Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story.
"I wanted… to walk with you…"
These words have haunted Byleth for over five years. It had sent a shiver up her spine every time she had thought about it.
Of course, she had to do it… otherwise Fodlan would be in an endless war.
If only she could have done everything in her power to prevent herself from putting an end to her.
She had tried everything from her Divine Pulses to spare her… but each time she tried, it would always end in heartbreak.
Instead of the Sword of the Creator, she thought she would try a simple axe throwing, knowing very well that her deflecting skills was on point… and while she did succeed in deflecting, the axe had been deflected up into the air… and embedded itself onto her skull the moment she charged at Byleth.
Instead of axe throwing, she tried using a spear… she was hoping to knock Amyr off of her hands with it, however due to a miscalculated misstep, she unwittingly plunged it into her heart.
Instead of a sword fight, Byleth requested they settle things with their fists. It had confused her, but she accepted, resulting in a brawl between the two. However, it was in that rare instance where she had forgotten her own strength and had thrown an uppercut to knock her into the air where she had landed on the stairwell of her throne, snapping her neck in an instant.
Determined, she tried different techniques in the brawl to try not to make the same mistake… but it would usually result in a cracked skull or internal bleeding, no matter how hard she tried.
Next she called in Bernadetta for help, hoping that an arrow would strike her and hoped it would be enough to get her to cease fighting and spare her. Unfortunately, as Bernadetta released the arrow, Byleth had parried an attack and caused her to fall. The arrow had struck her in the head.
She tried to get Lysithea and Dorothea to help her out instead, thinking their magical prowess would slow her down. Unfortunately… Lysithea got carried away with a Dark Spikes.
No matter how much she tried… fate would not allow her to live. On the final blow, despite everything that she had attempted to do, it was not meant to be. Not to mention that her Divine Pulses had ran out of juices and needed to recharge.
Byleth knelt down next to her, cradling her in a pool of blood. "My teacher…" She would say. "I… I wanted to walk… with you…"
"Edelgard…" Byleth teared up, holding her in her arms. "I… I'm so sorry… I-"
"Don't be… I'm just glad… I had the chance to be your student… forgive me…"
Byleth had watched Edelgard take her last breath, her body falling limp as the exhausted emotions had gotten the best of her and cried loudly over Edelgard's body in her arms.
Five years… five years had passed since that day, and Byleth was sitting in front of Edelgard's grave. The bravest young woman she ever knew, and it still hurts that there was nothing she could do. Claude had told her that in a way, Edelgard was happy that she had been mercifully killed so the war against Those Who Slither in the Dark.
"Cheer up, teach! I'm sure Edelgard is smiling down and happy that they're all gone for good. Heck, everyone's happy that they're gone and we can go back to our normal lives." Claude's words echoed in her head.
"…Then why am I not happy…" Byleth whispered to herself, curling up in a fetal position and silently bawled her eyes out.
She wanted to walk with Edelgard.
So, as i'm getting better from this stomach bug, a friend suggested I write a more simpler, shorter than usual chapter to get back into the swing of things. I thought "...What if I did a short one shot?" and well, this was what I had thought of.
