Zanarkand Myrrh Tree

[waterblade.livejournal.com]

Characters: Those Who Hunt Zanarkand Myrrh
Progress: In-progress
Summary: After a wedding, it's time for a fight to the death!
Location: Zanarkand
Date: A couple days after Rikku's announcement
Warnings: Fighting? I'm not sure who's going on this, so if you are (Pied, still sending Tifa?), just hop in. Party-style tagging so it takes less time.

The city hadn't changed. While most of the locations that had come to Gaia had been reclaimed, repopulated, or at least been calmed somewhat by the influx of moogles, Zanarkand remained the same as ever - empty, filled with wandering pyreflies, the occasional projection of the past coming from the balls of light. Tidus found it pretty creepy to occasionally catch a glimpse of their past, the pilgrimage and the time before everything changed, but he pushed it out of his mind and pushed on.

The unsent were gone, but the monsters were still occupying the ruins, so it wasn't exactly an easy trip. But with as many people as they had fighting now, the fiends fell much quicker than before, and they reached the Dome with very few problems.

"So..." the blitzer started, looking up at the broken structure and crossing his arms as he studied it. "Since this place likes to be as terrible as it can, that tree's probably down in the center, where Yunalesca was."

Comments

[pastglories.livejournal.com]

Jecht was quiet much of the way in. Zanarkand was always a trip down memory lane, a place of deja-vu. Blink and you miss it, the memories of yourself taking this path years ago, on a different world. That was one thing on his mind. The second was the last time he had been here, even without the glimpses of the past to remind him. That was when he had offered himself, to become Braska's Final Aeon.

He tried not to dwell on that too much. There was already enough going through his mind without that little detail making itself known.

At the pause on the trip, Jecht hoisted the sword over his shoulder, glancing around the entrance. "Would bet on it being there, yer? Like it'd make it easy for us."

[heartofheaven.livejournal.com]

Unlike the others, Tifa had never been to Zanarkand, nor did she have any history there. The pyreflies disturbed her. Something about them made her think of the Lifestream, though she wasn't sure why. It was strange to see glimpses of her friends' previous journeys through Zanarkand.

She stared at the dome in wonder. "In there? How far is it?"

[knowshermachina.livejournal.com]

Rikku wasn't a big fan of Zanarkand. She'd come here a few times, but between the Pyreflies and the fiends, it just...wasn't a fun place. It wasn't even Adventure Fun. It wasn't even Disassterific Fun.

She was bouncing from foot to foot near the edge of the dome, peering inside, holding the bag that contained her potions and the Crystal Chalice loosely in her left hand.

"Far," she said with a sigh. "And then we wind up in this creepy like...bedroom. Evil ancient bedroom." She shivered faintly at the memory. "But we can't just stand here forever, so..." She sort of waved vaguely at the ruins, for somebody else to go in first.

[triplepenalty.livejournal.com]

Like Jecht, Wakka, too, was experiencing a flood of vivid memories as they made their way to the ruins, even without considering the glimpses of the past that he knew would be seen here and there. Everything had changed for them in Zanarkand. It had started in Bevelle, learning the truth about the maesters and their archaic traditions, and things had only spiraled downwards between Bevelle and Zanarkand, where the falsehoods that he had been raised to believe in were finally laid bare.

They were painful memories. He had always been a man of faith. Having it torn from him still hurt, even if he was glad to have had his eyes opened to the truth. He had once sought solace in Yevon, comfort, and had never been very good at adapting to change.

"I don't miss this place. Not one bit, ya?" he said with a sigh, giving Rikku a sympathetic look as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "But we ain't gonna accomplish much if we never make it to the tree. Can't think of anywhere else it would be... though I wouldn't mind never seein' that room again."

[waterblade.livejournal.com]

"Those rooms used to be for press conferences and announcements and all those things..." Tidus remembered all too well the layout of the building in front of them, even if the one he'd played in technically hadn't been real. Shaking his head, he reached behind him to grip his sword's hilt momentarily, almost a comforting gesture, before slamming one fist into his other gloved hand. "It's not gonna get any better just waiting here. Let's go!"

And with that, he was off, heading up the pathway to the main temple portion, drawing his sword as he moved in case they were ambushed. "Hey, you guys think we're gonna have to mess with that lights-in-the-floor puzzle again to get down there? Or can we just jump down?"

[unsentmonk.livejournal.com]

"Don't rush in so rashly," Auron rasped. He had kept silent, for the most part. He did not have the memories of the others, but the ambient was somber. He kept the entire hand on his sword, ready to face fiends and monsters. Auron followed closely, looking over and around.

"Perhaps not. This is only a version of Zanarkand, after all." He stood on watch, waiting for any other ideas or responses from the rest of the group.

[pastglories.livejournal.com]

Jecht followed, but at a slower pace, not bothering to chide his son. Auron was doing a better job of that. And it'd be likely if the destination was different, he'd be the one striding off without looking back and getting the lecture. dropping his sword from over his back to carry it alongside him. "Much of a chance there is as it's not," he mused. "Zanarkand appeared 'ere, but if those spheres didn't..."

He paused, looking bemused. "Huh. There was a guardian down there, yer? Here's to hopin' that's gone, too."

[amorningglow.livejournal.com]

Zanarkand. City of the Dead.

Tourist trap.

At least it wasn't that way here; here, Zanarkand was still quiet, peaceful, save for the roaming bands of monsters and the visions from the pyreflies. Yuna did her best to ignore them, not wanting to see the painful memories that were coming tot he forefront -- fighting Braska's Final Aeon, Tidus vanishing from her sight..

Sending her Aeons to their final resting place for the second time.

She was bringing up the rear, but she caught up soon enough, Nirvana staff in hand, and she lingered next to her husband, lips pursed.

"Let's go. Whatever's down there.. together, we can take it on."

[heartofheaven.livejournal.com]

Tifa jogged after Tidus easily, slowing down as she negotiated the ruins. The path was narrow but fairly straightforward. She glanced between Tidus and the others.

"A puzzle? What puzzle?"

Why would there be a puzzle here anyway?

[knowshermachina.livejournal.com]

"All the Yevon stuff involved puzzles," Rikku was off to the side a bit, looking at the ruins around them as they moved along, her swirling eyes flicking from the group and back. "To prove their worth or something, ya know? Solve this glowing ball puzzle, figure out these lights in the floor, don't go 'here' unless 'there' is working..."

Rikku shrugged. She liked puzzles, but in dangerous or stressful situations, they seemed a lot like a waste of time. "Hopefully it's not working anymore. Or it stayed solved with Sin gone. I'm more worried about the fiends."

It was odd how quickly old habits came back. Out in the world, in Gaia, they were monsters. Here, in Zanarkand...she couldn't help but think of them as fiends.

[unsentmonk.livejournal.com]

"Fiends are more likely than puzzles," Auron said. "Sin is not here. It may be the challenge has remained solved and untouched since."

He leaned on his sword, observing, watching, waiting. Zanarkand here was still strange to him. The last time he was here... Jecht and Braska were here, yes. He did not want to think on such things currently. They had the myrrh to see and the party would need to press on, puzzles or not.

[waterblade.livejournal.com]

"This puzzle was weird - in most of them you had to move spheres around to different locations, and the spheres did different things, but in this one there were lights on the floor that you had to step on and if you did it wrong, you had to start all over again. It was a real pain in the ass."

He was really hoping they didn't have to do that one again.

But the run through the Dome was fairly quiet - they were attacked, but rarely, and with the number of fighters they had the fiends were quickly dispatched. Perhaps the number of people in the group had something to do with it, but Tidus doubted anyone was arguing. Arriving at the doors outside the rooms that Yunalesca had appropriated for the temple, Tidus waited for the rest to catch up before pushing open the doors.

Luck was apparently on their side, as the spheres that began the Cloister had not been reset. A hop, skip, and a jump across that small room and a look through the next door made him grin. "Looks like we're okay - the elevator's open in the floor!"

[pastglories.livejournal.com]

Jecht glanced into the next room (he didn't pay much mind than necessary to the spheres that were not reset - didn't want to think on it too much, or eles be haunted by more literal memories), before letting out a grunt of approval. Elevator was there: excellent. And the place seemed okay, which was good enough for him.

"Good. Really wouldn't wanna do that with so many o' us."

... Or was it just a little too quiet? Or was that just Zanarkand in its melancholy state? Well, whatever. The small room was crowded, and the next room with the elevator was bigger, so he stepped into it.

[heartofheaven.livejournal.com]

Elevator seemed like too strong a word. It was really just a platform. But Tifa followed the lead of the others and stepped onto it, ready to descend to the chamber below.

She adjusted her gloves. This was where it got serious.