Ivy's Clinging Sisterhood

a Fire Emblem fanfiction by The Overlord Bear

Summary: Ivy could see how ridiculous she was being with how she sat on the fence about fighting either for her family or for the Divine Dragon, and then her father's death reminded her about what could happen if she kept that lack of resolve up. And then there was Hortensia, whose heart she had to really break now to really have a chance at saving her...

Ivy cared not for elegance at the moment. Leaning at the base of a tree trunk in the forests of her homeland near the Brodia-Elusia border, she curled herself up, hands sandwiched between her face and her fascinator as she groaned yet again. So what if her dress and her hair looked more messier than her namesake? She just started acting on her desire to cross the line between being the next in line to the crown of a Fell Dragon-worshipping nation and being one of the biggest aberrations to that worship she was wholeheartedly against. And it showed in what might be her last attempt to stop her father!

And if she had the guts to show herself to her soldiers again, she would not be surprised to hear them whispering about how ridiculous she looked with her behavior toward the Divine One in Brodia. How her very cold self had the ability to act so flirty toward him in the midst of battle was unbelievable even to her, and she felt the stab of hindsight once she saw the Divine One's distress at her father defeating Morion.

"One of you could at least make a quip about how I am running away like a coward on top of betraying my kingdom like some foolish schoolgirl," she told her retainers.

"Do I seem *like* the patriotic *type, Your Highness?" Zelkov asked as he tended to his liege's wyvern.

"And I am not from Elusia, Your Highness," Kagetsu added as he sharpened his sword.

Hindsight stabbed Ivy from another direction there. Of course the outsider princess would appoint outsider retainers.

With all that in mind, Ivy wondered about what difference she would be able to make if she decided to join the Divine One's forces in their fight against her own father. She held no more Emblem Ring to empower herself, and she did not expect the Divine One's allies to warm up to her and her retainers so easily. And then there was her father having Lyn and her far-reaching archery, while she might end up boosting aggression from any Elusian soldiers against the Divine One's forces were she to fully reveal herself as an Elusian Princess committing high treason.

And the only Elusian Princess who still held onto an Emblem Ring was her younger sister Hortensia, who still held Lucina, unlike her probably already broken pedestal of a self who dropped Leif like some bumbling idiot. That was another direction for hindsight to stab her from, indeed.

Why did she even care this much for her family, still? Her younger sister was more loyal to Elusian madness than her, their father had become a madman that their people always wanted, and the only mother Ivy ever cared about was long dead!

At the depth of this hurt, Ivy couldn't even bring herself to let out a sound. Again, she would choke the hurt out with silence before the hurt choked the life out of her. And then she would act, go back to acting like she got along with everyone else enough.

But no, Princess Ivy of Elusia had already crossed the line too much. It didn't matter how known the truth of what she had been doing was. She had no one she felt confident enough to confide in. And maybe she did care about her twisted little homeland even when they would think that she was just some loony child.

But even with the weeping, Ivy stayed quiet. And at the very least, her retainers had the grace to not bother her pathetic hidings they've probably found her doing way more than she liked to think already.

And then she felt something firmly land on top of her fascinator.

"To prevent *yourself* from getting a *cold, Your Highness," she heard Zelkov say ahead of her.

Ivy didn't dare look at her assassinating retainer as she took the handkerchief and cleaned her face with it.

"Your Highness," she then heard Kagetsu beside her, "May I inconvenience you for a bit of your fire magic? This onigiri shall not serve you well without warmth, you see."

Ivy held back a sigh, not only guessing that he had been waiting for this but also believing that he meant well, well beyond her display of self-loathing. She heated up the onigiri with a wordless and tomeless fire spell well enough, and then she went to eat it and its vegetable filling.

"Thank you, Zelkov, Kagetsu," she then told her retainers.

Zelkov simply gave a held dip of his head, while Kagetsu magnified that held dipping by doing a bow.

And then a burst of purple light and roaring sound came from the direction of Destinea Cathedral.

Ivy stood up on instinct. No words were exchanged between her and her retainers as she went to ride her wyvern and armed herself with a tome.

In all her honesty, she believed that the Divine One would win. But whoever was winning, her father and her younger sister were still dear to her, and she hoped that they were safe, too.

And then Ivy remembered Veyle. Sweet Veyle, who was manipulated more forcefully than her father, was now with the Four Hounds as she led a pursuit of the Divine One's forces after Sombron had finally come back to life. Meanwhile, Sombron walked out of Destinea Cathedral and flew away in his dragon form, announcing his return for all of Elyos to see.

Ivy shuddered, feeling as if the Fell Dragon had already seen her coming but spared her to gloat. Still, she had to see who else she could save, and she dearly hoped that she could save someone inside.

After quietly having her retainers station themselves by the doorway of the cathedral, Ivy walked inside to find Hortensia, kneeling with her back to her approaching older sister. Meanwhile, the younger Elusian Princess's retainers had quietly stepped in, but they were hesitant to approach, looking between the two sisters.

Still, not even Ivy's quickened steps got a response from Hortensia. And with those quickened steps came a quickened heartbeat, fear of the unknown gripping that heart's owner.

And when the older Elusian Princess finally got more of a look at her sister's front...

Ivy saw Lyn's Emblem Ring on Hortensia's index finger, red and black still staining its green and gold like the blue and gold Emblem Ring of Lucina on her ring finger.

"I still got Father with us, Ivy. Look."

Empty purple eyes then looked up at Ivy, who looked on with horror at the wreck that Hortensia had become.

"Maybe we should've been inside the place this whole time..." Ivy then heard Rosado try to whisper, only to get slapped and shushed by Goldmary.

"What happened, Hortensia?" the Crown Princess of Elusia finally asked, bracing herself for the inevitable hurt. "What happened to Father?"

"He..." Hortensia tried to answer with a smile, but one of her eyes twitched, revealing how brittle she already was even more. "He just did the Fell Dragon a great service. Sombron even entrusted me with Lyn's Ring alongside Lucina's Ring. Said they were rewards for being the more loyal daughter."

Ivy was regretting trying to pry answers out of Hortensia's fragile psyche there, but before she could try something more efficient, Goldmary beat her to the punch.

"Judging from the lack of corpse, I think Sombron ate His Majesty."

This time, Rosado slapped Goldmary, with the latter glaring back at the former. And then they stepped back when they found their liege looking at them over her shoulder, her Ringed fist already bunched and shaking.

"You all disgust me," the younger Elusian Princess growled, then she turned to give Ivy the nastiest glare that the older Elusian Princess had ever received from her. "You too, Ivy. You knew this was going to happen, didn't you? You wanted to spite me for not being like you?"

Ivy struggled to stay calm at that gaze and that tone. "You're not in your right mind, Hortensia - "

"YOU SAY THAT ABOUT EVERYONE IN ELUSIA, IVY!" Hortensia shouted back, sucking air back in to make an even more terrifying mask imitating a smile as she stood up. "I thought you cared enough about me to keep me away from danger. Even if it's from our own family. You defended me from your mother. Why couldn't you keep me away from watching Father get eaten? Why did you have to get killed by the Divine Dragon?"

Now sure that any spoken answer would only set Hortensia off even more, Ivy opted to stay silent and let her sister vent.

"And you know what's worse? Veyle laughed at me!" Hortensia let out a shrieky laugh. "She said I looked and sounded funny screaming and crying over Father! And I thought we could be good friends! Meanwhile, you're sucking up to the Divine Dragon! I saw one of his friends wearing Leif, who you should have had! I'd betray Elusia with you, I'd worship the Divine Dragon with you, but I'd never ever betray my own family."

Ivy continued to stay silent. And she had to push herself to maintain eye contact with her younger sister.

"No words, Ivy?" Hortensia asked with also teary eyes. "No guts to say that you love the Divine Dragon so much, you'd betray your actually loving family for him? SAY IT TO ME ALREADY!"

But Ivy had already realized that preserving and strengthening the bond between Hortensia and herself together would also mean...

"If I have to slap your confession out of you, then I – "

Ivy immediately took the chance to grab Hortensia by her Ringed hand's wrist, utilizing her taller frame to have the younger Elusian Princess hanging and disoriented enough for the older to take the Emblem Rings off. And as expected, Hortensia was also surprised by this snatching, her jaw dropped and her words none at the tactile contact she got from Ivy.

"I'm so sorry, Hortensia," Ivy said with her own teary eyes as she put on Lyn and Lucina. "I'll have to pay for my indecision now."

And then she ran, never looking back even as she heard the screams of her enraged sister.

"GET BACK HERE, IVY! GET BACK! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME AGAIN! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Hortensia's cries echoed in Ivy's mind even as she helped the Divine One escape. Especially...

"Don't leave me alone..."

And on her way to Solm as part of the Divine One's forces, Ivy would find herself surprised here and there about her ability to handle herself in the face of her fellow older siblings. They all had their older siblings, while she had left her own behind like how she had left Leif's Emblem Ring behind. Hortensia's angry taunts still haunted Ivy alongside those lonely pleas, leaving her unable to consult the Divine One about this.

"Hey, Pandreo. Getting the church rowdy like our parents?"

"Hello to you too, Panette. You're always welcome, you know?"

But then there were Pandreo and Panette. She was quite unfamiliar with these Solmic royal retainers so far, but their relationship felt very timely to Ivy, especially now that they had to face the younger sister she left behind. Would Ivy have behaved like that with Hortensia had she dragged her along in this part of this war? And maybe Pandreo would be able to lend her a good enough listening ear?

So she decided to approach the priest when she found some good enough time and space while they were preparing for the battle for Solm Palace.

"Father Pandreo?" Ivy called while he was comfortable enough to do a little jig.

"Oh, hey, I could sense you wanting advice, Princess Ivy!" Pandreo turned with a smile and two pointer fingers at her. "It's about your sister, isn't it?"

"Yes," Ivy confirmed, holding in her mixed feelings about the directness of this exchange. "I just...want to have a clear head when I would have to talk to her."

"Yes, it certainly is difficult to start reconnections when family rifts go that far," the Solmic priest released his pose, straightening out his posture and tone into seriousness that the Elusian Princess was more comfortable with. "And diplomacy can be a tougher battle than battle itself! But this talk is not just about diplomacy. We are talking about families and apologies, to be more exact, no?"

"Correct," the Elusian Princess nodded to the Solmic priest, though she found herself keeping her head down the more she spoke. "It seems so easy to consider, to plan, but there is still that fear, a fear of things worse than death: What if she refuses to forgive? What if she wants to cut ties? I...I do not think a wound from such an outcome will ever be fully healed."

And then there was a spot of silence.

Then a burdened chuckle from the orange-haired man before her.

"We live with it anyway!"

The purple-haired woman looked up to find the priest continuing his jig from earlier, adding whoops and howls here and there.

"Wounds and all, scars and all, missing body parts and all! At least we still got life left to live and grow! And I know a lot of people who find that stuff badass!"

Ivy sighed, but somehow, she couldn't find it in her to be offended at this.

"OOAGH!"

And then Pandreo got dropkicked by Panette, who got back up and dusted herself with a smile to Ivy like she didn't just do that attack.

"Pardon my inelegance, but my older brother sorely lacks elegance, Your Highness," said the axe-wielding lady. "I apologize on his behalf as well."

"He has been very helpful, though," Ivy smiled at the orange-haired and amber-eyed siblings from Solm. "Eccentrically helpful, both of you."

"You do not need to flatter, Princess Ivy," Panette said with an awkward laugh. "The coming battle must be stressful to you especially, and we cannot have it be treated with such fu – flippancy!"

"Well, since you are so eager to help, then what sort of apology would you like to accept from your older brother for this offense?" Ivy decided to ask, the relatability of Panette's awkwardness making her comfortable enough to dig for some more lightheartedness out of all this.

"I swear on the Divine One that I am ready to do anything to earn your forgiveness, Panette!" Pandreo declared, now kowtowing at his younger sister's feet.

In response to this, Panette gave Ivy a glare.

"Shouldn't you be too serious all the time, Ivy?"

Even though the flash of Hortensia doing a similar glare to her also came with a twinge in her heart, Ivy still managed to get a better hold on her faith in her bond with her younger sister.

"Ugh, just...you've done enough already, Bro," Panette walked away, hiding a blush while dropping her affectation.

Then, Ivy found Pandreo looking up with a smile.

"Thank you very much to the two of you, Father," Ivy told him with a curtsy.

"You are very much welcome, Your Highness!" Pandreo replied with a thumbs-up.

One thing that people easily guess about Ivy is her being a coldly vindictive person. Making that easier to remember is how focused she could get once she got into a fight with someone.

"Oh? Is Big Sister Dearest actually angry at getting fair payback for abandoning her younger sister?"

Zephia of the Four Hounds made that focus of hers grow even more easily. And Princess Ivy of Elusia had a wind tome and Emblem Lyn in her hands.

And truly, Ivy was angry at Zephia. After all, Zephia put Hortensia under mind control, which put a damper on Ivy's plan to have proper chat with her younger sister. Being treated as an afterthought by the woman made it even worse. And then there were the taunts once she paid more attention to her, of course. Clearly, this draconic woman had no proper sense of family.

It didn't matter that both she and Zephia got off their wyverns already, only exchanging shots of wind and thunder magic. It didn't matter that they were splitting off from the rest of the fight, especially not when they had inspired enough terror to keep any of their respective allies from following them.

"Why...the silence?" Zephia asked further, though her breathing was now quite heavy. "Is that...an admission?"

Ivy still did not dignify that with spoken words, and this time, she looked up as she sent a horizontal cut of wind to a pillar.

Unfortunately, Zephia narrowly dodged the falling half hurtling towards her, though at the very least, even more terror was in her expression as she kept on having mutual sighting with her enemy. "We are in an open space, Princess Ivy, and you've had Emblem Lyn on for quite a while now."

"And I am all you are going to face here, Zephia," Ivy let out, feeling that now was a good time to give a worded taunt in return. "Would be nice if you brought some of our friends along, no?"

And then Zephia almost got Ivy with a sudden smirk before their wyverns came flying back in from behind her. Rolling away, Ivy managed to get shielded by her own wyvern, while Zephia flew off, firing off one last thunder spell that Ivy and her wyvern managed to dodge.

She then felt Lyn's power leaving her body, the Lady of the Plains manifesting her likeness again.

"I have never known first-hand what it means to have a sibling of my own, let alone a dear one," Emblem Lyn commented, "So I'm glad to know what I can about it through you as well, Ivy."

"We still have to ensure Hortensia's safety, Lyn," Ivy curtly said, getting on her wyvern once again.

"Alright, let's."

And as Ivy expected of the Divine Dragon and their friends, they made room for at least the start of the proper chat she sought through this battle.

As for more of that proper chat with Hortensia, it happened by the campfire on the Somniel at night.

"I'm sorry, Ivy."

"I'm sorry, too, Hortensia."

"I'm the one who should be more sorry!"

"We're going to be at this all night, aren't we?"

At that, Hortensia laughed, poorly smothering herself. "Stop being so serious, Ivy!"

"Remind me to thank the Divine One personally for that," Ivy smirked. "With a kiss especially."

The slaps Ivy got from Hortensia for that were worth it.

Still, once they hugged each other again, the tears flowed out again. Their crying together ever since their reunion at Solm Palace pretty much went like that: with near silence, outdoor privacy, and foreign warmth. Perhaps it was to better remember what sort of Elusia they wanted now, perhaps it was to further assure each other that they finally understood why they did the agonizing things they did to each other earlier in this war, perhaps it was to run away from the truth yet again, perhaps it was to go extreme about respecting each other's boundaries...

"Somehow..." Hortensia sniffled, "I feel like the worst thing I did was believing that the Divine One killed you, Ivy."

Ivy tilted her head at this. "Really? Why?"

"Why are you asking me why?" Hortensia pouted. "You pretty much love the Divine One! And I got to fight him before you did! And he's all nice! But here I am, thinking that he'd break your heart!"

"You assume that we would be more than believer and deity, though," Ivy noted with a raised eyebrow.

"That's not what I'm trying to say!" Hortensia then stood up. "I'm trying to say that I somehow thought that he would dare to think you too lowly to be one of his allies! I may be great, especially thanks to my cuteness, but you're the greater one between us, Ivy! And I disrespected that by believing in the lies of Sombron and his forces!"

Ivy had an open-mouthed silence at that. Why was she expecting her younger sister to be as serious as her, again?

"Don't you dare tell me I'm wrong, Ivy, or I'll have to ban you from wearing Emblem Rings like you did to me at the cathedral!"

Ivy laughed at all this, and then she pulled Hortensia into another hug.

"Don't let go of that youthfulness of yours, Hortensia."

"Ahem. Youthfulness is ephemeral. Cuteness is eternal."

And the hug got even tighter.

Ivy could feel the tears in this hug being more joyful, too.

Author's Note: I'm glad that I finally got to achieve my first Fire Emblem Engage fanfiction release, especially since Engage is my favorite Fire Emblem installment, and this piece being work-safe makes me even gladder. I was trying to come up with work-safe fanfiction ideas to make up for all the smut I've ended up writing and reserving so far, with a Male Alear x Ivy one being one of them, then I suddenly wondered about how Ivy exactly got Emblems Lyn and Lucina, and then the sisterhood angst potential further got me writing this. Though clearly, my weekend-morning kids' show brain lightened that intended angst up, and that brain is part of why I enjoy Fire Emblem Engage. And I'm pleasantly surprised that I managed to work up over 3,000 words with this level of detail as fast as I managed to on the first draft, which I started straight from my PC's word processor rather starting it on my smartphone's text editor. All that stuff makes me feel like I've grown more properly in touch with my spontaneity, which I'm pretty sure is something I need for my rigid sense of routine to become a flexible one. Still got a lot more to learn about that, though, but hey, I hope my public attempts to learn and do my best are engaging enough to you.