5. Post-Apocalypse
((Please note: this chapter is an FE:A and Digital Devil Saga fusion. So accordingly, it contains themes of war, body horror, violence, and cannibalism for the entire cast. Please keep the warnings in mind, and read according to your preferences!))
Blood and rain soak her face. Robin groans from her resting place in the mud, and slowly opens her eyes to an ashen sky. It is worrying, that she can't remember how she arrived here, or why a strange fire burns its way along her hand… Or why a similar spark seems determined to settle in her heart and stomach.
Robin groans her way to her feet, looking around. Her surroundings are still the same; that mismatch of broken buildings scattered across the landscape, mingled with ancient carvings and metal. By reflex, she scans the surroundings, watching for enemies. THAT much she can remember; that this open ground is dangerous, filled with those ready to put a bullet in someone's back or head.
Though just now the scenery is unnervingly blank; little more than a gray slate meeting steely sky, save for one tall, reaching tower that claws its way into the heavens. Something in her says that place is important; that it is where all law and people of this place originate… If one can apply 'law' to a chaotic war-scape like this.
'Junkyard.' Her mind finally provides a name for this place. With each breath, her thoughts become a little clearer, pulling themselves out of whatever mire she found herself in.
The stillness remains unnerving, because a part of her knows she should be hearing the never ending clatter of bullets and whine of mortar shells, along with the drumming of rain. But the area is deserted-
Save for one person, picking his way along the ruins; he also scans the horizon, and almost blunders into her, where she lays on the ground. He freezes when he sees her, hand going to the pistol at his side. And yet, he doesn't draw, instead cautiously watching her.
Robin watches him as well. The gray of his uniform is at odds with his vibrant blue hair, and the splash of orange coating his arm and chest.
"You are…?" His voice comes out halting, like he's learning how to use it again. As he watches her, his hand slowly drifts away from the gun… And for a brief moment she sees a strange spark of color flicker across his eyes.
"…What is your Tribe?" The man switches his question, eyes narrowed and the blue light fading away. Unlike the colors decorating him, those eyes are oddly blank and gray, matching his uniform.
"I…" Robin fights the dryness around her mouth, and the confusion searing across her head. "I do not… Know." The only thing she DOES know is that Tribe is important; that a person without a Tribe is unthinkable. And yet… She only has blanks in her head, and can't help but notice she lacks the splashes of orange that decorate the man's uniform.
"Leader." Comes a flat voice from behind the stranger. He turns to it, as a taller man with stern features and earthen colored hair splashes through the mud. "Have you found answers?"
"Negative." The first man says. "No source for that light-"
"L-light?" Robin asks, barely able to get the words out before a memory flares through her head; of observing a skirmish between two Tribes, one that she's certain this man leads. There'd been plenty of gunshots, as the two sides warred, shot and bled each other, all for the sake of attrition… And claiming perhaps another stretch of barren ground.
And then came a blinding flash of light, as strands of energy twisted through the sky and pierced the hearts of everyone… Including her. And the only thing that followed was a sudden, frenzied feeling, accompanied by screams, roars, and a feeling of too sharp teeth budding in her mouth and hungry for prey-
It all makes her chest lurch, and her hand give another painful jolt.
She looks down to it, and sees a mark staring back at her. One she KNOWS was not there before, patchwork as her memory is. Six eyes frame a strange, fanged set of jaws. When the others move around her, she sees they have similar black marks decorating their skin.
"Chrom?" The Tribe leader before is finally given a name. "Is this one of ours?"
Chrom's companion narrows his eyes on her, as he fails to pick out any paint on her clothing.
"Or an enemy." He brings the heavy rifle at his side around, angling its sights on her.
"STOP." Chrom's voice lashes out, freezing his soldier in place. "Frederick, look at her. She must be Tribeless."
"That still makes her a threat, sir."
"Or an ally. Our Tribe is still young. And still needs new numbers." As he speaks, he moves towards her… And deliberately puts himself between Robin and Frederick. Exposing his back to her. Robin's breath moves in a hiss, the same time Frederick does the same. No one EVER puts their back to a stranger in the Junkyard.
And yet, he has no hesitations.
"You… Trust me?" Robin murmurs. That word, 'trust' sits strangely on her tongue. Like it is a word seldom heard or spoken. Chrom turns to her, also blinking over the word.
"I suppose I do." He finally says. And to add to the strangeness, stretches a hand out to her. His lieutenant Frederick can only watch, making a slight sputtering sound; a reminder that helping people stand upright is also an anomaly. In the Junkyard, one is expected to stand or fall on their own strength.
When Robin takes the offered hand, she feels strength in Chrom's fingers. And wonders at the warm quality to his skin; it seems to seep into her own, and subdues the odd gnawing feeling churning through her.
"On your feet." Somehow, that sounds… Encouraging is the word, Robin thinks. Rather than sounding like an order. Still, she rushes to obey.
"My… My thanks, sir."
"'Thanks…'" He murmurs for a moment, testing the word, before shaking his head. "Too many new factors. Come with me; we cannot linger here. We need answers, on what happened."
He begins to march, and it's the easiest thing for Robin to fall into step alongside him. He's heedless of the rain misting around them, running in rivulets down his bare arms. His skin is surprisingly free of blood, either his own or his enemies.
"What were you doing?" She finds herself asking him.
"Border skirmish, before that light washed over us." Chrom tells her, not breaking from the march. "Between the Shepherd Tribe, and the Plegian Tribe. We want to investigate wherever that light came from. See if we can find answers for whatever… THAT was." He grimaces, going to where his uniform has been torn away at the shoulder. Robin gets a better view of his own mark. An odd teardrop shape, with the slightest impression of talons or teeth dripping off the bottom.
"Frederick and I came to, at the very fringes of the combat zone. It seems the same happened to you, and my own soldiers. I want to get back to the fight, evaluate what happened. Or if we managed to kill Plegia's Tribe leader, and can claim the Tribe remnants for our own."
"Who is-?" Before she can finish the question, a familiar sound rattles her ears. Gunfire. She throws herself flat, pulling Chrom down with her as bullets smack into slabs of concrete and coat them with dust.
"…I will take that as a sign their leader Gangrel is still alive." Chrom mumbles, chancing a look over the ruins. Robin looks as well, and sees a long, blasted area stretching out below them. In the center sits a crater… And lining the ground around the crater are tendrils of the same, eerie white light.
They've found the epicenter of whatever happened to them.
"WELL! So the rabble decides to show themselves again!" The gunfire halts long enough for a voice to ring out. Further down the battle field, Robin can see a man with blood red hair, his uniform decorated with splashes of yellow and red. Even from this distance, Robin can see the glint of white teeth in his face.
"So kind of you to make another appearance!" The emotions Gangrel brandishes are like a scream in her ears. They are too violent, too vivid, and she winces against the harsh, hysterical laugher shrieking out of him. "I was starting to starve, you know. And you've brought such a lovely new morsel to me."
She does NOT care for the way he leers at her, or the strange, greedy light in his eyes. She also wonders at his words… And at the strange gnawing feeling that claws at her insides, when he talks about starving.
"Sir." Frederick pitches his voice from where he crouches. "I can see some of our own survived the skirmish, and the outbreak. They can attack on your signal."
"N-not yet." Chrom grits out. Robin risks a glance back to him… And wonders at the odd way his shoulder twitches. His mark seems to pulse against his skin. In another breath, she feels her own mark doing the same, turning into a brand that burns at her hand.
"Come on, come on!" Gangrel's voice cuts at them. "Don't you WANT to use the gift we've been given?"
"Talk sense!" Chrom snaps back, and Robin can hear a hint of impatience coloring his voice. "What are you doing back here?"
'And why has he ordered all his soldiers to stop firing?' Robin wonders.
"Oh my… The Shepherd leader is still in the dark. Well then… Allow me to educate you." Gangrel stands up, grinning at them and almost daring them to shoot. He holds up his hand, and Robin can make out another black mark emblazoned on his wrist.
"After that light shot through us, everyone went mad. Beautifully so." He tells them. "You tore into my men, and they tried to slaughter you in turn. I lost track of who I killed, sad to say… But I'm more than ready to give this another try!"
His brand pulses, as strands of light begin to spread across his skin. They echo the light from before, save for that fact that they also mirror the color of his hair; it almost looks like blood coats his hand and arm. Gangrel's grin turns predatory… And he all but blurs across the battlefield. Chrom draws his gun to fire, but the bullets can't seem to score a hit on him, until at last he barrels down on the two.
"Time to die, and to dine." He leers over them, and snaps a hand out at Chrom, digging his finger's into Chrom's throat. Gangrel wrenches the other leader up, letting him hang off his figners as Chrom's feet uselessly kick at the air.
As Chrom struggles, the mark on his shoulder glows as well, bleeding blue across Chrom's skin. Robin's own brand is burning, and screaming at her to stand up… And to fight. She doesn't have any guns of her own to fight with… But she does have teeth.
She does little more than bare those teeth, before sinking them into Gangrel's shoulder, right at the join of neck and muscle. He drops Chrom with a shriek, as blue light overtakes Chrom. Robin feels her own body burning… And changing. The churning, yawning feeling tears through her body, reshaping it with wrenching force. Her skin turns to scales, her claws to talons, and she feels a strange snap across her heart, as another mouth tears itself open along her chest, teeth piercing through her flesh. Her jaws crack and pop, turning into a large, gaping maw; something almost… Draconic, for lack of a better word.
Her body is changed, twisted into a monster. And on the ground, she can see Chrom twisting as well, bone like blades unfolding from his arm as he fights his way to his feet.
Through it all, she feels a yawning hunger. It makes her first mouth bite down on Gangrel, trying to saw through flesh and tear it free from his body.
And yet Gangrel doesn't scream. Instead, a mad laugh rushes out of him, turning into a feral snarl. His body twists underneath Robin, turning into a hulking creature with too many limbs. Strange, serpentine strands unfurl from his body, dripping what looks like poison from the ends. They all snap around Robin, yanking her off the thing that used to be Gangrel and shooting white hot pain through her skin. She's thrown free from Gangrel, first skidding along the ground, then rolling over her shoulder, and finally digging her new claws into the mud to bring her to a stop… Right at the edge of the crater.
Her senses have changed. Twisted… And Robin realizes that she's experienced this sight before. When the light pierced through her, planted this strange power in her… And warped her body in the process.
Across the grounds, she makes out Chrom… Or at least the creature that used to be him. He looks twisted up, his skin shifted to boney ridges and scales much like her own, his eyes vanished beneath a crown of horns, and his longer, sharper, teeth all showing. But his new form also has plenty of strength, charging Gangrel with a furious howl and making him bleed. The swords sprouting from his arms easily cut into the monster, shearing off the poisonous tendrils.
'S-stop…' There's still something human in Robin, but it can't raise its voice above the howls and snarls.
Through the chaos, the sounds of screams both human and monstrous… She picks out something else stirring behind her. There's a soft gasp of breath, like the thing behind Robin is learning to breathe for the first time-
Gangrel, or the remnants of him, shrieks in response, lurching towards Robin, and whatever is behind her. And even through her hunger, and the bloodlust blinding her thoughts, Robin can manage one decisive action. She anchors her claws into the ground, refusing to break from her new place… Or expose the thing faintly gasping behind her back.
"That…" Gangrel's remnants hiss out and seethe. "That will do… As a morsel. Give me that CHILD-"
She bristles at the words… And so does Chrom. He lunges with Gangrel, catching scent of the blood choking the air. He springs onto Gangrel, knocking him off his feet. As the two monsters roll and slide down the hill, towards the glowing crater… Robin tenses, ready to pounce.
She throws herself forward when Gangrel gets to close to the crater.
While Gangrel tries to dig claws into Chrom, he turns his head away from Robin; and that's when she sees it. When she bit into him as a human, she tore away a chunk of him. And that part still looks raw and red, missing the armor that coats them all. The scent of blood is strong, coming off that wound, and it fills her mind with a bloodlust.
She doesn't think; just bites down savagely, and then twists her head to the side. And Gangrel's life comes away in her jaws.
'Stop-!' A tiny part of her desperately pleads, as her teeth close and tear, close and tear, and stain her throat red. She's going to fade away from this, Robin knows. Nearby she can hear wet ripping noises as the other monster tears into Gangrel's corpse, and knows Chrom is fighting and losing that same battle-
Over the sickening noises, however, comes a voice. A human voice, soft compared to the shrieks and sounds of battle all around them.
And that voice, it has the same soft quality as the breaths from before.
"Shanti," the voice calls out. Robin lifts her head, to see a form standing up in the crater; she's clad in little more than a gray scrap of cape, which tangles in turn with her long hair, tinged in a blue so dark it could almost be black.
'She's… Singing.' The human part of her says, somehow louder and stronger than it had been before. The changes gripping her body all melt away thanks to that song, and the mad haze lifts from her mind. Robin collapses to her knees, as the singer gently picks her way across the ruined ground, finishing her song at last as she kneels next to Robin and Chrom.
'Chrom… He's alive too?' And human, judging by that confused groan. Somehow, he's managed to keep his feet.
"A-are you both okay?" He stands over her, staring down at the two… And with a sudden blue light flooding his eyes.
"Yes." Robin tells him, caught up in his gaze. "What… Was that?"
"…I think it's the same as Gangrel said. Something about that light… It did something to us." Chrom shivers as he speaks. Something else has shifted in him, along with that transformation. Robin can feel it as well; it's like something has been pried open in her mind and heart, both. There's a sudden intensity to everything she feels; horror at what just happened, surprise at the young girl kneeling next to them… And a strange, poignant sense of relief that the two next to her are safe.
"Who… Are you?" She asks the girl.
"Lu…Lucina." There's something familiar to that name. Something that stirs an odd, protective twinge in Robin's heart. More so as the girl slumps against her, tired after everything; it's an instinct different from devouring that Robin feels then. She wraps her arms around the girl, in a gentle gesture.
"And… I've come to help you." The girl's voice is soft, like she spent all her strength with that song, and helping Robin and Chrom shift back. The chaos of the fight has died around them as well, and she can see more human forms among the ruins, instead of monsters.
There's so much she wants to ask… But for now she can only cling onto the girl Lucina, and reach for Chrom, desperately glad that they're still human. And still breathing. Chrom sees her reaching hand, and catches it up in his own.
It shouldn't help, considering what they just went through. The rational part of Robin's mind knows that. But she can only cling onto Chrom, and let the strange relief surge through her, and soak into her very being; stronger than any rain that pours down around them.