Chapter Fifteen: The Job

(Hershel's POV)

With the unsettling note Validar had left things on, he disappeared to somewhere to prepare for the mission. He told us to take five minutes to make sure we were fully prepared for this job; we had all made sure of that before we came here, so we took the five minutes to sit and talk.

From what I could gather, Gaius had just been a simple thief when he was offered this job. Colm claimed to have lost his memory, but he kept glancing at Omofrisit as if he recognized him. And as far as any of us could tell, Volke wasn't going to tell us anything about himself unless we paid him.

Colm and Gaius didn't want to kill anyone, so their plan was to lay low and gather treasure without catching the attention of the guards.

I planned to lay low as well, but for a different reason, I simply didn't want to be killed, but I didn't have a problem with killing someone.

Volke still wouldn't say anything, so I couldn't be sure what his intentions were.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by someone talking to me.

"So, Hershel, why exactly are you here with these people?" Frey asked.

"He's doing the job Basilio sent you two to do, obviously." Omofrisit said before I could answer.

"But that still doesn't tell me why the rest of these people are here." Frey said.

"We're here to assassinate the Exalt." Volke said.

Wow, blunt and straight to the point.

"WHAT!?" Frey yelled. "Then we have to let someone know. C'mon, Hershel, we should tell Chrom."

He began walking in the direction of the front gates before I grabbed his arm to stop him.

"No, you can't let him know. If he finds out, and stops the attempt on the Exalt's life, then Validar will probably seek me out and murder me in my sleep." I told him.

"That's the most selfish thing I've heard you say. You would value your own life above the life of someone who has kept the peace across this continent for years?"

"You make a good point, but, I value my life very much."

"I don't care what you do, Hershel, but I'm going to tell Chrom." And with that, he ran off to the palace.

"Eh, don't worry about it. The Exalt doesn't have a ghost of a chance." Omofrisit said, putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

Was what I was doing right? I mean, Frey had a point. The Exalt has kept the peace for a long time, is killing her to save my own life the right thing to do? I don't know anymore.

"C'mon, kid. It's time to move."

I whipped around to find Volke standing right behind me. Man, he was quiet.

We all picked up our equipment and made our way to a servant's exit. Colm picked the lock and just like that, we were inside.

(Frey's POV)

I couldn't believe Hershel, how could he be so selfish? To be honest, it didn't even seem like it was him. Come to think of it, he hadn't been acting like himself for quite a while now. I wonder what's wrong.

But there's no time to think about that right now. I need to let Chrom know what's about to happen. But where would he be? Ah, there's someone I can ask.

"Excuse me; do you know where I might find Chrom?"

The person turned around to face me and I could now see that it was a woman with long red hair and white armor.

"Before I answer your question, could you please tell me who you are?" She asked.

"Oh, of course. My name is Frey Ferris; I'm an…acquaintance of Chrom's. Now could you please tell me where he is, I have something very important to tell him."

She stared at me for a bit, probably trying to decide whether I was trustworthy or not, before answering me.

"Last I saw, he was headed that way." She said, pointing in the direction she had just come from.

"Thank you very much." I said before sprinting off to find Chrom.

I ran for what seemed like a long time but in reality, it was probably only a few minutes. Eventually, I saw Chrom and Robin standing just outside the castle. Feeling relieved, I started to call out to them when I noticed a masked man walk up to Chrom and begin talking to him.

I slowed my run to a walk, and then halted all together. I watched as Chrom became increasingly more serious and confused. Suddenly, a man jumped from a tree and attempted to attack Chrom. Chrom fumbled for his sword, still trying to recover from the surprise, when all of a sudden, the masked man calmly and swiftly disposed of the assailant.

All seemed to be calm for a moment, when another assailant jumped out from the bushes. He attacked the man with the mask before he had a chance to do anything but fall backwards.

The sword only managed to slice the mask and Chrom quickly slashed the assassin before he could get another attack off.

Chrom turned to face the once-masked man and got a confused and surprised look on his face. I tried to look closer to see why he wore such an expression, and then I saw it too. The masked man was not, in fact, a man at all. He was actually a she.

Before I could think about what had just happened too much, I decided to deliver my message to Chrom, now that the fighting was over, not that it was relevant at this point. Surely he knew that something was going on, but I was going to tell him anyway.

As I drew closer, I saw Chrom, Robin and the woman draw their swords.

"It's okay Chrom, it's me, Frey. I need to tell you something."

"Frey?" Chrom said before sheathing his sword. "What are you doing here?"

I walked into a lighted area and was about to explain myself when Chrom asked another question.

"And why do you not look like the Frey we've seen before?"

I was confused by his question for a moment before realizing that I was in my regular form, I didn't look like Hershel right now.

"No time to explain, there's an assassination attempt happening right now-" I said.

"We already know that." Robin said.

"-And Hershel is helping them." I finished.

Chrom looked surprised, the woman looked confused and Robin wore a smug 'I knew it' face.

"No more time for talking, we need to go." The woman said.

"You're right, Marth. There's no time to lose." Chrom said. "Frey, would you help us?"

"Of course. Someone needs to knock Hershel back to his senses."

(Hershel's POV)

I crept through the palace as quietly as I could, unlocking doors and looting the rooms behind them.

I'd like to say I was brave enough to go by myself, but I was following Volke, purely due to the fact that he seemed to be the most adept at the things we were doing.

From what I had seen of Colm and Gaius, it seems that they had paired up as well.

As time went on, I began seeing more and more skirmishes in the halls of the palace before it became a full blown battle.

Chandeliers were on the floor, carpets were torn, and there seemed to be scorch marks on the walls. I tried to stay out of the fighting as much as I could, but there were too many soldiers.

Several feet away, I could see a pair of large double doors directly ahead of me. I would have to go through a few skirmishes, but I needed to get to that door. It practically screamed 'Hey! Look at me, there's tons of treasure in this room.'

Sword coming my way. Duck, stab knees, finish off with a blow to the head. Roll to the side, crawl between someone's legs. Decapitate soldier. Elbow mage's face.

I was almost to the doors, but there was one last obstacle. A giant of a man wearing heavy armor and wielding a battle axe was guarding the doors. There was definitely something important in that room.

I charged the man and attempted a simple jab, my sword merely bounced off his armor. I recovered from the recoil just in time to dodge a swing of his axe.

He seemed to be extremely slow, but I couldn't see a single weak point on him. Maybe there would be one on his back.

He swung again, and I rolled around to his back, to my disappointment, I couldn't see any weak points there either. I had no chance against this guy, but I reeeaaaally wanted to get into that room.

I dodged a few more swings from his axe and began praying to any deity I could think of, when all of a sudden, a dark purple orb encircled the large man and began shrinking. I could see he was starting to panic, and I merely watched as the orb kept shrinking smaller and smaller, resulting in the man being squeezed into painful positions, but the orb kept shrinking until it was no more.

I stared for a bit, still trying to comprehend the grizzly sight I had just witnessed, when a hand came down on my shoulder

"You're welcome." Omofrisit said with a smile. "What are you waiting for? Open up that door."

He was right. I picked the lock on the door and entered the room with Omofrisit close behind me. The doors slammed shut and the lights went out before we could survey the room. Then there was a glow in the corner of the room and a thunderbolt was sent our way. I was hit straight on and promptly fell to the ground; Omofrisit merely blocked it with some kind of magic shield.

"I'll distract him; you go around and flank him." Omofrisit whispered to me. He began casting spell after spell into the dark.

I weakly got up; still trying to recover from the electric shock I had received. I walked along the walls, leaning upon them for support, and tiptoed as quietly as I could around the room until I could see the faint outline of a person. I readied my sword and prepared myself to lunge.

Omofrisit cast one last spell, the person blocked it and I lunged. My sword went clean through their body and we tumbled to the ground.

The doors of the room were forced open and I could see Chrom, Robin, the woman they had called Marth, Lissa, Frey, and last of all was Frederick. They all wore expressions of horror as they looked at me.

I looked down to see that the person I had just murdered was none other than the Exalt herself.

Chrom looked at me with sadness and anger in his eyes.

"Hershel, why?"

A/N: PLOT TWIST! I'm sure some of you saw this coming, but I hope you didn't, because what's a story without plot twists that the reader doesn't expect?

Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you liked this chapter, please leave a review or send me a PM.

Thanks for reading!