Love Her and Despair Remaster [24]
May. 24th, 2019 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auronlu
Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 24: "Juno"
Final Fantasy X/X-2 (Yes, both. AU.)
Characters: Auron, Paine, Baralai, Nooj, Rikku, Elma, Isaaru
Rating: G
Word Count: 2200
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The Story So Far: Isaaru's pilgrimage against Sin has been put on hold to deal with a new threat. Elder Cid has been possessed by a vengeful spirit bent on using a doomsday weapon against Bevelle. Isaaru's party receives a prickly reception from the warrior monks and Maester Baralai.
"Paine?" Isaaru said. "Nay, that is Juno, Captain of the Guard."
"That's all we need," said Elma.
"Lemme go, you big lunk!" Rikku said, squirming under Auron's coat. "They've got Pops!"
"Rikku, he's right," Maroda said. "They're bluffing. But they might shoot you."
Some kinder god than Yevon had kept anyone from tumbling through the gaping rent in the floor. The only serious wound among them was a bloody gash in Maroda's forehead. Isaaru was patching him with Cura and providing a patient ear to his swearing. A burst of static from the intercom suggested that someone, at least, was still alive on the flight deck, but whatever Gippal or Shinra had to say was unintelligible.
Auron released his grip on Rikku and stood, shouldering away fallen gratings and pipes. "Wait here."
"Sir Auron!" Isaaru said, attention divided between white magic and wayward guardian.
"Let your guardians handle this," Auron said. The flyer shifted under his weight as he vaulted over the railing, giving Maroda something else to grumble about.
"I'll go too. Captain Juno knows me," Elma said, shaking off the terror that had reduced hardened soldier to a knot of limbs wrapped around a seat for the last three minutes of descent. "We'll get this sorted out, Rikku, don't worry."
Despite her agility, the Crusader lagged behind, laboring over the alien landscape of crates and fallen racks reduced to confusing heaps of shadow. Auron hopped from one precarious foothold to the next, careless of jagged metal. He halted at the buckled edge looking down, put out a foot and stepped off. They saw his coat fly up, flapping, as he dropped from sight.
Hitting the ground hard, Auron crumpled to his knees in a semicircle of warrior monks he had surveyed from above. The muzzles of their rifles lowered like booms, tracking him as he came down. So far so good. The hiss of drawn steel on his blind side, less good. That meant another gamble. Auron resisted the urge to draw and parry. A sword almost as large as his own flashed out in an arc that ended with the sharpened edge resting against his collar.
Finding his head still attached, Auron played out his hand. "We surrender," he said. "Where's Cid?"
"Who's we?" the woman demanded, setting her left hand under her right and doubling her grip in a silent message whose language he well understood.
There was a crash and spray of sparks on the pavement behind her. Another section of the tower's high walkways had fallen and shattered on impact. Warrior monks scattered, dodging flying embers. Their leader did not budge.
"Auron," he said. "Guardian to Summoner Isaaru. We've come to stop Cid."
Crimson eyes narrowed behind the slit of the woman's helm. That minute gesture threw him off-balance as the sword had not. The world flipped inside-out. It felt as if he were a Farplane ghost gazing up (or down?) at one of the living. Monk's armor masked her features, yet the lean woman who spoke with a sword could have been his own child challenging him with Lulu's calculating gaze. There was even a silver ponytail curled on her shoulder, mirror to his. What was it Nooj had said? Fate toying with us. But no, this was no girl-child of thirteen. Auron purged his mind of ridiculous thoughts before the pyreflies came nagging.
"On an Al Bhed ship?" she said.
Several rifles swung away from him. Elma had used the brief distraction of falling debris to cover her own jump. She rolled and came up in a crouch with her hands raised. "Tell your men to hold their fire, Captain," she said. "He's telling the truth. Let us pass. Bevelle's safety depends on it."
"Commander?" The captain's shock was subsumed in a frown. "You were last seen at Djose, presumed dead, leading a forbidden operation against Sin. You return in an Al Bhed ship, wearing Al Bhed issue, on the eve of an Al Bhed attack. I repeat, who is 'we'?"
"Lord Isaaru, his guardians, and Cid's people, who aren't any happier about this attack than we are," Elma said. "Come on, Captain. You know I'd never sell out my own troops."
"Then...why?"
"We don't have time for a full debriefing!" Elma snapped. "Look. We were trying to save the fayth statue at Djose, got caught in Sin's backwash, and it chucked us out in Al Bhed territory. When we arrived, Elder Cid went berserk. He shot us— even shot his own daughter— and took off for Bevelle. He's not in control of his actions, Juno. Some kind of spirit's possessed him. I know it sounds crazy."
"Yes," the woman said, voice and mouth going flat. "Yes, it does." She stepped back, lifting her sword up and away. "Cid's in custody. Tell Isaaru to get down here."
"You'll vouch for his safety?" Auron said.
She shrugged. "That's up to Maester Baralai. He'll be along shortly."
Stalemate, but at least it was one step further. Auron waited until her followers had lowered their weapons, then raised a fist.
"Whoa, whoa!" Rikku's voice drifted down from above. "Lemme open the emergency chute. We don't all have to be showoffs."
There was a brief delay while an inflatable ramp unfurled, to the consternation of the palace guards. Rikku bounded down first, running smack into Auron's arm as the row of rifles came back up.
"Pops," she said, going white.
On the far side of the plaza from the palace, lying across the broken spires of the College of St. Bevelle, a dark hulk lay smoking like the bones of a whale carcass silhouetted against the ruddy sky. Green flames danced over the ruptured bulbs of exploded fuel tanks. A reek of burning fuel and metal hung in the air, reminding him of Zanarkand's death-throes. Fate had finally caught up with a thousand-year-old-relic from that ancient city.
"He's alive," Juno said. "We found Cid unconscious on the street. No sign of other survivors."
"Yeah, he took off without a crew." Rikku exhaled. "Look, I know you're pretty pissed at him and all, but he's still my dad. I've gotta see him."
She might as well have petitioned a streetlamp. Juno had gone rigid, staring at Nooj disentangling himself from the ramp's fabric, which had snagged on his artificial leg. Eyeing her, Auron moved to shield Isaaru.
"Paine," Nooj said, meeting her scrutiny with a melancholy smile. "Good to see you're all right."
Coolly, she turned away from him and addressed the rest of the party. "Lord Isaaru. If you and your guardians would come this way, please."
"Juno, wait!" A man too young for his white hair had emerged from the palace along with a ragged group of clergy. Stumbling, coughing, some were barely moving under their own power. He passed off the young acolyte he was carrying to two monks and hurried towards Juno. "We need to get the injured to safety. Can you spare some of your squad?"
She nodded. "Lassen. Virocha. Rand. Escort the wounded to Yuna's Cloister." Three warrior monks saluted and shouldered their rifles, moving off to join the evacuees.
"Good work." Baralai halted beside her, breathing hard. His face, hair and clothes were sooty, and the hem of his coat was burnt. "Is this all of them?"
"There may be more on the ship."
"Maester Baralai." Isaaru bowed deeply in Yevon's prayer. "Are you hurt? Please allow me to—"
"Summoner Isaaru." Baralai's hand dropped to a compact sidearm, twin to the one that hung on Juno's hip. "I must compliment you on a brilliantly-executed pilgrimage... or, should I say, a coup?"
"Baralai, you misunderstand—"
"Do I?" He took a step to one side, smiling grimly as Auron moved to mirror him. "A mock pilgrimage to win the people of Spira to your side. A new Operation Mi'ihen, expressly against the oath we swore when we four took office. The southern Crusaders and Maester Lucil neutralized at Djose. Orders sent to Bevelle for mass evacuations, ensuring that Shelinda and I would be distracted, the city plunged in chaos. And Sin, after two years in which it has been a threat to no one, targeting vital centers of Yevon while sparing the Al Bhed. I'd like to know what you're using to control it."
"Neutralized?" Elma said, facing off with Juno. Elma and Maroda were shoulder to shoulder with Auron now.
"Hey!" Rikku said. "For your information, Sin just attacked us!"
"So you say." Baralai gestured to the palace complex, whose roofs were starting to catch fire. "But this isn't Sin's doing, is it? You probably thought we'd have evacuated by now. The perfect cover for Isaaru to seize Vegnagun with his Al Bhed friends."
"Baralai!" Gippal called. He was skiing down the ramp behind Nooj. "Come on, man. You think I'd go along with that kind of double-faced Yevon crap?"
"You tell me," Baralai said. "Three weeks ago, I entrusted you with a classified sphere to deliver to Elder Cid. Now he launches an attack. You arrive right behind him with Nooj, of all people. Something doesn't add up."
"That's what we're trying to tell you!" Rikku said, waving her hands in frustration. "My Pops is out of control! We've got to stop him!"
"Baralai," Isaaru said. "I understand your doubts. But something has happened to Elder Cid. The same thing that happened to your friend Nooj thirteen years ago, when your squadron was destroyed by something that seized men's minds."
"He's right," Nooj said, stepping out from behind the wall of guardians. "If you want to shoot someone, shoot me. But let them pass. If Cid reaches Vegnagun, Spira doesn't stand a chance."
"I don't take orders from you anymore, Nooj," Baralai said. He raised his gun. "But maybe I'll make an exception, for old time's sake."
Gippal made an abortive move towards his own weapon, scanning the ring of warrior monks whose rifles were already raised. "Not cool, Baralai. You know that's what he wants."
"Is it?" Baralai said. "Whose death are you seeking, Nooj? Yours... or ours?"
Nooj gave a thin smile and raised his empty hand, palm outward. The other gripped a metal pipe he was using as a cane.
"Don't." Juno flicked up her sword, blocking Baralai's aim.
"He shot us in the back, Paine," Baralai said. "He shot you in the face."
"Paine's dead," she said. "But they might be telling the truth."
A commotion had broken out on one of the terraces ringing the College. "What now?" Baralai sighed and lowered his weapon. "All right. Lock them up, Captain."
"Maester Baralai!" a soldier shouted, running towards them. "The prisoner's escaped! We're searching for him now, sir!"
"What?" Baralai said. "Juno, have your men seal off the—"
"Don't breathe!" Rikku shouted.
A handful of pellets showered down, exploding in bright yellow flashes. Bullets skipped harmlessly against the pavement when the arms holding rifles slackened. In surreal unison, the entire circle of warrior monks slumped to the ground along with Baralai and Juno. Most of Isaaru's party managed to stagger clear, eyes streaming.
"Yeah!" Rikku jabbed her fists in the air. "Oh, whoops. Remedies on Isaaru and Machina Man. Hang on, Maroda, let the pollen settle a bit, or you'll need one too. Gippal, is Shinra okay?"
"Mm-hm. He's just minding the shop. Yo, Elma, gimme one of those." Gippal waited for the cloud to dissipate, then trotted back to rouse Nooj while Elma and Maroda tended Isaaru.
Leaning on them, Isaaru peered groggily at the semicircle of prone monks. "Oh, dear. I do hope they're all right."
"No time." Auron turned towards the palace. "Look."
Dodging smoldering wreckage, a blocky figure had emerged from the side-terrace and was dashing across the plaza. Armored soldiers rattled in pursuit. All but one of them balked outside the palace entrance, craning their necks and pointing at the flames and smoke curling over the roof. One kept going, disappearing through the open doors on Cid's heels.
"Come on!" Rikku said.
"Hey, Nooj, you coming?" Gippal held out an arm. "Ferry's leaving the dock."
"No," Nooj said. "I'll slow you down. Get going."
"In that case, I'm staying too." Gippal waved a hand. "Remember what I said, Auron. Cid'll take it out of my hide if you kill him."
"Understood." Auron followed Rikku, who was already pelting after her father. The others hurried to catch up.
"Good luck," Elma called over her shoulder.
"You too, babe. Hey, after this is over, I know this great restaurant in Luca—"
Nooj gave a soft snort. "Save your breath."
"What?" Gippal retrieved Nooj's prop and set it under his hand. "Okay, so, Vegnagun and Sin are about to blow this joint to smithereens. But just in case—"
"Forget it." He looked down at the sprawl of bodies around them. "Nightcap. About ten minutes, right?"
"You sure you wanna be here when they wake up?" Gippal nudged Baralai with a foot. "This isn't gonna be pretty."
"'Juno.'"
"Yeah, I noticed. Bar said she'd changed a lot." Gippal stooped to pry Baralai's pistol out of his fingers and tossed it away. "Your call. I could still use a navigator, after all."
Next Chapter: "Illusions That Exalt Us"
Author's Notes
Meta: Locating Maester Lucil in Luca and Maester Baralai in Bevelle, with the Grand Maester traveling frequently between the two, solves the problem that the two main power/population centers of Yevon are widely separated. But it reprises old regional and political tensions between Crusaders and warrior monks. (See my geopolitics in FFX post). There's always the fear a maester and/or populist leader trying to seize power might use one branch of the military or the other as pawns, or tip the balance of power between them.
Chapter Renumbering: Originally Chapter 28, posted June 2009
no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 04:04 am (UTC)Also having her be Auron’s secret daughter (though not by Lulu obviously) makes a lot more sense than the Mary Sue the audio drama tried to foist on us with the same claim, so once again you are doing a better job than the official sequel writers. I realize she isn’t really, but it’s a plausible and interesting theory.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-25 05:01 am (UTC)Juno is probably another alias, although who knows with her. (I definitely concur that Paine sounds like an alias). I was a little careless in picking her name in this story, but "Juno" just felt right. It has an echo of Nooj's name, reversed.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 05:56 am (UTC)