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Save father. Save the world.
Lucina is ten when her father dies. She remembers the day as clear as if it happened yesterday. Eavesdropping on her Aunt Lissa and her father’s knight Fredrick, too young to understand most of what’s said, but old enough to know that if Falchion is here and her father is not something terrible has happened.
Lucina is ten when Robin dies. While she is told her father was betrayed by someone, she is simply told Robin won’t be returning either. She is sad, of course she is, but her younger brother is devastated. Morgan sobs and begs for Robin back. He is gone without a trace before the year’s end.
Lucina begins to resent Robin for that.
Lucina grew up quickly from that point on, her Aunt dies in battle two years later and she is exalt all too young. In that time her father becomes a legend. Stories of his courage in battle, and wisdom as a leader are spread far and wide.
She clings to them with all she has. Even as her own memories of him fade, with age she has her stories. So if she can no longer remember the exact sound of his voice, or the small silly secrets he’d whisper in her ears it matters not. She has her stories and she has a goal.
Save father. Save the world.
They never tell stories of Robin, and she never questions it. She knows Robin disappeared after her father’s death, is probably dead as well. She knows her father loved Robin deeply, can remember they scarcely left each other's sides. But that it is all she can remember, where the legends and stories have kept at least one version of her father crystal clear in her mind, Robin received no such treatment.
She fades into a blur whenever Lucina tries to think of her face. The sound of her voice is nothing but static to her mind. And the only emotion she can feel towards her is the small seed of resentment over Morgan’s disappearance. Soon she stops trying to remember.
Lucina is fifteen when she travels back to the past. She ties her hair up, takes a new name, dons a mask and tries to act older and stronger than the scared child she is.
Save father. Save the world.
When she sees her father he looks almost exactly as she remembers him. Suddenly the faded memories burst into bright technicolor and everything she feared she might lose forever is back. It takes her a moment to gather herself together and remember her job here.
Then she notices Robin. She stands separate from the rest gathered, and it strikes Lucina then that’s the most distance she’s ever seen between her parents. When their eyes lock Lucina expects the same rush of emotion she felt upon seeing her father to hit her then.
It never comes.
Lucina wonders if she’s broken.
Lucina is seventeen when she reveals herself to her parents. She throws herself into her father’s arms and revels in the familiar comfort it brings. As she cries it hits her so suddenly that she for all her mission is one of a selfless desire to save the world, it’s extremely selfish of her to want her father back so badly she’d meddle in time.
When Robin approaches Lucina is still unsure how to act. In her time in the past she’s observed her mother almost more closely than her father. Secretly desperate to try and recover the memories she lost to time. They never come back, but she does gain a huge respect for the woman. She’s protected her father at every step, and loves him truly, and for that Lucina is eternally grateful.
Will you not call me mother?
Lucina can’t put to words why she’s so hesitant to call her mother. It’s too many emotions and too much baggage to dump on a woman she’s only really now just meeting. How does she say that she barely remembers her, how does she say that while her father became legend the last Queen of Ylisse was resigned to nothing but ugly whispers. How does she explain she blames her for breaking the son she doesn’t know exists yet, for making Lucina lose her dear brother just after losing her parents.
How does she say that while she’s sure she loves her mother she isn’t even sure she knew her in the first place.
There is no way to say it, so Lucina swallows it down and simply gives in. When Robin mistakes the emotion in her voice for the same relief that came when she hugged her father Lucina is glad. And when Lucina says she missed her she has to stop herself from saying misses.
Lucina is seventeen when she truly begins to love Robin. As they travel along Robin seeks her out trying to learn as much as she can about her daughter. And slowly Lucina begins to open up, and let her into her heart again.
The memories slip back little by little.
She picks out a dress for Robin that she absolutely abhors but still accepts, and suddenly she is seven again pulling hats from the market that her mother giggles and tries on for her sake.
Robin makes her tea just the way she likes without Lucina even telling her, and she is five having a tea party in the palace garden insisting she can pour it without help, and her mother tells her not to rush to be grown up and guides her small hands through the motions.
She falls asleep at the strategy table once, and dreams of being ten and falling asleep to her mother promising to be back when she awakens.
Lucina is seventeen and resentful. They find Morgan and all he remembers is Robin. He is much older than the Morgan she last saw before he disappeared into the night and she knows instantly this is not her brother. This Morgan came from a happier time where their mother was still around and didn’t leave them to a broken world.
Still she loves this Morgan, he is so like her Morgan it makes her heartache. So she does her best to protect him, even if she resents him a little.
Lucina remembers in sharp moments that Robin is not her mother. That there is a Lucina back at the palace that Robin is mother to, that she can tell Robin misses every day they are on the war front. She resents that baby for she will not have to live in a world with only stories of her father and nothing of her mother.
Still Lucina buys her a dress. Because this Lucina will have a happy future and deserves it, and to see the way her mother’s eyes light up. Another memory to add to the collection of her mother.
Lucina is young but she is not a fool. She begins to put the pieces together on the boats to Valm. She catches her mother without her gloves on after their short swim to the other ship and sees it then. The bright purple mark is instantly recognizable Grima’s eyes stare back at her and her hand itches for Falchion.
She believes her mother when she says that she has no idea where it came from or what it means. Lucina feels she should say something then, do something then. But she doesn’t because the more she looks at it the more distressed her mother begins to look. So she simply hands her back her glove and tells her she thinks it’s nothing as well.
But she watches her mother more closely then. Even as they grow closer, the eyes of Grima on her hand never leaves her mind. When the headaches begin and her mother insists they are nothing as well Lucina knows she’s running out of time.
That if she is to finish her mission she’ll have to act soon. But the war is still at hand and they need their tactician, so she waits. And after when her father sends Fredrick to look for the last gem she waits. Because her mother is back with her Lucina and she looks so happy Lucina cannot shatter that just yet.
Save father. Save the world.
Lucina runs out of time in the throne room of Plegia. Robin cannot fight Validar’s control and the Fire Emblem is lost. Her future is all but set in stone if she doesn’t end this now.
A small part of Lucina wonders if her mission has been all wrong. If it was not her father’s death that marked her grim future but rather her mother’s. She knows for certain her mother is the one to kill her father, Validar all but confirming the grim events Lucina had feared. It makes her wish she had acted differently, if instead of trying to stop Emmeryn’s assisnation by warning her father she had just killed Validar herself and ended it there. Freed her mother from any grip he may have had over her prevented Grima from ever awakening in her.
Save mother. Save the world.
But it’s too late to think of that now. So Lucina prepares herself to grieve her mother for the second time in her life. Ignoring the voice that whispers she never properly grieved her the first time.
Lucina is glad her mother goes off alone into the field. No one will have to witness the way her hands shake and her voice cracks as she lays her mother’s crimes at her feet, and points Falchion at her throat. The irony of killing her mother with her father’s blade is not lost on her, as she tightens her grip and waits for her mother’s response.
My life is yours. It always has been.
The memories rush back then, overwhelming and bright and warm and terrifying. Just as easily as she had faded from her mind, a blur at her father’s side she is back again. Clear and bright and undeniably Robin .
And if Lucina cannot remember the exact sound of her mother’s voice, or the small silly secrets she’d whisper in her ears it matters not. Because she can remember how warm it felt to be wrapped in her arms, and the way she smelled like ink and wild flowers, the loving way she’d call her Luci, her darling little Luci. Suddenly she can remember everything she loved about her mother and she wants to scream at herself for forgetting in the first place.
I love you Lucina
She cries, begs her mother not to say that to take it back and curse her for even daring to kill her. Falchion drops and Lucina lets herself fall with it broken, and unable to finish her mission. Robin falls with her, wraps her in her arms, the scent of ink wild flowers enveloping Lucina’s senses, a soft voice whispering in her ears, My poor girl, my poor darling little Luci. Even as Lucina begs for her forgiveness.
Lucina knows not how long they sit there before her father comes along, and joins their miserable little pile with assurances they’ll find a way through this together. She knows by the time Morgan comes along and slots himself against her side that her tears have finally dried.
Save mother. Save the world.
She whispers that to herself over and over again. Even as Grima still returns, and they must fight their way out. Even as Naga tells them Falchion can only seal Grima away, that only the fell dragon’s own power can kill it. Even as she sees her mother put the pieces together, and her father begs her not to do it. Even as she knows despite her mother’s promises she will do it anyways, because Lucina knows it’s what she would do in her place, and they are quite similar after all.
Save mother. Save the world.
Lucina is seventeen when her mother dies. She stands on the back of the dragon that has tormented her world for as long as she can remember. Holding back her brother, who is also not her brother. Listening to her father’s anguished cries as her mother fades from their world.
Her last words ring in Lucina’s ears, May we meet again in a better life. Lucina had hoped this would have been that better life.
Lucina stays in Ylisse for only a short while. She knows she does not belong there and makes plans to set off for a land far from it. In that time, however, she can already hear the stories weaving through the people. Tales of her mother’s courage and wisdom becoming legend, the Queen of Ylisse will be remembered this time. It is enough to bring a smile to her face, and a lightness to her heart. So before she leaves she goes to her younger self, fast asleep and dressed in the very dress Lucina herself had picked out, and leaves a message.
Yours will be a happy future.