Legend:
/ = italics
* * * = end of a section
Everything else is as is.
Final Fantasy 8:
1 Ashes, Ashes…
Prologue
Part 1
/I can feel hate all around me. I can feel disgust. I can feel anger and I can feel despair. I will watch as our lives are torn apart. And I will feel the pain of the destruction I have caused. I will burn for it. And in that sorrow, I will finally be happy. For I will have atoned for the sins and lives lost of my friends. The wheels of fate will turn one last time and rest upon my name. My death will end their suffering. I will be the last note on our long song to Armageddon. My name is Squall Leonhart./
Six warriors stand on the verge of destruction. Inside a forgotten castle of a long lost ruler; they are beyond time, life, and everything of meaning for their past. Before them lies the dying, crippled form of a great sorceress, Ultimecia, possibly one of the greatest. She single-handedly conquered the human species and time itself in one full swoop. And these six young people rose together to fight a godly sorceress who wished to destroy humanity, not for fame or fortune, not for themselves, but because somewhere within themselves, they knew they had to. The fighting had ended after their journey and setting forth an era of peace across the planet, an end to their struggle. Wars, conflict, hate itself became pointless because of what they had discovered and accomplished at the same time.
These six young peoples' lives had been recorded in every history book across the planet. Despite being only in their late teens and early twenties, the valuable training they had received at Balamb Garden had propelled them to victory. Their training with Guardian Forces was almost unique to them alone, and for that they were much feared. Not any kind of person could wield a giant beast of destruction as just another weapon. They had been analyzed as both saints and heroes, and also as the beginnings of a prophecy of dark times, but they were not destined to this position. They were not military leaders or politicians, they were joe schmoes, mercenaries that had accomplished the impossible and were rewarded for it.
Millions upon millions of Gil to be exact.
The symbol of everything they had done was marked on each of their own battle-hardened faces and on the influence they had on the rest of the known world. And yet, as if the world was cruelly turned against them, no one would be able to ever understand them, their endeavor, or what they ever really stood for from that point on. Their lives were irreversibly altered, for when one fights evil, he sees the evil in himself. Their eyes, so warm and fragile, now had a misty and vacant look to them. The evils of the world were evident wherever they turned, even in themselves.
The returning warriors found it hard to embrace the peace they had set into motion, hard to believe how the world would twist and turn into what they had seen so clearly during their encounter. They craved happiness but only found a dull sting where they searched. They grew apart from each other. And slowly the peace began to shatter, into millions of pieces, until there was nothing left but chaos.
* * *
/ = italics
* * * = end of a section
Everything else is as is.
Final Fantasy 8:
1 Ashes, Ashes…
Prologue
Part 1
/I can feel hate all around me. I can feel disgust. I can feel anger and I can feel despair. I will watch as our lives are torn apart. And I will feel the pain of the destruction I have caused. I will burn for it. And in that sorrow, I will finally be happy. For I will have atoned for the sins and lives lost of my friends. The wheels of fate will turn one last time and rest upon my name. My death will end their suffering. I will be the last note on our long song to Armageddon. My name is Squall Leonhart./
Six warriors stand on the verge of destruction. Inside a forgotten castle of a long lost ruler; they are beyond time, life, and everything of meaning for their past. Before them lies the dying, crippled form of a great sorceress, Ultimecia, possibly one of the greatest. She single-handedly conquered the human species and time itself in one full swoop. And these six young people rose together to fight a godly sorceress who wished to destroy humanity, not for fame or fortune, not for themselves, but because somewhere within themselves, they knew they had to. The fighting had ended after their journey and setting forth an era of peace across the planet, an end to their struggle. Wars, conflict, hate itself became pointless because of what they had discovered and accomplished at the same time.
These six young peoples' lives had been recorded in every history book across the planet. Despite being only in their late teens and early twenties, the valuable training they had received at Balamb Garden had propelled them to victory. Their training with Guardian Forces was almost unique to them alone, and for that they were much feared. Not any kind of person could wield a giant beast of destruction as just another weapon. They had been analyzed as both saints and heroes, and also as the beginnings of a prophecy of dark times, but they were not destined to this position. They were not military leaders or politicians, they were joe schmoes, mercenaries that had accomplished the impossible and were rewarded for it.
Millions upon millions of Gil to be exact.
The symbol of everything they had done was marked on each of their own battle-hardened faces and on the influence they had on the rest of the known world. And yet, as if the world was cruelly turned against them, no one would be able to ever understand them, their endeavor, or what they ever really stood for from that point on. Their lives were irreversibly altered, for when one fights evil, he sees the evil in himself. Their eyes, so warm and fragile, now had a misty and vacant look to them. The evils of the world were evident wherever they turned, even in themselves.
The returning warriors found it hard to embrace the peace they had set into motion, hard to believe how the world would twist and turn into what they had seen so clearly during their encounter. They craved happiness but only found a dull sting where they searched. They grew apart from each other. And slowly the peace began to shatter, into millions of pieces, until there was nothing left but chaos.
* * *