She stood alone in a barren field. The sky was gray, and the air was filled with flecks of ash. Each time she inhaled, she felt the smog sting her lungs. Looking out into the distance, she saw a city that she felt like she recognized, although she couldn't place its name. From where she stood she could see many of the city's buildings were burning with purple flames, and its walls were full of holes. As the wind blew towards him from the direction of the city, it carried the faint echo of human screams as well as inhuman screeches that sent a shiver running down her spine.

She reached out towards the city, as though she could save its residents from where she stood. Somehow the movement did not feel like hers - she felt as though another person was moving her body. She saw her hand rise and extend towards the city, its purple markings beginning to glow. What am I doing? She asked herself, feeling a sudden terrible premonition. She watched as the glow on her hand intensified and was shocked as a bolt of purple energy leapt from her hand towards the city. Where it struck, a massive explosion of purple fire bloomed.

What? What?! What am I doing? Why did I do that? She felt horror and panic. She tried to run towards the city, but she could not move her limbs. Her head turned downwards, seemingly of its own volition, and she caught a glimpse of her face's reflection. It was smiling.

"No!" Robin shot up from her sleep, gasping breathlessly for air. Her body was covered in a cold sweat and she was shaking violently. Just a dream, Robin. Just a dream. She tried to slow her breathing and looked around to see if her violent awakening had woken up any of the other Shepherds. Looking towards the campfire, she saw that Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick were nowhere to be seen. Arthur, who had slept on the outskirts of the clearing against a tree, had his eyes open and was looking at her with concern.

"Robin?" he asked, voice worried "You okay?"

"Oh…yeah, I'm fine. No worries, really," she said, laughing nervously. "I just… had a nightmare"

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, seeming unsure of himself. In truth, Robin did want to talk to someone about it, but she was also nervous. As of right now, the Shepherds were quite literally the only four people in the world that she knew. Frederick already clearly mistrusted her, saying that she was a Plegian spy. She might have been a Plegian spy, for all she knew. Sharing a dream about destroying a city probably wouldn't do much to convince them that she was trustworthy. No, this was something Robin should keep to herself – it was probably just a bizarre dream, after all.

Was it just a dream? It hadn't felt like a normal dream – just thinking about the smile on her reflection's face sent a shiver down her spine. Maybe it was normal, though. After all, what was a normal dream? Robin couldn't remember any of her previous dreams. She must have had them, but they were lost in the void of her previous life. Tears began forming in Robin's eyes as she thought about her situation. Should she be trying to find her home? Was there someone who loved her out looking for her right now? She knew nothing about her past, but somehow she didn't think there would be anyone looking for her. That was sad! What kind of life had she been living that no one would look for her? More tears sprang to her eyes. She fought them back, not wanting Arthur to see them.

"Umm, Robin? Are you okay?" Suddenly Robin realized she had been silently thinking for a long while, and Arthur had originally asked her a question.

"Oh, uh, sorry about that," said Robin "What did you ask again?"

"I asked if you wanted to talk about your nightmare," he said. "Totally fine if not, you just seemed kind of shaken, that's all."

"Oh… ummm" she paused, eying Arthur up and down for a moment. Could she trust him? He didn't look particularly menacing, and he seemed genuine enough. He had hidden his identity for a while, but Robin didn't think he had done so maliciously. She supposed she knew him about as well as she knew anyone else in this world."Will you keep it between us?" she asked him softly.

Arthur raised an eyebrow, but nodded slowly. "Of course. I can't imagine being in your situation, Robin. It must be…" he paused, as though trying to find the right word. "Terrifying, I guess… waking up like that, with no memory. Any support you need from me, Robin, or if you ever want to talk about it – just ask. "

Robin couldn't help but fill with comfort as the words struck directly at the feelings she had felt the moment before. She blushed slightly at the sudden intimacy of his words, but reassured herself that he would not see in the soft light of the campfire embers. "Uh…thanks, Arthur. I don't really, er– want to talk…about…that." Her voice trembled at the very notion of discussing her past. It was too raw right now – she knew she wouldn't be able to talk about it coherently, and she didn't want to be a sobbing mess in front of people she had met so recently. All she had in the world was her role as the Shepherd's tactician. Would they still want her as tactician if they thought she was weak, or emotionally unstable? Better not to find out. "My nightmare was just about a city being destroyed, and… a dark mage, attacking it with magic. It was nothing, really, just a dream. It just felt so real while I was in it, it unnerved me. That's all."

"Hmm." Arthur pursed his lips, looking concerned. "Well, I don't think it can have been a memory, if that's what you're worried about. I've studied the recent history of this continent pretty intensely, and the only major military conflict in our lifetimes was the last war between Plegia and Ylisse. That war was fought almost entirely in Plegia, so there were some Plegian cities sacked, but the Ylissean military doesn't employ dark mages so there probably wouldn't have been anything like the scene you're describing. Maybe if you're from another continent, but…uh…" Arthur seemed to realize he had been going on for a while and trailed off. He rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Sorry, I didn't mean to analyze things like that."

"Oh please, don't worry about it" said Robin, brushing away his concern. "I appreciate you telling me. The more I know about the world the better. And you're right – I was a little worried it was a memory. Like I said, it felt real." Robin lapsed into silence, grasping for something else to talk about other than her freakish dreams. "Where do you think everyone went?" she asked him, gesturing to their empty campsite.

"A walk, maybe? Their stuff is still here – maybe Frederick is bodyguarding while they take a midnight bathroom break" he said with a chuckle. Robin covered her mouth to conceal her smile. It did seem like something Frederick would do.

Suddenly Robin's attention caught on his hand, which was encased in a glove. "Er… Arthur? I think your hand is glowing" she said, pointing to it. Indeed, a muffled blue light was leaking out of the opening in Arthur's right glove. Arthur looked at it, suddenly alarmed. He looked down at his hand, then up at her, seeming panicked. Robin looked at him questioningly. "Well? Take it off!" She pulled the glove off of his hand, exposing an angular, hourglass-shaped mark on his palm which was glowing with blue light. "Uhhh…is that normal?" she asked. It certainly did not seem normal to her.

Arthur gulped. "It's never done that before. What do you th–"

BOOM

He was cut off as an explosion rang through the forest. The ground shook beneath their feet for several seconds. In the distance they saw the sky light up, and heard a scream that could only have come from Lissa. They looked at each other for a second before coming to a wordless understanding, quickly grabbing their weapons and racing in the direction of the scream. As they ran in that direction, the sound of clashing blades reached their ears, prompting them to increase their pace further.

As they ran further into the woods they saw Chrom and Frederick engaged in combat with two… creatures. Robin got a good look at them as she and Arthur charged forward. They were humanoid, with gray rotting flesh and glowing red eyes. Their movements were abnormally sharp and inhuman – puppetlike, almost, as though their limbs were animated by some invisible force. One wore a ragged suit of leather armor and carried a grime-covered axe. The other had nothing but tattered linen clothes, and carried a pitchfork. Chrom and Frederick (mostly Frederick, really) made short work of them. Chrom pulled his sword from the last creature as it crumbled into purple dust and looked up to see Arthur and Robin approaching. He waved them over.

"Chrom! What's going on?" Robin asked, arriving at where Chrom and Frederick were catching their breath. Lissa stood next to Frederick's horse, stroking its mane comfortingly as she held her staff towards a long scratch on its flank.

"These things just jumped out of a portal and tried to kill us. We don't know anything else," said Chrom breathlessly. An inhuman howl rang out from nearby, and as Robin turned in the direction of the sound she saw a half-dozen more of the beasts charging into the clearing where the Shepherds stood.

Robin pulled her sword and tome from within the depths of her cloak. She saw Arthur unsheathe his sword beside her. "Defensive positions! Frederick, take the lead! Chrom, Arthur and I will take the ones that get past you!"

Frederick needed no further encouragement. He brandished his silver lance and spurred his heels into his horse, charging into the onrushing wave of creatures. He skewered two of them in one pass – the others charged straight past him at where their group's three other combatants stood. Robin hit a few of the creatures from a distance with her lightning bolts, then stowed her tome and prepared for melee. She rubbed her sweaty hands against her cloak before wrapping them tightly around the hilt of her bronze sword. I can't die before I know who I am. It was her final coherent thought before the mob was upon them.

The fight with bandits had been disturbing – this fight was nightmarish. Normal humans fought cautiously, their main priority being self-preservation. These creatures fought like deranged animals, heedless of their own safety. The first in their charge hit Robin at a run, crashing straight onto her sword and tackling her to the ground painfully. The beast gnashed its teeth, its slavering face inches over Robin's and giving off a stench like nothing she had ever smelled. She headbuttted it, sending it reeling back just enough for her to twist her sword from its torso and slash it across the neck and rolled out from under it.

Such a blow to the neck would have mortally wounded any human opponent, but this creature took it in stride. Its head suspended loosely on its neck, it screeched and charged at Robin again, but this time she was better prepared. She stepped quickly out of the way of its charge, and lashed out with her sword at its neck. Combined with the previous damage, the momentum of her sword, and the momentum of the creature's blind rush towards her, her sword cleaved straight through its neck. Finally, the creature crumbled into purple dust. Robin looked around frantically, brandishing her sword as she looked for any more opponents. Only two creatures remained: Chrom and Frederick were ably handling one in the center of the clearing, while the other had Arthur pinned against a tree on the clearing's edge.

She charged at the creature's back and drove her sword through the back of its head. It dropped instantly, dissolving immediately. Arthur slumped down against the tree, looking shaken. Robin laughed nervously as she realized that from his perspective, her sword had just burst out of the creature's face in the middle of their fight – probably a bit of a shock. She offered him a hand and he took it, rising from the ground and breathing heavily.

"Thanks" Arthur said, chuckling nervously and brushing himself off. He looked back uneasily towards the ground where the creature was dissolving. "I thought it had me there for a second," he said with another nervous chuckle. He played it off, but Robin could tell he was unnerved by the brush with death. She had experienced the same thing when she had been tackled – a split-second of truly acknowledging the possibility of dying. It was a terrifying emotion to experience.

She patted his shoulder gently and nodded over to where Chrom and the others were gathering. "Come on, let's go join the others." They walked to the other Shepherds, who had been joined by two people Robin did not recognize. One was a red-haired female knight in red armor. She carried a lance in her hands and a sword at her waist, and introduced herself as Sully. The other was a silver-haired archer who spoke in what Robin was sure was an affected noble tone. She rolled her eyes as he introduced himself as "Virion, Archest of Archers".

Frederick had apparently been scouting in the immediate aftermath of the battle. He returned to the group now and spoke to them. "It appears all the creatures in the area have been vanquished. There were a few others, but this young man took care of them." Young man? Robin looked over Frederick's shoulder and saw the newcomer approaching them. He was a slim figure, dressed all in dark blue with a dark blue cape and dark blue hair, similar to Chrom's. He had a sword strapped at his waist and, most interestingly, wore a mask across his eyes (dark blue, who could have guessed? Must be his favorite color).

Lissa approached the man nervously, clasping her arms behind her back. "Um… I never got to thank you… for before. So…thank you. You were very brave."

"You saved my sister's life" said Chrom, extending a hand to the man. "My name is Chrom. Might I ask yours?"

The man looked at Chrom's hand but did not shake it. "You may call me Marth," he said. Robin thought his voice sounded artificially deep, but she shrugged it off. Given the outfit, it was clear this fellow had a flair for the dramatic – he was probably lowering his voice for effect.

"Marth? After the heroic king of old?" said Chrom. "You certainly fight like a hero. Where did you learn your way with a sword?"

"I'm not here to talk about me," said Marth, brushing his question aside. "This world teeters at the brink of a horrible calamity. What you saw tonight was but a prelude. You have been warned." The man looked around at their group – he seemed to almost glare at Arthur for a moment, but it was hard to tell with the visor – then turned and stalked off into the forest.

"Not much of a conversationalist, is he?" said Robin once 'Marth' was out of earshot.

"It appears his skills lie elsewhere," said Frederick. "I wager we'll hear his name again, but no matter. For now we need to make haste to the capital. If what happened here has happened there, they will need all the help they can get."

Dawn light was beginning to creep into the forest, and their group returned to their campsite, packed quickly, and began heading north along the Southroad to Ylisstol.

— 8 Hours Later —

"We're nearly there!" said Lissa excitedly as the forest thinned around them. Their group had been traveling quickly up the Southroad since dawn, making haste to Ylisstol. It had become obvious as they traveled, however, that their battle in the forest was an isolated incident. Once they had gone a few miles north from their campsite there had been no indication of any disturbance.

"Oh, you'll love Ylisstol, Robin," said Lissa. "It's a lot nicer than living on the road, that's for sure. No more sleeping on the ground for this girl! No more eating bear!"

Robin laughed at Lissa's antics and craned her head forward as the trees cleared and Ylisstol came into sight. Her stomach dropped as white walls of the city came into view. Something was wrong. Suddenly Robin realized that she recognized this city.

It had been in her dream.