You guys ready for this? This chapter is just a simple one shot. Something you can easily overlook, but I ask any that clicked that button to read this through.
What you are about to read is a theory that I have had for a long time regarding Morgan from The Future Past DLC. I have been meaning to write this chapter for so long now, and now I finally get the chance to do it.
I hope you guys will all enjoy the read and let me know what you think about this theory and how I wrote it once you finish.
Big shout out to TheWerdna for playing a big part for this theory and for helping out as my Beta. Anyone that is reading this should also read Werdna's fics. Really good stuff there.
Without further ado, let's begin.
Just Once More
A harsh clap of thunder boomed over the horizon, with lightning streaking through the clouds shortly before releasing onto the earth below. The land itself was devoid of life, as the skeletal remains of humans and animals scattered around, with trees withered and decayed, the rest having been burnt. Rain fell heavily upon the land where no life seemed to remain. However, what walked on the lands were not the living, but the dead.
Groaning and growling, humanoid figures roamed around, armor coating their bodies, wielding weapons from ranging from swords to axes, their skins a a deep pale gray, black mist leaving their mouths as if that was their breath, and their eyes glowing an otherworldly red. They walked with no destination in mind, but simply seeking out life in an attempt to extinguish it.
Risen.
Through the endless curtain of falling rain trudged a figure clad in a hooded cloak. Several times they stumbled, their feet catching on the scattered debris of fallen life, but each time managed to right themselves before they fall to continue on their seemingly aimless wandering. The figure looked ahead, spotting an entrance to what appeared to be a shrine. Several of the undead creatures seemed to not even notice the figure, paying them no mind as they walked on.
Through the darkness the shrine loomed as the figure approached, its crumbling walls and toppled pillars only hinting at a long forgotten grandeur. Further past the outskirts the desolation only seemed to grow, with much of the ruins lost in gaping crater that stretched out before a large chasm that split open the very land itself.
Entering the ruins, the figure saw even more of the Risen wandering about, but once again paid the figure no heed. The pillars within the shrines all appeared to be destroyed, but there were several that were still remaining, barely managing the area from collapsing completely.
"You've returned…" a male voice echoed, alerting the figure of the other presence. The figure looked to a passageway to see someone wearing the exact same cloak as the figure wearing the same hood, though they appeared slightly taller and buffer.
The figure was alert at first now relaxed, as they nodded. "I… I failed in my mission…" The figure replied with a female voice.
"I see… so Argent ad Sable have made it to Ylisse…" the male voiced, before looking away. "And I failed to retrieve Gules and Azure as well…"
The female figure looked at her male companion with surprise. "Then that means that four of the Gemstones will reach the princess. There were others that had already retrieved the Fire Emblem and the Vert Gemstone. If the other four reach, then Master Grima-"
"Master Grima is already within Ylisstol. No doubt Master Grima will put an end to the princess far before the others can make it to them," the male reasoned.
"But what if…" The female was about to say before stopped shortly, looking down, her face unable to be seen by the hood, however, the male took notice.
"So… you've encountered them as well…" the male realized. "The Outrealmers… summoned by that damned dragon Naga…"
"Yes… so you also encountered them as well… they defended the ones that held the Gemstones, and there were even clones of the same person we were attacking… no doubt they were the same person from that very Outrealm…" the female explained, recalling her encounter with the otherworldly humans.
The two looked down in silence, neither uttering a word for several long minutes. Suddenly, one spoke. "I… I met Master Grima… or rather, the form Master Grima took before everything…"
The other figure seemed to react at this. "You… you met…"
"Yes… when I met with my… These emotions welled up inside me… these memories that should not have intervened, they just came over… and when I was given the tactics book… I already had one, and now I have two…" the person continued.
"I see… I ran… when I saw that form, I could no longer find the will to fight, and simply ran away before we could meet… but you actually met with... I feel… envious..."
The figure placed a hand on their companion's shoulder. "I'm sorry…"
"Don't be…" they replied, before the two were silent once more.
The sounds of the Risen echoed the halls as the two stared at one another, before the boy looked towards another passageway. "… I wonder…"
The female turned her head to stare at her companion, curious. "What is it?"
"Naga was sending Outrealmers with her powers to you and I, bending the laws of space and time… if that's the case… wouldn't it be possible to create a portal for ourselves right now?"
"What are you saying?" the female questioned, taken aback by such a remark.
The boy looked at the girl, their hood moving slightly for the girl to catch the look in the male's eye, seeming to give almost a sign of hope within them. "Don't you see? This could be our chance… we could go back… find a world, a time, when all of this didn't happen… a time when we had our parents, our friends…" the male argued. "Don't you want to go back to that moment? That moment when we were truly happy?"
The female looked down and shook her head. "I… of course I do. But when I pledged my allegiance to Master Grima, I was resolved to end this world, to sever the ties I had with my friends, and end their lives for our master's sake. I cannot just think that we can return to a better time after everything we've done…"
Her words rang true, as the male looked down, clenching his fist as he could not deny the actions they had performed. They had slaughtered hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives, for the Fell Dragon. They even reveled in the cries of anguish of their victims, as they were mercilessly murdered without remorse.
"But…" the mention of that word from the female made the male's head shoot up to stare at her. "I… I still want to feel it… the warmth of my parents… the joy I felt with my friends… if just one last time… If I could feel it just once more, I would be content…"
The male stood up and placed his hands on his companion's shoulders. "I know… I know the sins we have committed are insurmountable, that we can never atone for them no matter how much we desire to… but we failed Master Grima, and Grima does not accept failures, especially as grave as ours for failing to retrieve the Gemstones. Our lives have already ended…"
Hearing that, the girl gasped, staring at her companion with tears forming in her eyes. "... It's true… we failed… Master Grima would never accept us back now… but does that mean that we have the right to return…?"
"… I don't know…" he replied, before suddenly shaking his head. "No, we actually don't deserve to. We don't deserve any kind of happiness, not after what we did. But I don't care… I want to go back. I want to return to that time… just once more…"
"Just once more…" she repeated in a whisper, slowly pressing herself onto her companion's chest and embracing him. "I want to remember that time… just one more time…"
Returning the hug, the male nodded. "Just one last time…"
Afterwards, the pair headed deeper into the ruins, though it was much easier said than done, as there were debris and broken pillars everywhere around that obstructed their path. They also had to watch out for any pitfalls they could trip into by mistake.
As they walked through the obstacles, one stopped for a moment, sitting on one of the debris, having walked for awhile now. "How much longer will we have to go?"
Their companion stopped and went back to them, sitting by their side and shaking their head. "I don't know. I've never ventured this deeply into the ruins before, but if we wish to open an Outrealm Gate, it would be ideal to try and perform it at the end of the ruins, where Naga's power should be at it's strongest."
"But Naga is no longer part of this world. Master Grima killed her…"
The companion nodded in agreement. "Yes, but Naga was able to still use her spirit to maintain herself, using her Voice as a connection. And even if the Voice were to no longer exist, Naga's power still remains within this world, and the ruins connected to her should still hold it."
"If we can use her remaining power here, and our own strengths, we could try and open a portal that could lead us back in time."
"Or another world. The Outrealm connects to not just time, but space as well. The Outrealmers aren't from another timestream simply, but another world altogether. If we can just try and connect it to where we need to go, we can get to where we want to go…"
"We didn't really think this through… some tactician we are…"
Though intended to be a joke, it made a heavy air of silence hang between the two.
"We just need to find it first… we'll work things through. I don't think planning everything here will work our way."
"That's true…"
Slowly the girl rose to her feet, extending a hand to help the boy up as well. Then, without a word and little more than one last back-long glance, they began their journey deeper into the ruins. Further and further they went, each step taking them deeper into the sea of crumbling stone. Time itself seemed to ebb away as they walked, until soon it was impossible to tell if hours or mere minutes had passed since they started. Only the darkening of the land marked any change in their journey, growing so absolute that the two soon took pause to cast fire spells to help guide their way. Yet even this flickering light seemed to aid them little, with even the faster pace is brought failing to bring their destination any closer in sight. Yet they trudged on, holding hope that they must be near. That surely, in any second, they would fight what they sought.
"I think we're almost there…"
"Good, I was beginning to think that we were lost…"
"Glad you can still find it in you to make jokes."
"... Huh… you're right… it's a weird feeling. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to joke around… After everything we've done, joy and laughter slowly lost their meaning. Everything just felt… hollow."
Though they wish they could simply deny it, the facts were too great. Having committed nothing but the most atrocious of actions throughout the war that had already been won. The memories of their enemies' constantly attempting a vain battle to defend their land, only for their flesh to be torn apart, their blood trickling down their broken bodies, quenching the land, slowly before the flames spread through their homes that reduced all to ash, and all that remained afterwards was the charred wasteland as the victor could only laugh into the air, devoid of all joy and sorrow. Nothing remained within their hearts but the numbness towards all their emotions.
And yet… even after casting their hearts to oblivion, they could now feel the small seed that had somehow remained, burrowed deep in their hearts, now beginning to sprout into the emotion that the world had lost years past: hope.
The duo continued into the ruins, and finally reached the last chamber, with a large door that was broken through, but what continued them was how they could see light within the chamber, altering the pair at the idea of someone already being in there.
Once they set foot into the final room, they felt it in an instant: the warm feeling overwhelming them, the gentle breeze existing despite not being outside, and the light that was slowly streaming through the room to the end of the chamber to the center of the wall.
"What is this…?"
"Naga… Could this be her power?"
"Even if she's dead, we were right… her power lives on… but just barely," the girl said, as they could indeed feel the power within the chamber belonging to the Divine Dragon beginning to weaken more and more. "It is incredible though…"
"You mean how even though Master Grima killed her, she still persists?"
"One isn't hailed as a god or would be considered the greatest threat to Master Grima if they were weak…"
"And how ironic that we, who worship Master Grima, would use that meddlesome dragon's power to fulfill our desires…" the boy remarked, letting out a bitter laugh.
The irony was too sickening to even entertain, but even the girl shared the bitter laugh, as she place her hand over her face. How long had the two cursed the dragon that opposed their master? How many times did they show a grin of sadism whenever they would throw a spell to someone that was futily praying towards the Divine Dragon, begging for salvation? Was it delight that flowed through them in the past whenever they heard the victim's screams whenever their lives were being butchered and they could only ask the one thing towards their precious god: why?
However, the newfound emotions the duo had now begun to recover, they were now enduring a harsh reaction, as the memory forcing the girl to lurch forward and suddenly vomit onto the floor. "It's painful…" the boy whispered to her. "Even so… we cannot stop now…"
The girl heard the boy sniff, and could tell that her companion was crying silently. Each took several minutes to recuperate through their predicament, until they finally stood back up again.
"Now we need to open a gate, but how…?" one questioned, looking at the end of the wall that the light was gathering into.
"Even if we open a gate, our destination will still be our biggest issue…"
The duo seemed to contemplate this for several minutes, before one snapped their fingers. "… What if… what if we used our memories?"
"Memories?"
"Yes, make the memories of our past while we open the gate. If we can open it while thinking on our strong feelings, we can open a gate that could get us to where we may want to go. What do you think?"
"I think that it might be literally the only idea worth trying. And since Naga has meddled in time so much, the connection between our world and the world we desire might be linked, so it should improve our chances… but we have to open it while we still can," the companion replied.
As the two stepped away from one another, they soon turned and aimed their focus towards the strongest memories, their strongest desires, and then the magic power within them. A glowing black and purple haze began to surround them as they began to utter in ancient incantations, drawing on the power of the Fell Dragon within them, the power granted to them by their master, and the power carried within their very blood.
A deep, reverberating hum filled the air, ebbing and flowing with each thread of magic they wove into their spell. The ground trembled, a discordant note rippling out as the magic clashed with the power that surrounded the room itself. Then another. Then a third. Then, with the fourth and final note the two opposing magics become one. One spell. One song. One well of untold power. The room began to shake all the more violently, the rocks beneath their feet cracking and crumbling into dust, and the light surging around them churned faster and faster.
With one final surge, the energy rushed through the room and the two figures all focused at the center of the wall at the end of the room, as electricity began to spark and fly around everywhere, hitting and breaking apart several pillars and boulders. Soon enough, a small circular energy formed around, ripples forming through it as it glowed a beautiful translucent color, with crystal shaped structures forming around it, and finally golden circles surrounded it with linings and odd characters between the two golden circles.
Gasping for breath at the same time, the two figures collapsed on their knees, breathing heavily from the enormity of the power they had drawn from themselves and the room.
"It… it opened… the Outrealm Gate…" the girl remarked, her eyes reflecting the unearthly glow of the gate.
"To be honest… I didn't think it would work…" the male admitted, but the joyous smile that formed could not be hidden even by the hood. So close… they were close to finally reaching the joy they had long since lost. However, reality began to settle inside once more. "We need to go now. The gate won't last forever."
The girl nodded, before they tried to get up, though with difficulty as they walked towards the gate. The two could hear their heartbeats growing louder and louder as they approached it. Once they were directly in front of it, they looked at one another and swallowed deeply, before taking ahold of each other's hand.
"Let's go…"
"Yes…"
With that, the two immediately dived into the portal, and just as they did, the portal collapsed, releasing a surge of energy that caused the entire shrine to collapse completely in itself.
Everything seemed to stand still. Though they were running, the sounds of their footsteps could not even be heard, nor did it even seem like any movement they made made anything appear closer. The only thing that could be heard were the sounds of their haggard breath as they continued to run endlessly through the Outrealm Gate.
"How long have we been running?"
"I… I don't know. It feels like we just got here, but it… it also feels like we've been running forever…"
Was it possible that one could not even perceive time while within the Outrealms? It wasn't that different from the world they were just in though, but the feel like they were not even moving was unnerving.
"Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand. If we get separated, who knows what'll happen…" one advised.
"Don't lose focus either. Try to remember where we are trying to go…" the other advised right back, as the two continued to run through the realms.
Time no longer a factor within their minds, the duo marched onwards for what may very well have been ages, seeking for any sign for another gate. Eventually, however, the pair finally caught sight of a glimmer of light, unbefitting of their surroundings, shining a mere distance away. "I see something!" one exclaimed, as they hurried their pace. They could not yet make it out, but the first thing that popped into their mind was an exit. Was it theirs, however, was the question.
"Is it the right place?"
"It has to be!"
However, as they began to near the exit, everything began to suddenly slow down for them, their very running motion beginning to slow down. The very exit suddenly began to twist and turn.
"What's happening?!" one asked, though their voices also spoke in a slow motion. Soon enough, their own vision began to contort before them.
"What's going on?" Again, the voice only came in a slow point as the two tried to stop, and look at each other, only for them to realize that they were also beginning to distort alongside the realms.
In an instant, the two screamed in pain as they the worlds began spin around them, the exit now becoming lost for them as more and more gates to realms unknown began to open up. However, to the two lost between dimensions, everything was beyond their comprehension. Their very minds could not keep up with their circumstances, and they could only scream further as they felt themselves being torn apart from the inside out.
However, amidst the chaos raging within their minds and bodies, they could only question what was happening and why.
Was this some mass distortion of the time-space continuum?
Could it be because they broke taboo?
Or maybe this was Naga's work? Was it punishment for their selfish use of her powers?
Perhaps Grima was causing this? Had the Fell Dragon discovered their treachery?
The possibilities were too great to work out, as the dimensions began to diverge many ways, no longer having a single narrow path, but paths that could take them anywhere.
Soon, the two felt a great force beginning to tug at them, but not together, but two separate forces tugging them from different sources. The two slowly trying to regain themselves noticed the other being pulled away, and tried to tighten their grip.
They tried to speak, but their voices could not work any longer, and tried to grab the other's free hand, doing everything they can to hold on, but this only furthered the pain within them.
Why now? Why did this have to happen when they were so close?
The two refused to let go, despite the pain they felt. As their hoods fell off, the two stared into each other's eyes, tears glistening from the pain and the realization that their grip was beginning to fail.
Eyes widening immediately once they were pulled apart, the two tried to reach one another, only to miss by perhaps a hair's breadth.
"MOOOORGAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!"
"MAAAAAARRRRRCCCCCC!"
Having found their voices, the two could only scream the other's names as they vanished into their respective gates, the storm within the dimensions finally ceasing.
Everything was silent, but the small dripping sound of water echoed through the room, as a figure collapsed on the floor began to stir. As their consciousness began to take over, a small pain thumped through their head, making them groggily get up.
The figure looked around the brightly lit room, that was much larger than expected, and tried to recognize their surroundings.
"Wh-where am I? How'd I end up here?" they asked themselves.
"Are you awake?"
A single question leaving the mouth of a young girl was heard by the stranger that was laying down on a bed. Groaning in pain, the stranger moved their hand to their head, feeling a great pain coming from it, as they slowly opened their eyes.
As their vision began to fix itself, they caught a glimpse of a beautiful young girl standing near them, a small bowl and cup in her hands, as she smiled at them. She had long sea-green hair that was tied in a ponytail manner, with some strands hanging over her eyes that framed her face nicely. She wore a deep sky-blue Chinese dress with gold linings from the shoulders and edges of the dress. The dress went past her legs but had a slit on each side that showed her legs.
Watching the girl approach them, the stranger looked around, trying to see if there was anything identifiable. "Where am I? Who are you?"
"I found you unconscious on the plains," the girl explained, pausing as the person she rescued slowly sat up, before continuing on. "I am Lyn, of the Lorca tribe. You're safe now."
Lyn…? What a strange name.
"Who are you? Can you remember your name?"
Name… hearing that, the person began to feel their head hurt silently, as they could hear an echoed voice.
"Okay… so I'm in some random place… and I have no idea how I got here… Guess I should just wonder around…" a figure muttered as they walked around the strange ruins, and trying to piece together any form of recollection they had, though there was a lot of hazy things coming over, but they a certain kind of memory was remaining strongly within them, and a certain sound echoed across their mind.
They suddenly froze when they heard sounds echoing through. "Footsteps!" they realized, but before saying anything, they remained still, their mind observing the sounds of how the footsteps were pacing. "… Probably not friendly. And likely more down those stairs... Think, Morgan, think!"
Calling their own name, Morgan contemplated what was going on before remembering someone that was very important to them.
"How would-" A growling sound suddenly echoed through the chamber. "-handle this?"
"My name is… Mar… c…"
"Your name is Marc? What an odd-sounding name…" Lyn replied with a questioning look, though she soon smiled. "But pay me no mind. It is a good name."
Marc… that was their name…
Aaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddd, DONE!
What did you all think of the theory?
That's right, the theory that Morgan from The Future Past DLC are BOTH the SAME Morgan that we recruit from Awakening AND the same Tactician Mark from Blazing Sword.
Rather than go through a long winded explanation on how and why I came up with this, you can ask me directly through review and PM. I'll be happy to explain. Instead, I wanna see if YOU guys noticed how I was wording the story.
How I sometimes defined their genders as boy and girl, but then later had them be referred to as if they were genderless? Or how they never mention who talked to Robin, because that would give away with Morgan goes to Awakening's story. So neither genders were mentioned in those specific areas, and neither has Morgan and Marc's name be defined as one or the other.
Also, anyone on Marc and Mark for the Tactician, the Japanese name for them is (マーク Māku), where the Japanese characters are the same, so really, Mark and Marc are really the same and the spelling is more of an English thing.
So I hope you all enjoyed this one-shot of mine, please leave plenty of reviews for me to enjoy reading and replying back to.
And I hope that you read my other fics, like my Waking Dream fic, and if anyone's a Megaman Starforce fan, I have those as well. See you all next time.