Don't own a thing, m'bois.

A quick thing to note:

~◊◊◊~ is POV shift

~Ω~ is timeshift

~◊Ω◊~ is both

I woke up to the sound of knocking. I admit, I was surprised to find that I wasn't woken up in the middle of the night as a result of an abrupt assassination attempt. The knocking stopped for a moment, and I swung my legs over the side of the bed with a groan. I slept well. Very well, actually. It was much appreciated after yesterday's combat and long marches.

I opened the door, and blinked when I saw Chrom. "Oh, hey man, what's up?"

Chrom was wearing a plain blue shirt and pants. He was casual, but bore a serious look in his eyes. "Zach, I've been notified that some villages in the southeast are being terrorized by bandits. They've requested aid, and I'm gathering a handful of Shepherds to come with me."

"And you want me to come and help?" I asked, and he nodded. I… wasn't up for it. I wanted to go and take care of some bandits, but I couldn't. I kept seeing those blue and green eyes, and I… I felt cold, the weight on my chest, her breath on me. My breaths were coming short. I tried to calm myself before answering, saying, "I think I'm going to pass."

My miniature panic attack caught Chrom's attention, so he gave me a concerned look. "Zach," he said, "you've been acting strange since yesterday. You were fine before the battle, though. Did something happen during the battle yesterday?" I winced, and he caught that, too. "Zach?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say something happened."

"I'm happy to lend an ear, if you'd like to talk about it." I considered it, then remembered my promise to tell them about Dawn. Yeah. I nodded, and stepped aside to let him into my room. I had been acting a bit more reserved, I realized, and my going to bed so early probably hadn't helped. Part of my reasoning for that, however, was that I suspected the assassination attempt was going to happen last night. A pleasant surprise, I guess.

"So in the battle yesterday, Sumia and I were doing this…" I waved my hands around vaguely. "…this divebomb thing, right? And on one of the dives, Sumia and I split to take care of two mages. I took care of mine and while she was killing her target, that girl that Gangrel introduced—you know her?"

Chrom thought for a moment, hand on his chin, then said, "Dawn? Was that her name?"

"Yeah. She came up from behind me and dragged me into this bundle of trees with this glass sword. To keep it short, I was—Chrom, I almost died." I looked him dead in the eye, and could feel mine burning as tears threatened to spill just thinking back on it. Fuckin' hell, man. "I was helpless, and she like, she cut me here and here," I touched my cheek and forehead. "Then she went to stab me in the chest and if Sumia hadn't—" I took a deep breath. "I'd given up. I had resigned to my death, but Sumia saved me.

"With that sword poised over my heart, I was…" I couldn't find the words to describe the emptiness, the feeling of being adrift in nothingness as I awaited my demise. "Sumia brought me back from that edge, and chased Dawn off." I let out a dry laugh. "I bawled into her shoulder for several minutes after that. I'm not used to this feeling, Chrom. It's hard to talk about this. I've never had that problem, in the sense that it shakes me to think back on those few moments. How do I deal with this?"

Chrom shook his head, his gaze sympathetic. "I can't help you, Zach. I have never been in your situation. All I can recommend is taking a few days off, maybe talking through it with Robin or someone, and cooling down. Needless to say, you're staying here for now."

"Yeah."

Chrom stood up and left, but not before giving me a quick bro-hug. He patted me on the back and said, "Remember, we're always here to lend an ear." I briefly thought about letting him know that he rhymed, but decided against it.

"Of course," I said, and for once in my life, actually considered it. But he had to get ready for his mission, and I'm sure find a Shepherd willing to fill the spot I'd left, so I gave him a smile and went to shut the door behind him. He stopped, however, pivoting on his heel and turning around.

"I almost forgot," he said, reaching into a pocket. He pulled out a small pouch that jingled when he handed it to me. "You haven't gotten paid yet." With one more small smile, he said farewell and left.

I was tempted to go back to sleep, but the sweet smell of food roused me from my room. I was already dressed in my myrmidon wear, as I wanted to be prepared for the assassination attempt, so I was already prepared for the day Kind of surprising that Chrom didn't mention it.

I wandered to the mess hall, tying the pouch of gold to my belt, and was pleasantly surprised to find Robin cooking. She was wearing a tan tank top with her cloak wrapped around her waist, nearly covering her matching skirt, and a white cloth tied like a bandana atop her head, holding her hair back. She was stirring a big pot with a smile on her face. I knocked on the door to get her attention and smiled. "Hello, Zach."

"Good morning, Robin. What are you making?"

"Beef stew," she replied, taking the wooden spoon out of the pot and setting it to the side.

"For breakfast?"

Robin shrugged, leaning against the counter. "It's easy to make, and I didn't think anyone would mind too much. Half of the Shepherds are going to be gone anyway, including our best and worst cooks."

My eyebrow quirked up. "Are you not going with?" If Robin was staying here, who was going to lead the Shepherds tactically? "Who is going to guide them?"

"Chrom said Virion would take care of leading them in battle," she said, a panicked look flashing across her face as the pot starting bubbling violently. "He has some skill; certainly enough for a bandit fight." She removed the pot from the heat, and the bubbling settled down. After a moment, she put it back on and picked the big spoon up, stirring it again. "I haven't cooked in a while," she said, smiling.

"It smells good," I said. "When will it be done?"

"Soon enough," the tactician said, wiping her forearm across her forehead. "Gods, it gets hot in here." Sure enough, she was covered in sweat, her skin glistening. It was weird to see her without that big cloak on. Well, I mean, it was on right now, so to speak, but she wasn't actually wearing it. I won't go into too much detail, but she looked good. I think I was staring, too, if the look on her face when she cleared her throat was any indication. She rolled her brown eyes, her smile now a cocky smirk. "Did you need something, or were you just planning on staring at me for a while?"

"I um, well…" I stammered before remembering what Chrom said earlier. "I smelled the food, so I came in here, but that reminds me of something." Hell, I'd just gotten paid and I wasn't going to spend my money on anything else. And I could certainly do a lot worse than Robin. "If you aren't busy later, you want to go get something to eat?"

She tentatively set the spoon on the counter, her smile dying, her eyes narrowing. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"I mean, I guess. There are just some things I wanted to talk to you about, and we may as well do something at the same time."

"Oh, well, maybe not something to eat," she said, gesturing to the pot of stew. "I'm already making this, but we can think of something else, I'm sure. But yes, I would be happy to."

"Great," I said, genuinely looking forward to it. This was going to be a nice way to relax, I thought. A nice change of pace before the next battle, which I hoped wasn't for a while, considering half of our group was gone. Regardless, I was glad to have a date to look forward to.

~◊Ω◊~

Krystal

I didn't like marching. My feet always hurt, but I wasn't brave enough to complain. I'm sure the others hated it just as much as I did, and none of them were complaining. Then again, most of them were on horses. Sully and Stahl were leading the way, chatting to each other animatedly. In middle of the column, Maribelle ignored Vaike by looking straight ahead, not letting his pestering faze her. Chrom was just ahead of them, Virion at his side. Then I was at the back, Miriel right beside me.

I avoided sulking, but I hardly got any sleep last night. I was expecting the Validar to come and attack the palace, so I stayed up late. At some point, I'd dozed off anyway and woke up to Stahl knocking on my door. I probably had around 4 hours of sleep, but I threw on my cloak and ran with. I wasn't going to turn down a request from the prince, after all.

I couldn't really think of where we were going. We were marching South, that much I knew, but I had no idea where our destination was. Chrom mentioned bandits, so maybe we were going to find Donnel? Or maybe not. Things were already turning out differently than I expected, so I really couldn't afford to guess.

I looked to my left, at Miriel. She had her ever blank expression and a book in her hand. I thought she was reading at first, but the speed at which she transitioned pages made me think otherwise. No one could read that fast. It must have been a text book or something, with lots of diagrams or drawn examples. I turned away quickly in fear she would look up, see me staring at her and start talking.

At least the sun was higher up, now. It was warmer than it was when we started marching, which was nice. My damned outfit was no protection against the cold, and this little cloak that Robin gave me was little help. It almost seemed like a joke. It was far too small to fit even me. It fell only to my waist, so that already left most of my thighs exposed, and I had to pull it tight to make it cover my breasts. Why were the gods so cruel when they dropped me here? They gave me this exposing outfit and placed me in the coldest point on the continent. How was that fair? Yet Zach, Dylan and… the other guy—what was his name? Emile? Those three were given decent clothing to wear, and Emile was the only other one dropped in Ferox.

I shouldn't have been complaining. I got to use magic, after all. Dark magic, even. That wasn't something you see every day, at least not on your side. If I remembered correctly, Henry and Tharja were the only dark mages we recruited, and they weren't for quite a while yet, so I was a valuable player right now.

I pulled my tome from the little clip on my belt and flipped it open, once more trying to decrypt the strange characters on its pages. I wished I understood more about how my magic worked, though. All I did in battle was swing my arm and yell out the spell's name, and boom—magic. Each time I did, a page disappeared from my book, but there were plenty. Definitely more than when it was a game, which was 45, I think.

Dylan was pretty cool, too. More unique than any of us, that's for sure. He could turn into a bird! That was insane. Out of the four of us, I got the feeling he was the most indispensable, from a tactical standpoint, even if Zach had been with the Shepherds the longest. Us other earthlings didn't hold a candle to him in battle either, I thought, except for Emile.

I didn't like Emile, to be honest. He liked to talk, and it seemed like he just said whatever came to his mind. No filter. Dylan was calm and cool, keeping mostly to himself, and Zach was friendly and nice, even if he did have a tendency to stare at everything. But even in the one or two conversations I'd had with Emile, the lancer was kind of abrasive, and his personality was so wildly outgoing that it was somewhat overwhelming. But I couldn't deny his skill in battle. He had bested Zach AND Frederick. Neither of those were small feats, especially considering how strong Frederick was.

I found myself wishing Zach was here. Or Robin. They were both much easier to talk to than Miriel or Chrom. Not that Chrom wasn't nice, but just thinking of talking to a full blown prince jumbled my thoughts, and I couldn't bear to fumble with my words in front of him like I knew I would.

I wondered if Zach and Robin were so easy to talk to because they were the ones that got me out of that awful Feroxi dungeon. I shivered thinking of the comments the other prisoners made. It was to be expected, what with how little my outfit left to the imagination, but gods, it was terrible.

The two of them were very friendly, though. They liked to joke with each other, so I knew they were pretty close. It was strange how close they were, actually. It had only been a week that they'd known one another, yet they were together so frequently. It was kind of cute, actually, how Zach stuck with her. Or was it the other way around? No, it was Zach that followed. Robin was too independent, and she had to be busy running an army.

Did Zach have a crush on the tactician? I smiled at the thought. Making a match with the match maker? That would be so cute! I would have to talk to him next time I could. If I could gather up the nerve.

My thoughts were torn from me when Sully called out, and pointed ahead with her lance. Stahl was riding ahead, and she soon followed. When we all caught up, I gasped. There was a boy on the ground, and I could see his chest heaving as he struggled for breath. He was covered in wounds, ranging in minor cuts and scratches to arrows sticking out of him. And on his head of curling, purplish hair was a dented, scratched-up pot.

Chrom knelt down next to him and lifted him up. "Maribelle, heal him," he said, keeping the boy's head up. The troubadour stepped forward and raised her staff. A green glow came from it, and soon surrounded the injured boy. Maribelle didn't heal all the injuries, however. She didn't heal the arrow wounds, which seemed to be the most serious. "What are you doing, Maribelle?"

"I can't heal him with those arrows still in him," she answered, "otherwise they'll be sealed inside. We have to pull them out, first."

"Alright, well—"

"Chrom, look!" Vaike shouted, and we all turned to see where he was looking. Not too far in the distance, smoke was rising into the sky.

"Dammit," Chrom cursed through gritted teeth. "Maribelle, you and Vaike stay here to heal him," he said, pointing to the boy. "Everyone else, we ride for that pillar of smoke." Chrom swung onto Stahl's horse, and Sully pulled Virion and I onto hers. With a brief look back at Maribelle and Vaike, the latter of whom was already being instructed on pulling the first arrow out, we took off.

I held tight to Virion, who in turn held tightly to Sully. I had never ridden a horse before, so this was a new experience. I took a look at the ground, and my eyes shot straight forward again when I saw the grass and dirt flying by underneath us. A shudder went through me. Falling off would hurt really, really bad, I decided, and kept my eyes ahead for the remaining time of the ride.

The pillar of smoke was coming from a small village. The remains of a small village, rather. Most of the building were already burnt down or in the process, but the people at fault were still here. Exiting one of the intact building was a shirtless man with a struggling woman over one shoulder and his axe resting on the other. When he saw us, he panicked and dropped the woman, running the other way, screaming something. As he did, more men came from the remaining buildings and, after seeing us, sprinted off with their comrade.

Chrom seemed willing to follow them, but slid off of Stahl's horse once they reached the woman that the first man dropped. Sully stopped, too, and Virion and I dismounted. "Oh gods, thank you," the woman said. She was middle-aged, and heavier-set, wearing a plain green dress. "If you hadn't come along, I'da been killed! Thank ya, thank ya, Prince."

"Peace," Chrom said, raising a hand. "I'm happy we got here in time, but who were those men?"

A sour look crossed the woman's face as she said, "Them's Roddick's men. A buncha bandits and fiends. They've been terrorizin' our village for months, but they'd never gone this far!" Her voice had a heavy southern drawl to it.

"Where is their base?" Sully asked, shifting her lance in her grip. The determination in her eyes was as fiery as her hair. "We'll take them out there."

The woman spun on her heel and pointed toward where the bandit's had run. "Straight that way," she said. "They call it 'the Farfort'."

"Thank you," Chrom said, then to us, "We'll wait for Maribelle and Vaike, then head for their hideout."

"One more thing, your Highness," the woman said, and Chrom turned to face her. "Did you see my son down that way?" Her face had turned from one of distaste to one of worry, and her hands were fidgeting nervously in front of her. "I told him to run that way to get help. He had a pot on his head?"

"Yes," Chrom said, offering a kind smile. "We saw your son. He was very injured, but one of us stayed behind to heal his wounds. They should be here any minute."

"What's your son's name?" I asked without thinking. I already knew the answer. There was no way any self-respecting Awakening player couldn't make the connection, but I had to ask.

The woman gave me a strange look, but said, "His name's Donnel."

Zach

"How do dishes in this place work?" I asked Robin. Breakfast had finished minutes ago. Just as she'd anticipated, no one had complained about having beef stew this early in the day, and despite having no memories, Robin was a damn good cook.

"I asked Stahl the same thing one morning," she said. "He told me that the maids clean up after us." The tactician smiled. "He also said that they hate it just as much as we do when Sully cooks, because they have to scrape at whatever she burned." We were walking through the halls of the palace, and she was wearing her cloak again. Her hands were in her pockets, and the cloth that had been tied over her head was now wrapped around her arm.

"What about when we're out in the field?" I asked. "I've never really stuck around long enough to see how dishes are dealt with."

"What's with the sudden interest in dishes?" Robin countered, chuckling.

"I'm trying to make small talk."

"And that involves interrogating me about where our dishes go?"

"I'm not interro—" I shook my head. "Whatever. I don't know, whenever I make small talk, it usually involves me asking questions, and I didn't know how the dishes got clean, so, yeah."

"Why don't you just talk normally?"

"Now who's interrogating who?" I smirked at her, thinking I'd turned the tables. Oh what I fool I was. How does one turn the tables on those who tip the scales?

"I'm trying to get to the bottom of your strange talking habits, you weirdo." She punctuated the statement with a smirk of her own, and I shook my head, smiling.

"You dick," I said, punching her shoulder. We were both silent for a minute after that. I was glad I had someone to talk to casually like this. It was refreshing, and reminiscent of the conversations I'd have with my friends back home.

"Hey, does this count as that date you wanted?" she said with a laugh.

"No, fuck you," I laughed, shaking my head again. Damn this woman.

"Why not? We're talking, just like you said, and you don't even have to pay for anything," the tactician reasoned. "I'm fairly certain that meets all the parameters, right?"

"Who said I was going to pay?"

"You were the one who asked me out, not the other way around," she said. "I wouldn't be paying."

"That's fair, I suppose." Damn this woman. She was too clever. Her undying, triumphant smirk was frustrating. She knew she won this round without me admitting it. "But, no this doesn't count as a date. This isn't what I wanted to talk to you about, either."

"Then what did you want to talk about?" Robin inquired, raising one eyebrow. I didn't give a verbal response, however, and shook my head, instead. No, now wasn't the time or place to voice my problems. Too public, and I was too shy. "Hey," she said, grabbing my shoulder. I'd begun absentmindedly walking faster, but she stopped me before I pulled too far ahead. "Hey, I'm sorry." I turned around and saw that all of the humour was gone from her face, replaced with concern now. "What's going on?"

"I don't… Robin, I don't want to talk about it here," I muttered, crossing my arms and averting my gaze. "Is that alright?" I was probably making the situation worse than it really was, worrying her more than she needed to be.

Her brow was furrowed over her brown eyes. "Yeah, of course. We can go to my room. No one will bug us there, and we can talk in privacy," she suggested. "Okay?"

"I…" It was heartwarming that she was so insistent. Chrom, too. At the very least, I was glad they held such concern for me, even though they'd known me for around a week at most. "Sure."

"Let's go." Robin moved her hand to my other shoulder, her arm over me. I didn't say anything. It shouldn't have felt weird, especially considering the situation, but it was… comforting to be like this. An awkward sort of comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. So strange. I felt like a child.

Her room was farther down the hall and past several turns. It was rather plain, with no real decorations to speak of other than her large bed and big desk. Robin and I sat down on her bed, and she took her coat off, tossing it over the chair at her desk. She sat a fair distance from me, and supported herself with one arm as she looked at me. "Whenever you're ready," she said softly.

I sat with my hands on my lap. I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly as I recanted to Robin the same story I'd told Chrom hours ago. I didn't give her the short version like I had with the prince, however, and what a mistake that had been. Tears started flowing down my cheeks halfway through the part where Dawn started cutting me. Something about that memory stuck more vividly in my mind than any other part, the sadistic smile that she wore as she did, the gleeful look in her eyes.

Robin was good at listening. Whenever I would get choked up, she would place her hand on my back and hold it there for a while, which happened more than I was ever going to live down. The entire ordeal lasted so much longer than it needed to.

When I finished talking, I was left a tearful, shuddering mess. I hadn't sobbed at all, but my quivering breath wasn't much of an improvement. I'd told her everything, from the cold emptiness I'd felt to the way I cried into Sumia's shoulder. I didn't know if the last part gave her incentive to pull me into an embrace, but she did, and I lost it there.

The last 24 hours were just a brutal emotional cycle for me. I went from fairly happy to crying in front of a pretty girl while she held me to fairly happy to crying in front of a pretty girl while she held me, though this time it was kind of sideways, with Robin facing perpendicularly to me, her head resting on mine. I felt like such a little bitch.

"Zach, I'm sorry that this had to happen to you," Robin said, stroking my hair. "If I had put you somewhere else on that field, or paired you with someone else… If I'd paired you with myself, this wouldn't have happened. I could have put Chrom with Sumia, and they could have—I don't know, gods." She shook her head. "I should have taken that girl into account when I came up with my plan. I'm sorry."

I sniffled. I was doing what I could to keep my breathing steady and calm, but was failing miserably, shuddering against her frequently. "N-No, it isn't your fault, Robin." The last thing I needed was her to feel guilty about something that was my fault.

"Is there anything I can do?" I couldn't say for sure. This was all so new to me. So many new, awful emotions were coming to me, and I didn't know how to deal with them. I kept getting overwhelmed. I needed an anchor.

"This is good," I muttered, nestling into her shoulder. She continued to stroke my hair. I couldn't tell if it was comforting, at all, but I didn't tell her to stop. I didn't mind. It had been so, so long since I'd been held like this, in need of such comfort.

Krystal

The bandits had chosen a stupid place for a hideout. This "Farfort" of theirs was little more than a cluster of walls with no ceilings. From his vantage point on a hill, Virion said he was able to see every single person in the camp, including their prisoners.

He said that their numbers were small enough that we could take them in a head on fight without much problem. Chrom nodded, and we readied up near the bottom of the hill, not far from their base.

And then Donnel came running up. He ran up to us, holding the pot steady on his head and his lance in his other hand.

"Donny?" Chrom exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry your princeliness, but I couldn't just stay behind. I had to do somethin' to help get mah friends outta here."

Chrom pinched the bridge of his nose, but said, "Alright. Just be careful, and stick close to me." Donnel nodded enthusiastically, having to readjust his pot afterward, but donning a determined face regardless. "Virion, what's the plan?"

Virion had his eyes narrowed at the bandit camp. It was strange seeing such a serious expression on his face in oppose to his usually breezy demeanor. "Vaike shall ride with Sully, and they will clear the small group over there." He pointed with an arrow to the east of the fort, where a cluster of four or five enemies was gathered. "None of them are heavily armoured, and a precise sneak attack will be sure to weaken their ranks. Stahl and I shall travel with these two ladies," he gestured to Miriel and I. "We will move straight north. We will be facing the brunt of the enemies, but with your magnificent magic, we will prevail. As for you, my lord, you and Donnel shall cut east after passing that wall here. There are only a few foes inside, and it offers a shortcut to the man that I believe is their ringleader, so to speak. Is that sufficient?"

"Sounds good to me," Chrom said. "You heard the man. Let's get moving so we can return to Yllistol soon." He drew Falchion and ran forward, Donnel hustling to keep up. Vaike hopped onto Sully's horse and the two charged off at an angle, aiming for their unsuspecting targets.

"Shall we?" Virion asked, his trademark smile coming back to his face as he turned around. I nodded, Miriel pushed her glasses onto her face, and Stahl drew his sword. All in agreement, we ran down the hill after Chrom and Donnel, arriving to the fray just after they did.

Chrom ran with Falchion pointed straight forward. He collided with a fighter, his sword burying in the man to the hilt. The fighter didn't go down right away, and raised his axe to attack. Before the weapon was able to come down, Donnel came in and stabbed his lance into the bandit's side, and the axe fell to the ground. "Good save," Chrom said, flashing the farm boy a smile.

To my left, Virion was engaged in a bow fight with another archer across the yard. The nobleman rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding an oncoming arrow without releasing the one that he already had drawn, only firing when he was back on his feet.

Miriel was also busy, avoiding the quick slashes of a thief. She would infrequently shoot a ball of fire at him, forcing him back, but neither of them were able to land a hit. I saw an opportunity, and waved my arm at the thief, shouting, "Flux!"

The magic circles danced around the thief's feet, before shooting out two black and purple pillars, forming an 'x' as they shot through him. The force of the spell sent his sword flying to the side, and he dropped to the ground, dead.

I heard a pained cry behind me, and spun around to see that Virion had dealt with the other archer. Stahl was further into the fort, and he had an archer cornered. The cavalier raised his sword to deliver a fatal blow, and didn't notice the thief creeping up behind him, ready to do the same. I gasped and ran forward, thrusting my hand toward the thief and calling out my spell.

He was too far away, so it had less effect than with the first one, but my Flux was more than enough to knock the thief to the ground, buying Stahl the time he needed to kill the archer. I let out a sigh, holding a hand to my chest. That was close. I began to turn when I saw Stahl's sword coming down on the thief I hit, and was nearly met with the blade of a sword. There were three thieves?

He got in close again, and I tried to spin away, but he nicked my shoulder. I hissed at the pain, and tried to retaliate by hitting him with Flux. He noticed the magic circles swirling around him, however, and danced out of the way before the pillar of magic hit him. He ran in again, and I cast another Flux. Again, he dodged it, and this time he was closer.

I had almost no time to react when he lunged toward me, sword pointed for my stomach. In a panic, I yelped and flung my arm up. A pillar of Flux shot up just inches in front of me, knocking the thief's sword away and sending both of us flying back a few feet.

I pulled myself into a sitting position, holding a hand to my now aching head. The thief was faster than me, however, and had scrambled to his feet before snatching his sword off the ground and running at me.

I threw my hand forward in blind panic once more, but before the call of Flux could leave my lips, an arrow hit the archer in the throat, and he dropped to his knees, clutching where the arrow went in. I look to where the arrow came from and saw Virion lowering his bow.

The archer walked up and offered me a hand up, which I took. "Th-ah, thank you," I stammered.

"Not a problem, my lady," he said, punctuating the statement with a wink. "Come with me." He slid his bow over his shoulder and ran a bit farther north, with me trailing behind. I didn't expect the archer to run so fast. He stopped and took a sharp right around the degraded stone wall of the fort, and I skidded around the corner, almost falling down before catching myself and following after.

As soon as I rounded the corner, I saw Virion twist sideways, and an arrow whizzed past him. I wasn't fast enough to completely avoid it, but I tilted my head to the side and managed to move enough so that it only scratched my cheek.

Virion slipped his bow off of his shoulder and knocked an arrow, firing it at the archer ahead of him within the second. I thrust my hand forward, calling out a Flux, too. Virion's arrow hit the bandit's bow, splitting it apart, and my Flux hit him full-force, sending him flying into the stone wall behind him. I sighed and slumped over, placing my hands on my knees. I was too frail for this. I was not in good enough shape for this running and fighting all the time. Virion put his bow back on his shoulder and ran up to the archer's body. I caught up to him and found him patting the archer's chest. One thing I was thankful for was that dark magic didn't leave much in terms of blood when it killed. At least Flux didn't.

"What are you doing?" I asked, apprehensively shuffling on my feet and glancing back the way we came. What were the others doing? Were Chrom and Donny alright?

"I am searching for a key," Virion replied, not looking up from his task. "There is a chest a little further down this way, and I am willing to wager that there is some treasure to be gleamed from it. While I am occupied here, however, would milady like to go find where our dear prince has gone?"

"O-oh, sure!" I shifted my grip on my tome and spun around on my heel, heading back around the fort. My knowledge of this fort's layout was very minimal. It had been a while since my last playthrough of Awakening, and I wasn't sure that the layout was even the same here. But, I did know that bosses tended to be in the centre of their bases, so I took a left turn and ran down the long hallway. Lying dead inside was the archer that had been engaged in the duel with Virion earlier, an arrow now protruding from his chest.

At the end, the hall turned right, leading to a larger square room. Inside, Chrom and Donnel were battling two axe-wielding men. Chrom was doing most of the work, keeping Donny safe while still dealing with his own barbarian. On occasion, Donnel would step from behind the safety that was Chrom and jab at the barbarians in front of them, while Chrom was busy deflecting their blows.

"Flux!" I cried, raising my hand skyward. Before the barbarians could turn around or react to my voice, one of them was crushed by a pillar of dark energy. This gave Chrom the opening he needed to parry the other bandit's axe out of the way, giving Donnel a clear shot at his gut.

Donny took the chance, jamming his lance deep into the bandit's gullet, then yanking it out and stabbing again. The bandit fell to his knees, Donnel's lance still buried in him. Donnel's eyes were wide, his teeth bared, his expression a mix of fear, adrenaline, and disgust at what he'd just done. I was very glad that Flux wasn't a bloody weapon.

"Thank you," Chrom said, flashing me a quick smile. He wiped an elbow across his forehead. "That was getting to be a handful."

Donnel was busy trying to yank his lance free of the bandit's body, going so far as to place his foot on the corpse. He pulled with all his might, and it came loose, causing him to stumble back. "I-I'm mighty sorry, your highness," the country boy said. "If only I was just a mite stronger, than you wouldn't hafta protect me."

"No worries, Donny," Chrom said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You're plenty strong as it is. Now let's go. There is only one room left." He gave Don a hearty slap on the back and fastened his grip on Falchion before walking forward.

Inside the next room was another shirtless man, with pinkish red hair that fell to his shoulders. He was massive, perhaps a foot taller than Chrom and broader than Frederick was. He was stuffing some objects into a large bag when we walked in, and he cast a glance over his shoulder when he noticed us. On his back was a pair of axes, the smaller one clearly meant for throwing, and the larger one a massive two-handed beast of a weapon. As he turned around to fully face us, he drew the larger axe and let it rest blade-first on the dirt. Across his face, there was a red smear, which accented his livid expression.

"Now just who do you think you are coming into Roddick's territory?" he said in a low voice, taking a step toward us with a twisted snarl on his face. "This is my land, and I don't take too kindly to trespassers."

"And the villages whose land you destroyed?" Chrom asked, and I could hear his grip tightening on Falchion's hilt. "How did they feel about their land being treaded upon?"

"They were weak," Roddick growled, hefting his axe up with both hands. "And the opinion of the weak holds no sway over the strong man's hand. Allow me to teach you a lesson on that, blue blood." He ran toward us, and Chrom ran to meet his charge. I had every confidence in Chrom's ability to win this fight, but that was all thrown out the window as Roddick brought his axe up in a mighty swing, knocking Falchion from the prince's grasp, the force of the blow sending Chrom to the ground, as well.

"You royals need to learn your place in this world," Roddick muttered, standing over the grounded prince. Then he raised his axe up, ready to end this fight early.

My arm moved before my mind did, stretching out toward Chrom as the words, "Watch out!" escaped my lips. It wasn't much, but my accidental Flux saved Chrom's life, at least for the moment. The pillar of darkness slammed into Roddick's chest, making him stumble, his heavy axe falling to his side.

Chrom used the opportunity to roll away. He took quick looks around, but I could tell that his sword was nowhere in sight. Roddick turned on me now. His eyes held all the fury a man could have, and he let out a furious roar. I saw his hand reach for the hilt sticking just past his shoulder, and my heart skipped a beat.

"Aah!" I cried. "I didn't want to have to do this!" I put my hands together, holding my tome in both hands and held the book forwards. Robin told me back in Ferox that, in a last ditch effort, channeling extra magic into the tome would allow for an even more powerful spell, but would consume exponentially more uses, so to only do this in emergencies, but…

I didn't have many options. The golden magic circles surrounded my hands, and just the force from casting the spell sent me sliding a few feet. This version of Flux wasn't a pillar of darkness, but rather a straight beam. It shot through Roddick, piercing his torso and going past him. When the beam ended, however, he was still standing, albeit with the help of his battleaxe.

I went to cast another Flux, but couldn't even raise my arm. The shot took a lot out of me, and I dropped to my knees. That was when I heard the fearsome cry of a boy taking charge.

"GIT READY!"

I turned to see Donnel running toward Roddick, lance drawn back preemptively. Roddick reached again for the hand axe on his back, but flinched, and Donny got in close. The farm boy took a mighty leap, and stabbed his lance through Roddick's chest. The bandit boss was knocked down onto his back, Donnel standing on top of him, holding tight to his bronze lance. In a defiant last effort, Roddick attempted to raise his arm. To do what, I couldn't say, as it dropped back to the ground without rising more than a few inches.

"We..." Donnel was out of breath, and so was I. We were both panting heavily, my hands on my knees and him using his lance as a cane after he managed to pull it free. "We did it!"

Zach

I woke up to being jostled, and had to blink multiple times until the blurriness went away. I was confused as to why the ceiling was composed of grey stone in oppose to the light-coloured wood that comprised my room. This… was not my room. Where was I?

I turned my head to the side to see Robin sitting on the side of the bed. She had a soft, warm smile on her face, and her snow-white hair was styled into a single, twirling ponytail. "How did you sleep?" she asked.

I sat up, scratching my head. "Good," I said, looking around. "Where… why was I sleeping in your room? What…" My sleep-muddled mind was having trouble wording the question that I wanted to ask.

"You cried yourself to sleep," the tactician said, "and I didn't want to wake you, so I just let you lay on my bed for a few hours."

A few hours? "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck," I said, a yawn sprouting up halfway through the curse. I sat up and stretched my arms. "What time is it?"

"The afternoon," she said. "I figured you'd want to wake up and enjoy some of the day, at least."

"Yeah, you're right." I couldn't waste an entire day, even if I wanted too. But one thing itched at the forefront of my mind, right now. I fucking cried myself to sleep in Robin's arms. And she just… let me. "Thank you. For, you know, everything. I was a bit off a mess today."

"I understand. That couldn't have been easy to go through."

"I've never felt this way, Robin," I said. I couldn't have worked it into the conversation smoother, but I was never one with words, and I needed to get this off my chest. "I haven't reacted this strongly to something in, gods, it's been years. I haven't genuinely cried in years. It's scary to be thrown back into these emotions like this." But it meant that I could feel, which was a twisted sort of consolation. "Anyway," I shook my head, "I'm just thankful that you, you know." What a smooth talker.

"Of course," Robin said, nodding. "Any time you need to talk, feel free to come to me. I'll be glad to help. I'm sure Chrom would be, too. Or Sumia, even. Or Lissa. We're all here, Zach."

"Yes, I know." She stood up and helped me to my feet. I was going to have to think of something to do to pass the time, today. Probably train. One could always afford to get stronger, and I had the time. There was something I was forgetting, I knew it, but I also knew that I wouldn't be able to recall what it was right now. But Robin made it easy for me.

"Speaking of," the tactician said. "Do you still want to go on that date?"

I smirked. "But I already bawled my eyes out."

"Yeah," she shrugged, "but I'm getting hungry, and you said you were going to buy me food."

"I don't remember saying that."

"Well I remember you saying that," she said, "and I'm right." I shook my head, but conceded, my smile growing. My goddamn anchor.

AN: Good evening, y'all. I'm sorry that this chapter took so damn long, but I hope that it being an extra large one is some consolation.

So a weakness of mine is emotional scenes. I adore them, but I have absolutely no idea how to write them. Like, whatever you see here is me just… fuckin' winging it. Which is why Zach is cycling through the same emotional stuff over and over again, but I figure eh, in this situation it works.

Also, this is the first non-Zach dominant chapter. Tell me what you guys think. Making the fight scenes with Krystal was a lot harder than I was expecting, but I hope it turned out. I thought it did, at least toward the end. I tried to keep from using some of my normal writing mannerisms during the Krystal portions, to take away the "Zach touch" and leave room for other personality. For instance, I think I used "though" only twice in her parts, while I normally use it excessively.

Anyway, new chappie, tell me what you think, as I look forward to your reviews. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

All of the Oats have left the building.