Hello! Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! A belated holidays greeting to my loyal followers! All two of you! Whether you couldn't be bothered to remove this from your follows list, or just don't get on this website anymore, you have my full appreciation for not technically abandoning this fic!

So, you'll have noticed nearly three year's since I updated this. What's up with that, right? Well, between a busy schedule, poor time management skills and an eventual lack of motivation, my hobbies all kinda just slipped through the cracks. But now I'm back! Considerably more inspired, and ready to write!... Nearly three years guys. Dissidia NT comes out at the end of this month. I'm both so excited, cause it turned out they continued the story line after all and yet... I'm disappointed in myself...

Well I guess now is as good a time as any to reiterate the purpose of this fanfiction. This is a lore study. When I originally had the idea, the third game hadn't even been announced yet, and the story provided a lot of open room for more background. Between the vast amounts of backstory that the reports give us and the relatively undisclosed events of the first 11 cycles, there's just a lot to talk about and explore. That's something a lot of the fan fictions have already taken advantage of. So yeah, I'm doing that too. There are particular subjects and bits of the lore that I want to explore, and eventually get into a unique story involving the character from the prelude as I go further. Of course now that NT is almost out, some of this can be derailed, like who was and wasn't in the first 11 cycles. But hey; it's a fan fiction. So if it winds up being AU than nothing is really unusual right? Plus, I have yet to read all of the official quest from duodecim since those were never released in English, so this probably would have become AU at some point anyway.

As per the prior chapter, check the AN at the end for details about characters, stages, and concepts used in this chapter. Thanks for paying attention to that rant, and I hope you enjoy!

Forsaken Kingdom II

Scenario 05 - Continuity

The Lunar War: Familiarity

The lightning bolt collided with Palom's fireball, prompting an explosion that shook the entire shrine. He shielded his eyes from the sudden wave of dust that was thrown up with his right arm, keeping a firm grip on his rod with the dominant left. The Prodigy of Mysidia waited in silence as he prepared for any manner of counterattack from his opponent; a black mage whose skill was equal to his own, if not greater.

Palom sidestepped as a large ice crystal (likely the result of a Blizzaga) pierced through the smoke that had filled the center of the arena, and avoided being frozen like the ground on which he had once stood. His second response to the attack was to cast Bio, sending a large sphere of clear, toxic liquid flying in the direction of his opponent. A move that was predicted. Theodore "Golbez" Harvey came flying out of the smoke towards Palom as the Bio spell passed him by harmlessly. With a clench of his fist and a small growl, the younger of the two black mages began to ready a quake spell.

However, rather than direct the energy into the ground like one would normally do, Palom swung his weapon at his incoming opponent. The vibrations that would have shaken the ground instead gave power to the blow, causing Golbez to fly skywards and break through the already crumbling ceiling. Not wanting to allow his enemy to recover, Palom dashed through the air towards Golbez. As he flew forward, he dodged various debris, never pausing in his chase. Upon reaching the older mage in the sky, Palom smashed him downwards, and Golbez made impact against the second floor. Landing in front of him, Palom brandished his weapon towards the half-lunarian.

"Had enough old man?" A deep sort of chuckle came from the man whom he had defeated, and Palom couldn't help but give a light smile of his own. After all, He liked Golbez. On their Journey to the core of the moon, the older mage had proven that his company could be quite enjoyable… when he wasn't too busy brooding.

"It seems your magical aptitude has not faded in the slightest." Golbez stated in a rather matter of fact manner as he pried himself from the rubble on the ground. "You will need those skills in trials to come." Palom took Golbez' words as a sign that their fight was over, and subsequently put away his rod. He stayed on guard though, if only to avoid a surprise attack from any other warriors of Chaos who might decide to drop by.

"Golbez… what do you know about this world?" Golbez seemed a tad thrown by the question, but quickly shared what he knew.

"I unfortunately know very little as of yet. So far all I have learned is what little they told me upon my arrival. Though it is likely the same you have been given: That we have been summoned as servants of the Gods, Cosmos and Chaos, to serve as champions of their will in a divine conflict." Golbez carefully considers Palom's response; the boy has taken up a gesture of pondering, having crossed one arm on his chest while using it to rest the other that held his chin. His eyes were to the ground, as if the ornate floor tiles held the answers to his considerations.

Golbez wasn't really surprised by the young mage's response in itself. After all, Palom was one of the two prodigee's of Mysidia, and as of more recently, one of said nations overseers. He and has sister, Porom, had hardly gained such titles by being slow and dull-witted. Nevertheless, the sorcerer could not help but sense that something was irrevocably wrong about the silence that had followed his statement.

"Is aught amiss?" The question was met with a small shake of the head.

"Nothing's wrong in particular, I'm just… still processing some things." Specifically he had been processing just what Golbez's response had confirmed to him. The Lunarian had misled him for a moment as he spoke of trials, but his ignorance of the situation at hand had proven that Cosmos' words had been true.

Golbez remembered nothing of the previous cycle.

How would he even begin to explain such a thing? The deciduous dissidence that plagued the very ground on which they stood. There was no way to determine how many of these cycles had gone on before, how long they had been going, or how many conflicts they had even participated in prior to now. Of one positive note however, was that the revival process had seemed to have rather positive effects on Golbez, as he was now considerably more approachable to his former ally.

The Golbez from the last battle had known only the evil of Zemus, though without the binding presence of the actual villain, Theodore had been… thoroughly off put by his own actions. With no hatred to fuel him, the Lunarian had been left to ponder the lack of force behind his usually malicious blows. It was that pondering that had been his downfall… which was to say that of course he had been pondering this mid-battle. He had been slain while brooding. Definitely Cecil's brother.

Lost in thought as he was, Palom almost didn't realize that someone was approaching their position. They were for Cosmos.

"Golbez…" The younger mage had to warn the other off. He hated it, but he doubted he could glean much information out of him at this point, and it might be dangerous to tell him about the cycles; There was no telling what might happen if an agent of Chaos got that information. He trusted Golbez well enough, but he was still for the other side, and that meant Golbez may currently have his own trust placed in some less than savory individuals.

"I sense them as well... I understand. We can discuss this some other time." Golbez vanished, and with perfect timing. His image had barely faded when a shout echoed from above.

"Palom!" His gaze relocated from the empty space where the half-lunarian had stood to the upper floor of the Chaos shrine. If asked, he would absolutely refuse to acknowledge that he had smiled even the tiniest bit at the sight of Leonora. "Are you okay? Hold on, I'll be right down!" She was concerned of course: the person she had just seen vanish was a stranger to her, and a warrior of Chaos besides. As he patiently waited for his partner as per her instruction, his mind continued to reflect upon it all.

He had seen this shrine a dozen times since he had awoken into this conflict. The murals portraying powerful monsters he had helped fight along that fateful journey, and now he stood in a world where many of those he had fought alongside were barely more than faces to one another, as well as to himself. Had his own memories even caught up with the present? It was a thought for another time, though it made his skin crawl.

All around him were things he recognized, but even he may not truly have been himself. This world gave off a rather false sense of familiarity, like the brittle ruins of a kingdom left forsaken...

So here you go. Not my best work I'll admit. Of course that's because I'm too impatient to edit these things out and don't write fast enough to get myself a backlog, and go back and update them later, and ehh. I might cry. Maybe I should get a Beta reader. Or course I still have a lot of stuff I have to do, so the key would be for them to be assertive but not too pushy. I don't know, if you feel you could help, drop me a line. I might also make a writing log? Like, maybe on my profile page or something? It's an idea at least. If you actually read these you can tell me what you think.

Here's the stuff:

Palom - The prodigious black mage of Mysidia, Palom, is a character that is not often thoroughly explored. He and his sister Porom were having coherent and intelligent conversations with adults... at the age of 5. The kids are smart yall. So yeah, I like Palom, and this chapter was one of the two I had already started on back after I wrote Destiny... took way too long to get it out.

Golbez - You can't deny how awesome this guy is in Dissidia. He's pretty much the unsung hero of the story. He's the one who went out of the way to provide the information that led to the events of both scenario's after all. He really was born with the name Theodore Harvey, if you've never played FF IV and are curious; I didn't make that up... More importantly why have you not played FFIV, hypothetical person who hasn't played FFIV?

Leonora - So originally this chapter was going to be longer and there would have been an interaction with her as well... but I got impatient to post this. I mean... it's been nearly three years. So I'm saving it as a later chapter.

Concept: Cosmos Wins - So everyone should be at least vaguely aware of the Cycle of battle by now, even you newbies who are joining because of NT (This is the only series I can be anything close to elitist about let me have my moment). I was already writing this fic as if Golbez was... his usual Dissidia self. Then when I came back to this chapter more recently and started typing more of it I thought: "Wait... what if it was Palom who knew instead?" It is very much cannon that not every cycle prior to 13 was lost to Chaos. It was merely that down the line Chaos's team had won so many times in a row that Shinryu hadn't eaten their EXPs and gotten a lead that was simply impossible for Cosmos to recover from.

Stage: Chaos Shrine - Not too much to say here. In this particular instance it's really just used to further Palom's sense of Nostalgia what with the four fiends on the wall, as well as just... be a different stage.

Well that's that. I'm also going to bump my minimum words per shot up by at least 50% because the AN's combined have more substance than the chapters, and that is frankly unacceptable. See ya!