Interlude:
It had been a long three years.
Lucina remembered everything about it.
How she defended the incomplete portal so that their party could escape.
How Nah said that more time was needed and that if they were to enter now, Naga could only guarantee that when they entered the past, they would be on land. Time and location, though accurate, was crude and they would be separated.
How she ordered them all to go behind the mask, the adrenaline in her body giving her the ability to bark the command that would inevitably separate all of them.
How Morgan, Inigo, Gerome, and Laurent disobeyed and stood their ground with her and that she felt her lips curl upward. Bravado would be the death of them.
How, at the very end when it was their time to evacuate, Inigo was struck by an arrow at his shoulder, the very one that the shield had rested on, and as a result was almost unable to stop an axe from cutting into him. His side bled and the dark blood stained his shirt crimson.
How Inigo smiled in spite of his pale face and told her to go first, reassuring her that he would be right behind her.
And when she exited the portal, dashing in to save her aunt from the axe of a risen, she remembered how terrified she was, knowing that she was lost in an unfamiliar world, alone without the company of her friends and family.
That night, she found herself unable to sleep in the wilderness, eyes continually scanning not just for risen ambushes, but for her own companions, hoping and praying that she would not have to sleep alone in the forest. She only found respite when she wrapped Laurent's cloak around her shoulders, held Gerome's mask and Inigo's shield close to her breast, and cried herself ragged, something she had not done in a long, long time.
She had tried to keep her presence in the past at a minimum. She decided that when necessary she would step in only to save, much like she had done for her aunt Lissa. She had only one objective – that her father survived – and it was best achieved by making sure that no one became a threat to him. But at the same time, she had to remain afar and watch.
And yet, driven by her own want to see her father, she met him in the grand arena of Regna Ferox. They crossed blades and surprised him, having fought in the same forceful way that he did, focusing on as much raw strength as her finesse could handle.
But it was her mother that she found herself afraid of. The robed woman was watchful, keeping a close eye on her as the Shepherds fought, paving the path to her with the blood of her teammates. The crowd cheered as her father and his tactician approached Marth, the last obstacle that Ylisse needed to defeat to get the support it needed to deal with the Risen and bandits.
But as Chrom drew his blade and pointed it at her once more, the woman placed her hand over his, stilling him as she walked forward.
"Robin?"
Her mother ignored her father and continued, staring right into the slits of the mask, her black eyes piercing through the veil, unreadable as always. She looked so young, her brown hair tied in a ponytail with braids lacing around the side of her head, tamed and neat save for that one cowlick that she could never get to obey.
The crowd around them roared for blood and battle, but her mother's voice was louder than all of them in that moment and she felt herself grimace.
"I have some questions for you," the woman halted several paces from Lucina. "You protect us from these risen abominations, you warn us of what is to come," she tightened the grip on her blade, "and now you stand before us as an adversary to Ylisse. Why?"
The princess in hiding remained silent, knowing that she could say nothing. Instead, she raised her own Falchion, ready to fight.
Her mother walked closer. "You don't know how to use that shield on your arm, do you? Your form does not incorporate its presence in any way. Its weight is foreign and your arm droops because of it." Gods, even her voice was indiscernible.
"Makes me wonder where you got it."
Her mother was always good with words, both in comforting and provoking, and it bothered Lucina that she was never able to truly replicate her wit. Gritting her teeth, she charged at her mother, eager to see how she had measured her in the time that had passed.
Eventually she was forced relent, exhausted and arm struggling to keep Falchion up. Her mother, who had dodged and blocked her many strikes and was only half as winded, took the opportunity to strike. It was only a matter of time before she was able to work her father's – her real father's she had to remind herself – Falchion out of her hands.
"You'll live, for now." Robin placidly said, holding the blade at her neck as the roaring crowd celebrated the Shepherd's victory.
"I'm sure you have your own reasons, so I'll let you live for mine."
The next time she saw them, she was their ally. Slipping through the cracks of the castle walls near the old maple grove that she and her brother used to play in, she confronted the two, claiming that the Exalt's life was in danger. In her eagerness to prove herself to her mother and father, she had quickly disposed of the first assassin.
But the second assassin unmasked her, ripping Gerome's gift asunder and setting her hair loose. Her hand flew to her face, horrified that something so precious to her would be ruined and afraid that Chrom and Robin would see the brand in her eye.
"Are you hurt?" he said after defeating the second intruder, before he realized that Lucina was a woman and nowhere near the identity of Marth. The words from Chrom's lips were so sincere that her heart ached.
She could only give a quick retort, covering her pain with humor. She had to make use of the wit her mother gave her, after all. But soon an explosion rocked the side of the castle and they rushed off to the side of the Exalt, but not before she picked up the pieces and carefully placed them into her pouch.
Thus, Lucina was dragged into family matters, something she initially was so cautious to enter into. She tailed behind her father and mother as they served. But she kept her presence to a minimum. She did not partake in any actual battles, instead choosing to keep an eye out for Plegian patrols and stopping them from discovering the Shepherds and their warpath.
It was a choice she later regretted when the Exalt let herself fall to her death. The only facts she knew about her aunt were the ones her mother and father shared with her. Merely calling her kind could not do her justice Chrom had often said to her, but she was finally able to see it, if only for a short moment. But even though she never fully knew her aunt, only stared at from afar or vicariously through stories, she viewed her as the one who could prevent their future.
But in her death, Lucina could not doubt the unifying power behind it. She watched how Chrom and Robin guided the Shepherds through a perilous retreat and how their sorrow became a banner of justice that Ylisse and Regna Ferox followed. And when it finally ended, when Chrom drew the bloodied Falchion from the cooling body of the mad king, her mother rushed over and it was as if she was watching a fairy tale unfold. Packing her things away, she left her father and mother and began to search for her own companions.
It was a fruitless cause. Dead ends greeted her at every turn. A wyvern rider. A mercenary. A mage. Pegasus knight and yet another mercenary. An overactive swordsman. A knight, a priest, a young man with blue hair. An archer. A Taguel and a Manakete. Sans the last two, the rest were a dime a dozen. There would be no easy way to find them on such little information. And with the upcoming war with Valm, Lucina knew that her time was limited before her parents would enter the theater of war again.
She had done her best. She had traveled through the wilderness, stopping by towns and inns, trying to describe the rest of them as best as she could, but she darkly wondered if some of them hadn't changed in the time that they had been separated.
And Inigo…
She would bite her lip and place her hand on the shield he gave her, hoping, praying that he had made it safely. Seeing her father and mother after the loss of Emmeryn , she feared what the discovery of his death would do to her. She had seen the death of their parents. She didn't quite lead them, as many of the older generation refused to allow them to take the front lines if they could spare their children from it. Yet she had seen them die and how broken the children were because of it.
But never, never had one of her circle, her own Shepherds, died because of her orders. She feared she could never forgive herself. And so while she prayed to Naga that her companions were alive, she prayed most for Inigo, his pale, painful smile one of the final images of the children that she saw.
Gerome's mask was broken in two. She kept the pieces, but it would never function as a mask again without work.
Laurent's cloak had become thin and worn. It had kept the cold out whenever she slept under the stars and as a comforter in the rare times of indulgence an inn bed, but it was a shadow of its former self. She didn't know the magic to imbue it and she never took up the thread and needle to learn to mend it.
Only Inigo's shield truly remained. It had seen many bruises and cuts, but it had not fallen apart, it had not grown weak. Each scar on its face made apparent Inigo's wisdom in offering it to her, and yet she loathed that it had cost him so much. Oh, that she could give it back, but it was an impossible thought, a guilt that she carried.
And so when Chrom and Robin were worn out at the top of the dam in Plegia, when the assassin came in to seize her father's life, she screamed the truth.
"Father!"
Though she saved him, it condemned her. Adrenaline pumped in her veins, both from thwarting the assassin and from the fear of what was to come. There was no hiding anymore. No doubt that Robin had heard it as well.
So she let everything go. Her father was alive because of what she did. Ylisse, though still without its true Exalt, came out of the last war as a clear victor. Lon'qu was gifted to Chrom as a Shepherd earlier than before and was possibly even spared from death.
Yet despite all the praise that she was entitled to, she trembled at the thought of claiming it. But she pushed herself through, as it would end her torment.
And so in their embrace, when Chrom and Robin became her parents again, if only through adoption, she felt the pain start to go away.
It had been a long three years.
The first to be found was Laurent.
A/N: Well, I said I was gonna write more about RobinxCordy stuff. But as I wrote a bit more on how I wanted chapter two to go like, I realized that I was a little tired of writing about that particular Robin and I wanted to do a different kind of Robin. Also, I wanted to try a different POV and this story had already been planned out in terms of where I want to go. So I decided to work on this. I had some drafts and concepts, including a kung-fu master Robin of sorts, but ultimately decided that it wasn't going to work out that way. She was going to have mad Str, negative (not weak, negative) magic of sorts balancing, be raised in Chon'sin and have an accent of sorts (Fred'rick? No, Frederick), and be kind of like Bruce Lee. It was kind of a fun idea to toy with but was weak where it mattered.
And so while the idea is still kicking around in my head, this Robin was gleaned from its shambles. Still +Str, -Mag, but no longer at such a polar extreme. She still studies, but prefers the sword over the tome. But at the end of the day, this isn't about the battles so much as it is about "My baby girl is on the verge of having her own harem with three hot guys? What?" and how it is eventually narrowed down to one.
This chapter was sort of meant to be a time-passing of sorts and as a result I kept it short, putting this chapter at only half of my normal length. We don't need to see what she did for that time, but we need to understand her emotions. It helps lay the groundwork for the story and helps answer a little bit as to her absence over the course of three years. It also starts to show the relationship of Chrom, Robin, and Lucina. I glaze over the ChromxRobin fluff because it's not needed and it's kind of everywhere already, so it's not a huge concern to me.
And I know that I wrote that it would be a little more lighthearted. I know that so far it sounds heavy hitting and gloomy, but it's getting there.
Reviews!
Gunlord500: You know, I have a quiet respect for you because every time I'm looking through the reviews of a story, 90% of the time you've put a review there as well. It's like you're everywhere. And yes, love quadrangulamus thing. I have no clue either, but I look forward to writing it.
tuvarkz: I'm more of an Inigo fan but honestly I like both ships. Tiquismiquis does an amazing job at Gerome and Inigo is always a fun read.
Flutterspark: We can all hope and dream, though I am now sorely tempted.
As per usual, I do not own Fire Emblem.
I look forward to your comments and criticisms.