A/N Well, here's a one-shot based on Ike after FE10. One thing to note is the story is based on the fact that Ike and Zihark were slated to have support in FE9, but do to time, if I recall correctly, was cut, to see all the ones cut, go here, http:/ www . serenesforest . net / general / unused html (remove spaces)
Also I caught one or two errors, but not all of them, so if I missed any more misspelling let me know.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem, otherwise the blood pact would have had a few changes to it. Also gave more time for them to do more with supports in the game as well.
The reports sat there harmlessly, waiting to be read and dealt with. It would have been easier for his sister, but Ike had to let her learn and Soren would help her out. He smiled as he lifted Ettard from the holster on the wall. It would be safer for him to be armed on his journey, even though going was not something he planned to do after saving the world. Quite a few nobles in Crimea, Begnion, and Daein were clamoring for him to settle down in their particular country. Crimea nobles tried the argue that it was his proper homeland, while a few of Daein nobles attempted to claim him since he was the son of Gawain, and lastly a few of the less corrupt senators of Begnion believed that he should be there and argued that if he lived there, no one dare try to cross the Empress. He figured that if Lehran would not stop them, than he would not be much better.
Taking his sword, he walked out of the tent and went to where his sister and Rolf used to play and pick flowers. It had been his second mission as a mercenary, when bandits had kidnapped them and if it was not for Shinon, Rolf would have died. He knew Shinon would stay with the mercenaries, even if he would complain most of the time. Gatrie would stay, anything else would be too much work. That and since Shinon was staying, he wouldn't leave his best friend. He just needed to aim for a different type of girl than he usually did.
He sat down and waiting for the breeze to come by, but unfortunately, nothing came but the sounds of insects. He laughed quietly, was the wind condemning him for leaving his sister behind? Blast it, he was not leaving her alone and war would be prevented. His 'family' understood and Mist had given her blessing, reluctantly. He still remembered the day that Mist worked up the courage to tell him that she planned to marry Boyd. After telling him, she had latched onto his arm and told him that not to hurt Boyd. He had smiled, Boyd was a good friend, he would take good care of her. Did she forget that he was my closest friend next to Soren before Ashnard's attack on Crimea?
He stood as he positioned himself for practice swings. If Mia saw him, she would have complained that he was not letting her spar with him often enough. Well, she would never get her victory, but at least he did not have to worry about her having her heart broken. After hearing about a few rumors that she was interested in him, he had asked her about it one day after sparring. She laughed, telling him that he did not look good in white. He had been relieved at the time, as his father's accident with his mother still haunted him. It did not help hearing all the time that he looked and acted like his father more and more. Soren would have told him he was being irrational, before trying to explain that Ike needed him to come along. He did not feel right about it after hearing Titania explain about Soren's emotions. Ike realized that Soren was putting too much stock into him. If he came along, then when he outlived Ike, he could not survive, especially since he would be truly alone. The break had to be made now, when his sister and the rest of the mercenaries would help him. Titania had promised to watch out for one of her many 'children' that she and Greil adopted as mercenaries.
As he finished another vertical slash, he wondered if Mist would keep up with the cooking duties, or would she try to get Oscar to come back. He had said that he was needed more as a knight, and that he would come back when he was not needed anymore. Of course, according to his sister, he might have become a knight so that if he ever actually married Tanith, the Begnion nobles would stomach it better. Poor Mia, hearing about Mist's wedding and Oscar's dating made her hit on Rhys even more. The kind healer had tried to be gentle with his refusals, but Mia's stubborn streak would not let her stop. Perhaps he'll need to have Soren ride into camp some day on a horse wearing his arch-mage robe. Mist agreed and said that those two would be a cute couple, Ike preferred them being a good couple which lead to his sister laughing at him. And if Mia actually rejected Soren because of his brand, he would go tell Aimee that he was willing to marry her. He shuddered at the thought, but knowing how much trouble Mia had received for wielding a sword, a simple mark should not matter.
As he brought his sword down, he realized that the workout was not helping with his restlessness. He sat down, staring at the lake that was nearby, smiling as he remembered his first training sessions here. He never had a chance to surpass his father, though everyone that knew him told him that he looked and acted like him more and more as he became older. It was high praise, especially from Caineghis and Tauroneo, who had known Greil personally.
He turned toward the direction of Melior, where many of his friends were living. Kieran was hopefully not tormenting Oscar too much, he felt slight empathy for the green haired knight. Renning had been an interesting man, though Ike did not have enough time to learn mcuh about him. He scored quite a bit of points for not even considering being King of Crimea. Bastian had reported this to the mercenaries, with his overly flowery speech. His speech patterns aside, he and Lucia had a relationship, according to what Oscar sent in his letter to Rolf and Boyd. Though there were plenty of people upset at this relationship, Ike did not care. After all, Astrid and Makalov married a week ago, and none of the Royal Knights, except Oscar and Renning, congratulated them on it. It looked like Astrid picked her own destiny as her family definitely did not approve of him. The mercenaries had been 'guards,' which had been their easiest protection job he has lead his family on. They had been paid well and Astrid had been very helpful to his group. This allowed him to not leave his family broke.
Though there were a couple of problems he ran into there at the wedding. Devdan had been there, no longer trying to pretend he was different person, much to the surprise of some people. Speaking of strange knights, he had been surprised by the head of the Royal Guards after being approached by him after the wedding. Geoffrey told him that he was planning to ask Elincia to marry him, but if Ike was going to pursue her, he would stay out of the way of the better man. Ike had just stared at him, before explaining that even if he was interested in her, she was the queen, the relationship would not work. He quoted Titania's comment from earlier, that there was no one better to be at her side than him. He left the flabbergasted knight standing there for a good five minutes according to Bastian.
That was not the biggest shocker for him at the event. Queen Micaiah had brought a few advisors with her to wedding, claiming to be on a diplomatic meeting on a treaty, but it must have been for Sothe's benefit. He had been on good terms with Astrid during the Mad King's War. The young man had asked to speak to him for a moment during the reception. He then asked him if he wanted to pursue a relationship with Micaiah, and that he would help him in whatever way possible. That had left the Vanguard completely shocked, staring at the young man that idolized him for about a minute before loosing his own tongue. He explained to the younger man that Ike could not handle being a noble, even if Daein's nobility would mostly be recently made friends. Sure, he felt a kinship with Micaiah, having been turned into a hero by a country, but any romantic interest he might have had, vanished when she became queen.
Sighing, he though about how it was impossible for him to meet anyone without them knowing him as the hero of Tellius. His friends knew that he could not handle being a noble, he had only stayed to help Elincia the first time as a friend and had been glad to leave for Bastian's job. That was one of the few things he was looking forward to, if the other continents had been repopulated by Yune, potential romantic interests there might meet him as just Ike, not son of the famous rider of Daein, not the hero of Crimea, or not the savior of Tellius.
This still did not stop rumors spreading, which included of all things that he was dating Nephenee. He found out from Brom that the rumors came from how much she had talked about him between the two wars. Though it still did not make much sense to him why Heather avoided having conversations with him. Calill and Largo had used their bar for part of the reception, however, it never completely held all the guests due to the number. It was a good thing none of the bird laguz wanted to go inside, as a few liked to spread their wings a little bit too much inside. Brom had fortunately been helpful and did not try to pass off one of his daughters on to him. He probably had Zihark to thank for that. Meg had a boyfriend according to the happy father, possibly related to Nephenee, but he had not dug too deeply into it.
He walked back and then started sneaking through camp, away from the doors, back to his tent. Upon reaching there, he saw the medal that his father received for becoming one of the four riders. Micaiah had given it to the group as thank you, both siblings treasured it, and it would stay with Mist. That way her children would have something to remember their grandfather by. Quite a few people had been against his decision to try to reason with Daein pre-petrifaction. But, just like his feelings about Nasir, he had been right.
The blood pact seemed to be not bad, until Soren had searched through the Begnion's national library. The pact needed one of the signers to activate, however, once activated, the document could be hidden anywhere. Lekain was planning to activate it, teleport to some remote location and bury it. And once activated, anyone that could have been affected, stayed at risk. Micaiah had decided to throw away the military might of Daein in exchange for the rest of the citizen's lives. The rest of the dawn brigade found out about it after everyone was forced to work together.
Meeting Nolan was interesting, especially finding out he was the original leader of them. He had been 'replaced' by Micaiah when she joined as was more visible. Though he kept up on the plans of the Daein Liberation Army and aided with the ordering of the grunts, which made her plans easier. He had remarked that Micaiah and Sothe took over tactical command after the coronation of Pelleas. A direct contrast to his personality was Edward, who seemed to get along well with Mia and spent time with her sparring daily. Leonardo was the representative of the Daein army and had been spending time talking to Geoffrey about logistics. Tauroneo had joined the two in the discussion. He had been one that had tried to get him to be one of Daein's riders. Though he respectfully declined, his father's old friend had taken with good humor. Fiona rounded out the Daein government as one of the duchess in Daein. She passed on remarks about his father before leaving to talk with others.
Jill and Haar had been at his sister's wedding, but could not make it to Astrid's wedding. The two were hard at working fixing up Talrega. Jill had left Daein after they attacked the laguz, not wanting to raise arms against Haar and Mist. She was not the only one in the Daein army that had jumped ship. Zihark had been a close friend of Ike during the Mad King's War. He talked about his former laguz girlfriend and having to deal with the prejudice inflicted on them. They also had sparred a bit which lead to one point where Zihark admitted that Ike was started to pull away quicker than he could catch up. When they met on the battlefield, all Ike had to say was, "Do you really want to do this?" and his friend quickly rejoined his former allies. He had been glad at his decision, as Daein had lost its direction. After the war he had decided to go find his former girlfriend and at least have closure. Ike wished him luck and had heard nothing since then, but he held out hope for good news.
Ilyana came with the merchant caravan and demolished most of the buffet line. People still were unsure about why she needed to eat so much, but with the fact the merchants supplied the Heroes of Tellius, they always had too much requests than they could supply. The only two from Daein he had not seen since the war was Laura and Aran. He supposedly had a small crush on his childhood friend according to Mist, it seems that Mia was in a similar position to someone else. He was starting to wonder if Mist was going to play match-maker with all those that had fought in the war. Titania mentioned that the two had a bit to bond over. She also claimed that Mia needed someone in her life that was laid back. Of course she may have been suggesting it for her old friend, who was being pushed to his limits by the swordswoman. Pelleas had been a strange one, as he had visited the mercenaries before Micaiah had been crowned and came to talk with Soren. Neither one would elaborate on what happened, though Pelleas had looked very flustered when leaving.
Begnion nobles also came to the wedding, as an important treaty was set to be signed the day after the wedding. Sanaki had asked Ike if he wanted to continue as her bodyguard which had annoyed both Sigrun and Tanith. Tanith tried to convince Marcia to come back to Begnion to eventually take over for her, but was refused. Kieran had been annoyed with his rival's 'girlfriend' trying to remove the wonderful knight in the Crimea Royal Guard. Marcia sighed and let the man rant. Lehran apologized for his actions and suggested a couple of places that should be nearby for Ike's journey. At least he had a rough idea how long it should take to find land. Volke had also showed up with them, more to let him know that he would be unable to respond to a request on another continent. Ike hoped he was attempting to be funny, but he never really understood the assassin.
Oliver had showed up offering one of his artists to make a portrait of the couple. He found being a sponsor of the arts quite satisfactory. Ike quickly found someone else to talk to, he did not want to know what else the artist made, especially portraits of Oliver. Stefan had been busy with organizing the branded in Grann desert. His sometimes instructor, other times sparring partner, had discussed with Soren about branded and wondered if perhaps their problems were caused by the separation of the Goddess into order and chaos. They would not find out for a few years, however.
Ike glanced over a couple of the reports on the desk, he knew that his nerves were getting worse if he was trying to look over reports. At Mist's wedding, a good number of laguz were there. The best part of this was when Lethe threatened Boyd with bodily harm if he hurt Mist. Of course Mordecai tried to reassure the groom as Mist laughed. Those two, along with Ranulf had been great allies in the two wars. Though he was on better speaking terms with Lethe and Ranulf than Mordecai. Ranulf and himself spent much time talk about the past and his harebrained plan to find new land. He did receive the okay to leave from him after thirty minutes talking about it.
Ranulf's subordinates did not come as one was too busy exploring while the other was making sure that Gallia continued to rebuild. Skrimir, Caineghis, and Giffca came, mostly to tell Queen Elincia about Skrimir's ascension to the throne of Gallia. Tibarn also came to see how his brother-in-arms's sister wedding went. Janaff claimed that he and Ulki came to guide the buffoon. It was a good thing that the Heron siblings were there, otherwise there might have been a fight breaking out. Naesala claimed that he would have offered a fair betting system if they had, with Leanne chided him in ancient tongue, Ike thought. He still did not understand it even with a couple of lessons from Volug.
Tibarn ended up sparring with Ike the next day, and after the fight Caineghis had declined until next time. Unfortunately, the next time will never happen. At least the new bird tribe had not collapsed yet due to infighting. The ravens and hawks still were slightly hostile because of the sneak attack in the war. However, Nealuchi, had been busy with keeping the peace. It had helped that he had told the hawks about Naesala's former plans when he believed that his former king had stepped over the line. The only raven outside of it was Vika, who was helping Tormod and Muarim with the Laguz relations in Begnion. The plucky lad was still vertically challenged, but his diplomacy had improved greatly in the last three years. Muarim followed his 'child' while Vika kept up with them.
Finally laying down the reports the only people he really missed since the battle were Nailah and Volug, whom he would talk to while leaving through their countries, and the dragons. They were rebuilding with the little population they had left. Nasir was also doting on his grandson as Ena finally gave birth. Ike had not wanted to think about how long the pregnancy was.
Attempting to lay down again, he started to understand how his father must have felt when he had to vacate Daein. It would have been nice to have someone with him, but at least his friends were safe, that was enough for him.
Let me know what you think and please review. Thank you to annie, Adriannu255, and TheTwilightRurouni for reviewing.