[A/N: Well, I've sat around long enough and have decided to give it another go. I apologize for leaving the story in limbo for a short while, but I needed to rethink and try to get an idea where the New Blood is going. Future installments will most likely be updated depending on the number of reviews I get. I do not own FFX-2 or any other Square product. And now...]

Chapter 4: Mission Time

"I don't like this," Maya grumbled as she gripped her staff with both hands. The wind picked up, tossing some of her silver locks into her eyes.

"I don't think any of us likes this, Maya," Elsa replied as she adjusted the leather bag on her back; she had unscrewed her glaive into two sections and stowed them for the time being so as not to draw attention. "After all, nobody in their right mind would want to sabotage the Highroad security grid, and someone who would want to do that could be capable of a lot more."

"No, Ellie, I meant I don't like this," Maya shot back, gesturing sharply in front of them at the crowds that thronged the streets of Luca. Dozens of merchant wagons were out peddling their wares as children played tag in the market square. Numerous shoppers wound their way past the two young women, some casting long glances in their direction. Every once in a while, a small group of people would stare at one or the other for a moment, then back away chattering something, often with a tone of awe or amusement in their voices. "Why did we have to head into Luca on the busiest damn shopping day of the week?" Maya muttered, with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Sorry, I forgot about that," Elsa replied awkwardly. "C'mon, let's find a place to sit."

"Better not stray too far from the town square, ya?" Vidina piped up as he approached the two. "We don't want Krys or Derrik to get lost tryin' to find us." The girls nodded in agreement and the three of them made their way through the crowds to the curbside café. The tables inside were packed, but luckily there was still some space on a bench just outside, where the trio collapsed and stretched for a moment. Maya breathed a long sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry Ellie, I just can't deal with crowds this big," she eventually said in a subdued tone. "I know I should be over it by now, I'm practically an adult; I just don't know why I can't shake being uneasy like this."

Elsa sighed. "Sometimes these things stay with us longer than we want, Maya. It's not your fault; you didn't ask to be in the spotlight as a kid."

"But you and Krys have been in the spotlight a lot more than I have, and you deal with crowds just fine!" Maya replied. "How is it that you both managed to cope so easily and I can't?"

"Well..." Elsa began, but then stopped. This was something they'd talked about many times before, and each time Elsa was unable to answer. Was it something in the blood? The way they were raised, or where they were raised? She, her brother and Maya had all grown up under the world's eyes as the children of heroes, so what was the key difference? There had never been an easy answer as to why they could cope with crowds and Maya couldn't, and now she was broaching the subject again when they needed to be thinking of something else.

"Look, Maya," Vidina interjected, "sometimes these things just take time. Everyone's a little different, an' we've all gotta do things our own way, you know? I'm sure there's people out there that're worse off than you, people that don't talk to anybody but themselves because they never learned how to talk to anybody at all." He leaned back and rested his arms on the back of the bench. "I'm no expert, but if you ask me, I think you're gonna do all right in good time, ya? Just don't worry about it and keep your mind on something else."

Maya blinked, then smiled slightly. "I guess you're right, Red," she said. "And I know you're right about keeping my mind on something else; might as well focus on who busted the machina control console."

"Yeah, and speaking of which, where the hell are Derrik and Krys? They shouldn't have been gone this long!" Elsa grumbled, shifting her weapon satchel across her legs. "I mean, how many stores can there be that sell the same damn thing?"

"You'd be surprised," Maya answered. "I know that up in Bevelle you can't throw a rock in the commercial districts without hitting at least two weapon shops, and it's probably the same down here in Luca. Machina or no, people still need to protect themselves from fiends."

"Buncha paranoids," Vidina chortled, slapping his right fist into his left palm. "Swords can get knocked away or broken. You really want to come out of a fiend fight in one piece, you gotta know how to use your body as a weapon."

Maya raised an eyebrow at him. "I find it very satisfying to be able to eliminate a fiend without laying a finger on it, personally," she said cooly, flexing the fingers on her left hand and conjuring minute electrical arcs that danced along her forearm. Elsa smirked and leaned back, staring up at the sky. She overheard two kids talking excitedly about the daughter of Spira's Chancellor sitting with the daughter of the High Summoner, and chuckled as one tried to urge the other to go up and ask their autographs.

Never fails, she thought. Happens at least once whenever Krys and I come to Luca... and where in the Farplane is he anyway?

"Well, that's three shops so far and we still don't have any leads on that dagger," Derrik muttered as he traipsed down a side alley behind Krys. "We don't have a weaponsmith's mark on the blade, none of the ones we've talked to have anything like that in stock, what're we gonna do now?"

Krys folded his arms and sighed. "There's still one or two more shops on the far side of Luca; we might as well check those out before we give up on this place."

"Oh, come on, cuz!" Derrik groaned, letting his arms dangle in frustration. "The more time we spend around here, the further away whoever busted the terminal is going to get from us! Why don't we just head back up the Highroad and check it out again, see if we can't find more clues?"

"Because by the time we do get back, someone will have swept the scene and we won't have any lead on where they may be or who they are," Krys replied, shifting the sword on his back. "Fact is, this dagger is the only thing we've got right now and the closest place that might sell weapons is here in Luca, so it's only logical that we start here."

"Fine, fine," Derrik relented. "I still don't get it; why would someone do something like that? Mom told me people had more or less accepted machines by the time I was born."

"Yeah... well, maybe some people have difficulty accepting change," said Krys. "My mom said the Church of New Yevon was the same way; a lot of people really didn't want to give up the traditions, even when they got exposed as a fraud all those years ago. They didn't undergo any real change until that discovery at the lowest levels of Bevelle, remember?"

Derrik nodded. "You mean when they discovered the records of worship in the time before Yevon, right? Those really old spheres concerning the legends of the Maker?"

"Yeah, the godlike being who supposedly gave life to all of Spira," said Krys. "New Yevon sure underwent some changes once they began to learn about the Edicts of the Maker- but like I said, there was some resistance to it even then. It might be someone still has a grudge against machina, too..."

Just then a low drawl spoke up from the shadows of a nearby doorway. "Tha's a nice lookin' sword you got there, mate. Very nice indeed, eh?" Krys and Derrik stopped and turned around as a scrawny man in blue baggy clothes and a gray vest emerged from the doorway, his arms swinging in a loose-limbed gait. He stared at the two vacantly and grinned, displaying several gaps where teeth were missing. "Too nice a blade for a lil' nipper like ye to be totin' around, if'n you ask me."

"Excuse me?" Krys asked, folding his arms and glaring at the man.

"I think you 'eard me quite well, mate. I'll be a-takin' that fancy sword o' yours for me own, if'n you'd be so kind," the man sneered, producing a battered crowd control club and swinging it petulantly. "Not like you gots anywhere to go, anyways." He snapped his fingers and Derrik blinked as seven figures, ranging from whip lean maniacs to fat toadies, began filing into the alley. Everyone of them was chuckling softly, carrying an assortment of weaponry that appeared to have been "appropriated" from hardware stores or the docks.

"You really have no clue, do you?" Krys muttered, putting a hand to his forehead.

"Ey, watch it mate, you're dealin' with The Great Maloney 'ere!" the scrawny man said. "And you might as well be layin' that blade down afore ye hurt yourself with it, along with all th' gil in yer pockets." He began to laugh, and the seven lackeys around him began flexing their arms and brandishing their scrounged weapons.

"Eight against two..." Derrik sighed. "Just doesn't seem fair to me."

Maloney spat on the ground. "We gots us a livin' to make. Nobody ever said life was fair, matey."

"You can say that again," said Krys with a sly glint in his eye.

"You think maybe they decided to hit the shops on the far side of town without tellin' us or something?" Vidina asked, leaning back with his hands behind his head.

"Eh, doubtful, but you never know with my brother," Elsa replied with a sigh. "I just wish there was something to do right now; we scouted all the shops on our checklist twice with no luck, and if they don't get back here with their results soon I think I'm gonna scream."

"Just give 'em a bit longer, Ellie," said Vidina. "Hey, wanna play a quick game of Sphere Break?"

Elsa rolled her eyes. "Forget it, Red, you're no challenge when it comes to that game."

"Ey! I'm gettin' better!"

"Better than a Hypello, maybe," Maya added with a grin. Vidina scowled as the two girls started laughing and dug his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. Just then a distant shriek pierced the air.

All three of them glanced upwards, their eyes darting across the horizon. "What was that?" Maya asked, gripping her staff.

"Sounds like it came from the stadium causeway..." Elsa muttered. Several more shouts began echoing through the streets, followed by a dozen or more residents scrambling into the town square; their faces were pale and their eyes wide. An inhuman screech suddenly rent the air, and there was no doubt in their minds what it was. "Looks like Luca picked a bad day to host some fiends," Elsa growled as she jumped off the bench, ripping open her weapon satchel as she did so.

"I thought fiends didn't get into Luca much!" said Vidina as he adjusted his gloves.

"No, they get in once in a while; Council guardsmen usually keep the incidents under control," said Maya in a low voice. "Normally I'd say we let the local authorities handle it- but personally, I need the practice," she added, twirling her staff in one hand.

"You can say that again; Night Hawks, let's move out!" Elsa replied gleefully as she slammed the two halves of her glaive together. "Maybe now we can get my slacker brother back here." Putting her fingers to her lips, she unleashed a loud, strident whistle that resonated across the square before nodding to her two companions and charging towards the causeway.

Maloney crashed backwards into some garbage cans, his face covered in bruises and blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. "H-hey, c'mon now, lads, g-give us a b-break now, eh? I didn' mean nothin' by it, it were all j-just a little joke! I was just f-funnin' with ya, nothing more!" he stammered, holding his hands in front of his face pathetically.

"I'm only going to say this once, you scum," Krys said as he stood over Maloney, cracking his knuckles. "One. Before you try and mug somebody, try and size up what they're capable of. Two. Don't try and mug anybody, you're just hurting yourself. Three, NOBODY tries to lay their hands on my father's sword without my approval."

"I- I gets it, mate. N-nobody touches yer pa's... w-wait, that's yer ol' man's s-sword you got there?" Maloney stammered. "That's n-not jus' some fancy replica of... of..." His eyes grew wider still as Krys drew Brotherhood off his back and held it less than an inch from his battered face. "Y-you mean... YOU'RE..."

"Guess he finally got the message, cuz," Derrik said with a smile as he stood up from the collapsed bodies of some of Maloney's lackeys. "Talk about second-rate, these guys couldn't even stand up to one lousy sleep gas grenade."

"And the ones who did, had glass jaws," Krys said, flipping Brotherhood back into its sheath. "Now, Maloney, you and I are going to have a talk."

"P-please, young master, I d-didn' know it were you! I swear, I wouldn' never think of attackin' the heir of Spira's saviors! I promise you, I didn' know who you was when I saw ye!!"

"I'm sure you didn't," said Krys with an amused look on his face. "Look, I'm having a bit of a bad day right now, and the city watch would be very grateful if I turned you and your boys in right now." Maloney squirmed and backed up against the wall, sweat running down his temples. "However, I'm also in need of some information and it just might be that you could help me in this department. That's a big maybe though, so let's get down to business." With a quick motion, Krys produced the dagger, holding it two inches from Maloney's face, who audibly gulped and whose eyes started to bulge out of their sockets.

"We found this on the Mi'ihen Highroad, apparently used to render a bunch of the patrol machina useless and vulnerable to fiend attacks," Krys said in a low voice with one hand on Maloney's vest lapel. "I'll wager anything the guy who did it may be capable of doing much more, but we don't know who it might be or where he is. If you know someone who likes this sort of dagger and tell me where he is, I might go easy on you."

Derrik crossed his arms and sighed. "Krys, this is stupid. The moron probably can't tell a dagger from a butter knife; we'll have better luck at one of the stores."

"W-wait a second there, m-mates," Maloney stammered. "I... I think I do knows somebody who fancies that sort of blade, s-shifty lookin' bloke, always wears a hooded cape... but he's jus' a small-timer, like me! Saw him down at the docks about a week ago, drunk as a fish, babblin' his bleedin' head off..."

Krys' eyes narrowed. "His name?"

"Dunno, lad! He's a lone wolf, keeps to hisself, never tells nobody his name!"

Derrik stepped closer. "Was he babbling anything that sounded anti-machina or that suggested sabotage?"

"Naw, nothing o' that sort! Jus' some nonsense about how the world needs to return to its roots, but he always says rubbish like that; bleedin' regressionist if you ask me..."

"Where is he now?"

A small smile crossed Maloney's lips. "Well, now that I couldn't say, lads. See, me memory acts up from time to time, and I need this... rather expensive medicine to help cure it, and seeing as how I gots no gil at the moment..."

Derrik glared at him. "I'd be perfectly happy to mix you up a memory medication and administer it to you in suppository form; how's about that?" Maloney's eyes grew wide and a bead of sweat ran down his temple as he stammered, "H-honestly mate, I don't really know; he s-said he was headin' up North to 'make amends' and that's all I got out of him; he was flippin' sloshed that day, an' I ain't seen him since!!!"

Just then a whistle reverberated down the alleyways, prompting Krys' head to jerk upward. "Sounds like sis wants us back," he muttered, dropping Maloney and whipping his guns out of their holsters. "Bet you there's fiend trouble out there; she wouldn't have whistled otherwise."

"We've got what we can here; let's go kick some butt!" Derrik replied, snapping his bracer blades into position. The two darted towards the end of the alley, pausing long enough for Derrik to turn back and cast a disparaging glance at the still-rattled Maloney.

"Talk about pathetic; that guy's worse than Uncle Brother," he muttered with a smirk before rejoining Krys and sprinting towards the town square.

[A/N: There may be a while until my next update; many things are calling my attention and I have one or two other stories I am working on as well. As always, reviews are welcome and if you are confused by this story, I suggest you read (or even re-read) A New Threat To Spira. End of shameless plug. I apologize again for the delay- and any future delays- but hey, life happens.]