A/N: Man. I'm really sorry about how late this is.

...But now that I look at it, I think writer's block is a disease with self-insert writers.

But it's more laziness for me then just having actual writer's block or other problems.

And yeah, I can safely admit that the rewrite is pretty much cancelled. Maybe there will be a bit of revision, though.

On the brightside, I do have another story on the way. A sort of kind-of tie-in to this.

And I also forgot to mention that the bonus has been removed at this point. You see, it was meant to be a reward to those that were actually reading. But what? What about the new OC? Simple. I've split the bonus into multiple parts and spread them across the next few chapters. And I'll probably have edited them.

So... Yeah. At least I'm back... Right...? Right...?

Ravel

"C'mon Robin. Let me go with you." I groan. "I'm perfectly fine! I'm telling you!"

The silver-haired tactician shakes his head. "Sorry. Maribelle would kill me. And frankly, I'm a bit surprised that you haven't been mourning as much as your friends."

I frown. "I see the point, but still. Geoff just recovers fast, Niro lost his girlfriend- Of course he would be sad- , and Tom's just an emotionless bag." I pause, before turning to the mage behind me. "No offense, by the way."

"Oh, hahahahahaha- No." Tom groans. I turn back toward Robin, and I presume that Tom walks away.

I shrug. "As I was saying, Anna and Laurent weren't around long enough to get attached, and Ayla isn't that emotional."

"But what about you?" Robin asks. "Ayla may not show too much feeling, yet you are one of the... liveliest... of your group." He means loud. No problem. I have very wide lungs. Playing the trombone does that to you. "It just seems off that you aren't damaged."

Are you joking? "I lived in a place where showing weakness led to judgement. I feel like a wreck on the inside." I glare at him. "Besides, I'm pretty sure my mind has locked away most of what happened over then..." I say this because the details are fuzzy. Like, a lot. I mean, Grima broke Draiotoll, and that sucks, but still. I sigh.

Wait, what was he doing in that battle, anyways?

I mean, maybe he was looking for Robin, but still... This sorta interferes with the canon. Unless he was just planning on capturing Robin and force-feeding him all of those stat-boosting items...

But... Eh, You dun screwed that up, Grima.

Alright, I'll just-!

"Hey! Don't leave me while I'm trapped in my train of thought!" I rush toward the tactician, skidding across the floor and almost falling onto him.

I apologize quietly, before walking in front of him. "I'm serious, you can't change my mind."

He shakes his head. "I'm giving up at this point. Trying to keep you from going is like trying to seperate Susan from Lon'qu."

... "I assume that's impossible...?"

Robin nods.

I shrug. "Alright, so where exactly are the Risen attacking?"

Robin pulls out a map. "According to the details that the messenger had told us... They are near the Eastern wall of Ylisstol. They have already destroyed a few of the barracks, and they likely have destroyed more than a few more since the message was received."

I nod. "So I assume that we're either going to flank them from one or both sides, or we are simply going to combat them from atop of the wall?"

"The former."

"Ah. So it's a bit more risky, but we can eliminate the threat more quickly and more efficiently."

Robin smiles. "Of course. Being lucky is half of the battle." He pauses, only for his face to straighten. "N-No offense, by the way." I shrug, and he continues. "Anyways, you more than likely won't be able to win a battle if you don't take any risks, and any decision can mean the life or death for your troops."

I frown. "Of course I would know that..."

Robin cringes. "Gah! S-Sorry! I didn't mean to imply that-!"

"Just shut up about it. You don't have to tell me that I'm not that good of a tactician. Yeesh." I grab a weapon and walk toward the door. "Let's get going, though. Most of the Shepherds aren't available, so we'll probably need all of the help that we can get."

Robin nods, and we pace out of the room.

Meh. "So let me get this straight. The only Shepherds that are coming are Nowi, Cordelia, Stahl, Olivia, Tom, and me?"

Robin shrugs. "I think Kellam and Sully were coming also..."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, but that's not the point. Where is everyone?"

"Most of them are still exhausted from the war. Besides, I hear Frederick is guarding Chrom... Again, and Lissa and Maribelle are on dates."

I feel a grin pass along my face. So that's where Geoff's been.

Get a room, you two.

"I believe Chrom and Sumia are planning their honeymoon, now that the war is over, and as for the others..." He pauses, "The other mercenaries are not battle-ready, and Susan and Lon'qu are..." Robin turns a bit red. "I'm not going to say anymore about those two."

I blink. "What about them?"

"Er, S-Susan told me that... T-They were, Er..."

"So she said what I think she said?"

"In great detail, unfortunately."

"Ouuuuuuuuch." I cringe. I turn and grab a weapon off of a rack, before turning back toward him. "So, why are we evacuating this part of town, again?"

Robin pulls out a small sketch. "Simple. We are going to open the gates- yet not after creating a blockade- so that we may be able to fight the Risen on equal ground. Meanwhile, the rest of the army is going to ambush them from behind. Victory will hopefully be achieved quickly."

I nod. Robin turns toward a nearby guard, and the two discuss battle plans.

I just stare in front of me for a bit, my mind focusing on the forthcoming combat.

Eventually, I feel a poke at my side.

Hm? Nowi?

"Hey. Reevil, is it? Can you help me find my dragonstone?"

I internally facepalm. "It's Ravel. And okay." I put down my weapon, and turn toward the girl. And she looks almost exactly like she does ingame. I mean, without the anime-esque-ish artstyle. Except that her eyes are abnormally large. Eh, just... Stop thinking about it. "So what does your dragonstone look like?"

Nowi puffs out her cheeks. "It's... A sorta dark green. It's a perfect orb."

Ah, so it's exactly like the icon in the game. So... It must be here somewhere.

I gaze across the ground, searching for a contrast on the ground.

... Nothing.

"Are you sure it isn't-?" ... "Nowi." I groan.

She blinks. "Yeah?"

"You're holding your dragonstone right now."

The manakete pauses, before looking at her palm. "...Oh." she mutters. "Thanks!"

... Okay, she can run fast. Just... O...Kay...?

I sigh, turning toward the sound of trotting behind me.

"...Hey Ayla." I give a fake smile. "Haven't seen you since the battle."

Shadow stops, only for Ayla to dismount.

"Hello, Ravel. I was just about to invite you to Gorge's funeral." she frowns. "Poor guy."

I shake my head. "What about Alyssa's and Wilson's, or the thief twins?"

She shrugs. "Niro is furious toward you. He demanded that you not step a foot near the funeral... Unfortunately. He never acted like this before." I hear a quiet sigh. "Anyways, the other mercenaries' bodies were not found. While there is a chance that they could be alive, but assuming is not completely safe."

I look up to her. "...You say that they could be alive...?"

Ayla looks up to me and smiles faintly. "I can't promise anything..."

I grin. "Of course you can't." I pause. "You going to fight with the rest of us?"

She nods. "I've decided that I may as well. Mother and Father are nowhere to be seen. I figured that I may as well hold out before telling them."

I turn and sit onto a nearby hay bale. Conveniently placed, actually. "Yeah." I pause, an evil grin soon passing along my face. "Say, what is my future child like...?"

Ayla brightens up. "Oh, your child is absolutely wonderful! She is quite the-!" she quickly covers her mouth. "O-Oh no. I promised that I wouldn't say anything about them!"

I tilt my head. "So I have a daughter... Huh?" Eh, I don't really know how to react to that. I mean, the original Ravel was also supposed to have a daughter. I can't say that they would be the same person, though. Wait... "What do you mean that I wasn't supposed to know?"

Ayla lowers her head in shame. "Before we time-traveled, we all agreed to not share any information about eachother, in the even that one of us came to the Shepherds early. We didn't want to cause any time problems."

I chuckle. "Pleeeeaaaaase... Any child of mine would know the rules and laws of time travel. Time paradoxes can't happen."

Ayla shrugs. "I don't know. Kassidy wasn't so- DAMN IT!" Ayla snaps and turns around. "I did it again!"

I laugh. "At this rate, you'll be telling me how wonderful my beard will be." Because why not?

She stares. "Actually, you shaved quite- ..." She frowns. "I really need to shut up."

Huh. "I doubt my future self's decisions." I shrug just as Robin approaches.

"Alright." our tactician says. "The fliers have already departed, and the Risen are nearing rapidly. It's about time to open the gates." Robin turns to the army behind us. "OFFENSIVE POSITION!" he yells.

I grin. "About time."

I grab a Levin Sword and the blade remaining of Draiotoll. It's not that good of a sword, now, but a little bit of sharpening helped it a lot.

Robin lifts a hand in the air. "On the count of three..." Upon finishing, he slowly lifts a finger into the air. "One..."

Two...

Three...

The gate slowly rises, revealing hordes of undead beasts.

"Why hello there." I laugh. "Fancy seeing..." I quickly stab one of the Risen in the eye. "YOU here!" I laugh rather loudly. "Too bad that's all you'll see."

Muehehehe... Puns.

A few more Risen scramble toward me.

"... Eye gotta hand it to you zombies, you are quite... blind... to my superiority."

"Ravel." I hear someone mutter.

A couple of arrows quickly whizz by and penetrate the zombies.

... Tom.

"That was bad and you should feel bad." the mage shakes his head as he walks up to me.

...Wait. "You aren't a mage anymore...?" I ask him.

He shakes his head. "Nope. I'm archurin' now." He puts a stupid look on his face and promptly aims it toward the undead horde.

... Really? "Sounds like you are starting to sound like your old self."

He shrugs. "I'm sick of the formal shit. It's only fun for the first year."

I roll my eyes. "Oh well."

A berserker Risen quickly rushes towards us, to which I respond by rolling under and stabbing up the...

Yeah. I'm not finishing that sentence.

"Hey. We should totally do a killing contest." I turn toward the mag-archer.

"How about no?"

... "Oh rly?"

He imitates my face. "Oh rly."

... "Are we really going to do this?"

Tom puts on a troll face. "Yes rly."

I chuckle. "Ah, good ti-!"

I frown, looking down at the sword sticking out of my stomach.

"I just got this healed! DAMMIT!" I turn and decaptitate the zombie, before turning back around and looking toward Tom.

Tom stares, expressionless. "Ravel. You do know you are impaled, right?"

I laugh. "Of course I do." My face straightens afterwards. "Yeah. The adrenaline is wearing off. Pretty sure I need a doctor."

Okay. This shit is starting to hurt.

"Hold still. This will only hurt a bit."

... Ayla?! What are you-

No. No. No.

"Last time you said this, I passed out." I say through clenched teeth.

"Oh... Well... I guess you're not going to stay awake through this."

I sigh. "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn ittttttt...!"

Cyrus

"How long 'til we get to Ylisstol?" I ask the man driving the carriage.

He shrugs. "It's foggy. We could get there in a day, or we could already be there."

There's no way it's that fogg... Oh. It is that foggy.

Damn. Can't see two feet in front of me.

Hah. Sound's like something Brady would say. He was great.

Maybe if we ever get back together, he can help me play the violin. I've never been able to learn how to play.

As long as his mum's not gonna try and-!

Gah! Bump!

I feel my head slam into the ceiling of the cart, prompting me to scream at the driver. "You care to watch where the hell ya're going?!"

"I apologize." he holds his hands up in defense. "I was just pulling over the cart. There's some cleanup ahead."

Eh? "What do you mean cleanup?"

"Well, son, there was a battle here recently. A bunch of nasty Grimleal were against the Heroes of Myra. Well, obviously, I wouldn't be here if the Grimleal had won."

I sigh. Am I too late? "Thanks. I can get to Ylisstol from here." I reach into my pocket and pull out a few gold, before placing it into his palm. "Keep the change, sir." I mutter.

I climb out of the cart, being careful to not step into the puddle in front of me.

... Damn. He wasn't kidding when he said cleanup. A 'lotta soldiers here too.

I creep across the scorched looking plains, before walking up to a nearby guard.

"Hey." I wave. "Is the city safe to enter right now?" I ask.

The man shakes his head. "Not at the moment. We have the city on a temporary lock-down, just until we can get the site of this battle cleaned. Do not worry, however. The city will be reopened in a matter of hours, at the rate which we are getting our objectives finished."

I nod. "Alright."

I turn back around, before realizing that I had pretty much no other place to go. "Eh? You know about any good places to stay?"

The soldier nods. "There's a new inn open. Owner said they rebuilt it from something that was destroyed. It's called the 'Golden Flower Inn', I think. I heard it's pretty good."

I grin. "Thanks, mate." I pull out a gold coin, passing it to him. "You can have it." I laugh.

He salutes, before turning and going back to his job.

So I guess this means I won't get to see my parent for a while?

Shit.

... Now that I think about it, was it such a good idea to leave Kassidy and the others? I mean, they surely miss me right now. And they may have needed a healer.

Oh... Oh gods, they did need a healer! This ain't good.

... Nah, maybe they found Brady, or hired someone or something. Doesn't sound that bad. They had a lot of gold.

But now that I think about it, sleep doesn't sound that bad.

I would practically welcome it after what this trip's done to me.

Ravel

"AAAAAAUGH!" I scream, the sword quickly leaving my body.

...

Wait a second... "I actually stayed conscious this time!"

Ayla smiles. "Well would you look at... Oh, that's a lot of blood."

I blink. "Don't just stand there! HEAL ME!"

Her eyes widen, and she quickly scrambles to grab her staff.

...

"DID YOU REALLY JUST DROP YOUR STAFF?!"

She whimpers and reaches for it, and-!

"Aaaaaand there go my legs." I hit the ground and simply stare into the air. "Yep. I can't feel my legs now."

I stare into the sky as I hear Ayla- STILL- scrambling to grab her staff.

"...You got it yet? I'm starting to get drowsy."

"I- I-I don't know why it's so slippery! I just can't get a grip on it!" I sense the panic in Ayla's voice.

"Ta-da!" I hear a loud thud, followed by a bizarre noise. I soon spot Nowi out of the corner of my eye. "Do you like it?! I oiled your staff!"

"Oiled it?! But why?!" Ayla yells.

"Well to make it look shiny, of course!" Nowi laughs. "I was sick at staring at all of those dull, old, staves, so I cleaned them all!"

I attempt to facepalm, but I am too weak to lift my arm. "You do know that I am slowly bleeding out and my only hope of survival is that staff that Ayla is unable to grab, right?"

Nowi blinks. "Oh."

The manakete then turns and tries to help Ayla grab the staff.

And judging by the sounds, I can assume that they are not doing a good job at it.

...

"You know what? Screw it. I'm just going to go faint now."

"Yeah. You should probably do that. This is going to take a bit."

I frown, before slowly closing my eyes and letting unconsciousness overtake me.

A/N: Darnit Nowi.

There. I attempted some comedy. Please give me some points here. What? Is that groaning I hear?

... Oh well.

Oh well. You know the usual, me groaning about the lack of reviews, and the plothole about Cyrus's fast travel.

I said it in the bonus, and I'll say it again: Smaller. Than. You. Think.

Also, I am considering the name change now. But I still haven't settled on what to call it.