A King's Future, a King's Wish
Author: Lexi
Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
Characters: Fai, King Ashura
Warnings: None
Summary: King Ashura slept. And sleeping, dreamt.
- Chapter 1 -
Prince Ashura slept. And sleeping, dreamt.
His unconscious mind was walking on paths beyond, was straying through past, present, future. Vaguely, he was aware of others sharing this world-in-between, visions of kind, childlike dark eyes full of wisdom, of one sly eye magnified through a monocle, of emerald orbs and feathers brushing past his mind, but he paid them little heed.
Instead, he strove forward, attempting to push the limits of this world-in-between, to see more, see farther than ever before, and then something seemed to snap, and a vision-like dream played itself in front of his mind's eye.
The royal gems on his forehead. He was king, his people dead, lying in their own blood all around him, and it was their blood on his hands he was watching with detached indifference. Destruction. Insanity. He had brought death in his madness, slaughtered his whole country, and no one had been strong enough to stop him.
His sleeping self panicked at the sight, hands clawing his head, no, this must not happen, he could not allow it, NO!
And with a yell he was torn from that world-in-between, to find himself back in his armchair in front of the roaring fire in the fireplace, the frozen winds of Ceres holing outside, and his heart still throbbing painfully fast and hard against his ribcage, a living reminder of his dream.
Slowly, he dropped his head forward into his hands, burying his fingers in his hair, the long strands hiding his face from the world around. But not from the world he had seen.
So that was his future. Gaining the throne, gaining the power, like he had been brought up to, only to descend into insanity and slaughter a whole world.
No. This was not a future he would allow. He would find a way to alter destiny. He had to.
Desperately he raked his brain and memory for any clue as to what had driven him to that insanity, what had made him do what he did, but he couldn't find a single hint.
After his breathing had calmed down, he was able to analyse his dream more clearly. Well, if he couldn't stop his madness, then he would just have to make sure that it didn't claim as many lives as it had in his vision.
Suicide was out of question. He was the only heir to the throne, and leaving his country to fall into chaos was not an option. No, he wanted to rule, to protect his people and make his country prosper.
But by the time he stopped caring for that, by the time madness claimed him, he would not consider ending his own life anymore. So there needed to be someone strong enough to stop him by then. Someone… but who? His magic was powerful, more powerful than anyone else's in this country, in this world, even his own father, he had felt it. He couldn't simply trust and wait that a child might be born with magical powers strong enough, not when he wanted to change the future.
Maybe in another world…?
He would have to see to that. But right now, his powers were exhausted, his mind still reeling with the shock from the future he had seen.
For now, he needed to rest. There was still time.
King Ashura slept. And sleeping, dreamt.
It wasn't until after his coronation that another dream was coming to him. Once again, he found himself in that world-in-between, where futures and dimensions brushed against each other. Consciously, he opened his senses, stretched them, wandering between worlds, searching for anything, anyone, to keep the future he had seen from happening.
There was a light, somewhere in the distance, and Ashura opened his mind's eye as wide as possible. A light, blue and white and of gentle coolness, no, it was two lights, flickering and somehow detached from time, snow and sadness and a loneliness he could barely fathom… But most of all, he felt magic, a magical power stronger than any to be found in Ceres. Together, these two powers would one day be certainly be strong enough to tear apart the very foundations of their world, if so they chose. But he could not find malice in that power, there was kindness, protectiveness, childlike in its nature and yet so mature beyond its years.
Striving to see more, he caught a glimpse of two children, one in a tower, one in a pit of corpses, their powers suppressed, at the mercy of the biting cold and the cruel wind, and disgust filled him at the sick superstitiousness of a world that thought innocent children to be bringers of misfortune.
But he had to be quick, another had found the children before him, and already he could feel that world starting to crumble, could feel curses spoken and placed upon one of the children. He had to get at least one of those little boys before that happened, he needed that magic, he needed it to keep the future he had seen from happening!
So King Ashura acted, rushing forward and using his considerable magic to cut through the fabric of time and space, opening a gap between Valeria and Ceres.
And as he looked into a pair of haunted blue eyes for the first time, tears frozen on haggard cheeks, pale skin stretched painfully thin over high cheekbones, bruised by cruel winds, skinny fingers clinging to another bloody, blond child, Ashura suddenly knew that it would be no hardship to take in this child, this innocent, broken, scarred, incredibly powerful little human. He saw the loneliness, the guilt, the fierce protectiveness for the corpse in the child's arms, the blatant need for but a single, simple act of kindness, and felt his heart open against his will.
"What is your name?"
"Fai."
Something was beginning.
And only much, much later King Ashura was to learn just how much.
In most fanfiction, Ashura's usually being portrayed as Fai's cruel nemesis, evil incarnate. But after reading the Ceres arc, I found myself intrigued by him: Why did he act the way he did? How did he find Fai, why did he take him in? How much did he know? This is my take on him.
And no, I don't think Fei Wong set Ashura up to get Fai out of Ceres. It's a possibility, sure, but I still prefer the option that Fei Wong merely anticipated Ashura's move and used it to manipulate the twins.
English's not my native language, so I'm grateful for constructive criticism and comments!