A/N: I swear I lost two followers after I uploaded the last chapter.
*shudder*
I'm bored, so I'll revive the Disclaimer.
I don't own Fire Emblem, but I own a portion of the characters in this fic.
There, that was fun. Anyways, here's a POV swap to Drake. Still no Tom, once again, I have no clue how to write Laurent. I mean, he's a bit different than Miriel, in that I can't just use a thesaurus to write his dialogue. Meh. He'll come soon. I promise that.
Drake
Marching stinks.
Period. Especially when you aren't supposed to head to your destination for a year and a half.
And it's so boring.
The only thing we are doing is marching around Valm and fighting Risen, and maybe the occasional Valmese army division that feels the need to kill everyone.
At first, it was kind of exciting. Getting to help those that couldn't have it, blah blah blah heroic stuff etc.
Now, it's just a painstaking loop and a countdown until one of us dies. Kassidy's gotten pretty close. Cyrus too.
And Link. Most certainly Link. Ugh.
As for me, I daresay I've almost died more than a few times.
"Can we stop yet? How about we just go to the Mila Tree and sit there for a year? Surely they'll come eventually." I groan. Kassidy is more than likely going to win this argument. She always does. I don't know how she does it, but every little point that exits her mouth is valid, and combined with her stubborness, she has never lost an argument.
"For the first question: No. For the second: No." she gives her signature cocky smile and drops her supplies onto the ground.
And guess who immediately rushes to her aid? Link.
The dude has some sort of insane crush on her. And I mean crazy. I'm honestly surprised that he left us to go adventuring since it meant he was leaving Kassidy.
Unfortunately for him, she doesn't even feel close to the same. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she has a crush on your's truly. Hrm hrm hrm...
Nah. She probably doesn't. And even if she did, she wouldn't make it very obvious.
"Link, just stop." Cyrus groans. I agree. "You are too bloody desperate."
He stops and turns toward Cyrus, ignoring the laugh from Kassidy. "Shut up, Cyrus. I'm just trying to be nice." His blush says otherwise.
I hold up a balled fist and start coughing into it. I throw in a small "Lies." in between coughs.
And so now Link is so red, and he is running away.
I'm almost positive that princes aren't supposed to do this, but what the heck?
We sit there laughing for a few more minutes. "Should I go get him?" I ask Kassidy.
"Knock yourself out. We need to apologize anyways." she smiles and pulls out a piece of chocolate. "Use it as a bribe, if all else fails."
... Chocolate? Oh come on, she knows how much I love chocolate.
"Fine." I mutter and walk away.
Once I'm out of eyesight, I take the piece and break off a large portion of it.
Yum... Such a wonderful texture. Creamy... Smooth... Rich... I slide the piece into my mouth and enjoy the flavor.
Flavor... FLAVOR! OH THAT IS DISGUSTING!
Did she put some of that old vulnerary in it?! We both know vulneraries can go bad! That little bitch!
... She knew I would eat it, didn't she? Ugh.
I pick up the remaining pieces and throw them off into the distance. They tumble off the cliffside, bouncing off the ground and rolling out of sight.
"Ow!" What?
I run up to the cliff and look down.
Sure enough, Link is sitting there and... is he crying? Ouch, I didn't think it hurt that bad.
"What do you want?" Yeah, his blonde hair is messed up and his face is red and tear-covered. So we did mess with him a bit too much.
"You should come back." I shrug. I jump down to his level and sit next to him.
"No. Why should I?" He glares at me and turns away, trying to hide a couple of sobs.
"Because the Justice Cabal says so." I smile.
Nope, doesn't work.
"Screw that. All it's ever earned was jokes and taunts aimed at me." Link doesn't even look at me and simply stares off into the cliffside. "Don't you ever miss the past sometimes?"
...What? "You mean the place filled with death and Risen? No." I roll my eyes and start to get up.
"I don't mean the destruction, I mean what we were before. I mean, before, I was the descendent of the Hero King and the Hero of Time. We were known. We meant something. Now? We'd be lucky to have a noble even acknowlede our prescence. Don't you miss that?"
... No. "It's not like that, Link. Even if we were well known, the world was dying. Most of the people that even knew us- let alone respected us- were killed long before we left. Do you want to live in a world where you are doomed? Where all of us are doing nothing but delaying the inevitable? We would be dead if we hadn't come here. Simple as that."
"But you were the prince! The crown prince of Plegia! How could you just walk off your heritage and role and act like none of it matters?!"
"..."
"And what about your servants?! The people that had hope in you! They believed that you could stop Grima and lead Plegia to a golden age! And what did they get, death! We abandoned them. Left them to rot in the old timeline! And for what, to save a time that isn't even ours?"
Tears...?
...
"Oh no... I'm sorry... It just... Slipped..."
... Mother... I'm sorry...
"Drake, just... I didn't mean it! I... I just can't forget Mother and Father. And even then, what if we don't succeed?"
...
"Fine. I'm going back." Link gets up and walks away, leaving me staring at the setting sun.
I continue to stare at the setting sun, not even caring of the pain in my eyes.
Maybe he's right. Maybe I should have stayed by my people instead of abandoning them. But no, I just had to abandon my country and everyone in it. None of the Plegian kings did anything that bad. Caused a war that nearly killed everyone, Force a religion upon everyone, even tried to kill everyone that wasn't high-class. Yes. But none of them left their country for dead, after gathering it's hope.
...
No... This is our second chance. The chance that I so desperately craved.
I'll get to see Mother... Father... and I'll get to prevent Grima from ever coming back.
I dig into my pocket and pull out a tightly wrapped lollipop from my pocket.
"Save it for when you're feeling low." he told me.
I suppose now's as good as ever.
I unwrap the lollipop and look at it for a minute, before taking it and sticking it into my mouth.
... Chocolate. How ironic.
Ravel
"Goodbye, Ylisstol." Niro stares off into the gates of the city.
And so we're leaving again. Shame we couldn't actually join the Shepherds, but I know for a fact that it wouldn't be possible to shift their opinions.
"And back to mercenary-dom." I mutter.
The soldiers start to close the gates to the city, before a gallopping sound is heard.
"Stop!" What? I white horse bursts through the gap in the gates, stopping as it approached Rysor.
"Sir Niro, I cannot let you depart. I have heard about your part in my rescue and I would wish to join you."
"No, you're a noble, you can't-"
"I am indebted to you. It is not of my family's honor to leave debts unpaid." she adjusts her hairpiece and bows, earning a chuckle from Gorge and Jafray.
"It's not a debt, it was common sense, you're free."
"You will let me join you, or perhaps I shall inform the guards of your 'intimacy'." Excuse me?
"Wait- Are you blackmailing me?"
"None of the higher class address it as that. We refer to it as 'tactical extortion'." Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-! Niro's made a mistake. We have to have one of those people around.
"Fine. Just don't get killed in your first battle."
"You shall not worry. I have used a Master Seal before." Oh. She's Valrykie. I should have noticed.
... Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?
... Why do I hear yelling?
"WAIT FOR MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-!"
Oh... Did I?
Sure enough, I see Wilson emerge at the top of the city walls and jump off, landing in a nearby tree.
Darn, I keep forgetting about him. He's not like Kellam, with just being hard to see, he is legitimately forgettable.
It matters not, I guess. We're all here, so...
... We never got paid for helping, did we? Sigh. This stinks.
Three.. Two... One...
"So... Where's the money?" Gorge sports his annoyingly prideful face and grins.
I frown.
He frowns.
Everybody frowns.
Even Rysor frowns.
"The money doesn't matter. That was still fun." Thanks for saving me, Jaf. "Besides, how many jobs do you think we have?"
"A lot, I bet." Calina smiles.
So I guess we should get going? I dunno.
"Onward!" I randomly scream, draw my sword, and run off into the distance.
A/N: Incoming Timeskip. You thought I would include two chapters of just marching? As if.
Five months later
"IT'S NO USSSSSEEEEE!" I maniacally scream into the air and impale and impale a nearby bandit. I pull out Draiotoll and casually stare toward our resident Wyvern Rider. "Six." I say.
"I have eight." he smiles. Crap. Lost again.
"Ten!" A horse gallops by, more than likely Geoff.
I hear more footsteps and turn only to see Wilson walking toward us with a frown. "I only have two." he mutters.
"Fourteen." Ayla and Shadow prance up to us, a grin planted on both of their faces.
"I guess Wilson's buying us drinks." Geoff snickers.
No. I'm not drinking alcohol ever again. NEVER!
"Thank you, kind sirs." Lord Wessel hands us each bags of gold. "Honest work pays honest gold."
That was easy. How much is in here... One... Two... Three thousand gold. Not too shabby for me. I'm honestly glad we have so much. We've about all gotten Master Seals by now, including myself. I'm a trickster now. Hehe.
As for everyone else, Niro is a Wyvern Lord, both of our thieves are assassains, and Wilson is a berserker.
The lord prances away, followed by three or four servants.
"The dude gave me a brush..." Wilson stares into his bag, showing no emotion.
"Sorry... I guess." I mutter.
"Sorry? What for?! This brush is made of gold!"
What? Let me see that-!
"Wow. Just... Wow. Who would have thought?" All of us are gathered around the brush, staring at it like farmers seeing a television for the first time. Stereotypical simile, more than likely. It's not like I could say poor people. Or anything like that.
"So... you're still paying for dinner." Geoff grins.
Everyone in front of us piles into the tavern, with myself being the only one not drinking. Seriously, even Ayla of all people is eager to get drunk. What has the world come down to?
I sit at the table with the others. "You sure you don't want anything?" Geoff asks me.
"No."
"You sureeeee...?"
"Yes."
"Why don't you want anything?"
"Last time I drank, I ended up legally adopting two Risen. Do you really want to find out what will happen this time?"
... I shouldn't have told them about the Risen thing, shouldn't I?
Welp, they're laughing rather loudly.
"Laugh all you want, I'll be able to drink you guys under the table."
... Screw this. "I'm just gonna... go talk to the innkeeper... 'Kay?" I tilt my head and walk away regardless of how anyone answered.
Oh... Oh my.
"What happened?! I wasn't gone for five minutes!" I stare at the sight before me. All of the mercenaries are scattered across the floor, none of them conscious. Except Ayla, who is politely sitting in the center of the room.
"I told them I could." Ayla is grinning wildly, with me sensing a hint of slurs in her voice.
...
"Are you drunk?" I ask her.
"No... Not much...?" HEY! HEY! I SENSE A QUESTION MARK.
"Are you?"
"Maybe a little...?"
... Forget it.
"Fine. If you can stand, either go back to the inn or help me drag the others to it." Ayla nods and stands up, only to... fall... over...
I start sarcastically clapping, Tom-style.
This will be (not) fun.
Yawn... Jerry. I stare into the void in front of me.
Ravel. Just a voice this time? No body? Nevermind that... Just... What how have you been doing the past couple of weeks? I haven't seen you.
I've been doing my real job. No notable activity has been occurring over the past few months. If my prediction is correct, that's going to change soon. Someone gonna die?
Maybe. I will say something big is coming up soon. Keep your eye out. How do you know about this?
Original timeline. That's how I know of a large portion of the upcoming events. Let's just say your presence definitely changes some things. Just as predicted in the Celestial Games.
One more thing... Where's Geoff? He's unconscious, shouldn't he be here?
No. He's too far comatose from the alcohol to communicate with. Ayla beat him bad. Speaking of which, is she really a future child? We never had gotten to speak of this before, mainly because we weren't alone.
... How did you figure it out? Maybe I wouldn't have if Susan didn't tell me about Lon'qu right then. Even then, what are the other future children like? Is Geoff's child named Link?
Yes. Thought so. Meh. Do I have a son or daughter?
I'm not telling you. I've already said too much. Oh fine. Be that way. Just know that I am entitled to jump off a mountain at any time.
We both know you wouldn't consider doing that. Besides, I still have Geoff, Susan, and Tom to help- Er- Did I-? Did you say... Tom...? TOM IS HERE?! How much is he being tortured by the lack of technology?
He's with Laurent. And he is also telling your world's understanding of science to him. Oh dear... Is he buying it?
I daresay he is. So now we have two mages that may very well be smarter than Miriel. What could possibly go wrong here?
Still... It seems everyone inserted is a close friend of mine. Why is this?
The Celestial Games allow someone to be accompanied by up to five of their friends. Most people don't insert friends for difficulty purposes, but I honestly find people's reactions fun. Hold on... Five? I guess I'm the main here... So the five others are Geoff, Susan, Tom, and two others.
I didn't insert a fifth... yet. Okay... So one more... There are three candidates as to who it could be.
Sigh. Someone's waking you up. This is feeling far too rushed. Le-yawn. I can feel myself waking up.
Morning.
Yawn... "How is everyone- OH GODS GEOFF PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!"
A/N: To that ending... What?
Anyways, happened to finish writing this right before I posted the last chapter. I may be finished writing the next chapter by tonight, so I may either upload that, or wait until tomorrow.
That's right, we're going to get a chapter three days in a row, I think.
So yeah, they actually were future children. I couldn't hold in the secret any longer. Even then, the only ones who we really know are Ayla and Link. Who are the others' parents?
Speculate away my scarce amounts of reviewers!