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The dream was over.
More accurately, it was a nightmare. A horrible thing Claude never thought he'd have to witness.
And yet, here he was, Failnaught in hand as the final arrow had pierced the Empress standing at her throne. Even now, her commanding presence kept defying her adorable height, and he rembered why he fell in love with her. A love that was accepted and they - or at least he himself - had been happy.
Why did it have to end up like this?
Gracefully, he jumped off his trusty wyvern, his duty not letting him pause for a single second. The fighting was still going on around him, and he had to stop it before any more lives were lost. So he mustered up as much determination as he possibly could and climbed up the stairs, averting his gaze from the Empress' face when it came into view. Her crimson clothes betrayed just how much blood she was losing while using her Heroes' Relic to keep her somewhat steady.
Hesitating for a moment, he carefully avoided touching her fingers when wrenching the axe free of her grasp. It stopped glimmering in the eerie light he learned to hate so much as he held it above his head, taking a deep breath before loudly adressing the soldiers of the Empire. Their leader was defeated, and no more blood would have to be spilled in this place.
It was silent for a few seconds, before he could hear loud cheering and the sounds of weapons being dropped echo throughout the halls of the Imperial palace. Claude himself dropped Aymr at the ground as well, dropping to his knees in exhaustion.
"Claude." He had missed hearing the girl - the woman, say his name in this warm, caring tone. He did not care how rough her voice was and how quiet, he could hear her clearly. For a moment, he felt like a child again, a teenager having his first crush. He remembered their talks about all kinds of topics, some simple as their favourite sweets, some more heavy like discussing the Church of Seiros. And even after all this time, Sothis forgive him, he still wanted to walk by her side rather than lead a war effort against her. He wanted to go back to the night before the war broke out, when they were lovedrunk, even more naive than they were today, and the many giggles at Edelgard being in his room this late at night slowly turned into something else as they truly became one for the first and last time. He had missed her so badly.
"Please, Claude... Look at me..."
The man winced at the desperation in her voice and knew it would hurt so bad when he would face her again, but he owed it to her.
To think that the mysterious schemer who never showed honest emotions was able to cry like this.
When his eyes finally settled on the figure before him, he was happy, yet incredibly sad to see it was no longer the Empress he was looking at, but Edelgard. Just Edelgard. The girl he had loved - damn it, the girl he still loved. His hands were trembling and his throat hoarse.
"Thank you", they both said at the same time, a terribly desperate laugh escaping their throats. Claude continued first.
"For... for facing me as the Empress." He paused for a moment, his breath escaping him for a moment. "I don't think I would've been able to fight you as Edelgard."
In response, the girl shook her head. "It was a selfish act, really. I couldn't have fought you as Edelgard either."
Claude wanted to comment on that, but she started violently coughing, blood escaping her thraot, making his stomach twist.
"I think this is it", she stated. It sounded so factual, so disgustingly like himself when he went over the people he lost. War didn't allow for proper grief.
"Just... do me a favor, okay?"
Claude smiled weakly. "You know how favors work, Princess. You gotta do me a favor in return."
She chuckled as best she could, before her gaze set on something far away, eyes looking right through him. "Please bring this war to an end and make your visions reality. Far too many lives have been lost already and every day these numbers only continue to rise..." Another coughing fit. Claude carefully supported her weakening body, the soft touch stinging like a thousand needles in his heart.
"Don't worry about that", he replied. "I would've done that even without you asking me, so I guess that's a freebie for you."
Edelgard's lips curved lightly as her tears washed away the crimson stains on her face. "Claude... Please, take a look into my room later. There's something I need to leave to you now."
He nodded, then paused and tried to think of some joke that would allow him to not break down right here. He ended up settling on "That's not the way I had hoped to get invited to your room."
The girl rolled her eyes and her arm twitched as if she wanted to hit him, but her lack of strength did not allow her to. Still, she looked back into his eyes.
"Well, that is my favor. What is it you want?"
At that Claude looked to the side for a moment, in response to which she lifted an eyebrow. Then, with all the strength left in her body, her lips curled into a smile as the two shared their final kiss.
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More time had passed than he would have liked, but there was a lot of things to organize now that the Empire had fallen. Even now, this was only a short moment of relief, as he had to get back to it in less than half an hour. Still, he took this opportunity to fulfill the first of his final promises to the woman he loved. He found her quarters and entered.
For the second time that day, Claude felt like a child again. Much younger this time; around five years old, looking in a mirror, seeing his dark hair and skin paired with two emerald green eyes carefully taking in their surroundings and analyzing all they could find.
Looking closer, he realized that some things weren't quite the same; the child's skin color was much lighter and their hair was a hazelnut brown that immediately reminded him of what Edelgard had told him about how her hair originally looked.
The small boy's face quickly went through many emotions. Surprise, then suspicion, realization, denial, and finally, fear. Claude hadn't moved an inch and couldn't find the power in him to do so as the boy looked up to him and slowly opened his mouth.
"Where is mama El...?"