The Mechanist's Secret Power

Chapter 1: Corrin's Dilemma

"Hi, brother! Want to play hide-and-go-seek?" Elise tugged on Corrin's metal sleeves. "Come on, Corrin! Let's play!"

Corrin looked down at his little sister, hesitant.

Elise's eyes were wide – they were filled with anticipation and hope. She was making a pout with her bottom lip. It looked so adorable, Corrin had to actively restrain himself from wrapping her up in a hug and ruffling her hair.

"Okay," Corrin said after a moment. "Elise, we can play. But just for a bit – I have to attend a meeting with Leo and Xander in a few minutes."

"Woohoo!" Elise said, jumping up and down, her blonde hair cascading along with her. "Okay! First I'll hide, and then you-"

"Corrin!" a distant voice shouted.

The dragon prince turned around to see Xander. As per usual, he was scowling.

"You agreed to come to the war meeting with me and Leo," Xander said, unamused. "What are you doing out here in the astral realm? Make haste to the mess hall."

"Brother…" Corrin moaned. "I didn't intend to avoid my responsibilities, I promise! I was just about to leave, but then Elise started asking me to play. And she was looking at me and doing that thing she does with the big eyes! And she's so cute, and she was pouting, and I…" He stopped and sighed. "I'm weak and she's cute."

The older prince was not amused. "Corrin," said Xander, "you have to learn how to say no. Elise being completely adorable is not reason enough to shirk your duties to Nohr. You can play with her another time."

"C-Corrin can't play with me?" a meek voice whimpered from behind Corrin, causing him to turn around.

Elise clutched onto a teddy bear - it had a button in place of one of its eyes and was fractured at the seams along its side, a bit of the stuffing falling out. "B-but you said you would!" she whined.

Xander saw how little Elise was looking up at Corrin. Her big round eyes were glistening, ready to tear up, and she was gripping the life out of the poor plush. Xander smiled a little, moved behind Elise, and put his arms on her shoulders, looking straight into Corrin's eyes. "Corrin, this will be a good life lesson," he said. "Now, practice saying no to your younger sister. Then we can head to the meeting."

Corrin stared up at Xander, who gave a brief nod and motioned his head down to Elise.

Elise herself was cuter than a button, and on the verge of tears. Corrin's mouth tried to form an 'n' shape.

"N… N… Neeeeeoh…" Corrin tried to get the difficult word out, but failed. He hesitated and then drew in a deep breath. "Elise, I-I'm really sorry. I can't play with you. I have to-"

"What was that, brother?" Elise said, tilting her head to the right. Her blonde baguette hair flowed to the side. "Oh, Corrin, I almost forgot! Look what Camilla gave me!"

Elise wriggled out of Xander's grip.

"Get back in my arms," grumbled Xander, trying to grip her shoulders. "I am trying to teach Corrin a lesson in saying no!"

"Hang on!" said Elise. "I want to do something first!"

"Elise, please," said Xander. "I don't have much time."

Elise cupped her hands to her mouth. "Here, doggy doggy doggy!" she shouted. "Here, boy!" After a few seconds of waiting, a little brown puppy ran up to the girl, wagging its curly tail. Elise giggled and picked the pooch up in her arms, coddling it and cooing to it.

"Isn't he just the most adorable thing you've ever seen?" she asked. "Teehee!" She rubbed the puppy against her cheek, and it wagged its tail happily. "I'm gonna name him Cory after you, Corrin, because you're my hero!"

The puppy started licking Elise's face. She giggled lightly, looking up at Corrin expectantly.

Xander crossed his arms over each other, forming an "X" shape with them. He silently mouthed the word "no".

Corrin liked to think he had a strong will. He also knew he had enough resolve to deny his sister something simple like this.

"I'm sorry, Elise," Corrin said slowly, "but I can't play with you right now." The puppy stopped licking Elise's face, and the girl's friendly smile turned into a pout.

"But whyyyyy?" she whined.

"Because…" Corrin paused. He looked at his sister's hair with its little pink ribbon on top, her little button nose that he wanted to squish. He stared at her chubby cheeks, puffing out like a chipmunk. Even Elise's newly-obtained puppy, with its downtrodden face, looked like it was about to be impounded.

Corrin couldn't take the cute cruelty anymore. Elise was just too damn adorable!

"B-because me and Xander are both going to play with you!" His lips moved before he had a chance to think, and he would have regretted the words, had he any reasonable sense of guilt.

"Yaayyyyyy!" Elise shouted. She started jumping up and down, her pigtails struggling to match the frantic bouncing rhythm. "You're the best brother anyone could ask for, Corrin!"

Xander frowned. "Honestly, I'm disappointed in you. I thought you had more resolve than that, Corrin."

"She has a puppy, Xander!" Corrin whispered. "Where'd she even find a puppy? We're in the middle of a magic alternate dimension!"

"Err…" Xander frowned. "Perhaps Camilla gave it to Elise for her birthday."

"It's December! Her birthday's in March!"

Xander's frown deepened. "That is odd… Hm. Perhaps Camilla gave it to her as an early present."

"Seven months early?"

"Corrin, you know how your sister is. She can't resist babying her siblings. Remember what happened when-"

Elise ran over to the duo, interrupting their dialogue. "Come on, guys! Let's play hide-and-go-seek!"

Xander was stumped, with no obvious solution in sight. They couldn't lie to their sister – what kind of message would that send to Elise? 'Lying is okay?'

No, that would not do. Xander couldn't very ditch the all-important war meeting, either. What were the two of them to do?

Corrin pondered this issue himself, and was suddenly struck with an idea of his own. "Xander, I have an idea!" he suddenly cried out, jolting Xander out of his thoughts. "We can fix both our problems at once - wait here!"

"Corrin, where are you," Xander started. However, it was too late - the younger prince was already gone. Xander sighed. "I suppose I'll just wait for him to return," he mumbled, sitting cross-legged on the grassy terrain.

Corrin returned a minute later, leading an irritated Jakob by the arm.

Xander spotted two round objects in Jakob's pocket, intriguing him.

Corrin led Jakob to the spot where Xander was sitting.

"Jakob!" said Corrin. "You're my friend! You're Xander's friend, too, right?"

Jakob frowned. "Lord Corrin, may I ask what drove you to lead lead me here? Could you not have asked me to follow you?"

Corrin hesitated. "I…I guess I could have just asked, yes. But that wouldn't have been as fun!"

The butler harrumphed and tried to get back into 'butler mode', and less 'friend mode'. "Milord," he asked, "how may I be of service to you today?"

Corrin smiled. "Jakob, you can be all of the service! All of my service, buddy 'o pal! We're just a bunch of chums, aren't we? Chums in a bucket!"

Any normal person would have jumped a bit when Corrin put his arm around Jakob.

Jakob, however, was a butler. He was trained to be proper, fast on his feet, be dignified, and above all else, be very British.

Well, it would be more accurate to say that Jakob had been a butler. Corrin had, against all perceivable odds and reason, reclassed Jakob into a ninja. Not satisfied there, Corrin had then used a master seal to turn the angry servant into a mechanist.

Nowadays, Jakob rode around on a puppet-esque thing in battle. It unnerved Jakob, if he were to be entirely honest with himself - he thought the mechanist puppet was creepy as hell with its green bedsheet body and creepy red face.

Jakob had no idea how the puppet worked or if it was alive at all. He also had no plans to find out, and actively avoided doing so when possible, shoving his in the astral plane's shared storage closet when not in use.

In fact, the mechanist puppets were just below 'faceless with a scythe" on Jakob's "Top 10 Things I Never Want to Be Locked in a Broom Cupboard at Night With" list. An annoyed Corrin was at the very tippy-top of said list.

Jakob forced a smile. "I suppose we are friends, yes. Why do you ask?"

"And you're friends with Xander, too. Right? Best friends, even?"

"I suppose so," Jakob replied hesitantly. He just wasn't certain just where this line of questioning was going.

Corrin nodded, satisfied with that response. "Well, let me tell you just where this line of questioning is going, Jakob, my best of friends!" he said. Corrin pointed to a spot on the grass that had a red X marked. "I want you to stand riiiiiight here."

Taking took out the ball-shaped objects from earlier, Corrin continued: "Now, Xander, my brother who is also close with Jakob - I want you to focus. Close your eyes and think about what great friends with Jakob you totally are.

Xander now easily identified said spheres as a pair of friendship seals. Bewildered, Xander did what Corrin asked, hesitant – he wasn't sure what was going on, either, but he didn't see reason to not proceed. Shrugging, he did as he was told.

Corrin placed one of the orbs into Xander's hand, grasping the other with his own. He lifted it above his head, instructing Xander to do the same.

"You guys know I'm still totally right here, right?" Elise tilted her head. "Um, hello?"

Without warning, the sky flashed a blinding white, striking Corrin and Xander with a magic lightning.

When he opened his eyes, Xander was taken aback - Corrin's outfit had changed completely.

Jakob, however, didn't react, continuing to preserve a forced grin.

Elise frowned. "Is no one going to play with me?"

Instead of wearing his usual metal armor, Corrin was now wearing a green velour-esque outfit. Xander raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked to his own outfit.

Surely enough, Xander's outfit had been radically altered too! No longer was he wearing his dramatic, silver, manly armor! No, Prince Xander of Nohr was wearing…a green bedsheet.

"My wallet!" Xander said, patting his pockets frantically. "Dammit!"

"How fashionable," Jakob quipped, pulling out a pumice stone from one of his many pockets. He began to file his nails.

"Corrin, what exactly just happened?" Xander inquired, frowning slightly. "What in the world am I wearing? And where did my wallet go?"

Corrin didn't respond, instead opting to grin and jump manically up and down. "Yes, it worked! We're mechanists, Xander! Now we can hang out with Elise and go to that stupid war meeting!"

"Woohoo!" shouted Elise.

Jakob released a sigh. "Lord Corrin, may I return to the castle now? I have more pressing business to attend to."

Corrin stopped jumping and faced the butler. "Okay, but before you go, could you show me and Xander how to use the replicate skill?"

Xander's eyes widened as he realized what his brother was intending. "Corrin, that's utter insanity. Replicate is a special skill exclusive to the mechanist class. It's a magical, mystical ability meant to aid worthy warriors in combat! It's not for us to goof off with."

"But, uh…Prince Xander?"

Xander sighed. "Yes?"

"Er, well… Why not?"

Clearly, there must be a reason, Xander thought. Else, why didn't the entire army use the skill for themselves and reap the benefits of a clone?

Xander took a moment to conceive a response befitting his title as the legendary Prince of Nohr. "Because…" His neutral expression morphed into a small frown. "Perhaps it'd make our lives too easy? We can't have that."

Corrin looked at Xander, his face deadpan.

"…But I suppose we can try it," Xander conceded with a small sigh. "What have we got to lose?"

Corrin jumped into the air, used replicate, and then high-fived himself.

"Woo-hoo!" both Corrins shouted, linking arms and beginning to Can-Can.

Jakob looked at his master, who was now inhabiting two bodies at once and literally dancing with himself.

He sighed. "Fantastic. Two of them."

Elise clapped her hands. "What fun!"

Author's Notes:

So here it is! My first fanfiction. Cue the party horns!

Hm, what was that, you say? No one cares?

...huh.

The idea for this came about when I was thinking Mechanists in Fates. Specifically, they have the replicate ability, which allows a unit to clone itself.

Once the skill is used, both units, the replica and the original, are able to attack and take damage; It's not a "true" clone. Personally, I think it's more like one soul being shared between two bodies.

So I started to think about the fun and shenanigans that could be had with a second body. Sure, you could use it to kill more enemies. But you could also use a second body to do double the housework in half the time, use it to have mind-blowing sex with yourself, or test your ping-pong abilities with yourself! And in the end, isn't that what life is all about? Finding clever and silly ways to exploit battle weapons and concepts for your own, personal amusement?

I was originally gonna do something a bit more serious, but I like the goofier direction this is going.

If you have any thoughts, criticism, feedback, insults, don't hold back! I'm trying to use this story to improve my writing skills (while having fun, of course) so any feedback is appreciated!

Edit as of December 2017: Fixed grammar.