Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem or any of these characters.
Characters: Chrom, Robin, Validar, Grima.
Pairings: Chrom/Robin.
Warnings: Character death.
Author's Notes: I would be very surprised if this hasn't been done before, and I realize that this is mostly transcription of the 'Fated Clash' and 'Fated Clash II' cutscenes. Still, this is one of my favourite scenes in the game, so I couldn't help myself.

As a side note: Finally. A fic that I know what rating and genres to assign to. What are the odds?

"You're shaking." Chrom's deep voice found its way to her ears and snapped her out of her thoughts. One of his hands took one of hers, squeezing it. "Are you afraid?"

Robin looked up at him, studying his sweat-stroked face and his concerned expression for a good couple of seconds before slowly nodding. She was unashamed in admitting her fear. After all, they had just fought their way past some of the most terrifying Risen thus far, and now they stood at the entry to the Dragon's Table, just the two of them, as the rest of the Shepherds had stayed behind to buy them time.

The Dragon's Table… where they would encounter her father, who was hell-bent on killing Chrom and doing Naga knew what to her. "It's okay," Chrom said. "…I am, too." Both knew they had to go on, though. It was either now or never. If Validar wasn't stopped, he would bring ruin to the world. "Know this, Robin." He squeezed her hand again. "No matter what happens in there, know that I love you."

She blinked in surprise. It was unusual for him to state his feelings for her so bluntly- he preferred to let it remain unsaid, to prove his affection in other means, and never lavishly or publicly. He'd confessed that saying it made him feel awkward and pushy. To her, however, hearing him say it filled her with warmth and certainty. She'd always been afraid that he would leave her for someone not connected to the Fell Dragon, and those words, along with the gentle touch and the loving gaze that normally accompanied them, never failed to abate those fears.

Now, too, his eyes were filled with a softness that said more than any words ever had, but the rest of his face had locked itself in a fierce, determined expression. Robin knew the meaning behind his words without him ever explaining it. It wasn't that he no longer felt the awkwardness. It was that he wanted to have said it to her at least once, recently, in case he would die at the Table and these would be her last memories of him.

She swallowed at the realization. If Chrom was saying these things, he had already accepted that he may very well not survive the battle. Realizing his mortality and vulnerability sent a shiver down her spine, but he tightened his grip on his sword and gently tugged on her hand. "Let's go. I intend to be on the road to home before dusk."

She let him lead her for a few steps, but then took her Thoron tome to hand and passed him, walking out in front of him. If Validar was awaiting them with the plan to strike Chrom down the second he entered, he would have to change that plan if she was between the Exalt and the spell.

"So you've come, Robin," a hoarse voice called out to her from the darkness. Both stopped, Robin opening her tome and Chrom assuming a stance from which he could lunge forward and strike at a moment's notice. As Robin's eyes grew accustomed to the dim lighting, she saw Validar's silhouette against the purple-blazing torches around the altar in the middle of the room. "Do you feel it?" the sorcerer continued, "Lord Grima is rousing from his slumber. All he needs now is a vessel to inhabit, and strong life force to complete him." The flash of white within his silhouette told Robin he was grinning. Realizing what he was saying, she brought one hand back, gathering power in it as she mentally recited the incantation for her spell.

"And you've brought me both." She was the vessel. And Validar intended to feed the Fell Dragon Chrom's life force. If the Exalt was bothered by this knowledge, or even realized it, he didn't show it. When she glanced over at him, she saw him trembling with the desire to leap forward and shove Falchion through Validar's chest. It was likely taking him everything he had to keep himself from blindly doing so. "Come to me, my daughter."

"Never!" Robin swung her hand forward, unleashing the wrath of her tome upon him, and the second the electricity connected, she saw the flash of blue and white indicating that Chrom had charged as well. She didn't wait a second with charging a new spell as she watched her husband fight the sorcerer, trying not to be discouraged by how easily Validar used his magic-coated hands to hold off Chrom's sacred sword.

Chrom tried from different angles, diving and rolling out of the way of magic strikes, but all without result. At the very least, Robin supposed, it bought her time to chant and distracted Validar so she could hit him.

Suddenly, a blast of magic hid both from view and Robin's own magic pulsed out of control momentarily as she feared for Chrom. His voice almost immediately sounded from behind the purple and black veil, though. "Up there!" She jolted her head up, seeing Validar floating near the ceiling, and she fired another cast of Thoron in his direction. It missed him as he phased out of existence, exclaiming that they were fools.

Looking back at her husband, she saw the surprise on his face, seconds before a spell collided with him and sent him to the floor, although he quickly got back up, supporting himself with his sword. He seemed to lack the strength to stand without Falchion's support, though, and Validar cackled maniacally as he charged another, larger, cast of the same spell above his head. "DIE!"

Panicking, and knowing she didn't have the time to charge another Thoron, Robin shot a weaker, but faster, Arcthunder spell forward. The two spells collided with another explosion, but stayed very well clear of the Exalt. When she looked back to Validar, she saw him frowning at her. Clearly, he was displeased with her magic prowess, or simply with the fact that she still allied it to Chrom instead of him. With Chrom still incapacitated as far as approaching and attacking the sorcerer went, Validar seemed to decide to focus his efforts on Robin instead.

"There's no damage I can do to your body that the Fell Dragon can't repair," he said, raising his hand. "You will join me- the easy way or the hard way!"

"I will not!" Instead of trying to outspeed him with the slow Thoron, Robin dropped the tome and drew her sword instead, attacking him with it despite the thick veil of magic hampering her approach. Now she understood why Chrom had not been fast enough to land a hit on him. This time it was her sword which was effortlessly held off by her father's hands, much to her frustration. She was nowhere near as skilled with the sword as she was with a tome…

"Robin!" Validar turned around too late to react, and Robin saw the tip of Falchion coming out of his back in an explosion of blood. Apparently, Chrom had found the Elixir she'd slipped into his pack before they came here and put it to good use, for he was back on his feet and very busy driving Falchion hilt-deep into Validar's chest. "You… will… not!" When he pulled Falchion back, the same purple flames that surrounded Validar's spells poured out of his wound. Sheathing the sword, Chrom reached for Robin and pulled her away from the sorcerer, taking her well out of reach.

As Validar was slowly enveloped in the flames, Chrom turned to her, his face almost jubilant with the knowledge of their victory. However, Robin heard her father's voice over the crackling of the fires. "This isn't over!" His corpse raised one hand. "Damn you BOTH!" Robin gasped as Validar cast a final spell towards them, and she shoved Chrom out of its way. Instead of him, she took the full brunt of the spell, and she fell back, landing hard on the ground.

Fortunately Chrom was right there with her within seconds, helping her sit up. "Are you alright?" He looked over her body, but seeing no serious injuries or forming bloodstains, he chuckled, gesturing his head towards where Validar had burned up. The sorcerer was all but gone now. "That's the end of him." He spent a few seconds looking at the spot, but then turned back to Robin, helping her stand up. "Thanks to you, we carried the day. We can rest easy now. At long last…" As she got to her feet, however, her vision pulsed, the edges bloodshot and red. One of her hands came up without her wanting it, and she felt power gathering.

Chrom had been looking at her with those soft eyes again, but when he saw her shaking her head vehemently in protest of her hand's actions, his expression changed into one of concern. "What's wrong?" She grabbed on to his shoulder, realizing her other hand was acting of its own accord now as well. "Hey," Chrom cried in shock, "Hang on-" He interrupted himself with a cry of pain, shock and terror now visible on his face, and he staggered back. His hand clutched a pike of electricity that protruded from his chest, now burning his hand as well as he made no attempts to pull it out.

When Robin looked at her hand, she saw the same electricity sparking and crackling around her palm and fingers. She looked back at Chrom, but found herself unable to twist her own face into a shocked expression. "This is not your…" he began, but he had to interrupt himself, momentarily allowing his face to twist in pain. "Your fault…" he finished. "Promise me you'll escape from this place." Robin wanted to shake her head in disbelief at what was happening in front of her eyes, but again, her body refused to do her bidding. "Please," Chrom urged, "Go…"

With those words, his legs gave out and he collapsed, falling forward and no longer moving as he hit the ground. Robin backed up unwillingly as Validar's cackling rang through her mind. She finally regained control of her body as the laughter died, and ran over to her husband, screaming his name and turning him over. The pike of magic that she had used to kill him had finally dissipated, leaving his body unscarred to the naked eye. But his face, still stroked and covered with sweat, was so pale…

"Chrom!" she called, holding one hand on his shoulder and putting the other on his cheek, "Chrom, answer me! NO!" She shook him, knowing rationally that it was too late for him and that she had to do as he had said, leave the Dragon's Table and return to Ylisse, but unable to bring herself to leave his body or to even stop trying to talk to him. "Morgan and Lucina need you!" she cried, shaking him. "I need you! Please, Chrom… please… don't leave me… Please…"

She didn't know how long she sat there, clutching, shaking, and sobbing into her husband's cold body, but something changed in her mind. Her life as the queen of Ylisse had no meaning without Chrom by her side and her children needed HIM to look to as a role model, not her. The portion of her that abhorred the Fell Dragon and wished to stay here with him grew in size and strength quickly, inevitably replaced by a part of her that started to see the sense in Validar's words.

Her life as a mortal had lost her meaning. Naga had not shown any mercy on her supposed son. The answer was clear to her. Grima held no power to restore life. And even if he did, she didn't imagine that he would have employed it to save the man his closest servant had come to despise so much. Clearly… if she could not save Chrom, she could at least destroy everything else. Everything that had allowed him to die.

She leaned over him, bringing her lips close to his ear as if he could still hear her. "I've tasted your body so many times in these few years," she whispered into it. "Let's see if your soul tastes just as good." She took Falchion from its sheath and tossed it across the room, so that it would no longer get in her way. "Give me your life force, Chrom. We'll make them pay… all of them."