Prologue: Field of Innocence

"Do you really think you can win this? You're pathetic." He brushed his platinum hair behind his pointed ears. His pastel green eyes searched the fields around him, moving like a stalking cat, the pupils turning into a thin slit.

Before him was death. The scent of blood filled the air, only to be overwhelmed by that of burning flesh. Thousands of bodies lay around him, dead or dying. He had won the battle. He and his few remaining men had won, for there was only one survivor on the opposite side of the war. Only one adversary remained.

There stood a young woman, no older than twenty years of age. Her hair was long, to her knees, and the darker than any raven in existence. Her stare was piercing; her icy blue eyes seemed to stab the heart.

"You're going to die, you know." He laughed.

A smirk came over her face. "Not before you."

He only laughed more. "You... think you... can kill me? Aren't you forgetting about a few people?" He gestured to almost a hundred soldiers, beasts, surrounding him. Protection.

"Perhaps not I, but my friends." She said quietly.

"You're friends are all dead! And now I have what I need to control you!" He laughed maniacally as his hand began to fill with a green energy, a dark energy. "This one's for you, Love."

He thrust his hand out in her direction, the energy turned into streams that darted toward her, entering her body at her heart, her core. She screamed in pain, her voice loud and high enough to hurt the ears of his beasts.

She crinkled her eyebrows and cringed as she tried to stand once more, but to no avail. She couldn't move anything except her eyes.

"Hmph, now you and your beloved 'friends' are mine." His creatures screamed with cries of joy. They had won.

"I... won't let you... have them." Her fingers slowly wrapped around her staff, beautiful golden flowers dangled from the base of the ruby at the top. Using it as support she managed to stand halfway up.

"This is my life!" She shouted, raising the staff and thrusting it into the ground. A crack spread across the field, spreading the two armies. From that gorge rose one of her 'friends.'

Fire spewed from the crack in the earth, and cawing could be heard from within. A burst of flames seemed to chase after the large bird that rose from within. Its fiery reds and majestic golds and oranges seemed to glow against the smoky sky. Its sapphire eyes seemed filled with the anguish of the fallen and the anger of the living.

From those sad eyes came energy, souls, life. Flying above those fallen, and those living flame rose in its tracks. The fallen rose and the living died. With one last look the Phoenix turned to its summoner, and flew off into the smoke.

She turned to look at her fellow fighters. They were alive, and well. "They'll make it."

"They will, because of you." A large blue dragon walked behind her. "As will the future." He nuzzled her stomach, a strange mark appearing. "You shall have the blessing."