"Oh, you're under occasional mind-control to go kill people. Wonderful." Sigh. "Are you trapped on that thing?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think I might be able to get you off it?"

"Are you an aeon?"

"No? At least not in the regular way." He turns some of the skin on his hand blue, then holds up his blade again. "Made this, though."

"Don't think you can help, then."

He shrugs. "Anything I can do to help in the meantime?"

"Well—how'd you get here?"

"Broke through Sin's hide, y'see."

"Damn. You must be tough. Uh, I don't know if that can help me, though. But maybe—you could help my son."

"Your son? I haven't met many people here, yet, so I probably don't know him."

"Probably," he admits, "but you could find him." He gestures at Theo's wings. "I tried to leave him with a friend and a friend's kid, but this thing's hard to steer. Now, I wasn't the best of fathers, I know that, but I really cared for him. Guess I just didn't know how to show it."

"D'you have a name, or a description…? Any idea where I could find him?"

"Tidus. He's blond, loud, cries a lot, thinks he can blitz. Last I saw 'im was at the Mushroom Rock, he was with a friend and another friend's kid, Auron and Kaede."

"– Yeah, I know him. Them."

That takes him aback. "You do? Damn, how is he? How are they? Did Auron tell them...?"

"Auron's been silent about things, Tidus seems to be getting on okay, Kaede's good as far as I know? – I kind of lost track of them a few hours ago."

"You were with them? ...was the Mushroom Rock thing a few hours ago? I don't really know how much time has passed, in here. Could be a second, could be an hour, could be a week."

"I don't have a precise count, but… yeah, about that?"

"So they're fine, then. That was a very stupid idea. These Al Bhed... Too smart for their own damn good."

"It didn't do much damage? – I was a bit busy, couldn't survey how well it worked."

"It did some damage. And if they try it again, Sin will kill them and destroy their machina."

"… Do you have any idea how Sin comes back? Any useful information we could use against it?"

"The Final Aeon. It becomes Sin, after killing it. And guess who the fayth for Braska's Final Aeon was?" He points a thumb to himself. "Killing Sin with the Final Aeon just makes it come back."

"… This all continues to sound so wonderful," he comments. "Any pointers for how to kill it without the Final Aeon, by any chance?"