Krystal here. I'm Continuing the Fire Emblem 100 Challenge here, with Franz and Amelia on what it means to be a soldier.

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You can do it…

The blood was pounding in her ears as the two armies met on the field, one in the red armor of Grado, her home country, and the other in the speckled outfit of the new army of Renais; her unit. The armor she wore barely fit, it was loose in the shoulders and her lance was almost too heavy for her to lift, and she was equipped with the lightest style of lance to add to it.

Deep breath…

Eirika stood at the head of the army with Seth by her side, slightly ahead of her, ready to take an arrow, a sword; he was primed to spring forward. Seth was the embodiment of the good soldier; he upheld the ideals that made Amelia join the Gradoan army in the first place; unwavering loyalty and honor. He was the symbol of the ideals she had betrayed, or that had betrayed her, she wasn't entirely sure. What she did know, was that she couldn't go back to Grado. She was a traitor to her country, when the fighting came, she was too weak to protect herself, in fact, and the enemy protected her. A boy named Franz, he could be her brother for their similarities, except from the fact that they fought on opposite sides. Instead of fighting when they met, he recruited her, convinced her to switch sides.

"Soldiers to arms!" Eirika cried, as the enemy charged across the plains in a sea of roaring red. Seth took up the cry as the small ragtag army got into formation like veterans, steady and sure. "To arms," he cried, "To arms!" His voice was drowned out by the screams of bloodlust from the others as the stronger units erupted from the ranks, sweeping past the commanding officers in a dull colored storm.

No time to think…

Amelia ran forward as well; not thinking, not questioning, and trying to go back to that place that made her join the army, that place where everything was right in the world. She tore as fast as she could, stumbling through the blind haze of blood that seemed to cloud her thoughts. An enemy advanced upon her, a soldier like her, wearing the red she once wore, his face invisible under the helm he wore, only his open snarling mouth was seeable.

This man, he could be my father, he could have lived down the road from me, why are we on different sides?

His lance came at her, startling her out her daze. Amelia recoiled, avoiding some of what might have been a fatal blow, she fell backwards into the already blood soaked ground. Her mind was too clouded to even comprehend that she had possibly seconds left before that lance ended her life.

Why?!

"!" The soldier stopped in his descent down to crush her, his helm falling off his head, revealing that his eyes were becoming dull, the blue of Grado slowly leaking out him like the life that ran out with his blood through the new wound in his torso. A new lance protruded from the now corpse of the soldier, seeming to prop him up, a kindly voice pierced through her fog, "Amelia, are you okay?"

Franz…

The blond boy looked worriedly down at her from his the saddle of his horse, helping her up with one hand, pulling free his lance from the soldier's chest with the other. "Are you okay?" he said it again, Amelia nodded, clutching her lance, too dazed to muster words. "Good, come with me. I'll keep you safe Amelia." Franz spurred his horse further into battle, and Amelia ran along, refusing to look at the carnage that littered the ground around her.

How many of those are my countrymen? My new comrades? How many of these faceless husks were recently people that I once knew?

An arrow whizzed at Franz from the left, "Franz!" He turned to look at her, as the arrow thudded into the plate on his chest; the boy warrior winced as he charged towards the archer that fired it in retaliation. Amelia heard the screams, and without looking, she knew that the archer had joined the soldier in the ranks of the ghosts who were now surely watching this battle.

Franz, when did you become a killer? Is this what "soldier" means? A killer, someone who fights, for honor, or his liege, or whatever name they choose to use, someone who destroys?

Another soldier appeared to do his duty, to rend a new hole in her small body, but by then, Amelia acted without thought, before the soldier could land a true hit, she had already buried her lance in his throat.

Am I destined to be a killer as well? Is this the future I have to look forward too? Killing people not so very different from me for a purpose I don't fully understand?

When Franz returned, he didn't even glance at the body by Amelia's feet, the bloody mockery of a human life that she had created, he simply pulled her back to her feet and urged her onwards with a kiss.

Yeah, I guess I am.