Since my last chapter got cut a bit shorter than I would have liked (Hell, the tactician was beat into a holy shit hole by his Sister/Commander/Charge-as-a-guardian-angel) I'm going to feature a new support chapter this time. I know, it wasn't announced, but I really need Kai at full strength.

And by the way, RazorAngel, thank you so much for the positive reviews. Thank you all for the reviews. If it wasn't for Razor's spike Spiegel look-a-like and his incessant reviewing, I might not pump these out at least every 2 days. I'm one of those writers who thrive on reviewer strength. I'm glad you liked Garnet's breath. I was going for something between a black dragon (Known for corrosive breath and acidic bites, very Komodo-dragonish, if you ask me.) and a Gold Dragon. (Known for flaming breath.)

Ah, but I'm wasting time, this isn't a rant chapter.

Or is it? MWHAHAHA! .

Support chapter 2: Burned Earth Policy?

The campfire was bright as Serra and Erk came ever closer to whatever it was that was calling to Serra. Somehow, she knew she couldn't arrive to early… but she might be too late.

Garnet coughed up another blood soaked ball. He looked at it with distaste, and flung it into the pit he was making for them. Ariana sat beside her best friend. "What are those anyway, Garnet?"

'As far as I can tell…' the dragon began to muse with a worried tone, 'what's left of my stomach's lining. Wyvern bodies weren't meant to cope with the accelerant I shoot out to make my fireworks.' He gagged again harshly. 'We heal fast, but I still won't be breathing fire, or even that liquid for quite a while. I went a little… happy with that.'

She smirked. "Kinda like my first fire spells. My fingers still hurt from those." She wasn't wounded nearly anywhere on the scale of Kai, but her fingers did hurt. She had cast the spell nearly one hundred times in a row, just for practice.

'When did you learn that?' Garnet asked inquisitively.

"Kai taught me while you were locked up for being a naughty dragon."

Garnet sighed physically as he spat out another stream of bloodied chunks. 'All in the interest of science my dear… Go talk to Sain for a while; I'm fairly sure he and Hiiro are up to no good.'

She shrugged and nodded. She understood the meaning of "Leave me to my misery." When it came from her wyvern-dragon, it meant he was sore. She skipped towards the fort. Garnet hawked another blood soaked chunk of flesh up and groaned. He looked at the small crater he stood over, now nearly half full of blood and guts and corpses. 'By the way, Ariana…' he thought just before she was out of mind-shot, 'Sain's not packing more than me.' He smirked as he heard her eep and he felt the small clod of dirt smack his wing.

"PERVERTED DRAGON!" Garnet shrugged. 'At least I'm the lucky one. The hottest woman in the group claims me… even if I have to share.'

Sain smiled quietly. "Heya demon." He heard Ariana say. Hiiro took the advantage. With a quick sweep, the guy had Sain in a Bear-hug of sorts. "Hiya, Angel!" Sain replied nonchalantly as the Mercenary took him down to the ground. Sain rolled over with the tight squeeze from the slightly shorter man, and smirked as he sat on top of him. Kent looked at Hiiro with a look of pity. "Fire in the Hole!" Sain yelled.

Hiiro was dancing around and screaming in utter pain quickly. "OH GOD! I'M BLIND! AUGH!"

Kent shook his head. "Never squeeze Sain too hard. He's able to release on demand. We call it his "Super weapon" of sorts. Somewhat like a Durandal. Only stronger." The red pants knight nodded calmly.

"WHAT THE HELL MAN? UGH!" Hiiro tried to sneeze, but releasing his nose only brought air into the poor nostrils, which still had the scent clinging to the hairs. Of course, this fed him a whiff of what could be nothing less than exactly what hell smelled like.

Sain of course, sat calmly in the middle of the slightly tinted air. "I honestly don't see what the problem is." He inhaled deeply. "It just smells normal to me."

Kent smirked. "That's because you live with it. Besides, that weapon could convince even the Daein Marquess to cease and desist." Kent of course, was sitting calmly by, waiting the stink out. "By the way, Hiiro, as a general rule, the stench lasts for about three minutes. He's part of the Hazing rituals now. For three days and nights, he has to eat nothing but Lima, Butter, Pinto, Chili, Great northern, hell, any bean they can get…" He smirked as Hiiro looked at him with fear. "And they stick him in a nicely made shack. Air tight. And he lets one off."

"Really, those are prize winners. One season, I had a 3 minute long constant foghorn." He smirked. "The air really was slightly green in that cabin… And lord was it painful to watch those cadets go in." He smiled brightly. "After about thirty seconds I noticed the air going green. About a minute later, I smelled the most awful stench of all time. But, it was for the kids."

Hiiro could finally breathe again. "How long do they have to stay in there?"

"From breakfast mess hall's end, at seven 15 sharp, till Lunch mess hall's beginning. Lunch mess begins at roughly 11:15. Four hours in all."

Hiiro's jaw hit the ground. "How many make it through…"

"All of them, we don't let them Out." Said Sain with a smirk. Kent nodded solemnly. "After they walk in they begin to doubt they're Caelin Knight Material. They stay completely silent and breathe as slow as possible. Still, it's a horrible experience."

"What other kind of hazing do you guys do?"

"Well, I do take part in it occasionally. I scare off more than Sain's weapon, but that's because they're free to flee at that point. Usually, there are four weeks of hazing. And in the fourth week, they face his weapon. It's the last hazing point. If they can walk inside without hurling, they're in. If they can survive all four Hours… We respect them. We've pulled out guys who've passed out, guys who've shit themselves…it's horrible."

Kent shrugged. "As for what I do, I usually get the first week Knights. I make them strip to their skivvies in pitch black, and then get a flame lit. I dress like a Savage and do some Kata. If they flinch, they're out."

Hiiro raised his eyebrow. "But they're already Knights…. Aren't they going to be allowed to stay in the corps?" Kent smirked. "Well, you see, in Caelin, there is a stipulation in the Knight's Code. It states that any who fail 'Peer Muster' will be demoted to squire of the peer who they could not pass. Meaning, if I scare you, you're my Squire for a week, and then I put you right back in for the hazing, this time putting you back into squire hazing."

Hiiro's eyebrow rose even further, threatening to eat his forehead. "Squire hazing?" Sain smiled. "In Caelin, Squire hazing is simple. You go out, and you find a brigand. You kill him, and you bring his body back. A Knight will accompany you, but he cannot aid you unless you're near death."

Hiiro could breathe now. "Alright, but we agreed this little match was to be free of weapons. That… That gateway to hell you call an anus is off limits too." Sain nodded and stood up, walking a bit over towards the woods. "I might be a bit then…"

Florina had watched the whole thing. She sighed. Sain was an odd one. She was a full thirty foot clear of the cloud (Which was consequently drifting towards the place where they had camped Kai out. He was too wounded to move.) She gasped as she heard a sound something akin to a carriage's breaks squealing in protest to going down a hill quickly. She then heard Sain's voice. "Sorry!"

Kent was the one who replied as he stood, ready to wrestle with Hiiro. "Just finish your business boy and keep silent!"

"Kent!" Sain yelled from behind the tree, "If I were to keep them silent, you and I both know I'd have to move away every thirty seconds."

Hiiro and Florina both paled. Lyn just rolled her eyes, and Ariana couldn't stifle the fits of laughter. She finally sat down with Lyndis to watch Kai. "Well, at least we know how to avoid smelling it…"

"Too much perfume is never enough." They nodded sagely as they heard Hiiro take a rather painful fall. Florina continued to referee the match. Kent she was very comfortable around. Sain too, but Hiiro was still too new. Dorcas was just Dorcas. He was off taking Natalie back to the village.

Kai started to stir…

"He's waking up!" Lyn hollered… then she nearly jumped out of her seat as he started to nearly seizure. "STINKS!" and he passed out.

I coughed and gagged wildly in my ether state, while Elimine and Roland laughed at me as if I were a clown. "OH ELIMINE BE DAMNED THAT WAS…. OH GODDESS SAVE ME!"

Roland snickered. "He's an accomplished hazer, that's for sure…"

Elimine smirked as I rolled around nearly seizing. "Well, you thought you were ready to go back to your body. Wait on those two I said were coming."

"You are a cold hearted-bitch!" I screamed at her and I stormed off, sneezing furiously in an effort to expunge the stink tainted snot from my nose. Sain had always been far away from me when he blasted one. But still, I had smelled some of them before. That weapon was as powerful to the soul as garnet's breath was to the body. "Demoralize a whole damn army with one fart, I swear!"

Roland and Elimine smiled as they watched the disembodied strategist walk away from his corpse in the vaguely blue and grey version of earth that they had crafted for him while he was 'dead' so to speak. Roland looked over at Elimine. "You know he's right though."

"About what?"

Roland refrained from saying the first thing that was in his mouth. He swallowed the comment. "The demoralization part. Why in the world would you give someone a fart that stinks THAT badly?"

"I work in mysterious ways my dear Roland."

Sain snuck the small book out of his waist-pouch and began to read as he took care of business. The title? "Self-confidence: How to get the shy girl."

Kent and Hiiro laid back and panted from their last round. They had gone hold for hold. Florina just absently stared at Hiiro's lower abdomen, willing her eyes not to drift even further down. She was already hot and bothered. Hiiro was cute as all hell and had that "I'm badass. Fear me." Air too him, kind of like Sain, only… meaner. But kinder at the same time. He was also hot and covered in sweat. And panting. She couldn't even try to save her mind as it took off down gutter lane. A little blob of drool formed at the corner of her mouth.

Wil sat shotgun to Dorcas as the horses pulled the cart back to camp. "Well well, it seems the group has been having…. GODS ALIVE! WHAT IS THAT FOUL SMELL!"

Garnet, despite being alone in his misery (Though he almost felt healthy) was the first to respond. 'Well, Sain farted. And then he went and used the bathroom.'

"Which is still presently occupied!" yelled the man from behind a tree. Dorcas just grunted. "When you've gotta go…"

"Well why couldn't he go in the crater?"

'I wouldn't have it. I'm miserable enough, without my much more sensitive nose smelling that. Trust me; it's strong enough over here. Burning human flesh is not pleasant, and this whole place stinks of Pegavern!'

"Maybe I shouldn't have bought the preserved beans-and-beef-lengths… Bad Idea, Dorcas."

Wil paled. "Those are not to come ANYWHERE near Sain. At all. At any time. Ever. In the history of history!" Dorcas just smiled.

"Sain! I brought a local specialty for you! We call them affectionately, "Beanie-weenies." I want you to try some!"

"Sounds delicious!"

Sain was getting up, and walking to the river, WELL down stream of where they got their drinking water from, and a bit downstream of the clothes washing area.

Dorcas grinned widely as he got the mess items from the covered wagon. Wil helped as well. "Ah, so Dorcas is cooking again?" asked Hiiro as he sat around the fire. "Yeah, Antelious stew with chili beans." He grabbed the small pail of milk and poured a bit in the pot with the tomato sauce and water and beef. He began to dice up carrots and onions. Lyn helped by peeling the potatoes.

Garnet slowly trudged around and sat beside Ariana, and left the space beside him empty. 'Not so spicy, eh, Dorcas?'

"That's kind of funny." He said as he dusted off the onion shavings from his apron. He walked back to the wagon. "Who wants hard tack?" Not a single hand went up. He smirked. "Good, I would have kicked your asses. We're having biscuits! Natalie would have my nuts in a vice if I ever cooked hard tack…" he shuddered as he remembered that night…

It was stormy, and dreary, but the cabin was cozy. They were running low on food again, so they decided on Tack-and-mustard. It was a staple food of the poor. If you couldn't afford real biscuits or jelly, you had tack-and-mustard. The only problem was that Dorcas, for all of his culinary talent, (His family was a long line of chefs.) he couldn't cook hard tack. It escaped him.

Natalie was hungry though, so he would DEFFIENTALY give it a shot. He pulled out the flour and poured a bit of water to it. He put it in the pan on the stove. Four minutes later…

"DISGUSTING!" Natalie yelled as she uppercutted her husband (Thereby sending him flying.) "I'm supposed to eat this pig-shit?" another blow and the helpless Dorcas was apologizing. "I married you because you're nice and you can cook… And you try to feed me this utter shit?"

Dorcas shook off the night mare. "Let's just say I can't cook tack, hard or soft."

Everyone had seen the look of fear in his eyes. Sain took his seat and nodded. "Rough woman then?"

"You have no Idea."

"I might."

They heard some ruffling. "Hello the camp!"

Sain got up with garnet and Ariana. "Drop your weapons where you stand. Books and staves too."

The two obeyed as the fading light of day caught them in dusty robes. A cleric and a mage they looked like. "Mage, remove your cloak, Cleric, on your Honor as a servant of Elimine, swear you have no blade."

She nodded. "Why in the world would I carry a blade? I have my Erky-poo to protect me!"

The girls in the camp looked like they had just been tail-slapped by their dragon, and the guys just had one single thought. "Hige?"

"I am NOT your 'Erky-poo' whatever that means. GOD you need to watch your tongue."

"Goddess, you sacrilegious bastard! And watch how you talk to me, I AM after all, a cleric of house Ostia!"

The group sighed. "Gather your belongings and drop them at the dragon's feet, then follow Ariana into camp. We'll feed and shelter you, so long as you mind the wounded." Lyn finished speaking and looked a Hiiro. He nodded quietly. If they needed something watched… quietly… they turned to him.

"My name is Erk." He sat down on the log he was lead too. "I am Serra… Oh my Goddess' light! BRING ME MY STAFF DRAGON!"

Serra's eyes had fallen on the pale skinned youth in the middle of the circle. The others went for their weapons as garnet brought the staff. He dropped it, and she was certain she thought a male voice said to her 'Here. Take it.'

As she stood and lifted her staff, she was stopped by Erk's hand. Lyn spoke his silent concern. "Harm our Strategist… and you'll be gutted and fed to our dragon." As if to emphasize the point, Garnet growled and licked his lips.

"Oh shut up girl. I'm a cleric; it's my job to assist the needy." Lyn's only thought on that was 'Cheeky little bitch…'

"Great Elimine, Bless this man with all your strength! Bring him from death's door, and deliver him unto us! Let him breathe and walk again, and reside amongst the living!"

Lyn shook her head. "Stupid girl… He's a Strategist. You must do something for me or swear loyalty to be able to heal him. I'm his Cipher."

Erk sighed. "Well then, swear off to her Serra."

Serra giggled as she blushed. "I was just trying to heal him as soon as possible. I swear to you, Lady of this camp, that I will heal your comrade and nothing more."

Lyn nodded, and suddenly, Serra (And Erk, for some reason) felt a weight tie onto them. "What's this?"

Hiiro sighed. "He's dying. We all feel it. He's an angel, of sorts. His presence raises us up, and gives us strength. Lyn is feeling more… hospitable to him, worried for him. That makes her a better Cipher, or something. Ask Kent for the details, just heal him."

Kent sighed. "My father designed some Strategist amulets. His is a Derivative. Instead of requiring blood directly, it requires FAITH and blood. And trust. It enables quicker spells and blessings from the strategist, but it carries a much heavier price to use. It's a double edged sword."

Serra nodded as she slammed the staff down to invoke it, and she pared silently. The wounds on the man began to heal. Kent continued. "This also links him more closely to the army. Basically, he feels every hit we take, roughly. But we feel just how hurt he is. Without us, he would be dead. We NEED him, and so we hold his soul close to his body."

They all felt something tighten. Kent screamed "STOP!" Serra did so under a look of protest. "Why?"

"You're scorching him."

I nearly screamed as my hand got burned. Elimine was by my side in a moment. "Mana burn…" she said quietly. "I'm sorry Kai, I didn't know she was… well, that stupid."

I held my hand as the black scorch marks traveled up my hand and I screamed in pain. "STOP YOU STUPID WITCH!" I wanted to strike her. But Kent saved me. I could hear him explain.

"Strategists are a different breed. You could heal a warrior like that, or even a mage, but with him, it has to be slower, more deliberate. As you know, most weapons have residual enchantments, and magic is an enchantment. Being a Strategist takes a very special person. They must be able to 'Phase'. When they're phased, their bodies empty of their souls but leave a tie to their bodies. Then they link to our souls, effectively 'Haunting' us. That's how the command so naturally. But ANY attack can be EXTRMELY lethal, armor or no. Armor usually worsens it."

"You see, their souls are so closely linked to this world, even friendly magic can harm them. It's called "Mana burn." And it's the most lethal thing in the world."

Serra shook her head. "I've never heard tell of this…"

Kent sighed. "Ostia is commanded by its generals, correct? Well, the other cantons employ "tacticians." A tactician is a Strategist who is less connected to the world." He continued his explanation. "They don't receive Mana burn on their souls. They receive it on their bodies. That's the key difference. If they are attacked, they receive a black scorch mark around the wound… such as Kai's shoulder."

He sighed. "Try again, but go VERY slowly. If the wounds can be clearly seen healing, you're scorching him."

She nodded, and I gulped. My life, my very EXISTANCE was in the hands of a newbie cleric. She nodded and began to pray, and I felt the mana burn slowly spread. "SLOWER!" Kent shouted. He watched my shoulder intently. The knitting flesh was painstakingly slow and I could see sweat beading on Serra's forehead. I felt the mana burn on my shoulder begin to recede. Elimine patted me. "She's doing much better."

I nodded, and grunted when she forced me into my body. "Go back, Kai, your journey is still not done."

I gasped. "ELIMINE!" Lyn and the others nearly swarmed me. "Ugh… Never heal me that fast again, Serra."

She nodded and sat down panting. Dorcas just served up the bowls of stew. "It's good to be back guys… but I'm fucking HUNGRY! Let's eat!"

Lyn smirked and elbowed Kent. "He's back."

Hiiro was next. "The leper speaks! How was heaven?"

"Blue, grey, and it looks a lot like this place… then again, I was being held in limbo because you guys needed me." I shrugged. "Fix me up a bowl of that, Dorcas!"

The black cloaked strategist hissed from the shadows and looked at the remaining Ganeleon bandits. "We can't attack them right now…" One of them snarled. Bug stayed silent. "We have to! They're wounded and the cleric's spent!"

The man suddenly found his jaw simply missing. The Black cloaked man's eyes slit tighter as he crushed the offending appendage between his fingers. The man tried to scream, but he found something else in his throat. The black-cloaked man's hand was in his throat, ripping out his wind-pipe. Bug looked away. "Stupid… never question a Black Fang strategist. We lost Carjiga because he didn't listen."

The strategist began to rip the man apart, watching the man's eyes as he did so. The man tried to fight but found he couldn't move his arm. He looked down in time to see the dragon-like claws rip into his shoulder and remove a muscle. He felt the beast's other hand rip at a rib.

Bug looked at the sickly yellow blood in the Blood-bind. The Strategist was in a 'Blood lust' that the Black-fang woman had warned him of. He looked at his second. "Bring me a bird. We got some Defective merchandise." He took off the amulet, and the freak who was tearing apart the man beside him barely noticed.

"I can't feel that exquisite pain anymore! Did you have a change of heart?" he pulled the still beating object from the man's now shredded chest. The man was finally dying. He squeezed it and smiled at the shower of blood.

Bug dropped his axe on the neck of the morph. "Poor guy… You guys understand now? This… merchandise is very buggy. The girl said it's a two sided sword. We're moving on, we'll ambush these guys from the next villages."

The men nodded, and looked at the twitching mass on top of the now chestless man. Bug continued to butcher it, until it stopped twitching, but the head still watched it with fascination. "HURT ME MORE!" it yelled as Bug turned. Bug looked back at it… then split it like a melon. "Fine." He said as they started walking towards the Lycian nation.

Well, that's that. Seems the Morphs (Being soulless) Eventually go batty if they use blessings, or even try to be strategists. (Namely because a being without a soul would Psionically project, and that taxes the mind. Being beasts made of just random soul energy, they're not even stable normally!

I apologize for slipping in a new chapter like this. I like the idea of support chapters though. They just seem to fill the voids between chapters. I may make them a regular feature. shrug Dunno, though it would be very nice to have something horrible happen every chapter then find a way to fix it in the SCs. Or vise versa. shrug Oh well.

Next chapter: Mission 5: (I'll get the name in a minute.): A half-dragon takes to the sky, and blood of his mistress is shared. But when the last of the Ganeleon bandits decide to attack, what is it become of the Strategist and his crew?

P.S. I'll give you a hint. I've decided to begin the over-arcing Subplot (Which will span on into the FE8 fic that's going to be written after this one.) Think back a few chapters, before the nuke breath but after the Mani-Katti. Read that chapter again. You'll figure it out.

P.S.S. What creature in FE 8 looks a lot like a half-dragon? TRIVA FOR THE WIN PUNKAHS! .

Bounce time for me, catch ya on the flipside! (I know, I fail miserably at being gangsta, G.)