I watch Edelgard as we walk through the hallways of Garreg Mach's dungeon towards the light. If she's tense or sore from being cooped up in a prison cell, she doesn't show it. In fact, I don't get anything from her besides her usual aura of confidence and command. I remind myself that this is what I wanted her for. Well, this and her ability to tear through small armies after Byleth honed her skills over multiple years of training.

I explain the situation to her as we go along. The possessed church soldiers, the white beasts, and how most of our forces are out fighting Nemesis.

"They won't be able to take Byleth on their own," Edelgard says. "I saw how Dimitri fights. He's strong, but they're something else. Nemesis will cleave through their ranks."

"Trying not to think about that too much," I say. "For now, we need to stop Seiros from reducing this place to rubble."

"Same as Fhirdiad," Edelgard says.

"Same as Fhirdiad."

For a few seconds, she goes quiet. She averts her gaze, and I can see the weight in her eyes.

"My end goal is to do what I can for the person I love," Edelgard says. "Byleth told me there was no way to free them from Nemesis' influence. Which means…"

"We have to kill them as well."

Edelgard nods. "I'll put them in the ground myself."

Damn, that's brutal. I know Edelgard's choices caused the pain and suffering of thousands, but right now she's just a warrior who has to kill her lover. I can forget about our past and sympathize with that.

Because there's no point lingering on how many people died before, how many lives could have been saved if Edelgard were willing to work with us to fight the Slithers from the start. The only world where we trust each other is one where we're desperate enough where we need to.

"You won't hesitate?" I say. "I understand your conviction, but your body might have other plans."

"Anything for Fódlan," Edelgard says. "Anything for Byleth. A mental block about killing someone I want to hold and kiss is another challenge to overcome. I won't let anything stop me from bringing them peace."

When I see the determination in her eyes, I believe her. I'm glad that her single-minded conviction is on our side now. Edelgard's confidence is enough to start giving me hope. Dangerous, dangerous. I need to take this situation one step at a time.

We reach the outside, and the light is almost blinding. I squint while Edelgard uses her hand as a visor and scans the area. One of the massive church automatons rushes up to us. It looks stiff and more golem-like than the Titanuses the Agarthans used. I glance over at Edelgard, who is already in a combat position with Aymr ready.

"Hope your skills haven't dulled, Claude," she says.

"Hey, why are you the one worried about me? I wasn't the one who spent the last month in a dungeon."

She looks over at me and grins. "I know what I'm capable of. Follow my lead."

Edelgard rushes in and pauses instead of taking a swing at the golem. I recognize her posture as alert stance. Byleth trained her to be a wyvern rider, so that part makes sense. The automaton moves to skewer her with its lance, and she ducks out of the way, stowing Aymr with her left hand and using her right to draw a more generic axe and take two swings at the golem's base. Maybe it's a bit of a show-off move to use the regular axe instead of her relic weapon, but we'll need all the use out of Aymr we can get against Seiros and Nemesis.

I follow up with shots from a silver bow, aimed at the weak spot Edelgard exposed. After my attacks, I see a chink in the golem's defenses. The construct throws a lance back at me, and my instincts allow me to shrug off the surprise and leap to the side. The lance passes by my shoulder, and I feel a thin line of pain light up where it grazed by. Not the end of the world. While the automaton is distracted with me, Edelgard whales in on it with her axe. The way her muscles tighten right before she lands each hit makes me wince at the sheer force of her attacks each time one connects. Her late timing on the shift to power only if she knows she'll hit means she doesn't overswing if her attack misses while still getting the benefits of a forceful attack if she connects a hit. I shouldn't have worried about her adjusting back to the battlefield.

The golem turns back to Edelgard, giving me the opportunity to unleash a flurry of arrows at the weak spot we exposed. I can tell that the construct is hurting, but it doesn't falter and spears Edelgard in the chest. Her not being in alert stance means she can't dodge this one, but when the automaton pulls the lance back she still looks healthy despite the blood soaking into her clothes from one point. She looks up at the golem and laughs.

"That's really all you've got?" she says. "I was worried that I was going to break a sweat here."

I see her readying for a powerful attack, different from her regular strokes where she shifts to power mid-swing. I nock and arrow and ready myself to follow her lead. She unleashes the smash combat art, bringing her axe down on the golem in an overhead swing that buries the weapon in its exposed spot. A critical hit. I fire off two arrows in rapid succession that land to either side of Edelgard's axe in the construct's body, and it collapses to the ground.

I look back at the Imperial officers who are rushing over to help. Time seems to slow down during combat, but us fighting that machine couldn't have taken more than a few seconds. Looks like they weren't even needed. One of them uses white magic to heal Edelgard, and then approaches me and lays a hand on my wounded shoulder. The pleasant cooling sensation tells me that he's healing me as well, even though I barely got scratched.

"Thank you for keeping Her Majesty safe," the healer says.

I offer a nod in return. Funny how easily we can all work together when we have no other choice. There's the possibility we'll be back at each other's throats as soon as the fight ends, but for now I'm grateful for their help.

"Claude," Edelgard walks up. "What's the plan? I know you have a better idea of our enemy's position than I do."

She's grinning from ear to ear. A breeze passes by and she closes her eyes as messy strands of hair flap in front of her face. The childlike joy on her face makes me pause. Even at the academy, I've never seen Edelgard so free and serene. Is this who she could have been if Thales hadn't killed her siblings and set her down the path of conquest as the only way she saw to maintain her power? A part of me wishes I could keep seeing her as a brutal warlord. And yes, her actions do have wide-reaching consequences I can't ignore. But I'm not sure I can hate this person in front of me ever again, even if I have to fight against her in the future.

"I was wondering if I'd ever feel the breeze again," she says. "Byleth always loved it, you know. That was one of the reasons they sprinted around the monastery all the time. To feel the wind whipping around them."

And now we're going to have to kill them. But that's not even our first objective here.

"We need to regroup with the others," I say. "Seteth, Flayn, and the Black Eagles students are at the bridge to the cathedral. We'll join forces and lead an attack on Seiros together. I'll scout ahead and let them know you're coming."

"Sounds good. I'm counting on you to convince them to put aside our differences for now. The negotiation before the fight at the Tailtean Plains solidified to me how much sway you have with the others. Don't be afraid to flex that."

I keep hearing that. Well, if everyone believes I have power over them, then it becomes real. We don't have a choice here, so I'll fight as hard as I can to make sure we band together and take on Seiros with full strength.

A whistle through my fingers calls down Omar. He lands in front of me and lets out a roar at Edelgard and the other Imperials. Some of the officers back away, but Edelgard only laughs.

"What a smart wyvern you are," she says. "We're not even in uniform and you still recognize us."

"They put together more than we give them credit for," I say. "See you soon."

Edelgard nods. "See you."

I saddle up and fly off. Omar keeps giving Edelgard the eye of death until we're out of striking range. I pat him on the shoulder.

"I think we can trust her for now," I say. "Let's hope Seteth and the others can be reined in as easily as you."

#

The path to the area where Seteth and the others are is mostly clear, and I trust Edelgard to fight her way through the few corrupted church soldiers I see. It looks like the majority of Serios' forces are outside the monastery gates, which is a minor blessing to the church staff that lives here. I have Omar swoop down, and I dismount when I land. The sudden noise startles Linhardt awake from a nap.

"Mission accomplished," I say. "Help is on its way."

"Oh, that is delightful," Flayn says, clasping her hands together. "Who did you manage to recruit, perchance?"

Dorothea narrows her eyes at me. "I think I have some idea."

"The Imperial officers were our enemies in war," Seteth says, "But they were just following orders. The Empire was the ally of the Church of Seiros when they marched against Nemesis the first time."

"Indeed," Flayn says. "Let us join forces once more to battle the darkness back."

"You didn't just recruit some mid-ranking officials, did you?" Dorothea says. "You got Edelgard on your side."

In a moment, all eyes go towards me. Even if Edelgard doesn't backstab me by the end of the day, there's a nonzero chance my allies turn on me for recruiting the enemy's help. Once again, I'm caught on the razor's edge. Fhirdiad ended with ashes and dust, but today will be different.

"We have no other choice," I say.

"What did you offer her?" Seteth says, all warmth gone from his voice. "Seiros had plans-"

"Do any of Seiros' plans matter anymore? None of you are in control, like it or not. We need to negotiate with the Imperials on even ground."

"Then what was the point in fighting them?" Dorothea says. "What was the point in Ferdie sacrificing himself?"

"I know he gave his life to stop the Empire-"

"Oh, do you now? And that's why you're giving Edelgard a free path back towards freedom and dominion, I suppose."

I've never heard Dorothea call Edelgard by her full name. It's always been "Edie." How badly did I piss her off?

"I agree with Claude," Bernadetta says.

All eyes turn to her.

"I never hated Edelgard. The way she told me that I was going to be free of my crest, free of my father… I never hoped as badly as I did for that reality to come to pass."

"Ferdie-"

"I have more reason to hate Claude than anyone here," she says. "I still have nightmares, you know. Of being out there at the Tailtean Plains, with home nothing more than a distant memory, and seeing that arrow pointed towards me. The bowstring ready to loose."

She squeezes her eyes shut.

"I'm… sorry," I say. I know it's not enough.

"It's all right. I mean, it isn't, but we have to put that behind us. We've all lost people. We all have grudges we could hold."

I think back to the Golden Deer students I was supposed to protect. Marianne. Raphael. Leonie. They were counting on me.

"But our home is literally crumbling around us," she says. "Nemesis is here from a thousand-year-old slumber, ready to finish what we started. Can any of us afford to hold grudges now?"

"So much death," Flayn says, averting her gaze. "It reminds me of the time before."

Seteth puts a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get through this one, Flayn. We defeated Nemesis once, and we can do so again."

The Black Eagles students turn their gazes to Seteth.

"Er, I mean in the hypothetical…" Seteth coughs into a fist. "You know, I'm amazed it's not wholly obvious. We were there fighting in the war against Nemesis."

"Ah, so you are Saints Cichol and Cethleann," Linhardt says. "I should have pieced that together based on your crests. And that your birthdays line up with theirs. I suppose sometimes the simplest deductions are the most difficult."

"Never mind that," Seteth says. "I… will team up with Edelgard if it is the only choice."

"It is," Bernadetta says. "Right, Claude?"

"As much faith as I have in Dimitri, I've seen what Byleth can do. If he does manage to pull out a miracle victory, he'll be in no shape to help us. And we shouldn't even expect that."

"Fine." Dorothea turns away. "But if Edelgard steps an inch out of line, I'll drop a meteor on her from the sky."

Right as she finishes, the sounds of the Imperial army marching approach us. I hop back on Omar when Edelgard walks up to us with the Imperial officers in tow. I don't expect infighting to break out now, but you can never be too careful.

"Quite a pleasant day outside, isn't it?" Edelgard says. "Though I wouldn't know how the weather's been recently. Are you willing to tolerate me until we deal with the larger threat?"

"If we must team up with you, then so be it," Dorothea says. "But we can't let you go free afterwards."

Several of the Imperial officers stiffen and raise their weapons. Dorothea responds by holding her hands up, and lightning crackles on her fingertips. Edelgard holds up a hand, and the Imperials lower their weapons.

"Unfortunately, I refuse to go back to that prison," Edelgard says. "If Byleth lives and is no longer controlled by Nemesis, which I believe is almost impossible, I will renegotiate terms. Perhaps life in exile would be suitable?"

"As if you wouldn't try to return with a foreign army in ten years," Dorothea says.

Edelgard shrugs. "I'm guessing it will be a moot point, because if there is no chance that I can be with Byleth, I will demand my own execution."

Silence hangs between us. Even the Imperial officers look shocked. I wonder what the point of shaking me down for a better deal was if she had this in mind. I bet she wanted to see how far I was willing to go.

"Surely this is not a surprise to any of you," Edelgard says. "What did you think I wanted Dimitri to do when I threw that dagger at him? I care about being able to craft a better Fódlan for all and my future with Byleth. If both of those paths lead to the edges of cliffs, I am more than happy to jump off."

Again, I don't get any feelings of depression or suicidal feelings from Edelgard. This calculation of hers is entirely intellectual. I wonder if there's a way to convince her to stick around. Though maybe it's safer for all of us if she isn't able to inspire any breakout attempts from her loyalists.

"Seiros has plans for you," Seteth says. "We will talk more after this fight."

"Do Seiros' plans matter at all? Last I saw, she was an out-of-control dragon."

"I wish to honor her last wishes. I believe you will find them quite generous."

"Generous isn't what I'm looking for." She turns to me. "Surely you understand, Claude. You turned down a position in my new government if I were to win."

"In this regard, our visions are opposite. I have no desire to rule over anything. I declined your offer because it was too much power and responsibility rather than not enough."

Edelgard frowns. "Ah, yes. That makes sense in light of what you told me recently. Though may I suggest that we leave off what to do with me until our enemies get sent to the Eternal Flames? Every moment we talk is one where Seiros can terrorize more civilians."

A series of nods go around.

"Perfect," Edelgard says. "Now, the Imperial officers will give guidance to the legions of church soldiers. I do not expect trust to be perfect, but try not to totally collapse in the next ten minutes."

Seteth narrows his eyes at her, but says nothing.

Edelgard turns to me. "Claude, you are going to take me over to the wyvern stables."

"And my assurance that you won't fly away?"

"My hatred of Serios isn't enough?" The corners of her mouth twitch upwards. "We'll need a strong force to take on Byleth. I'm not foolish enough to do so myself. That means taking out Seiros first. Contrary to what you may have heard, I can be a team player."

Dorothea raises an eyebrow at her, but Edelgard doesn't catch the motion. Edelgard's logic is good enough to satisfy me. I didn't actually think she was going to ditch us now, but I wanted to hear it from her.

"The rest of you are valued here on the ground," Edelgard says. "The church soldiers trust you more than they will my officers. You coordinate the Imperial commanders and the Imperial commanders coordinate your troops."

"While you coordinate us," Linhardt says. "Command's never been my strong suit, but I can give it a try."

"Seteth, you're in charge here for now," Edelgard says. "Make sure that you are surveying the scene with your wyvern, but don't engage yourself unless it's absolutely necessary. If you fall, our entire operation here collapses. Claude and I will provide support from the skies and report back with ways to break through enemy lines."

"As much as I appreciate your vote of confidence in me," Seteth says, "I don't take orders from you."

"Let's listen to her for now," I say. "And this is better than her placing herself in command of everyone else, right?"

"That's basically what she's doing by ordering us around."

"We don't have the time to squabble," Edelgard says. "Are you in or not?"

Seteth hesitates, and then nods. What I'd give for half of her force of will. More of the pieces of what must have gone on in the Empire are clear to me now. Honestly, I always considered Hubert to be a bigger threat than Edelgard. She was the face of the operation, but he was the mastermind. But now, I'm recognizing the faults in my own assumptions. Hubert clearing the way for her to take wrest control of the Empire's military back from the high lords was crucial for her beginning this campaign, but she had to keep control of her power on her own. She has the mind and the charisma for it, and I can't think of a single other person I know in Fódlan who can match her in both.

Which means… we might have a chance. Part of what I assumed was Byleth being undefeatable with their Divine Pulse has to go to Edelgard as well. It doesn't matter how many times Byleth can rewind the clock if their army is weak. Edelgard only started losing when Seiros and the Kingdom joined together after her own soldiers were exhausted after several months of fighting. I thought that I could never match Byleth's strength, and now I'm realizing that maybe I don't have to.

Because beside me is the one person who could stand a chance against them.

"You look deep in thought," Edelgard says. "Are you ready?"

"Don't have much of a choice," I say. "I'll be glad to have backup for once when I'm scanning the ground and engaging in the most dangerous fights."

She nods, and I swear I see a hint of a smile on her face. If I start liking her as a person, it might hurt all the more when we end up in another standoff, unable to bridge the gap between our ideals. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to seeing what an unleashed Edelgard is capable of.

I hesitate when she walks towards Omar and moves to hop into the saddle with me. She looks at me for a second, and then her gaze goes over to Seiros' direction.

"You didn't expect us to go get me a wyvern on foot, did you?" she says. "Let me on and we'll be there in no time."

Having her right behind me at all times is an easy way to get my throat slit, but I've made the decision to trust her already. The moment I start showing my doubts, everything falls apart. I nod and she climbs up and settles into the saddle. It isn't built for two people, and our bodies are pressed against each other in an uncomfortable way. It doesn't help that Edelgard is barely over five feet, and her face is practically smooshed against my back.

"I will not be making a habit out of this," I say.

"What, like you think I'm enjoying it? Let's get this over with, Claude."

I flick the reins and have Omar fly into the air. The flight to the wyvern stable isn't far, but the moment we soar above the buildings I see the flash of a figure following us. Talk about the worst possible timing. I don't even have enough free space around me to draw a full-sized bow.

"White beast," Edelgard says. "It's gaining on us."

I have Omar dip just in time, and a blast of energy flies over our heads. I look up and see the creature preparing to dive at us.

"Use your alert stance maneuvering to dodge its attacks and get me close," Edelgard says. "I can deal with the offense."

"Are you sure this will work? We could try to outmaneuver it."

"By flying between buildings? We risk attacks from the golems and archers. You can trust me to take care of one beast, Claude."

I hate how she's always right. I grit my teeth and have Omar fly up. I swerve out of the way of its jaws snapping at us as I pass it, and I hear it let out a cry of pain. I glance over my shoulder to see Edelgard's axe Aymr trailing reptilian green blood through the air.

"Like that," Edelgard says. "Let's go for the dive now."

I have Omar tuck in his wings and plunge through the air. I manage to dodge another energy breath attack by doing a wyvern barrel roll, and I hear another scream when we pass by. I fly up into the air to see that the white beast is hurt enough that even its wing flaps look pained. One more round of attacks is all we need.

Then I see it. More white beasts flocking towards us from all directions. We can't possibly take them all.

"We need to go up," Edelgard says.

"Already on it."

I use the reins to guide Omar as close to straight up as possible. Edelgard wraps an arm around my stomach, and I brace myself for a dagger plunged into it. After a couple seconds, I realize that she's only holding on as to not fall off, and I focus on keeping us away from the white beasts.

"When I say go, you need to dive," Edelgard says.

"What? Why? We need to-"

"Go."

The grip around my stomach fades, and I look over my shoulder to see Edelgard falling through the air. What the… I dive after her, swerving around attacks from the white beasts and passing them by.

Then I see her target as she falls through the air. The wounded white beast, not fast enough to maneuver out of the way of her trajectory. She lands on top of it with enough force that I bet it broke a bone. Without hesitating, she swings Aymr at its neck.

A clean cut.

As the body of the white beast plummets, she leaps off of it into the air. For a moment, she seems to float, her cloak billowing in the air. I manage to get under her and she lands back on top of Omar.

I glance enough behind me that I can see her out of the corner of my eye. "What in the Eternal Flames was-"

"Wait." A pause. "Healing focus is done. Now, how much of your breath are you going to waste scolding me?"

"That was the most reckless thing I've ever seen in my life."

"More so than hanging off the bottom of a wyvern to pick up an ally engaged in combat and hoist him off, followed by a juvenile expression mimicking deer antlers?"

"Glad that you understood what that was supposed to be. But point taken."

I glance behind us to see the rest of the white beasts on our tail. I have Omar dive and weave between buildings to lose them, exactly like Edelgard told me not to do. I lose a few of them, but there are still three trailing behind.

"Brace yourself," I say.

I feel Edelgard tense behind me. I lead Omar through the nearest patch of trees, weaving between trunks as the foliage slaps me in the face. A large branch slams into my forehead and I nearly topple off, but Edelgard holds me on. When we reach the other side, another glance behind shows that we're no longer being followed. Thank goodness.

"Thanks for the save," I say.

"Couldn't let you die in the dumbest way possible after defying fate itself, now could I?"

I let a smile come to my face. War is terrible beyond belief, but it's moments like these where I feel most alive. Outmaneuvering my opponents, slinking out of impossible situations.

And this time I'm not alone while doing it.

I fly us over to the wyvern stables, and as I approach them I see a group of possessed church soldiers wrangling some of the creatures. Multiple wyverns are already dead on the ground, and most are nowhere to be seen. So many empty stables. I wonder if the possessed knights made the intentional decision to try and cut off our source of flying combatants or if whatever aggression is programmed into them applies to domesticated animals as well.

"Bastards," Edelgard says.

The next moment, I feel her leave the saddle again. She plummets down and lands on her feet, her legs buckling. She takes a moment to focus on what I now recognize as the healing focus combat art and stands up. I have Omar descend, but Edelgard doesn't wait for me before lunging at the church soldiers with a silver axe. Each swing tears crumples armor and tears through enemies.

Whereas before she fought with a stable confidence, the way she lunges now is like a rabid animal. She takes as many attacks in return as she deals out, and she barely seems to notice. I finally dip low enough to be able to provide cover fire, but after a few shots it's clear that I'm not drawing their attention away from the rampaging axe-wielder. I have Omar land and I dismount. I fire shots at the soldiers looking to flank Edelgard. This is enough to get some of them to charge me, and I engage them with my blade. While they're focused on me, I adopt alert stance and retaliate when they overextend instead of going for offensive maneuvers myself.

By the time I'm finished with the enemies around me, Edelgard has cleared the field of possessed church soldiers. For each one that I fought, she must have taken out three or four. She's panting hard, and I can see blood trickling down her face and arms from at least a dozen cuts. She doesn't even stop to heal herself before walking up to one of the wyverns the church soldiers were attacking. The others have all flown away, and this one makes a move to leave as well, craning their neck up tall and flapping their wings.

Edelgard approaches the wyvern with a hand outstretched.

"You poor, poor thing," she says. "Locked in a cage all day and let out only to be beaten and killed. Has it sunk in that the death surrounding you is your life now? For your sake, I hope not."

Never thought I'd describe Edelgard's voice as soothing, but looks like miracles can happen. The wyvern tucks their wings behind their back and lowers their head towards Edelgard. She runs her hand across the scales on their face with a smile on her face. She closes her eyes and puts her forehead up to the wyvern's snout, and her wounds begin to vanish. I get that this must be an emotional moment for her, but damn I wish someone taught me that healing focus combat art.

While she's having her heart to heart, I decide to grab her a saddle. By the time I return, she's already on top of the wyvern, patting them and reining them in using the standard techniques to calm a wyvern down. I look up at her and offer the saddle.

"Ah, thanks."

She hops off and starts to put it on the wyvern. She hums to herself while doing it, some nursery rhyme from the Empire I vaguely recognize.

"Thanks for having my back there," Edelgard says. "Shouldn't have lost my cool, even though those cowards were fighting the poor, defenseless wyverns. It's like kicking a child."

Or locking one up in a dungeon and only taking them out for experiments.

"Glad you made it through all right."

I realize I mean it. The more time I spend with her, the more it makes me understand Byleth. To have a student who's bright, cracked but not broken, and cares so deeply about fixing the world. And once they're all roped in, it becomes clear that the student thinks the only way to proceed is by conquering all of Fódlan. But siding against her means working with the corrupt church that tried to use their body as a vessel for the goddess. Not an easy decision there.

"Now the sky is our domain," Edelgard says. "We may be little more than wasps to Seiros, but there's a reason people are so afraid of insect stings. Let's show them why."

She looks up at the sky, and I can see the yearning on her face. Freedom, wind whipping past her face as the ground beneath grows small, being able to travel anywhere in the sky. Her strategic assessment that she's more useful above than on the ground is correct, but I bet this was a factor in her decision as well.

I can't blame her for wanting to experience the way the sky makes all worries melt away one last time before everything crumbles away.

I didn't try to write Edelgard and Claude as sharing one braincell, but that's kinda what it ended up being. We're all caught up (finally!) so I'll see you later for more uploads! :D