Sophia POV

I raise my eyes to the cheering crowd of Grimleal at the base of the cliff, and look up to the cloudy sky, completely blocking out the sun's warming rays from the world. A single tear falls down my cheek as I hear a battle cry ring out from below, and an arrow whizzes past my ear, killing the executioner about to strike me down. I gasp as I see Chrom's dark blue hair in the back of the crowd, cutting down the Grimleal with Robin at his side, her white hair a beacon in the mass of darkly clothed cultists.

"Put these dogs to the blade!" Gangrel shouts, and more Grimleal turn and fight the Shepherds, who clearly are not fazed in the slightest by the increasing numbers of poor fighters.

I close my eyes as they make their approach to Gangrel's position, Chrom and Robin filled with fury. "Now, now, little prince, I wouldn't be quite so bold. I have archers aiming at your precious sister! One move, and I order them to loose, and then she goes splat!"

I look at myself, and realize I'm disguised as Emm, and shake my head at Chrom. "Gangrel, you may be mad, but you are a fool for thinking an Exalt is so easily caught!" I whip off the wig and sage robe, revealing my uniform as Emm's guard. "Plegians, heed my words, this war is not the answer! What good is revenge when your enemy suffered just as much as you?! What good is taking another's life when they have done you no wrong?! The one who caused your pain is gone, is that not enough?! You have another chance for peace, do not let it fall apart!" The people who were running from the fighting stopped to listen, and remain silent, giving me my answer. "What is done is done, and we can't change the past, but we can heal today and have hope for tomorrow." I whisper to myself. "Forgive me, Lucina." I spot her flying to me on Jade, panic and fear in her eyes. "Give them hope." I close my eyes and step to the edge of the cliff, and lean forward, falling endlessly to the earth.

"Sophia!" a voice shouts as a hand shakes my shoulder. I open my eyes, finding them blurred and wet with tears. "Sophia, shh, it's alright." Lucina wraps me in her arms, and I cry into her shoulder, finally understanding what she told me.

"I… I can't let it happen." I mutter.

She shifts around to sit on the bed next to me. "Can't let what happen?"

I look down at the sheets, rumpled from use. "I took Emm's place, and was to be executed, then… I jumped from the cliff." I look up to her, tears filling my eyes again. "You were flying on Jade, trying to get to me, but I never gave you the chance, just asked for your forgiveness."

Her fist clenches. "Except for a few particular details, that is exactly how the story of that day went." She looks out the window, and I see the early rays of sunlight peeking over the horizon. "Sophia, you will always have my forgiveness, but… if that ever does come to pass… give me the chance to save you. Please?"

I nod slowly at her, wiping my eyes with the edge of the blanket. "I promise."

We both get up and take turns with the washroom to get dressed and ready for the day. As my blue dress is completely ruined, I choose to wear a black skirt lined with chain mail and a dark blue shirt with an armored undershirt. Once we are all set to go, we walk silently down to the Shepherds mess, where everybody, including Emm and the Pegasus Knights, is quietly eating a rich breakfast. We sit close to Robin, who is sitting slightly away from everybody else.

"What's wrong, Robin?" Lucina asks her, pulling her out of her mind.

She looks at me, clenching her right hand, and closes her eyes. "Validar."

I lower my forkful of eggs back to the plate, and sigh. "Do we need to leave? If they know he was here, then…"

She shakes her head. "We'll be safer with our current positions. They wouldn't dare risk another attack like that for a long time, if ever again."

Lucina looks between the two of us. "What are you talking about? Does this have to do with why he wanted you two to go with him rather than killing the Exalt?"

We nod, and I eat my food much more slowly than I had planned to, barely tasting the normally strong flavors. Stahl notices and comes to sit across from me. "How long were you two on the run from him?"

Robin doesn't even look up, and answers in a dead tone. "All my life, and I only picked up Sophia two years ago."

Chrom sighs from the other end of the table. "Listen, Robin, Sophia, I've been patient and lenient, allowing you both to keep your secrets, but I think it's time that you shed some light on your past."

Robin's breathing gets shaky, so I grab her hand, lending her the strength to share her side of the story. "My mother was of the Grimleal cult, as most of you already knew, but I've only told Chrom and Sophia that Validar… is my father." Everybody goes deathly silent, but we barely acknowledge them. "They married, and had me. When I was a few days old, my parents took me to the Dragon's table to undergo the Fellblood Rite, and whatever happened that night, I turned my hair white and left me with Grima's brand. Soon after, my mother stole me from the crib, and ran off into the night, swearing to never again pray to Grima."

Her voice falters, so I pick up the story, continuing in the same tone as her. "She fled through the desert for days, barely stopping for rest at an oasis halfway to her hometown, where her sister still lived on the border. At the time, there was a strained peace between Plegia and Ylisse, so the town was a peaceful place where refugees from Plegia could make their livelihoods or become Ylissean citizens. Her mother found her sister's house, on the small farm where they grew up, and stayed there for seven years, until Robin was able to travel and carry supplies on her own. By then, the previous Exalt was waging the final years of the war, and the town had declared that while it would house refugees and give them work, that would be as close to Ylisse as they could get if they were Grimleal." I take a sip of water before continuing her tale. "They traveled into Ylisse, and rarely stayed anywhere for more than a week, fearing what may happen if the past were revealed to the wrong people. They travelled all over the continent for two years, then returned when the war ended with the Exalt's death. My father came home to marry my mother, and had me two years later. Once I was born, Robin and her mother left again, coming back to visit every couple of years."

"Regardless of the chaos and hatred, we were grateful for the end of the war, and found traveling easier and safer than before, as we knew the Grimleal would still be recuperating from their losses in the war." Robin picks up the story again, much to my relief. "Mother and I traveled the roads of Ylisse and Regna Ferox constantly, but eventually built a small house in the woods of Ylisse for a place to spend the winters, when the roads would be difficult and inn prices would be too much. We eventually stayed there as a permanent residence, and continued to visit Sophia's family every year. But two years ago, when we visited, there was a bandit raid on the town. All of the houses were on fire, and there was so much smoke that the sky seemed gray. Mother and I did what we could, and attacked the bandits with magic and blades, but we were outnumbered and horribly overwhelmed. We ran for the farm, throwing spells over our backs to keep them at bay, but one of them threw a knife that struck mother's back, and she fell. They had us surrounded, and were about to kill us when Sophia saved us. She used her father's old sword to stab one of the bandits from behind, and distracted them enough for mother to recuperate enough to help fight again." I close my eyes and allow a tear to fall into my lap.

"Mother was teaching me how to make pastries for when they arrived, so that there would be a fresh treat that I could say I had made. Father was outside chopping firewood when the fires started, and told Mother to get her tome while he got his sword from when he served in the war. They made me hide in the woods behind the house, where I would be hidden in the undergrowth. They fought hard to keep the bandits' attention away from searching for me, but they were overpowered, and refused to tell where I was. I wasn't able to keep from looking when they beheaded my parents. They gave up searching for me, and set the house on fire without taking any of the heirlooms. When they were gone, I ran into the house to save what tomes and valuables I could, and hid them in the woods before I heard a couple of them come back to look for me. I grabbed Father's sword from his body and killed them, then went down the road to look for help, when I saw the rest of the bandits surrounding Robin and her mother."

My eyes are dry as Robin continues the story. "We finished the bandits, but the damage was done. They had slaughtered everyone in the village, then set everything to the torch. Mother and I gathered the bodies and dug a mass grave while Sophia salvaged what she could from each house and carved the names into a block of wood to mark the grave, but we buried her parents separate from everybody else on the farm, in a flower patch where she worked every day with her mother growing up. Once they were buried, we took Sophia with us, and set out on the road once more, my mother and I thinking that it was the Grimleal trying to track us down, and resorting to holding a hostage to draw us back to Plegia." She looks over at me, but I keep my gaze down. "We were taking shelter in a village when a sickness swept through the people there, and Mother got sick caring for the children of the woman who let us stay in her house, and wound up with a fatal case of the sickness. She held out for a few days, but died in her sleep one night. We buried her with the blessings of Naga given by a Priest summoned to bless those who had not survived the sickness, then left, going back to our house, only to find it had been burned to the ground with the mark of the Grimleal carved into a post in the center of the wreckage."

"A week later we were in Regna Ferox, staying under the protection of the Khans to teach their armies some new formations to better deal with their northern bandits, but that was mainly for Robin to earn money and ask their few mages to start teaching me how to use tomes, which I was a natural with since Mother was a powerful dark mage before she put away tomes in favor of staying on the farm. We stayed there until there was nothing more for them to teach me, and the bandits were under control once more. The Khans rewarded us well in gold and supplies, and we set off after they gave me my dagger set for my birthday. We've been on the road ever since, helping out wherever or whenever we could, only stopping in Ylisstol when we needed to repair our weapons or pick up new tomes." We both fall silent, our background told.

Frederick clears his throat, catching everybody's attention. "What happened right before we met you on the road?"

Robin sighs. "I had felt as though we were being hunted closely all week, so we were avoiding any villages and towns we came close to, and constantly kept ourselves on alert for any who would attack us. When it did happen, they knocked Sophia unconscious, and bound my hands and feet. They wouldn't risk hurting me, but they took away my sword and tome when they caught me. We were on the road south when Sophia must have awoken, because there was a beam of purple light that shot up into the sky and a scream we could faintly hear from where she was left on the road. A group of mages went back to kill her, based on what they were muttering under their breath."

"When I crashed into you, I was dealing with the last mage, who was much stronger than the rest of the group. By that time, I had been tracking the group for hours, and was so exhausted I wouldn't have survived the fight. I lost control, and wasn't aware of what was happening until Lissa healed my wounds. I was scared, alone, and weak by then, and just wanted Robin back."

I don't even dare to look up to see their reactions.

Okay, I'm done with this chapter. You got their story in full, and now I want some opinions before my next update. At least three reviews is preferable, but I'll be willing to update when I get two updates or one impressive review. Thank you very much.

I do not own Fire Emblem Awakening.