Chapter 0
Time - Null
Place - Void
The city is burning and my friends are dead...
Gerome lifted up his mask to run an arm across his eyes. The smoke and stench of death was irritating them, causing them to water up and blur his vision. Of course, his sleeve was as covered with muck and blood as the rest of him, resulting in a large smear across his face.
He blinked rapidly until he was sure he could see, then lowered the mask back down. There wasn't much cause for it here. The only ones around were the Risen, and they lacked the basic sentience necessary to recognize the emotions on a human face. It offered minimal protection in combat. And he didn't need to hide from his friends. They were dead.
He continued to push through the burning husk of Ylisstol towards the designated meeting spot set up by Lucina. He did this because he had no idea what else to do. Simply laying down to die wasn't in his nature; he may well be the last man alive in Ylisse but he would go down fighting, cursing out his enemies with his final breath.
There was a screech from above as Minerva circled overhead. She recognized this place, or at least what it once was. Ylisstol Castle, once the resplendent jewel of the Halidom, now just another pile of burning rubble in a country of burning rubble. Gods willing, Lucina was inside, ready to perform the Awakening with whoever was left. Gerome refused to let any hope take hold in his heart.
Another screech from Minerva let Gerome know that enemies were ahead. Readying his axe, he made his way towards the barricades surrounding the castle, marking one final stronghold for mankind. A human could easily use the handholds to climb over it, but the more sluggish Risen tended to clump into each other and collapse into a heap.
Before Gerome even reached them, his wyvern swooped down out of the sky and picked up two Risen, one in each massive talon. Their shoddy weapons clattered to the ground, followed shortly by their owners from a considerably higher altitude. Those remaining went down quickly. One on one, no Risen was a threat to Gerome, who had been fighting them since he hit his teen years. The threat came from their numbers, which at times seemed endless.
That's how they had gotten Laurent.
With a soft grunt of exertion, Gerome hoisted himself up and over the barricade, dropping down heavily on the other side. Minerva finished circling overhead and gently came down to land beside him. Together, man and wyvern entered the empty, cavernous halls of what so recently felt like a bustling city of its own.
It wasn't too long before he heard an irritated voice call out, "who is it!? I mean...who goes there?"
"Gerome," he called back. He recognized the voice and tone instantly - Severa stepped out of the shadows ahead, her expression of perpetual annoyance softening when she realized he was alone.
"Laurent..?" she asked. Gerome said nothing. It was enough.
"Lucina is up ahead," Severa continued after a moment of silent contemplation. Gerome felt the slightest spark of hope light up at that. "We got the Emblem. No one else has made it back yet, though."
Gerome fished something out of his bag and held it up between them where it gave off an eerie glow in the darkness.
"Vert," he said. "Now we just need to pray the others were successful."
Severa turned and led him into the great hall. Atop a short but wide flight of stairs, Lucina sat in the throne that would have been hers. Well, it was hers, now, for all the good it did. Falchion lay across her lap. She held the Fire Emblem in her hands, inspecting it carefully.
She looked up as she heard the footsteps. "Gerome!" she gasped. Carefully placing the Emblem and her sword aside, she bounded down the stairs and embraced her friend.
"Laurent did not make it," Gerome said softly as she held him. He couldn't figure out what to do with his hands.
"And we shall mourn him, along with all the others who have fallen," Lucina said as they broke apart. "But you are here. Which means there is hope. For another Laurent yet to be. For all of us."
Unwilling to betray his uncertainty with Lucina's final plan, Gerome said nothing.
And then they waited. There was nothing else to do.
Finally, from a different wing than the one Gerome entered, voices could be heard.
"Sanctuary! Saaaanctuuuuaaaaryyyy!"
Lucina ran a hand down her face.
Inigo and Owain entered the hall at a run. With perhaps even more enthusiasm than Lucina had shown, Inigo leapt into an embrace around Gerome, who simply grimaced. He knew that, much like a Valmese Finger Trap, fighting would just make it worse.
"My boon companions! My heart leaps to know you have survived," Owain announced.
"Yes, it would have been a very lonely final stand indeed, were it just us men," Inigo agreed. "As is, we come bearing gifts." He pulled out a small coin purse, and opened it up to reveal two gems similar to the one Gerome had found. "Behold! Agent and Sabre!"
"Argent and Sable," Lucina corrected. Though she was smiling now, her joy at seeing more of her friends alive and successful overcoming the usual annoyance one inevitably encountered when Inigo and Owain were feeling dramatic.
"I made sure Inigo carried them," Owain said as Inigo handed them over. "Such powerful relics in my hand - the Fel Dragon would surely be destroyed, but so might all of us!"
"Oh, and we saw Brady outside," Inigo added. "Looked like he was carrying something. Like...a sack of potatoes? Is there a sack of potatoes shaped gemstone?"
"My brother..? What?" Lucina perked up. "Where is he now?"
"We probably should have stopped to help him," Owain admitted. "We were just a bit excited to get you the gemstones."
On cue, Brady shuffled into the hall, cursing and mumbling under his breath. Though he was the only surviving member of the group inept at fighting, he had inherited his father's imposing build and was capable of carrying a good deal of weight with ease.
It soon became clear that what he was carrying was not a sack of potatoes. It wasn't a sack of anything. It was a white-haired body.
"Morgan?" Inigo asked in shock, as Brady lowered the young girl to the ground.
"What happened to her?" Lucina asked, rushing over to see if she was okay. To her relief, the girl was still breathing.
"Search me!" Brady answered defensively. "She kept ranting and raving about Grima! Like, like she was servin' him or some nonsense! So I...I, uh…"
Gerome and the others all turned curiously to the prince.
"I kinda clobbered her with my staff," Brady stammered out.
"Kind of?" Lucina said disapprovingly.
"I didn't know what else to do! I know she don't mean it. She's one of us, so...I mean, I figured she'd wanna come back in time even if she don't remember how she got there."
Noticing the prince's distress, Gerome uncharacteristically placed a hand on his shoulder. "You did good, Brady," he said. Brady grinned, blushing a bit.
"Boy, you really did a number on her noggin, Brady," Inigo said, somewhat dampening the moment.
"I'll just...I'll just get to healin' her then…" Brady mumbled, shooing the others away from Morgan's comatose figure.
"Hey, Gerome…" Owain said, looking around. "I just realized, wasn't Laurent supposed to be with you..?"
Gerome slowly shook his head. "We were swarmed by Risen. Too many to fight. We tried to run, but...he gave me Vert and fell behind."
Owain, Inigo and Brady quietly lowered their heads in a moment of recognition for their fallen companion.
"And have we received any word on the girls..?" Inigo eventually asked.
"No," Lucina said. And that was that.
Brady did his best to heal the blow to Morgan's head, though she remained unconscious throughout. Minuted gave way to hours. The group began to fidget more and more.
"They should be here by now," Brady groaned.
"Hush, brother," Lucina admonished. "They'll be here. They must."
The ground began to rumble. Subtly, but noticeably.
"What in the name of-" Owain began. In a flash, Gerome leapt onto Minerva's back.
"I'll check," he said, and spurred the wyvern into action. The two sped down one of the long castle corridors, out an open portcullis, and over a crumbling barricade.
Gerome scanned the horizon as Minerva fought for altitude. At first he couldn't tell what he was seeing. Then he refocused his eyes.
The horizon was moving.
"No," he whispered. "We need more time." Minerva dove downwards.
"Gerome!" he heard a voice cry out. He guided Minerva into a spin, until he saw a splash of colour moving through the bleak landscape. Nah and Noire, running as fast as they could ahead of the oncoming horde of Risen.
"Come on!" Gerome screamed. Minerva swept down, and Gerome lashed out with his axe, cleaving into pieces a few Risen that were catching up to the two girls.
"Gerome!" Nah yelled again. She held a carefully tied bag out towards him. "Gules and Azure! Get them to Lucina!"
"Get them to her yourself! You're going to make it!" Gerome snarled.
Noire turned, raising her bow. She pulled the string back and there was a twang, and a thud-
Her arrow clattered to the ground in front of her, then her bow. When Gerome turned to look, an arrow was jutting out of her throat.
"Noire! No-" Nah screamed. Gerome grabbed the back of her robes and held on tight as Minerva regained altitude. Nah's feet dangled in the air, but she held on tight to the gemstones.
Minerva glided through the tunnel back into the main hall at such speed that the others waiting there had to scatter at their approach. Nah rolled to a halt. The bag fell from her hands, opened, and the two gemstones rolled…
...Into Lucina's outstretched hands.
"Grima! He's here!" Gerome yelled, hopping off Minerva as Inigo helped Nah back to her feet.
"Already? But...I don't know if that's enough…" Lucina said, her face going pale.
"We shall hold the gates and fight to the last man to protect you!" Owain announced. "At least one of us must make it back!"
"We're all going to make it back!" Lucina screamed. "Come on, let's hurry-"
The castle began to shake with renewed vigor. Old, poorly maintained masonry fell from the ceiling in large lumps, breaking apart when it crashed into the floor.
"Bloody hell," Gerome mumbled. He moved close to Lucina, hand on his axe.
"Gerome...if this doesn't work, I...I'm sorry, for…"
Gerome removed his mask. This act alone caused Lucina to fall quiet. He held it out to her.
"Protect your identity in the past," he said. "I have spares. Take it."
Lucina nodded mutely, and took the mask. Her hands lingered on his for a moment.
"Thank you," she said.
"Now or never, friends!" Inigo yelled. He and Brady had Morgan propped up between them, one arm draped over each.
Lucina began the awakening, and the upper half of the castle ripped away.
Grima loomed over them.
"It is too late. Your world is doomed."
The words were not said so much as heard, echoing in Gerome's mind, louder than any sound he'd ever heard. Blinding lights exploded around him. The ground shook, and somehow, so did the sky.
The world ended.