One more character interaction chapter, then it's time for the three-part final battle. Sorry for the long wait, this one just did not want to come together.
The combined Imperial/Kingdom/Church forces had received relatively little trouble on the way to meet up with Claude and the Alliance forces after the battle at the Valley of Torment, only having a few encounters with Demonic Beasts, which were all quickly dealt with. About a week after, they met up with Claude.
To their surprise, he had more troops at his disposal than anyone had expected. "When we heard that the Almyrans were attacking the border, we expected that they were there to fight your forces, not join them," Byleth commented.
"It was all just a big misunderstanding," Claude told him.
"A big misunderstanding," Hilda repeated. "That's an interesting way to describe it, Prince Khalid."
"Wait, you're the Prince of Almyra?" Byleth asked. "I knew you had Almyran blood, you didn't hide it very well, but the Prince?"
"The purpose of that poorly-kept secret was to mask a bigger, better-kept secret. I mean, it didn't really work, but still. Yes, I'm the heir to the Almyran throne," Claude admitted. "Thales sent word of my death to my parents, and Nemesis tried to make that into a reality. Tried. Admittedly, though, I'm not looking forward to fighting him again. I'll leave that to you and the Archbishop."
"Did anyone get killed?" Byleth asked.
"Well, obviously. But if you're talking about the Golden Deer, no. Though Balthus's hand got pretty mangled," Claude informed him. "The surgeons had to amputate it because we couldn't get it out of the gauntlet."
"I'm...sorry," Byleth said.
"It wasn't your fault," Claude told him. "It's the price of war."
"That's all too true," Byleth agreed. "This particular war will be over soon, though."
"And let's all be thankful for that," Claude stated.
"It seems like you've been avoiding me," Bernadetta said to Hubert.
Hubert sighed. "I have been."
"Why?"
"It's for your own good," Hubert stated.
"That's not for you to decide," Bernadetta told him. "From now on, I decide what's good for me, not everyone else."
"Maybe," Hubert conceded. "But the fact remains, I will disappoint you. I will fail you, just like I fail everyone in my life."
"I know you better than that. When you choose to give your loyalty to someone, you would sooner die than betray it," she said.
"And when those loyalties come into conflict?"
"Is there any reason why they have to?"
"It so often seems like there is," Hubert said morosely.
"I'm willing to take that chance," she insisted.
"Why?" Hubert asked. "Why do you care so much for me? I don't deserve it. By any objective measure of morality, I am a monster. I have killed people who didn't deserve to die, ruined the lives of those who deserved better, all for what turned out to be very poor reasons."
"I read a line in a book once. 'The only way to go beyond redemption is to choose to take yourself there. The only way to do that is to stop caring,'" Bernadetta said. "And I know you haven't stopped caring. Maybe you were evil. Maybe a part of you still is. But you don't have to be. Didn't you say you admired me because of how I overcame my fears? I've changed, and so have you. The only way to keep yourself from changing is to convince yourself that you won't."
"That's your argument? People change?" Hubert asked.
"If they don't, then I might as well lock myself in my room and never leave," she said with all the authority she could muster.
"Perhaps you're right," Hubert admitted. "But what makes you so sure that the person I will become is someone worthwhile?"
"I can't say that for certain," Bernadetta confessed. "But if you want to become better, you should be around people who build you up, who help you be a better person."
Hubert sighed. "I can't argue with that." With that, the two of them left to join their peers.
Edelgard cornered Dimitri in his tent. "We need to talk."
"Say your piece, then," Dimitri said.
"What was that back in Ailell? You went completely berserk!" she accused. "Had Hubert and I not intervened, you would have played right into Nicodemus's hands, and it would have cost you your humanity!"
Dimitri hesitated. "I needed revenge."
"To hell with your revenge!" Edelgard demanded. "You can't just destroy yourself over it!"
"I lost everything in the Tragedy of Duscur," Dimitri said. "And so did many others. Dedue, Felix, Ingrid, the people of Duscur. Have you ever felt that feeling of losing everything?"
"Of course I have!" Edelgard shouted, offended. "I had ten siblings, once. And all of them were killed. But I know better than to let my grief cripple me."
"I am not as strong as you, Edelgard," Dimitri said. "You are strong, I am weak. That does not make you better or me worse; it is just a reality of who we are."
"You aren't weak, Dimitri," Edelgard said.
"No, I am," Dimitri told her. "You can't understand, because you are strong. You do not understand the weak, so you try to force others to be strong. You have strength that comes from yourself. I don't. I have hunger, I have drive, but I do not have strength. Not from within."
"I don't understand."
"No, you don't. You try to deprive people of their sources of strength, in hopes of forcing them to develop strength from within."
"You mean the Church, how the faithful draw strength from it?" Edelgard asked. "No, we resolved that disagreement. What source of strength am I depriving you of?"
"You," Dimitri answered.
"Wha-me?" Edelgard stared at him. "You really consider me a source of strength?"
"Yes," Dimitri answered. "You think I will serve Fódlan better than you because I can be weak in ways you can't. But I don't have the strength that you have." He met her gaze. "Fódlan needs you. I need you."
"But what of the people who won't forgive my actions as the Flame Emperor?" Edelgard asked.
"What of the loyalists who thumped fists for the Flame Emperor, and would never accept me as their ruler?" Dimitri asked. "There will be malcontents no matter what. Flame Emperor loyalists, loyalists of the old ways from before the Flame Emperor. Adrestians and Faerghans who hate each other on principle. And every other sort. There will always be obstacles to the future we are trying to make. Maybe there will be more if you live, maybe there will be more if you die, we will never know for certain. But I do know this. We will be better at facing them together."
Edelgard met his eye. "You really think that?"
Dimitri nodded. "I do."
Edelgard took a deep breath, as if bracing herself, and held out her hand to him. "Together."
Dimitri took her hand. "Together."