As she prepared to enter the tent, Camilla sighed, her tone mildly sorrowful before turning to Cornelius, who was beginning to look angry. "I promise I will explain everything to you. Please, don't be seen."

With that she walked into the tent, leaving Cornelius outside alone and with only his rising anger. With nothing else to do, he kicked the ground in his frustration; how could the people he cared about most keep something like his true heritage a secret from him?! What else were they hiding?!

"Psst!" a voice suddenly hissed. Cornelius looked to see the girl from earlier, Corrin, hiding on the outside of the tent too. She seemed to be waving him over. Cornelius willingly walked over; maybe he could get to know his sister a bit better.

"You're the soldier from earlier, right?" Corrin asked once Cornelius stopped next to her.

Cornelius nervously scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, but I'm not just a soldier."

"I know" Corrin said, taking him by surprise, "I'm guessing you're a commander or prince of some kind."

Cornelius lifted his visor, giving her a confused look. "How did you…?"

Corrin casually replied. "You don't walk like a simple soldier and your sword is too regal for common use."

Cornelius became embarrassed. "Was it that obvious?"

Corrin smirked at him. "Only if one is paying attention. Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me. So, what's your name?"

Cornelius took a deep breath. "Well, my name's Cornelius, and according to Princess Camilla of Nohr…I'm your brother. Your real brother."

Corrin had a brief look of surprise, but then quickly studied Cornelius's face before taking off his helmet. She had a feeling that she knew him, despite this being their first meeting. The feeling was innate enough to confirm Cornelius's words…and Ryoma's.

Corrin simply nodded as she handed the prince his helmet. "Ryoma said we would meet eventually."

Now it was Cornelius's turn to be shocked. "Wait, you knew I existed?!"

Corrin nodded. "Ryoma told me all about you."

Cornelius was about to start a whole new rant when Corrin, hearing something going on from inside the tent, shushed him and knelt to the tent wall, peeking through the fabric. Curious, Cornelius looked with her to see quite an unusual group of people.

The room itself was dominated by a massive, circular table that held a large map on top. Sitting in various chairs around the table were what the two assumed were the different commanders. Cornelius recognized the royal siblings of both Hoshido and Nohr, as well as Azura. Oddly, Garon was nowhere to be seen. Sitting next to Xander was a young man in large, black robes, white hair, and carrying only a book of some kind. The prince also counted at least four different people with blue hair in various styles, and each of them carried a falchion, but what struck Cornelius as odd was that a muscular man and a young woman had the same sword.

Sitting in the largest of the seats was a young man in gold and white armor and with short black hair. Standing next to him was a young, armored woman with red hair. And axe was holstered across her back. It was this woman that spoke first, getting the attention of the others.

"We thank you all for coming here on rather short notice." She said, specifically addressing Hoshido and Nohr.

"If you don't mind me asking" Ryoma said in a mildly aggressive tone, "But who exactly is 'we'?"

The black haired boy answered, "I am Prince Alfonse and this is Anna, the commander of my armies. We are from the Kingdom of Askr. For centuries, we've been tasked with maintaining peace between the different worlds, the homes of the other heroes you see here."

Anna added. "Our enemy, the Emblian Empire, is bent on conquering all the worlds and enslaving their heroes under the will of the Emblian princess, Veronica. Recently, our intelligence had discovered that Veronica was sending one of her stronger generals to conquer this world, and we knew we had to step in."

Corrin and Cornelius looked at each other in mild confusion as they tried to process this information before Xander spoke up. "If this is true, then why bring all these other heroes?"

The white haired man replied, "We had been attacked before you were. Once we were aware of the threat, we joined forces with Askr and the Order of Heroes. It would be wise you did the same."

Xander stood up, placed a hand on his sword and glared at the man menacingly. "Is that a threat?"

Camilla placed a restraining hand on Xander's shoulder. A muscular man with spiky blue hair moved in between Xander and the robed man, glaring at Xander. "I watch it, if I were you."

"Hey!" shouted a voice as a woman with long, green hair and a katana slammed her fist on the table, getting their attention before continuing, "He's not worth it, Ike."

Ike took one last look at Xander before returning to his seat. The woman then turned to Xander, staring daggers at him. "And you. Do you not realize we have a common enemy here?! We must put aside our differences and learn to work together, which is impossible if you threaten everyone who looks at you wrong! Now please, have a little self-control before I have to use my own sword."

"I'd do as she says" the white haired man said, "Lyn can be quite deadly when she wants to be."

"She also has a point" Ryoma added, "I do not fully approve of working with Nohr, but I will if it means my kingdom is safe."

Xander saw the truth in these words, and sat back down, his angered expression diminishing.

Anna nodded. "Thank you, Ryoma."

Leo stepped forward. "How soon will the enemy arrive?"

"Not long" Alfonse replied, "We have a few days at most. I suggest you use this time getting to know the other heroes and training as much as you can."

"And where is father?" Xander asked.

Azura answered. "He left. I arrived just before he left, actually; apparently he was too disgusted by the idea of working with Hoshido, that he wouldn't even hear Anna out."

"Sounds about right" Cornelius whispered outside.

Takumi got back to the subject. "You're saying we just wait here?"

"Do you have a better idea?" the white haired man asked.

Takumi replied with a question of his own. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"I'm Robin. Master tactician who serves under Lord Chrom." The man replied, gesturing to the man with a birthmark on his bare shoulder. Corrin and Cornelius assumed this was Chrom, despite his back being turned to them.

Alfonse finished the meeting with, "We still have yet to wait on two more heroes, but I will leave you all to get to know each other. Good luck to you."

With that, the meeting was dismissed. As they watched the other file out, Corrin turned to Cornelius. "Maybe you and I can meet more often now."

Cornelius looked a bit nervous at that idea. "I'd love to. However, I am trying to keep a low profile."

Corrin wasn't fazed, "Then we'll meet in secret. This place is huge; I'm sure there's a place we can meet that your siblings won't be at."

Cornelius nodded in understanding; this was certainly true. Before he could respond however, he felt a presence behind him, and, seeing Corrin's sudden expression of surprise, turned around to see Xander.

"I though you weren't supposed to be seen" Xander told him, gesturing to Corrin, "Yet you already seem to have been found out."

"How much of our conversation did you hear?!" Corrin demanded.

Xander looked stern. "Enough to know he told you his identity."

Cornelius began to glare at Xander. "Well, I see no problem in revealing myself to my own sister, unless you forgot who she is."

Xander was genuinely surprised by this sudden outburst, as were the other Nohr siblings as they arrived.

Cornelius looked among the four and continued, his tone becoming angrier. "Why didn't you tell me I had a true sister!? What other secrets are you keeping from me!? Who am I, really!?"

Xander hurriedly placed a hand over his mouth to try and quiet him for fear of alerting anyone nearby, but the prince slapped his hand away and backed up.

"No more secrets" he growled.

Corrin started to feel worried and placed a hand on her brother's shoulder to try and comfort him. "Hey, I'm sure they had their reasons. Right?"

Cornelius looked at Corrin and seemed to soften a bit, but his gaze on the Nohr siblings was still hard. Just then, Ryoma and Takumi ran up, alerted by the shouting.

"What's going on?" Ryoma demanded, "Corrin?"

"I'm fine" Corrin reassured, "It's just that my brother, Cornelius here has a few questions in need of answering. The same questions I asked you, actually."

Ryoma, realizing what Corrin meant, looked at Xander. "You never told him?"

Xander looked away; he wouldn't admit it, but deep down, he felt only shame in that moment. Knowing he wasn't going to get an answer out of the crown prince, Ryoma turned back to Cornelius, then to Corrin.

"You're sure it's him?" he asked her.

Corrin nodded. "I felt it the second I saw him."

Cornelius looked to Ryoma. "What even am I?"

Ryoma was silent, but Camilla walked up. "I promised you answers, and so answers I will provide."

"I'll stay with you." Ryoma added, "In case you continue to hide something."

Xander glared at Ryoma. "You call us liars?"

"Well, you weren't exactly telling the truth, either."

Xander grit his teeth, but Ryoma had a point. He finally relented and left, Leo and Elise following him. Elise gave Cornelius a last sorrowful look before running off to join Xander, leaving the prince alone with Ryoma, Camilla, and Corrin.

Cornelius felt a twinge of pity in his heart. He couldn't bring himself to be angry at Elise; she was too innocent.

"Now" Ryoma said, stepping forward, "It's time you know the truth."

"Not here" Corrin interrupted, "He says he's in hiding."

Ryoma looked skeptical. "In hiding?"

"Azura tried to prevent his coming here, based on some vague vision." Camilla explained. Ryoma was unsure of how to react to this, but pushed it aside for later as he led Cornelius, Corrin, and Camilla to his personal tent. Once everyone was inside, he bade them all sit on the various benches and chairs within.

"Now" Ryoma finally said, "It's time the truth came out."

Cornelius seemed content with this, but Camilla was unsure of how he would react. To her, he was her brother, and that relationship was not one she wanted to lose.

Let me know what you think so far!