Final Fantasy IX:

Rise Of A New Evil

Chapter 3: Rise Of A New Evil


A/N: I don't even remember the last time I updated; about a month ago would be an accurate guess I'm willing to bet. I apologize for that, but since summer vacation has arrived, I should be able to update a lot more. I've just been busy lately, again, sorry. I hope this chapter makes up for it? Please forgive me. But I need reviews in order to keep going. No reviews, no story. So R&R!

Rey ran forward, thrusting his blade at the mysterious man. The black-attired man disappeared, the sword cutting through the air where he once stood. Rey spun around, sword ready. There was nothing to be seen. Beatrix was looking just as confused, both looked around frantically.

The stench of blood and death filled his nostrils. Who the hell was that guy? What the hell did he do to them? Damn it! Rey had only got a short-lived look at the man. He was tall, but skinny, yet still muscular. The man was dressed in loose-fitting black pants with three belts wrapped around each thigh, the belts held some sort of sheath to each thigh. He also wore black boots with three spikes, about four-inches long at the tip of each boots' toe. His upper attire was a black leathery jacket, unbuttoned, no shirt underneath. Each hand was covered with mid-forearm length gloves with metal plating on the forearms of the gloves and short, but very sharp and deadly points at the fingertips of the gloves. He also wore a mask that hid only his face, a strap held it to his head. Golden hair flared up from behind the dark colored mask.

Click. Click.

Rey and Beatrix both jumped at the noise. It was foreign. They both stood still for a moment but nothing happened. Everything was quiet.

Rey looked at Beatrix and gave a slight nod. "I think he's gone. Let's find the Mage."

"Vivi is dead…" A mysterious voice whispered. It wasn't distant; it was as if the owner of the voice was right next to them. The voice was so sudden, and so…demonic, that it made Rey jump.

"Dead? Who are you? How would you know?" Beatrix demanded.

"Because I killed him…" The voice responded, trailing off, a short-lived snicker following the trailing voice.

Beatrix spun around in hopes of finding the owner of the voice, but to no avail. "Where are you? Show yourself, coward!"

"On-the-contrary, Beatrix. It seems that the coward here, is the friend of the King…" The voice replied calmly.

Rey kicked the ground with his boot and held his short sword up. "Coward? I ain't no coward! Come over here and I'll make you eat those words!"

"Oh…I doubt that, Rey." The voice retorted.

"This is insane! How do you know our names?" Beatrix stomped a foot on the ground. "Who are you?"

"I am your downfall, and my master will be the downfall of Gaia. You've had time to prepare, I'm sure you've seen the five-pointed stars, the symbol of my master. None has taken heed to our warnings, and now you shall DIE!" Suddenly the black-attired man appeared in front of Beatrix, and he delivered a gut-wrenching blow to her stomach, causing her to double over and fall to the ground, her sword falling to the pebble road.

The masked assailant then swiftly turned around to face Rey, whom was already thrusting his sword forward at the man. The man brought up a single arm, and deflected the blade with the metal plating on the forearm of his glove like one would do with a sword. This caused Rey to stumble backwards, but he found his balance quickly. Just like his friend, Zidane, he was very agile and reflexive. Rey swung again at the man, this time a left to right vertical slash aimed at his abdomen, but the man back flipped. As soon as Rey's sword reached the pinnacle of the swing, the dark-attired man dashed forward, and leaped high enough into the air to deliver a bone-cracking knee to Rey's chest that sent both falling. Rey landed on his back, while the dark attired man performed a gravity-defying front flip and corkscrew in the air that landed him in a squatting position, back to Rey, and facing the just recovering Beatrix.

Even as Beatrix was raising her sword to dash forward and strike the mysterious man, she realized he was at his feet and running full speed toward her, but was running very low, as if still squatting. Beatrix cursed under her breath and quickly brought her sword up over her head. As he reached her, she brought the sword down with all her might, hoping to deliver the killing blow to the man. But despite her attempts, he put his metal-plated gauntlet-like gloves over his head in a X-shape. The sword pounded down on his forearms, but to no avail, and he sprung into the air, at the same time he uncrossed his arms quickly, causing the sword to be knocked from her grip. The man performed a front flip, and corkscrewed in the air, landing behind her, her back facing him. She didn't even have time to turn around, let alone regroup from his lightening-fast movements, when he struck her in the back with his pointed claw-like gloves. The claws ripped through the back of her shirt, shredding the material and creating four diagonal gashes from her right shoulder blade, down to past her lower back. The slash shredded her belt, and it fell to the ground, a brown bag containing Potions and Phoenix Downs falling to the ground with it.

Beatrix screamed in pain as the claws tore through her back, and lower. She stumbled forward, wrenching in pain. She had to keep going! No matter what the circumstances. Beatrix turned around, though unarmed she was going to fight to the end. Meeting her as she turned was the end of the mysterious cylinder-shaped things the man had killed the mages with. She hadn't even paid attention to them until now; they had been sheathed in the holsters on each of his thighs. What were they? The cylindrical object was hollow, only a black hole at the end-

"Oomph!" Beatrix was pushed away, just as a deafening noise exploded just beside her. There was a scream of pain, and she turned around, Rey was standing there clutching a bloody shoulder. Blood oozed through his fingers as he stood there, clutching desperately at the wound, his face was twisted in pain, and he was stumbling backwards.

The dark-attired man laughed and shook his head. "These are called 'guns'," He started as he grabbed the other from its holster. He held both in front of him, by their handles. "A lot more powerful then those petty swords you use. These particular 'Guns', are called Shotguns." The man tossed the 'Shotguns' into the air, the end of each barrel of the guns pointing into the air. He then caught them again, by some sort of connected object. He then jerked them up and down, both made a 'Chick, Chick' noise. "These are the pumps, and well, I just pumped them. After you pump them, you can…well…shoot." The man snickered, and aimed at Beatrix. "Time to die!"

Bam! Bam!

The thunder-like explosion that sounded from the end of the shotguns was warning enough for her to move. Beatrix dropped to her hands, in a push-up position, just barely missing certain death. The man was still pointing at her, a sinister grin upon his pale face. She could just see the evil burning in his eyes as he stared at her through two small eyeholes for the mask-BAM! BAM!

Beatrix rolled to the side, the ground exploding beside her, pebbles showered down onto her, and at that moment she realized a bullet had grazed her shoulder, ripping through her shirt, and leaving a small scratch on her shoulder-Chick, Chick.

Damn he's quick! Beatrix found herself rolling to dodge two more blasts, as she called them since there was nothing else she could relate them too, and she quickly jumped to her feet. The right side of her shirt collapsed, since the shoulder of the shirt had been shredded, exposing a feminine-shaped chest-plate underneath.

Meanwhile the man dodged weak attempts to stab him by Rey, it was his sword arm that had been damaged, leaving him in a pretty damn tight situation. The black-attired man taunted Rey, as he jumped forward, and backward, not allowing Rey an open shot at him.

The black attired-man snickered. "Your swordsmanship is very poor, give it up."

"Go to hell!" Rey shouted angrily.

The man snickered yet again. "I just came from there, why would I want to return so soon?"

Rey dashed forward, yelling out at the man as he thrust his sword forward and

"Missed!" The man hissed as he landed behind Rey after performing a quick flip and corkscrew. As Rey turned around he holstered the Shotguns, and ran forward, delivering a solid forearm to Rey's head, the metal plating braking skin and causing him to fall backwards, blood spilling from his forehead.

The man then turned around in time to dodge the tip of Beatrix's blade and she missed him and ran past him, and then un-holstered a shotgun, not needing to pump, and hardly having too aim at her, he fired it.

Beatrix screeched in pain as she fell to the ground, face-first. Pain surged up through her leg as she slowly turned around onto her back. She looked down at her right leg, and the pain seemed to double at the sight of the bloody hole in her right leg, just above her kneecap. It hurt…it hurt like hell. Beatrix grabbed her leg and sobbed silently, the pain was plainly unbearable.

The man laughed at the sight of the woman, the strongest on Gaia, holding her leg in severe pain. What a pity she has to die, she's quite the looker…maybe I'll let her live and turn her into my companion…Haha…Oh yes that would be great. But orders are-

The man fell forward, face-first, Rey was standing behind him, the butt-end of the swords' handle was bloody, as was the back of the mysterious-mans' head. "Bastard!" Rey yelled out, and he raised his sword with one arm, his other arm was completely useless, and he slammed the tip into--the ground? "He disappeared! He fucking disappeared!" Rey exclaimed. Only a dark mist-like shadow remained where the man had laid.

Beatrix forced the best grin she could. "Maybe you killed him. Thank Odin!"

Rey grinned. "Yeah! I guess I did!"

"DO YOU WANT TO BET ON THAT?" The voice of the man came from behind Rey, and as the blonde-haired male spun around, he met the fist of the masked-man. Before Rey could tumble backwards from the impact of the punch, the man grasped his throat and lift Rey into the air with one arm. The mans' eyes burned crimson and he applied more pressure.

Rey struggled to get a breath, but to no avail, the grip was just plainly too tight. He could feel his grip loosening on the sword, but refused to drop it, he put all his strength into holding the sword up, and then his vision blurred. Life slipping away from him…

"Hey! Look!" Beatrix yelled, though the dumbest trick in the book, she had to hope, she couldn't do much more.

"Hold on, baby!" The man yelled back. "Just let me finish off your friend and I'll tend to your needs!" The man said sarcastically. He squeezed harder.

Beatrix clenched her teeth. She couldn't let him die. "Look!" No response. "Hey! Hey! Look over here!" The man continued squeezing. "HEY!"

The man looked back over his shoulder. "Would you shut the hell up!" The man exclaimed. He would turn around again soon; there wasn't much she could do, he started to turn back toward Rey-and then the point of Rey's blade emerge from the man's back. And then just like before, the male disappeared, Rey falling to the ground, his sword clattering to the pebbles next to him.

Beatrix started to pull herself toward Rey whom was coughing violently. Once at his side she grabbed his hand and squeezed. "Are you okay?" Rey coughed. "Squeeze if yes." He squeezed.

Rey coughed again, and a faint grin appeared on his face. "N-nice work…Damn…my t-throat."

"Just rest, it's all over." Beatrix said as she stared at his wound.

"Over? Oh it's far from over!"

"Oh no!" Beatrix exclaimed as she turned around to see the Shotgun-wielding man standing just feet from them, a Shotgun aimed at both of them.

"Three in one village. What luck, right?" The man said sarcastically, a muttered laugh ensuing.

She really needed some new clothes to wear. It was already the third day wearing the same clothes. She never did that before. Let alone wear the same undergarments two days in a row, unless of course she cleaned them. Seeing as how she was wearing a skirt, she had to wear her undergarments.

Terra pushed a few wet locks of hair behind her ears, the same silver strand hanging down her face as always. Terra looked into the mirror hanging on the wall, and frowned. She hated that strand of hair! Sighing Terra retrieved a towel from a cabinet and-

Kaboom!

Terra spun away from the mirror and hurriedly wrapped herself in the towel. What the hell was that? Terra thought to herself as she ran to the nearest window. Pulling back the curtains, she hurriedly opened the window-and gasped. The town was under attack. There were countless black mushroom-shaped clouds floating into the night-sky, and there were figures walking about. They weren't Monsters; they were humans, though she couldn't see them in the darkness they were human-shaped.

Terra stared in horror as the mysterious people violently attacked the Treno civilians as they ran past. They were all armed with swords and clubs. She watched as one of them literally pounced on a civilian and began pounding it's wooden club against the person's skull relentlessly- and then the attacker looked at her.

Terra shut the window and pulled the curtains back. She took steps backwards, and then the window shattered. Terra screamed as she saw the assailant's head poke into the window…it wasn't human. Hell, she wasn't even sure it was alive. The things', face was decaying, skin missing in various places, shiny bones showing through missing portions of its face. It had fanged teeth, and coal black eyes that stared a hole in her. The thing made some sort of ghastly noise, and jumped out of the window. Only to have it's bloody, wooden club thrown into the window a split second afterwards.

Terra ducked quickly, the club grazed the top of her head and smashed into the far wall…and the only light source in the room, a lamp. Terra screamed again, hoping to Odin that Chris and Matt were on their ways…but what if they'd already been killed-The door flew open just as the creature jumped into the window again. Light, provided by the moon, was just enough to make out the form of Matt standing in front of her.

The creature growled and leapt forward, crashing into Matt and sending him to the ground. Matt clawed desperately at the things face, trying to get it to stop, all the while pieces of rotten flesh was getting in Matt's fingernails. His two thumbs finally found their place in the things eyes, and he pressed. He pressed hard. The thing growled in agony and leapt backwards, bloody rivulets running down it's pale and rotting face.

Meanwhile Terra used this time to gather the clothes she could find, most were strewn around the room. After getting what she could find in the little time provided, Terra dashed out of the room and straight into Chris' bedroom where she had slept. Terra dropped her towel onto the floor and fumbled through the small pile of clothes for her underwear. After finding them, she found it quite hard to put them on, given the circumstances. It was dark, and she was panicking.

After getting her legs into the undergarments, she struggled to get them up past her thighs; she hadn't had time to dry off. Terra tugged at the waist of the garments, they started to slide up her wet legs. Terra then put her loose-fitting tank-top on, and then her jacket, she hadn't found her bra. And the door opened. So scared Terra thrust any nearby object at whomever it was, the object turned out to be one of her boots.

"Ah! Damn! Terra it's me!" Chris rubbed his head and looked at her; seeing that she was in her undergarments he turned away, tossing the boot at her over his shoulder. "Hurry up!"

Terra complied and put the miniskirt on, and then laced up her heel-less leather boots. Terra then ran toward him and they both ran out of the room and headed downstairs, to see the couch and table flipped on their sides, Matt sitting behind a couch.

"Stay low!" Chris ordered as he and Terra crouched down and moved over to where Matt was seated behind a couch. Chris plopped down next to Matt, and was handed something. Something pretty small. It was a metal object, with a very long handle, and a very small lever on it. "Update?" Chris asked plainly.

Matt was busy fiddling with an object that resembled what Chris held. Something had fallen out of the bottom of the handle, equally as long as the handle. Matt retrieved an object that looked the same as what was ejected out of the bottom of the object and jammed it into the bottom of the handle. He then looked at Chris. "There's about thirty of them out there. It's loaded, I have four extra clips."

Chris nodded, and then frowned. "How does he know we're here?"

Terra was confused in all of this and she looked back and forth between the two. "Who? Who knows we're here?"

Matt ignored her question and replied to Chris' question. "He talked to me last night. He's been keeping tabs."

"Do you think Beta and Gamma are here?"

Matt shrugged. "Most likely at least one of them is here."

"Who?" Terra asked again.

Matt turned to Terra. "Terra, I'm sorry you've been dragged into all of this. But there's someone that doesn't like us, looking for us."

Terra cocked an eyebrow. "And that person sent all of these people to get you?"

Matt nodded. "Unbelievable, but necessary. Just stay down, Chris and me will hold them off. Terra nodded and then Matt jumped up into a crouching position. "Chris, I'll take the left window, you take the right. Terra, stay here. On three…One…two…Three!" And Matt jumped up, Chris following his actions and the two went to a window, immediately sitting under the windowsill.

Chris breathed heavily; he gripped the Gun in his hand. The past was supposed to be behind them. That's the reason they moved here. Hell, he wasn't even part of anything. It was Matt who betrayed them, not him. His life shouldn't be at risk right now! But of course, being an offspring, of him, and a brother of Matt, he was a threat. He squeezed the Gun; it was a vivid reminder of the life his brother used to live.

Rat-atat-atat!

Chris looked over at Matt, who was pointing his gun out the window and spraying any and everything with bullets. Chris took another breath and he too jumped up, and started firing out the window at random figures…this was nothing short of war.

The Kingdoms' walls had been breached a long time ago, and now the unknown forces were pouring into the town like a raging rapid, spreading destruction throughout the town like wildfire, and killing anyone in their way. The Queen looked down at the Kingdom below from her window high in the castle. A single tear rolled down her cheek. Her kingdom was being destroyed, ravaged by these unknown people. Already one fourth of Beatrix's army, now under control by Steiner since she was absent, had been wiped out. Whether or not any Pluto Knight's were still alive, was unknown.

The Queen gripped the collar of her flowing gown. She could easily summon Bahamut, or Alexander to wipe them out, but what if a few innocent lives were lost? Or the lives of the Soldiers trying to protect her kingdom?

A hand fell on her shoulder, a firm, strong, hand that reassured her. The hand of her Uncle, the Regent Cid of Lindblum. "Garnet, war happens, you must understand. I have sent for troops from Lindblum, but I do not know how long this will take."

Garnet turned to her Regent and grinned the best she could. She looked past him and at her allies, Eiko, Steiner, Freya, Fratley, everyone. They were all standing, with their weapons in their hands, ready to defend the queen and their friend. Their faces were reassuring, and made her feel safe. Only one thing was missing…Zidane. Garnet looked back out the window.

Please, Zidane, hurry.

The Genome couldn't believe his eyes. Treno was under attack. Why? Why Treno, of all places? Zidane rushed into the gates, only to be halted by a guard.

"Please, sir, Treno is under pressing circumstances, we cannot let you pass." The man said, holding a hand out to stop Zidane.

"Like hell you can't!" Zidane exclaimed, pulling his Ultima Weapon from his back, at his hips were a pair of twin daggers. Zidane walked past the man, and started down the stairs, into the once-peaceful city, now a war zone. The man didn't stop him.

Terra's in there, I have to get her out. Odin willing she's still alive. Zidane thought as he arrived at the path that lead to Doctor Tot's home. The stone path was littered with dead bodies; the Doctor's house was ablaze. Zidane frowned for a moment he stared at the burning building, but moved on; down into the nobles' section of the city, he had to find Terra.

As Zidane rushed past the entrance of the Card Palace, a voice halted him. The voice was smooth, and flat, and somehow sinister. Zidane spun around to face the owner of the voice, only to have that person rush forward, the shimmer of the persons' blade shining brightly just feet away from the King of Alexandria.

A/N: I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, as you see, the plot is forming. I'm sorry I had to wipe out Vivi and his kids –sobs-. Well, if you liked, or disliked, review! Flames welcome. So please review! And also, a question you may have been asking yourself at the Black Mage Village scene: is Mikoto dead? You'll just have to read on to find out. Next chapter already in the works! Well…in my head anyways.

Peace!