Disclaimer: (Insert clever way to tell you that I don't own Fire Emblem). Second off, there are a few details that differ from the game, but those are mostly concerning locations (more explanation at the end). And now on with the chapter!

The Shepherds were getting worried at the amount of risen they've been encountering on the way back to Ylisse.

Only an hour after they left the protective gates of Regna Ferox did they come across a group of the undead. Robin had asked Sumia to occasionally take her pegasus to the air and scout ahead, so that they could change their course and avoid them. Since the tactician found out that fighting every group was proving more trouble than it's worth, though the bullion and weapons the Risen sometimes dropped was always helpful.

Chrom had protested against avoiding the Risen, saying that it would be dangerous to leave them alone, as they could harm any travelers they come by. But had grudgingly agreed after a pegasus-riding Risen got too close to harming Lissa, with only a timely arrow from Virion and Kellam guarding her at the time had saved her from being skewered by a lance.

Ever since then Chrom had placed their newest member, Lon'qu, on guard duty for Lissa. And while the young Princess complained about not being delicate, she didn't seem to mind being accompanied by the Feroxi warrior, even if Lon'qu himself tries to stay as far as possible from Lissa.

"Robin!" called a voice from above, snapping the tactician from his thoughts. Robin watched Sumia as she and her pegasus landed. "There's a large group up ahead, and I think they have a few Wyvern rid—EEK!" Unfortunately before she was able to finish the sentence, she somehow tripped while getting off her pegasus, sending snow flying up as she fell.

"Owie…"

Robin winced in sympathy, but since that made this the third time she tripped, he knew she'd be relatively fine.

Turning away from the downed flyer, Robin once again began moving to the front of the convoy to tell Chrom the news. Soon the group was moving around the Risen in their way.

So they missed the series of footsteps that they would've seen had they gone any further. And if you could look close enough, you would be able to see that the Risen group appeared to have gone through a recent battle.

The Other Way - Chapter Twelve

"I am never listening to you again."

"Hey, it worked out didn't it?"

"I could have died!"

"But I wouldn't have allowed it to happen if there was a possibility you could Darren. Plus, because of it you were able to unlock the energy draining ability."

"The ener–what?" Darren asked intelligently.

Earlier that day Darren had noticed a few large groups of Risen. It had been surprising to both him and Grima at how quickly the undead had populated the area. And while the two would normally skirt around the hostile groups, the most recent one was approached differently.

"You know… the thing you freaked out about back then?" Seeing no understanding on his partners' face he added, "You tried to eat a Risen's energy remember?"

Grima wanted to attack them.

"Oh… that," he said, shuddering slightly at the memory. Had it really only been about a week since that happened? "How would you know I did?"

Even Darren himself was wondering why he'd agreed to such an idea.

"I could tell that your body could take the strain of the power that would be unleashed once the seals holding back that particular power were undone, and so did so." The dragon explained once again, before adding nonchalantly, "Not that it would've been that much of a problem for you, since the actual ability isn't that powerful. You just seemed too weak at the time." 'And I wanted to make sure you adapted to what was currently going on before throwing something else into the mix,' thought Grima to himself.

"Well," Darren said flatly. "That's cool, I guess."

Now that he was walking, as he took a break from running most of the time, Darren thought back to the suici– battle that had happened about a few hours ago.

'Honestly, how did I even think that was a good idea?' he asked himself.

A few hours ago the two engaged the Risen group. At the time Darren wanted to test out how much he's actually improved since his first encounter with one of the undead. Of course he wasn't so eager to prove himself that he'd fight them all by himself, so he and Grima decided to target the Risen on the outer edges and work from there.

Like a living arrow Grima had shot ahead of his partner to initiate the attack, and Darren had nearly stumbled in his charge when he saw the tiny dragon tackle a wyvern and its rider right out of the air. With the few seconds there were before he collided with the first Risen, Darren briefly pondered just how strong Grima was in his current form. It seemed completely ridiculous for something so small to have that much power, but then again, this was Grima he was thinking about. And he wasn't even at full power yet!

With a small smile, Darren attacked a spear wielding Risen that had been too busy watching the spectacle above to notice the approaching enemy. With a quick slash the head of the Risen fell to the ground with a soft thud, before dissipating into purple miasma. Unfortunately the action alerted the rest of the undead to the other presence amongst them, and Darren had to quickly draw back to avoid being impaled by a sword wielded by the closest Risen nearby. Quickly Darren had found himself locked in combat with multiple enemies.

Above the boy Grima was locked in mid-air combat with a undead wyvern and its equally undead rider. Darting away as the larger flyer attempted to bite him, Grima launched a blast at its unguarded face. The resulting explosion tore away some of the creature's scales from where the shot impacted, and left it careening towards the ground as it became disoriented. Crashing into the ground a few seconds later with its neck bending at an odd angle, the wyvern began dissipating, with the rider quickly following as it fell of the beast.

Darren, who had previously been fighting an extremely difficult four-on-one, sighed slightly in relief when the wyvern Grima had been fighting crashed into two of the Risen he had been fighting, allowing him some much needed breathing space. He was also grateful that despite the number advantage their enemies had, the Risen were completely disorganized in a fight. With as much speed as he could muster, Darren closed the district between himself and his target Risen; a spear wielding one. Narrowly dodging a lunge aimed at his stomach, the Hunter grabbed the extended spear by the shaft and held it there while making a lunge of his own at the now defenceless Risen. Tearing through weak armour, he pulled the spear in the opposite direction he was facing, pushing his blade further into the enemy. When he noticed that he hadn't done enough damage to kill it —and that the other Risen behind him was beginning to swing its sword in his direction — he was already ducking under the strike. The sword connected, beheading the other enemy.

That was when things began going downhill.

It began with two more wyvern riders taking to the air, meeting the smaller Grima in combat as they tried to land a hit on him. Following the aerial assault were blasts of magic from the ground. Very soon, Grima found himself avoiding all the attacks with no chance of retaliating.

For Darren it was a simple matter of more reinforcements—in the form of three Myrmidons, two mages, and a cavalier.

Never mind the constant volley of arrows he was now barely managing to avoid.

So it was understandable when Darren and Grima decided it was time to run awa– make a tactical retreat. They were thankful that the only thing that they had to worry about chasing them were the flyers of that group, but that was handled easily when Grima began firing at them like some cannon perched on top of Darren's head as he ran. Darren stopped after running for about thirty minutes, just in case they were still being pursued, but continued walking.

And here they were.

"Maybe the next time we run into more Risen you can practice draining them." Grima suggested, still perched on top of Darren's head as he rested.

Thinking about it Darren slowly came to a stop, the bits and pieces of what he could remember from back then coming to surface. The desperation, the fear of dying, and the ravenous hunger…

He shivered. He didn't like it one bit, and under other circumstances wouldn't bother with the subject any more. But… unless he wanted the possibility of that happening again he would have to eventually face it. He couldn't rely on Grima forever after all. Sighing he continued walking.

"I hope we get to Donnel's place soon…"

"I hope we get to Ylisse soon," Chrom sighed as he eyed the map in front of him.

The Shepherds had set up camp for the night. All of them were relatively tired, with the possible exception of Frederick, after many hours of walking, and the few battles between the small groups of Risen they encountered. Many were resting within their tents waiting for their dinner.

At the moment Chrom, Robin, and Frederick were inside the war tent discussing the group's current path, which had strayed way off course because of having to manoeuvre around the annoying amount of Risen groups. So now they were discussion on the best route to take so they could return to Ylisse.

"As do I milord," Frederick said as he glanced up from the map. "But we have to tread carefully here. We don't know where dangers could arise."

Robin silently agreed with the Great Knight, if they don't path properly they would be vulnerable to an ambush. Risen or bandit. Terrain often plays a role almost as important as the actual soldiers do in a battle. And if they put themselves into a position where they would be at a disadvantage in fighting the results of the battle could very well be devastating. Unfortunately they couldn't take the 'safest' route if it were too slow, since they were expected to be in Ylisstoll with the news of the newly made alliance between Regna Ferox and Ylisse.

Which put the tactician into his current problem of finding the best possible path to take.

He was a tactician not a navigator damnit!

Once again going over the map his eye caught something. Mentally recalling the amount of supplies the convoy had from the last time he checked, he grinned as he came to a solution.

"Hey Chrom," he began, catching both Frederick's and the prince's attention. "I think I know what we should do."

"Really? What is it Robin?"

His grin growing a little more, Robin began to explain his plan.

"Well you see, there's this village not too far away…"

Grima was clearly enjoying his stay in the village they finally found. Despite knowing that said village is very likely to come under attack in the near future. Darren came upon the village a few hours before the sun began to rise, and opted to rest until the small village awoke before entering. Picking a safe spot to rest until then, Darren sat down and promptly fell asleep.

Free to explore the new land Grima took off the moment he heard his partner's breathing slow down. Besides an attempt to keep him busy until the sun rose, the dragon was also making a mental map of the village and its surrounding area. That way he could plan out where the attack would most likely begin, and how to deal with it.

Plus it wouldn't hurt to take a single apple from its stall when he saw one right? He might not be the terrifyingly evil fell dragon everyone believed him to be, but he wasn't exactly a saint either.

The sun had risen for about another two hours before the town's residents began to stir.

After waking Darren up in his usual way, minus their usual banter, Grima gave the still waking boy a brief summary of what he found before providing directions to the inn they would be staying at and then hopping back into his hood. Darren quickly found the inn, and was relieved that the owner there was one of the people who had woken up soon after the sun rose. Though getting an odd look at first by the owner, he was given a room to stay in.

After paying with some money he had earned before the tournament in Regna Ferox and receiving the keys the teen entered his room. The two then decided to get themselves some well-deserved sleep.

The hustle and bustle of the town, now fully awake, woke Darren up first. As he lay there in his bed he began to wonder what they were going to do next.

It was between staring up at the ceiling and looking over at Grima when he realized something important:

They had no plan.

Refusing the sudden impulse to face palm, Darren instead sighed heavily.

"Man…"

After enjoying breakfast served by the innkeeper, Darren returned to his room, carrying a small loaf of bread for his companion. Closing the door behind him the teen tossed the loaf in the direction of the bead. He watched as the bread was snatched out of the air mid-flight, and then chuckled as it was quickly consumed by the dragon.

"So," Darren began, "what do we do now?"

Grima paused mid-bite to turn and look at him. "Don't you have a plan?"

Cringing slightly Darren stuttered, "a-ah, well, about that…"

Seeing the small dragon stare at him unblinkingly Darren began to fidget under the gaze.

"I… don't really, have a plan."

Of course he had a multitude of ideas that would help prepare for that inevitable bandit attack, but getting them into motion however…

Let's just say he was no Robin.

Grima was just about to berate his partner when he heard a sound that made him freeze instantly, and by the way Darren also stiffened he guessed that he heard it to.

After all, it wasn't every day you hear someone scream like that.

Shaking himself the dragon rose from the bed and flew to their room's window, all the while muttering grimly: "You better hope that it was just someone tripping, because there won't be much use for a plan if it isn't."

Roddick smiled sadistically as he lead his troops to the unsuspecting village. The original plan had been to attack as it began to get dark, but his men had been restless ever since finding it, so they settled for attacking in the morning instead. It was then that the barbarian leader thought that this was only fitting.

After all, it was natural to slaughter pigs in the morning right?

"Remember men," he said as they slowly edged closer to the village. "Kill the dangerous-looking ones first, then you can move onto the others." Seeing multiple nods from the other bandits, he smiled.

It wasn't a pleasant one. "Good. Now…" pointing his axe towards their destination he turned back to look at his men and roared: "Have at them! Make these pigs squeal!"

With a wordless roar of their own, the bandits surged as one to the village, fully intent on butchering its inhabitants.

Darren had burst out of the inn desperately hoping that his fears were misplaced, and that it was just a misunderstanding. Grima had taken to the roofs as a quicker way to find out what was happening. But the moment he looked around and saw the panic in the villagers' eyes as that ran his heart sunk, a few seconds after he resigned himself to what must be done.

'So, where are they Grima?' He asked through the mental link the two had.

'South of the village,' Grima answered his voice an unusual cold compared to how it normally is. Continuing the dragon asked, his voice now straining with barely contained anger, 'Should I join in the fighting now?'

Darren shook his head reluctantly despite fully knowing that his partner couldn't see it. 'No, when we're far enough from the village then you can. Having witnesses in this village is just asking for trouble.' Running in the direction he was confident was south —since everyone was running away from there— Darren could see flames begin to rise from far away. 'What're they doing?' He asked as he increased his speed.

'They're enjoying it!' Grima seethed back, 'Burning down houses, chasing down defenceless villagers—everything!' The dragon's words seemed to reverberate within Darren's head as he watched. 'They've even began taking hostages those —Donnel!'

With the words 'hostages' and 'Donnel' in the same sentence Darren forgot about all ideas of conserving energy and began sprinting as fast as he could.

It wasn't long before he burst into a small clearing, his eyes wide and searching wildly for any signs of life. The clearing that he entered was lined with a few small stands, meaning that this place was most likely a market of sorts. A few of the stands were broken, with pieces of wood and their contents littered the ground. And the smell of smoke was the strongest here.

It was also happened to be the place where the bandits were keeping their hostages.

Thankfully he wasn't immediately spotted the moment he arrived, whatever guards posted here were listening intently to —he guessed— their leader give some sort of speech. Well, some were actually. Others were simply grinning menacingly at their sitting captives with their axes and blades of different kinds gleaming in the light.

Darren's eyes roamed around the villagers, searching for one in particular. It would have been hard not to miss the sight of someone wearing a bucket on their head. The only thing was that there were two of them in the crowd.

Suddenly one of the bucket wearers stood up, showing an older man that was definitely not Donnel, but shared a resemblance to the village boy in question.

'Is that Donnel's dad?!' Darren found himself thinking incredulously. They had the same colour of hair from what he could see, so wasn't that enough of an indicator in the world of Fire Emblem? He looked back at the crowd of villagers to the other bucket wearer, and sure enough, he was able to make out the form of Donnel. The young lad was staring up at his father (?) in a mixture of surprise and fear.

'It has to be.' Grima murmured as he watched the villager oppose the bandit leader. 'You do realize that means it is a very likely chance that he will die any moment now right?'

The spectator's eyes widened at the information, memories telling him of the details concerning this particular paralogue. 'Well not if I can help it.' Filled with determination, Darren took a step forward to intervene—

'Don't.'

—but froze once he heard the dragon's command.

'W-wha? What do you mean don't?' He stammered out, surprised at how his body froze without his permission.

'Think about it for a moment will you?' Grima said in exasperation. 'Now I don't know any more about time-travel than anyone else, but maybe, just maybe, this is supposed to happen. If Donnel's father doesn't die or the events currently happening to this village weren't there, what would that mean for Donnel? He might not have joined the Shepherds when they arrived; instead choosing to stay here. Where he would wait until the next bandit attack, or when Gangrel's army arrives and wreaks havoc on Ylisse's lands.

'Darren, I'm telling you this because I want you to know that sometimes it's best to leave things untouched. I'm sure you wouldn't like knowing that Donnel chose to stay here because of your actions weighing on your shoulders. Would you?'

Watching as the villager took up a weak looking spear from the ground, Darren could only watch as events began to unfold in front of him. The sounds of panicked shouts echoing off walls and the constant crackle of flames filtered into white noise as the man whose life he held in his hands took a step.

'…I don't know…'

AN: (Insert an apology for my lateness.) Now, the annoying thing is with this chapter, is the fact that I had an idea of what I wanted to do, which was actually said by one of my reviewers. But the only problem was that —like Darren in this chapter— had no idea on how to go about doing it. So this was what you got instead, and I'm sorry if it wasn't what you expected.

Another thing that I mentioned above at the beginning of the chapter was the few differences between the story and the game. And that was the location of Donnel's town. I wanted to see how the area (i.e: heavy forests, flat lands, ect) looked like. But when I searched it up the paralogue was actually located on an island... so I ended up moving it to an area in between chapters two and three and a little to the left, just in case you were wondering.

Since that pretty much wraps up my author's note I'll move onto my usual goodbye.

If you've enjoyed the chapter feel free to leave a review, criticisms (as long as they're sensible) are acceptable, and if there is a mistake that I missed please point it out so I can fix it. And if you've enjoyed the journey so far, favorite and follow.

Until next time (Whenever that is...).