"Robin! This is our chance! I'm going to finish it!" Chrom said, leveling Falchion at the Grima.
Robin looked over at her children, who fought the Grimleal heatedly, Lucina swinging Falchion and Morgan flipping the pages of a tome.
She closed her eyes, knowing what she had to do.
She stepped in front of Chrom, facing Grima in the eye.
"Robin?! Wait, what-" Chrom protested.
"... WHAT... WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" the fell dragon heaved raspily.
"For once, I'm glad you and I are the same," she said, her voice surprisingly calm. "Now I can give my life to protect those who I care for..."
"...YOU WOULD...NOT DARE!" Grima's eyes flashed with anger and frustration.
"I would and I will. The evils you would visit on this world are unthinkable..." She felt a sense of satisfaction, then guilt. "In some way, I—we share the blame. It's only right we meet our end together!"
"... NOOOOO!" He cried out, before being struck by Robin's Thoron and began to dissolve away into black matter.
"Robin! No!" He exclaimed, running towards her as she began to fade away as well.
"Thank you, Chrom. For...everything..." She smiled. "Tell the others...my last thoughts were of them... May we meet again, in a better life..."
"Robin! No! Ah gods, NO!" He called out.
"I lost already lost Emm... Not you too..." He thought as he raced to reach her.
But he was too late.
She placed her hand out to touch his face, but it faded away as soon as it came in contact with his skin, and she was gone.
He tried in vain to grab the air where she once was, and collapsed on the ground.
"No..." He murmured, defeatedly.
Suddenly a bright light shone from the dark sky, blinding Chrom and everyone else until the whole world was white.
Chrom awoke laying down somewhere, a bright light on the ceiling.
"Where am I?" He thought.
He felt something hard around his head, and put his hand up to his temple to find something resembling a helmet.
Helmet.
Everything rushed back in at once, and he realized something.
He'd been in a virtual world for several years, and his whole life there were false memories.
He wasn't really a prince. But he couldn't care less about that. He wanted to know where Robin was, if she was still alive, or even real at all.
He yanked off the helmet to see that his hair had grown down to his shoulders before he heard a familiar voice ring out.
"Chrom!"
He sat up, with some difficulty, to see Lissa walking with what looked like a cane, towards his bed.
"L-Lissa," he croaked out, his voice crackly from underuse.
She smiled and offered him a water bottle.
He chugged the whole bottle down placed it down on the bedside.
"Thanks," he said.
Lissa nodded, sitting down on a chair next to the bed.
"... You remember, too, don't you?" She asked quietly, her voice slightly scratchy as well.
He nodded, sitting up straighter so that his back was pressed against the wall.
"I don't even know when we entered the game," he told her. "It all felt so real."
The straw-haired girl looked down.
"None of us knew that our memories would be altered when we entered the game. None of us could remember the real world."
Her brother listened with rapt attention, wanting to know as much as possible.
"Even though all that was fake, if you died in the game, you died in real life," she said sadly. "That's why all those people were disappearing unexpectedly. Apparently their bodies in the real world weren't being properly taken care of."
She sighed.
"Luckily for us, Mom and Dad got us into a good hospital and paid for it b-before they-" she began to sob. "D-died.
Chrom's sapphire eyes widened.
"Wait, what?" He asked.
His sister shook her head.
"I don't know the details. I heard everything from Frederick," she said.
"That's right," Chrom recalled. "He entered the game with us."
"... And exited it with you, as well."
Frederick stood by the door frame, looking the same as he did in the game, only leaning on a cane similar to Lissa's. He realized that they all looked the same as they had inside FE:A, but only because Chrom and Lissa's parents had ordered special treatment for all of them.
"Frederick!" Lissa beamed. "That was quick."
He took a seat next to her and squeezed her small hand in his. It was strange, how even though Frederick was their adopted brother, they had gotten married in the game.
"I found everything I- well, we, need to know," he held up a manila folder.
"It's good to see you, friend," Chrom said. "And what's that?"
"A pleasure to see you too, milord," he replied.
Chrom sighed.
"Just call me Chrom, please," he told him. "I'm not a prince in this world, remember?"
"Just the same," the great knight replied. "And about this folder, it contains all of our hospital information."
"Go on," the blue-haired man said.
Frederick flipped the folder open and read the information out.
"It says we, Lady Emmeryn included, were admitted here in September of 2020," he explained. "And the date today is June 5, 2024. That means that we've been in the game for a little under four years."
Chrom pondered this, and something clicked.
"In the game, we met Robin three years ago. That must've been when we entered the game," he said. "If Robin couldn't remember anything, then maybe that was the real reason she had no memories."
Lissa nodded.
"It makes sense," she commented.
"That means everything that happened before that were just false memories," he sighed.
Chrom's eyes widened in surprise, realizing something.
"Wait," he said with a tone of urgency. "What about our children?"
That sent a wave of shock throughout them.
"... Were they fake, too?" Frederick asked.
Lissa pounded her fist on the chair.
"No way!" She yelled. "No way they're fake! Do you really think anyone could make AI's so realistic? Owain's our son, Frederick!"
He shook his head.
"I'm sorry, dear," he said. "I believe you. However, I can't find an explanation as to how they got into the game, if they have real bodies."
Lissa paused at that.
"Neither can I," she admitted. "But I'm sure they're real! Right, Chrom?"
Chrom nodded, recalling how Lucina and Morgan had interacted in the world, just like any other person. And most importantly, how they both had personality traits of himself and Robin, with Robin's intelligence and his stubbornness.
Just thinking of her made Chrom's heart feel empty. No doubt she was out there, somewhere.
"Frederick," He said, grabbing the attention of the couple. "I'd appreciate it if you'd help me find Robin and all the other Shepherds. It'd be nice to see them all again."
The former knight could hear the sadness in his friend's voice, and couldn't help but feel guilty to be the bringer of bad news.
"Milord- I mean, Chrom, I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news regarding that."
Chrom's stomach twisted at that.
"Go on," he said weakly.
"... It seems that everyone still alive who were involved in the FE:A incident have woken up... All except one."
The blue-haired man knew from the second he heard those words that it was Robin. Gosh, why did it have to be her? Why her of all people?
He made something that sounded like a choking noise when he tried to speak.
"... No," he said quietly.
A long silence followed, Lissa biting back sobs.
"... Is she dead?" He asked, breaking the pause.
"No," Frederick replied, shaking his head. "She's still hooked up to the NerveGear. However, she hasn't woken up. It's unknown where her consciousness within the virtual network is."
At that moment, Chrom shoved the covers off of him and hung his feet off the bed, his body feeling as stiff as plastic.
"Whoa, easy, Chrom!" Lissa exclaimed. "You need to practice walking with a cane!"
Despite her protests, Chrom placed his feet on the cold ground, then tried to stand up. He failed awfully and his knees buckled, falling to the ground with a painful thud.
"Urgh!" Lissa yelled. "You are so stupid! How are we supposed to help you up? Frederick and I can barely walk on our own!"
Chrom pushed himself up onto his elbows, his arms shaking.
"I-I need to find her," Chrom said, his bones feeling like weights. ".. R-Robin..."
Frederick fetched a cane from the other room and helped Chrom to walk on it, Lissa fussing over how he looked like an old man.
After he had gotten the hang of it, a nurse came into the room and assisted them with being discharged from the hospital and rehab.
Chrom sat in the waiting room, his head hanging down, thinking of Robin.
"Don't worry," Lissa said with a reassuring smile after seeing him. "We'll find her, and we'll bring her back."
