A/N: I'd like to say that this has been a long time coming, but it would be a lie. I came up with this idea a week ago while talking to a friend of mine (The Unknowing Herald). It's the origin story and secret explanation of things unexplained fully in An Unending Struggle. Arashi is the only part of this that has been a long time coming. This character was born in my mind a year ago, give or take a month or two, and he's been growing and growing since then. Through the course of this tale you will learn about his birth and growth as a character, an idea, in my mind. Please, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING but Arashi, Hibiki, Hikari, an OC who is NOT the Warrior of Light and is female, and Ahri Tidulv (as well as most other OCs in this tale). Shin Verus belongs to The Unknowing Herald, as does the story, An Unending Struggle, that this is the side-story for. Arashi's powers I invented on my own, save those he'll learn in this story as a result of things that will soon be explained. The origins of the powers I deem my own originals are not the ones explained in this story. I am making them become as such due to a need to have a better explanation than 'he figured it out himself'. Anything he has the ability to do that seems similar to a power from an anime, manga, or game is not intentionally so, unless otherwise stated. Some things have been excessively adapted and altered for the sake of this story.

The Unwilling Trigger

With the end of the true Final Fantasy came a great many issues. I, as Avatar of Time, have been assigned to fix a great many of the alterations of people's lives that occurred to the negative without changing the overall course of events. The number of lives I save in simply managing the parallel timelines is unbelievable. And yet, before it all, I had to ensure my own existence. I had to become a self-actuating paradox to attain my current powers and my new life. Stalking and guarding what was once a beast feared by the gods and a genuine Godslayer was just the side-job I had to do to get to when I needed to be. They still don't know about it, even though I now serve under their daughter. Now, I shall reveal the truth behind the final act of the play called life, which bears the title Final Fantasy!

Experience and beware the Tale of A Timeless Battle!

There have been a large number of iterations in myths of the place commonly known (and in some cases formerly known) as Prince…I mean Hell, Hell! The current Hell has six 'circles' or levels. For example, there is the first circle, Limbo, where the punishment is an eternity of doing and being surrounded by…nothing! This is the highest circle of Hell. The second circle is Violence, a place of eternal warfare. The third circle is Gluttony, a place of insatiable hunger. The fourth circle is that of the beasts and bears no special name, for the only denizens are those who reduced themselves to nothing more than animals in life. The fifth circle is Shurakai, a place of the stereotypical eternal torture one would expect to find in Hell. The final circle is Cocytus, a frozen waste where the capital of Hell exists.

Approximately seventeen or eighteen years ago, there was a great war waged by the forces of good and evil that ravaged Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, as well as led to the (temporary) destruction of a number of worlds. Though the forces of good prevailed, it has left the afterlife, as well as the various realms of the living, in great disarray. Even nearly two decades later there were still problems. New posts had to be made to fill the gaps and speed up the recovery process. The Avatars, representatives of elements, magic, and even concepts, were called upon to help restore the balance between the realms of the dead and the living.

But that is a topic for another time. For now, we find ourselves in the second circle, Violence, watching a specific individual go about what was to be his final day dying as he'd lived. As a Shinobi, a ninja, and a paragon of the ambiguous line between good and evil. This ninja's name was, is, and will be Arashi. Simply that one word, with the meaning of 'storm' behind it, suffices as his identifier.

Now, let us delve into the tale of conflict, of secret salvation, of self-fulfillment…let us delve into the tale of Arashi…the Tale of A Timeless Battle.

His eyes shot open and his honed reflexes moved his body before he could even think about what it was doing. It was a skill perfected through countless battles in an endless war. His punishment for his lifetime of murder, espionage, and waging secret wars in the shadows was to endlessly continue to do such actions. "At least it's something I know how to do better than a lot of the people here seem to."

Indeed, Arashi was generally better than most of his attackers, slaying this lone warrior swiftly with but a flick of his wrist to drive the blade that emerged from the palm of his hand up into the man's skull. The blade retracted and Arashi let the blood pool in his hand for a moment before dropping the man. A nondescript sword with a chain attaching the end of the hilt to his wrist shot out of his palm and shone in his free hand. It was a curious power he held, but it was his and his alone. As he gazed into the reflection of the blade of unknown make he beheld himself once again, as was a habit of his. It was to reassure him he was not a monster with his memories, but truly himself. Purple, pupil-less eyes gazed back with a sense of resignation, framed by scarlet bangs; the rest of his blood colored hair was tied back in a short tail. His plain face was neither overly attractive nor horribly disfigured. Indeed, the faint scars littering it seemed to subtly make him look slightly more impressive. Arashi let the blade shorten and the chain lengthen until he was holding a short blade on the end of a chain. He began to idly spin this blade as he walked away from the cooling temporary corpse, winding his way through the dead forest he'd settled in for the night. Arashi had long ago learnt to let his body run on autopilot to avoid going insane like so many denizens of Violence eventually had. He'd wanted to prove that he was no monster. It was the only thing he could remember about how he died…that he'd died a monster, felled by another with the same profession he'd held in life. He knew because they'd done so without him noticing. They had been better than him – they likely still were.

He reflected on his afterlife, on the endless conflict, and thought about the names of powerful figures that had been bandied about by some of those who had arrived around the time he had. Shin, Terra, Jecht…those were the most commonly mentioned ones. Jecht was mentioned significantly more so than the other two. The man would likely destroy the entire circle in a day were he to be sentenced to eternity there. Apparently he could backhand gods and get away with it…because the backhands all but killed them.

Arashi took a deep breath and stepped out of the dead forest and onto the battleground for the day, a wide open plain where a massive number of mere foot soldiers fought against manikins. Hey, they had to go somewhere to keep them from spreading. The chain shortened again and the short blade became a sword once more. In Arashi's other hand a similar blade shot forth from his palm and settled in his grip.

Wordlessly, driven only by an instinct that told him violence was necessary to hide, to blend in, and to conceal his retained sanity the former ninja threw aside his training and charged silently into the fray, his blades flashing in a deadly dance against opponents who, in life, could have posed a threat. But in death they'd grown complacent, careless, and wild.

"You said you knew of a candidate for the Avatar of Time, yes?" the powerful voice asked.

"Yes, I did. He is in the second circle," responded a wise, but young, woman's voice.

"Oh? A denizen of Violence for an Avatar of a concept? Explain." The command almost drove the one who had once held the lofty seat herself to her knees, but she was not so weakened by the instability of her own original realm as to even show a sign of this.

"His name is Arashi, and he was once a boy who lived in a temple of mine," the wise woman began, "and though it may be a little bit of favoritism on my part, he learned the ways of my followers quite well, excelling in them and going beyond the norm before even reaching his teenaged years. And in those years he developed a rather unique capability."

"Go on."

"The ability to form, from any form of energy within him, Chain Blades," the wise woman continued. "Unfortunately, after I sent him on a mission to aid in the fight against JENOVA, he succumbed to the vile creature's will and was ended before I could save him by another whom I have yet to identify."

"But you believe it to be…"

"I do. And if it isn't, it could become truth. He is capable of much, and waging war in the shadows to protect the timeline would suit his talents well. He has great skill and would do well as the Avatar of Time."

"…What was his name again?"

"Arashi. Arashi of the Chains was a title he once held, though I doubt he holds any memories of his life still."

"But skills such as those taught by your followers are not so easily forgotten, are they? I hope that those he learned before he met you also have stuck with him." The powerful voice held a hint of amusement to it.

"No. No they are not. And I believe that in a place of mindless slaughter such as Violence his skills may have even dulled due to the endless warfare. Though his previous experiences may have begun to show their effects as well."

"And why is it you believe that?"

"Arashi used to wait for the perfect moment to strike, the moment where he'd have no risk to himself…now he acts more like a warrior with the abilities of a ninja than that of a true denizen of shadows. He would fit the task better like this though, I feel. He'd need such an array of skills and abilities to keep up with those two absolute monsters," the wise woman's voice commented, sounding even more amused than before.

"Very well. I shall grant you and him a chance to perform this task. Guide him wisely and stay out of sight of Lezard. Now go, Ahri Tidulv, Timeless Wolf Goddess. Do not fail."

"I shall, Kami."

"…It was an honor to have known you."

Arashi was surrounded on all sides by a virtual sea of opponents. He struck out with one blade, blocked with the other, and was rewarded with a slash or stab wound. But he would never fall. He couldn't afford to fall. Not like this. Not after his pitiful, anticlimactic death. His greatest failure…and his time spent as a monster.

Suddenly, however, everything stopped and the world turned grey. Arashi spun to face the source of the aberration, his purple eyes roaring to true life for the first time in years with three small black dots spinning rapidly around the place where a pupil should have been.

"Well…you've certainly let yourself slip up in your skills Arashi. Tsk, tsk!" the woman before him scolded. A memory flitted into his mind for a brief instant, one of a grand white wolf with ten beautiful tails, all encircling him and protecting him as an infant. It was enough for him to remember a bit about who he was once.

"Ahri…Tidulv…" Arashi spoke, his voice hoarse and broken from disuse. Tears threatened to spill from his normally emotionless eyes, as his repressed self broke free. A smile, a smile victory for Ahri, formed on his faintly scarred face.

"You remember me, do you? How sweet," Ahri giggled, smiling. She didn't quite look the same as the memory, for Ahri was in the form of a white-haired young woman of modest figure in heavy blue robes. Ten white wolf tails idly moved about behind her and her predatory purple eyes, eyes she had shared with him once upon a time, were the clues that triggered Arashi's memory.

"But…why are you here? I…I failed you." Arashi frowned now, turning away in shame. It was a ninja's ultimate shame to fail their master and he had done just that. Now, he couldn't even commit ritual suicide to regain his lost honor.

Not that he wanted to. Honor was never that important to him. But still, he had his pride as a ninja in life. He supposed it should carry over to his death as well.

"I am here to give you another mission. One that will allow you to redeem yourself and become something greater," Ahri responded. "I am here to guide you on the path to become a great, yet unsung, hero. As a true ninja should be," she added playfully.

"I…I remember you telling me that once…when I was just a child," Arashi mumbled, turning his now hopeful purple eyes back to his benefactor and goddess.

"Indeed. Now, come. We have work to do and you need to speak with a man named Lezard…two decades ago."

"Well that's a bit of an extreme way to say we're behind schedule," Arashi joked as he smiled a little again and approached his honored master.

"Oh, I wasn't kidding around. We're going back in time. Now, hold your breath. I'll be merging with you once more my favored vessel. Once I do, you'll understand our goal for the time being." Ahri immediately became a glowing white outline of her former self, the wolf with ten tails, and slammed into Arashi's midsection. Immediately she began to be absorbed into his body, healing his wounds. Once the tip of the tenth tail disappeared, so too did Arashi, and time resumed.

And the endless war carried on as though he had never been there to begin with.

Memories flooded his mind. Foreign yet familiar.

Blonde spiky hair, pink hair, black hair…shaped like a duck's ass; the blond was full of smiles and hid a great pain, the pink was confused and consumed by self-doubt, but held great potential, and the black was filled with darkness and instability alongside immense talent.

Most of all, he remembered THEM. His best friends; their names escaped him for the moment though. One was quiet, no he was mute, and he held a mastery over the sealing arts that even he couldn't ever hope to match. She was his, the mute's, wife and constantly knew what everyone around her was thinking, almost literally reading people like they were books.

But then there was more. More memories.

Then there was the great long lifetime of foreign and unfamiliar memories that continued to attempt to tell him that he spent many years as something powerful. A dragon. His mate, an impossibly long-lived predator of a different species, was by his side from a few months into this confusing life and she was there, by his side, until the end; the reincarnation of his true love. His best friends were his own children, however, and they came to him from the future. The mute and the people-reader, his children? None of it made any were not his memories as far as he could tell.

Arashi fell further into the flood of thoughts and memories, confused.

His friends, the mute and the people-reader, lived within his heart this time with these memories. He was a bringer of dawn…he stole a powerful weapon from the most powerful beings and kept it from falling into the hands of any who would, who could, use it. Aside from him at the very least, though that went without saying. It felt like it wasn't him though, even less like it was him than any of the memories he'd seen thus far. Like it was someone else who was him, not him becoming someone else. He just couldn't understand it and soon the memories of this person who was and was not him slipped away forever.

Then his friends became his weapons, and he realized that these were memories going further and further back in time, detailing what seemed to be others' lives as though they were his own. He slew white monsters and helped the dead pass on, with a feeling of nostalgia pervading his senses.

He fought alongside, near, as, and against heroes in many worlds, though he usually never even interacted with them as each Fantasy played out. Regardless of this, his friends were always by his side…Hibiki, the mute, and Hikari, the people-reader.

Then he fought alongside a hero garbed in green against a great evil to save a princess and a kingdom, existing as a blue fairy and providing the green-clad hero with knowledge when necessary. The sensations of those memories were particularly off-putting and further solidified in his scattered mind that these were not his own memories and that many other people's lives were being shoved into his skull for some reason.

Seven times he saw through the eyes of a very short existence as a summoned familiar in the same event, a war over a blessed cup said to grant wishes. He could have fought six others of himself, but instead each slew their summoner and severed his soul's ties to magic to prevent it from happening again.

Hikari and Hibiki, his nigh-constant companions in this journey of memories, were by his side in a utopia of a world once ravaged by war.

Before that he experienced a hundred more lifetimes, seeing through the eyes of many a hero, villain, and those who filled in every shade of grey in between.

Then he was aware that he had reached the oldest four sets of memories…they held immense clarity to them, but he couldn't understand what he was being shown just yet. All he knew was that he was no longer incapable of magic (though how could he have ever been capable of magic since these couldn't be his own memories, he wondered) and that somehow, in some twisted way, these memories belonged to him now. Whether he wanted them or not. His mind was too scattered to really process anything clearly however and the memories overwhelmed him and took charge of him, burying the Shinobi beneath thousands of other personalities and experiences.

Lezard Valeth was not a man to look a gift horse in the mouth. He had been trying to think of a way to deposit the reincarnated form he'd…'acquired' in the location he wanted it to awaken. So when, suddenly, a way not only appears on his instruments, but also appears before him in the form of a red-haired young man, not even twenty, garbed in a green shirt with two sets of three holes running down on either side of his spine and simple black pants, Lezard Valeth ignored how it was just too perfect. Well, he ignored it for the moment at least.

The new arrival's heavy boots leave nary a sound as they crossed the room cautiously to stop a few feet from the man, ignoring the many devices and experiments littering the lab.

"Well, well, well…what have we here? A time-traveler. Now, what is your purpose here? No, that's a stupid question, you're obviously here because you knew I needed something done for me and you want something in exchange. You have the look of a very experienced man about you. So, in exchange for doing my dirty work when you so choose, what is it you want?"

"Information on the movements of any other time-travelers. Particularly ones who seek to disrupt the chain of events you're about to set into motion," Arashi responded, speaking the words whispered into his mind by his goddess, who went somehow unnoticed by the incredibly powerful sorcerer. His lack of disorientation was interesting to the mad genius, though not unheard of, and so that was what his mind simply filed it away under for the time being.

"Hoh? But that too aids me; I assume you know how this all ends though?" Lezard asked, eyes narrowed behind his glasses.

"Afraid not. I died sometime before the ending and was told that God wanted me to do something and got sent back in time." Again, these were the words that were spoken to him, and they were the truth; he didn't know the future, unless some of those memories he'd witnessed were from it, but he knew someone who knew for certain.

"Hm. Pity. Though if I do succeed, I would surely use someone who didn't know to do this so as not to spoil things by accidentally altering the timeline through my knowledge of my victory. So I shall ignore the fact that you are, yourself, from the future. For now." Lezard leaned forward, a mad look in his eyes as he processed all the various things he could and could not convince Arashi to do for him. "The first task is to take this young man," Lezard waved at the figure garbed in rags on a metal table, "and deposit him on Gaia VI for me, would you? At these coordinates, precisely, dump him. Then I'll arrange a little meeting for you with the approaching time-travelers who seek to interfere in matters and let you decide if they're going to be too big of an issue. So long as they seek to aid the young man and any friends he makes they should be fine." Lezard then turned away, appearing to dismiss him, though both knew better. The sorcerer was merely trying to get a positive identification on Arashi's method of time-travel.

Without a word, Arashi picked up the unconscious body and vanished into a vortex of chains, his own personal illusion to cover his methods of travel. Lezard only saw it as a challenge however, and smiled.

A figure with pink hair stood crying above him, lamenting his death. His son. He remembered now. His son…the only one able to finally put him to rest; his heart welled up with pride. Now he could finally sleep. 'I'm coming…Mavis.'

Except he wasn't going to where she waited, and it would be a very long time before he ever saw his one true love again. Eons until, as a dragon, he would be reunited with her and her new self.

And a lifetime or so after that, they'd be themselves again, together forever. He knew this, and it warmed his heart to know that at the end of the dark tunnel he found himself in, his 'light' waited for him.

But these were not his memories. Arashi was not this man. Yet somehow this man was Arashi. Zeref was Arashi.

Arashi frowned as he took in his surroundings. It was a fairly plain area, really, with a small town nearby and a large building quite close. He shrugged and set the unconscious form on the ground, disappearing into the shadows as the sun rose and the inhabitants – all children and teens younger than either of the young men who had just arrived on this world – found the slumbering male. Arashi watched carefully, making sure that they brought him inside without issue, before turning to the ten-tailed white wolf that now stood beside him.

"Now what Ahri?" Arashi asked. The wolf merely waited a few moments, as though expecting something, then nodded in approval for some reason.

"Now we go to The End of Time. I can sense that our…business associate has managed to redirect something to there," the she-wolf responded, once more merging with the red-haired ninja and sending him through time.

He lamented. The apocalyptic dragon had not only slain his son, but all his son's friends as well. It was the world's fault it had come to this. He would tolerate this world no more. It may have preached about it's peace and how there were no major wars going on…last time he checked anyways…but it held a darkness to it that he intended to purge.

The world could reject his existence all it wanted. He was Zeref, and he would not be denied his vengeance.

Arashi blinked a few times to adjust himself to the shift from memory to reality. He pushed his newly gained memories back, ignoring them for the time being. They were there, they were real, and he accepted that. He just didn't have the time to review them any more than he had at the moment. He was dealing better with it than anyone else could boast of to say the least.

The place known as The End of Time was a simple, yet familiar, place for both Crono and Serge. They'd been there many times before in the course of events that had occurred and had yet to occur. The familiar cobblestone plaza, the streetlight, the fences, and the void beyond were all very familiar to them. However, the red-haired young man standing before them with a bear-sized ten-tailed white wolf was not.

"Who are you? Are you the one who forced the Epoch down here?" Crono immediately demanded. The spiky redhead had a hand on his blade's hilt, ready to draw if needed.

"My name is Arashi, servant of the Timeless Wolf Goddess Ahri Tidalv and I am currently on a mission granted by God. I come from nearly two decades in the future of this current timeline. While I don't know how things end, I do know that it's best I don't," Arashi slid into a very sturdy stance, taking note of Crono's hostility.

"We don't have time to waste. We need to get moving, now! There is a world in danger of being outright shattered!" Serge interrupted, cutting through the tension. The bandanna covering his messy blue hair, Arashi absently noted, looked like it had just barely avoided being roasted recently.

"It isn't Gaia VI is it?" Arashi asked, his voice turning cold as ice at the notion that Lezard had delayed people trying to save a world. It was anathema to him, despite his profession. Even though he was a ninja in life and apparently a psychotic mage somehow, he was a human being before all that ever happened. It seemed that thought resonated with him however, and it felt so very, very right. He didn't know what he was now, but he had been a human at first and as such he sought to regain those thoughts and feelings, those memories as quickly as possible.

"Yes, it is. Omega has been unleashed and we need to get there in time to warn and evacuate as many people as we can from that world!" Crono seized the chance to get Arashi onboard.

"Ahri?" Arashi looked to the wolf.

"I believe they are on the same side as we are Arashi," her voice emanated from the wolf, despite it not moving its jaw. "We need not rush anyways. You two know how this place functions. You needn't worry about anything. We have plenty of time to speak on the matter."

"I sent a group of allies ahead of me to observe the situation," Crono stated. "Unless you need me here, I'd like to get a move on." The redheaded swordsman was truly impatient it seemed with this matter.

"That should be alright. Good luck," Ahri stated.

"You can send Serge whenever he needs to go, right?" Crono asked, hesitant to abandon his ally.

"I have that power," Ahri admitted.

"Good. I'll see you on the other side Serge," Crono fist bumped his fellow hero and ran for the Epoch, departing to Gaia 6 immediately.

"Soo…what now?"

"Now you and I plan your next move while I send Arashi on to monitor the situation on his end of things. I sense another interloper approaching the world through the time stream. Arashi, I shall leave the forsaken tree to you." Ahri glowed white and shot a tail into Arashi, leaving her with only nine and sending Arashi back to Gaia VI.

"Now we can speak candidly."

Once more he saw the life of Zeref and breathed it as his own.

His magic, the magic cursed by many over his long, long life, was known as Living Magic and Death Magic. His Living Magic could instill life in the inanimate and heal the living, and his Death Magic did the opposite. It made the living inanimate and corroded that which held no life. It was his curse and his blessing, enabling him immortal life in exchange for the world constantly attempting to end him in any way it could. But it was only right after what he'd done to his own son out of the fear of being knowingly hated as a father and a fear of bringing that hatred to bear on his son.

Arashi blinked the dust from his eyes as he was passed by a golden streak. He then realized he was falling. Arashi shot out a grapple-chain, latching onto the ground a ways away and pulling himself in at an angle to lessen the impact. He disengaged as soon as he got a good speed and hit the ground rolling.

"Well, that landing could have gone better," Arashi mumbled to himself, shaking the dirt off as he stood up. He had been about to try the magic he'd remembered when an interruption presented itself.

"Indeed it could have interloper. Who are you?" a metallic voice rang out behind him. Arashi spun rapidly to find a knight encased in blue armor…or something that was supposed to be a knight.

"My name…doesn't really matter. You're the one interfering with the timeline, right?" Arashi responded.

"I suppose an exchange of names would be pointless…for soon you shall return to the Void!" A circle of light appeared beneath the man and shot forward to the ground in front of Arashi. It was only his years of experience in dealing with unexpected foes in the second circle that saved him from decapitation.

"Damn, you're fast for such a rust-bucket!" Arashi back-flipped away quickly making note of how his attacker paused.

"What did you just call me?" The knight(?) stood up straight, trying to use his imposing height to make clear his anger at such a comment.

"A rust-bucket. That's why your armor's all painted, right, to cover up all the rust?" And there it was. Arashi's once infamous smirk. The small portion of Ahri concealed within him began to relay this news to the main body of the goddess.

"You shall pay for such impudence!" the blue armored man exclaimed, suddenly flying at Arashi and encasing himself in a sphere of dark energy. "ALMAGHEST!"

"Shi-" Arashi didn't get out of the way in time. Being dead and fighting innumerable weak opponents had dulled his once legendary reaction speed. The blast of white light sent him flying after shattering his chain swords, tumbling end over end, with his chest caved in. His ribs had been shattered and it idly occurred to him that his opponent had been toying with him at first.

Then energy began to course through him, restoring his body to its former health. "Living Magic. So, it activated without me needing to want it to? Interesting. More interesting is that I have it. Does this mean I'm actually Zeref, not Arashi?" Arashi leapt to his feet, a fresh set of chain swords in his hands seconds later, and three dots spinning around the place where a pupil should be in each eye at speeds that made them blur together into a ring.

"Ho? You survived?" The knight seemed amused. He felt that his victory was a sure thing given what had just happened. "Well then…why not play with my friends since you've ruined my agenda for the day?"

Arashi's eyes widened slightly as several crystalline manikins appeared seemingly from thin air. "Well…that's a nifty party trick…" He refrained from using the apparently offensive nickname he'd given his opponent since that hadn't ended well for him last time.

"Destroy this impudent fool," the knight commanded with a wave of his arm.

The manikins, all resembling different people that Arashi didn't recognize, charged. As soon as the first reached him, Arashi spun his right blade about, swinging it in an upward arc, slicing off its arms as it reached out to blast him with some form of magic at close range. "Weaker than normal though." That thoughtless comment made the ninja frown, as he had no memories of combatting such things before.

Arashi was then forced to jump back as another of its fellows destroyed the manikin, this one with a large blade dragging behind it on the ground. "Well, that was a bit of a backhanded tactic…hehehe…get it? It was underhanded because you attacked through your ally, but you backhanded it, so I said…oh, right. You guys have no brains."

Arashi blocked a swing of the large blade with both of his own, finding himself actually hard-pressed to repel it and lashed out with a kick to drive it back. "But damn if you aren't a lot stronger than the last one." Arashi blocked another slash of the manikin's blade and took notice of how the rest were just watching and waiting. They were being smart about it. Sure, they could try and overwhelm him with numbers, but it was just as likely he'd slip out and they end up pummeling one another. This way he got tired out and weaker as time went on.

Arashi's thought process was interrupted when he was blown back by a stronger slash from his current opponent. If my stamina is my only true asset in this situation…and I know I'm weaker than that rust-bucket…then hopefully Ahri can send some backup soon. The redhead ducked under another swing of the blade and brought his own dual blades up in an X, gently resting against the manikin's throat…before maneuvering them like a pair of scissors and beheading it.

A blast of magic blew apart what was left of the manikin as Arashi back-flipped away, the blast barely singing his arms. Arashi hissed a bit, but the damage was very minor. It didn't inhibit him in the least as he fought off a manikin of a girl hovering above the ground. She was fighting him at mid-range, forcing him to throw his swords to reach her. The chains extended from his palms as the blades flew, and he halted the extension with a snap of his wrists and a flexing of his fingers as he seized a section of each chain in each hand and flung his arms inwards, entrapping the manikin in the chains before the blades curved suddenly and sliced through 'her' head, dicing it into three pieces before the chains crushed what was left like a python.

Yet another manikin, with a spiky head and a big sword, charged in. This one was easy to dispatch, just a roll under the initial attack and then an upward stab.

Chief, duck! a familiar female voice rang out in his mind. It wasn't Ahri's wise voice however; this was an energetic, younger woman whose voice held an undertone to it that was reminiscent of a cat for some odd reason. Heeding it, he did so, knowing whose voice it was.

"Hikari?!" Arashi didn't let his shock show on the outside, though he had a feeling Hibiki was present as well, amused and silently laughing at his internal 'what the ****' face.

The chain sword in his right hand began to shake before stopping, and a chain with a short blade tip emerged from his shoulder, spearing out through a shorter manikin that had been jumping at him. The monkey tail on it and the daggers in hand reminded Arashi of some of the vaguer memories of his life spent infiltrating a madman's labs and destroying them. He didn't dwell on this subject though, instead taking his friends' presence and aid in stride, and fending off an attack from a spear-wielding manikin.

It seemed like there were more of them than before however.

A second chain, this one with what looked to be a claw of metal on the end rather than a blade, shot forth from his left shoulder, slashing through the legs of three of the growing number of manikins, leaving Arashi able to focus on his current opponent.

The spear wielder was skilled; Arashi had to parry and counter each strike and jab the manikin made with a short back-step. He ducked under one end of the spear only to find the other suddenly embedded in his thigh. It was only quick thinking on the part of his two friends that saved him; the chains they somehow inhabited swung around and diced the spear wielder from behind.

However, even with their aid in thinning the numbers, manikins now surrounded Arashi. It seemed he wouldn't be getting out of this so easily until…

"Fire's of Din, Blaze of Creation, lend me your strength!" A green clad warrior landed before him, punching the ground and igniting a dome of flames. The attack passed over Arashi harmlessly, making him feel foolish for working to create a chain barrier with Hibiki and Hikari's help.

"I want to know why you two are within me, but that can wait for now. First…" "Who are you?" Arashi stood at the ready, his blades held at his sides in a deceptively ready stance, and his friends hanging in the air about his shoulders like deadly snakes waiting to strike. The image of a rabbit briefly passed by his mind's eye, followed by one of a cat, and Arashi sighed at what he remembered as Hibiki's corrective nature.

"My name is Link. Are you Arashi?" The warrior stood and turned to face him, completely calm despite the surviving manikins getting to their feet. He had a long, floppy green cap on his head, almost hiding his dirty-blonde hair, and dark blue eyes. His ears were long and pointed. He had a green tunic on and a chainmail shirt on beneath that. His pants were white but sturdy looking and his boots, though coated with enough dirt to make them a really natural brown, seemed just as good in condition.

"Yeah. Why?" Arashi asked, his caution never wavering around this new arrival despite his apparent aid against the manikins.

"Hold still." Link pulled a white boomerang that looked like it was designed to resemble a wing out of…well, a small pouch at his waist, and threw it at the nearest manikin, generating a small tornado. Then he whipped out two clawed gauntlets that shot the claws out like grappling hooks, piercing two more manikins, and he swung his arms so that they'd slam into their fellows as weapons.

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Because you weren't thinking of dealing with multiple opponents at once.

Arashi sighed at Hikari's response. The cat-like woman was mocking him, he was sure of it.

Arashi spun and threw his chain swords out, wielding them in much the same manner as Link did his clawshots, while Hibiki and Hikari lashed out at any who came close to the two.

It was over quickly. Exdeath had left once Link had arrived, something neither of the two had noticed. With his departure, the manikins had stopped growing in number, enabling them to wipe the field clean. Link was noticeably better at it, seamlessly switching between a bow and magical arrows, several massive hammers, a variety of swords, throwing in the occasional bomb, and even using that fire magic from before. When it was over, Arashi turned his attention to his newfound ally.

"Hehehe…well, that went MUCH better than expected. You haven't dulled in the slightest, 'Hero'," a taunting, slightly echoed female voice childishly commented. Link's shadow shot up, revealing an impish girl with a strange stone helm, open at the top, and carved with intricate runes. An eye design covered her left eye, but the orange glow of the visible one was nonetheless eerie. The glowing blue rune patterns that decorated her body at seemingly random places added to the otherworldly effect the black-and-white imp girl gave off. The odd-looking orange ponytail sticking out of the top of the stone helmet completed the look. "Sorry, Link here isn't much of a talker. Name's Midna. Ahri said we'd be borrowing you for some timeline fixing."

"Wait, what? She didn't say anything like that to me," Arashi protested, his brow furrowed in confusion. He was trying to figure out if he could take the two if they turned out to be a very elaborate enemy distraction. After all, manikins weren't hard to replace.

"She speaks true, Arashi. Midna is an old friend of mine, and her home has fallen victim to a terrible convergence. If it isn't fixed soon, it shall be completely destroyed, and the power it holds within it left to the hands of our enemy," Ahri's voice echoed in Arashi's mind.

"Hey, keep your thoughts to yourself furball!" Hikari interjected. "The Chief's got enough voices in his head as it is!"

"She confirm it then?" Midna asked, drawing Arashi out of his thoughts.

"Yes, she has. I assume we are about to depart for your realm…however, Ahri, what of this place? Who will stop Exdeath and his forces from trying again?" Arashi asked, this time receiving his answer aloud from a small crack in the air around them.

"Crono and Serge have this place and time under control. You needn't worry."

"Understood." Arashi took a deep breath and waited.

In a flash of white light, the three were gone.

Okay, so that is chapter one. I know it's a lot to take in, and I know Arashi's memory confusion is a bit…grand. But just give me a chance here people. I'm doing my best to moderate things and the only reason I used Zeref was because I have a hunch his actions in the past have been greatly misunderstood and that there is a great deal more to the story. And no, Arashi is not based on how I think Zeref should be. Arashi came about in my mind WELL before I invented this, now official, backstory for his character. If you haven't figured out the truth behind Hibiki and Hikari, you'll learn soon enough. And if you do know, put it up in a review. I won't confirm or deny it, but I'll give a shout-out, maybe more, to whoever gets it right first. Perhaps a character cameo of their choosing…

Unknowing Herald is not allowed to participate in this. He knows the truth.

Otherwise, thanks for reading, and please REVIEW!