Theme: Id (Serenity)

"Are they okay?" a masculine voice asked somewhere beyond the darkness.

"I…I don't know," a decidedly more feminine voice replied to the other voice. "I'm trying everything I can, but nothing's doing it so far."

"Well, we can't just leave them here like this, can we?" the masculine voice asked, sounding unwilling to abandon the people of subject.

"It's not a matter of 'can we leave them here', Milord," a deeper masculine voice responded. "We are very much capable of simply leaving them here; it is a matter of 'shall we leave them here'. Under normal circumstances I myself wouldn't advise doing so, but on the other hand they don't appear to be normal. Their blood is colored the blackest pitch of colors, a sign that they are of fell origins, possibly daemonic ones. And perhaps they may not truly be malignant beings but one can never be too cautious."

"Either way it's in poor character to leave anyone or anything alone to the wayside when they're in sour condition," The first masculine voice spoke. "We're going to—"

"Um, guys?" the feminine voice called. "What're these marks on their hands?"

"By the Gods!" the deeper masculine voice exclaimed in a mixture of fear and revulsion. "Is it true after all…?"

"What's true?" the first masculine voice asked.

"Uggghhhh…" a foreign voice groaned out. Light gasps were heard in response to the sound, and the darkness that blanketed everything blinked away a few times as their eyes slowly blinked open. When they were completely open they beheld two people standing over them in their haze of dizziness and drowsiness: a blonde teenaged girl who wore a yellow dress while she held an ornate staff in her hands, and a taller blue-haired man dressed in indigo who stood next to her. This man wasn't just any random man; it was Chrom, the swordsman who rescued them from their nightmares.

"I see that you're awake now," he greeted with a warm smile like the one he wore in their dreams. "Thank the Gods for that, and thanks to you Lissa for trying your best to help." The blonde teenager whom he thanked blushed lightly and giggled in response.

"Aw shucks," she said, "I just did what any good healer would have done. It's not like I could leave them lying here all bloody and broken up." The girl's words had certainly told them why they were unconscious in the first place. Maybe it was from something in their dreams or maybe it was something that was responsible for them falling unconscious in the first place. Looking at the girl better they found that they recognized her from the second Awakening Station's portrait as one of the many people who they would meet once they had fully awakened.

"Either way you have my gratitude for that," Chrom told her. He turned his gaze back to them. "Here, give me your hand," he said, reaching out his arm to them as he did in their dreams twice.

"Keep your distance Milord," the deeper masculine voice said to him. "There's no telling what they'll do."

"Frederick, please," Chrom said while looking at a knight behind him. "Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?" He looked at them and held his hand out towards them again. "I'll help you stand up. It's alright, I won't hurt you." They more than believed Chrom's gentle words to be true, not even hesitating to reach their arm out to grasp his with a smile, but a sharp pain shot into their arm and forced the limb down with a hiss. The pain was enough to draw tears from their eyes as they struggled to move their body, but alas it was in vain as they could not move no matter how hard they tried.

"Can't move huh?" Chrom said. "Not a problem. Lissa, Frederick, we're getting these two into the wagon."

"Is that such a wise idea Milord?" Frederick protested. "I still have my reservations about this entire ordeal." Chrom sighed at this but he kept his cool and continued on.

"I understand that Frederick, but I'm going to help them whether you have misgivings about them or not. If you don't want to assist then fine, I can't force you to and I won't ask you to. But don't try to stop me from doing so; that's an order. And what about you Lissa? Will you help me get these two to the wagon or not?"

"Hmmm…I don't think I'm strong enough to carry one of them by myself," the girl said, "but I'll try."

"Alright then. I've got this one, see if you can get the other. If not, I'll come and help you out after I've gotten this one into the wagon." Chrom wrapped his arms underneath one of the downed duo who hissed in pain from the touch, and when he lifted them into the air they shuddered in agony. "Don't worry friend. I'm here to help," he said to the male figure. They never doubted his words for a second, and while it hurt as Hell they were all the same very grateful for his emotional warmth. As Chrom took care to not injure the stranger when he made his way back to the transport vehicle he noticed Frederick closing in on the other one who was being carried on Lissa's back. "Frederick, what are you—"

"I am assisting you and Milady," the knight spoke plainly. "As much doubts that I have about this, if you will help these two then so will I." Frederick grabbed the female stranger and lifted her off of Lissa's back to some degree, allowing the girl to carry them with little issue.

"Thanks Freddy-bear!" Lissa said to him.

"You are most welcome Milady," Frederick responded. Together the three individuals carried the injured people to their wagon and carefully sat them down on their backs up against some crates. Pillows were not present so the crates would have to make do in the meantime.

"There," Chrom said. "At least you two aren't lying on the ground anymore."

"That's just one issue out of the way though," Lissa said.

"The next issue would be determining who they are," Frederick stated.

"The next issue would be getting them to a healer," Chrom shot at Frederick.

"We can very well accomplish both Milord," Frederick responded.

"Then how about we get going already for starters?" Chrom said. The knight did not appear happy to hear that but he complied nonetheless and strode back to his dark mare, returning to his seat atop her and giving her the signal to continue forth. The trio's journey had resumed but with the two wounded strangers in tow. "We'll get the both of you to a healer, then we can figure out what to do about you next." The two strangers felt comfort at the words, managing to smile of all things. Just as they had said in their dreams they knew that they would come to like Chrom.

After a twenty-minute trip the three travelers ended up in a southern town of Ylisse. Their top priority at the moment was to take the wounded to a medic and then stock up on resources before they returned to their home. Some of the townsfolk noticed the trio passing by as well as the injured individuals in the wagon. Everyone who had saw them looked on with a face of disgust, pity, or shock at their predicament. Rounding a corner and walking for another block Chrom and the others happened upon the local priest's clinic. Chrom and Frederick carried both the wounded in to the building and they all looked for the doctor. He was found experimenting with a medicine and as soon as his eyes came upon them he greeted them with a warm smile.

"Hail, travelers!" he said. "How may I be of ser—Good Naga almighty! What happened to these two?"

"We don't know," Chrom said. "We just found them like this on our way here and stopped here as soon as we could."

"I tried healing them," Lissa told the sage, "but nothing worked; not even the elixir I had on me had any lasting or major effect."

"I see…Come inside my office, I'll see if I can do something, anything." Inside of the sage's office were several different elixirs and tomes ready for use. Both of the strangers were laid down on the table so that both could fit and the sage leaned in close to inspect their wounds, but he couldn't figure out much with their clothing still on.

"Excuse me?" the sage asked them. "Is it alright if I remove your clothing? I can't necessarily check for wounds with them on. If you don't feel comfortable with that then I won't force you." He waited for the two to respond, and after a while they tried to speak up.

"S-Sure…" the male said.

"I guess that there's…no harm…" the female agreed. Right at that moment their guide returned in full force nearly shrieking in their minds.

'Do not do it you fools!' their guide said to them. 'Do you remember what I have told you about the light!?' At first neither of them remembered, but then the words came back to them. They were in a very bright room after all, and they did not want to test exactly how badly they could be burned.

"A-Actually…" the male called out, "is it possible for you to turn off that bright light first?"

"Oh, er, sure," the sage said. He turned off the bright light at the man's request and the room became fairly dark as a result. The window itself was covered by a curtain so there was a complete lack of light in the room, not that it was especially dark.

"My goodness, this room sure is dark," the sage noted. "There needs to be some light in…here…" The doctor and the others in the room stared in awe at the now glowing individuals whose wounds shone with a bright violet light. They themselves noticed the oddity as were and eyed their injuries in the same light.

'The first lesson you shall learn about the darkness,' the guide spoke to their "pupils", 'is that the darkness – when taken in moderation – is one of your greatest allies…Observe…' Almost as if acting on the guide's command the injuries shone brighter, enough to bathe the entire office under a violet light. Shortly afterwards, every present party looked on in surprise at the sight before them; the patients' bodies were healing themselves. 'This ability allows you to heal your body from all blights or illnesses at a considerable pace while you are enshrouded in the dark. I call it "Dark Recovery", a preliminary level into the more advanced stages.' In little-to-no time at all any slight upon their forms aside of the bloodstains was completely gone, almost as if they were never there. They moved their arms to inspect themselves and that was when they realized that they could finally more their body on their own for the first time.

"Well," the sage began saying, "I guess that I didn't need a light on after all." Cautiously the pair made to stand on their feet and looked at themselves. Apparently the "Dark Recovery" had done more than just fix them up; they felt some of their strength returning to them and it felt as if they were in their Dive to the Heart again. They realized that the darkness wasn't so bad after all and turned to the others with bright smiles on their faces.

"Well, we seem to have gotten that issue out of the way," Frederick stated. "With that I believe that we must be on our way."

"I apologize that I couldn't be of much help to you," the sage said.

"Don't be," Chrom told him. "You couldn't have known that that would happen."

"Yeah!" Lissa said chirping in. "Who would've thought that they heal in dark places?"

"Perhaps others like them," Frederick answered. "Either way we thank you for your hospitality." With no more words being spoken the group of five left the sage's pharmacy and made their way to a café at Chrom and Lissa's request. Despite having been unconscious for quite some time neither of the two individuals were hungry; they theorized that it was due to the powers of darkness that filled them up. Once the group were settled down Frederick wasted no time in firing off the questions he had for them.

"Now that we have the two of you at full health and focusing capacity, I would like to ask the two of you some questions," Frederick began. "First and foremost, do you remember anything that had transpired to render you near-dead to the wayside?"

"If you can then maybe we can locate the perpetrator," Chrom added before sipping on his coffee. The three travelers watched the two strangers with interest as the latter appeared to be deep in thought. Both of them dug around their memories for any answer that they could find, but they didn't find anything explaining their downed state. Bothersome as it was they moved on to remember what had happened before the event, only to find the same predicament there as well. The worry on their faces were evident as they continued searching for any memory that could tell them how they ended up to the road unconscious; aside of their dream there was nothing to be found.

"Having memory troubles?" Chrom asked them.

"Looks like it," the male replied disappointed.

"I can't remember anything…" the female said under her breath.

"Neither of you two can remember anything?" Chrom asked again. "Not even how the two of you got here?"

"Nothing's coming up for me," the male said. "Other than the dream I had, everything else is blank."

"A dream you say?" Frederick asked. "How suspicious…"

"How long exactly have we been out cold?" the female asked.

"Beats me," Chrom answered. "We just found the two of you today and when we did you were out for a few minutes."

"Your wounds looked fresh though," Lissa said munching on her cinnamon roll. "I'd estimate that they were at least a couple of hours old. To be honest we didn't think that we could save the two of you; you had a nasty gash in the back of your heads when I checked, so I'm guessing that that's probably why nothing's coming to you."

"The man said that he remembers a dream," Frederick stated. "Pray tell, what exactly was this dream about?"

"You had a dream too?" the female asked. "What was it about?"

"It was about some destiny of ours," the male said. "Some voice spoke of light and darkness, as well as put us through some 'Awakening' trials."

"You had that dream too?" the female asked in surprise.

"That's odd," Chrom said. "Both of you had the same dream? What a coincidence."

"A coincidence indeed," Frederick spoke not fully buying their story. "Two people claim to not remember anything from before we found them except for a single dream that they shared. If anything that warrants more suspicion from you two."

"But it's true!" the male protested. "The voice even told us that we would meet you guys when we awoke."

"Really?" Chrom asked. "Huh. When you put it like that it all sounds less like a dream and more like a premonition."

"A premonition?" the female asked. "As in a vision of something like that?"

"Precisely," Chrom said. "A premonition details events yet to come, whether they be good or bad. I'm assuming that you must have had the premonition after you fell unconscious to whatever attacked you."

"That's almost exactly what happened in our dreams," the male said. "You came to us and asked us a question about putting others before ourselves. After we answered yes you suddenly disappeared."

"And that was just one of the many things that happened," the female added. "Would you like for us to tell you the whole thing?"

'Do not tell them everything,' the enigmatic guide said to the strangers. 'Omit all details concerning your connection to the Fell Dragon Grima.'

"That would be preferable," Frederick answered. "Do tell everything that you know, and withhold no information."

'I repeat and emphasize, do not tell any of them of your connection to the Fell Dragon,' the guide restated. 'It will make things significantly harder for you.' Looking the three in their eyes with as much a serious expression they could muster they went on to summarize the content of their dreams.

"It started when a mysterious voice had called out to us," the male began. "They told the two of us that we had to undergo the Awakening, a process of five events to return to the real world, and they said to us that they would be our guide in doing so."

"First they made us chose between ten different relics to keep one and discard one," the female explained. "They were the Seraph Robe, Energy Drop, Spirit Dust, Secret Book, Speedwing, Goddess Icon, Draco Shield, Talisman, Boots, and Arms Scroll."

"All of those are real world artifacts that augment a person's body further," Chrom stated. "I've never heard of a situation where you choose one and abandon the other. It just doesn't make sense to me."

"That's exactly what we thought," the male said. "The guide worded it as if by picking an artifact in our dream state we were choosing which aspect of our bodies we treasured most, and the one we cast away represented what we gave little care for. Obviously we cared about all of them and they gave us the Naga's Tear as a result for persisting. They said that the Naga's Tear granted one godlike power."

"Godlike power?" Frederick questioned with a raised brow. "I can see great power beyond that of many men, but Godlike power? That notion alone is pretentious."

"Frederick, please," Chrom said. "That's not something impossible or out of the ordinary. You may continue."

"After that the guide had us fight some hostiles to test our might, including some sorcerer he called 'Validar'," the female said. "When that was done we found ourselves in a field of flowers, and that was where we met you."

"Me?" Chrom asked.

"Yes, you," the male said. "You helped us to our feet and asked that question. After that you vanished, and then we found a woman who actually looked a lot like you."

"Really," Chrom said clearly fascinated. "What was her name?"

"Her name was Lucina," the female told him. "She had long blue hair that was the same color as yours, and the mark you have on your right shoulder is in her left eye. We thought that she might be related to you."

"Lucina's the name I plan to give to my first daughter," Chrom said. "Perhaps who you saw was my daughter from some point in the future."

"Wouldn't be too far off the mark," the male said. "She sure didn't look happy though…neither did she look particularly lively…" Hearing this Chrom began to fear for the worst. "She asked us a question as to whether we would give up our lives for the ones we loved if it meant saving them, and we said yes. We went to comfort her before she said that she could rest easy. That was when…" For a brief moment it looked as if would the male stranger would choke on his words but he pressed on. "That was when she died…" There was uncomfortable silence hanging in the air for some time until the female spoke up.

"After she died we tried to save her and came upon a strange woman dressed in dark robes. She told us that we could save her if we believed in 'Invisible Ties'…"

"This is starting to sound less of a premonition and more of a fantasy fiction," Frederick said. "Gods above know how many of those I've read in my time."

"That's enough quips from you Frederick," Chrom said to the knight. "That's an order. Please do continue you two."

"Right," the male said. "We said to her that we believed in 'Invisible Ties'. She said that with that belief in mind we could save Lucina from her fate of staying dead, but she took her away before we could ask her how. The last thing she said to us was her name, 'Akasha, Queen of the Damned', before telling us that we would meet again."

"'Akasha, Queen of the Damned'?" Frederick asked. "That was the name and title of the first matriarch of the Theocracy of Plegia. Legends have it that she commanded a vast horde of daemons from Hell in her bid to subjugate the rebelling Plegians, and that she herself had become a revenant after her death."

"She sure looked like a corpse," the female noted. "After she had left we were given more enemies to fight against, but these enemies were the revived remains of the hostiles we slew before. The guide called them 'Risen'."

"Like zombies?" Lissa asked.

"More or less," the male said. "Validar resurfaced for a rematch, but he was dealt with fairly easily. The next of our opponents after that was…"

"…Was whom exactly?" Frederick asked. Chrom had a feeling that he knew who it was, and he spoke up to break the silence the two strangers were giving him.

"It was Lucina was it?" he asked. Both of the strangers nodded their heads.

"She had become a Risen," the female said with a noticeable crack in her voice, "attacking us for not being able to save her from dying…It was all just a dream but it felt too real…" Again it became quiet, with the strangers trying to refrain from becoming emotional. The others respectfully waited until they were calmed down before resuming the conversation.

"After that fight we were pitted against two powerful knights named 'Adam' and 'Eve'," the male said. "I honestly thought that we would be able to put up a fight, but they got the jump on us before we could even plan an attack strategy."

"The guide wanted to test us, but they apparently chose the wrong opponents to test us against," the female said. "After that they imparted some words of wisdom to watch out for certain things that would try to kill us, right before our own shadow had transformed into a giant dragon. More Risen appeared, but they were too strong and there were too many of them. We thought that we were never going to wake up as darkness began swallowing us up, until you came back and saved us."

"Me?" Chrom asked.

"Yes, you," the male said. "It was as if you banished the darkness away and pulled us back into the light. And that is the general gist of the dream we had."

"An interesting dream to be sure," Frederick said, "but what exactly does it all mean?"

"We don't exactly know either," the female replied. "Our guide said that our paths would be intertwined with each other's, but they never specified what that entailed. Anyways, with that out of the way, is there anything else you want to ask us about?"

"Not really," Frederick said sounding slightly disappointed. "I had hoped that your memories were intact aside of this premonition of yours, but that's not the case. I suppose that that concludes this discussion."

"Don't sound so forlorn," the male said. "The moment we remember anything we'll be sure to tell you. How does that sound?"

"I think it sounds reasonable," Chrom said. "But that's assuming that we'll remain in contact with each other."

"Exactly," the female said. "We really don't have anywhere else to go, and you guys did save our lives. Why not repay that debt by travelling with you and seeing what we can do for you all?"

"You'd really do that?" Lissa asked. "But, you guys don't really know us."

"That's not a problem," the male said. "You all seem like trustworthy people."

"Alright then," Chrom said with a chuckle. "You can come with us to Ylisstol – our home – after we stock up on a few supplies from here…um, you never did mention your names did you?"

"Huh? Oh, right," the female said, "I completely forgot about that. Well, since we don't know what our names are, why not invent something to call us by until then?" As the two strangers tried digging up names their guide's voice returned with a suggestion.

'Why not call the both of you "Robin"?' they said. 'You both hold no differences from each other aside of your sex, and your destinies are unequivocally one and the same, so it holds more meaning to refer to you with the same name.' They didn't think that it was a bad choice and figured that they were probably twins anyways, so they chose the name.

"Why not Robin for the both of us?" the male said.

"Are you certain?" Frederick asked. "Referring to two individuals with one name can lead to confusion."

"It sounds nice," the female said. "Plus, Robin is a unisex name and we do look like we're twins."

"I don't think it's a bad idea," Lissa said.

"It seems fine enough to me," Chrom said in agreement.

"If there are no objections then 'Robin' it is," Frederick said. "Now then, I do believe formal introductions on our end would be appropriate."

"My name's Chrom Lowell," Chrom said. "I am the captain and founder of the Shepherds, a force dedicated to defending Ylisse from all threats."

"I'm Lissa Lowell," Lissa said. "My full name is actually Elizabeth Melissa Lowell, but you can just call me Lissa or Liz for short, I'm fine with whichever. And don't let my cute looks fool you into thinking I'm delicate. I'm pretty capable myself."

"And I am Frederick Berenstain," Frederick spoke. "I am the lieutenant and second-in-command of the Shepherds army. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"He's also known as 'Frederick the Wary'," Chrom said with a hint of humor.

"A title I shall wear with pride," the knight said. "Gods forbid one of us must maintain a reasonable level of caution."

"And general distrust," Chrom added.

"And uptightness," Lissa added.

"You do realize that I am still here?" Frederick asked the other two.

"Oh, we realize," Chrom said grinning. This earned a laugh from Lissa and the Robins.

"Amusing as always Milord," Frederick said with no change in tone. "Now if you will all excuse me, I will go procure the supplies we need for the rest of our journey and—"

"Hey," the male Robin said, "Do any of you guys smell that?" No one knew what he was talking about until it hit them too.

"I smell it too," the female Robin said. "It actually smells like—"

Theme—"Gods, have the Risen spread this far?"

"FIRE!" Lissa screamed out. They looked at the cleric point off further up north and saw a cloud of smoke rising. Everyone else nearby had been thrown into a panic upon seeing the sight and ran, leaving the five travelers alone.

"What in the seven Hells…" Chrom muttered. "Lissa, Frederick, whatever's behind this needs to be dealt with immediately! Expect it to be a brigand attack!"

"What about us?" the male Robin asked. "I mean, we're armed just in case its brigands and I'm pretty sure that we can handle ourselves in a fight."

"Are you sure about that?" Chrom asked him. "You may have fought in your dreams but that doesn't account for your skill in the real world."

"We must be at our full strength by now," the female Robin argued. "Besides, if we aren't skilled then we can learn from the rest of you firsthand or back out if it gets too rough." Nobody could find anything to say against that despite how adverse they were to this.

"Alright, you can come with us," Chrom said, "but I want you to fall back if things get too out of hand. Understand?"

"Understood," both Robins said with a nod.

"Can we please go already?" Lissa said impatiently. Not wanting to keep anyone waiting the group of five ran towards the burning area, hoping to dowse the flames in time and find out the cause of it.