Robin heaved a sigh of relief. These Risen were disgusting. He closed his Elwind tome.
"That's the last of them." Chrom was above him on top of the bridge. "Gods, I thought it might nev-."
The tactician felt a surge of magic. He'd felt it before and it always led to…"Chrom, look out!"
No sooner had the words left his lips did a Risen assassin teleport behind Chrom. Robin climbed up the side of the small cliff's edge as fast as he could.
"Huh?" Chrom twisted around just as the assassin leaped forward to attack. "Ah!" He'd already sheathed his sword. He wouldn't be able to draw it in time.
"Father, no!" Lucina seemed to appear out of nowhere knocking Chrom aside, her own blade parrying the strike.
A vortex of wind materialized slicing the assassin to ribbons. "Chrom!" Robin cried hugging his husband. The Elwind tome in his hand slightly glowed from the spell.
Chrom didn't return the hug. He was too distracted by Lucina and what she'd said. "You called me 'Father'.
The young woman stiffened. "Did I?" She sheathed her sword. It had been a slip of the tongue. Her emotions, the fear, getting the best of her. Lucina looked from Chrom to Robin to Chrom. "Perhaps we might speak privately?"
"Perhaps we should, yes."
Robin subconsciously tightened his hold. Something cold forming in the pit of his stomach. "Do you have to?"
"I'll be fine." Chrom gently removed Robin's arms. "If she wanted me dead, she wouldn't have stopped the assassin." He gave him a reassuring smile before motioning Lucina to lead the way.
The tactician watched them go. "That's not what I'm worried about." He absentmindedly rubbed his wedding ring with this thumb.
Alone, Lucina kept her back to Chrom. "I don't even know where to begin." She said with a humorless chuckle.
"I already know you're not 'Marth', though I've nothing better to call you." He crossed his arms. Perhaps he should have brought Robin. He had no idea what this woman was about to say. "But I'll ask nothing of you that you don't wish to reveal. Whoever you are, Ylisse owes you a debt beyond repaying."
She turned to face him. "Thank you, but…I think I would prefer you know the truth."
Chrom nodded waiting for her to speak.
Ever since she'd lost him, Lucina had played this scenario out in her mind, all the things she would say and do, but now that it was here, she was drawing a blank. 'Seeing is believing' Mother had always said, so that's what she'd do. "Here…look closely, and all will be made clear."
Lucina walked towards Chrom, and once they were on par, she took a deep breath meeting his gaze. His eyes narrowed then went wide in recognition. "That's the Brand of the Exalt." His hand ghosted over his own. He couldn't believe it, but it had to be so. Only his bloodline could carry that mark and even if she was some long lost relative, the odds of having it in the same place. "Lucina." His attention drifted to the Falchion she wore at her hip. Was that all he really left his beloved daughter? "You deserved better from me than one sword and a world of troubles." Almost the same thing his own father had left his children. It made Chrom sick. He'd made an oath, when his baby was born, that he would be a better father. "I'm sorry." The words seemed so empty, but that was all he had.
Tears began to weld in Lucina's eyes. She blinked hard hoping to keep them at bay, but it had the opposite effect and they streamed down her cheeks.
Chrom reached out instinctively to wipe them away, yet paused. Did he have that right? Yes, yes, he did. With his thumb, father wiped the tears from his daughter's cheek.
Lucina could no longer hold back. "Oh, Father!" She threw herself against him burying her face in his chest, a chest she never thought to feel again, and let herself cry for the first time in years. Chrom held her close, stroking her hair, and whispering what he hoped were soothing words. "Father."
Chrom waited for Lucina to calm down before releasing her. "Better?"
"Yes, Father…I'm sorry." She rubbed at her eyes. "It just all rushed back at once."
"Father." Chrom rolled the word around on his tongue.
"Should I call you something else?" Lucina asked cautiously.
"No, it's just strange to my ear." He smiled warmly. "I like it." He really did.
Lucina giggled and she was amazed the sound had come from her. "Father."
The prince laughed. "Yes, it will take some getting used to!" It was a title he hadn't expected to hear for many years.
"Father?" The surprise had caused the word to slip from Robin's lips. He'd tried to give them their privacy, he really did, but his natural curiosity got the better of him and he followed. He'd just seen the woman throw herself at Chrom crying and saying 'Father'. He gave his husband a suspicious look. He thought he'd married an upstanding, a little naïve, gentleman, but if this woman was Chrom's secret mistress, he wondered if perhaps the man wasn't as innocent as he seemed. "Is there a reason you and Marth need to be alone?"
Chrom gave Robin a curious look. How long had he been standing there?
"I trust you, Chrom." He crossed his arms tapping his finger on his elbow.
"Really? Because you're saying one thing and your face is saying another."
Robin narrowed his eyes. "You two are out here alone and Marth is crying. This is how ill rumors are born."
Chrom found his husband's reaction rather amusing. "Can we tell him, Lucina?"
She hesitated. This Robin and her mother were obviously the same person just different gendered. She wasn't quite sure how to react.
The decision, however, was taken out of her hands.
"Lucina?!" Robin's face twitched. "Are you seriously trying to tell me you named our daughter after."
"Robin." Chrom stopped him. "This is going to come as a shock, but…I'll just say it: This is our daughter."
"What?! Have you gone mad?! You're jokes are terrible, but this is taking it too far."
Lucina moved between them. "It's true, Robin. Please, look closely. Prove it with your own eyes by looking into mine."
Annoyed, he studied her then gasped. "You have the Brand!"
Chrom went to stand by his husband's side, his hand touching his lower back. "The same Brand carried by all House Ylisse's bloodline. Do you see now?"
"No, no I can't say that I do." Robin's hostility disappeared and was replaced by panic. "If this is Lucina, what has happened to our baby back at the palace?"
Warmth blossomed in Lucina's heart to hear him say 'our baby'. Though not related by blood, he still thought of the little girl as his.
"Nothing. She's fine."
"And you know this how?! You didn't even know you had to peel oranges before eating them!"
That was something Lucina hadn't known about her father. "Your baby is right where you left her, and perfectly safe." She assured him. "I am her from another time. From a time that is yet to be."
"The future?" Robin wasn't sure he believed her, but she had the exact same brand as his baby and in the exact same eye. Claiming to be from the future seemed more plausible then saying she was placed in a magical realm where time moved faster. Plus, the fact she knew about the attack on Emmeryn helped back her claim.
"Yes, more than 10 years hence. After history takes a dark and most destructive turn." Lucina involuntarily shuttered at the memory.
"But why? What happens in the future?!"
"The fell dragon, Grima, is resurrected. His roar is a death knell for man, a scream that silences all hope. Death everywhere."
"Chrom? Our whole company? All of us? Dead?!"
Lucina simply nodded grimly.
"A tale that beggars belief, and yet the truth of it stands before us" Chrom gestured to her sword then to his own. "She carries Falchion, my same sword, and the same sword the first exalt used to defeat Grima long ago."
"Your blade and mine are one, Father. It was…it was all I had left of you." And the tiara she now wore proudly. A gift from her mother.
"There is only one Falchion, Robin, I believe her."
Robin chewed on his bottom lip. "For all your faults, Chrom, you're a good judge of character. I'll believe her too."
Lucina relaxed slightly. "Naga, the divine dragon, feared mankind would face Grima again. In preparation for that day, she devised a ritual. It allows one to jump timelines and alter events that have yet to be written. I made the journey together with others, but…we became separated."
"Don't worry, Lucina. If they're out there, we'll find'em." Chrom placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Robin had some misgivings about that. If Lucina hadn't been able to find them in two years, what were the odds in locating them now? Still, children from the future. Anything was clearly possible. "My daughter." He said to himself. The idea seemed so out there. He shook his head smiling. "You have grown into such a strong and beautiful woman. Chrom and I are truly blessed."
Lucina blushed. "Thank you…milord."
Chrom furrowed his brow. "Is something wrong? You were so excited to see me that I thought for sure you'd be just as excited to see Robin."
"Forgive me. It's just." Should she tell them? They took the whole alternate timeline news rather well. "In my timeline, Robin is biologically my mother."