Author's Note: Here you go, chapter 2. Took me forever to get this done so I hope you like it. It;s a bit filler-y but I wanted to take some times to sort of introduce the students. I know that Edelgard, Petra, and Hubert don't get much "screen time" but Edelgard did a lot last chapter along with the other house leaders, Petra is hard to write, and Hubert is getting a support dedicated to him.
Now, you may be wondering what I mean by that last one. Well its simple, I will be making a collection of short stories called Fifth Path Supports. I figured that since this chapter is called "Meet the Students" and has a very slice-of-life-y feel it would be the perfect time to introduce it. Check it out via my profile or heading over to Zelda Universe or Bulbagarden.
Part One
White Clouds
Meet the Students
Upon arriving at her room yesterday, Byleth collapsed into her bed and passed out from exhaustion. She hadn't realized how tired she was before. Apparently (and understandably), traveling back in time five years took a lot out of you.
Because having a good night's sleep is apparently overrated, Byleth immediately started having nightmares. They were similar to the nightmares Dimitri had described to her in that they were memories. All the death she had seen was laid bare. Like a morbid photo album with moving pictures.
She, of course, saw scenes from all the battles she had participated in. Soldiers from both sides striking each other down. Some hesitated, and were killed. Others struck their opponent down without a second thought.
There were also specific scenes. The deaths of her students. Ferdinand being impaled by Ingrid's spear. Raphael falling under a hail of arrows. Bernadetta burning to death atop Grondor Field's central hill. Felix and Sylvain fighting back-to-back and being overrun, dying together like they had promised. And finally, Dimitri and Edelgard killing each other, right before Byleth accidentally froze time.
These nightmares didn't last forever, though, and eventually they dissipated, leaving Byleth in a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
Byleth was woken up by a pillow to the face. She wasn't entirely sure where it came from and she was too tired to care.
"Wake up!" Shouted a voice that was almost definitely Sothis.
Byleth removed the pillow and turned over. "Five more minutes." She groaned.
"You've got work to do!" Sothis shouted.
"Saving Fódlan can wait, I'm tired." Byleth complained.
"Not that work (though you should get on that) you're other work!" Sothis shouted. "You're a teacher, remember!"
Byleth immediately sprang upright. "Oh crap! What time is it!"
"8:15." Sothis said. She had managed to take on a semi-physical form again, which apparently included pillow throwing. Under normal circumstances Byleth would have asked about that, but at the moment she was panicking so she didn't.
"I'm 15 minites late!" Byleth yelled. "Oh crap oh crap oh crap!"
The new-ish teacher leaped out of bed and ran out the door. She sped through the Monastery, just barely avoiding bowling over several monks. A few minutes later, she barged into the Black Eagles classroom and took her place behind her desk.
"Sorry I'm late, everyone." She said.
There was an awkward silence. Byleth remembered that Manuela had only told the three house leaders that she was the new professor. And now that she thought about it, even the house leaders probably didn't know what house she'd chosen. Thankfully, Byleth was given a perfect segue by Caspar.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"I'm your new teacher." Byleth said. "My name is Byleth." She picked up a piece of chalk and wrote her name on the blackboard. "Or Professor Byleth or just Professor. Take your pick. I already know all of your names so there's no need for introductions."
"This is a joke, right?" Caspar asked. "You're an actor and the real teacher is going to come out from behind the blackboard or something."
"No, I'm pretty sure I'm your teacher and not an actor." Byleth said, a twinge of annoyance in her voice.
"But you don't look anything like a teacher." Caspar said. "You're a complete mess."
"Hold on, Caspar!" Dorothea scolded. "You're being quite rude."
Linhardt yawned. "You know it's a waste of time to expect politeness from him." He looked at Byleth. "That said, you do appear quite disheveled, Professor."
Byleth rubbed the back of her head. She had been too frantic to notice it before but she had a serious case of bedhead. Either that or it was a result of yesterday's fight. In her line of work (both as a mercenary and a general) it was hard to tell.
"Yesterday was a long day." She said. "In more ways than one. Right, first up, I'm going to do a roll call, just to make sure everyone's here. I know it sounds childish but it'll help me learn your names."
Byleth rummaged around in her desk for a list of students that Seteth had told her was in there. She pulled it out and began reading off names.
"Edelgard von Hresvelg."
"Present." Edelgard said politely.
"Hubert von Vestra."
"I am... currently present." Hubert said. Somehow, he managed to make even the simplest of statements sound creepy.
"Petra Macneary."
"I am here." Petra replied.
"Linhardt von Hevring." There was no response. "Uh… Linhardt?"
Byleth looked at where Linhardt was sitting and saw that he'd fallen asleep. Ever helpful, Caspar nudged the sleeping boy with his elbow. "Hey Linhardt, wake up!"
Linhardt slowly lifted his head off the desk. "Huh?" He said blearily. "Oh, is class over?"
"No, I'm taking attendance." Byleth said.
"Oh, how childish." Linhardt replied tiredly. "I'm going back to sleep now." He lay his head back down on the table.
"Okay then." Byleth said, sufficiently convinced that Linhardt was, indeed, here. "Moving on. Dorothea Arnault."
"Present." Dorothea said.
"Caspar von Bergliez."
"I'm here and ready for a fight!" Caspar shouted.
"Save the fighting for weapons training." Byleth said. "Ferdinand von Aegir."
Ferdinand stood up and raised his arm to the sky dramatically. "I, Ferdinand von Aegir, noblest of nobles, am present! Know that I shall put the utmost effort into my education, for that is the noble standard! In addition, I shall surpass Edelgard in every way! Anything she can do, I can-"
"Okay, that's enough." Byleth interrupted. "Please sit down."
Ferdinand looked down as if he had just realized he was standing. This being Ferdinand, it was entirely possible that he had.
"Oh, ah, yes, I apologize." He said sheepishly, sitting back down.
Byleth reached the final name on the list. "Bernadetta von Varley."
There was a silence, just as there was for Hubert and Linhardt. Byleth scanned the room but couldn't find Bernadetta anywhere.
"Has anybody seen Bernadetta?" She asked.
She probably should have expected this. While she hadn't interacted much with the Black Eagles the first time around she did know that Bernadetta was a notorious recluse who never left her room except to go to class and on missions.
Petra leaned over to look under her desk. "I have found her." She said. "Bernadetta, please be coming out from under the desk."
"Bernie's not here right now!" The desk, or rather, Bernadetta under the desk squeaked.
Byleth sighed. Her first sigh of the day and likely the first of many more to come. "Bernadetta, why are you hiding?" She asked.
"I'm not hiding!" Bernadetta squeaked.
"It seems like you are." Byleth said.
"No!" Bernadetta shrieked. "I'm not hiding because I'm not here right now! I'm... somewhere else!" Bernadetta paused and then changed her tone, sounding as if she'd just had the most amazing idea. "Yeah, that's it, I'm somewhere else! Not in this room or hiding under the desk!"
"Does anybody know how to get Bernadetta out from under the desk?" Byleth asked her class. "Is there, like, some trick or do I need to just drag her out by her collar?"
"Please don't!" Bernadetta shouted.
"Perhaps you could bribe her." Hubert suggested.
Byleth raised her finger as if to protest. "That's… not a bad idea, actually."
"I could bake her a cake." Dorothea said.
As if this had been rehearsed the entire class sans Dorothea and Linhardt (who had fallen asleep) shouted in unison "No!"
"I do not mean to be offending you, Dorothea, but your cooking is, what is the word, horrendous." Petra said.
"Cake isn't a bad idea, though." Byleth said. She crouched down to Bernadetta's level. The recluse was curled into a ball with a book over her head. "Hey Bernadetta, if I get you some cake will you come out?"
"M-maybe." Bernadetta squeaked.
"Then it's settled." Byleth said. "Tomorrow I promise I'll bring some cake to class, but you'll still need to come out from under the desk today as a downpayment."
Byleth stood up and returned to her desk. She waited for Bernadetta to come out from under her desk and then took out a stack of textbooks which she passed around to everybody.
"Okay, everyone's got a textbook?" Byleth asked. She didn't wait for a response. "Good. Open to page…" She flipped through the book and came to a page she liked. "662. This hopefully shouldn't bore you to death and if it does we have healers on hand."
And thus began the first day of class for the Black Eagles under the tutelage of Professor Byleth Eisner. It would be one the students would remember for years to come. If it wasn't, this wouldn't be a very interesting story.
"So how was class?" Sothis asked upon Byleth's return to her room.
"Chaotic." Byleth replied, sitting down on her bed. "I've already given out my first detention. And what have you been doing?"
"I've been experimenting with my abilities." Sothis explained. "I've discovered that I can still take a physical, albeit intangible, form that's invisible to everyone but you. Curiously, it seems I cannot leave the Monastery, nor can I cross the bridge to the cathedral. I presume that I simply cannot stray too far from you, as if you are an anchor to which I am tied."
"So what would happen if you were all the way over here and I left the Monastery for a far away village?" Byleth asked.
"I do not know." Sothis said, rubbing her chin. "Perhaps my physical form would dissipate and I would return to dwelling within your empty head."
"Was that really necessary?" Byleth asked, slightly offended.
"Yes." Sothis said. She then continued explaining what she'd learned. "I've also discovered I am able to manipulate objects to an extent."
"Like that pillow you threw at me this morning." Byleth said.
"Exactly." Sothis replied. "Speaking of, this morning I believe you mentioned something about "Saving Fódlan." Perhaps we should start planning about that."
"Right." Byleth said. "We should start with what we know. First: There's two conspiracies here. One is the "Flame Emperor's" attempt to start a war. The other is an unknown group with unknown motives who the "Flame Emperor" is working with, albeit, begrudgingly or so he claims. Second: Edelgard is the Flame Emperor. In hindsight that should have been obvious. They have the same color scheme and she was literally calling herself "Emperor." But that's not the point. Third: Edelgard, as the Flame Emperor has several people working for her. Hubert, obviously, and The Death Knight, who we're pretty sure is Jeritza but never actually confirmed it.
Fourth: Tomas is secretly an evil wizard named Solon. He plans to kidnap Flayn and in the process install another mole, Monica aka Kronya, who kills my father. They also plan to infect Remire Village with some sort of magic insanity plague and turn students into Demonic Beasts in the old Chapel. We need to stop all of this and keep all our friends and allies from dying, especially my dad."
Huh. When you said it all out loud it sounded kind of ridiculous and convoluted. But it was true, unfortunately.
"Sounds about right." Sothis said. "The only problem is figuring out how to do all this."
"Well, we've got some time to figure it out." Byleth said. "If memory serves, neither Edelgard nor the unknown group make moves until Lonato's revolt in about two months." Byleth smiled. "I do have an idea, though. I doubt that Bandit Leader knows much but capturing him instead of killing him might not be a bad idea."