The Gleipnir Principle
They say time flows like a river, and history repeats.
On the twentieth of December, in the year 2065 as humanity judged their newest count, great relief and jubilation flooded the united peoples of the Earth. After thirty long years of war the threat of the phantoms, the greatest threat in all documented history of the world, had been resolved; yet it was not without the sacrifice of many.
Those who lived vowed never to forget.
Study was done; life was reborn. Smaller creatures – grasses, insects, rodents, and other swift breeding species – took control of the biomes that sprung up to cover the planet. Some things changed, some things stayed the same.
Eons passed, and the people forgot.
Vast spans of time disappeared into the ages. Humanity's success fluctuated with the eras, and eventually fell – never to recover.
Yet life remained.
Species grew to power. Lizards had their time; mammals flourished until obscurity; avians lived a minor glory marked by a form of aesthetics; a sentient branch of plant-life grew to prosper; and, eventually, came the age of arthropods.
They evolved much like any other species before them. They grew safely in numbers, easily feeding and caring for their own kind. They further developed agriculture, and soon cultured primitive art. They spread across the world, and they founded territory.
And came war.
Hives fought one another, down through the centuries. Short pacts and armistices breached the fighting, alliances were formed; factions melded, split, and collapsed.
Eventually, the world came, again, under the rule of a mere one Hive. But dissent was evident – war was the will of God, and it had always been so. By His claws and by His feelers, small skirmishes erupted to quell the peace, but it was not enough.
A new faction followed the will of the people – war for the sake of war.
By this time, this most recent higher species had become quite powerful. Life was Spartan for most, but technology was improved for learning alone. And even in peacetime, weapons had been enhanced and developed because it was possible.
Thus, when their War came, they armed themselves – they armed their enemies – and they fought amongst themselves one last time.
The first and the last, it tore city and countryside apart – destroyed species caught in the crossfire. Untold records of lives were lost, and reborn to do it over again. It lasted centuries – no armistices, no pacts, and no alliances.
It was the war to end all wars.
And it destroyed the planet.
They say, time flows like a river, and history repeats.
Perceptive, but not accurate – time is a single, thin line; and it eventually ends where it all began.
The End
Working Title: Didn't have one.
Inspiration: It just occurred, one Wednesday afternoon.
Noteworthy: The concept of circular time, I suppose...
Disambiguation: The God in this narration is in no way representative of another God in particular who punctuates His name in the same manner. Just so we're clear on that.
Derivative work of material © Square Pictures, Squaresoft. Reformatted to abide by 'site standards. None of the original text has been modified, 'cept in case of typo.