“You can't be serious.” I said in a huff.


Nooj paced from one side of his office to the other. Earlier, he'd made the suggestion to me that we demolish the temple and, with it, any access to Via Infinito. I hated to admit it, but part of me wanted this. That pit had been nothing but trouble for us and it'd only gotten more dangerous since. Our last tour nearly ended in our deaths and, in the case of two Al Bhed twins, it did.


“They aren't in any frame of mind to be going back there.” Nooj responded at last, taking his fist to the surface of his desk. Taking a deep breath, he added, “And I know you don't want to hear this, but you must believe there's no chance Rikku has survived for this long. She's dead, Paine. I need to make sure no more follow.”


It made sense. No matter how strong we thought we were, even Rikku couldn't have lasted so long. We'd barely survived once Via Infinito showed its true power. There was little doubt Rikku sampled the full force of it at some point. That part of me wanted so much for Nooj to do it, to take us away from the nightmare and let it be over. It would have been so easy, but easy isn't the sort of life we live.


“Burying our problems makes them go away for a bit. But you're trying to bury Via Infinito. That malice is only going to fester until it infects even more of Spira and we'll see it again. On that day, we'll wish Shuyin had blown us up with Vegnagun.” I spoke, even though it pained me to utter every syllable.


After Nooj leaned against his desk, pressing his fingers together, I took another deep breath and continued, “Besides, doing that doesn't solve our other problem.”


Nooj sighed, knowing I was right. Via Infinito was the main threat that we'd all been shaken by, but the reason it was was thanks to the Farplane weakening. That had been what that guado had informed us. Once we gave it voice, Nooj began pondering his options. Not only did we need to properly deal with Via Infinito, something had to be done to help the Farplane.


“I could put in a word with Baralai, have him press the Spira Council to stop Rin's expansion plans. It is clear the experimental mining he's been conducting in the Farplane is the cause behind its weakening.”


“You would have to tread carefully. Rin's played his game very well. His FERE initiative has become Spira's new hope. Everyone is looking forward to the day we might be able to live in a machina city.” I told him, “Even our most fabled hero, the former high summoner, was a known advocate of that. Rin was meticulous about keeping our incident with the malfunctioning machina away from the public. As far as they are concerned, she still supports his schemes. This plan is the future.”


“Yes, and we don't have the time to engage in that political battle right now.” Nooj hesitated, “I'm sure Gippal is aware of the situation. Perhaps I should put more faith in him.”


I decided it would be best to leave it at that. There was no reason to worry him over what I'd heard about Gippal's official position on the matter. That excavations mission in Guadosalam had been Gippal's in to take Rin down. Rikku had, after all, told him about the incident. Unfortunately, as it turned out, there was something else going on there and each of Gippal's suspicions were suppressed in favour of supposed sabotage. In fact, I knew first hand about the sabotage. The pyreflies that had shot out of Mishka and possessed Yuki had come from an unsent meddling in Rin's operations. If the council chose to antagonise Rin, he'd pull this card and it would only hurt the council's stand, considering the unsent was characterised as a pious Yevonite, speaking out against the research and development of machina as the root cause for the coming of Sin. That sort of fanaticism rang poorly for most Spirans, a sign of misinformed backwards thinking. Rin could use that to rekindle the notion that New Yevon was more of the same and, seeing as New Yevon was a leading faction within the Spira Council, it would crumble any counterpoints made against Rin.


The next day, we found ourselves gathered together again, standing before the twisted gateway back into the pit. Irrespective of any personal reasons and motives, each of them had been brought back to the task by something none of us foresaw. In the time between our last resurface, when we'd lost Kyra, it seemed the scars hadn't healed for some of Nikki's friends. Not surprising, but we didn't count on Asuka taking it to the extreme of going down into Via Infinito herself.


It had been unsettling enough before. This time, though, Via Infinito had changed significantly. The cloister we arrived on was hardly a cloister at all. Instead, it looked like someone's house and the lot of us were gathered in the common room. It would turn out that the room belonged to Nikki's deceased younger sister who so happened to be the unsent we'd had to deal with throughout our exploration of the levels. All this had been kept hidden by the workings of history and played right into Via Infinito's plans. The version of her sister in the room was a shade, a collection of the benevolent memories the girl had. Via Infinito must have separated them from the girl in order to influence the unsent. Eventually, the shade was coerced by other unsents, specifically our companions who we'd lost along the way, into taking an active role in our mission, to reunite the memories she housed with the unsent as a means of fixing the weakened Farplane. It made sense seeing as how our unsent friends belonged there, as well.


Unfortunately, in order for the shade to take part, she needed to recollect herself, which included the house she'd built as shelter from Via Infinito. As she absorbed it back into herself, we were thrown back into its cloisters and violently.


“Ugh.” I groaned, rousing from the stupor the girl's move had put me in.


“You're awake.” I heard Nooj's voice.


“Where are we?” I asked, taking a look around the area as my senses returned to me.


“Possibly on Cloister 90. This level shares the appearance of most tenth cloisters.” He answered as I realised we were the only two present.


“The others...”


“It seems we were separated when that girl, Nikki's sister, drew in that house.” He told me, “I anticipated something like this and took hold of you. It turned out to be a good call.”


We decided to explore the cloister in search for an exit. The sooner we moved forward, the sooner we could find the others and continue the mission. However, unlike what Nooj suggested, the cloister was dissimilar to other tenth cloisters in one major aspect. There wasn't an exit in sight. There was not a warp back to the surface, either. Via Infinito wanted us to stay down here.


We would wander a while further when the cloister shuddered without warning. At the right side, the floor slowly sank down to reveal a ramp leading down. Nooj and I shared a cautious look and, weapons equipped, we proceeded forward. The ramp led to a large cavern. At first, it was black as pitch down there, but it wouldn't be long before we noticed a faint red glow. Butterflies fluttered in the air and we were soon swarmed by them. Nooj took the first step forward, choosing to ignore the ominous air these butterflies had brought with them. Following his lead, we began surveying the area to see if any of the others had arrived before us and to find a way further down in case they'd made more progress.


Minutes passed and we could not even locate a wall in the distance. The cavern stretched much farther than we'd thought and we weren't getting anywhere in our search. Though it was reckless and there was no cause to believe it might bear results, I couldn't shake the feeling the butterflies were here for a reason. Call it a hunch.


“A hunch?” I huffed on instinct, shaking my head as I realised this and followed it with, “I guess I'm filling in for her.”


“Paine?” Nooj called out to me, obviously puzzled by my outburst.


Ignoring it, I moved to say, “I think we should attack these things. We're not getting anywhere and these butterflies are the only thing in here other than darkness.”


“I agree. We have to do something.”


Moving forward, I decided to mutter the words “a hunch it is then” to myself. Nooj took his pistol and shot one of the insects between the wings. Unexpectedly, the butterfly shattered as if made of glass. The shards continued to glow red, sprinkling glimmers of light onto the cavern's floor. Unfortunately, the little bit of illumination didn't do much for us.


“It was a sound plan.” Nooj tried to appease.


“We need to fin-”


The bits of light on the floor began melting and spreading, forming into a pattern. Once the pattern completed, both Nooj and I immediately identified it as one of the summoning glyphs used by summoners. A large rock emerged through the floor, spawned by the glyph. As it split open, the Aeon Ifrit was revealed, though it was twisted and bore black markings across its face.


“I thought the fayth were at rest.” I uttered, recalling what the Gullwings had done for them.


“More of Via Infinito's machinations.” Nooj said through gritted teeth.


The Aeon took me by surprise, at first, but I remembered it wasn't the first time one of the Aeons had returned. Shiva had appeared before, warped into a monstrosity by Via Infinito. Ifrit, too, was more demonic than its normal wolf form. Its eyes burned with dark red flames and its already fearsome jaws extended to an awkward length, teeth jutting out in jagged directions since they no longer fit its mouth. I didn't have the time to observe the other differences. Ifrit bound for us as soon as its summoning finished.


“Paine, look out!” Nooj shouted as the ground shook beneath my feet.


Just as Shiva had been different, this Ifrit's special attack was different, as well. Its Meteor Strike was supposed to call a molten rock in front of itself so it could punch it in the direction of its enemies. This Ifrit created the rocks right under my feet, forcing me to roll out of the way as they shot up into the air. The rock disappeared into the darkness, but it didn't take long for it to come crashing back down. Ifrit continued bringing the rocks up, covering the cavern in a barrage. The other butterflies fell to it, momentarily plunging the cavern into darkness, but the slivers of magma from the shattering rocks replaced their light, at least, on the floor. More light would be provided for us in the meantime as Ifrit's fire magic changed, too. The Aeon bathed itself in the flames, taking to rampaging across the cavern and spreading the fire along its trail.


Nooj fired shots at it to keep it distracted while I changed into Black Mage. With my own magic, I dispelled or dowsed it. Progress was slow; Ifrit's stampeding set whole tracks ablaze and my spellcasting was hardly as fast as an Aeon's. Taking my attention off of it would be too risky.


“Strike Ifrit directly, Paine!” Nooj shouted.


“If the fires keep up, we'll be roasted long before I can take it down.” I told him, continuing to use Waterga to dowse the flame.


Light shone over Nooj's head. Nooj reached out with his machina arm, extending it into the growing sphere. Once the light coated it, he aimed a short distance away and shot it out in a beam, cutting around the two of us. The ditch kept the fire from us and Nooj continued to spread this circle. Putting his gun to the ground, he created bursts of light that controlled the fire's spread and freed me to attack the Aeon directly. I redirected my Watergas to it and quickly put a stop to its rampage. Once it recovered, it stopped randomly dashing about and focused on us. Its variation of Meteor Strike was being repelled by Nooj so it had only its flaming charge. Its first pass separated me from Nooj, but I was able to tag it in the back, causing it to stumble. Further passes continued isolating me, but I was able to hit it each time, weakening it before it finally collapsed and exploded into pyreflies. Searching around, I found Nooj behind a thick wall of fire. A few more Watergas depleted my magic, but managed to clear the path between us.


“Are you okay?” He asked me as I finished my transformation back into my usual dressphere.


“I won't be able to use Black Magic for a while, but no real damage done. I guess I could call it lucky, but then again...”


Once more without warning, a hole appeared between us, a way further down into the next cloister. By this point, we'd lost track over what cloister we'd come to. The previous area had seemed to be a tenth cloister, presumably Cloister 90. However, we never advanced from there. Was this cavern considered the next cloister or part of it? That should make the cloister we were heading for either Cloister 91 or 92. Regardless, it was decided the faster we could progress, the faster we could advance our search for the others.


The next cloister was equally swarming with the butterflies. I nodded to Nooj as he readied his pistol again. Taking hold of my sword, I sliced through the nearest butterflies. Much like last time, as soon as they were destroyed, things were set in motion. A horrible scream pierced the near silence of the cloister. From the remains of the butterflies, another summoning sigil formed, though instead of an Aeon appearing, what arrived was a woman.


“You've unleashed the essence within the red butterflies?” She asked, her voice filled with fear.


“Essence within?” Nooj asked her, but it would be too late.


The woman clutched herself and began shivering, before her true form enveloped her. The woman was bound in weathered bandages and held captive by a large monstrous creature, shielding her with its long, likewise bandaged arms crossed.


“Anima! She was Anima!” I uttered, realising my folly only too late.


Destroy the butterflies and unleash an anomalous Aeon. Both Shiva and Ifrit had been feral and their power surpassed even the possessed Aeons YRP had faced before. We were bound to stumble across the stronger Aeons like Anima. Now what could we do? We were terribly unprepared for something like this. In spite of that, we'd summoned this feral version of Anima. We needed to deal with it.


“Paine, focus on its eye. If we get struck by its special ability, we'll die instantly.” Nooj shouted out, firing several shots at the Aeon's skull.



I was surprised that it hadn't used it already, but I wasn't about to let the opportunity pass. With my sword, I wouldn't reach its eye so I quickly changed to Gunner. Taking hold of my twin handguns, I activated Trigger Happy and blasted Anima's eye with a hail of bullets. Something akin to blood began seeping from it. With any luck, it meant we were making progress.


And that was when things took a turn for the worse. As we continued to damage Anima, neither of us noticed what was happening to the woman inside it. If we had, we would have noticed her writhing in pain. It was the late Maester's mother, the fayth of Anima. She was strong enough to fight against Via Infinito's control, but it was waning and we were the fools that kept battering her down.


Before I could put a stop to our attacks, we'd broken her and Anima released a violent shriek. The glow returned to the eye that we'd been targeting, the ominous light of Pain. Nooj was slower to react to this, probably since he had never faced Aeons before. I took to changing to Gun Mage and throwing out a smokescreen to make it harder for Pain to hit.


“Nooj, evade! Anima's going to use it!” I shouted at him.


Changing up tactics, we went from the offensive to a full defensive. Neither of us were equipped for facing death magic. My Blue Bullets were helping to keep Anima distracted and unable to pinpoint our position to land Pain. Still, we couldn't stop for a second. Anima was no ordinary Aeon. It wasn't surprising; she was the former Maester Seymour's mother, after all. Her magical prowess was a rival to Yuna's and it would only be so long before she adapted to the situation.


“Paine!”



That moment came sooner than I predicted. During the middle of another volley of Pains, I ended up dodging directly out of my Blue Bullet's range and Anima immediately sighted me. The glow from its eye came instantly and I was in no position to react. However, just as death descended, its light was blocked. I stared in shock at what had happened. Nooj lunged forward, taking the spell in my place. He'd held his machina arm out, probably hoping for it to receive the full force of the Aeon's power. And it had, except that an exploding machina, no matter what it was, would still spread jagged slivers of metallic shrapnel. Many of those pieces from his shattered arm found their way through him and he crumpled backwards into my arms.


“Nooj!” I gasped, ignoring the ongoing attack.


His form heaved and trembled before his body finally gave out and settled in my arms. My mind wouldn't let me accept it. He wasn't hit directly by Pain. He couldn't be gone. Without thinking, I changed to Dark Knight and stood in front of Nooj's body as if to protect him as he slept. More Pains came my way, but with Dark Knight's high levels of defence, I stood my ground. As the wave ended, I returned Anima's volley with Darkness. I didn't realise my mistake until it was too late, but Darkness was an attack that drained the user to power the damage it dealt. With Pain already dealing significant damage, my reckless actions had exhausted me and I was stupid enough not to notice. Finally, I had wasted so much energy fighting the Aeon head on that I couldn't even muster another Darkness, which was the only reason I figured out what I'd done. To try mitigating my mistake, I changed to Berserker, the final dressphere I had equipped. With Berserker's stamina and additional boost in energy, I tried to resume dodging Anima while hoping its speed would allow me to land enough hits to eliminate it.


Sadly, it had taken too long and even Berserker's power wasn't going to win me the fight. However, I'd managed to fully activate my Garment Grid. I could change into Full Throttle. The dressphere was slower, but it was my most powerful weapon. Anima's latest barrage prevented me from spherechanging, but I was running very low on stamina. Taking my chances, I waited for the next Pain to strike, harmlessly damaging a part of wall above me as I slid underneath, and began the shift to Full Throttle. It was yet another misstep. Changing to that took time and I was vulnerable during the transition. Since I didn't wait for Anima's barrage to finish, it wasn't difficult for the first of the remaining Pains to hit its mark.


“I've got you!” I heard as the attacks took their toll on me.


“Joseph... Nooj, he... he's... He took Anima's Pain for me. His arm... He protected me...” I blurted to him before slipping into slumber.


“Vajra!” When I awoke, I saw something I couldn't believe at first.


I was surprised to be awake at all. Berserker wasn't as protected as Dark Knight, but being in the middle of the spherechange sequence must have saved my life. Then, it must have been Joseph who got me to safety after that. With Anima being distracted by the others, I had the chance to complete my transformation into Full Throttle. Rikku's Machina Maw finished launching its attack. The lasers peeled away what was left of the Aeon's defences, which made it perfect for Swords Dance.


Rikku ran up to me soon after Anima fell, “Paine!”


“I'm fine, Rikku. I can't say the same for the Mevyn.” I answered her, taking my eyes to Nooj laying in the distance.


“I'm sorry.”


“Let's end this.” I said as I turned to look for an exit, not wanting to think about it anymore.


“We are going to win.”


A short distance away, I found Mishka hugging Cyan close. It was about time those two patched things up. Curiously, both of their weapons had been strewn to the side. I became curious and, nodding to Rikku, we made our way to them.


“Paine!” Cyan yelped, off her guard since the hug, “Are you hurt?”


“Nothing I can’t weather.” I replied, following it with a smirk, “You two seem to be on better terms. I’d recommend keeping those on you, though. Via Infinito isn’t the place to be dropping your weapons.”


“It will be alright now. We’re winning.”


As my eyes made their way from looking at her to Cyan, the warrior replied, “Yea, you know as much as I do.”


The smile on Mishka’s face shone brightly, “I may have kept a few things from you.”


Sucking in a deep breath to ready herself for her tale, the guado would recount the many interactions she’d had with Via Infinito in fine detail. She’d been infected with its pyreflies almost since the beginning and it had been communicating with her through them. Apparently, her sword, which was now a sickle had been granted her by Via Infinito, as well, but so was Cyan’s sword. Cyan’s sword had the name “Harbinger’s Sword” though neither of them understood what that meant just yet. However, in the battle just now, Via Infinito made the mistake of using Anima’s Pain to attack Nikki’s sister. The special ability struck both of the weapons instead, disrupting its influence on her. According to her, the sickle’s creation likely required the pyreflies inside of her, forged by tempering the former sword with them. If that didn’t draw them out of her, though, she and Nikki’s sister had done something to make her whole and that had the side-effect of purifying Mishka.


All of that information was far beyond my understanding and I wasn’t even in the mood to care. The only piece I took from all that was that we had the advantage against Via Infinito now. Looking to my left, Rikku comprehended even less of it. After a few colourful words from Nikki, we decided to move on.


“Can you believe we're back down on Cloister 96?”Rikku asked me, walking with me as her Machina Maw stomped along beside us.


It was then I realised I was still in Full Throttle myself. Mishka's revelation had come so suddenly that none of us were prepared to respond.


“Cloister 96, huh? So that's where we ended up.” I mumbled to myself, instead.


“What was that?”Rikku asked.


I wasn’t quite in the mood to chat, so I simply replied, “I'm glad you're alive, Rikku. I can't imagine what it must have been like to be stuck down here as long as you were.”


“It wasn't as hard as everyone is making out to be.”Rikku explained, “I wasn't alone down here. Besides, being down here, I learned something I don't think anybody on Spira has figured out yet.”


“And what's that?” I asked, surprised at how much more mature she’d become.


“Like Mishka said, the Via Infinito is gaining a consciousness. Energy is being drained from the Farplane and because of that, the balance in Spira went all wonky. Right now, its the Via Infinito that is driving Spira and that’s totally disasterrific.”


“We'd heard something like that, too. Actually, it was a friend of Mishka's.” I told her, “She said it had something to do with Shinra and Rin's Farplane Energy research, that it was weakening the Farplane.”


“I thought it was them. Shouldn't Gippal have been on them? That doof. He should have been monitoring it.” Rikku growled, but corrected herself before long, “I guess it isn't his fault. How would he know? We're all hoping to see a machina city like Zanarkand one day.”


Cloister 96 was a labyrinth bathed in darkness. Rikku and I immediately called for them to stay close. It would be far too easy to be caught off our guard here. If Via Infinito was waking, this was part of its plan. It was holding us back from getting closer to the deepest cloister. Was that where we'd find this new consciousness? Did it need time to affirm its hold over Spira?


“I can't figure out why any of this is happening. This is even worse than Sin. At least, back then we knew what it was after and how to stop it. What will it take to stop the Via Infinito.” As she finished saying that, I turned to my dressphere.


“I can't believe Rin's got them all right in his hands.” Gippal had groaned, having told me about Rin's operations in the Farplane.


“So that's why those pyreflies escaped from Mishka.”


“Mishka?”


“It seems your unsent had some of his pyreflies inside of her, too. Probably to have a backup plan, but we're lucky to have stopped it. Guess he didn't count on those pyreflies possessing a psychic. Still, looks like he did more damage on your end.” I said, piecing together the recent events.


“Tell me about it. Even took the life of one of my old buds.”


I was surprised by that, “What? Who was it?”


“I don't think I ever introduced the two of you. His name was Hunter. He... he saved them all.” Gippal told me, taking a gulp of the drink in his hand.


“Saved them?”


“From what Keema Guado reported, the guy took one of the prototype extractors Rin's crew was working on. Something that can pull in pyreflies or something and turn them into an energy source.” He answered me, taking me into the next room before walking over to a table with a large machina.


“Is that?”


“Another prototype. I confiscated it out of spite. I know I can't keep it here for long, but after Guadosalam collapsed, I just wanted to hold him accountable and there was nothing for me to do that so I said I needed to evaluate his equipment for safety reasons.”


“It does work, though?” I asked him, placing my hand on the device.


Gippal shrugged and took another gulp, “Should. Schematics and testing data show it is capable of producing energy. Besides, the one Hunter had sure as hell worked. Keema said that he drew the unsent into the extractor and then overloaded it. This version is updated and has a larger containment unit. Should be able to pull in even more.”


That extractor... I'd managed to bring it with me; it was sitting in Full Throttle right now. Could it do anything to help? Via Infinito was nothing more than pyreflies, itself, wasn't it? I could try absorbing the consciousness into the extractor if I only knew where to target.


“What do you think about what Mishka told us?” I knew that question was coming.


“I’m not going to pretend I understood it all. I’m not even sure I understood the important points she had emphasised.”


“I wonder if she’s underestimating the chasm.” Rikku muttered, “I don’t think it would let go so easily.”


“You mean to say, she's still possessed?” What could it be Via Infinito’s plan though?


“Possessed? No, but what she said does remind me of how Emika was some of the times I'd met with her.”Rikku noted.


So if we consider that Via Infinito was still possessing Mishka now, that gave me a direction to point the extractor. Was this the break we needed to end this? I decided I’d keep an eye on Mishka for any changes. If Via Infinito was still possessing her, I’d be ready with the extractor as soon as it tried to take hold.


While extensive, the labyrinth was fairly straightforward. There were several winding corridors, but they were featureless and we’d been free of any fiends or red butterflies. It took some time, but we’d eventually reach the end and the exit into Cloister 97.