Part four of the update. Enjoy. Also, thank you for everyone in the reviews who pointed out that I uploaded the wrong document for chapter six. Sorry about that. FF's formatting is difficult for me to deal with.

Fellspawn

Chapter Seven

"What was it like, in Roseanne?" she asked, joining him where he stood, looking out over the beautiful expanse of trees below them. It truly was an inspiring view. She wondered if this was what it always looked like from the back of a wyvern.

At first she thought Gerome might not speak to her at all, but she was determined to be patient, and after a few silent minutes, he responded. "Beautiful," he settled on. "Painfully so."

"Painful? Because of how everything went wrong?" she asked.

He nodded jerkily. "Growing up was idyllic, or so it seems. I was cherished by my parents, especially Mother and Father, since I was the only child they would have."

"I treated you poorly?" Robin asked, torn between puzzlement and dismay. "I would have expected better of myself. Having so many children doesn't excuse neglecting any of them."

Gerome shook his head. "Mama loved me," he reassured her, although his air suggested he corrected her more out of respect for his departed mother than out of concern for her own feelings. He still treated her somewhat detachedly, though she hoped to fix that. "But she was stricter with me than Mother and Father were. They doted more. And, of course, Mama visited frequently, but she did not live with us the entire time."

Robin was in the healer's tent being clucked at by Lissa when Chrom approached her after the battle at the Mila Shrine Ruins. A tall, albeit hunched-over, man in priest's robes walked at the exalt's side, taking in their surroundings with an idle curiosity.

"Robin!" Chrom called, a scowl on his face. "Must you be so reckless always?"

"Your adorable sister has already taken me to task, Chrom," Robin laughed. "Too many cooks in the kitchen will spoil the stew."

"If you pull a stunt like that many more times, all we'll have left of you is stew!" Lissa chastised her, ignoring the tactician's wince. "Now sit still and let me put these bandages on."

Robin rearranged her limbs to sit docilely on the cot, then tilted a curious head in the stranger's direction. "Who's your friend, Chrom?"

"He's not–"

She lifted an eyebrow, and the rough-looking man similarly leaned on his healing stave, fixing Chrom with an expectant look so wry that she could not help but admire it.

Chrom flushed, eyes darting between the two of them. "Robin, I wholeheartedly support your right to reproduce, but need all your offspring be quite as…perfectly sarcastic as you?"

Robin giggled, looking the stranger–her son, apparently–over, noticing with a wince the scar over his left eye. "You found another one of my children, then?" She started to get up, but Lissa pushed her firmly down.

"Have a nice little reunion after I stitch you up."

Robin's eyes widened as she frowned. "The cut wasn't that deep. Not enough to need stitches… right?" She was not a fan of needles.

Lissa rolled her gray eyes. "Not this time."

Robin let out a tense breath. "Message received. I'll be more careful."

"Good," both royals chorused.

Chrom added, "Let's not have your children lose their mother a second time, Robin."

Her son's eyes went to the floor, Chrom's words likely having unearthed painful memories, and she glared at the oblivious exalt. "Tact, Chrom!"

Chrom sighed. "My apologies. It's been a long day, and seeing you nearly overwhelmed by bandits has not helped."

Robin smiled sympathetically. "Get some rest, Chrom. Leave my son and me to get acquainted."

Chrom nodded, clapping her son on the shoulder. "It was nice meeting you, Brady."

Brady. Who named him, she wondered.

Brady nodded, speaking for the first time. His voice was deep and raspy, especially for his age. For that matter, he looked far older than he must be, if she had given birth to him, almost as if the years had aged him prematurely. "Nice seein' ya again, Uncle Chrom. Thanks for leadin' me to Ma."

Robin blinked a few too many times at his accent. Where had he gotten that? Certainly not from her, and none of the Shepherds spoke that way, except maybe Donnel, but Brady's seemed more urban than the farmer's. Was her baby raised on the streets? She certainly hoped not. She wished for all her children to be cared for and happy.

Chrom repeated the words Uncle Chrom under his breath, shaking his head. "Don't mention it, please," he said, and then he was ducking under the tent flap.

Brady scratched his head. "He ain't heard that before? Uncle Chrom?"

Robin laughed, eyes sparkling. "The only future children we've found are Lucina—"

"His daughter," Lissa explained.

"Cynthia—"

"His other daughter."

"Severa—"

"Imagine her calling him Uncle Chrom."

"The twins—"

"Who never knew him."

"Nah—"

"Who never knew any of us."

"And Gerome—"

"Who refuses to acknowledge even his parents," Lissa finished, with a glance to Robin.

Brady grunted. "He still being a stiff sonofabitch 'bout everythin', then?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it in those words, exactly…" Robin hedged.

Lissa snorted outrageously loudly. "Only because he's your son. If it were one of us, you'd be saying worse. Face it, Robin, he didn't get the accent from you, but you're just as blunt as he is." She pulled the bandages extra tight around Robin's abdomen, eliciting a wince from the injured woman.

Robin channeled her best Virion, winking at the playful blonde. "Aw, Lissa, but I'd never dare say such horrible things about a beautiful flower such as yourself."

Lissa smacked her shoulder lightly. Robin could barely feel it through her heavy coat. "Careful, you may have talked half the male Shepherds into falling for that, but your charms don't work on me!"

Robin laughed, reclining slightly, but Brady snorted loudly, transitioning into a laugh.

Robin and Lissa glanced at him inquisitively. "What is it, Brady?" Lissa asked.

Brady chuckled again. "You ladies ain't heard 'bout Owain yet, have ya?"

"Owain?" Lissa repeated. "Who's that?"

Brady shook his head. "Another Shepherd's kid. Y'all don't need to worry 'bout it." His tone warned them off. It was the same one each of the future children acquired when the topic was nearing something they should not divulge.

Robin and Lissa shared a look, then Lissa rose after checking Robin's bandages one more time. "Well, I'll let the two of you talk about stuff. Robin, you know the drill: take care of that wound!" With that, she nodded goodbye to Brady and flounced out of the tent, leaving Robin and Brady alone.

Robin patted the cot beside her. "Sit down, Brady. Give that stave of yours a break."

He glanced down to where he had rested his weight on it, flushing a little. "Yeah, alright, Ma." He ambled over to sit beside her. She leaned against him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He relaxed into her embrace. "Thanks, Ma," he mumbled.

"Mm, you're welcome. Have you seen your siblings yet?"

"Saw Morgan on the way in, but she was lurkin' 'round the fire pit, an' I didn't wanna end up with a snake down my robes or nothin'."

Her eyebrow lifted. "Morgan has set snakes on you before? Even Lissa stops at frogs."

Brady cleared his throat. "Just a li'l grass snake. Nothin' dangerous."

"Duly noted," Robin said, still slightly disturbed but greatly relieved that her youngest was not showing psychopathic tendencies.

"ROBIN!" The woman in question was torn from her conversation with her children by a piercing, shrilly cry of her name. She looked around for the speaker, assuming some sort of danger, but found nothing until Lissa came hurtling into the clearing, tugging a boy behind her–leanly muscled, with Lissa's blond hair and a certain royal bearing.

Beside Robin, Severa's lips twitched and Lucina's eyes trailed to the side the way it did when she was suppressing some outward display of emotion. In this case, Robin suspected it was humor. Robin's eyes narrowed, thinking it was likely at her expense. Still, Robin couldn't suppress her smirk of amusement at the delicious irony of Lissa's distress discovering her own future child, given how much grief she had given Robin and Chrom over their kids. "I take it you found your child, then?"

Lissa stomped her feet violently. "OUR child, Robin!"

Robin blinked, her mouth falling into the perfect 'oh'. Everyone seemed to be looking to her expectantly. She coughed. "I don't understand."

She heard a snicker from Severa, and a quiet, "It's a boy! Ta-da!" that made Lucina stifle a laugh. The blond boy looked supremely uncomfortable, but oddly happy to have his mother manhandling him the way she was. Robin supposed it was not too unexpected, after all, if something dreadful had happened to Lissa in the future. Her son would just be pleased to have met her again.

"We had a baby!" Lissa screeched. "What kind of superhuman baby-making powers do you have, Robin? And how did you drag me into this?" With each word, her voice climbed higher, until Robin was sure it could shatter glass. Owain, it seemed, was used to this, as even though he was the closest to Lissa, his face showed only resignation, not pain.

Robin cleared her throat. "I'm… not sure?" She looked to her children for an explanation. "How could Lissa and I have a child?"

A hint of a blush bloomed on Lucina's face, and she fell silent. Robin arched an eyebrow at her other child. Severa burst out laughing. "Oh gods, your face!"

Robin sighed. "Severa."

"Magic, duh!" Severa said, rolling her eyes.

"Do you know the spell for that? Because I don't!" Lissa said, voice still screechy.

Robin shook her head slowly. "No, but Tharja might."

"But why would we ask Tharja for any kind of curse?" Lissa asked. "You may have a weird baby thing, but I always figured any kids of mine would be Frederick's." The boy at her side winced, his expression of joy fading to something like rejection. Lissa did not seem to notice.

Lucina cleared her throat, looking worriedly at the boy as though disturbed by his silence. "Tharja's spell is different than the one that created Owain. He was the result of an experiment of sorts. A collaboration between Miriel and Henry."

Severa snorted. "Because those two working together didn't give anyone red flags."

Lucina glared at her briefly, then continued, "They were trying to bypass pregnancy altogether, creating life without the complication of childbirth. They used the two of you as test subjects."

"So Owain is some kind of miracle baby?" Lissa asked, eyes widening.

Owain perked up a little, then decided to speak for the first time. "Indeed, Mother! I am a child of legend, created by magic from blood both divine and fell! Is it not wondrous?"

Lissa blinked. "Right. Um... okay. So Robin and I weren't in any kind of relationship?"

Severa snorted. "We never said that."

"Oh boy," Robin sighed.

A/N For anyone curious, the collaboration between Miriel and Henry mentioned in this chapter actually happened in the game, sort of. In their A support, Henry wants to do research into creating life because pregnancy seems inconvenient, and Miriel helps him, but ultimately-at least in their S support-they give up and decide to just make babies together the usual way. In this fic, you can assume that their research did succeed, at least in the first timeline.