A/N: Apologies that this one is a little late, been alpha testing Paladins on console and its been really fun playing Support. Anyway first, my answer to my incredibly cruel question of last chapter, I would save Cynthia, at the loss of Laurent, that mage...is the only character I have ended a play through with as deceased...kinda regret it looking back, coincidentally that was my run where my avatar married Maribelle...weird. Next reviews:

Dragon of the Blazeing Stars:Yeah been adding these questions for a few weeks, and I'll be churning these things out until they're done so help me.

Zero kami no mu: Thanks, hope that this chapter's up to your standards.

Now this new part is new, for those who have read A Princess's Story's first chapter, I've started putting some recommendations of great stories I've read. First one is Currents Through the Flame by Okaeri-Kairi, its a F!Corrin/Azura...thats also Azura/Kaze and one sided F!Corrin/Laslow, this story has a ton of angsty romance and drama, its not dark but its a real feels bringer, I highly recommend this if you are a fan of that. Next we have Be Careful What You Say by Mr-Watch, this M!Robin/Olivia feels more like snippets of a romance between these two, I enjoyed it and I think you guys will too.

Finally, I'm gonna say the upload schedule for the future now: This is story will be updates Sunday's, Every Week at best. SSTOG and A Princess's Story will both be updated fortnightly, interchanging between the two. So expect an update for SSTOG this Friday, and if you haven't read them go check them out, shameless plug.

Now these notes are starting to get really long, so here we go...WAHOO! Wait...wrong franchise.


Chapter 6- A Bond Formed

"Wretched Beast!"

Robin opened his eyes to find Maribelle had managed to intercept the axe using her staff, though it was clear she was struggling under the brute strength of her opponent. Taking the opportunity, he pushed the barbarian that he had intercepted and slashed at the one that Maribelle was holding at bay, before spinning quickly to fire the ball of magic he had been charging at his staggered opponent. The tactician was panting heavily, that was much more intense than he was hoping for.

"I definitely owe you one after that milady." Robin spoke turning his attention to the noble.

"After the performance you just put on, it was the least I could do darling." Maribelle smirked, though her eyes were sincere. "You have already saved me once, consider that me returning the favour."

"Anyone would have done the same. But I owe it to everyone including you that no one should fall, it just so happens to be my job to do that." The tactician replied, honestly.

"Well you've certainly done a good job. My humble thanks for keeping my darling Lissa safe during your mission to our northern neighbour." The noble curtsied.

"It was my pleasure." Robin bowed in reply.

"What is this a dance or a battle? The Teach needs some orders!" A voice that Robin was finding increasingly grating sounded from behind the pair.

"Vaike, you are an incorrigible oaf!" Both Robin and Maribelle shouted at the same time, the tactician and troubadour blinked at each other having realised their synchronicity, before having a light chuckle.

"Oh no, they've joined forces, we'll never be safe again!" The blonde fighter shouted in despair.

"You mean you'll never be safe." Lon'qu added with a low chuckle, which left everyone in giggles.

"Now that we've had our fun, Vaike is right, we need to return our attention to this battle. There is a lot on the line here." Chrom started drawing everyone's attention. "Robin any plans for what to do?"

"For now, we need to hold a defensive position here until the rest of the force meets us here. Their resistance should be low while we should be prepared for any aerial attacks from their wyverns. Everyone seems to be in pairs already which is perfect. Chrom you have the best advantage against them with the Falchion, if you ride with Sumia you'll be able to combat them in the air effectively. Lon'qu, I want you and Vaike to be up there with them, your speed will give you an advantage, Vaike I want you to guard him as well as possible, but avoid getting in his way. Stahl, you aid whichever group looks in the most trouble while I will provide ranged support. Maribelle I'll leave any and all healing decisions up to you." The tactician delivered. "Any questions?" Vaike raised his hand. "Yes?"

"Why don't we go at them, we could beat them all!" The oaf didn't so much ask.

"Don't make me chuck you in there all by yourself." Robin threatened.

"Good then it'll be a fair fight!" Vaike replied enthusiastically.

"You're not going to actually do that, right?" Chrom whispered to his friend.

"Not in a million years, but he is really making it tempting." The tactician replied, so that only Chrom could hear, though the noble standing behind him was able to make out what he had said, before raising his voice again. "The reason why, you oaf, is because we are heavily outnumbered, not matter how skilled we may be, the numbers disadvantage we have is too risky, and I will not lose anyone on my watch as a tactician."

"Well said my friend." Chrom answered for the group. "Now everyone, you have your order's get into position."

The small contingent of Shepherds all got into their respective positions, awaiting the Plegian assault. Maribelle staying close to Robin so that she was out of the way as possible. It wasn't long before the first wave of wyvern riders decided to make their presence known, an initial divebomb attempt from a lone rider ended up failure as Chrom was able to intercept and slay the man. Watching their comrade die so easily made the rest of group get into position to divebomb them all at the same time, or they would have if two different magic blasts, one a ball of thunder, another a blade of wind. hadn't hit two of the remaining three riders, knocking them off of their mounts.

Over the horizon, the rest of the Shepherds appeared getting ready for the final assault on the Plegian army, the lone wyvern rider tried to retreat, but an axe from his commander swiftly silenced his dreams of surviving.

"YOU SORRY LOUTS BETTER NOT RETREAT OR YOU'LL SUFFER HIS FATE, NOW ATTACK THEM YOU FOOLS!" The Plegian commander, Orton, shouted.

The look of fear that had taken over the last dregs of the Plegian's was something that would forever be burned into Robin's mind, surrender was not an option or they would face execution from their own leaders. As the small group charged forward, the tactician couldn't help but feel sorry for them, they were literally marching to their deaths, as one by one they were cut down by the men and women of the Shepherds. He unconsciously charged up a ball of his magic and stared at the opposing commander. Robin had never felt angry at anyone, annoyed, yes, irritated, definitely, namely at the blonde fighter. But rage, he had never felt as angry as he did in that moment.

"Robin, are you alright, darling?" Maribelle asked him worryingly, she could feel the murderous aura radiating off of the tactician, she wouldn't deny that she didn't feel a little scared. The noble could understand why, his entire goal as a tactician was to keep as many people alive as possible, and for him especially, he would make sure no one would fall. For him to see a man send his forces off to their death, threatening them with execution for even so much as refusing, it must have been painful.

"I…am most definitely not alright, milady. I believe I need to blow off some steam, and that sorry excuse for a human being, is the only way I can." The tactician answered, as calmly as he could.

"I understand why, but I must insist on not going alone, you need to calm down. That beast of a man needs to pay for what he's done, and not having a clear head will cause you to be a sitting duck." The noble insisted.

"It's not that simple, that man deserves death." Robin seethed, breathing heavily, that was until a loud thwack, which grabbed the attention of the rest of the Shepherds, and a sudden surging pain in his head distracted him enough that his anger vanished instantly. "OWWWWW!" the tactician shouted in pain, gripping his head.

"Now listen here, Robin, you will calm down and start thinking clearly otherwise that isn't going to be punishment I will deliver to you." Maribelle glared at the man, holding her staff in between her hands as if it were her parasol.

"Alright, alright I'm calm. That was surprisingly effective." Robin moaned, as he rubbed the slowly growing bulge.

"I should hope so, now I believe we have a commander to defeat." The blonde noble smiled before taking a hold of the tactician's arm and dragging him to the front of the group. Surprise and confusion evident on the faces of the rest of the group.

"May I ask that I walk by myself?" Robin asked shyly.

"My apologies, but I'm just as determined as you to see this man pay for his misdeeds." Maribelle answered letting go of the tacticians' arm.

"Thank you, now as we were?" The cloaked man insisted.

"Let's." The troubadour replied, offering her arm, which Robin took instinctively.

As the duo took off, the rest of the Shepherds could only stare in confusion, until a girlish giggling distracted them from the marching pair.

"You can just see the sparks fly can't you." Lissa giggled.

"I wouldn't say that, but they are getting along at least." Chrom replied to his younger sister.

"This is still a bad idea having those two together, they'll be no rest from all that fancy talk." Vaike commented.

"It's still good that Maribelle finally found another person she could put some faith in." Sumia added.

"Just you wait, in a few years there's gonna be little tacticians running around." The cleric said, lost in her daydreams.

"It would be the fancy talk apocalypse!" The blonde fighter screamed, earning a laugh from everyone around him.

"I think you're moving a bit too quickly there Lissa, they've pretty much only just met." Her brother corrected.

"A girl can dream, brother!" Lissa pointed out.

"There's a difference between dreaming and reality." Chrom sighed out, before turning his attention back to the advancing pair. 'Still it would be good for the both of them, especially with war on the horizon we are all going to need somebody we care about to get by.' No one noticed the missing Feroxi swordsman as he followed after the pair.


"Who dares challenge me?" Orton growled from atop his wyvern. "A scrawny man, and that tart we kidnapped, heh, easy pickings." He smirked before readying his weapon.

"Robin?" Maribelle spoke slowly, a murderous aura surrounding her.

"Yes?" The tactician asked, knowing what she was going to say after the insult Orton sent her way.

"I apologise for earlier, you can be as angry as you want against this Neanderthal." The noble answered.

"Gladly." He replied, charging his thunder magic.

Orton commanded his wyvern to charge forward at the pair, the wyvern was faster than the ones his underlings rode, but even then, the creature was still slower than the elegant pegasi of Ylisse, the commander swung his axe, which Robin nimbly dodged, before firing his magic at the wyvern, who was still recovering for its miss, it hit the flying reptile in its body, causing it to crash into the ground, with the rider still able to fight.

"Useless creature." Orton muttered, before dismounting his grounded ride. "You think that's enough to defeat me!" He roared before charging once again.

Robin drew his swords and the two engaged in a small bit of swordsmanship and axeman ship, unfortunately for Robin, Orton was much more proficient in the weapon than his underlings were, and was struggling to keep up with him.

"You really thought you could take me on, Ylissean scum. I fought in the crusade against my people when that bastard of an exalt was in control and slaughtered my brothers and sisters in arms in cold blood!" The enraged man yelled.

"What are you talking about?!" Robin asked his opponent.

"You don't know! Bwahaha, you fool, fighting for a country who is responsible for drawing as much blood of my country as well as its own. The last ruler called us heathen's, wanting to eliminate us all in the name of that bitch, Naga! All because he believed it was his birthright, all because he wielded that bastard sword his son now owns, he took it upon himself to exterminate all of the Grimleal, not caring whether or not a Plegian was part of that cult!" Orton continued, completely blinded by vengeance.

"While that may be true, Emmeryn exists only for peace, and your Mad King is preventing that from happening!" The tactician argued, parrying as many blows as he could.

"That bitch will die just like the rest of you, all I want is too watch Ylisstol burn!" The man cried as he delivered a harsh blow to the cloaked man, Robin wasn't able to deflect it in time and received a large gash in his side.

"Gah!" The tactician cried, grabbing his side to try and stop the wound.

"Robin, just hold on!" Maribelle cried, raising her staff, letting the healing magic wash over the injured man.

"And just what do you think you're doing?!" Orton cried rushing over to the venerable noble.

"Keep back you troglodyte!" The blonde yelled, before the former wyvern rider grabbed her and held his axe to her neck.

"Put down your weapon or she dies!" The Plegian commander threatened.

"Unhand me!" Maribelle tried to struggle against his grip, but the man wouldn't budge.

"Maribelle! Alright…I surrender, just don't hurt her." Robin responded, putting his sword and tome on the ground, raising his arms above his head.

"Pffffthaha! You actually thought I would let her LIVE! You're and even bigger idiot than I thought you were. AND YOU are supposed to be a tactician, don't you realise that your men are just pawns!" Orton laughed.

"They are not pawns! Every life under a leader's command is precious, all deaths on both sides should be avoided as much as possible!" The tactician challenged.

"You sympathetic fool! This is war, death is inevitable! Soldiers are just resources that you have a supply of, if they die no one feels anything for them." The enemy commander responded.

"Imbecile! People will always care when someone dies, friends, family, loved ones! Everyone will care!" Robin shouted.

"Then let's test that theory shall we, on this wench right here!" Orton laughed maniacally raising his axe above his head.

"Be silent!" A low voice sounded before dashing past the downed tactician and running the Plegian through, successfully avoiding Maribelle in the process, the young noble immediately escaped the grip of the dying man then quickly running over to the injured tactician.

"Lon'qu! You have no idea how glad I am to see you but where did you come from?!" Robin asked the myrmidon.

"I was watching you fight this man, your defence was passable, but you need more training in using a sword more effectively. In Ferox strength is everything, you have a strength that I have only ever seen Basillio have." Lon'qu answered. "It's that strength, why I follow you now, and why I will follow you until the end."

"Wow, umm, thanks, don't really know how to respond to that." The tactician responded, before trying to stand. "Gahhar!"

"Stay still! You are far too injured to move. Lon'qu, was it, get Lissa and try to find a stretcher, we need it if we are too move him without aggravating the injury." Maribelle informed.

"Hmmm, if you insist." The swordsman mumbled, before moving to inform the Shepherds of the situation.

"Try to keep awake dear, but I need you to lie down." The noble woman informed, before aiding the tactician in lying on the ground.

"Y-you think, that this *cough* wi-will change an-anything, soo-soon war…*cough* will be on your soil…heh heh." Orton laughed his last laugh with that foreboding message.

"He's right, King Gangrel got his war. We need to be prepared for anything." Robin winced out, he was trying to mull over some ideas until the pattering of feet drew his and the noblewoman's attention.

"Get him on that stretcher, now!" Chrom commanded, gesturing towards the wounded tactician, the two unfortunate souls that were forced to carry it were Vaike and Stahl, closely followed by a worried looking Lissa.

"We got ya buddy." Stahl said, lowering the stretcher down. "Vaike, help me move him. On three. One, two, three!"

The pair moved Robin onto the carrier, before lifting it back up with the tactician laying on it. Lissa joined the carriers letting her healing staff wash over him, staffs were only a temporary fix to large injuries such as the one that Robin received, if the wound was smaller they would be able to fix it without any major-medical attention. As the group passed by the prince, Robin raised one of his arms to grab onto him.

"We need to talk." The tactician grunted out.

"I was going to say the same thing, and I have an idea what about. When you get released from the medic bay, meet me in the castle grounds, I'll explain everything." Chrom answered morosely.

"Alright." Robin relented, dropping his arm, before being whisked away by the carrying party.

Chrom turned his attention to the noble kneeling on the ground, her vision not leaving the injured tactician's retreating form.

"You okay?" The prince asked.

"As well as I can be after that. I'm still recovering from the shock of being manhandled by that barbarian." Maribelle sighed. "I apologise for all of this prince Chrom, this is all my fault."

"None of this is your fault Maribelle." A female voice sounded from behind the pair.

Emmeryn was standing there accompanied by Phila and Frederick, the exalt started walking towards the pair.

"But, your grace, if I hadn't been captured they would have-" The blonde noble tried to explain.

"Then they would have kidnapped your parents, there was no way you could have known what was going to happen in Themis. King Gangrel is at fault here, you were only trying to protect your family." The exalt explained, attempting the soothe the young noblewoman.

"The Mad King will be rallying his forces, we must make haste back to Ylisstol and discuss strategy." Frederick offered.

"We won't be able to start that until Robin has recovered. What possessed him to try and defeat him by himself?" The prince speculated.

"It was what the commander did." Maribelle answered. "He was able to get under Robin's skin when he executed that retreating rider, using fear to drive his men into a suicide mission. Even when we were fighting him he didn't let up constantly referring to them as pawns, I can only imagine what was going through our tactician's mind when he was manhandling me."

"That dastard, at least he received his justice." Chrom muttered.

"Please, your grace, I must insist we return to the capital." Phila begged.

"Yes, we must inform the people of this terrible outcome." Emmeryn answered, before starting the long journey back.

The rest of the entourage joined her as they made it back to the convoy they had arrived in, the whole-time Maribelle's thoughts drifted towards the tactician who had helped saved her, and had defended throughout the battle.

'He is certainly an interesting one, but for now we have to make sure he is fine and recovered before we can think about anything else.' The noble thought to herself, before making her way to the medical caravan where the tactician would be being tended too. Opening the carriage door, she watched as Lissa was giving a stern lecture about looking after himself better, all the while he was gritting his teeth as the cleric had finished cleaning the wound, having rubbed some alcohol over it.

The noble coughed drawing the attention of those present. Had Lissa not had a needle in her hand, she would have rushed to her friend and given her a large hug.

"Maribelle, I'm so glad you're alright. I would've talked to you before, but this idiot got himself hurt." The princess said joyfully, before pointing an accusing figure at the prone tactician.

"I understand darling, but don't let yourself be distracted, that injury needs to be stitched as soon as possible." Maribelle replied.

"Right." Lissa answered. "Alright Robin this is gonna sting a bit." She said in warning, making sure the thick thread was through the eye of the needle.

"W-wait, can't we just use a staff for this?" Robin asked, a twinge of fear on his face.

"Not for this I'm afraid dear, healing magic can only do so much." The noble answered. "Why though?"

"I…I think I have a fear of needles." Robin muttered trailing off at the end.

"Seriously?! This tiny thing, and you're afraid of it?!" Lissa shouted flabbergasted.

"It's just so tiny…that something that small could hurt go through my skin, sends shivers through me." The tactician answered honestly.

"I'm afraid you're just going to have to grin and bear it, Robin." Maribelle answered. "If it helps, try to think of something calm, it should help for the most part, the anaesthetic Lissa should have provided would have numbed the area by now."

"Alright. Happy thought's I can do that." Robin said, mainly to himself, before closing his eyes.

For the whole trip to Ylisstol, Robin was trying to stay as calm as he could as his side was being sutured together.


A/N: Honestly, not a chapter I'm impressed with. I wouldn't say I struggled, but more I wanted to show you that Robin is vulnerable, not some Gary Stu as I feel I've been making him out to be so far. I also feel as though I rushed some of the interactions here, so I plan to slow down again, just call it the heat of the moment getting to them.

Remember to leave reviews...plez...I needs them...Now this week's question. Do you look at pairing's from a logical/canonical viewpoint, or do you just put them together to whimsically because you like it? Leave your answers in the reviews, and with that I bid you adieu.