Chapter 24
I really felt like I was going to puke now. Whoever had hired this guy...he had planned this whole thing.
"How could he have planned this?" I asked, barely able to hold the bile down in my throat.
"I don't think he did. I mean, why would the guy have willingly carried this note in the first place," Lon'qu said. I nodded. There was no reason that this was true, right? Right?
We walked back in silence, a sickly look on my face still. This...was a feeling that I never wanted to get use to. We made it back to the camp. The fire was still burning brightly, with everyone around it. I sat down decently far from the fire, so that no one could see my face. Lon'qu went up and sat next to Panne.
I remained silent for a few moments before Panne got up. She walked over to where I was, and sat down next to me.
"This doesn't suit you," she whispered.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"Your the reckless person here. Always up front killing people. Yet now, your in the back, looking sick. This isn't you. I know I get on your a lot of the time about this, but still. This isn't you. I can smell the worry in you. Lon'qu told me what happened, and you made the right choice.
"I don't see how, I took a life in cold blood."
"If someone's trying to keep tabs on you, that' not cold blood."
"It is if the guy didn't know what the fuck he was doing,"
"He shouldn't have taken the job in the first place. Just like Kira."
I laughed slightly. "Even if it was their fault for taking the missions, isn't it equally my fault for being the force that took their lives."
She sighed. "You know deep down, that you had to do it. If not who knows what would have happened. That money...it would drive you humans to do almost anything."
"...you're right," I mumbled. I wasn't sure if I felt that deep down, but at the very least the beginning was accepting it. Right? "Thanks for the talk."
"It's no problem we're...friends aren't we," She said. I looked at her for a second.
"Yea, we are friends."
I looked over everyone who was here. I was friend with all of them (except for maybe Simon. Which was only for now) wasn't I.
I closed my eyes, and drifted to sleep by the fire.
I slowly opened my eyes, seeing the top of a tent. I was confused to why I was in a tent. I knew that I had fallen asleep outside of the tent. I looked around, trying to see if there was anyone else was in the tent.
There was... Simon and Codie. I think that was the only others in there. I quickly got up, throwing the blanket that had been on me to the floor. I quietly snuck out of the tent, making sure not to wake either of them.
Outside of it, there were a few other tents all around the fire. It was set up like it had been the previous night, obviously. Though the fire was nothing more then smoldering remains now. I quickly started gathering up the things that had been scattered around, bowels, cups, those kind of things. After a while, I had collected all of them. I sat there for a second, still trying to think of something to do, before my mind wandered.
I knew that once it did, I would think of my murder. How I had killed someone in cold blood the night before. Even if Panne had convinced me that I as in the right, I was still going to regret it. I hadn't thought it was in my nature, ever to kill someone like that.
There wasn't a single way that the man could have even fought back, Lon'qu's blade at his throat made it that way. We had already disarmed him, but still, I took his life. I was nothing more then a cold blooded murder and now that I had descended this far, was there even a way to get back up?
I didn't know, nor did I ever thing that I would know the answer to that. I looked up at the sky, internally cursing myself for letting my mind wander like this.
"What happened last night?" I heard Lucina ask from behind me. I jumped slightly, I hadn't expected anyone else to be up at this time. The sun was just barely rising over the treeline.
"What do you mean?" I said back, a little fast.
"I can tell your lost in thought. You had been since the when you came back with Lon'qu last night. What's on your mind.
"...I killed someone last night," I said simply.
"There's more to it then that. I've seen you kill people on the battlefield. What's wrong about this one?"
"He was an assassin, I guess. He was paid a decent sum of money to kill me. Lon'qu and I had him disarmed and pinned on the ground, he hadn't even had a chance to fight against us, we caught him off guard. Lon'qu had him pinned to the ground, sword at his throat. We interrogated him.
Then, I killed him, in cold blood. Afterwords, we found a note in his pocket, with my name on it. It told me that I made the right choice. Who ever had hired him, knew what was going to happen. Knew what choice I was going to make."
"So you killed someone who couldn't fight back, but was going to make an attempt on your life?" I nodded. "Then what if he had already made the attempt on your life?"
"It would be easier to take then it was. I could see the fear in his eyes. The sweat going down his face. He literally begged for his life and still I took it."
She shook her head. "You really are different, aren't you?" She mumbled under her breath.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I've said it before. You are...were a lot different in my time. Though I don't agree with your choice, your different then before."
"So?"
"He killed anyone who got in your way, without a second thought. You did what ever you felt was necessary in order to do what you felt was right. I admired that about you. Even with making yourself out to be the bad guy you still tried to do right."
"Like what?"
"I'm sorry...you asked me to never tell you about what you did in the other timeline."
"What, was ashamed about what I had done?" She didn't answer me. Instead she looked up to the sky. I looked up as well, seeing the red sunrise had been turning blue during out conversation.
"The sky is so much more beautiful here."
"It's not like this in the other world?"
"No. It's constantly dark there, even during summer, the sky is dark."
I turned away from it, continuing to pack our stuff up. Was I really like that, I wondered. Was I able to be a monster?
We were walking through the entrance door to the Khan's chamber.
The guard opened the door.
"Prince Chrom, Tactician Robin, King Marth, Champions Lon'qu and James, and Targuel Panne, here to see you, milords," The guard told them. They were standing, talking to each other. Simon and Codie were in a different room. They didn't want to meet, the Khan's. Codie was to tired. Simon just wanted to get back to his world, to fight Dracula.
"It's a please to see you two again," I said, as I bowed slightly.
"Ha, no need to be formal with me, Champion James," Flavia said with a laugh.
"If your sure, Flavia," I responded with a grin.
Basilio smirked slightly. "So this is your champion?" I nodded to him. "Isn't he the one Lon'qu took down?" Again I nodded. He smirked, but I smirked back. I had to at least act confident.
"Though I've improved since I was last here."
"Ha, still have a little spunk in ya," Flavia said. She turned to Chrom.
"We're here to request help against Plegia. They've captured Emmeryn."
"Ha, so you want our help with an army? Why should we?" Flavia taunted slightly. Of course she was still going to help, but she was going to twist his balls a bit. Metaphorically of course.
"Over my brown ass, of course we'll help you."
"You know we were still going to help them," Flavia threw back, grinning at him. They were messing with each other.
"...Is that a yes-" Chrom started before Robin started speaking.
"I believe that is a yes Chrom."
"...Of course," Lon'qu said plainly.
Basilio smirked. "How about a spar to mark the occasion. Our two champions against Prince Chrom and Tactician Robin?" I was surprised by this.
"Ha I like the idea. What do you say about that, prince?"
I glanced at Robin and Chrom. "That's fine by my."
"...It's fine by me as well. Finally a chance to spar with a team. Champions against Prince and Tactician."
I walked in front of Flavia, a smirk on my face. "It's been a long time since I've gone against you, Robin."
The door opened, but I didn't pay any mind to it. I leveled my blade, pointed at Robin, who was across from me. I could see Raimi carved in the blade. Lon'qu was holding his blade in a different fashion. He had his blade lower then mine, blade slanted up instead of forward.
We stood still for a second. Robin had his book out in his left hand, but his sword in his right. The book was red, so I knew to expect fire. It was wide open, being held by the spine. His sword was pointed more towards the ground.
Chrom had his stance ready, which for some reason, looked much like mine. We stood there for a few second, then suddenly, Robin started chanting. I dashed forward, blade slipping farther down. A fireball got blasted at me. I did a spin, easily dodging it. Chrom made a move for me, which Lon'qu deflected. I ran around him, blade ready to strike. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something glowing. I let go of the blade with my left hand, instead putting it onto Lon'qu. I stepped backwards, pulling him with me.
A fireball flew past us, landing right where we just were. Lon'qu dashed at Robin, leaving me with Chrom.
"Ready?" I asked him. He nodded. I dashed forward, blade ready. They clashed, and I was pushed back by the pure power of the strike nearly knocked me off of my feet. My blade flew up, still gripped in my hand. I had to let go of it, just to be able to duck in time to dodge the strike. I quickly stepped backwards, barely dodging every strike that he tried to hit me with.
"James!" Lon'qu yelled. I turned in time to see my blade being weakly tossed to me. It fell by my feet. I ducked down, dodging an attack, and grabbed it up. I ran past Chrom, towards Robin, hoping to catch him off guard.
Directly in front of me was Robin, behind me was Chrom. Robin turned to me, blade ready. I made a annoyed grunt. I had hoped that he wouldn't think that Chrom was behind me. I turned as Lon'qu made a move from Robins side.
I stopped looking, I didn't have time to, Chrom was right on top of me again. I struck at him, but he blocked with the Fire Emblem. I did a spin, moving around him as he struck at me. In my sword dance around him, he kept barely missing me.
I was tiring though, I could feel it. But I couldn't stop, not yet. I jumped back from him, setting changing my stance. My blade raised slightly. My right leg was in front with my left in back, like I was in mid-step.
Chrom moved at me, and I smirked. I had him just where I wanted. He dashed at me and I...ran around him, ignoring him completely. Robin and Lon'qu had their swords crossed, pressing against each other. I came from the side, smacking Robins sword hand with the dull side of my sword. He let a grunt, before letting his sword go.
It didn't matter though, there was already a huge fireball above him.
"Checkmate!" He yelled out, he didn't have to though. I knew we had lost from the minute the battle had started. They were a near unstoppable team. In my last second of thought before the fireball hit us, I reacted. I pushed Lon'qu out of the way. But at the same time, he pushed me. We both flew out of the way of the fireball.
It didn't matter so much though. As I tried to get up, Robin had his blade pointed down at me, right at my throat. For a split second, I could have sworn it was me. Blade ready to stab into my throat, just like I had done to the man the night before.
Yet as soon as I saw it, it was gone, it was once again Robin above me.
"...I give," I heard Lon'qu say. He was in a crouched position, but his eyes were locked on me. I felt the sweat on my face for the first time since the start of the battle.
"I do as well," I said. My breathing was getting heavy, the stress was killing me. To my surprise someone came to my rescue. Panne grabbed Robins arm. She pulled on it, till it was no longer directly above my neck.
"Don't do that to him," She growled. Robin gave a confused look.
"Why it was just a spar?" He was obviously confused.
"The position..." I mumbled as I got up. "Brings back a bad memory."
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know," Robin stammered.
"It's fine," I mumbled. I looked at everyone and smiled weakly.
"That was a pretty good dual," Basilio said.
"You four have been improving," Flavia commented, to all of us. Raimi had been lying on the floor, but I picked her up, sheathing her again.
"You should rest now," Basilio said. "We'll get all of our asses in gear tomorrow. And don't worry, we'll send a group of messengers your army. We'll meet on the northern Plegia desert."
I was in the room given to me, it was the same one that I had been in when I was healing. I had taken a bath, thankfully they supplied warm water for all of us. I didn't want to have to take another cold one. I had just gotten some casual clothing on (A black cloth shirt and black pants as well.) when there was a knock on my door. I glanced at it for a second.
"Come in!" I yelled. The door opened, and a guard walked in.
"Khan Flavia would like to talk to you," He told me. I nodded, before I got up. I grabbed Raimi from where it rested on the bed, attaching the sheath to my side. I followed the man out of my room. I let the door close behind me.
After a few minutes of walking, I found myself in front of the khan chamber. She was sitting in her chair, waiting for me.
"You wanted to see me, Lady Flavia," I said as I walked towards her. She smirked at me.
"I saw that you've improved." I nodded. "I also saw how well you were working with Lon'qu. I take it he's been a good teacher for you." Again I nodded. "There is one thing that I would like to know."
"What is it, Khan Flavia?" I asked. I had no clue what it was that she wanted to ask me.
"He's been training you to become like him a myrmidon. There are to paths that can become. A Swordmaster, or an Assassin. As you stand, those are your two possible choices." I nodded, I understood what she was getting at. "But I would like to present you with another path." Needless to say, I was curious at what the other path would be. "You could follow in my footsteps, and become a Hero, or even a Ranger."
Needless to say, I was surprised. "As it stands now, I wouldn't be able to train you. It'll have to be after this war. But if you did chose that path, you would be training directly under me. If you want to become a ranger on the other hand, you would need to find yourself a archery teacher.
As it stands now. Both you and Lon'qu would need to find a Swordmaster in order to improve farther then Lon'qu has become. You're still a bit away from him in that respect. How ever, if you wish to become a Hero, I could become your teacher."
I thought for a second. "Can I give you my answer after the war?" I asked her.
"Ha, that's fine. But you'll need to become more decisive then that," She told me. I smiled slightly.
"I understand. This decision can effect my whole fighting style. I want to make sure that I make the right choice."
"I understand," She told me. "You're dismissed. I bowed to her, before turning around. I walked out of the room, lost in thought. I ran my hand down the scar that was over my eye. I was thinking. I used to shoot a bow and arrow. I never practiced actually archery though. I never bothered trying to aim, just shooting a distance. That would be hard to learn to do. I knew that, but each of these would be hard to learn.
If I wanted to become a Ranger, I would need to learn more then just archery. I would also need to learn horsemanship, along with the archery. That would be an even more painstaking job. I couldn't even see myself keeping control of a horse, while aiming a bow.
Then again I couldn't see myself becoming Khan either. I looked at my main two options, which also happened to be my two favorite classes in Awakening. Hero and Swordmaster. Swordmaster. I thought. It had been my favorite class since I found out about the series. A bit chunk of my favorite characters were.
I could learn it, I knew it. I smiled slightly, sure that I had made my choice. I would be a master of the blade. I was so lost in thought, I barely realized that I had walked past my room. I took a few steps backwards, making sure that I was in front of my room. I opened the door and walked in. I didn't let the door close behind me though.
I had a thought, what was I in the other timeline. Lucina would know this, right?" I stepped out of my room, determined to find out. Thankfully except for Chrom, we were all in this hallway. I knew which room was her. I walked to the other side of it. Passing Lon'qu and Panne's room, then passed Robins room.
I stopped outside of Lucina's room. I knocked on the door. I waited a few seconds, before she opened the door. She looked...beautiful to say the least. Her hair was down, going just past her shoulders now. She was wearing a blue shirt and pants. She smiled at me.
"Is there something I can do for you, James?" She asked, kindly.
"I would like to speak about the future," I said to her plainly. The kind look on her face darkened. She let out a quiet sigh.
"Come in then, so people won't overhear us," She told me, as she stepped away from the door. I walked in, past her. She closed the door behind me, and walked over to her bed. She sat down on it. "I've told you before, I won't answer any questions about you."
"I just want to know what I ended up training as," I said dryly. She looked at me, eyes locking on me.
"Why do you want to know that?"
"I'm choosing my mastery pretty soon. I want to know what I chose in the other world."
"...I'm not really sure."
"How are you not? I thought I fought alongside you."
"You did, but there was a time you weren't with us. When you came back, you had your sword with you at all times, but that was it. One sword. You never had a bow, axe, lance, or anything else with you. Never even a spare sword."
"So you don't know if I was a Swordmaster, Assassin, or Hero?" I asked her. She looked at me for a second. I could tell something was wrong. Something I said bothered her.
"You were a Hero to us children."
I smiled at that. I sat on the bed. "At least I helped somewhat," I said with a laugh. I looked over at her. "How did I die?"
A tear was going down her face. She quickly wiped it away. "You...you died buying us time. We were at Prism mountain. We had done the Awakening. We were waiting for Naga to send us back in time. Grima and the Risen were attacking. You were guarding the door, till the very end. We could hear what was going on outside. The battle, your scream of pain. He staggered in, just in time to see the portal open. You said one word to us. Run." More tears were going down her face.
"There was an arrow in your arm. You... there was a slash across your stomach. Blood as coming out of your mouth." She was crying a lot now. I wrapped my arms around her, letting her bury her face into my chest. She sobbed into my chest. You turned around, in time to have a sword rammed into your chest.
We left you there!"
"It's okay, everything's okay now," I said to her. I rubbed back back of her head, letting her cry it out. That explains why she at least thinks of me as a hero. Somehow I outlasted all of the Shepards. In the end, I still died, leaving the children by themselves.
"I'm sorry I couldn't make it with you," I said to her. She looked up at me. Eyes still red from crying. I could clearly see the mark of Naga in her eye. I held her close. She looked so broken, so weak. We sat like that for a while, her crying in my arms and me holding her.
It was odd, to be honest, but it felt nice to be close to someone like this.
"And Codie was there too," So told me, once she had calmed down.
"Really? What about Simon?" I asked. She shook her head. I never met him, but I heard about him. One of Walharts generals killed him, Codie mentioned it to us. I don't know why, but you two fought a lot."
"Probably to protect you guys," I said. She shook her head.
"Not like that. I mean argued. You guys only argued when it was the both of you on guard duty, and after all of us were asleep. He...he's a hero too. He died at the base of the mountain, holding them back as long as he could.
I could tell...it tore you up inside to leave him behind. He told you not to worry, you weren't getting rid of him that easy..." She was still crying. There was a knock on the door, I jumped slightly, but Lucina didn't she wiped her eyes a bit and got up. She walked over to the door, and threw it open. Standing on the other side of the door was Chrom.
He looked at me, gave me a slight glare, but didn't say anything.
"Marth are you okay?" He asked her.
"I'm fine Father," She said to him. He glanced at me again, and I nodded. He wrapped his arms around her. "I'm glad I can be truthful about it now." She sobbed slightly in his arms.
"What's your real name, dear?" Chrom asked her. She looked up, looking him in the eye. I hoped that he could see the mark in her eye. I hoped that it would put him at ease.
"Lucina," She mumbled into his chest. It was a warming family moment, one I had no need to be apart of, though they were blocking the exit, so I couldn't really leave. I leaned back onto the bed. I closed my eyes.
"What happened in your future, why did you come back in time?" He asked her.
"Grima... he was resurrected. You...you died, everyone died!" She shouted. He seemed to be taken back by that.
"I...died?" He asked, surprised.
"Everyone did... You...you were one of the first. After all that happened, when a plan was finally made to come back...James showed up, saying he was there to guard us on our journey. He had known the future," She told him. I didn't mind, gave me a bit more knowledge into what had happened.
"By that time...everyone was dead...all the Shepards. Later we ran into Codie, as we made our way..."
"We?" He asked her.
"There were other children besides me. We all fought against our fate."
"Did James and Codie make it through with you guys?" Chrom asked. He looked at me for a second.
"No-no," She said quietly. "Only us children made it through."
"Can we...spend some time together?"
"Of course Father." She smiled at him. I took that as my cue.
"I'll get out of your hair then," I said with a slight grin. "I'm happy for you two." Chrom let go of Lucina for a second, to move out of my way. I quickly moved by them, so I wouldn't be in their way. I glanced backwards, seeing Chrom grin at me. He looked happy about being a father.
I walked down the hallway to my room. I opened the door.
"I wondered when you'd get back here," Came Codie's voice as I entered the room.
"How did you end up in this world?" I asked him. I did my best to not think of what Lucina said. About how we argued a lot.
"Nothing much, though I think my car is totaled now," He said plainly. "Wanna Spar?"
"If that's what you want to do, I won't deny you. It'll be interesting to go against you."
"Tell me about it. I hadn't realized how good you were with your sword till I saw your fight against Chrom and Robin."
"You saw that?"
"Me and Simon came in right before the battle started. You two had made a great team."
"Thanks buddy," I said to him, grinning slightly. It was hard to doubt myself when one of my closest friends was around. He walked out of my room. "I need to get my armor on. After that I'll work on finding a healer." He nodded to that.
"I'll be waiting at the training hall."
"Why not the arena?"
"Remember, stage freight." Oh yea, I forgot he had a pretty bad case of that. I remember once in school he had a panic attack over it. I closed the door behind him. I went over to my bag, pulling out my armor. I quickly put it all on, enjoying the cool metal on my skin. I always did prefer cold weather to warm.
I made sure that I left the dagger in my room. I didn't want to risk it. If I reacted on instinct I might accidentally use it. After around twenty minutes of trying to find a healer, I finally found one. We walked down the path to the training hall. When we got there, I was surprised to see Robin was there, talking to Codie.
Lucina was to, with Chrom.
"I'm surprised to see you guys here," I said as I walked in with a healer. He didn't say anything to me at all. Wouldn't even tell me his name.
"I wanted to see how Codie fought. I wasn't expecting to see you fight him though," Robin said with a smirk. I grinned at him. I looked at the armor they had here, seeing if there was anything else that I could use. I saw the arm guard that Hero's often wore. I stared at it for a second, before grabbing it off of the wall.
"What are you doing?" Asked Codie. I smiled.
"Making my choice," I said, as I slipped it over my left arm. It felt odd, definitely was heavier then what I as used too. I did like how it was like a giant shield over my whole arm though. I smirked at I looked at Codie. It was then that I noticed his weapon of choice. I couldn't help but grin at it. He was using a scythe. That was something I hadn't expected, but it didn't surprise me either.
There was a dark circle in the middle of the room, he was standing in it. I walked towards it too, passing by everyone till I got into it as well.
"Ready, Codie?" I asked. He nodded.
In an instant, I took off, dashing at him as fast as I could. He raised his scythe, bringing it down at me. With ease, I lifted my left arm. The scythe, thankfully, bounced off of it. The next second, I was bringing my sword up. He did a spin, dodging where I was trying to stab my sword. He brought the scythe around, ready to plunge it into me. I turned around, so that my left arm would be on that side. I blocked the blade again.
I'm glad I was adapting to my knew shield easily. Though I noticed my attacks were slightly weaker now that I was using only one hand with my attacks. I also took notice that Codie wasn't holding back against me. That was fine with me though. I wasn't good at doing that either. I smirked at him.
I ran forwards, away from Codie. I turned around facing him. I was taken by surprise as his scythe came at me, slashing right across my chest. I fell backwards. Landing on my ass. I glanced up at him, ignoring the gash in my armor. He had always been stronger then me. It pissed me off slightly, but I got up fast.
He made a move, spinning around, so that his scythe would slash at me fast. I ducked under the blade of the scythe, before raising my sword. I slashed at his arm, getting a light cut on it. He stopped his attack, and was about to make a different one, when I smashed my left arm into his face. He fell backwards, surprised. I moved forward at him. I kicked the scythe away from him.
"I think that's my win" I said to him. A smile played my lips. He grinned at me. Then he quickly got up and punched me in the face. I was taken by surprise, though I knew I shouldn't have been. He made a move for his scythe, which was just at the edge of the ring. I moved behind him, hoping to catch up to him in time.
He quickly bent over to pick the scythe up. Then did a twist. I was taken by surprise, as he pulled out a dagger. He smashed it against my left hand. The blade didn't go in.
I grinned at him, as I smacked him in the arm with my arm. He let out a grunt. The dagger fell from his hand, and I kicked it out of the circle. I quickly moved and pushed his scythe out of the circle. I smirked again.
"Looks like you actually got me this time," Codie said. I sheathed Raimi, and reached my hand down, offering it to him. Codie took it. I helped him up. "Though you're a lot better then you used to be." He owned a few swords in the other world, and we had used them before.
"James. What that?" Asked Robin, I smiled at him.
"I made my choice. I'm going to become a Hero," I told him. Now if you excuse me, I need to tell Flavia my choice."
I left, rushing back to the Khan's chamber. There was a guard out front of it. "I'd like to request an audience with Flavia," I said to him. He nodded, before going inside. My guess was checking if it was okay with her. I figured it would be.
He came back outside of the room, opening the door for me. I stepped inside of the place, still in my training armor. Even the arm guard that I had grabbed from the room. She glanced at me, and immediately smiled.
"Ha made your choice have you?" She stated more then asked. I nodded.
"Yes I have."
"Then stay here for a bit. I'll send a guard to get your measurements for your new armor." I nodded to her.
I was back in my room, it was late at night now. The guy had finally gotten the last of the measurements that the smith needed. Of course they wouldn't be done by the time that we left, since that was now in only a few hours. It would be taken to me once it was done, by a group of four people messengers.
I was resting in the bed, but there was a quiet knock at the door. I got out of the bed and made my way to the door. I opened the door, seeing Lucina in the hallway, holding a candle.
"Is it...okay if I come in?" She asked nervously. She looked up at me. I nodded. I stepped out of her way, letting her in, wondering why it was that she wanted to come in. I closed the door behind her.
"What is it that you need?" I asked her.
"It's just..." She was blushing slightly.
"What is it, Lucina?" She didn't say anything, she just looked up at me. "Is there something that I can help you with?" She didn't say anything still. She sat the candle down on the table. She looked up at me again.
"You've gotten kinder," She mumbled under her breath. I gave her a slightly confused face. "It's warming to see you like this. I hadn't in the other timeline. It proves that things can change." She got closer to me.
She closed her eyes and inched closer to me. She kissed me...and I kissed her back. It felt right.