It wasn't the first time the girls had stood silently before this monolith. Back then-
Back then things were different- clearly… but despite her knowing that, the gate caused her a great amount of distress. The scintillating rainbow radiating from its slightly ajar doors producing more dread than awe.
Over and over Severa checked her bag, her weapons, her armor, then her bag once again. She hated this waiting- this constant suspense. Though she would never admit it to anyone, she was jealous of her younger sister's blissful ignorance and carefree attitude. That part of Morgan certainly didn't change from their trip to this world.
Her stomach twisted into a knot thinking about when she had arrived, her younger sister no longer clinging to her arm like she had when they passed through the gateway. The panic... the fear of being alone- truly alone- that was almost worse than death. At least death had a definitive end, a conclusion that you could be sure of. Yet she didn't want to simply die, not alone in another world after everything she and her friends had been through in their own. For Severa, death was never going to be a release, simply another failure- and that was a bitter draught she never wished to drink from again.
"If you keep opening it up and moving stuff, you're going to lose something." Morgan stuck her head into Severa's face to quizzically peer into Severa's overstuffed pack, blinding the elder sister with fiery locks consuming her vision. Gently Severa pushed Morgan out of the way, a false scowl masking the anxiety.
"I'm making sure we have enough provisions- there's no telling what world we might wind up in-"
"Well, we could always stay here." Morgan interrupted, that big dopey smile desperately trying to win over Severa. They had been through this before- twenty-seven other times in fact.
"No we can't." Severa responded swift and sharp, as it to smite this rebelliousness within the ranks. "We would only get in the way of them and their real family." She cast her eyes back down to the pack, hands rummaging for some item unknown even to her.
"But everyone else is thinking of staying." Again Morgan closed in slowly this time, like how she used to catch lizards with their dad. "Even Luci and Cynthia-"
"Then they're all idiots. What else can we accomplish here? Grima is dead, everyone's at peace, hurray! We're all saved! But how else are we going to get stronger if we're not fighting all the time?" Severa's knuckles went white as she internally railed at her own weakness during that time, "What's a warrior without war? They're all going to get complacent and soft here. We'll never restore our home if that happens."
She couldn't see Morgan's expression- and she didn't want to. All she could imagine was that pained look on her sister's face whenever she laid out the harsh truth, whenever she shattered her sister's warm delusions with cold facts.
"The worst thing would be getting caught up in the politics- the chance of our identities being revealed-" Severa back-peddled, as she always did when the guilt got to her. Her voice was sapped of the strength and resolve mustered. Instead, a meager unsureness wavering her voice as she continued to avert her eyes. She didn't know why, and no doubt Morgan clearly knew what she was doing, yet the impulse proved impossible to ignore. "a-and we'd be stuck in that paradox thing Laurent and Miriel were going on about."
"Oh pish-posh!" Morgan huffed, not buying into her sister's excuses. She grabbed Severa's arms from the abyss of her pack, desperately trying to pull her sister to her feet. However, Severa stayed firmly planted, the metaphorical weight of her thoughts becoming a frightening reality. With Severa not playing along, Morgan sighed before bounding back into her sister's personal space.
"We change our identities!" Matter-of-fact confidence pouring forth as she held her finger before Severa's nose. "We could ask Gerome about getting us some neat masks, borrow that hair dye stuff from Anna, move off to… I dunno, Rosanne or Cho'Sin and become wandering warriors for justice! Like a-"
"-don't say it."
"-justice coalition!"
The most exasperated groan echoed through the nearly empty island.
"We could fight bandits and help people… I don't know, farm and stuff? Farm and fight bears!" Morgan began whipping herself into an excitement. It was a perpetual cycle, like a dog chasing its tail if it wasn't stopped, and Severa wanted it stopped.
"Enough Morgan." Severa's tone was matronly without the lashing harshness of her own annoyance overbearing it, like their mom had used when they were young. " This is for our own good, you'll see." Severa certainly was in no mood to provoke her sister more.
"You're not mom!" Morgan laughed at her own cleverness, yet those words… Those words-
They cut deep. Deeper than any she had felt on the battlefield, and it certainly had sliced through the last remaining strand of Severa's patience.
"No I'm not mom, because our mom is dead!" Severa had lept to her feet, towering over Morgan as she unleashed the pent up vitriol. "And she isn't our mother! She is just a stand-in. A look-alike. An image of who our mother was."
Morgan froze, face contorted with that unspeakable ugly mix of sadness and fear that Severa wished she could forget. Her young sister's arms went limp, shoulder slumped as she shied away from Severa's fury. Once again, Severa back-peddled as the guilt threatened to tear her heart from her chest.
"You don't remember, Mo'." She spoke in a soft whisper, trying to hold back a pressure building in her tear ducts, "What it was like on that side- what we had to do over there."
"You don't remember when mom and dad left and never came back. When we had to flee the castle- flee Ylisse. The people we couldn't save… we ran away like cowards- weak cowards."
Morgan collapsed in silence, clutching her knees in a sad attempt to try and hide herself from Severa's ire.
"That's not my fault." Morgan's voice was devoid of her usual exuberance, an eclipse of Severa's sun. "If I had my memories, I could at least share that burden with you. Make it not hurt as much, you know?" That false, unsure smile curled itself onto Morgan's features, even as she stared at the dirt. Severa knew it was coming- an emotional blow that she should have been able to steel herself for. I mean- she had seen so much already… done so much already that would make even the most hardened of hearts twist in discomfort.
And yet it was always just an act. A stupid, juvenile act. Gawds she hated the way her mind worked.
"I'm sorry, Mo'." Desperately Severa clung to her little sister, as if holding her would assure she would never drift away like she…
Like she had that night, in front of this same damnable rock.
"I'm so sorry Mo'." Severa kept repeating, each time becoming less comprehensible as tears began to choke her.
"It's alright Sev." Morgan's voice was clear, crisp- that same unearthly happiness that Severa had no right to question. "I'll never leave you alone with those memories."
"Remember what you told me, about how we would make new ones?" Morgan was now the one embracing her sister. "We'll just have to make so many new ones that the bad ones drown away in them!"
The first hiccup of a laugh confused Severa. At first she didn't realize that it had escaped her lungs- she figured it was Morgan's ubiquitous positivity trying to infect her. Only when she felt the quivering of her cheeks pulling into a smile did she realize that it already had.
"I just don't get you Morgan." Severa wiped the tears from her eyes, not even trying to hide befuddled emotions anymore. Her sister cocked her head to the side in that way that mother used to, the silken cherry strands swaying.
"What?"
"How can you be so… happy all the time?"
Morgan's smile… it had always been the same- over exuberant to the point of sickening infectiousness, with varying degrees of excitability or pride mixed in for good variation.
But not this one. It was a quiet smile, small and meek like when she was a child. A disquieting, somber thing to the unsure Severa. It was a peaceful smile, at the very least she could be sure of that.
"I remember one thing dad told me- our… real dad." Morgan spoke softly before turning a fierce determined look to her sister.
"That no matter what happens, to never give up and fall into despair, 'cuz if there is at least one person with hope there is the possibility for it to grow- like a flower… or a tree- I forgot the last part."
Severa stared blankly. It was clear as day that Morgan was lying, and yet, at the same time it felt like a heartfelt truth. She didn't want to doubt her sister anymore than she already had today- gawds that was enough for at least the next year or two- so Severa settled for her infamous sigh and shake of the head.
"That… that sounds just corny enough to have been something dad said."
"I know, right?" Morgan's fool of a smile lit up her face, playfully tapping a knuckle against her temple. "But really- it's all in the past. It's stuff that made you into you for sure, and you shouldn't forget it… but it shouldn't weigh you down either. Like… I feel- I feel like the old me would have thought the same thing."
"Certainly not as eloquent as dad," Severa sat back down next to her sister, taking a moment to work a knot or two from Morgan's unkempt hair, "but I get what you mean Mo', mom would have told us the same thing." Severa paused, her hands tickling Morgan's scalp to the point of her sister fidgeting away, but Severa stayed motionless, trying desperately to recall that familiarity she was feeling. "Now that I think about it, she got that from dad… she told us about how she met dad-"
"Right? I was thinking the same thing! I mean I don't remember that-" Morgan practically bounced in her excitement that Severa was on the same page finally, "-but mother and father are the same here as they were there right? Mom wouldn't want you to be dragged down by all those painful thoughts and memories. You can't change them, so you need to move on! I'm sure if you asked our mother she would agree." Morgan fumbled on how exactly to separate the two entities that she considered her mom, but she shook the awkwardness from her head, sure of her answer. It was clear Morgan had accepted them, it was only Severa who hesitated.
It was Severa holding them back this time. She rapped a knuckle against her skull, trying to hammer in that feeling so that she wouldn't let it fade.
"Now who's the one hitting themselves?" Morgan giggled, gently taking Severa's hand.
"I-idiot! I wasn't hitting myself- not like you were doing!"
"I could get my tome out if it would help-"
"Morgan." Severa glared at her, stern as ever. The younger sister froze, unsure of Severa's tone. Uncertainty wracked her nerves in the silence between them before Severa cracked a wide, honest smile. "I love you, you dolt." Severa placed her hand on Morgan's head, ruffling her already frazzled hair to no effect.
The sharp image of movement on the horizon brought their bonding to a swift end. Instinctively Severa had swept up her blade and had taken a concealing position behind one of the crumbling boulders that dotted the sparse land of the island.
Morgan, however, simply stood, straining and squinting to identify the swiftly moving dot in the distance. Severa glared at her, as if to make her move to cover with the sheer power of ire alone, yet Morgan refused to budge.
"It's most likely mother and father." Morgan shrugged, sitting back down on the cold stone step of the gate. Embarrassed at her younger sister's now clear logic, Severa placed her time-worn blade back into its sheath, trying her best to brush off such an excessive reaction.
"Finally." She belted out, crossing her arms over her puffed-out chest. The well rehearsed frown drawn onto her face slowly melted away as she plopped herself down next to her sister. A somber silence permeated between the two sisters, the words that needed to be said already well spoken.
"Are you ready, Mo'?" Severa broke their silence, watching as the blurred object grew closer every passing second.
"As ever, Sev." She replied without hesitation.
"Let's get ready to say bye then." Severa took a deep breath. The outline of a pegasus grew more obvious as it closed in at an unthinkable speed. Only one rider had that level of confidence and skill to go that swiftly.
Severa readied her metaphorical mask, letting the calm facade of disinterest work its way onto her features. No matter what happened, she would not falter from her path- for her own good, and for the good of her sister, she could- would not- waver. Even if- in the slimmest of fates if- they begged for her and Morgan to stay, she must have the will to say no. Mother and father, mom and dad, family-
Morgan was her only family again. As it had been, as it always would be.