Sanguis Jus Soli

40,000,000,000 Years Ago
Unknown
One hundred Forty Six Trillion and One Days until Reunion.

Blood pounded in his ears, rage drummed in his heart, fire burned in his eyes, and steel flashed into his crimson hands. His nemesis stood before him, laughing as he chucked his wife's corpse away without a care in the world. Her body slammed into the pale green earth and disappeared, consumed by the thick grass. But he could smell well enough; he smelled the air thick with the blood of his village. Thick with treachery and an evil abomination.

A shaking, ragged screaming ripped from his throat as he charged, steel whirling through the wind. A blow, a strike, more blood. He fell to his knees in front of the evil and stared into the demon's eyes as the demon smiled. “You couldn't save them. You were weak. You could not even save your wife.”

“Shut up!!” Feyr screamed as his steel swung through the air, singing true into the demon's breast, but not before his skull felt heavy with blood and filled with pain and weariness. The demon coughed blood and gripped him by the head in a unending embrace..

The world shuddered as he felt his skull giving into to the pain of the demon personified. The world darkened slightly and everything seemed to be slowly turning red. The sound of the evil's scream died slowly in his ears as the blood pumped into his soul. 'No, I must live!' .

The steel ripped out of the demon's chest and his wife's face distorted in his mind. “Caldia!” He screamed as the blade cleaved the man's arm off. More blood rained, more death. He used all of his training, all his mind and body, focused it into his weapon as he was flung away. By some miracle or grace, he landed on his feet squarely and slid back a few inches. He kept low in the crouch he had landed with and watched in horror as the demon held up the Blood Crystal. “No!” He shouted, pleading for the demon not to unseal it, but it was too late.

The Crystal hummed brightly as it began to spin. It lifted itself from the demon's hand and shined brightly a crimson that darkened the forest and quieted everything for miles in one sudden, hushed whisper. Pieces of grass and earth slowly ripped from the ground into the crystal as its bloody lightning tore into the ground and ate his comrades.

There was no stopping it now. Feyr could only hope he could control or contain the damage somehow.

With a shuddering roar, the forest whipped around in agreement with His anger. Flames belched outwards from the man's black cloak and consumed the ground beneath him. The flames came alive and began raced on the ground like fiery vipers towards Feyr.

His sword came up to defend him but could do nothing against the power of the Blood Crystal. The steel shattered and blew him backwards with the force of twenty hammers against his chest. The wind of life left him and he shuddered as he tried to breathe.

The lightning coursed into his body as the fire consumed his clothes. His mind spasmed, his body jerked, and a tortured scream ripped from his throat. He commanded his body to get away from the lightning, commanded it to do anything at any cost for any hope of survival, but it could not.

He was powerless, held completely by the lightning as it began to drink his blood and sap his life out of him. Feyr could already feel the drumming whine of the Lifestream; the haunting call far beneath the earth and everywhere around him.

Summoning what he could remember of the Blood Crystal, Feyr sacrificed his body for the good of the world. He knew there was no escape from the power the man had unleashed; it must be sealed back into the Crystal again.

With all his might and vigilance, the Hero Feyr slammed his hand into the ground, shattering the vial placed in the palm of his right hand. The power of the Magi coursed into the ground and slowly the power of the lightning began to dissolve. The demon took a step back in fright as he saw the lightning slowly being pushed back; more frightening was that Feyr was controlling the Anti-force.

Slowly, Feyr pushed the lightning back with the Anti-Crystal now imbedded in his arm, blood pouring out of the glove and onto the ground. He would die shortly but not before he sent the demon to hell and the Crystal to the Abyss once more. None would summon the Soulgorger; not even at the cost of the world.

He rose to his feet and took one shaky step after another to the Crystal. One step after another to salvation and the end of the Demon's reign. One step for Claudia. One step for his Village. One step for the war. One step after another, after another.

His body threatened to rip itself apart with the power he had injected into it. No mortal had ever tried to become the Avatar of the Anti-Crystal. It was said through legend and myth that it would kill the man who used it; he was ready to meet that price. Even though the Ancients warned that should the Anti-Crystal ever be used, a terrible and ultimating force would become reality in the soul of the man who held it, they had never said a word about someone making the Crystal one with them.

Feyr hoped it would be enough power to shatter the Crystal once and for all, or at the least send it to a place where no one could find it. The trickling became a river in his arm as he continued to push the lightning back.

Suddenly, he felt it. He understood the power. He relaxed his arm and smiled as the lightning wrapped around him, encircled around his arm. Reaching out to the Crystal, he shut his eyes and imagined the power, all at once, flowing out from the Crystal and into his mighty Red Hand.

In horror and fear, the demon watched the Blood Crystal fall to the ground, powerless. The red and blue lightning encircled Feyr's body as he walked forward to the demon.

In less than a second, the demon's escape plans were squashed. Lightning boomed across the forest floor and crackled menacingly around him as the man advanced. In Feyr's mind, Feyr knew that it was most likely a terrible mistake to kill the man with the powers he had but he had no choice: the demon had witnessed the Rite of Blood and had to be purged.

The song of the ancients droned on above, growing louder each second as Feyr gathered his strength. He drank more and more of the power from the two Crystals of Blood and Purity, urging the Crystals to form a perfect union so that he would have enough power to simply erase the being from all time.

The song broke down as the Crystals began to synchronize their rhythms of blood and light, resulting in a terrible power being born within Feyr's soul. He staggered forward as a wing ripped out of his back, black and crimson as the bloody sky of war. He growled and continued to harmonize the crystals as he advanced slowly. Another wing ripped out of his back, threatening to smite him to the ground, pure and angelically white; both delicate and strong. His eyes began to burn a brilliant blue as he finally reached the demon.

His muscles exploded violently outwards and he felt pain overcoming his supernatural endurance; a gift from the Crystals. Staggering forward again as his back ripped to reveal yet another wing, this one crystalline and radiant with color, burning bright as the sun. Blood coursed down his back as his flesh continued to rip.

Flames wrapped around his hand as he gripped the neck of the demon and growled. “You *knew*, even then, that this power would destroy us both. So, I suppose it has come to it. There will be no salvation for you,” Feyr raised his arm as lightning coursed in it, fire wrapped it, ice evaporated out of it, and wind swirled about it.

With effortless might, Feyr hoisted the demon off the ground and growled, “Why did you do this brother? We could've lived in peace!!”

The crystals finally merged in harmony; perfect celestial unity. The forest ripped away and darkness and light swirled about them in a thick mist. Feyr's body exploded in violent light, consuming the physical form that was there before. “Why brother, why?!”

They screamed as the crystals destroyed each other, shattering into millions of pieces in an explosion that marked the rebirth of the cosmos from the pure darkness of before. Time surged back and forth as the near-infinite power of the two harmonies of life and death tried violently to separate.

Earth ended. Gaia ended. Time evaporated. All sense that was sensical before became rubbish and all rubbish made perfect sense. Time bent back upon itself into an infinite loop, the elements weakened in power, and threads of underlying power ripped through the universe in a networked web, a stream, of rebirth and defiance.

And then---the Universe was again. Time shuddered and slowly began to replace all the events of before with the events that it could support.

Forty Three thousand and Nine hundred years later, the Ancients discovered the Promised Land. The place out of time and space that they called home ever after; the exact site of the end of the last Universe; Mako spilled forth into the land; Mako being the blood of Feyr and the progeny of the Blood Crystal, and Jenova being the blood of the demon and the progeny of the Anti-Crystal.

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2 Days until Reunion

Nanaki shuddered as he raised his claw away from Ifrit's now still corpse. He regretted that he had to kill the God of Fire but what else could he have done? He would not listen to reason and continually droned on about 'Feyr' and 'Reunion.'

His claws dripped slowly with blood and he sat in shock and found he could only watch the God bleed to death. With a shudder, the muscles of the god relaxed and the God of Fire died.

Nanaki could only speculate what he just might have done to the entire universe, let alone Gaia. Would fire cease to be? Would all creation grind to a halt until it found a replacement for the late God?

Several hours passed as Nanaki waited for the resulting death of all flame, watching his candle slowly flicker. He went to sleep expecting to awaken dead or in an endless sea of ice but neither greeted him in the morning.

The flame in the candle was instead stronger and burned brighter than before. Confused, Nanaki sat and observed the candle, pondering what had happened between last night and now.

Then, in his mind, he felt a flash of searing heat that he recognized from two years ago. It felt just like the power Sephiroth had exploded with in his battle against Cloud. Could Sephiroth still be alive? Could he have just aided him in his desire to reach the Promised Land?

His eyes drifted to the statue of his father as he sought an answer...

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Cid smirked as he hung up the phone. Exictedly, he scribbled down on a piece of paper next to the phone, 'Hey hon', I'm goin' to Midgar. Cloud's holdin' a Reunion, finally; take good care of Cid Jr. while I'm gone. I'll be back in a few days, promise.'

Without another word, Cid burst out the door and clambered into Highwind II's cockpit. He switched on various nozzles and and displays; readied the flight for take off. The engines whined as they slowly fed thrust to the aircraft. Cid pushed the throttle forward and felt the craft push to the edge of the airfield. Pushing on the lever beneath his seat, he swung the small, fighter-sized aircraft to face the house and flicked on his secondary set of engines.

Small cylinders on the sides of the jet swiveled down to point at the ground and ignited. Slowly, the craft floated off the ground and Cid checked all his readings as he prepared to head off to Midgar. Pulling on his headset, he dialed into the PHS frequency and called out to Cloud's PHS; wanting to ask him if Midgar had finished up their runway or not.

He patted the console of his aircraft as it hummed in mid-air, barely shaking at all. He had spent the last two years of his free time building the thing and was more than pleased that it was running so smoothly on its first cold flight (Taking off without warming the engines)

A button blinked red to his left and he smiled. It was the PHS indicator lighting up. Cloud was responding, or someone else was in the same general area. Cid pushed the throttle forward a bit and turned to see his house below as well as several startled neighbors. He waved to them with a grin and pulled his cigs out of his flight jacket. Placing one in his mouth to cool his nerves, he stared at his house and saluted as Cid Jr. ran out of the house with eyes wide open and mouth drooping.

He flicked on the loudspeakers he had installed and said, “Take care of mommy, Cid Jr. I'll be gone a few days; don't worry, I'll give ya a ride on this baby when I get home, ok?”

Cid Jr. nodded excitedly and ran back inside, slamming the front door. Cid laughed to himself; he was going to have a co-pilot in a few years if this kept up. Then a loud beep cut into his thoughts and he checked his console. None of his systems were complaining so it had to be the communication system. Looking to his left, he looked over the various labels and found that the PHS frequency was now blinking quickly. Apparently the person on the line was getting impatient and was yelling.

He pushed the button in and hit the throttle forward, setting a course for Midgar. He quickly relayed his course to Vincent, his estimation for when he would get there, and that he would have to be home in a few days.

With a satisfied grin, he watched the village fly underneath him and vanish in less than five seconds. Highwind II boomed across the sky and into the clouds as Cid laughed like a kid on a roller coaster; not that there were many kids who laughed at a Roller coaster.

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1 Day Until Reunion

Vincent placed his PHS back into his belt loop as he piloted his small hovercraft through the forests behind Midgar. They had popped up after Meteor had vanished and in great numbers. It was almost ethereal in them; they seemed to team with magical energy and the lifestream in general.

Finally, the trees broke away and Vincent saw Midgar once more. He had informed Yuffie, Red XIII, and Cait Sith; Cid had called in advance, thankfully. He sounded excited and Vincent was sure he had neglected to inform his wife or child that he would be leaving in the next few days, but that was Cid's nature when you surround him with fast toys.

Vincent finally reached the gates of Neo-Midgar and slowed down. Two guards waved him through and he went down the ruined streets of the outskirts where the thieves and gangs lied to the inner city; the only relatively safe place in Neo-Midgar.

After thirty minutes, he arrived in front of the Hospital and powered down his bike in the nearest available parking space; relatively half a mile away in a shopping center.

He quickly put in his security code, locked out the engine and drive mechanisms, and walked calmly to the shining, white building. It was a symbol to the weak people who could not remember the day of Meteor that new days were coming. He still could not fathom how they had been able to build the thing when so many materials were needed city-wide. He brushed it off as easily as it had come; it was probably through circuits and favors he did not wish to know about in the first place.

Cloud and Tifa were in front of the hospital, waiting for him. He walked up calmly, “The others have been informed. I have agreed upon a suitable place for us to have this reunion. I believe that,” he pointed to the looming building of the once Shin-Ra headquarters, “will suffice.”

Cloud scowled, “You're joking, right? It's not a very funny joke.”

Vincent eyed Cloud cautiously, “Would you rather me shoot you and get it over with now?”

Grumbling Cloud forced himself to be reasonable and asked, “Why in the hells did you shack us up in that run-down place of death?”

“First, we are to relive memories by attending this Reunion, correct? Also, Cid needed a landing pad suitable for his new aircraft; Shin-Ra's previous headquarters was the only place where he could have landed it regardless.”

“But it's Shin-Ra's Headquarters! I'm sure we could pick someplace better, Vincent?” Tifa was trying her best to keep the two men from being at odds with each other given the situation.

Vincent shook his head, “There is no other place. I have searched the city extensively from afar and from short; do remember that I live in the forest not too far from here?”

“Whatever, let's go.”

Tifa sighed and looked at Vincent with disappointment. “Hope you were right.”

He shrugged and said, “I'm never wrong when I'm sure; though I can't be blamed for things changing without my knowing.”

She sighed and walked after Cloud quickly in an effort to reach him before he began ranting about the 'high and mighty Vincent Valentine'.

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Deep in the depths of the Niebelhem Mountains, a dull rock began to glow.

The Ancients spoke of the day millions of years ago, forseeing the power growing in the cavern to this day when it would awaken. Its power was so great that etched upon the cave walls eternally glowed the Ancient's warning:

“In the caverns of the damned doth be borne a shining atrocity, fallen from the Heavens, Destiny in a word; brought back from the Never Lands by the fallen angel who hath but one wing. For it is the angel's master and the stone is the angel's soul; inseparable, ever since the storm. Dark clouds awaken at the time of its shining; the Apocalypse has come hither to Gaia as it e'er has before.

On a day there will be held a joyless Reunion in a Ruined City. There shall there be found the first of many clues; the first of many pawns and battles. Seven mortals shall join their swords once cast away once more and become the Knights of the Blood Crystal. One mortal cast down from Godlihood shall become the sole Avenger of the Crystal of Light; the Anti-Crystal. They shall meet upon bloody plains cast in steel and melted with violent fury. Then the day shall come that the True Reunion shall be held.

The Two Crystals shall draw close to each other, convince and lie to their masters so that they might chance upon the same location and be united once more in holy union. Shamed, the two masters shall be outcast and forge an alliance against those who forsook them. Their vengeance will be swift; their wrath terrible. An angel in passing shall decry the Fallen Blood Knight and re-forge him in the steel of vigilance; poisoning his mind against the one who holds the Crystal of Light.

In the dead night, the two shall strike swords and in the end the crystals shall be united again.

Two paths splintered will rejoin. Two fallen heroes shall find their masters. One shall be fallen. The last shall be spared but will endure ever the suffering of the others. Eight come forth to take the stone from these hallowed halls.

One leaves of his own will, seven shall fall; from that One shall be brought forth a new Era of Dark Power or a radiant Aura of Peace. For this is the destiny of the Stone made of Blood and the Stone of Unending Light."