Strength Indeterminate

by Erdekais

When Flavia coerces Robin into taking a vacation across Ferox and Ylisse despite a looming war with Valm, he and his newfound travelling companion Kjelle dedicate themselves to growing stronger in anticipation of the battles to come. As they learn to grow their strengths and accommodate their weaknesses together, they begin to uncover their true natures and those of their worlds.

25. Chapter 25

"Have I ever mentioned hating sand? Because if I haven't, know that I do. Also, if I have, know that I do again. It's so… eugh." Robin shuddered from merely imagining the adverse effects so many particles could have.

"Have I ever told you that it's best to shut up and keep walking?" Kjelle asked rhetorically. "I'm pretty sure that I have. A lot."

Robin rolled his eyes and progressed on in silence for a matter of seconds. "Seriously, though. There has to be some way to get rid of deserts entirely, like some kind of super irrigation system. Or maybe simply having a friend that doesn't decide to live in a desert."

"Hey, if you want to complain to Laurent when we meet up with him, be my guest." Kjelle said. "It's not like I'm enjoying this, either. I'm wearing actual armour. Not to mention that your cloak probably has some kind of weird enchantment to help that only you would think to place on it."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Robin said flatly. "It does, by the way. Also, I wasn't the one who enchanted this thing. It was like this when I woke up with no memories, and there are some enchantments I haven't been able to replicate. My theory is that the woman made it like this."

"Meaning that the woman met with you before you lost-slash-erased your memories?" Kjelle asked, putting her limited knowledge of enchantments to the test. "After all, you need to be present to form the ley lines, right?"

"Typically." Robin shrugged. "This woman has proved that she's way stronger than any of us could have thought, so keep that in mind, too. If anyone could've done a ranged enchantment, it'd've been her."

"Huh…" Kjelle muttered, her face contorting in thought. "Why don't you want to prove your strength against her, and not me? And why do you suppose she hasn't killed anyone in the Shepherds yet? They seem like they'd be the first to oppose her…" she trailed off, not wanting to think about what could happen to those she sought to protect over all else.

"Because she loves us, and I love her." Robin answered both questions with a disturbingly pleasant smile. "She would never want to hurt us, and I would never want to hurt her. The same will go for anyone in the Shepherds who may meet her, regardless of if you believe something contrary."

"You love her?" Kjelle asked incredulously. "You haven't met her! How could say that about someone who murdered Naga?"

"It's surprisingly easy. You should give it a try!" Robin encouraged with the same smile on his face.

Kjelle shook her head, her mind fuming at how resoundingly enraptured Robin appeared to be. "I'll pass. Let's keep going. I want to pacify you as soon as possible, and get my answers." Her stomach fluttered with a mounting uneasiness at her mention of the duel.

"Suit yourself." Robin shrugged, his smile remaining on his face a few seconds longer before fading away. "Ugh, sand… why does it have to be sand?"

---

The waters of the oasis that lent its name to the desert of eastern Ylisse were always bountiful. A large man with mismatched furs splashed a portion of the oasis into his canteen, his exposed shoulders bathing in the desert's hot light Supposedly, the oasis held some form of incredible staff, and though the man couldn't use such a thing he was more than content with selling it to the highest bidder. He rose from the bank of the oasis and turned to the hero at his side.

"Where the hell is that village? And where's the godsdamn recon team? They should be back by now!" he barked at the hired hand, though the hero failed to flinch as his usual underlings would do.

"Patience, 'captain' Nombry." the man said, sending an infuriating smirk at the larger bandit. "My men will not fail. Give them time, and they may very well return to you with the staff in hand."

"They'd better. Otherwise, it'll be all your heads on the chopping block." Nombry growled.

The hero laughed faintly. "Of course. What else should I expect from you, 'captain'? It's not like you've fallen through on payment before, or dedicated years of your life to finding a ridiculous weapon of yore."

"Shut your trap!" Nombry shouted, again failing to disturb the other man. "I know it's here. I can feel it. Smell it. Taste it!"

The hero merely shrugged. "As long as my men and I get paid, there won't be any issues. If we don't, though… well, let me say that recon isn't our only strength."

Nombry narrowed his gaze. "Was that supposed to be a threat, you little-!?" he stopped himself and blinked, then pushed past the mercenary. He brought a hand up to shade his eyes from the sun and cast his gaze far to the south. "Wait a minute… was that village always there?"

The hero turned to follow his commander's gaze, narrowing his eyes to better see through the haze of heat radiating away from the desert sands. "Huh. Don't think so, but it had to have been. We came from the north, and my boys were spanning out east and west before converging south. You wanna check it out?" he nudged Nombry with his elbow. The bandit leader shot him a sharp glare, only to be berated by a smile.

"Tell you what: we find the staff, we split the money two ways. No need for anyone else to get involved." Nombry said.

"Hm… I don't know about abandoning my guys out here, but let's do it." the hero grinned in turn, his expression easily conveying how little he truly cared about the matter. "Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed with them, too. They're usually so punctual. I guess a grueling mission without pay will be punishment enough for them."

Nombry laughed heartily, clapping a hand on the other man's back and pushing him into stride. The two began to make their way to the new village without delay.

They came to a stop after under a minute of walking. The hero placed a hand in front of Nombry's chest, drawing his sword and stepping to the side of the bandit in slow, careful movements.

A strange man was crouched in the sand of the desert before them. He was hidden in part by the spray of sand being constantly sent skyward with deliberate acts of magic. Nombry caught sight of the mage a moment after the hero, and he too began to silently circle their unattentive figure.

The hero's foot slipped across something soft yet hard, and he stopped immediately, holding his legs in place. Far from him, the man in mage's robes and an absurdly characteristic pointed hat stopped casting his magic for a split second.

"Be still." he ordered through a harsh whisper, his voice barely carrying across the sands. After another second of waiting, he resumed casting magic into the desert at his feet, not caring for the men he knew were attempting to approach.

For a moment, the hero obeyed the mage, the authoritative tone of his voice leaving no room for doubt. He then caught sight of Nombry advancing on the man again, and resumed his own movements.

He was attacked the instant he elevated the foot that had slid. Grotesque claws shot up from the sands beneath him, aiming skyward and shearing cleanly through the armour plating on both of his legs. He yelped and jumped back, only for his newfound opponent to latch their claws into the upper reaches his thigh, pulling him to the ground with a dull thud. The assailant pulled themselves free of the desert covering their body by straining against the man's armour, spraying sand into the air as they scrambled upward.

More figures exploded forth from the sand surrounding the first. More followed them. The hero brought his sword into the first body's chest as it freed its claws from his armour. The attack failed to so much as slow the monster. An instant before it could jab its claws into the hero's head, the assailant was sliced to ashes by a powerful burst of wind magic. The hero scrambled to his feet to handle the others that had appeared in sequence, only for them to swiftly meet a fate similar to the first.

"I told you to be still." the mage said matter-of-factly. He then returned to his work in the sand at his feet, again not caring for the approach of the other bandit behind him nor the further actions of the hero.

Another burst of wind later, a risen emerged from the ground he had carted upon. It roared out of its sand coating, only for the man to immediately kill it in a wind spell. He sagged his shoulders and sighed before returning to his previous callous, uncaring stance.

"What the hell was that!?" the hero shouted at the mage, refusing to step anywhere so as to avoid another attack.

The mage took several careful, deliberate steps through the sand until he paused on a single foot, at which point he smiled and eased himself into place atop another hidden foe. "The risen have adapted as of late. I was uncertain as to the purpose of their behaviour when I witnessed them behaving oddly several days ago. I had at that time decided that the safety of the mirage villages was of greater concern than them burying themselves in sand. That was, until they attacked a party of mercenaries travelling about here today, revealing their incredibly intriguing purpose."

Nombry's eyes lit up at mention of the mirage villages, though the mage failed to see as such. He was already refocused on his efforts into gently excavating another risen. The bandit captain renewed his approach of the mage, managing to avoid the risen beneath his feet from luck rather than caution or skill.

"They - the risen - set up a trap?" the hero asked incredulously, casting cautious glances over the desert near him. "Those undead things that've roamed around for so long? They've never been smart. What happened?"

"That is what I strive to investigate." the mage said. "If I could find a stable sample to examine, then perhaps I could determine the source of their peculiar actions. My name is Laurent, by the way. It would have been a pleasure to make your acquaintance, had you not disturbed my research."

Nombry approached Laurent so closely that he was able to clasp a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "It's still a pleasure, I'm sure. Now, Laurent… where are these mirage villages of yours? My friend and I have some business to attend to in them."

"My research takes significant precedence over the actions of bandits." Laurent said, his voice nothing short of uncaring. He shrugged Nombry's hand off of his shoulder and returned to his examination. "If your search is for the legendary staff said to heal any ailment and save those on the brink of death, then I will have you know that such legends are paltry lies. The staff is nothing more than a barren husk; a lifeless stick with no energy to speak of."

"Now, listen here, boy." Nombry growled, reaching for his axe in an unsuccessful attempt to threaten Laurent. "We're all reasonable people here. Don't lie to me - I know the staff exists! Tell me where the villages are, or maybe we won't be quite so reasonable anymore."

Laurent blew Nombry away with a blast of wind magic, not bothering to turn to face the bandit to cast his spell. He returned to his examination of the hidden risen without another word.

"You little brat! I'll skin you- agh!" Nombry began to shout and charge at Laurent, only to be stopped when a risen launched out of the ground and sank its claws into the flesh of his legs. He collapsed to his knees as the risen pulled at him. Nombry managed to strike and kill his undead assailant before it could deal any serious damage, though more risen followed the actions of the first when they became aware of his movement.

Once again, Laurent destroyed the risen that had been raised from the sands with an absentmindedly casted spell. "Do not impede my research. If you desire to halt the advancement of science, then I shall consider you an enemy and respond accordingly. As of now, I've no desire to kill when unnecessary. If you impair any of my experimentation or analyses, then I will not hesitate to eradicate you."

Nombry snarled at Laurent, but held his ground in fear of signaling more hidden risen. "Rrgh… come on, merc. Let's check out the village we saw. If the staff isn't there, then we'll have to pay another little visit to our friend Laurent here." he said, and began to slowly back away from Laurent. Every step he took was careful enough to ensure his safety.

The hero slowly began to follow, constantly scuffing his feet across the ground in order to avoid stepping on more risen. Occasionally, he would contact one of them, though he made sure to drive his sword into their general location several times before daring to advance.

He stopped momentarily next to Laurent. "Did all of my men get killed by these things?" he asked tentatively.

"Yes. It was quite frightful, truly." Laurent said, never diverting any of his attention away from his work.

"Huh. I… I see." the hero said. He then resumed advancing.

Laurent paid him no mind, continuing his excavation of the risen to the best of his ability. He had managed to unveil much of the risen's torso this time around, having stepped on their upper leg. Each risen was buried shallow enough to sense any pressure applied to them and respond to the removal of said pressure, having spent days perfecting their placements and behaviour. Their ashen skin was caked with sand from the time they had spent under the surface of the desert.

The risen twitched as Laurent attempted to examine it, having noticed its newfound lack of cover despite the mage's best efforts to keep his subject calm. Laurent annihilated the risen with magic as it attempted to stand. He sighed again before setting out to find yet another risen from which he could glean knowledge.

---

"Holy, that's a lot of dead bodies." Robin whistled, raising his eyebrows at the sight of dozens of corpses lining a stretch of desert before himself and Kjelle. They had been piled together in a single locale, bordering the edge of the sand dunes that enclosed the oasis area.

"Were they put there deliberately?" Kjelle asked. "They look like they were piled up."

"No, they got there naturally." Robin said with a mocking smile, then shrugged and began walking toward the corpses. "We won't find out what happened if we don't investigate. Come on, let's go!"

Kjelle blinked, remaining in place for a moment before following. "Seriously? There's at least twenty dead bodies sitting there, and you want to investigate? I say we find and kill what killed them first."

"Hey, maybe we'll find out-" Robin began, being cut off when the sand at his feet exploded and knocked him to his back. A risen emerged from within the sand and made to attack him, only to be hit simultaneously with a flame lance and a shot of thunder magic.

More risen erupted out of the ground around the first, all moving to attack Robin. He shot most of them down before they could make ground. Kjelle swept through the rest with accurate shots from her lance. In short order, each of the risen that emerged had been eliminated, leaving Robin no more than surprised from their appearances.

"Huh." he said aloud, using the respite of the word to calm himself. Kjelle approached him and offered her hand. Robin didn't think twice about the offer before using it to pull himself to a stand. "Thanks for the help. That was… interesting."

"Those risen were likely changed by Flavia slaying the Grimleal leaders, too. At least I've never seen them act like that." Kjelle observed. "All of the risen in the world have probably changed, if this is anything to go by. It's strange, though; aside form hiding under the sand, these ones were easy to kill. The first ones I fought were stronger."

"Maybe they can't handle the desert for too long, like a normal person?" Robin suggested, advancing again toward the gathering of silent bodies. "They've probably set up their trap knowing we would be passing through here. They may have been waiting for a long time."

"They shouldn't know that we'd be here, though." Kjelle said.

"The woman knows, since she'd have access to the same information as Flavia." Robin responded. "She also has some ties to the risen, or at the least is able to interact with them through magic. She was controlling some of them back on the Island of Lost Souls."

"So she set a trap for us. My, how loving of her."

"Obviously she wouldn't want to hurt us." Robin scoffed. "The risen are risen. They're feral. The woman can take control of them sometimes, and has used that power to help me out. She isn't a danger."

"Of course not, all she did was kill a god. Nothing big." Kjelle said, then shrugged. "Well, divine dragon, but still."

"You're jealous that you're not that strong, aren't you?" Robin jeered. "That you can't kill gods, or control risen, or anything of sort?"

"I'll admit, it'd be nice to have that kind of power. That's not to say I won't have it one day, but for now, to deal with the risen and Valm… it'd be nice. An enemy having that, though? That'd be a nightmare."

"How many times do I have to tell you that she isn't an enemy? Simply because she outclasses you doesn't mean she's evil, regardless of what your pride might say." Robin frowned, then returned his attention to the bodies. "You'll see as such in time. Now, what we can learn from here…?"

He knelt next to the closest of the corpses, examining it closely without daring to touch its recently deceased skin. His best efforts toward analysing the body only yielded that their demise had been recent, and that their attire suggested they weren't native to the desert. The corpses all wore moderate armour that would be an unnatural sight for hot climates. Some had lost all of their protection to the claws of the risen.

"These look like they were inflicted by risen. Claws are their signature, after all." Kjelle observed, nudging one of the bodies tactlessly with her foot. "They probably met the same risen we did, or another group like them."

"They don't resemble any kind of military unit I know of." Robin remarked, then rose from his knees and dusted off his legs. "So bandits came in, got sidelined by risen by risen that likely knew about you and I, and… I don't know where that leaves us."

"You don't think they're targeting Laurent, do you? He'd be pretty high on their list of priorities." Kjelle said. "Damn, if he gets himself killed before we all get to save the world…"

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. He's a mage, after all." Robin assured Kjelle with a moderately aggravating grin.

"That doesn't mean he knows how to take a hit. He sure as hell couldn't back in our time." Kjelle remarked.

"Eh, so be it. We'll have to make sure to find him as soon as we can. There's probably a village near the oasis, wherever that is. We can check there." Robin said, then focused his sight on the furthest point he could discern, his face soon breaking out into a smile. "What do you know, I think I found it! I'm amazing."

Kjelle clapped him hard on the back, inflicting no gratification. "Come on, let's go find him. The earlier we reach him, the less likely he is to be dead."

"A 'thank you' would've been nice." Robin grumbled, struggling to rub the spot on his back Kjelle had hit as he followed after her.

"I don't always play nice - not even with my friends." Kjelle said. "Nice gets boring fast. A little hotheadedness and taking action moves things along. Weaker people wouldn't know how to do that, and probably would've idled around for too long, like you."

"It sounds like you're making excuses for being an asshole." Robin remarked. "Didn't you resolve to get over that whole elitism thing you had going on? That'd probably keep your assholery in check, too."

"I don't need to keep anything in check, and I'm not at fault if others can't keep up with me." Kjelle said. "That isn't elitism; it's common sense."

"You haven't caught up to me in magic, and regardless of how many duels you won yesterday they were all without a single spell." Robin countered. "You'd've been dead a few times over had I used magic. It's the same as before: you're weak, just not in the way you think."

Kjelle winced, but didn't allow the action to stall her stride. "Maybe I have a ways to go before I'm in the position to judge things like that, but so are you. I suppose we'll have to work on it together. Also, yeah, maybe the elitism thing is a little harder to drop than I thought. I just… I can't get over the fact that there are people who won't be willing to do everything they can to save the world, or to better themselves. It's idiotic."

"That's fair, but you don't have to fight to better yourself." Robin said. "Maybe someone wants to be an artist, or a farmer, or sailor. It's our job as Shepherds to help them in that pursuit, indirect though it may be. In the end, our aim is to protect everyone's ability to live happily as best we can, and not everyone has to be strong for that to happen. Not even in the Shepherds."

"Everyone in the Shepherds is strong, though. They have to be in order to protect people." Kjelle countered. "At the very least, no one weak deserves a place in their ranks, regardless of what you think about elitism."

Robin shook his head. "Olivia can barely walk without getting embarrassed and faltering. Lon'qu goes catatonic if he touches a woman. Sumia falls on her face so much that she's as likely to die walking as in battle. Frederick would die if doing so would remove a nonexistent pebble from Chrom's or Lissa's path. Even someone as flawless as Cordelia would fall in battle if she didn't have other people to rely on. They have flaws, or a need to rely on others, but those weaknesses don't make them any less of a Shepherd."

Kjelle regarded Robin in a strange manner. Robin thought for a moment that he could see contempt festering in her gaze before it faded. "Alright, maybe they're like that now, but they're still incredible people." Kjelle said. "Eventually they'll all be amazing. They'll stand up to Walhart, to Grima, to the woman, to every obstacle in their way, and they'll crush them all."

"And what then? What happens after they've crushed everything?" Robin replied without missing a beat. "Their goal isn't to destroy. They want to build, to prosper. Killing people will never help attain that. Though a drive for power may aid them to a degree - which is what I'm hoping you'll do - it isn't an absolute solution. I need you to see that."

"That's fair, I suppose. I wouldn't expect anything else from people like the Shepherds." Kjelle agreed. "But, you do at least concede that a drive for strength will help. It isn't as if that drive makes me an elitist asshole, as you were putting it."

"No, your influence makes it into that of an elitist asshole." Robin said intensely. "What will you do when the wars end, Kjelle? What happens when you can't get any stronger, or when getting stronger will only mean hurting people? What about when the Shepherds stop fighting?"

"As long as there's conflict in the world, there'll be a need to fight. The Shepherds will see that, as I already have." Kjelle answered. "Constant fighting means constantly getting stronger. That goes to the day I die."

Robin stopped walking entirely, which compelled Kjelle to do the same. "That isn't the point of what's happening here, or what the Shepherds have been doing for so long. All of the fighting has to stop. The Shepherds are to be that end."

"They aren't about to do that without power. If they want to be weak - which they won't - then they can go ahead, but I'll be strong." Kjelle said. "There's nothing that will stop me from wanting to be more powerful, without end."

"No." Robin said sternly, his face breaking into a forced smile. "That… that isn't the point. That isn't why we're here. That… that's not… how this is going to play out. You need to keep everyone alive through whatever comes next, and then… and then join them in the peace that follows. That's how this is supposed to end."

Kjelle shook her head. "No. That's not how I'm going to end this. I'm not going to die a pathetic death. You know what? Everyone else can be as weak as they want, but if they can't bother to stand up to me, then they won't be worth my time."

She turned her back to him and resumed walking toward the village. "Come on, let's go look for Laurent. Boring talk about ideology and crap is… well, boring. I'm not about to change my views so suddenly, even if I have made a lot of progress already, and clearly neither are you."

Robin's smile grew strained as he watched Kjelle move. His expression soon began to crack. Every semblance of the clarity he had recently prized evaporated entirely. He rapidly shot up a barrier of wind in front of Kjelle to keep her from advancing away. She blinked at the newly constructed blockade, then quickly spun around to face Robin.

"That won't be how this ends." Robin reiterated, his entire being forced to be exceedingly calm and collected. "I won't allow it. When you hear what I have to say, when you meet the rest of the Shepherds, and when you go to Valm and meet the woman… you'll see how weak, how fragile everyone truly is. Even yourself. Especially me. If you don't stop trying to get eternally stronger, that ambition will kill everybody in one way or another. Trust me, I know."

"How could you possibly know?" Kjelle questioned, her tone growing vitriolic. "You don't remember what you've done. You don't know how weak people can be, how they'll sacrifice others in the face of danger or allow everything they love to be destroyed out of cowardice. You don't know how badly this world needs a firm hand to guide it into the right future. It won't need weaknesses of any sort, and if you can't see that, then maybe you are weak underneath all of that magic."

"I am weak." Robin agreed easily. "You'll see that when it comes time to fight, when you get to see all that's hidden. Before that happens, though, I need you to promise me something: whatever happens in the war that's coming, you'll keep everyone in your power alive, and that once that's over you won't go too far. Please, Kjelle. You need to know when to stop. It's… it's important."

Kjelle narrowed her gaze in scrutiny, only to find a fearful authenticity underlying Robin's words. Even so, she refused to surrender to him so easily. "How far is that, then? How far could too far possibly be?"

Robin's expression shifted, losing all traces of forced pleasantness. In its place he developed an intensely somber gravity. "When you start killing Shepherds."

Kjelle refrained from laughing, though a short burst of air managed to propel its way out of her lungs. "Seriously? Please, I would never-"

"There'll come a time when the Shepherds are indisputably the most powerful people imaginable." Robin cut her off, his grave tone demanding silence. "Once the wars are won, once Walhart and whoever else are defeated, that's when this all needs to stop. If you keep going, you'll ruin everything. You'll kill Shepherds. You'll use their deaths to prove your power over them. You'll thrive in that environment until you, too, die. That's how your ambition will end. It'll destroy the world."

"I won't kill Shepherds." Kjelle stated firmly, hoping that she left no room for Robin to doubt her. "I would never do something so antithetical to everything else I've done. Saving them is my goal, and I'll never change in that respect."

"You think that now, but…" Robin sighed, trailing off and refusing to finish his statement. He paused for a long moment before beginning again. "I won't tell you everything until tomorrow, when we fight, but that ambition is what destroyed your time."

Kjelle narrowed her gaze again. "That ambition? Are you trying to say that I'm the same as Grima? If you are, then let me tell you how horribly wrong you are. Grima is a force of destruction. I'm going to be the one that saves everyone from them."

"Sure you are." Robin agreed softly as he dismantled the spell he had casted to block her from the village. "There's a lot of things you're going to have to understand, and fast. You'll come to know most of what I've warned you about in time, but for now, you need to keep a limit in mind."

Kjelle watched Robin closely before nodding her head. Her tone had grown infinitely softer when she spoke again. "I'll keep it in mind, even if I need not adhere to your advice. Also, I promise that I'll never go too far. Happy?"

Robin blinked. "Um… yeah. Are you actually going to follow through after all of that resistance?"

"You stood up to me. You're powerful enough to at least try to change my mind, and I know that you're strong enough to back up what you say. So… yeah." Kjelle said. "My apologies for calling you weak. Though, I did win the majority of our duels yesterday."

"Don't get cocky." Robin scoffed. He was already returning to a more regular version of himself, a fact that elated Kjelle. "Our final duel is tomorrow, and that's going to be a magic-riddled all-out deathmatch. At least on my part."

Kjelle subdued a twitch at the reminder that their duel would be excessively grueling, but never allowed her complexion to waver. She knew she would be strong enough to subdue Robin without ending his life. All she needed to do was have faith in the strength that she had for so long cultivated.

"Tomorrow's gonna be fun." Kjelle said plainly, with neither sarcasm nor delight lining her voice. She herself was uncertain of how to interpret the statement. Robin paid it no mind.

They neared the village together in short order. No more hidden risen challenges their advance. The heat of the desert was proving to be their greatest threat, wearing away at their supplies of water and their rationales.

The village exterior was nothing spectacular; hard stone and copious amounts of wood had been weathered down over years of sandstorms and desert air, giving the village walls a uniform shade of degenerated golden brown. Within the village would hopefully be a different matter, as neither traveler had any hope of sleeping in the desert overnight.

The gates to the village flew open once Robin and Kjelle had reached them. Two men stepped forth from the entryway, one visibly a bandit dressed poorly in furs, and the other an equally unusually dressed hero - though, compared to Kjelle's partial armour and Robin's specialised cloak, neither seemed out of place. The bandit had a small amount of blood splashed against his torso.

"You didn't need to kill anyone. It was clear the staff wasn't here from the moment we entered." The hero said to his companion, failing to notice Robin and Kjelle. "Now that Laurent guy has probably run off somewhere…"

"An example needed to be set. Besides, one body isn't going to get anyone like the Shepherds involved." the bandit replied. "Once we find that mage, we'll have to- aw, godsdamnit!" he stopped when he caught sight of the two newcomers, an instant after the hero had done the same.

"Hello there." Robin greeted casually. He furrowed his brow immediately afterward. Something about the bandit was setting off a silent alarm within his mind, though he couldn't place why. The man didn't appear to be threatening, even with a bloodied silver axe held in on hand.

"Grandmaster Robin." the bandit greeted in turn, struggling to subdue his audibly shaken nerves. "You've finally decided to confront the legendary treasure seeker Nombry… you are a bold one. Kill him, merc!" Nombry shouted, pushing the hero forward before darting out into the desert.

"Wait, what!?" the hero paled, clutching his sword tightly as he stumbled in the direction of the grandmaster. Their fear was swiftly alleviated when Robin propelled himself in the direction of Nombry with wind magic. The hero was left alone with Kjelle, and though he didn't know who the woman before him was, he was glad she wasn't one of the more well known Shepherds.

"You met Laurent?" Kjelle asked, sustaining the casual atmosphere Robin had set. Her more amicable nature and lack of tension were offset by the drawing of her weapon.

"That mage freak?" the hero asked, raising his free hand in the rough direction Nombry had fled. "He was out in the desert between here and the oasis, rummaging around in the sand looking for corpses. Technically, he saved my ass, but he was also weird as hell about it, so…" he, too, was keeping his sword at the ready, though he refrained from attacking Kjelle outright.

"Huh. Thanks for the info." Kjelle said, then levelled her lance at him. "You're a bandit, right? We should be fighting."

"Yeah, I guess so." the hero shrugged. "Listen, though, I'm not one to beat up on poor defenseless damsels, so if you want to go catch up with the grandmast-"

He was cut off when a flame effigy of a lance slammed into his chest, knocking him back and to the ground. Kjelle fired another lance replica his way as he was scrambling to a stand, hitting his shoulder. The hero had failed to notice any hint of the fierce animosity that had appeared within Kjelle.

"'Damsel', huh?" she asked with as much scorn as she could gather. "Come on! I'll show you what strength is like!"

Rather than be intimidated by Kjelle's challenge, the hero broke into a faint smile. "Ha, alright then. Let's see if you can prove me wrong!"

He darted forward rapidly enough to surprise Kjelle, though he was nowhere near catching her off guard. Robin had been going at a faster pace for practically all of their duels.

His sword was met with the hilt of her steel lance. Kjelle pushed against the hero until he was forced to relent. He jumped back a pace to reform his attack, now knowing that a direct assault would be problematic. Kjelle could bring herself to appreciate the man's quick analysis of his situation - not that she hadn't been able to read everything far faster and with greater accuracy.

Kjelle shot off another flame lance, forcing the hero into movement. He evaded the shot by ducking to one side, then speedily followed up with another charge. This time, he held his sword low as he charged, aiming for what Kjelle knew to be her partially unarmoured leg.

Rather than attempt to predictively block or dodge the hero's attack, Kjelle jumped forward. The hero proved faster in reaction than in assault, successfully slicing upward with his sword against Kjelle's armoured arms and staggering her before she could do the same to him. However, Kjelle's efforts proved more lasting, the force of her forward leap causing the hero to stumble and leave himself open to a counter. Kjelle immediately capitalised on this by bringing her arms down in a swift arc. She hit the hero's sword with her gauntlets, the force behind her blow forcing the weapon from the man's grip and to the ground.

The hero wasted no time in scrambling for his weapon. Again, Kjelle followed up with her strikes, charging flames around her lance and then bearing the weapon down before it could fire off a replica. The hero barely managed to grab his weapon and roll clear of the strike before the lance would have run him through, with the weapon's sheath of flame shooting into the desert's sands.

Blinded by her own missed attack, Kjelle couldn't see the horizontal slash made by the hero through the resulting spray of sand. She flipped up her lance lengthwise as apprehensive protection and deflected the attack by a tiny margin, avoiding all damage beyond a small scratch on her cheek. She levelled her lance again as the dust cloud began to settle.

"You really aren't half bad." the hero remarked between heavy breaths. "I could've used someone of your skills."

"It's a shame you had be a bandit." Kjelle said coldly, her breathing far better controlled than his. "Though, in a weird way, I'm glad that you are. Your poor choices allowed us to fight."

"If only you were the one to have hired me." the hero said distantly, almost causing Kjelle to falter. She shook her head clear as the hero shrugged. "Ah well. No use complaining over it now. Let's end this!"

He rushed toward Kjelle again, initiating a flurry of attacks that neither harmed nor disoriented her. The hero broke away from Kjelle for a split second to follow up in a different direction, and so he whipped his sword toward her lower leg, striking with the intent to disable her.

Kjelle struck her lance downward at the same time. She caught his sword before it could connect with her leg, planting her lance as a barrier between herself and the weapon. When the hero stumbled through his recovery from the failed swing she brought her lance up again. Coating it anew in flames, she swung its head into his chest before he could reorient, her flames exploding over his torso. The hero was launched backward. Her own grip on the weapon never wavered.

Kjelle walked over to the hero with her weapon still in hand, and stood over him as his breathing turned ragged. The armour of his chest had been shred away by her magic, leaving only a few magical embers to shield the gaping wound left behind.

"You know, a few weeks ago, I think you may have been a serious challenge for me." Kjelle noted.

"Not anymore, though. Clearly." the hero wheezed, and then his expression broke into a small smile. "Congrats…"

Kjelle drove her lance down into the man's head, killing him. She averted her gaze from the sight of removing the weapon, her stomach as much as her mind compelling her to find anything else upon which she could focus. She kept her gaze wandering about the desert until her weapon was freely in hand again. There should have been no adverse feelings over having killed the hero; Kjelle had proven her superiority over him through proper combat and had no reason to experience anything but pride in her achievement. She felt an inexorable guilt all the same.

With the hero dead and no new appearances from the village, Kjelle set out in the direction of Laurent. She had already resolved that Robin would need no help vanquishing Nombry. A small part of her did wish to be present at that moment, if only to be absolutely certain of Robin's safety.

---

Robin skimmed across the surface of the desert at a significantly faster pace than anyone could run. He ground to a halt in order to confront Nombry peacefully, only for the bandit to swerve away and continue his desperate sprint. Robin frowned and launched after him again.

He ground to halt again, this time placing himself directly in the bandit's path. "Hey, can you stop running? I want to… talk for a minute…" Robin paused as a wave of uncertain familiarity overtook him, allowing Nombry to dart past him and continue running the remaining distance to the desert's central oasis.

Robin blinked and shook his head clear. He found Nombry again after his bout of confusion had passed, and launched himself again in the bandit's direction.

Nombry was as exasperated as he was intimidated by Robin's repeated reappearances. "What the hell do you want, grandmaster!? I'm just tryin' to get by here, and find a little treasure while I'm at it!"

"I've met you somewhere before, haven't I?" Robin asked curiously, circling the bandit continuously. His eyes then shot open in realisation. "Wait a minute, I've killed you before!"

"Naw, I'm pretty sure you haven't." Nombry said, watching the grandmaster with equal parts confusion and wariness. His grip tightened on his axe, and then he swung the weapon toward Robin. The attack was so choreographed as to be effortlessly avoided.

Robin stepped blew the axe out of his foe's grip with a burst of wind magic. He then stepped forward and continued his examination. "No, we've definitely fought before. Garrick, right? You waged an artificial bandit attack in southern Ylisse, but were actually a soldier carrying out Gangrel's orders to incite a war between Ylisse and Plegia. I… I remember liking when I killed you. I'm sorry."

Nombry eyed his distant axe carefully, with the more immediate threat of the mage before him proving enough to keep him rooted in place. "I've lived in Ylisse all my life - never been to Plegia, let alone met the mad king. You and I have sure as hell never fought before."

Robin blinked, but couldn't shake the perception that the two separate bandits were one and the same. "Huh. Are you sure? I did kill you and everything, did you have a twin? Someone who looked exactly like you do, down to the clothes you wear…? Huh. The two of you look freakishly similar."

"What the hell are you playing at here? Is this some kind of mind trick?" Nombry questioned frightfully, all too aware of the distance between him and his weapon.

"No, you really do look like the guy. It's kind of disturbing, honestly." Robin said, then backed away from his examination as his head lowered in thought. "I suppose it's impossible for you to be him, but you look so similar…"

Nombry leapt on the opportunity granted by Robin, diving toward where his axe had been cast into the sands bordering the oasis. He seized the weapon before Robin was able to react, only for a risen to erupt forth from where he had landed. The risen clawed him toward the ground as Robin fired off a bolt of thunder magic directly into Nombry's chest.

The bandit leader fell face first to the ground, his already lifeless body sinking a few centimetres into the sand. The risen continued to claw at his corpse. Robin fired off another bolt of magic to end its existence. No new risen emerged from the desert.

The risen didn't die. Robin blinked and fired another shot, mentally verifying that the first had connected with lethal force, only for the second spell to also fail. He stepped toward the risen and fired another spell, and yet again the hit failed to register.

Robin took another step toward the risen. It suddenly jolted to a full stand and charged at him, with another two spells meeting its chest and proving as ineffective as their counterparts.

The risen slammed into Robin at more than full force, sending them both sprawling toward the edge of the oasis' waters. Robin scrambled to draw his levin sword, but the risen moved much too quickly, slipping its claws into place over Robin's shoulders and sliding him toward the oasis centre.

It lifted Robin into the air and then silently dove with him into the waters of the oasis. Robin attempted to shout briefly, only for his mouth to fill with lukewarm water that felt beyond alien to his skin. The risen held him beneath the surface with unequalled strength, beating out all manner of opponents he had come to know. As much as Robin could flail, he could do nothing to destroy the risen or alleviate the pressure on his shoulders.

Then the risen disappeared. It wasn't as though it had let him go and had floated to the surface, or had been ripped away by anything other than its own volition. It had merely disappeared. Robin struggled for a moment longer against nothing as he processed the change, then frantically swam toward the water's surface.

He broke into air and immediately gasped for breath. Every second he spent treading water caused him to cough more and strain his lungs ever further. The world had been enveloped in a haze as he had been underwater, as though a sandstorm backlit by the setting sun had enveloped the skies. He could no longer smell the arid heat of the desert burning into his senses, and instead found that everything had a coolness about it that was foreign to his environment.

Two people were sat at the edge of the oasis, their legs submerged up to their shins and lazily tracing aimless arcs through the water. Each was exactly the same as the other, from the complexion of their skin, to the partial furs they wore as clothes, to the easy smiles on their faces.

Robin blinked as he continued to tread water. "Garrick? And, what was it again, Nombry?"

"You should cool off, Robin. The desert heat's gettin' to ya'." Garrick or Nombry said - Robin couldn't tell the difference. Neither had broken their easy smile.

"What the hell…?" Robin asked openly, his gaze widening on the two bandits.

"We ain't real, idiot. Obviously." the other one said. "We're memories. Or maybe hallucinations. You don't know, and so neither do we."

"We're us, but only how you see us." the first one picked up. "That's why we're here - because of you.."

"You're still afraid." the second said. "You want us to help, to show you the path you want to take, but we can't do that. Even if you do still feel like hell for killing us, it won't be some bandits from nowhere that compel you to act. Especially not now, since you've started to see what we are."

"And what are you, exactly?" Robin asked as he continued to float in the oasis. "The two of you really are exactly the same. How is that possible?"

"It isn't." the first bandit answered simply. "That's what's keeping you so afraid. In order to accept what happens next, you're gonna have to face that impossibility."

The bandits never ceased their carefree movements. The superhuman risen reappeared in order to drag Robin back underneath the surface of the oasis. It manifested beneath him and began to pull at his legs, and Robin could barely release a short shout of surprise at suddenly being pulled down again. His lungs filled with water, but he knew that the sensation was entirely false. That fact disturbed him less than he had thought it would.

Once the risen had disappeared once more, Robin resurfaced. He saw that the two identical bandits remained at the edge of the oasis, and that beyond them was a horde of all too familiar faces. Robin knew in that moment that he was incredibly afraid.

He saw copies of the Shepherds relaxing around the oasis. Some moved to sit with their feet in the water as the bandits before them had done. Beyond them, there were hundreds more people, the desert having filled with more bodies than had previously hidden in its sands.

Robin could feel fear coursing through every fibre of his being. More than that, he could feel a strange peace welling up within him, and he accepted that he was preparing to die.

One of the Shepherds waded into the waters of the oasis toward Robin. The water never reached above the characteristically blue armour of their waistline. Robin blinked, the last of his fear being replaced with serenity. He refused to believe it to be in any way foreboding.

An apparition of Chrom held his hand out for Robin to take Robin held the hand in his grip graciously, no longer needing to swim in place. The bed of the oasis rose up to meet his feet and allowed him to stand in the same waist height water as Chrom.

"There are better places to a take a nap than on the ground, you know." Chrom smiled. Robin felt his serenity intensify further. That feeling was met with a calming dread that he felt in no way perturbed by.

Chrom chuckled. Robin deeply enjoyed the sound. "Ha, to think that you once got so angry about me using that line, and at so much more… you can remember that, can't you? How you stabbed me through the heart with your magic?"

Robin felt no ill will in the words Chrom had spoken, and felt so at ease that he couldn't restrain his smile. "No, Chrom. I'm sorry, I can't remember that. All I can remember was being your friend, and being so scared that I would kill you. I never wanted to hurt you, but thoughts like those, they… they won't go away, no matter what I do."

"That's okay." Chrom continued to smile, and clasped his free hand warmly on Robin's shoulder. "I'm here to help with that. We all are."

"Who are you?" Robin asked, still feeling overly serene.

"I'm Chrom. A pleasure to to meet you!" Chrom joked, his own laughter causing Robin to laugh softly in turn. "Seriously, though, you know who we are. I'm the Chrom another you killed in the future."

"I… killed you?" Robin asked slowly, uncertain of how to react to a fact he had known but suppressed for so long. "Oh… I'm sorry."

Chrom laughed and tightened his warm grip. "You know that I'm not one to hold grudges against friends, Robin. Or at least, that's how you remember me." he said as he began to lead Robin out of the oasis. Some the Shepherds lining its shores shuffled aside to give them room to pass onto land.

"We're the memories you've hidden - the ones you've repressed under the grey." Chrom continued. "Can you accept that much for me, Robin? For you to properly face what's coming, you'll need to come to terms with a lot of things, so can we start here?"

Robin nodded. He came to a stop in order to speak. "Yeah… I've hidden memories under the grey. They're the memories of the people I've killed. I… I don't want to remember things like that. Not anymore."

"You have to remember, Robin. That's how you'll come to accept that you need to die, so that something like this won't happen again. Now, are you certain that you're the one to have killed all of us?"

Robin nodded again, his smile never wavering. "I killed so many of the Shepherds. I placed them in unwinnable fights, and killed so many more with my own hands. I'm responsible for all of their deaths."

"That's right." Chrom continued to smile effortlessly. "Who isn't here?"

"Sumia." Robin replied, not having to check the faces around him in order to know. The depths of his concealed memories were slowly opening anew. "She was killed before the Valmese war, before any of the Shepherds, and I wasn't the one who did it… I was so surprised when she died."

"You wanted to kill her, though." Chrom said. "Someone beat you to the punch, but you leapt on the opportunity and used her death to launch a war against Valm. Did you enjoy that war?"

"I loved it." Robin answered honestly. "I killed so many people, proved my power over them… I conquered them. I loved that feeling more than anything. I still do. When we were there, I started turning on Shepherds. I was scared, but I enjoyed it so much more."

"What happened once the war ended?"

"Once we killed Walhart… I was so happy." Robin said. "Then… then we went home. I didn't know what to do anymore, so I sought a war with Plegia. There was no reason to fight them… Grima was… was…"

"You can do this, Robin. Remember a little bit harder!" Chrom encouraged, though the peacefulness he radiated toward Robin wavered. "What happened to Grima? What happened in Plegia? What did you do?"

"I… I killed you…" Robin choked out, his aura of happiness wavering further. "Before that, I was… I was so happy. Why did I do that? Why did I kill you?"

"Because you wanted to. Only you." Chrom answered simply, and his voice dropped into a waving rumble, as though he were speaking through a thin sheet of metal. "You wanted to kill me. Not Grima, or anyone else. Only you. Can't you remember that?"

Robin slowly nodded. "I remember. I enjoyed killing you, like everyone else, even though I should have hated it. Everything was going to come to an end. I wanted to bring it all to its end."

"What happened next?" Chrom asked, his voice having grown stable in quality once again. "What did you do when you returned to Ylisstol?" his voice immediately returned to being tinny. "Frederick found out about what had happened, but how? We were the only ones on the mission; that was how you knew it would be safe to kill me. Something went wrong, though, didn't it? Do you remember how?"

Chrom's voice lowered further in quality as he continued speaking, with Robin barely being able to comprehend his new tone. "Do you remember her, Robin? Do you remember Mor-?"

"Stop!" Robin shouted as he buried his face in his hands, hiding Chrom from his sight. "I can't… I-I don't want to remember!"

"You do, Robin. That's why you want me here. You can remember now that Grima is dead; that isn't the issue." Chrom said. "Remember how you were too weak to kill the only person who mattered."

"No!" Robin shouted, his hands pressing harder against his face. "I can't do this! I don't want to do this! I don't want to die!"

"Shhh, Robin. Everything will be okay." a new voice said, one that was far more calming than the grainy atrocity that had become Chrom's. Robin removed his hands from his face to see the beautiful form of Naga before him, her figure entirely humanoid and incredibly graceful compared to the horror he and Kjelle had witnessed on Mount Prism.

"You know that everything will be better once you've passed. That everyone will be safe." Naga smiled with as much beauty as was inhumanly possible, and Robin found it impossible to doubt her. "Perhaps you've yet to accept that fact, but that's why we are here. Even if it takes hours to convince you, convince you we shall, for that is what you wish to happen."

"I… I'll never not be afraid to die." Robin realised slowly.

"No one is truly unafraid." Naga said, her smile never wavering. "I felt more fear in my final moments than ever before, but the freedom that occurs afterward… it is a feeling unparalleled."

Robin blinked as his own serenity began to reform. With came an overwhelming sense of dread. "Naga, why are you here? I didn't kill you."

"Another you did, in another time." Naga explained calmly. "Your thoughts have merged with theirs… or rather, they've always been one and the same. That is how you are able to recall all that you have. We must still show you the path you wish to follow, but for now let's proceed at your pace, shall we? Do you know why Chrom appeared before you?"

"Because… I told him everything." Robin said. "The other me explained what they had done, everyone they had killed. Chrom still trusted them. They… I then killed Chrom, too, even though everything was going be okay… even though he trusted me."

"And so why am I here now, instead of him?"

"A version of you saw through the grey. A version of you knows roughly what comes next. You can guide me." Robin said. "Is… is that why he - I - killed, even after he had talked to Chrom? Because of what comes next?"

Naga shook her head in a slow arc. "You know the answer to that as well as I do, Robin."

"He simply wished to continue killing. To continue conquering." Robin answered for himself. "Am I trying to see through the grey? Is that why I'm here?"

A deep part of him began to feel utterly terrified.

"That is your wish." Naga answered. "To do that, we need to uncover less peaceful memories - ones more disturbing than the murders of those you love. So, tell me, Robin: how do you know that it was another you who killed me?"

Robin turned his back to Naga, though the apparition of the divine dragon didn't fade from his mind. He gazed out over the dark waters of the oasis as he replied. "I saw myself. The other me found me. They were knelt over me, and they were crying."

He knelt at the edge of the oasis and stared into its waters. A woman cloaked entirely in grey stared back up at him.

"That's right." Naga confirmed. "There was more to that day, Robin. Why was the other you there? Do you recall? Do you remember why it is that you truly wish to die?"

Robin stared silently into the waters of the oasis. The woman stared at him.

"Do you remember me?" the woman spoke silently from beneath the surface of the spring. "All I ever wanted was for you to smile again."

"Listen to yourself, Robin. To all of us." Naga advised calmly. "You must die, Robin. That is the only way everyone will be safe. It's the only way anyone will be happy again."

The woman reached her hands upward, to the extent that her grey fingertips were gracing the underside of the water's surface. "Please, Robin, please smile. I want you to be happy. I want to be happy."

"Everyone will perish if you fail to die." Naga said. "They will suffer. You will be the one to harm them. Is that truly what you wish? Your desire is to save them - that is why you're here."

"They're right. I'm right." Robin said, tracing his own fingertips over the woman's but refusing to touch her hands. "I have to try to save them. If they're to be saved, I can't be around anymore. Kjelle will be able to take care of the Shepherds. That's what I've trained her for, after all."

He rose and turned his back to the woman in the water, facing again toward the shades who surrounded the oasis. The woman frowned deeply and, though Robin couldn't see it, her expression began to twitch. Her frown turned into a snarl when Robin smiled at Naga.

"I'm saving you! Why can't you see that!?" she shouted, her voice slicing through any and all trace of serenity that remained in the feigned desert. She erupted forth from the pool and grabbed the rear of Robin's cloak, then pulled him back toward the surface of the oasis with stunning might. Robin couldn't react before they had submerged entirely. The woman manipulated his face to be directly in front of her own.

"I will save everyone." she said. "No one will stand in my way. Not even you."

She disappeared. The waters of the oasis returned to their normal hues, as did the skies and lands around them, and as Robin opened his eyes he found that he was perfectly dry. He stood and watched dumbly as the ashes of the risen he had killed dissipated over the corpse of Nombry.

What the hell did I…? Robin silently questioned himself, fully remembering but having no idea what to make of the past few minutes. A sense of dread mixed with peacefulness welled up within him. I… I'm still not ready to die. I-I can't…

Robin took in a deep breath and calmed himself, forcing a familiar alien serenity to wash over his entire being. No. I can do this. If I die, no one will suffer again. I'll save everyone. A smile overtook his expression as he moved to sit by the edge of the oasis. He quickly downed an entire canteen of water to be certain that he wouldn't have any more hallucinations.

All he had left to do was find Laurent, and then the final duel could be undertaken without issue. Kjelle was already strong enough to make up for any potential losses his death would cause in combat. Robin knew that she and the Shepherds, as well as the remainder of the time travellers, would be more than capable of addressing military strategy. It wasn't as though he had ever contributed anything of any real value. He had simply mimicked passages from a book, and had failed to save anyone despite his attempted deviations.

Robin sighed and closed his eyes, struggling despite every lie he wanted to tell himself. He would always be afraid, and he would never truly be ready to pass. He didn't have the will or stomach to do anything himself and so was relying yet again on Kjelle to prove her strength. Part of him resented that he had grown so close to her. He thought for a moment that his death may be akin to losing a friend for her, but quickly drowned that thought. He wished to believe above all else that his death would be a solution to the problems he and those he cared for faced. He truly did care for the Shepherds despite his foul inclinations.

For far longer than he could have intended, Robin sat next to the oasis and gathered his thoughts, preparing for his inevitable death. He only stirred when the sounds of footsteps muffled by sand grew loud behind him.

"Are you the Ylissean grandmaster, Robin?" a level voice asked.

Robin turned to see a tall, thin man standing a few paces away. His short blonde hair was hidden beneath an absurdly wide-brimmed, pointed hat that matched the mage robes covering his body. The man was clutching both his sharp glasses and a wind tome so tightly that his knuckles had begun to whiten. He held his breath as he awaited Robin's response.

"Are you Laurent?" Robin asked. He was already confident of the response he would receive.

"I would prefer an answer to my question before any further queries are made." the mage said.

Robin nodded slowly and turned back toward the oasis. "I'm Robin, yes. I'm the grandmaster of Ylisse's Shepherds."

"I see." the man said, his grip on his tome growing stronger. "My name is indeed Laurent. May I ask how you came across such information?"

"Kjelle." Robin answered simply. "She was pretty against telling me at first, and it was a slip up on her part that let me first know your name, but she's since told me more about you. Ha, to think that was only a few weeks ago. Time really flies, y'know?"

Robin adopted an easy smile as he stared out aimlessly into the depths of desert. "She wanted to kill me so badly when we first met. I feel like that's died down considerably. I'll have ways to rekindle it, though." his eyes shot wide as his reminiscing brought him to a new realisation. "Wait, are you going to try to-!?"

A powerful blast of wind silenced Robin's words, as well as sent him tumbling into the oasis. Laurent wasted no time in preparing another spell, only for his next cast to be met with the shockingly strong resistance Robin offered through a volley of his own magic.

Robin shot waves of wind magic out of the oasis as he crawled out of its depths. Each cast silenced Laurent's spells entirely. Robin gave almost no effort toward blocking and deflecting the time traveller's attacks, while Laurent channeled everything he could into the casting of his magic.

Upon freeing himself from the waters of the oasis, Robin swapped to casting his preferred thunder magic. Doing so made Laurent's attempts at swiftly killing him effectively impossible. Even so, Laurent did his best to overpower Robin, though every attack he used was casually wiped away. Robin soon managed to knock Laurent's tome to the ground with a burst of wind magic, neutralising the mage. He then used another wind spell to bring Laurent's tome to his side.

"I was so glad that I hadn't gotten wet, then you had to come along and ruin that!" Robin groaned, bringing a hand to his face only for it to come back damp. "Ugh… I think that was less time than it took Nah to attack me. You and your friends really hate me, don't you?"

Laurent raised his hands high, attempting to signify his lack of a threat to Robin. "I will not be satisfied with any manner of toying in my death. Should you wish to kill me, I suggest that you do so now, otherwise I shall become your greatest undoing."

Robin rolled his eyes, picked up Laurent's tome in one hand, and casually tossed it into the oasis. "Sure you will. Come on, let's go find Kjelle. You're bound to listen to an explanation from her before anything I could offer."

"You shall never deceive me, fiend." Laurent spat. "I know not what you have done to the world in the time since my arrival, but if you have truly come across my fellows, then I know what comes next. I pray your death be half as swift as what you grant me, monster."

Robin rolled his eyes again. "Kjelle said you were smart, but you seem pretty hotheaded right now. Come on, let's go find her so that she can knock some sense into you."

"Fiend!" Laurent cursed again, causing Robin's exasperation to grow. The grandmaster approached Laurent and shooed him in the general direction of the village in the sands. Thankfully, Laurent was easily corralled toward what Robin could hope was still Kjelle's direction.

---

Laurent pushed his glasses further up his face with one hand, his other clutching tightly for a tome that no longer existed. He sat in a simple chair at a tavern table across from Kjelle, who had spent the past hour regaling him with tales of her circumstances with Robin. The townspeople of the village seemed shaken after the arrival of the bandits earlier in the day, and so made no attempts at interrupting their conversation, a matter for which Laurent and Kjelle were both thankful.

Robin had made himself scarce after finding Kjelle and handing Laurent off to her. She had been elated to meet with Laurent again, though the mage himself had been absolutely floored by the notion that Kjelle wasn't attempting to kill Robin at all times. Even so, he had followed Kjelle into one of the villages hidden in the desert, and had waited patiently for the full extent of her explanation.

Laurent had only voiced a single question, when he learned that the risen changing was a widespread phenomenon. Kjelle had quickly explained how Flavia had launched an unofficial campaign against the Grimleal leaders in Plegia, much to Laurent's surprise. Other than that, the only moment Laurent had expressed any emotional state was at the news of Naga's demise, which caused his mouth to fall open for several long seconds.

He managed to close his mouth by the end of Kjelle's monologue. "Are you truly intent on not only allowing Robin to live, but to also preserve his life?" he asked bluntly.

"Yep." Kjelle replied in kind, adopting a lax position in her seat. Their conversation held no tension. Kjelle's assertions on Robin's character and his necessity in the war to come appealed to Laurent insomuch that he had promised to no longer attempt to kill the grandmaster on sight.

"I see." Laurent replied tersely, his eyes closing behind his glasses for a long while. "Well then. Will you be requiring my aid in your coming duel, or…?" he trailed off, awaiting a single answer.

"Nope." Kjelle said. "I don't need any help. Not even against Robin."

"Are you sure about that?" Laurent asked, more with concern than derision. "He has the power to ruin the world. If your theory of him being of our time is accurate, then he already has. That is the basis off of which we should be basing his level of threat, not the information you have been able to gather from your limited observations in the past few days. He may very well kill you."

"I'll be fine, and so will he." Kjelle dismissed her friend's concerns with a wave of her hand. "This duel won't end with one of us dying. That's how strong I've become since we last met. I don't want you to interfere in the proof of my progress."

"This is ludicrously dangerous, Kjelle. You shouldn't be taking any chances whatsoever when it comes to this fight." Laurent advised. "Please, at least permit me to oversee the duel and intervene should such action become necessary. No one from our time would ever wish for you to pass."

"If I die, it means I was weak when Robin wasn't. I'm not about to complain about a result like that." Kjelle said, her voice then growing softer in an attempt to have it sound reassuring. "Trust me, Laurent, I have grown far stronger than you could possibly know. Not only the magic I've learned, but by constantly training against Robin. I might be stronger than Lucina by now."

"And yet your hubris remains constant." Laurent said plainly, causing Kjelle's gaze to narrow. He took a deep breath and sighed it away before continuing. "Kjelle, tell me that this desire to fight isn't born of a drive to prove your strength. Any who know you also know of your incredible prowess in battle, and fighting this duel will do nothing to prove anything more to anyone. So please, promise me that this duel is a last resort to attain our goal of saving the future, and that you won't be attempting to use it to foster your own desires."

"I'll be using the duel to attain our goal of saving the future and not my own desires. Happy?" Kjelle responded instantly, having partly tuned Laurent out.

Laurent focused intently on her for several seconds before sighing deeply. "I don't necessarily believe you, but I will have faith that you will do what is right when the time comes. You despise Robin as much as the rest of us, after all. Truth be told, I was anticipating meeting with my mother again after all this time, and this grants me the perfect opportunity to do so. It's been so long…"

"Wait, are you saying that you're leaving? As in before the duel itself?"

"It's not as though you'll need me present, true?" Laurent asked, and Kjelle tilted her head before nodding in acknowledgement of his claim's accuracy. "I understand that your duel will be occurring shortly, but I would prefer to return to the Shepherds as soon as possible. It's been so long that I can barely remember mother's face at this point. I don't want to forget her. Also, even if they aren't together in this time, I want to be able to finally meet my father."

"I get it. Mostly." Kjelle said, shrugging. "Don't feel bad. It's not like I'll need the help anyway, so do as you please."

"Thank you. Truly." Laurent gave a faint smile. "If you wish it, I may remain here until your duel has been waged, but I will have you know that I would prefer to leave immediately. All I have left to do is share a few words with Robin. I must verify your claims under an analytical lens, of course. I also know how to navigate my way out of the desert on my own. Naturally."

"Of course." Kjelle nodded. "I suppose this is it, then. The next time we meet will be after I've won the duel and have brought Robin back to the Shepherds. I hope you find your family well, Laurent."

"As do I." Laurent said. "Farewell, Kjelle. I trust that we will meet again."

Kjelle smiled to Laurent as he rose from his seat and exited the tavern, her expression then morphing into a frown. She hadn't expected Laurent of all people to hold his family in such a high regard; he had always seemed more distant than any of her other friends. Kjelle felt almost guilty that she was the only person from their future who hadn't gone to meet their parents, even if she had essentially forced Nah to do so through some highly unsavoury means.

She leaned back into her seat and brought a pensive hand to her chin. After several minutes of consideration, she still couldn't shake her guilt, and only grew more uncertain of her actions as a result. She knew that she would be reunited with her parents and could ensure their relationship turned out as intended shortly. That fact did little to assuage the knowledge that she had been the least prepared to visit them again. She resolved her feelings as not wishing to abandon her mission and having faith in her parents' abilities to survive, and managed to assuage a modicum of guilt by doing so.

Laurent didn't go far upon exiting the tavern before meeting with Robin. The grandmaster was poised in wait against one of the village buildings casually, a set of bags at his side and a multitude of books in his arms. He noticed Laurent emerge from the tavern immediately. The grandmaster snapped the book he was leafing through closed in order to approach his fellow mage.

"Hey, Laurent!" he greeted with much more cheer than the time traveller would have expected. "Is Kjelle still in there? Ah, that doesn't quite matter right now; can we have a quick word in private?"

"Certainly." Laurent agreed, and with a growing sense of apprehension he followed a grinning Robin a short distance along one of the village's many side roads. "I had intended to meet with you as well, to verify some of Kjelle's claims, but please, go ahead."

Robin continued to smile as he raised one of his books into the air, a black-covered edition of some text Laurent couldn't place. "Did she tell you about this? A journal containing a bunch of strategies and some secrets?"

Laurent nodded. "She mentioned that it had been damaged prior to her meeting you, and that some form of revelation awaited her within its pages."

"Awesome. You're a magic-oriented person, right? Do you know how to cast an enchantment that temporarily reverses the flow of time? Noire supposedly used it once on Henry while you were around."

Laurent winced at the memory and shook his head. "I witnessed Noire's attempt, but I have made no efforts to learn the enchantment on my own. What of it?"

"It's not a big deal, but the Shepherds haven't found Henry yet. No one aside from him, myself, and you time travellers know that such an enchantment exists." Robin explained. He pulled a slip of paper off the top of his stack of books and passed it to Laurent, who distinguished it as a manuscript of the enchantment in question.

"There may come a time when you need it, especially if you want to uncover the lost pages of the journal after my passing." Robin said. "I'm certain that you, your friends, and the Shepherds will be able to use it when that time comes."

Laurent read over the paper several times before resolving that it held no foul secret, and then glared over its top at Robin. "You speak as though Kjelle isn't at grave risk of perishing herself, and as though that book will be worth her potential sacrifice. Should you win your duel, will you not continue to hide the information in your journal as you have been doing all this time? How can I know that you won't distort or destroy it further? What manner of information does it even hold?"

"All good questions! I'm glad you've asked them!" Robin laughed easily. "For the first and second… here." he passed the book in his hand to Laurent, who upon inspecting it could determine that it matched Kjelle's description of the enigmatic journal. He opened it to find that its contents, both present and removed, also matched the information that had been given to him.

"For all of the progress Kjelle has made, she still isn't quite at the point where she would be able to use the time reversal enchantment." Robin explained as Laurent snapped the book shut. "I don't intend to allow her to see its secrets until after the duel. It's not as though she'll be able to uncover them without aid anyway, but giving it to you now will alleviate some of the bother that will be refusing to cast the enchantment."

"Also, to answer that final question… you'll have to find out on your own." Robin continued. "I won't give any of the specifics to you; that's something I owe Kjelle, but long story short it explains the horrible things that I'm capable of. It details the motivations of mine that weren't factors of what happened in your time."

Laurent furrowed his brow at the last stage of Robin's explanation. "Your motivations… that were not factors? Are you saying that the passages you removed somehow exonerate what you did in my time?"

Robin shook his head, struggling to retain his clarity in the face of so much resurgent grey. "No, the opposite, really. You'll understand when you read it, I'm sure."

Laurent's brow remained furrowed despite Robin's effort to explain. He ultimately placed the journal away within his robes and gave Robin a brief nod of thanks.

"On to the next item at hand!" Robin announced cheerily, again defying the expectation of a calm, collected person Laurent had held. "These next few books are ones I took from libraries in Ylisstol, as well as a few from Basilio's personal library that were obtained… let's say semi-legally. They were all for fun, or for information unlike that in the journal. I'm assuming you're going to be passing through Ylisstol as you leave, so I'd like for you to drop them off at the castle. Someone should be there to take care of them."

He passed several more of the books in his pile to Laurent, leaving him now with only two brightly bound texts that could be easily identified as magical tomes. Laurent accepted the books presented to him, and after a careful examination of their titles and some shuffling of the contents of his robes, found homes for each of them.

"The only stipulation for all of this is that you leave right now, before Kjelle and I duel." Robin said. "I don't know what your plans are, but knowing Kjelle she won't want you to interfere in the fight, so it shouldn't be a big deal if you leave immediately. If you want to dispute your leaving, then I'm going to need to get everything back."

"I did in fact plan to leave shortly." Laurent admitted, having again grown wary of how Robin would act.

"Good, that's good! My prediction was correct." Robin smiled. The action upset Laurent. "Now then, on to the last matter. Here." he passed the last two books he held, powerful tomes of thunder and wind magic respectively, over to Laurent. "Kjelle still has my fire tome, and I'm hoping she'll want to hold on to it. You'll be able to make better use of these than her for the time being."

Laurent blinked and accepted the tomes. As soon as he laid his hands on the books he could feel the immense power they held. "You're gifting me your personal tomes? Why?"

"Consider them reparations for destroying yours." Robin shrugged. "Sorry about that, by the way; I don't know if that tome was special, but I hope mine will make up for it. Besides, I won't be needing them anymore."

"Is your duel with Kjelle not imminent?" Laurent asked as he clutched both tomes tightly, consciously refusing to put them away in his robes. "You will require these to fight, no?"

"I've got blood magic. I assume Kjelle told you about that? It was a pretty big deal."

"Ah. So you are so certain you will decimate her in the duel that you consider tomes unnecessary. I see." Laurent said, his gaze hardening on Robin. "I pray that your hubris proves to be your downfall and that Kjelle successfully eliminates you. Her death would result in your vilification by all from my time, and therefore the Shepherds to whom we shall prove our ties."

"Yeah, I know." Robin said, his smile growing somber for a second before returning to its previous brightness. "That's all I have to say, Laurent. May you find yourself well in the conflict to come."

Laurent glared at Robin, but allowed the grandmaster to pass him by in the direction of the tavern containing Kjelle. His expression then shifted to one of incertitude, and he looked over his shoulder at Robin as the grandmaster made his exit. He was met only with more uncertainty. However, as Laurent resumed his own exit from the village and its desert - with part of him wondering why he hadn't done such a thing long ago - he found his confidence in Kjelle claiming victory inexplicably rising.

Robin whistled merrily as he made his way to the tavern containing Kjelle. He abruptly cut off his own noise and spun back toward Laurent, a faint aching threatening the clarity in his mind. "Hey, Laurent?" he called out, stopping the mage in place.

"What is it?" Laurent asked tersely, not wishing to dwell on the grandmaster.

"I… er, well, another me, the one from your time…" Robin began, struggling to form the words he wished to say. "They killed your mother."

Laurent's expression tightened. "I had my suspicions." He turned away from Robin, yet again perplexed by the grandmaster's actions, and made to exit the village.

Robin watched Laurent leave for a moment before he resumed his whistling and entered the village's tavern. Kjelle was still seated at the same table she had shared with her friend. She paid Robin's entrance little mind as she instead enraptured herself with unsettling thoughts of her family.

"Hey, Kjelle. What's on your mind?" Robin asked as he took the seat Laurent had left askew.

"Hey." Kjelle greeted him in turn in an inscrutable voice. "I'm thinking about some stuff."

"That's rare." Robin teased, his smile offsetting any bite his voice held. "Anything I can help with?"

"Go to hell, Robin." Kjelle replied, her own expression refusing to brighten at Robin's joke and almost causing his smile to waver. She sighed and continued. "I'm thinking about my family. Out of all of my friends, I'm the only one who hasn't gone back to check on anyone, and aside from Nah - who is absolutely a special case - I'm the only one who hasn't wanted to. My parents are strong, and I shouldn't have to worry about them, but they already died once. It's not wrong to have stayed on this journey and leave them alone for a little while longer, is it?"

"I don't think so." Robin said easily. "You've been getting strong in order to protect them all this time, haven't you? That's a noble enough reason to have kept going. Besides, I know for a fact that Sully is strong as hell. If she somehow got into a deadly fight, she'll have sent the other guy running home before she could take a hit."

Kjelle grinned and almost laughed at his reassurance. "Thanks, Robin. That actually means a lot. I know my father must be about as capable as her by now, too."

Robin shrugged. "Probably. You feeling a little better now?"

"Considerably, yeah." Kjelle smiled at him, and his own smile grew far brighter in response.

"Alright, awesome. It's time for our final duel, then."

Kjelle's smile immediately died. "Right now? As in, actually now? Not tomorrow, or in a few days? No time to prepare?"

"I'm more ready than I've ever been." Robin said, his gaze levelling and growing a degree more intense. "Honestly, if we don't fight soon, I'm afraid I may lose that sense of clarity that's keeping me ready. So yeah, let's fight right now."

"Uh…" Kjelle faltered further, her mind searching for a reason to delay the inevitable fight before resolving that such action was counterintuitive. She too should be as eager to put an end to their conflict as soon as possible. "Alright, let's do this. We'll have to fight somewhere outside the village, though. This may get destructive."

A growing sense of dread refused to leave Kjelle as she voiced her acceptance. Her nerves were working up in anticipation of the fight despite her confidence that she would be able to overcome Robin in all his might. Part of her mind scolded her for believing that she could reasonably overpower him, but was swiftly silenced.

Robin's smile grew fiercely cheshire as his eyes lit up, his entire being rejoicing in her acceptance. He quickly rose from their table and gestured for her to do the same. "Come on, then! Let's end this!"

Kjelle rose from her seat and followed him out of the tavern, then out of the village. Robin led her to the oasis that marked the approximate centre of the desert. Her unease became more difficult to suppress with every step.

Eventually, they arrived at their destination and placed themselves across from one another, each with the waters of the oasis to one side and the desert to their other. Neither combatant had brought their bags of equipment with them. All of their weapons were on hand. Neither had any healing potions after failing to resupply from Anna.

"You know, I'm glad you've made so much progress." Robin said. "In learning magic you've proven that you can overcome any challenge, no matter how difficult or improbable. That's the kind of drive that I know will keep the Shepherds in the right hands if I perish here."

"Which you won't." Kjelle said resolutely. "I'm saving everyone I can, Robin. That now includes you. I'm strong enough to do it; you can see that already. You're one hell of an asset, and regardless of how capable I am, you'll be the one to see the Shepherds through Valm. Also… at times, you can be a pretty good friend. I won't be the one to kill you."

Robin stared at Kjelle, his mask of serenity and levity fracturing in response to the believable authenticity behind her words. He eventually sighed and drew his levin sword from within his cloak. "I suppose we should get started. Where to begin…"

"Explain everything you know about what's been happening." Kjelle said, drawing her enchanted lance to meet his weapon. "The woman, the journal, the 'grey' you were going on about, all of it. I want to see the journal's missing pages, too."

"Laurent has the journal, and the means of restoring the pages." Robin quickly explained. "Whatever happens here today, people will know the truth. I suppose I have you to thank for that, Kjelle. You've given me the strength to accept what has to happen, the confidence to do it, and the reassurance that whatever happens, things will turn out okay. Thank you for granting me the serenity I need to do this."

Kjelle eyed Robin warily as she released a measured breath. Something about his demeanour was offsetting, but she couldn't place exactly what. "I suppose Laurent will know what to do with the journal. I'm mad that you didn't show it to me, though. Kinda makes it feel like you'll hide more stuff."

"I'm not hiding anything. In fact, I plan to reveal all that I can here and now." Robin said, his sword cutting through air as he casually waved it side to side. "Let's start, then. A few thousand years ago, when people like the real Marth were fighting the wars of heroes and shadows and whatever else, there was an alchemist by the name of Forneus. He-"

"You know what? This can wait until later." Kjelle cut him off. "There's no room for me to doubt myself, to act as though I'll lose this fight, so let's talk afterward. I'm certain we'll have all the time in the world." she said, and settled into a lax position, waiting for Robin to give some kind of response.

Robin blinked and stood still for a long moment, then gradually raised his sword to point at her. Without any indication whatsoever, he began shooting bolts of lightning at Kjelle, forcing her to dodge away from each one. Each miss heralded a tall plume of sand being shot into the air and a wave of heat more scorching than that of the desert.

"Forneus weaponised a type of insect he called thanatophages. He used them to revive the dead and have them serve him. That's where the risen as we know them came from, thousands of years ago." Robin continued, his breathing failing to slow despite his casting. "There were others who had managed to raise the dead in the past, notably during the holy wars that took place long before Forneus was ever relevant. Those undead - the deadlords and later the death masks - weren't mass produced and mass controlled like the modern risen."

"Didn't you say that you haven't looked into this kind of thing?" Kjelle huffed as she dodged another bolt of lightning. She didn't allow herself to grow disheartened by his display of magic. After another missed attack on Robin's behalf, she countered with a shot of flame from her lance, sending a bolt of energy soaring rapidly in his direction.

"I lied." Robin shrugged, blocking her shot casually with the enchanted fabric on his forearm. "You're going to hear that a lot. Anyway, Forneus also had access to the corpses of dragons, so he set about applying his risen methodology on them, too. One of the dragon corpses was given the blood of a divine dragon that had been granted to Forneus by the senators of the city he was operating in. That divine dragon was Naga. Later, after having been dismayed by his creation's lacking abilities, Forneus gave that risen dragon some of his own blood, which made it powerful. It gained dominion over his other creations, meaning all of the risen. It had the magic inherent to both Forneus' and Naga's blood to rely on, as well as technical status as a divine dragon. That undead dragon was Grima."

Kjelle hesitated in her dodging for an instant, though Robin thankfully stopped attacking at the same time. "You're saying that Grima was made using Naga's blood? Doesn't that mean that Grima could have killed Naga, and vice versa? That means you should have been able to-"

"As far as I know, Naga had no idea she and Grima were related." Robin said. "Few people have ever known about this, and the only reason I know is because of some ancient texts granted to me by the mystery woman."

"But if Grima and Naga were related, you should have been able to kill Naga back at Mount Prism." Kjelle argued, immediately being forced to sidestep another bolt of lightning. "You couldn't kill her. That means she and Grima weren't related."

Robin shook his head. "Not necessarily. It could mean that Grima… that Grima is…" his body shook slightly, a tremor of disgust worming its way through every muscle of his being. His sword hand dropped to his side as his other found its way to his forehead. "Godsdamnit, this shouldn't be difficult…"

He took several deep breaths, holding each longingly and releasing them slowly. His senses filled with the fresh scent of the oasis' water and vegetation, the heat baring against his little exposed skin, and the faint sounds of Kjelle maneuvering her way through the sands. He gradually put his mind at peace. Robin quelled his tremors and returned to his full faculties at the exact moment Kjelle's shoulder crashed into his chest.

Robin was knocked to the ground in a burst that took all of his carefully cultivated breath from his lungs. Kjelle remained standing after their collision, and as he fell she brought a foot down securely on his chest and used the butt of her lance to knock his levin sword from his grip. Her face quickly morphed into a pleased smirk as she held her lance in place, pointed at Robin's throat.

"Ha. That was easy." she said. "All that talk about the final duel, all the bullshit about one of us having to die, and I beat you in under a minute. I guess I'm not the only one who has to better themselves, huh?"

Robin's expression didn't change. He merely shifted his right hand so that his palm would face Kjelle. The knight pressed her lance close against his throat, but refrained from harming him as best she could, all too wary of how a single slip could spell disaster.

"This is a fight to the death, Kjelle." Robin said calmly, his voice practically monotone and his hand unwavering as the first stages of a wind spell manifested in his palm. "Even if you don't see it like that, I do. Only one of us is walking away."

Before Kjelle could give a reply, Robin fired his spell. A massive funnel of wind enveloped Kjelle. Robin widened it to have as large a surface area as possible in the short distance between the two combatants to ensure that it wouldn't rip the time traveller apart. Kjelle realised that Robin had dampened the spell as she was launched high into the air away from him, but even then her expression flashed in horror at the sheer might of his magic.

"Grima is… is…" Robin began again as he rose to a stand, though he met with the same inability to form words as before. His hands found his way to his head again as he contorted his body, physically straining to vocalise his information. He swiftly grew irrationally frustrated with his own lack of progress. "Damnit, damnit! Why is this so hard!?"

He struggled to calm himself before beginning anew yet again. "Okay… okay… Grima. The fell dragon. That evil thing, Grima, the fell dragon, created by Forneus and put to rest by Exalts of the past. Grima controls the risen. Grima is evil. Okay, okay. I can do this." he opened his mouth to speak again, and this time failed to produce anything more than a faint whimper. His hands moved to cover his face as he struggled again to form words. "I… I can't do this! I can't-!"

All that Robin was saying fell apart in his mouth as he forced himself to remember his serenity. He focused on Kjelle as she rose from the plume of sand that had heralded her crash back to the desert and used her image to anchor himself in his calmness.

"No. I can do this. We can do this!" he said enthusiastically, practically jumping in place to psych himself up. "Come on; it's time to end this! We'll see the conclusion here and now!"

Kjelle stood shakily as she withstood the last of her landing's delirium. She barely registered Robin's sudden charge toward her in time to block the swing of his sword, but block it she did - only to immediately regret the action when a powerful electric shocked coursed through her lance. Almost falling to one knee with a sharp gasp at the sudden pain, Kjelle nevertheless managed to evade the following strike of his sword. She leapt sideways as sparks erupted from where Robin's magical blade contacted the desert.

Robin continued to strike at her with his sword. Each attack lessened the window of opportunity to escape or counter as he pressed toward Kjelle harder and faster. His sword sprayed sparks into the air or sand with every miss, deterring Kjelle from attempting a counterattack for fear of another shock. Thankfully, Robin had yet to use his preferred thunder magic, though the fact that he hadn't set Kjelle on edge more than it comforted her.

After another missed swing grazed errant sparks against the chest of her armour, Kjelle took the practically nonexistent opening offered to her to press back against Robin. She brought up her left forearm to block the next inevitable swing of his sword as she swung out with her lance.

As Kjelle had predicted, Robin's sword cut into the armour lining her forearm but failed to pierce skin. Despite the wave of electricity that followed she successfully crashed her lance into the side of his abdomen. Kjelle ignited fire magic along the length of the lance, her spell creating a small explosion as it contacted Robin's side. The detonation launched Robin sideways away from her. His magic continued to paralysed her left arm for a few moments longer. When she moved the appendage back to her side, she found it impossible to properly relax or flex her muscles, though that sensation soon faded.

"That's a little more like it!" Robin laughed happily, disturbing Kjelle immensely. "That's the kind of power you need - the drive and ability to overcome anything. You've proven yourself a bit by learning magic, now prove that you have the power to surpass anyone!"

He raised his right hand, his sword held tight in his grip, and effortlessly conjured a massive orb of flames above his head. The sky itself almost seemed to flash out of colour for an instant. In as little time as the fireball had formed it had been launched in her direction. Kjelle dodged and succeeded in avoiding all but the intense wave of heat that threatened to bring her to her knees all on its own.

The sand the fireball contacted had already melted into a semi-liquid state by the time the magical flames had faded. Kjelle balked at the morphed ground, her expression becoming one of cautious shock at the sheer might of Robin's attack as she refocused on him. Part of her worried over the extent to which he was pushing himself for the purposes of their fight. Kjelle had never before seen such raw strength in so casually casted a spell.

"You're going hard as hell right now, aren't you?" she remarked. Robin's demeanor didn't change in the slightest. Kjelle broke into a smile. "I'm flattered. It's a shame you're doing so much, only to have to lose."

Robin reciprocated her smile. "That's good. Perfect, actually. Now then, where was I… ah. Right. Grima." he sighed deeply and brought a hand to his forehead, then after a few seconds of thought dropped it back to his side. "I'm sorry; I promise that I'll be able to tell you all about them by the end of this, but for now, something's holding me back. No… not something - someone. She doesn't want me to do this."

"Then talk about the grey and the woman." Kjelle said, interested in buying herself time free of his magic onslaught. "Or, if you want, you can shut up entirely. Either way is fine with me."

"Ah, the woman. Of course. She's the one who doesn't want me to do this." Robin said, brokering legitimate curiosity from Kjelle. "As you know, she wrote me the journal. She has so much knowledge about the events of the last war that she must have come from your time. Though, she's certainly proven herself powerful enough to do practically anything, as far as I'm concerned. Her magic ability alone may grant her status as one of the most powerful beings in existence."

"Sounds like a challenge worth overcoming." Kjelle said, causing Robin to force a short burst of air from his lungs that resembled laughter. The more they spoke, the more Kjelle plotted. She finally devised a plan she deemed suitable as Robin began to speak again.

"You know what? Go ahead. Try to stop her. If you can stand up to power like that, then you're without a doubt capable of altering fate." he said. "Hell, she knows as much if not more than I do about everything that's happened. She's the one who informed me of what had happened with Grima, aided me with the risen, and she's the one who informed myself and the Khans about you and your friends. She may hold the answers to everything. I truly wish that we could meet her and find out the truth, but alas…" he shrugged, as though doing so were an answer to his dilemma.

"I'll stop her. She won't kill anyone again, not like what happened to Naga or however many other people she's undoubtedly murdered." Kjelle said, thankful that Robin was content to only glare at her words. "She's so powerful, and she knows so much about my time, and yet she does nothing. She hides in the shadows as a nameless apparition, and expects the world to bend to her will. Naga saved us, Robin - my friends and I. Her death is all the reason I need to hate her killer."

"You really don't understand." Robin shook his head forlornly as Kjelle inched toward him, moving at what she assumed was a pace too slow for him to notice. "She doesn't hate us, and she doesn't want to kill us. She loves us. Everything she does is to save us all."

"And how would you know? Is it simply because you believe in her, the murderer of a gracious god?" Kjelle jeered.

"Because I've spoken to her." Robin replied nonchalantly, causing Kjelle to stagger as her movements resumed. She opened her mouth to express her incredulity, but was stopped when the grandmaster began to elaborate. "Technically, she's spoken to me; I haven't said anything to her, but we have communicated. She's the reason I heard debilitating tones in my mind. Those were signals that she was communicating with me. It happened once after I met you, but without tones. That was the day I restored a page of the journal for you to read. The power she used to sustain the link between us probably bled into my restoring of the page, which is what allowed the failed portal to form. A fraction of her strength was able to create something like that."

Kjelle froze for a moment longer as she remembered the day she had convinced Robin to restore the destroyed page. His oddly distant focus and his previously unexplained movements slowly began to make sense. "That admittedly goes a long way toward explaining some weird things." she said.

Her cheeks began to heat from the memory of the simple heart Robin had crudely constructed with his hands. The sensation quickly died down with the knowledge that the action hadn't been intended for her, only for it to be replaced by a dwindling confusion at her own emotional responses.

"There's more." Robin said. "Somehow, she's entirely aware of my past and who I am, more than you or anyone else from your time. She knew more than me and she's been more than happy to share it all. Ultimately, she's the reason I know what will become of this fight and why I know what has to be done, even if she loves me. It's what's necessary to save everyone."

No longer content with wasting time to speak, Kjelle launched her attack early. Now in relatively close proximity to Robin, she shot off a series of flame replicas of her lance at his feet. Each shot connected with the desert and threw up clouds of sand in the direction of her unfazed opponent.

She channeled as much energy as she could into her lance and shot one more bolt of flame at the floating sand. Her hope was to mimic what Robin had done to the desert near her, to force so much sheer heat onto the sand that it would liquify and spray in Robin's direction, temporarily disabling his every following action.

That plan immediately failed when Robin fired a concentrated bolt of lightning through her shield of sand. The beam of magical energy widened before it collided with her shoulder, lessening the raw damage it dealt in exchange for sending her sprawling to the ground. Kjelle still successfully fired off her lance shot, and as soon as she touched down she snapped her head up in anticipation of her plan following through. Her shot was shredded into thin wisps of flame by the lazily falling spray of sand. She stared at the failed attack in dismay before rising to a stand.

"What was your plan there?" Robin asked curiously, though his voice goaded Kjelle all the same. "Were you trying to melt that and encase me in glass? If that's the case, I want you to know that your stupidity in that moment was absolutely astounding. It was hopeful, sure, but beyond dumb."

"I'm so sorry for trying out different strategies like some kind of idiotic tactician." Kjelle sneered. Robin merely raised an eyebrow in response. "That's proper innovation on the battlefield. So what if it didn't work out? It's better than sitting here and getting thrown around by your magic."

"You're in a life or death fight." Robin reminded her coolly, as though she had forgotten - or rather, that she continued to deny that fact. "Innovation is great, especially in tactics, and I'm glad you're trying it out, but try it in practice before applying it. In a serious battle, it can be the difference between life and death."

"Do you think I don't know that!?" Kjelle shouted, her slowly growing desperation shining through in her voice. "I'm not going to lose this! I don't care if I have to try strange things, or put my absolute all into everything! I will win!"

Robin's expression had morphed into a frown at her initial failure, but it now returned to a deceptively bright smile. "Good! That drive is one of the greatest things about you, Kjelle. It's what I saw in your when we first met. That moment was when I knew you would do great things. You being here now is proof of that. If only you could see eye to eye with the woman…"

"I'll do everything in my power to stop her - if not because of her being evil, then because you won't shut up about her!" Kjelle shouted. Her gaze then narrowed on Robin as her fury subsided. "What if she's manipulating you? Don't give me any of that 'love' crap, or I swear I'll tear you apart through the power of annoyance."

Robin shrugged, his sword glinting in his left hand as his right began to glow with magic. "In all honesty, I don't know. She very well could be manipulating me. When I first learned about her I by all means attempted to defy her, but I've come to trust and love her as much as she does me. She wouldn't abuse that."

Kjelle's brow furrowed as she became increasingly aware of the prismatic magic glowing in Robin's fist. "You tried to defy her? How? Is it what you said about accelerating the war against Plegia, fighting battles as quickly as possible?"

"Yeah. Not like it helped. Emmeryn, Phila, and Gangrel are all dead, as she had predicted, and on top of that the Shepherds missed going to the Farfort and clearing those missions you and I did earlier with the bandits and Anna." Robin said. "Hell, maybe she predicted that, too. She could have known that I would try to accelerate things to try to save people and adapt her plans around that. Maybe that's what lead to people dying. She's clever enough to do something like that."

Kjelle blinked, her guard dropping entirely as she processed his statement. "Wait, you never-?" she began, only to immediately be cut off as Robin unleashed his spell.

Dark, fire, thunder, and wind magic all diverged yet coalesced, running parallel and together as they raced toward her. Kjelle attempted to divert and control the stream of magic with a burst of fire from her lance, but failed. Each spell collided with her in a range between her chest and her right shoulder, sending her violently spiralling toward the ground as her grip on her weapon was lost.

The magic annihilated the armour in each area it struck. Dark magic warped and practically erased the painted reddish steel of her upper shoulder as flames seared through her collar. Thunder jolted and wind tore into the protection lining her pectoral. Kjelle quickly gripped at her wound as she collapsed, hoping to stem any potential blood flow if not struggle to save her right arm entirely.

She gasped and restrained herself from screaming as the sensations of the magic washed over her, only to realise that she felt no pain. Her arm continued to send signals to her mind no different than when it hadn't been hit by Robin's magic. She grew steadily perplexed as she removed her hand from her chest and regulated her breathing to a normal frequency, finding that she was unscathed beyond her resoundingly destroyed armour. Even the light clothing she wore underneath was undamaged.

Robin approached Kjelle as she lay in the sand, and she began to panic as she failed to locate her weapon. Her dismay only increased when Robin picked her lance out of the desert on his way to her.

She had lost. Everything she had fought for, all the time she had spent training and preparing, it had all been for nothing. Her entire life had come undone from her own headstrong pride, as well as Robin's overwhelming might, in only a few short moments. She couldn't bring herself to even look at her opponent anymore. Kjelle squeezed her eyes shut and awaited the end to their duel. All of her fighting, all of her mistakes and wrongdoings, everyone she had saved and aided, every good and evil deed was about to be erased entirely.

She found an odd sense of comfort in that notion.

Robin came to a stop before her and extended his hand outward. Her eyes remained closed, and so Robin dropped her lance into her lap. Kjelle blinked her eyes open and stared at the weapon in utter confusion.

She raised her head toward Robin and saw his outstretched hand, and only grew more confused. "I… I lost." she said weakly, knowing what was heralded by such a result.

"It looks to me like you've still got a weapon on you." Robin said, keeping his hand out for her to take. "You don't look injured, either. There's no use in killing an opponent without beating them, especially if this fight is supposed to be the greatest culmination of our capabilities. Come on. Let's keep going."

Kjelle remained in place on the ground. Her head tilted down toward her lance as she ran her hands over the weapon, then the armour of her chest where Robin's shot had connected. Her voice grew weaker as she realised what was happening. "You… you're holding back. Even after everything, I still can't hope to best you."

"You'd be surprised." Robin smiled as warmly as he could. "You've made so much progress. You're in a better position to kill me than anyone else in any battle I've ever fought. You can do this!"

"I don't want to do this!" Kjelle shouted emphatically, the genuine dejection in her voice causing Robin's expression to waver. "I want to save everyone, even you. I want to be the shield that protects them all. I want to be strong. I don't want to lose, but… but I can't win. I'm not going to kill you, Robin, and now it's your job to do what I can't. I've lost. You were stronger. You deserve this victory."

Robin shook his head, his thoughts swimming in a haze that threatened to overwhelm him. He didn't know how to respond to the melancholy radiating out of Kjelle. "Don't worry about being strong enough to save me; worry about being strong enough to save everyone else. That's the last thing I'm ever going to try to have you learn: never abandon your drive. You have to kill me to save them."

He knelt in front of her and placed one of his hands over her lance, then the other over her right hand. He then gently brought the two together and closed Kjelle's hand firmly over the hilt of the weapon. "You have to keep fighting, Kjelle. For your ideals, for your friends and family, everyone and everything you love. You can't give up on it. Even if things seem impossible, if everything seems bleak and you can't think of any way to make things better, you can't give up. Keep fighting. For the sake of everything and everyone."

Kjelle focused on where his hands were covering her own. She slowly began to realise that her breathing had grown erratic and calmed herself. The feeling of comfort that had appeared when she had come so close to death dissipated, and in its place formed an irrefutable disgust. She had been so ready and willing to give up, to accept her own defeat and embrace her weakness. She had embraced being the coward she had always despised. A familiar strength welled up within her, and she used that growing fortitude to eliminate every trace of doubt she had felt. She placed her free left hand over Robin's, then used that strength to stand up.

Robin's expression brightened into a greater smile as he rose with her. Kjelle released his hands and he then did the same, and took several steps backward to give them space to fight. His smile never wavered. Kjelle knew he was too happy at seeing her stand.

"This is wonderful." Robin said through his smile. "We both need the other to fight at their absolute best to be able to prove ourselves, so we have to go all out. There's no room for fear, weakness, trepidation, or anything of the sort. Not anymore."

"I get it. I see how I can win." Kjelle said slowly, a smile appearing on her face that in no way rivalled Robin's, which only grew more intense at her words. She raised her lance with one hand, holding it sideways. "I can't overpower you; I'm simply not capable of it. That means that the only way to win, to make sure that we both survive, is to not fight. I forfeit."

Robin's entire expression turned blank. He physically recoiled as Kjelle dropped her lance to the ground. "What? What are you saying? Do you hear yourself? That's some of the stupidest, most trite bullshit I've ever heard!"

Kjelle shrugged. She moved on to her other weapons, dropping the other lance, the axe, and the sword on her person that she had never gotten the chance to use before being bested. "You'll keep fighting until I've given my all. Therefore, I can keep you alive by not fighting. I know you won't kill me if I don't fight; that isn't who you are. If you won't kill me, and my goal is to have us both survive, then me not fighting means I've won."

A note of laughter almost escaped from Kjelle's closed lips as she gazed down on her discarded weapons. "Lucina did something like this against me once. It was one of the many ways she won a fight without having either of us draw our weapons. 'Sometimes, the only way to win is to never fight' - that was her line. I always thought it was idiotic, an excuse to run away, but now I think I understand. Neither of us have to die, so we shouldn't be fighting."

Kjelle raised her empty hand toward Robin, ignoring the visible despair clouding his gaze. "Let's work together. I know I wanted this duel to have a chance at rightfully killing you, but now I can see that I was wrong. We can be so much stronger if we don't fight against one another like this. Each of us are already so powerful, so let's be stronger together."

Robin shook his head, at first slowly and then at increasing speeds. "No, no, no… that isn't how this is supposed to happen. I- we can't walk away from this. This has to end, here and now! I-I don't… I don't want to be what I already am. We need to finish this."

"We can overcome Grima, Robin. Together." Kjelle said, lowering her hand back to her side and taking a confident step toward him. "You, me, all of the Shepherds. There's no way Grima would be able to stop us. If the woman can do it, so can we. We'll kill Grima, and save everyone. We'll save you."

Robin stared at Kjelle for a long moment before screwing his eyes shut. He dropped his sword to the ground in order to run his hands through his hair. When he opened his mouth again, every breath he took and every word he formed was incredibly shaken. "Kjelle… I'm so sorry for everything I've been doing. All the lying, misleading, and manipulating. I'm sorry. I… I need you to know that if we don't finish this right now, I won't be able to come back to this point. It's all been so difficult, and I'm still so afraid at heart. I want this to end right now. Even if I have to lie to myself, even if I'm still too much of a coward to reveal the whole truth to you, I know that this has to end. For the sake of everyone."

"You won't be able to come back to this, huh? Good." Kjelle said. "We don't need to fight each other anymore. We can go to the Shepherds. We can fight with them and keep them all alive through Valm, then show Grima his place in the world. Together, not as enemies."

"I… that isn't… it's not…" Robin struggled to form a sentence, each word more difficult than the last to produce. "You can't say that. Not until you know the truth." he took a breath, his nerves barely calming. The image of Kjelle holding her hand out to him in peace was burning unbidden into his mind.

Kjelle continued walking toward Robin until next to no distance remained between them. She wasn't entirely certain of what was happening, but knew that Robin was as perturbed by their situation as her. "I know that no matter what's happened or what will happen, we'll be able to overcome it. We'll be able to overcome anything."

She closed the little remaining distance between them, wrapping her arms around Robin's shoulders and holding him close against her, searching for as much security in the embrace as she hoped she was offering him. Robin didn't resist the action, but at the same time didn't move to reciprocate. Kjelle eased into the embrace more as time passed. She allowed the uncomfortably warm heat of the desert to fade away in the face of the more welcoming heat offered by Robin. The grandmaster himself never became any less opposed to the action.

"I killed everyone, Kjelle." Robin said, his voice still struggling to properly operate. "Everyone in your time is dead because of me. If things keep going like they are, the same will happen in this time, too. I don't want that… I don't want to hurt any of them."

"You won't." Kjelle reassured him, maintaining the same intensity on their embrace as best she could. "I don't know exactly what happened in my time for everything to have gone so awry, but I know that I'm here now. So are my friends. We'll be able to stop everyone that threatened the Shepherds, and we'll be able to save all of you. We'll become your shields. I know that you aren't the cause for what happened, Robin; every part of who you are has been supportive, selfless, and only occasionally an asshole. You won't kill the Shepherds. I'll never have to kill you. We don't have to fight."

She could feel Robin's breathing growing less certain, and so relaxed further into him to better ease his trepidations. This time, Robin began to reciprocate, raising his arms in order to wrap them around her. The action only heightened Kjelle's comfort, and as she relaxed even further into Robin, he was able to do the same. His breathing continued to wrack his body, but he was nevertheless able to finally embrace her and ease away some of the insecurities brewing in his mind.

"I know who you are, Robin." Kjelle said, her voice lowering considerably to respect their nearness. "I don't know what happened in my time, what caused all of the death and destruction, but I know that it can't possibly be the you before me. I promise that I'll be your shield, to protect you from whatever fears are eating away at you and ensure that nothing of that calibre happens again. Even if I'm not quite as powerful as you yet, I'll protect you. You don't have to be afraid of anything that's coming. We can face it together."

Robin's body began to shake more, and Kjelle knew that he was on the brink of crying, but could also tell that he was beginning to relax. They stood in each other's arms for longer than either bothered to keep track. Kjelle remained in a comfortable peace as Robin attempted to attain the same state.

Kjelle's mind continued to swim with questions that had been raised or had yet to be answered, but she contented herself in that moment with simply existing. For her, being party to their embrace was enough to set her mind at ease. For the many minutes that they remained together and revelled in the warmth of their embrace, she forced out no more new queries or challenges that could possibly spoil their moment.

Robin struggled for the entirety of the hug to control his flow of emotions. Everything that had happened, from Kjelle's refusal to fight, to her proclamation of protection, to the knowledge that he would never be able to approach his own death again anywhere near as easily all shattered the false notion of serene clarity he had constructed for himself. He now remained as afraid and uncertain as ever before. For the moment, however, he was beyond content with remaining locked in Kjelle's embrace. In that instant he held no care for what would become of his future.

---

I'm on time again! Hooray! I'm not back to the point of 1,000 words a day, but progress is progress.

There was a lot in this chapter's first draft that wasn't exactly well written. It should be better now. Mostly it was just Robin being edgy, which I really wanted to tone down.

Also, this is the proper start of Robin being less of a dick, AKA not hiding plot info anymore. It'll still happen a little, but things should mostly be clear within the next few chapters. What's better is that now, since Robin and Kjelle are wrapping up a fair amount of their personal development, I can work more on the antagonists / how they contrast Robin and Kjelle / all the fun thematic stuff.

Status: As of 06-04-19, I'm still on chapter 34. Like i said, there's not much progress being made, but progress is still progress regardless.

Thanks for reading!