Final Fantasy: The Chronicles Of Paine

Chapter 4

It seems to be somewhat confusing that my story technically has 6 chapters including this one, and it's been causing a bit of trouble. Two of these chapters are mere author's notes, and while I know it's bad to put them in the middle like this, I felt it was necessary. So try not to imagine the notes as real chapters, and that this is only chapter 4. Also, thank you to all my readers for your patience. This has been a complicated chapter, not to mention story. In this chapter, you may notice the plot is starting to come together, and some parts are making a bit more sense. Also keep a sharp eye for cameos!

-gigaknight

The girl and the young man ran down the labyrinthene corridors, evading the soldiers who were hot on their heels. The girl held onto the young man's hand as she tried to keep up with him. They could hear angered yells erupting behind them, and could feel the enemies getting closer and closer. After running around in the maze for what seemed like hours, they emmerged in a wide open room. They kept running, along a narrow corridor to the centre of the room. In the centre of the room stood a massive machina weapon, which had been slumbering deep beneath Bevelle. The soldiers stopped behind the couple, raised their rifles and took aim.

The young girl looked into her lover's eyes, and he stared back at her, preparing for what was to come. He stared the soldiers down with unmatched bravery, still holding his girlfriend's hand. He was determined to protect her, with his life if necessary. An explosion erupted from within the soldier's rifles, and the enemies fired several shots into the couple. Both of them fell to the floor, staring at eachother. The girl's eyes filled with tears, while her lover reached for her hand with his last ounce of strength, as their relationship was lost in fate.

Yuna awoke from her dream, which she had been having frequently lately. Vegnagun was destroyed, Shuyin and Lenne had been reunited, and the Spira was at peace. Though she still longed to see him again. She pulled herself out of bed and walked downstairs. Barkeep gave Yuna a hearty wave of his blue paw.

"Mish yoona, ish everything alright?" the hypello asked.

"I'm fine, Barkeep," Yuna replied, trying to cover her sadness with a fake smile. She continued towards the lift, when he spoke again.

"Mish yoona ish having problemsh?" the hypello spoke in his odd accent.

"No, I couldn't be better!" Yuna smirked half-assed. The hypello shook it's scaly head and continued working behind the counter, washing mugs and such. Yuna walked to the elevator and went inside. Pressing the "Bridge" button, the doors closed, and she felt herself travelling downward. A moment later, the doors opened with a woosh, and she stepped outside and continued towards the control room.

When she entered, everyone seemed to ignore her. Disappointed, she walked down the stairs and noticed Shinra was working on something.

"What are you doing, Shinra?" Yuna asked.

"I'm trying to configure a new commsphere I've just installed in Kilika. There's supposed to be trouble brewing in that area," the Al Bhed boy spoke.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Sin....." he said darkly.

"What are you talking about?" Yuna asked quizzically.

"I don't know yet. I've intercepted several emails regarding Sin, though I cannot open them because they are encrypted", he answered back, typing something into the computer.

"Why can't you get past the encryption?" she asked, puzzled.

"I'm just a kid," he said. Yuna rolled her eyes and walked to the controls, where Buddy and Brother were flying the ship.

"Yuna!" Brother exclaimed, filled with joy. :Are you still having those nightmares? Do you want somebody to make you feel better?" Brother asked, grinning widely.

"There were no nightmares, I just haven't slept well lately," she lied. Brother seemed disappointed, and appeared to be busy thinking of another problem to try and help her with. Instead, she walked over to Buddy, who was sitting in his chair.

"Hey Yuna...." Buddy greeted her.

"Hi Buddy, what are you doing?" she asked him.

"We were trying to find some leads on some spheres, but we've been more busy trying to figure out these suspicious emails regarding Sin, which we've intercepted," he explained.

"Shinra says he set up a commsphere in Kilika," Yuna mentioned.

"That's where we've traced one of the emails to," he said, stretching. "We've been hard at work trying to learn more about these emails, and we haven't slept in a long time,"

"It's probably just a prank," Yuna said dismissively.

"We can't take any chances, and it's probably worth investigating," he continued. Yuna nodded.

A few minutes later, Shinra yelled out loud, startling the team.

"The commsphere works!" he cheered triumphantly shaking his fists in the air.

"Let's see it," Yuna asked. Shinra pressed something on the computer, and a full colour live feed of Kilika appeared on the monitor.

"It's really changed since that day seven years ago....." Yuna declared quietly. The group watched the monitor carefully, and after about a minute of nothing happening, they saw something odd. Someone in black zipped by the commsphere on a motorcycle. After a moment, they saw somebody chase after them, wearing a leather hat and a blue robe. A black mage, Yuna thought. The mage cast a firaga spell and tried to attack the person on the motorcycle. The spell missed, and hit several people just a few feet away from the cyclist, injuring them and causing a house to catch fire. Yuna gasped at the sight.

"Those poor people!" Yuna exclaimed. "We have to get over there right now and help them!"

"Yes, we'll do what you want to do, Yuna," Brother said stupidly, paying no attention to what she said, but rather he was too busy checking her out.

"Ok, set coordinates for Kilika," Buddy commanded. Brother scrambled over to the controls clumsily, still staring at Yuna, and in doing so nearly tripped over his own feet.

"Kilika, got it," Brother dictaed out loud. The Celsius took off towards Kilika.

"We should be there in about five minutes, Yuna," Buddy said. "You should prepare yourself for the worst,"

"Just give me my guns and I'll be fine," she replied. Five minutes later, the Celsius was circling above Kilika, where The Gullwings could see smoke billowing up from several houses below.

"Take us down a bit lower," Yuna commanded.

"Roger," Brother replied. The airship lowered itself until it was about ten feet off of the ground. Yuna jumped out of the ship and landed on the ground just outside of Kilika, where some people were scrambling to get away.

Yuna walked towards the village, ready for anything. Some of the buildings had already burnt down, and she was afraid the town would become demolished once again. She hastily turned herself into a black mage using her garment grid. She aimed a large wateraga spell at the flames and extinguished the blaze.

"Thank you for helping us, Lady Yuna," Barthello's voice boomed behind her. She turned around and his massive figure towered above her.

"What's going on, Barthello?" Yuna asked, eyeing the scene of the crime.

"Paine was here, and she-"

"Paine? I thought she had been killed!" Yuna said, though she seemed to be relieved.

"I don't know the details, just that Paine was in town, looking for someone, but now she's being chased by that black mage, the one who burnt these homes," he explained. Yuna played the video clip of the girl wearing black on the motorcycle again in her head, and tried to understand who was chasing her.

"Do you know the name of this blackmage?" Yuna asked.

"I'm not sure, but I know he was trying to be discrete, and a young boy named Pacce had blown his cover,"

"Perhaps it was worth the trouble of losing a few homes compared to losing Spira," Yuna said to herself quietly.

"What's that?" Barthello asked, shocked.

"Somebody is up to something down here, and it has something to do with Sin. They even went to the trouble of encrypting their emails they've been sending. They don't want somebody to know something," She explained.

"Paine mentioned something to me about investigating a terrorist plot...." said Barthello.

"So she has left town?" Yuna asked.

"I reckon so, she's trying to get away from whoever it is that's chasing her,", he said. Yuna had no time to talk anymore, and ran off, looking for more clues around where the commspere footage was taken. She figured that maybe the person tailing Paine could have dropped something, anything! And she was right. Not far from the crime scene, Yuna found a cellular phone, which had fallen out of the black mage's pocket. She checked the info on it and saw a picture of him, and his name and information. She made a phone call to the Gullwings on the cell phone.

"Friendly neighboring gullwings!" Brother responded.

"Brother, it's Yuna. I think I've found out who attacked Kilika, but I need you to look him up in the computer," she asked. She knew he would do anything for her, and really didn't need to ask him.

"Of course Yuna, of course! Is there anything else you need?" Brother asked.

"Um, no," Yuna said. Brother said nothing, but she could tell he was disappointed.

"What's this guy's identity?" he asked her.

"He's a black mage, and he goes by the name of................Vivi".

TBC!