Disclaimer: I do not own fire emblem or anything associated with it.
A/N: I really have nothing to say, so enjoy this...well let's say, interesting chapter. (I really have no idea what I wrote)
A few days later...
'What did I get myself into?' Khimari repeated in his mind multiple times. The Daein caravan had him bound in chains and surrounded by fire mages, not to mention the crazy goth Petrine chick that liked to torture him for amusement. The wolf sighed as he thought of his predicament. His mind then drifted to the place called Gritnea Tower.
He shuddered when he thought of what Petrine informed him. A place where they transformed Laguz into mindless killing machines made him sick to his core. After being told something like that, he questioned the sanity of whoever led the Laguz experiments.
"Oh wait," he started, breaking into a lifeless chuckle. "We're not worth anything to them. Not inhumane to experiment with something worthless," he put together, talking to himself aloud. Hanging his head in his chained hands, he sighed at his predicament. 'How in the world can I possibly get out of this?' he wondered, thinking of any way at all to get out of this situation.
"Get the prisoner!" he heard Petrine's voice bark out. Shortly after the crazy witch lady gave the order, he could feel rustling around his little cage. The soldiers in her troop opened the box to see Khimari sitting calmly while giving them a blank gaze.
"Come on, you," one of the soldiers said. "You're being-"
"Yeah, yeah," the wolf interrupted, standing up and jumping out of the caravan. "Where's my new cell? Might as well get cozy before I die."
"Uh, o-okay," the soldier stammered, not expecting a frank response like that. "This way," he directed, the four soldiers making a diamond formation around the Laguz. Looking around, he started to notice that the place where he exited started to look familiar.
"Hey, Mr. guards?" he called, getting their attention. "Where are we?" The Daeins shared a look before they came to a consensus.
"We're in Melior," the one in front answered as they came upon a large castle. Everything clicked in Khimari's head at that moment. They carried him back to Crimea to see Ashnard...So he wasn't in Daein anymore.
"Man, I wish I could tell Ike all of this," he muttered, seeing how the Mad King duped all of them into believing that he still roamed the Daein capital. Walking with the guards, Khimari took a mental note of every surrounding for his escape, especially as they neared the castle entrance.
"Halt," another soldier stated when they came up to the gates. "State your business here."
"Prisoner transport," Petrine answered, ending her silence.
"Alright," the soldier accepted before turning around. "Open the gates!" he ordered, before returning to his post at the right side of the gate. A few seconds later, the gates started to open to the group of people. When they finished, Petrine jumped off her horse and took point, everyone else following.
Needless to say, the castle was huge. Khimari never got to enter the place, but he saw pictures of it in many books that he read. The walls seemingly stretched to the sky, and the pictures adorned on the wall amazed him with how cool they were. The Crimean royal family, pictures of other leaders, and one of the Goddess Ashera came to be on the walls.
"Okay, I don't care if I'm gonna be doomed soon, this place looks awesome," the wolf said aloud, drawing snickers from his transport soldiers.
"We're glad you feel at home," Petrine said in a sweet voice that ended up being anything but sweet. "This is as far as I go," she then confirmed, turning back. "Soldiers, make sure he gets to his cell. His talk with His Majesty will be soon," she reminded with anticipation creeping into her voice.
Khimari couldn't help but be unnerved as they took him to his new sleeping place. Feeling a weight leave his arms, he discovered that they took the chains off his hands, allowing him to move freely. "Get in," the soldier demanded from him.
"For real?" the wolf asked. "You're not gonna throw me in and say 'Have a nice death, ya stinkin' beast?' You guys are awesome," he complimented, walking in the cell. A blue light surrounded him, putting the soldiers on alert. He jumped on his bed and did his three circles before lying down to see the Daeins with their weapons pointed at him.
"Calm down," he said. "I'm just taking a nap." The soldiers looked apprehensive, but ultimately shrugged as they closed the cell door and locked it. Closing his eyes, Khimari started to think about Ike and the company...and his freedom.
'Time to plan my escape…'
XXXXX
Ike and the Crimean Liberation Army just reached the Daein capital Nevassa and stood about an hour's march from the capital. The sun already set and they pitched their camp outside of the capital. Ike himself oversaw everyone getting an ample amount of sleep and weapons for tomorrow's mission, hopefully the last of this campaign.
"Titania," he called after checking with Jorge and Daniel about the weapons. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yes, they are ready for tomorrow," she confirmed. "All of them have been properly armed and just about every base has been covered. Ashnard will find us stronger than he ever expected."
"Good," he said with a sigh.
"Is something wrong?" the deputy commander asked.
"No, it's just...strange. The end of this war is tomorrow, and as good as it feels, it's...weird," Ike admitted. "After all this time, it's coming to a close."
"I understand...but the quicker this war is over, the quicker we can return to a stable life," Titania mentioned. "All we can do now is fight our very best."
"You're right. Maybe-"
"General Ike?" a voice called from out the tent, interrupting the two.
"Come in," the commander allowed.
"The prisoner has asked for your presence," he informed Ike.
"Me?" Ike returned, shocked by the information given to him. "...Alright. Can you take me to him?" he requested, to which the soldier affirmed.
"Yes, sir. Right this way," the Begnion soldier directed, taking the blue-headed mercenary around the camp to a small tent lit up by a small lantern. "He's in there," the soldier said.
"Thank you. Can you stand guard at the door?" Ike asked, the soldier saluting in response as he took his post outside the tent. Ike walked inside the tent to see a man sitting with chains around his hands. He had green hair and looked to be a swordmaster. "You wanted to see me?"
The man looked up and gave him a somewhat calm look on his face. "I have information regarding your wolf friend," he said, making Ike's eyes pop open in a split second.
"Where is he? What is Daein doing to him?" the commander demanded, staring the man, Homasa, straight in the eyes.
"If I guess correctly, he's being taken to a tower used to convert Laguz into Feral Ones," he informed.
"Feral Ones?" Ike echoed.
"Laguz that were given medicine that warped their very being," Homasa explained. "It removed their sense of reason, put them in a permanent transformed state and effectively turned them into killing machines at the cost of a drastically-reduced lifespan."
"..." Ike couldn't bring himself to say any words to the information that the Daein commander gave him. "Thank you for the information," he curtly said, before rising and leaving the tent in silence, pondering what he had just been told. Sighing, he simply went back to his tent in order to prepare for tomorrow.
XXXXX
The next day…
Today was the day. Today, Ashnard would fall and the war would finally end. After all of these months of blood and violence, it would soon all be over. The thought itself brought Ike a sense of peace, although it still was too early to celebrate. The last battle still had to be fought. Sighing, Ike went to find Titania and Soren to get the rest of the kinks out of their siege plan and continue with the attack before the Mad King could amass any more of his forces for a final defense. It didn't take long, as they were in the strategy tent discussing the plans already.
"Good morning, Ike," Titania greeted as the teen walked in the tent, before getting straight to business. "How are you?"
"Ready to end this thing," he responded. The two nodded silently, having the same thoughts. "Preparations?"
"About completed," Soren answered. "Since we are right outside the Daein Keep, it should take about a half-hour to an hour's march in order to lay siege to the capital. The soldiers have all been reminded of their positions and all other measures have been thoroughly and routinely checked to provide maximum possibility of success."
Ike nodded at the response, and decided that the sooner they began the operation, the better the potential results would be. "Let's get the troops rallied. We need to hit them as fast and as hard as possible before they can mount a formidable defense," he deduced. The other two in the tent seemed to agree, nodding to the commander's words. With that, the three exited the tent and began the final march to the heart of Daein.
XXXXX
"So this is Daein's capital, huh?" Ike muttered to himself, looking around the apparently desolate city of Nevassa. The soldiers quickly assembled and the Liberation Army made quick time getting to the capital. To the suspicion and surprise of Ike and the others, however, they encountered nothing. No people, no soldiers, no assailants, not a single soul to be found.
While it was unnerving, Soren thought it best to simply advance with precautions so that the Mad King wouldn't be able to build up his defenses to a much higher level.
"Ike," someone called out. Looking back, he saw Nasir coming up to him. "Here you are."
"What is it, Nasir?"
"Are you sure you have enough soldiers to lay waste to the capital?" the man asked, looking genuinely concerned. "Your opponent is 'Mad King Ashnard.' Who knows what traps and tricks he may have in store for you…"
"He may have something planned, indeed," Titania agreed, a serious look covering her face. "He surely would have received reports of our advancement by this point…" she started before looking around for a second. "But...it's still so quiet…"
"Let's just keep going…" Ike deflected, wanting to get rid of the anxiety that he felt creeping upon the ranks.
"They know we're not going to hurt the citizenry, correct?" Elincia suddenly asked, looking distraught.
"They don't know that," Soren harshly replied. "For what they did to Crimea, it'd only be natural to assume that they'd expect a similar retaliation."
"What? What do you mean? Only the soldiers were imprisoned or killed, right?" Elincia asked, shocked.
"...You have no idea what it means to rule a nation," Soren criticized matter-of-factly. "Do you know what happens to a nation that loses a war. Everything is destroyed. Homes, land, crops, everything. The citizens are treated like dirt, if that. Crimeans are treated just as badly if not worse by Daeins than sub…..Laguz."
Elincia looked downright horrified at the description. Tears welled in her eyes and she looked ready to shut down. "...I am a fool," she told herself, drops hitting the frosty ground.
"Soren!" Ike chided, only for the tactician to "hmph" and keep walking. Sighing, he looked on as Titania comforted the princess. The paladin's words seemed to have worked, as Elincia's distraught composure became filled with willpower.
"I...will save the people of Crimea. This….I swear," she proclaimed.
"As I said before," Ike cut back in, "I won't be turned away. We will fight through, no matter what we may face. This fight ends here!" he said to Elincia, matching her wavelength of will.
"I will do my best to make sure all goes as planned." Soren then added, even feeling that he had to join in the moment.
With an extra dose of encouragement, the Crimean Army, with the Mercenaries at its head, marched on to the Keep. Stopping for a second, Ike looked back before twitching his head in the direction of the doors. Going in, the army entered the heart of Daein's capital, the Daein Keep.
….Suddenly, the doors swung shut behind them, smashing closed with a loud thump. Immediately, panic started to arise from the soldiers.
"The gates just closed behind us!" one yelled.
"We're trapped! Run! RUN!"
"We're under attack! They're all gonna kill us!"
XXXXX
A/N: I am SSOOOOO Sorry for not being able to update since….forever. To be blunt, life is crazy. Between my crazy life story and fulfilling all the duties of being a student, Christian, caring son and a helpful person, consider my life filled. But anyways, I hope you enjoyed this, and if it's shorter than usual, it's because I'm cutting this chapter into 3 different sections.
See y'all in part two!~
Blizzard, Out! (Although I just got back in, lol)