AN: Eyo I'm back with another chapter. So summer just started and I've been playing my games non-stop ever since. Though I haven't forgotten this fic, I just get distracted really easily. So I'm sorry for those who were interested in this story that didn't get the chapters they wanted. So uh, I want to write a response to a review that I got a while ago.

First off, there really aren't any classes, there are no second or master seals for the people in the world of Fire Emblem, instead think of it as Grima giving Darren equipment and a name just for the hell of it. You can still think of him as an assassin, or thief, but just with different weapons (yes, the 's' was on purpose *wink*). As he will being doing activities an assassin/thief would be doing.

The reason he needs to train I thought was kind of obvious, but in case you hadn't noticed, Darren can't actually fight. Sure chapter 3 he fought that one risen, but not only did he not remember, he was working with the instincts of a risen to kill and he was low on energy so was also madly hungry. And with the bandits at Ferox? He attacked when they weren't looking, and then proceeded to run around dodging attacks from the bunch that were scrambling to get him. And why they went to Regna Ferox in the first place? What better place to find someone to train you than the land of fighting? Plegia wouldn't appeal to anyone with a reasonable mindset, and travelling to Ylisse with their enemies' god is a sure way to get imprisoned and possibly killed. They have enough troubles and would probably be suspicious of any person coming from Plegia. Sorry if that wasn't made clear for those that read, but hopefully if you stuck around to read this it makes sense now. You can't grab a sword and expect yourself to take down a trained enemy, likewise with a tome.

Now for Flavia's reasoning to accept Darren without any reasons? There wasn't much for her to lose. The tournament was soon and she had no one capable of participating. So when our protagonist shows up, she gets a lucky break. And it wasn't like she was in any danger. When you recruit her in the game, she has reasonably high base stats, and they're higher than those of any Shepherds at the beginning, so she would definitely have no problem with dealing with Darren -whose stats would be somewhat similar to Donnel- should he pose a threat. And that would apply to Raimi too. Lon'qu? Phtt ahahaha, please.

Lon'qu looked down at the arena he had fought in a week ago, the same one where he had lost his status as the West Khans champion to that 'Marth' person. He regretted not being able to finish the match quick enough, but it was as if 'Marth' knew his every move.

He still couldn't explain why he froze in the middle of the fight. His closest explanation would be that he… felt something... odd.

Lon'qu watched as that very same person walked onto the training grounds. Inwardly he was simmering with anger. If he had another match he was positive he would win, maybe.

"It's not that bad is it Lon'qu?" Said an amused voice from behind.

He didn't have to turn to know who the voice belonged to.

"Khan Basilio." He said gruffly.

Basilio laughed at his former champion's attitude, giving the grumpy young man a good natured slap on the shoulder.

"You can challenge him for the position after the tournament is finished. Flavia said that she has a new champion that could prove a bit of a challenge and I would like for him to be in good condition for it."

Lon'qu gave a small huff in reply. He may have lost to 'Marth' but he had won against every champion the East Khan threw at him thus far, and would continue to do so. Others could say that he's being overconfident in his skills, but he knew that it was simply a fact. But he was obviously knocked off a peg or two when he lost against the stranger, and didn't take it well.

"Say, how is your 'student' progressing?" Basilio said in an attempt to change the topic. He was also curious as to why Flavia had pulled out that favour that he was indebted to to find someone capable of training someone else. He hadn't given much thought at the time, but know he was interested.

"Darren's not half bad." Lon'qu replied, also wanting to get off the sour spot. "It's impressive how fast he's advancing."

It was true too. In only a few days of constant sparring the boy has learned how to fight at a level where he wasn't just slicing at an random –if not well timed– moments and getting lucky. 'Very lucky,' he thought, memory of where he had been cut during theif first spar coming to mind.

"Is he now?" Basilio mused, rubbing his chin in the progress. At his former champion's nod he grinned. "Well it's good to know you have something to do besides brood over your loss."

Lon'qu bristled at the small jab ever so slightly, but calmed down with a sigh. It wasn't like he could object anyways so he might as well accept it. Having someone to train has taken his mind off his injured pride as a fighter, and it was somewhat enjoyable, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"Fair enough."

Turning sharply at a snapping sound, the pair saw half of a training dummy fall to the ground. Leaving a silent but obviously nervous Marth to hastily sheath his odd looking sword and leave. But not before muttering a low 'sorry' as he walked away. Basilio stared at the remains of what used to be a training post, before following his current champions lead and also walked out. Rubbing the back of his head, the Khan was barely heard saying something like: "That's the second one this week…"

The Other Way - Chapter Six

Darren woke up feeling miserable. His muscles screamed at him to stay put in bed and just sleep the rest of the day. But just like every other day after a sparring session he got up regardless of the pain. To be completely honest the only reason he was even capable of waking up early every morning was because Grima pitied the boy and spared some of the excess energy he had stored due to eating a lot. Even if everything still ached a lot. Unfortunately though today wasn't one those days as he couldn't find the little dragon, so as a result, not only did it seem like it was past noon, but he was also subjected to the aches of muscles while tired.

Still, at least he was able to walk it off after a while. And he was feeling the pain less and less with each day. He was even confident enough in his skills to think that he could possibly –though very unlikely– take on 'Marth' now. Grima highly doubted that, but Darren liked to think that he had even the slightest of chances of going up against Basilio's current champion.

Walking down the halls on his way to the familiar kitchen to collect his and his draconian partners breakfast and eat in his room. It was kind of odd at first that most people didn't give him a second glance when he walked by them with two plates of whatever he could find with more than enough food for one person. But once he saw one or more of the soldiers eating more than that he figured that he shouldn't care.

Stopping at the doorway he found that the room was mostly empty, save for a few of those that worked there.

Curious as to why it seemed like the castle was empty at the moment, he walked out of the room and into one of the many hallways.

'Maybe it's their day off?' He guessed. 'Nah, they'd have replacements or something if that was the case.'

He watched as Raimi exited out a room and walked past him without a word. Darren raised an eyebrow at the gate captain, before heading to the door she left. 'Odd.' He noted. He never talked to her again after she left him at the castle, he'd seen her a few times though, but that was usually late at night, never in the afternoon.

Hearing voices as he approached the door, he opened it and stepped into the room, fully intending to find out what was happening.

"Hey, anybody know what's… going… on…"

Things were beginning to looking up for the Shepherds as of late. Sure, once they left on their journey to get reinforcements from the neighbouring Feroxi they'd encountered more groups of Risen than usual. But it wasn't something they couldn't handle! So what if the cold in Regna Ferox was barely tolerable and they were somehow mistaken for brigands from Plegia at the entrance to the land. And then were forced to fight the guards.

Well at least we're getting somewhere now, if there wasn't one, small, problem.

"…regrettably. I cannot provide you any Feroxi troops for Ylisse." Flavia informed Chrom.

All that effort…

"What?! Why not?!" Cried out Lissa.

Gone.

"I lack the authority."

Wait, what?

Robin looked at the Khan in confusion, as did all of the other Shepherds that were present. Chrom seemed to be the first to recover from the news.

"Forgive me, but I don't understand. Aren't you the Khan?"

"As I said," Flavia responded, "I am one of the Khans." A clear emphasis on 'one'. She then went on explaining how every few years both the West and East Khan held a tournament. And the winner would hold complete authority of Regna Ferox which clearly meant that they would be able to decide who they made alliances with. And that since the West Khan won the previous tournament…

"…so we are to receive no aid at all?" Chrom finished.

Flavia grinned at the prince. "That doesn't mean you won't get that alliance. The next tournament is soon and I already have a champion for it. And I'm sure he could use some assistance." She mused. At Chrom's confused look followed by a few others she elaborated. "These tournaments are fought by outsiders; otherwise Ferox would be plagued by blood-feuds and plenty of dead Khans. So, I am asking you to assist my current champion in this tournament."

The prince agreed almost instantly. "We will fight in this tournament East Khan. There are too many threats to Ylisse to not do so."

At that moment a door opened, revealing a black haired youth. "Hey, anybody know what's… going… on…" he seemed to go silent as all eyes turned to him as he spoke.

"In fact," she began as she walked towards the newcomer. Wrapping an arm around the boy she turned around to face the Shepherds with a small grin on her face. "Here he is right now."

Scratching his head the boy gave a sheepish smile while introducing himself.

"Name's Darren, I'm uh, Flavia's champion."

'Holy crap! They actually came!' Darren thought frantically.

'Well they did arrive before the tournament started in the game remember? Maybe they're actually on schedule?' Reasoned Grima, who had watched the part of the fight between the Shepherds and the infamous border guards, before coming back to watch everything happen, all from the safety of a chandelier hanging above both parties.

At the moment Darren was leading the Shepherds to where their rooms would be after being assigned to do so by Flavia. There was a few small conversations going around the group, mostly talking about who was going to participate in the coming battle. He couldn't really able to hear many of the details, aside from Vaikes' loud proclamations of being capable of winning the tournament by himself. Which earned him a few groans, but that's obviously never stopped him before.

Entering a familiar hallway Darren turned back towards the Shepherds. "Well, here we are," gesturing to the many doors lining the hall with an arm. "Lunch should be ready in an hour or so in case you were wondering."

"Ah, thank you Darren. I look forward to fighting with you in the tournament." Chrom said.

Darren gave a small chuckle. "Same here, never would have thought I'd be fighting beside a prince before." He remarked with a smile before walking to his own room and entering, leaving the Shepherds to do as they pleased.

"Seems like a nice guy." Lissa quipped from beside her brother. "Maybe he's another fan?" She teased now looking up at Chrom.

"I doubt it Lissa, he seemed a little nervous at first sure, that doesn't make him a 'fan'." Responded the older brother, who was now making his way to one of the various doors in the hallway.

Turning to her retainer, who had remained silent the entire time, she asked for his opinion, even if the answer was somewhat predictable. And did he not fail to deliver.

"I am uncertain of what to make of him, but we should keep an eye on him just in case." Supplied the voice of one Fredrick the Wary.

"Mehh, I'm sure I can take him." Vaike boasted confidently.

Lissa snorted dismissively at the comment. "Sure you can Vaike, just like how you can forget to take your axe to a fight."

"H-hey! That was done on purpose! The Vaike just wanted to just get their hopes up." The blonde warrior denied futilely.

By then the princess had followed the rest of the Shepherds example and left the area in favour of finding something else to do. Maybe find someplace to take bath? Oh! Maybe she could tease Sumia about her attempts to get closer to her dense brother! That was always a fun thing to do. Well, it definitely beat having to talk to Frederick the Boring the entire time.

And so before he knew it Vaike was all by himselfin the hallway. But hadn't noticed until he looked around. "Guess I'll go too, maybe I can get Chrom to fight me again before the tournament starts." Looking at the door the new guy (Darren if he could remember correctly) entered he shrugged, "Or I could make sure this guy has was it takes to fight with the likes of The Vaike in the tournament." Realizing that he's been talking to himself for a while now, Vaike also left the hall. Leaving a walking suit of armor, who had been trying to get someone's attention for the past half-hour, to sigh and walk away. Coincidentally scaring one of the guards who had been walking in the halls.

On the other side of the door, Darren slumped to the ground as he somehow managed to overhear Vaike's talking to himself. Until then he had mostly been running on auto-pilot, and only when he had spoken to Chrom at the end of his little tour, did he slowly begin to come back to reality. He should have been expecting it to happen eventually, but wished it wasn't so sudden. Today he had a break in training because Lon'qu said he had something to do, and since Grima wasn't there that morning he slept in. Turning a hateful eye at the fell-dragon, Darren growled out, "You knew something was up, didn't you?"

Not too far away from the door, lying on the table, the dragon in question returned the look with as much a calm glance as a dragon could give, before looking away and spoke in an indifferent tone. "I had a suspicion that something was happening when most of guards had left."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Came the heated response.

"I wanted to see your reaction." Grima said with a toothy grin.

Darren held the glare for a couple more seconds, before closing his eyes and sighing. "Guess I looked pretty funny didn't I?" The boy mused, a small smile grew on his face at the memory.

"Like a fish out of water." Grima wholeheartedly agreed. They both laughed for a while before quieting down. Darren picked himself up from the floor with a small grunt. Moving to pick up the empty plate that was supposed to be his breakfast, and found it to be seemingly spotless. 'Licked clean?' He thought curiously. Raising a single eyebrow in the direction of the fell-dragon, Grima gave a sheepish chuckle while shrugging his wings. "I was, hungry?" 'Oh well.' Empty dishes in hand he walked to the door.

"I'm going to try and find something to eat," giving another glance to the still nervous dragon. "Then I guess I'll find something else to do for today. Heh, maybe even go against," raising a hand above his head in a fist for dramatic effect, "The Vaike!" He announced.

"Are you sure you can take him?" Grima asked in genuine curiosity. He'd been there to watch every spar since the first time, and was glad to note the familiar patterns of strikes that he begun to make after a few sessions, the tell-tale sign of an attack pattern. Even noticing how he was beginning to read Lon'qu's next strike, much to the myrmidons mixture of ire and pride. But still, he was curious about the decision.

Darren puffed up confidently, crossing his arms over his chest. "Of course I can! I haven't spent this past week doing nothing you know? If I thought I couldn't beat Vaike, then you'd have to forget about me restoring you to your true body."

Giving the dragon small grin, Darren left the room. Now on a search for a battle –and a quick snack possibly– but mostly a battle. Taking to the air Grima flew into the small pouch that was Darren's hood, completely unnoticed by the owner. Both had the same excited glint in their eyes, even though they were both unaware of it.

AN: Again, I'm sorry it took a while to update, I'll try my best to get in another chapter as soon as possi- oh, hey a butterfly.