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Omen (Opening Theme)

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia

Copyright Nintendo 2017

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I wait patiently by the willow tree for my brother's response. It has been a day now and he has been quietly doing things by himself which is fine. So have I. I have been mentally preparing myself for the big day when I send us back through warped time to meet our young Mother before the war.

The day that will begin the time when we will be forever lost in time, no longer able to travel back to our home world.

I guess that is not too bad. There is nothing left here for us anyway. Everything is lost.

I look up at the sun rising over the mountain tops, lighting up the many-colored trees on this crisp autumn morning. It is approaching the end of autumn and the temperatures have started to drop drastically when the sun is low in the sky.

I look over at him and he calmly watches the babbling stream with a small smile on his face like he is enjoying the scenery for a bit longer before we leave. I watch him for another moment before a thought enters my mind, forcing my smile to fade away. I hate to tell him, but when we do go, it might be better to hide our personalities as well as much as possible.

Which means we should be cold and distant, acting like we don't want assistance or need to get to know anyone, even though we already know them all well.

I sigh softly, looking down at the gentle waters myself. We are going to have to create completely new personalities and act the way we're not going to want to.

But we have no choice, now don't we.

I have one more moment to myself with the water before I turn to walk back to the base of the tree, that has faded from its bright pink color it is during most of the year to the dull pink it stays at all winter. Soon, snow will begin to fall, and it will turn white and freeze over, becoming hanging icicles instead of leaves.

I hear soft footsteps behind me and the crunch of fallen leaves. I turn my head slightly and look to the side to find Lance looking up at me with a strange look on his face, "I don't think I will ever be ready, brother, so let's just go and get it over with,"

I can't stop my face from falling slightly to his words as I spin to face him. I open my arms towards him and he takes a step forward, accepting my embrace, hugging me tightly. I enjoy the moment silently, letting it pass on its own.

"I feel the same," I pause for a moment, my voice lowering to a whisper, "It's going to be so hard,"

Lance breaks away and firmly catches my gaze with a stern look suddenly, like a wave of determination or something filled him, "To see them again? Yeah... I know. I'm going to want to run up to them and hug them, but I shouldn't. I'm going to want to talk to them like they are my mother and father, but I shouldn't,"

I nod slowly, allowing my frown to show, "We are going to have to hide ourselves completely, brother... Here,"

I snap my finger and his old black cloak he wore before appears in my hand. Lance studies it for a moment before taking it, like he is fighting the thoughts of what this means, "We should not speak to anyone the way we would now,"

Lance studies the sadness and dread radiating from me. His face falls as well, "I think I know what you think we should do," He says quietly.

I nod, "Yeah... I strongly believe we should act cold and distant, as too keep them away unless they need us to do something,"

I pause as my voice lowers, "And I really don't want to,"

I snap my fingers again and my old red cloak appears in my hand this time. We look at each other for a moment before we pull it over our heads at the same time. The hoods block all light from hitting our eyes even if the angle is right. I snap my fingers and I place a spell on the cloaks, causing them to always conceal us underneath.

"Now our cloaks are veiled with magic, always shadowing our faces... okay?"

Lance nods. His eyes fall to my hand as I raise it up again while my other hand holds Falchion between us, "Lance... Show me Ragnell,"

He nods again and raises Ragnell between us as well and I focus on them both at once, waving my hand near them. Both blades dissolve into silver swords, concealing them. Lance sadly watches his blade disappear for a moment before finding my gaze once more. This moment seems to last for eternity and for a second, I thought we would be trapped there forever. I force myself out of the moment.

"Ready?"

Lance hesitates for a long moment, slightly longer than I expected him to. It looks as though he forces himself to nod firmly at me and I nod, holding back tears as I motion for him to stand back a bit.

Here goes.

I lift my hand up in front of us and concentrate my emotions exactly as I practiced so many times before. I force away everything except agitation and sudden aggression pushes forward as the spell explodes out of me. As the purple mist flows from my palm of my hand and outwards, forming the round hole in time, pain shoots through, following my purple energy.

I ignore the pain and concentrate on the spell, focusing on keeping the time hole open. It slowly widens until it's large enough for us to pass through, "Lance, now!"

Without hesitation, he leaps through, disappearing from sight as he enters. I slowly move myself towards it, as the pain gets worse the longer I hold it. I ignore the pain that shoots through me and force myself through the spell, purple mist falling inward in spirals like the time rift is absorbing time from this world as I hold it open. Space around the hole morphs and distorts and becomes worse the closer to the hole you get.

I feel myself get sucked into the rift and everything around me warbles as I feel my body being pulled around. Within a second, I feel gravity stop pulling me in all directions and suddenly it only pulls me in one way. Light suddenly fills my eyes and scenery of Kingdom Ylisse appears in my view as I spin around and fall out of the sky and to the ground.

I land roughly on my feet, double over and hold my chest with my hands as I stay on my knees for several moments, waiting for the pain shooting through me to calm down now that the spell is done.

We are here. Home. Kingdom Ylisse in the past. Years before the war. Before I was ever born.

After a moment, the purple lightning shooting through my body calms and the electric sounds quieten until silence remains. I slowly raise my head to find us out in a forest and when I look to the side, there Ylisse Castle sits, majestically like how it used to look before the war.

I slowly stand and find my brother's gaze on me now as he patiently waits for me. I feel a little weak from casting that spell, but I will manage. I nod at him, signaling I am ready to proceed and he gives me a nod in return.

"So, the plan, Merric?"

I gently cough to clear my throat and slightly look at him from the side, still getting used to looking at him with that hood on covering his face, "To join Papa Greil's mercenaries as to properly p—protect Ma. Just follow my lead,"

Something flashes in his eye, "Only Ma? What about Pa?"

I shake my head and look away, a wave of despair washing through me at the harshness this all seems. In due time he will see, "Only Ma, Lance. Please understand how harsh this sounds, but protecting her will in turn save everyone else... I hope,"

I pause and lower my voice, "She is the key to winning the war,"

I see Lance nod at my words from my peripherals and we begin our slow walk towards the mercenary fort just over the hill. The calmness of the field is very silent as a gentle breeze blows through, bringing the scents of Ylisse to my nose. I tightly grip Falchion's hilt in one hand, concealing itself as a silver sword, on my side beneath my cape out of view while my other hand grips Mire's tome at my side, concealing itself as a rank B fire magic tome.

As we approach, the top of the fort enters view as we climb the road up the hill, trees filling in more and more around us as the Castle gets smaller, falling behind. Soft familiar voices reach my ears as we near, voices speaking of familiar names and tasks of a mercenary under Papa Greil's command. I hold back the emotions threatening to erupt from within as I look over at my brother, giving him a reassuring nod.

I take more steps closer and my heart stops in my chest as I see a familiar face underneath long and beautiful red hair and behind beautiful purple eyes peek out from the front doorway.

Mother.

I ignore her, pushing away all emotions as I continue walking forward, waiting for the attention of the red-headed woman and the tall muscular man, leaders of the mercenaries in this fort. I notice Ma is holding her stomach. She is pregnant with me.

I take one more step and both turn to face me. This is when I notice Ma has noticed me as well. She is curiously looking me over as I keep my gaze on Papa Greil, not breaking his gaze away from my own.

I raise my fire tome to my chest and hold it there while keeping my other hand resting near my silver sword's hilt. I gather all the words I plan to say as I approach him with one more step before stopping, waiting for my brother to do the same.

Well, here goes.

"Are you Greil, the leader here?"

[Original] Bad End ~ Star's End

I wanted the ending line for this book to be powerful.

I hope this chapter made you all feel the things it made me feel. So many feels!

Thank you all for reading!

[This end is the original ending and the good end from book three should now make sense.]