Author notes: I have to apologize for the delay in the release of this chapter but it is finally here. Thank you to all the reviewers, is good to see that I'm not doing this for nothing. Your support is really appreciated.

Anonymous reviewers:

-Naoko Minami: Thank you for the support.

-Sturm und drang: You have chosen as a nick the name of the best Mystic Arte that will ever exist. I have to admit that is fun to use the "evil" characters as main characters. Even when they do good stuff they don't do it in the most correct way. I'm glad that you like my fics, thank you for the review.

-Aramis: Thank you for the review. I also like D/S pairs.

EPISODE 1: A NEW BEGINNING.

Chapter 6: New faces.

Flagship of Meltokio's navy, 'Martel's Hope'

Marta woke up with the first light of morning. She and Emil had been invited onto the flagship of Meltokio's navy by Alexia, and now they were going back to Palmacosta, her home town. The first thing she did was check on how Emil was, and as she expected, he was asleep. Marta couldn't help but smile at him as he breathed calmly. She finally got up and dressed herself before leaving the cabin, ready to take a calm walk on the top deck. Marta went out and took a deep breath as she yawned and stretched her arms while the sea breeze caressed her face and hair. It was the perfect morning. But her perfect morning soon was crashed by Alexia's encouraging commands to her troops.

"Run faster, you bunch of pussies!" Alexia shouted to her soldiers. "The one who gets tired first will be on guard duty for the next three nights!"

Maybe she wasn't trying to encourage them as much as scare them. But anyway, Alexia was better than Alice teaching discipline, or at least her methods and punishments were less cruel than Alice's. A chill climbed Marta's back as she remembered some of Alice's abusive disciplinary methods.

An Imperial knight suddenly appeared, running towards Alexia, waving in his hands in the air. "Ma'am! Ma'am!" he shouted.

Alexia interrupted her orders and commanded the rest of the soldiers to continue with the exercises as she came closer to the knight who had just called her attention. "Yes? What is it! I hope is important." she demanded.

"We are arriving at Palmacosta." The knight announced trying to recover his suffocated catch his breath. "We will be there in less than an hour."

"Perfect! Let's get ready to land!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Marta didn't waste a single second. As soon as she heard the news she went running to the cabin she and Emil were using to wake him up.

"Emil get ready! We're arriving at Palmacosta!" she said, shaking the boy slightly.

"Wh- Whaaaaat…" He said, yawning and rubbing his eyelids as he tried to understand what the blot that was before him was telling him.

"We're arriving at Palmacosta."Marta repeated.

Emil sat up on the bed and finally realized that the blot that was talking to him was no none other than Marta. "Already?"he asked, surprised.

Marta smiled and nodded in response.

"OK… Let's get ready then." He answered, not really enthusiastic, to Marta's disappointment.

She wanted to ask him if he was worried about something or if something was wrong, but after thinking about it twice, she decided that he had just awakened and that it was normal if he wasn't in the best mood possible. So she decided to let his answer pass. After all he never had been the most enthusiastic guy in the world.

Palmacosta

When the flagship finally arrived at Palmacosta, its metallic housing ridiculed the simple and outdated wooden boats that were tied in the port. As it came closer, its intimidating presence made some people run away while others came closer, intrigued by the curiosity. When the enormous flagship finally landed, even the bravest person took a step back.

"Home, sweet home!" Marta shouted happily as she walked down the ramp that was lowered to allow passengers to disembark. "C'mon, Emil!"

"Calm down, Marta." Emil said from behind her. When he saw all the people looking at them, a question crossed his mind. "What are doing all those people down there?"

"I don't know… I don't think that they are here to welcome use for all we have done. Don't take me wrong, I don't want to be praised for it, but people could be a little more considerate." Marta pouted.

"Yeah… I understand what you mean. It's as if we haven't done anything at all."

Alexia coughed from behind to call the teens' attention.

"Kids, stop the chat and go down faster. We are in a hurry here, and you are blocking the only path for me and my troops." The woman said, annoyed.

"Oh… Yeah, sorry." Emil answered scratching his hair and going down faster to let Alexia and her troops finally land.

When they were finally down, the Templars and the Imperial Knights took a military formation in the middle of the harbor. The mass of curious people began to leave as soon as they saw the Church of Martel's insignia on the Templar's armor. Someone could think that there was no reason for that but after all the misfortunes that they had suffered at the hands of the neighboring continent, the people of the city had become much more fearful.

Alexia gave her orders, not seeming to care about the current situation of the town. "Listen! You will divide in groups of two, register all the boats, register the town and try to find any information about our two targets. If you find them do go against them alone, they are too dangerous. Understood!"

"Ma'am! Yes, ma'am!" the knights chorused in response.

"Leave!"

Alexia then called the brunette's attention. After all, she hadn't taken her with them just to do her a favor. "Marta! I would like you to inform the person in charge of this town of our arrival." She said, looking around. "It looks like we might have given the wrong impression here."

"OK. Let's go Emil!"Marta said.

Emil nodded and accompanied Marta to the Town Hall.

"Good, good, good…" A mysterious man said as he clapped his hands with a calm smile as he approached to the knights.

His smooth hair was long and as black as a roach. His gaze was calm, as if he had everything under control. The man was dressed with a ruffled, crimson shirt covered by an opened and elegant black coat that went down to his knees. The ends of the black tights that covered his legs were lost into his long, black boots. In his left hand he carried a little black briefcase.

"You have made a great show here." The man said, looking around him

"Who are you!" Alexia asked, coming closer to him while using her lance as a cane.

"I should be the one asking you that." He responded.

"I'm Alexia from Meltokio. I am the leader of the Templars and of these Imperial Knight troops. I will ask you again: who are you and why you are in our way!"

"My… Those Tethe'allans." He murmured to himself, loud enough to be heard. "They always think that they can do whatever they want, wherever they want."

"She asked you a question! Didn't you hear her!" An imperial knight demanded, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at the stranger.

"My…" The guy said, holding his forehead with his hand. "So much arrogance."

"Soldier! Sheathe your sword!" Alexia ordered the knight.

"This Sylvaranti is disrespecting us and our army!" he objected.

"Disrespecting?" He chuckled. "How amusing… I first need to respect you to disrespect you."

"Enough! I will shut his filthy mouth!" The knight charged the man, ignoring his superior's orders. He was ready to teach a lesson to the arrogant Sylvaranti.

With incredible speed and skill, the man opened his briefcase and took out a violin. He put it over his shoulder, accommodating his head to the instrument, and took the bow with the other hand. Some knights began to chuckle at that, but it didn't seem to bother the musician. As the knight came closer, he began to play a dramatic music, that quickly became faster and grew sharper and suddenly, from nothing, magic runic symbols submerged in a score began to surround the musician, following the rhythm of the grotesque melody.

"Dark grip!" After the musician pronounced those two words, six arms made of black smoke came from the ground and grabbed the knight by his limbs and lifted him several feet from the ground. Following the rhythm of the music, the hands, sharp as claws, began to remove his armor as he the musician kept playing the notes with his violin. One by one, the hands removed all the armor pieces until the knight was dressed in nothing but his underpants.

"Aaaaaah!" The knight screamed as he struggled comically.

"Release my soldier!" Alexia commanded, threatening the musician with her lance.

The man slowed the rhythm, making all the arms but the one that was holding the knight by his ankle disappear.

"You should stop it, Dias before you put us in a troublesome situation." A feminine voice said from behind.

"Don't worry, Raine, I wasn't going to hurt him." Dias said, smiling and holding the calm tempo with his violin. "But no one likes an unfinished move." And with those words Dias recovered the fast rhythm, finishing his little composition as the black hand sent the imperial knight flying into the sea.

"That guy needed a cold bath." He finished.

"This is no way to treat them. We are making too many diplomatic efforts for you to break them in a single moment."

"But Raine, did you see all the commotion? I was only doing my job."

The half-elf rolled her eyes.

"I apologize for any trouble that he may have caused. Governess Dorr is waiting for you, Alexia."

Alexia frowned, but followed the half-elf and Dias to the town hall.

"So you are Raine." Alexia said casually. "I have heard a lot of good things about you and the help you have offered to the half-elves."

"I guess that you mean attempts to help-elves. In two years I haven't reached any of my goals."

"I doubt that is true, things have changed in these last two years."

"Things haven't changed at all. The tolerance is just a facade to look better in this new society. Deep down people haven't changed. You just need to look around to see that people still reject us for being different. I'm afraid that is something that I will never be able to change."

Alexia nodded as both women, followed by Dias, entered in the town hall where Clara Dorr was waiting for them.

Dias and Raine took a seat while Alexia presented her respects to the governess.

"Please take a seat." The governess said as she took her seat. "From what I have heard, you must be Alexia. I'm pleased to meet you. I have to give you my most sincere condolences for the death of the king. I hope that Dias hasn't caused any trouble to you."

"Thank you, Governess, and actually he did. He didn't follow any protocol, and attacked one of my men."

"In my defense, I will say that I attacked him in self-defense." Dias said.

The governess took a deep breath and gave a murderous look to Dias. "I see, I apologize for his behavior. But we have to be cautious. Lately we have been having problems with some people that still think that Lloyd and Tethe'alla were the culprits of the Blood Purge in Palmacosta. They have begun to praise the Vanguard. And to make it worst some people have begun riots to pressure us to free Brute. But we can't and we won't do that." She assured Alexia

"That makes no sense. We sent copies of all the reports to Sylvarant." Alexia said, surprised.

"We know, but there are people who think that all those reports are false. At the beginning, we could ignore them but then they began to attract more people, and they are becoming a real menace. That's why I asked help from Raine and why I decided to hire Dias to keep those vandals in their place. But anyway, how can we help you?"

"We think that Alice and Decus, two dangerous members of the Vanguard, will come to Sylvarant. Our mission is to take them and kill them."

"I see. As if things weren't already bad enough…"

Governess Dorr stood up and looked at the sea through the window, letting the seconds pass slowly as she thought about what Alexia had told her. "As things are right now, if we killed them we would only make them become two martyrs that could be used to encourage more people to join those riots. But we cannot let them walk freely from our lands. Not after what they did."

Alexia noticed the deep hatred in her last quote.

The governess took her seat and supported her elbows over the table and crisscrossed the fingers of both hands. "We can't support you with troops as things are right now, but we can allow you to walk freely through our lands and ensure you shelter and groceries during your stay."

"Thank you, Governess Dorr, that's all we need."

Palmacosta's central square.

"And that's our house!" Marta told Emil, pointing at what would be their new home.

"It looks nice."

Emil smiled happily. He was going to live with Marta, which already was better than going back with his old family. And for the first time in months, it looked like he will be able to take a break. He didn't mind to go here and there to do some stuff, but being sincere with himself, he knew that he didn't have the biggest adventurer's spirit, something that he didn't share with Marta. Sometimes he wondered what a living spirit like Marta found in a shy and boring town guy like him.

"I can't wait to live together." Marta said, walking towards the house.

Emil froze when he heard Marta say the key world: "together". In that moment, thousands of thoughts about what living together was supposed to mean plagued his mind, making him unable to move. What was he going to do? What kind of relationship did they have? What kind of relationship Marta think they have? Did that make them more than close friends? What did living together mean? What did she expect from him? He hadn't been more scared in all his life.

"Emil, aren't you coming in?" Marta asked casually. When she looked at his face she instantly knew that something was wrong with him. He was trembling in place with his mouth open. No one needed to be a genius to notice that something was wrong.

"Emil?" She asked coming towards him. "Emil?" She asked a second time waving her hand before him, but he didn't respond to any kind of external stimulus.

Suddenly the sound of hundreds of screams accompanied noise of wood being cracked woke Emil up from his trance.

"What-What's going on!"

"It came from the port!" Marta said, already running to the center of the catastrophe.

"Wait Marta!" Emil said, running after her. "I don't think that we should go there."

A big crowd of people impeded Emil as he tried to reach his dear friend who was lost into the crowd.

"Marta!" He shouted, trying to open a path between the mass of people. "Marta, can you hear me!"

When he finally crossed the crowd he finally discovered what everyone was looking at. A boat had crashed against the port, breaking the wooden dock and finally running aground against the stones, completely shattering the bow.

"What happened?" Emil asked no one else in particular.

"We don't know. The boat just came at full speed and crashed against the dock and a few seconds after that two people left the boat running." The man standing next to him answered.

Then he saw Marta running towards the boat.

"Marta! Where are you going?" Emil asked, running after her again.

"There could be wounded people in there!" Marta said, without looking back.

Emil ran after her to help her and to ensure that she didn't injure herself in her little quest of aiding people. When he finally reached Marta, they both entered the crashed boat. The wooden floor squeaked at each step they took, threatening to break in at any moment.

"Be careful, Marta." Emil whispered.

"Don't worry, I will be." Marta said walking slowly and carefully. "But why are you whispering?"

"I-hmm…" he murmured, feeling a little stupid. "I don't know."

"Aaaaaaaah!" Someone screamed from inside a cabin.

Marta and Emil didn't waste any time and, forgetting any self-security measures, ran in the cabin, forcefully pushing past the stuck door. When they entered in the cabin they didn't know if they should feel sorry or laugh. A man only dressed in his underwear was tied to a fallen chair with a piece of wood nailed in his leg.

"Aaaaaaaaah! Damned idiots!" He shouted in pain. "My boat is broken! That fucking bitch!"

Marta and Emil didn't know about who he was talking about, but they hurried to aid the wounded man.

"This will hurt a little." And without any more warning, Emil took out the wooden piece that nailed the man's leg to the chair. That action was, of course, followed by a scream and some sweet words about Emil's mother's job.

"Watch that dirty mouth!" Marta said angrily.

"Oh, shut up! I had a wooden piece stuck into my leg. I will say whatever I want!"

Marta snorted, but began to heal his leg anyway.

"What happened?" Emil asked.

Alexia entered the cabin, followed by a smiling guy with black hair.

"My, my, what a mess." Dias said looking around.

"If you don't mind, I will be the one asking that!" Alexia shouted, pushing Emil aside carelessly and ignoring his protest. "What happened?"

"Decus and Alice did it."

"What!" Marta and Emil exclaimed in unison.

"They forced me and threatened to kill me and my family if I didn't do what they wanted me to do, and once we were reaching Palmacosta they stripped me and tied me to this chair."

"So they are here!" Alexia said, closing her fist and standing up.

She and Dias left the boat and went to the port where the Templars and the Imperial knights were waiting for her.

"There is a wounded man in the boat, but Marta is already taking care of him." Alexia said to Raine.

"I will go to check it anyway." Raine said entering the shattered boat.

Alexia nodded and looked to her soldiers.

"I have new information! Decus and Alice are here right now! They can't be too far way! Go in pairs and find them!"

"Yes Ma'am!" All said before leaving the port.

"And why are you following me!" Alexia asked Dias, annoyed.

"I'm not following you. We just have taken the same steps." He said, smiling calmly.

Alexia grumbled at his answer and left the place to find Decus and Alice herself.

Outside Palmacosta.

"You idiot buffoon!" Alice shouted, pointing at Decus. "What don't you understand of not calling attention!"

"I'm sorry Alice but I don't know how to stop a boat."

While they were discussing they didn't notice that two pairs of eyes were watching them at that exact moment from some shrubs some feet behind them.

"We found them." An imperial knight whispered to his partner.

But his partner seemed distracted, looking around as if he was looking for something else.

"What should we do?" The knight asked his distracted partner.

"I think that we should take them down." The partner said, now paying attention to the first knight.

"Are you sure? Alexia said they are too dangerous. Maybe we should go back and ask for reinforcements!"

"Darngerous? Are you kidding? With the mana inhibitor the half-elf can't use her magic against us. What is she going to do? Whip us with her toy rapier?"

"Yeah, but what about Decus?" The knight asked.

"I don't see him carrying any weapon if we do it fast we should be able to take them down before they know what has happened."

The knight didn't seem sure about his partner's plot but finally nodded.

"OK, let's do it. Cover me."

The knight came out running from the shrubs aiming his lance at Alice. When Decus saw it he quickly put himself in front of Alice, using his iron charm as a shield. But before the knight was even able to come close to the pair, the crimson blade of a sword tainted in blood erupted from the chest of the knight. When the Imperial Knight turned his head he saw his partner holding the grip of the sword that was taking his life.

"What-?" The knight said, spitting blood, unable to understand what was going on as he died.

Alice stepped to the side of Decus to see what was happening and smiled at the twisted scene. Decus opened his Iron-Maiden and took out his sword. Even if that knight has killed the other one, he didn't know if he could trust him.

"How disgusting." The knight said, taking out the sword from the corpse and throwing it away, as if it carried some kind of virus. "I'm going to stain myself with his blood."

Decus had heard that voice somewhere else but he didn't know from who was.

"Who are you!" Alice demanded.

"This armor sure is heavy." The knight said taking off all the armor but the helmet ignoring Alice's demands.

"I have asked who are you!" Alice said pointing to him with her toy rapier.

"Oh, yeah, we haven't been introduced. Allow me to present myself." The knight said taking out his helmet revealing a familiar pink-haired half-elf. "I am the great scientist: Nickolay Mladalov!"

If you liked it advise your friends and if you didn't advise your enemies.

As always reviews will be welcomed. I like to know what the t readers think about my work.