I do not own FFX. If I did then the final boss would not be a giant floating blue tick.

Chapter 1: I Need to pay attention when I'm at parties.

You ever just pass out in your home and partially wake up? You know, not quite awake but not really asleep. And all that you really want to do is just stay there and sleep some more. Well that was me… kinda. I remember getting home from work and washing my hands before feeling the great big urge of sleeping. I know what you all are thinking and yes it was the whole, long day idea. So yeah there was me passed on the floor. It was nice and quiet and…LOUD?

I could suddenly hear people all around, like I was just dropped in the middle of Times Square. I opened my eyes and looked around. Everywhere around me was a city that was both technologically advanced and so aesthetically different that I almost thought I was dreaming of an alien world, but I could have remembered where I had seen this place before. I was and still am an avid gamer and probably one of my favorite games was Final Fantasy 10. Played that alongside Kingdom hearts all throughout High School. Many of my friends and I predictably argued over which was the best and I would of course always say FFX.

I thought to myself that if this was dream, then It would be pretty good one. As I walked around where ever it was that I had woken up from, I noticed that it was some lookout over what I knew was the blitzball stadium. "Getting better and better, dream" I thought to myself as I walked around or tried. The place was a madhouse in the best way possible. People were dancing, drinking, laughing, and cheering and all in the typical Zanarkand dress.

"This has to be a dream." I thought to myself. To me everyone dressed strangely as to be expected but from their perspective I should have been the one to have dressed strangely. I worked at an IT firm called Keenan Program Management or KPM. It's a firm that handles the complex coding of software, programs, and just about anything industrial. Seriously the shit I've been called in to either fix or update or just argue with their owners. Our attire was whatever we wanted as long as it was obscene or anything. Considering we would have to come in early and mostly drive out to places, out boss let us come in however we wanted. Of course, that didn't stop him from looking like a reed thin St. Nick in a perfectly pressed three-piece suit, but hey that was his prerogative not mine. I was wearing what I normally wear, a black hoodie that I swear I've had since college, black jeans, basic shoes and a shirt that mimics Son Goku's training Gi. So yeah, I stood out like a sore thumb amongst the bright colors of the people, but the weird thing was no one noticed. Not a single person looked at me funny or asked what I was doing there. It was all just laughs and smiles and even a few offered me a drink!

There was stand giving away these drinks on the platform and it was there that my attitude changed. I was trying to handle two things at once. The first was wondering what in God's name was in the drink in my hand and the second was trying to read the signs and the television, I mean I could see what was going on, on the big equivalent to the jumbotrons and even though it reminded me of ESPN I could tell what was going. I finally looked over to a woman who looked about my age, and putting on the charms I asked her who was playing tonight. I wasn't paying attention to the first name of the teams, but it was the second that grabbed hold of my complete attention.

"The Zanarkand Abes are up against the Killika Beasts tonight! It's a home game and everything and that star player…"

"I'm just wondering, how do I get to main gates… of the stadium I mean?"

"Why, I doubt anyone can get a seat and plus the game is about to start."

"Oh, I know." I respond quickly. "It's just that I really want to meet the teams."

"Hmmm, well then turnaround and head down the street. See that first building to your right? There's an elevator service that runs down to the lower street. Take it, and then get back to under here and take the path to your diagonal right and you shouldn't miss the main entrance."

"Thank you so much, oh and you can have my drink I haven't touched it yet."

I turned and jogged towards the service elevator all while thinking, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!"

The street was actually pretty empty. The people that I saw, though few and far between tended to stand or sit around the big jumbotrons that seemed to be everywhere. I didn't have time enough to enjoy the environment, so I knew I had get to the stadium and fast because if this was actually a dream then I figured that's where it would end but if it wasn't. Okay I'm no stranger to fanfiction and the device of the SI. So, If I got picked out my apartment by some asshole who gets their kicks from watching people flounder around with out of context info then fine, I'll play your fucking game, but I'm sure as shit not dying to the basic enemies in the starter area.

Sadly, as one may expect, I became subject to the horrible truth that is Murphy's Law. Want to join up with Tidus and Auron and slay sin scales together. Not happening Martin, you get stuck on the goddamn sidelines. Okay… let me explain this better. I had just gotten to the stadium; the game was still on and I could hear the cheers of the fans even outside, and then I saw it and I knew, I knew I was too late. When someone plays FFX, and sees Sin in the opening, it as the developers wanted it to appear. But they got something wrong that we gamers never cared about. Scale and Detail. Television screens back then and now I guess really didn't show just how damn big it was or all the other intricate details. Sure, Sin was resting in an equally large ball of water and yes that ball of water distorted its appearance to a degree but that does not mean that the horror of this thing above me was lessened. It only became worse when the sin scales started to rain down. Because I did not have weapon nor a disappearing/reappearing Auron to toss me a broadsword, I did the most sensible and ran. Where to? I didn't know, and I didn't care. It was while I was running in an admittedly blind panic that time stopped. Let me repeat that. Time had STOPPED around me. The sin scales, the people, the now growing fires and explosions, everything had stopped. For a brief second, I could understand what Jotaro Kujo felt like fighting against DIO. The feeling of a time stop is wholly unpleasant to say the least. Imagine if you will, walking normally and then feeling like someone put you in hard full body cast. Its maddening and more importantly I could see who did it to me.

It looked like a kid maybe somewhere between the ages 10-15, in a predominately purple sleeveless hoodie. Only this wasn't a kid but rather Bahamut, one of the strongest summons in FF history and he was staring right at me.

"You do not belong here and yet the dream has welcomed you."

I noticed he made small gesture with his hands and felt like I could move again. I Looked at the summon collected my thoughts and looking back at it, responded in suitably bad way. "Well yeah? It's not like I asked to be brought, here did I?" I noticed a look of disapproval on Bahamut's face, and I didn't have the patience to deal with this judgmental crap.

"Don't look at me like that, you would have been just fine leading Tidus on his adventure, all the while making him believe that he was a 'real boy', so don't look at me like I'm wrench your plans. Now I didn't ask to be placed here, I didn't wish myself here, I don't think that this is real and by the first words you said to me, you did not bring me here so what gives?

"You're an anomaly… not the first and most likely not the last. You seem harmless maybe even beneficial. We will let you stay. If you want to escape the city and dream. Follow the road until its end and wait."

I was about to question him when he just up and left… and time resumed. I stumbled, caught myself, and started running again, this time with a definite plan of action and that was still to haul ass. I dodged and weaved my way through the chaos of the city, missing sin scales by a hair's breadth each time until I reached the end of the road. The end was an unfinished portion of the road that would have still been under construction if not for the attack. I stopped and began to catch my breath while turning around looking at the road behind me, the scales were coming in droves, landing and attacking whatever and whoever was in their immediate vicinity. It was a madhouse and violence and death, and I could see from where I was that that madhouse was heading my way. Fortunately, it was at that point that the plot decided it was time to kick off in the most terrifying way possible. The city began rise up into sin. By that I mean that it looked like sin was eating the dream Zanarkand like a vacuum cleaning and guess who going for the ride?

It was the strangest experience I ever felt. It was almost like my body had become silly putty and I was being stretched to my limits. I don't know how long it lasted but I did know when it stopped. The bright light was quickly replaced by a profound darkness, a feeling of wetness, and walls. Where the fuck was I!?

I don't know how long I spent within wherever I was, but I figured after some time it was a well and a large one at that, which was the biggest problem I was faced with. See if it was a standard well like you see in the movies, then I could have braced myself to either side of the walls and slowly climbed out. Two problems with that plan. First size; the well was big, not gigantic just big with a water level that reached my waste. I could walk through the water for a good maybe 10-20 feet if my pace count was correct before reaching a drop off. Two it was sealed on the op meaning that even if I wanted, I could not actually get out of the well through climbing and seeing that I no source of light on hand, I wasn't risking going below. I sat there in dark and water for a while, contemplating what I was going to do. I had stupidly attempted to climb with hands and feet multiple times, but I fell all those times. Thank god for the water below because that would have hurt more than just my pride.

So, I sat in the shallowest spot I could find and decided that if climbing wasn't going to work, swimming was not an option, and I would much rather leave than starve to death, I decided to start yelling. I'd go for set amount of time, pause to catch my breath, drink some water (at that point I stopped caring if it was clean or not), and start yelling. I passed out a couple times while doing but it must have worked because eventually the top of the well slide open and… there were guns pointing down at me. I was surprised and raised my hands quickly in a surrendering motion and shouted,

"Don't shoot! I'm a human! I was left here! Please Get Me OUT!"

Only one of the guns were pulled away, the rest were still trained on me. Then I heard a voice speak and several others join in. I didn't understand and for a while I thought they would have shot me there. I realized that would have been because it would have tainted the well. A rope was soon lowered down and with some difficulty, I began to pull myself from the depths.

"If they shoot me, at least it will be in the open and not down there." I thought to myself.

The moment I cleared the lip of the well, I had collapsed on the sands. Catching my breath, I tried to both shield my eyes and look at my maybe rescuers. "Who are they?"

"Fryd cdnyhka lmudrac."

"Y veaht?"

"Hu sucd megamo y dreav."

"Fryd cruimt fa tu?"

"Dyga res ypunyt, famm ica res yc lyhuh vuttan."

"Crap, it's the Al-Bhed. Would it have killed them to drop me in Besaid?"

I tried to follow the conversation, but the next I knew I saw the rear end of buttstock and then nothing. When I next woke it was against the cool floor of a dark room and a splitting headache. As I fumbled around in the dark I realized that the room was in fact a prison cell. I wasn't shackled or cuffed, still had all of my clothes, but my phone and wallet were gone though. I took the time to take stock of what had happened today, and it was not a good day…not by any standard. Pulled to another world that shouldn't even exist, running from monsters like a mad man, seeing an entire city even possibly a country be destroyed in magic fueled genocide. I didn't even have the time to say goodbye to anyone back home… Okay, maybe that last part isn't so bad I am terrible at goodbyes, like full on blubbering mess, not pretty. Still when I find the person who sent me here, I'm going to kick their ass so hard they'll taste the soles of shoes. My musings were cut short when I heard the sound of a large door opening and the lights came on.

"Can you understand me?" The Al-Bhed said.

"Yeah, you speak English?"

"I do not know what this English is, but if your referring to the tongue of Yevon then yes, it is useful skill. What were you doing in the well? Who were you with? How many were in your party? Where you attempting to steal water for yourselves before your fell in?"

"Stop man, just stop with the twenty questions, ok?" I told him while digging some sand out of my ear, apparently, he was not happy about that, Martin 1, goggle wearing asshole 0. "I was.. I was in Zanarkand and Sin appeared and the next thing I know I'm in a dark well and one your guys knocked me out!"

The Al-Bhed leaned closer to bars, looked at me before another man burst into the room speaking frantically and pointing out the room. The captain I guess looked back to me before saying.

"From what I gather you are a Yevonite that has been exposed to sin poisoning. Zanarkand has been destroyed for a thousand years and if the taint that affects is found in the well you will suffer for it. But, I am a man of mercy despite what your priest may tell you. So, I will give you're a chance at freedom. Do you understand?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Good. My men have discovered a ship buried amongst the sands. We are going to enter it and scavenge for parts. You will be the first to enter the ship and all rooms we are able to access."

"Oh shit. They want me as cannon fodder." I realized.

"Keep your coat, the desert is cold at night." I could hear the condescending sneer in his voice as he turned around and walked out the cell door.

"Yup" I frowned, "I'm officially cannon fodder."

Another Al-Bhed entered the room this time armed with a rifle? I honestlty couldn't tell. Now I'm no rifle expert but I know a few things and this guy came in with what looked like an old timey pirate blunderbuss given the Square makeover. So many questions went through my mind then like...

"Where was the mag well? Where was the magazine? What was the caliber? Was the barrel even rifled or was it like the old timey blunderbuss?"

It didn't matter as the door slide open and the rifle bearing Al-Bhed positioned himself in position that was behind me the moment I walked out of the cell. I followed the Captain out onto the what I think was the deck, where he pointed to something out in the distance. I could barely make it out against the dark desert but as I squinted someone must have turned the flood lights and I could see it, sort of. I'd say we were about a few hundred from something buried in the sands. Before I could stare any longer, I felt the push of a hand behind as the Al-Bhed led me forward. I guess we were heading the front deck. I'm not very good with ship parts but I saw that from the front a dune buggy was being lowered to the sand. I was directed to use a ladder to reach the sand. When we got to vehicle I was placed right between the two biggest members of the party. It reminded of some of the times I would hang out with my friends from college.

I was the thinnest guy in the group and I would always try to get the either shotgun of the side seats. Leon would always bitch about being in the backseat. Mitchell wouldn't care where he sat, and Greg would be on his phone unless he was getting into a heavy discussion about something that ticked him off. "Shit, I wish those guys were here. We'd probably stage a mutiny while screaming random crap." I thought to myself. The ride to the ship went on in silence and when we reached the Captain got out and used some device to fiddle with what looked to be a slanted door. It finally opened, and the Captain waved me over.

"Yevonite, take this and wait."

He handed me a large flashlight and motioned for the rest of the Al-Bhed. When they arrived, a harness with deep satchels attached to it was forced into my hands.

"Put on." One of the Al-Bhed said in broken English.

I Looked over at the captain questioningly.

"We figured you could be used as pack mule and forward scout, now put it on and go."

I shrugged the harness on and watched as they opened the heavily rusted door.

"The hell? How long has this been here? It should be weathered down not rusted, we're in a desert, right?" I thought to myself.

"Alright Yevonite inside." The captain called out.

I reluctantly entered all while wondering how hard I could chuck that flashlight at the Captain's head but with the guards and their rifles. Yeah that wasn't happening...

What struck me as odd first though was that the 'entrance' was actually an elevator shaft that went down. By that I mean it went a long way down. We assembled on the platform and began to descend. There was something wrong with the design of the ship though and it only bothered me more the further down we went. This was Final Fantasy which meant that even little things were ridiculously designed and detailed. This ship though, absolutely not. If this elevator shaft was anything to go by then it was uniform and utilitarian like some of the CATS I've ordered parts for. No special design, useless angles, or bizarre additions.

The door we found at the lowest level was the same way. Just a big rusted blast door with a simple manual switch on the side. The Captain motioned at me and I pressed the access button. The door's made this godawful screeching and grinding noise as they opened. The doors led to a long hallway that was just as barren as the elevator shaft. As I walked down the hallway I looked back to my captors and noticed that they were looking at the walls with a questioning look, like they never seen this style before.

It hit me like drunkenly tossed bean bag at a summer party, "This isn't an Al-Bhed ship. This belongs to someone else. Bevelle? No, they would have had some aesthetic input not this bareness. Come to think of it wasn't the ship they salvaged in the ocean? Who does this ship belong to then?"

The next room only created more questions. There were signs of something going down. Heavy scratches and gouges decorated the walls and parts of something littered the floor. Something about them bugged me, like I knew where they from and what they supposed to be, but nothing came to mind. I noticed the Captain and the rest of the Al-Bhed investigating the parts and throwing many away before the Captain came towards with something that looked like a broken with bits of circuitry poking out.

"Here, take this. It seems mostly intact."

"What about the rest?" I motioned to the GIANT ROOM OF METAL for emphasis.

He gave me an odd look before saying, "Its all scrap, too rusted to be used and too broken to be salvaged. Now move." He began to push the group towards another blast door. Taking the initiative, I pressed the button before he could say anything, and I finally had my answer about who owned this ship.

I really wish I didn't.

Like before this room was very circular and bare. Or at least it would have been if it weren't for the bodies. They weren't human unfortunately. Now I know, I know. Who says something like 'Wouldn't it be better for them to not be human?' What sort of sick bastard would think that?

See that would be the right way of thinking, but the bodies here were machines. More specifically, the standard combat models of machine lifeforms.

"What the Fuck!? They!? How!? Why!?" I began screaming in my head.

"Come on, start salvaging." The captain said.

Although he said it as a request the blunt stock of the rifle he carried being nudged into my back accurately translated that as 'this is a command, if you don't move I'm shooting you'. But as luck would have it I decided to place survival over common sense and piss him off more, so I responded with...

"No."

"What? I don't think you understand our agreement. You scout, we follow, you collect parts that we will use, do you understand?"

"Oh, I understand completely, but no, just fuck no. I'm not going anywhere near that pile, trust me I know what those are."

The captain was about to say something before he was distracted by something. One of the Al-Bhed was stumbling away from the pile as a single model was dragging its ruined body out. It stopped and began to look at us. For a moment, those green eyes landed right on me and I swore that thing was looking into my soul.

"Scanning….scanning… sccaaaanniiing…a..nnn…sca. Human life detecttttted. Processing probability…. Probability of human overseers present on world based on current battle data…0.2%...processing…prooooocessing."

It jerked up and paused still looking at us. Guess the Al-Bhed never saw a machina that could think. Then its eyes turned red. I stiffened up and began to make my way to the door and I think everybody else did as well.

"One more time yes?"

"What?" I asked aloud.

"One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes? One more time yes?"

"Dammit get to the door now!" I roared.

I don't know if I actually sounded commanding or it was the resounding murder chant but the rest of the group decided to listen to me and haul ass.

We rushed like madmen as we heard more grinding and more variation of 'one more time yes' calling from the scrap heap. The door refused to open and now more machines were peaking over the scrap heap.

One Al-Bhed decided to summarize our situation in one word.

"Vilg!"

I don't what it meant but I'm pretty sure it meant fuck!

Author's Note Time!

Don't worry everyone Monarch in the Dark has not died, Chapter 6 is well on its way, I just hit the proverbial writing wall. This story here though is a collaborative effort between myself and Red Renegade, my key beta reader. We were discussing ideas one night and I began to think of a worst-case scenario idea for a very specific fandom. Liking what we had come up with, we wrote out a basic timeline of events. This story will be going alongside another that will be released shortly. I'm just stuck writing an initial battle scene, considering the opening. The two stories will run separately from each other until their respective conclusions where the next in the series will be both characters fighting alongside each other, and I just know I'm going to piss off some people with what I'm throwing in.