Chapter 1

She looked out from behind the crumbling apartment complex. The sky was red with the warning lights and the clouds were pitch black with smoke. Fires burned steadily. They weren’t yet put out from the last raid. Citizens were running and screaming for their lives. The Imperial Task Force was out rounding up suspected Resistance members. She cocked her weapon.

The Task Force had a small group of people huddled into the main square of the prefecture. The elderly, women, children, the sick. No one was safe. They were corralled like animals waiting for slaughter. She aimed the barrel a few feet away, and fired.

An explosion eroded a small chunk of the cobblestone just a few feet away from them. One of the officers fell in, distracting the others. The small group took this as an opportunity to get away.

One officer took two cadets and began chasing them, but was cut off by Adriel and Stefan. Other members of the Resistance began stepping out of the shadows.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Adriel shook his finger. “Taking innocent people on false charges, isn’t that against the Code?” he asked. The men looked around. By then Tarja had stepped out of the shadows, holding her grenade launcher. “We have a problem with that.” He grabbed the leading officer by his collar. "Do you know what we do to people like you?" The men glanced at one another as their eyes widened.

*****

As they drove away in the van, Tarja and Adriel giving each other side glances as the others waved to the grateful citizens as they drove off.

"You know," Stefan piped up at some point they're going to end up unraveling themselves from the flagpoles?" Adriel shrugged.

"All we did was put them up there. If they are to, oh, I don't know, fall and crack their heads open or break a limb, that's gravity's fault not ours." He turned to the others. "Page the hideout. Tell them the Fideli Square Liberation was successful, and we're on our way back."

*****

'Hello, citizens this is your hourly update, brought to you by the Nalmascan Empire! This morning the Resistance disrupted the weekly relocation attempt. As you know, some prefectures suffer from vast amounts of pollution. This is the second time that an attempt at relocation has failed due to the interference of the Resistance. Anyone who spots a member of the Resistance should contact the Imperial Task Force immediately. These individuals are armed and highly dangerous. Contact the ITF at-’ the radio buzzed as the radio encountered interference.

"Ha, great timing!" Arielle wiped the sweat from her brow. Cleo clipped the wires, rearranging them and fusing them in her own particular order. “Whatcha doin, sis?” she asked.

“Re-wiring. Right now I need to make sure it turns on.” She shut the door on the control panel and went over to the switch. Several clicks, and nothing. “We’re still missing something…but what?” she mused. Cleo looked at the machine. She circled around.

“A power source, perhaps?” she asked. Arielle’s eyes were aglow.

“Brilliant!” she gave her sister a high five. “But where would we acquire the necessary power source? There’s hardly anything like that left in the city.” Cleo shrugged as she wiped the grease off her face.

“I don’t know quite yet, but I’ll get Cid to give me some sort of direction on where I could find something.” She pulled her scarf over her face as the sand started kicking up. “We better get back to the city before the sandstorm hits. Tarja and Adriel will be worried sick if we’re out here too long.”

“Agreed. And you know sis, Stefan hates it when you call him Cid.” Cleo shrugged.

“It just seems fitting,” she replied. Arielle picked up their tools and followed her sister to the aeroscooter, and flew off in the direction of Spira.

*****

Tarja and Adriel were none too pleased when they figured out the twins had been out in the desert again.

“Probably talking to those filthy Al Bhed, again no doubt.” Tarja sniffed.

“They’re not filthy, they’re quite clean actually.” Arielle retorted. Tarja just rolled her eyes. Adriel put his hands on the girls’ shoulders.

“It’s dangerous to be out without a grown member of the Resistance, if the ITF catches you, Heaven knows what they’ll do to you. You have to be more careful, do you understand?” the girls nodded.

“Yes, Captain.” They answered in unison.

“Good.” He smiled, turning to the others. “Alright, meeting. We need to discuss our next course of action.”

“Yes sir!” the crew resounded.  Tarja however, just smiled and gave him a silent salute. The girls made to follow, but Adriel held his hand up.

“Whoa! Where do you tykes think you’re going?” he asked.

“To the meeting!” exclaimed Cleo. “We’re a part of the Resistance too.” She pouted. Her sister followed suit, both of them batting their eyelashes. Adriel wasn’t having any of it.

“No, mission meetings aren’t for the younger ones. You’ll stay back. You can’t go on any of the missions yet anyway, not until-”

“We come of age and understand the heavy responsibility that being an adult member of the Resistance carries.” They repeated. It was something that they had heard many times before. He smiled at them.

“Well then, we’ll see you after the meeting” he turned back to them. “Don’t leave home base, we need to make sure you’re safe, especially after our little stunt this morning.” the girls smiled as they ran off to find Rikku.

*****

“Alright,” Adriel clapped his hands together as he took his seat next to Tarja and Stefan. “We need to come up with another game plan, as well as try to figure out a way to keep us all safe. They’ve heightened security and the bounty on each our heads. We need to be a little less careless.” Mike raised his hand.

“We might be a bit safer if we wear masks. We’ll be harder to identify and it will be less likely that they’ll come after our families.” Adriel nodded.

“True, but what good would that do now? They have practically every one of us on a poster. It’s not like we haven’t been seen.”

“I don’t know, Adriel,” Tarja piped up. “It might help. Some of us have families that need safekeeping, and it’s too dangerous to move them out here now that Spira is being so heavily monitored. He placed his hands on his chin, deep in thought.

As he opened his mouth to speak, the warning siren went off. Martijn rushed into the hall. “Captain! There’s suspicious activity taking place in the Besaid prefecture! Come see the monitor!” he cried. Adriel and Tarja rushed into the control room.

There, on the screen, a fluorescent beam of light was coming down from the sky, right into the bay. “Does the ITF have any intel on this?” he asked.

“Not that we know of, our sensors went off about two minutes ago.” Said Ruud, who was typing like mad. Adriel looked over at Tarja. “Get the aeroscooter, we’ll go ourselves and check it out.” He turned to the rest of the crew. “The rest of you shall stay here unless we call for backup or another emergency arises.” They then shot off into the tunnel that held on the vehicles, and sped off.

*****

They flew through the sand, across the border of the city and through the jungle surrounding the peaceful seaside village of Besaid. They dismounted the scooter near a cave and drew their weapons as they neared the origin of the beam.

“Be careful, Tarja,” Adriel whispered as they quietly moved through the brush.

“You don’t need to tell me twice, I’ve done these kinds of missions before you know.” She chided. Adriel reached out and moved a giant fern out of their way. They finally stepped foot onto sand as the beam flickered.

“What’s it doing?” asked Tarja. Adriel held his hand up for silence. Tarja scowled at him. She did not take kindly to being shushed. However, today, she would make an exception. A small dot seemed to float down from the beam.

They slowly approached. The dot grew larger and larger as it descended into the water. Tarja looked over Adriel’s shoulder. It seemed to be…a figure.

“It’s a person!” she cried, rushing forward.

“Tarja, be careful!” Adriel cried, running after her. A good deal ahead of him, she rushed into the water, grabbing the person’s arm. She kicked at the sand and dragged the body onto the beach. Adriel approached them just as she moved the person’s hair.

It was a woman. She had auburn locks and a small frame. Her eyes were closed, and peaceful. “She’s not, dead, is she?” he asked. Tarja put her finger up to the woman’s jugular. She felt a hot sensation, and then a small beat.

“No, she’s alive.” Adriel nodded, looking around. “What do you reckon we do with her then?” he asked, his hand fiddling with his saber. Tarja shot him a look, her bright green eyes boring into him. “She just fell from the sky; we need to bring her back to home base. Especially if the ITF has heard about this. We can’t let them get a hold of her.” Adriel nodded.

“Very well then, but she’s your responsibility.” Tarja nodded.

“Understood, Captain.” Adriel gently picked her up and adjusted her onto his shoulder as they made their way back to the aeroscooter. They had a difficult time situating themselves, as it was built for one to two people, not an entire party.

The trip back home was going to be a bit slow because of the heavier weight. Adriel hoped they would make it safely, Tarja gunned it.

END OF CHAPTER 1