Is it any actual surprise to anyone that I'm a huge Undertale fan, more due to the fandom, theories, fanfiction and the like than the game itself? I DO like the game, don't get me wrong, but I love all the development and the like the fandom have given to these characters...if anyone is wondering why I'm mentioning it, it's because I've been writing an Underfell (if you don't know it's not important) story that would be a sequel to an Undertale story I haven't even written out instead of working on the next chapter of this. So yeah, fail there. Sorry. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this. Red and review if you want!
She still remembered the horrible emotional pain when she had run away from her friends and family, unable to handle the guilt of what she had allowed to happen...but things hadn't turned out as she had expected, in the end.
"Robin!" Owain called out for the teenager, looking for her with the rest of the Shepherds...he pushed away the nagging guilt that this was his own fault, because he had pushed her to answer a question she obviously hadn't been ready to, and focused on finding her. "Robin?" His oldest cousin had to be borderline forced by their family to look for the tactician, he had heard her muttering that they wouldn't have to worry about Grima if the child-like teenager died, but he and Cynthia had quickly reminded her of the other's accomplishments and how greatly her father relied on the tactical genius. He didn't care what she thought, the dragon vessel dying would not help any of them.
"Caw!" Turning his head sharply towards the sound caused the blond prince to find a crow, cawing and seemingly trying to get his attention.
"...Henry?" It wasn't the first time the dark mage had used a crow to retrieve him or lead somewhere, but that had been in the future...this version had yet to do it until now.
"Caaaaw!" It seemed the animal was becoming inpatient with the myrmidon, causing him to nod and take a step towards the black creature. The movement caused the bird to take to the air and fly, the blue eyed boy quickly running after it.
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Owain stopped when the crow landed, looking around for Henry or Robin...seeing neither caused his attention to turn back to the black creature, who was hopping back and forth but refused to move any further forward.
"Robin..." He recognized the action as that of an animal who was closer to the tactician than it wanted to be, they almost all preferred to be ten or more feet away, and even her once best friend's precious feathered friends were no different...she had once said humans were the only ones who couldn't sense what was within her. The bird was in the air again now but still wouldn't move forward, causing it to sporadically try to keep in the air without moving closer. "I thank thee Henry's crow comrade." Nodding his head slightly, he softly walked in the direction the flyer refused to go...there was a tree stump four or so feet tall, and as the myrmidon silently walked around it he found there to be a hole revealing the inside to be hollow, with the person he was looking for curled into a ball and sobbing heavily but quietly. "I'm so sorry Robin..." The image of an older woman, long orange pigtails reaching to the back of her knees, clinging to Henry's shirt as she sobbed uncontrollably entered the blond prince's mind...he had been hoping to never see her like that ever again.
"L-leave..." Tear filled black eyes looked up at him, body wracked with sobs as she hugged her knees to her chest, looking so much like the child many assumed she was.
"I refuse to leave you Robin." The blue eyed boy disagreed, moving just a little closer...the dragon vessel tried to pull back, but her back was already against the stump so she couldn't actually move any.
"Y-you'll e-end up d-dead..." He had never seen the cloaked teenager so scared before, what made it even worse was that fear he saw was entirely focused on the thought of her abilities failing to protect the people she cared about.
"That is untrue." The sword user had seen for himself that the person before him had saved people time and time again.
"L-Lucina...sh-she told us a-about...about H-Henry a-and someone e-else's death." The bloodshot eyes of the female made the guilt eating at the boy all the stronger.
"The other person of which mine cousin spoke was-" He didn't know why she was bringing up his version of herself, but she had to be told that the person who had 'died' was her.
"A-and y-your future...a-all your p-parents a-are dead. I-I couldn't s-save them e-either. I-if that me w-was so u-useless-"
"You're not useless!" Owain hadn't meant to yell, but he refused to let her call any version of herself that word, especially his own...the child-like teenager flinched at the sudden anger and volume of his voice. A deep breath helped to calm him a bit. "I request thou never refer to thineself with such demeaning and incorrect words again, Robin." Robin shook her head, probably not able to understand why he insisted this when she believed herself to be such words.
"B-but I-"
"I believe I finally understand the answer to mine question earlier." Black eyes blinked at the blue eyed prince, who gave her a slight and sad smile. "Why are you so intent to prove thine worth against a version of yourself with a great deal of years more experience?" He repeated, quickly cutting off any attempt at a response by the person he was speaking to. "You spoke of Aunt Emmeryn earlier, and now of my future. You are afraid, no terrified, of losing people...of letting any member of the Shepherds, or innocent people, die. You believe thine future self to have failed everyone, and see yourself as destined to fail even more so with your non-existent memory and years of youth...am I correct, mine friend?" The orange haired teenager's eyes looked at the ground, making the tears still filling and falling from them all the more apparent.
"E-everyone died a-and...and a-all you children h-have h-had l-life so h-hard b-because of i-it." The blond prince nodded.
"I have no intention of denying the hardships mine comrades and I have faced." He agreed, holding up a hand to stop her from speaking as he slowly forced a smile. "However, I can assure you that none of that is thine fault Robin...as I attempted to explain a minute ago, the person who died shortly after Henry...that was you." Shock seemed to finally stop the dragon vessel's tears, body even seeming to freeze from it. "Henry was killed by a member of the Grimleal, hidden from view by a spell...no one noticed something abnormal until it was too late, and...and his body had fallen to the ground. You died a few minutes later with only grief in your heart. Those of our parents who were observant or could sense magic all partly blamed themselves for failing to notice the threat, my parents included. You were not around to protect anyone after Henry died, so judging yourself by their deaths has no point." The forced smile fell from the myrmidon's face as the memories of that day filled his mind, causing him to forcefully shake his head to help push it back for the time being. "You spoke of using your fire to save mine aunt earlier, however controlling it out of your view exhausted you quickly and left you open for attacks. You knew not that the Risen archers would appear, had they not your plan would have succeeded, even mine cousin admitted that...the Shepherds, and even we, had no way of knowing that people could call forth Risen. The you of which I knew would have thought of almost the exact same plan with the same belief that you would prevail...after all, Risen did not exist in our world until after Grima awoke. It was our travel through time which brought them here." More guilt flooded his body...how many innocent people had been killed by Risen, unprepared for their sudden appearance?
"O-Owain..." The tactician's tears had truly stopped, but his own were beginning to fill his eyes.
"Though your behaviour is drastically different, shyness and friendliness now your defining traits, you and mine Robin are truly very much alike." The memory of the ever so soft smile he had treasured from his version of this teenager had faded from his mind over time, but the sword user could still remember when she would place her hand over his head whenever he was upset.
~"You're still just a child Owain...your problems may seem world ending, but I promise most of them mean very little in the end. Henry and I will always be here to help, as will your parents, and even the friends you make...tell us when you are upset, when something is wrong...even if we aren't able to help just telling us can make you feel better. Bottling everything up inside never helps."~ He remembered crying when she and the dark mage had died, demanding to know how they could help with a problem or listen to him speak of them if the two were dead...needless to say, he never got an answer.
"Owain!" The melodramatic boy's eyes snapped to the person calling him, realizing the female had come out of her hiding spot and was gripping his wrists in an attempt to return him to the world around him.
"I...I apologize. I became lost in mine memories." She looked a little calmer now, releasing his wrists...he went emotionally numb when this child-like teenager hugged him.
"I-if you need to cry...th-than you can. Bottling up y-your emotions never helps a-anyone." That was it, his own teary floodgates burst open as she softly hummed a calming melody, it had sounded far too much like the woman of his memory.
"Please Robin, I beg of thee...never speak such cruel things of thineself, never doubt or blame thineself...and above all, please...tell those who care for you of thine worries and problems. I promise it will help you feel better, even if they are unable to truly help." The Ylissian royal wrapped his arms around the Plegian orphan, clinging to her as if afraid she would disappear if he let go.
"...I-I will...I p-promise." They stood like that for a long time, both helping to calm the worries and horrid memories of the other, before finally heading back to the camp.
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"Robin!" The one being called gripped the sleeve of the boy she was walking with, trying mostly to hide behind him as her friends ran to them.
"They still hate you. Owain's 'advice' is pointless for you. He only 'cares' because he knew a different you, a better you." Robin's hand clung tighter to the short sleeve of the blond prince, wishing the voice would just leave her alone. Looking up in hopes of being reassured, she saw that he was smiling down at her despite that she was hiding from even his family...the tactician wondered if perhaps he had done the same behind her as a child, bringing back a fond memory.
"Mother!" She barely had time to turn her head before her son crashed into her, arms tight around her body. "Are you hurt Mother?!" Morgan questioned frantically, and the child-like teenager realized that she must have worried him greatly with her sudden disappearance.
"I-I'm fine Sweetie." The now familiar nickname seemed to calm the black eyed boy, at least a little, as he finally pulled back and wiped away the tears she hadn't noticed him shed until now.
"That was incredibly reckless Robin." Fredrick was not the person she had been expecting to speak first, causing her own black eyes to stare at him.
"Of course it was reckless, they need their 'brilliant tactician' for anyone to have even a chance of survival...even if you failed to save the one person who mattered." Her eyes fell down again as her hand moved to grip the teenaged myrmidon's sleeve, with him making no move to stop her.
"I...I'm s-sorry..." The orange haired teenager apologized softly, refusing to look at the Shepherds.
"Robin...you know we don't blame you, right?" Lissa asked, causing the other teenager's head to snap up to look at her with wide eyes.
"Emm was...a wonderful sister and ruler, Lissa and I will always miss her. But we have never once blamed you for her death." Chrom tried to assure his friend, who stared at him with wide eyes from behind his nephew.
"Nobody blames you Robin...and I'll kick the ass of anyone who says otherwise!" Sully grinned, too blunt a person to try sounding more like the royal she now was...the tactician was about to smile when the voice spoke again.
"Your so called 'friends' are rather talented actors...they have to keep in your good graces though, or you might get rid of them. So saying they don' t blame you is the easiest thing they can do." That earlier almost smile fell again, eyes darting down to look away and hand tightening around the sleeve of the younger teen beside her.
"Y-you don't...h-hate me?" Everyone moved back, eyes wide and some with a hand over their chest, as though they had been hit.
"How could you think that Robin?!" The fact that Lucina of all people, who had made it quite clear that she didn't like the cloaked teenager, was now yelling at her was extremely confusing to say the least. Looking up at the currently yelling girl's cousin revealed him to be just as confused as the shy teenager.
"Lucina?" Owain questioned the blue haired woman, even the other time travellers seemed to be wondering as to the reason for their leader's sudden outburst.
"I've made it clear that I do not like, nor trust you, right?" The blue eyed princess seemed to have, at least partly, forced herself to calm down.
"Y-yes!" Robin squeaked when the blue adoring royal girl glared at her.
"...Even I don't hate you for what happened. You...you couldn't have done anything else, no matter what you seem to think." The once masked girl stated, taking another breath. "Do you understand?" A quick nod was all it took to end the conversation, the Falchion-owning teen spinning on her heel and walking away. The voice inside was silent, perhaps too shocked by what had just happened to speak.
"...Y-your cousin i-is scary O-Owain." The tactician murmured.
"She certainly can be." The myrmidon agreed, and after a moment a soft smile spread across the face of the one he was looking at.
"You...you h-have a good f-family Owain." They both knew the blue wearing princess hadn't said any of that because she cared about the child-like teenager, but rather it was because her family cared.
"They are thine family as well Robin, even if mine cousin isn't always intent to admit it." He smiled back and after a moment her smile widened, finally looking happy again.
"Y-yeah...my family t-too."
This is no where near the end of Robin's self doubt, but it's the beginning of her healing. The next chapter hopefully won't take too long. There was something I wanted to say down here last week, but I can't remember...oh well. See you soon!