Paradise Lost.
(Disclaimer; characters are not mine. Just playing.)
1. Prologue.
Some time ago, in a kingdom far, far away, people lived in peace and harmony.
They were a hard working people, who loved their land and their new king and queen.
Then one day, a witch by the name Eva entered the country.
She declared that she would be the new ruler of the kingdom and everyone had to bow to her.
Neither the people nor the king agreed to this, of course, and the evil witch vowed that everyone who went against her would die.
The king, Romanus, called in his loyal knights to battle the witch and protect the land they loved.
Claude, Jamie, Sherman, Sunny, Reef, Crimson, Yoshi, Fawke, Garret, Maki, Seth, Lucius and Hauru.
Thirteen brave men. Sherman with his water dragon, Cilong. Sunny with his demon, Vale. Hauru the wizard. All brave men.
But Eva heard about Romanus' plan and brought her servant, Seraphim, to fight the knights.
As the knights, lead by the King himself, went out to battle the witch and her henchmen, Queen Teema pleaded for the Lady of the Forest to aid her husband and the knights. She prayed with a pure heart and with so much love in her soul that the Lady Aer took pity on her.
Aer appeared before Seraphim and he was so taken in by her beauty that it broke Eva's curse which had made him blind to the witch's wickedness. Set free by the Lady, he swore allegiance to Romanus and joined the battle against Eva to repent for his past and win the heart of the fair Lady.
The war lasted for seven whole days.
One the final day, as Seraphim's sword pierced the evil witch's heart, peace was finally restored to the kingdom.
The thirteen knights were all rewarded with riches beyond their wildest dreams.
Romanus returned to his beloved Teema, and Seraphim was last seen entering the enchanted forest with Aer.
The children love this tale.
Because it's just a fairy tale. Based on some truth, fair enough, but Marlene knows better.
She knows the real story behind all of it. The real names, places and dates. There was a time when everyone else did too, but fifteen years changes a lot and it erases memories even more.
It's been over fifteen years since they disappeared, sixteen years in a few months, and Marlene sometimes wonder if she's the only one who does remember.
They made a memorial statue of Meteor's victims, but they can't remember the real names of the ones who destroyed the threat.
Marlene doesn't blame the children for not remembering their parents, they were too young when it happened, only Dawn, Raito and Zefiris have vague memories, but she remembers her father very well.
She still has the picture of the three of them; her, Barret and Tarita, standing on the night stand.
She still remembers.
She just doesn't have any answers.
Her father was acting strange that last evening, like he knew what would happen and was reluctantly preparing for it. But if he knew, why didn't he tell her? Leave her a note?
Marlene sighs as the same thoughts which she has struggled with for fifteen, soon sixteen, years haunts her yet again. She almost wishes that Robin and Cid would start arguing as usual so she has to deal with something else. Maybe Zefiris has wrecked Raito's motorcycle again? Anything other than constantly going over these thoughts...
The second frame on her night stand contains a drawing she made fifteen years ago and Marlene picks it up with a sad smile. She looks at the stick figure woman with long brown hair and wonders if Tifa would be proud of her for keeping the family together. She would have taken care of the children too, like she did with Marlene.
The thoughts are suddenly interrupted, like she so desperately wished for, by a violent flash of light. A special kind of light. A kind of light that she has only seen once before. Fifteen years ago.
Running out of her room, Marlene runs towards the nearest quarters to hers; Logan's room.
"Logan!" But like she was terrified of finding, Logan's room is empty.
And so are all the other rooms in the house.
AN; So it begins. Next chapter introduces new faces and brings back old faces! Oh, and big cookie to the ones who can actually name the real names of the knights in the correct order!
Now, onwards to the first chapter! -->