ASLEEP

Rated T for violence, imagery and cursing

Chapter Ten– Lucien

What the fuck is going on? Ugh, I can't move my hand. Okay, this is a lot of pain, but at the same time not that much pain if I stay still. Well, it's not like I have a choice, most of my limbs are pinned to the floor by knives. Who the hell is this jackass?

Look at him, sitting on his chair looking incredibly smug.

"What's wrong Outsider? Confused?" Taunting. I hate this guy already. "Let's see – who do you think I am?"

There's really only one option here. "Lucien. What the hell are you?"

"I told you already, I'm your Alternate." Lucien leaned forwards and prodded his feathered cap with a finger. "And you're an Outsider."

"Speak...English..." The pain's coming back now. I guess it must have been shock or something that made it feel less...pain-y. Well, there goes my capacity to use language. Wonderful.

Lucien groaned and palmed his face, slumping back in his chair. "Riiiiight. Exposition dump time."

...is this guy for real? "Lucien, what the hell are you on?"

Um. That's an impressive glare. Okay, Cameron, new tactic: Don't taunt the guy who just completely obliterated you in a few seconds. I...think I'm getting dizzy. That'll be the blood loss.

"I'm on life." He grinned, and somehow even that cliche came out all twisted and terrifying. "A life that I honestly never thought I'd have."

"You see, Outsider, there's one very special rule to switching dimensions: Balance must be maintained. Now, normally this is done by switching around some locations and confusing the knowledge the Outsider has of the world, but in your case...well. You changed too much, Cammie Boy."

I will rip this man's throat out as soon as I regain use of my hands, just for that frigging nickname.

"Think about it. You were...well, not overweight, but not fit either. Your eyesight was just average, you'd never learned how to fight before and – this is the big one – you had a hand-eye co-ordination disorder."

Oh, crap, I think I see where this is going.

"Now, when you subconsciously signed the contract with the Old Man to end up here – I'll leave him to explain that, because I honestly couldn't give two craps – you made an idealized version of yourself. Suddenly, you are fit, strong, and most importantly your dyspraxia is gone. Now, short of blowing up the world, there really was nothing the Old Man could do to balance out your sudden elevation to actual competence. You changed too much about yourself. Now, the protocol for that...is the creation of an Alternate. Hi."

I'm getting tunnel vision. Shit, stay awake you idiot. "And just what...the hell...is an Alternate?"

Lucien's face twisted into a vicious glare, as a single gloved hand grabbed my hair and forced eye contact.

"I am, you moron." My hair's free, thank god. Keep eye contact. "I was made just so you had something to worry about. I am everything you hated about your personality given form, so that you would have some kind of ultimate enemy to fight. The more you changed about yourself, the stronger I got, and lo and behold – I'm pretty badass right now. Oh, there might be a glass ceiling that I'll hit at some point, but as for now I'm a higher level than anyone else on your team and I'm just going to keep getting better. If I wanted, I could wipe out all of the shepherds right now all because you changed too much."

Oh no. No. No. Please don't. Not like this. We can't die like this. I won't let them die like this.

"Luckily for you..." Did...did he just backhand me? I think he did. Crap, my tooth's loose. Spit it out before you choke on it. "...I'm not going to do that. No, I'm going to wait two years, then kill you at your strongest and prove that you were never good enough for anything, even with all the little changes you made. So, to make sure you don't just cheat and kill yourself or something like that, here's the deal – I'm not going to kill all the shepherds, just the next three people to come down this hall."

...what kind of logic is that?

"This way, you'll see that I mean business while not making you extremely depressed." Lucien grinned. "Hell, maybe I'll luck out and get to pop Chrom. Wouldn't that screw you over? Lucina wouldn't be able to stop me...you sure as hell can't...Robin? Please. The guy's smart, I'll give him that, but as of right now you are all my bitch."

Footsteps coming down the hall. Crap. Please no. Just turn around and run, maybe this asshole will get bored and leave without killing anyone.

They're getting closer. Please don't be anyone I know – oh, thank god. It's just a group of pegasus knights I don't know.

Lucien got off his chair and bowed. "Ladies. I know that the scumbag here doesn't care about you-" What? I never said – oh god, I was thinking it. How does he know? "-and is in fact relieved that you are the ones about to die rather than people he considers important. If it's any consolation, I will attempt to make it quick. Sometimes, though...I do get carried away."

What the hell is wrong with me?

The pegasus knights charged with a shout. Lucien sighed and drew a pair of curved daggers, spinning them in his hands.

"So..." He tossed one of them. "overconfident."

The first pegasus knight slumped to the floor, a knife sticking through her eye. Lucien grabbed the shaft of the first lance to get close enough, twisted it to the side, got in close and slit the second's throat, leaving her to bleed to death on the floor. I've got to get loose, I have to help – agh. Crap. My sword hand's ruined, I need healing fast if I want to keep it. Legs. Get them out of my ankles. First one.

The final pegasus knight is putting up one hell of a fight, actually. Lucien actually looks rather concerned with how fast she is. I can hear more people getting closer, maybe they'll be able to stop -oh no.

I roll over, the last knife out of my knee, and grab my shield, curling up behind it as a blast of dark magic smashed into it. I can barely breathe...so much pain...ow...

Another shaman?

No. Crap. Goatee, grey skin, stupid haircut. Validar. Crap. Crap.

Can I stand up? No, no I can't. Validar snorts in amusement.

"Pathetic fool."

...I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna -

"HEY! NO KILL STEALING!"

Lucien tackled into Valdiar's side shoulder first, sending them both into an old decorative suit of armor. Wow, that's a lot of noise. The third pegasus knight pulls herself to her feet and glares at the dead bodies of her sisters. Everything's going blurry. That'll be the blood loss again. Naturally. Alright, get to my feet...I really wish I could see Validar and Lucien duke it out, because that's probably ten different kinds of awesome, but priorities. Healer. Find a healer.

The third pegasus knight lets out a cry and charges at Lucien, thrusting her spear. Lucien let out a gasp – wait, was that pain? Holy crap, she hit him! He's got a spear in his leg! Yes, we can kill the bastard now!
He gave out a brief grunt, kicking the knight in the stomach and jabbing a knife into Validar's shoulder. The sorcerer reeled back, pulling it out and glaring at my Alternate. Lucien grinned as the sorceror turned and stalked away, in what he would probably deny was a retreat. I'm willing to say that Validar could have killed the bastard, but he's got his own mission right now that he's probably trying to do.

Oh. Right.

Emmeryn has to die in public, so not yet. Crap. Get a move on, Cameron-

"Where do you think you're going, Cammie Boy?" Taunt. I can hardly see. There's some brief explosions of darkness and some yellow light – lightning spells? - from around the corner. Validar must have run into someone, who uses Thunder spells? That's Robin's specialty, isn't it?

Oh, there goes Validar's corpse. Right out the window. Oh, god, most of his chest was missing. Heh, he really is heartless now.

...I've lost more blood than I thought if I honestly made that joke. Healer. Now.

Oh, thank god, it's not just Robin, the entire damn team's shown up. Yeah, I'll just stay slumped here, Maribelle and Anna are already moving. I can't make out what they are saying, but they are here. Let's just try and focus on...oh god. The final knight is bleeding from a whole bunch of stab wounds in her chest, and Lucien isn't stopping. He's chanting...something, but I can't make out what. Dude, stop, she's dead please just let her rest stop stabbing her STOP STABBING HER.

Finally, Lucien lets the corpse fall to the floor, his white and red clothes covered in blood. Chrom just charged towards him, but the bastard basically just moved around, did a back flip, and landed on the ledge of an open window.

"See you, Outsider..."

I don't know why those words were so clear above everything else, but the lunatic dived out of the window. Damn, it's too dark to give chase now. I take it that Emmeryn made it through okay. I'm just gonna...kind of...go to sleep now...

"-aius, help me hold him up-"

"Don't you dare-"

"-osing him-"

"-eron, are yo-"

Stop talking loud people, just let me...fade away for now...ah...

Oblivion.

Dad, please turn out the sun. It's hurting my eyes.

Ugh. Wait, I'm alive? Holy crap, I was not expecting to live through that one. Lucien delivered one hell of a – oh. Right. Lucien.

He's my fault. Son of a bitch. Of all the after-school-special-bullcrap to come bite me in the ass, I never thought it would be the whole 'be happy with yourself'' thing. Dammit, Cameron, you could have just come here and then worked out but nooo, you had to be ready to fight on arrival, you had to get rid of everything you hated about yourself and now everything you hate about yourself is wandering around killing people and it's all your fault you overconfident self-righteous baSTARD.

Deep breaths. Calm down. Oh, god, my hand hurts. Is it...oh thank god, it's in one piece. I can hold a sword. Damn. Feet? Are my feet still there? Yes, although it hurts to move my toes. Okay. This luck of mine is insane, I should not have escaped that encounter intact.

Oh god. Everyone knows about the whole Outsider thing, they heard him call me that. I'll have to come clean and – no. Don't come clean. Never come clean. That's a stupid plan. Just...just keep it ambiguous. Say its some across-the-ocean bullcrap. Yeah, I'll pass it off as a – no. Idiot. Come clean to someone at least. But not Chrom. He'd rip your throat out for what'll happen to Emmeryn. Oh god, Phila's going to die too. Okay, Cameron. No more interactions with the NPC just because you want to know more about her. It'll destroy you. Good? Good. Okay. Limit yourself. Jesus. Let's get up. Get up.

Okay, swing legs over the side. Oh, good, they at least kept me dressed. Okay, Cameron, stand up – ohgodfalling.

Okay, pull yourself up. Okay. Brace yourself against the wall.

"What are you doing?" Anna, I really don't have time for this. Wait, what the hell am I doing?

"I need...to check on the others." Yeah, that's a good reason. "How long...was I out?"

Yeah, pain's still there. Okay. Wait. What?

"...I'm not paying you for this."

"I wasn't going to ask."

...she's actually serious this time. That's...unusual.

"How come?" I smirk, wrapping my arm around her neck. "I thought you were all about the cash."

"Someone once told me there were things more important than money." Anna shrugged. Okay. I'll deal with that statement's implications later. Hobbling down the corridor, bad arm wrapped around Anna's shoulders, we slowly make our way towards the first source of noise. Oh, hey, it sounds like an argument.

"We need to get the Exalt out of the city." That sounds like Chrom allright.

"If that man from before is still running around, she'll need all the protection she can get. She'll be safer here." That's Phila. Yeah, let's start with them. Okay.

"That man" Oh, the pain "Won't be going anywhere nere the Exalt."

I managed to catch them by surprise. Awesome.

"...should you be up?" Chrom asks in surprise. Well...

"Probably not, no. Still...had to tell you about this guy." Okay, come up with something. "He...doesn't work for Plegia. He was here for a different reason."

That sent them for a loop. It makes sense, though – he attacked Validar, wounding him enough for Robin and gang to actually dispose of him. The mass difference in power level between early game Validar and endgame Validar never made much sense...back on track.

"What reason was that, then?" Phila narrowed her eyes. Yeesh, scary lady.

"For some...unknown reason...he's after me." Okay, now she's just curious. "Anyway, I'm gonna play it safe and stay the hell away from the Exalt after two years. That seems to be the best plan."

Chrom opened his mouth to object, but let's cut him off. "Chrom, he said I've got two years to get better. He...butchered those three women just to prove a point."

"And you trust that he's given you two years?" Phila asked sarcastically. Look, woman -

"Yes. He's...honorable in his own way. I don't trust him, but he's got no reason to not keep his word."

We stand there in awkward silence for a few seconds, before Phila sighed in resignation. "Very well. Given this new information, it would seem best for the Exalt to leave the city and visit Ferox in person."

"Thank you, commander." Chrom said, relieved. "Cameron, are you hungry?"

Oh, am I!

...

No, actually. I...I don't think I am. What the hell is wrong with me? I watched Lucien butcher three women and felt relieved because I didn't know them. I've killed – oh, god, I've lost count – people and treated it like a game. I feel sick.

"No, thank you. I think I'll...just get some bed rest."

Chrom nods farewell, and we all go our separate ways. Anna leaves me on the sickbay's bed and gives me some 'space'.

For once, I actually appreciate it.

A/N: I'm not entirely satisfied with this, I might come back and change it later. I'm really concerned about if Lucien's too OP, but hopefully it's been justified enough.

Anyway...ten chapters and a prologue in, how are we doing?

Wow. That's a lot of reviews. Wait, how many fav's and follows? Holy – okay. Damn. I can't let this schedule slip now. Anyway, as a 'thank you', here's one hundred-ish words of Anna-POV from back in Chapter Seven. Not much, but it's a neat bit of character development IMO.

EDIT 23/03/2013: Realized I missed some words in the last segment while brushing up working on the next chapter, added those in.

EDIT 17/05/2013: Fixed some things, added in a callback to the Anna 'C' support.

Paralogue – Anna I

This woman is annoying, I mean just who does she think she is? Who would do something so unbelievably noble as to try and talk down the enemy army by herself?

By noble I mean stupid.

At least Cameron has the common sense to admit when his plans are stupid...I really hope he's not going to die up there. Still, it's not like we're in a perfectly safe situation. We're halfway down a cliff, being shot at by archers, and I'm pretty sure that's a wyvern over there. Whatever he's paying me, it's not enough.

...

It's closer than anyone else has ever gotten to 'enough', though, I'll give him that.