in hand, and she staggers back as they finish the job.

    Ixion appears, the Aeon of Djose. She turns to face the thundering beast as it charges that giant sphere of lightning-

    But Pearl feels what's coming next, and she can feel it. She can feel him being called. Fear grips her and her feet won't move. She holds up her arms to protect herself-

    And is blown away, sent flying by the blast of lightning. Her body crackles with electricity, her hair and clothes singled. But she is awake. Awake to see them appear. To see her only soul's companion-

    And to feel her soul empty as he is taken from her.

    She cannot feel the bond anym ore. The Fayth in Bikanel is empty. And yet he is not yet dead. Not yet. And she cannot move from the Tsunami aimed at her and Tidus.

    "...I am sorry... I could not fulfill my oath..." This *is* the final summoning, isn't it. When the Aeon slays their summoner. This is the pain Yuna has borne four times already.

    And so she drowns under Sin's rancid waters instead of the ocean Leviathan so loved...

    And then Yuna's wish reaches her, and the magic seems to raise her off the ground. Pearl stands, shakily, as she hears Rikku's apology. "Do not be. This is the oath I swore. No matter how painful, I will follow it through. For the one who set me free." She starts to step forward, more and more aggressively. "For my friend."

    Her soul feels empty, and there is a gap there. A gap there that fills with hatred. She feared it earlier but in this moment, she welcomes it. Her anger, her hate, her sorrow, she lets them flood in. "Lady Yuna. Please hold on a little longer."

    And then she runs and purple flames follow her footsteps, as that gap in her soul overflows with more than just the hate and rage she knew. Loss. Disgust. Despair. Frustration. Guilt. Loneliness. Resentment. Sadness.

    Not for others. Not for Spira. Not even for Yuna. For herself. All for herself.

    They fuel the purple flames that fully surround her feet and lower legs.

    "CAST YOUR DEAD EYES ON ME, YU YEVON!"

    Pearl seems to vanish- but for trail of flames leading upwards as she now descends, feet together to *crash* onto Leviathan's head, just forward enough for their side set eyes to see her.

    "You have taken much from Spira, from Lunar. From those gathered here." Tears flow from her eyes, which are narrowed in anger. Her voice is full of anger, and pain and sadness.

    Full of emotion.

    "But now... Now you have taken something that can never be returned! You have taken the soul and heart of the one who gave me hope!"

    She points her right hand, palm out, at Leviathan's forehead. All that corrosive purple ki flows toward her hand. The stance is that of the Shadow Dragon Wave.

    "And for that- YOU CAN NEVER BE FORGIVEN! I SHALL END YOUR HORRID CORRUPTION HERE! WATCH ME, LEVIATHAN! OUR OATH SHALL BE FULFILLED!"

    A huge sphere of energy appears at Pearl's hand- and then suddenly compresses to a pinpoint. All that energy, all that emotion, focused into a single point. It drives forward, Pearl aiming to force that pintpoint wave to spiral through Leviathan's body, all the way to his massive tailfin. She will not move from her spot. Not until the are gone.

    More quietly, for only her. "Goodbye, my friend. May we meet again in whatever sea awaits us, when my time is come."

GS: Surge added to Pearl!
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Billy Lee Black heals Pearl! She gains 95 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge applied to Pearl!
GS: Pearl spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Pearl has attacked Yuna with Shadow Dragon Destroyer Step!
GS: Pearl has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Pearl has launched an attack Link!
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Pearl spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Pearl has attacked Yuna with Pinpoint Shadow Dragon Wave!
GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    What can he do but shake his head in apology? "I am sorry... I could not be certain," he tells Tidus. He has but the power of what he has learned and his inherent skill at deduction to speak for his hypothesis, which, regrettably... "We will... ensure that a new Spira will come to be," he tells Tidus.

    Sometimes, one must accept that the world which they strive for is one which they will never see. Still, to see such a fate in one so young...

    It isn't fair, Fei as much says, and that draws for the moment Citan's attention. "Fei," he says, trying to get the young man's attention. "There are many things in that world that are not fair. That is why... we must strive for those whom we might still aid."

    He has seen the power of the Thunder Plains first-hand in the past. It is a fine question indeed: does the Aeon bring about the thunder, or does the thunder bring about the Aeon? Perhaps, even in dreaming, the Fayth remember what the world had been -- or know what it has become.

    Lightning, in the Solaris tradition, is associated with Wind. Perhaps it is for that reason that Citan shifts his stance and roots himself, steeling himself for the power that gathers at the Aeon's horn. It works, after a fashion: the gales buffet him but he remains standing in spite of the storm.

    Leviathan is another matter. Water is known to Solaris, of course, and the element in its quick-flowing state is more in alignment with Citan's own nature than Shiva's ice -- if not as much yet as vapor and mist. But this provides a unique challenge: in the Solaris tradition the emphemeral fire can triumph over water's flow (and vice-versa) but how best to evoke flame in a flood?

    By not being there, or at least, as much as one can manage in a spiralling maelstrom. He erupts from the waters before it's too late and comes to a stop, turning to face the both of the Aeons.

    Breathing hard, he touches a fingertip to the bridge of his glasses, considering his options. Ground the bolts and bury the waters? Or...
    Yes, he decides, that might suffice.

    This is not what they taught him in Jugend: Solarian Blade Arts would have him use a blade as his focus for his Ether. He has but his own hands and a form he learned later in life. But this will suffice for he also learned these arts from the finest master of the Shevat Open-Handed Arts.
    The fact that he also married her is a minor detail.

    He comes not at all close to either Aeon: he strikes at the air, looking for all the world as if he were merely warming up. The effect does not immediately present itself, but just as the willow bends under the storm winds, perhaps so too will the Aeons of Lightning and Water.

GS: Citan Uzuki has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Billy Lee Black heals Citan Uzuki! He gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Shield and Surge applied to Citan Uzuki!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Citan Uzuki spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Lucia with Fuusei -Ryuu-!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Yuna with Fuusei -Ryuu-!
GS: Citan Uzuki has gained 5 Combo!
GS: Citan Uzuki takes 18 damage from Poison!
GS: Poison expired!
GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Did he choose it? Or did he accept it?
    
    Well...
    
    It's a little of both, in the end. It might have been a cruel truth that the fayth had thrust upon him, but the ancient child that is Bahamut had requested his help so earnestly. Tidus could've always said no--could've decided that his own life was worth all the others that Sin would take, including Yuna's. He did have that option. But he didn't, and he would never, no more than Yuna could have ever chosen anything but to be a Summoner.
    
    It's just not in either of them to stand idly by while people are suffering and they could do something about it. That's one of the many things that bind them together, not just as a romantic couple but as two individuals who met by fate.
    
    So Tidus gives Fei and Leon both a crooked, wistful smile--to Rikku and Lulu, too. He doesn't really know how long he'll be able to last, but he *will* try. And whether he really is all that cool and brave, it makes it easier on him to know his friends think so. Beyond all that... it's a comfort, knowing that they'll remember him, and it's a pleasure, knowing that they're inspired by him. Boudicca and Jay, Ethius and Citan who promise to help bring about the Spira that should be, and even Xantia who only looks his way. Yes, it really does make it easier.
    
    Which is good, because this battle is easy on no one.
    
    Water is his own element, as he's demonstrated several times this fight alone, but that doesn't mean he's immune to the crushing force Leviathan calls up. The towering wave of Tsunami rises, rises, rises, RISES, and FALLS, crushing him and Pearl under its weight. It surrounds him, gulps him down, and spits him out, just in time for Ixion's Judgement Bolt to crash down from the heavens upon him and Billy and Lulu.
    
    After a certain point, one can't even feel the pain anymore, because one's nerves are so shot. Tidus blacks out before he can even think of frustration or defiance. He falls...
    
    And then a warmth suffuses his body, a halo rising over his head and lifting him back up to his feet. He looks around in wonder, seeing the same happen to Lulu, to Pearl.
    
    Then Yuna shouts her own defiance, and Tidus gives her the broadest, warmest smile of all.
    
    Outside the dream world, life can be harsh--even cruel. But it is life, Auron had told him privately during the trek through Sin, a private chat that Citan had encouraged him to make. He wanted you to have a shot at life. I saw it in Sin's eyes. That's why I brought you here, to Spira.
    
    And in that instant, he finds himself wholly grateful, not just to Auron, but to Jecht. Because as cruel as his fate is, it still meant a life, however brief, with her.
    
    "Yuna... Everyone... I'm so glad I met you. I couldn't have asked for more incredible friends," he murmurs, tears welling up in his blue eyes.
    
    Those eyes turn fierce as he focuses back on the Aeons, blinking those tears away as he focuses. Paine steps up next to him as she opens fire on Leviathan, offering her support in that sardonic way she does. The flash of anger he'd felt settles as he finally understands her true meaning, and he offers her a small but heartfelt smile. If she's going to accuse him of messing around... "See, your problem is you think Auron tells anyone stuff," he jokes. "If you think HE'D have dropped this news any sooner, you really don't know him at all!"
    
    But as she takes his wing, he turns away, trusting Leviathan to her as he faces Ixion. He doesn't have nearly the magical might of Lulu, Ethius, or any of the others who focus on the mystic forces, but these are elemental foes, and pure elements are their bane. As shimmering light courses around him, he calls up his own magic--no longer channeled through his sword as a technique, but true magic, an orb of water building and bulging and growing over Ixion's maned head. An instant later, a Waterga will *crash* down on the Aeon of Lightning, and hopefully help bring an end to his suffering.
    
    And far and away, on Bikanel Isle...
    
    Belize watches over the fayth of Leviathan, their stone body shimmering with discolour. They cannot know the details of Yuna and Pearl's battles, but they know implicitly that this is part of the final confrontation--that their two disciples in the Lost Aeon are making good their oaths to end Sin.
    
    "Ieyui... nobomeno..." they sing, chin raised with dignity and pride, as the salty desert-ocean breeze blows through their braided hair.

GS: Tidus spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Tidus has attacked Yuna with Waterga!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.
GS: Lucia solidly guards Paine's Covering Fire for 16 hit points!
GS: Cripple, Poison, and Weaken applied to Lucia!
GS: Cover applied to Paine!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia partially guards Seraph Boudicca's Howling Gale for 370 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Citan Uzuki's Fuusei -Ryuu- for 137 hit points!
GS: Interrupt applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: Lucia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Coronal Shell for 144 hit points!
GS: Disrupt applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Seraph Boudicca's Howling Gale for 446 hit points!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna suffers a terrible blow from Citan Uzuki's Fuusei -Ryuu- for 200 hit points!
GS: Interrupt applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Tidus's Waterga for 153 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna suffers a terrible blow from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Destroyer Step for 0 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Yuna!
GS: Mighty applied to Pearl!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Yuna takes a solid hit from Pearl's Pinpoint Shadow Dragon Wave for 492 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst, Charge bonus, SOS Overdrive, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Leviathan is only lately of Bikanel Island, after being lost beneath the waves for much too long -- their fayth's rescue, the doing of Belize. But for all that it is a recent home, a home is a home is a Home, and the fayth a miraculous oasis in that endless and harsh desert. Yuna would never call it 'unkind'. She cannot help but love the home of her mother's people, too. Her people. Her other family.

Perhaps being desert-bound has made the aeon of the high seas appreciate what they have, what they are, all the more, for the last few years of their fayth's existence. But they're beyond appreciation now.

There is only the pain being visited upon them, and the greater pain of being the slave of Yu Yevon.

Rikku grants them the freedom of being silenced by her alchemy instead of the Yu Pagoda's bindings and the parasite's possession. The silence that falls upon the great serpent and ki-rin is a kind one in its way; and a kindness to the group, after, as no one can hear Leviathan scream as Fei's redirection of Ixion's electricity pours through them, nor Ixion's whinny as Leon unleashes six arcs worth of his immense energy blade upon his chest and back.

And then the flames come.

One Flare, from Lulu, would be a casting of the highest flame magic known to Spira. Eight--?

It is a testament to both Yuna and Yu Yevon, really, that there's any of the aeons left, after.

And Elly's phoenixian blast, which engulfs Leviathan's head in thermonuclear wings, then his body in a fiery tornado; and Xantia's giant flame lance, the perfect weapon to stop charging cavalry in his tracks;

Steam rises from Leviathan's maelstrom, we'll put it that way.

The battlefield just cannot endure it. It is drying out. And the pyreflies from Leviathan and Ixion are many, indeed.

In that moment that he's been pierced and stopped, Jay lands a potion right in his face. In all truth, Ixion is not driven by desire; his fayth does not want to fight and Yu Yevon is beyond want, period. But stamina is not the ki-rin's strength. And denying him any of it is decisive in how long it takes him to re-accelerate to nigh-untouchability...

...which is when Cyre falls upon him, with relentless claws, and rips great gouts of pyreflies out of his horseflesh. Everything swirls, tiger and horse, speeding up at last but not faster than Paine's bullets, carried further by Boudicca's winds. Ixion flees straight into Tidus' wisely-conjured wave, and all that comes out the other side is a huge and gorgeous burst of pyreflies.

Boudicca's winds, which join with Xantia's lightning hammer to create the mother of all storms on the Lord of All Waters. Ethius' expanding dome of heat turns it into a hurricane. And Cithan's air strike fills that hurricane with blades.

Yet the storm obeys certain rules, certain forces. And there comes a moment, when she forces her way in by feet of flame, that the maelstrom has an eye.

An eye, and Pearl stands alone within it, upon Leviathan's great maw.

They are beyong reaching, of course. Those many many rows of teeth snap at their former summoner, trying to dislodge her, to consume her, like everything they had was nothing. And it was nothing to Yu Yevon; destroying good memories with violence is not the raison d'etre of something beyond reason but it is certainly the method of terror that Sin practices. This is just one more tragedy.

Not that there's any 'just' about it.

But there is justice -- justice wielded at the tip of the finger of a Shadow Dragon practitioner. How Lunn would seethe to see his teachings perverted in this way. The strike is fueled by feelings, but surely Pearl's friends, Yuna and many others, would deny that they were ever selfish.

What Pearl wreaks upon Leviathan's body is among the most selfless acts imaginable.

As they perish, their body collapses around her, a vast wall of coils, almost a dome.

And then they lift, as pyreflies, and what's left sheds like a snake. Leviathan's form joins the others, floating silvery and shimmering off to the side.

<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.

Yuna is summoning again; or still, depending on how you reckon with Yu Yevon's paradox. Kimahri, Wakka and Auron have been contending with the Magus Sisters this whole 'time' though, behind her, and as one of them resurrects another, Wakka's "AW, COME ON!" can be clearly heard over the din.

Those guys probably don't need help... but anyway they're not going to get it.

Because the limits of auto-life are going to be tested by the two simultaneous runic explosions, high, high above...

 <SoundTracker> Black Sheep - Brie Larson - Bahamut's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ91nArSjOg

The whole sword-platform shakes when B A H A M U T lands. He is all wings and blades and gears; he is the closest aeon to being a living machina; his fayth is 'from' the very heart of Bevelle, where an entombed child provides their power source, but only in the same way that the precious treasures of the British Museum are 'from' the isles.

He is stolen goods.

He is the oldest and the first, at least of those fayth that still live, that did not go on to become Sin and die a more final death at the hands of the next one. His aeon, today, is the symbol of Yevon's power. But it once was another symbol entirely, and at Yuna's hands, became one once again.

All of that is taken from him, when Yu Yevon merges and renders the Platinum Dragon nothing but a tarnished sterling instead.

A message pops up above Bahamut:

Break Damage Limit

Thanks to Tidus ALL the aeons have this property -- so in a way the total wrecking being delivered is partially his fault, be sure to thank him for all that sidequesting. But Bahamut always had it, had it natively. And there's an aura pouring off of him, an aura of pure and primal strength, which were he himself one might say is the majestic cloak of the Lord of All Aeons.

This is instead, shall we say, very bad vibes.

And then he moves. Unlike Leviathan (at least, Yuna's Leviathan), he has legs; he has feet. And arms. Lots of limbs and claws for grappling, any single blade bigger than a normal person. And, after bringing still a NINTH flare into the mix with the simple act of one breath in Jacqueline, Boudicca and Lulu's direction, he swirls with appalling grace for his bulk into the aftermath of that explosion. He creates a fray of epic proportions. He slices Ethius and Tidus with his wings and Cyre and Rikku with his front claws and pins Xantia and Paine momentarily with his rear claws. He locks eyes with Pearl -- eyes burning green with Yu Yevon's influence, Leviathan's eyes in someone else's face -- and sucks so much energy from her that it might as well be an Arise spell. Then he expels it in still another breath weapon, this one upsettingly non-elemental, a black and white electricity that have nothing to do with lightning, only a raw expression of power, straight at Citan. Then he clenches his scaly fists, and a trio of similar blasts form -- left, right, and above -- course through the air, and detonate squarely in an explosion that captures both Billy and Leon.

AND THEN

Lunging forward, he digs his claws into the sword-platform.

A counter reading 3 pops up over the battlefield. If only it were Anima or Shiva's Doom.

Power begins to crackle in the giant wheel on his back. It is the sun and it is a crown and it is a gear.

And it would be great to finish him off before he's finished doing what he's doing.

Regrettably, that's when the Aeon of Sky makes her final appearance.

 <SoundTracker> Wings - Birdy - Valefor's Theme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJTXDCh2YiA

Valefor was just ruined by Jecht a few minutes ago, which after this battle is starting to feel like a lifetime. It might have made sense under such circumstances to summon her first for that reason. In fact, waiting until the end is the opposite of a good strategy; it has maximized her fayth's time to regroup, to heal, and all of that strength can now be leveraged by Yu Yevon.

But Yuna just couldn't help it, couldn't help this procrastination. Nor can she help herself now. She reaches out a hand to touch her, one last time...

...and then snatches it back just in time to avoid having it ripped off, as Yu Yevon is faster than her heart can be.

All those beautiful feathers, the phoenix of Elly's likening made flesh, have all the radiance and joy sucked straight out of them. No more rainbow of violets, golds, pinks and oranges. Like Ifrit she is ashen. Like Yojimbo, even the fruits of who she is -- that familiar, gorgeous scent of peaches -- seems to rot upon the vine of Yu Yevon's leash.

And like Bahamut she is powerful.

She leads off with an Overdrive -- the one she used on Jecht -- that orbital bombardment ray. Maybe Rhadamanthus should have just gone to study on the beaches of Besaid; it would have been a lot less trouble. It churns up the sword-ground in front of the Black Wolves.

2

It's followed up, immediately, by a Sonic Wings barrage -- at Lulu and Pearl, which is perhaps complimentary in its way. Valefor soars past her to clip Paine with a very nasty Armor Break via a slash of her spiked pinions, then spins higher.

When she dives at Tidus, he knows it's with the same attack, the one that accelerates her so much that she becomes light, that was used to destroy his father. For Rikku, an Aeroga, which feels like the desert winds turned against her. For Boudicca a drain, the better to recharge her batteries.

1

AND THEN...

...she tosses her head.

Valefor has hair, a great mane of it in fact, more an aspiration of her bobcut fayth than a true reflection. And when she spins it in a circle like that, and it trails motes of purest light behind it... that's very bad, yes, very bad indeed.

Soaring high above, then higher still, Bahamut is revealed behind her -- his charging has reached its peak -- the sphere in front of his gaping maw is bigger than his head and blindingly bright.

And Valefor's -- which has formed behind a swirling tri-runic magic circle, out of the motes from her ponytail -- Valefor's beaktip sphere is at least as nasty -- it is in fact worse in the endgame, the worst of all --

-- for what power is greater than that of a teenage girl determined to wreak destruction upon her foes, with any lingering limits unlocked by the souless intent of her slaver --

MEGAFLARE and ENERGY BLAST burst forth as one. Bahamut's is black and Valefor's is white and they explode into one another, and the stability of the dimension is starting to warp, it's unclear if Yu Yevon's swordverse can really handle this, maybe not--

--best to finish this quickly, before they can do it again--!!

DC: Lucia switches forms to B A H A M U T!

GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Aura!
GS: Lucia enters a Counter stance!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia heals Lucia! She gains 342 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Break Damage Limit!
GS: Lucia accepts Lucia's Break Damage Limit for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Lock state, and Surge applied to Lucia!
GS: Lucia has attacked Pearl with Arise!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Citan Uzuki with Obliterating Breath!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Lucia has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Flare Breath!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lulu with Flare Breath!
GS: Lucia has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Flare Breath!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Tempest Wing!
GS: Lucia has attacked Tidus with Tempest Wing!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Rend!
GS: Lucia has attacked Rikku with Rend!
GS: Lucia has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Lucia's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: Lucia has attacked Xantia with Umbral Vise!
GS: Lucia has attacked Paine with Umbral Vise!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Billy Lee Black with Impulse!
GS: Lucia has attacked Leon Albus with Impulse!
GS: Lucia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lucia has attacked Lulu with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Paine with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Rikku with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Tidus with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Citan Uzuki with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Pearl with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Seraph Boudicca with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Ethius Hesiod with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Billy Lee Black with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Jacqueline Barber with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Xantia with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with 3... 2... 1...!
GS: Lucia has attacked Leon Albus with 3... 2... 1...!

DC: Yuna switches forms to Valefor!

GS: Yuna has attacked Yuna with Besaid: Spirit of the Sky!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna heals Yuna! She gains 346 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Yuna!
GS: Yuna has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Yuna spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Yuna has attacked Leon Albus with Energy Ray!
GS: Yuna has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Energy Ray!
GS: Yuna has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Energy Ray!
GS: Yuna has attacked Citan Uzuki with Energy Ray!
GS: Yuna has attacked Billy Lee Black with Energy Ray!
GS: Yuna has attacked Xantia with Energy Ray!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Yuna has attacked Lulu with Sonic Wings!
GS: Yuna has attacked Pearl with Sonic Wings!
GS: Yuna has attacked Paine with Armor Break!
GS: Yuna spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Yuna has attacked Tidus with Aerial Ace!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Rikku with Aeroga!
GS: Yuna has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Yuna has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Drain!
GS: Yuna has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lucia has become ENRAGED!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Lulu with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Paine with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Rikku with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Tidus with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Citan Uzuki with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Pearl with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Seraph Boudicca with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Ethius Hesiod with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Billy Lee Black with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Jacqueline Barber with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Xantia with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Elhaym van Houten with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Fei Fong Wong with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Lucia has attacked Leon Albus with ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! !!
GS: Lucia has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Yuna has become ENRAGED!
GS: Yuna spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Lulu with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Paine with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Rikku with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Tidus with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Citan Uzuki with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Pearl with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Billy Lee Black with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Xantia with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Energy Blast!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Yuna has attacked Leon Albus with Energy Blast!
GS: Yuna has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Rikku solidly guards Lucia's Rend for 71 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and SOS Overdrive activated!
GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Rikku!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Lulu takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Flare Breath for 105 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Rikku solidly guards Yuna's Aeroga for 116 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay blocked!
GS: Lulu partially guards Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Lulu!
GS: Lulu takes a solid hit from Yuna's Sonic Wings for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Lulu's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Break, Cripple, Delay, and Disrupt applied to Lulu!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: COUNTER! Lulu counterattacks Lucia with Counter Fira!
GS: Lulu takes a solid hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 316 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Lulu suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Energy Blast for 290 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Lulu's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Cripple applied to Lulu!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Lulu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Yuna's Energy Ray for 165 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 274 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Regen removed!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Elhaym van Houten enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Tidus takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Tempest Wing for 83 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Lucia!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Tidus receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Tidus takes a solid hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Tidus!
GS: CRITICAL! Tidus suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Aerial Ace for 329 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Tidus takes a glancing hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 196 hit points!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Tidus partially evades Yuna's Energy Blast for 285 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Tidus!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Tidus has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Rikku takes a glancing hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 144 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Rikku enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Rikku has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten solidly guards Yuna's Energy Blast for 174 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Leon Albus solidly guards Lucia's Impulse for 284 hit points!
GS: Jam applied to Leon Albus!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Leon Albus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Rikku takes a solid hit from Yuna's Energy Blast for 361 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rikku gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Rikku!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Rikku has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Leon Albus takes a solid hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Leon Albus gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Leon Albus solidly guards Yuna's Energy Ray for 109 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute blocked!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Lucia's Flare Breath for 90 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Leon Albus suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 278 hit points!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Leon Albus suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Energy Blast for 341 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Leon Albus!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Leon Albus has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong critically guards Yuna's Energy Ray for 113 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 136 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Regen and Shield removed!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Citan Uzuki takes a solid hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Citan Uzuki!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Citan Uzuki enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Citan Uzuki has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Yuna's Energy Blast for 182 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 322 hit points!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Jacqueline Barber solidly guards Yuna's Energy Blast for 247 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Jacqueline Barber!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Citan Uzuki suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 497 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Citan Uzuki gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Surge removed!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Citan Uzuki has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Lucia's Flare Breath for 273 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Seraph Boudicca solidly guards Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Seraph Boudicca!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Billy Lee Black solidly guards Lucia's Impulse for 124 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Billy Lee Black gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Seraph Boudicca solidly guards Yuna's Drain for 104 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna drains Seraph Boudicca! Yuna gains 106 temporary hit points!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca takes a glancing hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 205 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Boudicca gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Quick removed!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Billy Lee Black suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Energy Ray for 376 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Boudicca takes a solid hit from Yuna's Energy Blast for 395 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Seraph Boudicca!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Billy Lee Black suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Energy Blast for 420 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Quick and Regen removed!
GS: Mute applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Billy Lee Black has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Rend for 87 hit points!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 202 hit points!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Energy Blast for 144 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Cyre H. Lorentz!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Billy Lee Black solidly guards Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Billy Lee Black!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Billy Lee Black enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Billy Lee Black has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Citan Uzuki takes a solid hit from Lucia's Obliterating Breath for 391 hit points!
GS: Citan Uzuki has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Billy Lee Black solidly guards Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 130 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Billy Lee Black has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Citan Uzuki suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Energy Ray for 331 hit points!
GS: Citan Uzuki's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute applied to Citan Uzuki!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Citan Uzuki has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Citan Uzuki solidly guards Yuna's Energy Blast for 354 hit points!
GS: Citan Uzuki's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute applied to Citan Uzuki!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Citan Uzuki has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Tempest Wing for 97 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a glancing hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Ethius Hesiod's Jam Ward may block the effect!
GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: Jam blocked!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ethius Hesiod enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ethius Hesiod suffers a terrible blow from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 305 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod partially guards Yuna's Energy Blast for 231 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ethius Hesiod gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to Ethius Hesiod!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: COUNTER! Lucia counterattacks Lulu with Counter Attack!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia solidly guards Lulu's Counter Fira for 184 hit points!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Lulu solidly guards Lucia's Counter Attack for 170 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lulu gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Lulu has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon looks to Fei -- and worry is in his eyes. He can't look for long; he can't say more, either. Billy's white light falls across him, suffusing him. It bolsters his defenses, and it keeps him standing.

Which is hard, under the ceaseless attacks of the Aeons.

Ixion and Leviathan are put to rest. Leon forces himself to stand; he feels the sword-platform shake as Bahamut lands, his weight causing it all to shake. He looks to the great dragon.

The Aeon sends down blasts between him and Billy; it isn't even done.

And with Valefor's assault, there is precious little toime to do something about it. First, a ray of light carves across Leon and the Wolves; the explosion hurls him backward.

Between the two, he hits the ground and rolls. When Megaflare and Energy Blast come, it drives him to the earth. The raid funnels are slammed down, too; they're spent. Leon crumples.

But Yuna's healing drives him forward. He thrusts Argent Divider II into the ground, using his blade to push himself up. He stands -- snaps the blade to the side -- and then he charges in. He sprints, leaps, and hops. He swings his sword back, two-handed.

And slams it down for Bahamut's head with a chop -- and a wordless, furious scream.

GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Xantia!
GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Lucia's Umbral Vise for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Break, Slow, and Weaken applied to Xantia!
GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Energy Ray for 136 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Xantia's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute applied to Xantia!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Xantia solidly guards Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 132 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Regen removed!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Leon Albus spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Leon Albus has attacked Lucia with Black Wolf's Fang!
GS: Leon Albus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Leon Albus has completed his action.
GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Yuna's Energy Blast for 290 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Xantia's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Cripple and Mute blocked!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Xantia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Arise for 87 hit points!
GS: Lucia drains Pearl! Lucia gains 86 temporary hit points!
GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Pearl!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Yuna's Sonic Wings for 0 hit points!
GS: Pearl's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Break, Cripple, Delay, Disrupt, and Mute applied to Pearl!
GS: FP up! Power Burst, Evade bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 143 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Mighty removed!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Pearl suffers a terrible blow from Yuna's Energy Blast for 401 hit points!
GS: Pearl's Cripple Ward may block the effect!
GS: Cripple and Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: CRITICAL! Paine takes a glancing hit from Lucia's Umbral Vise for 0 hit points!
GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!!
GS: Break, Slow, and Weaken applied to Paine!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Paine takes a solid hit from Lucia's 3... 2... 1... for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle, Jam, and Shieldbreak applied to Paine!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Paine solidly guards Yuna's Armor Break for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break, Cripple, and Shieldbreak applied to Paine!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Paine has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Paine takes a solid hit from Lucia's ! ! ! M E G A F L A R E ! ! ! for 286 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Cover removed!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lucia takes 100 damage!
GS: Paine has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Paine solidly guards Yuna's Energy Blast for 121 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Paine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mute applied to Paine!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus and Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Yuna takes 100 damage!
GS: Paine has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

"Good work, she's motivated." A light tease perhaps, to Lulu in this moment, in regards to Paine.

Despite it all, she hears Pearl's resolve. It's inspiring in a sense. In a different way than it is Yuna's. The sheer anger, the resolve to fulfill an oath, it takes her off guard, but in the end it exists as it is.
 
And she accepts it.
 
"You're right, you couldn't have!" Rikku chirps at Tidus' sadness, the tears in his eyes. There are tears in hers too, despite her tone. And then the cheerful tone vanishes, "... We couldn't have either though."
 
That friendship is tested straight away. How much can one person endure? Bahamut and Valefor come to answer.
 
A claw strikes against her shield as she parries it away, deflecting the weight of it even as she staggers sideways. The Aeroga met with the deployment of a Lunar Curtain, a shimmering sheath that dampens the worst of the desert winds.
 
Still, she's boxed in, and she can see it, the count down. The inevitable countdown that is no less deadly than the one Shiva placed over her head. Perhaps moreso.
 
She trusts Yuna. She trusts in her healing magic in this moment. She has to. In the end, she tries to deploy another Lunar Curtain. Megaflare is only partially deflected, the flames and intense beating around her.
 
She's unconscious even before her knees hit the pavement, her body only barely registering the combined energy of Yuna's first, Yuna's favorite. Valefor of Besaid.
 
And then that healing light shines on her even before she fully hits the ground. When she rises up again, the pain is gone (Even if Paine is not har har)
 
"Whoof, I really could have died there!" But she didn't, because Yuna was watching out for her. Her instinct is to wave to Yuna, but even greater than that instinct is the idea that she doesn't want to distract her further...
 

GS: Rikku has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Rikku spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Rikku has attacked Lucia with Souped Up Ouch-Ouch Surprise!!
GS: Rikku has attacked Yuna with Souped Up Ouch-Ouch Surprise!!
GS: Rikku has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Rikku has completed her action.
GS: Yuna takes a solid hit from Rikku's Souped Up Ouch-Ouch Surprise! for 742 hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia solidly guards Leon Albus's Black Wolf's Fang for 219 hit points!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Rikku's Souped Up Ouch-Ouch Surprise! for 389 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei feels Billy's glorious light empower him. He exhales a breath of relief. Yeah, he thinks, they can totally endure whatever the Aeons throw at them next.

Leon looks at him with worry. Citan tells him the truth. To both he admits, "I know..." soflty. "That's what we're doing all this for." And yet, he can't save this friend. It's worse that he knows in advance in a way, or maybe it would be worse if he found out later? Nevertheless he admits. "...I just..." He looks towards Tidus's crooked smile.

So much for a crybaby, Fei thinks.

"I just envy his bravery." Fei admits. He wonders if, one day, he could be someone as incredible as this random sportsboy he ended up caring for somehow. He barely understands the rules of how this all goes down--but he doesn't think Tidus is lying.

Power slams into him. It isn't Bahamut that takes him down, even as Fei turns his body to disperse the Energy Ray coming for his side. The MEgablast comes for him next, and Fei unleashes his hand and sprays a hefty blue chi blast out in front of him. The Megablast still slams into him, but not at full power. Fei, his shirt burned to shreds and nothing but his ripped abs showing like Goku throws his hands into the air also like Goku, channeling something when the Energy BLAST bursts through him too, detonating out from behind him.

Maybe it's that precious bond of love between Yuna and this summon in particular that finally puts Fei down. When all the graphics fade, Fei is lying in a massive puddle of his own blood.

"IS this...the end...?" Fei murmurs.

No.

They came so far, he thinks. He just wants to rest.

No. Get up. Get up, you're so close.

Fei dreams for a moment. Passing a ball back and forth with...someone? He can't quite see. But louder than that memory that seems so far off are the words that he almost forgotten, words he heard underneath the sands of an Ignasian Desert.

This is... the host for the spirit of the slayer of God

Fei's eyes snap open, a blue shimmer of impossible energy drifts out of his eyes for a moment. His wounds are entirely healed. He can scarcely believe it.

The pain remains though. EVen when it's fully healed.

He stands up again.

"That's right..." Fei says softly. "We just gotta keep killing the gods."

He lands lightly on his feet.

He draws out, without thinking, the Medium of Moor Galt into his hands. The Fire Bird grabs Fei, enshrouding him flame and flings him into the air.

The Fire Bird goes for Valefor--birds of a feather, intending to detonate itself against it. A symbol of rebirth may be ironic in this context but...

A second symbol of rebirth in Fei Fong Wong spins in the air before coming down for Bahamut's head, fists raised into the air as he aims to slam both fists down against it.

Fei got his start in adventuring by punching a dinosaur. It is only fitting that he continue it by punching a dragon.

And he bares his fangs at the Dragon God. Furious.

Furious at these beings that would use Tidus for their own ends, even CREATE Tidus for their own ends. He doesn't really get it but fortunately Fei never needed to understand something to punch it.

Furious at Yu Yevon, for cursing a world with so much pain and destruction.

Furious at Seymour for making his own despair seem so hollow.

But mostly furious at himself for his own weakness. Perhaps one day he can make peace with his Maker.

But not this day.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Fei Fong Wong spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yuna with Third Eye Sleepwalking!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.

Cyre will be the first to admit, every single time he fights against anything that primarily hurls lightning at his face is an ounce of payback for an electrifying childhood that was only as painful as it was because of his own damn fool self. Ixion fades into a haze of pyreflies. At the hands (finger) of one of his most ardent believers, Leviathan soon follows. The wind tiger hangs in the air, staring for a long moment at the aftermath of Pearl's deicide. He is silent witness and mourner all at once.

But they have no time for it. Yu Yevon will not allow it. The grinding extinction of Spira's divinity must continue. Bahamut's presence is felt before it even appears. The platinum dragon is, in some ways, the highest of the Spiran pantheon, but Sin cares not. Yu Yevon's touch taints him. It taints Valefor too, which somehow hurts even more. Perhaps it's their shared affinity for the wind...

...But really, it's because he knows that as Pearl is to Leviathan, Yuna is to Valefor. This...

This is torture. Impossibly cruel. Yu Yevon, in its obsession, is forcing those who love their gods the most to become their murderers.

Is this what the Guardians feared so much...?

And yet... they push through it. Pearl and Yuna both.

Cyre clenches his fists. He grits his teeth. He prepares--

For the onslaught that is swift to arrive.

Dragon and Tiger meet claw to claw. Cyre is sent sprawling back by the force of impact, and reels further as Bahamut's power waxes to a zenith. Valefor's winds find little purchase on the Guardian of Wind, but the power it builds, too--

That, he cannot deny.

It's a sound like the end of the world as dual catastrophes are unleashed. Baleful, profane light bathes the battlefield. It threatens to shatters space itself. Cyre is swallowed by it entirely. He screams as the Wind Tiger is broken, the shintai shattered by power almost beyond imagining. When the light fades, he lies, back scorched black, on the flat of the blade.

But.

Not dead. Not yet. Spiran magic washes over him, soothes the burns, mends the broken bones. And, more than that--

More even than that--

There is a sense of rage. Fury. And not just Cyre's.

The wind-- has not stopped howling.

Fengalon is still here.

"Hhhh..." Cyre hisses, pained, as he staggers upright. The silver talisman is again held aloft, burning the palm of his hand as the residual heat of Megaflare and Energy Blast alike still suffuses the metal. "You... you're angry too, aren't you? Was it seeing what Yevon had done to these spirits...? Or do you just sense that he's weakening? I hear you."
    
The wind howls.

The wind... roars.

A surging tide of emerald light washes over the battlefield. It swallows Cyre first, the divine tiger emerging anew from the storm of ley. But the wind does not stop at him. It carries outward, washing over those here closest to his heart, and one whose pain has resonated so powerfully with his soul. "Yu Yevon... Fengalon demands your end. Parasite-god, Sin-Cancer, Obsession! In the name of Filgaia, the Guardians stand against you. For the sake of the hearts you've broken, I will destroy you! Everyone, I'm with you!"

<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.

Billy prays for protection. He hears Pearl rage at the cruel fate of all this, of her friend in specific. He gets to watch it, as for the final time, Pearl kills Leviathan herself.

He crosses himself again...and then feels his entire stomach turn at the lights exploding above.

"Oh, heavens," Billy croaks. He's seen the power Valefor can bring to bear, and Bahamut...even if he'd never seen the thing before in his life, the Etone surely knows kin to Zephyr, the great dragon of the Guardian Lords.

He clenches his hands together tighter, spreading out that protection further and more.

He doesn't see what gets him. He endures rows of explosions, engulfed in light. His protections endure much of it. But Valefor's energy blast cores through his barrier and sends him toppling backward, his Etone protections barely holding up. He force shimself up, eyes wild as he sees Bahamut's light erupt into full, awesome strength, and then he's engulfed in annihilating light. It is magic itself that there is a single object identifiable as a corpse, after that--

Fortunately, greater miracles than that are afoot, and Billy jolts awake, choking, fist balled in his ribbon. He breathes. Just a few seconds. Instincts tell him he doesn't have time to process ALL THAT.

So, as far away as he is, he can't easily reach Bahamut to smash guard-shattering kicks into its throat, as one of his greatest Etone arts requires. Instead, he pulls his longbarrel out, jams a Cartridge into its breech, and then kicks down its bipod so he can use it as a footrest as he levels the entire thing straight the hell up at the looming winged terrors.

Then he holds down the trigger as his heaviest ARM he has belches bullets for like 50 consecutive seconds.

GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Shining Wind!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Shining Wind!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Shining Wind!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Cyre H. Lorentz with Shining Wind!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has attacked Pearl with Shining Wind!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Yes... and that is why. We must seek to do what we are able," he answers Fei, his gaze on the Aeons they now face.

    There, in the midst of the chaos, he is touched by another's Ether. He has only but a moment to glance Billy's way, to incline his head in an expression of his gratitude. So this is the way it has manifested for his friend's son...

    Another two Aeons meet their end, and what yet remains -- still -- lingers in the air nearby. Of the temples of which Citan is aware, which yet remain? He had learned the major destinations of the pilgrimage back when they had first found themselves in Spira, and the shrines of which he knows little -- Yojimbo, Anima, and Leviathan -- have already had their summonings. Which would mean that the ones that remain are...

    "Ah," he exhales, the breath sharp as Bahamut lands.

    The shrine in Bevelle. Bahamut.
    A powerful Aeon, or so the stories had said.

    He has but the fading remnants of Leon's barrier clinging to him, that and Billy's benediction. Alone, against any other threat, one or the other might still have sufficed, but as the Aeon sights him and draws a breath, there is nothing he can do before the exhalation that is to come but to smile. Is it not said that at times, one must grin and bear it...? There is nothing more that can be done.

    He's on one knee when it ends. On one knee with one palm braced against the floor, and drawing shallow breaths. Against the odds, he is still...

    But he looks up and sees another Aeon has come.

    Ah, Besaid's shrine. Valefor.

    Bahamut is still gathering power in the background. So that was survived, only to...
    Such is fate. He does not move from where he kneels because there is no escaping what comes. The world is lit black and white, and in the chaos of it all, Citan comes to know nothing more.

    The return to the world of the living comes as a jolt as the senses come back online in a flood. He lifts himself up first onto his forearms; then, realizing what must have transpired, he stands in a hurry. "Miss Yuna-- you have my gratitude!"

    He knows who was responsible, who is raising them up so they can continue to fight, continue to bring to the end some of her dearest companions.
    And to bring the world closer to becoming one in which her young man no longer exists.

    She could not do otherwise. He has known her only fleetingly, but it is not difficult for him to discern this about her.

    "We... are at the end," he says quite simply. "Permit me guide your hand."

    It's the same trick he had performed with Xantia, save but on a much larger scale. Invisibly, his power flows like the waterways that trickle under the shell of the earth: realigning power flows. Redirecting them.

GS: Citan Uzuki has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz heals Cyre H. Lorentz! He gains 275 temporary hit points!
GS: Billy Lee Black spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Billy Lee Black has attacked Lucia with A Real-Ass God-Damn Minigun!
GS: Billy Lee Black has completed his action.
GS: Citan Uzuki spends 2 Combo on Inspire and Reload!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Pearl with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Seraph Boudicca with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Paine with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Billy Lee Black with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Xantia with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Lulu with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Reishou!
GS: Citan Uzuki has completed his action.
GS: Elhaym van Houten accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Elhaym van Houten enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Elhaym van Houten gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 269 temporary hit points!
GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Jacqueline Barber gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Billy Lee Black accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Billy Lee Black gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz heals Pearl! She gains 245 temporary hit points!
GS: Restore! Break, Cripple, Delay, and Disrupt removed!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Pearl enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Lulu accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Lulu enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Lulu gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Xantia accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xantia receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Xantia enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Xantia gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Pearl accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! and Sufferer activated!
GS: Pearl gains 2 Combo from Inspire!

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

 
As the flame falls, something new comes to visit them. No, not something new, something old - and something powerful. Something terrible. Elly gazes upon Bahamut and she feels herself tense inside, sweat clinging clammily to her skin.

Doom is coming. Valefor rises and swings and circles, gorgeous and living colors muted to nothing again, a paint-bucket of corruption thanks to Yu Yevon.

Horrid light streaks forwards. Wreckage. Bursting intermingled blackwhite whiteblack washes forwards and Elly feels something slam into her with conclusive force in her momentary exaltation and it throws her backwards and --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiTCqbzT4SQ

                No.

            She's already thrown me a

        line.
        It'd be ungrateful not to take it.
    Not yet.
    It's already happening...

Elly, technically, never hits the ground. She was alive when she left it, and when she wakes up splayed out thrown back nearly six yards she shakes her head. Her ears, strangely, are clear again, but she sees Rikku in the corner of her vision.

Her eyes are clearer. She would wonder at this but she doesn't. There isn't space. She shakes her head once, tossing back her hair where the faint acrid scent of burned ends of hair and then sweeping her left hand again.

Elly faces, with clear eyes, Bahamut; and there is once again that coronal-flickering of pre-ignition, though she does not do anything particularly glamorous. What comes is tighter, perhaps from practice, spiralling for a moment as there is an initial flick of blue flame towards the great dragon and then a screaming sun-white lance aiming to pierce the great wyrm in its breast.

GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Elhaym van Houten spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Lucia with Thermo Incinerate!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna solidly guards Fei Fong Wong's Third Eye Sleepwalking for 470 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated!
GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Billy Lee Black's A Real-Ass God-Damn Minigun for 257 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: Lucia partially guards Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Incinerate for 478 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Lucia!
GS: Hyper applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz heals Seraph Boudicca! She gains 276 temporary hit points!
GS: Seraph Boudicca accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Seraph Boudicca enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Boudicca gains 2 Combo from Inspire!

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Elly's gigantic phoenix of a flame construct rises in Lulu's vision, and she narrows her eyes in focus to understand the effect. The intricacy of Elly's magic is significant; Lulu has not had the chance to talk to the Black Wolves very much, but she can appreciate their power in a moment like this. The sheer force of Elly's the elemental variance of Xantia. ...Billy's faith. Leon's will. Citan's sheer mastery, and cleverness. And Fei's devastating martial arts, to say nothing of the power of his that she is less familiar with.

But Tidus... Tidus is Lulu's concern for a moment yet. THey will not forget him, others have said too. Lulu adds another to the list of those she will Remember, today, one she never expected to lose. It occurs to her, of course; how could it not? What will Yuna feel?

Ethius, if it were his prerogative...

But in the end, he said it was 'his to tell', Tidus's, and this Lulu agrees with.

But Paine is more in the moment for now. Lulu falls, and has to rise again. A small tremor--but a tremor nonetheless. Lulu sees it, as she rises. "...Right," Lulu agrees, with a wince as she rises. "...Mog has too much to do, yet."

Paine grips her shoulder, and Lulu meets her eyes but briefly. "I'll hold you to it." Being back. She's motivated, Rikku teases, and Lulu nods smoothly to Rikku. "She'd better be." ...But there is a little more worry than that, despite her cool tone.

Boudicca will carve that name into the worlds. And Pearl, who was once merely interloper, raises herself back up and shouts her defiance, her hope, her oath. Lulu regards that, too, for a moment. And then she inclines her head.

Yes, this is as it must be.

"He's right," Lulu chimes in for Fei and Citan both. "...Much in Spira isn't fair. But having the opportunity to know a person... No matter how brief the time with them, that much is precious. Remember that."

Tidus will be gone. It is hard to accept. But accept it she must. Because Tidus is 'glad that he met them.' Lulu remembers her last conversation with Tidus, now. Perhaps it will be 'the last' conversation she had with him. Telling him of how different he was from a man she once knew...

She cannot go help the others, as they continue to fight the Magus Sisters. Instead, her endurance is more than tested again. Breath comes. Lulu manages to jerk out of the way to avoid it, but twists her ankle in the doing, grits her teeth against the pain. She is stuck in place for the next; Valefor's Sonic Wings slow her, too. And then...

She THROWS fire magic straight back at Bahamut in a reflexive counterattack from Megaflare, but there is only so much she can do in the face of all that. Swelling with power, she attempts to evade the Energy Blast that comes in at the same time... But she cannot dodge either, and she falls once again. Falls, to the 'floor', where she impacts hard.

...And that phoenix-spread-feathers descends on her again, and Lulu's painte nails grip the ground, clacking as she pulls herself back up. "...Rikku," she says, as she hears her. "I'm..." The thunder. The lightning. "I'm proud of you," Lulu quips, and rises to her feet again, and is happy to shield Rikku from the thunder of her own design.

"...You did good," she says.

They all have much to say, here. The 'Guardians'--Filgaian, rather than Spiran--are with the Guardians (Spiran.)

And...

"All right," Lulu says. "I have one more chance."

Elly's magic is her cue. Citan's magic is her foundation. With this, she can draw forth magic beyond what the environment shoud allow; the watery power that realigns power gives her the seed of a spell. "...I will permit it," Lulu agrees.

Lulu's surroundings ignite as she draws away the heat, this time, begins to rapidly drop the temperature around both Aeons as magic swirls into her. She draws on all the force of the elements that she can, and the roar around her now is deafening. She ignores it, to focus. One hand rises; the other shifts to the side, carefully channeling magic as she absorbs as much as she can and exudes it--in the element of her first home. The element of her birth.

The ice comes.

Dust tracks down from above, and drops of water become hail become snow that begins to torrentially pour down upon Valefor and Bahamut both. Bahamut; their salvation, more than once. Valefor... Yuna's first. Besaid's heart.

She can do no less than her all.

So the temperature drops, and drops, and drops, until the very air itself goes completely still for a brief moment, and all is covered in frost and rime. Terrible glacial ice drapes over all things.

And then it bursts into a thousand thousand blades.

GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Lulu has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Cyre H. Lorentz heals Ethius Hesiod! He gains 270 temporary hit points!
GS: Lulu spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Lulu has attacked Yuna with Blizzaja!
GS: Lulu has attacked Lucia with Blizzaja!
GS: Lulu has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lulu has completed her action.
GS: Ethius Hesiod accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Ethius Hesiod enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ethius Hesiod gains 2 Combo from Inspire!

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Ixion and Leviathan drift away. And what comes next... The oldest and the most precious, Bahamut and Valefor. Bahamut breathes, is power, and a single breath is enough to knock her off her feet. Losing ground for even an instant could be fatal in a situation like this.

It nearly proves to be just that, as she is consumed by Mega Flare and Energy Blast both - twin beams, white and black, erupt across her form. She's thrown clear.

She promised... she promised Lunata and Shalune that she wouldn't do anything reckless or self-sacrificing. She wouldn't play the hero and get herself hurt.

Yuna's healing ensures that she isn't made a liar. A halo surges into existence above her head. Light and warmth and life flood into her body, purging the last remnants of Anima's zombification from her form. Injuries knit back together. Soon enough, she's the picture of perfect health - such is the strength of Yuna's care. She feels healthy - she feels alive.

And others, too, lend their aid. Cyre calls out Fengalon's demand. The wind howls, and emerald light washes over her. Subtly, invisibly, Citan's power realigns and redirects her strength. She breathes in deeply, and stirs.

A pillar of earth rises up next to her. She grabs onto it, using it to pick herself back up. She grabs her glasses from where they fell, sliding them back onto her face.

"Yuna, Cyre, Doctor Uzuki... Thank you." Jacqueline says, offering them a grateful nod... before turning her attention toward the Aeons. No - to the parasite controlling them.

"I promised those closest to me that I'd be alright. That I'd come back to them. ...I mean to make good on that promise. I'm going back - to a world without you." Jacqueline declares. What she does next is a familiar action that she's done once before this day - insomuch as a 'day' still exists in this place.

Jacqueline draws out four Crest Graphs. She draws upon their power all at once, causing four wells of elemental power to surge into existence around her - fire, wind, water, and earth, the four central elements of Crest Sorcery from which all spells are born. Her own sorcerous power has been redirected, thanks to Citan, and she follows that current. She draws power from each one in turn, grasping it with her gauntlets and giving it shape and will. She performs gestures, much like a conductor's own - and at her direction, Bahamut and Valefor both are visited by the elements. Fire swirls around them, water crashes into them, the earth surges and breaks upward toward them, and the winds tear at them. All four elements are brought to bear - and they converge on Jacqueline as the symphony demands a finale. The elements are united, brought into one - and then unleashed in a great beam of pure elemental power, crashing into Bahamut. It's difficult to control, but with some effort she reorients herself, sweeping the beam toward Valefor next.

The elements fade and Jacqueline stumbles from exertion, one hand grasping at her pillar for support.

GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Yuna with Elemental Symphony!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Formation! Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lucia with Elemental Symphony!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
GS: Yuna solidly guards Lulu's Blizzaja for 462 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Lulu!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Strain! Lulu takes 90 damage!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Jacqueline Barber's Elemental Symphony for 231 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Hyper, Mighty, and Quick removed!
GS: Delay and Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Charge bonus activated!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Lulu's Blizzaja for 471 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Lulu!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Strain! Lulu takes 79 damage!
GS: Lucia partially guards Jacqueline Barber's Elemental Symphony for 273 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Lock state removed!
GS: Delay and Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

    Another duo of Aeons fall between them, as Ethius' own eyes adjust to the bright light he puts out and the fading roaring cacophony of the hurricane he coincidentally creates alongside Boudicca. (He does spare a glimpse when he hears Wakka complain, and also may or may not have had a moment of self-consciousness in the aside-mention about Auron not telling people anything.)
 
     More arrive, and he's among several caught underfoot when the entire sword-platform rumbles and shakes to mark the arrival of Bahamut and that's the least disarming aspect of their presence.
 
     For his struggles with partial paralysis from stacking injury and sorcerous C U R S E, Ethius starts putting one foot over the other as he's grazed by the whirling wings that cuts into and across his upper back, falling to a kneel with a pained wince in vain(?) hopes the rest will pass.
 
     His eyes catch the way the giant wheel on Bahamut's back crackles. His mind races to likenesses of weapons made beyond this place by necessity of his training to identify such things, that he comes to the correct frame of time about how long he has - or rather, they all have - to do something before that power discharges. Such demonstrated expertise was what allowed him to stand up against so many advanced ARMs beyond the comprehension of most.
 
     "Move closer, underneath, towards that edge," Ethius tries to say, seeing the potential for a safe zone, but Valefor's resurgance - and subsequent grasping by Yu Yevon - fills that gap and takes away that exit. Even if he's not the immediate recipient of those Sonic Wings, they prevent him from making that forward charge to the closest thing he can work out to safety. Soon, there's nowhere he can go as he recognizes they're out of time as Bahamut and Valefor simultaneously unleash their power, and Ethius' world disappears into Bahamut's distinct lack of hue and Valefor's extraordinary abundance of tinge.
 
     ...
 
     Thoughts do linger towards the occasional thought exercises of what he'd do, and how he would know, should he fall in Spira, but then...
 
     A halo of energy disperses healing energies, and something gently lifts Ethius off his back, and onto his feet where he can feel blood and breath flow through him. The lingering hurts of Anima's shared pain and Ixion's electrical numbing are simply gone. The rest, is mostly a fight to regain his focus and understanding of the situation.
 
     The blessing of Fengalon brings clearer, cleaner air asserted within this fell dimension of obsession. Citan's power flows like water, and in it he feels his own circulation improve further. With their aid alongside Spiran healing sorceries of the highest efficacy empowered as much through will and desire...
 
     "It's all right." Ethius speaks, to those who seem to speak aloud to themselves to will themselves forward. "It is clear by any measure... they no longer belong here."
 
     He eyes Valefor in specific, vaguely aware in passing how much of their value was in just how out of reach they typically would be for most, as he starts waving his fingers to expertly slurred syllables as shortcuts without sacrificing strength, eyeing the dust and debris created from this place where Spira's future - should there be one in this place from all timelines - focusing them on one point.
 
     "Dust Compress," Ethius completes it as what is visible of his Symbological tattoos light up once more, sending all dust and grime to pack themselves in the space where Valefor presently flies like a smothering sucker punch.

GS: Ethius Hesiod has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Yuna with Dust Compress!
GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

In spite of everything, Xantia finds herself smiling. She feels invigorated, which is only partially because of Billy's healing Ether bolstering her further. She hasn't felt like herself in what feels like forever. Everything cost so much effort. But here she is pulling off Ether manipulation as naturally as she did before - even easier than before, or so it feels like. For a short moment, she revels in it, the tragedy of the circumstances failing to affect her.

And then it all comes crashing down. Something falls in the pit of her stomach, and she instantly knows: she's out of time. The resulting malaise hits her like a ton of bricks. This is the worst possible time for a teamup of two powerful Aeons. Valefor is here, so she can hope that these may be the last... but can she still fight?

Initial signs point to 'no', as her attempt to avoid being grabbed by Bahamut's claw fails miserably. She still has enough physical strength to aid in freeing herself, but it's as before, the effort leaving her fatigued and unbalanced. Definitely not in any state to escape the ray of light, avoiding a direct hit but landing on her side after the explosion knocks her over.

This is all before Megaflare+Energy Blast happens. It's plain to see the threat that poses, from the chargeup time that was involved alone. She should move. But in this state, the best she can do is hunker down, protect herself with her bracers, and hope for the best.

A valiant effort, but against this amount of magic, it's simply impossible to protect against in a meaningful enough way. Xantia is left sprawled out on the surface, motionless.

...For mere seconds, before healing light rouses her back to consciousness. She rises up with a groan, aching all over, still feeling incredibly weak... but alive, somehow. She briefly wonders whether she can still do anything meaningful at this point... when Citan comes through, yet again.

Though quick to get to her feet in response to this, she can instantly tell that it feels different. Maybe it's the toll the battle has taken on her, or maybe it's diminishing returns from trying to trick her body the same way twice. But she knows she won't have as much time as she did last time. Whatever she's going to do, she'll have to do it quick.

"...All this... so much suffering, just because of this... thing controlling them. No more."

As she speaks softly, a brief sheen flashing across her frame is the only sign that Xantia just did something. A different approach, this time. Rather than expel and expend Ether, she internalizes it, using it to enhance herself. And then she seems to vanish, moving so quickly that even afterimages can't keep up. She reappears on the opposite side of the pair of Aeons, now sporting a large red energy blade, having activated her ARM in passing. This pattern repeats itself, Xantia vanishing and reappearing several more times, before she starts to slow down enough to see how she's moving, lashing out with her blade in each passing, piling on slash upon slash, for as long as she can keep it up for.

Some problems can't be solved by simply attacking them. She hasn't come across many problems that can't be solved by increasing the amount of attacks by a high enough factor.

GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Xantia has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Xantia has attacked Yuna with Vermilion Sundering!
GS: Xantia has attacked Lucia with Vermilion Sundering!
GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Yuna solidly guards Ethius Hesiod's Dust Compress for 201 hit points!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Yuna solidly guards Xantia's Vermilion Sundering for 263 hit points!
GS: Gamble: High! Lucia solidly guards Xantia's Vermilion Sundering for 307 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Sufferer activated!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.

    Boudicca called Bahamut stylish once, you know. The one time -- when Yuna took her up into the skies on him, keeping her safe.

    Yuna's keeping her safe now, too.

    Flare evaporates her; that ribbon flutters, in the wind. An angel's feather settles down, though, and Boudicca forms again. "Not yet!" She declares, fiercely. "Bahamut... I am sorry. I admire you still. I will tell the Black Dragon of your acts, if ever we meet."

    His acts.

    Not THESE acts.

    Bahamut isn't here, any more, even if he's standing so strong and that timer ticks down.

    Valefor will find the renewed spirit of Boudicca entirely refreshing. She looks up, and she mourns, too. "Thank you," she says, to something like another spirit.

    "For saving her. I will remember that, too."

    They would make find last words, as MEGAFLARE and ENERGY BLAST move together, into her, through her. Fine last words -- were she mortal -- were she like to fall, here. But again she reforms; again she reclaims herself. She is made stronger, now, as she steps forward into herself, by Citan's subtle workings and the holy wind of Cyre and Fengalon.

    "I will not fall," she promises them. "Yuna will catch me."

    She takes her tonfa -- and charges forward, on Fengalon's blessed winds and her own. Citan offered to guide her hands, and she'll trust the mysterious doctor to do just that, as she crashes past Bahamut with a lash of those tonfa. "Soaring Vortex!" She cries, and the name is adept: it's designed to send a foe spinning.

    But she doesn't stop there. She kicks off of Bahamut's back -- there's no riding him, now -- to leap UP, up and up and up, to fly past VALEFOR, up there in the wings. "And again! Soaring Vortex!" She cries, as she commits the same trick twice.

GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Extend!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Yuna with Soaring Vortex!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has attacked Lucia with Soaring Vortex!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Boudicca has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Vortex for 322 hit points!
GS: Entangle blocked!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Charge bonus activated!
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Lucia solidly guards Seraph Boudicca's Soaring Vortex for 270 hit points!
GS: Entangle blocked!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: Pearl has activated Force Action: Full Clip!

<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.

    Cyre's apology reaches her too. But... "This is the path they chose. I will sem them to it's end." Billy's shield of faith grants her defense against what she is about to do. She gives him a sudden nod. The winds strike and Boudicca tells her something that her heart already knows- but she is still emboldened by hearing. "My thanks, Lady Boudicca!"

    She stays where she stands, as Leviathan falls for the final team. Tonight, the oceans of Lunar may mourn the loss of the lord. Even past the final moment, when they disappear into pyreflies, Pearl simply drops, landing on her feet.

    "...You are correct, Lady Boudicca. And I will carry them close."

    There isn't much time to mourn. Not when the first and oldest arrives- and Yevon locks eyes with her through Bahamut and for a moment she cannot look away as her tries to drain her dry of energy.

    It is hard to directly face the will of a god eater, and for a moment it feels as though all of her is going to be drained into the dragon's eye- when her body moves for her, one hand slamming into one of the wounds from Shiva's spike as if a reflex, the pain pulling her free before he can take more.

    From there, it is a desperate attempt to survive, as Valefor- Yuna's own first Aeon- is taken by Yevon. Pearl was right to make her farewells hurried, but her heart aches for Yuna. That ache cannot be indulged, as the barrage of Sonic Wings, the barrage that held back Jecht, is levelled at her. She cannot outrun Valefor, she can only brace as wind shreds her gi and flesh. More blood soaks through and scatters to the wind. And while she cannot move, she can do nothing to stop the megaflare charging. When the moment comes, she dives.

    It gets her clear of the worst of Bahamut's blast, but the cost is bearing the blows of Yuna's First Aeon, crashing against her. But she stands. She still stands.

    '...and if I can stand, I can fight.' "That is what you would roar at me, is it not?" The shining wind of Fengalon surrounds her, and the pain that wracks her body is eased. So too comes Citan's aid. She reaches her full height, bloody and blistered, burnt and blasted. This is the final step of the summoner's path- for herself, for Yuna... For Belize, for all other summoners.

    She looks to Yuna, where she sustains the summoners and themselves at once. "Yuna. I shall see to Valefor where you cannot. She shall have the rest she deserves." Her stance shifts, ever so slightly.... but the flames are at her feet again. "Thank you for trusting me to do so."

    And then Pearl is still. Completely and totally- then she vanishes again, without the trail this time. She is on a trajectory to crash into Valefor's body she holds one hand close to her. She cannot muster all the hate she had for Yevon against Leviathan. But she can muster sorrow and grief and anger for another- and with them strike out. Her feelings are not what matter here... Yuna's are. She should have the right to say goodbye. She does not, so Pearl must bear her grief as a Summoner.

    Her right hand glows with furious, toxic purple energy, and she moves to take her one window to strike Valefor with her palm- and in so doing disrupt the magic that holds the pyreflies together, running along the lines of her body, cutting cruelly and leaving spiritual toxins behind.

    It could only be a moment of contact. Only a second. But in that moment, Pearl strains her ears for any last words-

    And then, if uninterrupted, starts her fall toward earth.

GS: Pearl spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Pearl has attacked Yuna with Shadow Dragon Destroyer Step!
GS: Pearl has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Pearl has launched an attack Link!
GS: Pearl spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Pearl has attacked Yuna with Shadow Dragon Palm!
GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Pearl has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

"Yevon's mercy," Paine sighs reflexively as Bahamut arises, and the wind whips her eyes to damp slits. This is really the peak ridiculousness of her inability to break the habit of using Yevon's name to swear. She hasn't really seemed to notice she should break the habit. She was not really thinking about Yu Yevon to begin with, maybe, and certainly has not gotten more devout in His name of late.

But there's still something there to reckon with. It's hard to kill a god. To kill your own God is... complicated in addition.

What follows is blurry but sharp, like getting shanked without your glasses on. Paine tries to relieve Tidus and Rikku from Bahamut's assault alongside Ethius, and ends up getting stepped on. That's what it feels like anyway; she realizes it wasn't quite that when she survives it. Stumbling, she is raising her carbine when Valefor shrieks past behind her, tearing what remains of her now-tattered cloak after Jecht ruined it, leaving it as a voluminous, rough sort of scarf around her neck and shoulders. Her flesh was little-harmed in exchange, but she is off-balance, and she twisted her ring finger trying to hang onto her machina weapon.

And above her, two of the most powerful attacks imaginable are combining into one, about to drop down upon her in unspeakable devastation.

"Yevon's wind," she curses a second time. It sounds pretty if you think of it one way; a nickname for Valefor perhaps. It's not what the epithet is referring to in the bars Paine hangs out in.

Breathing is the painful, too-fast inflation of a balloon as Paine regains consciousness. The hit felt like getting sucked into an airship turbine, and Paine remains disoriented at first, patting around for a machina weapon that is somewhere else. "Yuna," she remembers (gratefully? worried?) and just stands up without it. Gravestone is still standing where she left it stabbed--in fact, it was driven deeper--and Paine is closer to it than she remembers. As she braces the ground with one boot and strains with two dirty arms to rip the blade free, she takes a moment to smirk at the joke the weapon is playing on her, emulating its name so closely right now.

"Some thanks," she says. She's been loyal, after all. No Caldabog for her.

When the aged grey blade finally tears out of the ground, Paine checks for Tidus first, then, confirming he's standing, glances at Rikku, hiding behind Lulu. Her lips tug in a smile at this situation, which she doesn't restrain since no one is watching. Then, stretching her neck, she takes off at a run. One red eye is on Lulu, who like Rikku often makes big explosions, but unlike Rikku does so in a more predictable timetable once you get to know her. This time she'll let someone else be the distraction. Only a full-sphere offense is going to stop another round of Bahamut and Valefor's mystical attacks. And while Paine would never count her side out so easily as that, she does strongly suspect that any victory they achieved after a second showing of Bahamut's power would be on a less crowded podium. The Guardians, in particular, made it this far. She'll be damned if they lose anyone now.

"Damn it, Tidus," Paine curses him beneath her breath.

Paine's elliptical path towards Valefor becomes a hard, straight line the moment she sense Lulu's spell is about to complete. Bahamut needs to go down more desperately, but Valefor is the emotionally more difficult target, and she trusts her companions' power far more than she trusts their ruthlessness. Though it may feel like stabbing Yuna's teddy bear, Paine will protect Yuna's life.

Getting up high enough to do damage without being quite the acrobat that Tidus and Rikku are is always a challenge for Paine, and she takes a cruel solution this time. Leaping, Paine stabs Gravestone into the place she knows it will puncture: Valefor's precious wings, perhaps the emblem of what makes it Valefor. And with that puncture, she climbs, only able to assure a small brief scramble higher given that she has no real leverage other than the sword she is ripping out as she goes, other than ineffectually clawing boots and fingernails. So she hurls herself up and stabs again, and hurls herself up and stabs again, repeating as many times as she can to try and get up to where the bone is. When she reaches that point, if she reaches that point, she will do what she has to do. No bone of Valefor's can truly be called frail, but this one is certainly more so than most.

Gravestone is heavy.

GS: Paine accepts Citan Uzuki's Reishou for 0 hit points!
GS: FP up! Citan Uzuki's Reload! activated!
GS: Paine gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
GS: Paine spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Paine has attacked Yuna with Swordplay!
GS: Paine has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Paine has launched an attack Link!
GS: Paine has attacked Yuna with Gravestone!
GS: Paine has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Paine's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Paine has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Yuna suffers a terrible blow from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Destroyer Step for 0 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Yuna!
GS: Mighty applied to Pearl!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Pearl's Shadow Dragon Palm for 222 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Paine's Swordplay for 148 hit points!
GS: Cripple blocked!
GS: FP up! Power Burst, Charge bonus, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna solidly guards Paine's Gravestone for 81 hit points!
GS: Yuna's Slow Ward may block the effect!
GS: Slow applied to Yuna!
GS: FP up! Power Burst, SOS Overdrive, and Sufferer activated!
GS: Yuna has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Tidus breathes out a laugh and ducks his head at Rikku's counter. She's always been so supportive to him--always been his biggest cheerleader, always been the most on his wavelength. The people present in this battle he knows to varying degrees of familiarity, but Rikku really is his best friend out of all of them.
    
    But that isn't to disparage or diminish anyone else--not Lulu, not Paine, not Wakka or Fei or Elly or Boudicca or Ethius or even Leon, not *anyone*. (Maybe Auron. But even then only to rib him.) They really have all been amazing friends. He really is glad he met each and every one of them.
    
    So he doesn't have any anger or hatred or resentment to the fayth. Not even as Bahamut rakes him with his wings; not as Bahamut charges up and Valefor swoops down; not as Valefor turns into light to cleave into him, just as she and he and Yuna cleaved into his father; not as their most powerful lights erupt and intertwine and reduce Tidus and much of the strange swordfield to what feels like ash.
    
    Not as Yuna resurrects him and everyone once more.
    
    It is still a strange feeling, though, and Tidus shakes out his blond hair as he sways on his feet, whole once more. That was a hell of an experience, feeling Valefor *pierce* him like she did his father, and it's actually genuinely unnerving.
    
    That isn't why he doesn't face her down, though. He knows that Yuna has a particular bond with Valefor, the girl from Besaid and the first of her Aeons--but for him, it's always been Bahamut. He's known Bahamut since before he even *knew* it was Bahamut. It was Bahamut who told him the truth about Zanarkand, and...
    
    It was Bahamut--the weird, nameless child with the purple hoodie and the golden ring on the back--to whom he made his promise. To help him and all the fayths finally rest.
    
    "So it's finally down to you now, huh," he says, looking at the corrupted Aeon, knowing he can't hear him. "...I sure hope you appreciate this, wherever you are." With one last look sweeping over the battlefield at everyone--at his fellow Guardians, and at Yuna--he steels himself and sweeps Caladbolg to one side, its blue blade shimmering like water, like heaven, like both reflected off the other. Leaning his weight forward, he breaks into a run, then an all-out sprint, before he LEAPS into the air towards the massive black draconic Aeon, swinging the Celestial Weapon up high over his head as he shouts at the top of his lungs.
    
    Speed and agility have always been Tidus's greatest strengths. Here, now, he'll demonstrate that with the sheer number of strokes he gets in on Bahamut as he descends, his muscled arms bunching and flexing as they work double-time, triple-time, quadruple-time.
    
    In echo of the man who took care of him after he lost his parents, Tidus roars, "IT ENDS NOW!!"
    
    Now, at last, he'll fulfill his promise.

GS: Tidus has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Tidus has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Tidus spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Tidus has attacked Lucia with Slice and Dice!
GS: Tidus has launched an attack Link!
GS: Tidus has attacked Lucia with Quick Hit!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia suffers a terrible blow from Tidus's Slice and Dice for 295 hit points!
GS: FP up! Sufferer activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Lucia solidly guards Tidus's Quick Hit for 146 hit points!
GS: Delay applied to Lucia!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive and Sufferer activated!
GS: Lucia has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

TO BE CONCLUDED