Alchemist Spirit Knight Lucina

Chapter Twenty- Lodestar

The sun was hanging low in the sky when the Alchemist Knights materialized in front of the warehouse Green and Leaf had taken them to what seemed like ages ago. Lucina found it hard to believe it was only a week ago when they stood judgment before the young man that was so suspicious of them, as it seemed like lifetimes ago. She prepared to give a sharp rapping on the door, but Roy had already stepped up to the metal door and tapped on it in an odd pattern she could vaguely remember Green using once before.

With a whip and a crash into something in the building, Leaf opened the door and swiftly turned cherry red as her brown eyes met the icy ones of the boy she'd fallen for. "Y-you, you came back!" she gasped.

"Sorry it took so long," Roy promptly apologized. "Some… things came up."

Leaf threw her arms around the red-haired boy. "Green said you guys wouldn't come back! I knew he was wrong!" she exclaimed before calling back into the building. "Hey, Red, there are some people here to see you!"

"Green was wrong, was he?" Ike muttered under his breath. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"I sincerely hope he hasn't changed his mind about our good intentions," Marth added softly.

A black haired boy wearing a red cap ran up next to his sister and glanced between the Alchemist Knights before laughing. "See you lot are wearing normal clothes today," he joked. "Well, 'xept you, Tiara Boy, but at least it's more normal than what you were wearing last time."

"Is he making fun of me?" Marth questioned under his breath.

"Leave him alone," Ike huffed. "Marth looks fine."

With a snicker, Red exclaimed "Relax, Spitfire, I'm not making fun of your girlfriend."

Lucina had to fight both the urge to punch Red's face in and her desire to burst out laughing, the latter of which grew even stronger upon seeing the horrified blush on Ike's face and Marth's confusion. She knew laughing at her friends' misery was an awful thing to do, but Red, while a bit of a jerk, had made a punchline he couldn't possibly know the appropriateness of.

She actually did giggle when Marth skewered Red's hat with his rapier and threw it to the side before placing the thin blade in a perfect position to run through Red's throat, if he wanted to. "You will not insult me, the Prince of Altea or my allies, lest you face certain doom, is this understood?"

"Oh, royalty now, are you, Princess?" Red sneered. "You don't scare me, got that?"

With a groan, Leaf pulled her brother away from Marth's blade, while Roy held Ike back from charging at Red. "Sorry," Leaf apologized as she pushed her brother behind her, trapped behind the doorway. "He tends to be a bit… testy whenever he gets nervous."

"I'm not nervous!" Red protested. "And anyways, it's not my fault those two can't take a joke!"

"And it's not my fault your brother doesn't know when to shut up!" Ike countered.

Hoping to get away before the situation grew too tense, Lucina pried the Blood core from Marth's clenched fist and tossed it to Red. "Yell 'Blood' to activate this and we'll be off," Lucina instructed.

"Why 'Blood'?" Red inquired, tossing the core in his hand casually. "If these are supposed to be elemental powers, shouldn't this be Fighting or Dragon or something?"

"Don't try to apply logic to this," Roy warned with a groan. "Trust me, I've tried. Won't get you anything but headaches."

"Fine then, 'Blood'!" Red cried. Enveloped in crimson light, the black t-shirt he was wearing dissolved into a red jacket with black sleeves, a red and white hat replaced the one tossed to the side, and his eyes seemed to melt from a red-brown to garnet. The boy nodded in approval as he glanced at his new attire. "Okay, Beautifly, I like this."

Vaguely wondering if "Beautifly" was her and if so, how he'd arrived at that nickname, Lucina remembered she hadn't transformed yet. "Time!" she quickly called out, the blue outfit enveloping her causal clothing.

"Ice!" Roy followed. Leaf gave a small smile, and Lucina was vaguely wondering if she found his cape attractive rather than superfluous.

Ike called "Fire!" and muttered something about Red's outfit not including a cape, prompting Lucina to step between the knights of Fire and Blood before they broke someone or something.

"Let's go ahead and find Peach," Lucina prompted. "Leaf, we'll make sure your brother's safe."

With a sad glance at her brother and Roy, Red's sister turned away. "O-okay. See you. Please, be safe, and I promise I'll stop Green from making any important plans without you," she choked out, Lucina becoming surer by the syllable that she had turned away to hide her tears.

Red gave a broad grin and wrapped his sorrowful sister in a hug. "Take care, little sis!" he exclaimed before breaking away and rejoining the group as Marth cast Lodestar on the green core.

The world dissolved from gold to the grungy city of Rogueport, where they had fought Circe in an underground chamber. A young woman with blonde hair was the only one to notice them materialize, and quickly snatched the fiercely glowing dark green pendant out of Marth's hand. "You must be the people Mario told me about," she murmured, her sapphire eyes fixated on the glowing core. "Have you any lead on Luigi's fate?"

"I'm really sorry about that," Lucina quickly apologized. "We don't know what happened to him, but it's possible we'll find him while we're-"

"Don't sugar-coat it, love," Peach very plainly stated. "He's dead, and you need me to help you stop anyone else from dying, right?"

"We don't know if he's dead for sure, but basically, that's the gist of it," Lucina explained, a twinge of sadness prodding at her. "Put that necklace around your neck and call out 'Plant'; that'll activate its powers."

"Plant!" Peach called, and her fairly plain faded rose-colored dress turned lacy and vibrant. Inspecting her appearance, Peach muttered "My, this is like something out of a fairy tale!" and turned towards the sun, which was hanging low in the sky. "Shame," she added. "I always hoped if my life was to be a fairy tale it would be one of the happy ones where the day is saved by true love's kiss and the hero and his princess ride off into the sunset on a white horse."

No one knew quite how to respond to that, but Ike made an attempt. "Happy endings can still exist, though," he rebutted with an awkward smile and glance at Marth.

"And Luigi won't have one if he died for nothing," Roy continued. "Peach, it wasn't your fault, you know."

The Knight of Plant turned back to the group with a warm smile. "I know, dear," she assured Roy. "It was the fault of the witch that possessed me. She is our foe, isn't she?"

"Her and her allies," Lucina explained. "They're trying to harness the power of the stars to wreak havoc on the world."

"Right, then." Peach stepped towards her new allies. "What is there to do about it?"

"We'll need to retrieve the Knight of Electricity, and then we can find the rest of the Alchemist Knights from there. Um, that's what we're called, by the way," Lucina quickly told.

Taking Ness's yellow core in his hand, Marth cast Lodestar once more, this time arriving in a graveyard.

The stars had barely began to come out, and Ness was standing alone in front of a granite tombstone that still shimmered slightly, as if it had only recently been placed there. The name carved into it: Paula Polestar, must have belonged to the girl Grima had killed. This was further proved by the bouquet clenched in Ness's left hand: ten roses of gold and white, a lone scarlet bloom in their number. The Knight of Electricity turned to the rest of the Alchemist Knights, a deafened look of numbness in his eyes. "Hello again," Ness greeted, his voice hollow. "Are we leaving now?"

"Are you ready?" Lucina questioned.

"You know, four people died in Grima's attack," Ness remarked solemnly. "One of them was a little girl, younger than me. Pippi, I think her name was."

A wave of guilt fell over the Alchemist Knights who had been present at the incident. "And we're really sorry we couldn't save them," Roy spoke softly.

"That's just my point!" Ness exclaimed, his voice filling up with a bright passion. "Since we couldn't save Paula and the rest of them, now it's up to us to protect the people we still can save, right?"

With a grin, Lucina tossed the Electricity core to him. As Ness activated it, he let the bouquet fall to the ground, landing in front of Paula's grave gracefully. As he walked back towards the group, he muttered a soft "Bye, Paula." before quickly asking "Okay, where are we starting?"

Lucina drew a core out of her pocket at random, producing the deep pink pendant. "The pink one, I suppose," she stated.

Marth took it in the hand that wasn't wrapped around a rapier. "Lodestar!" he called, and the graveyard started to fade to gold.

But before it could be wholly enveloped in Marth's light, Lucina was sure she saw a grave near Paula's marked "Emmeryn Ylisse" with a few white lilies set on the shimmering stone.

AN- Well, this chapter switched tones quickly. I know you lovely people are going to start to complain about how I characterized Red as being so rude, but I imagine him as a person who combats stress with joking, and considering his life, he's probably pretty stressed. I really like how Peach turned out in this, too.

I feel as if I should explain Red's nickname to Lucina, as it kind of looks like he was flirting with her on second glance. Originally, I meant for his nickname to simply be "Butterfly", since Lucina is represented by butterflies in Awakening a few times. However, I quickly realized Red wouldn't have any idea what a Butterfly was, so I changed it to Beautifly. So not at all flirting, just Red being Red.

So, chapterly question! What do you think Roy's, Peach's, and Ness's nicknames from Red should be? Figured it should be a lighthearted question after the dark ending.

Thanks for reading! –Twilight Joltik