-Robin's Office-

"It's good to be back." Thankfully, Robin's office at his home, unlike the palace in Valm was completely untouched. And while he didn't keep any important documents there, there was something very important there still – his alcohol collection. Robin had invited the Crimson Squad to said office for a drink together. "The old squad, back together again."

"Except for Dant." Argeni pointed out. She was drinking a pale cocktail of sorts that she'd mixed herself, one that was only used in high society, so Robin naturally had no idea what it was. It probably tasted really good, though.

"She'll be back, soon enough, once she hears that I've returned." Robin said. "After all, even in these times, I'm the best source of work she has."

"Planning more schemes?" Argeni accused with a smile.

"No, of course not! Schemes? Me?" Robin laughed. "I haven't the faintest idea of what you're discussing, Argeni."

"Of course you don't." Argeni replied evenly.

"Though, speaking of, let's turn to actual serious matters." Robin said. "Zulas, how has your search been?"

"Balt and I have made little progress. But we have made some." Zulas said. His drink of choice was a tall whiskey, on the rocks. "Tell me – have you had any progress yourself?"

"Sorry, old friend." Robin gave a rueful grin. "I'm afraid that I trusted in your brother's ability, to investigate, and besides, I didn't have much time to spend investigating myself. The closest I got was a nest of Grimleal zealots that I took care of a while back – they met this 'Gray Tactician' who tried shipping them to Valm to join up with the rebels that attacked Walhart. They got lost and never made it. But, unfortunately, they didn't know anything."

"So that was you!" Vermil exclaimed, slamming his bright red drink down on the table. "Four years ago, there was a massacre in cave in southwest Ferox, with a Grimleal sigil scrawled in blood alongside a warning."

"Oh, right. Yeah. The sigil was a bit over the top, but that was me." Robin admitted. "I didn't think you'd pick up on that, by the way. Very impressive job hunting me though. You and Morgan were kind of annoying."

"How so?" Argeni asked.

"The pair of them were leading an effort to figure out where I was. A really good effort." Robin said. "Got close on several occasions, too. I know some of the things they found out about, but apparently you found out about more than what I knew."

"That time in Feroxi Arena wasn't even trying to be subtle, you know."

"That was the idea, you know." Robin said.

"I didn't hear about this." Argeni piped up. "What's this about a Feroxi Arena?"

"I heard that the fighters they have there can be pretty tough and come from all over Valm." Zulas said. "It's a good spot to train if you're looking for competent opponents. I've always been tempted to go there myself, but I never had the time. Was that why you were there?"

"Not … exactly. I did enter a Feroxi tournament under an assumed name." Robin said, flatly. "I won it, and I went drinking afterwards, at which point Flavia, who very much wants to kill me, didn't recognize me and challenged me to an arm-wrestling contest. Which I lost. Had to pay for my own booze. And that's that story."

"You lost?" Vermil said.

"I wasn't using Ignis." Robin justified. "If I was, I'd have won. But let's not make this about me. How have you all been?"

"We've been fine, for the most part." Argeni said, smiling. "Zulas has been working quite a bit with Balt, but we've been enjoying the peace for the most part. When I'm not swapped under paperwork trying to somehow mesh the complex bureaucratic systems together without stepping on too many people's toes, that is."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, well it's not so much as 'stepping on people's toes' as it is picking the poor unfortunate sods that I can't stand and then dropping mountains on said toes, but whatever. Same principle. Someone is going to wind up with a mountain dropped on their toes no matter what everyone does, and the least I can do is make sure that it's the right person's toes." Argeni huffed. "I am being serious when I say that the work is lighter than back when I had to clean up for the army's paperwork. Not to mention being married to a Council member lets me throw around a fair bit of weight."

"That's true." Zulas agreed.

"Still not happy with all the paperwork, so now that you're back if you'd consider lightening my load…"

"So, Vermil…" Robin hastily changed the subject. "Heard anything about foreign tomes, lately?"

"Well, I heard this odd thing about-"

"Go on. Mention Flare." Robin's eye glinted. "See where that gets you. Or do you want to second guess my actions?"

"On second thought, I exchanged rare tomes a few times." Vermil sighed. "Want to see my collection? It's pretty cool. Ravena was impressed by it, anyway. And nothing impresses her."

"You've been spending more time around her, haven't you?" Robin asked.

"Yeah. She roped me into her project to find you and ended up teaching me a whole lot about spycraft. I taught her about magic theory, because she couldn't cast Flare." Vermil said. "And we kind of gravitated around each other a lot after that."

"Alright. It seems the subtle approach was a waste of time. Like it normally is." Robin said. "Are you dating her?"

"She insisted!" Vermil protested. "It's really weird."

"…What?" Robin blinked. "Alright, you're going to need to explain that to me."

"I mean, kind of?" Vermil sighed. "Robin, listen, it's not your fault – but I don't think Ravena really gets how this works. She was curious about the whole 'romance' thing so she bullied me into asking her out on a date, liked it, and then decided that made us officially a couple."

"She totally gets how it works." Argeni whispered behind a hand to Robin. "She does have a small crush on Vermil, but I half-think that this is because she enjoys tormenting him. And they've actually been together longer than any other girlfriend Vermil had, so it seems to work. They're a very cute couple."

"I do remember saying to Ravena that I'd leave something like that to her discretion." Robin said. "Alright, Vermil. Given that she's the one who started, I guess that means you're off the hook. I'm not going to immolate you for dating my daughter. Unless you do something to hurt her, in which case I will track you down and make you an example for the next one."

"Sound fair." Vermil said with a gulp.

"Huh." Argeni said. "I thought you'd have a bit more of a reaction than that, even with all those years in the wilderness."

"People do change over time, Argeni. Even if they weren't trying. And I was." Robin laughed. "Speaking of which, you three have changed a bit yourself, haven't you?"

"Yes. My fingers have gotten a lot tougher to deal with all the paperwork."

"Argeni, please don't tease Robin like that." Zulas said. "For my part, I've just grown into my role as a Council member. Oh, and Balt and I are on much better terms these days."

"Glad to hear it."

"I actually made friends with one of the Shepherds." Argeni said. "Maribelle Themis – she's one of the nobility, and actually has been very helpful towards meshing these whole law systems together. She's also taken the opportunity to slip in reforms while doing so."

"Maribelle Themis…" Robin trialed off and narrowed his eyebrows. "Oh. She's the one who ran when I fought the Shepherds and went to get Chrom. That's good. It'd be awkward if we met each other and the last thing she remembered was me electrocuting her or something."

"And forcing her to retreat is better?" Argeni raised an eyebrow.

"…Marginally." Robin allowed. "Anyway, you said law reforms, right? What kind of law reforms are we discussing?"

"Standardizing the punishments, regardless of who the victim and criminal is." Argeni waved a hand. "Patching a few loopholes that the nobility like to exploit. Things like that."

"So a nobility is cracking down on laws that gave an unfair advantage to nobility." Robin chuckled darkly. "Ah, the irony of it. Truly, the handle for the axe came from the forest. It's things like this which really make my day. Good work, Argeni. Very good work."

"Oh … thanks." Argeni blinked. She wasn't used to Robin giving that kind of a compliment. "I couldn't fall behind, could I?"

"Heh. I just find it funny, that's all." Robin couldn't keep the grin off his face. "Anyway. Vermil, what have you been up do? Aside from failing to track me down?"

"I trained to be even stronger." Vermil said. "Also, I trained quite a few Dire Wolves to use Flare. I wrote three papers on theoretical magic, and I've been doing the preliminary work alongside a group of other mages to reintroduce ice magic."

"Useless, I assume." Robin said.

"For you, yes. We're scratching E-rank spells here." Vermil said. "But give it a decade or so, and we'll have ice magic freely available. It'll take us longer to get to B-rank. And you might as well give up on A-rank, but those don't even exist conventionally."

"Don't they?" Zulas asked. "I've heard stories about them."

"There are four total known A-rank spells. One for each type of magic." Robin said. "That said, even I don't know where they all are. Morgaine possesses the dark magic spell, a certain Goetia. The Salamander's fire spell, Valflame, was sealed away and can't be recovered by normal means. But I don't know the location of the Dragon's Gale, Forsetti, or the Lightning Hammer, Mjolnir."

"And Flare!" Vermil added. "The first mass-produced A-rank tome."

"True. Mustn't forget that one." Robin said, taking a sip of his drink. "So, you've all been doing well. Let's cut to the small talk."

-Vermillion City, Training Fields-

"Balt. I was hoping to catch a quick word with you." Robin approached the ex-spy. Balt was conducting training exercises at one of the Vermillion City's garrison. Technically, as he was a subordinate to Zulas, he had actual duties as a member of the army. And while he was quite capable of hiding otherwise, that made him an easy target for Robin to approach. "Do you have time right now to talk to me?"

"I was about to run some drills." Balt said, sighing. "But nothing good enough to get me an excuse capable of getting out of a meeting with you."

"Excellent." Robin nodded to a nearby building. "I believe that you have an office there. I've already made arrangements to prevent us from being overheard, but let's get as much privacy as we can for this conversation."

Balt lead Robin in and graciously opened the door for him, maintaining a veneer of feigned politeness. Robin, for his part, was equally facetious in his acceptance of Balt's politeness, but was perfectly willing to go along with it.

"So." Balt said, after a pause. "What do you want from me?"

"This … Gray Tactician." Robin frowned. "I need to know everything you have on it."

"You know I think he's you, right?"

"I would very much appreciate if you left that theory alone for now." Robin responded. "Listen, Balt. I may have tried to have you killed a few times, but you were on assignment to kill Dant. I know how this game works, and so do you. I doubt we'll ever be able to get along, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones for our common enemy. No matter what you think of me, the Gray Tactician exists. At least in some form. And I got paid a visit by him."

"Oh?" Balt raised an eyebrow. "Was in when you woke up in the morning and looked into the mirror to shave?"

"Someone ransacked my office in Valm when I was out." Robin said. "It wasn't you, because you wouldn't have left any traces. This was … messy. It was also recent."

"You trust me enough to tell me that, I see." Balt said. "I'm sure there are people would love to know that your office was ransacked."

"It's not that I personally trust you. It's that just you use to be a spy for Valm, so you understand how bad the information would be if it fell into the wrong hands." Robin corrected. "I'm leveraging your loyalty against you to guarantee your cooperation."

"Fair." Balt closed his eyes. "Someone raided your office?"

"It was recent – possibly even done within the week. The lock was untouched, indicating a professional thief or someone who had the means to get my key." Robin reported. "The room itself was in disarray. I've come to the conclusion that it was a message of some kind for me."

"Hmm. We used to do that from time to time." Balt said. "Pull some kind of stunt like that to rattle people we suspected of being spies. But you aren't a spy. So the question is… who would want to rattle you?"

"Someone exceptionally foolish." Robin said. "As the saying goes, there's nothing so dangerous as a cornered dragon. You don't hunt a dragon in his lair."

"I don't hunt dragons at all. But I do see your point." Balt said. "If what you're saying is true-"

"I have no reason to lie to you."

"-if what you're saying is true, then I'm as lost as you are when it comes to determining motive." Balt finished. "Of course, if what you're saying is a lie, then obviously you have a better idea than I do."

"Not exactly." Robin said. "That's why I'm asking you about this 'Gray Tactician'. If I've no leads, I'll track this one down by figuring out which one of my many enemies would be willing to pull something like this off. Balt, it's imperative that I know how much information you have on the 'Gray Tactician'. It's quite possible that there's a crisis that could be stopped if it were known knew who they are."

"Why ask me? Zulas has copies of all the information."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

"You think that I kept some bits of information for myself." Balt said. "Kept, perhaps, because they have negative implication of some sort or they were entirely circumstantial, and I wanted something a bit more substantial before I went to Balt and showed him all my juicy evidence to implicate you once and for all. And you think that somewhere within this pile is a clue that you can use to locate this 'Gray Tactician' who ransacked your room."

"My, that was certainly a lot of assumptions." Robin replied in an even voice. "Why don't we just say that I didn't want to disturb Zulas from his work and I just wanted the information from you?"

"Why don't we just say you're a paranoid and power-hungry lunatic?"

"Excuse me!" Robin blinked. "Paranoid? Lunatic? Power-hungry? I am none of those things. I'm merely the Battlemaster of Valm, and I have only the noblest of intentions towards the country."

"Great. Now you've sent shivers up my spine." Balt said, locking eyes with him. "Before I tell you what I know, I'm going to ask you a question of my own. Tell me, Robin. Honestly. How long do you think you can play this game with me?"

"What an interesting question. Now let me ask you one in return. You think that your connection with Zulas will protect you from my wrath if you keep poking your nose in places it really doesn't belong. But have you given any though as to what you'll find? Have you perhaps considered that there's nothing there?" Robin said. "Or, even worse. Have you considered this that maybe I have done some terrible things in my past, but that doesn't necessarily matter? If the worst-case scenario about me is correct, what do you think will be the reaction of the public if they find out about all the thing I used to be, but no longer am? Do you think that they'll react with the maturity and grace of someone who understands who this game is played, or react like foolish children who don't understand these things?"

"My, that does sound bad. But that sounds like, under those hypothetical conditions, it would be the fault of whoever committed the crime as to what the consequences were." Balt responded. "It's not the judge's fault that the criminal gets punished for a crime. It's the criminals. It seems to me that the Gray Tactician can't cry foul on the basis that the consequences for his arrest will be too dire when he knew that full well when he started his crimes."

"Bravo." Robin nodded. "You sounded exactly like your brother for a moment there. But don't pretend you're someone else, Balt. I didn't come here to threaten you into silence. Because, of course, I've done nothing wrong and have nothing to fear."

"Hmph." Balt snorted. "What do you want from me?"

"I told you. Everything you have on the Gray Tactician." Robin smiled. "I'm a nice person these days, don't you know? I genuinely want what's best for Valm, and I will try my utmost to make that happen in the best way possible. So, please, for both of our sakes, try not to do anything incredibly unfortunate, yes?"

"The terrifying part about this is I think you're actually being sincere."

"I should hope so, I didn't spend five years in self-imposed exile just so I could be insincere about it."

"Yet, your blades are as sharp as ever."

"You know what they say." Robin smiled at that. "The sharpest blade deals the cleanest cut. Now, please, Balt? I'm trying to be a good person."

"Fine." Balt said. "I'll give you a spare copy of the notes. Take care of them, would you?"

"With pleasure."

-Robin's Estate-

The lamp burned low as Robin read through the last of the pages that Balt had given him. True to his word, it seemed that nothing was missing. Every report, every follow-up, every tracked connection, they were all present. And there was hardly anything there.

They knew who the Gray Tactician wasn't. There was at least fifteen different people that they'd suspected, or potentially a combination of some of them working together. But, while some of them had definitely worked with the Gray Tactician during the rebellion seven years prior, none of the suspects had a serious idea who it was. Or, indeed, any distinguishing characteristics.

The Gray Tactician had a very simple way to keep them from being discovered. They'd only worked through intermediaries and killed those intermediaries once their intended use was over. None of the suspects had met the Gray Tactician personally, and indeed, Balt and Zulas hadn't found a single person who could credibly claim to have met them.

Balt's hidden reports where another matter. They were very clearly focused on proving Robin was the Gray Tactician. Fortunately, they came closer to exonerating him than actually implicate him. One of things Balt had done was try to prove they were the same person, but that didn't work. Since the Gray Tactician was a different person than Robin; they were in two places at once. Thus, Robin always had a credible alibi whenever the Gray Tactician had been confirmed to be at specific place, doing things like negotiating for weapons or convincing local rebel leaders to join with the main force.

The evidence that Robin had killed Cervantes was a lot better, though a lot better translated in this case to mostly circumstantial. Robin wasn't particularly worried about that. True, he lied to Zulas about that, but Zulas knew that Robin wanted to kill Cervantes, and had accepted it. It wouldn't be that hard to talk his way out of that hole with a few half-truths and lies.

Robin read through the last of the papers and shuffled them. He considered keeping them and decided against it. He'd be able to them again from Balt whenever he needed and there was at least one person going around and ransacking his offices.

Robin got up and walked out to the main foyer. There was a fireplace, and the fire was mostly out, but for Robin's purposes it was fine. He tossed in a quick fireball to light the wood back up and tossed in the sheaf of papers, letting them burn with satisfaction.

He had made it to the stairs and was about to head up his room to finally go to sleep when he stopped suddenly. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as his instincts screamed at him. Not one to ignore his instincts, Robin turned around just as the grand doors of the estate's entrance opened up. Robin's eyes narrowed, and he gestured with his hands, throwing fireballs at the torches on either side of the room to light it up. Robin got a good look at the intruder.

A masked figure stood inside the threshold. He had long shock-white hair that flowed out the front of his drawn-up hood, a hair color similar to Robin's, a long black cloak, similar to Robin's old Plegian cloak, and the same overall build that Robin himself possessed. Also they seemed to both be of identical heights. The mask the figure wore was fashioned in the style of the Grimleal, a dragon style skull with curved horns that peeked out from under the hood. Except his mask covered his face. The Grimleal also possessed a single sword, ready to be drawn.

"I'm not expecting any guests now. But if I had to guess, you're not the type of person who waits for an invitation." Robin said, narrowing his eyes. "You're the one who broke into my office, aren't you?"

The figure didn't reply. Instead, he drew a single blade from a sheath and carelessly tossed the sheath aside. He pointed in at the Battlemaster and started advancing towards him. Robin, veteran of dozens of battles and dozens of assassinations, could easily read his opponent's intention from the stance, even though the face was concealed behind the mask. The masked figure was going to attack him with the intent to kill. His slow methodical pace was only because he wanted to leave no openings. But once the distance was closed, the man would strike. But Robin had no intention of letting him do that.

"Elfire!"

Robin thrust his hand forward and blasted fire at the figure, at the same time propelling him back. He was unarmed save for his gloves, and he had no interest in fighting an unknown opponent with no weapon. The blast lit up the room, forcing the Grimleal back.

Robin was up the stairs in a flash and kicked open the door, bolting through the hallway, heading to his room. He turned around just as the figure reached the opening of the hallway. Robin gestured with his other hand. "You were a fool to follow me where there's nowhere to dodge! Put yourself in a bind, didn't you? Wilderwinds!"

A blast of air shot through the hallway towards the Grimleal. The man paused and leapt sideways, smashing clean through a wall to avoid the blast. Robin wasted no time and kept running, making it to a second set of stairs. Instead of bothering to physically climb them, he focused Ignis into his legs and leapt up, using the railing to vault himself up to the top. He turned around and raised both hands, blasting through the stairs.

"I'm sure that my carpenters will be cross with me at some point." Robin said, now making it to his room. He kicked the door in, considering it faster than opening it conventionally. Gungnir wasn't there, of course. But the old collection of spears and swords were. Robin went for the nearest sword and drew it, feeling the familiar weight of cold steel in his hand. He grabbed a yellow tome from off his desk.

The floor between him and the door exploded as the Grimleal burst through it, landing to block him. Robin swore hastily in Plegian and lunged at him with his blade, only for the Grimleal to conjure a ball of electricity in one hand and catch the blade in that.

"So … walls and floors are apparently meaningless to you. I can handle that." Robin strained, using Ignis to try and shove the Grimleal back in the hole. The Grimleal focused, and purple flames exploded out of him as well, matching the tactician's strength. "…And you can use Ignis. Okay. That's a thing."

"Father? What the commotion about? Are we under attack?" Ravena appeared at the doorway, eyes a bit tired yet alert, and a spear in hand. "Father!"

"I'm fine!" Robin said. "It's just an assassin!"

"I can see that, but he's actually giving you trouble! Assassins aren't supposed to give you trouble!" Ravena set her feet towards the Grimleal and aimed her spear. "Should I kill him?"

The ball of electricity crackled in the Grimleal's hands. Robin realized what was happening within a split second. "Ravena, get clear!"

The spell exploded in the caster's hands, sending electricity sparking. Robin had disengaged and ran clean to the balcony, leaping up and pulling himself to the top, even as the blast radiated out of the room. Inside, he'd seen Ravena take off as well, so she'd be okay. He wasn't sure that she'd be able to fend off the assassin if he went after her, but he seemed to be the main target.

"Okay, that's enough." Robin scowled. "I'm supposed to be the Battlemaster, and I'd better act like it. I can't just keep running like I'm scared of this guy. Now, where is he?"

On cue, the roof burst open and the Grimleal emerged, holding his blade once again. Robin charged him, swinging his own sword. The Grimleal exchanged blows with him and the two fought back and forth on the roof, with Robin gaining the upper hand as he rained blows with greater skill and precision.

"And here's one from me!" Ravena popped up onto the roof too, now with a tome in her hand. A correct decision – she'd be ranged magical artillery to support his sword offensive. She raised her hand and blasted wind blades towards the assassin, forcing him to dodge, at which point Robin took the advantage. With a deft display of skill, he batted aside the Grimleal's sword and thrust the point of his sword towards the man's neck.

"Now, you lose." Robin stated. "Take off the mask. Who are you, and why are you trying to kill me?"

"He could use Ignis." Ravena said, walking up to Robin, carefully holding her guard up. "I thought only you could use Ignis, Father."

"Heh. That's certainly true enough." The words came from the Grimleal in response to Ravena's question before Robin could respond. "Which begs the question, doesn't it, Ravena?"

"Oh, so you can talk." Robin kept his blade steady. "Now, raise your hands and take off the mask. You've lost this one."

"True. This hasn't quite ended the way I wanted." The Grimleal said. "No matter. This was just an opening gambit, really. A way of testing the defenses, so to speak. So, tell me, how did I do?"

"Poorly." Robin said.

"Is that so?" The Grimleal turned to Ravena. "And what do you think?"

"Well … it's not a terrible idea to try to assassinate someone as a way of discovering things about them." Ravena said. "But if you're the mastermind, then you've made a mistake in sending yourself rather than an expendable pawn."'

"Have I?" Black flames suddenly erupted from the Grimleal, forcing Robin back. The Grimleal withdrew a slim tome from his cloak as the black flames died down.

"Black flames. That's certainly new." Robin said, holding his sword at the ready. "Some kind of Grimleal ritual grant you that power?"

"Pact unbidden, chains unforged, summons foregone, I command the magic pure!" The Grimleal made no response, but instead gestured as he started building up a spell from the tome he had drawn. An unmistakable ball of energy began gathering in front of him.

"You've got to be joking. How'd he get access to THAT spell!?" Ravena cried.

"The absorbing crackle of ozone!" Robin whipped the yellow tome out from his cloak and dashed so he was standing in front of Ravena. Luckily, the tome he'd grabbed off his desk hadn't been a Thoron tome, rather it was a different one entirely.

"I cast thee, FLARE!"

"SUPERIOR JOLT!"

The telltale massive fireball erupted from the Grimleal's hand and went straight towards the pair of tacticians. But just as he did so, Robin thrust his own hand forward, conjuring a matrix of lightning which absorbed the blast from the Flare spell heading towards him, and then fired a bolt clean through it. The Flare spell continued around him, but both Robin and Ravena were spared from blast. Even as that was happening, Robin's spell lanced clean through the Flare spell.

With a single flash, the spell ended. Robin's eye recovered fast, and he instinctually prepared another spell to throw, but there was no target.

The Grimleal was no longer on the roof with them. And furthermore, there wasn't even much of a roof. The part that he and Ravena was on started shaking, easily understandable given that a large part of the house was missing and now the rest of it was quickly beginning to catch flames.

"Father!"

"Hold on tight." Robin advised as he grabbed her and leapt from the roof. He fired a blast of wind magic downwards to slow his fall. The two landed, just as there was a loud crash behind them. Robin turned around to see his house in flames with about half of it collapsed in.

"Well." Ravena sighed. "There goes my room."

"There goes my house."

"Yeah, but it's not like you had anything in there that can't be replaced and you never do anything with your house." Ravena said. "I, on the other hand, sleep in my room. At least three nights a week."

"You really shouldn't pull all-nighters at your age, it's bad for your health." Robin chided her.

"I still get a decent amount sleep." Ravena defended herself. "Most of the squad keeps spare beds around their living quarters in case I crash there."

"Your terrible habits aside…" Robin said, staring at the mostly destroyed building. "That certainly was ruthless, to say the least. Who was that one? And what it he planning?"