Lucina was no time traveler. Up until a few days ago, she hadn't even thought such a thing possible. When Naga had told her about it, she'd been all too eager to take her up on the offer. With nothing but a crumbling world to lose, she was desperate enough to seize any chance to fix it.

That said, this was not quite how she imagined it to be.

The world around her spun every which way, compressed into a tight, glowing blue vessel. Lucina tumbled through it, barely aware of the pulsing lights around her, the river of time pushing her down a trail of never-ending rapids. She couldn't even tell what was up and down, not with how she kept turning head over heels over head over heels, on and on and on. Not that she could see herself flipping out and over like the world's clumsiest dancer falling down a flight of stairs.

Lucina was sure she would have lost what little she had for breakfast long ago if it weren't for the fact that she did not seem to have a stomach anymore. Or a body, for that matter. She flailed around, lost in the current of reality's lifeblood, desperate for something, anything, to catch her and slow her fall. She could feel her arms and legs splashing against the frothing rapids threatening to drag her under, but all she saw below her was a strange, glowing blob of yellow.

To say it was weird would be a gross understatement.

She felt so lost. She didn't know where she was going, she didn't know how to stop. She didn't even know how long she'd been here. It felt like she'd been falling for an eternity, dreams of seeing her father again lost in the endless flow of time.

She flung her arms out, or at least, she felt them fling out. Anything she could feel brush against her non-existent fingers, she tried to grab hold, but they all slipped from her grasp like fish rushing downstream. She became more frantic, thrashing in the rapidly accelerating stream but try as she might, it only carried her faster and faster. There was no escape for her.

Then, a voice.

"I think we should set up camp. I don't want Lissa to push herself anymore."

It was a voice she recognized, a voice she hadn't heard in so long. A face came to the front of her mind, one that she held so dear she was barely aware of the words that slipped from her own mouth.

"Father?"

Her vision blurred. She didn't even have eyes, yet she still felt a wetness pool around them. Through the dizziness sloshing around in her mind, racking through her head like an echo, she let her eyes roam around until they finally fell on a streak of light above her. A streak of hope.

Unlike the others, this one lingered around her. It seemed content to stay by her side. She could hear voices from them, most of them muffled. Yet through it all, she could still hear the voice of her father.

Was... was this her way out?

Pushing off against the current, like she was propelling herself through water, Lucina reached out to grab it.

Something slammed into her, and she flew away.

"No!" Lucina tried to grab it again, but she was helpless to watch the streak of light grow smaller in the distance. That was her way out, she had been so sure of it. She'd almost had it, and... whatever this was, it had ripped that away.

A surge of anger shot through her. Without a physical body, it felt like her entirety coursed with a red-hot fury, giving her another burst of speed and sending her flying after it.

This time, she saw a purple shape tear through the time-stream toward her. The blue light rippled, parting in a stream of white foam, before the purple shape slammed into her.

Lucina fell back. As soon as her vision cleared, she tried to find that one sliver of light again. Her way out.

But it was gone.

Her eyes fell on the purple shape before her. The one thing between her and escape.

For the longest time, Lucina had felt aimless. Off-balance and lost, tumbling through the flow of time without any direction. An eternity could have passed and she wouldn't have known it.

But with this... whoever this was, whatever this was... just being in front of her, she felt more focused than she'd ever been.

"Out of the way!" Lucina wasn't even sure she'd spoken. She'd felt the words leave her mouth, but she couldn't hear it.

The purple shape responded, though, glowing brighter for a moment before it settled back into its dimly lit hue.

When Naga had offered her a second chance, she'd seized it with both hands. She was desperate enough to take it, and by the Gods, she was going to have it.

Behind the purple shape, a light flickered and twitched, swimming against the time stream.

A cry tore itself from her. She felt her hands stretch out. She felt the ethereal presence of time around her part as she lunged for the purple shape.

And from the corner of her eye, she noticed the purple shape weave out of her way, and knock her into the side.

A bright light engulfed Lucina's vision. She watched as the stream of time disappeared from her sight, the purple shape watching as the light sealed up around her. She watched the streak of light, the one with her father's voice, shrink in the distance.

And then she was falling and falling and falling.

And then, like someone had thrown a color onto the blank canvas of light, the world splashed itself onto her vision in a cloud of dust, the rough stone cradling her back as she crashed into the floor.

"Did you really beat King Gangrel by yourself?"

"Well, I did have a little help. But he was a bad man, and he wanted to kill so many people. He almost killed your mother, so I had to protect her."

"Wow. Father, you're so amazing!"

Lucina woke to the sounds of screaming and the metallic tang of blood. She was on her feet in a moment, her sword drawn a second after. The sounds of battle echoed within the walls around her, and a muffled blast shook the ground. She had no idea where she was, or what was happening, but the faint smell of blood in the air heightened her senses and set her heart pumping. She had to fight, even if it might be for her life. Tightening her grip on her sword, Lucina stepped forward.

Her legs promptly gave out, and she ended up with a mouthful of sand.

Lucina spat the sand out of her mouth. As she pushed herself off the ground, wiping the dirt off her clothes, she frowned.

"Sand?" she murmured, letting a few grains fall through her fingers. As she finally tore her eyes from the floor and let them roam about, she noticed the strange glyphs running down the walls. She didn't recognize any of them, save for one: the six-eyed mark of the Fell Dragon.

"Grimleal..."

She took a step forward. Her legs buckled, threatening to fail her again. Lucina's head throbbed with pain, the aftermath of being flung into the past, no doubt. Still, she clutched her head, feeling around the edge of her mask, and forced herself forward, pushed through the haze on a pair of legs that felt foreign to her.

Grasping at the edge of the doorway, Lucina barely managed to pull herself through it. Almost instantly, her eyes were assaulted by the sun through her mask, its scorching glare setting the sandstone floor ablaze. She peered through the blinding sheen, only to see a swarm of blue and purple writhing on the floor.

As her eyes adjusted to the light, though, the blue and purple solidified into forms, then into the fluttering capes and cloaks of mages and soldiers. A battle was set before her, already in full swing.

"Where am I?" she said. Her frown grew, and her hands lightly traced down her throat. Her voice sounded unfamiliar to her.

"When am I?" she added a second later. She was in Plegia, the Fell Dragon's mark as good as gave it away, and in the future, there were hardly enough people to wage a war with.

In the distance, she saw the flag of Ylisse fly high in the air. She was sure this was the Plegia-Ylisse war her father had regaled her with time and time again, the one where her father fought against the Mad King Gangrel.

As she scanned the crowd for a familiar face, any of the Shepherds who had fought by her father's side, and found none, however, worry began to take root, a worry that only grew when she realized the Ylissean flag bore colors of blue and gold.

"I thought Exalt Emmeryn's colors were green and gold," she muttered.

A fireball hurtled out from the crowd, sizzling and crackling with magical energy. Even from a distance, Lucina could feel the heat peeling off from it as it soared over her head and exploded into a geyser of red and orange.

The ground shook with the impact, cracks racing down the walls. A piece fell loose, and it crashed in front of Lucina, shattering on impact and peppering her with shards of stone. On instinct, she stepped back. It was something that might have saved her life.

A silver streak cut across her vision, and the tip of a sword nearly brushed the bridge of her nose. A soldier almost stumbled into her. Lucina's steel sword came up in an instant, ready to defend herself, but she relaxed upon seeing the blue peeking through the cracks in his armor.

A Ylissean soldier, then. An ally. As she took a moment to steady herself, though, she noticed the odd weight the steel sword had in her hands.

Steel? she thought, frowning. What happened to Falchion?

A memory slammed into the front of her mind; Falchion in the hands of her brother. She'd given it to him for protection, so sure she could take care of herself without it.

Almost as quickly as he had appeared, the Ylissean soldier flew to the side. His body crashed into the wall with a metallic crunch, and a massive cut ran from his shoulder to his hip. The sand around him began to take on a red color, not that Lucina noticed. Where the Ylissean soldier had stood seconds ago, a Plegian fighter towered over her, the axe blade in his hands glazed with a shimmering red.

Lucina fell into a fighting stance on instinct. It was a movement she'd had ingrained into her head, after having to fight off the Risen time and time again.

Which was why she was so confused when the Risen fell into a stance as well.

She shook her head. No, this wasn't the future. There should be no Risen here.

"Raugh!"

Her eyes snapped open just in time to see the Plegian fighter's axe descend toward her. Her sword met it head-on.

Then the axe plowed right through, forcing her blade aside as it dove toward her face.

The axe blade dug into the stone floor, bouncing off with a clang. As the Plegian fighter stepped back, Lucina hissed in pain. Her eyes fell to her arms, hanging limply by her side, her sword dragging against the floor.

Her arms didn't even feel like her own. They burned, still numb from the impact. She'd almost been killed because they couldn't hold, fatigued just like the rest of her body.

Lucina gripped her sword tighter, tight enough for her nails to dig into her palms. They would not fail again. Not when so much was on the line.

She glared down the Plegian fighter. He continued forward, unfazed. His second swipe went just as wide as the first one, Lucina almost losing her balance as she stepped back to avoid it. The Plegian fighter growled, and he raised his axe again.

Then, in the crowd, Lucina saw a flash of blue hair.

Was... was that her father?

The aching in her limbs suddenly faded. Even as her father disappeared in the crowd, she felt something bubble up from inside her chest. Her father was here.

A silver gleam caught her eye. Her eyes widened, and she turned just in time to catch the Plegian fighter's axe on the blade of her sword.

She cried out as her sword was almost ripped from her hands again. The Plegian fighter twisted it away, and it took all her effort not to let slip from her grasp. She never noticed him rear his head back.

The Plegian fighter smashed his skull into her face, and her vision exploded into white. She stumbled away. Her legs, already weak before, gave out, and she tumbled back.

The crowd almost swallowed her up. Instantly, she found herself twisting away to avoid being skewered by a lance. Arms and legs flew in every which way, Ylisseans and Plegians alike trapping her in a frenzy of death. Lucina couldn't tell what was coming where, but as she looked back, through the blades and flames, she saw the Plegian fighter running toward her, still hungry for blood.

Lucina turned tail, slipped past a Ylissean knight, and ran.

I need to get out of here, Lucina thought. She ducked under a sword swing and curled her nose in distaste as the pungent smell of copper hit her nose. I'm not supposed to be here. This is such an important battle. If I change anything here, who knows how it could affect what's to come.

No matter how fast she ran, the battle just seemed to stretch on, like she was stuck in the middle of a jungle where it rained blood. The arid, salty stench of sweat, the bright flashes of the weapons as they painted the sand red, it all felt too real for her through the fog over her mind.

The fog parted just in time for her to see a blade streaking straight for her heart. Without thinking, she sidestepped the thrust. As a bulky arm swept past her, she tried to slip under it.

Someone grabbed onto her hair and dragged her down. She grunted as she crashed into the ground, a cloud of dust rising up around her face, and her sword clattered as it fell away. The back of her head throbbed, but the feeling had started to return to her arms. She slid one under her. When she lifted herself off the ground, an armored boot slammed into her shoulder and dug it into the ground.

She heard her arm pop. Pain lanced through her shoulder, and she bit back another cry. Dazed, she barely managed to lift her head to meet her attacker's gaze.

Above her towered a monster of a man. His face, and any emotion they may have held, was obscured by a faceplate. Blue streaks ran down his armor, jagged plates making up the most of it, covering his entire body, from his chestplate down to his boots, marking him out as a Ylissean great knight.

His shoulders heaved. Through the faceplate, she could hear his ragged breaths. And though she couldn't see his eyes, she could feel his glare pierce through her, like he was stabbing her with his gaze alone.

"You..." he wheezed out between his heavy breathing, "You dare get in my way? You dare run away from the battle like a coward?"

With each word, his foot only pressed harder. It took every ounce of willpower she had to keep her teeth clenched.

"Sir," she spoke softly, barely hearing her own voice over the sounds of battle, "I fight for neither side. I stumbled upon here by chance, I swear."

"You wear our colors, yet you dare lie about your allegiance? You disgust me." The man spit onto her face. To her relief, the spit splattered over her mask.

Relief quickly turned to dread when his scowl grew deeper.

"And quit wearing that. Your mask cannot hide you from your fate," he snarled, and he reached down for her face.

Feebly, she tried to wrench the mask from his grip, but her only free hand could barely hold its own against his meaty fingers. Her panicked struggles elicited a sadistic laugh, and he held the mask high in the air, dashing any hope that she could take it back.

Lucina, on the other hand, couldn't be any more afraid. Her eyes seared at all the light flooding into her skull. Her left eye burned more than her right, as if to warn her that the brand on it was exposed. Without her mask, there was nothing to keep it hidden, nothing to keep her royal blood under wraps. Everything was going so wrong so quickly, leaving her completely winded from one terrible thing to the next.

The instant the great knight lifted his weight off from her, she jumped to her feet. The great knight didn't even wait for her to steady herself before he shoved her forward into the battle. Behind her, she saw a flicker of yellow.

The great knight must have expected her to take the blow for him. It would explain his furious shout when she hit the floor, letting the thunder spell fly over her head and slam into his chest. As it disappeared into a shower of sparks, a web of electricity spreading over and around him, Lucina lunged for the mask in his hand.

The mask dropped to the floor. She barely had time to register that before the great knight grabbed her hand instead, turned her around, and drove her to her knees.

"Coward!" His hot breath washed over her head, steaming with rage. Lucina yelped as he twisted her arm behind her back. "If you cannot take a blow for your Exalt, you would serve our cause better dead than alive."

His sword glinted in the sun as he rose it over her head. Lucina struggled, even with one arm pressed painfully to her back, her other arm hanging limply by her side, her hair matted with dirt and her face exposed to the harsh sun. She struggled, even when her captor refused to budge, or when she felt him bring his sword down. It was hopeless for her to try to escape.

The great knight's sword crashed into the stone floor with enough force to gouge into it. Streams of blood trickled down its blade.

Not hers, though.

Lucina reared her head back. The sword brushed past her face, barely missing the tip of her nose. Before the great knight could realize he'd missed, Lucina brought her head forward. She sank her teeth into his bare, unprotected fingers wrapped around the hilt of his sword.

Bone cracked under the force of her bite. The great knight howled, his voice carrying over the open desert. The crushing grip around her arms vanished, as did the hand holding onto his sword.

Lucina threw herself onto it. As soon as her fingers curled around it, she tore it from the ground.

This man, whoever he was, was a fanatic and a bully. He didn't deserve to fight at her father's side.

She didn't think as she moved. She let the movements come to her as she whirled around and drove the sword into his chest.

Only too late did she notice Falchion in her hands.

Lucina dropped the sword like she'd picked up a burning coal, but the damage had already been done. A hole sat at the center of the great knight's chest, piercing through his chestplate, flesh and bone, and gone out through the back. The great knight groaned once. Then, he crumpled, the clang of his armor crashing into the floor loud like thunder. As he lay on his side, Lucina finally saw the blue mane peeking out from behind his helmet.

Far behind her, she heard someone cry out, "The Exalt is dead!"

Not a full hour into the past and Lucina's already made a splash. In the game, when Lucina lands in the past, her father is already on the other end of the portal, and the Risen are already climbing out. Right out of the gate, she has a good side she needs to help (her father) and a bad side she needs to defeat (the Risen), so she doesn't really have to think, just kill the Risen and run off before anyone can question her. Here, things aren't so clean-cut, thus, her making her first mistake.

This is my third attempt at writing this story. I have an older version of the story already up, if you don't know what I'm talking about. You can read it if you want, but you're not missing out on anything aside from a few OC name-drops and some Anna-related stuff.

This whole idea of Lucina going back far enough to meet a child version of her father is one of my favorite story ideas, probably equal to Brotherhood of Smash, but the last time I tried it, I forgot to set goals for my characters and it didn't go so well. I hope I can do it justice this time around.

Also, *cough cough* if any of you want more time-travelling goodness, you should read Father Gothel, by Violin Cameos, which is basically the same concept, but with Grima instead of Lucina. It's not nearly as action-packed, but if you can handle a little OOC-ness, it's quite the sweet and fluffy treat.

On the topic of an update schedule, it's the same deal as the old story. I'll try to update every Tuesday, but don't be surprised if I burn out over the weekend and decide to take a day off to do other projects instead.

Anyway, I wish you all well and stay safe!