Well...this Chapter draws a close to the Chapters focusing on the first year or so after the events in Cheve so in a way, we've come full circle but fear not, there's still plenty more Chapters to come (although I'm not sure how many more we have left before we shift our focus to Corrin's life in Nohr). This Chapter features a two-year-old Sakura and-as was established a while back- I don't know much about children and so I'm sorry if my portrayal of her sucks (which it probably will). This Chapter also focuses on something brought up in a certain Support line again so I hope you like my explanation of the origin of that.

I must admit, this Chapter isn't the best work I've ever done but it's still sweet enough to finish off this little portion of the story and so I hope you like it.

*Spoilers Warning* Definite spoilers about the Avatar's actual relation to the Hoshidan royal family (hopefully people will know what that means and if they don't then that probably means they shouldn't read on). Also, spoilers about certain game events. There are also spoilers for two Support chains but I can't say which two (sorry) but if I limit it down to two featuring Corrin and two of the Hoshidan siblings, will that help? (Probably not, thinking about it...)

*I own nothing to do with 'Fire Emblem [Fates]', its locations, characters etc.*

Rated T

Chapter Eleven: Unstoppable

"-Whatever punishment awaits me, I shall accept it; I am in no position to argue for leniency or even for my life to be spared. What I did that day-or rather, what I didn't do- may have contributed greatly to how things ended up playing out. All I can do now is offer my sincerest apologies for my thoughtlessness. Lord Ryoma…Queen Mikoto, I don't expect you to forgive me, I have caused both you and the rest of your family immense suffering. I-"

"Stand up, Kaze." Mikoto murmured, there was no emotion in her voice and her expression was unreadable, a perfect poker face. Kaze gave in to her command and rose despite his legs shaking.

It'd been merely a few hours since he'd first returned to Hoshido and he'd wasted no time returning to the castle and requesting an audience with the queen and the eldest prince. All three of them were now in the throne room; Ryoma was stood to one side with his arms folded across his chest. His expression was just as indecipherable as Mikoto's and his eyes seemed to roam over the ninja; what he was looking for however, Kaze couldn't tell. Mikoto was stood in front of the throne, her radiant aura shining throughout the room.

Mikoto was silent for a moment whilst she gathered her thoughts before she started to speak again. "Kaze, you were but a child when the events in Cheve occurred and even now- a year on- you are still so young."

The boy winced as he presented his counterargument, "Saizo is my twin brother and as such is the same age as I despite being a tad older and there is no doubt in my mind that if he'd been the one to bear witness to what I did, he'd have told someone without a moment's hesitation."

She smiled warmly at the boy. "But you are not him. You are Kaze and if we were to take your life as recompense for a child's mistake then we'd be robbing you of the chance to learn from it and of the chance to become the man that you are destined to be one day."

"With all due respect my Queen, I may have been a child-I may still be one- but, I was raised to serve your family even at the expense of my own life and as such, I am not allowed to falter. I don't have the liberty of being allowed to have faults. If I had honoured my duties then King Sumeragi may still be alive, Princess Corrin may not have been taken by King Garon and all the troops who lost their lives that day may still be alive. We could've fled from Cheve! We could have found a way to fight back or to retaliate but instead we could do nothing but accept our cruel fate because of my weakness."

The room fell silent after Kaze's sudden outburst. He was panting heavily, shaking with the weight of his emotion. Ryoma was the one to break the silence as he cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the other two occupants.

"Kaze, you must believe me when I say that you weren't the only one to make mistakes that day; we all did. We were careless and we let our guards down. The fact of the matter is that you're the only one who noticed that something was off about the whole thing, the only one who realised that Corrin's concerns had some basis."

Kaze lowered his head in shame.

Ryoma continued. "But don't you see what this means? There were so many troops there that day! Many of who were older and more experienced than you but you're the only one who realised. You have a level of skill that simply could not be matched; the only thing you lacked was the confidence to act upon it but that's simply because you were young- it'd be hard to not question your own judgement when people twice your age were acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Believe me, I made that same mistake. I thought without a doubt that my Father was making the right move and for the longest time, I refused to question his judgement because I believed he could do no wrong. I forgot that he was merely human and as a result could get things wrong from time to time. He analysed the situation wrong and I was careless to not accept it until it was too late to do anything other than walk straight into the trap that was set for us."

"Lord Ryoma…" Kaze's eyes widened at the prince's confession. The prince himself was still so young (he wasn't even thirteen yet) and yet, his words and the weight they held were enough to make Kaze realise that he'd be a great king one day and that it would be an honour to serve him.

"So what happens now?" He asked.

Mikoto smiled at him. "The answer to that question is simple: we forgive you."

He looked down at the ground again. "I understand…wait, what?!" He stumbled back a bit in shock.

"Were you expecting a different answer?" She raised an eyebrow and her expression became mischievous. "You have our forgiveness, Kaze, especially mine. There are only two things I ask of you in return."

"I will do anything for you, my Queen."

She nodded. "Firstly, I ask that you learn from the mistakes of your past, no more running away from them."

"Of course…and the other thing?"

"The other thing I ask is that you serve me."

"You want me to pledge my loyalty to you?" He asked, confused, whilst he'd been away he had kept tabs on what was going on in Hoshido; he knew that she already had retainers, did she really need another? Not like he was complaining if that was the case but it did surprise him.

She shook her head. "No, I don't want you to pledge your loyalty to me specifically. I want you to carry on servicing all of the royal family- I don't want you to abandon that duty until the day comes when you do pledge your loyalty to one person in particular."

"I shall never abandon my duty again for as long as I live. Thank you, my Queen, I don't deserve this chance but I'll make the most of it. I will never fail you again."

As Kaze started to leave the room, he felt a slight pressure against his shoulder and turned to find Ryoma standing behind him. The prince smiled at the ninja and spoke softly to him, "I trust that you will aid me in the search for Corrin?"

"Of course, my Lord, if I was allowed to live then there was never any doubt in my mind about that." He bowed his head slightly.

"Good. Also, you may want to find Saizo before you do anything else. He may not be the most emotional of people but I'd find it a bit strange if he hasn't been at all worried about your well-being in the past year." He seemed to be keeping something from Kaze but he didn't feel he had any right to question the young lord about whatever it was.

"Very well." Ryoma released his shoulder and Kaze proceeded on his way.

Ryoma sighed and without looking back at Mikoto, he asked her the question that had been burning in his mind. "Should we tell him?"

"No, it's Saizo's place to tell him, Ryoma, not ours."

They stood there and stared at the closed doors to the throne room for a while before getting on with their other duties.

"La-la la, la-la…" Sakura sang to herself as she brushed her doll's hair and braided flowers through it. The two-year-old's days were often like this; peaceful and tranquil.

Once she'd finished making her doll look pretty, she admired her handiwork for a moment before turning to look for her other doll. She was planning on throwing a little tea party for them all and she was so excited by the prospect of spending time with her toys. There was nothing she enjoyed more than creating little stories that featured them all (other than spending time with her siblings and mother, of course). Sometimes they would go out for walks in the woods, other times they would go and pick flowers and other times-like today- they would eat food and drink tea in the palace gardens.

Sometimes Hinoka would even join in but she never joined in with the tea parties, when Sakura had asked her about it her elder sister had winced a bit like she was in pain and had said-rather ominously- that tea parties reminded her of 'someone'.

"There, now I just have to get one more of you ready-oh!" Sakura looked around herself and realised that the doll she'd been referring to was missing. She sighed, "I must have left her in the study." She bit her lip; they'd gone there in order to find a story for mother to read to them before bed time.

Best go find her- she thought. As she made her way to the room, she started to imagine who the 'someone' that Hinoka had mentioned could be. She often found herself wondering about that but had never reached any viable conclusion about who it could be.

"Sakura?!"

"Shh…! Keep it down, will you?!"

Sakura froze in her tracks; her name was being 'whispered' by someone and she wanted to know why. She spotted a couple of gossiping maids dusting; the two were infamous around the Hoshidan palace for talking about everything and anything.

"But…why would that be the case? Corrin wasn't supposed to be there at all."

'Corrin'? Sakura knew that name well; it was her sister who had been taken to Nohr. She only had the vaguest memories of the girl and for the most part she could only recall her vibrant red eyes and beaming smile.

Ryoma and Hinoka often talked about her and told Sakura the funniest stories; they told her about when Corrin had tried to dress herself for the first time and ended up trying to put her head through the sleeve and got stuck, the day she decided to slide down the newly polished hallway and discovered her new favourite 'pastime' as a result, much to the dismay of the servants and also about the time when she brought a bird home that she'd befriended and it escaped and so everyone in the castle spent the entire day trying to capture it whilst ducking their heads down when it flew too near to them only for Corrin to be the one who actually managed to catch it and she just rolled her eyes and asked 'what's the big deal? It's only small.' like that was the problem!

"Of course she wasn't! But it's obvious that it was always King Garon's intention to kill King Sumeragi, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he tried to locate where the royal family was staying in order to kidnap the King's youngest child but-in failing that- he decided that Corrin would be a good substitute especially since she practically fell right into his lap!"

Sakura's mind took a moment to process what was being said. So…they'd wanted to kidnap her and not Corrin? Did that mean that it was her fault that Corrin was no longer in Hoshido?

Sakura felt tears welling up in her eyes and she ran down the hall, her errand to retrieve her doll long since forgotten. "I'm sorry, sis." She stuttered through her tears as she wiped her nose. Her legs could no longer support her weight and she fell to the floor, as she cried for the rest of the afternoon.

"Mother is busy so she's not joining us for dinner." Ryoma stated as he joined the rest of his siblings.

"Well…it's her loss because this is delicious." Takumi grabbed another piece of food and popped it in his mouth.

"Takumi!"- Hinoka scolded. - "You're supposed to wait for everyone to join and Sakura isn't here yet."

"Yeah, I know, but I'm starving. I've been training all afternoon and my lessons ran over as well."

He moved to grab another piece of food and Hinoka tutted before slapping his hand away. "You know, somebody really has to teach you patience and manners. Show some decorum!"

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Will you two please stop it?! You're behaving like children."

Takumi and Hinoka both looked at each other before Hinoka raised an eyebrow at her elder sibling. "Err…Ryoma? We are children."

Before he could reply, the door opened to reveal Sakura. The young girl's eyes were red and swollen from crying and she looked as pale as a sheet.

All three of the other Hoshidan siblings shot up and went over to their youngest sibling. "Sakura?! What's wrong, what happened?" Takumi asked.

Sakura's gaze met his and she wanted to reply but…for some reason, she felt her throat close up, her tummy felt like it had butterflies in it and her heart seemed to be beating too fast. "I-I, err…um…"

Ryoma placed his strong hands on her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes as he rested his forehead against her own, "Sakura, take deep breaths, okay? In…out…in…out."

After a few moments, Sakura regained enough composure to think clearly. However, when her siblings yet again asked her about what was wrong, she didn't tell them the truth because she didn't want to get the maids in trouble and also…if it was true. If she had been the intended target then surely her siblings would resent her for being here when Corrin wasn't? If that turned out to be the case then the two-year-old would rather not know; she would rather live in blissful ignorance and so she said nothing and just came up with an excuse for her tears.

After she'd managed to convince them to stop worrying about her, they ate in silence for a while longer before she asked them a question. "D-do you m-miss Corrin?"

The moment she said her sibling's name, all three of the other attendees seemed to go deathly silent.

Hinoka was the first one to speak up, "Of course we do, Sakura. Why do you ask?"

"W-well, I just…I think about her everyday even though I b-barely knew her and I get really sad whenever I think about what h-happened to her b-but um…you all seem so happy. I-is that the case?"

Ryoma answered his sister's question. "For the longest time, we weren't happy at all; we were miserable all the time however, we've learnt to smile again; we've learnt to be happy again- even if that happiness is only skin-deep.

"We do think about her often and we still feel pain and sadness whenever we recall the fact she's not here however, life goes on and there's so much to smile at and when we're reunited we can share all of those happy times with her. If we carry on just being upset all the time then when she comes back, all we'll have are painful memories to share with her and that'll just make her feel guilty and upset so we need to create beautiful memories to balance out the horrible ones."

"Yeah, I never stop thinking about Corrin even in my sleep."- Hinoka interjected- "I do worry about something, though, will she still feel like she's a part of our family when she returns? So much could've happened to her in Nohr; we don't know what they could've done to her, what they could be doing to her if she's still…"

Hinoka's voice trailed off as she entertained that possibility, the possibility that she would never find out the answer to her question simply because Corrin was no longer around to answer it. She then shook her head, clearing it of that dreadful thought yet again. It seemed to enter her mind at least once a day like it was trying its very best to torture her.

Sakura cleared her throat in an attempt to draw attention away from that line of thinking, "T-then…why don't we d-do something that will remind her that she belongs with us?"

Takumi put his hands up in the air. "Not like I care very much either way but what did you have in mind?"

Sakura's eyes widened. "I-I don't know. But if we had something we could g-give her then she'll realise that we never stopped caring about her."

Takumi's eyebrow perked up at that. "Err…this is something we're planning on giving to her after her hypothetical return, right?"

Hinoka glanced up at him. "But…when she does return,"- She purposefully used the 'when' to correct Takumi's 'hypothetical return' statement. - "she'll want to know that her siblings never stopped caring about her and that they kept her in their thoughts always but…what could we give to her? Hmm…" She placed her hand on her chin thoughtfully and her lips puckered in concentration.

Suddenly, Ryoma, who had been quiet all of this time, snapped his fingers together drawing everyone's attention to him. "I've got it! Are any of you too busy tomorrow to accompany me on an errand?"

They all shook their heads in unison.

"Good, then we'll leave first thing in the morning, just the four of us."

"What do you have in mind, Ryoma?" Hinoka asked suspiciously.

He grinned fiendishly at them, "That's for me to know…and for you to lose sleep over…"

"We should get the Hoshidan symbol engraved on it." Hinoka murmured as she looked over Ryoma's shoulder at their current project.

"Y-yeah, it'll be like a couple of nights ago, when our people made the s-symbol out of candles."

"She wasn't there to see that-"- Takumi whispered almost to himself. - "There's a lot that she's missing out on through no fault of her own. I won't act like I trust her or even care for her that much however, right now; I want to treat her like the sister that she used to be for me." He smiled.

Ryoma was busy concentrating nevertheless he replied albeit a bit distractedly. "I'm glad to hear that. I'd prefer to hear that you'd consider her as your sister all of the time however, I'll take whatever I can get."

"Ha! Glad to hear it." Takumi's grin widened even further.

A few hours (and disagreements later), the four Hoshidan royal siblings agreed on the final design for the ring that they wanted to be made. After paying the blacksmith, they went on their way and spent the rest of the day together reminiscing over the memories they'd made with their missing sibling.

"I'm here to deliver the ring you requested." The blacksmith murmured as he bowed before the siblings.

"Thank you." Hinoka whispered as she took the box from him. The four siblings had agreed to keep this a secret from everyone else-Mikoto included- as they wanted this to be something just between the four of them-until Corrin came back at which point it'd be between the five of them.

After wishing the blacksmith well and thanking him for his services, the four siblings gathered together in a small huddle. "Let's take a look at it." Hinoka said as she lifted the lid.

It was just as they'd requested a simple gold band with the Hoshidan symbol and a short saying engraved onto its surface. Despite the fairly bland design, it still cost a small fortune due to the couple of jewels that they'd also had added to give it some colour.

…Okay, maybe it was more than a couple.

"Wow! It's rather err…elaborate." Takumi commented.

"That's true but our sister deserves the best." Hinoka nodded enthusiastically.

"There's j-just one q-question: who is going to give it to her?" Sakura asked quietly.

All four of them stood in silence as they pondered the dilemma.

"Hinoka." Ryoma said at the exact same time as all the other three siblings said his name instead. "W-what?!" He exclaimed. "B-but won't it be awkward for me to give her a ring? I know nothing about jewellery!"

Hinoka grabbed his shoulders from behind. "Aah, but this was your idea and it's not just any piece of jewellery, is it? It's a ring for our kidnapped sibling to remind her of how much we cared- and still care- about her when she returns, you know, in case the Nohrians have planted a seed of doubt in her mind about us? Besides, you're also the oldest and you were the closest to Corrin therefore, you're the most qualified to be entrusted with this important task."

"I second that notion!" Takumi raised his hand like he was at an auction.

"I t-third it." Sakura copied her brother's action by lifting her own hand.

He rolled his eyes at them. "Ugh, fine, fine, I'll hold onto it and give her it when we are all reunited again, agreed?"

"Agreed." They all said.

"Then all that's left to do is to do all within our power to bring her back to us safe and sound. I trust you are all willing to do such a thing?"

All of the siblings nodded before going about their business. As Ryoma took the ring back up to his room, meaning to find a safe place to keep it, he realised that he couldn't bear to part with something that would one day be given to his sister- the thought of their eventual reunion filled him with such an overwhelming sense of joy.

"I really miss you, Corrin. I hope you still remember us here in Hoshido after all, we could never forget you." His thoughts drifted to the first time he'd met her as young newly-born babe with the biggest, brightest eyes and the sweetest little smile. There wasn't a single moment with her that he didn't cherish however, that memory was one of his favourites.

There was nothing in the world he loved more than his family and his kingdom and he was definitely closest with both Hinoka and Corrin however, his bond with Corrin in particular had always been an incredibly special one and the fact she wasn't around him any longer was an unbearable one but it was one that he was determined to change no matter what.

He looked at the box in his hand as he sighed. "I think I'll keep this on my person after all, there's no guarantee as to when we'll be reunited again; it could be today, it could be years from now, regardless of when it is, it will happen- there's no doubt in my mind about that. Until then, I'll hold onto this for you, Corrin and keep it safe no matter what. We will meet again, Sister. We all love you dearly and our lives are nowhere near as beautiful without you. We will bring you home as soon as we can, Sister, I hope you're prepared to see us again because we're certainly prepared to see you."

The first year without Corrin and without Sumeragi had been a difficult one for the Hoshidan siblings and it probably wasn't going to get any easier however, they would struggle on regardless of what came their way because they had a sister to bring home and a kingdom to protect. As a whole, they were unbeatable and unbreakable but most of all, they were unstoppable.

Time to shift our focus from the Hoshidan siblings and their grief for the moment. There wasn't much I could do with Sakura during this however, I did make a start on her character development in this Chapter so I hope you like it. Until next time. xXx