AN: This is my first Fanficton, so I've got no idea how I'm gonna do. Just an interesting idea I had. And yes, it is a self-insert. But hopefully you'll like it.
Fire Emblem nor any of its characters are owned by me. Just my guy and any others I might make up along the way.
Watching through a strange light, a lone figure standing in the middle of a dark nothingness throws up their hands in exasperation at the image it was watching; the sight of a giant dragon plunging towards the ground.
"Gahh, not again!" The figure cried out in outrage.
The figure stepped away from the now shrinking light window. And began walking around the dark place.
"Time and time again. The same results happen." It muttered to itself, pacing around the dark void, seemingly in deep thought.
The person stopped suddenly, a smile growing on their face.
"That's it!" The figure exclaimed, a single hand in the air, "If I have the same variables with minimum changes, I'll keep on getting the same results!"
Slowly the figure raised their hand, a light beginning to form a few feet away.
"But if you add something completely random, it changes everything!" It fineshed with a nod of it's head. Staring at the light, its hand reached up and began rubbing its owners chin. The light began displaying multiple images at a fast pace, as the figure stood still, staring intently, before grinning.
"Something completely random indeed ..."
The Other Way – Prologue
"Oh c'mon not again..." A teenager groaned to himself, staring at a black computer screen. 'Looks like the power's out again.' He thought while beginning to stand up from the chair he was previously seated on.
Walking away from the desk, he turned to the window to start unfolding the blinds. As light began to fill the previously dark room, his squinting as he began to adjust to previously being in the darkness of the room.
'Well, might as go out to the park again to kill time and see if the power will come back on later.' The youth mused to himself. With a small nod, he set about collected his sweater and key to the small room he lived in.
Locking the door behind him before descending down the steps to the lobby. Exiting the building he turned to it and saw the view of the sun barely rising above the roof. The building he occupied was a decent looking building, being two stories tall and quite long. And a good price for a room too, it'd actually be a good place to stay at if the power would stop cutting off.
'Honestly you'd think they'd have fixed something like that already, the cheapskates.' He muttered inwardly with a frown on his face.
Darren Blake was a teenager fresh out of high school, at 18 years old he was currently waiting for the start of the university at the end of the summer break. With a height of 5.5 feet, accompanied with a lean body hidden under his somewhat baggy looking clothes. His hair a jet black colour and clearly long overdue for a haircut, judging by how small strands keep finding his way into his line of sight. His face looking like it was beginning to narrow out as he was growing older. Eyes a brown so dark that it almost looked like black to most people. His expression was that of tiredness, with the telltale signs of dark rings forming under his eyes. At the moment he was wearing a black sweater with a few trims of silver thrown in. Finishing his look with grey baggy jeans and a pair of black runners.
He yawned as he made his way to his destination, then shivered slightly as a particularly cold breeze blew past him. The path to the park is just a ten minute walk, and the morning breeze is always helpful to wake one up he always thought.
While walking he caught the sight of something through the edge of his vision, it looked like a light, but when he turned to it, it wasn't there anymore. Shrugging it off as having stared at the sun for too long earlier, he continued to cross a street.
"Might as well," a voice said directly behind him.
Spinning around to the sudden voice Darren was confused to see that no one was there.
'Hmm?'
Deciding that he might be a little more tired than usual, he began to turn back, only to find out that was impossible.
Eyes widening in shock, the black-haired teen attempted to move again, though to no avail. Hearing a horn in distance, he began to desperately will himself to start moving again, to get out of the vehicles way. From a distance a large truck was approaching dangerously fast. The wind shield in the front was completely opaque. Hearing the now visible truck approaching quickly, he closed his eyes. Desperately hoping this was just a nightmare and he was somehow asleep back at the apartment. Before coming to the conclusion that he was about to die by some freak accident.
'God da-'
FWOO—CRASH
"-mnit!" A shout was heard through the darkness.
Seeing as he was still alive, Darren took a moment to observe his surroundings. Though all he could see was the seemingly endless dark void he was in. He could somehow see his hands and the rest of his body, but there was no light visible to show how.
'Hold on a sec,' the youth thought. 'Is this place some sort of Hell?' No, that couldn't be right. He hadn't done anything wrong enough to land there! Sure, he'd argue a bit with his younger brother and tease him a bit, but that was it! Nothing serious at all!
While off in his own mind, a giant figure behind him decided to make itself known to the now distressed teen. With a gust of wind made to bring the teen out of his thoughts. The worried teen snapped into focus when he stumbled to regain his footing. Turning around sharply to look at what caused the disturbance, he began in an irritated tone of voice.
"What th-..." He trailed off; eyes slowly drifting upwards to the view what was in front of him. Unknowingly to him, his mouth slowly started to part at the being in front of him.
Floating above him, using three pairs of giant feathered wings, was a being of chaos. Its body was very reminiscent of a giant snake, with how it was curving ever so slowly in a side-to-side pattern while remaining unmoving. The head of the beast had two golden coloured horns sticking out of the side of its head, while they pointed forward; they also curved slightly to the sides at different lengths. Its jaws containing several massive bone-crushing teeth, and a second jaw inside with its own set. But what really stood out were the six glowing red eyes staring at him. Displaying so much power that it seemed like the air began to distort around them.
The sight would have been something to marvel at, if you were looking at it from a distance, most preferably from another world. Or from the safety of your computer, where such beings weren't capable of destroying your world. Yes, it would truly be a sight to behold, if it weren't for one, teeny-tiny, detail.
It was Grima.
Being a player of the Fire Emblem series, of course Darren would know who Grima was. And it very much resembled the evil dragon from the game. That very same dragon, was now staring directly at him.
"Well," a deep voice resonated through the darkness said, "are you going to say anything or are you just going stand there?" Something about the way the voice sounded gave Darren the impression that it was sarcasm. He began to look around, searching for the source of the voice in the world of darkness he found himself in.
It took the teen in question a moment to figure out that it was Grima that had spoken to him.
"G-grima?" He whispered, a slight tremble in his voice.
The dragon takes a moment to respond.
"No, " sarcasm dripped from its voice, "I'm just your average everyday dragon of chaos and mass destruction. OF COURSE I'M GRIMA!" The force of the roar was enough to send the unfortunate teen flying backwards, landing in a heap at the end of his impromptu flight.
Slightly stunned by his fall he lay there for a few seconds. 'Well that clears it up,' he concluded. 'Pretty sure this is somehow my hell.' Slightly dazed, he began to stand up. 'Huh? Pretty sure I'd be hurting more than that.' He noted curiously.
"So..." Darren began nervously, now standing up and looking upwards. "What are you doing here? And why am I here?" Though trying to sound confident, there was still that slight tremble in his voice as he stared up at the fell dragon.
Grima was silent, and appeared to be in deep thought; placing one of his upper wings under his jaw. A sight that would have been comical, if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation.
Appearing to have gotten an answer, the dragon gave a slight nod to himself.
"I have no idea."
*Thunk*
"Wh-what do you mean, 'I have no idea'!?" Darren shouted angrily from his position on the floor after face faulting into it.
"I was just kidding," Grima
Darren stared upwards at the dragon incredulously, 'God, what the hell is going on?'
"Now," Grima began abruptly, no trace of the humour from earlier was found in his voice. "Let us begin.
"I think you are aware of what I am, correct?" He questioned, tilting his head downwards to show he's waiting for a response.
Darren nodded his head slowly.
"Now tell me, what–exactly–am I?" The dragon asked.
There was a moment of silence, as Darren was frantically digging up all he remembered about Grima; which honestly wasn't that much. There was never any back story mentioned for the antagonist of the game he had played, so he was having trouble coming up with an answer that wouldn't end up with him becoming a snack for the dragon.
"Grima, the evil dragon who wanted to destroy the world," was his final answer. 'Please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me,' he pleaded mentally, eyes shut as he waited for... something.
"..."
Grima didn't respond for about a minute, seemingly in a state of shock. Suddenly he turned away from the teen, and began... sulking?
"Stupid kids..." Grima muttered to himself, but since there was no other sounds in the place the two being occupied, Darren also heard what was being said. "You'd think they'd teach their young about the past. Maybe a few books or something, but noooo, they don't even think of me as important. Well it's not like I expected them to know, but still..." The fell dragon continued, his wings also becoming depressed as they began to droop to the ground.
"Hey! I'm not stupid!" The black haired teen shouted angrily, face reddening as he knew his answer was barely acceptable, even to himself.
"Well then," Grima said suddenly, his voice a completely different tone than he had just a few moments ago, and completely ignoring the words of the human. "How about I tell you the full story of Grima: the big bad fell dragon?" He asked.
"Uh, sure." Darren said, slightly unsure of his answer.
"Alright then." After staring absently at a portion of darkness for a short while, a sudden bright light took over the darkness. Darren had to cover his eyes with his arm due to the sheer brightness of the light.
"I'll show you."
After it seemed that the light had faded enough for it to remove his arm. He was surprised to be floating above a field. Very high above the field actually.
"Gahh! Whatthehellhappened?!" He shouted while beginning to flail his arms around wildly, and closing his eyes. Waiting for the inevitable fall to his death...again.
'Relax,' a voice told him, sounding mildly amused. 'It's just something to help explain.'
Recognizing the voice of Grima, he stopped flailing about, finally noticing that he hasn't fallen from his height in even the slightest. Chuckling a little with a sheepish grin, he turned around to get a better view of his surroundings.
The field below him seemed to go on for miles, reaching until it was cut off by an ocean that continued towards the end of the horizon. The field was mostly populated by wild grasses of varying lengths, all swaying with the breeze from the ocean, but you could see a few patches of multiple-coloured flowers here and there as well. Behind him was the base of a mountainside. Though he began to think otherwise as the top seemed to have small tendrils of smoke coming out of it.
Only a faint 'whoa...' was all that could be heard from the amazed teen, currently transfixed by the scenery all around him. Always living in the city most of one's life, only to be switched with such a view does that to people.
'Ah yes, this was always a beautiful place to be back then.' The fell dragons voice said wistfully.
'Now, this took place before the events which led up to me being sealed.' Grima began, his tone one of deep thinking. 'You humans may think of me as ancient, but in comparison to others older than even I, I could still be thought of as a hatchling. Still young and naïve. And how naïve I was...' The end only a mutter of deep regret.
'When many of the eldest dragons began to die out, most became desperate. It was such a dangerous time for many of the young ones. Those left fought against the humans that decided they could hunt the remaining ones down.'
The landscape flickered briefly, and in its place was a scene of destruction. Giant skeletal bodies lay across a different field than the previous. The sky was dark, clouded by a mixture of ash and storm clouds. Flames were dotted around everywhere, always on piles of charred matter. It didn't take much to know what they were.
'For years, battles were fought,' Grima continued, his voice one of sorrow. 'But our numbered continued to dwindle down while the humans continued to charge forth in an endless onslaught. The amount of remaining dragons left afterwards were pathetic.' A hint of malice began seeping into the dragons' voice by the end of the sentence.
The scenery changed once again, back to the previous spot they were at. Though different at the same time. It was night this time around. But the sky was once again darkened by clouds and ashes, and the one luscious field was showing signs of decay.
'Driven by the instinct to survive, I searched for anything to give power.' Grima paused slightly longer before continuing in a soft, bitter voice. 'And how lucky was I to have found one beforehand.'
A figure made its way onto the scene. One that resembled a smaller version of the dragon you see within the games. This Grima was about half the size of the other, and had a different colour; having grey and black instead of the black and purple. The image of the young Grima quickly flew upwards towards the top of the mountain.
'Before this all began I had previously found something buried within the volcano, something sealed. When I asked later, the ancients had told me it was a sealed power and was extremely dangerous, even to them. So I never went near it again, but desperate times called for desperate measures.'
The younger Grima had apparently made his way to where the seal was, stopping about halfway up the mountain. Reeling back his head, the young dragon released a barrage of lightning towards the area. The seal made itself known, as a symbol of magic flared to life, blocking the lightning strike. The seal didn't last long though, as it soon shattered under the strength of the attack. Giving a short roar of victory the young Grima continued the attack, but this time using a fire blast. The opposing rock was soon blasted away to small cave which began emitting a familiar purple aura.
Before the the dragon could react, something shot out of the cave, and directly onto its head. The dark energy was quickly absorbed into his head. About to give another roar of content the younger Grima reeled his head back once again. But was cut short mid-roar by a sudden aura of darkness surrounding the unsuspecting dragon. Soon an arc of purple energy began running across the aura. The fell-dragon began to fall towards the ground in a roar so full of pain that it sent a small shudders running across the the spectators' spine. Landing in a small plume of smoke that shook the ground.
'I didn't even stand a chance, the power was too much for me, I was driven insane almost immediately.' Came a voice filled with sorrow.
As Grima was speaking the ground around his younger counterpart began to to pale, any neighbouring plants also began to wilt.
The scene stayed there for a few more seconds before flickering once again. Now back in the darkness where they began, the two figures stared at each other in silence.
"And so that's how I ended up almost destroying the world; I was too scared to die on my own." Grima stated softly. "I've been here since that day, inside the depths of my own mind, my only safe haven." He spread his wings around in conjunction to his words.
"You wondered why you're hear correct?" He asked, staring in the direction of the human.
Darren gave a slow nod, not having spoken since the beginning of the explanation.
"I believe that you're here for us both. Think of this as another try at doing something." The fell-dragon mused. Before snickering quietly and adding, "Either that, or you're hear by complete random chance."
Darren nearly face faulted once again at the remark to his death, before righting himself. "Well how am I supposed to solve all of this?" He retorted, in a slightly irritated voice.
"Easy," replied Grima in a casual manner. "I make a link to you, then I can bring you back to life. You then bring me with you."
The mention of 'bring you back to life' caused alarms to go off everywhere for the teenager. Flashbacks of staggering corpses on a screen came to mind, "So I'll become a 'Risen' then?" He seethed, venom filling his words.
He also noted how Grima seemed to adopt a hurt expression, before speaking in a low voice.
"It seems you know more than I thought. But to answer your question, no, you are not going to become a risen. The link may be how the other one does it, but I won't."
Seeming satisfied with the answer, but still cautious, Darren asked the dragon what the link was.
"The link is a bond between the owner and the receiver, where in exchange for some of my power, you give me ownership and your memories. But because I don't want a brain dead slave, I'll just skip over that part and only gain a limited amount of your memories." He explained in a more up-beat tone than a few moments ago.
"Okay…so if I have your power, I'll be able to do everything you do?" Darren asked curiously.
The fell-dragon looked at him with an expression closely resembling amusement.
"If you were to do that right away, you would probably be ripped to shreds by the amount of uncontrollable power." He reasoned. "So instead, I'll have to place a bunch of hexes and seals to prevent you from a potential power overload, and gradually lessen them over time. Unless you get strong enough to unlock them yourself that is. So, do you wish to go with the link?"
Darren was about to ask a few more questions, before deciding against it, and threw caution into the wind. "Ah what the hell, I'm probably dead back home anyways. And it's certainly better than being stuck here forever too."
A stream of purple light flew towards the teen as soon as he finished the sentence, engulfing him in the purple aura he saw earlier. While a smaller stream of blue light came from him and flew in the direction of Grima. There was a slight burning sensation from where the light first landed, mostly above the heart, and a faint glowing could be seen under the clothes he was wearing.
After a short while the feeling left, but he could still feel something lingering in the depths of his mind. It was as if there was a presence he could barely make out.
"Huh, that felt… weird." He commented, absently rubbing the spot where he could feel something there. Looking upwards he waited for the dragon to continue, only to see to see him staring absently into nothingness.
A few minutes went by and Grima still hasn't responded at all. In the meantime, Darren had decided to sit down and think about everything that happened so far. It was odd how it went from leaving his house due to no electricity, to getting run over -and most likely killed- by a car, then meeting the main antagonist of a game series that he recently picked up. Only to find that said antagonist was actually a scared and desperate being, who had to look for power to survive and was corrupted by that power, and has hidden into the depths of his own mind. And now here he was, making a pact between the dragon in order to come back to life, and to free said dragon…somehow.
He was interrupted from his thoughts when the fell-dragon finally spoke, though in a low voice.
"Interesting…I never knew that's what could happen, if I were to remain locked."
It took a short moment for Darren to figure out that he was talking about the game. He was about to speak when he was unknowingly cut off.
"I'll think about this later," the fell-dragon dismissed the thought. "Now, time to get you into the 'World of Fire Emblem '. I'll talk to you soon Darren, stay safe." He warned.
About to ask another question, the teenager was cut off by his own scream of terror as he found himself falling. A rift of light in the darkness that he fell through was the only sign that he was moving at a fast speed.
On the other side of the rift the teen found himself hurtling towards a sea of sand. Trying to slow his fall or trying to land on anything but his face, it didn't matter even as he began to flail his arms once again.
"Goooodamniiii-"
There was a small plume of sand and dust as face met ground. As the owner of said face promptly got knocked out, head on top of a rock previously buried in the rock.
AN: So I've had this idea stuck in my head for a while, and decided, 'why not?' I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep this going. But I am determined to figure out a way to eventually finish it. If you enjoyed it, please rate and review. I'll accept anything, as long as you enjoyed it, even a little.
Edit 31/08/15: Fixed a few things, added some other stuff, just the regular stuff.