"Gaah!" An Archadian scout gasped his last words as I impaled him from behind, letting his dying body fall to the ground.

"This is Abraham reporting in. We found another scout. They're making their move, Captain Basch. If we plan on surviving, it's time to get that damn Paling up." I spoke into my armband.

"So it is. Fall back, commander. We'll need all swords ready for the attack." His voice crackled through.

I turned toward the rest of my clan.

Coela, Relek, Sylvia, Phoeba, and the rest of the Circle of Umbra stood at attention.

"You heard em'. It's time. Now, we've all got our own specific jobs that need to be completed. Each of you will be assigned to a specific entrance or passage in the fortress. If any of us fail to protect that area, the chances of the operation succeeding are drastically reduced." I ordered, my voice rough and loud.

They nodded obediently.

"Relek, Sylvia, you two handle passages 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Coela, you will lead our forces at the gate. I'll protect the Paling. Phoeba…kill em' all." I assigned them their jobs. The Bangaa and the Viera looked at each other with a nod. Coela gave me a nod as well. Phoeba smiled in that innocent and youthful way.

"GO!" I yelled, and they scrambled off to take care of their charges.

As the bulk of the Dalmascan soldiers gathered at the main gate, Coela arrived with the twenty members of the Circle. Each one of them had been trained to physical perfection and were imbued with dark powers. Entire armies would tremble before their presence.

Relek and Sylvia were a fine combination; a powerful martial arts master with a green mage definitely were something to be feared.

Phoeba was death incarnate; nothing and nobody would or could kill her.

I climbed the steps of the main tower. The four priests had already begun their chanting. A golden shield was forming over the fortress, impenetrable to any attack their ships could use.

In the distance, only about twenty minutes away, I saw the Archadian army. Their numbers were more than triple the size of the Dalmascan forces, and their aerial fleet made ours look like paper airplanes.

I held out the Zodiac Spear and waited.

This would be a battle that history would remember for ages. It would decide whether Archadia would take another nation and therefore take another step closer to annihilating Rozzaria, their sworn enemy.

"Szu namis petriphilis minius…" I whispered the prayer, hoping whatever god existed up there would take mercy on us this night.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Abraham! Abraham!" I woke to Fang's screaming.

I jolted forward, and was shocked to see a disastrous turn of events.

We had crashed, the entire ship badly damaged.

Tweed was stumbling throughout the wreck, loudly cursing at every chance.

Fang and Vanille were around me, having tried to wake me up.

Four Eyes was holding a rifle and had stationed herself as the door.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Don't know. We were headed straight for Nalbina. Next thing I know, we're crashing into the Giza Plains." Tweed swore angrily, kicking a piece of rubble across the room.

"The ship's fine. The skystone's a little damaged, but the flight rings are intact. It'll take a few minutes for power to return to the primary source." Four Eyes sighed, her voice ragged and exasperated.

"Were we attacked?" I stood and stretched with some difficulty.

"No…it's like we were transported here, aimed right at the ground. Although, I've been hearing movement out there." As Tweed spoke, I noticed she was also hefting a rifle on her shoulder.

I looked out; my gaze only extended for about twenty meters, the rest shrouded in fog.

"We're about three miles from the nearest settlement, and seven miles from Rabanastre." Four Eyes calculated, fiddling with her armband hurriedly.

Just as the demolitions expert had said earlier, I could just barely hear faint movements and other sounds from beyond.

"Get the ship charged up. I've got a bad feeling about this." I told her and hopped out. A quick three-sixty turn told me that we appeared to be alone.

But I knew it wasn't true.

"Caius Ballad. Why has the Guardian of Death brought me here?" I allowed myself a short smile, and drew my swords. I turned instantly and blocked the giant greatsword he wielded.

I threw him back several feet with a push, and he landed gracefully.

"Y'know…I'm pretty sure you're supposed to show me some respect, Caius. As a Keeper of Suffering, I think you owe me allegiance." I greeted mockingly and sheathed my blades.

"As if…I owe your kind simply for the death of all life." His voice was short but silky, yet somehow strong and unyielding at the same time.

"What do you want? Why have you brought me here?" I asked nonchalantly, sliding a cigar out of my breast pocket.

"I understand you're looking for someone. Little kid, big sword…" He began as I lit the thick brown stick and slid it into my mouth.

"Now, where would you hear a thing like that?" I chuckled, taking a casual puff.

"One hears things." He answered mysteriously and I sighed, sending a ring of smoke towards him.

"We were headed to Nalbina. Kid I'm looking for is there." I relented.

He smiled in that strange way, menacing yet somewhat friendly and respectful, to me.

"He's actually about ten minutes away from here. Person you knocked out was just a lookalike. Dead as a dog in Nalbina Prison at this point. Lucky for you and him, eh?" He corrected with no small satisfaction.

"Good to know." I didn't trust Ballad as far as I could throw him, and that was quite a distance.

"I was just getting ready to have some fun with him, so I'd hurry up if you want to catch up." He hopped over the edge, disappearing into the mist with his last words.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously in his direction, taking another leisurely puff of my cigar.

"Caius Ballad…we will meet again…" I turned away to rejoin my comrades after a few moments of thought.

"Who were you talking to?" Tweed demanded as I walked in past her.

"Old friend, new enemy." I answered dismissively, and pulled my map of the Giza Plains out.

"According to Caius, we're close to Primo. I had it wrong, girls." I sighed, sitting down heavily.

"Where is he?" Four Eyes looked at me quizzically.

"About ten minutes from our coordinates assuming the bastard's telling the truth, and I'm pretty damn sure he is. Caius isn't a liar." I stretched out, taking another puff.

"So what do we do now?" Fang asked curiously.

"Fang, Vanille, and Four Eyes…you stay behind and get this bucket of bolts working again. Tweed and I will go." I answered confidently, standing and moving for the door again.

"Say what?!" The four exclaimed in unison.

"The ship needs at least two people to pilot, and a third for support. Four Eyes is nearly as good as Tweed, and is much better at working the power systems. Tweed's the best with a sniper rifle, and she's also the only one who knows how to operate her armband radar." I explained impatiently, and they shrugged at each other.

"C'mon!" I hopped out and waved at Tweed to follow.

She dropped her wrench with an irate sigh, slung her scoped rifle around her shoulder, and grabbed her shotgun before joining me.

"We'll be back within twenty minutes. If we don't show up by then, take off without us and use the radar." I called out to Fang, and she nodded.

"Never took you for a smoker." Tweed commented shortly, looking at my cigar.

"Keeps me focused. Wouldn't advise it for anyone else, though. Only good thing for it is keeping my human side in control." I explained.

"What do you mean "keeps your human side in control"?" She looked confused.

"For people, the stuff does what you'd normally expect. However, with me…it acts as a focus. My…not-so-nice side starts overshadowing my view on reality sometimes. The chemicals and the effects from the cigar clear the haze. But again, I'm not advocating drug use. I've seen many good men and women ruin their lives because of this shit." I clarified.

"Hand me one, will ya?" She asked quickly.

"Didn't take you for a smoker." I commented sarcastically, but tossed her one.

"Haven't had a good smoke for the last season. Christine hates it when I smoke. Messes up her "concentration and her experiments". Dalmascan cigars are cheap and about as useful as a pile of Saurian shit." She confessed irritably, setting it alight with a silver engraved lighter from her coat pocket.

I smiled, drawing my swords and continuing into the mists.

"About six minutes in, half a mile or so, we'll finally get to the end of this wretched fog. Some say it's because a monster inhabits these lands and creates this unnatural mist so nobody can find it." Tweed mentioned, typing furiously at her armband.

"What the hell are those things, anyway?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Oh, some piece of crap we picked up back at our original home. I think it was called…Garden. Galbana? Galibine? Galbadia? Something like that." She explained.

"Well, let's hope your maps are reliable. When the Mist infests this place, my maps are about as reliable as the Archadian postal service." I muttered, taking cautious looks around me.

Hopefully we wouldn't be too late to the point of missing him entirely; assuming Caius was telling the truth.