This is something I KNOW you guys have wanted for a long time. Enjoy!

Chapter 28 – Closure (Pegasus Moon)

Count Wystan von Varley was both infuriated and terrified to hear from his chief officer, General Avariz, that the conscripts under their command had revolted. They were now heading to his makeshift stronghold at the abandoned Highwind Aerie, a place whose significance had faded from the count's mind long ago. Worse, they were being led by the Black Eagles, Edelgard's best strike force.

He couldn't fathom how his plans were coming apart so rapidly. He thought his men had subdued any dissent in his ranks when he ordered them to take their families hostage. Now he only had those loyal to him and his money at his command, less than a quarter of the force he'd had prior. With what he had left, he was now outnumbered almost four-to-one, and he had the elite of the Imperial Army bearing down on him, with nowhere for him to run.

"My lord?" asked General Avariz. The general was one of the few men under Count Varley's command with a good amount of combat experience.

"What are you standing around here for, Avariz?!" Count Varley snapped. "Do what I'm paying you for and crush those swine!"

"At once, milord."

Avariz turned and left Count Varley's presence, leaving ten men to guard the Count as he seethed at how Edelgard was again bringing about his downfall.

…

Arrows and crossbow bolts flew from the makeshift ramparts that Count Varley's men had built around the Highwind Aerie, occasionally striking a conscript as they advanced with their shields raised. The Black Eagles hovered above them, keeping their distance from the Varley archers. Despite that most of Varley's loyalists were in it for money, they were known for their skill in archery, so none of the Black Eagles were too eager to dive in on their position.

This, of course, frustrated Ladislava a little. She was so close to her vengeance now, but she knew she had to wait. She hadn't come this far to jeopardize things because of impatience.

Now that the fog was clearing, she could see that the Varley troops, despite putting up a defiant stand, were hopelessly outmatched. They were even starting to run out of ammunition. Once the conscripts got up close to them, they were finished.

The Varley archers let loose another volley of bolts and arrows. Several conscripts were hit, screaming as they fell, while the rest continued their advance under the cover of their shields. Each comrade they lost stirred their hate for Count Varley and his men further. Another volley rained down upon them, and as another batch of conscripts fell, the rest roared as they charged, closing the distance on the archers before they could ready another salvo.

Then, as the conscripts began hacking their enemies to pieces, Ladislava shouted, "Attack!"

The Black Eagles began to dive in on the Varley troops now that the archers were preoccupied. A few managed to fire hasty shots at the Black Eagles, but only one of the Wyverns took a hit to its hind leg, which didn't stop its rider from chopping off an archer's head with his axe. The other archers panicked as the Wyverns and Pegasi overran them, cutting them down in droves. As good as Varley's archers were at range, they were all but helpless up close.

It was then that Ladislava heard the whinny of horses and the sound of thundering hooves. She looked down to see Varley's limited number of cavalrymen charging into the fray, no more than thirty cavaliers. They wouldn't pose much of a threat, but Ladislava saw one of them in the middle of the formation that she recognized.

Ladislava urged Fenix into a dive. As the pair dove, she watched as Setiawati's horse archers rode in and fired at the Varley cavalry, taking down four in their first volley. The Varley cavaliers turned to chase Setiawati, but she and her horsemen were already galloping away far faster than they could hope to catch. Their heavy armor weighed them down compared to Setiawati's light and fast archers. And said armor made them easy prey as Salia and two other Eagles dove in, adding three more kills to the Black Eagles' growing tally.

As another volley of arrows from Setiawati and her archers took down three more cavaliers, Ladislava swung her lance at the leader of the Varley cavalry, General Avariz. The general, seeing this coming, managed to block Ladislava's lance, but the sheer force of her blow almost knocked him off his horse and wrenched his shield from his arm. She pulled Fenix out of their dive and banked left, dodging a retaliatory arrow from a Varley archer. The archer soon had his head caved in by a conscript's hammer.

Bringing Fenix to a hover a few feet off the ground, Ladislava looked down at Avariz and shouted, "I should have guessed you would crawl back to your master, General Avariz."

"Ladislava," Avariz snarled. "The Count will reward me well once I bring him back your head, and the head of your lizard!"

Avariz roared as he reared back his horse and charged at Ladislava and Fenix. The two charged forward in turn, with Ladislava meeting Avariz in a clash of lances. But while Ladislava and Fenix emerged unscathed, Avariz groaned as he toppled from his horse. Ladislava's lance had broken, having pierced through the general's armor and through his right lung. Ladislava tossed aside the remains of her lance as Avariz breathed his last.

Horrified at the sight of their dead general, the remaining cavaliers fled.

"Hunt them to the last!" Ladislava shouted to the other Black Eagles. As the Wyverns and horse archers pursued Varley's cavaliers, she said, "Salia, Setia, with me. Let's finish this."

"As you command," said Setiawati.

"Here, catch!" Salia shouted as she threw Ladislava a new silver lance. Ladislava caught the weapon in midair as Salia added, "Try not to break this one too quickly."

Ladislava said nothing to this, knowing Salia was right to worry. That had to have been the fifth silver lance she'd broken in battle in the past few months.

The three and their mounts made their way into the Highwind Aerie grounds.

…

The sound of wingbeats was all Count Varley needed to hear to know Avariz had failed him. But the Count had expected more than just two Wyverns, one horse, and their riders to approach him through the fog.

"S-Stop them!" he shouted to his men. "Protect me, you imbeciles! I'll triple your pay if you kill them!"

Ladislava almost sighed at hearing the Count's words. Even now, he turned to his money for leverage. Yet it was enough to spur his bodyguards into action. The Count watched as the soldiers rushed into the fog at the three approaching figures and their mounts.

Setiawati struck first, loosing two arrows into two of the Count's bodyguards, instantly dropping them with shots to the head. Salia followed this up with a fireball that set three more of them ablaze. Ladislava and Fenix then darted forward, with Ladislava leaping from the Wyvern's saddle. Fenix rose slightly before landing on two more of the Varley bodyguards, his talons ripping through their armor like paper. Ladislava roared as she slashed her new lance through another bodyguard's torso as if it were a sword. One tried to slash at her from behind, but Ladislava whirled about, smacking him with the shaft of her weapon before thrusting it into the ninth bodyguard's chest. As the bodyguard toppled over, she grabbed the man's sword and spun around, decapitating the last bodyguard.

Count Varley was horrified as Ladislava tossed aside the blade and went to retrieve her lance. It had taken the Black Eagles a mere eight seconds to kill all ten of his bodyguards, leaving him alone with only his crossbow.

Ladislava turned to him and said, "Wystan von Varley. I've been looking for you."

In his terror, the Count quickly raised his weapon and fired a bolt at Ladislava's head. To his shock, the Crimson Warrior's right hand whipped up as she leaned her head to the side, catching the bolt between her fingers, the tip passing just by her right ear. She then snapped the bolt in half.

"You've nowhere to run this time," Ladislava added, as if he'd never fired his shot.

Panicking, Count Varley began to run away from the three aces.

Ladislava turned in Setiawati's direction and nodded at the Brigid huntress, who already had an arrow notched to Sharanga. The huntress took a split second to aim and fired. Count Varley screamed as the arrow went into his right leg, piercing through his knee, and he crashed to the dirt.

As the Count clutched his wounded leg and pitifully tried to scramble away, Ladislava walked up to him, kicked away his crossbow, and then stomped down on his right knee. Count Varley screamed in agony as Ladislava kept him pinned under her boot.

"You know, I thought leaving you as a prisoner in your own home five years ago would've been punishment enough, but it seems you just don't know when to quit."

Despite the pain he was in, Count Varley said, "W-Whatever the emperor is paying you, I can give you more. Whatever you want, it's yours!"

Now Ladislava did sigh at the Count's pathetic offer. "Still so quick to turn to your ill-gotten money," said Ladislava. "Your wealth is meaningless to me, Varley. And what I want from you is your life, as payment for how you destroyed mine and my family's lives."

"W-W-What are you – GAH! – talking – AGH! – about?!"

Salia was slightly surprised as she said, "You don't even remember this place, do you?"

"I-It's just s-some a-abandoned peasant farm!"

"This place was my home," said Ladislava. "The Highwind Aerie. Some of the finest Wyverns in the whole Adrestian Empire came from here. But I shouldn't be surprised you don't remember it. Since when have you ever cared for the lives of commoners? You tore this place down after you squeezed every coin my parents had out of it. You knew they could never afford to pay you and you still had them hanged because you had the gall to be insulted. Then you took every Wyvern left in this place so you could butcher them for sport."

Count Varley had started to replace his fear with anger as he said, "T-Those beasts were my property! What I did with them was my right! I was Minister of Religious Affairs before that bitch Edelgard ruined everythi – AAAGH!"

Ladislava pressed her boot down on Count Varley's leg as she said, "I insist that you leave Her Majesty out of this. I may be her champion and protector, but this is between you and I."

The Crimson Warrior then looked over to a spot on the ranch grounds as the fog continued to clear. Salia and Setiawati turned to see a set of large Wyvern bones in the middle of the grounds. The skeleton was missing its head. Rusted chains were connected to spikes in the ground, binding the skeleton's wings and neck. Some of the wing and leg bones were shattered.

Ladislava pointed to the bones and said, "Do you remember that one? Those bones belonged to our ranch's matriarch, Shayera. One of the most magnificent Wyverns you'd ever lay eyes on, with scales as black as ebony, and you butchered her like cattle. You ordered your men to chain her to the ground. You had them break her wings and legs, and ordered them to muzzle her mouth shut. And then, when she couldn't defend herself, you shot her to death. You had your men take off her head in front of her offspring, Wyverns that you would later slaughter for your own amusement."

"Tak bisa dimaafkan," Setiawati said in disgust.

"W-What did she say?!" snapped Count Varley.

"Shut up!" said Salia.

Ignoring the Count, Ladislava continued, "But you didn't kill all of them. There was a Wyvern hatchling you took as a prize. You planned to sell him to the highest bidder once he grew up. But shortly after you tore this place down, someone stole the whelp from you."

"W-What?! H-How do you know–" The Count stopped for a moment as he realized what Ladislava implied. "YOU! You stole it from me!"

"That's right. I did. He was Shayera's last child. A child who watched as you murdered his mother right before his eyes. A child who, when I took him from your clutches, saved my life from one of your guards. That Wyvern… is my partner."

"P-Partner?"

Count Varley went rigid with shock as Fenix landed behind him. The Count slowly turned to see the large red Wyvern staring him right in the eye.

The three aces watched with some satisfaction as Count Varley pissed himself, literally.

"Fenix…" Ladislava said to the ruby Wyvern as she stepped away from Count Varley. "Do you remember him? This is the man who murdered your mother. He's all yours, partner."

As if on cue, Fenix snarled furiously at Count Varley. The former Minister of Religious Affairs yelped in sheer horror as Fenix roared in his face, the Wyvern's gaze filled with hate.

"G-Get it away from me!" Count Varley screamed in terror. "GET IT AWAY!"

Before he could utter another syllable, Fenix lunged forward and bit down on Count Varley's head. The Count screamed his last, a cry that echoed through the entire area for a brief second, and then was suddenly silenced.

Ladislava watched with pride as Fenix chomped down briefly on Wystan von Varley's severed head, brutally ripped from his body. Fenix then tossed the head aside as if it were trash, raised his head skyward, and let out a triumphant roar.

"Atta' boy, Fenix," Ladislava said proudly.

"Keadilan ditegakkan," said Setiawati.

"Mission accomplished," said Salia.

Ladislava walked over to Fenix and, despite having blood all over her hands, began to stroke her partner's head. Fenix began rubbing his head against Ladislava's breastplate, like a dog or cat would do with its owner, growling softly at her.

"Atta' boy…"

"We should see to the others," said Setiawati.

"Agreed," said Salia. Then, turning to Ladislava, Salia said in surprise, "Commander?"

Setiawati turned to Ladislava and was also surprised to see the Crimson Warrior was crying. It didn't take much for her and Salia to guess what it was about. Not only had Fenix avenged his mother, but he had also avenged Ladislava's parents.

They weren't wrong. Ladislava had wanted to kill the Count herself, but she knew Fenix needed revenge more than her. Letting him have his vengeance was sweeter than she could have hoped for. And despite that she had vowed not to cry over the deaths of her parents long ago, she couldn't keep that vow anymore.

"Commander Ladislava? Are you alright?" asked Salia.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Ladislava turned to her comrades and said with a smile, "I'm fine. Let's go."

Just as he deserves, right?

I've wanted something like this to happen to Bernadetta's dad ever since her C-Support with Byleth. Few people in Fodlan deserve it as much as he does (only other one who comes close was Count Bartels because he wanted to rape Mercedes, but he's already dead). Even if you look at the Bernadetta/Yuri A-Support, I'll bet he only saved Bernie's life because he wouldn't be able to marry her off if she was dead. That moment didn't build any sympathy toward him from me. So yeah, Wystan von Varley can burn in Hell.

Also, remember how I said Count Varley should look a bit like Waluigi? I take that back; I envision him as looking more like Giorgios Geld from Valkyria Chronicles 1. Geld's also a total asshole and a war criminal who gets what's coming to him.

EDIT: Looks like Three Hopes allowed us to see Count Varley in person, and he looks nothing like Geld or Waluigi, not to mention giving him a name (Grégoire von Varley). Oh well. It doesn't matter that much.

As for General Avariz, his name's just a pun of "avarice". Fitting, given Count Varley's obsession with wealth.

Now, remember that character bit I did in Chapter 18? I said I was gonna wait until later to do it for Ladislava. Well, here it is.

Aerin Ladislava

Known as the Crimson Warrior, Ladislava is one of the Adrestian Empire's greatest champions, and possibly the greatest Wyvern rider in Fodlan. Born to a pair of Wyvern breeders in House Varley territory, Ladislava lived miserably under Count Wystan von Varley's cruelty, eventually losing her home and family to the wicked Count. Before leaving her home behind, she snuck into the Count's estate and stole from him a newly-born Wyvern hatchling with ruby scales, a hatchling that would eventually grow up to become her mount and trusted partner, Fenix. For years, the pair lived alone in the wild, occasionally stealing from farms and merchants in order to survive. The two were eventually caught hunting on grounds reserved for Marquis Vestra, who immediately sentenced them to die in the Imperial Arena. However, fate smiled on them when they caught the eye of the Adrestian Princess, Edelgard von Hresvelg, who ordered their lives be spared so that Ladislava and Fenix could serve as her protectors. Ladislava has been indebted to Edelgard ever since, and serves as the commander of the Black Eagle Strike Force, Edelgard's elite squadron. Ladislava's prowess in aerial combat has been described as though she too were born with wings, and her leadership skills have won the Empire many victories against the Kingdom Loyalists, Leicester Alliance, and other hostile factions opposed to the Empire's conquest. Yet Ladislava knows she will eventually have to part ways with Edelgard and find a new path…

Ladislava has a unique class exclusive to her: Wyvern Knight. This is more-or-less the Wyvern Lord class, but with Lancefaire instead of Axefaire and some modified stat distributions (less defense, more offense). When mastered, Wyvern Knight gives Ladislava a unique Combat Art: Sky Dive, which has a very high crit chance and MT, but costs a lot of weapon durability. Essentially, the Wyvern Knight class is a Final Fantasy Dragoon in all but name, inspired by characters like Kain Highwind from FF4 (my favorite Final Fantasy title).

Ladislava's personal skill, Crimson Warrior, grants her +10 crit chance when initiating combat and causes her critical strikes to deal quadruple damage instead of triple damage, meaning every crit she lands will likely be a one-hit-kill. Ladislava's STR, DEX, and SPD are her best stats, with good LCK and above-average CHA. Her HP growth is only average-at-best, though, and she has low MAG, DEF, and RES growths, making her something of a glass cannon who is best on offense, but she won't die to a single hit like Lysithea or Constance would. Ladislava excels at dishing out crit strikes, usually taking an enemy out in one hit thanks to her personal skill. Ladislava's skill strengths are in Sword, Lance, Authority, and Flying, but she has a weakness in Faith due to her lack of, well, faith in the Goddess.

Ladislava normally fights with Silver or Brave Lances, but she is eventually given a special lance by Edelgard and Hubert named Longinus. Longinus has extremely high durability and MT, as well as a crit bonus, making it similar to the Scythe of Sariel. It requires Agarthium to repair it.

Ladislava's likes include Wyverns, combat practice, meat-based dishes, and service to Edelgard. Her dislikes include Crest nobility (except Edelgard), bitter dishes, poor weapon maintenance (ironic since she breaks a lot of weapons in battle), and people who offend Edelgard or Fenix. As should be expected, she bears no Crest, and she does not permit Crest-bearers to join the Black Eagle Strike Force.

Now, don't worry; just because we've gotten Ladislava and Fenix some closure doesn't mean I plan to conclude their story anytime soon. The Black Eagles still have big roles to play in the story.