Snyderverse Neptunia Snippets

by Derald Snyder

Snippet 39- Fell Dragon Warriors

Timeline- After 'The Robotic Turnabout'.

WARNING: Major spoilers for Fire Emblem Engage, by virtue of the characters featured here.

*From the records of Ghetsis...*

Day 1: "This is the beginning of my attempts to combine the DNA of my pet dragon Hydreigon with human embryos. While my dragon is a powerful asset, he is also difficult to control... I should know, I nearly lost an eye and arm to the beast. And even putting that aside, unleashing Hydreigon is like using a rocket launcher or flamethrower where a sniper rifle is needed. But if I can figure out a way to combine the dragon's strength with the intelligence of a human, the result could be a valuable asset in our struggle against the fell CPUs..."

Day 30: "Progress. All prior attempts at infusing embryos with Hydreigon DNA resulted in their immediate death. But the road to success is paved with many failures, and I have learned much. My current subjects have survived the infusion process, and I am now initiating the rapid-aging process to grow them to maturity. Whether they will remain stable afterwards remains to be seen..."

Day 66: "Another failure. My recent attempts at combining human and dragon DNA have all ended disastrously, none of the subjects surviving to maturity. Those that survived to adolescence suffered psychotic breakdowns, attempting to viciously kill anything within their zone of perception, necessitating euthanasia. Lord Thales has become impatient with my efforts, and has insinuated shutting down my research in favor of Albert Williams' robot army. How ironic, given it was I who recruited Dr. Williams to begin with..."

Day 67: "Desperation has led to inspiration. Some time ago, I disposed of my useless son N, due to being too kind and compassionate to ever be of any use against the fell CPUs. But I preserved his corpse as a reminder of my failure to raise him right... and now he may finally be of some use posthumously. Hydreigon's violent nature is no doubt a contributing factor in my previous test subjects' psychotic breakdowns. But perhaps, if that violent nature was balanced out by N's kind nature... while I understand that cruelty and compassion are mostly learned traits, I can see no other option for success..."

Day 80: "A minor breakthrough. I cloned two embryos with both Hydreigon's and N's DNA, one male and one female. However, during the rapid aging process, they both awakened in their adolescent stage, and began thrashing wildly, as with prior subjects... but the female actually ceased her struggles upon my shouting at her. No such luck with the male, who nearly breached his containment, forcing me to terminate him by flooding his stasis chamber with poison. But I decided to take a risk and released the female subject from her chamber... she seems to be something of a mood-swinger, violent one moment, then docile the next. But I have only had to strike her once in one of her violent moods, after which she did not attempt to lash out at me any further. I meant to call the first successful subject 'Vile', but it doesn't fit her very well... so I changed one syllable and named her 'Veyle'."

Day 85: "Veyle's education and training continues apace. Even in her youth, she demonstrates strength and agility beyond what a normal human her age would demonstrate. And she fortunately remains coherent even in her violent moods. I recently presented her to Lord Thales, and his reaction was... well, 'not displeased' would be the best way to put it. I managed to persuade him to allow me one more chance to further refine the process, and with what I have learned from Veyle, I am confident I can achieve success."

Day 100: "Encouraging signs. My last two subjects, one male and one female, did not awaken early as previous subjects did, though the male shows occasional signs of nearly rousing before falling back into slumber. The time nears for their awakening. Veyle has taken to calling them her siblings, naming the male 'Laeur' and the female 'Alear' respectively. I should make sure to have her present when the time comes- preferably in her docile state."

*And so...*

"I am here, Father," Veyle called as she ran into the room where Ghetsis' latest subjects were sleeping in stasis. Her long hair was a mix of black and white (the latter color being slightly dominant), a feathered tiara on her head, wearing a simple white dress with the skirt open in the front, allowing full movement of her legs, which were bare save for anklets just above her feet. "Is it time?"

"The time has indeed come," Ghetsis nodded. "I will awaken them one at a time, starting with the female- that is, Alear. Did you bring the clothing?"

"I have them right here, Father," Veyle lifted her folded arms slightly, which held two folded decency cloaks.

"Excellent. Then let us begin," Ghetsis said, approaching the right stasis tank, containing a young, pretty woman with flame-red hair that somehow masked her privacy. "Remember, if she becomes violent, I am counting on you to protect me, Veyle."

"I understand, Father," Veyle nodded solemnly, watching as Ghetsis pressed a few buttons at the base of the chamber, a low hiss being heard as the liquid began to drain... There was no reaction from the woman inside, seemingly still asleep as she settled to a kneeling position. Once the liquid had drained completely, the chamber opened, Veyle cautiously approaching... "Alear... Alear, do you hear me?"

"Uhh..." The woman's eyes blinked open, revealing irises as red as her hair. Said eyes then focused on the girl before her... "Huh?"

"You're awake!" Veyle cried in joy. "I'm your sister, Veyle. Come on, stand up..." She reached out a hand, Alear looking at it curiously before putting her own hand in it, Veyle then pulling her out of the chamber to a standing position. "Steady on your feet, now," she encouraged as her sister wobbled slightly on her feet, looking around curiously... Upon seeing Ghetsis, she gasped and flinched away, raising her arms defensively! "No, sister, it's okay! That's our father, Ghetsis!"

"Fa.. ther...?" Alear grunted, easing up slightly.

"Yes, I am your father," Ghetsis nodded, exhaling through his nose- his equivalent to a sigh of relief. "Well, you seem docile enough. Veyle, you need to dress her."

"Oh, right! I forgot," the shorter woman nodded, setting down the folded cloaks and pulling the top one up, unfurling it. "Here, let's get this on you... No, your arm doesn't go through there, silly, your head does! Oh, now you've got it turned around! Here, hold still." After a minute of struggle, Alear put her head and arms through the proper holes... "Okay, let's pull your hair out... there we go!" Veyle nodded as Alear's long locks fell down her back once more. Turning back to Ghetsis, she inquired, "So, do we wake up Laeur now?"

"Not yet," Ghetsis shook his head. "I want to make sure Alear is stable before we awaken her brother. For now, take her to the kitchen and get her something to eat."

"Okay! Come on, Alear!" Veyle took her sister's hand, slowly leading her out of the room, Alear glancing back at Ghetsis and her still-sleeping brother, whose hair was the same color, albeit much shorter, before exiting...

Day 102: "Today I awakened the male subject, Laeur. Unlike his sister, he roused before I had finished draining his stasis chamber, but he calmed upon seeing Veyle and Alear standing before him. Fortunately he showed no signs of wanting to attack me or anyone else, though the presences of his sisters may have contributed to that. As for Alear, she is learning quickly, already able to form simple sentences due to Veyle's instruction. I assume her brother will be much the same..."

Day 110: "Both Laeur and Alear have learned how to walk and talk, and now the time has come to start training them in combat. Already they show strength beyond what even Veyle is capable of, meaning they will make quite formidable soldiers indeed. Perhaps it is a bit early to make assumptions, but it seems I have at last achieved my aim- warriors with the strength of Hydreigon, but the intelligence- and restraint- of humans. My only concern at this point is that these two seem almost too gentle- Alear especially. But neither has been yet placed in a life-or-death scenario, so I will take a 'wait-and-see' approach for the time being..."

*A few days later...*

Laeur and Alear were standing back-to-back, dressed in leather armor and wielding simple iron swords, their teeth gritted as they were surrounded by robots of all shapes and sizes.

"You'll forgive me if I fail to see how these two children could prevail against my superior robots," Dr. Albert Williams commented from outside the testing chamber/arena. Ghetsis and Leyle were standing a short distance away, all three watching through a large window.

"Technically, Rom and Ram are also children, yet your robots failed," Ghetsis pointed out.

"Those were ones that I reprogrammed, and not all were geared toward combat!" Williams shot back. "But these, on the other hand..."

"Very well, let us see who prevails," Ghetsis cut him off. "You may begin any time."

"Grr, I want a piece of the action too! This sucks, not being able to fight!" Veyle griped, clearly in one of her violent moods.

"If your siblings get in over their heads, I will grant you permission to assist them," Ghetsis said firmly. "But first, let us see how they do on their own..."

"Robots, engage!" Williams called over the intercom, the machines promptly starting to close in on the dragon siblings.

"Let's go, Alear," Laeur grunted. "We can't let Father down!"

"Okay, brother," Alear nodded, the two charging at the robots... Alear kicked a smaller robot, sending it flying into another, the dragon child then rushing in and cutting them both down in a shower of sparks!

"Raaahhhh!" Laeur roared as he leapt into the air, dodging a spider-like robot's laser fire, then jamming his sword through its eye when he came down, the force outright flipping said machine on its backside, rendering it helpless! Pulling his sword out, Laeur then ran at a humanoid robot with a shield, smashing said shield aside with a single swing of his sword, the next slash separating the robot's head from its body!

"...not half bad," Williams muttered. "Seems like the female fights smarter, not harder..." Indeed, Alear was tricking the robots into firing on each other, then cutting them down once they were disabled by their own lasers.

"She has a name!" Veyle protested.

"Veyle."

"Sorry, Father. He's just so disrespectful!"

"What do you expect from someone who's more comfortable with machines?" Ghetsis deadpanned. "Just focus on your siblings for now."

"Right..." Veyle sighed, returning her attention to the battle. "Come on, you two! These scrap heaps are nothing!"

Unfortunately the two in the arena would have begged to differ, given that they were both fleeing a bipedal bot with a mounted gatling gun, barely avoiding the rapid fire by ducking behind the disabled spider-bot from earlier! "How are we supposed to take that out?!" Alear gasped. "We can't even get close!"

"Then we wait for IT to close in!" Laeur suggested. "It can't walk and shoot at the same time!" Sure enough, the bot retracted its gun, slowly walking around the spider-bot to get its targets back in range... Laeur then jumped out from cover, yelling and flailing his arms! The robot opened fire, Laeur rolling to evade- then its gun was run through by Alear's sword from above, having climbed atop the bot to get the height necessary. The jammed gun backfired, causing the robot's main body to explode, throwing Alear several yards through the air crashing and tumbling ungracefully to a stop.

A buzzer sounded, signaling the end of the exercise as Laeur ran up to his fallen sister. "Alear! Alear, speak to me!" he cried, picking up her head in his hands.

"Stop shouting..." Alear groaned back. "I'm really sore, but I'll live..." Her brother heaved a sigh of relief at this before picking his head up as the intercom switched on.

"Your performance is satisfactory," Ghetsis stated, "Though there is clearly still room for improvement. Hopefully next time you can complete your exercise without injury, understood?"

"Yes, Father!" Laeur called back, pulling Alear up to a sitting position.

"...Is this all there is to life?" Alear sighed. "Never-ending battle?"

"Father says our fighting will serve a higher purpose, to help slay the dark goddesses that currently rule the world above," Laeur responded.

"But can we even prevail against such foes, if we can barely take down machines?" his sister lamented.

"It's not like we'll be fighting alone," Laeur replied. "But we need to pull our weight, for our father's and sister's sake..."

Meanwhile, Ghetsis frowned as he observed the scene, though he couldn't hear what the two were saying. (I fear these two may be too gentle to truly reach their full potential at this rate... I might have to start applying the stick more than the carrot, though not so severely that Veyle protests...)

*Snippet 39- End*

A/N: Yes, these three are the main characters of Fire Emblem Engage, with Laeur/Alear in their spoiler-tastic 'evil' forms. But will they stay evil in this continuity...?