"What... what do you mean, they disappeared? How does some forty people disappear off the face of the Earth?" Robin asked, his face easily betraying his disbelief.

"Father, I-"

"For that matter," Robin continued, slowing down a bit, "are you two not Shepherds as well? Why are you still here?"

"Father..." Severa spoke up, "none of us from the future disappeared... we... all of us tried to figure out why... I'm sorry, daddy, I know it's hard to believe, but..."

"No... I believe you, Severa. I wouldn't doubt you," Robin said. It was only half true. He'd been suspecting all along that something had happened to Chrom, and wasn't surprised when they'd all but confirmed it, but... everyone else, too? And why weren't the children gone?

Robin sighed. There was a lot he didn't know, right now. Robin hated unknowns.

"Right... well, we should get to Ylisstol quickly. Where are all the others?"

"Everyone's at Ylisstol Castle... Lucina sent us to find you. Morgan had a hunch that you'd be here."

"I... thought you'd be in the same place as when you first met Chrom... I didn't have any other ideas," Morgan finished, sniffling.

"Wait... Lucina? A hunch? ...How long has everyone been gone?"

"It will have been a little over a month since their disappearance..." the elder said, speaking up again.

"A... a month..."

"Lucina had to step in and... take the position of acting Exalt. There was quite an uproar when she revealed who she really was, but... it's hard to argue with the Brand in her eye."

"Lucina..."

"Father, we should get going now," Morgan said, tugging at Robin's sleeve.

"Yeah... you're right," he said. Then he turned back to the elder. "We should get going soon... I wish we could stay and help the town recover, but..."

The elder dismissed Robin's worries with a smile and wave of his hand.

"You've done enough by driving those bandits away. We are very grateful. You should head to Ylisstol quickly to get to the bottom of this disappearance. And... here. Take these with you. It may not be as powerful as what you have, but..."

Saying this, the elder held out an Elthunder and an Elfire.

"No, this is much appreciated," Robin said, gratefully taking the tomes. "Thank you very much. Come, Morgan. Severa."

"Yes, Father," his two daughters said in unison.

"...Has anyone seen my horse?"

They had kept a steady pace to Ylisstol, and as night fell they stopped to set up camp for the night. Severa tethered her horse to a tree (which incidentally had been hidden by a stable hand after Severa lost it) and gave it a few pats on the head. Robin and Morgan were busy gathering firewood, and Severa stayed behind to watch their belongings.

So basically, she was bored.

"Gawds, why do I have to be one to watch our stuff? I mean it's not like anyone's going to be happening this way in the minutes it'll take you to come back!" She shouted at nothing.

Her horse looked at her, before blowing air through its nose.

And so, Severa sat and waited.

It was a while before something caught her attention. A rustling in the bushes behind her snapped her out of her reverie, and she turned to the source.

"Father? Morgan? What took so long? I was bored out of my..."

Something burst out the bushes, something that wasn't Robin or Morgan.

Severa jumped backwards, her hands going for her sword. She narrowly dodged a sword swing herself as she brought hers up to bear. She swung diagonally downwards, and her blade caught her opponent's, and she managed to see what exactly she was fighting.

Risen? Here?! No... there's something different about this- Woah!

She felt her blade get pushed backwards, and dodged the not-Risen's downward swing. Using the momentum of the sidestep, she spun her body around, bringing her sword in a circle to impact the enemy's abdomen, tearing a deep gash into its stomach. It staggered backward, and Severa quickly followed with another swing, this time to the neck.

She panted as its head detached cleanly from the body.

The body didn't disintegrate into black dust like a Risen would. Instead, it began to glow white, enveloping itself in a bright light. With a loud crackle, the body shattered into multicolored shards that quickly disappeared.

"Severa? Sorry we took so long, Morgan wanted to- Severa?!" She heard her father behind her, as his tone went from conversational to alarmed in less than a second. "What happened, Severa?!"

"Sis! Are you okay?" Morgan asked, with concern in her voice.

That's when more rustling came. Slowly at first, but quickly ramping in intensity as it spread all around them.

"Daddy... I think we might have a problem."

She was falling. She was falling, and Lissa was running. Lissa had to catch her. She had to catch her sister. She didn't care that she'd already seen Emm fall to her death. She didn't care that trying to catch her would probably result in both of them dying. She had to try. She had to save her sister.

Lissa kept running. Emmeryn kept falling. Lissa kept running. Emmeryn kept falling.

How long had she been running? How long had she seen Emmeryn falling? She'd lost track. It couldn't have been longer than... a day... or a week... right?

"Keep running, little girl. You'll get there eventually. Possibly. Actually, probably not."

She lets out a quiet chuckle.

A/N: Where's this all going? No one knows. Except me, of course.

For those of you wondering what I'm talking about with Severa and the horse, Severa's a Bow Knight. Robin and Morgan are both Grandmasters, incidentally. And since someone asked: Robin has hair color 5, not 13, so no Miku Severa, unfortunately.

Also, for this fic I'm treating the SpotPass paralogues as non-canon. So no Gangrel, Emmeryn, etc. If that bothers you, sorry about that.

Keep those reviews coming, and stay tuned!