Atrocity

Azure Moon

Wake up.

There is no longer time for rest...people are relying on you. The world is in a state of disarray...I have fixed it once. It is now your turn to make things right.

...w...what?

Oh, for he- I'll coddle you no longer. Wake up!

Slowly, Byleth lazily opened her sea green irises, feeling incredibly disoriented. She tried to move, but her arms did not follow her commands and simply laid uselessly next to her. Yawning, Byleth eventually managed to roll over, weakly managing to sit up. Her arms began to regain feeling, and Byleth pinched at her legs, stretching them out as she tried to regain control of her motor senses.

Where...in the world am I?

Byleth shakily managed to stand, crawling herself out of the shallow river. She wrung out her dripping wet hair, clutching at her menacing sword subconsciously. By some miracle, it had remained attached to her. A scraggly man approached her with a concerned look in his eyes.

"Are you alright? I just saw you drifting out to shore.."

"Can you help me get to Garreg Mach Monastery?" Byleth asked, somehow managing to hold herself together. Now that she had feeling in all her limbs, she was shocked to learn she wasn't injured whatsoever. Her head ached slightly, but it wasn't anything bad.

"That place has been overrun by bandits, though!" The guy panicked, hoping that she wouldn't pass out beside him.

"What do you mean...? What year is it?"

"Well, it's the year of the Millennium festival," He told her hesitatingly. Immediately, Byleth remembered her promise to her students.

We'll all show up here in five years, no matter what...

Wait. It's been five years!? How in the world!? All Byleth remembered was falling into that canyon...

That doesn't matter right now. Just go!

Yes...Yes, I must go.

"I need to go there," Byleth immediately turned away towards the monastery. He ran to keep up with her long strides, panicking once again.

"Whoa, whoa there! You're injured!"

"My friends are waiting for me," Byleth responded confidently. Without waiting for him, Byleth strode away again, leaving the man behind. He only sighed and facepalmed, hoping he wasn't making a grave mistake by allowing the mysterious woman to head off alone.

Meanwhile, Byleth finally made it to the monastery.
Much to her shock, bodies were scattered everywhere. They had to be Imperial soldiers, judging by their uniforms. The bodies led up the steps to the Goddess Tower, and Byleth hesitatingly made her way up the bloodstained stairs.

The light from outside brightened the room, and Byleth's eyes widened as she caught sight of a scraggly man with blonde, maniac hair and a black eyepatch. He had a blue and black cloak, and his silvery lance was pitched high in the sky.

Byleth hesitated, shock on her face. Just what had happened to the man she loved...? He looked surprised to see her too. Byleth's emotions were all over the place; she had expected to see the same old Dimitri, but things were evidently not the same...

Still, Byleth continued to walk toward him. If this was Dimitri, the man she had once known, then she knew he could be saved. Byleth reached him, extending her hand out to him.

"I should've known..." Dimitri glanced around her hand for a solid second before turning away. Byleth inhaled sharply, a hurt look on her face at his reaction. Take my hand, please...Dimitri...They had once been so close that they had regularly held hands around the monastery. Now, he wouldn't even...His clothes were smeared with blood as Byleth glanced at him with further inspection. How...? All those corpses had been his doing...? But Dimitri has always despised killing... Dimitri closed his eye in silent understanding. "...that one day, you would be haunting me as well."

"Dimitri...I'm not a ghost," Byleth said softly, gesturing her hand out for him to take again. He refused her offer, and Byleth frowned. She slowly lowered her hand, kneeling down to his level. "Dimitri...I'm real."

"Stop. Leave me alone. I know you want vengeance, I promise I will deliver!"

"No, no, that's not what I want," Byleth said hurriedly. He was in a terribly fragile state of mind... He had suffered all alone for five years, no wonder he was like this. "I just...I just want you to be okay."

"...Nothing is okay. Nothing will ever be okay until I have Edelgard's head," Dimitri snarled as he stood, grabbing his silvery lance. "I will destroy her for culminating in the Tragedy of Duscar, for killing my family...for all the idiocy she has committed!"

"Dimitri...." Byleth was taken aback by his transformation. Now he loomed even taller over her, not to mention just his general demeanor... Byleth didn't even know what to say. He scoffed a little at this.

"What, Professor?" Dimitri asked, a bitter look on
his face. Byleth just had to accept it...that this was not the man she had grown to love. "Not what you expected?"

No. No, it's not.

A loud crash from downstairs suddenly broke out, and Dimitri grinned maniacally.

"More of Edelgard's filthy rats come for me...come on, Professor. Or will you falter?"

...No, no I won't. Not when someone needs to watch over you...not when I need to be here for you.

"I'm coming with you, Dimitri."

"...It doesn't matter whether you do or not."

That hurt Byleth down to the core. And something inside of her cried out to leave, to abandon this sorry excuse of a guy. But she couldn't...because sorry or not, she loved him. Or at least she had used to...

Dimitri...what have you become..?