Story is rated T.

Synopsis:

Following the destructive War of the Magi, magic disappeared from the Planet for nearly 1,000 years. Two empires now seek to restore the full force of magic to the world, and they believe that the key to unleashing this power lies in the mysteries surrounding two former puppet-soldiers.

A/N:

This story is a crossover between the worlds of Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII. There aren't many FFVI and FFVII crossovers, and those that exist are primarily tied to the Dissidia series (which is cool, don't get me wrong, but you don't get nearly enough Barret, Sabin, or Edgar in Dissidia!), so I felt like this was a space where an interesting story could be told.

I am a new writer, so any feedback (constructive or otherwise!) is much appreciated! And, because I work full time, I will largely be updating on a "when I have time" basis. I'm generally pretty open to feedback, although the nicer you are the more likely I'll be to take your feedback into consideration!

This fic will be not be an expressly shipping focused fic. There will likely be some shipping, but it will hopefully be something that naturally develops over the course of the story between characters that you could realistically see being together, rather than something that is "Ordained by the Red String of Fate." So don't expect characters who meet in Chapter 2 or Chapter 3 to be in love in Chapter 4, and don't expect me to push crazy crack-ships like StragoxBugenhagen or MasamunexMagitekArmor.

Also, important to note regarding my writing style:

General Text Regarding Situations, People, Things.

"People actually speaking"

'Used in multiple cases, but generally used to specify an air-quotes type description'

People thinking. Similar to speaking, but less filtered. No one else will be able to hear thoughts besides the person thinking them.

EMPHASIS – used when people want to place a lot of emphasis on a word or when I think the emphasis provides important context.

Final Fantasy: The Soul of the Planet

Prologue:

The World We Live In

Long ago, three Gods used their immense power to give life to the Planet. As these Gods crafted the Planet, they imbued it with its own well of spiritual energy. This spirit energy, which would one day be referred to as the "Lifestream," allowed the Planet to sustain itself and all life that the Gods created. The Gods would eventually lose control of this energy as it evolved independently, and soon the Lifestream would give rise to life of its own.

For a time, the world lived in a state precarious balance - between the power of the Gods and the power of the Planet.

Until…

A meteor struck the Planet. The impact from this meteor nearly destroyed the Planet, and in its wake it left an open wound on the planet's northernmost continent.

In order to save itself, the Planet unleashed the Lifestream's spirit energy to repair this wound.

But, in unleashing this spirit energy, the Planet exposed the world to an even more destructive force. As the Lifestream broke through the surface of the Planet, it left behind small stones imbued with this same spirit energy. It was through these Stones that Humanity was first exposed to the destructive force known as "magic."

The Gods who created the Planet grew fearful of mortals having access this magic. They used their immense powers to spread their own form of magic, a "magic of the soul," to fight back against this "magic of the Planet."

Many wars would be fought over this magic, with the outcome of each war being more devastating than the last.

The last of these wars, the War of the Magi, reduced the world to a scorched wasteland. Following its conclusion, both types of magic simply disappeared from the world.

1,000 years have passed. Iron, gunpowder, and combustion engines have been rediscovered, and high technology reigns.

But, there are some who would enslave the world by reviving the destructive force known as magic.

Can it be that those in power are on the verge of repeating a senseless and deadly mistake?

A young man stumbled forward in a daze. His vision was fuzzy and his head was throbbing, but he forged forward through the pain. There was something important he had to do, but...he couldn't remember what it was.

Why couldn't he remember? It was important, wasn't it?

Something...did something happen to me?

He thought about heading back to find his friends, but he thought better of it. He was still angry. His childhood friend...she had lied to him. Lied to him about that man. Lied to him about himself.

But...what was the lie? Why did it hurt me so much?

He thought about his childhood friend again. She had long brown hair, and big eyes colored brown with a hint of red.

What was her name? Why can't I remember her name? Wasn't she my childhood friend?

Then he remembered something important. Something he thought he'd forgotten.

I'm a puppet, he ruminated bitterly, a fake. That's right...that's what it was. She couldn't be my childhood friend...I never had a childhood. That's what she lied about.

He slowly lumbered into a large cavern. The walls were a mixture of cold grey rock and glowing crystal, the latter of which cast the area in an unnatural blue light. There was an opening in the roof of the catacomb, which allowed in a small amount of natural light.

Something in the distance grabbed his attention and tore through the fog in his mind. A large crystal lay partially shattered on the ground, within it lay the torso of a man. Standing before the crystal was a girl with long brown hair and a flowing pink dress.

I know her. She's important to me. How is she important to me?

His head was hit with a blinding pain as he tried to take in the scene before him. He gasped and grabbed his temple as his vision blurred and took on a green hue. He was overwhelmed and tumbled forward the ground.

W...what's happening to me? Is that girl causing this pain?

For some reason, the girl turned her head to face him. Her vibrant green eyes watched him sadly. Why had she looked at him, had he yelled something at her? Maybe he had...he wasn't really sure what was real or fake anymore.

The girl smiled at him, but he could see tears hugging the corners of her eyes. She pulled an object out of her hair, releasing the ribbon that held her hair in a long braided ponytail. The strands fell loose as she held the object, a small glowing green sphere, in her hand.

The sight of the sphere struck a chord with him. I'm scared of that sphere...why am I scared of it? I don't even know what it is or...do I?

The girl took the sphere and shoved it towards the crystal. The crystalline structure seemed to open up before her, rippling like water as it shifted before her hand. She forced the sphere into the torso of the man frozen within the crystal.

The moment the sphere entered the man's torso, all hell broke loose.

The cavern began to shake, the sudden vibrations knocking the girl to the ground. The young man yelled something at her, was that her name?, and tried to crawl towards her. The ground began to crack apart, green light streaming through the fractures.

The young man cried out in pain and grabbed his throbbing head. He tried to keep his eyes open, but the ache in his skull grew unbearable. He looked towards the girl one more time, watching as she struggled to get back up.

He saw one last thing before the pain overwhelmed him. A figure in black, wielding a long and silver object, fell from above towards the girl.

He screamed as everything went black.