Hey, sorry I took so long to get another story up! I had computer troubles, but it's all good. This is Shadow of Chaos's NinoxJaffar fic he requested, but sorry, SoC, it's not M-rated. And I don't think it turned out exactly like you would want. Well, let's see how this one is.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem or Nintendo. If I did, FE7 wouldn't have been rated E,

Angel of Grief

"Ah!" Nino cried as she slipped down the frozen waste of the Ilian mountain yet again. She had been trying to brave through the onslaught of the snowstorm raging across it for three days, attempting to reach the peak. It had been a battle between her and the bitter cold. Inside her mind, Nino felt that she was losing.

"I'll get to the top," she assured herself as she put her fingertips around a jutting rock. They had been slowly turning a light, icy blue the past day and were doing so as she used them to pull herself back up. "It's r-really…c-c-cold…" When she had first set out on her journey, Nino had not believed it would take her all the way to these mountains.

"B-but it would've b-been the best w-w-way to hide himself, up s-somewhere where not even the best of hunters could f-f-find him," Nino muttered as she struggled to produce even a basic fire spell. "And eve-even then…I will h-ha-ave a nice view…" But the cold combined with the amount of air was literally killing her. Nino's strength was fading, and she knew it.

Taking a rest, Nino dove into the shelter the mountain provided: a large covering made of rocks. This time, her desperate attempt at fire succeeded as she basked in its warmth, watching the flames dance around amidst the cold. "Jaffar…my angel…" She still could recall that day he left, both what she saw and what she felt. Her understanding and grief.

It had been a year ago in their peaceful Pheraen village. Eight years after defeating Nergal, Jaffar and Nino had raised two twins, both three now. Their names were Lugh and Ray, both adorable children, though Nino was concerned about Ray some days. She was worried that he might turn into the former version of Jaffar, the Angel of Death. But he was no longer a bringer of death. Her beloved Jaffar had become an angel of kindness.

That day, Nino and Jaffar were resting inside as it was a scorching hot day. Lugh and Ray did not seem to mind, though. Their two twins were outside behind the house, Lugh rolling in the grass while Ray was drowning.

"I'm a bit worried about Ray, dear," Nino confessed to her husband. "He seems a bit...well, I think he might slip into what you once were. Do you think so?"

"…I had no family. He has his brother and us. It is different…" Jaffar answered. "…your family…it is important. Trust in them like you have trusted me." Nino nodded, still being surprised at times by Jaffar. She never fully realized how different Jaffar was after marrying her.

"I will," Nino decided. She screamed as the front door shattered into millions of splinters and Jaffar leaped up from the ground. He ran to where he still kept his two sharp daggers as two men walked in.

"Where is the Angel of Death?" the first one asked, preparing a thunderbolt. He was probably the one who shattered the door, being a mage. The other was a swordsman.

"The Angel of Death no longer exists," Nino answered, speaking the truth. He's human now…

"Wrong answer, miss." A bolt flew from the man's hand, but as it flew like an arrow, Nino froze it in its tracks. It crackled as it faded away into the air as the mage rose his eyebrows at Nino's skill.

"Leave, now," she demanded. The first man laughed.

"Perhaps you need some convincing," he sighed. "Andilas, come over here." A hunched man with a face looking like a rate limped into a view. Nino gasped. With him were her two children.

"Hi mommy! You never say you have friends coming!" Lugh cheerfully shouted. "Who are them?"

"Be quiet, dear, while the grownups are talking. Cover your ears and turn around," Nino told them, ignoring her son's grammar for once as her children obeyed. "Now, let them go."

"Take me to the Angel of Death," the swordsman demanded, taking out his blade. "Or I will kill your twins. I will be swifter than any fireball you shoot at me." Nino clenched her fists, feeling defeated. "Well? Your answer?"

"The Angel of Death exists no longer," Nino replied. "The person you bounty hunters seek is no longer in Elibe. He has changed to the man known as Jaffar." The man was not satisfied.

"Well, then, let's kill the happier one first," the swordsman decided, raising his blade. He never brought it down, and as he gurgled, the other two men were puzzled.

"What the h-" The one who took the kids never finished the sentence as he fell, too. Jaffar seemed to have just materialized in the room. Neither mage knew how he had gotten in.

"I...um…well…" Jaffar and Nino glared at the remaining bounty hunter, the mage.

"Let him go," Nino pleaded to Jaffar. He sheathed his daggers as the mage fled from the two. "…kids, stay where you are for now." She bent down and had a controlled but intensified fire reduce the bodies to cinders quickly. "Okay, turn around now."

"Where did they go?" Lugh asked. Ray had run outside to go kill off ants again.

"They had business to do. I don't think they'll ever come back," Nino lied, her mind on other matters. They were after Jaffar…he made himself well known under Nergal's service. More will come and he knows it… "You can go out to play again."

"Okay, mommy!" Lugh ran off into the grass again, ignoring the heat that consumed Pherae.

That night, after tucking Lugh and Ray in bed, Nino saw Jaffar opening the door. "What are you doing?" She already knew the answer.

"Leaving…you three must live."

"We can fight them off," Nino protested. "Or we could ask Eliwood to give us a guard!"

"…no, that only restricts where we can go, making it easier for these people. And it would not be good for our children to grow like that…as for fighting them, one day there will be too much. They are after me, and me only."

"If both of us can't put them off, just one of us is bound to fail," Nino argued. "You stay or we go." Jaffar stood there for a while, silent. Nino believed she had swayed him when he took a step out, shaking his head.

"No, Nino…you three…you must live. You still have hope in your life…" Jaffar took another step, his mind set on leaving. He gripped tightly on his first true gift from Nino, long ago. Her pendant with her family's picture.

"Wait, Jaffar!" Nino cried, running towards the door. When she got there, Nino reached out to grab him, but he was gone. He was not running in the distance either. Jaffar had just left without a farewell, as if he never was there. And as long as the bounty hunters chased him, he never would be.

In a sense, I am a bounty hunter, too, Nino thought. She just was after a different treasure than the others. But to seek after this bounty, she had to give up a different treasure. One for another…

"Are you sure about this?" Lucius asked Nino, who now wore the garb of a traveler.

"Yes," she replied, "I am going to go through this." Nino had gone for a month without Jaffar, but she longed to see him again, if only in a dream. But he never came, even in her sleep; he had hidden himself well. Now it was time for her to seek after him, instead.

"…may you have good luck, Nino," Lucius prayed. "Let Saint Elimine guide both the souls of you and Jaffar…" She had decided to leave her kids with Lucius, in his orphanage at Araphen

"Thank you, Lucius, for the prayer." She turned to her kids, who were behind her. "Lugh, Ray, mommy's going to go on a trip."

"Where are you going?" Ray asked.

"I'm going to go get your daddy," Nino answered. "You know how he's been very busy on his trip."

"Okay, mommy!" Both Lugh and Ray embraced her as Nino swallowed. She had made her mind, and she would go on with her decision in this difficult situation.

"Now you two be good for Uncle Lucius, okay? Okay, you can go play now." Her twins ran off.

"Cute little kids," Lucius remarked. "They remind me a bit of what you were like during the strife with Nergal. A childish innocence and joy surrounding them…what happened to that girl?"

"She went with Jaffar," Nino replied, walking onto the path out of the city.

Lucius sighed, going off to introduce his new charges to the rest of the children. "Jaffar…you have always caused difficulty. First as an Angel of Death…but then you were Nino's angel of hope. What kind of angel are you now?" Nino barely heard those words, but she knew what they were and still remembered them.

"I don't know," Nino muttered, shivering in the cold. Standing up, she continued her traveling. Ten minutes later, against the wind and the cold, she collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air. There barely was any, and her body was too tired to find lower ground now. As the snow sprinkled over her legs, Nino thought as she was lying down. She thought about Jaffar, about Sonia, about her family, but she mostly though about her foolishness.

"Lugh…Ray…" she mumbled. They were either playing or sleeping right now under Lucius's care. She did not know if it was night or day here on the mountain, but what Nino did know was that she had been an awful parent.

I made the wrong choices, Nino thought. Jaffar knew what he was doing…but I blindly followed after him when it was clear I shouldn't. Lucius…will be…a better parent…than me.

Lucius was setting by the fireside, staring into the flames, letting the warmth enter his body and soul. "Some need this fire more than me…" He did not know who, though. "Nino, where are you right now? Searching for Jaffar…all that Jaffar brings now is grief. But it is not his fault."

"Care…for them…Lucius," Nino whispered into the air, never hearing the words. They were snatched by the wind. Closing her eyes, Nino exhaled her last breath as Lucius put the fire out to sleep for the night. The winds on the mountain howled as snow was starting to cover Nino.

Twenty years later, sometime after the war between Bern and the rest of the Elibe, a group had been traveling on the mountain. "Dark magic does not just tire the body but it freezes the soul," Ray explained as he and Lugh were lecturing on magic in Ilia. "We will not endanger everyone's lives by taking you through a snowstorm here, but we'd like you to see a hint of what dark magic feels like some times."

"And anima magic requires connecting to all of nature, not just some of it. You may love the breezes and seas more than the cold, but you must explore through it as well," Lugh explained.

"Lugh, Ray, look what we've found!" a swordsman called from ahead. He and a few others were there to scout ahead and keep them safe from any dangers, whether man or nature.

"A woman?" Lugh asked, staring into the ice. "Incredible…preserved perfectly in the ice." She stared at the woman with the green hair similar to his, eyes closed in both peace and agony. "Ray…does she…"

"Yes, she does stir some memories," Ray agreed, unsure of who in his past she was. "…but I don't know why…can you read her emotions?"

"I can't tell…it seems to be a mix. There's anguish and relaxation in there…but also worry…and most of all, I would say, grief."

"I wonder why she took off her pendant, though," Ray commented.

"What?"

"See, look there in her hand. That's a pendant clutched in it. But why would she take it off right before her death? Almost as if someone put it in her hand…"

"Maybe her lover?" Lugh suggested.

"I see no other bodies here. It would take extreme endurance and power to endure through this cold in probably what was a snowstorm during her death. She probably wanted to open it one last time."

"Probably…but I can't shake off the feeling that it was a parting gift…" Lugh admitted.

"Well, if someone gave it to her as she died or after, it would have to be nothing short of an angel."

Author's Notes: Well, what do you think? Again, I take requests FE6-FE9. If you want to request a ColmxNeimi or a Renault fic, don't worry, I'm already working on some.

For people that didn't figure it out, Lugh and Ray are indeed Nino's twins. Ray is more cynical than Lugh, though he's still pretty nice. I just exaggerated the cynical part into as evil as any toddler can get. Lugh's a mage, and Ray's a shaman.