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skylanders-after-the-end · 4 years

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Royal Showdown

The sun was burning down onto the bright yellow sand of the desert. A seemingly endless landscape with no sign of life. In the middle of it was a shimmering golden tank, rolling across the countless layers of sand, boarded by Sprocket. The Skylander has been travelling on the large island for hours looking for the Golden Queen. According to her tracking device, the villain was supposed to be nearby, yet there was nothing other than sand far and wide. After she passed another sandy hill, Sprocket looked through the periscope of her tank and spotted a blurry object in the distance. She thought that it was a mirage at first, but upon closer inspection, the engineer’s mouth formed a wide grin. It was a palace made of pure gold, similar to Golden Queen’s original home in the Golden Desert.

The Skylander drove up to the stairs leading to the glorious entrance. In the cool safety of the building’s large shadow, Sprocket jumped out of her tank and made it disappear. She observed the giant gate decorated with all kinds of ancient symbols and statues that Sprocket has never seen before. “This is it.” The goldling said to herself before putting her goggles on top of her striking red hair and entering the abandoned residence.

The Golden Queen has taken her rightful place on the throne inside the ancient palace. With a greedy smile, she slid her nails across a technological device which, even though it was highly advanced, was eons old. Almost manically she was tapping onto the screen, making a bright sound with each contact. The queen was certain that this would be her key to success, this would finally make her the sole ruler of the Skylands.

Suddenly the goldling heard something in the distance. An echoing explosion, and then another one. The tall woman arose from her chair and summoned two Arkeyan guards. “Go see what’s going on there!” The queen yelled and the robots followed her order.

When the guards reached the hall outside of the throne room, Golden Queen could see one of them being destroyed by bullets. Shockingly, the other one had a mine tossed towards him before exploding into pieces. Surprised and enraged, the queen grabbed her staff and prepared to face her enemy. What she didn’t expect is to see Sprocket walk through the entrance leading to the throne room. The queen gave the intruder a bewildered look before pointing her staff at her. “It’s you! That foolish Skylander that resisted my powers!”

“Still Sprocket to you.” The engineer replied sassily as she gripped her wrench tightly. “You may have tricked us last time, but you can’t hide from me!”

“I was never trying to hide.” Golden Queen laughed. “I was just biding my time until I found another way to destroy you Skylanders and claim all the gold for myself, and now I finally have!”

As much as Sprocket just wanted to beat the greedy woman down with her wrench, that was not the reason she journeyed here all on her own. “Listen Golden Queen, I didn’t come here to fight.”

The queen snickered. “For once a smart decision.”

Sprocket ignored her comment and went on. “Back on the abandoned island, you weren’t able to turn me into a golden statue. From what I’ve heard, that’s never occurred before.”

The Golden Queen’s confident smile melted into a frown. “Why are you asking me this? I know just as much as you do, it’s impossible!” She proceeded to aim a golden ray at Sprocket which once again showed no effect, much to the queen’s dismay.

The Skylander observed her hands and sighed with relief when she saw that she wasn’t frozen. “I tried to find an explanation, but nothing made sense! Perhaps because of that clone you created I somehow became immune, or maybe even my tech. I just-”

“It doesn’t matter!” Golden Queen shouted as her body emitted a bright light, indicating her rage. “I don’t need my powers to defeat some dirty engineer!” After a few moments of tension which the two enemies spent staring at each other with spite, the queen put another sinister smile on. “In fact, I will defeat you with your own weapons!”

Upon those words, the ruler grabbed the device which she was holding earlier and pressed a button. Behind her throne, the large stone wall parted in the middle and revealed an entire army of ancient Arkeyan Conquertrons standing tidily in rows, waiting patiently for their moment to conquer, as their name suggests. Sprocket tumbled into a state of shock. “My family just so happened to have made a deal with the Arkeyans eons ago, granting us hundreds of their Conquertrons. Now that I have finally discovered them, I will use them to obliterate you Skylanders once and for all!”

Sprocket was expecting to find an answer to her question when she came here, not that Golden Queen had the power to destroy every island in the Skylands if she desired. “No, this can’t be…”

“It certainly can.” The goldling kept her shimmering jewel eyes on Sprocket before deciding to unveil another shocking revelation. Only this time it was personal. “I’m sure you’re dying to know how I was able to fix and reactivate those machines. That’s because I received help from someone you might be familiar with.”

Before Sprocket could even begin to wonder who she was talking about, the queen pressed another button which created a hole in the ground near her out of which a figure emerged. The Tech Skylander had to take a close look. She didn’t want to believe her eyes at first, but her goggles never lied. “Uncle?”

The long lost goldling’s head turned into every direction before he finally laid eyes on his beloved niece. “Sprocket? What are you doing here!?”

The engineer moved her goggles onto her head as her eyes began to tear up, while her uncle Oscar was rather shocked to see her there. “What a heartwarming reunion.” Golden Queen interrupted the moment with another wicked laugh before grabbing the goldling next to her. “Kaos thought that he could get away with kidnapping one of the Skylands’ brightest minds, but I taught him better. Your uncle has been my prisoner ever since! My undead minions have always kept watch over him and eventually brought him here. He’s working for me, which includes the reanimation of the Arkeyans.”

“I had no choice Sprocket! She knew who I was, if I refused her orders, she would have hunted you down!” Oscar desperately explained the twisted situation, hoping that his niece could forgive him for aiding the queen.

“None of this is your fault, uncle.” Sprocket didn’t care about what he was forced to do, her anger was only directed at Golden Queen. “I’m just glad I finally found you.” Through the single tear escaping her eye, Sprocket was able to give her family member a smile.

“Enough of this!” Golden Queen’s patience was wearing thin. “Now that my army is set up and ready to attack, I have no use for either of you.” She grinned as her eyes slowly went from Sprocket to Oscar. “At least this time you’ll get to say goodbye.”

Golden Queen raised her hand and charged up another golden blast before she shot it at the engineer, creating a cloud of sparkling dust around him. “No!” Sprocket shouted and stepped forward as she watched the scene in horror. In the moment of the queen’s apparent triumph, something that no one expected occurred. The sparkling cloud vanished, and Oscar was perfectly fine!

“What!?” Golden Queen was glowing again as she stared at yet another failed attempt to freeze her victim. She couldn’t explain it to herself.

Sprocket’s horrified frown soon shifted into a bright smile when she realized that her uncle managed to resist the queen’s powers as well.

“It can’t be! This is impossible!” Golden Queen’s eyes shot between Sprocket and her uncle. What made them immune to her godly powers? Then she remembered something, and the answer struck her like a lightning bolt. “Unless…”

Sprocket stopped her flash of happiness when she spotted the look on the bewildered goldling’s face. Did she finally have the answer she was looking for? “Unless what?”

Golden Queen inhaled and stared at Sprocket. She threw her a look of blank shock and disgust. “There were some who were also able to resist my powers, a long time ago.” Golden Queen had to take another breath before finally revealing the truth. “While my parents turned into solid gold with a single touch, my siblings were immune to those powers. That’s why I had to banish them instead.”

Sprocket’s eyes went from Golden Queen to her uncle, and it didn’t take them long to figure out what that meant. “Wait, does that mean we’re your siblings’-”

“Descendants.” Golden Queen finished the sentence. “We share the same bloodline.” With utter disgust, the queen turned her sight back to Oscar. “And that means you will steal the throne from me, and my precious gold!” She grabbed her relative by the collar of his shirt and tossed him into the pit in front of the platform she was standing on, letting him fall down into the dark depths of the palace.

“Uncle!” Sprocket hurried to the edge of the pit as her uncle’s scream still echoed through the room, but Oscar was gone.

“I won’t let my family take away what’s rightfully mine.” Sprocket lifted her head to give the enraged queen a death glare. “You will not defeat me. Ever!”

And with that, Golden Queen slammed her staff onto the rocks beneath her feet which caused the floor underneath Sprocket to split apart and send her falling down the pit as well. The Skylander screamed as she fell deeper and deeper, until there was nothing left but darkness.

It was all black. Nothing to hear and nothing to see. Slowly a voice grew increasingly louder until the words became clear enough to understand. “Sprocket! Sprocket, wake up!” The Tech Skylander came back to her senses and opened her eyes. Her uncle Oscar’s worried face above her turned into a relieved smile. “Oh, thank the Ancients you’re alright.”

Sprocket pushed her upper body up and observed her surroundings. They were sitting in a pit flooded with sand and tall stone walls wherever she turned. Then she looked back at her uncle and lit up with joy. “Uncle!” She threw her arms around him before the man returned a warm embrace. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Me too kid, me too.” The engineers held onto each other for what felt like an eternity before separating with a smile. “Just look at you! You’re a grown woman!” Oscar had to comment on his niece’s new look. “And I see that you were able to escape the prison you called home.” The last time he saw her she still had long hair and wore tight dresses in favor of her mother.

“Heh, I sure did.” Sprocket completely forgot that her uncle doesn’t even know of her role as a Skylander yet. It made her feel some kind of sadness. She would’ve loved to share every little detail with him throughout her journey. “After the grand raid years ago it all went downhill. They couldn’t afford the luxurious lifestyle anymore and the town was ruined. Many people left, they practically fled. Even mother saw no reason for me to stay there, so she let me go. Of course, she would have preferred for me to get married to a wealthy lord and become a loyal housewife, but she finally accepts me the way I am and supports my dreams.”

Oscar only smiled lightly, but it was a proud smile. “I never thought I’d see the day where she changes for the better.”

There were hundreds of things Sprocket wanted to talk about, but she had to focus on what was going on right now. She turned her head around looking for an exit, but they were trapped. “We have to find a way out of here.” The Tech Skylander got on her feet and started to move all the golden junk out of the way in hopes of finding something that could help them.

“Sprocket, why did you come here?” Oscar lifted himself up as well and questioned his niece while she inspected a bunch of mechanical pieces. “You know how dangerous the Golden Queen is.”

“Well, she’s certainly less dangerous to us than anyone else.” Sprocket reminded her uncle of the fact that they were related to the queen which made them immune to her powers. “Can you believe that we’re members of the royal goldling family?” She stopped her search to give her companion a jarring look. “And I thought being a high-class goldling was bad!”

Oscar giggled. “I’m sure at least your mother will be thrilled to find out.”

The two goldlings laughed before they both continued to look for a way out. Besides some objects turned golden like pots, shackles and even some chompies, there wasn’t much for the inventors to work with. Suddenly, Sprocket noticed a shimmering light in the corner of her eye and turned her head to see a sparkling red jewel buried in the sand. “Hey, what’s that over there?”

The goldlings approached the mysterious object and removed some of the sand around it, just to see that the jewel was attached to some red and golden metal. “Wait, could it be?” Oscar recognized the shape and colors. However, the look on his face indicated that it wasn’t a good thing.

“Stand back.” Sprocket advised her uncle before she placed a mine into the sand nearby and moved away as it exploded, setting the object underneath partially free. After seeing what it was, the Skylander was in awe. “No way!”

The engineers were looking at the head of an Arkeyan Conquertron. It must have fallen down here eons ago and be forgotten. While her uncle had a bad feeling about this, Sprocket was certain that this was their way out.

“I can fix it! Then we can use it to get out of here!” The Tech Skylander didn’t hesitate and used her mechanical skills on the giant robot.

Oscar watched as his eager niece removed some metal plates to get a look at the machinery inside and do everything in her power to reactivate it. As happy as he was to see her living her dreams, he couldn’t let her engage with such a deadly weapon. “Sprocket, we should think about this.”

“Don’t worry uncle, I’ll have this rusty robot working in no time!” The engineer proceeded to remove a few bolts with her wrench and fiddle with some cables and gears.

“No Sprocket, listen. I’ve spent years fixing such machines for the queen, even those Arkeyans recently. If there’s anything I found out about them, is that they’re programmed to destroy, nothing else.” Sprocket slowed her work down while her uncle was explaining his worries, but nevertheless kept going. “We’ll find another way out, but please don’t activate that thing. Who knows what it will do once it awakes?”

Sprocket stopped typing in codes and reconnecting cables from another open part of the Conquertron. She turned her head to her uncle with a doubtful look. “But I can do this! I’ll just reprogram it so it does what we want it to. You have to trust me!”

“I trust you Sprocket but you’re meddling with things you don’t understand!” Oscar watched in fear as his niece returned to her work on the Arkeyan. “I can’t let you do this!”

Sprocket stopped again, only this time she didn’t look at her uncle. “You sound just like her.” Oscar had a worried look on his face before the goldling turned around with rage. “I’m sick of being told what I can’t do!”

Oscar carefully reached out to the angered Skylander. “Sprocket-”

“No, I’m going to fox this!” Filled with new determination, the Skylander got back to work. “Just because every other Arkeyan behaved like that doesn’t mean that this one has to be the same!” With an even quicker pace than before, she went on by dismantling the Conquertron and using her wrench and the energy stored in her left glove to get it working again. “I am going to show you that it can break free and it can be different, no matter what anyone says!” Oscar looked up in surprise when his niece suddenly began glowing in an orange hue. “I will prove that I’m not worthless! I can be whoever I want to be, and I can achieve whatever I set my mind to!”

Oscar had to take some steps back and cover his eyes while Sprocket was fully engulfed in a bright light and began to transform. The light ceased, and Sprocket reappeared with a new look. Her armor has changed from the royal blues to golden orange colors with gears around her wrists and an improved gas bottle on her back. Her wrench gained a striped pattern and golden bolts at the end, making it even more efficient than before. Her golden skin was now a shimmering platinum and she sported goggles with a dashed pattern on them.

While Oscar still had to process his niece’s unexpected transformation, she didn’t even bother to look at herself and instead went on with fixing the Arkeyan. Suddenly, as she was using her new wrench and powered up glove, the robot finally moved. Sprocket took that as a sign and directed the energy source on her glove at the machine. It unleashed a white beam of energy that surged through the bolts and gears of the Conquertron. The entire ground was trembling. The goldlings observed as the Arkeyan rose from the sand and stood in front of them in all its glory, breaking some pieces of the pit in the process. Sprocket wasn’t done however. Changing the beam from a white to an orange color, the Arkeyan began to transform as well. The red metal parts changed their shapes and turned into blue colors instead, only keeping the head red. The entire body was shifting and turning, resulting in an entirely new kind of Arkeyan, one that Sprocket created.

When she was done, the Tech Skylander turned around to face her uncle with a smile until she realized that she has changed as well. Before she could take a proper look at herself, the goldling glowed once more and returned to her regular appearance. “What was that?”

“I’m not sure.” Oscar approached his niece while keeping his eyes on the brand new Arkeyan in front of them and putting his arm around its owner. “But whatever it was, it’s gonna get us out of here.”

Golden Queen was reveling in her triumph. With pride and newfound greed, she looked over her army of Arkeyan Conquertrons. “Today, the Skylands will fall under my power at last!” She let out a manic laugh that echoed throughout the entire palace as the lifeless machines stood there, obediently waiting for an order.

That moment was interrupted by an earthquake which grew stronger with each second. Golden Queen turned around with fury as Sprocket’s Arkeyan burst through the ground in front of her throne. Using the jet engines it possessed on its feet, the Skylander was able to reach new heights and cause more destruction than ever before. “It’s over Golden Queen, give up or we will make you!”

The goldling queen was glowing in a radiant light. “Never! I will not be defeated by some peasants! I will have all the gold in the Skylands!”

Golden Queen ran towards her army of Arkeyans, when suddenly an energy blast was shot from behind her and blew up dozens of the robots. The queen watched in horror as Sprocket destroyed one row after the other, causing the palace to crumble down as well. All until there was nothing left that the Golden Queen could use.

“I tried to warn you, maybe now you’ll finally know when you’ve lost.” Even though the villainess has done terrible things and was too far gone to be redeemed, Sprocket and Oscar decided to spare her and instead leave the palace.

As the goldlings were about to exit, Golden Queen used the arm of one of the destroyed Conquertrons and turned it into liquid gold. She coated her right arm with it, making it grow drastically. After the modified Arkeyan blasted a hole through the ceiling and was about to fly off, Golden Queen used her enlarged arm to grab its leg. She dug her razor-sharp nails into the metal and attempted to drag the Skylander and her uncle down, but they wouldn’t let her win that easily. Sprocket pointed the robot’s arm at the queen and used a laser to cut her enormous arm off. As the goldling shrieked in pain and grabbed what was left of her limb, she gave the Skylander one last spiteful glare before they left through the ceiling and made the entire palace collapse.

Once outside, the Arkeyan turned around so that the engineers could take a look at the ruins. No sign of the Golden Queen nor her Conquertrons, she was finally defeated.

“She had it coming.” Oscar commented and gave his niece a smile, reassuring her that she did what had to be done.

“We can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.” Sprocket added and sighed.

As they were observing the ruins, both goldlings noticed a strange light in the distance. Sprocket decided to get closer and what they saw left them speechless. It was a brown orb in the midst of the ruins, yet it wasn’t buried underneath the debris. Instead the rocks nearby were orbiting it. Neither of them knew what that was, but they knew that they couldn’t just leave it there. Sprocket extended the Arkeyan’s arm and grabbed the mystical object. She enclosed it inside a containment capsule and stored it safely. After taking another look at the destroyed building, the goldlings finally left.

Moments after their departure, another bright light shined through the debris. Suddenly Golden Queen’s shortened arm emerged out of the rocks. Using her ancient powers, she was able to regrow the rest of her arm and smash her hand onto a broken stone. She then pulled her upper body out. Her crown has fallen off her head and strands of her straight golden hair covered part of her face. Never before has she been this furious. “This is not over, Sprocket!”

#skylanders #skylanders after the end #skylanders ate #ate #fanfiction #original story #sprocket #golden queen #chapter 2

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ohmytheon · 7 years

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real gods require blood (fma/noragami au, 1)

I’ve got a few ideas where this is going, hinted at in what I’ve written here, but honestly this isn’t as set in stone as my Fate AU. It’s more than likely going to be a series inter-connected fics like my Star Wars AU (I have so many AUs, oh my god), but with a theme. None of the scenes are in chronological order, but go back and forth. Kind of like how Noragami did. Seriously, that anime messed me up real good. I was not expecting that. This is mainly for @the-musical-alchemist and @scarfblogs who got me into Noragami. I know my AUs are weird.

“The Gods aren’t so much worshiped, as they are blamed.” ― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

It was the smell of blood that always startled him awake.

Roy’s eyes snapped open. There were no rivers of blood around him, only rain, and so he laid on the stone floor in silence and listened. A chill hung in the air from the storm, but he made no move to pull the blanket around him tighter. Instead, he let it seep into his bones until he was shivering. Still, he didn’t move. The cold washed away the feeling of blood.

“You’re going to get sick,” a tired voice sighed from further inside the temple.

Finally, Roy moved, rolling over onto his other side to face her. “Gods don’t get sick.”

“You can get blighted.”

“Are you going to do something terrible?” Roy asked.

Riza frowned and sat down next to him, folding her legs underneath herself. “Are you going to ask me to?”

“What a terrible thing to assume of me,” Roy replied with a smile as he slowly pushed himself up. He gave her a sideways look “What kind of god do you think I am?”

“A foolish one,” Riza grumbled under her breath. She turned away from him to look out into the rain and huddled deeper into her coat. He’d given her the heavier one. She was so small. The second she’d come out of her regalia form after he’d first named her and taken her in, he had been shocked. How could a spirit that was able to take such a fierce regalia form be so fragile-looking?

She wasn’t weak though. She was the strongest regalia he had ever had. He treasured her more than he could ever admit out loud and she had never blighted him despite all that he had asked of her. She could have and he didn’t think he would’ve blamed her. The things he’d done before, as a god of calamity… Another god, a better one with a better conscience, would’ve used a Nora.

Instead, he’d used her, burned her with blood, and she had turned into a Blessed Vessel for him.

After that, he could no longer be the same god as before. She wasn’t the only one that had changed, but whereas she found new purpose and direction, he felt entirely lost. As the years passed, his name was slowly forgotten until only a few remained out of his desperation to stay alive. It would have been easy to revive his name – all he had to do was go back to being what he was – but that wasn’t who he was anymore. She had changed him and he was determined to live up to her.

So yes, he was a very foolish god, maybe even a little broken too. Roy held out a hand, letting the rain spatter on his open palm, and looked up to the sky. But one day, they would know his name – all of them, those from the Near and Far Shore – and they would no longer fear it as they once did.

It was always the whisper of prayers that brought him back to focus.

Fire sang in his blood. It burned through him, vicious and hot, whenever he worked. The wishes that he fulfilled were very rarely spoken with good intentions. They were born out of hate, rage, grief, confusion, fear. Those were the emotions that made up calamity and they were what he answered to at the end of the day. They were whispers in the dark, words not meant for the light of day, and he knew them all.

Gods like Roy weren’t meant to be revered. They were meant to be feared. It had been a long time since he had known anything but that.

He deserves to die. He took her… He took my wife. I want them both dead.

Roy stood in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall, while the man sat on the floor with his head in his hands. “Are you certain that’s what you want?”

“I want their hearts torn out of their chest like mine has been!” the man cried out.

He didn’t think the man meant it so literally, but if that was what was asked of him specifically, he would do it. This was easy work. It didn’t take much effort. It wasn’t pleasant and it certainly wasn’t kind, but someone had to answer these wishes, didn’t they? These humans prayed to someone. They prayed to him. What kind of god would he be if he did not answer them?

Sighing, Roy held out a hand and waited patiently until the man dropped the payment in his hand. All it ever took to fulfill a wish were some heartfelt words and a few coins. It turned out that even human lives were cheap. He never counted to make sure he wasn’t shortchanged. Everyone knew what would happen if they crossed him.

He was not a god to wish for – and yet people did.

Havoc jumped cheerfully in the air as he whooped. “We did damn good today!”

“We were adequate,” Falman replied.

“Damn good. Six phantoms all charging at once? That’s not adequate.” The sandy-haired regalia leaped over to Fuery, wrapping an arm around the younger man’s neck so that he could rub a knuckle in his hair. Havoc’s grin was almost bright enough to blind someone. “Our boy here got his first bit of action too.”

“I didn’t do much…” Fuery admitted, blush tinging his cheeks.

Havoc blew a raspberry. “Nonsense!”

“Coordinating all of my regalias is an important position,” Roy pointed out as he brushed past them.

Fuery turned even redder but said nothing in return. He was left to the mercy of Havoc and Breda piling on top of him with Falman sighing at the side. Riza followed Roy into the temple, leaving the four other regalias to hang back. It was beautiful outside, a sunny day, even more lovely now that it had been cleansed of phantoms hanging around the city after a vent was accidentally opened.

Roy paused once inside the temple, gazing at the shrines built inside. They were so shiny. Every inch of this place spoke of devotion and care – of being remembered and known. He could breathe in here. After so many years, he had forgotten what it was like to be known. The others didn’t know. They didn’t know of Roy when he was a god that only a handful of people remembered. Riza, on the other hand – she had known him through all of it.

Maybe that was why having a shrine now shamed him so much, even though he’d worked so hard to get it in order to be worthy of her.

“Do I deserve this?” Roy asked.

Riza peered at him. “Sir?”

“Do I deserve this?” Roy repeated. “To be beloved, to be wanted, to be needed.” When he looked down at his hands, he saw the blood that was no longer physically on them. It would always be there though. Blood followed gods of calamity. He would never be fully rid of it. “After all that I did…”

“Nothing will wash away your sins fully,” Riza said. But then she put a hand on his shoulder and he looked back up. A strong part of him wanted to grab her hand and yet he held back. He always did, but just barely. “But as long as you continue on the path you’re on, you will be worthy of this.”

Roy nodded his head and looked back at shrine.

But will I be worthy of you?

He was dead and he was dying – and there she was, the most beautiful soul that he had ever come across. She was lost and far from home, but she had nowhere else to go. Uncorrupted souls like her in this world either eventually moved on if they were lucky or were corrupted by phantoms lurking in the dark. It would not be long before she was taken and for the life of him he could not let it happen.

Maybe it was selfishness and desperation on his part because he needed her, but in the years to pass, she would always say that he saved her from certain darkness.

Blood poured from multiple wounds and he struggled to breathe as he stood before her bright soul, a god no one would want yet still needed anyways. But he could not be the god he was without a weapon. As terrifying and powerful as he was, his work on the Near Shore was worthless without a regalia and he was so well-known for his work there.

“You, soul, with nowhere to go and nowhere to return!” Roy called, drawing the appropriate symbol in the air as a phantom roared behind him. “I grant you a place to belong. Mustang is my name. Bearing a name after death, you will remain here; and with this name, I make you my servant. I use my life to make you a Regalia! You are Riza! Come, Hawkeye!”

And that soul, so beautiful and bright, turned into a beam of light, driving the phantom back. Roy threw out his hand as it shot into the air and into his grasp. When he opened his eyes, he nearly gasped. A long black whip, sharp as a tack, that he knew deep down was something so much more. He’d never seen a regalia take such a shape and yet somehow he also knew how to use it.

When the phantom gathered its bearings and leapt to strike, Roy leaped in the air and cracked the whip in the monster’s direction. “Rend!” he ordered. The whip squeezed and the phantom exploded into a ball of light. The regalia was incredible.

Landing on the ground, Roy closed his eyes and raised his face to the clouds. The regalia hung loosely in his hand, asking nothing of him. He could feel it patiently waiting. How unusual. Most Regalias were very talkative at first, confused about what was going on, especially if they were immediately used in battle. He had never been careful with them before. Something told him that he should be different now, but he had always been reckless by nature.

“Riza,” he said without a care and the whip glowed and transformed into a person.

He nearly choked at what he saw.

She was a young woman, a few years younger-looking than him, with wide amber eyes and short blond hair. The innocent expression on her face caught him off guard. She was so small, wrapping her arms around herself to brace against the chill of the night. He wasn’t prepared for her to be wearing a thin dress with no shoes or the way she looked at him expectantly as she bit her lip.

“You…” Roy didn’t know what to say.

“I’m dead, aren’t I?” Riza asked.

Roy took a sharp intake of breath, but then nodded his head. She took a deep breath and looked down at the ground, taking in the situation. He didn’t know what to say. Of course she was dead. Regalia were made of human spirits that had died and not passed on yet. Sometimes they did; sometimes they didn’t. Some avoided becoming phantoms, but most didn’t without the help of a god. He did not doubt her strength – he’d felt it firsthand – and he was grateful that she was a regalia and not a phantom.

“I’ll keep you safe,” Roy promised and Riza smiled.

He lied. She didn’t know who he was and for the first time he didn’t either.

Roy smirked to himself and turned back to face his shrine so that no one would see. He definitely didn’t want Edward to see the look on his face or the kid would blow a gasket. It was enough to watch him freak out as Roy’s regalias teased him about how much he’d grown in the past years since they’d last seen him.

“He looks so…young,” Riza sighed. “He’s barely aged.”

“Well,” Roy replied carefully, turning back to survey the scene, “he’s a child.” The look Riza gave him would’ve been strong enough to shrivel most gods, but he was a little more used to it, so he shrugged his shoulders. “He’s a god – in a sense. There’s a chance that he might look like this for a long time.”

Though he would never talk about it out loud with the other regalias and especially Edward so close, Edward’s appearance was troubling. Even worse was his brother standing to the side, smiling and laughing. Alphonse was an incredible soul, bright like Riza. He was of good humor, optimistic, and very protective. The fact that he was his own brother’s regalia was very disconcerting, however. Gods didn’t die like humans. Only humans could become regalia and only gods could make regalia. Edward’s and Alphonse’s existences were exceptional.

And the Heavens did not like exceptions.

Riza hummed thoughtfully. “You don’t want to spoil his happiness, do you?”

“His happiness?” Roy scoffed and shook his head. “I don’t care about that. But his hanging around might bring trouble on our doorstep.”

“Since when have you ever worried about trouble?” Riza asked, a slight smile on her face. “As your longest regalia, I know you better than that.”

Roy would’ve scowled if he didn’t know that she would comment on that as well. Of course she knew him better than that. She knew him better than anyone in his entire life – and he had lived a very long time. She had seen him at his worst, his best, his lowest, and highest. Hopefully, she would see him for many centuries to come. He did not want to be like one of those gods that reincarnated all the time. Somehow, he had lived through everything and become something more. Somehow, he’d outlived his old name.

If everyone could forget that he was truly a god of calamity, he could die in peace if he was forgotten, but no, he and Riza would never forget.

“A product of a god and human should not exist,” Roy pointed out.

“And yet you watch after him,” Riza said.

Roy frowned and watched Edward and Alphonse laughing in the courtyard. It did not make him happy or upset. To be honest, he didn’t know what it made him feel. Fear maybe – and he had not felt that for a long time.

To wish for the death of a person was no small thing. It only cost a few coins, sure, but very few considered the tax it took on the soul.

Now, to wish for the deaths of many? That was another thing. It still didn’t cost much physically – humans were so cheap, after all – but it was a price a person took to their graves. To Roy, it was nothing. He was a god. At the end of the day, what were humans to him but matter? He had been above them for as long as he could remember. All they had to do was forget him in order for him to die, but petty, cruel, and selfish as they were, humans would always have use of a god like him.

Even Riza didn’t blink. She might’ve been horrified at first, but she had never said anything against what they did. Any other person might’ve used a Nora – would’ve used a Nora – to do what he did, but she was his regalia and to be his was to know him and to know him was to do what he did. It was not pretty or pleasant. It was not kind or beautiful. It was nothing like she was. He’d stained her, but she had never blighted him for it.

He had been called upon to do many a terrible thing, sometimes in the name of revenge, sometimes in the name of greed. In the end, someone usually died. Once Riza had asked him if he enjoyed doing these kinds of jobs, but it was all he had ever known. He didn’t know how to want for something else.

“I’m a god of calamity,” Roy told her as they stood over a dead body. “I’m not meant to bring peace.”

Riza bent down to examine the body, the very one in which she had killed while as a regalia. “But this man killed the daughter of the woman who wished for you and got away with it. Did you not bring the mother peace?”

“Death never brings peace,” Roy said. “It only replaces the rage with emptiness.”

“And what do you feel?” Riza asked, glancing up at him.

Roy clenched his jaw. He’d never been asked such a thing. No one had ever asked him how he felt after fulfilling a wish. Many gods were able to fulfill light and wonderful prayers, but there were gods like him that were left to do the dirty work. Someone had to. No one talked about it, of course, and the other gods scorned them for it. The gods of fortune were so revered and so many more and the rest like him were expected to work and destroy and be hated and be content with it.

He didn’t know how he felt. It had never occurred to him that he might have that right.

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