Fanfic / An Eagle Among Lions

The Emperor Between Two Worlds and the White Lion.^note Art by Kira/Kuroi

An Eagle Among Lions^note originally titled Princess Edelgard and the Mystery of the Hurricane King is a completed Doorstopper-length Fire Emblem: Three Houses Role Swap AU / Peggy Sue fanfiction written by AMX004_Qubeley.

On the morning after her wedding to Byleth, Emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg wakes up in her old dormitory in Garreg Mach Monastery, six years in the past, where she discovers that she has brown hair, ten brothers and sisters who are alive and well, and a carefree life as the ninth princess of the Adrestian Empire. Professor Byleth teaches the Blue Lions house, Lysithea is not enrolled in the Officers Academy, and the Flame Emperor does not exist at all; instead, a figure known as the Hurricane King stalks the monastery alongside his accomplice the Death Knight, harboring a vendetta against the leadership of the Church of Seiros.

Before long, Edelgard realizes that the tragedy that defined her past has befallen someone else in this world in order to enact a sinister conspiracy. Now she must find a way to return to her world and future while uncovering the plot of the Hurricane King and an elusive familiar enemy, and trying to keep herself alive in this strange new world.

Then the story unfurls from its original premise into something far more complicated.

All spoilers for Fire Emblem: Three Houses are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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An Eagle Among Lions contains examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed with Duke Aegir in the alternate timeline. While Edelgard notes that the capacity exists in him to become as cruel as he was in the canon game, here he ultimately proves to be no worse than any other typical crooked noble and never becomes an antagonist to Edelgard.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The story expands upon Agarthan "culture". Civilian leadership has been out of power for centuries, and they are in effect a military junta with no greater purpose beyond revanchism and revenge.
  • Nemesis is given some backstory. He was just an ordinary Srengish warrior until his village was massacred as ritual sacrifices to the Nabateans. Needless to say, he didn't handle it very well.
• Adoptive Peer Parent: When Burkhart marries Cornelia, he becomes the stepfather to both of Cornelia's children. Both Mercedes and Hapi are only a couple of years his junior, and are both young enough to be his sister.
• Alternate Timeline:
  • The world Edelgard ends up in is one where she and her siblings were never subjected to the Agarthans’ Crest experiments and they are all alive and well as a result. Lysithea and her siblings were similarly spared from the experiments; consequently, she didn’t feel pressured by a shortened lifespan to enroll at the Officers Academy at such a young age, while her older brother (who is still alive) attends instead. Hanneman from Edelgard’s world theorizes that the differences between the two timelines might have been artificially engineered, and is proven correct when Edelgard discovers that the engineer is none other than her world’s Thales, who arrived in the other timeline several years before Edelgard to turn Dimitri into a tool much more obedient than she was. Thales refers to the canon timeline as Fódlan Beta and the Hurricane King timeline as Fódlan Alpha.
  • Additionally, there is the mysterious third timeline from which Desdinova, a.k.a. Future Claude, hails. This one is called Fódlan Delta; among other things, Byleth was a man, Claude was the victim of the Crest experiments, Hapi was the Death Knight equivalent, Leonie was murdered and replaced by Kronya, Flayn died in the tunnels beneath Garreg Mach, and Thales replaced Yuri to string Claude along before sticking the knife in his back.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: After the Hubert native to Fódlan Alpha returns from the past having transitioned into a woman named Heidrun, Edelgard wonders if the Hubert native to her world would make the same choice if given the opportunity. Canon Hubert continues to present male for most of the story before transitioning in the epilogue.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Chapter 38 is written from Dimitri's perspective, Chapter 51 takes place primarily from Ellie's perspective, and Chapter 59 is written from Ingrid's perspective. Chapter 74 is told through the eyes of Kronya, while the interlude in Chapter 76 places readers within the headspace of Seiros.
• And I Must Scream:
  • When the Black Eagle Strike Force confronts Thales in the present timeline, they ultimately defeat him by anchoring him to the bottom of the ocean, but not killing him right away to avoid triggering a Dead Man's Switch that would launch a barrage of javelins of light wherever he is killed.
  • The ultimate fate of the iteration of Thales from Future Claude's timeline is to mentally time travel into a past version of himself, his very soul forever compelled by temporal casualty to re-enact the thoughts and actions which lead to his own travel through time. See also: the Novikov self-consistency principle.
    Edelgard: At the height of his conquest, he becomes his own past self, doomed to have his machinations and his impeccable manipulations play out in an endless loop — doomed to play the exact same performance, never faltering, never erring, never deviating by even a single line, for all eternity, trapped in the hell of his greatest triumph — just as a book never changes, no matter how many times one reads it. And just as one would grow sick of reading their favorite story every day and nothing else, just as one would grow sick of having their favorite sweets for every meal and nothing else, Thales is going to be gorged on his one and only victory for all eternity, forever and ever. Never advancing, never growing. His ending… is never-ending.”
• Antagonist in Mourning: Despite her long-standing hatred of the Church and atheist/Naytheist attitude towards it and Sothis, Edelgard realizes, after Byleth tells her and Hilda about the Merger of Souls performed to empower Byleth in Chapter 23 at the cost of Sothis's life/consciousness, that she really does miss her. Later on, she even takes time to "pray" with Marianne in remembrance of her.
  Edelgard felt as though the ground had dropped out from under her feet, and found herself shocked not only by what Byleth had said but that it had struck her with such force in the first place. Surely she couldn’t miss that little gremlin of a so-called deity.
• Anti-Villain: In this alternate timeline, the Hurricane King and the Death Knight are this.
  • The Hurricane King, aka. Dimitri, is Edelgard's Flame Emperor's equivalent in this timeline and like her, plans to declare war on the Church of Seiros. While genuinely earnest and kind, Dimitri is also more violent and unhinged as the Hurricane King compared to Edelgard in her Flame Emperor guise, particularly towards those who have close ties to the Church like Seteth and Flayn and is more invested in getting revenge than making Fódlan a better place. However, his vendetta against the Church stems from the Agarthans manipulating him into believing the Church of Seiros were the ones behind the Tragedy of Duscur and the Crest Experiments when in reality, the Agarthans were the ones behind it and set themselves up as his savior so that he would be more compliant in their partnership. Not to mention that Dimitri is unaware that Thales has killed the real Rodrigue and has taken on his appearance in order to earn Dimitri's trust and loyalty.
  • The Death Knight is a ghostly knight who terrorizes those in the Church and works for the Hurricane King, though this version is less bloodthirsty and unhinged compared to Jeritza back in Edelgard's world. When Edelgard meets him for the first time, he stops the Hurricane King from killing Seteth and harming the Blue Lions and Sylvain notes that whenever the Blue Lions face him, he seems to be 'playing' with them compared to whenever he fought other enemies. And like Dimitri, she is also a victim of the Agarthans' cruel manipulations to view them as saviors and her poor health is the result of the Crest Experiments she went through.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In Chapter 7, when Dimitri tells Edelgard that those in Faerghus with Crests like him are meant to be swords and shields to protect the downtrodden, Edelgard objects and asks him first if all he wants in life is to be seen as a weapon for others, and then if he's supposed to be a sword, who's the person grasping his hilt?
• Arranged Marriage:
  • Ellie is engaged to Ferdinand as part of an agreement between their fathers as a result of the Insurrection of the Seven ending more diplomatically. Ellie dreads the prospect of marrying him, but Ferdinand (who is openly dating Hubert) assures Edelgard that since neither of them is interested in the other romantically, she has his blessing to fall in love with somebody else.
  • After “Glenn” (who is actually an Agarthan impostor) is found alive in Chapter 2, Ingrid's engagement to him is renewed, but with his complete change in personality, she is not looking forward to it like she did before.
  • In Chapter 25, Bernadetta finds out from a letter that her father will have her marry Prince Anselm once she leaves Garreg Mach. It's a ploy by Anselm to win Count Varley to his side.
• Arrow Catch: During the battle with Nemesis, Riegan catches one of Shamir's arrows and uses it to ruin her shoulder.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: In Chapter 73, ancient Pittacus throws a loaded pistol at Edelgard, a medieval-era princess who has never even seen a firearm before in her life. The fact nobody gets their head blown off is a miracle and a half.
• Badass Boast: The Hurricane King delivers a chilling one in Chapter 2 as he's choking Seteth to death.
  Hurricane King: I am the living monument to your sins. The storm of reckoning and liberation is nigh; now beg the Goddess for forgiveness and salvation with your last breath…
• Bait-and-Switch: When Edelgard leads Byleth, Seteth and the Blue Lions to the catacombs where Flayn is likely held in Chapter 2, she wonders if the Death Knight will be there and if Dimitri, as his alter-ego, would have to swoop in to save his classmates like she did in her world. This gets turned on its head when they arrive at the room where Flayn is being held; instead the Hurricane King/Dimitri is there and proceeds to beat the living crap out of everyone all on his own (though Seteth is the one he focused on the most) and it's the Death Knight who has to step in and stop him from killing Seteth.
• Beard of Sorrow: After Flayn gets kidnapped, Edelgard notices that Seteth's clothes are unusually messy and his well-groomed beard has grown an extra layer of stubble.
• Beneath Suspicion:
  • Nobody suspected that the true identity of the Alternate Death Knight would be sweet and gentle Mercedes of all people. Not even Edelgard could believe it when she realizes this because of her poor health.
  • Chapter 85 reveals that Nader the Undefeated was a time traveller from the very beginning. Edelgard curses herself for not having considered this possibility sooner.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Subverted. While the Hurricane King/Dimitri has a more amicable relationship with Thales and the Agarthans than Edelgard did in her world and they seem to operate as equal partners, it soon becomes clear after Thales' manipulations are revealed that Dimitri is The Heavy and his Dragon.
• Body Horror: In Chapter 4, as Byleth, Seteth, Flayn and the rest of Blue Lions travel to Zanado, they stumble a horrific scene of several Agarthan mages ''phased'' halfway through the ruins, some of them even still alive.
• Book Ends: The story starts with Edelgard's wedding to Byleth. The last thing she experiences in Fódlan Alpha is Dedue's wedding to Bernadetta.
• Boring, but Practical: When Edelgard learns about Agarthan video communication technology, she finds the idea far more dangerous than their supernatural monster minions or fantastic weapons of war, noting that they could use such communication devices to rip her empire out from under her in a heartbeat.
• Born Lucky: The alternate version of Edelgard, instead of getting traumatized by the deaths of her family, lives a carefree and happy life as the ninth princess; never worrying about preparing for the throne or worrying about conspiracies. Though it's because she never had to work hard for anything and her life seems to be planned out for her no matter what she does, alt. Edelgard started lazing around in everything she does. That all starts to change after switching places with the alternate future version of herself.
• Born Unlucky: It seems in this alternate timeline, the Blue Lions got the worst luck out of the houses.
  • Dimitri not only goes through the Tragedy of Duscur in this world, but also was tortured for two years when he was implanted with the Crest of Flames. He suffers from survivor's guilt from being the survivor of regicide and the Crest Experiments.
  • Dedue is even more reviled for his people's supposed role in King Lambert's assassination and Dimitri's kidnapping and torture.
  • Mercedes also went through the Crest Experiments as Dimitri's 'prototype', her brother died during these experiments and she is slowly declining in health because of it.
  • Not even Ingrid and Felix are exempted from the cruel machinations of Those Who Slither, as one of their agents (Kronya) poses as Glenn on the pretense that he was alive and in captivity the whole time when 'Glenn' doesn't even act like himself. Ingrid has to deal with the fact that her 'fiancé' has become a creep and Felix has to admit that his 'brother' is no longer the same person he once was. Not to mention Felix is unaware that his own father got killed at some point and now Thales has taken on his form. And things get worse after 'Glenn' gets murdered and Ingrid's father was killed at some point on his way to the funeral by an Agarthan agent meant to take Edelgard's place.
• Breather Episode:
  • Chapter 10 focuses on Edelgard going on a fishing trip with Byleth and the Blue Lions after their class won in the Battle at Gronder Field and before Edelgard learns who the other time traveler could be.
  • Chapter 16 has the characters preparing for the White Heron Cup, with Edelgard forced to teach Felix how to dance after the Remire Village incident and the aftermath of Ashe's death.
  • Chapter 31 is focused on Edelgard, Sylvain, and Ingrid helping Bernadetta get through her visit with her father and meeting up with Anselm, Bernadetta's fiance. And this is after Edelgard narrowly avoided Rhea's plan and the Agarthan mole's attempt to take her place and before Anselm reveals even more bad news to this conflict.
  • Chapter 35 has the Blue Lions throw a party to try to take their minds off of recent nasty developments such as Mercedes' betrayal and reveal as the Death Knight.
• Broken Aesop: In-Universe, when Seteth writes a fable about a dillegent squirrel who survives winter while a lazy fox starves, Vual points out that in real life, there are plenty of people who do little work and yet are rewarded while others work hard and earn nothing. Seteth counters that Vual is missing the point, as the purpose of the fable is to encourage hard work.
• Broken Pedestal: Edelgard's shattered memories of her siblings cause her to put them on a pedestal as the perfect family that was stolen from her long ago. When she actually meets their counterparts in the alternate reality, she is shocked to discover that some of them have grown up to be just as petty or cruel as any other noble.
• The Bus Came Back: Near the end of Chapter 26, Seteth and Flayn have returned to Garreg Mach, albeit badly injured. Subverted with Seteth, as the Seteth who came back isn't truly Seteth. Double subverted when the real Seteth returns in Chapter 33.
• Cast Full of Gay: While they're not the main focus on the fic except Female Byleth and Edelgard; plenty of the students are in gay relationships, such as Ferdinand & Hubert, Petra & Dorothea, implied Alternate Hilda & Alternate Edelgard, implied Hilda & Marianne. So far the only hererosexual ships are an arranged marriage (Edelgard & Ferdinand) or part of a bisexual threesome (Dorothea, Petra, & Ashe). And as it turns out, to the surprise and mortification of the "main" Edelgard and Hilda, Alternate Hilda and Edelgard are confirmed to be in a relationship in Chapter 23. That being said, later on the fic does tease and eventually confirm Felix & Annette, Dimitri & Marianne, and Ignatz & Kronya.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Edelgard and Hilda during the Battle of Garreg Mach.
  Edelgard: I suppose you miss having Freikugel with you now.
  Hilda: Ugh. I never liked touching that disgusting thing. Especially now that I know where Heroes’ Relics come from. The way they pulsate— [retch] I guess you miss that weird crab-claw one.
  Edelgard: I suppose it did look like a crab’s claw.
  Hilda: You’re only just noticing?
  Edelgard: I didn’t exactly commission the design.
  Hilda: Oh, I thought it was part of that whole lobster aesthetic you had going on.
  Edelgard: Lobster?
  Hilda: You looked like a lobster. I thought that with Enbarr being a coastal city and the whole abolishing the nobility thing, the lobster was some kind of symbol of your ideals.
  Edelgard: A lobster?
• Co-Dragons: Dedue and the Death Knight/Mercedes are this to Dimitri/The Hurricane King.
  • Dedue is Dimitri's retainer and second-in-command behind the shadows, gathering info and receiving secret messages from their Agarthan allies for his lord.
  • The Death Knight is Dimitri's prominent enforcer in his Hurricane King persona, assisting him in battles and reeling him back from doing anything reckless. And outside the mask, she acts as Dimitri's caretaker.
• Colony Drop: It turns out that the plan to defeat Sothis in ancient times was to drop an actual space colony on her head. Needless to say, it didn't work.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • When Edelgard and the Blue Lions encounter the Hurricane King for the first time in the catacombs, he singlehandedly beats them effortlessly and would have killed Seteth had the Death Knight not intervened.
  • The Hurricane King and the Death Knight go up against the Golden Deer, and both trounce the class in Chapter 12. Edelgard makes a hard decision to burn clues linked to the Agarthans that Claude found in order to deescalate the situation.
  • After Byleth escapes Solon's trap and becomes the Enlightened One, she proceeds to deflect Solon's attacks before killing him.
• Darker and Edgier: The Hurricane King is more violent compared to the Flame Emperor and is not afraid to get involved in battles or killing himself rather than relying on his minions.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Lorenz is mentioned to have been killed by Edelgard in her unification war in the original timeline. In canon, he's The Unfought in Edelgard's Part II, with House Gloucester's actions on all routes implying he would have allied with the Empire.
  • By the time Edelgard arrives in the alternate world, Emile, Yuri, and the real Rodrigue have already lost their lives to Agarthan machinations.
  • In Chapter 14, Ashe falls into a time portal and is presumed dead. It's quickly revealed that he was sent 445 years in the past and lived out the rest of his life in that era.
  • In the final battle, Balthus and Raphael are both killed in action.
• Death of a Child: Emile and Yuri, both of who were among the kidnapped children who were killed in the Crest Experiments that Dimitri was in.
• Decapitation Presentation: King Lambert's severed head was left behind for those to see at the scene of the Tragedy while Dimitri, his step-mother, and Glenn were kidnapped by the assailants.
• Decomposite Character: Dimitri takes on most of the Flame Emperor's superficial traits and backstory, but Dedue gets her ambition and some of her more ruthless moments.
• Demoted to Extra: Lysithea and Jeritza have pretty much no story presence. The former is because her counterpart was never subjected to Crest experimentation, and thus she has no reason to enroll at the Officer's Academy at the tender age of 15. The latter is because his counterpart died in the Crest experimentation that created Dimitri and Mercedes.
• Desperate Plea for Home: Chapter 9 begins with Edelgard preparing to write a journal entry for her alternate self to read about her own experiences, only for that to fade away when she decides to spill her heart out on the page by simply saying: "I want to go home."
• Disease Bleach: In this alternate world, both Dimitri and Mercedes have white hair. Many believed that Dimitri's hair turned white from the shock of witnessing his father's murder while Mercedes attributes it to having a stressful childhood. But Edelgard knows the real reason is that both went through a torturous procedure of having a second Crest implanted into them.
• Divide and Conquer: The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and the Agarthans use this tactic on Adrestia. As Faerghus is currently resource-poor and unstable, Dimitri and his army wouldn’t likely be able to match the full might of the Adrestian Empire’s army on their conquest for Fódlan. They start off by killing Emperor Ionius and forge his will to have Prince Anselm, one of Edelgard's brothers, to be appointed emperor by virtue of his Major Crest instead of the crown Prince Burkhart. The resulting coup would eventually plunge Adrestia into civil war, granting Dimitri and his army the opportunity to crush the divided Adrestia.
• Do I Really Sound Like That?: When Edelgard is cornered by the Hurricane King in Chapter 12 during her excursion to Zanado with the Golden Deer, she thought of this almost word for word when the Hurricane King/Dimitri speaks to her in his deeply modulated voice.
  Narration: Edelgard might have laughed if she wasn’t so terrified. Had she sounded like this when she had been seventeen, too?
• Doorstopper: Finishing in July 2022, Eagle clocks in at over 1,600,000 words over 87 chapters plus an afterword, making it the longest Fire Emblem fiction on Archive of Our Own.
• Doppelmerger: As a consequence of the "Freaky Friday" Flip, if the body of a current time traveller perishes in one universe, their soul is violently ejected back into their body with the Alternate Self they swapped with, where the weaker of the two souls will gradually be overwritten by the other until nothing is left of them. This has left Desdinova puppeteering the Empty Shell of this world's Claude, and he asserts to Edelgard and Hilda that it is their only way home.
  Desdinova: My advice? Make it quick. Make it painless. And tell your counterparts you’re sorry when you come back. Because eventually, there’s only going to be one of you.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In Chapter 8, Sylvain jokingly remarks that if everyone in the class were to live up to their ancestors' legacies, then Edelgard should get started in uniting Fódlan under the Empire while Dimitri should fight back for the kingdom's independence. Everyone in the class laughs at that... except for Edelgard (who has already united Fódlan under the Empire back in her world) and Dimitri (who is planning to declare war against the church and the other nations in this timeline).
• Earth All Along: The current era in Fódlan turns out to be three thousand years after the destruction of modern Earth. Australia is mentioned by name when Edelgard and Dimitri find themselves in the ancient past, they note that Sothis' flood reshaped the continents of the world, and it's noted in passing that a long-lost nation left their banner on the moon.
• Entertainingly Wrong: During the Battle of Garreg Mach, Count Bergliez encounters the Wandering Flame, a masked "mercenary" fighting for the Kingdom/Imperial army. He correctly surmises that they are actually an Adrestian noble who joined the battle in defiance of their family's wishes, but wrongly guesses they might be Caspar. It's actually Edelgard.
• Escort Mission: When Seteth decided that he and Flayn should leave the monastery, he requests that the Blue Lions accompany them for protection until they reach Arianrhod, which Seteth and Flayn will make the rest of the journey by themselves.
• Everyone Can See It: Even in the alternate timeline, a number of people can plainly see that Edelgard's head over heels with Byleth, except for Byleth herself. Though it is complicated as Edelgard is already married to the Byleth in her world.
• Expendable Alternate Universe: Played with. While her main objective is to return back to her own timeline, Edelgard takes her time to befriend several students of Garreg Mach, partly to keep up appearances and learn more of this world and partly because she was close to some of their counterparts back in her world (like Ashe, Annette, and Mercedes). When Ashe falls to his 'death' in Chapter 14, Edelgard is devastated, even though his original counterpart is still alive back in her world.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  • In Chapter 37, Edelgard visits her home world and informs canon Mercedes that their counterpart is the other world's Death Knight. The individual in question finds the prospect humorous before thinking it over for a second and realizing just what the implications are for their poor counterpart.
  • In Chapter 44, Burkhart explains how he came to be married to Cornelia - he was having severe insomnia when she came along and miraculously cured him. Then he realizes she was almost certainly poisoning him to begin with.
• False Flag Operation: Those Who Slither in the Dark used this strategy on Dimitri in order to earn his trust and loyalty. They had several of their agents pose as members of The Knights of Seiros, killing the real Knights of Seiros before murdering King Lambert and his knights. The 'knights' then kidnapped Dimitri, his step-mother, and Glenn and imprisoned them in a secluded prison with other kidnapped children, where Dimitri and the other children were tortured by people wearing the Crest of Seiros on their armor and robes. After successfully implanting Dimitri with the Crest of Flames, they allowed him to be rescued by Rodrigue/Thales from 'the Church', and then introduce themselves to him as a secret society who have been fighting against the Church's corruption from the shadows. This results in Those Who Slither in The Dark earning the trust of a traumatized Dimitri and cementing his hatred towards the Church.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Played with and Discussed between Ingrid and Kronya in Chapter 59 following the latter's retelling of the Scorpion and the Frog:
  Ingrid: Is that supposed to put me at ease?
  Kronya: You know, not all replicants are leaders like Thales or scientists like Solon or Vual. Kronyas are built to be servile. We’re meant to do everyone else’s dirty work, and that means we’re made to follow orders. Even if we hate them. We can’t just do as we please, no matter how much we want to. So, you want to know why I’m doing what Dedue told me to do, even though I can’t stand it? Because I’m a scorpion, and it’s simply in my nature to sting. I would have thought you of all people, Ingry, would be capable of relating, even with that little walnut-sized brain rattling around in your thick, primitive skull.
  Ingrid: You think we have anything in common?
  Kronya: You don’t think I have something in common with a girl who just instinctively capitulates whenever someone tells her that their needs come before hers? Face it, Ingry — you may be a dirty, primitive human, but you and I were built the same. We’re both a pair of scorpions. Look on the bright side. At least you’re not a frog.
• Feudal Future: It is eventually revealed that the planet on which Fódlan is located is a post-apocalyptic Earth that was destroyed as a result of the Agarthans' war with Sothis.
• Flat "What": Chapter 75 has canon Byleth's response to learning that Edelgard went 2581 years into the past and got to see the planet from the observation deck of a space ship.
• Food Interrogation: Dedue pulls a variant of this on Edelgard in Chapter 4, offering her a bowl of rice with meaty stew and peppers when he interrogates her on her reasons for joining the Blue Lions. Not wanting to appear suspicious, Edelgard eats it, and while the food isn't poisoned or laced with truth serum, the spiciness from eating the food makes it harder for Edelgard to lie when answering Dedue's questions since she's distracted by the heat on her tongue.
• Frameup:
  • On their way back to Garreg Mach from Fhirdiad after Dimitri's coronation, Byleth, Edelgard, and Dimitri, along with Hubert and Dedue, are attacked by an imposter posing as the Hurricane King. This is a ploy by the Agarthans to assassinate Edelgard to keep her silent from telling Dimitri about the truth of the Tragedy of Duscur and to drive a wedge between Dimitri and his friends; for when the truth eventually comes out, no one will side with Dimitri in his war except the Agarthans.
  • It is also implied that Those Who Slither were the ones who paint the Hurricane King as the one who brutally murdered Cardinal Aelfric in Chapter 28.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip:
  • Along with a strange variant of Mental Time Travel. Edelgard switches consciousness with her alternate counterpart, meaning while the original Edelgard is trapped six years in the past in her counterpart's body, her alternate counterpart is trapped six years in the future in her body. The same thing happens to the Hilda from Edelgard's world.
  • As it turns out, Thales from Edelgard's world also swapped consciousness with his alternate counterpart long before Edelgard and Hilda, escaping his world to this alternate timeline and setting his new plan in motion.
  • A horrific subversion happens to Claude, who instead winds up Sharing a Body with his alternate counterpart before being gradually, inexorably overwritten from existence by Desdinova as a result.
  • The version of Nader the Undefeated from Desdinova's timeline crossed over soon after his liege did and has been operating in secret ever since.
• Fridge Logic: In-Universe, when Seteth writes a fable about a diligent squirrel surviving winter while a lazy fox starves, Vual points out that the fox could just take the supplies the squirrel gathered by force and eat the squirrel for good measure.
• Gambit Pileup: There are about fifteen different players with fifteen different agendas at Garreg Mach, and oftentimes even the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing (which just makes things messier).
• Gaslighting: The Agarthans make use of gaslighting to keep Dimitri/the Hurricane King compliant. They tricked him into thinking the Church of Seiros murdered his family and they saved him from them when in reality they murdered his family and set themselves up as his saviors. In the present day, they actively scheme to keep him isolated from more moderate allies and dependent on their support.
• Good Counterpart: In Chapters 71-73, Edelgard and Dimitri travel back in time to 1401 years before the foundation of the Adrestian Empire and meet ancient versions of Thales and his commanders. They turn out to be good people (with the exception of Myson), and Thales Senior in particular is horrified that his distant descendant will become the petty tyrant of one old military bunker. Edelgard compares their relationship to that of her own Black Eagle Strike Force.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When the Black Eagle Strike Force fights Thales in the original timeline, Nader confronts the Agarthan leader head-on and suffers crippling injuries, but hangs on long enough to provide a distraction for Hilda to tie an anchor to Thales' leg and sink him to the bottom of the sea with no chance of escape. Nader, in his dying words, boasts of being able to carry his "Undefeated" title along with him to the afterlife.
  Nader: So long as I die after our victory, my record stands. Tell them all, Prince Khalid, of Nader the Undefeated and the Prince Astride Two Worlds, and their duel with the No-Eyed King. And how the Emperor of Adrestia helped.
• Hope Spot: In Chapter 1, after Edelgard learns of the circumstances of her alternate self, she briefly wonders if it means that Those Who Slither don't exist in this timeline as well. Then near the end of the chapter, when Byleth and the Blue Lions return from their latest mission, Edelgard finds out that Mercedes and Dimitri's hair are both white, she realized to her horror that Those Who Slither do exist and that Dimitri's this timeline's version of the Flame Emperor.
• Identity Impersonator: After the events in an earlier chapter lead to Mercedes being unmasked as the Death Knight, a few people, namely Sylvain, begin suspecting that Dimitri is the Hurricane King because of that connection with Mercedes. Thales orders Dedue to remove their suspicion on Dimitri's Secret Identity, which he carries out by having two people posing as the Hurricane King and murdering a racist guard in front of the Blue Lions. Though the real surprise is that one of the imposters ALSO bears the Crest of Flames, and it is unknown if Dedue knew of this.
• I Have Your Wife: During the Battle of Garreg Mach, Rhea uses Hubert as a hostage to force Burkhart and the Imperial forces to retreat. Burkhart is forced to back off until the Blue Lions can mount a rescue.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • The Tragedy of Duscur still happens in this timeline despite it being played differently, with Dimitri being kidnapped and experimented on for two years and Those Who Slither rescuing Dedue from the genocide of his people and training him to be their spymaster.
  • Seems to be the case for the Death Knight, whose role is filled by Mercedes, rather than Jeritza, who was killed in the Crest Experiments as a child in this timeline.
  • Byleth still gets hit with the Forbidden Spell of Zahras by Solon despite Edelgard warning her about it and Solon initially using it to take out Edelgard and later Hilda after perceiving the former too much of a threat to live. Byleth would rather be sealed away in some unknown void rather than let two of her students be taken.
  • Played for Laughs in the epilogue with Jeralt's death being inexplicably like in canon — abruptly stabbed in the back by a clown, just as the fortune-teller from his youth predicted.
• Incompatible Orientation:
  • Edelgard, being married to Byleth in her own timeline, isn't thrilled about being part of an Arranged Marriage with Ferdinand.
  • Edelgard is on the receiving end of this as well, as she finds herself flirting with Past Ingrid on numerous occasions. Ingrid doesn't return her feelings, but forms a complicated Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with her throughout the story.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Despite her memories still being hazy, Edelgard learns that Dimitri was the boy from Faerghus who gave her the dagger when she was a child after hearing Ingrid's account of the story in Chapter 4.
  • In Chapter 5, both Edelgard and Dimitri (who suffers from severe memory loss from the experiments) learn from Arundel that they are step-siblings.
• Irony:
  • By the time of the main story, Count Varley has basically dismissed Bernadetta as a lost cause for marriage prospects. When Adrestia falls into a Succession Crisis, both claimants to the throne offer proposals to Bernadetta to get Count Varley's support, which would put him a hair's breath from the throne itself.
  • By the time Burkhart claims the Adrestian throne, Ellie has several months more experience ruling an empire than he does due to getting sucked into the canon timeline and living Edelgard's life.
• Killed Off for Real: Among the students and faculty of Garreg Mach, Ashe, Balthus, Raphael, and Gilbert die permanently. Mercedes transforms into a Demonic Beast and never recovers, eventually dying from accelerated age. And this world's Claude has already suffered a slow and terrifying Cessation of Existence long before any of this.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After their counterparts come back and briefly possess them, Alternate Hilda and Alternate Edelgard confirm they're in a relationship — with a long and sloppy kissing session. After it ends, Edelgard and Hilda mutually say "never again".
• Line in the Sand: In Chapter 81, the heroes are delivered a bunch of mech suits from a couple of weeks into the future, and Edelgard and Hilda realize they could both simply wait for the time gate to be repaired, go back in time to Research Facility Epsilon, and go home if they wanted to... but this would also mean leaving their friends in Fódlan Alpha to face Nemesis on their own. Both women choose to stay and tie up that one last loose end.
• Living with the Villain: Edelgard is aware of this, as she did it back in her world. Unbeknownst to the Blue Lions and the rest of Garreg Mach Monastery, however: The leader of the Blue Lions, Dimitri, is the Hurricane King, his retainer Dedue is his Secret-Keeper and spy, Glenn is Kronya taking on his form, Brother Tomas is still Solon, and the true identity of the Death Knight in this timeline is Mercedes. Later, Desdinova is revealed to have been a time-travelling Claude all along.
• LOL, 69: Subverted and played somewhat for drama. In the wake of Glenn making extremely insensitive comments about Ashe's death, Byleth angrily orders the class to turn their textbooks to page 69. The narration notes that it's a testament to how strained the mood is that Sylvain doesn't chuckle at the number.
• Meaningful Name: Ancient Agartha's New Babel was named such in direct reference to the Tower of Babel, with the intent of being an Ironic Name for the weapon that destroyed a god. However, it quickly proves to be a shining example of man's hubris instead, with the attack heralding the end of ancient humanity.
• Mecha: The heroes are able to scavenge some old Agarthan war mechs from Research Facility Omega. They are named Blaiddyds and piloted by some of the heroes during the big showdown with Nemesis.
• Mental Time Travel: The plot starts off with Edelgard finding herself back in the past six years ago of an alternate timeline and stuck in her counterpart's body. One of Edelgard's goals is to find out the cause of this phenomenon so she can return back to her own world and timeline. This phenomenon is somehow connected to Those Who Slither in the Dark messing with time and alternate dimensions, as stumbling across one of their hideouts in the original world is how fellow time traveler Hilda ended up in this alternate timeline like Edelgard. Later, Edelgard finds out she can return back to her future for a short while whenever Byleth activates Divine Pulse. Unfortunately for her, Thales/Rodrigue is also the same Thales from Edelgard's world, who came to this world before those two and had years of planning ahead in this alternate world so he wouldn't make the same mistakes he did before.
  • Unfortunately for him, a version of Claude von Riegan from a third timeline has also been masquerading in the body of his alternate self, planning around Thales' stratagems nigh-effortlessly.
  • Unfortunately for Claude, his own machinations have ensured that the version of Thales from his timeline in turn becomes capable of mentally possessing Claude via a complicated series of Stable Time Loops and strategically severed body parts, Revolver Ocelot-style. Unfortunately for Thales, that in itself became a Batman Gambit on the part of Claude and Nader — who is also a mental time traveller, by the way — to send Thales' soul backward into his past self, creating an infinite loop of repeated Mental Time Travel from which Thales can never escape.
• Morality Chain:
  • Edelgard lampshades this to Hilda in Chapter 23 when she notices that Byleth was hers.
    Edelgard: I’m well aware that without her, I’d have been a monster.
  • Dimitri/The Hurricane King has two that help him start considering his priorities other than getting revenge:
    • Like with Edelgard, the alternate Byleth is this to Dimitri, being the first person he confides to about his second Crest and the 'truth' about the Tragedy of Duscur. Even Edelgard comments that, like her, he probably didn't think of himself as a person until he met Byleth. When Byleth was supposedly killed by Solon, Dimitri went ballistic in Chapter 22 and admits later to Edelgard in Chapter 25 that he didn't know what would have happened if Byleth had not returned.
    • Later, Edelgard becomes one for Dimitri after he learns that she's his step-sister, giving him advice and calming him down whenever he's having a fit. This is intentionally invoked on Edelgard's part as a way to sway Dimitri away from his Agarthan allies and help him become a better ruler rather than remain as a subservient tool for the Agarthans.
  • Seteth serves as this to Rhea, as it was his presence that reeled Rhea from pursuing her more questionable goals. His departure from Garreg Mach means that Rhea doesn't have anyone to stop her from going through her morally-questionable actions. It was his return that made Rhea put a hold on her plans to use Byleth as a vessel for her mother.
  • The Blue Lions as a whole serve as this to the Death Knight/Mercedes, since whenever they fight him, he doesn't seem intent on killing or seriously harming them, at most he just leaves small injuries that will heal.
• Mundane Utility: Leonie and Linhardt use salvaged Agarthan war mechs to do laundry. When Edelgard finds out, she wonders what other peacetime applications such things could have.
• Mutual Kill: Raphael and Gonriel of the Ten Elites strike a fatal blow on each other simultaniously during the final battle for Garreg Mach.
  Even though Raphael’s jaw was so tightly clenched that he thought his teeth might shatter in his mouth like beads of glass, to the very end his smile never faded from his face.
• New Transfer Student:
  • After rescuing Flayn, Edelgard asks Byleth to let her join the Blue Lions. While some believe it's because Edelgard has a crush on the professor (a belief which isn't exactly wrong), she also joined the Blue Lions in order to observe Dimitri and figure out what he and Those Who Slither in the Dark are plotting in this world.
  • Bernadetta, Raphael, and Ignatz join the Blue Lions after the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • The Adrestian conquest of Shambhala happens outside Edelgard's perspective.
  • Edelgard leaves Fódlan Alpha before Anselm can be booted out of Enbarr, and the resolution to that conflict is described in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
• Operation: [Blank]: Operation Antediluvia is the name of a plan that Thales is carrying out that somehow involves time-travel, as it's crucial to the Agarthans' plot to take over the surface world. Vual reveals in Chapter 30 that Operation Antediluvia is the plan to go back to the time period when the Agarthans fought Sothis and retrieve more potent versions of the javelins of light and unleash them upon the present world.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: In Chapter 71, Edelgard and Dimitri go through a time portal to ancient Agartha, are captured by the locals, and spend a couple of chapters in a science-fiction story with fantasy elements.
• Our Time Travel Is Different: Initially, it seems the Unseen variation is in play, as that was how Edelgard and Hilda ended up in the alternate timeline in the first place, though unintentionally. This was also the method Thales used to escape from Edelgard's world. Then it turns out that Those Who Slither in the Dark are conducting experiments in order to achieve the wormhole time travel method for Operation Antediluvia; retrieving potent versions of the Javelins of Light that were lost during the fight against Sothis. They were building a prototype of the wormhole underneath Remire, which Ashe and an Agarthan mage (Vual) fell through that sent them both to the year 735.
• Pineapple Ruins Pizza: When Edelgard and Dimitri travel back in time to visit the antediluvian era, it turns out that ~457 years into our future people are still having the age-old argument about whether pineapple belongs on pizza or not. The original Chilon is aghast, while the original Pittacus and Periander are fine with it.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: After Rhea, Nemesis, and Sothis' corpse are all defeated, Cyril takes one last swing at Edelgard in a mad attempt to assassinate her via time paradox.
• Properly Paranoid: In Chapter 64, Bernadetta sees an unmarked wyvern flying above the road the group is traveling along; she prepares to shoot it down, but Edelgard points out it could be a civilian courier or something. Surprise, surprise - it turns out to be setting up an ambush from the Knights of Seiros.
• Put on a Bus:
  • After the events of Flayn's kidnapping and Seteth nearly getting killed by the Hurricane King, both decide to leave the monastery and go into hiding.
  • As her health starts getting worse, Mercedes drops out of school and returns to Fhirdiad with Cornelia in order to recuperate. Mercedes promises Annette and Edelgard that they'll meet again soon, and they do, when Mercedes is in her Death Knight persona during the Remire incident.
• Retcon: The final chapters of the story were being written around the same time Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes was released. After the game's release, the author reworked some of the elements of that game into the story (most notably Edelgard's childhood nickname for Dimitri, "Dee").
• Role Swap AU: The premise of the story is exploring a world where Dimitri became the Agarthans' chosen champion instead of Edelgard. A throwaway line also discusses the idea that there's probably a world out there where Claude is in that same role, and it eventually transpires that the Claude the heroes have been interacting with hails from just such a world.
• Running Gag:
  • Characters swearing by "Cethleann's tits". A couple of times have them make this curse in front of Flayn a.k.a. Cethleann herself.
  • Edelgard's siblings Joachim and Justine have a tendency to be chided for foul language.
• Sarcastic Confession: In Chapter 37, when discussing how easy her bodyguards' job is, Edelgard "jokes" about poisoning their tea. Little does anyone know she actually did poison their tea so she could sneak off to conduct her business in private.
• Secret Secret-Keeper:
  • Edelgard knows from the start that Dimitri is the Hurricane King since he took her place in the Crest Experiments in this world and is aware of his plans to declare war against the Church of Seiros.
  • Hilda figures out that Dimitri's the Hurricane King because she's the other time traveler. Likewise, Claude also learns of his fellow house leader's Secret Identity from Hilda's knowledge of her alternate future.
  • After the events of Remire, Edelgard eventually determines that Mercedes of all people is the Death Knight in this world.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: After all the trouble Seteth and Flayn went through to go into hiding, they were attacked by the Hurricane King's henchmen on Saint Cichol Day^noteSeteth is Saint Cichol, and they struggle to make it back to Garreg Mach while fending off their pursers, essentially returning to where the Hurricane King and Thales are waiting for them.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Edelgard is reassuring Ashe that ghosts aren't real, she ends up directly quoting Scrooge trying to explain away Marley in A Christmas Carol.
    Edelgard: Our reason tells us that any ghosts we might encounter in this world must only be a trick of our senses—an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, or a fragment of an underdone potato.
  • The author's notes for Chapter 24 directly compare Edelgard's choice about whether to support Burkhart or Anselm during the Adrestian succession crisis to the choice of whether to free Sirrus or Achenar.
  • In Chapter 36, Edelgard is assigned two bodyguards, ostensibly for her protection, named Biggs & Wedge.
  • When Edelgard finally meets Immanuel, he turns out to be a blatant expy of the Dude, complete with scraggly beard, tendency to "abide" whenever trouble shows up, and fixation on his rug.
  • During the Battle of Garreg Mach, Petra challenges Count Bergliez with the words "Hello. My name is Petra Macneary. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
  • The author's notes for Chapter 51 admit that the author was on a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure bender while writing the chapter. Thales is dealt with by casting him into the ocean where he can't hurt anyone again (echoing Notorious B.I.G.'s fate in Golden Wind), and Ellie wonders if he will eventually just stop thinking entirely to cope (echoing Kars' fate in Battle Tendency).
  • In Chapter 56, the narration describes Derdriu's signature fried pheasant dish, which is basically Kentucky Fried Chicken's Double Down sandwich. Hilda even describes it as "finger-licking good".
  • During Edelgard's trip to antediluvian Earth, she sets foot on a space colony shaped like a ring. During her time aboard the spaceship, a fleet admiral named Jacob Keyes is briefly mentioned.
  • When fleeing from Rhea's phantom soldiers in the Holy Tomb in Chapter 79, a double example happens when a Red Shirt named Roger Norville describes their pursuers in such terms: "They can't be killed, can't be reasoned with, can't be bargained with... they don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear... and they absolutely will not stop... ever... until we’re all dead..."
  • In Chapter 80, Hubert (actually Heidrun - long story) and Edelgard describe coffee as "blacker than a moonless night, hotter and more bitter than Ailell".
  • After taking control of the time gate at Research Facility Omega, Claude floats the idea that he could use it to become a time lord victorious.
  • In the epilogue, Ellie becomes widely known throughout Fódlan Alpha as the One-Winged Angel.
• The Slacker: Apparently alt. Edelgard was notoriously known for slacking off, dozing during classes, or skipping them entirely, and she gets along well with fellow slacker Hilda. Edelgard resolves to improve her counterpart's reputation for both of their sakes.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Ladislava is mentioned a couple of times as having survived canon Edelgard's unification war. There's no way for her to survive the original game.
  • Due to the Agarthans choosing to focus on Faerghus instead of Adrestia in the alternate timeline, Edelgard's siblings, the real Lord Arundel, Lysithea's siblings, and Monica are all still alive.
  • Anselma, Edelgard's mother and Dimitri's stepmother, is uncovered alive in both timelines.
• Stress Vomit: Dimitri's reaction to learning the truth about the Children of the Goddess is to declare he's going to be sick, and then promptly do so.
• Succession Crisis: In Chapter 20, it's revealed that Anselm has made a bid to claim the throne of Adrestia in the wake of the emperor's passing, claiming that Ionious IX willed him to be his successor due to his Crest of Seiros in defiance of Adrestia's tradition of primogeniture stipulating the eldest brother Burkhart should be emperor. Within the next few chapters, Burkhart claims to have the support of Count Bergliez, Anselm claims Count Hevring and definitely has Duke Gerth and Count Varley, and Duke Aegir and Marquise Vestra remain neutral for the time being. Edelgard also deduces that those who slither in the dark are likely taking advantage of the crisis to cause civil disarray in Adrestia and soften it up for an eventual invasion. Ultimately, Aegir and Vestra both side with Burkhart, who openly seizes the crown in the wake of Rhea taking Edelgard prisoner, arresting Hubert when he helps her escape, and conscripting Caspar and Ferdinand to defend her from an incoming Kingdom invasion.
• Super-Strength: Dimitri's Crest of Blaiddyd grants him the ability to perform incredible feats of strength, such as lifting up a carriage or lifting a grown man by the neck with one hand and choking the life out of him. With the Crest of Flames implanted into him, his strength is taken up to eleven, allowing him to destroy the head of a Demonic Beast with a single punch or rip a body in half. Although having two Crests causes Dimitri to be wary of those who he touches, afraid he might accidentally hurt someone with a single touch.
• Take That!: During 'Glenn''s funeral in Chapter 30, Byleth and Edelgard are made to wear the Enlightened One outfit for the ceremony. Byleth, Edelgard, and several characters like Seteth (or rather Vual), Dimitri, Claude, and Hilda waste no time in taking stabs at the outfit.
• Three Laws-Compliant: Ancient replicants were coded to follow Asimov's three laws. Deconstructed in that this made them unsuitable for situations where some harm does need to be inflicted (the given example is a judge who acquitted everyone because sending them to jail would constitute harming them).
• Timey-Wimey Ball: There are so many intersecting time travelers, time loops, and time paradoxes throughout the story that Chapter 69 sees poor Sylvain have to make a flowchart just to make sense of it all.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: Chapter 13 ends with a promise that someone is going to die in the next chapter. It's Ashe Ubert.
• Trapped in the Past:
  • Overlaps with Trapped in Another World due to the Alternate Timeline, but Edelgard and Hilda find themselves stuck in the bodies of their alternate counterparts and one of the goals (among others) is to find a way back to their original timeline.
  • Played straight with Ashe and an Agarthan mage, who fell down a portal that sent them to the year 735. Ashe decides to stay and start a family while the Agarthan mage, who is Vual, 'returns' back to the present year the old-fashioned way, intent on keeping his promise (protecting Ashe's classmates and teacher) to his old friend.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Chapter 35 reveals the current Agarthans as being this — homunculi created by the original Agarthans who turned against their masters and took over.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": At separate points in the story, Hapi takes some kittens into her care and Edelgard does the same with some baby chickens. They both name their pets after acquaintances of theirs, with Ferdinand getting a kitten and a chick. The latter turns out to be a girl.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 4, "The Road Not Taken": Seteth decides that he and Flayn should leave the monastery and go into hiding after the latter was rescued, and while resting at Zanado, Byleth and the Blue Lions discover dying Agarthan mages horrifically fused to the ancient ruins and Edelgard finds an old and rusted version of the dagger Dimitri gave her held onto by a severed arm.
  • Chapter 7, "The Flame and the Wind": Edelgard receives a mysterious message from someone who knows that she's a time traveler.
  • Chapter 8, "Falling Short of Heaven": During the battle against the Bishop of the Western Church, Edelgard is briefly brought back to her timeline after alternate Byleth activates Divine Pulse, and not only does Edelgard retain the memories of the events that Byleth erased, but she can also see Sothis.
  • Chapter 9, "The Gryphon at Gronder": While Edelgard and the Blue Lions enjoy their victory over the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, it ends with Edelgard, in a drunken state, revealing to Jeralt that she's from an alternate future and finding another message that knows about the date of her wedding to Byleth.
  • Chapter 11, "The No-Eyed People": Edelgard confronts Hilda over the messages and learns from Claude that Hilda's the other time traveler and that the second message was not from Hilda, but an unknown person. Edelgard is forced to team up with Claude and Hilda in order to put a stop to what the Agarthans are planning and realizes that Thales has taken on Rodrigue's appearance in this timeline.
  • Chapter 13, "The Road to Remire": Mercedes is forced to drop out of school because of health concerns and the chapter ends with Byleth and the Blue Lions arriving at Remire, where the entire village is entirely gone.
  • Chapter 14, "The Fire In Which We Burn": The Blue Lions fight Solon and Edelgard discovers that the Agarthans have built some mechanism that somehow is connected to time and alternate worlds in order to hurt Byleth/Sothis. They destroy the machine before it could explode, but in the process, Ashe falls down the portal, presumably to his death.
  • Chaper 15, "By His Bootstraps": Following the events of Remire, Solon's actions have shaken Dimitri's faith in Rodrigue/Thales and his Agarthan allies, and Edelgard deduces that Mercedes is the Death Knight of this timeline. And while paying a visit to Ashe's siblings, Byleth and the Blue Lions receive a letter written by the supposedly deceased Ashe. As it turns out, Ashe was sent back in time to the Year 782 and became this timeline's version of Pan the tactician.
  • Chapter 18, "Rise of the Hurricane King": While it mostly focus on Dimitri's coronation, near the end of the chapter, Edelgard receives an urgent message from Enbarr that Ionius von Hresvelg IX had passed away and she reveals to alternate Hubert about her being a time traveler after he suspects her of being an Agarthan mole who replaced this world's Edelgard.
  • Chapter 20, "Distant Fires": In the wake of Emperor Ionius' death, Anselm, one of Edelgard's brothers, stages a coup against crown prince Bukhart in order to seize the title of Emperor for himself. Later, Edelgard eavesdrops on Glenn/Kronya communicating with Rodrigue/Thales and Cornelia about a plan to have another Agarthan agent replace Edelgard in order to get rid of her without raising suspicion.
  • Chapter 22, "The Red and the Black": Solon is killed by Byleth after she becomes the Enlightened One in the Sealed Forest and Edelgard and the rest of the Time Squad are able to kidnap Glenn/Kronya in their plan to reveal the truth to Dimitri. However, it won't be easy, as Dimitri has a minor Freak Out over Byleth's new appearance and Rodrigue/Thales uses Solon's death to his advantage in order to regain Dimitri's trust; effectively putting Edelgard and the others back to square one.
  • Chapter 24, "The Scorpion and the Leopard": After being found out by Cornelia, Hapi finally stands up to her 'adoptive mother' and threatens to tell the Church everything she knows about Cornelia's involvement with the Death Knight and the Tragedy of Duscur. In order to keep her silent and for defying her, Cornelia turns Hapi into a Demonic Beast.
  • Chapter 26, "Trust No One": Edelgard meets Constance von Nuvelle, who is presumably the Agarthan agent sent to take her place, and Edelgard receives a shocking revelation that Rodrigue/Thales is the same Thales from her world, being another time traveler. Not to mention that Claude reveals he has been receiving messages from his future self, which only makes him suspicious on his motives and allegiance. And it doesn't stop there; after convincing Glenn/Kronya to turn on Thales, she was about to tell Dimitri the truth, only to be spooked by the untimely arrival of Rhea, who has come to collect Byleth and Edelgard for her plans to bring back her mother. Fortunately, Seteth and Flayn's return halted Rhea's plans. Unfortunately, as Edelgard chases after Kronya during a blizzard, the latter is pushed off the edge of the ramparts to her death by a cloaked figure.
  • Chapter 29, "The Face Revealed": Where do we begin? Hilda tells Edelgard that Constance ISN'T an Agarthan spy after trying to take off her disguise, which Edelgard soon starts to suspect Flayn as one, and then later, Seteth as the spy after confirming Flayn isn't. It's then revealed that Claude's been working with Dedue, as the latter has been his confidential source of intel, and Alternate Hubert finally calls out Edelgard over her actions that will surely affect Alternate Edelgard when she returns. What's more, Jeralt leaves the monestary at the end of the Guardian Moon month after his expulsion from the Knights of Seiros, and Seteth finally decides to talk to both Byleth and Edelgard about Rhea, which brings questions about his allegiance after he reveals that he knows Pan the Tactician (aka. Ashe Ubert).
  • Chapter 30, "Jamais Vu": Continuing off from the last chapter, 'Seteth' is indeed revealed to be an Agarthan spy named Vual, who is the same Agarthan mage who was sent to the past with Ashe, whom he befriended, and now carries on the wish of his old friend to protect Ashe's teacher and classmates from harm. Vual tells them that the real Seteth might be alive, and even though Byleth and Edelgard question his alliance, he reveals to them the details of Operation Antediluvia. On the day of 'Glenn's' funeral, Rhea leads Byleth and Edelgard to the Holy Tomb, where she reveals her plans to have Edelgard forcibly become the Enlightened One like Byleth through rather dubious means. Byleth manages to save them both with Divine Pulse, but while resting in the infirmary, Edelgard is confronted by Count Galatea, who is revealed to be the Agarthan spy meant to take her place. Luckily, Vual comes to Edelgard's rescue, killing her would-be replacement.
  • Chapter 32, "A Mask of Her Own Face": Edelgard now has to pretend that she has been replaced by the deceased Vepar, and both she and Vual learn that there is another research facility underneath the village near Gaspard county, which is Ashe's hometown. Also, Edelgard managed to partially cure Hapi from her transformation with Hanneman's concoction, but she, along with Byleth, Catherine, and Alois are forced to fake her death in order to protect Hapi from her pursuers and to learn more about Cornelia and her allies.
  • Chapter 33, "The Haunting of Castle Gaspard": Initially, the chapter seems to be a break after the previous chapter, with the class investigating the ghost of Castle Gaspard. The chapter does, however, contain two major reveals. Firstly, the class finds out Mercedes is not only the Death Knight, but that she has such limited lifespan the armor essentially acts as her life-support. More important and shocking, however, is the second reveal of the real Seteth, alive, appearing before the group and (rightfully) angry at his doppelganger.
  • Chapter 34, "Mirror Image, Mirror Darkly": Picking up from last chapter, Seteth is alive, and while it does pose as a threat to Vual and Edelgard's lives, Vual is deemed not a threat after Seteth regains his wits and vouches for him to the Blue Lions. What's more, Vual convinced Dedue to work together and Edelgard (or Edelgard posing as Vepar) to take down Thales, on the condition that Vual doesn't tell Dimitri anything about Thales.
  • Chapter 35, "Beasts of Garreg Mach": At first, it seems to a breather episode with the Blue Lions and friends throwing a surprise birthday party to cheer Annette up after Mercedes was unmasked as the Death Knight. Then near the end of the chapter, two fake Hurricane Kings show up, as a plan to throw suspicion off Dimitri since Mercedes' unmasking meant some people would soon connect Dimitri to the Hurricane King. But the real shocking twist is that one of them also has the Crest Of Flames, which puts everything into question.
  • Chapter 37, “In the Presence of Another World”: Edelgard reveals that Hapi’s death was faked to Hilda and the fact that she and Thales are from a different timeline to Vual. Rhea attempts to enact her plan and Anselm is revealed to have made a deal with her to enact it, but Dimitri reveals himself to be the Hurricane King. All of that is nothing compared to what happens during the fight: three Crest of Flames activate, which causes a Time Crash and the reveal of Sothis’s true form, which exists in all timelines.
• Wham Line:
  • Near the end of Chapter 7, Edelgard receives a mysterious note that implies that the sender knows that she's a time traveler.
    "YOU DON'T BELONG HERE."
  • Again near the end of Chapter 9, Edelgard receives another mysterious note with a certain date and year written on it. It's the day she was married to Byleth.
    "I KNOW WHERE YOU CAME FROM. 16 GARLAND MOON 1186."
  • Chapter 11 has two:
    • First, when Edelgard confronts Claude on being the other time traveler, she decides to see if he is as he claims to be.
      Claude: This whole world’s been hard to adjust to.
      Edelgard: Yes, I agree. I sometimes feel as though I miss Lysithea most of all.
      Claude: Who?
    • Soon after that, when Edelgard mentions the two notes Claude had Hilda write, Claude has only this to say:
      Claude: First note? What do you mean, first note?
  • While Chapter 18 seems to focus on Edelgard attending Dimitri's coronation with Byleth, she soon receives urgent news from Enbarr that shocks her on how things are playing differently in this timeline.
    "Ionius von Hresvelg IX had passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday morning."
  • Following the news of her father's mysterious passing in this timeline, Edelgard receives even more bad news in Chapter 20 from Hubert.
    Hubert: I do not know how else to describe it, Your Highness, but there appears to be a coup in progress.
  • Chapter 26 has two that changes things in the story and shakes up things that Edelgard believes she knows.
    • The first comes to when she finally confronts Claude on his allegiance and motives for agreeing to this alliance and she already confirmed that Claude isn't an Agarthan mole. While he doesn't reveal his intentions yet, Claude does reveal that he's been receiving messages from the future and the sender is a big shock to Edelgard.
      Claude: I’ve been receiving more of those letters. The first letter I got said that nobody can know their own future.
      Edelgard: The messages are from the future?
      Claude: So it seems. And there’s only one person I know of who can copy Hilda’s handwriting so perfectly and has access to her perfume.
      Edelgard: Who?
      Claude: Me.
    • As Rhea begins her plans to resurrect her mother, she's about to take both Byleth and Edelgard into custody until Alois arrives with some urgent news that puts Rhea's plan on halt.
      Alois: Seteth and Flayn just showed up at the front gates. They're both hurt. Badly.
  • After Jeralt defied Rhea's orders and refuse to hand Byleth over to her in the last chapter, Chapter 27 has this.
    Rhea: Jeralt Reus Eisner, I hereby strip you of your rank and expel you from the Knights of Seiros.
  • While Edegard is having lunch with Dedue in the greenhouse, Dedue gives her one last warning to her to stay away from Those Who Slither/The Men in Black, he drops this little gem in Chapter 28.
    Dedue: This is the most I can do for you now. If you truly care about His Majesty — or your mother — you will keep your silence.
  • Chapter 29 has two that puts into question everything that Edelgard knows thus far.
    • The first is the message that Hilda slips into Edelgard's room. Hedwig and Flayn think it's a love letter for her, though the contents send chills to Edelgard:
      I tried the neck trick on Constance before dinner. It didn’t work. IT ISN’T HER.
    • The last scene in has Seteth asking Byleth and Edelgard to come to his office so they can talk about Rhea. He is already under suspicion for being an Agarthan mole. Seteth starts off the discussion with this little line:
      Seteth: Professor Byleth, Lady Edelgard… Pan the Tactician sends his regards. ^noteDue to time shenanigans, Ashe is Pan the Tactician in this timeline.
  • When Edelgard, Bernadetta, and the others are about to leave Varley Manor, Anselm stops them to give Edelgard a letter and to inform her some news on why she can't support Burkhart.
    Anselm: El... our brother has married Lady Cornelia von Rusalka.
  • From the end of Chapter 33, someone unexpected shows up at the worst time.
    Seteth: Flayn! Get away from that monster! Now!
• What If?: The main premise of this timeline, where Edelgard never went through the Crest Experiments and resumed her normal life after returning to Enbarr while Dimitri takes her place in those experiments since the Agarthans set their sights on the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus.
  • Ferdinand is the house leader of the Black Eagles, since Edelgard isn't the sole heir, and is engaged to her as an agreement between their fathers when the Insurrection of the Seven was dealt with more amicably.
  • Like Edelgard, Lysithea and her siblings were never experimented on; thus, Lysithea doesn't attend Garreg Mach, and her older brother Arcturus von Ordelia goes in her place.
  • When Mercedes and her mother had to flee from House Martritz, they took Emile with them to Faerghus rather than him remaining behind. Though because they fled to somewhere in the Kingdom rather than head directly to House Bartels, Mercedes and Emile got kidnapped for the Crest Experiments and end up in the same prison as Dimitri, where the two were experimented on first. Mercedes ended up becoming Dimitri's prototype and was later adopted by Cornelia while Emile didn't survive.
  • Hapi remained in Cornelia's 'care' as her adopted daughter alongside Mercedes, being further experimented on for Those Who Slither in the Dark.
  • Unlike in Edelgard's world, where Seteth and Flayn remain in the monastery after the latter was rescued from her kidnapping, both decide to leave Garreg Mach as Seteth initially planned. Likely because the Hurricane King made it clear that he knows that Seteth and Flayn are Children of the Goddess and he nearly choked Seteth to death.
  • House Nuvelle still exists in this timeline, having survived the Brigid-Dagda war unlike in Edelgard's timeline where House Nuvelle collapsed. Unfortunately, Constance might have been replaced at some point and an Agarthan taking on her form. Fortunately, this is ultimately revealed to be an incorrect conclusion based on incomplete intel, and Constance is in one piece.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The final chapter sees Edelgard returning back to her original timeline and reuniting with her loved ones, with Fire Emblem style ending passages in between showing what happened to the people of the altered timeline:
  • Dimitri had his crests removed and led a series of reforms that ended the Age of Crests beyond the Kingdom's borders. When that was done, he stepped down from his position and retired to private life alongside his wife Marianne.
  • Dedue was able to rebuild Duscur alongside his wife Bernadetta. While he was known for governance of Duscur, and spycraft, some say his cookbook on Duscur food was his greatest work as now there are multiple restaruants across the land boasting amazing Duscur cuisine. Bernadetta, on the other hand, became famous for her stories which presented the histories of Duscurites and Agarthans as epic adventures.
  • Sylvain married a commoner among the Gareg Mach faculty and left all of House Gautier's fortunes and authority in her hands.
  • Ingrid led a brief rule as Count Galatea, only to mysteriously vanish from the land once she resigned. No one knows where she went, but the final scene reveals she somehow made it to Edelgard's timeline to live out her life with her and Byleth.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Chapter 66 is an extended courtroom episode heavily borrowing from Ace Attorney, particularly taking a dramatic revelation of one of the prosecution's guilt in the climax of the trial, breakdown and all. Edelgard even does the Edgeworth forehead tap.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: As cruel as Nemesis is, when the three lords meet him in Sothis' soul while trapped in their child bodies, he declares that there's no sport in murdering defenseless children.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Edelgard spends Chapter 43 putting a plan in motion and then having to make several on-site adjustments as things go awry. She and Gerlinde lure Cornelia to a tea party in the greenhouse, where Edelgard will blow Cornelia to kingdom come with a stolen brick of semtex. Unfortunately, Cornelia figures out it's a trap, poisons Gerlinde, and leaves her there to take the fall, forcing Edelgard to frantically disarm the semtex. Then Byleth turns back time offscreen, incapacitating Edelgard's body and putting Gerlinde back in danger, forcing the alternate Edelgard to go to her own world to disarm the semtex again. Unfortunately, the alternate Edelgard doesn't realize she needs to hide or dispose of the semtex, and when it is discovered Cornelia immediately realizes Edelgard is the culprit. Fortunately, Cornelia still thinks Edelgard is her own Agarthan imposter, and her attempts to "expose" her only succeed in outing herself as a traitor. In the ensuing altercation, Ingrid manages to tie the semtex into Cornelia's hair, blowing her to kingdom come when she tries to flee.
• You Can See Me?: As it turns out, due to crossing timelines, both Hilda and Edelgard eventually gain the ability to see Sothis when she's taken a physical form, like Byleth. Sothis and Byleth are both surprised by this.
• You Can See That, Right?: Edelgard isn't really certain that she's seeing Sothis, until Hilda directly asks her this.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Once Stable Time Loops start coming into play, Edelgard is horrified to realize that some of their actions are set in stone and averting them will cause a destructive paradox. This ranges from Edelgard being forced to allow past Thales to escape to 1172 so he can cause the Tragedy of Duscur, murder Felix's family, and ruin Dimitri's life to Thales Senior's efforts to stop New Babel and the destruction of old humanity being doomed to failure.
• You Will Be Beethoven: Of all the ways Ashe Ubert could have met his end, living out a prosperous, storied life as the legendary Pan the Tactician is not a bad way to go at all.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion: Ancient Thales decides to try to stop New Babel to save humanity from itself.

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