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Featured: Magicant/Eight Melodies

Mother/Earthbound

Copyright © 1994 Nintendo/HAL Laboratory

One of my favorite tunes from the game

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I angrily jab my left index finger towards Donnie and clench my other hand at my side while giving him an annoyed expression across my face, "You... You stopped me from protecting the King! What is wrong with you?" I say loudly.

Something flashes in his eyes, "I—I had to do it... Star..."

I see everyone slowly approach me while I angrily watch Donnie become slightly nervous as he studies me closely, narrowing my eyes at him, "You threaten me, disappear without anyone knowing where you went and now this?" I say with a tone of disgust and annoyance.

I expect him to act much differently than he does right now. I expect him to either show aggression towards me like he has before, or show similar emotions and fight back.

But he does not.

As he studies my face, his expression changes slowly from nervousness, to something like... gratefulness? What is he thinking? He allows our enemy to attack our King while disobeying orders and he feels... glad?

I feel anger slowly fill me up from underneath the surface as I hide the confusion I am feeling towards his choice of emotion.

I hear Lucina mutter under her breath, "And my father calls you his trusted mercenaries..."

Ignoring her words, I keep my gaze on Donnie. Ouch, Lucina...

Papa approaches me and turns his gaze towards Donnie. His eyes are sharp and he looks as though he has a few things to say.

"Is this who you were speaking of, Greil?" Chrom says from behind me.

Papa nods slowly, keeping his gaze on Donnie who is now showing his nervousness once again, "Are his actions justified by you?"

Papa turns his gaze up to Chrom then back to Donnie. He steps in front of me slightly and pushes me away towards Ike. Ike wraps his arm around me defensively.

"No. Donnie? Explain yourself, boy..." Something about the expression Papa holds as he says this makes me believe he is thinking about something. He studies Donnie curiously.

Has he figured out something? What are you thinking Papa?

"You have failed to gain my trust..." I say softly and Donnie's eyes slightly widen to my words. I hear Papa and Chrom silently agree with me with soft grunt sounds.

Donnie's expression changes from nervousness to determination as he focuses his gaze between us. He sighs softly as he glances over to his brother who now has approached him to stand close by, "King Chrom, I am sorry, but I had to do what I did,"

I look back to Chrom. He raises his eyebrow curiously and Papa is doing something similar with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I travelled back in time to stop these events from happening. I did not stop them completely, but they have been changed," He looks away, "Now Ylisse should be safe,"

He looks back up, at me specifically, with something bubbling in his eyes, "At least I hope so,"

"What does that mean? Why am I so important in this?" I pause as he continues to study my face, "Why am I so important to you, rather?" Merric has found his way between myself and his father and he has grasped my hand, squeezing it tightly.

His gaze turns slightly more serious as he looks back at me, glancing down at Merric before continuing, "I had to stop you from protecting the King, because if you did, that curse would have hit you instead and terrible events would follow,"

My mouth falls open marginally at his words. Terrible things? I feel the same sense of dread that came to me earlier to get to Chrom's side suddenly fill me again as Donnie continues, "That is the event I came back to the past to prevent. The entire reason why I am here," He pauses while glancing around before falling back on me, "So, my work here is complete. I can only hope now that it was enough. If not, I am sorry... And I would have failed if nothing changes... "

I study his face and I see several emotions wash through his eyes, ones I cannot make out. One looks to be sadness, perhaps. Dread looks to be another?

"W—What terrible things are you referring to?" I ask, not really sure if I actually want to know or if I just want him to keep talking. He looks like he has a lot more to say and I kind of want him to prove to me... something.

I just want to believe him. Please prove me wrong, Donnie.

"So, instead of me, the King is now cursed? Is that what you are saying?"

A wave of obvious sadness fills his eyes, "Sadly, yes. In 2 years, he will become ill. A—After that, 5 more years and he will die..."

Why did he stammer when he said this? What does he mean?

I feel anger again as I try to understand his words, "But, how could you possibly know that? I do not recognize the spell Vladimir used! How do you know what that spell even did?"

"I—It's because I have seen it before,"

I scoff at him, "How did you even travel back? I do not know of such a spell that can do this?"

Donnie does not answer me. Instead he sighs heavily and looks over to his brother with a sadness in his eyes, "They leave us no choice... W—We have to do it,"

Donnie looks at his brother for several moments with a concerned look in his eye, "A—Are you sure?"

"They will not believe us otherwise," Ronnie pauses, "Release your spell, let me show her,"

My eyes widen as I watch the brothers. Release the spell? What are they talking about?

Donnie hesitates for a moment, "Come on. We have to," and he hides his face away within the shadow of his hood before waving his right hand. It is encompassed with his dark magic for a second before disappearing along with his hand behind his cape.

At first, I do not notice anything. I just keep looking at them. Then I notice Ronnie has taken a small step forward towards me and he slowly drops his hood. No... not this again...

I feel my stomach churn and my heartbeat increase as I watch his hood drop to his shoulders.

No... it can't be.

My eyes trace around the man standing before me. My emotions begin to swirl deep inside of me, feelings I never thought I would feel. I feel Ike's grip change as I hear him mumble some things under his breath softly, "How? How did he get that? Are father's guesses correct? Is that them?"

I do not register what he is saying as I continue staring at Ronnie. My mind is lost in what I am looking at.

Deep blue shaggy hair hanging down over his face... similar to Ike... with a black sweatband wrapped around his forehead keeping his hair pushed up. Deep purple eyes... staring back into mine...

Just like...

No... They have shown me this before. I still do not believe—

My heart skips a beat as I trace over his arms then down to his left hand... Ragnell... He's holding Ragnell... in his left hand... But it was a silver sword just a moment ago...

"Ragnell..." I say breathlessly.

No... It's... It's...

"L—Lance..." I stammer without a second thought.

"So it is them..." Ike says softly behind me.

That must mean that...

Ike releases me and I spin around to look at Donnie standing there. I fight against tears from falling down my face. I slowly approach him and reach up to his hood. He does nothing to stop me but averts his eyes as I slowly drop the hood from his face.

No...

Bright blond hair... Long front bangs... Sea green eyes... Just like...

"No..." I say softly.

I take a step back and my eyes trace down his arm to his right hand... Falchion... He's holding Falchion... But it was also just a silver sword...

"Falchion..." I say breathlessly, once again.  

They did trick me... You do have Falchion... and Ragnell...

But I do not feel upset this time, realizing this. I feel... An overwhelming sadness inside instead. Why? Why does this sadden me so?

It's...

"M—Merric... M—My sons..." I stutter again as I reach up to touch his face with my left hand. I feel emotions begin to overflow as I begin to uncontrollably sob, "It is you... you really are here..." I say in between sobs.

So it is true. They did prove me wrong... Like I had hoped they would. They did come to save me. But why? Something terrible really must have happened... It was probably my fault and they lost me... That is why he approached me before... telling me it would tear him apart if Merric lost me... because it did and it was my fault...

"Oh, mother..." I hear Merric say softly with tears beginning to stream down his face slowly. He reaches to catch me to keep me from falling to my knees. I feel Lance embrace me as well and I do nothing but wrap my arms around them both, sobbing into their shoulders. I feel more arms wrap around me.

"Father..." I hear Lance say softly, telling me it is Ike, "I have missed you too..."

My heart skips a beat once again at his use of words. Does that mean... of course it does. Why else would they have both blades?

The tears do not stop as I piece together everything in my mind and everything begins to make more sense.

Then what did happen? Did this event Merric prevented change more than my fate? Is there more to it than just my death? There has to be... This must be why I feel such dread from seeing them here with those blades.

"T—The only reason w—why you would have both of those blades... I am so sorry..."

"Mother... It is not your fault..." Merric says softly, as his voice begins to waver.

After a few more moments of my silent sobbing, I finally find the strength to stand up on my own and I face my sons who are now looking back at me. Their eyes move from my gaze and look around. Merric's eyes fall onto Papa's behind me, "So you really are my grandsons. You chose a strange way to reveal yourselves to your mother. You really are stubborn just like her,"

So, that is what papa was thinking before. How long has he been thinking about that?

Merric says nothing for a moment, keeping an emotionless expression on his face while he looks back at him. Then a small smile slowly appears on his lips as he looks back at me.

"Which is very stubborn," Ike teases with a small chuckle. He gets a grunt from Merric who turns to look up at his father.

"And clever," Papa adds.

Merric's gaze drifts down and something changes on his face as little Merric brushes past me to stand in front of him. He gazes up at his older self and they both study each other for a moment. Older Merric spins Falchion once before sliding it into its sheath on his side in a single and smooth motion, "You keep your mother and father safe, squirt. I did all I can do. Now it is up to you,"

They exchange smiles and little Merric nods, "O—Okay. I try my best,"

So, that is what you meant. You really are my sons. So very clever.

"That's what you meant when you said your mother and father taught you. You meant us," I say, while both older Merric and Lance turn to look at me from watching little Merric.

They both nod, "Well you asked, so we told you," Merric says and a small sassy grin spreads onto his lips.

Papa chuckles, "That grin. The very same one your mother gives me all the time,"

Chrom walks past me and looks back at the boys. They both turn to him and give a small bow for his presence and acknowledge of their attention, "So, you are the famous sons of Star I have heard so much about. So let me get this straight. You travelled back in time, concealed your identities from everyone, kept everything a secret... just to stop this one event from happening?"

Older Merric looks back at him for a moment, a small wash of worry flashes in his eyes before nodding once, "Y—Yes, my King,"

"And this event involved me getting cursed in place of your mother?" I notice he flinches slightly, enough that you would have missed it if you were not closely paying attention to him. He nods once again.

A small smile appears on Chrom's face, "To save my Kingdom? That is a strange story you bring to me. If it is true, we shall see. Care to justify yourself further?"

He glances to me before turning back to him once again, "I did not mean for it to hit you, my King, but that spell is a powerful spell. If I knew how to stop it, then I would have. But the reason for saving my mother and putting you in danger involves the Dark Lord having total control over Vladimir... and will use that to tear Ylisse apart getting to my mother..."

I warned you about this part! The big scene! You cannot say I did not! There is more...

So that's it, eh Donnie? I mean, Merric. :0

Did you know they were telling the truth before they told you? Star did mention she wishes to believe them but held reasons not to because she did not know all of the details.

Sit tight, Merric has more to tell...

This was a difficult scene to write. Did you like it? It is a nice scene. One of my favorite scenes is coming up real soon...