So…I had this urge to write a fanfic about FFX-2 but I couldn't think of anything original until I got to the Bevelle underground. Ok…so there are these two accessories, the Wring and Bloodlust. You get them in the Bevelle underground and they have weird abilities, Majo's soul and Kijo's soul respectively. What these do to you is really quite trivial in the story but I found the ability names interesting. Who are Kijo and Majo? So…I'm writing a fic about it. Honestly? I don't expect many people to pay attention to it. It won't have all that many recognizable characters. Probably at least a couple will make appearances although this is more about the history of Spira and Zanarkand than anything else. The Machina War of 1000 years ago will be the basic setting. It will follow Kijo and Majo, two people through their part in the war. This should attract some people if only because it's pretty well written I think.

Disclaimer- Don't own any of the characters or places mentioned in the Prologue, we'll see about later though.

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Prologue

"Rikku! Hit it one more time!"

The young brunette waved emphatically from her place against the enormous wall. She wore miniscule formfitting jean shorts and covered her left leg with a long flowing piece of cloth. The cloth itself was colored like a spring morning, with light blues fading into white. It was held in place by a belt that wrapped around loosely with a satchel hanging off to the left. Her plain white shirt fit close, but loosely around her form, revealing a large emblem hanging from her front by a string. She jumped up and down impatiently but with a friendly and excited smile on her face. Her left hand was clenched tightly and, as if afraid to lose something important, she held it close to her body.

"Sure thing, Yunie!"

The sprightly blonde skipped cheerfully to a section of the dark gray tiles that rose up and gave way to a translucent dome. Her long orange and yellow scarf flapped crazily in her wake as she leapt upwards and landed on the raised dome of glass. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the ground sprang to light. Purple rose from the ground and illuminated the scantily clad girl. In the violet glow, her white cotton sleeves shone a bright copper and her hair radiated an odd dark blue.

In the center of the enormous room, a soft whirring of gears began to echo. The sound grew louder until it filled the ears of all those in the area. The enormous machinery, they had found out its name was the Gaol, creaked grudgingly into motion. The five enormous cylinders rotated once around the immense shaft of metal placed in the middle. They spun clockwise for a moment and then halted. One by one, each of the five cylinders dropped down or rose up on their own. The nearest one to the girl Rikku, fell downwards to become level with the walkway.

"Ok Rikku! That's great!" Yuna waved excitedly again with her right hand. Rikku waved back and hopped off the glowing platform. Quietly, it grew dim and gray once again. With the shut down of the light, the enormous Gaol whirred loudly and clanked to a noisy standstill. "Perfect!" Yuna laughed excitedly and jumped from her ledge against the wall. She landed with a small stumble atop one of the large cylinders. For a moment, she hopped on one foot to regain her balance and then placed the other one down experimentally.

"Be careful, Yunie!" Rikku yelled with anxiety.

Yuna tapped her boot against the cold metal and smiled brightly at the young blonde. "Don't worry about me! I'll be just fine!" And with that, she leapt deftly across the large metal beams that connected the cylinders to the rotating shaft. After climbing down perhaps twenty feet of treacherous metal machina, Yuna stood triumphantly on the ground level cylinder. "See, told you I'd be-" she began to say boastfully.

"Show us what you got," a cold and logical voice interrupted. Yuna's shoulders drooped in disappointment. She glanced at the stoic silver haired sphere-hunter and sighed dramatically. Despite her own feelings, it was Rikku that spoke up in her defense.

"Paaaa-aaaaiine! Yuna and I worked really hard to get those!" Rikku whined annoyingly. For a moment, she danced anxiously on her toes around the silent girl and then tugged affectionately on her black leather sleeve. "Let Yuna do things her way okay?"

Yuna smiled at her friend's attempt to defend her. Rikku cared for her a lot. She was lucky to have friends like that. Even so, she turned to Paine and said with a cheerful voice, "You're never one to drag things out, are you Paine?" Paine's lips twitched slightly with the effort of withholding a smile. She shook her head slowly. "Well that's alright…we should get down to business after all." Paine nodded wisely.

"So show us the goods, Yuna," she said with a warm smile.

Yuna twisted her toe against the ground and rocked back and forth like a small child. She smiled shyly and then thrust out her hand to reveal two colorful rings lying in her palm. The two accessories glowed with opposing colors and shone brightly in her hand.

"Wow!" Rikku leaned in close to the treasures with shining eyes. "These look super-rare!"

Yuna grinned widely, thoroughly enjoying her friend's reaction. "Well I would hope so! After all the trouble we went through to get them!"

Once again, Pain interjected a fun-killing suggestion to the exciteable pair's private party. "You should have Shinra scan those to see what they can do for us."

Rikku drooped visibly and put her hands on her hips indignantly. She straightened up and raised a finger to poke it towards Paine in a pout. For a moment it looked as though she were going to say something insulting but she was interrupted by the buzz of her headset. All three girls paused and listened as their earpieces purred softly with static. Then, without warning, a voice broke through.

"Two steps ahead of you, Paine." The overconfident voice of a small Al Bhed boy spoke into their heads.

"You sneaky little kid," Paine said with mock annoyance. "When did you scan them?"

The smug boy let out a small snort that clearly said, 'isn't it obvious?' After gloating to himself for a moment, he spoke into their headsets again. "As soon as Yuna took them out of the chests, of course."

""So what'd you find out, Shinra?" Yuna said, hoping to intervene between the mounting tensions of the Al Bhed and Paine.

Shinra sounded disappointed that his chance to gloat had been taken away, but quickly recovered. "Well, the brighter ring, the one you got first, is called Wring. With a W." the three girls glanced automatically at the accessories in Yuna's hand. it became apparent fairly quickly which ring Shinra was speaking about. The leftmost ring shone bright, cheerful colors and occasionally turned completely white. Yuna reached for it and put in her right hand.

"And the other one?" Paine asked with interest. The remaining ring glowed with dark colors, mainly a deep brick red an dark purple although occasionally reverting back to a solid black.

"This one's perfect for you, Paine." Shinra chuckled for a moment and then continued. "The other one is called Bloodlust."

Rikku choked down a laugh and Yuna, failing to do so, covered her hand with her mouth. Paine's fists clenched and she turned her face skyward and yelled into her mouthpiece. "You come down here and say that you little shrimp!" There was a long pause while Yuna regained her composure with a helping glare from Paine. They waited for a few more seconds before Shinra spoke again.

"See what I mean."

This time, neither of the girls could control themselves and they both fell to the ground in heaps of laughter. Paine seethed quietly and then smiled genuinely. She let out a sarcastic "Ha ha," and then said to her companions. "Alright…get up. It's not that funny." Once her two partners had regained their balance and wiped the tears from their eyes, she spoke into her headset. "And what about their abilities? Anything useful?"

There was a long pause and then Shinra coughed lightly. "Ok…so I ran a couple tests to make sure that this wasn't just a fluke, but I came up with the same thing every time." Yuna and Rikku looked at each other with interest. Paine continued to stare at the ground, listening intently. "No matter what I do, I get the same thing."

"Just tell us already!" Rikku exploded in annoyance.

Shinra let out a surprised noise that sounded an awful lot like a 'harrumph' and said, "Don't rush me. I'm just trying to relay the facts." This time it was Rikku who let out the annoyed sound effect. After her own disgruntled noise, she pulled down one eyelid and stuck her tongue out, presumably in the direction of their ship, the Celsius. "In any case," Shinra continued with a sardonic tone. "They've both got abilities that have never before been seen in an accessory. "For example, Wring has several stat reductions related to your physical being coupled with a drastic increase in your offensive magic capabilities." The trio mulled it over in their heads for a moment and then nodded in unison, each coming to drastically different conclusions.

"As for the Bloodlust accessory," Shinra forged ahead in his explanation. "It decreases your magical stats to near uselessness and really hits hard against your defense and health but it will raise your physical strength up to an astounding 60." Once again, the three girls rolled the idea over in their heads.

"Have one of us in White Mage dress, and another one ready for backup just in case and that could be really useful," muttered Paine in thought. Then, shaking herself from her reverie she looked upwards and asked, "Any special properties? Like status proofs or anything?"

"Not quite," Shinra said gravely. For a moment it seemed that he was struggling with what to say. Finally, after a substantial pause, he sighed deeply. "The only abilities I've managed to get a hold of…this is what I was talking about before…are as such: Wring has the special property called Majo's Soul, and Bloodlust has the special property of Kijo's Soul."

Once again, the girls took a moment to ponder the words of their Al Bhed technician. The new abilities echoed in their minds as they slowly considered what they meant. All at once, they let out a defeated yet contemplative sigh.

"Well what does that mean?" the three asked in unison. There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Shinra remained silent for a long time, breathing softly into the earpieces of the three friends.

"I'm just a kid," he said simply, and the line went dead.

The trio stared at each other and then at the high ceiling, then returned their gazes to each other once more.

"That little brat!" exploded Rikku. "He got my hopes up for nothing! Thinks he knows everything. Just wait 'til we get back to the Celsius. I'll give him a piece of my mind!" Rikku pranced about angrily, jumping and swinging her arms in a small contained rage.

"Whatever." Paine stepped forward and held out a hand toward Yuna. "If he won't tell us, we need to try it ourselves." She pressed her open palm forward with meaning and said, "Gimme Bloodlust, I'll give it a test run the next time we run into fiends." Yuna handed the darkly glowing ring to Paine and began to pocket the other accessory.

"Wait a minute!" Rikku leapt forth and planted her hands on her hips in defiance. "If Paine gets to try one then so do I!" She thrust a hand forward expectantly. Yuna smiled sweetly and then put the ring in Rikku's small hand. The girl held it up with widened eyes. "It's soooooo pretty!" she let out a loud laugh and pocketed the accessory with a wide grin.

"Are you Dullwings about done yet?" A tall and irritable blonde gestured widely with her enormous fan. "I'm tired of waiting!"

"Cool your jets Leblanc," Rikku said wearily. She shook her head, bright yellow hair falling in clumps over her shoulders. Once again, she repeated the indignant gesture of placing her hands on her hips and spitting her tongue out at the flustered woman and her two cohorts.

"Well I never!" gasped Leblanc in horror.

"You did now," interjected Paine. "Let's get going Yuna, we want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible." Yuna looked gravely at her somber friend and nodded. She had forgotten exactly where they were. There was a lot of work to be done and no one else was going to do it for her. Taking off at a trot, she waved stoically toward her companions.

"Paine's right everyone, we should get going now." Despite complaints from Leblanc and her followers, they all set off further into the Bevelle underground.

The journey was fairly uneventful and strangely enough, not a single fiend appeared before reaching the very bottom floor of the maze. Finally, after traveling through the monotonous and mechanical underground and solving several riddles of the landscape, Paine triumphantly lifted a glowing sphere from a hidden chest hidden in the mist.

"That's the Dark Knight Dressphere." Shinra's voice entered through the electronic hum of their earpiece. "Lot's of strength and defense, good magic as well. Really the only downside is the speed and the issue that most of the attacks involve hurting the user."

Rikku shook with the thought of sacrificing herself to take down a fiend and Paine shook her head at her squeamish friend. "Sounds useful enough. You figure out anything about those two accessories we found before." There was a long pause as the static crackled in their ears. Then there was a click and the line went dead. "Thought so," grumbled Paine.

The group paused for a moment to heal themselves at the floating sphere nearby and proceeded across the raised platforms. Upon reaching the end of the misty abyss and finding themselves on solid ground once again, Yuna caught the faint sound of footsteps from around the corner. Readying themselves silently, the trio waited as the footsteps grew closer. The sound echoed and bounced off the walls.

One by one, two booted feet came into view from behind the turn in the hallway. From behind the corner stepped a dark skinned man with sky blue hair. His clothes were the ever-ostentatious yet traditional clothing of the followers of Yevon. Baralai, Praetor of New Yevon stood before Yuna and her friends, barring their way. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and then shook his head slightly, running his hand through his soft blue locks."The Gullwings? I was wondering who was there." He paused, waiting for Yuna to respond. She remained silent, hand placed tensely on the handle of her gun and stared distrustfully toward the soft voiced man. He sighed lightly and smiled with a pained look toward the trio. "You don't have to tell me. I know why you've come. You're here to destroy the weapon that threatens all Spira: Vegnagun. Am I right? If it could be destroyed we would have done so long ago. But Vegnagun must not be touched. Neither you nor Nooj seem to understand that." He had a pleading look in his eye. Yuna remained quiet, trying to wrap her mind around Baralai's involvement as well as Nooj's. To her relief, Paine stepped forward.

"You talked to Nooj?"

Baralai's eyes glanced downward from the harshness of the girl's stare. "He…can not be trusted."

Rikku took a step forward and pointed an accusing finger toward the praetor. "And you can be?"

The question surprised the man, drawing his eyes upwards to face the trio once again. "Touché, yes I suppose Vegnagun has brought that distrust upon itself. At any rate, you need not interfere." His normally kind eyes hardened with his voice and he added forcefully, "Leave Vegnagun to me."

Yuna finally gathered herself and said quietly, "What are you planning to do?"

Baralai gently shook his head and pulled a small pole from concealment behind his back. He brought the weapon to his front and held it forward. With a nod it extended outwards, reaching the approximate length of a combat staff. With a dead smile falling into place on his lips, he said quietly, " The only thing I can do: Keep those who would seek to harm Vegnagun away. Please leave."

Siliently, Paine unsheathed hew own weapon, a large sword, and turned to her companions. "Yuna. Rikku. I'm going."

Baralai's cold expression softened and his features screwed up in a look of emotional turmoil. He let out a long agonized sigh and called to the girl. "Paine!"

Without a word, Paine reached into her pocket and took out the small darkly glowing accessory. Without taking her eyes from Baralai, she slipped the ring slowly onto her finger. For a moment, Paine stood motionless. Her face froze, her fingers trembled slightly causing the tip of her blade to wave spasmodically in the air in front of her. Then, without any warning at all, Paine stumbled backward, raised her head to the sky and let out a terrible howl.

The awful scream continued for several seconds before ending with a high bloodthirsty note. Paine's face lowered back to ground level to stare madly into the Praetor's eyes. She was breathing deeply, each breath ragged and long. She growled softly and twitched angrily. Her hand closed around the hilt of her blade and raised it, as if testing the weight for the first time. She bobbed up and down in an almost animalistic way.

"Paine?" Yuna stepped forward in worry. She reached out a gentle hand to touch her friend's shoulder. "Are you alr-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Paine ducked under the oncoming caress and sped across the dark gray tiles. Her sword clanged loudly as it dragged down the hallway towards Baralai. The praetor, taken by surprise, barely had time to raise his weapon in defense before the girl was on him. The blade whipped forward and the connection of blade on staff echoed loudly through the dark hallway. The strength behind the blow, coupled with Baralai's lack of preparation, caused him to lift from the ground and go flying into the wall at the curve.

He hit the wall with a dull thud and coughed loudly as the wind was driven from his lungs. He fell forward with a gasp but recovered quickly and managed to block the next flurry of strikes from Paine who had already closed the distance. The ferocity of her attack continued as she broke through the praetor's guard once again. He was sent careening across the tiles, now weaponless and streaming blood from a cut above his eyelid.

Yuna watched in horror as her friend bore down on the now defenseless leader of New Yevon. Paine struck again and again at the helpless man as he dodged and rolled desperately to escape her. "Paine!" Yuna screamed loudly, but it was clear that her words weren't reaching her companion. "Rikku…is there anything we can do to stop her that won't cause her any harm?" She shook with fear as she asked Rikku the question.

The young Al Bhed, thoroughly horrified by the scene shook her head to clear it and then began to rummage through her pockets. From behind her, Baralai let out a scream of agony and Yuna heard blood splatter against the tiles. Refusing to look she instead focused on the blonde and said urgently, "Hurry Rikku!"

Rikku was crying now but through her tears she still found the object she was looking for. Without pausing to explain, she removed the small device from her satchel and hurled it toward the rapidly approaching girl. The object was a grenade and as it neared Paine, she turned to see it and with a crazy look in her eyes, raised her blade to cut the oncoming explosive in half. Despite the defensive maneuver, He fellthe grenade still detonated, surrounding Paine and Baralai in a white flash followed by dark black smoke.

Rikku turned toward Yuna and yelled with a panicked voice, "Yunie! Get Baralai, I'll steal the ring from Paine!" Yuna couldn't think straight but instead nodded dumbly and rushed forth, gathering up the fallen Praetor in her arms and leaping out of the black cloud. A bone shuddering roar exploded from inside the dark smoke but it was soon cut short by the sound of a brief struggle and then Rikku diving out of the black mist with the small glowing accessory between her two fingers.

The smoke took several seconds to dissipate and before it did, Paine stumbled out of it, waving her arms in front of her and stumbling. After walking for several feet, she stopped and called out, "Yuna? Rikku? You guys there?"

Yuna turned to Rikku and gave her a questioning look. Rikku smiled proudly in return and said simply, "blind bomb."

Shaking her head at her friend's energetic reply and speedy recovery, Yuna trotted over to her blind companion. "Paine? It's Yuna." She reached out gently and placed a hand on The silver haired girl's shoulder. "Are you ok?"

Paine remained motionless but reached up a shaking hand toward the one placed on her shoulder. "Yea…Yuna? What happened just now?" Her question, seemingly strange did not surprise Yuna as much as she had expected. "Did Baralai pull some kind of trick?"

"I'm not sure…I really can't say what happened…I think it has to do with that ring, Bloodlust. You..." she paused to think of the right word to use. "Went crazy."

Paine frowned apologetically and was about to say something when the electrical static returned once again to their ears. Yuna rummaged through her satchel and pulled out some eyedrops, applying them to her friend's blind eyes while she waited for the signal to pick up. After several seconds of static, Shinra's voice once again broke through the white noise.

"You got that right Yuna. The madness was due to the accessory. Good job Rikku for figuring that out so fast." Rikku swelled visibly with pride. "If you hadn't interceded, Baralai might be dead now." Paine shuddered as she rubbed her eyes. They streamed tears due to the introduction the blindness antidote. "Those accessory's abilities are a lot more potent than I had originally believed."

"So what exactly are they?" Paine asked darkly.

Shinra paused for a moment and said, "I'm just a kid."

"I've had enough of that you little piece of-" Paine began to scream angrily but was cut off by a new voice over the intercom.

"Hey, guys, Buddy reporting in." Buddy was another Al Bhed who helped with navigation on the Celsius. His calm voice silenced Paine mid-rant. "Shinra may just be a kid, but we have someone else up here visiting who's much more than that. He said he might be able to shed some light on exactly who 'Kijo' and 'Majo' are."

"Oh?" Yuna, interested in the new development, listened intently as the line buzzed slightly from the exchange of the microphone on the Celsius. On the other end, someone cleared their throat.

"Lady Yuna?" A wise although somewhat confused voice of an old man resonated over the line. "Oh dear…I can't remember the last time I used a machina as personal as this…my old bones aren't quite used to it."

"Maechen?" Yuna, surprised and somewhat confused, yelped into her mouth piece.

"Erm…yes," the slow and intelligent voice rolled into her ears like an old song. "Oh dear…so odd using this thing." He cleared his throat and spoke again, this time with excitement in his voice. "It seems that you are seeking information about Kijo and Majo of Zanarkand. Is this true Lady Yuna?" Yuna giggled at the man's excited tone and replied that she was doing just that. She was surprised that Maechen had mentioned Zanarkand but allowed him to continue without interruptions.

"Would you like to hear the story?" asked the old man with gusto. Yuna and the other girls gave their approval. "It is not a short one." Yuna once again gave her support to the man. Paine remained silent, staring blankly at her open palms. She was wondering what she could have done to Baralai if Rikku had not intervened.

"Yes." Paine suddenly straightened up. Her shoulders squared back and she looked skyward. "Tell us everything, I want to know what that feeling was about."

Maechen chuckled quietly. "It's been quite some time since anyone took such an interest in my stories. The feeling you felt must have been quite strong if you wish so adamantly to hear this old man ramble on." Yuna was about to protest to his self deprecation when he interrupted with a gruff barking laugh. "You were wearing Bloodlust…am I correct?" Paine nodded silently. "That would contain Kijo's soul, right little boy?" Shinra protested at being called a little boy but grudgingly agreed. "Kijo…Kijo of the Broken Bonds they called him by the end." He sighed in his reminiscence and then spoke again into the microphone. "But I am rambling. Let me begin where any story should, at the beginning. It just so happens that the beginning of this tale takes place 1000 years ago during the Machina War. The place? Well…it begins in Zanarkand…"

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So what do you think? Is it good? Is it bad? What needs work? Should I continue? I was kinda just doing this in order to get it off my mind so I can continue with my other Kingdom Hearts fiction Angel Memories. I guess if it gets a lot of reviews or I still have it in mind…I'll continue? Otherwise this might just be where it ends. Knowing me I'd probably feel obliged to continue with just one review. In any case…I like the storyline…I think its original. Later.