Awaken to Dust (A Fire Emblem: Awakening retelling)
(Note. I basically started writing this on a whim. I'm not sure how often I will be working on this, or exactly how many chapters I will be doing. Just letting you guys know to not expect annual updates is all. There will also be character deaths in this. There won't be very many, and they will be relatively spread out. Again. Just letting you guys know. Moving on...)
CH1: Awaken to the Past
In a decrepit temple a large cloaked figure rose from the ground where it had been laying, the figure's hood fell back from his head revealing a man who appeared to be in his late thirties. He had sharp mature features with calm brown eyes and black hair that had once gone down to his shoulders, but had been pulled back into a simple ponytail. He stood at somewhere around seven feet tall, and seemed to tower over everything around him.
He also had a slightly faded scar running from the top right of his forehead, down across the bridge of his nose, and to the left side of his lip. His tattered and worn purple coat with strange symbols along the back and sleeves was worn over a suit of spectacular steel armor was covered in a strange black substance that clung to him.
He stumbled to his feet, struggling to keep his balance as a splitting pain rang through his head. As he stumbled around he could hear a dark voice echo through his thoughts. "You are my vessel!", "All you have done has been my will!" The pain soon seemed to spread throughout his whole body and the voice's echo became almost deafening. It was so great that he barely heard the panicked "Move!" from somewhere to his left.
He turned to look just as a he saw a massive ball of black energy heading towards him at a frighteningly fast speed. Without time to think the man jumped to his left, out of the way of the black mass, and looked to see where it came from.
Across the room, near a large pillar, stood a dark skinned man, he was at least a foot taller than even the scarred man, a demented smile was visible even from across the room. He was dressed in a long dark robe adorned with jewels, precious metals, and similar marking as those that adorned on the coat of the man with the scar wore.
His viscious black eyes and dark slicked back hair along with his robes gave him an intimidating prescence, the tome in his hands that seemed to seep out a similar substance as was stuck to the scarred man's coat and armor.
The scared man and the dark haired man's eyes narrowed as they stared each other down a sense of hatred was palpable between the two. Quickly the scarred man brushed the left side of his coat aside and reached towards a tome shaped holster on his hip only to realize that whatever he had stored there was not there any longer.
"Damn!" He shouted in anger. The dark skinned man simply cackled and sent another large mass of darkness towards the scarred man, but before it could connect with him the ball was cut in half and the two halves split into seperate direction, smashing into walls.
The dark skinned man growled as he saw a princely looking man standing between him and the scarred man. He had wore a blue suit underneath an armored suit of silver that shined brilliantly even in the darkness of the temple. He had dark blue hair and light blue eyes that exuded a sense of competence and strength. His suit and armor covered most of his body except for his right arm, which revealed a strange birthmark shaped like some sort of symbol.
He wielded a beautiful gleaming sword that seemed sharp enough to cut a mountain in half in his hand. It too shined brilliantly despite it's dark surroundings.
"Nice try!" The princely looking man shouted to the dark skinned man. "You'll have to do better than that to stop us!" He shouted as he raised the blade in preparation for a charge.
The scarred man ran up behind the princely looking man, they gave each other a look of assurance, the scarred man brushed the right side of his coat aside, unsheathed a silver sword, and the two men charged at the dark skinned man with a furious battle cry.
The princely man was the first to reach the dark skinned man, his broad slash at the dark skinned man's chest was stopped by a black shield that had been conjured from the dark skinned man's tome. The princely man was then knocked back by a blast of energy and fell backwards over a collapsed pillar of stone.
The scarred man had manuevered to the dark skinned man's side and lunged at him with his sword held high and ready for cleave down on his target. The swing connected with the shoulder, but only managed to crack several jewels on the shoulder plates. The dark skinned man turned and attempted to knock the scarred man away as he had done with the other man before, but he anticipated it and feinted to the left, avoiding the blast and allowing him to land a direct hit on one of the dark skinned man's legs.
The dark skinned man screamed in pain and conjured a black ethereal sword from the tome. The scarred man could barely avoid the attacks from the blade, it moved with an unatural precision and speed. The blade managed to connect with the man's shoulder, knocking him down but not inflicting any real damage.
As he stumbled to his feet he saw the dark skinned man raise the blade into the air and bring it in a downwards strike to the scarred man's head. The scarred man quickly put his sword out above him and blocked the strike, but the dark skinned man repeated the attack over and over again with steadily increasing speed and force until finally cleaving the silver sword in half and sending the scarred man crashing to the floor with a grave wound to his chest.
The scarred man struggled to climb to his feet, but the pain of his wound kept him from doing so. He looked up at the dark skinned man as he cackled and raised his sword up for a finishing strike. He wanted to say something, a final insult to the man in front of him, but he couldn't find the strength to.
"Ah. Have you no final words? No curse to leave upon me? Hah! I expected more." The dark skinned man said mockingly and with a cruel look in his eyes.
The scarred man simple stared at him in disgust before noticing movement behind the dark skinned man and grinning. "Actually I do have one thing to say. DO IT NOW!" He shouted. The dark skinned man stared at him in confussion for a moment before remembering the princely man. He turned just as the princely man brought his sword down, severing one of the dark skinned man's fingers and destroying the ethereal sword.
The princely man landed behind the dark skinned man as he shrieked in pain and helped the scarred man to his feet. "Can you still fight?" The scarred man was out of breath and did not respond. "Alexander!" The princely man said with a hint of fear in his voice. "Can you fight?"
The scarred man looked at the princely man exasperatedly for a few seconds before responding, "Yeah... Yeah. I can fight, Chrom." he said with a reassuring grin.
The princely man grinned and patted him on the shoulder, but was then sent flying across the room by a blast of energy from the dark skinned man's tome. "CHROM!" The scarred man yelled as the princely man collided with a far wall. He turned to face the dark skinned man and charged him, but was sent flying into a nearby pillar by another blast.
"So pathetic! I will deal with you after I have dealt with the little prince." The dark skinned man's pained voice bellowed throughout the room as he moved towards the princely man.
The scarred man barely managed rise to his feet and prop himself against the pillar. He stared at the dark skinned man as he moved towards the unconscious princely man and knew that charging him again would accomplish nothing. He looked around for something to use and spotted a tome with an intricate yellow pattern on it's cover laying on the ground near a scarlet haired woman wearing long robes and a pointed hat.
She was lying motionless in a pool of blood. The scarred man stared at the body with a guilt wracked expression on his face for a few moments before grabbing the tome and opening it towards the dark skinned man. "HEY!" He shouted across the room.
The dark skinned man turned with a grunt of annoyance, "Do you still struggl-" he was cut off by a thunder bolt flew past his face. He looked to where the bolt impacted on the bolt impacted on the wall and then looked across the room at the scarred man who was readying another bolt. "Insulant fool!" He shout as he opened his tome and sent more massive ball of black energy towards the scarred man.
The two were stuck in a pitched battle, the scarred man's bolts intercepted each of the black energy balls and caused them to explode in mid-air. The dark skinned man repeatedly attempted new spells from the tome, conjuring pools of black goo to trap the him, black hands to crush pillars and bring down sections of the temple on him, but none of it worked. The scarred man, injured as he was, was still able enough to expertly evade each of these attacks.
The battle continued for several minutes with bolts and dark magic clashing ad bringing down sections of the building, a thick dust had filled the air limiting the sight of the two men. By the time the princely man awoke and saw through the dust, he realized that the scarred man was fast running out of pages in his tome.
He rose from the ground and grasped the hilt of his sword in his hands. He charged up behind the dark skinned man and landed a devistating strike, cutting through his back and breaking several bones.
The dark skinned man fell to the ground, rolling around in anguish, but before the princely man could strike him again, he grabbed the tome and cast another ethereal sword to fight off the princely man as he rose back to his feet. The princely man managed to deflect the sword and stab his blade straight through the dark skinned man's shoulder.
The dark skinned man screamed in agony as his arm went limp, and swatted the princely man away with his other hand. The princely man tumbled backwards, but the sword had sliped out of his hand and was still embedded in the dark skinned man's shoulder. The dark skinned man grabbed the hlt of the sword, and removed it with a deafening howling noise before throwing it aside. "I will not be defeated by you, welp!" The dark skinned man shouted at the princely man. "No. That would be my job!"
The dakr skinned man turned quickly to where the scarred man's voice came, but only in time to see the man jump towards him, tome opened and charged for attack, and then a bolt formed in the man's hand that he pushed directly into the dark tome.
Time seemed to stop for a moment, the scarred man's hand on the dark tome glowing with the power of the thunder bolt, the dark skinned man's horrified wide eyed expression. And then there was an explosion of energy, both the scarred man and the dark skinned man were thrown across the room from the force of it and both of their tomes crumbled to ash.
The princely man ran to the scarred man and knelt down next to him. "Are you okay?" He asked, concern writen clearly on his face.
The scarred man raised his head, looked at the princely man, and then at the body of the dark skinned man across the room and simply said, "I could go for something to eat." The princely man chuckled and helped him to his feet. He looked back at the dark skinned man laying motionless on the ground and turned back to the scarred man, "It's over. He's dead." a gentle smile formed on his mouth. "Thanks to you we carried the day. We can finally rest. At long last we can finally-"
The voice of the dark skinned man rang across the room, "This isn't over..." both the princely man and the scarred man looked in horror as a dark surge of energy engulfed the dark skinned man's body and levitated him into the air. "DAMN YOU BOTH!" The dark skinned man shrieked as a large bolt of dark energy shot out of his chest and twoards the other two men.
The scarred man shoved the princely man out of the way of the just in time, but the bolt struck him directly in the chest, sending a surge of pain and dark energy through his body and bringing him to his knees as he screamed in pain.
The princely man rushed back to the scarred man who was still screaming, "Hold on Alex!" he said holding the scarred man's shoulders to try and see where the pain was coming from. He saw that black blood was seeping from the area where the bolt had landed.
The scarred man stopped screaming and stared the princely man in the eyes. The princely man stared back and saw a strange look in the scarred man's eyes, something that he had never seen before from them, helplessness. "What's wrong?" The scarred slowly raised his hand towards the princely man as his breathing quickened and he attempted to say something.
"Hey! Hang on! The other will- Grrk!" The princely man rose to his feet and stumbled backwards, a bolt of energy had impaled his abdomen and his eyes were full of terror as the scarred man stared in shock at what he had just done. His mouth opened but he could not find the strength to speak.
"Don't blame yourself..." The princely man said as he stared down at the bolt and then at the scarred man, a look of regret and finality in his eyes. "It isn't your fault... Please... go!" He said before his sword fell from his hands, causing an almost deafening clang as it hit the stone, and the princely man collapsed foreward onto the floor, dead.
The scarred man could do nothing but stand and stare at the body, tears in his eyes, as the demented cackling of the dark skinned man rang echoed through his thoughts. "Your destiny is complete! Just as was foreseen!"
End of CH1.