Prologue: Choices; Split Decisions

"I will become the fayth." Yunalesca nodded, as if she had expected no less.

"Your bond with your summoner is even stronger than Lord Zaon’s with myself. You shall do well." Turning, Yunalesca descended down the stairs to her left. Tidus turned back to regard his companions.

"Whoever it is…"his throat constricted, "whoever it is, guard them well." Lulu nodded in understanding. Wakka punched the ground in frustration even as silent tears raced down Rikku’s cheeks. Only Yuna, Auron, and Kimahari remained silent – and it was Yuna’s silence that hurt the most.

His first step was hesitant, but the farther he walked the more his resolve firmed. It was only a sudden, strangled cry that paused him as arms suddenly clasped themselves firmly around the waist. Yuna trembled against his back, and Tidus could feel his shirt becoming soaked with tears.

"You don’t have to do this…"she whispered softly, and Tidus had to strain his ears to hear her words. His usual cheerfulness gone, Tidus gently unclasped her hands as he turned to face her, putting his hands on her shoulders. He smiled and then leaned down to whisper in her ear. His hands leaving Yuna’s shoulders, Tidus followed Yunalesca’s path.

Kimahari watched silently as Yuna started to cry even harder. She sank to the cold, unfeeling floor, her knees too weak to support her in her grief. Auron walked forward and studied the sobbing summoner. "What did he say to you?" Yuna only shook her head, crying too hard to answer.

Of all the guardians, only Kimahari had been in a position to clearly see what Tidus had whispered to Yuna. But even if it had been shouted loud enough to be heard by all of Spira, only Kimahari, out of all present, save Yuna, would have been able to understand Tidus’ last words.

Just whistle.

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It didn’t hurt like I had expected it to. One moment I was just staring at Yunalesca, and in the next moment everything had been swallowed in darkness. In a way, the darkness scared me.

‘She betrayed you.’ The raspy, hate-filled voice jolted Tidus out of his state of half-sleep. The youth shook his head in denial.

‘Yuna would never betray me.’

Pain suddenly filled his mind and tortured his body as the voice pressed its rage upon him. ‘She betrayed you! She values her life more than your own.’ Tidus felt his consciousness pushed back even as he continued to fight the voice in a mental battle he knew he couldn’t lose.

‘A will so strong could be useful,’ A second voice murmured. However, preoccupied with all the foreign pain and rage flooding through his body, Tidus merely dismissed the second, softer voice as a product of his imagination.

The battle of wills felt like it took hours, but in truth it was no more than twenty minutes before Tidus felt an invisible force tugging on his mind. Taking advantage of Tidus’ momentary distraction, the voice caged him behind a wall of pain and blood. Tidus could feel his strength leaving him as he slipped into a half-sleep form of detachment.

Filtered sunlight stung his eyes, and he was dimly aware of scratchy concrete beneath his feet. Yet, no matter how hard he tried he could not force his physical body to respond. And then he suddenly understood.

He was inside a summoned aeon – and the hateful voice was in control.

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Yuna could only stare at the final aeon she had obtained – the aeon that would allow her to defeat Sin.

‘And poor Tidus will become Sin until another summoner comes to kill him,’ a voice whispered fiercely in her mind. Yuna shied from that train of thought, and instead she focused on the aeon that Tidus had become.

One-and-a-half Sin’s height, the aeon stood before her – staring at her – like a lithe, crouching cat, his wedge-shaped head giving him a sinister look. His pebbled skin was a twisted blending of black and white, gleaming like daggers in the sun. The tip of his tail was bristling with sharp, bone-white spines.

His wings, on the other hand, were steel. Each feather was long and sharp and they looked, to Yuna, like hilt-less broadswords. The tip of each feather was covered with a dark-red, almost black substance. It looked almost like dried blood.

What surprised the poor summoner the most, however, was when the aeon opened its needle-filled mouth and spoke. "I am the Ultimate Aeon. Are you ready to proceed, Summoner, even with the price you must pay?" Yuna nodded without hesitation. "Good."

With a practiced air of bored impatience the aeon turned to face what he had once been – Sin.

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At that time, I wasn’t really aware of much of anything. Everything flew by in a haze, almost like I was dreaming. One thing did stick, though. As I felt myself attack Sin…my father…

The voice, the real aeon’s voice, handled Tidus’ new body like a pro. The voice had also taken to giggling madly, and Tidus felt a chill crawl up his spine.

‘It always repeats…

Tidus blinked in surprise. Was the aeon singing? He tried once more – sluggishly – to break free of his cage. But the aeon – Ultima, a voice whispered – ignored his attempt at freedom.

‘Again and again am I summoned without end,

And the payment to me is her death.’

That eerie song stayed with me for the rest of my life. And at first, I was sure that the ‘her’ Ultima was singing about had to be Yuna. I should have known better.

I never learned the horrifying truth behind the aeon’s song until much later. And when I did…Yunalesca started to remind me more and more of Seymour.

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Yuna stared, horrified, at the bloody mess that had once been known as Sin. There was blood – everywhere.

Pieces of Sin – small pieces – were strewn all over the ruins. The ground was soaked in blood – almost as if a giant painter had spilled his can of red paint.

"Eewwwww…" Rikku whined, shuddering, "I think this was an eye." The Al Bhed girl marched forward, shaking her fist at the aeon. "Couldn’t you be a little neater?!"

The aeon’s head suddenly swerved, settling its gaze on Yuna. An unrecognizable emotion glittered in its eyes as it crouched, raising its tail to strike. "And now for my payment, summoner." The tail swung forward, poison dripping from its spines. Yuna raised her fingers to her lips. And like a ghost on the breeze, Tidus’ last words whispered through her mind. Just whistle.

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Ultima’s maddened consciousness stared in child-like wonder as Tidus burst through its shield. It paused only a moment before crowing in triumph. ‘The betrayer is dead once more!’

Tidus’ face twisted in a half-maddened rage. ‘Yuna didn’t betray anyone, you bastard!’

‘Foolish.’ Ultima renewed its attack on Tidus, but it did not count on one thing. The pain of Tidus’ loss outweighed Ultima’s rage of betrayal. And this time it was the mad aeon that found itself cornered and powerless.

Tidus was in charge of his physical form once again. His eyes landed on the blood beside Yuna and he took a step back, roaring in rage and despair.

And then he began to shrink.

Author’s Notes ~ Done, done, done! (with the first prologue, at least) Aaah, many people think I’m being mean to poor Tidus…

Though what I do to Tidus within the next couple of chapters, well…lets just say he won’t like it much. *Evil grin*

But it’s funny, I swear!