Summary: Well, Orange Star needed more COs. And both Train Heartnet and Eve looked like potential candidates…

Takes place after both Advance Wars Dual Strike and Black Cat ends.

Disclaimer: Advance Wars belongs to Intelligent Systems and Black Cat belongs to Kentaro Yabuki. I own absolutely nothing in relation to either works, except for the idea to mesh them together.


Prologue

"It was the name, then?" the quiet, young, and wistful man asked.

"Names are important," the black-haired, red-eyed woman responded softly. "In some cases, the name can affect the people around you. Your name obviously carried an enormous burden. I'm just surprised it took so long for something this drastic to happen."

"No, you're not," was the answer. "You claim that everything is hitsuzen. I'm sure you foresaw it happening. Whether you didn't help because you didn't want to or you couldn't is the only thing I'm wondering about."

The Dimensional Witch took a moment before answering. "Just because something will happen doesn't mean I'm not surprised that that was the result. As for your question, I couldn't help unless it is the wishes of someone else. In your case, you still thought you could pull everything together, and so you never thought to ask another person for help."

The night was still and serene. No wind sang through the traditional Japanese house, and although it was spring it was slightly cold. The moon lay in the sky, uncovered by clouds. Once upon a time it was pretty, perhaps beautiful – now it was just unforgiving.

"I have a wish," the man said.

"If you didn't, you wouldn't be here."

"Can you grant it?"

"If you can pay the price."

"Such as?"

"One of the prices will be your freedom. For you, freedom is worth even more than your life. If you want me to grant your wish, you need to give me your freedom – for the next couple of years, at least."

A hint of surprise lit up in the desolate eyes of the former Commanding Officer. It was immediately replaced by a sad acceptance. "Take it."

The Dimensional Witch nodded. "The other price I require is your story."

The man looked up, his face harsh. "You already know it."

"But you refuse to look at it," the woman countered. "This is the greatest failure you ever had in your life, but your mind still refuses to accept that it happened; your pride of success, and to a lesser degree, the human mind's denial mechanism, prevents you from doing so. What you need to do for me is to look at it, and say truthfully, 'it was my fault', or you will never admit that it occurred. In other words, I want you to give up a piece of your pride."

It was a cruel price. Only memories came close to the value of pride, and the witch had only asked for memory twice in her career. This was the first time she asked for pride, and it clearly represented the value of the man's wish.

He was silent for a moment. Two moments. Then he began to speak.