A/N: After months of realizing that I've left false advertising on Ao3, I've finally decided to bring the first chapter of the re-work of Phoenix to FFN. Long story short, this is just an update of the writing, and all plot points/beats will be very similar, if not the exact same. There'll also be an attempt to flesh out and detail those same plot points for worldbuilding possibilities and pacing, a real issue I think with the first rendition from 2012. I also want to point out that I never had any intention of letting the story die off and the character that were submitted 12 years ago will still be the exact same characters here, but handled with what I hope is more careful attention and better care, and if the OC submitters are still in the fandom or even on this site, I want to give a super special thanks to them and no matter what, I'll see the story and these characters through. You've trusted me with your characters you've taken the time and craft and as someone that has submitted to ill-fated SYOC fics, I will finish the saga.

P.S: Ao3 has up to 10 chapters done, and I'm roughly half-finished with the 11th. If anyone wants to read ahead, feel free to look up the fic under the same name, for either fic or author. This first chapter/prologue was also published on Ao3 on 2024-01-26/ 1-26-2024.

The skies flickered and pulsed, reflecting those seven sacred colors. Hues of gold turned red danced in his vision and his heart swelled; he knew he had seen the phoenix.

"Marus! What are you doing!?" His ears perked up at her voice, but gave her nothing else.

"Well, wouldn't you like to know?" There was a huff, and Marus opened an eye in her direction. She was glaring, and when he rolled up on his side to face her, she turned away. His face twisted into a grin and he stifled a laugh. If it had been outright, then he was sure that she would never let him live down the humiliation he was sure she would've planned.

"I wish you'd take this situation more seriously." Marus rolled to sit up and meet her grim expression for only a moment before his focus drifted to the tiny shade of purple and teeth sleeping, albeit a little loudly a few feet from him.

"I wouldn't worry about it."

"Marus, you were actually requested to be a part of your Defender guard. If you don't take them seriously, it's going to be very difficult to adapt." He stared, and didn't respond. "And before you say anything, please take care that it's something that's not stupid…"

"Stupid? Says the girl that got my assignment wrong. Defender Guard is easy, and if I'm doing that, then I don't have anything to worry about. Now, if you would have said the Eaglefoot, then maybe I would've straightened up." He eyed her with a snide smirk and her pointed glare remained all the same.

"Stop being so technical. You know what I meant. The Eaglefoot asked for you specifically, and you know why."

"Mira, you worry too much. Me and Bitey are gonna have it all taken care of. Trust me. We'll run right over this 'Eaglefoot' training." His eyes fell and his voice softened. "Look, I know you just want to make sure that me and Bitey aren't in over our heads, but worrying about it isn't going to make anything any better. It's not like we really have a choice." Mira frowned.

"But…I'm surprised that the Eaglefoot even sent out for 'Mismatched Marus'. Rattata aren't really known for their ability compared to some of the monsters here." Marus cringed.

"H-hey! At least I actually managed to calm a spirit!" he retorted. "And, it's like you said, the Eaglefoot will take anyone who has the blessing of a spirit."

"You are right when you say that…" Mira paused. "But, he eats an awful lot, even for a Rattata. Do you think you really saved his life when you fed him or was he just used to being spoiled?"

"How the heck should I know," he snapped indignant. That got him a laugh out of her.

"Is there anything else you'd like to confess?" Marus grumbled under his breath, and Mira mockingly leaned in. "Anything at all?"

"...I might have a weak spot for Rattata…" came the second grumble. Mira chuckled.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it? He did his best to muster up irritability, but caught a smile somewhere in the mix of it all before giving up entirely to it. "Well, I guess that's okay anyway. I would much rather fight based on skill and not power alone."

"That…actually makes me feel better…"

"It does?" She turned to him with a smile, a good smile that he couldn't help but give back to her. She could be difficult when she wanted, like most of the Dragonbloods he had met, but she always showed him something deeper.

"Yeah. It really does. And also…" She stretched a hand to him to hoist him up and he took it, his mouth twitching into a poorly suppressed half-grin. "The Eaglefoot is an elite group that I'm a part of and…" Marus felt her fingers move, shift and interlock around his tightly.

"Fingertips across the palm, then index brush over the other…"

"For fingers to come tightly together palm to palm, fingertips curling over knuckle as I squeeze…" She finished for him. The smile she had from earlier had whittled down, and Marus could see the fear of the what-ifs. He wanted to tell her there was nothing to be afraid of, not with what he had seen.

"You really are worried about us, aren't you?"

"You won't squeeze back?" She had slipped back into her scales. He smiled and brought his fingers down over her knuckles.

" 'A dragon guards her hoard with her life, and if a piece goes missing, she prays it returns to her someday soon.' " Mira let out a breathy chuckle.

"Maybe we have been hanging out a little too much. You're starting to sound like a real Dragonblood now."

"Then…maybe me and Bitey won't have much to worry about with the Eaglefoot after all."

"Maybe not," she affirmed. "But still…" Her eyes broke away and her presence shrank into something like submission. Marus felt his stomach drop.

"But…what…?"

"Since the Eaglefoot are Blackthorn natives…There's something I want to teach you before you finally come and join. But, when they ask you, you can't tell them that I taught you, okay?"

"Oh. Okay…" Marus assented. "What is it…?"

"In Blackthorn, we call it The Roar."

He wondered why that memory came to him when his world fell down around him. Never once had he seen the spirits in the form that he had. They had been impossibly fast and everywhere all at once, and in the midst of a time where even the sky seemed to be falling, Marus was, somehow, still alive. His body ached as went to climb to his feet. He could feel his skin clogged with the acrid air and iron. Blurred vision came into focus and with it, the aftermath.

Everyone and everything was gone. The stone buildings tailored from the mountain were the most robust structures they had managed with the local spirits and their own ingenuity and to see not a single one standing was disheartening. Pain dug into his right side and a hazy memory of a Genesect that had almost gotten to him. He would have to thank Mira for the Roar that had saved him then.

This…can't be real…There's no way… This was what Mira had meant, he realized. She had been strange and draconic with her protection and the way she looked after him and Bitey before and even during their training. For all of her overbearance, she had never wanted him to see war. But that was what the Defenders were for. They were trained and tailored to hold the line and were the best trained soldiers in the mountains, save for Blackthorn. The Eaglefoot themselves were beyond even that, fielded to battle and slay the corporeal spirits. Bitey and himself made due on their promise to Mira even, and had become strong.

Bitey…!

Panic seized him and Marus set about sifting through the debris, through collapsed buildings and bodies that he knew the names to. None of them mattered at the moment.

Not like Bitey did.

Bitey had been with him three years back, back when he was barely a man, when he was a fool. He could hear all of the times before when he had slacked off with Mira before, and all of the lost time for practice that would have made all the difference. He dug faster, his mind frantic.

He's got to be here somewhere!

Most of them were Defenders, others were nothing at all, the ones that more than likely belonged to the Eaglefoot. But none of them were Bitey. His sight blurred on the edges and dampness rolled across his cheeks. Marus went cold when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he looked, making out the form of a pair of bodies that were too far to parse out details. A singular knowing struck into him and panic sent him sprinting over to them. Bitey and Mira were strong. The fact that Sateyu and Inaya had chosen to die for them had only made the four of them even stronger. Their ashes had made it so.

But peerless strength meant nothing for the dead.

She had been grasping onto Bitey to protect him from something, and it made sense for her. She had always been like that, always brandishing scales over her heart, but always within earshot of any of them, always strong, and always loyal. He knelt gingerly by them, a single minded focus on Bitey's ruffled dark fur. He had never evolved like some of the other spirits had, but he always made up for it with his speed. It was strange how he was so still. He took a strange relief in seeing Bitey with no blood and in one piece.

He brushed a finger across stiff ice, across BItey's back, enough for the knowledge to really settle in for him. Bitey was dead, right alongside Mira. He was crying now, kneeling head first into both of them, biting back the urge to scream into nothing. The Eaglefoot would have disapproved; emotions had their places as long as they could be used. Blind fury or grief would get him nowhere. But the Eaglefoot, from what he could tell, didn't exist anymore.

Fury was the first emotion after the grief to manifest, first at Sateyu offering herself up to deflect and exterminate nearly all of them, and then dying as a sacrifice appease the spirits of the forest when Kanto had made their attempt at Blue Moon country from the mountain, and convinced Inaya and his Nidoking to do the same, even if the Kleavor and Centiskorch would have massacred everyone in the village otherwise.

The despair, however, was worse and Marus, for a long while, could only sit there at Mira and Bitey's side. He hadn't cried for too long instead, choosing to lay with them with his head on a stiff leg of Mira's. At one point he had reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips.

Fingertips across the palm, then an index brush over the other, for fingers to come tightly together palm to palm, fingertips curling over knuckle as I squeeze…

"A dragon guards his hoard with his life," The pinch in his throat made his voice an abysmal noise and left his throat dry. "And if he loses a piece, he prays it returns to him someday soon." He choked out a laugh. "Too bad I'm not a dragon…"

He scanned the area listless, eyes roaming over laden bodies that seared in the sun and spotted one hunched and twisted awkwardly with its legs to the sun. It had been the first thing in that long while that made him sit up to peer harder into the distance, finding that the body out a little ways was a Genesect, and it led Marus to find another one, and then another one after that. It dawned on him then that Mira and Bitey were there and unscathed but Suna, Mira's Dragalge, was not, and the last he had remembered seeing her had been when they fought the last of the Genesect, and hungry Kantonians; here.

Genesect had been merciless and tore through what little they had left, more than likely in vengeance for Sateyu, and did enough damage for Kanto to make their move. It had been that last stand that a Genesect had nearly ended him, and the same stand he had sent Bitey to help Mira and her Dragalge. He remembered rushing to her and the wound in his side hissing in anger, and then going down in a Kantonian ambush after cutting down two or three. He remembered them paying him no mind as they more than likely had their eyes and hunger set on pillaging, a lot of them clamoring toward Mira. They were filthy and barbaric.

He also remembered her looking in his direction; she had seen and only been looking to him. She had smiled, and Bitey did too as he leapt into her arms as Suna held her ground at Mira's side. The three of them had all flashed something vibrant, a scorching amber that imploded, absorbed into their bodies before firing skyward past the sky. The sky grew dark then, clouds swirling together in a spiral, and an astral body broke through the clouds, Moments later, fire rained from the sky.

She had told him about Draco Meteor before, and that its meteor shower rendition was a step above the normal one. But she had only ever alluded to being able to bring an entire celestial body down into earth. Marus never thought that her "Falling Heaven" rendition of Draco Meteor would be so potent and it was what had saved him but killed the three of them, even wilting Suna into dust, but left a grand slew of mangled bodies in her wake. She would have told him it was the best kind of grave for a Dragonblood like her.

"It's just my luck, huh?" He slipped his fingers between hers a second time, and grimaced at the stiffness setting in. They wouldn't be anything like he recognized soon. His other hand came out to Bitey, scratching behind his ear gingerly. "It really is just my luck…" He scanned across the graveyard a second time, and caught sight of a glint in the distance. It was growing brighter by the moment; it was moving closer. His side snapped at him when he went to shoot to his feet and his hand went gingerly to his side. He was hurt badly. He looked down at Mira and Bitey, and considered the futile thought of being able to get them to safety. If he lived, then their ashes could make him even stronger.

But the bolt had come over him.

Color spilled into light and the sky brightened. From that light spread rays the hues of green flames and gold. The colors grew luminous, splitting into yellows and scarlet red. Marus saw the feathers tipped with green as the light flew over him, saw the golden mane and divinity in its eyes. Marus's strength left him and he slumped completely to the ground. He looked back to Bitey and Mira before looking toward the light, which was off receding into the distance. He had seen the Phoenix, like he had three years back.

Rage settled in. He had seen the ancient phoenix twice now, whose power was rumored to grant eternal joy to all who saw it but had given him nothing, had given him a war that saw Silver Village razed, and his friends killed. He had seen the Phoenix but had only suffered. That rage came heavy, clouds of fire trickling from his mind and through his veins. He watched as the last bits of light faded over the horizon, just as the fire swallowed his mind.

I'm going to gut you…! How dare you take them from me…! The light was dimming.

Come back…! The light thinned. Come…back…! It was growing darker. You can't take them from me…!

I'll kill you…!

The air came down and forced Marus to his knees. The wound in his ribs seared pain that thrashed against his skull, and for all of his fury, his body froze in compliance. A force snatched him from them and Marus cried out in pain despite himself and heat trickled down and across his ribs; the wound was getting worse. He came to, finding himself dangling helplessly before the sharpened eyes of the Phoenix.

"You dare?" The panic that had overwhelmed him was different this time. The surges from earlier had motivated him to take action and it moved him to fight and protect, it but never controlled him. He struggled against the force around him, his mind fighting every which way to get his body to move or respond; there was always nothing.

He was fearing for his life. He could feel the Phoenix's gaze boring down on and twisting toward him until something in his body snapped; the garbled cry that came from him was foreign.

"Answer." His breathing was shallow and desperate; Marus tried desperately to say something, anything. Something else, holy fire came through him, and whatever had broken came together again, painless. That had helped to calm him down, and Marus fought to get his breath control. He looked into the Phoenix's eyes and saw fire.

Another snap reverberated in the same space, slower, harsher. The cry came out clearer the second time, and it was mind-boggling all the same. Was it really him crying in pain like this?

"Answer to your folly." He had to escape. What had he been thinking? The Phoenix was light, fire and power. The Phoenix could have cleansed the mountainside with no effort at all. Marus didn't make note of how much the pain had left him in tears. His body hung limp, neck lolled to one side.

The two of them below him rolled into his vision.

"...Why?" Healing warmth spread through him again, and Marus distantly entertained the hope that it would burn away his tears. His body panged in terror; it had learned quickly what would come next. The pressure around him softened, just marginally. "You have light that will give anyone happiness if they see you…like I did. So…why did all this happen?" The pressure in the Phoenix's eyes had changed, and Marus felt the dirt against his back. It had let him go.

"Poor, fickle creature…" Marus's eyes had gone past the Phoenix now, back to those bodies.

Why…? He wanted to crawl to them. If he had to die, then he would rather rest with them.

Why…? Marus felt his mind pulse with something else, a thought textured like gold; the Phoenix was speaking to his mind now.

Because there has yet to be a pure heart…

A pure heart…

I will refuse my power to those who will spread war. And I have been disappointed enough.

He was staring listlessly again at those two bodies. He wondered if he and Bitey would have come up with their own 'Falling Heaven' if they had had enough time. He wondered if, at the end of everything, with peace, if the Eaglefoot would take him back to Blackthorn with them if they ever decided to go back.

"It's not fair…" was all Marus could muster up. "Humans fight…When we do, it's to keep each other in line. We'll hurt others when we lose ourselves." It was a core tenet of the Eaglefoot. "We fight each other for the sake of each other."

"Is that what you believe?" The response caught Marus off guard. "It is impossible for humans to understand. Always prisoners to your coil." Marus willed his body to move, and it ticked in the response. The fire that stitches his insides together had closed the hole near his ribs too. He could move again. It was a backhanded benevolence. Maybe it was something that Marus would never understand at all with his human nature. What was a man's understanding of a god's knowledge? Marus didn't know, but the Phoenix was methodical, a force of nature that obeyed its tasks as a keeper of knowledge, as some passing Alphs had claimed when they had come through in the past. An understanding dawned on Marus then.

What was a god's experience of life to a man's at all?

For all of its godliness, the Phoenix was certainly biased.

Marus chuckled at the thought, and then it escalated into outright laughter. Laughter at his folly, then at his circumstances. He laughed at how the gods existed but held no understanding of their lives as humans.

It made all of the prayers he had heard in Silver Village useless, and brought him to pity the Alphs that talked about and pursued their 'Father' so doggedly. The Gods were here, but they weren't listening. His hand twitched for his short sword at his waist. His lip curled with amusement when he found it still there. A glaive would have been better, but without Bitey, things might have gone different. "False gods shouldn't be here to give us false hope."

It's not like I have much to live for anyway… Marus drew his weapon and levelled it directly toward the Phoenix.

"I hope you're ready."