The Black Phoenix

Prologue

AN: Welcome to yet another reboot of this story. I know I have been gone for awhile, and I could give many different excuses but the truth is that I lost my passion for this story. Recently I decided to take a look at this story again, and I found what I had lost. Now I not going to promise that I'll update weekly or even monthly, especially since I'm am now in college studying a subject I really enjoy, but I do plan on finishing this story at some point down the line. However I have re-read and revised, and all the chapters that I have revised (3) have seen major rewrites, this should become quickly apparent, as this is the only chapter that has scenes from the future. That's about it, so good-reading and I hope you enjoy yet another reboot of this story.

2015

The fall of society should have taken a long time with multiple signs along the way but then when you take in to account how bloodthirsty and greedy the human population is it really shouldn't have been a surprise when it fell very fast. It all started when the Yellowstone caldera erupted, millions died, and because the ash cloud blocked the sun for years nuclear winter occurred causing supplies to become extremely limited. This meant that there was no economy in any sense of the word, with no money, no supplies and no food available people just stopped working and resorted to rioting and looting.

As an attempt to corral the criminal behavior the governments of the world decided to shut off what little electricity was left, even for the most privileged of people, which was a short-sided decision as it only led to more rioting and looting. The governments of the world sought solutions, holding town meetings, summits, all kinds of things, but that was just putting a Band-Aid over things. People had grown tired of the same BS, tired of their do nothing governments, so they continued to rebel and any semblance of order fell. With no government, no electricity and no monetary income the world was forced to return to simpler times when it was ruled by a trade system which caused people to hoard and loot so they would have things to barter with.

When it was all said and done an era emerged that history would refer to as the second Middle Ages, for some it wasn't that hard to adapt to but for others that were used to a fast paced society and weren't used to having to work for anything suffered. With the government gone people saw it as a chance to take back what they thought was rightfully theirs and formed small city-states, unfortunately with limited supplies they could not support themselves. A period of struggle with emerged with the larger city-states battling each other for more land and supplies and thousands more died.

When the majority of the bloodshed ended three major kingdoms rose to swallow up the smaller city-states, Tenebrosam, Suscipiam and Paciscor. The ruler of Tenebrosam was not a nice man to say the least, he was not open for negotiation and therefore gained his land through open warfare and bloodshed, he did not refer to himself as a king because kings die or get assassinated, he believed he could not die, a believe that many agreed with as he had survived many assassination attempts. Instead of calling himself king he adopted the term 'his supreme holiness Lord Voldemort' and a religion evolved.

The king of Suscipiam was far younger than his competing rulers but he was not naïve. While he liked to think that he was a nice and compassionate ruler and sought to gain land through monetary takeovers and alliances he knew that at times battle was necessary and sometimes his temper got away from him in the heat of battle. Under the advice of his wife King Potter took to teaching to get his anger under control and therefore had trained an army that was regarded as the best in the fractured world. His subjects respected him but unlike Tenebrosam didn't view him as a god and also unlike Voldemort's realm were allowed to worship whatever they liked, whether that be Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or even Greek mythology, however he also took a moral stand against any form of extremism, as an example if an Islamist strapped a bomb to their chest and tried to blow anything up they would be quickly stopped by the city guard and then sentenced to a life of hard labor in the coal mine and when they died they would be buried in an unmarked grave. The citizens of Suscipiam knew that King Potter was just a man with many flaws that had rose to his position not through power but smarts and a vision for a better future.

But if 'his supreme holiness Lord Voldemort' was old than the ruler of Paciscor was ancient, far older than any man should have the right to live. Emperor Dumbledore was a two-faced kind of man, he would say different things to different people to get his way and when he talked people took it as god's word; he gained his land through nothing but direct manipulation. Just like Tenebrosam a religion grew around Dumbledore, knowing that his people though his words came direct from god he not only became the ruler of his kingdom but the Pope as well.

The kings didn't pick their realms based on geography or strategic placement or even comfort, the lands were picked because that's where they happened to be when Yellowstone erupted. Emperor-Pope Dumbledore was in Scotland, King Potter in America and 'his supreme holiness Lord Voldemort' situated in Russia and they saw no reason to leave because they were far away from anything else. But even though the three castles were thousands of miles from each other their hatred for each other knew no bounds.

King Potter had sworn a blood feud on Lord Voldemort for the murder of his parents and the attempted kidnapping of his children and a blood feud on Dumbledore because the self-styled pope had locked him in prison on trumped up charges and tried the same thing with his wife, and the feud between Dumbledore and Voldemort had been ongoing since before King Harry was even a twinkle in his parent's eyes, in fact before his parents were even born, it was the stereotypical light versus dark side battle, long had the grounds of each kingdom been stained with the blood of many.

As one would expect with quite a difference between each ruler they all had their own specific ways of overseeing their kingdoms no matter the circumstances. With that being said only one kingdom was really set up to survive for the long haul, the other kingdoms didn't really have an escape plan. The volcanic eruption had caused an ash cloud to cover the earth blocking the sun and that in turn had caused nuclear winter. With the sun blocked people had to find alternative ways to grow crops in order to get not only food but medical supplies, with very little viable growing fields this made essentials very limited. Out of the three kingdoms only Suscipiam had extra supplies if needed and while there were times of famine no one could say they were suffering with everyone willing to help their neighbor out and the king adding extra support.

While Suscipiam celebrated their good health and fortune Tenebrosam was suffering, they had food that was barely edible, many people were poor and only watched out for themselves, the king never came out of his throne room because quite frankly he didn't care about his subjects, he was only concerned about what they could give him, he didn't accept any ideas that weren't his own and god forbid you suggest something. He often punished people whether they did what they were supposed to or not and the king was often referred to as Hitler incarnate.

Paciscor was holding its head above water so to speak, they had just enough food to last them through there multiple famines, they had both rich and poor people and some would help others although it wasn't prevalent, the king did leave the castle but only because he was worshiped as a god so he had to show everyone how much better he was, he did listen to ideas that weren't his own but only if he could incorporate into his owns manipulations and he honestly didn't care one lick what anyone thought of him as evidenced by the fact that his own brother had left Paciscor for Suscipiam.

Throughout the years Suscipiam, Paciscor, and Tenebrosam fought each other multiple times, but no one had attempted an all-out war to end all wars, until now, that is. In a large hidden complex in the middle of a dark forest sat a large group of beings, ranging from centaurs to goblins, these people were devoted followers to only one man, but to say that they were just sycophants, brainlessly following him around would be wrong. They were friends and confidants who had been with him from the very start of the long winding journey to complete their mission, their goal, their conquest.

The large complex that they were living in had been their base of operations for the past two years, it was where they finalized plans, kept the kingdom running, and said goodbye's just in case. But tonight it would all come to a head, a final battle to decide the fate of all men, women and children on this Earth. The king's only hope was that his men and women came out the victor but he couldn't promise such a thing and they knew this, they knew what they were getting into when they signed on that dotted line. He held no such hope for himself knowing that as the leader, the enemy would be focusing their attention on him, hoping that with him gone his men would crumble, but that was far from the truth. The king had an excellent second command, a great man by the name of Sirius Black who no matter what he would tell you really started the resistance movement and had garnered the respect of every soldier in the king's army.

With war comes death, it is inevitable, throughout the years the king's father-in-law had died from battle wounds, his brother-in-law's killed while in the act of desertion; however there was one death that had hurt the king and his wife the most and that was their surrogate mother Anne, when they had no one else she took both of them in. Many of the people that died were close, personal friends of both the king and his wife and it was tough but they were blessed to still have the majority of their soldiers still alive. In all that time they had seen their enemies fall to fatigue and low morale and that is why the king made sure to give his soldiers however many days they needed off, and if it was required retirement, sure they needed boots on the ground but not if they were a liability.

But even with those breaks the men and women were getting tired and burnt out, thirteen years of seeing death and destruction can do things to a man... but the end was coming whichever way the final battle went and that is why they were all taking a well-deserved rest for the next two weeks. The king and his wife needed the rest the most as it is not easy taking care of five young kids with two of them being newborns.

As I write this epitaph I myself have become very old, maybe past the point of retirement but I believe in the king's cause, our cause. The years have taken a toll on me and I can feel the end coming as much as I can feel the arthritis in my bones but before I take that final sleep I must put word to what I have seen. If you would have told me I would still be alive when the war came to a penultimate end I would have scoffed, asked what you were smoking and where I could get some. However when I am lowered into the ground and there is nothing but memories to remember me I will take with me that even in those perilous times there was still fun to be found and that it was never more evident than in the way the king and his wife played with their young kids.

It was while we were sitting around the dinner table in our own small cliques when the king stood up and began a prayer and we all silenced and listened to the king's words.

"Dear God, I know many of us have different representations of who you are, whether that be Merlin, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, and some of us don't believe at all but we pray for your guidance in this time of need as we journey to a new dawn not knowing what we will awaken to. We pray that you intercede on our behalf and ask that you give us a win and deliver us from this evil that blackens our world and may you forgive us for the deaths that we have caused and are about to cause. Amen."

We understood that no matter what our beliefs we had been gathered from all over the world for four main ideals, that no matter what power you had you would no longer be able to do whatever you pleased just because you could, that all beings on this planet were created equal, no longer would an evil person (whether they be human or not) be able to gain a foothold again and no longer would just one man be able to hold so many positions of power no matter what he did ever again.

I sat on a seat with my friends observing the surroundings as always, and wondered about the love between the king and his wife. Now that I draw ever close to death I have allowed myself to think about regrets and one of them is that I never fell in love. Of course it isn't easy when you throw yourself into your work but still...

At any rate I knew the king loved his wife very much and even now as he sat down and conversed with his soldiers his eyes never strayed far from her. I know he wishes she had stayed at home but he's not one to lock her away and she would have just come anyway. Just like his soldiers, he knew what could possibly go wrong when they got married and they agreed that if it was their time to die then they would go into the great beyond together. But that's all in the past and as I sit waiting for sunset I can't help but think whimsically of the young innocent boy the king used to be and how a long-haired old man nearly destroyed him. You see before the volcanic eruption, before his prison sentence, before all of it, there was a young boy named Harry Potter, this is his story.