Title: A Fledgling's Surprise
Writer: Neph Champion
Idea: Awakening: Snippet from chapter one, Lucina's point of view coming out of the portal to her future.
Summary: Lucina is confused when she comes out of the portal, she was sure that her brother Morgan was right behind her but what she sees upon landing causes her mind to almost blank. Why is her mother without a tome? Against a tree and about to be killed by the Risen? All she knows is that she has to save her mother.
(Fledgling to the Rescue)
Panting slightly Lucina looked around at her friends. They had run all the way here from Ylisstol, trying to flee Grima. "According to Naga, this gate can take us to the past. I think we should go now. We can save the world, save our parents from Grima."
"But Luci, we're all tired," her brother Morgan complained. "We're way far ahead of the monster that wears Mother's skin, surely we can go in the morning."
Lucina shook her head. "I thought I told you to call me Marth, Morgan," she reminded her tactician of a brother and tried to ignore the burn of the mark on her left ankle. "Besides, with Grima in mother's skin, he'll have known we're planning to use the gate. We can't delay the trip."
He sighed and looked at his twin sister, who was just as tired as he was. "What do you think, Marc?"[1]
"'Cina's right, Morgan," She turned to him tears in her eyes. "Grima has access to the way Mother thinks, how Grima got into Mother's body…"
Owain sighed. He was too tired to speak the way he usually did. "So when we go through are we going to come out in the same place?"
Marc shrugged. "Naga didn't tell us. We could end up anywhere, any time."
Cynthia grimaced from where she leaned against her Pegasus. "Don't talk like that Princess Marc. The Divine Dragon wouldn't do that to us."
Scowling at her friends, Noire closed her book of dark magic. "Stop it. Marc has a point. Any one of us could end up in the wrong time period, and then what would we do?"
Lucina nodded and looked to the boys. "What do you think?"
Gerome huffed as he pet Minerva's scales. "You're right. Whatever we do we have to do it soon." He looked up at her. "We are your Shepherds, Lady Lucina. We will follow you wherever you go."
Lucina nodded gratefully to him and turned to Brady. "What about you?"
Brady stared. "I could not have said it better."
Inigo and Yarne both nodded in agreement.
Lucina nodded. "Then get up, and let's go save the world." She leaned down and helped her little brother and sister up off the ground. "Marc, Morgan, keep together. I wouldn't want to lose either of you. With Father and Mother gone…"
Marc sighed as she took her sister's hand. "You don't need to worry about us Lucina."
Morgan nodded in agreement. "You know we've got your back. We are your tacticians, just like Mother was Father's."
The elder princess hugged them both. "Thank you," she whispered. She didn't think that they knew just how good that made her feel. Her sibling's words made her feel as if she was a million times lighter. "You have no idea how much I needed to hear that."
"I think we do." Marc grinned.
Gerome pulled himself up using Minerva and then helped Inigo up. "You know we'd follow you into hell Luci."
Laurent used his staff as leverage to get up. "Be it right now or in a hundred years we will go through that gate with you."
Yarne nodded. "I might be scared out of my mind, but I'll still go."
"Thank you Yarne, you must be one of the bravest people I know," Lucina told the half Taguel.
"Thank you Lucina," he whispered.
"We all long to see our parents again too." Kjelle smiled and reminded her Exalt.
Lucina gave the girl a nod. "Right."
Nah chuckled. "We'll have to see what happens on the other side."
"Right," Severa smirked at her best friend.
Yarne's head snapped to the north. "Oh no, Risen!"
"Morgan, grab hold of my hand and don't let go. Marc, you hold Morgan's," Lucina instructed urgently. "I don't want to lose either of you as we go through!"
Marc grabbed Morgan's left and Morgan's right took Lucina's left. "Right," they agreed together.
"Run for the gate!" Nah shouted as she grabbed Yarne's hand and started pulling him towards the gate herself.
Lucina, Morgan, and Marc made it to the gate first and lost sight of the others.
Morgan looked back. "Marc?" he called as he felt her hand slipping.
Marc's eyes widened in fear as she grabbed his wrist with her other hand. "I'll stay with you," she promised as she noticed Morgan's hand starting to slip from their older sister's.
Lucina looked back as she felt Morgan's hand slip from hers. "Morgan! Marc!" she shouted as the gate in front of them opened.
"We'll meet you there later sister!" they called together.
"Father and Aunt Lissa need your help right now," Marc called.
"And don't forget to use the mind that you got from Mother," Morgan finished. "We'll see you soon."
Lucina's eyes filled with tears behind her mask as she turned her back on her younger siblings and set her eyes on the exit. They were right. Father and Aunt Lissa needed her. She could remember Father telling her the story of the first time he'd fought Risen, of how he had almost lost his little sister. Her eyes widened when she saw that Risen had beaten her.
"No," she whispered, "not while I draw breath you aren't." Lucina snarled as she burst from the gate, taking in the battlefield as she did so. There was Father fighting the Risen as he said he had been, and Aunt Lissa should be… Huh?
Lucina's mind almost ground to a stop when she saw her Mother, not Aunt Lissa, up against the tree. Her hand out with a bolt of Thunder magic crackling in her palm but no Thunder Tome in sight with an axe wielding Risen standing there about to cut her down.
Lucina's mind started up again just before her feet hit the ground and she started to run. Had father been lying when he said that it was Aunt Lissa that had nearly died in the encounter? Lucina mentally shook herself and pulled Falchion from its sheath and caught the blade of the axe. She was sure she didn't need to stand there long. Father would no doubt go to Mother's aide.
After one very long minute of struggling to keep the axe from coming down, Lucina noticed that her Father was just staring at her. "Help," she demanded.
'Do you really want Mother to die?' her mind screamed as she felt her arm start to buckle.
Father blinked. "Right," he said and gave a battle cry as he ran forward.
Lucina smirked as the Risen's attention turned to her father, and she pushed the axe away from herself and her mother. Her slash went below her father's, and he stopped about a foot away with Lucina on the other side. She sighed in relief. That seemed to be the last of Grima's minions, for the time being at least.
She stiffened slightly, standing straighter when she heard her mother speak. "That was quite an entrance."
She turned to look at them, glad for the mask that hid her eyes and her Brand. She said nothing as she watched her father take her mother's hand. Had they really started falling in love so soon after they'd met? Her eyes started to water as she watched her father check her mother for injuries. She couldn't help the small smile that curved her lips.
She put her poker face back on when her father turned back to her. "Who are you?" he asked.
Lucina took a step back. She didn't want to say anything. She knew for a fact that her father and mother were not married yet. So, what should she do? She silently thanked Naga when she heard Frederick and Aunt Lissa crashing through the trees, catching her parents' attention as she slipped into the trees to watch the fight.
"I'm so tired," she breathed as she slid down against a tree, out of sight. How could the Risen have beaten her here? How had Grima known?
"Stupid Lucina," she berated herself. "Morgan and Marc said it themselves. Grima has stolen Mother's body and has access to how she thinks!"
Her shoulders slumped. "The three of us might have learned about tactics from Mother," she sighed, "but we were never able to out think her."
In that moment, Lucina wanted nothing more than to rip her mask off and embrace her parents, cry into their shoulders, and tell them everything, but she knew she could not. Even worse, she'd gotten separated from the twins. Her parents would for sure scold her for letting go.
"Morgan, Marc," she breathed, "I'm sorry, where are you? Please… come back…"
She suddenly had no desire to be alone. Her eyes stung with tears, but she didn't dare remove the mask from her face to wipe them away. She needed to be strong, for Morgan, for Marc, for all of their friends…
Having finally pulled herself together enough that she wouldn't reveal everything and make things even worse, she sighed when she heard the fighting finally stop. She had managed to take the other Risen, killing as many as she could. She was dead tired, so maybe that was why Sir Frederick had been able to notice her.
"It looks like all the creatures have vanished," he said. "This young man must have taken care of the rest."
Lucina stared, not daring to say anything. 'Stupid!' she scolded herself again, but she wasn't about to correct Sir Frederick the Wary.
Her mother was smiling at her, and Lucina felt lighter than she had in years. "I never got to thank you did I?" Mother asked. "You were really very brave, so thank you."
Lucina bowed her head to hide her blush. Her mother's praise had always been one of the best things to get. She felt like a child again, like that time she'd nearly beaten the older woman at one of her tactics games.
"You saved my friend's life," she heard her father say and she turned to him and was glad that her mask hid her hope filled eyes. "My name is Chrom, what's yours?"
Lucina stifled her purr of content. Not only had she received praise from her mother, she'd received praise from her father. This was only her first day in the past, and already it was the best day she'd ever had. She wanted to tell them her real name but she could not so.
"Marth," she said quietly, "You may call me Marth," she repeated, her voice stronger and louder this time.
"Marth?" Aunt Lissa asked in excitement. "Like the heroic king of old Marth?"
Lucina stayed silent. Yes she meant her ancestor, but she wasn't about to tell them that. She knew that she could not hug either of her parents yet, much as she wanted to.
Father smirked. "You certainly fight like a hero," he agreed with Aunt Lissa. "Where did you learn your way with a sword?"
Lucina sighed. As much as she might want to stay and chat with her family, she had things to do, like finding her twin younger siblings. "I'm not here to talk about me!" She winced at how harshly the words came out. "This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity. What you saw tonight was only a prelude."
Once again fighting the tears, she turned away from them all. "You have been warned…" her voice was grim and deathly quiet before she ran away, ignoring her much loved parents and Aunt, who no doubt wanted to know more.
Once she was sure that she was far enough away and that her parents would not look for her, she once again collapsed against a tree. This time she tore her mask away from her face, wrapped her arms around her knees, and finally cried into them, sobbing almost uncontrollably.
(End)
[1] My Head canon is that the two Morgans are twins; Morgan is the name form Awakening and Marc is the name for the Avatar in one of the other games. Morgan (m) is Morgan and Morgan (f) is Marc, just to be different.