DISSIDIA DUODECIM

CHRONICLES OF THE NEW WORLD

PROLOGUE

At the beginning, there were the four crystals: Earth, Water, Fire and Wind. There was also space and time, the threads wrapping everything together. There was light and there was darkness, mixed in harmony. These forces commanded the entire universe and so balance reigned over existence.

However...

A man, moved by his own pride and greed, decided to challenge the order of the universe in his pursue of power. With powerful but dark magic, he broke the laws of time and created a loop to grant himself eternity. So harmony was disrupted and chaos reigned.

The world was veiled in darkness; the wind stopped, and the sea became wild. The earth began to rot...

People could only wait for a savior...

"I am calling you, warriors of light, to restore harmony to the entire universe.

Gather! Find the crystals that will guide you on the righteous path! Take your weapons and stay forth and brave! As this very battle will determine our future. "

PART I

CHAPTER 1:

THE MECHANICAL CITY OF RONKA

"Last night, I had a dream. I dreamed I was transported to a grandiose city in the sky"

He woke up in the outskirts of town, over the humid and green grass. He did not have much recollection of the events that had happened the day before but one thing he was very sure of: that place he had landed on was not of his cognizance. He sat down and checked on the surroundings with only his sight: a deep forest was right behind him and a huge city was right in front of him; a city with a castle on its very heart which dome arose so high as to touch the sky. The breeze was soft and cool and not even the sound of a cricket could be heard. The boy stood up slowly and checked on himself: he was wearing his distinctive and usual red armor and his helmet with the big white onion-shaped decorum was still on his head. He was wielding a sword as well and a pocket knife and he had no injuries but a mild headache.

He, then, noticed he was all alone. The last night he had been staying at an inn along the other orphans; his siblings and comrades, the ones he was travelling with to save the world. For a second, he thought maybe they could be around but after calling out their names out loud, he was sure they were not around. His skin trembled and a cold sensation went down his spine… it was the very first time he was left alone in such a foreign land; before, he had always had the comfort of his siblings. He could not help feeling quite scared; however, he shook off the feeling and decided to walk towards the town he had right in front of him. Since he was chosen to save the world by the crystal, he had convinced himself to be brave no matter what may be waiting for him ahead. He raised his head and walked towards that place.

The ambient was so silent, so very silent… only his steps cracking the grass could be heard. He grew suspicious: he had never been in such a peaceful place before. Such silence only made him restless. He took off his sword and cautiously, he continued at a little faster pacing. Suddenly, as he had already expected, he heard steps coming right to him. They were originated from the town's path and there were many of them. He, however, did not back off and patiently waited for whatever was to come. He only held his sword on one of his hands and the knife on the other one.

After some minutes, the figures of three powerful warriors could be seen. They were cladded in a golden armor and wore silver helmets and furred capes. On their hands, they swung ball-and-chain flails. Maybe they were but protectors of the town, the young boy thought, maybe he could convince them he meant no harm to the city. He decided to put off his weapons and right when the warriors had reached him, he spoke to them:

"I am the honorable Onion Knight!" he said "It is true I am a warrior but I mean no harm for you or your city… I am lost and searching for my comrades… I wish to enter your town if it is not a problem with you"

He waited for a response; however, the three men did not pay any attention to him and without meddling words, they jumped to attack him with their weapons. The Onion Knight backed up as fast as he could, grabbed weapons on both hands and used them to defend himself from the men's powerful attacks. He kept on questioning the warriors why they were attacking him; but the men were not responding…it was as if they were not humans at all. The young boy was pushed back and further from the town… he knew well those warriors were too strong for him; he knew he had to come up with a plan to run away. Maybe he could use some magic and distract them.

He, once again, jumped backwards and began casting a simple thunder spell. He hoped his plan would work and the spell will draw them back. He was about to cast it when suddenly, he heard many more steps coming from right behind him and before he knew, a shadow passed right over his head.

Another young boy landed right in front of him. It was a young man holding a sword on his hands; a boy of short silver hair and who was wearing no armor but a short jacket and a pair of pants. He, however, defied the three warriors to a fight and spoke to him, exhorting him to run:

"Run! I'll take care of them!" the young boy said

Onion Knight thought it was an excellent opportunity to run. He had been so lucky someone had come to help him; however, before he could leave, he noticed the other young man did not have the situation under control and was actually struggling to stop the knights. Onion could not leave him behind so he, once again, returned to cast the spell and finished it, forcing the three men to go back. The other boy took the chance and stroke them with strength. They kept repeating that strategy until two of the warriors retreated. It was only the last one remaining who took the silver haired boy by surprise and was about to land a strike right on his head was it not for Onion Knight hurrying himself to stop the attack with his sword, hitting the very hand of the man and making him miss the hit. The other young man took that chance and attacked the man with his full force, making him flee the battle.

"Woah! Good moves out there, kid!" the young man talked to Onion Knight once they were left alone "I thought I was done for!"

"I thought you were the one trying to save me" Onion Knight said

"But hey! Are you alright? You are not hurt, are you?"

"Don't worry, I know how to handle myself around battles just fine" Onion explained

"Well, you seemed very scared back then, I thought I'd help!"

"I was not scared…I was just being cautious"

"Well, anyways! What's your name?!" the young man said

"I am one of the Onion Knights!" he said honorably

"Onion Knight? Is that your name?"

"No…" the red-armored boy said "my name is Muuchi but you may call me Onion Knight"

"Muuchi?! Really?!" the young boy joked "well, I guess I'll call you Onion!"

"And who are you, may I ask?" Onion questioned

"The name's Vaan!" the young man said "By the way… Do you know of the warriors of light?" he questioned

"Huh? Why do you ask?" Onion said

"No, I just thought about it! Well, I was actually called a warrior of light in one of my dreams"

"So, you are a warrior of light!" Onion Knight exclaimed surprised "Oh! Please pardon my rudeness, honorable warrior of light and harmony!" he said "(I guess these so-called warriors of light are honorable, aren't they?)" he doubted

"Oh, hey! No need for that!... Are you a warrior of light too, kid?"

"I am! Or so I was called in a dream"

"Cool! Well, I'm not so sure about this warrior of light-thing… I'm a sky pirate in the making, by the way"

"A...sky PIRATE?" he asked, he could not believe his ears. Maybe those warriors of light were not as honorable as he had thought

"Yes! You heard well!"

"Um… fine…I guess" Onion Knight said "it was an honor to meet you, warrior of light Vaan... may our paths cross again someday" he proceeded, hoping Vaan would understand his intentions of leaving by himself. He had not left behind his idea of going into town and searching for his siblings.

"Wait! Are you traveling alone?" Vaan asked him

"Yes, at least until I find my comrades"

"Aren't you scared?"

Onion Knight felt a little offended with that question. What kind of man asks an honorable warrior like him if he's brave or not?! His cheeks went red and the anger rose to his head.

"Pardon…!?" he said with a dubitative tone

"I mean, for a kid like you" Vaan continued "it must be pretty scary to be here all alone"

"Pardon me!" Onion Knight exclaimed "The fact that I am a kid does not interfere with my abilities! And I am no way scared!"

"Well, why don't we travel together?" Vaan proposed "We are both warriors of light after all, aren't we?"

Onion Knight remained silent. He was fine with travelling with others but was it safe to travel with that self-claimed "PIRATE?"

"C'mon! Let's go!" Vaan said "Let's reach the town before night!"

But it seemed Vaan was not going back on his words. He had already taken the decision to accompany him and Onion just noticed it was not going to be easy to shake off the sky pirate from his path. Well, he thought, maybe it was not such a bad idea to have someone to travel with. It was better than being alone. He said no more and so, the two of them directed themselves to the town.

They reached it in no time. Onion Knight was glad they didn't encounter more of those warriors. The town, however, was not as lively as he had expected of such a huge place. The structures and houses, mainly constructed on rock, had many motives printed on them: gold incrustations and mechanical apparatuses controlling the movement of the bridges, elevators and doors. It was such a mechanical city. The most amusing part of the city was the castle in the middle of it which was so huge it gave the idea the whole town was but an extension of it. Armed with missiles and cannons, its sight was as well threatening. Just what kind of place was that one?

Even though the city had so many mechanisms moving everywhere, the townspeople were, however, very lifeless. They did not interact between them or with him or Vaan either. It felt as if they were ghosts. The two warriors of light, nevertheless, directed to the nearest inn and asked for a room. They were received with the same dullness by the owner; but he let them stay so, they were grateful for that. When the night arrived, they had a bed to rest their heads secured; however, there were still many things unresolved that sleeping was not going to be so easy.

Onion was rather interested on Vaan. He had such a strange fashion sense; moreover, he spoke with terms he could not comprehend.

"Where are you from?" Vaan finally asked Onion "I'm from Rabanastre"

"I've never heard of that place…" Onion said "my hometown is called Ur"

"Ur?! Where is that?!" Vaan exclaimed, surprised "it's not in Dalmasca! Are you an Archadian, maybe?"

"I don't know what you are talking about…" he said

"Well, there are yet places to know, right?! That's why I want to be a sky pirate, you know? To have an airship and fly everywhere I want!"

"What is a sky pirate? I don't know what you mean!"

"You don't know what a sky pirate is?! Well, no wonder! You are just a kid! You don't go out of your home without your parents' permission!"

"Excuse me! I don't need my parents' permission or anything! I was chosen by the crystal of wind to save the world with my siblings! I am a warrior!"

"Crystals…? Nethicite, you mean?!"

"No! The crystal of wind!"

"Strange… it is as if we are speaking of two different places…"

"That makes no sense!" Onion said and sat down on one of the beds that was on the room; then, he jumped as a good idea came to his mind "I know! You are from the Underworld!"

"Underworld?!"

"I live in the Floating Continent, in case you were wondering…"

"Floating…continent? Oh! The Sky Continent! But there isn't a place call Ur up there"

"Then I just don't know!" he said and crossed his arms

"But hey! I think it's probable!" Vaan said "The world is a big place, isn't it? I just didn't know your town existed"

"It's a small town but I bet you know of the kingdom of Sasune"

"Nope! Doesn't ring a bell!"

"Um… and do you happen to know where we are?"

"No… I've never been here… I just remember I went to sleep the day before and then, when I woke up, I was here"

"The same happened to me…"

"Well, no sense in worrying! Let's find someone who can tell us where we are! Don't worry! You can count on me!"

"(Count on you?)" he thought "(I'd rather not…)"

Vaan stretched and threw himself on bed; his arms crossed under his head and his sight on the ceiling. On the roof, there were also screws rolling non-stop. They were quite entertaining to look at that it was easy to lose the sense of time by just watching them.

"In my dream…there was a man in a shining armor" the Onion Knight said "was he in your dream too?"

"Ah! Yeah!" Vaan exclaimed

"Then…maybe we should find him and ask him… he was the one who called us warriors of light…he must have brought us here, don't you think?"

"You are one sharp kid, aren't you?!" Vaan said "Tomorrow morning, we are going to search for that guy! But now, let's rest… I'm tired!"

"(How can you be so relaxed?)" Onion thought; however, before he knew, his eyelids felt heavy and he was in the urge to rest his head on the fluffy pillow, and when he did, he irremediably closed his eyes and felt asleep right away.

"Where are you? Please tell me I'm not alone…"

Author notes:

1. Hello, everyone, thank you for reading the first chapter of my story. First of all, I must tell you I am not a native English speaker, however, I do my best to make as less mistakes as I can.

2. Second, this is my own take on the Dissidia Final Fantasy Duodecim's story which means I rewrote every single event, and I remade the world as well. I also took my liberties with some of the characters, mostly those ones who don't have much of a personality on their original games (such as Warrior of Light, Firion, and Onion Knight). I also made some changes to Lightning (who I considered needed some work and development).

3. I placed all of the characters from Duodecim together. I thought it would be more interesting. And I completely removed the "mannequins" subplot.

4. I call this story a crossover because I did not take the characters from Dissidia right as they were presented there, but from their original games which means they way they act, motives and personalities are right taken from the original games and not Dissidia (which reinvented many of them). Also, so far I have played all of the original FF games in order to write this story and stay in-character as much as I can. The only ones I haven't played are XII and XIII (of which I have watched walkthroughs).

5. This story contains SPOILERS from the original games.

6. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy my story!