Brief introduction:

Hey everyone, I've been away for a very long time but I couldn't contain the urge to write again, especially since I recently (finally) got a copy of the game myself and am enjoying playing the game for the first time (I admit to watching a playthrough on youtube when the English translation wasn't out yet and just reading tons of things on serenesforest. net). If anyone is wondering why i've been away so long, I was first busy in finding my first post-university job and later mastering it. Also, I got stuck on writing this chapter for a very long time near the end (see author's notes below). That said, I have a lot of cool ideas that I'm working towards and you can be sure I'll finish this story! All right, that about covers it. Have fun with the chapter :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem

Hunger.

It was all Lucina knew as she finally received her piece of bear meat. Apparently it was a form of delicacy here in the region; Lissa had immediately picked it when they'd been shopping. Whether she really knew it to be delicious or had just blindly bought the most expensive meat was up for debate, but it tasted great regardless.

While her own portion had lasted all of six seconds, her aunt had second thoughts; she regarded her portion nervously and glanced around at the others. The only other person who wasn't devouring the meat was Fredrick; he had immediately foregone his portion so that her father could have two. Did he think his task of protecting his lord extended to making sure Chrom was never hungry...?

"Um, Severa? Do you want to have mine?" Lissa then asked, hesitantly extending her tray as she did.

"Really!?" Lucina enthusiastically started, then recomposed herself. "Um, I mean, yes, if you don't want it."

"Well, I just think-" Her aunt replied, stopping when Lucina grabbed the tray out of her hands. "That it's unnatural..." she finished, sighing.

"Un-" *munch* "-natural?" Her father joined in, "What do you-" *Slurp* "-mean? It's delicious!"

"Yes, I haven't eaten something this nice in ages, Au-" *cough* "Lissa," she quickly added, barely covering up yet another near slip-up.

Lissa might have replied if she hadn't suddenly jumped up with a cry of annoyance. She swung her staff in a wild motion at yet another insect drawn to the fire. Lucina, in turn, just made a lazy swatting motion to her left whenever a mosquito came too close. Had it been anyone else acting in such a way, the blue haired princess would have called her out on the exasperated behaviour at such minor discomforts. Yet she found her aunt's antics uplifting; her conduct was such a stark contrast to the disciplined and sullen behaviour of the average soldier in her own time.

'Average' as in not including her sister and Owain, she thought. It was slightly easier this time to put aside the feelings of loss that came to her whenever she thought of them. Maybe it was because she had been accepted among this very small group of shepherds; the thought that - Robin's continued survival aside- everything had gone relatively well so far was uplifting.

Yes, here, in this place with both her father and her aunt, she felt like she was part of a normal family again. She almost felt safe.

'Safe...?'

Her mind became stuck on that strange though. Safety; it had been so long since she had truly felt such that she didn't really knew how to act.

'It's the atmosphere,' she realized. With the five of them gathered like this in the middle of nowhere, roasting the purchased meat on a campfire which was the only source of light other than the moon and stars, she felt somewhat safe even despite Grima's vessel sitting just a few paces away from her. Even if he were unbound. The rational part of her mind told her that she should, at the very least, have had her weapon out the entire time. If she had access to it, that was.

Yet, rationality be damned, the feeling was undeniable; she was more at ease than she had ever been since... well, since before her father had died.

It was a perfect opportunity to kill Robin.

She'd decided to take a different approach to things; rather than constantly reminding everyone of Robin's evil, she'd try to be sociable to lull everyone into a false sense of security. Hopefully it would make her father and Frederick a little less weary of her intentions. Then, when they'd decided on a night watch rotation, she'd wait until it was her aunt's turn, make a dash for Falchion (or take her Father's) and jump the tactician. It would be over before-

He thoughts were interrupted as her stomach rumbled in a most unladylike fashion. She caught her father's amused look and tried to contain her blush, then took another large bite from her second piece of meat. When had she last eaten before this? Technically, it had been... over two days ago, early on the day that lady Tiki had died. Between that and all the fighting, the princess didn't think she'd ever been this hungry.

Still, she realized as she took a quick glance around, even if she were pretending and would soon die, she liked this place and enjoyed the scene. What would it have been like to live in a world where every night could have been like this, if you wanted it to be? What if she'd grown up in a world where she hadn't been practically forced to remain hidden and protected?

In the future, every day had been a fight for survival, not knowing which friend you'd lose and when. Shelter gave no guarantees, only the castle had been somewhat save. Yet even then, there had always been one question that loomed over everyone's thoughts; will there be another Risen attack tonight?

The Grimleal had never attacked Ylistol and no one had been sure of the reason. Eventually they had just tried to believe that they were afraid of doing so, but now that Lucina had spoken to Grima, she wasn't sure. It was still hard to believe they'd continued to exist only to serve his amusement...

She glanced at Robin, who noticed and caught her stare. Their eyes grew hard and remained locked, neither willing to back down. She felt her muscles tense and gradually shifted her weight into a more crouching position, just in case. This, in turn, only caused Robin's glare to intensify. Her father eventually noticed and looked at them warily. Of course, in his extension, Frederick tensed as well.

The camp grew silent; suddenly it was as if there had never been any harmony at all.

"Well, you know!" Lissa suddenly exclaimed. "What I meant was; we're messing with the food chain. It's not natural for us to be eating bears!" she then said, perhaps a little too quickly, yet diverting everyone's attention nonetheless.

"Oh? So is it natural for us humans to eat animals, then?" Robin asked, his voice surprisingly neutral after just breaking his staring contest with Lucina. In doing so, he had also locked her out of the conversation. Over the last two days they had developed an unwritten agreement to avoid each other as much as possible, and that extended to not interfering with conversations the other was having. It was easier for everyone that way; there was just too much anger and frustration for her to socially interact with him in any normal way.

"Um, well, sure!" Lissa chirped, though a bit uncertain.

"I see. So what justifies us eating, for example, chickens compared to bears?" The tactician then pressed.

"Because they're lower on the food chain! I just said that," her aunt rebutted, huffing.

Robin looked up at the sky. "Is that fair?" he wondered.

"What do you mean? It's just the natural order of things," Lissa stubbornly continued.

"You're making it sound as if we have a right to kill and eat them, just because we're stronger and more intelligent," Robin mused, frowning. "But since we're more intelligent and stronger, shouldn't we be asking ourselves if that is something we have a right to do? Suppose there had been some lifeform even stronger and more intelligent than us. Are you telling me you'd have been ok with them eating us because of it?"

She thought she caught the most minor of glances from him to her as he ended his speech.

'He means dragons,' Lucina realized, intensifying her glare. 'Is he trying to make her agree to him killing everything in the future just because he was stronger and felt like it?'

It was a sick inside joke, meant for her. And the greatest perversion of all was that he was trying to make it look like he himself opposed that idea. Gods, it WAS hard to stay calm!

Her aunt, in turn, was silent for a while and opened her mouth to speak, but then chose not to. She visibly deflated before she continued. "You know," she spoke in a small voice, "Maybe you're right; It's just that I don't like bear meat that much."

To her left, Fredrick suddenly shifted his attention to Lissa. His face carried a strangely hopeful expression, yet Lucina's mind was too busy repressing a feeling of anger to read too much into it. Part of her was enraged for Robin hurting her aunt's feelings in any way, yet she was also somewhat surprised to find him nodding off handily at her aunt's confession, no longer really engaged in the conversation. Instead, he stared into the darkness of the surrounding land with a blank look.

For a single insane moment, Lucina was convinced that he was actually deeply troubled by what they'd just discussed. But then her common sense took over; this was just another attempt to manipulate everyone into liking him. Just take the moral high ground on some pointless philosophical matter and then act like you genuinely care; like that was going to work!

The princess would probably have thrown a scathing remark his way if her father hadn't spoken.

"Could you please drop this moral talk until we're done eating? I'd rather eat my meal with a clear conscience," he said with a smile, then continued his dinner with the same enthusiasm as he had before.

Lucina grinned despite herself and found her calm again. Yes, finishing her meal wouldn't be such a bad thing to do.

Within moments, the sounds of meat being devoured once again rang through the night.

"You two..." Lissa then said, shaking her head as she did, "Are really a bit too much like each other. Maybe at least one of you could try eating in a more dignified way? It's a bit disgusting."

Lucina's eyes found her father's and they both grinned.

"What's so funny?" Her aunt demanded, crossing her arms.

"Nothing," Lucina replied, allowing herself a small grin. "It's just that it sounded as if you thought that we should act more... well, 'delicate'."

Lissa blinked, then blinked again. "I, well, no, not delicate! A royal family member should never be- That's not- ARGH!"

'Sorry, aunt. Maybe you should have let me try the polka dot dress when we were shopping.'

The blue haired princess dreamily thought back on the greatest piece of art she'd ever seen. Unfortunately, she had to settle for a blue dress with some generic blue replacements for her destroyed garments. True, the dress wasn't bad (though to be fair, she wasn't quite sure why Lissa thought she'd need a dress anytime soon in the first place) and the clothes fit her nicely, but she'd still have liked to put on the more colourful one once. After all, there was nothing quite like a store for clothes in the future and no one had much of a choice in what they wore.

And if she was going to die anyway...

Her aunt then crossed her arms and turned away from the group, which was when her father couldn't quite keep in his laughter anymore.

"Not you too, brother? Why are you all being so mean to me today?" Lissa asked, exasperated. "Hey Frederick, say something in my defense!"

The knight frowned in confusion. "Sorry? Am I meant to do so, my lady?"

The healer huffed. "Of course you are! I'm your princess and I'm being assaulted by three villains! Isn't a knight supposed to come to a lady's rescue?"

Frederick's glance went from his laughing lord to the grinning figures of Lucina and Robin. "I see, very well," he finally spoke. "Ahem. Would all of you uncouth and dastardly villains please cease your badgering, ill-received activities towards my lady?" he then asked in the most serious and knightly way he possibly could.

When his lord refused to stop laughing, however, he turned to her aunt again, smiling pleasantly. "Was that what you wanted, my lady?"

Her aunt face-palmed. "I guess that will have to do..." she groaned.

For the remainder of the night, everyone was in neutral to good spirits. As the fire started dying down, however, everyone's thoughts turned to sleep; it had been a long day with more than a few battles for each of them.

Eventually, it was decided that Frederick would take the first watch and that Chrom would take the second. Lissa, finally, would take the early dawn.

Figuring that was her moment to strike, Lucina laid down in her bedroll and waited until she was convinced that Robin was asleep. Then, she allowed herself to drift off on her own.

In a few hours, everything would be over.

She was in a strange realm.

Brownish to black clouds filled most of her immediate surroundings, though they were sometimes pierced by bursts of light from a clear blue sky.

There was no ground, yet she was walking forward ever so steadily. It was hard to see exactly where she was going, though something told her that she had to follow a certain path through the obscurements and that it was very important that she did. Somehow, she knew that she was approaching the center of whatever place she was in.

The clouds abruptly ended and she was in a dome filled with complete blackness. Lucina almost cried out in shock; there, only a few places away, was Grima's dragon form.

The translucent dragon was prone and unmoving, yet still radiated dark power like he always did. Was he sleeping? Did even a being like Grima need to sleep at times? And was it really him, in the first place? If so, then where exactly was she and how had she gotten here?

...On second thought, was Grima ... smaller than he normally was?

The princess shook her head and reached for the Falchion as quietly as she possibly could. Maybe she could-

"Oh? This is a surprise," A voice from behind her said.

Lucina whirled around and started her attack long before she finished the motion. Falchion cut cleanly through the form of Grima's human avatar and...

...nothing. Robin just stood there, unfazed and grinning like he always did. Behind her, there was a massive rumble through the dome as Grima's dragon form woke up and lazily stood up. Strangely, even though the dark god immediately spotted her, he said nor did anything, just keeping his gaze fixed on her.

"Grima!" Lucina spat, allthewhile backing off and keeping the falchion between herself and her enemies at all times. "What is this place? Why did you lure me here!?"

"Lure you here? I'm afraid you misunderstand, servant of Naga. You came here at your own will," Robin continued, raiding his hand to his chin as if thoughtful. "I suppose that means you're maturing quicker than expected. You bear the dark gift well, indeed."

"Gift? What gift? You're lying!" Lucina stated. She idly noticed that behind the avatar, a piece of blackness gave away to the clouds, then was replaced by blackness again. "Lady Tiki removed whatever you would call such a thing!"

Grima laughed. "Yes, I can see why she would say that. But then again, Naga has always been a traitor."

Robin began pacing towards her, just as Lucina worked to maintain the distance. "You say you're not touched by me, but I can see into your heart. And what I see is darkness; your desire to murder, to destroy those you deem lesser than you, is strong," he said.

Lucina laughed humorlessly. "Me? touched by darkness? My only reason for living now is so save humanity. And I'll do it by slaying your human puppet!"

"Oh? And will you enjoy doing it, just like you did when you killed all those bandits? Did you not bask in the act of ending their lives in the most humiliating and violent way possible?" Grima challenged.

The princess froze; how did he know that? Those had been more or less her exact thoughts...

She shook her head; whatever trick he was using, it didn't matter. "Anyone with even a shred of dignity would have done the same thing!" she countered.

Robin only shrugged. "If that is what makes you feel better. Human emotions; they are endlessly amusing, in a way. I wonder what your friends felt when they sacrificed themselves for your sake, one by one?"

The mention of her friends made Lucina lung forward with a cry of rage, piercing the tactician with the Falchion yet again. However, like the first time, the blade slid through the form; it were as though he wasn't really there.

"Enough of your games!" She cried, withdrawing yet again. "I don't know what you're trying to do by playing dumb in the real world, but I do not care! Your human form is weak. It will take just one hit to kill him. Both of us will never exist and the world will be the better for it!"

"Is that so? Do you believe that Ylisse will survive without its tactician?" Grima countered, grinning. "Plegia and Valm will overrun your home and torture and enslave the populace."

"My father and the shephards will find a way to stop them," Lucina insisted.

"The same ones who are all dead in the future? You're putting your faith in a group of maybe twenty humans to turn the tide against an army of hundreds of thousands. Look how well they did the moment my 'puppet' left them to fend for themselves."

"They will find a way," she insisted. "I have faith in them. They don't need your soulless puppet's help!"

"YOU CLAIM YOU HAVE FAITH, BUT I SENSE YOUR DOUBT," the dragon's body suddenly spoke. The mere volume of the sound almost made her give a startled cry, but she kept it in. "YOU BELIEVE THAT THESE LANDS WILL FALL TO VALM."

Lucina grimaced. In a way, that was probably true. Without Robin's victories in the near future, both on the sea and on the continent itself, Valhart's army was likely too numerous for even the combined military might of this continent, especially if Ylisse and Plegia were both weakened from the coming war. But...

"Maybe that is true," she admitted. "Maybe Ylisse will fall and will be forgotten. But at the very least, humanity itself will survive. The world will not turn into the wasteland you seek to change it to!"

"Spoken like a true traitor," Robin commented, smiling. "And here I thought that it was the duty of the royal family to always think of their own country's well-being first."

"I don't expect a god of darkness, destruction and death to agree with anything I say or do," Lucina countered. "You and I are as different as could be possible."

"WE DOUBT THAT," both forms of Grima said in unison. The next moment, the combined form of the avatar and the translucent dragon hung in the air right in front of her. Lucina reflexively jumped back and altered her defensive stance.

"AND DO YOU KNOW WHY?" they asked.

Behind them, the darkness of the dome was suddenly completely overtaken by the brown clouds. The princess braced herself for whatever attack was bound to come.

"IT IS BECAUSE THIS PLACE," the human body spoke while gesturing around, "IS YOUR SOUL. AND OUR PRESENCE HERE MEANS YOU ARE LETTING US IN."

Validar saw the camp as clearly as if it had been a brightly lit day.

His master had done... something to him. Even though he wasn't the vessel his son was, it was still possible for his god to grant him a portion of his power. And with some of that power, he had torn a hole through reality to this place. Another part of it had replaced his normal vision with something far better; he now saw the presence, or absence, of life in addition to what he normally saw. And apparently, even something as simple as grass then shone brightly in the total darkness.

All around him, still figures of the grimleal mages accompanying him took refuge in the foliage, ready to begin the assault at his command.

Yet, even though the Ylisseans had only one lookout, he felt that something was wrong.

The voice of his god, who had been talking to him constantly throughout the entire endeavour, guiding him through the extremely complex warping spell and leading them directly to this point, had suddenly gone silent.

He grimaced; what was going on? Was this some sort of test? His god had told him that he required a moment to talk to his son. But that had been... half an hour ago? Longer? What was keeping the master for so long? Every minute that went by, they risked detection. What if the knight decided to take a stroll and checked their area? Would the darkness spell conceal them sufficiently?

"Lord Validar?" one of the novice mages whispered.

"I didn't give you permission to speak," the Grimleal leader warned.

"Forgive me, my lord, but what are we waiting for? They are unaware of us; shouldn't we seize this chance while their guard is down?" the mage pressed. "Every minute that goes by, we risk detection."

A dagger flashed through the night and caught the surprised mage in the throat. Validar twisted the knife in the same motion, destroying the man's windpipe and cutting off the man's chance to scream or otherwise alert his enemies.

Around him, the other Grimleal mages watched in either fear or indifference, depending on their level of experience.

"Yes," he whispered to the dying man. "And we also risk detection by talking. You'll have to explain to our lord that you wanted to risk his plan by pointing out something incredibly obvious."

Yet the man's eyes had glassed over before he reached the end. He sighed; perhaps the acolyte could have made a passable dark mage in time, yet especially the dim-witted seemed prone to the insanity inducing effects of that school of magic. It was better that he died now before he had a chance to risk something else in the future.

He turned to the mage sustaining the dome of darkness, hand-signalling for his level of stamina. The mage gave an affirming nod, indicating he was still good to go.

Then he gestured to the other mages around him, asking if they were ready. The signals he received told him as such.

He took a deep breath and steeled himself for the coming task.

They were about to assassinate over half of the royal family of Yllise.

Yet as he regarded the camp, he couldn't help but feel somewhat apprehensive; would it really be this easy?

Were two members of royalty really travelling the countryside with just ONE guard for the two of them? If that were true, he was unsure if he pitied them or found them pathetic. Either way, it was a clear indication of Ylisse's very poor military strength; all reports had indicated that the country was virtually defenceless. It was no wonder that bandits regularly ravaged the land and that Gangrel was able to conduct his raids so easily. Perhaps it was even better that they died; obviously the royal family didn't care at all for their people, if fear held them back from protecting them properly.

If he were honest with himself, he didn't blame the children for the sins of their father, and so he didn't hate them. Or well, not more than he hated humanity as a whole, anyway. However, the blatant disregard for their subject's well-being struck a nerve and summoned more than a few unpleasant images of the last great war between Ylisse and Plegia.

Among those had been the ones that had set him on the path of devotion his God. He blinked away the image of the dead woman in his arms; even with her clothes torn off and raped to death by Ylissean soldiers, she was still beautiful. She was still the only one other than his son who managed to evoke an emotion other than hate or indifference from him.

By all regards, he shouldn't have remarried. Nor would he have ever tried to conceive a child after his goal had already been set upon destroying civilisation. Yet his god had foreseen the birth of his avatar and had needed both him and his second wife to fulfil that vision. Of course he had complied. The woman, not being of the Grimleal, had not been so willing. However, she had had very little say in the matter after they had taken her from her village.

It hadn't been easy, given that she had been very talented in the magical arts herself. It had taken him breaking her mind with darkness to finally subjugate herself fully to Grima's teachings. One month later, she was pregnant. Ten months later, following a daily procession of complex rituals to infuse the unborn child with dark power, Robin had been born.

'Robin…'

He could still feel the pride of having accomplished his master's task for him. During the birth, he could feel his god watching it through his eyes. And what a magnificent creature he had been; a being bred to be the most powerful mage to live in centuries; someone with enough raw power to level cities and mountainsalike. He was a vessel truly worthy of a god, who would one day usher in the apocalypse. It had been perfect.

…Until he had been stolen from them, by the very wife whose mind he had deemed broken. The hunt had lasted years. Many Grimleal had died and his God had spoken to him less and less as the seasons went by. Eventually his voice had stopped entirely; his failure had been complete. Only a complete lack of other options and a remaining desire for revenge had kept him alive.

Until now. He had been given a second chance, which was more than he could have asked for. Yet, at the same time, he knew that the price for failure would be doubly as high.

He rested his eyes on the form of his unknowing benefactor. It was Ironic, really, that the same girl who drove his son back into their arms was the same one who sought to prevent this by killing him.

Well, no matter. As strong as his son might be, he was currently in a dangerous position and needed help. And that was exactly what he would give him.

He waited for minutes, stretching the endurance of the mage upholding their dome of darkness. Yet even though he didn't wish to act without his god's direct orders, he felt his resolve beginning to falter.

Why would his god not consent to the idea, if he were here? It was why they had come in the first place! If these Ylisseans would grow to be such a pain in the future, then surely there was no reason not to dispose of them right away? They had the perfect opportunity. And what if the girl tried to kill his son while most of them slept? Surely there was haste to be made…

…Yes. This probably was some sort of test, to see how he would act without direct guidance.

He gestured to his mages, some of whom had been crouching forward to follow him, to fall back and remain silent. Only he remained standing, already planning the attack.

First, he'd order the mages to spread out and expand the dome of darkness-

He inwardly shook his head and scrapped that plan. Even though, his son excluded, none of the Ylisseans were supposed to have magical powers of any note, there was always a danger of any of them sensing it if they got closer. After all, even a blind man would notice a fire if he were shoved into it. Perhaps a frontal surprise attack would be better.

He paused, stroking his beard while considering the idea. Yes, he eventually decided, he'd order all of his mages to fire on the single knight and get a guaranteed kill on the one who looked the strongest. Then, they'd just overwhelm the others. With a nearly two to one ratio of attackers, all of them wielding powerful tomes of dark magic, they couldn't possibly fail.

It was a simplistic approach, but then again, he had never had exceptional talent for strategy.

Nor did he need to. Here, with most of his enemies sleeping and with both the element of surprise and superior numbers on their side, there was only one way this confrontation could play out.

He raised his hand to order the assault when doubt gave him pause again. Was he wrong? Wasn't it more likely that his master was distracted by something more important, whatever that could be?

His arm remained half-raised as he debated his decision one final time.

Lissa Yawned.

Sleep wouldn't come easily today, even though she was very tired from the journey. She pulled the blanket more tightly around her and tried to clear her mind for the umpteenth time. Even though she wasn't delicate, she couldn't quite appreciate the feel of the hard ground through the travelling mattress. Not only that, but she kept feeling restless and cold. Maybe it was because of Severa's constant shifting nearby. Well, At least she wasn't the only one having some difficulty catching a good night's sleep.

'Severa…'

The thought of having another sister brought a smile to her lips. But was Severa her older sister or her younger sister? Lissa couldn't quite figure it out; she came from the distant past, which made her older, but she was the newest addition to the family, which made her a younger sister, right? Yes, she decided with a grin, she was definitely her younger sister and she would treat her just as kindly as Emeryn had been to her. She would give her advice on whatever she wanted, and they would have so much fun together! They would go on many-

Lissa's thoughts were interrupted when the blue haired swordswoman in question suddenly gasped in her sleep. The grin faded from the healer as she realized that her newly appointed younger sister obviously had a very bad dream, whatever it was. She contemplated waking her up but then decided that she was, at the very least, asleep unlike her. Was she dreaming about her past? Lissa hoped not; what she said had been horrible and she didn't seem like a liar by any stretch.

'But what about Robin?' she reflected. He seemed way too nice to be the murderer her sister claimed him to be, and had also been a large help in the last battle.

… Well, the part of the battle that had been left to them by Severa, that was, which admittedly wasn't much.

She decided to ignore the issue for now; Robin hadn't done anything suspicious yet and she trusted her brother's judgment on giving him a fair chance by trial.

Speaking of her brother, Severa was a lot like Chrom, Lissa mused as she watched her. Maybe even more than a lot; the similarities were uncanny. She was definitely the best swordfighter she knew apart from him, or maybe she was even better. They also had the exact same tint of dark blue hair and they both seemingly preferred to rush into things rather than thinking it over. Then again, Lissa admitted that last bit probably applied to her as well, just a tiny little bit.

In a way, she was a slightly put out that her new sister was so like Chrom; it made her feel even more of an oddball in the family. She didn't have the charisma of either of her older siblings, and she lacked both Chrom's (and now Severa's) valour and fighting skills and Emeryn's serenity and diplomacy. What did she really add to the halidom that her siblings didn't already do better? Was she just excess luggage?

...Why did they all have to be so perfect compared to her!?

She huffed and stubbornly turned around in the blanket. Yet no matter how she tried, she was too annoyed to let it go. The ground was irritatingly painful, her family was too perfect and it was just too cold to get any sleep! Well, at least that last bit was fixable. She stood up and walked in the direction of the small fire they had put up for the night.

"Having trouble sleeping, my lady?" Frederick spoke, facing away from her and the fire and into the darkness surrounding them.

'Always the watchful and responsible knight,' Lissa mused, feeling slightly more at ease from the image.

Once, she would have given anything for a chance to be semi-alone with her previous crush like this. Frederick was everything she had expected from a great knight from the stories, and then even more capable. It was hard not to feel attracted to him, with his handsome features, powerful physical build and his oh-so-cute earnesty in most matters and complete cluelessness in some others. Unfortunately, that was precisely where the problem lay; Frederick was too much of a devoted perfectionist whereas she was too much of a relaxed funlover. Plus, he had completely blown the perfect opportunity. Multiple times.

"My lady?" He repeated, now facing her. His face was set in 'casually serious' mode, one of his most used ones. Lissa had six variations on the term 'serious' which covered all of his known facial expressions. In her opinion, he really needed to loosen up a bit.

She had always wondered how he would look if he actually laughed. Not the friendly-serious half-smile half-pleased expression he sometimes wore, but really laughed. Could he even do it? Hmmm, now that was a worthy mystery. Maybe... just maybe he'd be ticklish? She'd have to try that once just to see the effect; the thought of the great Frederick falling to the ground helplessly at her merciless barrage of tickling was absolutely priceless! But when did Frederick NOT wear his massive plate mail? She'd have to get rid of that first...

"Ah, sorry," she replied, putting the amusing thought away and storing it in her mental 'to do' list. "I'm just a bit cold," she continued, not willing to involve him with her self-doubt and family issues.

"Really? The night is fairly soft for this time of year. But if you wish it, I can give you my cloak," he answered, already moving to remove the garment.

"No, that's fine," she answered. "I'll just move a bit closer to the fire."

"I see. Then please be careful not to burn yourself, Milady," he pointed out.

Lissa turned away from him and rolled her eyes. "I think I can manage that. I'm not a child, you know."

In turn, the knight nodded and continued to watch the darkness.

Lissa inwardly sighed; sometimes, it felt as though talking with Frederick on anything not related to knightly stuff was both harder than trying to drag a conversation out of a rock and less exciting to boot. And what she wanted right now was to be distracted from her depressing thoughts about her perfect family.

She shivered despite the warmth of the fire and turned to the ever restless form of her new sister. "Do you think she's telling the truth?" she asked, knowing Frederick wouldn't be the one to start a conversation any time soon

"It's not my place to judge her, My Lady. I'll trust in your brother's and the Exalt's judgement," he responded, not needing further indication of who 'she' was.

'But not in me?' she wondered, feelings of annoyance rising again. Even her own shared knight thought Chrom's and Emeryn's words were above her own. Which was true, but it wasn't a nice way to be reminded about it like that, thank you very much!

"I didn't ask you that. What's your *own* opinion?" Lissa pressed. "You gave Chrom the advice to kill Robin. That's not like you; why did you do that? Did you believe her after all?"

"Milady-"

"And stop calling me that!" Lissa whispered harshly. "My name is Lissa! I'm a person, you know. How long have we known each other and how many times have I already told you to do so?"

"Many times, Milady," he calmly replied. "However, I have to point out that it's not proper for me to-"

"I don't care if it's proper or not!" she interruped. "I want you to call me by my name! Why can't you see me as myself!? And why can't you be a little less dense at times!?"

The knight in front of her blinked, taken aback. It was then that Lissa realized just how much she'd revealed and how loudly she had shouted the last part. She immediately spun away in embarrassment and pretended to warm herself, though the heat didn't reach her. Why wasn't it working? She was getting colder and colder and feeling steadily more miserable.

There was an awkward pause before she heard shuffling nearby.

"Lissa?" Chrom spoke from behind her, his voice tired and groggy. "Why are you shouting in the middle of the night? Some of us are trying to rest."

Hah. Of course her brother would wake up at her outburst, and why wouldn't he? With her luck, he'd probably heard it all. Why was everything going so horribly wrong today? First everyone picked on her at the dinner, and now this. The princess would have laughed at her misfortune if she hadn't been so cold; it had to be practically freezing! Why didn't the others notice it?

"Um, milord, perhaps this isn't the best time," Frederick replied. "Milady isn't acting like her usual self."

"What do you-" Chrom began, then broke off into silence. Meanwhile, Lissa tried to get closer to the fire, but again it offered no warmth.

"Lissa?" Her brother tried again, placing his hand on her shoulder and stopping her. "What's wrong?"

'Everything is wrong,' she thought. She wanted to put it into words, but couldn't. Why was she so emotional? This wasn't like her; usually she just managed to laugh off concerns like these. Or pull a few pranks to get over them. She wasn't even aware that she was crying until her brother sat down next to her and pulled her close. What was wrong with her...?

"Come on," he repeated , pulling her into an embrace. "Tell me. I've rarely seen you this upset."

"I... I don't know," she cried into him. "I'm *sniff* so cold and I can't get warm and I can't stop being upset and you and sis- and I-" she rambled. "I'm just... not myself and I'm afraid. I don't know why I-I- *sniff*"

She could feel her brother glancing back at Frederick for support.

She was vaguely surprised when he sat down next to her as well, his plates of armor sliding over each other with soft clinks . "Milady, I need you to calm down and listen to me. This is serious," the knight spoke.

"Frederick, this is NOT how you calm-" Chrom began to reprimand.

"Milady, you have some magical talent. Tell me, where do you feel this cold?" he asked urgently.

"What?" Her brother asked, confused.

"I... I don't understand," Lissa said, stifling tears, yet Frederick had her pinned down with his urgent-serious stare. "It's cold everywhere," she managed.

"Frederick?"

"Dark magic," he explained to her brother. "Lots of it. We're surrounded. We should-"

Chrom instantly reached for the Falchion just as Frederick immediately tried to stop him.

Then chaos ensued.

Chrom flinched as a massive orb of pure darkness exploded right near their fire, dousing it and scattering the dying embers all over the now completely dark campsite. There was a moment of shocked silence before an angry shout came from somewhere to his right, very close by yet whoever said it was not visible by any means.

"Ambush!" he cried, just as Frederick called for them to retreat. The next moment, multiple bolts of darkness, visible on account of them being far darker than the natural darkness of night, flew from the wall. He could hear Severa waking with a startled cry just before the onslaught rained down on them.

The prince was already running as the explosions began, pulling his sister with him towards the tree line. If their enemies had somehow used magic to conceal themselves, their best and only option of survival was falling back into the forest and regrouping there. Staying here in the open field when surrounded was suicide.

As they ran, more orbs flew by and one only barely missed his head. He could feel the intense and unnatural coldness that was contained in those, and he knew that being hit by those would lead to more than just physical injury. These were obviously no normal bandits, but who they were or what they came for could wait. The only thing that mattered to him right now was getting his sister to safety; he knew that Fredrick and Severa were far more capable of watching out for themselves. And Robin... well, if he were forced to choose between his sister and a complete stranger, the choice was an easy one, cruel though it might be.

Just as he neared the edge of the forest, the ground in front of him suddenly exploded and threw him backwards and to the side, away from Lissa. She screamed his name as he struggled to get back to his feet, and he threw himself forward into the foliage as another blast hit directly where he had just been. The force of the explosion threw him further forward and his left shoulder collided roughly with one of the trees. The snapping sound and shock of pain told him enough.

'Can they see us somehow?' he wondered as he slipped around the tree, enforcing his one-handed grip on the Falchion.

He forced himself to ignore the pain and cut aside some of the foliage as he went to where he thought his sister would have entered. She had to make it! If something happened to her-

The silhouette of a man appeared from nowhere on the outskirts of his vision, chanting and aiming his tome straight at him.

Chrom knew that it was too late to rush him; from this close he'd have no chance of dodging the spell that would fly his way. He did the only thing he could think of and threw the falchion forward, straight at him. The man gasped and jumped aside, even though his aim had been slightly off. Hitting him wasn't the point though; the prince had closed the distance between them and shoulder tackled his adversary. He then continued his forward momentum and brought his heel down on the man's neck as hard as he could. There was a faint cracking sound amidst the cacophony of explosions all around him.

He left the choking caster and quickly picked up the falchion just as yet another blast made him stumble to the side. The prince swiftly removed the dirt from his face and continued running away.

"Lissa!" He shouted, even though he knew it would bring more enemies his way.

When he received no answer, he continued to stumble forward amidst the barrage of spells following him. Where was she!?

"Chrom!" a panicked cry came from the side, and he whirled around immediately.

Just as he changed his direction, another man appeared from the shifting darkness of the forest. He swiftly lunged for the caster, only to see him finish the incantation just as the Falchion started cleaving the man in two.

Darkness consumed his vision and he fell.

Lucina prided herself on her speed and agility. She had never met someone who had been able to match her speed, even among her friends. That same speed was all that kept her alive long enough to reach the now dead horses and pull out her Falchion. She threw herself down just as another orb of darkness hit the body of the horse and seared into it. The scent of rotting meat was nauseating - a clear reminder of what would happen to her if she was hit only once.

So she kept moving.

A quick dash followed by a lunge into a vaguely visible human form was followed by a roll behind a tree, giving her some cover and buying a precious moment of time. She turned and scanned the campsite, though her night vision wasn't good enough yet to spot anything other than the casters themselves, as they were faintly illuminated by the orbs of magic they were forming. Among them, one man stood out in a majestic robe with of which the runes themselves seemed to glow. But that wasn't the most eye-catching part of him; his eyes were glowing a deep blue, just as Grima's had done in the vision.

'Grimleal,' She realized. 'They had to be sent here to-'

Lucina froze in horror. Where was Robin? Had she missed her chance? And where were the others? Was her father-

The large man locked eyes with her the next moment and she reflexively threw herself back. In front of her, the tree she had used as cover had withered and had partly crumbled into dust.

She barely made it into the foliage, cursing the turn of events.

Cries of rage and pain were everywhere as she ran further into the forest.

'..rom.'

He lay on his back, feeling colder and more tired than he ever had. It was all he knew of the world. If he could just turn around he could sleep for ages, but he found that he couldn't move.

'Why can't I move...?'

"Chrom. Wake up. Please!"

Blinding pain shot through his right arm and he awoke with a scream. It was only with difficulty that he didn't throw up on the spot.

He then realised he was blind.

His eyes were open, but he saw nothing. Then he remembered - they were in the clearing, then the attack, and that caster...

He tried bolting up, but was confused when his right arm refused to move. What passed for his mind told him he was in very bad shape, probably even dying.

"Lis-Lissa?" he asked, recognizing the voice.

"Sssst!" she whispered immediately, pulling him around so that his back was to something solid. "Oh, thank the gods you're alive, Chrom. But don't talk or move. They're close by and I'm not done healing you yet. "

"Healing...?" he repeated blankly through the pain.

As if in answer, the darkness that was his vision gradually gave way to a soft light, outlining his sister. She held his face with one hand while she waved her staff over his head and arm in a repeating pattern.

And then he realised just how dangerous this was at this time.

"Wait! No... you... you'll draw them here! Just run!"

"...No."

"Lissa, Look at me!" He whispered harshly, pulling on his right arm with his left. Even though he was somewhat prepared for it, seeing the bloody and blackened mess of it was still horrifying. It was a bit of a cruel joke that the hand still clutched Falchion even though he couldn't control it. "You don't have time for this. Get yourself to safety NOW!"

"I can do it!" she insisted, stubbornly tapping her staff to it time and time again. "If I don't heal it right now, you'll never use it again. Stop being so stubborn!" As she spoke, the flesh did seem to mend itself back together and his feeling in it returned ever so slowly, starting with an incredible itch.

But as she did it, Chrom knew that the light the staff created stood out as a literal beacon in a dark night. He shouldn't have been surprised when another mage entered his vision from the right, but he was.

And he knew he was too late.

Everything happened at once. Just as the mage threw the spell their way, he tried to push Lissa off of him while she in turn stubbornly pushed him back to hold him in place and continue her heal. He could only watch as Lissa was hit squarely in the back by the orb of darkness.

He saw her eyes glass over as she slid off him to the side.

"NO! LISSA!"

Rage consumed his thoughts. He forced himself to his knees and broke into a tumble towards the mage, only thinking of the most painful way to end this piece of scum. The fact that the mage had already called for help and had almost continued his second spell didn't matter. He knew there was no way out of this for him, but he could at least kill this man for hurting his sister!

The man threw the spell at him just as he dropped himself into a clumsy forward roll, ending up in a crouching position which allowed him to hack at the mages legs. Even though his right arm even remotely have the strength or coordination it normally had, falchion's sharpness compensated enough to go through unprotected flesh and bone. A second swing bisected the head from the body as it started to fall.

Chrom watched the body for a moment before he dragged himself back to his sister, who lay unmoving. With his immediate anger draining from him, he felt nothing but tiredness.

"You there! Stop!" someone shouted from the side, and Chrom turned to see a mage watching him from behind a bush, orb at the ready, just a few feet away. He was soon joined by another one that walked into the clearing, also extending his arm towards the prince. From his peripheral vision, Chrom saw multiple more lights quickly coming this way and he knew this was the end. He had no momentum and he was both severely outnumbered and crippled in his fighting ability.

He idly wondered if there was a chance these people were open to taking them as prisoners if he surrendered. If he did, they would be hostages to be used against Ylisse. However, if his sister was still alive, it was the only chance she had. But how would they be treated? Probably not very well, given that there were at least 3 bodies on the enemy's side in the immediate vicinity. Well, that, and from the way they had attacked it was obvious their initial goal had been to kill them. But it was still Lissa's only hope... maybe they had come for him specifically?

Gods, it hurt to think and Lissa still wasn't moving.

...Should he save them both from the inevitable torture and abuse? It wasn't that far to her and he could probably make it...

"Stop right now! Don't take another step!" the same man cried out.

"You idiot! Why haven't you killed him yet!?" The second man called to the first.

"Because he could tell us where to find the target, you moron!" the first man bit back. "We need him alive or the leader will-"

Chrom seized his chance from the momentary argument and stumbled forward to Lissa. If they were going to argue on what to do with him, he could at least check on her in the meantime. He kneeled and turned her, only to find a blank look into nothingness.

It was then that the harsh reality on the situation came crashing down on him. His sister was dead and he would soon be as well.

His sweet, cheerful and innocent sister was dead. "Why couldn't you run?" he whispered, feeling tears beginning to form. But he knew the answer; it had been because he had allowed himself to get hurt so badly that she had been forced to sacrifice herself. Her death was his fault.

At that point, everything stopped mattering.

He gripped Falchion as hard as he could in both of his hands and was about to charge one last time...

...When a massive wall of fire suddenly engulfed the two figures. In seconds, the fire spread to cover most of his immediate field of vision. The brightness drowned out the lights that had been approaching from all around. As the fire continued spreading, the shouting from their attackers became panicked screams.

The prince blinked, unsure of what had just happened.

That was until a figure forced his way through the foliage into the clearing, through this one wasn't targeting him for a change. And more importantly, Chrom recognised this person.

"Robin? What are you doing here? Did you just do that?" he asked in disbelief.

"Chrom!" he answered immediately, "We need to move right now! I set up the fire so that it spreads outward in most directions, but there's a path just north that we can get out if we..." he trailed off when he saw the body of Lissa up close. "I... oh god, that's..."

"My sister, yes," he couldn't hide the bitterness in his voice. "She's been dead for roughly a minute."

The unspoken accusation hung heavily between them.

The tactician shook his head remorsefully. "I'm sorry, I just got here," he said, sitting down next to Lissa. "I saw those men ready to shoot you and I did the first thing that came to mind. I couldn't have done anything faster."

Chrom knew that if Severa were here she'd have remarked on how he coincidentally turned up at just the right moment. Had he been hiding, debating on which side to join, for just a little bit too long? On the other hand, he had just quite literally saved his life; wasn't that the most concrete proof of loyalty? In the end, he didn't know.

No, he didn't know what to think or feel; he felt emotionally drained. The prince eventually forced himself to calm down, well, that was, as much as he could with fire spreading everywhere and enemies abound. "No, my behaviour was uncalled for. Thanks for the assist. But... why did you help me, anyway? You could have escaped," he pointed out.

"What are you saying?" Robin asked, kneeling down next to his sister's body. "It's not like I could just leave Lissa and you to this group of maniacs, right? Besides, I have nowhere else to go. But that's not important right now! We need to go!"

"Have you seen the others?" the swordsman asked, perhaps partly to delay having to leave behind his baby sister.

"No, I'm sorry. I think I saw Frederick charge into the group, but to be honest I went for the forest just as quick as- wait..." The dark robed man suddenly focussed on his sister's face intently.

"What is it?"

"I think she just blinked."

"What!? But her eyes..."

"This has to be very advanced dark magic," Robin explained, not nearly as enthusiastic. "I seem to recall that some forms can destroy a person's mind rather than the body. I must have studied the different forms of magic somewhere."

The prince couldn't tear his gaze from his sister's face. Her blank look into nothingness was the exact same of that of any corpse he had ever seen. And yet, Robin's words were a spark of hope in an otherwise exceedingly horrible night.

"You need to realize that if we take her with us, she will probably be a soulless shell for the rest of her life," the tactician stated. "It will also slow us down considerably. I can understand your feelings but would she want us to put ourselves in danger for her sake, given that?"

Robin looked completely serious, his face unreadable.

But to Chrom the answer was clear.

"There is no way I'm abandoning my sister regardless of the situation," Chrom answered, sheathing the Falchion and lifting his sister over his good arm. Luckily she had removed the (in his opinion) ridiculous iron corset-contraption that kept her dress around her legs in a fixed reverse bowl shape - that would have been extremely unhelpful to drag through a dense forest. "I'll carry her and you'll defend us if we meet anyone. Now let's move!"

The face of the tactician slid into an ever so slight grin as he drew out a tome, supposedly the one he had used to start the fires. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"How -ugh- so?" Chrom replied, heaving his sister through the foiliage away from the fires as fast as he could. To his side, the tactician jogged along while scanning the surroundings with his tome out.

"It makes me a bit more at ease in trusting you," Robin admitted. "It's hard to really know a person until they're forced to make a hard choice."

"That wasn't a hard choice. Any decent person would have done the same."

"I'm not sure that's true. And not many would have done it so quickly, especially when wounded."

"Maybe," he replied, then stopped moving for a moment. He needed this person's loyalty. "Robin, If you can get can get us through this alive, I'll see you rewarded regardless of your deeds in the past, if there are any worth mentioning. You have my word."

He extended his right, scarred arm. The tactician looked at it for a moment, then took it with his own. "Thank you, Chrom. Provided we make it out of the forest, are we still going to the capital?"

"Yes. If the others aren't there, I'm coming back for them. After that, whoever is behind this will pay."

Behind them, the forest continued to burn.

Author's notes:

To trust or not to trust, one of the main ongoing themes throughout the story.

I'm happy with this chapter apart from the last part with Chrom, Lissa and Robin. TO me, that was my roadblock and I just couldn't figure out how to write it and I just wanted to get the scene over with to continue on to the next one. It feels a bit rushed to me and that it goes on for a tad long, but there were no characters to switch perspective to. Well, other than Robin, but he doesn't have POV chapters by design.

I took some creative liberty on a number of things in the chapter regarding known fire emblem lore (known to me, at least).

Firstly, I take some liberty with Validar to give him a more credible character. As is, he is evil for the sake of being evil with no clearly explained motivation. He will also be more capable to be less of a laugh and an actually serious threat.

Secondly, I'm going to assume that magic users can sense other magic to a larger degree than non magic users, unless the magic user in question is heavily concentrating on something else. It didn't make much sense for me that Chrom could somehow sense the impending Risen invasion during chapter 1 while Lissa had no idea. You could argue instinct but I call it convenient/lazy writing to setup the cinematic the way it was.

I take some liberty regarding dark magic being able to damage the 'soul/mental capacity' aside from general damage to the body. Concidering how many dark mages go insane in the series I do not think it's too far fetched.

All right, if you liked or didn't like the chapter then please tell me what stood out to you by review! Until next time! :)