Raimi's visit at the Ylissean capital was unexpected, and it gave Robin a bad feeling. She brought bad news, as he feared, telling them about the aggressive behaviour of the neighbour country and their imminent arrival to the western feroxian port. Flavia requested Chrom's presence at Regna Ferox as soon as possible, and he accepted. After the audience, the king and his tactician went to the barracks and told the Shepherds they would leave the next day, and there was unrest among the soldiers. After two years of peace, the news of the potential imminent attack weren't welcomed. As well as things had gone, there was still much to do to restore Ylisse to it's proper self.
To Chrom's surprise, after making sure the servants had started packing the essentials and going back to the barracks to check on the Shepherds, he found out Robin was getting everything ready as well. The Plegian man rolled his eyes when Chrom asked him about it.
"Did you seriously plan to leave your tactician behind?"
"Lucina still needs you." The king frowned, worried about their child.
"We already found a wet-nurse for her, and Katerina and Jyne will stay." He replied, looking sure of himself. "I know Lissa and you were wet-nursed as well, she'll be fine. She will need for both of us to return, and I'm going to make sure that happens."
Chrom pressed his lips, still not fully convinced. "Promise me you'll turn back if there's danger."
"No." Robin replied, with a frown that showed he wasn't going to change his mind. "I'm your tactician. It's my job to stay with you, with all of you, until the end. The same way you have a duty to come back to your people. But I will be careful. I have no intention of dying."
Chrom sighed and nodded. He wasn't convinced and his chest got tense with worry thinking about the incoming battles, but could hardly argue with a reasoning like that. And he knew well Robin certainly wasn't defenceless.
"I'm just—" He started, but Robin interrupted him with a peck on the lips, and stared at him with a warm smile, showing he wasn't angry with him.
"Worried." The tactician finished the sentence. "I know."
Chrom leaned his head on Robin's shoulder, feeling his warmth.
"Yeah."
The Shepherds arrived at the summit several days later. Flavia didn't have many details on the coming force during the meeting, but there was a Shepherd that did: Virion. Robin wasn't amused.
"Are you telling me you waited two yearsto tell us about a potential threat to our kingdom when we could have started taking measures against it months ago?" He almost growled at the archer, thinking of the many measures he could have already started making to prepare for the imminent invasion.
He looked like he wanted to slam his magic tomes into his face. Virion looked away, uncomfortable, trying to excuse himself saying he had kept track of what was happening all the way there sending letters, but knowing that still didn't explain why he hadn't told his tactician anything.
"I stayed behind to keep an eye on the situation." Cherche said. "We weren't sure if Walhart would want to come to Ylisse as well, so he didn't want to alarm all of you unnecessarily, knowing you were fighting your own war. But we confirmed it a couple of weeks ago."
Robin clenched his teeth and suppressed the urge to yell at them, clutching his papers so tight they creased and crumpled. He was called "the Conqueror" for Naga's sake! Of course he would want to conquer anything he could find. And even if they didn't want to be alarmists about it, the war had still ended two years prior! They had lost so much time...
"They have the strongest cavalry in the world." Virion timidly added, knowing that was knowledge Robin would appreciate, but still didn't dare to look at his or Chrom's angry face. "They will arrive at the port in a matter of days. You'll need troops experienced in fighting cavalry." He added for the Khan.
"I hope you are volunteering, then! Since you're a master with the bow and you've fought a thousand battles!" Robin said, with an awfully cheerful expression, staring intensely at him.
Virion gulped. "O-of course!"
The meeting was done a few moments later, and Robin stormed off out of the room and went straight to the tactician's office to try to start planning the defenses of the town before the imminent attack.
"What were you thinking, Virion?" The noble flinched a little at Chrom's angry voice.
"It was a local problem. Valm is almost as big as this continent, it doesn't have a lot of contact with Regna Ferox or Plegia, and the journey through the sea is long and dangerous. Bringing his army here to fight would take an immense amount of resources. With how long the war at Valm has been, we thought perhaps he would rather wait several years to recover, time in which we could come here to tell you about it and prepare a way to strike back and free Valm." Cherche explained, while Virion vigorously nodded his head behind her.
It made sense, but still… Chrom sighed and shook his head, turning to leave the room while Frederick followed him in silence after shooting a disapproving glance at Virion.
"This hasn't been your smartest idea." Flavia said. Her expression wasn't as harsh as the Ylisseans', but she wasn't pleased either.
"No, it wasn't." The archer conceded defeat.
They arrived at the town a couple of days before the Valmese ships, which gave Robin time to think carefully about their next moves. He asked the people in town to leave some obstacles around the port, hoping the Valmese horses would have trouble moving around. He still thought that claiming to have the strongest cavalry in the world was arrogant from Valm, but he knew better than to underestimate a foe he hadn't even fought against yet.
The Valmese finally arrived, making absurd demands Chrom didn't hesitate to refuse, and opposed them. Cherche was a welcomed addition to the Shepherds, giving them more aerial advantage. Since she hadn't trained with the rest of the Ylissean army yet and the tactician still wasn't too sure about how she would behave in combate, Robin told her to keep track of the other two pegasi, and to follow their instructions in battle. It seemed like the safest option until he started getting an idea of what exactly she could do.
Despite Robin's planning, the battle was hard. The Valmese were as strong as Virion had claimed, and while the Shepherds didn't suffer any loss, their Feroxi allies and a few of the new Ylissean soldiers weren't as lucky. It troubled the tactician, even if at the same time, it showed how far the Shepherds had come. The Feroxi weren't exactly pushovers, and they had had trouble with the fight. If the main army managed to arrive at the continent, they would be done for. Their only option was fighting them before they could arrive.
There was only one option they could take. One no one really liked.
"We need to get ships and fight them on the sea, but we don't have enough of them for that." Robin tried to consider their options aloud, putting a hand on his neck. "Neither Ylisse nor Regna Ferox care much for fighting at sea."
"So we need aid from a kingdom that does and also happens to be wealthy enough…" Basilio started, but stopped before finishing the sentence, as if he didn't want to.
Robin widened his eyes and stared at him, quickly realizing where he was going. "Plegia!"
Chrom refused immediately, but the others tried to convince him. Gold and ships were what they needed to avoid being conquered. They couldn't wait until the next Valmese cavalry boats arrived at port. They would be many more than the small company that had just arrived as scouts. They had barely won against them. And Robin didn't think Plegia would refuse either; Whalhart was a threat to all of them.
"… Very well. Send a messenger and request a summit immediately." Chrom accepted, clenching his teeth. He still didn't like it.
But if Robin was sure that was their only option, there wasn't a lot to argue on.
Robin vividly remembered the last time he had been at the Plegian capital. It was a time he remembered in confusion and frustration, and that had ended in failure. Chrom had managed to end the war later regardless, but despite the years, the tactician couldn't stop thinking there was something else he could have done.
The small fortress at Carrion island seemed to have a similar design. It had thick walls with small windows that allowed it to isolate itself from the outer heat of the desert. It had a large pool connected to a close river in the lower floor of the castle that kept the air cool and humid. The building was surprisingly fresh and pleasant for the Ylisseans, who hadn't expected it to be better than the hot land surrounding it. The negotiations were done on the second floor, which was partially covered in shadows and substantially creepier than the lower floor. It was also a lot cooler. Frederick in particular seemed to thank the change due to the heat his thick armor absorbed.
The new king of Plegia was tall and slender, with a skin so dark it made his golden accessories shine even brighter. He was accompanied by Aversa, who Robin didn't remember fondly after the incident with Maribelle, and a man with the robes of the High Hierophant with his face covered with a hood. Seeing those clothes made Robin tense. He didn't know or remember much, but Tharja had confirmed for him that not just anyone could wear them.
It got worse when Frederick demanded him to uncover himself. The Hierophant was exactly like Robin. Tactician and Exalt exchanged an alarmed look right before Validar declared they could start the negotiations. Chrom tried to protest, asking about the Hierophant, but Validar dismissed him. Finding people similar to each other wasn't as hard as many thought, and he insisted they start talking about the boats. The Hierophant smiled creepily at them and shrugged, and then got closer to a pillar and leaned on it, not even bothering to hide his disinterest in their talks. Robin tried to pay attention to what Chrom, Frederick and Validar were saying, but he barely heard the words as his mind tried to find an explanation to the Hierophant's appearance, and he shot furtive glances in his direction. He almost didn't realize when the meeting finished and had to leave.
"Are you alright?" Chrom asked him once outside, noticing he had gone pale after they had started moving away from the building.
"I… think so…" Robin bit his lips, nervous, while staring at the blank papers he had not written anything on at all during the negotiation. He was aware of his heart beating faster than usual and the small itch on his arms.
"Who was that guy? Do you have a twin?"
"How should I know?!" The tactician replied in frustration, abruptly turning his face away from Chrom while biting his lips and scratching his neck. Chrom widened his eyes at the outburst, not expecting him to be so stressed about it, and softly grabbed one of his arms. Robin accepted the gesture, but didn't say anything else.
It was a possibility he had considered, but he thought it strange the few memories of his childhood he recovered had never included any other constant presence besides his mother. And she didn't seem to have ever mentioned him having siblings, as far as he could recall. For the first time in a long while, he cursed his lack of memories.
He had no idea what was going on, and as far as he knew, it could be very dangerous.
Robin tossed around in his tent, trying to sleep. He finally gave up, thinking at least he could hide in the food wagon or something like that and take a nap on the journey back to the Feroxi port. He got outside the tent and went for a walk.
They had camped in a forest not too far from the fortress. The island had surprisingly green areas given the general scenery of the Plegian country, if it still was uncomfortably warm and noticeably less forested than Ylisse, and Robin thought it was a nice change of pace. He shivered remembering the heat of the dunes that covered most of the country. He was glad he hadn't actually grown up there. Heat was the worst.
It was then when he felt something inside his head. He stopped walking and blinked. It was like… a voice, but whatever it was saying sounded unintelligible. He realized his left arm was itching a little. He grabbed it, puzzled, and suddenly felt a presence in front of him. He looked and saw Validar looking sternly at him. Robin stepped back, immediately alert. How had he arrived without him noticing?
"So you still refuse to open your heart…"
"What?" Robin replied, confused about his words. But then, the voice in his head grew louder and multiplied, becoming thousands of yells that made his head hurt. He grabbed his head while he fell to his knees. "V-Validar… What are you doing?! Stop!" He groaned, grabbing his head in pain and realizing who was making that sensation.
"Don't dare to speak to your father like that, boy!" Validar replied, frowning at him while ignoring his obvious pain. "To think you would join the servants of Naga instead of coming back to your rightful place… How disappointing!"
"Robin!" Chrom's yell startled both men.
Validar frowned in the direction of the voice and disappeared. Robin felt immediately better while Chrom crouched next to him to check he was fine.
"Are you alright? I heard yelling…" He asked.
"Yes." Robin confirmed, still breathing hard. "Validar was… here."
Chrom stared at him in surprise and then looked around. He couldn't see signs of anyone having been there with Robin, or having run away.
"He appeared in front of me and started talking, but… my head started hurting a lot." He said, deciding to hide the other voices from Chrom at the time. He was too scared to think about what that could mean at the moment. "His voice sounded slightly odd too, now that I think about it. Perhaps it was an illusion, and that's why he disappeared so fast..." Robin explained.
"Can you stand?"
Robin nodded and got up, while Chrom grabbed his hand. Robin felt a little better. The itching sensation in his arm and the voices inside his head disappeared completely.
The tactician then realized the Plegian King had called himself "father", widening his eyes all of a sudden. Father. He had never known anything about him, and he couldn't remember his mother telling him anything about him. He could faintly recall having asked her once about him, only for her to tell him he was very, very far away. He had thought it meant he was dead. But if he wasn't; if he was alive and well and she had still refused to take him with her and her child, or his mother refused to even speak of him, he couldn't have been a very good person. After what had just happened, Robin had no trouble in putting him on the "garbage people" mental list.
"He… said a bunch of nonsense. I don't even know what he was trying." The tactician admitted, feeling lost about the words he had just heard.
"Milord!" They heard a horse coming from the woods. Frederick, axe in hand, got closer to them, running with a worried expression painted on his face. "At last I find you. The camp has just been attacked by Risen!"
"What?! But we made sure the area was safe and that there weren't Risen around!" Robin replied. It made no sense that the monsters could appear so fast. And after the long day they had, such a strange incident wasn't making him feel better.
"We have to go back." Chrom quickly took control of the situation. The other two nodded and they went back to camp.
The place was completely chaotic, the Shepherds were trying to defend themselves and protecting the camp while the undead army tried to push them and close around them. Robin threw magic to the closest monsters and let Chrom and Frederick cross the line and join the others while he barked orders. Everyone moved, reorganizing after the surprise attack. Robin ran around, shooting magic to confuse the monsters and helping his partners break free from them. Whenever the risen detected him, he stopped attacking to run again to another place, to make sure they wouldn't follow.
Soon, his arms had started itching again, and his heart was beating fast because of the stress. At some point he felt a presence behind him and turned around. A huge risen with a sharp axe had gotten close to him. Robin looked around only to realize no Shepherd was close enough to help him, and they wouldn't even notice him, busy as they were fighting their own monsters. He stepped back, trying to get some distance while he opened the book, but the monster was faster than he had expected. It raised its weapon so close Robin knew he was going to die.
"Stop!" He ordered, with a yell filled with despair.
To his surprise, the Risen obeyed. It kept the weapon above his head, but didn't attempt to move. He was waiting for more orders, Robin realized. Orders from him.
The tactician's heart was hammering inside his chest, and not because of the exercise, while cold sweat started forming on his back. He felt like throwing up. He didn't know why the Risen was suddenly obeying him, but it couldn't be a good sign. He raised his hand and shot fire to the monster, finishing it before something else could happen. Then he ran behind a close tree and leaned on it, trying to calm his rashed breath. His arms were itching a lot. His hands were shaking as he held his tome on front of his face.
What had happened was… No, he didn't have time to think about that. Everyone was in danger and they needed their tactician to defend themselves properly after the surprise attack. He took deep breaths, one, two, three times. He opened and closed his tome a couple of times, trying to relax, to focus on the battle. Everything else could wait until they could confirm everyone was safe.
Robin peaked from behind the tree and looked at the Shepherds. They had successfully regrouped and they were finishing the battle while Chrom yelled his last orders in the middle of the fray, and didn't look badly hurt. It also didn't look like they had noticed what had just happened. Robin sighed, relieved his sudden absence hadn't grave consequences, and then he reprimanded himself for thinking that. They were the Shepherds, not defenceless kittens. He tried to calm down a little bit more before he approached them with a more relaxed expression. He was the tactician, they couldn't see him panic all of a sudden. Or ever.
He stepped out from behind the tree a few minutes later, and Frederick got closer to him quickly once he spotted him coming closer. The knight confirmed no one had been badly hurt. He also informed him of something else.
"A Plegian mage? And why did he join us?" Robin asked with a frown, confused.
Frederick seemed wary about it as well. "Apparently, he wishes to see blood and has decided our side is the most… favorable for such development."
Robin realized the knight wasn't joking. "What?"
"Hi! I'm Henry!" A joyful voice sounded at his side. He turned his head to see a smiling dark mage with dark skin. "I was told you fight a lot of dead things. I want to kill dead things too! Can I join you?" He talked as if he was asking them to join them on a treasure hunt.
Robin didn't like that at all. "No. Thanks for the help. Now leave before we declare you a threat too." He declared.
Henry pouted. "But you're a Grimleal Hierophant! How can I be more dangerous than you?"
The image of his smirking twin in the same clothes as him crossed Robin's eyes. He gritted his teeth. "I'm not!"
"How are you wearing those clothes, then?"
The snow, the blood. Her. Robin's face turned to stone while he glared at Henry. "He was after me. So I killed him." He replied, coldly.
The declaration made every Shepherd close enough to hear the conversation look at him in surprise, but Henry just smiled even more.
"I knew I did well asking to join you. Come on, let me help! I'm a very strong mage!"
Robin groaned. Gods, whatever. If he tried something, he would kill him and be done with this. He looked back at Frederick, who only had a few seconds to recompose his expression and hide his surprise at Robin's words. "Where's Chrom?" He was sure he had seen him fighting not that long ago.
"Marth appeared and saved him from a Risen. She told him she wanted to talk with him in private, we are waiting for them to come back."
In private…? Robin had a feeling he knew what she was telling him. And that was something he was very interested in hearing as well.
"We'll have to warn Katerina someone is gonna steal her man!" Vaike laughed.
"Shut up." Robin glared at him. He never cared about Vaike's stupid jokes, but adding Marth to them was more than he was willing to stand.
"Woah, relax. It was just a joke." Vaike replied, puzzled by the dry answer.
"Yeah, a joke you'll regret once they come back." He replied. Then sighed. "I'll go see them. Start picking up the camp. This place isn't safe. We should leave the island and go back to Ferox."
He walked back into the woods. Chrom and Marth weren't too far from the camp, hugging near the river. Robin smiled softly when he saw that and approached them. They separated when they heard him and stared. Chrom's expression was a mix of surprise, anxiety and nervousness. Marth looked like she had been crying, but Robin noticed her a lot less tense than the last times he had seen her.
"You're not going to believe this." Chrom started, staring at Robin with a smile, while affectionately grabbing Marth's shoulders.
Robin's smile widened at that. "I think I already know."
"Yes, father. You guessed it right." Lucina confirmed, looking down while her shoulders lowered. She wasn't proud of how she had run away in panic the last time she had seen him.
Chrom's expression revealed he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What? How did you know?!" Robin was good at reasoning, but knowing something like that beforehand seemed just magic.
"We had a talk some months ago that raised my suspicions." He explained, with a smile that showed how much fun he was having staring at Chrom's expression of disbelief. "I didn't tell you because I had the feeling she wouldn't have wanted me to."
"I'm sorry I ran away." Lucina apologized, clenching her fists.
"Don't worry. I understand perfectly." He assured her, smiling warmly at her and stepping closer. "You needed time. I'm just glad to see you safe."
Lucina hugged him as well, shaking slightly, but she managed to not cry again. Robin closed his arms around her and held her. Despite having suspected who she was for a long time, it felt a little strange to be hugging a daughter that was already even taller than him when his child had been born a few months before.
After a while, she stepped back and her face became serious. She grabbed the handle of her Falchion and stared at her parents. Both of them noticed the change in her mood, and became equally serious. Whatever she was going to tell them, it wouldn't be pretty.
"I traveled to the past. We have to avoid my future." She explained, and slowly told them the story. Her parents listened carefully to her words.
"It sounds like a nightmare…" Chrom said with a tense expression after she had finished, looking at Robin to see what he thought about it.
Robin nodded, completely agreeing with him. He had put a hand on his chin, carefully considering his daughter's words, but the frown on his face and his pressed lips indicated clearly he needed more information. "Do you know anything else about Grima's resurrection that could help us avoid it?"
Lucina shook her head in defeat. "I only know the death of the Exalt was the detonating point, but many of the consequences of the event didn't happen in this timeline. I'm not sure how we can advance now. I've been trying to gather information about it for the last two years, but the situation is just too different from what I knew from my future. The thought of going to Plegia to investigate crossed my mind, but… it's very possible I would have been unable to find anything unless I asked the Grimleals themselves. And that seemed too dangerous." She excused herself, staring down, disappointed in her own cowardice.
Chrom got closer to her and gently stroked her hair to comfort her. "Don't worry about it, we can see you are making a great effort. Not going to Plegia was definitely a good idea. If they had realized, they wouldn't have let you get away." Chrom looked at the tactician. "You have any ideas?" He asked, hopeful.
"I'm afraid not." He replied, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "It's too little information to work with at the moment. As urgent as this news is, there's nothing we can do unless we have more clues. And Walhart is not going to wait for us to research. We have to go to Valm and defeat him or he'll conquer the continent and make things worse."
Chrom pressed his lips, not happy with the news, but he understood there was nothing else for them to do. He nodded at him and then turned to Lucina. "I'm sorry, Lucina, but we can't help you just yet."
She shook her head at his words. There was no need to apologize.
"I understand. Walhart is a threat as well, and the resurrection of Grima won't come about for several years. I will join the Shepherds and help you."
Chrom smiled when he heard that, but Robin looked at her a little worried. "Are you sure?" He asked her.
She nodded. "I'm ready now."
She stared at him with a determined look on her face. She had clearly been thinking about that moment. Perhaps this wasn't exactly how she had thought she would try to become part of the Shepherds, but she had wanted to join them at some point or another and help, trying to avoid their grim future. Robin knew she was telling the truth.
"Very well." He approved, to the delight of Chrom, who was clearly excited about fighting at the side of his daughter, even if he tried to hide it. "Let's go back with the rest."
They returned with the Shepherds, who had already finished cleaning up the camp and were ready to start marching again, like Robin had ordered. Chrom introduced them to his child, which left every Shepherd astonished, but they quickly believed it given the undeniable resemblance to her royal father. Lucina then told them her story, but she left out the part in which she was Robin's daughter, and said she was the child of queen Katerina instead.
Everyone had grave expressions when she finished, and Lissa promised they would find her companions. Robin added it was possible they would find some clue about Grima on Valm, and asked everyone to keep an eye on that. Then they finished preparing packing up camp and left the dangerous island, while Robin tried not to think about the risen that had obeyed him and his itching arms.
No, this isn't dead!
I'm very sorry for the wait, but had a lot of trouble with this chapter, and nothing I wrote left me satisfied. But at last, it's here!
