Part Two: Black Clouds.

Azure Moon

Spoilers for Azure Moon route; this takes place in an ambiguous period either just before or just after Dedue's return. Yet another fic inspired by a glorious piece of artwork that inspired intense feelings. Check out the comic by Guessibetter on twitter here.

He was more ghost than man.

They always pulled, pushed, and tore at his body. His face, eyes, hair- all of it. He wore the damned cloak not to ward off the ever-present chill but to give the damned spirits something to grasp other than his flesh. With every body to fall to his spear, to his bare hands, another voice and set of hands joined the shrieking choir that followed him everywhere. Always screaming, crying, pleading and accusing him at every hour, he could lose them only in the chaos of the battlefield where one scream blended into another until the blood roaring in his ears, his ragged breathing, and the clash of weapons were all he heard.

In battle, he would be rid of them. Only for a single blessed moment, but he would be himself and only himself for that moment. He clung to that respite and flung himself into one never-ending battle after another in search of it. After the last body hit the ground, their blood turning the earth a filthy color, the hands returned. They always returned to tear at him anew.

There were too damned many of them. They had him by the throat, their nails sinking into every exposed bit of flesh and wrapped around his limbs as though preparing to rend him to the pieces he left so many in. Their voices louder than they had been recently, the full hellish chorus mounting higher and higher until there was nothing he could hear or see but their faceless forms and incoherent roaring.

His hands against his skull did nothing to drown them out or diminish their cries. A crunch, dissonant against the unpleasant screaming, drew his attention. The edge of his vision caught movement- another bedamned hand reaching for him- and the sensation of breaking filled his entire being. A roar, loud and harsh, shredded his throat as it ripped from him and he swung with every ounce he had in him; those who would threaten him, spirit or not, would be met with lethal force.

Ghosts did not crack when struck.

His hand throbbed from the impact, bruised and somehow not a part of him anymore, Dimitri stopped in place. The hands vanished, the voices eerily silent save for a loud keening that shut itself off shortly after. He blinked once and Felix was there in front of him, his face a demon's mask of fury and fear and loathing with sword held in front of him as though he were going to strike. Dimitri couldn't hear the words but the tone was loud and clear as the killing intent radiating off of his former childhood friend.

The world swam. He blinked again.

The Professor, no, Byleth , lay just behind Felix's crouched form. Dimitri's good eye widened at the blood coating the too-still form. Too red, the blood was too red, too vibrant on his professor's fair skin and pale hair. He watched and waited for Byleth to rouse, to wake up and wince and wipe away the injury.

Byleth didn't move. He couldn't even tell if the professor was breathing .

Mercedes was there in the next blink of an eye, her habit and upper body blocking his view. He caught the briefest glimpse of her ashen face and the gasp that followed. He could feel as well as see the light from her Crest as she summoned her magic and threw herself into the healing.

Words failed him. No defenses or accusations came to his lips as a result of this unprovoked- they didn't see or hear the damned spirits - attack. There were no enemies they could blame it on, there was no threat to their lives or his; just the Professor, just Byleth who'd been… who'd been…

His throat worked against the rising lump. Dimitri's eye moved to Felix when the man moved. An invisible blade sank and twisted in his chest. Anything would be better than the look on the swordsman's face in the moment before he heeded Mercedes' call; fury, hatred- anything but what lay in its place .

He watched, frozen in place, as they rushed the Professor to where the medical team was waiting.