"Now!"

The atmosphere around Morgan condensed, a deep, almost moist pressure building up for that split-second before the crackle of energy burst forth from her open palm. A bolt of pure electricity arcing through the space.

Severa dove through the static residue, the air still thick and charged with a tickling energy. Three striding steps and she brought her blade in for a mighty swing with the deceptive power of both her lithe arms. She dug in her heel as she slid into her strike, pivoting the full of her torso to throw even more force behind it. It was graceless -brutish, even- something she would never do fighting anyone competent. If she was swinging a club, it would have been a blow intended to send the Risen flying off. Instead, it was all channeled into a single, honed edge.

The risen, who's body had gone rigid from Morgan's lightning-bolt, was cleft cleanly in two- its rotted flesh and bone offering no resistance to her blade. Again, lucky for Severa, risen tended not to splay viscera everywhere when they were cut- only bursting into that foul miasma as they burned to nothingness by whatever horrid dark energy kept them together.

"Sev!" Morgan slid in front of her sister in that crucial second, a warding shield of translucent white thrown hastily up as an arrow plinked uselessly off of it. The risen archer, unphased, simply drew back the bowstring once more with a machine-like precision, killing shaft knocked and aimed at the small red-haired interloper.

It was Severa's turn as her sister tried to catch her breath, the younger unable to incant the flow of power through her body after its last expenditure.

The arrow loosed the moment Severa placed herself in front of Morgan, trying to minimize herself behind her shield while still covering her little sister. The fraction of a second between the snap of the bowstring and the impact of the arrow was the worst; the anticipation of success or failure- of feeling the thing thud into you versus into you.

And for Severa, it was the former, the second arrow shattering into wooden splinters as it ricocheted off her steel. There was no time to hesitate as she dove in towards the offender, who had already drawn another deadly barb and was methodically seating it in place. It might get one more shot in- but it was locking its glowing red gaze on Severa at least- and Severa had armor, unlike her younger sister's robes.

The shaft didn't have a chance to loose as Severa crashed with the undead archer, tackling in shoulder first.

"Sis!"

Instinctively the older sister threw a quick cut, a parting gift as she leapt aside. A small mote of fire, about the size of a fist had been flung hastily from Morgan's hands- it would have been almost pitiful looking… at least to someone who didn't know the power of the younger sibling's magic.

The pillar of flame that had erupted from beneath where the ball had burst completely engulfed the cursed body, incinerating it before it even had dissolved into that blasphemous smoke.

"That's all of them here!" Severa shouted over the din of combat to her cadre, Morgan quickly running to her side. The younger was scanning, observing, planning, as she bit the chewed remainder of a thumb-nail. It was Severa's job to guard her in that brief moment of distraction.

"If we take the fort quick, funnel the risen to the front while we make out the back… well-"

Severa didn't wait for Morgan to double-check her plan, their line was already being pushed back, the risen more of a slow moving tide… but an unrelenting one at that. Lucina could hold for a time, but without support she would eventually be swallowed up… just like all the rest had.

"Take Inigo and the rest of the army and push for the fort." Severa lifted Morgan by the shoulders, giving her sister a quick hug, "I'm going to drag Luci back by the neck of her stupid cape if I have to."

"S-Sev?" Morgan stammered, too caught up on finding weaknesses in her plan to properly protest. Undoubtedly Morgan was second guessing herself, constantly asking "What would dad have done?"

They didn't have the time to waste feeling inadequate.

"Rally on Morgan! To Morgan you dolts! If you want to live!" Severa took off down the bloodied field screaming at the line combatants, leaving her younger sister there clutching her magic tome to her breast-

Just like when they were young, when Severa used to run off in the castle, chasing after Cynthia or Owain...

Morgan would just stand there, clutching her rag-doll.

And she would cry. Never when Severa could see or hear her, but Severa knew that what happened.

"Be strong, Mo'." Severa gritted her teeth as she approached the western flank, "I might not be there for you… after all."

The miasma of blood and smoke spoke volumes for the state of their ragtag army here.

"Fall back east! To the keep!" Severa bellowed through nearly-exhausted lungs, blowing by both wounded and harried soldier alike. She didn't have time to save everyone.

Some of them would serve as distractions, after all. Gawds… she hated how warped her mind was-

Another surge of risen clumsily marched forward, threatening to swallow the line whole, and only a single section still held firm. A ring had formed, a mob of cursed corpses all trying to clumsily swing at whatever poor soul was stuck in the center- that was where Severa would exert herself.

"Let's go!" She came barreling in like boulder, her shielded shoulder slamming into the back of a risen, sending the corpse down where it should belong. A single downward thrust of her sword to ensure that was where the thing would stay. Her blade arm did not rest, cutting bodies and hewing limbs- forcibly tearing open a hole through the circle.

Breathless, sore, and worst of all- sweaty, Severa's efforts were rewarded with that glorious light- the flash of Falchion as it split bodies like they were made of parchment. One more push- one more surge... She slid easily next to her adoptive cousin's graceful movements, parrying a cut intended for Lucina's back.

"S-Severa?"

"We're pulling back east."

"Good, I will hold them here and-"

"Like hell you are." Severa shoved Lucina towards the gap that was soon to fill. Before Lucina could plant herself in protest, Severa grabbed the scruff of Lucina's neck and just kept shoving. The impacts- the pain in her back… that she could ignore for the time being. Lucina was not just her light… she was the final beacon for this whole doomed army. If Severa fell, oh well, just one more body to the pile- but if it was in Luci's defense… that would be a worthy death.

"Severa-" Lucina's eyes were watching the soldiers that they passed- the doomed men fighting not for any ideal or cause, but to save their own skins.

"Keep going!" Severa squeezed the nape once more. She knew what Lucina was going to say- going to protest- and there was not the damned shred of patience left in her body for anyone's stupidity, not even for the crown princess.

After all, this was no grand battle... no glory to be won here or face to save by standing ground.

This was an exodus-

This was a panicked retreat of a broken people- half of whom weren't even trained soldiers.

Certainly they had to protect as many as they could… but those that could not keep up were swallowed up. Severa's heart twisted at her own truth.

She didn't give one damn about everyone else- the only ones who mattered to her were her family and her friends. She didn't want to be a hero- she didn't want to be like her mom or dad. After all, look at where that got them- dead somewhere while the Dread Dragon ravaged the world.

"Severa!"

Lucina managed to break Severa's hold, and instinctively the raven-haired swords-woman drew her steel on the crown princess- ready to urge her forward at sword-point.

"Move or I move you-" she growled.

"You're wounded."

They had pushed past the now-collapsing center- they had escaped the jaws clamping down but they hadn't made it to "safety" yet.

And Lucina wanted to tend Severa's wounds? Her cousin pulled a flask from her belt- one of the precious few elixirs left, holding it out for Severa. It was clear from the cuts and battering of Lucina's own armor that she had drank from it already. Severa pushed it back with a scowl.

"Morgan would never forgive me." Lucina insisted.

"Mo' would understand. You sacrifice the pawn to save the king."

Lucina's hesitation only made the pain in Severa's back more noticeable- the longer they stalled the more the adrenaline wore off. She had half the mind to just leave Lucina here- hope that the guilt would force her to follow.

"You're... more of a knight though-?" Lucina's earnestness in the statement had taken Severa completely aback, defusing that frustration and anger in an instant. Even as the blue-haired princess awkwardly scratched at her cheek, standing like a right loople-headed dullard in a pitched battlefield, Severa couldn't find the presence of mind to insult her. It made Severa chortle in an unlady-like, snorting fashion.

"Right then- as a knight I must rescue the princess. Barring a horse to escape on, get a move on." Severa felt her movements growing more sluggish- her sword heavier as she used it to point towards the hilltop fort the trickle of evacuees were making for.

Lucina placed a halting hand on Severa's shoulder, as if to infuse her own spirit with Severa's. She stood straight and proud, taking a deep breath, "To the fort! To the fort! There we will stand!" Lucina's voice rang out like a church-bell.

Even exhausted, even in the throes of inevitable defeat, Lucina was still dignified. The complete opposite of the mess that Severa undoubtedly both looked and felt as she was dashing down the lines. Far more banners, far more soon-to-be-dead fought harder than before.

Less desperation, more hope. Far more foolishly misplaced hope.

Lucina spun, cape fluttering in the ash-and-smoke choked winds. Seeing that pained, but determined smile on her cousin's face… well Severa certainly felt a bit of hope too, as much as she refused to admit it.

"To the keep." Lucina nodded, this time wrapping Severa's arm around and over her shoulder.

Severa hadn't even realized how woozy she felt- how heavy her steps were. Her sword had dropped from her hand somewhere in the barren dirt behind them. The hill- gawds this stupid hill-

"We're almost there, Sev." Lucina's voice was soft, like back when they were kids. Back before Lucina had to be the princess. Before their whole world fell apart. Severa stumbled in her step, Lucina barely catching her before she tumbled face first to the ground.

"Luci-"

"Yeah, Sev?"

"I'm scared." Severa choked on her own words. She couldn't look Lucina in the eye after such a shameful admission- after everything that they had gone through...

"We all are." Lucina placed her head against Severa's, "But we're almost to the Dragon Gate. Don't give up on us now."

Us.

Morgan, Luci, and Cynthia were counting on her sword still. Kjelle, Brady, Laurent, Nah, Gerome… they were still fighting for the flicker of hope that they could change all of this; gawds even Yarne and Noire were still fighting instead of giving up. Hells... even Inigo and Owain, as annoying as they were… she still had words that she needed to say to those two idiots…

But her world was going black- her eyelids getting heavier by the moment. As much as she wanted to fight it, to not be a burden on Luci, her legs refused her.

"-by Naga- What happened to Severa?"

"Brady! Get Brady down here!"

"-she looks like shit- Ow hey! You ain't my mom-"

Consciousness flitted in and out like a butterfly through the flower fields.

"-rm up. Make a perimeter-"

Mo'?

Morgan?

There was a steel in Morgan's voice- an authority that gave Severa reassurance. A warm light washed over her, drawing her.

Time to see Naga, I guess? Sorry everyone, I'm going to be the first one there.

It was like someone was lifting her up, that light brighter and brighter as she neared the source of it all.

And right into Brady's ugly mug.

Instinctively Severa threw a punch, catching him in the gut.

"-yeap- she's alive." He wheezed, taking a seat on the stones of the fortress floor.

And a retaliatory slap struck the daze from Severa- the weight of a signet ring adding far more sting than what was necessary.

"Idiot! Dolt! Dullard!" Morgan shrieked, violently shaking Severa with what little strength she had in that tiny frame of hers, "Don't leave me like that again!" Morgan threw her arms around Severa, burying her face into Severa's breast just as she had done when they were kids. The only thing Severa could do was gently stroke those cherry locks of Morgan- the living reminder of their mother… the reminder of just how the sisters were left alone. The guilt choked Severa's words to her sister- instead turning towards Brady and mumbling a quick apology.

Her friend shrugged it off, motioning towards the western door.

"Everyone else 's outside the front of the fort makin' a perimeter." Brady pulled himself by the staff, grunting like an old man in the process, "We're gonna make a stand here 'til that first wave up the hill breaks, you coming?"

"What makes you think that will work? What if they just surround us again?"

"Why do you gotta question me? If you got questions ask your lil' sis. It's her plan." Brady grunted, dusting himself off and making for the fort's gate. With Morgan still attached to her by the neck, Severa stood. Even as her sister tried to drag her back down, Severa took those laden steps forward.

"Mo', you stay here and help the evacuation-"

"No." Morgan tried to pull using all of her weight, like a stubborn child she clung on.

"Morgan, now is not the-"

"You don't even have a sword, idiot!"

Hearing Morgan snap like that… the crybaby Morgan to snap with such anger in her words...

Damn right it stopped Severa in her tracks. Her sister threw up her hood, hiding those undoubtedly blood-shot and tear-stained eyes, and clutched her magic tome to her chest.

"We always go together." Morgan's voice rang with a clear rumble, with a power and authority that she almost never expressed. It unsettled Severa, but she was so used to the meek little sister-

The innocent little sister. Severa had killed that little bit of Morgan that she so desperately wanted to protect.

But, in the end, this was their world now, and Morgan would have to grow up eventually even if this crazy plan of Lucina's didn't pan out. Would it not be best by Severa's side rather than the harsher realities? Severa held her hand out to her sister in wordless apology- she had been the one to promise that they would always be together after all. Quietly, Morgan placed the handle of a fresh sword in Severa's weathered hand.

Together in life, together in death, together in a new world or the dying remains of this one… Severa promised her mother and father that she'd always watch over Morgan…

And she was certain that Morgan felt the same. Who was she to deny the firey heart of her little sister any longer?

"Let's go, then." She sighed, "They're hopeless without us."