Part 1 — Lone Moon
The evacuation of Garreg Mach Monastery and its surrounding settlements had been in full swing by the time the Adrestian Empire arrived at the Church of Seiros' doorstep. They did not seem to pay the fleeing civilians much mind; the Monastery and its faculty were the full focus of every soldier and every beast in the invading army.
Rhea took Byleth aside before the conflict to confer (symbolically, for now) her sacred duties as the head of the Church to him. As the new embodiment of Fódlan's progenitor god, he was the only one truly fit to protect the land should Garreg Mach fall.
When the Empire's army began to flood the town on the Monastery outskirts, even the Archbishop took to the battlefield. She served as the last line of defense with Seteth, Hanneman and Manuela. But it was Byleth who took point and strategized for the Blue Lions and Golden Deer. Opinions on the conflict varied, and some were scared heading into the fight… But everyone knew this was what they had been training for — the chance to protect their home and their friends.
Edelgard held nothing back with her invasion.
Troops filled every street and alleyway in the small town, broken into well-oiled battalions led by highly skilled commanders. Ladislava, captain of Edelgard's personal guard, swept the grounds with a band of wyvern-riding knights to slaughter standalone Knights of Seiros. Reinforcements for the Church were held at bay by the forces of the Death Knight and Hubert, who personally commanded a bevy of Winged Demonic Beasts: The same blackened-bandaged ilk which had joined the battle in the Holy Tomb but granted flight and kept under control by hefty stone masks.
There were many avenues to cover — perhaps too many for one person to truly grasp. But Byleth had a few advantages when tackling the monumental task, not the least of which being the intuition of a dulled omnipresence deep in the recesses of his mind.
First and foremost was the trust he held in his class. Be they of noble or common blood, every youth on the battlefield was experienced beyond their years and could easily hold their own against an army of soldiers. That gave him the freedom to join the fight himself. He brought the almighty Sword of the Creator down to the eastern front alongside Felix, Annette, Flayn and Mercedes, where the Death Knight patiently waited for a challenger underneath battlements that opened into a sprawling park.
They also had a potent advantage that Edelgard's army could never hope to best: The immense power buried deep within the Hero's Relics many of his students carried.
Running through the middle of the town was a long, ornate road lined by slim, babbling rivers of water. At the northern tip of the road stood Rhea at the base of the staircase leading into Garreg Mach's marketplace. At the southern tip stood Edelgard, patiently waiting for her men to clear the path ahead.
Randolph, a Warrior promoted to general status since the Empress' coup, led the band she sent up that ornate road. He and Ladislava shared pale red eyes and absolute fealty to Edelgard, distinguishing them from the faceless soldiers under their command.
Yet his assaulting force was completely unprepared for a dive-bombing Pegasus that hid its approach in the golden glare of the setting sun. By the time it reached the ground, carrying Ingrid and Sylvain, it was too late. The Blue Lions cleared out all six footsoldiers at once, using their familial heirlooms to knock most of them asunder with powerful swipes charged by scarlet energy. Randolph himself fell back to the hefty hooves of Ingrid's steed, passing out with a sore chest.
As quick as they arrived, the two students flew off again. Adrestian archers manning planted ballistae in the lawns surrounding the approach to Garreg Mach fired at will. Ingrid was a little too fast, but their projectiles chased her into the reach of Ladislava's band of wyverns. They proceeded to chase the Blue Lions' lone flier and her accomplice through the sky all across town.
The grounded archers continued to focus on hitting Ingrid, which left them susceptible to surprise blasts of frozen magic cast by Marianne as she ran down the central avenue. It took two attacks to completely freeze the Adrestian soldier in the leftmost ballistae, and by then the rightmost archer noticed her assault.
He aimed his immense weapon toward the blue-haired girl while she was turned away. Just when it was ready to fire, however, he's pulled out of the device by the strong grasp of Raphael's gauntlet. The large commoner, typically never seen without rations even in the heat of battle, was unusually focused.
Rather than defeating the soldier himself, Raphael tosses his captive back into the dirt and lets him get trampled by the combined charge of fellow Golden Deer Leonie and Lorenz; each having circled around Byleth's combat with the Death Knight so they could liberate guard towers in the southeastern part of town.
Once the ballistae were cleared, Ashe and Ignatz took them over. Raphael, of course, helped his shy, bespectacled friend into the rightmost device as Ashe moved Marianne's frozen victim out of the other on his own.
Their bolts were trained on the Demonic Beasts who flew above the skyline of buildings from the perspective of that central pathway. Hilda and Dedue were kept at bay by the hurricane gusts of wind that blew each time they flapped their wings, and Claude struggled to take either beast at the forefront down on his own despite standing on the roof of an old apothecary to get a better vantage.
As Marianne turned her attention to the Demonic Beast's threatening aura, so potent it was practically caustic, she did not notice when Randolph begins to rise. The commander gets to his feet and brandishes his large steel axe with murderous intent.
"I have no choice but to distinguish myself in this fight," he says just loud enough to pull over Marianne's stunned gaze. "I am Randolph von Bergliez. Commit it to memory, it's the last name you'll ever hear!"
He runs at the cleric, footing bogged down by the hefty armor his status afforded.
That slower approach gives Marianne time to back away until she can calm her heavy breathing and steel herself for another freezing bolt.
"Stay back!" She cries, voice wavering.
Her attack lands and bursts against Randolph's right arm, causing him to briefly stumble as his spiked shoulder plate is encased in ice. Yet the distraction is brief, and soon he's running at Marianne full-force once again.
"I won't fail!" He says with his axe raised to strike.
Marianne's eyes widen, as she looks up at the glinting steel, too afraid to move.
Luckily, Lysithea slides in at that moment with her right hand extended.
"Seraphim!"
As she shouts, an orb of heavenly light launches from her outstretched palm. It explodes at Randolph's feet in a dazzling display befitting a caravan of fireworks and lets out a highly pressured wave of energy. Both Randolph and Marianne fly back as Lysithea shifts her arms in front of her face and holds her ground.
Once the explosion settles and the ground stops rumbling, a blackened residue is left behind on the superheated ground. Lysithea straightens out her posture brushes off her uniform before turning to run after Marianne — now sprawled out on her back.
"Hey! Are you okay?" The white-haired girl asks as she leans over Marianne.
"I think so…" Marianne slowly sits up with a groan, and then puts her right hand on her forehead. "That was incredible, Lysithea."
Just as the young girl was about to reach out and help her former classmate, she pulls her hand back to her chest. The compliment, as genuinely as Marianne delivered it, left her looking sour.
"How have we never studied magic together?" The blue-haired girl continues. "I would be far more useful if I could achieve a quarter your strength."
Lysithea grits her teeth and looks away, fist balled and shaking.
"Because I wouldn't want that for you," she says. Marianne's happy expression falters. "I wouldn't wish this power on anyone."
Before Marianne can get a word in edgewise, Lysithea turns to find Randolph had slipped away while they were distracted. A tactical retreat. She glowers and curses under her breath before running to one of the alleyways at the far end of the western lawn to join the fight against the Winged Demonic Beasts.
Marianne is left looking devastated as she sits on the floor.
"Was it something I said?" She mumbles.
Maybe she wasn't cut out for friends, that nagging voice repeated in the back of her head. Clearly people didn't enjoy spending time with her, and were willing to say anything to get away from her ghastly presence.
It'd been some time since those thoughts unburied themselves. As of late she was able to chase them away by thinking of Byleth… Or Dimitri. But he had been so distant since everything erupted with Edelgard that Marianne felt cast aside.
Yet she could still hear Dimitri's voice as clearly as if they had talked the day prior. Every time he spoke she melted at the sound, even if it was just saying—
"Marianne?"
She yelps and looks up, finding the Prince conjured by her thoughts.
Dimitri looked worse for wear: His armor scratched and spackled with dirt and blood, his eyes sullen from a lack of sleep, and his golden hair disheveled. Yet the calm humanity he emanated was still obvious as he reached a gloved hand out to the girl.
She eagerly takes it, letting Dimitri help pull her to her feet.
"Thank you," she mumbles with her eyes cast downward as she brushes dust off her long skirt. "Lysithea's spells pack a punch, don't they?"
Dimitri nods and runs a hand through his hair, the other digging the blunt end of his lance into a crevice between the road's bricks. He looks off at the Demonic Beasts and sees more evidence of her explosive power knocking one from the sky.
"Indeed. She and Annette are in entirely different leagues."
Marianne immediately notes that his tone lacks its old energy. Something stabbed at her heart, the thought that perhaps she had screwed things up with him too and they would never get to talk over sorbet as they once did.
A silence settles, but Marianne breaks it before Dimitri can return to the fray.
"Dimitri?" Her voice is weak, but still catches his full attention.
"Yes?"
"I know it isn't exactly the most opportune time," she begins with a glance at the fighting and fires breaking out all across town. The distraction leaves her question trailing off, but when she looks back at the Prince her words come out with a stronger conviction.
"But before things get too out of control, I was hoping we could talk." She swallows back a hard lump of nerves. "About that night at the ball."
Dimitri's shoulders slump and his eyes dart away. His entire body quivers with hesitation, and the sight drives Marianne to silence again.
"I think we should talk about it too," he manages softly.
Marianne perks up, surprised.
"But not in the middle of a battlefield."
Just when she begins to deflate, Dimitri raises her head up with a hand on her cheek. Marianne's eyes widen and her face runs red.
"We'll talk about it soon," he assures with a slight smile. "I promise."
The girl nods and presses her head into his hand a little more.
"I'll hold you to that."
Dimitri chuckles, and then he turns to look toward Edelgard off in the middle distance. His entire energy shifts, like an animal bristling its fur.
"For now, I'm afraid I'm being held to other promises," he says in a slight, yet severe voice. "My father. My stepmother. My dear friends. They want her head. They want her life. They've whispered as much to me."
As he begins to walk away, limbs pulled along as if he were a marionette, Marianne quickly grows concerned. She follows his motion.
"The chance to answer their pleas has arrived, at long last!" Dimitri says with a suddenly giddy, unhinged tone. "I won't rest until I've crushed her skull in my bare hands!"
With that he starts racing toward the unmasked Flame Emperor.
Marianne holds out a hand, muttering for him to wait. However, she knew the gesture would be futile. Not even Byleth could hold him back when he got like this; what could she possibly hope to do?
One thought comes to mind. A thought that drives her eyes down to a discarded lance.