Final Fantasy: Rise of Despair
Sorry for the wait, when I typed down my original idea for this chapter it didn't seem right, so I went back to the drawing board (or writing board I guess you would call it.) So without further ado…
When we last left off, the party got a brief moment's reprieve walking around the idealistic Baguba Port. Little did they suspect that Brently the joker had arrived as well. After meeting with Cid the second, and talking with Matt, they were dismayed at Matt's refusal to assist them. Matt's reasoning for not coming was only reinforced by Brently's theft of Cid's gold watch. Now General Mali has appeared and seems to be really to start her plans for Baguba's downfall.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance, I do own the characters and plot.
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Commence: Baguba's destruction
"Aw man… all of this paperwork is lame." Matt groaned as he read through the paperwork and signed anything that was necessary as Cid walked in with more stacks of paperwork.
"Don't forget you still have to fix that mistake on Marty's payroll and the donation to the law enforcement agency." Cid said.
"Man… how did this all pile up?" Matt whined.
"Uh… maybe you should have gotten half of this done yesterday since you had half of this yesterday." Cid pointed out.
"Ugh… being mayor and company president really is a strain." Matt whined. That's when someone knocked at the door. "Come in." Matt said. A nu mou employee walked in. "What is it Jake?"
"Matt sir, Marty hasn't shown up for work today." The nu mou said.
"Yes!" Cid shouted in glee.
"Along with several other employees. Hardly anyone has shown up for work today."
"What!?!" Both Cid and Matt gasped.
"And… there are a few people here to see you from town." Jake continued.
"Well send them in." Matt said.
"Are you sure?" Jake asked.
"Yes, send them all in." Matt said.
"All right." Jake left for a moment, and after a few minutes, a storm of people from town came in to the office, barely squeezing in to the door.
"Whoa!" Cid shouted as the crowd stampeded over him.
"Holy moly!" Matt declared.
"Mister Mayor, I want to file a missing person's report!"
"Mister Mayor! My wife went missing!"
"Mister Mayor, my neighbor is missing!"
"Mister Mayor!"
"Mister Mayor!"
"Mister Mayor!"
"Mister Mayor!"
"ONE AT A TIME!!!" Matt shouted. "Okay… first several employees haven't shown up and now all of these people are here to file a missing person's report? Ugh this couldn't get worse."
"Mister Mayor! I need to report a dead body." A bangaa said rather shakily.
"What!" Matt turned to the bangaa. "Show me." Matt said.
"It's at the gate." The bangaa said.
"Okay, everyone file whatever complaints you have to Cid over there." Matt said as he left.
"Wait! You can't leave me here!" Cid shouted as the large crowd of people clambered around him.
Meanwhile…
"Ah… what a morning." Monty sighed as he turned to the inn window.
"Indeed it is. I can't wait to see what else Baguba has to offer." Mendoza said.
"I think we could use some fresh air." Matt closed his eyes as if wanting to surprise himself, opened the window, and when he opened them…
"Monty."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Monty screamed and fell backwards.
"What?" Casey asked. He was sitting on the outer windowsill, and considering how small that is it was a bit hard to imagine.
"Master Casey! What are you doing here?" Mendoza asked.
"I ran in to Matt on the way here, he needs to ask us to do a favor." Casey told them.
"What?"
A few minutes later…
"Heidi-sama!" Mendoza shouted.
"Laura!" Monty shouted. The two burst down the door to Heidi and Laura's room, and a few minutes later were thrown out quite violently to where they left indentions of their bodies on the wall.
"Knock first you two!" Heidi shouted.
"Perverts!" Laura shouted. The door was promptly shut, and a few minutes later Heidi and Laura came out of the room with a very angry look in their eyes. "What… do you want?" Laura asked, restraining herself from killing those two.
"I would like to know what the ruckus this morning is as well." Harris said as he walked down the hall. Finally everyone came out of their rooms.
"Aaaaaahhhh… what a good nights sleep." Syack yawned.
"Speak for yourself." Gilbert said, notably tired.
"Master Casey came to us with a request." Monty explained.
"And that was?" Hunter asked.
"Master Matt asked him to ask us to help investigate a large number of missing persons." Mendoza told them.
"Hmmmm…" Harris thought a little bit after hearing this. "What is Matt doing?" Harris asked.
"Uh… he didn't say." Mendoza said.
"Alright then, I'm going to go find Matt." Harris said.
"Harris what about the rest of us?" Kyle asked.
"It would probably be wise to do as Casey said." Harris told them. "But do me one favor." Everyone turned to Harris. "Be on your guard." Harris told them. With that he disappeared down the hall.
"We should probably split in to groups then." Gilbert suggested.
"I'll take a search by myself." Heidi said. "You guys should divide up how you see fit."
Later…
"And you say you found him dead near the gate?" Matt asked the bangaa from earlier. They were in a doctor's office looking over the corpse of one of the moogle gatekeepers with blood coming from his head.
"Yes." The bangaa told him.
"Hmmmm…" Matt looked at the corpse further as a viera white mage walked in. "Where are your colleagues?"
"It's the weirdest thing, hardly anyone is here today, and unfortunately our only doctors that have been trained in surgery are among the ones not here." The viera told him.
"I see." Matt said.
"I can help with that." Everyone turned to the door to the room as Harris walked in.
"Oh, Harris was it? You can help with this?" Matt asked him.
"Yes, I am also a white mage and I am skilled enough with other medical treatments." Harris told him.
"Alright, think you could check out that wound?" Matt asked him.
"Of course." Harris told him as he rooted through the drawers and found a scalpel.
Meanwhile…
"Is there anyone else here who is not here to report a missing person?!" Cid shouted over the crowd. Everyone looked around, then turned to Cid and shook their heads. "Ugh…"
"Make way! We're here on business!" Gilbert shouted above the crowd with Monty and Mendoza following him. "Whew… Cid how have you been putting up with this?" Gilbert asked him.
"I haven't been." Cid moaned.
"Wait Mr. Cid!"
"Mr. Cid!"
"For the last time! Make one line!!!" Cid shouted. "Ugh give me a moment." Cid took the three in to Matt's office. "What do you two want?" Cid asked.
"We're here on Master Matt's request to help track down the missing persons." Gilbert said.
"Its not like I have any leads either, the only thing I can tell you about is the lack of people that showed up to work today." Cid told them.
"Maybe we should go to the employee's homes to see if we can find anything." Monty suggested.
"That actually isn't a half-bad idea." Gilbert said.
"Now we just need to get through the mob." Mendoza said.
"Here, take the bosses' secret elevator. He uses this whenever a salesman comes by." Cid sighed as he pulled a book out of the bookshelf that made the bookshelf move over to reveal a metal elevator.
"That's convenient." Gilbert commented.
Meanwhile…
"And I was just cleaning these hot springs with another worker when I heard him collapse where he stood." A human worker at the hot springs told Hunter and Laura. "I went to get help and when I came back he was gone." The guy told them.
"I see then." Hunter said. He looked at Laura, who hardly seemed to be paying attention. "I swear, have you heard a word that he said?" He asked.
"Yeah yeah weakling, I don't need you keeping tabs." Laura said.
"Gah! Why did I get stuck with you?" Hunter asked.
"Kyle felt he could cover more ground on his own and Syack had already picked Adam, and that weak trio already went off together." Laura said.
"Ugh… fine let's go investigate the springs to see if we can find anything…" Hunter growled.
"Hold on weakling, this is the women's area, you can't go in." Laura said as she left him behind.
"I am not weak!" Hunter shouted. Everyone that was around him turned and stared at him. "Uh… this is awkward…"
Meanwhile…
"Augh… it's so loud around here, it's kind of hard to discern exactly where I am." Adam said.
"We're in the smithery district." Syack told him.
"Ah yes, I smell the iron now." Adam said.
"Hmmm… something is odd." Syack said slowly.
"What is that?" Adam asked.
"Look at the weapon shop windows." Syack told him.
"Uh…"
"Right. Well they're empty. I don't see a single weapon being sold here." Syack said.
"Hold on." Adam made his way to the window and pressed his ear against it. "I… hear someone… more like a number of people in the back of the weapon shop." Adam said.
"What are they saying?" Syack asked.
"That I can't tell, they're being quiet. We'll need to sneak in there." Adam said.
"And are you any good at sneaking in undetected?" Syack asked skeptically.
"Somewhat… but whenever we needed to spy on black soldiers we usually had our top snipers handle that." Adam said.
"I can handle it for you."
"Hm?" The two of them looked up to see Heidi standing on top of the roof of the weapon shop.
"I'm quite adept at sneaking in to places." Heidi told them right before she used conceal.
"Well, that's convenient." Syack said.
Heidi looked for a window in the alleyway. She found one, but it was closed and covered with some cloth. "Oy… it's never easy is it?" Heidi thought. She climbed up to the window and managed to slam her elbow in to the window and broke the latch on it.
"Hey what was that?" Someone asked.
"Go outside and check it out!" Another voice demanded. A human came outside and looked around carefully, he shrugged and walked back in through the back door with Heidi right behind him so that she was inside.
"I didn't see anyone." The guy said.
"Bah, blasted crooks must be trying to get in while the store is closed." A bangaa said.
"Alright let's continued the meeting." A moogle said. Heidi looked at the moogle, if you could see her, her eyes would have a look of surprise in them.
"That's…"Meanwhile…
"Whew… finally finished." Harris sighed as he put away his bloody tools while clutching something in a blood stained glove. He walked out of the office looking at the object until Matt came up to him.
"What is it?" Matt asked. Harris seemed hesitant, but he opened his hand and allowed Matt to look at it. "A bullet."
"I thought it was a gunshot wound, but I thought it'd be wise to get the bullet out of his skull." Harris said.
"Yeah, I thought so too, why do you think I requested a surgeon?" Matt asked him. He took the bullet from Harris while Harris removed the gloves he was using. "Hmmm… it's just as I feared." Matt said.
"And that is?" Harris asked.
"I keep a record of the weapons distributed to my guards, and this bullet came from the gun that…"
Meanwhile…
"He's one of the gunners from the gate." Heidi thought while looking at who was leading the meeting.
"So then… are we all awake?" The moogle asked everyone at the meeting. Everyone nodded their heads. "Now then, to assure the utmost secrecy, I must ask a question. Who is behind our plan? And don't answer out loud, write it down on the paper and pencils I have for you."
"Why would they need secrecy?" Heidi asked herself suspiciously. While everyone was writing, she looked around at the other people here. She saw Stan, and Marty, and a few of the other employees, but not the whole lot of them. The moogle went around and collected the pieces of paper looked over them as he received them, and when he was done he went back to the head of the room.
"Now then…" The moogle turned around and shot three people with a silencer on his gun. One of the victims was Stan, who was sitting right next to Heidi.
"What the! What is this?" Heidi was shocked, but she didn't scream, she was used to death.
"Those guys must have been stupid to think we would let them uncover our plan." The gunner said. "Anyways, as per our orders from ten years ago, this group along with several other groups meeting at this very moment are going to collaborate in the destruction of Baguba." The moogle said with an evil smile.
"Destruction of Baguba?" Heidi wondered. "How do they intend to do that? Matt is defending this city." One of the people there raised his hand.
"What about Matt? And not to mention those other guys that came here to visit."
"Right, the fact that General Mali released the spell now must mean that she intends for us to destroy them as well. But that is something of a problem considering one of them is a racemaster. But don't forget, we have other plans." The gunner said with a smile on his face.
Meanwhile…
"Well, I don't know why most of the shops are empty, but it makes it all the easier to loot things from them." Brently snickered while carrying a bag full of goodies on his back. He passed by five other guys while he was doing so and brushed against the waist of a human female.
"Hey! Watch where you're going shorty!" The female snapped. Brently stopped cold.
"Did you just call me short?" Brently growled menacingly as he turned his head slowly.
"Yeah I did, what are you going to do about it?" The female taunted.
"No one… and I mean no one… calls me short!" Brently hissed. He turned around and pulled out two throwing knives and tossed it straight at the girl's arms.
"Agh!" The girl shouted. "You little wench! How dare you attack a black soldier!" The girl shouted.
"Black soldier? What the hell is a black soldier doing in Baguba?" Brently asked shocked.
"Damn it! You weren't supposed to tell anyone who we are!" A nu mou shouted. "Oh well, I guess he has to die now."
"Black soldiers? Oh well, I guess I don't have to hold back for calling me short." Brently said. The enemies all pulled out concealed weapons and readied them while Brently pulled out his own knife.
"Rah!" A bangaa wearing knuckles lunged at Brently and threw a punch that Brently jumped and then proceeded to embed his knife in to the bangaa's skull. He then jumped off of the bangaa's body and threw a few Molotov cocktails down on to the remaining ones. The resulting explosions incinerated them.
"Ha. Hey wait… where's my bag?" Brently asked despairingly. He looked around and noticed that the bag was fried from one of his cocktails. "No! Now all I have is this blasted watch…" Brently whined. "But I wonder what Black Soldiers are doing here? Oh well… back to moping." Brently promptly resumed moping over his roasted bag of stolen goods.
Meanwhile…
"Well that was a waste of time." Hunter said. He and Laura were walking through the streets looking for anything strange. Which they weren't finding since everyday life still seemed to be carrying on.
"Well it was your suggestion we check the spring." Laura said. "A suggestion that proved to be as weak as you."
"Ooooohhhh…" Hunter whined. Unbeknownst to them, a human archer was sitting on a near by rooftop aiming his bow at the two.
"Easy… easy…" The archer told himself.
"May I ask what you're doing?"
"I'm trying to shoot two guys, so if you'll excuse me… uh-oh." The archer just realized what he blabbed out. He turned around to find Kyle standing right behind him. Kyle seized the archer by the neck and held him up above the ground with a single hand.
"I need answers, and you're going to give them to me." Kyle said.
"No… way…" The archer said.
"Hmmm… hiding something? Well I guess that means you're a black soldier." Kyle said.
"?"
"If you were a bounty hunter you wouldn't be so tight-lipped since you wouldn't have anything to hide." Kyle explained.
"Damn it." The archer thought.
"So… talk!" Kyle demanded threateningly.
Meanwhile…
"Damn… it looks like they figured out who killed that gunner." A sniper that was watching Harris and Matt thought to herself. "I better go alert someone. Hey… where'd that paladin go?" She thought.
"Going somewhere?" Harris said behind the sniper.
"How'd he know I was here with conceal?" She asked. She leapt straight up to get away only to find Casey standing in her way. Casey reached out a hand and grabbed her by the wrist, thus causing her to be visible.
"I just want to talk." Casey said with a sly smile. The viera attempted to throw a punch, he caught it with his free hand and then squeezed on her hand using a small portion of his strength.
"AGH!" She screamed as her bones gave off a crunching sound. Harris leaped up to the top just in time to see this.
"That was rather cruel of you." Harris said in a rather blasé manner.
"Well, we need answers, so let's talk." Casey said to the sniper.
Meanwhile…
"What!" Heidi was shocked at what she just heard.
"Alright, we're ready to go." The gunner said.
"It's time!" Another one said excitedly.
"I don't think so…"
"Huh?" They all turned towards Stan's dead body as Heidi made herself visible. Heidi had a dangerous look in her eyes, a look focused on the kill. "We've been found out!"
"I've got this." The gunner fired a bullet at Heidi, she swiped her hand in front of her and stood there as if nothing happened. "Huh?"
"Hmph." Heidi opened her clenched fist and dropped a hot bullet shell on the ground. She then drew her katana.
"We… are… screwed…" A nu mou said.
"Hiyah!" Heidi leaped in the crowd and swung her katana around with wild grace and began slashing through the black soldiers like crazy. Finally she went for the gunner that tried to escape through the back door. Heidi drew her bow and fired it at the moogle as he fired a fireshot in to the air.
"Gah!" The moogle screamed as it pierced him somewhere close to the lung. "Heh… too…late…" The moogle said weakly.
"What do you mean?" Heidi asked.
"That… was… the single… to start…" The moogle said.
"No!" Heidi gasped.
"Yes…" The moogle said before coughing up more blood. The moogle died on the street as an explosion was heard.
"Damn it!" Heidi shouted as she ran as fast as she could.
A short while later…
"What was that?" Mendoza asked as they looked in the direction the explosion sounded.
"This doesn't seem good." Monty said.
"Black soldiers! Moblize!" A human shouted.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Several civilians ran away screaming as a bunch of armed people came running after them, killing anyone they could reach.
"Wait! That's my husband!" A viera shouted while pointing at a human male wielding a large sword. "What are you doing?" The viera asked with tears in her eyes.
"Sorry Sara… but your husband died last night!" The man shouted as he swung his sword at her.
"No!" She screamed. She waited for the blade to strike her when she heard a loud clang and then the sound of a blade piercing flesh. She opened her eyes to find Mendoza standing in front of her wiping blood off of his blade, and her husband dead on the ground. "NOOOOOO!!!"
"I'm… sorry…" Mendoza said regretfully.
"We've got to move!" Monty shouted as he shot a few black soldiers.
"Thundaga!" Gilbert caused large lightning bolts to clear a path through a few black soldiers. "We need to find the others. Look out!" One of the buildings exploded above them and sent rubble flying everywhere. Mendoza caught a piece of rubble that was about to crush a group of children
"Never mind that! What would clanmaster Harris do?" Monty asked as he shot a few more black soldiers.
"Right, we need to get everyone to a safe place." Gilbert said.
Meanwhile…
"Soil Evidence!" Syack slammed a foot in to the ground and caused an earthquake that devastated a couple of black soldiers and yet didn't harm any civilians or buildings.
"Master Casey!" Adam shouted as he thrust his sword through two soldiers. Casey landed and breathed fire on a group of black soldiers as Harris and Heidi arrived.
"Look out!" Matt shouted as another building exploded above them. Matt leaped above them and swung his gunblade. He then let the evenly cut pieces of rubble fall around the group harmlessly. "Is everyone alright?" He asked.
"The city has been infiltrated by sleeper agents." Heidi told them.
"We know, it was some sort of spell that suppressed their real memories and replaced them with different ones until someone released the seal." Casey said.
"And they have a large army poised to attack from the outside as well."
"Now that I didn't know." Harris said. "We need to defend the outside as well." Harris said.
"I'll handle that." Casey said. "Wish me luck." Casey crouched low and took one mighty leap towards the direction of the gate. Matt looked at the ground saddened.
"I… can't believe I didn't notice…" Matt cringed. "Grrrr…" Matt growled. "All of these guys, had started new lives. Had families… I… couldn't protect them." Matt thought. "I'm going to help the citizens reach shelter. You guys do whatever." Matt said as he ran off.
"Will he be alright?" Syack asked as he cast tempest.
"I hope so…" Heidi said.
"Let's split up." Harris said.
"Right." The four went in their separate directions to take care of the black soldiers from the inside.
"Cid! Come in Cid! Protect the factory at all costs! I'm bringing citizen there for shelter!" Matt ordered over a radio.
"You've got it! Hiyah!" The sound of Cid punching someone could be heard in the background.
Meanwhile…
"Thanks for the heads up Kyle!" Hunter shouted as he fired a few arrows at a few black soldiers.
"Ifrit!" Laura summoned Ifrit to roast alive a few black soldiers.
"How could they…" Kyle asked as he hesitantly slew a few black soldiers. "These people… had friends here… and they betrayed them… damned black army." Kyle thought while he breathed ice on a group of black soldiers. "Haste!" Kyle cast haste on himself, Laura, and Hunter before dashing through a crowd.
Meanwhile…
"Ack!" Brently narrowly avoided being crushed by rubble. "No! My hat!" Brently cried as his hat fell off and got crushed.
"Hey shorty… ready to die?" A moogle threatened from behind.
"Okay…" Brently growled. "First, I go through more trouble than it was worth to steal this gold watch… my stolen goods get fried… you're the second black soldier to call me short… I nearly get crushed by rubble because of you guys… and now you crushed my hat…" Brently counted off. He turned around scowling at the black soldiers behind him. "Do you really want to mess with me?" Brently asked threateningly as he drew four knives from each sleeve.
Meanwhile…
Casey landed on top of the gates and noticed the very large black army coming at the gate. "Hmmm… I smell… a good three thousand. Yes this will be interesting. I don't think I've ever even faced that many on my own. This will be most interesting." Casey said excitedly.
Meanwhile…
"Hm hm hm hm hm hm…" Mali chuckled from the top of the tallest tower in Baguba. "My plan of ten years is finally falling in to place…" Mali said, amused by the destruction unfolding below her. "Now then… let us see which breaks first… Baguba, or the spirit of the Moogle Racemaster." Mali said with much interest.
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What tragedy! What calamity! How will everything unfold? We'll see next chapter.