Hello, everyone! I'm (B) going to take this moment to clarify a few things for you as well as explain a few other things.

In the context of this story, the plots in the main installment line of Final Fantasy games, including Type-0, is canon. Some of the other installments are kind of up in the air right now but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Also, the Dissidia games are also canon so there shouldn't be too much surprise when the main characters are familiar when they meet each other.

There will also be some songs listed in here for atmosphere, you can listen to the songs while reading the areas they are related to or you can skip that step, it's totally fine.

Without further ado, enjoy Realms of Fate...

Once, very long ago, there was only one realm.

A singular, solitary universe where the worlds within were born from the three Reality Crystals. And that is how it stayed until the great calamity. The crystals collided with each other and worlds from different points in time and space were separated by newly formed dimensional barriers created by the shockwave of energy spreading throughout the universe. New histories were formed for everything surrounding these worlds to accommodate their places in their new realities. Other worlds, stars, and galaxies formed around them to fill the void of empty space. And from their chaotic rebirths came peace, for a while. Then individuals, creatures, and gods from outside their realms crossed over and threatened the safety of their own realities.

All would have been lost were it not for us, the Caretakers. An order of interdimensional time travelers whose responsibility is the cataloging and protection of the multiverse. We formed to combat these threats and ensure that the histories of these realms continue unhindered by the interference of both outside forces and those amongst ourselves who would want to get involved. And that is what brings us here today…

Realm: Artificial/Outside the effects of space-time interference

World: Venreth

Location: Disciplinary Court

"…We are here because one of our own has interfered with the timeline of not one but multiple realms. He used forbidden Caretaker technology to plant suggestions into the minds of individuals within the previously mentioned realms to steer them away from their predestined paths." The man said before the council of people seated before him.

"He went against protocol to successfully change previously established events. I've selected a few examples of his interference: within the zero realm he planted the suggestion of removing the Crystals of Orience from the world's history into the mind of the entity known as Arecia Al-Rashia, therefore preventing war between nations and preventing the deaths of thousands, including the fabled Class Zero. In the seventh realm he averted the destruction of Nibelheim, the destruction of Sector 7 in Midgar, the Geostigma event, and the Deepground conflict, as well as the deaths of Zack Fair, Aerith Gainsborough, and countless others. And lastly, within the fifteenth realm he prevented the deaths of King Regis, Prince Noctis, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, and other citizens by imprisoning Ardyn Izunia off world centuries before the prophecy could be fulfilled, removing his influence over Eos and preventing the ten years of darkness. Those are but just three examples on this list, the copies of which should be in front of you as well as his file for your review." Those seated began to read through the list while the Ronso in the middle who was reading it through the presentation put it down and looked at the accused.

The man accused stood before them in handcuffs and appeared to them defeated and bored. He was a young tan skinned man with a black spiky mid fade haircut, and a small scar over his left eyebrow. He wore a dark gray jacket with black material over the shoulders, giving an appearance similar to shoulder guards, black breast pockets, black epaulettes, and black material within the jacket and collar. He also wore a black scarf around his neck, a dark purple zip up shirt, black pants, and black laceless shoes.

The Ronso looked back down at the paper.

Name: Caecilius Bruen

Age: 26 (Earth Calender)

Species: Hybrid (Human/Dai'Heo)

Ship: The Eternal Traveler

Status: Active Caretaker/Pending

Additional Notes: Proficient in his work, gifted improviser, slight impulsive attitude, challenges authority, knack for inappropriate language.

Criminal Charges: Alterations to the timelines of the following realms (VI,VII,X,XII,XV,0) [all have been returned to their original states], theft of illegal suggestion inducing technology, and departing in his designated vehicle without authorization from command.

"Caecilius Bruen…" The Ronso addressed the prisoner. "We have reviewed your case and the many violations you committed. You went on your own unsanctioned mission, stole forbidden technology, and changed the histories of six realms. Histories which we had to correct and change back to their original states. Why would you even do such a thing?"

The prisoner looked up at them. "Because I cared, grandmaster. I got sick of watching people getting cheated out of their perfect ending. That's pretty much it."

"And that thinking could have destabilized their timelines and that destabilization could've leaked out into other realms. You put the state of the multiverse at risk!"

"There was a ninety eight percent chance that the changes would have been stable."

"We were not going to let the fate of reality hang in the balance because of a possible two percent chance of failure." Caecilius stayed silent. The council members all looked and nodded to each other. "You know that the punishment for these crimes is life imprisonment." He waved his hand and two guards walked over to Caecilius and uncuffed him. "But given your reason for committing them, that would be overzealous. You did it because you fell to the temptation of personal attachment. That is more than understandable. However, action must still be taken. Caecilius Bruen, you are hereby expelled from our order, your title of Caretaker will be revoked, your ship confiscated, and you are exiled from this world never to return. You will be given time to gather your personal effects and a small shuttle to take you to whichever realm, world, and time period you choose. Farewell, Caecilius." The council stood up and left.

Caecilius walked towards the door but stopped in front of an older man standing there and waited for him to speak. "Let's go, son."

When they made it to Caecilius' room he began packing up his belongings. His father stood there silently, trying to think of what to say.

"You know I love you, right?"

"No, actually. Considering that this is the first time I've ever heard you say it." Caecilius said as he continued packing.

"Well, it's true."

"I'm sure."

"What you did was irresponsible."

"I already heard that from the grandmaster, I don't need it from you too."

"I think you do."

"For the love of…I'm being ejected from the order and you want to make me go through a guilt trip before I leave instead of being, I don't know, a caring father?"

"You shouldn't have gotten attached to the people you were meant to observe."

"Yeah, well…too late to tell me that now."

"So…where will you go?"

"Well, can't go back to your world since it's gone. Don't feel like going back to mom's so, maybe I'll set up shop in the fifteenth realm on Eos long after the ten year night. Maybe I'll open up a restaurant or something." He chuckled slightly. "I take it you won't visit."

His father shook his head. "My duty is to the order. That takes top priority."

"Yep. Anytime I need you to be a dad and I'll always find you here or in some other realm doing your 'duty'. You weren't there for my first steps, my first words, my first day of school, my marriage, my divorce, and even mom's funeral. Hilarious how a time traveler can't seem to make time for his own family." He picked up his bag and turned to face him. "I guess that means this'll be the last time I see you."

His father looked down in sadness and stepped out of the doorway. Caecilius sighed before walking out to meet an escort waiting outside.

"I love you, son."

Caecilius didn't turn to look at him. "Goodbye, dad."

He walked away from his father for the last time.

The grandmaster walked down a hallway with one of the other council members while they shuffled through some papers in their hands.

"I believe we have everything covered." The Miqo'te man said.

"We better. We can't afford to miss anything during the Grand Summit. Especially after this whole Bruen disaster." The grandmaster sighed. "Such a shame. He was a good kid."

"He knew the rules."

"But he broke them anyway just to bring a little happiness. Could've destroyed reality but it was kind. Since when did being kind become the wrong thing to do?"

"When it has the possibility of putting trillions of lives at risk."

"Then…I hope it was worth it for him, even if it was just for a few moments."

Caecilius placed his bag down in the small shuttle and gave the inside of the ship a good look over. His escort stood at the door making sure he didn't do anything drastic.

"Here you go." The escort said. "The finest chariot we could get for the order's biggest screw up. Hope your mommy's proud of you."

Caecilius calmly walked up to him and looked at the smiling man. He smiled back before head-butting him into unconsciousness. One of the other Caretakers walking along looked at Caecilius in shock.

"What are they gonna do, fire me?" He laughed before heading back into the shuttle and closing the door.

He went over to his bag and pulled out two leather wrist cuffs with high-tech emitters on the bottom. After putting them on, he activated them and two pistols with glowing blue accents materialized in his hands.

"No way in hell was I going to let them keep you two." He smiled to himself.

He sat at the seat in the front and activated the launch for the preset course he was now destined for.

Realm: Artificial

Location: The Vault/Deep Space

Purpose: Safeguard artifacts collected from across the multiverse

Two guards stood at the entrance while the automated defenses surveyed the area. They noticed a woman walking towards them but, upon recognizing her, stood down.

"Miss Ziad? This is a surprise. We thought you would be at the summit."

"An artifact has fallen under the interest of a meddler and needs to be moved for safekeeping."

"The council didn't inform us of this."

"The meddler is Caecilius Bruen. He might have tapped communications and the council did not want to risk tipping him off. He could be on his way here now."

"I see. What is the artifact he's after?"

"The crystal shard."

"That's not very specific, ma'am."

"The crystal shard."

The guards' eyes widened and they immediately both opened the vault door. They walked past the large collection of artifacts as they made their way to the shard of interest. Ziad looked at a few of the cases in passing and read their labels: Black Materia, Nyx Ulric's dagger, Onion Knight helmet, Ancient map of Vana'diel, and plenty of others. They stopped before a door with multiple locks and, after waiting for all the locks to move for the door to open, they went inside. The guards deactivated the security around the glass case holding the floating transparent shard. One guard opened the case while the other placed it inside a sealed glass cylinder and handed it to Ziad.

"We'll have two of the other vault guards escort you, ma'am."

"That won't be necessary." She placed the cylinder on a magnetic clip on her belt. "Seeing as how the dead can't do much of anything anyway."

"Wha-" He failed to finish as she quickly raised her hands and fired at both of them with her wrist mounted high-tech crossbows.

The blue lights struck both of them in the chest and they both fell back dead. She smirked at her handiwork before leaving. Soldiers moved in to take over the vault as she calmly walked passed them. Once outside, she was greeted by three women clad in black and black face covering helmets with red eyes. She motioned her hand for them to follow as she made her way back to her ship.

She placed her hand to her earpiece. "I've secured the shard. It's time to use it."

Realm: Artificial

World: Venreth

Location: Grand Summit

All the Caretakers gathered as they waited for the council to address them. All the ships were docked and everyone stood in front of the large building that served as their base and their home. The council members arrived and the grandmaster stood ahead of them.

"Brothers! Sisters! Thank you all for attending the annual congregation of all Caretakers, the Grand Summit. Before we continue, we must bid farewell to one of our own, Caecilius Bruen." He looked to Caecilius' father who looked down in sadness. "He was a brilliant, if not at times, impulsive man." He chuckled. The statement earned a few laughs. "But he went against our rules and attempted to change the established histories of more than one realm which could have destabilized reality. Because of this, he has been exiled from our order. Let this remind you that meddling with the affairs of the histories of other realms is dangerous and must not be thought of as anything less." After taking a moment to let his statements sink in, he spoke. "Now, with that out of the way, I'll pass it over to councilman U'oto Tia." He gestured to the Miqo'te man who then stepped forward.

"Thank you, grandmaster. I am pleased to see that everyone was able to attend except for one. Unfortunately, our founder, Vera Ziad was unable to attend due to…"

As he continued, the grandmaster walked over and placed a hand on Caecilius' father's shoulder. "I am sorry that it came to that decision, Mathias."

"It will be…difficult knowing that he will no longer be able to answer his calling, but he risked everyone's safety and action had to be taken."

"When will you visit him?"

"I'm afraid I will never be able to. My work is far too important, he knows this."

"I understand. Your son never had it in him to put the order first. How many realms would have fallen if you had done the same?" Mathias didn't look at him. "When you showed him to me when he was born I said that he would be just like his mother. A headstrong adventurer with his heart in the right place. He always hated rules and, in the end, ours were no exception." The grandmaster saw Mathias smile a little. "He'll understand. Maybe not now, but he will. The needs of trillions outweigh his own desires."

"I don't think so. He also inherited his mother's stubbornness."

"Yes. Despite her disdain at the very thought of immortality, it seems she has achieved it anyway through Caecilius inheriting her nature."

"Something he carries with pride, no doubt." He chuckled.

"You've had a difficult day, Mathias. You should take some time away."

Mathias looked at the jet trail his son's shuttle left behind before answering. "I appreciate the offer but there's work that needs my attention."

"A Caretaker till the end." He smiled.

"Yes…" Mathias said silently to himself. "…but never a father." He finished somberly.

Realm: Artificial

World: Venreth

Location: High Orbit

Ziad's ship stayed stationary in the direction of the Caretaker planet. She stood on the bridge with her three black clad bodyguards as they stared out through the glass.

"The shard's been linked up to the weapon systems. We're ready to fire on your order." One of the crew said. That made her smile widen.

"Fire."

Everyone noticed the sky go dark and the only thing visible in the sky was a bright blue light. The light grew bigger, but before anyone could react, the light had reached the surface. Blue flames cascaded over the surface of the planet and everyone was caught in its path.

Mathias took one last look at an old picture of his wife and son before the flames reached him.

Caecilius looked out the windshield and saw the bright blue light engulf the planet and immediately began to panic. He tore off a metal panel from underneath the controls, muddled around with its inner workings, and the rest of the console lit up. He disengaged the autopilot and set a course to materialize to the surface of Venreth. He flew to the location of the summit and saw that everyone had been turned into ash statues that blew apart from the wind. He kept walking despite his shock until he came across the remains of his father. The frozen image of him knelt down looking at the burnt remains of paper still in his hand. Caecilius reached out to touch him but his form crumbled before he could. Tears began to fall down his face as he took in the scene of fire and destruction around him. He was pulled out of his state when he heard a noise come from within the remains of the large building in front of him. He took one last look at the remains of his father before running inside to see if anyone had survived. He saw two shadows against a hallway wall and made his way towards them.

There was a clattering sound. "Hey, watch it! You trying to break it?!"

"Get off my back! It's perfectly fine."

"How is it that killing these guys was the easy part but moving a ball is the most difficult thing for you?"

Caecilius stopped when he heard that and hid before the figures turned the corner.

"I already said get off my back! Wouldn't even be a big deal if this thing broke, Ziad's got four more back on her ship. She wouldn't even miss it."

Caecilius' expression turned to shock upon hearing her name.

"If the boss says she wants it then we get it. End of story. Or maybe you want her to jettison you out the air lock mid-flight."

"On second thought I think I'll take extra care of this thing." He held up a sphere with a chrome grid pattern casing with a glowing blue interior.

"Good. Now come on, we gotta meet her at the dry dock or we're both dead."

Caecilius grit his teeth, materialized his two pistols, and shot them both. He picked up the orb and put it into his pocket and ran back outside. He made his way to where Ziad was and took cover behind one of the many wrecked ships that lay scattered across the ground. There were many soldiers walking around scavenging and surveying the area. He saw her, with two of her bodyguards, talking with a man with a large scar over his right eye that was milky white. He materialized his right pistol and took aim at Ziad but just before he could take a shot he noticed the third bodyguard in the corner of his eye and moved just in time to avoid her lance coming down on his head. Everyone in the area noticed the commotion and Ziad pointed towards it.

"Open fire!" She shouted.

The bodyguard leapt out of the line of fire as Caecilius ducked for cover behind a piece of wreckage just before all the soldiers took their shots. As the laser shots impacted around him he managed to peek out from behind cover without getting shot. He saw Ziad, her half-blind cohort, and her bodyguards dematerialize into beams of light that shot up into the sky.

"Damn! Gotta find a way out of here and get after her!" He thought.

He looked around at the wrecks before him and saw one that was less damaged than the others.

"That'll do."

He ran to it while he dodged all the shots aimed at him. He made it inside the star shaped ship and started it up. The thrusters struggled to come alive, but once they did, he scanned for Ziad's ship and opened a portal to it. He saw that her ship was getting ready to leave the realm and tried his best to stay on her trail through the wormhole her ship created. The thrusters to his ship began to cut out and he fell behind.

"No, no, no!" He shouted as his ship fell through the edges of the wormhole.

The sight that greeted him through the windshield was a bright blue sky as his ship hurtled to the sandy plains below. The ship skidded across the ground until finally coming to a stop. After trying unsuccessfully to get the ship working he looked over the damage and threw whatever wasn't bolted down around the walls of the ship in grief. He sobbed for a few minutes before picking himself back up to try and figure out where he was. Power throughout the ship had ceased and none of the buttons and switches he pressed worked.

"Well, looks like I'm gonna have to do this the hard way."

He made his way out of the ship and trekked across the sand until he noticed a structure in the distance. It appeared to be a gas station and. He looked at the sign that displayed the station's name in big red letters.

"Hammerhead…hope they got a good mechanic." He said sarcastically to himself as he walked closer to his next destination, knowing full well who to look for.