Pieces' penultimate chapter! Warm thanks again to all readers, and especially to those that review. It makes me so happy to see you enjoy the story.

If I should stay,
I would only be in your way...
So I'll go, but I know
I'll think of you every step of the way.

And I will always love you.

Robin had been wandering for hours, judging by how low the sun had dipped on the horizon. Its final rays had made their way towards her face, setting light on her pasty white skin, colouring it with the melancholic melody of sunset. She weakly raised her hand, blocking the dying light from her eyes, painfully red from the amount of tears that had fallen from them. From a distance, if she squinted, she could still see the turrets of Castle Ylisse, roof shingles twinkling silently. The ache in her heart was dulled by the exhaustion of walking. She never once stopped. She wandered aimlessly; tears falling from her face, her heart beating achingly. Her feet erupted in blisters, and yet she stumbled on, a singular desire to vanish giving her the power to put one foot in front of the other.

She thought of her commander and best friend. Nothing in the world compared to the time they spent together. Maybe he hadn't even realized that she had left yet. Maybe she could turn around right now and return to him, and they could sit down for dinner like they always did. She could return home to where her beloved was and continue life where she left off, treating this as nothing more than a short little tantrum. She thought of how sweet life would be for her. He would no doubt try to court her, at least more intensely than the blubbering attempts he had tried. Each awkward gesture would be more heavy-handed and pathetic than the last, and yet each would make her swoon; make her heart beat faster than it ever could. He'd win her over; tear down the walls she had so carefully constructed. He would propose, she would undeniably accept. They'd get married. It would be the happiest moment of her life.

Then she would become queen of Ylisse.

The temporary warmth that her thoughts had filled her drained immediately at that thought. Chrom was the ruler of his country. To be romantically involved with him was to place herself at the top of Ylisse for all to see, their judging eyes condemning both herself and Chrom. She cared very little for her own reputation. Other than the overdramatic title of Grandmaster, there was nothing much to her name. Her prince though, he had big shoes to fill, expectations to fulfil. A ruler is nothing without subjects and his amours with an unknown tactician with a spotty memory and even more suspicious background would no doubt cause people not to trust him. It took his sister years upon years of pain and strife to win her people's faith. Robin would not risk that trust for anything.

She couldn't do that to her beloved prince and the memory of the beloved Emmeryn.

If it ever came out that they had been together at all... No matter how much those nights of holding, caressing; of moments—kisses—stolen behind his tent, of love muttered between gulping gasps; no matter how much those memories meant to her, Chrom meant much more. She loved him and being married to a woman of no stature, of dust eyes and strange markings would ruin him. He'd have no reputation left to try and salvage.

So she trudged on, even if her mind had long forgotten the council's words; even if her heart was begging her to turn back, she had convinced herself that her disappearance was the best thing she could do for Chrom. Years would pass and he would forget. The cobwebs of time would dull the shine their love had and in the blink of an eye, it would vanish, riding along the favourable winds of change as a bitter memory. He would fall in love with another, and slowly, as one would fall asleep, she would be dismissed as an unwanted thought, buried deep within the forgotten corners of his mind. She would fade from his life, as a shadow would in the presence of light.

The thought gave her great comfort.

The pitch darkness of night came all too soon, and it became painfully apparent that this was one of Robin's least strategically sound endeavours. Strategy wasn't her plan here though. Tonight, she just needed to disappear. Whether she survived or not was irrelevant. Her stomach scolded her for not raiding the kitchen before she departed. At this rate, she wouldn't be able to carry on for long. Perhaps a rest would do her good. She sincerely doubted that anyone - friend or enemy - would find her out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by grasslands and the infinity of stars. Finding a particularly comfortable spot on the ground, she admired the irony of her situation. Her life with Chrom would end as it began with her sleeping on the ground. Perhaps the lord of another country would find her here, like Chrom found her before. Perhaps this would be the last time she'd close her eyes. She smiled bitterly at the outlandish narrative she had begun painting.

She thought of her blue-haired prince as she slowly drifted into a pained sleep.

Chrom rode ahead silently, with a solemn visage plastered onto his face. The horse he rode could not possibly meet the speeds at which his heart was telling him to race. The group's preparations took them well into the evening, and they were not able to depart until well after the sun had set. Even if it meant being disadvantaged in a sudden ambush, in order to avoid incurring the crown prince's wrath, the group agreed to begin their search in the dark.

At first, they had no clue where to begin, since she could be anywhere. The guards of the castle gates were no help, since none of them had even seen the tactician leave. Chrom had reasoned that Robin likely wouldn't be in any of the villages near the castle. She likely feared any human interaction after hearing those things spoken in council. With this in mind, the group headed west, towards the borders of Plegia, where settlements were few and far between. Chrom hoped that his guess was correct and that she was indeed heading west, but then another fear has settled in his stomach. Plegia is infamous for being a favourite hiding place for bandits, thieves and other dishonest men who plunder and kill travellers. The routes to the kingdom was rumoured to be littered with cutthroats and Chrom was begging Naga that she keep Robin safe, dammit. His sister was gone, and he was not going to lose another loved one again.

Chrom looked up to the skies and oriented himself with the stars, eyes scanning for Polaris and the Great Bear, inadvertently wondering if Robin was looking at the skies too. She loved the North Star. The memory of the nights spent star gazing with his star-dust-haired love made his heart constrict in anguish. He missed her. They had only been separated for a few hours and yet the longing in his soul could not be any more intense. He needed her. How he ever lived those years before her baffled him. She was why he lived. She was his light and as a man lost in the darkness of his own soul, he needed that light to see.

He needed her.

Robin awoke suddenly, jolting up from the hard ground on which she had spent a few hours sleeping. The skies were still dark, with no signs of dawn on the horizon. Her back ached, and her predicament with food and water had remained largely troubling and unsolved since she had fallen asleep. She felt tired. It has been so long since she'd drunk anything and her throat felt raw, like it had been rubbed against sandpaper. She looked around, trying to get her bearings, when she saw figures with torches, at least ten of them, heavily bundled up, even for the freezing evening gust that chilled her. The tall grass among which she made her bed had obscured her from vision before. Now she desperately wished she could stay hidden from the dubious group. All the rustling in the foliage drew one of the men's attention, despite Robin's best attempts at discretion. The man, scarred face and forearms, and myriad weapons on his body clearly giving away his occupation as a bandit, approached Robin along with the others, having found a target.

"Today's your lucky day, my dear. You're gonna drop every last valuable you've got, and I'm gonna let you run on home with your life." The one who spied her among the tall grass gripped Robin by the collar of her cloak and hoisted her up to her feet. When the torchlight of one of his companions lit up her face, he was suddenly taken aback, immediately recognizing the girl. A cruel smile crossed his face. An opportunity like this only comes once in a lifetime.

"White hair, pale skin, and a dark cloak... You can only be the tactician that led the Ylissean army through Plegia! The one that killed my king! The one that made my life a living hell!" He angrily croaked. The war had killed his friends and had made him turn to plundering. He had been an honest man once, with a loving wife and a strapping son to match, but their village was destroyed by these Ylisseans, his son a simple uncelebrated casualty. His wife has since lost touch with reality, and he had gotten in touch with booze. The story was similar for many of the men in their group. It only got harder when their king died. No one would give them a job, since they were 'Plegian scum'. At least when Gangrel was still alive, he had a job, even if it was a mercenary job.

Now, he and the other 'scum' with him roamed the lands for food and the clinking coin of a helpless traveller. Grima must have finally listened to their prayers of retribution.

"Please, sir," Robin gasped weakly, throat dry from dehydration, having neither the strength nor the will to stand up for herself, physically or mentally. "All of that is in my past. Right now, I just need to disappear..."

"You'd so easily dismiss the amount of deaths you've caused because it's in your past? Well, I guess you're twice as lucky today!" The man snarled, the impending revenge thickened his blood, made his skin crawl in anticipation of this sweet revenge. "By Grima, you're gonna disappear! And you'll make me a Plegian hero in the process!"

"No, please! Just let me g-", her plea went unfinished as the Plegian unsheathed a dagger from his belt and plunged it deep into Robin's gut. Pain shot up through her spine. A cold, numbing sensation crept through her brain and for a moment, she felt good. Inches from her attacker's face, she could do nothing but smile a soft smile, one of peace and acceptance. Her demeanour did nothing to spoil the bandit's moment. A malevolent grin cracked across his face too. He could already see the cheering crowds coming to greet him at Plegia's border. He'd be a legend. He'd become king! He'd lay claim over every treasure in the land; every maiden...

He didn't expect the new king of Ylisse to come riding in from behind him.

Chrom refused to set up camp, much to the chagrin of his loyal knight. The prince could see how tired the horses and their riders were, but he was too aggravated, too tormented for sleep. He ordered the rest of them to settle and sleep for the night, something that the ladies were secretly glad for, but were incensed when Chrom kept riding further.

"Does he expect us to go sleep while he combed the rest of the world alone?" Maribelle sighed as she finally got off of her mount, her back aching fiercely. She fell flush against her husband, who held her tight to his chest, rubbing her shoulders to soothe her.

"You should probably get some rest, dear. If you're worried about milord's safety, rest assured I will protect him."

A fluttering of wings fanned their face and Sumia disembarked from the skies, her snow-white Pegasus neighing noisily as she landed. She did not dismount however, rather she looked Frederick in the eyes.

"Commander!" She saluted Frederick who noticed her sudden seriousness. "I've spotted torches less than half a league away! They may be—"

"Brigands. Milord needs assistance. Come, Sumia!" The knight gently extracted himself from his wife, smiling carefully as she pouted up to him. Frederick proceeded to quickly mount his horse, only for his wife to also mount hers.

"Maribelle, I really would like it if you rested. I mean it." The knight said to her, only for the lady to scoff at his words.

"Mm, let's leave a beautiful lady alone in an area that immoral filths haunt frequently. I'd either be raped, killed or have my organs plundered. Clearly it is not I who needs sleep, and if you deny it and insist on me making a bed on sticks and stones, then it is evident that I am obviously the one of sounder mind. You should sleep." Maribelle smirked as her husband gaped at the word 'raped'. It is not a common word for a lady's vocabulary, but Robin's been teaching her…

"Mari is right, you know! It's better we stick together." Lissa reigned in her horse, mounting it as well, her throwing axe in hand, her mending staff in another.

Sighing, Frederick gave in, and the rag-tag search party followed Sumia's white Pegasus towards the bright lights she saw. Soon enough, they were able to catch up to their lord, who noticed them and placed a finger on his lips, indicating for them to be quiet. He looked back to where he was looking and a scene unfolded before them. There were people, at least seven of them, and they were simply walking, their rambunctious laughter and chatter echoing around them. Chrom's eyes widened when they suddenly stopped and laughed more gleefully. Maribelle and Lissa readied their weapons, preparing to attack. At the same time, Sumia dropped from the skies, her eyes in wild panic. Chrom looked at her worriedly.

"It's her, captain! It's her! She's in the tall grasses over there!" Sumia pointed towards the brigands, and in the split second Chrom's eyes had left the scene, the shifty group of men had hauled a person, with all too familiar hair and too familiar a cloak, up from the grass, clutching her by the front of her cloak. The brigands were too far away for them to hear anything, yet the message was conveyed when, eyes widened in anger, Chrom watched a knife bury itself into Robin's stomach, clutched in the hands of a pot-bellied murderer. He heard gasps behind him, harmonizing with the loud beating of his heart. Shaking with fury, he drew Falchion from its scabbard and charged.

"Bolganone!" He heard Maribelle scream behind him, and the gallop of Lissa's horse punctuated each step he took. The brigands turned from the wounded girl and grinned at the prince and his companions.

"Heh! The Ylissean tactician AND its crown prince?! At this rate, we'll become saints in Plegia!" The man who had stabbed Robin laughed as he unsheathed his axe, gleaming silver and probably stolen from another traveller.

Chrom spared no time. He ran a sword through anyone who dared oppose him, with a speed and brutality that was so foreign to him. Beside him, magic electrified the air as Maribelle slung spell after spell at the brigands, their bodies dropping heavily on the ground, useless against the arcane arts. Those that managed to evade the blasts of energy met their end at the point of Lissa's axe and Sumia's spear. The two were relentless, hurling cold steel at the brigands mercilessly. The Shepherds may have been outnumbered, but the brigands were definitely outclassed. Frederick rode to Robin while his allies fought the quickly dwindling number of enemies, gravely assessing the lady's injuries. A small pool of blood shone in the moonlight, and the girl's grey eyes were becoming glassier by the minute. He screamed for his wife, startling her from the massacre, for Frederick had never screamed before. Maribelle rode away from battle and towards the fallen lady, the anger from earlier having clouded her judgement. She should have taken care of Robin first! Lissa followed suit as Sumia and Chrom took care of the last couple brigands.

"Robin, stay strong!" Maribelle said nervously as her fingers encircled the rudimentary handle of the blade. In a swift movement, she pulled the blade out, eliciting a screech of pain from her friend. Blood gushed out of the wound and the noble lady began to recite a well-memorised spell to heal the fallen tactician. Lissa joined her best friend in the enchantment, eyes closed in concentration. Frederick turned to aid his lord, but was startled and possibly sickened as he watched his lord confront Robin's assailant, thrusting the point of his sword through the man's neck, ending his life immediately. The enemy has been decimated; however the troubles were only beginning. Chrom pushed away Frederick, his blue eyes fearfully scanning his beloved's prone form, her eyes unfocused, lips flaked over in dryness, her breath coming in gasps.

"Robin!" The lord gasped, his bloody hands cradling her face, shaking as he noted how hauntingly pale she was in the moonlight.

"Chrom..." she muttered, her voice barely a whisper, "What are you all doing here?" Maribelle hovered over her and began tearing at her robes, exposing a short wound that seemed to endlessly spew crimson blood regardless of how much she tried to staunch it with her handkerchief. The skin was not healing since the injury was deeper than magic could heal.

"The wound is too deep! We're going to need a more intense spell!"

"Me!? What's wrong with you!?" Chrom screamed over Maribelle, his reply not one of concern. Not one of fear, or relief either. Rather, he was angry, furious even. "Why in Naga's name did you run off?!"

"I needed to leave... To remove myself from your life. Chrom... I truly meant it for your own benefit. So…please...stay away." Robin croaked, finding it difficult to speak, most of the time due to the breaths that seem so adamant in abandoning her lungs. Each breath hurt, aggravating her wound. Her eyes fluttered, the darkness threatening to devour her vision. Above her, Maribelle was screaming for the lord to stop, but Chrom continued, the hurt and anger in his eyes made her hurt too. She was the cause of those emotions that made his eyes dull in misery. No one should have to undergo that, especially because of her.

She wanted to die for the sin of marring her lord's beautiful face with pain, but by the way she felt, it could only be soon now. A small smile graced her lips, a simple gesture that made everyone around her panic madly.

"Robin, how is this to MY benefit? You did this without consulting me! You didn't take me into consideration at all! Gods... You're a smart girl, Robin! Why would you go and try to ruin the rest of my life!?" Chrom kept talking, trying to keep her on this plane of existence. Gods, the anger he felt dissipated at the sight of her smile. It was like death was bartering with her, and that small, tragically empty smile meant that she accepted.

"Chrom, we need to move her back to the castle. She's not going to make it otherwise! Sumia has left her pegasus. Take it and fly to the castle as quickly as you can without aggravating her wound. Sumia took your horse and has already ridden up ahead to alert Miriel and Libra of the situation. If we ride straight, we'll reach the castle before daybreak!" Lissa urged her brother to pick up the tactician and hurry to the white feathered Pegasus.

Chrom gingerly cradled his love in his arms, gasping in surprise as he saw how much blood had soaked the ground below her."Chrom..." She smiled up at him again, her glassy eyes filling with tears. She snuggled closer to his heart. Just hearing the organ soothed her better than anything she knew. It gave her the necessary strength to let him go. "I know it will hurt... But you'll recover. You'll be a stronger king because of this... You'll find someone truly deserving of your love and strength... And you will forget me."

Chrom flinched, the large strides he was taking towards his horse halted, Robin's words momentarily making the prince stop in his tracks. "How do I even begin to forget you?! You can't seriously think I'll forget about you! You can't think I'll move on from you! Please, don't leave me…" He began to run to his horse, jostling his precious passenger as he mounted the beast.

Briefly, she looked into his eyes and shocked him with the contented bittersweet happiness that shone through her tears. "Yes... I know you will. You won't remember me, but you'll be thankful... You've made me happy, Chrom. I'll be forever grateful for the time we had..." She sighed and then closed her eyes. Chrom's heart stopped beating for a second.

"Robin, no! Open your eyes, dammit! OPEN YOUR EYES!"

Right, Chapter 5 has a lovely little surprise waiting for you all. It involves our favourite star-dust-haired heroine, and whoever guesses the surprise will earn a one-shot written to their requests! The only hint I can leave lies in the chapter before this one. Toodle doo~!