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batsutousaiTitle: Fayth
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Final Fantasy X
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batsutousai
Beta:tsuki_no_suzu
Rating: M/R
Pairings: Harry/Tidus
Warnings: OoC, AU (etc, etc, etc....)
Summary: Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, but at a price. When a new evil comes that he cannot defeat alone, he and his friends lock themselves in stone to fight it. One day, thousands of years later, Harry is freed and starts a journey with another young man who is equally lost to finish the job Harry once started.
Disclaim Her: Shara likes to say that Tidus and Yuna's moment in Macalania Woods came practically out of nowhere, and I tend to agree with her, but I got the feeling the entire game that Yuna had some sort of feelings for Tidus, even if they were only because he was cute. (And that's why she has the moment she has in this chapter. ^.^" )
A/N: SO! LEMON BEGINNING OF THIS CHAPTER!! There were a... few complaints about the lemon not being clearly marked a couple chapters ago, but I can't, personally, stand the marks that authors put around lemons for those readers that don't wish to read them, because I feel they block the flow of the story. So I don't do that.
For those few who need it, the lemon starts about three paragraphs after Rikku leaves the boys to go sleep. There's a paragraph just before the scene break which is Yuna's above stated moment, but otherwise you can probably just skip down past the scene break.
And if you didn't read this note and complain about it in a review, I will mock you.
(Why people read slash stories and feel the need to skip the slash, I'll never understand. *shrugs* )
ALSO!! Bloody hell, people. I didn't forget the Magus Sisters, I just decided to get them later. I mean, you can get them the first time you go to the Calm Lands in game, but I never do. I just never feel like back-tracking. (It's almost easier to get them then, anyway, because you can reboard the airship from the temple, rather than taking the chocobo all the way back. And, personally, I hate the chocobo music, so the less time I have to spend on them, the happier I am. XP)
-0-
Zanarkand & Sin
-0-
At the bottom of the mountain, they set up camp, as the sun was soon to fall, and they didn't want to try picking their way through the ruins with only the light of the pyreflies.
While most of the party sat around the fire, Tidus found himself a spot atop a mound of rubble and dirt from which he could stare out over the city that could have been his home. When Harry came up to join him after waving off the concern of the others, Tidus said, "I know it's not my Zanarkand, but it looks so much like it..."
"And Sin attacked before you came here," Harry agreed softly, "so the fate was about the same."
Tidus brought his knees up to his chest and leaned his chin on it. "It's strange, you know? I know this isn't my home, but it hurts, seeing it. Because, even if it isn't my Zanarkand, it is theirs, and they're the one who made mine..." He shook his head. "Does that make any sense?"
"Yes," Harry said with a small smile. "If their Zanarkand hadn't been destroyed, yours wouldn't have been created, and you wouldn't be here. But, even though this isn't where you grew up, it's still home." He glanced over at the teen.
Tidus sighed and nodded. "Are we spending the night here?"
Harry grimaced. "As Auron so cheerfully pointed out, in parts of the ruins, there is no sunlight, but I think everyone could use a good night's sleep, considering we just climbed a bloody mountain." He huffed. "Bloody dead man seems to think we should just keep going. Sometimes, I wonder if he even remembers what it was like to be alive."
Tidus snickered. "You just don't like him because he makes your skin crawl."
"Oiy! You're not fond of him, either!"
Tidus sighed. "He... He helped Jecht bring me here, and then he told me it was all because Jecht wanted me to kill him." He rubbed at his face. "How can he say that, then try and get me to like my old man again? Showing me that sphere, telling me Jecht meant it, when he told me he believed in me? That..."
Harry grabbed Tidus' free hand in his and squeezed it. "He's rather confusing," the summoner commented neutrally.
"He's mad," Tidus replied, squeezing Harry's hand back.
The two sat there for a long time, watching the pyreflies dance over the ruins in front of them, while the party got ready for bed somewhere behind them.
After a while, Rikku climbed the pile of dirt and peered down at the two men. "Hey, the rest of us are off to bed. Think you can handle the watch for a while?"
"Yeah, we'll probably be up for a while yet, anyway," Harry replied.
Rikku nodded. "Okay. Wake Lulu whenever you're ready for bed, then. She agreed to take the next watch."
"Thanks, Rikku," Harry said, smiling up at her. When the girl glanced worriedly over at the silent Tidus, Harry gave a half smile and nodded. Tidus would be fine, eventually.
Once Rikku had left them and gone to bed herself, Tidus finally stirred, standing and hopping down from the hill to pick at things in the ruins. Harry just watched him, occasionally glancing back at the camp to make sure everything was quiet.
"It's so strange," Tidus commented, coming back to the mound Harry sat on, "this place being so quiet. My Zanarkand was always filled with noise, always had lights on, from the signs or the buildings. This place is so..." He picked up a rock in his hand and tossed it, listening to it clatter down the broken path. "So dead."
Harry just nodded.
"Did this... Was the real Zanarkand always lit up, like mine was?"
Harry considered the question, then nodded slowly. "Almost always. There were a couple hours, just before dawn, when most of the lights were out and the city slept. It was quiet then, almost like this, but then the sun would rise and people would start moving around again, heading to work or school... I believe it was in those hours of quiet that Sin came and destroyed the city. He crept up in the dark outside the city lights, then rose up over it once the lights went out."
Tidus nodded and turned back around to look at the city, the two falling silent and just watching.
Eventually, the teen turned around and held his arms up to Harry, silently requesting for something solid to hold. With one last glance back at the sleeping camp, Harry slipped down into the arms and kissed back when a mouth crushed against his. Tidus pressed him against the mound of dirt, rubbing their crotches together, and Harry wrapped his legs around the teen's waist, threading his fingers into Tidus' hair.
Tidus gasped quietly into Harry's mouth when he came, and the summoner trailed kisses from his mouth down his throat while Tidus caught his breath.
"You haven't..." Tidus breathed, hand trying to find a way through Harry's robes.
Harry shook his head. "I'll be fi–" He gasped as Tidus found his cock and stroked it. "Dammit."
Tidus smiled faintly at him. "You're never fine," he told his summoner, kissing Harry's throat.
Harry groaned and dropped his head against Tidus' shoulder. "Bastard."
Tidus chuckled, then let go of Harry's cock. "Will you come in me?" he half-pleaded. When Harry looked at him with a curious frown, the teen muttered, "I want to know..." He shook his head and motioned over his shoulder at the ruins.
Harry nodded in understanding. "You're real, Tidus," he whispered into the teen's ear as Tidus laid them down on the ground, uncaring that little rocks dug into his back. "You're real to me," Harry added, pulling his robes off as Tidus undid his suspenders.
Tidus grumbled a bit at the mess inside his pants, but Harry just chuckled and used a spell to get rid of it, then, with a mischievous twinkle, cast the same spell he'd used two nights ago, but this time it was Tidus who hissed at the sudden cold in his arse. The teen grumbled briefly before Harry kissed him, sliding two slim fingers into the teen's hole.
Tidus groaned at the intrusion in the beginning, but was shortly moving against the fingers in his arse, eyes closed so he could feel everything. He groaned again when the fingers that had been moving within him left, then tensed when something much bigger started to take their place.
Harry rubbed his hands over the tense abs. "Let go," he ordered. "Relax and trust me."
Tidus nodded and relaxed as much as he could. Harry slid into him slowly, stopping to rub Tidus' stomach every time the teen tensed again.
"You didn't tense," Tidus groaned once Harry was fully inside of him.
"Mmm... One of my dormmates in school was gay and liked to regale us with his various conquests, possibly because it made Ron cringe." Harry smiled down at him. "One thing Seamus liked to stress was to relax, because it hurts a lot more when you do."
"Could have told me," Tidus complained.
Harry nodded. "But the pain means you're here," he replied to the startled teen, then started moving out of Tidus' behind.
Tidus hissed when Harry pushed back in again, but it didn't hurt as much as when he'd first entered, and Tidus felt himself relaxing even more, reaching up to kiss Harry. The position was awkward, since Harry was shorter, but they managed and shared a long kiss as Harry kept up a steady pace of thrusts.
Harry silently tried to angle for that spot Seamus had mentioned once and grinned against Tidus' lips when the teen cried into his mouth, eyes rolling backwards into his head. Gleefully, Harry did it again, and got blunt fingernails dragged down his back for the effort.
It didn't take long for Tidus to come a second time, and Harry came shortly after him, resting his head against the other's heaving chest.
"Okay?" Harry whispered.
"Wonderful," Tidus replied, wrapping his arms around Harry. "Even better if I could get a potion and not have rocks digging into my back."
Harry snorted. "Wimp."
"But you love me," Tidus said, mostly teasing, but with a hint of question.
"Of course I do," Harry replied looking up so he could meet the blond's eyes. "And I wouldn't know what I'd do without you."
Tidus' reply smile was worth the extra effort, and Harry rested his head back on the other's chest. "We should wake Lulu and sleep."
"I'm fine right here," Tidus muttered, tightening his arms around Harry.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Who was just complaining about the rocks?"
"What rocks?" Tidus asked, eyes wide and innocent.
Harry rolled his eyes again. "Do you want to chance Auron finding us here?"
Tidus made a quiet gagging noise, then slowly sat up, bringing Harry up with him so the summoner half sat in his lap. "Yeah, yeah. We can wake Lulu."
Harry kissed the corner of the teen's mouth, then stood, scooping up his robes.
Tidus looked down at the mess on his stomach and commented, "We seem to be missing a helpful pool this time."
Harry glanced back at him and snickered, then picked up his staff and used it to clean them off, wincing at the feeling. "That spell," he informed his younger partner, "wasn't actually meant to clean off humans, but it's the only charm I know of that can without taking off your skin, too."
Tidus scratched the itchy spot the spell left on his stomach. "Right. Mental note, keep a pool around for cleaning off."
Harry laughed and walked over to kiss Tidus again. When the teen rose an eyebrow at him, Harry shrugged and said, "I like kissing you. Shut up."
But Tidus just smiled and kissed him back briefly before putting his shorts back on.
The two walked together over to where Lulu was sleeping and woke her before climbing into their own beds.
A few feet away, Yuna rubbed tiredly at dry eyes and leaned back against the dirt mound the two males had been sitting on originally. A part of her cried for the blond boy who she'd been crushing on since she first saw him in Besaid, but, at the same time, another part danced, because that boy was happy. And Yuna, being the sort of person she was and liking Harry as a friend, decided to just be happy for the two, and ignore that spark of jealousy.
-0-0-0-
The party set out as the sun glowed orange over the water surrounding the ruins, climbing together over precarious pieces of rubble.
They reached the stadium before noon, and Tidus took a moment to look at the building sadly, then they continued to the doorway, where a man awaited them. "Journeyers of the long road, name yourselves," the spectre asked, looking between Yuna and Harry, who led the party at Auron's insistence.
"I am the summoner Yuna," Yuna said, "from the island of Besaid."
"I am the summoner Harry Potter," Harry said, "from Hogwarts School."
The spectre looked surprised at Harry's stated place of origin, but looked them both over, then nodded. "Your eyes show the long roads you have journeyed, some together, some alone," he said, glancing at Harry for the last part. "You have journeyed well. Lady Yunalesca will surely welcome your arrival. Go to her now, and bring your guardians with you."
The party moved past the spectre and into the stadium. Within, pyreflies formed those who had come before them. Lulu and Wakka exclaimed over the guardian of Lady Yocun, while Harry and his two guardians stopped to watch the scene between a young Seymour and his mother, Jessica.
Eventually, they came across the ghostly forms of Auron, Jecht and Braska, making their own way to the resting place of the supposed Final Aeon. The party followed the ghosts, occasionally looking over at Auron or Yuna or Tidus, as if to check on how they were reacting to this moment of the past. For their parts, Auron's face stayed mostly hidden behind his glasses and the neck of his coat, while Yuna wore a slightly sad frown and Tidus scowled.
They worked through the Trials together, then destroyed the Spectral Keeper over the lift down.
They got to the bottom of the lift and wandered in to where the Final Aeon was supposed to have rested, and everyone stared in shock at the cracked crystal.
"Zaon," Harry murmured just as a ghostly form appeared in the room to explain who the Final Aeon had been, and that Lady Yunalesca could show them how the create a new one. Then, the ghost disappeared and a door appeared at the back of the room.
"Let's go," Yuna said softly, and the group went through to a high-ceilinged room with a grand staircase leading up to another door. Through that door, a beautiful woman with long silver hair walked, smiling at them all. "Lady Yunalesca," Yuna murmured.
"Welcome to Zanarkand," Yunalesca said. "I congratulate you, summoner, for you have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow upon you that which you seek. The Final Summoning...will be yours. Now, choose the one whom I will change...to become the fayth for the Final Summoning. There must be a bond, between chosen and summoner, for that is what the Final Aeon embodies: the bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends. If that bond is strong enough, its light will conquer Sin." She smiled almost bitterly. "A thousand years ago, I chose my husband Zaon as my fayth–"
"You mean you murdered him," Harry said, stepping forward.
Yunalesca looked at him curiously. "He sacrificed himself willingly to destroy Sin."
"That's not how he told it," Harry replied, eyeing the unsent woman in front of him. "Before you used him against Sin, he had time to tell the fayth the true story, of how you arrived here, expecting to find that same all powerful aeon that was here before Sin destroyed Zanarkand, but it was gone. In your fury, you used Zaon to make a new aeon, hoping your need would make him strong enough to destroy Sin and free what was left of your people. But it wasn't.
"And now Zanarkand, and those few who escaped Bevelle's purging in the years after, are gone. All that's left are the children of the people who brought you so much pain. How horrible it must have been, to see your own home destroyed before your eyes," Harry commented with feeling. "I'm sure, at the beginning, your reasons for staying behind to help the summoners were pure, but they're not any more, are they? Your people are gone, and you probably revel in the knowledge that the same man that once destroyed your world is now destroying theirs."
Yunalesca stared down at the short young man there and slowly smiled. "Death's Flame," she murmured, and Harry flinched at the title his aeon had been given during the wars. "You are a fayth, one of the Old Ones. You gave your strength to those of Zanarkand, you helped kill many people, granted it to many summoners in later years against Sin, and you dare to mock me now?"
Harry closed his eyes. "I fought to end the wars, and that was why Phoenix was granted to your summoners. The lives ended in that conflict were not by my hand. I granted my strength to those seeking to destroy Sin for the same reason, the simple hope that they might be the ones to destroy Sin. But you!" Harry looked up at the woman, anger in his eyes. "You have them sacrifice their friends, their family, only to continue the cycle! You know there's no hope, and yet you tell them to do it century after century!"
"I release them from their pain," Yunalesca whispered, eyes bright with madness. "I free them from the bonds of mortality, the pain of losing their loved ones. Once they die, once they become Sin, they feel no pain. It is kindness I grant!"
"Kindness," Harry whispered. "That is no kindness, Yunalesca, that is madness. And a cruelty to those left behind. You live a peaceful life, up here, beyond Mt. Gagazet. You never have the loved ones of those dead summoners or the missing guardians seeking you out. You never hear them crying for all they have lost, praying to statues that those souls have found peace."
"Then kill those, too, and release them from their pain."
"I would rather die than kill those left behind," Harry hissed.
"Then so be it, Death's Flame. Today, you will die." And then she shot a Death spell at Harry.
Harry felt a body knock into him and realised that Tidus was lying on top of him, looking down on him with worry in his eyes. Harry nodded shortly and his guardian helped him to his feet. Standing between them and Yunalesca was the entire party, even Wakka.
"I cried for my father," Yuna said quietly as the party readied their weapons. "I understood why he'd died, and who had killed him. That knowledge gave me the drive I needed to become a summoner, even knowing it meant my own death. It hurts, the feeling of being left behind, but it is also the wonder of being alive. And while I would give anything to keep others from feeling that same pain, I don't believe killing them is the way to do it!"
Auron led the rush up the stairs, his blade cocked and ready. Next to him, a ghostly image of a younger Auron made the same motions, but when the younger Auron got blasted back, the unsent dove to one side and took a slash at Yunalesca from that position.
Harry and Lulu grimly readied their best spells and threw them at the dead woman at the same time as Wakka's ball, which picked up the Firaga and Flare spells and impacted with Yunalesca for an impressive show of fireworks.
They managed to kill her without too much trouble, but she didn't quite die, just reformed, and hit them all with an attack that turned them into zombies.
"Oh, brilliant," Harry muttered, shooting another over-powered Firaga spell at her.
"Yuna!" Lulu shouted, "Use Holy!"
Yuna's eyes lit up and she quickly chanted her spell, killing the woman in one hit.
"Wait," Harry ordered Rikku as the girl made to use a Holy Water on him.
Yunalesca took a new form and gleefully cast a blanket Death spell, which took out Rikku and Yuna, both of whom had already cured themselves of their zombie status.
Harry grabbed a Phoenix Down out of his belt pouch and tossed it at Rikku while, on the other side of the field, Wakka did the same for Yuna. With the two healers back on their feet, they returned to attacking with a vengeance. Yuna managed another Holy spell before she and Rikku were down again with another Death spell, but it was enough, and the rest of the party finished Yunalesca off.
They took a moment to heal themselves before Harry and Yuna walked over to where Yunalesca lay, slowly evaporating.
"Even though you used him against his will," Harry murmured, "Zaon still loved you. I'm sure he's still waiting for you on the Farplane. He might have explored a bit by now; you'll have to forgive him."
Yunalesca smiled bitterly. "My wonderful Zaon..." she whispered.
"Be at peace, now," Yuna said.
The bitter, long dead summoner finally faded from sight, leaving the hall echoing with only the soft talk of their party as a few last minute potions and ethers were passed out.
"Now what?" Yuna asked Harry.
Harry glanced up at the half-destroyed light above them. "I don't know," he murmured. "We have to find a way to destroy Sin, but I..."
"Sin... He eats aeons, right?" Yuna said thoughtfully.
Harry nodded. "I suppose that's one way to say it, yes."
Yuna nodded. "What if... Instead of letting him eat the aeon and leaving, we killed that aeon and let him have another, which we killed, until there were none left?"
Harry turned to stare at the girl, eyes wide. "Kill... the aeons?"
"Yeah. Let Sin take them, then kill them."
Harry rubbed his face with one hand, feeling the party gather around them. Yuna explained her idea to everyone once they'd gathered.
"What would happen to Yevon once there were no more aeons to inhabit?" Rikku asked, startling the rest of the party, who hadn't yet been told about Yevon being a part of Sin.
"That's a very good question," Harry mumbled, still rubbing at his face. "And one I don't have an answer to. I would assume that he would have a physical form that we could attack then, and that would finish him."
"What does Yevon have to do with this?" Wakka demanded.
Harry looked tiredly up at the blitzballer. "Yu Yevon was the leader of an anti-machina sect during the Machina Wars, and his solution to end the Wars was to create a near indestructible armour, with which he would be able to completely destroy Zanarkand. The armour was named Sin, in a reference to what he and his followers believed to be the 'sin of mankind', meaning machina. Yevon stayed inside the armour and continued to use it to quell machina uprisings for the years following the Wars.
"Eventually, he realised the wonder of being able to live forever in his creation and never came out. Now, I believe, he uses the life energy of the Final Aeons to keep going. It takes him time to fully assimilate the new aeon, which is the time period you call the Calm."
"So, while we relax and party, that guardian that sacrificed themselves becomes Sin?" Wakka asked, horrified.
Harry shrugged. "In a nutshell, yes."
Wakka fell heavily into a sitting position, shaking his head.
"But it could work, right?" Yuna asked hopefully. "Letting him use each aeon until we've killed it, until there aren't any left."
Harry nodded slowly. "The idea has merit," he admitted. "But we'll have to collect any other aeons that are in Spira first, or this won't work."
"How many more are there?" Tidus asked.
Harry held up a hand and closed his eyes, searching out his link to the fayth. 'Hey! How many other fayth are there that can grant aeons?'
'Four,' Neville offered. 'The Magus Sisters lay in Remiem Temple, just off the Calm Lands. Jessica's crystal lays in a building known as Baaj Temple. It's...'
'Neville?' Harry called, frowning.
'It's in Hogwarts,' Luna offered airily. 'There's a door underwater.'
Harry nodded, then opened his eyes. "There are four aeons left," he said to the watching circle. "The three Magus Sisters in Remiem Temple, and Seymour's mother in Hogwarts."
"There was a fayth in those ruins?" Tidus asked.
Harry grimaced. "Evidently so. Luna says the door is underwater."
Yuna nodded. "Okay. So, that's two places to go, and two summoners."
"Divide and conquer?" Harry asked with a thin smile.
"Yes."
"Rikku, how hard would it be to get a boat out here?" Harry asked the Al Bhed.
Rikku cocked her head to one side, then pulled something out of her belt pouch, which she then switched on. "Rikku reporting in! We're a bit land locked and are wondering if someone could take us to some ruins?" she asked. From the ground, Wakka groaned and hid his face in his hands, but didn't say anything. Everyone else looked somewhat confused, while Harry and Tidus watched the girl in silence.
Static was all they heard for a long moment, then, "Brother here, Rikku. We have a few boats out that we could send your way, as well as the airship, which Father got working. Where are you?"
Rikku danced a bit. "We're in Zanarkand right now."
"I thought you were keeping the summoners from going there!"
Rikku frowned at Harry who rolled his eyes and motioned for the communicator, which the girl handed him warily. "We said we'd keep anyone from calling the Final Aeon and sacrificing themselves to Sin, not that we wouldn't go to Zanarkand."
"Where's Rikku!"
"I'm right here, stupid!"
Harry rubbed at the bridge of his nose, then said, "No one will be calling the Final Aeon again, we've seen to that. Now, would you please send a boat or something our way? We've got two aeons to get before we can destroy Sin."
There was a long silence from the device, during which Harry handed it back to Rikku and Tidus explained everything that had just been discussed to the rest of the party. There were some amazed exclamations about the airship, making Harry comment, "I'm surprised they got the bloody thing working again, personally." Rikku and Tidus both snickered at that, leaving Harry to explain the story behind the comment to the party.
Finally, the communicator crackled back to life and Brother said, "We're bringing the airship to get you now. Which building are you in?"
Rikku looked to the two party members who actually knew what the original Zanarkand had looked like – and understood what her brother had said. "The blitzball stadium," Tidus said tightly.
"We'll meet you outside it in about an hour. Brother out!"
"We're meeting the airship outside in about an hour," Rikku explained to the party, so they all gathered their things and made their way back outside.
There, Sin sat, staring calmly at them as they walked out. Almost the entire party went for their weapons, but Tidus just walked towards Sin and called, "We've destroyed the Final Aeon! We're finding another way!"
Sin groaned and turned away, slowly returning to the water.
"Sir Jecht, right?" Yuna asked nervously as Tidus walked back over to the party sadly.
Tidus just nodded and found a piece of rubble to sit on. Harry and Rikku sat with him while the rest of the party found their own seats and they sat in silence for the airship.
-0-0-0-
On the airship, Rikku quickly explained everything to Cid, her father, while the rest of the party got showed to rooms they could rest in. Cid agreed to take Yuna's party to Remiem Temple and Harry's party to the Hogwarts ruins, then come back for both parties when they gave him the call. But they would only drop the summoners off after everyone got some sleep.
After everyone had napped, Cid flew them over the Calm Lands and dropped off Yuna's party with Auron, as Tidus had told him Yuna's party would likely need him more than Tidus, Harry and Rikku.
Cid dropped the last three off at the ruins of Hogwarts, then flew off, leaving the three friends to pick their way back to the bridge that had fallen.
"It's funny," Tidus commented as they walked. "When I first came here, I didn't know anything, but now I feel like I know practically everything."
"Except how to defeat Sin," Harry said.
"No, we know that, we just don't know for sure that it will work, or how we're supposed to get inside him to do it," Tidus replied.
"I suppose we could just ask him to swallow us," Rikku suggested drily.
Tidus spun to look at Rikku, eyes wide. "Rikku, you're brilliant!"
"Now he's picking up my sayings," Harry muttered.
"How am I brilliant?"
"Yevon is inside Sin, right?" Tidus asked, turning to Harry, who nodded. "So we need to get inside him to fight Yevon. Why not just get swallowed?"
"Sin doesn't generally swallow things," Harry commented drily.
"What if we shot at it a few times with some forbidden machina?" Rikku asked, warming to the idea. "Like Tidus said, it's gotta be forbidden for a reason, right? Maybe Yevon's afraid it'll actually defeat his monster?"
Harry considered the suggestion. "The idea has merit," he agreed. "Machina has some powers that your average spells don't, and that's part of why they were so devastating in the Wars."
"And here," Tidus murmured, looking over the ruins.
Harry smiled sadly. "Yes, here too. But, I don't know how we'd get a clear shot at Sin. He'll be expecting an attack from us."
"The airship?" Rikku suggested.
"Would your dad be okay with endangering his prize like that?" Tidus replied.
Rikku grinned. "For a chance to get rid of Sin? Hell yes!"
Harry nodded. "We'll suggest it when we get back. For now, let's see about getting Jessica."
The group jumped down off the ruined bridge and into the water. There, they met up with the same water monster Harry and Tidus had run from the first time, but they were easily able to dispatch it with three fighters. After the fiend was gone, they found the underwater door and swam through to a bubble of air and a hallway. They walked up to the door of the fayth and walked in.
Jessica was already standing above her crystal when the three walked in and she smiled at them. "Welcome, Harry, Tidus, and Rikku."
"Jessica," Harry replied, inclining his head, which the two guardians mirrored.
"You have come for Anima," the woman said. "You will defeat Sin?"
"We fully intend to," Harry agreed.
Jessica glanced towards Tidus, then looked back at Harry. "This battle will end our dream."
Harry nodded. "I'm prepared to take it over."
Jessica cocked her head at him and nodded. "Perhaps you won't have to," she said, then left them, her aeon's ghostly form entering Harry.
Rikku and Tidus were both there to catch Harry when he fell to his knees, holding his head as if in pain. "The pain..." he whispered.
Rikku and Tidus traded worried looks, then Rikku said, "Kiss him."
Tidus' eyes widened in surprise, but he leaned over anyway and firmly kissed Harry.
The summoner gasped and opened his eyes, looking painfully up at the two guardians. "The–"
Tidus leaned in and kissed him again, since it had seemed to help.
Shortly, Harry relaxed in Tidus' arms, and when the guardian pulled away, he found that Harry was sleeping. He and Rikku traded amused looks, then stood and worked together to get their summoner out of the ruins and back onto the airship, where they left him in the room he'd been given.
"How'd you know?" Tidus asked Rikku as they stood in the upper room of the airship, looking out the windows.
"About you and Harry?" Rikku clarified. When Tidus nodded, she rolled her eyes and said, "Tidus, you gave him your necklace. You never take that necklace off, not even for games when the opposing team could use it to choke you."
Tidus shrugged. "Maybe I was hoping it had some sort of magical protections?" he suggested.
Rikku rolled her eyes again. "And you two have been making eyes at each other from day one."
"We have not!"
"Okay, Tidus, how common is it for two guys to spend their free time worrying about another guy they just met? Because after Sin spirited you away from the ship, you were all Harry really talked about, and from what Yuna and Wakka have said, Harry was all you could talk about."
Tidus grimaced and rubbed at the back of his head. "Were we really so transparent?"
Rikku sighed. "Well, it wasn't until after you gave him your necklace that I really figured it out." She shrugged. "And Yuna saw you two, outside Zanarkand." She looked over at Tidus, who seemed torn between being embarrassed and horrified. "She was a little upset, but she's okay."
"Wait, upset?" Tidus asked.
Rikku knocked her head against the glass. "Men," she moaned in Al Bhed, making Tidus snicker. "She's been crushing on you since Besaid. Don't tell me you never noticed!"
Tidus rubbed the back of his head again. "Uhm, no."
Rikku sighed helplessly. "Somehow, I'm not surprised." She shook her head, then turned to glare at Tidus. "Don't tell her I told you any of that."
Tidus rose his hands in surrender. "My lips are sealed!"
"You'd better hope so!"
The two shared grins, then turned back to look out the window.
After a while, Rikku asked, "What did Jessica mean, the 'dream of the fayth'? And why would Harry be willing to take on that dream?"
Tidus sighed and sat on the ground, back against the glass, to look up at the Al Bhed. "You remember that wall of fayth we saw on Mt. Gagazet?"
"Yeah. Really creepy."
Tidus nodded. "They were the people of Zanarkand, before Sin. They became fayth so they could dream of their home, their Zanarkand, just in case Bevelle succeeded. They didn't want their great city to be destroyed."
"Oh..." Rikku said, lowering herself to sit next to her fellow guardian. "But, what about you? If he dreams, he'll be a fayth again, right?"
Tidus smiled bitterly. "I'm part of the dream," he said.
Rikku covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide in horror.
Tidus looked back out the window. "If this succeeds," he whispered, "Harry intends to become a fayth again and dream about me. So I can exist."
Rikku leaned forward and she hugged her friend, body shaking with quiet sobs.
Tidus wrapped his arms around her and just stared out at the clouds, not knowing what he could say.
-0-0-0-
Once Yuna's party had returned and everyone had rested again, they sat down around a table with Cid and discussed Rikku and Tidus' idea about attacking Sin with the airship. Cid, of course, thought it was a wonderful idea, so they quickly put their plan into effect.
It was hard going, but Harry and Yuna summoned Phoenix and Valefor to distract Sin while they used the airship's gun to severely wound it. Eventually, the gun went out, and all they were left with was the party atop the deck, who happily attacked what they could reach of Sin with a vengeance. When Sin finally started to fail, the monster opened its mouth and used a Gravity spell to draw the airship inside.
Once inside Sin, they left the airship to make repairs and went to find Jecht and Yevon. They found Jecht first.
"You're late, Auron."
"I know."
Jecht turned to the rest of the party and quickly spotted Tidus. "Hey."
Tidus narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest in response.
Jecht sort of laughed. "You here to finish me for good, then?"
"We must," Yuna said, staff held in front of herself in preparation for the battle ahead.
Jecht nodded. "Okay then. And, I warn you now, once this starts, I won't be myself any more. I won't be able to hold back against you."
"You won't beat us," Tidus said sharply.
Jecht laughed again and stumbled off the platform he'd been standing on, transforming into his aeon self.
The party attacked him with determination, though Tidus seemed to be the most determined of them all.
Once they'd defeated, Jecht returned to his human form and Tidus hurried to his side, not sure if he wanted to cry or punch the man.
"You'll cry. You're gonna cry. You always cry. See? You're cryin'," Jecht said, looking up into blue eyes with a sad smile.
"I hate you," Tidus whispered.
"Save it for later," Jecht ordered him.
"Right... we've got a job to do."
"Good. That's right. You are my son, after all."
Tidus smiled at him and stood. He almost lost his balance, but Harry was behind him, waiting, and caught him. Jecht glanced up at the summoner and, for a moment, he seemed to truly smile, then he faded away into pyreflies as a black mass came flying at them.
"Yu Yevon," Harry hissed, glaring at the ball.
And then, they were fighting. Harry and Yuna summoned their aeons, both with tears rolling down their cheeks as they watched the beings that had been with them for so long be destroyed by their friends. For Harry, it was almost impossible for him to watch Valefor, Ixion and Shiva be killed, but he made himself, because he wanted to remember them.
Then, only one aeon remained. Harry stepped forward and called his own aeon, Phoenix.
As soon as Phoenix was taken over by Yevon, Harry choked and fell to his knees, grasping at the robes over his heart. Yuna knelt next to him and grabbed his shoulders. "Harry!"
The ex-fayth gasped painfully and reached out with his free hand to grab at Yuna's shoulder, staring over her shoulder at where the creature that was, technically, his soul had been taken over by a being that meant only harm. "Oh, Merlin..." he managed.
As soon as Phoenix was defeated, Harry slumped against Yuna, breathing hard. "That hurt..." he whispered.
Yuna wrapped her arms around the other summoner and held him tightly.
They heard a sudden phoenix cry and Phoenix reappeared, alive again, only to be, again, taken over by Yevon.
"Why is it back?!" Wakka demanded, looking angrily over at where Harry and Yuna knelt. His anger cooled some when he saw how much pain Harry was in, but that still didn't answer his question.
Harry looked tiredly up at the great bird, crying. "No..."
"Harry?" Yuna whispered.
"He's..." Harry shook his head. "He's gone. I can't..." He closed his eyes and clutched the area over his heart angrily. "He's not inside me any more. He's not my aeon."
Yuna gasped in understanding and hugged Harry all the tighter. "What does that...?"
Harry let out a half sob. "The fayth aren't going to survive this battle," he said as the truth occurred to him, "and I'm a fayth, still. But I'm not, not any more, because I no longer have an aeon. I'm not–" He choked.
"Oh, Harry..."
Behind them, the rest of the party grimly faced down the ball that was Yevon, all of them occasionally looking over at where Yuna and Harry were huddled, needing to go and check on their summoners.
Finally, the battle was won, and the guardians ran over to the two summoners. Tidus reached them first and fell to his knees next to them, eyes wide with worry. Yuna wordlessly transferred Harry to the blond and waved off everyone's concern for her, far more worried about Harry.
"Harry," Tidus whispered to his crying summoner. "Harry, please, what's wrong?"
But Harry couldn't do more than shake his head.
Tidus looked to Yuna for his answers, and the girl said, "He's not a fayth any more. Phoenix came back to cut their ties."
The party let out various sounds of shock, but both Rikku and Tidus leaned over the older summoner, gently trying to calm him, both wondering if Harry would be able to dream Tidus back into existence if he wasn't a fayth.
"Harry," Rikku pleaded. "What about Tidus? Harry..."
But Harry only cried harder and clung to Tidus.
Tidus and Rikku both swallowed and looked at each other in understanding.
Tidus' time was at an end.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: Hmmm... Bit of a cliffie, I suppose. *mad cackle* Don't you hate me?
One last chapter left. I like to call it the... Epilogue! Dun-dun-dun!
Cheers~!
~Bats ^.^x
Chapters:
1 - The Beginning ||| 2 - Ruins ||| 3 - Besaid & Kilika
4 - Luca ||| 5 - Operation Mi'ihen ||| 6 - Guadosalam
7 - Macalania & Bevelle ||| 8 - Calm Lands & Mt. Gagazet |||9 - Zanarkand & Sin
10 - Epilogue
..
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Final Fantasy X
Author:
batsutousaiBeta:
tsuki_no_suzuRating: M/R
Pairings: Harry/Tidus
Warnings: OoC, AU (etc, etc, etc....)
Summary: Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, but at a price. When a new evil comes that he cannot defeat alone, he and his friends lock themselves in stone to fight it. One day, thousands of years later, Harry is freed and starts a journey with another young man who is equally lost to finish the job Harry once started.
Disclaim Her: Shara likes to say that Tidus and Yuna's moment in Macalania Woods came practically out of nowhere, and I tend to agree with her, but I got the feeling the entire game that Yuna had some sort of feelings for Tidus, even if they were only because he was cute. (And that's why she has the moment she has in this chapter. ^.^" )
A/N: SO! LEMON BEGINNING OF THIS CHAPTER!! There were a... few complaints about the lemon not being clearly marked a couple chapters ago, but I can't, personally, stand the marks that authors put around lemons for those readers that don't wish to read them, because I feel they block the flow of the story. So I don't do that.
For those few who need it, the lemon starts about three paragraphs after Rikku leaves the boys to go sleep. There's a paragraph just before the scene break which is Yuna's above stated moment, but otherwise you can probably just skip down past the scene break.
And if you didn't read this note and complain about it in a review, I will mock you.
(Why people read slash stories and feel the need to skip the slash, I'll never understand. *shrugs* )
ALSO!! Bloody hell, people. I didn't forget the Magus Sisters, I just decided to get them later. I mean, you can get them the first time you go to the Calm Lands in game, but I never do. I just never feel like back-tracking. (It's almost easier to get them then, anyway, because you can reboard the airship from the temple, rather than taking the chocobo all the way back. And, personally, I hate the chocobo music, so the less time I have to spend on them, the happier I am. XP)
Zanarkand & Sin
-0-
At the bottom of the mountain, they set up camp, as the sun was soon to fall, and they didn't want to try picking their way through the ruins with only the light of the pyreflies.
While most of the party sat around the fire, Tidus found himself a spot atop a mound of rubble and dirt from which he could stare out over the city that could have been his home. When Harry came up to join him after waving off the concern of the others, Tidus said, "I know it's not my Zanarkand, but it looks so much like it..."
"And Sin attacked before you came here," Harry agreed softly, "so the fate was about the same."
Tidus brought his knees up to his chest and leaned his chin on it. "It's strange, you know? I know this isn't my home, but it hurts, seeing it. Because, even if it isn't my Zanarkand, it is theirs, and they're the one who made mine..." He shook his head. "Does that make any sense?"
"Yes," Harry said with a small smile. "If their Zanarkand hadn't been destroyed, yours wouldn't have been created, and you wouldn't be here. But, even though this isn't where you grew up, it's still home." He glanced over at the teen.
Tidus sighed and nodded. "Are we spending the night here?"
Harry grimaced. "As Auron so cheerfully pointed out, in parts of the ruins, there is no sunlight, but I think everyone could use a good night's sleep, considering we just climbed a bloody mountain." He huffed. "Bloody dead man seems to think we should just keep going. Sometimes, I wonder if he even remembers what it was like to be alive."
Tidus snickered. "You just don't like him because he makes your skin crawl."
"Oiy! You're not fond of him, either!"
Tidus sighed. "He... He helped Jecht bring me here, and then he told me it was all because Jecht wanted me to kill him." He rubbed at his face. "How can he say that, then try and get me to like my old man again? Showing me that sphere, telling me Jecht meant it, when he told me he believed in me? That..."
Harry grabbed Tidus' free hand in his and squeezed it. "He's rather confusing," the summoner commented neutrally.
"He's mad," Tidus replied, squeezing Harry's hand back.
The two sat there for a long time, watching the pyreflies dance over the ruins in front of them, while the party got ready for bed somewhere behind them.
After a while, Rikku climbed the pile of dirt and peered down at the two men. "Hey, the rest of us are off to bed. Think you can handle the watch for a while?"
"Yeah, we'll probably be up for a while yet, anyway," Harry replied.
Rikku nodded. "Okay. Wake Lulu whenever you're ready for bed, then. She agreed to take the next watch."
"Thanks, Rikku," Harry said, smiling up at her. When the girl glanced worriedly over at the silent Tidus, Harry gave a half smile and nodded. Tidus would be fine, eventually.
Once Rikku had left them and gone to bed herself, Tidus finally stirred, standing and hopping down from the hill to pick at things in the ruins. Harry just watched him, occasionally glancing back at the camp to make sure everything was quiet.
"It's so strange," Tidus commented, coming back to the mound Harry sat on, "this place being so quiet. My Zanarkand was always filled with noise, always had lights on, from the signs or the buildings. This place is so..." He picked up a rock in his hand and tossed it, listening to it clatter down the broken path. "So dead."
Harry just nodded.
"Did this... Was the real Zanarkand always lit up, like mine was?"
Harry considered the question, then nodded slowly. "Almost always. There were a couple hours, just before dawn, when most of the lights were out and the city slept. It was quiet then, almost like this, but then the sun would rise and people would start moving around again, heading to work or school... I believe it was in those hours of quiet that Sin came and destroyed the city. He crept up in the dark outside the city lights, then rose up over it once the lights went out."
Tidus nodded and turned back around to look at the city, the two falling silent and just watching.
Eventually, the teen turned around and held his arms up to Harry, silently requesting for something solid to hold. With one last glance back at the sleeping camp, Harry slipped down into the arms and kissed back when a mouth crushed against his. Tidus pressed him against the mound of dirt, rubbing their crotches together, and Harry wrapped his legs around the teen's waist, threading his fingers into Tidus' hair.
Tidus gasped quietly into Harry's mouth when he came, and the summoner trailed kisses from his mouth down his throat while Tidus caught his breath.
"You haven't..." Tidus breathed, hand trying to find a way through Harry's robes.
Harry shook his head. "I'll be fi–" He gasped as Tidus found his cock and stroked it. "Dammit."
Tidus smiled faintly at him. "You're never fine," he told his summoner, kissing Harry's throat.
Harry groaned and dropped his head against Tidus' shoulder. "Bastard."
Tidus chuckled, then let go of Harry's cock. "Will you come in me?" he half-pleaded. When Harry looked at him with a curious frown, the teen muttered, "I want to know..." He shook his head and motioned over his shoulder at the ruins.
Harry nodded in understanding. "You're real, Tidus," he whispered into the teen's ear as Tidus laid them down on the ground, uncaring that little rocks dug into his back. "You're real to me," Harry added, pulling his robes off as Tidus undid his suspenders.
Tidus grumbled a bit at the mess inside his pants, but Harry just chuckled and used a spell to get rid of it, then, with a mischievous twinkle, cast the same spell he'd used two nights ago, but this time it was Tidus who hissed at the sudden cold in his arse. The teen grumbled briefly before Harry kissed him, sliding two slim fingers into the teen's hole.
Tidus groaned at the intrusion in the beginning, but was shortly moving against the fingers in his arse, eyes closed so he could feel everything. He groaned again when the fingers that had been moving within him left, then tensed when something much bigger started to take their place.
Harry rubbed his hands over the tense abs. "Let go," he ordered. "Relax and trust me."
Tidus nodded and relaxed as much as he could. Harry slid into him slowly, stopping to rub Tidus' stomach every time the teen tensed again.
"You didn't tense," Tidus groaned once Harry was fully inside of him.
"Mmm... One of my dormmates in school was gay and liked to regale us with his various conquests, possibly because it made Ron cringe." Harry smiled down at him. "One thing Seamus liked to stress was to relax, because it hurts a lot more when you do."
"Could have told me," Tidus complained.
Harry nodded. "But the pain means you're here," he replied to the startled teen, then started moving out of Tidus' behind.
Tidus hissed when Harry pushed back in again, but it didn't hurt as much as when he'd first entered, and Tidus felt himself relaxing even more, reaching up to kiss Harry. The position was awkward, since Harry was shorter, but they managed and shared a long kiss as Harry kept up a steady pace of thrusts.
Harry silently tried to angle for that spot Seamus had mentioned once and grinned against Tidus' lips when the teen cried into his mouth, eyes rolling backwards into his head. Gleefully, Harry did it again, and got blunt fingernails dragged down his back for the effort.
It didn't take long for Tidus to come a second time, and Harry came shortly after him, resting his head against the other's heaving chest.
"Okay?" Harry whispered.
"Wonderful," Tidus replied, wrapping his arms around Harry. "Even better if I could get a potion and not have rocks digging into my back."
Harry snorted. "Wimp."
"But you love me," Tidus said, mostly teasing, but with a hint of question.
"Of course I do," Harry replied looking up so he could meet the blond's eyes. "And I wouldn't know what I'd do without you."
Tidus' reply smile was worth the extra effort, and Harry rested his head back on the other's chest. "We should wake Lulu and sleep."
"I'm fine right here," Tidus muttered, tightening his arms around Harry.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Who was just complaining about the rocks?"
"What rocks?" Tidus asked, eyes wide and innocent.
Harry rolled his eyes again. "Do you want to chance Auron finding us here?"
Tidus made a quiet gagging noise, then slowly sat up, bringing Harry up with him so the summoner half sat in his lap. "Yeah, yeah. We can wake Lulu."
Harry kissed the corner of the teen's mouth, then stood, scooping up his robes.
Tidus looked down at the mess on his stomach and commented, "We seem to be missing a helpful pool this time."
Harry glanced back at him and snickered, then picked up his staff and used it to clean them off, wincing at the feeling. "That spell," he informed his younger partner, "wasn't actually meant to clean off humans, but it's the only charm I know of that can without taking off your skin, too."
Tidus scratched the itchy spot the spell left on his stomach. "Right. Mental note, keep a pool around for cleaning off."
Harry laughed and walked over to kiss Tidus again. When the teen rose an eyebrow at him, Harry shrugged and said, "I like kissing you. Shut up."
But Tidus just smiled and kissed him back briefly before putting his shorts back on.
The two walked together over to where Lulu was sleeping and woke her before climbing into their own beds.
A few feet away, Yuna rubbed tiredly at dry eyes and leaned back against the dirt mound the two males had been sitting on originally. A part of her cried for the blond boy who she'd been crushing on since she first saw him in Besaid, but, at the same time, another part danced, because that boy was happy. And Yuna, being the sort of person she was and liking Harry as a friend, decided to just be happy for the two, and ignore that spark of jealousy.
The party set out as the sun glowed orange over the water surrounding the ruins, climbing together over precarious pieces of rubble.
They reached the stadium before noon, and Tidus took a moment to look at the building sadly, then they continued to the doorway, where a man awaited them. "Journeyers of the long road, name yourselves," the spectre asked, looking between Yuna and Harry, who led the party at Auron's insistence.
"I am the summoner Yuna," Yuna said, "from the island of Besaid."
"I am the summoner Harry Potter," Harry said, "from Hogwarts School."
The spectre looked surprised at Harry's stated place of origin, but looked them both over, then nodded. "Your eyes show the long roads you have journeyed, some together, some alone," he said, glancing at Harry for the last part. "You have journeyed well. Lady Yunalesca will surely welcome your arrival. Go to her now, and bring your guardians with you."
The party moved past the spectre and into the stadium. Within, pyreflies formed those who had come before them. Lulu and Wakka exclaimed over the guardian of Lady Yocun, while Harry and his two guardians stopped to watch the scene between a young Seymour and his mother, Jessica.
Eventually, they came across the ghostly forms of Auron, Jecht and Braska, making their own way to the resting place of the supposed Final Aeon. The party followed the ghosts, occasionally looking over at Auron or Yuna or Tidus, as if to check on how they were reacting to this moment of the past. For their parts, Auron's face stayed mostly hidden behind his glasses and the neck of his coat, while Yuna wore a slightly sad frown and Tidus scowled.
They worked through the Trials together, then destroyed the Spectral Keeper over the lift down.
They got to the bottom of the lift and wandered in to where the Final Aeon was supposed to have rested, and everyone stared in shock at the cracked crystal.
"Zaon," Harry murmured just as a ghostly form appeared in the room to explain who the Final Aeon had been, and that Lady Yunalesca could show them how the create a new one. Then, the ghost disappeared and a door appeared at the back of the room.
"Let's go," Yuna said softly, and the group went through to a high-ceilinged room with a grand staircase leading up to another door. Through that door, a beautiful woman with long silver hair walked, smiling at them all. "Lady Yunalesca," Yuna murmured.
"Welcome to Zanarkand," Yunalesca said. "I congratulate you, summoner, for you have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow upon you that which you seek. The Final Summoning...will be yours. Now, choose the one whom I will change...to become the fayth for the Final Summoning. There must be a bond, between chosen and summoner, for that is what the Final Aeon embodies: the bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends. If that bond is strong enough, its light will conquer Sin." She smiled almost bitterly. "A thousand years ago, I chose my husband Zaon as my fayth–"
"You mean you murdered him," Harry said, stepping forward.
Yunalesca looked at him curiously. "He sacrificed himself willingly to destroy Sin."
"That's not how he told it," Harry replied, eyeing the unsent woman in front of him. "Before you used him against Sin, he had time to tell the fayth the true story, of how you arrived here, expecting to find that same all powerful aeon that was here before Sin destroyed Zanarkand, but it was gone. In your fury, you used Zaon to make a new aeon, hoping your need would make him strong enough to destroy Sin and free what was left of your people. But it wasn't.
"And now Zanarkand, and those few who escaped Bevelle's purging in the years after, are gone. All that's left are the children of the people who brought you so much pain. How horrible it must have been, to see your own home destroyed before your eyes," Harry commented with feeling. "I'm sure, at the beginning, your reasons for staying behind to help the summoners were pure, but they're not any more, are they? Your people are gone, and you probably revel in the knowledge that the same man that once destroyed your world is now destroying theirs."
Yunalesca stared down at the short young man there and slowly smiled. "Death's Flame," she murmured, and Harry flinched at the title his aeon had been given during the wars. "You are a fayth, one of the Old Ones. You gave your strength to those of Zanarkand, you helped kill many people, granted it to many summoners in later years against Sin, and you dare to mock me now?"
Harry closed his eyes. "I fought to end the wars, and that was why Phoenix was granted to your summoners. The lives ended in that conflict were not by my hand. I granted my strength to those seeking to destroy Sin for the same reason, the simple hope that they might be the ones to destroy Sin. But you!" Harry looked up at the woman, anger in his eyes. "You have them sacrifice their friends, their family, only to continue the cycle! You know there's no hope, and yet you tell them to do it century after century!"
"I release them from their pain," Yunalesca whispered, eyes bright with madness. "I free them from the bonds of mortality, the pain of losing their loved ones. Once they die, once they become Sin, they feel no pain. It is kindness I grant!"
"Kindness," Harry whispered. "That is no kindness, Yunalesca, that is madness. And a cruelty to those left behind. You live a peaceful life, up here, beyond Mt. Gagazet. You never have the loved ones of those dead summoners or the missing guardians seeking you out. You never hear them crying for all they have lost, praying to statues that those souls have found peace."
"Then kill those, too, and release them from their pain."
"I would rather die than kill those left behind," Harry hissed.
"Then so be it, Death's Flame. Today, you will die." And then she shot a Death spell at Harry.
Harry felt a body knock into him and realised that Tidus was lying on top of him, looking down on him with worry in his eyes. Harry nodded shortly and his guardian helped him to his feet. Standing between them and Yunalesca was the entire party, even Wakka.
"I cried for my father," Yuna said quietly as the party readied their weapons. "I understood why he'd died, and who had killed him. That knowledge gave me the drive I needed to become a summoner, even knowing it meant my own death. It hurts, the feeling of being left behind, but it is also the wonder of being alive. And while I would give anything to keep others from feeling that same pain, I don't believe killing them is the way to do it!"
Auron led the rush up the stairs, his blade cocked and ready. Next to him, a ghostly image of a younger Auron made the same motions, but when the younger Auron got blasted back, the unsent dove to one side and took a slash at Yunalesca from that position.
Harry and Lulu grimly readied their best spells and threw them at the dead woman at the same time as Wakka's ball, which picked up the Firaga and Flare spells and impacted with Yunalesca for an impressive show of fireworks.
They managed to kill her without too much trouble, but she didn't quite die, just reformed, and hit them all with an attack that turned them into zombies.
"Oh, brilliant," Harry muttered, shooting another over-powered Firaga spell at her.
"Yuna!" Lulu shouted, "Use Holy!"
Yuna's eyes lit up and she quickly chanted her spell, killing the woman in one hit.
"Wait," Harry ordered Rikku as the girl made to use a Holy Water on him.
Yunalesca took a new form and gleefully cast a blanket Death spell, which took out Rikku and Yuna, both of whom had already cured themselves of their zombie status.
Harry grabbed a Phoenix Down out of his belt pouch and tossed it at Rikku while, on the other side of the field, Wakka did the same for Yuna. With the two healers back on their feet, they returned to attacking with a vengeance. Yuna managed another Holy spell before she and Rikku were down again with another Death spell, but it was enough, and the rest of the party finished Yunalesca off.
They took a moment to heal themselves before Harry and Yuna walked over to where Yunalesca lay, slowly evaporating.
"Even though you used him against his will," Harry murmured, "Zaon still loved you. I'm sure he's still waiting for you on the Farplane. He might have explored a bit by now; you'll have to forgive him."
Yunalesca smiled bitterly. "My wonderful Zaon..." she whispered.
"Be at peace, now," Yuna said.
The bitter, long dead summoner finally faded from sight, leaving the hall echoing with only the soft talk of their party as a few last minute potions and ethers were passed out.
"Now what?" Yuna asked Harry.
Harry glanced up at the half-destroyed light above them. "I don't know," he murmured. "We have to find a way to destroy Sin, but I..."
"Sin... He eats aeons, right?" Yuna said thoughtfully.
Harry nodded. "I suppose that's one way to say it, yes."
Yuna nodded. "What if... Instead of letting him eat the aeon and leaving, we killed that aeon and let him have another, which we killed, until there were none left?"
Harry turned to stare at the girl, eyes wide. "Kill... the aeons?"
"Yeah. Let Sin take them, then kill them."
Harry rubbed his face with one hand, feeling the party gather around them. Yuna explained her idea to everyone once they'd gathered.
"What would happen to Yevon once there were no more aeons to inhabit?" Rikku asked, startling the rest of the party, who hadn't yet been told about Yevon being a part of Sin.
"That's a very good question," Harry mumbled, still rubbing at his face. "And one I don't have an answer to. I would assume that he would have a physical form that we could attack then, and that would finish him."
"What does Yevon have to do with this?" Wakka demanded.
Harry looked tiredly up at the blitzballer. "Yu Yevon was the leader of an anti-machina sect during the Machina Wars, and his solution to end the Wars was to create a near indestructible armour, with which he would be able to completely destroy Zanarkand. The armour was named Sin, in a reference to what he and his followers believed to be the 'sin of mankind', meaning machina. Yevon stayed inside the armour and continued to use it to quell machina uprisings for the years following the Wars.
"Eventually, he realised the wonder of being able to live forever in his creation and never came out. Now, I believe, he uses the life energy of the Final Aeons to keep going. It takes him time to fully assimilate the new aeon, which is the time period you call the Calm."
"So, while we relax and party, that guardian that sacrificed themselves becomes Sin?" Wakka asked, horrified.
Harry shrugged. "In a nutshell, yes."
Wakka fell heavily into a sitting position, shaking his head.
"But it could work, right?" Yuna asked hopefully. "Letting him use each aeon until we've killed it, until there aren't any left."
Harry nodded slowly. "The idea has merit," he admitted. "But we'll have to collect any other aeons that are in Spira first, or this won't work."
"How many more are there?" Tidus asked.
Harry held up a hand and closed his eyes, searching out his link to the fayth. 'Hey! How many other fayth are there that can grant aeons?'
'Four,' Neville offered. 'The Magus Sisters lay in Remiem Temple, just off the Calm Lands. Jessica's crystal lays in a building known as Baaj Temple. It's...'
'Neville?' Harry called, frowning.
'It's in Hogwarts,' Luna offered airily. 'There's a door underwater.'
Harry nodded, then opened his eyes. "There are four aeons left," he said to the watching circle. "The three Magus Sisters in Remiem Temple, and Seymour's mother in Hogwarts."
"There was a fayth in those ruins?" Tidus asked.
Harry grimaced. "Evidently so. Luna says the door is underwater."
Yuna nodded. "Okay. So, that's two places to go, and two summoners."
"Divide and conquer?" Harry asked with a thin smile.
"Yes."
"Rikku, how hard would it be to get a boat out here?" Harry asked the Al Bhed.
Rikku cocked her head to one side, then pulled something out of her belt pouch, which she then switched on. "Rikku reporting in! We're a bit land locked and are wondering if someone could take us to some ruins?" she asked. From the ground, Wakka groaned and hid his face in his hands, but didn't say anything. Everyone else looked somewhat confused, while Harry and Tidus watched the girl in silence.
Static was all they heard for a long moment, then, "Brother here, Rikku. We have a few boats out that we could send your way, as well as the airship, which Father got working. Where are you?"
Rikku danced a bit. "We're in Zanarkand right now."
"I thought you were keeping the summoners from going there!"
Rikku frowned at Harry who rolled his eyes and motioned for the communicator, which the girl handed him warily. "We said we'd keep anyone from calling the Final Aeon and sacrificing themselves to Sin, not that we wouldn't go to Zanarkand."
"Where's Rikku!"
"I'm right here, stupid!"
Harry rubbed at the bridge of his nose, then said, "No one will be calling the Final Aeon again, we've seen to that. Now, would you please send a boat or something our way? We've got two aeons to get before we can destroy Sin."
There was a long silence from the device, during which Harry handed it back to Rikku and Tidus explained everything that had just been discussed to the rest of the party. There were some amazed exclamations about the airship, making Harry comment, "I'm surprised they got the bloody thing working again, personally." Rikku and Tidus both snickered at that, leaving Harry to explain the story behind the comment to the party.
Finally, the communicator crackled back to life and Brother said, "We're bringing the airship to get you now. Which building are you in?"
Rikku looked to the two party members who actually knew what the original Zanarkand had looked like – and understood what her brother had said. "The blitzball stadium," Tidus said tightly.
"We'll meet you outside it in about an hour. Brother out!"
"We're meeting the airship outside in about an hour," Rikku explained to the party, so they all gathered their things and made their way back outside.
There, Sin sat, staring calmly at them as they walked out. Almost the entire party went for their weapons, but Tidus just walked towards Sin and called, "We've destroyed the Final Aeon! We're finding another way!"
Sin groaned and turned away, slowly returning to the water.
"Sir Jecht, right?" Yuna asked nervously as Tidus walked back over to the party sadly.
Tidus just nodded and found a piece of rubble to sit on. Harry and Rikku sat with him while the rest of the party found their own seats and they sat in silence for the airship.
On the airship, Rikku quickly explained everything to Cid, her father, while the rest of the party got showed to rooms they could rest in. Cid agreed to take Yuna's party to Remiem Temple and Harry's party to the Hogwarts ruins, then come back for both parties when they gave him the call. But they would only drop the summoners off after everyone got some sleep.
After everyone had napped, Cid flew them over the Calm Lands and dropped off Yuna's party with Auron, as Tidus had told him Yuna's party would likely need him more than Tidus, Harry and Rikku.
Cid dropped the last three off at the ruins of Hogwarts, then flew off, leaving the three friends to pick their way back to the bridge that had fallen.
"It's funny," Tidus commented as they walked. "When I first came here, I didn't know anything, but now I feel like I know practically everything."
"Except how to defeat Sin," Harry said.
"No, we know that, we just don't know for sure that it will work, or how we're supposed to get inside him to do it," Tidus replied.
"I suppose we could just ask him to swallow us," Rikku suggested drily.
Tidus spun to look at Rikku, eyes wide. "Rikku, you're brilliant!"
"Now he's picking up my sayings," Harry muttered.
"How am I brilliant?"
"Yevon is inside Sin, right?" Tidus asked, turning to Harry, who nodded. "So we need to get inside him to fight Yevon. Why not just get swallowed?"
"Sin doesn't generally swallow things," Harry commented drily.
"What if we shot at it a few times with some forbidden machina?" Rikku asked, warming to the idea. "Like Tidus said, it's gotta be forbidden for a reason, right? Maybe Yevon's afraid it'll actually defeat his monster?"
Harry considered the suggestion. "The idea has merit," he agreed. "Machina has some powers that your average spells don't, and that's part of why they were so devastating in the Wars."
"And here," Tidus murmured, looking over the ruins.
Harry smiled sadly. "Yes, here too. But, I don't know how we'd get a clear shot at Sin. He'll be expecting an attack from us."
"The airship?" Rikku suggested.
"Would your dad be okay with endangering his prize like that?" Tidus replied.
Rikku grinned. "For a chance to get rid of Sin? Hell yes!"
Harry nodded. "We'll suggest it when we get back. For now, let's see about getting Jessica."
The group jumped down off the ruined bridge and into the water. There, they met up with the same water monster Harry and Tidus had run from the first time, but they were easily able to dispatch it with three fighters. After the fiend was gone, they found the underwater door and swam through to a bubble of air and a hallway. They walked up to the door of the fayth and walked in.
Jessica was already standing above her crystal when the three walked in and she smiled at them. "Welcome, Harry, Tidus, and Rikku."
"Jessica," Harry replied, inclining his head, which the two guardians mirrored.
"You have come for Anima," the woman said. "You will defeat Sin?"
"We fully intend to," Harry agreed.
Jessica glanced towards Tidus, then looked back at Harry. "This battle will end our dream."
Harry nodded. "I'm prepared to take it over."
Jessica cocked her head at him and nodded. "Perhaps you won't have to," she said, then left them, her aeon's ghostly form entering Harry.
Rikku and Tidus were both there to catch Harry when he fell to his knees, holding his head as if in pain. "The pain..." he whispered.
Rikku and Tidus traded worried looks, then Rikku said, "Kiss him."
Tidus' eyes widened in surprise, but he leaned over anyway and firmly kissed Harry.
The summoner gasped and opened his eyes, looking painfully up at the two guardians. "The–"
Tidus leaned in and kissed him again, since it had seemed to help.
Shortly, Harry relaxed in Tidus' arms, and when the guardian pulled away, he found that Harry was sleeping. He and Rikku traded amused looks, then stood and worked together to get their summoner out of the ruins and back onto the airship, where they left him in the room he'd been given.
"How'd you know?" Tidus asked Rikku as they stood in the upper room of the airship, looking out the windows.
"About you and Harry?" Rikku clarified. When Tidus nodded, she rolled her eyes and said, "Tidus, you gave him your necklace. You never take that necklace off, not even for games when the opposing team could use it to choke you."
Tidus shrugged. "Maybe I was hoping it had some sort of magical protections?" he suggested.
Rikku rolled her eyes again. "And you two have been making eyes at each other from day one."
"We have not!"
"Okay, Tidus, how common is it for two guys to spend their free time worrying about another guy they just met? Because after Sin spirited you away from the ship, you were all Harry really talked about, and from what Yuna and Wakka have said, Harry was all you could talk about."
Tidus grimaced and rubbed at the back of his head. "Were we really so transparent?"
Rikku sighed. "Well, it wasn't until after you gave him your necklace that I really figured it out." She shrugged. "And Yuna saw you two, outside Zanarkand." She looked over at Tidus, who seemed torn between being embarrassed and horrified. "She was a little upset, but she's okay."
"Wait, upset?" Tidus asked.
Rikku knocked her head against the glass. "Men," she moaned in Al Bhed, making Tidus snicker. "She's been crushing on you since Besaid. Don't tell me you never noticed!"
Tidus rubbed the back of his head again. "Uhm, no."
Rikku sighed helplessly. "Somehow, I'm not surprised." She shook her head, then turned to glare at Tidus. "Don't tell her I told you any of that."
Tidus rose his hands in surrender. "My lips are sealed!"
"You'd better hope so!"
The two shared grins, then turned back to look out the window.
After a while, Rikku asked, "What did Jessica mean, the 'dream of the fayth'? And why would Harry be willing to take on that dream?"
Tidus sighed and sat on the ground, back against the glass, to look up at the Al Bhed. "You remember that wall of fayth we saw on Mt. Gagazet?"
"Yeah. Really creepy."
Tidus nodded. "They were the people of Zanarkand, before Sin. They became fayth so they could dream of their home, their Zanarkand, just in case Bevelle succeeded. They didn't want their great city to be destroyed."
"Oh..." Rikku said, lowering herself to sit next to her fellow guardian. "But, what about you? If he dreams, he'll be a fayth again, right?"
Tidus smiled bitterly. "I'm part of the dream," he said.
Rikku covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide in horror.
Tidus looked back out the window. "If this succeeds," he whispered, "Harry intends to become a fayth again and dream about me. So I can exist."
Rikku leaned forward and she hugged her friend, body shaking with quiet sobs.
Tidus wrapped his arms around her and just stared out at the clouds, not knowing what he could say.
Once Yuna's party had returned and everyone had rested again, they sat down around a table with Cid and discussed Rikku and Tidus' idea about attacking Sin with the airship. Cid, of course, thought it was a wonderful idea, so they quickly put their plan into effect.
It was hard going, but Harry and Yuna summoned Phoenix and Valefor to distract Sin while they used the airship's gun to severely wound it. Eventually, the gun went out, and all they were left with was the party atop the deck, who happily attacked what they could reach of Sin with a vengeance. When Sin finally started to fail, the monster opened its mouth and used a Gravity spell to draw the airship inside.
Once inside Sin, they left the airship to make repairs and went to find Jecht and Yevon. They found Jecht first.
"You're late, Auron."
"I know."
Jecht turned to the rest of the party and quickly spotted Tidus. "Hey."
Tidus narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest in response.
Jecht sort of laughed. "You here to finish me for good, then?"
"We must," Yuna said, staff held in front of herself in preparation for the battle ahead.
Jecht nodded. "Okay then. And, I warn you now, once this starts, I won't be myself any more. I won't be able to hold back against you."
"You won't beat us," Tidus said sharply.
Jecht laughed again and stumbled off the platform he'd been standing on, transforming into his aeon self.
The party attacked him with determination, though Tidus seemed to be the most determined of them all.
Once they'd defeated, Jecht returned to his human form and Tidus hurried to his side, not sure if he wanted to cry or punch the man.
"You'll cry. You're gonna cry. You always cry. See? You're cryin'," Jecht said, looking up into blue eyes with a sad smile.
"I hate you," Tidus whispered.
"Save it for later," Jecht ordered him.
"Right... we've got a job to do."
"Good. That's right. You are my son, after all."
Tidus smiled at him and stood. He almost lost his balance, but Harry was behind him, waiting, and caught him. Jecht glanced up at the summoner and, for a moment, he seemed to truly smile, then he faded away into pyreflies as a black mass came flying at them.
"Yu Yevon," Harry hissed, glaring at the ball.
And then, they were fighting. Harry and Yuna summoned their aeons, both with tears rolling down their cheeks as they watched the beings that had been with them for so long be destroyed by their friends. For Harry, it was almost impossible for him to watch Valefor, Ixion and Shiva be killed, but he made himself, because he wanted to remember them.
Then, only one aeon remained. Harry stepped forward and called his own aeon, Phoenix.
As soon as Phoenix was taken over by Yevon, Harry choked and fell to his knees, grasping at the robes over his heart. Yuna knelt next to him and grabbed his shoulders. "Harry!"
The ex-fayth gasped painfully and reached out with his free hand to grab at Yuna's shoulder, staring over her shoulder at where the creature that was, technically, his soul had been taken over by a being that meant only harm. "Oh, Merlin..." he managed.
As soon as Phoenix was defeated, Harry slumped against Yuna, breathing hard. "That hurt..." he whispered.
Yuna wrapped her arms around the other summoner and held him tightly.
They heard a sudden phoenix cry and Phoenix reappeared, alive again, only to be, again, taken over by Yevon.
"Why is it back?!" Wakka demanded, looking angrily over at where Harry and Yuna knelt. His anger cooled some when he saw how much pain Harry was in, but that still didn't answer his question.
Harry looked tiredly up at the great bird, crying. "No..."
"Harry?" Yuna whispered.
"He's..." Harry shook his head. "He's gone. I can't..." He closed his eyes and clutched the area over his heart angrily. "He's not inside me any more. He's not my aeon."
Yuna gasped in understanding and hugged Harry all the tighter. "What does that...?"
Harry let out a half sob. "The fayth aren't going to survive this battle," he said as the truth occurred to him, "and I'm a fayth, still. But I'm not, not any more, because I no longer have an aeon. I'm not–" He choked.
"Oh, Harry..."
Behind them, the rest of the party grimly faced down the ball that was Yevon, all of them occasionally looking over at where Yuna and Harry were huddled, needing to go and check on their summoners.
Finally, the battle was won, and the guardians ran over to the two summoners. Tidus reached them first and fell to his knees next to them, eyes wide with worry. Yuna wordlessly transferred Harry to the blond and waved off everyone's concern for her, far more worried about Harry.
"Harry," Tidus whispered to his crying summoner. "Harry, please, what's wrong?"
But Harry couldn't do more than shake his head.
Tidus looked to Yuna for his answers, and the girl said, "He's not a fayth any more. Phoenix came back to cut their ties."
The party let out various sounds of shock, but both Rikku and Tidus leaned over the older summoner, gently trying to calm him, both wondering if Harry would be able to dream Tidus back into existence if he wasn't a fayth.
"Harry," Rikku pleaded. "What about Tidus? Harry..."
But Harry only cried harder and clung to Tidus.
Tidus and Rikku both swallowed and looked at each other in understanding.
Tidus' time was at an end.
A/N: Hmmm... Bit of a cliffie, I suppose. *mad cackle* Don't you hate me?
One last chapter left. I like to call it the... Epilogue! Dun-dun-dun!
Cheers~!
~Bats ^.^x
1 - The Beginning ||| 2 - Ruins ||| 3 - Besaid & Kilika
4 - Luca ||| 5 - Operation Mi'ihen ||| 6 - Guadosalam
7 - Macalania & Bevelle ||| 8 - Calm Lands & Mt. Gagazet |||
10 - Epilogue
..
