It was almost morning when the Smashers left the forsaken place that they called Dracula's Castle. Kamui shivered as he felt the outside chill finally hit him as his body had cooled off from the adrenaline of battle. He looked at Corrin, who still slept soundly in Bayonetta's arms, wondering when she was going to wake up.

Both R.O.B. and Peach seemed to be in good conditions, with Peach showing a few shallow cuts and bruises and a thorn dress, while R.O.B. displayed a couple of scratches on his metal body. Simon and Ike also seemed to fare well, which amazed Kamui, since they were fighting the incarnation of death itself, though he worried for the nasty burn on Ike left shoulder. He assured Kamui that all was well, but Kamui didn't believe him and would drag him to Dr. Mario's clinic the moment that they returned to the hotel.

It was only when the first rays of morning sunlight appeared, bathing the tired group in a warm glow, that it dawned on Kamui that the nightmare was over. Corrin was safe and her tormentors were not going to try to take her away from them every again. He should be overjoyed for their victory, and yet something inside of him felt hollow, as if there were still things that needed to be done. He felt relief, but not the need to celebrate. As they walked their way back home, he heard Corrin stir and let out a low groan.

"What… where..."

"Good morning," Bayonetta said.

Everyone in the group turned to Corrin, who looked around with a mixture of confusion and sleepiness on her face. Her neck still hurt, so she avoided moving her head too much. Little by little, the memories from last night were coming to her head. Her being held hostage, the unbearable pain she felt, how long she longed for death, as Carmilla bit her and changed her into a monster, how she lost almost all control of her free will, how she attacked Kamui by her orders and almost killed him. The feeling of shame began to build up on her, to the point where she couldn't look at anyone in the eyes, especially Kamui's.

And yet, there they were, worried about her. After all the trouble she put them through, they still concerned for her.

"Corrin, how do you feel? Can you stand up?" Peach asked.

"I… think I can."

Bayonetta gently put her on the floor and Corrin stumbled forward, but was grabbed by Ike before she could fall. After a few seconds, she managed to recompose herself and stand up without the need of Ike acting as a crutch.

"Everyone, I..." she said, bringing her hands to her chest. "Thank you, thank you so much. If you didn't show up, I'd be..."

"No need to thank us, Corrin," Richter said. "We're just glad that you are safe."

They made their way through the forest, back to the hotel. Kamui walked alone just a few steps behind the group, his eyes unconsciously staring at the back of Corrin's head. He flinched as Corrin turned her head towards him, an unreadable expression on her face. Neither of them said anything to each other.

"Hey, Kamui, hurry up will you? Don't tell me you want to be left behind," Richter teased.

"I was distracted, sorry," he said. "I'm coming."

The trip back to the hotel was, to the relief of everyone, uneventful.

Later on that very day, the group reported what they found at the abandoned Dracula's Castle to Crazy Hand and Richter delievered the mask that he was holding to him. When questioned about the whereabouts of Laura, Richter told him that she was chained inside the castle and that he needed to get rid of that entire mess while he went there to retrieve her. Before Crazy could go to the castle and fix the mess he caused, he took Carmilla's mask and crushed it, however, once he opened himself, Richter was surprised to see a small, colorful ball of flames floating above his palm.

"Crazy, what did you do to her?" Richter asked.

"This, my dear Richter, is Carmilla's spirit," Crazy Hand said. "She's harmless like this and all she can do is- WHOA!"

The spirit tried to fly away, but the hand managed to catch it before it crashed onto Richter. "Naughty spirit! Into the vault you go!" Crazy Hand shrieked as he curled his fingers and made the spirit disappear. "All better now!"

"Vault?"

"Yes, where we store spirits."

"Should I ask what these spirits are to begin with?"

"You don't need to worry your pretty little head with questions like this," he said. "Well, I'm off to Dracula's castle and get rid of the bodies you left behind."

Crazy Hand patted his head and, before Richter could ask further questions, snapped his fingers and disappeared into thin air. Despite his curiosity over what those spirits were, Richter was simply tired of dealing with Crazy Hand after all that time and decided to drop the subject. He had better things to do with his life now that the danger had passed.

He would start with a well deserved nap.

A month passed by since Corrin's rescue and things were mostly back to normal. After that fateful night, the visions and voices that tormented Corrin ceased, though it still took her a long time to feel at ease walking around alone without worrying that she would be tormented by another vision. Despite that, she couldn't consider things to be the way they were before, not when it came to her relationship with Kamui. After they had returned to the hotel, Corrin and Kamui exchanged awkward glances and decided to go each on their separate ways. They only ever talked when they had to discuss important strategies with Ike about the double tournaments, since they still shared the fighter slot.

It was clear to Ike that something was wrong between them. He expected them to go back to being on good terms the moment that they saved Corrin, but that proved to not be the case. It was clear that neither of them wanted (or could) face each other for more than a few minutes, their reunions regarding strategy discussion for the tournament were gradually becoming more suffocating until he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Kamui, you need to go talk to Corrin," Ike said one day as he and Kamui were out for lunch.

"What?" Kamui asked.

"I can't take this anymore," Ike said. "Every time I see you two together, I feel like I need to act as a messenger between you two… while you're standing right by each other's side!"

"Oh, it's not like that. You're exaggerating."

"I'm not. You know I'm right."

"Ugh..."

Kamui crossed his arms and looked away from Ike, his vision preferring to focus on the empty restaurant. He wanted to tell Ike that he was imagining things, that there was nothing wrong between him and Corrin, but after a few seconds of inner stubbornness, he had to admit that Ike was right. There was something wrong between them, Kamui couldn't keep pretending that there wasn't. They hadn't talked properly in over a month and couldn't seem to bring themselves to look at each other's eyes for more than a couple of seconds. He didn't know exactly what was going on that made him so afraid of looking at his sister in eyes. Could it be shame? Guilt? Anger over the words she threw at him? Or simply the fact that, mind control or not, Corrin had attempted to take his life and he wanted distance, afraid that the urge to kill him returned?

With a sigh, he took out the phone from his pocket.

"What are you doing?" Ike asked.

"Corrin sent me a message yesterday asking if I wanted to meet her at Isle of the Ancients park," he said. "I… I ignored her."

"And you said that I was exaggerating."

"Alright, I get it, no need to rub it on my face."

Kamui went silent for a moment as he typed his answer to the neglected message:

Hey Kamui, it's been a while, hasn't it? I was wondering if you're free tomorrow. We could go out for a walk on Isle of the Ancients park or go out for a coffee. What do you think?

Hi, Corrin! Sorry for the late reply. I can't go out today, but I'd still like to meet you at Isle of the Ancients park. What about tomorrow?

"There, it's done."

"See? Was it so hard?"

"You really won't leave this issue alone, will you?"

"Not until you resolve it," he said. "Also, your food is growing cold."

"Ah, damn it… I completely forgot about my food."

"Ha ha, should I feed you?"

Kamui absolutely wouldn't mind, even if he knew Ike was joking. Still, he couldn't stop his cheeks from begin just a bit red. "Well, maybe when it's just the two of us," he said, taking a bite of of his steak. "I wouldn't mind you serving me some meat."

"Ah..."

"But don't that in public, that would be too embarrassing."

Ike decided to not press the issue further.

Corrin took one last look in the mirror just to make sure she looked presentable enough. Since it was her free day, she didn't need to wear her battle armor, instead opting for a more casual outfit, with a black overcoat and a white scarf over it, in case the weather outside was as cold as it was predicted by the weather channel. She took her purse and left the room, heading towards the elevators at the very end of the corridor.

She did not expect to find Bayonetta waiting at the other side of the elevator, also heading towards the ground floor. Corrin nodded at her, receiving one in return, and entered the elevator. She expected to see her later, but since they were both there, she might as well tell her what she had been meaning to say since the night she was rescued.

"Um… Bayonetta," she said.

"Hum? What is it, little princess?"

Corrin sighed. She was still going to insist on that nickname, wasn't she?

"I just wanted to say… thank you," Corrin said, now looking at her in the eyes. "Thank you for coming to my rescue that day."

"Oh, but didn't you thank us already before?" she asked.

"I did, but I also remember how you protected Kamui from myself," Corrin said. "Thank you for looking out for him and I'm sorry for not listening to you before."

Bayonetta turned to her, one hand on her hip and a surprised expression on her face. The witch did not expect to hear those words from Corrin.

"I, um… well, you are welcome, I suppose," she said.

Her brief sudden loss for words did not go unnoticed by Corrin, who let out a giggle at how embarrassed Bayonetta looked.

"Amused, are you?"

"He he, sorry, it is just that I rarely see you loose your composure," she said.

"We are now approaching the ground floor," echoed the automated voice.

The elevator reached the destined floor and both women walked away. Corrin turned to Bayonetta, who was still feeling a bit awkward from the exchange.

"I guess this is all I wanted to tell you," Corrin said. "I need to go now, but can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Is there any chance that you'll stop calling me by that nickname?" she asked.

"I already told you, I'll only call you by your name when-"

"Yeah, yeah, when I grow up," she sighed. "I should have known you would say that. Well, I'll see you around, Bayonetta. Later!"

As she watched Corrin leave, Bayonetta gave her a small smile and went on her separate way.

It took Corrin about twenty minutes to reach Isle of the Ancients park, but it was well worth the trouble. The air was very chilly, so much so that Corrin could see her own breathing, but the weather was clear and she could feel some warmth from the sun. The trees had lost almost all of their leafs, signifying that the days of autumn were at their end and the park seemed to had less visitors than it used to have during hot summer days. She made her way through the beige gravel path, hands in her black overcoat's pockets as to keep her hands warm.

She eventually found who she was looking for. Sitting on a bench was a rather distracted Kamui who kept looking at the opposite direction from where she came from, his pure white coat almost gleaming with the rays of sunshine, a strong contrast with his black scarf.

"Kamui, hey!" she called out.

Kamui turned around, almost in a jump. He didn't expect to hear Corrin's voice sound so lively. As he approached her, he realized that, despite her bright disposition, her eyes and smile showed an apparent nervousness and discomfort, much similar to the one that he was feeling at that moment.

"So..."

"Wanna sit or do you have another place in mind?" Corrin asked.

"No, no, we can talk here, it's okay," he said.

They sat on the bench and Kamui saw his sister take out a plastic bag filled with homemade cookies in it. She gave him a sheepish smile and handed him one.

"Um… it was Peach's idea," she said. "She said that talking over food is always good and I think I agree with her."

Kamui took a bite from the cookie. It had an almost intoxicating sweet flavor. "I assume it was her who made it?" he said. "It's very sweet, not that I'm complaining. It's delicious!"

"He he, yes, it was her!" she said. "She's amazing!"

"Heh, well, give her my compliments, it's really good."

"Will do."

"So..."

"Yeah..."

"How… are you?"

"I'm fine, I suppose," she said. "How about you?"

"Well, I don't know," Kamui said. "Things have been weird lately."

"Yes, I suppose they have been."

"Have you been recovering well from… well, you know?"

"Yes, I have, though it hasn't been easy at first, I was always afraid of seeing things that would trick me into hurting myself," Corrin said. "But nothing has happened so far, it is almost as if none of what happened before actually happened."

"I see," Kamui said. "I don't think I have ever asked you, Corrin, but you mentioned that you were visited by Takumi, right? Who else did you see?"

"Ryoma, Azura and… a couple other people who I couldn't recognize."

"Maybe they were also people who were important to you in the past," Kamui suggested.

"Maybe, though I don't want to know who they were," Corrin said. "I want to leave all of this behind. I want to start anew."

"Aren't you curious about it, though?"

"Kamui, ever since my visions started, dwelling in the past is all I have done, if I try to figure it out who those people were, I would go back to how I was before now," Corrin sighed. "Before that, I tried to not think too much about my past, but even then… well, when I first saw that you existed, all I could think about was how you were the part of me who made all the right decisions and that I was a total failure."

"What made you think that I was the better version of us?" he asked.

"You were on the right side," she said. "You sided with the people being attacked, not with a power hungry conqueror. By siding with our adoptive family, I feel as if I let my emotions cloud my judgment. Because I was afraid of letting our siblings from Nohr down, I helped a tyrant overthrow an entire country, Kamui."

"Funny how you say this, because I feel like I let MY emotions cloud my judgment."

"What?! How so?"

"I don't regret siding with Hoshido, don't get me wrong," Kamui said. "It is as you said, Garon was a monster and he needed to be put down."

"Yes..."

"I don't regret the side I chose, but I can't say they were motivated by a sense of justice. I was pretty selfish on my journey."

"Your intent may have been selfish, but your actions should speak louder."

"Even so, me going against Nohr was not done out of a sense if justice, I was just… so angry and vengeful," he said. "I wonder me killing all of those Nohrians was done in self defense or in a way to get back at that awful man that I once thought of as a father."

"Oh..."

"I have killed countless Nohrians because of my revenge, even the ones that were ready to surrender when the battle was done," he said. "All because I wanted to get back at him, but I doubt that Garon cared about what I was doing to his own people. I only ever spared our siblings, and yet..."

"And yet?"

"I could not save them," Kamui said. "Xander and Elise… they died in the conflict."

"I… have no words for that," she whispered, looking away from him. "Xander and Elise were killed? This is unbelievable..."

"I thought that, in a way, at least you were better off than me because you managed to keep everyone alive, but after you told me that Takumi died, I was so shocked, I barely could react to what was going on."

"Kamui, would you mind telling me what happened in your path?"

And so Corrin and Kamui did what they should have done since they met, they talked about their past in detail. Kamui told Corrin about his journey in integrating into Hoshidan society and gaining their trust in the conflict against the nation that had raised him. With each passing battle, he grew more certain that King Garon had to be put down, as well as anyone who associated with him. He made valuable allies and found a new family in the Hoshidan royal family, but his actions had also forced him to turn his blade against the people he loved back in Nohr, resulting in the deaths of Elise and Xander and in the grief of Camilla and Leo, a grief that he doubted they would recover from. His victory, while just in his eyes, was nothing short of bittersweet, as he knew that their late mother would be proud, but he failed to reach for the man that he used to think of his father and get the answers he seek.

"And what did you expect to get from him?" Corrin asked.

"Why did he take me in?" he said, bitterly. "Why did he go through all that trouble of pretending to be my father? Why not just kill me the moment that he took me from… I just… Gods, I was so naive as to think I would reach a resolution with him!"

"I don't understand either."

"I bet that he was at least liked you better, right?"

Corrin let out a bitter laughter, one that shattered any hope in Kamui that their late monster of a father had any love for them. "If by better you mean that he did not directly send someone to kill me, then yes, he did," she said. "But a lot of the things he forced me to do were orders made to hurt me one way or another."

She explained that her journey felt more as if she was carrying out tasks to satisfy King Garon, all while trying to keep casualties to a minimum in a vain attempt to bring as little bloodshed to the conflict as possible. All that Corrin could do was take solace in the fact that her siblings were there for her and that they too had to go through the same trials, except that they were not as naive and hoped to regain his love, they carried out orders to survive.

Despite all the doubts and hardships, there was no denying that she somehow managed to end the war, though it was through an unconventional and questionable way.

"I just wish that, in the end, I could have kept the promise I made to Hinoka and saved Ryoma and Takumi," she said. "I don't think I'll ever manage to gain her or mother's forgiveness for turning against their country."

"I feel the same… I don't think that Leo or Camilla would ever see me the same way."

There was a moment of silence between them, with both reflecting on their stories and journeys. Were they as different as they thought to be? Corrin always saw Kamui as the version of her who was right about everything, who went through a heroic journey and brought a peaceful resolution to the conflict without too much hardship. She did not expect to her how much bloodshed he caused in his way to defend a nation he barely knew. As for Kamui, he always saw Corrin as an extent of the family he forced himself to abandon, but wanted desperately to reconnect with. He saw her as his doubts of the path he took, the doubt that maybe he should have stayed and searched for a more peaceful solution, even if staying meant staying by the side of the monster responsible for the conflict.

In the end, what did that all mean? They knew each other's story, so what would they do with that? What would they do with their memories?

"We can't go back to our world," Kamui said. "We can't do anything about these memories. No matter how much we want to ask for forgiveness, we can't."

Corrin looked up towards the clean blue sky, wondering how far away their home world was. The sky was never this beautiful back in Nohr. She took a deep breath and finally decided to face him.

"So what are we supposed to do?" she asked. "Just forget about everything? I have already tried, but I don't think I can do that."

"Well, not forget, but just… accept that it happened."

"Accept?"

"Accept and make sure that we do better as people here. We can't pretend it never existed, but we can't let our past consume us."

"We can never gain their forgiveness, uh..."

"No, we can't," he said. "It hurts, but we can't."

"You're right, but I can at least ask this from you," Corrin said. "Kamui, will you forgive me?"

"For what?" Kamui asked, taken completely by surprise.

"When I was being controlled by Carmilla, I said those things to you, about wanting to hurt you. I attacked you and almost killed you! I'm so sorry for that."

"You were being controlled by Carmilla, you have nothing to be blamed for that."

"I don't blame myself for being controlled, I blame myself for the feelings she used to control me," she said. "I never wanted to kill you, but I certainly had a lot of resentment and envy towards you."

"So you did want to hurt me."

"Well, not with a sword to your throat, but in some way."

"Have you always felt like that?"

"No, I think it started when all those visions started to appear," Corrin said. "You wanted so much to help me and protect me, but all I could think about was how I wanted you as far away from me as possible. You started to remind me too much of my failures and..."

Kamui could see tears forming in the corner of her eyes. Her voice choked and her hands were trembling in a nervous attempt to keep the rest of her body from shaking as well. Despite all of that, she still looked at him in the eyes and he could see genuine sorrow and regret in them. The sight made his own chest heavy and his throat dry.

"I know you just wanted to help me, I'm so sorry for everything."

Without saying a word, Kamui embraced her tightly and Corrin just let the tears flow. He caressed her hair as she sobbed and hiccuped into his chest, his own eyes starting tear up as well. Time seemed to stop as they remained in that state, until he could feel his sister starting to slowly calm down.

"Corrin, I should apologize to you as well," he said, hand still caressing her hair.

"For what? You did nothing wrong," she said.

They broke from their embrace and Corrin could see his tears. It felt odd, to see Kamui in a vulnerable state like that, not when she saw him as the strong one between them.

"I could have handled the situation better," he said. "I could see that I was hurting you in some way, but I tried to ignore it. The more you pushed me away, the more I pulled. I thought… I was the only one who could keep you safe and I only put you under more stress because of it. I was wrong."

"Oh, Kamui..."

"Remember when you came back from Peach's party?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Before I approached you, you seemed genuinely happy," he said. "Despite all the trouble you were going through, Peach managed to make you feel happy. I think that I tried to ignore that because I didn't want to see you had other people to help you out. Not on purpose, but it was how I felt."

"I see."

"Corrin, can you forgive me for being so selfish?"

"Only if you can forgive me for being so resentful," she said, wiping away the tears.

"He he, it's a deal."

Kamui then decided to rest his head on Corrin's shoulder, who tilted her head to gain support. She then took the bag that was placed by her side and shook it in front of him, a gesture that asked if he wanted another biscuit. With a chuckle, he decided to take another one. Somehow it tasted even sweeter than the first one he ate.

Corrin kept thinking about the night she saw Azura in that very same spot. She was ready to throw everything away and chase a past that she felt guilty over, yet talking to Kamui like that made her realize how foolish that desire was. She would not chase the past, but she would not run from it either. She would simply accept it for what it was and how it shaped her.

For the first time since she woke up into this world, Corrin felt peace.

After more than one year writing this fic, I'm happy to announce that this story is finally finished! So here are some notes:

-I had the idea for a story that dealt with the more complicated aspect of Corrin and Kamui's sibling like relationship for about two years before the start of this fic, but I was having difficulty with thinking about the main conflict and scenario, so I shelved the idea. It was only when I saw Simon and Richter being added to Smash that the idea came back, since their games had the supernatural elements that I wanted to include in this story.

-I tried to remain as neutral as possible when writing about the events in Birthright and Conquest, since the idea was not to determine who was right or wrong, but rather just explore Corrin and Kamui's feelings regarding the conflict that they participated in. My intention was not to show that neither of them was right or wrong, but rather that no matter which path they took, they would have suffered personal painful consequences for their decisions. Conquest is totally a villain campaign though.

-My decision to include a romance between Ike and Kamui was made late into the planning of this story. I thought that writing the scenes between them added the levity that the story needed at certain points. His relationship with Ike also only helped cement the feelings of envy and resentment that Corrin started to grow towards Kamui, as she saw her counterpart managing to live his life and even find a partner, while she continued to be tormented by the voices.

-Madame Celeste won't appear in another story ever again. I had a lot of fun writing for her, but I don't feel comfortable writing OCs for Smash stories. Laura also was really fun to write for (so far one of my favorite characters in this story), too bad she's not even a spirit in Ultimate, so she most likely won't return in another fic.

And I guess that's about it. Thank you for reading!