Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or any other licensed material.

I thought I was a pro at Fire Emblem. I'd beaten every game that had come out in America, but I'd always had a soft spot for the ones based in Tellius. In my quest to perfect them, however… I may have gotten a bit overzealous.

Needles in My Eyes

Prologue

A long time ago, my dad told me that I would probably wind up dead in a sewer somewhere because I didn't have any initiative. I was only twelve at the time. It drove me nuts. My dad was also a lawyer who, much to my personal delight, spent a good term in a cell for embezzlement. Not sure what the correlation is there, but maybe it will give you some insight as to what kind of man he was and why he really said that to me all those years ago.

After the old man went away, I was stuck with my grandparents. It wasn't anything legal, mind. I just didn't like living with Mom. She was a… well… I'll tell you later. Life with Grandmother and Granddaddy was a great thing, though. They were Mom's parents, and they thought the world of me. I was an only child, and Mom's sister was a lesbian, so I was pretty much all they had. I went through high school, got As and Bs, and found myself on the high road to college in a shiny new car when I was eighteen.

It was just after I had moved into my quiet new apartment when something strange happened, though.

I was trying to use up the last few weeks of my summer vacation before classes started. Now, I'm not one to brag, but if I had a lot of time on my hands, I was probably playing a video game to pass it. I played everything. JRPGs, WRPGs, FPS, RTS, Minecraft; the list goes on. One set of games in particular, though, really managed to chew a lot of my time. They were the Fire Emblem games. Really, really good games. 'Chess with statistics and a bigger board' I called it. They were strategy games where you moved characters around and had them battle enemies based on their stats and weapons. I don't know why, but I sunk days into this series of games—all of the ones that had come to America, at least. I played them, took in their wonderful stories, and then conquered their computerized tactics.

There were two games in the series, however, that captured my liking more than others. They were the games set in a place called 'Tellius'. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, they were called. I don't really know what it is about them that made them better for me. Maybe it was that they were on a console instead of a handheld. Maybe it was the improved art style and brighter colors. I don't know. Either way, those two games captivated me. They had me trying to perfect them.

To perfect a Fire Emblem game is to finish the game with no 'dead' units. At least, that's what it is in my mind. I'm sure somebody else out there has their own opinions on that, but I have my own beliefs that stay in line with my skills. I just wanted to survive the war with no deaths. Get the job done and bring everybody home. That was what I thought all military commanders strived for.

That was a long time ago.

I was playing the game, Path of Radiance, when it really started. Chapter 11, "Blood Runs Red". The main characters were escaping from their pursuers, only to be found out at the last moment. It was always a chapter that gave me trouble, and it was certainly living up to the reputation.

"Dammit!" I cursed loudly as I watched Nephenee, a playable unit in the game, get taken down because of my rotten luck. As her health points clicked down to empty and her death quote popped up, I reached down and begrudgingly hit the reset button on my Nintendo Gamecube. The game slipped back to the title screen, and I sighed. That was the third time in a row I'd lost Nephenee like that.

"Okay, listen," I said semi-desperately, looking up to the ceiling with my hands clasped. "I don't know if this is asking a lot or not, but I really don't want these people to die. A little luck would be appreciated!"

As the thought of a break crossed my mind, something loud came clattering through the walls. I looked up, confused. What could that have been? Then it came again, and my mind suddenly reminded me that my apartment didn't have a doorbell. It was somebody knocking on my front door, so I scrambled out of my chair and rushed to the living room.

Foregoing the peep hole, I ran a hand through my hair, straightened my shirt, and opened the door. I had been expecting the landlady. What I got instead was about fifty times better.

"Surprise!" a chorus of voices cheered, effectively scaring the hell out of me. There were three people standing on my threshold. One was a young man, the same age as me, with sandy brown hair. The second was a girl with red hair seeping through a skull-emblazoned knit hat. The third was another girl, this one significantly younger, with black hair.

Seeing them all there at the same time managed to instantly put a smile on my face.

"Whoa! Uh… Hey, guys!" I tried not to seem too shocked by their sudden appearance, but failed hilariously. You see, these three individuals were my best friends in the entire world, and seeing them that day meant the world to me.

As they poured into the apartment, the guy and younger girl walking past me, the red head gave me a swift hug. I hugged her back without a thought. This was my cousin and one of my best friends, Beth.

"I brought you some presents," she smiled at me as we broke lock, nodding towards the other two.

"And that's why you're the best cousin ever," I replied with a feeling of genuine happiness that had been eluding me for some time. Then I turned to face my other guests. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

They both snickered at my silly way of talking, which was just my way of acting while I dealt with stress.

"Milo," I looked at the younger girl as she gazed meekly up at me with her honey brown eyes. "How in the world did this nerd drag you all the way here?"

The nerd in question was the other male, my gaming buddy Jake. He and Milo were also cousins, albeit more distant than me and Beth.

"Nerd? Speak for yourself!" Jake took mock offense as Milo flushed ever-so-slightly. I'd always held in a notion that she might have had a crush on me. If she did, she never told me.

"Oh, clam up, you two," Beth interjected on our little nonconversation about being nerds before it could turn into anything before looking at me. "We've only got a few hours. Where do you want to go eat?"

"There's an Italian place downtown," I think on the fly. "How's a pizza sound?"

"Ricatoni's?" Beth catches on. "I love that place!"

"Is it good?" Milo asked, marking the first time she'd spoken since their arrival.

"The best," I assure her before suddenly remembering something. "Let me go turn something off real quick and I'll be with you."

"Playing games until the end of time?" Jake called after me as I slid down the hall.

"You know me," I shrugged as I made the turn into my room. It was a simple motion, reaching down and turning off the Gamecube. I hadn't left the menu screen yet, so I didn't have to worry about lost data. It was just the press of a button and then I could move on to a fun time with friends and family.

It all sounds so harmless… but pressing that button changed my life forever.

The instant I touched the console's power button, the room went dark. Not just 'the lights went out' dark. No, this was 'pitch-fucking-black' dark. I recoiled back, shocked by the sudden lack of light.

"Fuck!" I cursed out of nowhere, not having been able to process what had happened. I was disoriented, which was a bad thing for me. I could have bad balance when I really felt like it, and not being able to see was just the perfect circumstance. I tried to move, and fell almost instantly forward. For some reason, I had expected to slam into my TV stand and knock everything over, but none of that occurred. Instead, I just tottered into air and, much to my sickening horror, kept on going. It felt like I was falling into nothing, which struck me as a terrible feeling. My head spun, my stomach turned, and my feet flailed around in search of ground. If I had been able, I most definitely would have retched.

Then, without any pomp or circumstance, everything became real again. I flopped against something soft, and my mind did a literal flip as things started making sound around me. I heard chickens clucking, doors and windows shutting, cats yowling, and, most importantly, I heard metal clashing against more of itself.

My eyes blasted open and my body forced itself upright. I was in a bed, for what it was worth. This did nothing to stop the vertigo I'd picked up in the darkness from catching up to me, however. Not a full five seconds after sitting up, I was already ducking over the side of the sheets, throwing up. It lasted for about thirty seconds, most of which was just dry heaving since I didn't have much of anything in me to eject. Once it was over, I tried to shake off the cold sweat. That's when I realized that I was wearing clothes.

…but they weren't my clothes.

I looked down at myself incredulously, even though I could only see from the waist up. I had on a dark grey shirt of some kind on, and I could see that there was probably another shirt on underneath it. The sleeves were short, but my arms were protected by leather gauntlets of some kind. I held up my hand to get a better look, seeing that my right hand specifically had the index and middle fingers gloved while the rest went free. I'd seen this before having something to do with archery.

As I examined my hands some more, I threw my legs out from under the bed covers. As it turned out, my legs were sporting new duds as well. My pants were now a tan, sack-like material, and my new kicks were the same color as my shirt. I couldn't help but think that it looked kind of silly, especially when you paired it with the fact that I had bleach blond hair and blue eyes. What was I? An Arian archer spy guy? That was just goofy.

The sound of more clashing metal knocked me out of my confusion, so to speak. I was still confused, but it wasn't distracting me from the outside world anymore. I looked up to find myself in what appeared to be a small, wooden house. There were some things here and there, but nothing really homely. The main article aside from the bed was a table that held some items. I looked for a moment before almost gasping. There, sitting obediently on the table, was a fine looking bow with a quiver of arrows next to it.

My legs practically started moving on their own to get me a better look at the things. I was in awe. It's as simple as that. I'd always been a fan of the bow and arrow, and here some fine were, all but offering themselves to me. There was also a sheathed knife, a shoulder guard, and a small cloth sitting on the table to cap things off. I didn't know what the cloth was, but it felt like Christmas had come early all of the sudden.

Just before I could think to reach down and touch the bow, however, I got a pang of guilt. Did these belong to somebody? I looked around in a paranoid manner, half expecting to see somebody gawking at me from the corner. The house was empty, though, and there weren't any doors other than the one that appeared to lead outside.

There was a window to one wall, the same one with the door. Through there I could see daylight, a dirt path, and an endless horizon. That's when something else came to my ears: the sound of waves breaking.

Wait! I thought to myself. The ocean, weird clothes, wooden building, bow and arrows, archery equipment… I couldn't be… Could I? No!

I'll admit it. I felt absolutely insane for even thinking about what I was pondering right there. The thought that crossed my mind was so strange, so twisted, and so stupid that I didn't even want to consider it. Then again, when you really think about it, getting tossed into blackness and falling into an unfamiliar bed is that same kind of stupid. Had I not been so bewildered, I'd probably have thought about that a little harder.

As I stood there, still stunned, I heard some more metal noises followed by a scream. There was fighting going on. That was undeniable. I wanted to know what was going on quite badly now, so I did something stupid without putting much thought into it. I went over to the door, pulled it open, and took a peek outside. It took only a second for my eyes to adjust to the light, and then I saw something I wish I hadn't.

There were a few men in black armor standing not too far away, and my eyes fixated on them just in time to see one get blasted by a fireball.

My jaw nearly fell off.

It took a lot of nerve to post this. I hope at least somebody finds it amusing.

I've already got a few chapters written. I'll post based on demand/reviews. If I get a few, I'll post the next chapter about Wednesday. If I don't get many, I'll probably wait until Sunday.

Tips and reviews are appreciated. Thanks for reading.