Sins of the Father

"No you!" Ingrid said, throwing magic space rocks at Senthose.

*Senthose takes a swing at Luna, allowing her to stab him. Once she does, he swipes an Ether from her, downs it, & causes a pillar of rock to form underneath her, jutting up a hundred feet into the air.*

<There! Too far to attack, no more flying summons, you're safely out of the way. Now...JUST...stay up there...while I fix. Everything. Everything's going to be! JUST! FINE!>

*With that done, he turns & starts walking towards Ingrid.*

*Ark hurls a Grenade at him followed by a few Aeroga and Flares.*

Ingrid let out a long sigh, "Just die already!" She then cast more space death rocks on Senthose.

Somewhere an astronomer was shitting bricks.

*Senthose falls to his knees.*

<What will it take to get you to see? Do I have to destroy all of Spira? Then so be it!>

*As he falls over, Sin jerks to the side & bites down on the party, destroying a significant portion of the valley. Soon afterwards, everyone wakes up in the familiar area of Sin's gullet. Luna is sitting in the corner, her spear smashed into pieces, arms wrapped around her legs.*

"...You have to realize by now that we have no other choice. Even if we could have ignored Sin before, that's not an option now that we're trapped inside him. Besides, look at that."

*She nods her head towards Senthose. In one of the holes made by Meteor, threads of flesh were stitching themselves back together & pulling bones back into place.*

"It's the same as in Bevelle, he can keep reviving back to full health as long as Sin is alive. And I don't know how many more times we can beat him."

"Then we kill whatever is keeping Sin alive." She said, "Senthose is insane, and we can't allow Spira to exist with Sin, not when we can make it pure again."

"I agree. So I will perform the Sending, & then Senthose & I will disappear with it."

"Wait! There has to be someway we can do this that doesn't involve losing you." Ingrid replied.

Ark: <Luna...>

*Ark stays silent for a few seconds, unsure of whether or not it's time to settle with that option.*

Ark: <How many times has it come down to that decision? We've pulled through all this way, we shouldn't give up so easily. We're inside Sin. There's gotta be a way to use that to our advantage.>

"Grow up, all of you!"

*She jumps up to her feet, tears streaming down her face.*

"There is only one other option, & you didn't like it when Senthose told you what it was!"

*Senthose reaches out & grabs one of his katanas. As he does so, his knuckles pop back into alignment & the charred flesh of his hand regains color & sponginess.*

"...Speaking of, we don't have very much time left."

Ark: <...Fine. Do what you want then!>

*Ark turns away from them, biting his lip.*

"You cowards!" Ingrid shouted, "We've come so far! We've come so far, and for what, to settle for an empty victory?! This entire journey has been filled with bad luck, I refuse to sit back and watch as we get the raw end of a deal again!" With that Ingrid let out a loud roar, flaring the hell out of Senthose's body, and the inside of Sin.

*Senthose's body has become covered with the armor again, as he continues to regenerate, so he isn't even damaged. There is also no visible effect on Sin, besides making the water ripple.*

"This is the way it has to be. Sin was never meant to exist...nor were its Spawn."

Ingrid fell to her knees, defeated and out of any ideas. She couldn't look Luna in the eyes, but she managed to weakly say, "Please, don't do this..."

<I won't allow it...I'll stop the Sending...by any means necessary....>

*Senthose starts to crawl forward, so Luna takes a step back & does a twirl. As she goes, Pyreflies begin to emerge from the water.*

"Please Luna, please don't do this. We can think of something, anything else." Ingrid pleaded, her voice hitching every now and again.

*Ark wipes his tears with the back of his hands and goes to stand in between Luna and Senthose to try to keep him from interfering.*

*Luna abruptly stops dancing.*

"It's already too late."

*Now they are able to see the outside as Sin rapidly dissolves around them into Pyreflies. Senthose's robe, hair, & eyes, go back to being white, black, & green, respectively, as pyreflies exit his body. His pupils close & become swirled again. Finally, Luna collapses, her breathing becoming labored as Pyreflies exit her own body.*

*Ark drops his daggers to the ground and kneels down next to Luna, holding one of her hands if it hasn't vanishes yet.*

Ingrid takes a step closer towards Luna, "I'm sorry Luna. We weren't good guardians, we couldn't help you when you needed us. I, I'm not even a good person, so why is it that you're the one that this had to happen to?"

"What do you...mean? ...We got here...beat Sin...and now I die...we...played our roles...perfectly."

*Ingrid feels something hit her hard in the back of the head. Senthose turns her around & starts choking her, his own eyes watering.*

<You're right, you aren't a good person, you've murdered my daughter! I could choke the life out of you right here for that...but I have a much better idea.>

*He lets go of her throat.*

<You have the Sinless Spira you wanted. Now you get to watch it unfold. And think about all that you sacrificed to get here. Every. Single. Day. As for me? This world is dead to me.>

*With that, he dissolves into Pyreflies. Luna starts coughing & shivering.*

Ingrid remains where she is, looking up at Sin's insides, or the sky, depending on how far Sin had dissolved. "I'll fix this, one day everything will be better. I'll make ensure Spira stays free of sin forever. I'll never let Luna's calm go to waste." She said, mostly to herself.

*Luna stops breathing. Her Phoenix Down does not activate.*

Ingrid looks on as pyreflies fly above her head. Ingrid then gets up, and wipes her eyes and looked at Ark, "I'm--" She stopped and let out a cough, her voice was raw and high pitched, "Sorry about that," She said with a more normal, yet still shaky voice, "I'm leaving. We've done our part, but I simply can't be proud of this. Not until I make sure the world is a better place. I owe her that much." Ingrid took a step towards the woods, "It was... a pleasure to have met you Ark. Goodbye."

*An indeterminate amount of time later, Maechan was speaking with Rin outside of his shop.*

Rin<So that is what happened? This Luna, she & her guardians defeated Sin? But then, why did Home not go through with its original plan? Was Bevelle still too strong?>

Maechan<This is just my conjecture, but I believe that Bevelle acknowledged they had the spirit to keep fighting, but not the means, while the Al Bhed officials realized just the opposite. So they agreed on a partnership.>

Rin<But a thousand years of church dogma is not easily erased, yes?>

Maechan<It is easier if you can claim that an entire race was made heretics by one man. It has always been in the church's nature to pin such complex social ills on such a simple evil, if you don't mind my saying.>

Rin<I see. "All this time we claimed the Al Bhed were heretics who abused machina, it was actually all Senthose's fault," yes? And once he was out of the picture, they could claim that all peoples of Spira were now in compliance with Yevon's laws, explaining the disappearance of Sin. But what of Luna & her guardians?>

Maechan<There have been attempts to absolve Luna's name, but they have been largely ignored. The few who remember her do so as a heretic & a monster. No one has ever been able to contact her on the Farplane, nor does she appear as an Unsent. Her guardians have not been seen or heard from in some time, I'm afraid.>

Rin<Still, they defeated Sin and restored peace to Spira, did they not?>

Maechan<Perhaps. A significant portion of the Sinspawn research was destroyed, along with all of the Fayth. It would be difficult for anyone to pick up where Bevelle & Senthose left off. As to the matter of governance, that I cannot say.>

Rin<And what do I do with this information?>

Maechan<I do not know that any more than anyone who has ever fought Sin. What I do know is this: Had no one ever found out about the Machina War conspiracies, Sin may well be alive today. It never hurts to study history. If nothing else, it allows one to marvel at why things are the way they are, and ponder at what might have been.>