Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem. Well, here goes nothing. To challenge myself (just for fun) I asked someone I know to tell me a character from any game. I would then write a story about them, and yes, a one-shot counts!
He chose the blood-loving dark mage; Henry, one of his favorite characters from Fire Emblem awakening (second only to Owain if memory serves). I actually did the same for him, choosing Magnus from Kid Icarus Uprising.
Without further ado, here is the story. Let's hope I didn't screw up Henry's character too much.
"Have some death!"
The risen exploded, sending decayed limbs and blackened blood shooting everywhere. The head landed on the ground in front of the Plegian dark mage. Its eyes, formerly bright red and oozing a purplish mist, fell dark.
The Plegian smiled a wide smile, his eyes shining brightly at the sight of another bloody death.
"Death is so fun!" The boy thought to himself, beginning to hum a tune and skipping out of the stained battlefield. "Its so dramatic, so amazing, so BLOODY!"
Continuing to smile, the Plegian weaved his way through the trees, brushing aside any beaches that got in his way.
"This war is just perfect!" He laughed to himself. "Death everywhere! But if Plegia wins too quickly than there won't be any killing left to do."
His laughter faded, though his smile did not. His pace slowed and his body crouched, approaching his destination. Stealth wasn't his strong suit, but he knew the basics. Standard Plegian military training.
"So the solution is to get Ylisse a small advantage, that way I can explode more stuff!" The Plegian peered though the trees and into a clearing, his brown eyes searching hopefully for the target.
The clearing was rather small, only seven meters in diameter. The tall trees formed a perfect ring around it, making it hard to see from inside the forest of greens and yellows. The only oddity was a rough blanket made of dried grass. It lay discarded on the ground next to a primitive wooden bowl, which had the remnants of a soup.
"Odd," He whispered, letting his eyes search the clearing again. "I was positive she would be-"
"Give me one reason not to tear you apart man-spawn."
"Ohhhh! There you are!" The Plegian chirped, turning around to smile at the massive rabbit-like creature behind him. The creature was low to the ground, muscles tensed and ready to spring. "I knew you had to be here somewhere!"
The creature narrowed its glowing pink eyes. The fur, dark brown, bristled, showing hostility.
"I care little for your stalling. Answer, or die."
"Hmm~ Deaaaath..." The boy hummed, unconcerned at the threat. "I wonder if being eaten by a giant bunny would be bloody? Probably. I'd be gushing blood everywhere from punctured veins and stuff! But it would ruin your fur, so I guess I'll have to go with the first option. Nyaha!"
The creature eyed the Plegian warily. Most humans did not react well to a death threat, some managed to remain calm, but she had never encountered one that laughed it off.
"Ya see, my superiors decided it would absolutely dandy to assassinated the exalt of Ylisse." The boy laughed. "And I know the Ylissians would stand absolutely no chance of stopping it themselves, so I decided to tell you!"
"Why would I care for some man-spawn?" The creature growled, its voice echoing despite the forest not typically allowing this. "Why would you tell this to me?"
"You care 'cause you owe the exalt!" The Plegian giggled. "And I'm telling you cause I want to blow more people up, and I can't do that if everything is conquered in a week! Nyahahaha!"
The creature shivered upon hearing the laugh once more. This man-spawn was extremely unpleasant. Perhaps his sickly appearance was just an outward portrayal of his mental state... Still, the boy spoke the truth. She did owe the current exalt a debt, one she planned to keep even if she was no fan of humans.
"I hate to say so, but you raise a fair point." The creature hissed. A pink aura shone off the creature, enveloping it and blocking it from sight. A moment later the aura dissipated to reveal a women dressed in brownish-pink armor, made of some unknown fabric. Patches of fur sprouted from her neck and arms, and a small rabbit tail could be seen sticking out of her back just below the waist. "I will help. Even if a traitor is the one to inform me." She said, voice no longer echoing.
"Traitor? You mean me?" The boy laughed. "Now that's mean~ I just wanna be friends, see? I'm perfectly nice." He stretched his smile out as far as it could go, his arms stuck out from his sides as if expecting a hug.
"Hmph." The woman huffed. She pushed aside the ring of trees and grabbed her blanket and bowl. "I care not. I dislike dealing with humans. Let us make this a swift rescue."
"Nyaha! Aye aye captain!" The Plegian giggled, saluting the woman. "Foloooow me!"
The pale boy strutted off back the way he came, humming a happy tune. The woman stalked behind him, glaring holes in the back of his head.
Despite this, the march was largely silent, broken only by the crunch of leaves on the ground and the boy's humming.
After an hour or two of basically nothing, the Plegian spoke once more.
"So , what's your name? I don't wanna have to call you rabbit girl. Ohhhh... Maybe if you get killed I can call you corpse!" He said enthusiastically, eyes shining as he turned his head to look at the woman following him.
She snorted, unamused. "My name is Panne man-spawn."
"Hello Panne~! I'm Henry!" Henry cackled, still smiling.
"I care not what your name is. You are still just a man-spawn to me." Panne growled, turning her head.
"Aww, don't be like that." The pale boy laughed. He turned around and petted the women on the head. "Be a happy bunny! Happy bunnies are the best!"
A vein pulsed in the woman's head as she tried to resist striking the offensive youth. She settled for swatting his hand and growling menacingly.
"Are you mad?" Henry inquired, looking curious. "Did something make you angry? What is it? I'll blow it up!" With this, the clueless boy pulled out his Ruin tome and made it rest in his left hand while holding his right in the air. Dark mist swirled around it, and faint traces of dark lightning could be seen dancing along his palm.
"No man-spawn." Panne sighed. "I would not ask you to commit suicide."
"Why not? I could make it bloody... Ohhhh! You mean I was the one making you angry!" Henry exclaimed, putting away his tome. "Well, I also would like to stay alive for a while. Places to go, people to make explode in showers of blood ya know?"
The woman shook her head, massaging the bridge of her nose. "This is going to be a stressful trip... Luckily it should only take a day or two."
###
"Special delivery!" Henry laughed, blowing apart another risen with his Ruin tome. "Man, these things are everywhere! So many dead things to make dead again! Nyahahaha!"
"Silence your blather, we are in combat." Panne growled, the claws of her beast form slashed through an archer with ease. "There are more coming, I can hear them."
With a quick flick of her paw, she indicated a small hill blocking their view of the road coming from Ylisse. The forest was at their backs, luckily no risen were exiting from it, though that was probably because they had all been slaughtered earlier by the unusual duo.
A small squad of barbarian risen exploded over the hill, charging down with savage war cries.
"Oh, oh!" The Plegian said giddily. "I've got this!"
The pages of his tome fluttered briefly as he channeled its power. A moment later a sphere of swirling purple mist and black lightning formed in Henry's hand, lighting up his face against the darkening sky with an ominous violet glow.
"Boom!" He laughed, throwing the ball like a baseball. It made contact with the leading risen, blowing it, and everything around it, to bits in a shower of gore. "Yay, blood!" The Plegian giggled, throwing his hands up in the air and letting the drops of blood rain down on his face.
Panne shivered as she returned to human form. This boy... There was definitely something wrong with him.
"So much blood~!" Henry sang, skipping over to the woman. "Wasn't that fun?"
"No."
"Aww." The Plegian poured. "You don't like exploding things?"
"I have claws." Panne deadpanned. "I can't "explode things"."
"I could change that." Henry offers, pulling out a small pouch from his cape. "I just need a few stands of your hair and about five hours."
"Pass." The woman replied, narrowing her eyes.
"If you say so." The pale boy shrugged. "I still think it would be awesome if your claws exploded on contact."
"That would blow my hands apart as well." Panne growled.
"I could regrow them." Henry says dismissively. "No biggie."
Shaking her head, the woman motioned for the Plegian to lead on, which he did with great enthusiasm.
###
"Rooms please!" Henry chirped, smiling at the inn keeper as he held a candle up to get a better look at the youth.
"What you folks doing out so late?" He asked, squinting in he darkness at the duo. "Unnatural things roam at night don't ya know."
"Yep! We kinda spent all afternoon blowing up zombies." The Plegian mentioned offhandedly. "So we were a bit later than we expected to be. You got rooms for us?"
"Only one." The man grunted, opening the inn door wider and letting the two travelers in. "One silver per night." He closed the door behind them.
"Catch!" Henry laughed, tossing him the fee.
"Last room on your left." The innkeeper said blearily, catching the coin despite his exhaustion. He handed a key to the pale boy. "Just keep quiet, I have a reputation to keep up, and sleep to catch up on."
With that, the middle-aged man slipped behind the counter and into the room behind it. There was a soft "clink" as he locked the wooden door.
"That went better than expected." Henry laughed quietly. "I thought he would have freaked 'cause I'm wearing Plegian dark mage robes."
"He was much too tired." Panne said bluntly. "He wanted to sleep, not study our choice of dress."
"Good thing too. Your ears would have been a dead giveaway, then I would've had to blow him up!" The Plegian giggled, walking down the hall indicated by the innkeeper. Panne trailed along behind him.
"My ears are perfectly normal." The woman huffed, crossing her arms. "You man-spawn are the ones with strange and ineffective ears."
"Whatever you say bunny!" Henry cackled, using the key to unlock their room.
"I'm not a bunny." Panne muttered under her breath.
"I heard that!" The Plegian snickered, walking into the room.
The woman breathed a sigh of irritation before following the boy inside.
###
"For the warren!" Panne hissed, clawing at the nearest thug.
"Wow!" Henry exclaimed, casting Ruin on yet another assailant. "they must really love dying, cause they are just throwing themselves at us. Nyaha!"
"I'll get you traitor! And your stupid rabbit too!" The lead barbarian roared, swinging his iron axe wildly and trying to catch the dark mage.
"Traitor? Me?" The Plegian asked, ducking a swing. He backed up against a tree, he could see the town they had spent the night in behind the barbarian in all it's humble glory.
Henry could also see the giant bunny rearing up behind the barbarian leader.
"Time to die traiiiiii-!" The barbarian was cut off when he was thrown into the air by Panne. Henry swiftly raised his right hand and fired a Ruin blast, nailing the man in the air and blowing him apart.
"Blood!" The Plegian exclaimed cheerfully, smiling as the gore splattered across his face. He turned to face the remaining thugs, drenched in the blood of their leader. "Who's next?" He asked, smiling happily.
The remaining men, looking slightly terrified, immediately turned tail and ran.
"Cravens, the lot of them." Panne growled in disappointment, returning to her human shape. "I was hoping they might be a challenge."
"Nyha! Those were just some grunts hired to harass Ylisse's borders." Henry explained, kneeling down to examine a disembodied arm. "They're a dime a dozen, and about as challenging to beat as gutted lamb."
"Must you always use such gruesome terminology?" The woman muttered, rolling her eyes.
"That's just who I am." The Plegian replied. He stood up and stretched his arms before using a cloth to wipe the blood off his face. "Your friendly neighborhood dark mage!"
Panne snorted. "Friendly? Deceptive would be more accurate..."
"Aww... Does the bunny not trust the nice boy?" Henry simpered, putting on an innocent expression. "I have nothing to hide, see? Pure, angelic goodness."
"I've heard angels are rather bloodthirsty these days." The women retorted, tapping her foot with impatience. "Can we move on now? We are trying to stop an assassination after all."
"Yeesh, someone is impatient." The dark mage giggled, brushing off getting last of the gore and striding off. "Always in a rush, no time to smell the fresh corpses..."
"I don't live among man-spawn, and even I know that isn't how the saying goes." Panne deadpanned, following behind him. "I'm fairly sure it had something to do with roses."
"Nooope. Definitely corpses." Henry denied, starting to skip.
"You are lying. It does not take a genius to tell." The woman huffed. "Does your insanity drive you to be untruthful to your allies?"
"Nah, just wanted to see if I could fool you." The Plegian responded, not even looking back.
"What is it the man-spawn say?" Panne sighed to herself, looking up at the sky. "Mad as a hatter? That would seem to fit him well..."
###
"There it is." Henry said, pointing to the castle sitting on the horizon. It's golden sheen blinded, even from a distance. The blue banners of Ylisse flew from its towers, proclaiming their dominance of the surrounding area.
"The pinnacle of human self-glorification." Panne harrumphed. "It pains my eyes to gaze upon it."
"It is a bit bright, isn't it?" The Plegian laughed. "Total opposite of Gangrel's castle. That one is all doom 'n gloom. Lots of purple, black, corpses strung up as examples. Mmmmmm. Cooorpses..."
"It is not the shine that bothers me." The woman corrected. "I dislike what it stands for."
"Why?" Henry asked, cooking his head. "It's a symbol of hope and strength for Ylisse. They're going to need all they can get if they wanna get through this war."
"It figures that man-spawn would find hope in their petty gold." Panne muttered.
"Gold is fun!" The Plegian exclaimed. He took off his cloak and showed her the rim, which was lined with gold. "See? It's shiny! Crows love shiny things."
"Why are those specific birds important to this conversation?" The woman asked.
"Cause they follow me everywhere!" Henry laughed as he pointed to a tree several meters behind them. "See?"
Panne turned her head to look where Henry had indicated. Lo and behold, there were several dozen crows roosting on the branches, staring at them with beady eyes.
The woman shivered, disliking the stares. She handed the dark mage his cloak before striding off towards the city, saying "Let us move on. I do not wish to remain close to these birds..."
"Why not?" Henry exclaimed, snapping his cloak back around his neck and dashing to catch up with Panne. "They're perfectly friendly."
"I care not." She replied curtly.
"Someone has a bad case of the bloody Mondays." The Plegian muttered, falling in behind the tall woman. A small smile lit up his face when the shadows of several birds darkened the sky above him, their wings flapping silently as they accompanied the dark mage and his companion.
###
"This is an issue." Panne grunted, looking up at the castle walls. The tops were barely visible in the fading light of day. "How did you plan on getting us inside?"
"We could kill the guards." Henry offered casually, pulling out his Ruin tome.
"We are here to help Ylisse, not harm it." The woman reminded.
"Fine..." The dark mage sighed. "I suppose I do have another way in."
Rooting around in his pockets for a moment, he pulled out a small purple coin. It was only a centimeter in diameter and had skulls engraved on each side.
"Here." The Plegian chirped. "Hold onto this for a minute."
Panne took the coin, confused. "How is this going to help us gain entrance?"
"You'll see." Henry giggled. "Time for a nice little ritual."
Dragging his companion to a secluded area out of the guards' vision range, Henry set about drawing a small circle in the dirt using a random stick. Standing in the middle of said circle, the pale boy reached into his pockets once more and pulled out a small pouch. He threw the contents- silver dust by the looks of it- into the air above him.
The particles of metal shone brightly, causing Panne to avert her eyes lest she be blinded. When she was able to see again, the Plegian was gone.
"He just left me here?!" The woman growled, eyes flashing with irritation. "Man-spawn... I should have known he couldn't be trusted."
###
Inside the castle gates near a small pond, two servants were busy washing clothes. The servants were young women, probably only in their mid twenties. They had been chatting as they worked, discussing anything that came to mind.
Their conversation was cut short when a pale boy dressed in an outlandish cloak erupted from the lake, drenching them with water.
The two servants stared at the boy in shock, watching as he dragged himself out of her water, squeezing his cloak dry. His brown eyes, formerly amused, became even brighter when he noticed his audience.
"Hello there!" The boy laughed, waving a hand. "Nice day for a swim, isn't it?"
The two servants nodded mutely.
"Well, now that I've had my bath, how 'bout I show you a trick?" The boy giggled, skipping closer and stopping near the clothesline containing the garments that had already been washed. He tugged a large top-hat off the line, giving it a good shake to rid it of any remaining water. "Now you've probably seen this one before, but it is always the highlight of any show." He reached his arm into the hat, still smiling like crazy. He paused for a moment, looking at his audience's shocked expressions. "What do you think I'm going to do?" He asked, cooking his head.
"Pull a rabbit out of a hat?" One of the servants offered after a few seconds, muttering get courage to speak.
"You're mostly right." The boy laughed. "But she prefers to be called a taguel."
With that, Henry pulled his arm out of the hat, dragging an extremely annoyed Panne along with it.
The servants took off screaming.
"Guess they don't like magic shows." The Plegian muttered, clipping the hat back onto the clothesline.
"That was uncomfortable." Panne informed the dark mage, massaging her ears all the while as they had been what Henry had grabbed to pull the taguel through. "I did not know you possessed the strength to lift me."
"I mighta used a bit of magic for that too." Henry laughed.
The woman shook her head, trying to clear her dizziness after the unorthodox teleportation.
"Oh, can I have my coin back?" The Plegian asked, holding out his hand. "I needed it to lock onto you for the spell, but otherwise it's just as helpful as a horribly decayed corpse."
Panne handed him the coin, which he pocketed immediately.
Henry cackled a bit as he looked around the castle courtyard. "Ohhhh... If I was still helping Plegia, then this would be prime massacre material."
"But we are here to help the exalt." The taguel reminded him. "We must hurry, night has fallen, you said the assassins would be here soon."
"Correction." Henry giggled. "You need to hurry and help, I need to get out of here."
"Why is that?" Panne asked suspiciously.
"It's all well and good if a random bunny shows up to help, but a Plegian dark mage in the middle of a Plegian assassination attempt? I'd be shot down as soon as came into their sight. I wonder how I'd look with all those arrows through me..." The dark mage hummed happily, using another stick to draw a familiar circle in the ground.
"You tricked me into doing this?" The taguel hissed, her hands curling into claws.
"Not really." Henry shrugged, pulling out a familiar pouch. "I'm gonna help too, I just can't be near the Ylissians." He took some more silver dust and threw it in the air. A bright flash of light obscured Panne's vision once again, and the dark mage was gone.
Growling her displeasure, the taguel raced off to find the exalt. Her thoughts rapidly drifted from the annoying dark mage to the battle ahead as she shoved her way past startled servants and guards alike.
"This is for the debt I owe the exalt." Panne grunted, shooting through hallways at breakneck speed. "I'll deal with the boy later."
###
When night had completely fallen, the squad moved in. One might think a group of assassins would be small, but this was far from truthful. The group had to be at least fifty men strong. At their head was an esteemed religious leader, known as Validar.
The assassins silently scaled the walls, having shot down the guards from a distance with archers.
They spread out across the courtyard, splitting into two groups. One group to seek out and find the exalt, one to find the prince.
From up on tower overlooking the courtyard, a figure stood unseen. His brown eyes dismissed the first group, trusting these so called "shepherds" and his animalistic ally to defeat them. He focused on the second group. One singular assassin was out in front, leading the way for the rest of the group.
Good. That was one less man to deal with. The prince should be able to fight one man.
Waiting for the leading assassin to round the corner of the castle, the figure on the tower pulled out his Ruin tome. Dark energy crackled along his hand as a sadistic smile lit up his face.
His cloak fluttered slightly in the breeze as he let out a small laugh, jumping off the tower and using magic to slow his fall. Birds from the surrounding trees burst into flight, flocking around him as he fell.
He dropped into the middle of his foes, surrounded by a murder of crows, eyes glinting with unstoppable bloodlust as he lashed out with fearsome dark magic.
"I'm gonna kill you!"
One-shot complete. This is basically what I presume happened before Emmeryn's attempted assassination, as it is mentioned that Henry was the one to warn Panne about its occurrence. Hopefully I didn't butcher the characters too bad. Not to mention this story felt all over the place, but for the life of me I couldn't think of anything to put in between.
Ah, whatever. Hope ya'll like it.