Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Beyond The Conflict: Moving On [Dissidia/FF3] ❯ The end of one thing, the beginning of another ( Prologue )

Hello and welcome to, well, not my first fanfic but certainly my most recent one - it's been 2 years since I last typed up and uploaded anything XD It is my first one on here however! This fanfic is a "crossover" of sorts of Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy 3 and it will have Luneth x Arc in it so if you don't like shounen-ai (yeah, nothing too extreme in this - sorry fangirls), DON'T READ. I may add other pairings so feel free to make suggestions *smiles* Comments and constructive criticism are welcome too ~

Disclaimer: I don't own Dissidia nor FFIII - they belong to Square Enix.

Enjoy!

UPDATE (24/08/11): Have added to this chapter to make it easier to understand (I hope ^^'). Many thanks to my friend tales rules on http://www.narutoforums.com for helping me with these changes <3

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Prologue - The end of one thing, the beginning of another

War - the oldest of human practices. Be it to save someone you love, to stop your home from being destroyed, for no reason whatsoever or to conquer and pillage, humans have always waged war against other humans and evil creatures. Peace is always fleeting - relationships between towns and villages deteriorating due to one place being more prosperous than the other and jealousy over what one person has and what they themselves do not. It would seem ridiculous to fight over things as petty as crops and money but there is one thing that is true for all human beings - they need to fight. It's in their blood. No matter how shy and meek you are, the desire to fight and to hurt is always there and it can't be denied. Peace leads to unrest, unrest leads to war, war leads to fighting and fighting eventually brings peace. Thus, the cycle starts anew. The end of one thing, the beginning of another...

To most the conflict between the goddess of harmony, Cosmos, and the god of discord, Chaos, was just like any other war. Both sides were seemingly of equal strength and warriors from these two sides fought constantly, trying to secure a victory for their respective deity. However, this conflict was not at all like the normal wars fought amongst human beings because of one major factor - the war kept repeating itself. When all the warriors of one side were killed, the dead were brought back to life to fight once more; broken puppets re-used time and time again. These cycles of battle seemed to be endless - repetition after pointless repetition of rebirth, fighting and eventual defeat and death. And the warriors who always seemed to lose were the ones fighting for Cosmos. Even worse, in the process of being brought back to life, otherwise known as purification, these warriors lost virtually all of their memories. Since they had been summoned from separate worlds and brought to the world in which the conflict took place, they not only lost their memories of the war itself but also memories of their homeworlds. Friends, family, places, even their own names were sometimes lost as they were revived and forced to fight over and over again.

1 cycle. 5 cycles. 10 cycles. The amount of time the conflict had raged on for soon became unknown. Time itself did not seem to effect those fighting, not allowing them to age, not allowing them to become hungry or thirsty, not even allowing them to bleed or die as quickly as they would on their homeworlds. However, as the cycles carried on occuring, some warriors died and were not purified - their strength not enough to allow them to keep fighting in the war. These warriors were then sent to another world; one where the fallen did not die and retained their memories but were yet again forced to fight beyond their limits, a sick gift for sacrificing so much and gaining so little. The worst thing was that the war was completely and utterly pointless. There was no world to save, no damsel in distress to rescue, no mad tyrant to bring down in order to live in peace. The sole reason the war started in the first place was to turn Chaos into the ultimate weapon of destruction. Every cycle Cosmos told the same lies - 'defeat all of Chaos' warriors and the war will be won and you can go home'. And every cycle her warriors believed her and fought until their dying breath for a reason that wasn't even true.

However, something happened at the end of the 11th cycle that changed everything. Cosmos witnessed an event that created something within her that she had never felt before; guilt. Guilt about ruining the lives of innocent people. Guilt about lying to people who trusted her and gave their lives for her. Guilt about everything. Seeing her youngest warrior take his own life before her very eyes gave her the resolve to stop a conflict that had gone on for far too long and led to a change within the war that could not be undone, ruining the plans of the mastermind of the conflict, Shinryu - a dragon of great strength and power.

So, in the 12th cycle, Cosmos gave away most of her powers to her warriors in order to give them the chance to finally end the war. All they had to do was keep fighting and, eventually, their crystal would appear and they would be able to end everything. Though there were complications in the form of manikins (mindless crystal copies of all warriors within the conflict that tried to kill the warriors of Cosmos at regular intervals) and though Cosmos lost 6 of her warriors when they closed the door to the Rift from which the manikins had originated from, in the 13th cycle her remaining 10 warriors obtained their crystals and defeated the warriors of Chaos and Chaos himself. Cosmos perished because of these crystals but she didn't mind - she thought that it was her punishment for not ending things sooner and if her death would allow her warriors to go home then no self-sacrifice could be more justified.

And so, after countless battles and hardships, the warriors of Cosmos and Chaos as well as those who had fallen before the 13th cycle were sent back to their homeworlds to live their lives and be at peace.

The end of one thing, the beginning of another... or is it? For the roads we walk down do not end until we die and take our last breath. The war between the deities was over but, no matter how unfair, another war was appearing on the horizon. It was going to be a war of great magnitude and a war that would affect all worlds and all the people living there, forcing some to take up a weapon for the first time and others to fight once more. And though many played a part within the great conflict between Cosmos and Chaos and though many would come to play a part in the war that followed, this tale focuses on one warrior in particular - one who was known to most as the Onion Knight.

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Memory #1 | Cycle 13

"So... the last night, huh."

All turned to look at the blonde Blitzball ace, momentarily pausing in their setting up of the camp as it hit them; this was going to be the last night that they were ever going to spend together. Tidus shook his head.

"No need to get depressed though! It'd suck so bad if our last memories of each other were of us being gloomy." the teen stated, giving the other Warriors of Cosmos a broad grin. Bartz laughed.

"Does nothing ever depress you?" the Mimic asked, poking Tidus' face with amusement as the blonde tried to push him away. The others rolled their eyes. 'Just the same as always...'

"Bartz, would ya quit it! And wha-what the?! Zidane! Get that tail the heck away from me!"

"Sorry 'bout that. I swear it has a mind of it's own..." the tailed thief replied nonchalantly, his blonde tail moving away from Tidus' leg quickly.

"I believe you said the same thing when it 'accidentally' went up Terra's-"

"Hey, Squall!!! Keep it down would y-"

"You did WHAT?!"

Zidane hid behind his taller brunette friend as the small yet extremely pissed off Onion Knight put down the leather covered journal that he'd been reading and advanced towards him.

"C-c'mon Onion, it seriously does have a mind of it's own! Bartz, back me up!" Zidane said with a nervous smile, looking expectantly at Bartz as the Onion Knight's expression darkened.

"Uhhhh... no." Bartz replied bluntly.

"WHY?!" Zidane cried.

"Welllll you did tell me right at the beginning of this cycle that Terra was a fine piece of ass..."

"BLIZZAGA!" Onion Knight shouted, shooting a large chunk of ice at the blonde thief.

"Comrades, we must save our strength for the final battle tomorrow. Cease your bickering." The Warrior of Light stated loudly, standing between the furious young Knight and the pouting and rather ice-covered Zidane, stoicly looking at the both of them before using a Fire spell to light the campfire and melt the ice off of Zidane.

"Fine... But if you even try that again..." the youth murmured threateningly, glaring at the blonde haired thief before him. Zidane shrugged in reply. After everyone had settled down, the campfire blazing merrily in front of them, Tidus promptly threw a stick at a certain mopey blonde sitting beside the Onion Knight and Terra with a grin.

"It's your turn to talk of your homeworld, Cloud!"

"Not interested." the blonde SOLDIER answered, using his favourite catchphrase.

Tidus pouted. "Aww c'mon! I wanna hear about where you come from."

"Looks like you're gonna be disappointed." Cloud replied flatly, completely ignoring his sulking comrade and staring into the fire before him. The blonde ace folded his arms across his chest with a huff, making Firion sigh and roll his eyes. 'He's such a child...'

"Fine, have it your way! I'll just - huh? What's that ya reading Onion Rings?" Tidus asked curiously, gesturing with a pointed finger towards the book in the Onion Knight's hands. The boy in question looked up and glared at the Blitzball player.

"What did you just call me?"

"Sorry sorry! Jeez, what am I supposed to call you if you can't even remember your own name..." Tidus mumbled sulkily, huffing again.

"Anything but that! And... this book is none of your business, to be honest." the Knight stated childishly, giving the Blitzball player a defiant look which made Terra giggle.

"Wha?! Hey, no fair! It's the last night and you haven't said anything about your homeworld either so you might as we-"

"It's a diary from someone who fought in this War before. That's all."

At this, everyone turned to look at the young teen with interest.

"Someone... who fought before? Who?" Cecil questioned curiously, leaning forward. The Onion Knight looked down at the book and fell silent. For a while the other warriors feared he would keep silent (though it wouldn't have surprised them, considering how he acted usually) but, after a minute or two, the boy began to speak.

"I found it whilst in the gateway where the Cloud of Darkness was. It was just lying at the bottom of a treasure chest alongside a bit of gil so I picked it up and brought it with me." the silver haired boy explained, brushing his thumb over the cover of the book thoughtfully before carying on. "At first I had no idea who had written in it - no names but the ones for Cosmos and some person called Luneth were mentioned but... in the last entry the owner of the journal wrote his name down and his name was... Arc. B-but that makes no sense because Arc's my best friend from my homeworld and he wouldn't have ever..."

"He could have for all we know," Firion said quietly, giving the boy a smile. "This war's been going on for a long time and many warriors have fought for Cosmos before us."

The Knight shook his head. "That's not what I meant. In... in this journal Arc talks about hating..."

"Hating who?" Squall questioned, noticing the confusion in the Onion Knight's purple eyes.

"Hating Cosmos."

At this, everyone fell into a shocked silence.

"Arc couldn't have hated her... It doesn't make any sense! He didn't even hate the bullies who made his life hell back at home! I just..."

"War changes people."

The Onion Knight looked up at Cloud, his face full of uncertainty. 'No matter what we've gone through, why would Cosmos make Arc hate her?' was all the boy thought as he looked down at the book in his hands. 'I could never hate Cosmos...'

"Cloud, what do you mean?" Terra asked quietly, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and looking at Cloud uncertainly. The blonde didn't reply. Zidane gently patted Terra's shoulder.

"I think what Chocobo Head's tryin' to say is people can change quite a lot when put under trying situations. So this Arc person could have ended up... hating... Cosmos for whatever reason 'cause of the war." Zidane explained with a grin. Terra smiled.

"You might be right but... what if..." Onion Knight murmured. Zidane rolled his eyes.

"Have you forgotten what I told you already? 'What if, just suppose, you'll never find any answers that way', remember? Just let it go 'cause you'll find the answer eventually minus the fussing."

"Whatever..." was all the boy grumbled in reply. The others laughed. They were going to miss times like these...

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