Chapter 2
"I'm so never doing anything on a modded Wii ever again." I muttered angrily to no one in particular as I floated in the all encompassing darkness.
"Yeah, cause that's totally the reason why we're here now." An unidentified sarcastic voice echoed from seemingly everywhere.
"Huh, whose there?!" I demanded as I looked around frantically for the voice's owner, and becoming more than a little panicked when I couldn't find one.
"Ooh, I know this one, can I answer it?" The voice called back still coming from everywhere.
"Please do." I replied as I could already feel myself fending off a migraine.
"Well you're here, and me and my pal Janus are here with you. That answer your question?"
"No." I said through gritted teeth trying to keep myself from having a stroke or an aneurysm.
"He can't see us you idiot, you didn't turn on the two-way display." Another voice, this one apparently belonging to Janus said in an identical fashion to the first one.
"But I don't want him to see me." The first voice said timidly.
"Than get out of here so I can do my job!" Janus commanded angrily.
…
"Alright, now where were we?" Janus asked.
"I think you were about to answer some of my questions." I retorted.
"Oh yeah, but first I need to fix something." Janus said
"Such as?" I inquired incredulously.
"This." Janus replied and suddenly I could see, not that what I was seeing was making any sense, since I was now apparently floating in the center of what appeared to be two constantly changing and completely different Jackson Pollock paintings that seemed to be fighting one another for control of whatever this place was.
"Better?" Janus asked in a friendly tone.
"A little I guess but I still have a lot of questions." I replied.
"Would you feel better if I was talking to you face to face?" Janus asked.
"Yeah that would be nice." I replied timidly.
"Alright, give me a second." Janus said.
…
"So, what did you have questions about?" A dimly glowing orb of light that was apparently Janus asked as it entered the space I was floating in.
"What are you, and where am I?" I asked without really thinking.
"Me, I'm an eidolon, and we are currently standing in the confines of your sub-conscious." Janus replied nonchalantly.
"Really than why is it so clashy?" I asked letting myself be distracted for the moment.
"Well it's not like it has to be like this, we can be in any setting your comfortable in you know." Janus replied.
"Really, than why don't we change this to a high tech library fortress?" I asked rhetorically not really expecting anything to happen, instead the darkness it's form to exactly what I had described.
"Would you like me to save this for you?" Janus asked.
"Uh, sure go ahead." I said distractedly.
"Did you have any other questions or concerns?" Janus asked, snapping me out of my reverie.
"Yeah, actually I did have other questions. What's going on here?" I asked.
"I can't tell you that." Janus simply replied.
"Why not?" I asked now annoyed that he wasn't answering my question.
"Because that's for you to figure out on your own." Janus said tiredly.
"Alright, so how did I get here, last I remember I was in my basement playing Fire Emblem?" I queried.
"We teleported you, and before you ask where we are again we're in the far plane now." Janus explained.
"So I'm dead?" I asked now very confused as to what was going on.
"No, you're not dead. Look we're out of time so you're going to be on your own for a while, but call me if you need anything." Janus said hurriedly.
"Wait how do I do that?" I called out as Janus vanished in a flash of blinding light.
…
"Hey!" A calm soothing voice beckoned.
…
"Come on, wake up already!" The voice exclaimed worriedly while lightly shaking me into semi-consciousness.
"W-where am I?" I asked as my eyes opened to give me a view of dimly lit and dank smelling darkness instead of the weird yet also dry Jackson Pollock crap I was just in.
"Prison." The voice answered, though it didn't take long to find it's owner.
"Ah, I see your awake now. Good I was beginning to worry that you might not wake up. My name is Sephiran by the way, might I have yours?" Sephiran said in what must have been the most neutral tone in existence.
"I'm Dylan." I replied without thinking.
'Great, just great I'm going to die in jail cell because some cosmic entity sent me to Tellius for reasons unknown, and even if I do manage to somehow escape I've already let my name out to the one guy that's trying to cause a mass extinction event.'
"So Sephiran, any idea what we're in for?" I asked casually.
"Well I'm in here because the Daein army caught me healing some of the Crimean militia while I was on a pilgrimage, I'm not sure why your here though since you were here when I arrived." Sephiran explained.
…
"Do you think we'll ever get out of here?" I asked nervously.
"You mean alive right?" Sephiran asked back.
"Well that would be preferable." I replied.
"Probably not." Sephiran answered shaking his head dismissively.
"The castle's defenses have been breached, inform Commander Danomill immediately!" A guard shouted.
"Yes sir!" another replied.
"And you, don't just stand there get us some help down here, on the double!" The guard shouted again.
"Right away sir!" The subordinate said timidly as he disappeared down some passage or another.
"Hm, it seems I've spoke too soon." Sephiran mumbled to himself as the door to our cell swung open and Ike walked in with a tall curly haired brunette that was probably about my age right behind him.
"Your cell door is open, you should leave here while my friends and I fight off these guards." Ike said authoritatively.
"Actually I think I'll stay and fight with you if you don't mind." I said instinctively.
"Are you armed?" Ike asked curiously.
"I don't think so, maybe I'll just get out of here wile the getting is good." I responded.
"That might be for the best, though your free to join my mercenary company when we're done here." Ike replied.
"I think I'll have to take you up on that offer when we get out of here." I replied trying not to sound too confident that they would be okay.
"You mean if we get out of here." Ike corrected.
"Commander, we need to keep moving if we want to actually make it out of here alive!" A voice called out to our general direction.
"Right, sorry Soren!" Ike shot back as he ran off to inform the next prisoner of their freedom, at least I think that's where he went.
'Well I should probably get a move on it too, don't want to be left behind after all'
And with that thought I realized that I was still just standing in the jail cell like an idiot, or a suicidal moron. And so I do what any sane person in my current situation would do, which is GTFO. Thankfully I hadn't run into any guards yet, don't get me wrong I'd seen plenty of them its just that they were too busy fighting off the Greil Mercenaries to notice me, or if they did see me they were quickly killed by someone who wasn't.
And just when I thought I was in the clear, I was accosted by Commander Danomill and his two generic myrmidons.
"Well, well, what do we have here, a new face? I've not seen you round here before so you must be?" The Daein General asked himself rhetorically, hoping I would introduce myself.
…
"What's your name boy?" Danomill asked being more direct this time.
At that moment everything started to slow down and my vision got fuzzy, almost like it was transitioning to something.
"Not much of a talker are you? Ah well, it wasn't like I was planning on sparring your life, get him boys!" Danomill roared, causing his two henchmen to rush me with their swords.
My reaction was purely instinctive, before I knew what I was doing I was throwing sand and gravel that I had gotten from god only knows where in my assailants eyes. This not only blinded them but also bought the Greil Mercenaries enough time to catch up to where I was and deal with the swordsmen. Giving me a brief moment to rest.
"Well, perhaps you'll be more fun than I first thought. Oh, wait you don't have a weapon." Danomill said mockingly, probably just trying to get me to do something stupid.
…
"Again with the silent treatment, eh? Well you'd better get used to that cause that's the only sound you'll be making when I'm done with you!" Danomill roared as he moved to cut me in two.
And just like that, the dreamlike sequence was over just as suddenly as it had begun. However this time the visual transition was pretty much seamless.
"Get him boys!" Danomill roared, causing me to jump in place.
Acting purely on instinct I bent over and sure enough there was a mixture of sand and gravel beneath my feet. I quickly picked up a large handful and threw it in a wide arc in the now rapidly closing space in front of me. This thankfully blinded the swordsmen. And now the Greil Mercenaries are fighting them, wow deja′ vu much.
"Well perhaps you'll be more fun than I first thought. Oh, wait you don't have a weapon." The Daein general mocked.
…
"Again with the silent treatment, eh? Well you'd better get used to that cause that's the only sound you'll be making when I'm done with you!" Danomill roared, as he raised his sword and ran at me like he was going to cleave me in half. So what do I do, stand there like an idiot whose too terrified to move, or defend himself for that matter.
"Elwind!" I heard Soren shout from somewhere behind me. This was followed by the general being blasted from all sides with blades of gale force wind.
"Why you insolent little boy, I guess I'll have to teach you some manners." Danomill said now shaking with rage.
To Soren's credit he let his magic do the talking as he began channeling what would have been a critical hit, this time the spell chopped the man into rather large pieces of what used to be a Daein general.
"Come on now Dylan, we'd best get a move on everyone's waiting us, unless you liked being held prisoner." Ike conjectured as he approached from behind me.
"Uh no, I think I'd prefer freedom thank you." I replied as I walked towards what I presumed was the prison exit, suffice it to say it was.
"Hey look whose finally out, and you've brought plenty of friends I see." A friendly sounding voice called.
"Ranulf, shall I assume you finished your errands than?" Ike called back.
"Indeed I have, but I'm afraid I must inquire into the trustworthiness of some of your newer members." Ranulf began.
"What of them?" Ike responded.
"Come now Ike, you've just recruited a thief whom you know nothing about while saving a monk on some kind of pilgrimage, add in the monk's equally mysterious cell mate and you have a recipe for disaster. Ranulf elaborated.
"Well, the monks already parted ways with us, as for the other two I'd say they're trustworthy enough for the time being." Ike replied.
"Well never the less, you certainly do seem to attract a strange crowd, but we should keep moving we'll need to put as much distance between us and here as possible. And we're still two days march from Port Toha." Ranulf said bidding us all to follow him. Which we did until it came time to make camp and rest for the night. By then Ike had already talked to me about well, everything that really needed to be talked about like was serious about my offer to help them? Could I handle myself in a fight? What sort of weapon did I use? By the time we'd covered everything I was ready for sleep to take me, which it did almost instantaneously.