What is up my guys? It's time for chapter 1 then. It'll have two branching paths for right now, but not for long. Anyways, leave a review if you enjoy my story and I hope to see you again soon™.

Chapter 1

Lucina's World

'I'm going to die here… aren't I?' These were the thoughts of Princess Lucina at the moment. Was she in actual danger? Most likely not, but there was one thing that had everyone except the Commanders of the Shepherds. The sun was blazing down onto the Earth, scorching everything in its wake. And it made everyone marching very, very bitter.

"Hey, c'mon everyone! The Sun isn't that bad!" Beamed the Army's leader and Ylisse's Current Exalt Chrom. "I remember when we had to trek across a desert in these conditions. We were able to manage, AND we got more troops for our army!" However, not everyone shared in Chrom's enthusiasm, as many of the younger members of the Shepherds were groaning.

"Chrom." One curt word from the Army's Tactician instantly sent a shiver down the Blue Haired Lord's spine. Behind him was the obviously pissed off figure of the Grandmaster Robin. His eyes had heavy bags, which was the result of many a night going over battle tactics. His yellow eyes, which were normally calm and joyous, were now cold and harsh. "I know you're excited about training the new recruits, but can you please not be so overbearing right now? It's too early for your shit, y'know?" Chrom didn't speak, but understood what Robin said. He did wake them up at 4:00 AM for their march, and by mid-morning the Sun was already blazing. He just wished this training session wouldn't be as disastrous as the last.

Lucina on the other hand, she wanted to train with her father so badly. She's been waiting for several opportunities to spar with her old man at least once. She had already beaten her Uncle Robin more times than she could remember, and Inigo just couldn't match up to her. She wanted a real challenge. But trudging in the heat wasn't a challenge, it was torture.

"Uncle," moaned Lucina. "How much longer until we get there?" She was getting impatient, and her unbreakable mind was now faltering. Robin only tapped his tome once and said a curt "Almost there" to his niece. They had about 30 meters left in their jaunt, as their destination was coming into view.

Inigo was the first of the children to notice what was up ahead. "Hey… isn't that the Dragon's Gate? Why're we going in there Father?" The other children also raised their voices of concerns as well, as they never travelled through these gates before.

"Why indeed, Inigo… Well Robin, explain it to them. You know how bad I am at explaining these things." Chrom then gestured towards his best friend, who only sighed in response.

"Fine… We're sending you guys off to different Outrealms. They will strengthen your mind and will, as well as make you stronger as a unit." Robin looked over at the children, and saw that even though they've been through hell and back, they still needed to learn how to fight properly. His plan was to send them into an Outrealm filled with demons for them to fight. At least, that's what he planned…

After being given proper instructions on what was going on, the 12 children units filed through the portal, making sure they were prepared for the worst. Although the demons wouldn't kill them, they were to be very formidable foes that were sure to strengthen the children units. Lucina was the last one to walk through the portal, and she was hit by one last pang of sadness. She would be separated from her parents again, even if it was just for one year. She ran back towards her father and gave him a teary-eyed hug. Chrom and Robin both patted Lucina on the back and told her she'll be alright. And so, Lucina took one step into the portal and with that, it closed.

Akira's World

Akira suddenly woke up from his nap. For some reason, he dreamt of a butterfly, 2 dragons, and a very regal looking blade. He also remembered something from his dream as well, something about being a Trickster, whatever that meant. But that didn't concern Akira for right now. Right now, he was taking the train to stay by a man named Sojiro Sakura. Akira, after hearing that his stop was here, walked out and was left alone with his thoughts. He recalled back to the events that brought him to his current situation.

A woman was being harassed by what looked to be a drunken man with a shaved head. It looked as if he was trying to take advantage of her. She gave a pleading look to Akira, crying out 'Please, help!' Akira, out of pure selflessness, acted out against the man. He grabbed him by his shoulder to turn him around. He had just planned to grab him and tell him off. He didn't expect the man, in a drunken fit, to stumble over and smash his head onto the pavement. The cops had arrived when they heard the commotion and saw Akira in front of the bloodied man, who yelled out 'Damn brat, I'll sue!' The cops had assumed that Akira had assaulted the man and took him away. Akira was jailed and had a criminal record on him now…

Thinking back to these events, Akira grew very solemn. He hated every bit of that situation. It was a miracle he was even given a probation period of a year, given the fact that the man was suing for very harsh claims, along with the woman Akira saved giving a false testimony. He was torn away from his thoughts when he heard two girls gossiping on the other side of the train.

"What? Are you for real? A mental shutdown?"

"It's the truth!"

"To a person though? That's gotta be a joke. You really love that occult stuff, don't you?" The girls simply laughed it away as Akira was giving a new train of thought. 'Mental…shutdowns?' He thought. 'What the hell are they talking about?'

Akira got off at his stop and walked his way into Shibuya's Station Square. 'It's so huge…' He thought to himself. 'It's definitely different from the quiet town life…' As he thought this, his phone beeped. Akira looked down and was confused. He had expected some message to appear to tell him directions, not some weird app with a red and black eye for an icon. It then expanded, as if it was tempting him to click on it. Akira clicked on it out of curiosity, once, then twice. Nothing. 'Must've froze.' Akira started, but as soon as he looked up, he realized the world stopped. Nothing moved, and everything was still. He looked around frantically, scared that something has happened to him.

Akira then noticed something up ahead. It looked like fierce, blue flames, burning harshly behind the Tokyo residents. It started to slowly take a shape, at first looking like a Man with a dapper suit, to turning into some sort of being with wings sprouting from its hips. It grew a malevolent grin, and it gave Akira an image that sent chills down his spine. An exact copy of him emerged from the flames, but other than being unharmed by them, he had a malicious grin across his face and bright yellow eyes.

Akira was immediately brought back into reality. He noticed everything was moving again, and that the strange app was still on his phone. Akira did the right choice, and swiped it into the trash. He then made haste towards the train headed towards Yogen-Jaya and departed.

After a short ride, he stepped off the train and looked around. The station was not as busy as he expected it to be, so he easily made it up the stairs and into the backstreets. The backstreets, although looking like slums, was actually a very nice and quiet place to live in, which is exactly why he was here. Akira just had to find a man named Sojiro Sakura, which he located to the end of the backstreets after asking a policeman. He rang the doorbell… only to have no one answer. Although, he could've sworn he saw a flash of orange briefly from the top window.

"Looks like no one's home" said a deliveryman. He seemed like that he'd been through this ordeal before. 'I could ask him about Sojiro then…' thought Akira.

"Hey, do you know where Sojiro Sakura is then?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, he's at his shop right now. Café Leblanc it's called, you can't miss it."

"Alright, thank you. See you around then." And he kindly waved goodbye as he walked towards the coffee shop.

Akira walked inside, and he was greeted by a scene of a middle-aged man who looked like the barista, an elderly couple, and the T.V. The man was reading a newspaper while the T.V had just finished a report on an accident.

"Oh, how frightening…" sighed the elderly man.

"What could be going on? Didn't something similar happen just the other day?" His wife responded.

The middle-aged man was mumbling something about his crossword puzzle when Akira cough a bit. It wasn't an attention cough, just one you get from a dry throat. But either way, this still caught the man's attention.

"…Hm? Oh, right." He said as he put away the crossword puzzle. "They did say that was today." He was interrupted by the elderly couple paying and leaving, who remarked about the strings of accidents recently. Sojiro mumbled something to himself again before making himself presentable to Akira again. "So, you're Akira, huh?" Akira, being as polite as he could, simply asked him to take of him. To which Sojiro gave a slight nod, although surprised at the boy's politeness.

"I'm Sojiro Sakura. You'll be in my custody over the next year. I was wondering what unruly kid would show up, but you're the one, huh? Have you been told? A customer of mine and your parents knew each other and… well not that that matters anyways. Come, follow me." Sojiro led Akira into the upstairs portion of Leblanc, which was a cluttered mess.

"This, is your room. I'll at least give you sheets for your bed. Hm, you look like you wanna say something." Sojiro leered at Akira, expecting a rude answer, but the answer he got surprised him.

"It's big…" was all Akira could say. He never had such a large space for a room before, even if it was a cluttered attic. Sojiro had to suppress a smile for the boy's politeness, as he had to remain strict when enforcing his rules.

"It's up to you to clean up the rest." He said after a second of shock. "I'll be locking up after I leave every night. You'll be alone at night, but don't do anything stupid. I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble." Akira just nodded, knowing his place perfectly well. "Now then, I got the gist of your current situation. You stuck your nose in where it didn't belong and now look where you are. It's best if you not talk about anything unnecessary. I am in the restaurant business you know. Behave yourself for the year, and your probation will be lifted. Piece of cake, right? Cause any problems and you'll be sent straight to juvie. Now then, get ready for tomorrow, as we're going straight to Shujin."

This term left Akira confused. "Shujin? What's that?" Sojiro only sighed and explained. "Shujin Academy, the school you'll be attending for this year. We'll introduce ourselves properly to the staff there. You're lucky they even accepted you, you know?" Sojiro then sighed again, mumbling something about this being a waste of a Sunday. He then gestured towards a carboard box. "Your luggage arrived earlier; I left it over there." And with that, he left the room.

Akira checked around his room, looking at all the filth around him. He had his work cut out for him today… It had been evening, and Akira was beat. He was exhausted from cleaning so much, yet the most he could've done right now was make it look presentable at best. There were still trash here and there, but not as bad as before. His bed and sofa were cleaned up to be used, and his clothes were put away neatly. He then heard Sojiro come up the steps.

"What the heck? I heard you making a ruckus, so I came to check on you. I didn't think you'd be cleaning… Though, I have to say, the room doesn't look too bad. It's only natural you'd want to keep your room clean. Now then, get some rest kid, tomorrow is a big day."

Akira was left alone again, so he changed off and went to sleep. Before he went to bed however, he went back to his thoughts of his current situation. It made him upset, but he realized he couldn't do much about it. He truly was, a Prisoner of Fate. He tried to fall asleep, but was awoken by his phone. The strange app made another appearance, despite being deleted earlier. After noticing this strange behavior, he deleted it again and fell asleep this time.

He immediately woke up, but to a different room. He heard chains swinging, water droplets hitting its source, and what sounded like impatient tapping from another room besides him. He noticed that the room was all blue, but he was wearing what seemed to be prison clothes. His wrists were chained together, and his leg was bounded by a ball-and-chain. Akira noted that he was in fact, inside a jail cell. He then heard a small chuckle come from outside his cell. A small girl wearing cop clothes-no, there were two of them. But they both look very identical. One had her hair in a braided ponytail, while the other had her hair in buns. The one with buns stopped in front of Akira's cell and the other one stopped in front of a cell next to his. They then turned to face a desk with a small old man sitting by it. Along with his suit, he had a very long nose and a very unsettling grin.

The man simply held his hand out and said "Tricksters, welcome to my Velvet Room." 'Tricksters?' thought Akira. 'But there's only me here, isn't there?' "You both must be confused, so I'll allow you to combine your cells." In this moment, his cell's wall to the right suddenly corroded away, revealing another cell with another inmate. She had long, navy blue hair and looked just as surprised as Akira was.

"Stand up straight, inmates! You're in the presence of our Master!" shouted the one with buns.

"The both of you are currently asleep in reality. You are only experiencing this as a dream." Spoke the braided one.

Igor simply chuckled at the two inmates' expression before explaining the physics of this 'World'. Both inmates were baffled by the explanation, as it made no sense. "My name is Igor, the Master of this place. Remember it well… I've summoned you both here on important matters. It involves your lives as well." And both inmates had different reactions. Akira wondered about what important matters were there, while Lucina simply stated Let me out.

Igor only surveyed the room and gave his remarks. "This is truly surprising though. This room reflects the state of your heart. To think it'd appear as such, for both of you. You truly are "prisoners" of fate. In the near future, there is no mistake that ruins await the both of you." Both Akira and Lucina looked solemnly at the man before them. They knew that, deep down, this was true in every aspect. Akira knew his life was over with the criminal record stuck on him, and Lucina knew that no matter what, her timeline would come to pass. "However," Igor's words got both teens back to attention. "There is a way to oppose such fate. You must be 'rehabilitated', rehabilitated towards freedom. That is your only means to avoid ruin… Do you have the resolve to challenge the distortion of the world?" Akira and Lucina looked at Igor with newfound resolve. Akira said he'd rather avoid ruin, and Lucina stated that she will change fate. The man simply grinned at this resolve.

"Oh, pardon me. We haven't even had introductions yet… To your right, Caroline; to your left, Justine. They serve as the Twin Wardens here." The Twins had introduced their personalities to the inmates as well. Caroline being the 'Bad Cop', and Justine being the 'Good Cop'. "I will explain their purposes here another time, but for now, you must return to your own world. Take your time to understand this place, you two. I'm sure we'll meet again soon enough." Just then, a prison bell rang out.

"Time's up." Stated Caroline. "Now hurry up and go back to sleep." Before Akira and Lucina could even say their own introductions to each other, they were whisked away, back to their dreams. Though, both remembered something very unique about each other. Lucina noted that her cellmate had dark, unkempt hair, and Akira noted that his cellmate had a strange insignia in her Right Eye. Would their paths cross again? Only time would tell…

Whew! Done with that Chapter! In my mind, it makes sense for both to be considered "Prisoners of Faith", cause of their own struggles in their respective games. We'll see what happened to the other 12 Children of Awakening soon, just not right now. But just a little safety precaution: They're A-OK, just wondering where the hell Lucina went. Until next time, see ya!