The sky was black, darker than night. The sun didn't bleed through the clouds. It couldn't shine light past the miasma of the dragon flying overhead. The only light left were from beast and dragonstones. The torches were sniffed out by the violent winds whipped up around the volcano. The small army only knew their course was right by the word of their ship's captain alongside every wyvern and Pegasus rider. Robin was grateful he didn't have to calculate every nuance of this journey. The end already weighed on his soul.
Tiki watched as her husband's shoulders sagged under the weight of what was to come. His lineage was a curse by all rights, but she loved him and his selflessness regardless. This day was no acception. She knew what he had planned. He told her himself before boarding the boat in the last few private moments he knew he'd have with his wife.
He had told her that he expected opposition on the shores, and alongside it the remains of Plegia's men. They did not frighten him as their tactics always were straightforward and easily combated, a need to improvise rarely necessary. It was what came next that concerned him. He knew he was to die upon the Fell Dragon's back alongside it.
The mere fact had left Tiki fighting off tears and never leaving Robin's side. She would stand by this man who rekindled her love of the world and even if it killed her too, she'd help him to save this world from the future their daughter would be a part of. The other children were unsure of Morgan's fate, or at least they pretended to be. Tiki had however gotten the truth from Lucina that her daughter would be Grima's human pawn while he destroyed Ylisse and beyond.
It was that pain that carried with Tiki over the seas as they neared Origin Peak. A place so simply named yet so heavily tied to the dragons revered as gods in this land. A place that would be their cradle, and soon, one's coffin.
Even determined as she was, the divine dragon still cried for what was to come. She truly hoped last night would not be the last with her husband, as well as hope that in those moonlit hours they guaranteed Morgan would live a new, more blessed life. She hoped, but knew that between her age, and Robin's luck, it most likely wouldn't be the case on either account.
That hope however reminded her of her adventures with her husband and how they'd come to be together. The way his amber eyes shone with curiosity and possibly a hint of desire beneath messy white hair, a combination Tiki had learned long beforehand was usually fatal for the wearer.
The Voice of Naga however couldn't deny even then that he was an attractive human, and a capable one too. She saw how he fought while the Risen corpses sought to kill her during her meditation. How he single handedly took down five of the living corpses with one swing of his levin axe, lightning rippling in the oddly shaped blade's wake. The effect showing off the muscles hidden under his ever present cloak.
Knowing of the Grimleal and their preachings, and seeing one who was unaware that he was one was absurd to her, but not impossible. That in mind, she nodded on that day as they stepped through the dimensional gate that was said to lead to a future some of the other soldiers had fled from.
Tiki hadn't believed the so called future children until she stepped passed that threshold and into a devastated city overflowing with corpses, moving and not. The only survivors were identical copies of the kids she was fighting alongside. There was only one problem. They had to fight a girl into submission. A manakete whose hair matched Tiki's own vibrant green, but whose eyes were the amber of a cat much like the man who granted her mercy. She seemed so torn seeing both Tiki and Robin, but neither could grasp why.
At least back then they couldn't. Now they knew who that had been and what had happened that day. That had been Morgan under Grima's enthrallment. She had been so lost yet so hopeful. The shock of meeting her parents before they even knew they'd be together was understandably enough to break her will. Something that drove Tiki in her mission to protect the world she returned to.
Now as battle loomed though she couldn't help but worry that the girl who clearly was her daughter that they'd stumbled upon in an odd shrine to the north may not get the future she dreamed of, or the little sister she hoped for. The next few hours determined so much and weighed on so many, yet so few knew the full weight. It was a burden they all carried, only adding to the miasma overhead.
Tired of the feeling of doom weighing upon her soul, Tiki descended the hull of the ship to her private quarters, a small room with a cot that could barely fit two bodies on it. The perfect place for the solitude she seeked.
Centuries ago in another life and another war, Tiki had met a man whose charisma led an army past all odds again and again, a man to be remembered as a hero and sung of for over a thousand years. A smile returned to the Divine Dragon's lips as she remembered her best friend Marth, the man Robin reminded her so much of. A man who had bested all odds and walked away, a man whose strength of will carried into the future to the point the child of the Exalt wore his name to guide her people to a brighter future.
"Mar-Mar, you'd be horrified if you knew. You were always so shy and bashful, total opposites of what the people believe of you. Your legend, it's still here today. Your strength still runs in the veins of your children. You'd be proud of them Mar-Mar, they've fought the dragon before us before and won. Grima May yet live, and they may speak as if they lost in the future past, but they won. To live on and fight another day against an adversary who knows not what mercy is is victory in its simplest form. I see you in her Marth. Lucina is your child through and through, and I'm so glad she's my friend. I don't want her past to be our future. I want her current self to grow up alongside my daughter as the sisters in all but blood that they used to be. I want my daughter to have the future she's meant to have. I know you aren't a god Marth. I know you weren't one to believe in yourself, even if the world sees what all you've accomplished. I wish you were here with us, but I know it's not to be. Instead I ask you watch over everyone. That you guide us to the paradise beyond death I know you've found. Guide us all to that heaven when we cross the border of death. Please Mar-Mar, guide Robin to happiness."
Tiki's sobs grow as she prays, not knowing why she does or why to Marth of all people. The hero-king was dear to her heart she knew, but maybe she wasn't as aware considering how desperately she needed his guidance right now. At least she knew the man who acted like an older brother would be there waiting for her husband. Probably to scold him for not finding a better way to kill the dragon and keep his precious sister from crying. A smile ghosted Tiki's lips at that thought. Then she realized Marth didn't know Robin. At least not how Tiki saw him.
"I guess I never told you about Robin, Mar-Mar. He is just like you, determined and charismatic. He's the one who led us all the way to this point, beating back his destiny into submission and soon the grave. He proposed to me right before my mother. I don't know why or how he did it, or how Naga didn't have him 'awaken' right then and there. His blood is tainted by a dragon of destruction, one born after your death. One whose mind isn't truly there and only gained sentience by claiming Robin as a vessel." Tiki shudders a laugh, fighting back her sobs urging to come through. "It's beyond complicated, and I honestly can't grasp it, even if it was my mother's doing that caused children from the future to return to this time to stop calamity. They are led by Lucina to fight Grima, the Fell Dragon. I told you of her, but I didn't mention how one of her earlier encounters with Robin was to try and kill him to end this madness. It ended with the two walking on glass, even now they still aren't comfortable near the other, even though Lucina seems dedicated to me and Morgan."
Tiki caught herself, noticing her thoughts wandering to the woman she fought beside regularly. She knew things were really complicated between Lucina and her, but as a descendant of Marth, and her love of Robin, she wouldn't cross the line Lucina seemed to be struggling to also stand behind. With things how they currently are though, the Divine Dragon can't help but feel she may need to cross that line to stay sane. She might be able to for Lucina, but she knew no man could replace Robin in her heart for another thousand years.
"Oh Mar-Mar, why is it so complicated and difficult to love? I refuse to break my oaths to Robin, and I refuse to break the heart of Lucina, but I don't know what will happen. I do know what Robin has planned, and it's such actions that make me love him, even if they risk destroying me in the process. It's as much in my nature to protect this world as it is in his to destroy it. It's because of that that his willingness to kill himself to kill Grima amazes me so much. He can fight his lineage so impressively that I love him even more for it, but I don't want him to die. I don't want to be without him-"
Tiki sighs, lost in her thoughts to the point she doesn't hear the door creak, or the mess of white hair and blue cloak enter behind her. "-but I know I will, and then I'll be left with the aftermath. I fear that Mar-Mar, I fear it so much. I know loss and death. It's why even now I consider Lucina as a person to comfort me once I'm left alone again. I don't want to betray him, but with each passing moment I feel my mind and body swaying, preparing for the inevitable. That's why I beg you Mar-Mar to watch over him and guide Robin to paradise. I want him to be happy, even if I can't be that happiness for him."
A silent yelp escapes the Divine Dragon's throat as a pair of familiar arms encircle her hips. "Thank you for praying for me my love. I'm sorry I wasn't aware of the burden I put on you. When I die, I know I'll be fine thanks to you, and your happiness will be mine." Tiki turns her head into the soft voice, a voice so gentle to be a complete contrast leaving the lips of the veteran of war that her love has become. Her tears no longer able to be contained as Robin pulls her close to him. "If that happiness comes from another, you won't be betraying me. Only honoring me by finding joy and proving that my life won't be in vain. So long as you live and are truly living, then I'll live on with you."
Robin then kissed the forehead of his crying wife before scooping her up bridal style to lay down on the cot in front of them. "Know that love, and we shall never be parted. I'm sure between Marth and Naga they'll make it so. Now, I need you at full strength tomorrow. I can't live on without you to live for me." Robin kisses his wife's head again before curling in beside her to make sure she knows he won't ever leave her. "Rest tonight and I'll be here when you wake."
Notes: This may be a oneshot, but if it's requested I can add an epilogue "After the End" to give a resolution to the looming battle. Side note, I wrote this in one hour in an effort to return to writing so sorry if there are unnoticed errors.
Anyhow, until next time, have a great life folks.