Chapter 9: Frederick's Challenge
In a medical facility in Regna Ferox, Chrom and his forces enter to see all of the Feroxi warriors that are still alive but injured.
"Man, those dastards were brutal." says Brady looking at all of the injured.
"Well, look at the bright side." says Lissa. "At least they still have their limbs all intact."
"Still, it'll be a while before they're fully recovered." says Libra. "Gods help us if this what we have to deal with when going up against the full might of Serris."
Basilio looks at an injured warrior and goes, "How are you doing, soldier?"
"I'm still alive, Khan Basilio." says the warrior. "And if I'm alive, I can still fight."
"I know, and I'm counting on it." says Basilio calmly. "But for now, you get plenty of rest, all right?"
Meanwhile, Raimi is talking to the doctor about something, and he seems to respond by shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, Lady Raimi." says the doctor. "He was long gone before I could do anything."
Raimi's head droops and she says, "I see. Then... Gaston is dead."
"I wish there was more I could do." says the doctor before he leaves Raimi there.
"Gaston..." says Raimi to herself.
Flavia then comes up to Raimi and says, "Raimi, wasn't Gaston your...?"
"My betrothed, yes." says Raimi.
"Raimi, I... I'm so sorry." says Flavia. "If you need time to cry, I under..."
"I won't cry." says Raimi. "Not right now."
"I see." says Flavia. "And... why not?"
Raimi goes silent before saying, "Serris and it's king, Hugo need to pay first. I won't stop till they've been brought to their knees and their spirits crushed. And after then, and only then... I will cry for Gaston, Lady Flavia."
Flavia just nods and says, "You're a strong woman, Raimi. A lot of us would do well to live by your example. I know the oaf would say the same thing."
"Thank you, milady." replies the female Feroxi General. "You and Khan Basilio are inspirations to me."
Nemo goes around using his staff to heal those that are injured while Ziggy follows him and the king of Serris says to him, "You know, Ziggy, I can't help but feel that part of this is my fault."
"Why do you think that?" Ziggy asks.
"It's simple, really." says Nemo. "If I hadn't come here, then my brother wouldn't have sent these forces to intercept me. And so many lives would have been spared."
"Milord." says Ziggy. "You should already know that doing nothing would only make things worse. The invasion would have happened sooner, and the countries you set out to warn would be in turmoil faster. You do know that, don't you?"
"I do understand, my friend." says Nemo. "And believe me, I won't stop going through with this until Hugo is brought down. I only say what I said because I'll always have a sense of guilt about it."
"I know." says Ziggy. "Just remember, it's good to have a conscience, but at the end of the day, the one at fault here is your twin brother."
Nemo glares and says, "After this barbaric display, Hugo is no longer my brother."
Ziggy just stares at his friend, getting the feeling that Nemo is being serious about this.
"You've taken a lot of things on yourself very hard, my love." comes Camille's voice. "But never this hard."
Nemo looks to see his fiance walking up to him.
"I will make Hugo pay." says Nemo. "I don't know how, but I'll make him pay."
"And we'll be there with you, Nemo." says Camille. "Both Ziggy and I will."
"I know." says Nemo. "I'm blessed to have friends like you. Maybe not worthy, but blessed."
"You're always worthy in my eyes, milord." says Ziggy.
"Me too, my love." Camille adds in.
Nemo smiles and nods to the both of them.
Meanwhile, Pit looks around the room seeing all of the carnage that happened to the Feroxi warriors, and wonders to himself, "Humans are truly monstrous creatures when they want to be. Makes me almost wonder if there's any hope for them. Or at least, the ones in this world."
Pit continues to look and he sees the few that are comforting the injured warriors, either by saying encouraging words, or using their healing staffs to mend their wounds.
"Of course, the humans in this world are also very resourceful, and can do good that I've not seen many divine beings in my world do." Pit continues to think to himself. "Such a race can sure be the ultimate quagmire in any existence."
After looking around enough, Pit begins to leave the medical ward. Momo sees this and she goes over to Pit, asking, "Where are you going, Pit?"
"Just out for some fresh air." says Pit. "Being around this much human blood sickens my little angel stomach."
"I understand, Pit." says Momo. "Take all of the time, you need."
"Thanks, Momo." says Pit.
After that, Pit leaves the medical ward, though the whole time, Frederick has been watching Pit closely with a look of curiosity and concern.
In the next scene, Pit is outside the medical ward and he takes a deep breath before looking at the night sky and saying, "Lady Palutena, I don't know if you can hear me right now, but I would speak to you if I could. I have to ask you, milady... how do you do it? How do you put up with humans so much, knowing how brutal and terrifying they can be? I know they can also do good, but why am I starting to get the feeling that such humans are so limited in number? Sometimes... I wonder if Viridi was right to wage war against humanity."
Pit's head droops down, and he says, "Humans can be destructive towards things they don't understand. But... from what I've just seen, they can be so much more destructive towards each other. It's... it's pretty darn near nauseating if you ask me."
After a moment of silence, we hear Saffron go, "I hope you won't feel that way all of the time, Warrior Angel."
Pit turns around in surprise to see Saffron there, and asks, "Hey, Saffron... what can I do for you?"
"No, it's more like what can I do for you." Saffron replies back.
Saffron walks up closer to Pit, who says, "I don't think I understand."
"Well... you seem to be in a bit of hurt after seeing what humans can do to one another." says Saffron. "You don't dislike humans after seeing all of this, do you, Warrior Angel?"
"Of course, I don't hate the humans." says Pit. "If anything, I'm just... confused. I thought divine beings like myself could do so much destruction to the humans, but when I see all of this violence that's happened, I'm starting to think that humans can be more brutal due to the fact they CAN'T do as much as we divine beings can."
"Yes, it is true that we humans are capable of great evil no matter how limited how power is." says Saffron. "Sometimes, our limited power makes us do more or greater evil. Take former King Gangrel of Plegia. I was told that, while his intentions may have been for good as he wanted Ylisse to pay for the crimes that the Knight of Naga's father brought upon Plegia with the great war, Gangrel went about it the wrong way ever since the Knight of Naga's elder sister, Emmeryn became Exalt. Gangrel was obsessed with revenge that he thought there to be no hope for all of Ylisse, or anyone to take the title of Exalt. Eventually, he tried to have Exalt Emmeryn publicly executed in Plegia, but instead of letting him do it to her, she took the initiative and jumped off the cliff herself."
"Wow, Chrom's big sister did that?" asks Pit.
"Indeed, Warrior Angel." says Saffron. "You see, the point to this story is that if humans can be capable of incredible evil, then the opposite has to be true, in that we're also capable of amazing good. The only reason it all seems greater than what a divine being can do is because we ARE so limited, and to that end, we feel the need to work harder. A divine being doesn't need to do much work to make others happy, because they have such great power and it only takes a little to do so much. But with us mortals, we don't have the luxury that divine beings do, so we strive to better ourselves every day until we accomplish our goals, no matter how wicked or how wonderful."
Thinking long and hard about what Saffron said, Pit looks at Saffron with a smile and says, "Thanks, Saffron. Makes me think that if I don't rely on my powers so much, I too can accomplish greater things in this world."
"You're always welcome to try." says Saffron.
"Yeah." says Pit.
Just then, Frederick's voice comes in and says, "I must congratulate you reaching such a revelation, Sir Pit."
Both Pit and Saffron look to see Frederick walking out to greet them.
"Hey, Sir Frederick." says Pit.
"Hello, Guardian." says Saffron. "What brings you out here?"
"Well, if you don't mind, Lady Saffron, I'd like to talk to Sir Pit alone." says Frederick.
"As you say, Guardian." says Saffron. "And Warrior Angel? I hope we can speak again at a later time."
"Sure thing." says Pit before Saffron walks away.
After that, Pit and Frederick are all alone with one another.
"So, Sir Frederick..." says Pit. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, for starters, I must apologize." says Frederick. "I couldn't help but overhear yours and Saffron's conversation. Do please forgive me for my spying."
"Eh, it's no problem." says Pit.
"Secondly, because I did overhear the conversation, I did want to talk to you about something." says Frederick.
"I didn't do anything wrong, did I?" asks Pit.
"Not really anything wrong, but rather something I feel that must be discussed with you." says Frederick. "It's about that weapon you were using to fight the assassins from Serris with."
"You talking about my First Blade?" asks Pit. "What about it?"
"That is one of your 'Sacred Armaments,' am I right?" asks Frederick.
"Yup, sure is." says Pit. "But, again, what about it?"
"Well, there in lies a request I have for you." says Frederick. "Or maybe more like an order."
"An... order?" asks Pit curiously.
After a brief pause, Frederick says, "I want you to refrain from using your Sacred Armaments."
"WHAT?" asks Pit in the most startled tone he's ever had. "Are you crazy?"
Frederick gives his trademark, axe-bringing-down smile and says, "I am most certainly not crazy. I want you to fight with human weapons the next time we take on any enemies. I heard from Exalt Chrom that you were very skilled when using swords, bows and tomes. Especially bows."
"Well... yeah, but... that's so different!" says Pit. "I was only using them for practice to prove I had what it took to become a Shepherd!"
"And you shall use them for general combat against our enemies." says Frederick.
"But... but... but... my Sacred Armaments! They're the best weapons I have at my disposal right now, especially the Three Sacred Treasures!" says Pit.
"And that's EXACTLY why you need a limit placed upon you." says Frederick. "You DID say that you wanted to see about not relying on your powers as a divine being all that much to do greater things, did you not?"
"Oh yeah, I did say that, didn't I?" says Pit before he droops his head down. "Me and my big mouth."
Frederick's face changes to one of serenity and he says, "Pit, I know you think I'm being cruel to you right now. But the reality is that... I do know you have a warrior side to you, and that you have great skill when it comes to fighting our enemies. In fact, if anything, I'm trying to make that fact more adamant by not having you rely on your divinity so much. Should you be successful at this, you will understand where I'm getting at."
Pit looks up at Frederick and says, "Not being cruel to me, huh? Could've fooled me."
"Believe me, Pit." says Frederick. "I'm doing this for your own good. I know I'm not your goddess, and that I may not be as warm or inviting as her. But believe me, while I don't consider myself the perfect warrior, you will thank me for this."
"And how do you know?" asks Pit.
"If you should talk to anyone about having experience in this field, talk to Virgil." says Frederick before he puts on a serious expression. "He may seem like a happy-go-lucky alchemist, but I think his bubbly personality is something he only shows on the surface these days. When I look into his eyes during a fight, he's more steely-eyed, more focused. He's become an expert at just about using anything as a weapon these days. Talk to him about the operations Soltis had him undertake and I think you'll be happy you did."
"Is... there a point to all of this, Sir Frederick?" asks Pit.
"Of course, there is." says Frederick. "I know you have a warrior nature, Pit. I'm just trying to make it better for you. Having fighting ability is great, but if you're to be a true warrior, fighting must become a sixth sense. There will come a time when you may have to use your Sacred Armaments, Pit, but I want you to KNOW when to use them. Do that, and then... nothing can stop your warrior nature. Truth is, Pit, while you may be more than 100 years old... you're actually new to the basics of real war."
"Man, you cut deep." says Pit. "All right... I'll do as you say, Sir Frederick. No Sacred Armaments, just human weapons."
"My thanks for your understanding and cooperation, Pit." Frederick says to him with a bow.
After that, Frederick turns to walk away.
"Sir Frederick?" Pit asks.
"What is it, Pit?" asks Frederick as he looks back at the angel.
Pit then asks, "When will I know to use my Sacred Armaments for combat?"
"You'll know, Pit." Frederick simply answers. "You'll know."
And with that, Frederick walks away to leave Pit there alone with his thoughts.
To Be Continued in Chapter 10.