Title: Robcina Week Day 6 - Sacrifice

Description: For what felt like as long as she could remember, Lucina had been forced to sacrifice every shred of her own happiness for the greater good. How could she be selfish, when the fate of the entire world had rested on her shoulders? Why then, did she feel so guilty.

Notes: Takes place some time after the end of Awakening, after Robin's return to life.

Words: 1616

Lucina stood in the center of a sunset field, the sea churning gently against a golden shore. The tall grass swayed in the wind, bathed in the fiery light that washed over the land.

Across from her stood Robin, his hands outstretched, leaving himself open for a blow that would come. A blade pointed at his chest. Her blade, for it was Falchion that she held in her hand, the naked blade gilded orange as she prepared to strike.

She had to do this. To strike down the man she loved for the sake of the future. To cast aside her happiness, to sacrifice a life with him to save the words.

"I want you to be happy, Lucina. That's all I've ever wanted," Robin pleaded, making no movement to protect himself.

She wanted to scream at those words. To deny them. To tell him that she could never be happy with what she must do. Couldn't he see she was sacrificing her happiness for what needed to be done?!

"I'm ready now. Do as you must."

Lucina closed her eyes, feeling her heart tear asunder as his words. She had to do this… no matter how much she wished otherwise. It had to be done.

A worthy sacrifice…

And so she moved the strike.

The ground gave way beneath her, and she now plummeted through darkness. Wind whipped past. Then she felt ground beneath her. She was kneeling, Falchion still gripped in her hands. Only it wasn't the ground. She was of Grima's back, and ahead of her…

Robin stood before her like he had on the field, only now his body was translucent, bits of him breaking off as ephemeral orbs of light that drifted in the breeze. He had struck the final blow to kill Grima, saving the world and all of them… a sacrifice of his own life for the good of all.

"I want you to be happy, Lucina. That's all I've ever wanted," Robin told her again. He smiled the last of his form evaporating into motes of light. Then the lights blinked out, leaving Lucina staring at the spot her love once stood.

Tears splashed against her hands. It felt as though only a void was left in place of her heart.

Why? …why am I crying? I wanted this! It's just another sacrifice for the greater good. My happiness for the sake of everyone else!

Again darkness swallowed her, and she fell. All she could feel was her own tears… tears that she should not have shed.

Why, then? Why did it hurt so much?

. . . . .

Lucina opened her eyes, blinking back tears. Darkness surrounded her, and for a moment she thought she was still in the void that had swallowed her. Then she picked out a sliver of moonlight, coming from a crack in the window shutters. She was in her room. Her turned to look beside her and sighed in relief.

Robin lay beside her, fast asleep.

It was only a dream, she told herself

Rolling over, Lucina rested her head on her pillow, trying to fall back asleep. But try as she might, rest eluded her now. Again and again, she heard her husband's words, from the dream and out of her past."'I want you to be happy''. Somehow now, however, they felt almost like an accusation. Or perhaps, rather, an admission of guilt.

After what fell like hours but could not have been more than minutes, Lucina rolled onto her back and sat up, letting out an exasperated sigh. It was no use, she wouldn't be able to sleep, mind racing like this.

Slipping out from beneath the covers she tip-toed her way out of the bedroom, careful not to wake the still sleeping Robin. For some time she wandered the hallways, not caring where she ended up, trying her best to clear her thoughts.

It was so stupid. Why was she still fixated on this? Everything had worked out, hadn't it? Robin had returned from his sacrifice. She had gotten everything she wanted: she'd saved the world and yet still found happiness with the man she loved. Why, then, did she feel so conflicted?

Why then, did a part of her feel guilty?

Soon Lucina found herself in the center courtyard of the castle, the moon shining above. The night air was cold against her skin, and the stone paving cold beneath her bare feet. She shivered, yet there was something oddly comforting about the chill. Almost purifying. As if soothing the confused emotions burning through her racing mind.

"Bad dream?" a voice behind her asked.

Lucina gasped, turning to find a very much awake Robin standing behind her. He had a lit candle held before him, the light a mote of fiery warmth in the cold midnight.

"Robin, I apologize, you startled me," Lucina said, lowering the hand she'd clutched at her heart. "I'm so sorry, I did not mean to wake you when I got up."

Robin shook his head. "It's quite alright," he assured her, taking a step closer. His hand brushed against her shoulder. "You didn't answer my question though. Bad dream? Or just couldn't sleep?"

Lucina nodded. "Both, really," she admitted. She turned, taking a seat on the waist-high stone wall that ringed the edge of the courtyard. Robin sat down next to her. "I… to be honest, it's nothing really. I apologize for worrying you so," she tried to tell him. But Robin cut through the lies in an instant

"Clearly it is something if it's keeping you from sleep," he noted perceptively.

Lucina sighed, knowing it was foolhardy to deny it. Robin could always see right through her. There was no use trying to hide anything from someone who knew her so well. So it was that she recounted her dream, describing the two scenes from their past that had played out before her, woven together into a single whole. It was like a nightmare she'd had once before, she recalled now. Only before that had been of loss, of her fear of losing him again. But this was different. It had been something else that had been at the core of this dream. Somehow, someway, it had seemed to have been formed from a festering guilt.

"... which is why I don't understand why I feel like this," Lucina finished, shaking her head. "It makes no sense for me to feel this way, after all this time."

For several moments Robin said nothing, clearly lost deep in thought as he digested all she'd told him.

"Well… if I were to guess, you probably feel conflicted because a part of you was after I was gone," Robin said at last.

"Conflicted? Why would I…" Lucina trailed off, shaking her head fervently as if to deny what seemed to be an accusation.

"Yes, conflicted. And it's not a surprise you were, given the circumstances." Robin explained. "Think, Lucina, up until the moment on the field, you were ready to sacrifice anything to save the world. Even after you couldn't go through with it, it's only natural a part of you still felt like killing me there would have been the right call, and would think what you'd done was selfish."

"But…"

"Then mere weeks later, I made the call for you. I sacrificed my life to save the world," Robin laughed, the sound aimed at himself. "I did exactly what that part of you wanted. So even as you were still mourning, a part of you felt like that was wrong and you should be happy with this outcome, because to do otherwise would be selfish."

Lucina said nothing, mulling his words over. Had that been it? Had a part of her felt like she should have been happy with the outcome?

Because it was what I wanted, wasn't it? Lucina told herself. When I first came to the past, how things ended up were everything I would have hoped for. But after everything…

"All this time I've felt guilty and didn't know why," Lucina said at last. "It seems like there were two reasons for it. A part of me felt guilty that I wasn't content with… how things happened. And another part of me, I think, felt guilt that the first part even thought that way." She hung her head in shame. It was so stupid. How would she ever be able to face the future if every outcome, every choice, led to such regret.

Robin smiled gently, taking her hand. "It's okay, Lucina. It's okay to have felt conflicted. Your duty, your heart, the two were in conflict long before that day on that field or that last battle. It only makes sense that a part of you would feel like you choose wrong, no matter the outcome."

"Even when I got everything I wanted in the end?" Lucina said, laughing at her own foolishness.

"Now? Yes, you did get it. But for two years I was gone, and you had to deal with those feelings all that time alone," Robin assured her. He leaned in, giving a small kill at her forehead. "But now that I'm here, I can promise you, it's okay to be selfish now. We saved the world, your duty is fulfilled. All that's left is to make the future you wanted, together."

"I'd like that," Lucina said. She killed him in return. Now that she saw the truth of her conflicted feelings, it felt as though they were easier to let go of. Perhaps now, she could finally move forward and embrace that future.

A future where she would need not sacrifice any happiness with the man she loved.

Author's note: I hope you guys liked my submissions for Robcina-week this year. Sadly I didn't have time to write anything for day 7 (nor did I have any good ideas for what to do that day anyways), so hopefully 6 out of 7 is good enough.