It took a long time for everyone to prepare for their next battle. They knew that once they entered the temple, there would be no turning back. They would probably face hundreds, if not thousands of enemies, and needed to be properly stocked. Corrin threw herself into organising everyone else to take her mind off the horrific sight of her aunt suspended in Leo's vines. There was something morbidly fascinating about the plants appearing from the ground and into her body, but she couldn't dwell on that. Leo had killed Arete to protect her, and she really wasn't sure how to deal with that.

"Corrin," a voice came from outside the tent, and she called for them to come in. "No more fancy bows?"

"I'm afraid not, Niles. Supplies are short stocked, even with Leo sending people up to the surface to find more. You'll have to do with what you've got."

"Shame. Not that I'm complaining about what I've got," he excused, plucking a silver arrow out of the quiver on his back and twirling it within his fingers.

"I'm sorry about all this," Corrin sighed, gesturing around her. "We're all stressed and tired and some people are injured, and it's a lot to deal with."

"Its fine, Corrin. You're probably more stressed than any of the rest of us. It's your country we're fighting for. Or in. I'm not sure, to be honest."

"We're fighting for Camilla at this point. She's our number one priority. I can't... I can't lose her as well."

"If you need to take a break though, I'm sure someone would take up your position. I always pinned Hinoka as a good leader."

"I can't take a break. While I agree that Hinoka would be a brilliant leader... I just can't leave Leo and Ryoma to take the burden on their own. Even with Hinoka's help, we'd still be stuck."

"Talking of Leo," Niles said, raising an eyebrow and bumping his hip against hers.

"What?" Corrin responded, narrowing her eyes at the outlaw.

"Oh nothing. Just that I can recognise two people who have-"

"Look at the time! Must dash I have to meet Oboro to talk strategy for spears since I know nothing about them!" Corrin excused, quickly ducking under the tent flap to escape Niles, leaving him chuckling to himself.

With the path to the temple now opened up in front of them, Corrin led her army directly forward. The temple was now looming in front of them, closer with every step. There was something unsettling Corrin, something that wasn't just that they were only a few kilometres from finding her father. No, what was more unsettling was that it was silent. There seemed to be no wind blowing, something that Corrin hadn't really paid any attention to either way. Aside from her small army, there was no one about- no enemy army, no stray Vallite soldiers, no sentries sent to check their location and report back to Anankos or whoever was controlling them.

So they moved on, further into the silence.

They rested again when the temple was practically in touching distance, sitting on the grass. That was another thing that Corrin noticed- there seemed to be mud, even though half the country seemed to be made of water. She put her head on Leo's lap and he ran his careful fingers through her hair, picking out stray twigs that had got stuck and combing out tangles. She glanced around her as she sat, taking in what everyone else was doing. Hinoka, Scarlet and Beruka were all sat together, feeding apples to their mounts, while Marzia sniffed around suspiciously behind them. Niles sat with Charlotte, Odin, Laslow and Peri, making small talk while the berserker polished her axe. Selena sat alone until Subaki planted himself beside her and she flushed, turning away from him. Sakura sat with Ryoma and Takumi, the youngest plucking daisies out of the grass and weaving them together to wrap around her wrists.

Eventually, Corrin hauled herself from Leo's knees, pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek. She pulled herself up from the ground, and wordlessly, everyone else did the same, following their leader. They marched onwards, towards the castle, keeping the silence of the land that surrounded them. Corrin's mind wandered. Perhaps there was a spell on this part of the land? It wouldn't have been unusual for such a thing to happen- she knew there were protective spells around both Castle Krakenburg and Castle Shirasagi. As they stood in front of the temple, it became clear that it wasn't actually a temple. The building was huge, probably bigger than Castle Krakenburg and the Northern Fortress. Leo ran his hand over a plaque by the empty hollow Corrin assumed was supposed to be a door and perhaps once had one in it. Now, there was scratch marks in the stone, ones that made Corrin's heart speed up, and not in a good way.

"Gyges," Leo said suddenly.

"What?" Takumi asked, as if Leo was speaking in a foreign language.

"Gyges. I assume it's the name of this... castle," Leo explained, trying to find the word for the huge building that stood in front of them.

"So this is the royal palace," Corrin said, glancing up at the tall tower to the back of the palace. "Anankos will be here. I can feel it."

"Shall we go in?" Takumi suggested, and Corrin placed a hand on his arm to stop it from shaking.

"That's the only way to find out what's inside. Let's go!" She called, to a muted response from the army.

Everyone else looked concerned, and she wandered inside, Nyx in front of her to light the way. A wide, dark corridor lead into a huge lobby, with a cracked concrete floor. Nyx stopped suddenly, throwing her arm out to stop Corrin from walking any further. She took another step, fully into the lobby, and the room lit up, showing the one sight that Corrin didn't want to see. After her mother and Arete, she knew it would come to this she knew, but deep down she wanted to pretend it wouldn't happen. The other two were Vallite- their souls were bound here. But apparently Anankos had other ideas, and had taken the two people she didn't want to appear at all.

"Hello, little princess," Xander called from the other end of the room. His voice made Corrin's blood run cold. Then, from behind his back, Elise moved forwards, waving at her in her oh so friendly way. Suddenly Leo was beside her, the claws of his armour digging into her arm.

"It can't be," he said, his face devoid of colour and his voice quiet.

"Big brother, you're here too!" Elise cried, her eyes crinkled in happiness.

The rest of the army filed in, and as they saw who stood watching them. Everyone wore the same expression- some cross between shock and horror. Odin and Niles arrived beside Leo, speechless for once. Corrin could clearly hear Effie's gasp as she saw her liege descending the stairs. Peri and Laslow were rooted to the spot, a cold sweat running down their backs. Although seeing other dead people resurrected in Valla had shocked them, the sight of some of their own looking just as they had before their death made them sick to the stomach.

"Everyone, stay calm," Corrin commanded, though she herself was anything but calm. "They're not real. Both of them are dead-"

"By your hand, might I remind you," Xander said, reaching the bottom of the stairs and leaning against the banister. "But don't worry. I don't hold it against you. You were obviously brainwashed."

"Hey, don't say such mean things about my sister!" Elise pouted, latching onto his arm. "Come on, let's go say hi properly!"

"No, Elise. Don't you remember what we're here to do?"

"Hurry up. Strengthen me," a voice echoed throughout the room. Corrin's eyes flew to the ceiling to find the source of the voice. Bu Xander coughed suggestively, grabbing her attention again.

"Where's Camilla?"

"Anankos... he took her. She's been possessed and now she's asleep," Takumi explained, marching forward in a strange moment of bravery.

"Silence, Hoshidan. Elise, go find your sister."

"What are you doing?" Corrin said, still supporting Leo, who was still frozen in shock, his brown eyes concentrated on the ground.

"Just checking up on big sister!" Elise said, skipping towards the box that Camilla was in. Corrin still felt weird about holding her sister in a box, but it was the only way to keep both her and their army safe.

"Is Camilla the Queen of Nohr now? She was next in line," Xander asks, and Corrin has to avert her eyes.

"No. I... I am." Technically it wasn't a lie, and she saved Leo from having to answer. He was starting to react again now, and his grip on her arm loosening.

"You?" Xander scoffed. "The traitorous princess takes the throne? Why, that's absurd."

"No," Leo said, finally having the emotional strength to stand up to his brother. It wasn't something she'd ever seen when Xander was alive, and Corrin couldn't help but smile at him. "I ascended the throne when Camilla abdicated. And Corrin is... my wife."

"What?!" Elise said, finishing winding her way through the army at the metal box. "Big brother, you married big sister? That's so gross!"

"That really isn't appropriate, Leo. You should know better than to let your feelings get out of hand," Xander chided.

"Wh-what?" Leo stuttered.

"That's disgusting, big brother! You should've married, like, Selena or someone!"

Unable to control herself, Selena snorted, but Leo's eyes filled with tears. Disgusting. That's how he thought of himself for so long, and it was only after Corrin's own admission of love that he finally started to feel better about himself. He always thought that his feelings for who he thought was his sister were unnatural, so he pushed them away. They'd been there from he was about twelve, and he'd compressed them so that he wouldn't have to feel as awful about himself. Unfortunately for him, after Corrin left Nohr, they returned twofold, and after the war, when she was fragile and ready to give anyone her love, he selfishly pursued her.

"We're not related by blood," Corrin explained. "I don't see Leo as a brother, and he doesn't see me as a sister. There is nothing wrong with our love for each other!" She glanced over at him, his head cast down to the floor. Corrin took his hand slowly, glancing at his face. His hair covered his eyes, but tears ran down his nose and landed on the floor in dark droplets. Was he crying? This scared Corrin more than anything- he was always so strong emotionally. She had never seen him cry before. He had wiped her tears plenty of times before, but she couldn't recall a time in which Leo let the tears fall down his cheeks- at least not in front of her.

"You're not right to be king though. You're too... quiet, too reserved! I can't see how you could ever rule Nohr."

"Elise," Xander continued, ignoring his younger brother in favour of the baby sister. "Is it ready?"

"Yep!" Elise called, unlocking Camilla's metal coffin.

"Good. Undo the spell, will you?"

"I'll try my best!"

"Leo, listen to me. They're not actually real. It's just like mother, and Arete. They died in our world!"

"I know, I know," he said, his voice cracking. He looked to her underneath his hair, his long eyelashes dark with tears. She had never seen him so vulnerable, so afraid. "Camilla is practically dead, and these two are dead, and it's just- it's so much for me to take in."

"It's okay, Leo. It's okay," Corrin comforted, pressing kisses to his nose and eyelids and cheeks and mouth.

A flash of light from behind them made them turn to see Camilla's body suspended in the air above her case, her purple hair whipping violently around her. Elise's hands weaved spells around her- Leo had almost forgotten that Elise had a ridiculous amount of magic power due to her healing powers. Effie was supposed to be guarding Camilla, and everyone had expected her to be the strongest shield but in the hands of her former liege she was useless. Effie was putty in Elise's hands, and the troubadour knew it. She smiled as Camilla collapsed on the ground, her body a lifeless heap. A purple orb came out of her chest, floating towards Xander. But instead of going through him, it floated off through a gap in the wall. Takumi took off after it, but was pushed back by Xander.

"What was that? What do you think you're doing?"

"Just fulfilling the will of Anankos," Xander said nonchalantly, as Elise returned to his side with a smile. Sakura rushed to Camilla's side, lifting her limp wrist to feel for a pulse. She pressed two fingers to her neck as well, and gasped quietly.

"She's st-still alive! But barely. We'll have to be quick!" She held her staff, the crystal atop it glowing. Within the blink of an eye, Azama and Jakob too were at her side, staves and rods working their magic upon her. Camilla's body was surrounded with a pale glow, though her eyes didn't open. Leo and Corrin sat down beside her, Leo taking Camilla's hand in his own. Corrin brought out her own staff, usually only used in emergencies. She wasn't an accomplished healer by any stretch of the imagination, but anything would help at this point.

At the other end of the room, Elise and Xander talked quietly between themselves, glancing nervously at the army making up the end of the room. Effie kept doing the same, making and breaking eye contact with Elise, her fingers twitching nervously by her side. Now, everyone in the army knew that Effie was the paragon of strength. She was a role model for everyone, particularly the girls- it was extremely unusual for a woman to be a knight of such strength. In one swift, clean movement, Effie threw her Javelin, it piercing the young princess's forehead. She screamed, high pitched and worrying, and then she disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, with only Effie's javelin left behind.

"Elise!" Leo cried, taking a deep breath to reassure him that it wasn't his little sister that was just murdered in front of his eyes. His hands clenched around Camilla's.

"Camilla is nearly stable. It'll only take one more minute or so until we can stop for now," Sakura explained. Leo's eyes were trained on Xander. He stood still, unwavered by the death of his sister.

"You're not my brother," Leo spat, rising to his feet, letting Camilla's hand drop ungracefully on the ground. "You may look like him, but you don't talk like him. You don't possess his spirit." Leo flicked through the pages of Brynhildr until Laslow laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Let us, my lord." His eyes were cold and uncaring, but he sniffed loudly, the sound betraying his true feelings. Peri's emotions were a lot more obvious, with black trails of mascara running down her face.

"Don't worry, Lord Leo! We'll make sure we get him good," Peri grinned, her eyes bright with excitement despite the fact she was talking about her old liege.

Without another word, they rode towards Xander, who in his confusion didn't react. Luckily for those two, he was unarmed, whereas they had some of the most expensive weapons the army could afford. Laslow steered his horse to the left of him, distracting Xander so that Peri could drive her lance through the gap in his armour, through the purple silk that made up his shirt and into his stomach. The inky tears kept running down Peri's face, settling into the crevices at her nose. Blood spurted from Xander's mouth, and his eyes went wide with shock.

"My precious retainers... thank you."

His body collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud, and within seconds he too disappeared in a shower of purple. Corrin looked up as Xander's body disappeared, and Leo collapsed to the floor, holding his head in his hands. She abandoned Camilla and her staff, knowing that the princess would be in good hands, and dashed across the room to Leo, kneeling in front of him.

"Hey," she said softly, trying to get his attention. He hadn't been injured, so she knew that he had been hurt in his heart. "Leo, it's okay. It's over, they're gone."

"I know. And that's what hurts me. I wished I could've talked to them normally. I didn't get to see them before they..."

"You weren't there. And I'm glad neither you nor Camilla were there. I know I would rather have been elsewhere when my siblings were killed in front of me."

"Corrin, let's not... talk about this."

"Leo, we can't move past these sorts of things unless we talk about them," she pleaded.

"Later. I promise. For now, we have to move on. Camilla will need help." He pressed his lips to her hair, breathing in the scent of wood smoke and coconut.

"We have to find whatever that was that came out of Camilla," Takumi said, clenching the Fujin Yumi tightly within his fist. "It looked like a soul, obviously not hers since she's still alive."

"She's n-not responsive, though," Sakura spoke as Leo and Corrin rejoined them. "Alive, definitely, but I can't s-say for certain what she'll be like when she wakes up."

"I know Camilla needs to rest, but we need to move. Someone will have to hold her up, and do tell us if she wakes up," Corrin commanded, looking around for volunteers. Surprisingly, Takumi was the one that stepped up.

"I'll do it."

"You really think you can?" Corrin asked, raising an eyebrow. She knew that Takumi was only a little taller than her, but Camilla was a lot taller than Corrin, likely due to her Nohrian blood. However, when Takumi slung the princess's arm around his shoulder and put one arm around her waist, Corrin could see that Takumi had grown without her even noticing. He was slightly taller than Camilla now, his strong archer's body keeping her upright without much complaint.

"Is that good enough?" He asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, actually," she replied, trying her utmost to hide the surprise in her voice.

They wandered their way around the castle, trying to figure out where Anankos would lie and where that fragment of his soul that had possessed Camilla had gone. The logical answered was the throne room, but there was no sleeping dragon there, so they moved on. What they assumed could only be a garden was also empty, with just a huge expanse of grass. The library, while full of books, and eventually they met up again in the lobby with no one being able to report anything. Jakob had found a basement, and while it was fully lit, he had only actually managed to discover dust and spiders.

"I think we need to check the throne room again," Corrin said. She was convinced he must be there- he just wouldn't be obvious to their eyes. She couldn't truthfully see how a huge dragon would be easily concealed in a castle, but she knew he was here- she could feel his presence, making the blood in her veins run colder with every step.

The army made its way back into the throne room, filing in then spacing out. There was no sign of Anankos, but the unsettling feeling in Corrin's stomach multiplied tenfold. She wandered around on her own, nobody really having the guts to follow her in case Anankos suddenly jumped out at them. She ran her fingers over the old oil paintings on the wall. There was one of a man with beautiful blue hair past his shoulders, a pendant hanging around his neck that she immediately recognised as Azura's. This must've been her father, although there was no inscription of his name scraped into the paint. A little further on was a family portrait- a woman with long black hair and a man with similar blue hair and red eyes. Corrin gasped as her eyes went to the baby cradled in the woman's arms. The child bore the same striking red eyes, and Corrin blinked hard. This was her, and her mother and father. Mikoto and Anankos.

She walked to the head of the room, her hands trembling. There was a huge mask that took up most of the back wall. Now, Corrin wasn't particularly god at problem solving, but she made an attempt at figuring out where Anankos was. She shoved the throne out of the way, and stood in front of the mask. Cautiously, she put her hand on the nose of the mask. There was a deep rumbling sound, and then it shot backwards, leaving a huge tunnel. Corrin backed away quickly, towards her army who had all held their weapons up. Suddenly, the back wall of the castle crumbled, and there stood Anankos. He was asleep, but his eye slowly opened- the same red as the man in the painting.

"You came," he said, his voice reverberating in Corrin's ears.

"Of course I came! I couldn't let you overtake Hoshido and Nohr via Camilla. My homeland and my birth land- two countries I feel strongly for."

"This is your birth land, impudent child."

"If I don't feel anything for it, then I won't claim it as my own."

She held the Yato in her hand, in a battle stance in front of her. Ryoma came to her side, the Raijinto held similarly to her own sword. Leo fell in at the other, Brynhildr beginning to glow. All of a sudden, Corrin's Yato lit up, a deep purple. The third eye opened, glowing a bright gold. It was similar to the way it had reacted to Ryoma and Takumi's sacred weapons. This was a new Yato, one she would name as the Beta Yato, because of what her father would say next.

"Curses. It's almost the Fire Emblem... no bother. I have my own weapon to use against you. There's no way you can defeat me, and with this on my side, you won't even get close."

Purple smoke swirled around the dragon's claws as he pushed himself up from the ground. A figure began to emerge from the smoke, being built from the feet up. Corrin felt her heart speed up, panic setting in as the person appeared. Long hair whipped around their shoulders, and a white dress settled against the concrete. Azura opened her eyes, clasping a hand over her chest. Corrin froze, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.

"Greetings, Corrin."

A/N: Shout out to that one person who saw that coming!