Yeah, let's try to get back on track with this, shall we?

And here, we jump ahead in the timeline again. A word about this timeline, some really messed up shit goes down for reasons you'll see later... Just know that things are going to get really crazy with this timeline...

Chapter 6: Second Timeline

Ike woke up, almost in the same clearing as what he had woken up in previously.

Panicking, he sat up, eyes wide in fear. However, when he saw that the rest of his friends were laying scattered around him he let out a sigh of great relief.

Looking around, everything looked relatively normal.

"Ike?" asked Maria softly as she stirred.

"Oh, Maria!" said the mercenary. "I think we're okay now..."

Cecilia and Calvin were the first two to sit up as Maria stirred. "I don't think it'll stay like that for long, though..." said Cecilia uncertainly.

"What do you mean?" asked Fiordiligi as she sat up slowly, again groping the air.

"Something tells me that something awful is going to happen by the time we go back to the past again," said the priest's companion uncertainly. "I don't know what, though."

"And what makes you say that?" replied the lady of Jericho.

"Just a feeling," she said, Maria noticing the uncertain glance to her hand where the jewel Calvin had mentioned earlier was. "I don't know why."

Ike simply stood up, helping Fiordiligi up as everybody else stood as well. "Well, let's hope that it doesn't happen. Now let's go before we're left in the dark again."

Everybody nodded, and the group was on its merry way.

A few hours of walking later, they found themselves wondering through the forest that they often wondered through when they went back in time. However, they could not help but notice that something was markedly different about how it looked. Except for Fiordiligi, who could not see what was going on.

They were all able to pinpoint exactly why this was; unlike the liveliness in the past, there was something dead about the forest they were in, as if they had returned back to the underworld and were being chased by Andrew and his friends again. Ike looked around, feeling a strange sense of dread overcome him as he moved around in the rather thin forest. Maria held on to his hand in reassurance, always letting Ike know that he was not alone.

Calvin then heard some odd rustling in the bushes to the side, and he paused briefly, turning to look behind him. Cecilia and Ike all followed suit, and Maria and Fiordiligi both paused at exactly the same time.

"What was that?" asked Calvin.

"Hm..." said Ike. "We should probably follow it..."

"Wait, what do you mean, follow it?" asked Fiordiligi. "You might be walking right into a trap!"

"Still, we might find a friend," said Cecilia. "And we might get a few answers."

Maria shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to stick with Fiordiligi here," she said. "That might look like a trap..."

"Eh, you know what?" asked Cecilia. "Let's just forget we ever saw it and move on."

Ike shook his head at this notion, pointing to the bushes. "I don't know. For some reason, I feel it calling to me... almost like it wants me to follow it..."

Cecilia rose an eyebrow at this. "Wha...?" she asked uncertainly. "What makes you say that?"

"It's like..." he said. "Like it's calling to me."

"Oh, dear, is it a siren song?" asked Fiordiligi, a little annoyed at this. "I know you can resist it, Ike..."

"Hm..." said Calvin, thinking. "How about we do this? We'll have Ike and Fiordiligi follow the source of the sound, and if that turns out not to be a trap, then we'll have Ike come back and reclaim Maria, Cecilia, and I."

Fiordiligi rolled her eyes reproachfully, but her hands loosened their grip on her staff. "Well, all right," she said. "But if it's a trap, you two better come to our aid, and fast!"

"We will, don't worry!" exclaimed Maria as Ike took Fiordiligi's wrist and ventured into the forest after the sound that Calvin had heard.

This left Cecilia, Calvin, and Maria to look around the forest, the purple-haired woman looking around as she drew her sword from its scabbard.

"Just in case," she reassured Maria with a wink. "I don't want to be attacked by anybody without any way of defending myself first."

"Can't blame you for that one," replied the laguz as she looked at the forest around her. "This doesn't exactly look like the best place to be caught off guard..."

"It definitely isn't," replied Calvin.

Cecilia shook her head tentatively. "You guys haven't seen anything yet," she said. "Sacae can be pretty crazy like that."

Maria raised an eyebrow like this. "Really?" she asked, curiously. "Why do you say that?"

The purple-haired human shrugged. "A few reasons," she said. "When you pulled us into the time warp, the clans in Sacae were in the middle of a huge war for territory."

"Clans of Sacae?" asked the cat laguz.

"Sacae is a nation of nomads," replied Calvin helpfully.

"Oh," replied Maria, nodding. "But that can't have been all, could it?"

Cecilia shook her head. "Bandits," she said, simply. "Anywhere else, they'd be dealt with swiftly. But in Sacae, everybody was too busy fighting each other to care. So bandits did a lot of damage as well." Here, her gaze hardened. "But bandits couldn't do what they did at that village by themselves. I'm sure of that."

Before the cat laguz was able to say anything more, however, they suddenly heard the rustling of bushes behind them. Panicking, Maria leapt to the side, prepared to dodge whatever came after her as Cecilia and Calvin both raised their weapons up. The rustling stopped tentatively.

"Whoah, Cecilia, it's okay!" Ike's voice was a dead giveaway to the mercenary as he stepped out of the bushes. "It's me."

"Wha...?" asked the cat laguz, suddenly a little confused. "Didn't you go over that way?" She pointed in the direction Ike had originally ran off in.

"Oh, our army moved, that's all," said Ike softly. "It wasn't a trap. We found a good army to hang around with. Come along. Fiordiligi's waiting."

Ike then darted back into the woods, Maria and Cecilia both glancing at each other tentatively.

"Do you get the feeling that something fishy's going here?" asked the human woman.

"Oh, yeah," Maria said, shaking her head. "I dunno, though. I think we should follow him anyway. Just to see what happens."

Cecilia shrugged as Maria and Calvin both followed after the mercenary. "Whatever you say," she said. "I just hope this isn't like what I ran into with them..." she added under her breath as she began running after her priest companion.

The three of them had followed Ike for quite some time, the mercenary had suddenly paused in front of a series of tents. Looking back at Maria and Cecilia, the mercenary gestured in front of him.

"Well, here we are," he said, turning to the tents in front of him. "Guinevere! I'm back!"

Maria, Cecilia, and Calvin all looked behind Ike as they saw a woman coming out of the tent. They were surprised to find that it was the same blonde woman that they had seen in the first timeline, right down to the wrinkles and everything. When she looked at Ike, she smiled.

"Ah, Sir Ike," she said, nodding to Ike. "You are back to us once again!"

"And I brought the rest of my friends over, too," said the mercenary, stepping out of the way so that his companions were visible to the woman. "Guinevere, this is Maria, Cecilia, and Calvin."

The priest came forward first, glancing nervously at Cecilia and Maria. He felt awkward having to reintroduce himself to Guinevere, but he had the feeling he would have to live with reintroducing himself to almost everybody he met pretty soon. Thus, he breathed in. "An honor, milady Guinevere," he said, bowing respectfully to her.

"Same here," said Cecilia, she and Maria both bowing down in front of her.

"Oh, quit the formalities," replied the queen of Bern lightly. "We are equals here. Fiordiligi should be all right."

"I trust she's still hanging out with Willie, then?" asked Ike.

Maria's eyes darted to the former mercenary captain, a look of restrained surprise on her face. Before she could say much else, however, she noticed Fiordiligi out of the corner of her eye.

She was being led by Willie, a new, slightly more decorous eyepatch seen over his missing eye as he looked on with the bright emerald eye Maria had known so well. His brown hair had grown in the twelve years since she had last seen him, and it was tied back with a few strands of hair in front of his good eye. He sported simple battle attire as well, and he looked rather handsome in it as she noticed that he seemed to have grown a few inches. The boy from Alexandria's eyes lit up brightly upon seeing Maria.

"Maria, it's been too long!" he said. "'Ow've ya been?"

"Willie!" she exclaimed, surprised. "Your accent..."

"It's mostly gone by now," replied Willie in respose to this. "But I still can't get me aitches right, and I'm still doin' a few things wrong. But it's better than it used to be, I tell ya."

Maria smiled at this. "Wow, you've changed so much!" she said.

"And I find him more charming with that new voice of his, if I do say so myself," added Fiordiligi.

Cecilia coughed rudely, bringing attention to herself. The young man looked over to the female and the priest, and frowning slightly he turned. "Oh, dear!" he exclaimed. "I got so excited about seein' all of 'em again I forgot yeh were there! I'm Willie!" With this, he extended his hand in greeting.

"A pleasure, sir," replid the priest. "I'm Calvin, and this here is my friend Cecilia."

"Nice to meet you," replied the female as she too shook Willie's hand.

Guinevere nodded at this. "Well, the group is already here, it seems."

"Yep," said Ike, crossing his arms in front of him. "Now, about that explanation you promised us..."

"Ah, yes," said the queen of Bern. "Come. Clarine has all of the details."

With this, the royal retreated into the small camp. Ike followed, Willie and Fiordiligi walking along. Maria hesitated, looking back to Cecilia and Calvin. Shrugging, she followed along, walking deeper within the small camp as Cecilia and Calvin followed close behind.

The group entered a tent within the camp. There, stood a rather young female woman, blonde hair coming down to her shoulders over a ruined Etrurian battle garnment.

However, Maria shook nervously when she noticed a scar over her forehead. She found this disturbing as she entered the tent after Ike. She shuddered at this, wondering how the woman had acquired the scar.

The small group sat around the woman, he eyes looking at each of them. She nodded to Willie, briefly acknowledging his presence in the tent, but other than that she payed no mind to anybody else in the small tent. As soon as Guinevere entered, the Etrurian noblewoman nodded.

"So I see these are the ones who wondered onto camp..." said the seated lady steadily.

"Yes, Clarine," replied Guinevere.

The woman that was already in the tent nodded. "All right," she said. "You five have missed plenty, I take it?"

Cecilia nodded. "It would be nice if we knew what the hell was going on, yeah," she said.

"Very well," said the woman whom Maria guessed was Clarine. "As you know, several years ago we brought down the Dark Dragon."

"Yeah," replied Maria, scratching the back of her head. "So where does that take us?"

Clarine shook her head. "Roy was posessed by that demon that disappeared before we were ever able to fight him," she said. "And when he was posessed..."

The Etrurian noblewoman shook her head sorrowfully. "It was awful," she said. "He massacred most of the people in that room. Willie was the only one there to escape. And we were the only ones who were able to get away from his wrath in time..."

At this, Ike blinked uncertainly, Calvin bringing a hand to his mouth. "That is awful!" exclaimed the priest. "And what has happened since then?"

"Roy has been put in charge of an army of that demon's finest warriors," replied Clarine. "And he is now parading around Elibe, attempting to eradicate all of us..."

"And we've been on the run ever since," added Willie. "It ain't a good life, I tell ya."

Ike nodded solemnly as the others sans Fiordiligi glanced at each other. "And... and what have you been able to do about it?"

"For the longest time, we were just trying to pin Roy down to a specific location," replied the Etrurian noblewoman. "But now, we have him in our sights..."

"And what's going to happen then?" asked Maria.

Clarine looked at them. "We're going to go on a mission behind enemy lines..." she said. "We have Roy where we want him... So if we can kill him, then we could deal a major blow."

Cecilia raised an eyebrow at this before shifting. "Well, hold on a second," she said. "How are you sure that that'll work?"

The Etrurian noblewoman blinked at her. "Well, without a commander, then they cannot act, right?" she asked.

"Thats the whole problem," replied Cecilia. "Roy is under mind control too. Killing him wouldn't make a difference. That demon man is the one in ultimate control of Roy's soldiers, so he could order them back into unity again."

"And how would you know that?" asked Clarine bitingly.

Cecilia glared, but chose to keep her mouth shut. Before the noblewoman could speak, however, Fiordiligi spoke. "She's right," she said. "Let me propose something to you; what if these warriors were... fabricated people?"

"Fabricated people?" asked Clarine, scoffing. "I have never heard such a thing!"

"No, just, listen to me," continued the woman from Jericho. "If these warriors were fabricated, then they would be able to go under his command."

"And plus, there's the fact that he was able to keep a psychic hold on Roy for twelve years," blurted out Ike. "If he has that power, then what says that he cannot make people."

"Enough of the insanity!" replied Clarine, finally losing her temper. "Too many people have died because he has been leading them! So unless you have any better ideas then I suggest you shut up."

"Oh, no better ideas except, oh, I don't know, killing the demon himself?" asked Cecilia with a clear amount of anger rising in her voice.

"Enough!" Guinevere's voice rang out in the tent, bringing the argument to an abrupt halt. "We should not get into a fight here. I beseech you, just trust her with this for now..."

The purple-haired human girl glared at Guinevere before sighing, Calvin leaving a hand on her shoulder as Maria and Ike both shifted where they sat.

"All right, fine," said Ike. "We'll listen to you. What do you want us to do?"

Clarine cleared her throat. "I want you to go with Willie," she said. "All of you, except for Calvin and Maria."

"No, I'm going with him," replied Maria. "I don't want to be left out of the know if things go horribly wrong."

"Okay then, just Calvin," said Clarine, shaking her head. "Willie will lead you to where we believe Roy to be located."

At this, the woman produced a map and spread it out in front of them. She pointed at a picture of a castle.

"We believe he is in Castle Bern, right here," she said. "We want you to find him within that castle, kill him, and return to us."

"Okay," said Ike. "I think we got it."

"Good," said Clarine, looking to the group. "Some of the members of the army shall join you as well. May God be with you."

And with this, the meeting ended.

As night fell onto the camp, Ike was already up. Maria joined his side precariously, noticing as Willie and Fiordiligi conversed inside a tent. Her amethyst eyes were set in worry as she looked to Ike as he stared ahead of him.

"You know, things have been incredibly rocky lately," said Maria with a shrug. "What with running into these people and all..."

Ike nodded. "I still think Clarine has the wrong idea," he said. "But I'm not about to yell at her about it now of all times. When the morphs come flying at her, then that'll be the end of that..."

Maria's face scrunched. "Why do you say that?" she asked.

"I don't know," replied Ike. "I guess it's what Hades told us in the underworld..."

The depowered laguz blinked nervously, suddenly realizing something. "Wait..." she said. "Technically, it's been around twelve years since we saw him, right?"

"Yeah," said Ike with a shrug. "Why?"

"It's the baby..." she replied. "It feels like it'll be ready to be born soon..."

Ike nodded, thinking. "... Well... I'm not sure what to say," he said. "It's great..."

"I know," replied the laguz. "It's not the best time."

The mercenary nodded. "Well, that too..." he said. "But when you think about it, we couldn't have predicted that your pregnancy would go so far, could we? So really, there's nothing we could've done to curb that. So all that's left is to see my baby..."

Maria nodded. "I think it's going to be beautiful..." she speculated with a small grin.

"So do I," replied Ike, smiling. "I defintely plan on living to see it..."

The cat laguz blinked momentarily, the moment broken by this. However, she shrugged it off, figuring it was nothing and leaving it at that.

Late into the night, Willie had led the group through the woods, slowly. He himself led Fiordiligi on by holding on to her hand. She had blushed upon getting the feeling of Willie holding her, but she had paid it no mind as the young man from Alexandria slowly moved through the trees. Ike, Maria, and Cecilia followed behind them, the three of them knowing that if they had to return back to twelve years earlier Calvin would be taken anyway.

The group slowly advanced through the woods, Willie keeping his only eye on alert in case he saw something. The trip was relatively uneventful, however, and so they finally stumbled across their destination.

Ike saw the castle of Bern in all of its glory, the ramparts rising up above him ominously in the night. A lone room was lit in one of the towers, and Ike saw the light of the flame bouncing off of the grey stones as he looked on. He saw a burned flag rising from a flagpole just under the window, and the window was small enough that Roy needed to be standing in front of it to look anywhere outside.

"Well, 'ere we are," said Willie. "Bern Keep. Where Roy's waiting..."

Maria nodded, looking to the light. "I guess that light is our destination, yes?

The branded one nodded. "Yep, that's it," he said. "I think me 'eart's beatin' wildly right now..."

"We can do it," reassured Ike. "We can do this."

"Well, okay," said Willie. "I hope you're right..."

"Let's go," said Cecilia, drawing out a rapier she had lent from Guinevere. "This guy isn't gonna sit still for us to kill him."

The rest of the group nodded. "Fiordiligi, don't let go of me 'and."

"All right," replied the woman.

With this, the group moved closer to the castle, keeping to the shadows until they had entered the palace through a side window.

Ike saw a rather small array of boxes around him, no doubt gathering dust from lack of use. He had no time to think of this, however, for he and the rest of the group quickly moved into the hallway, moving by rather quickly as they stumbled over themselves. They briefly ran through what must have been a throne room, having fallen into mis-use no doubt due to years of neglect. Maria thought she could briefly feel someone glancing on her tail, but she payed it no mind as she was quickly brought along by Ike.

The group moved quickly through the halls, traversing flights of stairs and working their way up the palace's structure. The five of them worked their way through the passages, looking every so often to make sure nobody was in their way.

And so, when they finally arrived to the only room that was lit in the entire palace, the group entered, Ike with Ragnell at the ready and Cecilia with her rapier drawn as they looked at the figure with his back turned to them. Willie readied himself, Fiordiligi and Maria staying in the doorway. The cat laguz drew out the time crystal, ready to strike it against something in case something awful happened.

The one Ike assumed was Roy of Pherea said nothing when he entered the room. Thus, an incredibly tense silence took a hold of the small room in the castle, the tension in the air strong. Maria shied away a little, and since she brushed gently against Fiordiligi the blind woman latched on.

"So I see you have come for my life."

The tone in the lord's voice was mocking as he stood stock-still. Disturbing as well was the monotone quality of the voice.

"You got that right, Governor," replied Willie, trying his best to sound brave despite the obvious intimidation by Roy. "And we're not leaving until we get what we seek."

"Oh," said Roy, tauntingly. "You do realize that killing me will not solve anything, yes?"

Ike growled at him, beginning to become annoyed at Roy's stalling his fate. "I knew that long before now," replied Ike. "I know you're in there somewhere, Roy. I know you're still that same lord trapped inside!"

"Lord Roy is dead," replied the man who had just begun to turn to them. "Now there is only Nergal. And he shall rule no matter how many times you return to the future."

At this, Willie raised an eyebrow before looking back to Ike.

"Well, you'll just have to prove us wrong, then," replied Cecilia. "Because we'll keep on fighting no matter what you say!"

The lord of Pherae nodded. "I see how it is then," he said emotionlessly, drawing his sword slowly. "Come at me then!"

Cecilia was the first to move, jumping at Roy with her rapier brandished. She slashed at the Lycian lord, a blow that Roy expertly blocked. A few more blows were traded, and then Ike joined the fray. The three of them exchanged blows, the woman and the mercenary attempting to hit the possessed lord wherever they could. Willie was charging a fire spell when Roy knocked away Cecilia with a kick. Seeing this as an opportunity, the mage chucked the fireball forward. The Lycian lord simply deflected the ball of fire with his blade, the flame flying high into the air and extinguishing itself.

The lord was still able to bring the blade around to block a blow from Ike in the meantime.

As Cecilia rushed back to Ike, however, the lord kicked her away, continuing to trade blows with the mercenary captain. Ike was doing his best to block each and every blow that was sent his way.

In this fashion, Roy fought. Ike noticed as he traded blows with the Pherean lord that he fought almost inhumanly. As the fight went on, Ike had begun to tire, but Roy showed no such signs. It did not help that he deflected all of Willie's fireballs and kept Cecilia from ever getting close to him.

As the fight wore on, Ike was beginning to feel fatigued, and Cecilia's stomach was beginning to hurt where the lord was kicking her away. She tried to produce an ice spell, but this did not slow the Pherean lord in even the slightest way.

Finally, though, Ike had blundered badly. Roy had dodged to the side of one of Ike's slashes, Ragnell hitting the floor. Seeing his chance, the lord of Pherea thrusted his sword.

The blade passed through Ike's stomach, the fear eminent in their eyes when they saw the crimson blood.

Maria, who stood by the doorway the entire time, grabbed the crystal in her hands, and smashed it against the frame of the door. They were all sucked into the colorful tunnel except for Willie, and Maria kept her eyes shut.

When Maria opened her eyes, she was back in the past, with Ike, Cecilia, Fiordiligi, and Calvin all standing around her.

For some reason, the wound that should have been in Ike's belly was not there.