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Lucina cried when her father had died. Not because of the death (It would be some time until the news reached her), but because her right eye ached. It burned in its socket for hours on end, calling out to her, screaming with a hate that would shatter mountains, and no matter how hard she shut her eye, the pain continued. No matter how much Lucina scratched at it, she could not rip it and its dull throb out of her. The pain continued on and on, altogether different from the bloody cuts her eyelid endured.

Tharja found the Lucina at her door, begging her to rip the princess's eye out. Tharja was stunned, and after a moment of just staring at the eye, spirited Lucina away to her laboratory. The pain continued on as Tharja rushed in and out, ordering servants to fetch her strange ingredients, books plundered over a thousand years of war with Plegia, and The only one of you idiots who could make themselves even remotely useful, in her words. Lucina had her arms and legs bound to stop her from scratching her eye, the blood from her cuts long since wiped away, and the cuts healed. But her eye still burned, and the pain would still not go away.

Then, a feeling like a thick, damp blanket smothered Lucina and the pain. Her senses dulled, and the dreadful urge to rip her eye out faded, simmering underneath the cold blanket like a fever she still had not overcome.

"-Just like that!" Henry's friendly voice sounded, and Lucina turned her head to look. Henry was standing next to her, cackling with both of his hands outstretched and alight with dark magic.

"M…ist…er…He…nry…?" Lucina choked out. Henry kept laughing, and as he kept laughing, the more forced the sound became. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and Lucina tried to become very scared, or cry out, but the feeling weighed her down so much that her mouth and mind began to fail her. Tharja's robed hand slammed down on her right eye, and Lucina faded into unconsciousness.

When she awoke in her bed, the muffled feeling that had smothered her entire body was now only in her eye. The pain was still there, but it had become muted, like her mind after a restless sleep.

Henry sat next to her, a frown on his usual ever-cheerful face, and his eyes open, staring into Lucina's face.

Lucina had never seen Henry like this. "Mister Henry?" she called out. "Why are you sad?"

"…Hey kiddo." Henry responded slowly, and moved to stand at the same pace. "Something bad happened to you."

"Was it a curse like you and miss Tharja can do? Didn't you fix it? Won't it go away now?"

"…This particular curse can't be broken." Henry explained. "It's going to be with you for the rest of your life."

"But-my eye-it doesn't hurt so much anymore! You fixed it! I just need to get better from being sick!" Lucina shot out of her bed. "You fixed it-"

"Lucina, Listen to me." Henry put his hand on her shoulder, calming Lucina down. Gently, he pushed her back down to rest. "The curse- well. It isn't so much a curse as-" Henry stopped himself, and looked past Lucina's eyes for a moment, his expression lost. After a few seconds his eyes returned to hers. "The details are…I will tell you them exactly later. For now, just know that this isn't any ordinary curse. You were in pain for almost a full day-"

"A day!?" Lucina interrupted. Henry nodded.

"A day. You've been asleep for several more." Henry gave her a moment to digest the information, and then continued. "It goes deeper then a normal curse. Its in your very blood, and will be with you till you die. And if you ever have children, they will also inherit it."

The news terrified Lucina, who stared into Henry's eyes for any sign that this was all some horrible joke he was playing on her, the ones her father would always mutter about when filling out papers while her mother and Tharja laughed about (her mother and Missis Tharja had a really mean idea of funny), but found no trace of something like it on Henry's face.

"Tharja and I will make you a potion to drink. It will keep the pain away like it is right now." Henry explained. "The measure we have taken will last you through the rest of the year, or at least it should. Once that time comes around, we'll give you a second helping, and then a third the year after that. If it ever acts up before that, tell us immediately. Do you understand?"

Lucina nodded, quietly thinking over her situation. Her thoughts drifted over Henry's words each sentences sheer weight slowly sinking into her brain. From having to drink a potion every year just so she could live with one numb eye instead of screaming out in pain, to her far future children having to endure the same, to the fact that the curse was in her very blood…her blood?

Lucina's head shot up again. "Mister Henry! If the curse is in my blood, is it in Morgan's, or mother or father's!?"

Henry blinked in surprise, clearly not prepared for the question. "Ah..."

He remained silent for a time, and Lucina's heart skipped a beat as her eyes watered. Henry waved his hands in front of him as if to dispel her fears. "No, no, no- no. Your parents are fi-ne-" he paused to suck in his breath. "Well, they aren't affected by the curse."

"And my brother?" Lucina pressed. Henry exhaled, and in a small voice said: "Your brother, Morgan that is-"

Henry looked at Lucina's face and realizing that he could not hide the truth for very long. "Morgan has disappeared." Lucina's eyes widened, and Henry rapidly added "But everyone who can is looking for him. We will find him soon enough." (They never did.)

That brought a little hope to Lucina. "O-oh." She paused briefly, and the spoke up again. "You said you know that Mother and Father were not affected?"

Trying not to sound wary of the subject, Henry responded. "Yes…"

"Are they on their way back from the war? Did they defeat the big baddie together and then the bad guy cursed me and-and-" Lucina had to stop herself. "W-well, what I mean is, is, is mother and father finally back?" hope she expected to brake rang out in her voice.

Henry remained silent for a time, contemplating something. And with each passing minute, he saws Lucina's face fall. "W-well I thought that-I mean I guess they were just close by because of a supply trip, or something, and they might have visited me when I was asleep, and…" Her words trailed off, the long buried terror in her heart rising with each passing breath.

"Lucina…" Henry finally decided to speak, his words dripping with sadness. "I know that your parents aren't affected by your condition because-" Time suddenly stopped in Lucina's mind, her eyes wide, her mouth ready to scream, her ears refusing to hear.

"-They died."

With those two words, time resumed. And Lucina exploded. Tears fell from her eyes, she screamed louder then she ever could have, and she punched and kicked and thrashed out at the world for its cruelty, until hours later when she finally fell, exhausted and dry in Henry's embrace. (The news got considerably worse from that moment on.)

Henry and Tharja's promised potion was delivered to her annually after that, as they taught not only her, but their own children, Gerome and Noire, how to make, preserve, and prepare the brew. Their mentorship turned invaluable once parents died in a few short years to the Fell Dragon's forces, along with so many others. And so every year, the three children would make certain to properly measure the potion down so it might last Lucina an extra year or two, as several ingredients outright disappeared from the world. The event was a somber affair, serving as a reminder to lost family, and an ominous clock until Lucina finally collapsed screaming in agony one final time. All throughout the years, her right eye remained in perfect working order, but in not a single moment did Lucina ever feel anything other then that dull, muted throb of pain behind it.

But that changed during Ylisstol's fall. The Fell Dragon, having destroyed the castle and what remained of the people, contented itself with mocking the last Exalt of a ruined land.

"Your Mother and Father are dead, Tiny one."

Throughout the battle, Lucina's right eye had ached and burned, but now it was exploding with the pain she first felt.

"And now it is your turn…TO DIE!"

Lucina screamed. Her eye burst into a pain far worse then she had ever imagined, and she fell into darkness.

To this day, Lucina had no idea how she had survived, nor did any of her comrades. Gerome and Noire had found her sprawled across the ruined floor of the castle, moaning in pain and scratching at her eyes. They tried everything they could think of to make her stop, but Lucina continued to claw and scratch. Finally, in a fit of desperation, Gerome had forced the remaining five years of the potion down her mouth. While her hands still twitched, Lucina finally stopped hurting herself and rested. When Lucina awoke to the horizon of her dead country and barely a dozen friends still alive along with the somber realization that she may not last the year, she began to fight for a way out of the Grima's reign the way only a tortured prisoner knew how. As soon as Lucina learned of an escape route to the distant past, she immediately jumped to take it, desperation and even long forgotten hope flaring in her heart.

Once she was in the past, and after overcoming that emotional ride that was meeting her mother and father in their youth, Lucina noticed an absence in her, and not an unwelcome one.

For the first time in years, the pain in her eye disappeared.

Lucina was downright overjoyed at the news, to be finally free of the dull throb. Free from the pain.

It must have been Grima's doing. Lucina had few doubts in that theory before as Tharja or Henry never truly got around to explaining the pain entirely, but now that theory was a steel-clad belief. As an added bonus, it was one more reason to destroy Grima forevermore.

As the years in her parents youth passed buy, the pain never did return. When Lucina reunited with Gerome and Noire, she shared her news much to Noire's delight. Gerome however was pragmatic as ever, and slowly gathered all the ingredients that had been lost in the future, contacting his father and Tharja to help him make the potion. But one day, the pain did return. When Lucina stood on Grima's back, the pain appeared once again. It was nowhere near what it was when the Fell Dragon had mocked her, nor was it close to the pain that had first plagued her. Now it was sharp, like a dagger that had through her hand. She fought through the feeling, determined to strike the Fell Dragon down and never feel it again. Gerome and Noire noticed the twitch of her hands, swore, and brought their weapons up in Lucina's defense.

Then Grima made the final gambit. The pain started to wane, reduced to the same muted feeling it had been under the potion, until it finally disappeared along with Grima, and her mother.

Lucina nonetheless brought her hand up to block her eye from the rest of the world, still sensing something off with it. She kept it closed until she reached Ylisse, still fearing what she knew ley beneath her eyelid. Gerome and Noire reminded her that she could take the potion as soon as they properly prepared it (their parent's inexperience at potion making and their own faulty memory of the exact process to make the brew from its base ingredients had put it back a few months).

And as soon as Lucina had found a time away from everyone, even her father, she ran to a mirror in her room and slowly opened her right eye with trembling hands dry lips.

Her eye was as blue as it had ever been. From a distance, someone could even miss Lucina's' new brand. Now, staring back at Lucina in her right eye with six cruel etchings was the mark of Grima.

Lucina screamed and shattered the mirror, refusing to accept the brand as her own. The only reason she did not stab out her eye then and there was Gerome and Noire's intervention, having burst out of her shadow.

For the next month she hid her eye away from the world, covering her damning mark with an eypatch. She spent all of her time trying to be alone, driving her body to exhaustion to try and prepare herself for a storm that she knew was coming. Much to her annoyance, Noire, Gerome, and their parents always were able to find her. The elder generation came to her to ask for her memories on the potion, which she gave to them as quickly as she could. Gerome and Noire always came to try and comfort her, and Lucina always brushed them away, only interested in taking the potion so she might go back to hiding her eye. Gerome was always the more stubborn of the two to try and drag Lucina out of her melancholy, which amused Lucina.

Other times Morgan would find her, asking for Chrom if Lucina could come out of the shadows. For the most part Lucina refused, only socializing with her father and brother twice in the month.

It was apparent enough to see in her eyes that the ordeal was also affecting her sleep. Lucina was quite used to tired nights and restlessness, but the bags forming under eyes made it quite apparent to everyone that the worry that had plagued the Shepherds after Robin's disappearance was affecting her with a far stronger grip.

Finally, after a month of hiding away from the world, another change forced itself over Lucina. Wandering from one distant corner of Ylisstol to another well into the night had been taking its toll on Lucina for quite some time, but this night the feeling of exhaustion had set in far earlier, and was far stranger. Lucina felt a presence that would not reveal itself, but was intimately familiar to her, echoing a sweet cry from within her eye. The jarring shift disturbed Lucina, memories of her long since passed childhood echoing in her mind. It told her to rest, and forget all her worries for the night, as they would still be there in the morning, but forgetting them would grant her a peaceful sleep. Lucina fought against the feeling, but she could not remember the last time she had ever gone to sleep without some worry clouding her mind and tormenting her dreams. From fitful sleeps full of images with her parents dying apart as the risen tore them apart, to desperate nightmares of clawing at her eye, to the countless dead that piled the streets. They had followed Lucina into the past, tormenting her with her failures to change the world, another lost battle for the future mounting on top of another.

With such a heavy weight upon her mind, Lucina could only resist for so long against the sleep. Within minutes, she collapsed onto her bed, barely strong enough to pull the sheets over her, and was swept away to the first peaceful sleep she had since her early childhood.

When Lucina awoke, she awoke with her body no longer aching, eyes no longer drooping, and her mind which felt clearer then it had been in months. As she rose up from the bed and threw off the confines of her sheets, Lucina turned her mind to the feeling she had last evening.

The presence that had softly pulled Lucina to bed could still be felt. She could feel it in the eye that had caused her so much pain in her life, but now the feeling was soft, comforting. The juxtaposition was jarring, to say the least.

Lucina grabbed her sword and stepped out of her room. She moved as a ghost through the castle halls, morning's light already shining above the clouds. The servants of the castle were roaming the castle, moving about their respected duties as they always did. There curious glances had long since faded to the back of Lucina's mind, but as she had made a habit of, Lucina hid her right eye from everyone that she passed.

as she passed nearby her younger self's nursery, she could feel a barrier around it, protecting the corridor from intrusion. The magic was unmistakable, and Lucina rushed to her quarry.

In a silent rush, Lucina stood before the door that separated her from Robin, she could feel it. As she heard her younger self's cries muffled echo through the door, Lucina steeled herself for what was undoubtedly the final confrontation between her and the Fell Dragon.

With a flash, Lucina drew Falchion and kicked open her Nursery door. With a loud crash the heavy door slammed against the wall, silencing the child Lucina's gleeful cries as both mother and daughter stared at another.

Robin's eyebrows were raised slightly, as her new red eyes half glowed with amusement, and half dimmed with surprise as she held her daughter close.

The younger Lucina simply stared at her elder counterpart with a bewildered expression only babes could give, their mirrored eyes crossing briefly.

Lucina's knuckles whitened as she gripped Falchion, for once at a loss at what to do. Just now she realized in all her time spent preparing for this confrontation with Robin, she actually had no plan. Unwilling to lose the thunder in her arrival, cleared her throat and spoke.

"…Robin." No other words came out of Lucina's mouth, as she still had no idea how to confront Robin, who continued to gaze at her. The silence continued past the point of initial danger, and settled into awkwardness. Still, both speakers did not change their expression, Lucina desperately trying to think of how to proceed, and Robin seemingly lost in thought. The young Lucina just stared back and forth between the two, unsure of what to make of anything.

"It's good to see you, Lucina." Robin finally broke the silence. "I apologize for my absence and any worry I caused you-"

"My eye." Lucina quickly cut Robin off, having finally found the words that escaped her. "You put me to sleep through it last night."

"Yes, I did." Robin's words help no shame or sorrow in them, simply stating the facts.

"Why!?" Lucina snarled, raising Falchion above her waist. Her younger self shrank back into Robin's arms, who quickly whispered comforts into the child's ear.

"What did you do when I was asleep? Who's body should I be looking for!?" Lucina's voice was rising in volume, Robin's admittance to the act reinforcing her dark suspicions. "Why did you w-"

This time, Lucina was cut off. "I put you to sleep because you were exhausted." Robin said, annoyance edging into her voice.

Lucina did not back down. "You had to have done something. I know it."

"Lucina, I talked to your father last night. That's all."

"And you put me to sleep so you could talk to him for as long as you wanted, uninterrupted."

Robin gave Lucina a weary look. "Lucina, you're being ridiculous. I told Chrom last night and I will tell you today, if I wanted anyone dead, they would already be. And if I were Grima, both you and Chrom would top that list. Why on earth would I waste time gaining your trust when I could just kill you both outright?"

Lucina's nostrils flared, and she shouted: "I can't just accept that! You just ran away from us after the battle, doing gods know what for a month! Grima could have come up with any number of overcomplicated revenge plots in that time, and so could have anyone else!"

Lucina, I have told your father, I will tell everyone else, and I will tell you: I am not Grima." Robin's voice was calm, but just underneath the surface of her words a frustration was boiling as she softly stroked the young princesses hair.

"I can't accept that!" Lucina's voice had seemed to reach a fervor pitch, but still it climbed higher. "I will not accept that Grima or anyone using its power just decided to stop fighting! I saw Grima's forces tear apart my home, my country, my friends and my family!"

"Lucina, I would never let Grima control-"

"My mother said the same thing to me!" Robin blinked, taken aback for the first time in the conversation. "She said that all her magic was the strongest, that it would protect her from the Grimleal, that she was invincible, that she would never let anything happen to me, or Father or anyone! And then she loses, and Grima does away with everything she said would last forever without a monument pause!"

Robin remained silent, eyes still wide. Young Lucina began to whimper. Lucina finally slowed down, speaking in a far more controlled voice. "Grima always made certain to torture me through my eye. I had to take a potion just to keep the pain away. But it was still always there." Her eyes narrowed, and Falchion rose further. "Ever since you disappeared, this mark-" Lucina gestured to her eye, snarling in disgust. "Has just been mocking me, laughing at my failure to completely eradicate Grima's evil."

Robin's silenced stretched on, as she quietly stood in front of Lucina. Then suddenly, she spoke. "My offer is still open."

Lucina blinked. "What?"

"If it will allow you to live in happiness." Robin cooed to the young Lucina, gently putting her down in the crib, and turned to face her daughter from the future.

Lucina stared wide-eyed at her Robin, and her sword hand trembled in her grasp. She really was reaching for a reason to kill Robin, nor would Lucina kill her mother in front of her past self. To cause such pain to herself all over again was unthinkable. Slowly, Lucina sheathed her sword. Still, she could not find it within herself to look at Robin as her mother.

"We are going to leave soon." Lucina spoke softly, unwilling to allow emotion pass by her face. "All of us from the future that is."

"Plegia is in need of a ruler," Robin supplied as she reached down to pick up her daughter. "Next to me, you have one of the greater claims to the throne-"

"No." Lucina snapped. "I'm not Plegian. Nor are any of the others." It seemed like Robin wanted to retort. But she held her tongue. "Plegia sided with Grima, worshipped Grima. It claimed all of our friends, and all of our parents. As soon as we can, we're going to the gates of time. We will try and find a home there."

Lucina gazed to a very far away place. "Maybe we will find the future we came from there. I wonder what has happened to it."

"…Lucina." Robin spoke. "Over this past month, I remembered my past." Lucina's eye flickered to Robin. "I remember being the young woman who would become your mother. I was all brashness with everything to prove after my own mother died."

"You should tell Chrom this."

"I did." Sensing Lucina's impatience, Robin skipped over much of her own nostalgia. "I remember my own father from when I was just old enough to remember things. Your grandfather-" Lucina twitched. Robin noticed, and continued. "Your grandfather was nothing like you know him. He was very kind to your grandmother and I, and actively tried to be a positive influence in my life before your grandmother spirited me away. Even years later when I asked my mother about him, she admitted he would never have settled for anything but the best upbringing I could have had."

"Is there a point to this?" Lucina asked, her voice agitated.

"Yes." Robin responded, calm as always. "The point is, just because something you thought was a bad thing doesn't mean that it always has to be that. And just because someone did something terrible, that does not mean that they always were, or will be. During my month of meditation, I realized, no matter how much I might deny it, Plegia was and always will be my home, and Validar is my father. I am Plegian. You and your brother are just as much of Plegia as you are of Ylisse. You are both children of Naga, and my children. No matter what, I will always protect you."

Lucina was silent at that. After many minutes quietly thinking, she said. "…I can't be. She might be." The young princess had resumed staring at both women. "But I refuse to be Grima's daughter." Lucina turned and walked out to the hall, her path unbarred.

Robin called out to her. "You can't run from your past Lucina. You will only make more of it as you stumble and trip away, until eventually something catches up to you."

Lucina turned back to Robin with solemn purpose in her tired eyes. "If you ever hurt anyone, I will return to stop you, no matter what."

Robin's glowing red eyes met her gaze, and she said in a small, trembling voice, "Be safe." Lucina turned, and walked down the hallway towards whatever the future held.


Author's note: I am told that there was more demand for this stories continuation. Here is my attempt after lost chapters lovely little night. As for Validar, I always thought that if Awakening was going to copy the Blazing Blade's plot, they could have at least expand on that stories most interesting and vague parts. Alas.