Keep your head down for now

No. It felt far too soon to consider grappling with the Bringer of the End Times. Instead, you break out in a mad dash across the courtyard, weaving in between panicked villagers, screaming soldiers, and deadly meteorites. Rounding a corner, you're suddenly blocked by the great dragon himself landing heavily in the road before you.

"Oh shit," you manage to say before a roaring torrent of fire erupts from his tooth filled maw.

Raising your hands instincually and drawing upon the magika of this world, you conjure a powerful and glittering barrier that shields you from the raging hell fire. Heat washes over you as Alduin roars the words Yol Toor Shul into your face, yet the stream is split cleanly down the middle around your shields.

"You're a mage?" came a voice from behind you.

Glancing over your shoulder, you find the irate Captain who demanded her officer overlook your absence on the capture list knocked backwards upon the ground. A small and charred crater lies at her flank, and you realize she had been seconds away from being not only scorched by Alduin's fire, but crushed by one of the conjured meteors. Her armor, while still shining and pristine, bore the expected charring of ash and fire upon its polished plates. She also sported a long and fresh cut along her left cheek but other than that, she looks little worse for wear, merely shaken. She climbs unsteadily to her feet, mindful of the twin streams of flame rushing past you.

"We can talk later when we're not knocking on the gates to Sovngarde. If you can still move, we need to get to shelter and out of the open."

"The keep would be our best choice, then," she yells over the din of battle. "Follow me if you want to live."

"Excuse you, but I'm the one holding back the World Eater's morning breath!" you snark back at her.

In a show of strength and magical prowess, you seize your energy and direct it to reflect Alduin's fire backwards upon him. The dragon roars in pain as his own flames lick at his face, and in a startled rush, he flaps his mighty wings and takes to the sky, giving the both of you a much needed reprieve. It doesn't take long for the legionary to recover from her awe at your wizardly display and let her own battle discipline take over. Smacking you roughly on the shoulder to get your attention, she breaks into a dead sprint through the debris of wrecked homes, dead bodies, and raining hell fire. You marvel at her physical prowess as she manages to maintain an incredible pace despite being weighed down by no less than some 60 lbs of tempered steel and cured leather. Despite the chaos surrounding you, your eyes can't help but wander down to the chiseled muscles of her calves peeking out from beneath the tail of her heavy armor, no doubt conditioned by long days on the march.

In no time at all, you manage to clear the courtyard of the keep. The legionary wrenches open the door with her fist and ushers you inside, yet as soon as you cross the threshold, a fiery meteor impacts against the wall, showering you both with heated stone and dust, and knocking you to the floor. Shaking the blur in your eyes and ringing in your ears, you sit up to find the door destroyed and the wall completely collapsed with only a small space at top of the rubble not even a foot wide revealing the chaos outside.

"Take a moment to catch your breath. We're not out of the woods yet," says your unwilling companion.

"A thank you would be nice," you quip as you climb back to your feet. "I did just save your life."

She scoffs as she removes her helmet to wipe some sweat from her brow, revealing messy dark brown hair done up into a bun that clearly showed signs of shaking loose.

"If we survive this day, I'll consider it. As far as I'm concerned for now, you're still a prisoner of war, certain circumstances aside."

"Of course I am," you say with a shrug as you examine your surroundings.

Just like in the game, you had managed to take cover in the army barracks of the fort. Rows of bunks lined the walls, each haphazardly littered with various personal effects of the garrisoned soldiers, and to your right you found a sparse common area with a lightly dressed dining table with a meager breakfast, probably hastily forgotten when Alduin came roaring in.

"No objections I hope to me arming myself?" you say over your shoulder as you examine an iron longsword plucked from the rack.

"You just don't turn that blade on me and I won't have to carry out your execution myself," she remarks coldly as she crosses her arms.

"Are all Imperials this serious?"

She presses her lips into a thin line, her eyes narrowing at you in a seething glare.

"Many good men and women were lost today," she hisses. "I'm not sure if General Tulius managed to escape, or even if Ulfric Stormcloak is among the dead. We were so close to ending this Gods damned war and victory was just plucked out of our hands by a living, breathing myth. I fail to see anything positive about this situation."

"You're alive to fight another day," you point out, tying the sheathed sword to the rope of the rags you wore that barely passed as clothing. "A good thing too since there's no coming back after crossing over into Sovngarde. Events have been set into motion that can no longer be stopped."

She remains silent, choosing instead to watch you intently with a hand held loosely over the pommel of her blade, ready to bring it upon you at a moment's notice. Chuckling to yourself, you turn your back on the haughty officer and proceed down the halls, smiling as you hear the heavy footfalls of her boots following close behind you. It would be interesting indeed to see if she remained so frigid once you peeled her out of that armor. Following a path you knew all too well from countless playthroughs of this sequence before modding became part of your life, you hold up a hand signaling to stop as you approach the main atrium of the keep, the whispered mutterings of Stormcloak soldiers echoing upon the rocks. You hear a huff of indignation from the soldier at your rear, but she obeys anyway, mindful of the danger that was fast approaching.

Now far away from prying eyes, you were free to more liberally make use of your powers. On the one hand, you felt the call of battle egging you on, to meet these freedom fighters blade to blade just like you did in the game. On the other, you also saw an opportunity to start bridging the gap between the two sides, with a little Divine influence of course.

A/N: Back at it on another abandoned thread and testing the waters. As always, feel free to branch as you see fit or even start a new character with a new origin all together.