The closest we've gotten to being late. Not intending to push that. School can be tiresome. And, well, I kept getting distracted by both happy news and less than happy news. It's complicated.
Anyway, like the previous chapter, this is a semi-crossover. I promise that the next chapter will return to the realm of just being Three Houses. I just had this idea in mind for a while now.
Also, just curious, can you guess who the allies that Byleth works with in this chapter are? I'm not going to name them. See if you can figure it out.
Disclaimers: Fire Emblem belongs to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Koei Techmo, etc.
It seemed like an ordinary day outside of the Monastery as Byleth was simply walking around a little. He had a small, calm, expression on his face at how quiet things had been recently. He then heard somebody approach him and saw it was Marianne.
"Good morning, Professor…" she bid.
"Good morning, Marianne," Byleth smiled.
She proceeded to gently hug him, something she had gotten into the habit of doing after the assassination of Jeralt, and he simply accepted it. He smiled at her and calmly whispered towards her.
Suddenly, Byleth then heard a sharp sound within the air and he looked up to see what looked to be a dark sphere of energy. The sphere then vanished almost as soon as it appeared and then exploded into beams of light that shot across the entire area. Marianne looked up towards the sky in fear and then buried her face into Byleth's chest. Byleth held onto her and tried to stop the flow of time, but it only narrowly slowed down the beams.
"What… are these things?!" Byleth nearly yelled.
"Something beyond even my knowledge…" Sothis admitted.
This made Byleth pale as he saw that the Divine Pulse was giving out as the beams continued to get closer to him and Marianne. He tried to keep time stalled as long as he could, but the power of the beams managed to overwhelm the Divine Pulse and a flash of light engulfed him and Marianne…
Byleth then slowly opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness around him. However, unlike the mysterious area he met with Sothis in, this felt more like he was underwater and pressure was slowly consuming him. He could see a few, faint, orbs of light floating around him.
"Professor!"
"Teach, help us!"
"What's going on?!"
He could hear the screams of the students around him, but then his eyes fell to one orb of light that seemed to be inching closer and closer to him.
"...what…?"
"Professor!"
His eyes widened as he recognized the voice as Marianne's. He then began to push himself against the sort of water around him and tried to reach out to the orb of light with Marianne's voice.
"Mari… anne…" he managed to speak, reaching towards the light with her voice… only to suddenly be grabbed by something. It looked to be a golden chain of some kind that then dragged him away from the orbs of light until nothing but the darkness was visible…
Byleth felt nothing. He couldn't move, he couldn't see, he couldn't feel anything. However, he could faintly hear something… a struggle of some kind.
"We've got this! Keep it up!"
"...help… me…" he weakly spoke.
The next thing Byleth knew, he felt like he awoke from a dream. However, the land around him was nothing like the monastery or anything else that he knew. The sky was a strange mixture of light and darkness, the land was varied and constantly changing, and the people that had helped him… he didn't even know what to say.
"So… a being of light swallowed all of our homes into this… mess… and turned people into these… uh… what did you call them again?" Byleth began to ask.
"Spirits," a male with blonde hair with a blue top informed.
"Right…" Byleth nodded before he exhaled. He then looked around a little bit and, while faint, he could still feel Sothis' power within him. He then gave a nervous exhale, "Um… did you happen to see a girl with light blue hair, about 17 or 18, in a mostly black outfit, have you?"
"No, we haven't," a male with frizzy black hair and a very strangely stylized outfit, with a name that Byleth had no idea how to even pronounce, informed, "Chances are, she's turned into a spirit like all the people from our homes."
Byleth then paled a bit in response to that prospect.
"Don't worry. Our friends aren't dead and we can save them," a female voice, which came from a figure in a mostly red and white armor, told the teacher, "We've found several of our friends and loved ones as we've traveled. We'll find those you care about. I promise."
All Byleth could do was give a small nod… yet a few tears were starting to form in his eyes.
Over the course of his travels, Byleth had found the spirits of Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, Annette, Yuri, Bernadetta, Flayn, Seteth, and Sothis. However, even with the knowledge that they were safe, Byleth found himself unable to relax even a little as he found himself still scared about Marianne.
The group of four arrived at what looked to be the outside of the monastery, yet the geography around it was more familiar to the champion with blonde hair. As Byleth looked ahead, he could see there was somebody standing in the center and dancing. The only thing Byleth was able to make out… was a notable shade of blue hair.
"It's her!" Byleth realized, charging towards the path without any hesitation.
"Wait!" the champion yelled, but it was too late as Byleth had already entered the path towards her.
Behind the other three, though, some shadowy beasts began to spawn around them.
"We're gonna have to take care of them," the boy with frizzy hair commented as he readied a knife.
The champion nodded as he drew his sword. Meanwhile, the one who had armor readied two orbs in their hands.
"Ravage them!"
"Double… Rock On!"
It took a while, but Byleth was able to free Marianne's spirit from the vessel that was housing it. Byleth fell to his knees and let the orb of light gently float in his hands.
"...Marianne? Can you hear me?" he asked.
"Professor? Is that really you?!"
"Yes…"
Marianne's orb then began to shift around before he could hear her crying.
"I… I… I was so scared… I'd never see you again…" Marianne wept.
"...so was I…" Byleth whispered towards her.
Several days passed since that rescue. Byleth had worked alongside his group and had rescued what seemed to be thousands of orbs from many different worlds. Evening soon arrived and the four had found a safe location to camp out. Byleth was simply sitting off by himself. In spite of the victory he had… he felt empty. He looked out at the night sky and saw so many stars swirling around in so many different ways, and then he glanced towards the others as they were discussing what their next move should be.
"...how long have you been at this…?" Byleth couldn't help but ask them.
"...about a month. Month and a half, I think…" the frizzy haired boy informed.
Byleth's face then paled heavily as he leaned back, away from the warmth of the fire, and he simply couldn't remain composed. He simply stared off at the sky with worry and fear.
"Professor?" Yuri's voice spoke up.
Byleth looked to see the spirits of the people from his world that he had saved were now floating nearby him.
"Why the long face, Teach?" Claude asked.
"It… just feels so… hopeless…" Byleth admitted, "...and… I just… I'm just… scared… and… I want to get back home..."
This made most of the orbs float back a bit in surprise at Byleth's admission. He just looked down at the ground before he felt the warmth of an orb of light getting closer to him. Byleth's eyes looked to see Marianne's spirit was floating nearby, but the light of it seemed to start getting a bit brighter. He held out his hand towards her and then gasped as the orb of light then transformed into Marianne herself, albeit she was somewhat see-through.
"Marianne…" Byleth whispered in shock.
"Professor… don't be afraid. We're going to make it home…" Marianne told him a calm tone, gently holding one of his hands, "And we're all going to be happy when we get home. We just need to get through these hard times… together…"
Byleth blushed a bit as he slowly held the hand that Marianne had in his. Although she was missing her physical body at the moment, she still felt as real as could be.
"...you're right. Together."
Marianne giggled a little as she held onto his hand.
"...don't let go…?"
"I'll do this for as long as you need me to…"
Thus, the two remained like that for a while. After some time, Byleth ended up falling asleep. Marianne's spirit then gave him a gentle kiss to the cheek and remained nearby.
"I love you…"
So, just to go ahead and address this, as semi-established in the previous chapter… Marianne doesn't remember these events happening. Once the villain was stopped, only the fighters actually remembered these events occurring. The spirits simply either don't remember or saw them as dreams.
I'll admit that I had this idea because of the fact that having one of them comfort the other over the loss of family felt a little too obvious. Having them comfort each-other after something overwhelming, fearful, and unknown… seems to have a better flow in my mind.
Sorry if this feels at all rushed or "tell and not show". Sometimes I have difficulty articulating things.
Favorite part honestly has to be the comforting moments when the two reunite and after the time passed. Just… cute to me.
Just Live More.