Reptor/Betrayal (761 Grann)


At some point, I had thought I could expect anything; that no matter what, nothing could surprise me. But of course, I was wrong. More wrong than I could have ever possibly imagined.

To understand, I'll need to explain the events beforehand:

It had started after Langbalt and I had received permission from King Azmur to confront the "traitorous" Byron and his son, Sigurd. Byron was dead, but he had managed to pass Tyrfing on to Sigurd in his last moments. To some people, that might not seem so bad, but as I had Major Holy Blood, l understood just how bad this situation might get, including the fact that Tyrfing gave the wielder a strong resistance to magic, and that the Holy Weapon I could wield was Mjölnir, a strong thunder tome.

But that didn't mean that I didn't stand a chance, of course. My army was ready to intercept Sigurd's, and I had Aida supporting me with Velthomer's army. And there was the fact that he had just inherited Tyrfing, meaning that he didn't have that much experience using it, whereas I had been wielding Mjölnir for years.

But there was one problem, though: my daughter, Tailtiu, had joined Sigurd's army. I had never found out her reasoning for doing this, since she had snuck out when she knew no one was there. The worry of her leaving being my fault, somehow, had haunted my thoughts for the last two and a half years: What if I hadn't been a good father for her? What if I, while focusing my attention on the war against Isaach and on Sigurd, had pushed her away myself? Those thoughts, along with similar ones, had echoed throughout my head again and again, refusing to stop.

"Lord Reptor?" I turned around to see a panting messenger run up to me. "I have an important message!"

"And what is it?" I questioned.

"Lady Aida has requested a meeting with you," he replied, still out of breath. "She said that it is urgent, sir."

I nodded in response, and the messenger half-ran, clearly relieved to take a break.

As I walked to Velthomer Castle, the message echoed through my head, puzzling me. It wasn't that Aida wanted a meeting; we had several in the past few days, discussing the necessities for the plan. It was the fact that this meeting was urgent. As of now, it had never been urgent enough to have an emergency meeting. I wondered what was so serious to require a meeting like this in the first place.

As I walked through the castle to a room the two of us had been using to strategise, I felt uneasy, as if something bad were about to happen. I tried to stop myself from thinking that way, but the more I pushed them away, the harder they came back. As much as I tried to lie to myself, to ignore the signals, I couldn't help but notice that the soldiers were acting more distant than on other occasions that I had been here.

As I arrived at the room and opened the door, my entire body itself screamed warnings and signs to enter the room, things I ignored. I was the duke of Friege: I could handle whatever danger was behind this door, If there so happened to be any.

"So you came in time." Like the soldiers and the atmosphere itself, something was wrong with Aida's expression, and from the way she was talking. But as with the soldiers, I couldn't understand what it was.

"Well," I said staying calm despite my anger at myself for not understanding what exactly was wrong, "the messenger you sent claimed that this was an emergency."

"Yes, it is," Aida agreed, and then gestured at a chair which I sat down on, attempting to look grateful, but my suspicions were growing by the second. I knew something felt wrong, but wasn't sure what. "Sigurd and his army will be here shortly, so we need to prepare for the worst."

"Yes," I replied. "What are you suggesting?"

"An ambush," Aida replied a little absentmindedly, as if she focused on talking to me anymore, but rather someone else. "I know they won't be suspicious if we do this carefully."

"And what steps should we take to ensure that?" I asked cautiously.

"This," she said, stabbing me in the leg with a dagger she always had with her, in case of an emergency. Now that she had done it, it became obvious that she would betray me. If only I realised in time. But what exactly were she and Arvis planning?

I took the dagger out quickly. I knew that this would most likely make the injury worse, but then, that wasn't the most important problem. I could worry about it if I made it out of this room.

Thinking quickly, I ran to the window, opened it and jumped out, which was something I didn't think I would have to do. The landing was more painful than I thought it would be, but that wasn't important now.


A soldier ran up to me as soon as I made it back. "Sir, are you okay?"

"Tell the rest of the army that not only Sigurd's army is coming to attack us," I said, "but Aida's as well."

"W-what do you mean?" she asked worriedly.

"Tell them to prepare for combat," I ordered.

"Yes, sir!" she said before running off.

I sighed. I had suspicions, but none this bad. But even in this situation, I would not stand down. I would keep fighting, as I was Friege's duke.


An hour later, after I had gotten my injuries looked at, a messenger ran into the room I was in. I stood up immediately, preparing myself for anything.

"Sir," he began, "Sigurd's army and the Velthomer army are charging toward us."

"Then we must show them what it means to be a soldier of Friege," I said, picking up Mjölnir from where it was laying on my desk.

As I put my armor on top of my clothing, he said, "Uh.. Sir, you're fighting, too?"

"What would it mean if I just left my soldiers to die?" I replied calmly. I assumed that this was someone who just recently joined. "After all, I am the general of this army. Not anyone else."

He nodded before leaving.


Shortly afterwards, I was standing with my soldiers near where Sigurd and his army were approaching.

Before the battle began, I expected to fight anyone in Sigurd's army, even - though I didn't want to - Tailtiu. But who I didn't expect was Azel, Arvis's younger brother.

I had met him before, when he visited Tailtiu. Now, he didn't seem as nervous as was all those years ago. He looked a little shaky, but still confident.

"I came to fight you instead of Tailtiu," he said.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him, a little curious.

"When she heard that we would have to fight, she wasn't sure what to do," he explained cautiously, wondering, maybe, if I was about to attack him at any moment. "And I didn't want her to have to worry about killing her father… you. So… I promised her that she wouldn't have to worry about fighting you. That I'd fight you, instead."

That answer stopped me for a moment. I had thought of many situations, many scenarios in how the battle would go, but this was one I had not anticipated. But at the same time it fit in perfectly, like the missing piece to a puzzle. It made sense. It was just so ironic that Arvis's brother, of all people, would love my daughter, after Aida's betrayal.

"Then it comes to this," I responded quietly. "Before now, I would never have dreamed that I would have to fight the one of the people who care about my daughter, but this is the way it has to be."

The fight went on for an immeasurable amount of time. We dodged each other's attacks for what seemed endless, until one did manage to hit me.

Any other fight, any other time, I would have stood up and continued fighting, but not now. Not when I knew that there were people alive who cared about my children enough to keep them safe, at the very least for Tailtiu's sake. Knowing that was enough to satisfy me.

Because for once in a very long time, I didn't have a feeling that I was somehow betraying my ancestors and, more importantly, my family. I had betrayed everyone, but maybe I could pay them back, at least a little.


("Hm, hm, hm... It's time you had a lesson in obedience. Your teacher will be the supreme thunder magic Mjölnir!" - Reptor)

Notes:

So, I'm so sorry for not posting in over two weeks, but I basically got writer's block when Azel showed up, and I got a headache afterwards.

I was playing a lot of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, so I kind of want to say what I think about the Act 4 and 5, but I'l put it after my responses to reviews and the disclaimer, so you don't have to read it; I just want to get my thoughts out.

I wrote Reptor mostly like how he is in the Oosawa manga, except Aida tricks him into giving her Mjölnir instead of stabbing him, which is what I decided to do randomly. Also, the trusting that Azel can keep Tailtiu safe part is from there, too, where he escapes with her, tells Azel to look after her and accepts his fate.

I don't know why I keep making the random messengers male, but I guess I'm subconsciously thinking of the gatekeeper in Three Houses. Either way, I made one female this chapter.

Now I like having a quote, so I put what Reptor says when Sigurd's army gets close, and if Velthomer is still an enemy.

By the way, my first thoughts on the situation in Chapter 5 when playing it for the first time were this:

Reptor: Killing Sigurd will be easy with Aida's help!

Aida: Uh, actually, I'm betraying you now.

Reptor: Wait, what?!

Reptor (after taking a moment to process this): Wait, you know thunder magic has an advantage against fire magic, right?

Aida: …

Aida: Well, at least Sigurd's army is coming, and they can finish you off.

Reptor: (facepalms) How did I get into this situation again?

So, anyway, here are my responses to reviews:

JP I'm Italian (3-13):

The centuries thing was partially my fault and partially the game's fault, because that was directly taken from something Quan said and I didn't realize until you pointed it out, but the centuries part itself was a mistake on the people who made the game's part, since they wrote the dialogue.

I haven't looked at the fanfiction you recommended yet, but I've saved the name somewhere and will read it when I remember.

By the way, I am trying to say who wrote what.

(This is just something that wouldn't leave my head, and I don't know a lot about the Tellius games, but I realized that both reviews were written on 3-13, and somehow, I know about the 3-13 archer. Somehow.)

Guest (3-13):

Not that I'm complaining, but I was shocked for a few seconds when I saw how long your review was, since it's about the average length of one of the chapters in this fanfiction!

But anyway, I completely agree with what you said about Arvis (So far, the 2nd Gen story is about him sending Tyfing to Seliph, actually), which seems too short but I don't want to spend too much time writing this, so I could finally publish this.

I'll say more about Arvis next chapter, but for now that's it.

Since I'm taking things from the game (I know it's from a fan translation, but I want to be careful), here's a disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with FE4, or the Fire Emblem series in general.


So, the first and main thing I wanted to say was that I never knew how sad FE15 was until now.

Like the end of Act 4, for instance. After spending a few minutes listening to Lord of a Dead Empire, I tried attacking Rudolf with Alm, and knowing the spoiler just made it sadder when "Rudolf isn't attacking for some reason" popped up on my 3DS's screen. And am I the only one who went straight for Rudolf to save the lives of his soldiers? Maybe it's just because of Awakening, but still…

And then Alm's conversation with Rudolf as he is dying was done pretty much perfectly, so basically, it was too sad for me to watch without closing my 3DS for a minute to take a moment to think about it. And Alm's scream when he realized what he did was even more sad, if that's possible. ("No, wait! Emperor Rudolf! Were you truly my father? Then I've just… Oh, gods… What have I done? Aah… AAAAAAAUGH!")

And then Fernand's death hitting you right after that just made the situation sadder, and whoever made the art for the backgrounds did a good job, because that just made it sadder. And Clive and Clair's reactions to him dying. Especially when you know his past…

Berkut and Rinea have been talked about a lot (for good reason, though), so I'll make this quick (accidental Lysithea quote). Berkut has been through a lot, with him feeling like everyone he knows betrayed him, including Rinea, so he resorts to the most desperate option: giving everything he has to Duma for power., and Ian Sinclair did an amazing job at showing that ("Nothing but lies! Lies, lies, lies, lies, LIES!" "It's time, Rinea. Come with me. We'll hold our wedding atop his funeral!").

And I've heard a theory that - Rinea - when he's dying - is an illusion, but (mainly because I don't want to make this sadder) I don't think so. I think that Rinea was saying that she didn't care about being empress or not as long as they were together, and while she'd rather have a calmer, more normal life, if it's what makes the person she loves happy, she's fine with it. But that's just my thought on that, but unless IS tells us directly, there's never going to be an answer.

And lastly, I have a short, sort of personal story about Twilight of the Gods, the music that plays in the final map. Basically, I had heard of TotG when I started getting interested in FE15, and all I know was that it seemed that people liked it, based on how many remixes and covers I saw. I didn't listen to it because I knew all the main spoilers, and didn't want to spoil the music for me.

Over a year and a half later (a few days ago), I accidently heard a bit of Gaiden's version, and tried to get it out of my head. The next day, I got up to the final map, and I listened for at least ten minutes just thinking about it, shocked, and I finally understood why people liked it so much.

And I almost forgot: the final chapter quotes are amazing. They just add the atmosphere, especially where you hear ones like Mathilda's, Boey's, Mae's and Conrad's.

(The Fell God's Tempest is amazing, too. And Lord of a Dead Empire. And.. Actually, pretty much everything in the FE15 OST)

(Also, while trying to complete the map, I listened to TotG so much I kept hearing "Eve Teschmacher" and "destroy the pizza")