"It sucks."

Just like this boring puzzle!

I found a guide and followed it. If you care, just follow the steps the floating commsphere shows you, but I think that's even worse. After my triumphant victory over the Song of Shuyin, we walk through the now open gate. Rikku has a hunch that there won't be any coming back if we go further, so the girls go further down the road. We can turn back to save, which I did, but the true point of no return isn't far away. Yuna will jump across a few platforms until she reaches one with a person on it. It's Nooj, and he's all alone. How'd the gimpy guy get here? Nooj tells us he has a plan to take down Shuyin, but nothing of Vegnagun is ever mentioned. The goal is to shoot Barelai. The bullet shouldn't kill him, somehow, but the shadow of Shuyin will transfer itself into the Nooj. Nooj is "the death seeker," so he's set his body to die. I assume it's a bomb. No one is exactly thrilled with that plan, but no one says anything. For a moment... Yuna chimes in, "I don't like your plan. It sucks." She continues with a wonderful soliloquy about her thoughts over the last few years. She says that too many of her friends have died: aeons, mentors, lovers, and she's always wondered if that was the only way. Were their apologies just hollow words? She just doesn't want to see any more friends die. While she was saying all this, we'd occasionally hear the voice of her lost friends. I know we heard Auron and Jecht, but there was another I didn't recognize. Braska? At this point, Gippal shows up to agree with the sediment. Leblanc is also there, making up an excuse for why she isn't waiting. In response, Nooj asks if Yuna has a plan. Two of them, in fact. Yuna looks to Rikku to remind everyone that machina can be taken apart, piece by piece. It seems dodgy, but everyone agrees. There's less agreement on if love can conquer Shuyin, but Leblanc hardheartedly backs the Power of Love, so it's a go!
 
The camera pans to Shuyin, playing a rainbow piano. He begins to alter the landscape of both Vegnagun and the arena, which chases everyone back to the start. Undaunted by the sheer size of our opponent, each group will split up and take on a different part of Vegnagun. Leblanc's gang goes after the legs, the Crimson Raiders choose the torso, and the Gullwings will focus the tail.

The tail is the hardest part of this section. I think it counters everything, but I wasn't sure. Make sure everyone had Protect/Shell, and have Yuna or Rikku on heal duty. Alchemist may be a pain to master, but it's got some great skills.

After we win, we'll see Leblanc struggling with her section. We race to her and take over while she goes to aid Nooj. The legs have three nodes that attack us, and I get one of the Sin fight vibes from it. Each node is a different color which alludes to the type of attacks it can do. Because of their distance from the party, only ranged attacks can strike them. Alternatively, just focus on Vegnagun to end the battle quickly. You get less EXP and AP from this, but we're at the end game, so who cares?

Leblanc didn't do much helping with the Raiders, and we see Ormi and Logos begging for our aid before we get to them. Gippal's missile launcher sucks, so we have to save them. Vegnagun has two tiny arms that the dark knight's Darkness ability can easily wipe out. They can interfere with killing the torso, but they're so weak that you might as well. Veg also wastes turns reviving them.

After its torso stops attacking us, Shuyin brings the head of the monster down to us for a final battle. The fight is a lot like the last one, so use the same strategy. Besides the tail battle, all of these were really boring and anticlimactic. Protect, Shell, and Haste made everything trivial, and I barely took any damage. Any that I did was healed by Regen. It was nice to hear the voices of our lost friend cheer us on and offer advice, though. It wasn't necessary, but at least the X-2 devs tried to give the game more soul. They'll also share their thoughts on the upcoming Shuyin climax.

Shuyin and the body of Barelai will be before the group now, and Yuna puts her plan into motion. She turns into her songstress and says to Shuyin, who's confusing her for Lenne, "I love you." Shuyin is still distraught because he's been looking for her for 1000 years, but she's just glad that someone cared about her. "it's time to rest." It works, and he drops the body of Barelai behind him, and Paine goes to pick him up. As Shuyin approaches Yuna/Lenne, he finally notices the obvious differences between the two girls. He snaps back to himself, and he's even angrier than before. Now that he's been deceived by someone pretending to be his love, he wants more revenge, and the final boss of Final Fantasy X-2 begins!

Shuyin is really easy! His moves are copies of Tidus' Overdrives, but they're not that strong, especially if you have Protect on. Terror of Zanarkand, Blitz Ace, can one shot a fragile job, but Paine can eat two or three of them without flinching. But, since we're at level 60 with maxed out mages and items, he poses no threat. After we win, Yuna will approach him again, and the spirit of Lenne will pop out of her. We finally get to see and hear the real Lenne! She echoes what Yuna said earlier as Lenne holds her long lost lover in her arms. They both "rest," and the Gullwings return to the others. But the convoluted mechanics aren't done yet! As the girls walk on the Farplane, you (the player) can trigger another scene. I didn't, but if you press "X" now, you get more endings! And while we're at it, here's all of them!

Yuna will hear a whistle, and pyreflies surround her. The ghost of Tidus appears behind her and wraps her arms around her. She says she had a feeling he was here, always watching her through this journey. But despite that, she's not sad anymore. She's accepted her feelings and knows that Tidus can't return to this Spira. She tells him, "I love you," and poofs away without saying a word.

I don't know how to get this ending, but it starts in the water outside Besaid. It mirrors Tidus's first appearance there, which is great because guess who pops out of the ocean? It's Tidus! He whistles and swims ashore just as the Celsius flies overhead. The airship lands, and Yuna jumps out into his arms. The two wonder if he's real? It doesn't matter, though, because he's back. "I'm home." Everyone on the island celebrates! Tidus and Wakka have some playful banter before he and Yuna runoff. Tidus remarks that Yuna's changed, and she begins to tell him the story of the last few years.

Continuing from there, the two are at Zanarkand. Tidus states his theory about why's here. It involves the fayth and thoughts, or, maybe, he's still a dream? Yuna gets worried that he might one day disappear. Tidus tells her to "cherish me, and I'll cherish you." If they stay together, it'll be fine. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but the couple laughs as Yuna pushes Tidus into the sea. It's a playful scene, and Tidus doesn't disappear despite the lack of "cherishing." The scene ends with the opening segment of Final Fantasy X, but with Yuna standing where Tidus stood as we overlook Zanarkand.  

But my last scene was Nooj, Barelai, and Gippal in Luca. They're speaking to an arena full of people about how they made mistakes. They all wanted to fly an airship two years ago, but each made their own ship with questionable results. It divided Spira. But, now that everyone is back to their senses, they see that the only real ship they should care about is the one called Spira. And everyone aboard only wants one thing: to be together. They close the ceremony by saying none of this could have happened without "one girl," and everyone knows it's Yuna. We cut to a scene before the speech where Yuna tells the three, "I'm going home." Gippal informs everyone in the arena of that message and says we'll see each other again! Brother flies the Celsius over the arena and tells everyone something I forgot. Y, R, and P are on the deck of the airship. Yuna asks Brother to fly it "higher" and "faster," and he makes weird sounds every time. The final words of FFX-2 are Yuna saying, "It all started when I found a sphere of you."

There's an audio drama that carries on from the Perfect Ending, which carries into a light novel. Neither of them are very good, but they are cannon. It pretty much undoes Yuna's entire story, with her being a conservative, New Yevon knockoff in Besaid, and Tidus dying again. It's weird, but maybe I'll read it. But that'll be for a day far down the road. For now, I see the credits of X-2 roll and an orchestral version of 1000 Words plays, which really emphasizes the lyrics. At last, I see the fated words appear on screen:

"The End."