Fire Emblem Three Houses: Five Years War
I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, or any of its characters. This will be a series of one-shots concerning the five years timeskip that occurs right as the war starts. It will contain spoilers for the Azure Moon, Verdant Wind and Silver Snow storylines, and the supports of some characters.
I will treat everyone from the Black Eagles as being recruited by either the Golden Deer or the Blue Lion house, except Hubert who's impossible to recruit. I will attempt to put the shipping to the side as much as possible, but here's what you can expect: Dimitri/F!Byleth, Claude/Hilda, Ferdinand/Dorothea, Petra/Linhardt, Caspar/Bernadetta, Felix/Annette, Dedue/Flayn, Lorenz/Leonie, Sylvain/Ingrid, Lysithea/Cyril, Catherine/Seteth. It will also contain the Ashen Wolves, who will get a dedicated chapter.
I might operate some minor design changes for some of the characters who don't have any post timeskip designs (Catherine, Shamir, Seteth and Flayn for example)
That said, I hope you enjoy your read.
Chapter 2: Dimitri "The one-eyed boar" Around the Great Tree Moon (April) of year 1181
He had looked for it.
He had a faint hope that the fall hadn't been fatal, that she could have made it, barely alive, clinging to life as he knew she always did. The others helped too. Ingrid flew over the cliff with her Pegasus, looking for her bright green hair, while Sylvain and Ferdinand dashed with their horses towards the base of the cliff to look for her. He had heard the winged beast that was fighting the imperial forces yell a monstrous "NO!" before it was constrained by more demonic beasts, and completely vanished.
He forced himself to exclude that horrible sound from his head, but it kept resonating, along the voices of the dead, who screamed at Dimitri to seize his chance, and strike down Edelgard while she was down. He would not throw his life away by charging a full enemy army, so he followed the others.
Seteth had joined in with Flayn, both of them fleeing the monastery, and for once, Felix was willing to set aside his different with Dimitri to help him. Dread never left, as he never found her body. He turned boulders upside down to find her, had Dedue help him, but it seemed like it was no use.
He felt guilty of her downfall, seeing her movements getting slower, as she had been concerned with his late behaviour. Had he not let the ghosts claw into his mind, maybe things would have turned out differently…
But it was not the time for such assumptions, as imperial troops moved on their position. They needed to raise their armies as quickly as possible, if they wanted a chance to defeat Edel- this monster… Anyway, they did not continue their search for the body of their professor, and Dimitri hoped she was not agonizing somewhere, cursing them for leaving her.
Gilbert and Annette agreed to rally some troops from the Dominic territory, as Felix, Sylvain, and Ingrid went back north to summon their own soldiers, and Mercedes accompanied Annette, while Ashe went on Gaspard territory with Catherine, to see what he could do there to help their military logistics. That left Dimitri with Dedue, to go to Fhirdiad and raise the capital's army.
Things went into a downward spiral from here. All the stress he had been building since the beginning of the invasion burst out on his uncle Rufus, as he hadn't even started reuniting the garrison. That was the occasion Cornelia was looking for, and the wrench executed his uncle, then blamed it on him. She used a pathetic excuse, while mocking him with her horribly sugary voice, but without anybody to support him, Dimitri quickly found himself in danger. He was going to be executed soon after if it wasn't for Dedue.
Continuing on the trend, he hadn't seen him die, Dedue only chucked Dimitri out of the royal palace, told him to flee, and held the gate closed. Dimitri had done just that, crushing the guards arms or heads as he ran out of the city he once called home. He had run for the last two days, as fast as he could, like a beast fleeing its hunters.
Like a wild boar.
Now, he was just lost, and by himself, with no-one to help him resist the grasp of the hollow figures surrounding him. "You should be ashamed by the fact that the treacherous beast you call Edelgard lived longer than me." The ghost of Glenn said in a venomous tone, as Dimitri expected from him. He continued to walk through the thick forest "I know, I swore to bring you her head..." Dimitri said, completely exhausted by their sheer presence.
"We want it now." The ghost of his step-mother said "Otherwise, we will never be able to rest for eternity." Dimitri tried to ignore it, but the words echoed in his ears, making it impossible to think of something else than…
"Do you remember the last promise you did to me?!" His father screamed at his ear. Dimitri looked into its ghostly eyes. "Yes, I do. Are you all not capable of waiting?!"
"So we must wait until you forget your promise, then, my prince?" Glenn looked at him with deep contempt "How selfish of you… I bet Cornelia was allied to the beast. Don't you want to avenge Dedue?"
"Yes, I do, but if only you would let me rest-" The late king cut Dimitri off "And yet, we cannot rest, and must suffer as you only procrastinate our deliverance! Maybe the presence of this esteemed teacher of yours will motivate you a little more..."
"She is not dead..." But his step mother cut him off once more "You bothered her with something that should have been your burden alone, how cruel of you..."
"Leave me alone..." Lambert looked down on Dimitri, severity in his hollow eyes "I'm sorry, I think I did not quite understand-"
"Leave me alone!" The scream made the birds fly out of the trees in panic, but it had the intended effect: the ghosts had left him for now. He would continue to walk, until the sun would settle down, delaying the nightmares as much as possible.
Now that the ghosts were gone, he felt just terribly alone, hours passed before he exited the forest, and it was almost night. Dimitri was completely exhausted, and went to sit beside a tree. He saw from afar some figures, with some weird hair colour, light blue or purple for instance…
He woke up, feeling blood going down his forehead, as he heard laughter around a campfire. Brigands had tied him up to a tree, which was a situation he couldn't do much in, as he was still exhausted. The bandits noticed him waking up, and their leader approached him. "So, it seems little princess over here has woken up. How pleasant to be in your company, your grace..." The leader said in a pompous tone. He was a severe-looking man, with short dark green hair, and was wearing some bits of royal armour.
"Untie me, now." Dimitri said, shuffling in an effort to get out of the ropes. "Oh, but why would we do that, your grace? I thought you had been killed in Fhirdiad, maybe Cornelia would be interested to see the princess survived her beheading..."
Dimitri looked up at the leader "So I may spare you a bloody death." The chief threw back his head in a rasping laughter, as did the other bandits. But as soon as he stopped, his severe expression came back, as he said "The nobles really lost their manners nowadays, didn't they?" He sighed.
He pulled out his knife, and came closer to Dimitri, putting his knife right in front of his right eye "Then maybe we should teach you some respect first." He slowly pushed the blade inside Dimitri's right eye, who screamed from the pain.
But the blade stopped. Dimitri mustered his forces to open his left eye, only to see an arrow plugged in the bandit's neck. He fell back, just as Dimitri heard a roaring "Now!" while the band seemed to get slaughtered by some people, but Dimitri fell into unconsciousness before he could see who his saviours could be.
Blood, everywhere. He could see Glenn's head mounted on a spike, in front of the duscurian palace, from one of its many windows. Patricia came quick to his side to hide the view, but it was too late, the image was deep within his mind. His step mother held him close to her and tried to say reassuring words "Everything will be fine, Dimitri, don't worry, my sweet child. Gustave's rescue force should be here any minute, now..."
Tears were flowing down her cheeks, while she was forcing a dagger in her son's hand, but he knew what was going to happen. It had been a little more than 4 years, after all. He predicted the bleeding duscurian soldier busting into the room, while his step-mother screamed a plead. He remembered the sound of the sword cutting through her guts and spine, the feel of the dagger plunging in the soldiers neck, and the sweet relish he took from avenging his mother.
He remembered that he went outside of the palace, only to see that everyone was either dead on the floor, or slowly succumbing to their wounds while twirling on the ground. He heard a soldier complaining about the pain, and soon spotted his father, who was bleeding to death. He ran there and grabbed his hand, staying there, incapable of uttering a word. The king spoke weakly, while spitting blood "Avenge us! Those who killed us… Tear them apart! Destroy them all!" So were the last words of king Lambert Blaiddyd, who let go of Dimitri's hand as his heart finally stopped.
Tears flooded down Dimitri's cheeks, and he screamed to the uncaring night sky, lit up by the blazing palace. But something felt different. Something he had never seen before, neither in his dreams, neither in Duscur. From the burning palace came out a feminine figure bathing in light, which felt distant and yet incredibly close at the same time. Tears continued falling down from Dimitri's eyes, as the apparition continued walking towards him.
It leaned before his kneeling form, and offered a glowing hand. The little prince took time to register what was happening, and as he decided to reach out for the apparition's hand, he felt someone grabbing him, and putting him on his shoulder. He recognized Gustave, though he would later renounce that name out of the shame of his failed duty, to take the name of Gilbert, and disappear from the kingdom and from his family. Dimitri screamed, as he saw the apparition fade into the fire. He could hear Gustave attempting to reassure him, but it was in vain, as Dimitri clearly felt he was attempting to hide his own sadness.
"It seems the eye won't heal, the cut was too deep." He heard a sleepy voice above him. "Has the eye of Dimitri any chance of getting the heal?" asked a distinctively foreign woman. "Oh no, I should have loosened the arrow earlier… Now Dimitri is going to kill me!" A worried voice came in the prince's ear, so he finally decided to open his eyes- his single eye, and noticed a blue haired midget he knew as Caspar looking worriedly at him. "Calm down, I think he's waking up." The young man offered his hand for him to get up on his feet, but Dimitri rose up by himself. He could see Bernadetta, Petra and Linhardt sitting on a log, carefully observing him. He was going to thank them, but something felt off.
"How lucky of you to have friends like them..." said the ghostly Patricia with envy. "It seems quite convenient for me, that they showed up just as you were captured..." said Glenn by his side. "They must be imperial spies, I see no other possibility..." Lambert said.
"But why would they save me, then?" Dimitri thought to himself. "They did this only to give you to Edelgard, my dear..." Patricia said in the worried way she did in Duscur, which triggered Dimitri to take a step back.
This surprised Caspar "Hey, are you okay Dimitri? You look quite hungry, we cooked some food for you-" He took a step forward to reassure the prince. "Back off."
The tone of Dimitri's voice made Caspar obey from fear. Bernadetta's voice was quick to rise up: "I'm sorry Dimitri, about your eye, I should have acted sooner!" She sounded completely panicked, as Dimitri was used to hear. "Are you imperial spies?" He asked, in the most menacing voice he could manage.
Petra spoke this time. "I do not have the understanding of the question, my prince. Have we not saved you from the death?" The ghost of Glenn appeared by Petra's side, and glared at her "See, we told you they would attempt to sway you to then bring you to Edelgard."
If that was really their goal, he would have to run, before they caught him in his weakened state. He could not let himself be captured once again, for those who had died for him to escape, for Dedue…
So he ran away, like a beast fleeing from its hunters.
Like a wild boar.
He could hear Caspar trying to tell him to wait, but Dimitri needed to put as much distance from him and anyone who would try to have him fed to the beast. The ghosts told him to stay on guard, in case he got captured by some bandits, but he didn't listen. Maybe they could be right on some points. But there was one thing he hoped, if he still deserved to do such a thing.
That she wouldn't join their ranks.
And so begins Dimitri's slow descent into madness. The canon of this storyline is that Petra, Linhardt, Caspar and Bernadetta joined the Golden Deer house, since in my head, Claude has this much charisma he could sway other people to join his club. I will detail their reasons to leave Adrestria in another chapter, though, where it will be the open war between the three great powers (Cornelia's in charge, remember?). Although, I will let a clue as to which characters I will focus on in the next chapter with its title.
As to Romeoraiden, thank you for the review, I hope this story will bring light to some characters that are quite frankly forgotten about (the whole Black Eagle house except Edelgard and Hubert become Yes-men in Crimson Flower, which I find quite a bit sad).
Next Chapter: Heirs to the Goddess
I will attempt to release the chapters on a weekly format.