Author's Note: You know how I said I was gonna try and space out these chapters? Well that was a fuckin lie. Back with the second chapter of this story people! I apologize if this one's a bit short but I cut it off at the easiest point for me. This chapter might be a bit dialogue heavy as well, I try not to get bogged down in exposition and things that might be boring for you guys but most of it involves an info dump for Xander's backstory and and the magic system for Fire Emblem which I am creating my own version for. It's just easier to make it my own then to keep things deliberately vague like I've seen some other stories do. Some stories have some interesting explanations for Skills and tomes which help but in the end this is my story and I need to establish how the rules work. Glad to see some reviews already on my story, I read every one and I appreciate them. Now, without any further rambling, here's the second chapter!

Disclaimer: Didn't do this in the first chapter but in case anybody tries to get smart with me I don't own Fire Emblem.

Chapter Two-The Dead Rise and I Fuck Up

I spend the time on the march explaining to Lissa how I use such an unusual sword. Normally, I'll try to keep to myself with people I don't know all that well and would get annoyed at someone asking me so many questions but Lissa's too nice for her own good and I have a weakness for girls who don't know how cute they are.

"How do you carry that thing everywhere?" I shrug. "I'm pretty used to the weight by now. The harness helps so I don't have to leverage it on my shoulder all the time but the weight doesn't bother me anymore."

"Wow." Lissa seems to look past my shoulder at the weapon. "How did you even get a weapon like that?"

I grin smugly. "I forged it myself."

"What?!" Lissa gasped and the others turned their attention to us.

Chrom frowned at his sister. "Lissa. What's wrong?"

Lissa smiled at Chrom, excitement shining in her eyes. "Xander made his sword! He's a blacksmith!"

Chrom raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" I nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty capable myself, if I say so. And this beauty is my masterpiece so far. Six feet and two hundred pounds of a steel alloy with four scripts of enchantment."

Robin frowned slightly rubbing a hand over his chin. "Enchantments?"

I beamed. I was actually really proud of this one. "Yup. You know how some weapons, notably the famous ones all have some sort of added effect that make the wielder stronger, faster, that sort of thing? Well, instead of those enchantments, I'm using a script enchantment that emulates how a person uses skills."

Enchanting was a very complex and rare art to use let along master. Most don't know anything about the process except for the fact it is possible. The difficulty in creating an enchantment is akin to making a new tome. Except you have to condense the workings down to a few inscriptions forged into the weapon. More inscriptions increases the complexity and drastically increases the chance of failure for it. For comparison's sake, a Levin sword would be two inscriptions. Bladeless is four. My pride is well earned.

Robin looked at me intrigued. "What if that person doesn't have any skills?"

I shook my head. "Doesn't matter. Anyone can use it as long as they can manipulate their magic through the weapon."

That's the scary part. If enchanting wasn't such a difficult process than any amount of soldiers could be swinging around weapons comparable to mine. Of course, the number of people that can manipulate their magic to use skills isn't exactly great and anyone trying to use Bladeless without training would probably kill themselves, but the point is valid nonetheless.

Chrom whistled. "That sounds amazingly useful."

Robin looked at my sword and a flash of what I recognized as greed shone through his eyes.

I shivered.

"Would you be able to use those talents for the Shepherds Xander?"

I sighed. I should have seen this coming.

"I have conditions." I said after a moment of thought. Robin nodded. "Go ahead."

"I have to approve of the person. They need to be worthy of the weapon I'm not just giving out gifts to those who need a power boost. I'll work at my pace, I can't just pop these things out every other day. You finance the work I do for Shepherds every time." I bring a hand up to scratch my temple. "...And on a case by case basis you finance my projects."

Robin nodded. "I think that's reasonable. Chrom?"

Chrom nodded. "That sounds agreeable. What do you mean by your projects?"

I smiled. "Well I'm not done with just this guy." I jab a thumb at Bladeless. "I've got other ideas."

"Hmm." Chrom grunted in agreement.

Frederick suddenly stopped. "Milord, I think it best that we break camp here for the night." Lissa immediately dropped to the ground on the path. "Ooh gods I'm soooo tired."

I chuckled to myself. "I thought you were getting used to this?"

She stuck her tongue out at me.

I smiled and joined Robin in gathering firewood.

Not too long after that, we were all sitting around the fireplace eating good ol' bear meat. It pretty much tastes like venison. A bit sweeter and chewier but not much of a difference to be honest.

I took a bite. "Chrom, how did you even get bear? Do you know how to hunt?"

Chrom chuckled. "I don't know, Robin, why don't you tell Xander how we hunted that bear?" Robin coughed and turned red. "Well, we uh we were looking for deer or something I could hit with a small spell. But we kept being too loud and everything was running from us and then we found a bear. I was frustrated and hungry so i came up with a plan. Chrom would circle around the bear and stab it while I attracted its attention."

I raise an eyebrow. "That's a stupid plan." Robin frowned. "I was hungry okay? Anyways, while I tried to get it to run at me I uh I tripped." We all start laughing and Chrom is wheezing. "It-It was so funny. He just falls over in front of the bear like he's playing dead! The bear leaned over to sniff him and I was able to kill it from behind."

"I don't know what's worse, Robin's plan and trip? Or Chrom using the Divine Fang Falchion to hunt a bear." I chuckled.

Lissa giggles. "Definitely Robin." Chrom eventually regains his bearing and starts shoveling bear with gusto once more. I stretch and wince as my right side throbs in pain.

"Hey Lissa?" Lissa looked up from where she was choking on a bug. "Y-Yeah?"

I put my bowl aside and pointed to the bandage on my chest. "Could you fix me up? I got stabbed earlier at the battle. I put some vulnerary on it and wrapped it up but it's been bothering me."

Everyone looks at me.

I blinked. "What?"

"You got run through with a sword and you didn't mention it?!" Lissa yelled as she came over and started unraveling the bandages.

"Hey Robin" Chrom called. "Remember that outside of battle, Xander needs a babysitter."

Robin nodded solemnly. "Duly noted."

I sigh. "Really? It's not that bad. It's not like I left the sword in there."

Lissa jabbed at his arm making him wince. "Yeah, you just might be infected or suffering from blood loss... How did this not pierce a lung?!"

I grimaced as she put her healing staff to work. I know Lissa means well but I doubt that I would've been put down by a measly stab.

Actually, I see her point now. That was pretty stupid, if I was in anything like my original body I'd be dead or passed out from the pain. This is not the game where you just take however many points of damage and can still function. This is real life and it shows. I wince.

"I'm sorry Lissa. I'll try to be less reckless. It just didn't bother me much after the battle and then we started walking and it kinda slipped my mind I guess."

Lissa's expression lightened. "It's alright, just do your best to not let your injuries lie like that. Especially when there's nothing stopping you from getting it treated. As a the Shepherd's cleric, it's my duty to make sure you're all in good physical health and know to take care of yourselves."

I stared at her. "Wow. Um, okay." Serious Lissa is different. Not bad different it's just a side you don't really get to see in the game. It does make sense though she is a Shepherd in full not just someone that tags along.

She pouted. "Hey, I can be serious too. Just because I'm not as old as you guys doesn't mean I'm not mature."

Huh, that raises a question. The ages of the Shepherds have almost always been in question. It was kind of a given that they were all young twenty somethings but specifics on their ages were mostly guessed at or estimated.

"How old are you guys?"

Chrom raised an eyebrow in a 'does it really matter' kind of manner. "I'm 19."

I looked at Robin and he just kind of shrugged and grimaced. "Obviously, I don't really know but if I had to guess, I seem around 19, maybe 20."

I met Frederick's gaze. Who seemed impassive. "I'm unsure of my birth date but I've since reasoned that I'm 30 years of age."

Huh, that makes sense. It's been pretty accepted that Frederick took part of the late Exalt Gilliath's crusade and eventually coming into service of the Exalt's family. I think he was conscripted out of an orphanage when he was around 14. Then said crusade happened, he stayed on to become Emmeryn's bodyguard and was eventually passed on to Chrom and Lissa.

Lissa stood upon finishing her healing job but kept her pout firmly fixed on her countenance.

"... I'm 16." She just argued that she was mature enough to fit in with the rest of the group and I almost laugh at her but then I remember my age. Or at least this version of me's age. I might be 19 mentally, but this body...

"I'm actually 16 also."

Lissa looked at me in disbelief. "Really?" And the others also seemed skeptical.

I nodded. "Yeah, I don't know my birthday but I know for certain I'm 16."

Lissa sputtered. "B-But you're so... big!"

I laughed. I guess I understand. People in Awakening aren't known to regularly be particularly tall which seems strange for a fantasy world. Except for Walhart. Guy's basically the equivalent of the Mountain in this world.

Anyways, Chrom seems to be a bit over 6 feet maybe 6'1 or 6'2. Robin looks to be 5'9 or 5'10 and Frederick is the tallest of us at maybe an inch or two taller than Chrom.

Lissa's comparatively tiny at maybe 5'3. My 6 feet of height while being her age must be a bit absurd for her.

"I mean sure, I'm from Regna Ferox so that might be part of it. My parents were most likely fighters."

Frederick nodded. "Xander, are you perchance an orphan? I don't mean to be insensitive I only ask because I myself am as well."

I nodded leaning back against a log we brought near the fireplace for a seat/kindling.

"Yeah, my parents either abandoned me or were killed during the last Blood War. I still don't know who they were though, so nobody was ever around to tell me my birthday or if I resembled my parents."

"Blood War?" Robin asks curiously. I nodded. "Yeah the last Blood War was a conflict between the last Northern Khan and the clans of Regna Ferox. In times past there were four Khans who would manage and rule their own regions for the betterment of Regna Ferox as a whole. Every two years the khans meet in battle to determine the reigning Khan. Sometimes it was a champion but it was more common for the Khan themselves to fight. Which has in the past been the cause of the other Blood Wars. In the last Blood War the Northern Khan, Dominus, killed the other 3 khans in combat and seized control of Regna Ferox's military structure. The clans at the time didn't appreciate what seemed to be a dictatorship and killed Dominus. After that only the east and west Khanates reformed. Now, there are regulations in place to prevent blood feuds resulting from the Tournament of Khans."

Lissa swallowed and Robin seemed deep in thought. "Wow." Chrom said. "I guess I missed that lesson in my studies, I never knew that."

The only reason I know that is because of my situation. The history of Regna Ferox was never expanded upon in Awakening.

Sadly, the moods kinda ruined now and I need some shuteye if we're gonna be running with zombies later.

"Alright, I'm exhausted. I'mma try and pass out against that tree. Kick me if you need me."

The others take furtive glances at me as I settle in for the night.

I'm never talking that much again.

At least sleep in this world doesn't seem different than in my world. Or that lack of anyways. I'm tired from today's fight and the march but sleep just doesn't seem to want to come to me much like my experiences before.

I'm finally drifting off to sleep when I get hit with a wave of pins and needles all over my body and my muscles stiffen involuntarily. If that wasn't time traveling zombie magic I don't know what is.

Almost right after, Chrom and Lissa both get up to take a walk. I consider following them but decide against it. Lucina will be there to save them and I'd rather not get lost when the earthquakes and fires happen.

A couple minutes later the rest of us are violently awoken by the earth shaking, the forest catching fire and the portals in the sky dropping zombies.

"Frederick! Robin! Up! The forest is on fire, demons are falling from the sky and I don't see Chrom or Lissa! I clamber to my feet gripping the base of Bladeless in its harness.

Both of my compatriots leapt to their feet looking around wildly.

Robin looked into the forest where it seemed the fire was the strongest. "Demons?"

I pointed up. Thankfully not right above us, but it was clear that in the distance above the flaming trees were magic circles of a vibrant blue that were spitting out dark colored beings carrying weapons.

Robin paled. Yeah, this amount of chaos definitely wasn't in the game.

Maybe they don't all come for us? They're not exactly coordinated without a Deadlord.

I'll just roll with that. Hey and there's Frederick and Robin running that way without saying anything. Whatever. Just forget about me I guess.

"Milord, Milady are you harmed?!"

Oh look there they are. I wonder if Lucina's around. Nope.

She's got the disappearing act down pat. Oh look zombies!

I grin in anticipation and run towards the nearest group of Risen. Finally, something that makes sense. I mentally cheer.

"Have a taste of my steel cocksuckers!"

I lash out with Bladeless catching the first two mercenaries across their torsos launching them to the ground.

The nearest Risen growls expelling dark fog from its maw before jumping at me with its axe.

I block and stumble back caught off guard by the strength of its swing.

I snarl back and lunge crushing its skull with the power of it's own swing. The Risen gives one last raspy growl before dissipating into that awful mist.

Fuck! Pain! I turn and swing out with Bladeless clearing the space around me. The two mercenaries I struck first are back up and eyeing me with disdain. Maybe I spoke too soon?

"How?!" Their chests are caved in where my blade crushed them dripping with a black ink-like substance that's probably blood but they stand there unaware of their injuries.

"Of fucking course. Damn zombies." It doesn't matter if my weapon targets their intestines when they don't need them. I have to aim for vital areas. Head, neck, spine those things.

This fight just got a lot harder. I'm currently surrounded, I can't see my allies because I ran off on my own like an idiot and my sword does not work well on zombies who don't need their insides.

"Come on fuckers! I'll take you all on!" That's right, don't show any weakness. Doesn't matter that your right arm hurts like hell.

I strike preemptively not willing to risk any simultaneous attacks from my opponents. I'm aiming for those vital areas but end up catching a weapon or collarbone. The force of my strikes is creating space which I'm glad for but I'm tiring fast from the extra strength I need to push these guys back and because of my wounded state.

I've got to clear a path out of here or I'm fucked. I take a deep breath and rush forward holding Bladeless up like a shield horizontally. "Gaaah!" I plow forward shoving Risen to the ground and trampling over their prone bodies. Thank god for my strength stat.

I take a few cuts to my arms and midsection but I can see the rest of the clearing beyond the last group of Risen.

I'm stopped from said clearing by a trio of Risen locking my weapon in place with their axes.

Fuck.

In a last gambit I activate the enchantments on my weapon.

"Raagh!" I chop right then left knocking them off balance with the first swing and ending them with a well placed second blow that blows each of their heads to a gore of blackened blood and brain matter.

Using my weapon ability in succession like that is not great for me. One, it tires me out like nothing else, two the vibrations tend to feed back into my hands and I lack gauntlets to keep them from going numb.

I stumble the last few steps out to the clearing not daring to look back the crowd of zombies that must be behind me.

Oh, that's where they went. Robin and the rest of the Shepherds have been smart where I've been dumb and have holed up in two small forts that are basically just short stone towers.

I'm about to try and book it to the nearest fort when I'm distracted by a FUCK MOTHER OF GOD THAT HURTS!

I'm sent down to one knee with an arrow sticking out of my chest. Based on my heavily labored breathing and wet coughs that one definitely caught a lung.

I look up and there's a Risen archer taking aim at me with what seems like manic glee.

I'm just about the bite the dust when the archer is yanked into the air by a lance from behind which promptly makes it dissolve.

Sully looks like a goddamn goddess right now as she yanks me up to ride behind her.

I somehow harness my weapon and am able to clutch onto her armor as she rides us to one of the forts.

"T-Took you long enough Red."

Sully spares me a glance of veiled concern and confusion from my familiarity.

"Shut yer yap and hold on. Nobody's died while riding Sigurd and you ain't gonna be the first."

Did I say concern? I meant annoyance.

Struggling to remain consciousness until we reach the fort is its own ordeal and I sigh in relief when we enter the nearest one I'm set down against the wall by Sully and she departs without another word.

Lissa is on me immediately, staying frustratingly quiet as she heals my wounds.

Robin is also eerily quiet as he glares at me from where he stands blasting Risen with lightning from the doorway.

I grit my teeth against the pain of my wounds knitting themselves together and swallow my stubborn pride.

"I'm sorry, I fucked up. I should've waited for orders instead of going all lone wolf."

Robin shoots me a glare as he stabs a Risen with a lightning shrouded hand.

Ok, Sasuke.

"You godsdamned dumbass Xander! I'm the fucking tactician! If you die, it's on me! What do you think happens if I have a plan that involves you and YOU'RE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!? Honestly? If it was up to me, you wouldn't be a Shepherd anymore! What if someone else had been harmed by your actions, what would you do?!"

I wince. Yeah that was bad. Like colossal fuck up bad. I thought these early chapters would've been a pushover but there I go thinking this is a game again. Regardless of my life before, these people are real and this is my life now.

"That said, I'm glad you're alive." Robin says lowly. He sighs. "It looks like we only have a couple left in the field. You both, stay here. Lissa, keep him in check."

Lissa nods, her face taut with heavy emotion. Robin strides out and I'm left with a pissed off cleric.

"Listen, Li-"

SMACK!

Ouch.

I'm stunned speechless by Lissa's slap. Who knew such a dainty hand could feel like a brick.

"Idiot."

I wince and grab the hand that smacked me. "I'm sorry Lissa. I won't do something dumb like that again. I really didn't mean to bail on the plan like that."

She clenched her fist in my grasp. "I don't care about the plan. I care about you getting hurt and worrying us like that. You've only been with us for about a day and you've already gotten hurt worse than all of us combined."

I give her a smirk that most likely looks like a grimace. "Live and learn. I'll try to do better from now on." She frowns at me. "Don't try. Be better Xander."

On that solemn note we eventually joined the others. Meaning Chrom, Frederick, Robin and our new additions of Sully and Virion.

I'm still feeling a bit shamed but that doesn't stop me from introducing myself to Sully and Virion.

"Thanks for the save earlier Red, I'm Xander." We shake hands and she does her best to break my hand. Little does she know my hands are still numb as hell and I don't feel a thing.

"My name is Sully, not Red." I grin at her. "Not one for nicknames?"

She leers at me. "It's a two way street, dumbass."

I frown. "Alright, that's fair."

Virion struts over and gives me his best nobleman smile. "This handsome man is Virion, archest of archers."

I laugh mentally and address Sully. "Who's Virion?" She grins mischievously. "No idea, I just call this one Ruffles."

Virion chokes. "M-Milady.."

Chrom decides to intercede. "Thank you for coming Sully, Virion I welcome the addition, if you plan on joining us."

The archer recovers and smiles at him. "Of course, I would be loath to deprive yourselves of such a fine archer."

Robin smiles. I bet he's already thinking about the tactical benefits of having an archer. Chrom nods at Virion and then turns to me.

Oh boy.

"Xander," He frowns. "I know that Robin has already reprimanded you for your actions, but nevertheless, that was a very unwise course of action. I hope you know what you did wrong." I nod. "Once again, I am sorry, I'll try- I'll do better from now on." I eye Lissa standing beside me.

Chrom nods and lays a hand on my shoulder. "I understand. You are young, I should have anticipated that no matter how mature you may sound, you would be prone to making mistakes like that." Oh God, he sounds like a disappointed father I don't know how to deal with this.

"There will be consequences for your actions, but we will speak on that later. Now, we must-"

"Prince Chrom." Lucina just spooked the crap out of all of us. Damn girl, chill.

Chrom turns to her, or him as they somehow think she's a guy. It's not exactly hidden very well. She's got a fairly feminine voice and her figure doesn't exactly scream masculinity as well. "I thank you sir, you saved my sister. What should I call such a man?"

"My name is of no importance but you may call me Marth." Almost everyone is taken aback. I already know who she is and Frederick just doesn't seem to care much.

"Nevertheless, tonight was but a prelude to what will come. You have been warned." She promptly disappears into thin air like all six of us aren't watching her.

I really gotta figure out how she does that. "What a strange man." Chom says to himself. Frederick steps forward. "Milord, it is imperative that we reach Ylisstol with all haste." Chrom pales. "If this is frequent among the halidom it would be grave indeed."

Not yet thankfully, there's still some time left.

"Sully, I know that you just rode here, but it would ease my heart if you could ride to Ylisstol and notify Captain Phila."

Sully gives a salute, with her right hand over her chest and her left behind her back. "Of course, Captain. Leave it to me."

She departs without another word, mounting her horse Sigurd and taking off into the night. Virion sighs in exaggerated despair at his ride leaving him.

I make some small talk with the group on the way back but nothing noteworthy. Honestly it's kinda surprising that no one ever realizes that Virion is foreign nobility. Like in the game there's only a couple hints for players but when you actually talk with the guy it's kinda obvious. Not that I'm letting him know that. I'll let him keep his secrets.

Chrom eventually asked me how my fight went and what exactly went wrong. I was kinda happy to explain that my plight wasn't 100% my fault and that part of it lay in my weapon/opponent.

"I thought it was going fine, until they wouldn't die from my strikes." Chrom looks at me in curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"As proud as I am of Bladeless," I jerk my thumb towards the harness holding my weapon. "It doesn't work well against those undead. My blade works by using the force of my swing, and the weight of the sword to crush my opponents and the enchantment works to send vibrations through the blade that either shatter opponents weapons, or scramble the insides of whatever it touches. As recently found, undead can function even with normally mortal or debilitating wounds. So that means they ignore shattered bones and destroyed intestines, the typical wounds one would take from my sword. I'm sure that there are similar effects with regular swords but even then it would be a magnitude easier to dispatch them by stabbing the heart or removing their heads. I had to crush the skulls or deal enough general damage that they couldn't hold up themselves together. I wasn't expecting that kind of effect and it threw me off my game."

Chrom nods. "That makes sense. You might have to get used to those kind of fights though if what Marth has told us is true."

I nod absently as I stare at Falchion on his hip. "Yeah."

AN: So there's the chapter, once again, sorry it is so short, the next one will definitely be longer. Hope you guys like how I portrayed the characters, Xander does has a bit of an idiot moment and the other characters react harsh just to push it in that this is not a game and he needs to think things through more before swinging his sword around. I've kinda planned for certain weaknesses to be shown in Xander's weapons or skills. No doubt, he's gonna be powerful but I don't want him to be accused of being overpowered or any such nonsense he is going to be a standout character for sure, but it isn't gonna be like I just dropped a naruto rip off into Fire Emblem. I've actually read that before, I can't remember what it was called but needless to say I didn't read much of it before I decided to not continue. Bladeless not working well against Risen does actually make sense and for that I'm grateful. Regular swords wouldn't have much of a problem with cutting through Risen and taking off heads or limbs but Bladeless is not a normal sword. Blunt force is the name of the game with Bladeless and it doesn't give him much of an edge with the Risen, even with the enchantments. You could make a case for how it doesn't matter if their zombies they still have muscles/bones that won't work if they are torn or crushed in contact with Bladeless but Risen aren't exactly zombies, they're more corpses transformed by Grima to give him foot soldiers. You'd notice that Risen are never villagers or any kind of useless class. I'd assume that's cause Grima revives them and changes them using whatever powers he has as the Fell Dragon to make them his rank and file minions. Anyways my point is because magic. I'd even go so far as to say they're more magical constructs than any kind of zombie simply because they poof out of existence when killed and the fact that revenants are basically puddles of evil muck. Hope I did justice to an angry Robin and Lissa. I really want to make an effort of making these 3 dimensional characters in that you don't just see happy go lucky Lissa or Robin when he's confident in a plan. Also, I nearly forgot Virion. That was kinda sad. I honestly didn't use him much in my first playthrough but I read Invisible Ties and the author portrays Virion amazingly. It's a great read and pretty essential if you read FE ff. Anyways, I'm gonna do my best to not forget characters, not everyone will have a POV but I'll do my best to be more diverse with displaying characters in the future. I'm pretty excited to put the Ferox chapters out. I had an idea and it spiraled and spiraled and I just wanna make something unique with this so I'm sticking with it. The bear thing was inspired from another Fire Emblem ff I read, can't remember which it might've been Invisible Ties but I'm not sure. Anyways, please review let me hear what you guys think I'd love to get more input on what you like, what you don't that kind of thing. -Insaneauthor050701