You may call me Marth...

She had seen them together in the Ferox arena. She had crossed swords with her father, been blindsided and hit by a lightning strike from her mother. But that time had been different. There, they were her opponents on a battlefield, allies and a force to be reckoned with. But that was nothing personal.

Here, now, two weeks later, was a different story.

Lucina stood behind the trunk of a large tree in the courtyard, clinging to the bark as she watched her parents from afar. She had almost wanted to confront her father as she saw him looking so forlorn, standing in the middle of the stone path alone a few moments ago. However, she knew it wasn't her place. And now that she saw her mother standing next to him where she would've been, a hand on his arm, she was glad it hadn't been her place. Seeing this was far better.

She knew they weren't married yet, and she assumed they didn't have any idea they ever would be. But Lucina knew. What she saw between them now was merely a glimpse of the trust and love that she came to know as she grew up, and she hoped that with everything in the future she was aiming to change, that one bit might remain the same.

"...Ylisse's spirit... -gave' her..." Lucina could barely make out what her father was saying from so far away. Though there was nowhere to hide if she moved in closer, and she didn't want to risk revealing herself. Especially, she realized, when there was an assassin lurking in the bushes not 300 meters away. She had to refocus herself.

Rather than concentrating on her father's words, she decided to listen to the hooting of an owl that was filling the air. She couldn't see its source, but filling her ears with background noise helped her better focus her eyes on her father. When that assassin jumped out, she would be ready. She braced her sword in her hand and prepared her stance to break into a run at the first sight of him.

"I'm gonna get you!"

With a jolt and a pinch in her stomach, an echo of a ghost of her past flitted through her mind. Though only lasting a moment, it was enough for her to look across the courtyard, right near the stone arches and almost see her brother running before her eyes. She could remember the feeling of her toy sword in her hand, the lack of breath in her lungs from running and laughing too hard, the smile on her little brother's face...

No. She couldn't let herself slip into that state of mind now. She needed to focus. She steeled her grip on Falchion, the familiar feeling of the ribbed handle settling her down as she rested her left hand on the bark of the tree once more.

"Look what you did! You scarred the tree with your sword!" Quickly, Lucina removed her hand from the trunk, once again trying desperately to shut her mind against the distractions. Or rather, against the pain of remembering.

Being home, being in this courtyard... it was too much for Lucina, and she realized she wouldn't be able to stop these involuntary recollections no matter how hard she steeled herself. A pang of... regret? Nostalgia? Grief? hit her in the stomach just before her feet went cold.

There was a rustle from the bushes.

No, she couldn't just stand there. For the sake of her sanity and her father's safety, she'd have to move closer to him. So she left the tree and carefully, quietly made her way forward, trying to hear what was being said between her parents.

"The day he understands peace will be the day death gives it to him," said her father. Lucina realized he was talking about the Mad King, the biggest threat facing the Shepherds in the recent week. "So perhaps I must be death's agent. Emmeryn would never order him killed, nor would I wish her to."

Lucina was close enough now to see a sympathetic look appear on her mother's face. She could just barely make it out under her hood.

Gathering up her courage, Lucina braced herself and took up a normal stride. With a deep breath, she spoke her first words of the night. "Well spoken, sir."

Both her mother and father turned to face her head on, their eyes on her weighing her down. It was harder to see them than she'd expected. In that hellscape those few weeks ago, when she'd first arrived in this time, she'd been under the gaze of not only her parents, but Aunt Lissa, Frederick, Sully, and Duke Virion as well. It was overwhelming enough not to drown in memories. Now, it was just Chrom and Robin. Just her family.

She felt her eyes begin to string as she clenched her jaw against its quivering. It took everything in her not to run into their arms and tell them everything. Just to be a family again, after all this time...

"Marth?"

And that one word was enough. Enough to send her wishing to a screeching halt, to remind her where she was and why. She was here to save the world, and she was here under an alias.

"You may call me Marth." Speaking those words for the first time had burned her tongue. It was true she was honored and empowered by taking on the name of the Hero King, but it wasn't her name. She hadn't worn it with pride as she grew up, as she spent that year as Exalt. Her mother hadn't chosen that name for her, her father hadn't called her to training with it, her brother hadn't whined it when he'd wanted to spend more time with her. It wasn't her name.

But now it had to be. If she was to carry out this mission, to rid the Lucina of this world of the hellish future she herself had endured, if she was to save her parents and ensure that she and her brother and all their friends of this world would grow up happy, then Marth would have to carry it out. Marth was who she'd need to become.

But just once, she thought, it would be nice to see her father greet her with a smile, calling out her name as he was happy to see her after all this time apart. To see her mother's white blonde hair fall in front of her face as she was hugged and heard "my Lucina" over her shoulder... They both were right there in front of her. She was so close...

"Good evening to you."

And yet further from them than she'd ever been.


"Lucina: Masks are good for that. The moment I saw you and father, it was all I could do not to leap into your arms. That, or break down in tears at having seen you alive again after so many years." Best line DLC has ever gven us imo