Author's note: This chapter took again some time to publish and for that I'm sorry, I need to find a good period of time in which I can write, writing in the bus is not the best plan and my schedule doesn't allow much time for me to write. So I'm doing the best. Here is a full chapter written on busses, cars, and in-between classes. By the way, Fates is almost out, I can barely wait, more character, more stories and more amazing gameplay, it's gonna be an amazing game.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Fire Emblem, all that is owned by Nintendo. I only own this story which has finally started uploading again .

Chapter 9: Strategy?

Henry started looking around the library, he still wanted to spend the day with Robin so looking for her was important. He was tracking her aura when he bumped head-first into a large wooden door.

"Yep, that's her aura if I've ever seen it"

As the grin spread around his face he walked inside to see a part of the library he had never seen before, and at the center of it there was a small slumped over figure with white hair, completely enthralled in a pile of books in front of her. Henry walked closer to Robin, looking at her hair.

"Its color is similar to mine, but hers looks slightly softer, almost as soft as raven feathers nyahaha maybe even softer."

His hand stretched out slightly nervous, trying not to scare her. As soon as his hand touched her head, she jerked up startled, looking directly at his eyes. Henry grew an even wider smile and ruffled her hair.

"So it is true, nyahahaha you have soft hair!"

Robin started laughing, Henry had always managed to do this, lighten her up with just a small comment of phrase.

"What'cha reading there?"

"Strategy books mostly, I need to see how to do something..."

"Oooh, is it something dangerous, something that has to do with death, or blood, or death with blood? Can I help you?!"

His sheer enthusiasm felt like a window had been open in the ghost-like room, he was already mumbling under his breath several spells, some more advanced than what Robin knew, yet whenever he came in she couldn't help but smile.

"Well I kinda need to plan something amazing."

"Nyahaha good thing I came along then, I wanna help too!"

"So do you know about the Grima council?"

"Does it bleed?"

"Not exactly, at least I hope not."

"Well darn, I'm no good then, nyahaha."

"I need to find a way to infiltrate it, get inside and hear what the council members say, the thing is, it's almost impossible, I don't even know where it's going to be, the only thing I know is when..."

"It'll be kinda hard if you don't know what everyone is doing or saying."

"Henry... I think you just gave me the answer I need, first I need to track only a couple of people, the most important members in here, one of them is surely bound to go, the only thing is that I can't follow Master Julius, that's close to impossible considering how easily he would notice any attempt I make... but I can follow Validar, he's not exactly perceptive of anything smaller than him, so I could sneak a small team to track him. The issue now is that it needs to be something so small that he will either not notice it or ignore it completely. Although I can't solely follow him..."

Robin picked up a crumbled piece of parchment and started drawing, she got completely absorbed in it, Henry stayed and occasionally gave in some comments or suggestions. If anything could help Robin then he would do it, and he was not as bad in tactics as he pretended to be.

A cold desert night creeped through the corners of the room. Her hands were clamped and covered with ink-stains and Henry's was just the same. She needed to know some small elements of the palace layouts to finish her plan, but other than that she was perfectly set. As soon as she looked up she saw Henry as a bundle of messy hair on the table, sleeping.

"I think I should do the same thing, besides it's comfortable here anyways."

However something felt slightly different in the room, almost like there was something that she was not seeing.

"I'm just too tired to care anymore."

Suddenly a loud thud in the table made her jerk up, scared, only to find Gaius in front of her, with a bag of sweets on the table.

"Hey-o Gaius, what's up?" mumbled Henry.

"Funny you should ask, I waited for you guys in our usual spot but apparently you were busy napping." even though what he said was mean he had a crooked smile in his face.

"You came looking for us?"

"Not exactly... I just found these laying around and well, it's better to share them isn't it? I thought you guys would like them."

"Nyahaha Gaius? Sharing sweets? Grima has resurrected! Oh there will be blood, now tell me what did you do to the Gaius we love and hate?"

"Calm down Henry, haha darn it, next time I just won't be nice."

Robin started to dig in into the sweets, they were simply amazing, especially the chocolate. Being in Plegia meant not many candy was available, so chocolate was pretty much a rare item, a delicious and extremely rare item. After some time Robin started noticing something strange, like something out of place. She looked around the room, followed slowly by a cautious Gaius and a smirking Henry. It felt weird, whatever she felt didn't seem hostile so she thought about trying something interesting.

"Hey! I know we probably don't know each other well, but would you like to share some sweets with us? I swear I'm not a bad person."

"Or so you say Bubbles..."

As soon as Robin turned around to punch Gaius, a small woman appeared from the shadows. She had black luscious hair and was dressed rather skimpily, even though she was about the same age as them.

"So there you were! I was wondering why something felt different."

"You could sense that?"

"Well yeah, was that wrong?"

"Nyahaha that's a really high level dark magic hex, I can't even master it fully yet."

"Interesting... I'll think about it later, now, tell me, what's your name?"

"...Tharja..."

"Well met Tharja, my name is Robin, the orange one is Gaius, and this is Henry."

"The ORANGE one?! That was low, even for you it was a new low."

"Payback"

And with a cocky grin Robin extended her hand over to Tharja. As soon as Tharja grabbed her hand a sinister giggle escaped her lips.

"...I think I like her..."

As soon as Tharja said that, she was swept in a conversation about tactics and the appropriate consistency of sweets, which evolved into a full on debate between between Robin and Gaius.

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ̀ˋ

Robin was on her way to her room, careful not to make too much noise. She spent most of her night walking around the castle courtyard, everything felt slightly different, and she wanted to take all of these old corridors with the new sensations she was feeling. Touching every corner and crevice felt interesting, it was new yet also known, the feeling was quite interesting for her. She still felt insecure about everything, she looked human and felt human, yet there was something new to her, Gaius had told her how he felt, which really helped her a lot, but she didn't know when will more changes start appearing, and if she would still be herself in the future with all of these things happening to her.

She turned a corner only to find a small crow in the window, it looked at her with piqued interest, moving slowly to where she was sitting. A small smile appeared on Robin as she started stroking its back.

"He seems to really like you!"

"He?"

"Yeah he told me so, I think you met him this morning"

"That's good, so tell me what's his name?"

"Herbert! Sounds nice and royal no?"

"Hahaha sounds kind of goofy but I think it works"

"Hey Robin..."

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry..."

"What do you mean, Henry?"

"Oh c'mon, you know I'm not good with mushy feelings and such! What I mean is that no matter what may happen to you, we will be there to help you, I will be there for you too. You were already there for me, so now it's my turn to be there for you. And I will help you not to worry about whatever is weighing on you, I can share that weight with you. That's what I'm here for...Robin are you okay?! You're crying! I'm so sorry I never meant to make you cry, darn it, I rehearsed it and everything. Can Herbert help? Robin hmph!"

Robin wrapped her arms around Henry and cried, she was so happy, she never thought she had this kind of people around her, and the overwhelming feeling of gratitude hit her like a flooded gate.

"I'm not sad, Henry, I'm just extremely happy, I feel that I can breathe easier. Thank you..."

"Nyahaha crying because you're happy? You're really weird Robin..." as he said that he wrapped his arms around her too.

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes, until Robin's arms slowly let go of him. Somehow Henry missed her warmth, but he thought it was probably because of the desert night.

"I think I've cried enough, I need to learn how to live like this... Again, thank you Henry, I needed that"

"Don't worry, and hey, I'll walk you back to your room"

"Thank you..."

They walked slowly, their steps being the only things that filled the quiet hallway. It was a cold night, as cold as any other, yet Robin knew something inside of her; she was changing, in more ways that she would like to admit, with all the Grima thing going on she was going to need all the help she could get, and she was thankful that she had it, it made things a little easier on her. For now she needed to focus on what was important, the rest could wait.

Before she could even notice it, they had already arrived to her room and were both standing outside of her door. They said their goodbye's and as Henry was closing the door he said something really Henry-like.

"Don't forget to smile, your smile is as cute as a dead puppy!"

And with a last "Nyahaha" the door was closed. Robin changed into her nightgown and slowly fell onto her bed, she was happy and even though her world started falling apart, she would do her best in keeping it together, together with all her friends.

She didn't feel so alone anymore.