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CH. 15 PATH OF SIN: SIN-IKAGE

"Raine" tore through Spiras skies like a bat out of hell. "Z" and "Tech" had pushed the engine core to its absolute limits to make such good time. But there was still the over whelming feeling that their best time still wasn't fast enough.

"We have Besaid coming up fast." "Z" said from her spot at the helm.

"I want visual as soon as possible." Xavier said from where he was sitting in the captain's seat.

"Tech" instantly brought up a smaller screen on the main view screen showing Besaid Island. It looked fine, except for the very large monster that was in the lagoon fighting what could only be Tidus and his team.

""Z" set it down on the beach. I want every one else to get ready for a long fight. This mob terrorized these lands for over a thousand years. This will not be an easy fight. "Clip", sack the infirmary. Any thing that might be use full at all, grab."

"Z" nosed "Raine" at the beach, while "Clip" ran as fast as he could to the infirmary.

XAVIERS EYES

Truth be told, he didn't know how he should be feeling right now. He had waited for, training for, and anticipating this upcoming moment for as long as he had searched for Shyri. By the end of the day, one way or the other, his conflict with John Onikage would be over. However unlike in his fantasies, dreams, scenarios, or wildest imaginations Shyri would not be waiting for him if he won this fight. He would still have to not only find her, but find away to remove Xiedies soul from her body. To top it off he had drug his team into his personal fight. Their lives were now at stake as well. This is not the way he had intended to face John Onikage. He wanted to face him, fight him one on one, man to man as the gods had intended. However the gods had stopped listening to his prayers a long time ago. And whether he liked it or not he was a valuable piece in their little game. For no good reason at all Xavier started to tremble. Xavier stood up from his chair and all but ran out the door.

DRAKES EYES

Drake waited all of two heart beats before he was out of his seat and following Xavier. He had been concerned about Xavier since their encounter in Bahamuts chamber. Drake still felt lousy about killing The King of Dragons, but it needed to be done. However as soon as they had received the message that Besaid was under attack that from Sin-ikage, Xavier hadn't said more than two or three sentences. Xavier charging from the cockpit after handing out his orders had him on edge.

Drake found Xavier in the mess with the lights turned off. He was just sitting in a corner booth, goggles off, gazing into a cup of coffee. At least he hoped it was coffee. As he approached Xavier didn't even look up, he just kicked out two chairs opposite himself. Drake looked over his shoulder he spotted Ashlin walking up with two more cups. Drake sat down and just watched as Xavier continued to look into his cup.

Drake couldn't claim to know what was going through Xavier's head. Hell he couldn't even get the majority of his own thoughts in order. He had killed a king, he was one of Xiedies children, he was about to fight one of the most powerful notorious monsters ever. Drake watched as Xavier finally moved his head. He watched as Xavier turned his gaze out the window, and a single tear made its way down his cheek.

ASHLIN EYES

Ashlin was no fool. He knew something was bothering Xavier from the moment they left Bahamuts chamber. Normally this would not have bothered him; he knew that Xavier would work out what ever it was. How ever in this team Xavier was the back bone, the unshakeable pillar that supported the team. Every one fought harder when Xavier was around. So with Xavier acting all tall, dark and angsty he had every one on edge. His pep talk didn't help much either, especially when he stormed off the bridge shaking.

As soon as Drake left to follow him, he had been right on his heels. It didn't take long for them to reach the mess hall. At a glance he noticed that Xavier was lost in thought looking into a cup of coffee. He commended his brother for try to settle his nerves without resorting to beer. Ashlin found him self getting two more cups of coffee.

As he sat down, he observed Xavier's every move. He was like an open book, every drop of sweet told volumes; every tremble was a new line. As Xavier looked out the window, and that one solitary tear rolled down his cheek Ashlin had figured out the ending to this chapter of Xavier. This was not how he had wanted to face his nemesis. Ashlin reached out and rested his hand on Xavier's shoulder, giving it a supportive pat.

CLIPS EYES

Clip tore through every cupboard he had come across looking for any thing that could be of help for this fight. He had accumulated quite the pile. Bandages, gauze, potions, ethers, phoenix downs, mega-potions, echo-screens, soft's you name it, it was on his pile.

As quickly as he could he started portioning out the proper amounts of dry ingredients for his ultima potion. It may not have the most effective delivery system for it, but it worked for the moment. He could almost hear his father belittling him for not solving the problem yet, or experimenting with such "Radical" new methods when the tried and true new methods worked just fine still.

Clip had no doubts that he would never be as good as the great Lawrence "Law" Creedington, but so what. As long as he was still able to sufficiently heal his friends and team mates than it was good enough for him. He could careless at this moment if he was ever good enough in his father's eyes. He, Clip Creedington, was actually doing something to make a difference, and right now that was all that mattered. While his parents hid in Winhill farming there flowers and herbs, staying out of every thing, he was out saving the world.

Satisfied, Clip packaged up the dry parts of his Ultima potion and tucked them into his pouch of holding, all the other things followed suit in an orderly fashion. Finally Clip checked his gun, his power packs, and his physical ammo. Once again satisfied he made his way back up to the bridge.

AVAS EYES

No matter how she positioned her self or the mirror she could not completely make out the black mark that now resided at the back of her neck. As far as she could tell it was a spiky halo. She could not begin to fathom why it had manifested or what its purpose could be.

She knew she should be memorizing her spells, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that this mark was extremely important for a reason she couldn't quite place. She tried to remember what she had thought when it would happen, and rejected the thought immediately. She had really wanted to help Drake as best she could. That couldn't be the answer; it had to be something else, something deeper. Than it hit her.

"Darkness..."

Ava's eyes met her reflections. That's what the mark was; it was the ancient sign for the arcane spell Dark. But why had it manifested, and of all places why the back of her neck. Ava just remembered that the pressure, the pain, the darkness, had built up at the base of her neck till she couldn't take it any more and had projected it on to Bahamut. Ava continued to look at her self, wondering if this would be the last or if there would be more.

DREWS EYES

Drew looked at the array of weapons in front of her. Drew new the weapons in front of her very well, they were essential to the "Gun Bunny" limit break. It was a 10 weapon set that came not only at a steep price financially, but also a complete and total mastery of the "Gun Kata".

As Drew's eyes roamed over the eight pieces of the Gun Bunny set that she had she set aside her normal guns, they no longer were enough to get the job done. Carefully she picked up the first weapon, Gun bunny 01 the stripper grenade, It would remove any shield, magical or technological leaving the opponent open for the rest of the "GB" set.

Next was "GB" 02 the death dealer hand cannons. They were called so because they shot a very large-caliber shot. They were also one of the only ones in the set that could be used outside of the Limit break.

Than came "GB" 03 the redeemer machine gun, a high-caliber fully automatic rifle. Nothing special really, just a higher rate of fire and the big caliber.

Next up was "GB" 04 the perforator Uzis again nothing special.

"GB" 05 the infection perfection grenade cast every high level status effect

"GB" 06 the hail merry nail bomb, did just what the name implied. It detonated mid-flight and sent spikes in every direction. Great for a group of enemies.

Drew's hand ran along the length of "GB" 07 the penetrator sniper rifle, garuntied head shot every time. And the only other one in the set that could be used outside the Limit break.

The last one she owned was "GB" 08 the Rip You a New One or RYNO rail gun. You only got one shot with it, and each one cost a lot. But that one shot was usually enough to finish a fight with out going to the last two in a set. "GB" 09 the compensator 9,000 a high-powered mini-gun that fires off about a million shots in less than a minute. If that didn't finish it than the last piece would "GB" 10 revelation. A mini-nuke. That was enough to end all fights for good.

With a command the eight pieces of the gun bunny set activated. Grabbing the Death Dealer hand cannons and put them into he hip holsters the remaining pieces went into her pouch of holding, where they would stay until she activated the Limit break. She had learned the Gun Katas to improve her accuracy. To learn each one she had to get the weapons. As she sat there thinking about the destruction that her knowledge was capable of she started to cry.

She never wanted to hurt any one; she just wanted to be with her friends. She continued to cry till "Clip" came into her room. Drew threw her self into his arms and cried some more.

TERRINS EYES

Slowly Terrin dragged the wet stone along the length of his blade. He granted that he had not seen Xavier in twelve years, so he couldn't claim to know if this is how he was before a big fight. However judging by the way that every one was reacting to him, this wasn't normal.

Silently Terrin continued to sharpen his axe. He wondered how well they could continue to fight against this Xiedie. Apparently they had been fighting her for more than a year now, with little to no headway.

He wondered how they would fare against this Sin. Back in the chamber of the Bahamut faith they had seamed to enjoy themselves as they were fighting, even though the fight had been hard. Though now something had changed and he couldn't tell what.

Satisfied with the sharpness of his axe, Terrin stood up and walked over to the window that dominated his room. From this view Spira looked beautiful. He knew though that the beauty would not last long.

Terrin found him self on the floor once again as "Raine" gave a sudden lurch.

"TECH"S EYES

"Tech" picked himself up off the ground and made his way to a council.

"What in the name of the Faiths are you doing up there "Z"?"

"Tech" waited for a reply

"Dodging Sin-spawn."

At that moment "Tech" was glad they hadn't put any windows in the engine room. He didn't know how well he would have been able to handle seeing Sin-spawn. His whole life he had heard the nightmarish tales of the vile Sin-spawns. He never knew how much of what he was told was ever true or just tales told to keep young children in line. But he had no urge to find out.

"Tech" went back to the engine. Since they had left Bevelle "Tech" had been in the engine room making sure that "Z" didn't blow them out of the sky. It has taken all of his skill to keep them in the air too with the way she flew. But fly she could and they had made great time.

"Tech's" mind was brought back to task at hand. He was about to fight Sin. And the thought terrified him to no end.

"Z's" EYES

With all her might "Z" yanked the control yoke to the right to avoid another bombardment of Sin-spawn. All things considered she was doing fine. She had made a flight that should have taken six hours in about three. Her butt was tired and her legs were aching, and her head hurt from the shear concentration of flying so hard. To top it off Sin-ikage was now hurling Sin-spawn at them.

"Hold on!"

"Z" sent "Raine" into a barrel roll to avoid the attack. She didn't know if "Rain was built for that kind of maneuvering, but she handled it quite well.

"THAT'S RIGHT! GIMME EVERY THING YOU GOT YOU POLE SMOKIN SON-OF-BITCH!"

She may be tired, ragged, and really hungry but god was she having fun.

"WA-HOOO!"

RAINE BRIDGE

"WA-HOOO!"

Raine leveled out in time to fish-tail away from another attack.

"Christ "Z" I really wanna keep my lunch before fighting John."

"Oh you loved it "X", and didn't I tell ya that I'd make you go head over heals with my abilities."

"Yeah you did but I thought you meant in the sack, not in the air." Xavier said still trying to regain his balance.

"Z" blushed a little and pulled the control yoke to the left purposely sending Xavier sprawling once again.

"For the love of the gods "Z" will you just get this bird on the ground!"

"Z" rolled away from another attack.

"I don't think I will be able to land on the beach."

"Well just get as close as you can, and in one piece."

No sooner were the words out of Xavier's mouth and "Z" angled "Raine" into a sharp downward decent, barrel rolling away from another attack. The ride down didn't get any easier either, But "Z" did get them down in one piece. Almost as a single unit they rushed from "Raine" a couple of them promptly heaving their guts out in response to "Z's" flying. A Deafening roar brought every one to attention. The tension in the group could be felt by all.

Calmly Xavier drew "Brotherhood" and opened the cylinder. With steady hands he began to load the chambers, as he did so he spoke.

"I know things haven't been easy lately, hell things haven't even been going as planed. I, more than any one, could tell you that. But we have come so far, and I wouldn't trade it, or you guys for any thing else."

With an audible snap Xavier shut the cylinder and put "Brotherhood" back on his hip.

"Let's show this Ass-sack exactly why we are called team X-treme. And after we kick his ass we can send the pieces back to his mistress in alphabetical order."

Team X-treme's cheer was so loud it was heard up at the village. All at once "Z" started running up the beach at full speed.

"THE LAST ONE TO LAND A HIT BUYS THE BEER!"

Team X-treme was hot on her heals.

THE LAGOON

Tidus didn't want to think that he was getting old, or weaker; however nothing they did seamed to be affecting this new Sin. He watched as Wakka and Paine rushed it again while Yuna and Lulu provided cover fire. He didn't know how much longer they could keep Sin at bay, they needed help and bad. Tidus watched as the Sin monster lunged from the lagoon at them, its maw gaping wide open to swallow them whole.

The attack never came. Tidus watched as a large ball of Green and Black magic manifested in Sins open mouth. As the Ultima spell continued to grow it was hit several times squarely in the forehead by a sniper. Tidus turned his head to see where the shots had come from and was almost bowled over by "Tech" and "Z" rushing past him.

"If you're not going to fight little one find shelter."

Tidus whipped his head around in time to see and eight foot tall man beast stride past him with nothing but a whistle in hand. He watched as the man beast walked in to the middle of a group of Sin-spawn and blew out a string of notes. The Sin-spawn immediately turned on each other. One of them jumped at the man but was easily caught in one massive hand, and crushed.

"He is such a show off." Drake said running past Tidus and taking flight.

Drake got to the peak of his jump and felt the wraith wings appear. Drake started to take in several deep breaths. When Sin-ikage reared back to bellow Drake took one last deep breath and hit Sin-ikage with a full blast of Dragons breath.

"Snap out of it Tidus, the fight is going on with out you." Ashlin said as he ran past.

Xavier didn't even say anything as he raced by his hands a blur in front of him. With several small pops Xavier made several clones of himself. Ashlin and thirteen Xavier's descended on Sin-ikage raining destruction as they went.

Terrin charged Sin-ikage with his newly acquired pets. With all his might Terrin swung his hammer at its lower jaw. He felt his hammer hit with bone shattering force. Sin-ikages head snapped back and Terrin swung his axe with as much power as he had swung the hammer. It connected solidly with Sins neck, but it did not cleave flesh. Terrin swung his hammer again.

"Weapon skill - Armor Break"

It had no effect.

"Clip" ran from one member of Tidus's team to the next making sure that every one was ok. So far every one seemed to be fine; they just needed a little healing here and there. "Clip" than turned his attention to his team mates. He threw up several protection spells and regeneration spells before pulling his gun and taking aim at Sin-ikage.

It was times like this that made "Clip" almost wish he was a more obedient son. Maybe if he was than he would have the "Family Heirloom" in hand as well as his "retribution" shot gun.

WINHILL, CENTRA

"Law" Creedington angrily cut connection on the com unite. He had not been pleased to be called in the middle of his work. He was even more upset when he had found out that the call was from Squall Leonheart.

"Leonheart! If this is about getting money out of me for my ungrateful boy staying at your school you can forget it!"

Squall had smiled at the monitor and cleared his throat.

"It is good to see you too Lawrence, how's Ordelia?"

"It is never good to see you, you and your father have brought nothing but chaos to this community. And now you have stolen our son from us as well."

The friendly smile left Squalls face.

"Well since you want to play hard ball right away Creedington; I'll get right to the point of this call."

"Yes please do so I can tell you no and then get back to my fields."

"It is about your son..."

"You'll get nothing out of me for him being there, he was supposed to do his trial and come home. Instead he has stayed with you. Loafing around all day like the rest of your lot. Like father like son."

All other traces of pleasantness left Squalls features.

"That's the problem with you Winhillians you think that every thing would have been fine had no body done any thing in those two wars. You seem to forget that the herbs and plants you grow there go into every healing item used in Centra.

How well do you think Winhill would have stood had my father not defeated Sorceress Adel? How long do you think your peace would have lasted if us SeeDs hadn't defeated Sorceress Ultimicia? How many times have my SeeDs come to the aid of Winhill when hurricanes hit it, when monsters ravaged it, when thieves sacked it over and over? And all you Winhillians ever did, especially the Creedington clan, was sat on your asses thinking that it would just pass you by.

Lawrence said nothing.

"Now as for your son goes, I invited him to stay after he willingly helped a group of my students with a mission and his revolutionary healing items and ideas saved their lives. I allowed him free access to our medical facilities so he could continue his work. Our on site doctor, a leading edge doctor her self, is constantly telling me how brilliant and revolutionary his experiments are. But I know there are some things he still needs to learn. Stuff that can only be taught from parent to child."

A smaller window had popped up on the screen showing Clip darting between people healing them, putting himself at risk. He watched as his son threw him self in the beasts way to protect a fallen comrade.

"See that Creedington, your son is doing more for the world than the rest of your clan combined for the last three or more centuries! Your son needs your help!"

It was at that point that he had severed the connection. But Squalls word hung heavy on his mind as he walked back to his field. He was beyond pissed. "Clip" was overly headstrong, overly proud, overly confident, and had always been a bit of rouge. The corner of "Laws" mouth twitched up into a smile as he made his way to his personal work shop.

"Law" knew that "Clips" talents lied in making healing items better. He had lost count of how many times he had been amazed by his son's talents with organic healing materials. "Law" flipped a switch and the over head lights came on in his work shop. "Law" looked at the contents of the bench. His son's talents may lay with organic science, but his lied with mechanical means of healing. "Law" quickly found a little grey box that he had been looking for and he left his work shop.

A short time later "Law" was standing in an open field with several large gourds on posts in front of him. From his hip "Law" removed what was referred to as the Creedington Clan "Family Heirloom". Law ran a hand over the old .50 Caliber "Deliverance" Hand cannon. The thing was so old that it still used physical bullets. "Law" leveled the hand cannon at one of the gourds and squeezed the trigger. The gourd exploded on its stick and every bird that had been in the field took flight from the really loud bang. Had he not been ready for it, the recoil would have torn his arm off.

Carefully "Law" removed the cylinder from the gun and tucked it into a pocket he than took another cylinder from the grey box he had taken from his work shop. "Law" snapped the cylinder shut and leveled the gun at the second gourd. With another ear-splitting explosion the gourd disintegrated.

"Law" carefully looked the gun over to make sure that it wasn't damaged, and smiled. He had just turned the ancient and powerful gun in to an energy weapon, something that his ancestors had never been able to do. "Law" headed back to his work shop; there were still things to be done to the gun before he handed it over to his son.

Squall was not expecting to hear from Lawrence Creedington, at least not so soon.

"Creedington, what can I do for you."

"Leonheart, the next time you see my boy tell him I need him to come home. I have something for him."

SPIRA, BESAID ISLAND, LAGOON

Time seamed to drag on forever as Team X-treme and Tidus's team threw every thing they had at Sin-ikage. They initially had thought that they had found its weak spot when they had arrived and focused all there attacks on its mouth. But it still wasn't showing any sings of going down.

"Clip" found himself more than once having to quick heal a bone or a torn muscle. Quick healing that extensive of damage was fine, if not a necessity during combat. But the quick heal area was always very susceptible to being re-damaged, more often than not worst than it had been to begin with. To top it off quick heal bones had to be essentially re-broken to be properly mended latter, and it hurt like hell.

Terrin had learned quickly that not only did his armor and weapon break skill not do any thing to the Sin monster, but his charms on the Sin-spawn often didn't last long. He had also discovered that there was a thick layer of slime on the beast that acted like a shield of sort, so it essentially had a regenerating defense. It didn't seem to like it too much when he sent its spawn right back at it.

Ava unleashed another high level spell in the middle of a group of Sin-spawn. She was really starting to feel the fatigue of almost endless casting. Her body was on the verge of collapse she was so spent. Ava reached into her pouch of holding and produced another high ether, she had use two already. There was a general misconception about ethers that every one believed.

The world at large thought that ethers gave mages back mana. The truth was that a mage never runs out of mana, their bodies just become to tired and stressed to cast. They were like a pick-me-up, an energy bar or drink. But like those products ethers also took a toll on the body, and it was highly dangerous to a mage to use several in a short amount of time.

Ava looked at the vial of purple liquid for all of a second, her hand trembling like she was some kind of mire junky. Ava opened up the vial and downed the contents. Instantly her trembling stopped and her body became more receptive to the flow of mana.

"Tech" had listened instantly when Terrin had said that Sin-ikage didn't like it when its Sin-spawn were sent back at it. So for fun he had Tossed one back and watched what happened. For a brief instant a hole would open up in the slime shield exposing a small area of Sin-ikages body.

"Z" saw it too, so when the next one was thrown she was right there to deliver an attack. Immediately a pattern was formed, the bigger members of both teams would hurl Sin-spawn back at Sin-ikage while the lighter faster members dealt the damage. Seeing a particularly nice opening Ashlin rushed in.

Time slowed as Ashlin rushed in, Kuroaki hanging from his hip. Mako flowed to Ashlin like a rushing river, he felt like he was about to erupt. Any more and he would be approaching the levels of flow he experienced when he was in hibernation. More Mako flowed to Ashlin.

His shoulder was a flame; his brand burned it hurt so much. There was a growing pressure in the back of his mind, a growing presence in his brain. A long quiet whisper was becoming a thunderous shout. He was losing control.

"Yes...

...yes, attack it. Show me what you can do now. Show me you are able to stand up to unimaginably stronger monsters. Maybe than you can stand up to Sephiroth."

Ashlin shook his head to clear it; all he managed to do was replace Hojos' voice with Sephiroths.

"Bring down John Onikage; show me that you are able to defeat such a worthless opponent. Stop living in the shadow of Xiedies children and remove this Sin from the land."

"Stop it, shut up both of you" Ashlin hissed under his breath to himself.

Ashlin reverted his Mako flow down his body and into the still sheathed Kuroaki.

"You can not silence us for much longer. Very soon your voice will be our voices, and a final showdown will happen. Very soon you will no longer be heard."

"I WILL BE HEARD! WEAPON SKILL! MAKO ESSANCE!"

The back to back slashes tore the veil of slime back further leaving deep groves in the flesh of Sin-ikage. He didn't stop there.

"WEAPON SKILL! OMNI-SLASH!"

Blood spilled from Sin-ikage with every hit. As he jumped in to the air for the final hit he saw Drake poised to do some damage as well.

"Don't help that thing...

Xiedies son is beneath you...

Take the glory for yourself...

Crush Sin-ikage..."

"DRAKE!

LIMIT-BREAK! WRATH OF MAKO!"

Drake was in mid-flight about to hurl his spear when he heard Ashlin's yell.

"DRAKE!"

He watched as Ashlin Wrath of Mako Limit-Break sent a beam of pure Mako flying at Sin-ikage leaving a wide gap in the slime shield. Drake felt the wraith wings open and send him higher.

"DRAGOON OF THE FIRST ORDER LIMIT-BREAK, STEEL RAIN!"

About a hundred thousand wraith spears hit the open spot that Ashlin had created. Sin-ikage screamed and shuddered. Every one found themselves thrown back as Sin-ikage thrashed about in pain. All at once the slime shield erupted and was gone leaving Sin-ikage stripped of any kind of defense. The joy at seeing this didn't last long as a shiver went up Sin-ikages body and sent Sin-spawn in every direction. It didn't need a defense, at the moment it had a nearly perfect offense. Every one was standing at the ready waiting for one of the Sin-spawn to attack, but they didn't make the first move. No one was ready for what came next, and this was proven when no one stopped Drew as she ran into the middle of the Sin-spawn.

DREW

"Limit-Break, Gun Bunny."

It came out as barely a whisper, but it was enough. Out of no where eight weapons materialized around Drew in a ring slowly rotating around her at an angle so as not to be in the way of what was to come. With a tear in her eye Drew reached out and grabbed "GB 01 - the stripper" The soft ball sized grenade fit perfectly in her hand. With out hesitation and practiced ease Drew slipped in among her enemies in the first of the eight Gun Katas that she knew, as she did the memory of the first time she had started practicing the gun Katas came to mind.

"Are you ready Drew, because after this you can not turn back? I see, than I shall teach you the "Gun Katas".

Her master had started to go through the Gun Katas one at a time, the whole time explaining them and their reason for existing.

"The gun Katas. Through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, it has been determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element. The gun Kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increase to lethal proficiency making the master of the gun Katas an adversary not to be taken lightly..."

She had watched and learned eight of the ten. It wouldn't be long and she would know the ninth enough to take the test and get the associated gun. She was brought back to the present as "The Stripper" beeped announcing that it was ready to be deployed. Taking enough time to glance around and make sure that the first Kata had taken her to the center of the Sin-spawn, Drew dropped the grenade. With a bright flash it went off stripping every enemy in its blast radius of any kind of protection it might have had.

As soon as the flash went off Drew placed her hands out to the sides and felt as "GB 02 - The Death-Dealer hand canons" slipped in to her waiting hands. Seamlessly she went from form one to form two and started firing. It sounded like a rave with all the Sin-spawn screaming as they died, and the base of each shot fired as the Death-Dealers did just that and dealt death. Kata two indeed did look like a dance as Drew spun this way and that. After the third set of clips fired dry the Death-Dealers disappeared and were replaced with "GB 03 - The Redeemer machine gun"

Kata three wasn't as graceful as Kata two, but it didn't need to be. As she dodged and weaved among the Sin-spawn the high-caliber machine gun tore through multiple targets at a time. The Sin-spawn dropped rapidly under her assault. The machine gun fired dry and was replaced with "GB 04 - the Perforator Uzis"

Kata four was faster than the other Katas to accommodate the faster firing speed of the Uzis, and since she was so close to her opponents there was no real need to aim. As the Uzis emptied Drew found the number of littler Sin-spawn being replaced with bigger ones of a boss rating. "GB 05 the Infection Perfection grenade" and "GB 06 the Hail Merry nail bomb" were released into the group of mobs and detonated immediately. High level status spells and metal shrapnel went flying everywhere. Katas five and six took her well out of reach of the effects of both explosives.

Kata seven made sure that every time "GB 07 - the Penatrator sniper rifle" was brought to bare that she was in perfect position to make the head shots. When the last shot was fired she had a clear view of Sin-ikage and she had one gun left. Drew went into Kata eight and got even closer. When "GB 08 - The R.Y.N.O rail gun" announced that it had a full charge she had covered half the distance. Drew leveled the bazooka like gun at Sin-ikage and pulled the trigger.

She was almost blown off her feet as the rail gun fired its only shot. Every thing in the path of the projectile vaporized. Sin-ikage took the shot full on. Drew dropped the bazooka and fell to her knees too drained physically and mentally to go any further at just that moment. She became aware of some one standing next to her, and looked up in to "Clips" smiling face.

"Great job, Dear."

Terrin didn't let the prime opening Drew had created go to waist. With a command Terrin sent the few Sin-spawn he still had under his control out in front of him to attack any that might get in his way. Sin-spawn fell on Sin-spawn, and Terrin rushed through them like a mad bull. It didn't take him long to get to the still writhing Sin-ikage.

"Weapon skill - Raising Blow!"

With a mighty upward swing of his hammer Terrin exposed Sin-ikages neck once again.

"Limit-Break - Celestial Strike!"

With four heavy slashes Terrins axe left a very large eight point star in Sin-ikages neck. Terrin looked in time to see "Tech" go sailing over his head.

"Finishing Technique, Blitz rush!"

"Tech" through every thing he had left into every punch and kick. He made sure that every hit made contact with an all ready opened wound.

"Fighting Skill, Raising Dragon Wave!"

He didn't expect to lift Sin-ikage into the air but he took full advantage of its head snapping back and delivered every hit to it throat and face. As "Tech" went soaring over Sin-ikages head he brought the last of his energy to his feet.

"LIMIT-BREAK, DRAGON KICK!"

"Tech" flipped over and delivered the kick right to it nose. The force slammed Sin-ikages head into the ground hard enough to cause fissures.

"Z" wasn't about to be left out of this kind of fun either.

"Finishing technique, Booya-Girl!"

Like her fathers Booya, "Z's" was a continual blur of motion. Fists and feet were constantly moving, and were they not interrupted by the contact of flesh, it would look like a grace full fluid dance.

"Fighting technique, a different beat."

Several flip kicks put her well over Sin-ikages head, right where she wanted to be.

"Finishing technique, Meteor barrette!"

"Z" dove fist first at Sin-ikage delivering a payload of pent up energy right to the fore head, putting "Z" right back on the ground.

"Limit-break, NEO-BLACK-DEATH!"

A ball of black energy, darker than the void struck Sin-ikage.

Sin-ikage went down hard and just laid there, twitching. All the fight apparently leaving him. Xavier decided that now was the time to end his feud with General John Onikage. Xavier rushed in, Brotherhood tucked at his side, his hands a blur. With a pop there were several Xavier's rushing Sin-ikage, and with another flourish of hands they were absorbed.

"Finishing technique, Strike purple lightning!"

Xavier disappeared only to reappear in mid-air right behind Sin-ikage and slash. He was than gone again, only for two Xavier's to reappear on either side and slash, than they disappeared. When the three Xavier's appeared for the third set of slashes the sin monster was to disorient to even scream. Four Xavier's came to gather and plummeted towards the ground gathering energy the entire time.

"Finishing technique, Omni-slash!"

Xavier had an almost sort of detachment as swung away at Sin-ikage. He had heard it described once as the mercenary in the SeeD taking over. It was basically when the training took over and made your body do what it needed to do, as opposed to what the heart wanted the body to do. Xavier wanted to face John one on one, however he knew he never would be able to so he needed to destroy Sin-ikage. Xavier spun around and took flight; it was time to lay his differences with John Onikage to rest.

"LIMIT-BREAK, FATAL X!"

...

...

...

The attack never was executed. With out any kind of warning what so ever Sin-ikage lunged and swallowed Xavier in mid-flight, whole, in one snap. It than turned its angry gaze on the remaining members of Team X-treme. The old familiar glint of John's madness clear on Sin-ikages hideous features. Had Tidus's team not reacted, Sin-ikage would have wiped out Team X-treme in one hit.

"Drake, this is no time to be day dreaming. We have to push an attack now!"

Drake came to his senses and attacked, every one else found their second winds as well. The fight had just taken on a whole new level of personal, and Team X-treme intended to get their leader back. He owed them beer.

SIN-SCAPE

Xavier looked around in disbelief. He had died enough times to know that he wasn't in either the Life stream or the Far plane. However this was not how he had ever imagined the inside of a mob looked. With a few quick hand seals Xavier broke the multiplication spell, and felt his body instantly relax.

Xavier looked around himself again. He was in the middle of a wind-swept field, almost like the calm lands, but not at the same time. The grass was taller and greener, the breeze more pleasant. Off in the distance there stood a little shack. With nothing better to do Xavier moved on the shack. The closer he got to it though the more he started to realize that it was more of a small Tea house. When he finally got to the front door he almost shit himself. Inside was one table and it had one occupant. John Onikage looked up at Xavier and smiled.

"Ah Xavier, won't you come in and join me. I've been waiting for you."