Zak: Hi!

Zeke: Psychotic finally got chapter ten up!

Generic Pent: w00t!

Yes, it's amazing…I finally stopped procrastinating long enough to write this!

Real Pent: -gasp- Really? That's incredible!

And…uh…yeah. I guess I'll just do review replies…

Cool-Chan: XD yeah, it is kind of weird to see Raven like this, isn't it? We're all used to the scary mercenary person that doesn't smile like, ever XD
Ostian-Maid: You're so weird XD
Serra's Evil Twin: Yeah, we're getting close to the end…it's a tragedy, isn't it? Oh, well…soon after this I might get another story out that's even weirder than this one! (Real Pent: Is that possible?)
Lord of Swords and Waffles: "cute but weird"? That's good, right? XD –hides- you've got ESP…how did you know it's Hector?
TheReader: Aww, thanks! Short, yet ever so sweet –blushes-

Zeke: I wanna do the disclaimer, Psychotic! Can I? Pleasepleaseplease?

Sure, Zak. (They're so cute!)

Zeke: -pouts- I'm ZEKE, Psychotic! Zak is my brother!

Oh…sorry…

Zeke: Well, anyway…Psychotic says that she does not own any aspect of Fire Emblem, mainly because she didn't make it up and Nintendo and Intelligent Systems did! That wouldn't be fair if she took credit.

Generic Pent: w00t!


Chapter Ten: Trapped

"I came to check and make sure you're guarding the camp, and instead I see you locking lips with a girl that obviously has it bad for me?" Hector snapped at Raven, approaching them. Raven completely ignored him. "Um, hello?" he said irritably. "Didn't I just tell you to get away from her? She's an intruder, you know! You aren't supposed to be sucking face with intruders; you're supposed to terminate them, seeing as you are the guard! Raven, are you listening to me?" it was pretty obvious that he wasn't, but after a few more seconds, Raven pulled away with a loud, deliberate smacking noise before turning to address Hector, leaving Iris gasping for breath.

"Hello, Hector," he said coolly. "Why are you still up at this hour?"

"I already told you, I'm making sure you're doing your job…and you're not! I suppose it might not have been your fault; she might have seduced you, but—" Hector looked at Raven and sneered. "—probably not. Sorry to burst your bubble, lover boy, but I'm going to have to take the girl with me."

"What?" Raven said, panicked, as Hector pried Iris out of his arms and forced her wrists together behind her back. "Where? Why?"

"Enough questions!" Hector snarled, taking her sword away before leading her off to a separate tent for containment.

"Let go of me, you coward! Give me my sword back and we'll see how strong you are then!" he heard Iris snap.

"Oh, shut up!" Hector replied irritably. Raven hesitated before running after them.

"What are you going to do to her?" he demanded.

"Oh, I don't know," Hector replied lightly, not even looking over at him. "I'll have to ask Eliwood what he wants to do with her. It'd be a shame to see such a pretty thing go to waste, eh? Here…hang on to this for me, will you? Go back and protect the camp, you idiot…try to redeem yourself." With this remark, Hector handed Raven Iris' sword that he had taken away from her.

"But—" Raven started to protest.

"You're leaving the camp unprotected, Raven! Get back there! Now!" Hector spat, not at all in the mood to argue. Raven stopped running alongside him and watched helplessly as Hector led a struggling Iris off. He looked down at the sword, in its sheath, tracing the intricate carvings with his eyes and trying to formulate a plan. After a few seconds' thought, he returned to his post to await the dawn, when he could commence his plan of action…


"Erk! Erk!" Raven hissed several hours later, shaking the sleeping teenager in an attempt to wake him up. "Come on, wake up! I need your help!" eventually, Raven got fed up and kicked him very hard in the back, after which Erk cried out in pain.

"Okay, I'm up, I'm up!" Erk said sleepily, wincing as he sat up. He was going to have a nasty bruise there pretty soon. "What's wrong? What happened? Are we being attacked?"

"It's Iris," Raven whispered. "Hector found her and tied her up in Merlinus' tent—"

"He WHAT?" Erk practically shouted, waking up properly. "Did he say—?"

"I don't think they're going to kill her…yet," Raven replied, anticipating the rest of Erk's question. "But I need to get her out of there, and you're the only one that can help me…"

"Do you have a plan?" Erk inquired urgently, searching around frantically for his boots.

"Yes, I do," Raven replied.

"What do I have to do? Just say the word and it's half done."

"…This is important to you, eh?"

"Well, yeah, isn't Priscilla important to you?" Erk replied, thinking it was obvious that his sister's life would mean something to him.

"…What?" Raven said blankly. "You mean Iris is your—?"

"Uhhh…no time to explain!" Erk interrupted, as his brain had reminded him too late that Raven didn't know anything about this. "What do I need to do?"

"Well," Raven started, quirking an eyebrow at him. "What I need you to do is this…" at this, Raven proceeded to outline his entire plan to Erk, who listed attentively. "Oh…and you'll be needing this," he added after telling him his part in the plan and exactly what to do. He unhooked Iris' sword from his side and held it out to him.

"I can't use swords," Erk reminded him, staring at it perplexedly.

"I know…it belongs to Iris. She'll need it, so give it to her after you've untied her." Raven paused, looking sternly at him. "And remember, Erk…there's no room for failure."

"Right," Erk gulped nervously. He took the sword, scooped up his spell books, and raced out the door.

"Good luck, Erk," Raven called after him. "You'll need it, you blundering idiot," he added under his breath. He then took off to do his part in the plan, which involved distracting Hector and Eliwood before they had a chance to determine Iris' sentence. However, he couldn't resist sneaking a peek inside Merlinus' tent to see her…just in case something happened. He slinked through the shadows into the night, avoiding tents that had pale lights from lanterns glowing in them, and finally made it to the tent. Kent stood outside of it, apparently the prison guard for tonight, trying to keep his eyes open and leaning on his lance sleepily for support and every once in a while jerking his head up as though trying to prevent himself from dozing off, only to catch his eyelids drooping again. This required a bit of improvisation on Raven's part, and he approached Kent, who immediately twitched back to alertness, looking wildly around for the source of the impending footsteps.

"Who goes there?" he inquired shakily right before Raven stepped into the light. "Oh…Raven…" Kent visibly relaxed and sounded very relieved. "It's just you…d-did you need something?"

"No, not really," Raven replied casually. "I was just coming to check on the prisoner…"

"Hector said to keep you away from her," Kent informed him. Raven shot him an Evil Scowl of Death, and Kent started stuttering even more. "H-Hector said—"

"I just want to see her," Raven growled, stepping towards him. He was a good five inches taller, and Kent was already petrified of him without the height difference. "Are you going to let me pass?" he inquired, glowering down at the terrified cavalier malevolently. He was rewarded with a frightened squeak from Kent, who nodded and got out of Raven's way. He sank down to the ground, hugging his knees close to him and sucking his thumb in fear. "That's what I thought." Raven smiled internally. That was the way people were supposed to react to him…fright. Of course, Kent was a big sissy, but that was beside the point…

When Raven slipped inside the tent, dodging random knickknacks such as swords, vulneraries, books, and the like that were scattered everywhere, he looked around to find something a little different (such as a purple-haired girl), and, as luck would have it, he found a little something like that under one of the shelves.

It was now that one could realize exactly how defenseless the poor girl really was. Her hands and feet were tied together with thick, expertly knotted ropes, leaving her no choice but to remain in a sitting position as she slept fitfully in the small space where she obviously thought she could hide. There didn't seem to be any way in or out of the tent at this point without waking up the entire camp, and Kent certainly wouldn't allow that, no matter how scared he was of him. So, he could only look in at her, powerless to do anything that might help her in the most remote way…she looked so sad and alone, even though she was still as pretty as a wildflower. But, as Raven reminded himself, wildflowers don't last very long if you put them in a vase…especially not irises.

She was sleeping so restlessly that it was a wonder to Raven that she had slept through the commotion he had caused. Someone else obviously hadn't slept through it, as the sound of someone's footsteps started to approach. Raven looked around for a moment to try and see where it was coming from and rushed off down another path to go and do what he was supposed to be doing. Erk was a smart kid, as Raven reasoned to himself, and he'd figure out a way to get into the tent without making too much noise, get Iris, and get out.

After he had thought this, Raven shook himself internally. Erk? A smart kid? He shook his head sadly. What was he thinking?


Erk himself was already prepared to proceed with his part of the plan, but the arrival of Hector by Merlinus' tent made this impossible.

"Raven, where are you?" he muttered to himself under his breath, expecting Raven to show up any minute with a distraction. Erk was just within hearing distance (but not necessarily comprehensible distance), and, by the sounds of it, Hector was talking to Kent about something. After a while, Kent walked off, only to be replaced by a protesting Heath a minute later. Hector proceeded to give Heath (who was still in his pajamas) his instructions, after which Raven finally showed up, looking panicked.

"Hector! There's a disturbance over by the south end! I need your help!" Raven cried frantically (naturally, this was a lie).

"Great," Hector replied, wrinkling his nose in distaste and buying this story immediately without question (Raven usually didn't joke about this sort of thing). "Heath, you stay here and guard the girl…don't let anyone near her, you got it?"

"Yeah, I got it," Heath grumbled, less than enthusiastic, as Hector and Raven raced off. Erk couldn't help but grin. This was too easy…guards that didn't like their jobs were always simple to get past. Of course, this meant that he didn't have a lot of time and approached Heath immediately, trying to look casual. "What do you want, Erk?" he asked sleepily when he finally saw him.

"Hey, Heath," Erk replied cheerfully. "What's up?"

"You're high if you think you're getting past me, kid," Heath replied parrot-style, his eye twitching. Erk almost laughed out loud. He was half-asleep.

"You look tired, Heath," Erk remarked innocently.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say," Heath mumbled.

"You want me to take over for you? I'm not tired at all." Erk suggested. Heath woke up immediately.

"I love you, kid," he declared, taking off immediately. "Ha ha! Sucker!" he whooped as he ran off back to his tent before Erk could change his mind.

"What a sap," Erk snickered. Now the only problem remaining was how to get into the tent without making everything clatter around and direct Hector's attention. He decided that the best way to do it was to clear the counter of all the crap Merlinus had stacked around and climb in through there. So, he set about doing this, unaware that someone was watching him in the shadows.

Erk proceeded to shove all the random trinkets and various items to the side, leaving enough room for him (and, later, Iris) to crawl through. The next obstacle that Erk hadn't thought about was the fact that he was too short to get up on the counter, which was several feet off the ground, and actually get in there. He cursed his stupid teenage body for prolonging his long overdue growth spurt (at least his voice had already changed long before he had joined this group; that would have been terribly embarrassing to sound like a little boy alongside all the other, older men), but he eventually managed to lever himself up and over after several failed attempts.

The person who had been watching him all this time with no small amount of amusement walked right up to the counter and watched Erk some more as he looked around to see where Iris was. After a small period of frenzied search all around the tent, he found Iris, who was looking very forlorn, curled up in her little niche. He rushed to her side and stooped down to her level, then administered a very sharp poke to her ribcage in an effort to wake her.

"Iris! Iris!" Erk hissed in her ear, continuously poking her. "Oh, for Elimine's sake…" he breathed in exasperation. "Iris! Wake up!" it immediately became clear to Erk that he was wasting his time, so, as there wasn't any time to waste, Erk immediately set about examining her bonds. He snorted in disbelief at their lank security. "Ropes? Hector, you're such an idiot…" a simple incantation later, Erk had conjured a small spark upon the ropes (which obviously weren't fireproof), and in no time, the tiny flame grew and burned through the makeshift shackles effortlessly, like a knife through butter. As soon as this operation was finished, Erk blew out the fire and her hands and feet were free. As an added bonus, the shock of having something on fire near her also woke Iris up.

"What are you doing!" she yelped when Erk pinched out a tiny flame from the end of a lock of his hair that had accidentally caught fire.

"Rescuing you," Erk answered. "Is that bad?"

"Oh," Iris relaxed visibly. "I thought you were trying to set me on fire or something."

"I already did," Erk replied off-handedly, tossing the charred ropes away and trying not to laugh at her horrified expression. "Come on, I need to get you out of here; we don't have much time, and we might get—" Erk stopped himself in mid-sentence, as he had turned around to see Pent standing at the counter, smiling in a rather ominously serene manner. "—Caught," Erk finished fearfully. "…Shit," he cursed under his breath. They were so close, too.

"My, my, would you look at that," Pent said cheerfully, smiling at them both. "You must be something special, miss. Why else would little Erk here risk trying to save your life?" his smile widened at Erk and Iris' stunned silence. "Well, Erk…I think you've run out of places to hide. Now, let's try this again…who exactly is this girl, Erk? And don't try to lie to me," Pent warned. "I'll know…you may start talking whenever you're ready. The more you talk," he added softly. "The harder I'll plead with Hector for your lives…"


Zeke: Man, Pent! You are such a jerk!

Generic Pent: w00t?

Zak: Not you…him! The Real Pent!

Real Pent: Shut up, you stupid brat. You're just jealous because I'm cooler than you.

Zeke: -glare-

Zak: -growl-

Zak/Zeke: -pounce on Real Pent-

Er…yeah. Sorry it's so short, and er...sorry the title is so lame, but it gets the point across, right?

Generic Pent: -eats popcorn; watches Zak and Zeke- w00t!

Okay, I've got a fight to watch…uh…I mean, break up. Heh heh. I'll get chapter eleven up as soon as I feel like it…could be a while XD