I do not own Fire Emblem.

Revenge--Leila's Wish?

Darkness.

The moon had hidden itself amongst the clouds; even the stars seemed to be gone. There was nothing but darkness. Or maybe not.

The silhouette of two men could be seen faintly in the darkness.

"Why'd you want to meet me here for?"

"Just to clarify a few things. You're Jaffar, right? You, uh…are one of the Black Fang, right? Did you know a spy named Leila?"

Silence.

"Leila was the best spy we had working for us. The person who killed her…even in the Black Fang, had to be very skilled. One of the four assassins who were called the Four Fangs…It was you, wasn't it. The Angel of Death." Whoever spoke, his voice shook a little, as though enraged.

Pause. Then, "Yes." It was a flat, expressionless tone.

"You killed Leila…You stole her life. Her voice, her smile…you stole everything! I'll make you pay…for this!" The icy sound of a dagger being drawn out.

Silence. Than another chink, indicating the presence of another dagger…or two daggers.

Clash. The sound was deafening, echoing in the dark night sky. The movements of the men were so speedy the became no more than a blur, and all that could be sensed was the clashing of daggers.

Dawn was breaking. The sky lightened a little, revealing a red blur and a dark, greyish blur.

"Argh!" The dark red blood of someone splattered the grassy ground, making each blade of grass lethally red-tipped. But who this blood came from was not known, as both men only paused for a millionth of a second before continuing their duel.

"Leila came to spy on us, and betrayed us." The same expressionless, calm voice. "The punishment for betrayal is death. She deserved to die. She—"

"SHE DID NOT! JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE EMOTIONS DOES NOT MEAN OTHER'S DON'T TOO EITHER! YOU ARE NOTHING, NOTHING BUT A MACHINE! A KILLING MACHINE!!" A furious slash of a dagger, followed by a low grunt of pain.

"She deserved to die." The calm voice repeated firmly. "But I don't deny that I am a killing machine." The blades moved so quickly it seemed to be slicing through air. A gasp of pain, and more blood stained the grass.

After what seemed like an endless battle, and as the sun was just about to rise, one made the fatal mistake of missing the opponent. The other, taking the chance, performed a move so swift it was impossible to dodge, a move that almost seemed surgically perfect.

A sickening crunch.

The sun had finally risen, giving the sky the colour of blood, and revealed who the two were.

Amber eyes, almost with a look of madness, bore into blood-red ones with a look of utmost loathing. "So you won, eh? But it does not matter. Dead or alive, I will still find you…someday."

The amber eyes closed. "Leila…" the man whispered faintly before falling slowly to the ground, a fall that he would never be able to get up from. All that was left was the tense silence, only interrupted by the steady dripping of blood, blood that was oozing out slowly, steadily spreading across the green grass plains.

The man with hair and eyes the same colour as the bloodstained plains looked mercilessly down at the corpse. "So…this still comes down to the Angel of Death…now you're reunited with your dear Leila…" With a huge tug he retrieved his Killing Edge and wiped it.

Or rather, tried to wipe it.

---

Lyn woke with a start. Panting heavily, she tried to remember the dream. She couldn't remember it clearly now. Something about two men trying to—to—

Instinctively she gripped her Sol Katti, her sacred sword, at the thought. She couldn't remember who the two men were now. Calm down, Lyn, she told herself. It was just a dream…a scary dream…

Or was it?

Calming herself down, Lyn strode out of her tent for breakfast (which, unfortunately, was made by Sain). When she has just forced down a fourth mouthful, Eliwood came running up to her, an anxious look on the face.

"Have you seen either Jaffar or Matthew? Nino says when she woke up, Jaffar wasn't anywhere to be found. And Aurelia's been looking for Matthew, but he's not anywhere either. You know the sharp eyes our tactician has, she couldn't have missed a thing. Anyway, why would Matthew want to hide? So…"

Lyn accidentally swallowed the mouthful of hot soup so quickly it felt like her insides were being scorched and she gave a shuddering gasp. "No way…it couldn't have happened…it just can't be true…" she mumbled indistinctly to herself, ignoring the confusion on Eliwood's face. Where in the world could they—she stopped. Racking her brains, she tried to remember. Of course she knew where they went…suddenly, something broke her chain of thoughts.

"Darn that Matthew! Always sneaking around, now where the flux did he go?" it was unmistakeably Hector, who started cursing fluently under his breath. Lyn thought that he was showing more anger than concern. Then, it suddenly hit her.

"Heck, just so great with me stuck with all these pathetic people. Now this is just more trouble…"Hector ranted on, oblivious to the fact that both Eliwood and Lyn were gone. Eliwood had chased after Lyn, but being born on Sacae meant that you had an advantage in speed when it comes to plains and grass fields. Finally Eliwood gave up.

---

"Oh no…" Lyn's blade slid from her hand. Her legs felt weak as water.

It's too late, she though bitterly to herself.

There was no sign of Jaffar or Matthew. Only that the grass was dyed a ruby-like blood red colour, somewhere between Jaffar's blood red eyes and Matthew's amber ones. Somehow, she knew that only one person died, and it must be…

Her fingers brushed against a blade of grass. Holding her hand up she was astounded that no blood stained them. She rubbed a grass blade vigorously. Nothing came off. The grass was just as red as ever, each like a blood-drenched dagger.

Comprehension slowly dawned upon her. She stared up at the golden mist shrouding the sky, a misty May morning, and realised with a stiffening jolt that it was someone's birthday.

Tears were sliding down her cheeks, but she was unaware of them. To die on your birthday…how…so…ironic…

She could hear something; some eerie voice, yet it was so…beautiful. The song was so lyrical, so resounding, she was sure it could not be a human's voice, yet it could not have been an animal's sound. She knew whose voice it was. It was someone, someone who had come to meet another soul…

---

Epilogue

Fifty years had passed, and many things have changed; even Roy and Lilina have had their own children, and they had grown up and had decided to set out on an adventure. Lyn, now a grandmother, had agreed to set out on the adventure with them, taking up the role of a tactician. She couldn't help but think of their Aurelia, her tactician when she was young.

But one thing remained the same.

Once, when the army, led by Roy and Lilina's son, passed by a certain plain, Lyn recognized it immediately. There was no mistake about it.

A patch of grass, instead of being the usual yellowish green, was a vivid rust-red colour.

The colour of blood.

Hurriedly dismounting her horse, Lyn knelt down and stroked the grass. The stain did not come off. She had almost expected that.

So she had returned, fifty years later.

Exactly fifty years later.

Her ears strained for the eerie voice again; and once again, fifty years later, she heard it.

The mist was rolling in. beautiful, golden mist.

Something wet touched her cheek. Her own tears—tears of remembrance, of happiness, but of sadness at the same time. She couldn't tell.

An elderly villager strolled by, and saw her.

"Good day, madam. Enjoying the scenery?"

It took Lyn a moment to realise that someone was speaking to her.

"Oh…yes. It's—it's quite beautiful around here."

The villager chuckled. "You're lucky, madam. The sky only turns this beautiful golden once in ten years. No one knows why. It's just another mystery."

"Really? Thank you…I—I've got to go…" Lyn remounted her horse, took a last look at the place and went off.

If only she had stayed longer.

---

After Lyn's departure, the place once again became lonely and deserted. However, it was expecting another visitor.

Sure enough, he came. Hiding quietly in the shadows, the visitor bounded forward. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks.

He padded softly to the rust-coloured grass, allowing the light of the golden mist to shine on his face.

His hair and eyes were almost the same colour as the grass, except that his hair was dotted with specks of white. His face looked more ancient than it used to be. But apart from that, nothing had changed about him over the fifty years, from the emotionless look to his daggers.

His bloodstained Killing Edge.

Stained with the same blood that had stained the grass.

He stared briefly at the sky before pulling out one of the bloodstained daggers, and laying it in the centre of the bloody grass patch. His tribute.

Miraculously, the grass immediately reverted back to a bright green, and the golden mist disappeared together with his dagger.

"So…you've been waiting…all these years?" he hissed quietly to himself. For the first time, his hard, emotionless expression softened a little.

"May you rest in peace." It seemed impossible that such a phrase would ever come from him, but it did. Taking a last glance at the now normal grass field, he melted into the darkness again.

And two souls have been laid to peace.

--

A/N: hope you liked it! the ending was a little bad. eheheh... anyways I just want to clarify that apart from MatthewLeila, there's no other pairings. No, not onesided LynMatthew. NEVER. and i tried to make Jaffar sound more human. Hope you like the twist. and it you couldn't figure who Matthew was until i stated his name, i suggest you go and play FE again, to refresh your memory. either that, or you haven't played FE before.