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DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY:

THE CLANGOR OF DISHARMONY

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PROLOGUE:

REMINISCENCE OF A BROKEN PROMISE

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Author's Notes: I dedicate the first multi-Chapter FINAL FANTASY Fanfiction I have Submitted to this Fanfiction archive to the now Account-Deleted Mirriem, one of the truest friends who a person could hope to have, whose friendship and whose writings are among the largest reasons I'm the person and the writer who I am today.

This Fanfiction considers all of the core numbered FINAL FANTASY Games from FINAL FANTASY to FINAL FANTASY XIII as canon, as well as all of the direct sequels and prequels to any core Game that has one or more of them, including the original novels and anthologies; but none of the ported remakes, or any DISSIDIA Game but DISSIDIA: ZERO TWELVE [DUODECIM]: FINAL FANTASY.

As with my other Fanfiction stories, I highly recommend you listen to the same Soundtrack pieces or MP3s that I am as I'm writing each scene to get the full mood of each scene. The Track for the Prologue is: 'Sorrow – Imperial Version,' from the FINAL FANTASY XII Original Soundtrack, Disc Three. This Track can be found on KINGDOM HEARTS Insider.


"This is the extent of your strength?"

Cloud's mouth opened slightly at the revelation Chaos hadn't collapsed careening back into his grotesque throne on the dais of the Edge of Madness, disabled on open for Cloud to finish him off; but he'd done nothing more than sit down to recover his breath after a minor unusually entertaining diversion he'd greatly enjoyed.

Cloud couldn't even tell if the minute strain in his breathing was the result of mirth the God of Discord was containing, or a tiny fragment of exertion.

Countless serrated and jagged shards of memory, and mostly unidentifiable feelings and thoughts, tore through everything within him at the knowledge this meant there was no hope for Tifa to escape the remorseless nightmare of Chaos' cycle of conflict.

He didn't care that much whether he could escape it any longer.

He'd given up hope of discovering a way to return home all by himself decades ago, and he'd just kept staying as far from the front lines as he'd begun seeking methods to do so as soon as his first clear recollections of an inferno of screams and crystalline sharp sanguine at the end of an unrelentingly ruthless nodachi, and mysterious repeated gunshots and detonations sounding as though they'd been launched from missiles that brought white electric coursing agony whenever he attempted to discern them for reasons he didn't understand, as opposed to the far distant hazy faintness he encountered whenever he attempted to discern the depths of most of his lost memories; had brought back what happened if he fought for Shinra as a S–

Or was it as a–

The coursing electric marble was back, but this time Cloud clenched his teeth against the disjointed tapestry of memories and broken pain and sights and far too brief weightless lightness without any cares; refusing to look away from the end that awaited Tifa after he'd abandoned her yet again, just as he had in Nibelhei–

Her face was drenched in crimson and her eyes were closed, but while he wasn't sure Sephiroth had died from his ambush or was even incapacitated, or at least wholly; if he could move her out of the way of a potential duel he might at least now have a valid chance of winning, maybe she'd live through what was very likely about to happen.

He was too late; but there was still time.

For Tifa, if not for him.

Shock ripped through him.

"Tremble in the presence of pure chaos!"

Cloud didn't know whether he reacted before or after he'd wholly registered what was about to unwind.

But the next second, every last shred of determination and willpower he could call up was being channeled into one final Omnislash Version Five, not aimed at Chaos but the fastest way to attempt to evade the conflagration of coruscating roughly obsidian night surging towards him from Chaos' left hand in the shape of a rough horizontal pillar.

Moving faster than at any time he could recall in his life, even when–

"There's not a thing I don't cherish!"

–he rocketed through in a backwards diagonal through the air outside of the circumference of Chaos' divine dais, and then he cut out of the Omnislash Version Five prematurely and ignored the anguish slicing through his skull for different reasons due to doing so, and he dropped to brace his feet and slide down the steep slope of the opaque spire towards the molten fields below.

He strained his ears, but not so much he'd overextend his wariness, to attempt to tell if Chaos was following him; but by the time he had almost reached the magna and lava near the base of the long staircase and he heard or saw no geyser or volcanoes of discord, or Chaos himself, pursuing him; he believed it was safe to risk believing Chaos now considered him beneath his notice.

So he twisted legs that were now rubbery with fading adrenaline to leap onto the staircase.

The air shifted in front of him at the foot of the staircase, where the molten steppe was cooler but no different in appearance, and two familiar figures appeared.

Cloud clenched his teeth, and he pushed most of his emotions to his side.

Chaos may see him as beneath his own personal notice now, but apparently not beneath the notice of alerting his other pawns there was a traitor in their midst.

Mateus stood before him, with Ultimecia behind him and to his left.

"Here I was afraid, now that Exdeath's toys are ready, I would lose most of my chances to enjoy watching insects actually skitter around," Mateus commented in calm and condescending amused dismissal, but there was more revulsion and disgust in his voice than usual when he was confronted with an enemy or companion he saw as beneath him.

Cloud pushed away the familiar rising terror at how he still hadn't figured out why Garland sounded so confident in Exdeath's latest strategy, or why Exdeath had been spending a lot more time with Chaos himself than usual lately.

"It appears, however; when the insects crawl away, the germs come out to play."

"Is there genuinely a reason to be surprised?" Ultimecia questioned, her tone just mildly amused and unruffled.

Even an event as unanticipated as this didn't sound like it meant anything to her; and for all Cloud knew, she'd actually had seen his betrayal coming, as she still kept even Garland on edge wondering precisely how much she could discern about the goings on around her.

Different, familiar sympathy rose.

Mateus was nothing more than an exceptionally smart and talented entitled noble, who Chaos had summoned because he was a lot better at fighting for his assumed privileges than most preening fops even wasted their time to begin thinking of ceasing the hours they lounged in luxury to consider making the effort to do.

But, while Ultimecia was far more cynical than perhaps any of the other warriors save Kefka, and there never appeared to be a single turn or hardship that could shake her belief reality was nothing but remorseless and savage; Cloud recognized the same impenetrable walls of jaded and distrustful scorn for everyone and everything around her that he did in Kuja, Golbez, himself.

And, in ways he refused to acknowledge were also the same as his own far more than before he'd made his recent choices, Sephiroth.

He suppressed the urge to ask if Kuja had made any ill advised attempts at treachery himself; knowing if he said anything, Kuja would gain as much of a target on his back as Cloud now had, even if he hadn't done anything treacherous yet.

"When the matter at hand concerns curs actually possessed the conceit to refuse to wag their tails for their masters, yes," Mateus responded to Ultimecia, now sneering with contained derisiveness in her direction.

There was no need to keep things pleasant any longer.

"Seeing as that's true for almost anyone, including your fellow warriors, when it comes to you; I'm glad I offered you one last string of blindingly snobbish surprise," Cloud retorted with cool sarcastic mildness.

Mateus' hand gripped his scepter a small amount tighter.

Ultimecia, however, just snorted slightly and crossed her arms.

"Why do you still defy us?" she questioned; a different quiet disgust, at what she saw as hopeless naïvete, now in her words.

"You saw where defying Chaos leads, so it's inevitable how this will end.

"Without Chaos to give you refuge, there's nowhere left you can go.

"You're alone and forsaken now in a reality measurelessly more remorseless than perception can imagine, now a foe of both discord and harmony. You'll be hunted down relentlessly wherever you travel, even by the friend you made such a whimsical choice for."

"Yet you still believe you have any hope left at ending the cycle all on your own?

"It's best for you just to let it end now, rather than prolong your despair."

This might be his last chance to break through whatever shell Ultimecia had cast around herself to keep the nightmares of reality away until she could achieve her goal of time compression on her homeworld, and thus ward it away from her for eternity.

"If you'd stop giving up yourself, you wouldn't need to be alone," he responded, voice challenging but gentle.

Ultimecia's eyebrows rose slightly in what may or may not have been true surprise, but then she frowned with real anger.

"Time compression is nothing more than an escape into a different illusion; not a world where we appear to be smarter and stronger than anyone else around us and thus safe from all harm, but a world where nothing can hurt you because everything is just frozen suspension.

"You won't need to serve anyone in a reality of compressed time, but you'll be completely alone if you achieve what you're fighting for."

Ultimecia actually scowled a good deal blackly.

"That is precisely why I am, as you put it, 'giving up.'

"A world where no one else is alive as more than a figment of my imagination, and where I can take solace in dreams of worship rather than allies or overseers; thus ensuring there is no one around me who can seek to use me for his or her or its own ends."

Her eyes briefly slid to Mateus in warning as she said this.

Mateus harrumphed and raised his chin, looking in the opposite direction from her.

"Do not compare me to tapeworms such as Exdeath and the Cloud of Darkness, who do nothing but pledge parasitic loyalty to an ideal eternity, rather than refusing to stand up and strive for on their own two feet.

"I'm fighting for a better future by seeking to lock down time, not submit to an oblivious faith in something greater than myself."

Whatever tiny hope Cloud had he could reach Ultimecia disappeared.

He still didn't have enough memories back to totally understand why he wasn't fully happy being all by himself, and why he cared as much as he did whether Tifa was okay and wanted to spend time around Kuja and Golbez and Ultimecia.

Or even why he very rarely wanted to be in Sephiroth's company, because his memories of what Shinra's other S–

Why couldn't he tell why thinking 'other' was wrong?

–had done to Mom and Tifa and Nibelheim and Z–

Cloud pushed it away.

–and Aer–

Cloud's eyes widened.

He didn't recognize the name, but the agonized emptiness that distorted all his insides at the partial reflection told him she was another person important to him he'd just remembered, the same as the person whose name began with Z he'd recalled around the same time as Tifa.

And the pain hurt, even more, in a lot of ways, than his memories of Tifa and the other stranger did.

But he'd worry about that later.

Everything inside him screamed to warn Kuja he'd revealed his disloyalty, so Kuja himself might be in danger.

But if Kuja had no intention of doing anything more than just staying out of the fight, and no one suspected him; Cloud would imperil him if he told the wizard what he'd just all but failed at accomplishing.

Maybe, at least after he regained more of his memories, he could convince Ultimecia to doubt her life as a loyal soldier for Chaos.

Or, if not him, Kuja or Golbez.

So Cloud just gave her a small nod.

"If that's how you want it," he spoke.

He turned to Mateus.

"I'll have one last person hunting for me if I ensure you're kept off the battlefield because you're waiting for Chaos to bring you back on his own, or Shinryu to do it if the current cycle ends first.

"I'd keep in mind there's a very good reason I've been able to keep away from Cosmos' warriors as much as Chaos' up until now.

"Are we doing this, even at the risk of irritating Chaos even more than he already is at having his time wasted by facing off in front of the armchair he's so fond of reclining in?

"Or are you going to get out of my way?"

Mateus curled his lip, but Cloud could see wariness appear in his eyes.

Cloud didn't know if he could take Ultimecia, or even hold her off long enough to position himself to continue to run; and even if he could, he'd be at a severe disadvantage if he battled Ultimecia and Mateus simultaneously. But unless she herself was willing to do more than warn Cloud to surrender this close to Chaos' throne, they both knew who would be the one left standing if Mateus attempted to take this past reminding him what would happen if he didn't sit and stay.

He remembered enough of his struggles with Sephiroth on his homeworld now to be reasonably confident; while, when Cloud couldn't harness the power of discord, Sephiroth was very much the better swordsman outside of all but a minority of critical weaknesses Cloud couldn't remember how to exploit to his advantage; Cloud could at least duel Sephiroth to a standstill now without too much trouble.

In too many ways to measure, Mateus far more adept at distant confrontations involving pragmatic tactics and strategy than even Kuja; or the recently summoned Barthandelus who Vaan had cut down in the fal'Cie's first duel with a warrior of Cosmos without much effort, while mocking him as, 'A wannabe' Occuria'; and who Chaos was thus considering leaving dead to be revived by Shinryu, or be finished off from the strain of the purification, even though he'd made it clear he'd had millennia of experience with spellcasting on his homeworld, because of how easily the crystal creature had been humiliated.

But, for the most part, Mateus had little skill at close combat and the necessity to adapt to altering conditions they required. If someone could close in on him as fast as Cloud could, and engage him while right in front of him with skill similar to Sephiroth's, Mateus could defend himself barely more effectively than a punching bag could.

Terra had demonstrated this very handily at Kefka's orders; when Mateus had boasted a number of months ago that his determination to prioritize efficiency over Kefka's preference, for unnecessary bloodshed for the sake of nothing other than the thrill of mass murder, was causing him to train Terra to be nothing more than a hunter's trophy.

"Insects can crawl, but germs who pollute the natural order cannot even slither.

"Nevertheless, it would behoove us all the more to let you learn just how tight your leash is by allowing you to yank it.

"I deem it more fitting for you to prostrate yourself at my boots after this has been made clear."

"Let me know when you believe that leash won't snap your scepter," Cloud responded calmly.

He looked at Ultimecia.

"I can count on Garland to ensure you're dealt with before you become a true threat to me," Cloud's eyes went wide at how, even though after Ultimecia had just become angry with him for comparing her to the two warriors of Chaos who most trusted something other than themselves, she'd just said she was willing to rely on Garland, "So if you're this eager to plunge headlong into a suicide beyond death, be my guest."

Then her lips curled in a slight smirk, and for a few seconds, Cloud felt a weak shift in the eddies of discord around them as a third presence drew further in on itself.

He suppressed the urge to let his eyes widen.

Golbez?

Golbez had specifically told Cloud to stop spending any time talking to him about staying on the sidelines; because he'd been bound to darkness by a psychic spell that had left his mind with far more autonomy than Kefka was giving Terra, but he was so weak he'd resigned himself to it a lot faster than Terra had Kefka's spell, so he saw no reason to even make a small effort to disobey another dark master.

But it appeared this may have been a different form of disloyalty to Chaos.

Cloud would need to confront Golbez about this the first time the Lunarian tracked him down without anyone else in the vicinity.

Ultimecia walked to the side, gesturing sarcastically with her right arm for him to be on his way.

Mateus, however, just raised his chin condescendingly and stood where he was.

Cloud didn't even shrug.

He just turned to walk around Mateus' right, close enough the Emperor knew Cloud could have knocked his shoulder into Mateus and forced the other warrior to stumble if he'd chosen; while refusing to walk between Ultimecia and him in order to force Ultimecia to remain aware of her nearby companion.

Mateus opened his mouth, but Cloud refused to give Mateus the dignity of getting the last word in, and he refused to totally abandon Ultimecia.

"If you're so certain I'm just going to die at the hands of one of my hunters, then I advise you to tell me your real name to make it clear how beneath you I am.

"Refuse, and I'll know you're not as certain I'm deluding myself as you think."

Ultimecia at last showed a real reaction, stiffening violently.

But she knew she'd just been outwitted, if she wanted to preserve her dignity; so she answered him through tightly clenched teeth.

"Ellone Loire.

"Now get out of my sight."

A small amount of lightness rose inside Cloud.

He'd allow Ellone, not Ultimecia, to get the last word in; unless she pushed this.

But it disappeared as soon as the pressure of the whorls of discord cascading out of the vessels all three of them were started dimming.

All that was left was a sick agony contorting all of his insides, and a cold reality settling over him at the realization of what had just happened.

He'd just gone from seeking to stay as much out of the conflict as possible to becoming a living walking target for both sides, more exposed and vulnerable than anyone else in the conflict had been perhaps since it had begun, an unknown number of decades or centuries or millennia before this day.

And, if Tifa had any of the good sense he remembered her having, she'd have taken his advice and be among his hunters.

Do you still believe you can end the cycle?

He remembered a decent amount about confronting Shinra, whose economic and military supremacy was unmatched throughout all of his homeworld.

But he also remembered that, while people who disagreed with Shinra's corrupt practices had been in the minority; there'd still been a sizeable number of them, and Tifa and a good number of other people hadn't just assisted him in opposing them, they'd been the ones to convince him to do it in the first place.

This time, it would be him against two military superpowers, and the entire world, all by himself.

And even Tifa.

And who knew how many other friends of his who had been called to Cosmos' or Chaos' side, or would be in the future.

"How you supposed to take care of others if you can't take care of yourself?"

However, for an unknown reason, that memory just caused him to become more determined not to give up this time.

He hoped that meant he hadn't actually given up at any time before he'd been brought here; once, or more than once.

But Chaos' resignation to his nature as the God of Discord, and Ellone's refusal to accept a reality where she could do nothing to change destiny, told him all he needed to know about what his answer was.

If he gave up, and didn't just stop fighting now, but lay down and died; when he had someone and something to fight for for the first time in who knew how many decades or centuries or millennia; he'd be just like Chaos.

He blinked.

He'd never considered it that much, but just why was Chaos so resigned to his nature as an entity of discord?

That gave him a place to begin finding another way to protect Tifa, and end the cycle.

He knew as well as any warrior of discord which one among them spent the most time with Chaos himself.

He needed to set up a snare for Garland or ambush him, take him captive; and then find out if Garland knew what any of those reasons were.

From what he'd been told; Garland had last been seen talking to Tidus, the other new recruit, to inform him he was off to the vicinity of Gulg to see how well Exdeath's new mysterious plan looked like it was going to work; and if Tidus had any questions about what his first assignment was, to search for Mateus or Kefka and get answers from them.

With any luck, Cloud could shut whatever this new tactic was down at the same time as he took Garland captive.

He just wished it wasn't fighting he at last had a reason for, but the carefree lightness he did know Tifa had once been a core facet of.

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Begin

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BOOK ONE: CRYSTALLINE LEGIONS OF FRACTURE

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"And the cycle went on."-Auron

FINAL FANTASY X