GHOST STORIES

Chapter 10: Rewritten

"Jasmine… Chamomile…Pain! Ecstasy!"

Owain flailed in his cot, his sword-hand reflexively shielding his eyes from the morning light.

"This can only be…the Den of Mysteries!"

"Wake up, honey," the sweet, soft voice of Lissa said beside him. "You're just dreaming." She sipped some tea and set her cup upon a bedside table.

"Huh? What?" Owain snorted as he got his bearings. He was stiff and felt the distinct soreness of freshly-cut and mended skin as well as a lump on the back of his head.

"Watch yourself!" – The concerned voice of his father.

Owain sniffed, taking in the smells of antiseptic, medicine and blood as well as the different types of tea that his parents had been drinking.

"I was bested in battle? Unthinkable! Surely, the Hero of the Ages is without equal! Yet… death does not wrap me in its shroud…"

"You took some fierce wounds," Libra informed him, "but you shall be just fine. You were not the only one injured, but everyone else has been treated and released. You've been asleep for a night and a day."

A memory flashed through Owain's mind of where he'd last been standing. A fell wind was blowing, black, smoky and with a cold that felt like it was sheering through his bones. He'd been supporting his father, a sword to balance out a battleaxe. They were on the back of a dragon the size of a landmass. Lucina was ahead of them with Morgan. Their parents and his mother were further ahead. Owain last remembered smelling magic and blocking a sword strike from one of Grima's faithful aimed at his father's head and then the feeling that something was behind him…

Owain sat up. "Where's Aunt Robin?" he asked.

Libra put an arm around Lissa and drew her close to him.

Lissa put her hands over her face and cried.

Over the previous months, the Shepherds had learned the bitter truth about Robin. Lucina had always held some suspicions that she'd desperately hoped were not true. She remembered a loving mother, after all, just as Owain remembered a smart and kind aunt. Despite some of her history – that which they'd known about in their own timeline of her being a childhood refugee from the Grimleal – they'd never suspected that she was actually Grima incarnate.

They'd long suspected she was a victim - but not that.

At least, it had not been Robin's fault. She was not a willing host – but she could be held in sway by whatever essence of Grima her father, Validar, could wield.

Owain had allowed Lucina to cry upon his shoulder until she taxed herself and fell asleep on him the evening after she'd almost killed her mother. This was a family-secret. Chrom had broken up the near-assassination-attempt and the facts of it were shared only with Owain (by Lucina, who needed someone to talk to who wasn't Morgan) and, by-necessity, to his parents. They'd had to heal a cut on Robin – an indecisive strike when Lucina had tried to go in for the kill and had pulled back, unable to fell her mother. Apparently, Robin had just stood there, awaiting execution. The Exalted family told none of the rest of the Shepherds what had transpired, although they were sure that they had all guessed, due to the tension among the family. They had all seen Robin become possessed. They had seen Robin turn over the Fire Emblem to Validar.

They'd later gotten it back, due to a plan she had hatched and she had slain Validar herself, severing herself from shared-blood. However, the Robin that Owain had known in childhood had followed the Second Shepherds into the past, fully-possessed and had brought the Grima of the current timeline into wakefulness using the souls of hordes of brainwashed Plegians who had been called to the Dragon's Table and the willing Grimleal who had brainwashed the innocent citizens. Grima, perhaps, was not as strong in this time as in their own time, given the displacement caused by time-travel and the fact that the current timeline's Robin had held fast and had not given in to possession.

Chrom survived the day he was slated to die. History had not repeated itself.

After surviving some heavy battles later in a scramble for the shrine at Mount Prism, a choice had been laid before the Shepherds, Robin in particular. Once he had passed Naga's test and was bequeathed the Exalted Falchion, Chrom was enabled to do his duty to send Grima back into a thousand-year slumber should he strike the dragon down. Robin, on the other hand, could use her position as Grima's mortal-anchor to destroy him forever: At the cost of her existence.

Owain remembered when he'd heard the voice of Naga in this time handing down this verdict. The Shepherds had seen a manifestation of Naga – all of them, including his father. Libra had fallen to his knees, of course, but his joy upon meeting his patron-goddess in person while remaining alive was quickly dampened at the thought of losing his sister-in-law and great friend.

The Shepherds had divided feelings as to what was to be done and argued among themselves heavily. None of them wanted to lose Robin and they spoke of how another rise of Grima could be prevented within a thousand-year timeframe. Some of them – everyone from the future who had remembered what Grima could do to the world first-hand voiced thoughts that a sacrifice might be the best thing, even if a potential cruel future was to be far-flung. Lucina was the most torn-up about this. She did not want to lose her mother again, but did not want even the furthest-reach of the future to face what they had faced. The fact that she'd even considered her mother's sacrifice put Morgan off of talking to her.

In the end, however, it was Robin's decision.

Naga had spoken of hope for Robin's return – if the connections to the hearts of her companions were strong enough in her, if she was anchored enough in the mortal world in order to keep her mortal self – she could return to them, however, the Divine Dragon warned that separating "Robin" from the grasp of "Grima" would be improbable. Even as "Grima redeemed," Robin's body was the physical aspect of the Fell Dragon. The most likely outcome of her destroying Grima with her own power would be her death – and possibly the dissolution of her spirit entirely.

Robin, herself, tried to appear stoic in the weeks leading up to the final battle. The Shepherds built up their strength and chased Grima down to where Naga could hold him for a limited time. Everyone could see the small cracks in her mask, however, the contemplation in her eyes. She never gave them a firm answer or a promise not to strike the final blow, but lead Chrom to believe that he'd get the killing blow, should they even get that far in the battle. It was very likely that none of them were coming back from fighting Grima itself.

The mission of the Shepherds once Naga had transported them to the Fell Dragon's back was to get Chrom to the front – to Robin's other self on the back of the beast's neck: Lucina's true mother and Owain's true aunt, but only her body at this point. The woman who was – was either long gone, the spirit dissolved – or perhaps trapped inside somewhere deep inside, in need of a freedom that could only come through death.

Owain was certain that he'd heard Chrom screaming as the sword-hilt of an enemy pummeled the back of his head and darkness took him.

After waking up in the tent in camp he learned that Robin had gotten to the front with Chrom and upon wounding Grima's vessel, she'd struck ahead of him, her decision made.

Aunt Robin was gone.

As soon as the wounded young man was able to stand and exit the tent, Chrom gathered everyone for a speech. The Shepherds' camp overlooked a valley where the remains of Grima had fallen – the bones having de-fleshed as both versions of the soul had vanished. Gazing out sadly next to his mother and father, Owain spared a glance for Lucina and Morgan as they all listened to Chrom pontificate – as stoic as ever, keeping the voice of a leader.

Keeping his voice from cracking.

Owain edged his way even closer to his parents as the speech went on, knowing that the family – and all of the Shepherds – needed each other more than ever in this moment.

His mother vowed to search every field in the world for Robin in hopes of her return. His father prayed for her to find light in the darkness. Owain struck a pose and proclaimed that the hero would return – and that she was, greater than even he at his best and, he suspected, a greater hero than he would ever be.

The Shepherds celebrated the defeat of Grima – forever, but also mourned Robin. Before the long journey back to Ylisstol, there were both toasts and tears.

Two years later found Owain hammering nails into the framework of what was to become a large house. His father was close by, working on another portion of the framing-timbers, dressed in workman's clothes with his hair unbraided and pulled into a long tail behind his back. Owain had honestly never seen him look so masculine and deemed it a good look on him, at least as long as he was unwilling to trim his hair. The man was always going to look androgynous, no matter what he did with himself, but he got closer to a model of "manliness" in some moments.

Owain found it interesting to be working on building the home that he was born and raised in another life ago. He had been one of the Second Shepherds who had stayed behind in the Ylisstol area. Many of his friends had gone off on personal journeys. Various members of the original Shepherds had broken up to go to their respective homes and homelands. Virion had gone back to Rosanne. Henry and Tharja were somewhere in Plegia. Tiki had gone to her mountain and Sar'yi had gone back to Chron'sin. The future-children were moving on with their lives in this timeline – unable to "go home" again. No one knew if their original timeline even existed anymore or if it had been absorbed into a void. Owain actively wondered if the souls of his past had somehow merged with the souls of their selves in the present time – and if truly, everyone he'd lost now lived.

As it was, his friends were off doing various things. Brady was playing to packed houses and apparently scaring the bejabbers out of audiences with some of his dark, apocalyptic concertos as well as his face (the poor sap). Yarne was actively trying to find romance because he wanted to get started on having "lots of children" as soon as possible. Inigo was reportedly doing likewise, children optional. Laurent and Morgan were investigating historical sites and ruins. Some had stayed behind. Cynthia had integrated herself into the Pegasus Knights. Severa and Kjelle were training for the palace guard.

Lucina surprised everyone by staying in Ylisstol for the time being, although she planned to travel. She had been insistent throughout their mission that she did not want to interfere with the upbringing of her current-timeline twin-self, nor did she want to invite a scandal, but it had become clear to her that her father needed support after losing the queen. She made sure that she was not seen outside the palace-grounds without the masked guise of "Marth" and presented herself to the public as a servant-advisor and a distant relative whose birth-records had been lost. Everyone knew that this story would not hold up as soon as information about the battle with Grima slowly became declassified. Eventually, everyone would know that there was an alternate future that had been averted, a new timeline created.

Owain wasn't going to stay behind forever. He had new adventures to get to and new lands to travel to. He felt wanderlust nipping at his heels. He also felt that he couldn't stay for reasons that would present themselves as obvious in times to come.

"Haven't you considered staying with us?" his father asked after finishing a nail. "Your mother and I would be glad to have you. Once the home is finished, we will, no doubt, need all of the help we can get with the little ones."

"No, Dad, I really do think I should go. I'll visit sometimes… it's just… What happens when you and mother celebrate the portentous birth of the hero of this age – my tiny self, Owain the Younger?"

"Hmm," Libra muttered. "Are you so sure we will have you again? Specific traits that people are born with happen due to a number of circumstances and it is all very time-sensitive. The mix of myself and your mother that generated you may not be present in a child in this timeline, but a different mix. We may even have a daughter instead of a son."

"I hadn't considered that," Owain replied. "So, she shall be Owainia! Heroine of the Ages!"

Libra smiled. "We need some time, in any case."

"You may use my name," Owain said. "I have been thinking of trying out a different moniker – just for traveling and to blend in to the stealthy shadows! I would die if some miscreant uncovered my secret identity after my great deeds and came after my family because of it…"

"Owain… focus. You just almost hit your thumb with the hammer."

"Oh, right. In any case, Father… I am actually not sure I can stay here. I am plagued with certain memories that are bound to synch up with events in this timeline in ways most vexing. When the younger this-world versions of my past siblings come along… I am just not sure how I am going to be able to handle that. I still… think of ghosts."

"I understand," Libra responded, setting another nail where it needed to be. "Your mother and I don't know them yet; all things are new for us."

Owain sighed softly and smiled. Birds chirped in the fields and trees around them. It was a wonderful spring day and the air was scented with grass and wildflowers. The young man watched his father work and resumed his own, regretful that the birdsong had to be drowned out, however temporarily, by the harsher sounds of construction. Friends had been helping to build the orphanage. Libra had cleared the project with Chrom, citing the unfortunate need to de-burden the overpopulation of the area's existing orphanages after the wars. It was what he and Lissa agreed that they wanted to do. Owain wondered in the coming years if they would plant more, should there be a need – and perhaps expand to schools and other services for youth. In this timeline, it could happen. The world had a future here. It was alive – and more than that. Owain felt like he was living in a world that had been resurrected.

The ghost stories had been rewritten into a tale of life.

"When do you think Mom's going to get back?"

"It could be some time," Libra said. "She was going all the way to Southtown with Lord Chrom and Sir Frederick and who knows if they decided to take an extra night at the inn."

"Yoo hoo!"

Owain and Libra paused, attention caught by a chipper voice and booted footsteps.

"Speak of the devil…" Libra laughed.

"Ah, my most punctual mother!" Owain pronounced. "How fared you on your latest adventure?"

Lissa's eyes were alight. "Ooh, it was amazing! Come on! Come on! I've got something to show you!"

She grabbed her husband by the wrist so hard he almost spun and pulled him forward. "Come on, Owain! Hurry!"

"What in the wide world has gotten you all aflutter, Mother?" Owain asked, "Have you brought back a haunted souvenir of Fate?"

"You'll never guess who we found! Or, maybe you will, but we found 'em!"

END.