Author's Notes: I wrote this story not out of pleasure on my part, but because, nearly four months ago now, SmileRen asked me to. I also wrote this story to be something of a prologue to a story that she herself might write. I kept the story within the guidelines that SmileRen asked me to, and I also did my very best to keep the story in canon with both Tsubasa RC and FE: Awakening.
A note about Robin. I honestly tried to keep most things about Robin's appearance ambiguous, except for his eyes, which are always brown, however, I did not feel like I could write the story without applying a gender. I've played the game twice. Once with Robin as a man, and once as a woman. I prefer him male, so I wrote him male, I believe SmileRen, if she should write that story, will write Robin female.
This story will be four chapters long, with a short epilogue. I told her it would be a very short story, and that's what I did. Regardless, I hope the story is something that everyone likes. I personally think I've much improved since the last time I put anything up on here.
Read, review, enjoy!
Chapter One - Syaoran : :
It seemed like ever since Tokyo they had been landing badly in worlds. Always landing at the wrong time, in the wrong of these new worlds had possessed a feather. Whether they didn't have the feather simply because one had never landed there, or, as was the case in the world they'd just left, because his heartless clone had already come to violently take it away didn't matter, the fact was still the same. They had not been able to capture a feather since Tokyo.
Syaoran was tired. They were all tired. They didn't show it, they kept their eyes wide open, always looking straight forward, as though they all expected what they were looking for to pop up in front of their eyes. It wouldn't. They all knew it wouldn't. It was never that easy. It was only getting harder.
The world they had landed in was dark. It was nighttime. They could see torches burning, the light revealing stone walls, but precious little else about the landscape. The air felt like summer. Summer nights when the heat of daytime just started to slip away leaving the welcoming cool. It might have been comforting...if it weren't that disturbing kind of quiet that loudly screamed something was about to happen.
He opened his mouth to say something to the rest of the group, but then they all heard it; voices.
It was Kurogane who wordlessly ushered them out of sight. Even in the darkness, one couldn't be sure what the people of this world could see, perhaps they could see in the dark. All possibilities, no matter how seemingly outlandish were certainly possible. No stone unturned. No person trusted, especially now, especially not after Tokyo. Before, he remembered seeing so many worlds in which friends had been made with actions as simple as saying hello. Everything had seemed so light until Recourt, and now...it seemed like there was no light at all.
Pushing such thoughts aside, Syaoran leaned against the cold stone, closed his eyes, and listened. Even when he focused he couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but it was really only one voice, and that voice was whispering in a tone that suggested that this was the leader or whatever group was headed this way. Why the whispering? It made him suspicious. If they were whispering it was either even later than the darkness suggested, or...they were enemies of whoever was in this castle, simple as that.
They moved back, more into the shadows, along the wall. In the dim light that the torches offered, Syaoran saw the people as they began to make their way across his line of sight. One of them stood out, a man with gray skin. The very look of him said sinister things, and that was just all the more proof that this was not a man to be trusted. Books couldn't be judged by their covers, but some people could, Syaoran knew this was one such person.
There was a slight tug at his shoulder, and he heard Fai's voice in his ear. "This way," the blond man said, and he turned his head to see the rest of his group begin to retreat further down the wall, away from the masses of people that were starting to run in after the gray skinned man. Syaoran lingered for a moment, his eyes narrowed curiously. There was something about that man...something...but there was no time to stay and figure it out now.
He took off after the rest of the group, who were still only a few paces away. This place, it was now obviously a castle and its grounds, even in the dark, was huge. How were they going to find the exit? How were they going to find an exit that wasn't blocked by those man's men?
"Hey! Hey~!" They all stopped at Mokona's soft calls from Sakura's arms. They stared expectantly. These days, when Mokona said something, it was always very important. All of them had become quieter and more somber since Tokyo, but Mokona was the only one who's quietude was solely due to saddness, and worry. It was truly something Syaoran regretted, that his awakening had caused even their cheery "mascot" to become sad, but Mokona definitely had purpose, and that purpose came through in its next words. "I can feel a feather!"
"What? Where?!" Syaoran exclaimed, a little louder than he had meant to, but he couldn't help himself, it was the first feather since Tokyo, but the white creature only shook its head a little.
"I can't tell exactly, but it's close."
"In the castle?" Mokona nodded. "Then we have to get it." He knew how desperate he sounded, but he found he didn't care. The memory of the world ruined by his clone was still fresh in his mind, he couldn't let that happen to this world too, not if it was already withing arms reach. He looked toward his companions, and though the light was sparse, he didn't need for any of them to say anything to know that they were agreement.
Getting into the castle was hard. It wasn't that it was hard to find entrances, once you started looking, there were plenty of doors to be seen, but these doors were locked, or, more commonly, already being used by the gray skinned man's soldiers.
There was fighting inside. It was impossible to tell exactly what was going on by the limited noise, but Syaoran was sure that whoever the attackers had meant to catch off guard had known this was coming. It did not sound like a battle that had started by entering the rooms of the sleeping, in fact, the bedrooms were completely clear, or at least the one that they finally used to get inside the castle was. The bed was messy...perhaps the battle was a little bit more touch and go than the castle guards made it seem.
They waited for the halls outside the room to be completely clear before heading out. Syaoran could tell that Kurogane was itching to fight, even now, but fighting wasn't the issue. The numbers didn't matter, not much, it was other things that Syaoran knew kept them from joining the battle. Sakura, for one, couldn't fight. She was still injured from Tokyo, and none of them would feel safe fighting with her right beside them like this. Another was that they simply didn't know what was going on. Were the castle occupants victims? Or, as much as Syaoran did not think this to be the case, were the invaders trying to take out tyrants? No. Syaoran knew that no matter how he, Kurogane, or even Fai itched to fight anyone they came up against, finding the feather with as little incident as possible was more important.
In the end, it was impossible to avoid fighting completely. They would turn a corner, or someone else would turn a corner, and they would be face to face with someone who only knew they were not from their side. These people they had to fight, if you could call it fighting. It was a little sad, how easily and quietly these men could be taken out, and how quickly they could continue on their way to trying to find the feather Mokona sensed. Easy. Too easy.
They made their way through the corridors quickly, yet, even as they began to make their way toward what Syaoran knew was the center of the fighting...the soldiers were beginning to thin out, and nearly as soon as they entered what looked like a throne room, Mokona's head shook. "No. It's gone."
"Gone?" The creature nodded, and Syaoran's heart sunk. It seemed like it was the same situation as Hanshin. There one minute, gone the next. Now what were they going to do? They didn't even know what side had the feather.
"Halt!" Syaoran turned, not having noticed that they were being snuck up on in his disappointment. Before them were five. Two girls, three men. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned his head. Four more were coming up from behind. They were trapped.
"We could take them," Kurogane said softly...yes, softly, but his voice still fierce.
Syaoran looked to Sakura, and then he looked to the people that surrounded them. If these were even only half of the people that had fought for the castle in this seemingly impromptu battle... "No, we can't," Fai said, voicing Syaoran's own thoughts. They couldn't take them. One, two, maybe even four of them, but not all of them like this. Kurogane was the best fighter in his land, Fai as well, and he liked to think he himself wasn't bad, but these nine had skills they didn't know at all. Who knew what they could do? Perhaps they could win, but not without a price. Syaoran was not willing to pay that price.
Syaoran raised his hands in surrender, and slowly, Sakura, Mokona, Fai, and finally Kurogane, did the same.
"What should we do with them?" A blond girl in a yellow dress asked, looking up at a hooded man.
Beneath the hood his face was just barely visible, and Syaoran could see he had brown eyes. Those brown eyes looked at them with severe consideration. Syaoran stared back at him. He was different, like the gray skinned man. He didn't know what it was that said that, but he was different. He had a book in one hand, and a sword at his hip. Did he read while he fought? Or...or was the book magic? Was this man like him? Like his clone? Both a swordsman and a magician? "Those aren't Plegian clothes." The hooded man said at last. "They aren't with them. Take them prisoner, we'll let Chrom decide what happens to them." This sounded somewhat like mercy, but Syaoran got only one thing from the hooded man's words.
This person was dangerous.
