Long chapter, anyone? The confrontation, or Lucina's judgement, is probably the most intimate scene between Robin and Lucina in game, and it's especially significant if Lucina is married to Robin (she isn't in this story now, but they're technically dating I guess so its a similar scenario). I wanted to make this chapter nice and lengthy because of how important it is to their relationship. Also because writing emotional and intense dialogue between these two is my second favorite thing after writing fluffy dialogue between these two. I'm sorry to say that you aren't getting any fluff this chapter though. Try listening to the music that plays during this scene Id (Sorrow) to get in the mood. Prepare yourself.

In which Lucina confronts Robin and must choose between love or hate

Chapter 10 - Life Means Death, Death Means Life

Over the next few days, Lucina took special care to monitor Robin's actions just in case he was tried to attempt anything else while morale was low. It wasn't difficult to do; he very rarely wandered from his tent after what happened in Plegia. He only really left to go on short walks or grab meals, which he took back to his tent to eat anyways. Like he had done to her in Valm, Robin was doing a masterful job at avoiding people when he didn't want to be seen. Lucina didn't think that she had heard him speak to anyone else either, even when he was forced to be with the rest of the Shepherds as they marched out of the desert. This evening, they had set up camp in the forested plains that separated Plegia from Ylisse.

Lucina had been planning her course of action since Robin stole the Fire Emblem from Chrom, and now all she needed was to get Robin alone. No one could see what she had to do, especially Chrom. As much as she didn't like having to constantly keep her father in the dark, she knew that he wouldn't be able to understand the necessity of her action and that his insistent trust in Robin would make him try to stop her. He wasn't there. He hasn't stared into the embodiment of death's six gleaming eyes and watched it slaughter all those dear to you.

The moment presented itself to her when Robin left his tent around dinnertime. Instead of heading in his usual direction to the mess hall, he began to walk the other way towards the outskirts of camp. Lucina traced his steps from afar, making sure that he wouldn't be able to hear her approach until it was too late. As Robin made his way into a small grove of trees that surrounded camp, she stopped walking in a sudden outburst of self-disgust. Is this what she had fallen to? Nothing more than a beast stalking its helpless prey? This was murder. Murder that she felt was justified by the millions of lives that could be saved, but still murder nonetheless. He hadn't killed Chrom yet, but did the possible risk of him doing so justify her need for Robin to die? Was any murder justifiable? Was what she was about to do any different from what Robin was going to do? Might do? She started to doubt herself, which she had hoped wouldn't happen. She forced herself to push any doubts away. Lucina was accustomed to this by now, and she locked these uncertainties away in her mental vault along with all her other fears and desires; the vault had to be almost full by now. Repeating the goals of her mission over once more in her head, she hurried to catch up behind Robin.

On the other side of the trees, she emerged into a small clearing. It was thick with amber grasses that grew up to her knees. Taking a brief glance over her surroundings, she found Robin on the other side of the field, standing over a fallen log with his back towards her. He brushed away a few fallen leaves with gentle sweeps from his hand before sitting down. Even though the trunk was propped up and rested above the ground, the tactician's long coat still scraped the earth, becoming damp with the dewdrops that clung to the grass. He let out an exhausted breath and his tense shoulders began to fall as he slowly relaxed them. Hands folded in his lap, Robin stared deep into the trees and challenged the forest to match his silence. The two were at odds for a few moments until the forest yielded to his gaze with a light breeze that caused the leaves to rustle softly. The man however did not seem proud of his victory; he only responded by reaching into his coat and pulling out a plain-looking book as well as a small inkwell and quill.

He placed the inkwell down next to him, ensuring that the log was flat enough so that the bottle wouldn't slip off before uncapping it, then he opened the book about three quarters of the way through to a blank page. Dabbing the tip of his quill into the inkwell, Robin started to write. After putting only a few words down he hesitated, quill tip hovering over the page as he read the letters over in his head. Lucina was far too distant to see what he had written, but before she could make an assumption Robin struck a definitive line through the words and started over. Again he paused after a sentence or two, and he shook his head sadly as the words suffered the same fate as those that had been written before.

Lucina watched the cycle repeat a few more times, every one of his attempts eventually becoming as short as one word before it got crossed out as he got frustrated. She wasn't able to wait until he finished his seemingly hopeless endeavor, so taking a deep breath to mentally prepare herself for what she was about to do, she began to walk towards him. Lucina did not have to be concerned with remaining stealthy now, and she allowed her footsteps to fall harder than before. Robin's head rose as soon as he became aware of her approach, and quickly he fastened the cap onto his inkwell and tucked all three of his items back into his coat. His body stiffened in apprehension as he stood, but he did not turn around. Lucina halted when she was a few yards away from him, and for a moment her eye caught the tea stain on his coat that she had caused before she focused herself once more.

"Robin," Lucina finally spoke, breaking the uneasy silence.

The man cringed at the name, as if its meaning appalled him, but he immediately recognized the voice who had spoken it. "Lucina..." His whisper of a response was weak and tinged with slight fear.

"...We need to talk."

The tactician could tell from her tone that she hadn't followed him all the way out into the forest out for an idle conversation, and he slowly turned around to see her. "Listen, about what happened in Plegia... Gods..." He scratched the back of his head and looked down into the grass. "It's... so hard to me to put into words, but I can try as best I can for you."

"You don't have to, Robin. I know what I saw," Lucina spoke in a steely voice. She hated how pathetic he was making himself look; it was like she was scolding a small, helpless child, and now she was starting to feel bad for him. I'm too soft! I can't let these feelings get the better of me! "Save your sorry faces. They won't work on me anymore."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked confusedly, but Lucina refused to play this game with him any longer and changed the subject.

"Robin..." she began, averting her gaze and looking up into the sky, which was soaked in vivid reds and oranges as it approached the final stages of sunset. "What do you think about my father?"

"Chrom? We've been through a lot together - my whole life that I can remember. We've fought side by side in countless battles, and I'm glad that he was the one who found me in that field." Robin thought out loud.

"My father is kind and caring, and despite being in this war he desires nothing but peace to come from it. At least, that was what I thought of him as a child," Lucina reminisced on the few memories she had of Chrom in her timeline. "When I made the decision to come to the past to save this world's future, I had the slight fear that those qualities were exaggerated. That I only saw the good in my father at my naive age and he actually wasn't as great as I thought he was."

She paused and broke away from the vivid sky, making eye contact with Robin again. "I was happy to find that those fears were wrong. Now that I have the privilege of speaking to him at my older age, I realized that he was a more kind and considerate person than I had ever imagined." Despite the anger she felt for Robin at the moment, Lucina managed a small smile. "I know even more so now that if he dies, the world will be robbed of a noble man.

"Yes, Chrom is a great man, and a greater friend," Robin agreed, then adopted a more somber tone. "I keep telling you this, but still I can't imagine how it must have felt to lose him. It must have been impossibly hard for you..."

Lucina gritted her teeth at the mention of her feelings. "Which brings me to why I'm here," she told him, attempting to remain stoic but found that her anger was beginning to boil over her calm exterior. "Do you know the real reason that I have trouble with trusting who should be my closest allies? I haven't told anyone about this, not even my father yet, but it is because whoever killed my father was one of the Shepherds."

Robin's eyes widened in revelation. "So that's why you felt the need to protect Chrom in Valm. You thought that Donnel could have been the one who allowed him to die..." He put a hand to his chin as he thought, then blurted out, "But who would try to kill Chrom? All of us here would protect him with our lives, not leave him to die!"

"That's what I believed as well when I was young," Lucina informed. "The Shepherds were all heroes to me. I even used to pretend I was the leader of my very own junior Shepherds with Cynthia and Owain. But my faith in them was forever tarnished when I learned that my father was killed, betrayed by one of his closest friends."

She paused to see if Robin had anything to add, but was quiet and willed her to continue. "I feared of growing too close to any one of them when I came here. When I discovered my father's killer-to-be, I didn't want to feel too attached to whoever it was, so I would not hesitate when I had to take action. I realize now that despite my best efforts I failed in this desire, because in light of recent events I have all the reason to believe that my father's murderer..." She took Falchion's hilt and slowly drew it from its sheath, but kept it at her side. "Is you, Robin."

"What? That's insane!" Robin cried after her accusation registered in his mind. "I would never think, not even dream of hurting Chrom!"

"Then what happened in Plegia?" Lucina began to raise her voice, gradually allowing her rage to surface. "Why did you so willingly heed Validar's command to steal the Fire Emblem from my father?"

"Lucina, that wasn't my choice to ma-"

"You thought you were clever," Lucina interrupted him with a low growl. "You knew that I would stop you, so you tried to throw me off! Distract me with your false affections while you slipped past my defenses to get to my father!" Her right hand tightened around her sword's hilt, and the other curled into a fist. She glared at him with eyes full of rage, but her voice was desperate. "Did our love truly mean nothing to you?!"

"No! That isn't true at all! My love for you-"

"Is a lie!" Lucina cried out, again refusing to allow her tears her fall. "All those times you said that I was special to you, and that you cared for me... All lies!" Her voice fell softer. "It wasn't just enough to evade me so you could try to kill my father, was it? You knew I was broken and you had to break me some more..."

"Lucina!" Robin tried to speak. "Stop saying these terrible things! It was never my intention to kill Chrom! I would never try to hurt you!"

"I knew I never should have fallen in love with anybody in the first place, even if it was real," Lucina ignored him. "When my mission is complete, I have to return to my future to help rebuild my world. I...I don't belong here, and neither does my affection. Whatever love I had died with the millions of people who lost their lives to Grima." She held Falchion in a battle stance, tip pointed at Robin's chest. "I apologize, Robin, but I must kill you here before I allow you to cause the destruction I've witnessed!"

"Lucina, you don't have to do this..."

"Draw your weapon!" she commanded. "My pride prevents me from striking down an unarmed opponent. I promise your death will be swift and painless."

Robin stood very still with his expression a mixture of sadness and guilt. He simply stared at Lucina for a long time, then gave a soft sigh and reached down his hand to grab the Levin Sword that was strapped to his hip. The magical sword began to give off a faint glow in response to his touch and gradually came to life with electricity. Robin held the sword in his own fighting stance, but he did not attempt to initiate a duel.

"Lucina," he spoke in a quiet voice. "You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but I need to tell you that nothing I said to you was a lie, and the love I felt and still feel for you is true. I need you to know that." He raised his Levin Sword high into the air, but instead of attacking he threw the sword to the ground. The weapon made a dull thud as it collided with the earth and crackled faintly as its energy died in intensity.

Lucina winced as she watched his action. She didn't want him to do this. "No... Why did you drop your sword? Pick it up and fight for your life..." she begged.

"You disarmed me," he reasoned. "I don't want to fight you, Lucina, and I would never do anything to try and hurt you. I'm sorry if you felt like I was trying to. I made you a promise, and in that promise I said that I would do anything to make you happy. If killing me will make you happy, if it will finally put your mind at ease and you won't have to fear losing your father anymore, then... so be it. My life is yours, Lucina. It always has been."

"Don't you see?" she asked him frantically. "This isn't going to make me happy! I don't want to have to do this, but I have no other choice! If what you're saying is true... and you knew that your actions could be influenced, then why didn't you tell us? We could have kept you away from Validar and none of this would have happened!"

"I didn't fully recognize how powerful he was, and that he could warp my mind to change my very thoughts..." he tried to explain.

"B...but even if it wasn't your fault, you have to understand that you're still dangerous! If Validar can control you, then what's to stop him from forcing you to kill my father? To kill all of us? Only one of you can live, and that person has to be my father." Lucina's anger was losing its foundations, and it was crumbling away to her true feelings for him. "Please, Robin... I can't let you become your father's living weapon. It's the only way!"

"...You're right," Robin agreed sadly.

"What...no! You aren't supposed to agree with me! You... you can't be so willing to accept death!"

"I want to die while I still remember the kind of person who I used to be. I began my new life as a Shepherd, and if I could choose, I want it to end as a Shepherd, not as a slave. If my father wants to turn me into a weapon, we can't give him that chance, can we?" The corners of his moth rose upward slightly, and Lucina had no doubt that this smile was genuine. "I know that what you're doing is for the good of everyone."

"It's not for the good of you though..."

"You're right that your father is much more important than I am." Robin let out a defeated laugh, as if he found his lack of worth almost amusing. "I thought I knew who I was for a while, but in truth I have no idea. Now that I think about it really, I'm just a nobody that Chrom found lying around in an empty field."

"But you're important to me..."

"I guess you're right about what you said earlier too." It was Robin now who was ignoring her protests. "That I shouldn't have tried to get you involved more than you had to in the past. It...it would have never worked out, and I let my desires get the better of me. You'll have to go back to your future once this war is over, and you couldn't possibly bring anybody from this time with you. I was... just setting you up for heartbreak since the beginning... I'm sorry..."

Robin began to take a few steps towards her, leaving his sword behind. "If you could just promise me one more thing before I die," he asked. "Please, when everything is over, and when you go back to your time, find someone else who loves you. Anybody. I don't care who as long as whoever he is makes you happy and keeps you company." Robin looked away from her for a moment. "Because feeling alone, and not feeling like you belong, is such a... terribly sad feeling, and you mustn't have to suffer that any longer. That's all I want."

"D...don't look at me like that! Don't make this harder for me then it already is!" Lucina stammered.

"I'm sorry," Robin apologized again and continued to walk towards her until he was only a few feet away. "Do what you must. I'm ready now." He held both his hands outstretched with palms facing towards her.

"I'm not though..." she responded weakly.

"Lucina, the time to change your fate is now," Robin's voice was gentle but decisive. "You can finally have the life that you've always wanted to live. I would gladly give my own life for Chrom, and for all of the Shepherds, and for you."

"I... Ah gods... Why?" Lucina was choking on her own words. Robin was still walking towards her, and he was within attacking range now. All it would take was one stab through his chest to end the life that he was so willingly giving up to her. She looked down at the Falchion that her shaking hands still held pointed at him. The teardrop-shaped hole in its hilt had begun to glow a faint blue, like it had on the night when she had prevented Emmeryn's assassination. The light signified that the future was about to be changed, but she didn't want it to have to change like this. Was she about to allow her exalted blade to become a sacrificial dagger?

Lucina brought the weapon closer to her as to prepare for a strike, keeping the point of the sword still trained on the man in front of her. Robin stopped advancing and stood still, then closed his auburn eyes and waited. When she saw him like this... Her own eyes began to water. She was too weak.

"I... I can't..." she whispered, both to him and to herself.

Robin's eyes suddenly opened wide in fear, and as if it was angered by Robin's presence, the Falchion began to glow fiercely. Before she had time to comprehend its reaction, a mental sword buried itself into her head and her brain erupted with a headache that made her skull throb and her pulse rapidly quicken in shock. Dropping Falchion, she let out a brief gasp of pain and sunk to her knees as she clutched her head. She felt like a million shadowy hands had all at once invaded her mind and now were ripping her brain to pieces.

"Lucina!" Robin cried out and tried to rush to her side. As he approached, the ringing in her ears grew louder and the pain intensified, making her let out an agonized scream as she covered her face with her hands. Robin immediately withdrew his hands as if he had burned them and he took a few steps backwards, causing the sharper pain in her head to weaken again. He helplessly watched her crippled form in fear and continued to back away, and with every step he took Lucina's headache became more and more bearable.

"I didn't... How did I..." Robin gasped and held his bare palms up for him to see, as if he expected to find blood on them.

Lucina raised her head to gaze up at him. The sharp pain from a moment ago forced the tears she had held back out of her eyes, which were now running down her cheeks.

"I... I hurt you..." Robin whispered in horror. "A...and I just promised you I wouldn't..." His bottom lip was quivering, and slowly he grasped fistfuls of his silvery white hair. "...I am a monster..."

He nervously looked from side to side like he was surrounded by a menacing force, then he turned his back on her and ran as fast as he could manage back in the direction of camp. Lucina weakly held out her hand as if he was still close enough for her to grab on to, but his shadow had already disappeared from the clearing and the sounds of his feet brushing against the long grass was fading quickly. She didn't have the strength for keep her arm raised and dropped it in defeat. Even though her headache was gone, the shame of what she had just attempted was not. Lucina grasped her hands around her legs and gently rested her forehead into her knees in a fetal position. The grass hugged and concealed her from the rest of the world, and the drops of dew reflected the light of the falling sun.

Lucina gave up trying to remain in bed when first light shone through the canvas walls of her tent; she hadn't slept at all last night and had been lying with her eyes closed but mind awake for hours. She had seen the same event repeated over and over behind her eyelids, as if she couldn't feel guilty enough after first experiencing it. She withdrew her hands from beneath her blanket and pressed her forefingers to her temples, letting out a low groan. What had she done?

Exhaustedly crawling out of bed, she swapped her nightclothes for her usual attire. She had lazily thrown her outfit into a crumpled pile when she arrived back at her tent last night and it was still slightly damp since it hadn't been hung up to dry, but wet clothes were the least of her worries at the moment. What if Robin had told Chrom what had happened when he ran back to camp? She didn't want her father to learn of what she had tried to do, but if he already knew anyways Lucina didn't want to lie to his face about it if he asked. Slipping into both her boots, she left the solitude of her own tent to find the one that her parents shared.

Upon arriving outside, Lucina thought she could hear her father muttering something, but it was so low she couldn't make it out. She waited for a response from Sumia, but it didn't come. She remembered that her mother usually got up early with Cynthia to tend to their pegasi, so she probably wasn't inside. Her father must be talking to himself then.

"Father?" she called inside gently. "May I come in?"

"Oh, Lucina!" Chrom's voice sounded surprised from her appearance, but it was at least a good sign that he didn't sound angry to hear from her. Hopefully Robin wouldn't tell anyone that she had tried to kill him if he hadn't told her father. "Come in," he called, and Lucina slipped inside the tent flap to find Chrom sitting at his little desk and scrutinizing a piece of paper that he was holding. He muttered a "damn it" under his breath to himself again, then addressed her without looking up. "I suppose that you should know about this too."

"Know about what, Father? What's wrong?"

"It's Robin," he sighed after a brief silence. "He's gone."

"Gone?!" Lucina exclaimed, skin growing cold at the mention of the word. "What do you mean gone? Gone where?"

"I don't know. Sumia woke me up this morning to tell me that she had found this letter from him right where you're standing. He must have slipped it through the tent flap last night while I was asleep."

"Can I see it?" Lucina asked urgently, trying but failing miserably to mask her dread over what it would say.

"Here," her father held out the piece of paper to her, which she took delicately. "He mentions you at the end, but I can't make odds or ends of why he chose to put that in there."

"He does?"

If she had just wanted to read the letter moments before, she was dying to see what he had to say about her now. The paper she held had a neat crease from where it had been folded in half, and one edge was rough and uneven. He must have torn the page out of a book, she surmised as she began to read. In elegant but shaky handwriting, the letter said:

Chrom,

I know you probably won't agree with my choice, but after much deliberation on my part I have decided that it is in everyone's best interest for me to leave for the time being. Regarding recent events, I realize that my actions were despicable and give you my sincerest apologies. I still don't know the extent to which my father can manipulate me, and I don't want to take the risk of staying here with you and the Shepherds if he can force me to do anyone harm. My headaches have become more frequent and painful ever since we left Plegia, so I can only surmise that he is trying to obtain a tighter grasp over my mind. Once again, I apologize for leaving you so suddenly, but I feared that if I told you in person you would try and convince me to stay. If I think of any way to get the Fire Emblem back from him, I'll find you and let you know immediately, but I cannot put you or anyone else at risk in the meantime. I'm sure you can manage without me for a little while. I can't do much good for anyone now. I hope that we can meet again someday soon when this awful war is finally over.

Your friend,

Robin

P.S. – Don't forget to make Lucina eat her meals. I know that she doesn't like being around everybody all the time, but she needs the energy.

That was it. Robin was gone, and it was all her fault. He wouldn't have left if she hadn't confronted him last night!

"I should have known that he would do something rash," Chrom spoke as Lucina lifted her eyes off the paper. "I knew that he felt guilty for what he did no matter how many times I told him not to be. I should have tried harder to convince him that it wasn't his fault."

Lucina couldn't respond to what her father had said. She was desperately trying to figure out what Robin had meant at the end of his letter. It just seemed so out of place... It had to mean something else, but what?

In sync with her thoughts, her father asked her about the postscript of the letter. "Any idea what he meant by the end?" Lucina shook her head no, to which Chrom responded with a sad laugh. "I guess he was still just looking out for everyone even after what happened. Always doing what's best." He shook his head and spoke more to himself rather than to her. "What are we going to do without our tactician? I should have known..."

Looking out for everyone... Of course! Lucina made the connection. He must have anticipated that she would see the letter sometime or another, so the message was definitely meant for her alone and not for Chrom. He must be referring to the night that he was looking out for her best interests and had brought her dinner. It made sense!

Lucina immediately shoved the paper back at her father and started to leave. "Sorry Father but I just remembered that I have to be somewhere!" she excused as she darted out the tent flap.

"Oh... Um, okay then."

She broke into a run towards the training grounds before her father could ask her anything else. Lucina wasn't sure if there was anything waiting for her there, or if Robin's words really were in reality a friendly reminder to stay healthy, but she had to know. She burst into the armory tent, not caring if anyone else saw her so desperate. However, like she expected, her distant hope was crushed when she found that Robin was not there waiting for her to decipher his message so that when she arrived he could embrace her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. She realized that there was little hope for her at all that he even still loved her after she tried to murder him for something that he didn't do.

Despondent, Lucina sadly turned to leave when her eye caught a folded piece of paper on a weapons crate. The paper was small enough to be easily missed if one wasn't looking for it. Slowly she walked over and picked up the paper, holding it in front of her with both eagerness and hesitance. She knew that she wouldn't be able to bear not reading it, and taking a deep breath she began to unfold the creases. This paper also had a rough edge, so he must have ripped it from the same book. Lucina took one look at the top of the page and then quickly folded it up again. The first word was her name written in the same handwriting as Chrom's letter.

She clutched the note close to her chest as she ran out of the armory as quickly as she had run in, this time to her own tent. She didn't want anyone to walk in unexpectedly to see her reaction. Upon arrival, she sat down at the foot of her bed and reopened the folded edges of the letter so she could read. The words were even shakier than on Chrom's letter, and there were a few ink blotches from where his hand must have slipped while writing.

Lucina,

Gods, I don't know where to begin. I hope that you find this sooner than later, because I don't want you to feel bad for what you tried to do. I know how much it means to you to keep your father safe and to prevent your future from happening again, so I won't have you worry about not succeeding anymore. If my father turned me against you I would never be able to live with myself, and I don't want to take that chance. Every day that goes by I find it increasingly difficult to determine what is real and what the voices in my head that the headaches bring say is true. I don't know how you got one of my headaches last night, but please understand that it was never my intention to hurt you and I apologize with the bottom of my heart. I know that I'm a monster, but as of now my deepest wish is that maybe someday you could forgive me for what I have done. You may be long gone to a time and place that I'll never be able to reach before I have the chance to see you again, but if that's the case I'll feel better knowing that you aren't mad at me wherever you go. Please don't be scared anymore. You're the strongest person I know and the strongest person I'll ever meet.

Robin

Lucina had to reread the letter when she finished, tracing over every word with her finger to make sure that she was reading every sentence correctly. Out of all the emotions that she felt in reading Robin's letter, she found herself again growing angry, not towards him but towards herself.

"I'm... the monster," she whispered out loud, then began speaking as if Robin was right next to her. "It wasn't your fault! None of this was your fault and I was too blinded by my assumptions to see that!" She placed her finger over where Robin mentioned Validar. "He did this! He did this, not you!" she cried out, then became aware that someone may hear her from outside and lowered her voice. "I should be the one asking for forgiveness..." Lucina clutched the letter tightly and hung her head low into the page. "I'm sorry..." she whimpered, and she didn't move for a long time.

...Wow. I hope you didn't drown in the sea of feels after reading this chapter.

I tried to change up the confrontation scene a bit because I wanted it to seem more unique to this story, and I felt that now more than ever with the tension between Robin and Lucina that this would be the optimal time to deviate slightly from the game's plotline. I hope I conveyed their feelings for each other in their dialogue well enough! If the title was a bit confusing, I was going for a summary of Lucina's beliefs at the beginning of the chapter - if Robin lives, then he'll bring death to her father; if he dies, it should ideally save millions of lives.

Now I'm sure that you're probably wondering how Lucina got one of Robin's headaches, so I'll try to explain my reasoning. As you could guess, it wasn't Robin himself who caused it. Also, take note that the Falchion is imbued with Naga's power. In the simplest terms, Grima's power inside Robin and Naga's power inside the Falchion were reacting to each other. Grima's heart is linked to Robin's, and therefore the fell dragon could sense that Robin was in danger of Naga's power. Essentially, Grima attacked Lucina to protect Robin, even though at that point Lucina wasn't about to hurt him anyway. Now I know it seems odd at first that Grima was trying to protect someone else, but in reality he was protecting himself, or his avatar, until he could assume total control over Robin. Grima isn't linked to Lucina though, so he had to assault her mind through Robin. However, Grima can only attack someone else from a very short range. This is why Lucina's headache decreases in intensity when Robin steps away from her. Grima is still too weak to affect anyone else from farther than a few feet. I also wrote that the Falchion began glowing intensely right as Robin opened his eyes and realized something terrible was coming. This was basically a warning to Lucina by Naga of the imminent attack by Grima. Whew, I hope that all those personal interpretations made relative sense... I'm a big fan of elaborate headcanons, theories, and the like. Send me a quick question if it was confusing and you care for more clarification.

Also, the only reason that Robin doesn't give Lucina his letter directly to her tent was that I wanted her to find his one to Chrom first. Kind of to show that Lucina still does care for him deeply because of how eager she is to decipher his message and find his note.

But do you think now that we've lost our male protagonist for the time being that the story is going to end and leave you on such a somber note? This is the perfect time to introduce a new important character in a few chapters! But who would this character be you ask? Gosh, I don't know. The Shepherds need a new tactician... Someone with Robin's skill... I wonder where they'll find someone like that? *wink wink*