A/N: Sorry about the very long hiatus, folks. I've been very busy, and I know you've all been waiting for Chapter 2. Also, I may be making changes to a couple of the spell quotes (see Chapter 1) because some spells that exist in FFTA do the same things as some of the spells in FFT (ex. I'm using the "Wall" spell quote from FFT as the quote for "Barrier")

Eldena: darkknightshadow does not own Final Fantasy Tactics nor Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

Eustine: Or us, for that matter.

Me: Uh, yes I do. I made you.

Eustine: No you didn't. You took the names out of your FFTA file, which was made by the programmers at Square Enix, not you.

Me: But I'm making you famous to the whole world. So therefore, I own you.

Eustine: I'm already famous. All you need to do is pick up FFTA and continually recruit viera from missions until you get me.

Me: But you're only one out of at least 100 female names, plus you were the first viera in my party. So I own you.

Eustine: Either you don't own us, or I'll Last Breath you.

Me: Women… whatcha gonna do?

Chapter 2: Engage!

Well, this sucks. That dumb judge had to give away my presence. Didn't he realize that I'm new here? Didn't he know that I had absolutely no clue on how to fight with a sword, much less win an 8-on-1 match with these strange creatures?

"Ssswordmaster? I don't ssee no ssswordmaster!" Jona said while quickly turning about, trying to find Alexander's location. "You're lying!"

"Or maybe you're just an idiot who doesn't know the first thing about concealment," Eustine replied dryly.

"What are you talking about? I don't sssee him, so he'sss not there!"

"Are you just too arrogant to admit that I'm right and you're wrong? Or are you just plain dumb?"

"Thosse are fighting wordsss!" Jona yelled as he drew his purple knightsword and rushed towards Eustine.

"He's coming," Eldena said. As if it was a reply to her words, Alexander withdrew from his hiding place and ran perpendicular to Jona's charge. As the two met in front of the assassin, Alexander drew his sword and checked the bangaa's run with it's edge.

"I would stop, before you run right into my beautiful sword here. I wouldn't want it to be stained with your blood," Alexander said to the surprised bangaa, who took a small tumble after the sudden stop.

"Who the heck are you?" Jona replied as he regained his bearings.

"Me? I'm the Swordmaster."

Of course, I didn't know what I was saying at the time. Maybe I was trying to be brave. Maybe I was trying to impress the viera. But another thought haunted me. As I said those words, I felt another presence within me. It was like someone was speaking those words through me, like someone was controlling my actions…

"Swordmaster Alexander, are you ready to engage?" the judge asked him.

It was now or never. I turned toward the judge, viera to one side of me, this "Clan Borzoi" on the other.

"Bring it on." The Judge whistled, and the engagement started.

Alexander felt an air current on his left side. He turned to see Jona swinging the knightsword at his head with full force. Alexander did a quick back flip and dodged the strike. As he landed, he saw Eustine dash toward him with her katana out of the corner of his eye. He raised his sword and blocked the strike.

"Nice reflexes, for a newbie at engaging," she said to him as their swords locked.

"Thanks. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bangaa to take a small bit of revenge on." Alexander performed a sweep-kick on Eustine's legs, knocking her off-balance. He jumped onto her katana as she fell and used it as a springboard to leap higher in the air. He came down behind Jona with a hard downward strike, cutting a ribbon of skin off the back of the bangaa's head and making a gash in the back of his armor.

"Crud! I'm injured! Someone kill this guy!" Jona yelled as he ran away from Alexander to apply some first aid to himself. Joshua and Fio each notched an arrow to their bows and fired at Alexander. He managed to dodge the first one, but the second one hit him right in the chest and pierced a lung. (Robes don't provide a lot of defense, you know.)

Chelney rushed forward toward the injured Alexander.

"Prepare to die, sssucker. Thunder's wrath, unleash yourself through my blade! Bolt Sword!" Out of the blue, lightning struck the bangaa's knightsword. But instead of electrocuting him, the lighting enveloped itself around the blade, making it larger. Alexander, kneeling on the ground and coughing up blood, turned to his left to see Chelney in the air, poised to cut him in half with the lightning blade…

And then it happened. As I looked up and saw that lightning sword, time stopped. No, this wasn't some kind of near-death experience, everything froze! Then- blackness. I felt the presence again, only this time it was stronger, more real. I felt my sword pulsing faster and harder than ever before. Was it some kind of reaction to being close to death? Perhaps I was wrong before… And then I saw… them.

One was wearing brown plate armor. He was pretty old… I mean, he did have a white mustache, after all! He also wore a brown chain skirt, gray boots, and this weird brown helmet that seemed to cover the back of his head more than the front.. He carried around a red sword with him. The other… he sent chills down my spine. His red hat didn't cover much of all that blonde hair. He had a set of red armor on, bearing a moon crest. He looked like a normal human being, but his eyes… they were cold and held no mercy or feeling. He also held a sword, a blue one just like the bangaa who was going to attack me… As I stared at both of them, what looked like a red winged eyeball appeared in front of the old man.

"No… you gotta run… It's going to kill you…" I weakly muttered, but he paid no heed to my words. He pointed his sword at the eyeball and muttered a few words. Then, a black eye appeared out of the sky above the winged monster. It fired a few thin rays of light at the ground, and suddenly a large blood red sword rose up out of the ground and pierced the monster! The old man seemed to gain some strength from the attack as well. Then the guy in red threw his sword into the ground and chanted a spell. He picked up the sword and pointed it at the monster. Purple-tinted skulls came from every direction and converged on the monster. A black aura surrounded it, and suddenly a fountain of dark power erupted from the ground, obliterating the monster!

They looked at me. I heard a voice in my head saying, "Use our power well."

"Who are you?" I said weakly, trying to hold on to my strength.

"It doesn't matter. What you need to do right now is dodge that Bolt Sword attack." Then, everything returned to normal. It was the absolute strangest occurrence in my lifetime.

Alexander managed to roll out of the way of the Bolt Sword just before it was about to hit him. Chelney's sword lodged itself in the ground because of the sheer force of the attack.

"Double crud, I misssed," Chelney said to himself in frustration.

"I won't!" replied Joshua as he notched another arrow and aimed at Alexander. "Eat Concentrate, loser," he said as he let go of the bowstring. Alexander took the second arrow to his other lung.

"That's it," he thought to himself as the other arrow struck. "That's the end of me. I can feel it already. I'm getting weaker- weaker- weaker- stronger?" Alexander saw a white magical field surround him. It removed the arrows from his body and closed up his wounds, leaving him refreshed and ready to fight again.

"You can thank me later," Eldena said as she finished up her Cure spell. She drew her rapier and stabbed Jona, who was trying to escape from the conflict. Jona fell down unconscious. "Right now, we have four more people to deal with."

"K.O. verified. One judge point," the judge said as he threw a small white crystal at Eldena.

"Your death will be swift and silent as a shadow. Last Breath," Eustine said softly as she snuck up on Chelney from behind and clasped his throat with her right hand. He struggled for a few moments, then went limp. "Make that three," she said to Alexander as she dropped the bangaa's body on the ground. The judge awarded a point to her. "Now who's eating Concentrate?"

"OK, time to kick my performance up a notch," Alexander said to himself. "But how can I kill these archers? I can't rush them; they'll shoot me to pieces." Then he remembered…

"The technique! It's a gamble… but I'm willing to take it." Alexander spun the sword a few times in his hand, then pointed it at Joshua and yelled, "Master of all swords, cut energy! Night Sword!"

Nothing happened.

"Hehehe, what's the matter? Your sword not working for you today?" Joshua taunted him as he notched yet another arrow to his bow. "Unfortunately for you, my bow is. Mystic arrow, pierce with absolute accuracy! Take…aaahhh!" Out of nowhere, the dark eye appeared, and the blood-red sword arose from the ground and sliced Joshua up, killing him.

"Two judge points awarded- one for K.O, one for Target Area. Don't give me that look Eustine, you should know that the judicial branch has revised its laws on judge points," the judge said as Eustine looked at him, totally dumbfounded that the "newbie" just got two judge points.

"What are you?" Fio said as Alexander turned toward her. "Get away from me!" She launched a volley of arrows as he rushed toward her, but to no avail. Alexander dodged the arrows, got within striking range, and delivered a crushing downward slash to the archer. He sliced a main artery in her neck and killed her. Another judge point was awarded for the critical blow.

"Grr… kupo, I thought I would never have to use this…" Rob growled out of his tiny mouth. He held a white card in the air, which disappeared in a blue flash of light.

"New law in effect: Forbidden: Knightswords. Recommended: Color Magic," the judge droned.

"Wait a min- Knightswords and Color Magic never opposed each other!" Eldena yelled at the judge.

"Sorry, that's what his law card says," the judge replied. "Either obey or get sent to prison."

"Where's your sword attack now, Mr. Swordmaster, kupo?" Rob said to Alexander. "You've gotten lucky these first two times, but your luck has just run out! Swirling bolts, gather and strike with power! Thundara!"

"Hehehe… not entirely," Alexander replied with a smirk on his face. He threw his sword into the ground and started to chant a spell.

"Aurora, exhale bloody air! Dark Holy!" Alexander picked up his sword and pointed it at the tiny Black Mage. The skulls enveloped the moogle, just as they had done to the ahriman before. The resulting dark explosion ripped through Rob's body, rendering him quite dead. Although Rob managed to finish the spell, due to the Dark Holy attack it fizzled out because he did not have enough energy to sustain it. Alexander kneeled to the ground, exhausted after the outpouring of magical energy.

"I believe that is one judge point. Engagement over, right?" Alexander said to the dead body of the moogle mage.

"No," the judge replied

"Whaddya mean, no? I killed all of the enemies!"

"No, you haven't."

"Yes, I have."

"No, you haven't. You must be quite blind, which would be a mystery as to how you landed your attacks with such accuracy, but regardless, those two viera are quite alive."

"You mean I have to kill them too?"

"Yes."

"Can't I just forfeit?"

"You can."

"Then I do. I can never raise a sword to people I am indebted to."

Again, I didn't realize what I was saying.

"Engagement over. Here is your 8000 gil for winning today's engagement, ladies," the judge said as he handed a sack filled with money to Eustine.

"Well, that's over and done with. Man, it's nightfall already. What a day!" Alexander said as he stretched out after the furious fight. "Time to head to that- what was it- Delia Dunes?"

"Hey, kid."

"What?" Alexander said as he turned around and saw a bag almost hit his face. He caught the bag and looked inside it. There was the gil that the viera had won from the engagement.

"We don't need this money; our clan has over 1 million gil.

"One million? How did you get it all?"

"Stuff like this. Engagements with other clans, missions, etc. etc. This is nothing. Take it kid, you've earned it," Eustine said to him as she started to walk away.

"Wait!" he yelled after the assassin.

"What is it, kid?"

"First of all, stop calling me 'kid'. Second, do either of you know where Delia Dunes is?"

"Why do you wanna go to that wasteland, kid? Nothin' there but some antlions and barking sands."

"I told you to stop that…"

"Ease up, it's my way of showing you that I'm not going to Last Breath you within the next ten seconds. You gotta take things a little more light-hearted!"

"Wait, one minute you're cold and furious, the next you're light-hearted?"

"It's my charming personality."

"Right, and I'm a Judge."

"See? You're taking my advice already. But seriously, kid -and yes, I can be serious as well- if you want to head to Delia Dunes, you're gonna need a guide. Someone trustworthy, someone strong."

"Actually, I was hoping that you two would show me where the Dunes are. I'm sure I'll be able to take it from there."

"No way! We have our own errands to run. We ain't got time to escort some lost kid to a desert."

"Cyril is just across the dunes and Nubswood, isn't it Eustine?" Eldena said softly to the assassin. "It wouldn't be out of our way at all, and this one seems like a powerful ally. He could be useful if we run into more trouble."

"I doubt it, Eldena. Those sword skills that he used were pure chance. Powerful, yes, but lucky. You as well as I realize that."

"I can feel it in my heart, Eustine. This meeting of ours was no accident. His path and ours are intertwined."

"sigh Fine, he can come," Eustine replied dryly. She turned toward Alexander. "OK, kid, you're in. We'll take you, but only as far as the dunes. Then you're on your own."

"Agreed. Ah, we haven't been formally introduced, with the engagement and all. I'm Alexander," he said as he stuck out his right hand.

"Assassin Eustine. Nice to meetcha, kid," she said as she gave him a hearty handshake. "That over there's Eldena- a Red Mage." Then she started to walk away towards the treeline.

"Very pleased to meet you, Alexander. I have the feeling that this is the start of a beautiful partnership," she said with a smile.

Somehow I think that she knew more than she was saying. Did she know what was going on?

"Come on! We ain't got all day you slowpokes! We gotta break camp before it's too late!" Eustine yelled to the other two as she jumped into a nearby tree and disappeared into the forest.

"Spunky, isn't she?" Alexander said to Eldena.

"You get used to her," she replied, and with a chuckle, she followed after Eustine.

But it was ok. I had friends… real allies I could trust. You said that it was the beginning of a beautiful partnership, Eldena. How right you were.

A/N: So there you have it, Alexander pwns in battle and makes a couple of allies. What awaits them in the Delia Dunes? What do the two men in Alexander's vision have to do with him? And how is Mateus connected to all of this? Find out in Chapter 2: Delia... and Destiny!