1Note: This takes place 6 years before FFIV...
It was a strangely cold night (cold for a desert) in a dark and dusty desert south of Golbez island. Cecil, a dark knight trainee, and his best friend since childhood, Kain, had been traveling in the desert for over 5 months now, and they were anxious to arrive at Mt. Ordeals. "Cecil, when do we get to stop to sleep, it's starting to get colder and colder!" complained Kain. "Whenever I see a good sand dune to set up camp on, I'll tell you." Cecil replied in irritation.
The two friends traveled for about 3 more hours until Cecil told Kain they would stop to set up camp. Kain seemed relived, but couldn't help noticing something wrong with Cecil. "Hey, Cecil, what's up?" he asked. Cecil didn't reply, and turned over on his bed mat, and fell asleep. Four hours later, Cecil woke up, and saw Kain in a deep sleep. "Hm, now seems like a good time." Cecil said to himself, as he slowly burnt his sleeping mat. His plan was to make it look like he was attacked and killed, so he could journey alone for a while.
Cecil knew he would need Kain's help as Mt. Ordeals is a difficult mountain to pass, but decided it would be better if he went alone, as dark knights often do. The solitary man walked the desert for what seemed like forever, when he saw two dragoons fighting it out on what seemed to be a large plateau. Cecil listened in as best he could, and seemed to get parts of their conversation. "HEY, IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!" yelled one of the dragoons. "WHAT ABOUT YOU, ALL I FEEL IS A LITTLE BREEZE PASSING BY ME!!" responded the other dragoon in anger. Cecil, loving a good fight, decided to investigate from a distance. He climbed up the plateau and threw a Zeus's wrath weapon between them both. The small box unleashed a fury of deadly lightning bolts knocking the two dragoons over, and hitting Cecil. He knew that was a very bad mistake. Cecil felt himself free fall until there was a loud WHAM!!! Everything went black.
"Hey, buddy, get up. HEY!!! GET UP!!!" Cecil could here a deep voice yelling at him, and then felt a cold splash of water. "Uh, what...what's going on?" Cecil said sleepily. "You fell about 400 feet off the Death Fall, the desert's highest plateau." said a mysterious tall, and muscular man. Cecil stared at him, until the man told Cecil that his name was Cid, and that he built airships for the Baron. "Name's Cecil, and I want to be a dark knight. I was out here with my friend Kain until we split up in the desert. The reason we were out here, is because I was going to Mt. Ordeals to become a dark knight." Cecil explained. "Well, then, you've come to the wrong place." said Cid. "Mt. Ordeals is for those that want to become a Paladin, or a light knight. "WHAT?!!? NO WAY!!! THAT CAN'T BE TRUE!!!" Cecil yelled in extreme fury.
As Cecil yelled a dark aura surrounded him and a large explosion engulfed the desert plains, including Cid. "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Cid cried in fear and pain. Cecil woke up a few days later in a pit wearing darkened armor. A dark pulsating figure was floating before him. "Your wish is now granted, you are now a dark knight....what you wear is the demon's armor, and you shall not remove that armor for it is bound to your soul." the dark figure said. All Cecil could do was stare at the figure until he slowly felt himself become conscienceless.
He awoke in the middle of the night staring up at the stars. Rubbing his head, he slowly rose up out of the deep pit that his fury-filled explosion had made, and started to walk towards the docks.
Hope you enjoyed that, and watch out for the sequal.