CHAPTER 1: THE DANCE BEGINS
The night was painted in flames.
Orange tongues of fire devoured the fields in every direction, their crackling roar swallowing the cries of the wind. Smoke rose like the breath of a monster, thick and suffocating, blotting out the stars above.
In the middle of that blazing chaos stood a boy no older than eight his tiny frame trembling, his face smeared with ash and tears.
"Father!" he screamed, voice cracking through the inferno. "Father, where are you?!"
No answer came. Only the sound of burning. Only the whispers of death carried by the fire.
He began to run barefoot, desperate his small feet pounding against the scorched earth as shadows danced around him. Something was behind him. Something dark… unnatural.
The boy could feel it a presence that wasn't human. Each heartbeat thundered louder than the flames.
He stumbled, fell face-first into the dirt, coughing, his vision blurring. The firelight flickered in his eyes as a shape loomed over him tall, silent, and formless, like darkness given life.
His trembling fingers clawed at the ground as he looked up. The shadow tilted its head, a faint, distorted whisper escaping its unseen lips.
"...Found you."
The boy screamed a sound swallowed by the fire just as the shadow lunged.
And then
everything went black.
After the great war of Shinobu ended, Peter emerged as the new ruler of Shinobu. Aqua joined hands with Peter, and peace came to Shinobu like shade in the sunlight.
Peter officially declared to the world that the Dark Organization had been completely wiped out, as its leader was defeated by him.
After a while, the expert team of Shinobu, headed by Reynolds, started noticing fluctuations in elemental energy that were affecting the element users. The users were unable to control their elements properly, which deeply concerned Reynolds something like this had never happened before.
Peter called Reynolds to discuss the issue and asked why he hadn't been informed earlier. Reynolds requested more time to research, and Peter agreed.
Reynolds began questioning whether the fluctuations meant something was happening to the elemental power structure itself. With the help of his research team, he started searching for areas showing the highest frequency of elemental energy.
After days of study, it was discovered that the highest frequency was coming from the old battlefield the very place where the Great War of Shinobu had taken place. Immediately, Reynolds and his team rushed to the site and began digging.
Meanwhile, Peter was spending some wholesome moments with Scarlet.
"This is the point in life where there are no big problems anymore," Peter said. "Aqua is still with me, Goldie is still by my side, and Guy-sensei is still laughing as always. This is one of those rare feelings I last felt when I was with everyone."
Scarlet looked at him and asked softly, "Everyone?"
"Yes, everyone," Peter replied with a small smile. "When there were no war only small fights between me and Aqua. When Zimbraya-sensei was teaching me new techniques, and everything was peaceful. When he was killed in the war, I never thought I'd feel this again. But now, after so many years, I finally do."
Taking a deep breath, he added, "I managed to save everyone. I'll never let this peace fade away."
Scarlet looked into his eyes, smiled, and said, "Sure we'll do it together."
On the other side, after digging for a while, one of the team members, Ethan, came running to Reynolds in shock, breathing heavily.
"We found something!" he gasped.
Reynolds rushed to the spot, and the moment he saw it, his eyes filled with fear.
End of Chapter 1