Awakening Darkness (Fire Emblem Corruption) (Patreon)

Hi folks! Happy new year, I hope all is going well out there!

Another two stories this week - I'm doing pretty well at keeping that rate up, hurrah. Hopefully I'll continue to do so. This one's a little out of my normal wheel house - I don't really do much fire emblem - but Lucina's a fun character and I wanted to write something for her. (The title could definitely do with some work...) 

So, hope you enjoy!

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(Contains hypnosis and Corruption)

Lucina struggled against the magical bonds that held her, to little effect. The thin strands of dark magic wrapped around her wrists and ankles looked like they’d snap to the slightest pressure, yet somehow they were strong enough not only to hold her in place, but also to suspend her up in the air, limbs spread out like a star. Just their merest touch seemed to sap her strength, and feelings of helplessness welled up inside her heart as she realised how dire her situation was.

But no! She couldn’t give up! The future depended on her! She’d come this far, farther than almost anyone could dream, to stave off the dark world that she’d been forced to grow up in. She crossed land, sea, and then even time itself to reach a place where she could make a difference. She wouldn’t fall here, not when she was so close to the end. She had to stay strong!

“My my, you are a stubborn one, aren’t you?” A cold voice echoed through the chamber, through the prison cell Lucina had been left in after her defeat in battle, rattling the cobwebs and bouncing off the uneven stone walls. The blue haired knight glared up at the woman who’d spoken, at the white haired creature striding in through the cell door. At her m-

… No. No, not her mother. This woman, this thing, this was not her mother, not anymore. There was no trace of the kind hearted Robin that she had known left in her now. All had been consumed, replaced with her most hated enemy.

Grima saw the hatred in her eyes and smiled, her own gaze alight with gleeful purple fire. “Such anger~ Such a fitting face for you, child of mine…”

“I am not your child!” Lucina spat, her fury increasing tenfold at the fell dragon’s insinuation. Again she fought her bonds, and for a moment she thought her anger so great that she couldn’t fail. But it was not to be, and much to the dark god’s amusement, she could do no more than struggle in place before her. “My parents are Chrom and Robin – noble heroes who you destroyed! You are no parent of mine!”

But Grima merely laughed. “Come now, daughter…” She ignored Lucina’s vicious growl. “You and I both know that’s not true. I am Robin – or, rather, Robin is me.” She brushed her hands up and down her human body – the body that had once belonged to Lucina’s real mother – with relish, clearly enjoying what she found. “She and I have always been one, even if she forgot that for a little while. Besides – I know you.” The fell dragon smirked. “The two you name vanished from your life before you ever truly knew them. You grew up in the world that I conquered – in my world. Your every waking moment, your every desperate breath, your very fate itself shaped by my will and mine alone. You are my child, Lucina, mine to the very core. And if you just accepted that, this would all go so much easier for you.”

“Never,” the princess from the future hissed. “I will never accept you. I hate you, and all that you have done! And know this, dragon of destruction – no matter what you do to me, your reign of horror will end one day. I can only pray to the gods that I will be the one holding the blade that finds your heart.”

“Hmm…” Grima put a hand under her chin and stroked it, as if thinking deeply. “We will have to deal with Naga, it’s true. That annoying busy body will certainly keep trying to ruin my fun if she’s left to her own devices. But you’ll help me with that, won’t you, daughter dearest?”

“Of course not.” The very idea was ludicrous. “Must I tell you again how much I loathe you? For I assure you, I have barely scratched the surface of my hatred yet.” Honestly, until she worked out a way to break free from these bindings, she had little better to do. If her enemy was really going to stand here and accept her insults, she was happy to indulge herself. She had expected to have been executed by this point, no reason to quit while she was ahead!

Grima, though, had other ideas. “Yes…” She purred, her smile growing even wider. “I know you haven’t. Your heart drips with darkness just as mine does, after all. I just need to give you a proper awakening so that you understand that. And I’ll do something about that attitude of yours as well while I’m at it. That hatred will serve me well once it’s pointed elsewhere.”

Lucina blinked, a frown deepening on her brow. What was this mad dragon on about? “Speak plainly, vile creature, or-Urk!”

Suddenly, Grima reached out, her hand snatching ahold of Lucina’s jaw and keeping it fast. “Enough words out of you, now, daughter. Be quiet, and let mother show you something~” And then the purple glow in her eyes began to shine brighter, twisting around into small, spinning spirals…

The warrior princess tried to pull away, but her mo- but Grima’s grip was too strong to break, and she found that her head was held tightly facing forward. She wasn’t entirely sure what the fell dragon was planning, but it couldn’t be good. A spell, perhaps? What spell, though? Surely it had something to do with the strange patterns in her eyes. She’d never seen such a spell before, though, never even heard of one. So then, what could it possibly be?

Swallowing hard, she stared deeply into those dark eyes, trying to work out what she was facing, studying them intently for some kind of clue as to what this woman was trying to accomplish. Despite their twisting, turning nature, she looked straight into the spirals, gaze trying desperately to seek the centre of the pattern, as if the truth would be held there for her to find. And yet it was so difficult, strangely. Each time she thought she had found the middle point, her eyes would slip, and she’d find herself trapped out in the spokes again, pulled along in the spiralling current. She found herself frowning, concentrating deeply on her task, and starting to grow oddly dizzy…

“That’s it, daughter,” Grima purred, though the woman in her grip barely heard her. “Just keep looking. Keep watching. Stare deep, deep down into my eyes… Falling deeper… and deeper… That’s right. Just let everything else fall away…”

Lucina was starting to relax in her shackles, her entire body going limp as more and more of her mind was devoted to what she thought to be a simple task. Just stare into the spiral… Keep… Keep staring… and… And…?

She blinked, lips pursing in confusion as she tried to remember why she was staring – tried to remember what was so important about this spiral and finding the centre. But before she could make much headway, the spirals twisted again, catching her mind in their spokes and pulling her back in, drawing her questioning thoughts out of her head and down into the depths, never to be seen again. She just had to keep staring. Just had to find the centre. Just had to fall… deeper and deeper…

“Deeper and deeper… Nearly there now, that’s a good child. What an obedient girl you are~”

“Obedient… Girl…” Lucina sighed, her own eyes filled with reflections of purple light.

Grima chuckled. “That’s right. Now, be a good obedient girl for me. In a moment, I’ll snap my fingers…” She raised her free hand, poised right next to Lucina’s ear. “And when I do, your mind will go completely blank, understand? Let all of your thoughts just sink away into the spiral and go silent. You won’t need them anymore~”

On some level, the blue haired knight knew something was wrong. That something bad was about to happen, and that she needed to put a stop to it before it was too late. Desperately, she started rallying her will, gathering herself together to-

Snap

PING!

Lucina’s body went completely stiff as her mind turned utterly blank, all of her muscles locking tight in her shackles, before relaxing into a limp puddle. Purple spirals filled her eyes, swallowing up her pupils as they replaced the mere reflections, and a blank, empty smile spread over her face as she hung before her captor, utterly mindless.

“Ahahahaha~” The spirals faded from Grima’s eyes, their purpose spent, and she released her darling daughter’s jaw, allowing it to hang slack and start to drool. “Oh, there, that’s much better! No more of this irritating defiance. No more of this annoying heroism! Just submission and obedience.” She sniffed disdainfully. “Why, if you were anyone other than my progeny, I would leave you like this. A simple, mindless servant of my will. But no. No, that is not the fate of one who carries my blood in her veins. You will serve another purpose…”

Gently, she lifted a hand and stroked her daughter’s hair – before seizing a hand around the back of her neck and yanking her forward, drawing them both eye to eye, a vicious and victorious smile of pure evil on the fell dragon’s face. “But that purpose has no need of the foolish girl who you used to be, dear daughter! And a small case of amnesia never hurt my host. So forget! Forget all that you were, forget all that you knew! Cast that silly heroic knight into the void, erase her from existence! All you need remember now, all you need ever know, is how to serve Grima as my daughter and heir!”

The order was absolute and merciless. It left no loophole for Lucina to escape through, no easy gap for her identity to shield itself within. The warrior princess who had come from the future would never, ever serve Grima – and so she had to go. The purple spirals still spinning in her eyes opened large whirlpools of oblivion in her mind, sucking down anything and everything that she had once been. Thoughts, feelings, memories, concepts – all of it was cast out, her head hollowing itself of everything she no longer needed. The faces of her friends from the future… The names of the ones she had called her parents… The searing inferno of rage she held for Grima…

… All of it emptied itself out of her mind, all trace of it forgotten as though it had never been. And in but a matter of moments, there was little more than a simple, hollow, shell hanging where a princess had once been bound.

She still knew her name. She still knew how to hold a blade. But the woman that she had been was gone, forgotten and erased. Who she was – and what she was – had yet to be decided.

But Grima had an answer for that, too. From her belt, she plucked a vial, a glass container filled with the vilest, darkest looking fluid one might ever see. Holding it up to the dim light, she looked between it and her drooling daughter, and smiled.

“This,” she said, plucking the stopper out and tossing it over her shoulder, “is the rarest of rare delights. My deepest essence – the purest liquid form of Grima.” She paused, stroking Lucina’s hair again as she leaned in close. “If an ordinary mortal were to drink it, they’d become a foul beast, a powerful creature of mindless destruction. Which would be delightful, true, but for you, my dearest delightful daughter, for one who carries my blood… Well, it should do no more than awaken your true self. So be a good, obedient girl – and drink it all down now, hm?”

Then she tipped the blue haired former-knight’s head back, and poured the vial down her throat.

Lucina was a good, obedient girl – she swallowed without hesitation. The burning black liquid seeped into her without resistance, darkness dyeing down through her very soul… She shuddered once, and then went still.

Grima retreated a step, looking at her handiwork – and the blue haired girl in shackles before her, her head bowed, face shadowed – and nodded with approval. Then she raised one hand, and spoke clearly. “When I snap my fingers, Lucina, you will awaken. Awaken from this trance – and awaken as my daughter. Awaken, Fell Lucina!”

Snap

The dark magic shackles vanished, and the princess within them dropped – landing smoothly in a crouch, one hand against the floor as she looked up. In her eyes, purple fire burned, just as bright as the flames in her mother’s gaze. A dark, sinister grin with far too many teeth showing took shape on her lips.

“Mother!” Fell Lucina gasped, rising to her feet as dark flames burned away her clothes, replacing them with black armour far more fitting for a dark general. A trace of confusion touched her features as she looked around, puzzled for a moment at her surroundings, before she dismissed the matter as irrelevant. Her mother was here, that was all that mattered. “What would you have of me?”

Oh yes, this was much better. Grima smiled as her daughter presented herself to her. “Tell me who you are, Lucina. Speak the words in your heart.”

“Mother?” The blue haired woman tilted her head, again confused – before, again, banishing such confusion to the abyss. She had been asked a question, and she would answer it. “I am Fell Lucina, Mother. Your loyalest blade, your darkest general, and your ever spiteful daughter.” A smirk broke across her face, dark fire dancing in her eyes. “Your tool and heir, to use as thou wilt. And I hope you have use for me now, Mother. I sense the foul presence of light in this prison – please, let me extinguish it~”

She sounded so desperately hungry to do so. Grima couldn’t have been more delighted. Acting without thought, she swept her daughter into a proud embrace. “Oh yes, Daughter, extinguish you shall. Nothing would give me greater pleasure. For you see, there are a few members of the Shepherds still dwelling in this prison, and I so would love to see you deal with them.” It would be delicious.

“Of course, Mother.” There wasn’t a moment of hesitation. “How would you have them dispatched? Quickly, by the blade? Or shall I make them suffer with magic?”

“Actually…” Grima licked her lips. She certainly knew what she wanted Lucina to do with the last of her former friends. “There’s a new spell I should teach you first. And then… I rather thought you might show them your lovely eyes…~”