The Ties That Bind Us
1: The spirit is willing but the body is weak
"Life is but a walking shadow" –Shakespeare's Macbeth
"Chrom! Above you!" The blonde screamed at the top of his voice.
Odd, wasn't it? He looked more boy than man… Chrom snapped his head to where Richard shouted.
"Richard?" The woman whispered unaware.
Everything was in overdrive; she could feel it, yet everything was so slow. She looked at her gloved hands. Ugliness filled them; she rubbed them together until the glove was removed, until nothing but small insignificant woman's hands were left exposed.
"No! Veronica, fight it! You promised!" Someone was gripping her by the bicep muscle. Short, stiff blonde hair, desperate sapphire eyes so close to her own, so familiar, but who was he?
"Veronica, listen to me! Please! It's Richard! Open your eyes! Fight it! If you succumb to it, I do too! Please! Look at me!"
"But I am," She smiled. He drew back
"N-No…"
"Veronica! Please stay with us!" The other man… who was he?
Another man attempting to stand using his sword.
Horror.
But why?
Kill him.
No.
Now.
Never.
"I will never kill him!" Who was this person, this poison filling my soul, why did he want me to kill him?
"You are weak, you the spirit-"
"No!" Her hood fell back, dark locks of hair falling unnaturally slowly as her equally dark eyes rolled to the back of her head. Her back arched, mouth open, silently screaming. Chrom came running, collapsing to his knees to her convulsing body, horror and fear racing thought his veins.
"What can we do?"
A flat tone sounded, "Nothing."
He struck the ground, slashing the side of his hand on the shards of granite. He shouted to her still twitching body,
"Anything can change, Veronica! Listen to me! Open your eyes! Don't let him win!"
Her dark haired head rolled side to side as her leg twitched, back arching once more.
You struggle in vain… you exist only to serve me, you are worthless nothing; a grain of sand in the vast ocean, little one…
"Her eyes Richard; look at her eyes."
Richard couldn't answer; the horrible sight rendering him speechless.
"Give in my daughter! Surrender to it! Accept your fate!"
Chrom scrambled to his feet. Richard straightened up, sword quickly raising.
Validar scrutinized Richard, head cocking in childlike interest.
A single question escaped his lips, velvety and dangerous.
"Why do you resist it, my son?" Richard's jaw set, eyes glowing with determination.
"Because I am myself! Not your son, not Grima! No one but me! There is no destiny, no predetermined fate! I make my own choices my own mistakes! But by God I will not become Grima, and you will fall!" He roared before lunging forward the sword fatally entered Vaiadar's abdomen. Blood ran free, and the blade was tarnished with the unnatural color of violet blood.
Richard looked up directly into Validar's eyes. But the older man smiled wickedly.
"That's right: Embrace the anger! He feeds upon it! He thrives upon it!" He took a step back as the sword left his body and the mortal wound closed.
Richard's blood ran cold; every hair on his body stood on end in that awful moment.
"Impossible…"
"I think not," A low, sultry yet terrifying voice sneered.
Richard turned slowly. She stood parallel to him; her body facing forward. Frightening eyes locked with his.
"Veronica?"
"Do not address the weak one; she is dead," the woman masquerading as the blonde man's sister hissed menacingly.
"No she… can't be…"
Richard held his forehead in one hand, Valadar purred behind his ear so close he could feel his breath.
"Embrace what is rightfully yours from the beginning… Become my son!"
He jumped away; Chrom was at his side now.
"Richard, what do we do?"
"She's not dead; I can feel her fighting!" Richard responded adamantly, steeling his resolve once again.
Grima turned it's stare to Chrom, a condescending air of superiority playing across her features. "It will be my greatest pleasure to kill you, Exalted one," Chrom stared back at it, gaze unwavering,
"You're not a murderer, Veronica"
Grima snarled, "She is dead, foolish human, you dare address me, the Fell Dragon Grima in such a lowly manner?!"
"I'm not speaking to you, fell beast! I speak to my friend!" Chrom snapped, small particles of spit flying from his mouth.
"I tell you she is dead! You listen not, I say I will kill you, you listen not! Exalt, your kind dare wonder why they are so foolish!"
"You say she is dead, every time you speak, which causes me to believe the opposite is true, and why would you speak the truth? You are the height of evil, and evil will never speak true!"
Grima threw Veronica's head back in a terrifying laugh, which sounded of a thousand dying shrieks,
"Spoken like a true Exalt, Chrom! Truly you are descended from the 'Hero King', Marth… Though I never doubted that; you have the same eyes… that same determined look… I enjoy all my killings, you know. Though I rarely stain my own hands, your case is rather special to me… After all, your ancestors sealed me away in the past, but you lack their mettle and strength of will…"
"That's enough!" Richard stepped in.
Grima looked at him intently, a malicious sneer playing across her lips. "What is enough? That I will kill your wife next? What was her name again?"
Richard's jaw set.
"Oh have I touched a nerve, insignificant one?"
"Veronica! Please!" Chrom desperately interjected.
Grima whipped around hissing angrily, "Silence Exalt! I owe the blood-line a favor, and I intend to repay it! Do not invite death early"
Richard felt a trickle of sweat escape down his neck and spine; the assault on his mind was intensifying incredibly.
Let's kill him now…
It was more insistent and demanding; he didn't have long…
I will not succumb to your control, Grima! Depart from me!
His fingers were becoming cold, that dread filled cold when panic strikes ones heart.
Teeth grinding together and with great effort he shouted, "Get out of my mind!" he bent double in pain, rubbing his temples. She smirked.
But it faltered. Grima too gripped her head, screaming illegible words in Grima's voice one moment, the other her own. "No! I can't! You will! My family!-Silence! Obey me! They are insignificant, inferior creatures! Why do you care for them?! I offer you immortality, glory! Yet you resist me!"
Richard now spoke in the voice of Grima, his eyes glazed over at the mental war he was waging against the beast. "Any mortal would have succumbed at such temptation to their basic human nature, so, why? Why are you so different? Insignificant body, you only enrage me!"
He looked at the ground silently, that nagging feeling was there, that unnatural dread that prickles at the nape of his neck. He shook his golden head; he would not succumb to it; he could not!
But it was stronger than he was.
In this battle, he was weakening, as much as he hated to admit it.
Why? Why were there still questions? Had they not been answered?
You resist, yet your soul obeys me! It is rightfully mine, human!
Chrom, seeing the looks of sanity returning to his comrades, yelled encouragingly, "You can't give in! Fight it with everything you have!"
Grima snarled; things were becoming more and more aggravating by the second.
Pathetic human emotions! Abandon them!
"Richard!"
Chrom.
Panic.
Fear.
Pain.
Oh, the pain…
Like the entrance of some foreign object into his very insides, writhing, turning, tearing,
Gutting.
Like a slaughter pig now realizing its fate.
Yes, it was clearer now the faded outline of someone, Chrom.
"Wake up!" Chrom's mailed gauntlet met with Richard's face; it rolled lifelessly to the side.
Validar's chuckle morphed into maniacal laughter.
"You are too late! They have become children worthy of Grima!" Chrom heard the almost silent scraping of his own hand clawing at the floor coming to Falchion's grip.
Yes.
"Why do you need them?!" His accusatory words echoed through the halls, his knuckles paling beneath his gloves.
"I wouldn't waste my time with the likes you, Exalt…"
He smiled mockingly relishing in his captive audience.
"Lord Grima was struck a terrible blow long ago, longer, even, than your great king Marth lived; he was weakened beyond imagination, living as not fully spirit, but not yet living, moving from host to host, in the darkness of men's hearts, unceasingly."
He paused allowing Chrom to comprehend, and continued as his face paled.
"Yes, humanity was never worthy of that kind of power; we kept him close, and after centuries of failure, a suitable body, or a vessel, one both worthy and able to sustain such power… I, myself, was not worthy…"
Validar smiled as Chrom's pupils dilated in horror.
"Y-You… sacrificed your own…" His throat was dry and heart was stricken with fear.
"But finally, a partially worthy vessel was born, and even as my son lay crying in his mother's arms, I knew… We knew…"
Chrom stared at the floor, a few droplets of sweat fell as he envisioned his friend no more than a babe, lying in his mother's arms crying. A natural sight, tainted with evil. Validar stood quietly, plotting his own son's future, the little boy screaming for his mother as he was ripped from her, her pleas for help, too weak to do anything herself.
But no one would come. Chrom raised his eyes to meet Validar's; fury aflame in his heart.
"But I don't understand! How could you? How can you trade your own flesh and blood!? They were innocent! No more than infants and you'd already traded their souls!"
Validar's mouth curved into a cruel smile.
Chrom continued enraged, "Why! Why do you need two of them?!" He panted face red, adrenaline mixed in his Exalted blood.
Validar's dark eyes glinted menacingly with his replied hiss, "Foolish Exalt, it is simple, I said a partially worthy vessel; one with strength enough for a body-" Chrom gasped eyes wide.
Again Validar's smile twisted upon his lips.
"Yes, you understand now?"
Chrom gave him a look so filled with hatred…
"Explain, so I am not wrong."
He began, "As I have said, a vessel with strength enough for a body was born into my family, Richard, as my foolish wife so called him… we waited and hoped that perhaps my wife would take unto her womb a similar combination and produce for us another… Two years later, such an occurrence took place; a daughter was brought into this world, but meant for another… She was different from her brother, with a strong will…"
Chrom rose using Falchion as a brace; he spun the blade until the ancient weapon was facing his enemy.
"That's enough, I understand."
Validar smiled triumphantly, but did not see Veronica straining to stand behind him. Chrom didn't speak, he didn't need to, but just stared evil in the eyes as Validar spoke.
"Go ahead, run me through, the Fell Dragon will only repair whatever damage you cause."
"You hold much faith in evil, Validar, what makes you think the Demon will cure you?"
He bristled.
"Fell Dragon, Exalt, and do not test my patience, it was never my strongest virtue"
Chrom's eyes narrowed, their blue becoming more intense.
"Answer me."
Validar's voice became dangerously low
"I said don't test me"
Veronica stood erect, nodding to Chrom, whom was still not looking directly at her.
Chrom whispered lacing the words with venom,
"Is it out of some misplaced sense of love?"
Validar's face twitched.
'I have him now'
"You honestly believe that after you sacrificed their souls to Grima they would still feel the echoes of emotions?"
"…Or is it out of guilt? Do you truly have even the capacity to feel such things?"
For once, Validar had no words, but opened and closed his mouth in rage.
The Exalt sighed,
"I do not blame you… but my question is; do you feel sorry?"
From behind him Chrom heard Richard moan. Veronica winced at her brother's pain, but unwilling to end it.
He's my father, I hate him, but we share blood! Is it not wrong to kill the man who fathered me? That helped bring me in to this world, in which I have found so much happiness? What can I do…? What would Richard say…?
Pathetic.
What?
You are the Soul of Grima, and you are weak.
I am not weak; you are!
You cannot hide your thoughts from me; I know your heart and mind. I am you.
Why are you doing this? Is it out of revenge? Did someone of my race hurt you?
You ask with the mind of a child! My genocide of all creatures in this world is not directly out of hatred of you worthless mortals, fighting over a transient, fading world. No, that is just an extra pleasure, heh, I want the highest pain for Naga alone to bear upon her weak shoulders...
Veronica responded with action.
Chrom saw her run with strength such that he had never seen before: Time seemed to still and as Validar smiled ready to laugh she leapt upon him at full tilt, her hair flowing behind her like a lion's mane. He reared back from the weight, she seized Validar, wrapping her legs around his middle, and deftly placed one hand on his chin, the other on the back of his skull, as he desperately clawed at her legs coughing,
"Daughter! Why-"
"I have a name!" She roared back. Chrom readied Falchion and had to admit he had never seen Veronica so angry in all the time he knew her; she cried when she was furious… He shook his head but could not shake the uneasy feeling in his stomach, perhaps it was this place, was it making her crazy? Did it have something to do with the Grimleal?
She breathed in sharply, shouting at the top of her voice, "It's Veronica!"
"A- Ack! A foolish dub for a god!" He spluttered as Veronica tightened her already suffocating grip.
Chrom realized in an instant what was happening. In her anger, Veronica was strangling her father.
And if he let her, then Grima would win.
Suddenly an intense cry of pain broke through her trance. Veronica looked through the magical barrier and murmured something only Validar could understand. It was the momentary weakness he needed.
"He's not coming to save you!" He threw her from him, to the ground. Veronica screamed as she met with the granite. Everything was red and blurred; her right eye closed keeping most of the blood out, though she could feel the steady dullness of pain and fear; the form of her father was shadowed and fading.
He spoke softly and dangerously so as only Veronica could hear.
"You're never going to see your 'beloved' again, it's all written! He will die by your hands!"
Veronica's vision blurred as Validar raised his hand dark shadows billowing from his long fingers.
As Chrom began running to them, Richard outpaced him easily; his face, though pale, was furious almost beyond recognition.
He roared like a lion, voice reverberating off the magical barrier like the firing of cannons.
"Not your god! Not today!" His fist connected with Validar's jaw and all heard the thick sound of flesh meeting flesh.
Chrom quickly lifted a weak Veronica, who strained to stand on her own.
"N-No, stay back Chrom…" She spluttered wiping more blood away with the cuff of her cloak.
He pleaded,
"Veronica! You can fight this, I know you-"
"I said, stay back!" She shoved him away with unnatural strengths.
Richard looked upon Validar's form and spoke,
"Get up, I know you can"
He rose to one knee,
"Will the Prodigal Son now turn upon the father who has slain the fatted calf for him?"
"Do not speak to me in tones of fatherliness when you try to kill your own daughter!" The blond spat upon the ground at his father's feet.
"Stop it Richard!" Veronica panted
"J-Just kill him a-and get it over with" Her voice usually clear and strong was thick and shaking like she was about to cry.
Validair looked his daughter in the face and for a moment she looked like her mother, but then their eyes met and he saw his own staring bloodshot back at him.
A voice whispered in her ear,
You don't want this… you truly want answers do you not? I can give them to you…
'You just want my body Grima. You forget I know you; I am you'
She raised her hand to wipe away the blood from her temple, legs trembling uncontrollably. She nodded more so than necessary hair matting from her bloodied brow. Her gaze fell to the floor,
"I just want this to be over and done, kill him, I have no questions"
Chrom looked back to Richard, his lips turning cold.
"Nothing left but to do it then…"
Validair sighed,
"You are fools you cannot kill me, the Fell-"
The man never finished his words chocking on his own blood. For in one smooth motion, Richard opened his throat and the warm smell of blood filled the space of musty dampness.
Validar fell to his knees his eyes wide and bulging blood pouring freely over his bare chest and robes, what he saw in his last moments was; three children standing before him of two his own. And for a split second, he saw them as they were toddlers; Richard his blond hair straight, like his mothers and large blue eyes like his grandfather's looking tearfully at him cradling his left hand to his chest sitting at his feet. Veronica; her thick brown curls bouncing innocently as she came running back to him her index finger out stretched for him to see it was cut, he lifted her unto his lap, his own eyes gazed back at him like they once were; bright and wondering, he took her pricked finger and kissed it gently never taking his eyes off of her murmured,
"There, all better my treasure" She smiled and buried her face in his chest clutching his robes in her small fists.
Richard extended his injury as well. Tenderly his father took it and motioned for him to be in his lap also. Richard smiled despite the pain revealing a missing canine tooth.
"Father, why did they hurt me?"
Validar said quietly,
"They have marked you, it is the marking of a king" He ran his thumb over the raw flesh. Richard whimpered as the flesh cooled from the magic,
"Hmm… yes a fine swords man in time my son…" He smiled at the boy.
Validair's vision blurred around edges and colors bled into one another. He fell to his knees but did not feel it.
My God, what have I done?
He was dead before his head collided with the bloodied granite.
The silence of the next few seconds was maddening. Was he dead so easily? Were they truly freed from the curses of Validiar's existence?
Veronica watched as a single bead of sweat rolled down Richard's temple her mouth dry, Richard swallowed with difficulty.
"I'm sorry"
The blond looked at Chrom
"I should have killed him, it is a grave thing when a son must kill his own father, it's my fault Richard and I'm sorry"
Richard looked back to the corpse of his father murmuring
"He… Was not my father, not really anyway… it's funny I don't feel anything," He returned to their midst a ghost of a melancholic smile on his features.
Veronica gently pried away the now adhered hair from the wound, it started to bleed once more and she sighed, it was indeed true, she felt nothing either, no remorse, no need to convince herself that the deed was right or just. Nothing, was her heart so truly hardened?
"Hey, shouldn't the barrier have vanished by now?"
No sooner had the words left Veronica's lips, when several things happened at once.
The demonic hum in the air intensified suddenly shooting pain through one's very mind everything was in shadows billowing shadows the ground, the senses the mind, an inexplicable burning sensation. Ah! Where was the ground? As the vision painfully returned Veronica found herself leaning on Chrom's shoulder, and her brother on all fours gasping and convulsing on the ground.
"Chrom? How did you…?"
"I don't know but something's not right, something is very, wrong"
Suddenly a voice spoke so as the whole temple shook,
"You think you have one prince?"
Richard threw up heavily the bile's unbearable burning in his throat as he shuddered and vomited once more.
"My vessels' weakness is shameful, but expected, I WILL HAVE THEM!"
Chrom replied impassioned beyond fury,
"Your end is nigh Fell One!"
"Arrogant mortal I am the END"
Chrom drew his sword looking wildly around for an opponent as his back was turned Validiar suddenly rose his dark aura blindingly bright with the power of the Fell Dragon.
"This isn't over damn you ALL!"
"No!"
Chrom turned not a quarter before Veronica shoved him down with that same unnatural strength, as Validiar released his power Richard tackled him, in his ear he heard a sickening crunch of the sorcerer's knee shattering and felt it dislocate.
Richard heard an electric crack a sharp intake of breath, and then Chrom screaming.
"Hey! Get up! GET UP!"
Feeling dazed Richard struggled to his feet still feeling nauseated.
But Chrom wasn't speaking to him. Richard never knew how he ended up standing by Chrom, he didn't care. All that mattered was his sister opening her eyes.
Richard extended a bloodied hand to his sister's pale face; she was still warm, his fingers found their way to her neck desperately searching for a pulse. Nothing.
Wait! Could it be? Both men waited not daring to breath.
One, two, three, four… A pulse, weak but strengthening by the moment, Richard looked to Chrom's face, the bluenette* shook his hair away from his eyes.
"It's finally over! We may live in peace, at long last!"
Veronica sat bold upright eyes wild searching for someone. Richard jumped,
"Veronica! You're ok!"
"That cur! Where is the craven!? I'll rip his face off…" She snarled with such venom Chrom looked concernedly to his blond companion who shrugged
"He's dead Veronica, you and Richard have saved my life, and I thank you"
He took her under the shoulders and lifted her up, she turned very pale.
Richard's hand hovered over the hilt of Flambert, his prized sword, waiting.
The woman turned towards Chrom and smiled a crimson glint in her eye. Chrom knew what was coming, and for a moment fear seized his heart.
"Good night, my prince~" The electric magic flickered for a moment until it was intolerably bright. The motion was quick; Veronica thrust her electrically charged fist through the sensitive area below the heart. For a moment Chrom stumbled and for a brief second his eyes were not but an inch away from the sadistic gaze of Grima. He stepped backwards hands instinctively reached for the injury still the bolt of Thoron remained the static running about his arms. Veronica blinked looked around her and gasped,
"Chrom-" Then very slowly, looked at her palms energy danced over her skin mocking her with every movement, the horror of her action razed tears.
"This, is not you- Not your fault-" Chrom coughed drops of blood coming with it.
"Promise me- You-" He hunched over exalted blood pouring forth over his hands his arm balanced against a broken pillar, desperately he looked to Richard and Veronica.
"Escape form this- place- " He drew a shuddery breath which would be his last and all knew it,
"Please! Go" His blue eyes hollowed, never taking his eyes off either of them. He fell.
Morbid isn't it!? This ends the first chapter… I know this has been done before the whole sibling Grima thing but my brother and I have put a different spin on it, if you read carefully it's all there in the print ^w^
Oh and if you review there's something in it for you~ something nice!
*Bluenette (Blue-nette) someone who has blue hair, spoken like brunette only blue.
Edited by: Hoenn-Master96- Forever a patriot
Written by: Lady-Weavile461.
Supported by: CamConn97; and Whismur Publishing House
With an ice-punch and a pirouette, Lady Weavile ^w^