A noise woke me. The voices of Chrom and Lissa were whispered, but there. A dream within a dream wasn't all too uncommon for me, so my hopes were still quite high; but the fact that I hadn't woken up scared me. I opened my eyes and saw the siblings getting up. It was still nighttime, so I was naturally curious.

"What are you guys doing?" I whispered.

"Going for a walk. Chrom thinks something's up," Lissa whispered back.

"Mind if I tag along? It's not exactly easy getting back to sleep."

"I don't mind. Chrom?"

"I don't see why not." I grabbed my hat, and we set off into the night. I felt a little bad leaving Robin and Frederick behind, but I knew that they could handle themselves. After all, they did kill and cook a bear.

The walk was silent, mostly in hopes of not waking our other companions. It was almost deafening. Eventually, we reached a spot that was far enough away from them that we could talk.

"So what's up, big bro?"

"I'm not sure what it is, but-" He was interrupted by an earthquake. "Gods, what was that?!" As if in answer, the ground ripped apart near our feet. Lava spilled forth from the cracked ground, sending burning rocks toward us. "Run!" Nobody needed to be told twice. We all took off, Chrom in front. We ran through the burning forest, chunks of molten rock landing all around us, destroying the once-beautiful landscape. Eventually, we ended up in a clearing with a chance to catch our breath. Needless to say, I was absolutely terrified. Dropped into a world that wasn't my own, and now chased down by the Earth itself. Then it got worse.

"Chrom, what is that?!" Both our gazes followed Lissa's finger to a point in the sky. There was a bright flash of light against the starless night, which morphed itself into a crystalline eye. Through the blue center of it came two monsters. They were humanoid, with black skin, glowing red eyes and a mask that was something out of a nightmare. Every stale breath they took was accentuated by a cloud of purple smoke as they stood there, just staring.

"Lissa, Zack; stay behind me." Chrom's sword was drawn, and pointed at the two monsters. With a sound akin to a ghost being tortured, one of them rushed forward. Chrom sped towards it in an attempt to stop it, but Lissa and I had already fallen back. The other creature had locked eyes on us, and began to slowly advance.

"Lissa, what do we do?!"

"You think I know?!" She raised her staff in front of her face as it advanced towards us. We both backed up until we ran into a rock.

"Can't you hit it with that staff?!"

"I don't think that's gonna work!" The creature's weapon, a rusted iron axe, raised up to Lissa's face level. "Help!" It raised the axe, ready to cleave Lissa in half. My mind was flitting between helping and running for my life, so all I could do was remain still. Thankfully, I wasn't needed. Someone dressed in blue managed to get between Lissa and the creature, stopping the attack with a sword.

"Help!" A slightly effeminate voice called out to Chrom. The man in question ran forward, sword outstretched. In what seemed like a practiced maneuver, the two swung their weapons through the monster, managing to slay it on the spot. It vanished into what can only be described as a purple mist, and evaporated into the night. The two blue-haired individuals sheathed their swords, and Chrom attempted to talk to the mysterious warrior. I paid that short conversation little attention, however, because I was busy being horrified.

"Lissa?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you guys run into those things a lot?"

"I've never seen one before."

"I would say that I'm glad, but I have a horrible feeling that there's more."

"Me too." At that moment, Robin and Frederick came running up, concern on their faces.

"Milord; Milady! Are you unharmed?"

"Yeah! Some monsters attacked us, but then this… guy… hey, where'd he go?" The mysterious warrior had run off without any of us noticing.

"I know not, Milady, but I believe that we have more pressing concerns." Frederick pointed to a clearing that was filled with those horrid creatures. They were surrounding several decrepit forts, and hadn't noticed us yet.

"We have to stop these creatures from reaching the town. Lissa, you come with me and Frederick; we're going to try and reclaim the nearest fort. Robin, Zack; you two make your way to the farthest one. We'll regroup in the center of the clearing once all the monsters are gone." Chrom drew his sword, Lissa readied her staff, Frederick picked up his lance, Robin drew her sword and I… had nothing.

"Something the matter, Zack?" Robin was giving me a somewhat quizzical look.

"Sort of. I don't have a weapon."

"You don't?"

"Nope. Even if I did, I wouldn't be able to do much with it."

"Well, just… stay behind me, then."

"I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"Not being able to help very much. I get the feeling that you guys do this quite a bit, and I'm just a burden."

"Don't be like that! We don't know each other very well, but I'm sure that you have other useful skills. Not everyone has to excel at fighting."

"I suppose… I can still fight, though. I have some level of training, though only at close quarters." I didn't want to say 'Martial arts' in case she had no idea what I meant.

"Good. See? I told you you weren't useless!"

"I guess I do have some use." As we neared the undead soldiers, Robin pulled a book out of her robes. "A book? How's that going to help?"

"Just watch." She gave me a smile, and turned to face the monsters. They had noticed us, and were charging forward. Without warning, the pages of Robin's book began to flip open, and a light began to frame her body. She outstretched her other hand, shouting "Thunder!" and sent a ball of electricity towards the group of monsters. It managed to hit one and glance off another, killing one and wounding the second. She looked back to me with the same smile, and I could only stare. Was that… "Magic. Neat, huh?" I nodded. This confirmed it. Since I probably would have woken up by now if this was a dream, and magic never existed in my world, then I must have gone through dimensional travel. Unfortunately, there was no time to let it sink in as the creatures were directly on top of us. I slightly ducked behind Robin, and she swung at them with her sword. One was cleaved in half, the wounded one was only grazed yet again, and the last one went unscathed and charged at me. It raised its axe, and I immediately went into what I have called 'sparring mode'. My arm went up and grabbed its wrist while the other one went around the back of its arm and grabbed my own wrist. As fast as I could, I maneuvered my body around that of the undead one's and locked its arm into a position that usually makes people drop their weapon and stop. It did make the thing drop its weapon, but that was it. It quickly contorted its arm into a very unnatural position, which I should have expected, and attempted to punch me. I deflected both hits, and kicked its torso several times before doing a jump-kick to its head. To my surprise, the monster's face caved in, and it fell to the ground before dissolving. I guess these monsters have weakened flesh. Makes sense; they are decaying. I looked back to Robin, who had managed to finish off the other monsters that had come our way, and was staring at me.

"What?"

"That was incredible! I've never seen moves like that!"

"I wouldn't expect you to."

"Why not? Oh, right. Amnesiac. How did I forget that?"

"Um… amnesia?" Despite the situation, I managed to give her a cheeky grin. She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, funny man, let's go take that fort."

The proceeding fights were pretty much the same. Robin would take out most of them, while I would sit back and get rid of any that got past her. A few of them even went for me instead of her, but my martial arts training managed to keep them from doing too much. It was still an intense fight, and I didn't exactly come out unscathed. Several large bruises came from the ones that I managed to disarm, and one of them managed to get a good cut across my shin. That one probably would have killed me if an arrow hadn't flown through its head. Two more people had joined the fight; an archer and another knight similar to Frederick, except that she was female. And a lot more aggressive, if her fighting style was anything to go by. Eventually, with this new help, we managed to clear the area of monsters and returned to the center of the clearing to meet up with Chrom, Lissa and Frederick. On the way there, thanks to brief moments of eavesdropping between my frantic thoughts of how I may never get back, I managed to discern that the knight's name was Sully, and the archer was Virion. From those little snippets, I also managed to tell that Sully was very straightforward and, as I thought, aggressive; somewhat similar to a friend I had back home. Virion, however, seemed to be a womanizing nobleman, constantly hitting on both women. I would have intervened, but I was having my own troubles.

"We cleared our fort. Those things are very unsettling."

"No kidding! It's even worse when you can't do anything against them. It was like one of Ricken's scary stories!"

"Milady, I do not believe that a child's story is quite adequate to describe the nature of these beings."

"Freddy, have I ever told you that you're no fun?"

"Too often."

"So; Sully, what are you doing out here?"

"I heard that you were close to the capitol, and decided to come see you guys. Damn good thing I did!"

"I should say so! She and this gentleman, Virion, really helped us out. In fact, Zack may have been killed if not for them."

"Well, then, I thank you both."

"Speaking of Zack, you should see what he can do! He managed to take down quite a few of the monsters, and he doesn't have any weapons or armour. Lissa, if you wouldn't mind? We did manage to get a few scrapes."

"Right!" Lissa set to work with her staff, magically healing all the injuries and bruises we had sustained. When she got to my leg, she let out a small gasp. "This one is bad! I'm surprised you're even walking on it."

"I'm not. I was practically carried back." As Lissa began to treat my leg, everyone, excluding Sully and Virion, looked at me strangely.

"Is something wrong? Your tone seems a bit… downcast."

"Hm? Yeah, sorry. I'm not in the best place right now, Chrom."

"I wouldn't expect you to be, what with that leg injury."

"That's not what I mean. I think I've figured out how far from home I really am." Lissa looked up at me from the already half-healed wound.

"You didn't know before?"

"No… look, can I explain this when we get farther from the lava? I still need some time to process this."

"Of course. Lissa, how's his leg doing?"

"Much better now. Thankfully, it wasn't very deep. You should be able to walk on it now." I gave her a nod.

"Well then, let's get moving. I want to hear this explanation."

"We all do." Frederick gave me a wary glance, and our group set out. Unfortunately, after a couple of steps, my footing began to falter. Sully caught me and hauled me up onto her horse.

"Better ride with me, that wound's going to hurt for a little while. Trust me." I gave her a thankful smile as we set off, my mind filled with thoughts of 'how did this happen', 'why did this happen', 'how is this real', and 'will I ever get back'? Before we really got anywhere, though, a figure blocked our path. It was the person who had helped us out before.

"Thank you, for your help before." Chrom offered them a hand, but they remained still. "Okay… well, may I ask your name?"

"You may call me Marth." Hearing this longer sentence, I could tell that they were a girl. It was a terribly disguised voice, but I didn't feel like saying anything. After all, they were probably disguised for a reason.

"Marth? Like the hero-king of legend?"

"...This world is teetering on the edge of destruction." She didn't seem to hear what he had said. "Be prepared for what is to come." Then she turned and vanished into the shadows.

"That was weird. He was kinda dreamy, though." Evidently, Lissa didn't seem to notice that she was a girl.

"Well, strange or not, we still have a ways to go. Let's get moving." And we moved out again, uninterrupted this time.

Eventually, the horse stopped, snapping me out of my trance-like state. Far behind us, smoke rose in the air from the burning forest we had left behind.

"This seems like as good a place as any." Chrom turned to face the group; specifically me. "So, care to explain?"

"Um… right." I, rather clumsily, lowered myself off of Sully's horse and cleared my throat. "I'm assuming that you have never heard of alternate dimensions. Am I right?"

"Ugh. This is going to be a long, boring explanation, isn't it? We get enough of those from Miriel; why do you have to do one?"

"Because this is very complicated. You don't have to listen if you don't want." Lissa scurried off, probably to see how far we still had to go. "For those of you interested, please hold your questions until the end. Ready? Okay. I am from an alternate version of this world, different in many ways but similar in many others. There are an infinite number of these alternate realities, each one with differences from the other. About ninety percent of these worlds are just filled with boring differences, like what someone decides to have for breakfast. The other ten percent have extreme differences, such as one having magic while another does not. Now, to explain how I travelled between them. All of these worlds are in the same place at the same time, vibrating at different frequencies. I suppose I'll have to explain that too. Okay, everything in the universe vibrates on a molecular level at the same base frequency, or rate. By having every single other version of a world vibrate at just a slightly different frequency, these worlds can be in the same place without interfering with the others. That's how it would work, if everything was perfect. Occasionally, parts of these worlds manage to go at the same rate, and this creates a tear; a doorway between the different versions. These are usually tiny and far off, only transferring air or dust between the worlds. The bigger ones usually happen in space, and are extremely unstable, so they don't last long; certainly not long enough to get a person through. In order for me to travel between these dimensions, a smaller, stable one must have opened up near me. While it was open, something must have disrupted the flow of space-time in both my reality and yours. This expanded the hole, and sucked me through to your dimension. When I discovered I wasn't dreaming, I seriously hoped that it was time travel, because, believe it or not, that is much easier to fix than dimensional travel." I sat back on my knees. The whole time I had been talking, I drew illustrations of what I was trying to convey in the dirt. It didn't seem to help very much. There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone tried to process what I had just told them. Thankfully, Robin spoke up.

"So… do you know of any way to get home?"

"No. This has all been a theory up until now; and still kinda is since I'm not exactly sure how I got here, but the existence of magic here gives me hope. That and the portal that opened up over the woods."

"So, my good sir, you are saying that you are lost in a world that is not your own?"

"Something like that, yeah." Another long silence. This one was much less unsettling because everyone was trying to think of something that could get me back home.

"I can see Ylisstol!" Lissa's energetic yellings came from atop a nearby hill. "Come on! Let's go before more of those things show up!"

"Milady has the right idea. We should continue to the capitol and warn the Exalt of the demons we faced."

"Again, Frederick, you are correct. Let's move!" The troupe began to head out. While I was getting up from my place in the dirt, Robin practically whispered something to me.

"Don't worry; we'll get you home."

A/N: Explaining dimensional travel to people who don't know anything about the subject was easier than I thought it would be. Oh, and if you're wondering, yes I do know martial arts in real life. I am a black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do, so I know how to fight. I also know how to play guitar, and will include that eventually. Those will both be emphasized, of course, but I'm not going to make myself a god at both. That's just not cool. Anyway, if you enjoyed, please review or PM me with any ideas, questions or comments you may have. Until the next chapter!