Bravely Return
Disclaimer: I do not own Bravely Default or any characters in this story.
Note: Don't read until you finished the game because there are massive spoilers ahead. The story might develope a bit slowly, but don't worry - there is romance in it. Please R&R :)
Prologue
Am I ... home?, he thought when the airship got closer to the ground. His hands, clenched around the airship's railing, were shaking, sweating. He prayed he finally made the right decision, although there wasn't much left to do wrong.
"I won't tell her", a deep voice behind him said. "But try to hurt her once and I promise you, you will never see this world nor any other ever again."
Wandering the empty corridors of Eternia's Central Command felt strange, now that everyone was gone. She missed talking to Einheria who had always known about the newest Sky Knights' gossip. She missed it nearly as much as training with Master Kamiizumi. But those two were dead, just like the dark knight Alternis Dim. Though it was not the Alternis from her world she wanted back, it was the one she never could call Alternis because he was so different, and who had chosen to go back into his own world. That had happened so fast, she had only realized it after the pillar of light had vanished and former Mr Amnesia had been gone.
Five month had passed after they had defeated Ouroboros. She should have been happy that they finally had saved the world - no, worlds - but she wasn't. The group of friends who had become so dear to her over the time had shattered too quickly, and as if Ringabel leaving wasn't bad enough, Tiz fell into a coma. Only the medical powers of Eternia's healing towers were keeping him alive, but Edea couldn't bear seeing him in his miserable state. She felt horrible for not visiting him everytime she went there to see her mother, but she just couldn't. She put herself on the 'darkest black list' whenever she avoided visiting her friend and tried to keep herself busy. Luckily there was much to do. The world may have been saved, the Grand Chasm closed, but things were far from being back at normalcy.
Having lost many strong warriors, her father, Grand Marshal Braev Lee, was struggling to find acceptable replacements. There were many sky knights left, but only the young ones or those with lack of talents who were content staying at lower ranks forever. There were only two high-ranked members of Eternia's sky knights left - White Mage Holly and Barras, the definetely not abstemious monk. Their continual squabbles sometimes helped to lighten up Edea's mood, but most of the time she found it annoying. The previous evening Barras moved to a very black list thanks to some dirty jokes he made while being totally drunk. But still Edea was glad it were these two who survived, it could have been worse. Victor and Victoria, for example.
"Miss Edea", a young man clad in sky knight armor greeted her, head deeply bowed. She could never remeber his name, but what she recognized about him was his overdone courteousness.
"Stop calling me 'Miss'", she told him for the hundredth time. After the events around awakening the crystals, including becoming a deserter and betraying her father, she didn't feel like deserving any courtsies. She missed the jauntiness of being surrounded by friends who didn't care about titles and ranks.
"Excuse me, Mylady." He finally stopped bowing his head and his flushed cheeks became visible. Edea was tempted to tease him to see how red his face could get, but then she reminded herself that she hated men. Moreover, her father's soldiers had dwindled to a frightening number and she didn't want to risk that another warrior was going to flee into another world because she teased him too much.
She scolded herself for that stupid thought. Of course it wasn't her fault he went away. And she understood why he had to return to his real home. At least she tried to.
"What is it?", she asked when she saw the young sky knight was still looking at her as if he had something to say. Her voice was more rude than intended.
"I, uhm ... I don't mean to bother you, Miss, but I wondered-"
"Get to the point", she sighed, eager to get to the training room as soon as possible. She wanted to work on her Spellfencer abilities today.
"I wondered if someone told you that the Grand Marshal's airship has just arrived. But you certainly know this already, Mylady, since he is your father and-"
"Father is back?", she happily shouted. Knocking the sky knight aside, she ran towards Central Command's entrance hall.