Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since I updated, but here's the next chapter. I tried to focus on the plotline in the past a bit this chapter, since that's been back seated a bit lately, but there is plenty set in the present. Things go very weird this chapter, but I hope it works out okay for most people. If not, be sure to let me know!

If not by review, then check out my profile for the new forum link. I've decided it's good for discussing any FFXI story, FFXI story aspects, or FFXI writing questions, although if you want to make me feel special by discussing FFXI Chronicles story points, feel more than free, either speculating on the plot or making suggestions. I hope everybody will feel at ease to post there, rather than just the few reviewers I have, although I really don't know how many people are reading this story. At least, you can post about the bizarreness of this chapter there, since things get very strange at the end! I hope the forum does get some use, although I'm not sure if it will.

Anyway, I hope I'm not missing anything. It's been ages since I updated the main plotline, so it's possible I've forgotten something I was going to mention, but here it is anyway. Hope you enjoy!

Also, as an edit, earlier this chapter was glitchy, stuck fully underlined, because I tried to post the link to the forums. Sadly, won't let me, so I'm afraid you'll just have to access it through my profile, but please do, if enough people post, it can become something very worthwhile!

CHAPTER X

FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT YEARS EARLIER

"Oh. You are back." Arcadia said, sounding quite decisively unimpressed as she looked over Aura. "Brought a friend too?"

"Silence." Leanne ordered, opening Arcadia's cell. "Come with us." Arcadia sighed.

"Of course." She muttered.

The three walked through the dungeon, Arcadia staying forcibly focused as to not appear unnerved by her surroundings. Aura began to talk.

"You know, there's an old legend, Arcadia." She stated. "A legend that happens to be true. The dark god Prometheus, long ago, angered by Altana's glorious creations, created his own blight upon Vana'diel. His own way to fight back against Altana."

"The beastmen." Arcadia said simply. "I know the legends."

"No, you don't." Aura replied with a smile. "The beastmen were but one of Prometheus's weapons. He wanted something more personal. Something to infect Altana's creations from inside and twist them into evil monsters."

"The curse of lycanthropy." Leanne put in. "The curse of the werewolves." Arcadia let her eyebrow raise.
"The werewolves were a creation of Prometheus?" She asked.

"Yes. Designed to bring about the fall of Altana's beings." Aura told her. "But, as things happened, Altana found a way to fight back. She fought back the only way she knew how."

"With compassion." Leanne said bitterly.

"She turned one of the werewolves against his number. He rebelled and foiled their plot." Aura explained.

"Plot?" Arcadia questioned.

"Aura has skipped an important fact." Leanne answered. "Prometheus created two items. An altar and an orb. When the two were combined, a member of any race could touch it and that race would be utterly obliterated." Arcadia's eyes went wide. She couldn't believe there was an item of such power.

"That is impossible." She managed to stammer. "It has to be!"

"It is not." Leanne smiled. "Yet the werewolves couldn't put it to use. Altana again interfered. She twisted her own werewolf to fight back. She twisted the altar so that it would obliterate the entire race except for the person touching it. She planned to have the werewolf she had twisted to touch it, and obliterate Prometheus's wolves from existence."

"It nearly worked too. Except, as Leanne said, this werewolf felt compassion." Aura told Arcadia.

"He felt he didn't have the right to kill a race. So the werewolves survived." Leanne added in. "Quickly, the werewolves became divided, between tribes loyal to Prometheus and tribes loyal to Altana."

"Good and evil." Arcadia noted.

"We are not evil, Lady Arcadia, we are simply fulfilling our purpose." Leanne stated angrily.

"We?" Arcadia questioned. "Oh Altana, you are the werewolves!"

"Clever girl." Leanne sighed sarcastically. "The temple knights wiped out the last of Altana's wolves, but not Prometheus's."

"Not all of them." Arcadia smiled.

"No. Not all." Leanne grumbled. "You see, it was prophesised by Altana that if the werewolves ever attempted to use the altar, her warrior would return and destroy us. After years of searching, we have recovered the altar, but there is a problem."

"Olose." Arcadia laughed. "You think he's Altana's warrior. The one to defeat you."

"We have still not located the orb, but it would spell our own doom if we did so while Olose was present." Leanne explained. "The legends name Altana's warrior the Two Bladed Wolf. If that is Olose, he is the greatest threat to our organisation in the whole of Vana'diel. I'm sure you know Olose's preferred fighting style."

"Two swords." Arcadia replied, almost amused by Leanne's fear.

"He shall die, be assured!" Leanne snapped. "And then Aura here will help us wipe every hume from existence."
"You see, they need somebody to touch the altar. When I do, every hume will die but me. I shall be the last, the most special, the last flawless human in the world!" Aura grinned. Arcadia eyed her angrily.

"You would wipe out your own race to appease your vanity? You sicken me!" She spat. Aura slapped Arcadia, hard.

"Do not speak to me that way!" She yelled angrily. Leanne smirked.

"Calm, Aura. Soon Arcadia and all humes will be dead, then I shall find pawns of the other races to do the same for me." Aura did not seem to notice she was being referred to as a 'pawn' by Leanne. "I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson, Lady Arcadia, I always enjoy knowing my prisoners must squirm in horror at what we are planning to do before their death." Arcadia looked up slowly, her cheek red.

"Aura, you seem to know a lot about jewellery." She stated oddly. "Tell me, what is this hairpin made out of?" She removed it slowly.

"Silver?" Aura answered, confused. Leanne's eyes went wide as Arcadia stabbed it into her shoulder. Leanne yelped as steam hissed from her wound. Arcadia spun around and slapped Aura, who was unprepared and unable to handle the pain. She threw Aura to the ground with all the strength she had and ran as fast as she could, Leanne screaming in rage behind her.

An ironic point is that just at that moment Olose Sampson was thinking about how lucky it was he had finally allowed Arcadia to wear silver jewellery again. For a very long time, he had been worried about her with silver; after all, accidents do happen. But lately, he had become more relaxed, knowing that nothing bad could happen. Now he knew werewolves were back in the world, and with sinister motivations, he was glad. At least she had some form of weapon against them, if they came for her. He tapped the linkshell he was holding. No reply. It was possible he was too late.

"What's wrong, sir?" Phabrizoe asked curiously.

"I think they've got Arcadia." Olose replied bluntly. "We escaped them here, but there's no telling how far those tunnels run for. I think they've got her and are hiding her somewhere."

"You checked the news linkshell, Cap'n?" Trevia questioned. Olose shook his head. "There was a fire from a manor in Tavnazia. I'd put money on it that that's your home."

"I thought you weren't a gambling woman?" Jeren inquired.

"It's not gambling. I'm certain." Trevia replied. Olose sighed.

"Then that's it. They've got her." He grumbled. "Meaning there's only one course of action."

"We get her back?" Trevia grinned.

"Oh. I wanted some lunch." Suse moaned as a smile spread across Olose's face.

A massive beast leapt onto the roof of the dungeon corridor, scurried along it and grabbed Arcadia as she fled moving so fast she had barely been able to watch it.

"Nice try!" Leanne growled in werewolf form. "You're far feistier than I had predicted. No matter. Time to being the next phase of my little plan. Olose's escape didn't surprise me. If he was the one we feared he was, we would never stop him so easily." Leanne let herself smile. "But all heroes have a weakness." Arcadia fumbled for the linkpearl hanging from a bracelet on her wrist to warn Olose, and Leanne's mile grew wider. "I'll be taking that, thank you." She growled, still in her beast form, snapping the pearl from Arcadia's wrist.

Olose suddenly felt the linkshell he was holding vibrate.

"It's her!" He cried in surprise

"No, it isn't." Trevia warned

"Then let's have a chat with the wolves, shall we?" Olose stated fiercely as he realised it wasn't Arcadia contacting him. Olose willed the pearl to answer, and suddenly heard Leanne's wolf-like voice.

"I will speak only to Olose Sampson." Came the first order.

"Oh, will you now?" Olose bitterly replied. "Hello!"

"We have your associate." Leanne roared. "You will surrender or she will die!" Olose paused for a moment, deep in thought. He turned to his crew, who eyed him with anticipation. It was a no win scenario. Surely he must surrender?

"No." He stated suddenly, a look of solid determination upon his face.

"What?" Leanne almost whispered.

"I said no." Olose said with a mixture of anger and eerie calm.

"What do you mean, no?" Leanne asked, baffled.

"It means no!" Olose began to formulate a plan in his head. "Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to stop you. I'm going to rescue my wife from the middle of a werewolf fortress, and then I'm going to save the world, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking werewolf out of existence!"

"Except yourself." Suse put in, to totally ruin the drama. Olose sighed.

"Yes, I think that's a given, Suse." He grumbled.

"But you have no weapons that can harm us, no defences that can stop us, no plan." Leanne said to him, completely lost, but more than a little on edge.

"Yeah, and doesn't that just scare you to death?" Olose grinned, before smashing the linkshell into the ground, cutting off all communication.

Leanne blinked, and turned to a shocked looking Aura, who had just caught up with them, exhausted from running down the corridor. A smile began to edge across Arcadia's face, despite the fact she was helplessly held in the arms of the wolf.

"So, what now?" She asked. "He is not going to surrender."

"Kill her!" Aura yelled, angry from Arcadia's earlier escape.

"No." Leanne stated. "She is still our final bargaining chip. He will not let her die."
"But he's going to attack us!" Aura cried in despair. "What are we going to do?"

"He's just one man. We'll stop him, and kill him. He doesn't even know where we are." Leanne laughed.

Phabrizoe took a step towards Olose.

"That was a very dramatic speech sir, but we don't actually know where they are." The tarutaru pointed out. Olose froze.

"But we can find out." He decided. "Linkshells have magical signals right? Or else you wouldn't be able to talk to each other. A magical vortex capable of transmitting sound and thought. That's how we talk to each other, right?"

"Yes, that's the basic principle." Phabrizoe agreed. "Why?"

"Well, then can't we just widen the magical signal into a teleportation spell? Teleport ourselves directly to the source?" Olose asked.

"Two problems. Firstly, you smashed the linkshell." Phabrizoe pointed out, to which Olose allowed a guilty look to cross his face. "Secondly, it would take a being of supreme magical power, capable of almost godly magical skill to be powerful enough to do that."

"Well then, firstly, we get another one. Secondly, I know just the person." Olose grinned.

FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT YEARS LATER

"I'd forgotten how much I hate airship travel." Vivli sighed, feeling particularly shaky as the Raven III departed Bastok.

"Oh, calm down, we'll be at our location soon, and we can begin to sort out this mess." Zinkata pointed out.

"Oh great. Then what? Go back to our lives?" Vivli miserably sighed. Everybody suddenly fell silent.

"We pull this off, Viv." Bootus finally spoke up. "We'll be heroes again. We can go to whatever lives we like." Everybody looked at the galka, who seemed to have become gentle, and kind. "I'm sure they'll let you on the ballista cheerleading squad. Don't worry." He added with a grin and a loud laugh.

"Bootus!" Vivli screamed as the galka laughed uncontrollably. Cid, who had taken up his old job flying the airship, could be seen rolling his eyes. Vivli sighed and stomped below deck. Olose laughed and followed her.

He paused by the doorway, grinning, as Vivli sat down.

"He's right you know." Olose told her.

"Yeah, I know. We can go wherever we want and do whatever we want to do if we manage to stop this." Vivli sighed. "It just feels a bit hollow."

"No, I meant, you'd be a good cheerleader." Vivli shot Olose a look that could destroy armies, and he laughed. "What? It's a compliment. Cheerleaders have to be pretty, right?" She got up and sighed.

"I appreciate the effort, Olose, I'm just not in the mood to be cheered up." She whined.

"Oh come on, you were fine yesterday." Olose told her.

"Yeah, but then I got thinking." Vivli explained.
"About what?" Vivli suddenly blushed. She hadn't expected that.

"Urm. You." She admitted. Stupid Remmy, her mind added.

"What about me?" Olose asked, clearly excited at the prospect.

"How you've changed. Your face, I mean. All those years ago, yet it still seems odd. Picturing the same person under a different face." She said.

"What she means is, she wasn't sure if she still had feelings for you, but when she tried to explore that, she found them conflicting with her feelings for the old you." Remmy explained as she walked in.
"Remmy!" Vivli cried, blushing even brighter, but knowing now she was caught helplessly.

"What? It's true, isn't it?" Remmy smirked . "You're far too concerned about hiding your own emotions. Especially when the world is in danger. Don't you think you should be focused on other things?"

"Well, maybe." Vivli squeaked.

"So she's right?" Olose asked. "You still have feelings for me?"
"I think so." Vivli managed to say, blushing again. "I-I don't know! It's not the kind of thing I want to talk about. I-I haven't thought about it. Kind of. I-I feel something, but I dunno what it is. If it's just a memory. Desperation because I've lost Zin. Old memories of who you were. I dunno if I feel for you, or the old you, with the other face. I dunno." Vivli started speaking at such accelerated paces Olose thought she was going to tie her tongue in knots.

"Calm down Viv." He said gently, holding onto her shoulders. Remmy smirked as she watched. "I'm the same person. Different body. Different voice. But I've always been the same. You know that."

"Yeah, I know. It's just hard to think of you as the same person." Vivli told him. "I just…struggle….with it in my head. What am I doing? Talking to you about it like this? This is crazy! Remmy! This is your fault!" Vivli turned to see that the tarutaru had snuck away. "Oh, dammit!" Vivli stomped her foot, realizing she was left alone to face Olose. Remmy had forced her to admit her emotions.

"Oh, come on Viv, all I did was change. I didn't-" Olose's eyes suddenly went wide. He screamed in blind agony. Vivli looked at him in sudden shock.

"What?" She whispered.

"I said I didn't- floosh, aaaayag, errrrrl." Vivli ran to him in shock as Olose's face contorted in pain, the words that had previously made so much sense coming out as jargon.

"Are you alright?" Vivli asked, running and holding him in her arms. It was a stupid question, but she didn't know what else to say. Sudden orange electricity sparked up between them, and Vivli fell back with a scream. It began to lash around Olose with a roar. "What's that?" She cried in horror.

"Uh oh." Olose managed to say, looking like he was about to be sick. "Things are going a bit wrong. I-" His face suddenly contorted in pain again, and he doubled over. More orange electricity lashed around him. "Flore, flaar!" He cried out, his words again reduced to nonsense. He dropped down to his knees, the electricity now lashing him to the ground.

"I'll- I'll go get Remmy! She'll know what to do!" Vivli stammered, almost sobbing.

"No! Viv!" Olose managed to say. "Viv! I lovaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargib targin ritikin." His face contorted one final time, the lightning lashing him to the ground, the wood around him beginning to splinter, his body being hauled downwards towards the deck. The electricity began to form around him like a cocoon.

"Help!" Vivli screamed. "Quickly!" But it was already too late.

The cocoon collapsed in on itself, and Olose Sampson was gone.

The low hum of crackling electricity filled the ship floating upon the ocean. Leanne approached her prisoner. Olose hung in orange electric bonds, floating, in a state of forced unconscious.

"Wonderful thing, voodoo magic. If I find an object tied strongly enough to the victim, I can do, anything." She remarked. "That's right. Even capture you. You'd be surprised what I've learnt over the years. This ship. The Destiny. It was no coincidence. It was what we needed. Something tied so strongly to your early life it gave us total control over your body. And now you are our prisoner, captured for all of time, and nothing left on this planet can stop us!"