Emerald Rain

To Gronder Field, Part One:

Sylvain shakes his head, he has no right to chastise Dedue for following Dimitri mindlessly, all of them are doing exactly the same thing, despite every single one of them having the same expression of regret they follow their orders obediently.

Sylvain feels sick at the thought of it, maybe it's because of the instilled loyalty that Faerghians have in them that keep them here despite the fact that they would rather eat Annette's cooking than have to fight against their friends.

The trip back to Fraldarius castle took a few long and painfully agonizing days, Sylvain didn't know what was worse during the trip Dimitri's indifference to what he was making them do or the growing tensions of hostility that had begun to break out. Sylvain had lost count of all the times Felix approached Dimitri to scream at him and for Dedue to interfere in the altercations, which would lead to Felix lashing out on him as well. He tried to shake out these memories from his mind but the freshness of them still stung, Sylvain figured that once they arrived at Castle Fraldarius that maybe things would settle down for them and everyone would try to pretend that they weren't going to have to kill their friends.

For obvious reasons that never happened.

Their first strategy meeting was the absolute worst, Gilbert and Rodrigue recounted the situation for them about the Kingdoms army. They were low on soldiers to the point that all the people who would be fighting were essentially in that room.

To summarize they were screwed.

The room was silent for a few moments after they had just finished talking. Finally, the silence was broken by Ingrid who sat beside Sylvain, "Is there really no way we can work with the Alliance's army?" Ingrid asked hesitantly.

She already knew the answer by the sound of her voice. Hell, all the people who sat at the table knew.

Rodrigue shook his head, "I'm sorry Ingrid, but we have decided already it is best to go forward without their help" he said, Sylvain wanted to be mad at Rodrigue but one look at his face and you can see that he was as opposed to the idea of splitting from the Alliance as everyone else was.

Before Rodrigue could finish whatever, it was that he was going to say Dimitri butted in, "If you have a problem with it then leave and re-join that traitor" he spat.

Ingrid jumped a little in her seat, "Hey there is no need for that Your Highness" Sylvain said with a frown on his face.

Dimitri let out a dry chuckle, it made Sylvain unsettled "Oh, really?" Dimitri said, "I think there is need" he hissed "The whole trip every one of you have been mourning" Dimitri spat.

"They are our friends, it's only natural that we are apprehensive about fighting them" Annette said defensively.

Dimitri laughed once again, "If they were your friends as you put it" he began "They would be sitting here at this table with us" Dimitri added.

Felix shook his head, "No you boar, we would be over there" he said angrily.

Silence fell over the room once again, then Mercedes finally spoke up, "Does it really not bother you Dimitri?" she asked, "That you might have to kill our friend?" she said, then paused for a moment, "Kill Byleth?" she added in a whisperer.

Dimitri frowned at Mercedes, "I told you all, I will kill them" he shouted "I will Kill her to if that's what it takes to get Edelgard's head" he yelled as he slammed his fists down onto the table.

Sylvain couldn't believe what he'd just heard, it made him think about five years ago the night that Byleth left for some secret reason with the Imperial Princess, Dimitri had come to his room and something about him seemed amiss that night, but it quickly changed once he got onto the subject of Byleth and his plans, how excitedly he asked Sylvain to come with him to the market the following day to commission a black smith to make a ring...