Pointless Slaughter - Alexandria's Fall By Sky Render It was a bright sunlit day, full of pleasant thoughts and pleasanter goings-on. Not the sort of day you'd expect the world to come crashing down, that's for sure. Unfortunately, as Zidane Tribal would shortly discover, appearances can be deceiving. In fact, it tends to be more the rule than the exception, on this particular day... The day was the royal wedding between Princess Garnet Til Alexandros III and Zidane Tribal. A very controversial wedding as well, for it was well known that Zidane was in fact a thief in his previous career. But though the story truly revolves around this curious individual, it does not start with him. Rather, our story starts some ways away, in a small house on the outskirts of Alexandria, where two unlikely friends were meeting... "You're sure this will work?" asked Adelbert Steiner, captain of the Alexandria guard. "Certain of it," said the dark-robed orange-hatted little man in front of him. "I know you're not as skilled as your... well, your father was," Steiner said. The little cloaked man chuckled. "You needn't worry, Steiner. I learned from Vivi myself. He taught me all about these sorts of spells. So then, your goal is the death of one Zidane Tribal, is this correct?" Steiner nodded, suddenly feeling rather uneasy. "You're really certain this will work?" he asked again. The cloaked figure sighed in exasperation. "For the sixth time, yes. All you need to do is strike. I will handle everything else..." And with that, the little man simply disappeared, as though he had never been there at all. Meanwhile, the court of the palace was being decorated for the occasion by a few other unlikely friends. "Watch where you put that thing!" Eiko shouted to a strange blob dressed as a chef. "Me sorry," Quina replied, drawing its tongue away from the vat of decorative stars that Eiko was currently hanging around the hall. "Why am I stuck doing this?" Amarant wondered from the corner, idly flicking a knife in the air. "Because you signed up for it, silly," Eiko said, and tossed one of the stars at him. Amarant deftly caught it in his free hand, still tossing his knife in the other one. "Right, I knew it was something like that..." he muttered, quickly sticking the star up with the others on the string above him. Elsewhere, Zidane was busy with other matters. "You're sure the security will be extra tight?" he was asking a strange red-clothed woman. "I've put the entire Dragon Knight brigade on the task," the woman responded, "You needn't worry, old friend." Zidane broke into a wide grin. "Thanks, Freya. I knew I could count on you. Now, how about we sneak off into town for a quick drink? All this wedding preparation is making me want to lose sobriety fast." Freya raised an eyebrow curiously, but followed him just the same out of the palace entryway and across the recently built bridge into Alexandria proper. "This dress really is beautiful," Garnet said. Beatrix smiled, and made another small adjustment on it. "Yes, it really is. But I'd rather hoped you'd be wearing it to wed somebody more, well, proper..." Garnet sighed. "Haven't we covered this, Beatrix? I'd rather marry for love than because I'm a princess. The title's not even rightfully mine any longer, anyway." Beatrix smiled benignly. "Best not let the subjects of Alexandria hear you saying that. They still think you're the daughter of Brahne. Imagine the outroar if they found out the truth!" Garnet rolled her eyes, and turned around so Beatrix could work on the rear of the dress. "I honestly don't care how they'd react," she said with vindiction. "Ah, this is the place!" Zidane said happily, and walked right into the Alexandria bar. "You know this is a bad idea," Freya told him as she followed him in, but Zidane just shrugged and walked up to the counter. "I suppose that old saying about poisonous toadstools is true," Freya said glumly as Zidane proceeded to buy most of the drinks sold at the bar. "You say something, Freya? Somethin' 'bout poison?" Freya shook her head, and turned about from her old friend. "I'm going back to the palace. Try to stagger back yourself before the wedding begins," she said with an unmistakable aire of sarcasm. Zidane was already too occupied with his drinks to care. Suddenly, Freya found herself half-sitting on the ground. She looked up angrily, and saw a figure in the doorway. "Watch where you're going," she said irately, and brushed past without bothering to look at who it was. Steiner huffed irritably as the mouse-like woman walked out, and then turned his attention to the bar. An evil grin spread over his face as he spotted Zidane. This was too perfect. He could go about his plan early, and put a stop to this wedding nonsense. "Zazi," he muttered, and the dark-cloaked little man from before appeared at his side. "Yes? Ah, I see what you're up to. Very well." Quietly drawing his sword, Steiner approached Zidane from behind and lifted his sword over his head. He felt a spell imbue his blade from behind. This was it... "Hey! You can't draw that thing in here!" Steiner's mind panicked, and he swung his blade at the voice that had said that. A shuddering gasp met his ears as Ruby, one of the ex-members of the Tantalus troop, was hit by his enchanted blade. "No..." he said in horror as Ruby slid off of his blade, dying. Zazi the black mage walked up to him. "You missed, you incompetent sot. Now look what you've done. Lucky for you your real target is too drunk to notice. Better finish him now, before he catches on." Steiner turned to Zazi, and a feeling of utter hate came over him. He swung his blade again, and beheaded the black mage in one stroke. The severed head of Zazi looked up at him and said "You shouldn't have done that..." Suddenly, a strange sensation came over Steiner. It was as if all of the hate and loathing of the world had come crashing down on him, and been made his. His goal forgotten, Steiner left the bar instead and wandered off towards the palace. He had a new plan: he would kill everyone. Slashing his way through the people in the streets, he rushed towards the palace, across the bridge, and began slaying the soldiers who had been set to guard the palace from intruders. Laughing maniacally as he cut down his own Knights of Pluto, chortling with glee as he beheaded a Dragon Knight, he suddenly felt his rush of hatred and evil pass, and had it replaced by a terrible, yet brief, stab of pain in his head. That pain, not coincidentally, was from having Freya's spear jammed through his skull. "What happened to him?" asked one of Freya's knights. But Freya did not respond. "Captain?" another knight asked, approaching her. He gasped in horror as Freya impaled him on her spear, then cleaved him in two with the bladed edge of her weapon. The other knights turned and ran in fear as their captain tore into them, killing them with brutal efficiency. Death, killing, blood, murder, hate, destruction... These were the only things piercing Freya's mind as she finished the work that Steiner had begun. The thirst for death was not satisfied even as she laid waste to the final soldier. She would seek out the people in the palace... Walking into the entry hall, coated in blood, she did not stop to gape as her former allies did. This proved to be the end for Eiko, whom Freya dove onto and skewered like a shish kebab. Freya's victory was laid short as a knife impaled itself in her back, tossed by the expert hand of Amarant. She fell, enraged, and was shortly sliced to ribbons by Amarant's sharp claws. "You kill her! She good to eat now?" Quina inquired. Amarant stood stock-still for a second, then turned and clawed Quina's tongue right off her face. Reeling in terror, Quina tried to run, but was quickly felled by a thrown shuriken. Whatever curse had afflicted Steiner and Freya was now his. And he was more than ready to make use of it... "What IS all that commotion?" Beatrix asked. "I don't know," Garnet said, "but it's coming this way." A second later, the frame of the door into the room burst open, and Amarant dove on top of Beatrix, clawing her apart. "Run!" Beatrix shouted thickly as Amarant assaulted her, but Garnet was frozen in place. Amarant gave a particularly nasty slash, and Beatrix stopped moving. Satisfied, he turned on Garnet. But he would not lay a single claw upon her, for she had summoned Bahamut. "Oh crap..." were his last words as the king of dragons vaporized him. "That was close," Garnet said. She turned to her friend and mentor, but saw that it was far too late to save her. Crying, she stood up, and then realized that Bahamut had not left yet. Slowly, she faced the king of dragons. Her last sight before she died was a massive ball of white-hot fire being launched from the dragon's mouth. Within minutes, the entire castle had been reduced to rubble. The dragon then turned on the city, and burnt most of it to cinders. Not satisfied, for the curse of death had become its own, Bahamut then left Alexandria to destroy the rest of the world, as it knew it must. Meanwhile, in the ruins of the bar, somehow still alive, Zidane got up drunkenly and looked about. "Th' hell?" he muttered, and walked outside. "Okay, who threw a big party and didn't invite me?" he asked stupidly, then wandered off towards the castle. Seeing the stone and mortar of the palace literally melted seemed to help sober Zidane up, who finally realized that this was most definitely not the aftermath of a big party. Unable to speak or even think, he turned mutely towards Lindblum. The answers would lie there, he was sure... To be continued...