Beware: STRONG SCENES OF VIOLENCE IN THIS CHAPTER. DO NOT READ ON IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF BLOOD AND GORE. RATED M.

What's going on…? Why's there blood on my sword?

There're bodies around me. Covered in blood.

I try to yell a word that I don't know what I'm trying to say. At a person I cannot see.

My heartbeat I can feel…every single one. The living throb of the heart I feel on a person beside me; I feel…her grasp on my hand.

I can't see her face even though I turn to face her. All I can see is red, a dark, ruby red; the liquid that I've seen all too often.

Voluminous robes I can see on her body though; at her chest pierced by a severe stab from a razor sharp blade. This…eerily seems to be someone I've seen recently. A person I have not known for long…although how can I be sure?

I feel cold snow under my feet. Soft and yielding; just like flesh when cut by a knife. It's spattered with crimson fluid.

I fell down, as though I had been struck down by something hard; and yet, I feel no pain. Is this real?

'You're lost,' the cold voice of Auron said, 'You're lost to the light,'

How am I?

I feel myself dragging my sword through the snow, unable to control my own movement. A split second later, I was exchanging blows with Auron, red liquid clouding my vision…this…is quickly becoming unnervingly hellish.

Enough. I've seen enough.

'Argh!' Reis screamed, whipping out a dagger from under her robes, panting heavily. Yuna woke up hastily in the bed next to her, looking with mixed curiosity and alarm at Reis' sudden movement and scream. Wiping cold sweat from her forehead, Reis stood up from the bed in Guadosalam; leaning weakly against a wall, she ran her fingers through her hair, and pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

Alright, this is reality. This hurts.

'Thank goodness,' Reis sighed, before slipping the dagger back under her robes and climbing back into the bed.

'About what, Reis?' Yuna asked, sitting on the edge of her mattress, 'You seemed distressed,'

'It…it's nothing,' Reis stuttered, realising the close resemblance of the dead woman in her dream, 'Just…a nightmare. Yes, just a nightmare,'

'Tell me about it. I might be able to see something in it,'

'You don't need to know about it,' Reis said, with some finality, wrapping herself up in the blankets, 'It's something I should keep to myself,'

'Just—'

'No,'

'Not even a--'

'No, Yuna,'

Pretending to be asleep, Reis wondered about the meaning of the dream. This was no ordinary vision; not one that was of no importance. The sword covered in blood…oddly resembled one of her own blades, though distorted in some indescribable way.

No. I mustn't think about the worst. I'll let that pass by, and hope that will never happen. The sword I saw in my dream was not mine, and the woman is not Yuna. And I'll hope that I wasn't seeing through my own vision.

Take a deep breath, Reis. Calm down.

What was that place where I saw my beloved once more? The far-plain or something like that…if I could see the dead from Ivalice, then…this world is somehow linked with mine. How…how…that is what I want to know. It's certainly not in the physical sense; I've never heard of a creature called 'Sin' until I've arrived on Spira's shores…

Or is it only through the dead? Do we share the same under- and over- world? Come to think of it…the book of the dead possessed four corners; one of those must correspond to the far-plain…if that is so, then the far-plain is a gateway into the afterlife; and if that's correct…I can rescue him, pull him out of there…

End his suffering. Yes.

That's what I'll do.

End his suffering.

It's what I've been trying to do.

Creeping out from under her bedcovers, Reis extricated her twin blades from underneath her bed, silently as to not wake up Yuna; it would have been disastrous if a 'guardian' of Yuna had been caught deserting her. Even though Reis had quit, many that see her still believe that she remains a faithful defender of the summoner.

Easy…easy…there. Door closed silently, and Yuna's still in her bed.

Walking down the dark streets of the Guado town, Reis wandered the winding and twisting underground paths of it, occasionally bumping into a dead end. Finally, she had found the Farplane's gateway; a circular wall of glowing pinkish light. Spotting a flash of light to her right, Reis instinctively swung one blade at it, finding a Guado rogue in the shadows, the tip of the sword at his throat.

'Don't make me use this on you, you low-down fool,' she spat, advancing on the Guado, who had now thrown down his knife and held up both hands, 'It's not worth spilling your blood with its holy edge,'

'Pardon, pardon, I did it out of sheer desperation; my family is poor, and I need--'

'Get to the point,' Reis said, almost silently.

'Alright, alright, it was Maester—aarrrggh!' the guado stuttered, cut short mid-sentence as his face melted away by some unknown force; only his skull was left behind, smouldering, whiffs of smoke rising gently from the grey bone.

A Maester sent an assassin to kill me. How nice. If they wanted to do that…why didn't they go for Yuna? Why me?

'Rest in peace, poor fool,' Reis muttered, in mixed pity and disgust, crystallising the corpse with a single touch of her hand. Turning towards the pink circle of the Farplane at the end of the tunnel, she sheathed one sword, holding the other in both hands at her side in caution.

I want to speak to Beowulf…but what's this on the ground? A sphere, like the one I saw Yuna peer into to see an image…I'll keep it for now, who knows what it may hold.

'Beowulf,' she said, embracing the ethereal image of her beloved in her arms, 'I need to talk to you,'

'The dead will not answer back,' a curt voice said behind her, cool and almost accusative.

'Lulu!' Reis yelped, whipping around on her heels, 'I didn't know you would be here,'

'You've better a good reason to leave Yuna unprotected in the inn,' she hissed, 'As a guardian-'

'You're wrong there, Lulu…I am no longer a guardian, you should already know that,' Reis interjected, 'I may go wherever I please myself,'

'You are correct there, except for one detail,' Lulu said, a hint of impatience running through her words, 'You have promised to Yuna that you will stay with her until we arrive at Macalania,'

I did promise that…

'I'm sorry,'

'Go apologise to Yuna for breaking your promise. Now. Go now,'

Running down the dark street, she leapt over the balcony and straight down in front of the inn.

Honour is my pledge.

Opening the door, she entered the room, where Yuna was sleeping peacefully in a bed, under covers; the dark room showed little of her.

Truth is my shield.

Taking a deep breath, she walked towards the sleeping figure; a dark shadow was moving in the corner, slightly illuminated by the wavering candle-light.

Protection is my oath.

Charging forward with a wild cry, Reis struck the dark figure with her fist; looking up, she snarled and slammed the body against the timber wall, pressing the person hard against the solid wood. She felt a flash of pain as a knife passed into her stomach, three or four times; staggering backwards, Reis plunged her right sword into the wall, missing her target in her hazy-visioned rage. Taking careful aim, she threw her left sword inches toward her fleeing opponent, the point penetrating his back and its momentum throwing the villain into the wall, suspended by the blade.

And I will keep these promises, to my death I will.

A Guado assassin was pinned against the wall, his head and limbs limp; in one hand he held a dagger with a sickly green fluid coating. Blood dripped gently onto the floor with a steady drip drip, out of the wound in his chest. Yuna blinked dazedly at first; finding a razor-sharp blade in front of her eyes, and a Guado corpse next to her, she let out a frightened scream; Reis quickly ran towards her and clapped a hand to Yuna's mouth.

Suppressing an agonised hiss, Reis quickly healed her wound with a quick Cure spell, sealing the bleeding ruptures in her flesh, as well as removing the poison.

'It's alright…but I'm sorry all the same. For leaving you alone. Had I not come back earlier from the far-plain, I would have failed my promise to you,' Reis said, wiping the tears leaking out of Yuna's eyes, 'Calm down, it's alright,'

No, it's not. I may have protected her, but a promise is a promise. I've broken my promise to stay with her until I arrive at Macalania temple.

'What…what's happened? Why's there a dead…Guado…on the wall, and your sword in his chest?' Yuna stammered, unable to calm down.

'I'm sorry,' Reis said expressionlessly, pulling the sword out of the dead corpse and crystallising it with a touch of her hand, 'I left you for a while, thinking that nothing will happen; I guess I was wrong. Well, at least you're safe,'

'…'

'I've made a promise, Yuna,' Reis continued, avoiding her gaze, staring at her feet, 'I've made a promise to you—that I would never leave until we have arrived at Macalania temple. It seems that I have broken that promise,'

'That is alright…'

'I went to the far-plain to see my beloved there,'

'We all want to do that, don't we? I don't blame you for trying to go there,'

'Well…I'm just explaining why I went away. Seeing that you're still safe, I think we should just forget about this,'

'Reis…there's something I'd like to ask you,' Yuna started, stopping the dragoner with her hand, 'You turned his body to a crystal with a touch of your hand. Is that…common where you came from? Like a sending?'

'Yes, and no,' Reis said, scratching her head, pondering for a correct answer, 'Our dead turn to crystals after some time—and we inherit their spirits by touching them. A sending…sends their souls to the afterlife, right? I don't really know if all our dead arrive at the afterlife; the only person I've been able to call up at the far-plain was Beowulf, my fiancé,'

'I see,' Yuna whispered softly, 'You claim that you arrive from a different world; our dead arrive at the Farplane as soon as we send them. However, one of your dead is at our Farplane; this can only mean that there is a certain link between our two worlds, right?'

That's what I've been thinking…if she can think so, then I must be right.

'Get some sleep, you need it,'

Tucking herself into the bed next to Yuna's bed, Reis tucked her two swords neatly under the hand-carved wooden wardrobe, curling up under the warm woolen bedcovers. Being a taller-than-average woman, she bumped her head quite hard on the headboard; rubbing the throbbing lump on her head, she curled up further, letting herself fall into the arms of peaceful slumber.

I hear rapid breathing.

It's very close…very close to me. There's whitish puffs of smoke coming from my breath.

I stare at my hands; they're covered in crimson bloodstains, dripping gently onto the soft white snow beneath.

I turn around; there are several dead people around me; there's a hand sticking over the edge of a crevasse, scratching futilely at the hard-packed icy edge. An ear-splitting scream later, the hand disappears, followed by a splash.

There's a person in voluminous robes in front of me; blood's all over the snow, the silken cloth tattered by some sharp instrument.

I kneel over the person, speaking some words I can't hear.

'It's all your fault, it's all your fault,' is all I hear from the person as I grasp her hands in mine; I feel tears trailing down my cheeks. Why am I crying for a person I don't even know?

I stagger forward, blinding pain coming from my back…


Stop it…I don't want to see any more of this…why is this happening to me?

'Reis?' Yuna shouted, sounding as though in panic, 'Reis!'

'What happened…?' Reis moaned, wiping cold sweat from her forehead.

'You were...forget about it, it's nothing…'

Another nightmare…just like the one I saw before. Is there something special about it?

'Reis,' Yuna said firmly, 'You need to tell me what's going on. This is nothing like you. Something is bothering you. Tell me about it,'

'…'

'Please, Reis,'

'I saw you in my dreams,' Reis said lamely, 'Covered in blood and fatally wounded by a sword,'

Taken aback by these words, Yuna bowed her head, pondering the meaning of this grim portent; if dreams were said to be a window to the future, then this would be a most unpleasant one indeed.

'I think we should go. Now,' Yuna said, 'We'll get to Macalania temple to seek out Maester Seymour. He should know what to do. Get the others together, we're leaving now,'

That's a good decision. I don't like this town, not one bit.

Creeping into the inn foyer, Reis watched over her shoulder for Yuna when the large body of Kimahri was thrown against the counter; blood was pouring from his head, staining the painted wooden table red. Shocked, Reis ran to Kimahri's still body, unaware of the deadly danger outside.

Thwick!

A steel dagger pierced her forearm, where she had held Kimahri in an attempt to revive the giant two-legged cat; the glaring face of a Guado, hunger for money highlighted in his glowing green eyes, straight in front of her nose; a fist slammed into her finely-chiseled features, causing copious amounts of blood to spill from her nose.

I WILL NOT SUFFER FOR FOOLS LIKE THIS ANY LONGER!

Drawing her swords with perhaps excessive force, Reis destroyed a pillar in the process; slashing wildly at the assassin, a razor-sharp guillotine buried itself in the staircase, missing its target neck by mere inches. Bringing the other down with equal rage, she cleaved the crouching assassin clean in two, blood pooling at the crumpled pile of flesh and bone. Freeing the sword enjambed in the staircase with a kick, she spat fire at the corpse, eradicating the bloody remains with holy flame.

Ignoring the escalating pain in her wounded arm, she turned to Kimahri; there were two daggers in his neck; feeling his chest, she was nearly certain that there had been some blunt instrument used to break his ribs to powder. Alarmed, Yuna ran out of the inn's back room, checking Kimahri for any signs of life. Shaking her head, she drew out his soul and sent it to the Farplane, a place to rest in turbulent times.

Isn't that we all want…to perish and die so we can rest forever in either the fires of hell or the glory of heaven. I myself am no different; I search for a way to find happiness in this world. If it were not for the wishes of my beloved, I would have slit my own throat by now. I've had many chances to die; and yet…I haven't. It's as though there's a divine protection over me.

'Let's get out of here, Yuna,' Reis said, biting back the growing rage and anger within herself as she snatched out the knife embedded in her flesh, 'Let's just get you out of here so that you can be safe,'

'But what about…' she protested,

'No time for it, let's go,'

'The other guardians,'

'They can look after themselves. Now let's go, before they get you too. Kimahri was probably taken as he was foolish,'

'Alright…'

Running out into the dark streets of the Guado town, Reis parried the hail of blows coming from two Guado bounty hunters out to murder her and Yuna; skillfully severing the hand of one, she quickly turned the tide of the fight, bashing the other's fist with her own, causing him to yell in pain as his bones were crushed by a dragoner's steel-hard knuckles, inherited from her dragon ancestors.

'I will not let you rest in peace; but rather, in pieces!' she yelled, severing their feet with a double sweep of her double swords, 'Fiends of hell, you uncivilised barbarians!'

'Reis, we can't afford to waste any time! Auron needs your help, up there!' Yuna yelled to the enraged dragoner; she had been mutilating the shredded corpses with abandon, shouting profanities with each earth-shattering blow she dealt.

'Right…' she hissed, spitting on the pile of chopped-up limbs, 'I've got to help Auron now,'

Roaring, she stunned the guardian and his three opponents in mid-parry; the guardian had been pushed nearly against the rock wall of the street, his own blade pushing against three Guado daggers. Sweeping her blades in two neat movements, Reis cleaved three heads with one, impaling the bodies with the other blade. Blood began to seep through her robes as she did this, staining the silvery cloth red.

Not uttering a single word, Reis stalked down the road, indiscriminately obliterating every Guado she met, ignoring the pleas of Yuna to stop; assassin or not, she was tired of them; their ploys and politics she did not want to know.

She wanted them all dead.

And she was the instrument to do so.

If dispatching them was her job, she will do it…

For Beowulf, or not for Beowulf…

The shine of natural light could be seen on the ascending side of the cavern; there were hundreds of bodies left behind, mutilated, in the wake of the dragoner's unstoppable wrath; she felt her blood boiling, and that was her only response.

To kill.

To destroy.

To annihilate.

'Have you noticed,' Auron muttered,

'What?' Reis snapped, felling a tree next to her with a furious thrust of her left sword; it fell with a thunderous crash, 'Is it another comment about me?'

'Yes, unfortunately. You're…becoming more like Sin every day that I meet you,'

'How so?' she snapped once more, vaporising the fallen timber with a Flare spell,

'Your destructive power is showing more and more…and your healing ones, though potent, are waning. Or have I not seen them enough?'

'I am only executing orders,' she said dismissively, 'I kill to protect Yuna. Nothing more. Nothing less,'

'Then what about the innocent Guado that you killed? The children and the women? The old Guado?' Auron shouted, 'You're nothing more than a heartless murderer!'

She laughed bitterly.

'And you're not one?' she mocked, 'You're not a heartless murderer, who kills these monsters that I have heard to be once human? Auron. We're the same. We kill. We destroy. Don't say that you're not one,'

'I am not one,' Auron said, 'I am not a murderer…for I kill at my discretion at whether I should kill or not. You, however, do so without any concern…'

'Shut it,' she hissed, her sword flashing up to Auron's neck in a fraction of a second, barely nicking his skin, 'I don't want to hear this rubbish any more,'

'It is a shame,' Auron said calmly still, parrying Reis' sword with his own katana, 'That such a great swordswoman should fall prey to the traps of darkness,'

'You say I have,' Reis spat, 'Prove it,'

'I will…now. En garde!'

Swinging his katana with all his might, Auron attempted to disarm the dragoner, who quickly spun and threw her weight to the side. Though lighter by far, Reis was able to ram her shoulder into the man's side; the spiked guards of her pauldron driven into his leather undergarment. Pushing him away, the dragoner sheathed one sword.

'It is not like me to be unfair, especially to one I know,' she sneered, smiling coldly, 'Though being fair does not constitute not having to exterminate you,'

'Exterminate? As though I am an animal? I think not,'

Using both hands on her sword, Reis hammered down against Auron's defending blade, while Yuna cried out her protests. Reis could see her opponent wearing down; now was her chance…

'Dead, you are now!' she screamed, letting go a kick to the man's shins; bringing down the shining sword, she buried it into the soft white sand of the riverbank, missing Auron as he rolled to avoid its needle-like tip. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Reis resumed a fighting stance, her two gleaming, golden blonde ponytails streaming in the strong breeze, defiant of their owner's wish to see clearly. Capitalising on this moment of disadvantage, Auron buried his katana into Reis' leg, causing her to crumple down onto the ground in pain.

'Not so quick,' he panted, 'Now I've got the advantage,'

Unsheathing her other sword, Reis began to whip them around madly in a whirlwind of destruction, as though an elephant in a busy marketplace. Backing away from the enraged female, Auron felt several searing gashes across his face, neck and chest; her blade had connected nearly a dozen times when he moved too slowly to avoid them. Stopping, Reis kicked down the guardian with her good leg; limping over the gasping man, she glared at his damaged face.

Quietly, she positioned her sword over the man's heaving chest, uttering the few soft words and softer notes of a vocal requiem she could at one time of her life sing; plunging the blade down, she sealed away the memories of her peaceful past for good.

Now is the time of wrath.

The age of destruction.

The aeon of obliteration.