The Dark Executioner
A Fire Emblem and NCS Adventure
Chapter 5: Return to Ilia and Facing Your Fears
By: Davis(Davis3 on FFN)
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or any of the official characters but I do own Amber(the Rogue Pegasus Knight) and Dark Warrior(aka the Dark Executioner)
Dark Warrior wasted no time leaving the castle and making his way towards the front gate of Pherae. The guards were no where to be seen for they all been called back to the castle to attend on Eliwood. " Such fools they are, caring for such a weak child as Eliwood….but I must concur for with him injured, my escape is without opposition and the hunt continues with much more on the line. This map will prove most useful to me in the future when this current mission is complete. That lordling proved to be quite the gambler, but I had him under my power when I gave him that wound. Oh, he will no doubt live to see another day, for why kill a man when he will serve you another purpose at a later time….now, where are those sisters now? Their tracks show them heading northwest, no doubt going back the same way they took to get here. Unbeknownst to the lordling was the fact that I also obtained a map of Lycia in addition to the map of Ostia. With this map, I can take a different route and cut them off." He got upon his horse and urged it to ride to north.
" Do you believe what Lord Eliwood said about this Dark Warrior?" Florina asked.
" Is that still on your mind sister?" asked Fiora.
" Very much so. I mean, we've battled the Black Fang and most of them were murders and morphs, but this assassin, this Dark Warrior. He seems much worse than they were….but what I don't understand is why would he want to come after us? What did we ever do to him?" Florina asked.
" Remember what Lord Eliwood said to us about that. He said that the warrior was working for someone who wants us all dead, but the question that now remains is who put him up to it," answered Fiora.
" It has to be someone we know," began Farina.
" I won't believe anything if Lyn is named the culprit!" shouted Florina.
" I'm not saying that it was one of our guys in the army we were in against the Black Fang sis. It has to be someone else we know, or rather we used to know," said Farina.
" There are a lot of people who know us," said Florina.
" With one of them being the one that hired this man to do us in. And I bet he's getting a better paycheck than we are with this mission!" moaned Farina.
" This isn't about money!" Florina shouted.
" I know that! I just thought I'd mention it," said Farina. Florina gave her a cold glare that sent chills down her spine. " Anyway, back to the business at hand. If someone did hire him and that someone is a person that we know….who would it be?"
" Someone special?" Florina asked.
" Maybe….or maybe the person is out for revenge. That is usually why people hire assassins or do the job themselves; in order to get revenge on a person….or a country," replied Farina.
" That does make sense," said Fiora.
" Our assassin wants revenge on Ilia?" Florina asked.
" If you mean Dark Warrior, then no….not him anyway. He has nothing against Ilia or us for he is only doing his job….something that I like in a man, but that's just me. Fiora....now that I'm talking about it, what was it that you were reading earlier?" asked Farina. As they flew nearer towards the border between Lycia and Ilia, Fiora mentioned about the book in question and what it contained.
" And that's it."
" Would've expected much more details," commented Farina.
" Why ask me about it?" asked Fiora.
" That Amber girl that got kicked out of Ilia. I remember her now, bright kid, had a great future ahead of her, until all that other stuff happened. Whatever happened to her after she left Ilia with her Pegasus?" asked Farina.
" No one knows where she went. It's as though she disappeared off the face of Elibe for she was known everywhere and that didn't help her reputation, but she must have been thankful for not having her face recognized outside of Ilia," answered Fiora.
" If I was in her shoes, I'd have been furious over how I had been treated and planned a revenge of sorts." Farina shouted. At that moment, things began to click for the three sisters and now everything had fallen in place. They had just figured out who sent Dark Warrior after them, and without even realizing it. All they needed was a reminder of the book Fiora had read, but they weren't entirely sure if Amber was the guilty one or not.
" It makes sense now," said Fiora.
" About Amber?" asked Farina.
" What you said about wanting to get revenge if you were in shoes makes everything that has happened to us add up and leading to her being involved. But, I still can't be certain if she is the one who hired our assassin," replied Fiora. As they flew across the mountains that signaled the border between Lycia and Ilia, Florina saw something from the corner of her eye and stopped to get a better look at it.
" Why did you stop sis? We have a mission to complete and a paycheck to earn!" Farina moaned impatiently.
" I saw something that didn't seem to fit in place with our surroundings," answered Florina.
" Nothing could be out of place around here!" Farina moaned.
" Except for that tent," said Fiora as she too caught a glimpse of it. Hidden almost from view was a small brown tent with a tiny red flag flying on the top. The brown colour showed it was meant to be camouflaged among the mountains.
" A tent? And right by the border," said Florina.
" Could this be where Amber has been residing for all these years?" asked Fiora.
" If that is the case, then this has got to be the most ridiculous place you'd want to hide….although quite convenient," answered Farina. The sisters landed nearby and walked up towards the tent and decided to take a peek inside. As soon as they did so, they stood as cold as ice as to what they were looking at.
" What took you so long to get here?"
" You're not Amber!" Fiora exclaimed.
" No, I am not that child. I am Dark Warrior, known far and wide as the "Dark Executioner" of legend. So, you finally meet me, face to face and I almost didn't think you'd make it back here in one piece. The way you all look right now is priceless….and I can sense the fear dripping down from your foreheads. I am aware that the lordling Eliwood has mentioned me to you in order to give you a warning. It is a shame that he too, knew very little about me, much like Amber and you three."
" You are Dark Warrior?" asked Farina.
" At your service," answered Dark Warrior as he rose from his seat. " I got here at least a few minutes before you did and decided to greet my victims personally. It took me a long time to track you down, but it was worth the effort. I have been following you ever since you started your pathetic journey, and to make my mission that much more enjoyable, I subjected you to mental attacks that made you lose your minds. Ah, the human mind of these modern times….so frail, so cluttered with your personal lives….so easy to manipulate. My Silver Axe and Demon Axe were the perfect tools with which to strike fear into you," answered Dark Warrior.
" That was you?" asked Farina.
" All of it," answered Dark Warrior.
" Then you saw us…." Farina began.
" No….not that, so you don't have to worry about that, in addition to your futures for they are about to end by the blade of my axes….all of them!" Dark Warrior picked up his Silver Axe and ran his finger across it. " I must admit one thing though. The three of you are perhaps my most interesting prey that I have ever hunted."
" Why do this to us? What have we done to you?" asked Fiora.
" You have done nothing to me; the same can be said of most of my victims. I do this job for it is not the money that thrills me….to me, money is a useless object that everyone is in need of and will do anything to get some of it. No, I hunt for the thrill of going after those who are deemed special. Two of you are special in terms of what is hidden within, while the other is merely along for the journey until they usefulness is no longer required," answered Dark Warrior.
" Then why work for Amber?" asked Fiora.
" You know who sent me?" asked Dark Warrior.
" We do, so please give us a straight answer." Fiora said.
" Amber is only a little girl, lost and confused in a world that has abandoned her. There is no place she can go without her name being spoken, a name that is forever tarnished by acts of the past; acts of which can never be reversed. She has been living here all this time, hidden from those who let her be forgotten, thinking of ways to seek vengeance against them. She was able to get a hold of me for I was traveling to Ilia for my own personal matters and I happened to discover her location by mere chance. From there she proceeded to hire me and you get where it ends up, with us in this encounter. Vengeance, ha! What a cruel joke! Vengeance can only lead to bloodshed and war and no one ever wins in the end of that!" Dark Warrior laughed.
" Is all that true?" asked Fiora.
" Every last detail." Dark Warrior answered in a low voice.
" Then where is Amber? I wish to hear her side of this." Fiora demanded.
" She….is right behind you," answered Dark Warrior. The sisters then turned around and standing in front of the tent's entrance was Amber, armed with a spear. Her clothes were tattered and worn, with her hair looking like a mess. Several scars ran down her body indicating that she had been struggling to survive against nature.
" Amber…." Fiora began.
" Fiora….it is good to see you again," said Amber.
" How long has it been since we saw each other last?" asked Fiora.
" It has been several years now since I was exiled from Ilia. What my contact has said to you about me is true. I have been living here in these mountains all this time, for I can't go anywhere without being recognized. My actions which resulted in my banishment has made me become a recluse, a nomad feeding off on scraps of meat just to live," answered Amber. She then took a bite out of a piece of meat she was holding in her other hand and slammed it down onto the table beside her. " Because of these conditions, I am forced to go outside hunting creatures for their meat! Sadly, I can't go past the mountains, lest I be seen."
" I….can't believe this!" Fiora said.
" Believe it Fiora! I have been preparing my vengeance plans against Ilia for a couple of years now, but I could never go there in person as due to my condition, I would have never been able to carry it out! Then I found Dark Warrior, or rather he found me and we became contacts soon after. With what little I had and scrounged up from outside, I paid him to kill you and your sisters. I have nothing against you either, but for Ilia to pay, the best Pegasus Knights have to been killed; the best being you three." Amber said. She picked up the piece of meat and took another bite out of it. Then she handed it over to Dark Warrior who in turn threw it into a small fire burning in one corner of the room.
" Amber…." Fiora sighed.
" Don't feel sad over what has become of me Fiora. My bad decisions in life are what got me here and I have to live with those decisions for the rest of my life. However, what I am about to say next may or may not have any effects on my life. Dark Warrior, the hunt is on," said Amber.
" As you wish," he said as turned his attention to the sisters. " This is where the three of you do battle with me. As with all my past victims, I shall explain how we go about doing this. The three of you get a two minute head-start to fly as far away from here as you can, after which I will come after you. Use your Pegasi if you want, it matters not to me, but you will soon find out why I am the "Dark Executioner" of legend. Your head-start begins….now."
TO BE CONTINUED….
Next Chapter: " End of the Hunt"
The final part is next, but what will be the outcome?
A Fire Emblem and NCS Adventure
Chapter 5: Return to Ilia and Facing Your Fears
By: Davis(Davis3 on FFN)
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or any of the official characters but I do own Amber(the Rogue Pegasus Knight) and Dark Warrior(aka the Dark Executioner)
Dark Warrior wasted no time leaving the castle and making his way towards the front gate of Pherae. The guards were no where to be seen for they all been called back to the castle to attend on Eliwood. " Such fools they are, caring for such a weak child as Eliwood….but I must concur for with him injured, my escape is without opposition and the hunt continues with much more on the line. This map will prove most useful to me in the future when this current mission is complete. That lordling proved to be quite the gambler, but I had him under my power when I gave him that wound. Oh, he will no doubt live to see another day, for why kill a man when he will serve you another purpose at a later time….now, where are those sisters now? Their tracks show them heading northwest, no doubt going back the same way they took to get here. Unbeknownst to the lordling was the fact that I also obtained a map of Lycia in addition to the map of Ostia. With this map, I can take a different route and cut them off." He got upon his horse and urged it to ride to north.
" Do you believe what Lord Eliwood said about this Dark Warrior?" Florina asked.
" Is that still on your mind sister?" asked Fiora.
" Very much so. I mean, we've battled the Black Fang and most of them were murders and morphs, but this assassin, this Dark Warrior. He seems much worse than they were….but what I don't understand is why would he want to come after us? What did we ever do to him?" Florina asked.
" Remember what Lord Eliwood said to us about that. He said that the warrior was working for someone who wants us all dead, but the question that now remains is who put him up to it," answered Fiora.
" It has to be someone we know," began Farina.
" I won't believe anything if Lyn is named the culprit!" shouted Florina.
" I'm not saying that it was one of our guys in the army we were in against the Black Fang sis. It has to be someone else we know, or rather we used to know," said Farina.
" There are a lot of people who know us," said Florina.
" With one of them being the one that hired this man to do us in. And I bet he's getting a better paycheck than we are with this mission!" moaned Farina.
" This isn't about money!" Florina shouted.
" I know that! I just thought I'd mention it," said Farina. Florina gave her a cold glare that sent chills down her spine. " Anyway, back to the business at hand. If someone did hire him and that someone is a person that we know….who would it be?"
" Someone special?" Florina asked.
" Maybe….or maybe the person is out for revenge. That is usually why people hire assassins or do the job themselves; in order to get revenge on a person….or a country," replied Farina.
" That does make sense," said Fiora.
" Our assassin wants revenge on Ilia?" Florina asked.
" If you mean Dark Warrior, then no….not him anyway. He has nothing against Ilia or us for he is only doing his job….something that I like in a man, but that's just me. Fiora....now that I'm talking about it, what was it that you were reading earlier?" asked Farina. As they flew nearer towards the border between Lycia and Ilia, Fiora mentioned about the book in question and what it contained.
" And that's it."
" Would've expected much more details," commented Farina.
" Why ask me about it?" asked Fiora.
" That Amber girl that got kicked out of Ilia. I remember her now, bright kid, had a great future ahead of her, until all that other stuff happened. Whatever happened to her after she left Ilia with her Pegasus?" asked Farina.
" No one knows where she went. It's as though she disappeared off the face of Elibe for she was known everywhere and that didn't help her reputation, but she must have been thankful for not having her face recognized outside of Ilia," answered Fiora.
" If I was in her shoes, I'd have been furious over how I had been treated and planned a revenge of sorts." Farina shouted. At that moment, things began to click for the three sisters and now everything had fallen in place. They had just figured out who sent Dark Warrior after them, and without even realizing it. All they needed was a reminder of the book Fiora had read, but they weren't entirely sure if Amber was the guilty one or not.
" It makes sense now," said Fiora.
" About Amber?" asked Farina.
" What you said about wanting to get revenge if you were in shoes makes everything that has happened to us add up and leading to her being involved. But, I still can't be certain if she is the one who hired our assassin," replied Fiora. As they flew across the mountains that signaled the border between Lycia and Ilia, Florina saw something from the corner of her eye and stopped to get a better look at it.
" Why did you stop sis? We have a mission to complete and a paycheck to earn!" Farina moaned impatiently.
" I saw something that didn't seem to fit in place with our surroundings," answered Florina.
" Nothing could be out of place around here!" Farina moaned.
" Except for that tent," said Fiora as she too caught a glimpse of it. Hidden almost from view was a small brown tent with a tiny red flag flying on the top. The brown colour showed it was meant to be camouflaged among the mountains.
" A tent? And right by the border," said Florina.
" Could this be where Amber has been residing for all these years?" asked Fiora.
" If that is the case, then this has got to be the most ridiculous place you'd want to hide….although quite convenient," answered Farina. The sisters landed nearby and walked up towards the tent and decided to take a peek inside. As soon as they did so, they stood as cold as ice as to what they were looking at.
" What took you so long to get here?"
" You're not Amber!" Fiora exclaimed.
" No, I am not that child. I am Dark Warrior, known far and wide as the "Dark Executioner" of legend. So, you finally meet me, face to face and I almost didn't think you'd make it back here in one piece. The way you all look right now is priceless….and I can sense the fear dripping down from your foreheads. I am aware that the lordling Eliwood has mentioned me to you in order to give you a warning. It is a shame that he too, knew very little about me, much like Amber and you three."
" You are Dark Warrior?" asked Farina.
" At your service," answered Dark Warrior as he rose from his seat. " I got here at least a few minutes before you did and decided to greet my victims personally. It took me a long time to track you down, but it was worth the effort. I have been following you ever since you started your pathetic journey, and to make my mission that much more enjoyable, I subjected you to mental attacks that made you lose your minds. Ah, the human mind of these modern times….so frail, so cluttered with your personal lives….so easy to manipulate. My Silver Axe and Demon Axe were the perfect tools with which to strike fear into you," answered Dark Warrior.
" That was you?" asked Farina.
" All of it," answered Dark Warrior.
" Then you saw us…." Farina began.
" No….not that, so you don't have to worry about that, in addition to your futures for they are about to end by the blade of my axes….all of them!" Dark Warrior picked up his Silver Axe and ran his finger across it. " I must admit one thing though. The three of you are perhaps my most interesting prey that I have ever hunted."
" Why do this to us? What have we done to you?" asked Fiora.
" You have done nothing to me; the same can be said of most of my victims. I do this job for it is not the money that thrills me….to me, money is a useless object that everyone is in need of and will do anything to get some of it. No, I hunt for the thrill of going after those who are deemed special. Two of you are special in terms of what is hidden within, while the other is merely along for the journey until they usefulness is no longer required," answered Dark Warrior.
" Then why work for Amber?" asked Fiora.
" You know who sent me?" asked Dark Warrior.
" We do, so please give us a straight answer." Fiora said.
" Amber is only a little girl, lost and confused in a world that has abandoned her. There is no place she can go without her name being spoken, a name that is forever tarnished by acts of the past; acts of which can never be reversed. She has been living here all this time, hidden from those who let her be forgotten, thinking of ways to seek vengeance against them. She was able to get a hold of me for I was traveling to Ilia for my own personal matters and I happened to discover her location by mere chance. From there she proceeded to hire me and you get where it ends up, with us in this encounter. Vengeance, ha! What a cruel joke! Vengeance can only lead to bloodshed and war and no one ever wins in the end of that!" Dark Warrior laughed.
" Is all that true?" asked Fiora.
" Every last detail." Dark Warrior answered in a low voice.
" Then where is Amber? I wish to hear her side of this." Fiora demanded.
" She….is right behind you," answered Dark Warrior. The sisters then turned around and standing in front of the tent's entrance was Amber, armed with a spear. Her clothes were tattered and worn, with her hair looking like a mess. Several scars ran down her body indicating that she had been struggling to survive against nature.
" Amber…." Fiora began.
" Fiora….it is good to see you again," said Amber.
" How long has it been since we saw each other last?" asked Fiora.
" It has been several years now since I was exiled from Ilia. What my contact has said to you about me is true. I have been living here in these mountains all this time, for I can't go anywhere without being recognized. My actions which resulted in my banishment has made me become a recluse, a nomad feeding off on scraps of meat just to live," answered Amber. She then took a bite out of a piece of meat she was holding in her other hand and slammed it down onto the table beside her. " Because of these conditions, I am forced to go outside hunting creatures for their meat! Sadly, I can't go past the mountains, lest I be seen."
" I….can't believe this!" Fiora said.
" Believe it Fiora! I have been preparing my vengeance plans against Ilia for a couple of years now, but I could never go there in person as due to my condition, I would have never been able to carry it out! Then I found Dark Warrior, or rather he found me and we became contacts soon after. With what little I had and scrounged up from outside, I paid him to kill you and your sisters. I have nothing against you either, but for Ilia to pay, the best Pegasus Knights have to been killed; the best being you three." Amber said. She picked up the piece of meat and took another bite out of it. Then she handed it over to Dark Warrior who in turn threw it into a small fire burning in one corner of the room.
" Amber…." Fiora sighed.
" Don't feel sad over what has become of me Fiora. My bad decisions in life are what got me here and I have to live with those decisions for the rest of my life. However, what I am about to say next may or may not have any effects on my life. Dark Warrior, the hunt is on," said Amber.
" As you wish," he said as turned his attention to the sisters. " This is where the three of you do battle with me. As with all my past victims, I shall explain how we go about doing this. The three of you get a two minute head-start to fly as far away from here as you can, after which I will come after you. Use your Pegasi if you want, it matters not to me, but you will soon find out why I am the "Dark Executioner" of legend. Your head-start begins….now."
TO BE CONTINUED….
Next Chapter: " End of the Hunt"
The final part is next, but what will be the outcome?
