Fanfiction: FFX -- Grandmother's Stories
Title: How Grandmother Became a Guardian
Fandom: FFX
Characters: Lady Yocun, etc.
Rating: T
Summary: The survivors are all grieving and angry, one more than the others.
Notes: Very short fic, that was going to be part of a much larger one, recently rediscovered on my computer.
The operation had not ended well.
Grandmother washed up on this very shore, clinging to life on the splinters of a smashed boat. Salt cracked at her lips, and her shoulder hung at a contorted angle, but Yevon still watched over her that day, as the rest of her company floated among the waves as a testament to Sin's power.
Over seven hundred strong crusaders fought Sin that day in the defense of Luca and towns upon the Mihen Road. Five survived, all young women.
With her good arm, Grandmother pulled herself into a standing position. Djose temple, she knew, had healers, water, rest, and food. Her legs felt weak, but she walked anyway.
All those five did.
Slowly, they gathered together, basking in a dead and silent companionship, a bond forged in horrific tragedy.
The survivor who led the pack turned to the others. "I'm tired of this," she said. "A crusader's life is useless."
No one answered her.
No one could answer.
The pitch and volume of her voice rose. "How many died today, in our pursuit of Sin? Hundreds of crusaders. How many civilian lives were saved? Perhaps many. Perhaps none. Sin still came ashore. As it will again, if not tomorrow, then next month, or next year.
Grandmother answered, sore and heartbroken, but defiant. "We bought enough time to evacuate a dozen villages. That is why we fight."
"No more." The discontent one clenched her fist, "I issue a challenge to us, the survivors of Operation Crimson Sail. Once we have recovered, let us go our separate ways. In five years time, we shall meet on the bridge to Djose temple, and we will defeat Sin."
Nobody said anything then, but as they turned to the defiant one, and then to each other, they knew in five years time they would in fact meet again at the bridge, just to see.
Grandmother would become a Guardian. The defiant one would become High Summoner Yocun.
Title: What Grandmother Never Told Anybody
Fandom: FFX
Characters: Lady Yocun, Lilith, OFC
Rating: G
Summary: A short rest in Zanarkand after Yocun acquires the Final Aeon.
Notes: Lady Yocun and Lilith (as named by auronlu) actually do show up in canon. "Grandmother" is a third character.
We visited that campsite again, on our way out of the ruins. The liminality of that space and the view of the night time over the sea invited us to linger and take a few short moments of respite. We also knew, I think, that once we began our journey to seek Sin and defeat it, that the time for reflection would end, for both of us.
The little campfire marked our presence among the thousands of stars. Alone. Just us two insignificant humans, our thoughts, and Lilith--incorporeal, hidden, but present--stood at the brink of a vast history, the 900 years since the destruction of this city, the millions of deaths by Sin in that span of time, and those who journeyed for the privilege to sacrifice and to defeat. We recognized the need to stop and gaze out and understand that us three, and those we lost along the way, made up our own threads in the tapestry.
Throughout our journey, we all held little curiosity for the art of the summoner. Even Yocun, the one who started this pilgrimage, bore the Aeons with amused resignation--"We share a common mission; that's all I need to know of them,"--and relied on her scimitar to dispatch most fiends and enemies. Yet, curiosity blew in with the northern bay breeze.
"What's it like, to have her as the Aeon?"
"It's--" Yocun stopped suddenly. "In a warrior's vocabulary, you know that feeling at the start of an operation, when you know in the heart of your hearts that the mission will fail, should fail, and yet you continue to fight anyway. It feels like the reason to keep fighting."
I knew. It was the reason we started this journey, and the bond that made Lilith go forward for Yocun. "And outside the warrior's vocabulary?"
"Is it sad, I want to see her?" Yocun did not evade with her question.
"Not sad at all, Lady."
"Should we?" Her hand moved towards her scimitar.
We looked at each other over the campfire. Centuries of traditions, conversations with priests, and yet so much remained we had never learned. That they had never told us, for all that they lectured the heathen crusaders on our lack of temple etiquette.
"It's not against any precepts."
"No, and we were never good at obeying those, anyway."
We laughed a little.
Yocun reached for her weapon, her focus. Her summoning held a gravity foreign and becoming to her. For the first time, I believed to my bones in Yocun's ability to become the High Summoner.
At first, I thought nothing happened, until I heard the low pounding of hoofbeats running across the ground, like Ixion, but more a more thunderous pulse. Her motion, as she approached, overpowered the wind off the coast. A magnificent creature, and yet not Lilith. This horse, white as Gagazet snow, saddled in silver, had a rider in matching armor. A full lance, painted white and silver, gleamed in the firelight. And the shield, of course, emblazoned with the logo of her Crusader Division.
Lilith would approve, if she could see herself. Perhaps she did, and that's why she glowed. I stayed back, by the mundane campfire, while Yocun stepped forward to greet her Final Aeon. What was said, or remained unsaid between them, I could not tell.
Then Lilith dissolved into pyreflies, and only Yocun remained.
"Svava," Yocun said, using my full name for once, "What will you do, when my Calm comes?'
I had considered that, vaguely. Yocun, rightfully, would get her recognition as High Summoner. My fellow guardians and I--rightfully or otherwise--would receive the title of Legendary Guardians. And alone among all of them, I would live to reap the benefits and the acclaim. But I had in my mind, a picture of what mattered most to me in Yocun's Calm.
"There will be some time to stop being a warrior."
Yocun shakes her head. "I think we shall always be warriors. But there will be a time when we can stop fighting at least for a little bit."
"Yes, lady."
"Sva?"
"Yes?"
"You will visit us on the Farplane."
"Of course."
"Good. Get some sleep. We're heading out early."
"I understand, Lady."
Fandom: FFX
Characters: Lady Yocun, etc.
Rating: T
Summary: The survivors are all grieving and angry, one more than the others.
Notes: Very short fic, that was going to be part of a much larger one, recently rediscovered on my computer.
The operation had not ended well.
Grandmother washed up on this very shore, clinging to life on the splinters of a smashed boat. Salt cracked at her lips, and her shoulder hung at a contorted angle, but Yevon still watched over her that day, as the rest of her company floated among the waves as a testament to Sin's power.
Over seven hundred strong crusaders fought Sin that day in the defense of Luca and towns upon the Mihen Road. Five survived, all young women.
With her good arm, Grandmother pulled herself into a standing position. Djose temple, she knew, had healers, water, rest, and food. Her legs felt weak, but she walked anyway.
All those five did.
Slowly, they gathered together, basking in a dead and silent companionship, a bond forged in horrific tragedy.
The survivor who led the pack turned to the others. "I'm tired of this," she said. "A crusader's life is useless."
No one answered her.
No one could answer.
The pitch and volume of her voice rose. "How many died today, in our pursuit of Sin? Hundreds of crusaders. How many civilian lives were saved? Perhaps many. Perhaps none. Sin still came ashore. As it will again, if not tomorrow, then next month, or next year.
Grandmother answered, sore and heartbroken, but defiant. "We bought enough time to evacuate a dozen villages. That is why we fight."
"No more." The discontent one clenched her fist, "I issue a challenge to us, the survivors of Operation Crimson Sail. Once we have recovered, let us go our separate ways. In five years time, we shall meet on the bridge to Djose temple, and we will defeat Sin."
Nobody said anything then, but as they turned to the defiant one, and then to each other, they knew in five years time they would in fact meet again at the bridge, just to see.
Grandmother would become a Guardian. The defiant one would become High Summoner Yocun.
Title: What Grandmother Never Told Anybody
Fandom: FFX
Characters: Lady Yocun, Lilith, OFC
Rating: G
Summary: A short rest in Zanarkand after Yocun acquires the Final Aeon.
Notes: Lady Yocun and Lilith (as named by auronlu) actually do show up in canon. "Grandmother" is a third character.
We visited that campsite again, on our way out of the ruins. The liminality of that space and the view of the night time over the sea invited us to linger and take a few short moments of respite. We also knew, I think, that once we began our journey to seek Sin and defeat it, that the time for reflection would end, for both of us.
The little campfire marked our presence among the thousands of stars. Alone. Just us two insignificant humans, our thoughts, and Lilith--incorporeal, hidden, but present--stood at the brink of a vast history, the 900 years since the destruction of this city, the millions of deaths by Sin in that span of time, and those who journeyed for the privilege to sacrifice and to defeat. We recognized the need to stop and gaze out and understand that us three, and those we lost along the way, made up our own threads in the tapestry.
Throughout our journey, we all held little curiosity for the art of the summoner. Even Yocun, the one who started this pilgrimage, bore the Aeons with amused resignation--"We share a common mission; that's all I need to know of them,"--and relied on her scimitar to dispatch most fiends and enemies. Yet, curiosity blew in with the northern bay breeze.
"What's it like, to have her as the Aeon?"
"It's--" Yocun stopped suddenly. "In a warrior's vocabulary, you know that feeling at the start of an operation, when you know in the heart of your hearts that the mission will fail, should fail, and yet you continue to fight anyway. It feels like the reason to keep fighting."
I knew. It was the reason we started this journey, and the bond that made Lilith go forward for Yocun. "And outside the warrior's vocabulary?"
"Is it sad, I want to see her?" Yocun did not evade with her question.
"Not sad at all, Lady."
"Should we?" Her hand moved towards her scimitar.
We looked at each other over the campfire. Centuries of traditions, conversations with priests, and yet so much remained we had never learned. That they had never told us, for all that they lectured the heathen crusaders on our lack of temple etiquette.
"It's not against any precepts."
"No, and we were never good at obeying those, anyway."
We laughed a little.
Yocun reached for her weapon, her focus. Her summoning held a gravity foreign and becoming to her. For the first time, I believed to my bones in Yocun's ability to become the High Summoner.
At first, I thought nothing happened, until I heard the low pounding of hoofbeats running across the ground, like Ixion, but more a more thunderous pulse. Her motion, as she approached, overpowered the wind off the coast. A magnificent creature, and yet not Lilith. This horse, white as Gagazet snow, saddled in silver, had a rider in matching armor. A full lance, painted white and silver, gleamed in the firelight. And the shield, of course, emblazoned with the logo of her Crusader Division.
Lilith would approve, if she could see herself. Perhaps she did, and that's why she glowed. I stayed back, by the mundane campfire, while Yocun stepped forward to greet her Final Aeon. What was said, or remained unsaid between them, I could not tell.
Then Lilith dissolved into pyreflies, and only Yocun remained.
"Svava," Yocun said, using my full name for once, "What will you do, when my Calm comes?'
I had considered that, vaguely. Yocun, rightfully, would get her recognition as High Summoner. My fellow guardians and I--rightfully or otherwise--would receive the title of Legendary Guardians. And alone among all of them, I would live to reap the benefits and the acclaim. But I had in my mind, a picture of what mattered most to me in Yocun's Calm.
"There will be some time to stop being a warrior."
Yocun shakes her head. "I think we shall always be warriors. But there will be a time when we can stop fighting at least for a little bit."
"Yes, lady."
"Sva?"
"Yes?"
"You will visit us on the Farplane."
"Of course."
"Good. Get some sleep. We're heading out early."
"I understand, Lady."