Disclaimer - I own Advance Wars! MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

(A couple of workers at Nintendo appear and beat up Ascension.)

Ascension: Let me rephrase that... I don't own anything in this fic except Red Sun, its COs, Azazel and several random extras.

*****

CHAPTER 7: FOG

Sonja woke up groggily, her vision swimming. Eventually, her eyes snapped into focus and she found herself looking up at the concerned face of Kanbei.

"Sonja! Sonja! Speak to me! Are you all right?"

Sonja shook her head to clear away the clouds in the mind, but Kanbei misinterpreted her action.

"Aah! She's not all right! Nooo! Quick, call medics! Kanbei must save his daughter!"

"Father! Calm down! I'm fine, I'm fine. I just..." Sonja shuddered. She didn't know why, but she somehow felt that something cold had touched her and left its presence behind. She took a deep breath. "Maybe I should go back and have a rest, father. Why don't you take over my command here?"

"You don't need medics?" asked Kabei, still worried.

"No, father. I just need a bit of rest," said Sonja firmly.

"Have it your way then. But if you feel unwell..."

"Yes, father. I understand."

*****

Sonja lay on her bed in her room. She had tried to get some sleep, but she could not. Something was troubling her. Sensei had accompanied her on the way back, and she was informed that she was found unconscious on the spot where she stood. That somehow didn't seem right to Sonja. She was certain that something had happened while she was unconscious. But what?

She racked her brains, searching for some hidden memory. But she could not find it. Just then, a breeze wafted through her window, blowing the curtains around. And, looking at that image, something in her brain seemed to snap and brought the memory back to her.

The strange man. His cloaked had swirled the same way in the wind as the curtains. His words came to her once more, as if fresh from a dream.

"Sonja. I've heard much of you. Over the years, there has been an endless debate: Games of chance, or games of skill? Every person has his or her own answer to this simple question, and I believe that yours is skill. That is both right and wrong. Skill is nothing without chance, and chance is nothing without skill. Meet me in the valley southeast of here tomorrow, and I shall show you."

Sonja jumped up. She must have fallen asleep without noticing. Looking at her clock, she noted that it was already a few hours past midnight. She decided to sneak up now, get a small army and go to the valley. Just to see what would happen.

*****

The Red Sun and Yellow Comet forces were engaged in close-range fire on the shallows of Yellow Comet's western shore. Kelalith now had supreme command of the Red Sun army. Cabal was still missing, and Yal'Dan had been taken very ill just before the battle. Kelalith took his mind away from the battle to wonder about his companions. Both of them seldom behaved like this. Though mysterious, Cabal had never let them down; Yal'Dan was amongst the bravest of men he had ever met and had his own fair share of fighting, so he was generally not the type who would get battle shock just before a skirmish. Kelalith then thought about the mistrust of Yal'Dan towards Cabal and theorized that they probably had an argument, which led to Cabal leaving to brood on his own for a while and Yal'Dan feeling slightly guilty. Before he had time to ponder this theory further, an artillery shell crashing into the water next to him brought him back to reality.

Little did he know how close to the truth he was.

*****

Yal'Dan had locked himself inside his quarters. If anyone saw him, they could have sworn the he had seen a ghost. Indeed, he was in pretty bad shape. His hair was a mess, his skin pale and his entire body trembling slightly.

Yal'Dan knew that this was no physical sickness. It was his mind that was suffering. Cabal's death. It had to be. Not the victim, but the circumstances. He laughed hysterically, realizing that he was dangerously teetering on the brink on insanity. He no longer feared being persecuted as a traitor, but his pride. It ate away at him, feeding off his spirit and health.

Yal'Dan's memory wandered back to the day he had joined the military in his youth. He remembered the vows. "Never fear. Never yield. Never deceive. Your honour is your life." He had always been an honourable person. Traitor or not traitor, he had always defeated his foes in fair combat, never sinking to the level of backstab and murder. The foul traitor had been eliminated, but at the cost of his honour, and possibly his life. Was it worthwhile?

He knew that there was no curing this sickness. No way to purge himself. No way to escape from guilt. What was done was done. He then contemplated suicide. Was death a release from torment, or not?

*****

With Kanbei and Sensei on the frontlines, Olaf and Colin at sea and Max and Nell across the ocean, Sami, Grit and Andy were not left with much to do except sit around waiting for news. With nothing much to do, their conversation turned to Sonja. Each of them had their own unique relationship with her and all three were quite concerned when they heard that she had been struck by a sudden illness, more so when she had failed to show up that morning.

Eventually, they decided to pay her room a visit just to check that she was all right. What they found was an unlocked door and a hastily handwritten note which read:

"To whoever is reading this, tell my father I'm sorry for sneaking away like this, but there's something I must investigate. While I was unconscious, I met a strange man in a cloak, whom I believe was the cause of my unconsciousness in the first place. I also think he might be the man Sami and Grit were talking about and I intend to find out the truth about him. Don't worry about me; I promise I'll be fine and that I'll be back soon, hopefully with information. Sonja."

Sami, Andy and Grit groaned together. Sonja had already made the mistake of biting off more than she could chew once when she tried to take on Sturm alone. They had hoped that she would avoid the same mistake, but knowing the cloaked figure, she just made it again.

*****

Sonja made it to the valley before dawn and took time posting her small army at strategic positions around the area. Although she knew well enough that her unknown foe had played with Sami and Colin like puppets on a string, she was confident of success. But then again, she did have a reputation for being a little too cocky for her own good.

The sun rose, and still there was no sign of the enemy. Sonja wondered if she had been tricked. She decided to wait for an hour more and go back if nothing happened. As boredom set in, Sonja felt her eyelids getting heavier. The last night's sleep had been a troubled one, hardly refreshing. She was just considering whether to take a short nap or not when a chilly wind whipped up. The cold shocked her straight to the bone, instantly bringing her back to full attention.

"Sleep: like night to day, like ignorance to enlightenment. A cause of life, and also a cause to death. Sleep then, and live and die in ignorance," the soft, emotionless voice chastised her mildly.

Sonja mentally scolded herself, but kept her cool. "And who might you be?" she asked fearlessly, even though she was quite tempted to run a mile.

"Names are nothing, an illusion of identity. To see beyond a name is to see beyond the false and touch the truth. All you need to know is that I serve the Balance, and I am here to show you the interactions between skill and chance, as I promised."

The cloaked figure waved a hand almost casually. On cue, a platoon of Red Sun soldiers broke cover, instantly turning a section of the valley red.

"Nice," remarked Sonja, feeling confidence return to her. "But if you arrived earlier, you might have seen me setting up this ambush." She pressed a button hidden in her pocket which triggered off a flare, signaling her units to attack. Rockets and artillery shells crashed into the valley, making small craters and taking out Red Sun troops. Sonja smiled smugly, but it was instantly wiped off her face when she looked around her and found that the cloaked figure was gone.

The Red Sun force stood little chance. They spread out and tried forming a counterattack, but Sonja's advance planning had done its work. The initial indirect-fire assault was over, the rockets and artillery having ran out of ammunition, but it battered Red Sun so severely that now they could barely stand up to a plain old direct-combat match. Sonja had sent her APCs round to resupply her indirect-fire units for another bombardment.

The cloaked figure reappeared beside her. She was hardly startled, having expected something like this to happen, gathering from what Sami and Colin said. But once again, she felt the urge to run as far away from him as possible.

"I see you have mastered skill to the full. Well done. But, like most masters of skill, you have not reckoned enough with chance."

"What do you mean?" asked Sonja, but the cloaked figure just stood there, motionless, like a statue. She was just about to say something when she felt a raindrop. A light drizzle started falling, bringing with it a dense fog. Through the haze, Sonja could barely make out the cloaked figure's lips moving.

"Weather. A tactician's most earnest friend, and also his most hated enemy. Chance has brought weather to cloud the sky of skill, Sonja. What are you going to do?"

Sonja didn't reply. She knew that the stranger was gone already. But she didn't fear fog. As Sami once put it, this was her forte. No one was as good as getting past sight obstruction as she was. She ordered her troops to close in on the enemy in a ring, making sure that they would be trapped in the valley.

There was no one in the valley. Sonja was not puzzled for long. She already knew what was going to happen next.

Rockets and artillery shells burst over the ridge of the valley on all sides, on a collision course with her forces. Sonja sighed in despair.

*****

Red Sun had met fierce resistance from Yellow Comet. Kanbei's Imperial Guard was known to be made up of the highest-quality soldiers in the world, and now they proved themselves worthy of their reputation. They matched Red Sun's berserker strength with calculated skill; vengeful zeal with undying morale.

Kanbei's war cry was heard, followed by a response from Kelalith. Both armies fought harder, patriotism versus fanaticism, quality versus quantity. There was no way out of the stalemate. They were quite clearly evenly matched.

Kelalith wasn't worried. Though he favoured foot soldiers above all other military units, he was still quite willing to be a bit flexible in the name of victory. A fleet of battleships came into view, unleashing death upon the battlefield. Knowing that he could not afford to lose any troops to naval fire, Kanbei ordered the retreat.

Relentlessly, Kelalith ordered pursuit. The Yellow Comet troops fled to the safety of some cities in the distance. Kelalith was just about to order an attack on the cities when he saw that they were arranged in a ring around him. He suspected of having fallen into a trap.

He was right. Sensei's copters soared over, parachuting swarms of infantry into the city.

It was common military knowledge that being surrounded was not a good idea. But it was too late now. Kelalith had no choice but to set up camp where he was and see what would happen.

*****

The day was uneventful. Neither side made any move to attack the other, for fear of suffering great casualties. Which was why Kelalith wasn't sleeping well.

He woke up for the umpteenth time that night, his senses overly alert for a midnight raid from the other side. Once again, nothing happened... or was that a strange figure of a man outside his tent?

He sat up and blinked to clear his vision. There was no one outside. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed a gun and snuck outside as stealthily as he could. Something moved. He chased after it, but it was too dark to see properly and he soon lost its track. He was just considering what to do next when it stepped out from behind a nearby tree, barely visible.

"Cabal?" asked Kelalith uncertainly.

The figure didn't seem to have heard. He started speaking.

"To balance the scales, sometimes one side must be made heavier. Though all must be even in the end, Red Sun must outweigh the rest for now. To you, Kelalith, I grant this gift. The light of morning will reveal it."

*****

The next thing Kelalith knew was that he woke up in his tent, sunlight streaming through a small gap in the side. He walked out, his mind fuzzy. Was he just dreaming last night?

He was not. The cities where the Yellow Comet troops had been stationed had been razed to the ground. There was no sign of the enemy except footprints leading in all directions, indicating a hasty getaway.

Kelalith shook his head in wonder. It was far from impossible to destroy a city, but who could possibly do it overnight, and without making any noise?