Final Fantasy: Shadows of War
A/N: I, Grey Rayne, do not own FF1, FF7 or FF9 or any of it's characters, story, items and locations.
This Fanfic contains story elements from Final Fantasy 1, 7 and 9. This Fanfiction is set post-FF7 but pre-Advent Children. At this time, the story for Advent Children is still rather unclear to the public, therefore, anything that I get wrong is due to lack of information.
Prologue: enter the hero?
Drifting...
Drifting endlessly...
'Space' is not the right word for this emptiness. There are no stars, no planets, no galaxies. For space, this is not. My essence drifts through this dark blue realm, my senses useless, my body broken on the rubble of my home world. My name is Garland. I was the overseer of Terra, the red planet. My physical form was stolen away for the second time in my immense lifetime. Now I must wait. I wait for the universe to decide when it will allow me to pop back into existence, or when I am summoned forth, or when some being intervenes. It could take a long, long time. I could be waiting forever. Alas, I have forever, for I am eternal. At first I could communicate beyond the metaphorical barrier of the abyss until the last of my strength failed. Zidane, my angel of death, defeated Kuja, that much I know.
Darkness suddenly enfolds me, maybe this is Oblivion, come forth to finally claim me for his own?
My thoughts become translucent? I peer around myself into a strange room without mass. A girl stood in what could be considered the centre of the room, her being the only thing in the black room it seemed to centre on her. In a moment I realised that, in this place, I can once again take a physical form.
As my eye's are formed I can finally see more than shape, detail and texture forms and I can see what this girl looks like. Green eye's, an unusually bright colour, peer at me from under brown curls of long hair held in place by a pink ribbon, she also wore a long pink dress covered at the shoulders by what appeared to be a red jacket of sorts. I realise that she is less than I, a lower life form, but not entirely human. She could not have been powerful enough to bring me from that emptiness...
The girl huffed and put her hand's on her hips as I stand there just staring at her impassively for several minutes.
"Do you speak?" she asked half-seriously. "I am told you are called Garland, is that correct?"
"It is." I said, slightly relieved that I can once again speak. The girl looked at me with a mixture of curiosity and slight fear in her eyes. She wasn't even alive, I was talking to a spirit.
"My name is Aeris." She said, clutching her hands to her chest and bowing slightly. "I was asked to welcome you, although it seems like I've forgotten my manners." she smiled slightly to hide her nervousness.
"I do not intend to remain here, so spare me your formalities. But answer me these questions." I demanded before she could continue. "You are not the one who brought me here, Who summoned me and where am I?" The young girl frowned at my harshness and then sighed deeply.
"You're in, what we call, the 'room-between-lives,' it's the place where newly departed souls await admittance into the lifestream itself." she said, as if reading from a textbook. "The lifestream is a flow of souls, greenish in colour, which I'm sure you're familiar with, Garland." She said knowingly. Garland did not even flinch at the dark sarcasm in the girl's voice.
"I know of it." Garland stated.
"Well, you're not permitted to enter the lifestream itself, so you must have been brought here for something else." She said as she took a few steps away from him and knelt down onto one knee, as if in respect to someone. Garland wondered what she was doing until he felt a powerful force fluttering into existence before him. A spectre appeared of an old man, robed in green and grey, his beard made of moss and flowers, the old mans eyes were green and the iris' were grey. The overall effect made Garland feel like he was looking at something old and gnarled although he felt enormous power coming from it. He held firm, confident that his own power felt similar to the old mans.
"I am Gaia, lord of all life." The old man said as he straightened himself with quite a few bone-cracking sounds, which made Aeris cringe. "it's been a long time since I have had to take physical form, but my time is well worth it." the old man warbled as if to himself.
"To the point." Garland said without feeling. The old man seemed to acknowledge Garland for the first time, although he refused to look directly at him. He turned to Aeris with a warm smile and beckoned for her to stand.
"To be honest, Garland, we are in need of your... assistance," he said with his back to Garland, "You see, you have been drifting in a space in time called 'The Aetas Nexus,' The longer you are there, the quicker time passes..." he finished, thinking that Garland would pick up on what he was saying.
"How much time has passed?" Garland asked, his heart beginning to drop as he awaited the answer.
"Ten thousand year's." The old man replied.