Hoary! I finally posted my KentxFiora fic! I've worked on this thing for more than an entire summer, and it could end up being the best thing I've ever written, or the worst thing I've ever written!

This fic is currently rated T, but later chapters may contain elements that will earn it an M rating. After all, this fic does contain a strong amount of violence, a decent amount of language, and some other things... (stares innocently off into space)

I do not own Fire Emblem or its respective characters.

That being said, this story begins during the 20th chapter of Eliwood's story, (the one where Ninian joins your party in case you forgot).

ONWARD!

It was late night in the town of Badon, roughly four or five hours before the sun would rise and almost every single person inside the city walls was dozing the night away. Not much had gone on earlier that day, except for the arrival of some travelers that had come back from a mysterious trip to Valor. Many of them were weary and they spent much gold to have rooms be made for all of them to stay the night. They had gone through many long, strenuous battles, and they were glad to be able to climb into the real bed of an inn, as opposed to the stiff, travel-sized mattresses that they had been forced to sleep upon for such a long time. Everyone was happily dreaming in the town, snoozing under soft blankets that kept them safe from the cool, costal night air. Well, most of them were asleep at least.

Because it was his shift, Kent had the job of being lookout tonight and sat lazily on the thatched roof of one of the inns. His lance was laid across his lap as he pondered why Mark had decided to post a watch tonight when he knew that everyone was bitterly exhausted and weary to the bone. Kent thought that it was unwise, and almost inhumane to post a night watch. But there was something pulling him back; a mild fear of how much damage would be done not just to them but to the people of this village if there were to be an attack in the night. So he did his duty without complaint.

He was wrapped in a blanket to help protect him from the chill of the night, and while his eyes always stayed on the alert, his mind was ablaze with many thoughts. Why am I apart of this? He thought to himself. Of course that was a question he knew the answer to: because Lyn was apart of this. He was duty-bound to her. He was her best man, and she was his lord. He knew that Eliwood was the leader of this journey but Kent's true loyalty lied in Lyn; and if Lyn followed Eliwood, the he followed Lyn and therefore followed Eliwood as well. He knew that this journey had become very important as of late, in fact, the fate of the entire world rested upon their shoulders, but in such an extraordinary event, what good was he? He was highly skilled in combat, but he was only the steward to a young woman who would soon inherit Castle Caelin; which in terms of political standing, was a very minor player in the Lycian League. Eliwood on the other hand, had only recently lost his father to this whole situation, and was already more tied to this than anyone else. And Hector certainly should be involved here, as he was the brother of the lord of Ostia, the largest city in lycia, and the capitol of the nation. But aside from her friendship with Eliwood, why was Lyn along on this journey? In Kent's eyes, he thought it would be much better if they went home to Castle Caelin, and tried to rebuild and improve the location as it had gone through so much strife and trading of leaders.

Kent's thoughts were interrupted as he saw some tiny points of light in the distance, moving about a bit. "Curious." he said as he rose to his feet and threw the blanket off his shoulders. He grabbed his torch, igniting it with the flint and steel contraption on its handle, and raised the flame above his head for greater visibility. The small points of light froze in place one by one, and disappeared in the same manner. Bandits. The man in crimson armor extinguished his torch, and quickly grabbed his lance. Too fast. He lost his balance on the tilted surface of the roof and fell on his back, rolling and slipping down towards the edge of the roof. He flopped off the side of the building, unable to grab on to anything, and landed in a heap on the ground with a rather distinct 'thud'. Then his lance of steel, which he had dropped when he slipped, rolled off the roof, and landed flatly on his chest.

Mark, who had been sleeping right beneath Kent's vintage point, leaned out of the window and asked sleepily, "Kent? Did you fall off, or fall asleep and fall off?"

Kent was a rather battle hardened man, and falling off a two-story building onto soft, grass-covered ground did him little harm. His lance however, had been a bit more unexpected, and it had knocked some of the wind out of him, but he was mostly alright. Slowly getting to his feet, Kent uttered in a low voice, "Mark! There are bandits out there! Judging by the torches, there's a fair sized battalion headed this way! They're a bit scattered about, and they probably won't arrive all at once, but they'll be here soon!"

"I'll wake up the troops; you get your horse and see if you can hold them off for a while." Mark replied, quickly snapping out of his drowsiness and into his role of the most peerless and cunning tactician any of them had ever know, "But be quiet until you engage the enemy! If the town folk wake up, we'll have more chaos than we can deal with." He was gone, and Kent headed for the stables.

Sticking close to the shadows and cursing at every clink of his armor, the cavalier quickly made his way to the stable as silently as he could manage. Once he reached the building that contained the various mounts of their group (five horses but only one Pegasus), he hopped on the saddle of his steed and made for the town gates; the direction he had seen the enemies approach from.

Kent instinctively began scanning various alleys and occasionally gave a glance to the wall around the border of the town. Kent had left his torch up on the roof of the inn, and though he knew that he needed it to see his opponents, he also knew that his offensive would be in vain if the enemies were able to easily spot him. For now darkness was his best friend and worst enemy, and the only illumination he had was from the crescent of the moon and he light of the stars. It wasn't long before he heard a noise off to his right, like someone had slipped and quickly regained their footing. He leaned in his saddle in the direction of the sound when he heard another noise off to his left. But this was not the sound of some clumsy stranger; this was the sound of an arrow that had whistled through the space his head had occupied one second earlier.

At this moment, a brigand sprang from the shadows of the alley Kent had been inspecting, and leapt at him with his axe overhead. In a fluid motion that he had practiced just incase such an enemy attempted this suicidal assault; Kent drew his sword, stabbed the man straight in the heart with enough force to knock him back, and withdrew his blade so he wouldn't fall off his horse. Reminded of the unseen archer with another distinct whistling past his cheek, Kent rode away from his current location. It wasn't long before he met with another enemy, this one a lance-wielding cavalier.

Sheathing his bloody sword, Kent grabbed his lance and began exchanging blows with his new opponent. They rode about in a wide circle trading blows side-by-side, all the while Kent tested this mans abilities to see how cautious he would have to be. He made made a vertical slash, and the man blocked horizontally; a horizontal slash, and a vertical block. As the rider held his lance pointed downward and held in front of him to halt Kent's attack, Kent pivoted his lance backward and caused the blunt end of his weapon to whack his opponent in the back of the head. The action angered Kent's opponent, and caused him to swipe back with his javelin horizontally. Kent had been expecting this, and simply leaned backward so the cut passed over his body, and he brought the cutting edge of his own lance outward and past his opponent, and pulled back on the shaft of his spear; effectively slicing the man across the stomach.

Clutching his bleeding abdomen in pain, the man dropped his lance and fell off his mount. As the horse ran away, the man spat at Kent before uttering from his bloody mouth through clenched teeth, "You bastard!" Kent decided to put the pitiful individual out of his misery and pierced him through the heart with his lance. As he bent down to do this, Kent accidentally avoided another arrow that went right through where his body had been just a moment before. It was followed in quick succession by another and another, the thin wooden shafts of death sticking into the ground around him.

Kent urged his horse to turn around and was about to make a break for it when the arrows that had been as relentless as rain, suddenly stopped. Kent would have thought nothing of it had it not been for another sound behind him, that of a low 'flop'. The noise repeated about 4 more times before Kent knew what it must have been; the falling of bodies.

Kent stood his ground for a moment, not moving a muscle and breathing in utter silence, always looking straight outward and seeing nothing. The only illumination available was that of the half moon, that was partially hidden in the clouds, and he could only guess as to what may lurk 30 feet away from him. He saw a slight blur of pale gray in the distance. The blur grew and turned white as though a distant white flame were slowly growing. Something came into sight so fast that Kent was only able to feel the hoof kick in his chest, and the pain that soon followed as he was knocked off of his horse to the ground. But perhaps by some form of instinctive reflexes he had subconsciously developed, Kent was able to get a faint idea of who is attacker was. A horse. A brilliant pearl white horse with vast, feathered wings, making it a Pegasus. He had almost instantly slammed into by one of the hooves but as he fell backward, he grasped for anything he could and his fingers found the blunt end of a lance that he held on to with all the strength he could muster.

So Kent found himself lying on his back on the ground, a tiny voice in the back of his head screaming for him to get up on his feet and face his enemy. He obeyed, and turned around to face this opponent with his lance in hand and waiting for an attack. It came sooner than he had expected, and Kent barely sidestepped out of the way of the thrust of the attacking lance. He knocked the piece of steel out of the way with his own and was in the process of mentally congratulating himself of pulling the Pegasus knight from their mount when his opponents lance sliced towards him diagonally and he blocked it just inches away from his face. Kent was a bit startled by this extreme agility, but instead of distracting him it encouraged him to go all out on this one.

It wasn't that Kent could not see his opponent; rather he didn't get a chance to get even a glimpse of the face, as his mind was too focused on the incredibly swift lance. Every attack Kent made was also a defensive block, and the same went for his opponent. Kent had usually gauged his enemies' skill level by the way they fought him, and he could therefore predict an outcome to a battle, but this enemy was different. They just kept advancing at an unbelievable rate, and Kent was for the first time in a long time searching for a way to gain the upper hand in this situation.

It was hard to think in the intensity of this duel but Kent's mind finally landed on a single advantage he knew his opponent did not have. He waited until his enemy made a diagonal slash from left to right, blocked it with his lance that he was holding with just his left hand, while he drew his sword with his right and pointed its tip at the spot he knew his opponents neck was at. Kent noticed however, that he could feel the sharpened point of a lance pointing to his own neck and there was silence and stillness. This one is skilled. He thought, Well skilled.

"Your fighting capabilities are indeed remarkable, knight." Kent spoke to his adversary, for he knew that the only reasonable outcome to a standoff like this was by way of negotiations. "I congratulate your skill, and think that your abilities would be better off in the service of the troop I serve, what say you?"

"I say that your fighting skills are impressive in my eyes as well. But I also say that plundering a village in the middle of the night is bad enough, and I would rather die than join the ranks of a bunch of low-life brigands." Responded the voice of a woman. Kent's blade wavered. He had not been expecting to be fighting a female this whole time, and he began to question whose side this person was on. He could not see the the face of the person he was facing, but he at least knew where it was.

"Are you telling me that you are defending this village?" Kent inquired.

"I suppose you could say that." Was her reply.

"Then in that case," Kent spoke as he lowered his sword, "we are not enemies and should be fighting together, not against each other." He still had a point at his neck, but he was now a bit more confident in his situation. "If you trust me that is."

"I suppose I'll trust you... for now." She loudly clicked her tongue and there was the sound of soft hoof beats behind her. "But might I at least know your name?" she asked as she lowered her lance.

"Kent." The cavalier replied as he heard her grab something off of her saddle, "Might I ask yours?"

There was a brilliant point of light that shone in front of him, and Kent saw a woman clad in long combat boots and gloves and a white uniform with blue armor. In her left hand she held a lance, and in her right she held aloft a furiously burning torch that illuminated her figure quite effectively. She had shoulder-length aquamarine hair, and her eyes were a deep blue. "It's Fiora." she said.

Her face snapped to the left to look in that direction and Kent followed her gaze, and he saw a single knight. With a broad-headed lance in hand, his bulky armored form slowly made its way towards them. "I'll go first," Fiora whispered as she threw the torch aside and mounted up on her Pegasus, "Strike when you have an opening!"

Kent quickly sheathed his sword, hopped on his horse and rode off to the shadows where he hid as he watched Fiora swoop down and jab at the dreadnought's impenetrable armor again and again. She was doing little or no damage, but she had yet to be so much as scratched. It was obvious to Kent that Fiora was better on the back of her steed than on foot, and he suddenly wondered why he hadn't noticed her before. After a good minute or two, Kent guessed that the knight was entirely focused on Fiora, and decided to make his strike. He knew this was a huge gamble and a hard task to pull off but as far as he could see, this was the only way to take a knight down with his current variety of weapons.

He charged at the human wall from behind, and made a hard turn right, left, and left again. He was now moving full speed on a horse, with a fully armored knight just 90 degrees left of him, little more than a foot or two away. This was a gamble indeed. He lunged from his horse at the knight with his sword in hand, and landed with full force at the enemy's shoulders. The man inside the shell of armor didn't have time to be surprised. He lost his balance and fell with a loud crash on his back. The fellow then realized that his armor, which had once been a safe, portable castle, had turned into his heavy prison. The man screamed in terror as Kent brought his sword down, piercing it right through the thin visor. Blood soon started to seep from between the metal plates of the suit of armor that had now become a metal coffin.

Yanking his bloody sword from the slain enemy, Kent rose to his feet and looked over at Fiora. She walked over to him on foot with her Pegasus in tow and a smile on her lips; a gesture which he returned with a modest-looking one of his own. She then slapped him across the face. What an arm she has! He thought as he held his hand to the side of his face in pain as he sputtered, "Father Sky! What was tha-"

"What are you trying to do, impress me?" She inquired in a very what-were-you-thinking tone, "You could have gotten yourself killed pulling a stunt like that!"

"Well what was I supposed to do?" He defended, still rubbing his face.

"How about use one of these?" She replied, throwing him a heavy spear, the very lance she had been holding this entire time.

"I didn't have one." He said as he looked down on the weapon in his hand.

"Then why did you go along with my plan of attack against a knight, if you were unprepared to fight one?" She asked. It was a question that Kent had no answer to. But she gave him a playful grin and said, "I'm just kidding. You did a great job of dispatching that guy. I thought it was really creative, if not a bit suicidal."

"Thanks... I guess." Kent said. "Well, I think that now we should probab- GET DOWN!" He yelled as he grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her to the ground with him. Her Pegasus and his horse must have understood because all four of them had ducked beneath the hail of arrows and javelins that had come out of nowhere.

From the shadows sprang numerous monks, brigands, archers, and nomads. A wyvern rider was perched atop a nearby wall, and there were about three more knights, one of which called, "They've killed Isaac! SLAY THEM!" The armored men started to advance at what seemed like a faster than normal (by knight standards) pace.

But a blinding point of light suddenly appeared in the middle of the air, illuminating practically the entire town. Kent and Fiora both turned as they heard someone yell, "LAUNCH!" behind them. They turned around just in time to witness Rebecca behind the controls of a ballista which let loose with a 3 inch thick bolt that shot forward just barely slow enough for them to track it. The wyvern that had been perched on the wall took the oversized arrow right in the chest and fell onto one of the knights; killing both him and it's rider at the same time.

The enemy troops were a bit baffled at this precise shot, and were awe struck for a second or two, just starring in amazement at the sudden death of two of their strongest units. They soon shook out of this daze as their leader, Oleg, ran up to the front lines and viewed the carnage in front of him. With his axe in hand, the warrior hollered in a deep booming voice, "I want them all to be begging for mercy before they die!" He then pointed to Rebecca in the distance, "And I want that bitch's head on a stick before dawn!" As he walked away behind the enemy lines, the red-armored opposition advanced towards Kent and Fiora.

Right on cue, a bolt of lightning and a black envoy of darkness engulfed the two knights as Erk and Canas ran forward muttering more incantations. Dart, Hector, Lyn, Guy, Raven, and Eliwood were all charging ahead of the three magic wielders (including Pricilla, who had been the one to activate her torch staff; the illumination of which practically turned night into day) with their weapons drawn and at the ready. And Mark, who was instructing Rebecca on how to reload the mechanical contraption before her, yelled to Kent and Fiora, "Quit kissing and join the charge you two!" Ignoring their tacticians first comment, but obeying the second; they got to their feet, saddled up, and rode for the enemy lines.

It must have been quite a marvel to see, as everyone was putting their all into this fight. Erk, with his cape flying high, and Anima magic filling his body to the fingertips, would occasionally set an enemy or two on fire, covering them in an unquenchable flame. Canas would then finish them off by creating a bottomless void beneath them, which they'd fall screaming in agony and horror into before he sealed it up. Hector and Dart slew every wyvern rider and horse mounted solider in range and would occasionally take on a knight that had newly arrived. Pricilla was almost always following Hector around so she could heal him; the man was so reckless that he once during the fight tried to take on two knights at the same time on his own. Fortunately, Rebecca 'saved' (though Hector later called it 'interfered') Hector from this suicidal fight by launching a bolt right through both of the knights, turning them into a not-so-comical-looking human ca-bob. Eliwood and Raven were finishing off all the stranglers that were left by the others, but mostly guarding against the few enemies that tried to attack the group from the rear. Lyn and Guy were practically dancing as they weaved their way through many of the monks. Dodging magic, slicing flesh and bone alike, and advancing all at the same time. As far as dancing went, Ninian was right in the middle of the fight, spinning and twirling the whole time in ways that not only mysteriously gave added strength to the party, but allowed her to dodge the few projectiles or weapons that came into striking distance of her. Kent and Fiora however, were moving about so quickly that they spent most of their time inside of the enemy ranks; carving wakes of death through their various formations like a scissor cuts through paper in an children's 'Arts and Crafts' class. It was a gruesome, but well earned victory.

The natural light of the morning revealed the carnage of last night's battle. The air stank of the blood and guts of the nocturnal attackers, which had originally planned on a having an easy time raiding this small town of whatever gold and women it had to offer. Those of the company that were waking up were outside being informed of what had gone on, and being told why they were piling corpses outside of town for a burning; not the best way to start the morning. As Hector boasted about how he had single handedly chopped a wyvern clean in half right down the middle (though no one had actually seen it), Rebecca withdrew the last of her arrows from Oleg's head, and Pricilla and Serra attended to the wounded as best they could, Mark took Kent and Fiora aside from the rest of the group.

"I really must thank you two for fending off the enemies until the rest of us could get suited up and ready for battle." Mark started, "However, I know that I sent you off to engage them Kent, but I don't recall even seeing you last night before the battle started Fiora."

"Yeah." Kent added, "There was only one pegasus in the stable if my memory serves me right. I didn't think much of it at first, but I do know that the Pegasus in there was Florina's."

"Well," Fiora explained, "I knew that everyone was thoroughly exhausted with all the physical and psychological stress that most of us went through on Valor. So I figured that it would be best if I, being a newer addition to this group, stood watch as a 'safety net' in case the posted watch understandably dozed off. I just kept my Pegasus out here so I could act quickly if there was an attack."

"Well thank you for the help." Kent said with respect (though he was secretly a little insulted at being thought of as the type to fall asleep when posted as night watcher), "Had it not been for you, I probably would have fallen victim to the arrows of that archer that you slew."

"Actually there were about five archers," Fiora corrected, "and two of them were able to get you within their sights before I was able to engage them as well."

"FIVE!" Mark exclaimed, "You mean to tell me that you; a Pegasus knight with a natural weakness against arrows, dispatched five archers on your own in the dark!"

"Hey," Fiora protested to the obviously impressed tactician, "you should have seen Kent earlier! Tell him all about it Kent."

As modestly as he could, Kent depicted the events that followed after he took leave of Mark last night. Fiora must have been able to see in the dark, because she confirmed everything that he said as being true. "...And I stabbed him through the visor." Kent continued his story, "That's about the time that Fiora and I had a small discussion," He then rubbed the spot on his face where she had smacked him and gave her an if-you-know-what-I-mean look, which she giggled at, "which was cut short by the sound of arrows that I heard. I pulled her down with me just as a good sized volley of them, as well as a few javelins, went over our heads."

"He truly did save my life." Fiora commented with a respectful voice.

"It was nothing, really!" Kent said, being the type of man who was allergic to greed and too much glory, "Besides, both of us would have been dead had it not been for the reinforcements that you brought at that point Mark."

"I just did what I had to, it was nothing special." Mark shrugged, "But more importantly, I have one thing that I must know: do you enjoy one another's company; on the battlefield or otherwise?"

"On and off of it sir." Kent said with a shrug.

"Same here." Fiora added.

"FABULOUS!" Mark cried in delight, "This is a very happy day for me! Come! Let me show you my plan." He then ran across the street and into the inn that he was lodged at, beckoning them to follow.

As Kent and Fiora walked through the door of the building, Fiora asked, "Do you have any idea what he's up to?"

"None whatsoever." He replied.

In Mark's room, he pulled up a table in front of the two soldiers. From the table, he pulled out a large sheet of paper, a glass bottle of ink, and a quill. "Let's say that this sheet of paper is our battlefield, and this," He drew a large circle on the left side of the paper, "represents our forces. And over here," He drew a large "X" on the right side of the paper, "is the enemy. Now usually in a situation like this, both forces charge head on at one another, and duke it out right in the middle of the battleground. RRRRRRGGHHH!" He yelled through clenched teeth as he furiously scribbled in the middle of the 'battlefield'. He then pointed to the large scribble and declared, "Blood and guts everywhere, a big, mindless, confusing melee which revolves around brute force, and not much else. But following my new tactic..." he drew a long arrow that led from the circle to the 'X', "we send out two soldiers ahead of everybody else to engage the enemy first. The idea is that these two individuals wreck more than havoc on the opposing forces, weakening and distracting them. Then when the enemies see the rest of us coming, they'll be expecting more opponents that are as powerful as the two that they already have their hands more than full with. When the rest of our forces attack, we will meet units that are out of formation, distracted, low on morale and less in numbers than they were before! An easy victory every time!"

Kent and Fiora just stood and stared in amazement at their combat instructor's idea. Finally after taking all of this in, Fiora said as she scratched her head, "So you're saying: these two soldiers are Kent and I?"

"Precisely that!" the green-clad genius declared.

"This looks like it would work..." Kent said hesitantly as neither him nor anyone else in the group knew too much about military tactics, "but, do you mean to say that it would be just Fiora and I?"

"Well," Mark said, "let me put it this way: I needed soldiers that met very specific requirements for this idea to become a reality. First off, they needed to be mounted on a horse or Pegasus, as speed is a key element here. That disqualifies a good majority of our group. Then they need to be extraordinarily strong to begin with, which disqualifies Lowen and, no offense intended Fiora, but your sister as well."

"I understand." She said gloomily with a shrug of acceptance. She had nothing but the deepest respect for her dear little sister, but the fact remained that Florina just wasn't very good at combat.

"Good." Mark continued, "Then they needed to also have great potential for fighting skill which counts out Marcus, who, despite his exceptional fighting capabilities, is at the top of his game right now. By my reckonings, we'll be on this journey for a long time and Marcus is only just above where the rest of you are now in terms of skill. Everyone will soon surpass him, and our enemies will as well. Then I disqualified Sain because as you know all too well Kent, he does have a tendency to goof off on the battlefield."

"I can understand your thinking perfectly sir." Kent replied. Sain was his friend, but his occasional love-sick, and sometimes foolish nature were major drawbacks of his combat skills.

"Excellent." Mark continued, "Then taking into consideration that Pricilla is a healer, and would be better off in the bulk of our forces, away from the distant front lines: I was left with you two. And since you both either meet, or excel all of the requirements, I had only to know whether you two got along well, as teamwork is also one of the major elements. As such I'll be reassigning you both to the same tent, to emphasizing on positive relations. You will be working together a lot, it would be best to get to know one another better."

With her eyes pointed downward, and her hand to her chin, Fiora stated, "Hmmmmm... that's a pretty big rule we're ignoring."

"What rule?" Kent asked as he stared off into space with an inconspicuous look on his face. He understood what she meant perfectly.

"I know this is a lot to ask, and I know that you two will be in the most risky combat situations, but I would not present this idea to you two unless I was certain that you were able to take up the task. So; do we have an agreement?" Mark asked.

"Ummmmmmmmm... Alright!" Fiora piped.

"Same here." Kent added. They all shared a three-way hand-shake.

"Well I better get my belongings together." Fiora concluded.

"I'd better do the same." Kent stated.

As they started to leave Mark sputtered, "Oh, yeah! Just one little unimportant thing... I'd like to apologize for the... 'kissing' remark earlier, I just couldn't resist!"

With a laugh Fiora said, "Don't sweat it Mark, we know it was a joke!" Kent gave a low chuckle as he shook his head from side to side and closed the door. Mark was left alone in his room.

"He! This is going to turn out better than I could have hoped." Mark said after a long while as he got out of his chair and walked outside to see how the others were doing.

It was a time of great relevance and the setting of things to come. But it was all only a memory now, for it had all happened a couple of months ago...

FIN!

Well, I hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to get chapter 2 polished up and ready in roughly one or two weeks, but as far as I can see it may take a bit longer than that.

I know that I haven't emphasized too much on the love story going on here in this chapter, but if this fic turns out the way I plan, then most of that stuff will go on during chapters 2 and above.

R&R, or give me a flame,

For I shall read them all the same.