[Episode 168607] [Episode 168607]Nodoka lowered her sword.
"What are you doing, Mom? We have to beat his Aeon, or he'll kill Yuna."
"We don't need to fight this poor soul, Ranma," his mother explained. "She is his mother!"
Ranma stared. He looked at Anima, at Seymour, and then back at his mother. "No way!"
Seymour smiled. "Does that surprise you that much? As you must know by now, I'm not only the head priest of Macalania, or a maester of Yevon AND the leader of the Guado - but also a summoner myself. My own mother gave her life to become an Aeon, so I could defeat Sin. But when I realized his power - I decided to make that power mine."
"But using your mother like this..." Ranma gestured towards the squirming Anima. "This in inhuman!"
"After all, I am only half human," Seymour replied. "My parents made my life miserable by breaking an old tradition: They married, even if they were two different species. And their child had to suffer from the results... My dear mother already showed me her love by becoming my Aeon... and submitting to eternal pain. My father... well, he didn't respond too favorable when he learned about my mother's fate. He wouldn't understand my ideal vision... so I had to get rid of him. He was unlike my mother..."
Seymour looked at his flailing, hideous Aeon with gleaming eyes. "My mother buried her feelings under a coat of pain, and thereby became Anima, the Aeon of pain. When you faced me in Macalania - it was the one and only time it was ever beaten."
"It," Ranma snarled. "You talk of her as she was some type of thing. But she's your mother and you turned her into this monster. My mother became an Esper, yes, but only by her own decision. And she never got so cruelly tortured like her." Again, he gestured towards Anima.
It was true. Anima was not only called the Aeon of pain because it could easily inflict pain on others... she was always in pain herself. Wrapped in the chains of guilt and suffering from the pain of love, she could not be released from this pitiful state of being, as long as Seymour was still binding her within his mind.
"Ranma," Nodoka said. "Let me speak to her. Perhaps all that is binding her in those chains of sorrow is the love she is still feeling for her son. Perhaps she doesn't realize what he has done. Her only visible eye is looking down on his enemies. She has to see for herself into what kind of monster he turned."
Seymour snorted. "Monster? I am no monster. I am Spira's final hope. And after I become Sin, I will become a GOD! Now, Anima, let them feel the pain! Destroy them!"
But before Anima could listen to Seymour's orders, Nodoka closed her eyes...
----
And entered Seymour's mind. It truly was chaotic here, dark shadows looming in the corners, horrible monsters crawling along the walls - all of the abominable Aeons Seymour's sick mind came up with. But as Nodoka was an Esper herself, they couldn't harm her in this place.
Nodoka walked forward until she reached the very last corner of Seymour's mind. There, on the wall, bound by chains and bandages like her monstrous counterpart Anima, Seymour's mother was hanging and looking at the ground.
Nodoka spoke to her in a soft voice: "What is your name?"
The woman let out a gasp. It must have been like an eternity for her, since she heard the last human voice. "A... Ann... Anni... ka!"
Nodoka looked at the pitiful woman's spirit, dressed in torn rags and wearing an unbelievable expression of sorrow on her pale face. "Annika, I'm here to save you. We must get you out of this dreadful place."
Annika shook her head. "N-no... Seymour... I have to... help my son. He... will save Spira... by beating Sin. I know he will... he is Spira's hope."
Nodoka shook her head. "No, Annika, he's not. You must open your eyes and see your son as he is. The pain and sorrow he faced as a child turned him into what he is today: A man full of madness and darkness. You mustn't help him anymore. He ceased being your son a very long time ago, and only a mad schemer remains. Don't let yourself being consumed by the pain. It's worse enough that you had to sacrifice your life. Don't let him torture your soul for all eternity. Because once he becomes Sin... your torment will last forever."
"I... I can't... He's my son."
Nodoka gestured towards the dark figures looming around them. "Take a look around, Annika. This is your son's mind. It reflects his madness. You can see his dreams, his fantasies... they're all nightmarish. You will be in his mind forever, yes... but it will be an eternity of pain and sorrow."
Annika looked around in horror, and for the first time during her long, long captivity, she seemed to really realize what this place really was. "No... oh god, no... I can't believe it... Seymour, my son... What have you done? What have... What have I done? I can't take this any more. Please, whoever you are: Take me out of this place!"
Nodoka smiled. "Don't worry! It will all be okay. You're safe now." And as she reached for the other woman, the chains and bandages covering her fell apart, and she fell down into Nodoka's arms. Seymour's other dreadful Aeons screeched when they saw the two women embrace... and then they were gone.
----
When Nodoka vanished, Anima had stopped moving, as if it was having a mental blackout. Seymour realized that this time, his Aeon wouldn't be able to help him, so he called upon the powers of the Alpha Fiend once more.
He turned into some sort of demonic warrior, brandishing a scary-looking lance. The Alpha Fiend itself turned into a colossal, yellow-scaled form that looked like nothing any of the heroes had ever seen before. Like a knight on his steed, Seymour sat down on this monstrosity and boomed in his inhuman voice: "Now, let me show you... the real meaning of death!"
It was a long, heavy and merciless fight, and for some reason, Yuna's Aeons weren't very useful against this form, as he somehow got a new power that allowed him to defeat any Aeon or Esper instantly. So the guardians had to rely on their more traditional weapons and special abilities, but it was no easy task, as Seymour's monster had terrible powers.
One after another, the heroes went down before Seymour's might, until only Tidus, Yuna, Akane and Ranma were standing on their feet.
"Now, my beloved bride," Seymour laughed. "Come with me to Zanarkand and die for me."
Suddenly, the form of Anima, that had been standing unmoving on the snowy path all this time, began moving. It screeched in its horrific voice, reared up and then...
It's chains broke apart.
"WHAT??" Seymour screamed. "HOW CAN THIS BE??"
And after the broken chains fell on the ground and disappeared, the bandages fell down from Animas hideous face, while it slowly turned into the face of a thin woman, that had surely been beautiful some time ago, but the skin had become dry and wrinkly over the years, while her hair was hanging down grey and matted.
Ranma's face lit up in relief when he saw his mother appearing on Annika's side and helping her stand up.
Seymour transformed back into his normal form and sent away the Alpha Fiend. "What have you done?" he murmured. "She's worthless now. She had gotten strong for me... by enduring eternal suffering. We were happy... and now you destroyed it." His face turned into a grimace of such tremendous hate that the members of the pilgrimage group couldn't believe their eyes.
Annika looked at the man, who was once her son, with disgust. "I can't believe what you've done to yourself - to me - and to the people of Spira. You turned yourself into a monster. And I won't start about what you did to your father. It's horrible enough that the last thing I'm seeing, before I will go to the farplane, is this... abominable thing before my eyes."
Nodoka held her. "It's okay, dear... you're free now! Go on, join your husband - he's waiting for you!"
With one last, grateful smile towards Nodoka, Annika's form dissolved into a cloud of pyreflies. Yuna raised her rod.
"NO!!" Seymour yelled. But it was too late. One little twirl of Yuna's rod, and his mother's spirit finally found peace.
Seymour stepped back towards the snowy cliff. "You... I'll make you all pay for this... just you wait..." And he let himself fall down the cliff, into the deep canyon below.
Akane looked to where his body had vanished. "I would hope this were the last we saw of him, but knowing our luck, he will survive even that."
"Let's hope we can defeat Sin first, ya?" Wakka said. "We're almost in Zanarkand."
Ranma smiled at his mother. He was really grateful for her, even if she was kinda... weird sometimes. But he never, ever would even think of doing something to her like Seymour did to his mother. "Come on, Mom," he said. "Let's go!"
Yuna looked into the opposite direction from where Seymour had fallen down the mountain. "Only a few more steps, and we have reached the summit. From there, we can see Zanarkand very soon."
Tidus stepped to her side and nodded. "Yeah... and Ranma is right, we will find a solution. You will live, everyone else will live, Sin will be gone, and this time, forever. So that this nightmare will finally come to an end."
In his thoughts, he added: 'For both us and my father...'
----
On the farplane, the lone figure of an elder Guado was sitting lonely in a field of flowers. He surely looked sad and alone.
But then, a figure appeared behind him... the figure of a beautiful human woman wearing a Guado's dress. Annika smiled at her husband while he stood up with a bewildered look on his face. Finally, he walked up to her and hold his wife within a deep hug.
Finally, her pain had come to an end...
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(Posted Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:46)
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