FIRE EMBLEM: HEALER'S REPLACEMENT

This is another of those lovely, half-brained ideas of mine…but I think you might like it. This is a story inspired by the fan-fiction Fire Emblem: Path of Wyverns. (Written by Blue Wyvern Rider; I checked his last update and he wasn't doing so hot, so I'm sending my best wishes his way. Hope things get better and you get back to writing soon, Blue Wyvern Rider.)

I do not own anything from Fire Emblem.

Chapter One: A Staff and A Death

I stepped off the bus from my sheltered workshop job, grabbing the handles on my walker and turning to my driver.

"I will see you tomorrow morning, Hanna!" he said cheerily, as he always did.

"Yeah, you too!" I replied. He got into the bus and left, and I went up the porch ramp and into the house. It was a cold December day, but not so cold that I needed gloves. After unlocking the door and going inside, my big orange cat, Rambo, met me in the middle of the kitchen floor.

"Mommy," he said with his facial expression. "You have left me waiting all day…and you are late!" He approached me, rubbing his face against my knee. "You know I do NOT like it when you make me wait for my treats and attention sessions!"

He then walked me into the next room, where a bookshelf of treats was waiting for him. "Which one, Bosy?" I asked, reaching for the chicken-flavored ones. He got up on his hind paws, pawing at the container just as his "brother", Gunner, bolted from the bedroom.

"MOMMY!" the gray furball seemed to cry with his expression, jumping to his own hind legs, pawing the container as if wanting to open it himself. "Open de treats! Gimme treats! Gimme treats NOW!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" I cried, spilling a big pile of the treats on the floor and letting the eating machines go to town. I went to the computer to check my e-mails, debating a question that had bugged me for a long time: What did my future hold?

It was a question to which I seemed to have few answers. I was a student at the local community college, training to become an administrative assistant. I had been working factory jobs to make my way ever since I had graduated from high school with top honors. I had trained in advocacy and joined a human rights group for a short time. I should have had the whole world opening up in front of me…but there were a couple of elephants in my way.

And those elephants had ugly names: cerebral palsy, autism, and my lack of ability to drive. I sighed as I sat in the chair; why did people think that just because I had disabilities, I had to be wrapped in bubble wrap, sheltered and protected from even falling? Why did the government think they had to control my money, and bar me from receiving services if I didn't let them? Worse yet, what gave them the right to stick their nose in my life?

I knew the answer: they didn't know me. They didn't believe in me – in fact, very few people really believed in me. I went through the e-mails, most of them being junk…when I heard a loud clatter at the door. I was startled; was someone there?

I hopped out of the chair and moved as quickly as I could to the door. Peering through the screen, I saw…a white bundle lying on the porch. I was able to discern that it was a person, because a pale hand was clamped around a funny-looking rod. The person tried to pull himself or herself up, but it was evident they were having a lot of trouble. I opened the door, closing it quickly behind me so the boys wouldn't escape. I knew it may or may not have been safe, but I couldn't just leave the individual lying there.

He (or she) needed help.

I knelt beside the individual and found it was a man – an orange-haired man with red eyes. His face was pale, and his breathing labored. He looked ill, and deathly so. He turned his eyes up to me.

"Help…me." he gasped out.

"Sir, I know you need help. I'm going to go back in and get my phone, and I'll call 911 for you. You need-"

"No!" he gasped out weakly. "Can't…save me. You…must replace…me. Take…this staff…go to…Greil."

"Greil?" I mused to myself. Did he mean…Greil from the Greil Mercenaries?"

"Take…it, now!" he said, grabbing for my hand. Before I could move to stop him, my hand was on the base of the staff…and in a flash of light, the scenery changed around us. A moment ago, we were on my mom's porch…now, we were on the ground in front of a large fort. I recognized it almost immediately…the fort of the Greil Mercenaries.

Whether I liked the situation or not, I was now stuck in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. This was one of my dad's favorite videogames – but it wasn't a good place for someone like me.

And I didn't know how I was supposed to get back home. "Rhys," I said, knowing who had brought me here. "I want to go back home. I don't want to be here."

The man was barely conscious now, but he knew what I was saying. "Please," he begged, a tear in his eye. "Take…my…place. Greil needs-"

"Rhys?" a sharp, crisp female voice said. Suddenly, a tall, red-haired woman in full armor – Titania – appeared, sitting almost opposite me over Rhys's now dying body. She seemed curious at first – but one look at him and she knew something was horribly, horribly wrong.

"You, get off him!" she snapped at me, examining him. "No, no, no, Rhys, please don't leave us. We need…NO!"

The deputy commander of the Greil Mercenaries descended into loud sobs, loud enough for perhaps the whole complex to hear. I grabbed onto the staff, desperate for it to activate a second time and take me away from this place.

I wasn't supposed to be here. I couldn't be here – I had so much to do back home! There was no way I survive a war here. Tears were suddenly in my eyes as a sensory overload took over.

This was too much to handle. Suddenly, however, Titania had her arms around me.

"Shhh…I don't know how you got here, but I can make this okay, I swear," she said. "It's alright; please calm down-"

"NO, IT IS NOT ALRIGHT!" I screamed. I honestly wanted to hit her, wanted to hit Rhys for taking me away from home as some kind of sick dying wish joke. Titania kept hugging me, running her hand through my hair, tying to be Mom at a time when it may or may not be okay.

"Breathe, miss, please just breathe," Titania begged. "We can make this okay; I promise. Whatever you were taken from, we can do just as good if not better. It's going to be okay, just breathe."

I tried to breathe – tried to realize what had happened. I would never see my parents, sister, friends, or cats again. Every possession I owned, save the clothes on my back, was now gone.

I tried to wrap my head around the fact – and couldn't. I grabbed the staff a second time – why didn't it work before?

"It's broken, honey," Titania replied. "It won't work."

I screamed out loud, in rage and confusion. That…I had no words for the piece of human pond scum that was Rhys. I might be able to forgive him…in ten thousand years from now…but if he hadn't already been dead, I would have killed him. Only Titania's hug kept me from completely turning into a ballistic animal.

Finally, I quieted down…and I looked up to see Greil (aka Gawain) standing over us.

"Titania…what in the world is going on here?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Rhys…he's dead," Titania said. "His illness…it must have been far worse than what the doctors said."

"Curses and blast!" Greil said. He then looked at the staff, and another profane bout of swear words left his lips. "That…that staff…he must have made it himself," he finally said. "And…Titania, who is that?"

"I don't know…but I think he dragged this poor girl off from wherever he went…to be his replacement," Titania said. "Honey…will you talk to us, please? We mean you no harm…we just want to know who you are, so we can help you."

I couldn't speak, so I just nodded.

It took thirty minutes of Titania and Greil just talking me down, saying over and over how sorry they were that they couldn't help me. "Please, forgive us," Greil finally said. "If we knew what Rhys would do…he must have known he was dying, there's no other explanation…we would have done all in our power to stop him."

"I know…I know," I replied. Harsh, hateful reality was setting in – and it hurt as badly as finding out I'd been condemned to Hades. "I just wanted to help."

"We did, too," Greil said. I had to hand it to this man…he was like my dad, only stronger and calmer. "Now, would you tell us your name?"

"Hanna," I replied. "I'm Hanna…and I have brain trouble, so that's why I freaked out so bad. My brain and legs don't work right."

Greil cursed again. "What in the world was he thinking? Did he really lose his mind?"

"Greil…we have to do something for Hanna, there's no other way," Titania said. "If we don't somehow permit her to take Rhys's place…she'll be out in the streets as a beggar. No one will take her if what she said is true."

"I know…but I'm worried that she won't be much good unless some kind of arrangement is made for her. I saw how she walked, Titania – she's a sitting duck unless she's guarded."

"Rhys was the same way."

"I don't want her getting killed!"

"Neither do I, Greil – this is a death trap that Rhys has set, either by accident or otherwise!" Titania said. "But…I think we should ask her. We need to know if this is the kind of life she wants."

Greil cleared his throat. "Hanna…we can't take you back to where you came from…but we're willing to make you an offer. If you would…can you take up our fallen friend's staff, and serve as our healer? I promise you'll have good pay, and a good place to sleep, and good food on the table."

It was my turn to ask questions. "Can you…put up with me?" I asked. "Can you deal with my emotions – my issues? The doctors…they couldn't fix what was wrong with me back home, and I'm sure your doctors can't either. I'm not going to be what you normally deal with…but can you try?"

"We will try," Greil said. "We're the Greil Mercenaries – we can take on any challenge, big or small. Don't worry, Hanna…we need your help now. Rhys is dead – and we can't go without a healer. We need you."

"So be it."

Greil took me by the hand and lead me into the mess hall, where Oscar, Boyd, Rolf, Ike, and Mist were sitting at the tables, crying. Ike had just been made a new mercenary, but that had now been overshadowed by the sudden tragedy.

"Everyone, please meet our new healer, Hanna." he said, acting as a true commander.

Every eye in the room turned to me, and they came up to me, hugging me and saying how sorry they were about the situation. Ike, Greil's son, took my hand.

"It's gonna be okay," he said. "Just hold on, Hanna."

"Hanna…has…what is it you said?"

"I have brain damage," I replied. "My legs don't work that well, but I believe I can complete the task of healer. I'm mad at Rhys, but-"

"We understand your anger," Boyd replied. "Blimey, if it was me that was taken from my home and dumped in some foreign place, I'd be mad too!"

"So would I." Oscar replied.

"What that all means…is that Hanna doesn't function like we do, or think as we do," Greil said. "She's a baby that's been dumped in the deep end of the pool – so please, try to be understanding."

"We will." They all replied.

With a smile, Greil gave me Rhys's old Heal staff and a vulnerary. "Welcome to the Greil Mercenaries!"