A/N: Hey guys, second ever fic! As the title and summary suggest, this'll be based around Ike's supports with characters that weren't included in the game. Based around Awakening support conversations. NOTE: S Rank for women will be marriage/courting, whichever seems to fit more, and S Rank for guys will be the "best bro" type of endings. Each chapter will cover one rank for one character. Another thing, I have yet to play Radiant Dawn, but will plan on doing so soon, so if something seems out of place it could be that I haven't seen enough context. Now that the intro is done, let's get on with the fic!
Jill Support Rank C
It was yet another day at the Greil Mercenary base camp. Everything seemed right in the world: Mia was jumping around the camp asking to spar with whomever would accept, the green haired triplets were arguing with each other about whose style was better, Oscar being the median of Boyd and Rolf, and the rest were in the mess hall getting their lunch. Ike awoke in a daze; the previous night before the sporadic mercs had been fending off a legion of bandits attempting to ransack a nearby village. Much to Ike's dismay, he retained quite a few injuries, most of which continued to disturb the blue-haired mercenary in the morning.
Ike quickly disembarked from his makeshift bed, and groggily got up. He fastened his usual armaments to himself: a leather shoulder pad, his steel arm guard, and his headband. While doing so, Ike grunted in pain, the wounds from last night sustaining its bothersome sting. After completing the arduous task of dressing himself, he retrieved a regal sword from his wooden chest in the corner, handling it with great care. It had not been long since his father passed away, and Ike had no intention of forgetting it, carefully keeping Greil's passed down belongings with care. He sheathed the regal sword into its leather container at his side, and move through the tent flaps to assess his camp.
The cold breeze immediately hit Ike's face, his hair blew in the wind and became messy as usual. He descended the hill on which his tent rested upon, and made for the barracks. Upon opening the door, he saw almost all of his companions happily enjoying their lunch, taking advantage of their much needed rest from combat. He smirked in response, and headed for his office to finish off some paperwork Soren had been bothering him about.
Making his way down the hallway, he saw the new recruit that aided Ike's team against the laguz pirates a couple of weeks back. He wrapped his hand around his chin, trying to recall her name.
'Hmmm, what was it again... Jill? Yes... that sounds about right'.
Despite forgetting her name, he could not forget her previous employment: a wyvern rider for the Daein army. Ever since the murder of his own father by a Daein general, Ike could never forgive the Daeins for their sick crimes and discrimination toward the other nations. He wanted her away from the camp, and as far as possible.
"Good morning, Jill", Ike announced in a very monotone fashion.
Jill immediately turned to face her new commander, her red ponytail flapping about as she did so.
"Hello commander, it's good to see you."
"Why are you still here? We greatly appreciate your help, but we have no desire to let you stay. You are, of course, our enemy, and we prefer if our enemies didn't sleep 10 feet away from us", Ike coldly responded.
Jill closed her eyes, giving herself a few moments to think of a proper response, and answered back "I want to stay here to learn what the Daeins refused to teach us. Ever since the battle on the ship, I've noticed that not all laguz are evil, the way those dragon laguz helped you shocked me. I... want to become one of you."
"We have no desire to harbor our own enemy! You Daeins have done nothing but harm others and have done little to prove to me otherwise!" Ike yelled back.
Jill was taken aback by Ike's outburst, she looked at the ground for a second, and yelled in response "No! I refuse to leave without knowing what the actual world is like! Ever since we were born, we were taught that laguz were evil beings, and that any ally to them is an enemy. After seeing you fight bravely along side them, I've come to realize that what we were taught may not have been true. Please, at least let me pursue my own truths before you throw me out!"
Ike clenched his teeth at her response, and was lost in thought about what to do. Should he really let a Daein soldier stay with him, possibly endangering his friends, or should he throw her out, going against every moral his father had taught him.
They both stared at each other, hoping the other would back down. After a few moments, Ike had finally come to a conclusion.
"Very well, I will allow you to stay, but on one condition: you play a game of tactics with me. We'll each have a separate army to command, and I'll assess you on the outcome."
"I only have to play right?" she asked in response.
"Yes, no matter the outcome, I will allow you to stay to learn our customs and way of living. The game is merely to decide how I personally should treat you and how my companions will as well."
Jill smirked at him, "Hmph, challenge accepted."
Ike nodded back at her, and led her into the war room.
Ike opened the ironclad door to the war room. Here, Soren and Ike planned their coming battles. The room was filled with bookshelves on strategy, human behavior, and synopsis on each nation and its history. In the middle was a table with a map placed on top. Symbols dotted the map from top to bottom, making clear indications on whether or not it was terrain and what kind was it.
They both strolled into the room, and Ike motioned Jill to sit across the table from him. He placed intricate figurines on the table, each indicating the unit it corresponded to. Soon after, the map was decorated with mounted flyers, knights, swordsman, etc. Upon closer inspection, Jill noticed that her side at considerably more units than Ike's did.
"Hey, what gives, why do I have so many more units than you do?" Jill interrogated him.
"It's part of the assessment," Ike said in a smug manner, "ready to begin?"
Jill nodded back.
"Very well, let the games begin!"
Some time had passed, and the game had changed dramatically from what Jill originally expected.
Her units had been absolutely decimated by Ike's small force, and she was completely unsure why this was the case.
Ike made a mental note in his mind about what his father had taught him when he was younger, 'In life, we may be able to hide our faces and personalities with common facades, but in battle, your true nature comes out.'
Through out the battle, Ike noticed that Jill was sending in her laguz to take the brunt of the damage first, most of which couldn't transform for the first few turns. He quickly dispatched them and moved on to the forces she kept alive.
Seeing her forces so easily decimated, she panicked and sacrificed more units with stubborn decisions. The battle quickly came to a close when Ike slayed her enemy commander with his own.
Ike let out a sigh of relief, even with his victory, the match was hard fought and close.
"That concludes our match, it was a good battle, but you quickly lost your cool and your treatment of your units clearly show your lack of care. You may leave now."
Jill became flustered and her face flushed red. Never before had someone defeated her in combat; albeit it was theoretical combat, but still. She was also embarrassed that someone could read her tactics and habits so easily.
With the game concluded, she quickly got out of the seat and left the room without a word, still flustered.
Ike leaned back in his chair, tilting it so it was resting on its two hind legs. He contemplated on the match, 'Her usage of units was non-optimal, yet she gave me that much trouble beating her. Hmmmm... Maybe I haven't given her enough credit.'
Ike sat back up and proceeded to gather up the game pieces and put them in a wooden strongbox on the table. After everything was cleaned up, he left the room.
'I probably shouldn't have been so hard on her, I should go apologize tomorrow.'
Turning off the lamp light, Ike intended to join his friends at dinner. At the door, he briefly stopped for a moment, 'Why am I still thinking about her? Oh well, probably should go talk to her about it later.'
And with that ending thought, he closed the door shut, and walked down the candlelit hallway.
Jill Support Rank C Acquired!
A/N: And with that ends the first chapter! This fic will be updated hopefully by a week from this release date, but with school starting soon I can't say that it will happen for sure, it might take a little longer. Another note, sorry if the characters are a little OOC if you think so. Please make sure to review so I can improve my writing, it's greatly appreciated! With that final comment, I bid you adieu.