Final Conversation

Morgan didn't necessarily like being a dragon, so much as it was just something that happened. She was born to the world's best tactician, but he sacrificed himself to become Grima...and then she fought him, and with her own hand, she slew him. She closed her eyes, the last twelve seconds repeating themselves like the end of something had arrived, and it didn't know what happened next, so kept dragging it's pathetic existence out for longer than it had to, just to spite her.

Lucina ran up to land the killing blowing, Naga said that in this way, Morgan would survive and all would be well in the world until the Fell Dragon arose in a millennium, but if Morgan slew Grima, she was almost guaranteed death. Up to the moment of this fight she had wondered what that would be like, to strike Grima and die. She thought of all the things she'd think as she cast the final spell, and then the instance of dying, an aspect she had no previous experience with, something to be done once, something that was to be avoided, and she had for so long done her best to avoid, now would she part with her friends, just so the future wouldn't have to suffer Grima?

As she stormed up to Grima, slinging fire and thunder at her enemies, she decided what she would do.

"I'm sorry, everyone, but we almost failed too many times to let Grima go on...it's the toughest call ever, to give up enjoying the results of our efforts, but it's best this way, when I think of Grima's return, and how we almost failed...I can't allow Grima to return, ever. I don't want to be Fellblooded anyways, I want to be free! Free from the power to hurt you...it's well within the limits of my power and that's horrifying. So I asked myself a question, if you were from the future, and you came here to avert some disaster, then would I—knowing that in your time the thousand year sleep for Grima was almost over—allow him to be put asleep, only to know that you would suffer again?" her thoughts were surprisingly clear, given how much she tried not to think about it. She saw Cynthia dodging a plume of fire from the dragon's maw, and held her fists so tightly, she was sure her nails would cut her palms. She drew her blade and dove into the middle of a group of Grimleal, slicing through them, wind for the fliers, blades for the archers, and a quick blast of Thoron for everyone else, "I decided that I wouldn't allow that to happen, I couldn't allow that to happen, if I couldn't fight alongside you, I wouldn't let you fight at all...besides, I see myself bringing back the Fell Dragon...that power is in my blood, and I'm a danger to you, the danger I fear most, the one threat I could never properly calculate, but now I won't leave it to you to decide if the risk is worth it."

She didn't try to fight the tears now, from the shouts she heard Lucina hadn't expected her to jump into the middle of the enemy, Morgan knew she had these enemies beat, and was already far ahead of Lucina when the other girl noticed her, "Cynthia, withdraw!" Morgan ordered, pulling out a shiny rock.

"What, why would you want me to do that?" Cynthia demanded, "You're the one always going on about how we're stronger together!"

"Don't listen to her!" Severa yelled from somewhere, "She knows you can handle Grima's stupid face, she's going in for the kill!"

"Lucina, stop her!" Gerome warned.

"Someone use a staff!" Lucina shouted, hoping, praying, crying that someone would be able to pull their staff out quickly enough to stop the Fellblooded girl.

Morgan turned back and saw Lucina, she was quickly gaining speed, but Morgan would have Grima dead on the ground before the Exalt could ever catch up to her. But Lucina...it seemed that she was calling out to Morgan, "You're the one who always said it." Morgan turned away from Lucina and transformed into her dragon form, and rushed to meet the Fell Dragon, and her doom, as Lucina's words echoed in her head, "I challenge my fate!" with a sudden burst of resolve she opened her mouth and gave voice to her thoughts as she unleashed the hottest flame she could summon.

Those last moments replayed in her mind over and over as her body transformed again, and from her hand rolled her dragonstone. Two hands rolled her onto her back and she beheld the pain of the Exalt, "Maybe I should start with an apology-"

"No, just...don't say anything!" Lucina pulled Morgan into her arms, "Morgan...I understand why...but why this, and not being here, with me?"

"You guys are the best, but I can't let this hard work go for nothing...this is a permanent solution," Morgan replied, comfortable in Lucina's arms, "instead of relying on or risking the humanity of the future, I surrender my own...I knew you wouldn't approve-"

"That's not what I meant! And if you knew I wouldn't approve-"

"Approval or no, I didn't do this for you, I did this for the future, the one I wanted to-"

"And I don't mean 'us', I mean 'me', I want you to live, Morgan, me, for me, I did my part, you and your future could at least owe it to me!"

"You want peace...I want the world to have a more secure peace, Grima can't be allowed to live...in that way, it's the closest I can get to that one wish...peace...funny, I thought it would hurt more, having the life of me collapsing, floating away...like butterflies." she shifted her weight as Lucina cradled her and tried not to envy the Morgan of an alternate reality, where there was no Grima and where she wasn't dying, where Lucina loved her and held her. She imagined the scenery and decided that it must be Mount Prism, the most peaceful, beautiful, sacred place, where no Risen could appear outside of the special circumstances that Lucina's Shepherds encountered them under.

"But why must you end with him?" Morgan had never seen Lucina so distraught, and the guilt of being the one to make her cry stung.

"Because...I am him." Morgan took a breath, and found that even breathing wasn't painful, it was something else she felt in her chest, but it'd pass. She thought how she'd describe it, was it a momentary sting, a reflection of what she'd feel had Lucina been where she was, or something else...a thread being pulled, connected to everyone and embedded in her heart, now being pulled as it unwound? "Lucina, this can't be helped. As an avatar of evil, Grima and I share this fate."

"Morgan, wait!"

"I can't control this one, Lucy...nothing up my sleeves."

"I love you!"

"Lucy...I didn't know...I love you...more than words can say, so I...pray actions will be enough...to say everything I mean." she wiped away one of Lucina's tears with the back of her finger as she stared at the Brand of the Exalt in Lucina's eyes, "The rest is up to you. And you, my friends, I hope we can meet again...under better circumstances next time, though, shall we?"

"You can't leave me like this." Lucina cried.

"I'm sorry...there's so much I didn't know about you...how you felt, but I can at least leave you with this." Morgan placed a kiss on Lucina's cheeks, before disappearing.

"Lucy?" Cynthia flew up to her as Naga filled the air with a bright light, pulling them off the back of the dead Fell Dragon. They found themselves on a mountainside, and Cynthia continued to watch the Exalt, "Please ride with me or Gerome, you need some rest after that battle, and we can fly you to a nearby village."

Severa and Inigo stood behind Cynthia, "Lucina, why don't you do us a favor and take it easy?" Inigo requested.

"I...thank you, I just want some quiet." Lucina started on the trail down the mountain when Severa spoke up.

"You know, I did swallow my pride and became a Pegasus Knight, and know how to keep my thoughts in my head, so if silence is your only concern-" Severa stopped when Lucina turned around. She smiled a little and shook her head.

"See to Noire." Lucina replied, turning to the exhausted sniper for emphasis.

"Lucina, I can ride with someone else," Noire objected, "even if I'd feel less edgy...Gerome's quiet, he wouldn't mind the company!"

"Ahem," Gerome leapt off Minerva's back, "if I didn't know otherwise I'd agree, but I'm not the best company for her now. It seems she intends to go alone for a while anyways."

Lucina trekked down the mountain for hours, frustrated and upset in every way she could imagine, she wished she could fight Grima again, just to beat him to death. Lucina didn't know whether or not Morgan was right, on one hand, if Grima was merely put to sleep, he would give humans a reason to always stand together, but now no one could bring him back. No one would suffer, and besides, humans would always find a reason to kill, it was unavoidable. She wondered if, with that in mind, Grima could only be killed during this era, if next time, had there been a next time, humanity would be annihilated. Did it matter to her now if Grima came back a thousand or even three hundred years from now?

She just wanted Morgan back now, and knew it wasn't going to happen now. Lucina hadn't approved of the theoretical plot to put Grima down and hope Morgan's ties to her friends would be enough to keep her alive before, but ever since she almost died using her Dragonstone to bring Lucina back from death's door she had struck down any chance of a conversation on the matter, reiterating on multiple occasions that anyone else was to take a partner, engage Grima, weaken him, and switch places with the other fighter, who would ideally have a staff to pull Lucina close to Grima and tomes in case Grimleal backed him up, but Morgan threw those plans when she darted up out of nowhere. As a master tactician, she must have known how best to pull off her plan.

Lucina drew Falchion enough to see the gleam of it's blade, how hungry for the blood of the Fell Dragon they both were, her for to spill, it for to draw, both left angry and in pain at the undone feast that was planned. She pulled the hilt forward, ran the blade against the leather belt, and pulled the belt off. Sheath and blade were left under a tree. Falchion, a national treasure, left near the sight of the latest battle. Her father's blade, it wasn't enough to keep him alive, and now it had retired it's purpose.

"What am I doing?" she wondered, shaking her head, "I'm leaving it, I guess. The only reminders you have are of the time I spent fighting, and the one who died in this same fight, who once held you...Naga...I don't want to return this blade, but it seems wrong to use it for any purpose now, it seems cheap, it's your blade now...I'm just grateful you left it to us as long as you did."

She started to leave it when her words struck her senses. She turned around and drew Falchion, without the scabbard, this time, and walked away. It wasn't very conscious, but it was symbolic. What she lost today was important to her, hard to live without, Morgan was more important to her in life than a sheath could ever be on the battlefield, but the two did go together, a sheath and a blade, an exalt and her tactician, her heart and that of the one she lost. All three felt just as strange, one was awkward, the other was difficult, the last was all of the above and much more painful.

She was tired of thought, she figured a long walk home would make her focus on her tired feet, but she felt now that she could walk forever, alone with her thoughts in a forest, she sunk her blade into the ground, and fell on her hands and knees, her hands became fists, making twin holes in the ground as tears fell from her eyes, some fell straight down, others slid down her face. She took this moment to remember all that had been lost to Grima, now that there was nothing to destroy, nothing to obliterate, she was left empty handed, lost.

She fell on her side and wished she had stayed with the others. The restaurant where they agreed to celebrate was across from the inn they were to retire to afterwards. She wondered, between breaking down like this in front of people she would later have to lead and falling apart here, which was the better one, and decided that it was here, because she didn't really want any attention at all right now, but for a moment she had forgotten that.

She closed her blurry eyes and imagined marble halls of the palace, Morgan leaning against a pillar, one foot against it, because the feet on the furniture rule didn't apply to residents, or so she imagined the excuse would be. Life in Ylisstol wouldn't be like that now, it'd be cold and lifeless, like marble.

The more she let herself think of this, the more it'd hurt later, when reality pulled her out of her daydreams, but she let her imagination run free, as in her mind she was walking closer to the informal, blue and purple robed girl, the sole of her shoe leaving a footprint on the pillar as she read whatever she'd been reading while Lucina was doing whatever Exalts do during times of peace. Morgan looked up at her and walked up to her, not leaving her book on the marble banister, but on the floor, opening her palms and interlacing their fingers, resisting the urge to hug in the dead halls, because there was a dinner later, and though Morgan could get away with wrinkled cloths, Lucina wouldn't consider it.

"Hey, look at me, Lucina, it's alright now." Morgan whispered, she didn't want to smile, but the corner of her lips didn't cooperate, it was a painful smile, and crying on her side got uncomfortable, so she opened her eyes and started lifting herself on her elbow, but fell back down when she saw that, beyond two sets of ten fingers clasped tightly together, her favorite dragon lying on the ground like it was a mattress. Lucina glanced down at her feet and saw the scabbard she used for Falchion, "I'm sorry I hurt you so badly, but I'm here now."

Lucina gasped, but that was the only thing her mind gave her. She lay back down and squeezed the two hands in hers, and pulled her hands towards herself, it was reassuring when what she saw seemed to be real, but when Morgan disengaged their fingers to bring herself to Lucina, she was overjoyed, "Morgan." Lucina whispered, pulling the robe closer, half expecting to pull Morgan closer, only to find her arms wrapped around herself.

"Morgan, I love you...I love you so much!" she cried, hoping to give Morgan something to be replied to.

"That's the reason I'm here...people love me." Morgan replied, rubbing her scalp against Lucina's chin as a byproduct of her efforts to make herself comfortable on Lucina's shoulder, "I know that isn't how you meant...I love you, too."

"I...Morgan, I missed you, so much, I thought for sure...that...that-" she buried her face in Morgan's shoulder, slowly realizing that Morgan wasn't disappearing again, she was still in her arms, and she was here to stay.

Author's Notes: Here's Morcina for you! Uh, Morgan/Lucina, Morcina? Okay, well, I went to wiki to read Lucina's Owain support, to make sure he does indeed give that to her during the S support, because Lucina would leave a gift from a friend behind...and since you only get one S per character, well, she's not getting that gift now! And on the wiki I saw that there was a Tiki support, I'd forgotten it, so read the last conversation...that one and the Fem!Morgan/Nah supports are just begging for S supports! They even seem romantic...and so I shall write them!

And remember, if you have a ship that you want written for, then hit me with them!

P.S. 2101Anon brought to my attention that I had run on sentences to fixed, and from there I corrected a handful of other things, like how Morgan turns into a dragon but used thunder, or when Morgan says "fight" when I had her say "I challenge my fate!", so if you're reading this twice and notice differences, then that's why. Thanks again for pointing out the errors!

AND NOW MY BROTHER GOT IN ON IT! Thank you so much for pointing out the confusion of Lucina leaving without Falchion's hilt. I meant that she left the scabbard behind, and not the hilt.

My reply was: Yes...I wanted to point out she was so awesome, she could pull the blade from the hilt.