"Ah, my favorite son-in-law." Validar turned away from the alter with the biggest, smuggest, grin possible. "Come to witness the glorious culmination of your failure? How nice. I have the Fire Emblem and the Dragon's Table is set for a feast." He gestured to each. "I will return Grima to this world!"
"You'll DESTROY the world! Lucina has seen it!" Chrom snapped.
"Then I pray today's spectacle lives up to her nightmares!" The Plegia king held his arms up dramatically. "The Awakening rite is not only for exalts and Naga, you know. With it, I'll arouse Grima! The fell dragon needs only a mortal vessel, which you so kindly brought along." He dropped one arm extending the other towards Robin.
Robin felt a lump forming in his throat. He was the vessel.
Validar's smile seemed to turn prideful almost like a father's pride. He knew that Robin had figured it out.
"No! Never! I'd sooner bite my tongue off and die!" The tactician declared.
"You don't have a choice. You carry my blood. The blood of the fell dragon. His soul slumbers within you and now the time has come to awaken you both!"
"I'M Grima? I'M the fell dragon?!" Though the situation dire, Robin recalled that Chrom said he'd love him even if he was a hideous dragon and for a brief moment, he wondered if being the fell dragon incarnate counted.
As if hearing his thoughts, Chrom whispered. "It does."
Lucina and Morgan shared a confused glance.
"The Grimleal have worked for generations to create someone like you. A vessel worthy of our master. Simply having Grima's blood in your veins is not enough. My father was not worthy, nor was his father before him." Validar placed a hand on his chest. "Even I was not able to accept Grima's most sacred gift. But you? You had all the makings. You were perfection! You ARE perfection!"
Robin took a sub-conscious step back. This couldn't be right. He had to be lying.
"Mother?" Morgan gently touched his arm.
Validar began to pace as he unfolded the tale. "If your damnable mother hadn't been seized by weakness and fear. She betrayed us! She stole you from your crib and fled with you in the night! I know naught of your life thereafter; but all that matters is your return. That you are here is PROOF of your purpose! it is why you still draw breath!"
"You've proven nothing but your own madness." Chrom turned to his army. "We are going to stop this. This can be stopped." He turned back to Validar raising his voice. "YOU can be stopped!"
"You may have killed me in some future past, but I am stronger this time! With the power of the Dragon's Table flowing through me, I am unstoppable."
"You're not the only one stronger this time! Right, Robin?" When no response came, the prince twisted to see his husband. "Robin?"
The tactician clutched at his throbbing head. Validar was trying to get in.
"Mother!" Both children cried. Lucina's hand automatically went to her sword. Had she been wrong to trust him? Was her own childish desire for her mother going to doom them all?
Chrom hurried to keep Robin from dropping to his knee. "Stay with me, Robin! You're not beholden to this fiend! You can fight it! We've all seen how strong you are! We've seen what you're capable of!" The pain he saw in his eyes was heart breaking. He never wanted to see it again. "Don't let him shake your resolve! I believe in you."
"Come on, Mother." Morgan cheered. "Don't let terrible Grandpa win."
"Morgan, you're not helping." His older sister chided.
"Enough!" Validar's voice boomed, his face an expression of thinly vailed disgust. "This sorry display ill befits the heir to our master's power. And you, Prince, your sad poem sounds lovely, but it will not alter destiny."
"They're more than just words!" Robin gritted out.
"Be still now, my son."
"Don't call me that!" He snapped forcing himself to stand tall gripping Chrom's arm for support. "My life did not begin with you. It began the day Chrom found me in that field. I have been all over this world, and I have helped change it, for the better. I have fought and laughed and bled with my friends, and THAT is what matters!" His thumb rubbed his wedding ring through the glove. "The ties we forged, the bonds we share, they are of a power greater than Grima."
"A ludicrous idea, as you will know better than anyone soon enough."
Robin pushed down the nauseating pain in his head. He could do this. He would do this. "We do agree on one thing: my life so far has all been in preparation for this moment. When I kill you or die trying!"
The Plegia king chuckled. The boy had his courage, that was for sure, but he also possessed that weak woman's judgement. It didn't matter. Once Grima was released, all those pathetic human emotions would be gone. "Very well, pup. Come! Do your worst! Come at me with all you have!" He pushed his cape back. His Grima's Truth tome coming to life. "There is no damage I can do your body that the fell dragon cannot repair!"