Alright hey everybody, I'm in the process of finishing a separate Final Fantasy XII FanFic, "The Return of the Zodiac Stones", which was a pretty long and interesting story, but I've felt the need to write about some other ideas I've had for a Final Fantasy XII Sequel. As opposed to my current fanfic, this one sticks strictly to XII, and I've thought a lot about the twists, direction, characters, and places I want to include. After playing through Final Fantasy XII, some of the people/places/things in this story are things I hardly even knew about after playing, and I only discovered upon further research. Nonetheless, I feel like this story is going to be a good one, and I hope you all enjoy it chapter by chapter.

My last story was decently long, average I'd say. I want this one to be REALLY long, but I'm not sure if I want to do shorter chapters but more of them, or less chapters with more content. I think for the purpose of my convenience, and for the convenience of the readers I'm going to go with shorter chapters, but more of them. But, alright, here it goes :D

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The story I am about to tell is not a happy one. It is a story that reflects the future of Ivalice, and being a historian, I have searched long and far for every detail and emotion, so that I may tell this story accurately, so that you may all know the deeds done by heros and villains alike.

This story is not a fairy tale. There are Princesses who become Queens, but there is no knight in shining armor. There are great adventures, quests, and perils, but people are not magically saved by their will, or their heart. There is no ending where everything is perfect, because the world isn't perfect. This story is real. It is as real as could be. It is as gruesome, depressing, adventurous, compelling, and breath-taking as any other story.

This story has no moral. There is no lesson learned, or idea taught. These are the events that took place one month after Queen Ashelia took her throne. This is the adventure and unbelievable plight of a nation. This is the story of a surge of power, and a balance of nations. This is also a story about overcoming unbelievable odds, yet this is not a happy story.

And to begin this tale, which I am glad I cannot call my own, I must inform you of the current affairs of Ivalice. Larsa Solidor rules Archadia, accompanied by Basch fon Ronsenburg. Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca is the Queen of Dalmasca. Nabradia continues to be without a leader. Al-Cid Margrace has been selected to be the new King of Rozarria. The former king resigned from the throne after experiencing the tension between Archadia and Rozarria pending Vayne Solidor's rule. Al-Cid was chosen to be king because of the recommendations made by Ashelia and Larsa, but also because of his past history as a political figure. The countryside had been eventless over the past month, except for the daily routines of babies being born and elderly people dying. The Republic of Landis remains quiet, peaceful, and helpless. The Viera in Eruyt Village remain isolated, the citizens who reside within Balfonheim Port remain leaderless, and manufactured nethecite production has slowed down considerably.

This is the world our characters live in. And with that, I shall begin:

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"Vaan! What are you doing down here!" Penelo called, slowly walking down the old rock stairwell, cracked and rotting with age.

She squinted her eyes to see Vaan across the dark, window-less sewer. There was a stagnant smell of dust and mold in the air; the area so silent that the splash from drop of water could be heard from anywhere in that end of the passage. The silence was suddenly cut short when there was a squeal, and a loud reverberation heard from Vaan's sword hitting the stone floor adjacent to the Garamscythe Waterway.

"Isn't killing rats a little, uh, in the past?" Penelo asked sweetly, coming to the bottom of the stairwell.

Vaan, standing over the carcasses of four large rats, turned to look at his best friend.

"Call it nostalgia," Vaan smiled, walking toward Penelo.

She smiled back at him, and as the two got closer they opened their arms and embraced each other in a sweet and friendly hug.

"Don't tell me Migelo needs another errand to be done," Vaan sighed unhappily, already sensing what Penelo came searching for him for.

"Oh please, silly, you got your vacation from errands when we went on our quest to regain Dalmasca," Penelo said, cocking her head to the side, poking him jokingly in the shoulder.

"That doesn't seem like a very relaxing vacation," Vaan chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, resting his other hand on his hip.

"Well, it's more of a vacation than Kytes has ever had, so be grateful for that."

"Fine, what does Migelo need me to do now," Vaan reluctantly said, not really unhappy though because he knew the errands were always small and effortless.

"He wants you to run that order of baked bread down to the Cobbler family," Penelo replied simply.

"Bread order! That was your job today, Penelo!" Vaan laughed, poking her back.

"I know! I know it was, Vaan! I already did my other errands, but I'm so tired right now I just wanted to go back and take a nap!" Penelo admitted, hoping her begging would get some pity from her friend.

"Fine, no big deal I guess. Wouldn't want you to miss out on some beauty rest, right?" Vaan smiled.

"Ah! Thank you!" Penelo cried, leaping into Vaan's arms.

"Hahahaha, you seem pretty energetic for someone who's so tired," Vaan pointed out.

"You already said you'd do it, no taking it back now!" Penelo laughed as she turned and ran to the stairwell, practically hopping up the stairs.

Vaan laughed quietly to himself, looking around at the empty waterway. He made sure his sword was properly sheathed, and followed the route where Penelo had gone, making sure that he took his time to get to Migelo's shop.

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Penelo happily walked through the streets of Rabanastre, smiling and waving to some of the commoners who she spent lots of time with. She also saw those who she delivered packages for, and they too waved and thanked her for her helpfulness. But after walking for a little while, she eventually came to Migelo's shop where she and Vaan had been staying at ever since they got back to Rabanastre. She approached the door of the small shop, turned the doorknob, and let herself in.

The inside of Migelo's shop was busy during this time of day. It was a little bit past noon, and everybody was out buying, selling, talking, and doing their other daily chores. The inside of the shop smelt of spices and perfumes, two things Migelo prided himself on selling. Light poured into the shop from the small windows scattered along the cement walls. There was a buzz of chatter in the shop; people were flocking all over the place to get a look at Migelo's fine goods.

"Penelo! Have you brought the order of bread to the Cobbler's yet!" Migelo yelled across the room, spotting the young spunky blonde from behind the counter.

"Vaan is on his way now! He said he would do it for me, along with all my other errands from earlier!" Penelo yelled back, smiling at the expression Vaan was going to have on his face when Migelo told him what chores Penelo had been assigned.

She turned and flew up the stairs to where their bedrooms were. She walked across the hall into the room she shared with Vaan and Kytes. Kytes was actually in the room now.

"Hiya!" Penelo greeted, hopping into the room.

"Hey Penelo!" Kytes greeted, leaping off his bed.

Kytes hadn't grown much at all over the past few years, and was still about a head shorter than Penelo was. He was a good boy though, and loved to do things to make others happy. He still looked up to Vaan though, now more than ever because of their adventure from the previous few months. Vaan was an older brother to the boy, and ever since their return, Penelo had become like an older sister.

"I was just making my bed," Kytes blurted, walking toward the door. "I still have to help Migelo downstairs. Are there any people down there?"

"Enough that you should have been down there a while ago," Penelo smirked, letting the boy pass by her.

"Alrighty! Thanks Penelo! I'll see you later on!" Kytes waved as he rushed down the stairs to aid Migelo.

Penelo kept the smirk on her face as she glided over to her twin sized bed. She pulled the covers up and fluffed up her pillow. She then walked over to her dresser to put her clothes away and get a pair of shorts and a tee shirt to fall asleep in. As she pulled her dresser drawer open, she swore she heard a noise come from the closet against the wall behind her.

She turned her head to look while listening for any other noises. She shrugged, dismissed it as nothing big and continued to open the top drawer of her dresser.

Suddenly, a hand clasped around her mouth, and an arm wrapped itself around her waist. There was somebody behind her. She screamed as loud as she could, but the sound was muffled through the hand of her sudden captor. The hand felt rough on her face, the arm felt muscular, and the body behind her felt tall, it must have been a large man, but she didn't know who it could be, or why he would be there.

Her thoughts raced through her mind in less than a second, because in the following second, she felt the arm around her waist let go, and in a flash there was a numbing pain that erupted from her neck. Her eyesight became a blinding white for one moment as she felt a warm liquid rush down her neck and down her windpipe. The feeling from the cold, steel left her neck, and she realized she was going to die. There was no doubt about it. The man behind her had just slit her neck, and she was going to die within the impending seconds.

There was just enough time for her to let warm tears roll down her cheeks though, saddened by the sudden thought of death. She wanted to remember all the good things in her life, and as she did, she realized she had just let her life flash by her eyes. The moment passed in just a few seconds, but to Penelo it had seemed like an eternity. She tried to cry out, but her vocal chords were cut open, and the only thing that came from her throat was a gurgle of blood sputtering up from the wound. She let the tears flow down her soft cheeks as she felt the life leaving her body. She couldn't breath, couldn't scream, couldn't even control her body. And before she knew it, darkness clouded over her vision like that of a bottomless pit, and she felt her body go limp in her murderer's arms.

The man who had been waiting for Penelo tossed her lifeless body onto the bed she had already prepared to sleep in. The blood running from her neck soaked into the sheets and her clothing as the man turned to the balcony to leave, making sure nobody would see his exit. Once he leapt from the balcony, the room remained silent. And in that small bedroom on the second story of Migelo's Shop, where the young street urchins had slept and grown together for the past few years, the silence and coldness of death sat in the room like a mist, hovering over the broken and deceased body of Penelo, just waiting for someone to discover and witness the terrible tragedy.

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Yeah... Character death... I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of this story. I hope that Penelo's death was saddening, and that you all realize the events to come will be sad, yet adventurous, and without a moral, but still entertaining. This story is meant to be real, and I want you all to see that. I hope you all review to let me know your thoughts.