Christmas Update. Merry Christmas everyone.

AN: I'm gonna start calling Red XIII Nanaki. I forgot that was his real name. I'm also going to disclaimer Rinoa's weapons. They were created by Monty Oum for his Dead Fantasy videos so they belong to him.

"Interesting." the cloaked man said as he and the others wondered about what Cloud and Squall just told them.

"Think there's a connection?" Cloud wondered.

"It's possible." the cloaked man said.

"That's not enough to go on." Quistis said.

"Did you two see anything on their clothing that seemed strange?" the cloaked man asked. The two thought back and remembered there was something strange about the clothes.

"Actually there was something weird. Somewhere on all their clothes was a black, jagged letter 'A'." Squall answered.

"It's as I feared. It's the Acolytes." the cloaked man said.

"Aco-what's?" a confused Zell said.

"The Acolytes. They're a group of Astroth worshippers who are bent on bringing him back. They've existed since the ancient times." the cloaked man said.

"It sounds like they haven't gotten anywhere close to their goal." Nanaki inquired.

"No, they haven't. I've been observing them for a while now and from the shadows. They're still searching hard for a way to achieve their goal." the cloaked man added in. Lightning suddenly remembered what Rufus told her and Cloud back at the Healin Lodge.

"Do the Heaven and Hell Blades have something to do with this?" Lightning asked.

"They might. It's possible those two swords are the keys to the Acolytes goal. If that proves to be true, then you must stop them before they can get their hands on the swords." the cloaked man said.

"How can we stop them if we don't even know where they are?" Yuna asked. As soon as those words were said, a large and loud explosion suddenly erupted outside.

"Looks like they've already found us." Genesis said.

Cloud ran outside to check things out with Squall and Tidus right behind him. When they exited the building, they were shocked to see a half circle of fire surrounding the out side of the building. "What the hell happened?" Tidus wondered as he watched the flames burn. Suddenly, a blue lightning bolt came flying through the fire wall and flew straight for the three. Squall quickly drew Revolver and swung down, destroying the lightning bolt with ease.

"Who's there?!" Squall shouted out. Long spears of ice then came raining down on the three. They quickly jumped out of the way as the ice spears pierced into where they were previously standing. Then something strange happened. The half circle of fire moved forwards and became a full circle of fire while blocking the way to the building. Cloud and Tidus drew their swords, ready for any more attacks that might come their way. From the left of the fire circle gunshots were fired.

The three turned to see three fire covered bullets fly through the fire circle and towards them. Cloud used First Tsurugi as a shield and easily blocked the three bullets. A rock spike suddenly came flying through the fire circle towards Tidus. Tidus swung down Brotherhood and easily cut through the spike. Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse, a strong wind blew passed the three. A small cut appeared on Cloud's right cheek from the fierceness of the wind. "Alright that's it I've had enough!" Cloud used Blade Beam and sent a blue blast of energy at the fire circle.

The blast exploded on impact with the fire circle and the entire circle was destroyed. Everyone came running outside immediately afterwards. "Cloud, what's going on?" Tifa asked.

"Get ready, they're coming!" Cloud alerted. Everyone quickly drew their weapons, ready for what Cloud warned them about. Yellow lightning bolts flashed around a large dark cloud in the sky before striking down towards the party with extreme speed.

"Heads up!" Barret called out in which the party jumped out of the way of the lightning bolts. After landing on the ground Genesis quickly charged orange energy into his left hand. He swung his arm twice and sent a series of fireballs into the sky. When they all flew passed the cloud the lightning bolts came from, Genesis closed his hand with a swift movement of his arm. The flying fireballs turned around and flew towards the cloud. The fireballs all crashed into the cloud simultaneously, causing a series of small explosions, before erupting into one large explosion which formed into a giant fireball.

Genesis then charged white energy into his hand and fired a large white energy blast at the fireball explosion. The second the blast made contact with the fireball explosion, there was an even more massive explosion of white energy. Cloud and the others could do nothing but stare in aw at Genesis's raw power. It wasn't a surprise to Cloud that Genesis used to be a SOLDIER First Class. "Did you get them?" Rinoa asked,

"I don't know, but I doubt it." Genesis replied as he watched the light from the explosion fade and the sky clear up. Suddenly, human shaped beings flew down from the sky. They landed around the party and on buildings around them. The beings were wearing silver suits of armor with red short sleeve cloaks that went halfway to their knees. Their heads were exposed under their hoods, which revealed them as black humanoid creatures with red glowing eyes, and fangs. On the chest part of all the creatures cloaks was a black jagged letter 'A'.

"So these guys Acolytes?" Squall wondered as he sheathed Revolver on his back and drew Lion Heart.

"Looks like they're just grunts." Lightning said.

"Whatever, let's just take em' out!" Zell excitingly exclaimed as he got in his battle stance. The Acolytes jumped and lunged towards the gang all at once. Everyone jumped out of the way of the Acolytes. While in the air, two Acolytes came flying towards Tidus. He easily cut down one before drop kicking the other one away. Squall appeared behind the flying one and swung Lion Heart, easily slicing the Acolyte in half horizontally. He turned around and launched a Fira spell, incinerating another.

One Acolyte lunged and swung its claws at Tifa. She ducked under the strike and swung her fist right at the Acolytes stomach. Her punch broke through the armor and sent the Acolyte flying. Tifa turned around and uppercutted another Acolyte into the air. Rinoa cast a Blizzara and froze the Acolyte in midair. The frozen Acolyte fell to the ground and shattered into pieces on impact. Rinoa swung Vanishing Star around and chopped down another Acolyte.

With very swift movements, Lightning sliced down three Acolytes before knocking another one high into the air. She jumped up after it and slashed it three times, killing it quickly. Another Acolyte flew in and swung its claws at Lightning. She dodged the attack and planted her feet on the Acolyte before pushing off it, sending it flying. While in the air, Lightning switched Blaze Edge into its gun mode and fired a shot which perfectly pierced through the Acolytes head. Several more Acolytes magically summoned broadswords and charged at Cloud.

Cloud deflected one strike and slashed one down before stabbing forward and killing another one. Cloud then activated Cross-Slash and took down three more Acolytes. One Acolyte got behind Cloud and swung its sword at him. Cloud sensed this and disconnected a Back Blade from First Tsurugi. He brought the sword behind him and blocked the Acolytes attack while blocking another Acolytes sword in the front. Cloud swung with all his might and broke through the two Acolytes swords before slicing them down.

Nanaki slashed one Acolyte at its neck with his claws before using Sled Fang and taking down another. One Acolyte swung its sword and him, but he just jumped over the strike an kicked the Acolyte with his back legs, causing it to stumble. Genesis came up from behind and stabbed the Acolyte through the back. He quickly ripped the sword out to block the attack of another Acolyte that came from behind. Genesis pushed the Acolyte back and sliced it down. One Acolyte launched a ball of energy at Genesis who jumped back as it hit the spot in front of him. When the ball connected, the ball exploded in a large flash of light which blinded Genesis.

When Genesis regained his vision, a large group of Acolytes piled on top of him. At first it seemed like they had him pinned down completely, when suddenly the pile of Acolytes began shifting until the entire pile was blown into the air. Genesis emerged from beneath with his wing out. He launched a blast from his hand which sent a large Acolytes flying from the explosion. Barret, Irvine, and Vincent began rapidly shooting down the flying Acolytes with their guns as they were flying in the air.

Quistis brought her whip down which took out several Acolytes because of its length. A group charged at Zell, who retaliated with a large series of punches and kicks which left them all on the ground in pain. One lunged towards Zell, whose guard was down. Selphie managed to get in between in time and gracefully beat the Acolyte with her nunchaku.

A few Acolytes charged at them, but Rikku got in front of them and cut them down with her two blades before changing into her Warrior Dressphere and cutting down several with her sword. Paine came in and cut down two more attempting a sneak attack on Rikku, and Yuna shot down three more attempting an aerial attack on the girls. Suddenly, a very large and muscular Acolyte dressed in large spiked armor appeared from the sky and brought its fist down on the girls. With not enough time to evade, the girls thought they were gonna die, but Tidus suddenly appeared in front of the Acolytes fist and shoved the entire blade of Brotherhood into the Acolytes fist.

The giant Acolyte roared in pain as Tidus ripped Brotherhood out and the giant Acolyte fell backwards onto the ground while grasping its fist in pain. "You girls okay?" Tidus asked.

"Yeah." The girls nodded. Just then, five Acolytes managed to slip through.

"Get the woman!" the one in front ordered as he and the other four Acolytes charged towards the building Rubi was recovering in.

"No you don't!" Yuffie and Cid appeared in front of the Acolytes and effortlessly cut them down. Seeing as it was obviously a losing battle, the rest of the Acolytes that were left all retreated.

"So what was that about?" Zell wondered as he stretched his arms out.

"I think they were here for that Rubi woman." Nanaki inquired.

"I think we should get her out of here. If we leave her here they'll just come back again." Cloud said.

"Good idea." Quistis agreed.

The gang took Rubi and placed her in the resting area of the Shera as they flew out of the city. "Well, that was a waste of time." Squall said somewhat frustrated.

"But it's a good thing we went. If we didn't, Rubi would be dead." Rinoa replied.

"Yeah, you're right." Squall agreed, calming down.

"So dude, where to now?" Zell asked the cloaked man.

"I've heard that there's been some activity happening in a city not too far from here. There have been Astroth worshippers raging all about, but then ending up dead. I think that sounds like a good place to search." the cloaked man said.

"This next one better not be another waste of time." Cloud said as Cid flew the ship off towards the city the cloaked man mentioned.

When the gang arrived at the city, they were shocked to see it was very lit up. "This place is amazing." Selphie said as she look around at the lit up buildings. The cloaked man had Cid land near a large building. The cloaked man led Cloud, Lightning, Squall, and Rinoa to the top of a building near the castle, but they heard gun shots along the way. When they reached the top of the building, they saw several guards in black suits lying dead on the stairs in front of the building, with an army of soldiers, wearing silver armor, and carrying assault rifles standing in front of the building. "How horrible." Rinoa said in shock at seeing the dead guards. Squall turned her head away so she wouldn't have to look at such a horrific sight. The sight before Cloud made him think back to the Nibelheim incident with Sephiroth, and it reminded Lightning of the vision she had.

Lightning looked noticed the soldiers armor were standing outside the castle as if they were waiting for something.

"These must be the soldiers that come nightly and are slaughtered." the cloaked man said.

"But why?" Cloud asked.

"My guess is they're looking for something here. Something important." the cloaked man answered.

"So how do they end up getting killed?" Squall asked. Suddenly, lightning flashed in the sky as a strong power could be felt coming from the building. Everyone turned their attention to the building to see what the surge of power was. They could feel it coming closer and closer with each passing second. That's when out of the darkness stepped the person who the power was radiating from. He was a young man dressed in all black clothing with raven black hair.

As he stopped at the top of the first flight of stairs, he looked around to see all his guards were killed, and stared out in front to see the army of armored soldiers out in front of his building. As soon as the young man took a step towards the soldiers, they all raised their guns at him. "We have to help him!" Rinoa said as she was about to jump down, but the cloaked man stopped her.

"But!"

"He's obviously the one whose been killing the soldiers in this city. I think he can handle this alone." the cloaked man said as he held Rinoa back. Everyone looked back to see the soldiers opened fire on the young man. For the first few seconds the shots only missed and hit the stairs, but eventually the bullets flew straight for him. As soon as they would've made contact, there was a flash of white and a translucent object in the shaped of a sword blocked the bullet.

"What was that?" Lightning wondered. The young man continued walking towards the firing soldiers as the mysterious weapons shaped objects shielded him from the incoming bullets. As soon as he reached the second flight of stairs, he stopped at the top and waved his arm to the right. As soon as he did, several floating swords, spears, axes, and firearms appeared around him. The floating weapons began spinning around him until he reached out and grabbed a falchion with an engine fashioned at the hilt. As soon as he pulled the sword back, an revving sound was heard as the young mans eyes suddenly started to glow red.

AN: Yep, I decided to being Versus XIII into the fray. Since we don't know a lot about it still, what happens in here involving Versus XIII will just be stuff I make up.

Again, Merry Christmas everyone.

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