Early the next morning, before most of them woke up, while Lulu was still holding him in her hands, Vidina passed away.
It was just after the sun had come up that the rest of the village woke up. Lulu and Wakka were gone, along with Chappu, who had realized why the child had bright orange hair as he noticed Lulu’s only other companion.
The battlefield where Paine had dealt with the snipers was still. No one would be getting up.
The jungle was quiet.
The Farplane had been healed.
There wasn’t much time.
Yuna hoped what she was doing was for the best. She’d let Auron decide what was right.
* * * * *
Insult as well as irony was added to injury in Bevelle.
Seymour had decided there was nothing he could do. His father’s way of negotiating, when it came to his son, was throwing things, including doors he tore off their hinges. Seymour nodded off once he was thrown in jail, after being forced to walk once he could move his legs as the guards led him back to Guadosalam.
However, Jyscal was not about to allow his son any sort of luxury short of dressing him up before the execution.
Seymour had been woken up before dawn to perform the sending.
The very second he had finished, he was grabbed by guards and ordered to drop his stick.
Seymour merely glared at his father, who returned both the glare and the silence. Seeing he’d get nothing, Seymour obediently let the stick fall from his hands.
Jyscal’s expression never wavered. "Blindfold him," he had ordered.
Now, as he slowly ascended the long row of steps, he wondered if the irony of attending his own execution at the same place he had nearly been married would hit harder could he see it.
To top it all off, just as every event in this new era of machina’s return, the whole thing was being shown on spheres all over the world.
A perfect end, Seymour thought, tripping on a step he couldn’t see and consequently being yanked to his feet by the guards that flanked him. Famous all his life… and death… and now to end with the most famous execution in the history of Spira.
It was a very primitive execution. Primitive and showy. There was no reason for a blindfold or chains binding his hands together behind his back. Still, an axe could take a head off rather effectively; his father had not lost his touch at being efficient.
It took too long to make it up the stairs—the fact that he had had no sleep and couldn’t see what he was missing was not helping—and no doubt his father agreed.
"Wait!" someone yelled, as he reached the platform at the top. "I mean stop!"
"No!" Someone else yelled.
A blow to the back of his legs forced Seymour to his knees.
"Stop them!" they heard Jyscal yell.
"Stop who?" Seymour asked, turning his head.
The executioner grabbed him by the hair shoved his head down on a block.
"No!" Someone yelled, and both he and the stranger were suddenly sent tumbling across the platform.
"Yunie! You overshot it!" he heard someone yell. That explained why his rescuer’s breasts were pressing against him, as she braced herself.
They came to a stop and she stood up.
"Follow me!" she said.
"Where are you?" he yelled back, struggling to stand up.
Someone different—bigger and rougher hands—took him by the shoulder and started leading him down the stairs.
"Auron?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Just run," was his only answer.
Seymour could hear the crashing of weapons around him, and gunfire. He heard someone, the executioner, complaining and panicking. He could hear his father screaming, mostly at the executioner who seemed to have panicked and run off.
Someone whistled loudly. "Let ‘er rip!" they shouted.
"Duck!" Yuna yelled, and Auron let go and Seymour crashed down a few stairs.
Everyone’s screaming was cut off or drowned out at the sound of rapid and close-by gunfire. It lasted half a minute, then stopped.
"Thank you!" Rikku yelled.
"Come on!" he heard Yuna yell, as she slowly helped him up.
"But they’re firing at us," he said.
"No, we’re firing at them!" Rikku said, aiding Yuna in helping him up. "You’re heavy!" They took off down the stairs again, only to be interrupted by Jyscal.
"Halt!"
"Kinoc!" Auron yelled back
"What’s—" Seymour started.
"Paine!" Yuna yelled as she and Rikku screeched to a halt, and Seymour didn’t, ending up flat on his face.
"Let her go!" Rikku yelled
"Would you people learn how to count?" Seymour said.
"Return him or we kill your friend," Jyscal stated. "Someone dies today!"
"We wish to negotiate!" Yuna yelled.
"Not smart," Seymour said, wrestling his way into a sitting position.
"On behalf of who?" Jyscal asked.
"On our own behalf!"
"Not good," Seymour said.
"Would you stay on your feet?" Auron said, pulling Seymour to his feet.
"Well, if I could see them!"
Auron tore the blindfold off, and for a few seconds, Seymour was blinded by the bright sunlight.
"No one goes against my orders!" Jyscal said.
"Kill him and we wage war!" Yuna said.
"What?" Seymour asked.
"A war with Besaid?" Kinoc asked. "That’d be over in a day or two."
"We do not represent Besaid," Yuna said. "However, we are allied with the Al Behd!"
Seymour blinked, taking in the scene. Seeing what was happening instead of hearing disembodied voices was not an improvement.
The stairs between them and Jyscal and Kinoc, who was holding Paine by twisting her arms behind her back, had been shot halfway to gravel. Jyscal was holding the long axe that had formerly belonged to the executioner—who had fled into the crowd of guards or had managed to escape in the gunfire.
"Speak your demands," Jyscal said, surprising Kinoc.
"First, you have been deceived," Yuna said. "Seymour fled from you, in fear. Kinoc had his messengers send lies to you. He was there to murder your son!"
"Not smart," Seymour said.
"And?" Jyscal said. "It is a small price to pay to cement relations not only between nations, but our two races."
"You will be murdering your own son!"
"He doesn’t care," Seymour said.
"He is a disgrace not only to me but to the royal family and his own race!"
"Oh, now it’s my race," Seymour said.
"You will be leaving your nation in anarchy!"
"He already did," Seymour said.
"I would rather leave it in anarchy than in the hands of him."
"We would not!" Yuna yelled. "He listened to the decisions and wishes of the people. He did not order the death of those from the Farplane. He did not try to solve death with more killing."
"Yuna, would you think about what you just said?" Rikku said.
"Not anymore," Yuna said.
"Oh, you’re being real helpful," Seymour said.
"And you would recommend?" Auron asked.
"Shutting up and running has always worked."
"There is no chance of a union between humans and Guado through marriage. It was a mistake. He was a mistake."
"It would have were his orders not rescinded," Yuna said. "I was willing and I am now!"
"Yunie!"
"WHAT?" Auron asked.
"Running looks real good right now," Seymour said.
"Such an act would give you the throne, and humans my country."
"You already are!" Yuna exclaimed. "Kinoc wishes to take control of the Farplane from the Guado. Djose has been trying to take Guadosalam since these disasters started."
"Lies!" Kinoc said.
"Think about this, Jyscal," Yuna said. "Why has Djose had no leader for more than mere days until Kinoc arrived? Why has every treaty proposed by Djose been either a threat or plea to join nations? Why they negotiate giving you the man who caused this only after they could have one of you killed? Why would terrorists come to Besaid in the first place?"
"You hold no evidence, merely complications that could easily be blamed on the state of the Farplane at the time."
"I saw him shoot your son!" Yuna said. "I saw him nearly kill Seymour and I heard him say that he’d take any other lives to have Guadosalam! That includes yours! You leave yourself and your country open to attack. You are playing right into his hands!"
"Enough blathering," Jyscal said. "Both your friend and my traitorous son die today for this insolence! If you wish to join them then so be it."
"I am High Summoner Yuna. I caused the end of Sin. I am the defeater of Yevon and Yunalesca. I have stopped war against your kind from the Ronso, and I have braved the Farplane."
"That means nothing to me."
"It holds meaning to Spira!"
"Someone do something, I’m confused," Kinoc said.
"What kind of a disgrace to the Guado would it be to kill the one who saved all of Spira, twice? Or her friends?"
"To marry my son would be a travesty!"
"I’ve caused enough travesties not to care anymore. I demand that your reign end, not your life, Jyscal!"
"You do indeed enjoy causing travesties, for you do not understand: I make the rules and I would demand a consummated marriage as proof of your good intentions towards the Guado."
"WHAT?" Seymour exclaimed.
"Only if you abdicate, peacefully, as well as Lord Kinoc."
"What’s ‘consummated’ mean?" Rikku asked as Seymour fainted, falling on Auron who pushed him aside and let him fall to the ground.
"I will not stand to be insulted," Jyscal said. "And I will not be made into a mockery. My orders will be followed if I have to kill him myself!"
"Oops," Yuna said.
"You weren’t supposed to piss him off," Rikku said.
"I know!" she said, running away as Jyscal charged down the stairs.
"Why can’t he stand up for more than five minutes?" Auron asked, pulling Seymour up. Now Seymour was not only unconscious and unable to help, he was also a dead weight. Auron was strong enough to carry him, but unbalanced trying to carry a six-foot tall man and run at the same time. He never really got the carrying part, and thus never to the running part, even with Yuna’s help.
Rikku, looking for a way to keep all three of them alive, leapt at Jyscal and onto his back.
"Waaa!" She yelled, as he started turning around and swinging the axe, trying to get her off.
"I’ll have all your heads for such a debacle!" he yelled.
Rikku tapped him on the head and pointed to the platform. "Smile!" she said, cheerfully, still clinging to his back.
Jyscal stopped and growled as he noticed the sphere, still recording and broadcasting the whole scene. His grip on the handle of the axe was so tight Rikku could hear it creaking, threatening to snap—even though it was metal.
Jyscal roared and threw the axe at the platform. Kinoc let loose of Paine to avoid the axe as it was sent spinning on the floor.
"Fine!" he yelled. "We negotiate." He stormed up the platform and grabbed Kinoc by the collar. "That includes you!"