They were on the boat for less than a week, and after that the group had to stock up for another week's journey for the rest of the way (you run out of food pretty quickly when you're a group of teenagers that almost demand breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks). They stayed at the village for a day and then moved on, and two or three days later some of the Mini Shepherds seemed to find the path familiar. Laurent in particular was able to rattle off the closest few villages when Malin asked after it; Lucina tried a bit harder to get either mercenary to share their exact destination, which neither of them agreed to do.

The area was…peaceful. Maybe a kind of unnerving peaceful, but peaceful nonetheless. For a day or two, they had to camp out in the forests. One such night, Malin talked with the Mini Shepherds. "Tomorrow, you guys will just be coming with us for an hour or two," Malin said. He looked at Lucina, adding, "As long as you're okay with giving us that Falchion, anyway. If not, a few of you might be able to come with us."

"You can have it in the morning," Lucina said. "You seem to need it for whatever you've gone east for. That being said…" She took a little breath, then noted, "This is the direction of Mount Prism. Where do you live, that this is your path there?"

"That…is a question with a complicated answer," Malin replied with a frown. "Sorry, kid. We can save the confusing wording for tomorrow."

Lucina didn't look exactly happy with that answer, but she nodded regardless. As per usual, she opted to have first watch—Morgan volunteered, too, since he wasn't tired. Laurent made their third, who helped pass the time by rambling about…something. Morgan could only understand every other word the older mage said, although Lucina was apparently more used to scientific babbling (or maybe she was just better at pretending like she did; it was hard to tell).

It was about an hour before Morgan decided to actually sleep, with Malin taking his place; it was kind of hard to actually sleep, though. He had a bad feeling about tomorrow, and he didn't really want to see if it was reasonable or not.

The next day, Malin talked with Morgan while they walked. Morgan hadn't been exactly pleased when Malin said that he was an old friend of Robin's, but he was all right with it after remembering that Malin seemed to want to talk with her again. He didn't want to tell Lucina yet so she wouldn't get distracted on the way home (she remembered a lot more about that situation than Morgan did, and he knew that it wasn't an easy topic for anyone to talk about), but he was able to forgive Malin. With the normalcy of talking with a friend, Morgan felt less dread than he had earlier.

They kept on chatting until the people ahead of them stopped. Malin looked at Marth. "Are we here?"

Marth nodded, and looked at Lucina. "Can we have that Falchion, please?" Lucina murmured an agreement, giving her the sword and its scabbard. Marth smiled ever so slightly when she received the replica, and attached the scabbard to her belt. Turning to Malin, she asked, "Are you ready?"

"As much as I can be," Malin replied.

He started to leave, then Laurent of all people spoke up. "Actually, I'd like to ask a question before you go," he said, pushing up his glasses. "This is the foot of Mount Prism. Can you answer now why you needed to come to this place with the replica of Falchion? You've made some mentions of it before, but you haven't said anything conclusive."

Malin and Marth both frowned, and the latter said, "It likely won't be pleasant."

"We're not kids," Brady pointed out. "Can't be too bad if you're old pals of Chrom and Robin."

All of the Mini Shepherds murmured their agreement. Marth sighed. "...I suppose it was us or your parents. Remember: we can't stay to clarify. You will have to speak with your parents, which could be another few weeks out." She seemed to want this to deter them, but they were curious now and simply allowed for her continue. With another sigh, she said, "It would be easier to show you, then. I'll…apologize now, for whatever this may cause."

Marth took off her mask and took a step or two closer to them, which made Lucina tense. When Morgan walked to Lucina's side, he realized why; he had seen Marth without her mask on, but only once and her eyes were still covered. Sometimes she tied her hair up, making it look shorter—without a mask and with her hair down, she looked familiar. More than that, her left eye…

One by one, the Mini Shepherds came closer to see what made the two of them pause. As soon as Owain saw, he frowned and put a hand on the hilt of his sword. "Why do you have the Brand?"

Marth and Malin explained, slowly and kindly, about certain things in the war. They said that there was another time—one where Grima was resurrected and managed to destroy a lot of things in the world. When the destruction was almost too much to bear, Marth said that her and her friends went to a time before the events unfolded to prevent it; Marth came back in time to help Chrom and Lissa as they went back to Ylisstol after meeting Robin.

"That time is similar to this one, but the results of the wars were drastically different," Marth said. "The wars lasted longer in our home than here, and we're still in a state of war in a sense. Time has passed nearly two decades here, whereas in our time it could have very well been only a few years; the time for danger here has passed."

"If the times are similar, each with the same people and the same monsters," Lucina began slowly, "Then what—or who, I suppose—does that make you and Malin?"

Marth gave her a kind little smile. "The same as you and your brother, albeit with a different set of hardships. I have the Brand because I am the exalt in my time—or I will be soon, at any rate, once we return. This blade is mine, and before that belonged to my father."

There was a few seconds of silence before the news settled in. Morgan looked at Malin, saying, "You're not just 'like a son' to Robin, then—you are, in a sense." When Malin nodded, Morgan was able to smile. "Heh, it's kind of weird to think of it like that. I don't have any reason to think you're lying, so thinking about it…it's kind of like I have an older brother. You're heading home, right?"

"We need to help the place where we grew up," Malin replied.

"When you come back, I bet Mother would like to talk with you," Morgan said. "You're more than just a friend."

"Thanks," Malin said with a little smile. That smile fell in the next moment as he glanced at Marth. "But we…probably won't be able to come back. It's a miracle we could even return home in the first place."

Morgan wasn't sure what, exactly, frustrated him about that—if it was because of the sudden admitting of it, or that Malin didn't sound too convinced it could change. Frowning and getting a bit quieter, he said, "I've said this before, Malin: Mom worried about you. If me or Lucina left, she wouldn't know what to do—I know that. The last time you talked to her as yourself was eleven years ago; if she knew that you were her future son, she would've tried talking with you more when you came by the castle to get Falchion. She would be happy to hear that you're all right."

Malin just looked away. "…I'm sorry, Morgan. Tell her that."

Morgan's next words were twisted into a promise in mere weeks after he said them. "Tell her yourself," he muttered. Getting a bit louder, he said, "Mom and Dad would both be happy to see you and Marth again; I know they would. Go ahead and leave, help your own time—but you better come back to this one. If I have to find a way, so be it; my parents—our parents—deserve to see old family."

There was a little pause, then Malin smiled. "All right, then. I'll look forward to it."

Morgan was able to smile despite his earlier dread returning. With a nod amongst themselves and a little wave from Malin, the two mercenaries-slash-time-travelers bid farewell and started going further up the mountain. It could very well be the last time he saw them, but somehow Morgan was able to convince himself otherwise. Familial bonds were hard to break, after all.

(A/N: Wow, that was a long one! But also very important. Fun fact!: As mentioned earlier in the story, Marth's alias comes from the one she used during the war. Malin's alias, however, is a leftover from my Ylissean Legacies AU stories; I put 'Morgan' in a baby name site's search, then made a new search based on what it said the meaning was. If I remember correctly, it was 'warrior.' I didn't know what else to call him when I wrote the original Mini Shepherds, so I decided to use what I called him in the previous series that Mini Shepherds essentially rewrote.)