Chapter 13

AN: So yeah. This one. I don't have really that much to say other than: Please ask your questions! Please? For disclaimers, see the first chapter.

As always, enjoy.

So yeah. Jean is here, and I am not sure if he is reading my mind or not, so I can't think of any classified information. Tharja, Libra, and Jean were all inducted into the Shepherds despite protestations from both me and Robin. Me on the part of Jean of course, but Robin on the part of Tharja. Robin has not spoken to me after the battle at all. Maybe he thinks I lied or something like that. I don't know. When we stopped for the night at the edge of the midmire, I heard someone approach. Maybe it was Robin finally grilling me for answers. Maybe it was Jean coming to gloat. But surprisingly, the one who has came up to me was Flavia. She approached me with a swagger that no one else in the army would be able to get away with..

"Why am I the last to hear of my daughter's boyfriend?" She asked me, shouting.

Oh sweet Naga. If I survive this encounter…

"Because it was kinda a public thing, and it was in front of all of the Shepherds, and you were off somewhere with Basilo doing who knows what." I explained.

"Remember what I said about your sword?" She asked me with the same tone as she drew her sword. Fuck.

My.

Life.

I drew Donny to defend myself, and just in time too. Flavia attacked me with a downward diagonal slash, and I was able to parry. She drew back, and tried a thrust to my chest. I rolled to the side, and tried to disarm Flavia with a quick, hard upward slash to her blade. She kept a hold on it. I slashed Donny downward, knowing very well that she would block it with her shield, and prepared for the inevitable counter-attack. There it came right under the buckler that she had strapped to her arm. I slammed Donny downward, and deflected the blade into the ground. It barely missed the aforementioned sword. I drew a Kunai, and cut the strips of leather that held Flavia's buckler to her arm. The small shield fell off with a clatter. I returned the Kunai to it's sheath. We were now dead equal with a blade each. She had far more experience in battle and strength, but I had a greater speed and skill by a large margin. I decided it was time to try to tire her out. Every time she swung at me, I would dodge. She was beginning to grow frustrated with the way I would twist out of the way just in time. I had plenty of opportunity to kill her, but I think that it would be a huge turn off for a girl if the guy they are dating killed their mother. Finally Flavia performed a one armed swing at my side, and I parried because I could not dodge. Then she used her other arm to punch me in the face taking me off guard. As I reeled, I felt warm liquid run down my face, and heard the crunch of cartilage. Lovely, she must have broke my nose. I stood up straight after that punch, and just wiped the blood off of my face.

"You have balls, I give you that." She complimented me. "Only Basilio and Lon'qu ever lasted another round after I used that technique."

"I feel honored." I said sarcastically, my nasally voice confirming that again, she broke my nose. "I have a naturally high pain tolerance."

She then charged at me again with a renewed vigor, slashing up and down, left and right, me always able to dodge just in time. Finally, I ran my blade down hers, making a hissing sound as it passed, then twisted it, disarming her. Her sword clattered to the ground, and I held Donny to her throat. An impish grin splayed over her face.

"Thank you for teaching my daughter. We both know if she fought like a Feroxi, she would be dead many times over." She stated with calm considering the fact that I held a blade to her throat. I stayed silent, watching her carefully.

"That was just a test." She claimed. "To see if you could protect my daughter."

"If anyone puts Olivia in danger, they will regret it in moments." I told her.

"Don't brag young one, you already have me bested."

"That was not a boast, that was a promise." I informed her. My nasally voice irritating the crap out of myself.

"Good answer. I am just going to grab a concoction out of my pack for that nose. It is the least I can do." Flavia said. She tossed the concoction to me, and I drank the foul liquid to heal my wounds.

"Sorry about that." She apologized. "I've never been very good with my words. Feroxi politics and all." She reached her arm out to me. "I give you my blessing to be with my daughter." I grabbed it, and her firm grip flipped me over her shoulder, and then I was the one at the wrong end of a sword.

"There." She sheathed it as she walked away. "Now we are even."

Wow Flavia didn't want to kill me? Thank the gods! She didn't emasculate me either like she threatened to do after she saw us together for the first time either! That actually went really well! Then clapping appeared from the shadows of the tent beside where the impromptu sparring match took place. Jean. For a glorious hour while I was sparring with Flavia, I did not even remember that he existed.

"That was a good match." He commented, his scar turning his smile into a cruel grimace. "I wish you luck in your relationship." He told me. I want to punch him, but until I knew why he was here, I was going to make nice.

"Why are you here?" I growled at him.

"Don't you get it?" He sighed. "I hold all of the cards here! I will tell you what I want you to know. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Why are you here?" I repeated.

"I would tell you, but…" He tapped his finger on his nose. "Spoilers." He laughed maniacally as he walked away. I want to kill him, but I don't even know what he was up to! Eventually, I walked back to my bed, problems with Jean plaguing my thoughts as I fell into a fitful sleep.

The sky was dark, and the road was slippery of rain. I was helping my parents out by driving a car through a rural road on the way to Texas. My siblings were sleeping in the backseat, and I was approaching a crossroad. I came to a complete stop at the sign, and was going to continue on my way. When I was in the center of the road, I saw a car cut a swerving path towards us. My parents screamed in pain as the car T-Boned the side of my parents car at 100mph. Then all I saw was whiteness.

When I finally awoke, I saw the wrecked car about me, and felt my head. It was bleeding. I stumbled towards a shape in the darkness. It was my little brother.

He had several large shards of glass sticking out of his body, and his skull was almost completely caved in. Bile rose in my throat. I stumbled away from the corpse of my brother, retching at the sight when I saw my sister.

The entire right side of her face was gone.

I ran away from her corpse, and towards the trees. All I saw up there were the corpses of my parents, their innards wrapped around the branches of the tree, and hanging upside down. Their milky pupils staring into my soul and asking why they were in this position. I finally let go of my ill held dinner onto the grass underneath the same tree. I was crying. My entire family, gone in a blink of an eye. Suddenly not there anymore. Just a statistic. I heard a cry for help from the wreckage of the other car. I walked towards it, and saw a bearded man, his eyeball out of his socket, and cuts all over his face. He was pinned under the 2 ton weight of his own car. His raspy breaths told me that he was still alive.

"Help Me." He rasped

I looked on him in rage and hate. He decided that it would be a good idea to drink some beer, and drive a car. If only I had been a little faster.

"Help Me" He rasped again.

"I cannot help you, and would not help you even if I could." I told him.

"Sorry." He croaked as he died.

I looked upon his corpse for a while, wondering what sort of malice he had against me to take my family away. I took out my phone, then dialed the famous 3 number service system.

"911 what is your emergency?" The female voice said.

"Me and my family have just been in a car accident." I told the operator. "It is bad. My family may or may not be dead, and the driver in the other car is definitely dead."

"What is your location?"

"I don't know precisely." I told her. "Somewhere on the road from Georgia to Texas."

"Ok, keep talking to me. Are you all right?"

I then felt faint, the world spun around.

"I have some head wound, probably minor since I am talking to you. I am bleeding rather quickly, and I have just had a fainting spell. I maybe bleeding out."

"Okay, hold on." The operator said calmly. "Hold on."

As she was relaying that information to the servicemen, I felt the world spin again, and things were getting dark. I felt myself succumb to darkness, and I could stay awake no longer.

When I awoke once again, I was laying in a starch white room. I was not sure if I was in heaven or not. Then I smelled it. The smell of sterilization, desperation, sickness, and death. The smell of a hospital. I felt the bandages on the side of my head, and remembered that it was not in fact a dream like I had hoped. It was a living nightmare with proof of existence on the side of my head. A woman with a white uniform walked in, and looked me up and down.

"You're awake." She observed.

What a coincidence. Then I woke up. I felt like shit because of my problems, so I decided to take care of one of the problems now. The Robin problem to be precise. I pulled on a shirt, and walked towards his tent. The night air felt cool on my skin, and I looked across the desert air. Little lights for campfires blinked in the distance towards the midmire, and I knew that Mustafa's army would be waiting for us. So would Olivia.

They better not get in my way.

Anyway, I also see Lucina/Marth heading towards his tent as well.I remember that conversation from fixer upper. I am fine. Oh. there is Jean looking awfully suspicious. I better investigate. He is just walking a perimeter of the camp. Why would he be doing something like that? I shadowed him for a bit. He walked around the camp, so I walked around with him. His eyes glowed red in the darkness. Strange. Then I saw a yellowed sheet of paper impaled on cactus spines. It read:

Noah

Just on guard duty. Nothing suspicious here. Yet.

Jean

My head hurts. Jean keeps on putting up a front of being this perfect Shepherd, but it was obvious he was up to something. Sneaking around in the middle of the night. I don't trust him for a moment. He has already killed three Shepherds, he could easily kill more. I realized that I had actually made my way back to Robin's tent. I don't even know what the hell to do! Is Lucina in the tent still? I looked in there, and it was just Robin, making some notes in his logbook. I noticed that there was a bottle of Feroxi Whiskey on his desk, and a single cup. I realized that I needed to fucking relax.

"Robin, can I have a drink?" I asked him.

"Huh? I was saving it for later tonight." Robin replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I need to relax." I informed him. "You try having your evil twin become a Shepherd."

"Touche." He admitted, putting another shot glass out. "Have a drink."

"Thank you," I said pouring myself a generous amount.

"Be careful, you have no tolerance."

"Whatever." He took my shot, and poured all but a tiny sip into his glass.

"Try it first." He told me. "You don't even know if you will even like it." I shrugged, and downed the sip. It tasted extremely bitter, and burned as it went down. I gagged after it went down, and set the glass face down on the desk.

"Disgusting." I said.

"I warned you. You would not like it." He took his shot, and grinned.

"Do you get what I told you before the battle yet?" I asked him. He nodded sagely.

"Emmeryn had to die, because it is actually helping us." He groaned. "How the hell am I supposed to explain that to Chrom though?" I hope he solves that problem quickly. I have no idea how to do it, but I knew it had to happen.

"I have no idea Robin." I admitted. "But something has to happen."

"That is not helpful at all." He told me.

"I don't even know what the hell he needs. I have literally talked to him maybe twice one on one." I reminded him. "You know him way better than I do."

Robin stayed silent for a bit, looking at a bottle of whiskey as if debating whether or not to take another drink. He replaced the bottle back under his desk, behind a few books labeled Fiction. He tented his hands in front of his face.

"Do you know anything about what is coming?" He asked me, changing the subject.

"There is an army waiting for us in the midmire, but they are only really loyal to their leader. Once you kill him, they should let us escape back to Ferox." I told him.

"Will your alternate be a problem in this next fight?" He asked me rightfully. Actually, I was wondering the same thing. He was actually getting along with the shepherds surprisingly. I know he is up to something, but how as I so sure?

He killed Donnel already. I know he is trying to destroy my mind before he killed me. He is planning something diabolical.

"I don't know. He is obviously planning something, but I have no idea what it could be." I said to him, wringing my hands.

Robin exhaled loudly.

"Go back to sleep Noah." He ordered. "You have a big day tomorrow."

I walked back to my tent, and collapsed into my bedroll. Almost immediately I fell asleep. I was woken in the next two hours by the disband camp horn. I packed up my tent, and put it on the caravan along with my guitar. Then I walked into the midmire, my coat hood up. Immediately we were greeted by the sight of pelagian reds in our way. Jean walked up to my side, and gave me a friendly thumbs up, contrasted by a vicious grin. Mustafa asks for our surrender, we refuse, and he offers to stand aside if Chrom meets him in single combat. Okay, not in the game, but it did not seem too out of character for Mustafa. They line up, and a fierce battle ensues that probably has not ever been seen before. Mustafa was swinging his axe over and over, but Chrom was blocking effectively. There was no time that either gave ground. Mustafa finally went into an overhead chop, and Chrom caught the handle of it in his left hand. He lunged forward with Falchion, and impaled Mustafa through the chest.

"Shepherds… Spare my men." And so he died. The Pelagian army fled, their all powerful commander dead in the muck. That was almost too easy. Something is wrong here. We ran up the mountain, and then I saw Olivia. Her hair looked frazzled in the rain slightly, but her violet eyes lit up when she saw me.

"Noah." She said as she ran towards me. Out of the left corner of my eye, I saw Flavia smiling with joy at the sight of her daughter so in love. To my right, I saw Jean starting up a classic blast.

He was going to kill Olivia.

Now it makes sense.

I WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!

I performed a diving tackle at his feet, but he already fired the blast at Olivia. The purple magic inched towards her as if in slow motion. Olivia saw it coming, and tried to dodge out of it's way. She was too slow. There was no way it could kill her... It clipped her side, and she collapsed in a heap. I let go of any semblance of sanity in my assault, as I punched his face over and over. He just lay back and laughed as my fists continued to slam into his face. His nose broke, and his lip split, but I could not let up my assault. He killed Olivia.

HE KILLED OLIVIA!

He needed to die.

Slowly.

He looked up at me in between punches, and I saw the mirth in his eyes.

"Five." He said as he disappeared.

Rescue staff.

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What was the point? She was my point, the bright light in my dark life. Everyone who gets too close to me dies. I am a forest fire. Upon first glance, I may look bright and cheery, but anyone who gets too close ends up getting consumed by the flames.

My family.

Donnel.

Olivia.

Next may be Robin, or maybe another Shepherd.

I need to limit the collateral damage once and for all. There was a cliff to the front of me. I noticed the very hard ground at the bottom. There didn't need to be an issue anymore. All I needed to do was jump. No point. Just jump. Jump.

"Don't do it Noah!"

Just jump.

"Noah!"

Just…

I felt something ram into my side, and I fell to the ground. My vision swirled above me, and I noticed a blob above me. Just spinning around with the rotation of the planet. Another blob quickly joined it, and I noticed that they were vaguely humanoid. My vision began to clear as one of the blobs left my vision. The remaining figure cleared, and it was… Olivia. Olivia was alive! I never had a more beautiful day in my life! Thank whatever god was watching over her! Her face looked more beautiful than ever, but she looked angry, and crying.

"You jerk." She said crying, and slamming her hand on my chest. "I thought I told you to find something else to live for." A bubble of laughter escaped my throat. "You think this is funny?" I was so relieved that she was alive. "This is not funny! You were going to jump! Remember what you live for!"

"She was dead and gone." I said to her. "My reason fell and died, and the gods saw it fit to bring her back to life. My reason was you." I never understood tears of joy until this moment. "It was always you, and you had left."

"Don't write me off as dead so easily Noah." She sniffed. "I am a tough girl." Her voice broke up as she claimed:

"I love you."

At that moment, I pulled her in for a kiss. This was only my second with her, but I knew that I was never going to have one like it again. We were both crying at the thought of one anothers deaths, so snot and tears ran down our faces making the kiss moist. We were both desperate, almost seeing one another die. It was sloppy seeing as we did not really care about finesse in that moment. Moist, desperate, and sloppy.

And the best kiss ever.

AN: You almost thought I was going to kill myself didn't you? I am not THAT much of an idiot. Seriously, write me some questions, I will be happy to answer them. As always, follow and review. I really appreciate it!