And I'm back!
First off, let me thank Dr-J33, Latteas, and Gunlord500 for leaving a review. Your comments are truly appreciated. As for the very important question of why this fic was put out in July, it's cause I just recently dug it back up from the dark recesses of my computer. I had written most of this during the previous holiday season but never got around to revising and posting it. As such, I figured I should probably put this up before the new Fire Emblem game came out and everyone forgot about the glory days of Robin, the master eugenics master!
I'll make one last short announcement before going back to Frederick's torture. I just recently started a new Pokemon fic titled The Champion Under the Silver Mountain and would appreciate any and all feedbacks on it. It's a silly little parody featuring the untold tale of all the socially-inept player characters and the various hijinks that occur when they all meet. Yeah, it's about as strange as it sounds.
Anyways, with that out of the way, let's head on forward to meet Gre... I mean the Ghost of Marth Day Present!
An Ylisstol Carol: Act II
When Frederick finally came to, he found himself lying in the middle of an empty road covered in snow. As he tried to recover his bearings, a familiar-looking mercenary appeared before him wearing a festive cloak and what appeared to be a wreath on his head.
"Oy! The nanny knight finally woke up yes? Is time for Ghost of Marth Day Present to finally be taking stage then!"
"Gregor? What's with those strange clothes?" As Frederick got up, he tried to remember what had happened before he had been knocked out. As soon as he did though, his expression immediately darkened. "Oh Naga, don't tell me. Are you people still going on with this nonsense?"
"This not nonsense. This all very real! Now hurry up and follow Gregor… er… Ghost of Marth Day Present! We have exciting vision to be seeing!"
Seeing no other option, Frederick reluctantly followed Gregor as he led him to a brightly lit house. As the two reached their destination, a light snow began to fall as if to set the mood (even though there wasn't a single cloud to be seen in the sky). Ignoring this strange phenomena, Frederick peered through the frost covered window at Gregor's prodding and saw one of his soldiers standing by the fireplace with what seemed to be his family.
"Huh… I never knew that Ross had a wife," Frederick dryly commented as he spotted his recruit standing next to a woman who looked a lot like Cordelia.
"Ah, you are busy man. It probably slipped your mind," Gregor quickly explained.
"I also don't recall Nowi and Nah being his supposed daughters…"
"Don't worry over tiny details and just watch," Gregor passed off with a hearty laugh as he gave Frederick a friendly (yet very painful) slap on the back.
As Frederick forced himself to watch with ever increasing irritation, the supposed family gathered together at the dining table and started to discuss something. However, the distance between them, along with the closed window, made it impossible for any sound other than an inaudible murmur to be heard from the outside.
"Fascinating," Frederick said sarcastically. "This has got to be one of the most riveting conversations that I have heard throughout my entire life. No doubt it would have changed my entire outlook on life as a whole. Now then, why don't you take me to the vision where I finally return to my room to get some sleep?"
"Er… give the ghost a moment."
Having said this, Gregor quickly pulled out a small pocketbook version of a magic tome and put it to his ear.
"Smart man do you hear me? It seems nanny knight cannot hear the conversation. Can you get vision spirits to speak louder?"
Frederick thought he heard a loud sigh of frustration as well as some brief excited chatter coming out the tome before Gregor hastily put away his obvious communication device.
"Eh… give it few moments," the mercenary stated with a shrug. "Audio problem will be fixed shortly. Also, Liss… Er… other Marth Day spirits want to know if you are okay standing in cold with only nightclothes on."
"I'm fine. Compared to the massive headache I'm getting from all this silly nonsense, the cold is hardly noticeable," Frederick stated with a massive sigh. "Give Lady Lissa my regards for concerning herself over me though."
"The Ghost of Marth Day Present does not know who this 'Lissa' is but shall give message nontheless!"
Frederick simply shook his head as he returned his gaze towards the family members gathered inside. Before long, Nah pulled out a small tome identical to the one Gregor had just used and gave an affirmative nod to the message she received. After putting her tome away and relaying the instructions, Nah and the others grabbed the dining table and chairs and made a hasty transition next to the window.
"The view outside sure is great today," Ross said loudly while looking at Gregor for a response. Once the cheerful mercenary gave a quick thumbs-up, the trainee gave a nod to the rest of his 'family' to sit down and resume their now-audible conversation.
"Okay, as I was saying before I won't be able to join you for the Marth Day celebration tomorrow," Ross said while trying desperately not to keep eyeing the two hulking figures just outside the window. "Captain Frederick ordered us to report in tomorrow morning as well."
"But dear, it's Marth Day tomorrow!" As usual, Cordelia was playing her role perfectly with an air of flawless professionalism. "It just wouldn't be the same without you around. Besides, the kids have been waiting all year to go to the festival with you!"
"Yeah, the festival wouldn't be half as fun if you weren't there with me and Nah who, by the way, are definitely your daughters and not acting on Robin's orders to-" Thankfully Nah managed to prevent her mother from saying anything else by distracting her with a large bag of candy.
"Ahem. What my 'sister' was obviously trying to say was that it would be a massive disappointment to us both if you couldn't be with us tomorrow," Nah said as Nowi continued to devour the sweets laid out in front of her. "Can't you try to persuade your captain to let you have the day off?"
"I wish. He practically set out a death sentence for anyone that doesn't show up to his stupid training pr… I mean necessary and vital lessons that will no doubt turn me into a better soldier." Ross quickly improvised after remembering exactly who was standing just outside the window. "Did I also mention how cool Sir Frederick is and that he's the best captain in all of Ylisse?"
"Umm… that's nice dear," Cordelia said, trying her hardest to stick to the script. "Anyways, how are we going to explain all of this to Tiny Tim?"
"Tiny Tim? Who… Oh right! Tiny Tim! My beloved youngest son!" Ross said as Cordelia and Nah tried not to face-palm. "I honestly don't know how to break this news to him. Given his current situation, this might be the last festival he can attend with... Wait. I think I hear Tiny Tim now."
At this, everyone turned to stare at the door leading into the dining room as they waited for Tiny Tim to make his entrance. However there was no sign of anybody appearing as an entire minute passed by in awkward silence.
"Ahem. I said I think I hear Tiny Tim now," Ross eventually repeated in a louder voice. Once again the only response was dead silence. Just as Frederick was about to pass off another snarky comment, the door suddenly flew open as a short figure was launched into the room. After a moment of stunned silence, the newcomer got up revealing yet another familiar face.
"What the heck Severa?" a clearly angry Ricken shouted out. "I told you I'm not going to be Tiny Tim! There's plenty of people making fun of my height already and I don't need your-"
"Oh, Tiny Tim. We were just talking about you honey," Cordelia quickly cut in. "How are you feeling?"
"How do I feel? What does it look like to you Miss Perfect?" Ricken continued on raging. "I was just kicked through the door by your daughter and now I'm being forced to… where did you get that Brave Lance from?"
Ricken's anger was quickly changed to utter terror as Cordelia got up and slowly advanced on him with her weapon in hand.
"Don't… call me… Miss Perfect," Cordelia whispered out as she gave the short mage a look that nearly made him wet his pants.
"Heh… heh…. T…that was just a slip of the tongue," Ricken squeaked out as he tried to back away. "L…look, I'll… uh… play the role of Tiny Tim so why don't you put away your lance and … AAAAAAAHHHHH! MY LEG! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO MY… NO! NOT THE FACE! ANYTHING BUT THE FACE!"
Frederick's view of the bloody slaughter was quickly blocked by Gregor as he jumped in between the knight and the window.
"Spirits are experiencing technical difficulties," Gregor said with a half-hearted smile as Ricken's screams for mercy continued to echo inside. "We will get back to you in-"
"Okay, no more!" Frederick finally exploded. "I've had it with these silly attempts to cancel the training session tomorrow! The only thing you've proven to me is just how devoid of duty my men are to be cooperating with you fools in this pitiful excuse of a play! It's clear to me that I must work my men harder to instill a proper sense of what it means to be a true soldier! As such, I shall make every recruit take on three additional bears tomorrow! Anyone who fails shall-"
Frederick's tirade was cut short when Sumia's log suddenly flew out of the darkness and made contact with his head once again. As the knight's unconscious form slumped down onto the snow-covered ground, Gregor gave a loud sigh.
"Gregor knew this was bad idea. We should have just tied up nanny knight and thrown him in basement tomorrow like Lon'qu said. Oh well. At least Gregor got fancy cloak from this. Tell me Pegasus lady, does Gregor not look charming in this outfit?"
Sumia simply gave a sigh in response as she walked over to pick up her log.
xxx
Nearly all of the Shepherds were currently gathered together inside the barracks. Asides from the few important political figures that were busy with their jobs (along with Frederick and Ricken who were in the infirmary), almost everyone from the past battle against Grima was present. All of Frederick's recruits were also there as they, along with the Shepherds, stared at the clearly frustrated tactician in the hopes that he would figure out a way to salvage their carriage-wreck of a plan.
"Yeah, I think it's safe to say we screwed up," Robin eventually vented out. "We screwed up about as bad as anyone can. I mean, words cannot describe just how bad we screwed up. History will probably remember this as the single, biggest-"
"We get it," Severa interrupted while rolling her eyes. "We messed up. Now why don't you figure out a way to fix this mess rather than finishing your novel about our failure?"
"Severa, I wouldn't be talking right now considering the catastrophe that your mother just caused," Robin stated as he began massaging his temples. "We had to shut down the entire third act as well as dealing with the messy job of carting what remained of Ricken to the infirmary in a wheelbarrow. Speaking of which, how's the little guy doing?"
"Well… he has more holes in him than Chrom's room at the moment but Maribelle says he'll be alright… eventually," Lissa reported.
"Nya ha ha! I guess you can say that Ricken just became the new pope of Ylisse seeing as how he's the 'holiest' man around!" Henry joked. Rather than responding to this terrible pun, everyone opted to instead glare at the cause of this fiasco.
"Heh heh… sorry about that everyone," Cordelia apologized. "It's just a bad habit I developed back in the academy when people used to tease me by calling me Ms. Perfect. I honestly didn't mean to hurt Ricken that badly."
"Hurt is an understatement," Tharja said in a mildly impressed voice. "Even I felt a little disturbed by just how brutally the kid was mutilated. Hmm… I wonder if I could use your blood to create a rage tonic that'll… Ohhh… I think I just figured out the missing ingredient for my daughter's future talisman. Eh heh heh heh…"
Hearing this, Noire and Cordelia quickly put several meters between themselves and the chuckling dark mage.
"Ahem. The situation with Ricken was indeed unfortunate but how do you propose we proceed from here?" Laurent asked Robin. "After all, it would be quite a waste to simply forfeit our efforts after all the time and money we allotted to this plan."
After a brief silence, Robin gave a loud sigh and threw up his hands in defeat.
"Honestly… I have no clue," Robin admitted to a rather shocked audience. "Changing Frederick's mind with only one act left seems even more impossible than taking on a demon dragon god with only sixteen people armed with tree branches and ladles."
"Umm… didn't we do just that during our final battle with Grima because we were low on funds?" Stahl interjected. Robin chose to ignore this comment and instead continued with his monologue.
"The point is, nothing short of a divine miracle will help us now. And seeing as how Lady Tiki is all the way back in Valm, I doubt that'll be happening anytime soon. So… yeah, it's game over for us."
The entire room became dead silent as their tactician declared a surrender for the first time in his career. Frederick's recruits were especially devastated as they began to tremble at the thought of what their captain would no doubt unleash on them in the morning. Just before the recruits could erupt in full-out panic, however, a single-timid hand went up in the middle of the assembled crowd.
"I… umm… don't know about divine miracles but… m… maybe… I could take a shot at directing the f… final act?" Olivia shyly muttered out as everyone turned to look at her. "I mean… I do have some theater experience after all…"
All eyes simultaneously turned to Robin once again as they waited for his response. After briefly contemplating on the matter, he gave another one of his trademark sighs.
"Alright why not," the tactician said with a shrug. "It's not like we have anything to lose at this point. If worst comes to worst, we can just go with Lon'qu's plan and lock up Frederick in the basement. Of course, that'll be a headache to deal with later but whatever. Alright then, let's set up for our final act of the night. I just hope nothing terrible happens this time…"