Love Her and Despair Remaster [23]

[auronlu]

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 23: "Incoming"
Final Fantasy X/X-2 (Yes, both. AU.)
Characters: Auron, Isaaru, Nooj, Rikku, Cast
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1750
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The Story So Far: After Elder Cid is possessed by a vengeful spirit, Isaaru and his guardians must put their pilgrimage on hold to help the Al Bhed stop him before he destroys Bevelle.

"May I have your attention, guys and garudas! This is your wake-up call. Rise and shine! We hit Bevelle in twenty minutes."

"Hopefully without leaving a crater," Maroda muttered as he and his brother stepped onto the bridge.

Gippal, slouched in the pilot's seat, tossed a vague wave over his shoulder. "Yo, Yevon-dudes. Prepare for Operation Freak the Hell Out of Bevelle."

"It's already started," Shinra said, hunched over his console. "I'm reading energy discharge."

"How bad?" Maroda said.

Ruby light splashed the northern sky, stamping the shapes of towers and terraces upon the horizon. In the blackness that followed, scattered orange splinters remained, twinkling like stars of ill-omen. The real stars had vanished, veiled by a skin of cloud thickening into thunderheads to the east: Sin's tracks, an even more ominous reminder.

"Hard to say," Shinra said. "The causeway's on fire. Some rooftops and towers."

There was another soundless explosion, this time spraying the clouds with lime-green light as well as red. A flower of orange and gold blossomed from some high point over the city and began to burn like a beacon-fire.

"The Tower of Light," Isaaru guessed, cupping his hands in prayer. "Yevon grant that we may be in time."

"Macalania," Auron said, moving back to join Isaaru and Maroda. "Tell them."

"Oh, right." Shinra pointed down, where the gloom seemed more gray than black. There was a moving shimmer far below them, the airship's reflection. "It's frozen solid."

"That's how it's supposed to be," Maroda said. "It's always frozen."

Isaaru nodded. "I hope to visit the temple after we've dealt with Cid."

"Unlikely," Shinra said. "The temple's embedded in the ice. My best guess is that Sin thawed the lake, flooded it, and re-froze it. You'd need mining equipment to get down there."

"No!" Isaaru's face contorted in a fleeting spasm. "Captain, we have to help them. Your weapons: have you any with the power to—"

"Belay that," Auron said. "They're already dead."

"It wouldn't work, anyway," Shinra said. "We'd just pulverize the temple."

The summoner wiped his eyes, struggling to master himself. "There was a monastery," he said, "and a score of acolytes. I sent two orphans there just last month to begin their training."

"Sorry, man," Gippal said. "Heck of a way to go."

"Dammit!" Maroda turned on Auron. "You'd better hope your friend dies when we take on Sin, mister. Everyone in Spira's gonna be calling for her execution!"

Auron gave him a stony look.

"Maroda," Isaaru said. "Please. The Lady has no choice about Sin's predations, whatever the Cult of Sin may say."

"Like hell she doesn't! She chose to become Sin, right? Now she's choosing her targets! And if you don't think—"

The doors whisked open again. Elma marched onto the flight deck. Nooj, whose new artificial leg looked like a modified gunstock, was leaning on her shoulder. If the Crusader felt any discomfort from the grip of cold machina, she concealed it with a wink at Isaaru.

"Report," Nooj said, ignoring the one-sided shouting match between Maroda and Auron.

"Cid took some shots on the way in. Fifteen minutes to intercept." Gippal slapped the intercom again. "Yo, Rikku, the party's leavin' without you."

"Mmmrph," came a sleepy reply. "Vilg oui, Gip."

"Love to, babe, but Wakka'd use my head for a blitzball. Hurry up. Meet the landing party in the hold."

As they streaked towards the Tower of Light, it rose high above the citadel, living up to its name in dramatic fashion. Its crown of aerial walkways, where Yuna had once wed in unholy matrimony, was now one vast torch. Flaming debris rained down on the palace below, showing fleeting glimpses of domes, flying buttresses, promenades and piazzas.

"Where's Cid?" Nooj said.

"Crash landed," Shinra said. He pointed towards a cluster of green flames and smoke on the far side of the tower. "Northeast sector, right near the temple."

"Crashed?" Elma said, with a rising squeak that betrayed her fears. "You don't think Cid is—"

"It doesn't matter," Nooj said. "Shuyin will seek a new host."

"Doesn't matter?" Gippal said. "Hey, Nooj, Vegnagun may be your first priority, but mine is getting Elder Cid back in one piece."

"Speaking of Vegnagun," Shinra said. "I've got something. Could be important."

"Let's hear it," said Nooj.

"It's using a pyrefly interface. It can read minds at close range. If anyone approaches it with intent to disable, a robust cascading self-defense program kicks in. It may take aggressive counter-measures or even retreat to the Farplane. That's probably why Maester Baralai wanted someone working on the problem remotely."

"Not just because you're a genius?"

"That too." Shinra said. "But I need more time. I'm still analyzing the sphere data he sent us."

"We'll try and buy you that time, kid."

"Translation?" Elma said.

"Don't even think about trying to disable it," Shinra said. "Avoid using weapons near it that could damage it. No high-powered guns. No explosives."

Elma snorted. "No problem there."

"Someone had better sit on Rikku," Gippal said.

The airship had reached the open water southwest of the capital, where Bevelle's merchant fleet was moored. Gippal eased the ship down, following the burning Highbridge across the bay. Ahead, Bevelle reared up behind mighty sea-walls, a manmade fortified mountain. By night, the city gave only a vague impression of looming mass.

"Something's wrong," Maroda said. "I can't see any lights."

"That burning tower works pretty well, " Shinra said.

"That's not what I meant," said Maroda.

"Captain Kiyuri," Isaaru said with sudden hope. "If she risked Sin's waters to take the direct route to Bevelle, she could have conveyed my warning by now. Baralai and Shelinda may have evacuated the city prior to Sin's arrival."

"Seven minutes," Gippal said, banking the ship as a warning sensor gave a shrill chirp. The view around the cockpit vanished as they plunged into a curtain of smoke. "I'm gonna try to put down in the plaza behind the tower, near Cid. Get to the hold and find something to hang onto."

"Thank you, Captain," Isaaru said. "Good luck."

"And you. Oh...Auron? Almost forgot. Your sword's in the first gun rack to the left of the ladder. Sorry I didn't give it to you yesterday: Cid's orders. You guys are so friggin' clueless. Didn't you realize I'd taken you all prisoner?"

"Yes," Auron said.

"Heh. Guess that's one way to see the boss. Now hurry up and go find him!"

Rikku, waiting for them in the hold, tossed Elma a packet from one of the lockers. She grabbed onto its frame as the ship lurched. "Here we go again."

Auron set his hand on a grip protruding from the shadows. He drew out the blade whose weight and balance were almost a part of himself. A new sheath had been tooled to match it, two strips of black metal bolted around an inner leather sleeve. The sheath bore no glyphs or decoration, but a crude talisman was bound to the sword's hilt.

"Well, I'll be," Maroda said. "Looks like Auron's girlfriend left a love token."

"Play nice, boys," Rikku said. "I gotta save my stun grenades for Pops."

"It's a sign, no?" Isaaru said. "The Lady blesses our endeavor."

Stiffened by seawater, a leather thong had tangled around the hand-guard in a crisscross pattern. A triangle of bone peeped out from the webbing, held fast against the scrollwork that was the sword's only ornamentation. Auron touched the crude likeness of Lulu's face in mute greeting, then slung the sword over his back, anchoring the straps to his belt and gorget.

Elma and Nooj emerged from the freight elevator just as the floor gave a violent shudder. The Crusader heaved him against the wall to keep him upright.

"Thanks," Nooj said, wedging his metal arm into a gun rack to steady them.

"Is he trying to get us killed?" Maroda said, staying on the floor where the jolt had thrown him. "This is some ride."

There was a loud bang. Air began to whistle loudly through the seals around the loading ramp in the floor.

"Um," Rikku said. "I don't think that's Gippal's fault. That's coming from outside."

"Machina weapons," Nooj said. "Typical Yevon piety."

"Can we take cover somehow?" Elma said. "I don't fancy getting my toes blown off by Maester Baralai's cannons."

"Get in the flyer," Rikku said. "It may not help much, but it's a few more layers of metal."

They staggered and crawled to the small craft clamped to the floor. Auron heaved them over the side as the buffeting worsened.

The final minutes of descent were an escalating nightmare. Spilling out of equipment racks, weapons and supply canisters bounced around the hold like pebbles in a child's rattle. The light panels wavered and failed, plunging them into darkness. The party clung to one another as the flyer shook loose from its moorings and began to skitter around the floor. The hull groaned and boomed under the hail of heavy artillery as if Sin were trying to hammer its way in with its tail. As the shaking intensified, the loading ramp dropped partway open, twisted with a ponderous shriek, and peeled away. Orange light flickered against the ceiling through the breach. From their current position, the helpless passengers could not tell the size of the rupture, but the squeal of wind and metal suggested it was growing larger by the second. They had no way to know whether the ship's violent pitching was the pilot's attempt at evasive action, or loss of control as the vessel began to tear itself apart.

At last, with a wallowing shudder, the ship came to a stop, miraculously still aloft. The barrage of weapons fire continued, but it had changed from the thudding of shells to the pop of bullets, some of them rattling around the hold.

"Will you guys cut it out?" Rikku shouted, her shrill voice piercing through the din. "D'you want to get your own maester killed? We've got Isaaru!"

Gunfire died away. Groans, curses, and the creak of the ship's joints filled the silence as the battered group lay in the bed of the flyer, too stunned to move or speak.

A woman's voice boomed out from below. "You have five minutes to surrender, or we'll kill Elder Cid."

"Paine?" Nooj said, stirring under the ceiling panel that had fallen across him. "It seems Fate is toying with us."

---

Next Chapter:"Juno"

---

Author's Note:

Chapter Renumbering - This was Chapter 27, posted in June 2009.

Comments

(Edit: I managed to log in from my phone!)

[mintywolf]

That illustration is REALLY cool!! Very striking and evocative.

I appreciate that Lulu has turned her destructive fury on the place that caused Yuna so much pain. It is the symbolic and political heart of Yevon, yes, but she has a lot of personal motivation for wanting to see it obliterated too.

Every time Maroda refers to Lulu as “Auron’s girlfriend” I want to bite him. I can actually feel the anger resonating in my teeth. It’s like how Chappu’s calling her “his girl” gets my hackles up but even more dismissive and reductive. But I have a feeling he’s supposed to be coming across as needling and annoying by doing it, so it’s effective.

Everyone’s dialogue is really in-character, by the way! I can hear all their voices very clearly.

Re: (Edit: I managed to log in from my phone!)

[auronlu]

Yeah, he's being annoying, because he thinks Auron is in cahoots with Sin. And he's not wrong, although he's putting it in rather vulgar terms.

I do have the ongoing problem that this story was originally a gift to Muggy Mountain and Trekqueen and the rest of the Auron/Lulu community, but almost all of those readers are gone. Now my most supportive remaining reader finds what they loved most annoying and distracting from the rest of the story.

I have toned down the shippiness a bit, but in the end, I can't and shouldn't change it now. Because at its heart, despite all the ways it's expanded, LHAD is still a story about a fallen knight striving to serve his Lady—who is also the dragon.

Anyway, I apologize for the elements that do not suit your tastes. I'm glad you're still able to enjoy other parts despite that!

Re: (Edit: I managed to log in from my phone!)

[mintywolf]

It's not the shippery that bothers me, I am able to acknowledge that Your Ship is Not My Ship and That's Okay, it's Maroda's repeatedly reducing Lulu to "Auron's girlfriend" that piques my ire at him, the character, not at you. Because, as you know and I know, she's so much more than that!!

But I shouldn't have made that comment yesterday because I think I may have hurt your feelings, and for that I'm sorry.

And no, you should not change anything to suit me, and please don't feel pressured to do so. It is your story to tell as you see fit.

Re: (Edit: I managed to log in from my phone!)

[auronlu]

No, you didn't hurt my feelings, I was just feeling bad because "shoot, my story is making Minty uncomfortable and it is what it is but I want to make it entertaining rather than frustrating for her!"

But yes, Maroda's being rude and reductive.

And in retrospect, he never really does learn better, does he? I cut off his arc before he'd really learned much. Ah well, I just had too many characters to juggle, and it was him or Elma.

Re: (Edit: I managed to log in from my phone!)

[melchar]

In the choice between Elma and Maroda? Always save Elma.

And IMO - having loved this story from the start - I agree with Minty that Maroda is devaluing Lulu & this pisses me off - at him. I am totally supportive of Auron/Lulu, because that is my take from FFX too. They are so perfectly suited for each other!