Disclaimer: I do not own any Final Fantasy/ SquareEnix characters that are used in this story.

"Paine, duck!!" Yuna yelled as she aimed behind her partner and unleashed a barrage of bullets into the enemy that tried to tear her in half.

"Thanks," Paine acknowledged as she broke the standoff that she was in and sliced the space pirate in two, "Time for me to return the favor."

She faced Yuna and ran at her and started to slide, causing Yuna to jump up in the air, leaving Paine in a clear path to connect with the legs of another space pirate, who then went flipping in the air.

"I GOT HIM!!" Rikku shouted as she ran and then jumped into a flip and threw her daggers which connected and were driven into the pirate's chest and forehead.

As the pirate fell, Rikku landed and ran over to his body, grabbing her weapons. She then joined Paine and Yuna in the middle of the battle field and flicked the blood from her dagger blades. The three of them formed a triangle so that they could see all aspects of their surrounding and were able to observe the remaining assailants.

"Paine, you take the ones on the left," Yuna said while she reloaded her guns, "Rikku you take the ones on the right."

She cocked her pistols and pointed them out in both of directions, "I'll provide cover fire from here, and take out the rest. Ready? Gullwings G-"

Before she could utter the initiating command, everything around them stopped. All 13 pirates all stood in front of them frozen. Then they dropped their many weapons varying from axes and swords to more modern weapons like guns and rockets. Almost in unison with the weapons touching the ground, a spray of blood came from each pirate as they fell to the ground.

"What the…" Yuna whispered as she beheld the strange sight.

The girls came out of their tight triangle and started to walk towards their fallen enemies.

"They're dead," came a voice from behind them.

They all turned quickly, weapons ready to attack. They saw a figure that stood in a black hooded cloak. On his hip was a sheath and in his right hand was an absolutely black katana. The handle was a black that seemed to suck in any light that touched it and the blade was a bluish black that was seen whenever the light hit it the right way. From the voice, they could tell that it was a male. He wore fighting gloves that had the fingers cut off and he had combat boots on. The hood that he wore blocked the sun perfectly, creating a complete black shadow that hid his face and made his identity completely undetectable.

"Who are you?" Paine asked lowering her sword slightly but still keeping her guard up.

In the twinkle of an eye, the hooded figure disappeared and then reappeared in front of them. With his hand he grabbed Paine's blade and yanked it from her hands. He then dropped it and pushed her with the same hand. In the same moment, he took the katana and stuck the blade thru the holes in the handles of Rikku's chakrams and flicked the sword and sent them in the air. With the handle he pushed her back as well. Both Rikku and Paine fell to the ground and landed in the dirt. By the time Yuna realized what was happening, the hooded figure already disarmed her and had her guns pointed in her face.

"I'm an assassin." He said while he handed Yuna her guns back.

By some unknown force, Rikku and Paine rose to their feet and their weapons returned to their hands. While wondering how this happened none of the three realized that a faint white light could be seen glowing around the figures body.

"Ok Mr. Assassin," Rikku said dismissing her chakrams. "Why did you help us?"

A chuckle was heard from under the hood and he lifted his head a little causing the shadow to shift and expose the lower half of his face. He was smiling.

"I was on the move and saw that a couple beautiful women were in danger. Decided to help." He shifted his weight and crossed his arms.

"We don't need your help," Yuna said bluntly, her eyes screaming for him to die.

"That's not what it looked like a few seconds ago. And from what I know that won't be the case in a few hours."

Paine dismissed her sword and Yuna holstered her guns. Then Yuna crossed her arms and scoffed.

"What are you talking about?" She asked in an attempt to get him to shut up. "And who the heck are you?"

He removed his hood and which revealed his face. His jet black hair that fell over half his face, his intense red eyes, and medium toned brown skin. "My name is Raven, and I'm talking about this."

He pulled out a holographic monitor that was clearly centuries if not millenniums ahead of the times that they were presently in. The monitor clicked on and a town appeared. Except instead of the towns being clean and the buildings fix, there was a dark dingy look to them and they were broken. The streets were destroyed. Cars were not able to drive on them. The roads looked like the poster of the apocalypse.

"What happened?" Rikku asked behind her hands as she stared in disbelief.

In the hologram a lone person came running down the street. He ran along the uneven terrain panting and gasping, holding his arm as blood profusely flowed from a large gash in his shoulder. Then a large explosion was seen and a horde of demented, muscular, zombielike people and demonic looking creatures came from the flames caused by the blast. In an instant they were upon the wounded man. At first it seemed like they were just punching him but then they began to claw and bite him, drawing blood which made them frenzy more, like it was the sustainer of their lives. Like it would keep them from edging any closer to death. The poor mans screams began to die down and the cracking of bones replaced it.

One of the more vicious looking of the demon like creatures pounced in the center of the crowd and knocked all the others away. It roared and slashes at its counterparts, causing them to back up and shrink in terror. Blood flowed and dripped from its mouth, even though it had not touched the victim. It was like it's body produced blood instead of saliva. Once the demonbeast was sure that the prey was his and his alone he reached down and ripped the almost dead man's arm clean from his body. Sucking some blood from the joint it then turned and three it at one circle of "zombies" and they swarmed it like locust. Then the beast ripped off a leg and then separated it at the knee, and distributed it like he had the previous limb. He continued until only the torso and head were left. He grabbed the neck and broke it, which caused it to hang at an awkward angle and then he picked up the torso and lifted it, keeping if for itself. The blood was still pooling from the wounds and dripped to the ground, running down the beasts arms and falling off at the elbows. Then in a strange blackish purple aura it disappeared.

"Oh my God…" was all that Paine could utter, being the only one out of the three that seemed to still have the ability to speak.

"This is what I've come to save you from. To keep Spira, from becoming like this…my home." Raven said, his hair casting a shadow over his face as he lifted his head.

He looked up at them and they saw why he had put his head down. He had begun to cry. The tears were still running down his face but he did not sob. He wasn't balling. And there was no trace of sadness on his face. In his red eyes was nothing but pure, undeniable, rage. A rage that would have been enough to slaughter an entire civilization single handed, and have no remorse.

"H-How did this happen?" Yuna asked also regaining the ability to speak.

"I…I don't know. But I've been trying to find that tout for the a few years now…"

"YEARS???" Yuna shouted in disbelief. All three of the girls eyes widened and Raven nodded.

"Yes… years. My group of survivors, a group of assassins and protectors called The Society, we've been trying to figure out what caused this and how to stop it since the beginning. We lost track of how long its actually been but our estimate is years."

He stretched out his hand and the projector rose and went back into his first. Then he slipped it into his inside jacket pocket and wiped his face. "It started like an epidemic. Everyone thought that these people were just sick. Until the sick rose up one day all at the same time and began going on a slaughter spree. Death, crying, and screaming all became common place within a few hours."

"Hours?" Paine asked shifting her weight to her other foot. She had began to turn back to normal.

"Yes. It caught everyone at the Society off guard. We had to hurry. All of our members, all 130 were sent out to combat the unknown force that we labeled The Possessed. We fought long and hard," Raven continued to tell them, the anger fading slowly. "But it wasn't enough. People continued to die. More became like them. And my members….one by one..the number decreased."

He pulled out two card boxes, ones that were normally used for playing card games. Except these had the insignia of The Society on it, A cross hair with burning daggers, on them and a slash was through it. He handed them the boxes.

"These are the deceased. All of the ones that we have lost from our original 130, their ID cards are in that box."

The girls opened the boxes and pulled out the ID cards. Men and women. Adult, teenager, and child. They had all been members. They ranged from new recruits to elite members. All with extraordinary powers and personalities, they seemed like they were one big family. Like each person had someone else in the Society that they could click and connect with. And they were all dead…

After they were done leafing through the identification cards, they hand them back to Raven who slid them into his coat. He was silent for a few seconds seeming like he was trying to find the right words to say. Then he spoke.

"There are 5 of us left. And I am the leader of the remaining group and of The Society in general. It is mine. And I will make sure that each of my team didn't die in vain."

Over the next few minutes he explained the scenario. He and the other four were going to different worlds, in different dimensions and joining with those who had the strength enough to fight and survive in order to stop the spread.

"We've seen other worlds consumed with the same threat as our own. We arrive and the infestation had already started. We thought it was just a one world thing but it obviously isn't. So we have to stop it. And with that I ask you, will you help us?"

Yuna nodded. "Yes. We will do whatever we can to stop this. Where do you want us to go?"

Raven got out a cell phone and threw it to Yuna. "Get on the Celsius. When you do press the green button and it will call Bane, one of my younger brothers. He'll then bring you to where he is and I want you to help him. Understood?"

"Got it," and with that Yuna and Paine were gone.

Raven watched them as they left and then realized something strange. When he had first seen them there were three girls. But only two of them left. He turned around and saw Rikku was still standing there.

"Rikku...?" he asked taking a step towards her.

She hadn't said a word the entire time. Since the start of the hologram, thru the entire debriefing, and even now she had stayed quiet and motionless. A look of grief stayed glued on her face.

"Rikku..." Raven said as he walked over to her and touched her shoulder.

She jumped at his touch and realized that she had been frozen in place fore quite some time now.

"Oh…did…did you say something Raven?" She asked her eyes welling with tears.

"It's time to go Rikku," he told her as he wiped the tears that started to fall and then pointed to her teammates who were now specks in the distance. "Yuna and Paine are going to get the Celsius and you guys are going to go help my brother."

"What?" she exclaimed staring him in the face. "What about you? What are you going to do?"

He was quiet. He turned away. The worried look on Rikku's face was too much for him to take. Which was surprising to him. He fought constantly for his life, killing those that were now The Possessed, and he was becoming emotional at the gaze of a girl that he just met.

"I'm…going back to my home."

"NO!!" she yell clinging to him and breaking down, tears streaming down her face again and into his chest. "You can't! You can't go alone!"

"It's my planet Rikku….I have to go." Raven looked down and pulled her off him.

"But…" she said stopping and trying to come up with an argument. "Take me! Let me go with you. Let me help." She pleaded wiping her face off.

"What?" he blurted in shock "Are you nuts?? No.. I can't put you in danger."

Rikku laughed and smiled in his face. Her emotions seemed to do a complete 180 in that one statement. "I've gone more dangerous stuff than a whole heck of a lot of people that I know. I can handle myself."

"But-"

"No 'buts'…I'm going Raven." Rikku said placing her hands on her hips and staring defiantly at him.

She made up her mind and he wasn't going to change it. That was the look that she was giving him now. That no matter what, she was going with him.

He sighed and nodded. He could tell that she was going to be defiant with him until he gave in so why not save her the trouble and just do it now.

In the next few minutes, the Celsius flew to the spot where Raven and Rikku still stood. It stayed hovering above the ground, and then Yuna exited a few seconds later. Raven walked towards her, scratching his head. When they were a few feet apart, Yuna smile and giggled.

"Rikku is going with you isn't she." She stated able to guess what transpired while they were gone by the way he was acting.

"Uh….yeah…how did you know?" Raven asked a look of shock on his face.

"I.. just know how Rikku can be. She's very caring and strong willed."

"Yeeeeeah…I realized as much." Raven said looking back at Rikku who sat on the ground waiting for his return.

Yuna giggled some more and then brushed the hair from her face. "Well you two have fun. I hope that you're mission is a success Raven."

"Thanks. And remember to call my brother. That way you're part is started."

"I got it. Don't worry. Paine is inside waiting for me to get back"

Yuna walked over and hugged Raven, which caught him off guard. Why were they hugging him and they just met him. 'I guess Spira is full of "huggy" people,' he thought to himself.

She let him go and then ran to the ship. Closing the entry hatch she waved and gave him a thumbs up. Then in a few seconds the ship disappeared in a crackle of light.