Author's Note: Finally! I'm finally done! Sorry for disappearing on y'all like that, It's not that I got writer's block, I just really hated writing this chapter which is why it's not as great as previous ones. I just wanted to get it done so I could move onto chapters I actually want to write. The only reason this chapter exists at all is because it would be kind of weird to skip over the Battle of Eagle and Lion considering how important it is.
Anyways, onto stuff that actually matters, here's a bit of a spoiler: Hapi's in this chapter. I'm bringing that up now because it won't make sense if you haven't read the supports. That's right, the supports actually matter.
Basically Byleth ran into Hapi and made her her teacher's aide. Go read the supports if you want the full story. Don't know why you wouldn't already be doing that but I suppose a lot of you figured it'd just like the Supports in actual Fire Emblem games: useless. Seriously, they affect nothing except for who gets together with who and some line changes in regards to character interactions (at least, in Three Houses) which is a real shame because you get a lot of Character Development in some Supports that just doesn't carry over to the rest of the game, not to mention some supports literally follow the same story beats as other supports (looking at you, Dorothea) making them completely interchangeable. The only upside is learning some character backstory but aside from that it affects nothing. Nothing important at least. Problems of having 40+ characters in a game that only focuses on three of them. Maybe four counting Byleth (Rhea doesn't count because she spends most of the second half of the game kidnapped, even in her own route!).
Whoof, sorry for the rant. Needed to get that out of my system. Anyways, there's one more thing I need to get out of my way, a review on supports from one montyoverzero. I know it would make more sense to mention this in supports itself but I don't know when I'll be posting the next one so it's here instead. They follow both fics anyways.
So, in the review they posit this interaction between Gatekeeper and Byleth:
Gatekeeper: "Greetings, Professor! Nothing to report! You know, that's a really cool coat-cape thing you're wearing."
Byleth: "Thanks, it has pockets!"
And I am here to say that I am 100% making canon to Fifth Path because I find it hilarious. Thanks montyoverzero.
Well, that's all for now. See you below.
Part One
White Clouds
The New Battle of the Eagle and Lion
After so long it was finally time for the Battle of the Eagle and Lion. Byleth, Manuela, and Hanneman had spent ages planning out how it would go since they obviously couldn't do it the traditional way, what with the new way they were doing things and all. What they finally decided on was a castle siege. Specifically, all the houses would work together to storm and capture a fortress (well, actually they had to capture a flag at the top of the fortress) that had been built on the center hill of Grondor Field. The castle was protected by Knights of Seiros and members of the Blade Breakers (Jeralt's mercenary group), both of which were instructed to go easy on the students. They were the best of the best after all and the students, regardless of their accomplishments, were still students.
It had taken a while to convince Seteth and Rhea to go for this plan. They were very much on the side of tradition for this particular battle. But eventually they were able to get them on board so everything worked out in the end.
Normally, the teachers would participate in the battle but they decided that it was best to leave it to just the students this time. Instead they'd be overseeing from a nearby hill with Seteth and Rhea. Also there was Hapi, who Byleth had found hanging around the Monastery and decided to recruit her as her Teacher's Aide.
"Why do I have to be here again?" Hapi asked.
"As my Aide you have as much of a responsibility to oversee these students as I do." Byleth replied. "Also people were paranoid about leaving you in the Monastery without anybody around to protect it. Sorry." She rubbed the back of her head.
"I'm used to it." Hapi said, making a face that Byleth had come to recognize as her version of a sigh.
Sometimes, Byleth wondered how long it had taken her to learn how to keep from sighing. Given her personality, it must have been hard.
"Are we ready?" Rhea asked.
"I think we've given them enough time to prepare." Manuela replied.
Hanneman nodded in agreement. "Time to sound the horn, I think."
The fortress the students had to assault was atop the hill in the center of the field. This meant it has an excellent defensive position, as it allowed its defenders to have a clear view of almost the entire field. This also meant that the students would have to be sneakier with their tactics. Luckily, they had two of the best schemers in the world with them: Claude, the future Master Tactician, and Hubert, essentially the Black Eagle's backup Byleth when it came to tactics.
The students were given a set of tents to imitate a camp. There were sleeping tents that would likely go unused, an equipment and supplies tent where they'd keep their equipment and supplies (obviously), and a tent for strategizing where the three house leaders were currently doing just that.
"So we all agree there's no way a full frontal assault will work." Claude said, poring over a map of the fortress.
"That is correct." Edelgard affirmed. "That way lies failure."
"Then we've got to find another way in." Claude said, slamming his fist into his hand.
"Hmm…" Dimitri hmm'd, rubbing his chin as he looked over the blueprint. "Perhaps… we could sneak in through here." He pointed to a side entrance for servants. "I highly doubt it would be guarded."
"That's actually a good idea." Claude said. "We'd need a distraction, though."
"I think me and Dimitri can handle that." Edelgard said. "I'll lead a platoon in the back and he'll lead a team in the front."
"Leaving me to lead the infiltration team." Claude said confidently. "Excellent."
Just then, the sound of a horn rang out across the field. It played a generic tune that you've probably heard a million times.
"Students of the Officer's Academy, Knights of Seiros, Blade Breakers!" The voice of Seteth, volume increased by a spell from Rhea, boomed. "The New Battle of the Eagle and Lion begins… now!"
"Well, guess that ends that planning session." Claude said. "Let's pick our troops and move out."
The first part of the plan went off without a hitch. Dimitri and Edelgard's teams successfully distracted the Knights, leaving the side with the servant's entrance essentially undefended.
It was only when they entered the fortress that things went wrong. The team consisted of Claude, Hilda, Petra, and Mercedes. Originally their healer was supposed to be Linhardt but Hilda convinced Claude to move him over to Edelgard's team. Something about Lysithea. Claude wasn't entirely sure.
Speaking of Hilda, as the group wandered through the halls, she suddenly spoke up.
"Are you sure this will work, Claude?" She asked in a whisper.
"We've come this far and you're only now having reservations?" Claude replied incredulously, also in a whisper.
"Well, the reality that we're actually doing this is only hitting me now." Hilda admitted.
Mercedes placed a hand on Hilda's shoulder. "Relax. I'm sure everything will work out fine."
"Yes, don't be worrying, Hilda." Petra added. "I have heard that this is being, what is the word, ah, comparatively one of Claude's not so crazy plans."
"Er, thanks?" Claude said, unsure if he should take that as a compliment.
Then things went wrong. Around the corner walked a Knight of Seiros. Who knew why. Maybe he was patrolling, maybe he was unaware that the battle had started. It could be any number of reasons. Regardless, he saw the quartet of students and immediately attacked. He took a throwing axe off his hip and threw it at Claude. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to dodge in time and the axe clonked him over the head, knocking him out cold.
While this shocked both Hilda and Mercedes, Petra wasted no time retaliating. She snatched an arrow from Claude's quiver and threw it against the ground where it's top broke apart. A cloud of smoke emanated from the broken tip, obscuring everybody's vision. There was the sound of fighting and when the smoke cleared, Petra stood triumphant over the Knight's unconscious body.
Mercedes was the first one to unfreeze, running over to Claude to assess the damage.
"He's okay, just unconscious." She announced.
"Can you heal him?" Petra asked.
"I can heal the bruising, but he'll still need rest." Mercedes replied. "We may have to call off this mission."
"No." Hilda said suddenly. She put her hands on her hips. "We started this mission, we have to finish it."
Both Mercedes and Petra stared at her, seeming somewhat shocked. Hilda gave them an annoyed look.
"What?" She asked, offended.
"Apologies, Hilda, it is just… you are not often wanting to do missions." Petra pointed out.
Hilda paused for a length of time equivalent to a beat panel in a comic. Then she spoke. "Well this time I do." She said. "Here's our new plan. First, Mercedes will heal Claude. Then, we hide his unconscious body somewhere. Like a closet or something. Then, we keep going forward. Petra, you'll serve as lookout, looking around corners to make sure this doesn't happen again. Borrow some of Claude's smoke arrows, just in case."
If she was being honest with herself, Hilda was almost as surprised as the others with what she was doing. It was true that she'd prefer to do anything but go out and fight. She would do almost anything to avoid it and she was perfectly aware of that fact. So why was she taking a leadership role?
Well, she couldn't really dwell on that now. They had a mission to complete and a flag to capture. She rubbed her chin.
"What's that phrase Claude is always using again?" She wondered aloud. Then she snapped her fingers. "Oh right! Move out!"
It wasn't hard to sneak through the rest of the fortress. The distraction plan was working really well, keeping almost all the attention away from the fortress' interior. Every once in the while they ran into a mercenary or knight they needed to hide from but nothing they couldn't handle.
Eventually, they made it to the top of the central tower. There, in plain sight, was the flag… guarded by a big beefy guy wielding an axe. He seemed like a mercenary, but some of the Knights dressed very contrary to how a Knight should probably dress so it was hard to tell. Thankfully, he hadn't spotted them crouching in the stairwell yet.
"This… may have been a bad idea." Hilda whispered. "Maybe we should just give up."
"We can't do that." Mercedes argued.
"I agree." Petra said. "You said that we have to finish the mission."
"It was the heat of the moment." Hilda protested. "I wasn't thinking straight."
"Well, it is to late to be backing out now." Petra said, taking a step forward.
Hilda grabbed her by the arm. "Hold on, we can't just rush in there. We'll get destroyed."
"So does that mean you are having a plan?" Petra asked, a hint of a smile on her face.
Hilda frowned irritably. "Yes, I do. And don't think I don't know what you're doing."
"I am having no idea what you are talking about." Petra replied.
Hilda crossed her arms and hmmph'd. "Okay, so here's the plan: we use Claude's smoke arrows to hide our presence and then me and Petra attack him while Mercedes grabs the flag."
"That's… not much of a plan." Mercedes pointed out.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Hilda countered.
"Well… no." Mercedes admitted..
"Then we're going with my plan." Hilda replied. She raised three fingers. "On my mark. 3…" She lowered her first finger. Petra took out one of Claude's smoke arrows. "2…" She lowered her second finger. "1…" She lowered the final finger. "Go!"
Petra threw down the smoke arrow at the feet of the guard. Seemingly on instinct, he immediately leaped backwards and scanned the area for any threats. Unfortunately for him, this was almost impossible since he could barely see thanks to the smoke.
Of course, the annoying thing was that the smoke worked both ways. At least, in regards to Hilda and Mercedes. Petra was able to navigate the smoke just fine but Hilda and Mercedes were completely blind, which was bad considering Mercedes' job was to grab the flag.
"I can't see a thing!" Mercedes shouted.
"Okay, in hindsight this was a really bad plan!" Hilda also shouted.
This turned out to be a bad idea as it clued the Mercenary in as to where she was. He swung at her with his axe and she just barely managed to dodge it.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Petra leaped in and whacked him in the back with her training sword, causing him to stumble forward. Hilda needed to jump back again to avoid colliding with him.
"Do not be worrying." Petra reassured them. "I am having your back. Or rather, I am having his back."
"Did you just make a pun?" Hilda asked.
"I have been practicing the language of Fodlan with Claude." Petra replied, dodging a spin attack from the Mercenary.
"Ah, that explains it." Hilda replied.
She swung her axe at the Mercenary, once again causing him to stumble. Petra followed that up with a jab to the gut. This actually managed to knock him over… right on top of Hilda who was too slow to dodge this time.
"Oh, apologies." Petra said.
"It's okay." Hilda squeaked from underneath the Mercenary.
The Mercenary sprung back up, ready to fight some more. But then, as if on cue, the smoke magically cleared and fireworks blasted into the air. Mercedes had found the flag and captured it. She raised it into the air triumphantly.
"The battle is over!" Seteth's voice boomed. "The students win!"
"We did it!" Mercedes shouted excitedly.
"Yay." Hilda said from the ground, weakly raising her fist in the air.
To celebrate the students' victory, Byleth threw the biggest party Garreg Mach had ever seen that year. Even bigger than her birthday party though not bigger than the ball that would be coming up in a few months. Admittedly, she had had to do some rather undignified begging and pleading to convince Seteth to let her do it, but she barely had any dignity anyways so whatever.
"This is quite the party." Hapi said casually, taking a sip of lemonade.
"I try." Byleth said, proudly placing her fists on her hips.
Then her face lit up as she spotted three girls. Specifically, Mercedes, Petra, and Hilda. She dashed over to them.
"Hey, it's the ladies of the hour!" She shouted, putting her arms around the three of them.
Hilda wriggled out of Byleth's grip. "Thanks, Professor." She said, sounding slightly irked. "But I didn't really do anything."
"Didn't do anything?" Asked a voice. Byleth released the girls and they all turned to see Claude approaching with a glass of lemonade. "You stepped up and took charge like a true leader. I wouldn't call that not doing anything. Though did you have to shove me in a closet?"
Hilda broke out into laughter. "Me? A true leader? Now your jokes have gone too far, Claude. I'm no leader. I'm just a lazy good-for-nothing and we all know it."
"That's not true." Mercedes said, putting a hand on Hilda's shoulder. "If you hadn't stepped up, we would have all lost."
"Mercedes is right." Petra agreed.
Claude held up his lemonade. "A toast to our new backup leader!"
"Huzzah!" Byleth cried, holding up her own glass.
All of them laughed, except for Hilda, who groaned.
Author's Note: Alternate title: The Mock Battle but Worse.
Seriously, I'm really sorry about this but I was tired of writing this chapter and I really didn't want to go on an impromptu seven month hiatus again. Well, technically it was only four and three months but I don't count Omakes as chapters.
One particular victim of my being sick of this was not focusing on all three parts of the plan. I know I should have but that would make this take even longer than it already has. Please don't hate me.
So, on a more humorous note this chapter includes four of the hardest things for me to write:
1. Making sure Edelgard doesn't use the words Goddess or Sothis as exclamations. Ironic, I know, considering my own atheism but even I use religious terms simply out of habit.
2. Hapi not sighing. I have characters sigh a lot as you've probably noticed so writing a character for whom sighing literally summons monsters is really hard.
3. Petra's speech pattern. I think I pulled it off quite well here but it's really hard to write without either underplaying it or overplaying it.
And
4. Trying to convince you that Hilda is lazy when there is no evidence of that in this fic whatsoever. Like, she's definitely been combat adverse but she's never displayed her willingness to do anything within reason, up to and including manipulating her classmates, to get out of doing work (one of my favorite supports, despite my above rant about them, is when Marianne turns Hilda's own manipulation tactics back in her). I've tried to show off her lazier tendencies but it always ends up turning into attempts to demonstrate her ADHD tendencies that I made up for this fic (how well this works is up to you). As I'm ADHD myself, this might be my desire to see some accurately portrayed ADHD people in fiction, even fanfiction, leaking through. Seriously, most portrayals of ADHD are just "haha look at the funny person who gets distracted a lot" not to mention that most of them generally have ADHD as a sign of either being dumb, being a Cloudcuckoolander (there's your TV Tropes link for the day, at least if you're not on FF Dot Net which I just discovered requires you to write out the Dot. There's a lot of awkward blank spaces in these Author's Notes aren't there), or both. That second one isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the Cloudcuckoolander can be a fun character (see: Pinkie Pie and Ace Attorney's Herlock Sholmes), but the fact that these kinds of characters tend to demonstrate traits similar to mental disorders does result in the coloring of a lot of people's perceptions of these disorders as the people who have them just being weird in quirky is a bit problematic.
Wait, wasn't this supposed to be funny. Uh… I just 100%'d Kirby and the Forgotten Land. That's not funny but it is pretty cool. So, yeah.