Author's Note: "Hey, I just wrote a chapter full of combat scenes which I'm really not fond of writing, what should I write next? I know! Another chapter full of combat scenes!"

-Me

So, yeah. This one's not as long as my previous one, but I've read shorter chapters. Much shorter chapters. Not much to say in this Author's Note. More below.

Author's Edit: I have edited the chapter a bit to make it look a bit better. More specifically, I removed the joke about age ratings because of my more lax view on swearing and the unapologetic use of it in later chapters.

Part One

White Clouds

The Black Eagles' First Mission

Zanado, the Red Canyon. A place sacred to the Church of Seiros. The perfect place to hide out from the Knights of Seiros. After all, they wouldn't dare defile their Holy Place by killing there. It was also the perfect place to be fired by your employer.

"What is this bullshit?!" Kostas, the hitherto unnamed bandit leader, shouted. "All I was told was to kill as many noble pipsqueaks as possible! Nobody said anything about the Knights of damn Seiros being there! Not to mention Jeralt the freaking Blade Breaker!"

"You have proven yourself worthless." The Flame Emperor said calmly. "Distracted by something so trivial. I had hoped you would achieve your goal despite the setback, but now a child of the Knights' former captain is in play. How interesting."

"Hey, this isn't what I agreed to!" Kostas shouted.

The Flame Emperor ignored him. "Hiring a mercenary as a professor. What was that woman thinking?"

"Are you listening to me?!" Kostas shouted, stamping his foot. "How do we finish this?!"

The Flame Emperor turned towards Kostas. He couldn't see their face but he could tell they were glaring at him. "You die."

Kostas took a step back. "Wh-what!"

"Underestimating the Knights was an amateur mistake, one you will pay for. The road to eternal torment awaits you all. Now I must locate your replacements."

The Flame Emperor turned to leave but they were stopped by a voice.

"Hold, Flame Emperor."

Seemingly out of nowhere, a creepy old man in black robes appeared. His voice was soft and raspy. His eyes were pure black and pure evil.

"Solon." The Flame Emperor said coldly. Under their mask they narrowed their eyes. "What are you doing here."

"We can't let our friend go without rewarding him." Solon said, gesturing towards Kostas. "He may have failed, but he still battled well. He deserves payment before we let him go. A, what do you call it, severance package."

"Who the hell are you!?" Kostas shouted.

"I am a friend." Solon said. "Hold out your hands."

Kostas held out his hands, deciding that it was best not to argue with this scary old man, even if he didn't trust him one bit. Solon took something out of his robes. He placed the object in Kostas' hand and closed his fingers around it.

"Use this if you are ever in trouble." Solon said. "It will make you stronger but it will come with a cost."

Solon turned and walked away. The Flame Emperor followed.

"Why did you give him a stone?" They asked.

"The new professor suspects me." Solon replied.

"What?" The Flame Emperor asked in surprise. "Impossible. No one should know that there is a spy in Garreg Mach."

"During the very first staff meeting, whenever she looked at me her gaze was full of suspicion." Solon said.

"You believe she suspects you based on a look?" The Flame Emperor asked. "Such evidence is flimsy at best."

"Maybe so, but we cannot afford to take any chances." Solon said. "That monster intends to send the professor and her class after these bandits. If that bandit is smart or, depending on your point of view, stupid, he'll use the stone. That should be enough to take care of any… meddlers."

Byleth rubbed her eyes as she walked into Rhea's Audience Chamber. Why did these meetings have to be so early in the morning? Was it too much to ask to be allowed to sleep in every once in a while? It was a weekend for Sothis' sake.

"Professor Byleth." Rhea said. "Thank you for coming. My condolences for losing the Mock Battle."

"No, it's fine." Byleth said blearily. "I'm not really too upset about it. Edelgard's pretty depressed, though." She stretched. "So, what's going on?"

"I have called you here to tell you of your mission for the month ahead." Rhea said. "Your class is to dispose of some bandits causing trouble nearby."

"What do you mean "dispose of some bandits?"" Byleth asked.

"Those affiliated with Garreg Mach Monastery have a moral obligation to help those in need, regardless of social standing." Seteth explained. "Students are no exception. Each month, before the newly birthed moon departs, each house of students must complete their assigned mission. You shall work to complete the task at hand alongside your students and report back to the archbishop before the deadline."

Byleth was suddenly wide awake. She held up her hands. "Wait! Hold on! You want me to take students into real battle? Kids?" Byleth knew that most of her students wouldn't appreciate being called kids but that's what they were. Sure there were a few exceptions, Mercedes and Sylvain (22 and 20 respectively) for example, but for the most part the students were still in their late teens.

"It pains me as well." Rhea said. She looked genuinely sad about the fact. "I would not request this of you and the students were it not absolutely necessary."

Seteth nodded gravely. "Normally we would send the Knights of Seiros to deal with a mission such as this but recently they have been stretched thin. More and more incidents have been popping up. Bandit attacks, rebellions, riots. We simply do not have the numbers to deal with it all. Thus, this task falls to you."

"But what if one of my students dies?" Byleth asked. "They're only kids."

"I have full faith that you can keep your students alive and complete your mission." Rhea said.

Byleth sighed. "Alright, I'll brief my students first thing tomorrow." She turned to leave but Seteth stopped her.

"One more thing." He said. "We don't have an exact location on the bandits yet, but rest assured we're working on it. As soon as we find out the location we will relay it to you and you and your class will head out immediately."

"Understood." Byleth said, and left.

What was she so worried about? They had all survived the first time. But that was with the Blue Lions. The Black Eagles had much fewer combat minded members. Still, maybe she should have some more faith in her students. After all, they'd survived worse. Well, they would survive worse. If they survived this.

The next morning in class Byleth explained the mission to her students. Their reactions were mostly expected. Half of them were excited, the other half would rather do anything but head into battle.

"Woah! We're going after bandits!" Caspar shouted enthusiastically. "Awesome!"

"You should be less excited about this!" Byleth said. "This isn't a Mock Battle! You could die!"

"We won't die!" Caspar said, pumping his fist. "This is what we've been training for!"

"Caspar is right." Petra said. "We have been doing training for a month. It is about the time, er, about time we should be putting it to good use."

Byleth sighed. "I suppose you're right. Still, I don't like the idea of you going into battle."

"In that case, I'll just stay here, safe and away from danger." Bernadetta said. She had climbed under the desk as she usually did. Byleth had given up trying to get her to come out and just let her do her work down there.

"I hope you don't mind if I stay here too." Linhardt said. "I don't do well around blood."

Byleth shook her head. "Unfortunately you don't have a choice. Unless you're injured or sick you have to come." At the words "injured or sick" Bernadetta smiled slyly. "And please don't go getting yourself injured or sick just to get out of this." Byleth added. Bernadetta sulked.

Byleth went over to her desk and rifled through her desk drawer. She pulled out a textbook, opened it, and headed over to the black board. Holding the book in one hand, Byleth grabbed a piece of chalk.

"Now, if we're going to send you into real battle the very least I can do is make sure you're properly prepared." She said. "Today we're going to go over more advanced fighting styles and how to both perform them and defend against them. Take out your textbooks and open them to page 104."

A few weeks later, Byleth received word of the bandits' location. Just like the first time they were hiding out in Zanado, the Red Canyon. They obviously figured the Knights of Seiros wouldn't dare battle in such a sacred place. They were probably right.

Unfortunately for them, they wouldn't be fighting the Knights. They would be fighting the Black Eagle House, who were possibly the least pious group in Fódlan (well, the least pious group containing halfway decent people, anyway) and didn't care what was and was not considered holy.

It didn't take long to get to Zanado. They had gone by horse because Seteth didn't trust Byleth or any of her students with pegasi after the detention incident. This was fine by Hubert, who got oddly touchy whenever the subject of flying came up. Byleth didn't quite understand it. The guy flew all the time. What was his problem with pegasi?

When they arrived at their destination they hid behind a rock outcropping to avoid being seen. Byleth laid out the plan.

"Okay, here's the situation." Byleth said, laying out a map of their section of the canyon on the ground. It had been drawn by people who were allowed to ride pegasi and were able to get an overhead view of the canyon. "In their attempt to hide out the bandits have camped themselves out on a large chunk of rock surrounded on all sides by a massive drop of approximately you'll-die-if-you-fall feet. The only ways on or off are two bridges, one to the north" Byleth tapped the north bridge. "And one to the west." She tapped the west bridge. "In other words, they've backed themselves into a corner with nowhere to run which makes our job all that much easier."

Caspar slammed his fist into his palm. "So we just charge in and take them all out! Easy as pie!"

Byleth held up her hand. "I said it would be easier, not a cakewalk. Remember back to the first day of class, lesson two."

Caspar sighed. "Charging in without a plan will get you killed." He recited.

Byleth pointed at him with her thumb perpendicular to her index finger, a gesture we know as the finger gun. "Exactly. So here's the plan: remember those bridges I told you about?" Everyone affirmed that they remembered. "Good. We're going to send two teams over the bridges, one team per bridge, and attack the bandits in a pincer maneuver. Not only will that divide the bandits forces and make them more easily manageable, but it will cut off both of their possible exits."

"Awesome!" Caspar said. "Let's go!" He began to head towards the bridges but Byleth pulled him back before he could fully leave the cover of the rock outcropping.

"Wait!" Byleth said. "I wasn't finished. Before we head over the bridges, we have a different problem to deal with. Look."

The Black Eagles peeked out from behind the outcropping and Byleth pointed towards the bridges. Standing in front of them were some very bored looking bandits having a conversation about baking.

"Guards." Byleth said. "There are four of them, two for each bridge. We have to take them out, preferably quietly. Petra, Bernadetta, you're up."

"What!?" Bernadetta shouted. "Me!?"

"Shh." Byleth shushed. "Yes, you. Despite your outburst just now you, along with Petra, are one of our sneakiest students."

"B-b-but I c-can't…" Bernadetta stammered.

"Yes you can." Byleth said, grabbing Bernadetta by the shoulders. "Just remember, the sooner we're finished here the sooner we go home."

Bernadetta nodded. "R-right…"

"Good." Byleth said. "Now go get em. Stealthily."

"You can be counting on us." Petra said.

The two girls disappeared. Petra slipped into a gap between two rocks and Bernadetta scaled the outcropping. Byleth and the rest of the class peeked out from behind the rocks to see what would happen.

After a minute of no activity a sword burst through the chest of one of the north bridge guards. The sword receded and the guard collapsed, revealing Petra standing behind him. She quickly silenced the other guard before he could scream with a slash of her now bloody sword. Meanwhile, over by the west bridge one of the guards had suddenly sprouted a single horn, like a unicorn. Except it wasn't a horn, it was an arrow. The same happened to the other guard and both of them fell to the ground.

Petra gave them the signal for all clear and the Black Eagles emerged from their hiding place. They headed over to the edge of the north bridge. Bernadetta leaped off the top of the outcropping and stuck the landing.

"I-I got em!" She shouted with a strange mix of pride, horror, and disbelief. "I actually got em!" Her expression and tone turned sullen. "Can we go home now?"

Byleth shook her head. "Unfortunately, not yet. We still have work to do."

She looked over Bernadetta and Petra. Petra was still holding her blood covered sword. Bernadetta had shouldered her bow and her hands were trembling ever so slightly. These kids were made of strong stuff, managing to go through with killing like that.

"Alright, time to split into teams." Byleth said. "Edelgard will lead one team over the west bridge and I'll lead the other over the north bridge. Bernadetta, Caspar, Hubert, you'll go with Edelgard. Dorothea, Ferdinand, Petra, you're with me."

"What about me?" Linhardt asked. He was trying his best to avoid looking at the guard's dead bodies. "Am I simply to stay back and watch, because that's fine with me. This mission is cutting into my nap time." He yawned.

"No." Byleth said. "You are to shadow the rest of us and administer healing as needed."

Linhardt sighed. "I expected as much."

"Alright, everyone's got their orders?" Byleth asked. She didn't wait for an answer. "Good. Black Eagles, move out!"

On the other side of the two bridges the bandits were on edge. Being chewed out and threatened by a terrifying guy in a white mask and a creepy old guy with black eyes will do that to you. To compound things, a few of them could have sworn they saw a Knight of Seiros on a pegasus flying overhead. So naturally, when one of them got hit in the back and killed by a flying axe, they freaked out.

"It's the Knights of Seiros!" One of them shouted.

"We're all gonna die!" Another shouted.

"Shut your traps!" Kostas shouted. "It's not the Knights! Look!"

The bandits all turned to see the Black Eagle House, who were certainly not the Knights of Seiros. Kostas laughed.

"See! It's just a bunch of kids!"

Caspar, who had thrown the axe, clenched his fists. "Who are you calling a kid!"

Kostas cracked his knuckles. "Ha! I can't believe the Knights sent a bunch of noble brats to fight us! Hey kids, why don't you go back to your fancy school before we break your perfect faces."

"That's it! You're really gonna get it now!" Caspar shouted and jumped into the fray, giving one bandit a good solid punch to the face. Very quickly he found himself in the center of a throng of bandits trying to dogpile him.

Byleth and Edelgard looked amongst their teammates. Then they turned towards the mass of bandits and spoke in unison.

"Attack!"

The two teams leaped into battle. Edelgard immediately got to work throwing bandits off of Caspar. Bernadetta scrambled up the nearest rock and began sniping bandits, though her aim was a little shaky and she missed a lot. Hubert became a whirlwind of death and destruction, literally. Dark magic swirled around him like a tornado, killing anyone dumb enough to get near him.

Meanwhile, over by the North Bridge the bandits weren't fairing much better. Byleth became a metaphorical whirlwind of death and destruction, utilizing her indeterminate amount of years of combat experience. Dorothea rained down fire on the bandits. Ferdinand's moves were unnecessarily showy but they still got the job done, felling bandits left and right. Petra disappeared into the crowd and every once in a while a bandit would fall over dead without warning.

It was probably pretty embarrassing for the bandits to be beat up by a bunch of teenagers. Well, it was embarrassing for the ones who were still alive, anyway. If the goddess didn't live in her head, Byleth was sure she'd come down from the heavens and smite them all for desecrating the canyon.

Once Byleth had cleared a sufficient path she pursued her real target, the bandit leader she now knew was named Kostas. She planned to tie him up, drag him back to Garreg Mach, and force him to tell them what he knew. But first she'd have to defeat him.

"Argh!" Kostas shouted. "What are you idiots doing! They're just kids! And noble kids at that!"

"Hey!" Byleth shouted to get his attention.

Kostas turned around and raised his axe. It was a different axe than the one he'd used when he'd attacked the three house leaders. It was two handed and had a wicked sharp blade.

"What!" He shouted.

Byleth looked him straight in the eye with her trademark glare.

Recognition flashed in Kostas' face. "Wait a minute! You're that bitch from before! Because of you I didn't get paid! I'll kill you!"

Kostas charged Byleth, swinging his giant axe. Byleth dodged it easily and stabbed back. The idiot left giant openings whenever he swung, making it easy to get in strikes. Her sword went right through his right shoulder.

Kostas roared and tried to swing again with the slight complication that Byleth had stabbed through his right shoulder.

"Nice try." Byleth said, knocking the axe out of his hand. She swept his legs out from under him, knocking him to the ground, and pointed her sword at his throat. "But you never had a chance.

The entire battle stopped. People stopped hitting each other. Hubert's magic storm petered out. The only person who didn't seem to be frozen in place was Caspar who punched a bandit before he realized what was going on and stopped to stare too.

"So how does a surrender sound?" Byleth asked. Her hand drifted to a coil of rope hanging from her belt. She planned to use it to bind Kostas. Unfortunately, the rope was right next to her knife and Kostas must have thought that's what she was going for because the next thing he did was both insane and unexpected.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out an odd roundish, stone-like object. Too late Byleth recognized it as a crest stone. "I won't let you kill me!" He shouted and clenched down on the stone.

Kostas screamed. Whatever he was holding began to glow a deep red. Black and red… something covered his hand and crept up his arm, eventually covering his whole body. Byleth stepped back as Kostas grew larger and changed shape. From the black and red blob emerged four enormous, sinewy limbs ending in four hand-like appendages with five razor sharp claws each. The black and red whatever it was fell away revealing a massive black head with blood red eyes and more teeth than a shark. The rest of its body wasn't any prettier with very visible veins pulsing with black and red blood. It all ended in a tail as thick as three tree trunks tied together.

"Sothis' Beard." Byleth whispered, shocked.

Where Kostas once stood there was now a massive, terrifying Demonic Beast.

Author's Note: And that's how you write yourself out of a corner! You throw in a giant monster and bam everything's fixed! Okay, maybe I should give some context. My original plan had been to have Byleth capture Kostas and interrogate him or something but then I realized that it wouldn't add anything to the plot and it's not like he could tell her anything useful. The Flame Emperor (honestly why am I even trying to hide the fact that Edelgard's the Flame Emperor. You've probably already played the game and if you haven't I did give a spoiler warning. Wait, did I? Eh, it was implied.) wouldn't give him any useful information.

So to snip that unnecessary dangling plot thread I turned him into a Demonic Beast and called it a day.

On another note, writing this chapter was hard because I've always had this idea that heroes don't kill unless it's absolutely necessary. Get out of here Punisher and Lobo, get in here Spider-Man and Batman. So it was hard to write the characters killing people because of that (even though I was perfectly fine with them killing people while playing the game. Go figure) but it got easier as I went on. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.