Final Fantasy - Sagas Book One Chapter One - The Darkness That Never Fades

"You're out of sight. keep me up at night and make me crazy, but all I feel is the sorrow for that which I've lost, maybe someday my vengeance will make a change, or give a chance to those who don't have one. My reign as master in the Kingdom of Salivoy cannot last much longer than those who have fallen before me. Tonight, the death of my sons will be avenged, and the city of Azkapan will fall into the hells fire pits, tonight we, the oppressed become the oppressors, and Salivoy becomes the dominant force on the continent of JT-North.".

"Finally that damn speech is done and I can get to cutting some throats" said Jerik to his friend Fenal as the cheers of murderous roars arose from the Masters audience. "Now walk through those gates, and do not return until every head of every Azkapan soldier has touched the ground and blood has spattered onto your shoes of each and every one of your shoes" Said Master Cid. Roars of the furious mob crashed through the gate while riding their golden chocobo's through the moon lit night. "The town city of Azkapan grows near" yelled Fenal to Jerik. "I know!" yelled Jerik back. The giant gates of Azkapan were now visible and it seemed like they had no knowledge of the attack or that there even was going to be an attack at all. "Ride in closer!" Yelled the Squad leader to Fenal. "Something does not seem right" thought Fenal to himself while debating in his mind whether or not he should tell Jerik or not. Then suddenly, an axe flew through the air and knocked Fenal right off of his Chocobo. Projectile axes were being used. "Draw your LAAB's!(Laser AutoAcurate Bows)" yelled the Squad leader, unfortunately Jerik was too busy trying to save Fenal and was off of his Chocobo in plain firing range trying to wake his unconscious friend. It had been a trap. Sirens went on loud and clear through the battling as the moon barely glazed its way through the darkness of the night. Fenal had been hit in the head with the blunt side of the axe. His head was hit so hard that it had been cracked almost right open. A giant net was dropped by four flying golden Chocobo that lit up the sky, and it entrapped over eighty percent of the Salivoy army's infantry. The all hell broke lose and the men attempted to escape from the net but it was too late. The net sent enormous amounts of electricity pumping through their vanes and knocked all of them unconscious. Jerik and Fenal, were lucky enough to be caught under the net, because the other twenty percent of the people who were not so lucky, got hit by axes and laser arrows, and very few escaped.

"Jerik, Jerik wakeup, please don't tell me your gone. please tell me you've pulled through" said the squad leader Jake. Jerik turned his head and slowly opened his eyes only to see nothing at all. "Where are we?" asked Jerik. "We seem to be in some underground jail or dungeon, it's pitch black down here, and nobody else seems to be awake yet, probably because they're severely wounded or dead." replied Jake. "Where's Fenal?" questioned Jerik. "Fenal? I have no clue, he may be one of the ones they took away to torture." replied Jake. "Do you still have your visor watch?" asked Jerik. "Yes, I do but it's low on psyche, and I'm too weak to generate anymore for it. Do you think your body can generate enough psyche to power it?" asked Jake. "Possibly." said Jerik. "Then take it, here it is" said Jake as he handed Jerik the Visor Watch. With a quick click of his arm and a turn of a dial, the watch lit up like a green flash light and exposed the entire dungeon to them. Dark walls covered the entire dungeon from every visible corner except for one small door on the far end of the dungeon. What they then saw shocked them to almost to death. The door swung open and a man stepped into the room with a gunblade. It's not the weapon that shocked them so much as who wielded it. Fenal stepped into the room. Two other shadows emerged from the darkness. It was Cid's two sons, Razeh and Kazeh. They were both very much alive and healthy. "Get up, all of you, right now!" yelled Fenal. "What are you doing Fenal, why are you ordering us around?" asked Jerik. "Stupid fool!" said Fenal, "you really thought I was your friend? You were just a tool like everybody else. I only used you to have Razeh and Kazeh kidnapped in the first place. Your insolent behavior proved to be quite an easy target for my manipulation. Arrogant fool. now your death will come and the oracle's premonition will never happen!" "I cannot believe this" said Jerik in complete outrage. "You were the mole we were warned about? You were the one who setup this ambush? And after I saved you when that axe hit you in the head? Damn it! How could you?" said Jerik in total shock. "Fool, there was no axe, that was done by the wand of illusion. You've all been played for fools. Razeh and Kazeh contacted us little less than 4 months before their kidnapping, they were the key to stopping your kingdoms little regime" said Fenal. "We knew our father would fail and end up killing us all, so we decided to do the smartest thing be could, and betray him" said Kazeh. "We only did what was in our best interest, father always wanted that anyways" snickered Razeh. "Now, for your passing on, Jerik!" yelled Fenal, and with a quick slash, he attempted to kill Jerik, but only one person fell, and it was not Jerik. Kazeh fell to the ground dead, with blood dripping from his throat down onto the floor. "No! What is this trickery?!" yelled Fenal in absolute disbelief. "What have you done to my brother!" yelled Razeh. "You have your illusions, and I have mine" said Jake with a sly grin on his face. "When you were so busy with your petty insults, I setup a stasis grid, and confused you into killing Kazeh by mistake. In your head, you thought he was Jerik. whose the fool now?" and with a quick impulse, Jake grabbed Razeh hostage during the confusion. "Good job Jake" said Jerik as he lay in disbelief. "You fools cannot escape here with him, what's the point? Either way, you lose. We can kill all three of you, or let you two go in exchange for Razeh, either way your kingdom and you are going to perish." said Fenal.

Fenal quickly tried to slam the door shut to trap them inside but Jerik swiftly got his foot halfway through the door. They both began to grab the door and attempt to pry it open. "Die!" screamed Razeh as he jumped onto Jakes back. Jake then pulled out a hunting knife and stabbed Razeh in the back of his neck killing him. "What did you just do? You killed him! Now we have no hostage!" yelled Jerik. "Listen, Cid didn't even know his children were alive, this makes no difference to our kingdom, at least now he has two treacherous dead sons, and not two sons who are living traitors." said Jake. "Yes but what do we have for a hostage now?" said Jerik as he and Jake both tried their hardest to keep the door open. "He was useless anyhow, the Azkapan's didn't even need him anyhow" said Jake. "Damn it all to hell! We'll never get out of here, pass me your knife Jake!" yelled Jerik as they both struggled to keep the door open. "Here" said Jake as he tossed Jerik the knife. With one quick swift, he stabbed Fenal in his hand causing him to release the door. "Run!" yelled Jake, "We need to escape and we need to do it now". But what about Fenal wondered Jerik, "How can we leave Fenal there, this could come back to haunt us if we leave him alive, lets finish him while he's laying there helplessly!" said Jerik. "No!" yelled Jake. "We don't have enough time". They quickly ran up the stairs and down a corridor until they saw early morning light at the end of a second corridor. They ran through the doors and saw three long sets of stairs. The sirens went off in the background and at the bottom of the steps, they noticed the gates leading out of the city, they were beginning to close and they didn't have enough time to make it there running. Luckily, a single chocobo stood at the end of the first set of steps and they made a dash for him. Jumping the chocobo holding fence, Jake yelled "Get on the chocobo, now!" to Jerik. They both jumped on the chocobo and ran it down to the gate narrowly escaping the city. With hundreds of axes being shot at them, they road the chocobo out to the top of the furthest mountain and escaped again, just narrowly. It was barely light outside and it was still hard to see, but they made their way back to Salivoy in one piece.

What will happen next? How can they stop Azkapan and how are they going to explain this all to cid? Find out in the Chapter Two - Excuses, Reasons and Answers.