Lily: Welcome back! Now let the final story begin!

Daniel: This one may be longer than the first. We will try to keep it short like the second though. We will see in the end.

Anna: The first part of this chapter is letting you know what's been happening since their last adventure, and then gets more exciting towards the end. Enjoy!

Everything darkened inside. The only light that shone was the red light of the alarm. It was loud. Very loud. Fantasy never liked the alarm. It only went off when intruders ventured near the place – that was rare though. And never was it a real person. It was just some animal that had wandered too far – too close to this place.

Views from the cameras outside popped up onto the big screen that was now his. He inherited everything there was of Master X's once he came back from his last trip three years ago. Ryan wanted nothing to do with it. With Trevor dead, and with Master X having no other family, Fantasy became the one to take over. Not that he minded. He just wasn't ready. But now, after three years, Fantasy was doing just fine with the research Master X left behind. He had enough samples from Ivalice to continue on with it.

Fantasy dully began to gaze over each square of different views. In a middle of a sigh, Fantasy's red eyes widened. "What? No… No it can't be!" He lurched forward, touching the track ball he used as a mouse to look at the other section. His eyes widened more. "But how… how is this all possible? I know how to get there… but those getting here is just…just…"

"Sir!" some lab assistants came rushing in, out of breath. "Sir, have you seen-"

"Yes, yes of course!" Fantasy hastily snapped. "Of course I have!" He bit his bottom lip. He isn't an idiot. Nor was he blind. He could clearly see the situation on hand at the very moment.

"Sir," an older male with long brown hair pulled back into a messy, low ponytail stepped forward, "There is an exceedingly large amount of earthquakes taking place where the ex-Gamers live, sir."

"And?" Fantasy raised a brow, wondering what his lab assistant was getting at when they had more important matter to deal with. Fantasy already knew that the location of the ex-Gamers had earthquakes often many times a year.

"And there are an explosion of fires happening in Italy at the moment!" a female spoke.

"A tsunami is happening in New York!"

"This can't possibly be a coincidence, sir!"

At once, everyone else started talking about strange occurrences happening around the world in several different places.

Fantasy was at a stump.

"It has been exactly seven months since the sudden disappearance of four young adults. Many think it was strange that all four happened to vanish on the same day at the same time... Recently reports have been made that three of them lived in the same town and one lived on an island off of Hawaii-"

Nicole shut off the radio and plugged in her iPod. Girls' Generation blasted throughout the vehicle with their song Gee. Sh ehardly payed attention to any of it though – her mind wandered off to elsewhere. She hoped the loud playing upbeat music would help get her mind off what she had just heard on the radio, but it didn't.

She sighed loudly before flicking on the windshield wipers. A light drizzle turned into pouring rain. Rain wasn't Nicole's favorite thing. She rather despised it; it made her mood grouchy. Overall, rain made everything around depressing. Even the name for it, rain, sounded rather depressing!

A familiar ringing sound blasted even louder than the radio. Nicole narrowed her eyes down at her phone which played George Michael's song Faith. Reaching a hand down, Nicole ran her finger over the unlock slide, answering the call. She put it on speaker, and turned down the radio.

"What's up Dan?" she asked loudly.

"Where are you?" it was hard to hear him with his soft-spoken tone.

"I'm heading home. You're on speaker, so speak up please." Nicole replied, putting her right hand back on the wheel and letting up the gas a little.

"Did you hear the radio then? They're talking about it again…"

It went silent as Nicole thought.

Finally, her mouth cracked open. "Yeah… I heard it."

Daniel brought the cellular phone away from his ear as he rubbed his temples and sighed. He brought it back to his ear. "All of a sudden bringing it back after four months of silence… Kind of irritating, if you ask me." He spun his chair around, facing the window. Fresh new water droplets smacked against the window, old ones left dry streaks from when they had slid down the window. "It is pouring where you are?"

"Yeah. Looks like it could be a frikken flood. Pray tell why in the world we moved here again?"

"There was a job opportunity here for me, and you all wanted to attend the college here."

"…I knew that."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Anyway, the reason why I called is because Erika wanted to meet up for dinner tonight. She says she'll pay."

"Uhm… and she couldn't call me herself, why?"

"Nicole, its Erika." Daniel said, blinking dully at the phone in his hand.

"Oh right, lazy."

"That'd be it."

"What time did she want to meet and where?"

Daniel shrugged his shoulders, his eyes glancing back outside where the rain and wind began to pick up. "I think she said six-thirty at the plaza. I'm not going to get there until around six-forty five though, since I'm on the other side of the town."

"You're always late, Dan. That's become the norm for our little group. Anyway, got it. It's six-fifteen now so I'll just go ahead and head on over there now. Talk to you later dude,"

Daniel nodded his head to himself. "See you soon," he clicked the end button as he released a long sigh.

The next exit came into sight. Nicole flicked her signal on and jumped over to the next lane. She flicked it off for a few minutes until she was further near the exit, and she flicked her left one back on. She came to a halt at the stop, watching and waiting as cars passed by. When it was all clear, she turned and continued her way further into town, flicking her signal off again.

The plaza came into sight after twenty-five minutes of driving. It was a little past six-thirty; Erika was probably going to complain about how long she had to wait for someone to show up. Nicole wouldn't care though. Erika would just have to live.

The eighteen year old parked across the street from the plaza. The rain had let up, leaving everything damp. Erika could be visibly seen sitting on the edge of the large water fountain that was placed in the center, her long black hair put into a low pony tail hung over her left shoulder. She was occupied by her phone, either texting or reading a news story on the internet.

Stuffing her wallet in her front pants pocket, and stuffing her keys in her other fronts pant pocket, Nicole exited her vehicle, slamming the door shut and jogging across the street before some stupid person decided to speed around the corner and hit her.

"Erika!" Nicole called out, waving her hand at her best friend.

Erika glanced up from whatever she was doing on her phone and grinned. She waved back, calling out, "Nicole!" she jogged her way and the two found each other in a hug.

It had been a while since they had last hung out.

They released their hold of one another and smiled.

"How's school been?" Erika inquired as the two sat down on the edge of the fountain. All they had to do now was wait for Daniel to appear.

"It's going well…" Nicole replied, "How's work?"

Erika groaned. "Horrible. I really hate it. I don't get any respect around that damn place and they decided to cut my pay for some frikken awful reason that they hardly even explained! I'm still looking for a new job – they think I'm going to stay forever there, but HAH! Jokes on them. Once I am sure I found a stable job, I'm getting my ass out of that place! I'm only staying in it right now for the money that I do get." She explained quickly yet thoroughly with a look of irritation.

"They're supposed to give you a good reason for cutting your pay. Have you asked them for one?" Nicole asked.

Erika shrugged. "It was only recent. It'd probably be the more adult thing to do – ask them that is, but I decided to not even bother asking it since I really don't give a crap about what they do now. I'm hoping to be out of there by next month. My mom still sends me a good amount of money each month, so I'm doing just fine with that pay cut. I know eventually mom will stop sending me money, and by that time I plan to be in a stable job."

Nicole nodded. "Sounds good,"

"I know," Erika replied. "Anyway, what about your job? Are you still working as an accountant for that company?"

"Yeah. It's not something I want to keep doing forever, but the pay is good and I'm not having any problems so I plan to stick with that for a while longer." Nicole said.

"At least it's going good. What about Dan? Is he rising in the ranks of his job? Works for some little gaming company, doesn't he?" Erika said, tapping her chin in thought.

"He's getting pretty up there!" Nicole replied with a light laugh. "I think he's enjoying it. He's still pretty young too! Only twenty-two years old and he's already practically a boss."

"Well, stick-man was always the brainy type. His vocabulary is very colorful and his ideas are always brilliant ones. Those will get him far in life." Erika said, grinning.

Nicole raised a brow. "Since when did you compliment people?" she curiously questioned with suspicion.

"She just wants me to buy her ice cream afterwards." A voice replied.

Nicole shifted around. Daniel walked up to them, wearing his fancy tie and dress shirt.

Erika fake gasped. "Daniel! How could you accuse me of such false accusations! What do you take me for?"

Daniel turned to Nicole. "You know, I'm getting really scared of Erika using such big words for her small mind. I'm afraid too many might damage her mentally."

This time Erika actually did look insulted. "Accusations is not a big word."

"It was for you four months ago." Nicole pointed out.

"Does your brain even comprehend what you're saying? Or does your mouth just take over?" Daniel mockingly asked.

"Jerkwads…" Erika grumbled and stood up.

Nicole chuckled as she also stood up. "We just like messing with ya, girly." Nicole said, hugging Erika from the side.

"So what place in mind did you have, Erika? I'm starving." Daniel said, loosening his tie.

"I want to get a salad… McDonalds?" Erika sheepishly smiled.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Cheap ass,"

"Going to McDonalds for a salad is like going to a whore for a hug." Nicole grimaced.

Erika looked at Nicole, giving her a strange look. "What the hell Coley? You compare things in the strangest way."

Nicole laughed. "Actually, Conway tol-…" she trailed off, her gaze falling to the ground slowly.

"C'mon, I'll treat you guys to some Italian instead!" Erika beamed suddenly, grabbing Nicole's hand and dragging her away. Daniel followed silently behind the two as they headed across the street. They passed many shops that were all cramped together in different buildings. Clothing stores, bakeries, coffee shops… They were used to the "city" life now.

There was nothing for them in their old small town, hidden up in the mountains. Anna and Stephanie had a brilliant idea to move the city. Unsure at first, the others slowly began to warm up to the idea. The college there was better, Ryan was already in the city, and they had more of a variety of opportunities to choose from than in their own town.

Finding a place to live was the hardest. They had opted to get a big apartment and share the rent, but that idea did not work out so well. It was hard enough with Anna, Stephanie and Conway wanting to finish their school before finding a job, which would have left Daniel, Erika and Nicole to take care of such a big rent, but then Daniel and Stephanie enjoyed more quiet places and everyone living together would not be quiet. In the end, they had split up. Anna and Daniel lived together, Conway and Nicole lived together and Erika and Stephanie lived together. It was easier that way on their wallets too.

A full year had gone by… They were living such happy lives. Everything was going so well. Fantasy never appeared. Rosalina was still certain he would show up. The others, however, were beginning to feel uncertain about that fact. Fantasy was the type who wouldn't be able to wait three years to see them all. Nicole knew the kid wouldn't even be able to wait a month! Slowly their idea of Fantasy coming to visit faded away, into the back of their minds where they rarely ever thought of it.

Thinking of anything to do with their adventures eventually became a rare thought.

Time was just moving on.

Life became busier.

They were becoming normal again.

However, all of that changed within seven months of the new year. Their lives turned upside down again on January fifteenth, the day when Anna, Conway, Stephanie and Rosalina disappeared without a trace.

They were unaware of Rosalina's disappearance for a week. Daniel called her the day Conway, Stephanie and Anna had vanished, but received no answer. He left her many voicemails, but she never called back. Daniel thought she might have just been busy or her phone died again and she just kept forgetting to charge it, but that turned out to not be the case. On the eighth day of trying to get a hold of Rosalina, Daniel managed to get through. The phone was answered, but the person who answered was not Rosalina. It was her mother. Her mother explained that she hadn't seen Rosalina since January fifteenth – her daughter had disappeared. Vanished into thin air!

The remaining ex-Gamers started to become concerned and puzzled. The police gave up the search after a month, and all the news about the four young adults died down within two. Nicole and Daniel were rather surprised when it was brought up again on the news today, the fifteenth of August.

Daniel was positive their friends had not vanished like normal people off the street. There was something more to it. Something more…magical.

Nicole and Erika agreed with that logic. After all they had seen in the past five years, it would make perfect sense.

They had no leads to go on though. And since Fantasy never came around, they figured that he had nothing to do with it. That fact confused them greatly. No questions could be asked, though, since they didn't even know where or how they could get in touch with Fantasy. His location was to forever remain a mystery.

Ryan couldn't help with that. Once he and Trevor decided to leave their fathers place, their memories of how to get there were erased. A usual procedure, he told the ex-Gamers.

After five months of researching and thinking of possible theories, the three stopped. Nothing could be done anymore. Nothing could go any further without an idea or a trace. So the only thing they could do is…wait.

They settled into the fancy Italian restaurant, the waitress there taking their drinking orders until they decided on what to eat. Nicole put her menu down at the end of the table. She was a frequent at the restaurant, and knew what she wanted already.

"Curiosity has finally taken over my mind." Daniel said as he handed Nicole his menu. "Why did you suddenly want to go out to eat, Erika?"

Erika buried her face within the menu. Nicole and Daniel waited patiently. They would wait all night if they had to.

Erika muttered something lightly underneath her breath. Daniel leaned over the table. "What was that?"

"I said!" Erika exclaimed rather loudly, harshly placing her menu down. "Did you guys hear the news today?"

"Yeah," both dully replied.

Erika shoved the menu back into her face. "I got to thinking…and I got lonely…" she muttered loudly enough for only the two of her friends to hear.

"I think we all did." Daniel commented.

"Then I don't need to apologize for asking you guys to eat out with me." Erika said while she childishly stuck out her tongue.

Nicole laughed as she playfully rolled her eyes. Sometimes it was good to see Erika's inner child.

"Besides," Erika continued. "We've all been busy lately with work and school and whatnot, and we haven't seen each other in a while, so I thought some socializing would do us all some good! You know, catch up and stuff."

"It's scary of how you actually think about other people nowadays." Daniel sarcastically commented with a smirk.

"Yeah well, tomato tomahto."

"What?"

"I have no clue."

"So, Ryan couldn't make it?" Nicole curiously questioned.

Erika glanced over at Nicole. "He said he didn't feel up to going out. He just wants to sleep today."

"That boy has been a mess since they disappeared." Daniel stated.

"We were at first too." Erika retorted.

The waitress came back over to take their orders as Nicole said, "We still are."

Daniel nodded in agreement. "I still cry once in a while, when I really think about it."

"I suppose when you say you cried, you mean only one tear right?" Nicole asked.

Finishing giving the order to the waitress, Daniel turned back to Nicole. "No, no, you misunderstand. I only cry one tear when I want to fool someone." The waitress moved onto Erika as Daniel laughed. "I actually cry when I think about them. I do have feelings."

"You sure don't act like you do." Erika retorted quickly before giving the waitress her order.

"It's called being a man." Daniel replied nonchalantly.

Nicole quickly gave the waitress her order as she handed over the menus. "Sometimes it's good to take a break from being a manly man." She said.

"I've been getting better." Daniel replied with a light shrug.

"We're all screwed up and annoying in some way or another, but somehow we all learned to tolerate it and get along just fine." Nicole spoke, smiling at her glass.

"We've been together for a very long time now." Daniel added.

"But it feels like we're slowly drifting apart…" Erika sighed.

"It can't be helped." Nicole said.

"We're living our own lives now – we are growing up. It is a natural occurrence to grow apart from things – from people – that we've been around all of our childhood as we enter adulthood. I assure you though; our friendship will never break apart. Wow, that sounded completely cliché. Shoot me now, please." Daniel begged, looking at Nicole desperately.

"I was about to do it before you even finished. You were scaring me, Dan." Nicole said with a look of shock and horror.

"I've been under the table since the second sentence!" Erika's muffled voiced sounded out from underneath the table.

Nicole held up the table cloth. "Erika Nicole, get the hell out from under there!"

"Nicole Mae! I will not leave the safety of the table until Daniel is shot!"

"Daniel Joseph!"

Erika popped her head out. The two girls looked at Daniel.

He shrugged. "I felt left out. I mean, no one called me by my first and middle name."

The two women exchanged gazes.

"I'll get the gun…" Nicole whispered as she slowly slipped out of her seat.

"I'll sedate him…" Erika whispered back as she stood up like everything was cool.

"We have got to be the weirdest damn people in this restaurant." Daniel commented.

Yet, before either of the two girls could actually sit back in their seats and enjoy their food that was placed on the table in front of them, the whole restaurant began to shake violently. Erika fell back into her chair with an "oof", while Nicole gripped hold of the table.

"Earthquake!" someone screamed. Panic hit the people. The manager came running out from the kitchen, telling everyone to get down. Adults and children ducked underneath their dinner tables. The three friends quickly followed suit.

Dishes clanked and clattered. Glasses of wine, soda and water fell over, staining the white table clothes and dripped down onto the floor. A few wine glasses rolled off the table and onto the porcelain floor where they shattered. A young teenage girl screamed when one hit the floor near her and broke, frightened sobs began to emit from her. Her grandfather grabbed her into a hug and stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head repeatedly as he tried to comfort her. It was hard though when the place continued to violently shake.

"Oh my gosh…"

"What in the world is that?"

"It's hideous!"

"It's a monster!"

Nicole, Daniel and Erika all blinked, puzzled immensely. Some people had gotten up and out of their safety spot and tried to make it to the door, where they stopped and stared outside.

The glass from some of the windows shattered. Shards flew around inside the room, causing more distress. Men, women and children shrieked and screamed in fear.

A roar was heard.

The ex-Gamers exchanged looks.

What in the world was happening?

There was only one way to find out.

They crawled out from underneath the table, and carefully stood up while holding onto either a table or a nearby wooden column. Another loud, ferocious roar emitted from outside. Cars honked, alarms went off, people screamed – but that roar was loud and clear to all.

The ground stopped shaking for just a moment, allowing the three friends to glanced outside and see what exactly was going on at the plaza. The fountain was in pieces, water sprayed everywhere. Standing in the middle of all that rubble was some creature. His head featured several feline traits, though he supported an overall humanoid shape. His arms were huge, but could they even be depicted as arms? No one was sure. He swung one of them towards the ex-Gamers vision. His arm split off into two parts, one was like a blade of sort, while the other curved over a bit, with what seemed like frills covering the end all around it.

Erika and Nicole gasped. Daniel just couldn't believe his eyes. His mouth opened slightly, words began to spill out, words that he hadn't spoken or even remembered in such a long time. They were words his conscience had put back into his subconscious long, long ago.

"Scion set by the gods to wield and manipulate the laws of this world and with holy power lead mankind to order. Created in opposition to Fandaniel the Protector, scion of light. Desiring to bring order to all things, he joined with Ultima in her battle against the gods. He gave his body to the Thousand-Years War, and when his strength was spent, down into the burning inferno he fell…"

"The almighty…" Erika continued.

Nicole opened her mouth next. "Hashmal!"

Daniel groaned. "Not again..."

Here is how this is going to work – The Gang is going to be traveling around to different places, and they need more characters to help them close off the portals. They will stay in that town for a while, maybe a very long chapter or two, but after that they will leave to the next town. Your character will stay in their town, but don't worry! Once the Gang leaves, you'll see your character again eventually!

ONLY ONE CHARACTER PLEASE!

Character Name: (you only have to put a first name, but if you want to put a middle and last, then go right ahead!)

Age: (can be any age. Honestly we do not care.)

Personality:

Appearance: (hair, eyes, height, clothes, accessories.)

Family:

Past: (Please let there be happy memories! We're not looking for completely depressed characters. =D In this section a lot will most likely not be mentioned, but we would at least like to be able to know about your characters to get a better feel of them! And depending on how long the gang will be around your character, some of their past may be revealed or not.)

Weapon:

Town/City/Country/State: (Choose any, and the gang will travel there. If someone picks the same place as you do, then we will talk with both of you about if you would like your character and the other person character to already know each other or not. Either way, both characters will meet the Gamers there.)

Person they would get along with the most: (either choose from the Gamers or from the guys from Ivalice please. You can choose multiple, of course!)

Person who they would not get along with the most: (same as above!)

Type/Sense of humor:

Have they ever played Final Fantasy XII before or not: (we just want to know if they are going to be totally clueless on who everyone is or know right away.)

If we need any additional details, we will get in touch with you! Sound good?

But most important thing EVER is… HAVE FUN CREATING YOUR CHARACTERS!

We will stop accepting characters on chapter 4 I believe...

Also, if you are new to the story as in you didn't read the first two (which would be weird if you read this one before the other two) we suggest that you should go read the other two before submitting a character to this. Please and thank you!

And Conway says if we don't at least get one or two more males he will murder a pillow. SAVE THE PILLOWS!