Severa's Tale: Act II

Section B

A Funeral of Flowers

Part XXII

Author's note: I recommend listening to Wretched Weaponry (Quiet/Vocals) from NieR: Automata when you see one * mark.


*The ride down the elevator was thankfully uneventful, save for Lucina and Severa giving each other some space. It wasn't until the doors opened and they found themselves back on the ground floor of the refinery that they were greeted with a haunting sight. Staring at them and crowding around the elevator door was a sea of Olivia clones.

Severa instinctively took a step back, only to notice that Lucina stepped towards them.

"You uh… You okay talking to them?" She had absolutely no idea what Lucina was planning and the hundreds of eyes staring at her didn't help. Lucina was running several introductions for a speech through her mind, some of them starting with 'you are all free now.'

But before she could even drum anything up, the clone at the front of the pack stepped forward and hugged Lucina in an embrace.

"Thank you for saving us." She spoke in a comprehensible tongue, sending shivers through Lucina and Severa. The clone continued to hold Lucina in an embrace, the familiar touch of her mother causing her posture to loosen. How long had it been since she felt her hands wrap around her own? Her mind wandered back to the countless nights she would spend unable to fall asleep until her mother comforted her.

As more and more clones of Olivia joined in the embrace, some even wrapping around Severa, Lucina let out a wail. An entire year spent not knowing the fate of her mother, and here were countless replications of her comforting her.

While the clones drew back, they smiled at Lucina. But all she could feel was the absence of their touch. Severa felt it as well, realizing she missed her aunt dearly. But she also noticed that most of the clones hugging her had patches of skin that were noticeably purple and goo-like. Some were even begging to lose the features on their face as they began to melt. "Please, avert your eyes."

The instant Lucina realized what was about to happen when the lead clone spoke, she was already too late to save even one of the clones from jumping off the ledge of the platform and into the abyss below. She threw herself at the nearest one she could grab, only to bounce off the clone as though it was made of rubber. And while she was stunned on the floor, she was oblivious to the ones that walked past her from the elevator and to the pit.

Severa as well was unable to save even one from their suicidal plunge and opted to go to Lucina's side after all the clones were gone. She helped Lucina to her feet and let her rest her sobbing head on her shoulders. Now that the crowd had parted, she noticed her sword lodged in the ground. She used her free hand to get a feel for the new sword in her sheath and decided she liked the new one better.

"I couldn't even save one… She was right there, and I couldn't save her." She spoke between her cries.

"Those weren't your mother. They weren't going to last long anyway, and they didn't want you to watch as they died soon." Severa replied, desperate to try and cheer her up.

"How do you know that?!" With a yell of anguish, Lucina continued to bury her face in Severa's shoulder.

"Some of the clones hugging me were already turning back into goo. You just didn't notice, okay?." Severa began to lead Lucina down the long platform and towards the orange fog ahead. She assumed that the Specter Express must be at the back end of this refinery.

No response came out of Lucina's mouth as Severa led her along, just a silent longing for her mother and to see her family again. Eventually, after what felt like an hour of walking, they found a new room with minimal light and a familiar train waiting inside.


A single, glowing man remained in one of the farthest cars of the Specter Express, away from his friends and his fingers steepled in thought. Nearby windows recorded the changing time of day over the countless days he remained in this car. Sometimes the door would open and someone would come in.

"Are you okay?" Lissa would ask.

"It's not your fault." Sully would say.

"I brought you some leftovers." Stahl would place a plate on the bench next to him.

"Lucina is safe and will be here soon, I promise you." Tiki had said once she joined the train during an impromptu stop.

"I'm fine. Thank you." Frederick would respond the same to each and every one.

While all these external changes were occurring, his internal space was the same. Over and over he would repeat the same events, watching Grima tear through his friends to get to Lucina. Then, being the stalwart line of defense for Chrom's bloodline that he is, he was tossed aside like a pebble in the river.

When Frederick woke up six hours after Lucina and Severa had fled the train from Grima, he was stunned. In all his years of serving the royal family, only one other moment had shocked him as hard as that, and it was when he received the news that Chrom had been killed.

Such a failure on his part was not to be tolerated. And now, Lucina and Severa were both lost in this hellhole of a continent. Unless Grima's words were to be trusted. They weren't.

But on the day the train had slowed and the windows were drawn, he heard a commotion from the next car over.

"We're fine, really. We missed you all so much." Although the voice was muffled, he could recognize it from anywhere. "...Where's Frederick?"

Frederick hurried to his feet and almost left the row he sat in before the door opened, revealing Lucina standing in the doorway. A quiet moment passed, Frederick remembered how he fell to the ground when he reunited with his liege last time. Instead, he slowly knelt before her and bowed his head.

"For my failings in protecting you, I am deeply sorry." He spoke, hardly able to find the strength to even look at Lucina. "I request that you remove me from your service. I am no longer fit to serve. I have grown soft and-"

"Letting you go would be an awful mistake. If I let go of everyone who had ever made a mistake, I would have to let go of myself." Lucina replied as she stood over him.

"To err is human, milady."

"And aren't you human?" Lucina cocked her head to the side.

"I must be better than one if I am to protect the Exalt." His posture was rigid, not a single tremble or shake betrayed his resolve.

"I don't know where you get these notions that I want perfection." Lucina placed a hand on his neck and pushed his head up until he was staring at her. His hurt, tired eyes were the weakness in his image. "All I ask of my friends is loyalty, and you have shown that countless times."

"B-but milady I-" She could sense the repressed exhaustion rising in his voice like a week's worth of sewage overflow.

"No more buts. You sacrificed yourself to protect me, a futile sacrifice at that, but you still did it. You are more than fit to serve, and you should come with me back to our friends." Lucina outstretched her hand.

"...Very well." Frederick took her hand and was helped to his feet, standing behind her with his arms at his back. "It is an honor to serve."

When they returned to the car the rest of the Shepherds were in, they were greeted with a Severa who was currently dumbstruck at who was standing before her.

"Was Tiki always here?" Severa gave a quick glance to Lucina before resuming her stare at Tiki, who was the third and final non-translucent person in this room.

"It's a long story," Lucina replied as Frederick continued to loom over her. She dismissed him while Tiki began to speak.

"One that I've already explained to the good folk here. While you're giving Severa an addendum, would you mind explaining to us how you got here?" She took a seat as well while Lucina stood at the end of the car; the rest of the Shepherds followed her lead and waited for Lucina to speak.

"Might as well do this chronologically…" Lucina sighed, pondering how to explain the bizarre series of events that led to her and Severa rejoining the Specter Express.

What followed was a confusing, jumbled tale of two perspectives experiencing both the best and worst that Valm had to offer. Plenty of phrases like "oh, dear…" and "I'm so sorry" were belted out once the story had focused on Walhart's refinery and the Olivia clones. Smaller details, such as the whereabouts of Yen'fay or Cordelia, were answered with help from the crowd.

"He felt ashamed that he was duped and refused to disappoint the real Say'ri in person," Stahl added in. Say'ri sat a few rows behind him, by herself and visibly distraught.

"Grima picked her up once the train got moving," Tharja replied.

"Did Grima care that Tiki was here? Did he grab Validar as well?" Severa asked, now aware of the events that followed Grima's aggravated assault in the train.

"He just said hello and left with Cordelia. I don't think he spoke with Validar at all." Cherche chimed in. "Validar has barricaded himself in the front car, by the way."

"I'll go talk to him." Severa let out a sigh as she pushed past the crowd and made her way through both the crowd and the multiple cars of the train.

During her walk to the front, one car stuck out to her as different from the last time she was here. When she had chased her mother through the train, one of the rooms had two glass containers in it. Those containers were now filled with a liquid that looked like a swirling mess of green and orange. The same green and orange liquids that were in the refinery. "Another question for Validar, I guess…" She sighed again, wondering if this had any connection to that underground lab from a few days ago.

She eventually got to the front car, only to enter and have another question piled on as she noticed Validar sitting at his desk. Why was his skin no longer grey?

"Severa? You came back? Thank the heavens. I was so worried about you two…" He got up and rushed over to give her a hug, something that she was not expecting. Even more surprising was that his body was no longer frigid to the touch.

"What happened to you?" She squirmed a bit, then noticed that his goatee had lost its white stripe. "Now I can't make any more skunk jokes…"

"Funny story about that." Validar backed away and went over to a nearby lamp, pulling the chain to turn it on. "My magic is… how should I put this… Gone."

"What do you mean gone? You can't just have your magic plucked off your body like a leech." Severa asked as she sat in the chair across from Validar's desk.

"When your magic was gifted to you by a cursed tome, and you haven't used your natural magic in over three centuries… That can indeed happen." While Validar sat in his own chair, Severa remembered what Grima mentioned about the sacred text of the Grimleal having a cover made of regression glass.

"So you still technically have magic, it's just simple and you've lost touch with how to use it."

"Back to square one, as they say." Validar demonstrated this by pointing his finger at the door behind Severa, narrowly focusing his gaze on the doorknob as he outstretched his hand. Normally, the door would fly open. But in his reduced state, the knob only slightly shook. "See?"

"Was the grey skin also included in the features of that cursed tome?" Severa asked as she turned back around to face Validar.

"Yes. Along with that repulsive skunk stripe. But enough about me. Are you alright? I imagine braving the wilderness of Valm was no easy feat." Validar raised an eyebrow and looked uncharacteristically caring.

"It was uh…" If Severa was being honest, she felt like she got the easy side of things compared to Lucina's account of what happened. "It was an adventure, at least."

"Grima stopped by the train the day after you left and said you were separated from Lucina. Did you run into him?"

"Yes, actually." She wasn't sure how to describe the sight she saw in that crystal dome. "The others said you barricaded yourself in here. Did you hide because of him?"

"I… uh… This new lease on life I've been granted isn't something I want to give up." Validar wasn't really sure how to describe his new perception, but 'regretful' was one way to put it. "I wouldn't say I 'barricaded' myself, either. The Shepherds made sure to check in on me, and… handled food duties in my absence… Okay, you may be right."

While Validar stood up and grabbed a lever at the side of the room, Severa remembered what she was going to ask him. The train lurched forward; the wheels began to move and the horn at the front let out a sharp roar.

"So why was the train in here to begin with?" Severa waited until Validar sat back down to begin her questionnaire. "And what's the deal with that liquid in those containers?"

"Part of this train's duties is to transport the fluid produced in the refinery to the Ylissean Castle. It's used by Grima for his…" He paused, trying to remember the name the project had. "The Duma Ressur-"

"The Duma Resurrection Project." Severa blurted out, remembering the diagrams on those underground monitors.

"How do you know about that? Did Grima tell you?" The rumbling of the train returned, a rhythm that Validar had missed for most of today.

"...Kinda. I just know he needed both sap from the Mila Tree and lava from the Demon's Ingle combined at the refinery. And he's going to revive Duma with them? How? Why would he even do that in the first place?" Validar paused as Severa fired off even more questions, wondering how to word what he was about to say.

"Have you ever taken a look into Grima's eyes? Past all the rage, the scheming, the contempt for others not in his familial circle?" Validar asked. Severa's silence was all she could muster in response. "There's a weight he has carried with him for thousands of years. The weight of his friends and loved ones tying him down like an anchor. It has eaten away at his mind for countless years, and it continues to this day."

He paused again, noticing the light outside had changed. The Specter Express had left the refinery and was back outside in the sunset wasteland. He stood up and walked to the window, staring at the ocean's edge. "He is the last of the Divine Dragons, artificial or not. He alone carries the memories of his kind and his friends. It is a terrible burden to hold."

"But Naga is…" Severa tried to find a response. All she could think of was Grima in the crystal room, sobbing in a corner.

"Naga has been missing for countless years. She has left all of us, Grima especially. And if she may return, Grima will have lost his mind by then." He leaned over as he continued to look at the window, only looking back at Severa after a long pause. "As for the how, he already has the body for the vessel: Alm's remains. But the soul of Duma has been absent for too long. He needed the strength of two divine essences to draw it out onto the host. So Mila's was selected as a catalyst, both for familial connection and for proximity in their harvesting locations." While Validar spoke of this process, Severa remembered the Olivia clones in the factory. The "body" must have been the hair strands Walhart acquired. But how did he acquire them in the first place?

"Was Walhart populating the factory with clones of Olivia in that plan?" Severa asked, her brow furrowed. A quiet rage began to build as one conclusion jumped to the next in her thoughts.

"He did what?" Validar wasn't sure if he heard right. Severa explained what she had seen; Validar's jaw dropped further and further the more details she gave. "...This doesn't mean much, but we had no idea he was performing those… horrible crimes against Olivia."

"He said he got a strand of her hair. I wonder who provided it to him?" In just a split-second, Severa's tone went from neutral to aggravated. "What kind of poor, tortured soul would provide the tools for someone else to do tort-"

She paused, stopping herself as she noticed the shock on Validar's face. Over the last two weeks, how many arguments had she gotten into? How many fights did she start? A Severa without the memories she had gained over the last few days would start a fight with Validar, cursing him out for acting under Grima's influence. "I'm sorry. I'll just shut up."

"No, it's fine. I should've looked into how Walhart was operating." His shoulders loosened as he spoke. "I always knew we should not have hired him…"

"As long as you regret it," Severa replied, trying to smile and wishing she didn't have her outburst.

"Yes, I suppose that is… one way to look at it." A pall fell over the room, leaving naught but silence in its wake. Validar broke it by clearing his throat. "I just… Can you honestly forgive me?"

"What do you mean?" Severa, taken aback, widened her eyebrows.

"I have spent… every day of the last ten years regretting what I have done." His voice cracked as if he was about to cry, yet no tears went down his cheek. "I haven't seen my son in such a long time… And now I have to watch his corpse parade around, infected by a parasite that I cursed him with." He stared down at the floor. "When you got enraged at me just now, I can tell that's how you really feel. You're suppressing yourself out of pity." Validar mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

"I'm suppressing myself because I know what regret is, okay? I don't hate you. I hate the person you used to be. And you hate him too."

"What do you mean?" Validar paused, then remembered when he had asked his magical clones who they were clones of. "Oh."

"We all change. Every day we wake up a new person."

"What if I want to be the person I was forty years ago? The father who loved his wife and son?"

"I'd turn back time if I could as well," Severa said no more. The forlorn gaze in her eyes told Validar everything he needed to know. "But we can't. We have to keep moving on. You can never be that man again, and that's okay. You can be the person you are here and now."

"I'm sorry I just, I just… I don't know if I can do that." A whimper escaped his lips.

"It's not a question of can or can not. You have to do it." Severa replied. All Validar did was stare and press his fingers together in thought. He fundamentally disagreed with her claim, but he did not have to make it apparent. He knew things she didn't; there was no use fighting. Instead, he sorted through his desk and pulled out a cracked teleportation staff. "Here. This should have one last use before it breaks. I assume you do not want to go to the Ylissean Castle with the rest of us?"

"I'll ask Lucina, but my gut feeling says yes. Do you need any more help?" Severa stood up and took the staff.

"No, I should be just fine. Thank you for your help." Validar smiled, something Severa would have to get used to. She walked over and gave him a hug as he sat in his chair.

"I love you, grandpa." Four words that Validar never thought he would hear.

Or rather, the forgotten Validar never thought he would hear. The Validar sitting in the office currently had always wanted to hear them.

As Severa left the front room, she found Lucina standing in the hallway.

"Is he doing alright?" She asked. Severa was surprised to hear her express concern for Validar.

"Yeah, he'll be fine." Severa showed her the staff in her hands. "He gave me this. When we want to leave, we can go wherever we want."

"But only once, I assume." Lucina noticed the crack along the staff. "Grima mentioned that he hired assassins to kill Inigo. We need to go save him." Not even a few hours had passed since they fought Walhart and Lucina was raring to go into another fight. Severa would've admired it if she wasn't so tired.

"Oh, shoot. I never told you, did I? Grima called off the assassins. Inigo is safe." Lucina's brow furrowed as Severa spoke. "I heard him call it off in person. He's not lying." But now, her shoulders loosened.

"Oh, thank gods…" With a moment to relax showing itself, Lucina let her guard down and sighed. "I've been so worked up thinking about him."

"Yeah. I hope Morgan's okay, too. But I'm a bit more worried about us." Severa walked towards her room on the train. Lucina followed. "I don't know about you, but I could use a few days to myself."

"Agreed. My feet are killing me." With a reply, Lucina tried to remember where her room was. Severa opened the door to her room and stepped inside while Lucina waited at the door. But as she stood, she couldn't help but think about the sights in the refinery. Images of her mother's face twisted in her vision, only until Severa shook her by the shoulders.

"You look dazed. Wanna sleep in my room?" Taken aback by the question, Lucina took a few steps back.

"Are you… Are you sure? I don't have any problems with it, I just thought you might want some privacy."

"Forget privacy! We're having a slumber party!" Severa drew the blinds to her room, darkening the lights before she laid down on the floor. "Come on, you get dibs on the bed." It took her until now to realize she still had not told Lucina about what happened while she was under the trance of the Regression Glass.

"But it's your bed." Lucina walked into the room but continued to awkwardly stand still.

"I can sleep on the floor. It's no problem, really." Laying down on the floor to demonstrate her point, Severa realized that sleeping on a hardwood floor was still awful no matter how old she was. The train wheels moving underneath her didn't help.

"Listen, Severa, just… We can split the bed, okay?" Lucina paused, let out a sigh, and then laid down on the left side of the bed. Despite her better judgment telling her not to, Severa crawled onto the other side of the bed and felt her face heat up like a fireplace as she laid there.

"This isn't normal." The whining voice in her thoughts moaned. And no matter how hard she told it to shut up, it never went away.