PrinPage: Well spotted! I missed that one. I guess that means I'm off my game when it comes to finding scenarios... Anyway, I'll edit that in if I find the time.
A/N: One thing I noticed is that Awakening, TMS, and Blazing sword only had one chapters' worth of plot holes each. Fates, on the other hand, filled 25 chapters of plot holes all on its own. Conclusion: Fates's story sucks!
Anyway, time to roast the first Fire Emblem to reach the west. To keep it route-neutral, I will be referring to the party as 'Lyn's army'.
Chapter 26: Cruelty and cowardice
Jaffar quickly and effectively knocked Zephiel out cold, and left him for Nino to kill. However, like in the main timeline, Nino refused. However, this time, Jaffar lost his patience and struck down Zephiel, instead of trying to make Nino do the deed as he had planned. And there goes Binding blade! Because Jaffar was so aggressive, he also attacked Nino as promised. This scared Nino into standing up and running for the door.
Before Jaffar could react, Nino was already upright and running away. As he gave chase, he ran straight into a slight current of wind released from Nino's tome in panic. This caused Jaffar to lose his footing and fall down, losing 5 seconds that he would never make up. The next foe Nino ran into was Ursula, but she failed to react in time. After a soft gust of wind threw her balance, she fell face first off her horse, snapping her neck on the ground. (What? She has terrible defense and HP, so I can totally see this happening!)
The soldiers surrounding Ursula had no idea what to do, and tried rushing Nino.
However, Nino was not waiting for orders or respecting the rules. Instead, she was a mindless crying missile surrounded by a vortex of wind. She cast a gust of wind on her feet, making her able to dash through the air at an immense pace. As she was running, leaving her incantations half-finished, she was unable to charge a controlled blast of wind, instead casting a myriad of small, dagger like bolts moving in every direction. As she had no allies to protect, she did not bother controlling what she threw. This made her fast, strong, and completely unpredictable.
When she got too close to an armed guard she instinctively defended herself by firing an additional small bolt of wind at the enemy weapon, causing the enemies to impale themselves one by one.
Mages weren't safe from Nino's panicked wrath either. Their hands were blown off course by the seemingly random wind currents, causing them to drop their spells mid-cast, hitting themselves in the face with their own magic, just like the swordsmen by their sides.
Only the archers could survive, but they were low in both number and accuracy.
With every dead foe, Nino grew stronger and stronger as she gained over 1,000 EXP. As her skill and speed tripled, she could run away faster and cause weapons to more easily betray their owners. She eventually ran, screaming at the top of her voice, out of the castle doors.
Jaffar was still a full second behind her, and seriously hindered by the turbulent air. He winced at the sunlight in his eyes as he walked through the door. This caused him to slow further. Once he realized Nino was out of the castle, he could do nothing but stop and cringe, knowing that he had failed two thirds of his mission.
Meanwhile, the crying missile ran straight into Lyn's army. Luckily for Lyn, as all their weapons were sheathed, Nino had nothing to kill with. Nino crashed into Kent's horse, her feet slipping in front of her head, as she slipped under the horse, dropping her tome.
Kent's horse spooked, and shook Kent off. He landed on the ground in an embarrassing heap.
Lyn, confused as to whether Nino was an enemy or not, picked her up by the hands, holding her in an armlock.
Nino was still crying a river over her situation, although she was a lot less of a safety hazard without her wind tome. "Z-zephiel..."
Lyn was suddenly very worried. "What about Zephiel? Is he alive?"
"N-n-no." Nino continued crying. "J-Jafar went straight for me afterwards."
Everyone felt a pain inside at how they had failed their mission. Lyn released Nino from her armlock and gave her a hug. "It'll be OK. You're safe now."
Nino returned the hug, causing Lyn's clothes (at least, what little she wears) to be soaked in tears. Lyn flinched slightly at the cold, but kept her posture, trying to make Nino feel as safe as possible.
Matthew tried to get everyone else to cheer up. "On the bright side, she seems to have solved our black fang problems. I don't think any of us could make that much carnage if we tried!"
It seemed to work, as the group let out a collective chuckle at Nino's expense. Nino didn't mind, however, as she was too overwhelmed at how she suddenly met such kind people. However, she then made a bad move. "You make a way better mother then Sonia!"
Lyn let go of Nino, reeled back a full 10 metres, readied her sword, and prepared to bolt for the forest. Her face turned a similar colour to Eliwood's hair. In all of her adventure, this was the first time Lyn was truly frightened.
Kent laughed at Lyn, mainly to make sure the others forgot about his own blunder with Nino. Nino laughed with Kent, knowing that she had made new friends. She then picked up her tome, and placed it inside her cloak.
Hector, however, was skeptical of Nino, "Are we sure she isn't a spy? She just came out of a black fang stronghold without warning."
Florina was more trusting, "I'm not too sure the 20 dead soldiers are fake..."
"Point taken." Hector conceded.
And so, Nino joined the party as a powerful mage, able to make the winds dance for her in a potent galeforce. One guiding ring later and nothing could stop her.
When she met Lloyd and Linus, later in her adventure, she was so skilled in using the wind to disarm foes that she could swipe their weapons and drag them into Lyn's army. While she did this, she shouted excitedly about how much better Lyn and her army was than Sonia and the black fang. The brothers tried to protest, but they had no weapons or means of escape, meaning Nino could hold them captive until they agreed to help her.
This meant that the only pillar left was Jaffar, who was so angry at how he had failed his mission to a pathetic little girl, that he ragequit the army, and became a landlord on the farmland of one of his victims. He lived happily ever after, like everyone else.
With Zephiel dead, the second war would not happen, an the army lived peacefully for the rest of their lives. (Which, in Hector's case, was very long as he couldn't die to Armads unless a war were to start, which never happened.)
Chapter 28: USE. A. HEALING. STAFF!
Once Eliwood escaped the cave containing his sacred weapon, he was approached by a large dragon. The entire party was scared half to death as Eliwood, without thinking, cut the dragon down.
After recovering from the strike, Nergal approached the party. After lecturing Eliwood on how he had cut down Ninian, Eliwood collapsed on the ground crying.
However, Serra was having none of this, and decided to step in herself to fix the situation. With Ninian in human form, she had just enough quintessence to survive one more minute. This was all she and Serra needed to turn the situation around. Whipping out her mend staff, Serra surrounded Ninian in a ball of artificial quintessence, bringing her back from the brink of death.
Nergal was too busy relishing in his evil plans to notice what was going on, until it was too late. He very quickly found himself in the mouth of the dragon he created, then in the stomach. He tried to use his warping equipment, but it was destroyed by Ninian's huge teeth crashing down on him. He was heavily damaged by the stomach acid, and it was about to get even worse for the villain.
Ninian then, once again, transformed into human form, absorbing all the quintessence inside her. Including Nergal's. Her body glowed with the combined quintescence of all those who had fallen at the hands of Nergal.
Serra, who was as smug as ever, decided to poke fun at Eliwood. "Well, at least one of us is actually helping their allies."
Erk began crying. (She has a reputation as a hero? Great, now she's going to get so many bad ideas...)
Serra noticed Erk's tears, and approached him. "Aww, is this a bit too emotional for poor widdle Erk to handle?" Erk ran over the mountains faster than even a pegasus could manage. "Huh? He ran off. Is he scared or something? No, he can't be scared, we beat all the enemies!"
It was at this point that Eliwood could finally comprehend the situation he was in. He teared up, and ran towards Serra. "Oh, thank you so much! I... I thought Ninian was going to... Oh, thank the gods that didn't happen!"
"Huh? I count as a god now? Anyway, I'm happy to be the only useful person in the army!"
Ninian chuckled at the scene playing out in front of her, "I guess I can share Eliwood with you, to repay you saving me."
Eliwood took little notice at how Serra and Ninian were flirting with him. Sain, on the other hand, took plenty of notice at how the girls were flirting with Eliwood, and not him. "Eliwood, what kind of dark magic are you using to be such a beauty magnet?"
Lyn took the opportunity to try burning Sain. "Maybe it's because he doesn't flirt with everyone, no, everything resembling a pretty girl!"
"Now you're complimenting him, too? That's it, I'm out. I follow my heart to the ends of the Earth, and this is what I get?!"
"Maybe if you followed your heart, instead of your loins, you would get somewhere."
"Shut up, Lyn!"
Lyn did not like being told to shut up by an inferior being, and placed her hand on Mani Katti. "Say that one more time, I dare you."
Sain fell silent in pure fear. After all, Lyn had two guaranteed crits at the ready for the moment Sain spoke a single wrong word.
The tactician, who grew frustrated at Sain's antics, declared the war over. With no Nergal to endanger the world, Lyn's quest ended in victory. Ninian stayed on the humans' side of the dragon's gate, attempting to spread peace throughout the continent using her newfound powers. After all, she and Nils had no reason to return to the world of dragons now that there were no threats.
Additionally, Zephiel's reign was peaceful, as he had already accomplished his goal of a dragon ruling peacefully without him lifting a finger. The land would know true peace for what seemed like an eternity, as Ninian's quintessence lasted for hundreds of millennia.
The army taking part formed a council of 45 to help govern policy and form a stable leadership. Ninian learned how to create morphs to help serve her people by policing against bandits and serving village communities. Although Ninian did feel some pain when Eliwood and co. died of old age, she was happy with her position as a peaceful world leader (oxymorons FTW!) for the rest of her life.
After the first couple of centuries under Ninian's rule, the dragon's gate was opened peacefully, and humans and dragons lived together in harmony. The scouring would go down in history as the time when eight idiots named Xander, Ryoma, Fanservice, Incest, Leo, Overpowered, Athos, and Sakura messed up completely.
A/N: In short, Binding Blade should NOT have happened from a story perspective.
