Bolting upright, Severa sat up in her cot, her fire red hair matted to her face and neck with a layer of cold sweat. Her eyes were wide open and she stared into the darkness blankly, listening to the sound of her own rapid breathing. It was minutes until she finally snapped out of her comatose state, letting her body fall back against the cot and the sweat drenched blankets. Her heart was still racing, but she could finally think again.

The mercenary closed her eyes and groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

She had a dream just now. A horrible dream. It was different from those horrible nightmares about her mother or about the comrades she had lost in the war against Grima, but the way it made her heart ache was devastating. She could not quite remember the details, but the feeling was crushing.

Bringing a hand to her chest, Severa pressed against her left side, feeling the pounding against her ribcage. It was still painful. The blurry images that flashed through her mind still burned, making her chest constrict again.

It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Tears were welling up in her eyes as a young girl's face appeared in her head, face streaked with blood, mouth upturned into a sad smile.

Gasping for air, Severa threw the covers off herself, rushing out of her tent almost desperately, feeling slight relief when the cool night air hit her suddenly. She remembered now. Everything came back to her in a flood of images that made her want to tear her eyes out.

"Lucina…" Severa collapsed onto the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, the name of the Ylissean heiress bitter on her tongue.

There was blood on her hand, on her sword. The moment she thrust the weapon into her target, she saw the face again. The sad smile. The person she had killed was thanking her.

Lucina.

That beautifully forlorn smile.

Severa gasped as she realized what haunted her again tonight was not merely a dream, but her memories. The vivid dream was about Lucina's murder. It had happened more than a few months ago, but Severa remembered the event like it was only a few hours ago.

Peace was such a fragile thing and human lives were even more fleeting. She wondered if fighting so hard in this timeline was all for naught. They had defeated Grima and achieved peace, but humans were treacherous enough that evil did not need to have supernatural origins. Human nature itself was innately evil and life, it seemed, was just not fair. Whether it was her mother or her only friend, both timelines robbed her of people she loved.

Biting her lip to stop the tears, Severa took in a deep breath, wondering when she would be free of these night terrors. They haunted her nearly every night without reprieve. The sellsword cursed her friend's selfless nature and her own inability to save her. Moreover, she cursed her mind for not letting her forget a single detail about what had happened.

Standing on shaky legs, the young girl felt hopeless. She was desperate to fix things. Everything felt so empty with the guilt eating her from the inside, depriving her of any rest. Eyes listless and hollow, Severa stared out at the expanse before her, a town lying in the distance, faint light coming from a few windows. How long had she been here, camped on the outskirts of this depressing little town.

"I need to leave. I can't be here anymore." Severa said to no one in particular as an eerie calm overcame her. She retreated into her tent, stripping off her clothes unceremoniously as she threw them onto the floor. Donning her tunic and her leggings, she strapped her armor over her clothes. The weight was strangely comforting, the smell of weathered metal bringing her back to her senses. Looking into a small mirror given to her by her late mother, she tied up her hair into her characteristic twintails, feeling more and more like herself as the seconds passed.

As she turned to retrieve her weapons strewn by the tent entrance, she felt her strength leaving her again. Beside her own silver sword was another one, one with an ornate sheath and gold hilt, a circular opening just above the blade. It was an ancient blade, but still shone like a new one.

Severa felt her breath hitch in her throat and she grit her teeth, taking long strides over to the enchanted weapon, her heart cracking with each step.

Strapping her own sword to her back, the mercenary paused for a second before snatching up the other one, its weight uncharacteristically heavy for a sword of its size. Lucina had always said it was the lightest blade she had ever used, but it wasn't the same for Severa.

This one she wore on her waist, as a reminder, a burdensome reminder of her own incompetence. Even though the sword was impossible to wield in battle, it kept her company. It almost cost her her life countless times, but the young woman would never let the blade leave her side. It was the only memento she had of Lucina. They had buried the rest with her body.

Severa's left eye twitched quite visibly as she entertained the flood of memories that had suddenly invaded her mind. Thought after thought triggered more and more grief, taking her back to the past more often than she liked.

At the girl's funeral, Severa spoke to no one. She was convinced that their empty words would not be able to console her. She was convinced that no one loved Lucina they way she did. The loss of such a staple in her life drove her off the edge.

She was beyond irrational, ruined by grief.

Packing only what little gold she had left into a burlap pouch, Severa left the tent and her meagre possessions. She had no need for anything else. All she wanted to do was to pick up more jobs in the next town, to numb herself, to preoccupy her thoughts. She no longer had any direction in life now.

She walked out of the small camp she had made and down the dusty path, heading towards the swirl of lights in the distance.

The faint lights reminded her of the torches that still burned late after the funeral service. Everyone had gone, but she stayed behind with the body, unwilling to leave. Seeing the broken state she was in, Chrom granted her permission to have some time alone with the body before they buried Lucina in the castle's royal tombs. He left her in the hall for a few hours, alone with the casket, alone with the hollow shell that was formerly a lovely young woman. Severa still remembered the ghastly pale complexion of the body in the casket, deathly beautiful.

Fair skin and red lips.

The young blue haired girl was clad in her battle armor, with the parallel Falchion clutched in her hands.

It was unknown why Severa decided to steal one of the kingdom's most treasured weapons, but she could not help herself. She blamed it on the grief, the guilt that was devouring her.

If only there was some way to travel back in time. They had done it once before to come to this timeline, so why was it that people questioned her sanity when she suggested doing the same thing to save Lucina?

Even if those other fools would not cooperate, Severa knew that she would find a way to see Lucina again no matter what means she had to enforce.

A/N: Haha...I couldn't help myself...I started another multi-chapter story D; Noooooo. I really have plans for this one though. Kind of excited to write it, so I hope to finish this before my short attention span throws this into the corner for like 3 years like all my other stuff that needs updating :)

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