Alchemist Spirit Knight Gaiden

Story Eleven- Ike- Pyre I

It had been a full twenty four hours, at very least since Marth had died, and Ike couldn't bring himself to even touch his phone. Talking to Soren, would it help to get his feelings out that way? Considering he couldn't even muster up the will to talk to his father or sister beyond asking them to bring his meals to his room, he doubted it. A few times, when his sister had stood outside his door and questioned what had happened with his "Magical Girl thing", as he had briefly explained it to her, but even trying to get the words out made that hopeless, lost feeling crashing back into him.

Everything he saw replayed in his mind. It wasn't just Marth, in fact, he was probably the least terrible of the thoughts that attacked his mind, considering they were at least bitter-sweet and not purely acidic. Over and over again, he'd come to the realization he'd watched a man who had helped them be murdered by his own brother, who had once been just as kind. Just as he tried to reason with that, he'd realize he'd seen that brother and his army slay a great warrior, alongside what was surely a great number of soldiers. Following would be the image of a girl broken by seeing her homeland turned to ruin by her dear friend impaling someone who might have been saved had he perhaps thought a bit quicker. Then the ashes drifting to the ground that could have only been what remained of a boy he'd fought alongside. A shadowy monster slaying a brave warrior who had barely begun fighting for them. A boy crying out for his lost friend and swearing vengeance on a tricky hooded mage. A girl spitting vengeful words at a faceless evil that had ordered the execution of her friend, masked by conspiracy. A woman sending an arrow through a young boy who turned into a lifeless puppet. A boy being given an painfully short existence not for himself, but for everyone who was not him. A woman making the one he loved cry with a cold threat and a cold machine. Tears spilling onto his shirt, nights without rest to repent for his crimes, an assurance nothing would turn out alright, a goodbye kiss, and just when it would end it would start all over again, as painful and terrifying as the time before.

Really, he wondered how he had ever bore all of that for as long as he did. How had he remained unbroken before his love had vanished in a flash of light? Something, be it his guilt or his desire to stop one tragedy had blinded him to the others, but his failure made him see everything for what it was. The world he'd been pulled into was an awful place, filled with more despair than he could take. There wasn't any reason for him to be there any longer, so now all he could hope for was to forget all he'd seen. He knew healing alone would be impossible, but in a way, he felt it wasn't right to heal just yet. Those things he'd seen were terrible, and they deserved mourning.

This train of thought didn't seem to be followed by all, though. Glancing at his phone to get the time out of curiosity revealed a hundred missed calls and a thousand texts, all from Lucina. He didn't have to look any further to know what they were about, and pushed it away without a second glance. There was no reason for her to worry about him, because there were more important things to think about.

Ignoring the device on his wrist he'd completely forgotten about, however, was impossible. It struck when he was attempting to sleep through the grief. An unnaturally bright voice, a call of "Ike, are you there?" that he tried not to answer, but found he couldn't ignore after twelve dozen repetitions of the same call, a few in a different person's faint voice.

"Yes, I am," he finally replied in a hoarse, unsteady voice that scared him a bit. "Can you shut up?"

An odd clatter came from the other end, and a voice he couldn't place dryly replied "No. No we cannot. And you can't shut it off either."

He sighed and cast a glance at the black bracelet. A power button was present, but all pressing it did was bring up some display he had no idea how to read, no matter how many times he pressed it. "That power button is just so the lights on the coordinate display won't annoy you whenever you're trying to sleep, it doesn't shut off the communication channels. Even if you can turn them on, I'm the only one who can shut them off," explained a slightly distant voice that must have been Shulk's. "And don't think you can just break it off either. That thing's nearly indestructible. The force it'd take to bust it up would at very least bust your arm up too."

How was Shulk so upbeat, he wondered. Less than a day ago he'd been a complete wreck, but he sounded as if nothing was wrong with him. "Please just leave me alone," Ike pleaded, shooting a tired death glare at the device. "Everything that happened while I was with you guys was just too much to take. I just need a while to… to grieve, okay?"

A small silence followed, and then an "Okay, Ike. I'll talk to you tomorrow, then."

The clicking that came from the device almost made him want to yell at Shulk in the middle of the night as well to pay him back for all he'd made him go through for the Alchemist Knights' sake. No, he was too tired to even do that, so instead, he clamped his eyes shut and tried to think about something that would give him the peace he needed to sleep. The best thing he could muster up was replaying one of the few normal conversations he'd ended up having with Marth, during the week they were both in his home world together.

"Hey," he'd called out, throwing the door to Lucina's room open and finding the prince sitting on the floor, holding a small notebook and straining his eyes to see it in the dark.

With a small chuckle, he'd flicked on the light switch, causing Marth to let out an exasperated sigh. "Lucina told me how to do that," he'd muttered as he looked down, both away from his eyes and the book. "I just can't ever remember how it works, I suppose. Still, thank you for your assistance."

It had been endearing in a way, his confusion towards the modern world. Had been, in the past tense, and he fought to keep his mind away from how that past tense came to be. "No problem! Always happy to help out a friend," he'd exclaimed. Had Ike hesitated when he said "friend"? Even back then, he knew for certain Marth was far more than that to him, but he didn't seem to recall letting it show. "Do you want me to get you something to eat? I mean, you've been up here all day, and unless Lucina woke up early to make you breakfast or something-"

A warm smile had cut him off. "That would be lovely, thank you."

Cheeks burning crimson, he'd basically raided Lucina's kitchen to find something within his skill set, settling on a can of soup that he could probably manage heating up on the stove. Somehow, he'd managed to not only find the silverware and bowls without help, but carry said bowl upstairs without spilling it.

Marth thanked him several times for it, and had gone on almost deliriously about how much he enjoyed it. Watching him eat, as creepy as it had felt, made it clear he was very used to people doing so, and seemed to possess almost eerie amounts of grace, even when eating while sitting on the floor. Something in his eyes, though, it made Ike feel as if the prince wasn't entirely alright. Upon voicing this, Marth had simply remarked that he wasn't entirely used to such a lifestyle, but he could never ask Roy or Lucina to leave before they were ready to.

Looking back, he wondered how he couldn't have heard that as code for "I want to go home and continue protecting my people," but even thinking of that just dragged up the more bitter parts of his recent memory. The constant interruption of those thoughts left him quite unsure if he actually ended up getting any sleep, and if he had, it had been light and sporadic.

He was sure other things happened between trying to sleep and when Shulk next called, but it all was a hazy blur in his mind. He wasn't particularly hungry, so he probably ate something before then, but he couldn't for the life of him recall what.

"Ike!", a bright voice called from his wrist. "Hey, you there?"

Groaning out "Yeah, I guess so," he tried to muffle the loud voice under layers of blankets, but could still hear it fairly well.

"So, anyways, I know you're not really up to it, but I want to ask you-"

With a sigh, Ike cut him off. He knew what the seer was going to say, and he didn't want to hear it. "I don't want to come back," he stated as clearly as he could, pulling his wrist out of the blankets. "Everything I saw there, it was too much for me to take. Can you just respect that?"

Some odd rustling came out of the other end, and an unfamiliar, distant voice dryly called "Let me talk to him." The speaker breached the silence that followed with a small groan. "Look, do you think any of us want to be fighting like this?", he questioned in a snarl. "Don't you think every single one of us would rather be anywhere else, doing anything else? We don't have a choice in this, so why should you?"

"He's right, you know," added the oddly subdued voice of Pit. "I really wish that we could just all forget about this and never have to fight again, but we can't. We're just not lucky enough to have anywhere to run to whenever it's too much to take. There's nothing we can do to stop the fighting except keep fighting and hope one day it'll all be over."

Even if just a little, Ike hated them for making such a good point. He hated himself for being selfish and thinking running was a valid option even more. "Really, I think Lucas was lucky," the voice he couldn't recognized huffed. "He only had to suffer through half of this. You, if you make it out of this alive, you can count yourself lucky 'cause you'll only have to have lived through one generation of suffering. If I make it out of this alive, I'll have seen two of them, and I'll probably live to see plenty more generations of Alchemist Knights get torn apart."

Dark Pit, that was who he was talking to. Ike felt stupid for not having realized it sooner, but he could see now it couldn't be anyone but him. "Ike, we really do need you," Shulk added. "You're probably less far gone than Palutena, and the day will come soon that if we don't have a Purity Spell available, someone will suffer for it, and we'll just all get driven further into despair."

So that was why Shulk had given it to him. Not because he wanted to give him some form of control, but because he wanted him to get over what he had seen quicker and use him as a means to save the universe. Funny, he'd almost been ready to say he'd come back, but Shulk had ruined it as easily as Zelda had ruined their chance to save Marth. "I'll consider it," Ike lied in a flat voice. "Can you just give me some time to think it over?"

A small gap of silence, and then "I just wanted to be straightforward with you. We'll talk later, then."


AN- I was going to make this one long Gaiden, but then I figured I could split it in two so the updates wouldn't be so far apart. So, Ike'll get two Gaidens, and there's another character or two who I think will get the same treatment. That'll make the next one Pyre II, I guess. Metal's will be after Ike's second one, most likely, but I could always change my mind and put it between them.

So, thanks for reading! –Twilight Joltik