Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy IX characters but my characters are my own creations and I do own the rights to them.



Chapter Twenty: The Sacrifice

~Come to me~

The voice echoed throughout Phina's head. She spun around and stared hard at the entrance to the city square. There was no one there.

"Who's there?" Phina shouted. She couldn't be going crazy. Not at a time like this. A cruel laugh was the answer to her question but again there was no speaker in sight.

~You know who I am~

"Xavier."

~But of course. Now won't you come to me~

Phina could feel the tug that had been pulling her towards this place grow stronger. She couldn't resist it and she took a step forward. Another followed it. Pretty soon she was walking straight into the square and there was nothing she could do to stop herself. Phina tried to reach out and grab the side of a ruined building but her arms wouldn't obey her. The center of the square started to come into view. Xavier sat at the base of a shattered fountain. Rubble lay everywhere and the buildings that surrounded the fountain were in shambles.

Phina finally stopped in front of Xavier. He sat on the ground with a proud smirk on his face. The clothes he wore were made of the finest silk and the most beautiful colors that Phina had ever seen. They were clothes fit for a king. The area around him had been swept clean of debris and a large pentagram had been painted on the ground out of what looked like blood.

"Are you ready?" Xavier asked, his voice silky smooth. His smirk widened to a grin and his eyes gleamed with a cold fire.

"Ready for what?" Phina spat back. Xavier made a soft clicking sound with his tongue and shook his head.

"For the sacrifice, of course. You haven't forgotten have you?" Phina's eyes went wide. She had completely forgotten about the sacrifice. That was why Xavier was so easy to find and why the barriers had been brought down. She had walked right into his trap and now she was going to kill her friends. Tears of realization started to run down her face.

"Aww. . . is the little girl crying? Don't worry the pain will be intense. You see, for this to work you have to go through both physical and emotional pain. In other words you're going to beg for me to kill you before I'm done," Xavier laughed. This was the most fun he'd had in ages. Here was his biggest rival's daughter crying in front of him because she was about to die.

Xavier laughed cruelly and stood up. He brushed off his silk pants and picked up a wooden bowl that was lying on the rim of the ruined fountain. Walking up to Phina he ordered her to put her hand out. Phina tried to resist but the spell that he had placed on her was too strong and her hand went up in front of him.

"I'm going to need to collect a few thing before we can continue," Xavier explained. He pulled a dagger out of his sleeve and quickly slashed Phina's open palm. Pain shot through Phina's arm as the knife sliced through skin and nerves. The cut was shallow but bleeding profusely. Xavier put the bowl underneath her hand and caught the blood that rolled off the side of her hand. He then ordered her to put her hand down bleeding and all, as he set the bowl of blood on the ground next to the pentagram that he had painted. Standing up once more he drew his dagger again and cut a lock from her hair.

"Sit!" he ordered her when he was down. Phina did as she was told only because she had to. The whole time tears had not stopped rolling down her cheeks and splashing onto the stone ground below.

"Good, good. I've got everything I need, now to finish what I have started," Xavier said talking to himself. He made Phina sit in the middle of the pentagram on the ground and picked up the bowl. He dipped his right hand in it and started to walk clockwise around the pentagram sprinkling blood every so often and chanting under his breath. When he had completed the circle he stood outside the pentagram.

"Now we start with the physical pain. That way it will be easier to break your spirit and cause severe emotional pain." The smirk on his face and the gleam in his eyes scared Phina to no end. This was going to hurt. Badly.





~*~ On the Battlefield ~*~



"Take this you stupid. . .thing!" Eiko cried as she whacked a semi- transparent monstrosity with her flute. The creature howled in pain and reared to attack the white mage before it.

"Flare!" Vivi yelled from behind the creature. It roared as a bright light started to form at its gut. The light grew in intensity and heat until the monster exploded from the inside. Blood rained down on the two mages as they teamed up to destroy their next challenge.

To their right Zidane was battling back to back with Amarant. It was just about the only time the two could be near each other and not be arguing. Zidane's daggers flew with the speed of a tornado while Amarant's claws never missed their mark. Both fighters were drenched in blood that was partly their own.

Next to them, Freya used her spear like a pitchfork as she hurled enemies over her shoulder. Her beady eyes were even smaller as she squinted trying to spot one of her friends in the sea of bodies surrounding her. Finally she spotted Beatrix and Steiner battling side by side with a small contingent of palace guards to their right.

Gabriela stood by herself. She was no longer the angelic form that Phina had spoken to only a few short hours ago. Her wings were covered in blood and her perfect clothes were torn and mud stained. Her eyes gleamed with cold indifference as she slaughtered the beasts around her. They had killed Terk and now they were going to pay for it.

Many brave warriors died on the battlefield that consisted of humans, angels, genomes, and monsters. Still they fought on. Neither side winning or losing.



~*~ City Square ~*~



A battered and bloody Phina lay on the ground of the city square. She trembled from the pain. She could feel it all over her body that sported cuts and bruises. Blood flowed from a cut on her forehead into her eyes. A laugh overhead told Phina where Xavier was. His dagger flashed in the light before it came down on its victim. Phina cried out in pain as the wound on her back reopened.

"Do you want the pain to stop?" Xavier asked sweetly. A groan from the limp form on the ground was the only response he got. Another laugh escaped his lips. "Now we move on. You seem to have had enough."

He ordered Phina to sit up, which she did very slowly. Her shoulders slumped and her hands lay limply in her lap. She tried to hold her head up proudly but the pain was too intense. Instead of looking like the proud, defiant woman that she was, she looked like a miserable bobble head toy. Xavier took the lock of hair that he had cut from her head out of his pocket. He clutched it tight in his hand. The hand started to glow with a white light.

Suddenly Phina couldn't see anymore. Everything had gone black. Then a figure started to loom out of the darkness. It was a child with red hair wearing a simple blue dress dotted with sunflowers. The dreams then started to run in front of her eyes. Phina watched them over and over again as they kept replaying.

Xavier frowned as he watched Phina's face. Her tears had long since dried up but he expected her to be crying again by now. Instead she was calm and collected. Her face didn't show pain, fury, or even sadness. What Xavier didn't know was that on the inside Phina was fuming. It had nothing to do with the dreams. She had gotten over those when she had learned what they were telling her. What was making her mad was the fact that he was making her kill her friends.

Suddenly the picture changed. Now Gabriela was being torn to shreds by a horned monster. Phina could feel the anger boiling under her calm exterior begin to burn hotter. The picture changed again but this time is was Amarant who was dying. One by one Phina watched as her friends were violently killed. She kept her cool as her anger churned just below the calm surface.

Xavier watched the young woman as she sat slumped over herself. Throughout the entire time she hadn't moved a muscle. Her eyes remained cloudy and emotionless as she watched the pictures he ran through her mind.

Eiko had just been finished off when the scenery changed yet again. She was standing in the alley where Emma had been killed. This time, though, Garnet was in Emma's place. Phina tried to move but she was frozen to the spot where she stood. She watched in utter horror her sister was slaughtered. Once it was done it started over with Zidane taking up the roll of Emma.

That's what did it. Phina could feel her barely contained self-control bursting at the seams. She dove into the madness boiling inside herself, coaxing it to the surface. Underneath all the raw power that she now held she found a small glass, tear-shaped object. Picking it up, Phina was struck with a wonderful idea.

Xavier observed Phina's contorting face. When he had probed her mind for memories he had come across an especially thrilling one. With another ingenious idea he twisted it to his own will. Now he gazed gleefully at her horror stricken face. Then something went wrong. Terribly wrong. Phina started to glow a fiery golden color. Xavier could feel her energy rapidly rising. It was way beyond the levels it should have been at.

That's when Xavier realized his fatal error. In making the young summoner before him angry he had sealed his own fate. Xavier scrambled from his position on the ground and ducked behind the fountain just as a pulsing wave of energy ripped from Phina's body flooding the entire area with the heated intensity of her fury.



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Well you have your answer to why the barrier was brought down. I told you if you had been paying attention you would have known what was coming next. In the next chapter Phina's going to put her plan into action but who knows there might be a surprise twist! Or maybe not. You'll just have to read to find out!