Where Matter Vanishes (Note: PG-15)

[The Admiral]

Where Matter Vanishes
​

Subject World: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Original date of first writing: May 21, 2005
This Draft: June 21, 2006
Rating: PG-15, as stated in topic title
Specific advisories: Violence, language, alcohol use, occasional moments of sexually-themed* material.
Spoilers: Very much.
Censored?: No.
*: Now, I know, some of you might think that this means there will be sex; no, there are no sex scenes in this fan fic. There are some sexual (particularly BDSM) references in the text, but that's it. Sorry to get your hopes up, kids. >_>;

00. Prologue.
In the dying days of an era, a kingdom struggled to hold itself together under fire from strange people and stranger beasts from distant lands. The beasts are short and green, the men like any other, but they bring artillery most mysterious to the land of Ivalice... The marauders have learned to wield weapons not fit for human hands... all manner of handguns, lances, rapiers, claws... If they could pick it up and hit something with it, chances are they'd gone and mastered it. It's quite possible that they'd use the sails of their ships and their short green cohorts as weapons, too. The little buggers were called... No one dares speak the name, remember... Cactuars.

Whatever posessed the Cactuars to side with these strange men, no-one knows - but they all know what happens when they get in the way. Remedi. the Queen of Ivalice - really a magic-cored being called 'Li-Grim' who takes on the form of of the Prince Mewt's mother - had an idea to establish a secret organization consisting of the strongest warriors in the land - no one was to know about the existence of the group or of the warriors. They were called, quite rightly, the Invisibles. Since their creation, the Invisibles have supressed riots, uprisings, and various attacks by these men - as well as hunted down undercover agents and short desert plants with villainous intent - many times and have always gotten their man - or plant - and, generally, were quite satisfactory. Sure, they occasionally blew some things up and had brawls, but they were generally nice guys and were great at what they were asked to do.

But the highest didn't like it. He was drawing too much attention to them, the secret was, indeed, almost found out... Several times, all by accident. He wouldn't stand for it anymore, and he felt that something awful was afoot in Bervenia Palace... The city was a mess. The mining industries were being disrupted by attacks from mysterious people in full-facial masks... Wait a minute... Those are just like the strange men from the other lands... And, what's more, they seem to have figured out Remedi's organizations and their methods, and are deliberately bringing themselves into positions where their destruction will cause the most damage... And, what's more, the warriors are falling for it! Nobody seems to be themself anymore... Laws are tightening, Judges are defecting, the Judgemaster - really Prince Mewt's father, Cid - seems to be vanishing from the palace for long hours at a time - nobody can find him... And even the Prince - Prince Mewt, one of Marche's friends in the 'old world' - that is, the town of St. Ivalice before Mewt transformed it into the Final Fantasy-like world of Ivalice thanks to an ancient magic book - is growing even weaker...

The number 1 steps forward. This has gone on long enough. He is splitting. He's going to join a clan, but he's going to keep the identity of The Invisibles a secret. No-one will know, he promises... But he knows one person who he can trust. The soldier goes by the name of Arashi Aeriuu, he is the only human native of Ivalice who can wield a gun without training from anyone else - he uses completely customized weapons... His first target, a soldier from a strange land...

01. The First Sparks
"We’ve not been in this together long, Marche,” the boy said. He was seventeen, easily six five with his feet flat on the ground. He carried a very large gun, which he called the Burning Visit. “But, there’s something terrible here afoot… And I’m afraid I’ve got to find more about it. I assure you, we’ll meet again, though.”

“But, if you don’t know anything about it,” the other boy, Marche, said; he was about five seven, age sixteen. “How do you know about it, Arashi?”

“Life works in mysterious ways… Let’s just say that I know a lot about powerful ancient magic,” Arashi replied, “And I must go now, to my clan.” With that, he was gone. Marche saw no evidence to where he might have gone…

When Arashi said he was going to his clan – that is, a party of adventurers – he was bluffing. Arashi had no clan. He was a wanderer. Supposedly a prophet – though that’s a bit of a baseless assumption; it could’ve just been a lucky guess! – and a homicidal maniac – obviously not true – he seemed to be rather mysterious to the people of Ivalice, though he was known by them before. They knew one thing, though. If they wanted to avoid trouble, they should, to quote a lot of citizens… “Stay the hell outta his way!”

Marche, on the other hand, was relatively new to this world. He was a soldier, often the sign of a newbie. His sword performed perfectly well in one hand, he noted – which worked out perfectly, as his other hand was taken up by a shield. Quite fortunate, but he didn’t think this would mean anything about his combative future.

And, in some ways, he thought he was right, judging from the enormous shadow that flew over his head. He looked up to the skies to see if anything was there. Nothing. And yet, the shadow was there. Suddenly, it vanished. Marche, finding himself unable to explain this, simply walked away. He had to report to his clan, anyways.

Arashi, meanwhile, was far away, on a large creature that looked like a silver variety of a flying dragon. His target: Bervenia Palace City, an immense boomtown, home of the mining industry headquarters in the trapdoor at the bar, seat of the government of Ivalice, and his hometown. He had no time at all to stop for a drink. The beast flew to a halt right at the gate, and then vanished in a flash of light.

The two huge Bangaa guards halted him. Bangaas were large, reptilian creatures; bipedal, yellowish-skinned, and with extremely bad tempers. If there’s one thing you should never do, it would be to call a Bangaa a lizard. These ones were Defenders; they wore full, red battle armor, all the way to their helms. In fact, these ones even had special armor for the eyes, protecting them from nigh-fatal arrow shots to the eyes.

Arashi, however, looked poorly armored in comparison; Arashi wore only his black shirt – similar in appearance to a judo uniform, a pair of black pants, and an overcoat, with headgear consisting of a pair of almost pitch-black goggles and a silvery bandana. It was the uniform of his… organization.

“What do you want,” one Bangaa hissed, “You need ssome ssort of authorization to get in here...”

Arashi shows a small silver card. On it was inscribed “Arashi Aeriuu, member of The Invisibles and bound permanently to the Kingdom of Ivalice.”

The other Bangaa glared at the card. “And who,” he asked, “in the Nine Hellss are The Invissibless?”

Arashi muttered something to himself, but replied at last, with the absolute truth. “The invisibles, as the name implies, are a group of military units under the Queen herself. We’re a secret investigation group, working, like I said, under Her Majesty. We report to no one but her. And we do not exist, not to anyone who freely posts information. If we find that they do… They are rubbed out. No more. Gone. Non-existent. UNPERSONIFIED!”

The Bangaa flinched. “Sso, you want to kill uss?”

“No,” Arashi replied, “I must report to Her Majesty.”

The Bangaas growled, and stepped aside. Arashi ran inside. It was a long and winding road to the throne room. Oddly enough, nobody recognized Arashi in his outfit. He was the only human with red eyes who did any work in the palace… but, then again, he was a member of Les Invisibles. No one was supposed to know about his existence, let alone the existence of Les Invisibles.

Arashi kneeled before the throne of crystal; upon it, the Queen of Ivalice, apparently no more than twenty-five, sat; however, this appearance makes no sense with the age of her son, the Prince Mewt, who was fifteen. “Your Highness,” Arashi began.

“Please, Arashi.” The Queen responded, “Call me merely by my first name.”

Arashi muttered to himself, and then said, “Queen Remedi, I have returned once again. I have no good news, though, I’m afraid. But, there’s bad news. Sadly, I’m going to have to be gone for a while. No, our secret won’t leak. I’m just… Being forced into a clan, let’s put it that way. It’s a damn shame, but I must. It’s what we must do to protect ourselves. And I swear, I shall return!”

Queen Remedi stood up. “If you must, you must. But please, return as soon as you can,” she replied. “I’ll see you when you return from your mission.”

Arashi walked out. No damage done, he thought.

Clan Chaos was born. The poster was placed in many places around the towns – Baguba, Cyril, Sprohm, and all others. It read, “Do you wish to take part in missions involving the defense of the land? Do you want to purge that which must be purged? Do you like keeping lots of people in check? Do you lack a clan membership? If so, you should join us now – before it’s too late. Clan Chaos. Aggression unchallenged is aggression unleashed!”

Arashi lifted his large silver gun, the Burning Visit. “It’s time now,” he said to himself, “To save the world, they way it had been meant to be saved…”

Meanwhile, however, Marche was at his Clan’s HQ. Montblanc – a Moogle donning a green outfit, the co-founder of Marche’s clan – walked in the door with a letter in his hand. This was the mission request from the local pharmacist. “We’ve got a mission, kupo,” he said.

A day later, all was ready on both fronts. Marche stood at the edge of Giza Plains and drew his sword, preparing to fend off the monsters within. Arashi hid in a lifeboat on a sea-ship in Baguba Port, city of Moogles, glancing at a Mog Knight who sat calmly outside a shop…

As an added bonus, I'll be including short character dossiers, location data, and the occasional special chapter art as extras. This will be long, so there should be enough chapters to tack on one or two, maybe even three or four to each chapter to cover every character and location and most of the chapters.

So, here is the special feature for Chapter 1:
Arashi Aeriuu
Species: Human (Male)
Age: 18
Role: Leader of the Invisibles (No. 1)
Weapon: Gun
Family: Unknown
Relationships: None
The ‘first and worst’ of the Invisibles, Arashi is also the only one to ever defect, though he’s not open about it and keeps it under wraps. He could be seen to have defected as early as his chance meeting with Llednar in Baguba, using the duel as an excuse to attempt to kill him, but he fails to regardless. Cold with a very dry sense of humor known for his love of the ‘simple life,’ i.e. mining, weapon-smithing, being a clan member, etc. as opposed to his high-ranking job in The Invisibles. Often a target of Remedi’s sexual advances but attempts to escape them by saying that he’s gay. Knows what’s going wrong in the Palace and as such wants to exterminate the Queen and the Totema. His nickname he signs under in all tournaments is “D’al Ek” and he often dresses in desert garb for these tournaments. When he terminates Remedi once and for all, he disappeared from Ivalice…

Strengths (Character): Fiercely loyal to whichever cause he sees fit.
Strengths (Combat): Skill, trickery. Gains strength as allies die.
Weaknesses (Character): Mostly emotionless and cold (emotions develop in story, though), tendancy to defect causes untrustworthiness (but not too vastly known).
Weaknesses (Combat): Rash, generally slower to strategize and faster to rush in with guns blazing.

Now, you may feel free to ask questions, post comments, and so forth. After all, this is the end of the material for now.

-PM

 

[Cenodoxus]

Oh, the FFTA fic. I haven´t seen many those in general. Good thing that you´re including original characters along with those from the series. And, the writing´s good as usual. A bit to straight-facts at some points, but still generally real good. Keep up with it, and the extras.

...Ah, Final Fantasy BDSM. Fun.

~ Nyx//Yor

 

[The Admiral]

You folks are really terrific at REVIEWING the damn thing after you've read it. As an aside, thanks for thr review, Yorei. Final Fantasy BDSM? Yeah.

02. Flame of Rivalry

The location was Baguba Port City, five twenty-two, local time. The scout stood atop a massive building. Twang. The Moogle knight fell face-first to the ground.

“Mission accomplished,” the archer-scout called to his master.

The archer-scout’s master was identified as Arashi Aeriuu, known to be part of a mysterious group working under the Queen of Ivalice herself. However, Arashi seemed to have retired from that job…

The scene was a port city; Airships flew in. Large seagoing vessels loaded down with goods poured in. For a merchant, this is where the big money was made. For a Moogle, this was home. For a good thief, it was paradise. There was money to be made everywhere. Thieves were hired to steal goods and various saboteurs to sabotage outgoing merchant vessels. Fortunately, there was a good supply of Moogles, skilled in thievery, gunplay, and the skills of the gadgeteer, and each one ripe and ready to do anything to make a few cents.

Arashi jumped off the building. He pulled a small piece of silver metal from his body. This was Silvril Ore. Apparently a Moogle merchant was interested in this sort of thing. Arashi walked back to the bar and handed the silver chunk to the Moogle sitting at the table, wearing a black coat and traditional Thief clothes.

“Hm… Very good, kupo!” He spoke somewhat softly. “Since you did that so fast, I’ll give you an extra one hundred gil, kupo.”

Arashi heard a faint beeping. He looked at his identification card. The silver shined in the afternoon sun. A small red light glowed, indicating another member of The Invisibles was nearby. “No time, sir,” Arashi replied and ran out of the bar.

One thing Arashi noted was that the Moogle didn’t even see the card, even though it was right in his face. Arashi stood on a customs agency’s building with his clan. Among them were a Moogle Animist, a Viera Fencer, a Human Archer, a Numou Beastmaster, and a Bangaa Monk.

Baguba Port, five fifty-five local time. The customs building is destroyed.

Baguba Port, five fifty-five and one quarter. Arashi and his Clan lie on the ground, barely conscious.

As Arashi stood up, he saw the face of the one responsible. A fellow member of The Invisibles; his name was Llednar Twem. “What the hell is the big idea, Arashi? And what’s with the cronies?”

Arashi snarled. “What are you doing here, anyways?”

Llednar just laughed. “Decided to betray the morals you created?”

“No,” Arashi said, “I’m doing this prevent more information from getting out.”

“And how will this betrayal keep it in?”

“We draw too much attention to ourselves. I decided to form a clan, so that attention shan’t be drawn to me. I’m the first, and I’m the worst.”

Llednar merely snorted.

Arashi stomped off. Llednar gave him a cold stare, reflected by Arashi’s silver gauntlets on his black outfit. “How about a duel,” he asked.

Arashi put on his silver gloves, bearing the alchemic cross on their back, and stuck one hand out, his gun coming to him. “Very well,” he shouted.

While Llednar’s heavy sword clashed with the side of Arashi’s gun, and its flaming rounds parted around Llednar’s sword, Arashi’s clan members talked amongst themselves.

“What a hothead, kupo,” the Moogle said.

“Well, Kiev, relax,” said the Viera, “they’re not mortally wounding each other.”

“Not yet, Veira,” the Bangaa replied.

“Major, the Numou added, “I don’t need your smart-mouthed comments!”

“Ford,” Veira said to the Numou, “It doesn’t matter. They’re not gonna kill each other or deal and powerful wounds any time soon, I bet.”

Betting on that was a bad idea. Arashi smashed Llednar with his gun, knocking him clean over. “Desist,” Llednar cried, “Desist!”

Arashi stopped. “I guess I have to. Onwards, my clan, to Lutia Pass!”

Meanwhile, Marche was walking to the Lutia Pass, with his six-member clan. Arashi knew not of this. Whether a confrontation was to take place or not did not cross Arashi’s mind at first.

The snowy ground of the Lutia Pass was also the site of a recent avalanche. Arashi’s mission was to find someone buried under the snow. The massive snow piles and fallen rocks would provide good cover, in case of a battle.

Things couldn’t have been better planned for Arashi. As he and his clan flew over the pass, they noted the Coeurls – residents of the pass – standing in the clearing. A fight was imminent. Then he spotted six other people march in…

More special, too...

Marche Radiuju
Species: Human (Male)
Age: 16
Role: Leader of Clan Beast
Weapon: Typically swords
Family: Doned – Brother, (name unknown) – Mother
Relationships: Was Ritz’s boyfriend for a short time
A clueless human soldier – and who can blame him? He’s not of this world and, in fact, just now came here. He had some trouble at first, but was bailed out by a Moogle named Montblanc – together, they formed Clan Beast. He’s friends with Arashi and is the only person outside of the Palace Guards, the royalty, and the Royal Guard who knows about The Invisibles. Has pledged to tell nobody about it; often runs into Arashi by chance or otherwise and they help each other in missions. Wants to go back home, taking Ritz, Mewt, and Doned with, but doesn’t quite get why no-one else wants to come with him. He is almost killed by Remedi in her Battle Queen form, but her weapon is destroyed before that can happen to Marche.

Strengths (Character): Driven, able to stick to one thing.
Strengths (Combat): Balanced
Weaknesses (Character): A bit foolish, selfish
Weaknesses (Combat): Doesn't excel at anything.

And there you have it. It starts getting a bit more interesting in the next few chapters, folks.

-PM

 

[The Admiral]

Sorry to double post. <_<;

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for listening to my sh.t and enjoying it and such. *speaking to an empty auditorium*

03. Double Wick
The creature Arashi had been riding on into the pass spun uncontrollably and started crashing towards the land. “CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-“ Crash. “-AAAAAAAP!”

What confused Arashi was that someone had managed to hit the beast even though it was invisible. It meant that either another of The Invisibles was here, or that it was a lucky shot. Then, he saw the Bangaa Monk who had done it; the shot was a Far Fist, and no Bangaa Monks existed on the team that was The Invisibles. This prat had to die. One shot from the Burning Visit sent the Monk running and, of course, melted some of the snow. Then, Arashi heard a voice…

“What are you doing here?”

Arashi turned around to see his old friend, Marche. “Phew. It’s just you. I’d have thought it was the Queen’s private guard. They want my head for reasons they refuse to say. I’m here on a mission. What brings you here?”

“A mission,” Marche said, “we’re to clean out some beasts here.”

“Funny, us too,” Arashi said, ushering his clan in. He had a smaller clan, but it was more experienced. There were a lot of beasts here, so for them to work together would be the obvious solution.

“I can do that,” Marche replied.

“Excellent,” Arashi said, “we’ve got a big job. You know, it’s a shame we can’t see each other more often. I’m always on the run, you know.”

“What did you do?”

“Resisted arrest by the Queen herself. She was going to put me in bondage cuffs and lock me to the throne!”

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Arashi fired a shot from his gun, burning through an Ice Flan. Marche was trained in the art of the sword instead, though, and as such reached for a large yellowish sword and, grabbing it with both hands, smashed a Coeurl with it.

“Lurebreaker. Impressive. Use it well.” The Moogle bashed a Panther with its glass bell, distracting it while the human archers from both clans attacked the creature.

Combat continued as such, taking advantage of the rapidly melting terrain to exterminate the beasts… It was just after that when Marche found the silver dragon. He looked over at Arashi, and said, in a tone of voice almost like the little kid who dug up what might as well have been Blackbeard’s treasure:

“Check this out…”

Arashi walked over. “Ah. That. It’s a broken flying machine. I was attacked on my way here.”

Marche gave him an odd look. “How will you travel to far places, then?”

“I’ll stick some wheels on it and keep on riding,” said Arashi confidently.

“Heh. Let’s go to the Sprohm pub and collect our reward, hey?”

Sprohm was a mountain town, home mostly to Bangaa, most of them a sort of sandy color, but some reddish. A red-colored Bangaa was very odd and could often use abilities other Bangaas could not, such as black and white magic. If you were a Bangaa, the only profession that could give you magic use was a Bishop.

The spells Bishops used were believed to come in the form of answers to prayers made to the dragonic Bangaa god Adremmalech in mid-battle. Most Bangaa weren’t huge on religion, and few of them had vast amounts of faith at all, in Adremmalech or any other purported deity. Very few of them were interested in magic, either.

Bangaa prided themselves as a race upon their core physical strength and endurance. Most of them weren’t very fast on their feet, either, those were mostly the Monks. The Monks were also among the rare classes to use gauntlets and claws as their primary weapons. They’ve often tried using two at a time, but have found it awkward for combat purposes… excellent on defense, but not so good for fighting.

The Bangaa love a good fight; the only thing they love more than combat is going down to the pub after the fight and getting some beer. For this reason, the Sprohm pub was usually half-full of Bangaa celebrating their recent victory over a cold one. Today it was particularly swamped. In the back of the bar sat a Numou, a scientist. “Did you finish it?”

“Yes,” Arashi and Marche both said at once.

“Excellent,” replied the Numou scientist, “thank you for your help.”

“No problem,” replied Marche, as the Numou handed them the reward and the two clan leaders split it evenly.

“Eh,” Arashi started, “Marche, I’ve got to go. Need to catch up with someone, and I’ve probably stayed here too long.” He ran around the back of the pub where his flying machine had been fixed by a Gadgeteer hired by Arashi, and he started it up and headed for Bervenia.

Arashi ran through the halls and arrived at the throne room, only to be tackled to the floor in a streak of black.

“Arashi! I’m so glad you’re here!” Remedi seemed excited… too excited, even, as she kissed him.

“Hm. You seem more emotionally direct today, Remedi. Anyways, and I don’t mean to offend you,” Arashi said, “GET OFF ME. You know I don’t like that.” He coughed a little.

Remedi reluctantly obliged. “What news do you bring me?”

“I met a friend of the Prince. I’ve also seen your creation, the one lacking a soul… Twem. He’s in top form for having no skill.”

“Friend of the prince?”

“Marche by name.”

The prince walked in. “What?” He spoke with a slight stutter. “Mama, what are doing on the floor with him?”

“She’s cheating on your father and planning to destroy the kingdom,” Arashi said snarkily, “what’s it look like she’s doing? We’re having tea and discussing a friend of yours.” Fortunately, two empty teacups were nearby.

“Friend,” the prince, Mewt, asked timidly.

“Radiuju, Marche. Ring a bell?”

“…No, but I wish him well anyways, if he is a good man.”

“Good man indeed. Great conversationalist. Lousy at humor, though.”

“I’ve met people like that before.”

“Good. Anyways, I’ve got to go, it’s back to monitoring.”

“Bye,” Remedi said, resisting the urge to kiss him again.

“Keep your emotions to yourself,” Arashi mumbled inaudibly. He got on his flying machine and headed for Cyril. He knew he could find Marche there, and he had urgent information.

He caught up with Marche. “Hey, man, want to head off to Ulei River and see if we can drown some baby antlions?”

“I’ll come with you,” Marche said, “but I won’t help with the bugs.”

They landed in Ulei. Arashi and Marche sat next to each other by the bank of the river. “I have something important to tell you,” Arashi finally said.

Just then, there was a very strange sort of warp of energy nearby… When they looked to the source, all became negative in that area; black became white, and such. It opened up completely and sucked both six-man clans in.

Arashi stared. “Oh SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-“

---

Uti and Anthem
Species: Uti – Human (Female), Anthem – Viera
Age: Both 18
Role: Members of The Invisibles (Nos. 7 and 8, respectively)
Weapon: Uti – Rapier (Mythril Rapier), Anthem – Lance (Prism Spike)
Family: Unknown
Relationships: They are each others’ girlfriends.
The only people in the series who are openly homosexual (even though Arashi sometimes says he’s gay, he’s actually asexual), Uti and Anthem met each other during schooling in their younger years, and have been friends ever since. They wield weapons unusual for their race, and are extremely skilled, so they were natural choices for being members of The Invisibles. They are ruthlessly killed by a Jumbo Cactuar in Jagd Helje, and are the third and fourth longest-living members of The Invisibles.

Strengths: ???
Weaknesses: ???

...So, yeah. Unless I get a few, you know, REVIEWS, this is being bloody canned until further notice after this point.

-PM