Um… yeah… Guess who keeps getting grounded due to bad grades…?

No! I serious! I have to make all 90's and above on my report card to be able to use the computer, and I never quite reach it. But I did it this time! Haha!

Sorry to keep my loyal fans waiting for so long. I'm sure it was torture, but I'm back in business, and you can stop worrying… At least for the summer.

Well, enough chatting about hard times. On with the show!

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Chapter 2: Friends Around the World

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The airships were no big deal to the Baronians, and not tremendous breath-takers to the Fabulians either; it was Exeline and Kenji who nearly fainted at their sheer mass. The biggest one at the floating dock was twice the size of a fine pirate sloop.

"They're huge!" Exeline gasped. "Wonderful, aren't they?" Sefi asked proudly. "I helped to build the big one," She added, very nearly

glowing.

"Which big one?" Kenji asked; they all seemed the same size to him. Sefi pointed down the line to the biggest ship, which was also the last. "That's the one. I accidentally crashed our last biggest ship in the Damcyan desert three years ago, so I helped build its replacement," She explained. "The engineer also let her name the ship when they were done," Angel added. "She named it The Eclipse, 'cause it's the biggest airship we've ever had in our fleet. Sheesh; we thought The Enterprise was big, but we were wrong!"

"Cid's always creating new standards for things. If he keeps it up, he'll kill himself," Rosa complained, a hint of amusement coming through the aggravation. The others of her family nodded and murmured their agreement.

Hmph. They're just airships, Kaelery thought, quite unimpressed.

"I don't think we'll need so much room," Kain said practically. "We'll be splitting up, anyway. We shouldn't take The Eclipse unless we really need it."

"That's a good point, Kain. No one will notice small airships flying around the world, at any rate. Smaller ships for all of us," Cecil agreed.

"Will someone who knows how to drive go with us?" Kenji asked. "Exeline and I are going to Mysidia, and we can't drive." "We haven't even seen an actual airship until just now," Exeline put in. "I'll go find Cid and tell him to drive you there," Rosa offered and started back to the door. She turned back around and called, "I'll be back," to everyone before vanishing through it.

"You two shouldn't wait on your mother," Kain advised the twins. "Go now and get your friend from Troia or Damcyan or wherever it is she's from."

The twins both nodded in agreement and ran down the row of ships. Sefi randomly picked one and ran to the gangplank. Angel followed her up and onto the deck. Sefi checked the control panel to make sure that everything was working well enough to suit her expectations.

"Everything's here, Angel; we're all set. Know where Red would be right about now?" Sefi asked. "Troia, I believe," Angel asked, looking up from inspecting some ropes attached to the mast (though she didn't drive the ships like her sister, she knew how to conduct safety checks onboard them).

"Troia it is, then!" Sefi cried happily. She pulled a lever and the ship rumbled lightly. The rumbling picked up intensity, forcing Angel to brace herself on the rail. Sefi held tighter to the helm and planted her feet hard on the deck. I love these things, They both thought at the same time.

Angel looked back toward the door at the remaining company, her father and uncle, the Fabulians and the two ninjas. As the ship began to dislodge itself from the dock and the wind began to blow through her hair, she waved at everyone watching her. Everyone waved back, except for Kaelery, who was apparently to cool or dignified to wave to anybody.

Oh, what do I care if she doesn't wave to me? Angel thought as the ship sped off. What I wouldn't give to see Exeline and Kenji melting right now. That last thought made her giggle.

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Tracking down Red, the fire mage and princess of Damcyan, wasn't that hard. Once every other month or so she went to Troia because she was also Troia's god-princess. This happened to be that once-every-month-or-so. There they found not only Red but both her parents, King Edward of Damcyan and Alara the white mage. The reunion was unexpected and quite confusing for many people, and it wasn't very interesting or important, so we'll skip through all that and go right to a few days later, when the airship they were on came to rest on the island on which Mysidia was located. Needless to say that after so many days on an airborne airship, it was good to be on solid ground again.

It was also apparent from the two other airships on the outskirts of town that everyone else was already here and waiting; every other person who had fought along side the Baron royalty was waiting here for these final five travelers to arrive. So the five hurried to the tower at the north end of the city.

As they walked up the path that led to the tower's front door, they noticed three people standing on the porch talking to each other. One of them was Odin; the other two were Palom and Porom, the twin mages who had been running the city for the past three years (but you probably know that story already).

Odin was the first to see company approaching. "Hey!" he called to them, making the mages look up to see what was happening. "It took you long enough to get here. Where'd you girls go; back to Baron?"

"Stop being so sarcastic, smart guy," Sefi warned as she came closer. She sounded like she was going to continue, but her jaw snapped closed again and her pale skin blushed like a rose when she realized that Palom was looking at her.

Quite suddenly, Palom walked up to her and hugged her (he might have hugged Angel, but Sefi was closer). "I've missed you guys! How've you been? You doin' alright? I wanna know!" He cried, obviously not knowing that Sefi was suffocating in his grip.

"Palom," Porom scolded her brother, "Stop making a spectacle of yourself. You the Elder; act like it!" Simply for good measure (and for old time's sake, since Angel and Red were already dying of laugher) she whacked the back of his head as sharply as she could.

"Ow!" Palom exclaimed, releasing Sefi and rubbing his head. "I thought we'd gotten through that phase," he said, his voice bordering on a whine.

Red recovered enough of her breath to remark, "In three years he hasn't changed at all!" before lapsing into her laughing fit.

"You know, he really hasn't," Porom informed, opening the front door and dragging her brother into the tower by the wrist. "You'd think he'd have learned by now, but—"

A bunch of people inside moaned loudly. "Not this argument again," someone said (if the twins had to guess, they'd have both said that it was Edge, the ninja king of Eblan; and they'd have been right).

"What?" Porom asked everyone. "It's an important argument!"

No one seemed to believe her, because they all protested again.

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"Now that we are all here (at last)," Palom said to the group in front of him, "I'll be a nice elder, like my sister told me to do, and welcome you all to Mysidia. As I think you all know, we Light Warriors have a new threat to face down; and here we are, together again, to figure out how to defeat it. Without further ado, here's Cecil and Kenjiki to give a full rundown," He said a little too casually, and took a seat next to Porom (who was resisting the urge to whack him again).

Cecil and Kenji rose from their places and went to the front of the room. Someone started clapping loudly; it was Aron, Edge and Rydia's three year old son, who apparently thought that it was only the right thing to clap for his uncle. Rydia, the summoner queen, quickly quieted her son and told him not to do that anymore.

"Sorry about that," She said, a bit embarrassed by her son's antics. Cecil shook his head. "Don't be sorry; he's only three. He doesn't know any better," He insisted.

"But anyways," Kenji said, "We have a serious problem. There is a person, somewhere in the Eastern region of the world we're pretty sure, who is recruiting people for an army. He's training them to fight like ninjas and then sending them out to raid the desert's small villages. We, Exeline and I, thought that they were containing themselves to that area, but several days ago, they attacked Baron: not only an area to the south, but an entire kingdom besides, with no relation whatsoever."

"How did they get to Baron in the first place?" Yang, the king of Fabul wanted to know.

"Beats me; they sailed, they swam… they sprouted fully fledged wings and flew—I don't know," Kenji answered. Though it wasn't the best way to answer his employer, let alone the king of an entire nation, it was a good answer.

"Why should they attack in the first place?" Alara asked. "If they attacked a place so far away from them, then there must be a good reason. What does Baron possess that these people could want? What precious things would they be willing to work so hard to get?" She asked.

"Our best resource is our airships," Cecil informed the white mage. "But most easterners don't know how to drive them; they wouldn't want an airship," He explained.

"And besides," Edge added, "Airships are too loud for a proper ninja attack. Any real ninja would opt for a boat, a working set of feet or nothing." At this, a murmur of agreement rose up from the room. After knowing Edge for a long time, this advice either wrung a bell or made perfect sense. Aron had to admire his father for a moment for knowing things that he himself didn't.

"Is there anything else that they might want from us?" Sefi asked her family. There was no answer from anyone from her home.

"If I might say," Edward pointed out, "Cecil and Angel are pretty special and rare in their own right. Perhaps….?"

"Why would they want us? They can't use us… At least not for what they do," Angel stated. She and her father help these terrorizing little cretins? No way!

"But you could get in their way, should you find out about them," Exeline said after thinking for a minute. As she spoke, a very grim realization came over the group.

"Oh dear," the two sets of twins said at the same time.

"We've got to find them and stop them all," Kenji informed everyone. "If I'm right, we already have a sizeable force here, plus the fighters of all the kingdoms combined; I think we've got somewhat of an advantage here."

"Not enough… not enough," Exeline fretted. "There are too many ninjas to contend with. Even if all the kingdoms unite, they will still be outnumbered."

"How's that possible?" Rydia asked. "I didn't know there were so many people living in the eastern deserts."

"We don't know how there are so many doom ninjas. There aren't that many people able to survive out there. And yet there's an army of them," Kenji explained.

"Is there anyone else who can contribute to our cause?" Exeline asked everyone.

"Various small villages on the western continent," Cecil offered.

"And the dwarves," Rosa added.

"Should we go and get them?" Cecil asked the spies.

"It would be a good idea. The more firepower, the better," Kenji agreed.

"Great. Rosa and I will go to the underworld and talk to the dwarf king; Giott is a personal friend of ours. I'm sure he'll listen to us," Cecil volunteered.

"We're coming too," Angel and Sefi stated together.

"Don't forget me!" Red said, jumping up and joining her friends.

Palom and Porom looked at each other, Porom doubtful, and Palom beggingly. Porom looked like she was going to say no to what Palom was going to ask, but he looked at her harder and she clearly gave in to her brother. They both rose from their chairs.

"We're in too," Porom said.

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On a single airship, the seven companions flew toward the opening to the dwarf kingdom. They were still several hours away from their destination and watching the water speed away from beneath them like a ground made of sapphire. Slowly, an faint green line far from their view began to grow into one long strip of solid green ground, and in a few hours more, they were over tree dotted land.

Red had relieved Sefi's position at the helm (remember how Sefi taught her how drive an airship?), and the purple haired archer was now leaning on the railing, watching the various forests fall behind the ship as it went on it's course. She was suddenly aware of someone approaching her; she looked up to see that it was Palom.

"I heard from your sister that you helped to build this thing last year," He said, setting next to Sefi on the rail.

"Well, yeah. Built a good deal of it with my own hands," Sefi informed him proudly if not shakily. "Working with airships is so rewarding and fun to do. I'm happy that Cid got me into it."

"Have you figured out how to be a dark archer yet?" Palom asked.

"Working on it. Dark power meets archery; it's physically demanding. But I figured it out, none the less. Daddy actually helped me, if you can believe it."

"Wow. Good for you. Also heard that Angel is the captain of the guard, and that you are one of the best archers in Baron (besides your mother). That's amazing! You and your sister are two of the most fascinating girls I've ever met."

"What about Porom?"

"Porom's smart, but she isn't fascinating. She tries not to go beyond the boundary line and tries to keep me there with her."

Sefi had to laugh. "You're funny. I'm happy that you guys haven't changed."

"Someone's coming!" Angel yelled, running out of the cabin where she and Rosa had been playing poker (another vibe exercise for Angel). "There's an airship on our tail, and they look ready to fight!"

"I saw the same thing," Rosa said, joining Angel. "I think they were Doom Ninjas."

"Then everyone get ready to fight," Palom directed, jumping into action. "Red, you keep steering; don't move away from the helm for anything. Angel and Sefi to the railing, weapons ready. Rosa, stand over there, in the middle of the deck—no, further in; that's good. Have your heal spells ready. Where are Cecil and Porom? We need them over here."

Porom appeared from the back of the ship and Cecil emerged from B-deck almost as if on que, slightly dazed by the yelling that had roused them from the vibes they'd been milking themselves. Cecil immediately noticed that Palom was lining everyone on board up to fight the attackers: all the fighters were they can reach the attackers and the white mages in the center where the fighters could shield the offenses.

"Have you been reading a knight's manual?" Cecil asked the black mage.

"It's all that I get for letting Porom talk me into reading. Stand…… there, next to Sefi. Block any attack that comes her way until you and Angel can reach the ninjas; she's—"

"The only one who will be able to hit anything for a while, I know. Don't tell me how to do my job, boy," Cecil warned, amused and impressed with Palom anyway.

Almost as soon as everyone was ready another airship slunk up next to them, and the deck was covered with the Doom Ninjas that Rosa had predicted. Sefi put an arrow in her bow and let it fly. It landed buried in one man's chest, and prompted the other ninjas to begin firing the ship's cannons.

"Red! We need a slightly high elevation!" Palom called to the driver.

"Sefi, which button?" Red yelled.

"The blue lever will turn the nose up a little bit: pull it down and then put it back after a few feet. Just high enough that their cannons can't get us," Sefi directed as she loaded her bow four times, hitting her target every time.

Red did as she was told and the nose of the ship began to climb, causing bad footing for all the fighters. The ship began to climb after the nose and Red pushed the lever back up, setting the ship just above the heads of the ninjas.

Once again, Sefi began bombarding the ninjas with arrows, felling several foes before Palom began hitting the enemies with a fire and then an ice attack. Many ninjas took shurikens and other sharp throwable objects to the party. Most of these were evaded, but Sefi took a hit to her right arm and Palom got hit in the head; these wounds were quickly dealt with by the white mages behind them.

"There might be too man of them," Sefi pointed out to Palom. "I'm running out of arrows fast, and you can't keep up the spells forever; Angel and Daddy can't even reach anyone unless they jump on the deck!"

"So what do you propose we do?" Palom demanded as he began a lightning spell.

"Angel, can't you summon spirits or something?" Sefi asked her twin.

"That's a good idea," Angel agreed. "But I can't summon enough of them on my own. I'll need help."

Sefi smiled. "I'll call for FuSoYa, and you call for Golbez," she suggested.

"I can help!" Palom added. "Who can I call on?"

"You can call on spirits?" Angel asked skeptically.

"I do all the time," Palom said disdainfully. "I actually call on Tellah's spirit for help sometimes," he explained, though he seemed sheepish about admitting it. "And Porom can summon Mom too."

"Great. Get Porom over here and tell her to start calling," Angel directed.

"Don't leave me out," Red yelled from the helm. "Porom taught me how to summon spirits last summer. Do you think Anna would help us if I asked?"

"Who's Anna?" all the twins asked together.

"You mean Tellah's daughter?" Cecil asked incredulously.

"Yeah, that's her. Think she'd help?"

"Worth a shot," Angel said with a shrug. "Swap places with Daddy and come help us," she called to her friend. Cecil ran to take the wheel from Red, who was already running to the rail.

Angel began breathing slowly; concentrating on the call she was sending to her uncle.

Hello? Uncle Golbez, can you hear me? Please answer me!

What took you so long to ask? Golbez asked through a form of telepathy. I've been waiting to hear from my favorite niece for three years!

I need your help… Again.

What can I do for you this time? Need another life-spark ruby?

Do you think you can help fend off these ninjas?

Ninjas? What sort of danger is Cecil putting you all in this time?

It doesn't matter right now! They are after us, trying to kill us! Will you help or not?

Don't yell at me, Angel. I nearly took over the entire Blue Planet; I'm than able to hurt you, despite the distance, Golbez reprimanded.

Sorry, sir. I'm just really stressed right now, Angel apologized.

From the silence, Angel guessed that Golbez must be assessing the problem through her own eyes (she'd been told that spirits could do that without you knowing).

We, the spirits the others are summoning and I, have discussed the matter, and have come to a conclusion, Golbez finally announced to Angel.

Really? What?

You have to jump onto the other ship and begin fighting.

"Are you insane?!" Angel yelled out loud. Apparently, the other spirits had given the others similar advice, because they all cried out in alarm as well.

It's the only way, Angel. You'll just have to trust me.

There's no other way?

Sorry; no. Just do it and you'll see what we mean.

Angel was sorely afraid of the task that lay before her; if they so much as stepped onto the other deck, they'd all be slashed to ribbons before they had a chance to do anything.

Along with her other friends, Angel took another deep breath, and ran to the other side of the deck without answering the questions the adults now had to ask.

They all braced themselves, savored what was probably their last look at the sun, and ran to jump over the railing.

Rosa paled when she realized what the kids were all doing. "Wait! Don't do it!" she screamed. But it was in vain: all five of them leapt over the railing and fell into the open air.

Angel also savored the feeling of freefalling. She felt light, free, like she was flying. But at the same time the wind rushed into her face and through her hair from below, reminding her that she was still falling. It was a fun feeling; a nice vacation from the searing fear she faced. Though the wind drowned out all the doom ninjas on the deck below, she could still hear Porom let out a cry of fear, for she'd never really liked heights.

The five friends all landed on the other ship with a series of thumps. They all braced themselves for the pain of swords ripping them to bits, but it never came for some reason. Angel chanced a glance at her attackers and saw five people holding them off. She hadn't seen the five there before; it was like they'd materialized out of nowhere. Then she noticed that the sun was shining through them, like a gauze sheet.

One of the figures, a young red-headed woman in a light yellow dress turned to them with a look of earnestness on her face. She held a short sword in her hand, and her fingers were busy working a high leveled spell of some sort.

"Well don't just stand there," she ordered. "Stand and fight!"

The spirit's voice was that of a typical woman of her apparent years, and quite clear; the companions all heard it like someone had rung a bell in their ears. But her voice was hollow and thin, like it was carried on the wind from many miles away.

Without another moment's hesitation, the five friends jumped to their feet and joined the summoned spirits in combat. All around, they could recognize their respective summons by what they were doing. Clad in his heavy black armor, wielding a big black sword, Golbez's spirit swirled through the clouds of ninjas around him, felling them in massive numbers. Beside him, holding her small yet powerful short sword, Anna's graceful form alternated between casting spells and cutting down any enemy in her path. FuSoYa, Angel and Sefi's Lunarian grand-uncle, was casting some kind of spell that resulted in a powerful energy blast on the ninjas, knocking each one it touched unconscious (at the very least). Tellah, the famous sage, was having a blast hitting the ninjas with every spell in his diverse arsenal, watching with a morbid sort of glee that no one there thought was possible for a spirit. And, finally, the unfamiliar form of Palom and Porom's mother was casting her own spells, struggling to keep the long brown hair that she had passed to her children out of her face.

Angel was so caught up in the mess of the battle that she didn't notice the ship dipping lower and lower to the ground. Nor could she hear her parent's frantic cries of warning from above them. Palom was the one who alerted her to the problem.

"No one's driving this ship!" He yelled, getting everyone's attention. All the passengers, even the spirits, all looked up in alarm. The first thing the doom ninjas did was all mutter something in a dead Eastern language; an instant later, they were all disappeared, leaving the five spirits and their summoners alone of board.

Red's first reaction was to run to the helm and try to steer. Palom stopped her. "There's no point:" he explained. "The ship's too low to bring it back up; it's going to crash nose first, and you'll have no chance at all."

Porom ran at her brother and smacked him on the head. "Look around you, you idiot! We don't have a chance either!"

Her mother's spirit came over and smacked her as well. "Don't hit your brother," she scolded. "And don't call him an idiot. He has a point."

"Someone's coming," Sefi said abruptly, pointing behind them. Coming towards them was a growing black dot with something riding it. As it drew near, they could see that it was a large black chocobo; even closer and they could see that prince Odin was the rider.

"What in Zemoth's name are you doing here?" Angel demanded as soon as Odin was in ear shot.

"Dad told me that he had a bad feeling about letting you guys go on alone, so he made me come after you," Odin explained. "I was kinda skeptical at first… Guess that Dad was right after all."

"Is there room for all of them?" Anna asked.

Odin turned to look at the spirits and a look of shock came over his face. "Who—what are they? Where did they come from?"

"Spirits; long story. Answer the question," Palom said sternly, and unusually to the point.

"Of course there's enough room. Everyone get on before the ship crashes!"

"Step aside," Red commanded. "Princesses coming through." She stepped through the crowd, followed by Angel and Sefi, and mounted the chocobo. Palom and Porom quickly followed suit.

"Thanks for your help, guys," Palom called back to the spirits. "Don't be surprised if we call again soon."

"We'll be waiting, kid," Tellah assured him.

The black chocobo lifted away and took off from the ship. The spirits all faded from view as the ship collided with the ground, exploding and falling to bits.

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Cecil and Rosa were well out of view of the ninja's ship within minutes of the kid's boarding. Needless to say that they were both scared silly, but there was nothing they could do about it right now.

But when they heard the airship hit the ground behind them and the looked back to see the explosion, well, they both would have fainted if Rosa weren't a white mage and Cecil weren't driving.

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This chapter took a very long time, I'm aware of that. I went as fast as I could. I've been on vacations and didn't have a computer to work on.

Anyways, I guess that I have a lot of apologizing to do; especially to AngelWings008 and maybe Partially Crazy for being away for so long. As I said, I was grounded for a really long time for a pretty stupid reason, and when summer finally started I started this chapter only to go on a month's worth of vacations and couldn't work on it. Well, I finally made it through and here it is.

Please don't hurt me for taking so long. I've got whiffle bats and I'm not afraid to use them!

Frieda