The flames and smoke from Southtown rose into the sky like a fiery column, away from the terrified screams and war cry of the bandits. I was far from a stranger to violence back home, but that had mainly been street fights and common brawls. This was barbarity, pure and simple. I fought the urge to vomit as I could see one man at the now shattered gates be slaughtered helplessly by a throwing axe lodged into his throat.

"Damn it!" Chrom cursed, his Falchion already unsheathed from its scabbard. "Those brigands again, no doubt! Frederick, Lissa, to me!"

Lissa didn't need to be told twice, having already mounted Frederick's stallion. Frederick however, turned to Chrom. "But milord," he said, gesturing to me and Robin, "what about those two?"

"Unless they're on fire too, they can wait!" came Chrom's stern reply. "With haste, Frederick!"

Frederick needn't be told twice as he gave Chrom a nod. "As you wish, milord." With one swift motion, Frederick mounted his steed and was already off down the hill path. That just left Chrom, Robin and myself.

"Just stay here for now!" Chrom said. "We'll be back before you know it!" And with the speed of an Olympic athlete, Chrom took off after his sister and loyal knight, leaving me and the amnesiac tactician all alone.

"B-but wait!" Robin called out. "What are we supposed to… do?" Her words obviously hadn't reached Chrom, leaving the white haired young woman alone with her thoughts. I could already see the gears turning in that mind of hers, weighing the risk of helping Chrom and his group versus striking it out on her own. But I knew what Robin would do in the end; she was an amnesiac in a completely foreign land after all. In her mind, it'd probably be in her best interest to try and be of some use.

I, however, lacked that luxury. I could fight, certainly, but I had no experience with swords or axes. On top of that, I've never had to fight for my literal life before. Really, when I thought about it, this was entirely none of my business.

"Victor, was it?" Robin's voice shook me from my thoughts as she turned to me. "What do you think we should do?"

Wait, was Robin actually asking me for input? Me, the asshole wearing jeans and sneakers who had little to no experience in proper military strategy?

"Why are you asking me?" I asked plainly. "I'm still trying to process what's been happening all day, and this hasn't exactly helped."

"I know, it's just..." Robin fumbled with her words for a second before regaining her composure. "I simply needed another perspective on the matter. As things stand, I believe we can trust Chrom and his companions. Despite Frederick's misgivings regarding our situation, Chrom himself seems quite noble and earnest. As such, I think it's in our best interest to help them."

Already the selfless and logical tactician, that didn't take long at all. Still, Robin made a good argument. Even if we tried to strike out on our own, it wasn't like we'd know where to go. I, for one, lacked a solid memory of how Ylisse was laid out on a map, so I'd just be stumbling around in the dark without a concrete idea of where I'd be going.

"Alright," I said, "Let's say we do try to help; do you have any idea on how to fight bandits? Any weapons you might have?"

Robin paused before checking under her cloak, letting out a small "Ah!" before pulling out an iron sword from its sheath. Evidentially, Robin had opted for the concealed weapons approach which made sense given her coat. "Will this do?"

Cheeky, aren't we?

Well, that solved one issue, but there was another glaring problem facing me right in the face: the fact that I had no idea how to fight with a sword. Like I'd already said; I punched troublemakers in the face and tossed their drunk asses out onto the street for a living, I'd never been in an actual fight for my life, let alone against people with swords and axes. What use was I gonna be?

Robin seemed to notice my apprehension and spoke up. "I can't stop you from doing what you wish, but I've already made my own decision. I can fight, and I am going to help them!" With sword in hand, Robin was already speeding down the hill road to the town, leaving me alone without another word.

"Um, sure! I'll just hold down the fort… with the dirt. You won't abandon me, right dirt?"

It was then that I realized just how poor of a conversational partner the ground made. It also might've been the first time I seriously question the stability of my own sanity, but I digressed.

So, there I stood, alone in what was effectively a different universe, devoid of what little relationships I had with no prior battle or military experience to speak of. The only advantage afforded to me was my basic memory on how Awakening went. So I had a few options. I could've run for the hills and live out the rest of my days living off the land and dying alone, unloved and unmourned or I could risk my skin all to help kill Literally Dragonic Satan and maybe get a shot at going home.

Not to be confused with Actually Satan, of course.

But there came the caveat again, the fact that I had no weapon experience and would ultimately prove to be a liability to the Shepherds in the long run, but honestly, did I really have a choice?

You better appreciate this one, folks.

So, fighting against the numerous danger warnings going off in my head, I began making my own way down towards Southtown. Maybe I was desperate, maybe I was winging it- scratch that, I absolutely was winging this. Then again, considering one of the Shepherds was armed with a holy sword forged by a dragon's tooth and the other was a woman of immense tactical potential, maybe my chances were better than I realized.

So instead of having a one-hundred percent chance of dying, now I only had a seventy-nine percent chance of dying. So I was making progress in that regard!

The smell of burnt wood was permeating the air as soon as I arrived. Southtown looked virtually abandoned, though that was probably due to the populace having taken shelter in their homes or having run for the hills as soon as the bandits broke through. I swiftly moved through the streets, keeping an ear out for the sounds of what might be fighting. If I listened hard enough, I'd find Chrom and the others eventually.

A shrill scream caught my ear and I made a turn down the alley, assuming it was Lissa. It was most definitely not the Ylissean princess, but a frightened mother shielding her own son from the muscle bound brigand that stood in front of them, his scarred back facing me.

"P-please!" the woman pleaded, desperation in her voice. "Haven't we suffered enough?! Haven't you already done enough by taking the boy's father from him?!"

The bandit let out a crusty chuckle, twirling his iron axe casually. "Ain't nothing personal, lass. We was just hired to do a little damage to you Ylissean types. Yer husband? Call im' collateral, or something like that I suppose."

The young child hiding behind his mother let out a frightened whimper, his eyes threatening to explode into tears. The bandit looked down towards him and smacked the wall next to him, an angry snarl escaping his lips. "Keep that damned little shit under control, wench! Lest you want your boy to be first?"

There was no way I could just abandon those people in good faith, I had to do something. Quickly, I ran my eyes over the alleyway to see if there was anything I could use as a weapon to get the drop on the bastard. There were mostly some sticks, rocks and… oho! Laid out on the ground was a spare hand axe, whether it once belonged to one of the fallen bandits or a fallen town guard, I couldn't tell. But it was a weapon, and I would happily take anything at that point. Snatching up the weapon, I slowly began creeping towards the bandit, determined to get the drop on him proper.

"Please!" the woman pleaded once more. "Please, please, please, not my boy! Anything but my boy! I'll do anything, I swear it!"

The bandit paused to consider her words, letting out a dark chuckle. "Anything, ye say? Well then, it just so happens there might be something you can do after all."

Anger began to well up inside me as I finally got in range for an attack. My hands were trembling slightly, but I just assumed that was normal in those kinds of do-or-die situations unless you were on Chrom or Frederick's level. Without uttering a word, I quickly embedded my weapon into the bandit's head, the blade lodging itself into the back of his skull.

The bandit hollered in agony, his weapon dropping with a loud CLANG! He fell to the ground in a heap, writhing and flopping around like a dying fish. Not wanting to take any chances, I ripped out the axe with all my strength and hacked him again and again, cursing all the while, fighting not to throw up as the sounds of crushed bone and flesh made themselves known. My heart was threatening to tear itself from my chest as it pounded through my sweat-stained shirt. I swore I felt something on my cheek; tears or maybe the bandit's blood. I couldn't tell.

Eventually, the bandit stopped moving, his lifeless eyes staring up into the sky.

I stumbled back as I used the wall for some kind of support, the gravity of what I had just done only now finally sinking in. I just killed a man, with a fucking axe no less. He was a bandit, a murderer, a rapist, scum of the Earth. Killing him would literally be doing everyone in Ylisse a solid favor. But with my upbringing, rough as it was, it didn't matter one lick. Killing was a heavy burden to bear, and now it was my turn to bear it.

This is a dream, I thought. A horrible dream that I'm going to wake up from any moment now. I'll be back in my car, ready to go home.

But I wasn't going to be waking up. This was reality.

"-ank you! Oh, thank Naga you came by, sir!"

As I slowly found myself tuning back to reality, I came to the realization that the woman was weeping tears of relief as she held her son as close as she possibly could. "Gods, how in the world could we ever repay ye?"

It took me a few seconds to finally hammer out a reply as I fully came to my senses, fighting down the bile and nausea that was building in my stomach. "Just… stay inside, lock the doors, barricade them if you have to until everything is all over," I said. "Don't worry, the Shepherds are here to save you all, I promise."

The mere mention of the Shepherds was enough to further restore some life in the woman's eyes. "Say no more, sir! Come along, Dante! We need to get inside, on the double!" Her son nodded once more as the weapon swiftly opened the door to get herself and little Dante inside. As soon as the door was shut, the scrapping of furniture moving could be heard until it finally ceased.

"Thank you once again, sir!" the woman called out once again. "Bless your heart!"

I stood there for a bit, trying to fully comprehend what exactly I'd just done. On the one hand, I most definitely saved that woman from a fate worse than death, no mistake about that. But on the other hand, the sheer brutality of what I had just done had fully settled in. The bandit's body was still there, his blood and brains still oozing out onto the stone floor. I couldn't stop myself from dry heaving, every atom of my body feeling disgusted with myself. It was probably a good thing I hadn't eaten that much before I woke up in Ylisse.

As the feeling in my hands and body slowly came back to me, I noticed the man's iron axe was still laid on the ground. I picked it up, noticing how while it was heavier than my hand axe, it was doubtless more sturdy. Crude, but it'd do.

Time to make a good first impression on the new boss.

The town center was an outright bloodbath. I counted at least seven bandits dead already, a bit more than the actual game showed. Counting my kill, that made eight brigands already down for the count. Chrom, Robin and Frederick were already in the thick of it, Lissa staying back just on the off-chance that someone needed help. Evidentially, I missed a good majority of the fighting. Hearing my approach, Lissa quickly spun around while holding her staff like a club, but stopping as soon as she saw my face.

"V-Victor?! Is that you? Oh gods, what happened to you, whose blood is that?!"

I tried to give her a reassuring smile, though it didn't exactly look that strong, given my previous experiences. "Just some brigand who's not gonna be causing any more trouble. You guys need help?"

Lissa nodded. "We could always use more help around here, sure! Chrom and Frederick have already gotten most of them, but we still gotta clobber their leader."

Sure enough, the nastiest and burliest of the bandits was right across the bridge, eying our group's progress with his two cohorts. Clearly whatever smug look that was on his face before had been wiped away, leaving only concern and worry. Finishing their respective fights, Chrom and Robin turned to face me, Frederick keeping an eye on the remaining bandits.

"Victor!" Chrom greeted me. "Certainly a surprise. I certainly never asked you to risk your life for ours, but your assistance is certainly welcome."

Robin nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't quite sure what you'd do, but I'm glad to see you here regardless."

Being unaccustomed to genuine praise, a bit of color rushed to my ears as I chuckled nervously. "Perhaps we should save all the praising for when we've won?"

"I must concur with you, Mr. Victor." Frederick had finally joined our discussion, still proudly atop his armored mount. "The way forward to the bandit's leader is clear, milord, but a frontal assault would prove to be risky without a proper plan in place."

Robin was already taking stock of the situation, no doubt constructing some kind of elaborate strategy to win us the day and save the village when her face fell slightly. Not in fear, but confusion. "Er, Chrom?" She pointed towards the leader, who was strutting towards us, flanked by three other lackeys. We all flashed confused looks at one another, unable to figure out why the man had decided to step forward on his own. Confidence, a lack of wisdom, or perhaps all of the above?

"Well, well! Look what we be havin' here, boys!" the thug chuckled, his name utterly having escaped me. "Got us a bunch o' proper heroes, don't we? Why don't we show em' what we do to heroes then?"

"Planning on dragging this out further, are we?" Chrom glared, facing the man down without even a hint of hesitation. "A poor decision. Just look at the bodies behind us if you require a demonstration of our abilities!"

"Bah!" the man spat. "Fodder is what they were! Me? I pride meself on being the biggest and the baddest. If you don't believe me, little sheepy, then come to the slaughter! That is, if you have the guts!"

Chrom didn't grace the man's taunts with so much as a chortle. Despite the bandit leader's size, it was clear who between the two of them would live to see tomorrow. Of course, that didn't account for the remaining bandits, who had taken their leaders words as a command to charge us. Frederick was on two of them like a dog on a steak, leaving me to contend with the other one.

The man was of average height and build, the most noteworthy part about him being the makeshift bone helmet on his head. While I wanted to say I was confident in my chances, the truth was that my only kill thus far had been attributed to a sneak attack and pure nerves, not so much any actual skill. He took the first move, attempting to cleave my face in half with a one-handed swing that I barely managed to dodge. Acting quickly, I drove the axe deep into the man's back and unlike before, went straight for the head.

Getting better at this, eh me?

I grimaced as I pulled the axe out my victim's neck with a sickening wet sound. It hadn't quite hit me just yet what part of it disgusted me the most, but then I realized it. The most disturbing thing about it was how easy it was. With just one quick motion of an axe, I had ended two lives with the same ease as it took to make breakfast. Something about that just did not sit well with me, at all. If my mom had seen me, she'd probably have said something about me being a wimp, or something to that effect.

"G-gah!"

My thoughts were interrupted by the guttural roar of the bandit leader. In their scuffle, Chrom had severed the man's axe hand, leaving the bandit hopelessly bleeding out and helpless as Chrom delivered a backwards stab through the man's chest, the former bandit leader's body dropping to the ground in a bloody heap.

It was over, Southtown had been saved and we could all celebrate-

Oh wait, the town was still on fire.

You know, it hadn't quite dawned on me just how much I took the conveniences of modern plumbing for granted until I had to help put out the fires that the bandits had caused. Even with all the remaining townspeople pitching in, those who could stand anyway, it still took us a good couple of hours to get everything sorted out, and that wasn't counting the damage that the townsfolk would have to repair themselves. Chrom and Frederick, being Chrom and Frederick barely looked winded, while me and Lissa were more or less ready to collapse onto the ground right then and there.

Chrom was busy attending to and assisting the town however he could. Lissa, though plenty tired, was seeing to the dead and wounded, working her staff to heal whomever she could. Frederick had taken to helping the remaining town militia reassemble and begin repairs on the gate that had been broken through by the bandits. And Robin? Well, Robin looked about as lost and clueless as I did. It was a stark contrast to how she looked on the battlefield; determined with an unparalleled amount of focus. Eventually she found me sitting alone, moving right next to me.

"That was certainly not how I pictured my day beginning," said Robin, stretching slightly. "But I am glad it's over regardless. How are you faring - Victor, was it?"

I paused, memories of my first two kills playing back like a film reel in my mind's eye. I felt my hands shake ever so slightly before I forced them still. "I'll manage. It was my first time killing people to be sure, but it's not like I could just sit around and do nothing while you all risked your lives."

"Quite the risk you took for complete strangers," Robin chuckled, "but then I suppose I'm in the same boat." Her stance shifted slightly, and any earlier comfort from before evaporated. "I don't know how I got here, I don't know what I was doing in that field and I have no idea why such knowledge of the battlefield came to me as smoothly as it did. And even after all of that, I'm no closer to an answer."

It was weird, I had always assumed Robin was always naturally calm and collected, at least for the most part. I didn't remember Robin ever being so melancholy like that. Then again, the game didn't exactly give us a good look into Robin's head, even if she was the overall main character of the game. It kinda made me feel bad that I couldn't offer her any kind of comfort, given what I knew was so damned outlandish to her at that point that she'd probably wouldn't even believe me. But I had to do something.

"Well, that's pretty rough, but hey, it's a good thing we ran into those three, right?" I said, pointing to Chrom. Robin's eyes landed on Chrom for just a second, lingering before her lips formed a soft smile.

"Yes, I suppose you're right. He's an interesting character to say the least. Brave, charismatic, all of the right qualities for a good leader, but very oddly trusting for people such as us."

Chalk that up to something else I couldn't quite understand about Chrom. Frederick's skepticism about me and Robin was, while a touch irritating, at least well-founded from his perspective. Two people asleep on a grassy plain, one of them knowing the name of your liege before they even had the chance to introduce themselves? I couldn't lie, I'd probably have my guard up as well.

"A fair point," I said. "Chrom really doesn't have any reason to fully trust us, but he still does. Maybe he considers himself a fair judge of character? Or maybe he's just really patient?"

"It could also have something to do with the two of you risking your lives to save Ylissean souls today, but pay me no mind."

Robin let out a rather uncharastically shrill shriek of surprise as she turned around quickly to meet Chrom's chuckling face, being flanked by Frederick and Lissa respectively. Frederick looked as stoic as ever, while Lissa couldn't stop herself from giggling like a gremlin at Robin's little jump.

"H-how long were you all standing there?" Robin asked, her voice a bit shaky with embarrassment.

"Not long at all, truth be told," Chrom responded. "I was just looking for you two and figured I could add something to the discussion is all."

I opted to take the initiative and speak in Robin's place."Well, I guess that wraps that up. Any other bandits roaming around, or was this just a one-time thing?"

"Far from it," Chrom replied. "We've no shortage of banditary issues of late, sadly. No doubt that this wasn't the last of it."

"Let's ignore the stuffy bandits for a second and talk about how amazing Robin was for a second!" Lissa quipped in, smiling. "I mean, she had swords and sorcery? Not to mention tactics out the wazoo! Is there anything she can't do?"

"She and Victor are certainly far from helpless victims, that's for sure," Chrom nodded.

"Indeed," Frederick stoutly nodded, a hint of skepticism laced in his voice as he approached Robin. "Perhaps you might even be capable of an explanation for how you came here?"

"I understand your skepticism, Sir Frederick," Robin began, keeping her response measured and calm. "And I cannot explain why only some knowledge has returned to me. But please, believe me. I have shared all that I know."

Chrom, as per usual, was willing to stick up for Robin's plight. "You and Victor fought to save Ylissean lives. My heart says that's enough."

"And your mind, milord?" Frederick asked. "Will you not heed its council as well?"

"Frederick," Chrom began, "the Shepherds have long since needed an able tactician in its ranks. We've brigands and unruly neighbors, all looking to bloody our soil. Will you truly have us lose such able help? And in regards to Victor, while his manner of fighting is a touch unrefined, I firmly believe he has the potential to do great things."

Frederick looked as if he wanted to say more, but by that point, he knew probably that Chrom's mind was made up and he knew better than to engage his liege lord in pointless arguments. But the look he shot me and Robin screamed "This isn't over yet, I have more questions''. Which was fair. I only hoped my answers would satisfy him. Plus I kinda needed to apologize for acting like a bit of a dick to him when we first met.

Chrom turned to Robin first, pitching his job offer of joining the Shepherds which she obviously accepted. Then it was my turn.

"And you, Victor? We'd be more than happy to have you as well."

This was the moment of truth that'd seal the next few years of my life, if I even lived that long. In a sense, going along with the main plot was the smart move, like a safety net. It meant that even if I didn't remember everything that happened in the game, I had a general outline of what to expect. But that meant more fighting, more killing, straight up wars if I made it that far. If killing two bandits made me feel like that then how the hell was I gonna help take down Gangrel or Grima?

Simple; get over yourself, do what you have to do.

Ah, the ever so present advice of my conscience reared its ugly head once again. In the end, I supposed there was only one choice in front of me for now. If I ran away, then how would I face the people I killed or the family I had just saved? Like it or not, I couldn't afford to crawl away like some kind of whimpering coward.

So I took Chrom's hand and shook it like I was sealing the deal at an interview. No turning back now.

"Then welcome aboard, Victor and Robin!"