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year 5, quarter 3
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At her initial response he grit his teeth, as if thinking he'd hurt her in some way, or was just... Being confusing, he wasn't sure? He let out a sigh. "This is... Difficult to explain, and I know I'm not making it any easier. And I'm sorry for that. I'm still... Still trying to piece this all together myself."
After a few moments more of trying to piece it all together, Caius did at least find something of an explanation. Something to better get out what he was thinking. He knew full well what he had been saying was nonsensical and rambling, but... The whole thing was still difficult to wrap his head around. He was still having trouble formulating things into words, but perhaps there was still room to give it a go. Taking another breath, he decided to give it a try, one more time.
"I guess... To put it as concrete as I can, I... I raised Vordun. Vordun is... Special, to me. And Darlene was a monster that was going to hurt Vordun. That was all that ran through my mind in that moment. Everything else just adds up to why to me, she was designated a monster, but... That's effectively all I could think of. A monster hurting Vordun. Everything else just... Wasn't there."
This hadn't been so hard, once upon a time. He killed when necessary to survive, man or beast. He only had to care for himself and his own survival, and nothing else. Things got... Complicated when he joined the Kingsglaive. His moral compass that developed as he realized more and more that he could make a real difference with his life made him desire to stop killing other people altogether, now that he no longer felt he had to. Now that he had more control over things. Then he was sent here, and tried to go back to his old life, thinking he couldn't live his current one any longer when he wasn't a Kingsglaive anymore. But he never truly was able to. He was never truly able to take that next step. And that incident with the necromancer, losing his family all over again... The way he rebuilt himself after that complicated matters further. All he could think about was saving, protecting lives. And he was okay with that.
Yet now he'd taken one. And he felt nothing when he did it. One could justify it as protecting, as Yuna put it, but... He didn't know how to feel. He knew he should feel horrible, and he wanted to. He wanted to promise himself he'd never do it again, but... He knew he couldn't make that promise either.
But Yuna had also said that it wasn't always wrong to kill someone. He just... Wasn't sure.
She reasoned that he needed to be careful, going that route. And she was right, after all... It really did get easier. He knew this, easily.
Yet now it felt like he'd killed for the first time all over again.
"I know."
It was all he could manage, and he just nodded his head when she brought up Celes. "Yeah... I suppose she has to know about this, doesn't she?" He spoke softly, looking down again. "I am not looking forward to that."
He figured he'd probably disappoint her. Maybe upset her. He didn't know if he could handle that.
Deciding to change the subject, he held up the papers he'd found to signify an intent toward them.
"But I do need to speak to her about these. I was hoping I'd find something like this" He admitted. "The Original Sin, it turns out that they have four main lieutenants, each the leader of a different part of their business structure and operations. Darlene was the head of their human trafficking operations that you and I encountered in our last job together. Her being taken off the table will most likely cripple their operations in that sector. Which will also likely cut their funding as this appears to have been one of their biggest sources of revenue. These slaves were sold for quite a bit of gil per person. But Darlene... She was shrewd, cunning, and there aren't a whole lot of people willing to do what she does, with her level of skill. They will have a difficult time continuing this business outlet with the same level of success as before without her."
Sure, they could have had the same effect if she was indisposed... But she had already made it clear earlier that she was an escape artist. While Caius still wasn't sure if what he had done was right... He could acknowledge also that what he'd done to protect Vordun had now likely made a lot of people more safe in the days to come. At the very least, Darlene's scheme of leading people to an ambush with her fake daughter plea had now come to an end.
"The reason I need to get these to Celes" He spoke up as he handed the papers to Yuna to view for herself. "Is that we now have more information on their operations... And the names of their lieutenants. All but that of the leader, who's name I still don't have. But their names are... Charon, the magical expert, he trains their units in use of magic and uses his illusion capabilities for counterfeiting."
He thought back to the time that he, Celes and Relm dealt with bandits together, where one used magic and nearly turned Caius to dust. Was that the work of one trained by this Charon?
"Darlene, now former head of human trafficking and slave vending operations. As I said, their most profitable operation."
He motioned to one of the papers in particular. "They have a list of buyers, as well. I intend to start paying them a visit. Celes is not going to be happy when she finds out that people are taking ownership of people against their will even in Torensten."
With that, he moved onto the next. "Roy, their recruiter and combat trainer. It sounds like he might be their strategist and the mind behind many of their raids as well."
In some respects, he sounded like he served the role that Celes served for the Dragonblades.
"Unfortunately, the last one is difficult to make out and I'll probably need to see if I can get someone who can get out the ink blotch that was probably spilled on the documents during the battle" Caius admitted. "But we have a start, at least. For the first time since this whole thing started, we finally have an idea of what we're up against."
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!
While Yuna had attempted to lighten the mood with her joke about Celes, it seemed to have the opposite effect as Caius looked down slightly and seemed chagrined at the thought of the fierce blonde woman learning about this. “I’m sure she’ll react better than I did,” Yuna said a little awkwardly in an attempt to comfort him. “I’ve only met her once, but she seemed like the type to understand doing what you have to in the heat of a battle. Or to protect someone you care about that much.”
Yuna herself had been trained to let her guardians do the fighting for her. Against the fiends and sinspawn that they’d encountered on the road, Yuna had mostly been on support duty, though she’d always summon if something big enough came along that her guardians struggled with. She was still getting used to being on the front-lines. Honestly, that had surprised her about the Dragonblades at first—they let her fight like any other mage, and she had discovered that it was freeing to refuse to hide behind someone else. But in times like this, Yuna did have to acknowledge that there was still a gap between her and people like Caius and Celes who had always been fighting for their lives.
Maybe not as big of a gap as she’d like to think though. The image of the blood-stained Maester refused to leave her mind, and Yuna rubbed the side of her head a bit, wondering if she should bring it up.
Thankfully, Caius changed the subject by handing her the documents that he had been reading over this whole time, and Yuna glanced them over curiously while he gave her the summarized version. “So there are three lieutenants left,” she murmured thoughtfully. Honestly, the more that she heard about Darlene, the less that she liked. She sort of regretted giving Caius such a hard time, so she tried to distract herself by looking over the remaining three. Charon caught her eye more than the others, and she found herself tracing a finger over his name as she read over the details. Illusion magic. That might be difficult to deal with. Maybe if she cast Reflect on all of them before they went against him, then they’d have a better chance.
“The leader, the recruiter and trainer, and the mage then,” she summarized aloud as she finished looking them over and glanced back up at Caius. “It almost sounds like a twisted version of you, Celes, and I.” She mulled that over as she handed the papers back to him. “I agree, we should get these to Celes. It might take all of us going forward. I imagine they’ll step up their defenses now that Darlene is dead.”
Getting up, Yuna brushed off the loose grass that had clung to her skirt before turning to look at the blond man and the dragon. “I’ll be leaving for Provo soon on an escort job,” she admitted while not making the best eye contact.
(Could he tell that she was blatantly ignoring his warning to avoid Ardyn by helping Aera to find him? She certainly hoped not. He’d have every right to be mad at her if he knew.)
“But I’ll be back soon,” she promised. Assuming she made it out alive against that twisted unsent of course, but she wasn’t going to dwell on that now. “So if you learn anything about the locations of the other three, then I’ll be there. This has to stop.”
He certainly hoped so. He could admit that he was a little uncomfortable with the idea of telling her, on account that she might be upset. But he supposed Yuna had a point. "I hope you're right" He spoke softly. Celes had been a general, after all. She understood more than most having to do what was necessary. And Caius hadn't exactly been slow with the kill either, he had done it fairly quickly to alleviate suffering. More than Darlene deserved, if he was being honest. But it was one of those little signs that even in the rage he had flown into, he had still been himself in some respects. Yet that realization also made him realize that in some respects, he had also known exactly what he was doing. Well, yes and no. It was... Complicated.
"I'd like to think she will. She's always been understanding" He spoke. "But I've also never done something like this before since I've been here."
He'd flown off the handle once in Celes' presence, but... He had been a completely different person back then. And that was something that both Caius and Celes understood. The Caius now was not the Caius from back then, and for the Caius now to do that... It gave him pause. It made him wonder.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to regret what he did. He tried, he did. But he knew that while perhaps the means might not have justified it... As cruel as it was to say, Darlene needed to die. Not just to protect Vordun, but to protect others as well. How many more people would have suffered if she had broken out once more and hurt more people? If Caius had known she would go on to do that, and had still spared her... Would those following deaths have been on him? Would he have been able to forgive himself if that had happened?
God, this whole thing was just so confusing.
Luckily the subject changed. Caius didn't answer the comparisons of the lieutenants and leader to themselves directly, he didn't want to think of that. His answer instead poked a hole in it, as if to distance himself from the comparison.
"Celes is as much the leader as I am, regardless of how we each accomplish our role."
He didn't deny it exactly. But it was that sort of unspoken "Yes, but..." sort of thing. Either way, he was curious about what sort of escort job she was doing, but he supposed he could ask along the way. Seeing as...
"Celes is presently in Provo, by her last letter to me. I'd be happy to accompany you until we reach Provo, if you would have me" He offered. "I can't offer Vordun's aid at the moment though. I don't want to strain him right now. I think he needs a little rest before he starts taking passengers again."
But she was right. This had to stop. They had to deal with the other lieutenants and quickly. Especially now that they had kicked the hornet's nest.
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 hadn’t thought that the idea of telling Celes about what had happened here would be so uncomfortable for Caius, but it appeared that she had been mistaken. Then again, she supposed that it was obvious how close the two of them were, even if she had only ever met them separately. Maybe Caius was afraid that the blonde general would act as disappointed as Yuna had, but she suspected that wouldn’t be the case. Yuna herself didn’t think she would have reacted as harshly if she had only heard about Caius acting in self-defense. Seeing his expression during the act had just been something else entirely.
“You were protecting Vordun. She’ll understand,” she murmured, before letting the subject drop. It seemed that she couldn’t stop making her friend feel uncomfortable today though, as he edged away from her comparison of the Original Sin’s leadership to the Dragonblades’.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest that you weren’t co-leaders,” she amended, clasping her hands in front of her and dipping her head to him slightly in repentance. “I was just thinking out loud. I suppose they’re not all that similar.”
Yuna hadn’t really felt this awkward around Caius since their first introduction, and she hoped that the feeling would pass soon. She thought of the blond man as her friend at this point, so she assumed that they both just needed some time to digest what had happened here today. Getting captured and being threatened with torture and a slave auction would have been scarring enough on its own even without what had happened to Darlene.
“At least we shut this location down,” Yuna offered with a faint smile. “Coming here helped a lot of people. I think we should try to remember that, and maybe go get some rest in town? I assume we both need it.”
Her brief moment of optimism was trampled on when Caius offered to accompany her to Provo, and Yuna hesitated, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as she wondered how best to let him down. “Ah…Well…” She was a terrible liar. She knew it, and her cheeks felt hot as the seconds stretched on. She hadn’t thought of anything to tell him about what she was planning to do in Provo, because this whole Darlene mission had been spontaneous for her upon finding the notice that he’d left at the Dragonblades’ hideout. There was no way to refuse his company on the fly without making him feel bad, and after another moment of uncomfortable silence, Yuna clasped her hands together and gave him a deep bow.
“I’m sorry! I know you told me to avoid Ardyn, but I can’t anymore.” Raising her head again, she gave him a slightly shame-faced look that she tempered with resolve. “I met a woman who claims to have been his fiancée. She wants my help to seek him out where we met in Provo. I couldn’t refuse her.”
It was foolish to actively look for Ardyn when it was just her and one other woman who walked with a cane. Yuna knew that from her one horrifying encounter with the man, and Caius must have known it far better than she did from the stories that he told about what the red-haired man had done to his world.
“I know I should have said something sooner,” she said a bit mournfully. “If it’s your turn to yell at me now, then I won’t interrupt.” Sitting back on the grass, Yuna looked at him primly and awaited her judgement.
Caius knew immediately by her expression that she was hiding something. Neither of them were very good liars, and an awkward silence followed as Yuna debated on what to do. Caius quirked a brow and just watched her with a stony gaze, waiting for her to spit it out. Eventually she came clean: She was going after Ardyn with his fiance. She then sat down in the grass and stared at him, seeming to be waiting for him to get mad. To yell at her. To pass judgement for disobeying a direct order.
Instead of being mad though, he just let out a sigh and shook his head.
"Aera. That's who you're referring to" He remarked. "The fault is mine" He admitted. "I should have seen this coming. I already know everything about her situation and it was me who told her to seek you out. I figured that if anyone was going to be able to help her heal, and perhaps help her find some guidance since she seems to be a very religious woman... It would be you. I should have known that she would drag you into some harebrained scheme to go after Ardyn, and for that, I sincerely apologize."
Instead of continuing to look down at her, he sat down in the grass as well, to stay at level with Yuna. Vordun, while confused, curled up behind Caius and rested against his back.
"I want you to listen to me very closely" He told her, looking her dead in the eyes. "Ardyn is not able to be killed. He is immortal. At least right now. Which means that engaging him is useless until we can find a way to counteract it. That is why I told you to stay away." He explained. "Go with Aera if you wish, but I'm giving you the same advice I was given by the last person to try to fight him.
Do. Not. Engage. If whatever Aera does causes Ardyn to attack, then I want you to take Aera and get out of there. No matter what she does. Both of your safety should be the highest priority. Do you understand?"
With that, he let out an exasperated sigh. "I'd also appreciate if you could try and deal with that sword wound that is limiting her mobility. I already tried to heal it, but I'm no healer. She didn't seem interested in seeing a doctor, so odds are it might be up to you to try if you can find the opportunity."
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!
The seconds passed, and Yuna bit her lip as she waited to hear what Caius would say, but his response surprised her. Her head snapped up and she stared at him when he named the woman that she had met at the Crystallus Divider.
“You know Aera?” She supposed that she had known that on some level since the blonde woman had explained that she had first heard about Ardyn from him, but Yuna hadn’t known that Caius had recommended that Aera come find her. “It’s not your fault,” she said, shaking her head when he apologized. “Truthfully, I wasn’t hard to convince.”
After what had happened at the hospital in Provo, Yuna was more than ready to send the red-haired man to the farplane, though this was certainly not the correct company for that. She wouldn’t be able to defeat him with only one companion who walked with a cane. She suspected this would be more of an information-gathering session, and hopefully Aera would be able to find some closure when she realized that her fiance was no longer the same person.
Caius knelt down on the grass in front of her, and Yuna looked up to meet his gaze. He had quite the serious expression on his face, so Yuna tried to match it, though Vordun made that difficult when he followed suit by sprawling at Caius’ back. The action made her lips twitch slightly before she went back to listening to his advice.
“Thank you. I understand.” Yuna dipped her head slightly in acceptance. “I wouldn’t attack him alone unless I was forced to. Even with Shiva, I barely escaped last time.” She hesitated, weighing Caius’ words that Ardyn was immortal for a moment. “He reacted to my sending,” she finally shared. “I can’t say for certain that it would kill him, since this world’s afterlife seems to be different from Spira’s, but it might be worth a try sometime.”
Of course, Ardyn would hardly just lie down and let her try it. Her sending was what had prompted him to personally attack her in the hospital after all. Before that, he had seemed fairly content to just send the monsters that he’d created after her, but the sending had seemed to actually bother him. So it would be a dangerous undertaking for something that they weren’t positive would even work, but she was glad she had at least shared it with Caius. It seemed like they needed all the ideas that they could get when it came to the red-haired man who had ruined his world.
As Caius finished up by asking her to take a look at Aera’s sword wound, Yuna gave him a startled look. “That’s why she walks with a cane? I assumed it was a chronic issue...” Yuna frowned slightly, wondering why Aera had never mentioned that something like that was bothering her. Wounds could be dangerous when they were untreated.
“Of course I can take a look at it. But who attacked her?” She hesitated, a terrible thought occurring to her. “Did Ardyn…?” She couldn’t believe that anyone could hurt someone they were supposed to love so badly, but after what she’d seen at the hospital, she couldn’t put anything past Ardyn.
Of course she wasn't hard to convince. Yuna could never resist helping someone in need. Neither of them could. It was why they had been in this mess to begin with. But the thought of Yuna getting into it with Ardyn again was a concern to Caius. Aranea had made it very clear to him. Do not engage. He cannot be beaten. At least not right now.
Yuna brought up that he reacted to her sending. While he knew little about the sending, he was surprised that something from her world could even phase Ardyn, considering how selective it seemed the terms of stopping his immortality were. But he nodded his head either way. "It would be difficult to get him to stop long enough to perform the sending. But I suppose that's just why we need to get even stronger" Caius pointed out. "We will find a way to make it work. But until then... You need to stay alive to even use your sending power if it comes to that. So no engaging him if you can help it. And if you have to, get out of there as soon as you can" He repeated, doubling it mainly because it was even more important now if Yuna actually had something that could stop him. That made her survival all the more important, with the subject of Ardyn being bigger than just the two of them.
She seemed surprised when he brought up the sword wound, indicating she had thought it was a chronic issue. She asked if Ardyn had done it, and he shook his head. "No" He spoke, trying to hide his disgust with what he was about to say. "A man named Somnus"
He had been trying to repress that particular memory. It had been working so far until she asked.
Either way, he got to his feet, and offered to help her up. "We had best get going. I'll accompany you to Provo and we'll diverge there. I'll give the account to Celes" He spoke up. With that, he and Vordun would begin walking. He looked back to Yuna for a moment.
"There will be no Chosen King to come and save us in ten years time. This time around... It's up to us."
