Some people claim that any person, no matter how evil, can change. That anyone could find their way into the light. Some claim that those who embrace the darker side of humanity will always fall to the temptations that it offers.

However, there are some rare beings who fall so far into the darkness that neither side believes that they could ever be redeemed… Because they don't try. This is the story of one who fell farther than any other, given the chance of redemption by his greatest enemy.

Falchion had found its way into Grima's chest yet again. No matter how many times Grima revived himself, he would always find a blasted descendant of Naga that would strike him down. He muttered a quick curse as he died, swearing vengeance on the Lord and his army before finally fading into the void.

The familiar room of darkness was a nice respite for the fell dragon. Here, he was not affected by the madness that plagued his physical body. He wasn't the demonic being that the rest of the world had labeled him as. Here, he was simply Grima. A man who had sacrificed everything he could have to fight for a cause that he believed was just.

A small shift in the air signified a presence that Grima could easily identify.

"Come to gloat Naga?" Grima asked with a snarl.

Naga looked sadly at her old friend. She knew that they were now enemies… But that had not always been the case. "Of course not." She said softly.

Grima let out a frustrated breath of air. "I know." He replied. "It's just so… Frustrating. It's the same damned cycle. Revive. Kill. Die. Repeat. I completely lose myself every time one of those foolish mortals decides that it would be a good idea to revive me again." Grima pinched his forehead. "I almost wish your spawn had succeeded in wiping out my 'followers', as harsh as that might sound."

Naga remained deep in thought. "I'm… Sorry, Grima."

"Yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don't know." Grima said dismissively, still not looking at the divine dragon. "I just… Want it to be over. I want to be in control of my mind for once. I want to be able to experience something other than killing. Hell, dying sounds like a good idea. Almost makes me wish that vessel had been the one to kill me."

Grima sighed. "But I suppose now it's just a matter of time before I get revived… Again. Naga, make sure your spawn are prepared. My physical body's going to be especially pissed off about how it died this time."

"No." Naga said simply.

Grima finally faced Naga with his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?" He asked. "What do you mean, 'No'?"

"I mean no, you're not going to be revived again. Not like what just happened." Naga explained.

"Oh? Found a way to kill me have you? Well, don't keep me waiting, I'm all ears." Grima responded.

Naga shook her head. "No, not quite. I believe I have discovered something better." She said, further catching Grima's interest. "There is a world that I have been made aware of. It is so embroiled in war and chaos that I might be able to create a new body for you and send you there. If you do so, this will allow you a second chance. Your madness will not be present in your new body, but if you ever set foot in your world of birth again, the madness will reclaim you." Naga warned.

Grima stared at Naga for a few moments, silently considering the divine dragon's offer. A second chance at life, an opportunity to live -and die- again. To be free of the endless cycle. All he had to do… Was give up the world that he had fought tooth and nail for. Give up the world that he had given everything to try and change. Give up the world that hated him because he did what he thought was right.

It honestly tore him up inside. While Grima never regretted the lives he took before the madness claimed him, he deeply regretted the ones that he took afterwards. He had gotten too desperate. Too needy. He wanted to change the world, and that required far more power than he had back then.

But power corrupts, and Grima had gained far too much power to stay uncorrupted.

"Why now?" Grima asked. "What is so different now that could let you get rid of me?"

"Your vessel." Naga replied. "He is almost identical to who you were originally. His presence in the living world is the window that you need to escape from this world. Because of the fell blood's existence, your spirit can finally be free. This other world is in so much chaos that it is trivial for me to use my powers to send you there."

"Fine." Grima gritted out. "I'll leave this world behind then. Not like there's anything left for me here anyways."

Naga looked saddened that Grima didn't seem to feel sad about leaving her forever. "Very well." Naga said. "I do not know much about the world that you will go to. That is probably for the better. No one from this world should be able to follow you. No followers will know where you are. I wish you the best of luck in your next life, my old friend."

At that, particles of lights started dancing around Grima's form. The fell dragon huffed. "Yeah… I guess… I'll miss you too." He managed to reluctantly say before he vanished into thin air.

Naga had a sad smile on her face as she stared into the empty void that used to house her old friend. She was satisfied that at least before he left he told her that she was still somewhat important to him.

A desert.

Why was it always a godsdamned desert. Why couldn't have been a forest, or a plain, or even a tundra for crying out loud! His remains had been confined to desert for millennia! When was he going to be free of these infernal wastelands?!

And then Grima looked down and snarled. He was dressed like that blasted tactician that served as his vessel. While the man looked almost exactly like Grima himself, he didn't like the fact that he was currently dressed like the man. Even though his clothes were well suited for desert travel, Grima would have preferred to wear clothings more suited for his tastes instead.

Grima huffed in frustration. He would have to replace his clothes as soon as he hit civilization. For now, the tactician robes would have to do.

Tapping into his reserves of power, Grima was pleasantly surprised: his magic was nearly identical to what it had been before he had gone mad. He smirked at the thought. There was a reason why Grima had been feared by humanity even before he had lost himself and ascended into self-proclaimed 'godhood'. Grima was almost certain that his mastery over dark magic dwarfed that of almost any human. After all, he had millennia of practice and research that no other human ever could hope to achieve.

Satisfied, Grima did a quick inventory of his possessions. Looking at his waist, Grima saw the familiar shape of a sword sheath strapped to his waist. Unsheathing the sword ever so slightly, Grima noticed that it was the same as the tactician's levin sword. Grima had very little practice with the weapon, but a sword was a sword, he supposed. He had no tomes on him, which meant that he would have to stick to the levin sword for now. He had no idea how common tomeless magic was in this world, and he didn't want to draw much attention to himself just yet.

It was when he reached into his pockets that Grima froze. With his hands shaking with rage, Grima withdrew a small, perfectly smooth stone from his pocket and held it in front of his face. Grima's outward expression was blank, but internally, he was screaming with rage. He almost shattered the innocent-looking orb in his hands, but knew that he would need it in order to stave off the madness. After all, he was now a manakete again, and would need to take precautions. Still, seeing the innocuous-looking orb that had caused him so much grief, that he had fought so hard to get rid of angered him to no end.

Tanking a deep breath, Grima pocketed the orb again. He likely wasn't going to be changing into his dragon form anytime soon anyways, so there was no point in getting so upset over nothing.

In the meantime, the fell dragon knew that he would need to find people if he were to survive in this desert. Using a simple spell, Grima was able to sense a large amount of hostility to his north. He would likely find a fight there, and where there was a fight, there was almost certainly people.

Taking off at a light jog, Grima headed towards the source of the aggression. As he got closer and closer, Grima could hear the sound of steel colliding with steel, and picked up his pace, unsheathing his sword as he did so. As his destination came into view, Grima started analyzing the situation.

There was a small force attacking a well-fortified position. They had on red armor, and appeared to be approaching in formation. Obviously some form of military. The position that they were attacking was being guarded by a small force of spread-out warriors. They had no clear uniform, but it seemed to Grima like a silver-haired girl in the back was keeping them well organized. The fighters that seemed to be under her command seemed much more skilled than the soldiers that were assaulting the fortress.

In Grima's mind, there were two possible scenarios: the more likely, which was that the local military was taking care of a dangerous group of mercenaries or bandits, or the slightly less likely scenario where a corrupt military was attacking a rebel base. Either was, in Grima's eyes, it would take less time to take out the smaller force than the larger force, so he started approaching some nearby soldiers in the hopes that they would let him join so he could figure out where he was.

However, the moment he approached two heavily-armored knights, they pointed their spears at him, making the fell dragon raise an eyebrow at their antics. He tightened the grip on his sword to ready himself for a fight.

"Halt! Who are you, and what business do you have here?" The soldier asked.

"I'm just a traveler." Grima lied. "I was wandering the desert and lost my way."

The soldier looked at him skeptically. "Traveling the desert of death?! Yeah right. What were you really doing?"

Desert of death? Well, that answered the question of where he was. Now he just had to find out how to get out.

"Wait, look at his hair!" The other soldier said, which caused Grima to raise an eyebrow at the odd statement. "It's silver-colored!"

The other soldier's eyes widened. "You're right!" He exclaimed, before narrowing his eyes. "What is your connection to the silver-haired maiden?!" He demanded.

"Who?" Grima asked, blinking in confusion.

"The silver-haired maiden!" Seeing that Grima was still confused, the soldier continued. "The prophet of the dawn brigade?" Grima shook his head. "Wielder of the power of sacrifice?!"

"The power of what?"

"Don't listen to him! He's playing us for fools!" The other soldier shouted, which seemed to spur the first soldier into action.

"You're right! Alright you! Come quietly or prepare to get put down!"

Grima snorted in amusement and rolled his eyes. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. "Wait, do you mean that girl up there?" He asked.

That only angered the soldier even more, as the enraged man finally charged at Grima. Grima dodged out of the way of the spear and attempted to block the soldier's swing. Grima soon found himself on the defensive against a heavily-armored foe. Ideally, he would send a flux or nosferatu at his opponent and be done with it, but he still didn't want to attract too much attention.

Unfortunately, Grima was no swordsman. He was soon on the defensive against his foe, and he was losing ground rapidly. Grima had never really trained in the tools of humanity, preferring to stick to magic and his own natural weapons. At the realization, Grima almost smacked himself for his stupidity.

I'm not a swordsman. He thought to himself. I'm a godsdamned DRAGON and a SORCEROR.

So, channeling a small amount of dark magic through his arms and into his sword to harden it for what he was about to do, Grima swung his sword with all the force he could muster.

It was highly effective. Grima's sword swung through the lance that tried to block his strike, through the armor that was meant to deflect his attack, through the well-muscled chest of the soldier, out the other end of the armor, and through the tower shield that the knight had been carrying. Afterwards, there was still so much power left in his swing that Grima stumbled over his own feet ever so slightly and almost face planted.

The other soldier who had been watching the fight and had been happy to see his friend starting to win paled at the strength of the strange man in front of him. The moment that Grima turned his gaze onto the knight, the soldier made the best decision he had made all day: he ran as fast as he could run in his full armor.

"Hey! Get back here! I'm not done with you yet!" Grima shouted, regaining his footing and running after the knight.

Grima chased the knight up a set of stairs that led to a small courtyard. Just as Grima was about to reach the knight, a blinding orb of light appeared out of nowhere and hit the knight, causing him to scream in agony. Grima had to shield his eyes to avoid being blinded. Once the light died down, he saw steam coming out from inside of the armor of the now-dead knight. Grima nudged the knight with his foot, and then looked up at the kill-stealer. It was the same silver-haired girl from before that he had seen commanding the mercenary troops.

"I HAD that." Grima growled.

The girl gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that you'd claimed him."

Seeing Grima's glare intensify, the girl continued. "May I know your name?" She asked.

Grima sized up the girl. She was very obviously a user of light magic, and from what Grima could remember, that stuff hurt like hell when it hit a practiced of dark magic like himself. "Grima." He said curtly.

"Well, Grima. My name is Micaiah, leader of the Dawn Brigade. Are you friend or foe?" Micaiah asked.

Grima narrowed his eyes. "That depends." He said, making Micaiah tense. "Are you going to attack me?"

Micaiah shook her head. "Not unless you give us reason to."

"Can you get me out of this desert?" Grima asked.

Micaiah raised an eyebrow at that. "Yes… I suppose we could, but what were you doing in the desert of death, may I ask?"

"I got lost." Grima replied. "Also, tell your boy-toy to back off." Grima said, looking at a pillar a little ways away. At those words, a blushing green-haired man walked into the open and glared at Grima.

"Sothe!" Micaiah exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you approaching someone I didn't know." Sothe said. "I saw him cleave right through a man in full armor before, so excuse me for being paranoid.

Micaiah's eyes widened in shock, and she looked at Grima as if asking to confirm what Sothe said.

Grima simply snorted in amusement. "I'm a dark mage. It was simple to send some magic into my sword and arms. His armor wasn't protected against stuff like that, so it cut through him like butter." Grima half-lied. While it was true that he had used dark magic, that was mostly to prevent his sword from shattering. The force involved was mostly Grima's draconian muscles at work. He still didn't know if dragons were commonplace in this world, so he needed to be cautious with what information he gave out.

Micaiah still looked a little unsettled at the information, but nodded. Grima's answer seemed to satisfy Sothe as well, for he sheathed his daggers. Suddenly, an archer appeared from further into the fortress and stood next to Micaiah.

"Micaiah, Jill just did a quick scout of the area and cannot find any more Begnion soldiers. We're being asked to join the others inside."

"Thank you Leonardo." Micaiah said with a nod. "Grima, would you like to join us? I don't know how long you're going to stay with us, but if you can fight, we would appreciate your help. Our cause… Needs all the help we can get."

Grima mused over the idea. He didn't know what the 'Dawn Brigade' was fighting for, but their leader did promise him passage out of the desert. He was also new to the world, so having people to connect to and help him down the line would be beneficial.

Grima nodded. "Alright girl. You tell me what's going on, and I'll help."

Micaiah nodded with a smile. "I will have to leave that task to Leonardo. Sothe and I must go into the fortress to meet with someone." Micaiah explained.

Grima scowled, but reluctantly nodded. "Fine." He said, and the two left for the inside of the fortress. He did not like being kicked to the side for someone else, but knew that he would have to swallow his pride: no one knew who he was here. He was not as important here as he was used to being.

"Grima, was it?" Leonardo asked. "If you'll be joining us, I'll bring you up to speed." Seeing Grima's nod to continue, Leonardo started to explain the Dawn Brigade's situation.

"We are the Dawn Brigade: a small rebellion group trying to get rid of Begnion's occupation in Daein." Pretending like Grima knew what Begnion and Daein were, he nodded. "We've traveled to the desert of death to try and find the lost prince of Daein." Grima pretended to put on a shocked expression. He figured that would be big news. "I know, it seemed unlikely to me at first, I mean, how could that dastard Ashnard have had a son? Anyways, if you decide to join us you should know that our fight against Begnion's occupation has really only just begun. We still have a long fight ahead of us, and we could use your help if you're willing."

Grima looked deep in thought. Really, it was an easy choice for him. He would get to fight, (which he loved doing) he would build connections with the leaders that would rule what Grima presumed was a country, and figure out more about the world he found himself in all at the same time. Not really any downside that Grima could see.

"...I'll join you. For now." Grima said. "I'll at least tell you if I decide to leave." He added.

Leonardo smiled at the man's words. "Excellent. You'd actually be the first dark mage I've ever met. Your kind are quite rare around here. I'm sure you'll be a useful addition to our cause." Leonardo said. "Follow me inside. I'll introduce you to the others."

Grima nodded. However, his thoughts finally processed what Leonardo had just said.

Dark mages were rare.

If dark mages were rare, who would buy dark tomes?

If no one bought dark tomes, who would bother selling them?

More importantly, what were the odds that Grima would get any of them?

Grima swore rapidly in his head as he realized that he would likely be without any dark magic for quite some time.

"Here we are." Leonardo said, snapping Grima out of internal swearing session. "This is where we're camping out for the foreseeable future." Leonardo said, indicating towards a small campsite. People were pitching up tents and setting out weapon racks. "Let me introduce you to the oth-" Leonardo started, before he was interrupted.

"Leo!" Another voice interrupted. "Where've you been, man? I had to set up your tent for you!" Grima and Leonardo looked towards the source of the voice and found an orange-haired boy standing there.

"Oh, Edward. I was just busy helping out Grima. He's a dark mage that's going to be joining our group." Leonardo explained.

Edward's eyes twinkled at the idea of a new person in their group. "Cool! I've never met a dark mage before! Are you good? Do you do other magic? Why do you have a sword? Oh! Why's your hair-"

Edward's rapid-fire questions were halted when a strong arm pushed him to the side. "Alright Edward. Remember what we told you about getting too excited." Another voice said.

Grima turned and saw a tall, muscular man with a goatee and brown hair standing in front of him. The man in question held out his hand for Grima to shake. "My name's Nolan. Nice to meet you. Sorry about Edward, he can go overboard sometimes."

Grima shook the offered hand, but refused to comment on Edward, as he already felt like the boy was going to become a headache.

"Aww… Nolan… But he's a dark mage! C'mon, aren't you at least a bit curious?" Edward asked.

As Nolan and Edward started their back-and-forth, Leonardo pulled Grima away from the duo.

"Over here we have Laura and Aran. Laura's our only current healer, while Aran is our resident spear fighter." Leonardo said. The two in question were currently on their knees with their eyes closed praying just outside of their tent, but Aran opened his eyes to look up at Grima. He gave the dark mage a smile and was in the middle of raising up his hand to wave at the new arrival right before Laura smacked him on the back of the head.

"Aran! I told you to stay focused while you're praying! The new guy will be there later, we must pay respects to the fallen." She turned to look at Grima and gave him a large, innocent-looking smile. "Hello Grima. Welcome to the Dawn Brigade."

Grima simply nodded at the two, somewhat frightened by the healer girl with bipolar personalities.

He followed Leo onwards towards what looked to be the mess tent. Inside, a small girl had what appeared to be dozens of plates stacked next to her, but she had her head down on the table.

"Ilyana!" Leonardo shouted. "Are you okay?!"

"No…" Ilyana muttered.

"What's wrong? Did you eat too much?" Leonardo asked.

Ilyana shook her head. "No… So… Hungry…" She muttered weakly.

Leonardo simply stared in shock at the mage, before slowly backing out of the mess tent. Grima wisely followed his lead.

"That was… Ilyana. She's a recent addition, but she and Micaiah were our only mages before you came along." Leonardo explained.

Grima nodded his head. "What kind of mage is the girl?"

"Ilyana focuses on Anima magic, specifically on Lightning spells." Grima nodded in approval. Seemed the mages of this world specialized more than the ones in his world did. It was uncommon for an anima mage to focus on a specific school of magic in his world, and Grima never truly understood why. Even most dark mages tended to generalize, using almost as much anima magic as they did dark magic.

As Leonardo wandered more throughout the camp, a purple blur came right by them, followed by a scream of "leave me alone!" Not a moment later, another blur, this time red, pursued the purple blur with another cry. "Come back hubby!" The woman shouted.

Leonardo simply blinked a few times at the strange scene. "I think that was… Meg and… Zihark? I'm not sure. Both of them are really recent additions, so I don't know too much about them…"

At about this moment in time, Grima was starting to get wary of his situation. Why did this all feel… Familiar?

That was when it hit Grima. They were just like the damn Shepherds! They were all absolutely, utterly, insane! Grima looked at Leo nervously. He was a part of a group that was as insane as the Shepherds, he didn't care how normal Leonardo seemed previously, now that he knew the truth, he knew that Leonardo was secretly insane.

"Well, here we are. There's enough here for you to set up a spare tent. Any questions?" Leonardo noticed that Grima was staring at him strangely, as if to put together the pieces of a puzzle. Eventually, Grima shook his head.

What a weird guy… Leonardo thought to himself.

Grima simply stared at the spare tent in hesitation.

Was it too late to go back to the cycle of madness yet?

A/N:

Hey guys! So this is a new series that I'm going to start now and is probably going to extend until after I finish with The King's Tactician. I've actually got a ton of ideas on the backburner, but I want to finish TKT before I do any other of those. However, this one just came to me a few days ago and I really wanted to see what people thought of the idea.

For people who have never played Radiant Dawn, this is near the beginning of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Hopefully I can write this so that people who have never played the game can understand what's going on, because there's no way that I'm doing the chapter-by-chapter thing that I did in TKT here. For one thing, that's way too many damn chapters. For another thing, I've regretted doing that in The King's Tactician for quite some time.

Finally, I want to ask for suggestions for a pairing with Grima. I want to do one, but I'm not sure what to go with. Here are my current ideas, and the problems I have with each one.

Grima/Micaiah (Could work, Grima sympathizing with the terrible things that Micaiah does for her country, unfortunately, she's got a whole thing with Sothe, so I'm not sure.)

Grima/Elincia (Not sure about this. I liked Elincia, and I like the idea of Grima pledging his services to her, and being reminded of Emmeryn. Again, she's got a thing going on with Geoffrey, who I'm not a huge fan of anyways.)

Grima/Nephenee (Nephenee was one of my favorite units in RD, and she doesn't really have a pairing. Like the idea of an ex-god falling for a simple farm girl, especially Grima who I imagine would be a tsundere like Severa. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I can do Nephenee's character justice.)

Grima/Leanne (Basically a demon falling in love with an angel. I also have an idea for a snarky Leanne that can poke fun at Grima in a fun way. Unfortunately, like most of these women, she's usually paired with Nasaela.)

Grima/Mist (Hate Mist with Boyd. Just hate it. I love Mist as a character, and think that it would be a good match for Grima. Not concerned about age differences, since Grima is already a few thousand years older than all of these girls.)

So please let me know if any of you have a preference, or hate a pairing, or whatever. Also, please let me know if you like this idea, since this is kind of a 'pilot episode'.