Claude was not sure what he was expecting upon climbing the stairs of the bell tower at the old monastery. The main houses had all agreed to meet back up five years later as a sign of friendship and cooperation, but that had seemingly fallen apart after Edelgard's betrayal. Yet, for some reason, Claude found himself sneaking off. He was curious he supposed.
He mostly expected nothing. Maybe if he was lucky, a few stray classmates as sentimental or curious as he was. He was not, however, expecting to find Dimitri – who was supposed to be dead, but Claude always found it suspicious no body was provided – as well as their missing and presumed dead professor from the academy days.
"Dimitri, Teach" Claude masked his surprise with his usual bluster, "Fancy meeting you here. You're both looking well," Claude paused and took in Dimitri a little more, "Er, reasonably well for dead people."
"Claude," The professor allowed a small smile as she stood up from crouching over the feral looking princeling, "You came."
"I did. Not sure I can say why though. Call it a hunch. I'm a bit curious about your stories though."
"You still talk too much," Dimitri grumbled refusing to make eye contact.
"Nice to see you too. I thought you were executed though. That's the official story at least."
"That witch lied," Dimitri's face twisted into a vengeful snarl, "Dedue…he freed me, but at great cost."
"I see," Claude replied solemnly. He did not know Dedue well, but he seemed like a good man. One they would be worse off without.
"What about you, Teach," Claude shifted the attention, "We wanted to search for you, but with Adrestia breathing down our necks, we had to abandon the monastery."
"I…don't remember much. It was like I was asleep. When I finally came to, I was near a village at the base of the mountains. I came here to help not realizing how much time had passed. I-I've been trying to piece together what happened. I take it we lost."
"You could say that," Claude ran a hand through his hair, "The monastery fell shortly after you, er, fell. As far as I know all the students got out. I've kept in touch with as many from our class as I can, but Edelgard put a stranglehold on most of Fodlan. The Alliance is really all that's left to stand against her after she crushed most of the resistance in the Kingdom. Her forces have been…efficient."
"That witch!" Dimitri slammed his fist into the wall hard enough to crack the stone, "I'll make her pay, and I don't care how efficient her armies are!"
"That, uh, would be one way to go about it," Claude shuffled before turning his attention back to the professor, "I hear there are a few pockets of resistance, but the Kingdom officially doesn't exist anymore while the Alliance is practically split down the middle. My tiebreaking vote is all that keeps us from surrendering."
"That's…not good," She finally relented, but her face became practically unreadable as she asked her next question, "Claude, where is my brother? Is he alive?"
"Ah, yeah," Claude rubbed the back of his neck, "He's alive last I heard, but, uh, you aren't going to like it."
"Tell me, Claude," She used her teacher voice.
"He's with the Empire. With Edelgard. He's her top general and second only to Hubert as an advisor."
Claude grimaced as Dimitri's expression filled with rage once again and the color drained from one of his old professors' face.
A/N: Betcha weren't expecting this. Don't get too excited/upset. This is a one shot for now. I mostly got the idea from reading a story summary where both Claude and Dimitiri were in the monastery. Then I thought about what if both Byleth's were involved. Not sure what I'd call them if I did this story. Bylass and Bylad are options, but…not exactly ones I really want to use for a serious story.
Either way, there would need to be some work to fill out the story beats more. If you want to chat about this idea, feel free. For now, most I may do is do something with Bylad.