??? POV
I opened my eyes. I am in a space of white. My memories are fuzzy and I do not remember who I am but I know that I have done something.
“About time you woke up.”
A voice echoes around me. I flinch and try to hide.
“Wait.”
I am confused. My instinct to hide disappears. The fear I always feel is not there. Wait, fear? What does that mean. My head is throbbing. Memories are starting to return. Where am I?
“Hello? Anyone in there?”
The voice is near. I look around and see nobody. I am in an empty space, the fear I have always had has disappeared, and a formless being is talking to me.
“Am I dead?”
“Yeah. You’ve been dead the whole time. Have you lost your memories or something?”
“Where are you? Why can’t I see you?”
“Ohhh. I get it now. Sorry, sorry. I forgot about that. Can you see me now?”
A formless shadow appears before me. It is a shadow made manifest. It writhes in front of me. The fear that I know I always have is not present but even I know that beings like this can be dangerous. I step back and brace myself.
“Hmm? Why do you look like that? What do you see?”
“A shadow.”
“Shadow? I look like a shadow to you? Oh, I’ve been here for so long that I forgot what happens when someone arrives here. Let me see, do you remember anything about yourself?”
Normally, my fear would stop me from conversing but it is not present.
“I think so? My memories are a mess.”
“That’s a bother but maybe I can at least shake it up a little. Let me see, what was the default name again?”
The shadow moves weirdly and I decide to stay silent.
“Ah! Lucina! Yes, it was Lucina. That should be a name that you know.”
As I hear that name, the shadow turns into a girl. A girl with a fierce face and flowing red hair. Yes, a girl I am too familiar with. I did play her in the game, after all. The memories flow through me from that name. Memories of what has happened.
“What is this?”
“Do you see a form now? I’m not a shadow, right?”
“Yes. I can see a form now. I am also starting to remember. Where am I?”
“Well, hate to break it to you but you are in the place where the story ends. In your previous world’s terms, you’re dead.”
“I do remember dying but why are you here?”
“I’m dead.”
“Huh? Do you mean you died with your own flame?”
“No no no. Not that. I am a Lucina you never knew.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like you, I was brought here and lived in that world. The main difference is that I became Lucina, the female main character.”
“Huh? Lucina was also like me?”
“No! I was Lucina in the past! My story has already ended which is why I am here.”
“Oh. Sorry, I’m really confused.”
“That’s normal. Don’t worry about it. Now, you might be wondering why I’m the one here. That’s because my character killed you.”
“Huh?”
“There’s a tradition in this place that the person who killed you is the one to welcome you here. Its actually my first time doing this since normally, no one gets killed by the main character.”
“Really? Even other villains?”
“Well, all of them tend to try to reform the villain in some way, you see. So, they either try to be a good guy or get killed by someone else in the story. You are the only one who has been personally killed by a main character.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“No. Sorry, I don’t really know how to approach this kind of thing.”
I have finally sorted out my memories after a while.
“You understand that it’s fucked up that we have to meet the person who killed us, right?”
“Yeah. I get it but it was decided it was better to get through it early. One time, someone just lost it when they saw the person who killed them. It was a hassle so it was decided that any feelings about it should be resolved immediately.”
“Wait. The only reason you would be here is if you knew. How did you know what happened?”
“We have a front row sit here.”
“What?”
“Everyone who stays here can see the current storyline and let me tell you, yours is our favorite by far. So many unpredictable things are happening. So many events we have never seen before.”
“So, all of my struggle was television for all of you here?”
“Sorry. That is the best entertainment we have here.”
“Whatever. What do we do now?”
“Well, are we good?”
“Huh?”
“Like, no bad feelings or grudges or anything? I did say we want to get that out of the way in the beginning.”
“Yeah yeah. No need to worry.”
“Great. Follow me and let me show you around.”
The person with Lucina’s face started to walk and I followed her. It was still all white though.
“So, what did you wish for?”
“Huh?”
“We all get a wish before we start the story. My wish was to know when someone was telling the truth or a lie. It was really bothersome though, I didn’t know people lie so much every day.”
Having all of the memories with me, I smiled at her.
“I cannot tell you my first wish yet or the wish we made but I can tell you what I wished for.”
“Wait. What do you mean?”
“I wished to remove our fear.”
She looked like she wanted to ask more but there was a commotion happening.
“It started again!”
“What do you mean? Someone new is starting the story?”
“No! It’s still her!”
“But didn’t she die already?”
“She did!”
The person who looked like Lucina ran through a door. I followed her and saw a mass of shadows inside. All of them should be a character but I do not know which one they are. All of them are looking through a large screen. The person who looked like Lucina looked at me.
“What is this? How is this possible? Your story ended. We all saw that. So, why is it still continuing even though you are here?”
I look towards the screen and look at us. It seems I was the first to arrive. Good. We still have a chance. I’m sorry though, things will be tougher without me around but I believe that you can achieve our goal, Athena.
