I do not own Fire Emblem Awakening or any of the characters.
Failed
Corbin narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the small figurines representing their forces. Finally, he nodded to himself.
"I've got a plan," Corbin said at last.
"About time," Flavia groaned.
"Let's hear it," Basilio nodded.
Corbin nodded and began. "Okay. First, all of the heavy knights from both Regna Ferox and Ylisse are going to be assembled in the middle. Their job isn't to break through, it's to hold the Plegians back and get their attention. That's all. To either side of them, I need Regna Ferox and Ylisse's most skilled fighters, Mercenaries and Heroes first, if possible, but we'll take what we can get. People who fight up close and can hold their own based on skill."
"Okay, Basilio nodded. "I'll handle that. What about the archers and mages?"
"And the Barbarians and Cavalry?" Flavia asked.
"I was getting to that," Corbin said. "Archers will line up behind the mercenaries, magic users behind the heavy knights. While they're drawing the Plegians' attention, the Cavalry, all of them, will be waiting in the rear with all of Regna Ferox's most savage fighters, one for every cavalryman. Then, on my signal, the cavalry will come forward, and the heavy knights will split open, letting the cavalry wash through and clear the line of Plegians from the inside."
"A creative strategy, if the troops can hold them off," Flavia said. "Left over troops?"
"Bait," Corbin said. "The troops not in formation will attack, and then retreat. Their job is to draw them into our formation here." He pointed to a wide ravine. "We'll fill it so they can't surround us."
"Good thinking," Flavia nodded. "Alright. We'll assemble the troops and get everything ready."
"What about us?" Chrom asked.
"While Corbin is directing the fight here, we sneak into the courtyard," Robin said. "We'll take this ravine, out of sight of the Plegian main force. They'll have forces there, but the Shepherds can handle it."
Chrom nodded. "Alright. Let's go and get ready."
The Shepherds all nodded and left, save for Corbin and Robin, who gave each other a hug.
"Don't die without me, Corbin," Robin said as they pulled back.
"Same to you," Corbin nodded. "I'll see you when all of this is over."
Robin nodded and followed Chrom and the others. Corbin left the tent as well, heading to a small hill where he could survey the progress. Flavia and Basilio disseminated the plan to the commanders among the troops, and once the plan was set, all of the soldiers rushed to prepare. They were short on time, but they had long enough. Within the next fifteen minutes, the trap was set and the bait moved to engage the Plegians. As Corbin moved to the small knoll behind the formation where he'd be overseeing the battle, he raised a hand, brushing it over the hairs standing on end along the back of his neck. He narrowed his eyes, staring in the direction of the courtyard where Chrom and the others would be fighting to save Emmeryn. Something didn't feel right. He wanted to be there, helping with the more difficult battle. The more important one. But he had been given a job, so he would just have to trust the others.
"They're coming!" a soldier warned.
Sure enough, Regna Ferox and Ylisse's forces sprinted into the far end of the ravine, then quickly passed through the ends of the formation, joining the ends. A moment later, the Plegian army crashed into the formation and halted. The fighting was fierce immediately. Roars and shouts of effort immediately began to ring out as the Plegians fought to break through the line of defenses, and the defenses fended them off. Even as Plegian cavalry descended, the archers and magic users stopped their charge, allowing the horses to all be killed off in moments, though Corbin had to look away for it.
"How much longer?" Basilio asked.
"Pull the line back," Corbin instructed. "Slowly."
Basilio nodded, passing the order. "You know, I was hoping to be able to enjoy this battle in person. Even Flavia got to go to the fight with the others in their battle."
"Relax," Corbin said, eyes once again on the Shepherds' battle. "As soon as the cavalry arrives, you join them."
Basilio nodded, just as Corbin grunted in pain, falling to his knees. Pain seared through his head again and again, darkness consuming his vision.
"...not kill...can't save her."
"Corbin!" Basilio all but shouted into Corbin's ear. "Say something, boy!"
"Something's wrong," Corbin said through gritted teeth, shoving himself to his feet. "I need to get to the others!"
"Okay," Basilio nodded. "I'll take command of this battle, you get to the others."
With that, Basilio turned, signaling the cavalry forward. Corbin waited until the right moment, then sent a bolt of lightning into the sky, signaling the heavy knights to separate. Then, as the cavalry began to pass, Basilio flagged one down, instantly barking orders for the Feroxi warrior and the cavalier to let Corbin have the horse. They complied, and Corbin sped off after the rest of the cavalry.
The battle's progress sped up rapidly. As the hole in the heavy knights' wall opened, Plegians rushed through, thinking they'd broken through, and shoved the heavy knights further apart. Then, they froze as they spotted the cavalry approaching. They surged forward, desperate to get out of the way, but the heavy knights hadn't made a simple hole. They'd made a hallway. Any that tried to fight through died on one of their spears. And the rest were trampled by the cavalry a few moments later. It wasn't a fair fight by any means. Hundreds of horses plowed through and stampeded the Plegians without losing a single of their own. Then, as soon as they had cleared the Regna Ferox and Ylisse troops, they fanned out, plowing through the Plegians and rapidly slaughtering them. The Feroxi Barbarians riding with the cavalry dropped off at the line, slaughtering the Plegian there and allowing the Ylissean-Feroxi force to finally advance, rapidly forcing the Plegians back. But Corbin had other concerns.
He cleared his path with his magic and his horse's determination to due its rider's bidding, seeming to understand its task. And within seconds, he was free. He sped across the desert, spurring his horse faster as more and more of the hairs over his body stood on end, his skin beginning to crawl. Something was coming. Something terrible. He had to get there. He had to intervene. He had to stop it.
Ahead of him, Gangrel, his assistant, Aversa, and Chrom and the others were all gathered on the ground, but above them, hundreds of feet in the air, Emmeryn stood alone atop a long, thin bone, like a fossilized stinger. There was no one keeping her there, but for whatever reason, she wasn't walking back down the fossil, merely standing at the end of it. However, just as Corbin was nearing the courtyard, several Pegasus Knights arrived, most of the circling the end of the fossil while Phila moved to rescue Emmeryn from it.
"That Ylissean tactician does not play fair!" Gangrel's voice complained, near hysteric with his loss.
However, when Corbin's eyes dropped to Gangrel and Aversa, Gangrel was the only one who seemed to be panicking. In fact, Aversa was smirking with such calm arrogance that it sent a chill up Corbin's spine. Or, maybe that was the sudden sense of absolute dread that filled the air as she withdrew a small wooden box from within her robe and opened it, casting it into the air. Suddenly, the air over the courtyard, about halfway between the ground and Emmeryn, blurred, then was filled with the same shining white spell circle and crystals that Corbin had seen when the Risen had first appeared just after he met Chrom. The crystals opened into the great, blue eye, identical to the last, but this time, instead of two Risen wielding axes crashing to the ground, more than a dozen armed with bows landed, instantly rising and drawing their bows back, aiming up at the Pegasus Knights. Corbin swore, spurring his horse faster. Behind him, the battle yet raged. Ahead of him, it had stalled. He could hear Gangrel speaking, laughing, demanding, but his brain had shut off about it. He had to intervene. Had to stop the Risen. Had to protect Emmeryn. Had to protect his friends. And still, he could feel it. Something was coming. Something more. Something worse. Dread and terror gripped at his soul, crushing it. He had to reach them.
And then, the Risen were firing. Corbin swore, jamming his hand into his cloak, ripping a green spell tome from it. He opened it, the book falling open to a page he'd marked. A spell that he'd wanted to add to his own tome. Instinct guided his actions. Phila and the other Pegasus Knights were falling. He had to save them. He chanted quickly, arm snapped outward to direct the spell, even as his own tome slammed into his chest over his heart. Above him, dark clouds swelled, filling the sky and sending lightning arcing through them. All eyes turned to the sky, but just as they did, dozens of bolts of lightning flashed to the ground, slamming into the Risen and blasting them all, slaughtering them. Then, as Corbin felt the strain of his lightning spell sap nearly half of his strength in a single spell, he finished his chant, the wind tome's magic supply emptying itself as a massive sphere of wind flashed across the distance between him and the others. It breezed past Ricken, blowing his hat off, then erupted into a massive cyclone below the falling Pegasus Knights. The wind tore at their bodies, but it negated their momentum. And a moment later, when the wind had died down, they landed safely on the ground, wounded and bleeding, but alive. Several of the others rushed to aid them, but Corbin's dread only continued to climb, clamping down tighter and tighter. It was nearly here. He spurred his horse faster, apologizing to it in silence as he rode it to death.
"Plegians!" Emmeryn called out, loud enough to be heard even above the chaos of battle behind Corbin, or perhaps the battle had ended. "I ask that you hear the truth of my words! War will win you nothing but sadness and pain, both inside your borders and out. Free yourselves from this hatred! From this cycle of pain and vengeance! Do what you must, as I will do. See now that one selfless act has the power to change the world!"
Chrom sprinted forward. The others all ran. Corbin spurred his horse for one last, desperate burst of speed. Emmeryn pitched forward, fell.
"Ricken!" Corbin shrieked.
Ricken stopped dead, tome in-hand, and chanted a spell so fast that Corbin might have thought he'd skipped some of it. A massive blast of wind hit the ground directly below Emmeryn, inches below her. A cyclone of wind stopped her fall, spared her from her own attempt to take her life, but she had been closer than the Pegasus Knights when the spell erupted. The blades of wind that tore at her tore more deeply. As she crashed to the ground, blood began to pool below her. Screams rent the air, and Lissa and Maribelle sprinted forward as Corbin all but leapt off of his horse, which promptly crashed to the ground, dead before it hit. Lissa and Maribelle's staves shone, the green light washing over Emmeryn.
"No, no, no!" Gangrel seethed. "It's not fair! She's supposed to die!"
"Well played," Aversa commended.
"Please...no!" Marth gasped, panting and gasping and stepping up beside Corbin.
"Lissa?" Chrom called, equal parts desperate and hopeful.
Finally, the light faded from their staves and they sat back, smiling.
"She's going to make it!" Lissa cried, tears rolling thick down her face. "She's going to be fine!"
"Oh, thank gods!" Marth relaxed.
Corbin sighed in relief.
"Ensure that things move along according to plan. But remember, do not kill him. He is not ready yet. But if you see her, kill her. Your only targets are Emmeryn and Lucina!"
Agony lanced through Corbin's head. Instinct guided his hand. Drew his tome to his fingertips. As his mind and awareness was still reeling, still struggling to work through the pain, and as another eye portal began to open above them all, instinct fired a pair of Thunder blasts from his tome. Above them, a shadow began to grow inside of the eye, its own eyes shining a fiery, furious red. Then, its arm began to extend from the eye, a purple tome with a spell circle on its from cover began to emerge from the eye. At the same instant that Corbin's spells slammed into both Lissa and Maribelle, a massive bolt of violet lightning erupted from the purple tome above, striking Emmeryn so fast than the explosion had already gone off before any realized the attack had even happened. Lissa and Maribelle bounced away from the blast, battered and burned, but alive, thanks to Corbin. Then, the shadow fell, passing into the smoke and crashing down with a sickening, wet, crunch.
As the dust and smoke began to clear, the shadow stood from within Emmeryn's crushed chest cavity. Blood coated their lower legs and feet, but beyond the fact that he'd killed Emmeryn, no one payed the blood any mind. There were worse things to focus on. The glowing red eyes, which were locked on Corbin. The ghastly smile on one side of the face which instilled more horror in them all than the half a Risen mask that obscured the other side. The flesh that had darkened to a brownish, steel-grey color in death. Black robe with sick eyes connected by a pair of curved lines that tangled at the bottom emblazoned in dark violet on the chest and back of the cloak, the crest separated by the open zipper. The purple tome hovering at the end of his left arm. The long, golden-hilted sword with a beautiful blade, the hilt and blade separated by a golden coin-shaped medallion decorated by a pair of rubies.
"That's...That's impossible!" Chrom breathed.
"It's..." Frederick trailed off.
"Me," Corbin finished, the terror and dread inside of him reaching such a drastic, deafening crescendo inside of him that they muted themselves.
He stared at the exposed half of the Risen Corbin's face, that wide, wicked smile that was stretched so wide that it looked inhuman. Those glowing, crimson eyes, from which bloodlust and hate spilled so freely. It was him. He was the thing he had been sensing. He was the thing he had been so afraid of. This thing before him, this impossible Risen, who couldn't possibly exist, who defied nearly all logic, was the thing that had so terrified him.
"Chrom, take the others and run," Corbin said, his voice completely flat, as he drew his sword, the Risen version of him sending its tome to hover behind his back, as Corbin's was.
"What?" Chrom asked. "But why would we-"
More Risen began to fall from the portal, crashing down all around the courtyard, first ten, then twenty, then thirty. Before anyone could even comment, the battle was raging again. The Shepherds fought the Risen hard, but for each one killed, another fell. And somehow, Corbin knew. The other him, the Risen him, was commanding them. He was the cause. If he could be defeated, the Risen would stop appearing. And for that purpose, he charged. He leapt into the air as a Risen struck at him from the side. He stepped off of its head, clearing the distance between himself and his opposite, then struck hard from above. But even as he struck, he knew. The strike was awful. Powerful, but telegraphed from the start and easy to evade. Sure enough, the Risen Corbin stepped aside, allowing Corbin to land, then stabbed at him. Corbin spun, deflecting the stab, then lunged, slashing at the Risen. The Risen's grin grew as he deflected the slash out to his left, to the right, over his head, to his right. He allowed a slash to skid along his blade as he stepped forward, and his pommel slammed into Corbin's gut, lifting him off the ground. Corbin shouted in pain as much as he could with the wind knocked out of him, but twisted, branching his blade with his left arm just before the Risen Corbin's foot crashed into the flat of the blade. The force of the blow slammed the blade into Corbin's chest and hurled him away anyway, but Corbin survived the kick. He rolled to his feet and a Risen roared, lunging at him.
The Risen Corbin snarled loudly and the Risen charging Corbin stumbled to a stop, then turned, charging another. Corbin glared at his opponent. He was right. The Risen Corbin was in charge of the others. He had to die. Corbin charged, focusing, preparing. When he reached the Risen Corbin, the Risen Corbin stabbed at him. Corbin spun, ducking, and slashed at his legs. The Risen Corbin held his own sword in the way, deflecting it upward. Corbin swung his sword back down and around, slashing from the other side. The Risen Corbin deflected the slash and stuck back. Corbin dodged away, but the sword still carved a small slit in his left shoulder. He stepped forward, stabbing at the Risen Corbin, and the Risen Corbin spun around him, tripping him, then slashing his calf on the way down. Corbin shoved himself to his feet and spun, immediately deflecting a stab to the side, only for the blade to graze his left side. He shouted in pain, staggering backward, and the Risen Corbin let out a laugh, a horrible, wicked, horrifying laugh, and slashed one final time, splitting Corbin's chest open and hurling him backward, but it, like the rest of the wounds, was only minor. Even without being healed, Corbin would live, provided he bandaged the wounds to stem the bleeding. The Risen Corbin smirked, then raised his gaze past Corbin, his wicked grin growing further. Then, he stepped back, away from Corbin, and prepared himself. Corbin began to turn, but had only turned part way when Marth shot past him. Her dark blue hair, matching Chrom's for color, blew behind her from her speed, and her face, her beautiful face, was marred and corrupted by so much rage, hate, and bloodlust that it scared Corbin. Marth scared Corbin. But a moment later, something else scared him worse. Reality.
The Risen Corbin had been holding back against him. He hadn't been allowed to kill Corbin. But he was allowed to kill Marth. No, not Marth. Lucina. His second target. He was allowed to kill Lucina. So he wasn't holding back. As the two of them clashed, nothing was held back. Lucina lunged, stabbing at the Risen Corbin, only for him to deflect it out to the side. He spun, slashing at her, and she spun, deflecting it, and slashed back at him, only for him to step back, narrowly escaping the strike's range, then lunged, stabbing at her. She spun, barely evading the strike, and spun, slashing for his back, only for him to turn, deflecting the blade. He struck back at her, and she defended it. The battle the two waged was a wild, savage dance. Sparks flew near-constantly as they traded strikes, but neither managed to get past the other's blade. Lucina leapt into the air, flipping and slashing at the Risen Corbin, but he blocked it. Lucina's blade tilted, slipping off of the Risen Corbin's continuing its strike below it, but the Risen Corbin sidestepped the blade, slashing downward at her, but she stepped aside, avoiding it and stabbing at him, only for him to deflect the blade.
They were even. Equal. Except for one thing. Lucina was using both hands, everything she had, to fight, but the Risen Corbin wasn't. He was fighting with only one hand. Corbin had always been a one-handed fighter, because his sword had never been his sole weapon. Corbin's blood ran cold as, with a single, powerful slash, the Risen Corbin hurled Lucina backward. In an instant, the Risen Corbin's purple tome raced along his arm to his hand and he swung it around. Corbin's own left hand snapped up, and as a bolt of violet lightning flashed from the Risen Corbin's tome, a golden bolt flashed from Corbin's. The bolts met in the middle, exploding and canceling, and Corbin rose as both Lucina and the Risen Corbin turned to him.
"No," Corbin snarled, hands curling into fists as his tome drifted up in front of his chest. "I won't let you. This ends here. I may not be able to fight you with a sword, but your magic is no stronger than mine with a single hand. And if that's the case, I can overpower you." He slammed his palms into the two spell circles on the covers. "You die today!"
As he pulled his hands away from the book, both came away with lightning flying off of them, a ball of lightning resting in each palm as the book opened, its pages flying from one cover to the other too fast to tell which way they were going and giving the appearance of an endless book. His eyes glowed with a golden light. The Risen Corbin narrowed his eyes, his grin finally fading, replaced by a snarling frown as he looked between Corbin and Lucina.
"You can't afford to sheath your sword while fighting her, but with it out, you can't use this technique to stop me from overpowering you with magic," Corbin said, his voice crackling with electricity. "So, now you DIE!"
His right hand snapped out, a bolt of lightning flashing from it. The Risen Corbin dove into a roll, evading the bolt, which tore across the ground and through the Risen on one side of the courtyard, slaughtering them. As the Risen Corbin rolled to his feet, Lucina shot forward, slashing at him. He deflected it, but she jumped, flipping and slashing three times like a top. He deflected the strikes, and Lucina landed on her feet, instantly dropping into a crouch, and a bolt of lightning flashed over her, blasting the Risen Corbin in the chest and hurling him backward. He flipped, landing on his feet and skidding to a stop. He fired a lightning bolt at Corbin, but Corbin's own met it, the bolts exploding again. And before he could try again, Lucina was on him again. Strike after strike slammed into his sword, but this time, the Risen Corbin was struggling to keep up. He hadn't been prepared, and as such, Lucina had the upper hand. She knocked his sword out to the side, and when the Risen Corbin moved to avoid it, it slashed a gash in his side. Corbin's arm snapped up as Lucina dodged away from a slash, and a bolt of lightning flashed down from the sky, exploding down on the Risen Corbin, blasting him into the ground a second before another lightning bolt exploded into him, hurling him. He crashed into a chunk of rubble and fell to the ground. He stood again, but just as he did, Lucina leapt into the air, driving the point of her sword at him in a powerful stab. The Risen Corbin dove to the side, avoiding it, and the sword embedded itself in the stone. The Risen Corbin fired a lightning bolt at his living counterpart as he moved to kill Lucina, but as Coebin blocked the bolt with one of his own from his left hand, one from his right exploded into the Risen Corbin, hurling him backward through the ring of Risen battling Chrom and the others. He rose from the sand, trembling with rage, but as he saw both Corbin and Lucina moving to pursue him, he roared, long and loud, and a triangular, shining, orange spell seal appeared on the ground around him before he shot skyward, vanishing. In his place, a fresh wave of Risen fell from the portal before it finally closed, rain that had been blocked by the portal beginning to crash down upon them all in a torrential downpour instantly.
"Damn!" Lucina swore, looking around at the others, all of whom were struggling to survive. "There's so many!" She spun as Corbin crashed to the ground, his tome landing beside him. "Corbin!"
She dropped, feeling for a pulse, but after a second, he groaned, stirring. He dragged himself to his feet just as Feroxi soldiers suddenly crashed into one side of the swarm of Risen, clearing a path.
"Chrom, this way!" Basilio thundered. "Quick now, boy!"
Chrom ordered the retreat instantly, and Robin joined Lucina and Corbin, each girl taking an arm over their shoulders before fleeing. As they did, Flavia met them with a horse, Lucina and Robin quickly lifting Corbin onto it before Lucina jumped up behind him. Robin ran ahead to the others, but before Lucina could do the same, Corbin sat up a little straighter, turning his head to look at her.
"You're...from the future...aren't you...Lucina?" Corbin asked, feeling her stiffen instantly.
"How do you know that name?" Lucina asked.
"I can...sense the Risen, and...I think it's because I'm...connected to him...to me...you know who I mean," Corbin explained. "Just before he appeared, I heard something. Instructions for him not to kill me, but to kill Emmeryn and Lucina. Emmeryn he killed as soon as he appeared. But the only other person he tried to kill was you."
Lucina was silent for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I'm from the future. How'd you know?"
"Your sword," Corbin said. "There's only one Falchion, but yours makes two with Chrom's. Meanwhile, my own sword is also unique, but not only did we just see a second of it, we also saw a second me, a Risen with a sword identical to mine. Which would mean that the Risen are also from the future. That'd make them the reason that the world ends in the future. A future you know far too much of even to be something as simple as a seer. You'd have to have lived it."
"Not bad," Lucina nodded. "You're as smart as I'd heard."
Corbin nodded. "You're Chrom's daughter." He nodded to himself as Lucina again tensed. "That would explain the Brand of the Exalt in your left eye, and the Falchion can only be wielded by a descendant of the royal bloodline. You could technically be Lissa's daughter, but your hair gives you away as being Chrom's daughter."
"You really are sharp," Lucina commended.
"I won't tell," Corbin promised. "Going by the fact that you hid your hair and face with a mask before, I'd guess you don't want anyone knowing."
"Why?" Lucina asked.
"If you're here and have the Falchion, Chrom dies," Corbin reasoned.
Lucina stiffened for a third time, once again betraying her answer.
"Did I kill him as a Risen?" Corbin asked.
"I think so," Lucina sighed. "The first battle where you were seen as a Risen was also the battle in which Chrom was murdered by a close friend."
Corbin nodded. "Then you need to train me with a sword."
"Excuse me?" Lucina scoffed. "Why should I?"
"You just saw why," Corbin snorted. "He was better than me. I was nothing to him. If I ever fight him alone, I can't win, and if you fight him alone, he'll use his magic to gain the upper hand on you. It has to be me that kills him, but you won't just be training me to beat him."
"For what, then?" Lucina asked.
"To keep me alive in that battle," Corbin said. "After all, if Risen me kills Chrom, then if I never become a Risen, Chrom will live, right? So all you have to do is make me strong enough to survive. And it has to be you, because you know how strong I have to be without having to test my progress and adjust my training. You'll control it the entire way."
Lucina considered for a long few moments. "Alright. But first, this war has to end. "There'll be a few years of peace after. I'll train you then."
Corbin nodded, then sighed as they all stopped, Plegians running into view ahead of them.
"Dammit!" Basilio swore. "I should have known!"
"We fight through, then," Chrom snarled.
"Ylisseans!" the Plegian commander called out, a large man with skull pauldrons, a bald head, and a bushy beard. "I offer you mercy! Surrender to me now, and live!"
"Surrender?" Basilio scoffed. "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the word!"
"Emmeryn would not have wanted this to come to bloodshed," the Plegian commander said.
"Don't speak her name!" Chrom spat.
"Your rage is justified, Prince Chrom," the commander admitted. "But the meaning in your sister's final sacrifice was not lost on me. Or, at least, the attempt. Things were...quite different at the end."
"You saw the monsters your king would summon, and yet still you would follow him?" Robin asked.
"I have no choice," the commander said, looking pained. "He would kill my wife and child to make an example."
"Alright, then," Chrom nodded. "If you won't get out of our way, we'll force you to!"
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