Chrom logged into his account and a message popped up on the screen.

"Would you like to:

- Transfer your account?

Or

- Create a new avatar?"

It would be much easier for him to just transfer his account from FE:A than to create a whole new one. Plus, if he did see Robin, she'd be able to recognize him right away.

He chose the first option, and after loading for a few seconds, another message popped up.

"Thank you! Launching game..."

Suddenly he opened his eyes to see that he was inside the game, inside a town of people. He was supposed to meet Lucina, Morgan, and the others at a tavern in one of these cities, one called Alfaria. The buildings were tall and glossy, nothing like the ones in FE:A. Some shot straight up, while others had curling and twisting designs. They all reflected the color of pale blue, the sunlight bouncing off the reflective walls of the towers.

He examined himself at the nearest tower, which was so shiny that it showed his reflection. He looked just like he did in FE:A with some changes to his clothes. Over his black suit he had a white, thin, and sleeveless jacket that fanned out at his waist slightly, his pauldron gone. The sleeve on his left arm was loose and resembled a jacket sleeve.

He opened up the menu to see where he was and how far Alfaria was from his location.

"This is how FE:A was supposed to be," he thought. "But they removed all the in-game features so that it seemed like we weren't actually within a game."

The former prince opened up the map to see that he was in a town called Junne, fortunately located right next to Alfaria.

He decided to head there and began to do so before he heard someone yelling in awe behind him.

"Whoa! You have the Lord class?!" A teen asked. "Where'd you get it from?"

Unfortunately for Chrom, he was causing quite a ruckus, people staring at him.

"I, um-" he tried to explain.

"I'll buy your avatar from you!" The boy said excitedly.

"Actually, this avatar is from a transferred account," Chrom finally said clearly. "So I can't sell it, sorry."

"Aww," the teen fairy began to slink away.

After he was out of sight, Chrom opened up his menu again, checking his stats.

It read:

"Class: Lord

Level: 10"

And under it had all his stats. Curiously, he tapped on the Lord description to see why that kid must have wanted it so bad.

"Lord- A youth of royal blood. Wields swords. "

That bit didn't seem very interesting. Sure, he was a prince in FE:A, but wielding swords wasn't a very coveted skill. It wasn't until he read under that he began to see why it was a rare class.

"Rarity- Tranferred accounts only"

Apparently one could only get the Lord class from tranferred accounts. He opened his inventory in surprise to see Falchion there. He also saw a rapier and a noble rapier. "Lords only," they said, and they were effective against both mounted and armored units. To his knowledge, instead of horses, there were unicorns in Yume Online. Much more exciting than horses, to say the least. But looking around, he saw many fairies in large armored suits, perfect targets for his rapier. Clicking on Exalted Falchion, he read the description.

"Chrom only," it said.

Perhaps this game was more intricate than he thought. In FE:A, nobody else had been able to wield Falchion besides Lucina because only a select few among even the Exalted bloodline were capable of doing so. Lucina had her own Falchion, so it stood to say that the other Falchion was exclusive to Lucina.

Speaking of Lucina, he had to meet up with her and the others soon. He headed to the edge of the town when he remembered that in this game, flying was pretty much 90% of the reason players joined. And he didn't have a clue on how to do it. He flipped through the slide guides to the game and finally found a page on how to do it.

"Flying- To open your wings, simply picture wings sprouting on your back under the shoulder blades. Then, imagine the wings spreading out."

He read that far and began to try and do so, and it worked. He could feel the wings on his back growing, until they were full size. They were black in color and looked somewhat transparent. Of course they looked cool and all, but they were no use to him if he couldn't fly.

"To fly, flap your wings until you begin to lift off the ground. Once you begin to hover in the air, continue to flap your wings as you take flying position in the direction you want to go."

At first he had trouble getting the hang of the flapping in the air part, but after he did, he took flying position and his wings propelled him across the top of the forest outside of Junne. He screamed as the wind hit his face, making him cold. After he got over his initial shock, he found that he quite enjoyed flying. Soon, the pink, square buildings of Alfaria were in view and he flew towards it excitedly. The prince felt like a seven year old boy playing with a new Christmas toy.

It didn't dawn on him that he hadn't the slightest idea how to land before he rammed into one of the buildings painfully, his wings disappearing as he fell on the ground with a loud thud.

The fairies and fliers around him scattered, startled, before he heard a slow clap along with a familiar laugh behind him.

"Wow, what an entrance!" Lissa laughed.

Chrom huffed and stood up, brushing the dust off his clothes.

"Oh, well I'm sorry I wasn't spawned here," he grumbled.

The princess giggled.

"Hehe, sorry," she said. "But it was pretty hilarious."

The prince sighed at his sister.

"Whatever. Let's go meet up with everyone at the tavern," he sighed.

"Alright!" Lissa beamed.

She, like Chrom, looked identical to herself in FE:A, only her the front of her dress was cut from the belt down at the front, a brown skirt under it, along with long boots. Her headband at the front was gone, leaving only a lace headband tied around her head.

They both walked to the tavern, a small building near the middle of the bubblegum-colored city.

Upon entering, they immediately saw Olivia, Inigo, Lucina, Morgan, and Frederick at a large table near the corner. Olivia took notice of them and motioned them over with a smile.

They did so, and took seats next to them. Morgan greeted his father before returning to talk to Inigo, Lucina fiddling with her gloves.

Olivia wore her dancer outfit, looking exactly the same as she did in FE:A with the exception of the pink fairy wing tattoo on her left cheekbone.

Inigo had the garb of a mercenary on, the same one they had recruited him in. Interestingly, all of the children's clothes were the ones they found them in.

Lucina, much like Chrom, had her cape altered so that there was room for her wings, otherwise looking the same as always.

Morgan, much to Chrom's surprise, wore the same cloak as his mother, looking identical to her. It made him both happy and sad at the same time.

Frederick wore his large blue and white suit of armor, only this one wasn't designed for use on a mount. Though unicorns did exist, their lack of wings made them much less favorable than pegasi within the game. They were only used for boss missions in which pegasi hadn't the space to freely fly around a boss room.

"Hey, where's Owain?" Lissa asked, sliding in her seat next to Frederick.

Frederick shook his head.

"He's not here yet, dear," he replied. "Perhaps he spawned in a town further away from the rest of us."

The blonde girl sighed.

"He better make it. Hopefully he doesn't get sidetracked on the way here..."

Chrom took a seat next to Lucina.

"Are you alright, Father?" She asked. "You seem stressed."

He sighed.

"I'm fine, thank you," the exalt responded with a sigh. "I'm just a bit out of it from colliding with a building."

"That was you?" She tried to stifle her laughter. "There were some people talking about as they walked in."

The blue-haired princess had been smiling and laughing more often, thanks to Inigo. Chrom was glad for that.

They laughed together, and Chrom told her the story of how it happened.

After they were done chatting, Olivia spoke.

"Chrom, would you mind forming the guild now?" She asked patiently.

"Not at all," he replied.

He sent all of them friend and guild requests, naming them, of course, the Shepherds.

"Hey, where are all the other children?" Chrom asked Olivia.

She stirred the straw in her lemonade.

"As far as I know, they haven't been transferred yet," the dancer responded.

"... I see."

It was heartbreaking. The fact that it could have been Lucina or Morgan scared him. He felt so awful for their parents.

"Anyways, we better start searching for Robin after Owain gets here," Olivia said. "I think we should ask around first, although it's not reliable. Still, it's the best we've got at the moment."

Chrom nodded.

Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Then thirty. By then, everyone was worried sick.

"What's taking him so long?" Frederick wondered out loud. "He should be here by now."

Lissa played with her sleeves anxiously.

"Even if he is Owain, I'd figure he'd be able to make his way here by himself," she said nervously.

"We should search for him," Morgan proposed.

"Yes, that seems-" Chrom began to say before they noticed a horde of people clumping together outside the tavern. They all rushed outside to see what the ruckus was about.

At first Chrom couldn't see what was going on, but he heard Lissa's sharp gasp and her sobs and his heart fell.

A man in a black hood with a white mask decorated with red marks held Owain by the hair, the poor boy bruised and beaten, barely conscious. Another person stood behind him, his mask white with a black carving from his eyebrow dragging down to his cheek.

"This is what happens to those who cross into our territory," the one with the red marks held Owain higher, like a rag doll. "Take this as a warning, all of you!"

His voice was dark and raspy, yet each word struck fear in all who heard it.

"See what happens when you interfere with us!"

He kicked the boy in the back, Owain grunting as he fell unconscious on the stone floor.

Lissa's fists trembled in rage. She lunged at the man before Frederick, Chrom, or anyone else could stop her.

"You'll pay!" She screamed.

"Lissa, no!" Chrom called out in horror.

The princess punched him in the face before being slapped to the ground harshly by the other hooded person. She fell to the ground painfully.

Frederick and Chrom rushed to them, the former holding Lissa while the other picked up Owain.

"You," The figure with the black carvings said, facing Chrom. It turned out the person was a girl, her voice dark and thick like a storm cloud. "Your friend crossed the borders to our guild's territory. This is a mere warning; a small taste of our power. If this happens again, the consequences will be much more severe."

They turned around to leave.

"Wait!" Chrom shouted. "Who are you?"

"My name is Chimera," the female looked back to face him.

"Mine is Ryū," the other one said monotonously. "Remember our names, that you'll never impede us again."

They disappeared into the shadow, melting into the darkness.

The crowd began to disperse nervously, some eyeing Owain as they left.

"Lissa!" Frederick exclaimed, holding her in his arms.

"S-Sorry," she stuttered weakly. "... What I did back there was really stupid."

The great knight's brow furrowed in concern.

"You're lucky your HP doesn't go down in towns," he told her sternly. "If you died, I..."

"I know," Lissa said. "I'm so sorry."

She looked down at Owain, his head on Chrom's lap.

"Frederick, let me heal him," she said.

He complied and she pulled her staff out of her inventory, casting the incantation for a healing spell. The glowing yellow words surrounded her in a spinning cylinder before he got healed, his bruises and cuts fading away. Although one's HP doesn't go down in town, it doesn't heal them either.

Owain began to stir, awakening.

"M-Mother...?" He asked.

"Owain!" Lissa cried out, embracing him. "What happened?!"

"I... I was trying to fly here. But the place between the city I spawned in and here apparently belonged to that guild... When they saw I was there, they... They beat me up. Then they must have hauled me here and made an example of me..." He grunted, his pride wounded. "... I'm sorry for making you all worry."

Inigo looked at the ground.

"Owain... Don't you think they looked like..." His voice trailed off.

"The Grimleal," Lucina finished grimly. "With the hoods and all."

Owain nodded.

"That's what I was thinking," he said. "But I didn't realize it until I was getting dragged around."

A silence followed before Morgan spoke.

"... Could it really be them?"

"GRIMA, as in the AI, doesn't exist in this timeline," Lucina said. "How would they even know him?"

Inigo shook his head.

"No idea," he sighed. "But one thing's for sure; they're up to no good here.

Robin opened her eyes, blinking the dust out of them. She found she was in some sort of cage, like a bird's, about the size of an elevator room. Her hair was untied and grew to her lower back, and her tactician's cloak was ripped and torn, not doing much to keep her warm in the cold cage. The room she was in was dark, lit only by torches on the wall.

She stood up to see that there were no locks or doors on the cage. How did she get in there?

"Where am I?" She thought before gasping.

Chrom.

Where was Chrom?

The last she remembered, she had attacked Grima and faded away, Chrom running towards her. What had happened since then? Why hadn't she woken up? This certainly wasn't the hospital. Was she taken captive? She pondered these questions, not finding reasonable answers for them.

"It's been quite a while," a voice said.

A chill was sent up her spine. She knew that voice. It was like an old song she had forgotten about until she heard it again. He definitely sounded older, but she knew that voice clear as day.

He walked up to her and looked her in the eye, his grass green eyes staring into hers. "Robin."

She gritted her teeth.

"Where am I? And why are you here?" Robin demanded angrily.

He sighed.

"I know the last time we saw each other, we left on bad terms," he told her. "But I want you to know that I'm not supposed to be here right now."

That made her furious.

"Well if I wasn't here, I'd probably have woken up by now!" She exclaimed. "Don't you think I miss being in the real world?"

His brow furrowed.

"Miss the real world? Or miss Chrom, Lucina, and Morgan?" He asked calmly.

Her heart bounced up at that. How could he know?

"... I know how you and the prince got married and had children in the game," he continued. "And how you sacrificed yourself to end it."

He looked the cage up and down.

"Look at where that got you," he frowned. "All your other petty little friends couldn't care less about you. They know you haven't woken up and don't care. They're far too busy with their own lives to worry about you anymore."

Robin bit back tears.

"Why did you bring me here? What do you plan on doing with me?" She asked angrily.

"Changing the topic, I see? Fine. After all, it must be hard to know that the same people you saved are the ones who're turning their backs on you," he sighed. "But I didn't bring you here. And as on what we're to do with you, that's classified information."

He looked her in the eye one last time.

"Well, it was nice chatting with you," he informed her, a tinge of sadness in his voice. "It's a shame we won't be talking like this again."

A black fume began to rise from the bottom of the cage, its sickeningly sweet smell making her sluggish and sleepy.

"What... What's happening...?" She asked, falling to her knees.

He turned around and walked away towards the door, the smoke-like fog swirling around and suffocating her.

She coughed and tried to plug her nose to no avail before she blacked out, her last thoughts of Chrom and his comforting smile.

Author's Note: Thank you all so much for your reviews, follows and favorites. I'm sorry I'm not able to do any review responses this chapter because I'm in a rush to get on my next plane, but I'll definitely make sure to do all of them for the next one, which will be as soon as I get wifi, lol. Anyways, thank you again and as always, your feedback is precious to me. Stay tuned for the next chapter!