Final Fantasy IX:

Rise Of A New Evil

Chapter 2: The Massacre

A/N: Hmm…well the first chapter didn't do too well, according to the reviews anyways. But as long as there is at least one reviewer, I will continue the story. So here's Chapter 2, and thank you, reviewer!

(Two Months Later)

You failed to fulfill your destiny, but I am willing to give you a chance to redeem yourself, Dark Messenger. If, of course, you do something for me…Kill that brother of yours…he poses a threat. Not that I can't overcome the weakly Genome myself, it would be one less thing for me to worry about…so what do you say, Angel? One last shot at world domination?

No…Never!

I will not be denied. The warnings are already appearing, Kuja, have you been keeping track of the killings? The gruesome murders committed by some sort of…cult? One chance left, Genome!

Once again he woke up to the eerie, genderless voice that beckoned for him to 'redeem himself'. What did he want him to do? Besides killing Zidane…he couldn't kill Zidane. No matter how much jealousy he felt for the blonde haired Genome, he could never bring himself to kill the person who saved his life. Never.

Look for the five-pointed star…

What, now your haunting my mind during the day?

"Who are you?" Kuja demanded, he slammed his fists down onto the soft bed. "Who are you? Answer me!"

"I am the ultimate life form. I am the End. I am your God. I am the destruction of Gaia." A voice whispered through the room, a seemingly calm male voice, followed by an echoing, demonic voice. "I AM THE ULTIMATE EVIL!" Suddenly the windows tore away from their hinges, smashing against the far wall, a cold wind ripping through the room with utmost fury, knocking over tables, and ripping the sheets from the bed, threatening to make Kuja himself topple over into the floor. Immediately darkness reigned, the sun seemingly disappeared, casting no light upon Gaia whatsoever. The wind blew fiercer, the curtains ripping off the walls only to be pinned against the opposite wall. Across from Kuja's bed, the marble wall began to glow, and suddenly thin rays of fire shot out of the wall, carving a encircled five-pointed star from the inside of the wall, once the symbol was complete, it blazed brightly, the only light in all of the world was the flames that burned violently on Kuja's bedroom wall.

And then all was normal again.

The sudden darkness was nothing short of unexpected. Whatever had happened, it had gotten everyone's attention. Evidently it wasn't only Alexandria that had been pitched into darkness for a few brief moments, because one could see easily that the darkness stretched far beyond the Kingdom of Alexandria, and frightened Gaian's sent letters, via moogle, to the Queen about the incident.

"Your Majesty, your comrades have arrived." It had only been two hours since the sudden blackout. Over the last few weeks there were random killings. This made Garnet fear even more for her daughter's safety, but she had received letters from Terra a day following that incident.

So far, over twenty towns, cities, and villages, on Gaia has experienced some sort of 'sacrifice', with the five-pointed star carved into the flesh of some innocent victim, and sometimes somewhere in the city, the star would appear on a building. Most times, the word 'End' accompanied the five-pointed stars. It wasn't safe. Zidane had sent Rey and Beatrix on a mission to Black Mage Village, while he traveled alone to fetch Terra from Treno.

Garnet looked into her own coffee-brown eyes as she sat in front of the mirror, her brown locks combed neatly and falling to either side. She was starting to get a few small wrinkles on her lightly tanned features. She frowned and stood up, smoothing her dress out as she did so. The dress was new, Zidane had thought it was nice and bought it for her the other day. It was ankle-length, strapless, and fitted tight around her torso and hips. She admitted that it was nice…but was it really, proper?

No time to think, I need to start the discussion… Garnet sighed and turned around, heading for the door.

Zidane stared down at the folded letter thoughtfully. He had received the letter a day before he left for Treno, where he was headed now. What he found inside was everything but expected. Inside the envelope he had found a letter…sent too him by someone that wished not to exist any longer. Kuja.

After reading it for the first time, tears came too his eyes, and at the same time he felt confusion, and fear. The tears was because he loved his brother, and hadn't heard from him in so long, he had feared many times that Kuja's life span had run out, so the tears were of happiness, not of sorrow. He felt the confusion and fear because of what was inside of the letter.

The young king looked down at the letter, and unfolded it, reading through it once more…

Zidane, brother, I know I told you that you would hear no more of me, but there have been strange occurrences. Among the strangest was a sudden blackout; I hear that the entire world witnessed it. After the blackout, there was left a burning mark on my wall, a symbol resembling an encircled five-pointed star. Someone has been warning me in my sleep, and now during the day. The voice says the preparation is complete, and I think you're in dire trouble, the voice tells me to dispose of you so that whoever is speaking to me does not have to deal with you. Let alone your comrades. It also told me to watch for the five-pointed star, and I'm guessing the symbol emblazoned upon my wall is the star the voice was talking about. Zidane, I think this may be serious. Stay alert for any strange occurrences. –Kuja

Zidane folded the paper back up and sighed. Was his life in jeopardy? Was the life of his friends in jeopardy?

Dagger…what if Dagger was killed because he wasn't there to protect her? Oh…God's no… Zidane laid the letter down on the bed in his small cabin aboard the Red Rose and also lied down upon the bed himself. The trip was taking much longer then it would have if he were in the Invincible. But since Rey and Beatrix had such a long way to travel, they were taking the Invincible, while Zidane rode upon the much slower Red Rose.

Well…at least I'll be there soon… Zidane thought as he closed his eyes.

It felt good to see them all again. Finally, they were together once again, most of them anyways. She was especially happy to get to see her cousin, and the young girl she used to envy when she was a child for Zidane liking her so much. Soon after his return from the Iifa Tree though, she found that she really didn't have a crush on him, more like a lot of admiration. Her name was Eiko. At her side were her father, who was aging greatly, and her mother, also aged. She was now twenty-three, and had grown to be an attractive young woman. Her clothing style hadn't changed one bit; she still dressed somewhat the same, of course only when she was traveling as she was now. A pink shirt with flared out arms, and her lower attire consisted of tights like 'Dagger' had once worn but the color of her skin, with a black skirt cut short so that it barely covered her thighs over the tights. On her feet she wore black ankle length boots.

Looking around, the Regent remembered the entire group that was standing around him. Freya, Quina, and even his own; Eiko, risked their lives to save Gaia. Among the heroes were a few Alexandrian Guards, keeping a close eye on every exit, and also Fratley, who married Freya shortly after Zidane and Garnet's wedding, and Beatrix; wedded to Steiner. Vivi, and Mikoto could not come, Vivi had children to watch, and Mikoto seemed to have bonded with Vivi, becoming a very close friend to him. Steiner, Beatrix, and Zidane were not present because they were currently gone too retrieve Vivi, Terra, and Mikoto.

It's amazing, The Regent thought, how none of them have changed. And it was quite true, hardly any of their appearances, especially Vivi's and save Eiko, had changed at all over the years.

Garnet soon appeared, walking down the spiral staircase, and despite the fact that she was in her thirties, she still appeared as young, and beautiful as ever.

The Regent smiled softly to his niece and the two exchanged a hug.

"It's nice to see you all, really. I've missed you all." Save Quina, Steiner, and Beatrix, she hadn't seen any of them in well over five years.

Garnet's grin faded and she frowned. "I know we haven't seen each other in quite awhile, but there are urgent matters that must be tended too." The Queen turned too a door. "Follow me, and we will begin."

As the group settled at the long table, Garnet at one end, Regent Cid and Lady Hilda at the other, the brown-haired Queen began.

Before starting, Garnet cleared her throat. "I'm presuming that you're all here because of the strange occurrences that have taken place over the last two months. I agree with you all, this, no doubt, is an urgent matter. It is important that whoever is doing this is stopped, indefinitely, and suffers the proper consequences for his or her actions." She frowned. "But unfortunately, we have no leads as of who has committed these heinous acts. The only thing in common with the victims, and there are countless fatalities I may add, is that whoever kills them leaves some sort of mark on them. Repeatedly it is an encircled five-pointed star, and on occasions it is the word 'End', accompanied by the star. In the past two months, every known town, city, and village on Gaia has experienced the same weird murders."

Freya nodded agreement and spoke her part, "It isn't safe. With someone who has such an evil agenda on the loose, we should not risk another one of these atrocious murders to take place. We should keep close watch on our communities; we should set a curfew, whatever it takes to keep the people of Gaia safe."

"I agree, but finding whoever is doing this, and catching them may be a great task." The Regent added, and Garnet then spoke.

"Agreed, but also, we must keep a close eye on even the smallest villages. Maybe there is a link, but we've just failed to see it. Currently, Rey and Beatrix are probably at Black Mage Village. Zidane sent them to bring the residents of the village back here, Black Mage Village is a small community, and cannot defend themselves as well as other larger cities and towns can."

With the murders worldwide, it wasn't safe to wonder about the slums alone, especially when you were an attractive young woman carrying Gil. Those were the exact words that came from Doctor Tot a few days before. And she took heed of this warning. She didn't want to become the next unfortunate person used for some sort of cult-like sacrifice. Evidently Doctor Tot was worried. With the blackout, even though it really didn't affect Treno, and these murders, he said something was not right. But she couldn't blame him; she wasn't exactly feeling safe either. Who knows when the next murder may occur?

Chris' house was pretty far from Doctor Tot's place, and it was a cold night. She had just come from Christina's house, she had stayed the night at Christina's, and unfortunately for her she didn't have a change of clothes, and was stuck walking in the middle of the chilly night in a skirt, knee high boots, and a jacket over a shirt. She was going to ask Doctor Tot to walk home with her, but he was not at home so she was forced to walk home alone.

After finally reaching her house, she dug into her jacket pocket for her key. Nothing but a few hundred Gil, which her parents had mailed to her a few days before, was in her left pocket. Shoving her hand into her right pocket, she was once again left disappointed. The key to her house most have been left at Christina's house, and that was a far walk from her own house. She was cold, and wasn't up for it by any means at all. Chris was the next place she could go, and his home was just about fifteen minutes down the road.

Deciding on it, she wrapped the jacket around herself tighter, crossed her arms over her chest tightly, and started toward the stone stairs. Just as she was walking from behind the small shop, three gruff men stepped in front of her. She attempted to shriek, but her scream was muffled by one of their hands.

"Shut up!" The one holding her mouth stripped her of her jacket, and kneeled over her stomach, pinning her to the ground. He handed the jacket to one of the others, and the two hundred Gil was taken. The man on top of her didn't remove his hand, but with his other started working to search for another pocket.

The others muttered something about her being wealthy; but the chatter was cut short when there was a thud as one of them fell to the ground. She couldn't see past her attacker, but was relieved of his weight as he stood up. The man spun around the second he got to his feet, but only to have someone's fist smash into his face. By this time, the other was attacking whoever was trying to help her, practically jumping onto the persons back, wrapping his arms around her helper's neck, trying to stop him.

Despite the thug's attempts, her rescuer overpowered the man, and threw him over his shoulder and onto the hard, stone ground. All at once the three scrambled to their feet and dashed off, her rescuer going quickly to her aid.

"Are you okay, Terra?" The person asked as he knelt down beside her.

The person sounds familiar…Matt? "Y-yes."

"Come on, I'll get you back to the house." Matt helped her up with one strong arm. "They hurt you?"

Terra shook her head casually. "I'm okay."

Matt nodded. "Alright, then let's get going. It's cold as hell out here."

The village was an absolute bloodbath. Black Mages and Genomes were strewn around here and there, large gaping bloody holes in most of their chests. The entire village actually reeked of death. Some of the homes were totally destroyed. But the two guards didn't have long to gawk at the scene before them. Almost as soon as they entered the small village, a sound near the Chocobo Hut, where Chocobo's were raised, had caught their attention.

Rey had broken into a panicked sweat as soon as they entered the gory village. His arms and legs felt as if they were rubber, his sword in his hand limply. Beatrix however, seemed totally immune too all of this. She seemed as if she was used to seeing scenes like these…and maybe she was. Rey gazed at her as they ran for the Chocobo Hut. For once, he was looking at her tightly fitted pants that hugged her thighs, but he was marveling at her courage, her ability to do her job.

BAM!

The explosion-type sound resembled something like the crack of thunder. The two stopped in their tracks, and saw a rather tall, but skinny man holding a long cylindrical object. The object was black, besides a grayish-colored thing near the end of the object. He was holding it by a handle, his index finger on a small lever.

Rey quickly realized that the man was holding two of the objects. Weapons? They couldn't be swords. Staffs? It took Rey a moment to realize that there was five black mages quivering in front of the man, another one lay dead behind the five.

BAM!

Simultaneous with the loud noise, a black mage fell backwards, red ribbons of blood spewing from his chest. Rey and Beatrix ran, the man was about ten yards in front of them. Beatrix had her sword, Save the Queen, ready to strike the man, her thoughts trained on killing him-

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

The remaining Black Mages fell to the ground, twitching twice before halting movement. This stopped Rey and Beatrix in their tracks. They were absolutely stunned by what they'd seen. The source of the noise came from the two cylinder-shaped objects, what killed the Black Mages, they didn't know. The man hadn't moved. There was no signs of magic, only the cylinder-shaped objects that bounced in the black-attired mans' hands each time there was the thunder-sound.

As the two entered the house, he ushered her to the couch in front of the fireplace, a fire burned there brightly. "Are you sure your okay?" Matt turned from Terra and yelled for Chris, then redirected his attention back to the young girl.

She nodded. "I'm fine, really."

As Chris entered the room, Matt explained what had happened and said he was going to the store to get her some water and a bandage, because she had an abrasion on her left arm. Matt left the house, closing the door behind him silently.

Chris ran a hand through his hair and sat next to Terra.

"Chris, I'm cold." She shivered slightly, and he noted that goose bumps covered her legs. The brown-haired teen nodded, and got up to find her a blanket.

Terra brushed the silver strand of hair from her face and pulled her legs up onto the couch, hugging her knees close to her chest. The emerald-eyed girl watched the fire burn in the fireplace, the crackling of the flames somewhat soothing. She hugged her legs closer and buried her face into them.

Since the small shop down the street was closed, Matt was forced to walk a longer distance to a store. He felt pity for the young girl Terra; she seemed nice enough, what had she done to deserve almost being mugged, or maybe worse? He shook his thoughts as he walked down through the cold, dark streets of Treno. It had been ten minutes since he left home, and he was sure Chris could take care of Terra. Though Chris was quite the clown, and seemed almost dim-witted, he was actually a smart person who could be serious, and good thinker, given the right situation.

"Hey, hero."

Matt spun around, facing the trio of muggers. Each was standing side-by-side, their faces covered by the cowl of the hooded cloaks they wore, and a bandanna tied around their mouths. He looked them over carefully and evidently they were mad, and each carried a short blade.

"You shouldn't have interfered back there." One of them said, closing the distance between himself and Matt.

"What was she your girlfriend? A bit of a age difference isn't there?" Another said, following his comrades' movements.

"You should have let us do our business with the girl, and you'd still be living by tomorrow." The last spoke as he too followed the other two.

A small smirk formed upon Matt's face. "Run now, and you may still be living in ten minutes."

They all cackled at this, and suddenly one jumped at him, swinging his sword arrantly. Matt ducked, and the blade slipped past him, as he came up a solid fast dug into the abdomen of the man and he doubled over, falling to his knees and using his arms to press against the ground, creating something to hold him up. Matt, taking this opportunity, delivered a kick to the elbow of the thug. The crack of bone satisfied him, he turned to the others and smirked.

One of the thugs hesitated, but the other urged him on and the man approached Matt a bit more carefully then the other had, taking slow steps, and keeping his eyes fixed on Matt's form. He stopped, within two arm lengths, not moving, but watching Matt as if he was watching his every action. Matt took a quick fake step forward, and the mugger jumped back. The thug shook his head and gripped his sword tighter. In a sudden burst of courage he sprinted forward, taking a slice at Matt's mid section.

Matt jumped backwards, but the man didn't give him time to think of his next move and swung the sword back toward Matt who ducked, and using the same tactics as before, delivered a blow to the mans abdomen. Before he could finish the thug, the last one was dashing forward, hacking madly. First he side stepped to avoid being cut vertically, then he jumped backwards to avoid a horizontal slash, then he ducked to avoid loosing his head, and the onslaught continued. He sprung up, like a frog, avoiding a low slash. As the man brought his sword up for another slash, Matt could do nothing but stumble backwards, and instantly the man was on top of him, one hand gripping Matt's neck, the other pointing the tip of the blade at his forehead.

"This is it, Hero. Was she really worth-"

BAM!

The man's eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped. The unfamiliar roar that erupted from Matt's hand sent pain through the thugs' abdomen. His grip on the sword loosened, and it clattered to the ground, and the thug fell backwards, blood oozing from a wound in the man's abdomen.

Matt jumped up, shoving a cylindrical object into his pants pocket as he did so. The other two thugs had fled, and the last lie on the cobblestone street with blood oozing from his wound, his life slowly slipping away. Matt swallowed hard, and glanced around. "Shit!"

There was a sudden burst of light behind him, in which he immediately turned too. Blazing upon a wall was an encircled five-pointed star. It burned fiercely, red flames rising off the mark, lighting the entire street. He had heard of this five-pointed star, in fact, just a few days ago a grizzly murder occurred, in which a five-pointed star was left charred upon a stone wall, and on the forehead of a old woman. And maliciously, the five-pointed star reminded him vividly of his past…

Gritting his teeth he turned around quickly, and the thug was gone. Not a sign that he was even there was left behind. "You're following me." Matt mumbled, to nobody in particular.

Oh…oh yes I am, Matt. I must keep a close eye on a traitor like you…you could be a problem… A genderless voice slipped through his mind, sending chills down his spine.

Matt crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. "Whatever."

Watch your attitude, boy.

Matt started into a slow run, pushing away the genderless, demonic voice as he made his way down the street. Surely, a lot of nosey people would come to see what the noise was, and he didn't want to be around when they started asking questions.

A/N: Woo! Chapter 2 is done. It wasn't as long as the first one, so I apologize for that, I hope you guys didn't mind. Umm, yeah you can probably start making tiny little guesses as to what the plot will be like.

But anyways, PLEASE REVIEW. I don't want all of this work to be for nothing, and if I don't get reviews, I'm going to stop the story, no sense in wasting my time, you know?

ecaeP (Hint: Look at it backwards. P )