............

"It shall be then, when love so impossible becomes a bond so unbreakable, that the sun and the moon shall meet and the day will turn into the night. Two opposites shall merge. The eternity of peace is foretold."

............

"Are you sure that is what it says?"

"My Lord, I am absolutely sure."

"My Lord," a younger- yet all the same wise- voice questioned, the God of war, "I thought this prophecy disappeared after... after" he looked unsure of what he wanted to say, as it was about something that was quite close to his heart.

"After the Goddess sacrificed herself?" the authoritative voice of the Emperor bellowed. It was clear that he was trying his hardest not to burst into a ball of rage at the mention of the Goddess.

The court knew it was an issue that the Emperor did not like talking about. The Goddess of Creation was his niece and only family. She was regal yet outspoken, and she was the one everyone expected to take over Soleria once the Emperor decided to retire to the highest mountain and live out his days watching Soleria glisten below him. She knew the rules and the laws well and had been instrumental in making Soleria more equal despite the fact that she had to prioritise her duties of creation. Before she had sacrificed herself, and before the war had begun, she had even made progress in the tense relationship between Soleria and Luneith.

All of her hard work, however, rendered practically useless after she had passed into the realm of the dead.

He was bitter about his niece's death. A death that shouldn't have been. Creation was meant to be an immortal. But her weakness was Destruction. It always had been. They were two souls doomed to be each other's calamity. Two opposites should have never been attracted. 

So she sacrificed herself. Most of the court didn't know, but the Grand Emperor did. She sacrificed herself for him.

Why she did it, he would never know. How could he when she was dead? 

But he blamed Luneith and he blamed Destruction for it. He held Luneith liable for every bad thing that happened to Soleria. He hated that Destruction was the reason he would never see the cheerful smile of his niece ever again. He misdirected his anger and his guilt in his responsibility towards the events that led to her demise, and he condemned the realm of the majestic moon- a sight rarely anyone from Soleria had ever been granted the pleasure to see- and he blamed them.

So much.

Luka remembered the Goddess thought that a lot of the reason for the war had actually been because of Soleria, that the blame couldn't be put on Luneith alone. She had protested a lot over the years, which is why she had ultimately tried to stay away from the war. (Though, he knew that there was something else stopping her. But she never told him what.) And when she decided to make her sacrifice, she did it hoping that the divide between Soleria and Luneith ended and peace could be made, like the prophecy had said. At least, that's what he believed. He had been in a coma for a while before it had happened but he still thought he knew her well enough to determine what her reasoning had been to do what she did. She was his fiancée after all.

A lot of the people back then had thought that because the Lune Supreme had married a peacock fairy, it would be the beginning of peace. That the prophecy had been fulfilled. But the demon didn't believe in the prophecy. Not as much as he wanted all of the power for Luneith. Not as much as he believed his son was the key to that power.

And then many speculated that his son was the key to the prophecy, but he too only had one goal. To destroy all that prevented his power from ascending. 

Seventy thousand years after the most monumental war in history, even with neither side being actively aggressive for too long of periods of time, the split was still wide and evident, like a gaping black hole.

And it was getting wider.

The God of War could feel it. A new war was at threat of arising. New forces were being tempered with and the what the fates were planning, he knew not. He just hoped they had the forces to prevent it before disaster struck.

The God of war he may be, but his duty was never to start a war, only guide his people to triumph.

............

"Did I tell you yet? I've been born again. Out there it must have been already two thousand years but in here only an hour or two has passed since. I'll be leaving soon. As will you."

He growled at the voice in his mind. Or was it all around him?

"When I get out of here I'll-"

"You'll what?" Her voice sounded amused, "Kill me? You of all people should know that's not possible my love."

"Stop," he shouted out loud, even if no one could hear him, "Stop calling me that!"

She laughed, "It's funny Adrien. How you always deny your feelings when we both know it was always there."

"You had a fiancé. Seeing as you're body has manifested again, you still do," he glared anywhere he could see. Because he couldn't actually move, it wasn't much. They didn't know whether he was angry of her use of the sacred name his mother had given him, or if he was...

"Jealous? That doesn't mean I have to marry him. Though it seems that the deities decided it would would be good if my reincarnation had a crush on the God of War. What is with them trying to decide our fate?" He could hear that she was amused. As if a mere thing could change her mind about who held her heart. His breathing faltered at the thought, "Tough. There's truly only one person in my heart. You."

"Why?" He asked but it sounded more like he was pleading, "Why did you sacrifice yourself?"

He had asked the question so many times. Wondered out loud about it. Thought about it so much. His mind replayed the moment when he watched her kill herself in order to trap him. 

He resented her for it. He hated her for it- but he never really did. He shouted and screamed at her for it.

But he never got an answer.

Still, he couldn't help that his cold heart would clench painfully every time he remembered it.

"Because. If I didn't, I'd have to watch you destroy yourself and everything with it."

His face fell but he didn't cry. Instead he closed his eyes and thought about how soft her voice was. How genuine it seemed. It was always like he remembered. 

"I still want to destroy everything."

She hummed knowingly, "I know you do, my grumpy cat. I still love you."

He wanted to say it back. But he never did. It was always her that had said it. Even before the war. Even when they were just two immortals, expected for greater things, yet not quite achieving it. When they met each other secretly and just revelled in each other's company. No sides. No hate. No expectations. Not once had he said it back. Never out loud.

But she understood. She always did.

"What were you reborn as?"

"Why?"

"I'll find you. Even if you don't remember anything. I want you to be by my side."

I want to protect you.

"I became a ladybug. Just like you had always called me," he could hear the smile in her voice, "The name you gave me back then really stuck. But as of now I must have bloomed into a full grown fairy. I even have a proper name now. You'd find it sweet, I think. I'll make it so you can recognise me somehow. I won't make it too easy though. You need a challenge after being bored to death in here. It will be me who finds you, however."

He raised his eyebrows in intrigue at the mystery of her words, but she didn't elaborate. So he closed his eyes again and did one of the only things he could really do in this prison she had built for him.

Sleep.

When he woke up next, he expected the voice to be gone, but he didn't expect a fairy who had a mysteriously restricted energy surrounding her life force, to be right in his face and pressing her lips onto his.

Her wide eyes and the way they couldn't pull back made him realise that she was as shocked as he was at the situation they had been forced into.

Something was bugging him though.

Why is she so familiar?

.............

Marinette was just a small, unimportant fairy. She had blue eyes as vibrant as the ocean and her hair was a long raven black, though under the natural glow of the sun, it somehow looked like a dark blue, as dark as the night sky that not many fairies had ever been able to see. Transformed after being stuck in her ladybug form for almost 500 years, she wasn't as coordinated or put together as many other fairies were.

And since she was born without a family or barely anyone to nurture her. Her power was still weak. Her master had left her early on. He was an old man by the name of Fu. As soon as he had been able to help cultivate her physical fairy form, he had vanished and she was left on her own. She had no one to help her develop her powers, like all the others did. 

It was something that made the other fairies bully her. Having practically no one. Most of the ones that came here were from prestigious and/or large families and clans. Marinette didn't even have a clan.

Yet they relied on her to make their pretty clothes and fix the ones that grew gashes and tears because they knew how good her other talents were- they didn't compliment her on it though. She had been getting more and more customers wanting her to make their garments for them, especially for special occasions (though that did not mean that her free time lessened by much- she still had a multitude of time just to do anything she wanted). And even for the ones who treated her less than acceptably, she still didn't mind because she liked to create and she liked to repair and she liked to be of help to others.

That being said, not all of the fairies she had met and produced pieces of clothing for were hostile towards her and she had managed to make a few friends. 

There was a fox named Alya and a turtle named Nino who had come in together the first time after a particularly gruelling mission they had been on. When they had first come, it wasn't actually for the clothes, rather the healing methods Marinette had been taught by her Master during her days as a ladybug- many families and clans knew of him and had relied on him for years as their healer before he disappeared. Since he wasn't there anymore, a lot of them grudgingly came to his apprentice at first for the healing, or more recently for her ability to sew flawlessly. Both Alya and Nino had been immortals for over 30,000 years now and Marinette envied them for being able to be what she desired. She still healed them and in return, they got to know her better, and helped her a lot. They stressed the fact that she was still so young, that the youngest age fairies had done the test was when they were around seven thousand years old. Marinette wasn't even half of that yet. Because of them, she was becoming better at controlling and developing her magical skills.

Despite this, they had more responsibilities as immortals going up the ranks (being immortals for so long allowed them to be higher and they had climbed up so they were only a few ranks below Luka) and had been spending less and less time with her recently.

She understood but she couldn't help but feel lonely.

And because no one was there to stop her, she made the irrational decision to watch the Solerian Court do their annual protection spell over the huge prison at the edge of their borders, on the Celestial planes.

There were probably other people like her, who snuck to the borders to watch as close as they could something that only happened once every hundredth year.

It's not like it was hard to. Almost everyone who officially worked in the court, including the guards- who's main magic was protection- as well as any other powerful immortal from outside of the court, focused their powers on the Howling Spirit Dungeon.

The reason for its name was straightforward to most. Once you were in the range of the prison, the echoes of disturbing moans and devastating howls could be heard clearly. But there were stories of people, those who were too weak minded, too naïve and impressionable. Who would continue to hear the crestfallen cries of those who were remorseful and the wrathful wails of the prisoners who wanted nothing but revenge. They latched onto the minds of the unanticipated, like a spirit who had grasped onto the wide open door of their very unexpecting soul.

Marinette, however, had grown up living alone in a forest which, despite the it's name and the everlasting light of the sun, it remained one of the darkest places in Soleria. Most normal fairies were apprehensive to even step into the forest unless it was on particular paths where the trees parted and let the sunlight shine upon (luckily, the front path towards Marinette's home had been cleared by Master Fu in his time living there, making it easier for people to get there). So she wasn't particularly scared. Whilst most people would see her as weak and innocent, she knew she was far more than that. She was strong willed and determined, and she had the ability to not let what people would say or do to her, get to her in any way. Howling spirits and prisoners be damned.

Well, more than they already were anyways.

So she made the long trek from her humble abode in the middle of the Sunlit forest, to the outside of the prison, hidden in plain sight behind the magnitude of guards, immortals and powerful beings.

Oh what she would do to become an immortal herself!

Every five hundred years, the immortal exam would take place. She had signed up this year for the exam since she felt she had gotten much better at using her powers, even if people still saw her energy as weak. And she had the help of her friends to train her. She was more ready for the exam than she had ever been before. There was something about practising that made her more confident even with the harder spells that she couldn't quite master. And Alya had helped her find some energy stones to replenish her life force so she could become stronger.

But her constant training meant she required a break. So she decided to come to the prison.

From where she was, she could hear the Great Emperor speak in the tongue of the ancient magics and shoot his power towards the centre of the prison. The rest followed, all in sync, muttering the words with perfect pronunciation and directing their own power towards the centre. Somewhere in that crowd, she knew Alya and Nino were doing the same.

She could see the God of War, by the Emperor's side, looking as pretty as the first day she had met him, casting one of the more powerful blasts out of everyone there.

She giggled as she laid her eyes on him, and now most, if not all of her focus was towards him. He wore a long light blue robe, which looked airy as he floated but it was weighed down by his prolific and captivating armour made of a mix of imperial emerald scattered across the blue steel that made up most of the armour. His hair was black at the top, which then faded into a mix of blue and a slight tinge of green, looking very much like it had been dipped into a sea of forget-me-nots that were scattered all around the forest Marinette lived in. Some of his hair was put into a bun, held up by a single ornate hair tie made with the same blue steel of his outfit, the rest of his hair settled freely down his shoulders, where it's length reached. On his back was a large sword, made with the same materials of his armour but Marinette had once seen it turn into an instrument. He had named it a guitar. 

All of a sudden, spots began to blur her vision, and her eyes began to see only in black and white.

'Not now!' She thought, as her eyes darted around the figure she had been looking at. His blue armour now just a dull grey as was almost everyone there, 'Why now?'

Her eyes fixated onto his sword behind him and then the centre of the prison, a spherical ball of light, shrouded by darkness. Then to the Emperor and to the millions of beams shooting at the sphere.

As quickly as her vision dulled, it became colourful again.

But Marinette knew that if she didn't do something now, a terrible thing would happen to Luka, the God of War.

Something terrible always happened when she did nothing after her vision.

But a lot of the time she could do nothing, as she was just a fairy who was seen as weak and unpopular. When she tried to warn people it never ended well because barely anyone believed her.

So sometimes... sometimes she had to take matters into her own hands.

She quickly conjured a glamour mask on her face. (Alya was good at creating illusions and had taught her a few tricks.)

She surged forward praying that she got there on time.

............

It's never actually mentioned in future chaps so I'll just put it here. It will make sense as you read but day and night is a bit different in each realm. In Soleria, the sky does get darker to indicate when the day is over but it doesn't become pitch black- it's more like what it looks like around the time the sun is setting as the sun hides to let its people sleep whereas in what would be considered their daytime would look like an overly sunny summers day, generally. In Luneith day would look overall more like violet and blue and will gradually become darker and darker which will indicate night.

See you lovelies <3