AN: I have never seen any Ravages of Time fanfics on here, and there's no option for them either. So this will just be under fire emblem then, since this is a crossover between them.

Prologue

A deep ravine wrapped in shadow, its base filled the decayed corpses clad in iron armor; the remains of an army. What little light revealed their prone forms, their eerie white skulls, their tattered armaments. It was dead silent, or at least until-

"(Cough)"

There, tucked away in a corner, lied one dweller not quite like all the others, although he did wear the same uniform. A silver-haired man rested his body against a wall of rock, blood trickling from his mouth and forehead. He was still among the living, albeit barely. A spear jutted out of his gut, just above the belt. It was the final moments of the first of Water Mirror's eight geniuses, the first among their number to fall. On death's door, each labored breath was accompanied by another flashback. Looking back on a life of treachery and conquest, Yuan Fang could only conclude one thing:

'The sky stretches further than the eyes can see.'

The trench of skeletons before him dissolved, replaced with a garden of red Camellias.

'You will never be able to plant enough flowers to cover the land under it.'

A beautiful woman blossomed forth from the center of the field. With hazy eyes, the first genius recognized it to be his long-lost lover, murdered by his family's ambition. As she slowly stepped towards him, Yuan Fang lamented her fate, and of his own. Had he the chance of living his life with her, how could he have embarked on his quest to obtain the world?

His beloved was so close now, merely a stone's throw away. The nearly dead man lifted a trembling arm, but he was suddenly interrupted. A clear, otherworldly voice echoed through mind, dispelling his delirium. The flower garden along with his lover reverted back to the field of the dead.

"A world stands on the brink of demise. But I have no power there to save it."

Yuan Fang had neither the strength nor clarity to respond. He did however feel amazement as his body was suddenly surrounded by light.

"You will save it. You and your seven peers, each plucked from a different time, to be sent to a different time and place."

The voice continued. The light brightened and expanded, forcing Yuan Fang to close his eyes, as it was all he could see.

"I will place you all at that world's verge of history. Aid the Exalt's bloodline..."

That was the last the first genius heard before his fatigue and wounds forced him into unconsciousness...

A city in flames, filled with screams of terror and agony. Charred and bleeding bodies littered the streets, although strangely, a large fraction of those were ambling forth and attacking everything in sight. The ground then suddenly quaked violently as a hoarse laugh steeped in evil began to echo everywhere, its source seemingly from up above in the sky. A completely dark sky, where suddenly six gigantic red orbs appeared-

"Wake up!"

A voice shouted. Yuan Fang's eyes snapped open as he heard it, as he felt his body being lifted and shaken. He was to face to face with a rather handsome blue-haired man dressed in a caped outfit with a shoulder-guard on oddly enough, only his left shoulder.

"Sorry for being a bit rough, but you seemed to be having quite the nightmare there. As are your companions."

Said the caped man as he stepped back. Yuan Fang was both listening, scanning himself and new unfamiliar surroundings. His right arm absentmindedly went to feel his stomach. That dark dream did not distract him from the memory of that fatal spear wound moments before it. But he felt no hole, no blood. In fact, he now as a whole felt younger, much younger, in both body and mind. A cursory glance downward told him that his attire was of the days he attended the school of Water Mirror; the standard black/white uniform, minus the hat and mask.

A lush, verdant forest clearing with eleven people, excluding himself. Seven were unconscious, their faces in various magnitudes of discomfort. Yuan Fang's eyes widened as he recognized all of them to be his fellow classmates. These seven men were dressed in the same fashion as he, and the ones that he had last seen in person looked much younger than they did then. Young enough to remind of him of their boyhood years together at the school of Watermirror. Nostalgia and bitterness began to converge within him. He turned his gaze to the remaining three, all who were in the process of trying to awaken those asleep. A tall stern man fully clad in light blue armor, a small blond girl wearing a dress that matched her hair, and a white-haired woman wearing a strange dark coat.

"Companions?"

Repeated Yuan Fang as he surveyed his fellow classmates again. To be honest, the first genius hadn't thought of them as such for years. But considering the message from his death...

'It appears they will be once more.'

He felt a rush of apathy at the thought, and watched as those sleeping men were roused from slumber one by one, each showing a small measure of surprise as they saw each other and him. He himself stepped forward to awaken one of them in particular. A certain black-haired man with long bangs. He was the man who looked the least distressed; in fact, he looked like he was having a pleasant dream. Yuan Fang knelt down, his hand reaching slowly, shaped such a way that one could mistake that he was poised to choke someone. The claw-like hand moved closer and closer to the sleeping man's throat, but then settled on the shoulder instead. The first genius gave it a few shakes.

"Wake up, Guo Jia."

"War is cruel by nature, tyrannical or merciful rulers are all killers. If our hearts are set to reform, then let personal honor be damned. Instead of centuries of war, why not destroy it all? I...truly understand now why you kill in the name of filial piety..."

A beautiful man with long white hair continued speaking, but Guo Jia, with tears running down his face, began to no longer hear him. In what he instinctively knew to be his last moments, the second genius would finally come to see his way of the world. His body, weak by illness, toppled forth. Encroached by death, he rapidly began to lose all sensation, although he still felt someone catch him.

"Oh, Guo Jia..."

His second brother's mournful whisper was the last thing he somehow heard in his ear. Guo Jia almost regretted his contingency plans to topple Xun Yu's position, and could only apologize in his heart. Distinct words became indiscernible noise as the last vestiges of life began to fall away-

"A world stands on the brink of demise. But I have no power there to save it."

An unsecular voice suddenly resounded in his mind, much to his astonishment.

"You will save it. You and your seven peers, each plucked from a different time, to be sent to a different time."

Surprise aside, the fourth genius instantly knew the implications of what was said. His guilt over what he had planned and still planned against his classmates receded; he even laughed inside.

'If this is true, heheh...then I guess I didn't run out of saviors after all...'

"I will place you all at that world's verge of history. Aid the Exalt's bloodline..."

Guo Jia still felt giddy inside as he heard this. What followed next was a most intriguing dream. A dream of mostly darkness everywhere. A flaming city stood out as a beacon, its inhabitants only being moving and unmoving corpses. The dark ideologist was perfectly unfazed with such a scene, and proceeded to dissect it analytically. He noted the strange purple aura and glowing red eyes of the moving bodies. There was also some sort of mask stitched painfully onto their faces. When the earthquake hit and the six red orbs appeared in the sky, passing moments revealed that they were the eyes of some sort of gargantuan aerial creature- no, a dragon?

"SO ENDS THE HUMAN RACE..."

It laughed evilly overhead.

'A world on the brink of demise indeed.'

The fourth thought as he marveled at what he thought was a creature that he had only read about in legends. After carefully listening to some of the dragon's further gloating, he was interrupted by another voice that shattered this vision. A familiar voice, of the man he had once called first brother.

"Wake up, Guo Jia."

'Ah, what a shame.'

The fourth thought as everything faded to black. He suddenly felt the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. His breath was clear with no pain, no constriction. It appeared that the sole impediment of all his life, a fatal respiratory disease, was seemingly gone. Guo Jia grinned, opened his eyes, and saw an outstretched hand. Upon grabbing it he was hoisted up, presented to the unreadable face of the voice's owner, the man he had once outschemed to death.