Apologies on the slight delay. Something happened in my personal life that upset me quite a bit, but I got over that in a couple of days so no big deal there.

Thank you once again to everyone reviewing! I read them all and appreciate them a lot!

Italics will be character's thoughts and /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ will indicate a scene change.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem nor do I own anything else I may reference. I only own my OCs.

Speak to Me

"So I was informed you all came here to see if you get support from Regna Ferox's troops. Is this true?" Flavia inquired the still blank faced me.

"Well? Hey, how hard did ya hit this guy?" Flavia asked Sully whom was standing to the sides of our conversation.

"Pretty hard," Sully said with a smirk.

Don't remind me…

"Ugh… Perhaps I should let you all rest and we can continue this tomorrow," Flavia said with a groan.

"W-Wait! You just-!" I stopped myself as I let out a deep breath I was holding in the entire time.

"Sorry, you just caught me off guard is all," I replied as I stopped mindlessly staring.

"It would appear so," Flavia frowned.

"B-But you were right. About why we came here in the first place. You see, Chrom was hoping that Regna Ferox could spare some of its troops to assist Ylisse."

"Sorry, no can do."

Yeah, saw that coming.

"W-What?!" Everyone in the room shouted in shock and I joined in as well to not look out of place.

"I said no! What?! Are you all deaf?!" Flavia shouted back in response proving the khans have no understanding of the word civility.

"F-Flavia, is there really no way that you can spare ANY troops for us?!" I pleaded with the khan.

Flavia's anger settled as she then smirked to my question.

"Well, that's what we're here to do business for isn't it?"

"I suppose it is," I replied already knowing what she was getting at.

"See the way things work around here is different then you all might understand. There have always been two khans that rule over Regna Ferox. One of those khans, however, has complete and total authority over the other."

"Doesn't that make having two rulers, I don't know, pointless?"

"It's how our culture stands. One khan shows that they are the stronger of the two and that goes a long way in our people's hearts. Even if the other didn't have total power over the other, the people would only listen to the stronger one anyways." Flaiva started to walk towards the window in the room before peering out of it by moving the curtains with her hand.

"So then let me guess, you're the one out of power."

"Exactly, but you're in luck. You see, we have a competition every once in a while to determine who is the ruling khan. We khans choose our champion and those champions choose four others. It's customary for khans to choose outsiders to prevent any kind of blood feuds between our people." She then turned away from the window with a wide grin.

That sounds a bit different from the game. Then again nothing is really like the game at this point. I shouldn't expect much less.

"So you want to pick one of us and then what? We do some kind of battle royale?" I asked as Flavia walked back to a standing position of only a few feet in front of me.

"You're right on the dot there, Vince. The battle, however, is more akin to a tourney, on the other hand. I have, however, decided that if you help me win this competition then I promise you to give Regna Ferox's full support."

"So how about it? I request that you, Vincent, be my champion," Flavia finished as she extended her hand for another handshake.

Huh?

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? My hearing might be damaged," I said as I cupped a hand around one of my ears.

"I said that I want you as my champion!" Flavia yelled directly into my ear drums. I was certain she had popped them with her voice.

I recoiled back from the sound, but I recovered and knew exactly what she had said.

The crazy chick wants me to fight for her! I'll lose if I fight! She's putting her money on a losing horse!

I stood there motionless until I eventually had become a knockoff statue of the Thinker. I wanted to weigh my options in this situation since I knew if I messed up it would cost us all big.

"Vincent, what in Naga's name are you doing?! You must accept this offer for milord!" Frederick said causing me to be busted from my thoughts.

"I'm thinking over here, Frederick! This is a lot for me to decide on!" I shot back to the great knight.

"If you don't say yes, you'll wish you had," Frederick stated while glaring at me.

I've got enough to worry about Frederick! Leave me alone!

"U-Uh… Can someone else take my place?" I asked Flavia.

"I've already decided on you as my champion. You still can pick four of your friends here as your allies. If I were you, I'd definitely pick the red head knight over there," Flavia said as she directed my attention to Sully who was giving me a thumb up while grinning.

That still means I'm responsible for fighting someone!

"W-Wait. Can't I just ask the other khan if they'll help us? Why do I have to go through a tournament?!" I asked what had been my final idea.

"You don't think Raimi and Auden didn't get both of us? That man could care less about what you want unless you beat his champion! Either way you're in for a fight." Flavia pointed out.

As I had trouble bringing myself to accept the hopelessness of my situation, Lissa crouched down next to me.

"You might want to just say yes, Frederick's already making a list of punishments if you don't," she whispered silently into my ear.

"Ok… I… I acce… I acce…." I had trouble finishing my acceptance. No matter what I tried, I couldn't say two simple words.

Suddenly, Lissa smacked my back causing me to cough both of the words out at once, "I accept!"

I rubbed my back in displeasure as I glared at Lissa whom simply shrugged in response as she smiled.

"Great! In that case, the tournament is in five days. Choose your allies and get ready. I heard the West Khan found a new champion that was even stronger than his last undefeated one," Flavia said as she walked towards the door leading out of the room.

"You, lead them all to their rooms when they're ready," Flavia instructed one of the guards standing at Chrom's door.

"Y-Yes, ma'am!"

The door creakily shut behind her and the room was left in utter silence. We all stared at each other for what felt like a solid minute.

"Sully, you're in the team!" I ceased the silence as I quickly put Sully on my team of champions like Flavia suggested.

"Whoa, slow down there. You should at least treat a girl to a meal first," Sully said with a smirk.

"Umm… Three others… Robin you're in!" I said as I dragged the surprised tactician over to my side of the room.

"Vincent, are you sure about this?" Robin asked skeptically.

"Yeah, I'm sure! Now… could you pick the other two?" I asked with my hands clasped together.

Half of the room face palmed at how I couldn't manage to make the team on my own.

"Hmm… Well, we'll definitely need our strongest fighter. Fredrick, you're in!" Robin said pointing to the great knight.

"I'll do milord proud," Frederick responded with determination.

"And if we want to round things out… Vaike would be the last one," Robin pointed out to me.

"Huh?... Is someone… calling for the Vaike!?" Vaike barely managed to pull himself up thanks to the bed as he still seemed to be in a daze.

We all looked at the bruised up Vaike trying to hold himself up with the support of the bed. He smiled to us all even though it looked evidently painful and shouted, "Nobody leaves the Vaike out!"

He then promptly fell back down to the floor as he couldn't hold himself up even with the bed's help anymore.

"Lissa, can you help Vaike?" I asked the healer.

She sighed before she picked up her staff and muttered to no one in particular, "If I don't, who will?"

While Lissa healed Vaike and shook him awake, I decided it would be best if we got our planning out of the way.

"So we have five days to train and all, but how long will it take to grab Miriel's ingredients?" I asked the ones who might know. In other words, the two smartest ones in our group being Miriel and Robin.

"I'm not sure. Miriel, do you have a map for this?" Robin asked the mage.

Without even uttering a word as she was fixated on her reading, she handed a rolled up map to Robin. There was three very specific red Xs scattered across the map. The red Xs were numbered from one to three. At the bottom of the map was an index of sorts. Each of the numbered Xs was given an explanation for what the item's name was, what it looked like, and what it was. Miriel was very descriptive in her explaining so that even I could make out what she was talking about.

"This is… Yeah, no doubt about it. It'll take us all five days to get these together. That's if we don't have trouble finding these things," Robin stated in disappointment before handing the map over to me.

I looked over the map and if the distances on here can tell me anything it's that Robin was right. Going to each mark would take us almost an entire day and then we'd have to quickly find the ingredient before heading back as soon as we did.

"Can't we maybe save some time? Maybe we could go from one to another and hit them up all at once?" I suggested what came to my head.

"The pathways I outlined are the best guarantee at getting there promptly. If you take any other route, you run the jeopardy of hitting some kind of hindrance. There's no possibility you can go through them all at once," Miriel replied as it turned out she was listening to us converse the entire time while she read from her book.

Geez… She's crazy good at what she does!

"No, that's it!" Robin exclaimed in a eureka style moment.

He reached out to take the map from me and I complied allowing the ecstatic tactician have his way. He pointed down to the map as he explained, "If we slit up into three groups, we can get this done in no time flat!"

Wow. Why didn't I think of that?

"Well in that case, I think I'll let you handle the splitting of the groups. I am exhausted," I stretched my arms up above my head as I wandered towards the door while yawning.

"Wake me up when my group's about to leave, alright?" I told the others before asking the guard outside the room to show me to my own.

He took me to what was designated as my room and I have to say, it is the most unflattering room I've ever seen.

Even the one I got back at the Shepherd's HQ was better than this!

The guard closed the door behind me as he left me in my small room. It was starkly contrasting to Chrom's room he had been placed in; mine felt like a prison cell.

Whatever. A bed's a bed at this point. I haven't slept for two days and I think I'm starting to feel it.

My first action in my temporary new room was a quick stretch followed by me sitting myself down on the somewhat uncomfortable bed. I unstrapped my sword's sheathe from my side and laid it next to my bed side for easy access.

It'll be nice to go back home for a little while. I'd probably flip out if I couldn't. At least my torture seems slightly sedated in comparison to what it could be.

During my thoughts, I sprawled myself out across my bed and closed my eyes for rest.

Still, I'll figure out what's going on. No way am I letting whoever's getting there sick kicks out of this get away Scot-free.

It didn't take long for me to start feeling my mind drift off. I was extremely exhausted and embraced sleeps encroach on me. With my ability to concentrate dwindling, I drifted off into slumber.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I awoke groggily to light leaking into my room. For the first few minutes of waking up, I really didn't want to move at all. I had finally gotten sleep after almost forty eight hours of being awake. The first thing I didn't want to do was leave my bed.

Slowly, however, I did will myself to awaken fully. I raised myself out of my bed and placed my feet onto the floor while rubbing my eyes. When I finally got the sleep out of my eyes, I opened them fully.

Home again.

Once again, I completed the cycle of seemingly traversing between worlds during my sleep. It's not something I enjoy in the first place but I do enjoy the return. A break between the insanity is something I need.

There was, however, the demon of a machine that still kept my home feeling off. That very same demon being my 3ds that I'm beginning to regret ordering off Amazon in the first place.

Damn online stores. I knew all their convenience was bad somehow.

Either way, I think for now I'll simply ignore it. Whether or not the devil knows it yet, but I have a plan for it.

For now, though, I'm going to take my time back home slowly. I don't want to do anything crazy before I enjoy all the things I have to my access here.

I got up slowly from my bed and was quickly thrown back onto it when I felt how much pain my body was in.

Holy-! I definitely got messed up that's for sure. Man, my face is killing me. What the hell was I thinking getting punched by Sully!? I was given ample warning by what she did to Virion!

I laid on my bed almost motionless as I didn't want to move again and experience anymore pain, but eventually I managed to get up and start my day in the real world.

My day consisted of me enjoying all the simple basic pleasures that I believe now we really do take for granted. You know that saying, "You don't know you have a good thing until it's gone."

Well, I know how true that really is now. Good well prepared food, basic accommodations, little responsibility, all these things and more I've been taking for granted until now.

If anything, this game stuff is just teaching me to be a more appreciative person. God, don't tell me that's why I'm being forced to do this. I'll start hating everything on purpose if it is!

I thanked my mom today for practically everything she did. IT put her off a little, but she looked happy because of it. Also, I let my dad know that I really do respect all the hard work he was doing for us. He comically asked me if I wanted anything to which I told him no.

I don't want to leave them again without them knowing how much I love them…

After the sun had set and I finished dinner with my family, everyone retired off to bed. I went up to my room as well but with a different idea than to sleep. In my hand I held what I felt would defeat the demon on my desk.

I've got you now you Nintendo shit!

I opened the door to my room almost dramatically. Quickly, I closed the door behind me. I locked my focus onto my 3ds and approached it. Without a second thought, I opened it up and turned it on like it planned for me to do like all the other times before now. This time, however, I knew how to beat its game.

It started to show me the events that had transpired in the last two days of my life. As soon as things started to seem strange, however, I pulled up the ace in my hand.

A video camera!

I'll show everyone that this thing is a devil and that I'm not crazy!

I flipped the camera open and turned it on while the device in front of me continued to play out its movie of dread. I looked through the device and what I saw was shocking.

T-There's nothing on the screens!

The screens on my 3ds were completely blank when I looked through the video camera. It was as though I hadn't turned on the device at all.

Ok… That's not normal. W-Wait! This is my chance! I'll show someone this!

I didn't waste a moment. My mind completely disregarded anything my device was trying to show me as it instead pushed me to go grab someone in the house to see what I had saw. I reached for my door and opened it.

Instead of seeing the rest of my house outside of my door, I saw nothing but white. I had to stop myself from continuing in my run out of my room in order not to step into the completely void of anything area.

"W-What the fuck!?" I yelled out as my heart started to kick itself into overdrive.

I was starting to panic. There was no possible way for what I was currently experiencing to be normal. I must be going insane. If I had to bet, I would bet that I was currently strapped up in a straitjacket in an insane asylum that I was losing my mind in.

I probably lost my mind a long time ago… Either that or this is all a dream… Please… Please be a terrible dream.

While I prayed for my sanity at my door, a voice called out.

"Hello?" the seemingly male voice called out as if he was just answering the phone.

I perked my head up from its downward position it had taken to look around my room for the voice. The only place I thought it could come from was my 3ds.

I steeled myself to move toward the device and see what was going on. When I got within visible range of the screens on my handheld console, I could see that there was a cartoonish man on it. His body was taking up both the screens and he looked like he was tapping on the top one as he looked directly at it.

He was wearing a completely black suit as he held a golden cane in one of his hands. For headwear he wore a fedora on top of his head to complete his outfit. His hair was bright green which helped reinforce his look of a cartoon.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked in a disinterested tone.

"I'm the jackass that put you in that game!" I'm calling it now.

"O-Oh! There you are! Ah, would you mind giving me a hand?" the man in my 3ds asked as he extended his free hand to me.

Does he think I can grab him?! He's in my fucking game- Oh whatever! I've seen enough crazy stuff already…

I dropped the camera in my hand to my 3ds and held out my own to assist him somehow. Surprisingly, his hand actually came out of my 3ds and grabbed onto mine. I half expected him to say, "You're mine now!" or something along those lines. Instead, however, I actually did end up pulling him up as his body came out of my 3ds.

About halfway into my pull, however, "Um… I seem to be stuck," the green haired man got stuck sticking halfway out of my 3ds.

"How'd you expect to fit through this crap in the first place?!" I asked as I tried to pull harder.

He laughed in response, "Well, I thought this would be a bit funnier for the both of us. Doors are for the dull!"

You damn… I don't think a workout is funny at all!

With all my strength put into one final pull, I managed to get the suited up man out of my 3ds. I, on the other hand, with the amount of force I put into my last pull I went flying into my dresser that was directly across from my desk.

I rubbed the back of my head from the pain that had started to swell up in it. When it started to die down, I saw the man in the suit dusting himself off with his hands. I will admit he loks less cartoony outside of my console than he did in it, but that doesn't mean I don't think he still is one.

The man noticed me looking at him on the ground and gave me a cheeky grin.

"Top o' the mornin' to ya!" he said with a quick wave of his hand as he leaned in for a bow.

"You know, it was night out before all this," I said pointing out that it was well past the morning.

"Ah, well… top o' the night to ya!" he said as he repeated what he had just did two seconds ago.

I sighed at his actions as I rubbed my forehead for the aneurisms I know I'll be having. After a bit of preparation for it, I managed to ask, "So… are you God or something?"

"Me? Oh, please! Don't give me all that credit! I'm more like…" he waved off my question before he placed a finger to his chin as if he had entered deep thought.

He snapped his fingers before he continued, "I'm more like the security guard!"

"The security guard…" I deadpanned.

"Yeah, yeah! You know, they guard a place to monitor who goes in and out of it! I'm like the security guard of the universe… Oh, sorry! Universes!" The man in front of me tried explaining I suppose his job occupation to me.

Only half of his sentence to me was remotely interesting. The other half was simply parent talk like from Charlie Brown.

"And why is the "security guard of universes" in my room and fucking with me!?" I put heavy emphasis on the last couple of words I yelled to him as I got up to a standing position.

The green haired man put up his hands in defense as though I was going to lunge forward and hit him. When he realized that I wasn't, he dropped his guard and straightened out his suit again.

"Well, I simply figured maybe now would be a good time to talk to you. Especially since you seem to be trying to expose all my hard work."

I crossed my arms to lower my desire to actually attack the man in front of me, "Yeah, I wonder why I would want to do that… What do you want?"

"You see, I've been watching you and you seem a bit… on edge. I merely wanted to come here and try to show that I'm a friend and not an enemy," the green haired man opened his arms wide still holding his cane in his right hand and tried to give me a hug.

I extended one of my own hands forward and kept him from accomplishing his hug, "No, I mean, why the hell are you putting me through this shit?"

"One," the green haired man said as he stopped his hug attempt and held his index finger in front of me.

"Huh?"

"I'm going to allow you three questions from this point on. I'll answer them truthfully but I might not answer hem fully. Choose your questions carefully," the suited up man backed away from me and took a seat in my computer chair at my desk.

"The hell? Is this just a game to you?!"

"Two."

Shit! He's seriously treating this like a game! Fucking damn omniscient gods! There almost always assholes!

I have to think of some kind of question… If I know anything about how big of jerks gods can be from shows I've watched, it's that if you try to bend their rules even slightly it almost never works. I have to be careful with this last question.

I took a deep breath as I got ready to ask my final question, "Why did you pick me?"

"Three! Hm… Well, you could've done better with that second one. Oh, well! What's done is done!" He said joyfully as he stood up from my chair.

"For your first question, I'll say that I'm doing it out of my own personal interests. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to blame someone for this, then you're more than welcome to blame me as I take full responsibility."

"As for your second question, I'll simply put it as no. I hardly think of what you're going through as a game and neither should you," he locked me dead in the eyes with his own. For once, he seemed slightly serious in comparison to his carefree and goofy attitude.

"And now for the final question!" he stood confidently as a spotlight appeared on him out of thin air.

This is the guy that's messing with my life…

"To put it simply," the spotlight that shined onto him faded away slowly as he started to scratch his chin, "I can't quite remember why. What I do remember is that I've chosen you countless times. I've picked you hundreds of times in fact if that means anything for you."

Hundreds… Wait. How does that even work?!

"Hey, what does that even mean?"

"Oh, no you don't! I gave you three questions! And to think you didn't even ask for my name," he pulled out a handkerchief from his coat pocket and pretended to wipe away tears as he fake sobbed.

This guy… I can't comprehend how he's a god!

"Why would I-"

"Don't worry about it! I'll give it to you for free! First, however," the man stopped his fake sobbing as he lifted his hand that he had been holding his cane in this entire time.

The suited up man raised his right hand and faced his palm directly at my face. On his palm was a bunch of half circles it would appear. One big black half circle on one side and then a smaller half circle reflecting the larger one and going more towards the center of his palm. The same pattern repeated until it got to the direct center of his palm which had a black dot.

"Let's go for a ride," his hand started to emit some sort of energy that swirled around me.

I could feel my body being pulled forward directly into his hand. My body almost felt like it was going to be turned into mush for a second as my body passed into the middle of the energy swirling around. After I made it past that, I was falling. Nothing was around me as I fell. Only more of the same energy that came from that man's hand was around me.

"What the hell is going on!?" I shouted in fear.

"This isn't your first time going through here," the green haired man was falling next to me. He was definitely falling like I was except he looked like he was falling head first and was completely calm about it.

"This is your first time being awake though I'd say. Pretty isn't it?"

"I'm going to kill you!" I reached my hands over to him to try and strangle him.

He somehow managed to back himself away from me during mid-fall. When he got out of range of my psychotic rage he stated, "Whoa! Whoa! I thought this would be fun for you! Man, remind me never to do this while you're awake again."

"Die!" I continued to try and murder him.

"At least let me say my name first!"

I finally managed to latch onto him slightly. I had a hold on his coat and then moved onto his neck in order to strangle him. My only goal before I hit the end of this fall was to kill this stupid god.

"My… name's… Janus!" Janus managed to get out while I shook him to and fro.

"Why won't you just die?!" I continued in my blind rage.

Before I could finish what would've been the most wonderful thing to happen in my life, Janus disappeared from my hold. What used to be an idiot god in my hands turned into absolute nothingness. I turned my head all around me to see where he had gone. He seemed to be nowhere in sight; unless he has invisibility.

There was, however, one thing that did catch my eyes attention. There was a bright light and I was falling directly for it. As I got closer and closer to it, it got brighter.

"Damn you, Janus!" I yelled out my final words before passing directly into the light.

That wraps up another chapter.

Not much got actually accomplished in this chapter besides meeting Janus. On that topic, I chose his appearance and name in accordance to two separate things. His name being in relation to the Roman God of portals and transitions and his appearance being highly alike Hazama from BlazBlue (Don't ask me about the game. I've only seen the anime. I'm sorry.)

Anyway, the next chapter or maybe the one after that will involve a new character's pov. Leave your guesses as to who it might be in a review!

While I'm talking about reviews, don't forget to leave one! Anything about the chapter would be nice.

Also, you're more than welcome to ask me any questions you might have in a PM. I'll be sure to answer them when I have the time.