About her family's fate, the Princess of Ylisse knew this much: when she herself had been so young that she had only little memory of her days in the palace, an unknown attacker had killed her father. In the chaos that had followed, her mother had disappeared and her little brother, not even a year old at that time, had presumably died as well. Actually, nobody knew if he was dead, but their mother had disappeared at first and he had been still there, and it was unlikely an infant would survive the attack of Risen and Grimleal that had followed.
The young Prince of Ylisse had been declared dead and the court, or rather what had been left of it, had done everything to protect Princess Lucina. They had succeeded, but at the cost of their own lifes, and Lucina had been lonely ever since.
It was not that she had been alone, she had a lot of friends and comrades without whom she would have never survived the past years, but the loss of her family had left a hole inside her that nobody seemed to be able to close. Knowing she was the leader of her group, some of the last humans left alive in this chaotic world, she had decided she could let nobody ever know. Oppressing this feeling had become a daily routine for her.
But now, suddenly, it was back.
Right here on the battlefield.
Lucina could not even really explain why, it was just there. She could not move, not talk, not even blink. She knew she needed to help her friends, who had been attacked by a mysterious stranger in a dark hood that had come out of nowhere, but she couldn't.
She knew this boy was dangerous, he was seemingly able to cast magic without a tome and sent her friends flying. He did not speak, had only little movements to his attacks and everything he did seemed so unreal. Nah had immediately been frightened of him, claiming that something "felt wrong" about him and she did not seem very far off.
The heavy rain clouded her vision and deafened her ears, the mud stuck to her boots as if Earth itself did not want to let her go.
But still, she could not help but stare into this boy's face, just observe him as much as she could through the rain. She watched him taking down her friends one after the other, first Owain, who had been the fastest to attack, then Inigo, Severa, everyone. And she was frozen, unable to do anything against the onslaught.
As soon as she had seen a glimpse of the boy's face, his eyes, which normally lay in shadows from his hood at all times, this feeling of loneliness had managed to crawl back to the surface, to occupy her mind and heart almost completely.
No, it was not the loneliness that had come first – at first there had been an impression that she knew this boy from somewhere, even though she could not explain why. She knew he had observed her and her friends several times, watched their desperate struggle to survive battle after battle, but this was the first time he had entered the field himself.
Nevertheless, the silent attacker had an air of familiarity around him, even the clothes he wore seemed to be something Lucina had seen in the past, maybe even felt. She could imagine the dark coat's surface, its fabric and structure. As if she had touched it before.
Lucina only managed to come back to her senses from these many minutes of strange fascination when she heard her friends screaming her name through the rain and wind.
Without her notice, the boy had snuck up to her, had closed the gap between them in seemingly an instant. It was as if he had teleported himself, but that was impossible because he had no staff with him.
Then again, he had been able to use magic without a tome.
The rain was the only thing that still fit between the two as the stranger prepared to attack Lucina. She drew her sword, swung it at him, but missed – the boy took a short hop backwards and raised his hand to cast a spell. Lucina dashed forward in hope to strike before he could and managed to let his attack fail. She could not hit him either, but he was caught off guard, tripped backwards a few steps and his spell ended up in the black nothingness of the night.
A gust of wind blew his hood away.
Lucina prepared another attack, but abruptly came to a halt when her opponent looked up and she could finally see his face.
The princess froze.
Eyes like her mother, his hair the same rich blue she herself had, inherited from her late father, who in turn was said to have visually taken after the legendary Hero-King of times lost.
Of course this all could have been a coincidence, but there was one little detail that was an unmistakable proof of his heritage, a small thing Lucina was able to see in one of the boy’s eyes.
The Mark of Naga.
The Brand of the Exalt.
This symbol of Ylissean royalty had different names, but in the end, it was always the same thing, it spoke of the exalted bloodline’s divine pact with Naga. Only few people in the world carried it, and there was only one explanation why an apparent servant of Grima would have the brand.
The realization of this let Lucina shiver. Or maybe it was the rain, she did not know.
But what she knew was that she had finally found out why this boy had seemed so familiar.
"Morgan…?"
No reaction.
Lucina's friends, only barely recovering from the earlier attacks, were visibly confused. The princess did not notice this, however, as her gaze was fixed on the boy, eagerly waiting for any kind of reaction from him. Her heart beat so fast and hard that she thought it might jump out of her chest at any moment. The boy rose to his feet, was quick to put up his hood again, but did not respond to Lucina at all. He just stared.
Maybe he had not heard her through the rain and wind and thunder. She tried again.
"Morgan!"
Lucina took some cautious steps towards the boy.
"Morgan, you're alive? Don't you remember me?"
Of course he did not remember her, she came to realize as he did not reply. Her brother had still been a baby the time of their father's death. But how had he been able to survive? And why was he on the Grimleal's side? The ice cold face her brother showed to her did not tell Lucina anything.
Neither happiness, nor hate or confusion, Morgan's face was blank. Still, he managed to keep an aura around him that seemed to make the air around him even colder than it already was in the rain.
She tried again.
"Morgan, I'm so glad you're alive. Maybe you don't remember me, but I'm your sister..."
He stirred.
Finally, Morgan reacted. Lucina’s hopes rose.
"Liar."
The princess swallowed hard, she had not expected the first thing to hear out of her lost brother's mouth to be such a word. But thinking about it, it was clear he could not remember her. He had been so young at that time. Lucina wiped the soaking wet hair out of her eyes, even though that did not clear her vision much. The rain ran down her face mercilessly, leaving not a single spot on her dry.
She inhaled, calmed herself and tried again.
Behind her, she could faintly hear her friends discuss. Nobody of them knew Morgan; they knew the story, what had happened, but surely none of them actually remembered him.
"Morgan, listen! I understand you don't remember me, but trust me. I am Lucina, your elder sister, Princess of Ylisse and you as my brother are the Prince. Whatever you're doing on the side of the Grimleal, you have to leave immediately and join with us to stop the destruction. Morgan, please!"
At some point during Lucina's little speech, the boy clenched his fists and teeth. His face, already ominous due to the shadows his hood threw on it, seemed to gain an actual expression for the first time, but this expression was not the one Lucina had hoped to see.
The rain was still strong enough to oppress any words that weren't shouts, but Lucina managed to hear her brother’s voice nonetheless. It was faint, but she was able to identify his words as he slowly took a step closer to her, and then another and another. Again, her friends gathered their weapons, ready to help out despite their injuries.
"You're lying. I have no sister, I have no father. My family is Mother. There's nobody else than my mother!"
Again, Lucina's heart hurt. The loneliness was back.
The realization that this boy was her long lost brother had given her hopes that she was not all that alone. There was still a part of her family left that had survived.
But now that the one she had identified as Morgan denied her so strongly, these hopes began to shatter with his words, a heart of glass breaking into little pieces, one by one. She was shivering, either from the rain or with fear or pain. She did not know. She did not care.
"Morgan..."
"Shut up!"
The boy's shout seemed to make the ground shake, or maybe it was just the impact of his words. Lucina had no time to think about this, as she was suddenly lift into the air, a wind spell once again cast without using a tome. She saw her friends beneath her, gathering their weapons and getting ready for another attack.
It was hard to tell for Lucina how he did it, the rain and perspective from above clouded her vision, but once again her comrades went down one after the other. She could hear them scream. Then suddenly, the magic surrounding her disappeared and she fell.
Owain was the first to jump to his feet and rush to catch her, as Cynthia's Pegasus was anything but able to do it at the moment. He slipped on the muddy ground, fell and his cousin landed on top of him, forcefully pressing the air out of his lungs. The myrmidon gasped for air and Lucina tried her best to get off him as quickly as possible.
When she looked up the shadow that was lingering over her and Owain for a little while turned out to be Morgan. His face was cold again, his hood cloaked most of it in shadows. Lucina blinked and could have sworn her brother's Brand had disappeared for a moment. Again, he recited his words from earlier, in the same old subdued voice, mirroring his again emotionless expression.
"I have no family. There is only mother."
Owain struggled to get to his feet, dragging Lucina with him. The others gathered again, worse wounds than before. Even Laurent's head and face, usually protected by his hat – last leftover of his mother – from rain and storm, were soaked by now, he could hardly see through his rain-stained glasses.
Suddenly Morgan carried a sword. Or maybe it was not so sudden and he had just taken Inigo's or Owain's, Lucina could not tell. He pointed it at the cousins, mimicking the stance Severa and the others had taken on before when they had challenged him. The children gathered the weapons they had left, swords and lances pointing towards the boy again. Laurent's tome was too wet to use.
"I have no family. There is only mother."
At once he rushed towards Lucina and Owain, striking down with his sword on the two of them. Owain was the one to react first; he drew out Lucina's sword, for he had lost his own, and blocked the boy's attack. Sure, Falchion might not have chosen him to be worthy enough to be sharp in his hands, but it was unbreakable nevertheless and anyone could use it in a defensive way.
"Damnit..."
He gave his supposed cousin a kick in the guts, which resulted in both of them stumbling backwards and falling. Owain was caught by Lucina, Morgan landed in the mud, holding his abdomen. It seemed like he was slowly running out of strength. The princess took her sword again.
Morgan stood up with slight but visible struggles and threw the sword to his side, barely missing Inigo.
"Mother is my everything!"
Before any of them could attack, Lucina's brother initiated more magic, another wind spell that blew the children off their feet.
While his already severely injured opponents took their time to get up and ready again, the boy in the hood stepped back from them several meters and concentrated his gaze on Lucina again. His sister held tight to her sword, trying to clear her head. No matter if he was her brother or not, he stood here as an enemy and she could not effort to let anyone of her friends die from his attacks. If there was no other choice, she would have to strike him down.
Although she preferred if he just joined their side.
But no more attack came.
"I'm going."
"What? Where?"
Lucina rushed towards him, but stopped immediately when she witnessed how his face took on these shadows again. But this time they did not seem to look ominous, his face was not cold. On the contrary, it seemed like Morgan took on a very different expression for a moment, a drop running down his cheek she could identify as neither rain nor a tear. She saw the Brand in his eye.
"Morgan..."
More steps backwards.
"To her side. Mother is waiting for me."
And with that, the boy was suddenly gone. A teleportation spell, apparently. Did these still exist anyway? Lucina had no idea, but she felt like she had heard Morgan saying "Farewell" the moment he disappeared. The thunderstorm was still raging above them and the words might have only been so faint that she had misheard something else for them. Maybe he had said something else. Maybe he had said nothing at all. She could not tell.
Slowly, she sank to her knees, not caring about the mud and puddles. Her last bits of strength for the day had left her body.
If what he had said was true, if he was really returning to his mother's side, then...
No, this was impossible. She was dead, just like her father. All that was left in this world was Grima.
But she saw no point in Morgan lying. He had seemed honest all the time, and it hurt.
Lucina shivered, she was cold. From inside and outside.
Her friends rushed to her side, as much as they could still run.
"What are we going to do now?" Severa asked.
It took Lucina a while to find an answer. She stared at the puddle below her, saw the Brand in her eye as she had seen it in her brother's eye. This was true. It was no nightmare, no illusion. Her brother was alive, and he had chosen the side that would end the world.
"Lucina!"
She barely heard her friends' voices through the rain and the turmoil inside her head. There was not much of an answer she could give to their pledges.
She swallowed. No matter how she would decide now, one day they would have to fight him again. One day she would have to fight her family. Her brother and her mother.
There was no going back. The world was coming to its end, but they were all still alive. They would all stay alive, they had managed to survive until now and they would survive until then.
And then they would have to face her brother and mother in battle. And Grima. They would have to find a way to defeat Grima and restore peace for the few humans that were left on earth. They would rescue Morgan and his mother like this. There was no other way to help them. She could not leave them alone. She did not want to feel lonely anymore.
Lucina inhaled deeply and got up, still holding tight to Falchion. She felt her friends' questioning looks on her.
"We have no choice. We'll fight."
