Final Fantasy: Cataclysm

Hello again, guys! I'm back after a long hiatus. The reason? I got a little carried away with XIII-2 and the other games I got for Christmas (yes, it took me that long to get through them all, though XIII-2 was more recent). Other than that, I've been working on a project for a video game I started with a friend back in high school, over 3 years ago. That's been consuming a lot of my time. But, I've torn myself away from that to give you guys this.

For those of you who have read my stories in the past, you may recall a little story I wrote called "Final Fantasy XIII: Wrath of the Lich King". Well, that story, sadly, never got too far, mainly because of the other story I was writing at the time, Undying. Here's my continuation. Basically the same concept. The characters from Final Fantasy XIII (and, just to add some diversity, XIII-2) are going to participate in the largest MMO on the market: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. However, I will be adding toons (characters) for characters from other Final Fantasy games for more in-game diversity. I will make note of when those characters are added and what they are.

Last time I chose to make the characters Alliance, so I'm going the other way. All of the characters featured will be Horde this time. Here is the list of what each character will play.

Note: This is for all the Final Fantasy XIII(-2) protagonists. Even the lesser ones.

Snow: Steelguard- Tauren Paladin

Serah: Izanami- Goblin Mage

Lightning: Stormblade- Blood Elf Rogue

Hope: Delesto- Undead Priest

Noel: Flamefossil- Orc Shaman

Fang: Yunfang- Troll Druid

Vanille: Diagirl- Blood Elf Warlock

Sazh: Chocoflame- Orc Hunter

Alyssa: Complaint- Undead Warlock

Gadot: Norulez- Tauren Warrior

Yuj: Baconeater- Undead Mage

Maqui: Lenorashop- Goblin Hunter

Lebreau: Underpayed- Orc Shaman

Amodar: Ironbearclaw- Tauren Druid

Yeul: Premonitions- Blood Elf Paladin

Whew. That's a lot of players. The roles each character fulfills are as follows"

Snow, Amodar, and sometimes Gadot: These will be the tanking characters. Think Sentinels, these characters will protect their allies from harm. (The perfect role for Snow.)

Hope, Alyssa and Yeul: These will be the healers (think White Mage). They will keep their allies alive as they destroy the enemy.

All others- These will be the damage dealers. Referred to as DPS (for Damage Per Second), the damage dealing characters do the simplest job, but are likely the most important (in a large number, at least).

For most of the time, thought, the gang will be in a five-man situation. In a five-man situation, there are three DPS and one healer and tank. This is the most common, and it may not be just the characters listed.

Anyway, let's get on with the story.

Just a final note: This story disregards the last story. Everything is new (well, most of it anyway.)

Chapter 1: Creations

Why was she doing this again?

This was a common question Lightning was asking herself as she was finishing the installation of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm onto her computer. She had heard of a few other Guardian Corps soldiers playing the game back on Cocoon. Obviously, it was important enough to have it's entire servers transferred to Gran Pulse following the Fall. And now, Lightning was about to see it for herself.

She could care less about gaming, honestly. She had played video games when she was younger, but she never got into them. Serah, on the other hand, loved games and was always playing some form of video gaming. In fact, it was Serah who suggested Lightning play WoW.

'That's right,' Lightning thought as the install finished up. 'Serah gave you the puppy dog eyes.' Whoever started the trend of small, innocent looking people pouting in such a manner should be shot. Multiple times.

The game was considered playable now, as the loading bar was now green and not red or yellow. Clicking play, Lightning skipped the intro cinematic and scrolled through the Terms of Service (who reads those anyways?) and got to the login screen. Using the information she had given to created this account (a whopping 13000 gil investment: 10000 gil for the game itself, and 3000 gil for the 2 months of game time. Following this, she learned of the free trial from Snow…), Lightning was taken to the realm selection screen.

Here, Lightning consulted the paper that Serah gave her with some instructions. The first one was simple.

Select the Nordrassil Server from the list.

Simple enough. After searching for several minutes, Lightning finally found the name near the middle. It was a Normal server, whatever that meant, with medium population. Lightning selected it and was taken to the character creation screen.

Here, Lightning was given further instructions. Create a character on the Horde side. They have the red banner. Serah was dumbing it down, obviously, but Lightning likely needed it that way, as this was territory that she rarely treaded. She wasn't bad with computers, no, but she wasn't a gamer.

She was already on the Horde side, specifically on a Blood Elf Male. He was holding two small weapons, and had a very light skin tone.

"Okay…" Lightning spoke, looking for the female option. She clicked it and saw the character change to the Female Blood Elf. "That's it?" She said aloud. The Blood Elf looked practically the same, only slimmer and slightly, slightly more feminine. Either way, she didn't care. She selected an appearance that she liked, and then went to the name area.

Not one for creativity, Lightning did what many people did: She hit the Randomize button. After a few names went through that looked like utter gibberish, Lightning sighed. "Fine, be like that." She grumbled, inputting a name of her choice: Stormblade. Not a creative name, obviously, but it worked. And when she was done, it took her to the Character Select screen.

She clicked the Enter World button, and was given a loading screen.

Following that, she got another cinematic. She skipped it, and arrived in front of a tower. Near her were a few other players. The person in front of her had a yellow "!" over her head. Lightning clicked her and got a quest. It told her to kill the Mana Wyrms in the area. She turned around until she saw a couple of blue flying snakes and ran to them.

About this time, she saw another player start attacking the wyrm in front of her with a ball of black, and when she turn to them, she saw a small creature, dancing like a madman.

Then she saw the name. Diagirl. Dia. Vanille?

[Stormblade] says: Vanille?

After the girl killed the creature, she paused. A few moments went by before this popped up.

[Diagirl] says: Who is this?

[Stormblade] says: It's Light.

Another few moments went by as Lightning looked over her abilities. She saw Shadow Strike, which said that it did damage to her target.

[Diagirl] says: Oh, hey Light.

The character Diagirl then waved at her.

Lightning was going to ask about this, but before she could, a pop-up appeared on the screen. After an uncharacteristic flinch, Lightning looked it over.

"Diagirl would like you to join a group"

Figuring it was not a bad idea, Lightning hit the accept button. On the screen, a few new character portraits appear on the left side on her screen. The top one was named "Steelguard", so it had to be Snow. (Why did he have to shout that every fight?). Underneath him was Izanami, and under that one Yunfang. While Izanami was not giving Lightning anything to work with, Yunfang was easy. Fang.

[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: Hey, Light.

[Party] [Izanami]: Hey, Sis.

Oh, so it was Serah. Where'd she get the name…?

[Party] [Yunfang]: Heya Light.

So, she had Vanille, Serah, Snow and Fang in a party. Now what?

[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: Alright, we've got the whole gang now.

The whole gang? What?

Before Light said anything, she got a message in her chat bow.

[Whisper] [Izanami]: Make sure you type in /p to talk in party chat, Light.

Well, that could help, couldn't it. Still, Lightning could help but feel like Serah was treating her like an idiot right now.

[Party] [Stormblade]: What do you mean, the whole gang?

Meanwhile, Lightning and Vanille were going through the quest to kill these little things.

[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: Well theres Hope, Sazh, all of NORA, Yeul, Noel, Alyssa, and even Amodar.

Lightning almost fell out of her chair. Lieutenant Amodar? Her commanding officer Amodar?

Etro help her, this 'gang' better not do something stupid…

[Party] [Yunfang]: I'm still not to sure we shoulda given Snow lead over the guild Serah…

[Party] [Stormblade]: What guild?

[Party] [Izanami]: We're making a guild so we can keep track of each other.

[Party] [Stormblade]: Oh, okay.

Now Lightning and Vanille were killing lynxes. And trees. And more Mana Wyrms.

[Party] [Diagirl]: Oh, there's Yuel.

Lightning saw another Blood Elf Female nearby. When Lightning hovered over her, it said:

Premonitions-Level 3 Blood Elf Paladin

Vanille waved at the other girl while still attacking the lynx she was on. It was easier to split up.

The Paladin approached the two. From what Lightning knew of Yuel, she was kind, but soft spoken and calm. Serah knew her through Noel, who was Yeul's 'unofficial' boyfriend.

The girl waved back. Lightning didn't want to stop what she was doing. She wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.

She was about to kill her target when several things popped up at once…

The first of which was a notification "You have reached Level 3!" She got this when she leveled to level 2, but it was on it's own. The second was slightly darker.

"Would you like to join 'Paradigm Shift'?" It said. Like the group invite, there was an accept and a decline option. Lightning had no idea what to do when Serah spoke again.

[Whisper] [Izanami]: It's the guild invite, Light.

Oh. So this is a good pop up. Lightning hit the accept button, and was greeted with the new guild, Paradigm Shift.

Lightning looked through the guild tab, which was highlighted when she joined the guild, and saw the various members of the guild. There where the ones she knew, and the ones she didn't.

Delesto- Level 3 Undead Priest

Flamefossil- Level 4 Orc Shaman

Chocoflame- Level 4 Orc Hunter

Complaint- Level 3 Undead Warlock

Norulez- Level 5 Tauren Warrior

Baconeater- Level 3 Undead Mage

Lenorashop- Level 5 Goblin Hunter

Underpayed- Level 3 Troll Shaman

Ironbearclaw- Level 5 Tauren Druid

Lightning was about to ask when the list of characters were named off.

[Guild] [Delesto]: Hope here.

[Guild] [Flamefossil]: Noel

[Guild] [Chocoflame]: Sazh.

[Guild] [Complaint]: It's Alyssa!

[Guild] [Norulez]: Gadot

[Guild] [Baconeater]: Yuj here.

[Guild] [Lenorachop]: Maqui!

[Guild] [Underpayed]: This is Lebreau.

[Guild] [Ironbearclaw]: Amodar

Oh, great. Amodar's in the guild, too. This could complicate things a bit.

[Guild] [Ironbearclaw]: Hey, Farron, how've ya been?

'Even better, he know's I'm here…'

[Guild] [Stormblade]: Fine, sir.

By now, the group Lightning was in had reformed. Serah, Fang and Snow all left, and Yeul had joined them. Now the three were completing a quest on a nearby structure.

Things were quiet for a good while. In fact, Lightning, Vanille and Yeul all got to level 10 (and got the achievement for such) pretty quickly. However, they were slightly behind, if the notifications were any indication. Serah and Maqui hit 10 first, almost 20 minutes ago. Next were Sazh, Noel, Lebreau and Fang, who hit 10 about 5 minutes later. Finally, Hope, Alyssa, Yuj, Gadot, Amodar and Snow hit 10 about 5 minutes prior to Lightning.

[Guild] [Steelguard]: So, you guys wanna get together and run a few dungeons?

Lightning had absolutely no clue what Snow had just said, but she was quickly learning the ropes of the game. She was pretty confident with her skills right now.

The guild chat was filled with agreements. In fact, everyone agreed.

Lightning didn't know much, but she did know that there was a five person limit to each group. There were fifteen people in the guild. That meant three groups.

[Guild] [Steelguard]: Okay, here's the plan…

And, I'll leave it there. Next chapter will be the first dungeon run these guys do.

As for the names, I'll give you where they came from.

Steelguard- Snow's paladin is named after the primary defend ability that he learns in FFXIII. However, there is more to this than that. There is a skit that Troy Baker and Ali Hillis did for a small section of gameplay where Snow was always using Steelguard and yelling "Steelguard!" a lot. Snow is a paladin because paladins are the protectors of good, just like Snow is.

Izanami- The name of Serah's mage comes from the strongest default, non-upgraded, non-synthesized bowsword from FFXIII-2. Where else the name comes from, I have no clue :P. Serah is a mage for obvious reasons.

Stormblade- A play on words, Lightning's name is what it says. Storm coming from Thunder and Blade being that she used a gun blade. A rogue is a swift attacker, which fits Lightning great.

Delesto- Hope's name is actually a random name from the game's Randomize option. I have a character named Delesto, actually, but he's not too strong. Priests use Holy magic (Like a White Mage) and heal their allies, just like Hope did in XIII.

Flamefossil- This name comes from Noel's default Dual Sword. It is (to me, at least) Noel's signature weapon. A shaman is someone attuned to nature and (depending on specialization) uses two weapons. They have a melee, ranged, and healing role, and this seems to fit Noel better.

Yunfang/Diagirl- Obvious where these come from. Yun is Fang's clan name. Dia is Vanille's clan name. Fang being a druid is due to the druid's ability to shape shift into either a cat or bear in combat, something that fits Fang's feral combat style. Vanille being a warlock is meant to be humorous, as warlocks are users of dark magic and demons, a contradiction to Vanille's perky attitude.

Chocoflame- Sazh's name comes from Chocobo, particularly Chocolina, and his primary element, Flame. Hunters use a pet monster and can use a gun. How does this not fit Sazh?

Complaint- Alyssa's name is a reference to a character my mother made. While my mother doesn't play Horde, she does have a human mage. An Undead Mage would be the Horde equivalent. Alyssa as a warlock is like her story in XIII-2, and her betrayal.

Norulez- A version of "No Rules", Gadot's name comes from NORA, No Obligations, Rules or Authority. The misspelling is likely due to there already being a 'Norules' on the server. Since Gadot seems like the type to charge headfirst into a battle, the Warrior fits him the best.

Baconeater- While this name seems simple, never did I see Yuj mention bacon in the games. His name is actually a reference to an actual player on the server Nordrassil. He would sit in a city and would sometimes ask Trade Chat "Are there any girls on with Facebook?" He was actually a really cool guy, but people thought of him kinda badly. The fact that he's a mage is just because he's a mage. Nothing special.

Lenorashop- Maqui gets his name from the shop he runs in game, Lenora's Garage. Yes, he runs it. Notice the little person on the menu of the Lenora's Garage menu? Yep. As for him being a hunter, he falls under the same boat as Yuj. He's just a hunter.

Underpayed- Like Gadot's, Lebreau's name is likely misspelled due to there already being an Underpaid. As for the actual name, it's most likely a joke towards Snow, saying that she's underpaid for her work with NORA. Since shaman's can heal and attack at a range, I felt this fit Lebreau the best.

Ironbearclaw- An easy reference, Amodar's name comes from his Full-ATB Ability and Feral Link, Iron Bear Claw. Also, in the first chapter of the -Promise- novella released for the game, Amodar uses a code name (I think) of Daddy Bear. In following the Bear theme, druids can shape shift into a bear, so there ya go.

Premonitions- Yeul's name is a reference to her XIII-2 character, in which she can see the future. When one has the ability to sense the future, or what might happen, those senses are called Premonitions. As for her being a paladin, this gives her a good variety, since we never got to see if Yeul could fight. Paladins can tank, do damage, or heal, giving her a good spread on roles. She'll likely heal, though.

As for the chat system, it is basically WoW's system. First is the Channel (See below for more info), then the character's name, and then what they say. Since names in WoW are placed in [brackets], all names will be in [brackets], as will channel names.

The different channels are, with their main use;

General- A chat meant for general discussion. It isn't used for this anymore, though, unless someone wants to be different.

Trade- While the original use for Trade was to trade/sell items to others, it has now become the most commonly used chat. I have no clue why, but that's how it is…

Local Defense- The most that pops up in Local Defense is when someone from the other faction kills a guard or player. However, not many people heed these messages.

Guild Recruitment- This is sometimes used to recruit people to a guild, but Trade is used more often.

Basically, Trade chat is where everything takes place. Also, only cities have Trade and Guild Recruitment channels, and all cities share these two channels. General and Local Defense are separate to each individual zone (this includes separate cities).

Finally, there are the group/non-global channels.

Party- Used in groups. The party leader is marked as [Party Leader]. Enter the chat by typing /p.

Raid- The same as Party, but used for raids. Raids are groups of up to 8 parties (a total of 40 people) that are taking down a hard challenge. Like in parties, the raid leader is marked with [Raid Leader] You can enter the chat by typing /raid before you speak.

Raid Warning- Anyone in the raid can use this channel, but only the raid leader should. The warning appears in the chat bow, and also across the screen to alert the player about various mechanics of the fight. The shortcut for this is /rw. /raidwarning also works I think.

Whisper- A whisper is a message that one player gives another. Only the sender and the receiver can read the message. You can reply to a whisper by either typing /r, or hitting the 'r' key.

Say chat is not defined, but can be entered (from another chat) by typing either /s or /say.

Okay, that completes this lengthy A/N. Anyways, the next chapter should be up soon.

Laters!