Chapter 1

An uneasy chill woke Lon'qu and he was on his feet with his sword drawn. Over his children's crib loomed a hooded figure chilling in its familiarity. Lon'qu paled, but he paused for only the briefest of moments before he struck. The wraith cackled and danced out of the range of his blade. The ease at which she dodged brought hundreds of old memories to the front of his mind, filled with relief now misplaced.

"Really, this is how you greet your beloved wife?" Her hood fell onto her shoulders and Haura's face smiled back at him. It was a cold and cruel smile, with thin lips and red disdainful eyes. In her arms were the twins, sleeping against the familiar chest of their mother.

"Release my children." Lon'qu said with a growl as he raised his blade again.

"Did you forget that they came from me? Beautiful son and daughter of Grima." she simpered before her smile turned wicked. The hands that held them crackled with black magic. Its tendrils brushed across their flushed cheeks. "Not another move, human, or your children will never know your face."

"Grima..." Lon'qu snarled even as he lunged again. She shifted both children to her left arm and raised her right to block the strike. His blade ripped through the sleeve and skimmed off her arm. Gleaming dragonscales patterned the skin underneath and the fell dragon examined the unblemished scales with an air of intrigue.

"Was that supposed to hurt? For all your talk about becoming the strongest swordsman, that was pitiful. I suppose such is the limit of worthless humans." she said. Haura's face twisted into a semblance of the fell dragon, inhuman and burning bright with destruction. "No wonder you could never protect anyone, not your childhood sweetheart, not your wife, and not your children."

Lon'qu let out a hoarse shout as he swung at her. She danced away again but he succeeded in driving her towards a corner. Her words echoed like thunder in his head and drove knives into his heart. He had turned deathly pale as he realized that she had known right where to twist the handle because she still remembered their time together.

He charged at her again, aiming to slash through her chest whilst avoiding his children, and she caught the edge with her palm. The steel bit into the soft part of her hand and blood ran down the blade. The momentary surprise on her face made her look human, made her look as she did before, and Lon'qu pulled his sword back. His heart was beating in his throat and all he could hear was the rush of blood in his ears.

"Haura...give me back Marc and Morgan."

She sneered and she was all dragon again, full of brimstone and arrogance. "What greater honor could my children have than to serve their god?"

He had wasted moments on idle hope and he forced himself to become as cold as the steel in his hands, lest he suffer further heartbreak. Raising his sword parallel to the ground, he centered and grounded himself. He would not beg or plead. It had not worked before, when there had still been a glimmer of warmth and love in her pale face, right before she fell into the dragon's grip. Instead, he whispered a single prayer, to Basilio to give him strength in death, to Ker'i to harden his heart against the dragon who was not his wife, and to Naga to spare their children even at his expense.

Then he flowed forward and his sword whipped around with such speed that Grima only had time to block the blade with the back of her arm. He did not let up, as the steel screeched against the dragonscales, and broke her guard. As she stumbled back, trying to keep the children from falling, he dropped low and threw his swing against her thigh. He aimed to disable her movement, although the hard rattle of his blade meeting scales meant he only succeeded in briefly unbalancing her. No matter. Sweat ran down Lon'qu's temple as he twisted up to rip through the soft underbelly of her side.

What he didn't expect was for her to use the momentum of her falling to jab her elbow down onto his shoulder. The impact broke his form and he only managed a shallow cut along her abdomen. Her leg slammed into Lon'qu's solar plexus and he tried not to crumple as all the air escaped his lungs. The force behind her strikes held the weight and speed of a dragon, stronger than any manakete he had ever fought. Lon'qu barely managed to turn away from the full force and roll with the blows.

It had been foolhardy to fight her. She knew all his forms and moves while he had no idea how to deal with her. Her hand shot out and grabbed his collar. Still limp and gasping for air, Lon'qu offered no resistance as she hoisted him up to her eye level.

She was close enough for him to kiss her. Even now, his arms disobeyed his mind and ached to hold her. As he wheezed and tried to push air back into his lungs, he could still see Haura's mannerisms in Grima's face, from the way her brow creased to the way her mouth parted just so whenever they were in a difficult battle. Even with the leathery dragon scales across her face and the rage of Grima in her eyes, she looked lovely. The old anxiety made his mouth go dry.

"Pathetic. Even now, in this form, I am that weak human in your eyes." She stated without inflection and closed the distance between them. Her lips ghosted the shell of his ear and Lon'qu felt his breath hitch in his throat. With a cruel whisper, she breathed, hot, into his ear, "I will gladly dine on you tonight, dear husband."

Grima ducked her head down and dragged her teeth across the bare skin of his neck. With a hiss, she opened her jaws wide-

Lon'qu, hands trembling, snapped. His free hand struck her shoulder, an old wound, and Grima recoiled with a hiss. He grabbed her by the neck, gripping hard enough for her to gag on her wretched tongue, and her hand released his collar. They fell forward and he struck her diaphragm with the pommel of his sword. She choked on her own air and spat up clear liquid on his arm. He shoved her against the wall, knocking her head against the stone with a loud crack. Morgan woke up as he was jarred and began to wail. Grima gasped, red eyes bright, and blood ran down her forehead. Lon'qu pushed his blade up against the scales of her upper arm, trying to cut free Morgan and Marc from her grip. Grima refused to relinquish them.

They stood there, panting and wriggling against the wall, as Lon'qu tried to pry a now-wailing Morgan and Marc from her arm.

"You think you have bested me," she croaked as her unoccupied hand rose up limply to run down his cheek. Lon'qu could not help the gooseflesh that rose in the wake of her fingers. "But this is all just an amusing diversion." Her fingers lightly tapped down the arm that held her. She balled her hand into a fist and raised it above the crook of his elbow. His instincts kicked in overdrive and he let go of her before she struck to break his arm. As she dropped to her knee, bent over the children, Lon'qu placed his blade against her neck.

"I know even you won't survive if I take your head. Give me Marc and Morgan." he said, keeping his voice steady even as Morgan's cries grew in pitch.

Grima looked up to Lon'qu and, with her furrowed brow and lopsided mouth, she looked rather pensive. "What a cold man! How absolutely alluring, your hate is. But, if you truly intended to take my head, wouldn't you have done so by now?"

Lon'qu gritted his teeth and Grima's smile became wide and demented. The tip of his sword quavered. "Be quiet."

"You can't kill the only person left in this world that cared about you. Do you think you can bring her back, somehow? There's nothing left of that woman beside the tattered skin I wear and my triumphant blood! Nothing you do can stop me." Grima said with a feral smile. Marc awoke from her brother's crying and let out a loud shriek. In that instant, Lon'qu's eyes widened and he swung.

His wife's head rolled onto the carpet, that sinister grin frozen in time.

Lon'qu would not have moved, had not the cries of his children stirred him back into action. As Lon'qu knelt down to grab the two children, his hands fumbled for the first time in years and he dropped his sword. Morgan quieted and cooed as he entered his father's arms. Lon'qu placed him on the bed and turned to take Marc. Marc would not stop crying and, as Lon'qu tried to rock the baby in his arms, his eyes fell on Haura's headless corpse.

Lon'qu turned away and vomited on the carpet, careful to keep Marc away. His back was drenched in cold sweat and he shivered in the cold Feroxi air. Twice his nausea rose unbearably and the bile in his mouth made him gag. His hands shook and he clutched Marc, who continued to shriek her head off, tighter.

"I was right. You are weak and insignificant."

The voice ran chills up his body and he sprung to his feet while grabbing his sword off the ground. Balancing Marc precariously against his chest, he faced Grima's head as it rolled to look up at him. His stomach turned again.

"Did you think the body of the fell dragon was as fragile as yours?" The head scowled. Lon'qu heard the telltale hiss of magic weaving and he dodged to right as dark magic struck where he had been standing. The headless body moved on its own, running forwards with its bleeding stump and Lon'qu realized a second too late who it was going for.

"Morgan!" he bellowed desperately and he ran forward. He had to jump to the side to avoid another spell and to his horror, he could not close the distance quick enough. Grima growled in frustration as its body scooped up his son in her left arm and parried Lon'qu's downward stroke with her right hand. The blade split her hand cleanly this time and Grima howled in pain. Lon'qu slashed at her again, but in his panic to avoid his son, he swung wide and Grima dropped underneath his blade. She dashed for her head, and, even as Lon'qu threw his sword at her back, crashed through the window into open air.

Wings erupted out her back and she took off in the air. His sword which had embedded itself into her shoulder, fell down into the courtyard along with a spurt of blood. He could see she slew in the air from her uneven load. Above them, in the dark clouds, Lon'qu could see Grima's true body hovering in the distance.

Lon'qu ran to the window and roared to the fort, "Intruder in the air! To your positions!" In the crisp air, his voice traveled across the walls and the war gong began to ring. Torches flared up and the well drilled army reared up to his call. Lon'qu quickly grabbed a second sword and ran to join the guards on the walls. The blows Grima had dealt him ached but years of experience and adrenaline had taught him how to ignore and dull the pain. As he dashed down the hallways, Marc had curled up against his chest and he dared not leave her behind.

"Sir, is that a wyvern? Should we shoot it down?" one of the commanders ran up to him as he ascended the stairs to the top.

"Take all the aerial units and run it down. Have archers at ready, but don't shoot. Retrieve my son at all costs." Lon'qu ordered and the garrison burst into further activity.

The wyvern and griffon riders streaked after Grima. Watching on the ground, Lon'qu tightened his grip on Marc. Each soldier that got close enough was struck out of the air by large swaths of dark magic. One rider crashed with her mount onto the section of the wall that Lon'qu stood on and he ran over to her. "I couldn't-" she rasped. It was too late even with the clerics and she died moments afterwards.

If Cordelia or Sumia had survived, instead of dying alongside Chrom but a month prior, they, with their strength and aerial talent, would surely be able to rescue Morgan. Lon'qu almost ran to get on a wyvern and take after Grima himself. The idea was madness. He knew he had no manner of approaching her without also being struck down and he had never ridden a wyvern into combat before. But still he yearned.

Then, Marc started crying again. As he tried to hush her, he knew he could not leave her behind, even as part of his heart disappeared with Morgan and Haura.

"I'm sorry, sir… I don't think we can reach the dastard anymore. Truly...I'm sorry."

As Grima grew smaller in the sky, Lon'qu's hope, battered and fragile as it was, shattered a little further. Hollowness filled his bones. The general faded into the background of Lon'qu's attention. He put his sword down and clutched his daughter with the remaining scraps of his strength.

"Da-...Da?" Marc said with a struggle as her father's tears dripped on her blotchy cheeks. "Daddy. Daddy!" She was so small in his arms and Lon'qu kept looking in the empty space for her brother. Both Morgan and her had been in his arms just several hours ago when he laid them to sleep and promised he would keep them safe. He noticed Grima's blood had flecked onto her cheek and he wiped it off. The pads of his fingers tickled her and she gurgled.

"I'm here. I will never leave your side again." His voice was scratchy and his hands, still learning how to be gentle with a child, shook. "And I am so sorry…"

"Um. Ah- Daddy!"

He had long made the decision to follow the path of the sword. It was not a flawless philosophy, he knew it, but he thought it more than enough to bring his soul peace and protect those around him. Haura had told him, in those bright months too long ago, that she always loved watching him wield a blade.

But each time, when it had mattered, all he could do was watch. Watch Ker'i die, watch Haura fall to Grima, and watch Morgan disappear into the horizon. He did not trust himself to live through this war, let alone keep Marc safe now. And on his own face he could feel Haura's blood dry and harden.

He cursed himself, the gods, and, above all, his wife, again and again.

A/N:

So I wondered for a while after playing the Future Past chapters over the two Morgans. I realize it was to accommodate both genders of the avatar but it got me thinking about how both Morgans recognize the Outrealm Avatar as their mother/father, yet we only get one Morgan. What more, Morgan says during his paralogue that he was separated from his mother while traveling (supposedly through the timestream) so what became of that Avatar? So here was born a theory that the Morgan you find is Grima's Morgan.

As for the other twin? Well, we know none of the first generation survives in the original timeline.

(Also, Morgan is the boy and Marc is the girl because that makes me laugh.)