"Chiron peed over the side of the boat," Ethan supplied, somewhat amused by Amal's reaction. The foreign warrior blinked at him, then at her.<br/><br/>"Is the human body not to be gloried?" Chiron asked, turning to stand next to Harris. "Witness! The body of shamelessness! The form of humanity!" He gestured wildly to her exposed middle. Ethan had to walk over and gently take his hands before he ripped off his tunic to display more 'humanity', and Chrion babbled in his native tongue as he was led gently but insistently away from the blitzer.<br/><br/>The taller woman was a total enigma to the priest. He knew from Chiron that she was an athlete, although in truth that would have been apparent from the physique she displayed alone. He had assumed that her interest in the journey would be strictly peripheral, that she would disembark in Luca and remain there to try her luck with the Goers, but she had boarded the ferry with them to Kilika, and then on to Besaid after that. He had asked Chiron--subtly, of course--if there was something between him and the lean woman, but the warrior had only thrown his head back, laughed, and answered 'Beer!' with his usual enthusiasm.<br/><br/>All in all, the four of them made for a rather eclectic bunch. It appealed to the priest's sensibilities. He had argued long and heated with Augustin over what was 'appropriate' for the retinue of a servant of Yevon before his departure. The other had been adamant; Crusaders only, real protectors, none of these defunct warrior-monks of ages past. He had made that declaration either in ignorance or defiance of the braid that hung from Ethan's head, though he felt he had handled it well. Augustin had gone unpunched, after all--what more could be expected? He was stirred from his recollections by Chiron, who seemed deeply curious and reluctant to let the subject of the human body go.<br/><br/>"Do you feel--what is word?--fear for the skin?" he asked Amal, tilting his head at her. He wore a curious frown on his face, arms folded over his chest. "The skin does not fear you, my milken friend Amal! Do not fear the skin! Embrace skin, young Amal!"<br/><br/>"Oh, Yevon, this is starting to get creepy," Ethan noted dryly.<br/><br/>"Creep-eey? It is not the creep-eey, E'tan! It is the fear!"<br/><br/>Ethan decided that he had no means to win such a debate, and turned to lean against the railing instead, his eyes on the horizon in the same general direction as Besaid. For a few minutes he thought of nothing at all, only mildly amused at his friend's insistence toward naked skin, but after a moment his eyes caught something bizarre. He blinked once or twice, convinced for a moment that what he was seeing was an illusion or a trick of the sunlight, but it didn't fade or change. If anything, it grew larger. He stood upright, grasping the rail with both hands, squinting ahead at the sea.<br/><br/>Another island seemed to be rising up next to Besaid. It started small, a tiny bump in the horizon, but it kept on growing larger and larger. The dome lifted up from the sea, swirling water captured in a powerful aura, first twenty feet across, then fifty, then a hundred, then two hundred. In seconds that felt more like hours a titanic sphere had risen from the waves and floated next to the island, and within it hung a monster of gargantuan scale. Ethan's breath caught in his lungs, and the captian's voice cut through the still air like a knife.<br/><br/><i>"SIN!"<br/>
</i><br/>Half a heartbeat later there was a bright flash, and a pillar of light erupted from Besaid. Trees and debris spun violently around the glowing light, thrown violently into the ocean as the monster launched an attack, and Ethan braced as a gigantic stone hurtled into the sea not thirty feet from the ferry. The craft rocked violently, spray soaking his side to the skin, though he held steady at the rail. By the time the boat settled back into the sea and he looked up, Sin was gone, the colossal form returned back to the sea. His pulse hammered in his ears, a roaring sound, like an avalanche in his mind. Words were distant, sounds to be ignored as his mind tried to grasp the implications of what they had just seen.<br/><br/>The Calm was over. Sin had returned.<br/><br/>Awareness returned to him with a dull ringing and the sound of the captain's voice, ordering his sailors to turn the ship around. "No," Ethan said quietly, then he turned, his eyes wide. "No! Captain, we must get to the island! I must perform the Sending!"<br/><br/>"Are you bloody mad, boy!? Did you not see Sin!?"<br/><br/>"I saw, which is why I can't let you turn back. It is my duty as a priest of Yevon to ensure that the departed find their way to the Farplane. Please. I know you're afraid, but don't let your fear damn the survivors."<br/><br/>The captain looked hard at Ethan for a long moment, then swore and spat on the deck. "On your head be it," he snapped, then turned away. "All hands, doubletime! We make for Besaid, quicklike! Feed the 'bos, we need every bit of speed we can get!"<br/><br/>Ethan bowed his head to the man, then turned back to look at the island ahead. He felt his hands shaking.<i>Sin. Sin is back. What do we do?</i>