In retrospect, perhaps the plot would have been better served if I'd let it simmer for a few more weeks. But circumstances were out of my hands. Chrom was getting impatient for holding off the news for almost six months (enough time for a child to be conceived, he surmised), and my fellow future warriors would have gotten suspicious.

So the party had to be held, in the end I—reluctantly—gave the reins of the scheme to Lucina and my idiot brother, and all's well that ends well. Our Exalt's Consort has been found, and Chrom was finally able to publicly declare his happiness and the root thereof.

There was still the matter of hurt feelings, of course, but as I am still Grandmaster, and knowing the amount of work I had yet to do, I full expected to work on that as I went. Whatever Gerome thinks, my hands are clean enough: I didn't really say this or that had been Chrom's secret.

... Though I might have to stave off the odd visit down to the barracks. No more strolls up in the battlements, near where the pegasi practiced. No more appearing at court, standing in the crowd, where I might get stabbed. No more sleeping soundly in my own bedroom that would be easily infiltrated and liable to be enchanted, hexed and cursed to the Void.

Yes, maybe I should think of going into hiding.

But for now, we had a party. (From now on I needed to watch what I was eating or drinking) Everyone took turns interrogating Lucina, asking about the man she'd grown to like. Some of them continued to express surprise that big brother hadn't been the one, and I can feel a bit of revenge from seeing the hapless look on his face. Take that, spoilsport. He'd ended up guessing the gist of my scheme too, which was surprising. Maybe Dad did teach him well.

"... What did she tell you?" Chrom asked, spearing several meats with a skewer.

"She told me... that you've been seeing Tharja," Frederick said, a little sheepishly.

Chrom snorted and I raised a hand to cover a snigger. Frederick, rarely able to admonish his lord, resorted to glaring at me.

"Really? What on earth would make you believe that? Not..." Chrom cleared his throat, then surreptitiously checked his surroundings. "Not that she isn't a good woman, of course, but me and Tharja? Even Kellam would be a better match."

"In this strange world, milord," Frederick said, gesturing to the crowd surrounding our Exalt. "Anything can happen."

"True enough."

"I am very sorry for putting you in that position, Frederick," I said, toying with the glass in my hand. No sense in drinking something a serving girl gave me, there were a couple dozen ways that something could be slipped into it. "I honestly didn't expect it to go that far. And here, I also had to keep the secret." I elbowed Chrom.

Chrom shook his head. "This chaos you wrought almost brought down a nation." He tilted his cup at Frederick. "It's a good thing we Shepherds have cooler heads than that."

"Thank you, milord."

"And I did stop," I said. "Or, I was supposed to. Today, I mean. Before Gerome had to butt in."

"Speaking of Gerome," Frederick said, glancing at the brother. "I'm honestly surprised he's not milady's betrothed. He has been her companion for the past two years."

"They're best friends," I said soberly. I shared a look with Chrom. "And that will no doubt continue even after our Exalt's settled in."

"It's a good thing he chastised you. That's how a brother must be. Why, it reminds me of myself and Lissa. She could get extremely unpleasant from time to time." Chrom reached up and caught the thrown plate deftly. We glanced towards the crowd, where Lissa had already turned her back.

I grabbed a lump of lint from my pockets, kneaded it into a small ball, then flicked it at stupid's head. Without even glancing my way, stupid quickly grabbed the nearest person—Owain—and stuck him in the way of the projectile. It made a dull thump.

Chrom cleared his throat. "So, lesson learned."

"Never trust your own spymaster?" Frederick said bitterly.

"Ooh, or never judge a rumor by the level of calumny involved," I ventured, nibbling delicately on the meal. I'd served it myself but there's always that chance...

There was a silence. Realizing that Chrom hadn't continued, I looked up from my plate. Chrom had a peculiar smirk on his face.

"What I meant was that it's going to take something more than Frederick, the Shepherds, a big brother, or your friends, to rein in The Grandmaster," he said.

Puzzled, I tilted my head, scowling at him. I could sense that the smiling ex-beardo was building up to something.

"You maybe might need..." I felt a hand on my right shoulder. When I turned to look, ice froze the depths of my belly.

The greatest wyvern rider ever smiled down at me.

"A mother. And..."

A hand on my left. Trembling, my heart pounding fast, I craned my neck.

"...a father."

History's greatest tactician stood there, smiling in that half-frown he always had, when faced with a difficult problem.

"Yo, Morgan. Hope you haven't gone to much mischief in our absence," Dad said, voice laced with good humor.

"It can't be helped, dear," said Mom, beaming. "Even little Morgan's learned to annoy her big brother so."

"Oh, that's interesting," Chrom said. The dastard was grinning widely at me now.

Both hands squeezed tighter.

"And that's why all children need a guiding hand, even when grown," Mom continued.

"So, young one, what have you been up to?" Dad asked. "I'd... suuuuurely love to hear the details."

"Dad's here!" the cry exploded from my lips. Before I could even stand, I felt a whooshing sensation, and then darkness took me.

I have to admit, Chrom got me good.

I won't go into the details of myself waking up and bouncing off the walls when I acknowledged that I hadn't been dreaming. It turned into a grand party thereafter, where even the stoic brother of mine got in a few more drinks than the usual and even dared to flirt with Severa and her mother.

I can't encapsulate everything I ever felt upon seeing my dear loves again into a few words. But I was maaaajorly happy. Happier, even, than planning some petty prank. 'Course, I cried through most of our reunion, and little Gerome didn't stop pinching me, but I could never stop saying "Dad, Dad" and "Mom, Mom".

Turned out that the couple had been travelling around the world since Dad's reappearance—which was over a month ago. With Minerva's speed, they'd have made it here in less than a week, but they took the time to catch up, doing the stuff that long-lost lovers, now reunited, did.

They told Chrom about it first though, and the dastard used the opportunity to pull one over me, the Shepherds, even the children. Older Gerome was so bowled by the surprise that, as I mentioned, he downed several drinks and got Cordelia and child blushing with his casual advances.

I'm satisfied now. I can die peacefully—or not, since I still have work to do. Lesser now, depending on how much Dad wants to take. With the lack of crazy monarchs and conquerors and death-dealing dragons, I think we could clear all my backlogged issues in a week. Well, there was mention of appointing a new position in court: Chancellor. Details, details. That could wait until the next day.

Well, that's that.

The end.

I mean, there's nothing else...

Well, there is a tiny little thing.

Technically, the Shepherd faction had been right. Chrom indeed got better, but it wasn't because of Dad, or because of his daughter's engagement.

To continue: I don't remember the end of the party; it was all a meaningless, misty blur. Next thing I know I'm waking up at my bed, to the sound of Chrom chiding me for oversleeping.

"What time is it?" I asked, getting up. I looked down to see I was still clothed in my party wear.

"Past time for the daily audience," he replied, looking a little bit disgruntled in his formal Exalt wear.

"You're holding them again?" I asked, yawning. I began unfastening my clothes.

"Well, this is kind of important. The Grandmaster that over half those nobles had been familiar with just came back. Robin is a war hero too, so there's that. We're going to get complaints if we delay the reveal, unlike my friends."

I sniffed. "Aww, they don't have need for their fill-in Grandmaster now? How positively evil." I grabbed some scents and oils and began rubbing them all over my skin.

He passed me a fresh set of clothes. "Come, don't say that. Ylisse counts itself lucky that we have two capable Grandmasters. I don't think the people will begrudge us that."

When he leaned down to arrange the wrinkled covers, I quickly hooked my hands around his neck and gave him a quick peck on the lips. Pulling away, I licked my lips and winked. "Will they begrudge us this?"

Chrom rolled his eyes, disentangling himself from my hands to tidy the covers. "I must insist on a plan to tell Robin—and, of course, everyone else—about this. I don't want civil war on my hands if the poor guy snaps."

"Ugh, you are just the least romantic guy in all the Shepherds," I complained, rolling out of bed to stretch my tired arms upward. "Don't worry. I'm the Queen now. It's a strategic alliance with a former belligerent nation. If Dad weren't Dad, then he'd at least understand that. Luckily, he is Dad, so he'll probably just try to trip you up in the garden. That's what I'd do to the guy who marries my daughter. That's what I'm going to do when Lucina gets her betrothed here."

Like a lunging snake his head rounded the bedpost and went for my mouth. We only managed to graze lips, as I pushed his head away in the same rude manner he did to me. Chrom clucked his tongue. "It's a good thing Lucina inherited none of your impishness. I shudder to think what the other world's me would've done with two of you bouncing around with your schemes."

I stepped towards the window. The sun was just about to touch down on the trainees practicing at the barracks. "I'm guessing it would've been a fun place to be," I said.

He tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and gripped his body in a fierce hug. His arms came down around me. The warmth, the emotions, almost made me want to cry.

"You know, our Lucina's going to be married, my Queen. Maybe we should, now."

"Maybe." I sighed, wiping the water-that's-definitely-not-tears into his clothes. "Maybe."

Then, an idea occured to me.

"I can practically feel your grin, love." He squeezed tighter. "No more schemes for a while, are we clear? I can't have all my friends distrusting my once and future wife." My chest felt like a furnace blowing steam to my cheeks. "Do you understand? Let's just do it normally."

(Fool! This next plan will be greater than the last. And you will beg for forgiveness after I'm done with you. No one pulls anything over the Queen of Plegia!)

I looked up at him, closing my eyes when he dipped down for a quick, deep kiss. When we separated, he whispered, "Me and Lon'qu, huh? Have you always had that fantasy?"

I blew onto his eyes. "Before this I was always rooting for you and Cordelia. The Lon'qu thing's kind of Noire's fantasy."

"Understandable. I also always thought you would've paired up nicely with Gerome. If, you know, you weren't siblings."

"Perhaps in another world, dear."

Sighing, he pressed his forehead onto mine. "Father-in-law's going to kill me, isn't he?"

I raised a brow "...Maybe."

(Then again, I do love this beardo. So... eh, forget it.)

Author's Note: Completed this game at the start of the year, wrote this some weeks later, only now gotten to actually posting.

It was an interesting time-waster, though at the start I didn't know about the second generation thing, until my second playthrough. The thought then occurred to me that if one introduces the idea of multiple worlds in a narrative, then literally anything is possible-not like fanfiction has much restriction, mind, but imagination can only be stretched so far before it snaps. So here is my take on it.

In any case, that's it for this story and the game.

Hope you enjoyed!

Merlin