Spoiler Warning! Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to write about Robin - and even more difficult to write about Palutena - without giving away spoilers to their respective games (Fire Emblem: Awakening and Kid Icarus: Uprising). Therefore, there are major endgame spoilers for Awakening and midgame spoilers for Uprising.

To Be a Better Goddess

When I arrived at the training room with sword and tome in hand, I found it empty except for a green-haired woman bashing away at a sandbag with her staff.

I recognized her; we Smashers had only just arrived a few days ago, but I was starting to recognize everyone. The woman was Lady Palutena, the Goddess of Light from the Kid Icarus universe. But the expression on her face was far sterner than I had ever seen on her, and her concentration on each strike of the staff was so great that she didn't notice that I entered.

Hesitantly, I approached her. "Lady Palutena?" I asked.

The goddess whirled around immediately, brandishing her staff at me. When she saw who I was, she merely sighed dejectedly and turned back towards the sandbag.

Her attitude surprised me. I hadn't had much chance to interact with her yet, but from what I had heard about her, she was a prankster goddess in addition to being the magnanimous Goddess of Light; she wasn't normally so depressed.

I walked around the sandbag, facing the goddess directly. "Lady Palutena," I said again, "are you all right?"

"No, I'm not!" the goddess grunted, punctuating her statement with a sharp jab forward. Unfortunately, her staff missed the sandbag entirely, ramming instead into me. Caught off-guard, I went stumbling back into the wall of the room, dropping my tome and sword in surprise.

Palutena let out an undignified squeak. "Robin! Are you all right?" She dropped her staff and rushed over to me to help me up.

"…I was just thrown against a wall by a depressed goddess."

A look of guilt passed over her face. "I'm so sorry! I was just… distracted."

"Lady Palutena," I said. "Please, tell me what's bothering you."

She bent down to grab her staff, avoiding my gaze for a moment. Finally, she said, "Normally, I would talk about this sort of thing to Pit, but he's in the middle of a battle right now. I came here to pass the time until the end of his battle, but…" Trailing off, she shook her head and said, "Anyway, how much do you know about Viridi, the Goddess of Nature?"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I don't know much about your universe."

Palutena gave a weak smile. "Long story short, she's the Goddess of Nature who wants to destroy human beings and human technology. But during the battle against the Underworld, she worked alongside me, the patron goddess of human beings, to defeat Hades; we came to see each other as allies instead of enemies. And therefore, I left her in charge of Skyworld and the humans. But she never really changed her mind about wanting to destroy all the humans… whom she is now in charge of. If she decides to do any sort of funny business with the humans, it'll be all my fault for putting her in charge."

I gently placed an arm on the goddess's shoulder. "It won't be your fault," I reassured her.

"Robin, how can you say that? I came here knowing perfectly well that I was abandoning the humans to a goddess bent on their destruction."

"Whether or not it's actually true, as a deity, you can't keep blaming yourself." I paused. In a quiet voice, I added, "I may know more about being a bad deity than you think."

Palutena looked at me and stepped back. "What do you mean by that?"

I took a deep breath. How could I explain my whole life properly to a goddess of another universe? "Well, in my world, there are two opposing deities: the Divine Dragon Naga and the Fell Dragon Grima. Naturally, much of our misfortunes were the fault of Grima, though Naga tried to stop all of his evil."

Palutena frowned. "When you said 'being a bad deity'…"

I nodded solemnly. "Imagine my horror when I found out that I, Robin, the tactician and second-in-command of Chrom's Shepherds, was to blame for all the world's torments…" I smiled grimly. "I am the Fell Dragon Grima, the wings of despair, the breath of ruin."

Palutena was shocked into silence for a moment. "So every horrible thing you experienced… was caused by your own hand?"

"Well, perhaps I was exaggerating a little," I said. "I am merely the vessel for Grima's spirit—was, I mean; we have since defeated his spirit. Still, there were times in which Grima's spirit has overcome my own. I have done horrible things, merely by being weak of mind." I shuddered. "If I weren't forewarned, I would have killed Chrom directly. And the Grimleal, Grima's followers—even Grima's vengeful spirit knew that their deaths to protect the Fell Dragon were on my hands… Trust me when I say that I know that the horrors of being a deity."

Palutena frowned. "If you know that the bad in the world was your fault, why do you say it's not my fault that Viridi's going to completely strip the world of humans?"

"As a deity, everything may be due to your actions, but if you get too hung up on this fact, your worrying will become prohibitive. Don't focus on what you're doing wrong; instead, try to make things right. Ask any of the royalty here—mortal rulers face much the same dilemma. Princess Peach told me that if there's one thing she wished she learned earlier, it would be that a leader must take action, not just blindly wait for a miracle. Beating up a defenseless sandbag while waiting for Pit isn't going to solve any problems."

"So what do you suggest that I do?" she asked. "Abandon my status as a Smasher and take Skyworld back from Viridi? That hardly seems appropriate, given that we've barely been here for a few days, and Viridi hasn't done anything bad yet."

I couldn't find a proper response; I knew nothing about this Viridi goddess. Finally, I said, "Having been part of a very close-knit army, I know what the power of friendship can do. We're here in this joint universe to strengthen our old bonds—and forge new ones. We can help you if something goes horribly wrong in your world. I'm sure all of us Smashers would support you and go back to your world to help defend your realm."

For a moment, Palutena was silent. Then, she suddenly let out a chuckle. When I raised an eyebrow at her, she explained, "I'm just trying to imagine Viridi's face if she has to go up against a blue hedgehog, a ninja frog, a yoga trainer, a fat penguin, an ever-hungry yellow sphere, a pair of plumbers… I mean, we have some weird creatures in our universe, but that mix of fighters? She'd probably be so distracted laughing that she wouldn't notice us defeating her whole army."

I smiled. "I'm glad you're laughing again."

She smiled. "Thank you for cheering me up, Robin. Still, let's go tell Master Hand that, if something happens in the Kid Icarus universe, I will be returning there with a colorfully mismatched crew of Smashers."

I nodded, quickly scooping up my tome and sword, which still lay on the ground. I could always train with them another day. For now, it was accomplishment enough that I managed to cheer up the Goddess of Light, Palutena.

Author's Notes: Robin was announced recently for Smash Bros. WiiU/3DS, and Palutena a little before that. Kid Icarus: Uprising has awesome characterization, but the plot is merely decent (basic summary: Pit fights everyone! …Except Viridi.). One major issue I have with it is that although there is the recurring theme that gods keep doing stuff wrong (in particular, cause wars), the gameplay never reflects this fact. Palutena just has a few character portraits of being depressed, and then she goes back to telling Pit to beat up the Underworld Army.

And so, this fic was born. Someone telling her to actually go and do something. At first, I was planning to have Rosalina (who is sort-of-kind-of-maybe a goddess - her title is not very clear) go talk to Palutena, but I quickly realized that I knew nothing about Rosalina's backstory. Then, Robin was announced, and I remembered that (s)he is also technically a god(dess) - namely, Grima - and this fic all fell into place. Naturally, that game's overarching theme of friendship and bonds comes up in this fic, as well.

Finally, both male and female Robin have been confirmed to be playable. As such, I didn't assign a gender to him/her at all in this fic. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Grima is unambiguously referred to as male before Robin's connection to him is revealed, even if Robin is female.) I'm actually quite upset that this site - or rather, the person who submitted the new character names to this site - lists them as two separate characters. After all, every version of Robin is literally the same person, regardless of any customizable options (including gender).

Published July 30, 2014