Chapter Twenty: A Dream of Sadness and Anger

(Omofrisit's POV)

The battle with Validar ended in a 'tie'. I was just about to kill Validar when the king announced that he was bored of the battle. This meant that Validar and I had to share his job. Neither of us liked this arrangement, but we were going to have to get used to it.

As soon as the details of the arrangements were worked out, I noticed that Hershel wasn't anywhere nearby. When I asked the king about this, he just told me that Hershel had gotten tired and was resting in his room.

Frey and I were led to our room and left with instructions to rest up before dinner. I was more than happy to do so, but Frey was worried about Hershel. I told him that Hershel was fine, but it did nothing to assuage his feelings of worry. I rolled my eyes and laid down on my bed, after a few seconds, Frey did the same, but I could tell he wasn't trying to sleep.

I rolled my eyes once again and began trying to sleep.

Once I fell asleep, I was thrown into a dream depicting what seemed to be Ylisse going up in flames. There were palace guards running to and fro, trying to rescue citizens from their burning homes. There were also monsters that seemed to be some kind of zombie; they certainly weren't anything I had commanded before.

And right in the middle of all this carnage and chaos, I could see the woman who called herself Marth, trying in vain to defeat a dragon that was at least a hundred times her size….Wait, a dragon?! Why a dragon? Where was I? And where were Hershel and Frey for that matter? Surely we were here somewhere.

I looked to around, trying to spot the three of us. Eventually, I saw Hershel commanding the legions of zombie-like creatures, a smile of mad glee dominating his face.

I ran to him, hoping to get some kind explanation as to what was going on here. I reached him and he immediately turned his attention to me.

"Ahh, Omofrisit. How good of you to join us! Are you finally ready to serve Master Grima and help us destroy this world?" He asked.

I was speechless for a moment, what must have happened to Hershel to make him change so drastically. And besides that, why was he serving this simple dragon known as Grima? Hershel was supposed to be serving me!

"Hershel, I don't know what has taken place here, but I need to know: Why do you bow to this dragon?"

"You don't remember? You wanted to conquer the world, and Master Grima wanted to destroy it. The two of you battled to see whose plan would be used, and you lost. But instead of submitting to Master Grima, you ran away like a coward."

At this point, Hershel had a face full of anger.

"Frey and I were given the option to join Grima or die. Frey immediately refused and was immediately killed; I couldn't even do anything about it. I looked at my options and saw that the most logical option was to join Grima, and I did so."

There were now tears in his eyes.

"Why..? Why didn't you take us with you? Why didn't you come back for us?! I thought that we were the best of friends….BUT YOU ABANDONED US!" Hershel broke down and began sobbing uncontrollably. "You have no idea what I was put through…what they did to me….and what they did with Frey's body." Hershel kneeled down and continued his sobbing.

I feared what he might tell me, but I said it anyway.

"Then why don't you tell me what happened?" I said, crouching down so we were face to face.

"They-they took Frey's body…they brought it back to life. At first, I was overjoyed that Frey was alive again. But he wasn't Frey anymore; he was nothing more than a mindless monster made to follow orders."

"…And…what did they do to you?" I asked hesitantly.

"Do you know what happens to your mind when you're left in a dark room, and you never see another human being? And when you're never fed, or given water? I was kept alive through magic alone. I never saw sunlight. I was never allowed to sleep. But the worst torture of all was the one that was self inflicted, the one where I actually believed you would come back for me. I held that hope in my heart for years. But you never came…and I was driven to madness simply because of that tiny ray of hope."

…What reason must I have had for never going back?

"But, why don't you run away from all of this?" I asked.

"For more than one reason. One: I don't want to run away like you did, I never want to be a coward like you. Two: Grima would never let me just walk away. And three: Believe it or not, killing things has become enjoyable; I honestly don't care what it is that I'm killing. There's just this rush of excitement and pleasure whenever I kill something…even now, looking at all the flames around us, I feel happy that I could make something like this happen." There was a sort of glazed look in his eyes as he grinned and surveyed the surrounding area.

"….Hershel….I'm sorry…That I never came back for you…" I could feel tears starting to run down my own face.

"SORRY!? Sorry doesn't cover it!" Hershel said, suddenly angry. "If you could turn back time and fix me and Frey, then I might forgive you! But for now, I can't even think about forgiveness!"

I'm not even sure why, but at this point I was willing to do anything to gain forgiveness.

"But…what if I killed Grima?" I asked.

"Kill…Grima?" A large smile made its way onto Hershel's face. "Ha..hah..haha..hahahaHAHAHAHA…GYAHAHAHAH! I don't think you understand the scope of Master Grima's power. In short, he's a god! You are nothing more than a man! AHAHA!"

"You're wrong. I am not merely a man. And what does it matter if he is a god? I have known many gods in my lifetime, and they are no better than monsters, even the 'righteous' gods are no better than scum." By this point I was shaking in anger.

Suddenly, there was a presence behind me and Hershel was bowing. I turned to find myself face to face with…Robin?

"Robin, what are you doing here?" I asked, slightly bewildered.

"I am no longer the man you call Robin. I am Grima. And I think it's about time you left this place."

Grima raised his hand and from it came a blast of white light.

I woke with a start and looked around. I was in my room at the Plegian palace. Frey was in his bed, it seemed he had finally fallen asleep.

What was that dream? It seemed so real, but it couldn't have been. But the question 'What if?' Wouldn't leave my mind. If that dream was an event yet to come, then I would need to find a way to speak with an old friend before that happened.

I was now just as worried about Hershel as Frey was, if not more so.

And Robin, why would he become Grima? Is he just using Chrom until the time is right for him to show his true colors?

I couldn't make much sense of the dream, but I knew I needed to find Hershel and Chrom as soon as possible.

A/N: So, yet another chapter that did not come out the way I originally planned. If I keep this up, I'm gonna have to revise the entire story line. But whatever.

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