Author's Note: My second fic. This is for the FE 100 themes on LJ. This is 89, 'Heartbeat'. My friend Rachel (Sombre Cryptique here) chose this theme for me, so it's dedicated to her. If anyone finds any mistakes, please tell me.

Disclaimer: Nintendo and Intelligent Systems own Fire Emblem, not me.

This is FE9.

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Terrible bloodshed, unnecessary loss of life. It just wouldn't stop. But why? Why couldn't the fighting end? Why must their be more deaths?

That was right. Daein would not stop. Daein insisted on the fights, the death, the war. Daein demanded Elincia; but of course, a princess could not just be handed over to another country, especially when that country was destroying her homeland, turning it to ruin.

Both sides had suffered losses; lives had been lost, tears had been shed. But the fighting had to continue, lest Crimea forever be enslaved by Daein, and the rest of Tellius left to wonder if Daein would do the same to them.

The battles were only getting bloodier; the casualties were only growing. And now that the battles were being fought on Daein, they found themselves more vulnerable; they did not know firsthand what Daein was like, what they would deal with there. But they had to continue on.

It had not been an easy battle. The going had been slow; the ground was soft and wet, and difficult to walk on. The enemies were anything but weak; snipers, paladins, and Daein's specialty, wyvern riders, all had been present.

By the end of the battle, bodies littered the ground, all bearing Daein's black armor. It was impossible to tell if it was water that soaked the ground, or blood; both? But Crimea's fighters were not without injury, either; Rhys and Mist had tasked themselves with healing injuries.

As Mist finished healing Boyd, Elincia came running from off of the battleground.

"Mist! Have you seen Lord Ike?"

With those words, Mist realized she had not seen her brother since the beginning of the battle. She hastily shook her head in response to Elincia's question, she picked herself up, dashing off in search of him.

"I haven't seen Boss since earlier in the fight. Wonder where he is?" Mist heard Boyd mutter from behind her. It did nothing to calm her nerves; if none of them had seen him, then what had happened to him? Was he okay? What if... what if he was hurt? Or worse, dead?!

No, she couldn't think such things; it wasn't helping, and she had to concentrate on finding Ike.

"Brother?! BROTHER! Where are you?!" She was unable to stay calm through her fear and worry, and screamed it; loud enough for all the army to hear.

There was no reply. Her legs kept moving, faster, faster. Mud pulled at her feet, her legs burned, but she stopped for nothing. Aqua eyes searched the ground, but there was no blue, no blue. Just black, black, black! Where was he? Where was her brother?

Up, up, up, Mist ran, up the hill; running until the only thing blocking her way was the bulk of a dead wyvern, its redheaded rider slung over its back. Lying in front of the dead pair was a man with short blue hair: Ike.

"BROTHER! Brother, are you okay?! Brother, talk to me!" Mist kneeled next to him, eyes wide and body quivering. She could feel her heart beating with her whole body, but what about him? Was his heart still beating at all?

She lowered a shaking hand to him, touching two fingers to his neck, right below his jaw, digging them into his skin. Nothing.

Where was it? Where? Why wasn't it there? Mist only continue to dig her fingers harder into his neck, as if that would cause a pulse to appear.

And then she felt it. Faint, barely there. But it was still a beat.

"Mist? That hurts." Blue eyes looked up at her. Another beat, thumping stronger than before. Then another. Mist threw her arms around Ike's neck.

"Brother! You're okay!"

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review!