When Donny came to, he didn't recognize the room he was in. He did, however, have an idea.

"Another one of them infirmaries?" he said. "Must be, with all these beds." He got out of his bed and onto his feet. Remembering what had happened, he fought with the others against that kid with ice spells. Then there was that tornado-spell, and…

Looking down at his hand, there it was. All but his fingers, wrapped in bandages all over again.

"Doesn't hurt though. Guess I must be healed." Bending his arm before flexing his fingers, he then slashed it like a sword, only to find it felt better than the last time he blasted someone with magic above his grade.

"Maybe I must be improving," he said to himself, bringing his hand down. "Well, if I'm all fine, then I'd better get ready and set to go." He changed out of the robes the doctors gave him, settling for one of his usual blue shirts and brown shorts.

"Where is everyone, anyways?" he said, just as he finished poking his head out from the hole of his fresh shirt. Patting his chest, he looked around the room, but there wasn't a single soul to be found. Well, except, for one. A blonde girl not too far from him, the one unconscious on the bed beside the curtain. That's the girl Cordelia knew? But it looked like she got hit bad in the fights.

"Sorry Ma'am, hope you get better quick." He felt bad for her, but there was no time to think about that though. There were people to find. They must be doing something, right?

"Guess I'd better go find them then," he said. And so with that, he took off, heading out of this infirmary. The hallway was as empty as the room before. Not a single person around.

"There's still no one here, where's everyone—Kyah!" Donny found himself being shoved in the back, tripping on his own feet.

"Oh! Ah-h!" cried the person behind him as she stumbled herself. "I-I'm terribly sorry!"

"Ugh—no worries!" He caught himself before he could trip any further. Only to turn around, catching sight of the pink ponytailed girl halfway between hiding her face behind her hands and steadying herself from the hit.

"Say, you're that Olivia girl!" He pointed at her, putting on a smile.

The girl flinched back, hands pressing up to her lips. "Oh-h. Yes, I'm Olivia, and I am so sorry for bumping into you!"

"Don't beat your hide up over it. Ain't nothin' compared to what I've been through already." He dusted himself off, eyes going narrow. "Say, weren't you supposed to join us? How come I've barely seen you 'till now?"

"Oh, um…" Lowering her hands an inch, Olivia took in a slow breath. "Y-you see, my talents are more for scouting than fighting. W-when you guys were sneaking in, I was still with Basilio to help from there."

"But you're still a fighter too, aren'tcha?" He gave her a look, rolling his finger around in a circle. "Saw you fightin' with that Lon'qu fella back in the tournament. You were kickin Chrom's butt until Cordie backed him up."

"Oh!" Olivia squeaked, hands lowering further. "U-um, yes, I suppose I did do that, d-didn't I..."

"And you're also a dancer, right?" he said further. "You were doin' that whole show after the battle!"

"T-that is true, yes." She brought her hands to her chest and her eyes to the floor. "Dancing is my pr-profession when I'm not, you know, helping from the sidelines. It wasn't really a show though…"

"Well don't go sellin' yourself short, now!" he said. "That's a mighty fine set of talents ya got there! Who wouldn't wanna do it all the ways you could?"

"Oh-h, thank you…" Olivia now tucked her head, bringing it down to her hands. "C-can we please stop talking about me now? I have to get back to the meeting."

"A meeting?" Donny said. "What for? Is that where the others are?"

"Oh right, you weren't h-here when it s-started." She cleared her throat, "The Shepherds and the Khans should be in the meeting room right now, discussing what to do." Lifting her head, she finally began to look at him. "Y-you're a Shepherd too, right? So maybe I should I lead you there, then?"

"That'd be mighty wonderful of you, Miss!" he agreed, bowing his head in respect.

"L-let's go, then!" Calling him to follow with a hand, the two of them took off. Passing through hallway after hallway, they then climbed up the central stone staircase. Pressing his shoulder on the door in front of him, it creaked slowly as it opened into the massive room and a giant war table where over two dozen people sat and stood around. Two dozen people who all completely went quiet at his entrance, surrounding Basilio, who stood up, looking him in the eyes.

With all the attention on him, Donny stumbled back as he tried to articulate his words, "Oh, uh, hi."

The one-eyed, muscular man before him kept eyeing him down, until finally he scoffed. "Tch, now there's the man of the hour. Welcome to the party."

With a smirk on his face, Basilio left the table andp went to his side, putting his hand down on Donny's shoulder."Come on, kid! Get your butt over to a seat!" He shoved him forward, pushing him over towards where everyone else was.

"Woah—!" Donny said. "Hey!"

"He's back, everyone! Get at him, girl!" Basilio said.

"Bombs away!"

Even as Donny was still recovering, he was then tackled by one-hundred pounds of yellow-green hair and pink shorts. Falling to the ground thanks to being divebombed, there Nowi was, arms wrapped around him and eyes sparkling like twilight.

"You're back!" she said as she threw her hands into the air. "Now you can lose, loser!"

"Oh-hoh!" Olivia giggled, covering her lips as she watched Nowi bombard him.

"Loser—! Gah, what are you going on about?" Donny pressed down on the floor, shuffling himself around so he could at least lift his head to see past the girl attacking him.

"Donny!" Reflet called out from the seat right of Basilio's, waving excitedly.

"Hey dude," Ricken said, boots clicking on the floor as he walked up to him. "Come on, get up. We've been waiting for you."

"Yeah! You've been knocked out for days now, and we didn't know when you'd get up!" Nowi said,

"How long have I been out then?" Donny asked, reaching up and scratching his head. "I can't even tell how long I've been sleeping."

Picking up the clapper-like board in front of her with big, green words reading "April 23rd," Reflet brought it in front of her and clacked it up and down. "Waka-waka."

"Three days! Three whole days, Donny!" Nowi shouted. Reaching down while still on top of him, she grabbed him by the collar and shook him around. "Do you know how long three days is? Do you?!"

"Gwah! N-N-Nowi, s-s-stop it!" Donny was shunted back and forth, as if he were being thrown into a bumpy carriage ride.

"Why dragon girl keep shaking boy? Did Gregor not tell you to stop?" Walking up to them, one half-disapproving look from the old man was enough to grab the attention of Donny and more importantly Nowi, who was now looking up at the giant beside her.

Nowi let go of the boy she was dragon-handling, bringing her hands up to her chest. "...Cause."

Gregor took a deep breath. "Sigh, dragon girls…" Shaking his head, he got down onto his knees and grabbed him by the arm.

"Girls and boy were worried for you. We are happy you are now wide and awake." With Nowi sliding off of Donny, Gregor rose back onto his feet with him in tow. "But you have been playing dangerously with magic. You will risk life by keeping this up."

"I know, but…" Donny looked away, his mind wandering to when he was fighting with all his might against that mage.

"What was I supposed to do? We might've been dead if I didn't go all out. It just ain't right to do that."

"Is dangerous mindset, risking life to save life. But… you have good heart." Gregor lifted his thumb. "Take care of self, and of others around you. There are those who would not like if you went and vanished like ghost from homeland."

"Heh, tell me about that one…" Narrowing his eyes, at least he knew for sure that the ghost tailing him around was at least a good guy. Now, everything else about him…

"If you're all ready and done, then get back to your seats, we got business today!" Basilio walked back over to his seat at the center of the war table, calling the others over to sit as he propped his chin up with the back of his hand.

"And if everyone can quiet down again, then we'll be able to continue." Standing directly opposite from him, Flavia looked behind herself, towards the entrance. "Olivia, you can fill them in, please."

"Oh–um, uh-huh!" The girl scurried over to Basilio's side. With a bow of her head, she began speaking in front of both the Khans and the Shepherds.

"Hello, my name is Olivia, for, um, those who don't know me." She picked her head back up. Clearing her throat and placing her hand to her chest, she continued. "I work for Basilio, and I'm also working alongside you all. At least, in a way…"

Olivia began to avert her eyes away from the crowd, but stopped herself, staring back once more. "But, after the battles you all have been through, the other scouts and I have been able to gather new info. Info that may be of some use to ending this war against Plegia."

"And what would this info be?" Frederick asked.

"That would be, that would be…"

Slowly breathing in, Olivia held the look in her eyes firm. "That would be that there have been mass uproars in Plegia as we speak. The people have been nonstop in protest against the war between them, Ylisse and ourselves."

"Uproars?" Reflet said. She looked up from the maps on the table, turning to Basilio and Olivia next to her. Everyone's eyes were now on them, all ears held on to what they had to say.

"It's as she says," Basilio said. "Looks like the people aren't too happy with everything that happened, and now they're biting back at their leader."

"But… they were all cheering when they were gonna push Emmeryn down," Liz said. "Isn't this what they were asking for?"

"I'd have thought the same," Olivia said. "However it turns out there were less people in support of the war than we thought."

"We really weren't." Tharja agreed. "And don't ask me why he was." She spread her fingers out in front of her, looking at her black polished nails, and at the dancer between them.

"You're saying that there are Plegians who are against the war with Ylisse? So… they don't want it either." Sitting further right of Basilio, Marth pulled her away towards the edge of the table. "What does that mean for us?"

"What of their army, then? Are they divided? How much is in disarray?" Frederick held his hand under his chin, eyes locked on Olivia's.

"It's too soon to discern whether or not the Plegian army has been affected significantly," she responded. "And as for how long this will last or what will come of it, we also can't be sure. But we have confirmed that there are members of Gangrel's army who are refusing to partake in the war. Some have even been sighted joining the very same protests going down."

"Hah-hah-hah!" Basilio's laugh boomed through the room, his smile growing. "We may have taken a nasty loss in that rescue attempt, but Gangrel may be the one who'll crumble first."

"What do you mean?" Reflet said.

"Don't you realize, lassie? If his people keep rebelling against him, he'll run out of dogs to bark his orders at. We'll be able to strike when it hurts, and bring him down before he can regain his pressure!" Basilio finished, slamming his fist down on his palm.

"Oh! So, if there's more protests, he won't be able to fight us!" Reflet said.

"Well alright then!" Donny cheered, swinging his fist. "Looks like the wind is picking up for us! When do we start making moves?"

"If this is all true, then perhaps all is not lost. We may be able to turn this into a victory yet!" Maribelle agreed. Many of the Shepherds began growing loud with excitement over the new development, until a hand brought itself up.

"Hold."

As soon as she spoke, all the voices were cut and quieted.

"I said hold. Let's not get hasty." Bringing her hand back down, Flavia stared back at everyone watching her, a look completely unaffected by everything she'd just heard.

Basilio leaned forward. "Hasty about what? What is it you're playing at, lady?"

"You're going to tell me we should march right back in and strike Gangrel down before he can do something about it," she said. "Am I wrong?"

Basilio straightened himself, looking down at her. "Hmph. So, you're not as dull as I thought you were."

"And you're not as dense as a sack of bricks, but what else is new?" She flippantly flared her hands up, only to put both back down on the table.

"Even with this new info, it's too soon to know how things will play out." Flavia looked down at the outline of Plegia on the war map. "We just got off the heels of two white-hot battles. And while we avoided losing people in our main force, the same can't be said for the ones who actively went and fought with us. We've lost all but one member of Ylisse's flier group, including their commander, and we lost the very person we were trying to rescue. No matter how you cut it, it was a big defeat."

"So what if it was a defeat? It's not like we can just drop what we're doing and give up!" Basilio balled his fist as he continued to argue. "You even just said it, our main force is still in good condition! We'll overrun Gangrel in just enough time!"

"We can't act as hastily as you're demanding," she argued back. "Ferox's army is in good condition, but not fighting condition. We'll have to take at least a week or two before we're ready to join back into the fray."

"And just let an opportunity like this slip through our fingertips?" Basilio said. "If we sit on our laureled behinds, he'll quell any sort of rebellion before long. Don't you realize we need more than just some scout hands on the scene if we're going to make something out of this? We could take a vantage point for ourselves, or hell, even steamroll him outright! We don't have to hold back our army anymore!"

Basilio hardened his stare, not wanting to back away from the matter. "We have a golden shot to make something out of this. We even might have the chance to end this, and you still want to pull back?"

"All that's well and good, but let me ask you something." Flavia brought her elbows to the table and held her hands together, one thumb over the other.

"What's missing from this picture?"

"Ah—" Basilio began to lean forward, before stopping, curling a finger under his lip as he look around. As the silence drew longer, soon it was everyone looking around, none the wiser.

"I'll give you a little hint." Lifting her hand over her head, Flavia pointed straight down at the empty space on her left, to a white-dotted, Chrom Lowell-shaped outline flickering in and out of existence.

"Oh," Basilio said.

"You see my point?" Flavia said, a smug little grin on her face. "The boy isn't here, and that means we can't make any moves even if we tried. Remember, this is our war, but this is their war even more."

Flavia lifted her head and sighed exhaustedly. "Truth be told, I have half a mind to march back there and drop that king off a cliff by the collar myself if it'll shut this war down before we take any further losses. But without him, our hands will be tied if Ferox's army gets wind of his absence. They might not realize it now, but they'd catch on, especially with how hot a commodity a foreign prince who did manage to leave the last tournament's champion bleeding is. And once they do, they're going to start growing restless. Sure, you and I wouldn't, but the same can't be said for some of the more bullheaded ones in our ranks. I doubt they'd fight a war for someone else if they can't trust that country's leaders. That'll only bring us unnecessary trouble."

She looked back down at the map, at the city Gangrel stood in. "But before any of that, we weren't nearly as prepared as we should've been. Our butts were handed to us on silver platters, and all because of an archer and that friend of his who we don't even know the names of. We need to stop and regroup before we face Gangrel again, unless anyone here wants to be the next sorry soul to get shot through the chest without having the chance to see where it came from."

Basilio stared in silence, before thumping his wrist on the table. "Fine," he said, nose huffing like an ox. "I'm not a fool, those are too many points to ignore. But we can't just sit down like this, we need to do something. Anything, lass!"

"Whatever we need, it'll have to be something to hold off on until later." Flavia pushed herself away from the table. "Till then, now's the time to break and rethink."

"I-uh, excuse me," Donny spoke up, nervousness in his voice as he turned to the woman walking away. "I also have a question I'd like to ask. What's happened to Chrom, Ma'am?"

"I think that's something you need to check out for yourself." She turned back around, picking Cordelia out from the crowd. "You're one of his best friends, right? You might as well go and bring the others with you to check on him. Otherwise, we meet back here in an hour."

Flavia left the room, cutting the meeting short and leaving the others on their own. Looking around the room, he saw the nervous looks of Reflet and Lissa, and the worried one from Cordelia.

"Should we go then?" he asked.

Cordelia gave him a short nod, stiff and stilted. "I guess we should." She pushed away from the table, taking him and the others with her out of the meeting room.

She brought her hand up to the door in front of her. Ready to knock, she then curled her hand, pulling herself away.

"We're gonna check on him, right?" Donny said.

"I know, I know," she said, opening her hand as she brought it back to the door. She gave it a knock.

No response.

There was no response last time either. A moment passed, neither did the door open nor did anyone speak. Looking back at those behind her, she grabbed for the handle and pushed.

The door opened without a sound, to a room blue and dim of light except that peeking past the curtains and the hall just outside. Even though they'd only just arrived in the palace, there was barely any sign of someone being here. Completely untouched and void of use.

As they walked to the bed, there laid Chrom atop the blanket, faced towards the wall away from them on his side. Still and silent, he didn't move. He didn't speak.

"Chrom?" Cordelia said, the first to speak.

Chrom didn't so much as lift his head or twist his neck to look at them. The only movement made at all was the twitching of his finger, the one sign that he was alive and, broadly speaking, 'well.'

Donny was the second to speak, walking up to the side of his bed. "Come on now, sir—uh, I mean Chrom. I know you're hurtin' something fierce, but you can't be staying in bed forever. The rest of us are waitin' for ya. You're our leader and all that."

No response. Still, Donny took a seat, trying to look at him past his head.

"You know, when my dad died, I barely had the energy to even so much as hunt for a week. But you know what my ma did? She kept dragging me outside. She tried to do everything just to try and make me smile. Hunting boars, roastin' food on fires with her and grandpa. And you know? It still hurt, but I did end up smiling. And I think if you get out of bed, you might start smilin' yourself."

Still no response from Chrom. Seeing as much, Donny began to frown himself, sighing in response.

"Sorry Chrom, I just hope you get out of this funk."

"I told you, this is why you had to see things for yourself." Flavia strode into the room, arms already crossed. There was a look on her face, one of half-concern, and half-focus.

"Frankly, your leader is in no headspace to waltz back in there and start swinging. And frankly, who'd expect anything else?" She shook her head, then looked to the rest of them. "I won't stop you all from trying to cheer him up. But if he won't get up on his own, I won't force him to make a move yet, either."

The fourth to speak was Liz. She moved to his side, eyes cast down. "Come on, Chrom. I know it hurts, losing Emmy like this. It hurts me too. But you need to get up. You're our leader, and we need you right now."

No response either. Liz moved to the end of the bed, trying to peek at his face. "Come on Chrom… You know you gotta get up. We may not be fighting right now, but we're going to soon, and we can't do it without you."

Marth was now the fifth to speak. Going to him, she held silent for a moment, a quiet gasp escaping her as she chose her words.

"...Chrom, perhaps we may not have known each other for much long, but I am here to say that I've returned, and I am ready to fight for Ylisse's sake once more."

She turned herself away with a disheartened look. "I'd just as much want to grieve over Emmeryn myself. But even if we do so, we must not lose hope. We must still push towards a better future. That is why you must stand. We have a duty to protect our people, and the world itself. So stand, Chrom. Stand so that you may fight once more."

She held onto her own shoulder, holding herself close. "People look up to you. You're a hero to them. And… I would very much like to fight alongside you myself."

Silence. Except it was only now that Chrom did react. A quiet grunt, one they could only hear but not understand.

The sixth to speak was Reflet. Slipping in between the gathering group, Reflet pressed her hands on the bed, leaning close as much as she could.

"Chrom, you gotta get up. We're all waiting on you." She looked him in the eyes, watching the prince lay with limp and lifeless ones.

Chrom cast those eyes at her, muttering something silenced under his breath.

Reflet shuffled around the bed, trying to see his face as clearly as she could. "Plegia might have an opening for us soon. Basilio says we should go back in and do something with it, but Flavia doesn't want to yet. Still, we could use the chance to help win the war… what would you do?"

Chrom only gave her the same response as before, a sound cut by the wind in his lungs as his eyes lifted up.

"—p."

"I don't know what to do, but we gotta do something." Reflet put her hand under her chin and her thumb pressed upon her cheek. "That means you gotta come with us too. Everyone's right, we need you. You're the one who's gonna help us win this."

"—up," he whispered again, turning his head up at her.

"So come out of bed, please?" Reflet said. "I know it's hard, but that's okay! You can still get back up, and together we can fix this!"

Chrom whispered again, loud enough to hear more this time. "Sh— —up."

"And Emmeryn may not be here, but we're still here! We can still work together to end the war! We just need you and the rest of us!"

"Shu— up," Chrom whispered again, his voice more gutteral, growling.

"We may have failed, but we'll keep going and find a way to bring peace to both our countries! It's what she wanted! And we need to be like her!"

"Shut up," he said.

"And I know we couldn't save her, but it's okay! Like Canas said, it really isn't your fault—!"

"I said shut up already!" Chrom swung his arm in front of him, getting up as he yelled in anger.

Reflet stared stunned. Eyes wide and pink, now she was the one who wasn't talking.

"Gods, shut up, Reflet!" he snapped at her, glaring with fury as he clutched his hand over his face.

Cordelia looked down at the prince. She'd never seen him this angry before. This… enraged. The prince was breathing heavy, his scowl hardened, and his eyes locked on the girl who made him snap.

"Chrom…" she called, but Chrom snapped his neck towards her.

"I don't care about anything you're all talking about! I don't care about peace, about what other people think, and about being a hero! Don't bother trying to say anything about Emm! None of you are the ones that died out there!"

Cordelia flinched back, taken back by his words. Donny and Liz looked on in shock and horror as Chrom kept them away with a swipe of the air.

"And you!" He continued, glaring back at the girl in white. "How dare you even try to talk as if you know what she would've wanted? You think you know what she was like? You only knew her for a month, Reflet! Less than that! She was kidnapped longer than you sat next to her!"

"B-b-b-b-b-b… b-b-but." Reflet's breath grew shaky, little pants breaking her voice when she made a swallow, trying to keep her head up.

"But I, I really did mean that," she said. She brought her hand close to her, taking a step forward. "You-you-you-you, you didn't do anything wrong! We knew nothing about that archer or the mage, or even the swordsman Mar-Mar and Ares fought!"

"Don't give me that crap!" he shot. "I was the one who fought those two in the first place! Are you really that naive?"

"No I'm not!" she defended. "How could anyone be at fault though if we didn't know what they could do? None of us could've planned for it!"

"That doesn't change the fact that Emmeryn's dead and we failed to save her!" He shouted louder now, pointing to his chest. "I failed to save her!"

"But you're blaming yourself when you couldn't do anything! What could you have done?"

"Oh-hoh, I couldn't do anything, huh? Well guess what? I'll show you what I could've done right now!" From beside his bed, Chrom reached down and pulled the Queensfang from the ground.

"This! This... goddamn sword!" Chrom slid the blade from its sheath and held it upwards, the white blade shining without a scratch.

"The… the Queensfang?" Reflet asked.

"This damned sword is the proof that I failed to save Emmeryn! All I had to do was just not hold onto it, but I just couldn't give it to Gangrel, could I?"

Looking down at the blade, Chrom stared at himself within its sheen. Then his eyes sharpened, the prince gripping the blade tight.

"Why did I even bother with the damn thing! Grahhh!" Chrom threw the blade to his left, sending it shooting across the room as if it were a stone to toss at a bird.

"No!" Marth cried out, turning around and leaping after the flying white blade. The blade slashed right through the legs of the table at the wall before smashing a hole into the wall itself, lodging itself in a massive crack.

"No...!" Marth whimpered. She yanked the blade out of the wall, falling on her butt when the table gave way, collapsing inches away from her feet with a loud crackle of wood. But Marth paid barely any notice to it, checking panickedly at the hilt of the sword.

"It's fine, okay…" she spoke to herself quietly, wiping it with her own blue shirt. As Marth took care of the Queensfang, the prince stared at the other girl in the room who was frightened.

"Answer this, Reflet. What are the two things you know the Queensfang is capable of?"

"That, that it can turn on fire," she said, breath still weak as she struggled to keep her legs steady. "And, a-a-and…"

"That it can slay a dragon."

Getting up from the ground, Marth turned around, her arms held around the sword like it were a treasure to her.

"Made from one of Naga's fangs and first wielded by Anri, the Queensfang is designed above all else to be the bane of any dragon who faces it. And, as feral versions of wind dragons, that would include… wyverns."

"But that would mean…" Donny reeled himself back. "Oh no, Chrom. You're not saying…"

Liz gave him a look of pained denial. "But we didn't know we'd be…"

"See now how much of an idiot I've been?" he said, cutting them off with a slap to his own head. "There wouldn't have been an execution if I had just protected her during the ambush! If I had just stopped and stayed put like she told me to, I could've taken them all out myself! But I just had to chase him, that bastard Gangrel! That bastard jumped off the cliff when we fought just to fly back and take her with him! He may have been the one to kill her, but I was the one who let her die!"

The rest of the room was silent. Donny's jaw hung and Liz's eyes strained. Cordelia couldn't do more than stare at him, hand half-raised. Flavia still stood, unmoving, but her eyes kept on him. Not a single person moved. Not a single person spoke.

Chrom snapped his eyes back to the girl in front of him. Black flames hid in them, flickering alight.

"Next time you want to say something, don't bother! You know nothing about getting someone killed! So just shut up and get lost!"

"B-b-b… but-but-but…"

She couldn't bring herself to speak, caught on her stutter. Eyes narrowed tight, water began welling in them, flowing over.

"Waaahh!" She wailed loudly. Immediately, she covered her hands over her face, hiding away from the others as she hurried out the room.

"Reflet!" Marth called as she sped past the door. The girl lifted her mask off her face, eyes turning down to Chrom.

"Why are you acting this way?" She turned the rest of her body to face him. "First you throw your sword away, now you're acting like, like this?"

"Don't act like you know anything either! And I don't give a crap about the Queensfang anymore!" Chrom swiped the air again, bringing both fists near his chest. "Let someone else have the accursed thing for all I care!"

His words sent Marth aback, her eyes wide.

"How could you…"

Marth stopped short, looking to Cordelia, Liz and Donny.

"I'm going to go find Reflet," she said. "You all handle things here." She turned to the door. Giving one look at the sword now in her hands, she headed out.

"Sir…" Donny said, head craning towards the bed.

"Just leave me alone." Chrom rolled back onto his side, refusing to look at them.

"No…" Liz whispered.

Donny kept looking down at Chrom, staring silently. His face blank yet sad, he shook his head. "Sorry," he said, leaving. That's when Liz turned around, too, wiping off the scalding hot tears that streamed down her eyes. Then she left.

Flavia began walking towards the door, arms still crossed just as before. Turning around at the wall, she glanced one last time at the prince. Her face had changed, though. Though it was hardly noticeable, there was a scowl.

She left out the door in silence.

Cordelia was the last to stay in the room, all alone with him. Her eyes staring at the prince before her. The prince she'd known since he first crashed his way into her life. The prince who saved her time and time again, who she wanted to save the same way. The prince, the boy, who made the worst kinds of jokes for others laugh and groan at.

The boy who no matter how many years of silence there was between them, was still her friend.

She walked back to the door, turning around one last time to look at him.

"Chrom, this isn't like you," she said.

She left, the door closed halfway. Getting up from the bed, he closed it himself, then went back to bed.

The only one left in the empty, dim room, he laid still. Silent, and unmoving once again, he closed his eyes.

Slipping into darkness...

"I want to be just like him! Can I be a H—?"

"A H—, huh? Hmm, now that is a tall order. Are you sure you're ready for that, Chrom?"