Laecora had a day off today, and as such was out enjoying the sunshine and shopping in the local market that Alpha was hosting today. Today in particular, she was on the hunt for some fresh potatoes and carrots for a stew she was planning on making that night. She was also hoping to find some supplies to stock up her medkit that she kept handy for the neighborhood kids. Sighing happily, she paused to enjoy the breeze, her waist-length pale-blonde hair billowing out in the breeze. Normally she put it in a tight braid for work, but she wasn't bound by their so-called professionalism today. Instead, she enjoyed the fresh air and the warmth of the sun in a high-waisted leather skirt that went to her knees, and a small ruffled crimson top that cut off at the midriff and exposed her shoulders; the sleeves starting mid-bicep and ending in a 3/4 sleeve lined with soft, white fur. On her feet were a fairly plain pair of knee-high leather boots. Tucked away at her hip, in a leather sheath that almost completely blended in with her skirt, were her two daggers. Her gift to herself with her first decent amount of spare gil that she could save once moving to Alpha.

As the breeze faded away, she continued on her walk through the market before stopping at a particularly fresh-looking vendor. []AKA Red[]

Red saw the woman approaching his stand and started the thing he said almost on instinct to people who approached (In fact, he sometimes felt like he said it to some people more than once). "Fresh Root Vegetables, picked just this morning in Miris! How can I help you?" He asked.

~~~~~

Leo nodded the civilians on ahead back to town, then had the gate shut off so that nobody could exit while he and the other Breakers tidied up the area. "Lieutenants Saphira and Jade, we're going to spread out and make sure there aren't any other of these beasts around. Let's make this quick. Report back to me if either of you come across any trouble." He spoke, heading directly into the woods and motioning the two to take to his left and right sides. "Oh, and Jade, if I find out you've brutalized any more small animals for sport on this patrol, I'll have you working latrine duty for the next two months. Dismissed."

~~~~~

As the days in Xenon passed, it seemed as if things only got worse. Criminals seemed more bold, and monster attacks were on the rise. While there was relative safety within the walls of the city, that was only possible to the tireless efforts of the Hunters and the MagiBreakers, and even those two groups seemed to be getting pushed to the limits of their ability to protect the city. Something needed to be done, and soon, but there was no way anyone could have known just what was going to happen...

On that very day, within Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, an odd occurrence happened. The streets were filled with white gas. Everyone on the streets, by windows, or out in the fresh air, found themselves overtaken by darkness, and fell faint to the ground. When the people finally began to awaken, it came to pass that hundreds, if not thousands of citizens had simply vanished, without any trace...

~~~~~

Red awoke with a splitting headache. He had no idea what had happened. He started to look around, finding that he was unfamiliar with his surroundings. Wherever he was, he quickly realized that he was surrounded by many hundreds of other people, none of whom were familiar to him, and the entire dark room he was in was covered in an ominous faint crimson glow. It didn't take him long to find the source of the pale light.



"W-what the hell is that?" He mouthed, looking at the giant object. The sheer scale of the thing was almost unreal. It was easily 50 feet tall and 20 feet in width, dwarfing any of the people in the room. He looked around once more, trying desperately to find anyone that he recognized in the crowd, but no matter where he looked, all he could find was a bunch of faceless strangers.

The enormous vaulted room with the crystal in the center was filled with people, some of them unconscious, while many others were waking much like Red had, to a state of confusion. Whatever was going to happen, Red had a sinking feeling that it would not be good.

Tyme groaned as he came to, slowly pushing himself up, blinking as he adjusted to the light and his surroundings. Once he was adjusted, he sat looking around at the hundreds of people with him, a few already awake. Where the hell am I? Last thing I remember was heading towards the Gamma Sector. I didn't hear anyone coming up behind me, so it couldn't have been the fact someone caught me by surprise, especially since it'd be impossible to do that to all of us. he thought. He spotted the crystal, suddenly getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, this was starting to worry him. It didn't matter though, as long as he had his gunblade he - wait! His gunblade! It was missing! Looking around where he sat, he saw nothing but the floor. It was clear that whoever had done this had taken everything from everyone, weapons, tools, items. The only thing left with them was their clothing. "Damn it. They took my tools too, how will I ever maintain a gunblade now, assuming I get out of here?" he asked himself, sighing. Standing, he decided it was no use trying to worry about that, the current problem was the crystal in the room. It made him feel uneasy, as if there was something ominous about it. He had to get out before something happened, something bad.

Malachi suddenly woke with a start "Ah!!" then immediately regretted it "Dammit... my head... What the hell happened last night?" he asked, looking around. 'People? There must be hundreds of them! What the he-RENA!!' headache immediately forgotten, Mal jumped to his feet and tried to move, but quickly found out he was shackled "What the...? What the hell is going on here! Rena! Rena! RENA!!!" Dammit! He didn't see anyone he recognized and half the people where still unconscious. Forcing himself to remain calm, Mal began to look around, trying to find some manner of escape. Only then did he see the enormous red crystal in the middle of the room. "What on earth is that thing?"

By now Mal was getting a real bad feeling. He reached for his gun only to find an empty holster. "Shit! My gun!" he exclaimed, feeling all throughout his coat, checking every pocket. And each one... empty. Even his secret pockets. Nothing! Without his gun, there was no way he could break these things, but he had to try! Grabbing the clamps on his ankles, he started trying to pry them apart. He knew it was hopeless, but he wouldn't give up until he was free or dead...

... Rena!... Who... Rena!... The hell... RENA!!! "Is yelling?" Sara was wrenched out of her consciousness. She sat up with clenched face and pushed a gloved hand against the side of her head. She slowly opened her eyes to a sight that made her heart sink. It was unfamiliar. A large hovering crystal of sorts was the only glowing source of light. Sara had never seen anything like it before. Around the entire room, there were other people, they were chained to the ground. Some were sleeping, some awake. How the hell did she get here?

Sara began to stand up and felt the weight of chains hanging off her wrists. She was shackled as well. Not good. Sara wasn't exactly at the point of panicking yet, but she did not like the situation one bit. She tried to remember what happened. She was on her way home after a busy day at Gamma. It was a bad day for the district in terms of crime, and those bad days had been increasing in frequency. Sara and the rest of the guard could hardly keep up. Then on the street it got foggy all of a sudden. But the fog was so thick, and breathing it in. "Was I hit with some kind of sleeping gas?" She muttered, "Maybe if..." Sara rifled through her pockets for her guard distress beacon. Gone. Same as most things; her dagger, her communicator... her halberd. "Oh, no, my halberd." She breathed. The severity of the situation was all too apparent in her mind now.

Another soul regained consciousness nearby Sara. It wasn't until he spoke that Sara was reminded who he was. That gunblade mercenary from Miris, the one that was hawking his services in the Beta market. At least it was a face Sara recognized. He was chained to a spot behind him, so she had to get his attention. "Hey," She said, "Hey gunblade, what is this place? What's going on?"

CrimsonWarrior55 said
Malachi suddenly woke with a start "Ah!!" then immediately regretted it "Dammit... my head... What the hell happened last night?" he asked, looking around. 'People? There must be hundreds of them! What the he-RENA!!' headache immediately forgotten, Mal jumped to his feet and tried to move, but quickly found out he was shackled "What the...? What the hell is going on here! Rena! Rena! RENA!!!" Dammit! He didn't see anyone he recognized and half the people where still unconscious. Forcing himself to remain calm, Mal began to look around, trying to find some manner of escape. Only then did he see the enormous red crystal in the middle of the room. "What on earth is that thing?"

By now Mal was getting a real bad feeling. He reached for his gun only to find an empty holster. "Shit! My gun!" he exclaimed, feeling all throughout his coat, checking every pocket. And each one... empty. Even his secret pockets. Nothing! Without his gun, there was no way he could break these things, but he had to try! Grabbing the clamps on his ankles, he started trying to pry them apart. He knew it was hopeless, but he wouldn't give up until he was free or dead...

Laecora awoke as all the others had -- shackled. Blearily, she flickered her eyes open, trying to remember the last thing that had happened. She remembered looking for fresh vegetables and then hearing a slight sound of panic behind her, but everything was black afterwards. Had she been knocked out? It wouldn't be entirely unreasonable that someone from the Gamma district would be envious of her hard-earned place in the Alpha district, but... As her emerald eyes flickered around the room, she ruled that out. No single person from Gamma would be able to bring her to a place like this. Instinctively she reached for her daggers and felt they were gone. As it became apparent that there were many, many others just like her around the room, she relaxed only slightly. At least she had safety in numbers, regardless of how slim that safety was.

Slowly she up-righted herself and stood up, checking on her neighbors and helping them orient themselves and answering what few questions she could, particularly attempting to calm the frantic male next to her. "Excuse me sir. ... Sir .... Sir! ..." She had to speak up in order to get her words through his frantic shouting. "Who is Rena? What does she look like? Perhaps I can help you look to see if she is here with us, wherever here is."

"Hey," he heard someone call to him. Looking around quickly, he spotted a female near him, "Hey gunblade, what is this place? What's going on?" she asked him. Tyme shook his head, "I have a name, you know. Least you could do is ask for it, lady. Regardless of that, I have no idea where we are, but I have this feeling that it was done intentionally. Also, I dislike that crystal..." he motioned to it, suddenly feeling the chain going taut. He looked down at the shackle on his arm, scowling at it as he pulled with all his strength, which was quite considerable since he was lugging around an unwieldly gunblade. He finally gave up and sighed, returning his attention back to the female, "Looks like they made sure we couldn't break these things. My name is Tyme, and judging from your outfit, I'd say you were a guard of some sort, yes? Seems whoever did this has no qualms about who they take." he told her. He heard another female speak from across the room, "Seems like others are starting to awaken." he stated, turning his head to a couple of people near him. He remained attentive to what the woman was saying, helping those who needed it. As more people started coming to, he looked back over at the woman, "This is going to get bad quickly, I suggest we try and keep everyone calm, we don't want mass panic." he suggested before someone grabbed his arm. Turning, he saw a small girl, "Mister, have you seen my mommy?" she asked. Tyme was reminded of his sister when the girl looked up at him like that, "I'm sorry, I haven't seen her, but don't worry, I'm sure she's safe. Just stay as close as you can to me, I'll protect you until we find your mom." he replied. The little girl nodded, her hand grasping his pant leg tightly as she stayed close to him.

Fuyuto started to wake, hearing Mal calling out "What the...? What the hell is going on here! Rena! Rena! RENA!!!".
"Where am I?" he whispered to himself, slowly getting up. He could see the bright red crystal floating in the room. Knowing he had only just returned to Xenon with Mal and Rena not long ago, before everything went blank, he realised there was no weight on his back, where he had his swords. He checked for his hidden daggers, none of which could be found. Looking around there were many hundreds of people around. He was shocked. Who could of done this?

Looking to his right, he could see Rena, still unconscious. He tried to take a step, and couldn't move. He was shackled. It appears everyone was. Mal was calling out quite a way in front of Fuyuto. He couldn't quite see him, since there wasn't much light, but could hear him. Probably about 300 meters in front a little to the left of him. Fuyuto called out to Mal, "Hey Mal! It's me! Fuyuto! Rena is safe! She is next to me! But she is unconscious! What the hell is going on!?" He called out across the room. The red crystal looked daunting. All Fuyuto felt from it was bad vibes.

Annabel sat quietly staring at the giant red crystal in the room. It was hard to miss after all.
She had woke several minutes before anyone else and had looked around for anyone she might know. Thats when she realized she was shackled. Whoever brought them here didn't have good plans for them. Men, women, children. Whoever took the people didn't discriminate. Children... Annabel silently prayed that Elizabeth was safe at home with the chocobo to protect her. Upon thinking of her baby sister, Annabel buried her head in her knees.
It wasn't long before people began to stir and panic. She felt compelled to comfort everyone but clearly the room was too large. There was no way they were going to get out of here unless whomever chained them let them go. That may never happen...

Sara sighed, this guy had about as much idea of where they were as she did. Still, at least he wasn't going crazy. The noise levels in this place were increasing as people were waking up. Some people were shouting across the room at each other, but otherwise, there was only murmuring underneath the occasional crying child.

"Mass panic?" Sara said rhetorically, before looking around the room once more, "We'll only get mass panic if that crystal up there turns out to be as scary as it looks. Right now though, it's just a crystal." Sara said, looking up at the prominent centre of the room. With one arm, she tugged on the chains, testing their strength, no budging. "These shackles'll keep people from causing too much harm anyway." Sara's tone was really more thinking out loud, perhaps a bit too clinical for the situation.

Sara raised her eyes from the chains to the man again, he was distracted comforting a little girl that had woken up near them. "Sara," Sara extended her hand to the man, "You want to stop mass panic? Sit down and let's chat until this place is familiar." Sara smiled at the girl that was holding onto the man and took on a friendlier tone, leaning down with her hands on her knees to see her face better, "Hello there, little one. I'm Sara, what's your name?"

Rena was in a state between sleep and consciousness. She could hear her name being shouted, and repeated, and she could hear voices. She could see red. A red glow past her eyelids. Her eyes opened, and she sat up, trying to get accustomed to her surroundings. It was dark. There are people all around her. There's a large red crystal in front of her. She's in chains, and her clothes are dirty from lying on the floor. Her head was starting to clear, and her brain was starting to kick in. She was alert now, and scared. She looked around. She could see the boy from earlier. Fuyoto.

"Where-where are we?" she asked to nobody in particular, not particularly expecting an answer.

It was not long before the noise in the room began to degrade to a cacophony of panicked voices. While Red had heard some of the shouting, he'd not had a chance to interject before the voices reached that fever pitch. He couldn't help but cover his ears in pain. Dammit, what's going on here? He thought to himself, staring up at the giant stone floating before them. He still couldn't shake the sinister feeling coming from it, and he very soon realized that it was completely justified in that feeling.

The light from the red stone suddenly started to glow brighter, reaching an almost white color. Many of those in the crowd stared up at it in response. The bright glow was soon followed by a strange humming noise. Before anyone could say anything in response, however, a tendril of red light snaked out from the crystal, striking the young girl in Tyme's arms. Within an instant, her entire form seemed to turn to that same red light, then dissipated into particles which floated around the crystal. This process started to repeat itself, causing mass panic. Voices suddenly shouted out in fear, but were swiftly cut short. Nobody seemed to be spared from the lightning, and it wasn't long before the crowd of over nine a thousand was soon cut down to under a hundred, though something odd was happening...

Red was no exception to the strikes, however, he hadn't faded like some of the others, rather, the light seemed to have wrapped around his left wrist. He didn't feel any pain, but rather, he somehow felt energized.

Mal was surprised when a girl asked to help him find Rena " Er... Thanks. She looks like-" "Hey Mal! It's me! Fuyuto! Rena is safe! She is next to me! But she is unconscious! What the hell is going on!?" "Oh... um... she looks like that girl over there" he pointed "But thank you for the help". Just as Malachi was about to respond to Fuu, something happened. A red, snake-like tendril leaped out the crystal and latched onto a man to Mal's left. Right before his eyes, the man turned into some kind of red energy. Looking around, the same was happening all around. "What the fu-!?" before Mal could even finish, a tendril latched around his right arm. Clenching his eyes, Mal was expecting pain... but nothing came. Instead, a massive rush of energy filled his body, like nothing he'd ever felt before.

Resigning to her fate, Annabel sat, not moving at all. She stared at the crystal once more. The eerie light, ominous yet beautiful glittered over the walls. It a flash, a tendril of light struck the people in front of her. Not even a pile of dust was left behind. Annabel now stared at the place they had been, her mouth open. Before what happened could even register in her mind more blades of light cut through the populous. Time seemed to slow as she realized one was headed right for her. She struggled to back away, but the shackles prevented her escape. As it struck her, she felt a flow of energy through her body and screamed.

While the screams became more prominent, Sara stuck to her plan of acting normally to try not to proliferate the panic. Sara didn't even spot the serpent of energy coming before it latched onto the little girl in front of her. An expression of shock reached Sara's face as she reached forward to grab the girl from harms way, but was stopped by the length of the shackles clinking taut. The girl disintegrated instantly. Sara was frozen in place, unsure what to do. She spotted in her peripheral vision another person falling to the same fate. Then another, and another.

Sara began to breath faster, then yanked on one of her shackles another set of times. She had to escape this nightmare. No matter how she bared her teeth and tried to break her bindings, she couldn't come loose as more people were atomised around her by the energy leaping from the crystal. She tried to break the other chain similarly. It would not come loose. The number of other people in the room was running out. All these people were gone. When the tendril came her way, Sara let go of the chains and turned to face it with a terrified look. She glanced almost pleadingly to the gunblade mercenary, who was one of the few who had made it this far, before she scrunched her eyes shut and prepared to die.

She felt the energy of the crystal run through her. Through gritted teeth, Sara screamed in defiance, but there was no pain. It was more of a numbness, followed by a buzz of energy. It didn't seem to last long, and Sara was left in her same standing position with her eyes shut. Her breathing was shallow and wheezing. As it slowed to a more steady pace, she realised she could still hear people dying, she could still feel that she had a body. She opened her eyes. She was still alive. She held her shaking gloved hands out in front of her. Why was she still alive? Why wasn't she dead like all the others? What is happening? Her legs gave way and she fell to her knees in shock. The mercenary in front of her hadn't been chosen yet, but Sara managed to inhale a gasp and point behind him at the incoming tendril, his time was coming as well.

Hearing no reply from Mal, Fuyuto heard Rena's pointless question that was directed to no-one. He turned to her to see if she was okay. She looked fine, but wanted to ask to be sure. As his mouth opened to speak, he could hear screams in all directions. Turning around, the red crystal's light was brighter than before, almost white. Tendrils of light came reaching out to people from the red crystal. People were glowing and vaporizing those who were touched by it. This frightened Fuyuto. "What the hell is happening!?" he exclaimed. He scanned the room. There was almost no-one left. However, he could see that some were touched by these tendrils, not disappearing. Is this supposed to be some sort of test of compatibility? He thought.

The light had finally reached to him, his odds were slim. So many others were killed, he expected the same. He braced himself, and then ... energy. Fuyuto opened his eyes, there was no pain. His body wasn't glowing in the same way that everyone else did. It seems he wasn't going to die. Looking at his right hand, he could see the light wrapping around his hand. He felt relieved ... for a moment.
Wait, what about Rena? And Mal? What happened to everyone else? His thoughts were chaotic as he turned to Rena. It appeared it didn't reach out to her yet, but it would only be a matter of time. He stared at Rena, hoping she would be safe, and that Mal was too. While staring, he called out for Mal. "Mal! Still alive!?" He waited, for a reply he had hoped would arrive.

CrimsonWarrior55 said
Mal was surprised when a girl asked to help him find Rena " Er... Thanks. She looks like-" "" "Oh... um... she looks like that girl over there" he pointed "But thank you for the help". Just as Malachi was about to respond to Fuu, something happened. A red, snake-like tendril leaped out the crystal and latched onto a man to Mal's left. Right before his eyes, the man turned into some kind of red energy. Looking around, the same was happening all around. "What the fu-!?" before Mal could even finish, a tendril latched around his right arm. Clenching his eyes, Mal was expecting pain... but nothing came. Instead, a massive rush of energy filled his body, like nothing he'd ever felt before.

Laecora immediately reached for Mal (as far as her chains would allow) once the red light faded from his body. "Are you okay?! What happened? Are you hurt anywhere?" One hand was desperately patting around her skirting to look for anything she could use for first aid if the need arose, but nothing was found. Her mind was churning, aqua eyes desperately searching around the room for some kind of connection between those who seem to have survived the crystal's touch when the red light reached out to her own body. The medic in her desperately fought to remain calm and catalogue what was happening to her in an attempt to understand. The rest of her mind won over as she attempted to dodge the tendril and failed due to the chains.

Her mind didn't calm once the energy filled her body, but her inner-medic took note of the fact that she seemed to be benefiting somehow from the crystal's tendril... for now?

Tyme Sat on the ground, the little girl, who revealed herself to be Erin, sat in his lap. Before he could respond to the woman's questions, the crystal's light got brighter before him, finally releasing something from it. It was a moment, a quick one. The girl he had sworn to protect was now gone, she was dead, died in his very arms. Tyme went into shock, his mind traveling to the day his sister died, he couldn't do anything then either. It was repeating, history, it had repeated again. Despite his years of training, despite everything he learned, he was still unable to save anyone. His eyes shifted to the crystal, the object that killed the girl, it was too dangerous. Tyme slowly stood, coming out of his shock, "You bastards...why would you kill her? She was just a kid. SHE WAS STILL JUST A KID! WHY WOULD YOU KILL AN INNOCENT CHILD?!" he shouted. He ignored the shackle, pulling at it as he tried to get closer to the crystal. He was going to smash it with his own two fists, he was going to avenge Erin's death, along with the others the crystal had taken. There was a creaking noise coming from the shackle, as if it were about to give in. Then it happened to him, he had been hit by the strange tendrils and slammed into the wall behind him. He slowly sat up, using his free hand to touch his chest, there wasn't any blood. In fact, there was nothing but energy flowing through him now, something he didn't quite understand. He stared back up at the crystal, just what was the purpose of all this? What was the purpose of this mass slaughter? Someone had to pay for this, someone had to answer for all these deaths. There was no way around that.

When the tendrils started shooting out and vaporizing people, Rena screamed, and curled into a ball. She couldn't watch this happening. She couldn't even deal with it. She started sobbing into her knees. If it was going to kill her, why didn't it hurry up? She'd never seen someone die before, let alone on this scale. It was...mortifying. When the tendril finally touched her, she noticed it was filling her full of energy. Invigorationg and...strange. She closed her eyes tight shut and waited for death. But it didn't come. The tendril left her.

She didn't move for several seconds, too stunned to talk or think, before reality started flooding back to her.

"Hello?" She shouted, with a weak voice. "Who else is here?"

It wasn't too long before things started to settle, the large herd of vagrants reduced to a mere 20, if even that. The crystal was surrounded by red specks. The whole room began to quake suddenly, and the specks of light began to encircle those that remained in the room.

Red stared blankly at the scene before him. He didn't understand what was going on, and the whole situation had stunned him. Before he could think on it too much, the lights entered his body. His wrist started to burn where it had been struck, and he reached to grab it, only to find something cold and solid over it. Hesitantly, he looked down. He slowly moved his right hand from his wrist, revealing a bracelet. "What... The hell is this...?" He mumbled. The bracelet was pearl colored with two gems in the sides, one black, one a pale green. "What the hell is this!?"

Again, he didn't have time to think on this before something interrupted. A small army of men wearing all black and gas masks entered the room from somewhere. There was something dangerous about them, and the assault rifles they each carried didn't help matters. Several of them reached for their hips, throwing a canister from them. The canisters started to emit a white gas into the room, and at that point, a memory came to Red.

Those canisters... THOSE CANISTERS! Red struggled against his shackles. He remembered now. These men, the canisters, the white gas. Whoever these men in the black masks were, they were the ones who had taken him from Alpha. Before Red could do anything else, though, he found himself succumbing to the gas, fading back into blackness.

~~~~~

Red awoke once more with a splitting headache. Once he'd gotten his bearings, he looked around. He appeared to be in a prison cell, and not a very private one at that. There was one granite wall with a toilet set to it, and the other 3 walls were made up exclusively of steel bars. Looking around, he could see that about half the people who'd been in the room when the strange men gassed them were there, and he was sure the other half were in a similar place. In the cells next to him were an old man and a man in a duster who'd not yet awoken, and across the hall he could see the gunblader from the ferry and the guard he'd seen that morning.