Author's Note: A "what-if" scenario that takes place shortly before you arrive to Yormgen when it's no longer a town. (AKA right before Baction.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Vesperia, but I oh-so-enjoy playing with the characters~

Guardian Field

Blood from an open wound in his chest splashed onto the white sands of the disintegrated Yormgen. Flynn's strength wavered, and his knees buckled as the shifting sea of land sapped away his very life. As Flynn stared up into the cold eyes of the commandant, shock and confusion etched itself above the stunning disbelief and electrifying pain in his expression. Alexei supposed he could spare Flynn a scrap of knowledge before he vanished into oblivion.

"You are no longer of use to me, Captain Flynn Scifo. If I were to let you live, you would only become a hindrance to me, and that is something I cannot allow."

"C-Commandant…" Flynn gasped, a hand pressed tight to his chest to stem the blood flow. It helped little.

"Captain!" Sodia hollered, her now unsheathed sword grasped tight between her hands.

Her hesitation was so slight any other soldier would have witnessed nothing out of the ordinary, but for Commandant Alexei, it signified his immediate victory. The very second she swung her weapon, he parried, creating an opening wide enough for a fatal blow. However, he instead drove the blade through her shoulder, resulting in enough blood loss that would subdue her consciousness but not wipe out her existence.

Witcher, the poor fool, stumbled back, eyes wide and disbelief shaking his entire body. He snapped out of said reverie a smidgen too late, and he, too, succumbed to the swift sting of Alexei's blade.

As he returned his attention to Flynn, Alexei spoke, "It is rather unfortunate. I saw a bit of myself in you, even hoped that maybe I could persuade you to join me, but as that time drew nearer, I had to make a decision."

Flynn, who gripped the hilt of his sword with a quivering hand, winced as the throbbing injury to his chest inhibited any further movement. Before this trained fighter, this man who had over ten years of experience on him, he was nothing more than a pup. That dim realization cast a sort of peaceful veil over Flynn, like he could accept the fate handed to him despite his unyielding desire to live….

"Goodbye, Flynn Scifo."

Something warm sprayed from his shoulder, and a pain so grating hot severed his nerves, Flynn let out a feral scream, one he didn't even know resided within him. More blood splashed onto the sand, quenching the parched land's thirst. The raw torment that numbed Flynn's body submerged him in wave after crashing wave of hysteria. He collapsed amidst his own pool of blood, eyesight fading despite how hard he tried to focus his vision.

"Damn, looks like I missed a perfect opportunity…. We're moving on to Baction. Fall out!" were the last words Flynn heard before darkness subdued him.

Only the gentle breeze from a dragon's take-off disrupted the otherwise stagnant air.

It took Ba'ul five minutes alone to land on the shifting sand just outside of what remained of Yormgen.

"Wouldn't it have been faster for him to just drop us off in the ocean and let us dock?" Yuri asked Judith as they departed from the ship and trudged their way to Yormgen.

He wasn't the only antsy one amongst the group. Raven's possible betrayal hung heavy on everyone, but what really bothered him about it was that he hadn't noticed the hints prior to now. He'd paced the ship up and down countless times before Rita stomped up from downstairs to chew him out.

"Ba'ul still isn't used to landing on shifting surfaces like sand or water. It would have taken him just as long either way."

"Whoa, guys, look at that!" Karol exclaimed, his surprise leaking into his voice. He stood at the top of a dune, eyes shielded by a hand. "The whole town is gone!"

"I don't get it. How does a town just…disappear?" Rita asked, snatching the lead from Karol as she half slid, half walked down the dune.

"That would be Phaeroh's doing. The Yormgen we visited was just an illusion he created. This is the real Yormgen," Judith explained as they stepped onto firmer sand.

"No way! But it was so real!" Karol argued otherwise, but he silenced himself when he witnessed Yuri's sudden halt. "Yuri?"

The group followed Yuri's gaze to the fallen knights.

"No way…" Rita breathed, her eyes landing on Witcher. "What happened here?"

"Flynn!" Yuri bellowed, his stomach plummeting when his eyes latched onto the captain's bloodied body.

He dashed to his friend's side, stumbling as the sand shifted beneath his feet, worry cracking his voice. Yuri collapsed on his knees next to Flynn, his usual poker face shattering under the weight of each negative emotion that struck the mask.

"Judith, Karol, check Witcher and Sodia. Make sure they're okay," Yuri ordered, his voice strained.

He understood, even under such stress, that they had to work fast to save anyone they could. Judith obliged immediately, but not before placing a firm hand on Karol's shoulder.

"Yuri…" Karol whispered, sympathetic. It was like how he felt at the Don's passing…helpless, unable to prevent such a tragedy from happening. Despite the strong front he displayed, Karol still felt despair weigh on Yuri's shoulders.

"C'mon, Flynn, you can't die on me now. What happened to changing the empire?" Yuri hovered over the knight so he could flip him onto his back. "Rita, isn't there anything you can do?"

Repede whined and nudged Flynn's hand with his muzzle. Just like on Yuri's hands, blood and sand caked Repede's muzzle.

"Well, Rita?" Yuri hollered to the stunned girl after receiving no reply, jerking her out of her reverie.

She'd never witnessed Yuri Lowell's face look so broken before. In all the time she knew him, she always thought that Yuri would be the one to withstand any mental pressure, hold strong under whatever circumstance reared its ugly head his way…. Oh, how wrong she had been…. She could only express guilt as she cast her gaze away from his and clenched her hands.

"I…I can't use healing artes."

"Aren't you a genius mage? You-"

"My blastia was built to only use attack magic!" Rita snapped. "I can't tell it to do something it wasn't meant to do…."

Dammit he knew that; he knew that all too well! Yuri grimaced and returned his attention to the blood-soaked knight before him. So much sorrow and hopelessness hung like the mist before a storm, like it was already the end, yet he could do nothing but suppress this gnawing desire to hack away at the distress that threatened to shred him.

"Yu..ri…"

The soft whisper hardly reached his ears, and it was at that moment Yuri thanked whatever gods there were for the lack of wind in that arid desert.

"Flynn…." Yuri greeted. Flynn recognized the tension in Yuri's tone, and it was then he knew….

"A…Alex…ei."

"Don't talk right now, Flynn."

"N-No…Sh-Shrine…Bact…ion."

"Dammit, Flynn, I told you to shut up! Don't tell us where Alexei's going like we're just going to abandon you! You idiot, what were you thinking?"

Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, Yuri recognized the retreat of his comrades, allowing him more space to talk with Flynn in his…dammit! Repede, too, curled next to Flynn's side to provide his human some warmth to prolong the inevitable.

"M…my apo…logies."

"You were supposed to become Commandant! You were supposed to create an uncorrupted Empire!"

To Yuri's surprise, Flynn barked out a single laugh, his body shaking from it or the cold seeping into his veins Yuri couldn't answer.

"Looks…like I…screwed up…."

"Damn straight you did! You're not supposed to…. You were…."

The flurry of emotions that spun like a cyclone in Yuri's mind penetrated so deep into his core nausea churned his stomach. In all the time he knew him, not once had it occurred to him that Flynn Scifo, the knight to whom he always struggled to equal would fall to another human being. The absurdity! And yet…and yet….

Yuri stood, clenching his sand and blood-caked hands into tight balls, arms shaking from the ferocity of his despair, anger, and whatever emotional arrow pierced through him next. No blade that slit his flesh compared to the searing rod-iron that was now his heart. Flynn was his rival, the face on the opposite side of the coin, the light that counter-balanced his darkness, the brother and friend he never had.

In whatever bout of delirious determination that struck him, Yuri let out a feral yell of pent-up agony and unsheathed the sword from its place at his side. He tossed the scabbard away and thrust the blade into the ground, channeling every scrap of anguish he ever experienced into the glare he bore into the hilt of his sword.

"I'm not going to let you die, dammit! You're not meant to die!"

Don't let him die, don't let him die, don't let Flynn die!

As though his blastia could read his emotions and just as equally react to them, it flashed a brilliant scarlet and hummed in low overtones before Yuri's blade glowed with a faint blue-silver light. The humming increased its frequency until the droning ceased its audibility. Flynn spared Yuri a gentle smile, his lips forming an apology that never left his mouth. He closed his eyes and relaxed his body as the chill of death tingled in his bones, which only drove Yuri further into his delirious struggle to save the bane and opposite half of his existence.

Repede, feeling his fur stand on end, hopped up on and backed away snarling in discomfort. Not long after, a faint sapphire circle flared to life around Yuri's blade, which quickly expanded to encompass him, Flynn, and the two other injured soldiers nearby. Yuri's locks of raven hair thrashed around as static from the field formed a protective barrier, preventing people from entering (as Karol soon discovered, disregarding Rita's warning).

"Rita, do you know what that is?" Judith asked, casting her gaze down on the shocked mage, her arms crossed under her well-endowed chest. Karol returned to them, shaking the sting out of his singed hand.

"I-I don't know. I've never seen this reaction occur before. I didn't think Yuri's blastia could perform any healing artes."

"Oh? Is that what you think it is?"

"Well, I can't be certain, but…."

"But?" Judith pressed.

"Well, I mean, what else could it be?"

"If it is a healing arte, how long do you think it's going to take?" Karol butted in, inclining his head back to Yuri's hunched over form. He hadn't moved since the barrier activated.

"I don't know….If he's healing all three of them, it could take hours, or even days! Their wounds…."

"What? But we don't have time for it to take days! Oh man…. What about Estelle? We need to save her, too!"

"Well, we could just leave them. I'm sure they'd be fine," Judith slipped in on the sly, a devilish smile curling her lips.

"Are you serious? We can't do that!" Rita interjected.

"Yeah, Judith! How would they even catch up with us?" Karol said.

"Oh, I'm sure they'd find a way. You said it yourself though, we need to rescue Estelle," Judith answered.

"Yeah, but…. Ohhh, let's at least stick around for a while. Who knows, maybe it won't take that long," Rita decided, concluding the argument between the three of them.

Fate truly enjoyed proving her hypotheses wrong as of late.

As the blistering sun followed its long-drawn path across the sky, the trio saw no shift of movement from Yuri or the others. Rita long since gave up her attempt to inspect Yuri's blastia from a distance, since pulling up the control panel only rewarded her with a cacophony of static and a flickering screen. Judith went on periodic rounds to check for signs of monsters near the area, and Karol sat with legs out-stretched and staring at the wall of fire dancing around the co-founder of Brave Vesperia and his friend. Repede exhibited the same behavior as Yuri, hardly moving an inch, and his unscarred eye observing Flynn's condition.

Yuri, on the other hand, forgot that there existed a world outside of his makeshift one. The world that mattered to him most, the one hope he clung onto to create a better future for everyone lied in front of him, bleeding out his very life. Flynn's pale, almost translucent skin; the blood pouring out of his chest; the dark lines under his eye-sockets…it was an image that would haunt Yuri for years.

But Flynn still breathed, and that was good enough for Yuri.

Each blade of emotion that whipped around like wind inside Yuri's mind calmed as he witnessed Flynn's chest rise and fall, first in quick, gasping spurts and then in a slow, steady rhythm as his condition began to stabilize. The sharp pang that speared Yuri's chest also dulled to a deep throb, and Flynn, too, relaxed into a more peaceful slumber, relinquished of pain from fatal wounds. The environment inside that blue field of safety reacted not to the orange glow of the setting sun, and its radiance transcended the heavens as darkness fell over the sand bowl.

"Hey, I think something's happening!" Karol cried out, startling Rita out of her concentration. She promptly dropped the ball of fire she managed to conjure and shot Karol a dangerous glare akin to bloodlust. This stupid desert was just too damn cold at night! "I'm serious!" Karol pressed, pointing to Yuri.

She followed the finger that jabbed right in front of her face. "What are you talking about? Nothing's happening. You're just imagining things again."

"No, I believe Karol's right this time. The light is growing fainter," Judith said. She just returned from her half-hourly rounds.

Rita looked to Repede and noticed that his haunches contracted, ready to spring as soon as he was given the chance. Maybe the kid wasn't lying after all. Something about that picture frozen in time (save for Yuri's hair) seemed off…. It was slight, but...wait, it was Yuri's hair!

"You might just be on to something after all," Rita admitted.

"There, see! I told you-ow!" Karol complained as Rita smacked him across the head. "What the hell, Rita?"

"Shut up for a moment, won't you?"

Voices.

They were faint now, but Yuri could definitely pick out the individuality in each of them, and they grew louder as time carried him forward. No…he had to concentrate. Flynn was still dangerously pale, and Yuri imagined he would be stone cold to the touch. But little things distracted him now, like the chill's fingers wrapping around his bare skin, and the breeze that whispered sweet nothings in his ear….

No!

Concentrate! Flynn's life depended on it. He had to…he had to what? He could no longer remember, only fight the exhaustion that clung to his limbs and lulled him into a trance. Yuri's hands slackened on the hilt of his sword, and something whistled in his ears as he fell.

"Yuri!"

The chime of alarmed pitches rang in his head before Yuri felt his world fade to black. He would later recall hearing the quick patter of an animal's footsteps and landing on something soft.

But he first had to wonder why the hell it was so bright, and why the hell a stampede of elephants decided to throw a party in his head. Cracking open an eye had to be the second worst decision of his life at that moment, the first playing a prank on Flynn that involved-

Flynn!

Yuri bolted up, eyes wild as he forgot about the horde of elephants in his brain and instead searched for a familiar flash of blonde. Everything rushed into him at once: the disbelief, the sunken pit inside his heart, the blood. Worst of all was that pale ephemeral glow of Flynn's flesh as death's icy talons sank into him. Yet the blonde sat lying on a cot across from him, still pale as a frozen Hell, but alive.

Thank God.

Yuri threw his feet over the side of his cot and stood, immediately regretting doing so afterward as his legs almost gave way beneath him. And it was, of course, in that split second of weakness that Judith happened in on him. If she saw anything, she chose to ignore it.

"You've finally awoken. We were worried about you, you know."

"How long have I been out?"

"Oh, about half a day. It's surprising, really. We all thought you would be unconscious for longer after you took it upon yourself to become a medic."

Another flash of Flynn's almost lifeless body flashed through Yuri's mind, and suddenly everything became clear. In a fit of brash temperament, he somehow managed to activate a different arte of some sort…one he couldn't recollect learning before.

"Flynn, is he-"

"Oh, he's alive, but his condition has worsened since your treatment stopped."

"Then I should continue-"

"Like hell you will! Do you know how much of a pain it was to lug you two up onto the ship?" Rita snapped, barging into the room. "Lucky for us Sodia and Witcher awoke a short while after you passed out, but can you imagine what it would have been like if we had to carry you and everyone else?"

"Looks like I caused trouble for everyone. Sorry, but I can't just leave Flynn-"

"Aren't you at least curious to know what's going on?" Judith interrupted Yuri once more.

It was enough to make him pause before his irrational thoughts consumed him again. A glance at Flynn informed Yuri that the knight looked much better than he had a day ago; he could spare Judith a few minutes to figure out what was happening.

"All right, all right. Tell me what's been-"

"Yuri! You're awake!" Karol gasped, poking his head into Yuri's room. "I was wondering where everyone went!"

"What, is this 'let's interrupt Yuri day' or something? That's the fourth time!"

"Huh? Did I interrupt something important?"

"No, you're fine Karol. We were just about to tell Yuri our plan of action," Judith answered.

"Oh yeah! We're on the Fiertia right now headed towards the Shrine of Baction. We heard Flynn mention it before he fell unconscious, so we figured we would bring him with us. Sodia and Witcher left to protect Ioder. You're lucky, Yuri. It took us forever to convince Sodia to leave Flynn in our care," Karol stated.

"To be honest, I'm surprised you were able to convince her at all," Yuri replied. "She's as stubborn as a rock when it comes down to anything that concerns Flynn."

"Speaking of Flynn, how did you manage to heal him before?" Rita inquired, pulling up the control panel once more for Yuri's blastia. "I couldn't get a single reading at the time, but I could have sworn your blastia was incapable of performing healing artes."

"Hmm…in my short time with the knights, I heard of an arte that only a few are able to unlock. It's great once you learn it, but learning it's the hard part, and it uses up a lot of energy. I'm not sure if anyone outside of the knights can learn it."

"Rita, I believe that's enough of an interrogation for now," Judith said before said mage had the chance to ask anything more. "We should let Yuri rest in the few hours before we arrive at Baction."

"Sorry for causing you all trouble," Yuri apologized in a rare bout of sincerity.

"Fine, but I want more time to closely inspect your blastia later, got it?" Rita demanded, not taking "no" for an answer.

"If you insist," Yuri said, the touch of a smile on his lips.

It was then Judith ushered Karol and Rita out and sent one last look at Yuri from over her shoulder before she, too, left the room. Yuri breathed a sigh of relief now that silence settled over the small cabin, and he peered around for any sign of his sword.

Spotting it near his bed, Yuri unclasped the weapon from its sheathe and withdrew it. With each step he took towards Flynn's cot, Yuri dunked his thoughts back into the memory of the previous day, shuddering from the chill it left in his bones. That barren sense of hopelessness was something he hoped to never experience again.

He halted before Flynn, eyes glazed over from the emotional rollercoaster he chose to ride along once more. As he vowed before, he would not let Flynn succumb to death. There was far too much they both needed to accomplish before they kicked the bucket, and taking out Alexei together was just one of those problems.

Yuri closed his eyes, lifted his blade a smidge, and then thrust it into the wooden floor of the ship, all the while conjuring up that raw desire to save someone important to him. His blastia reacted in a similar fashion as the day before, and the sword replied by glowing silvery-blue. The sapphire circle encased Yuri and Flynn again, slowly healing the rest of Flynn's wounds while Repede observed his humans from the corner of the room.