A/N: This is my first fanfic I ever wrote or came up with. In fact, I came up with this idea while I was high off of laughing gas after getting my wisdom teeth pulled. If there's some resemblance to other fanfics, its probably because I took some topics that I found really interesting and changed it to better fit my story. It's like how people paint, they take inspirations from other sources and put those ideas and inspirations into their own work. That's what I did here, and I hope you guys all enjoy it. If not, well at least it heartens me that people took their own time to read my work, even if it was composed while I was high. If there's anything wrong syntax or diction wise, I'mma chalk it up to my C+ in Language Arts Classes. This reality is based in the Revelations path, but I tried to make it as accurate to the game as possible. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Fates, any of the characters, or have friends. :(

Spoiler Alert: Slight spoilers for the Revelation path, but c'mon. If you're reading this fanfic, chances are you like Fire Emblem and chances are you already know half the story anyways.

Azura was never one to fall asleep easily, what with the knowledge of the fact that she was the last of her bloodline and people, the fact that they were in the middle of a war, and how both she and Corrin were basically nothing more than hostages in the world's largest chess game. Those problems, plus a healthy dollop of flashbacks, nightmares, social anxiety, and low-esteem meant that whenever she did manage to fall asleep for more than a few hours at a time meant that she often spent the entire night tossing and turning, often ending up at the floor of her quarters to twisted in ways human bodies were never meant to be twisted.

Most people in these situations would've spent the entire day lying in their beds then, wondering whether or not they should follow their friend's—if they had any friends—advice on seeking help.

Not Azura, though.

Though she would never admit it if Elise or the rest of her many siblings asked on it, there was one person that always managed to bring a smile to her face, that always managed to make her feel safe and relaxed. What with his charming smile and his laid-back and easygoing nature, Corrin always managed to bring out this happy little dollop of sunlight in the eternal night that she often referred to as her life.

Azura huffed and groaned in pain as she fell out of her bed and onto the floor for the third time that time. As she huffed and climbed back into her bed, she knew that tonight would be just like every other night.

"MOTHER!"

Corrin's anguished sobs echoed throughout the ruined market as he held Mikoto in his arms. Azura watched with horror and shock, tears streaming down her face.

She had been walking behind Mikoto and Corrin as they chatted about their day. Azura had followed them along silently, simply nodding and smiling whenever they brought her into the conversation.

While Mikoto was explaining to Corrin what presenting him to the general public would do for them, Azura noticed a hooded man slinking into a shaded alleyway. While watching a man wearing a hood on a sunny day was suspicion enough, the mere fact that the man was making a conscious effort to hide any and all parts of his body set Azura on edge, though she wasn't sure why

Later, that same man pushed his way to the front of the crowd, so that he was in the empty space separating the rabble from the royals. Shocked whispers spread out among the crowd at the man's blatant disrespect, but Mikoto and Corrin simply raised an eyebrow. The man reached out with his hand towards Corrin and Mikoto—a hand that was covered with purple flames. Mikoto frowned and opened her mouth undoubtedly to alert her guards, but Corrin's sword suddenly flew off his waist and into the man's outstretched hand.

The hooded man thrust Ganglari into the ground, whereupon it started to pulse violently. A massive orb of fell energy burst free of the blade, shattering it and instantly killing and shredding apart any innocents standing too close to it. Mikoto's and Corrin's widened in shock as the shards of the weapon streaked through the air towards them.

The two guards in front of Mikoto reacted instantly, putting their bodies and lives between the shards and their liege, to no avail. The shards pierced through their body as easily as a sword would tear through paper, and still carried enough momentum behind them to easily kill anyone.

Azura's hands flew to her mouth, her eyes widening as Mikoto threw herself in front of Corrin, further shielding him. She screamed, a terrible, keening sound that Azura didn't even know humans could make, as she collapsed into Corrin's arms.

Corrin fell to his knees in shock as she whispered a few words to him. What, the words were, Azura did not know. They were meant for Corrin, and Corrin alone.

Whatever the case, Mikoto's body grew still within his arms as Corrin screamed in raw agony and rage. Takumi and Sakura were likewise stunned into silence. Save for the royals, a few guards staggering to their feet, and the cries of the wounded buried in the rubble, everyone was dead. The once-beautiful town square looked nothing more than Valla's empty ruins just then. Clouds of dust billowed upwards in massive heaves as pieces of rubble continued raining from the sky.

To her, the world had gone mute. She flatly watched as Ryoma pulled himself to his feet with Raijinto and pointed the legendary weapon towards the man, who—despite being at the center of the fell explosion—stood silently, gently swaying side to side as if a small breeze was blowing against him.

Ryoma dashed forward and slashed the man shoulder to hip, revealing nothing but tatters of the cloak he had just worn.

Azura stared at the image of her adoptive brother shouting his fury and challenges to the world before another, more terrible sight drew her attention away from him. Gouts of fire and purple energy were spurting from between the folds of Corrin's armor as his arms snapped out to either side of him as he roared, quite literally roared, his anger to the gods.

Red and purple fire shot out from beneath his feet as a thick smoke covered the rest of the body. Despite the smoke, Azura could barely make out the sight of wings sprouting from his back, his hands and feet changing—twisting—themselves into talons.

In Corrin's place stood a dragon, its platinum white scales stark against the clouds of dust billowing everywhere. It reared back and roared, grief and rage apparent, even in its mindless savagery.

It turned and mauled an unfortunate soldier that was struggling to climb to his feet nearby. Takumi snapped out of his shock and hurriedly pulled Sakura away from the dragon as what remained of the contingent of guards that had escorted Corrin and Mikoto charged towards the dragon.

"What is that?" Takumi asked, once he and Sakura were safely out of the dragon's reach.

"It's…it's a dragon," Ryoma blurted. "I thought…I never thought I'd ever see the day…"

If anything, it was the presence of fear in Hoshido's crown prince that drew her out of her shock. She ducked out from behind the pillar that she had been hiding behind and raced towards the dragon, pulling her pendant from the confines of her dress and hair as she did so.

The dragon reared back its head and roared again in triumph at the dozen or so mangled bodies surrounding it. Its massive head snapped towards Azura as it saw her coming.

Azura mentally leafed through her options as she slowed to a walk. Azura knew little of dragons, save that one of them was responsible for the destruction of Valla, and that they, like any elder race, were prone to fits of madness, and should their madness consume them, nothing would be left the same.

There was only one option, and it was a risky one at that if it failed, but without hesitation, Azura took it. She opened her lips to sing the song that had proven to be both her birthright and burden.

"You are the ocean's gray waves…"

"Azura! Stop!"

Ryoma broke free of his trance-like state and was even fast enough to grab Azura's arm before a blast of water erupted out from under his feet, pushing him back towards Sakura and Takumi.

Azura spared a second to glance over her shoulder at them before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to fortify her resolve.

"You are the ocean's wave waves, destined to seek…

Life beyond the shore, just out of reach…"

The dragon roared at her again, spread its wings out to appear larger. Despite this, there was something about the dragon's cry this time. It was meeker and more desperate this time, rather than full of fury the first time it had roared.

For a split second, Azura allowed her heart to soar. She was succeeding! She took another step towards the dragon as she burst into the next stanza.

The dragon's tail twitched, ever so slightly.

Azura's eyes widened and she tried to raise her hands to protect herself as the dragon reared and slashed her, shoulder to hip, with its claws. Azura screamed in pain as she fell onto her back, her vision flashing black and red as the back of her head slammed into the ground.

Through the pain and blurry vision, she tried to gasp out the last line of her song. Before she could even open her mouth, however, the dragon's claws slammed into her throat, causing her to cry out in pain as Sakura screamed her name.

Azura weakly grasped what would've been the wrist of the dragon's claw as tears streamed down her face.

"Flowing…like time…the path is yours…to climb…"

The dragon tiled its head in amusement as it looked down at the slender human hand touching its scale. Azura did the same, and to her horror, saw that' there were splotches of purple energy spreading out throughout her body and arm.

"No…" she whimpered as the familiar numbness spread throughout her body. "N-not yet…"

The dragon curiously jabbed at where Azura's face would've been with a single talon, only to be met with a splash of water. The dragon shook its head and rolled its shoulder back, almost as if it was shrugging, before it turned on Takumi, Ryoma, and Sakura.

Takumi screamed in pain as the dragon tore him limb from limb while Ryoma staggered away, trying to hold in his intestines with a single arm. The single paw slammed onto Azura's pendant, shattering it. Sakura screamed once, as the dragon turned its full attention on her, and was silenced.

All this and more, Azura watched as she felt herself slowly drifting upward to join her mother and father. The last image she saw before she left was the silhouette of Corrin's curled-up body in the dragon's chest as it stamped and tore on Sakura's, Takumi's, and Ryoma's carcasses.

Azura bolted upright. Surely, it was dawn, right? The nightmares always felt like they lasted an eternity, but a quick query to a passing sentry confirmed her suspicions.

She sat down at the edge of her bed, holding her head in her hands and tears fell freely onto the floor between her feet. After a while, the tears slowly stopped coming, and Azura lifted her head to stare out the window at the woods surrounding the castle.

The castle had no name, and throughout the war, both Corrin and Azura had referred to it as "MyCastle," though Azura wasn't sure that would be the case once the war was over. If it was ever over.

According to Lilith, the castle had been built some forty-odd centuries ago, during the First War, the war that also formed the three nations of Nohr, Valla, and Hoshido. Which nation built it, nobody knew, since the castle shared similarities to both Nohrian and Hoshidan architect and was supposedly a vital checkpoint and defensive location on what was now The Bottomless Canyon.

None had been able to breach it, since every time a foreign army attempt to take it, they were repelled every time. Eventually, one of the sides called upon the Astral Dragon Moro to seal the castle, along with all of its defendants away inside an alternate dimension. Said dimension was the Astral Plane. The trapped defenders slowly wasted away due to infighting and starvation, and history slowly lost track of it.

Lilith had said that the castle existed in real life, and was still "present," so to speak, but according to the former stable-girl, no one could enter, and no one could leave. Walking towards the edge of the border would result in the would-be trespasser ending up several dozen feet away, dazed and confused, with no idea how they got there. Similarly, it's impossible to leave the castle, since walking towards the distant ocean and mountains would cause one to be dumped back in the center in an undignified heap. Not that one was forbidden from leaving the castle ground; Moro had been generous enough to gift the original inhabitants with nearly 40 kilometers of land around the castle. Not that it did much to help, since the original defenders had nothing save for their horses, boots, and a few barrels of mead for food.

The only way to travel back and forth to the real world, as well as to grow food, is with the help of an Astral Dragon.

Thankfully, Corrin's stable girl, Lilith, turned out to be one of these Astral Dragons, and was more than willing to warp and change the land in the astral plane to what Corrin saw fit. That was how he was able to fund this entire war against Valla, though to the handful of soldiers and mercenaries that had willingly joined them, it was to unite Hoshido and Nohr once again.

When Corrin discovered that he could ask Lilith to change the land as he saw fit, in any way he wanted—so long as it was physically possible—he had immediately requested that she create a lake in the woods surrounding the castle, so that it "looked like the lake where I met Azura at, in Hoshido."

At first, Azura had been against the idea of Corrin taking away valuable land just so that she could have a place to sing in private, but once the nightmares and flashbacks started to show up, she found herself more often than not spending her nights strolling around the perimeter of the lake, waiting for her pulse to settle down.

Azura stood up and quickly dressed herself, pulling a cloak around herself for both modesty and warmth. She needed to tell Corrin the truth, the truth about the bags under her eyes and the sadness in her life. It was about time that she visited the lake again.