Throughout the windy plains of Hyrule. Ruins and monster camps lay scattered around the vicinity of Hyrule Castle, where Calamity Ganon resided, contained by Princess Zelda as her ancient powers awakened in a moment of desperation. Although sealed once more, the damage had been done; with monsters and Malice wreaking havoc across the land as Ganon’s essence roared its fury around Hyrule Castle.

Link, Zelda’s sworn knight, had recently recovered from a hundred year slumber that left him an amnesiac with zero recollection of the fall of Hyrule or the revival of Calamity Ganon. All he knew was that he was the only one capable of restoring peace to Hyrule by rescuing Princess Zelda before he could take down Calamity Ganon once and for all. Along the way, he’d been able to regain bits and pieces of his memory; from the time he’d spent alongside Zelda as she trained everyday in a futile attempt to awaken her powers to the names and faces of the four Champions from each of the different races inhabiting the land alongside the Hylians. Things seemed to be progressing nicely as Link found various comrades and tools throughout the battered landscapes and hidden villages to aid him on the journey; from eliminating the aspects of Ganon implanted within each of the four Divine Beasts to obtaining the Master Sword from the depths of the Lost Woods as the Great Deku Tree could finally relinquish it to it’s rightful owner.

Unknown to Link however, Ganon’s forces weren’t about to sit idly by and let their greatest threat waltz freely into the Castle to slay their master. Remnants of the Yiga clan and the various Guardian automatons under Ganon’s influence had come together to formulate a plan; utilizing abandoned Sheikah technology long forgotten as the Yiga’s brightest minds came up with plans to end Link. If they couldn’t defeat him with conventional means, then they’d remove him from the equation entirely, modifying a Guardian with a special laser that had enough power to fight a small war...but it would not see war, no. It had one purpose only; the removal of Link from this world so that their lord’s rule remained unopposed.

And so, the trap was sprung. As Link galloped over the crest of the hill on horseback, the remnants of the Yiga clan attacked, forcing Link down a path as the unsuspecting warrior was led down a killzone in the path of the modified Guardian, its lack of tracking technology meant it had the advantage of stealth, but it’s aim was worse off as a result. Sensing the danger however, Link spots the Guardian taking aim, preparing to block the incoming blast. His mistake however, was assuming that the incoming shot was a laser. Not expecting the fiery wave of blue energy that rolled over him as the shock and strength of the usual Guardian shot doesn't arrive, by then it's too late however. As Link lowers his shield, he finds himself sitting on nothing, no longer in the midst of battle on the outskirts of Hyrule Castle. He was now alone within a void of raw flowing energy; a passageway across worlds.

As Link looks around wildly in panic, wondering what to do next. Tendrils of pure energy begin to extend from the raging vortex around him, ensnaring his limbs after a short battle, with Link managing to severe multiple tentacles of energy before finally being immobilized on the spot, helpless to do anything but await the inevitable. Link’s glare of defiance persists, even as the tentacles drag him into the walls, as he feels himself begin to slip into a deep sleep, washed away into the rushing energy as his body sinks entirely beneath the waves.

Oddly enough, Link could still feel and think even as he felt the sweet release of death as he was dragged into the vortex along with everything else he had on him...at least, he thought it was death. He felt troubled at the heavy warmth over his mind, how could he feel so calm when he still had so much left to do? But...what needed to be done exactly? Link’s mind fumbles as it struggles to recall past events; something to do about an evil dragon that had all but reduced his world to rubble? That sounded oddly right to him but a nagging feeling behind those words told him something was off, was it something about relations between his family and that of royalty?

Thinking more, Link smiles as he recalls his father and mother cradling him in their arms, their newborn child and future heir to the...Ylissean royal family! At least that’s what he remembered, before someone close to her father had killed him under orders of the evil dragon; Grima, losing her mother mere days later in the fires of war as Grima’s Risen army spread like a plague over the land. Wait...why had she been referring to herself as a man? Link’s memories of growing up with proper education in the ways of how a refined lady should act was still mostly fresh in her mind because she cherished what little she had before it was all burned to the ground. She would’ve preferred the boring lessons and simple peaceful days with her family instead of the harsh life of survival she’d had to lead at such a young age as Grima razed the lands and villages to rubble. She had probably confused her life of protecting what little was left of the land with that of some fairy tale knight in shining armor attempting to save his beloved princess from the clutches of a great evil..though Lucina could not hope for some “knight” to save her when all that stood between certain death were her own two hands, she couldn’t hope for someone to lean on in this dark time.

As her eyes flutter open, Lucina looks over her lithe form, clad in a fitting blue-black battle garb that concealed supple flesh beneath, layered over with strong muscle, unaware of her short bob-cut of blonde hair lengthening behind her into a silky mane of navy blue that tucks itself neatly under her clothes and around the mask she now donned, the final remnants of the man she once was vanishing into her new identity as the harsh life of a girl who had everything taken away from her by the Fell Dragon ingrained itself into her mind. She had just leaped through a time portal, looking around at the mesmerizing whirl of colours around her. She remembered jumping through the portal right as Grima and the Risen tore down the temple, her trusty Falchion by her side...that's right! The Falchion! Looking down over to her slender limb, she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the blade still held tightly in her arms but...it looked different? More hard edged and a green tint to it. Rubbing her eyes, Lucina opens them again to see the familiar curved blade she’d seen many times before; from the historical tales and records to her own father wielding it in battle...now it fell to her to carry on her family’s legacy…

Lucina braces herself against the flow of the time portal, preparing for anything that could appear on the other side as the sounds of war and blazing fires begin to ring louder as she approaches the end of the figurative tunnel. At its end she sees the hulking figure of an axe wielding Risen, cornering a young girl she was all too familiar with. Wasting no time, she puts in a burst of speed, dashing out of the portal and throwing herself between the axe blade and the girl as she deflects the blow with great effort.

Straining against the raw strength of the Risen and its massive axe, Lucina can only shout out for help as she spots her father standing to the side, frozen in shock at the newcomer. As Chrom dashes in to help, the two perform a combo, slicing apart the Risen warrior as they leave the girl stunned. Lucina had wanted so hard to jump into their arms for she recognized their faces dearly; her own father, Chrom and her aunt, Lissa. Sheathing her blade, Lucina makes sure to keep her back turned to the pair. She still had her mask on that kept both  her identity and hair concealed but she didn’t want to risk Chrom catching sight of the blade which would have been a dead giveaway. “Quite an entrance...what’s your name?”

After a tense moment of silence, Lucina had decided upon a fitting name to call herself by during her time here. She’d been given the chance to fight again in a timeline where they still had a chance to defeat Grima and she wasn't going to waste it. She so wanted to just leap into her fathers arms but she knew the risks associated with time travel and the implications it meant to alter the past. For now she’d play it safe, deciding on the name of Marth, fabled Hero King whose exploits rang far and wide around the Halidom, for all she knew, she could very well be the force of change the people of this timeline would need in the coming fight against Grima and his forces, just like Marth had done for his people all those years ago…there would come a time of peace where Grima and the Risen would be a thing of the past, and Lucina was sure to see it through to fruition.

THE END