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NotSoGreatGamerGirl: Haha, I'm glad you're enjoying my story! And don't tell anyone, but I keep my book full of cliffhangers under my bed. xD

"Welcome home, Morgan," Chrom greeted his son as he walked in.

"Hi, Father," Morgan replied, setting his backpack down and flopping onto the couch tiredly.

Chrom looked over from the island where he was doing work for his job to see his son sprawled out on the cushions.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Just a little... Tired..." Morgan's muffled voice said from the couch.

Lucina walked down from the staircase and stood above him somewhat loomingly before lifting him up and examining him.

"Wha-? Lucy, what are you doing?" He asked, startled.

"Checking for bruises, scratches, scars, and the like," she squinted, inspecting his face intently. "Did anyone hurt you?"

"Huh? No!" Morgan told her, but that didn't stop the princess from continuing to scan him.

"Hmm..." Lucina finally finished, crossing her arms. "It doesn't look like you've sustained any injuries. But if you do, then give me a name and they'll wish they were never born!"

"Um... Okay," Morgan's voice trailed off.

"Don't worry about it too much, Lucina," Chrom approached them. "I'm sure Morgan can take care of himself."

"Well, one can never be too sure..." She responded quietly. "I don't want to take any chances. Not anymore, with all that's happening..."

"I understand, Lucina, and I'm thankful for that, but he's at school, not the battlefield."

Lucina was about to protest before Owain opened the door and fell flat on his face, a loud thud echoing throughout the house. Chrom and Lucina scrambled to carry him to his bed while Morgan hastily filled a small bag with ice and placed it on his cousin's forehead to help with the bruise forming there. His mother was at medical school, while his father was working at the police station. After half an hour, he began to wake up.

"Hand... Hungers..." He mumbled.

"Owain, what was that?" Lucina demanded. "We were worried sick about you!"

He flinched at her angry tone before observing the ice pack on his forehead.

"Well, the last I remember, I told Morgan he could walk ahead of me, and then I opened the door," he said. "I take it I fell?"

"'Fell' is putting it mildly," Morgan told him. "You should be lucky your skull didn't bust open!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry..." He apologized. "It's just that school is exhausting! Sitting in a chair for nearly an hour at a time can really drain you, you know?"

Lucina sighed and went to get another ice pack while Morgan began to do his homework, and he and Owain studied their history book together. This wasn't very different from studying back in their world, except their history book was a metal file holder that held holographic pages. It was actually pretty cool how it was designed, so that the pictures could become 3D images.

He remembered how he and his mother would do this, reading books together in the library of the palace of Ylisstol about anything from history to fairy tales. It made him sad as he wondered where she was now, and if she okay. His aunt had promised to keep her safe, but that was his only reassurance.

"Morgan?" Owain asked, hitting his arm lightly.

"Huh? Sorry, I was just... Thinking," he replied.

"... You're thinking about your mother, aren't you?"

"I, um..." He sighed. "Yeah. I really miss her. I just hope she's alright."

"Of course she is! Your mother is the most brilliant tactician in the world! Surely she has a plan," Owain reassured him. "Don't worry, dear cousin, I'm sure she's doing fine."

"I hope so," Morgan replied, perking up a bit. "Now let's get back to studying!"

Robin walked into her room to see Jin there, sitting on a bed in the once-vacant corner.

"Mommy!" Robin ran downstairs back to the kitchen, where her mother was preparing lunch. "Why is he in my room?"

Her mother turned around to see Robin with a big pout on her slightly chubby (at the time) face, her large brown eyes staring up at her.

"Darling, you'll have to share a room with him for a while," she smiled down at her daughter.

"But he's a boy!" Robin protested.

"Hey, I have to share my room with a boy, too," her mother reminded her.

"Well yeah, but you're adults!"

"Alright, but just get along with him, Robin. He's a nice boy, you know," she returned to chopping her vegetables before she heard the door open.

"Welcome home, dear," she greeted her husband.

"Hello, Asuka," he responded with a smile. "Hello, Robin."

"Hi, Daddy!" Robin hugged her stepfather. He was everything she could possibly want in a dad. She hadn't grown up with one. Apparently, her parents had separated when she was little. Her mother, Asuka, had married her stepfather Shinji a few months ago after years of dating, and just recently they moved in.

"How did the interview go?" Asuka asked.

"Great," Shinji replied, removing his jacket and hanging it up on the coat rack. "They said I'll start work beginning next week."

"That's wonderful!" The two shared an embrace before Jin walked downstairs shyly.

"Jin, why don't you go draw on the sidewalk with your sister?" Shinji proposed.

"Okay," the boy replied quietly.

Robin grabbed the chalk bucket from the closet and goaded Jin to come with her, opening the bucket and handing him a blue piece of chalk.

"Alright, what are you gonna draw?" She pulled a green piece of chalk from the bottom of the bucket and proceeded to start drawing.

For a while, Jin simply watched her, observing the tree she sketched out on the pavement.

"Well?" Robin asked him again. "Don't you think this is fun?"

"I do, but... I've just never been good at drawing," Jin muttered.

"So?" His stepsister frowned. "Just because you're not good at it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it."

After some hesitation, he picked out a white piece of chalk and began to squiggle out the lines of a cloud, causing Robin to grin.

"See? You're not so bad at this after all!" She told him. "You're actually a really good artist!"

"Thanks," he smiled slightly. "I actually like doing this kind of stuff."

She bumped him with her elbow teasingly.

"Heehee, I think that's the first time I've ever seen you smile!"

"Oh... Yeah, I guess."

"Hmm... Maybe I won't mind sharing my room with you after all!" She laughed.

The years passed by so quick. Over time, the two grew so close to the point where it felt like they were blood related. However, their bond began to fall apart when they were eighteen.

"Diving again?" Jin asked, walking into their small and somewhat cramped room that they shared for more than eight years.

"Yeah," Robin responded, placing the NerveGear on her lap.

Jin sat down on his bed, adjacent to Robins's, looking at her.

"Sometimes you're using that thing for hours at a time," he told her. "I'm starting to get worried about you."

"You're always worried about me," she laughed. "I'll be fine."

"No, that's not what I mean..." His voice trailed off. "It feels like you're not even here anymore when you're using the NerveGear."

"Well, technically I'm not..." Robin responded.

Jin sat on her bed, next to her.

"Robin... What's so special about that world that makes you like it even more than this one?"

"A lot of things, actually," Robin replied matter-of-factly. "There are things there that I can't do here."

"... Are you seeing someone?" Jin questioned her, staring her dead in the eye.

"Well, I've made a few friends, but not one specific person," she told him confusedly. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm worried if someone there you care about hurts you, that maybe then you'd-"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'd never do something like that."

"You never know."

"Yes I do," she reassured him.

Jin sighed deeply before kissing her forehead and embracing her. He then stood up, digging through his closet to find his jacket.

"I'm going out," he told her.

"This late?" Robin frowned.

"Party," Jin replied.

"You don't want me to come with?" She asked, concerned.

"No, it's fine," he told her. "Just stay here. I'll be alright."

He headed for the door before Robin stopped him, grabbing his arm.

Jin looked back in confusion before Robin kissed his cheek.

"Be careful," she warned him.

"I will," he responded surely.

She smiled and hugged him. A few years ago, he had gotten taller than her. It was strange at first, but she eventually got used to it.

He hugged her back as she rested her head on his collarbone.

"Alright, I should go now," he said before leaving.

Robin laid down in her bed, NerveGear on, after watching him leave from the window. She took a deep breath and let it out.

"Link start."

Jin continued to attend parties nearly every week on a monthly basis, and soon Robin was the one who began to become worried about him. One night, he was about to leave when she stopped him outside the door.

"Robin?" He asked.

"Jin, you've been going out a lot lately," she told him sternly. "And you come back awfully late."

"I..." His voice trailed off, Robin sensing guilt.

"Is there something you're hiding from me? You haven't been talking to me much, recently."

"No, I'm not," he fibbed.

"You're a horrible liar," she said. "You never did that to me before."

"Robin, just..."

"Just what?"

"Just leave me alone. Please," he refused to meet her eye.

"Jin, you know I can't do that," she held his face. "Please, tell me what's wrong."

To her shock, he pushed her hand away.

"... I can't."

Her eyes widened.

"Jin... Have you been smoking? ... And drinking?" She asked in disbelief. His breath smelled like cigarettes and his jacket like beer.

At that, he turned away and ran towards his car. She yelled for him to come back, but it was icy outside and she didn't have any shoes. She watched in horror as he drove off hastily.

Robin waited in the living room for two hours for her parents to come home from a dinner they were attending with friends. But they didn't. Robin was pondering going after Jin herself, but she had no idea where he was. At around two in the morning, she got a call from the police.

"Hello?" She picked up the home phone hastily.

"Hello, this is the police station," the voice at the other end of the line said. "Are you Robin Validar?"

"Yes, that's me," her voice was panicked, her heart falling down to her stomach. "What's going on?"

"... I'm sorry to say this, but your stepfather is dead, and your stepbrother is in the hospital."

At first, the shock of the words stunned her, rendering her unable to speak, all the words stuck in her throat. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to punch something in frustration. But most of all, she wanted to collapse on the floor out of sheer grief. And that, she did.

Visiting Jin was almost as sad as her father's funeral had been. Her mother had decided to stay at a friend's house over night, while her father had apparently seen Jin's car driving on the road and attempted to follow him, but Jin's car suddenly crashed into his, killing Shinji Ryū. It was confirmed that Jin had been intoxicated while driving. Robin cursed herself. How had she let this happen? She should have watched over him better. Robin drove to the hospital absentmindedly to meet her mother there and visit Jin.

Upon walking into what was apparently his hospital room, she gasped. His once-strong body was now bony and shriveled, his skin an unhealthy shade of grey. Over his head was a MediCuboid, and he was sealed off in a room next to the one she was in.

"... Jin?" She stared through the glass in stunned shock.

He heard him laugh, but she didn't see his lips moving, and his laugh was chillingly cold.

"Robin... You finally came," he said, his voice dry.

"He's hooked up to the MediCuboid," the doctor explained to her. "He can hear and see us."

"It's funny..." Jin continued to say. "I always hated this virtual world you immersed yourself in... And here I am, trapped in it for probably the rest of my sad life."

Robin said nothing for a few seconds, before the doctor placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Perhaps you'd like to speak with him face-to-face?" He gestured to a NerveGear in the next room.

She nodded and signed in, finding herself in a black room, facing Jin. He looked the same as he did before they started to grow apart, healthy and alive.

"Robin," he approached her, grabbing her shoulders. "... I love you."

He then forced his lips onto hers, kissing her. For a few seconds she was surprised, but then tried to break out of it before she felt his hands wrapping around her neck.

"I LOVED YOU, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?" He lifted her above the ground, her feet rising into the air as she struggled to breathe, gasping and coughing. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! IF YOU HADN'T STARTED PLAYING THOSE STUPID GAMES, THEN I WOULDN'T HAVE BECOME SO LONELY! IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU ALL THIS HAPPENED!"

She tried to pry his fingers off her neck, but they constricted around her throat tight. Robin began to lose vision before she was logged off by the doctor, waking up in the bed in a panic, gasping for air that she already had.

"I'm so sorry," the doctor apologized.

Robin looked to the door to see her mother watching a monitor on the wall, and upon closer inspection she saw Jin there as he yelled expletives at the screen angrily before Asuka ran towards her daughter, hugging her tight.

"My poor girl, are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah..." She stuttered. She could still feel Jin's fingers choking her neck tightly, the feeling horrible and as gut-wrenching as the words he spoke as he did it.

"Jin is mentally unstable," the doctor explained to both of them. "His brain sustained major damage during the impact of the accident... I'm sorry."

Ever since then, Robin never visited him or played any VR games, until she was twenty. She had obtained a copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening (Online), a new game that the beta testers claimed was one of the best ever invented. Robin decided it was time to get over her phobia and logged in at the launch of FE:A to play it for herself. Little did she know, she wouldn't leave that game for almost four years of her life.

Jin sat in the middle of a column of spinning images, watching the happenings of FE:A. He had been hired as the moderator FE:A to make sure all was going smoothly and the server remained intact. The hospital staff had no idea, as the CEO of Grima Co. had hacked into his hospital server and offered him the job in secret. The green eyed man narrowed his eyes at a certain white-haired woman with two long ponytails, who carried a blue-haired baby in her arms. She was joined by a man with blue hair wearing a long white cape, who smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her. Jin swiped his arm at the image furiously, anger festering within him. He would see to it that no matter what, Robin would he his, and his alone.

Author's Note: And scene! I hope you enjoyed this short little chapter, though it was mainly a backstory explanation. I left some details out, so expect those to be filled in later. Also, I'm thinking of making another story in the same "series" to represent another arc of the plot after I finish this one. In other words, I'm planning a sequel! Although I'm doing sequels for some of my other stories as well, I'll do this one first because Awakening isn't an ongoing series (atm at least). Anyways, thanks for reading and please leave feedback! Stay tuned for the next chapter!