Sins of the Father

"We're going into Baaj Temple to find out who's been experimenting with the Sinspawn now."

"Okay."

*She steps away from the machinery and heads to the door.*

*Ark waits outside.*

*Luna & Hitomi show up outside soon afterwards.*

"I guess I'll have to summon to get us to the temple, unless anyone else has a better idea."

Ark: <Go ahead...>

*And so Luna summons Valefor. One quick flight later, they come to the waterlogged entrance of the temple. It is almost indistinguishable from the rest of the ruins, for all of the weathering having reduced it to a plain sandstone dome, and part of the roof is blasted away. Valefor drops them off at a place ankle-deep in the freezing cold ocean, and Luna begins to tread water up the steps of Baaj, carefully climbing past haphazardly piled chunks of broken furniture, wall, and stair.*

"So, I've been thinking...how did they do these experiments without Sin coming after its Spawn? Was there a way to block its detection of them, or did they just move around a lot?"

Ingrid follows along, quickly, so to spend as little time as possible in the cold water. "I do not know. Maybe they altered the Sinspawn, making it harder for Sin to spot. Your guess is as good as mine, though... probably better in all honesty."

[It's like she thinks she'll like any attempt to answer we make.]

*Ark shrugs and follows.*

*Hitomi follows not botering to swim, raising her book somewhat.*

"I was just thinking, we might be able to think of a way to find these places, other than just blindly searching."

*They come to the main chamber, which has the remains of a fire in the center, & a little waterfall feeding a large pond. What remains of the furniture is broken &/or burnt, but the hallways & steps to the Chamber of the Fayth seem mostly in-tact.*

"There's going to be a hidden entrance somewhere. The lab was built after Sin attacked, so it'll be newer than the rest."

*Ark looks around in search of any signs of a hidden entrance.*

*Stepping over rubble and other assortments of crap, Hitomi goes about looking around.*

"You know...Yojimbo's Fayth was stolen from here a long time ago. Maybe...they decided to use the Chamber."

"That is a good idea. Do you have any clue where that Chamber is?" She asked. "Or maybe you should just ask it."

"It's right up the stairs, like every other temple."

"Ah, well, that makes things simple. Forgive me, I'm not used to simple answers when it comes to our travels together."

*In the Chamber of the Fayth, where the Fayth would ordinarily be, is a new section of floor. When Luna stands on it, it turns into an elevator like the one in the Zanarkand Dome, & descends into an abandoned lab full of cages & machina consoles.*

*Hitomi steps off the elevator and looks about at the consoles.*

Ark: <Looks pretty... dead.>

"But this time, the consoles aren't all smashed up. We may be able to get some actually useful information from here."

*Ark shrugs and starts examining the consoles looking for anything relevant.*

*Hitomi just pushes whatever looks like a button.*

*A cage opens.*

"Right idea, wrong button. Look for something closer to the monitor, something that looks like a Sphere Player."

*She clicks a button & a female voice says, "On-site operations terminated."*

"Right."

*She pushes a button closer to the moniter*

"Wait, what does 'on-site operations terminated mean'?" Ingrid asked.