Title: Mother
Author: Rapis-Razuri
Beta: ObsessiveCompulsiveValkyrie
Word Count: 704
Game: Awakening
Characters/Pairings: Lucina, Robin, background Chrom/Robin
Notes: Future Past 3. Cover from pixiv.

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Grima's hood fell.

"Mother...?"

Grima...Robin coughed up a mouthful of blood and she began to fall forward. There was a clatter of metal on pavement and a cry of warning that went ignored as Lucina rushed forward to catch her.

"Mother? Oh, Mother! I...I thought you died that day with Father!" Lucina covered the wound in her mother's body in an attempt to stem the blood flow. It hurt to think of how it got there. She did it. It had felt so right, so heroic when she dealt the blow and now, all she wanted to do was take it back.

"I wish I did..." the woman said horsely, as though unused to using her voice, "I wish I died instead of your father...it's my fault that all your lives have been filled with nothing but grief and misery...if only I had been stronger...strong enough to resist Grima...or to take my life before I could take Chrom's...or anyone else's..."

In the light of her confession, everything suddenly (horribly) fell into place. Once she knew the truth, it was so painfully obvious. They all told her Chrom had been betrayed and killed by his closest friend, Grima saying how the former owner of this body had loved him and then cursing her name.

"You...you killed Father?"

"A failure I am reminded of everyday." The bitter regret in her voice was evident.

She recalled the image of her parents, the ones summoned by Naga from another world. That Robin had said with a look of fierce, unconditional love in her eyes, "I want you to change your destiny and find happiness. And as your mother, I will do absolutely whatever it takes to make that happen. Anything and everything!"

That Robin had said she wasn't the same person as the dying, despairing Robin in her arms, but they still had one thing in common. No matter what, no matter the circumstances, she will always be her mother.

Lucina once thought she would feel nothing but an uncontrollable rage if she ever came face to face with her father's murderer, but now that she knew the truth, it was not the case at all.

"Brady? Laurent?" Lucina looked up at the two from where she was kneeling. It didn't matter to her if she was Grima's unwilling agent. Hours ago, she had, for the first time in years, known what it felt like to have a mother's warmth and she wasn't ready to let go of such a feeling just yet. Surely the combined magic of Brady and Laurent will be able to save her.

Before either of them could even raise their staves, a hand tightened around her wrist. "Don't..." Robin gasped. "Grima and I are one. If I live, so does he... Please...let me die, for your sake as much as my own..."

Chest tightening, because it was one of the hardest things she's had to do, Lucina nodded in understanding. Her mother had been holding herself, holding Grima, back so Lucina could finally put an end to Grima's dark reign, even if it meant dying with him.

Lucina barely heard someone, she wasn't sure who, whisper something to the others and her eleven friends moved away to give mother and daughter some privacy.

"I'm sorry," she whispered once her friends were gone. A tear fell and then another. She felt like a little girl again. She wanted nothing more than for her mother to comfort her and say everything will be alright. "I killed you...I killed my own mother..."

"...You...you did...only what you had to..." Robin closed her eyes, but there was a sense of peace in her features. "I'm so...so proud of you, Lucina. I just wish...I was able to see you become the person you are today... You will make a fine Exalt..."

"I will!" Lucina promised, "I will do everything it takes to bring Ylisse back to its former glory!"

Robin opened her eyes and smiled up at Lucina one last time. "Don't cry anymore...my daughter...you did it...you saved...the world...now go...live...your life...and be happy..."

"I..." Lucina wiped her eyes with her bloody gauntlet. "I love you, Mother...and I hope you will be able to find Father again...wherever he is."

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