Richard has a dull deja vu that guided him through that day when the villagers went mad. He always had a gut feeling of what to do to survive. As he dashed down the burning street, a certain familiarity told him that he would be jumped by a looter, allowing him to dodge and counter. A certain instinct warned him that he would be crushed under a collapsing house if he took the wrong route, and that same instinct warned him he would die if he didn't fashion gauntlets out of scrap metal and attack the guard to help Ferdinand.

This was no mere instinct it was-

"Hey," a voice asks, "You awake?"

Richard awakens in the infirmary to see a concerned Claude who inquires, "You alright Richard?"

"What..." Richard asks, "What happened?"

"You passed out before Byleth and I arrived," Claude explains, "But we managed to heal you up. It was serious though. It was like you were sliced apart by a flaming blade."

"Where's Byleth now?" I inquire.

"I don't know," Claude admits, "But, I have that list you wanted of possible dealers."

"Thanks Claude," Richard smiles.

"Just do me a solid," Claude sighs, "Stop hating the Alliance before you know them. The Travels are the odd ones out. Not me. I'm the norm for the Alliance."

"OK but do me a favor too," Richard requests.

"What's that?" Claude inquires.

"Be a part of my family," Richard requests, "I've come to love you as a brother and I believe family is love."

"I care deeply for you too," Claude admits, "You're a great guy. Let's fish together later and-"

"Claude!" A voice exclaims as Edelgard rushes into the infirmary, "There are beasts in the monastery!"

"What?" Claude demands.

The trio rush to see the Black Eagels and Jeralt fighting off the demonic beasts and go in to assist, attacking a giant wolf. The wolf howls, lunging at Claude, who side steps and leaps over it, shooting several arrows into its back. This leaves an opening for Edelgard to rush in and chop off its tail with her ax before slashing its leg as she avoided its bites. Richard takes the opportunity to rush in its skull with a flurry of punches.

"We gotta help the others!" Claude exclaims rushing over to a bird in the sky, shooting its left wing, causing the beast to cry out, leaving it open for Richard to leap at it as its flight falters from the injury, bringing it close enough to the ground for Richard to rip its wing off, which lands the creature and allows Edelgard to decapitate it, killing the monster.

That's the last of them.

A student goes to thank Jeralt, and Byleth knows how this ends. He again is stabbed by Kronya, just as he always is in this moment, and just like always, knowing it to be futile, Byleth attempts to use the Devine Pulse to save him...

Richard gets this odd sense of deja vu. This... feels familiar.

That red haired student next to Jeralt...

She feels...

Impure...

She...

Some instinct tells him to kill her.

So he charges.

Byleth is shocked as Solon appears, normally to stop him, only to be tackled by Richard, allow him to disarm Kronya, saving his father.

"Richard..." Sothis points out, "He... acted diffrent after the pulse. Something's not right Byleth."

"I'll confront him soon," Byleth replies, "What matters is that Jeralt is-"

Everything stops. Richard sees a flash of red, and sees a blur of a black, metal object before Jeralt falls, dead, and the enemies disappear.

To everyone else, in an instant, Jeralt is suddenly killed. There was no one who attacked him, no attacker, just, as if between moments, he was murdered.

And thus, the next month proceeds as Byleth had always handled it, Richard spends most of his time with Edelgard, Claude, and Ferdinand, enjoying his days with them as he writes letters back and forth with Lily, who has been keeping in touch with him sense she learned he was at the monastery. Despite his best efforts however, Richard's brothers refuse to believe in the red haired attacked that Richard describes.

Until...

Byleth approaches Richard, "Richard can we talk a moment?"

Richard glares, gripping his gauntlets, "Let's."

"So does the phrase Devine Pulse mean anything to-" Byleth begins to inquire.

Richard interrupts, "Let's talk first, about how you killed my brother!"

"What?" Byleth inquires.

"You must be out of your Goddess damn mind if you think I forgot!" Richard exclaims, "I never saw your face back then but... I'll never forget that black blade..."

It was a year ago, as rain fell upon the Travels estate, where two masked men went to attack a storehouse of opium to destroy it. The first one, Richard, as he is known, and the other, a young man named George, otherwise known as the original Bleach.

"You ready Purity?" George asked.

Richard nodded, "I'll handle the archer on the left. You handle the mage on the right."

"Richard," George sighed, "I need to say this. If I don't make it... remember, you'll see me again in the Heavens."

"But you will make it," Richard replies, "You're my brother! You're the only one on this entire damn estate who is pure aside from me and Lily! We can do this. I promise."

Richard and George charged, George avoided the ball of fire from the mage, the heat burned his left arm before the mage attacked with a lightning bolt that George ducked under before bashing in the mage's skull with a mace as Richard caught an arrow out of the air, threw it to block the next arrow in the volley, and ducked under a third arrow to kill the archer with a lethal uppercut that broke his neck.

It was then that he saw it. That black blade. In an incident, a black sword, glowing with dark, unholy fire, impaled George.

"Brother!" Richard cried out.

George coughed weakly, "Bro? I... I see it. I see her. I see your sister. She's waiting for you."

"Don't go to her yet!" Richard begged, "Brother!"

Richard began to weep, "Brother... no..."

"There is a place after death," George explains as he wheezes, "One for good people, one for bad people, and when you get there, you'll be able to get back everyone you've lost, and will be able to be with everyone you gain, your entire family, together and happy forever. Promise me, you'll join me up there."

"I promise," Richard wept, "I promise..."

Richard held his brother as he passed, before he heard a voice, "Leave this estate, or you are next."

Richard vowed, "You killed my brother! You'll pay for this!"

Yet he fled nontheless, and was spared only because that being considered that Richard may yet be useful...

"Man that wasn't me!" Byleth exclaims, "And I didn't attack you a while back either! That was Sihtos!"

"Who the fuck is Sihtos!?!" Richard demands.

Byleth sighs, "OK... look... I've done all this before, but you... only survived a couple of times. Oddly enough."

"What do you mean?" Richard demands.

Byleth sighs, "I have gone through all of this, everyone at the academy, I love them as family, but no matter what happens, they end up killing each other. So, using the power of the Goddess, I turn back time, back to the start. I try again. I fail. So I try again, but no matter how many times I try, they always go to war. Now I'm this close to saving everyone but... each loop feeds a being known as Sihtos. Sihtos has some odd magic that is similar to my own, but different. I want to save Edelgard, Claude, everyone. You're close to Edelgard. You can help! Will you help me? Will you help me end this time loop I've trapped myself in and prevent this war?"

"For my family," Richard replies, "And because you seem to be telling the truth by the desperation in your voice, yes..."

Meanwhile, Solon speaks to the Travels.

"So let me get this strait," Mr. Travels, the nobel man a well toned middle aged man with a thick brown beard and brown eyes full of greed, "This, Sihtos is the remains of a timeline where Byleth sided with Edelgard, Edelgard destroyed the crest stone that was Sothis, and when he reset the timeline, that broken stone mixed with the magical energy to form Sihtos?"

"That's right," Solon smiles, "And Sihtos can stop the time loop. If you help us, we will allow your trade to grow past our nation when we rule."

Mr. Travels inquires, "So what's our plan?"

Sihtos reveals itself with a wide, evil grin, "Simple. At the end of the month,  Byleth will go after his father's killer, and we will send our troops to kill Richard. Richard has a crest that can counter my power, but when he is gone..."

Sihtos laughs madly, "I will rule this world!"

Prologue: Pure Clouds

Coming Soon

Part One: Sins of the Savior