Pebblekit: Usually, I'd try to give all of you a good reason as to why I haven't updated in awhile. Looking back now, most of them sounded like excuses more than anything. This one probably will too, but I really feel the need to explain myself. I was working on this chapter, along with the ones that come after it, so that I could finish out this story cohesively. I also managed to finish a sizeable amount of my "Star Trek" story and was proof reading it, along with some of my "Batman" fan fiction that I have yet to post. Of course, as soon as I was almost done with all of this, my computer FRIED itself. So much so that I had to completely re-install windows. I lost EVERYTHING, including all of my schoolwork and original writing too. Then, once I had almost regained my losses, it appears that I failed to fix my computer last time, because my hard drive crashed. This is the third time writing this and a lot of other stuff, so it's not that great. I'm going out of town for a week to do community service, so I figured I'd post as much as I could. I haven't gotten to proof read yet, and this isn't really the whole chapter, but I owe you guys this much.

Sorry for the delay on all of my work. I'm still trying to catch up.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OCs. Be thankful.

Prisoner in Reality

Chapter 37: Impossibilities and Truths

(Gemini/ Shinzu)

Shinzu moved as fast as he possibly could through the forest, trying to avoid all of the Daein soldiers that were placed at random intervals among the trees. This was much easier than usual, because most of the men had gone to Crimea as Ashnard's back up, but there were still enough there to pose a slight problem. The boy cursed silently to himself as he flipped up to a higher branch in the tree he was presently perched precariously on, watching the halberdier below him cross by.

Though he was trying to avoid the thought, Shinzu was presently praying that Lariana was okay. Having left her much earlier in the war, the boy was worried that he had come back too late to help her. At this rate, she was probably an attachment to some regimen that had already left. Yet, Shinzu clutched to the small hope that this wasn't the case. Perhaps she had been left behind, or Ashnard had forgotten to give her a position. Even better, perhaps she had escaped.

Though the latter was quite unlikely, he was hoping that that was the case. If he could only just find her…

He quickly jumped onto a branch of the next tree over, timing his movements so that the sage to the left and the sword master ahead of him wouldn't notice the rustling leaves to be anything but wind. It had taken him several hours to get this far into the forest without being seen, and he really didn't want to change that now. He was deep enough into enemy territory at the moment that if he were to be attacked, he would probably be having several soldiers at least coming at him from all sides.

Leaping to another branch, he kept his eyes peeled open as he felt an uncomfortable twinge in his back. Shrugging this off, he jumped to yet a higher tree limb and shimmied along it, his weight just becoming an issue on the obstacle course. Several Daeins were below him now, talking amongst themselves. They're probably checking in, Shinzu thought as he moved more quickly. It was moments like this that he was able to go much further than usual, because no one was really paying attention to what was going on around them- but rather to each other.

Flipping from tree limb to tree limb, making sure to land nimbly enough to make minimal sound and keep moving, practically holding his breath continuously…

Suddenly, he stopped dead. For, right in front of him, someone was crouching in the next tree over. Their back was turned to him, but from his standpoint, Shinzu could tell that whoever they were, they were staring intently down into the clearing below. However, with their body blocking his own view, Shinzu couldn't tell what had captivated their attention. Quietly, he was about to back up, but realized that the branch he had come from was inaccessible from his present position. Cursing silently, he scrunched himself as close as he could to the tree trunk, hoping to Ashera that his green cloak would blend in well enough with the leaves to hide him if the person no less than five feet away were to turn around. Thankfully, spring had come early this year, otherwise, the snow of winter would have given him away in an instant.

As he tried to think of another way out of the vicinity, a voice from nearby stopped his thoughts short. His head darted around to hear better. It appeared that the sound was coming from clearing ahead that he couldn't see, thanks to whoever it was in front of him. It seemed that the other person was listening intently as well. They shifted slightly, their purple cloak rustling with the slight breeze that blew through the forest, and Shinzu was able to see some dark brown locks of hair before he became absorbed in the voice again- one that he recognized all too well.

"Thanks for coming, all of you. You have no idea how important this is to us." That voice…was Lariana's. Shinzu felt a small surge through his chest, and fought the urge to rush to her side. But he couldn't give his position away, especially to whomever it was that was right in front of him. Someone else spoke now, and Shinzu turned his attention back to the clearing.

"So, what exactly is your plan? We don't really have the strength for an outright rebellion, so what are we going to do?" The voice was unfamiliar and belonged to a man.

"We don't have the manpower for a full out assault," someone else said, and with a shock, Shinzu realized that it was Kina- Lariana's cousin. She's here too? He wondered, before shaking his head as he listened more intently. "So, we're actually going to do something that's not quite so obvious first, than think about a battle."

"And what is this marvelous plan you have?" an older woman asked.

It was Lariana that answered. "We realized that if the two of us were here against our will, there were probably others. So, we decided to find them."

"Exactly," this voice was much scratchier than the others, and Shinzu had to really listen to understand the words from his distance. "And here we are. You've found most, if not, all of us, and we hardly number a dozen and a half. So what do you want to do now?"

"I was getting to that," Lariana said, sounding as calm as ever. "Actually, I don't think that this is all of us."

"What are you getting at?" yet another voice asked.

"We thought that those that are here are just the ones that decided to fight," Kina said. "What about the others? The ones that refused?"

There was a long silence after this statement, and Shinzu suddenly understood what his two friends were thinking. Are they talking about...

"Are you talking about the ones that are locked away in prison? The ones awaiting execution?" the scratchy voice finally inquired.

"Yes. Yes, we are."

The person in front of Shinzu shifted slightly, as though he was uncomfortable, and continued to stare into the clearing. Shinzu suddenly noticed that they were muttering something, and leaned forward slightly, trying to hear. All he could tell was that this person was a male, and so, he raised his wolf ears slightly, pricking them in the direction of the person, and concentrated as hard as he could.

He finally managed to hear "…-tremely dangerous. What the heck are they thinking?" Shinzu blinked, and his mind froze. That…voice…he knew that voice…From long ago, a mouth whispering softly into his ear…

"I don't know

These words that I sing,

or anything about me.

Flowers sing a silent lullaby.

I pray for reply. I'm ready."

"It…it can't be!"

Shinzu didn't even realize that he had spoken aloud until something heavy crashed into him, slamming him backwards into the trunk of the tree. His head flew backwards into the rough bark, crashing into it so hard that his vision darkened for a moment before returning to normal. Something sharp pushed against his throat, and Shinzu had to really focus in his fuzzy state to recognize it as a sword, pushing into his wind pipe. He's faster than I remember, the boy thought as his dark green eyes met with the bright purple ones right in front of his face. "What are you doing here?" the young man hissed, anger and suspicion evident on his face.

Shinzu, however, just stared at the person, taking in the dark brown hair, dark purple cloak, and menacing scowl, all so familiar. Bright purple eyes met his shocked green ones, and, though he opened his mouth to speak, it took him a good minute or two to actually get any words out. "It is you," he finally croaked, unable to manage anything more than a small whisper.

Heinze didn't seem to comprehend what the smaller boy was saying, and his eyebrows sank lower, looking more threatening than ever. "What are you talking about? Have we met before or something?"

Shinzu tried to answer, but failed utterly, finally setting for a miniscule nod after a few long seconds.

All he got in response was a quizzical look. "From where?"

It took several attempts, and after trying to come up with a good answer for what felt like minutes, Shinzu collected himself. "I…it's me…Shinzu."

If this meant anything at all to Heinze, he didn't show any sign of it. If anything, the sword to Shinzu's throat got closer to slicing into the boy's wind pipe. "I don't know any Shinzu."

Green eyes blinked over and over at that statement, growing wider and wider by the moment. "What do you mean?" the question came out, quite literally, as a choke. "It's me…Shinzu…you don't remember me?" The look on Heinze's face was, by far, the most telling answer he could have gotten, and he felt his stomach fall slightly in horror. "I…I'm your brother, Heinze. Shinzu."

For a moment, he was sure that there would be no response from the man leaning over him, and he felt sure he was going to die. Of course, he could have escaped from this, but it would require possibly knocking Heinze out of the tree, and he wasn't willing to do that. Not only was it a long fall, but there were still Daein soldiers were everywhere. However, after a moment of Shinzu preparing himself to meet Ashera, Heinze finally reacted. He blinked, and seemed to relax slightly, staring at the boy underneath him as his frown melted into an oblivious smile, and wonder flashed through Shinzu. Why on Tellius was his brother acting like this?

After a few seconds, a look of surprise crossed Heinze's face, followed by a startled yelp. Before he quite knew what was happening, Shinzu was sitting up, staring at his brother, who had leapt back and was now a good four feet away. "You…what was I doing?"

Shinzu tried to fight the worry that was beginning to crawl its way up his throat from his chest. "Heinze? What's wrong?"

"It's the same. I did the same thing to Shinon. Are you okay?"

Unable to do anything else, Shinzu simply nodded shallowly, crawling slightly close to the man in front of him. The tree branch swayed dangerously under their combined weight, but neither seemed to notice as their eyes met once more.

"Hey…wait…" Heinze said, squinting slightly, as though he couldn't see well. "I know you."

"You do?" at this point, Shinzu was frightened. Whoever he had just been talking to, it hadn't been his brother, and at this point, he wasn't quite sure what to think.

His question was answer as a sudden weight hit him once again, slamming him back into the trunk again, but this time, it wasn't as aggressive. Arms wrapped around him in a vice-like grip, as though Heinze thought he would disappear if he let go. "I found you. I finally found you. My brother."

Shinzu blinked at the change in the man that was now whispering in his ear, slightly worried. Heinze had never been like this before, and that frightened him. Despite this, however, after all of his effort, all of his time, all of his sacrifices…he was faced with the person he had been searching for. With this thought in mind, he was practically unable to stop himself from hugging back.

(Mist)

Recently, everything that Mist had thought she knew had basically been flipped upside down or proven wrong. Tormod kept shooting her really odd looks, Ike seemed to get more and more distant with every battle they fought, all of the older Mercenaries were starting to leave the younger ones out of important information, and, worst of all, Rolf was still ignoring her.

Usually, this wouldn't really bother her much- they were both practically children, and their small scuffles sometimes ended up like this- but this time, it seemed different somehow. Rolf wasn't pointedly turning his nose up at her, or flat-out pretending that she didn't exist. Rather, every time she saw him somewhere, he would suddenly disappear around a corner or something. It was as though he didn't her to notice him, as though he just wanted to stay away from her, no matter what.

That, more than anything else was bothering her. Rolf had started acting this way right around the time that she and Tormod had had their little…accident…in the forest. Mist had wondered more than whether or not Rolf knew something about that little exchange, but even if she had wanted to ask him about it, she wouldn't have been able to, with the way he was constantly ignoring her.

Every time she thought about that, for some reason, her mind would flash back to that day in the woods outside Duke Tanas's villa, when that boy in green had told her that Rolf liked her. What exactly was that supposed to mean? Even if it was true back then, was it still true now? Why was she even thinking about this?

What was going on with Tormod was practically tearing her apart at the seams. She felt bad, for she was now doing the same thing to the fire sage that Rolf was doing to her- avoiding him at all costs. However, whenever she got up the courage to talk to him, she would see Rolf in her mind's eye, and for some inexplicable reason, she felt guilty, as though she was…betraying the small sniper or something. Why did she feel that way? It wasn't as though there was anything going on between the two of them or anything, right?

Did she want anything to be going on between the two of them?

They were childhood friends, for Ashera's sakes, not lovers.

Mist went still, her eyes growing wide as she stopped pacing around her tent in tightly knit circles. When had she begun thinking of Rolf as a…lover?

But, instead of upsetting her, and making her feel odd, this thought was strangely…friendly to her heart, which was beginning to beat harder and harder with each passing second. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she was…okay with that. That would be…happy with that.

Why was she thinking about this? First of all, these things were usually mutual decisions, made by two parties. Second of all, Rolf was her friend. He couldn't be more than that, could he? Third of all…was there a third problem? Was there even a first?

Mist slapped herself, cursing inwardly. She should NOT be thinking about these sorts of things right before they were going to be going into battle. She shouldn't be thinking about them at all.

With a sigh, the Valkyrie left her tent, squinting slightly as her eyes opened to obscenely bright sunlight on the other side. She was momentarily blinded and fumbled around a few seconds before she was finally able to make out her surroundings clearly enough to be sure of what was going on around her. They were camped out at the edge of a forest, all of the tents set up in a big circle.

Nearby, Jill had somehow roped Haar into helping her with the laundry, though he didn't seem to be of much help, having fallen asleep and using the dirty clothing as a makeshift pillow. Muston was nearby, hauling some empty boxes out of his tent that Sothe immediately snatched up- probably to use as a table and chairs elsewhere once he reinforced the sides. Soren and Lethe were speaking outside of the tactician's tent, and Mist had to hide the urge to laugh at the sullen mage's confused expression.

Everyone else was buzzing around, minding their own business. Almost automatically, Mist looked all around her and sighed, realizing that Rolf had, once again, made himself invisible to her. Though she still wasn't quite sure how she felt about all of this, The two of them were still friends, and with the end of the war seemingly so close away, it was really difficult for Mist to imagine making it through the final battle without any guidance or support from the small sniper. If only he'd talk to her…

"What is it with everyone dealing with their problems at the same time?"

Mist spun around, and found herself face to face (well, as close as was possible with the height difference) with Shinon. The older man was staring down at her with a looked that almost seemed to be sympathy, though Mist couldn't imagine him feeling such a thing for her. "What are you talking about?"

He shrugged. "First Rolf, then Astrid, now you…Oscar's having issues as well. Goddess, even Soren seems to have gone off the deep end," he finished with an exasperated sigh, glancing over at the black-clothed mage before looking back to Mist. Several moments of silence passed before he sighed again. "Okay, so tell me. What's your story?"

Mist stared for a moment, not sure what to say. She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to talk about this or not. Besides, why would she tell Shinon, of all people? He would probably just make fun of her. "You'll just laugh," she finally stated, hoping to distract him while she sorted out her frazzled thought.

That plan, however, utterly failed as Shinon simply shrugged his shoulders. "So? Sometimes, laughter is important, especially in the middle of a war. Right?"

Despite herself, Mist found herself smiling slightly, realizing that in his own way, Shinon was reassuring her. When it came down to it, she really was sick and tired of this problem and, frankly, she wanted to tell someone about it. Since Rolf was the subject of said issue (and he was ignoring her anyway), and she was of the opinion that if Oscar took on another thing, he would literally break, Mist decided that Shinon might be the only person left that could help her.

Besides that, what was he going to do once he knew? Go tell Ike?

No, but he might mention something to Rolf, a small voice whispered in her mind, and Mist had to mentally wave it away. Shinon was the only one she really felt comfortable telling. He wouldn't coddle her like Jill or Titania would, and he wouldn't simply tell her to get over it like Lethe. Even if he didn't really listen, he would still present nothing but cold, hard facts, gripe at her for being so stupid, and give some seemingly horrible advice that actually would end up working sometime later. That's how it always happened with the irritable sniper.

"I…" she trailed off, wondering how, exactly, she was going to explain this, before deciding to just take the plunge and talk without thinking about it. "I think I have a crush on Rolf." The words were out before she could really process them, and at the wide-eyed stare Shinon gave her, she suddenly realized what she had said.

After opening her mouth to negate her statement, she stopped and blinked, closing it after a moment. It was then that she realized she really felt that way, that she had developed feelings for Rolf- for her BEST FRIEND.

Shinon seemed, for once, to be at a loss for words before he was able to gather himself and speak calmly. To his credit, despite the suddenness of this, his voice wavered only the slightest bit. "And why, precisely, would that be a problem?"

Mist gave him a disbelieving look. "Are you kidding? Shinon, what if I say or do something and don't notice it, but he does? What if he doesn't like me back? He's already ignoring me…"

"He's ignoring you?" The sniper's voice was much quieter than usual, and it sent an odd, uncomfortable shiver down Mist's spine, brought on by surprise. She nodded, and the man sighed. "Idiot kid…He has been really quiet recently…"

"Um…Shinon?" she wasn't sure she wanted to interrupt his reveries, but she really wanted help, and she really didn't have anywhere else to turn. "There's something else."

"What is it?"

"Tormod," she answered immediately, before she could scare herself out of it. "He…well, he…he kissed me a few weeks ago, and…" she broke off, unable to finish, because she had no idea what she was about to say.

Shinon, however, seemed to understand as he gave her an odd look. Is that…pity? That didn't seem possible, yet, here it was. "I get it," the sniper muttered, almost to himself. "You don't know how to respond, right? You're not sure what to make of it, and you don't really want to face it, but you know that you'll have to at some point, right?"

"Yeah…how did you know?" Frankly, she was shocked that he knew so accurately what she was thinking.

"I've seen it enough times with Gatrie that I've memorized all of the possible reactions by heart. So, what are you going to do about it?"

"Well...I don't really know. I'm worried that I'll lose a friend if I tell him how I really feel. Not only that, but I feel as though I'm pushing him away because of Rolf, and that seems unfair because I don't even really know how Rolf feels about all of this."

"Something tells me that you don't really need to worry about that right now. Besides, this isn't Rolf's life, and it's not Tormod's either. It's yours. You have to solve this in a way that makes you happy. Don't let others make your decisions for you- this is something that you have to face yourself. It may seem selfish, but you can't think about others' feelings in a situation like this. The last thing you want is to mess up one relationship by entering into another that you really don't want, just to spare someone else. It's a really bad idea."

Mist thought about it, and, at first, it did seem incredibly and unbelievable selfish. However…Shinon was right. This was something that was going to directly affect her, possibly for the rest of her life, and she couldn't mess it up. She couldn't pretend that she liked Tormod just to satisfy his needs.

And she couldn't ignore Rolf just because he didn't seem to want to face her about something.

With that thought, she put her other worry into words. "That's a good point, but…I think Rolf might know something about the kiss, because ever since that day, he's been acting really weird around me. What am I supposed to do about that?"

"Depends. How important is it to you?" When Mist didn't answer right away, he continued. "If you want to fix it, then fix it. Don't let Rolf misunderstand what happened, tell him right out that you weren't comfortable with what was happening at the time. He has as much of a right to the truth as anyone, but he won't get it unless you explain it to him."

And there it was- that plain logic that no one on Tellius seemed to have but Shinon. Or, at least, if they did, he was the only one she knew that was actually able to put it to words. This was exactly what she needed at the moment.

"I see. I should tell him. Maybe that will sort all of this out."

"No, it won't. But, at the very least, it will clear up a lot of confusion on the matter."

Mist, despite everything that had been going wrong recently, wasn't able to stop the small smile that spread across her face. "Yeah…yeah, it will. Thanks a lot, Shinon."

"Don't mention it," he responded with that odd sideways smirk he always made when he was trying to look threatening, but it was obvious that he wasn't really being serious. "Now, go and clear up your life. Goddess knows, it will save me a bunch of trouble."

Mist resisted the sudden urge to giggle at Shinon's blatant attempt, and failure, to appear like the old jerk he used to be. With that thought in mind, she nodded and turned away from the older man in favor of looking around for a certain green-haired sniper. "Thanks, Shinon."

There was a small sound of rustling leaves behind her, and she knew that he had disappeared, gone as silently as was seemingly possible.

(Rolf)

Rolf caught sight of Mist about twenty yards away and quickly stepped behind a tree, hiding himself from her view. His heart was beating so hard that he could hear it in his head. The Valkyrie was his friend, and he really did feel horrible for avoiding her like this, but he simply wasn't ready to face her yet.

Every time he thought he was prepared, that he had talked himself into talking to her, he'd back out at the last moment, the image of her and Tormod in the forest flashing through his mind. Though it had happened a few weeks ago, it still felt as though the scene was new to him, as though it had just been yesterday.

There were some places that he couldn't avoid her, like when Oscar taught them and the others around their ages in the morning. It was odd, really. Mist and Tormod never talked anymore, and both seemed to be very quiet, but Rolf tried not to focus on it. Maybe they didn't want to tell anyone about them yet.

Sothe was quite silent too. For someone that hadn't even been involved in the "incident in the forest", as Rolf had dubbed it, the thief was incredibly distant from all three of them, always focusing as intently as he could on whatever it was that Oscar was saying. Though the older man didn't mention it, Rolf could tell that the alarmingly calm lessons bothered him, as though he knew something was wrong.

The small sniper sighed. He hadn't wanted to worry his oldest brother like this, but honestly, his thoughts were too jumbled for him to do anything about it. Mist was his friend, his best friend, nothing more.

So why, when he told himself that, did his stomach clench uncomfortably? Why did he feel as though he was lying to himself?

Rolf wasn't stupid, and he didn't dream to think that he could trick himself for long. He knew exactly what was wrong- he was just clueless on what to do about it. He had fallen in love with his best friend. After several weeks of examining all of the other options, he realized that this could be the only thing that would make feel this awkward.

He was in love with Mist.

And he was terrified.

What if she found out? Would she want to stop being friends? Would she think he was weird, for allowing this to happen to someone he thought of as a sister? Would she even, goddess forbid, find his disgusting for it?

There were so many questions in his mind, and no answers for them. There were no answers because he was afraid to find them. He was afraid to find them because he didn't want to face something he wasn't ready to deal, and because of this, more questions formed in his mind. The circle kept growing and revolving, and there was no peaceful, friendly way Rolf could see to end it. He didn't want to just go up to Mist and talk to her- he might lose her as a friend. And what about Tormod? The mage had never really liked him to begin with, but now, if anything, he was even stonier, except that, this time, that…frustration was being taken out on everyone. Not even Maurim seemed to know what was wrong or how to fix it.

Just what was going on in the mercenary camp? Rolf wasn't even sure anymore. Everyone seemed to be bustling around more, now that the end of the war was in sight, but…there were so many other things going on. Oscar was dealing with the problem of losing Astrid soon (everyone had noticed how the two looked at each other. Even Gatrie, and that was saying something), Astrid was trying to get used to the idea of getting married, Soren and Lethe had started talking more in the past few weeks, Jill was trying to deal with the knowledge that she had helped kill her own father a couple of months back…

Everyone seemed to have something going wrong with them, and the issues were only getting worse as they weren't addressed.

Rolf knew this, and yet, he still couldn't bring himself to step around the tree and face the girl that he had known for years. Rather, when she got closer to his hiding place, he slid backwards, walked lightly to another tree, concealed himself behind then trunk, then did the same to another, and another. Eventually, he got to the edge of a tent, and snuck around it, somehow doing all of this outside Mist's awareness.

He knew that, eventually, he'd have to stand and talk to her.

He just wasn't quite ready for that yet.

(Soren)

Bertram, one of the four riders, was right ahead. All the mercenaries had to do to get to him was make it through about twenty or so enemy soldiers. Easy, right?

Soren mentally cursed as he dodged an Elfire spell that had been flying directly at him. He had severely underestimated the Daeins' abilities for this particular battle, and now, everyone was feeling the results. He had thought that if he just brought more people than usual (nineteen, rather than his usual twelve or thirteen), all would go well and the mercenaries would be off the battlefield by lunch or so.

Of course, as soon as they all moved, a bunch of Daeins, recently unnoticed, popped up form the bushes and around the building in the distance. Now, they were dealing with over thirty people in a space that wasn't very big. Needless to say, they were all tripping over each other, trying to avoid getting trampled by a horse, or were getting cut off whenever they tried to dodge an attack.

It wasn't like this was an incredibly difficult battle, or that the enemies were stronger than usual, because they weren't…it was just…everyone seemed to be a little off of their game. Rolf and Mist were both extremely quiet, for them at least, and both were applying themselves so much in the battle that they nearly got themselves killed. Astrid was slightly slower than usual, as though she was lost in thought elsewhere. Shinon wasn't saying anything either- not even any rude retorts that usually flowed from his mouth.

Most troubling, however, was Ike, who was fighting with so much vigor, it seemed that Ashera herself had possessed his limbs and was acting through him. He was flipping much more than usual, dodging much faster than he had before, and had this serious, grim expression that spoke death for any enemies that came his way. Soren just didn't understand it. Where had this personality come from? What had happened to the usually carefree Lord they all knew and respected? It was almost as though he had been replaced by some random person.

The sage pushed all of these troubling thoughts away, trying to say words of the ancient language to cast spell at the same time that he was dodging a warrior's ax. The sharp edge caught his cloak, but nothing more, and Soren was able to take the Daein man out with his Elwind tome. Another enemy came up to him, this time, a sword master, and his blade came so close to his flesh that Soren could feel it whistling past his arm. Just as he was to aim a spell at the man, an arrow landed in the sword master's side, burying itself in his ribcage.

Soren looked over and saw Astrid just as the noblewoman knocked another arrow and shot, catching the man in the side of the throat, killing him almost immediately. Soren, though he would never admit how grateful he was, breathed a sigh of relief and nodded towards his teammate and turned away, looking for his partner.

He had lost track of Lethe a little while ago when she had transformed into her cat form and disappeared into the chaos of battle. Normally, he wouldn't worry too much, but at this point, the Laguz woman would probably be changing back into her human form soon, assuming that she hadn't already done so. In a battle such as this, where there was so much going on in a space that was just a little too small for it, such problems could prove to be fatal to someone that was practically defenseless. Mist was having enough trouble, and she was on a horse.

The sage looked around frantically, taking stock of the situation as he did so. The Mercenaries were most definitely winning, but that didn't change the fact that almost half of their people were unaccounted for. Soren saw Mia fighting with Ranulf, neither of them with their actual partners. Jill was trying to get back to Haar's side, but was cut off by a few enemy snipers place in choice spots. The other wyvern rider was with Rhys, trying to keep the priest from being killed as they were almost completely surrounded by halberdiers.

Ilyana was trying to come to their aid, but she was too caught up helping Boyd out with a few other sages. Elincia was flying around with Tanith, somehow miraculously dodging most of the attacks flying at her, despite the meager amount of experience she had. Marcia, at some point, joined them after she had given up trying to get to Janaff, who simply just didn't seem interested in staying with his partner. Rolf and Oscar were off to side, having joined up after getting separated from Astrid and Shinon, who were now both trying to stay close to each other.

Soren finally spotted Lethe, who was ducking under an ax, trying to keep her head on her soldiers. Sure enough, she was back in human form and struggling to avoid all of the danger around her. The sage sighed in aggravation, realizing that there really wasn't anyone close enough to help the Laguz woman, and started slowly weaving his way around flailing priest, swinging swords, and charging knights.

Eventually, he got close enough to blast the warrior threatening his partner away with a powerful wind spell. Lethe looked at him, gasping in breath so deeply that Soren was worried for a moment that she might be hyperventilating.

"Thanks." She said, blinking at his in genuine gratitude.

Soren stared. Usually, the temperamental female would scream at anyone that dared to help her. "I…well…I…you're welcome?" his voice sounded as unsure as he felt.

The side of Lethe's mouth curled up slightly, but it didn't really look a smirk…more of a kind smile that wasn't quite shaped right. "Cat got your tongue?"

He shook his head, unable to stop the slight chuckle that worked its way up from his chest. It ended up as an odd, choked off sound, due to the fact that he tried to stop it before Lethe heard. Instead, all he got was a small laugh from Lethe. "No," he managed with a straight face, "I just wasn't expecting you to be kind for once."

"Right back at you."

Soren blinked. Okay…he might have deserved that one, looking back at how he had acted in his life up until this point. He groped around, trying to find some way to change the subject. "Lethe, we're in the middle of a battle."

"Then don't start a conversation with me."

"I didn't start it."

Lethe thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, but you didn't end it either."

"Nor did you."

"Of course not. I'm the one that started it, remember?"

They stood there, staring at either and giving weird, awkward smiles. That is…until a halberdier came charging to their position. Soren head him coming and spun around, the world a blur as he automatically started to chant a spell, his hand raising and beginning to glow. He let the energy fly just as they enemy raised his lance, about four feet away. The attack was just strong enough to blow the Daein off his feet, sending him sprawling to the ground. A small trickle of blood ran out of his mouth, his eyes wide open and seeing nothing.

Soren breathed a small sigh of relief and lowered his arm, surveying the entire battlefield once more. There were now only about ten enemies left, excepting Bertram and his inner guard. Rolf and Oscar were already taking out a sniper and a priest, Mia was hacking at a warrior, Boyd was taking on a sage with his hand ax, Ilyana and Rhys had joined up and were now going after a knight, and Haar and Jill were finally together again and were going after a couple of Pegasus knights. The mercenaries were scattered everywhere, some of them only able to watch what was happening due to the lack of Daein soldiers left to fight.

After seemingly only a few more moments, they all moved forward as a group to Bertram and his final guard, who all held themselves in such a way that they looked much more experienced than their teammates that had already fallen. Thankfully, most of the mercenaries had dealt with this sort of thing before, and none of them wasted any time throwing themselves into battle, weapons raised and war calls ripping from some of their throats. Soren found himself following, Lethe at his side. The Laguz woman jumped forward at some point, transforming back into her cat form just before they met enemy resistance.

The battle would have been difficult, if the mercenaries hadn't brought so many people, and soon, Bertram's soldiers found themselves over whelmed, facing at least three fierce fighters at once, all of who would lay down their lives if it meant gaining back what they had lost. Soren cast a spell in the direction of a knight, feeling a small bit of weariness in the back of his mind. Thankfully, if this was affecting his body at all yet, it wasn't bad enough to actually hinder the sage. He fired another blast of wind towards a halberdier nearby. At that point, that battle was almost over.

Bertram came out of the little alcove he had basically been sheltering in- a small doorway to a building, and went for Oscar. Boyd and Rolf, however, were faster, and circled around the Daein man. Soren blinked, figuring out what the three were going to do just as Boyd started glowing, pulling out his bow and firing an arrow at Bertram. Rolf followed, then Oscar. The man slumped in his seat on his horse, falling to the ground a moment later. The three brothers had performed a perfect triangle attack, and by the time they were done, all of the other enemies had been taken out.

Soren stood there, staring at his fellow, green-haired teammates. After he had seen them pull this off at the earlier battle right after Shinon had re-joined the team, the sage had done some research on this attack. It was much more difficult than it looked, and really shouldn't have been possible for anyone but Pegasus knights…yet, somehow, these three had found a way to do it. Soren gazed at them a little longer before ripping himself away from the thought. It wasn't as though he could figure anything out like that anyway.

When he was finally able to tear his eyes away from the brothers, who were talking to one another excitedly, he noticed belatedly that Lethe was giving him a look very similar to the one that he had probably just been making himself. "What?" he asked, feeling a slight twinge of unease at her interest.

The Laguz woman shrugged. "I don't know. I just haven't seen you so engrossed in anything before. You looked like you were really thinking hard."

He nodded. "Yes…I was wondering how they are able to perform such a perfect triangle attack. Pegasus knights I can understand, for they have higher magical abilities to begin with, but Oscar, Rolf and Boyd? I don't really understand how they can do it. I understand even less how they were able to teach it to themselves."

Lethe looked puzzled for a moment before knowledge feel into her eyes. "Is that they attack where someone brings out all of their inner magic or something like that?"

"Yes, it is."

The cat-girl seemed to think for a moment before nodding in response. "I see what you're saying. Maybe and Oscar and Rolf could do it, but Boyd? He hardly has any magic properties at all."

"That's what I'm saying."

Lethe gave him a confused look. "Yet, they did do it. Twice that we've all seen, and they didn't really seem to have any trouble with it, besides the fact that they get really tired afterwards."

Soren looked over to the brothers to see that Boyd was now sitting on the ground panting, Oscar was leaning up against the building that's doorway had harbored Bertram, and Rolf was stretching, as though to work a cramp out of one of his muscles. The sage turned back to his companion. "I see what you're saying."

"But…how do they do it?" she suddenly sounded curious, as though this whole thing was a puzzle that she was an inch away from solving, only to discover that a piece was missing. "I mean…maybe if Marcia helped them…"

"She didn't. I asked her," Soren interrupted, thinking back to the Pegasus knights face that day. She and Tanith had been as surprised as he when they had seen the brothers pulled off such a great feat, but neither really seemed to understand how impossible it was. Or, in this case, should be.

"Then…I don't know."

Both of them turned back to the three brothers, trying to figure out just what was going on, and failing utterly.

(Shinon)

Camp had gotten really quiet over the past few days. The end of the war seemed to be in sight, and it was as though everyone had this pent up energy that just kept growing, but was never released properly. In other words, they talked less, and the tension that surrounded them grew to epic proportions. Even Haar, who was probably one of the easiest going men Shinon had EVER met, felt the strain and responded to it. The two of them were sitting in their tent with General Tauroneo at the moment, not really saying anything and lapsing into random silences. Finally, Haar poked at the subject they all were trying to avoid, but desperately needed to talk about.

"So…what are you two planning to do after the war?"

Tauroneo let out a long, suffering sigh, appearing to think silently to himself, before he answered. "I guess I'll help rebuild Daein and make sure some old friends of mine are all right."

"Friends?" the wyvern rider pushed a little, but Shinon knew that if it ended up being an awkward subject, the man would drop it completely without another thought.

"Lariana and Kinajiko. Shinon and I seemed to lose tabs on them when I joined the team. I only hope they're alright."

Honestly, Shinon had been thinking about that too, but after seeing Hood…or Heinze…alive and well, he had pretty much convinced himself that the two girls probably were too. "I'm sure they're fine. They're probably fighting the war from inside Daein."

"That's what I'm afraid of. They could easily get killed for that."

No one answered for several minutes, and they reached their longest period of silence yet, at which point, Haar cleared his throat awkwardly. "So…how about you, Shinon? What are you planning to do with your life?"

"I'm staying with the Greil Mercenaries." And he was. There was nothing else to be said. After giving it some thought, the sniper had realized that that's all he had left to do. All that he really wanted to do. After living without his…friends for awhile, he had come to realization that he simply couldn't, and that was that.

If only Rolf could hear that thought.

Shinon made a mental not to NEVER let that happen.

"That's great. Family is a wonderful thing." There was something in Tauroneo's eyes at that line. Some lingering darkness that Shinon didn't understand, and he faintly wondered what it was that had happened to the General to make that sort of expression on his face. "Speaking of which," the man said after a moment, "what were you planning, Haar?"

"I'm going to start a delivery service."

Silence reigned for a moment before Shinon simply couldn't help himself anymore, and burst out laughing. It was an odd, strained sound, and one that he hadn't heard from his own throat in awhile, but that was at the very back of his mind at the moment. "And how, may I ask," he finally managed to say after he was able to suck in enough air, "are you planning on staying awake during business?"

"…He has a point there…" Tauroneo said, suddenly sounding genuinely worried. "What if you fell off your wyvern?"

"I've trained myself to sleep while riding."

Shinon tried to ignore the implications of that statement, and instead asked a question. "You usually can't do something like that alone, though. How do you plan on solving that?"

"Jill actually said that she might help me out. She's getting kind of tired of war."

"But…I thought she was a new recruit?"

Haar sighed. "Yeah, she is, but…when one is thrown into all of that so quickly, they tend to burn out. I look at her and all the kids on the team and wonder how they do it. If my first mission had been war, I would have quit four or five months in at the most."

Shinon suddenly thought of Rolf, and an uncomfortable feeling rose in his stomach. He struggled to squash it down. He really was becoming soft. Stupid kid, making him change.

Tauroneo was nodding. "I understand that now. Wish I had when my son joined the force. I guess it's true what they say- we really do learn from our mistakes, don't we?"

Haar and Shinon, somehow without even looking at each other, came up with the silent agreement not to say anything to that. The old man didn't usually talk about his family, and now that he had, there was an odd, haunted look in his eyes that neither the sniper, nor the wyvern lord found appealing.

After a moment, Haar cleared his throat again. "So…Shinon…do you know what's wrong with Oscar?"

The sniper stared at the other man, waiting for some comprehension to dawn on him, but it never did. "What do you mean?" he finally asked, curious.

"Well…he's been really quiet recently, you know?"

"I imagine it's partly because of Astrid," Tauroneo said, and Shinon inwardly smiled at how even the older man had left off the 'lady' that everyone had used to resolutely say, regardless of the noblewoman's pleas.

"I don't understand," Haar said, actually sounding confused for once, rather than sleepy. "I thought they both loved each other, right? So, aren't they going to get together or something?"

Tauroneo shook his head. "No. Astrid is engaged."

Haar visibly blanched, and Shinon felt some relief in the knowledge that he wasn't the only one who hadn't known about this. Granted, he had been here longer, but he chose to ignore that thought for the moment. "To whom?" the wyvern rider demanded, and Tauroneo shrugged.

Shinon, glad that he actually knew something the others didn't, interjected "Lekain."

The other men stared at him as if he had grown another head before the questions started flying.

"How do you know?"

"What are her parents thinking?"

"Why would they put her with such a vile man?"

"Are you leading us on?"

"If you are, I fail to see how this may be amusing."

"Doesn't she have a say in this?"

"Should we stand in her defense when the war is over?

Shinon remained quiet and, eventually, the two men stopped launching questions and simply stared at him. "Don't look at me like that," he finally said, "it's eerie."

"But…how do you know?" Haar asked, echoing Tauroneo a few minutes earlier.

"She told me. I said that if she didn't want to marry him, then most of the Greil Mercenaries would probably defend her and she could live with us. She and Oscar would get their happy-ever-after, and everything would be hunky-dory like in all of the fairy tales."

"Yes, the Greil Mercenaries would stand by her. Of that, I have no doubt." Tauroneo's voice had an edge to it that Shinon had never heard before, and it scared him.

Haar's face spoke the same feeling as he nodded. "And everyone else that knows her in the Liberation Army. I wouldn't wish that horrible man on Petrine, let alone a lovely girl like Astrid."

"Indeed."

They were all fairly silent after that- at least, until Gatrie came in, huge grin on his face. "So…what did I miss?" he said, completely oblivious to the stormy faces he got in return.

Author's Note: Thanks to all of my great readers. This chapter isn't the best, and I was really annoyed to have to write it again, so it's not really finished. I'll try and make the next chapter better, and put in the stuff I failed to finish before leaving town. That being said, if there are any storylines that aren't solved by the end of this story in a few chapters, DON'T PANIC. If you've looked in my profile, you've probably seen that there will be a sequel to this story.

That being said, sorry for the delay, and thanks for reading!