Fire Emblem: Awakening - Again Again
Chapter VII
This War
We Will Change The State of War!
O
Robin stood still.
The cart lay in ruins just ahead of him, flaming hay being scattered across the dirt path by the wind. His expression was grim as the old man behind him tried to rise, only to fall back down with a groan.
"Time Travel is a funny thing, isn't it?"
He bit his tongue, not rising to the bait that the figure across from him had cast. Their voice was singsong, a polite chime as they scratched their head.
"It causes as many problems as it fixes. Haven't you guys figured this out yet?"
"You aren't real." Robin snarled, drawing his hood down and glaring at the figure. "Step aside and let me pass."
"Geez." They drawled, giggling despite themselves. "What's up with you? Look!"
Suddenly, the ground in front of him split into an ugly crack. He covered his face with a sleeve as white-hot flames rushed up from below to greet him, scalding his arm and forcing him to step back.
As the fire receded, his eyes widened. The crack didn't disappear, instead growing larger until a thin rift separated him from the playful caster. The remnants of the cart, as well as the injured horses that had been pulling it, were all swallowed by the tear in an instant.
"I'm as real as it gets!"
"How?!" Robin shouted, drawing his weapons in one fluid movement as the figure stepped closer. "You're a nightmare of the past! This world doesn't belong to you."
"And you're a ghost of the future, Grandmaster Robin." They sighed, turning their back on him and casting aside the red and gold tome in disgust. "It's not what we are that defines what we do, it's what we do that defines what we are. I think you said that once?"
Robin said nothing, watching as they strolled off into the dawn.
"You'll only ever be a pawn." They called over their shoulder, drawing their hood down to reveal fine features reminiscent of his own. "The state of this war is mine to decide."
O
"Are you unharmed?"
Lissa took a deep breath as she cradled her arm. The man known as Lon'qu had been guiding her and Stahl through the city for the past half an hour now, and the healer was beginning to get worried as they came across more and more Risen threats.
She wasn't sure what had become of her brother, but it unnerved her greatly that things had happened so quickly. What if Chrom hadn't had a chance to react before they struck him down? What if Sumia had tripped and fallen on her own lance? What if Miriel actually got to see the inside of a person?
Chaos. The Shepherds were a formula for chaos. And that was before the apocalypse.
Shaking the unwelcome and traitorous thoughts away, the princess instead looked up towards the source of the most certainly masculine voice.
It was much to her surprise that she found a darkly colored mask staring back down at her, slits where hints of cerulean poked through, swathed in shadows. The figure that was attached to the mask was no less impressive, with a strong but lean masculine figure and a flowing blue cloak.
There could only be one person fitting that description, and it took all of Lissa's willpower not to fan-girl on the spot.
"Marth!"
"I asked you to bring them to me unharmed." Marth said as he hoisted the girl to her feet, turning his gaze on a certain unimpressed Myrmidon.
"The Princess was already hurt before I arrived." Lon'qu scoffed, folding his arms. "Besides; I don't take orders from you. I bring them at Basilio's request."
"What is going on?" Lissa asked, leaning on her healing staff. She would use it to heal herself, but it was as though some sort of universal mechanic prevented her from doing so. It was rather annoying, actually. "Have you seen my brother?"
"Risen have infiltrated the city." Marth replied, not at all mincing his words as the girl's eyes shot wide open. The swordsman's demeanour shifted slightly as he spoke, and had the princess X-ray vision she would have seen his eyebrows furrowed. "The streets are running red. I will lead you to prince Chrom, and you are to escape with him."
"What?!" Lissa shrieked, clearly still slightly caught up on the Risen invasion. "What about the others?"
"Your companions will be joining you." He responded, turning and beginning to make for the alleyway's exit.
"Not my friends, dummy!" Lissa reached out and tugged on his cape. "What about the innocent civilians?! We can't just leave them!"
Marth froze, stopping in his tracks as his back straightened like a board. He was silent for a moment, back still to the cleric, before finally he spoke:
"People die… I'm sorry, Lissa." He continued on his path. "Perhaps one day you'll understand the weight behind all of this."
Lissa stared at him.
Stahl, who hadn't said anything, stared at Lissa.
Wrong answer.
Lon'qu frowned, sensing danger.
O
Another Risen soldier dropped into the snow, felled by book and blade as Robin flicked her sword clean again. She allowed herself a moment to catch her breath as she eyed the approaching threats. Five coming from down the street to her right, and another dozen or so coming from the Longfort to the left.
"Where are they coming from?!" She finally shouted over the sounds of clashing steel. At this point, the guard line had dissipated into corpses and ash, and it was taking all of her concentration as to not join their ranks. "I retract my previous statement." She narrowly avoided decapitation at the hands of a Risen-wielded Poleaxe, before throwing a weak kick at the foot soldier. By some miracle, it stumbled backwards and made for an easy target with her lightning tome. "We most certainly don't have this."
"Have you been listening to anything I've been saying?!"
"I concur." Etzel agreed, ignoring the indignant cry of the downed prince. "We've bitten off more than we can chew, as they say. We would do well to retreat."
Robin didn't like it, but the mage was right. Things were getting worse as the battle raged on, and the only thing that had kept her where she was had been the thought of survivors from the Feroxi Guard.
However, as the seconds ticked by and the masses built up, such hopes were all but dashed underfoot by the medieval equivalent of a speeding zamboni - which is a lot more terrifying than it sounds, as it were.
"Of course." She nodded, clearly satisfied with his observation. "Just allow me to cast Blink, and warp us to safety!"
"You can do that?" Chrom wondered.
"No!" She brought what, in essence, was a bronze club shaped like a sword down upon the helmeted head of a fallen foot soldier, causing a loud thunk to ring off of the wall behind her. "We're trapped, I'm running out of Mana- er, I'm feeling fatigued, there is a horde of zombie warriors approaching, and I have a cheap metal stick! We're done for, Chrom!"
"Oh. Okay."
Etzel frowned, clearly not impressed by the outburst as he leapt over a not-so-pole axe strike and slammed the pommel of his electric sword into the visored face of a Risen Knight, before giving a shout and spinning away with an outstretched hand.
"Thoron!"
Instantly, there was a blinding flash as a beam of gold light tore across the street, shredding anything and everything in it's path until it collided explosively with the wall on the far side of the road. The nearest Risen soldiers were decimated, with the first and foremost knight turning into a cloud of dark ash on contact with the devastating spell.
Robin unconsciously looked down at her own tome.
Lightning.
She honestly felt that hers was more meaningful than some flashy uni-beam ripoff off anyways...
"Why didn't you do that before?" She asked, cooling off slightly as she was given a moment to catch her breath. "I can see it's durability, you know."
"I can only use it so many times." Etzel replied autonomously, hurling the worn (Yet still 23/25) yellow book into the crowd and eliciting a shout of pain, much to the tactician's dismay. "That's why I carry my Levin sword!"
"Which you can only use so many times." She deadpanned.
F.Y.I, 21/25.
"This joke has officially run it's course." Chrom groaned, trying and failing to rise. His breath was now coming in ragged gasps as he winced. "Got any other secrets left, Etzel? If you could clear us a path through…"
"Therein lies the problem, Chrom." Etzel replied evenly, slashing diagonally at a lightly armored Risen troop. The crackle of the sword tearing through leather was accompanied by the ripping of the blade tearing through flesh. (20/25) "I have a few, but none that I'd be able to use."
"Stats too low?" Robin wondered, stomping all over the fourth wall yet again as she blasted at another soldier.
"What? No!" Etzel shook his head as he clashed with another enemy. "I haven't slept in days. I've all but exhausted my natural supply of magical energy, and using these weaker spells alone is taking it's toll on me. Were I to use the more powerful ones… well, I'd most likely be incinerated in a painful and generally horrible fashion, before being scattered as ash in the wind and inhaled by my enemies and allies alike."
There was no immediate comment on the description of his theoretical demise, and for a moment the only sounds were those of combat as he and Robin fought back the swarming horde.
"Let me do it."
Chrom shot up from his slumped position, his back going rigid as his eyes widened. He seemed to instantly regret it however, as he quickly fell back against the stonework, closing his eyes and groaning. "No!"
Etzel, meanwhile, said nothing.
"I've got plenty of energy left." Robin, who had been the one to volunteer explained calmly, slashing - or rather battering - another approaching hostile with her blunt, glorified baton. "I'd be able to do it without, uh… wait, did you say incineration?"
"Don't do it, Robin!"
Suddenly, she paused. Looking up into the blood red sky, she realized that it had begun to snow down onto the city. All the same, the void up above blocked out the moon still, and the stars barely shone through the crimson smog in the air.
"Very well." Etzel reached into his robe, before withdrawing a red leather-bound book. It seemed to have been well cared for, and the spine was reinforced by a strong golden metal. Instead of moving to give it to her, he ducked under a swung poleaxe and tossed it to her.
"Etzel," Chrom's tone was stressed, desperate and full of warning. "you'll kill her."
Robin ignored him, instead catching the tome out of the air in a rather awesome fashion. Flipping through it as she retreated behind Etzel, she frowned.
The pages were lined with intricate runes - beautiful symbols that glowed like fire. Her eyes skimmed over the spiraling text, round and around until the final letter ended at the direct center. If she were being honest, it looked kind of like a smiley face! Silver lining!
"Alright." She let out a breath as Etzel forced the wall of enemies back with a wave of enchanted wind. "Here I go… Yup."
Chrom grimaced as he watched her step up to the crowd of monsters, her pigtails billowing dramatically in the snowy wind.
"Robin! No!"
"Chrom, I'll have you know I'm not the dying sort." She dropped her one-liner, smiling as she raised a hand. "Here goes nothing!"
Chrom closed his eyes, not wanting to watch his friend turn into ash.
Etzel stared.
Robin continued to smile widely, but nothing happened.
"... Is there a problem with the tome?" He asked finally, firing another gust of wind into the crowd as she lowered her arm. Chrom opened his eyes and gave them both a confused look.
"Here I go!" She repeated.
Chrom closed his eyes again, bracing himself for the worst as Robin raised her hand again.
"Robin! No!"
Robin continued to grin like a fool as Etzel began to gasp for breath, though he continued to cast spells all the same.
"... I'm sorry," Robin apologized nervously as she looked to Etzel, lowering her arm again. "just wanted to get this out of the way; did you say incineration?"
"Go!"
"Robin! No!"
"Bolganone!" She shouted, pointing two fingers at the horde of Risen as the tome's pages flipped on their own accord.
Immediately, the air grew thick as the sky grew a shade brighter. Her eyes widened as the snow began to drift down even harder, helixing with bits of ash from the sky. The entire street shook and rumbled, and a wave of heat washed over her as her robes flapped in the hot wind.
Suddenly, a jet of magma exploded from the snow covered street, tearing apart the Risen that had been occupying the space it now claimed. Those around it were charred, melted, and reduced to ash in a fashion similar to the way Etzel had described moments before.
Robin stepped backwards, using the tome to shield her face as the heat blasted at her, melting the snow around them.
It also reminded her of something else, even as several more jets exploded upwards and the street was split.
It smelled like pork chops.
Actually, those two things were unrelated. Rather, it reminded her of three things. Pork chops, Etzel's theoretical doom, and…
"Huh." She mused to herself, before her eyes widened. Her shady-as-shit senses were tingling.
"Now!" Etzel shouted as he hoisted Chrom onto his shoulder, supporting the man's weight with his arm as he began to hobble through an opening that had formed in the crowd of monsters. "We have our chance!"
Robin was hesitant to follow, instead staring at him; open mouthed.
"Come on!"
She shook off her daze, shoving the tome into her coat and dashing after him.
She now had even more questions than before.
But she also had a way to get answers.
O
Lucina let out a grunt as she kicked open the door of the inn, before stumbling inside. Such a task would have been trivial under normal circumstances; she could have just opened the door like a normal human being and walked in.
However, the kicking and screaming princess draped over her arm qualified as abnormal circumstances.
"Basilio owes me." Lon'qu muttered as he followed her in, followed in turn by Stahl and Sumia.
The inn wasn't a normal inn. Obviously.
From what Lucina had seen outside, a normal building wouldn't have lasted seconds under the onslaught that now plagued the capital of the Halidom's northerly neighbors. Most buildings had already been cleared out by the Risen marauders, and now the city was mostly quiet save for the clanking of armor as the zombie-like soldiers shambled about, searching.
What were they searching for? She wasn't sure. She had some ideas, though — her father being the most prominent on the list.
Rather, the inn was located within the Arena. It was a large segment of the northwest portion of the building, wrapping around the actual combat-ready center and spanning from top to bottom. It was huge, and built for more… rowdy customers.
In the hour after the siege had begun, many those that couldn't fight had retreated to where they had thought they would find people that could; namely the Arena. There had been a large panic as the guards tried to maintain order, and eventually the tavern inside the arena had been repurposed as a refugee shelter - though it seemed that many preferred to wander the arena anyways and hang out in other places.
Unfortunately, just as many had thought to try and escape the city. It seemed that the Risen hadn't liked that.
"Do you need any help?" Sumia asked, clearly looking like she didn't want to try and help with the gremlin under Lucina's arm.
"No."
Sumia had greeted them at the gates, and was serving as their guide through the arena. She had been worried sick, but Lucina was just glad to see her mother was alright. In keeping with her character, she was still worried sick as Chrom had yet to return. However, she had reassured her that he would be fine. For all the good that did her, anyways.
All the same, doubts were likely lingering in the head of the Pegasus rider. It was probable that Chrom's return would be the only thing to ease her mind, and her tripping had grown worse than ever in the meantime...
"Let me go!" Lissa shouted, trying to wiggle free of her grasp as the time traveler dragged the girl towards her destination as gently as she could. "There are still people out there, Marth! What about my brother?!"
"Basilio has informed me that prince Chrom is working to assist the Feroxi Guard that are trying to fight back the attackers." She said, losing her patience as she drew nearer to a certain pair of Khans. "Should they fail, they are to fall back and-"
"We're back!"
Oh good.
Lucina's head instantly did a full 180 degree turn, and the sound of bones cricking could clearly be heard as the rest of the sounds in the lively inn died out. Soldiers stopped arguing, healers stopped arguing, Basilio and Flavia — who were standing directly in front of the bar by the stairs — did not stop arguing.
At the door they had just entered through, Chrom was leaning on Robin… Female-Robin's shoulder, and blood was running rivets from his scalp and down his face.
"Chrom! Robin!" Even with all of her training, she couldn't stop the princess from breaking free of her grasp and sprinting towards the injured prince and tactician. "Are you alright?!"
"Captain!" Sumia cried in synch with the girl, attempting to do the same only to trip over air and land face down on the floor. Lucina stared at the woman as she made no attempt to get back up, and for a moment wondered if she would ever actually be born in this timeline.
"Chrom?" Basilio stopped looking at Flavia, instead spinning to face the door with the grace of a dancer — discounting the man that he accidentally knocked out with his elbow. "You've returned, eh? And what about my men?"
Lucina frowned at this. Chrom seemed to tense up as Robin winced; both indicators that the guards were no longer fit for duty.
"Attention! Attention?" She sighed instead of getting angry. Beside the two, another cloaked figure was holding their arms up as to ensure that everyone was paying attention.
Could she not catch a break?
"So, the guards are…" 'Etzel' seemed to be trying to find the best way to convey his message as he tilted his head and hummed. "Well, the guards outside have all been horribly killed in action. However!"
She froze, her blood running cold.
It was at that moment that she remembered Robin did not do well when in came to delivering speeches to audiences. He left that to Chrom, instead preferring to deal with managing the Ylissean army and directing troops. She wasn't sure why he could do one but not the other, and he hadn't ever given an answer to the question.
The entire room seemed to go silent, as if everyone had stopped breathing all at once. Meanwhile, Robin was humming to himself again.
"... Nevermind. They are very dead. Sorry. However! I'd advise that you refrain from panicking-"
Instantly, the sound of chair legs scraping against floorboards drowned out whatever else he was saying as several people began to scream. Across the room, Lucina could see Flavia sighing as Basilio turned and downed his drink in an instant.
She stepped backwards as someone ran past, screaming all the way until they collided face-first with the wall.
She slowly closed her eyes, and placed her hand over her mask.
When she removed the hand, another person slammed into the wall.
Nope.
It was for reals.
O
"That could have gone better." Chrom sighed, holding the vulnerary-covered rag to his forehead as Lissa dabbed some of the blood away. The rag wasn't actually disinfecting anything, but it was warm. "Please refrain from…" He hesitated. "doing that again."
"In my defence, someone needed to tell them." Robin replied, resting his chin in his palm, elbow propped up on the table. He was sitting directly across from the prince, with other-Robin on his right and Lucina on the other side of the tactician. "And I told them not to panic."
The tactician that stole his job…
"There were better ways of telling them." Other-Robin said, sipping from her water as she leaned back in her chair. "Like a poster."
"That's hardly better." Chrom sighed again.
"What about a memo?" Robin tried again.
"No. Stop."
"The point prince Chrom is trying to make is that you should have kept quiet about it, Etzel." Lucina said, leaning forwards to see him past Other-Robin. "The chaos you caused was uncalled for."
"Uh-huh." Robin leaned back in his own chair, mimicking the pose of the woman beside him. "Delivering it gently would be pointless, Marth. They would panic either way, and getting it out of the way now means that we can proceed with figuring out what to do next sooner rather than later."
"And now you've officially lowered their morale, Etzel. Was that part of the plan?"
"Well Marth, I'm sure it was as far as you're concerned. I'm only working for the safety of the people."
"Watch your tongue, Etzel. Lest I-"
"Oh, are we resorting to threats now, Marth?"
"Not threats, but warnings. I'm not the kind to stab a man in the back without a warning, Etzel."
Robin didn't reply. Instead, he shrugged and scratched his nose. This only further enraged the woman, causing her hand to stray towards the handle of her sword.
He didn't realize it, but he tended to be a master of getting under people's skin.
"Enough!" Chrom roared, slamming his fist down on the table. His headache seemed to be getting worse by the second, and his blue eyes were hard like glass. "I don't know what's going on here, but I get the feeling that you two do. I've heard enough of this banter to know it annoys me to no end."
Lucina instantly dropped her hand, shrinking backwards ever so slightly at the rage of her father. It was a reflex at this point.
"Now if you aren't going to tell us what's going on, then stop getting in the way of one another's attempts to help."
"I-I didn't-" The princess stammered, clearly stunned. "h-he's-..."
"You are both idiots." Sully summarized, slamming both of her hands down onto the table and causing everyone to jump.
"That wasn't exactly what I was trying to-"
"I'm not your gods damned translator, Chrom." Sully shot him a glare with bloodshot eyes. "I've been working beside Ruffles for the past few hours now. Outside of fighting."
Everyone was silent at this proclamation. Virion in all honesty wasn't a bad dude. But for unfathomable, or perhaps fathomable reasons, the Cavalier seemed to possess a deep seated sense of spite for the archer.
"'Point is, you don't have to like each other." She growled, snatching Stahl's drink from in front of him and taking a sip from it. "You just gotta work together. Or else you're gonna get us all killed."
Lucina didn't say anything in response, clearly trumped as she glared at the table silently. Sully's word was as lawful as Chrom's, but she didn't dance around or mince her words.
Robin let out a sigh of relief as Other-Robin quietly slurped her water.
It seemed that things were looking up for once.
"Oh!" Other-Robin spoke up, raising her hand. "By the way, I still have Etzel's tome."
Robin could cry right about now. As he glanced at his female counterpart, he could see the questions in her eyes. He could read her like an open book, really. He was once extremely similar to her, right down to her meta sense of humor.
He knew that she knew, but she did not know that he knew she knew he… uh.
He knew that she knew, however she did not know that he knew what she knew, which was in fact something that she should know as Robin is a master tactician, and thus all-knowing.
Robin frowned as she opened her mouth. He seriously had to fight the urge to throw his hand over her mouth.
"So basically, I'm doing my magic stuff, right?" She waved her hands. "And then Etzel's all blah blah blah, be a hero, blah blah blah. So He gives me this tome, and I use it because I'm magical, right? And you know what it reminded me of? Well I do, because I'm me. It reminded me of-"
Instead, he put both of his elbows on the table and used his robe sleeves to cover his mouth as he leaned forwards, giving a quiet murmur.
Immediately, he could feel his right hand burn and throb angrily. He could just see the purple glow shining out of his sleeve, and then it faded away.
"It's-" She coughed, freezing mid-reach for her robes. After a second, she broke into a fit of coughing. Each time she opened her mouth, she lapsed into another fit of hacking. "It's-"
"Robin?" Chrom shot to his feet, leaning on the table as Lissa darted around to stand next to the tactician. Other-Robin reached for the table with a shaky hand, before falling out of her chair and onto the floor beside Lucina, coughing all the while. "Hey! Robin!"
Robin didn't react, closing his eyes and ignoring the heavy feeling in his heart.
It was necessary.
"Robin!"
O
I've still been sick as crap, which has left me time to write this. It didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but Saturday is almost here and I have nothing else to upload.
Hooray for not planning ahead, as well as lack of work ethic!
What a plot twist, amirite?
Drama! Drama everywhere! Why did he do it?! What did he do?! Oh the questions this raises!
… Or perhaps you're all geniuses that have figured it out and torn my plot's asshole wide open…
Who knows?
Anyways, I appreciate the feedback you've all provided thus far. See something I'm constantly screwing up on? Feel free to let me know, and I'll look into it.
Also, don't ask me what happened to Female Robin's character. I honestly have no fucking clue... I'm going with character development.
Ciao!
