Alright the next chapter is here. I Wrote it, then edited it, reedited, and then edited it again. I'd like to thank MewBladeXxX for being a Beta for this chapter. First time I ever used a Beta, so let's see if there is a difference.
Review Below, Let Me Know! ^^
Lissa comes stumbling through the gate doors to the outside. There she saw where the other Shepard's had all gathered.
"Chrom!" Lissa shouted as she stumbled down onto the ground.
Chrom turned and saw his sister in that wounded state. "Lissa!" Chrom shouted in concern.
"Lissa, darling!" Maribelle gasped as she ran over to her friend. Without any hesitation, Maribelle used her Mend staff to heal Lissa.
Chrom went over to kneel by his sister's side. "Robin went after you, did you see him?"
"We passed each other in the hall." Lissa answered. "He went to go help Marth. Chrom, Christina can summon Risen! She's the one behind all this!"
"Figures." Frederick spoke up. "It seems like everyone has a treacherous mind, milord."
Chrom thought about this situation for a moment until Virion called out from his position on the wall.
"Prince, you must see this!" Virion called, Lon'qu standing next to him. "Smoke is rising from the city!"
Chrom left Lissa's side and climbed the ladder up the wall to see what Virion was talking about. Chrom saw black smoke rising from within the city harbor.
"The ports are on fire?" Chrom asked.
"No... just the boats." Lon'qu stated. "Otto's soldiers set them all ablaze along with any chance of our escape plan succeeding."
"How did they know about that, though?" Virion wondered. "They wouldn't just decide to burn their boats on a whim."
Chrom slammed his fist against his palm. "Christina, she must've overheard our plan and got the word out. I'm such a fool."
Frederick climbed up the ladder, stood beside Chrom and peered at the burning smoke in the distance.
"That's not good." Frederick said. "What do we do now?"
Chrom thought for a moment. He wasn't the tactician. Robin was, and strategy wasn't his forte. "Since we're not being attacked right now, we can say that most of the soldiers in the fortress have been killed?"
"It would be wise to assume." Frederick responded.
"We can either stay here and allow Otto to continue his siege, or we can go and try to break it ourselves." Chrom said.
"That is exactly how he defeated the Plegians at Ylisstol, milord." Frederick pointed out. "We can stay put and hope the siege is lifted, but if Lissa is right and Christina is the one who can summon Risen, we risk her lowering the gates and having us pit against the two forces. However, leaving the safety of these walls will have us go up against Otto's best forces, which is simply crazy."
Chrom turned to Frederick. "So what do you suggest we do, Frederick?"
"You must think for a moment, milord." Frederick answered. "You must ask yourself 'what would Robin do'?"
"He would take the crazy option." Chrom immediately answered with the first thing at the top of his head.
Frederick smiled. "Very good, milord."
Chrom nodded at Frederick and began to descend down the ladder. Once he got back to the group, he found Lissa crying near Vaike's body and arguing with Maribelle.
"No you're wrong!" Lissa shouted. "He's not dead! We just need to heal him up and he'll wake up! That's all!"
"Lissa, darling-" Maribelle tried to speak to her, but Lissa just pushed her away.
"He's not dead! He's not!" Lissa cried.
Chrom was about to go over to speak with her, but Lon'qu walked past him and pulled Lissa away from Vaike.
"Let go of me!" Lissa cried. "Stop it! STOP-"
Lon'qu put his hands on Lissa shoulders, to make her look at him. His arms shook and he gasped in his breathing being so close to a woman. "Before he died," he stated clearly pronouncing every word he spoke. "Vaike said to me...to tell you to practice. Teach's orders."
Lissa let out all of her tears and cried. She smothered her face into Lon'qu and hugged him tightly. Lon'qu's nerves froze as he neither embraced her nor pushed her away.
*Well, this is just swell.* Robin thought.
Right now, he stood between Christina and a nearly dead Marth, who can't defend herself right now, and Christina had an army of Risen surrounding them. Robin just stared down Christina, who had a confused, yet terrifying look on her face.
"You look like shit." Robin said. "Stressful day?"
Christina just stood there, her right hand twitching without any clear thought or motion. The Risen around them were snarling and gasping.
"Are you gonna say something or am I gonna have to cast the first magic bolt?" Robin asked.
Christina looked to her right for a moment, looking at nothing in particular.
"... Wh-where's Lissa?" Christina asked.
"She's safe now." Robin responded. "By now, she's probably back with the other Shepherds, telling them of your treachery. You won't be able to fool anyone else."
Christina then looked to her left, then down. She nodded her head a little bit. "Good... that's good..."
Robin paused for a moment. "... 'Good'?"
Christina looked up at him. "That means I didn't kill her. It means that I'm not a murderer after all."
Robin's stomach churned with disgust. "'Not a murderer'? Who are you kidding!"
Christina looked up at him with a sense of shock.
"Look around you!" Robin shouted. "This fortress is littered with corpses! These soldiers all died following the plan YOU came up with! Their blood is on your hands! You may not have killed anyone directly, but you killed all of these soldiers who fought today! You murdered ALL of them!"
"No, no, nononononono!" Christina panicked. "I did not kill any of them! I would never kill anyone! I'm NOT a killer!"
Robin sighed, put his hand on his face and scratched between his eyes. "You know, Christina, it's very sad. Last night, you told me how much you want peace. Saying that no one is ever satisfied with it. After seeing all of this today, you're just a hypocrite."
Christina clenched her tome tightly to her chest.
"And the worst part is you're just a pawn being used by a power-hungry sociopath." Robin stated.
"SHUT UP! ! !" Christina screamed.
Christina conjured up dark magic from her tome and shot a bolt of it at Robin. Robin quickly used his Fire tome and shot a fireball at the dark magic. Christina kept up her assault and Robin used his magic to keep himself on the defensive. At one point, the dark magic struck Robin's tome and shredded it to bits. While the bits of the tome fluttered around his hands, Christina stopped and began to take some breaths as she tried to calm herself down. At this time, Marth began to motion and lifted her head up to see what was happening.
"You know what, Robin?" Christina spoke. "I am a murderer! I've sent people to their deaths or them to take other lives! I do not care anymore! Nothing... None of that matters! I am just sick of everything! I. Will. Kill. You!"
Christina charged up the dark magic in her tome, readying a final attack. Robin stood perfectly still as he drew the steel sword, the last weapon he had.
"You know what, Christina?" Robin asked. "You won't."
Robin threw the sword onto the ground.
"YOU DON'T THINK I WILL?!" Christina yelled.
"No, you won't." Robin responded.
Marth looked around for Falchion and tried to reach for it, but her body was in so much pain that she couldn't.
"You had plenty of chances to kill me before this even began." Robin stated. "Last night was probably your best chance. I was completely unaware of anything you were going to do. You could've poisoned my drink and I wouldn't have even noticed." Robin noticed that Christina's entire body was shaking.
"Th-that's because-" Christina was about to say.
"Crellan even said he had orders to try and keep me alive while my friends were being slaughtered." Robin added. "I am the Shepherds' chief tactician; killing me should be a priority. So why was he ordered to give me a chance to stay alive?"
"Because-"
"Because you ordered him to." Robin interrupted. "You tried to keep me alive while trying to kill my friends. Even when we fought, you aimed at Tharja and not me. You were concerned about me, and you will not kill me!"
"AAAAHHHH!" Christina released the magic.
Robin didn't move a single inch and the magic missed him, destroying a part of the wall behind him. Christina was frozen in her motion, shaking, sweat beading down on her and wide-eyed. Robin smiled.
"I knew it." Robin said.
"But... why... why can't I-" Christina mumbled.
A black aura surrounded Christina and she was attacked by black magic. She screamed in agonizing pain for a few seconds before the black aura disappeared and she fell to the ground like a ragdoll. The attack on Christina caused all of the Risen in the hall to disappear in a puff of black mist, revealing that Tharja had cast that dark magic spell on her.
"I waited too long to do that." Tharja said.
Robin took a few steps forward and saw that Christina was still breathing. Robin then noticed that the journal was on the floor by her and picked it up. He opened it up to a page and held the page to Christina's face.
"If you're still conscious, read this." Robin said.
Christina had moved ever so slightly, indicating that she was reading the page. "...Gullible..." she mumbled under her breath. "Grimleal...Fire Emblem..." her breathing became heavy. "...Lies...he promised I...would be the princess...that I can be remembered..."
"Can we kill her now?" Tharja asked. Robin held up his hand to indicate her to hold on. Tharja scoffed and turned away.
Marth began to get to her feet and looked over at Robin speaking with Christina.
"You seem like you are very troubled." Robin said. "I don't know what happened in your childhood to make you this way and I won't pretend to. These crimes you committed, you'll never be free from them, but if you still have a conscious you can start over and try to make a new life for yourself."
"Just kill me." Christina said. "It will be better for everyone."
Tharja turned around ready to oblige, but Robin turned her away again.
"Better for everyone? Or just Easier for you?" Robin asked. Christina did not answer. "Of course it would be easier to just die right here. No one would want to live with something like this. It will be more difficult, but if you can remember this, and use this as a lesson. Try to move on with your life and try not to make this mistake again. Who knows what will happen?"
Robin stood up and began to walk away. Tharja glanced at him, then back at Christina, then back at Robin. "You're just gonna let her live after all of this?" She asked.
"There is no point to kill her Tharja." Robin said. "Just let her be."
Thaja hissed at his comment and held her tome close. "Kill joy."
Marth reached down and picked up Falchion. She glanced at Christina who tried to pick her self up, her sheer motion showed that she was giving little effort. She then looked over toward Robin. "Robin-"
"GYUAAGHH!"
A sword slashed Robin across his chest. Blood spilled onto the moment was one of fear. The man welding the sword was Valis the Torturer. His body was burned, blood was stained all over his body, and large open wounds littered his body, but he was still alive. "You die today boooooy!"
Robin staggered back, putting his hands over the wound to try and stop the bleeding, but the wound was too large.
"YOU DIE FIRST!" Tharja screamed unleashing her dark magic upon Valis. Valis defneded himself as Tharja's rage engulfed her.
Robin leaned himself against the wall feeling the pain of his wound. Marth quickly ran up to him to check on the wound. The bleeding had stained Robin's clothes and made it difficult for her to see, so she ripped it off. When she saw that the slash across the chest wasn't as big as they initially thought, though still pretty deep, she pressed the ripped clothes against the wound to keep pressure on it. As the fight raged behind them, Marth thought for a moment.
"Wait, I still have a Vulnerary." Marth said.
She quickly pulled out the Vulnerary and held it to Robin's lips so he could sip the healing potion. After a few moments, the wound stopped bleeding badly, but it was still visible, though the worst was over.
"Thanks, Marth, I owe ya." Robin said, then looked around. "My sword..." He found his sword, ran over to grab it.
As soon as he grabbed his sword, he turned toward Tharja and Valis' fight. Valis cuts through Tharja's tome and pierced her right through the chest, under the breast, clean through her.
"THARJA!" Robin yells.
Valis pushed Tharja down and she began to bleed out.
"Nighty-night, gally." Valis said.
"YOU DASTARD!" Robin shouted.
Robin swung his sword, but Valis blocked. Robin kept on attacking furiously at Valis, striking blow after blow, while Valis defended with his sword. In one brief moment, Valis knocked Robin back with a backhand, but in that moment, Marth charged in and slashed Valis, which cut him a bit across his fat stomach. Valis stumbled back and almost fell over.
"How the hell are you still alive?" Marth questioned.
"Willpower, gally!" Valis responded as he was swung his sword down onto her.
Marth blocked it with Flachion and tried to counter, but Valis blocked that strike. Robin came in from the side and slashed at him and Valis was forced to swing back and forth between Robin and Marth. Eventually, Robin was able to cut off his sword arm.
"GLYAAAA!" Valis yelled in pain as he stumbled back.
As Robin charged in for the killing blow, Valis grabbed the sword with his other arm and knocked the sword out of Robin's hands. He then slammed into Robin and knocked him into Marth, knocking them into the wall. Valis went to go for the killing slash, but he froze just as his sword was about to cut their heads off.
"I... can't move!" Valis groaned.
A dark aura appeared around Valis and Robin and Marth realized that Christina was holding her tome and casting dark magic on him.
"Christina, what you doin' gally?" Valis asked. "You had a job to do, you stupid cu-"
Using the magic, Christina ripped off his other arm.
"AAAAGHGAH!" Valis yelled.
"You are a sick, twisted sadist, Valis!" Christina said. "The world will be better off without you."
"You won't kill me!" Valis pointed out. "You ain't no murderer!"
Valis was able to turn his head to look at her, but he saw that her eyes were as cold and dead as the night.
"You're wrong." Christina simply said.
Valis' body began to rip itself apart, chunk by chunk, piece by piece, in a very gruesome way.
"GLYAAAHAAAHH! GLYYAAAAHHH!"
Valis' body was torn apart until it disappeared into dust. After he was gone, Christina let down her eyes and her eyes seemed to return to normal. Robin and Marth glared at her for a moment until Robin realized that Tharja was still hurt.
"Tharja!" Robin exclaimed as he quickly ran over to her. He could still hear her gasping for air and immediately pressed his hands against the wound to stop the bleeding. "Don't worry, Tharja, you're going to be all right! Marth, I need a Vulnerary!"
Marth stood there, agape for a moment. "I'm sorry, but I used my last one on you. There's nothing more I can do."
Robin then turned to Christina, who was looking at them.
"Christina, do you have anything?" Robin asked. "Please!"
Christina just stared at them, her expression was one of fear and it was clear that she had nothing that could help. Robin then felt a cold hand touch the side of his face. Tharjas hand. He looked down at her to see her eyes half closed, but she was still smiling.
"It's alright..." Tharja whispered. "...I wouldn't imagine it ending any way better."
"It's going to end." Robin said to her. "You survived worse."
"I'm sorry Robin." Tharja said. "I can't help you anymore. Just thank you."
"For what?" Robin asked.
Tharja just smiled at him. He never seen her smile this way before. It was...different. Her hand fell from his face...and her breathing stopped...
"Tharja? THARJA!"