{ === + === }

Nino would have loved to give chase to Nergal, and she had the Neverland halfway prepared for deployment when an offhand comment from Linus stopped her.

"Oh, you're running?" He says, genuinely surprised that she would flee.

"I'm going to chase down Nergal and shoot him in the head." Nino explains, realizing that Linus was right, even though he himself didn't seem to notice.

That is: regardless of how effective the Phoenix defense have been, people will talk if the head of state leaves mere minutes after the attack had ended. Moreover, people will definitely talk if said head of state take the town's one symbol of power with her, for no explained reason.

"She's not the head of state, though." Akatsuki pointed out. "The Boss is."

"She isn't," Lloyd agreed. "But His highness Ash isn't very well known to the people of Traesto, and so they'll see her as the one in charge, not him."

Thus, Nino, unwilling to create an environment that would destabilize Traesto and make work harder in the future, decided to postpone the attack until the domestic situation settled down. She was not happy about this.

She was, eventually, cheered up by the promise of new equipment that Ash had developed specifically for her. Ash didn't have it built specifically for her, but the difference is splitting hairs, really.

…

[Three Days Later]

…

A trio of lords (along with an entourage) from Lycia arrives at the Mouth after travelling overland through Bern and Sacae.

"That's…different." Lyn muses.

Their trip through Bern (a semi-hostile nation to Lycia) required that they travel incognito as a band of mercenaries rather than the lords that they were. Through the help of a friendly member of the Black Fang remnant (maintained by Lloyd with Nino's agreement under a new name) they were able to travel through the country without issue and at a rapid pace. The group then joined a caravan set for the Sacaean village of Narae.

Narae, if situations were different, would be a major city. If Sacae had any major cities and a robust system of international trade, Narae would have been a major city. It sits at the turning point of the river of Bern that eventually leads to the Mouth and, were Bern interested in trading over land, be deeply advantageous to sending wares inland to Sacae, or from Sacae to Bern. As reality would have it, Narae's population barely topped two hundred, and it was, for all intents and purposes, a poor fishing village scraping by on the poor, Sacaean soil.

…Or at least that's how Lyn remembered the place from the last time she saw it.

Narae grew. The village, which was never very organized to begin with, now had a distinctive main street that was far wider than it had any right to be, along with an area that seemed to have been roped off for some unknown purpose. Nearby village traders set up stalls to hawk their goods, patronized by Sacaean tribespeople which, based on her estimation of their gear, had to be operating within the region.

Furthermore, the village now had three massive storage yards stocked to the brim with foodstuffs that were definitely not local to the region. To be fair, it wasn't as if Narae couldn't bloom into a city on its own right, but the change was far too sharp to be considered natural. Local wealth seemed to have skyrocketed, and, to her greatest surprise, did not seem to come with a corresponding drop in security.

For the rest of the party, the strangest thing they saw was the visible release of tension from the other travelers in their caravan. Narae, again, was never sizable enough to project any kind of military power, and even after its growth it still wasn't big enough to do so. So…why?

"If I may ask, what is this place?" Eliwood asked a mercenary after seeing his visible relaxation.

"This? This is Narae." The Mercenary replied. "Apart from the Mouth, this is the safest place around here."

Lyn was curious as to why. "Really?"

"You guys aren't from around here, so I'll tell ya." The Mercenary said with a knowing smirk. "There's a trading town near the Mouth that's been sending out convoys to Bulgar. It passes through here every so often and brings more stuff than this village can take. That convoy also keeps everybody dangerous away, so the Golden Road to Bulgar is the safest thing in Sacae right now."

"'Golden Road to Bulgar'…" Eliwood repeats. "It sounds quite opulent."

The three lords' convoy stayed in Narae for an hour or so to resupply and relax (the horses) before heading off again. Though they never saw the mythical convoy or anything Golden about the road, they did note the general feeling of optimism all along the path, which…was fairly unusual for peasants in Sacae. Peasants who were not part of a Sacean warband tended to have lives that were miserable and/or short.

They arrive at the Mouth at the cusp of night, sleep, and make for the town of Traesto in the morning.

Which catches us up to the present.

Lyn's vision is entirely taken by the orchard—orchards—that dotted the outside of Traesto.

"Is that normal?" Hector asks upon following Lyn's line of sight.

"No, Sacaean soil is remarkably poor for farming." Lyn replies excitedly. "The reason why Bulgar is so large is because it's sitting at one of the few places where you can farm at all."

"Interesting." Eliwood takes mental note. "Perhaps we can learn more from them than just Nergal's recent actions." His home, Pharae, was small, and it could certainly benefit from any advancements in agriculture that this new trade town brought.

The three lord's group travels along the short path from the Mouth to Traesto, marveling at the fertile and lush fields of crops on the way, until they hear the sounds of clashing wood somewhere ahead of them.

"Oh, are they training?" Hector says appreciatively. "It's a good day for it." He glances at the clear, blue sky.

The group crests the last small hill and sees…a small group of a few dozen guards and some little girls apparently trying to kill each other with oversized wooden sticks. Apparently the little girls were winning.

"Excuse me!" Hector yells loudly as they approach. "We're looking for a person in charge!"

Akatsuki gives the stop signal for the recruit she was busy training and turns to face Hector. "Who are you?" She asks rudely as the recruit collapses to catch his breath. Red, blue, green hair…red knight, yellow knight, archer, healer, two peg knights, maybe, and two civilians. She tallies in her head.

"We're mercenaries." Eliwood says quickly as it seemed like Hector was about to pick a fight. "We heard about this place having some troubles and are here to help in some way."

"Hmm." Akatsuki…could care less. She has a lot on her plate right now and isn't about to overthink it. "Alright, get in line; you're not the only mercenary looking for a job here and you're not gonna be the last." She sighs.

"Get in…line?" Lyn repeats cautiously.

Akatsuki jerks a thumb to the thirty-some people waiting. "Yeah, I don't care what you say you're good at, we put you through the paces to see if you're just running your mouth, and if you're actually decent then we put you on payroll." She sighs again. "Fuckin' manpower deficiencies." She hasn't gotten enough sleep lately and has thus been quite cranky.

"So what happens if we win?" Hector asks with a smirk.

"Then you get a sandwich." Akatsuki yawns. "The only rule here is that you can't use a blow that would be fatal regardless of the weapon type used."

Eliwood sees where this is going and wants to stop it before Hector makes the situation awkward. Unfortunately…

"Ok, cool." Hector says. "So bring out the big man, little girl, I want a piece."

Akatsuki raises her eyebrows at him. "You're looking at the 'big man'." She says with plenty of warning in her voice. Behind her, the other four hurriedly stop their sparring sessions and get everybody to back the fuck up.

"Oh really?" Hector says in a tone that clearly suggests he didn't know what he just got himself into. "Never would have guessed. You're so…tiny." Akatsuki goes up to the middle of Hector's chest *at best*. Hector's a big dude, after all. "Are you sure you should be doing this?"

"Uh-oh." Everybody on the Phoenix side of this conversation says.

Akatsuki sighs again. "Oh, good, another moron with a fucking ego." She snaps her fingers towards a crate of wooden weapons. "Get one that you like and come here. I was in a good mood, so I'll just break your legs."

"She's really angry, isn't she?" Eliwood asks Lyn in a whisper as Hector confusedly goes to get a training axe.

"That little kid is beyond angry right now." Lyn replies, also in a whisper. "Hector must've hit a soft spot. Farina, maybe you should restrain your husband?"

"Hey, his mouth getting himself into trouble is a staple characteristic of the Marquis of Ostia." Farina (blue-haired Pegasus knight) says lazily. "Having somebody other than me smack him around a little is a refreshing change of pace."

"Inazuma, call Boss or something and have them come here before Akatsuki pastes him." Hibiki says.

"So…oh dear." Hector says, having picked a replica of a giant warrior's axe. "Are you sure about this?"

Akatsuki has a small stick. "I'm a mage knight, so watch it."

"Suuure." Hector stretches a little to get himself warmed up. "There's exactly one thing about fighting that never changes, though."

"Really?" Akatsuki rallies her magic power and gathers an explosive burst at the bottom of her feet. She then bullets towards Hector and sinks her fist deep into his sternum with a full-powered punch, sending the much bigger man reeling. "If you're worried about weight class, don't."

Hector takes a seething breath. "Duly noted." He retaliates with an excessively fast swing of his axe. Akatsuki, caught off-guard, barely parries with a wind-based shield. The hit sends her flying anyway. Though flying, Akatsuki was not very surprised, and maintains her positioning well enough to land on her feet. With a feral grin, she charges right in for round two.

"Wow." Lyn marvels as the little girl dukes it out with Hector. "She's good."

"Hector's on the back foot for once." Eliwood notes. "This is a surprise."

"It's 'cuz this axe is too light!" Hector complains loudly. Akatsuki kicks him in the chest for his momentary distraction, and his return hit was solidly blocked.

"Oh, this is a surprise." Eliwood hears a familiar voice behind him. He turns to see a pair of old friends arrive on horseback. "Good afternoon." The silvery haired man greets him warmly while the blond, friendly-looking woman waves.

"Good afternoon, Count Pent." Eliwood replies with a polite bow. "You're quite far from Etruria." He observes.

"Yes, I have business here." Pent says, sharing in Eliwood's politeness and picking up on his subtly projected desire for a lack of title recognition. "What about you?"

"Something similar, I expect." Eliwood says.

Hector gives off a roar that shakes the field and slams his axe into Akatsuki's side.

"And this is…?" Pent asks with a frown as Akatsuki gives off an equally spirited (if not as loud) roar and slams her sword into Hector's shoulder.

"Hector being daft." Lyn sniffs. "Pay him no mind."

"That girl is impressive." Louise, Pent's wife and the blond lady, observes. Akatsuki slaps Hector in the face with her sword. Hector tries to do the same, but can't quite catch her.

"Yeah." Farina agrees. "She hasn't dodged a single hit yet."

Eliwood frowns and, after a little more observation, agrees. Akatsuki, a small girl who's maybe a third of Hector's weight, has been taking each and every single one of Hector's full strength swings and tanking them like a champ. Hell, after the first few hits she's no longer even being staggered by them, and her retaliatory swings have been, judging by Hector's occasional steps back, more than effective.

The two of them trade a few more blows before a loud snap is heard. Akatsuki's little sword had shattered itself upon Hector's training axe and took the axe with it. Hector, now caught up in the moment, throws a punch.

"Dear me. Hector, are you serious…" Lyn sighs into her palms as Hector gets into a full-on fistfight with a little girl. His fists, it should be noted, are about as wide as her face.

"For what it's worth, he seems to be losing." Farina observes after a few punches have been traded.

On the other side, the Phoenix people were watching and waiting as well.

"Maybe we should stop them now?" Inazuma asks Hibiki worriedly.

Hibiki…didn't seem as bothered. "I'm curious as to how this will end." She says. "Besides, keep an eye on that large man's party. They seem to have connections to Count Reglay, so they're likely potential allies." She totters off to get the picnic basket she had prepared for lunch.

"If you say so…" Inazuma flinches as Akatsuki both takes and delivers a particularly savage-sounding pair of punches. "Why is she so fired up today? I mean, yeah, she's got a button for people calling her a child, but…"

"She's just working off some stress." Hibiki takes a drink from her basket and offers it to Inazuma. "It's been a tough few days, no?"

"I mean…" Inazuma is still a bit confused. "Yeah, but…"

The reality of the situation was that Akatsuki, who's more or less had to do her job with one hand tied constantly behind her back, finally found somebody who's willing to actually scuffle with her at her full strength. In other words: she was angry at being called a child, but she's now just having fun.

That fun abruptly ends when Hector lands a full-strength haymaker on the side of her head. Most of the blow's strength gets diverted by Akatsuki's passive shields, but it still knocks her off her feet and onto her back.

"Cripes." Hector shakes off the pain in his hand, not quite catching onto the fact that he just slugged a girl on the face (again, his fist is the size of her head) at full strength. "You're really tough, you know that?" He says, half-irritated, half-praising.

"YOU SLUGGED HER IN THE FACE?!" Lyn yells, aghast. "HECTOR, WHY?!"

"What?!" Hector…finally gets why she was worried. "She started it! Besides, she's tough and can take it no problem!" He says, frantically justifying his slugging of a small, harmless-looking girl.

"We have a daughter at home." Farina adds just to complicate the situation further.

"I'm a great dad." Hector snaps back. "Ask anybody."

"Ow." Akatsuki sits up. "Ok, that one really hurt." She channels her magical power through a healing orb and patches herself back up. "Not just any mercenary, are you?" She hops to her feet.

At this point Ash finally arrives.

"Huh." He looks at Eliwood's party, at the dirtied Hector and Akatsuki, and then at the Phoenix party. "Ok, what happened here?" He says after giving a small sigh.

"He's a douche." Akatsuki accuses Hector immediately, using magic to create a purple, nasty-looking bruise on her face…but on the wrong side.

"Am not." Hector replies, equally immediately. He didn't know what the word meant but figured it could mean nothing good.

"Are too." Akatsuki…gets into another fight. "You punched me."

"You started it!" Hector goes down to her level. The two glare at each other. Farina walks over to Hector and gives a loving pat on her husband's arm, before giving him a wake-up smack with the back of her hand.

"Before this devolves further." Ash says overly loudly. "Akatsuki, come with me."

"Fiiine." Akatsuki sulks and removes the bruise.

"You." Ash says to Hector. "Come with me as well. Bring your entire party too, while you're at it." He then sees Pent. "Hey Pent." He waves.

"Hello, Ash." Pent bows politely. "I somewhat wish this meeting had a more pleasant start." He says with a laugh.

"You know him?" Eliwood asks Pent.

"All of you. With me. Now." Ash orders before Pent could reply.

…

The group takes a walk through Traesto's bustling main street.

"Wow." Eliwood says as they stroll through the town. "This place is incredible." His eyes take in every last bit of the stalls lining the streets and the people wandering through them. "Was this place really attacked by Morphs?" He asks Pent. "There's no sense of danger anywhere on the street."

"You can thank the culture here for that." Pent says as they walk through the festival-like town. "Among other things." He glances up, noting the faint shimmer that marked the existence of a Pegasus Knight cloaked from view.

Eliwood watches the small figure of Akatsuki accompanying Ash in front of him. "Indeed."

The party clears the town area fairly quickly thanks to its wide main street, and Eliwood's party is then treated to the impressive sight of the Neverland at dock.

"Whoa." Eliwood says, wide-eyed. "So the rumors were true."

Ash leads the group to the main administration building and picks a sizable meeting room (plus attached lounge) to occupy. "Now then." He begins as the fourteen people—minus him—settle in. "Introduce yourselves."

Eliwood sees no reason to lie, given that Pent seemed to trust and respect this man. "I am Count Eliwood of Pharae, a small state in the Lycian League." He bows slightly then gestures to the two 'civilians', as Akatsuki classed them. "This is my wife, Ninian, and her brother, Nils."

"How do you do." Ninian greets politely, but faintly. Nils merely nods in greeting.

They're very pretty. Akatuski notes in her head. Are they dancers?

"I am Lord Eliwood's bodyguard for this mission." The green-haired knight standing at attention says next. "I am Lowen, Knight-Captain of Pharae." He takes a step back as Ash acknowledges his presence. Given that Ash allowed him to keep his sword, Lowen was thus not too worried about security, and his mind drifted to the present that he should get for his wife before he leaves.

"I'm Lyn-dis." Lyn says, tripping over her name slightly as she reconsiders how formal she wanted to be. "I'm the Countess of Caelin." She kind of ends up in the middle and looks to the rest of her party for help.

She's really pretty. Akatsuki notes in her head. And that outfit is nice, too.

"I'm her consort, Kent." The red knight salutes. "This is Caelin's Archer Commander and my subordinate, Will."

"How do you do." Will nods, not really used to formal protocol.

The party then looks at the shy Pegasus knight trying to hide behind a potted plant.

"Florina." The knight introduces herself in a barely-audible tone.

Ash rolls his eyes.

"And I'm Hector, the Marquis of Ostia." Hector says, thumping his chest for emphasis. "Ostia's the head of the Lycian League, so you know."

"I'm his ever-so-troubled wife, Farina." Farina says with a giggle then musses with the healer's bright pink-red hair. "And this pretending-to-be-shy-lass, is Serra."

"Oh, come on." Serra huffs. "You just got here and there was a fight." She turns to Ash. "I'm Serra." She says in a sweet tone. "As you can see, I'm a cleric."

"Pleased to meet all of you." Ash nods, then gives Akatsuki a small pat on the back.

"I'm Captain Akatsuki." She introduces herself a bit stiffly. "I head the Phoenix's Elite Stars unit."

"And you are…?" Eliwood prompts Ash after a moment of silence.

"A second." Ash says first. "Hector, was it?" He says. "Have your stealthy friend come out in the open."

The moment of silence turns uncomfortable, before Hector's stealthy friend steps through the doorway. "The name's Matthew." The orange-haired thief says. "Sorry about that."

Ash waves it away. "I'm Ash, the Emperor of the Phoenix Empire." He says, "Pleased to make your acquaintance." Ash is, we should note, not physically imposing.

"It's an honor to be in your presence." Eliwood says formally, taking his words as true.

"You're pretty small to be an emperor." Hector says gruffly, not believing a second of it.

Ash laughs. "I get that a lot. So, before we begin…" Ash takes out a large, tube-like thing and removes two rough-looking gems from it. "Nils and Ninian."

"Yes?" Ninian says, still sounding a bit faint. She puts a hand on Eliwood's arm for stability and receives a reassuring squeeze from his hands.

Ash grins. "The two of you are Manaketes, right?"

The two of them turn pale.

Hector (very overtly) draws Lowen's sword. "How do you know about that?" He demands.

"Hector!" Eliwood chides sharply as Akatsuki responds to his action by pulling out her rifle.

"Sorry." Hector says after a moment and returns Lowen's sword. He realizes, a bit too late, that his knee-jerk reaction put Eliwood at a diplomatic disadvantage.

"What lead you to that conclusion?" Eliwood asks Ash.

"Well." Ash's grin grows wider, and his eyes flare suddenly.

Everyone in the room suddenly feels as if the unassuming young man before them was suddenly replaced by…something so inexplicably huge that they could not comprehend. The feeling passes as quickly as it appears.

Hector has Lowen's sword in his hand again.

"No way…" Ninian breathes, panting slightly. "…You're a true dragon?"

"A little from column A, little from column B." Ash shrugs. "It's better to just consider me a Manakete as well."

"Wait wait, what's a Manakete?" Serra asks.

"In a nutshell, they can turn into a dragon." Akatsuki answers her.

"No way!" Serra stares at Nils with astonishment. "You can turn into a dragon?! That's so cool!"

Nils smiles sheepishly in response. "Yes, well…"

"My point is, judging by the auras the two of you are projecting you guys aren't exactly in the best physical condition." Ash says, rerailing the conversation. "So, these are for you." He holds out the two stones. "A gift, no strings attached."

Eliwood, no stranger to politics, is fully aware that Ash's gift is basically a trap despite what he said. They can refuse and be kicked out, or accept and be indebted. At the very least he doesn't seem to be hostile. Eliwood sighs mentally.

"What…um…" Ninian looks to Eliwood, who nods his assent. "I…thank you."

She and Nils take one stone each. Both of them then immediately blink in surprise at the strength that seemed to be returning to their bodies.

"This is…a dragonstone?" Nils asks in shock. "Where did you get this?"

Ash's reply is a very matter-of-fact "We make them."

"So…" Hector is a bit lost.

"Nils and Ninian are Manaketes who…" Ash stares at them for a few seconds. "…who never formed perfect stones, by the looks of it? I'm guessing the two of you have been suffering so far."

Nils and Ninian were forcibly taken from their world and had their strength more or less stolen from them upon their entry. Without having the time to properly stabilize, their magical powers were leeching into the air in a form of magical equilibrium. Since they have a higher resting power need than normal humans, the siblings were basically slowly starving to death.

"I had prepared myself for it." Nils says matter-of-factly. "A manufactured Dragonstone, huh…?" He turns the rough-looking gem around in his hand.

"What…what does this mean?" Eliwood stares at Ash. "Who are you? What are you?"

"Chill." Ash grins. "I'm a friend. Now, these stones won't let you transform and since you can't channel with them you can't fight with them, but your strength should now be preserved for a bit longer…to about the lifespan of a normal human, maybe a little extra." He turns to Eliwood. "It means you can have more time with your wife."

"Like they need it." Farina mutters out of reflex.

"Yes…thank you very much." Ninian stands just to bow deeply. "I cannot give voice to my gratitude." She adds with a little shame.

"Hey, no biggie." Ash says cheerily. "Now then, what are you guys here for?"

…

[Exposition]

…

"I see." Ash strokes his chin after Eliwood recounts his story of dealing with Nergal four years ago (a story that Ash knew in broad strokes already because he's played that game before). "That must've been tough."

"You don't know the half of it." Hector laughs. "I had to run around in Nabata in my heavy armor; that wasn't fun."

"We did manage to meet Pent there." Lyn adds.

"So…yes, we're ready to help against Nergal." Eliwood summarizes. "With everything we have."

"Thank you, but no." Ash responds with surprising finality. "No offense, but if you guys interjected yourself into our battle plan right now, you would be of no help, even with your 'legendary weapons'."

"How so?" Hector asks. "I'm as good as your Captain there, and we're all experienced fighters." He says, but gives Eliwood a worried glance. Eliwood has been showing the early signs of a disease that didn't seem to be going away, and it negatively affected his skill and power.

"All minus three." Ash says, not catching Hector's glance but knew anyway because he's played Fire Emblem 6. "Nils and Ninian don't strike me as fighters, and Eliwood's sick, no?"

"You are?" Everybody who's not Hector and Ninian asks in shock. Eliwood nods after a moment of consideration.

"How can you tell?" Hector growls at Ash.

"He just can." Akatsuki says. "It's best not to question it."

"I have…been feeling a bit under the weather." Eliwood says. "But I assure you it does not affect my ability to wage war." He adds firmly.

Ash nods. "No doubt…but that's not really the point here. We have our way of doing things, and our strike timetable is fast to the point where you guys…really have no business being included."

"You never know." Hector counters. "We're instrumental in stopping Nergal four years ago."

"I don't doubt it." Ash says. "But it looks like you need proof before you believe me." He stands. "Come on, I'll show you."

Eliwood is confused. "Proof?"

Ash grins again. "Yeah, proof of why we have this problem covered."

…

…

"Good lord." Hector breathes as Ash leads them to the reason why the Phoenix is pretty ok against Nergal. He notes, even while marveling, that the workers in the area all stop the instant Ash comes in to give him a salute. So he is an actual Emperor. He thinks before his attention is entirely captured by the object in front of him.

"At ease." Ash returns the salute. "So, what do you think?" He asks the party.

"What is this thing?!" Lyn demands. "It's way too big!"

"You like it?" Ash grins.

"I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, but it's certainly impressive." Eliwood nods. "Who is it for?"

"Me." Nino waves from behind the object in question. "It's going through the final adjustments for fitting." Eliwood thinks he recognizes this person, but given that they met four years ago for the better part of a few hours, his memory was drawing a blank.

"How's that going?" Ash asks.

A mechanic takes that question. "Just fine. Power source is a little unstable, but it doesn't affect motion. Worst case scenario she'll just move a little slower."

"I want one." Hector drools. Farina nods in rapid agreement.

The object in question is a twelve-foot high suit of power armor, standing within a magically maintained low gravity field and connected to bundles and bundles of wires. Eliwood feels the sense of military supremacy the armor exudes, and shudders despite the room's warmth.

"Its two tons of solid steel with the latest electronics we can make." The chief engineer says proudly. "If you didn't want a set then I'd be upset."

"Dear god." Eliwood breathes. "What does it take to make one of these?"

"More than you think, less than you expect." The engineer smirks.

"What are those?" Lyn asks of a rack of strange tubes being held in an adjacent room. "Weapons?"

"Aye." The Chief engineer grins. "I don't know who this 'Nergal' dickhead thinks he is, but he's not going to see this coming."

[Power Armor][Ash's POV]

This PA we're building for Nino is classed as the HPA-X (read as: High-Pax) and is the prototype for the armor that will eventually serve the primary equipment of the Phoenix Heavy Infantry. From a form standpoint, it resembles a bit of a cross between an MS-06 Zaku from the Gundam franchise, and a…loose…interpretation, of the Space Marine Armor from the Warhammer franchise. The helmet has the Zaku glowing mono-eye camera, the shoulders are spiked, because of course it is, and the rest of the body is plated to heaven and back. There are multiple hardpoints on its body designed for gear, so the armor's…pilot? Wearer? Would be free to use their hands like normal humans, while packing enough weapons and firepower to be kinda, sorta, totally bullshit.

The armor is obviously bigger than Nino who, despite being almost 20, is still a pretty small woman. The arm and legs have spring-loaded, magically lubricated pedals and braces that adjust for her body size and complement her physical strength accordingly, so she can both move the armor with fluidity…and punch people so hard their skulls would fly out of their heads. She's not going to actually do that, because Nino is a nice person, but the option is there. Apart from its sheer bulk, the suit's biggest plus is its integrated booster system, which allows her to skate over ground and charge at galloping speed, which isn't going to help Nino per se, but is integral to the fact that mass-production models of this armor will be deployed in formations.

Defense-wise, the power armor is thick and hefty, with a few spell circles running through the entire body of the armor. These circles redirect and absorb large chunks of physical and magical force. Within the context of the Fire Emblem universe, this means that the armor is literally immortal. I've had the armor readied and placed in the middle of a Thor barrage for testing, and it takes about a minute of concentrated fire before the armor's first layer starts to buckle. Without the spell circles (so if it gets magically-silenced or something) the armor is still movable through batteries charged with 'normal' electricity through spinning magical turbines, so it gets about five minutes of reduced effectiveness before it shuts down entirely.

I love my redundancy, so of course it's tough to destroy even with magic. This prototype is a full million gold to deploy, mind you, so they don't come cheap (yet), even when we're finding shortcuts by using proto-industrial-grade tools that have been enchanted for efficiency.

If we were to translate the suit to the game, it would be like if you equip it on a character and then they start the map having an additional 25,000 hit points and only take 1 damage from every attack aimed their way. And it's Eclipse (half target hp) immune, and it auto-crits on every attack that hits.

So defensively it's kind of a beast. Offensively, the PA has four pieces of gear we're fielding. While the completed version of the armor would have integrated weapons, this HPA-X lacks those weapons because I wanted the engineers to focus on getting the defensive properties right first.

Anyways, weapons. We have four of them, and they come mounted on a secondary piece of gear (because they're currently too big for the hardpoints).

First is the Thor Battery. As the name implies, it's just a set of ten Thor anti-materiel cannons cobbled together. Because the Thor is a tried and true piece of Phoenix hardware, this weapon serves as a weapon of last resort, if everything else breaks. Its condenser/reloader has, again, been improved, and the Thors in the Battery are angled to focus their shots on one place at a range of a hundred meters, and they have an actual targeting computer (albeit a very simple one) that connects to the computer inside the armor. It's still pretty prototype-y so the computers do very little, but…yeah.

Second weapon is the Impact Stake. It's basically a ten-foot steel pole that gets shot forward and deals massive damage at close range. Low tech, high reliability, and can punch through castle masonry with no issue. This is the melee weapon in the event that Nino, y'know, comes face to face with an animated haunted castle, or if there's like twenty Morphs standing in a convenient line or whatever.

Third weapon is the Shard Cannon. This is the test bed for our prototype high-performance reloader/condenser arrays, and is by far the most fragile of the weapons being deployed. Because this weapon focuses on the effectiveness of the condenser/reloader array, the bullets that the array makes are of a consequentially low quality…they have a tendency to just evaporate with a minimum range of about twenty feet, and the accuracy of the cannon is terrible.

The tradeoff, of course, is that it's the first gun we have with a 4000 round per minute fire rate.

So…yes, it's a shitty gun, but it's a shitty gun that can vomit near-infinite ammo into a target area. The condenser can make around 3000 rounds per minute with a ten thousand round magazine, so the gun THEORETICALLY can saturate an area nonstop for ten minutes before it needs to stop and reload.

The final weapon is kind of the antithesis of the Shard Cannon, and I dub it the Buster Rifle. If the Shard Cannon's job is to put a lot of low-power bullets haphazardly on the field, then the rifle's job is to put a single-high powered round exactly where it needs to be. It…well, the "high-powered" part is about true. IN THEORY, each shot has an impact radius of about three hundred meters, and everything inside the hit area gets bombarded by the magical power (and shards) that gets concentrated into a single shell, and they get dead. In order to both make and control the high powered rounds, each round must be stored and concentrated into casing, like a traditional earth artillery shell.

So…yeah, I'm confident about our ability to maul the fuck out of the Morphs, and I'm confident about Nino's ability to make good use of the HPA-X on its first deployment…even though she has, like, maybe twenty minutes of experience with it at most.

So what would happen if she were, say, to lose the fight?

Uh…then that's too bad? I mean, if I'm blowing a million gold on the project and it fails while being spearheaded by the most experienced mage in the Phoenix Empire, then there's something fundamentally wrong with the entire thing.

…

[3rd Person Camera]

…

"Wow." Lyn whistles after hearing the chief engineer's explanation. "I don't really get it, but they sound well-made."

"One million gold…" Eliwood whispers faintly. "This single piece of armor costs as much as an entire army."

"It's not just the armor, but yes." The chief engineer agrees with a shrug. "Though in this case the Colonel could hammer that army with this armor easy."

"Are those wings?" Hector asks excitedly, looking to the room on the opposite side of the room containing the weapons.

"That? That's the Lifter." The Chief Engineer grins wide. "It'll get the High-Pax where it needs to go."

The Lifter is a set of massive, technically foldable wings/engine suite, with four blocky squares that doesn't represent any propulsion system that the three lords were used to…not that they've seen much of industrialized propulsion anyways. 'Technically' because once set and unfolded, the wings would need an engineering team to fold again. The four blocks are basically arrays of magic-based jet engines, where they use magical shielding to both reduce drag and to channel air for power, the end process being an array of engines that have thrust-to-weight ratios way higher than normal.

Magic: it is cheating.

"And Nino will be inside that?" Lyn raises an eyebrow after doing some quick mental guessing. "I don't think even Hector is strong enough to move it."

"Good point." Hector rounds on the chief engineer. "How does this thing move?"

"That, unfortunately, is a trade secret." The Chief says apologetically. "Can't be telling you everything, I'm afraid."

"When do you depart, Nino?" Eliwood asks, seeing the end of that conversation path.

"As soon as the adjustments are over, which I hope they will be soon." Nino says with a glance at the chief.

The chief shrugs. "We got an hour left of basic tests, two for fitting the Lifter and synchronizing that, and then another two to make sure Colonel Nino over there knows how to use the thing."

"Four hours just to equip a piece of armor?" Hector's wide eyed.

The chief laughs. "Hey, it's damn good armor, and it's her first time wearing it. If she hasn't been studying the manual like it's the holy word it'd take a hell lot longer."

"She had that thing for like a day, so, y'know." Ash adds. "Keep your expectations in check."

…

[A Little Longer Later]

…

Eliwood's party watch as the winged armor walk itself onto a catapult installed within the base's premises. Technically the base doesn't need a catapult—it just needs to have long enough runways—but the engineers and physicists unanimously voted that it would be cool to have one, so they built one.

Inside the armor, Nino dutifully reads a list of numbers from a small display projected onto the screen in front of her and squirms in joy at the pretty colors zooming in front of her face.

"Ok, everything checks out." The Chief says after Nino finishes reading off the last batch of values. "How does it feel, Colonel?" He asks.

"I'm still not really used to this." Nino admits, moving her arms a little and feeling the resistance offered by the suit's magic-hydraulics.

"We've adjusted it so you can move according to how you usually do, but your sense of balance will likely be off due to the differences in body size." The Chief notes. "We'll be monitoring things from here, and I'm sure you know without me reminding you, but don't get into a situation where you'll need to match an enemy's mobility."

"I know, thank you." Nino says graciously. "How's the cat's charge?"

"Ready to go at any time." The Chief says. "I'm handing you off to the tower…this is really risky, you know that?"

"I know, but I'm not in the mood to take the slow way around." Nino says readily.

"If you say so." The Chief says, scratching his head. "Tower, she's all yours."

"Roger that." The operator aboard the Neverland, acting as tower control more or less on her spare time, says. "Colonel Reed, this is Tower, you're on standby for deployment for Operation 'Fuck Nergal'." She stops. "Boss, can we get a less obvious mission name?"

"No." Ash replies cheerily and instantly, drawing a sigh from the operator. "Nino, you know this already, but the Lifter can be controlled through your screen with small pulses of magic. You'll survive if you plow into the ground, but please don't do that."

"I know. I'm going to circle over the target when I get there." Nino says, practicing controlling the lifter with small bolts of magical power. On the outside, the observers could see the flaps on the Lifter's wings move up and down in response. "How many shots do I get with the Rifle?"

"Three." Ash reminds her. "Four, and you're not flying back."

"That would suck." Nino nods. "Alright, I'm ready to go."

Eliwood frowns. "I understand that I have no say in this, but sending her alone, regardless of equipment, is a dangerous endeavor. The Dread Isle should not be underestimated."

"You're telling me." Ash sighs. "But she wants to go and nothing we have will be able to keep up. Besides, I don't know if Nergal has anything planned now that he knows we've upset the power balance in the region, and I'm not too keen on finding out."

"So you think he's planning to call dragons?" Hector asks.

"I would know if he did, but yes." Ash shrugs. "Fortunately, the armor's not going to budge just because of a few measly dragons."

"A few?" Lyn repeats. "Seriously?"

"Colonel Reed, you're cleared for takeoff." The operator says as Ash gets into dragon-killing speculation.

Nino crouches as she's told and hears the catapult underneath her roar to life. With cackling electricity the platform she's standing on accelerates towards the ocean, and shoots her at a small angle into the air. As soon as she receives the "free flight" warning on her screen, she sends a small jolt of power to the Lifter's controls, and the four massive engines unfurl and come to life.

The massive flying armor, with a giant, fixed wing at its shoulders, roar with an ungodly force and climbs into the air. Upon hitting the altitude as denoted by her flashy screen, Nino levels off her climb and circles over the ocean to get used to flying with the armor. When she's comfortable about the controls, she aims herself towards the Dread Isle and kicks her engines into full gear. The resulting shockwave of her departure shatters a few windows.

"Ok, lesson learned." The Chief Mechanic says with a wince. "Lifters can break the sound barrier. Got it."

…

Though Nino had the good instinct to pull up and hide above the clouds, much of Bern and Lycia found themselves scratching their heads on this day. There was a strange roar above them, and they did not know what it was.

Nino, in her sound-dampened armor, did not really think that the low roar was a big deal. She was too focused on how quickly she was covering around. At her speed, she'd reach the Dragon's Gate from the other side of Bern in three hours or so.

Nino very quickly saw a problem in this. "I have to stay like this for three hours?" She asks nobody in particular.

Ultimately, Nino did stay cooped up in the armor for a little under four hours…which was not as bad as it sounded, because she amused herself by watching the clouds pass by, and by flying into them whenever she felt like it.

At the end of the four hours, the cloud cover below her cleared to show an island sitting alone in the ocean. "That must be it." Nino muses. She toggles the suit's Maydar and scans it for threats. "…Wow."

The island was positively crawling with Morph signals, but as Morphs don't radiate the same kind of magic signatures as normal humans, Nino had no read on how strong the army was quality-wise. "Maybe…a thousand of them?" She mutters. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do about the lesser Morphs, so…" She carefully prunes her map of targets until she comes across a signal that could belong to a living being.

The signal was muted since it came from within a massive stone installation that was easily visible even from her current height. Also, it didn't feel entirely human…which, given the Maydar, meant it was now unmissable.

Nino's face spreads into a predatory smile in anticipation, and she drops to circle five thousand feet above the ruins. She undocks the Buster Rifle from its hardpoint on the Lifter, taking care not to overextend it past the length of its thick, rubbery cable.

Spirit Liqueur (Spirit Dust + Water) is fed through the tube and acts as the power source of the gun.

"Ok." Nino flips her long range radio. "This is Skywind, I'm in position and engaging." She reports. The long range radio, a magical tool, bundles her message into a magical packet, orients it towards Traesto, and sends it flying on its way.

Of course, this power causes Nergal, nesting in the ruins beneath her, to pay attention…not that it mattered at this point.

Nino dives down towards the ruins, aiming herself along with the Buster Rifle towards the entrance of the massive stone installation. She notes the swarm of Morphs gathering at the gates, marvels slightly at the bright-red cross thingy before her eyes, and pulls the trigger.

Because the Rifle hasn't really been properly calibrated, the first shot goes wild and hits a good fifty meters away from where Nino had aimed. The resulting explosion engulfs the strike area anyway and tears through the Morphs with a blast of concentrated fire.

Nino pulls on the loader mechanism and her Rifle ejects its spent shell with a hiss. She loads her second round and, fearing a collision with the ground, pulls up some so she can circle around and eventually enter the installation through the front door.

"Oh are you kidding me." She grumbles as she turns and faces the still closed door. "Fiiine." She takes the time to circle around again and aims her Rifle at the sealed stone door, ignoring the Morphs that were now taking into the skies to intercept her.

Nergal, who felt the first rifle hit as a shudder that ran through the building, could not help but pause his work on the Dragon's Gate to find out exactly what the hell is going on outside.

He was just about to open the massive stone doors that lead to his inner sanctum before a feeling of dread stopped him.

Suddenly, those doors before him bent inwards with a great clash of stone on stone.

"About time." Nino growls. Her second hit had struck home, and the massive stone doors that lead into the installation were sent flying deeper into the structure. Given the sound that came a few seconds later, she deduces that they hit some wall or whatever deeper in.

Regardless, she now has her entry point, and the Morphs were closing in. Nino, making yet one more circling turn, unhooks and aims her Shard Cannon haphazardly towards the incoming Morphs and press the trigger.

With a ghost-like howl, the cannon's torrent of bullets scatter everywhere and tear through the sky, raking the incoming Morph units with firepower and tearing them all to ribbons. Nino has a brief moment of being drunk with power, and cackles madly.

Almost too soon, the cannon stops firing. Nino, coming down from her high from the sound of the wailing ghost, realizes that the gun had drastically overheated, warped, and was reporting a multitude of malfunctions on her screen. Nino, with a sigh, hooks it back onto the Lifter's hardpoint and readies her Rifle. She aims it deep into the installation.

Nergal, who had wisely retreated backwards the moment his inner sanctum doors bent, saw those solid stone doors—doors tough enough to slow a dragon—shatter with amazing force. He gives himself a mental pat on the back for moving sideways from the door, as he observes pieces of the door shoot deep into his inner sanctum and up the staircase into the Dragon's Gate.

Nergal, who's not exactly happy about getting his things torn up like this, readies a charge of his Erkreshkigal and unleashes it into the darkness, out of his base.

Nino, who had fired and then pulled back up because she didn't feel like slamming into a stone wall, saw the blast of dark energy exit the stone installation like a puff of smoke.

"Well, I made my three shots." She mutters, hooks her Rifle back up, and readies the Thor Battery. She also flips a switch for a radio. "Traesto, this is Skywind. I'm going in."

"Home copies." Ash, boosting the magic-powered radio so it could reach this kind of distance in the first place, replies. "The armor's tough, but be careful all the same."

"Right." Nino makes her final approach to the doorless hole leading deeper into the installation, fires a few rounds from the Thor Battery, and detaches the Lifter, as it was too wide to fly into the building and the wings on the Lifter don't fold. The Lifter zips upwards and, with its own on-board computer, picks an altitude, hits it, and then circles slowly in the sky.

Nergal heard something zip by into his room and strike the staircase, and saw, to his great surprise, the supple stone staircase crater in six different areas, as if hit by a vengeful god.

Nino kicks her armored wind shoes into high gear and zip deep into the installation. She meets zero resistance, to her disappointment, and zooms through the installation's inner depths until she comes across a massive staircase.

Nergal, not really expecting this giant suit of armor to just appear out of nowhere, reflexively shot at it with an unformed bolt of magic.

Nino's armor beeps upon detecting magic flying towards it, and the spikes on the shoulder plates glow. Like little lightning rods, they redirect the magic towards them, draw in what they could, and let the rest of the spell bleed off into the darkness.

"Who are you?!" Nergal demands as he stands slowly. "What are you?!"

Nino aims her Impact Stake at him. "I am Nino Reed." She says coldly. "No need to remember it."

…

[Two Days Later]

…

The intruder team sent to the Dragon's Gate, comprised of Eliwood's party of twelve, Stars, and the Black Fang, arrive at the Dread Isle after two days of preparation and one more of actual sailing.

"My goodness those ships are fast." Hector had noted as they landed. "From Bern to here in no more than half a day?"

Phoenix Elibean Task Force, comprised of the Cruiser Neverland and its two new Destroyer escorts, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, delivered the strike team to their destination. They then proceeded to mow down every visible target from the shoreline with their powerful cannons, allowing the team to proceed deeper into the island without issue.

It would be slightly tough going, as the Morphs, though masterless, still had their mission of defending the island with their lives. Ultimately, the Morphs numbered about two hundred, and every last one of them threw themselves at the task force of barely twenty.

"WHY ME?!" Akatsuki had screamed when she realized the kind of running battle that she was being forced into.

"Ah, quit the whining." Was Hector's reply. "Just be glad we're not fighting all of them at once."

Since the Stars were being deployed alongside foreign nobles, Ash had compromised between his desire to make allies with the heroes of Fire Emblem 7 and the realities of an invasion-type attack, where the Stars could potentially end up shooting the lords by accident.

Ergo, the Stars went into battle with no guns, but additional armor (spares from the HPA-X project) and giant chainswords, because the Phoenix Empire literally has those things just lying around in warehouses.

"It'd be so much better to just fight them all at once." Akatsuki groused. "Fuck this 'chase and kill' bullshit." Her image of being a prim and proper lady tended to fall by the wayside when she's angry.

Hector could only shake his head. "Did you not sleep well or something? Jeez."

Banter aside, they fared pretty well. The fact that the Phoenix Empire underwrote the entire expedition and outfitted everybody with the best gear money could buy greatly helped.

Ultimately, the group fought their way to the Dragon's Gate, where they found the slowly desiccating corpse of Nergal pinned to the stone wall by a massive stake of solid steel.

"I guess this was a little hard to clean up." Akatsuki had observed. "Well, whatever. Target confirmed destroyed. Boss, how's the gate itself?"

Athos teleported in around a minute after the fighting ended. Akatsuki had come within a hair's breadth of shanking the old man on the spot when she realized that he could have teleported in at, y'know, any other time. He took Ash with him to the Gate.

"It's alive, but it hasn't really been used." Ash said. "Good enough, I suppose. Alright, let's get to it."

By 'get to it', Ash meant that he was going to follow through on Nino's idea. Namely, the Phoenix was going to annex the Dread Isle, take control of the Dragon's Gate, and use it to expand their market into the world that the dragons had escaped to.

To quote the (faux)teary Ash when Nino had brought it up: "My little capitalist is all grown up."

So that's what they're going to do. With a little effort (read: offshore bombardment) the original stone structure was torn down in favor of a more open-air approach to the gate itself, because, as Ash put it, "it looks friendlier this way."

…

And with that, Nino's homecoming has officially ended, with Nergal being downgraded from "a threat that could have menaced all of Elibe" to "basically a dude with a god complex" that got in the way of greater profits.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

Overwhelming power being exercised effectively makes for a boring finish, no?

[The "Where Are They Now" Segment at the end of every Fire Emblem Game]

Nino, Grandmaster of Elibe/Jaffar, Guardian Reaper: Nino continued to serve as the Phoenix's head of operations in Elibe. She would raise a family with Jaffar (much to his confusion) and, together, live a happy and fulfilling life.

Linus, Mad Dog/Hibiki, Snow of Stars: The two got along well, and eventually married. Linus, never one to enjoy staying still, allowed himself to be carried along with Hibiki's missions, and the two travelled the globe as the Phoenix's operatives.

Inazuma, Caretaker: She served as Nino's second-in-command and was beloved by the people for her gentle demeanor and lordly patience. She eventually fell in love and retired from service to be with her future husband.

Akatsuki, Star Empress: As the new head of Stars, Akatsuki never found the time to settle down…but she did find the time to be wed. Despite having a family, she would still travel the world as the figurehead of the Phoenix's most elite, and most venerable, branch of military service. She would also occasionally travel back to Elibe to share a drink or two with some new best friends.

Ikatsuchi, Lady Not Appearing in This Story: She marries Morgan (the male one from the future) and the two have fun somewhere else. She's only being included here because she's also a member of Stars.

Lloyd, White Fang: Instated as the Phoenix's Elibean branch of intelligence, Lloyd had great joy in watching the family that he knew and loved come back together. He would, despite his own misgivings, be married as well. Supposedly, the once-feared assassin would be the most doting of fathers.

Ursula, Blue Crow: Her lust for power unstated, she joins the Phoenix as a proper mage and travels the world with Akatsuki, endlessly devouring new views on magic and new lessons on its uses. She would, in time, become the most respected instructor of new mages within the Phoenix Empire.

.

[The Stinger?]

.

Historians would agree that the Phoenix Empire's expansion into Elibe wrote a new chapter in the continent's history, and forever changed the course of its fate. Headed by a trio of true dragons, many books would be written about the effects of the Phoenix Empire upon Prince Zephiel, and the way its fame shaped the path of Bern years later.