So... I suppose I should apologize for the lateness and topic of this chapter. I just couldn't seem to bring myself to write it. You'll realize as you read.

ScorinVoidSeeker: I swear. He's whined to me about not having magic even in real life .

Guest 2: A month of wait is enough to wait for you to tear me a metaphorical new one. Sorry. You can still post what you think of the fic, though.

Chapter 26: Curtain Call

Francis ran, uselessly shaking the sand out of his Nikes as his trusty minions newfound friends raced ahead of him to meet head on the Grimleal; Nowi started raining from the skies something that was like… a thick mist? No idea. As Nowi continued exhaling mercenaries' little sisters it reached one of the cavaliers barring their path and as the rush of cold hit even him so far away, completely subverting the heat of the desert. Francis decided that he was never gonna piss off any dragon he met. On the other hand…

He knew it! Nowi was actually a divine dragon! Take that forums that said there is no way to prove it!

Sadly, he had no actual way to confirm this besides the huge blast of cold that looked like the Mist Breath animation.

As he was lost in staring it amazement at Nowi, his daughter caught up with him. He nearly punched the lights outta her before realizing that it was just her, the metaphorical elephant in the room.

"Here! Uncle Nick wants you to have this." Uncle? Nick? Is this how people call him here? Snapping him out of his musings was the shield handed to him by a pinkette.

It was a shield. That was it. "Okay? Thanks, I guess?" he told her, grabbing the shield out of her hands and testing its weight. It was heavy-ish, but nothing that he couldn't handle, to be honest. He doubted he could just lug it around all day long without his arms getting sore, but at least until battle stopped… It looked pretty sturdy too; it could probably stop a gunshot from hitting me, though he wasn't counting on that. His mind was his greatest weapon after all.

"Alright then. Here's the plan. Me and Rose are gonna warn the settlement about the fighting and try to rally up some people to fight with us, since we're noncombatants while you guys start running a perimeter of the place." Lilina, Rose and Gregor, seemed to understand clearly what to do, while Nowi just stared at him quizzically. He sighed, crouching down to meet her eye-to-eye.

"I and Rose are gonna get more people to fight off the bad guys. You'll circle the village and fight off the bad guys who arrive in the meantime." Her lips parted in an 'O' shape and she made a mock salute, sticking out her tongue. Francis was forced to look away lest he start cooing at how cute the little girl looked, but that still didn't manage to spare her from an headpat.

"Alright everyone, let's move out before they decide to jump the gun and come get us." He waved at Rose to follow him while the girl looked like she had just bit (or read, assuming he had done his job as a father correctly) a lemon. Everyone just stared at him weirdly for reasons he couldn't imagine for the grand total of two seconds, before he realized. "Oh! Jump the gun is a saying. It means being hasty." And he turned back before anyone could tell him anything about it. He would definitely go looking for a book in local sayings and such.

"Let's go, Rose! Everyone, cover us!" He ordered. Surprisingly, everyone complied. Even more surprisingly, he managed to say all that without his voice shaking once. That was a huge deal in commanding people. Perhaps he could go and become Robin's apprentice or something. He would also have to become a Shepherd, duh. He'd probably be joining on account of being his brother's brother.

Hold on, wasn't he trying to get home?

"Halt!" A voice suddenly boomed in front of him. Oh, they had reached the village already, two swordsmen resting under the shade created by the bones of the dead dragon now pointing their swords at him. He hadn't noticed. "State your business." The guardsman said.

"We need to warn everyone to stay inside!" Francis shouted at them. "There's a fight going on! The Grimleal are attacking!" somehow, without looking, he got the feeling that someone was facepalming.

His daughter, thankfully, stepped up. "Please forgive him for his lack of intelligence, he's a simple hired hand. I expected him to know the situation we were facing and did not explain it to him, but alas." Maybe he was not so thankful after all. This situation would be later fixed with a lot of bugging her. Maybe with literal bugs.

"Without a weapon?" The guardsman snarked, taunting cheekily. He was about to speak up but a stomp on his foot clammed his mouth shut.

"That just speaks of his skill, doesn't it?" Her pink eyes stared deeply into the ones of the guard, a smirk hidden behind a fan that she produced from… somewhere. One day, he swore, he was gonna learn where did the people in the video game world. He was gonna invent the inventory (heh) in real life, he swore.

The guardsman, a fairly tall and thin fellow, frowned, his hands not quite leaving his sword yet. "So, what are you here for, then?" He was about to answer again, but thought better of it this time. His daughter was clearly the one with the higher CHA stat.

"It appears that the Grimleal are not paying their dues to King Gangrel properly and thus, their presence is no longer appreciated. We ask that you rally the local militia to ensure that they are promptly dealt with." She spoke with a grace I had never seen, and it suddenly felt like she was in complete control of the conversation, not at all hiding the evil smirk on her face. She had both a sharp and silvery tongue. However, given the faces of the guards, it was clear that they had no intention of doing so. However…

"It would be a shame if any of the *civilians*" She dropped the word as if she had just suggested that they were lower than dirt. For all he knew, they were. "to get caught into the fighting because they didn't remain where they should've been. Oh well. One less village will definitely not be that much of an inconvenience." She made a hand motion to follow her as she started to leave, leaving him dumbfounded for a second before he hurried after her.

"H-hold on!" The tall one suddenly rushed after them. "W-we are going to rally everyone, just, don't torch the village! Come on, Jared!" He suddenly started pulling the other's arm and promptly hurried inside, the gates left wide open. One glance at her and wow the Rose he had known for approximately 10 minutes had returned. "Idiots." She scoffed. "We got lucky that these guys have no idea of the nonexistant noble system here. On that note…" she whirled around, facing him. "What the hell was that?! Do you think you can just waltz into a village full of Grima faithful people and say that?!" Usually, she would've agreed with her; considering hindsight was 20/20 he could definitely see that what he had done was stupid. But…

"Back off! I had no idea that they're Grima faithfuls! How should I know who prays and doesn't pray to a giant chicken?! I barely got into this world half an hour ago!"

She stared at him in confusion. "But aren't you… hold on…" But she was interrupted by a figure behind her with a hat that looked slightly too big to be practical and two glasses that shone under the sun (somehow, whilst still being covered by the hat) coughing.

"Greetings, Rose. Francis." He nodded at her before doing the same to him. "I assume that the village being put under lockdown is you two's doing?"

Rose snorted at his demeanor. "Yes, hello to you too Laurent. A warmer greeting after four months I haven't seen you wouldn't hurt, you know." It was difficult to catch, but Laurent's mouth parted slightly in surprise. "So this is how it went…" he muttered to himself. "We shall speak later. I do believe you're having trouble facing the Grimleal?" they both nodded, because yes, they did.

"Very well. It is a good thing that I happened to be here at the time. I shall go pick up Amelia and then we'll get rid of this vermin. You can tell me your story later." And then he left.

"Amelia?" I asked Rose.

"His horse."

"Ah. Alright then."

"Well, that was underwhelming." Apparently, this truly was an Awakening fever dream, because after he ordered the militia to attack the grimleal they made short work of them, Nowi pelting them from the air with blasts of ice as Laurent spammed Elwind spells.

As always, camping + bait and switch proved to be the most fruitful strategy in Awakening. Hooray.

While him and Rose were casually loitering around (not exactly the truth, after they went to warn the village they asked for stuff they could use and got a brand new Rescue staff for their troubles that Rose was now twirling around like a majorette and a steel bow that Francis had no idea what to do with), they stomped through everybody else as they left the militia to deal with the rest of them. He was slightly sick from watching the battle happen right in front of his eyes, but then when the realization that he had just ordered the slaughter of a group of men and women settled in...

He... he caused this. But that was alright... this was a dream, right?

Not trusting his stomach to keep the lunch in if he kept staring at the battlefield, he forced himself to turn back towards his party (?) who were now resting, since most of the enemies were taken care of.

Lilina was chatting animatedly with the newly untransformed Nowi about how cool she was and she knew a manakete and she should totally meet Fae one day as the redheaded mercenary looked around warily at our surroundings, towering over the two little girls and daring anyone to come close.

"What now? Gregor suggests us make like trees and leaf." The unusually serious mercenary said. "One man and two little girls can't fight off entire army if they realize we scam and reinforcements come. Trust Gregor, he knows from experience. Little Flavia nearly lost arm that day." He rubbed his head sheepishly, before his stoic expression returned. Francis had to agree. It was good that they had managed to turn the tide of the battle so easily, but the risk kept exponentially increasing the more they stayed. Laurent nodded his approval of the plan as he kept opening his mouth before thinking better of it. Whatever he was about to say, he looked like he wouldn't be saying it until he was sure of an exact wording.

"Sure. Let's just get my brother from wherever he's gone and-" He was about to tell him that they should go find him, but suddenly all the grimleal started fleeing without an apparent reason (besides being slaughtered, but they looked content enough to fight back even with numbers waning).

"Was this a kill boss map?" he asked himself under his breath, confused. He knew that these kinds of maps existed in Fire emblem, but didn't think that they would actually happen.

"Well then." Francis said, blinking. Rose and Laurent were talking, though he couldn't make out what it was about. Gregor simply sat down in the sand, watching the scene unfolding while Nowi started some kind of victory dance. And Lilina…

"Where's Lilina?" I asked, looking around myself. The others also realized that we were down a member, when suddenly Rose gasped.

"Oh no…" she said, picking up what looked like a playing card.

"What's the matter?" I asked. She had in her hands a card that had a picture of Lilina on it, the same that Ni' used to summon Lilina. Was this an Einherjar card then?

"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Let's hope I'm wrong." She suddenly dashed ahead, towards a village in the distance. Promising myself that before the end of this dream I was gonna have a little chat with my daughter, I followed hot on her heels. What had gotten her so riled up?

"Shit!" She screamed as we neared the oasis that… had been frozen. Was this a crossover between ATLA and Fire emblem now?

However, what he saw in the middle of the oasis chilled me more than the ice itself ever could and turned the whole dream into a nightmare.

A brown haired boy with green highlights lay there, unmoving, in the middle of the frozen oasis. His brother.

Francis ran like he had never ran before to go see what was going on with him. And then he saw his brother. Dear god, he saw him. In a moment, the amazing dream Francis had been having transformed into a nightmare.

A hole blown clean through Ni's chest, his heart missing. He wasn't even gasping for air as the blood pooled under him. Around him, bodies of Grimleals killed in… quite imaginative ways, he flinched as he saw those.

"Come on, you're fine right? It just looks worse than it does, doesn't it?" Francis asked his brother, a bit hysterically while he crouched down next to him, taking everything in. No response.

"Stop fucking with me!" he shouted, shaking his body. Nothing. Dead.

He began sobbing uncontrollably, his heart in tatters not unlike that of the body he was shaking. He tried to reign himself in, but he just couldn't. He had managed to deal with his brother simply disappearing into nowhere, at least there was a chance he could come back as he had. He could still trick himself into believing that he was not gone forever, and could just avoid thinking about it in the meantime. But this? To see his body so damaged, to see the life that had escaped his eyes, to hold him and not feel his breath or his pulse? It was just too much. He screamed. He cried. He hugged the body. He prayed. He got mad. Nothing however could bring his brother back from the dead.

Eventually, however, everything just seemed to go numb. As if on autopilot, he removed the shield from his back. He began removing the armor plate from the body. The chestplate looked as if it had been eaten by rust, only for said rust to advance onto his chest instead of the rest of the armor. Piece by piece, his armor was removed. It was not proper to be dressed like that when buried, especially because he didn't want his grave being robbed. He picked his body up and started moving him away from the oasis. Without... whatever he had done, it was beginning to melt. Water was already wetting his knees since he was kneeling, but frankly he didn't care. He picked his brother up bridal style, sweeping the bangs past his face. For all that most stories depicted dead people dying with a serene smile on their face, Ni' only looked surprised. He hadn't seen death coming. It had just happened.

He supposed he was mildly thankful that whatever had happened wasn't painful enough to twist his face in a grimace. He started carrying him, Rose and Laurent (had he followed them? He didn't know) trailing close behind, Rescue staff and tome in hand, though he couldn't see their faces and they talked in hushed whispers.

He didn't know for how long he walked, but eventually he managed to find a spot that his brain deemed appropriate. Setting down his brother's body into the sand, he walked a little bit more off to the left. Then, gripping the shield with both hands (it cut slightly into his phalanxes, one part of his mind screaming at him that it was unsanitary) and just started digging a hole with it. Rose and Laurent eventually left, and in their place a green haired man arrived, offering him a rag and just saying "I'm sorry." while he started digging with a shovel where Francis had been till a minute ago with his shield. He stared at him for a while. Finally, his brain managed to conjure up something that made a slight bit of sense.

"Why?" he croaked, his voice failing him.

"Son, I..." he sighed contemplatively, staring upwards. It was sundown. "I won't mince meat words. It was in part my fault that your friend died." Francis reared back as if struck. If stares alone could burn a hole through somebody (though now that he was in a magical world he wasn't sure that they couldn't) the guy's face would've exploded. The man flinched.

"H-hold on, let me finish!" He stammered out and if it wasn't for the fact that Francis wasn't a violent person by nature he would've gutted him then and there. "Brother." He snarled at him. "He was my brother."

"Ouch. I won't pretend to know how bad it feels." A hand was laid on his shoulder by the man. He tried shaking it off, but the grip only hardened. He turned to stare at him. "But whatever you do, whenever you feel like the burden is too big to bear, just think that he died like a hero." The man sat down, pressing onto his shoulders in a way that forced him to sit down grudgingly.

"Explain." He spat out with as much venom in his voice as he could muster up, though right now he just felt tired. The man recalled to him the story of how Ni' protected his niece when he wasn't corageous enough to do so himself.

At some point in the man's talking, Francis began laughing hysterically. A raised eyebrow from the man prompted an explaination as he continued digging.

"Ah, nothing. I just realized something very funny." At the man's silence, he continued. Francis grinned, knowing full well that he was having a nervous breakdown.

"Well, hahahaha" he began wheezing before managing to right himself. "I, ha" a pause "It's just that, I've been trying to convince myself that he had been dead all this time and when I finally managed to meet him again, he dies right in front of me, and I can't even blame anybody for it! It's just hilarious!" he tossed his head back, landing right next to his brother's body and just resumed laughing.

"Hahahahahahaha! Hahahaha... ha... *sob* Why... why did it happen?!" he began sobbing uncontrollably, pulling his knees to his chest as a hand handed on his shoulder as the boy was finally buried.

Many hours passed, people coming and going to mutter apologies for his loss and the like as he sat there by his tomb. He didn't care. Eventually, an unfamiliar redhead came to his side, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for what happened. To be fair, I would've never expected the kid to kick the bucket like that." She said. He simply nodded in response.

"Us Annas know how hard it is to lose a family member. Is there anything that can be done to lessen the blow?" she asked, smiling at him. He couldn't see the magic gathering around her, she realized with some mirth. He scoffed.

"I just wish none of this ever happened..." he muttered sarcastically. The Anna's response was something that surprised him, however.

"That can be arranged." And then the world faded away.

So... yeah. That happened.

I'm not sure if it is just some twisted kind of self-loathing that leads me to having all the bad things happen to my SI.

What, exactly, is this chapter? It's my giving a decent ending to this story. Far too many errors that I've realized stacking up, making me end up disliking what I've written. It was a decent attempt for my first time, though.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

ToS is my baby. Like hell I am letting it go like that. As of this very moment, I'm writing the newer, better chapter 1 of the rewrite of this fic. Just you wait for it!

Some things are gonna change, some things will stay the same. My first attempt wasn't so bad that I need to start over completely from scratch, just re-do it better with the same idea. This fic will become as famous as Asleep, 'ttebayo!

But yeah. It's been a fun ride, and I hope you guys aren't too mad at me. And if you are, you're free to come kick me in the nuts if you manage to find me.

Until then, or until I post the new chapter, this has been, is, and will always be,

The Otherwordly Soldier

Catch you on the other side of the void. Ninni51, out. *drops mic*