Chapter 1x: A Colorful Trio
Cold..
That was the first sensation he felt as he awakened. His eyes snapped open, an sudden surge of energy allowing him to push himself off of his place on the cold stone floor and become aware of his surroundings.
It was a bright room, one that had shined a radiant and fluorescent blue. The floors, the walls, everything around his was glowed with the ominous shades. From azure to cerulean, the tiles were all kinds of light blue beacons that reflected off of one another.
The young man gazed around the room curiously, not just for the room itself, but also as to how he found himself here. He held his head as he strained to find the answers within his memory. But no such luck appeared. All he knew was that he wasn't supposed to be here. Something in the back of his mind said that this was the wrong place.
...What's the right one then? He wondered. He found himself gripping the sides of his cloak, one he hadn't even noticed he was wearing. He took a moment to absorb the design and decorations of the outfit. It had a long purple trace running throughout it, through multiple eyes that were on each end of the sleeves. When he moved his left arm to study the fabric more closely, he noticed an odd marking on his hand. It was of the same design as the markings that covered the cloak, a line streaked through six eyes, which expanded to look like wings of a sort.
He took the cloak off and shook it down, the dust and, oddly enough, soot, fell out and off of it quickly. His confusion didn't end there as a book with a yellow cover fell out of a pocket he hadn't noticed. He picked it up and saw that it had a sign of lightning imprinted on the front. A thunder tome.. He thought. Of which level, he didn't know. Nor did he know why he was carrying it. He picked it from the ground, hand at the ready to flip through its contents.
He froze.
A strange, paralyzing wave of fear ran through his nerves. A low growl was heard as the sound rebounded off of the walls. Quickly, he threw the coat back on and shoved the tome back into its pocket. He spun towards the sound of growling, which had grown louder, seemingly multiplying. The sounds reverberated loudly, and the young man stood confused and scared, but he did not attempt to run. Either out of a sudden boost in courage or a sense of sheer terror, he didn't move from his place.
From behind, the tiles lead to a pit that didn't seem to have an end. The blue light still shined below, but there was no solid platform to be seen. Ahead of him, shades of violet were forming. A dark energy was spreading around the room, and when the shapes came into form, these grotesque humanoid creatures that emanated the same gas they formed from. They held in their hands axes and swords, their red eyes glaring straight into the cloaked man. There were at least six of them, all armed with weapons, but they wore no armor. The axemen were bare and the swordsmen wore tattered cloth. Still, they were dangerous.
The unnerved amnesiac wasn't prepared for the sudden lunge by one of the swordsmen. Nor was he prepared for his own instinctual dodge around the attack. The demonic attacker was not at all phased by this sudden reaction and continued his assault. Still in shock from his last maneuver, the man raised his arm to block the strike. His arm suddenly charged with energy, an electrical current coursing through it. He still felt the pain, biting into him like the fangs of a hound, but not as deep as he had imagined. Instead, the blade, after breaking through skin, rebounded off of him. The shock stunned the red-eyed monster and threw it to the ground, causing it to drop its sword. Quickly shaking off his surprise, he ran towards the sword and grabbed its hilt, stabbing directly down onto the monster's stomach. It began to dissipate into smog, screeching through its death.
The young man's breathing was haggard and painful, but he didn't have time to rest. He turned to see another monster, this time one with an axe, pounce for him. He swung his axe in a sideways arc, to which the now sword-wielding warrior parried. His movement with the sword felt unnaturally...natural. He ducked under another axe swing, this one aiming for his head, and jumped back a few feet from his opponent. He was at the edge of the platform, the pit behind him giving him a foreboding feeling.
Nonetheless, he would use this to his advantage. The enemies were no longer just gazing as he fought one at a time. His main opponent charged for him and the others followed. Perfect. It wasn't hard for him to slide to the side of the first strike, before tripping the demon over. It stumbled on the edge of the tile, but did not fall. That is, until the next one, who hadn't expected this change in position, had already lunged in that direction. He could not stop his momentum and the two crashed into the blue abyss.
Three were left, and they were adapting to the situation. They stopped in their tracks, attempting to avoid the same death as their comrades. That did not stop their ravenous ways of attacking. Another one of the axe-wielders charged and attempted to slam the axe down with both hands. Another sidestep and the creature had missed its target. The last swordsman of the group tried to take advantage of his opponent's focus on his ally, but it would be his end when the tactician would crouch under his sword slash. The swordsman looked down for but a moment, a moment where the tactician rolled away to avoid an overhead axe swing. But the gas-spewing sword user was still in the way. The axe came down upon his head and it would have been a gruesome sight had the head not faded away once it was split, along the rest of its body.
Two left, the tactician thought, adrenaline running through his veins. He was somehow winning this battle. The blade in his hand held cracks within it, but it would last. Then, there was the tome on his ensemble. He was unsure that he could control it, that last occurrence being pure luck. He would only use it as a last resort. He let a grin slip through his mask of concentration. The blade was steady in front of him. The last two enemies had yet to approach. He would wait for them to charge, anticipation knocking at his mind in the moments of silence that came as they stood silently, still in a battle stance.
In a flash of light, almost instantaneously, more of the demonic and fearsome monsters appeared in the room. This time, they were spread out around the area, some across the gaping caverns that their early members fell through. Fear once again spiked through the young man's body.
"Here it is!..The Ruins of...Uh oh." He could hear voices outside. They were humane, the first he'd heard since he woke up in this place. At the entrance of these ruins, a young girl riding a winged horse came in. She wore a breastplate for armor along with padded gauntlets that ran down from her shoulders to her hands. In one of those hands was a long spear-like weapon. Her hair was tucked into two small twintails, and her face was one of a very wide-eyed and excitable young girl. However, once she'd entered the room, her expression went from bubbly to worried.
"..Hm? What's the problem..Oh no.." Another girl, a much smaller girl appeared at the entrance next to the pegasus girl. She wore a small red cape over a white dress and her long hair was crossed into braids that fell down to her chest. Even with such long hair, her ears were still very visible. They were long, pointed, and not exactly normal for humans. What these two were doing here, the tactician had no idea. But he was all for reinforcements. The number of enemies rose from a lowly two to an intimidating group of ten. The rush he was feeling would only last for so long.
"Cynthia, we have to go..We should warn the people nearby!" The smaller one yelled, attracting the attention of the monsters that were closer to the entrance. Cynthia only moved further inside.
"Nah, look! There's a person in there that needs our help! As a member of the Justice Cabal, I won't run away from someone in need!" Her words resounded off the walls just like the growls of the beasts had, but the echo caused her to squeak slightly in surprise. She turned back to her friend. "And besides, this is a place of Naga's blessing isn't it? Would it really be a good idea to let these things take over the place?"
"No..but..Fine." She pulled out a small stone from a pocket in her dress. It was a dull green, but it pulsated with a strange power. She caressed it with both hands, closing her eyes. A large flower bud grew around her and enveloped her. Once she was released, she wasn't human anymore. She was a large dragon, scales colored that of a deep scarlet. With the pegasus girl at her side, they flew across the ruins, the young man amongst them watching in awe.
What have I gotten myself into..? He wondered, as the pegasus rider came within range of him and stabbed into one of the two enemies that he had been fighting up until this point. "Don't worry! The heroes are here to save you- Ah!" The enemy she speared into had disappeared, but she had been distracted from the one right behind it as the fog from the last covered its approach. The tactician worked quickly, feeling his hand spark with energy again, he shot a more focused ball of lightning at the demon, knocking it off of its feet. As she recovered, the pegasus girl had quickly thrown her spear into the grounded enemy, causing it to screech and fade like the others.
The pair had turned back to see the girl turned dragon rip apart her adversaries. The wind that carried beneath her wings was enough to knock enemies off of the ruin floor and into its bottomless abyss. The ones that managed to stay on ground faced the wrath of her flames. They were a bright blue, condensed like crystals as they crashed into the monsters and burned them to oblivion.
Once the area was clear, the dragon landed in front of the other two, slowly changing back into her human form. Once she was in her petite body again, she gave the pair a calculating look. "So, who're you? Are you here for Naga's blessing as well?" She asked the man in front of her. He was still recoiling from seeing a human girl turn into a dragon, but he eventually stuttered out a name. The only thing he could recall.
"Uh...My name is...Robin." He struggled to get out, his name alone being a distant memory to him. "I don't know where I am...Who I am.. I just woke up here." Robin held his palm to his head in pain. He couldn't recall anything and attempting to think back any farther than the events of today resulted in a headache. "I don't know anything about a blessing. Who's this Naga person?" The name caused the headache to only grow in pain. A connection..? He couldn't tell.
"You don't know who Naga is?! But she's like, the biggest religious figure in the world! How could you not know?" The pegasus girl burst out, looking at him like he'd been deprived of the world's greatest joys.
"Weren't you listening? He says he can't remember anything. I think this guy has amnesia." She tried to be reasonable about it, but it was just as big of a shock to her as it was to her friend. She couldn't expect an amnesiac to remember the divine dragon, but the words on their own were enough to stun her.
"Ah! That's terrible!" While looking just a bit shocked, it only took but a moment for the girl's energy to return to her. "Robin! You did spectacularly against the forces of evil! And since we can't just leave a person in need here, I say you become an honorary member of the Justice Cabal with Nah and I!"
"Justice...Cabal?" Robin repeated confusedly. Nah shook her head at the name, grimacing at Cynthia's overzealous nature. "...It's a temporary name." Nah explained. Of course, she tried to avoid the fact that the notion of a superhero team sort of enthralled her. It was such a kiddy thing to do. "We've been on a search for our friends, but right now we're on a mission from someone else."
"And that mission is?" Robin felt a bit sorry for intruding so much, but Nah didn't seem to mind. In fact, she seemed happy to explain. "The mission is to obtain an item that would grant someone Naga's blessing. Cynthia's always been a bit too quick to jump into things, but her request is reasonable. We can help you get out of here and to some place safe. Once we find the item, that is."
"Is this it, Nah?!" Cynthia yelled from the other side of the ruins. Nah hadn't even noticed that the girl had taken off on her pegasus. She wanted to yell at her for running off alone, but she kept her composure. Cynthia rode back over, waving a small jewel in the palm of her hand as she rode through the air. When she landed, she held the object in between two of her fingers. It was small, incredibly so, but it glowed with a radiance brighter than the one the room gave off.
Cynthia passed the jewel onto Nah, who needn't even examine it before feeling a strange sense of power. The color of the stone reminded her of the dragonstone she kept, and the power it held was similar, but on a much smaller scale.
"Where did you find this?" The dragon asked, her gaze still upon the dull green object in her palm. Cynthia pointed over to the very front of the ruins, where the damage was most condensed. Pillars were crumbled all around the area. "Over all the ruined stuff, there's an altar. That's where I found it."
Nah immediately ran over, hoping over the pits and damaged structures with more agility than Robin had expected out of the little girl. Cynthia looked down at him from atop her pegasus and held down her hand. "Come on, I'll take you there. Nah gets a little...excited when it comes to dragon-related things."
He graciously accepted her invitation, feeling a bit nervous as he climbed aboard. The pegasus was gentle and didn't at all react to the extra weight. The winged steed began to ride through the air, its legs kicking to keep itself airborne. Cynthia looked back to notice that Robin had been gripping her partner's fur a bit tightly and gave him a gentle smile. "Don't worry, Robin. This pegasus has a lot of experience. You'll be fine."
Robin was surprised at how the girl's attitude had changed. Suddenly, he wasn't seeing a bubbly young girl. He was being guided by an elegant young woman. His hands relaxed on the pegasus's mane as he gazed at how focused the girl before him was.
They arrived at the altar, where Nah already stood. Her hands were clasped in prayer. Her eyes were closed as she quietly mused words of respect to Naga.
Robin copied her respectful act, to thank whoever this Naga was for his two saviors. Cynthia smirked in response to his gesture and was prepared to do the same. As she began to close her eyes, she couldn't help but glance over to their newfound member. His sandy blond hair and his sharp brown eyes weren't something you often saw in Ylisse, or at least from what she recalled of it. It was then that she noticed his hands, still clasped together, and the marking that one of them held.
The symbol that rose many times in her nightmares..The Mark of Grima. Every bit of her instincts told her this man was dangerous, that he should be struck down. It only dawned on her now that he could be from the Grimleal or some kind of other cult leader that would lead to the summoning of that monstrosity...but her feelings of happiness and excitement overrode her fear.
This man fought with her in battle. This man fought against the demons spawned by Grima himself. There was no way he served the dark dragon. He said he couldn't remember anything, and she could only see that as true now. It was just like one of her mother's favorite stories, "The Doomed Prince and The Savior Princess"!
Only she was no princess, and he didn't seem to be a prince. But just like that young prince, it was possible he could become corrupt. So she would be his Savior Princess. And unlike in the story, she would keep that darkness from ever coming near him, on her honor as a hero!
In this new world, it was her first real quest. She would make sure it was a successful one.
Notes: Happy 1 Year Anniversary, Continuum Shift!...This only goes to show that I take forever to update. A full year and I've only finished the first arc.
Well, this is a perfect time to kick off the second, with winter break and the holidays! This begins the Robin arc of the story. This is also where more of the future children will get their time in the spotlight. While I say it's a Robin arc, it revolves around more than just him. I will still be writing things for Morgan's side, but it will be small stories and ideas during her two years of peace. Eventually the two will converge, of course, but that's not until waaaay later down the road.
I will be marking the Robin chapters as with a X after the number, to differentiate it from the others. I thank FE7 for that idea.
Bonus Points to anyone who can guess what the story Cynthia mentions is a reference to. Hint: It's one of the FE games. Even better if you can guess exactly which two characters!
Thanks for reading! Happy Holidays!