Love Her and Despair Remaster [36]
Aug. 26th, 2019 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auronluTitle: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 36: "Dust in the Sky"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron, Nooj, Baralai, Gippal, Paine, Rikku, Isaaru, Shinra, Elma, Lucil...ok, yeah, everybody.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1900
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC
The Story So Far: Auron and his allies lure Sin to the uninhabited ruins of Old Guadosalam, hoping that the firepower of an ancient weapon will be sufficient to disable the foe.
"Beleaguered" by author
The Thunder Plains were becalmed while Guadosalam rocked with thunder.
No living person in Spira had ever seen Sin like this: sinking, impotent, flailing in sluggish rage, lashing out with lightning and shockwaves that buffeted but could not shake pursuit. Vegnagun proved surprisingly agile, harrying Sin as it fell. Fiends rained down on the deadlands.
Baralai was locked in a lover's embrace with Vegnagun's controls, miming every attack. He drew a rolling scale up the keys, and a white-hot barrage peppered Sin's upper hull. A cluster of base notes sent Vegnagun's tail swiping across its eyes, following the blow with a red beam that pierced shell and bone. Even Thundaga was turned against its mistress. Lightning leapt from Sin to Vegnagun and back again.
Nooj was piloting. Diving past Sin's flank, he dug into a steep turn that pressed them against their seats. Vegnagun roared back up through the haze in a corkscrew spin, bursting out behind their prey. Baralai whooped and emptied the missile bank into the breach left by the main cannon.
"Don't forget it can kill us," Nooj said, but he was smiling.
"First it has to catch us," said Baralai.
"Good going, guys!" Rikku called over the open channel. "Now break off. We're coming to deliver the package."
"Negative. We've not finished," Baralai said, sweeping his hands together. A sphere of energy began forming between Vegnagun's tusks.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rikku said. "If you blow up Sin, Yu Yevon could jump anywhere! Let Isaaru and Auron tackle the guy inside."
"If you find Sir Auron alive, please let us know," Baralai said. "Otherwise, we're taking Sin out."
"Stupid Yevonite." Rikku kicked her feet against the glass. "Hey, Lucil, talk sense into him. He's sucking fumes."
"Maybe so, but it's working." Elma raised a fist. "Yaah!"
Nearing the ground, Sin plunged into greenish-yellow haze like an anchor. A massive cloud of dust and debris billowed up, obscuring the battered leviathan from view. Shockwaves rippled out through the fog in all directions.
Lucil raised her arm in salute, eyes glittering. "Vengeance."
"Now that's a machina. What did I tell you?" said Cid.
Vegnagun hung over the impact plume like a monstrous dragonfly, pawing the air as if itching to trample its prey. The globe of energy between its horns swelled to bursting and catapulted downward. There was a white flash. The beam punched through the fog to reveal Sin lying on its side in a fresh crater, bleeding pyreflies. Around it, most of Old Guadosalam was ablaze.
"Isaaru?" Lucil said. "Assessment?"
"Sin may fall, but what of Yu Yevon? Even if Vegnagun can strip away his armor—"
"Augh!" Rikku squeezed her fists against her forehead. "Shinra. Scan for Auron. Should be easy to spot. He's got a sword bigger'n Gippal's ego."
"We're already on it, cupcakes," Gippal said over the link. "And we survived the blast wave, if anyone asks. G-team out."
"Um," Pacce said. "What's Sin doing?"
The fog had started to circulate around the point of impact in a slow-moving vortex. Sin's mottled surface crawled like melting wax. The yellow bowl of fog to the south, shrouding the rupture that had once been Guadosalam's portal to the Farplane, was rising in a churning dome.
"The Farplane!" Isaaru said. "Shinra, what do you see?"
"Scanning." Shinra pulled up the impact zone on the forward displays. The magnified view showed ribbons of light spiraling inwards towards Sin. Other pathways snaked between the whirlpool's perimeter and the Farplane crater to the south, forming a double spiral. "Looks like it's pulling in all the pyreflies in the area."
"Yu Yevon," Isaaru said, and somehow it was still a prayer. "He's rebuilding Sin's armor. Elder Cid, you've got to put me down before it recovers its strength."
"Put you down where?" Cid said. "From what I'm lookin' at, the whole danged forest is on fire."
"Wherever you can. Shinra, find us a landing spot. Keep scanning for Sir Auron."
Auron had found high ground on a gargantuan treestump that jutted through the sea of smoke. He was harder to spot without his coat, but his blade reflected the burning forest. Right now, the sword was also a prop. Auron bent as if fighting a gale, his back to Sin. He seemed unaware of the sincscales creeping up the sides of his refuge. One went up in a gout of pyreflies, struck by a flying chunk of debris blasted off from Sin's carapace. Others were on fire.
"Heeeeey, LJ!" Gippal eased as low as he could over the flames and smoke. "Need a lift? You get one more free ride, then I start charging you triple!"
Auron vaulted across the gap. His gravity-defying leaps were part of his legend, but he stumbled upon landing and went crashing to the deck. The hover tilted dangerously. Twisting in her seat, Juno seized his belt to keep him from tumbling out. Auron ignored her, doubled over with face contorted. "Away."
She scowled, mistaking his meaning, but did not loosen her grip.
"You got it, boss," Gippal said. He arrowed towards open sky, fleeing the bombardment raining down behind them. "Wow, Bar's really getting carried away."
"Are you injured?" Juno said. Pyreflies drifted past her knuckles.
Auron shook his head.
"Heh. He's kinda like Nooj," Gippal said. "Ask ten questions, and you're lucky to get one answer. Auron, what the heck happened back there? First Sin's using you for target practice, then it chucks you out like a sand worm with a bellyache. You give Yevon indigestion, or what?"
As the flyer put distance between them and Sin, Auron uncurled like a wary crab, flexing his left hand. He nodded to Juno and stood, gazing south. Vegnagun's shadow floated on the clouds like a vulture riding thermals. He closed his eye and turned away as the machina unleashed another deluge of destruction. "What's our status?"
"See what I mean?" Gippal said to Juno.
She shrugged. "Sin's down. Vegnagun isn't. Baralai's pulverizing whatever's left. However, there's a problem."
"It's regenerating the exoskeleton at a tremendous rate. Also, it's starting to modulate its shield to match your energy weapons," Shinra was saying.
"How long have we got?" said Nooj.
"You're barely keeping up with it. I estimate half an hour before it's repaired most of the damage. Sin will probably be mobile before that."
"Wonderful." Nooj gazed through Vegnagun's eyes at the shipwrecked foe. Every time he settled too deeply into the mental interface, he had to fight the urge to struggle free like a panicking swimmer. "Recommendations?"
"Don't ask me. I'm just a tech."
"Half an hour?" Baralai frowned. "I'll need five minutes to power down secondary weapons, twenty to recharge the main cannon."
"Too long." Lucil said. "V-team, fall back. G-team, stand by. Avenger will drop the summoner's party near Sin. We knew machina alone would not win this battle."
"With respect," Nooj said, "That's the sort of cockeyed plan I'd expect from a maester of Yevon. If Sin's rebuilding its outer shell, you can bet it's shoring up internal defenses. If we don't drive it away from the Farplane portal, it's going to be impregnable. Your summoner and guardians won't stand a chance."
"As a maester of Yevon, I concur," Baralai said, giving Nooj a wry look.
There was a brief pause. "Very well. Cut its supply lines. Then Lord Isaaru can move in. We will continue to monitor your situation. Avenger out."
"Well." Baralai exhaled. "I guess it couldn't be that easy."
"It never is," Nooj said. "Speaking of which, Shinra's autopilot shorted out."
"What?" Baralai's eyes narrowed. "So. We can't send Vegnagun to the Farplane remotely. Very well. Nooj, start moving us away from Sin. Gippal, are you there?"
"Yo. What's the plan, boss?"
"Meet us at the edge of the Thunder Plains. I'll explain there."
"Got it. We'll be there in a few."
Nooj frowned. "Shouldn't we be going after Sin?"
"Yes. But first..." Baralai hesitated, waiting for Vegnagun to get under way. "Nooj. There's two things I should say. One: I apologize for doubting you. Once upon a time, I considered you the finest friend a man could have. I trusted you. I looked up to you as a role model. Later, I couldn't understand how I could have been so wrong about you. But I wasn't wrong, was I? After we learned the truth about Shuyin, I should have been able to accept you as the man I once knew."
"Trust doesn't pick up where it left off, after a thirteen-year hiatus. And I'm not the man I was, nor are you. I hope we can renew that friendship."
"You already have." Baralai drew his hands away from the keys and let the music ebb. He sat blinking and blind for a few seconds until ordinary vision reasserted itself. His voice dropped. "Two: Look after Paine."
"Baralai!" Nooj floundered out of Vegnagun's mental interface in alarm, causing the machina to list sharply until its guidance systems kicked in. By the time Nooj had settled into his own body, he found Baralai's pistol pressed against his breast. "This isn't necessary. After the battle—"
"For Vegnagun, there is no after the battle. I'd rather not emulate you this way, Nooj, but for Spira's sake, I must. Forgive me."
There was a loud burst of static over the commlink. Gippal frowned. "Uh...guys? What's going on over there?"
"Get up here immediately," Nooj said. "Baralai's hurt."
"Huh? What the— ow! Dammit, Paine, I'm going!" Gippal rubbed his elbow and set the flyer in motion.
Auron brooded behind them. He was no longer being wracked by the insistent tug of a summons far worse than sending. Yet he knew the lull was an illusion. Behind them, Yu Yevon was weaving an armored cocoon, just as Auron had seen when Jecht's aeon vanished under layers of bone and hide. Their window of opportunity was closing. However, he understood loyalty, and held his peace.
Vegnagun was waiting for them, hunkered down like a spider on the edge of the Thunder Plains. Gippal negotiated the obstacle course of wings and horns to park on Vegnagun's neck. Before the flyer came to a stop, Juno jumped out.
"What happened?" She knelt next to Baralai, shucking her gauntlet and searching for a pulse. He was limp, head lolled back, eyes open.
"Electric shock," Nooj said, bent over the keys. His right hand drummed a monotonous rhythm, holding the machina steady. "Vegnagun decided to protect itself from whatever he was planning."
"Yeah, right," Gippal said. "You just knocked him out to play Deathseeker."
"Not funny," Juno said, hitching her hands under Baralai's armpits and heaving.
"You think I'm joking?" Gippal said.
"We're running out of time." Auron climbed out to help Juno extricate Baralai and lift him into the hover.
"I'll take Baralai's place," Juno said. "I can fly or operate weapons, Nooj. Your choice."
"No. Get Baralai to safety." Nooj had yet to look in her direction. His attention was fixed on the shifting patterns that served as the bridge between mind and machina. "Catch me later."
"Nooj!" Gippal said."C'mon, man, don't be like that."
Juno opened her mouth to protest, then stopped. She gave Nooj a long, searching look. "Understood." She hopped over the windshield into the flyer. "We're leaving."
Next Chapter: Titanomachy
Author's Notes
Meta: "Dust in the Sky" is a line in Otherworld.
Chapter renumbering: Chapter 40, "Titanomachy," originally posted March 2010, but it was so long I've split it.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-28 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-02 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-04 05:00 pm (UTC)This chapter is really exciting! You do action scenes well, it's detailed enough that I could picture everything that was happening but the pace still moves the reader along.
And that illustration came out really nice!!