A/N: Very soon we shall see why Emmeryn can walk around Ylisstol with a minimal escort, VERY SOON! On the other hand, I now feel vague regret that I didn't show her as having the sun shining out of her ass… literally. Oh well, one more skill for her to learn I guess, given how people sure treat her like the sun shines out of her ass already…


Chapter 7: Recruiting Gods

Feroxi Capital, September 22, Swarm Year 0

Given the size of Ylisse, one might wonder why, other than the Pegasus knights and town/city guard garrisons, the Shepherds, a squad of a dozen or so people, were enough to patrol the entire Halidom to a reasonable degree (or had been until the latest outbreak of Plegian infiltrations). The answer was Frederick. More specifically, the answer was FRED, namely the Fitness Regime of Eternal Doom, or Damnation, depending on who you asked. While Sumia was a new recruit, to have survived FRED without dropping out said a LOT, and as a Pegasus Knight she could cover a lot of ground quickly.

The actual reason was somewhat classified, namely the fact that when Sully, Kellam, Stahl or Maribelle went out on patrol, they could go it alone just fine. It was mostly when Chrom or Lissa went out that Frederick insisted on a squad just in case. Sully's family culinary weapons were banned by international treaty, yes, but there was nothing in the treaty about using it or its effects on forces of no national affiliation within Ylissean borders. Kellam was under some sort of permanent hex he somehow had cast over himself, according to what Miriel had to date after years of trying to spot and analyze him. It made him almost impossible to detect, which meant brigand leaders (and members) had a nasty tendency to explode into chunks without anyone ever spotting who did it. Most bandits only had to see such a thing once or twice before deciding quitting or even jail was better for their life expectancy. Stahl was so average when he actually tried (though still good-looking) that he could blend into a crowd, not as well as Kellam but still enough to snipe bandits handily enough without them ever noticing him. Maribelle's Parasol-Fu… had to be seen to be believed.

In other words, the Shepherds were obviously (to outsiders) not quite as human as they'd all prefer to pretend—AHEM, BELIEVE, YES, BELIEVE. THAT was how they managed to keep Ylisse reasonably clear of bandits, despite there only being a few of them. However, now that Plegia was acting up, it was time to bulk up the military, including the Shepherds. Maybe it was time to recall Cordelia from her position in the Pegasus Knights back to the Shepherds? After all she'd been sent out initially to help deal with border security in a similar role to Sumia in the Shepherds (doing the work of a squad by herself), but hadn't been recalled following Sumia's grounding.

The Khans, after the formalities of handing over the reins were rather interested in Robin and her mentions of the Zerg Swarm. They however had to first find the Shepherds, who'd disappeared after greetings at the end of the tournament. Instead of hanging around to watch the festivities and Flavia get her ass half frozen off on the Iron Throne during the formalities, apparently they were all running around looking for someone looking just like Robin?

Please note that Flavia disclaims this search for Robin as NOT in fact procrastinating further with dealing with the inevitable wheelbarrows' worth of procrastinated less-than-critical paperwork for the Ruling Khan from the week before the tournament. She also casually denies accusations that last time she'd decided to not put up a serious fight for the simple reason of getting wind that Basilio had procrastinated for more than a month. Basilio had NOT been amused at Flavia informing the crowd before the fight that time that while they would have a good contest still, she had instructed her side to bury Basilio in paperwork that he'd brought upon himself.

The crowd on the other hand had had a good long laugh, more so because Flavia had hired a circus from Chon'sin to throw Lon'qu off as much as possible… you'd be surprised how good swordfighters acrobats made. Surprisingly, Basilio HAD appreciated the extra pocket change obtained from what followed, because the Khans had to rule with dignity and appropriate conservation of funds. Flavia had set up an arrangement charging a token fee for viewing him spending some time digging the Iron Throne out from under the paper towers he'd heaped on it (planning to ambush Flavia with the mounds) without ruining anything. Needless to say Basilio would not be procrastinating so badly again on paperwork.


Meanwhile…

Without the distraction of the other combatants and her own power being thrown around by that brat who was in a sense her daughter, Grima's mind had decided to catch up immediately after the match to the scene of Chrom battling two Lucinas.

Deep breath… He wasn't a Risen, and those two would never fight to kill him… They didn't even have his blue hair and eyes… Yeah that's why we didn't go nuts and accidentally murder them for being almost like when our daughter killed Darling… Deep Breath again… Oh who are we kidding? We didn't go nuts and tear them apart for the same reason that we didn't just blast all the brats to shreds when Lucina came to kill her father for good back then. Chrom would have been so disappointed. By… well, by me, I suppose… anyhow, by Grima, I'm a terrible mother. I… I didn't kill my own daughter not just because I loved her, but mostly because her father would have been upset. I… this obsession with Chrom can't be healthy, but… I can't stop myself. My Darling would be so disappointed, but… this is one thing I can't recover from.

The sight of Falchion flashing in the light as it descended again and again toward Chrom, even though he was alive and well, had brought back some nasty memories. Even though these Lucinas were different from Grima's daughter, they still looked similar enough beyond the colouring that Grima had been barely holding the flashbacks at bay during the match. She was thankful that she could take her mind up admiring Sumia's Pegasus in this timeline, and listening to Lissa unknowingly explain EXACTLY where Owain's madness came from.

If I could recover from that… from this… from his first death… I wouldn't be here. I would be back there… with my daughters, my son, grieving but recovering from our loss… and continuing, fixing our country… without Chrom. Her mind rejected that reality automatically and substituted her own, just as it had years ago when she first launched that apocalypse to pressure Naga into helping her come here. I suppose this is what it means to be a dragon demigod, more or less, trying out being human. When you lose your anchor to humanity… it washes away like dust on the wind. If I had more years, decades, to prepare and slowly accept the fact that he wouldn't live forever as I would despite my manipulations of his body once he grew older… I could have accepted it, but to lose him so soon after bonding… Wait… would I be doing this Chrom justice if I used him as a rebound of sorts? As a replacement? No… no, if he's anything like Darling, and he is, certainly, then it would be the gravest injustice to treat him as any less precious than he is.

The epiphany was crushing. I really didn't think this through as much as I should have. I came here to a world that still had Chrom in it, believing myself ready to accept his choices in women… but to know that I don't deserve another chance, that I cannot allow myself another chance… that I must have no chance… it makes me so angry… No, losing my mind to anger was what made me come here, instead of simply healing Chrom up as a Risen until I could persuade Naga to help return him to full life. That could have made everything work out, but by the time I figured it out it was too late to use the better plan…

The cleaning crew were too intelligent to go near the crazy-looking lady with the lewd clothes and giant sign—though put aside for now—who was standing there emitting an intensely dark aura. (Grima was completely unaware of how closely that description matched one of her old friends.) Well, actually, they couldn't go near her, because the aura of darkness she was pushing out was too complete, practically a shadowy, translucent dome of sorts. Yandere internal monologuing was dangerous to the environment. Fortunately, Grima was considerate enough to put up a barrier so it didn't damage their souls.

On the other hand, Chrom, who was approaching the woman, imitated a warrior whose legend crossed from the Outrealms long ago, and whose name was still whispered in the darkest of times to this day. As Robin noted to Frederick, who was being held at bay by the powerful dark aura. "Isn't that manoeuvre Chrom's pulling called 'Leeroy Jenkins'?"

"Unfortunately, milord is quite sure that if Grima… if that is indeed who she is…" Frederick looked rather critically at Robin, who grimaced in acknowledgement of their physical similarities. "…he's sure that if she actually wished him harm, she'd have squashed us like bugs at her leisure if the strength of her aura is any indicator." He tensed suddenly, because Chrom had stopped in front of the woman. He would rather have been the one to test the waters, but the barrier had kept him and even Robin out, while Chrom simply walked through like it didn't exist. In fact, it seemed to be healing up the few bruises and such on his person that Lissa hadn't had time to get before they had to run off to find Grima.

"Are you alright, miss?" Hand wave in front of face… she blinked, then blinked again… "Hey?" His sword was drawn backhand by his left hand in a guard far too late to have blocked anything by the time he heard the hum of advanced thunder magic.

Grima blinked at him, having grabbed and immobilized him by the right shoulder almost without though, then looked down at the Thoron she'd shaped almost instinctively and where she held the bolt stable in her hand, ready to impale… some… thing… "Huh?" The magic dissipated instantly "Oh… oh gods… no, no, no, not again. NONONONOAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" She let go before she got to the second repeat of "no", clutching her head, and jumped back, falling backward over a couple rows of seats on impact but not caring, since her body was tougher than that. Curling up into a small ball she held her knees to her chest (not a tall order given how she was hardly flat, though of slightly less impressive proportions than Robin) and rocked back and forth, sobbing "No, no… no… I can't… I can't kill you again…"

"I'm not aware that I've died yet, much less been killed by you." Chrom informed her dryly once she recovered enough from her fit to simply stare at him over her knees, tears still streaming down from her eyes.

Grima opened her mouth to try to say something, but no sound came out, then she tried again… and again… and then again before it finally worked "My counterpart in this world told you who… or what I was and you're not trying to stab me with your dragon-spanker yet?"

Chrom raised an eyebrow "Dragon spanker?"

Grima flushed red, he'd just be scared off if she told him what sort of play they'd done where she came from. Falchion responded to the user's intent to cut or not cut, and Chrom was skilled enough to avoid hitting anything with even the dulled edge when he was trying to smack something with the flat of the blade. Given it stung her skin with magical crackling on contact even when she just put her hand on the surface, when experimenting… AHEM… Inner peace, inner peace… no steam from ears please… even though I licked the flat of the blade for fun once and ended up with my tongue tingling for hours. "Uh… long story, maybe I'll tell you later."

Chrom sat down in one of the arena seats next to the one Grima had curled up in front of. "So, Robin says your signature looks like Grima's. Would you like to explain why you're… uh… not doing whatever it is Fell Dragons do?" Let it never be said that Chrom was a good conversationalist, at least, not in the verbal aspect, though given his action of sitting down companionably he wasn't bad at physical communications.

"I've already done that stuff, I wanted to try out being human for once, see what the big fuss with manaketes and all was about. It didn't work out, so I came here by way of coaxing Naga into helping. I've already absorbed this world's Grima, he will never trouble you again. You need not worry anymore!" She realized she was babbling. She'd been preparing for this moment for so long, but now that she was actually in front of him she was practically a quivering wreck! "I just wanted to come here… try to help out in the next couple wars… live in peace for once…"

"Look, I might be considered about as dense as can be, but I'm not stupid enough to not notice your huge sign and the… ah… choice of outfit." Chrom reddened slightly on looking closer at the outfit. It seemed the "flaps" were actually decorative and didn't actually work, though the tight outfit still left little to the imagination and he could see she wasn't wearing a bra under that tight shirt… "You don't need to be so shy, just be honest and we'll get along fine. I hope you're agreeable to that?" She nodded so fast Chrom could almost feel his own teeth chattering together just looking at the speed. "Give me your hand." He helped her up.

She smiled, looking down at their joined hands… until she realized that he was trying to let go, and complied with him. "Just like old times?"

Chrom had a funny suspicion, but he needed to check. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I was meditating in a field near South Town when we first met. That you thought I was sleeping, despite my meditation as an Earth Dragon requiring I lay down for maximum contact with the ground." It also meant lying on her back, because big boobs were troublesome both in that it hurt to lay on them and they got in the way of contact with the ground during meditation. Grima had often cursed her decision to make sure her body had big breasts, but at least it was a hell of a lot better than Validar's grossly inbred and deformed abomination of a body structure.

It was also amusing to watch men's reactions to them bouncing around… not to mention her body could more than handle the effort to deal with them, and dialling up sensitivity made for some good times. She wondered briefly whether or not those two Lucinas she'd met earlier would explode in anger if they learnt how endowed her Lucina was. Yes, most likely… though how they ended up so flat despite Sumia having an okay chest and Chrom's family hardly being flat (Emmeryn, for example, and Lissa after she grew up)… maybe it was just genetic bad luck. She strictly forbade her daughter from flunking the roll of luck as badly as those two had, so her Lucina didn't have those problems… though admittedly Grima did dial her daughter back a good fraction from having basically melons attached to her chest. Sure, she was a tall woman, but they did get in the way sometimes.

She'd left her Lucina with a parting gift though. Since she was no longer in that world, the Grima bloodline didn't confer anything anymore except an improved affinity for Dark Magic… and the tingling of the Mark of Grima when channelling Dark Magic. Her Lucina's Mark was splashed across her torso with the joint at her navel, one pair of eyes under her breasts and another pair forming her areolae. This meant the Exalt over in that reality had a bit of a guilty pleasure in the form of channelling but not actually casting Dark Magic on lonely nights… or mornings… or whatever other time of day for that matter.

While reviewing things she would and could MOST CERTAINLY NEVER say to Chrom, Grima had unknowingly blushed bright red again, suddenly fretting about if her lewdness would become a point of aversion for the blue-haired Prince next to her. Ugh, it was really hard for a dragon demigod who'd been in limbo for a thousand years, and not had many opportunities before that, to NOT be practically a nymphomaniac, especially given she could cast spells to give her lovers additional endurance without damaging their bodies. She had no doubt that had she gone for a male human form instead of experimenting that she would probably have formed a harem of every single woman in the Shepherds simply because while her spells would have kept their bodies' endurances up she wouldn't be so sure about their minds being safe from Grima's immense libido.

Chrom in the meantime was finishing up his chuckling at the thought of such similarities in timelines. Then the man spoke "While Frederick would probably go bald in sheer exasperation at this, I'm going off the assumption that if you were going to do anything I wouldn't still be here. You could easily have cut me down just now." He watched her face practically melt into depression again before he decided he should stop attempting to practically give himself a foot-job by shoving both feet so far down his mouth they were coming out of his ass. Reaching out with his right hand he gently cupped her chin. She allowed him to lift her head to look him in the eye again "I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me, to bring up a painful memory like that."

"Bah, you're just like him… he actually told me once that he didn't see me as a lady before he realized that I was holding an empty, hot skillet, which would have made for a great bludgeoning tool if I'd forgotten it was hot and wasn't too reluctant to hit him as a result."

Chrom snorted at the thought. Yeah, he could see himself saying something like that "I think the other me meant you were open and a real friend, not like those ladies at the court who would kiss anyone's ass, maybe literally, to climb the social ladder."

"Yeah, he meant that too."

"I'm surprised, Grima. I thought you'd be coming on stronger given, well…" he waved his hand at the sign that the cleaners hadn't taken away yet due to having enough of it inside her barrier that they didn't want to risk touching it.

"I wanted to make my intent clear, but now that you're here I'm… I'm really nervous. And I don't want to seem to be coming on too strong in case I scare you off or something…"

Chrom laughed "Ah I'm not frightened so easily by women who are trying to get into my pants. I'd prefer to redirect their efforts to more productive endeavours, given I'm really not looking for a wife yet…"

Grima frowned "You don't have the Fan-Girl Legion in this world?"

"The what?"

"The legion of fan-girls who stalk you whenever you are outside the castle in Ylisstol? Ranging from nobility within the inner walls to peasantry in the outer walls and beyond?"

Chrom frowned to match Grima's expression "That would explain why Emmeryn lit up her sword a few times in the early times of me going outside with her… among other things." Such as bringing Maribelle and her Parasol-Fu, and Sumia with her impact resistance, into the Shepherds, and Sully too to discourage anyone trying to invite him to meals, ever, since she'd surely bring something he could bring to the event. That had happened after Sumia's cooking turned out painfully popular and despite her being nudged not so subtly/gently into liking Chrom and warding off other girls, they would get invited to dinners and such. Those stopped the instant after Sully was announced to be joining the Shepherds, despite it being half a year before the formal induction time.

Grima's mind was practically blown "Emmeryn has a sword? Wow, this world really is different from where I came from…"

"She doesn't use it very often, but yeah, she has a sword… one unique to her, which she made herself." Chrom shrugged.

"So, um, I'm guessing you'll be okay with me coming along with you guys? I can help in battles if you would have me?" Ugh, why so shy, Grima? It's like you're a blushing virgin or something… oh wait, back when I was a virgin by human standards I didn't ever blush, right…

"Sure, just don't sneak into my tent or something, alright?" Chrom grinned at her.

"Not unless you want to test if you have the same weaknesses my husband did."

"Hah, well that's an awkward thought… right, do you have the ring my parents had made when I was born?" That might be important as the ring did carry authority, and Frederick would be so butthurt at him if he didn't at least ask about it…

"Ah, right, um, I left it with my daughter back in the world I came from. She deserved better from her mother than to live through an apocalypse just because I didn't accept your death… at my hands."

Chrom thought for a moment about heartbreak as a reason for a dragon to go nuts. It sounded more reasonable than half the legends he'd seen… On the other hand, having the Fell Dragon of all beings being half-bashful while shoving her adoration in one's face was HIGHLY disconcerting… "Well, you can come along, and we'll see how things go. I hope you'll get along well with everyone."

"I hope so too… and I hope I can remember these aren't the people I left behind. There are so many differences already… where the hell did Sumia get a Pegasus able to do those moves and trail a RAINBOW?"

Chrom had a feeling he was going to have to invest rather considerable effort to explain things. "Ah, right, if you came from another world, do you know anything about the teenagers who were on the other side from us?"

"They didn't talk to you? Then… it's not my place to interfere. They need to find their comrades before they can be ready to intervene, I have already taken measures to ensure their safety through my power. I'm sorry, Chrom, but there are some things… I wouldn't want to pressure anyone… I'm sorry." She felt horrible keeping the Lucinas separate from their father until they felt comfortable, but to make Chrom focus on Sumia and Cordelia instead of herself and maybe Robin if her counterpart was interested was unacceptable. Even though she felt bad for being a Jealous Clingy Girl, she wasn't willing to renounce her ways, she never would be, she suspected.

"Ah it's okay. They didn't seem to be interested in actually killing us down there, and they did help fight the Risen in the forest shortly after we found Robin. Let them walk their own path then. They will contact us again when they are ready, I am sure."

"No doubt they will… and I know them, I know who they are and what their goals are. I know they would have no motivation to do anything but aid us, though they might prefer to do it from the shadows for now… and perhaps it is best to let them stay there until they are ready, as you said." She finally registered the repulsion field she'd been throwing up and coughed into her fist in embarrassment as she began collapsing it "Um, I might seem a bit emotionally erratic sometimes, Chrom, so I hope you might pardon my sudden swings from joyful to depressed…"

"I've seen much worse quirks than that. It is par for the course among us Shepherds, you'll fit right in."

Yeah, just like I fit in last time… I swear I won't freak out on seeing this Sumia though. Awakening from my descent into madness quite enough to realize I'd half-eaten her alive out of anger that she'd had more time with you before I was on the scene was horrible… Grima knew she'd never be able to forget the look on the other woman's face and the taste in her mouth when she'd realized suddenly that she was face-first, buried in the other woman's abdomen and chowing down on the other woman's entrails while she still lived. Fortunately for her daughter's reign she'd been able to memory-wipe the older generation regarding their deaths and un-life as Risen before she managed to reverse the apocalypse and restore them all to life.

The younger generation she'd left behind weren't quite aware of exactly how she'd slaughtered some of their parents. Severa at the very least would probably have launched a revolt if she knew how Grima had used her magic to force Cordelia to stay alive and conscious while flaying her and making a stuffed specimen out of her skin. The redhead had always had better skin and hair, and in Grima's opinion was better-looking, so she'd forced the woman to take a good look at herself before turning her into a Risen (regenerating the skin with that process). As for how Cordelia could be prettier than a dragon demigod who decided to try out human form, there were limits on human-standards femininity that an originally male Earth Dragon were willing to put up with while designing herself, out of pride for traditionally looking intimidating if nothing else!

Grima later had to heal herself when she came back into a phase of relative sanity among her drastic, unstable mental swings that had occurred starting a few months after Chrom's death and ending a few months before she managed to come back. The reason she had to heal herself was because she was so horrified by what she'd done to her former friend just for having loved Chrom that she'd ripped her own face off as a vague sort of penance. She also mentally beat herself into accepting that coming here, Chrom could end up with any other woman, or women.

"Did it go well?" Grima heard her own voice ask… no, wait, it was not hers, though they would sound the same to outsiders. It was her counterpart, Robin's voice.

"Well, I'll be tagging along to help however I can. Nice to meet you, I go by the human name of Robin." Grima said. "Though I suspect we might want to just call me Grim or something."

"…That would probably be best, yes… I presume you know all the Shepherds?" Chrom asked as they reached Frederick, who was facepalming, not even bothering to give advice against the new recruit for all the good it would do.


Cynthia hadn't gotten her friendly, cheerful personality from nowhere, since while Sumia had confidence problems she was still friendly and cheery enough to be among the first to greet the newcomer. She did not expect the newcomer's response to be to stare at her for a few moments before gagging and turning away. "I'm sorry, you just remind me of someone I used to know."

"Well, I heard Robin say your energy was like Grima's… and it was pretty obvious from your talking with Chrom that you came from some apocalyptic timeline that you fixed at some point. I'm guessing you killed me at some point?" Sumia ventured, having trailed Chrom and Robin closely enough to catch the words they'd shared. Admittedly the entire body of the Shepherds that were present on this mission had heard, and Lissa's grin was really disturbing to look at given how insanely wide it was… "Did I at least die heroically?"

Grima stared "…You're a lot less prone to denial of reality than the Sumia I knew…"

Sumia blushed at the bluntness pointing out a weakness she still sometimes liked to indulge in "One does not simply survive Egression's antics, more so after he ate Sully's flying spaghetti monster and became what he is today, rainbow trail and all, without realizing one's reality is a lot more insane and heroic than any story one might happen to read."

Then Grima noted the shield peeking out from around the edges of Sumia's body "Speaking of which, that shield is a lot bigger than a standard Pegasus Knight shield…"

Sumia grimaced "While Egression was grounded as Miriel investigated the rainbow and other effects, I fought as a Soldier-class on the ground, with lance and shield. It doesn't get in the way as much as I'd thought, and Egression seems fine with the extra weight, so…"

"Right, before I forget, don't start on heroic deaths and such with me. That attitude could get you killed, and I reject the possibility of such a thing happening again while I'm around." Sumia shuffled a couple steps back at the intense aura and nodded quickly in response.

"Seems you're mingling well enough already, Grima." Robin cut in before Grima could get too overbearing.

"I thought I said to call me Grim?"

Robin shrugged "It wouldn't hurt to encourage people to be more tolerant toward each other by revealing the Plegian god walks with us as a friend. Besides, between you and my Swarm we can basically force people into tolerance if need be, and within a couple generations people will tire of appearing tolerant while actually being hateful, and eventually become the mask."

"You're sounding eviler than me."

"I try too hard sometimes." Robin winked at the face that was practically identical to hers.


FORECAST: "The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable… keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. A few lives hardly balances millions… but I would have the world know that I have changed. And you shall be my example." Guess who (EASY).

"Yea verily, though I charge through the shadows in the valley of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am a human-sized mass, atop a Pegasus-sized mass, of FUCK YOU." Sumia, after Walhart.


A/N: Review Replies!

Truemmerphantom: Walhart has rough counterparts of Rally Heart and Rally Spectrum via speeches and presence combination, and is super-human compared to anyone not in the Shepherds. That's it. The Swarm will be OP as shit once they stop being concerned about terrifying the humans into doing something stupid. And the Shepherds here are super-humans. Hence Naga talking about sending the two groups of kids to an "EZ-mode" timeline. Leviathans will indeed be associated with rainbows (remember the mention in A/N talking about unlocking the "Ultrachromatic Beam Generator" through Sully?), but no exploding occurs for their case, ever… Wait, you just gave me an idea… towing a fake leviathan (actually just a sack of gas) over the battlefield to deflate enemy morale by blotting out the sun… then having it release a carpet of Banelings that had been clinging onto the underside…

Psykotic101: Glad you like it.

Gelgum Grem: I see you haven't read my past works (mostly taken down now) because review replies are a habit of mine unless it's really overwhelming (see Army of One for example). Yeah, I'm going for a happy ending for basically the whole crew (except Gangrel and Walhart because they can both go die in a hole). Even Aversa will get a good ending… the only exception from the good guys I can think of is Tiki, and even that's a technicality. Does your mother's alternate universe rival regularly harassing you FOREVER to join her and her other companions in her bed sometime count as a less than ideal ending?

REVIEW!