I enter my defensive stance as I face Ike, who is doing the same. He holds his sword up close to his face, and has it pointing towards me. His deep blue eyes are engrossed onto mine as I wait for him to make his move. He holds his gaze on mine, but he is not facing directly at me.

I am going to practice my defense. Let's see how well I can block his moves.

From the corner of my eye, I see Titania approach and stand next to Papa. Ralf is following her. As I focus onto Ike, I feel something strange deep within my emotions. I feel a spark of nervousness. Seeing myself on the end of his blade, just aroused something within my emotions. Even though it is just practice, I never even thought about what would have happened if he had not trusted me back then. I know how skilled he has gotten with the blade. If I knew any better, I would not have been able to best him.

I narrow my eyes and focus onto his as he watches me. He must have noticed the sudden drop of emotion in my eyes.

That is not the case anymore.

With that sudden change, Ike pushes himself forward towards me. His emotion fades from his eyes as he enters into his practice mode. He has been working on this ability while practicing with Papa. To block out distractions and to ignore emotion while in battle is extremely important. I also push my emotion to the back of my mind as I swiftly break my stance to block Ike's blade as it comes at me from my right. He immediately brings his sword up and swings it at me again from the other side. I dart my eyes around, following his swift moves, blocking each one. As he keeps the maneuvers coming, I notice he is not using any of his advanced moves on me.

I wonder why. Maybe he will?

By each move, they are becoming more accurate and more difficult to block. I am jumping around, keeping my footing constantly on the move while moving my blade to block his advancements. With his speed level, to stay moving is my best bet here. Swords are very swift, especially when the one wielding them are also just as swift and skilled like Ike. Even with my current skill, I doubt I can best him or keep this up without the use of my magic to steady my control over the blade.

He forces me back, pushing against my blade every move, probably wondering why I am not swinging back. He is not showing any signs of dropping his guard, so getting a chance to get a shot in would be highly challenging anyway.

I jump back, blocking his next swing. Then, from the corner of my eye, I see someone approaching. Ike notices I have turned my eyes away from his and does the same, stopping his swing. Something inside of me releases and I feel different the moment he breaks his gaze from mine while lowering his sword.

Lucina and a few of her father's knights are rushing out of the bushes across from our hideout and appearing in the clearing. The look in her eye is serious and she does not even look over at me or Ike. Her gaze is set on Papa's. All four of the knights that are with her are holding their lances at the ready. She has her hand on the hilt of Falchion at her waist, clenching it tightly which is a sign of urgency.

"Lucina..." I say softly and breathlessly, like something tells me she is bringing bad news from her father, as Ike steps forward in front of me.

"Something is wrong. Hun, go get Myst and Ralf," Ike turns to me for a short moment, his eyes go soft for only a moment while gazing into mine, which had disappeared during our sparring match.

I quickly nod, removing the softness in his eyes, "At once," Ike quickly returns the nod and appears next to Papa and Titania as Lucina approaches them with her steely eyes.

I spin around, dropping the wooden sword next to the one Ike used, and immediately begins scanning for Myst and Ralf. I push myself up off of the ground and swiftly but thoroughly look around for the children. I feel my heart race and my stomach tighten the more I do not see them.

"Greil, an urgent message from the king," Lucina's strong voice says, reaching my ears from where I am, "A group of bandits has surrounded the village closest to the castle gates. They are threatening to flood the village and take them as captives,"

It's a deception. They don't want that village at all...

"Tell Chrom we will handle this," Papa says firmly, his eyes now steely as he knows how dangerous bandits can be.

I hear a high pitch shriek come from the village Lucina just mentioned. "Myst!" I hear Ike's anxious voice call from behind me.

"I'm on it!" I call back to Ike, and immediately begin approaching the village through the tree line surrounding our hideout. Before I can get any closer, part of their group surrounds the clearing to our hideout, all eyes on me. Most of them are wielding iron axes, and a few are wielding steel ones, including the one who looks like a leader of some kind. They are mostly buff looking men with scars lining their faces and chests.

One of them looks me over and shows his crooked smile, "'Ello there sweetheart. Which one of ya want 'er?" He looks around behind him and the other men are cooing and eyeing me, waiting.

Sweetheart?

I darken my eyes and lift my left hand up, stretching it outwards and clenching it into a fist. My dark magic is now encircling it.

"'Ey! She's one of 'em! Get 'er boys!" The one in front says.

One of them?

Once they begin to approach me, I widen my smile, "Do you like the darkness?" I say slowly with my voice low, then follow it up with a low and slow laughter.

I release a flood of anger through my left arm and it responds surrounding the handful of bandits in front of me with my darkened magic. Some of them begin to look frantic as I slowly lift them into the air.

I release a ball of energy by opening my clenched palm and toss it upwards. The ball of energy flies between them all and explodes, forcing them to fly backwards. Once the bandits are down and on their backs, Oscar, Boyd, Ike, Titania and Papa materialize around me. They each attack one of the bandits and kills them, one by one.

Ralf appears from the trees behind where the bandits are lying and runs as fast as he can towards us. He has a look of dread on his face. A larger bandit appears behind him and is chasing him, his large steel axe raised.

"'Ere little piggy!" The bandit calls after him, laughing like he is enjoying chasing him.

"Ralf!" I hear Oscar and Boyd call from around me.

How did they get Ralf and Myst from us? I thought they were with Papa and Titania?

I jump into action, forcing myself between the large bandit and Ralf. I have my left hand, palm out, facing the bandit and a wall of black magic appears between us. This wall stops the bandit in his tracks as he cannot break through the shield with his axe of steel. Ralf has stopped and is panting close by behind me. I turn to see that Oscar or Boyd gets to him safely. I catch Oscar's gaze first. He holds relief and thankfulness in his eyes as he gazes back into mine. Then I catch Boyd's gaze as his lips form a small smile when Oscar helps Ralf up onto his horse and brings him to safety.

I turn back to the bandit and quickly pull Falchion from his resting place into my hand. As I am dropping the shield to swing Falchion, Boyd appears next to me and throws a swing of his own with his iron axe. The bandit blocks the attack and begins to raise his axe high above our heads, beginning to drop it down onto Boyd's head.

I quickly raise Falchion and block the wide axe, allowing Boyd to release another swing across the bandit's chest. The bandit's axe has gotten stuck on the edge of Falchion, since I had shoved my left shoulder forward and held Falchion's hilt pointing up and the blade pointing down towards the bandit's feet. The only way the bandit could have gotten past the blade with the axe at that angle would have been pushing the axe further down forcing me to pull the sword back or himself pulling his axe back.

Boyd slices him before he has a chance to do so, causing the bandit to jump back with a wounded chest. I leap forwards, spinning around once with the blade following me creating a circular arc, slamming against the bandit's side, forcing him down. I glance over to Boyd, not moving Falchion from where I hold it in the air, giving a quick small smile as he does the same and I lift Falchion upward. I spin my blade around and swiftly slide it into its sheath on my right side.

Then I push myself up and catch eyes with Papa who is following Titania on her horse and Ike through the tree line towards the village.

I propel myself forward, following Oscar through the trees after them with Boyd close behind me. When we clear the trees, the village appears into view.

Lucina and her father are already there with a group of their Cavalier knights. Cavaliers are another term for the same class Oscar is, the Lance knight. They wear suits of armor and wield lances on horseback.

Immediately, lances, swords and axes begin to clang together everywhere around me. To my right, Papa, Ike and Titania are making quick work of their group of bandits who had approached them. To my left, Oscar and Boyd are fighting a few themselves with Ralf on the back of Oscar's horse, grasping his brother's waist with white knuckles and a worried look on his face.

They have their hands full. Maybe I should—

Before I can head over to them, a couple of bandits stand between us. Before they charge me, another bandit behind them shouts, "'Ey! Ya blokes, 'ere's the princess and the king! Capture that princess too! Bring all of the women to me! The boss wants 'em all!"

All of the women? Why? Who are they searching for? Who is their leader?

The few bandits who are in front of me begin charging me. The ones who are fighting Oscar and Boyd has turned and started rushing me as well. Oscar and Boyd immediately turns and chases them as well as Papa, Ike and Titania.

Myst, that must mean they have her already!

I scan the battlefield and several bandits start swarming Titania and Lucina, as well as myself. I shove the bandits away from me using my dark magic shield and quickly approach Lucina to assist her. She is back to back with her father, surrounded by bandits with their Cavaliers spread about trying to fight them back.

Once I darken my eyes, I place a magic shield around them, and then force darkened energy through the shield and outwards, forcing most of the bandits to fall backwards by the force.

Hmm, one actor does not belong on this stage.

I quickly stop and place my hand on my temple. Who is inside of my head? Who are you?

No answer...

What does that mean? Does not belong?

Before I can try for an answer, I am jarred from my thoughts and find several more bandits surrounding me and Lucina. They are chasing Myst who must have gotten away from them.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Myst!" I hear Ike's voice yell from somewhere around me. He has materialized next to me and we begin fighting alongside each other, placing ourselves between Myst and her pursuers. I grab Falchion from his hilt once again and swiftly swing him in front of me, hitting a couple of bandits, forcing them back.

More fill their place as they start showering their axes down onto us. Ike expertly blocks most of them and pushes himself up into the air. He has tossed his large sword up and is leaping to catch it above the bandits' heads. As the sword flies up, it slashes several bandits' in their faces and has caused them to stop advancing.

Aether. That is Ike's advanced move.

Then I see what blade he has.

Ragnell. His two-handed blade. The one imbued with that magic power he told me about. The sacred blade blessed by the goddess.

Once he catches it, he spins around in midair and slashes his way down, forcing the bandits he had hit down, wounding or killing them. His extra-long yellow blade with the black hilt moves slowly as he swings it, with one hand, making a low pitch whooshing sound.

Papa has reached Myst and she is now safe as Ike and I finish the rest of the bandits who were chasing her.

"Father... Big brother..."

Ike spins around swiftly to face his sister, "Why did you leave camp?" You can hear the worry dripping from his lips and see the worry spilling from his eyes.

Myst's eyes widen, "I—I didn't!" There is dread erupting from Myst's voice.

Something is wrong. Something took her.

"Is that all of them?" Titania asks as she rides up to us on her horse. I slowly slide Falchion into his sheath on my side.

"Yes," Papa says as he glances around us with Myst under his arm. He sighs, "I am glad you are safe, Myst. Those bandits... their leader is no ordinary bandit,"

"H—How do you know?" Ike asks.

"I have never seen a group of bandits act like that, boy. Come, we speak with the king," He glances at me and gives a nod of approval. I am to follow alongside him with Titania. Ike falls into step with me.

"Something is wrong, Hun," I keep my eyes lowered and looking in front of me.

From the corner of my eye, I see him turn to look at me, "Papa is right. I feel it too," I see him nod his head and he reaches his arm around my waist.

Who was that voice? What do they want?

Ike tightens his grip onto me as we approach the king and Lucina. Her eyes meet mine and she knows right away something is wrong.

Ike you badass. Dayum. :0

I really love Oscar and Boyd. I just like them. <3 Can you tell? ;)