Chapter One
Burmecia, Center Street, Late Afternoon

Dark grey clouds covered the sky over the City of Eternal Rain, and seemed to continue to stretch for many miles to come; the storm would not be stopping any time soon, and perhaps would only get worse. The rain was already coming down harshly, as if it planned to plaster everyone to the ground. It rolled down the roofs of the Burmecian buildings, landing in great puddles on the ground. In the case of buildings that weren't quite repaired, it went straight inside, soaking the building inside and out, destroying valuables and ultimately making repairing the city quite an aggravating process. It was also threatening to take Freya straight off a roof and send her plummeting painfully to the ground, but she managed to keep her footing and not going sliding with the river of rain. It was a good thing, too, because Burmecians were working on fixing the very building she stood on, and she doubted they'd appreciate her landing on them.

"Thor..." Freya began, and immediately the Burmecian she was addressing gave her a glare. Freya only smiled knowingly; Thorley hated the name "Thor" to start off, but nearly everyone in the city called him that, and Freya was no exception. Second off, he despised being bothered when he was working, even if it was for something remotely important. Freya knew this as well, but it didn't make a difference to her; she knew Thor too much to be very polite. "Thor, I'm fairly sure this roof is sturdy. I have no idea what could make you think otherwise..."

"Mainly the fact that it was built quickly, with little regard for whether it would actually stand," Thorley replied coolly, clearly aggravated by the interruption. His grey-blue eyes flickered to give Freya an irritated glare, which quickly became more annoyed when Freya swooped from the roof and landed on the streets behind him. He whirled on her immediately, completely forgetting about his work; for someone who hated to be interrupted, he got distracted easily. "Impressive, the roof held, big deal. Are you going to do something useful sometime today? I didn't know we had days off."

"Calm down, Thor. I really have done my part today... You just happened to not notice," Freya replied smoothly, but Thorley's glare made it quite apparent that he didn't believe one word the Knight was saying. She refrained from sighing and made a broad gesture toward the Royal Gate, standing out in the gloom in the distance. Thorley only grimaced further, but before he could get out an impressive rant that Freya had already heard too many times, she spoke, "The nobles of the city lost a lot as well in the disaster, Thor. I was helping them out today; everyone has been too busy helping everyone out here to realize their problems. They made a lot of progress..."

Thorley simply snorted, but before he could reply, one of the workers beside him gave him an aggravated smack on the shoulder. Thorley sighed and, without another word toward the Dragon Knight before him, resumed working on fixing the wall of the house. His working companion gave Freya an apologetic look, but she smiled and shrugged it off; Thorley was being normal, and for her to get upset over it would be extremely silly. Though, he did have a point somewhat, though he probably didn't know it. Freya had already done plenty of work, but that didn't mean she should get in the way of everyone else. The Dragon Knight decided to make herself sparse, and thus stepped away from the building, tipped her drenched red hat back to get rid a great deal of water weighing down on her head, and swept into the street in hopes to find something helpful to do.

As she walked down the street, though, Freya found that she was out of luck when it came to work. Burmecia had gotten a surprisingly amount of help offers, and despite its massive amount of pride, the city could only accept. There simply weren't enough Burmecians to help rebuild the city; even after three years, they still hadn't found everyone, and the city was terribly underhanded. Some suspected that some former inhabitants had run from their duties to the city, while others merely kept to the weak hope that they were still lost and trying to head home. Whatever the reason for their absence, they were still gone, and it was a terrible blow to the city's workforce. Hence, they had accepted every offer of help that came to them, even from the city of Alexandria, which had caused a huge uproar of anger and mistrust. The King argued that the new Queen of Alexandria was not going to completely destroy them, though few believed the child -- for King Puck was only a child -- had any idea what he was talking about. Regardless of hurt feelings, though, the help from Lindblum, Alexandria, and a few other places had arrived.

And what masses it arrived in! One wouldn't think such help could be offered, considering that Lindblum and Alexandria had to rebuild as well. Surely they could not spare nearly as many workers that had come. Burmecia soon was packed full of humans, demis, and even a stray Cleyran or two from all over the continent, each of them ready and even eager to get to work. Rebuilding Burmecia went from seeming near impossible to something that, with a lot of work, could be accomplished. Three years later, that dream was slowly becoming a reality. A decent portion of houses had been completely repaired, having needed minimal repairs, and those houses that needed to be completely rebuilt were partially on their way to be habitable. The Royal Palace wasn't looking quite so dreary, an inn had been built to try and house the many helpers, and overall the city was starting to look less like a depressing dump and more like a place where people could actually live.

However, there was a slight problem with all the success. Despite the decreasing need for so many helpers, none of them wanted to leave. They were too excited about helping the city rebuild, too into doing their work. Hence, they weren't going anywhere, and they also kept wanting to help. Not wanting to upset anyone, some Burmecians grudgingly gave up their spots. As a result, some Burmecians who really wanted to help simply couldn't, because no one needed them to assist due to all the out-of-city helpers. It was causing some frustration, a few arguments over those "not working", and ultimately some unneeded unrest. It was also, Freya though, rather silly; they should be appreciating the help, even if they wouldn't leave, and arguing about laziness coming from those who, honestly, couldn't rather and wouldn't work, was absolutely ridiculous. Then, she supposed that even during tragedy, some people just weren't exactly intelligent or kind. It caused her to sigh and shake her head, before pushing the thoughts aside, and focusing once more on the hopeless: finding work to do.

As her thoughts had told her, however, it was a hopeless attempt. The only way she could get back to work was to go back to the nobles, or what had once been the nobles of Burmecia. However, they had made it quite clear that Freya had done more than enough for them, that they were tired of working, that they would resume working tomorrow, and that was when Freya should come if she felt so obliged. She could try working elsewhere, but the out-of-city helpers didn't really like being pushed away from what they felt was their work, and Freya truly didn't feel like arguing with someone at that moment. Continuing to think as she walked through the city and once in a while waved to people greeting her, Freya at last came up with one place where she may be able to accomplish something: The Royal Palace. King Puck had demanded that no one try to repair it any further, and focus more on everything else, but Freya could think of no where else to go at that moment, besides home to slack off. Besides, Puck really would appreciate someone fixing up his home; he was pretty bad at feigning otherwise. Hence, a place to go in mind, Freya began to head toward the Royal Gate.

She didn't end up getting very far. In fact, she only got a few more feet forward before she heard a shout for her name. However, the tone was not pleasant, calm, and hopeful, like all the other calls. It was worried and relieved at the same time, with a hint of panic to it. From what Freya could tell, something had gone wrong, and the person was relieved to have found a Dragon Knight to talk to. Stopping in her tracks, Freya swiftly looked around, and quickly found the person who had called for her. It was a young female Burmecian, and she looked generally distressed. Her brown eyes were wide with obvious fear, her outfit crumpled and ruffled, and her white fur probably would've been standing on end if the rain wasn't flattening it down. Overall, Freya immediately knew that something was very wrong, and with a soft frown, she turned and met the woman halfway. The Burmecian tugged at her right arm, pointing off toward an alleyway.

"Lady Freya... Lady Freya, in the alleyway..." She was so stunned and horrified as to be barely able to speak. With how scared she was, Freya had a feeling she didn't want her to either. Frowning, she allowed the woman to lead her toward the alleyway, which Freya noted had no one near it. Normally people would be crowding the alleyways to repair the houses on either side, but this one was disturbingly abandoned. When they arrived at the alleyway, however, Freya found out why. She discovered why no one was around it, and why the female Burmecian was so terrified. She also wondered how no one could have seen this happening.

There was another female Burmecian lying in the alleyway. However, she was not doing nearly as well as anyone else; in fact, Freya could tell just by glancing at her that the Burmecian was quite dead. Judging by the general tidiness of the alleyway, she hadn't done a lot of struggling to stop it, either; Freya assumed she either was taken by complete surprise, or just so terrified that she couldn't think of anything to do. Pushing those thoughts aside, she focused more on the dead Burmecian's looks. It was gruesome, to put it simply; there was a deep, long cut in the woman's stomach, spewing blood and threatening to spew insides onto the cold ground. There was also a long cut across her eyes. She was lying in a large pool of her own blood, a horrified expression frozen in death upon her face. Staring down at the dead, Freya suddenly realized why the other woman was so near hysteria.

"Lilah..." It was only then that Freya remembered the hysterical woman's name, though why she remembered it at that time was something she couldn't explain. She looked over at the living Burmecian, who was staring at the dead body fearfully. "Lilah, could you please go find one of the other Dragon Knights? It doesn't matter whom... Thank you." Lilah seemed delighted by the opportunity to get away from the horrific sight, and thus she charged away, soon leaving Freya feeling spookily alone. Still no one had approached the alleyway, which seemed incredibly odd for her. The body had clearly been lying on the ground for a while, judging by the amount of blood already on the ground; why had no one noticed until now? It made no sense to Freya, whose brow furrowed with confusion while she carefully approached the body. She couldn't help but feel that something was incredibly off...

The snap of a crossbow caused her to fall down to the ground, and a bolt shot through the air, where her shoulder had been seconds before. The bolt clanged loudly against the nearby building, falling to make more noise on the ground. By then Freya had leapt to her feet, a Dragon Ability on the tip of her tongue. In a classic show of how peace made some people really lazy, she did not have her weapon with her; she would have to hope that her Abilities were not sore from a lack of use. Mentally cursing her laziness, Freya looked in the direction the bolt had come from, then quickly chanted out the Ability while holding out her hand. Within a few moments, a dragon suddenly burst from the air, swirling around the building in front of Freya. Rose petals swirling lazily with the dragon suddenly burst into flames, swiftly doused by the rain but still lasting long enough to cause damage. As smoke billowed from where the Ability had set off, Freya peaked to see if her opponent was still there; as she had expected, they had fled.

"Freya! What are you--" The familiar voice was cut off, and Freya heard a distinct whoomp come from behind her. Whirling around, she found a fellow Dragon Knight to be on his back, staring at the sky -- and thus getting a faceful of rain -- with deep surprise. Freya blinked, shocked, wondering what was wrong, and really wanting to know how Sir Fratley had ended up on his back on the ground. She watched as the Knight rose to his feet, brushing at her brown outfit and hair, then reached out his hand tentatively. To both of their surprise, his hand met with resistance, and it couldn't stretch out fully. Something was blocking his path. Blue eyes narrowing, Fratley looked toward Freya, obviously wanting an explanation.

Freya shrugged helplessly. "I didn't cast anything, I assure you; Lilah and I got through without trouble." She then paused, green eyes turning upward as she thought. "Though, there was a man here. I didn't get a good look at him; he was trying to hide on that roof. I used a Dragon Ability and I'm pretty sure he ran off. I'm positive we can blame him for all of this." Freya swept her arms about to encompass the dead body, the bolt lying on the ground, and the invisible spell preventing Fratley from getting through.

"Huh... Hang on. I think Rose probably has a Dispel scroll I can try using." With that, Fratley headed off, leaving Freya in the alley. Sighing, she looked around, trying to piece together what was happening. Apparently someone had cast a spell that, from what she could see, only allowed females through. It didn't explain why no one had seen the body and reported it, but it did explain, somewhat, why no one was in the alleyway. That person had then murdered someone, but instead of leaving so as not to get caught, they had left to try and shoot at others. It was a bizarre and distressing situation, and definitely not what the slowly recuperating city of Burmecia needed to deal with.

The distinct sound of a Dispel, well, spell at work brought her from her musings, and she watched as the spell hit the barrier with great force. Inside, Freya suddenly got a massive headache, and she quickly came to the realization that being inside a barrier that was being destroyed was an extremely bad idea. Before she could try and get out, though, the Dispel successfully shattered the barrier, and it felt like it had also blown up her head. Rather, Freya and the body both went backward, Freya at a considerably higher speed since she was standing up. The body slid sickeningly a few feet away; Freya hurtled ten feet and soon slammed into the ground. Fratley stared with horror and dashed over to Freya, who painfully rose to a sitting position, muttering something about a complete lack of caution. After glancing at Fratley, who looked incredibly guilty but for some reason didn't say anything, she decided to forget about the pain, and just be happy that the Dispel had actually worked.

Freya opened her mouth to say something, but a great deal of shouting and surprised calls stopped her cold. Suddenly, in the span of a few seconds, the alleyway was packed full of people. Many of them were workers, she noted, coming to work on the houses -- an odd thing, she thought, considering they hadn't come before. When they saw the body and two Knights on the ground, however, many of them began to panic, backing away in considerable fear. Some headed off, crying for help, while a few stepped in and began asking what had happened, what was going on, and if the Knights needed any help. A select few gave Freya and Fratley suspicious looks, obviously wondering what they were doing near a dead body, and one or two people began to nervously work on the buildings as if nothing was wrong at all. Startled by the sudden onslaught of people, Freya scrambled to her feet, then glanced over at Fratley. She jerked her head toward the Royal Gate, and immediately Fratley nodded before heading in a swift run toward the Gate; Freya hoped he had gotten the right message. Him out of the way, Freya turned toward the people.

"Everyone, calm down! The Knights are taking care of it!" Freya shouted reassuringly, making sure to not tell even the slightest lie. She made sure not to imply that everything was okay; that false hopes simply didn't work was one of many life's lessons she had learned in the past ten years. She was soon assaulted with questions, which caused her to call out, trying to answer everything at once. "No, I do not know who caused this, but I am certain they are no longer in the city. Lilah discovered the body; there was spell cast that appears to have prevented anyone but Burmecians to notice the body, and only female Burmecians could approach it. No, I don't know what this means. I'm certain none of you are in danger." So shut up already!

Slowly, as Freya continued to ask questions and try to keep all answers positive, the people began to calm down. A few of them slipped away from the alley, most likely unable to stand the sight that grimly greeted anyone who entered the way. Some brave and perhaps unfeeling individuals stayed to continue working on the house, while others stayed around attempting to be helpful, and asking if there was anything they could do to help. Freya tried her best to keep all of them busy; she had a few go to inform the Knights of what happened, another to try and find a detective of some sort, a particularly huge and strong fellow to make sure no one suspicious was around, and various other people to get supplies to clean everything up. Seven minutes later, though it seemed like eons later, Freya had managed to get a remote amount of order. Taking a deep breath, she leaned against a nearby building, rubbing her temples, in an attempt to catch a break and come to terms with what was going on.

"Freya! What the... Oh crap. Freya, what in hell happened?" Unfortunately for her, the most annoying Burmecian on Gaia had arrived, and she was never going to have a break again. Sighing, Freya looked to her right to see that Fratley had indeed successfully gotten her message, and a child around twelve-years-old, dressed in royal clothes that looked absolutely silly on him, was approaching. He looked generally annoyed, and seeing a dead body was obviously not helping King Puck's mood. Freya assumed he had been trying to have a break from being King -- judging by his constant threats of stepping down, being a King was something he particularly disliked -- when Fratley came to fetch him.

"I'm not sure. Lilah found the body a few minutes ago. When I approached it, someone shot at me with a crossbow. I chased them off with an Ability. Fratley tried to approach but a spell threw him back. He successfully dispelled it, which is when all these people suddenly showed up," Freya explained as quickly as she could, knowing that Puck absolutely hated to listen to long explanations. "I think the spell prevented anyone but Burmecians from seeing the body, and then allowed only females in."

"I've never heard of such a spell in my life, but I believe ya," Puck grumbled, shaking his head. "All right, so we have a weird-o killing a woman, then apparently trying to kill others in the process? And most likely decently skilled at some sort o' magic?" Freya nodded, causing Puck to lean against the building thoughtfully. When he really felt like it, the child could be impressively smart; unfortunately, he didn't feel like it very often. "See any particularly fascinating features? And where was he, anyway?"

"He looked like a normal assassin, to be truthful -- Wore dark clothing to blend in; I only noticed him because he was reloading his crossbow quickly, and the blur of movement was hard to miss... He was on the roof, settled a little low on that side so as to be hidden from this view." Freya motioned to the roof she had spotted the man on. Puck looked up at the roof thoughtfully then shook his head. Fratley simply said nothing, taking all this information in silently. None of them noticed that two more Burmecians, older and battle-hardened, were listening silently as well, exchanging knowing glances once in a while. One of them was a female with light grey fur, blond hair tinged with white from age, and deep violent eyes; the other was a male with unusually dark fur, brown hair showing no signs of age, and brilliant yet bizarre orange eyes.

"So basically we're dealing with a smart guy who apparently knows the city pretty well. Great. I was hopin' we'd get stuck with a dumbass." Puck sighed, then looked up and over at all the Burmecians present. He looked toward the two newcomers, acknowledged them with a nod, then looked at the group as a whole. Behind him, someone examined the body, while a few others prepared to take it away. He ignored them entirely, though Freya was positive he had seen them; he apparently figured they could do their job without his badgering. "I want all four of ya to meet me in two hours. We've plenty to try and figure out, and I trust your intelligence more than anyone else's." He swept his gaze about once more, then nodded. "See you then." With that, the King swept away, without a word toward the Burmecians examining the body.

The Burmecian who had especially looked over the body suddenly sighed, rolling his eyes. He looked toward the Knights, three -- Freya, Fratley, and the male newcomer -- of them giving him sympathetic smiles. He cleared his throat, then asked, "Should I just deliver the report to the King? Or would one of you like it?"

"Just give it to the King," the female newcomer said swiftly, shaking her head. "He wouldn't like it if it was passed on to him from one of us, no matter how much he apparently 'trusts our intelligence.'" Her voice was thick with sarcasm, and her male companion rolled his eyes as he heard her tone. She ignored him completely and looked over at Fratley and Freya. "Always something miserable happening, eh? See you later... Need to prepare myself for dealing with oh Wonderful Puck." She walked off, causing her companion to chuckle, shaking his head.

"She's so pleasant, isn't she?" he asked, to the groans and rolling of eyes of Freya and Fratley. "Yes, I thought so too. See you in a while." He nodded his head, then walked off, most likely to make sure his "pleasant" companion "prepared" herself properly. Freya and Fratley watched them go, a knowing look in their eyes; they both knew Lady Rose and Sir Aireff quite well, and for good reason. Hence, they knew that the two Knights were guaranteed to show up, and that Rose probably really was preparing herself for a delightful meeting with Puck; she and the child normally didn't get along very well. Aireff probably truly was making sure Rose wouldn't kill the King, as well. As for Puck... He was probably promising himself that he would step down from being King as soon as safely possible.

"You all right?" It wasn't until Fratley spoke that Freya realized he was looking at her with concern. She looked over at him, then gave him a weak smile and nodded. In truth, she was a little upset and maybe even slightly disturbed by what had happened, but after seeing so much death and destruction, she knew better than to let herself be completely horrified by it. Still, her general discomfort was quite clearly evident; that, or Fratley had become a mind reader and forgot to inform her.

"I'm fine... Let's go. I believe they can handle everything from here," Freya muttered softly, motioning to the Burmecians who were finally wrapping up the body. They nodded, smiling at Freya's trust, though it was obvious they didn't like one bit of what was going on, and really would've preferred Freya keeping an eye on them. They immediately began to work a little quicker when Freya announced her leave, probably so they wouldn't be vulnerable for long. The Knight noticed, but she didn't have any immediate worries at that point; she was certain she had chased the murderer off. As she and Fratley walked down the street, however, she was still disturbed. Someone had gotten into the city, with a weapon. They had killed a Burmecian successfully, without a fuss, then cast a powerful spell. And no one had noticed until now. It was a scary thing to think about...

Worse, Freya had no doubts that they would return. She could think of no reasons why they wouldn't. Swallowing, she looked around, thinking about how there were two more hours to go. She immediately wondered what could happen in two hours time... Then immediately shut off the thoughts. The answer to her question was clear:

Too many.

Especially with me in charge. -bwahahahaha- Anyway, yes, this is the revised Saving Freya. I just felt like rewriting it. Of course, it now has basically nothing to do with saving Freya, which explains the (crappy) title change. This is a test run, with revisions possible and very likely. I would appreciate any comments from anyone, and I hope to keep this thing well updated. Plot screwups, OoC problems, just weirdness, anything you can offer I will listen to! As a note to that, yes, I know Fratley turned into a mute in this chapter… He'll say more next time. And my description/history sucks, too. Oops.

I have many ideas for this story, and I hope it goes a lot more smoothly than its first (technically second, but for you guys it's the first) version! Also, remember: I haven't played the game in a loooong time. I can't remember what most of the spells looked like, and keeping characters IC is going to be a pain in the rump. I'll try my best! Thank you for reading, and have fun!

To end, amusing mistypes of the day!

"It wasn't until Fratley spook that Freya realized he was looking at her with concern."
"Oh rap."

This story is copyright to me. All aspects of Final Fantasy IX are copyright to Square-Enix.