Disclaimer: I don't own FE and whatever.

Okay. Finally decided on a pairing for Serra. I pity da foo' that ends up in this pairing with Serra.

On a side note, it's 3 more chapters until Hiro is back.

THE TACTICIANS' WISH

Eliwood's and Hector's tale Chapter 3: In Search of Truth

"...Oh, yes...today will be a most painful day for us men..." Mark commented, walking towards the other young men in the group, unable to stand the very loud and disturbing discussion coming out of Rebecca, Hilda, and Serra. But mostly Serra.

At Santaruz Castle:

"Ephidel! What is the meaning of this?" asked a panicked Lord Helman.

"Peace, Lord Helman. Whatever is wrong?" the cloaked man asked the marquess calmly.

"You said you were just going to frighten Eliwood! Your men almost killed him! My patience is at an end! I've decided I must tell Eliwood everything and apologize," Helman told the cloaked man with conviction.

"...You'll betray us?"

"I am tired of you and the Black Fang! Now, remove yourself from my castle! Your presence pains me!"

"...There's nothing I can do to change your mind?"

"Nothing!"

"Then you are no longer of any use to us. A regrettable decision," Ephidel said. He then chanted a thunder spell, electrocuting the marquess to an inch of his life. "...pity," he said, and walked out.

Outside:

"Well, we're here, Lord Eliwood!" Mark remarked. "And would someone PLEASE, for the love of Elimine, SHUT SERRA UP?"

"How rude!" Serra said, and bonked Mark on the head with her heal staff, and they started arguing, making Hilda and Rebecca giggle.

"We must speak with Lord Helman..."Eliwood said, ignoring the magic users' antics and walked quickly towards the castle. However, a knight blocked his path.

"That's not gonna happen, laddie!" the knight said.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? Ah, boy, you'd do better to worry about yourself. You'll be worm's meat before much longer!" the knight laughed.

"You think so? I think my axe'll change your mind," Hector growled, as he walked up to Eliwood's location, and readied his Wolf Beil.

"Ha! the cub thinks he's a wolf! Does your bite match your bark? Tell you what: if you make it to the castle alive, we'll find out, eh? Geh heh heh hehhh!" the knight laughed again. He then retreated to his post, and when Eliwood and Hector were going to chase him down, their path was blocked by a group of four cavaliers.

"Damn it!" Hector cursed, dodging a thrust from an Iron Lance. Eliwood sliced the tip off the lance, and stabbed his rapier into the disarmed cavalier. Hector jumped, raised his axe high above his head, and swung his axe down heavily on another unlucky cavalier. Now only the javelin-wielders are left. They tossed their javelins at the lords, but Eliwood easily dodged his, and the other javelin was parried to the side by one of Hector's shoulder pads. Eliwood stabbed his rapier into his opponent's horse's thrat, making the rider lose his balance. Once on the ground, Eliwood finished the cavalier off. Hector dashed to the side of his opponent, grabbed the cavalier by the neck, and slammed him down hard on the ground with a choke slam. He then beheaded the cavalier with his axe.

"Lord Helman..." Eliwood said, worriedly, and urged his group to move onwards.

Back at the castle:

"Hey, you! Yeah, the new dog! Get this right, or you're gone!" a fighter commanded a Sacaean myrmidon who was standing in the hallway.

"Yeah, yeah...I just got this job, of course I don't want to lose it!" the myrmidon replied. "'Course, the smart thing to do would have been not to get involved with this ugly bunch. Got to have gold if I want to eat, though. I was too picky before. If I think about the time I passed out in Caelin... ooooh. Nothing funny about that! That man... What was his name... Matthew? If it hadn't been for him, I would've starved to death..." he mumbled.

"What are you mumbling about?" asked the fighter. "Come on!"

"All right, all right, already..." the myrmidon said.

Outside:

"Geez...what's this? Those lordlings are our target? ...Hm? Isn't that..." Guy mumbled, scanning the battlefield, and saw a thief he knew all too well. Matthew snuck behind an enemy fighter and stabbed him.

"sigh..." Guy sighed, readying his sword, and getting ready to fight. The thief noticed the Myrmidon.

"...Hey! Aren't you Guy?" the thief asked the myrmidon cheerily.

"Um...yeah. Matthew, right?" Guy greeted him back.

"That's right!" replied the cheery thief.

"Um...you know we're on different sides in this battle, right?" Guy asked the thief. "Shouldn't we be fighting?"

"Oh, really? ...Hmm...wait. Do you recall, that for every piece of meat I gave you, you owe me a favor?" Matthew asked, grinning, slyly.

"...Uh, yeah...I owe you 4 now..."

"Well, I'd like to use one of those up now. I'd like you to join my side and help my group instead!" Matthew's grin widened.

"Wha..? BUT...Bhuh...I..I just joined this group, because I needed the money!" replied a flustered Guy.
"Well...I'm just using up a favor. And as I have heard the people of Sacae tell no lies, isn't that right?" Matthew shook his finger.

"Gheh..ga...GEEZ! FINE! sigh At least I won't have to be hanging around this bad bunch anymore..." Guy gave in, not wanting to besmirch the name of the Sacaeans nor break his values, and looked on the bright side of things. "Just one thing though...You know I'm a little short on gold, so do you think I could get paid if I work with your group as a mercenary?"

"...Just ask the boss later!" Matthew grinned, and resumed fighting. Guy sighed, and joined his new ally in slicing down enemy fighters to ribbons.

Mark, Hilda, Hector, and Rebecca rushed through the enemy lines like an arrow towards the castle, presumably the location of the leader of their attackers, while everybody else covered them.

Marcus neared a village, to warn them to close the gates, and to restock on food, as well. He entered it, and was greeted by a man. "A merchant just went running past here in a panic. He dropped some things. I tried to tell him, but... It looked like he's the sort that drop things a lot..." the man said.

"If you value your lives, stay clear of the castle southwest of here. There's a swordsman named Guy... He's young, but deadly. He carries a killing edge, a feaful sword to be sure. I'm warning you: find another road to the castle," another man told Marcus.

"What? Oh...no...ehhhh, Lord Hector and the others will be fine...I hope," Marcus said to himself.

"This will never do! Look at the time! I must leave for Caelin now, or my business will be ruined. Time is money, after all. Hurry hurry! Rush rush rush!" An old blue haired merchant with a mustache ran past the paladin. He dropped a torch in his rush.

"...I guess this was the person that other man was talking about," Marcus said, picking up the torch to return it to the merchant, but had lost sight of him when he got back on his horse. "...I guess I'll just keep this for now..."

"Ah, what good timing. Would you try this for me? It's an invention of a great witch! Me! It's a mine. It contains some very explosive magic. Hide it on the ground, and when an enemy steps on it... KA-BOOOOM! Hee hee hee... I'm still testing them, so that one's free. Come back and tell me how it works," a witch greeted Marcus, gave him an odd looking disk. "But be really careful when handling it! It's explosive!" she warned the paladin, who held the small item with utmost fear of having it blow up in his face.

Back outside the village:

"What's this? You've made it this far? Ah, I paid too much for that worthless pack of sellswords!" the knight commented as the group of 4 neared his position.

"It's really too bad you won't live long enough to tell them about it!" Hector yelled, and readied his Wolf Beil. He rushed towards the knight. "What did you do with Marquess Santaruz?"

"Let's just say that he's on his way to a better place," the knight replied.

"YOU FIEND!" Hector quickened his pace.

"Lord Hector, wait!" Hilda warned the lord. The knight smirked. Hector's attack was so obvious. He readied his lance to strike down the lord. However, at throwing range, Hector swung his Wolf Beil in a whirlwind and tossed it at the knight. The knight didn't expect this, so his immediate reaction was to put up his shield to block it. Big mistake. It was stuck in his shield, and the sheer force of the throw threw him backwards, making him fall on his back. And a knight trying to get himself back up is like a tortoise trying to flip itself over when it's upside down. However, he had some backup.

"HOW ABOUT SOME HELP OVER HERE!" the knight yelled. 2 archers came to his aid, bombarding Hector with their arrows, while the knight got himself to stand up again. The arrows mostly bounced off Hector's armor, but it still pushed the young lord back.

"Ready...aim...FIRE!" Hilda yelled the command. The archers stopped shooting Hector to see who said it. The last thing one of them ever saw was an arrow heading towards his head at mach 1. The other thing had his essence drained from him by a purple cloud.

"Damn it! Worthless!" the knight cursed, as he pulled the axe out of his shield. He chucked the axe at Hector, who dodged it, and picked it out of the ground where it landed. However, the axe was stuck really deep, and he had a hard time pulling it out. He turned around while swinging his axe in a whirlwind, which almost hit a knight who was charging at him. The knight managed to barely dodge it, and gave Hector a hard punch to the jaw, knocking the young lord out. He was about to impale Hector when Mark blasted him with a Flux spell.

The knight was blasted backwards a short distance; he didn't expect the shaman's attack. He slammed his lance into the ground, and took out a Javelin from his back. He tossed it at Hilda.

"Hilda!" the cleric was running towards Hector to heal the lord with Mark by her side. Mark noticed that the lance was aiming towards the cleric, so he pushed her aside to take the blow. The javelin got him in his gut. "...URG...GAH..." Mark managed to have enough willpower to take the lance out of his body, and cast one last spell. "NOSFERATU!" His will to live made the spell become stronger than usual; a white circle appeared around him before the spell was launched. A much darker and bigger purple cloud enveloped the knight, who screamed in agony and pain, unseen by the darkness of the cloud, making Rebecca wince. Mark then absorbed the dark cloud, and the javelin wound disappeared. "Good as new," he grinned.

"...Freaky..." Rebecca commented.

Eliwood rushed inside Lord Helman's room, to find him down on the ground. "Don't step any closer, milord!" Mark warned Eliwood, noticing that Helman's body still had static coming out of it.

"...Eliwood?" the marquess looked up to see the Pheraen youth in front of him.

"Lord Helman! Hold on, please, sir..." Eliwood stepped closer, ignoring the small numbness the static gave him.

"Eliwood...I'm sorry...your...father..."

"Do you know something, sir?" Eliwood asked the marquess.

"I... If I hadn't told Elbert... about... Darin's plans... This would... never... have...happened..." Helman coughed.

"Lord Helman!"

"...Go...to...Laus...Darin...Marquess Laus...knows all..."

"Marquess Laus?"

"...Also...beware...the Black...Fang..." and with these final words, Lord Helman died, which sent a shiver down Lucifer's spine.

"...He's dead," Kyo commented.

"...No...why did this have to happen..." Eliwood shook his head sadly.

"Blast it! What's going on?" Hector asked angrily.

"...We have to go to Laus. Lord Helman said that the marquess of Laus has all the answers..." Eliwood told his friend.

"You're right. We should leave quickly. I'm not sure how far we can go today, but... I can't sit still," Hector got ready to leave, when a man walked inside the room.

"I'm the steward of Santaruz. With our lord gone, what are we to do?..." the man told the lords.

"First, you give Lord Helman a proper burial. After that... I'm sure the Lycian Council will have to meet. Stay here and defend the castle until you hear more," Eliwood instructed the steward.

"Let's go, Eliwood," Hector called his friend.

"...All right. Hopefully, we'll find all the answers at Laus. Lord Helman, may you find peace..." Eliwood saluted the dead marquess, and left the castle.

'Them again...is she also involved in this?' Lucifer thought. He sighed; he wished he wouldn't ever have to make contact with them ever again. 'At least, if we are to meet again...I hope...she'll understand...' he thought, secretly hoping that he'd see the beautiful yellow eyed morph again.

The group left the castle and headed for Laus.

End Eliwood's and Hector's tale chapter 3

Please R& R!