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year 5, quarter 3
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It wounded Caius' pride to surrender, and he knew they were taking a huge risk by allowing themselves to be at the mercy of the bandits, but there was nothing they could do for the time being. Vordun was clearly upset, and Caius was made to calm him down before they were bound and chained up, Vordun included. They were led downwards until they reached the base, and then were shoved until they came to an area that led underground.
Of course.
The bandits weren't stupid, though. They had placed collars on the necks of Caius and Yuna that disabled their magic, meaning Caius was unable to summon his weapons nor magic, and Yuna was unable to use her spells and most likely her summons. The two of them were led into a large underground complex of narrow and swirling passages, with a deep pit at the centre that the entire complex revolved around. Caius noticed a large wooden stage, where people were bound the same way that Caius and Yuna were. People that didn't look so much like bandits were seemingly... Bartering for them? Were they...?
Caius scoffed, and received a blow to the back of the head for it. But he couldn't contain his disgust. Trafficking people? He knew that Darlene had suspected it when they had kidnapped her daughter, but... To actually see it? To know that this was what they had been planning for the people that Caius and Yuna had saved in their first mission together? It made him sick to his stomach that they were taking and selling people as slaves. And it disgusted him even more that people were willing to buy.
Caius and Yuna were eventually led to a dark room filled with gloomy and dank cells. They were each shoved into a separate cell, and Vordun was bound further and chained to the wall nearby. The bandits snickered at them, before one spoke up.
"To think that the bosses bounty targets would come right to us. And together, all of things! You two just made us a lot of dough, so I'll think you for that... She'll be here to see you shortly. Don't go anywhere! Hah!"
The bandits laughed even harder, seeming to enjoy their little joke before they left. When the doors closed behind them, Caius took a deep breath before speaking up to Yuna.
"You asked about the meaning of the word Sin... It tends to relate to committing a great atrocity, typically related to the Astrals, in my world. Here, if I was to guess... It has the same meaning but with the equivalent gods they worship here. To put it simply... It is to commit an atrocity so great that the gods look down upon it" He clarified when Yuna seemed to remember that they weren't in her world anymore. "I suppose it isn't all that different from the Sin you know, in a way. But instead of a being called Sin... It is people embodying what made Sin, well... Sin.
It fits these people perfectly, if I'm to be honest. I became privy to the name when they torched a village to draw me out. These hunters appear to have decided that I am a threat to their operations, and if I was to guess, now see you the same way after you turned out to have an Astral in your back pocket.
That’s what happens in this world. Good deeds or bad… You will make enemies.”
Before long, the doors would open once more and the bandits returned. With them was a tall, muscular woman, dressed in the same garb as the rest of the bandits but between the smug grin on her face and the way the other bandits made way for her, it was clear that she was in charge of this operation. When Caius raised his head from his prior period of rest, to study her face…
The corner of his mouth formed into a smirk.
“Nice of you to come and help us find your daughter… Isn’t it, Darlene?”
Final Fantasy X
19
YEARS
Female
Tidus
Heterosexual
294 POSTS
Erin
I live for the people of Spira, and would have gladly died for them, but no more!
Yuna had to swallow a gasp when the bandits snapped a thick collar around her neck after they’d done the same thing to Caius. The material was rough against her skin, and she instantly felt disconnected from her magic in a way that frightened her. She’d experienced something like this before—the Al-Bhed had used an anti-magic field on her and her guardians before she had entered Macalania Temple, but she had at least been with a large group then. With her and Caius already bound, Yuna felt much more vulnerable this time, and she gave Caius an uneasy glance as she wondered if surrendering had been the right thing to do. Even if they found the little girl now, it would be difficult to rescue her without their weapons or magic.
The two were dragged underground, and it quickly became apparent why the base had seemed so small. Most of the compound was actually underground in a sprawling mass of tunnels. Yuna tried to keep track of the directions that they took. Right. Left. Left again. But all other thoughts froze in her mind as they were dragged through what appeared to be a small auditorium. The people on the low stage were bound in the same way that she and Caius were, and Yuna’s eyes flickered between them and the bandits in horror when she realized that people were making offers for them. She desperately hoped that she had misunderstood the situation, but judging from the disgusted look that Caius had, he’d come to the same conclusion that she had. The bandits were selling people.
Turning her face away, Yuna bit her lip and vowed that they’d have to rescue everyone as they were pulled out of the room and deeper underground. The row of cell blocks that they were taken to were fairly dark and damp, and she stumbled a bit as she was shoved into a cell and the door was locked behind her. Caius was put into the cell diagonal from hers, and while she couldn’t see Vordun anymore, she assumed that he was down at the end judging by the clanging sound of chains followed by a dragon’s growl. Before they left, two of the bandits taunted them, and Yuna frowned as they were once again referred to as bounty targets. Did that mean that the group was after both of them?
As their footsteps faded down the hallway, Yuna despondently took a seat on her knees, her bound hands still clasped behind her. When she sat in a specific corner, she was able to see into Caius’ cell, so she looked over at him as he went on to explain what their group name ‘The Original Sin’ meant in this world.
“Then they’re proud of committing atrocities,” she said slowly. That was wrenching to hear, but she couldn’t say that she was surprised after what they had just witnessed above them. She also wasn’t surprised to hear Caius say that the bandits likely had a bounty out on both of them, though she couldn’t have said what that meant for them. Were they planning to kill them both once they had been handed over?
“That’s what happens in this world. Good deeds or bad… You will make enemies.”
Yuna considered her knees for a moment as silence fell over the cell block. “I don’t mind being their enemies much if this is what they’re doing,” she murmured before shifting how she was sitting. Her arm bumped against something near her waist, and she froze as the realization that she was still armed came to her. The dagger that Celes had bought her. The blonde woman had gone out of her way to make Yuna comfortable by buying her a blade that was more jewelry than weapon, so the bandits must have taken the jeweled carvings above her sash to be part of her elaborate outfit rather than the hilt of a dagger. She wanted to shout the news over to Caius, but she knew better than to think that there wouldn’t be a guard close by. She needed to keep this quiet for now.
Using her elbows, Yuna went about the painstaking process of shifting her sash enough to extract the dagger with her bound hands. It was a painful process, and by the time she’d managed to grasp the hilt with the tips of her fingers and extract it from the thin leather sheathe beneath her sash, the door at the far-end of the hallway opened with a creak. Freezing, Yuna scooted her back to the wall and rearranged herself, hoping that the dagger wouldn’t be seen from underneath her billowing sleeves. She hadn’t even started to hack away at her ropes yet. If she was found out now, then they were done before they started.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway before a few bandits emerged into her line of sight. At the front was a muscular woman with her hair tied back. Caius visibly stiffened at the sight of her before a bitter, resigned smirk crossed his face.
“Nice of you to come and help us find your daughter… Isn’t it, Darlene?”
“Darlene?” Yuna echoed, feeling the bottom drop out of her stomach as she stared between the two of them. “Then…this was a trap?” They had really put out a fake job just to capture them? The thought made her feel sick. Would any of the other Dragonblades get caught up in this? Would Celes?
“Please,” Yuna addressed Darlene directly, though she didn’t have much hope that it would work. “You have to know that this is wrong. If you condemned kidnapping in your fake request, then you’re self-aware about it. You don’t have to do this.” Naïve perhaps, but Yuna at least wanted to try. At this point, she was questioning if she and Caius would be killed or put up for auction.
“Why wouldn’t they be proud of what gets them through life without regrets?” Caius responded quickly. “If they were good people, these atrocities would tear them apart to do, even if they had to. And you would be able to tell… Trust me, I know. These people do not feel that remorse, to them… This is an easy way to get through life… No drawbacks. That’s just how some people are. Even if it disgusts me.”
Yes, their client appeared to be the leader of this operation and the woman sneered at Caius’ dry sass. But it was Yuna’s words that brought out horrible, howling laughter from Darlene.
“Of course it was a trap! Is this what’s caused us so much trouble? A child?” She remarked towards Yuna mockingly. “Word of advice, as if you’ll need it… When there’s gil to be made, you get it. People are weak, sentimental… You can make your gil that way. People like you, people like him… They easily fall for every little sob story and rush to help! I’ve done this so many times before now, it’s almost too easy.”
The woman mock swooned and donned her desperate pleading mother voice.
“Oh, you have to hurry! I will pay any price! Any price you name, just please save Emily! Oh, my dear Emily! Save my dear sweet girl by making me a pretty gil selling you off!”
Her and her guard began to laugh at this, relishing the ease of all this. “You arrogant girl… Do you really think I would go to all this trouble just for you? Please. I’ve been running this racket for months. Everyone from do gooder adventurers to money hungry mercenaries, to goody goody town guards to just plain suckers like you two… They’ve all made me plenty of gil.
But who would have thought that my biggest score would fall right into my lap? The ones the boss wants. And you made it all too easy.”
Caius seemed almost bored by her speech. “So, the Original Sin, I assume. What’s with all this about me, aye? You torched a village and killed innocent people just to draw me out. Clearly you want me for something.”
Darlene laughs then, shaking her head. “Not me, dear… You just aren’t my type, sorry. No… The boss has decided you have been a problem in our activities for too long. From the day you first crossed us, you dirty little minx… All we asked you to do is escort our men to town, and then aid our forces in a bit of work. Even offered to pay extra for the bit of trouble. Then what do you do? You get them there, sure… Could have even made a fine member of our little band, by the tales I heard. But you ratted our force out to the guards, took your fee and left.
We hunted you down, just wanted our money back, ya know? And you and that blonde floozie have our force arrested again mere days after all the work we put in to arrange their escape. But you don’t stop there. That’s not enough for you, is it? No, you just had to keep interfering. Ruined our activities in Torensten with that floozie again, cost us many resources and men… And then you move to our most profitable business. You attack one of our settlements like a savage, and now not only do you have a beast doing your dirty work… You bring her.”
Darlene shoots Yuna a glare.
“Some kind of witch that can summon god-like beasts. The boss knew that she needed to be taken care of, she’s too dangerous to be kept alive… So a bounty was posted on her first.
But you… The boss decided you couldn’t be allowed to interfere anymore either. So they set fire to that village, sent a nice letter… And you come running right on cue like a sucker. I was told by them that apparently… You don’t kill people… They were supposed to take advantage, do what they like to bring your guard down, knowing you would do nothing. Should make you easy to capture, they told me... Yet they didn’t return. Go figure. But it doesn’t matter now.”
The idea that all these instances had been a case of him slowly pissing off the same bandit group was amusing to Caius. But at least now he had his answer. Now just to get out of here…
“The boss wants you alive. Both of you. Says that after all you’ve done, he wants to kill you himself to ensure it’s done, and to make it slow and painful. So here’s what’s going to happen…”
A sly grin slowly crosses her face.
“Tomorrow morning, you two go on the block. I’m sure someone capable of some heavy lifting and a good little serving girl could fetch a decent price. After you’ve been sold off… You go to the surface with them, out of sight… Then since obviously I’m not letting my big score get away… We’ll kill the suckers and ship you two off to the boss, for the biggest payday of our lives.
Why am I telling you this?” She asks rhetorically with a laugh. “Because you won’t say a word. You’re going to watch it happen. No words… No rebellion, no attempt to escape.”
She leans forward until her face is against the bars.
“Because if you try… I’ll kill your stupid beast. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”
The amusement left Caius’ face immediately as his expression shifted to a frown.
“If you cooperate… We’ll keep him alive. He’ll be made tame into a beast of burden. Serve a greater purpose, ya know?”
With that, she begins heading toward the door, her guards following. As they pass Vordun, the enraged fire drake responds by letting out an earsplitting roar in Darlene’s face. Darlene glares at the wyrm, looking to Caius before pulling out her dagger.
“WAIT, STOP!” Caius cried out desperately, eyes wide as he recklessly threw his entire body against the bars, but it was no use. Darlene slashed Vordun across the bottom of the chin, narrowly missing the center of the dragon’s throat but still doing a great deal of damage. The dragon let out a pained roar, as Darlene roughly kicked Vordun in the snout, sending him to the floor.
“Shut up, you stupid beast” She growled, turning to leave as she spoke back to Caius and Yuna.
“I’ll send a healer for him later… Maybe. Not like it matters if I don’t.”
A laugh followed as the doors fell behind them. Vordun had begun whimpering from the pain, and Caius collapsed back against the wall of the cell. His head turned downward, his hair fell and covered his face. Covered whatever was going on underneath. But tears began to run down his face, giving some measure of a glimpse into his psyche in that moment.
And then his dagger dropped to the floor.
The other half of Isp. Only one half had been dropped and disappeared earlier. Caius had hidden the other to keep it from disappearing, and much like Yuna, he had been slowly working on his escape all this time. As his binds fell, Caius immediately tore off the collar. As his weapons re-appeared then disappeared, Caius moved away his hair, and wiped his face. While his eyes were still red and puffy, his expression was unreadable. Stone cold. Frigid as the mountains above them on the surface.
He raised a hand, then. As he spoke one word, cold and firm.
“Fira.”
The door was blown open by the ensuing fire spell as Caius walked out and moved to Yuna’s cell. Instead of using a spell though, in a surprising display of the strength that the Power of Kings provided, he took the door and with some struggle, aggressively ripped it off his hinges and dropped the cell door with a long clang. He noted her binds, but neither his expression or voice changed.
“If you have it, hurry. If you do not, tell me. They will arrive soon. Focus on magic, this tunnel will give us the advantage that way.”
With that, he rushed to Vordun, quickly checking his wound before casting Cura and laying on his best potion on top of it. After then cutting his chains, Caius’ expression finally changed as he wrapped his arms around Vordun. “I’m so sorry, Vordun…” Caius whispered to the dragon as he choked back sobs, holding back his tears best he could. “I should have been there. I failed you, and I’m sorry.”
He brought his head to Vordun’s.
“... She won’t hurt you again. I promise.”
With that, as he turned toward the doors, his expression had shifted back to that stone-faced visage. All business. But with something else, something darker lurking behind those eyes…
A commotion could be heard behind the door as bandits had begun massing, likely realizing that their prey was attempting to escape. They didn’t have much time. If there were any preparations left for Yuna to make… Now was the time.
Final Fantasy X
19
YEARS
Female
Tidus
Heterosexual
294 POSTS
Erin
I live for the people of Spira, and would have gladly died for them, but no more!
Yuna bit her lip as Darlene mocked her, raising her chin slightly as the bandits’ laughter echoed down the hallway. She resented being called a child, though she supposed it was technically true that she had yet to hit her eighteenth birthday. Still, she refused to be condescended to by someone who cared so little for other people’s lives. She had hoped that Darlene could be reasoned with, but that didn’t appear to be the case.
Caius responded to the bandit leader’s words in an almost bored tone, and Yuna wondered if she should take a page from his book. They were cruel people, and if they showed too much weakness in front of them, it would likely just encourage them. Darlene responded to Caius by listing out all the ways that Caius had crossed them, and even Yuna had to give him a startled look at the length of the list. She hadn’t realized the extent of his dealings with the Original Sin, and she was taken off guard again when the bulky woman shot her a vicious glare.
“Witch?” Yuna echoed her insult while frowning at her a little indignantly. Shiva was hardly a beast, and to call her one was to spit on the sacrifices that the fayth had made, but Yuna thought that any lectures would be lost on this group, so she bit her tongue and kept quiet. At least until Darlene outlined her plans for them.
“You would even betray your clients? I feel bad for you. You have no loyalty to anything but your money.” Despite her words, Yuna’s hands shook slightly behind her back where she held the hidden dagger. Being put up on an auction block and having strangers put a price on her sounded more terrifying than whatever death the boss had planned for them. Still, she refused to show them that she was afraid, though a slight gasp left her lips when they threatened Vordun. Her eyes flickered to Caius’s worried expression, and she pressed up against the bars to see better as the group approached the dragon on the way out.
Yuna flinched backwards as Darlene cut Vordun’s throat. Dragon scales were hard enough that they likely protected him from a lethal wound, but a great deal of dark blood started pouring down his chin anyway as she kicked the dragon to the floor. Yuna didn’t know what was harder to hear--Caius’ pleas for her to stop or the whimpers that left Vordun’s lips as the bandits finally left them alone. “Caius…” Yuna murmured, looking over at her friend in worry. Caius had lowered his head to the floor, and his long blond hair covered most of his face, so Yuna could only catch the brief glint of a tear as it dripped to the floor. Her heart ached for him, and she glanced away to give him some privacy, so she was surprised to find him suddenly standing at the bars of his cell as he blasted the wooden parts open with a fire spell.
Yuna shrank back as the heat from the spell wafted down the hallway, and she renewed her grip on the dagger as she started hacking away at the bindings on her wrists. Her movements with the weapon were clumsy since she wasn’t used to handling it, so she winced as she managed to slice through the rope while taking a small chunk of her wrist with it. It was nothing that wouldn’t heal at least, and she started to feel along her collar for the clasp as Caius ripped off her cell door with an astonishing amount of strength.
“I have it. You can go to him,” she reassured him briefly as she finally managed to remove the collar, letting out a breath of relief as she felt the warmth from her magic slowly wash over her again. Collecting her dagger, Yuna left her cell and looked on a little sadly as Caius freed Vordun from his bindings. She had been prepared to heal him, but Caius seemed to have taken care of the immediate wound, so Yuna let them have their space for now. She’d offer to look over the dragon more thoroughly when they were out of here.
The sound of people approaching came from behind the door, and there was really nowhere to hide in the cell block. This was going to turn into a brawl, so Yuna cast a quick Protect spell on all three of them, since the bandits seemed to rely primarily on physical attacks. Her magic came to her a bit more sluggishly than normal, though the effect was lessened when Yuna used her new dagger to direct the flow.
“My magic will be less potent without my staff,” Yuna warned Caius as they readied themselves near the doors. “I think what Celes bought me will help, but I might have to rely on you more until we find it.”
The doors burst open at that, and with a flourish of her dagger, Yuna cast a Watera spell down the tunnel to sweep them backwards before diving out of the way to give Caius room to operate with his weapons. They seemed to have the slight advantage of surprise towards the men at the front of the line, though that quickly changed as the group at the back realized what was happening and sent a mass in to stop them. Yuna didn’t dare summon in such a confined space, so she stuck to supporting Caius as she carefully sent a few offensive black magic spells past him and bolstered the Protect spells that she’d cast earlier whenever one of them took a harsh blow.
Eventually, the fight descended into chaos as a few of the bandits made it further down the tunnel, and Yuna did her best to knock down anyone who approached her with a rapid succession of Thunder spells. One burly man managed to make it past her defenses and shatter her Protect spell with a bullet from his gun, and Yuna gasped as she fell backwards and he leaned forward while raising his gun for a second shot. In her blind panic, she thrust her arms forward with her blade, and her eyes widened a fraction in horror when she felt the dagger pierce something hard. Warm blood touched her hands as it gushed out over the hilt, and the man groaned as he fell backwards with both hands clutched over his abdomen. Complete horror over what she’d done washed over her, and Yuna dropped the dagger and fell to her knees beside the man as she hurriedly cast Cura on him. The sight of so much blood sickened her, and she pressed one hand to her mouth as she looked down at him.
Murderer.
The scene changed in front of her eyes. A taller man was suddenly in the bandit’s place--blue hair and temple robes spread out around his body as she had gently reached forward to close his eyes.
Maester Seymour. I killed him.
Yuna recoiled backwards from the man, her heartbeat pounding in her ears as the scene around her returned back to normal. The bandit wasn’t dead. Just injured, and Yuna refrained from looking at him as she snatched up her dagger and hurriedly wiped the blood off on her skirt. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, before going to rejoin Caius in the fray.
“We need to find that room with the stage!” She called to her friend. “We have to save them.” She refrained from dwelling on what she had just remembered from her past.
Maester Seymour. Why would I have harmed such a good man?
Touching a hand to the side of her head with a wince, Yuna cast a quick Fire spell in a line across the tunnel to separate them from the remaining bandits."Let's go!"
The sights and sounds of battle. The rush of refreshing air and wetness that brushed him as Yuna's water spell flew by. His heart beating in his chest, the warm feeling of his sword in his grip. The adrenaline coursing through his body. These should be good things. He enjoyed these things. He enjoyed the rush that the heat of battle gave him.
But not today. What Darlene had done to Vordun had changed him in that moment. There was no excitement, no enjoyment. Only a desire to hurt. And he hated that desire. That desire was not who he was. And yet he couldn't help but feel it. That desire to inflict pain. Deep down, deep deep inside... Caius felt like a savage. He felt just like them. And he hated it. He hated feeling this way again. It was a feeling that he had tried to repress, to never be associated with again. But he couldn't stop himself.
Not this time.
As Yuna did the work in attacking their forces from a distance, Caius then took the imitative. "Vordun" Caius commanded calmly, coldly toward the dragon as Vordun seemed to understand what to do. Taking a few moments to charge up, the glands in his mouth beginning to light up as bandits began to file into the room, Vordun then launched a torrent of flames through the hallway, using the narrow structure of it to force the bandits to either retreat or be engulfed by the flames. The bandits responded by shirking away, and while Caius felt hotter than he had ever felt in his life with how close it was and how much their little narrow passage had been completely encased in unbearable heat, Caius' plan had worked for the time being as he rushed forward. Lunging with the Warp Strike, Caius attacked while they were reeling, catching one after another after another with quick strikes using his longsword. Despite his feelings though, Caius struck with non-lethal blows, downing them each with injuries that would just disable them for the time being. As he always had. Without context, someone might even think that nothing was wrong. He was just as calm and collected as he always was. But there was something to his eyes that betrayed there being something else. Something there, deep down. Something that betrayed what was to come.
Blood spilled, though no bodies were left without life. It was almost typical. Typical of the way the Dragonblades operated. Nothing that couldn't be fixed, that was an unspoken motto for people like Caius, for people like Yuna. And when something that couldn't be fixed happened, guilt was felt. It was the same for both of them. Neither of them had it in them to kill a human being.
Thanks to Yuna's spell, they were able to break a path from the bandits and charge forward. If Yuna noticed, at the end of the hallway was a jailer's office where she would be able to find her staff resting in the corner.
As they neared the stage, Caius snapped his fingers. Vordun moved forward, almost as though he had never been hurt, rearing his head toward the group of buyers that looked fearful at the two magic-wielding warriors and their dragon approaching. Vordun let out a bloodcurdling roar that resounded throughout the entire underground complex, a very angry roar. Understandably angry, considering what the dragon had been through. The roar caused the buyers that had gathered earlier to begin to scream in fright, before taking off from the fray, getting as far away as they could. Caius would have liked to have them arrested, but the bandits were more important right now. He would hunt them down later.
As the buyers ran off, a group of bandits stood in front of the would-be slaves on the stage and launched spells at Caius and Yuna - Fire, Blizzard and Thunder. Caius responded by standing in front of Yuna and projecting the Glaive Barrier, which absorbed the impact of each one before shattering when Caius brought it down, in order to conserve energy. Caius noted that more bandits were beginning to file in behind them, the ones they had evaded were hoping to flank the party.
At the top of the stage, Darlene came into view, standing between her mages. That snide grin of hers was starting to make him sick.
"Come on, you two. There's no need to make a scene here. All you're doing is making this worse for yourselves, and making your death all the worse in the end" She taunted, seeming to find amusement in the whole thing. "But I guess if I have to, you've left me no choice... Men? Kill their beast-"
BANG!
The mages, as well as the bandits behind them, all froze. Darlene stopped dead, her eyes wide and pupils shrank as she slowly began to gaze down toward the hole in her chest, before picking her head up again and looking toward the source.
Caius had aimed his gunblade and shot Darlene square in the chest, hitting her vitals point blank. While Darlene had just narrowly missed Vordun before, Caius didn't miss. Caius quickly climbed onto the stage, blood pouring from the cut that he had bit into his own mouth when he had fired. His eyes were white hot with anger, an enraged seethe rushing from his tongue as he approached Darlene. The mages tried to intervene, but Caius slashed the side of one, stopping another from casting a spell as he grabbed them by the head and slammed them hard against the wooden decoration of the stage that had been what the prisoners had been tied to. The third was met with Caius summoning one of his gun-daggers and pointing it at their head with his left hand, stopping them in their tracks. With that, Caius stared down toward Darlene, who had slumped down, clutching at her chest. She stared up at him, with rage in her voice from her situation... But her eyes still told of surprise. Shock. When she spoke, her voice was weak. She likely didn't have much time.
"I... Agh..." She managed out as she vomited blood, before trying to speak again toward the cold face that stared at her - staring as if through her very soul.
"I thought you didn't... Kill people?"
Caius stared at her for what felt like many uncomfortable moments before he spoke.
"You're right. I don't kill people" Caius responded, his voice coming out in a hiss. But what he said next caused Darlene's eyes to widen further as it hit her what these words meant.
"I kill monsters."
Darlene realized mere seconds before Caius raised his blade, and had only a second left to even raise her arm to protest before he brought his sword down on her head.
All was still. Even Vordun had stopped to look toward his companion, seeming to be able to sense the tension in the air. Caius stared down toward what he had done in that moment, before looking to his dagger and slashing at the ropes holding the prisoners, and then undid their restraints. The prisoners shirked back from him as he approached, and as soon as they were free, began to make a run for it as fast as they could. Caius stared after them a moment, but his expression was blank. No expression met his face -- pure emptiness was perhaps the best way to describe what was there. The expression remained as he held up his sword, drenched in blood. Human blood. There was far more of it than Caius was used to. For a moment, he stared at his reflection looking back at him, blood covering most of the reflection. But his expression did not change.
Final Fantasy X
19
YEARS
Female
Tidus
Heterosexual
294 POSTS
Erin
I live for the people of Spira, and would have gladly died for them, but no more!
Caius followed Yuna’s lead as she cut off the rest of the bandits with a fire spell, and the two fled down the hallway back towards where the sickening stage had been. Near the front of the prison, a jailer's office sat currently abandoned. While Yuna wouldn’t normally have given it a second glance, the gleam of her staff propped up in the corner prompted her to stop and slip inside. Letting out a sigh of relief, she sheathed the dagger and hid it back under her sash before taking the staff back in her hands. While it was much heavier than the dagger was, she somehow still felt lighter than she had before.
Ducking back into the hallway, Yuna noted with a frown that Caius hadn’t waited as he continued rushing down the hallway with Vordun. That wasn’t like him, and worry settled into her stomach as she hurried to catch up. He was usually a lot more focused on his companions and the people who needed saved than the enemy, but she wasn’t sure that had been the case anymore ever since Darlene had hurt Vordun. Maybe that had affected him even more than she had realized. She hoped that he could take some time to himself after this. Caius seemed like he needed it.
The three spilled out into the auction hall, and the room descended into chaos as Vordun let out an angry roar that echoed around the tall cavern. The ones who had come there to buy the people lined up on stage fled towards the exit, and while Yuna wanted to stop them, she had no way of wrangling so many people without summoning Shiva. And she refused to summon in such a crowded place. That was just asking for there to be casualties.
The bandits themselves took a much more arrogant attitude than the buyers. They hung about laughing as they sent several spells towards them, though Caius blocked most of them with a technique that she wasn’t sure she had seen him use before. Meaning to ask him about it later, Yuna sent him a grateful smile, though it slipped off her face as soon as Darlene stepped out onto the stage. The muscular woman openly taunted them, and Yuna tensed in place as she threatened Vordun again. Yuna edged to the side to stand in front of the dragon as Caius raised his gunblade in front of her. She had expected the shot that rang out around the auction hall, but she hadn’t expected the silence that had followed. Confused, Yuna glanced between Caius’ deadly expression and the bandits on stage, before she slowly raised a hand to her mouth as blood began to drip down Darlene’s chest.
“Caius!” She tried to grab her friend’s arm as he leapt onstage, but she was too late as he engaged the three mages grouped around their leader. What would she have said anyway? I thought we were only here to arrest them? I probably can’t heal that? She could die? The look on his face suggested he already knew all that, so Yuna gripped her staff before climbing up onto the stage after him. At this point, it was just Caius and Darlene locked in eye contact as the woman gripped her wound and struggled to stay on her feet.
“You’re right, I don’t kill people.”
Yuna relaxed from her place behind him. She couldn’t see his face from this angle, but she noticed the tense in his shoulders before he raised one his blades.
“I kill monsters.”
Yuna’s heart leapt, and she stretched out an arm more for his sake than for the woman at his feet. “Don’t!”
The sword fell before the word was even fully out of her lips, and Yuna glanced to the side at the sickening crunch followed by more silence. It felt like no one in the auditorium even breathed in that moment before Caius broke the silence by moving over to where the captives were still tied up. He released them, and though Yuna noticed a few were injured, no one that she tried to stop to heal would listen to her. They gave her the same scared look that they had to Caius before they simply kept running. In that moment, Yuna couldn’t blame them, even if it made her feel small.
Silence fell again as the three of them were left alone with Darlene’s body. After a moment, Yuna let out a breath as she walked past him to crouch next to the grisly scene. Even cruel people like Darlene deserved a sending. Yuna’s heart wasn’t really in it, so rather than stand up to twirl her staff, she just brought it down in front of her and closed her eyes. She had never really been certain if sendings had the same power here as they had in Spira, but her dance had affected Ardyn, and it always made the lamps flare like it had back home, so she planned to continue doing them even if this world didn’t have a farplane. Maybe it would still help people find peace somehow.
Afterward, Yuna stood and made her way over to Caius, warring emotions flashing across her face. Regret at not stopping him in time. Anger that Caius had felt he had to do that. Frustration that he had scared the people they had come there to save.
(Guilt that she knew Darlene had deserved it. And really, what right did she have to lecture him when Maester Seymour’s blood was on her hands?)
Yuna stopped in front of him, looking up at her friend with her lips pressed together as he examined the blood running down his sword. “You’ll have to clean that before it stains.” Her own voice sounded distant to her, but she didn’t take it back as her grip tightened around her staff down by her waist. “We should leave before they get reinforcements.” She hesitated before speaking with a firmer voice. “But when you’re ready, I want to talk.”
He didn't know what had prompted him to do what he did. Anger, perhaps? Anger building up toward Darlene and maybe even the Original Sin as a whole for all the atrocities they had committed? Perhaps a sort of parental instinct that had welled up when they hurt Vordun, and had kicked in entirely when she ordered her men to kill him? He didn't know. And it didn't even set in what he did until Yuna spoke up, and the distance in her voice surprised him, causing him to jump slightly and stare at her with a look of surprise. Even a bit of hurt.
But he understood she wasn't happy. He couldn't blame her. But even with his waking up from this stupor... He couldn't piece together what he felt.
He felt nothing. He felt a void, nothing more. He wasn't satisfied with the kill. The kill had given him no level of satisfaction. But even if he knew he had done wrong, he didn't regret it either. He could never regret that. Never, not ever. If he hadn't, she put Vordun at risk. And like it or not, Vordun was equivalent to his own child.
Caius couldn't think of anything to do but nod his head to oblige her in her suggestion to clean his sword, as well as that she wanted to talk afterword. Quickly cleaning her sword, he turned to the bandits that had gathered, who were only beginning to get their bearings. But each of them stepped back a bit when Caius approached, cold, blank eyes staring through them the same way he had stared through Darlene before he killed her. He could see it, he could smell it. Written all over their faces. Fear. These poor excuses for people felt fear, knowing that he could end their lives in an instant if he wanted to. Honestly, he didn't feel bad for them at all. All he had found here showed they cared little for how many lives they took, or how helpless and scared those people had felt.
Finally, he spoke.
"Go" He commanded firmly, regarding the lot of them with a scowl. It was more than they deserved. But he didn't feel like fighting anymore, unless they made him. "Take your second chance for a better life and don't let me see you again."
In a way, that was Caius as Yuna knew him. Even with an angry face, it was very much Caius to take something like this and turn it into a chance to potentially rehabilitate somebody. The bandits whispered amongst themselves for a bit before they began to make a run for it.
"I'll meet you outside" Caius told Yuna as he walked past her once they were gone. "I need to do some searching. But you need to get out of here quickly in case they call for reinforcements. Back to that clifftop. Take Vordun with you. Please check him for further wounds when you are safe."
With that, he walked off. He knew he had little time himself, and he didn't want to risk reinforcements. Vordun tried to follow, but Caius motioned to Yuna instead. Vordun let out a few whines in disagreement, but Caius placed a hand on his head and shook his head. "I won't be long. I don't know if you can fight right now if it comes to it" Caius told Vordun softly. "Take care of Yuna. I don't trust those bandits."
Finally, Vordun relented with a cranky snort of steam and returned to Yuna as Caius left without allowing another word.
-----------
Eventually, Caius would return to the clifftop that they had been ambushed on before in a burst of light. Catching his weapon and allowing it to disappear, he regarded Yuna and Vordun with a nod as Vordun rushed to his side. Patting Vordun on the head, Caius would move to sit down on a rock. Taking out an armful of papers he had been holding, he would begin to read through them for a moment before looking to Yuna. He nodded his head once more, indicating to her that she may begin her lecture when she wished. He knew she wasn't happy with him. He knew that he had done wrong, and he would accept what was to come.
Final Fantasy X
19
YEARS
Female
Tidus
Heterosexual
294 POSTS
Erin
I live for the people of Spira, and would have gladly died for them, but no more!
It looked like Yuna’s words had shocked Caius out of a stupor, and she bit her lip slightly when he looked a little hurt by what she’d said. Whatever had happened, Caius was still her friend, but that was why she wanted to talk some sense into him now. She didn’t think that she would have been so disappointed by his actions if they had been less close.
He nodded his head in terse agreement before wiping the blood off his sword and approaching the remaining bandits. When he told them to go, Yuna let out a breath of relief as she watched them scamper off. It felt like what Darlene had done to Vordun had awakened another side of Caius and he was only just coming back to himself. The blond man came back towards her and Vordun afterward, and Yuna frowned slightly when his voice sounded just as distant as hers had earlier.
“Searching for something?” She questioned, turning to watch him walk away, but he seemed pretty set on leaving the auction hall as soon as possible. He only paused when Vordun tried to follow him, patting him on the head and directing him to follow Yuna instead. Vordun seemed as unhappy with this arrangement as Yuna was, and she gently stroked the dragon’s scales as Caius disappeared further into the bandits’ lair. “Looks like it’s just you and me for right now, boy,” she murmured before reluctantly turning back towards the entryway.
After a few minutes of climbing, Yuna managed to get back up to the cliffside with Vordun, and the first thing that she did was crouch in front of him to examine where his throat was cut. Caius’ earlier spell had healed most of the damage, but she still sucked in a breath as she gently touched where the skin had been pieced back together. Vordun shied away from being touched in that spot, so Yuna did her best to soothe him as she cast some additional healing magic on him. He made a rumbling noise afterward that she hoped meant that the pain was better before he eased down into a sitting position, casting what she imagined were worried looks towards the bandit camp.
“You two sure are inseparable,” Yuna murmured, not sure if Vordun had understood her or not when the dragon slowly blinked both eyes at her. “What do you think? Should we forgive him?” In response, Vordun yawned and gave her a lovely view of razor-sharp teeth before he bumped her with his nose and went back to looking at the entrance to the underground. “…I’ll assume that’s a yes.”
Falling back on the grass, Yuna spread out her arms at her sides as she considered the sky. It was likely too vulnerable a position when enemies could still be lurking around, but since Vordun didn’t seem to smell any immediate threats, she wasn’t too worried. Anyway, she had a lot of thinking to do. They had only been underground for an hour or two, but it had felt like an eternity. Darlene really had been a terrible person. Trying to kill them was one thing, but she had relished in their fear and in Vordun’s pain. Not to mention how many lives she must have ruined through the auctions. She had needed to be taken care of, but was Caius right? Did she deserve death rather than jail? Yuna’s head hurt as she flicked through everything that had just happened, trying to piece things together.
By the time that Caius rejoined them, Yuna was sitting upright against Vordun, and she nearly lost her balance as the dragon rushed forward to greet the man who had raised him. Caius didn’t say a word, which worried her a little as he took a seat on a nearby rock. He had a collection of papers in his hands that he was skimming through, and she almost asked about them before he nodded his head at her, indicating that she should start. If only she’d settled on a direction to take this.
“If we could help it, we’ve always had people arrested before.” Getting to her feet, Yuna walked over to stand in front of him. “They’d do all that and more to us if they could, but we aren’t them. I don’t want to be anything close to them.” Her voice was rising of its own accord until she was reminding herself of Lulu rather than herself. “And it affects my work too. How am I supposed to heal someone who’s terrified of me and running away? I couldn’t do my part back there.” Yuna tried to soften her tone on the next line and somehow couldn’t manage it. "And I’m worried about you!”
She was a little surprised by her own outburst and touched one hand to her lips in embarrassment before crouching in front of the rock and looking up at him earnestly. “I’m worried about you,” she repeated in a softer tone. “I don’t think you’ll ever forget about her now. And she wasn’t worth that.”
While Caius made a face to indicate he was listening, he had started reading the papers as well. He didn't stop until Yuna raised her voice, and his head raised to look at her. And then lowered again when she crouched down. What he had done appeared to have more of an impact on her than he had thought. Though really, he still didn't know what to think. After she finished, he let out a sigh as he lowered the papers. He lowered his head and closed his eyes.
"I... Don't know where to begin on this" He admitted softly. "I am... Aware. Of what I did. I know that it goes against what we typically do.... What I typically do. I had hoped that some time to clear my head would help, but it hasn't made it any easier to put it into words. I just... I..."
He let out another breath. "... I don't feel anything."
He opened his eyes and just... Stared at his hands a moment. "I can't justify what I did. I will never be able to justify making that decision, to end a life. Yet... I don't feel regret either. I tried, in my time searching, to either find a way to justify it, to rationalize my decision... Or find a reason to feel horrible for it. But I feel nothing. I feel no satisfaction, yet no remorse either. I don't feel proud of myself for killing that... Thing, I don't know if I can call them human without resisting the urge to vomit, I..."
He shook his head. "I feel no pride. And yet no sorrow. I feel no satisfaction, yet no pain. I wish I could tell you that I regret all of it, and that I would go back and do it differently if I could, but... I would just be lying to you, and I cannot do that. I don't... I don't even know if I could call it a decision, if I'm being honest."
He bit his lip. "I didn't see principals, or the values of either killing someone or arresting them, one over the other... I didn't see any of that. I wasn't thinking of any of that. In that moment... They were just a monster that was putting Vordun in danger. Just another monster with its jaws clamped around his throat. And I did what I do whenever that happens. I kill them quickly, so that we may survive. And they knew... They knew that Vordun was family to me. It knew and they relished in it, if they didn't, they wouldn't have targeted him like that. I only saw a monster, a predator, that relished in the kill. Just like the bandits that took my family from me were nothing but monsters with human faces. Darlene to me, was no different.
Just a monster. A monster I knew would take Vordun from me if I didn't act. I wasn't thinking about all that stuff about arrest verses kill at the time because... I wasn't thinking at all. I acted. Nothing more. Nothing less."
He moved to stroke Vordun's head, before looking to Yuna again.
"I don't... Really know how to process all of this. I don't know if what I did was exactly right or wrong, and I... Can't find any words to explain how I feel right now. What I do know for sure is that yes, I impeded your work. And for that, I sincerely apologize. I know it is a poor response considering the stress I have put on you, but it is all I can offer at this time."
He thought a moment on that last part. About how Darlene would always be stuck with him now. That he would never forget what he did.
"Perhaps that memory always will haunt me now" He responded softly, staring out into space for a moment, seemingly lost a bit in his thoughts. "And maybe I deserve it."
Final Fantasy X
19
YEARS
Female
Tidus
Heterosexual
294 POSTS
Erin
I live for the people of Spira, and would have gladly died for them, but no more!
Caius had been reading the documents clutched in his hands while Yuna had been talking, and at first the action had really irritated her. It felt disrespectful--surely the least that he could have done would have been to pay attention. But as she finished up, and he glanced distantly at her and then back down, Yuna was starting to wonder if it had been more of a defense mechanism. She knew that she in particular liked to be doing something with her hands during difficult conversations. Maybe it was the same for Caius. Anyway, Yuna had plenty of other reasons to be vexed with him, so she might as well let that one go.
The blond man admitted that he didn’t really know where to begin, and Yuna frowned slightly as she listened closely to his explanation. She didn’t think that it was so odd that he wouldn’t feel anything towards what he’d done yet--plenty of people were numb after tragedies, and anyway, she hadn’t yet sorted out her own feelings on the memories that had leaked back while they were fighting in the prison. It would have been hypocritical to expect him to have everything worked out already, but before she could tell him that, he spoke up again.
“Oh…” Her lips parted slightly in realization when he admitted that he couldn’t see Darlene as human, much like the bandits he had known in his world. Why hadn’t she ever realized before that of course he’d have issues around bandits? She knew what had happened to him, but she had never connected the dots before. Yuna felt somewhat like she’d failed as a friend, and she nearly missed his final words because they were so quiet.
“Perhaps that memory always will haunt me now. And maybe I deserve it."
“Caius…” Yuna finally rose from her spot and took a seat on the rock next to him, looking out at the horizon where the sun was beginning to dip below the treeline. “...I don’t think you deserve that.” She glanced to the side to look up at him. “She wanted us to be tortured and killed. And she hurt Vordun just to get to you. You were protecting us. I get that. I don’t think it’s always wrong to kill someone.”
That image again of Maester Seymour spread out on the ground in front of her and her guardians. Wincing, Yuna glanced away, unsure of how to package that yet when she couldn’t remember why it had happened.
“I just think we should be careful with going that route,” she continued quietly. “It will make it easier to do it again next time. And I know you don’t want to be known for that.”
Not wanting to end on such a dour tone, Yuna shot Caius a faint, tentative smile. “I’ll give you a few hours head start before I tell Celes though.”
