It was a thick, black night at the palace in Ylissetol. Although the chaos of a few weeks prior from when the Exalt and his chief general had rallied as much of the Halidom's army had died down, not many could sleep easily with so many loved ones off in uncertainty. One such person was a certain blue-haired eleven year old wandering the darkened halls of the palace of Ylissetol; while on prior nights she was able to eventually pass off into slumber, this night she could not do so.

Ever since midday she had felt a strange unease; shortly after lunch she had felt her stomach clench, her heart quicken, and an incredible urge to simply collapse to her knees and bawl her eyes out, and she could not understand why she felt so. So with this strange feeling over her throughout the day and into the night, she could not fall asleep; so she roamed the castle halls aimlessly, hoping that her father and Robin would hopefully return soon as they had both promised. In an attempt to chase off the heavy feeling in her heart, she thought back to the promises that both had made to her on the eve of their departure.

The sun shone brightly over Ylissetol, and Robin was spending this beautiful day pouring over dispatches, reports, and deployment orders. Several days prior he and Chrom had discovered that Validar had finally made his move; he had apparently shifted himself, the Plegian Mage Corp, and the bulk of the Plegian Army to the Dragon's Table so that he could perform some ritual involving the Fire Emblem that would enable Grima to reawaken. To that order, Chrom had ordered as much of the Halidom's manpower to rally at the capitol as soon as humanly possible in order to stop him and recover the Fire Emblem; of course this series of events resulted in Robin being buried under a literal avalanche of paperwork which even three days later he was still struggling to cope with.

Wiping his eyes in an attempt to alleviate the strain, Robin was about to hand off the next set of dispatches to the runner waiting beside him when he heard his door creak open and sniffling emerge from behind it. Looking up from his desk, he noticed the Princess of the Halidom emerge from behind the door with reddened, puffy eyes, "Lucina, have you been crying, is something the matter?"

Handing the dispatches to the runner, the tactician waited for him to leave and then motioned for the Princess to sit next to him, "So, I take it you want to talk about it with me?"

While rubbing her eyes the princess nodded an affirmative before beginning, "I was listening to some of the officers talking, they said it would take nothing short of a miracle to defeat Valider, that you and father were leading the army to the grave."

"I see", Robin put his hand on her head and gave it a reassuring rub before he lifted her chin, "don't worry, if Chrom and I were to die because of every time the situation looked bad, we would have been buried long ago. We've been through situations that looked just as bad, if not worse, and come up winners regardless of what anyone else thought. Plus, haven't you heard before, I'm a strategist, I deal in miracles, what is one more?"

At this Lucina gave a giggle before looking back at him, "so do you promise when you get back you will continue to teach me tactics so I can not only be a master swordsman like father , but also a general like you?"

Beginning to chuckle himself Robin felt some of his stress from earlier start to lift away, "sure, I promise, when we finish thrashing Validar at the Table, I'll make you the best general that ever was Exalt." Pausing and thinking for a moment, the tactician quickly corrected himself, "Exalt to be for now actually".

Thinking to himself for a moment, the tactician stood up and walked over to one of his bookshelves and extracted from it a book that when examined seemed almost out of place amongst all the the others that had been gifted to him by the Exalt and other important state officials and dignitaries; where the other books were all of high quality and looked as if they had never spent a day outside of Robin's office, this book looked as worn as he did, it looked as if all the marches and battles Robin had gone through were weathered by it alongside him. Walking back towards Lucina the tactician quickly took the book and promptly dropped it into her hands with a smile, "I remembered your birthday is coming up, so consider this an early gift from me to you."

Looking at the big with her widening blue eyes, Lucina quickly turned it over and read the title aloud, "The Plegian Lieutenant's Guide to Leadership and Command."

"Yes, it was my first manual when I started learning tactics." Robin paused and sighed before continuing, "It was given to me by my mother a long time ago."

At this Lucina looked back at the tactician, "Your mother, you never talk about her, or your father."

Flinching at the last word, Robin frowned as he recalled his father; though his mother had taken them both as far from his grasp as possible at an early age, he still had memories of him growing up, all unpleasant. Robin returned to reality though as he felt something tug at his sleeve. "Robin, are you alright, you look like you ate a bad egg. Maybe you should see aunt Lissa, the last time father ate a bad egg he was stuck in bed for a week."

"It was not a week, it was more like four days, and it wasn't from a bad egg of all things." Hearing a new voice both Lucina and Robin looked towards the the door to the office and noticed that Chrom had walked in during their conversation.

"Father, look what uncle Robin gave me!" As Lucina ran to Chrom, she almost jabbed him in the chest with the book trying to show him.

Avoiding his daughter's attempt to stab him in the chest with Robin's book, Chrom took the book from her, "I see, hmm, I remember this book, isn't this the ratty book you dragged around with you ever since we met robin?"

"It is not ratty! It is simply weathered." Robin shouted until noticing the smirk on his friends face, "You're awful, you know that?"

"Her mother keeps mentioning it." Chrom's smirk dissappered as he shifted back to the reason he came here originally, "Either way, I came to tell you the regiments from the the eastern provinces finally arrived and everyone is packed and ready to march, are you set?"

At this Robin sighted, "I suppose I am as ready as I will ever be." At this the two began prepare to leave the room; Chrom turned to Lucina and kneeled to her level, "I have to go now, I will miss you and your sister; promise to be good for mother while I am gone?"

Lucina grabbed a hold of his hand and looked back at him, "How long will you be gone, you will come back soon and continue to teach me swordmanship?"

Smiling at his daughter, Chrom reassuringly squeezed her hand, "Of course, I promise we will both be back before you know it."

Opening her eyes again, Lucina finished recalling the promise the two had made, and despite the feeling of dread that had gripped her all day, she felt at ease. As she started to turn back to her room, she froze as she heard a large crash come from the offices down the corridor, Robin's offices after she realized where she was.

In said office was currently a tactician who was still learning the ins and outs of teleportation, and had just added his desk to the list of things he had broken in the process. Looking around the room to ensure that he was at least in his offices, Robin bent low to pick up the Falchion and the several sheets he had wrapped it in.

Little did either know, that across the castle in a locked room, a dark mage with eyes and throat sore from sobbing shot up from her bed as she felt the tingle of magic and a the familiar sensation of a mage she knew. In but an instant, the dark mage's door flew open into the knight commander trying to coax it open and was racing through hallways with a confused and bleeding knight commander trying to keep up with her frenzied pace.

Hearing the door creak, Robin Froze in place; slowly turning his head to the door hoping that the door was simply blown open by one of the castle's notorious drafts. Instead he found himself staring right into Lucina's blue eyes, and her staring back into his own red eyes, "Robin… is that you?" Hearing the word, Robin shook himself from his paralysis and tried to back away, only to realize she was standing in the only doorway out of the room.

"Robin," she said again as she started to approach the cloaked man before her, "is that really you".

"No, please stay back, I don't want to hurt anyone else.", Robin shouted as he tried in vain to push himself through the wall his back was currently against.

Looking at him with a confused stare, Lucina couldn't understand why he was acting so strangely; she also didn't understand why his eyes were glowing a low red. Finally, she asked the question that Robin dreaded, "Did father come back with you, is he here?" At this, Robin, buried under guilt of what happened at the Table, and Lucina's inquisitive stare, simply fell back against the wall and lamented his failure as tears again marred his face. Only when he felt something around his neck did he reopen his eyes, "please, don't cry Robin, why are you so sad?"

At this, Robin simply handed her the bundled falchion; she slowly unwrapped the blade, and upon seeing the the hilt protrude from the bundle after unwrapping it, she froze as the implication became clear. Robin was giving her the Falchion, the blade that her father told her she would inherit when he was unable to wield it, "I wish it were different," looking back up at Robin with her own reddening eyes, she tried to hold back tears as he spoke, "I failed both of you, I'm sorry."

"But it isn't your fault, I'm sure you tried your best to save him," whispered Lucina as she finally began to shake from the revelation and cling to Robin harder.

Hearing this Robin pushed Lucina back and made her look him in the eyes, "Look at me, look at my eyes, my skin, the markings all over my body, I am a monster; how can this not be my fault?"

"You're not a monster, you're my uncle!" Lucina yelled back at him.

"No, I'm not," Robin said as he built his resolve for what he had to do, "I'm Grima, your father didn't die because I failed him, he died because I killed him with my own hands. Robin is as dead as Chrom is." As he finished Robin began to hear the unmistakable sounds of people running and the jingle of armor getting closer to where they were. With a sigh, Robin realized he needed to go, "I have to go now." Unsure of what to say to the stock still girl in front of him, Robin simply backed away and teleported from the room.

Moments later, a dark mage with several knights on her tail burst through the door to the office. On entry all they saw was the princess standing in the center of the room holding Falchion; for a moment both parties stared at each, until finally the princess let out the tears she had been holding in for so long. She cried that she had been traded a sword for both her father and uncle.

AN: So chapter two, heavy on interaction between early Grima and Lucina, but this and the next chapter are a little hand in hand for being dialogue heavy. with that I wish happy reading to all( and don't forget to let me know what you think).