Red droplets seemed suspended in mid-air as the woman watched her reflection fall, a pale hand twisted around her neck and another hand resting on the blade that had been thrust into her stomach. The woman could feel a strange sort of pain in her own stomach and a quick glance down gave her all she needed to know. A matching weapon, a Wyrmslayer dubbed Wyrmsblood with a blade of the darkest black was lodged in her own stomach, calling forth a torrent of red that dripped down and stained the scales of Grima's back.
They were dying, dying by their own hand.
"Y-You fool," the dragon's host rasped. "You're only killing yourself along with me." Her eyes lifted and suddenly the disgusting crimson faded into a tamer orange shade, revealing a glimpse of brown that had long ago been forgotten. "For all your talk about power and ferocity, you're nothing more than a coward."
"No." The woman with a constricted throat known as Robin just shook her head and gave the woman who was practically her a bitter, broken grin. "A coward would have just put you to sleep and been done with it all." Her brown eyes shifted back to the rushing crowd of people she called her own , her vision locking on to three individuals with blue hair. Her beating heart nearly stopped as she found her nephew and his father holding the royals back with their weapons raised, just as she had asked. Her daughter was pushing, shoving, beating her cousin in an attempt to get through, her cheeks red and soaked with tears. The sight nearly killed her.
But she had to do it.
The host just chuckled and looked back up to the falling woman above her, both of them seemingly in a strange twist of time. "Looks like the Wolf of Blood finally got her wish, didn't she?" Robin turned back to the falling dragon in human skin and watched as the purple smog that had enveloped her body seemed to be torn away slowly, fading into the setting sun with vibrant silver flecks that danced in the sky. The orange in her gaze was melting, finally displaying the chocolate that had been swallowed long ago. "I doubt they will forget you after this, Robin."
"I never wanted that." The grandmaster felt weak as they seemed to dance in the air, hardly moving from the sky above and yet still they felt the desperate tug of the ocean below them beckoning them towards its waves. Her attention locked on the tactician, watching as her clawed fingertips slowly retreated from her neck. "I thought I was afraid of disappearing...but—"
"Now you are." The victim of the fell dragon grinned as a few tears slipped from her brightening eyes. "You're going to disappear along with me. You are going to die on this very dragon." She turned her eyes to the silently screaming princess and suddenly pain and regret overtook her brown eyes. "I deserve to die after everything I've done. Lucina...my own daughter..." She slowly, weakly shook her head before letting out a gurgling chuckle, red slipping from her lips and trailing down her chin. "No, she's your daughter now. I do not deserve her after what I have done to her. Not after killing Chrom."
Robin's body seemed lighter than ever as she looked down, ruby liquid falling to the scales below them and staining the dying dragon's back a vibrant shade of red. Her hand shook as she reached for the second Wyrmsblood that rested within her skin. Her fingers nearly slipped on the red covering, but they soon found a hold and wove themselves around the blade.
"That could have been me," she admitted. "I could have given in just as easily as you did." Her eyesight seemed to blur as she thought back on that day, the day history had changed and marked the difference between the two women's lives. "I felt that fear of death chill my heart. But," she paused. A hot tear slipped down her cheek as she locked eyes with her other self. "I managed to hold on. I thought of Lucina, of Morgan, of Chrom and everyone I loved that was right on the other side of that curtain. I barely kept myself together. I could have fallen just as easily as you did."
"But I was a fool," the woman admitted. Her brown hair, once held high in a ponytail was now short and framing her face, cut from the blade that was now sheathed in her fading body. "I didn't think of them. I thought of only myself in that moment. I was a coward, not a wolf. I always thought myself strong until that one moment. Then, I just fell apart. That fear that I held within myself of dying on the battlefield just jumped into my throat and suffocated me." Her eyes shut and released more diamond droplets, adding to the falling gemstones around them.
"We both are fools." Robin weakly laughed at the thought. "I always thought I was alone in this world. No past, no future, just a need to survive." Her eyes shut and solely focused on producing tears, hiding the shame and pain that swirled within them. "I really thought of myself as a lone wolf. I acted just as Owain, making a big show of myself in hopes that it would make myself a hero like the ballads that haunted my mind." Her eyes fluttered open to give the reflection a faint smile. "I never did know where those came from."
"You wrote them," she gasped. The tactician struggled for breath as the red flowing from her skin dripped down her legs and crashed on Grima's back. "We were once a mercenary." The memories of the past she had stolen from herself stung at her eyes, forcing her vision to blur and become smudges coated in crimson. "We traveled through Ferox in search of a bounty, or a skirmish or some sort of action. We never wanted to let others die like the ones we held so long ago." She struggled for air as she fought against the words, forcing them to leave her lips and enter the brunette's ears.
"We were part of a band, just as the Radiant Hero had been. We were their leader, the Wolf of Blood. When we lost them, we never stayed in a town for more than a day. We had a set of pipes that they bought for us from Ferox's finest instrument maker. It was pure ivory with a dragon engraved on the pristine surface, curling around them and providing a handle to hold it by. We were a mercenary by day, but a bard by night."
"We used to find a tavern and entertain all sorts of people, dancing around the stage and lighting a song in the air. People would flock to the doors to hear us play our music, to hear the legends, bards and ballads we had written on those long, sleepless nights. We were always concealed by our hood, though. We never wanted to show that shame that lingered in our eyes. We were a coward, you and I. We hid away instead of risking letting someone get attached to us."
She gasped again, this time from both lack of oxygen and pain. They were nearing the ground now, traveling so close that they could see the cracks and chips in the dragon's scales. The victim of the fell dragon reached out with bloodcaked fingers to brush a bit of stained hair out of her reflection's face. "It still eludes me, why a wolf would take a group of shepherds as her pack." She laughed at the thought and watched as the brown eyes looking down on her seemed to lose their proud shimmer. "We made our way devouring the flock, and yet we chose to protect it instead."
"Because they are my pack." Robin's lips twisted at the thought of people that were shouting just feet away, begging and pleading against this twisted fate. "They took me in, not the other way around. Without them I would have been lost and ravenous. I know that I would have lost my grip if it had not been for Chrom. I just know."
Her chin weakly lifted to take a glimpse at the sky above. Tangerine brush strokes filled her eyes as more and more violet smoke rose to the pristine clouds of white. The silver sparks that had slipped away seemed almost like stars above their heads, glinting and shining despite the darkness that was growing in the corners of her vision. Her eyes closed with a quiet chuckle as she submitted to her own night.
The two halves fell at the exact moment, gently touching the ground with scarlet stains and broken hearts. The grandmaster faintly saw the events that unfolded, lost in a strange sort of trance. The woman beside her seemed to watch her as a lonesome head of blue burst from the crowd, escaping the lance of his knight. Robin could see the blue and white blur before her as the escapee kneeled beside her and called out, trying to get her to hear him. She just shook her head and looked to the disappearing tactician.
"Chrom," the tactician choked. Her bloodstained fingers reached for the very edge of his cape, almost as if she was reaching for some distant object instead of a man that was just breaths away from her. Her body was deteriorating now, fading away in large purple plumes and rising into the dying sunlight. "I'm so sorry for everything I've done." Her lips quivered as she watched the man gently pick up her double, tears falling on the dying grandmaster. "I only wish that this will be enough for you. I hope that wherever you are, you are happy without the wolf you sheltered."
With those words, the dragon's victim faded out of existence entirely, leaving the red blade she had housed to crash down on the dragon's scales.
Robin looked up at the mess of blue hair before her, wishing that she could move something at this point. She couldn't feel a thing; her legs were all but air now as she met the same fate as her doppelganger had. The voice she had treasured, so calm and soothing was gone to her ears. His mouth moved with silent pleas, pleas she could not answer no matter how much she wished. Shaking, her right hand lifted to touch the blur of color in front of her. Cold fingertips brushed against his skin as she had her last success. A broken smile found a place on her face as she closed her eyes with tears.
"I'm sorry, love." Her voice was cracked, broken as she tried in vain to soothe him. "I know I made a promise to you...but I couldn't live with the thought of leaving my problem for another to deal with." Two more forms rushed to her side now, heads of blue hair blurring beside their father. A drawn-out exhale left her lips as she rested against the hand that held her head.
"I wanted to make this world safe for you." Her heart seemed to break again in her chest at her words, heavy with guilt and pain. "I wanted...to make a future for you two without a dragon looming over you. I wanted to give you a life without that strife you had known in your own time. Even...even if it meant I could not witness it myself." She could feel a cold trickle slip through her mouth and drop to her robe, but she ignored it. She just focused on the last feeling she had, the feeling of his skin against her own and the guilt in her chest.
"I love you." Robin's voice faded to merely a whisper as the crimson gems stopped falling and instead rested on the fading blade of black she unwillingly carried. "I love you all more than I could ever tell you. Please, forgive me for letting you see this." She could hear others coming closer, standing on the edge of their breaking circle. "Do not blame Frederick or Owain for this; their actions were my doing. I had made them promise to keep you from stopping me from fulfilling this twisted destiny I had."
She chuckled bitterly at the words that left her lips. "Destiny...what a strange thing. All this time, I struggled against it and hoped it was something that did not exist. I wanted more than anything to have a world without some sort of invisible, predetermined path that my feet would follow." Her mind gave her a faded, shimmering image of her daughter to fill the void her defunct eyes had left behind. "My own daughter knew more about destiny than I. My children are far better tacticians than I."
Brown eyes unwillingly fluttered open with a strange sort of clarity, giving her one last glimpse at the family she had given everything for. Her husband just gave her the most heartbreaking face imaginable, unable to speak any longer. Tears trailed down and splattered against her stains, leaving a pink puddle that would soon evaporate alongside their creator. Lucina and Morgan stared on with broken eyes as they contributed to the flooding of her blood, unable to gather themselves and reach out to their mother.
"I love you," Robin repeated. She hoped that her words were not leaving with her, fading away in the sun and abandoning her family. "I'm sorry that I could not give you the whole, perfect family you all wanted. I am so sorry." Her eyes lifted for a fraction of a second and found something glowing behind her husband, shimmering with a white light that put the rising silver to shame.
A man with familiar blue hair stood beside a grinning tactician, arms locked and bodies clean of any wounds. The man with blue hair stood tall against the sight before him, his white cape fluttering about in an imaginary breeze. He lacked the silver splendor of the man holding her, instead wearing a long abandoned blue that marked the very beginning of their time together. "Thank you," he breathed. The tactician on his arm nodded, her brown eyes gleaming with pride and thanksgiving.
The dying grandmaster watched them reach towards her with a glowing hand, trying to coax her to breathe. "It's time to let go," the freed captive whispered. "You have done more than enough now, Robin. Please, let go." She tilted her head to the sky and smiled through the tears that covered the woman's vision. "You will see them again. This, I can promise you." Robin blinked to clear her eyes and they were gone, leaving only silver streamers behind where they had once stood.
The brunette turned back to her own family with a fading grin. Her body was almost gone now; her arm had long ago fallen from Chrom's cheek and dropped beside her faint outline. Her eyes closed and gave in to the black within her mind, covering her with a warm and gentle embrace that reminded her of the man that held her now.
"May we meet again...in a better life." Robin let the words drift from her lips as she let go of the guilt in her chest. "I hope that I may see you all again. It may not be here in this time and place. However, I hope that when we do meet, we have a chance at a life without strife. All I wish for you is peace. Chrom, Lucina...Morgan...all I wish for you is peace and happiness."
And with those words, the grandmaster disappeared and joined the sky.
Author's Note: I always thought that the whole purple orb crashing into your double was a bit of a lackluster way to end things off. I understand that this is the power of Grima that Validar and the fell dragon both used, but it still feels a bit anti-climatic. You just sorta stand there and slap a ball at their face. It's like angry tennis or something... I always thought that using your own blade to kill your double would be much more satisfying.
This is sort of a connection to a slight AU telling I had in mind for Awakening. I always thought that Grima's influence should have held a stronger hold on Robin through their life. I mean, it's a dragon-god held within your soul basically! You would think it would drive you a bit blood-crazed if left unchecked...
This is just sort of a ramble I wrote to express another way of ending Awakening. It also ties to some project idea I have, but I'm too busy to start yet another project. I thought of posting this to my side account Silent Knightinggale, but I decided against it. The Fire Emblem fans I have here are probably a bit irked by my absence, especially now that I've revived "The Pains of Being in Charge" for my SoulSilverShipping Pokémon fans. I hope you can forgive me!
Thank you for reading!