The Empire had declared war on the Church. Edelgard and Hubert had vanished. Classes continued, but everyone had a hard time focusing. Our class's regular study sessions often fell into discussion of what was going to happen, what strategies we could use to win against an attack from the Empire. The Knights of Seiros were called back to the monastery, while the villagers were urged to evacuate and worshippers to stay away. Even the priests and clergymen packed their bags up and left. Everyone who remained was preparing to defend Garreg Mach.

The tension in the air caused my nightmares to worsen. I'd wake up several times throughout the night, fear coursing through my body. When I really couldn't sleep, I'd train in my room until I was exhausted and collapsed on my bed.

"Do you think we'll survive the attack?" Ashe asked in the morning before class. "We're fighting against the Empire… against Edelgard."

Dimitri rested his chin in his hand. "I've tried to call in reinforcements, but I don't think they'll arrive in time."

"I don't like having to fight Edelgard," Annette said, staring down at the floor. A few of us nodded. After classes that day, I went to Abyss and found the Ashen Wolves were in their classroom. Yuri smiled when our eyes met.

"Are you all going to help?" I asked. I had a feeling I knew what the answer was.

"Of course," Balthus said. "Lady Rhea said she'd pay me."

Constance wasn't as certain. "If it was an offer to fight on Lady Edelgard's side and restore my family's honor…" Constance stared off into the distance, while Hapi shook her head.

"The Church has never done anything for me," Hapi said. "I say, good riddance."

"But it's not about defending the Church," I said, frowning. "It's about defending the monastery, Abyss, your home."

Hapi and Constance exchanged glances.

"Wouldn't the Empire leave us alone though?" Hapi asked.

"Yeah, Abyss has remained separate from the surface world for hundreds of years," Constance said. "We'll be fine."

I looked at Yuri, who shook his head. "I understand," I said. Yuri followed me outside the classroom. If I was my brother, would I have been able to convince them?

"You look tired," Yuri said. We were walking to Rose's house.

"We're going to war, Yuri." I clenched my hands into fists and looked at him. "Aren't you scared?"

He looked at the stone bridge we were crossing. "I am." His steps slowed, until we had stopped in the middle of the bridge. "I'm scared of losing you. Again."

"I'll be careful," I said.

"I know." He smiled. "And I'll be on the battlefield right beside you." We held hands the rest of the way to Rose's house. Yuri and I both tried to convince Rose to evacuate. We weren't sure what might happen to Abyss if the Empire took over Garreg Mach.

"You two are staying, aren't you?" she asked. Yuri and I nodded. Rose crossed her arms. "Then so am I."

"But Mother-" Yuri said.

"This is my choice, Yuri," Rose said, shaking her head. "You two are going to be on the battlefield. The least I can do is help heal those injured."

"Fine." He sighed.

I tapped his arm. "Rose will be fine."

Rose grinned, leaning her elbow on the dining table. "Yes, I will."

Yuri walked me all the way back to my dorm room. There was a half moon in the sky. We were quiet until we reached my room.

"You didn't have to walk all the way with me," I said.

"Well, I was thinking of staying the night." Yuri leaned in the doorway, while I struck a match inside.

"Are you sure?" I lit the lantern. He stepped into the room and closed the door.

"If you don't mind." Yuri walked up to me and smiled. The dim glow of the lanterns casted dancing shadows on his face.

"I don't." I shrugged and stretched my arms over my head. "I'm going to take a bath first. Do you have your pajamas?"

"Yeah, I still have some clothes left here."

After a nice, warm bath and changing into my pajamas, I curled up with Yuri in the bed. It was so much warmer having him here. He could probably tell that I wasn't sleeping well and thought this might help me sleep better. He wasn't wrong.

"Do you have enough room?" I asked him in the darkness.

"Yeah," Yuri said. His voice was a soft whisper. "Are you still having nightmares?"

I rolled onto my side to face him. "Sometimes." He was quiet. There was the faint sound of wind rushing by outside. "Hey, Yuri, if there's anything I can do for you, let me know."

"Anything?" he said. I could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"Within reason." I smiled.

"I'll think about it." His hand brushed my hair back. "Good night, Byleth."

"Good night."

Seteth announced that they were expecting the Empire's forces to arrive in a week. It was the last chance for people to evacuate, if they wished to. Most of the town had emptied. It was eerie walking in for shopping duty. The streets that were once crowded with people were empty and quiet. Only the merchants were left, and they were packing their belongings up too. On what would be the last day of classes, I found Byleth waiting outside of the Blue Lions classroom. He looked at me, and I quietly followed him.

"What is it?" I asked. "Do you have a plan to stop this?"

I couldn't tell where Byleth was going. We'd passed the bridge to the cathedral. Then Byleth turned down some steps, and I knew where he was going. Our mother's grave. Sitri.

"I know I said I wouldn't ask you for any more favors," Byleth said, quietly, gazing down at our mother's tombstone.

"But?" I smiled.

Byleth smiled back, but his green eyes were dark. "But I'd like to ask you for one more."

"I'm listening."

"After tomorrow…" Byleth stared at the sky. "I left you some information."

"Left? Where?"

Byleth looked at me again. "In your room. I left a notebook."

I raised my eyebrows. "You put something in my room without me knowing?"

Byleth nodded. "But don't look for it until after the battle tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Because," Byleth said. His voice trailed off, before he shook his head. "Please, trust me. After you read everything, you can decide what you want to do, but don't share that information with anyone."

"All right." Was it what he knew about the future? Or how he knew so much about the future?

Byleth nodded at me. "Take care, my sister."

Then he walked past me and up the stairs. I spun around and followed him. Why did he sound like he was leaving? Leaving for good? I'd reached the top of the stairs and saw Byleth had broken into a sprint. What in the world? And just like that, Byleth disappeared around a corner.

I sighed and headed towards my room. I had to prepare for battle.

The Knights of Seiros were at the monastery gates. The Blue Lions and Golden Deer classes were in the entrance way, with Lady Rhea and Catherine behind us. The Black Eagles class… was marching with the Empire to attack us.

I stood beside my classmates and Yuri, and we watched as rows and rows of soldiers flooded into the town. And leading the attack was Byleth, my twin brother. Yuri squeezed my hand and smiled. "Think you can talk your brother out of this?"

I didn't understand why Byleth was on the front lines. Byleth was the reason the rest of the Black Eagles students were right behind him. I swallowed. "Might have to knock some sense into him," I said.

The Knights were engaging with the Empire soldiers, but the numbers weren't looking good.

"Let's go help them," Dimitri said, stepping in front of my class. "Come on!"

Dimitri and Claude both led their respective classes, and we moved forward to fight off the soldiers. There were a lot of them. After knocking one down, I'd find another one had stepped forward to replace them. I dodged most of their counterattacks, but a few managed to strike my arm or leg.

"Byleth!" Mercedes said from somewhere behind me. "Should I heal you?"

"No!" I yelled back. "Yuri will."

Yuri glanced in my direction. He was busy fighting another soldier. "Give me a second," Yuri said.

"Take your time," I called back, as I slashed another soldier in the stomach. I'd lost count of how many soldiers I'd stabbed when Byleth appeared in front of me. Our swords met with a loud clang. "What are you doing?" I said.

"What I have to," Byleth said. We both took a step back. Byleth wasn't using his Sword of the Creator. He swung his iron sword at me again, and I blocked.

"But why?" I glared at him. "Isn't there a better way? Do we really need to fight this war? For what?"

Byleth struck my sword, knocking me off balance. I stumbled back. "It's complicated," he said.

"Then the information you left me… Will that explain everything?" I swung at him, but Byleth dodged.

"It might." He swung back. I barely dodged in time. He was going easy on me. With Byleth on their side, and Edelgard's strength, they would surely win. The Empire's soldiers greatly outnumbered the Church's knights.

"But Jeralt is still here," I said. Byleth nodded. His sword came down lightning fast. I barely blocked it. I gritted my teeth, digging my heels into the ground.

"Byleth!" Yuri was calling for me. I could feel his healing magic envelope me. "Need help?"

"No, I've got this!" I aimed for Byleth's leg, and he stepped back to dodge. Then I attacked his torso. Byleth blocked, but it was weak. He was off-balance. I stepped closer and managed to land a hit on his shoulder.

Byleth grunted. He dashed out of my range. He'd lowered his sword. It was the perfect opportunity. I leaped at him, slashing his chest. Byleth's eyes narrowed, and he cut my right arm. Ouch.

A dark shadow flew past us. Byleth and I both looked up and saw a dragon soaring through the air. The dragon landed down in the town and raked the Empire soldiers, tossing them into the air.

"Already?" Byleth said in a murmur. He was distracted. I swung my sword at him, and Byleth dodged.

"I'm right here," I said. He parried each of my attacks. We could hear the dragon roaring. Byleth blocked my next attack. I had to keep up the momentum to keep him on his toes. One strike after the next.

He was open. I could stab him in the stomach, like I'd done to all the other soldiers before him. But in that split moment, I hesitated. I couldn't do it. But Byleth could. He saw me pause. The next second, he'd regained his balance and plunged his sword through my stomach.

I coughed out blood, gasping for air. My vision flashed red, and dark spots appeared. Byleth pulled his sword back out, dripping with blood.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Hurry up and retreat, Byleth."

Retreat? Footsteps approached behind him. Edelgard appeared beside him and nodded. Ah, so that was why Byleth came to fight me.

"Byleth!" Yuri was running to me.

Even though I hated fighting him...

Yuri grabbed my arm. "Come on. Let's get you out of here," he said. Rhea had given us explicit instructions to retreat if we couldn't fight anymore.

"I'm not done yet," I said, looking Yuri in the eye. "Heal me, please."

Yuri was already pulling me away from the front lines. "I'm low on healing magic," he told me, but he was healing me. "Besides… take a look yourself."

We went up the stairs towards the cafeteria. From here, we had a good view of the battle field. The Empire was nearing the entrance. They'd be inside the monastery soon. I glanced back to see where Rhea and Catherine were, but Rhea had disappeared. Catherine was fighting the soldiers at the front lines.

The two classes were scattered, all fighting whoever they could see.

"We're a mess," I said. We were poorly organized. People were fighting beside those they were close to, but this led to an imbalance of power. For example, Dimitri and Dedue were fighting on the right side. Marianne and Lysithea, both mages, were stuck in the middle. In comparison, the Empire had neat lines of soldiers, separated into groups with a mix of archers, mages, and soldiers.

"What are you thinking?" Yuri asked, squeezing my hand. The bleeding had stopped. My head was clearing.

"I'm thinking someone needs to lead our side," I said.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Yuri smirked at me and drew out his sword. "Tell me where I should go."

So I stood at the top of the stairs and raised my voice as loud as I could. "Everyone! Listen up!"

Some people turned their heads to look at me, as I started giving out orders. I had the mages split up to help the soldiers out. I had Dedue, Dimitri, Rapheal, and Hilda spread out too, since they could take more attacks, and reinforced them with other strong soldiers, like Ingrid, Felix, Leonie, and Lorenz.

The Church knights were uninterested in my orders, but that was fine. Catherine was plowing through the soldiers like she was harvesting wheat. Once my classmates were reorganized, I picked up my sword again and joined their ranks.

"We're not letting the monastery fall!" I said, stepping up beside Hilda, Felix, Lysithea, and Ashe. "If we work together, we can do this."

Edelgard and Dimitri were clashing in the center. Hilda and I helped push back another wave of soldiers. The Black Eagle students took up the front lines, with Byleth commanding them.

"Ahhh! I'm sorry!" Bernadetta screamed while firing arrows at us.

It was like the mock battles all over again.

We were at a stalemate, when Edelgard yelled, "Professor!" I took a step back to assess the situation. Byleth had vanished from the battlefield. The dragon was still wreaking havoc on the soldiers in the town. Everyone was exhausted, and the sun was setting on the horizon.

With Byleth gone, that gave us the upperhand. I sent mages near Dimitri to help fight Edelgard. If we could remove the Emperor from the battlefield too…

Seteth ran up to me from behind. "Byleth, we're retreating."

"What?" I said. "But-"

"Lady Rhea's orders." Seteth shook his head. "This is our chance to leave."

Now? When we could potentially turn the tide of this battle?

Seteth raised his voice and called out to the others. "We're retreating!"

Everyone glanced back to look at us and nodded. People began backing up. I drew out my bow and fired arrows at the Empire soldiers to buy people some time.

"Go, go!" Seteth waved people past him, while holding onto his lance. "Lady Rhea will lead everyone out of here."

I checked behind me but saw no sign of Rhea. The dragon was flying away from the town, blasting the soldiers with a blaze of fire magic. Yuri rushed up the steps to me and grabbed my hand.

"Come on, Byleth," he said.

"Wait-" I said, but he was tugging me away. "But I was going to-"

We joined the crowd of students running. The Church knights were the only ones remaining, holding the Empire soldiers off. Ah… were they sacrificing the knights to protect the students? I suppose my classmates were mostly Kingdom and Alliance nobility.

We'd entered the Great Hall when I remembered Byleth's words.

"Wait!" I yanked my hand out of Yuri's and stopped in my tracks. "There's something I need to grab before we leave."

"Where?" Yuri looked at me.

"My room," I said. Did I still trust Byleth? What if his "last favor" was actually a trap? How did I know there actually was information waiting for me there?

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Yuri pulled me along towards the dorms.

"But-"

"But what?"

"What if-?" I was gasping for air. We were approaching my room. Ah, forget it. If I didn't find anything in five minutes, then we'd leave.

I shoved the door open with a loud bang. A notebook. I shuffled through my textbooks and notes. A notebook. I opened the drawers of the desk. There were a few blank notebooks. I leafed through them. Nothing.

Then, I found one that was slightly thicker than my blank notebooks. I opened it. The pages were filled with ink and some drawings. This! It wasn't my handwriting, or Yuri's, or anyone's I knew of. There was a sealed envelope in the middle. I broke the seal and pulled the letter inside out.

"Did you find it?" Yuri was standing guard in the doorway.

I skimmed through the first few lines of the letter and the signature at the bottom. Byleth. I folded the letter, cramming it back into the notebook, then stuffed the notebook into my shirt.

"Yes, let's go," I said, grabbing Yuri's hand. We ran back to the Great Hall. Catherine was ushering a few Knights.

"There you are," Catherine said. Her eyes lit up when she saw us. "Hurry! Follow the others. We're taking a secret tunnel out."

Yuri and I exchanged glances. A secret tunnel. It was probably related to Abyss. We caught up to the others and joined them in a dark tunnel. Lady Rhea was near the front, holding onto Flayn's arm. A few Knights stood beside her with torches illuminating our path.

"Where's Rose?" I tried to scan the crowd of people. I could see Professor Manuela and Hanneman, the gardener, and Cyril. There were a few of the nurses in the crowd too.

"Byleth? Yuri!" A familiar voice was calling out for us.

"Rose! Back here." I waved my hand in the air.

Rose pushed through the crowd of people until she found us. "Oh, thank the Goddess you two are all right. I was worried when I didn't see you with the others." She reached for my face and patted my cheek, before touching Yuri's hand too.

"We're all right, Mother," Yuri said with a smile.

The tunnel was different from the ones I usually took to go to Abyss. It was steeper, and the further we walked, the narrower the path became.

"Should we go with the others to the Kingdom?" Rose asked.

"Is that the plan?" I said.

"Prince Dimitri's offered a place for Lady Rhea in Fhirdiad," Rose told us. "Of course, he said we could all go with him."

"I see," I said.

"You two should go," Yuri said.

"What do you mean you two?" Rose and I both said at the same time.

"I can't leave Abyss," he said.

"Yes, you can," I said.

"I mean, I can't abandon Abyss. Not the people here. We don't know what the Empire has planned for them."

"But that could put you in danger," Rose said.

"Then I'll stay too," I said.

"No." Yuri shook his head. "Mother, it's too dangerous for you here. You should find somewhere new to live. I should never have tried to convince you to move to Abyss in the first place. It was reckless and-"

"Well if Byleth is staying-" Rose said.

"Byleth isn't staying," Yuri said and looked me in the eye. "Because you'll make sure Mother gets to Fhirdiad safely and has a place to stay there."

I narrowed my eyes at him, before looking away. Of course he would do this. There was no way I'd leave Rose alone in some city, even if I did trust my classmates. Did I trust my classmates? I wrapped my arms around me. I'd thought I could trust Byleth. I smiled to myself, humorlessly. How many times did I have to be betrayed before learning my lesson? There were only two people in this world I could trust and that was Yuri and Rose.

"Fine," I said. "But once Rose is safe in Fhirdiad, I'm coming back for you."

"Hey now, why don't I get a say in this?" Rose said.

"Mother, you're not fit for war," Yuri said.

She sighed. "I know, but I don't want either of you involved in this either."

I avoided her gaze. "I don't think we have a choice."

It was a long trek. When we finally left the tunnels, and stepped back outside, the sky was dark, and the stars were sparkling above us. People split up into two groups: one heading for the Kingdom and another for the Alliance.

"Hey pal, are you going to the Kingdom?" Balthus came up to Yuri.

"Actually, I'm staying," Yuri said with a shake of his head.

"Oh really?" Balthus scratched his head. "Maybe I should stay too then. Constance and Hapi are still in Abyss."

"Did Hilda offer you a place?" Yuri asked.

"Yeah, said Holst could probably figure something out for me. But I'll have to work for them."

"Best of luck to you, my friend." Yuri held his hand out, but instead of taking it, Balthus threw his arms around him in a hug. Yuri patted Balthus's back with a chuckle.

"I'll be back!" Balthus said, letting Yuri go. "Abyss is my home, after all!"

They were chatting a bit more, when Jeralt walked over to me. "There you are, kiddo. Glad you made it out," he said. "Do you know where you're going?"

"The Kingdom," I said.

Jeralt smiled. "That's good. I was worried I'd have to tell Lady Rhea that I was quitting." Quitting? Did that mean Jeralt would have gone to whichever country I'd chosen? Jeralt sighed. "Look, Byleth, I want to be there for you, since I wasn't able to."

"Thanks." I smiled. Maybe Jeralt could help look out for Rose.

Seteth was keeping count of who was going in which group, so they could divy up the supplies evenly. He stepped up to us. "3 for the Kingdom?" he asked.

"Just two," Rose said.

"All right." Seteth wrote something down on a notebook he had and moved to the group of knights behind us. Rose and I looked at Yuri. It was time for goodbye.

We hugged each other. Yuri kissed me on the forehead and kissed Rose on the cheek. "I love you two," he said and smirked.

"Love you too," we both said in unison. I gave Yuri's hand one final squeeze, before we let go.

"Take care," Yuri said with a wave. We waved back. Then Yuri turned and headed for the tunnels. We watched him disappear.

Thanks for reading! :)