Chapter II: From Darkness

Ragna and Chrom's small group of Sheppard's made their ways through the forest, all of them on their way to the capital. Night had started to fall over the country side, but that wasn't going to be a problem for Ragna. As his world's most wanted criminal, he was already used to traveling under the cover of night, so even with one eye he was able to make his way without a problem through the darkened forest.

"*Huff*… *Huff*… Ragna… slow down!" the Reaper heard Lissa call. He glanced behind him and saw that Chrom, Fredrick, and Lissa were already starting to fall behind. He sighed as he slumped against a nearby tree. It didn't take long for them to catch up, but when they did Lissa sagged to her knees and continue panting.

"Sorry about that," Ragna said simply.

Chrom gave Ragna an awkward smile; though he was clearly in better shape than Lissa, he was already covered in sweat. "I think we should stop for the night; we don't want to get lost in the darkness."

"No arguments there," Ragna agreed, even though he wouldn't be the one to get lost. "I'll go grab some firewood, anyone want to come with me?"

"I'll go with Fredrick and see if we can find some game to eat," Chrom responded. "Lissa, go help Ragna gather some firewood, alright?"

"…Okay," Lissa nodded as she made her way to her feet.

Chrom and Fredrick made their way one direction while Ragna and Lissa went the opposite way.

"I'll grab the larger logs, you see if you can find some kindling," Ragna told his companion.

"Hey, I'm capable of taking some of the large logs too!" Lissa declared. She then spotted a decently sized log and attempted to pick it up. It didn't budge. She huffed as she tried with all of the strength to lift the damn thing, but to no avail. "Stupid LOG!" Lissa shouted as she kicked it. Her face tensed as she made contact with it. She held her foot and groaned in pain.

"You alright?" Ragna asked.

"Stop treating me like I'm fragile!" Lissa glared at the Reaper. Ragna sighed.

"Looks like your fine," he said simply. "Nice work finding the log though." He lifted the log up with his one good arm like it was nothing.

"Ugh!" Lissa vented as she proceeded to grab some kindling. "Let's go!" With that the young maiden stomped off back to the campsite.

'Was it something I said?' the Reaper thought to himself, as he followed to fuming Lissa.

When they arrived back at the campsite Fredrick and Chrom hadn't returned yet so Ragna started grabbing rocks to make a fire ring. Once that was done, he used one of the matches he'd kept in his coat for emergencies. With the fire started he turned his attention to Lissa, who'd had her back turned to him the entire time.

"Look, if I said something back there to make you upset I'm sorry, all right?"

Lissa looked back at Ragna and continued glaring at him, before sighing. "No… you didn't do anything. It's just… frustrating."

"What do you mean?" the Grim Reaper asked as he began to stroke the fire.

"It's that… I see Chrom and Fredrick on the front lines all the time, giving it their all, but where am I. I'm at the back, healing them and trying not to hold them back. I just want to prove I can stand by myself, I don't need anyone to coddle me."

'Shit,' Ragna thought to himself. 'I'm really not good with this sort of stuff... but I can't just say nothing and let her fume.' "And you're saying you don't give it your all?"

"Of course I-!"

"Then consider this, how many times have you had to heal those two after a fight?"

Lissa thought to herself for a moment. "I lost count, but well over twenty times, why?"

"You're their healer," Ragna explained. "You're doing what you're supposed to. Sure it may not be the most glamorous part of the team, but it's one of the most necessary. It's no overstatement that the team owes all of their victories in a large part to you. You have your part to play to them, so play it. Chrom's good at swinging a sword; you're good at making sure he's fit to do it. No one's coddling you, their making sure you're able to do the job to the best of your ability, just like what you're doing."

Lissa was surprised at Ragna's views; she'd seen him as more of a front line warrior, not a philosopher. "I… I've never thought about it that way… I guess you're right; I just need to stick with what I've been doing all along." She smiled. "You're a lot nicer than you look, thanks Ragna."

Ragna scoffed. "I've heard THAT way to many times before… but you're welcome."

A few minutes later Fredrick and Chrom returned with a freshly slain bear. Over the campfire dinner Lissa complained about how her food smelled like boots, Chrom tried to convince her that it was just meat, and Fredrick tried not to have any claiming 'he had a big lunch.' Ragna gave a small smile, he could get used to this.

*Time Skip*

It was late at night when Chrom's voice woke Ragna from his sleep. "It's just a strange feeling I'm getting. Go back to sleep."

"Now way, I'm going with you," Lissa's voice said.

Chrom sighed. "Fine, but don't wake the others."

"Kinda late for that," Ragna said, making his way to his feet.

"Sorry if I woke you," Chrom said to his new friend. Ragna waved it off.

"I'm a light sleeper. Let's wake Fredrick and check it out."

The four later traveled the woods in relative darkness, each of them searching for whatever was giving Chrom the strange feeling. After a while, Fredrick who was riding on horseback decided to speak up. "Milord, there's no sign of anything unusual, might it have been your imagination?"

"I guess that's all it was," Chrom admitted, sighing. "Sorry about this everyone, let's get some rest."

"…It's too quite," Ragna stated. Everyone observed and found that the Reaper was right; no birds chirping, no insects buzzing, absolutely nothing. "Wait…"

Suddenly the very ground beneath them shook with tremendous force. The four struggled as the saw the tree's start to quickly fall behind them.

"RUN!" Chrom shouted. The group needed no further motivation and took off. Behind them a wall of lava emerged from where the ground had been split in two, send out massive fire balls. Another shock wave was emitted knocking Lissa off her feet.

Chrom was about to call out her name, but Ragna fearlessly sprinted back to her, avoiding a fireball. Using his good arm he hefted her over his shoulder like a sack of flour and took off running. When he caught up with Chrom and Fredrick, the two gave him the strangest looks he'd seen.

"Oh, GROW UP! I'm saving her life here!"

After a moment, the vibrations ceased. Ragna set Lissa on her feet. She hastily thanked Ragna while her face was crimson. Ragna gave a sigh of relief. Looks like I'm capable of saving someone after all.

"Milord!" Fredrick yelled. There was a massive concentration of magic in the air, and there was something dropping from it; dark corpse like figures that held weapons. They charged at the group, not hesitating for a moment.

Chrom guarded against an axe wielder while Fredrick slew the fiend on his lance, the figure dissolved into a dark mist. A lance wilder charged Ragna and Lissa, the Reaper simply deflected the attack with Blood-Scythe before impaling it on the blade. The creature gave a death shout from upon the blade, Ragna simply impaled it further.

The creature gave a pathetic groan as it dissolved into shadows… only the shadows didn't fade. They went straight into Ragna's right arm, the BlazBlue.

"What the-?" the Reaper shouted as his arm gave a small pulse. In that moment, he could feel it and move it again. Hesitantly, he tried to open his right eye. The eye opened without a problem, showing the blood-red iris.

"What's going on?" Chrom asked Ragna, his eyes narrowed. "Are you tied to these things somehow?"

"I doubt it. They're not wearing a style of amour I'm familiar with back home. If anything, they look like they're from here. No clue about my arm though." Are these things made out of Sethir? Ragna's thoughts were interrupted as more of the things made their way out of the trees. "They're showing up too randomly! Chrom go with Fredrick to the left flank; I'll take the right with Lissa! And stay away from the bushes!"

Chrom nodded as he and Fredrick proceeded to charge the creatures. Chrom slashed one across the body before turning and impaling one behind him. Fredrick himself was making himself useful by riding around Chrom and preventing most of the risen from getting through while impaling one when the change presented itself.

Now that Ragna had both of his arms he was a DEMON in combat. He combined his sword slashes with unarmed strikes to maximize his kill count. He may have just gotten his arm back, but he was killing more risen than Fredrick and Chrom put together, and each one's residual energy was being absorbed by his BlazBlue.

"Captain Chrom! We- THE HELL?!" a curt female voice yelled from horseback when she saw Ragna fighting of his hoard of risen by himself.

"My, my. Seems you know quite the frightening individual my dear Sully," a flowery masculine voice followed.

"First time seeing him, so I don't know jack! And can it with the 'dear' shit ruffles!"

Even in combat, Ragna had to sigh then. Great, I found this worlds' Kagura.

Within a few minutes, the entire hoard of risen had been wiped out. "What are you doing here Sully?" Chrom asked the woman.

"I was on patrol when I got followed by ruffles here. The idiot kept shouting crap about destiny, searching the ends of the earth, and never letting me get away."

Yep, definitely Kagura, Ragna thought. Except now, he's French.

"Since he wasn't listening to me I decided to let my foot do the talkin'." Ragna chuckled in approval. "Shortly after that, those things showed up… and after that we were helped out by this strange guy in blue that left after they were gone. 'Called himself Marth."

The name startled Chrom. "Marth, as in the Hero King of legend?"

"Yeah," Sully admitted. "I was surprised too, but he fought like nothing I've seen before… until I met this guy!" she gestured at Ragna. "What the hell did you have to do to fight like that?"

Ragna chuckled. "Simple, find the most powerful being in the world and become his apprentice for a decade. I'm Ragna by the way." He held out his hand and Sully shook it.

"Name's Sully, I'm a knight for the Sheppard's.

"And I," 'ruffles' began, "Am Virion. The archest of archers and the sharpest of sni-"

"We get it," Ragna groaned. "You can use a bow, no need to shower yourself in titles."

"As interesting as this has been," Fredrick said. "I think it's high time we made our way back to the capital. The sun will be up soon."

Everyone nodded as they headed out. But before leaving, Ragna looked back at a risen who'd finished dissolving, but the shadows were still there. He made his way over to the spot and the shadows were again absorbed into his right arm.

This stuff ain't Seither, but my BlazBlue still draws off of it and can be powered by it. Either the two are compatible, or the Boundary messed me up more than I thought. I should kill more of those things if I come across them, I should also see if I can train myself to minimize the usage of Seither.

Ragna sighed as he made his way to catch up with the others. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.

*Ylisstol*

"So this is the capital," Ragna stated as they walk through Ylisstol. "Looks like they haven't been affected by any of what we went through yet."

"Yes," Fredrick agreed. "I suppose we've that to be thankful for."

"The Exalt is greeting us," an elderly gentleman called out. Ragna turned and saw a woman in green robes being escorted by several guards. She seemed benevolent in nature and gave the crowd a warm smile and a friendly wave.

So the leader of the kingdom thinks it's safe to walk through the crowd, and she gives them all a calm and soothing presence. That couldn't be any more different from the Imperator… Saya. He shook his head. No, what's done is done; I can't mope around like this.

"You seem interested in the Exalt," Lissa noticed standing beside Ragna.

"She just seems to bring this calm feeling, just her being here makes feel at peace."

Lissa nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean." A thought crossed her mind and she grinned. "I can help you meet her if you want."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Lissa said smirking. "I'm sure my big sis would love to meet you."

Sadly, this didn't have the shocking impact on Ragna that she'd wanted. "Oh, so that makes you royalty, huh? 'Could've fooled me."

"Hey!" Lissa yelled slapping his arm. "Meanie…"

Chrom chuckled at the two and even Fredrick had to crack a small grin. "They're quite the pair aren't they?"

"I won't deny it."

"We can both hear you," Ragna decided to remind him.

"Oh, we're well aware," Chrom responded laughing. "Ready to meet the Exalt?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ragna responded. "Lead on Princy.

Author's Note: I don't own BlazBlue or Fire Emblem.

Well, chapter 2 was more of a setup more than anything else. There haven't been any Support Convo's yet just so you all know. If one does come up I'll be sure to announce it.

As the war with Plegia begins, it seems like I've created another war; a shipping war. I know you all have an idea of who to pair Ragna with and I love the enthusiasm, but give the support conversations a chance, they could tide you over in the end.

Anyways, this chapter was off schedule, I just ended up doing it cause I felt like it. Rate, review, and I'll see you next chapter.

Ciao!