I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer:I don't own Fire Emblem: Fates. I only own my OC's Lenalee, Natalia, Orihime, Kaede, Eros, Ragna and Christian whilst Ryuga is owned by U-Know Yunho, Hajime is owned by Heatnation, Sakurai is owned by Metal Flash, Asami is owned by AceGab and Gabrielle is owned by Discombobulator 0329. The opening is Tear of the Sixteen-Night Moon by Yoshioka Aika and the ending is Wish Upon the Red Sunset by Mao
Opening:
Oh heavenly wind, blow the leaves of time
Send these feelings to the sixteen-night moon...
Gracefully, just like you
The aroma of uncut flowers remains
When words could not reach you
They disappeared from the branches
If I can't be like a butterfly in the sky
I don't care if I become a demon of sadness and suffering
Oh heavenly wind, blow the leaves of time, scatter my feelings
Dreams are fleeting; my heart is a pupa in its final cycle of reincarnation
The tears of the sixteen-night moon are in the misty sky
Just like you, who breathes life in me
The scent of fate's flowers remains
But in another form...
If I can't flutter as a butterfly in the sky
I don't care if I become a demon that destroys you, you who bloomed in this crazy world
Oh heavenly wind, I entrust my wings to you: I want to reveal my true feelings
Time is fleeting: the assured meeting is spring's repercussion at the cycle's end
I look to heaven on the moonlit sixteenth night
Oh heavenly wind, blow the leaves of time, scatter my feelings
Dreams are fleeting; my heart is a pupa in its final cycle of reincarnation
The tears of the sixteen-night moon are in the misty sky
Oh heavenly wind, I entrust my wings to you: I want to reveal my true feelings
Time is fleeting: the assured meeting is spring's repercussion at the cycle's end
I look to heaven on the moonlit sixteenth night
Chapter 14: Hope in the Darkness
(Natalia P.O.V)
I stood in silence outside Lenalee's room after knocking for the third time as I begged for some sort of response. Azura waited alongside me in silence though she radiated worry just as I did, I wished Orihime was here as well but she was asked to go and check on Christian who had been wounded in the fight but didn't apparently report for his examination. But that wasn't a major concern for the moment, what was is the fact that my one of my best friends hasn't come out of her room in two whole days – the first day was because she was unconscious but the second she refused to let anyone come inside her bedroom and she didn't leave the room either. I knew that she was still probably grieving over the death of her mother – which shocked all of us to the core – and that she was also scared because now she was apparently the proud bearer of a dragon that resided inside of her that only Azura knew about (and that information was limited) whilst the rest of us had only heard legends about people that could transform into dragons such as Eros. However, Eros told us that he was born into a clan that had that ability for generations, otherwise known as Manakete's and he sensed no Manakete blood flowing through Lenalee's veins at all so he confirmed it must definitely be something more divine.
But the only other thing that I knew that was haunting Lenalee was the same thing that scared Orihime and I, the sword Arondight that Xander had given Lenalee as a gift for passing all her training exams had been the same sword that ended killing Queen Mikoto, Lenalee's birth mother and the one person who had managed to get Lenalee back into her old cheerier self…kind of like how I was whenever I was around Jakob (who was still in Nohr)…but now wasn't the time to think about petty crushes, now was the time to try and get through to my distraught friend.
"Lenalee…I know that you are scared right now. And I know that you're not going to let me in the way you are now, but please I need to see you again soon…Azura, Orihime and I and everyone else really needs to see that your strong and can move pass this!" I said proudly which made Azura smile but still I got no response so I decided to wait a little longer.
"Just think about what I said" I whispered as I bowed goodbye to Azura and started my walk down the halls of the palace to go and find someone that could get through to her (which would be pretty hard since Azura, Orihime nor I weren't granted access by Lenalee).
"Lenalee…please me alright…we need you…" I prayed silently as I headed out into the Royal Gardens.
(Christian P.O.V)
I looked at myself in the mirror again and traced over the scar that had remained from my healed wound, soon enough it would fade away as well leaving nothing but marble skin once more. I felt a smile creep onto my face – the one thing that I was grateful from my heritage was my incredible healing factor – as I stared at my immaculate and downright perfect body.
Soon however my smile faded when I felt the presence of another that was waiting outside my door. Their scent was that of a young woman, it was filled with depression and sadness as they touched the doorknob belonging to my room and yet I found their scent to be strangely alluring and it was making my teeth ache in desire, but I had learned to resist my animalistic desires and retain my nature as much as humanly possible.
The door then opened and I heard a meek and tired voice say, "excuse me Christian-san" and I turned around to great the woman who had entered my room only for me to nearly start a coughing fit when I saw it was Orihime, but I managed to compose myself when she looked at me weirdly.
"Are you alright?" Orihime asked gently as she walked closer and closer towards me and I nodded as I tried to stifle the alluring scent that she possessed by covering my nose with my hand.
"I'm fine. How's everyone else?" I managed to say despite the aching in my mouth that my teeth were currently presenting myself with.
Orihime shook her head and that's when I saw the tears staining her usually bright face that made me enjoying being by her side. I reached out to stop the tears but instead she ran into my chest and started to cry immensely – I only had ever experienced such confusing affection twice in my life thus I was immensely worried about her even more – but soon she began to speak into my chest.
"Everyone is one edge, no one is talking to each other and Lenalee has now locked herself up in her room. I feel so god damn useless, I can't do anything to help her! Is it because I'm weak and can't even hold up a sword for more than few minutes without buckling under the pressure of a possible death!" Orihime cried as I stared in shock as the woman I loved continued to degrade herself more and more, I felt my inner voice telling to take advantage of the situation and give into my darkest desires but instead I allowed myself to wrap my arms around her which stifled her cries and she whispered, "Christian…" and I then pushed myself away only for her to grab my hand.
"Christian…" Orihime whispered as I felt the tenderness in her voice and the warmth that her hands possessed against my ice-cold ones. I tore myself away from my thoughts and stared directly into her eyes which made her gasp when I leaned in.
"Do you want to become stronger?"
Orihime took a minute to process my suggestion and then stared at me in shock when the full realization hit her dead in the face.
"Are you serious?" Orihime asked with happiness now spread across her face. The happiness that made my damned life more and more bearable by the second. I nodded in confirmation and she then pulled me into another embrace, though this one felt different than the other – more romantic than friendly. She obviously realized the romantic nature of her actions so she pushed away and apologized before backing away from me slowly.
"Oh I nearly forgot!" Orihime said as she searched around her satchel to get something which she then handed to be, only for me to see that it was a tonic of some kind.
"Its Holy water that Sakura purified" Orihime stated and I stiffened at her words. Holy water? I couldn't use this…me would burn not heal and besides I knew the tonic was for the injury (that already healed) that I had gotten from protecting Orihime in our last battle.
"Thank you." I said with a fake smiled plastered on my face and I then proceeded to gently nudge Orihime towards the door, she got the message of me wanting her to leave and she waved goodbye with thoughts of her knew found determination and her soon to commence training.
I on the other felt the wait of Orihime's scent disappear which caused me to breathe a sigh of relief. I threw the Holy Water out a window and then laid down on my bed as I fell asleep under the hot rays of the sun as a girl with brilliant blue hair plagued my dreams.
"Orihime…" I muttered with desire as the dreams played on and on.
(Lenalee P.O.V)
I stared at the sheathed black sword that was leaning against the wall across from where I was curled up into a ball. I wanted to hate the sword that had shattered into pieces which pierced my mother and killed her before it began the process of rebuilding itself or so Azura had told me when she brought the blade back to me when I was semi-conscious the previous day. But as soon as I regained full consciousness I refused to let anyone come in and see me – including my siblings, Orihime, Natalia and Azura – and I just stared in silent anger at Arondight. Just looking at the ancient sword made me think about my life back at Nohr before any of this had happened, the most frequent memory that played was the two of Xander playing with me as a child and then him handing me Arondight as a gift – a gift that would kill my mother. Xander had given me a corrupted blade just so he could help Garon fulfil his desires to eliminate the leader of the opposing army and yet no matter how much I wanted to hate the blade I found myself unable because it seemed different than before.
Instead of Arondight's previously dark, deadly aura and pure black blade, the sword seemed to now possess an aura of hope and peace that seemed to exuded blessings and the blade was now a mix of white, black, silver and gold.
"When its full power is unleashed and its true name revealed, Arondight will become a beacon of hope for all the people of every nation. A true symbol of hope and tranquillity."
Xander's words rang in my mind but I shoved the bitter memory away before any more of those memories with Xander and the rest of my Nohrian siblings re-entered my mind – especially the ones involving Xander. I hid my face in my hands when I remembered admitting to Elise and Camilla that I had feelings for my older brother that weren't exactly family related.
"I WAS SO STUPID!" I cried in my head as I leaned against the wall as tears continued to stream down my face.
A firm knock on my door broke me away from my thoughts of despair and regret. I heard the sounds of a male and female outside my bedroom door as the two voices argued back and forth catching my attention.
"Azura...I need to see her." Ryoma said firmly from behind the door.
"Ryoma, we need to leave her alone for now." Azura responded to the Trueblade as I heard her struggle against him but she eventually gave out or she was pushed aside because so I heard another knock and a male voice.
"I'm coming in" Ryoma said as the door slide open slightly and the brown-haired warrior walked in and closed the door behind him. I didn't noticed that he looked incredibly different than normal which made me gasp slightly and a blush slowly manifested as well.
Ryoma wasn't wearing his normal clothes and his head guard was missing as well causing his wild brown hair to fall in front of his face and caress his shoulders gently. He was wearing a white hakama with that exposed his chest that was covered in bandages from the previous battle. However his face was what made me feel even more terrible than I already was, his face was full of sadness and regret whilst his eyes were full of worry that seemed to be directed at me. However I couldn't keep my gaze on him for any longer and turned my head to looking out a nearby window though I flinched when I felt Ryoma sit down beside me on my bed and we both remained silent for a few moments. I knew that our current predicament was incredibly delicate and hard to talk about especially since my reaction our mothers death was the fact that I turned into a bloody crazy dragon and I thought that I would snap and transform if anything set me off (even the minor things). But instead of chewing me out like Takumi did after our mother's death or leaving me alone with my depressing thoughts like Hinoka and Sakura did, Ryoma pulled me into an embrace shocking me.
"Ryoma…?" I asked before looking up and gasping when I saw the tears that were dripping down his face that fell on my face. When he saw me looking he started to wipe them away but I stopped him and instead I began wiping them away as gently which seemed to calm him down.
"I'm sorry that you had to see that…I just feel pathetic that I wasn't able to protect mother or help you when you were in grief." Ryoma apologized to me softly as he took my hand in his own and I felt the tension between the two of us disappear forever and instead a bond grow like the one that I had started to form with Azura.
We continued to stay in that position and slowly another memory returned to me of my mother when I was young.
(15 years earlier)
What's wrong Lenalee?" Mikoto asked when she saw her child tugging on the trail of her skirt and she bent down to see what was troubling her child.
"I had another bad dream…" Lenalee admitted as she felt the tears well up in her eyes but wiped them away before Mikoto had time to worry.
"…was it about your father?" Mikoto whispered and she let out a sigh when her daughter nodded.
"It was a scary dragon that killed daddy and then came after me…" the young child said quietly which caused a look of despair to appear on Mikoto's face but she shook it off so that her daughter would see the affect her dream (or nightmare) had on the older woman.
She took her beloved daughter into her arms and carried the four-year old back into her room where she sent the servants out of the room. Mikoto then placed the child quickly back into her bed and placed the covers over the child before tucking her in. Lenalee smiled at the warmth that her mother gave whenever she was tucked into bed by the woman that she loved more than anything. The older woman than sat on the edge of the bed and caressed the child gently as she began to sing the lullaby that would get her child to sleep and hopefully remain asleep.
It's a tender rain…
(Lenalee P.O.V)
I found myself now smiling and crying at the same time as the memory of my mother's lullaby entered my mind and I snuggled myself more into Ryoma as the realization hit that I was being selfish in thinking that I was the only one who was grieving about my mother's death and the destruction of the Capital's town leaving many people in Hoshido homeless. I may have been the one that was the most affected but all of us needed support even people as strong as Ryoma. So I decided that I would ease his pain and sadness the same way my mother once did when I was but a child.
Kyou umareta
Kanashimi ga, sora e maiagaru
sora wa mezame
kaze wo yobi, kono mune wa funueru
anata wo mamoritai
unmei ni sawaritai
koboreta namida mune no kubomi wo
yorokobi de mitashitai no
Ryoma turned his grief filled eyes on me as he watched me sing the lullaby that I held close to my heart since I was a child and he pulled me closer as the tears started to drip down his face as well.
Its a tender rain
anata no moto e kono uta ga,
todokimasu you ni
donna ni tooku ni hanareteitemo
shinjiteru tsutawaru koto
The song echoed through out the halls and Azura found herself in complete peace when Lenalee started singing the lullaby that was close to her heart. The tone in her voice was full of regret, sadness and quieted anger that she try to keep concealed but now she let it out alongside her grieving sibling.
"…Lenalee I'm sorry that the suffering will get worse" Azura apologized in her mind to the singing 19-year-old.
However Azura was shocked to hear footsteps rushing towards her location and saw that it was Kaze with worry and anger now etched onto his normally composed face alongside him was the still stoic Hajime but his eyes were definitely filled with an imminent fear of whatever news he had. And on his other side was a man that I did not recognize with long silver-grey hair that was tied up into a side ponytail his clothes were that of a Nohrian and I gasped when I saw the determination in his eyes as they rushed towards me.
"What has happened?" I said with my focused on the Nohrian.
(Lenalee P.O.V)
Singing in the rain
ame no shizuku ga utsukushiku,
kagayaiteyuku
kanashimi zenbu ga kieru sono toki
sekai wa ugokidasu no
Please come the tender rain
I finished the song with a sigh and I started wiping away the remaining tears that were still on my face and smiled when I saw that Ryoma also began to wipe away the tears on his face though he tried to hide what he was doing from me since it was probably embarrassing for him and he didn't want to be seen as weak.
I was going to say something to my older brother but we were interrupted by some slamming open my bedroom door and two of us separated and tried to compose ourselves as best as possible despite the anger and annoyance that we had for however had barged into my bedroom. However all my anger disappeared when I saw that alongside Hajime and Kaze there was a very familiar man beside them that smiled softly at me when he saw me and I rushed into his arms and I nearly started crying again.
"Jakob…" I said though it was muffled by my butler's chest and he patted my head affectionately in response to my happiness and he gently removed me from his body and placed a hand on my shoulder.
Kaze and Hajime then pushed past the two of us and kneeled down before Ryoma, "General, and the entire Nohrian Army are at our doorstep and are launching an attack!"
"Those fucking bastards…Following up their dirty murder scheme with an all-out assault…" Ryoma said through gritted teeth.
"We're going! Gather all the soldiers that are healthy and available! Mother will not have died in vain!" Ryoma ordered as he exited the room with great fury followed closely by Kaze and Hajime who then went off to go and gather all the soldiers they could use.
Azura than entered my room and raced over to me and Jakob. She saw the horror and yet determination on my face but before I could go out into the field and see for myself a battle between the Nohr and the Hoshido.
"Lenalee, you're not in the best state of mind…at any moment you might snap and that dragon inside you could kill both your enemies and your allies." Azura said delicately and a look of shock than appeared on my face.
"Than what can I do?" I asked her the songstress with fear.
"I can seal your inner dragon using this Dragonstone" Azura said as she pulled out a small necklace with a brilliant white stone attached on it, "That way you can preserve your human self."
Azura than put the necklace around my neck and then a serious expression took hold of my face and she instructed me to close my eyes and do as she said and I nodded in agreement.
Azura then proceeded to touch the stone and a brilliant blue-white aura surrounded the two of us (shocking Jakob in process though he said nothing), "…Good. This should do. This stone is now a part of you, so take good care of it."
"Yes. Thank you, Azura." I said with a delicate smile on my face before it became creased with curiosity, "But just one thing, why do you treat me so kindly? You've done so many things for me despite just meeting me…"
Azura smiled, "That's because…because I feel like we're close to each other."
I felt my smile grow larger in response and she continued on, I'm at peace when I'm with you, so I don't want you to get hurt" Azura finished with determination.
I nodded at my two companions and I decide to gather up Natalia and Orihime so we could head to the battlefield together and there I would decide whenever I would go back with the Nohr or stay with my Hoshidian Kin.
Would I be bounded by family or loyalty?
Ending:
Gazing at your face as the red setting sun shines upon it,
I quietly make my wish: O sky, please stop the time at this moment.
As you, carrying woes on your back, advance forward intently,
if I could I'd chase after you on this treacherous road.
While the clouds drift farther and farther away.
even if this is only a transient moment,
I want to stay by your side.
Because the sun shining on my heart is perpetual,
please believe in our bond.
I felt if I started asking questions I'd end up in overflowing tears,
so I tried to stay quiet in night's darkness while gazing at the sky.
No matter what kind of fate I encounter, I won't regret it,
as long as in my dream I can be embraced in your bosom, and accompany you around.
While the disappearing sky becomes paler and paler,
even if the seasons have repainted the entire scenery,
I will be right here.
I will always hold the love blooming from my heart in my embrace,
even if my life perishes.
In the red sunset sky,
the birds fly over the mountains to return home.
Ah, I, too, no matter when,
shall always be your place of return...
While the clouds drift farther and farther away.
even if this is only a transient moment,
I want to stay by your side.
The sun shining on my heart is perpetual.
While the disappearing sky becomes paler and paler,
even if the seasons have repainted the entire scenery,
I will be right here.
I will always hold the love blooming from my heart in my embrace,
until the end of eternity.
-This is Mockingjay 3.75 signing off!
Note: The song used in this chapter is 'Tender Rain' from The World is Still Beautiful (Link: watch?v=eFx5Og11ofE)