Guess what, this I decided to write a Fates version of All of Them, but ended up making it much more positive in tone. Outside of Shigure, I'm not as attached to the Fates kids as I am with the Awakening kids, though, so it was a bit harder to write.
One thing to get out of the way... the Deeprealms don't work the way they do in the game. All I did was make them parallel universes, not magic time bubbles where you put a baby in and get a ready-made soldier out in seconds.
As far as Anankos had been concerned, he had woken up from a dream.
Or at least, that was what he had believed until his daughter Lilith came and spoke to him. Lilith… he'd done her such an injustice – both as a dragon and as a human. She had been deserving of love and parental affection, and had received none in her life.
But Lilith had smiled and had assured him that he was still her father, before showing him the Deeprealms.
The memories of what he had done to each of these Deeprealms – other dimensions – came back to him, and his heart hurt. "What will happen to these realms?" Anankos had asked her.
Lilith looked sad. "All that remains of these realms are small fragments of the world that it once was, slowly disintegrating. Your realm is whole enough to survive, as are many of the others… but others of these realms will eventually crumble, and the people inside of them, lost forever."
She left it unsaid, but Anankos knew the truth: this was his fault.
"What can I do?" he asked Lilith. He could transform with another Dragonstone, but he was more human than dragon now – and therefore lacked most of the powers he had had as a full dragon.
"You can enter these realms," Lilith told him. "And seek out those that live and take them away before the realms crumble completely. Perhaps, in our home realm… you can rebuild with the survivors."
"And you, my daughter," Anankos reminded her.
Lilith smiled at him, and reached out to touch his face. "I'm sorry, Father. I must leave now." Her expression became sad. "I love you, and I am glad that I had the chance to know you – the real you – and my sister Corrin. I will always watch over you…"
"Lilith—" Anankos called, reaching out to grab her, but he blinked, and she was gone. The only evidence that she had been there were a few sparkles, and he felt grief well up inside of him again. In his madness, he had lost everybody that he had ever cared for. His beloved wife, his beloved daughters, his friends… now he had no one.
Besides, even if Lilith had implied with her suggestions to search for survivors in these realm fragments that he had destroyed, what person would want to stay with him?
Anankos had never felt so human.
He was unaware of how many Deeprealms he had wandered by now, seeking out life desperately, but not finding it, and wondering whether Lilith had spoken the truth. Surely there had to be one realm where someone had been spared from his madness!
Finally, it was in one Deeprealm, consisting of a tiny fragment of Izumo, that he found the first signs of life.
The sound had been faint, and he almost hadn't heard it, and Anankos knew that had he not been a dragon, the sound would have escaped his notice. But having been a parent at one point, he followed the sounds of muffled crying, finally entering a small dwelling that was missing half of its roof.
There, curled up in the corner, was a small boy with fluffy, off-white hair. He was dressed in clothing similarly to a noble's child in Izumo, but he was lacking shoes, and looked to be about six years old.
"Hello there," Anankos called out gently to the child.
The boy's sniffling didn't stop, but he peered up at Anankos with pale grey eyes, and for the first time, he noticed the dragon ears. "Y-You're a living person? Not one of those undead things?"
Anankos mentally winced; this was a realm that he had ravaged. "I'm a living person," he assured, stepping closer and sitting down next to him. The child shifted closer to him. "What's your name, little one?"
"Kana," the boy said. "I don't know where Mama and Papa are."
He wasn't sure that he had the heart to tell him that his parents were likely dead. "Well, what're their names? I can help you try to find them."
Kana scooted a little closer to him until he was curled up against Anankos's side. The dragon put his arm around him and the boy snuggled up against him. "My papa's name is Izana. My mama's name is Corrin. They went to stop something big and bad and haven't come back."
Something in Anankos seemed to freeze when he heard that. Corrin? As in, his daughter Corrin? In this world, she'd had a child? "You're… Corrin's child?" he asked, his voice surprised.
Kana scrubbed at his eyes once more and squinted up at him. "You know Mama?" he asked.
"I'm…" Anankos hesitated. What if this was a bad idea? "Corrin is my daughter. I'm your grandfather."
The boy's eyes widened and his mouth opened into an 'o'. "You're my Mama's Papa? You're my Grandpapa?!"
"I- yes?" Anankos was caught off-guard when the boy leapt onto him and buried his face against his chest. Kana nuzzled against him for a moment before beaming up at him. It was clear that he still wanted to find his parents, but the fact that he was related to Anankos seemed to make him elated.
Gently, the dragon god ran his fingers through the boy's fluffy hair, wondering what he was getting himself into.
Unfortunately, they found the confirmation that Corrin and Izana (Izumo's Archduke, from what he gathered) were indeed dead in this world; while Anankos was thankful that they didn't find their bodies – not only did he not want to see his daughter dead, but he didn't want Kana to see his parents' dead bodies either – they did still find a sword that Kana had recognized as his parents in a battlefield.
"Mama said it was called Blazing Yato," Kana admitted. Anankos had picked up the sword and had examined it. This was definitely the Yato no Kami, forged from a tooth of Ouranos.
With Kana's parents gone for sure, the child had pleaded with Anankos to stay with him, which he had quickly agreed to, both because he had promised Lilith and because he didn't want to abandon the poor thing. Little Kana was a delight to have around, and Anankos felt his own mood lightening as he traveled through the Deeprealms with the child. The boy had started smiling at him more often, and affectionately called him 'Grandpapa', and Anankos wondered if this is what it would have been like had he been able to raise his own children.
Corrin. Lilith. He had many regrets when it came to them. But he could do his best to raise his grandchild.
Another Deeprealm had revealed another child.
This time, it was a little girl found in a fragment of Nohr, dressed in the manner of a Nohrian noble's child, but also lacking shoes. She had the same grey eyes as Kana, but her hair was bright red and done in a topknot.
"W-We were attacked…" She had sniffled when Anankos had found her and had gone to speak to her. "P-Papa gave me his sword if I needed to protect myself but I couldn't do anything…"
"Your Papa's sword?" Anankos repeated, glancing down at it. It looked similar to the Blazing Yato that his grandson had, but it was slightly different… like it was…
"Uh huh. It's called the Shadow Yato," she said.
He stared at the child for a moment. "What's your name? Who's your Papa?"
"Papa's name is Corrin!" she said proudly, before wavering. "My name is Kana."
Oh. Well, it was very obvious that she was a version of Kana from this Deeprealm, where he had had a son instead of a daughter. How curious, but nothing to truly worry about. Now that she mentioned it, she did look very similar to the Kana he'd already met, but if her father was Corrin… what would a male version of his daughter look like?
"What about your Mama?" he asked her. "What was she like?" What kind of woman would a son go for?
The girl Kana reached up to take his hand. "Mama's name is Selena. I always wanted to try styling my hair in pigtails like her… I-I heard that she stayed with Papa until the end to stop whatever this was, her and my uncles."
Selena.
Guilt and pain shot through Anankos as he remembered the three young warriors from the other world that he had pleaded with to find Corrin and stop him. And, in exchange for nothing but a handful of graves in a broken world that they knew they would never see, despite knowing that they could very well lose everything, they had agreed. They had been the kindest humans he had ever met outside of Cadros and Mikoto.
The lack of leads that he had given them meant that he had made their job extremely difficult, and he knew that in his world, at least, that they had died violently and painfully trying to stop him – he'd taken the time to toy with them in particular, slowly drawing their deaths out, and when they had expired, he had finally turned them into Vallite puppets before… before… why couldn't he remember too clearly? Something had happened, he'd been wandered the worlds, searching for something, then he could hear the song with a male voice rivaling Cadros's, and then Lilith, had been there—
And then he'd woken up, as if it all had been nothing but a dream. But he could see how his hands had been stained with blood as red as the hair he had found in Selena's genetics, even if it had been washed away, and he knew better.
Selena was feisty, and he had found himself admiring her like he had with her companions and few other humans. She had had more raw talent inside of her than most people did; he had simply nudged at her genetics with his blood to ease them out. She was a wonderful woman, willing to assist a strange dragon.
And now she was dead in her attempt to assist him.
Right now, though, the only small consolation he had was that, despite pulling Inigo, Owain, and Severa away from their homes, they had managed to at least find Corrin (Selena had even opened herself up to him) and then save one person in this world.
Gently, he squeezed the girl's hand. Even if this Kana hadn't been his grandchild, he at least owed it to Severa to look after her daughter.
How many more were out there? How many more Kanas had a version of him orphaned? How many more of his grandchildren, possibly not even Kana at all, did he need to find and look after?
Far too many, unfortunately.
When he had first seen Shigure, he had almost mistaken him for Cadros – the resemblance was that strong – and had called his old friend's name out before he could stop himself. The teenager that was actually not Cadros had stared at him with muted shock, before hesitantly stepping forward and introducing himself – as the son of his niece Azura, and of his son Corrin, and had inherited the pendant containing the fragment of the mad god Anankos's Dragonstone. It was only right, Shigure claimed, if the patriarch of the family held onto it.
Anankos had taken the pendant, and had stared at it for a long moment, before quietly handing it back to Shigure. "The chances of it being needed are slim," thanks to Lilith's intervention, "but I feel it is better if you hold onto it."
Shigure accepted the pendant back and gazed at Anankos for a long time, trying to figure him out. "I see. In that case, Grandfather, I will hold onto it. But… please let me know if anything happens. I don't want other worlds destroyed."
He knew that his grandson didn't know who he really was. Perhaps that was for the best. "I will."
The discovery of Soleil and Ophelia had broken his heart as well, especially because it hadn't been hard to figure out whose children they were just from looking at them. While two versions of his daughter were their mother, the fact that their fathers had been "Laslow" and "Odin" meant that, like Selena, they had fought against him to the bitter end in their worlds.
"You have your father's smile," Anankos had told Soleil, his heart aching as he gazed at the young girl. She had none of her family line's singing and dancing abilities, he would later find out, but… well, these things sometimes skipped a generation. Maybe Corrin had been a terrible singer and dancer (which would be a hilarious thought had she not been dead), because when he had seen Inigo dance to support Owain and Severa after forming the Blood Pact, he had been absolutely breathtaking, to the point where Anankos had almost forgotten that his dragon self had sent more Vallites against them.
"Oh!" Soleil smiled brighter at him. "You just told me that you were my mother's father… but you knew my father as well?"
Oh yes, he had known her father, who had been the one of the last of his descendants to inherit his blood even before the Blood Pact, and who also carried the blood of the Divine Dragon Naga.
"I did," Anankos replied softly, reaching down to smoothen her hair. Soleil allowed him to do that, studying him pensively. "I cared very much for him."
"You said that… your name was Anankos, right?" she asked. When he nodded, she continued. "He mentioned you a few times before he left… before he did, he said that he loved you and that he wasn't mad at you for what you did, and that even if he failed, he wouldn't break his promise and leave this world… whatever he meant by that."
'Damn you, Inigo,' Anankos thought, closing his eyes. 'It would have been easier if you had hated me and run when things got bad. But you and your friends were too kind, and you paid for my errors with your lives.'
Soleil chewed on her lip. "I'm not entirely sure what it was he was talking about, but…" She took his hand and squeezed it, gazing up at him. "Father wouldn't want you to wallow in sadness over him. So please… smile for him and Mother."
On the other hand, Ophelia had barely been able to keep it together after he'd learned that she was Owain's daughter. She even had white hair and penchant for Dark magic like Owain did (though of course, the former could have come from Corrin). Owain had always been capable of magic, he'd just had to tease it out of his genetics, and it looked as if his daughter had inherited his vast magical talent as well as his flair for dramatics.
"F-Father died as a hero, as he had always proclaimed that he would go, fighting against the v-very m-m-m…" She'd burst into tears almost immediately and Anankos, no matter how awkward he'd felt at her sudden tears, had embraced her until she had managed to calm herself down.
"Your father was a true hero," Anankos assured his granddaughter. "I am very sorry he died fighting a monster."
She fidgeted a little, making a half-hearted attempt at a pose like Owain had, and shook her head. "Father mentioned it was no demon that he was running off to vanquish, but to aid a dear friend that he loved and that should not be blamed."
Oh. Just like Inigo, Owain hadn't left this world until the very, very end. Why hadn't he left? Why had he stayed? Why hadn't he been more like the humans that Anankos had been hurt by, and run? Then he would be alive and Anankos wouldn't be responsible for his death!
Anankos hid his pain and instead gestured to the books in her hands. "What are you holding there?"
"Father's Manual of Justice," she told him. "Alongside a tome that has been named the most legendary name in his memory."
"What did you name it?" he asked her.
She finally managed a weak smile at him, and Anankos knew that if Soleil were here, she would have told her to smile wider. "I dubbed it 'Missletainn'!"
How fitting.
Unlike with Shigure and the younger children, the rest of the teenagers were harder to convince to follow. Shiro, who had apparently been Hoshido's heir, had basically postured and had gotten somewhat defensive, even if he had had Rajinto, one of the legendary weapons, by his side (Anankos had had to make sure that he knew how to control it).
In contrast, Siegbert, Nohr's heir, while he had just as much control over Siegfried as Shiro did over Rajinto, was an extremely quiet and polite boy, who fretted about making sure that he was doing the right thing. Still, he was never found far from his horse or his siblings.
His grandson Kiragi was a happy-go-lucky child, despite the tragedy that was around him, that was also the son of the younger Hoshidan prince – Anankos vaguely remembered him, for some reason – and had eagerly run up to Anankos in a manner similar to the Kanas once the dragon had introduced himself as the boy's grandfather. He was just as good with a bow as his father was, given the Fujin Yumi, and Anankos felt nothing but pride.
He'd thought his grandson Forrest was his granddaughter at first, but as it turned out, the boy just preferred to wear effeminate clothing because he thought they were more fun-looking. His father was the younger Nohrian prince, which had surprised Anankos, but he seemed pleasant enough, and was already talking to him about Vallite fashion. He clutched Brynhildr close, but didn't seem too eager to put it to use.
It had been almost impossible to find Asugi – and he was completely sure that the ninja's son would have succeeded in hiding had he not been a dragon. It had finally been the boy's illness (caused from a lack of sugar) that had allowed Anankos to catch up with him and speak with him. Asugi, the third-oldest of the children he had found so far, had been skeptical of following him, but had finally admitted that there wasn't much else that he could do.
Mitama… had been asleep when he had found her, and while she'd perked up slightly upon learning that he was her grandfather, had asked him whether she could continue to sleep a little longer. Anankos had been a little annoyed, if but amused, and had instead hauled her to her feet and had unleashed the Kanas and their boundless energy on her. Mitama had very quickly woken up and followed him after that.
His grandson Hisame, who'd been fathered by one of the Hoshidan retainers, was a quiet boy, nearly as quiet as Shigure was, and preferred to spend his days reading or writing instead of fighting once Anankos had rescued him. Like several of the older ones, he had gone with Anankos as he hadn't known what else to do, but missed his parents dearly.
Nina had been almost as bad as Asugi to find, and had not been afraid to attack him until she'd realized that he wasn't someone dead. Even after he'd talked to her, she hadn't been all that eager. In the end, what had truly made her intrigued was when he'd commented about his regrets, including Soleil and Ophelia's parents, and she'd asked, in a voice brimming with eagerness, whether he'd been in love with Inigo and Owain. Anankos… had chosen not to answer that.
He'd stared for a long time at Caeldori. If he hadn't been told that his daughter had married a Hoshidan retainer, he would have assumed that was another one of Severa's daughters – she even had the same hair color that Severa did, and the resemblance, both in face and her perfectionist personality, was uncanny. Perhaps in another universe, she was a relative or ancestor of Severa's.
When he'd found Percy, the child of Corrin and a Nohrian retainer, he'd nearly had his head taken off by the boy's wyvern, Ace. Percy was one of the ones on the younger side and had latched onto his 'granddad' immediately, and Anankos, when he looked around at the state of the world, along with Percy's stories of the sheer number of times he'd been able to escape… all he could think was of how lucky the boy was.
He… wasn't entirely sure what to make of Rhajat. She was quiet, but not in a manner that suggested she was shy, but more that she was simply… observing. She seemed a little lost without her mother and father (though he could sense the Wind Dragon's blood in her), but had been willing enough to follow him. He just hoped that she stopped dabbling in weird magic.
Ignatius had been more of the timid sort, quiet and preferred to stay out of the spotlight like his father, a Nohrian border guard. However, he clearly knew how to defend himself, and had spotted the younger kids and had quietly said that he wanted to make sure that the younger ones, at least, grew up happier than he had.
Selkie was a playful, mischievous creature, which was only fitting as her father had been one of the Kitsune from Hoshido. She retained not only her draconic traits like the rest, but also her kitsune traits, and truly, she fascinated Anankos as that proved that dragons were not only compatible with humans, but were also compatible with the beast tribes as well.
It was the same with Velouria, who was probably the most attached to him out of all of her technical siblings; she had taken the deaths of her parents the hardest and had latched herself onto him once she'd found out he was kin (in her words, Anankos smelled a little funny, but his scent reminded her of her mother). Like Selkie, she was of the beast tribes, a Wolfskin from Nohr, and had retained her canid features.
Midori had been absolutely invaluable; she had knowledge of what foods that the children could eat – Selkie and Velouria couldn't always eat the same things that the half-human kids could – and knew which herbs to use when they got sick. Given the sheer lack of Staves for Forrest to use, or Vulneraries or Concoctions for them to drink, the young girl's enthusiasm for medicine had made their lives a lot easier.
Of course, it wasn't long after they found Midori that they would finally find Dywer, a quiet boy who prefers to stay in the back and help others instead of taking charge of the action. Apparently, it had been a point of tension between him and his father Jakob, who had been one of Corrin's retainers. Of course, between Midori finding tea leaves, and Dywer making the best tea that Anankos had ever tasted, well… it certainly kept their spirits up.
And finally, he'd found his granddaughter Sophie together with a horse named Abel, who she claimed was a gift from her parents. Anankos hadn't been too sure, given that she seemed to have trouble controlling Abel, but her love for the horse was there, so he conceded. Besides, she was perfectly enthusiastic about everything that she dead and was more than willing to come along, so why stop her?
All in all, he'd discovered, out of the numerous Deeprealms that he had shattered in his madness, that he had orphaned at least twenty-two grandchildren – at least, twenty-two was all that he had managed to find before realizing that nearly all of the Deeprealms had fallen apart and were practically untraversable.
(The Deeprealms themselves varied quite a bit from each other. His daughter – or in a couple of cases, his son – had married different people in each one. In some of the worlds, his child had decided to return to Hoshido after their kidnapping. In others, his child had decided to remain in Nohr. And in a few others, his child had refused to choose a side.)
In no universe did he find alive the people that had mattered the most – all of the worlds that he had encountered had dead Corrins, Mikotos, Laslows, Selenas, Odins, Azuras, and Aretes. It was only his grandchildren that mattered to him now – and even if they were still a little nervous, he would make sure that they stayed safe and happy, while also ensuring that they could fight with weapons (he'd been forced to learn when he'd initially obtained his human form) and transform into dragons (thank the gods that he had been able to supply them with dragonstones).
He knew full well that another version of himself could choose to invade his realm, and he had to make sure that they were capable of protecting themselves from someone like him. After all, if he had invaded other realms before and destroyed them, then another Anankos in some other realm could get the same idea.
(He still didn't remember what had stopped him; he only remembered Lilith comforting him, and whenever Shigure sang, he thought it sounded familiar, but that had to be coincidence, right? The children struck him as familiar too, but that was because they were his grandchildren, right?)
"Shigure?" he asked, tilting his head at his grandson – fourth-oldest, if he remembered right, since Shiro, Siegbert, and Asugi were older than him. The boy was very quiet, preferring to work on artwork by himself – he wasn't sure if that was because they were technical strangers to Shigure despite being half-siblings – but today he was being quieter than normal.
"…" Shigure looked nervous, but he managed to approach Anankos. "…I…"
"What is the matter?" he asked, concerned, reaching out to take Shigure's hand and squeeze it.
"You said you're our grandfather," Shigure said softly. "And I know that is true, but…"
"But?"
"I… I know who you really are. I've known for a long time," Shigure said quietly, and Anankos felt a spike of anxiety shoot through him. "You're… you're Anankos, aren't you? The god of Valla that destroyed it all?"
There was no point in lying to the teenager. "I was," he confirmed.
Shigure closed his eyes for a moment, but he didn't release Anankos's hand. "…I see." He swallowed. "Mother told me of what had destroyed Valla, yes, but she also told me of her uncle, the human fragment of Anankos, a person that loved, that appeared to embody all the hopes of the kind god that had adored people."
He wasn't sure what to say to that, biting his lip.
"…I can see that you're trying to make up for what happened, Grandfather," Shigure told him, reaching out to take his other hand this time. "And… thank you. I'm glad that Mother was right."
"She was?" he echoed.
"You… you're a god that loves," Shigure told him, and Anankos felt warmth rush to his face. "If you didn't, you wouldn't have found me, or my half-siblings, before we were lost to the void forever, or helped us try to rebuild."
"Shigure," Anankos told him, squeezing the boy's hands this time. "As long as you and your siblings grow up content and safe, I have all the reasons in the worlds to be happy."
Shigure was quiet for awhile, before he nodded, reaching one hand up to clasp the Pendant around his neck, the one that held the shards of an Anankos's Dragonstone. "I trust you, Grandfather, and all of them do, as well. I… I think we will be happy with you."
Anankos smiled warmly. "Thank you, Shigure."
Hope was a beautiful thing, and right now, he was bursting with it.
Heirs of Fate: These are the same Anankos and Lilith from Heirs of Fate. However, the children are not the same ones and are all from different realms completely. Anankos is having difficulty recalling the events of Heirs of Fate.
Corrin: Since most of the Corrins would have to be female in order to parent all but two of the children, I kept Anankos's Corrin as female.
Deeprealms: M!Kana, Shiro, Kiragi, Asugi, Mitama, Hisame, Caeldori, Rhajat, and Selkie are all from Birthright worlds. F!Kana, Siegbert, Forrest, Soleil, Ophelia, Nina, Percy, Ignatius, and Velouria are all from Conquest worlds. Shigure, Midori, Dwyer, and Sophie are all from failed Revelation worlds.
Male Kana: Izana is my default parent for a male Kana that has no siblings. I eliminated Fuga since he is Revelation-only and I wanted a Birthright or Conquest parent. The fact that Gunter is practically her father-figure made me eliminate him. It is also implied that Yukimura and Shura are much older (Yukimura was already working for Sumeragi, and Shura was old enough to break into Nohr and kidnap child Azura). Izana having Divine Dragon heritage also made me interested and so I chose him.
Female Kana: I ended up eliminating the Corrin-only females – Reina due to age and Scarlet feeling too random. I considered Flora due to Ice Dragon heritage to match with Izana, but then my eyes landed on Selena, who Anankos had canonly made a Blood Pact with, but didn't have a child attached to her. And so I chose to have Kana as her daughter.
Hair Colors: Shigure has his canon hair color (light blue), F!Kana has Selena's (red, but it is technically Cordelia's), and the rest of the children have Corrin's (off-white, Izana also gives this color to M!Kana).
Ages: If I remember right, Shiro and Siegbert were noted as being older than Shigure in the Japanese Supports. I put Asugi as older since he ends up as Saizo's heir even with a Shigure as a sibling. The Kanas are the youngest, followed by Midori and Percy, and the rest fall somewhere in the middle.
Awakening Trio: In Anankos's world, Inigo's father is Chrom, Severa's father is Robin, and Owain's father is Henry, and he assumes thus for the others. I also headcanon Inigo/Laslow as a descendant of Azura through Olivia, and therefore carries Anankos's blood.