Author Notes:
This is the result of some debating with myself in regards to Dissidia's plot. I noticed that any character who had taken part in an earlier conflict in their original game, seemed to have taken part in an earlier cycle in Dissidia's story. As I thought about it, I realized that one could more or less fill out an entire Dissida prequel with characters that took part in past conflicts. Laguna against Adel, for example.
That gave birth to this fan-fic, this is about a previous cycle that took place. Though I wasn't able to add in quite as many characters as I would have wanted, I needed to be reasonable about it all, so I came up with six Warriors of Cosmos, and seven Warriors of Chaos. So we have thirteen characters here, not counting Cosmos and Chaos. There aren't really that many characters here that didn't appear in Dissidia either, because anyone who implied that they took part in an earlier cycle got a magical ticket into this story. Emperor mentioned he saw Sephiroth take his life gets him in. Kefka having directly seen Terra in a previous cycle gets him in, etc. Ultimately, only three Warriors of Cosmos are new, and only one Warrior of Chaos is new. This also ultimately meant that, with the imbalance, and with the need to have all characters who took part in a past cycle in the story
I admit that some characters might be a bit OOC, but some of them came from games I haven't really played. I've only played I-V, VIII, XII, and XIII so far. Though it's hard to make Adel OOC, considering she gets only three very uninteresting lines in VIII, and as long as you remember that she's cruel-minded, she's effectively in-character.
This will also be my first time writing a story series, and not a one-shot. So it's a test of my ability to write a long story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dissidia or Final Fantasy or any thing, it all belongs to Square-Enix.
"Here ends the war of the gods. Destiny's hand cannot be stayed…"
The ten warriors disappeared in pulses of light, the demonic god of discord, Chaos, felt his flesh burn and immolate, the death he had craved had come, though not precisely in the way he had predicted or wanted. The cycle had come to an end, and Chaos along with it. Every hope and ambition of the Warriors of Chaos had come to nothing.
Yet that is the future. What happened before this cycle? What led to this cycle? What was the last cycle? Many warriors on the side of Chaos harbored memories of the last conflict, but what are those memories? What do they remember of the last cycle? That story shall be unfolded.
A white throne. It was none other then the throne of Cosmos, goddess of harmony. Cosmos led her Warriors of Cosmos against the forces of Chaos in the hopes of saving the worlds. Or at least, that's what her warriors believed.
The throne was surrounded by shallow water, just deep enough to cover the toes, enough to irk the man who paced through it. Sans shirt and bursting with muscles, the man was Jecht.
Across from him, standing calmly and evenly on the white marble Cosmos' throne sat on, was a man dressed primarily in black, the color of his outfit was directly contrasted by his long silver hair that went along his back. In the man's left hand was a sword, a sword whose length could only be described as ridiculous, the man was Sephiroth.
There was a third and final man with them, sitting casually next to Sephiroth, it looked as if he could doze off at any second, with his chosen weapon of a machine gun resting in his lap. The man's attire was rather casual, much like the personality of the man, whose name was Laguna.
"This is getting boring." Jecht let out an exaggerated yawn, he was willing to be patient, but only for so much time. Cosmos had told them to wait by her throne until she came, and wait they were doing. Though Jecht was the only losing his patience, Sephiroth was the greatest member of SOLDIER, he was used to such spans of downtime between missions. In fact, he was used to longer periods of downtime then this, much longer periods of time.
Laguna wasn't quite as patient, even if he was a former soldier, but then, even during his career, he wasn't known as the most dedicated sort.
"Cosmos asked us to wait here, Jecht." Sephiroth was always the orderly sort, even if he came off as distant and cold at times, he didn't precisely fit in with the other Cosmos warriors, even if he was their acting leader. Yet it seemed normal for the thrown-together teams like this, for the leader to be a tad stuck-up.
"Hey, I'm no fan of waiting either Jecht, but Sephiroth is right." Laguna allowed himself to topple over to the left, looking like was trying to curl up for sleep.
"That's not very becoming for a soldier, Laguna." Sephiroth continued to stand erect, taking casual note of the lack of discipline in the former soldier. Very care-free, almost, like Zack.
"How do you think the others are doing?" Jecht crossed his arms from the boredom, perhaps talking about the other three Warriors of Cosmos might give him something to whittle the time away with.
"Don't worry about them, they can handle themselves." Sephiroth gave a calm answer. "Even if, with the exception of the Dragoon, they're as undisciplined as you two."
"Aw, give it a rest, Sephiroth. Not everyone is against having fun, you know." Laguna rolled his eyes as he closed them, clearly trying to take a nap.
"Yet everyone is against the Chaos Warriors taking over all the worlds, Laguna."
"It seemed to be an ordinary temple, albeit, one in ruins, known to them only as the "Old Chaos Shrine". They were inside it, even if it looked as if the ill-maintained pillars would allow the ceiling to come crashing down on them at any given second. These three were also Warriors of Cosmos.
One was covered in armor, perhaps it could have been defined as knightly armor, though one made in the image of a dragon, this was Richard, the Dragoon. With a spear, the Blood Spear, in hand.
Pacing up and down the main carpet of the shrine, there was a significantly older man, with a single sword holstered to side. His hair had long gone grey, yet he still seemed quite fit for his age, and quite ready for battle, his age did not concern him. Perhaps his only concern, was the fact that his memories of his world seemed to escape him. Amnesiac or not, he could at least remember his name, Galuf.
The last among them was also the shortest, as well as the only outright spell caster among the Warriors of Cosmos. However, despite her size, she was a complete adult. Shantotto was her name, and with a style of talking that drove everyone insane.
"This is where the Chaos Warriors were holed up until recently, right?" Richard, spear in hand, took note of the throne at the end of the carpet. Almost everything in the Shrine was covered with dust, except for the throne and the area around it, a sign of recent use. Considering the Chaos Warriors, it would only make sense if they thought they had the right to use the throne as their chair. "I'd say that they completely cleaned themselves out, though, beyond the obvious signs of use of the Shrine, there's no indication of where they could have gone."
"They may be gone, but has it been long?" Shantotto's quips had a way of making both men sigh in frustration. Her personality wasn't obnoxious in of itself, but it was her insistence on rhyming her words that drove them to rip their hair out.
"I swear, there is no way I could find someone more annoying then you." Galuf sighed as Shantotto turned around to give him a look. "Even though I barely remember my own world, I know there wasn't anyone half as bad as you."
"Oh shut up you. People like me are far too few."
"There needs to be even less people like you." Richard sighed after he made his response to Shantotto. "We're trying to save all the worlds from being conquered by Chaos, remember?"
"We have confirmed the Cosmos Warriors."
The five Warriors standing at the ready at the throne of Chaos, a jut of rock sticking up out of a sea of lava, turned their attention to the decorated figure that stood before them all. The figure was none other then the Palamecian Emperor, otherwise known as "Mateus".
"We have their names, Sephiroth, Laguna, Galuf, Richard, Shantotto, and Jecht."
Emperor Mateus held a scepter in his right hand, in his free out-stretched left hand there was a small white orb that was rapidly expanding, as it continued to expand, clear pictures could be seen, pictures of the six Cosmos Warriors.
One of the Chaos Warriors, Sorceress Adel, with sharp thorn-like wings sprouting from her back, was the first to take notice of the pictures, in particular, one that showed someone from her own world.
"That's the peon who suspended me in space…" Adel's voice was highly raspy and cold, a reflection of her styling of ruling, a ruling that was ended due to the long-haired ex-Galbadian soldier she saw on the images.
Her anger was briefly interrupted by a laugh that came from behind her, a deep booming laughter that was easily identifiable, as she expected, Exdeath walked up beside her, gazing at the image of Laguna falling asleep at Order's Sanctuary.
"So this undisciplined worm is what sealed you?" Exdeath let loose with another laugh, only rekindling Adel's anger. "Perhaps not even the power of the Void could give your strength any redeemable characteristics."
Adel's lips let loose with a barely audible hiss that didn't phase Exdeath at all, though there was no telling if he managed to hear it through his laughter.
"You'll see soon enough what happens to those that earn a Sorceress' wrath!" Adel reached her arm out, with the finger pointed towards Exdeath, a small amount of white colored energy began forming on it, weather she was planning to shoot it at Exdeath wasn't unclear, and it would remain unclear as a gloved hand reached in and diverted Adel's hand.
Moving her gaze to the side, she saw the owner of the arm, Judge Gabranth. Gabranth only looked at her through his helm, giving her a silent warning against in-fighting. Adel allowed her hand to go limp, a cue for Gabranth to release his grip on her arm.
Adel's arm went back to her side, she was now composed, or at least, acted composed, if she had it her way, the other Warriors of Chaos would be stains on the ground.
Another one of the Warriors of Chaos, Kefka, felt the urge to interject here. "Come on, let'em fight! There's too many of us, anyway!"
"Listen you worthless nihilist…" Adel pointed a finger at Kefka, albeit, without magic being drawn to the finger, "Try to heckle me, and I swear, it'll be the last thing you ever-"
"Enough."
Adel's words were stopped mid-sentence by the sound of a familiar voice. Collectively, all the present Chaos Warriors turned to the Emperor. No, the voice did not come from the Emperor, but from behind him. Walking up the steps to Chaos' throne was a knight, with a distinctive horned helm and carrying a exceptionally huge sword, in one hand at that.
The presence of this knight, the presence of Garland, seemed to silence everyone. Garland was the official "mediator" of the Chaos Warriors, though rather then with words, he mediated through knock-out. Garland was formerly the knight of the king of a nation known as Cornelia, as an ex-royal knight, one might of thought that all Garland knew was brute force, but no, he seemed to know exactly how to take each Chaos Warrior down in an instant. The only exception was perhaps Emperor Mateus, but only because he and Garland had yet to fight.
"We are banded to fight against the Warriors of Cosmos, not each other." Garland walked forward, bringing himself to a halt in-between Kefka and Adel. "Is that understood, you two?"
Adel scowled, but would not turn away, she gazed at the face of Garland's helm, finally muttering a forced apology for taking violent offense at Exdeath and Kefka.
"Come on Garland, what's a couple of explosions between friends?" Kefka reached out and put his hand on Garland's shoulder, taking a step forward to allow him to lean on the knight, before being promptly rejected by Garland's armored elbow going into his gut.
Kefka fell to the floor, Garland turned to look down at the insane jester. "Do not think that the abilities showcased by the Esper-girl you enslaved grants you any leverage with me, or with Chaos."
Garland began to walk off, moving past all of the other Chaos Warriors. "I shall speak with Chaos now." Garland took a few steps forward before turning around to the Warriors of Chaos. "Emperor Mateus, I leave our movement and operation to you."
You are, after all, the only other one who knows the truth…