The moon watched Lucina as she stared up at the night sky through the makeshift shelter in the forest. The twigs she had thrown together into a roof certainly had enough gaps for her peek through at the glittering stars over her, something she had little chance to see in her time, and she would never see it again if she did not stick true to her path and got away from Ylisse as fast as she could.

Fate had made it clear it wanted her to stay. First Anna, then this town; it was as if fate had plans for her, plans in motion that she had no desire to be a part of. If she didn't fight Fate's grasp tooth and nail, things would spiral out of her control, and the future would slip from her grasp.

Why am I even considering this? Lucina thought, hand falling to her face. It's not as if Fate is a living being with a will against me. If I keep to my path and press onward, I shall find a way to fix this mess I've made and maybe, find a way to save my father.

Once she arrived at Ferox and became its champion, she could secure Ferox's aid for Ylisse. Though, with Lon'qu out of the picture for now... how would she manage that? The people in the past were stronger than she expected. Her chances of winning were slim.

Lucina hummed. I suppose I'll have to become stronger than them then.

To the right, she saw one of the trees twitch left. Odd, since the wind was blowing the other way. For a moment, she considered if it had been a large animal that had moved through, but immediately dismissed the ridiculous thought. Had it been an animal, why would they have taken the care to conceal their footsteps?

Her fingers brushed against the hilt of her sword. Her eyes narrowed.

A shadow flickered across the entrance.

Lucina slipped to the side as a hand grasped for her foot. She thrust her sword out of the entrance, and she heard someone cry out. Lucina out the entrance just in time to see a man stagger away from her, clutching his arm.

They locked gazes. Even in the darkness of night, there was just enough moonlight for her to make out the man's brown eyes, narrowed as they watched each other stand between the trees.

Lucina could not afford to let him take the first move, so she moved first. Her sword darted out and nicked the bark of a nearby tree. The bandit ducked away, letting the edge of the sword scrape over his chest. He lunged at her with his knife. Lucina reached up and caught his wrist. The bandit pulled back his head to headbutt her. Lucina rammed the top of her skull into his chin, and he staggered out of her grasp.

His back slammed into a tree. Lucina raised her sword and brought it down on his chest. The bandit rolled out of the way, and her blade bit into the tree. The bandit, likely thinking she wouldn't have time to pull it free, reversed his knife and swung for her neck. That meant he wouldn't have expected her to let go of her sword entirely and slam her elbow into his own neck.

As the bandit staggered back, Lucina tore her sword free and put it between them once again. The bandit came to his senses before she could attack, and the two resumed their stand-off.

"You're quite the fighter, lady," the bandit said, flourishing his knife. "Not what I'd expected from a noble brat."

"I've not lived a very sheltered life," Lucina replied.

The bandit shrugged. "Careful that doesn't make you too cocky. One wrong move, and you'll still bleed out just the same."

"I think I can take care of myself."

The bandit smirked, before he lunged again. Lucina slipped away and cleaved through the air. The bandit ducked under her swing. He slipped up and slashed at her chest, but Lucina had already danced out of reach.

The bandit chased after her. With him so close, she had no room to swing her sword. That was fine. Lucina reached out and flung a handful of dirt into his eyes. The bandit cursed, but when Lucina tried to stab his chest, the bandit ducked behind a tree, and her attack rattled against the wood.

"Damn noble brat," the bandit hissed. "You think you're the only one of us who can fight dirty?"

No, but I'm the only one of us who has faced a hundred Risen at once, Lucina thought, though she doubted it would have gone over well with the bandit and kept it to herself.

The bandit emerged from the other side, and he flung his arm forward. Something flashed in the moonlight. Lucina ducked to the side. A silver blur streaked past the left side of her face, and Lucina felt a blade nick her skin. She reached up under her eyepatch. Her hand came away with a trickle of blood.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bandit pull another knife out of his jacket. Mentally, she made a note to watch if he tried to throw it again. Had she been a second late, that cut could have been between her eyes instead of over her cheek.

Lucina lunged again before the bandit could. She thrust her sword where his ribs would have been, and thrust again before he could get any closer. The bandit slipped away and hurled a handful of leaves at her face. Lucina raised her hand to block it. When she lowed it, the bandit had already begun to lunge for her. Lucina stepped to the right. His knife sailed past her, but his foot lashed out and kicked her back against another tree trunk.

Clearly, he was trying to keep her on her toes. If he kept her off guard, she would have no chance to corner him. If he kept her off balance, sooner or later she would slip.

The bandit reached into his pocket. Lucina stepped to the left to dodge it. A handful of lint smacked her in the eye. Lucina cursed and stumbled back. Something sharp nicked her chin. Lucina reached out with her hand and swung. Her fist knocked into someone's face, and she heard the bandit crash into a nearby tree.

As she rubbed a sleeve over her eyes, watching the bandit pick himself off the floor, she scowled. Her hand clenched tighter on the sword. She couldn't dodge because she couldn't see where he was throwing. She couldn't attack because he would keep his distance.

She was sure he would be surprised when he found she still had a few surprises in store for him.

The darkness did much to conceal him as he moved to throw something else at her. But if she couldn't see what he was doing, neither could he. Lucina reached inside, grabbed her thunder tome, and with her sword, hurled a spell into what remained of her firepit.

With the wood still hot from the fire before, it burst into flames in an instant. At once, Lucina could see the bandit's arm pulled back, ready to throw another knife at her.

Lucina raised her hand just in time to skewer knife through her tome. Sparks expulsed from the book and bit into her arms. Her thunder tome dropped to the floor, but she had already done what she needed to do with it. She saw the bandit reach for a handful of dirt on the floor. Lucina lunged. The bandit staggered back and hurled the dirt at her. Lucina ducked under it. The dirt sailed over her head, and she caught him in a tackle and pinned him to the floor.

The bandit thrust his knife up to stab her. At this range, he would have been quicker than her. Her sword would be much too long and unwieldy to use here, and he knew it.

Lucina caught his wrist, slammed it into the floor, and skewered her sword through his arm. The bandit cried in pain. Lucina silenced him with an elbow to the face.

Lucina did not consider herself a violent or angry person. A quick death would have been more than enough for a bandit like him. But with her sword stuck in the ground, she had few other options, so she punched him again. And again.

It really shouldn't have been much, just asking things to go her way for once. She wanted to get out of Ylisse. She wanted to get away from her family. She wanted to do something right for once without throwing the whole timeline into a mess because fate just wanted her whole world to come crumbling around her.

Lucina paused. She looked down, and found the bandit's face a bloody mess and completely out cold. She winced.

Her mother would have told her such violence would have been unbecoming of a lady. Lucina was just glad no one was here to see.

Then her eyes landed on something on the floor beside her. A pendant she had knocked free while she was swinging at him. Normally, she wouldn't have bothered peering into someone else's belongings, and certainly not a bandit's belongings, but... a curious nagging tugged at the back of her mind. Slowly, she reached out, picked it up, and opened it.

Who else would she find inside but a small painting of a younger looking Gaius.

If Lucina could have asked someone to hit her, she would have.

Oh Naga. Of course this bandit has connections with Gaius. Lucina's gaze raised to the sky, and she sighed.

Now she couldn't kill him. She couldn't leave him out here, either, not with Vincent's bandits around; if she let him go here, he might find them and help them track her down. She had no other choice but to turn him in to the authorities.

The authorities in the nearest town, just one day away from here.

"If you're out there," she said to no one in particular, "I hope you're having a good laugh at this while you can. I will stop the Grimleal, and I will save my father. You may bet my life on it."

The bandit did not seem particularly happy, being lead around by the rope tied around his hands. Lucina shared that sentiment. Neither of them were happy about this, but what other choice did she have?

Choice. When was the last time I was given a real choice? Was it back when I chose to fled from my Grandfather's murder? Or was it when I left Emmeryn alone in the courtyard of Ylisstol?

Briefly, she wondered if she would have been happier, had she chosen different. It would not have been the right choice, but if it meant that she did not have to spend an entire day trudging through the forest road with a disgruntled bandit in tow.

"Lady, I haven't had a drink in half a day," the bandit mumbled. "Can we at least stop by a stream for a drink?"

Lucina frowned. "You'll get a drink once they lock you in the town jail."

"I'll be dead from thirst by then." Groaning, the bandit raised his shoulder to wipe the sweat off his neck.

Lucina glanced ahead of them, putting a hand up to shield her eyes from the setting sun as she watched the treeline to see if they had gotten any closer to the town. If she squinted really hard, she could probably convince herself that the tips of the trees in the distance were the roofs of houses, but it was not that late, and she was not that desperate. At least, she would have liked to convince herself she was not that desperate.

"You know," the bandit piped up from behind her, "If you wanted me dead, it would've been faster to just kill me last night."

"I know." And wasn't she regretting it. If she were in his shoes, Lucina would have been grateful to still be breathing, and yet he had complained every step of the way.

But her father had always said Gaius had been a rather mouthy man, so she sucked it up and kept walking.

"How long until we get there, anyway? You've been there before, haven't you? I haven't. They don't teach you this in thief school, but you never go to small towns. The security's more lax, but it's too much work for too little reward."

Lucina paused to give him a look. "Thief school?"

"Yeah. If you stole something, you had to have gone to thief school. Stealing from small places was easy, so if you did that, you got bullied by everyone else."

"That's ridiculous."

"And just what would you know about stealing things, missy?"

Motioning out toward nowhere in particular, Lucina said, "If I was desperate enough to steal, I would take whatever I could get my hands on. No amount of mockery is worth fretting my life over."

The bandit was quiet for a moment. Then, he said, "I can see how you would think that."

"I lived that."

The bandit blinked, disbelieving. "You? Stealing?"

Lucina wrinkled her nose and scowled. "I would never. But my friends and I were poor, so we took what jobs we could. No matter how mundane or filthy, a job is still a job."

"That couldn't have been pleasant."

"Life rarely is."

"You've got that right."

The two of them traveled in silence for a few minutes more. Lucina checked up ahead, but the sky seemed awfully cloudy today, and she had a difficult time making out what was in the distance. Perhaps the mage had been mistaken. Or perhaps, they had been traveling much slower than everyone else was. Either way, Lucina figured they would be here for some time, so she decided, if there was anytime to ask the question at the back of her mind, now would be it.

"You have a locket around your neck," she said, keeping her eyes ahead. "Whose picture is it?"

The bandit's eyes narrowed. "And why do you want to know?"

"He reminds me of a friend I once had. I was wondering how you knew him."

"Then you wouldn't mind sharing who their name was, would you?"

"His name was–" Lucina stopped. She narrowed her eyes. She could not go around telling this man her friend was Gaius. Considering how old Chrom was, that meant she would be at least twelve years older.

"His name was Geralt," she said, using the first name that came to mind.

"Really?"

There was something about his voice that made Lucina pause to give him a look. The bandit raised an eyebrow, and as he watched her, Lucina couldn't suppress the sinking feeling that somehow, she had made a mistake.

"I don't think I've ever had the pleasure," he said slowly.

"I see." Lucina turned away, a frown on her lips. "Perhaps it's merely coincidence, then."

The bandit, Geralt, hummed, and thankfully let the topic drop. They walked the next few miles with only the wind and the soft crunch of twigs to accompany them, before Lucina finally worked up the guts to ask, "Is that your son?"

"Son? Gods no," Geralt snorted. "He's just my brother."

"Your brother?"

"Yes. Handsome, isn't he?"

Lucina's lips quirked up. "He is. Is he doing well?"

"I hope so." When Lucina glanced back with a curious look, the bandit sighed. "Our parents are dead. He's on his own until I get back."

"Oh." Lucina looked away.

"Don't worry. The kid's a fighter. He's probably fine on his own."

But Lucina did worry, because here she was, bringing Gaius's only family to be arrested and leaving him all on his own. And perhaps that had been the idea–guilt her into letting him go so he could go steal another day–but now Lucina had to worry if she was changing the past again, and this was all getting to her head much too quickly.

If he really was Gaius's brother, she wouldn't be surprised if he could escape whatever security the town had anyway; the others had always said he had a way of getting out of sticky situations. If she could just hand him over, and he escaped on his own, it was out of her hands and a burden off her shoulders.

Then, a scent hit her nose. A familiar scent; copper.

Lucina looked to the sky again, and with a creeping sense of horror, she realized that the grey clouds above her were not clouds at all.

Lucina cursed. She broke into a sprint, dropping the rope as she did. The bandit could run, for all he wanted to.

The tipped over wagon on the side of the road was her first sign something was terribly wrong. It took her getting closer to realize that she recognized that cart.

It was the same cart that she minstrels were riding the day before. The brightly painted sides, now smeared with blood, Lucina looked around to see if there were any survivors. The minstrel leader, the wounded man; anyone.

She spotted them laid out in the grass a few feet away. She moved swiftly to see if any of them were alive, but before she approached she knew it was a fruitless effort. She could already tell they were long dead.

It was a familiar sight for her–travelers brutally murdered on Risen-infested roads–but that did not make seeing it any easier. Lucina sent a quick prayer to Naga for their safety, if Naga could hear her at all. She would have stayed to bury them, had she not heard the crackling of fire in the distance.

Lucina continued down the road, and was greeted to a village in flames. Houses completely destroyed, walls strewn with ruin and corpses. Red flowed between the cobblestone road. A blue pointed hat drifted past her in the breeze.

The fire was still hot, and still burned bright. Whoever had done this couldn't have gone far. A part of Lucina wanted to chase after them. Another part of her recognized that, if there were enough people here to not only overwhelm the town guard, but set the entire village ablaze in under a day, what chance did she have? Even she was smart enough to realize that surviving against impossible odds often meant not having to face those odds at all.

"Gods, what happened here?" she heard someone say behind her.

Lucina whirled around. She was surprised to find the bandit still behind her, eyes wide and frozen to the spot.

"Bandits." Lucina nodded inside the village. "Everything has already been looted. Any gold, weapons, instruments, gone." Her eyes narrowed, and she fixed him with a glare. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"

The bandit, immediately sensing death hanging over him by a thread, put up his hands and said, "I had no idea any of this was happening. I swear, I work alone."

"Do you now?"

"I do! Come on, do you know how easy it is to pull off a heist with multiple people? Let me tell you, it ain't pretty."

Lucina wasn't quite sure she could count on that. But this was Gaius's brother, and perhaps it would be more trouble to not take him on his word and run him through right here, so with a huff, she let it go.

As soon as she took her eyes off him, she heard him sigh. "I don't understand how this could've happened. Reckless or not, even an idiot would know the Pegasus Knights would hunt you down for it."

"The Pegasus Knights are not coming."

The bandit looked startled at that. When he spoke again, Lucina could have sworn that his voice trembled. "What makes you so sure?"

"I saw the Pegasus Knights stationed near here depart for the capital two days ago."

"Why? The Pegasus Knights would never leave us. Stuck-up they may be, if there's one thing that's good about them, it's that they'd eat their own hearts before they abandoned us."

Scanning the debris, Lucina said, "I'm not sure. I just hope the Exalt isn't in trouble."

"What about the bandits, then?" The bandit, Geralt, Lucina had to remind herself, said, kicking aside a piece of wood as he cautiously crept after her. "To go through all this effort, they wouldn't just kill so many people for the fun of it."

"That, I do know why they may be acting this way."

"And why is that?"

Lucina turned to face Geralt. She stared at him dead on, and slowly, articulately, she said, "They're looking for me."

I was going to post this at the two week mark. Missed it by half a week. Sorry about that, but realizing that I'd kneecapped the pacing by splitting it in two really did a number on my motivation. That's on me; maybe I could've waited longer to release it, or maybe I would've been too demotivated to write it. Either way, between juggling all my stuff and moving away, it's certainly been a week and a half, and I'm mostly just glad I've got it out in the end.

Here's to hoping I manage to finish a few more of my other projects so I can clear more time for writing. The lines for food are always long, and I can always find time to sneak in a paragraph or two between homework. Maybe some more stress in my life would help me write more consistently, who knows.

Feel free to leave a comment, because I sometimes forget this story is here. I've got so many tabs open, it's easy to lose the Google Doc–I may have a problem, but I'm working on it–but it's fine if you don't. Just taking the time to stop and read means the world to me. Until then, remember to take care of yourselves out there, and stay safe!