Final Fantasy

Sunlight filters through soft white clouds. Floating along on the breeze, drifting through those clouds, until at last, swift descent. Below... the land, a rocky, parched-looking, mountainous terrain of spires and outcroppings of stone. In the distance, the sounds of animals racing along the sunbaked ravine can be heard.
A great lion-like creature, majestic and fearsome, and accompanying him, two small cubs. It is Nanaki of Cosmo Canyon. He leaps from the floor of the valley onto higher outcrops, bounding higher and higher, his young ones in tow, until the three of them reach the summit.
He glances back at the cubs, then turns his head forward toward the unseen view again and roars. As he does so, the lush, green landscape surrounding the derelict city of Midgar is revealed. A flock of birds wings its way across the sky.
*~*~*~*~*
498 years earlier...
*~*~*~*~*
The depths of the great Northern Crater were shrouded in a veil of clouds and fog. Snow was falling intermittently from the grey sky, as a helicopter circled high above the foreboding landscape.
"Lay! Look at this!" a woman's voice called out insistently over a radio.
"Mm? Found it," a male voice replied.
"... Not much to look at, is it?"
Aboard the helicopter, Xiumin of the Turks slouched in the pilot's seat, looking bored as he listened in on their conversation via radio headset. He tapped his fingers against the armrest, his other hand resting lazily on the aircraft's control stick.
"Who cares? Just get the damn thing..." he sighed, more to himself then to his two colleagues below in the crater. The wait was torture.
"Xiumin. The chopper," Lay's voice commanded, staticy over the headset. Xiumin quickly roused himself and sat up, bringing both hands to the controls.
"You got it," he responded, half rolling his eyes. The helicopter descended into the fog encompassing the interior of the Northern Crater, flying low into the crater itself until it had vanished from sight.
From the depths, the echoes of gunshots rang out.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Lay's voice called over the radio. More gunshots.
"Xiumin! Hurry!" the woman cried, urgency in her voice, "Xiumin!"
"Who the hell is that?!" Lay gasped.
Hani's voice cried out in pain. More gunshots and sounds of battle resounded from the desolate crater.
"Hani!"
"G-get out!"
"Damn it..."
The gunshots continued a moment longer, and then the radio went dead with a crackle of static. The helicopter rose from the fog, speeding off to the south until it disappeared into the clouds.
*~*~*~*~*
Ribbons of Lifestream snake their way across the sky, casting a green hue over everything.
"Lifestream...That's what we call the river of life that circles our planet giving life to the world and everything in it."
A glimpse of the recent past, the Sister Ray cannon at Midgar prepares to fire.
"The SG Electric Power Company discovered a way to use the Lifestream as an energy source."
Circling around Midgar, each of the eight reactors come online one by one, a shower of green Lifestream energy erupting from them.
'Because of SG's energy, we were able to live very comfortable lives. But wasn't that because we were taking away from the planet's life? A lot of people thought so.'
Energy flows from the reactors to the SG tower at the center of the city.
"SG used their power to try and stop anybody who got in their way. SG had a special group of warriors called SOLDIER, and all of the SOLDIERS had Jenova cells put inside them."
Again, a glimpse of the past. High above the planet, Meteor looms ominously, a great rock surrounded by smaller fragments. A cloud of energy encompasses the threat from above, giving it the aura of being something alive.
"Jenova was a calamity that fell from the sky a long, long time ago and tried to destroy the planet."
The body of Jenova rests within a tank in a darkened room.
"There was one SOLDIER named Daesung, who was better than all the rest..."
A man with White hair stands among a huge wall of flames. He gaze rises, revealing his eyes... they contain a look of madness and hate.
"But when he found out about the terrible experiment that had created him, he began to hate SG."
Daesung turns away and walks into the flames.
"And then, over time, came to hate everything..."
Deep within the Northern Crater, images of the final battle play out. Kai fires his gunarm at an unseen foe, as Nanaki and Maru Sith leap forward to join the fray. Hyorin, too, is there.
"SG and those who stood against them... Daesung, whose hate was so great he wished to destroy everything..."
Taeyng and Daesung are locked relentlessly in a one on one battle, their figures illuminated by a solitary point of light high above them.
Kris and Chen, as well as Hyolin, are seen, battle ready.
"... And the people who tried to stop him."
Soyou kneels, her hands clasped in prayer, the hint of a serene smile on her lips.
"There were many battles."
A lone material orb falls, splashing through the tranquil surface of an underground lake.
"For every battle, there was more sadness."
Taeyang stands in the still waters of a wide pool and cradles Soyou' lifeless body. Slowly, reverently, he lowers her into the water.
"Someone I love returned to the Lifestream."
Tendrils of Lifestream energy, wind across the sky.
"And then it came... a fated day... In the end, the planet itself had to make the battles stop for good. The planet used the Lifestream as a weapon."
The Lifestream converges on Meteor.
"... and when it burst out of the earth... all the fighting, all the greed and sadness... everything was washed away."
The ruins of Midgar pan by. Decimated buildings and unidentifiable structures. The once-great city of mako has fallen.
"Sadness was the price to see it end. It's been two years since they told me that."
A new metropolis appears. In the distance, the ruins of the old city can be seen. New buildings now project from the ground, showing that life is returning to normal. A billboard stands on the roof top of one building, "Loveless" written in bold, white lettering below the image of a woman. Sounds of engines and people filter up from the streets below.
In the city center, a statue has been erected. It is in the shape of a great meteor. A memorial, perhaps, to those lost. Vehicles and residents on foot as in constant motion all around the statue, going about their daily business.
Beneath a flight of stairs, a lone child is huddled.
Men and women bustle about. One some buildings, hang signs with the initials W.R.O. A small group of children gather and run off to play.
"Let's go!" one shouts.
"Ok!" another responds.
"But it seems the planet was much, much angrier than anyone believed..."
In an alleyway, are other children... but these children are not out playing. They sit listlessly, some propped against the walls, others slumped over, their arms wrapped around their knees. One boy falls over onto his side, apparently unconscious, or worse, and a stained cloth falls from his body onto the ground.
A little girl watches over an older boy who lies ill in bed, the covers drawn up to his chin. On his forehead is a patch of blackened, discolored flesh.
"They call it Geostigma."
The boy moans softly and reaches a hand out from under the covers to rub his forehead. It is obvious he is in pain. The little girl looks on, unable to do anything to help him.
The boy opens his eyes and looks at the girl.
"Well... Bora," he says, "How does it look?"
The girl's sad eyes look back at him helplessly. She forces a smile, and rises from her chair, taking a cloth in hand and placing it on the boy's forehead.
'Please... Please don't take Luhan away.'
A statue of an angel with her wings spread, her hands held out to those who gaze upon her, stood tall atop the archway over one of the city's many streets.
Children lingered in allies and streets, but the people passing by them ignored them. On one building a sign was prominently displayed. In the center of it's design, it read "7th Heaven".
Somewhere, a phone rang.
Even in the middle of the day, the interior of the bar was dim and devoid of activity. Ceiling fans turned in a slow, endless rhythm overheard. A woman stood behind the bar, cleaning the glassware, and though the phone was ringing insistently, she was not in any hurry to answer it.
"He's not here anymore..." Hyorin sighed to the empty room. At last she turned off the water in the sink and dried her hands on a towel. Her appearance was much changed from what it once was... her hair shorter, her eyes just a little more world-weary, a pink ribbon tied around one arm. She turned and headed off toward the source of the ringing.
In a room upstairs, Luhan lay in bed as Bora watched over him.
"Taeyang... Where are you?" he asked, feverishly.
Hyorin climbed the stairs to the second floor, pausing for a moment in the hall to look in on the children, then moved toward the office to answer the phone. Papers and a soda can littered the desk. Next to the phone stood a picture of Taeyang, Hyorin, Luhan, and Bora, that could easily be mistaken for a family portrait.
"Yes... Dong Delivery Service..." she said, "You name it, we de... liv... er..."
She paused as the person on the other end of the line cut her off.
"May I ask who's calling?"
She laughed quietly as the caller responded.
"Yeah, I remember you..." she replied, a slight smile on her lips.

Notes

Thanks to ffrepublic!