Surprise! Contrary to what would be popular belief if it were noteworthy, I'm not dead. And I have a completed story! Are your minds blown?

Anyway, Lizzy Rebel deserves all the credit for inspiring this one-shot with her excellent "Bad Bones".

Read, Review, and Enjoy it guys! It feels good to be back!

Fire Emblem © Nintendo and/or Intelligent Systems

"You can come out now."

Jaffar was a man without emotion; he knew nothing of joy, sorrow, anger, or dread.

But that didn't mean that he couldn't be surprised.

In fact, when confronted with the notion that the Black Fang's "Angel of Death", the swiftest and most deadly of the clan's assassins, whose blade could match those of the Reed Brothers, had been detected by one so lacking in combat instinct as Nino, "surprised" didn't quite cover it. "Shocked" would be a better word.

But even thought the fact that his presence were detected by such a novice shocked him, he still possessed the wherewithal to not respond.

"I know you're there, Jaffar."

"… How did you know?"

"I don't really know for sure. I guess I can just…feel when you're around. Or maybe I can feel it when you aren't around, because usually when I'm out by myself, you're watching over me if you aren't away on a mission. But even if I couldn't feel the difference in the air when you weren't about, I know mother cares for me, even if she doesn't show it. She would never let me return home from a celebration all by myself, especially so late at night, since I'm so poor a fighter."

Jaffar considered this. While it was true that Sonia often ordered him to protect Nino when she was not by Sonia's side, he had the distinct impression that "love" had very little to do with it; Lord Nergal had sent Sonia and Jaffar to infiltrate the Black Fang, and allowing Nino to be harmed through carelessness would do anything but help Brendan's impression of them. Nino was as dear to the old warrior as his own sons, and as blindly devoted to Sonia as he was, even Jaffar understood the Black Fang's founder well enough to know that that devotion had its limits. It didn't help that Lloyd and Linus were already suspicious of their step-mother's intentions, let alone what they must think the "Angel Of Death" that she had brought with her to the Fang. No, Sonia's protection of Nino was only to maintain an additional angle of manipulation over the Reed family, nay; the whole of the Fang; there was nobody in the guild, not even the unhinged Jerme, who didn't adore Nino. Well, except perhaps for Ursula, but that probably said more about Sonia and the Blue Crow's blind worship of her than Ursula's own opinion of the child.

"If you're to escort me, could you at least do so by my side? It's lonely in the dark."

Tonight, the Fang were celebrating its new contract with Bern, which promised them work and, of course payment. This of course meant that the gathering hall was filled, and there was music, and dancing and feasting. The festivities had run late into the night, later than Sonia had deemed Nino should be awake. And so the young girl had been sent home, alone but for the shadow charged with guarding her life.

"… As you wish," Jaffar said after some internal debate, leaving his perch in the trees next to the path, his gray cloak trailing behind him as he leapt to the ground, landing softly. He stood and stepped to Nino's side.

"Thanks, Jaffar," Nino curtsied, giving him a smile that could melt the icy plains of Ilia, "You're much nicer than people say you are."

It wasn't hard to see why the girl was so adored. She exuded kindness and light, such that she might have been the second coming of Saint Elimine herself. But her kindness was nothing when one considered that she remained kind in spite of Sonia's…less than nurturing parentage. And of course, there was her persistence in seeing only the best in everybody, despite being surrounded since her youth by assassins.

"I serve the lady Sonia. Thus, I serve you, so long as she wishes it so," Jaffar bowed.

Nino grinned and set back off down the path, a noticeable spring in her step. Jaffar followed, watching her closely.

As they walked farther and farther, Nino's simple stride slowly evolved into an energetic dance, skipping and twirling, evidently still full of energy from the night's revels. As Jaffar watched her, he found himself entranced, just a bit, by her grace: the rhythm of her movement, the way her blue cloak and white skirt flowed around her as she spun.

"Jaffar? Can I ask you something?" she asked, slowing her movements, though still keeping her rhythmic steps.

"… If you must."

"How old are you?"

That was a question Jaffar had occasionally pondered himself. That his birthday was not celebrated went without saying, but even the date of his birth was never disclosed to him, if anyone who lived even knew. After all, birthdays belonged to men, and Nergal had not raised a man; he had raised a wraith; a shadow; an angel of death; a killer. After a minute or so, all Jaffar could come up with was, "… I don't know."

"Really? Because at a distance you look like you're around my brothers' ages. But up close, you actually look closer to my age, maybe a little older. I'm 14, so that would make you…maybe 17?"

"… My age is irrelevant, so long as it does not impede my sword arm."

"Do you like to dance?" Nino asked, ignoring him completely, "Because I was watching during the celebration and it really looked like you wanted to dance. Next time, just ask me! You don't need to be shy, I mean we're both Black Fang, right?" She smiled again, as she finished.

As he looked at her beaming face, Jaffar couldn't help but wonder how they had turned out so differently. The stories went that Nergal found Jaffar as an infant atop a pile of corpses, not weeping, not bawling, not making a sound. And every aspect of his upbringing has been designed to cultivate this, to make him a killer willing to do that which would sicken any other.

But even so, merely having Sonia's blood flowing through her veins, let alone being raised by her, should have left some kind of dent in whatever humanity Nino could have ever developed. And yet it hadn't. If anything, Nino was more human than anybody Jaffar had ever met.

"Hey, Jaffar, are you okay?"

Jaffar snapped back to attention, surprised that he had actually completely lost track of the his situation. "I'm fine-"

His ears picked up a creaking sound he knew all too well: the sound of a bow being drawn. His sharp eyes shot to the source of the noise. Dashing in front of Nino, he drew his blood-red daggers, and cut down the first arrow as it flew out of a nearby bush. Quickly tracing the arrow back to its source, he hurled his other dagger into the brush. His efforts were rewarded by the scream of the archer.

Jaffar didn't have time to investigate the severity of the wound, however, as he heard the sound of branches breaking above as a mercenary with a broadsword leapt down, sword aimed at Nino. Jaffar spun to intercept, but he heard another archer drawing his bow further down the path. A quick glance at the angle of the arrow saw that it was aimed at the path he would need to take to strike the mercenary in time.

They were attacking Nino to force him to move in predictable ways. It was a clever strategy, but Jaffar hadn't become the best assassin in the Black Fang simply by being fast and strong. Tearing his cloak from his shoulders, he hurled it, open, into the path of the arrow, before launching himself with a twist towards the mercenary, avoiding the center of the cloak. The arrow shot through the cloak, well over his head, as he flew past a terrified Nino. Bringing his dagger up into the mercenary's forearm, he sliced the swordsman's hand clean off, relieving him of his weapon, before flipping the edge around and bringing the blade back down from shoulder to hip, laying the mercenary open. Spinning, Jaffar wrapped an arm around Nino's belly, leaping into the air with her towards the trees, narrowly avoiding the remaining archer's next arrow. Swinging around the trunk to put it between them and the archer. Dropping into a sitting position, his back to the trunk, he released Nino, causing her to straddle his lap.

"J-Jaffar…W-what's h-hap-ppening?" she stammered.

"… Somebody is trying to kill me and/or you. I'm uncertain as to which of us is the primary target. But all you need to know is that right now there is at least one archer trying to get a lucky shot, and there's too much open ground for me to reliably cover while carrying you. And without knowing that there are no other enemies present, I can't leave you here and make the strike alone."

"S-so…w-what do w-we d-do?"

"… Your mother; She's been teaching you magic, yes?"

"O-oh! Yeah! …Well, not really, but I've watched when she does it, and I've been trying to do what she does and say the chants she uses and-"

"Can you cast anything?" Jaffar interrupted her, formulating a possible plan in his head.

"Uh… I can cast fire-"

"Stronger."

"Would Thunder work-?"

"Can you hit a specific target?"

"Uh, I think so-"

"That you can't physically see?"

"What? No! I haven't learned anything like that!"

"… Can you cast Elfire?" Widely spread, highly damaging, and, most importantly, incredibly distracting. But none of that mattered unless…

"I can try, Jaffar. But I've only cast it once, and it was only sort of close to my target, and it kinda just exploded, and-"

"Nino. I need you to listen to me very carefully," he spoke slowly, reaching up and holding the sides of her head, "Be very, very still. Now," he looked at the angles of the arrows that were still whizzing through the trees, and began shifting his own head until it was directly between where he calculated the archer's position as being. "Now, look into my eyes."

At this, Nino blushed. "J-Jaffar?"

"Just do it. Look directly into my eyes. But don't see my eyes. Don't see me. Don't see the tree. See the road. See the archer. Then make him burn."

"… Please don't be mad if I screw up," Nino murmured, before beginning the chant.

"I swear that I will not be mad," Jaffar said, knowing full-well that if Nino couldn't see past what was in front of her, both she and Jaffar would burn after Elfire erupted from between his eyes.

But as Nino finished her chant and thrust her palm out towards him, Jaffar heard the telltale roar of fire erupting, not from before him, but from behind him, followed by a scream. Immediately, he pushed off from the tree branch into the air, holding Nino's frail form tightly to him with one arm across her back. He flipped backward, spinning to face his target, which Nino responded to by wrapping her arms and legs around his torso and holding on for dear life. Dropping to the ground, Jaffar immediately charged at the subsiding pillar of fire, dagger drawn. As the flames dropped, revealing the burnt form of the archer, Jaffar leapt past him, his blade shooting out for just an instant. As he hit the ground, so did the man's severed head. Or rather, the burning mass of flesh and bone that once could be called a head. Jaffar was still, however, as he listened for more attackers.

"Uh, Jaffar? I think you can put me down now…" Nino said softly after a moment, still wrapping her arms and legs around his waist.

"… Right, of course," Jaffar answered, lowering her to the ground, "… I believe we've defeated our assailants. Let's go before somebody comes to investigate the flames."

Stammering, Nino nodded, a little too vigorously, "R-right, Jaffar. I just need a second to- Let me just- Jaffar, I just killed somebody!" she cried out, falling to her knees, shuddering.

Jaffar looked at her for a moment, then said, slowly, "… You didn't kill him. I did."

"Jaffar, can you look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't have died if you hadn't cut him down? Look at him! He's… Oh…" Nino began to gesture towards the burning corpse before, having apparently gotten a clear look at the gory remains, collapsed to her hands, spilling the contents of her stomach onto the dirt path. After a moment, she looked back up, only to begin retching again upon seeing the corpse again.

Jaffar stepped between her and the corpse before she finished, before dropping to one knee beside her, and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Jaffar, I… I don't think I can walk… I feel dizzy…"

"…" After a moment, he reached down behind her shoulders and behind her knees and picked her up before turning down the path.

"… Nino… Never become an assassin. This is no life for one such as you."

"I know Jaffar, but…I want to make mother proud. And the Black Fang is everything to her. Father too, and to Linus and Lloyd. I just want to… Urgh…" She passed out in his arms, still shaking.

"…" Jaffar looked at her. It wasn't that Nino lacked the stomach to be an assassin. It was that the Law of the Fang decreed: "Sacrifice the weak to salvage the strong."

In a rare moment of monologue, Jaffar asked to nobody in particular, "… If I were forced to slay her to uphold the Fang's Law…could I?"

Unable to answer, Jaffar set off for the Black Fang fortress, barely aware that his grip on Nino had tightened just slightly.

"… Do as you must, Jaffar. I won't resist. You can do it easily. But…please don't hurt the prince… For pity's sake…"

Jaffar should have slain her. Sonia's orders had said to do so, even if Nino had done her job and killed the Prince. But…

Nino closed her eyes, lifting her head and spreading her arms. She was completely open to his blades. Open to him. "… I'm ready to die."

Jaffar was the Angel Of Death. The man who felt nothing. He had slain dozens of comrades to uphold the Fang's Law. What was one more-

And then she smiled at him.

Could he slay her to uphold the Fang's Law?

…Of course he couldn't.

"… Come." He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of Prince Zephiel's chamber, leaving the future ruler of Bern with little more than a bump on the back of his head.

"What?"

"We're leaving. Hurry."

There would be consequences. Jaffar was making himself and Nino an enemy of every single member of the Black Fang. Of Sonia. Of Nergal himself. So be it. Yes, he was a wraith, a shadow, an Angel Of Death, just as Nergal had raised him to be. Then he'd cut them all down, and show them what it meant to cross an Angel of Death. Besides, if Nino could be raised by a woman like Sonia, a woman who would have her own loving daughter killed just to be rid of her, and still turn out to be very nearly an Angel Of Mercy, then maybe even an Angel Of Death could become at least a man.

As always, comments and reviews are appreciated. Lemme know what I need to work on, what I got right, etc.

And again, I'm glad to be back in the game.