The Flames Within Us
By: V-Dawg
Chapter 15: Shining Issues
For a decent amount of time, Ike wasn't sure if the threat of war was actually imminent. Travelling alongside Ranulf and Lethe, acting as a transport news source, it wasn't until he saw the Begnion soldiers themselves.
Right now, he was dressed as a Gallian soldier, looking not like his fellow Greil Mercenaries, but more like Ranulf and Lethe. Caineghis had insisted Ike were to wear the uniform if he were to pass as a normal laguz, as only his sword would be the only unusual property.
The Gallian coat of arms painted on Ike's cape, which was a bluish colour instead of his typical red, where the Crimean coat of arms was painted. This effectively made Ike a Gallian soldier, which was kind of ironic if you considered Ike's birthplace.
Originally planning to pass by swiftly, their cover was blown by the sound of one of them hitting the leaves from some low hanging trees.
"There's some laguz right there!" The trio heard the nearby Begnion soldier point, causing them, alongside the Greil Mercenaries to have been spotted.
Ike sighed, readying his sword as the nearby troops began charging towards Ike, Lethe and Ranulf. The others were quite a way to help as they got into their own standoff with other troops. For the most part, they were able to stand their ground.
Quickly watching his two laguz friends switching into their cat form, Ike began to fight back, the katana/sword in his hands was much lighter than Ragnell.
The nearest Begnion soldier found himself sliced by Ike's sword, before a kick sent him clutching his side in pain.
The next one tried to use his shield to block Ike's sword, however, Ike simply swiped low, causing the troop to fall, temporarily disabling him, as Ike had grabbed his spear, before tossing it towards the other groups of troops, managing to strike an unexpected soldier.
Watching Soren pull out a wind tomb, Ike managed to spot an opportunity. Soren turned to Ike, who simply nodded in acknowledgement.
Gathering his wings as high as he could, Ike began to move them back and forth, creating a small gust storm, that managed to stop some oncoming offense.
The soldiers were trapped in a small gust storm, before Soren's wind tomb knocked them off their feet, all of them falling unconscious.
Ike noticed that his two other laguz friends were closely engaged in the troops, and they seemed to be handling themselves well.
Watching further, he also noticed some other laguz in the battlefield, which made their situation better.
However, the sheer amounts of Begnion Troops were simply a huge amount, even more than the Daein Army. Ike sighed, and began his campaign in defending Gallia.
He approached the lion laguz Skirmir, and nodded, before striking their targets.
It was during the fight, did Ike notice a figure. Disguised under red armour, Ike for some reason had some weird feelings from that figure.
Slightly taller than Ike himself, he quickly sliced a troop to his side before being able to realize who the figure was.
The figure was Zelgius, and Ike noticed he was the commander of the Begnion Army. He had seen him before during the Mad King's War.
Shrugging, Ike began to make his way towards the commander. If he took out the commander, the army would most likely be crippled. The figure of Zelgius, looked on to Ike, and his eyes widened in shock.
While Ike quickly concluded it to be his speeding figure towards him, unbeknownst to Ike, or anyone at a matter of fact, Zelgius was just surprised at Ike's surprising figure.
It seemed that Ike would have succeeded in striking his mark, if it wasn't for a noble soldier who straight up tackled the mercenary down.
Zelgius, shook his head, looking at Ike and the soldier, in a sort of arm wrestle, before he picked up with his job.
Meanwhile, Ike was furious, furious at this soldier for getting in the way of his plans, and furious at his position. He must've looked weak at the moment.
This was bad, as he could notice some other soldiers looking at their position and began charging towards them.
Ike groaned, before grunting.
Unbeknownst to them, however, a sudden light began to shroud around Ike, rather briefly. So briefly in fact that as soon as it was noticeable, it was gone. It was surprising to many of the soldiers, who noticed the strange light.
This shock made many of the nearby soldiers stop their assault. It wasn't for long, but it was enough for Ike to get off of the troop, before stabbing him down, and the nearest one's around him.
Lethe and Ranulf, who were nearby and saw the light were unfazed by the event, managed to assist in helping Ike escape his struggle.
Eventually, they cleared out the troop numbers around their area before making their way to assist the rest.
Ike made his way, sword in hand, alongside Lethe and Ranulf backstabbed the unsuspecting troops before they noticed that the Begnion soldiers were retreating.
Not wanting to chase and cause more casualties, Ike simply let them go. Whereas the rest of the laguz opposed the idea, they eventually agreed, as they watched them retreat. Ike in particular looking towards Zelgius, as he looked very familiar to him.
Shaking his head, he noticed Skirmir had ordered the laguz back in Gallia. Not wanting to fall behind Ike ran alongside Lethe and Ranulf.
"That was a good battle, Ike." Ranulf started to which Ike simple nodded.
"Yeah, but if you hadn't showed up when I was in that struggle, I would've been gone."
Lethe's eyes moved across, "That may have been true, but the trick you pulled against them was pretty smart."
"Uh, what trick?" Ike had asked, and Ranulf and Lethe had to look at Ike's reaction to believe him.
"The brief light show." Lethe finished, however Ike simply looked confused.
"What do you mean light show?" Ike asked.
Ranulf and Lethe were confused. Was Ike lying, or did he actually not know what he had done.
Then there was the question of why Ike had briefly flashed, shrouded in white light.
However, even that question was known well by Lethe and Ranulf, but they decided not to tell Ike, so much to put any stress on him, especially after those tumultuous times.
Regardless, they were intrigued at the fact this simple fact about Ike while he was fighting.
Eventually, they made it back to Caineghis' Castle, where the trio, alongside Skimir had delivered the good news regarding the small clash near the border.
While they were busy talking to the lion king, they turned around and noticed the two leaders of the other laguz, Tibarn and Naesala all concentrated in the same commanding room.
Ike raised an eyebrow as he noticed the eyes surrounding him.
He simply looked back to Skirmir, who nodded.
"Sir, I'm pleased to announce the Begnion Troops have retreated, for now." Skirmir said, and the laguz kings smiled.
"Ha! I told you those beorc don't stand a chance!" Tibarn concluded, his hatred towards Begnion not fading one bit. But after the news they were given, Ike couldn't blame them.
He simply sighed, before heading out, followed by Lethe and Ranulf.
But despite all of that, at least Ike was content that none of the troops recognized who he was.
Micaiah was furious. Absolutely furious. In the amount of time that had occurred, she had just discovered she was to fight alongside Begnion. The nation she has spend 3 years trying to get rid of.
For 3 years, Begnion had pretty much suppressed Daein citizens, rendering them as second class. Any resistance was suppressed brutally, almost as if Daein was again a part of Begnion again.
And now, after all the hard-work and casualties suffered in ensuring Daein's independence, they were now told they had to fight alongside them.
Pelleas must be crazy. Micaiah had thought. She couldn't understand one bit.
It wasn't just Micaiah as well, Sothe, Edward, Nolan and Leonardo were all furious. Pelleas must have been Pelleas must have been stupid to decide such a bad decision.
Regardless of the circumstances, they knew they were to confront the king.
And Pelleas was aware of their anger. The situation of Daein was bigger than they had realized.
"Pelleas." Sothe started, his voice already in demand.
"Hello Sothe." He started, his tone clearly not happy.
The silence in the room was filled with disappointment, confusion and explanation.
Everyone could tell, even Pelleas, who sighed.
"So I'm assuming you all want an explanation?" He started, which only made them more angry.
"An explanation, that would be a start. What did you do that resulted in us siding with Begnion?!" Sothe angrily remarked.
"Sothe, calm down." Micaiah started but Pelleas interrupted her.
"I understand your anger, I really do. I wish I wasn't fighting for Begnion, but alas, it is for our own good." Pelleas finished
The anger quickly disappeared, turned into confusion.
"What do you mean?" Leonardo asked.
It seemed that the meeting was going too slow, and everyone wanted to know the reason.
"I was tricked, into signing a blood pact." He said at last. But the room didn't really take that into consideration or affect immediately.
"A blood pact?" Sothe asked.
"Yes, I was told it was a peace treaty to mediate with Begnion after years of fighting, but the twisted minds threatened that the civilians of Daein would fall one by one if we disobeyed their requests." Pelleas finished.
Everyone in the room, now knew better what had happened. They were essentially tricked into something they didn't want to do.
All of their fighting, gone, due to a piece of paper.
"How do we get rid of it?" Sothe asked, sneering.
"Couldn't we just have the one at the side be killed by a third party?" Edward asked, but Pelleas shook his head.
"That went through my head first, but I eventually found out that it wasn't the case. The only way we can get rid of the blood pact is to destroy the very paper that I wrote."
The room was silent, as they realized the severity of their situation.
"So you mean to tell me, until he find a piece of paper, we are stuck under a nation we fought fair and square, and beaten already, just like that." Leonardo exclaimed, which made him more angry when Micaiah simply nodded.
Compared to the rest of the group, Micaiah seemed to know more about blood pacts than the rest.
"So, what now?" Sothe asked, and Micaiah spoke
"It appears we are to fight against the Laguz alliance until we are able to destroy the pact."
Silence filled the room, yet again as they began to ponder on their possibilities.
"Are we really left with no option?" Edward pleaded to Pelleas, who simply sighed,
"I wish there was, but the basis of this blood pact is simply too severe for us to take risks." Pelleas.
But as soon as hope receded, it again rebounded, in the form of an idea.
"What if we had a third party locate the blood pact and destroy it?" Micaiah asked.
Pelleas scratched his chin, "not a bad idea, but we will need someone who wouldn't expose Darien, or have an allegiances to us,"
And their thoughts were scarce. They didn't really know who they could ask who wanted to risk their life for a country they had nothing about.
Micaiah did want to ask that girl, Mist, after all they're parents were from Daein, however she decided against it as a matter of their status in the war.
She had already heard of fighting at the Gallian border, and she knew Ike was situated there, meaning he was no doubt fighting their oppressor.
She simply sighed, she wished everything was easier, but knew that the best course of action was to comply.
"What are Begnion's orders?" Micaiah asked, clearly given up in ideas.
They looked to Micaiah in shock, "are you serious?" Sothe asked.
"Yes." Was all she said and she looked to Pelleas for answers.
"Begnion wants us to engage in some small-scale raids "Begnion wants us to assist them on the ground near the border of Gallia." Pelleas said at last, and knew immediately that meant fighting on opposing sides of Ike and Mist.
"So that means-" Sothe asked, and Micaiah knew what he was referring to.
"Ike and his mercenaries, yes." She spoke, however what Sothe said next peaked here interest.
"Ike? But I thought he went missing?" Sothe said, and Micaiah looked around in shock to the others, and their face confirmed what they were thinking.
They all thought Ike was still missing. This was a surprise to Micaiah , however she quickly concluded that he either must have left, or is under a disguise. He was different according to everyone around him at the time, so Micaiah could understand what they meant.
But it seemed that she was the only one in the room who knew where Ike was, or at least his whereabouts.
Sighing, she knew that the resulting events had unfortunately led to them being on the opposing ends of a war, and while nobody knew how long this would last, they knew that almost all of Tellius may soon fall into this conflict.
"Let's make our way towards Gallia." Was all Micaiah said before walking out.
"Micaiah, I'm so sorry about this." Pelleas said before she left.
She turned to him, "It's not your fault, Pelleas, Begnion pulled a devious, dirty trick on us, and know we must deal with what we have." Micaiah simply stated before she left, clearly on her way to talk to the army who were most definitely not going to be happy with what has happened.
"Maybe we could get the black knight?" Edward has asked, and Micaiah immediately recoiled. She wasn't a fan of the black knight, but he was a soldier, and a very good one at that. It was just the appearance which intimidated her.
…
Zelgius could have sworn he had been imagination; his vision was playing with him.
While he wasn't the one to ponder over small details, the image of that laguz had truly terrified him.
And he didn't know why.
The laguz had sprinted towards him, clearly trying to take him out very swiftly, and if it wasn't for that noble soldier, he would have succeeded.
There were so many reasons why that laguz had confused Zelgius.
For one, the allegiance. The laguz was clearly fighting alongside the beast tribes of Gallia, despite him clearly being more from the bird tribe, the dark-brown and black wings behind the figure's back a true indicator of the species. While he was aware of the laguz alliance, even he knew it would take a week for reinforcements of other laguz. This one was clearly alongside Gallia.
Then, there was the laguz's appearance. Outside of the obvious wings on the figure's shoulder blades, the laguz also had blue hair and a black headband that clearly remined him of Ike, it also didn't help that he was around the Greil Mercenaries.
This further contradicted to what Zelgius thought. He knew of Ike's disappearance as it was somewhat publicized in Daien as a win for the nation. The new figure clearly had some weird resemblance to Ike, and he had to figure this out.
Then there was the question, what if it wasn't Ike? What if it was a new laguz that nobody really knew. If that were the case, why was it fighting with a sword? Why did it suddenly shine white briefly. There was a lot of questions the mysterious branded had based on that figure, and he was tempted to capture the laguz for his bargain.
Despite this, he knew at this time was not the time, and knew in his morals that it was wrong. Right now, he was simply focused on the looming war.
Right now, he was with the Begnion Senate discussing the war in their hands. But Zelgius didn't bother listen, other than one thing he heard from the crazy scientist, Izuka.
Izuka, how had seemed to have recover from the incident, simply smiled.
"It's very simple, a blood pact forcing a nation to join the war." Izuka had sneered, laughing at the example of Daein.
"How much of those do you have left?" Lekain asked, which caused Izuka to chuckle.
"I have one left, I'd advice we use it on a laguz nation. I don't see any use for Crimea, they are still recovering from the war."
"So, what would be the ideal laguz nation to use it on?" Lekain asked.
"Gallia isn't worth it, I wouldn't advice Phoenicis, Goldoa would be a powerful ally, but I think securing the east front would be the best choice, so the nation of Kilvas would be the best choice."
"I see, well you know what to do." Lekain simply stated.
"Oh, but I do have another trump card." Izuka smiled.
"And what is this trump card?"
"You know of my research, right?"
Lekain nodded to Izuka's statement.
"Perfect, well, before they escaped, I managed to secure a sort of dark magic in the laguz and the few beorc in my experiments. With a simple extension of a blood pact, I can make these all follow my lead, or else the dark magic in their system will interrupt their body's function, killing them like a parasite within seconds."
"So, why don't we use it now then?" Lekain asked.
But Izuka had simply shook his head, "The escape, it had complicated matters, and while I definitely had managed to do my bid on those subjects, I'd rather use this as a last-ditch effort, just in case those laguz actually stand their ground against us, and pushes us back."
"Very well, if that's what you think is the best choice of action, then I will let you go your way." He stated. "But give me the blood pact."
Izuka smiled, "It'll cost you."
Lekain sighed, "What do you want?"
Izuka simply chuckled in a very dark tone.
"I shall explain it to just you, as I don't want anyone hearing of what I have in store. What I have discovered may change our entire world, our entire species, everything!" Izuka said continuing the chuckle.
Zelgius just looked at the crazed man, apathetic, before looking at somewhere else to heal his boredom.
"So, then why aren't you telling me what it is"
Izuka sighed, "Like I said, once we are alone as this is a big discovery."
A.N / What does Izuka have planned? Why does Zelgius recognize that laguz, and what happened to Ike there? We'll see what happens next chapter. You all must remember that not a lot of people know about Ike, as he had tried to hide his identity. Ranulf and Leanne are known by their respective groups, but Ike is the only exception, with only the Greil Mercenaries, Tibarn, Naesala and Caineghis knowing who he is. Elincia nor none of Crimea, Begnion nor Daein know of Ike's whereabouts.