Note: I didn't know this but at the time I had uploaded my chapters here, the actual formatting didn't convert. This was after I had a lot of trouble uploading anything period. My fault for not checking, this site's fault for being shitty. All the chapters like this should be replaced- if not, let me know.

Outside of Southtown, Ylisse.

Behind a crumbling concrete wall, a small group of highly trained military personnel sat crouched down and bored to death. The mission was simple. A notification went out about a bomb explosion on the Ylissean coastal border, and they needed to investigate the scene for any clues of terrorism. It had only been around 15 years since the last battles between Ylisse and its neighbor Plegia, but the memory of war just made for growing tension between the countries. The borders were especially in danger of the sorts of acts of war that were dealt these days. Still, even with all the seriousness in the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, this self-described rag-tag team of military forces managed to make the most of one of their first missions- starting with their leader Chrom, a man most people would not have picked firsthand to be the leader of a military operation like this.

"The fact that you are the commander of our unit never phases you, does it Mr. Chrom?" Frederick said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chrom asked.

"Along with being one of the few people next in line to the throne, you're in charge of our unit. Leaders like you hardly go into the field unless you have to… This mission is rather routine considering our previous experiences and quite unnecessary for you to risk any thing for."

"If it's routine, that means it's alright for me to go. Besides, I'd hate to let all the academy's training go to waste sitting behind a desk."

"Guys! Stop complaining! You can't hear anything on this line with you two yapping," one of the voices on their line said.

"Sorry Lissa. I'm just a little bored waiting for you to give us the clear," Chrom said.

"It's been clear! I was about to go out there myself," Lissa said.

"You can't go out. This is your first field mission. Frederick, you go."

"Gladly, sir," Frederick said.

Frederick came from behind the wall and proceeded to scope out region for Chrom and Lissa. Chrom waited impatiently for his captain to give him some idea of what was going on, but the line stayed silent. He looked to the side to see Lissa operating on some equipment to do some scans.

"Sir! I think you and Lissa need to get out here. There's a woman here!"

"Shit, I'm going in," Chrom said.

Chrom rushed in to the blast area. Oddly, nothing was damaged- not even the concrete. The only evidence of some kind of bomb was an ashen ring with the epicenter of the blast being where Frederick was currently hunched over. Chrom ran to Frederick and knelt in front of the body of a heavily injured woman. She was dirty and bleeding and smelt like the bomb that went off. He reached over to her neck and placed his fingers against her jugular to find a pulse.

"She's still alive," Chrom said.

"Barely. She probably has broken almost all of her bones and is most likely internally bleeding," Frederick said.

"I can be the judge of that," Lissa said.

Chrom turned around to see Lissa with her attaché case. She was already scrambling for syringes, gauze, and antiseptic. She quickly examined the woman and cleared up the minor cuts on her body. Whenever Chrom watched his sister do her work in the practice rounds, he never seemed to imagine her calm and collected as she was while she treated this person in front of her.

"Check this out," Lissa said.

She held the woman's right hand up which showed an intricate dark purple mark on the backside. It didn't look like the unnatural purple hue of the traditional tattoos of the Plegian people, but the mark was too detailed to be something like a birthmark. As soon as Chrom thought that, he felt like his own mark burned his arm. He couldn't quite see the similarities of their marks, but it left him with a curious and eerie feeling.

"That's Plegian for sure. I didn't really search her, but she's not carrying anything that's not already on her," Frederick said.

Lissa patted the woman down and grabbed something from the inside of the woman's pockets- a crushed vial and some of small booklets. Lissa took the remnants of the vial and sniffed them before sealing them into a plastic bag.

"The contents of that vial, I think they're what created the blast. The residue out here smells the same. I'm collecting a sample for the team. I've been hearing about this stuff that Plegia has been making. Bombs and missiles- but stuff that can create effective damage with minimal materials. Way too fragile, but I guess a nation like Plegia isn't above suicide bombing. What she was doing with them is anyone's question," Lissa said.

"It's pretty obvious what she was doing. She's a Plegian spy. Look at these documents," Frederick said.

Frederick opened the books- all passports to the various surrounding nations: Plegia, Ylisse, Ferox, Chon' Sin, Rosanne, and Valm. Chrom quickly examined them and found himself mainly entranced by the photo of the woman in the passports. They were the same black and white picture. Her eyes were wide and hypnotizing, and her face made no betrayal of emotion. Her short hair was sleekly pinned back with only her bangs falling a little in the front- probably the only part of the picture anyone would call slightly unprofessional. Even her choice of what was probably a drab colored turtleneck didn't feel casual. Each passport had been used within the year. He stared at the name, Robin Validar- the last name definitely one of Plegian background. Chrom was a little loathe to admit that Frederick was probably correct about this woman's status as a spy, but he couldn't help but try and hope that the woman was anything but a spy.

"She could be a common criminal," Chrom said.

"Unlikely, I doubt this… Robin Validar is a common criminal. She's stupid if she is. All of these passports are all issued to her. Unless the name is an alias itself," Frederick said.

"She visited all of these nations before- rather recently. I haven't heard anything from the other intelligence networks suggesting a young woman as a single terrorist cell bombing places," Chrom said.

"Still, you wouldn't trust someone like her. I wouldn't," Frederick said.

"Of course you don't. You never had. They don't called you wary for nothing," Chrom said.

"Excuse me, but I think the problem at hand is getting her out of the zone and back to headquarters. It's protocol. We can interrogate her then after we get her some treatment," Lissa said.

"Strangely enough, Lissa, you are our voice of reason. Let's head back to Ylisstol. Frederick, help me get her into our vehicle. This is going to be quite a ride," Chrom said.