# Prologue

## Alternate Premonition

'..Hey Robin?'

'What is it, Anna?'

'What'd you do, living with someone you knew you couldn't trust?'

'Hmm..'

The response had come out absent- minded and contorted, as if the message itself had been warped by thoughts outside the ken of the quirky peddler, who had now in turn furrowed an eyebrow at the Tactician himself.

It was different from her usual visage; The crooked face she pulled when made an offer far beneath her expected price, the incessant fluttering eyelashes she produced upon hearing the latest Risen attack had taken out precious cargo, crippling the foresight of future profits so meticulously planned out beforehand, it was unlike any of those regular antics Robin had come to expect from Anna. And so he, after giving the redhead a carefully examining gaze over the stilted frame of his spectacles, removed these tender reading lenses he had previously been wearing throughout the course of this short exchange and wearily rubbed the itchy bags underneath his eyes, only reddening the black spots and not lessening the fatigue by any margin.

'Well..' He meandered, setting the copper framing down on his dressoir and giving her his full attention, ' I suppose it depends on the type of person you're dealing with. I make it a point to try and not act prematurely, but if the stakes are high enough..'

'Precautionary measures might be inevitable'. She added, ending his unfinished sentence before he could finish it. 'Is that what you're getting at?'

He blinked visibly, taken aback by her abrasive ways, as per usual.

'That was the conclusion I was working up to, yeah.' He snarked, painfully shifting his weight in the creaky old chair he was seated in and sinking into a laid back position.

'Oh, sweetie, is it that old scar acting up again?' She exclaimed, taking note of the strained back and unnaturally bent hand stuck supporting the spine.

'Shall I fetch my staff?'

That only made him glance at her.

' I thought merchants didn't wield staves.' Was his dry note.

' Oh, but that'd be where you'd be wrong, mister. All of the Anna sisters receive a brief medical course back home.' She retorted, her grin slowly unfurling from her pursed lips;

Charming, as per usual, but to Robin that unburdened glee still remained as off-putting as ever. How could one smile as thus in a world as bleak as this? Wherever they might go, may it be the serene peaks of mt. Prism, the soaring deserts of Plegia or the luscious forests of Ylisse, warning signs were emerging everywhere. And they were becoming unavoidable, whatever one's sense or idea of peace might be. And so the row of white teeth that he was shown now only stung like a big neon distraction to the problems at large. A future skirmish, nigh approaching behind a narrow pass? Or maybe an ambush from the dark veil of the night with rioting populace, feeling scared and alone, even though the Shepherds had been trying their utmost. It had all fallen down to him. A task only a Tactician and strategist could amount to. Once again he felt his shoulders wear with the burden of responsibility.

It was hard finding someone to unwind with. Chrom had his own problems, and their little moments of camaraderie and escapism had grown fewer until the point where they rarely occured at all. That's what two consecutive wars does to a friendship. Maybe he'd feel some solace in this... Exchange... Quickly, his rapid mind to mouth produced a swift: 'Where do you all even originate from?' Though he didn't exactly expect an answer, she was bound to act as elusive as ever. Probably, anyway.

"You all"? Gee, I'm not sure if I remember.. Maybe a quick sash might jog my memory?' That made him grimace sourly. He had forgotten this particular Anna had such a penchant for nicknaming everyday objects, especially the ones revolving around currency. She possessed quite a knack for it too, which automatically elevated her above the rest of the samey crimson haired bourgeois. Well, that and her control of the Outrealm Gates of yore.

'Again with the money, huh? Is that what this is about? I can assure you we'll pay your stipend within the next tenday, but seeing as funds from the homefront have been-'

' No, no, no.' She interjected with a flick of the finger and a glint in her eye. ' The Ylissean pay hasn't exactly been.. Prolific .. But it's been forthcoming at least, and there are plenty of other worlds where they adhere to a different model, exchange rates have been quite profitable for this lucky gal recently!'

And that was the exact moment when it struck him. A bout of lightning to his head, he found himself rapidly connecting pathways his mind hadn't tread on before.

' These... Alternative realms, you've visited them often, correct? ' He put forward, inspecting her with his calm hazel eyes. The gaze was met with her own amber pair, conveying a sudden distance as the question reverbed in the confines of her headspace.

'Alternative realms? You mean, alternative to this? Different stories?' She exclaimed wearily.

'Different outcomes.' He corrected. 'Different endings.'

And that was what he was getting at. Exploring the Anna Enigma (as he had aptly named it in the past) could wait -who really cared where the slew of peddlers came from anyhow; their presence meant good business- it was his uncertainty of mind that had the precedence. This identity crisis, something which his ratio could not fully comprehend. He had never been a religious man. Not to Grima, the human construct of despair, or to Naga, in herself ultimately only a creation of something higher as well; the idea of religion or worship had always seemed like drab and futile concept to him, who due to his amnesia had no recollection nor nurture in the arts. But where his mind couldn't aid him, where a careful eye or calculation failed woefully, perhaps clairvoyance would provide him with the answer he sought. And that was precisely the crux of this situation. At the heart of the matter, the object of his worry was shared with the reason that spawned this conversation in the first place. A vision of an alternate timeline in which Anna, in one of her sporadic ventures into the unknown, had unfortunately uncovered a terrible truth. One that could go two fold in either way here, going off on the many realities she had witnessed it happen in and in how many it had played out differently. Ironically, the nightmare that had plagued him every night was also what she had seen now, and why she had come here today And without knowing it from one another, both shared the same question:

Was Chrom fated to die by Robin's hand?

Greetings! 'Tis I, Fellbranded! I used to have a couple of active postings on this site, all having to do with Fire Emblem under a different pseudonym, but I have since taken those down. I wanted to start uploading stuff again, especially since I've been working on this crossfic for a while. I'm actually already quite a few chapters in, but will stick to weekly uploads (apart from the double feature I'm uploading to kick this off) so I can give myself time to finish. Hopefully y'all will enjoy this, please write a review if you did or didn't :)