Dangerous lands

[Sovereign]

Miles rubbed his temples as the pair ran off into the night somewhere. They let their overconfidence get the better of them. Not only could they not make it to Henry in a timely fashion, but they didn't know where he was, and they had no idea how to get there even if they did, and by the time they reached where he had been, he might be gone. Oh, and there was still the whole issue of the government hunting for them. Miles knew he needed to come up with a plan quickly, or the now-absent princess and pegasus knight might find themselves in trouble deeper than they could get themselves out of.


The ex-soldier found Tharja still standing in the kitchen with the laptop, really he hadn't expected her to run off with the others --mostly because h himself wasn't going. It annoyed him slightly that everyone continued to refer to him as Robin and not by the name he gave them when he introduced himself. Is that all they thought of him? A less-useful Robin? Even if they called him Robin they clearly didn't respect him as much as they did he --given that they refused to listen to his advice.


All he could really do now was wait until something happened. Wait until they showed up in the news, or wait until something popped up in his e-mail inbox from one of his contacts. He'd already put out a few feelers and called in a few favors to stay in-the-know about anything and everything the government deniable agencies were working on.

 

[Syrrus]

Tharja waited patiently in the kitchen. She could feel that Miles was upset, frustrated and annoyed. What she could not understand was the reason as to why. She spent a good few minutes pondering over the reasons. She could see a pattern and some differences from her own world.


"Miles." She said, her voice strong and confident. That was one of the issues dealt with. She hoped it at least would help him a little, to feel better in some sort of way. Tharja wasn't certain she even knew how to make anyone feel anything different, she wasn't very supportive after all.


Henry's laugh continued in the background for what felt like forever, until the video ended. Tharja peered down at it. The technology of this world scared her but not enough to make her throw magic around like a maniac. Perhaps it was for the best. For some reason, however, she sort of hoped that Lucina and Cordelia would never return. Perhaps then she could have the love of Ro- Miles, all to herself.


She peered over t him from behind her fringe, waiting for a response on a question she never asked.


The other two were probably far away by now. If they actually would end up in the right place or not was something Tharja cared very little about. She had what she wanted right here. She didn't even have to return back to Ylisse, she didn't even wish to return. It was rather strange, she supposed. She'd miss the desert, but that was about it.

 

[Sovereign]

Miles heard his name in the rather quiet house, 'Miles' not Robin. Coming from Tharja that seemed a bit interesting, given her willingness to believe that he and Robin were the same. Then again, her willingness to change just about anything to appease him dulled his surprise --she'd call him anything he wanted to be known by. Again Miles found himself unsure of whether to be flattered or unnerved. Still, she seemed to mean well --at least in his case; Tharja was still a dark mage, and as such she needed a bit of darkness to twist her world view. A lot of people forgot to make the distinction between 'dark' and 'evil.'


"You called?" Miles asked, stepping back into the kitchen to see if she actually needed him for something. If she didn't, he'd simply nod and go back to working in his room. Not that he hadn't already been working all day anyway, but there was always more to do --at least, always more he could get himself to do to keep his mind occupied. Truthfully, the idea of playing any more video games didn't bode well with him. What happened the next time something from a world he thought to be fictional plopped into his personal space?


There were plenty of things out there that were quite horrifying to have to deal with. Regardless, maintaining his gear would keep him satisfactorily busy for now.

 

[Syrrus]

Tharja had a small idea. Seeing as Miles had not had this idea yet just proved to her that he and Robin was two different people, it mattered little. Robin was Grima, Robin was created by Miles, that simply meant in her head that Miles was the god like creature that created Grima. It was good enough for her. She waited, wondering how long he would stay there without simply deciding she wasn't worth the time and leave.


Seeing as he still stood there, waiting for her to say something she opened her mouth. He was not Robin, he did not think of this so she simply had to be the one helping him to do so. "If we are going to look for the... Knights." She mumbled, not certain she enjoyed the idea but she had realized that Lucina and Cordelia leaving had made him upset and not because he wanted them but because they didn't seem to listen.


"Shouldn't we go out and look for the others? While the princess and her guard gets taken." She said the last part as if it didn't bother her at all. Clearly even Tharja knew what was going to happen to them. Henry was to loud not to be a problem and she figured there was a reason as to why Miles looked so worried. Something else also hit her, like a train.


"...What about the Risen.. and..." She mumbled the name of the villains. Mentioning even the Mad King, even if he was long since dead. her world was a game, wasn't it? Didn't that simply mean that even the Mad King were alive somewhere?

 

[Sovereign]

"We should," he said, nodding. "But the issue is timing. Surveillance is strong here, and if the others are plastered all over the internet, then chances are the government has an eye on them too," he explained, sitting down in one of the kitchen chairs. "I have contacts in the different agencies who will report to me when the government learns of something they haven't had a chance to act on yet. If that video has already been posted to the internet --of Henry, I mean-- then chances are it's a few hours old, maybe more. If he's still roaming free I'd be surprised." Miles stroked his chin, thinking.


"The next issue is trying to outmaneuver the government, we don't want to give them open agency to hunt us down," the tactician explained. "If we act out against them in public, they could easily manipulate it into a terrorist attack and have a reason to call for a nationwide manhunt. Thankfully, at the moment, we're causing less trouble than we're worth to hunt down which means they won't pull all the strings --bringing attention to anything will cause scrutiny they don't want."


Leaning back in the chair now, Miles contemplated a crazy idea. "If we figure out where the captured Shepherds are being kept though, we can go on the offensive and grab everyone we can at once. Get in, destroy the evidence, get out. We just need a lead to go on --if we can beat the government to a few people that'd be great, but it's looking more and more like we're going to need to go head to head with them until a bigger problem arises.

 

[Syrrus]

Tharja listened carefully. Every word he said was like honey to her. She understood some and some not at all but it mattered little. He seemed to know exactly what he was walking about and that was all that mattered, after all. She waited, patiently for him to go quiet and then she started to grin. A way to figure out where they were? That was something she could do.


She opened her book about dark magic and peered inside with her dark eyes. "I have linked all the Shepherds to me... Incase they would attempt to kill me." She mumbled the last bit, feeling extremely paranoid as of late. She could easily sense where they were, or see where they were if she could just draw up a summoning circle. She figured that the reality of Miles world would make it weaker and a lot harder to control but not something she couldn't handle.


"Is there a place where I could get to work...? I'll figure out where all of them are. I promise." She giggled.

 

[Sovereign]

Miles arched a brow slowly, she was paranoid. Hell, she might have been as paranoid as he was --just about different things. "You can work in the living room," he said, pointing back into the room through the threshold of the kitchen leading deeper into the house. The space was fairly wide open, the middle of the floor covered only by an area rug that she could move should she decide that she needed to utilize the floor for something. He figured she might actually need the floor to draw something on.


"In the meanwhile, I'm going to go see if my contacts have heard of anything," he said, getting back up from the table and meandering back into his room. Miles didn't need the laptop, in case Tharja still intended to use it; he simply used his smartphone to get where he needed to go. He scoured every remote email, virtual dead-drop, and contact network portal he had slithering through the deeper recesses of the internet. Hopefully one of his contacts will have heard of something he could go on --even if it was that some of the party had been captured.


Regardless of what he found, when he finished, Miles decided to go check on Tharja.

 

[Syrrus]

During that time, the living room had turned into what looked like a strange and foul smelling movie set, trying to duplicate a classic vampire move or some such. It was hard to tell how Tharja had gotten hold of all the strange items that now filled the room.


Endless rows of short and tall candles, a headless chicken, a rabbit leg, frog guts and a strange green looking egg. Tharja herself was sitting in the middle of the room, swaying back and forth with her eyes only half closed. She mumbled to herself, a language on known with a lot of hissing and harsh sounding letters. She mumbled and growled as if possessed, moving back and forth and back and forth.


She saw things. She could see Henry, trying his hardest not to laugh some strange dressed man in the face. They were speaking, shouting at each other, the stranger looking far more serious than the dark mage in his comapny. Her vision blurred and it game back into focus. The room she now stood in was something that looked like a hospital clinic or perhaps a lab of some sort. Lucina was there, with orange liquid poured all over her, together with Cordelia. Cloths was given to them, also orange. Hideous. She also saw someone that could be no other than Panne, or maybe Yarne. The great Tagel beast was running around a small and insolated room, trying its hardest to break the door and walls to get back out.


Tharja noticed Miles entering the room and opened her eyed wide. She shouted a strange word and gestured towards his face. Throwing the vision upon him. She didn't know how his body would react to the strange liquefied purple images that would sour around his head, nor did she seem to care. He had to see them, for it confused her more than she wanted to let on.

 

[Sovereign]

Miles did not really expect to be blasted in the face, let alone with any sort of magic. The images made him feel disoriented, like the natural spacial awareness of his extremities were stripped away from him and all that remained was a floating perception of reality in bits and pieces at a time --sometimes sound, sometimes not, sometimes a few frames, sometimes a few seconds of coherent timeline. All in all it inspired a simultaneous sense of vertigo and panic. So they were captured already, leaving just Miles and Tharja to deal with the mess.


When the visions faded, Miles needed to recover a stable stance and a solid stomach. Nausea threatened to spill up from the back of his throat, but he kept it down and forced himself to find equilibrium. Cordelia, Lucina, Henry, and Panne? All of them captured by a government agency already. The tactician needed to know which one, so without further adieu he pulled out his phone and punched in a few commands to get what he wanted.


Sure enough, one of his contacts got back to him --an agency facility several hours from where they were detained all of the Fire Emblem Shepherds. "Tharja, we need to go," he said quickly and made for his room. The ex-soldier felt confident the government wouldn't find this place, so he was willing to gamble on grabbing some gear and going for a quick strike. They couldn't be expecting a retaliation, they never did.


Miles gathered his weapons and suited up in some tactical gear. By the time they arrived it would be nightfall, and he was determined to be ready.

 

[Syrrus]

Tharja watched him in silence from the floor. It always looked so funny to her, to see them who wasn't used to her magical outburst getting all... wobbly, to say the least. She enjoyed it, very much. Peering around she slowly got up. She assumed he knew what she did not, by now. She wasn't going to clean up the mess she had made, she was no maid. She was however going to wait patiently until Miles told her exactly what she needed to know.


He told her nothing. Angrily she hugged her book against her chest and stared down at her bare feet, her fringe covering her face perfectly - just as normal. She muttered curses and hexes under her breath, like she so often did when someone had crossed her. She didn't cast any upon him though, she never harmed Robin after all so why would she harm Miles? Instead she simply continued to mutter, hoping that someone would pass by who she could throw a curse or two at. Of course, no one came so she proceeded by walking into the kitchen, trying her hardest to pretend that she wasn't bothered.


Her eyes fell upon the laptop, which she decided to curse by gently stroking a hand over it. Good luck finding something useful on that. She grinned at her little trick and then turned towards where Miles had gone off to. Waiting for him to return in silence, feeling a little better.

 

[Sovereign]

"They've been captured by a government agency," he said, his voice preceding his return to the room. "By the looks of it they're being processed for holding now, which means it won't be long until experiments and possibly torture depending on what the government is trying to find. It's going to get ugly very quick," he explained, slipping on his tactical vest over the black fatigues he'd donned. "We have to move fast, and there's not too much more I can explain right now. One of my contacts believes the're being held at a facility a few hours away."


Whenever an idea struck Miles, or inspiration, or realization, he had a habit of wandering off to confirm his suspicions before he voiced them. That combined with the disorientation of being magically assaulted by visions led him to neglect telling Tharja what he saw until he returned from gathering his things. "We need to go," he urged, hoping she'd follow him out the door and to the vehicle.


Once outside, the ex-soldier stuffed his duffel bag into the trunk and hopped into the driver's seat. Sliding the key into the ignition, he cranked it hard until the engine turned over and the SUV roared to life. Shifting into reverse, he pulled a three-point turn and got them back on the road to their destination. They'd have to park a safe distance away and make the rest of the trip on foot.

 

[Syrrus]

Torture? Tharja started to smirk slightly. She had to pull her book up and over her face to avoid him noticing. Of course Tharja didn't enjoy the idea of torture but it happening to Henry made her feel such glee. In fact, she almost wanted to avoid getting there in time just so he would actually have to deal with needles and other wonderful things that came with torture. She then realized that Henry would very much enjoy it, he was odd that way and her smirk turned upside down as she began to frown. Awful, awful man. He was far too creepy for her liking.


Tharja followed Miles without thinking, it was her greatest talent after all. To stalk and to sneak around who ever she stalked. Sometimes it even seemed that she did all of out of reflex and not at all because she actually wanted to. It seemed silly, she clearly were obsessive and therefore cared little for judgmental looks - they were just jealous.


As she got into the car she had to grab the side of the door firmly as it began to move so suddenly. It had been a lot calmer earlier that day. Or was it yesterday? Time seemed to have blurred together somewhat, her magic tend to do that to people. Even to herself. During all this, Tharja said nothing. She was simply pondering in her head of what to do next and how to possibly be able to stay close to Miles without getting in trouble. She figured she had her book, if the worst possible thing happen she'd break out-- Why hadn't Henry broken out of that prison yet? He certainly had the power to do it. He was far more powerful than Tharja ever was and ever would be. Damnable man.

 

[Sovereign]

Unless Tharja said anything to Miles, he probably stayed silent. His expression contorted into one of deep thought as he contemplated how to get in and out of the facility. If the facility staff were government, killing them just didn't feel right. The tactician himself had been a government employee as a soldier --they were just doing their jobs. If they were private contractors though, willingly taking the money for some torture/human experimentation facility, he could kill them. Private contractors seemed likely, the intelligence agency favored them for their discretion and their absolute moral corruption.


When they arrived at their destination, Miles parked the vehicle in some thick brush and exited the driver's side. Getting back to the trunk, he opened the hatch and started strapping on all the gear he felt comfortable carrying. Guns, gadgets, ammunition, and some grenades even. Finally, he pulled on a neoprene balaclava and a set of goggles that tinted the world to enhance his vision.


"I'm no exactly sure what to expect in there," he said, screwing a barrel extension onto the threads of his weapons. They doubled as sound suppressors. "But, I'd like you to stay close. We may not have time to dig through the information they've accrued."

 

[Syrrus]

Tharja quickly stepped out of the car, her hair on end. She looked like she was about to throw up, feeling horribly sea sick, for some reason. Even though she didn't see any ocean. Perhaps they had crossed one far too quickly for her to notice? It sure felt like they had been moving in the speed of Pegasus wings or perhaps even wyvern.


After a while of trying to get back to her senses, the young woman would move towards Miles, watching whatever he was doing in silence. Her mind tried it hardest to comprehend whatever all those items were, they looked like weapons but no weapons that she had ever seen. No swords, books, spears or even bows. How would he defend them with was looked like pipes? They could hardly be strong enough to knock several soldiers off their horse, could they? Maybe she was wrong, she figured putting all her trust in the hands of Miles was for the best, so she decided to stop questioning his decisions, for now.


He mentioned her staying up close, she nodded. Obviously she'd do that, it wasn't even close to a joke. She nodded. "Of course. May I use my magic?" She asked this, because usually Robin would tell her to use her skills or to stay behind and not use them. She figured, seeing as she didn't understand the world she was placed in, it was for the best to ask before she did something that involved her own world.

 

[Sovereign]

"Only if you absolutely meed to," he said, making sure all of his weapons were loaded and ready to be fired at a moment's notice. "We're going to try and get in there unseen and unheard. It will not be easy, and it may be slow going." When he felt certain everything was ready, he closed the trunk and lowered his goggles onto his face. Miles went on missions like this before, he'd been a soldier and true tactician once. His rather temperate nature belied the truth of the man; Miles knew how to fight and how to kill, and he did them both very well --even if the others didn't like to believe it.


"Alright, let's go," he said. The trek to the facility took some time, but when finally they arrived the sun just sank below the horizon granting dominion to a new moon. Complete darkness save for the stars --perfect. The building appeared to be lightly guarded, favoring instead its remote nature and dilapidated facade to promote security. A few sentries guarded the perimeter however. Slipping past them was easy, and also necessary. Taking them out might have been safer, but id they didn't report in then the facility would know something was coming.


A loading dock in the back proved to be the easiest point of access, a shipment of supplies being brought in while they were trying to infiltrate. The guards were too busy examining the shipment to notice Tharja and Miles slipping into the facility. Now came the hard part... finding the others. First, Miles needed to get to the security room. If they wandered in without dealing with the security cameras and other measures, they'd be caught for sure.

 

[Syrrus]

Tharja was following him close by, book tight against her chest and her fringe covering her big eyes. Being sneaky was something she wasn't good at. No one noticed her normally, she was like a shadow but when she had to focus on the actual sneakiness something always went wrong so she often decided to never make the effort. Now she had no choice, because Miles had told her to only use her magic when she really had to which was sort of a hint for her to stay low and out of sight. Knowing something from the start and being told something was two different things entirely and she wasn't certain she was prepared to do neither. Rescue missions wasn't her thing.


She moved around, keeping her cape around her like a tent, as she had realized that the gold she was wearing around her person perhaps wasn't the most subtle of clothing. Nor was a cape to be completely honest, but she had to do her best with what she had. She could hear Henry's voice from afar, he sounded as happy as ever, throwing jokes and subtle threats around as if it was nothing. He didn't even sound a little worried. Perhaps he had no reason to be? He was Henry after all, one of the strongest dark mages Tharja had ever met.

 

[Sovereign]

Once inside, things got more complicated. Miles found a ventilation duct he could fit into and squeezed inside, gesturing for Tharja to follow. "God this sucks," he grumbled. "Sorry Tharja." The tactician felt the need to apologize to the Dark Mage for dragging her through all this when truthfully he had a hunch that she didn't really want to be doing this --he refrained from thinking she didn't want be here because here is where he was, which is where she wanted to be.


Miles cleverly followed the wireless signals given off by the surveillance system to the security room, and crawled until right above the room itself. Using a portable screwdriver, he removed the hinges and dropped into the room on top of the guards stationed there. He clubbed them into unconsciousness after a short scuffle.


Next, he brought down all the security systems: alarms, cameras, sensors of all kinds --but not before discerning where the others were being held. Gesturing for Tharja to come down, he'd help how down if she needed it, catching her as she dropped. But if she didn't need him, he'd let her get down on her own.


"Right, so I know where the others are, and the security measures have been disabled," he explained. "It should be a little easier to get to them now, and the personnel in the hallways shouldn't be hard to deal with."

 

[Syrrus]

Tharja watched Miles as he apologized, not certain as to why he did so. Maybe he simply felt upset for some reason? She was fine, peering behind him the way she was, hoping that no one would notice her and that someone would shut Henry up before he freaked her out enough to blow the entire building up.


She wanted to mention her magic ability to Miles, seeing as he didn't seem to keen on using her in any fashion bad or otherwise. Tharja couldn't help but feel a little frustrated, she didn't mind following the man around, she was very much happy to do so but what she did indeed mind was the fact that she couldn't prove herself to him, it was important to her to know that he knew exactly how great she was - or wished to be.


She watched him jumping down a hole that he had created, it wasn't dark nor did it seem to go on for as long as she would have thought. As she watched him knock his enemies, whoever they were, on the head she'd follow him, jumping down and landing on her feet which then resulting in her falling to her knees. Her legs wasn't the strongest after all, she was a frail mage, a glass canon, not a warrior with strong muscles.


He explained what he had done which to her made little sense, she decided however not to question it as it had very little to do with her - except her survival, she figured.

 

[Sovereign]

Long corridors and lack of places to hide made the tactician nervous, and sure enough his fears were realized. Someone rounded the corner and spotted them, and rather than let the shock sink in, they took off running and screaming. Dammit, now the whole facility knew they were coming. A moment later the warning klaxons blared and the emergency lighting came on. No use sticking to stealth any longer.


"Tharja!" he said, looking back over his shoulder. "Anyone that's not us or a Shepherd, use that magic. Try not to kill any civilians," he said, shouldering his weapon. The thunder of boots echoed down the corridor and Miles waited for them, taking cover around one of the intersecting corners. Popping out from around the corner, he fired a string of short controlled bursts from his weapon. In such close quarters, concentrations of gunfire were devastating --Miles needed to thin the ranks.


"Keep your head down!" Miles warned Tharja as he pulled a grenade off of his combat rig. Yanking the pin and releasing the safety catch, he cooked it for two seconds before lobbing it around the corner.


3...


2...


1...


A bone-shaking explosion rocked the facility and drowned out the screaming of the attackers. There was their opening.


"Ok, let's go while we have some space!"

 

[Syrrus]

What in the world was the man doing?! Tharja had never seen weapon react like the ones he used. Were they magic? They acted a bit like strange staves, if she had to be honest with herself. She wasn't much for staves herself and couldn't say that she was an expert. She decided however, due to her lack of knowledge to keep herself behind and down on her knees. It was safest that way. She wasn't afraid of death, just like Henry she was fascinated by it just not on the same level. Bloody Vampire freak. She shivered heavily but it had nothing to do with her thoughts but the fact that she could hear echoes of heavy boots behind her.


Civilians, was that another word for farmers and townspeople? No one there looked like the type of people she was used to. They were dressed like freaks. She didn't much care for it which was why she didn't quite listen to Miles request about not hurting civilians and instead threw a spell over her shoulder without even aiming and knocked them all off their feet like bowling kegs. She wasn't one to gloat, especially seeing as her magic had sadly gone weaker than it used to be. What was wrong with this world?


Then she was told to keep her head down, shouting in surprise the grenade blew up, she had no clue how or why but it did and an entire wall came down with it. A wall that was connected to Panne's cell. Which was why the tagel quickly jumped out in fear, startled by the loud noise and kicked the first person she could see, which happened to be Miles, in full panic.

 

[Sovereign]

Miles fired into the discombobulated, stunned enemies. He picked his shots and fired in short, controlled bursts. At least, he did until the Tagel blindsided him with a particularly powerful kick to his side. The blow sent him flying into the wall, followed quickly by a sickly popping sound as the shoulder dislocated. Clearly, even on a rescue mission his luck could still get worse after tripping the whole damn alarm system.


"We're here to help you dammit!" he exclaimed at the Tagel. Grabbing his shoulder and pulling hard, the joint slid back into the socket with a wet snap. It didn't feel great, but he needed it to work --at least until they got the hell out of the facility. The attackers started to recover from the deafening blast just as Miles himself started to recover from the kick.


"The creature's free! Containment breached!" One of the soldiers called over the radio.


"We need to find the others!" Miles yelled over the roar of crumbling debris and gunfire. The tactician fired until his magazine ran dry before moving into cover to reload. "If we can get the others I can blow the wall open and we can get out of here." Hopeful the Tagel calmed down enough to tell them what she knew and where the others had been taken.

 

[Syrrus]

Panne didn't stop her strange panic until she noticed Tharja. The Tagel had difficulty enough to trust man-spawns and seeing as these weird dressed ones were locking her up and trying their best to inject strange things into her systems - with no luck, of course - she had decided to trust them even less. Even though the young female Tagel didn't trust Tharja very much, she was more of a freak than a man-spawn she still decided to calm down by the sight of her, she knew her it was enough for Panne. "What is happening?" She asked with a voice that echoed before it even left her throat. Tharja simply shrugged and then pointed at Miles. "That's Robin, don't hurt him or I'll have to hurt you."


Tharja knew that Miles didn't like the nickname but how else would she explain to the terrified Tagel warrior that he was on their side? However, Panne didn't seem convinced. "He doesn't smell like Robin." Yes, the scent of a man was apparently more important that the fact that he looked nothing like their tactician. However, the man had mentioned that they needed to find the others that instantly meant that he was either trying to trick her or save her friends.


"I haven't seen where they are held." Panne said as she quickly turned around, growling angrily at the squad of people that came running down the corridor. "But I can hear them. This way!"


Tharja watched as the Tagel scurried off on quick and strong legs, she leaped over the head of their enemy and kicked them who tried to touch her. Slowly the dark mage turned her attention towards Miles, wondering what they would do now. Follow, probably.