The Ruins of Beginnings

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem. This is written by Arcaile63.

It was a fine, glorious sunny day. The kind of weather that makes you want to forget everything and just mingle relaxingly with nature. Alas, for a group of dejected high school students, this kind of weather merely made their already miserable, boring day even more unbearable.

"Aaaaargh... when can we get out of this place?" A young man with messy blonde hair and green eyes groaned as he and his friend headed to their usual spot for lunch.

"Relax Lloyd, the school year is almost done with anyway," another youth, this one with sleek black hair tied into a ponytail and hazel eyes, replied.

"Tch, yeah, and we have finals to worry about. Then again, it won't be a problem for you, huh, Ryu?"

"Are you talking about me?" a female voice asked from behind the pair. They turned around to find a girl, also sporting hazel eyes and a lighter shade of black hair that came half-way towards her waist, and bearing strong resemblance to 'Ryu'.

"Oh, hey sis," the black-haired youth greeted casually.

"Gah, I swear, why do you two have to have such similar names, it gets annoying! What's with 'Ryuuki' and 'Ryuuri', huh? Honestly." Lloyd looked as if he was suffering from a major headache.

"Um... did something happen to him, onii-chan?" Ryuuri asked her older brother, to which he shook his head and replied with a bemused grin.

"He's been like this ever since finals were announced".

The younger sister gave a knowing "oh". Her brother's friend always got fairly agitated whenever a major school project or exam came up.

The three made their way towards the table beneath a tree that was in the corner of the quad, the "usual spot" for Ryuuki and Lloyd. Ryuuri left the group to join her own friends for lunch break. Soon after, the two friends were joined by the third and fourth members of their little group, a tall boy with short reddish-hair and blue eyes, and a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hey, Felix, Eudice, how's it going?" Lloyd greeted his buddies, albeit somewhat dispiritedly.

"What's wrong Lloyd?" Eudice asked as she sat down on the bench next to Felix.

"Let me guess, you got rejected by some girl?" Felix chuckled jokingly, earning himself a glare from Lloyd.

"Ha ha, very funny".

"Hey, I was just kidding". Ryuuki and Eudice had to try quite hard to suppress a laugh.

The four juniors took out their lunches and began to eat. Eudice and Ryuuki pulled out their home-made lunchboxes, whereas Felix and Lloyd settled in with the school food. As they ate, they chatted about trivial things, Felix going on about his new 100 meter dash record, Lloyd blabbering something about mechanics and electrical systems he was working on, Eudice sternly reprimanding them for some prank they pulled recently. As usual, Ryuuki simply listened to the casual talk, absent-mindedly twirling a bit of his hair to the side with his finger.

"Just a little more until we're out of this place!" Felix cried joyfully as he took a bite from his pizza.

"Let's hope you can keep your paws off the cheerleading team until then," Eudice said as she pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Ouch," Lloyd snickered, while Ryuuki grinned bemusedly.

Suddenly, Felix nodded his chin towards somewhere behind Ryuuki. The others followed his gaze and finally stopped at a girl on the other side of the campus. She had dirty blonde hair that was kept out of her face with a maroon head band, although she had her left eye covered with a bang, and also made her hair point upwards in the back with a hair clip. She was leaning against the wall of the gym with her arms crossed, and for some reason the other students were making it a point to take the long way around in order to avoid her.

"Hey, isn't that Kiara?"

"Kiara?" Ryuuki asked, turning to Felix.

"You know, that delinquent girl. She even scares the entire staff and faculty half to death. What's she doing here? She almost never comes to school."

"A delinquent, huh?" Ryuuki said. She did have a rather intimidating scowl on her face. If she could only loosen that seemingly perpetual frown, she might actually look quite pretty. Alas, at the moment people were picking up their pace whenever they got near her, terrified that she might suddenly lash at their throats like a venomous viper.

"Speaking of unusualness, look who's also here," Eudice directed their attentions towards the opposite end of the campus from Kiara. There stood a rather ill-looking young man with short, well-groomed brown hair and amber eyes. Accompanying him was a very pretty girl with waist length black hair with streaks of blonde and sapphire blue eyes. Or rather, it looked more like she was trying to make sure he doesn't fall over. The guy looked like he was ready to collapse any minute now.

"That's Willis and Liliana…" Ryuuki said as he located the two.

"Yup, there's another guy who rarely shows up. Did he get any better?" Felix mused just as Willis slightly staggered in his steps, "Apparently not..."

"Guess it doesn't matter much if you come from a rich family when it comes to illness," Eudice said concernedly, "I heard that his entire family was killed by the disea-"

She was cut off by a sharp nudge from Felix, who was cautiously eyeing Ryuuki, whose normally bright hazel eyes had a look of empty hollowness to them.

"Oh, sorry Ryu".

"It's alright, don't worry about it," Ryuuki answered with a somewhat strained smile. His entire family, nay, his entire bloodline no longer existed. His parents, his grandparents, his uncles, his aunts, his cousins, his distant-cousins, they all died young from a mysterious illness that seemed to haunt the entire family. The only ones left of his bloodline was himself and his sister, which was why he tended to be very overprotective of her. Currently, they were living with a family friend, a generous, wealthy old lady who had been close to their mother. That was why the siblings had transferred to this school district in the first place.

The uneasy silence was thankfully broken by the bell signaling the end of lunch break.

"All righty, physics' next, gotta fly!" Lloyd quite literally bolted from his seat... and left behind his back pack as usual.

Eudice sighed as she grabbed the abandoned bag and started after the science nerd. She was in the same physics class as him, so she ended up having to deliver his bag almost everyday. One would think that after almost two years of constant scolding from her, Lloyd would finally get over his bad habit. No such luck.

"Well, it's off to history for me," Felix said as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Alright, see you later," Ryuuki grabbed his own bag and went the other direction to his advanced government class.

"We're home granny!" Ryuuri chirped as the two siblings entered a modest house. Their foster grandmother of sorts may be pretty wealthy, but she was quite frugal as well. That is, except when it came to the two of them. She absolutely adored children, the black haired siblings especially, due to her having been friend of their mother. As a result, she never missed a chance to spoil them as much as she could. Of course, Ryuuki worked hard to make sure that DIDN'T happen. He hated to impose on the old lady, no matter how generous she might be. His sister had enough common sense as well, and made sure not to step out of line. Alas, Ryuuki himself didn't manage to do a very good job of not spoiling his only remaining family either, so the little girl couldn't help slipping everything now and then.

"Ahhh, welcome back, how was school?" came the reply from a genial looking elderly woman. She was well into her 60's, yet somehow she maintained an enthusiasm that could match the little girl that she had taken in under her roof.

"Oh, nothing much, same as usual," the little girl answered cheerfully. She was in an unusually good mood for some reason today, as she hummed and skipped as she made her way to her room to drop off her things. Ryuuki gave his greetings to the old lady and went to drop off his school things as well, and then got ready for his part-time job at a local cafe, a fairly large one. Feeling that he could not always impose on the old lady all the time, he had acquired the job last year. Of course, the old lady insisted that he didn't have to worry about it, but Ryuuki was equally persistent, and at length she gave in.

He started to change into his uniform, but stopped abruptly as he took off his shirt. Stepping in front of the mirror, he looked into his reflection. Right there, next to his right bicep, was a strange red marking. It resembled the Greek letter omega (Ω), with a single line dissecting it in the middle. He had had it for as long as he could remember. His sister also had one slightly below the nape of her neck as well, although hers was pale green and looked like a rather elaborate spiral triskele. By looking carefully when her hair isn't covering it, one could make out two round tips of the marking right above the collar of her shirt. Ryuuki had no idea what these markings meant. He remembered that his mother sported a marking of her own, an intricate blue crescent moon, on the back of her hand, but that was about it. For some unexplained reason, he felt a kind of reluctance to show this mark to outsiders, so he always had it wrapped up in a bandage in order to conceal it. He often feared that these markings may have something to do with the nightmare that had befallen his family... no, he swore not to think of such things ever again. He still had Ryuuri, and he was not about to let some perverse whim of fate take her away from him as well. That was all that mattered. Mentally berating himself, Ryuuki quickly finished changing and left his room. The distance to the cafe wasn't too far, but it still took about 20 minutes of walking. He didn't want to be late. Not that it would matter much, since his boss was happy with him just being there at all. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the number of customers, particularly the young females, nearly tripled since Ryuuki began working there.

Ryuuki was still trying to clear his mind from the symbols when he turned a corner around the street. For some reason, the symbols were bothering him more today than ever before. He felt like he missed something important back in his room just now. Unfortunately, he was so caught up in his own thoughts that he failed to notice the other person coming around that corner as well. The end result: bump.

"S-sorry" Ryuuki stuttered as he snapped out of his daze. He held out a hand to help the person up, who had fallen down from the small crash. It took him a second to realize that she was someone he knew.

"No, I should apologize, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," the girl with long blonde-streaked black hair said with an embarrassed smile as she took his hand. "It's rare to see you without your sister, Ryuuki."

"I'm off to work right now, so she's back at home," Ryuuki returned the smile as he pulled the girl up. "Speaking of rare, what are you doing around here Liliana? Your house is in the other direction from school, right?"

Liliana's face darkened slightly, her face was cast down and Ryuuki saw her eyes darting side to side, as if checking for any onlookers. "Actually, I... I wanted to speak with you, Ryuuki," she said in a barely audible whisper.

Ryuuki was disturbed. He had known the rich young lady for a long time, having befriended her by sheer chance long before he even moved to this town. In all these years, he had never seen her so troubled before. He glanced at his watch. He had roughly 10 minutes to spare, since he always left early when going somewhere, just to be safe. Then again, even if he was late, his boss really wouldn't mind much.

"Oh, but you're busy now, aren't you? I'll just come again some other time."

"No, no, it's alright. So, what did you want to talk about?" Liliana looked uncertain for a moment, then suddenly grabbed him by the arm and quickly walked away. Now Ryuuki was even more alarmed. He had never seen Liliana so worried and rushed before. She was always calm and refined.

She led him to a nearby park. Actually, it was nothing more than a small sandbox with a slide and a pair of swings. Ever since the new big, fancy park was built near the center of the town, this one became pretty much forgotten. Still, Ryuuki was familiar with the place, since he often visited here during his frequent night walks. He liked the peace and quiet it offered.

Liliana once again looked around to make sure no one else was in the vicinity. Seeing that the place was devoid of any human being, save for the two of them, she let out a small breath of relief. Then she noted that she had been holding Ryuuki's hand the whole time. Blushing slightly, she quickly released her grip. Ryuuki couldn't help but grin slightly. Though she was from a high class family, her occasional moments of boldness like this never ceased to amuse him.

"So? What's the problem?" he asked, partly in order to break the awkward silence that had befallen the park.

Liliana fidgeted for a while, then cautiously opened her mouth, her gaze fully locked onto the boy in front of her. Is that fear Ryuuki detected in her eyes? For a long time Ryuuki had gotten the feeling that he could almost "sense" what other people, and other objects such as trees, are thinking. It had become stronger as of recent. His sister had confided to him that she felt such a connection with the world around her as well.

"Ummm… Ryuuki, do you remember when we first met?"

Ryuuki was taken aback. After all that apparent dilemma, that was the LAST thing he thought she would bring up. He frowned as he struggled to make sense of what she just said. It was probably during a summer vacation about 8 or 9 years ago, shortly before he and Ryuuri had to move in with Granny. He and Ryuuri were having a little swimming competition (a bit one-sided really, but Ryuuki often lost on purpose) while their parents and Granny were barbecuing. By sheer chance he had found Liliana almost half-drowned in the sea. It turned out that she had fallen off her family yacht while trying to catch a passing seagull. Nobody had been keeping an eye on her, so her entire family (particularly the father) was in a state of panic when they couldn't find her. When they at last found her with the Ayanokouji family, they were beside themselves with gratitude (to the point where they even offered an entire personal island resort as a gift… Of course, Ryuuki's family turned it down.).

For the life of him, Ryuuki could not think of what significance that event should bring about now.

"Yes, that time at the beach, right? What about it?"

"… your right arm, you had a mark, right?"

Ryuuki froze at this. How did she know about the mark? Now that he thought about it, he had not covered his mark with a bandage like he used to that time. There seemed to be no reason to do so, since he was with his family only (Granny counts as a family, for all purposes). She must have caught a glimpse of it back then.

"Yes, but what does that have to-" Ryuuki nearly jumped as Liliana started unbuttoning the top of her blouse. "Wai, wha, what are you-"

Liliana placed one finger on his lips to hush him up. It took Ryuuki all the self-restraint he could muster to stay calm in this awkward situation. Making sure that Ryuuki was not about to let out another outburst, the girl carefully undid a few more buttons. When she stopped, her face completely red with embarrassment, Ryuuki was utterly speechless. Slightly over the center of her chest, there was a light blue mark shaped like Ж.

"That's… a mark" was all he could say.

"Yes…" Liliana replied quietly, "I can't tell this to my parents, they might do something drastic, you know how they are. You were the only one I could think of, because I remembered that you had one too back then. It, it's been growing more distinct these past few days.

At her words Ryuuki's eyes widened. He immediately fumbled over his cuff button, then pulled back the long sleeve. Now he knew what had been bothering him earlier in his room. The red marking was too distinct. For the last seventeen years, the mark had been quite faded. Clearly visible, but nevertheless somewhat like faded paint. Right now, however, the mark was as bright and clear as if it was freshly tattooed onto his arm.

"And then there's this…" Ryuuki gave her an apprehensive look as she picked up a stray leaf on the ground. She closed her eyes, and at that moment Ryuuki felt a strange tingling sensation. A white-blue aura danced around her hand with the leaf, then the leaf was encased in a thick layer of ice.

"… I have had this ability since I was a child, but it's never been this strong, not since the mark grew distinct," Liliana explained, her voice wavering, "I don't know what's happening to me, I, I'm frightened, Ryuuki."

Ryuuki did not reply immediately. It started to make sense. If Liliana was indeed affected by a mark just as he and Ryuuri were, and that seemed quite likely by this point, it would explain one other thing that had been nagging at him. The voices were growing louder and clearer. Before, he could only "feel" what plants and animals were feeling, even natural landscapes such as rivers. Recently, however, he could actually "hear" what these entities were feeling, or perhaps even thinking. He glanced back at his own mark. It was clear that the clarity of the mark had something to do with the apparent increase in their strange powers. What this signified, however, Ryuuki could not tell.

Drawing a deep breath to calm himself, Ryuuki said, "Honestly, I have no idea what's going on, either. In fact, if you hadn't told me about it, I would not have noticed the mark's clarity…" he thought for a bit and continued, "I'll have a talk with my sister. I can't promise anything, but perhaps we can come up with some idea. Until then…" He placed one arm firmly on her shoulder, "Do not show your mark or powers to anyone else, not even your family if you can help it, all right?"

(Few weeks later)

"YEAH! This is gonna be awesome!" Felix whooped as he slung his bulging bag over his shoulder.

"Mr. O'Connor! Please behave in a manner befitting a student of our school, for ONCE in your life!"

"Aye, aye, Mr. Lewis," the moment the history teacher turned his back, Felix added, "... and Clark."

The finals were over at last, and the students were about to embark on their joyous end of the year field trip. Mr. Lewis, the school's world history teacher, and Miss. Waylen, the biology and chemistry teacher, had managed to obtain permission to visit some newly discovered ruins (courtesy of Mr. Lewis's friends who, well, owed him a few favors). If anything, the two teachers, well-known ruins fanatics, seemed even more excited than the students.

"Okay everyone, the bus will leave in exactly 15 minutes, so get into your groups, finish whatever you need to do, and get on a bus, chop chop!" Miss. Waylen announced a bit too cheerfully.

Since the participation in the trip was voluntary, students of all different grade levels had shown up on that day. Felix had wandered off a tad too close to a group of junior girls, before getting a chunk of flesh beneath his neck grabbed by Eudice and dragged off. Since groups needed to be formed within the same grade level, Felix, Eudice, Ryuuki, and Lloyd had already formed a group. Ryuuri was nowhere to be seen, much to Ryuuki's concern.

"Come on, Ryu, she's bound to be there when we arrive, you're driving us nuts with that fidgeting," Eudice sighed exasperatedly.

"Sorry," however, Ryuuki could not help but constantly shift his eyes left and right. If he had one major character flaw, it would be his overprotective behavior towards his sister. If it were not for the fact that all grade levels could participate in this trip, he would not have gone in the first place in order to keep an eye on the sophomores, specifically Ryuuri.

"I'm not bothering everyone, am I?" a voice asked from the side.

"Nah, more the merrier in a trip like this. Still, I can't understand why you would want to hang out with us, Liliana," Eudice answered with a smile.

"Oh, I know why… hehe…" Felix snickered with a sly grin plastered all over his face, prompting Eudice to raise an eyebrow, "Sooooo, Liliana, mind telling us how it went?"

"Pardon?" Liliana asked in confusion.

"Oh, you don't need to be shy, it's all part of being human, you know. Sooo, how'd it go in the park? Shame I had to leave right then and there, but I thought your first should be by yourselves, you know?" Nobody seemed to be understanding a word coming out of his mouth, save for Eudice, who presently had a suspicious scowl on her face.

"Umm… I'm afraid I have no idea what you're referring to."

"Aww, come on, you and Ryu were really getting into it!" This, at least, snapped Ryuuki out of his single-minded browsing of the crowd.

"Hmmm? You called?" Ryuuki asked, having missed the entire conversation until he heard his name. Liliana, on the other hand, recalled the incident back at the park a few weeks back, particularly the part involving her blouse. Instantly, her face turned into a brilliant shade of scarlet.

"N-no! That's not what happened! That was-" Liliana was cut off as Eudice caught Felix's face in one hand, and began to crush it.

"ARGH! I give! I give!" Felix floundered as he tried to pry off the fingers strengthened by years of archery.

"Next time, keep your mouth zipped…" Eudice spoke slowly in a quiet, deadly tone as she unceremoniously dropped him, allowing his form to crumple into a pitiful lump.

"Yes ma'am…"

"Did I… miss something?" Ryuuki asked, still completely oblivious as to what they had been talking about.

"You don't need to know," Eudice replied, then muttered to herself, "for Liliana's sake".

The ruins were unlike anything Ryuuki had ever seen. And that was saying something, considering how Ryuuki had studied a vast amount of archaeological records for one of his old history research paper. It resembled a small courtyard, with a single spire jutting out from the center. However, the actual ruins were much larger than the ones visible on the surface, since there existed a cavernous underground complex. Each of the teachers took their charge of students down through the numerous stairways, towards the heart of the structure.

"Jeez, this place sure gives me the creeps," Lloyd muttered as he examined the pictures on the wall they were passing by, "and what's up with this? It's like humans turning into animals! What is this, some sort of shrine for werewolves?"

Ryuuki took a closer look at the picture, then quickly glanced around the hallway. "I'm not sure what civilization this belongs to. Logically, you'd think it was a Native American ruins, since, well, it's IN America. But these markings and drawings, not to mention the architecture and the overall layout of the structures don't resemble any of the tribes I can recall. This is nothing like the Aztecs, or the Mayans, not even the Incans".

"Okay, that's great Ryu, now could you put that in plain English please?"

"Basically, Felix, God knows who made these things," Eudice retorted.

"… she's still mad at me, isn't she?" Felix whispered to Lloyd, who solemnly nodded.

"And we're HERE!" the students and teachers jumped as Mr. and Miss. ruins-lovers exclaimed in what can be best described as a glee displayed by 7 year old child with a new toy.

"Look at this, this sculpture! I DO wonder what tools and techniques they…" All other subsequent ramblings were soon tuned out by the rest of the tourists.

"He needs to chill, badly," Felix muttered as he adjusted his bag that had fallen off of his shoulder from the jump.

Eventually, the students ended up migrating towards their friends and scattering all over the place. The ruins were still being excavated, but this section had been cleared and quarantined, and the archaeologists had guaranteed perfect safety, which enabled the students to roam at will.

Felix and Eudice, having been appointed medical officers of their group (the students under Mr. Lewis) had run off in order to support the frail Willis, who had just collapsed out of exhaustion from all the walking. Ryuuri was still nowhere to be seen, though Eudice managed to convince Ryuuki that his sister is probably just hanging out with her own friends. So, for the meanwhile, Ryuuki took his time examining the room they were all in. The walls were filled with more of the drawings of morphing humans, along with a great big mural depicting some sort of a flood. In the middle of the room was a large pedestal, featuring 4 differently shaped and colored orbs facing inward, where two larger spheres rested in the center.

"This mural… perhaps it depicts the flood in the bible?" Ryuuki was startled by the sudden voice, and turned to find Liliana and Lloyd looking curiously up at the mural.

"I don't think so. For one thing, there's no ark in it, and I'm pretty certain that these ruins were here way before the first Europeans came over to this continent. I'd say they date around a millennium or so, give or take a few centuries," Ryuuki explained as he swept a finger across the stone wall. Suddenly there was a bump, a clatter, and Lloyd began fumbling around.

"Crap, dropped my glasses! That damn brat of a sophomore, or freshman, or whatever he is!"

Ryuuki chuckled quietly, then noticed something on the floor. He knelt down and brushed off a layer of dust that had accumulated on the ground. The more he dusted away, the more drawings he uncovered. Intrigued, he began sweeping out a large circle, which revealed what looked to be a map of some sort. Then Ryuuki frowned. He had had a funny feeling when he first entered this .lace. He wasn't sure what to call it. Nostalgic, perhaps? Which was absurd, as he had definitely never been in here before. But what really bothered him was the fact that he could READ the strange letterings he had found on the pictures on the wall and the symbols on the floor. Not completely, nor did the sentence structure really make much sense to him, but he did recognize a few words that said "Beorc, Laguz, Ashera, and just now on the floor, Crimea." Of course, the meaning behind these words were totally lost on him. Without any source of reference to the culture of the civilization behind these ruins, these words were nothing more than jibberish. Trying his best to ignore the uneasy feeling that had begun to grow, he stood up and took a better look around the room.

"Strange, it's getting harder to breathe in here…"

"Now that you mention it, it is getting quite uncomfortable," Liliana replied, looking just as concerned as Ryuuki.

"Ah! Brother!" Ryuuki jumped for the umpteenth time as he heard his sister's voice echo throughout the chamber. He turned around just in time to see two people, or rather, one person dragging another person by hand, leap the last set of stairs and land just a short distance away from where he stood.

Then it happened. The whole room was illuminated by the light from the pedestal in the center. The floor lit up, revealing the entire map-like drawings on it. A strange melody seemed to emanate from nowhere, yet it was heard everywhere throughout the chamber. Before anyone could react, which was not possible since everyone was too awe-struck to move a muscle, the floor seemed to fluctuate, then began sucking them all in like some gigantic quicksand. People began screaming and flailing, trying to claw their way out of the now mud-like surface.

Ryuuki struggled to stay aloft, all the while forcing himself towards Ryuuri, who looked absolutely terrified at the current predicament. Alas, the pull on him was too great, and Ryuuki began to sink down slowly, slowly, then at a faster pace. The last thing he saw before being completely swallowed up was a shimmering, what was it, ghosts? of various people and animal staring down at them, floating in the air…

Then all went black.