"I must admit, I had my doubts when I first heard of your plan, my lord."

Chrom was sitting in the Wing Commander's office. He had requested a meeting with her which was rare to say the least, but Phila had met with him promptly. Chrom and Phila did not interact much as she typically reported directly to Emmeryn with no real reason to interact with the prince, but she was always respectful when they did meet. Whether Chrom deserved it or not.

"What about now?"

"Now," Phila looked at the prince intently, "Now I still have my doubts, but you seem intent on going through with this so there is no point in trying to dissuade you. Am I right?"

"You are," Chrom nodded with a determined expression.

"I thought so," Phila replied with the slightest of grins, "So, what can I help you with?"

"I was hoping that I might commandeer a flier from you."

"Oh?" Phila raised her brow, but she was far from surprised. Why else would he have come to see her?

"I'm only asking for one. I know you're still a bit low on knights."

"Well," Phila folded her hands on her desk, "I do have one flier that comes to mind. She's showing great talent. She's easily my best cadet. Probably one of my best knights altogether. Given time, I'm confident she'll be the best."

"That's kind of you, but I don't want to take your up and coming star. I actually already had someone in mind."

This did take her a bit more by surprise. It was then that she considered that there may have been some truth to the rumors about the prince and one of her cadets, "Go on."

Sumia took one last look around her dorm as she prepared to move her belongings. She had been scared to death when Commander Phila called her into her office, but part of her had already resigned herself to being a failure. So, when she was actually being transferred to the Prince's militia, her surprise was practically palpable.

Of course, it was hard not to feel that she was being given special treatment. Even if she was not, it was unlikely that Chrom had even considered or cared about how this might look. Though, perhaps that was part of his charm.

She was so deep in thought that she did not hear the door open.

"Sumia?"

"Huh?" Sumia quickly rounded to see her roommate looking at her in concern.

"Are you leaving?" Cordelia eyed her packed up belongings. Cordelia did not make friends easily, so she did not want her one friend in the Pegasus Knights gone even if she had been struggling to keep up in areas, but she knew they would likely be assigned to different squads even if Sumia stayed in their ranks.

"I've been reassigned."

"Where to?"

"Er," Sumia hesitated. She was very much aware of Cordelia's feelings for Chrom, "I was assigned to the Prince's militia."

"Oh," Cordelia deflated a little. She knew of some of the talk about those too, and while she did not believe the more extreme rumors, it was hard to deny that something seemed to be going on between those two. All the same, Cordelia had held onto her own dreams.

"Good for you," Cordelia forced a smile, "I knew you had hidden potential."

"It should be you," Sumia confessed knowing that Cordelia was a better fighter and that she probably only got this position due to Chrom's favoritism.

"Don't be like that. What matters is that you were picked. Now, go and do your sisters proud."

"I'll do my best!" Sumia declared with determination. She was not too sure of herself, but she did not want to sully the Pegasus Knights' reputation.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Cordelia kept up her smile, "Now, what do you have left to pack? You shouldn't be late reporting for duty."

Chrom walked out onto the training yard exactly at eight. He would have started earlier, but he had princely duties to attend to unfortunately. He looked around the yard. Lissa was looking unamused while Maribelle lectured her on proper staff maintenance with Ricken looking on clutching his tome and generally looking happy to be there.

Miriel seemed to be studying something, and after looking closer, Chrom realized she was studying Kellam who looked a bit uncomfortable under her scrutiny. Stahl and Sully were hard at work sparing already – something that was almost certainly Sully's idea. Vaike was cheering them on already calling winner, and he still did not have a shirt on. Then, of course, Frederick was hot on Chrom's heels. That only left….

"I'm here! I'm here!" Sumia dashed into the training yard only to trip and fall as she arrived.

"Are you alright?" Chrom spoke with concern as Sumia pulled herself up.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Sumia forced a smile which Chrom returned. He also noticed that she had gotten the armor he had commissioned for her. "Sorry I'm a bit behind. I was finishing moving in."

"That's fine, I just got here myself," Chrom replied before addressing all of his troops, "Thank you all for agreeing to help me on this endeavor. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some real good."

"Yeah, but what are we going to call ourselves?" Vaike shouted, "We need a cool name."

"Is that really the most pressing matter?" Chrom raised his brow.

"I wouldn't mind a good name," Sully smirked as she looked at Chrom.

"Yeah!" Lissa chimed in, "We need something neat to call ourselves other than just 'Chrom's Militia.'"

"Fine," Chrom groaned, "I'm open to suggestions."

"How about Vaike's Muscle?"

"No."

"What about Shepherds?" Everyone paused and looked at the source of the small voice to see Sumia shrink from their gazes, "W-what? We're looking after the people and protecting them. Y-you know, like shepherds to their sheep."

"I like it," Chrom grinned.

"You do?"

"Of course, you do," Lissa muttered under her breath only to promptly receive a glare from Maribelle.

"Alright then, Shepherds, let's get practicing!"

"Milord," Frederick approached Chrom as they marched back from their first official mission. Everyone except Ricken – who was only a probationary member – and Sumia – whom they had yet to acquire a pegasus for as war pegesi were a bit scarce at the moment – had gone along.

"What is it, Frederick?"

"I would like you to reconsider recruiting a royal tactician to our cause."

Chrom forced himself to restrain a sigh. He had interviewed several. He could not say that he particularly cared for any of them. They may have been fine strategists, but he did not want a tactician who was not willing to fight on the front lines with the troops.

"Do we really need one? I mean, our mission went fairly well."

"This time perhaps, but they were small and not expecting us."

"What about you? Didn't they teach you any tactics at the Knight Academy."

"Only the basics, milord. I am ill-suited to fill the role of a full-time tactician."

This time, Chrom did sigh, "Fine, I promise that I'll look into it."

"Thank you, milord," Frederick nodded and returned to his place in their formation leaving Chrom to stew. He really did not want to bring one of those tacticians on board. Well, at least they had that mission to southern Ylisse soon. He decided to see if he could put it off until after then.

"Well, I think we're about done here," Chrom knocked the dust from his gloved hands, "I think we'll swing by Southtown and then head back." Chrom looked over his Shepherds who had once again performed admirably, but there were a few scuffs and scrapes which might could have been avoided. That served to drive home that Frederick had a point about needing a tactician. Still, they did well despite being down a few members.

"I don't think we'll need that many for this. Sully, you and Stahl ride on ahead to Yllisstol."

"Hey! What about me?" Lissa pouted.

"You get to join me and Frederick. Time to put your money where your mouth is for all your big talk."

Lissa huffed and folded her arms, "Fine then."

"Captain!" Sully and Stahl saluted before riding off leaving the two siblings alone with the knight.

"So," Lissa started walking off confidently, "How far is Southtown from here?"

"Not too far, milady. It should only take a couple of hours to get there."

"Well then," Lissa was leaving them behind, "What are you waiting for?"

"Wait, stop," Lissa called out dramatically as she lagged behind.

"What happened to all that energy?" Chrom turned to his sister with a smirk.

"Give me a break. I don't normally-what's that?" Lissa walked off leaving Chrom to chase after her.

"Lissa!" Chrom quickly caught up to her, "Don't run off like that!" Chrom then noticed that she seemed almost frozen. Raising a brow, Chrom followed her gaze to see what had her so shaken only to find a man with white hair and a brown coat collapsed on the ground.

"I wonder if he's from Southtown?"

"Chrom! We have to do something!" Lissa finally spoke up causing her brother to look at her and miss the man starting to stir.

"What do you propose we do?" Really, Chrom fully intended to help the man so long as he was no brigand, but Lissa was their present medic.

"I-I dunno," Lissa was not thinking too clearly. Understandable. Chrom had shielded her from the death of their work so far, so something like this was still a little jarring, but at least the man seemed to be breathing. That was when Lissa noticed him open his eyes.

"Chrom, look!"

"I see you're awake now," Chrom gave the man a smile, "There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know. Here," Chrom offered his hand which the man took and Chrom lifted him up and looked him in his eyes. He did not think the man bore them ill will. He supposed he could at least take him as far as Southtown.

"Thank you, Chrom."

A/N: It's finally over! By the way, would anyone be interested in something similar for Robin and/or Lucina (they would be separate)?

Also, I kind of want to put my Amiibo up against some people. To that end, I have a link to a poll on my profile so you can select which one you might want to face off against (yes, I have a lot). I will take a vote as interest, if I get enough, I may actually do it. I do not recommend picking Bowser or Lucina though. Be sure to remove the parentheses from the link before using it.

Well, happy new year. Maybe 2020 will actually give us some Awakening seasonals!