[Jaykobell]

Just a few months ago, she had been sleeping inside the sacred Mila Tree, watching the world unfold passively. She was a Manakete: a creature bearing a human form, but with the incredible ability of being able to transform into a dragon using special Dragonstones. Her kind had also been blessed with the curse of immortality, and she had judged it fair, after three thousand years, to finally let her legend fade from history. She had fought with many legends before, seen many countries and continents, and seen countless of other things. She felt no longer relevant to this world, no longer useful. It was because of this feeling of uselessness that she'd sealed herself away inside the tree, leaving herself to slumber away for centuries to come.

Things unfolded differently when a war broke out. Dragons and humans were at it again, where one side fought to resurrect the dark dragon God, Grima, and the other side, following after her mother, the divine dragon Goddess Naga, sought to prevent the return of the dark dragon. A situation that she had seen before, but she was done with meddling in the affairs of humans; her purpose had been exhausted over the centuries, and surely the people didn't need her any longer.

The humans proved her wrong, as a small righteous army was so bold as to awaken the dragon princess from the sacred tree. Seeking her power and her help, she had accepted to join the small army, despite her power still being weak from sleeping for such a long period of time. Still, it was their passion and their persistence that had convinced her to join the fray once more; at least, once she had regained her power completely. For once, the power that had always kept her isolated from the world seemed like it could be of help, rather than being a hindrance for her.

Known as the Voice of Naga, the Manakete princess was also the daughter of Naga herself, born three millennia ago. To those who knew her personally, she was known as Tiki, one of the last surviving divine dragons of the world. Most who saw or met her considered her to be a holy being, rarefied and powerful. Most knew her for her calm demeanor and her knowledge of the ancient times.

In reality, she was far from being so detached from the human culture. She had been with humans for millennia, and she knew them quite well; while she certainly had a prestigious lineage, nothing annoyed her more than people putting her on a pedestal. Those who stared at her like an exotic animal, so divine and rarefied that they were too lowly to talk to her. The attention, while not always unwelcome, was often misguided, and others putting her over others was difficult to deal with. Were she so arrogant as to think herself superior, she wouldn't have joined a small army, nor would she be fighting alongside human soldiers.

Fortunately, a few soldiers in the army had gotten past the initial barrier, and some considered the oracle Tiki as their friend. They treated her as an equal, and spoke with her as normal friends would.

Still, from, the beginning, there had been one human who had never really seem her as superior. There had been one human who had considered her an equal from the beginning, and that was the reason why she had grown fond of that one human.

[Jaykobell]

This army in particular had two master tacticians. One was an albino woman going by the name of Negative. She was very social and friendly, and made friends with the vast majority of the whole army. She was carefree and relaxed, but when her tactical prowess was required, the woman could straighten up and turn into a completely different person. Her strategies were cold, calculating, and fierce. Strong soldiers located at the front lines would break through the enemy's ranks, and the other units, from there, would invade the whole area. Despite her cuter, friendlier personality, her strategies were all about brute force and breaking the enemy before they broke them.

And then, there was the other tactician. He was hard to describe: an enigmatic and reserved young man known as Akakios, and affectionately called "Kee" by Negative. Still, most everyone in the army was too unfamiliar with him to call him by anything but his full name or "the tactician". Those that spoke of him knew him as a cold and calculating man, very reserved and whom didn't make many friends in the army: not even acquaintances. He was rumored to be mean-spirited at his core, and so distant that many assumed he cared very little for the troops he planned strategies for. While others thought him to be cold and unapproachable, others found him enigmatic and intriguing: a desire to learn more about one of the two people who had the lives of the entire army in their hands.

Tiki had been intrigued by the tacticians from the very beginning. When she was awakened, she'd gotten a strange feeling from the two strategists: they emanated some sort of power not so unlike her own. At first, she ignored the thought, attributing it to her drowsiness from waking after so such a long sleep. However, as she stayed at the camp and interacted with the two more — although it was incredibly difficult to catch Akakios at all, but Negative was always around and available for a quick chat — she quickly realized that she hadn't been wrong: there really was something about the two that was uncanny. And while Negative was interesting on her own, really, the one that intrigued the Manakete was the mysterious male tactician.

The main point of intrigue was how contradictory the male strategist was. While his usual behavior indicated that he was very reserved and distant, and even uncaring, his strategies indicated otherwise. The friendly Negative had aggressive strategies that were strong and fierce, yet the enigmatic and seemingly uncaring Akakios had strategies completely unlike Negative's. His tactics were always more focused, more defensive; soldiers were placed in such a way that strengths and weaknesses were evened out, and it felt like every single life had been taken into consideration. For someone who seemingly cared very little for the lives he played with, he certainly knew the strengths and attributes of his army.

It took Tiki little time to figure out that the tactician was a lot more clever than Negative, and that his strength was the power of observation. His quiet demeanor and uncaring air was because of his habit of observing rather than mingling. He learned more by watching the soldiers in their natural behavior than by becoming friends with them. He observed them for who and what they were, rather than focusing on interpersonal behavior. It was similar to a hunter observing the instinctual habits of animals in order to devise effective traps.

Tiki's curiosity was set in stone after the dragon woman realized that there was more to this male tactician than everyone thought.

[Jaykobell]

It was almost impossible to catch Akakios out of his personal tent. The tactician never really wandered out of it, unless he was feeling particularly social or drained. There had been a few times that Negative had managed to drag him out of it for the sake of fighting practice. It was interesting to note that, while Negative and Akakios were the two strategists, they also took part in battle. Negative had a strong affinity with magic, having a special mastery of the basic elements of wind, fire, and thunder. She was a huge fighter in the army, many hoping to best her during combat training.

Akakios was more physical and fought better with swords, but he could also practice magic when he needed it. Much like his strategies, his personal fighting style was the opposite of Negative's. While the albino was all about breaking an enemy with magic power, Akakios often focused on avoiding the enemy's blows in order to observe and spot any weaknesses. Negative was one of the very best, but Akakios was even beyond her level. Every time she managed to drag him out of his tent for combat practice, it didn't take too long for the female tactician to bite the dust. Many sought to fight the male tactician as well, but he often lost interest too quickly to give anyone else a chance at fighting him.

Aside from those rare combat drills, the tactician was missing in action. He was hiding in his tent, coming up with different strategies and avoiding personal contact with the soldiers as much as he possibly could. However, with her curiosity peaked to a whole new level, Tiki hadn't been intimidated by any of those rumors or assumptions. Many spoke of her getting kicked out of his tent should she bother him, and others warned her of many other consequences that could happen if she rubbed him the wrong way.

None of that was enough to discourage the Manakete from learning about the tactician, yet some had tried to interfere. The Voice was too exalted for her to interact with anyone that could potentially hurt her or be rude to her, or that could give her the slightest hint of disrespect. Many had offered to pass on the message for her, and the oracle could only see them as being unreasonable and ridiculous. A single person encouraged her to interact with the tactician, and that was Negative. "Go for it," she would often tell the oracle, and that had motivated the dragon to do just that.

The one day Tiki did dare to step inside Akakios's tent had been nothing but one surprised after another. What she found was not a mean-spirited and cold tactician with a heart of stone, but quite the opposite. While he was initially difficult to speak to — even refusing to simply turn around to talk face to face — the strategist eventually lowered his defenses enough to allow the two to interact semi-normally. Just from speaking to him, the Voice could tell he was the complete opposite of the image others had of him. While he spoke in a very monotone and passive way, his words and thoughts were kind. The rumor about him being reserved, however, was true: the tactician refused to really divulge anything about himself, and he kept his answers fairly minimalistic. For a first meeting, however, everything had gone much better than expected. Not only that, but actually talking to the tactician personally had only increased Tiki's curiosity in the man.

[Jaykobell]

It was following their first meeting that Tiki made it a habit of visiting the tactician daily. There were days when Akakios did, in fact, chase her away, usually under the excuse that he had no time for mindless chatter. That didn't discourage the Voice, however, as she found a sort of interest in finally meeting someone who seemed to be unfazed by her title. She was a divine dragon, and the only daughter of the Goddess Naga: very few denied her, and very few dared to even place a word wrong. It was different to see someone who treated her the same as they would treat a regular human. Mind, that didn't mean that she accepted mindless disrespect or anyone who defiled her image. However, having everyone have this kind of fake personality around her only because she was the Voice of Naga rubbed her the wrong way. Again, were she so arrogant as to think she were superior to others, she wouldn't be fighting alongside humans in a war that had very little to do with her.

That, mixed with Tiki's curiosity to break the tactician's shield had the Manakete visit the exact same tent every day. Whether he allowed her to talk for five minutes of an entire evening, it pleased the Voice all the same. And of course, not even the supposed cold and distant tactician was immune to basic human relationships. With time, Akakios warmed up to Tiki and eventually became a bit more comfortable with her. He would speak more genuinely, and he would sometimes share his thoughts rather than simply forming short, generic answers just to please the Manekete. They share stories, thoughts, ideals; Akakios seemed especially intrigued by Tiki's longevity, often asking her questions about old times and the heroes of legends past. She tried to answer his questions the best she could, and in exchange, she tried to pry away at his defenses gradually. She would ask him questions about himself specifically, such as his likes and dislikes, and why he refused to interact with others.

The more they spoke, the more things the Manakete noticed about the tactician. He was reserved and secretive for sure, but there was something else about him. No matter how much he tried to keep the facade up, the oracle could tell that something was wrong. She could tell that, as much everyone thought Akakios was cold and uninterested in the army, he truly did care for the soldiers he planned strategies for. He wouldn't spend his hours and free time away to strategies if he didn't truly care for the army, or for its success. The things he did, and the things he said sometimes didn't coincide. As they talked and bonded more, Tiki started to theorize that the tactician was keeping something to himself. There were certain questions that he refused to answer, or that he answered in such a vague and generic way that they were hard to believe.

With enough time and persistence, there came a time when Tiki managed to convince Akakios to stop being so anti-social and reserved. While she praised his power of observation, she also mentioned that his passive attitude towards the soldiers made them uneasy around him — to which he had replied that he cared very little about how they felt around or about him. The Manakete thought that, surely, he couldn't mean that literally.

After a few months of visiting him every night, the oracle succeeded in forcing the tactician to get out of his tent. Initially, the soldiers had reacted ridiculously, pointing and whispering as they saw the mysterious tactician finally roaming out of his tent almost on his own. While Tiki hadn't said anything to them, she had noticed how quickly the tactician's behavior had changed. His warmer, kinder presence had faded to become the colder, more distant image that he often gave everyone else. That single reaction proved to the Voice that the tactician was holding up a mask in front of everyone else: a mask that told others to not interact with him, and that he had no interest in socializing with anybody.

And yet, why had he let the divine dragon bond with him? If he truly didn't want to interact with others, why had he let the Manekete poke around his mind and heart? It strengthened the oracle's theory that Akakios was hiding something big, and that, no matter what it was, he was seemingly incapable of telling anybody about it. Yet, it was something that he couldn't fight or handle on his own.

[Jaykobell]

For all the talk of the tactician being mean-spirited, many people clearly hadn't seen him from up close.

While Akakios wasn't the best at socializing or talking about his feelings — a typical human male problem, as far as Tiki could tell after three millennia of human interactions — he also had quite a few interesting traits that one wouldn't expect from the tactician. For one, as stoic and cold as he appeared, the Manakete couldn't remember ever meeting a man that had such an adversity to bare skin or anything sexual. That included both others and himself; there was this one hot and humid evening when she had stumbled on the tactician with his cloak off. Nothing was revealing in the slightest; instead of wearing his large cloak, the tactician was simply wearing a thin sleeveless shirt that revealed a few scars on his back and shoulder area. He later explained that the scars were from him protecting the army's military general, but before that, he had jumped and quickly grabbed his cloak to cover himself. While he had initially argued that Tiki had startled him, Akakios did later admit that he had a certain aversion to such things. He had no interest in parading around shirtless, nor did he have any interest in getting together with the ladies of the army. In that same vein, the tactician was truly a gentleman; he treated ladies and men equally, and he respected those he spoke to.

Another thing one would probably not expect from the tactician was his incredible talent in cooking. Tiki had questioned what and how he ate, if he never bothered to go out of his tent. Akakios had explained that he could cook, and that he actually enjoyed it — probably the first time the tactician had admitted something about himself. He obviously neglected himself and didn't eat nearly as much as he should have, but it took just a few bites for the oracle to be thoroughly impressed with the tactician's cooking skills. She had been so impressed that she had to ask him why he never volunteered for kitchen duty, but all he had told her was that he couldn't afford to waste time cooking food when he could use that time to plan strategies. However, following that one time, Tiki often insisted for Akakios to cook something  for the both of them: she got to eat his excellent cooking, and she got to force him to stop neglecting himself and to eat better.

Just like any other human, Akakios had turned out to have his strengths and weaknesses, as well as his own little quirks, such as his aversion to sexual topics. As she grew fonder of him, Tiki got more comfortable and started treating him more like a friend. She could sometimes force-feed him if she got some food from the nearby village, and sometimes she would blatantly "forget" to wake him up for a war council if it meant him sleeping his fair share. Not only once had the tactician gotten upset at her for doing such things, but that didn't stop the Manakete from dropping more subtle cues on how he could afford to take care of himself better. Not to mention, the more emotions she could see and get out of Akakios, the better it was. As she continued to talk to him, Tiki noticed just how much the tactician had bottled up, and how tense and pained he sometimes sounded. The oracle had had her fair share of misery and pain in her childhood, many ages past, and because of that, she could feel it when someone was in pain or being untrue to their heart.

And while their friendship was positive for the most part, there came a night when everything changed. Over a good half a year's worth of bonding, the two had grown fairly comfortable around each other. While it still wasn't enough for Akakios to be really honest or thorough with Tiki, it had allowed the tactician to lower his defenses around her, and to share memories with her.

But there was this one night where his defenses had fallen entirely.

[Jaykobell]

Tiki always visited Akakios: every day, roughly at the same time. Some days proved difficult, but even if only for a few minutes, the oracle would stop by his tent and chat for just a little bit. Never had the tactician wandered out of his tent to go see her; it was always Tiki who initiated the meetings.

She would always remember the one night when the roles were switched around. It had been a gruelling battle the day before; the army had had to fight around an active volcano, as part of the strategy. Not only that, but one of the leading lieutenants of the army had been forced to turn her blade against her own brother, and the story had ended with their lieutenant winning the day. Of course, that meant that she had had to kill her own brother, whom had been fighting with the opposing empire. Not only had the battle been difficult, but the outcome was bitter and far from pleasant. Still, this was the definition of war, and quickly enough, the army had to give up mourning in order to march again.

She was late that night; while she couldn't join the front lines, she could help with minor battles and other such things. Still, her power was still weak, and that left the Manakete tired and drowsy to the point of sleeping off her exhaustion. It was unknown whether it was because she was so old or because she had been asleep for so long, but Tiki had the habit of sleeping often, and for a long time. It was one of those nights when she had been tired after the battle to the point of simply dozing off. She woke up a few hours later, and the sun had already set outside. At that time, everyone had to be asleep already, resting with the intention of marching more.

Regardless, old habits died hard. Tiki was about to do her daily visit when she was beaten to her own game. As she stepped out of her tent, Akakios was standing in front of her. From the looks of it, the tactician had been waiting for a bit. "Can we talk?" she remembered him asking, and she had been so surprised by his initiative that she had welcomed him to her tent. Only after inviting him inside did the oracle realize that maybe it hadn't been a good idea. After bonding so much with the tactician, new rumors had started to spread, namely that the two shared a certain relationship with each other. Both Tiki and Akakios knew that nothing was happening between the two of them, and that nothing would happen. If others solidifying their assumptions from seeing the tactician walk into her tent, well, the Voice couldn't care less.

The moment Tiki got a good look at the tactician, she felt a certain sense of dread in her stomach. He was unlike the Akakios she knew: reserved, passive, calm. He was the complete opposite of that, looking absolutely exhausted and lost, and even almost on the verge of a breakdown. It left the Voice speechless — never before had she seen him looking so defenseless and exposed. He went on to say things he had never mentioned to her before, things that were dark and morbid in every sense of the terms.

He spoke of how he was undeserving of her attention, and how he didn't want the two to see each other so often. Tiki insisted for him to calm down and to really think about what he was saying, but Akakios had insisted that she listen to him; that this was the real him talking, and not the fake, passive tactician she had been bonding with all this time. That comment alone had thrown the oracle off-guard; it was like talking to an entirely different person. Regardless of her bafflement, the tactician had gone on to say that he wasn't deserving of anything she had given to him. He degraded himself to incredible levels, going as far to say that he was despicable, foolish, and that he had no sense of pride or loyalty. He admitted to certain things: that it was because of those attributes that he had stayed away from everyone, and that while he cared so deeply for many soldiers, that he just couldn't afford to get so close to anybody.

Not only that, but he went on to admit that he was starting to care too much, and that while he truly cherished Tiki as his one and first true friend, that he couldn't afford to keep her as such.

[Jaykobell]

After that discussion was over, Akakios literally begged Tiki to stop talking to him. He gave her the weak excuse of him being the problem, and that none of this was Tiki's fault; that it was simply something that he had to do for himself. After about an hour or so of bickering and arguing, the tactician begged one last time to stop trying to salvage him, and that she was wasting her time. He had left on those parting words, leaving her tent right after without giving her a chance to answer.

Never would she have guessed the reason behind those words.

The next day had her feeling weak and tormented; she had a hard time focusing on the task at hand, and all she could think about was to go back to Akakios to see if he gotten some sense knocked into him. Still, with the army marching and the battles that happened throughout the day, as per usual, Tiki only had the opportunity to talk to him later in the evening. That was exactly what she wanted to do, and she headed for the tactician's tent the moment she had some free time. To her surprise, the man she was looking for wasn't in his tent, and unlike the night before, he hadn't stood by hers. Where had he gone? Certainly, the master tactician hadn't simply vanished from the camp.

She had asked the rabbit shapeshifters — known as Taguels to humans — of the camp to help her; with their developed sense of smell, they would have no trouble smelling his location. While they had been initially surprised to hear the request, the two were familiar with Akakios and agreed to search for him with the oracle. As predicted, it took very little time for the two warrior rabbits to pick up the tactician's smell, but already something was amiss. While they could definitely pick up his smell, they could also pick up another one that was near identical to the tactician's. Not only that, but the closer they got to the source of the smell, Tiki started to feel bad as she sensed just a silver of the dark dragon Grima's power close by. With his resurrection drawing nearer with the opposing kingdom frantically trying to revive the God, it was unnerving to feel the God's power so close to the camp.

When they got close enough to the area where the tactician was, Tiki stopped the two shapeshifters and requested that they return back to camp in order to wake up the others. She quickly explained the bad feeling she had, and considering the Manakete was the oracle, they couldn't help but believe that her assumption was right, as dreadful as it was. Leaving the Manakete to find the tactician on her own, the two Taguel warriors made their way back to camp quickly to ask for reinforcements.

When the Voice finally found the tactician, she saw something she had never expected to see.

[Jaykobell]

It was an event that one would only hear of in stories. Something so out of this world that it was unbelievable, even when it happened right in front of your eyes.

During their travels, certain soldiers within the army had been visited by their children. However, they weren't just typical kids: they were the children of those soldiers from this timeline's future, where the dark dragon God Grima had been revived, and where the world lay in despair. In order to prevent the world from falling into darkness, Tiki's mother, Naga, had prepared a ritual to allow humans to change the course of destiny. With the parent soldiers dead in the future, only their children remained, and it was those children who had crossed the line between time and space in order to make it back to the past.

However, the children weren't the only ones who had managed to cross the boundaries of time, and that was exactly what the event that unfolded in front of the Voice proved.

There wasn't only one Akakios, but two, both men being nearly identical in appearance. One could have mistaken them for twins, despite some minor differences in hair styles and outfits. Despite that, it was obvious enough to differentiate the two: one looked more human, seemingly expressing regret, whereas the other was a lot more ill-spirited, manipulative and uncaring.

At first, it was but the two talking, Tiki having kept her presence hidden from the two for the time being. The fact that there was another tactician that had come from the future was believable enough, considering the existence of the future children. However, things started to fall apart as the two tacticians talked. Namely, there was a single thing that shocked the Voice the moment she heard it.

From the very beginning, their tactician known as Akakios had been a double agent meant to infiltrate the army and sabotage it from the inside. The other him from the future had seen the events unfold already, and he had been manipulating the tactician from behind the scenes. With the children working in the shadows to prevent Grima's resurrection, Akakios's purpose was to counter those attempts and to ensure the natural flow of destiny.

From what the oracle could father, the story was that Akakios was partially amnesiac, and that he didn't have any memories. He had been manipulated by his evil self, whom supposedly worked for the God Grima himself in the future. Not only that, but it sounded like the Akakios from the future had managed to do something no human had ever done prior, to Tiki's knowledge: he had acquired a portion of Grima's powers, and was using them as his own. How was it possible for a human to have and use the powers of a deity? According to the evil tactician, that was because he had been born with something special: the Heart of Grima. While it turned out to be only partially compatible with the God himself, it was still stable enough for the tactician to be temporarily used as a human vessel for the God. Without a human body, the God couldn't be resurrected.

But if Akakios was an imperfect vessel, who was the human that had been born as the true vessel for the dark God?

[Jaykobell]

The conversation went on between the two tacticians, as the future vessel explained that, as per their deal, Akakios's journey with the army would stop here. He had never been meant to travel for such a long time, and it was about time for the two to merge in order for them to become one, and to become more powerful. For them to return to Grima in order to continue the plan to resurrect the fell dragon.

It was about that time when some of the army's soldiers arrived as reinforcements. Included in that group was the leader general and lieutenant of the army, Prince Chrom, whom had come running after hearing that one of his tacticians had gone missing. The other tactician, Negative, had also joined the group, especially worried for the one that she considered to be like a brother to her. When they arrived at the scene, Tiki gave a brief summary of what she had heard so far, and with that in mind, the group just rushed ahead in order to reclaim their tactician.

Their entrance didn't go unnoticed, and the evil Akakios was the first one who noticed the interference. While Negative's idea had been to charge in and drag Akakios away, the tactician was abruptly stopped in her tracks when she crashed straight into what looked like thin air. A ripple effect appeared where the albino tactician crashed, revealing an invisible shield around the two twin tacticians, which prevented anyone from interfering.

Despite their discussion having been so abruptly interrupted, the evil tactician didn't seem to mind too terribly. He had a sassy personality, and he seemed overly confident that he could defeat the entire little group with a snap of his fingers, should he want to do so. As for Akakios himself, the shame and the guilt coming from him were so powerful that the tactician didn't have the heart to face those who had come to rescue him. The only one he did look at was Negative, and looked absolutely terrified that the other tactician had been brought here. On the contrary, his evil self looked incredibly pleased for the albino's presence, and the answer for that was given fairly quickly.

Akakios had been born as an imperfect vessel for Grima. While the power could still be hosted inside his body and mind, it couldn't be contained forever.

And on the contrary, Negative had been born with the complete and perfect Heart of Grima, which in turn made her the perfect vessel for Grima's resurrection.

[Jaykobell]

The news of both tacticians being directly related to Grima had sent a shockwave through the group present to hear them.

To Tiki, the revelation actually cleared up a question that she had asked herself months prior. When she awakened, Akakios and Negative both felt different, carrying power not unlike her own. While it was certainly different from Grima's power, it now made perfect sense: the power she had felt from both Akakios and Negative had been just a silver of Grima's own power, given to them from the Heart of Grima they both had.

From that point on, the situation started to go downhill. The Grima-powered tactician told, in short, what had happened between him and Akakios all this time, and how everybody had been fooled from the inside. The majority of the double agent plan was revealed, and even though the group denied those words, they were silenced quickly when Akakios himself admitted to everything. Despite that, the majority of the soldiers refused to believe it — or more like they refused to let that come between their friendship with the tactician. In the last few months he had spent with Tiki, the oracle had forced Akakios to get out of his tent and to interact with the army's soldiers. Needless to say, he had ended up forming a few small friendships with select soldiers, and those were the ones who refused to lose Akakios to his evil self from the future.

The friendship talk was moving, but not enough to faze the evil tactician, who simply dismissed everyone's words as meaningless. He explained that their merry little band of soldiers would end soon, as he would force Akakios to merge with him using Grima's power, and after which he would take Negative with him in order to set the dark God's resurrection into motion.

That was when Akakios finally spoke up. He disagreed with that plan, and he blatantly said that he wasn't going to let that happen in any way, shape or form. That made his confident future self laugh; so heartbroken and miserable at his despicable actions towards his own friends, what could the weak tactician possibly do anymore? The vessel laughed some more when he saw the tactician draw his sword, which he explained right away would be useless against someone with Grima's power. However, the tactician didn't raise his sword against his evil counterpart. Instead, he brought the sword to his own neck, and clearly explained that if Akakios died, so would his future self. While that also made the vessel laugh, some insecurity had slipped in; surely the past tactician wouldn't be rash and heart-sickeningly self-sacrificing enough to pull such a stunt as killing himself. Even if he were, the soldiers around him begged for him to stop, and to just think things through.

Despite all that, the tactician heard none of it, and the blade cut clean across his throat.

[Jaykobell]

War was characterized by soldiers dying in the hundreds, in the thousands, even in the millions. Death wasn't uncommon in war, but it always struck you harder when the person you saw getting injured or killed was someone you deeply cared about, and someone you had grown to appreciate.

Most people who would slit their throat would die instantly, if not shortly after cutting themselves. For whatever reason, Akakios's attempt didn't kill him on the spot, and he was still capable of moving around a bit, if barely. Despite that, the injury was still fatal, and left the tactician losing blood quickly and in great quantity, staining his clothes and the ground under him as he wobbled about before falling to his knees.

The group that had made their way here all reacted terribly to the scene that was unfolding in front of them. Chrom and Negative reacted especially badly, with the lieutenant screaming to his tactician and the albino woman losing control of her emotions at the sight. And as much as she had wanted to stop the whole thing from happening, Tiki was left speechless at the act, and completely helpless due to the invisible shield that separated the two groups from each other.

Still, Akakios's assumption had proved right. With the present tactician on the verge of death, the future vessel's power quickly started to diminish. He started to pant and search for air, grabbing his neck instinctively as he realized that he was quickly losing control over the situation. As his power weakened, the shield around the two tacticians eventually cracked and crumbled to pieces. Giving a ripple effect again, the invisible glass broke, and there was a loud snap as it faded away, its power source no longer sufficient to keep it up.

With the shield down, Negative's strategy was to focus on healing Akakios to keep his injury from killing him; if they could at least stop it from bleeding, that would save them time. When he heard that, however, Akakios managed to disagree between gurgles and coughs. If someone healed him, his future self would also get the effect and regain his power. Not only that, but if his evil self had power from a God, the only way to counter such a disadvantage was to disable him. Still, if the tactician didn't get healed, he would probably die from blood loss, and he was already starting to lose consciousness from losing so much.

[Jaykobell]

When the shield broke, it was Tiki who took the initiative.

While the Manaketes were dragon-born, they couldn't maintain their dragon form. A long history had proved to corrupt the dragons, and those who had refused to seal their immense power into items called Dragonstones were left on the brink of insanity, eventually becoming feral. In order to keep their sanity intact, the Manaketes' powers had to be sealed inside the Dragonstones, and only by using and awakening the power from one could they transform into their dragon forms.

Ever since she had awakened from the Mila Tree, Tiki hadn't transformed. Her power was still weak, and she hadn't planned on pushing herself until she'd had the chance to recharge. The army had stopped and set up camp very close to one of her mother's domains, where her power ran strong. The idea was for Tiki to stay there for a bit in order to reconnect with her mother's power to; after that, she would be ready to join the front lines.

However, there was no time to ponder on the details now. Quickly borrowing one of the other Manaketes' Dragonstone, the oracle ran straight for the tactician, dashing past both Chrom and Negative. Although the evil tactician noticed the oracle heading straight for Akakios, he was having a hard time retaliating. With the present tactician fighting to stay alive, the vessel was doing much of the same.

That gave Tiki just the time she needed. She dropped on one knee as she reached Akakios's side, grabbing the tactician's arm and pulling it over her shoulders. His clothes and the front area of his body were completely sullied with blood, and in turn, that got on the Voice as well; but she couldn't care less. She warned the dying tactician to hold on tight as she focused whatever power she had to the Dragonstone, which in turn reacted to the Voice's call. Within seconds, the stone started to glow, and a big casing of large, light pink flower petals engulfed both Tiki and Akakios. Mere second later, the flowery case shattered in a bright flash of light and revealed Tiki's dragon form in all its splendor, pristine white scales glowing bright with Naga's power and her scales shining from blue to teal in certain places. The injured tactician lay on the dragon's back by her neck, soiling her pristine white coat.

Giving a roar, the Manakete princess took a few menacing steps towards the evil tactician. He was probably a match for the human soldiers of the army, but he couldn't rival with the direct daughter of the divine Goddess Naga herself; especially in his state of near-death inflicted by his present self. While the evil Akakios did try to retaliate for a while, it soon proved to be too straining to keep himself alive and to defend from a massive Manakete at the same time. With the dragon ready to breathe her searing fire right at him, the evil tactician begrudgingly took his leave, disappearing into thin air by the use of teleportation magic.

With the threat now gone, Negative quickly took over and asked for the healers that had tagged along to heal Akakios right away. By the time the oracle was done fighting off the evil tactician, the other one had since passed out on her back. The healers worked their magic, the staves emanating soothing magic to heal the wound and stop it from bleeding. With some healing done, Chrom ordered for the group to retreat back to camp, so that proper treatment could be given.

[Jaykobell]

In three millennia, Tiki couldn't remember ever being this angry.

If only she could have foreseen what that night had meant. She hadn't expected Akakios to be a double agent, and she hadn't expected him to be working with a follower of Grima, either. Why hadn't he just told someone in the camp about his problem? From what she understood, he didn't have a lot of close friends in the army, but he was close to both Chrom and Negative, since the three needed to work together constantly. He was a genius strategist! The best strategy he had come up with was to keep everything to himself, and for what purpose? To try to kill himself in order to rid the army of his future self? That was the best plan a master tactician had been able to come up with?

Preposterous. Just absolutely, utterly preposterous. There was no word!

Part of her wanted to stay away from Akakios, since his idea of sharing friendship with someone was to keep such important things hidden from them. Another part of her was terribly worried about him, and it hoped that the tactician would get better soon so that they could hopefully talk about this whole mess: so many questions had been asked, but none of them had answers. To be honest, the Voice wasn't sure if she really wanted any answers to begin with.

It had been a few hours since the group had returned to camp. Tiki had carried Akakios back to camp before reverting back to her human form. Once everyone was back in camp, the healers carried the wounded tactician into his tent, in which both Chrom and Negative followed. As the two main players of the army, they obviously wanted to be there and to check over Akakios's recovery.

In the meantime, Tiki washed off the blood from when she had grabbed the tactician over her shoulders. Even though she had cleaned herself up, she could still feel the stickiness of the blood on her, and the overall feeling of being gross. To be honest, transforming into her dragon form in her state had been a terrible idea in retrospect. Now she was even more tired than before, and she hadn't transformed in such a long time that the mere act of it had completely depleted her energy. She felt tired, drowsy, sick to her stomach, and completely exhausted. That had been a terrible, terrible idea.

"Eh, Tiki? What are you doing here?"



The curious voice of the albino tactician got the Voice's attention fairly quickly. The two looked terrible; Tiki was exhausted and looked edgy, and Negative looked just as tired, with her eyes red and puffed up. It seemed like a good amount of crying had been done on her part.

"I was just... How is he doing?" Tiki asked, her voice and thoughts being all over the place. She wasn't sure if she cared or didn't care, but her mind had proposed to ask about Akakios's condition regardless.