Alchemist Spirit Knight Lucina

Chapter Sixteen- Robin

On that day, Lucina had never been less sure of what was going on or how she felt about it. Yes, her parents were there, and she was finally getting a chance to speak to them after fourteen years of hiding her tears from Morgan and Lyn, but other than that, it seemed everything possible had gone wrong. Fight with one of your best friends which was completely your fault? Check. In the middle of a mystery involving multiple disappearances? Check. Have no clue what needs to be done even though the universe itself was at stake? That one deserved some sort of special check, perhaps with a special pen or something. Also, she was partially responsible for the kidnapping of a man that had helped her, unsure of exactly how much she could interact with her parents without causing some massive paradoxes, and quite frankly, in desperate need of sleep or at very least some food. Also, there was the constant threat of Circe or another Celestial Guardian coming back and attacking them, but she didn't want to worry about that until she had to. At the moment, her main concern was with trying to find out what had happened to those people so they could leave with Ness and concern themselves with finding the rest of the Alchemist Knights, spending time with her parents, and hopefully getting Roy to stop being mad at her.

At the moment, she was in a warehouse that completely and utterly unnerved her, her parents and younger versions of aunt Lissa and uncle Frederick accompanying her. As much as she wanted to talk to them, Roy's more rational words echoed in her head, terrifying her even more than her own nerves had been. Luckily, if anything, aunt Lissa could always be counted on to start a conversation.

"So, Marth, isn't it?" Lissa started as they made their way through the oddly dim corridors of the warehouse.

She started to object before recalling Roy's pseudonyms he'd given to avoid any unnecessary divulging of personal information. "Um, yes," she lied. "And you?"

"I'm Lissa. Chrom's my older brother," she introduced, gesturing towards her father, who was dashing down the halls briskly, without so much as a glance to anything in the dim light. Luckily, her mother, who had an Arcfire tome with her, was providing a bit of light for Frederick to investigate more than enough to make up for Chrom's straightforward strategy. "We came here because my best friend and her boyfriend went missing, and we heard rumors this place had something to do with all of those disappearances lately. Who was it that you lost, again?" she inquired with an innocent curiosity unfitting of her grave question.

"A friend of mine," Lucina lied, trying to grasp wildly at some proxy name. "Er, Peach. Doubt you'd know her."

"Sorry, I don't think so," admitted her future aunt, frowning. "That's weird, you don't look much younger than me, but I've never seen you around."

Gulping, Lucina began to invent excuses. "I'm er, homeschooled. Don't get out much. R- er, Leaf is too."

Lissa easily accepted this excuse, and Robin turned her head to the conversation. "That friend of yours, what were you two fighting about earlier anyways? I couldn't really hear what you were saying, but it sounded pretty bad."

"Oh, nothing important," Lucina bluffed. "We were just being stupid, me especially."

Robin nodded. "That's actually pretty mature of you. I'm guessing you have siblings, then. Probably younger ones for that sort of practice."

"Um, yes, actually," Lucina muttered. She had always heard from people that knew her mother that she had been sharp, but that was impressive. If only her and Morgan could have inherited a bit of that wit, perhaps they wouldn't be so dreadful at math, she thought with a rueful giggle. "A younger brother."

"Honestly, I'm jealous," Robin admitted with a chuckle. "I always wanted siblings, but I had to settle for Lissa, Chrom, Emm, and Frederick. They're like family to me, and I've known them so long that I feel as if they're closer to family to me than anything else."

"'Emm'?" Lucina repeated. She vaguely recalled the name from somewhere, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it.

"Emmeryn," Lissa clarified. "She's our older sister. She wanted to come, but Chrom was worried about her and made her stay behind."

She remembered the name now. Lissa on occasion spoke of her older sister, and still had a picture of her in her house, but she had died before Lucina was born. "Okay. Frederick is that man, right?" she asked, pointing to her future uncle, even though she knew the answer already.

"Yep!" Lissa answered cheerfully. "Cute, isn't he? We've know him for ages, but it took him forever to finally ask me out."

"Milady, you were the one to ask me for my courtship," corrected Frederick, who was still looking around eagerly in the dim light of Robin's spell.

"The details aren't important," dismissed Lissa with a hand-wave and a giggle. "What really matters is that you're the best boyfriend ever!" she exclaimed, tackling him from behind with a hug.

With an uneasy glance around, Robin employed her wit once more to ask a rather obvious question Lucina was shocked she hadn't thought of before. "Hey, just out of curiosity, why would a warehouse have hallways like this in the first place?"

Before she could attempt to find an explanation, Chrom cried out "Hey, I think I see something up ahead!", and a violet glow started to creep into the air. Lucina dashed ahead of the rest, hoping to find the rest of her group had perhaps caused it. If anyone else found them before her, her ruse would surely fall once someone pointed out her name was, in fact, not Marth. Without thinking, she called out "Time!" to assure no one would hear her speaking to them.

And right on cue, she found the other Alchemist Knights stationed in front of a glowing purple wall covered in odd runes. They turned towards her, weapons drawn upon hearing her footsteps, but let out a collective sigh of relief when they saw it was her. "Oh, hello Lucina, we were just trying to break down this strange wall. Any ide-"

Cutting him off, Lucina pleaded with the three. "Okay, this is really important; you can't tell anyone your real names, you can't say anything about the cores, the time travelling, or anything out of the ordinary, and most importantly, you cannot ask any questions whatsoever."

"Like why Roy isn't with you?" Ness interjected.

"I'll explain later," Lucina sighed in exasperation. "But you have to trust me on this, okay?"

Before anyone could respond, time restarted and Lucina's father, along with the rest of his company ran towards them. "Why did you run ahead like that?" asked Chrom, who was looking at the roadblock with a glare.

"I didn't want you all to rush into danger," Lucina bluffed.

Robin stared at the violet wall for a moment before pulling out a spell book. "This should be simple enough. Nosferatu!" she cried. A dark swirl of energy came from her hands and hit the wall, making an awful draining noise. The violet obstacle faded away, Robin giving a great gasp for air once it vanished entirely. She fell to the floor, trembling, and Chrom rushed to her side at once.

"Robin! I thought you said it was dangerous to use Dark Magic!" Chrom berated, taking her hand.

"But it did the trick," Robin stated softly. Lucina noticed her hands were glowing with a purple energy, likely the traces of the dark spell she'd cast. "You all go on without me, I'll feel better in a minute."

Chrom replied by sitting down next to her. "I'm not leaving you. Frederick, you take the lead!" he ordered.

"Yes sir!" Frederick called. "Lissa, stay close to me. Others, do you wish to continue with us?"

Lucina looked sadly at her parents. "We'll part ways here," she forced out. Putting a hand on her mother's shoulder, she muttered "I hope you recover" before rushing off down another corridor. The tears in her eyes blurred her view, causing her not to notice she was about to hit a wall before a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"What just happened back there?" asked Ike, letting go of her shoulder. With a great sigh, Lucina explained her woes.

After she was finished, she was met with stunned silence, save for a single voice coming from the shadows. "I know that must have been hard for you. Will you please forgive me for earlier?" asked a voice she hadn't expected to hear come out so kindly for quite a while.

Roy stepped out from behind the corner and wrapped his arms around Lucina. "Of course," Lucina replied, returning the hug. "I wasn't thinking straight. I'm sorry to have been so rude. You were only trying to do what you thought was right, after all."

"However did you get ahead of us?" asked Marth.

"There was another way in," replied Roy as he let go of Lucina. His voice came out oddly; it sounded slightly foreign to Lucina's ears. "Let's go on, I think I might have found something."

Dashing off down the corridor, Roy led the way for the other four. Though there were many branching paths, Roy took each turn with a certainty that almost made Lucina uneasy. If it had been a day when her brain was firing on all cylinders, she might have asked when he came to know the place so well, but on that day she simply followed her friend, grateful he wasn't upset with her anymore. They soon arrived at another violet wall, which Roy lazily dispelled with a sharp prod from his blade.

"How did you do that?" asked Ness, gaping at the red-head.

Without turning around, Roy sheathed his blade and continued on, calling back an answer that seemed made up on the spot. "Dark Magic barriers always have a weak point."

"Are you sure?" countered Ike. "'Cause we stabbed it for an hour and nothing happened."

After a moment's hesitation, Roy gave an answer, his voice cold and distant. "Must have not been in the right place."

With that, Lucina began to suspect something was very wrong. "Hey, Roy, are you alright?" asked Lucina.

"I'm fine," Roy called back. "It's right up ahead, let's keep going."

They continued, Lucina drawing her own sword in case they were being led into a trap. A clanking of metal coming from Ike and then Marth told her that her suspicions were shared. Another violet barrier was dispelled in an instant by Roy, but it did not hold more dark halls on it's other side. Rather, a large room was on the other side, one that made Lucina shutter from the dark energy that seemed to emanate from it.

A large violet crystal was in the center of the room, and it appeared that some energy was flowing into it from various points across the room. A few steps in and a glance around told her the source of the energy: still bodies were strewn across the floor, forming a rough ring around the crystal. The energy seemed to be drained from each of them, a few particles at a time. The only unconscious form that wasn't being drained was a young man in a dark cloak, who was collapsed at the foot of the crystal. Ness ran across the room to a young girl in a pink dress and tried to shake her awake. "Paula!" he cried. "Wake up, please, you've got to!"

"They aren't dead," told Roy, his voice colder than Lucina had ever heard it. "They're simply being drained of their magical energy."

Something clicked in Lucina's mind and she voiced what she'd suspected for quite some time. "You aren't Roy, are you?" she asked.

"That depends what you mean by that," "Roy" stated coolly. "This is, in fact Roy's body, but Roy is not the one speaking at the moment."

"So you're the one who took Paula and all those other people!" roared Ness, taking his baseball bat in his hand and charging for the possessed Roy.

"Yes, but only to attract you all here," explained "Roy" as he dodged Ness's strike with ease. "The fact that I could gather their energy to give myself and my colleagues more strength was simply an added bonus."

With a cry of "Flare!", Ike sent a stream of blue flames towards the possessed boy. "You're a Star Eater, aren't you?" he accused.

A cold laugh came from "Roy" as the flames hit him in the chest, doing no visible damage. "If you harm me, your friend will suffer when he wakes. But yes, Knight of Fire, you are correct. I am Grima of the Celestial Guardians, and if you will meet my request, your friend will be unharmed, as will the rest of them."

"Reasoning with a monster is futile!" Marth cried, pointing his blade towards "Roy's" heart.

"I simply ask that in return for the release of your friend and these other people, you allow me to probe the mind of the Knight of Sky for a moment," Grima proposed with a twisted grin.

Charging for him, Ike swung his mighty sword at "Roy", barely missing him. "I won't let you hurt Marth!" Ike bellowed. "Now, release Roy!"

"It seemed reasonable to me," muttered Grima. "Very well then. I suppose if I must fight you..."

He went over to the cloaked figure on the ground and picked up a lightning bolt-shaped sword from his side. Slashing it through the air, a flurry of electric darts flew at Ike, knocking him back. With a stab to the air, Grima sent another bolt towards them, this time heading straight towards Lucina. Holding her sword in front of her, she braced for the impact before a bright blue light filled her vision and she found someone had stepped in front of her and deflected the attack.

A young man with white-blond hair sheathed his odd looking red blade and glanced at a blue circle that had appeared on the floor, much like the one Pit had used. Out of it shot three more fighters: a short, round masked creature brandishing a golden, spiky blade, another short, round creature, this one pink and unarmored, and Pit, who seemed to be wielding twin blades. "Looks like we don't have a choice," muttered the blond haired one, turning back towards "Roy" and drawing his weapon. "Starstorm Knights, let's go!"

AN- Hey, guest reviewer who asked for Shulk, are you happy now? Okay, I actually planned on adding him before someone said they wanted to see him, but I still hope it made you happy, Anon reviewer. This chapter seems to be one of those where everything happens, doesn't it? I mean, we have Robin, Lissa, Frederick, and Chrom, then Roy and Grima, before finishing up with Shulk, Pit, Meta Knight and Kirby. The Starstorm Knights are sort of the "Honorable Mention Alchemist Knights" but are they my favorite non-Alchemist Knights? Nah. (Love her, but I don't think she wins. It's actually probably them, just couldn't resist a joke.)

So, important chapterly question! What exactly determines a story's rating, whether it's Kplus or T. If it has deaths and some dark parts, but no cursing or anything inappropriate, would you consider that Kplus or T? I've been considering changing the rating on Alchemist Knight, but I'm unsure whether it should earn a T or not. What do you people think?

So, thanks for reading! –Twilight Joltik