"I mean, since Sin kills quite a lot of people you could probably call that an acceptable tradeoff – sorry, Kaede – but yes, it'd be better if that were not the case."

"But it's pointless! He kills a lot of people, then kills one more person, then comes back to kill more people even!"

"But the teachings say that once we atone we'll be rid of Sin!"

"The teachings! You got proof? Show me proof! All you have is the word of some old geezers!"

"And you have not yet in fact atoned and so there's no guarantee it'll go and oh it doesn't seem like you're even getting much closer to atoning so it might be like this for the next few thousand years?"

"But—"

"Okay but wait let me get this straight. The Al Bhed are kidnapping summoners... to protect them from the pilgrimage?"

"...yeah."

"… I'm not sure why you'd expend effort saving one person and leaving Sin around if you decide Sin is never gonna disappear for good."

"It is! Just not with the pilgrimage! What do you think the Al Bhed have spent the last thousand years doing? We want to destroy it just as much as everyone else! And we got that weapon and it hurt Sin, at the Mushroom Rock, it fled!"

"Right, and if you sacrifice someone to get rid of it for – however long – then it doesn't kill however many people in the intervening time and you can work on your weapons some more?"

"No we can't because Yevon still won't let us! And as long as we keep allowing Yevon to—do its thing, then people will still think it's a thing worth doing, and we could all try to fight Sin instead of just leaving it for the summoners."

"So you want to destroy Yevon? Make people no longer follow it? It's their only source of—comfort, hope."

"False comfort! False hope!"

"So you're kidnapping summoners so people think Yevon isn't able to do things and… what, lose their faith in it and it slowly crumbles?"

"Not just that—we want to talk to people, talk to the summoners and convince them so they can convince people."

"Convince them not to fight Sin and convince them to rise up against Yevon?"

"Convince them to fight Sin, convince them that machina aren't bad, that Sin is just a thing, not a just punishment!"

"But not by way of using a summoner because that way is just a temporary delay? … I feel like you're gonna have a hard time convincing a lot of these people, gotta say."

"But it's still better than just sitting around, doing nothing, letting Yevon ruin everything!"

"Whoa, whoa! Come on, that's going a bit far—"

"Why don't you tell us your story now, Theo?"

Pause. "From the start?"

"Please."

"Kaede—"