Sacrifices

A Rolf X Lethe fanfiction

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or its characters.

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Chapter seven: Confessions

About five days had passed since the Kauku Caves battle, and this war seemed to be almost over. We had gained the aid of Crimea through our fighting to protect Queen Elincia. Ike had been announced general of the entire army by Apostle Sanaki, and we had pushed Daein into their snowy fortress, and almost defeated them there, until Prince Kurthnaga of Goldoa stepped in. Unfortunately, the Goldoan prince joined with Daein, and we had one more battle with Daein to go before we could march into the capital of Begnion and end the war. This would be a fierce fight now that Daein had a dragon on their side. I had overheard Ike talking to Reyson about Lehran's Medallion, and apparently all of the war had seriously affected the Medallion. We needed to end the war quickly. I didn't know if it was connected to all of the chaos, but remaining in control of myself kept getting more difficult every battle.

We were going to have our entire force attack Daein's army head-on, and even though I still felt a little sad about fighting some old friends, I would not hold back. It was only moments before the battle would begin, and the air was as tense as could be. I could feel the emotions of everyone while they were getting prepared, and I could tell no one really wanted to be here. Maybe those feelings got to the laguz as well, because even the normally war-hungry laguz seemed a bit toned down. I positioned myself next to Lethe while we were awaiting orders from Ike.

"Hey Lethe?" I started.

"Yes, Rolf, what is it?"

"Just promise you'll be careful, this fight might be much more dangerous than any other so far."

"Mhm, all right, but just watch your back as well." she smiled at me to assure me.

I smiled back to her, and got focused on the incoming battle. I heard Ike, Skrimir, and Tibarn give the orders to attack. The battle had begun.

Both armies rushed at each other, and it quickly became a furious battleground. The Gallians slashed away at the advancing soldiers, and Phoenicia's force was causing havoc among the enemy ranks. I shot at every enemy that came within range of Lethe, and tried to stay as close to her, without getting in the way, as possible. I saw Ike clashing swords with Zihark, and Haar battling with Jill in the sky.

For a while the battle seemed to be fairing well, yet there were heavy casualties on both sides, the bodies of laguz and beorc littering the field. It was strange, but, I thought I kept hearing a voice in my head, whispering to me, and it sounded like a woman.

"Cursed child of chaos, guardian of order, do my bidding." I heard it say clearly.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I asked it.

"Do my bidding, and bring my wrath upon those who have broken their vow to me!"

"AHHHHHHH!" I screamed out in pain, my head felt like it was being split in two! I grasped my head in my hands trying to drown out the now loud voice, but the pain wouldn't stop! Over and over the voice screamed in my head, "Lose yourself to me! Do my bidding!" it would yell. My vision became red and blurry, and my body started to move itself! I was losing control of my mind and body, and that unmistakable feeling was now rushing through me, only this time it was much stronger than ever before.

I saw Lethe rush over to me as blur, and I severely wished she would get away from me. The world became a whirl of blood and fire (A/N: not real just his senses being taken over), and all I could hear was that voice and screams. I didn't know if the screams belonged to me or if they were even real, but I couldn't decipher what was real or not, I could barely think! I felt Lethe's hands on my shoulders, and I turned to look at her. When I did, and when she saw me, stepped back and for a split second I saw a glimpse of fear. That snapped the last strand of sanity I had, and I actually attacked her! I couldn't stop myself!

"Rolf! It's me, Lethe, snap out of it! Please!"

"HYAAAAAH!"

I kept swinging at her with my fists, but my subconscious was just glad I didn't have a close ranged weapon. I relentlessly charged at her, yet she never once even tried retaliating. All she did do was dodge and, without me realizing, leading me away from the fight. I wanted to stop, but it was out of my control now. It was as if there was this beast caged up inside getting angrier each day, and now that it was out it was not going back in the cage again. Oscar noticed what was happening, and ran up to me, and tried to hold me back. Why couldn't they just stay away from me?

"Rolf?! What are you do- oof." he couldn't finish because I turned around and slugged him in the face, knocking him unconscious.

I turned back to continue attacking Lethe, until I saw something that made me stop. She was just standing there completely still, but she was crying. Lethe, one of the strongest girls I ever met, the girl I fell in love with, was crying, and I had caused it. Just that sight alone made me gain a moment of sanity, and I looked down into a puddle and saw what made Lethe step back in fear. My eyes were an eerie reddish glow, and my canines had grown into sharp fangs. My hair had turned to a crimson red, and it looked as if my hair had been drenched in blood. There seemed to be an aura of bloodlust around me, and I was disgusted with all I saw.

"L-Lethe. Get . . . away . . . please. Get away from me!" I yelled. She only shook her head and smiled. I noticed a large tree not far off, and so I decided if I couldn't control myself I could always force myself to stop. I charged the tree with all the speed my new form could muster, which was actually a lot, and crashed into it head-first losing consciousness.

*General POV*

Lethe watched in horror as Rolf crashed head-first into the large tree, and she was sure she heard something crack. The force of the impact was great enough to split the tree in two. She ran over to his motionless form, and when she got there she was relieved to find him still breathing, but there was a good amount of blood staining his green hair.

"Wait, green hair?" she doubled checked to see if it was indeed green instead of completely red. She almost jumped for joy when she saw he had returned to normal, yet that wound on his head could be serious. She noticed Ike taking Mist away from the battle to somewhere else. Since she didn't know where Rhys was, and might not have time to find him, she picked up Rolf and followed Ike.

Following him eventually led her to a castle she thought looked familiar. She followed him through the castle, and into a room where Tibarn, Queen Nailah, Janaff, Ulki, Ike, Mist, and the three Herons were. The Herons were unconscious, and in the middle of the room on a pedestal was . . . the Fire Emblem, and it seemed to emit a blue flame. Upon her entry, Tibarn noticed her.

"Hey, Ike, did you bring those two here?" he asked.

"Hmm, no they must have followed me. Lethe, what is wrong with Rolf?"

"Well . . . I don't know why, but Rolf suddenly went berserk, and went on a rampage . . . he even attacked Oscar and me. Then he ran head-first into a tree I think to purposefully knock himself unconscious. He has a large wound on his head because of it, and I saw you and Mist going somewhere so I thought he might get help wherever you were going since I couldn't find Rhys." she explained.

"Hn, that could make sense," Tibarn started. "If what the legends say is true, then because Lehran's Medallion is close to releasing the Dark God he probably would go on a rampage. The chaos in Tellius has almost peaked, and very soon the Dark God will be unleashed, and then Tellius will be destroyed."

Just then, Sanaki entered, and Lethe and Rolf were quickly forgotten. To be honest, Lethe didn't entirely know what was happening so she stayed in the background. Hostile words were exchanged between Tibarn and Naesala, and then Sanaki tried to release the Dark God using a galdr, but for some reason it didn't work. Then, Micaiah, who Lethe recognized as the leader of the Daein forces, entered the room and explained why Sanaki's galdr didn't work and that there needed to be lyrics as well. Micaiah then sung the galdr with lyrics and the room was bathed in a bright light, and once it receded so did the blue flame around the medallion. Soon after, the collapsed people began to awaken, including Rolf.

*Rolf's POV*

I awoke in a bit of a daze, but quickly noticed I was not on the battlefield but on a bed in a small, stone room. I was confused as to what had happened, but I felt better, better than before at least. Lethe was not far off, and when she noticed me awake she came over to my side.

"Rolf," she said while laying a hand on my shoulder. "I'm glad to see you finally awake."

"Ugh . . . my head's pounding. What happened?" I asked.

"Well, that's kind of a long story. I don't even know exactly what happened either but . . . " she then proceeded to tell me all that happened from when I passed out up to then. I was a bit confused. Did the Dark God awaken? If so, why are we all still alive, and why hadn't anything happened? These questions kept running through my head, and little did I know they would be answered shortly.

Just then, a huge flash of light came from the skies and seemed to envelop all of Tellius in its radiant light. Once the light dissipated it left behind an eerie, ominous silence. I remember wondering why it was so quiet since there was supposed to be an ongoing war outside.

Lethe helped me get outside since I was still a little weak from the blow to the head I inflicted on myself. Once we were out, we noticed everyone, and I mean everyone both laguz alliance and Daeins' top officers, out in the courtyard looking quite solemn. I found Shinon in the mass of people and asked what was going on.

"See for yourself." he said pointing to the battlefield outside the fort.

Lethe helped me walk over to the field, and neither of us were prepared for what we saw. Everyone was stone. Not fighting or even moving an inch. Now I knew why there was that silence.

We headed back to the crowd of people in the courtyard when I noticed they were all listening to the girl who I thought was the Daein commander Macaiah. I found Shinon again and he filled me in on what I had missed.

"Apparently the Goddess Ashera, who we've all been taught to worship, is an insane, evil goddess who wants us all dead now, and that light we saw was Ashura's judgement, and the Dark God Yune, who is inhabiting that girl's body right now, is our only chance for survival. And now she's telling us we have to fight Ashera." You had to be deaf not to hear the condescending tone in his voice.

"What? Is she serious?" I couldn't believe a word of what he just said.

"I don't know. I only know that light had to come from somewhere, and I'm ready to fight whoever it was who did it."

"Yeah that's true." I was still skeptical about it all.

Yune abruptly stopped whatever she was trying to explain to Ike and the other leaders upon noticing me, and she raised an accusing finger directly at me.

"You, come over here!" she commanded. All eyes turned toward me, and I pointed to myself and asked, "me?"

She only nodded so I walked over to her and just as I got within arms reach she grabbed my face and kept turning it back-and-forth as if I was being inspected. She stopped once she met eye contact with me, and with an annoyed look on her face, turned toward Ike again.

"This boy is under the influence of Ashera! If we keep him around it will mean serious trouble. I suggest he stay behind." she yelled to Ike.

"What are you talking about?!" Ike asked. "Rolf is our friend and a strong ally. We are not leaving him behind!"

"Don't you know Ashera could control him at any time?! Haven't you seen what he can do under Ashera?! If you seriously suggest he come along then I would request him to be isolated until needed." she yelled back at Ike.

"You're right, I have seen what can happen, but I trust Rolf as much as the rest of my friends, and so because of that he will not be isolated like a dangerous animal! If you don't like it, then I'm sorry to say you're going to have to deal with it." I was very grateful to Ike for standing up for me, yet I was confused. Now it was Ashera's fault that I was how I was?

"Wait a minute," I said to get their attention. "I heard you were the one who had cursed me. Aren't you the Dark God?"

"For the last time, STOP CALLING ME THAT!" she yelled.

"S-sorry." I thought twice about getting her angry again.

"Anyway, why would I curse you? And it's not a curse. A thousand years ago, when Ashera and I were about to sleep for a millennium, she picked a few random families throughout Tellius and mingled a creation of her own she dubbed the Guardians of Dominion factor, or the GOD factor, into the family's bloodstream. I was opposed to it from the beginning, but she must have gone ahead with it without my consent. She called it a fail safe incase you humans broke your promise to us. The GOD factor was meant to activate if widespread chaos overtook Tellius. She created it for the purpose of a weapon she could control if awoken early."

"If it's in my families blood then why am I the only one who . . . berserks?" I asked.

"Well I'd assume that's a multiple of factors. Age for one thing, you see your age is the perfect time to be controlled. Not too old to have a strong mind and will or physically weak, and not too young to be of any real use to hear. Also, at your age, your emotions are harder to control. The GOD factor responds to strong emotions or danger. Which I would guess your emotions have been running wild recently," she motioned with her eyes to Lethe, which made me blush, "and you've been in a lot of danger.

"O-K." All this new information that contradicted everything I knew before was a lot to handle.

"Possibly," she started again, "It could be that you have a bit of hidden potential, that I can sense anyway. If you insist on him coming along, I can help by unlocking that power. Hopefully, it should also help protect you from Ashera's control. Ready?"

I only nodded, and the next second a bright light encased my body in warmth, and I felt a new strength come forth from my body. The strength felt similar to the killing rage as before, but different. This strength felt more pure and calm, and I was in complete control for once. When the light finally dissipated, I felt better than I ever had before.

"Alright, that's done. Now let's set up the teams that will be going after Ashera." she said while breathing slightly heavy.

In the end, not much changed. Most of the Greil Mercenaries stayed together. I would've joined Lethe in whatever group she went with, but luckily she chose to go with us. We were all getting ready to head out and were saying caution to everyone else when I found her by herself staring off into space.

"Hi, Lethe." I greeted.

"Oh, hello, Rolf." she replied.

"Lethe, I'm glad you came with us. That way I won't have to worry as much." I grinned at her.

"Rolf?" she asked in a quite voice.

"Yes, Lethe?"

"This . . . this is going to be extremely dangerous isn't it? I mean, we're fighting a goddess!"

"Yeah . . . I suppose it will be."

"And we could all die, couldn't we?" she asked.

"Yeah." I had never heard her sound so sad and afraid before, and it was extremely unusual coming from the normally tough girl. "Listen, Lethe, I will do whatever it takes to protect you. I would sacrifice my life to protect yours. Because, well, there's something you should know since this could be the last time we talk. I... I love you."

No sooner than I was done confessing this to her I felt something incredibly soft press against my lips. It took a couple of seconds to realize she had jumped on me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and was kissing me! Once I realized this I started to kiss back. The kiss lasted for only about ten seconds, but they were undoubtedly the best ten seconds of my life so far. Once we pulled away, I noticed she was blushing and gave me such a lovely smile.

"I love you too, Rolf." she said.

I'm quite sure my heart exploded from pounding so hard, and that I'd died and gone to heaven.

"Y-you do. Really? I knew I was blushing like crazy and had the goofiest grin on my face, but at that point I didn't care.

"Yes. At first, I thought you were just a strange beorc, but then I noticed you staring at me, and for some reason I found myself staring back. For some inexplicable reason you were always in my thoughts, and after all the crazy stunts you pulled to keep me alive I realized why I couldn't stop thinking about you. I fell in love with you."

I was indescribably happy that I couldn't even speak, and all I could do was hold her as close as possible, and I found myself unable to stop kissing her. I would protect her, this love of mine, with my life for the rest of my natural life and for eternity.
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I got a new chapter up woo hoo! Plus this was one of my favorite chapters so far so double woo hoo! I think those two are too cute! Go RolfX Lethe. Chapter 8 is also up now because I've been too lazy lately and I wanted to get a lot up in a short time. Read and Review!