*Prologue*

"Lucina, stop this!"

A woman with blue hair stood about ten feet in front of a small group, staring stoically ahead as she pointed a long sword at them. At her feet, a man with blue hair lay on the ground, unconscious. A sword similar to the woman's lay on the ground a few feet away from the pair.

A hooded figure, hovering a few feet behind the women, laughed. "Hehehe, she can't hear you. All she sees you as is a target…something she needs to kill. You mean absolutely nothing to her."

A man with white hair frantically shook his head. He slowly took a hesitant step closer to the woman, ignoring the protests from his companions. He looked desperately towards the girl. "Lucina! I know you're still in there! Please, come back to us!"

"Stop calling me by that name," the woman spat bitterly.

The hooded figure chuckled and walked closer to the woman. "Go on now, Dear. Finish the job," he whispered into her ear as he put a hand on her shoulder.

The woman's expression hardened, but she raised her sword above the heart of the man at her feet.

"NO!" The white haired man yelled.

There were more shouts from the group behind the man.

The hooded man smiled and put both hands on the woman's shoulders. "Yes, that's right. C'mon, Love, you can do this."

The woman's arms trembled. She grit her teeth as she stared at the man beneath her. This is what she was trained for so…so, why can't she finish it? Her vision began to blur as she looked at his face. "I-I can't—"

"Yes you can. Now kill him!"

The woman groaned in agony as the man behind her dug his fingers deep into her shoulders. A symphony of shouts rang throughout the air, but the woman couldn't decipher a single word. They just blended together with the wind.

Coming, but going as fast as it came.

There was only one word that rang throughout her head, clear as day.

The word kill.

Everytime the word was repeated in her head, the more agony she felt.

It was all becoming too much.

A single tear slid down the woman's cheek before she brought the sword down.

Chapter 1

"In all my life...never did I imagine seeing this."

Two teens stood atop a crumbling palace, overlooking its broken kingdom. A boy, around the age of 19, looked upon the bleak city. The city was completely ablaze, littering the air with smoke.

The boy pursed his lips and frowned. "This is one look that I never thought I'd see here in Ylisse." The boy had dark brown shaggy hair and a sword strapped to his hip. He wore armor similar to that of a knight.

"It's definitely not befitting, that's for sure," the girl next to him said dully.

She stared lifelessly upon the corrupted city, her face devoid of any emotion.

An ear splitting scream filled the air from below. A second later, the scream abruptly stopped. The girl didn't even bat an eye. She looked down blankly, knowing what had befallen the victim.

A totally normal occurrence that she has now grown accustomed to.

Below them, large shadows could be seen filtering into the palace doors.

The girl sighed, and rubbed her fingers against the sword's hilt that was strapped to her hip. 'If only you were here, father, you'd know exactly what to do…' she thought, longingly.

The boy's attention flitted down to the castle gate. He paled as he saw the creatures making their way into the castle walls. He looked to his companion, eyes wide, "Lucina, we need to go before they get to the upper part of the palace."

She glanced at her companion and shook her head. "We can't just leave Ylisse like this, Griffin."

"Lucina, Ylisse is already lost. There is nothing else we can do here. We have to go."

"But what about the people? They're all down there! Innocent people that need our help! I can't leave them. They are MY people!" Lucina rebuked.

Griffin sighed. "Lucina, if you stay, they will kill you…he will kill you. If you die…what then? We're strong, sure, but without our leader? I don't know what will happen if you're not here. And frankly, I don't want to," he added.

Lucina studied his expression. She could tell that he was trying to keep a brave face, but she could see through it.

She didn't want to believe him, but she knew that in her heart, he was right. Silently, she prayed that she was making the right choice, and nodded to her friend.

Griffin gave Lucina a pained smile. "I know this is hard, Lucy. Believe me, it's hard to say goodbye to this place, and everyone in it, but this is the right choice. Even though it may feel wrong now, I know that it'll all work out. Eventually. "

Lucina slowly nodded. There was still a part of her that was screaming "Coward!" over and over in her head. She just did her best to bury those thoughts and worry about them later.

She turned her head away from her friend so he couldn't see her expression. She thought about all the hard decisions she's had to make. All the lives that she had allowed to be lost.

All for the sake of the greater good…

All for the sake of the future.

A loud explosion sounded from below, and a part of the city erupted into bigger flames.

Lucina grit her teeth. "He knows we're here..."

Griffin grabbed Luncina's hand and forcefully pulled her back.

"C'mon, we don't have time! We need to get back to the others before they begin to worry, and for other obvious reasons!" He said as yet another explosion rang, this time it was much closer to the pair.

"B-but Griff-"

She was cut off by another loud explosion.

Griffin grit his teeth, "Damn, I didn't think they'd find us so quickly. C'mon! We gotta go!"

Griffin tightened his grip on Lucina's hand, and the pair ran through the halls.

Lucina tried to drown everything out and focus on just staying on her feet. As they ran, she could see everything. Dead corpses of both friend and foe...blood that stained the floor and walls...soldiers lay groaning on the floor with nothing to do except await the hands of death…

Stop it, She thought to herself, Stay strong…just like father would.

She trained her eyes to the back of Griffin's head. His shaggy brown hair flopped up and down as they ran. It was messy.

On a normal day, she would've scolded him and forced him to brush it.

On a normal day...

…That was years ago.

Griffin suddenly skidded to a halt, and Lucina slammed hard into his back, immediately pulling her out of her thoughts.

"S-Sorry," She said sheepishly as she dusted herself off.

Griffin let out a small laugh. "Heh, don't worry about it." His expression then grew dark as he looked at the pile of rubble in front of them, "Unfortunately, it looks like our original exit got blocked off."

He put a finger to his chin. "It'll take too long to clear this all out. So, we'll just have to go with plan B. To the West Hallway!" He exclaimed, and marched down a different hallway.

Lucina sighed and followed after Griffin.

"Great," she muttered.

"Easy, careful," Griffin chided as he attempted to take Lucina's hand yet again.

Lucina scowled and shrugged his hand away, "I can walk on my own dammit! Exactly how much time do you spend with Inigo?"

Griffin put his hands up in surrender and said in a mocking voice, "My sincerest apologies, milady. It's just, if you were to fall from this height, you would surely perish. And it is my utmost duty to escort-"

"Alright, alright, I get it. No need to go all "Frederick" on me," Lucina said, rolling her eyes.

Griffin laughed, and the two continued to make their way to the other end of the ledge. The ledge used to be one of the corridors in the castle walls, but most of its walls had crumbled away, leaving only a narrow space for the pair to walk on. Fortunately, it was pretty much in the same direction as to where the pair were headed: Mount Prism.

The wind blew Lucina's long hair in her face.

"Ugh, I've never hated wind so much," she groaned as she wrestled with her hair.

Griffin laughed. "Maybe you should just cut your hair. Bam! Wind problem solved!"

Lucina scoffed,"Griffin! This is no time for jokes!…Besides, I'd never do that."

"I'm just saying, short hair will make your life ten times easier. Trust me, you're speaking to an expert."

"I like my hair the way it is, thank you." Lucina said as she tugged on her hair.

Griffin chuckled and the duo continued along the narrow path. Lucina tried to look past the smoke, and ever so faintly she could make out their destination. Barely visual through the smoke was small orbs of light.

She and Griffin made it safely to flat ground, and they both sprinted in the direction of the light. Lucina sighed in relief as she could make out 10 standing figures.

"Looks like everybody is fine," Griffin said with a faint smile.

"Yeah," Lucina said, equally relieved.

As they neared the group, Lucina could make out who was who. She was not at all surprised to see her sister and cousin off to the side doing their own thing. They were dancing around in a circle, and looked quite ridiculous while doing so. Lucina and the others have just learned to stop questioning them by now and just let them be.

Griffin noticed them, too. He laughed. "Looks like Owain and Cynthia are summoning things again!"

Lucina smiled. "Oh be nice," she teased.

There wasn't much left that could make her smile. However, Griffin, as well as her sister and cousin, did a good job at keeping the mood light despite the circumstances.

"It's about time y'all showed up," a girl with red pigtails said. She walked up to Griffin and Lucina.

"Sorry Severa. One of the exits was blocked off. We had to take a detour," Lucina explained.

"Whatever," Severa said, but gave Lucina a quick hug before glaring at Griffin.

"It's nice to see you alive…I guess," Severa added with a look of disdain as she looked him up and down. She crossed her arms and glared at him.

Griffin grinned and ignored her obvious judgment towards him, and tenderly patted her in the head.

"Aww, it's nice to see that you care, Sevvy," he said mockingly.

Severa's face turned bright red from the gesture and swatted his hand away, "S-Shut up you oaf! And what have I told you about patting me on the head! It's just weird! And stop calling me that! It's a dumb name just like you! Just because you're the older one doesn't mean you get to treat me like such a child!…" Severa continued to lecture her brother while smacking him repeatedly on the head.

Lucina chuckled as Griffin tried to dodge the swatting of Severa, with no success. Severa was Griffin's younger sister, and Lucina's best friend. Yeah, Severa can be quite the handful at times, but she really is a loyal friend.

"Lucinaaaa!" A voice shouted.

Before Lucina could react, a blue blur flew at her, and next thing she knew, she was on the ground.

"C-Cynthia!" Lucina yelped in surprise.

"Aw geez, what took you so long?" Cynthia whined, "You were gone for like EVER! You should've seen what Owain and I came up with while you were gone though! It's so epic!!" Cynthia cheered.

Lucina smiled, and tenderly hugged her sister. "Well, I guess you'll have to show me later then."

Cynthia nodded, "Right, later! We have hero business to take care of! Right Owain?"

"Why of course!" A voice hollered back.

Lucina and Cynthia got up. Lucina brushed off all the dirt, and turned back to all her companions. Severa was still lecturing Griffin, but he got distracted by two of his friends, and walked away, leaving Severa to lecture him from afar. She stomped her foot, then stalked off to a girl with black hair and a man with a pointy hat.

Lucina wasn't sure what to do now. She looked upon her companions, all of them were busy conversing with each other.

Lucina pursed her lips. She knew this very well may be the last time they'll all be together like this. She felt like she should give some sort of inspirational speech, but that wasn't really her forte. It's times like these when she wishes desperately for her parents to be by her side.

But saying at least something is better than not saying anything at all.

Lucina cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. Everyone quieted immediately.

Twelve pairs of eyes were now on her. Some of her companions were smiling, but most of their expressions were full of fear and anguish. Lucina took in a deep breath, and tried to look as confident as possible.

"I…" she wasn't sure what to say. "…I just want to thank each and every one of you…without you all here by my side…I doubt you would've made this far." Lucina felt a lump in her throat, but she would not allow herself to cry. Not in front of her closest friends.

Not in front of the people she is trying to be strong for.

"…so, thank you. Truly. I am…I am so grateful for each and every one of you."

Lucina gave them a pained smile. "I can't say I know what's going to happen next…but I do know one thing." She paused. The truth was, she was scared. Scared that she did not know what would happen next. She's never felt so lost before, and it terrified her. She inhaled another deep breath, trying to ignore the sickly taste of smoke.

"We will win this. Not just for Ylisse, but for us. We'll build our future together! All of us…side by side…together! We'll take back the future that was wrongfully taken from us!" There were murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

Lucina pumped her fist as high as she could in the air, "For Ylisse!" She yelled.

"For Ylisse!" Everyone else chanted.

With that, Lucina led them all to Mount Prism.

Maybe we actually can win this.