Chapter 14

"Lissa?"

Nathan's eyes opened slowly, and he could immediately tell something was off. Not only was he alone in the woods after falling asleep with the others the night before, but also the skies above were an ominous shade of purple.

Wherever he was, it wasn't Ylisse.

"Must be…some kind of dream," He deduced. However, this made him even more confused. Normally, this was the part where he woke up.

"Well now, it took you long enough," A familiar malicious voice chuckled from behind the tactician. Nathan spun around to see…himself? Not quite, there were a few differences between himself and the doppelganger. Not only were his eyes coloured in an odd dark purple, but his body was covered in all sorts of ghastly open wounds, but rather than bleeding, a familiar purple mist was coming from them.

"…Grima?" Nathan replied, his voice filled with a mixture of disbelief and uneasy hostility. He reached for Mystletainn on his back, but his hand couldn't find the blade.

"No weapons," The fell doppelganger replied, with a hint of exhaustion in his voice. "Just a…chat. Between two old friends."

The tactician raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I'll start us off, then, with the biggest question – how are you here? I killed you – and killed myself in the process. You shouldn't be alive."

"Life has a funny way of working, doesn't it?" Grima replied. "You are correct – I shouldn't be here. You killed me when you used your hand to strike me down, the hand of a fell blood. I thought I was gone for sure – and for so long, I was. I remember nothing since then – up until a moment, just a few days before now. You fell into a fit of rage, and I felt the power of the fell dragon coursing through my – no, our – veins, once again. It was faint, but I was alive, within you, as I am now."

"Within me?" Nathan repeated, flabbergasted. "We may have looked the same, but we've always been two separate entities, from different timelines, how is that possible?"

"You've met with our father, haven't you?" Grima replied with a wicked smile. "I have no doubt this is his work. He has awakened me once more, with a second opportunity to finish what I started so long ago."

"Chrom and I have stopped you before, and we'll have no qualms with doing it again," Nathan snapped back. Grima laughed at the reply, giving the tactician an eerie glance as he began to fade into nothingness, giving off the same purple miasma that had surrounded Validar.

"You always were too fond of your precious exalt," He mused, "But how will he help you stop me when you and I are now one and the same? You think he would kill you – just to kill me?"

With that, Nathan's eyes snapped open and he awoke in a cold sweat, sitting up abruptly. He was back in the forest, and looked down to see the now awake Lissa staring up at him, with an equally scared look on her face.

"That can't be good," She whispered softly, so the others wouldn't hear. She knew her husband like the back of her hand, and she could easily tell the difference between a simple nightmare and something else entirely.

Nathan nodded to her. "…There's something wrong with me," He admitted. "There's another voice in my head, deep inside me…and it seems like it'll only get stronger."

"What do you mean?"

The tactician looked down at the sleeping Owain and Elise next to them, and then over to Corrin, who had also passed out nearby.

"Not here. Not now."

He could feel a slight burning sensation on the back of his arm once more, and he looked down to see a sight he had hoped to never see again.

The mark of Grima had returned.

Hey guys, sorry that this is such a small chapter - I thought it was better as a stand-alone section rather than being coupled with something else, even if it is much shorter than everything else. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon to keep things moving along since I know this isn't a lot to read. Hopefully you'll all stick with this story moving forward, I should be back to uploading again now that I'm back home :)

Thanks for the support! -Nate