A/N Disclaimer: I do not own maplestory or any of it's affiliated properties. Now, I'm doing a rewrite as I have seemed to have written myself into a corner, and I've noticed that there's a lot of information, and not alot of story. Key elements will be kept intact, and I hope this one is better. Tell me if it's not. By the way, you might notice multiple emails, as I forgot to put the disclaimer in the first time.

"MAGNUS!" A desperate howl tore through the battlefield, carrying over the din of swords clashing, dragons roaring, and a lone warrior shot through the mass of fighting bodies. On the opposite side of the field, another man stood with triumphant glee written on his face, his eyes glowing with a fearful madness.

"Give it up Kaiser. I'VE WON!"

The guardian of the Nova shook his head viciously, helmet feeling far to heavy, armor cutting into his skin far too deep, as he hefted his broad two handed sword up for a final charge against his enemy.

And as Tyrant and Defender clashed, two glistening tears dripped unseen, and fell, forgotten by all.


"Whenever I'm asked to tell this story, it's never really easy. There's a lot of memories there, and don't get me wrong, they're not all bad memories. In fact, most of them were some of the best moments of my life. It's just that those good memories, the really happy and goofy ones I shared with Magnus and Ella, they just make me that much sadder when I think about what became of us in the end."

-Traian Maguenellen, 59th Kaiser, Defender of the Nova Race


All great stories begin with a once upon a time, and this one is no different. So, once upon a time, there were three little Nova children. One with jet black hair and eyes of gold. Another grey haired child with a far too serious disposition, and a girl with dreams of a place where she could do anything…


A little boy ran through the fields on the way back home, a basket swinging precariously on his arm. Wings fluttered in his wake, and a black tail slithered after him, swaying to an unseen tempo only the boy could hear. He was humming, a light tune that all Nova children learned when they were young, but this tune was special to him. It was the only thing that his mother had taught him, before his father left, before her eyes became clouded, unseeing. He skipped up the porch steps and opened the door gently before promptly kicking it shut. "Mom, I'm home!"

There was no answer, but the boy had long come to expect this and walked into the kitchen, where he knew his mom would be sitting as per their usual routine. A lady, no older than two hundred cycles, sat at the wooden table idly looking out the stained glass window dedicated to Iona, which was a common decoration piece in most Nova homes. "Hey mom," the boy said softly. The woman turned her head slightly towards the sound, her eyes blankly looking ahead, not quite seeing the boy in front of her, but beyond him to a place only she could see. The child pulled out a chair next to his mother, one that he still struggled with as he barely came up to the seat of the chair, and hopped onto it so that he was seated comfortably. "Today was actually kind of a good day," he continued, pulling food out of the basket while he spoke, "I mean, the teacher said that I was doing pretty good in class, and those boys from school didn't bully me today, something about-" the boy cut off abruptly as his mother's chair slid back and she left the room without a word. The boy sighed. "Yeah. Love you to mom."


In another town, a young girl was running down the streets, hopping on and off the sidewalk, leaping onto mailboxes, climbing onto the columns of Chronica, just because she could. She was a wild one, if you asked her when she was younger she would pout and stubbornly reply, "I don't answer to nobody," which summed up her attitude quite well, even to this day. If you told her closest friends in the future, they would laugh good-naturedly and ultimately agree, that was purely Ella.

Now Ella came from a large middle class family called the Cyrils, comprised of very ordinary parents with one very ordinary boy, and one very extraordinary girl. It was a very loose family, the parents and the brother had no idea what to do with Ella, and Ella had decided very early on that ordinary people were really really dull. So they came to an unspoken understanding that Ella would be free to do whatever she wished, so long as she didn't do anything to shame the Cyril name. Ella was fine with this, and spent most of her time doing exactly what she wanted, which did change quite a bit. One day she wanted to be a high class lady, another time she wanted to be a top bandit from the Sawachi Desert. Today though, today she was a sailor. She had never really seen a sailor before, the Nova girl had only seen the occasional man who had taken a trip or two on a boat tell stories at the local tavern where everyone came together after a the brief prayer to the Transcendents in the town chapel. Sometimes she was skeptical of what they told people, a body of water so big that it spanned the entire horizon without stop? Yeah right, the biggest body of water she ever saw was in her bathtub. Other times the girl would wonder wistfully what would happen if it was true? What sorts of adventures could a girl get sailing a vast ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see? And she kept wonder about these sorts of things. Then she jumped as a loud bang permeated the still night air, as smoke billowed upwards, and the sky turned red. She looked around wildly, uncomprehending until she saw the cloud of ashes, and paled. The village!