Meanwhile, in the dark void, Robin was completely oblivious to the events happening in the other world. He sat in the same place he had been for the past… how long? Robin was not sure himself, and he already gave up trying to break out of the invisible barrier. Truth be told, Robin has never been in a more dangerous situation all his life. That is saying a lot, as Robin has been through an abundance of perilous situations in his years as the grand tactician of Ylisse. He has survived numerous bandit attacks, arrows to the knee, sword slashes, magical attacks, hexes that drain his life force, poisonous smoke from volcanoes, and even an ancient dragon with the ability to use mind control. However, there was something even more fatal than all of those situations above.
He was being bored to death in the middle of nowhere.
For the one thousandth time, he thought back to his conversation with Lucina. He remembered every word Lucina said. If she wasn't lying, he was going to be a father. Well, that is if Chrom doesn't kill him first. Sumia would probably not mind, as she personally loved children. She also loved to spoil her offspring as much as she could, despite the fact they were fighting in a war. Chrom was a different matter. Robin was sure Chrom would not be happy to hear the news. Knowing his girlfriend, she would probably be the type of person to hide it until she was forced to spill the truth. After all, she had too many secrets that she refuses to share, and Chrom usually lets her get away with them. Thinking back to all the times Lucina talked to her in the Plegia War, Lucina was very secretive about all of her actions. She hid her true motives until she was forced to spill them. For example, she did not reveal that she was a woman until the assassin cut off her mask that dreaded night. She did not reveal her true identity until a slip of the tongue that forced her to tell Chrom everything. Thinking back, Lucina never told anybody her motives unless she had to or was forced into a bad situation. Robin would not be surprised if at the end of the month, Chrom still remained ignorant of his daughter's condition.
Robin was lost in his thoughts about his girlfriend when a bright light began glowing behind him. Robin made the mistake of immediately turning around. Being in the dark for a long time, Robin glanced directly into the light without any type of protection. He realized he was temporarily blinded and instantly turned his eyes back to the darkness.
Robin silently muttered a curse. "Okay, that was stupid of you, Robin. Let's do this slowly this time for my eyes to adjust."
Heeding his own advice, Robin brought up his hands to his eyes and slowly turned his face towards the light, using the space between his fingers to slowly let his eyes get accustomed to the shining entity. Over time, his eyes adjusted to the brightness, and he found himself staring directly into an illusion of Naga herself. She glowed with an aura of radiance in front of Robin. Even the illusion of Lucina did not glow like how Naga did.
"Naga." Robin immediately knelt down in front of the goddess, following Chrom's exact moves the last time he met with her.
"Hello Robin. It is nice to see you again. I have good news. If everything goes as I expect, you should be out of here within a week and back in the field outside of Southtown. I told Tiki to inform the Shepherds at the castle, so they will know you will be coming back at the end of the day. However, there is something else I have to discuss with you personally."
Robin was elated to hear such a statement. He had been planning to be stuck in the void for much longer than that, at least a year. Then again, Robin did not know if time flowed properly in this dimension. One day here could mean a year in Ylisse. Or vice versa. Although his heartbeat started rising in excitement, he forced himself to stay calm in front of the goddess. "Really? I will be out of here by the end of the week? Thank you, mother goddess. I was expecting to be stuck here for much longer than that."
Naga made no signs of emotion on her face and reply back. "No, Robin. It is I who should be thanking you. After all, it was my failure that caused the Fell Dragon to be resurrected in the first place. You had to be the panacea for my negligence that almost costed your life."
"You are too humble, my Lady. It was not your fault Grima woke."
"No, Robin. I did not heed the early warnings that the Fell Dragon was going to rise from his slumber. I am sorry I had to involve you and all the Shepherds like this. Your bravery of sacrificing yourself will not go unnoticed in my eyes, and I knew it was a hard decision for you to make in the end. However, it seems fate has forsaken you and decided to give you another chance. I will explain what exactly happened after you vanished, but first, we need to talk about parallel universes."
"Parallel universes?" Robin was quite confused by such a phrase. Did Naga mean the Outrealms? That was the only thing that came to Robin's mind when she spoke those two words.
"Yes, or a better word might be alternate timelines. I am not talking about the Outrealms." Naga said as if she was reading his mind. "You should probably sit down. This will be a long conversation."
Meanwhile, in the other dimension, Lucina was in the castle courtyard with her Falchion in hand. After not finding her mother inside the castle no matter where Lucina searched, she decided to go against her mother's wishes and once again decided to practice her sword fighting. Simply put, she felt naked without swinging a sword at least once a day. She needed it to get her mind off of Robin. She needed it to forget the disastrous meeting with her father. Lucina knew her father meant no harm, but in her mind, Chrom does not know how to deal with family drama. If anything, Chrom just widened the hatred between Severa and Lucina. That was also not the only reason Lucina wanted to forget the meeting. Lucina never told her father about her pregnancy. She was also angry at herself because she let her fear take over. Well, it was more like Chrom forced her out before she could say anything, but Lucina couldn't help but wonder if she really just gave up too willingly.
Facing a dummy, Lucina decided to test out a new legendary sword move she learned from one of Ylisse's military books from the castle archives. It was called Dancing Blade, and from what Lucina could see, it was simply three sword slashes and a stab done in a certain order to quickly overwhelm an enemy. First, the sword user performs a sideways slash at an enemy, and if such a maneuver was successful, quickly follow it up with a downward slash before the enemy has a chance to recover, then do an upwards slash, and finally, end the opponent with a stab. The book mentions that if such a maneuver was done successfully and efficiently, the enemy should have no way of escaping the combination of quick moves and will quickly fall in battle.
As flashy and effective the technique sounds, Lucina was having trouble with the last stab of her sword to connect to the dummy after the third upwards slash. Lucina tried again on the dummy. "Slash, down, up, stab." Lucina repeated to herself while she mutilated the practice dummy. She tried the technique again, and as usual, she had trouble bring the third up slash quickly enough to poise herself for a quick fatal stab. Lucina was determined to get the last stab to connect. She was so focused on her desire to connect the combo that she did not see her mother enter the courtyard. She suddenly heard her mother's voice.
"Lucina, what did I tell you about practicing with your sword?"
Lucina turned around to see her mother standing at the entrance of the courtyard with her arms crossed in front of her. It was obvious she was not happy with her daughter's disobedience towards her orders.
"Yes, I know Mother. Don't do anything reckless that might harm my unborn child."
"Well, if you know that, why are you still practicing? I thought I ordered you to relax and take care of yourself. We are no longer at war, you know."
"I know, but I am trying to learn this technique that the hero king Marth once used in a fighting tournament. There was a book in our castle archives about it. Also, my meeting with my father did not go as well as I hoped, so I needed to do something to get my mind off of it."
Sumia's eyes immediately widened as she realized she was not present with her daughter when she told her yesterday she would be. "Oh Lucina, I forgot. How was the meeting with Chrom? Did he manage to sort out your argument with Severa? Did you tell your father everything about Robin? Oh, I'm so sorry Lucina. I told you I would be there if you were going to tell your father anything, but I forgot about it and I went out for a walk instead. Isn't that silly of me?"
Lucina sheathed her Falchion and said, "No, Mother its fine that you weren't there. I don't think you could have helped much anyways. But about the conversation with Chrom, I would say it was a big disaster."
"How was it a big disaster? Did you father get mad at you for having premarital sex with Robin?"
Taking a deep breath, Lucina gave her mother the entire rundown of what happened. Her father asked the two girls independently for their stories. Lucina went on in detail about how she eavesdropped on Cordelia and Severa, and how Chrom did not believe any of Severa's accusations. Lucina left out no details, telling her mother about what Chrom implied if he ever finds out Robin is dating his daughter, how he doesn't seem to accept even a kiss between the two. She ended the story by saying all Chrom knows is that his daughter has a crush on the tactician, but nothing else.
"It's okay Lucina. Your father did the best he could. I would have probably come to the same conclusion he did if I didn't know anything but the information you two gave. I am sure Severa will snap out of her anger sooner or later. She can't stay mad at you forever, you know?"
"But Mother, I didn't even tell him. I was too scared!"
"Shhh. That's not a problem dear; you can talk to him another time. I am sure he is under a lot of pressure right now. After all, he has been absent from this castle for almost a year, and he has a lot of work to catch up on."
"No Mother, you don't understand. He still believes that I am his "sweet and innocent" daughter. I couldn't just break his illusion and tell him everything. I was actually not sure whether or not to tell him because he implied he would not approve of our actions even if we kissed. He said he was sure Robin knew the consequences, and described them as "dire". We did things way worse than that, Mother."
"Lucina, it's okay. We'll find another way."
"No mother, it's not okay. I can't tell my father without him getting extremely disappointed at me now. Sure, he didn't seem to mind that I had a crush on Robin, but I think that's as far as he is willing to accept as far as our relationship is concerned. And also Robin, when is he coming back? I know it's only like two weeks, but I miss him so badly. Poor Robin. Hasn't he suffered enough?"
Sumia tried to stay optimistic. She knew there was a big chance her daughter wasn't going to see her lover ever again, but that did not discourage Sumia. She simply said, "I am sure he will be back. Just be patient, Lucina. I'm sure it will all work out in the end. Isn't that what you said about Grima?"
"I hope so too." For the one millionth and the first time since Robin's death, Lucina got sad and buried her head into her mother's arms.
As if on cue, a voice behind the two suddenly materialized and said, "Don't worry, Lucina. He should be back at the end of the week if everything goes right."
Lucina and Sumia both turned around to see Tiki behind them.
"Lady Tiki!" Lucina exclaimed. She had not been expecting anybody to be listening in on their conversation. The courtyard was devoid of life last time she looked around. "Were you eavesdropping on us?"
"No, I was just walking by. It was pure coincidence that you two were talking about Robin when I got here. But I just want to say I got news from the goddess herself that Robin should be back soon and I should tell everybody. If she had to make an estimate, he should be back at the end of the week. You don't need to wait any longer. Let your mind be at peace."
"Really?" Lucina might have been depressed before, but her eyes suddenly beamed up and a smile quickly formed on her face. "He will be back? Do you really mean it?"
"Yes." Lady Tiki said. "I guess since you are wishing for his return more than anybody, I will give you a little more explanation about what happened to Robin after he died."
"What… what do you mean?" Lucina could barely contain her excitement. Robin was going to come back and nothing else mattered. He must miss me, even though it has only been a day since we last met. Lucina at the moment could care less about Tiki's explanation.
"Well, do you want to hear about what happened to Robin after he died? I know I told you he's currently stuck in a dimension between life and death, and why he is currently stuck…."
"NotrightnowTikiTellmelater." Lucina said those words too fast for anybody to comprehend. She began jumping up and down in joy while simultaneously running across the courtyard in circles, as if she had taken a stamina hex. She kept yelling, "Robin's back! Robin's going to be back!"
Tiki stopped her conversation when she realized Lucina was no longer paying her any attention and instead running in the courtyard. Sumia and Tiki watched as Lucina ran in circles of joy. Sumia smiled and said to Tiki, "She sure is excited about Robin's return, isn't she?"
Tiki looked at Lucina's reaction and could only respond with sorrow, "Yeah, it's making my heart hurt. After all, she is quite lucky to have a loved one come back from the dead. As a manakete, I really wished I could see Mar-Mar again, but he is long gone from this world. If I knew how to bring Mar-Mar back from the dead, I would. But even goddesses don't have that power. The dead stay dead. I am just thinking how lucky it is for her to actually have a loved one back."
Sumia knew Tiki's story quite well. Tiki was part of Marth's army when she traveled with him thousands of years ago. As a manakete, she could live up to thousands of years, while normal humans would normally only live up to around seventy or eighty, assuming from natural causes. Tiki watched as everybody in Marth's army grow old and disappear from the face of the Earth. As heroic as the old hero king was, even he was not immune to the consequences of time. Tiki watched the love of her life disappear from old age also. This was all while she barely aged. Lucina and Robin could probably live a full life and die peacefully around the same time span, but Tiki could see them disappear and never come back. All she could say was, "I am sorry, Lady Tiki."
Tiki looked back at Lucina's mother and said, "It is fine. I thought I had gotten over these feeling centuries ago, but I guess not. Well, I have to inform the other Shepherds too, so I need to leave. You take care of your daughter and her unborn child. We really do owe her a big debt of appreciation for stopping the end of the world, so I would hate for her to get hurt."
Sumia had to force a smile, "Of course. You are too kind, Lady Tiki. We simply did what we had to do for our kingdom."
Tiki excused herself and walked into the castle to bring the good news. Sumia watched as she disappeared behind the doors. Sumia then looked back at her daughter, who was still jumping around in joy around the courtyard. At that moment, Sumia couldn't help but smile for her daughter. Sumia knew she probably took Robin's death worse than anybody could, and hearing he will be back would probably be the best news she could receive all day. Sumia thought back to the time when Chrom almost died from being impaled from a lance. Sumia would have never known what she would have done had Chrom really died, but at that moment, she was grateful he survived his wounds. Chrom would probably remain dead, and she would always be sad for the rest of her life about his death, unable to move on.
Sumia suddenly had an epiphany. It was obvious Lucina did not feel comfortable telling her father. However, if Robin was really going to come back in a week, then they could probably get married as soon as they can if both agreed. After all, most of the Shepherds now definitely know Lucina is in love with Robin, from the two incidents at the dining hall earlier, and her husband didn't have a problem with that. At the very least, it probably would not arouse any suspicions for a quick wedding. She could probably get Robin to agree once he comes back. However, could she get her husband to agree? Her daughter did mention how Chrom would probably flip out seeing the two kiss. Thinking to herself, Sumia thought about the best way to implement her classified proposal as she watched her daughter continue to sprint in joy across the courtyard. It seemed like Lucina could not run out of energy.
"Lucina, for Naga's sake, calm down! You are going to trip and hurt yourself. I don't want you ending up in the infirmary!"
