Chapter 13: Eleven Minds

Notes:

Hello - as I mentioned before, I really struggled with continuing this part. Unfortunately, I just really didn't like where it was headed and think I might have rushed it a few chapters ago, instead of taking my time like I normally do. I think I'm finally getting it back to where I wanted it. This chapter is a bit short, but I need to get this moving along, or it would sit unfinished forever.

Chapter Text

Byleth sat cross-legged on the floor and focused his mind. On Dimitri's request, Byleth attempted to feel the malice of whatever underground obstacles the monastery held. After a few passing moments of deep meditation, Byleth opened his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Dimitri. I'm not sensing anything unusual about this place."

"Really?" Dimitri clasped his chin and worried about what that could mean. Dimitri did not have to focus at all to sense it. Their darkened desires overshadowed the light and turned its green rays into a weapon against them. Beyond that, pure malice for Byleth and Dimitri nested at its core.

Dimitri said, "Just meditate and rest, then. We will have to fight them at your full strength."

"What about that other you?" Byleth asked, fully concerned about his status and lack of presence.

"I will worry about his existence, for now. You rest."

Dimitri went outside and closed the door. As long as he stayed in the shadows, that green light could not sear into his body. Aralath probably had similar issues traveling, Dimitri realized, and worried about her.

What could they do in this world if they were unable to move? Byleth and Dimitri, for whatever reason, were pulled in each time their minds lapsed into sleep. The ghouls clearly knew they could keep Byleth exhausted this way, so it would be difficult to fight back. Could Dimitri fight them instead? It was hard to say.

There was no sign of the 'other' Dimitri, and that left the real Dimitri even less approving of its existence. 'It meant to Byleth harm' Dimitri's gut screamed. 'It's a ghoul. It has to be.' Dimitri saw flickers of movement and prepared to fight whatever off. It stayed fixed in the gardens and ducked into the cafeteria. He waited for it, or anything else, to come back.

He locked onto something else approaching from under the awnings of the students' rooms. He saw his younger from come slither back in the walkway, and Dimitri felt less than inclined to drop his guard. "Where did you go?"

"Perimeter search. It is decently active out there. We should probably return indoors now." The younger advised.

"Why? Can those creatures not walk inside? I do not see what could be stopping them. Especially not a door."

"I am not sure. They are stronger in the light's path. Maybe that is why this room is still safe?"

"if it is so active out there, why have you stayed undetected?"

"I stick to the shadows. Shall we converse inside?"

"No. I will not let you back in. Not until I know what you are for sure. And if I do not like what I discover, I will end you." Dimitri warned.

"Suit yourself. If I am damaged, then so is he. Just remember that if you decide to kill me."

'He is lying.' Dimitri thought. 'This is one of them. Do not trust him.'

The older Dimitri held down the door and kept scouting the area. The only thing he offered to the younger form was, "Keep an eye out for trouble."

"I think I shall keep two eyes out, unlike you."

"The professor has never made snide jokes like that before. I cannot see how you share a mental link with him." Dimitri accused, feeling like he had this ghoul figured out.

"It is the sort of joke you would make, though, is it not? One full of self-hatred as we are. I am modeled after you, so I speak like you. Or, do you find fault with that as well?"

"And it is Byleth who corrects me. Even if he summoned you, he would summon what he finds to be my more suitable qualities."

The ghoul(?) Dimitri shook his head and said, "In this world, the subconscious reigns supreme. Your worst qualities shine the brightest. Is that not a lovely thought?"

Dimitri – kill them. Avenge us.

Don't let them live.

Don't let our deaths be in vain.

You are forgetting your mission!

So useless.

"Can you hear their voices? The ones that we failed to avenge. You and I are growing weak together."

Dimitri gritted his teeth, but said in defiance, "Subconscious or not, Byleth knows nothing about these voices."

"We are a fool if we believe that. We have been saying all along about our feelings and desires. He knows us well. He knows our pain. He knows our mission. 'Can you not hear them, professor? Their calls to me! Their pleas for vengeance!' Or have we forgotten how much we have told our lover? He called us because he wants us to protect him. We can protect him together."

For some reason, the summoned apparition started to make some sense. Byleth knew them well. Byleth knew their pain and wished to ease it. Byleth was a good man and an exceptional lover.

"We love him. And he loves us. Let's protect him, together."

"Protect him? Together?"

"Yes. Even when we are animals, he loves us. Even when we are at our worst, he reaches out his hand. We must keep him safe."

"I saw something out in the light, before you returned." Dimitri said, pointing toward the cafeteria and the outer gardens.

"We suppose those creatures stir. They are ready to find what they are looking for."

Dimitri felt the faint echoes of his senses yelling at him to stay vigilant. This younger form may try to speak like they were one entity, but there was still a lot that gave Dimitri pause.

"We can protect him out here." Dimitri said.

"We will draw their attention. Let us rejoin our love inside."

"No. They know where we are. We must fend them off."

The younger Dimitri turned toward the outer gardens and sighed. "Very well. We have a stubbornness to us, after all."

More shadows emerged from the inner buildings and they took actual human form. They took shapes into Dimitri's father, Rodrigue, Glenn, and other close friends who died that day. Their faces were twisted in agony and scarred, and their bodies walked toward them hunched forward or twisted sideways.

"Looks like this place has a good read on our weaknesses." The younger Dimitri observed.

The older Dimitri cackled at the sight. "How many nightmares have I had with their mangled bodies appealing to me? And now I'm supposed to strike them down?"

"We could end the nightmare and go inside." The younger suggested.

"No. I am a monster. So, I will show you what a monster does. Keep your hands off the door if you don't want to be a victim as well."

There was a hint of exasperation in the younger Dimitri's face, but the older one grabbed him by the arm and pushed him at least three rooms down. He then faced the oncoming ghouls and focused on a lighting spell.

"You aren't real. You aren't here. You're just a way for them to get under my skin." Dimitri said as the spell acclimated in his hand and symbols formed around his body. "I don't care what you are, though. I don't care what you look like. You're just another nightmare."

A thick bolt of Thoron shot through the magic circle when Dimitri brought his hands in the center of the symbols. It hit many of those familiar faces and nuked his father and Rodrigue from existence. Glenn was wounded but still approaching with the others left alive.

"Do you know what I am thinking now?" He asked the younger apparition, who came back to Dimitri's side.

"No. What." He asked flatly.

"Glenn and my friends. Do you see how young they are? I thought they were so mature when I watched them train. Seeing them now, I can't help but notice how young they actually are. Does that make you sad? Those are eighteen-year children who died, if they were even that old. They barely had a start on life."

"Hmph."

"Interesting. If they survived, what would they be today?" Another ball of white light crackled in Dimitri's hands. "Would they be knights? My knights? Would Ingrid and Glenn be happily together? It's impossible to know anymore."

Those same symbols surrounded him again. "I know what they wouldn't be. Undead ghouls, marching to take the last of my happiness away." He released a second wave of Thoron that demolished the rest of the figures. Once that task was complete, Dimitri slammed his giant hand into the younger's throat and said, "If this was your doing, I'd start counting my blessings and pray to whatever false god it is you worship."

Before the younger one could even react, Dimitri heard Byleth coughing inside his 'safe area'. Dimitri released his hold over the younger form and entered the room in a panic. Byleth was holding his throat and gasping on the ground.

Dimitri knelt beside him, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I – I don't know. It felt like – like someone was choking me." Byleth said in a hoarse voice.

"I told you." The younger said, "Any damage to me . . . goes straight to him."

Dimitri glared at the younger, swearing he smiled at Byleth's pain for just a split second. This world confused Dimitri, but there were two things he absolutely knew for sure: he could not trust this ghoul, and that killing him would be impossible until Dimitri undid whatever magic he had over Byleth.

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The ghoul watched the pair disappear. The shock of it woke them up and so they returned to their natural world. The eleven disembodied minds did not factor in such a strong resistance from Dimitri, who had shown weak fortitude to mental pressure in the past.

"We should have been able to manipulate him." One of the eleven said. "He should have fallen to our spell and let us in the room." The murmurs of the remaining ten were indistinguishable while they plotted their next move. As one unit, they concluded their next plan.