Deep within the royal palace of Ylisstol, a soldier clad in blue and gold plate armor forced a middle aged woman into the throne room. This throne room was far more extravagant than it had ever been under Chrom or Emmeryn. Golden statues of figures from Ylissean history adorned the room. Blue and gold banners depicting the Mark of Naga hung down from the walls. At the end of the room was an absolutely massive throne, its frame covered in gold and its padding elaborately colored.
Seated on the throne was a young woman wearing an elaborate combination of robes and armor. Her robes were very similar to those Emmeryn had worn years earlier, but they were colored gold and blue. Unlike Emmeryn, her robes were also covered by plates of armor along her shoulders, legs, arms, and chest. The young woman also had a flowing, golden cape, with deep blue symbols of the monarchy woven into it. The only part of the woman's body that wasn't draped in a display of opulence was her head. She only wore a relatively simple tiara, identical to the one the other woman would have been wearing had the guard not taken it from her. Finally, the holy weapon of Ylisse, Falchion, was sheathed at the woman's side.
She sat up in her throne as her soldier dragged the middle aged woman in front of her. The woman slowly rose to her feet, and the two locked eyes. The Mark of Naga was on the left eye of both women, and they saw it in each other's face as they spoke. If it weren't for their age differences, it would have been like looking into a mirror for both of them. "If it isn't my... 'older sister'."
"We captured her as soon as she stepped foot inside the palace, just as you instructed, Empress." The man said proudly.
"You've done your country well, soldier. Release her now. I will speak to her."
The man shoved the elder woman, almost knocking her to the ground. She brushed herself off and started to walk towards the throne, though guards closer to the Empress readied their weapons when she got too close. The older woman had long navy blue hair like the Empress, but it was fading, as gray as it was blue. Her face had once been identical to the younger woman's, but wrinkles had become set in her expression. Both women looked very similar to each other, and they both looked very similar to the iconic image of the Future Witness when she had fought alongside the Shepherds against the Fell Dragon, and yet compared to her both women looked off. The older woman stood apart from the hero of time due to her age, and the younger one because she allowed her face to be twisted with expressions of rage that her counterpart had never worn in her youth. The older woman wore dark blue clothing with only a few pieces of armor, an outfit far more reminiscent of her own youth than the decadent attire of her younger self. She stood up straight. "Well 'Empress', is it everything you ever wanted? Have you brought peace to your new empire? Are you proud of what you've done?"
"Don't tell me you came back just to lecture me." The Empress rested her cheek on her arm and sank into her throne. "I warned you. I told you what would happen if you came back."
"Everything is falling apart! You've destroyed the peace we've worked decades for. War with Plegia and Ferox! Valmese ships probing our shores! You're steering Ylisse into a world war, and do you even know why?! You allow the nobles and your advisors to use you like a puppet! You've allowed them to seduce you with promises they don't know how to keep. They get close to you and whisper in your ears words that smell of honey but savor as venom."
"What do you know about ruling?! You were nothing but a brute. You solved problems by swinging your sword at them. You didn't lead. You weren't responsible for people's lives. My life can't be easy like yours."
"EASY?!"
"Yes! Easy! I'm responsible for the lives of thousands of people. I have to lead an entire country! In the people's eyes, you're a hero. The great hero of time! The crusader of Naga! Champion of humanity! You can do no wrong! You have no idea what kind of responsibilities I have! Whenever anything goes wrong, people always blame the Exalt. Every problem that Ylisse faces, I have to deal with it. I take the blame! No one looks up to me for keeping this country together, but everyone looks up to you just for fighting. Just because you were a mindless brute that could do nothing but kill. Who are you to talk down to my decisions as Exalt?!"
The older woman was shaking with frustration at this point. She took several seconds to calm herself, and even then she couldn't keep her voice from quaking with anger. "Easy?! Y-You think my life was easy?! If you could see the things I've seen, if you knew what I had to go through!" As she spoke, the anger in her voice was gradually replaced with sadness. "But everything I did, everything I did, was for you. I wanted to give you a better future. No matter how horrible, how soul-crushingly terrible things became, I kept going because I knew that if I gave up, if I couldn't save the world, then you would suffer like I did. I promised myself that I would give you the life I couldn't have. I promised myself that you would grow up with your mother and father, and with your aunts and cousins. You would have a normal life. A peaceful life. You'd never have to pick up a sword if you didn't want to. I devoted my life to giving you everything that I couldn't have. What happened to you to turn you into this. Was it the nobles? Did they twist you into this? Was it your chief advisor? Naga forbid, is this what I would have become if I didn't have the fight against Grima to devote my life to?"
"Oh yes, go on more about your past. I never get tired of hearing about that. Tell me more about how you fought Grima and travelled through time and fought alongside Chrom because I never heard that!" Lucina rose from her throne and slowly started to walk towards her older self. "I never heard your story time and time again from father, and mother, and Robin, and Aunt Lissa, and all the nobles. No they never went on and on about it! 'Why can't you be more like the other Lucina?' 'The other Lucina wouldn't have done that.' 'The other Lucina would have done this.' No I never heard that!" The Empress said bitterly. "I grew up in your shadow my whole life! My whole damn life! Always they were comparing me to you. Everyone, even mother and father, they just wanted me to be more like you. I never got to live my own life! You stole my childhood from me!"
"I-I stole it?! I fought to give you the childhood I never had! You had everything you could have wanted! Gods what I wouldn't have given to see mother and father again when I was growing up. When I came to this timeline, when I saw how great mother and father are, I knew I had to fight to give you a normal childhood. I knew that I had to give anything it took to make sure that you could grow up with them. To make sure that you could grow up with such wonderful parents. Gods, there's nothing I wouldn't have given once to have your childhood. You were supposed to be better than me. You were supposed to be everything I never had the chance to become. Why, gods why did you grow into such a childish and petty tyrant?!"
"Well I'm sorry I didn't turn into you. I'm sorry I lived my own life. Sorry 'sis'. Sorry mother. Sorry father. I'm so sorry I wasn't exactly like the great hero of time. I'm sorry I dared to want to be my own person!"
"If father could see you now-"
"Well he can't, can he?! He can't see anyone ever again. Tell me, 'big sister', did he die a warrior's death in your timeline? He died slowly and painfully here. Tuberculosis does that to people. I guess not everything's better in this future, huh?"
"Don't talk about our father like that."
The Empress gave a smile that wasn't at all friendly. "Yes, 'our' father. Thing is, he's not really our father now, is he?" She stomped her foot on the floor. "He's MY father! He was always my father. Not yours. You're an aberration. An anomaly. Your continued existence here is a crime against nature. You should have gone back to your wretched timeline."
A tear fell down the elder Lucina's cheek. "Robin was right about you."
The Empress walked back up the steps to her throne and sat back down. She allowed her body to mold itself into the chair, providing a sharp contrast to her older self. The younger instance of the woman looked like she was part of the throne. She seemed to revel in its splendor. In the opulence of the palace. Her older counterpart seemed to want nothing to do with any of it. She looked like she held her body in such a way that she could be ready for battle at a moment's notice, even so many years after the fight against Grima. She stood determined, while her younger self held her body in a slovenly manner. She looked strong yet heroic, while her younger self had more of a regal yet domineering look. Lucina the elder was forever the hero, the soldier, the warrior, the champion. Lucina the younger had grown into a twisted inversion. She had become the politician, the monarch, the warlord, the imperator. "I don't want to hear about Robin anymore. I don't want to hear about you anymore, either. You were always perfect at everything. The perfect mother. The perfect daughter. The perfect soldier. The perfect hero. They always wanted me to be you, yet I have become a better hero than you ever could have, even as they always compared me to you. You fought to give humanity a chance for a better future, but I am actually building that future. I am actually building a better world. You walk around like you're the second coming of the Hero King, but I am actually building a new empire. I actually walk in the steps of Marth, or the First Exalt. I am actually building a better system. You fought, and killed, but you never built anything. You think you saved lives. I will create a unified humanity! I will end war forever, and by doing that, I will save more lives than have ever existed!"
"Is that what you call this? A better world?"
"When I was little, I wondered if you would be Exalt. Everyone thought so highly of you. If you wanted to be Exalt, how could I stop you? I was nothing compared to you. They told me though that you promised, you promised, that you wouldn't take the throne. You promised not to steal my birthright, yet ever since I inherited the throne you've only ever looked down on my decisions. You're trying to rule through me!"
"I'm not trying to control you! I'm only trying to help!"
"I don't need your help. You may have been a great hero once, but now you're just an aging woman leeching off of her family. You should have died years ago fighting Grima. You would have gone down a hero then."
The older Lucina finally realized that there was no reasoning with her younger self. Everything she said just brought more pain and resentment from her. The time for repairing their relationship had long passed. "You know what? Part of me wishes I did die back then. If I did, I'd have died thinking I'd given you a better future. I wouldn't have seen you grow into such a mad woman. You're very much a leader. You're a lot like Gangrel, or Walhart, or our grandfather, but you're nothing like the Hero King, and you're nothing like Chrom."
Lucina just smirked and sunk deeper into her throne. "This isn't your world anymore. It's mine. I am power incarnate. I am the savior of humanity. The age of heroes is at an end, for I will be the one hero this world needs. I will do what you never could do. I will bring peace."
The older Lucina gave one last solemn look to her younger self. "I remember when I held you for the first time after it was all over. After Grima was defeated. I'd held you before, but I never held you very closely. You weren't my daughter after all. It didn't feel like something I should do. After we defeated Grima though, I held you as tightly as I could. I pressed you to my chest and I didn't ever want to let go. I looked down into your eyes, and the Mark of Naga on your eye that I have. You grabbed my finger with your tiny little hand, and you had the silliest look on your face. For the first time in years, for the first time since I could remember, my stress disappeared. I felt like I'd won. I'd finally made a better future for you. I finally made a world where you could grow up safe with your family. I finally gave you the chance to live the life I never had. To see you like this now… you're breaking my heart."
The younger Lucina stared intently at her older self, but she didn't seem moved by her words. Her look was more inquisitive. She finally raised her arm. "Guards! Take Lucina 'the Elder' away. Her status as an asset to the Ylissean Empire has reached its end."
"Yes, Empress." One of the royal guards approached the older Lucina and shoved her in the shoulder with such force that she was almost knocked over. "Get a move on!"
Lucina glared at the guard, but first she pulled a small object out of her pocket and angrily tossed it towards the throne. What looked like a small coin bounced off the ground and came to a rest just below the younger Lucina. Her older self shot a glare at the Empress as she turned her head towards her. "Another piece of silver for your collection." With that the guard marched the older Lucina out of the room. Her younger self angrily looked around.
"Well?! Don't just stand there! Someone bring that to me!"
"At once, your highness." Another guard picked up the object and presented it to his Empress. She took it in her hands and examined it closely. It was actually a silver pendant. The Mark of Naga was engraved on both sides. The younger Lucina sighed and tightened her grip on it.
Ylisstol - 30 Years Earlier
Lucina tightened her grip on her infant self and bounced her up and down. Her younger self giggled and reached out with her hands. Lucina held out her finger and her younger self gripped it. She smiled, and Lucina herself smiled even wider. Chrom walked over and placed his hand on Lucina's shoulder, smiling at both of his daughters. "It's been awhile since I've seen you this happy."
"It's been some time since I've been this happy. It's over. It's all over. She can finally live in peace." Lucina turned back to her infant self and nuzzled her. "Yours will be a happy future." Lucina kissed herself on the cheek and whispered into her ear. "And I'll always be there for you. Always."