Chapter Text
It had been about seven years since Gascon ran away from home, well he preferred to call it going on a journey without his father's knowledge. Not like it mattered what his father thought anymore, a part of Gascon felt guilty for leaving right before he died. He chose the worst time to do that in hindsight, he should've prepared more before leaving Hamelin.
Within that time Gascon had really been trying his best to blend in and get used to his new life in the Summerlands, he had successfully managed to build his first gun and nobody was onto him being the missing prince just yet. And hopefully today would be another successful day in that regard, but at this rate he wasn't worried. Gascon looked far from princely nowadays, his hair barely combed, letting the natural curls come out more than they ever had in palace. He had discarded the clothing he left home with at some point as it got too small for him, his new set honestly not that bad. The green jacket he'd recently gotten looked pretty good on him, even if it was already a bit faded it still kept him warm.
Today he had gotten up early as this time of year had plenty of visitors coming in and out of Castaway Cove, perfect for some pick-pocketing. He wasn't quite sure about when exactly he had begun resorting to such things but his pistol made it real easy to get away with, thus giving him a fairly consistent way of getting guilder. There was a rush to it almost at well, if not for the fact that Gascon would most certainly get noticed if he did it more than he needed to he'd do it for fun. But he didn't want to get into more trouble than he needed to if he wanted to keep what he stole.
If today went well, he might have just enough money saved up to get on a ship back to Autumnia. Gascon couldn't lie to himself and say he wasn't homesick at this point, it was long overdue he check up on Marcassin as well. Even after seven years he still cared too much about his brother to want to stay away forever.
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Unfortunately for Gascon, seems like he went for the wrong target to steal from today as he's now found himself making a break for it out of Castaway Cove while he uses Gunther to stall his pursuers by even a little. It was one of the locals who knew his face, he knew it was a bad idea to try and go for the locals but he had been getting impatient for his next opportunity on a traveler.
Running into the wilds surrounding the port town he hears one of the people chasing him yelling.
"YOU CAN'T GET AWAY SO EASILY SWAINE!", the what he was pretty sure a man yelled out from a distance.
Gascon had almost forgotten about that nickname he had picked up since he refused to tell anyone his actual name. He gets compared to a Zomboswain once and now all of a sudden people start calling him a name based off of them. It was an insult really with how ugly that family of Familiars is, surely he didn't always look that bad.
Not to mention all it did was remind him of that gunslinger from the group of presumably time travelers that he and Marcassin had gone down Tombstone Trail with to retrieve the legendary wand known as Mornstar. It was impossible to forget that night, at first he had thought the gunslinger was so cool and then he started spouting unsolicited advice like his old man would. It puzzled Gascon every time he thought of the name how the hell that Swaine guy somehow always knew exactly what he was thinking, it was almost as if he could read minds. Or was Gascon just that obvious about his intentions? Maybe it's because Swaine was old like his dad, they did look a little similar all things considered.
Whatever, he needed to focus on not getting caught right now.
Gascon thankfully had always been a fast runner, and had only gotten better in recent times, so in no time at all he managed to lose them and hide in a thick patch of trees near the coast as the yelling slowly fades into the distance until he couldn't hear it. While he was pretty sure it was safe to leave his hiding spot, he was pretty close to the sea so he decided to get closer. Gascon liked being near the sea, it's why he chose to stick near Castway Cove. The sea always brought back found memories of his mother when they'd all go out to the coast of Autumnia as a family.
Taking off his shoes for a minute so he could go into the water without worry of ruining them he quickly starts walking towards the sea. Crouching down to get a better look at the water Gascon could see his own reflection in it, but it was strange. He recognized the face staring back at him but it didn't quite feel like his own for some reason. Almost as if he was wearing someone else's face somehow, and Gascon knew that wasn't possible unless through some form of magic which he knew none was cast at him any time recently, he'd seen enough magic over his life to know what it looks like at a glance.
Logically Gascon knew the face looking back at him was still himself, but something about how he currently looked tugged at his memories, he amused the thought for a second that maybe he was looking more like his dad, his genes definitely pulled more from his father than his mother. But that could never be it, his father always kept his hair straightened out and his facial hair nice and groomed, Gascon barely had figured out how keep his face mostly clean shaven and his hair was only brushed enough to be presentable. He couldn't deny however that there was still some resemblance between him and his father.
His eyes wandered as he thought before they landed on his Pickpocket's Pistol. Originally Gascon had just made it out of whatever he could get his hands on but now a strange familiarity with the design seemed to stand out to him more than it ever had before, he had felt like he'd seen the design somewhere before when he was sketching out the plans for it. At the time Gascon chalked it up to it being similar to the Rouge's Revolver blueprints he had handed over to those time travelers since the gunslinger seemed like he could be interested in it, but now he felt like there was something more to it.
Swaine kept coming to mind but Gascon kept shoving that idea to the side, there's no way those folks were actually time travelers. It was probably just a coincidence that every time he tried to think of who he could possibly be resembling the gunslinger kept coming up. They didn't even look the same yet, Gascon was still younger than him after all. Then again the group did say they were from fifteen years in the future and it had only been seven…
He shook his head to try and clear his mind, it was stupid to even think of the possibility. After all Breach Time could only be cast once in someone's lifetime. But things that puzzled him about Swaine made more sense if he were somehow Gascon fifteen years into the future, of course he'd know what Gascon was thinking if he was Gascon. Even if the gunslinger was following behind that Oliver boy he had seemed to know exactly where they were going in Tombstone Trail the entire time, not to mention the group had somehow found Gascon and Marcassin in that cave together. Nobody had seen them go there, Gascon had made sure of it.
Only way someone could've known exactly which and to appear at the right time like that was if they somehow already knew where they were.
Gascon needed to stop entertaining this train of thought, it was obviously nonsense. He was going back to Hamelin soon anyways unlike Swaine who looked like he lived nowhere near the Kingdom and instead still near Castaway Cove. Even if he'd ended up with the same damn nickname.
Gascon couldn't be Swaine, because if Gascon was Swaine that means that all those years ago Swaine was right, and it'd mean running away was a mistake. Gascon didn't want it to be a mistake, he needed Swaine to be wrong. He couldn't live with himself if Swaine was right, that he had abandoned his brother for nothing. That he had been so hard on Marcassin over casting spells for nothing. Gascon had been such a horrible brother for absolutely nothing, maybe he didn't deserve to see Marcassin anymore. He sure wouldn't want to see himself if he were his brother anyways.
He had barely noticed that in the middle of his thoughts that he had started crying, thank god he was at the ocean and could probably cover up the tears with seawater afterwards. Though that was only a fleeting thought in his mind.
Before he could snap himself out of it, a rustling from nearby did. Quickly getting out of the water and putting back on his shoes Gascon held a hand on his pistol while trying to identify where the noise came from.
Another rustle, he quickly pulled out his pistol and points to where it came from this time. And then came a sinister chuckle.
"You truly think that little thing will do something against me?", the voice reeked of malice.
Gascon simply held firm, holding the pistol tightly. His mouth opened for a second but it quickly closed.
"What? Cat got your tongue?", the voice spoke again as it's owner emerged from the forest.
It was Shadar, the Dark Djinn.
"W-what do you want with me? Here to kill me?", Gascon tried to hide his fear but it wasn't working.
"Such a foolish man, trying to use courage you don't possess.", Shadar let out a sinister chuckle.
"If you want to kill me just do it already.", Gascon's grip on his gun loosened as he began to shake a tad.
"And draw unnecessary attention? I've learned that's not a good strategy, I simply need you out of the picture.", Shadar floated closer and closer to Gascon each second.
That last phrase confused the thief. Out of what picture? Yeah sure he was technically royalty but he wasn't doing anything with his previous title right now. Did he want something with Marcassin??? The mere thought of his brother being targeted by the Dark Djinn himself scared Gascon more than potentially being killed by the ever lurking evil right here and now.
So he fired, if he could do anything to maybe, just maybe, help his little brother he would. If only to make up for his past mistakes.
Unfortunately the shot barely seemed to affect Shadar, hitting the Djinn as if it were nothing more than a pebble.
"You humans never learn do you?", Shadar looked at where the bullet hit for only a moment.
It was enough time to let Gascon go running, but it was for nothing as the Dark Djinn quickly caught up with the boy and he was enveloped by dark magic. The last thing Gascon remembers before everything went dark was that sinister laughter filling the air.