So… hi. This is my first story, that I came up with after, like, my seventh play through of Awakening. Well, combined with reading a bunch of stories that had both gendered Robins in it.

This one is definitely going to be unique. For one, it has three "Robins". Xylia is the main one, and is 18 years old. Star is her sister, age 21. Finally, Ven, her brother, is 16. They appear as follows:

-Xylia: build 1, face 4, hair 3, hair color 9, female voice 1. Standard Tactician outfit.

-Star: build 3, face 1, hair… more like Sully's hair, only a tad longer (it's not one of the options), hair color 9, female voice 2. Myrmidon gear, like Lon'qu's, only dark violet with a golden belt.

-Ven: build 2, face 1, hair 3 (minus the headband), hair color 1, male voice 2 (but slightly higher-pitched). Henry's outfit, except with more purple, wrapped in a cloak similar to Xylia's.

-They all have violet eyes.

So yeah. This chapter features Xylia - it will be like that until I get to the game's chapter 4, as the other two are in Ferox. Why? You'll find out. Eventually. …Well, I might make the next chapter be from Star's POV; I'm not sure yet.

Well, Fire Emblem and all of its characters don't belong to me. I just own Xylia, Star, and Ven, I guess.

I hope you enjoy!

Prelude - The Fall

The air was nearly still, with only the slightest of breezes ruffling the flowers of the meadow. From some distance away, the sound of a horse - or more than one - pulling a cart could be heard. The cart, owned and driven by one of the many merchants known as Anna, stopped just at the edge of the meadow and the surrounding forest.

"Alright, this is as far as I'm taking you," the red-haired merchant called into the cart. "I'm already a day off-course..."

The door to the storage space inside opened up. A woman stepped out of it, her face covered by the cowl of her dark, purple and gold robes. She wore white pants, tucked neatly into her knee-high brown boots. Digging into one of the pockets on the inside of her robes, the woman pulled out a small, worn coin purse. She handed over a medium bullion - much more than what Anna had asked for the ride.

"I'll be taking a bronze sword and a Thunder tome off your hands," the woman explained.

"Mm… alright," Anna said, pocketing the golden bar. The tome and sword combined with the ride still cost less that what the stranger gave her. Oh well; there were no refunds. The redhead quickly ducked into her store and grabbed the two weapons. "There you go."

"Thank you, Anna." With a slight bow, the woman left without another word. The meadow grass crunched beneath her feet.


As soon as she was certain that she was out of Anna's sight, the woman swung her new sword at a nearby tree. It sunk into the wood by about two inches, but with a yelp, she let go of the sword. The recoil jarred her sword arm.

She removed the sword from the tree, but instead of attacking it again, she let it drop to the ground; instead, she pressed her forehead against the tree.

"I hate her."

Nothing responded.

"I hate her," the woman repeated, louder this time. "I never asked for her protection. Why shouldn't I have the freedom to do as I please?"

Her eighteenth birthday was a week ago. The day after, she announced that she was going to leave home. The years of serving Khan Basilio made her yearn for adventure; one could only take too much of the constant fighting and the colder temperatures. Upon turning eighteen, she thought that Star, her older sister, would let her live on her own.

That was far from the case. Star had instantly denied her that freedom. She went as far as to claim it was "for your own good" and "it's what Mother would have wanted".

Xylia had slammed her bedroom door in her sister's face at that remark, locked it, and climbed out the window. She hadn't once looked back, not even when she heard Ven calling for her…

She trembled a little, biting her lower lip. Ven. Her little brother looked up to her for everything. Of everyone she knew in Ferox, he would be the one she missed… greatly.

A branch snapped nearby, breaking Xylia out of her trance. Someone was nearby, but she had no way of knowing if they were friend, foe, or a harmless woodland creature. She retrieved her sword from the ground, and shouted, "Who's there?"

"Only me." A woman stepped out of the shadows, dressed in attire that almost mirrored Xylia's own. The only differences were that they wore some sort of golden breastplate under their cloak, and the stranger's clothing looked battle-scarred. "Hello, Xylia."

The cloaked stranger removed her hood, to reveal dark hair - the bangs drooped on either side of her face, the rest of it braided and pulled back in a pony tail - larger than normal violet eyes, and thin, almost colorless, lips.

Xylia took a step backwards, pressing against the tree. It was her own face. "You… what… how…?"

"I'm you," the doppelgänger replied, "that is, the you from the future."

The future…? "Why should I believe you?"

Her lookalike smiled, almost maliciously. "The glove you wear on your right hand… is to hide the Mark of Grima which resides on it."

Xylia flinched, for two reasons. The first was that the glove reminded her of Star, because the left glove hid the identical Mark her sister bore. The second was that she knew what the Mark meant. What little memory of her father remained were pieces of him declaring the imminent return of the fell dragon, Grima, heralded by the one who bears his Mark.

By that logic, it meant that she, Star, or, gods forbid, Ven, was destined to destroy the world.

…Which meant that the woman standing before her must have fulfilled that destiny some time in the future - there was no other way she could have travelled here otherwise.

"Whatever you want from me, I won't give it," Xylia growled, preparing to either fight or run for her life.

Pure fury exploded on the future Xylia's face. "How dare you speak to me like that, mortal?"

That confirms my fears… but how does this help me? Xylia thought. The fell dragon needed her for something, and that was clearly to be his human vessel. Why the need to travel to the past, and seek her when he already had the future her? She had no idea, but there was no way in hell she was sticking around to find out.

She'd always been quick on her feet, just like her mother and siblings…

"How dare I? It's simple - you aren't me, and I won't be your pawn!"

She'd managed to secretly grab hold of the Thunder tome while she was yelling, and now she whispered the incantation for it - the one she knew by heart.

Xylia didn't bother to see if it hit or not; the shout of pain and fury as she ran deeper into the forest was enough to know she succeeded.


She found herself stumbling into an open field, out of breath and limping from when she had tripped on a long tree root. Her ankle didn't sprain, luckily, but it was still too sore to completely run on it.

I've been running for hours; I think I've earned a break, Xylia thought. She sagged against one of the outlying trees, hidden in the shade, and tried to take deep breaths. Her heart was thumping faster than she's ever felt it, in part due to the run… but mostly because of Grima.

How could she face that? The fact that she had seen herself become that pawn…

A high-pitched noise filled her ears, and she grabbed at her head, trying to block it out. Not even covering her ears could work, and her newfound headache grew in intensity. "Ahhhh…!"

"You were foolish to think that you could run from me," Grima said, and Xylia's future self appeared in front of her. "Now, for you to become mine!"

Images burst before her eyes; memories, she guessed, of her so-called future. Of helping three others fight off a pack of brigands who were assaulting a town; of joining the Shepards afterwards, as their chief tactician; of many events afterwards, leading to the war with Plegia; of a peaceful time, of marrying the blue-haired man she had fought alongside in Southtown; of having a daughter; of going back to war against Walhart, the Conqueror; of more peace afterwards; of having another child, a son. All the while, there were creatures - she somehow knew they were called Risen - the dead that had been reanimated in a crude fashion.

But what scared her the most were the last few memories - of fighting her father alongside her husband; of winning, but not; of slaying the blue-haired man with a lightning bolt to his chest; of accepting Grima's power… and of slaying everyone in her wake.

No… no… no… She couldn't do any of that… not… ever…

Her eyes snapped open as she fell, hitting the ground hard, and not being able to move. Darkness danced on the edge of her vision, and she struggled to breathe.

"Grr… your heart isn't strong enough yet…" Grima said. With that, he returned to the shadows.

The last thing Xylia saw before the darkness fully took her was a robin; the red-chested bird searching for food in the grass, right next to her face. It flew away when she twitched… and then all she could see was black.


That's it for the prologue… er, prelude. Why did I name it that? I dunno. I like that word. Prelude.

Alright, before I get horribly sidetracked, I'd like to ask for reviews! Tell me what you thought; if you liked it, if you hated it, if you have any ideas for me…

Speaking of ideas, I have… some of the pairings for this story. The ones I have will be on my profile, but… Well, I'd like all of you to help me pair everyone else. Currently, the first-gen people not paired are: Lissa, Frederick, Stahl, Kellam, Lon'qu, Panne, Gaius, Cordelia, Gregor, Nowi, Libra, Tharja, Olivia, Cherche, Say'ri, Basilio, Flavia, Donnel, Anna, Tiki, and all SpotPass characters, along with Star and Ven (yeah, I can't even pair my own characters). For second-gen… it's everyone but Lucina and Laurent. That includes the OC children of my, well, OCs. Dai, the son of Star, and Sylvia, the daughter of Ven.

…You don't have to reply about that immediately. I just need to know what you would like to see. Because I have some weird/unpopular OTPs. I tried staying away from most of them, which is why the list of not-paired people is so long.

Anyways, thanks for reading!