Fire Emblem: Apocalypse
H'tram BackwardsHe was a warrior with awe inspiring power.
He transcended the spiritual hierarchy and became a god.
His blade was the fang of an ancient dragon, forged to banish a dark dragon that sought to overtake the world.
His heart had been drowned in sorrow, it longed for peace and hungered for retribution. Both ends were met.
Centuries later his descendants, called Exalts, ruled his kingdom now the Halidom of Ylisse with Ylisstol as its capital.
A neighboring country named Plegia one day attacked under the leadership of Gangrel the Mad King. What they didn't know was that the Mad King was a puppet king for Validar, a sorcerer of immense power, born of the Fellblood of Grima and leader of the Grimleal, a cult dedicated to serving the dragon. Validar's child was born with the potential to be Grima's Vessel.
The child was taken from him and raised by the child's mother. The Vessel grew up, survived the war with King Gangrel and married the love of his life, and now had a child of his own.
His life wasn't easy now, his wife and most of his allies were taken from him during the war with Walhart the Conqueror, the rest died shortly after, now few soldiers on any side stood, the Grimleal took their remaining forces into hiding; Walhart now began recovering his small empire, dancing on the edges of economic ruin, while the Halidom of Ylisse was in ruins.
Robin startled awake one evening, and pulled himself out of distant memories that haunted his dreams.
In the absence of any eligible royalty he was looked to as a guide for the nation, as the young princess, daughter of his close friend, grew up healthy and strong. His heart broke as his mind drifted to the resemblance she bore to her father, who had been close to the tactician, and how much his own daughter reminded him of his wife, but the greatest pain was the thought that these children were growing up without parents.
As he wept bitter tears of regret there was a knock upon his door, "Who's there?" his voice cracked, but he didn't have an image to maintain.
"It is Lady Tiki and I, Say'ri, her humble servant, Lord Robin."
"Enter." he ordered, and heard the key Say'ri possessed turn in the lock.
"I just now remembered something," the shorter woman began, "from a thousand years ago, something I locked inside my mind until a seal broke, that seal has remained intact until recently."
"What is that?" Robin asked, trying to be politely interested.
"Hero-King Marth has awakened."
"What…where is he?"
"I wouldn't know, I told him to wait somewhere safe," Tiki replied, "wherever that may have been, wherever he may be now, but I can give you a sketch to search for him by, he should resemble what he did when last we met."
"When can I have a team ready?"
"I'll rally the search party, they should be ready at dawn."
Robin nodded and watched as Say'ri pulled the door shut, he waited to hear her set the lock before pulling himself out of bed. Robin sat at a desk and began writing a letter to his daughter.
"Dear Morgan, if you find this letter it means that my recent nightmares were premonitions, and that the world will suffer a tragic fate at my hands. I didn't know what to do, I left some advanced magic texts behind, the energy sent through them is magnified more so than most, but they disintegrate at a quicker rate, as a result. I don't know what else to do, the return of Grim-" his arm suddenly slipped and he began breathing harder, and his hand began writing of its own accord, "Kill Marth, kill King Marth, kill Hero-king Marth, Hero-King Marth stands between me and my great destiny! Destroy Hero-King Marth, destroy him! No, my hand's not my own-" he tried to regain control of his hand, and crunched the paper in his hand, ran to his bed and stuffed the paper between the mattresses, and made a mad dash for the window, and dove through the pane.
"Help!" he cried as fell onto the ground.
He looked up with fiery yellow eyes and with great tenacity he dragged himself away, but was not in control of himself.
Marth opened his eyes and took in his surroundings, "Tiki, Tiki!" he called out, but received no reply from the shadows. He took a calming breath and found a rapier at his side, "Falchion is with my son, so is the Fire Emblem…but where am I?" he exhaled again and closed his eyes, "When am I is a more valid question." He remarked as he stood up and drew his sword.
He stuck the blade in a disk with a cut in the top and pulled the blade which rotated the disk, opening the gate in front of him, "The future."
She was the daughter of King Chrom, who did not wear the title of "Exalt", out of respect for his late elder sister Exalt Emmeryn. The young heiress heard that her friend's father vanished the other night, so she went to find her friend.
Morgan was obliviously stacking books, and, happy with the simple, quaint, yet satisfying, arrangement, stood up, and pressed her leg against the pile, collapsing the construct which took her a patient hour of balancing, then grabbed a pillow and began to take a nap, all in the time it took Lucina to locate the girl.
"Morgan, are you alright?" Lucina asked, wondering if the other girl was building up and tearing down a stack of books as a means to cope with her anguish.
"Yep, why, Lucina, is something wrong?" Morgan addressed her friend from the floor, turning to look up at the future Exalt.
"Your father still hasn't been found yet." Lucina said apologetically.
"He's probably out fishing or something, he said he would take me out fishing again, he's probably putting fish there to make sure I find some." Morgan said, turning back on her side and yawning as she adjusted her pillow.
"I don't know…I thought you'd be scared, so I came to keep you company."
"Thanks, but he's very powerful, he probably just went out to practice or something."
"Last time it was fishing." Lucina noted drearily.
"So what, maybe he can practice on his way there!" Morgan retorted, slightly annoyed.
Though she hid it well, Lucina could tell now that Morgan was frightened about her father.
Suddenly the door to the hall opened, and standing in the doorway, in front of Say'ri and beside Tiki, an older man in regal garbs. His fingers jerked but he resisted the urge to reach for his blade, and suddenly stood straight, anxiety flowing away from him.
Lucina looked on curiously as she noticed several cuts in his skin through his clothes.
"Were you in battle?"
"Ahem, this-" Tiki indicated the visitor who now interrupted.
"Please, Lady Tiki, my heritage is of no concern to the child."
"Ah," she noted quietly, "my apologies…it seems of late my mind has become more hazy."
"Lady Tiki," Lucina began, "who is this?"
"Umm…I fear I'm unfit for proper introductions, but suffice to say, he's an old friend of mine I once thought lost to time, as you can imagine I'm very thrilled at the presence of an old comrade."
"Please, young Exalt, call me H'tram."
"Of a noble house, I presume?"
"Well, while I make no effort to hide the fact, let's just say any public knowledge of my house's name would be…complex, to say the least, and any revelations will have to wait for the future."
Robin stepped up to an old man blue and purple robes, three eyes on the sleeves, similar to Robin's own robes, and after a brief embrace he gazed upon the eyes of his father's followers.
"I swear to you all that I will find the Fire Emblem, and become Grima, the God of Annihilation!" his words were met with a resounding cheer and thunderous applause, "I will fulfil my destiny and resurrect Grima, and the world will fall into eternal bliss!"
Another cheer exploded in the room and his father smiled.
"Lord Validar," Robin addressed his father, "the Manakete Tiki has informed me of Prince Marth's whereabouts, he has somehow managed to survive throughout all these centuries."
"This must be Naga's doing." Validar said contemplative, "No matter, he is frail, I will send assassins to care for him…ha, ha, ha!"
Robin joined his father's laughter and soon the halls echoed with the merriment of Grimleal.
Lucina was in the garden, a practice sword in her hand, when H'tram came up next to her. She turned around and noticed the same sword from the other day.
"Are you training too?" she asked, to which he nodded slowly, "I wanted to ask you yesterday if that was a rapier, and why you were about to draw it."
"It is a rapier." he confirmed, then cleared his throat, "I thought I sensed something, but may have been mistaken."
"What did you think you sensed?"
"A dark presence, of one who's blood is that of an ancient evil. Lady Lucina, you've the Brand of the Exalt in your eye, so I know for certain you are the future Exalt, so I shall impart a dream I once had into your soon to be capable hands. I heard a screech, I felt dread in my soul as it tore through the night, and I saw an evil prophecy…I saw Falchion and its master…the sacred blade's master fell, and cities were leveled, I saw the Sacred Gemstones of the Fire Emblem, scattered across the continent, and some even beyond the land, beyond the ocean, I prayed for wisdom to provide for the future in that dark hour which has yet to reach these shores…the answer came to me in the morning, as I contemplated the difference between then and the future…I should awaken in a future morning from the past's evening, I knew this, I knew I must teach the next Exalt after the one who bore the Brand on his shoulder, so that the future will truly be prepared."
"What will happen in this future?"
"A veritable apocalypse, it will be a horrible future, bleak, desolate, yet a reality that is as good as done. I know I may frighten you, perhaps you're too young to have the future spoiled with an old man's ravings, perhaps my silence should persist yet a while, until you've had a few years to enjoy life."
"Tell me," she said, raising the wooden sword for emphasis of her preparedness, "tell me everything I need to fight this."
"You'd need Falchion first, where is it?"
"It's hidden, Daddy had a letter saying where to leave it if…anything happened to him." she felt like crying, but when she looked up to learn if H'tram had seen the single that trailed down the side of her face, she found him weeping restrainedly, "H'tram, are you hurt?"
"I lost very dear people to me at a young age, you recalled those days to me."
"I apologize, I didn't know."
"You couldn't have known…on one level I have nothing to cry about, yet I'm still bound to this plane, but before I'm gone I wish to teach you, so I will, but first, show me what you know."
She took a breath and began swinging her blade as her father had shown her, then leapt up and fell back, finishing by lunging forward and turning back around.
"That is an interesting technique, who taught you how to fight like that?"
She beamed with pride and whispered, "My father."
Lucina and H'tram spoke on many subjects throughout the years, and she was fascinated by his extensive knowledge of Ylissean history and his penmanship.
He spent years taught many of the more difficult points to her, but encouraged her to make time for her friends, and her daily routine was set for years, until he had a maid stir her one dark morning. After they had eaten breakfast they went out into the dark autumn morning.
"Pardon, H'tram," she began, "but we don't usually go out so early, and I was curious as to why we're out so early—we also were particularly silent, you usually say something. Back when we first started training you would ask if I was ready, then later if I had forgotten any gear…but these days it's usually a good morning…today total silence…I just want to know that you're not upset with me."
H'tram took a deep breath and rested on a stone bench Lucina had arranged for their long journeys to the hills by the river's edge.
"Well, we're out so early because I saw it this way…the sun yet to dispel the dusk of night…to know darkness and to persist until light washes us…I believe you may need some such inspiration in the future, and this is the best I can do. To answer your other question, about our lack of communication…there will be no more greetings for us, I fear…I fear for you, anyway."
"Master, I don't understand, I still have so much to learn!"
"Yet I've nothing to teach, you're a master now in your own right."
"Then, please, until I'm more confident in my abilities, spar with me yet a while more."
"I'm afraid not." he stood once more and they took a few more steps towards the river, he turned to her and saw her brows furrowed in frustration, "So much time has passed, I don't know where it went, but I do know I have yet a tale before we part ways."
"Only one?" she asked, not noticing that they weren't on the path to the bridge across the river.
"One good one, I assure you…what do you know of the Hero-King?"
"I know that anything you have to say of him is very interesting."
"They say that when he died he became something of a god, that in his final hours he left his will upon his pillow and was never seen again, but the truth is, if you're willing to believe me, he hasn't died…yet, but his time is coming soon."
"Is that all?"
"My story…it isn't done yet."
"But it's a true story?"
"It's as true as I am sure Marth will rise with the sun this morning."
"H'tram!" Lucina began excitedly, "Will he visit us?"
"Hmm, I will not be visited, but you will."
"H'tram, I want to know why he's visiting…is Marth going to fight the dark future with us?"
"Yes…in spirit, I mean, he will leave soon after you have been formally introduced."
"Will he give me strength?" she gazed at her reflection and sighed dismally, "I prayed, last night…I asked for a tenth of his strength. I know, pretty ridiculous, huh?"
"That's not ridiculous." a younger voice answered than what she expected of H'tram.
Lucina looked up at her reflection and saw, next to her own, Marth's reflection.
"My descendant, I am Marth." H'tram said, a serious expression on his face.
"Hero-King Marth…I don't know what to say." she turned around when she met H'tram's gaze, "Apologies, I don't know what that was."
"So you see through the reflection, to who I really am."
"Your name…is Marth?"
"I'm Tiki's old friend, and if you read my name backwards, plus some accentuation, you have H'tram, a perfect disguise for an unsuspecting…Hero-King…that's quite a title."
"To stand in your presence," she began, and dropped to one knee, "there aren't any words."
"Rise." Lucina stood and gazed at the old man with newfound wonder, and suddenly the wonderful knowledge H'tram displayed seemed all the more wondrous, "Beautiful, isn't it? Always look back on this moment, until you find something better or this gets old, find something to hold onto." Marth said, taking in the calm sunrise.
"Morgan often wondered about your name, but the time between here and then…I suppose no one should suspect this of a human, yet through war you became more than a man."
"Not through war, but the cleanup that occurred afterwards, and only for this moment in time. The future is built of off the past."
"Wise words," Robin said, smiling at the lords, on the banks below him, "though now King Marth must die."
"What…Robin?" Lucina asked, dismayed.
"Expecting daddy to come home?" Robin taunted, pulling a book from the folds of his coat.
"You dare speak that way to me?" Lucina demanded, and began to sprint up the hill, but Marth caught her arm.
"Lucina," Marth began, "he's Fellblooded!"
"Fellblooded…but you said only certain—can you sense that?"
"Yes, all Exalts can feel the hateful darkness, surely you sense it."
"I think so…why didn't I sense it before?"
"You didn't know what to look for, you weren't used to it."
"Robin, is this true?" Lucina demanded.
"Maybe…want to find out for yourself if I'm even mildly…malicious? Hya!" Robin raised his arm and bubbles began forming from his hand and falling to the ground.
The lords exchanged questioning glances but suddenly something appeared around them.
"This is the apocalypse!" Marth exclaimed, "These monsters mustn't win, stay close!"
"Robin, my father trusted you!" Lucina felt betrayed, and hurt for the betrayal of Robin to her father.
She sensed him nearing them.
"He did trust me, foolishly easily!"
"Lucina!" the Hero-King roared, "Don't let him confuse you! I trusted many people in my lifetime, you must not let him discourage you from believing people, from giving them a chance!"
"He's close!" she called out, cutting down the ferocious humanoid monsters.
"Don't be afraid of him!" Marth ordered, "Keep your distance from him and his ilk! The Grimleal are dangerous, hateful people; and they want the end of the world!" Marth suddenly saw Robin, steeled his resolve, and ran towards the Fellblood, "Don't let him have the Fire Emblem!" those words caught Lucina's attention. She meant to glance back shortly, but she stared in disbelief at Marth, who turned around and pointed, behind her, "Look out!"
Lucina suddenly turned around and held up Falchion in time to meet a monster's axe, but the sudden shock hurt her wrist as she braced against the axe.
She turned back behind her and saw another creature about to strike with a sword. Lucina dropped to her knees and threw herself away from the axe and sword, then ran to Marth's side.
"Lucina?!" he called out, glancing behind him to see her.
"I'm here!"
"You only have one life, be careful how you stake it!"
"I'm sorry." she assured him, holding back the monsters.
"Sorry doesn't bring back the dead, and it won't be enough if the future loses you!"
"I'll bear that in mind."
"I hope so." Marth said as he blocked a blast of thunder Robin cast.
Lucina had destroyed most of the monsters and was feeling stronger now, but as she turned she found Marth still fighting Robin. She ran to Marth's side and participated in the battle.
"Marth, is this as powerful as you are?" Robin taunted, throwing fire at Marth and Lucina.
"I was stronger, once." Marth noted and turned to Lucina, "My strength is now yours!"
Lucina felt no different, but as Marth smiled, his arm outstretched, Robin wrapped his arms around the Hero-King and blasted a bolt of lightning into Marth's side and threw him down the hill.
"Marth!" Lucina yelled as Robin laughed triumphantly.
Lucina turned back and growled as Robin vanished, but turned back to Marth, who lay bleeding on the ground.
"Is he gone?" the old king croaked.
"Yes, he's gone." Lucina said, and stared in horror at his wounds. "Marth, please don't die!"
"I am already gone, I just need to lose this body, you know?" he said, pointing up at the orange sky.
"Marth!" Lucina felt tears spring to her eyes and began sobbing.
"It's not the…end…of the world…just yet."
"Marth, don't go."
"Don't worry, this is the way…before I performed the Rites of Awakening, I knew that I would be mortally wounded, but this is how I think it should be, in hindsight." Marth feebly stood and Lucina caught him when he almost fell.
"Marth…what do I do now? Tell me, where do I go?"
"You will not need me to tell you anymore, Falchion is yours, you are the world's best chance…even then, it's only a chance, I regret only a few things, not knowing I would spar with a legend for the better part of four years, having watched her become stronger three years before then, I have seen what only one other of my contemporary's has seen, and even then the term must be understood as slightly false, as I have exceeded my lifespan," he had begun walking towards the river and stopped, "and now I will rise to the heavens and pull strings from behind clouds, and in my final hour I count these blessings, and if I knew victory was certainly yours, I could know no better end…ah!"
"Marth, what's wrong?" Lucina asked as the elder hero stood at the river's edge.
"The future." he gasped, and leaned forward, closed his eyes and breathed slowly, until it came to a halt and he fell into the water.
"Marth!" she cried out falling to her knees and glaring at the water, "Marth!"
She scrubbed her sleeve angrily across her face and stood up, "How am I going to have a chance to save the world when I don't even know where to start?!"
"The same way I did," a familiar voice soothed, catching her off guard, "you must turn to your friends and gather your army, but first find the Fire Emblem. There will be no more greetings for us as long as you draw breath, and I don't want to meet you again for a long time. You're not my student, but as I once told you tales of my life, so now I will watch you create yours."
Lucina turned the river and closed her eyes, "How am I going to explain what I've got to do?"
"You can start by explaining what you're talking about." A new voice offered.
Lucina around, smiling as Morgan sat next to her, "Morgan, I-" she broke off abruptly as she recalled Robin's allegiances, "y-your father was here."
"Oh…well, then." Morgan looked up contemplatively and took a breath. She pulled a piece of paper out of her coat pocket and stared at it.
"We found it the day Marth arrived, didn't we?"
"So…H'tram…is Marth, we kind of figured, huh?" Morgan stared absentmindedly at the note, "We went to his room later that night and searched his room. These were his last words before going away, and now he was here, not on your side though, right?"
"Were that were false."
"It…isn't right. People don't just die—never mind though, where's the old man?"
"His spirit left his body, which fell into the river. He spoke of a bleak future, we have a slim chance to survive it."
"Then we should prepare to march, the first thing we should do is fortify as many major strongholds as we can, then prepare them against the fight against those…things."
"Maybe we should recruit soldiers, too."
"Good thinking, my thoughts are that we map out major forts, cities, battlefields that would give us devastating advantages over our enemies when an attack or counterattack is well executed, more on that later, though…we should discuss strategy back home, though."
Lucina agreed, the sooner they got back to the castle the soon they could begin preparations for the coming battle.