Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.
Worked around Fanfiction dot net's weirdness and put in # to show scene shifts. There were asterisks before, but for some reason this website didn't like that and wiped them so nothing showed up between scenes.
The idea of a golem stretched back to the ancient kingdom of Nohr. Stoneborn and Faceless they were called, constructs of rock and flesh. Faceless would go on to become Risen, magic masks being replaced with beetles, but the art of making Stoneborn would be lost…
Until Miriel discovered it. She made a functional Stoneborn in two months after discovering the art, and rapidly worked to improve the old designs.
Stoneborn were not as volatile as Faceless but were also far less mobile and less versatile. They were turrets for the most part, half-sentient catapults. Miriel wanted more. She wanted something equal to Faceless, but without the murderous impulses.
For three months she disappeared into her basement. She didn't leave for anything, and no one was allowed in.
Then the day came…
"Yes, well, if everyone is here." Miriel coughs, standing in front of the assorted Shepherds. "I present you the Replacement Operator for Battle, Ingenuity, and Negotiations. The R.O.B.I.N if you prefer."
Light footsteps clatter against the stone floor, and something emerges from the door behind her. It's a cloaked figure, adorned in Ylissian blues and golds. It's face is a mask of pale grey stone except for the blue gems that act as eyes. The R.O.B.I.N gives a stiff, unnatural bow to the group.
"That's so cool…" Lissa gasps. "Is it safe?"
"The R.O.B.I.N responds only to my command at the current time. In its default state, it is inactive. It will not move to harm anyone unless I say so." Miriel explains. "So yes, it is 'safe' as you say."
Chrom watched in fascination as Lissa walked up to the golem and said "hello!" in a cheery voice. The golem turned its head to watch her, not giving any other reaction.
"What can it do?" Frederick asks cautiously. "This creature is a modification of Stoneborn, yes? Surely it has combat capabilities."
"Indeed." Miriel nods, pushing her glasses further up her nose. "A demonstration then!"
They all move out to the training yard, and Miriel leads them over to the targets she and Ricken use for practice.
"Observe." The scholar says. "ROBIN, attack that target."
It's a simple command. ROBIN raises one hand, a secondary yellow gem in the palm glows brightly, and bolt of lighting snaps out to burn the center of the hay target.
"Admittedly it is not the strongest combatant." Miriel coughs. "ROBIN was designed to be a tactician first and warrior second. It's strength will improve over time, the adaptive mind I imbued it with should aid in that capacity."
"A tactician you say?" Chrom asks curiously.
"Indeed. I have implanted the knowledge of many book of war into ROBIN. However, this also requires improvement. It is paramount ROBIN learn and develop." Miriel explains. "I created a magical consciousness of sorts based off the human mind. He will learn like we do, but faster."
"Impressive." Frederick murmurs. "However, I should like to see that in action as well. Can it speak?"
Miriel purses her lips. "That is something I am yet to solve. I am in the process of studying the human vocal systems in order to determine what is needed to replicate speech. As of right now ROBIN can understand you but cannot respond."
The mage speaks a while longer about some of ROBIN's functions, and the demonstration ends. She requests the golem be allowed to observe them to learn, and Chrom agrees.
###
Chrom has taken to training ROBIN. The other Shepherds allow the golem to watch, but avoid interacting with it. Chrom remembers how Miriel claimed it learned as people did, and knew that the best way to learn was to do. So that was why he and the golem were standing on the packed dirt holding blunted wooden swords.
The first several rounds were quickly won by Chrom. ROBIN had no finesse, a bad stance, and no concept of how to swing a sword. That slowly started to change as they fought more and more. Chrom started to speak as they fought, explaining his actions to the golem. Sometimes the prince fought slowly, so as to give the golem time to process.
It worked. In two weeks ROBIN was still not a good swordfighter, but was an acceptable novice. Stance was the biggest issue for the golem, the idea that it had to position its body a certain way to fight better was hard for it to grasp.
Strictly speaking the golem still only took commands from Miriel, but it listened to Chrom when he spoke and never refused an offer to spar. ROBIN started to follow him around; even when Chrom did paperwork the golem would stay in the same room. It looked out the window, watching as the Shepherds sparred and trained outside while Chrom went through stacks of papers.
Sometimes it even fetched Chrom things when he asked, like a new quill or more ink. The other Shepherds thought it unnatural, but Chrom liked having ROBIN around.
###
"Seriously Chrom, it's like that thing is your new best friend." Lissa chuckles, sitting on the sidelines as Robin (Chrom insisted on spelling it like an actual name) and her brother sparred. It had been a month since Robin was revealed, and the princess swore Chrom spent more time training the golem than he did home at the castle.
"He's quite personable when you get to know him." Chrom jokes, blocking a clumsy strike from Robin. The prince also insisted that Robin was a 'he' due to the design of the mask.
"It's not a person you know. It isn't human."
"How do you know he isn't a person?" Chrom counters. "The taguel aren't human, and neither are manakete. Does that mean the Voice isn't a person?"
"You're being ridiculous." Lissa chuckles. "It's made of rock Chrom."
The prince scowls. He thrusts his blade at Robin who awkwardly deflects with its own. "So? What if he really is and you just hurt his feelings?"
The princess snorts. "Gods, you're pouting over a golem."
"I happen to like this golem." Chrom pouts.
Lissa rolls her eyes and stops arguing the point. She for one, thinks its stupid to think of this thing as a person. Chrom has always been overly attached though, he even calls his sword by name.
Seriously, she knows it's mythical and whatnot, but who actually calls their weapon by name?
###
"It is finished." Miriel says, emerging from her workshop. "The golem is undamaged, the installation went perfectly."
Chrom is relieved to hear it. He didn't expect anything to go wrong, Miriel is far too intelligent not to anticipate problems and have solutions, but he couldn't help worrying anyways. "That's good to hear."
"In fact…" The mage murmurs, pushing her glasses up and grinning a bit. It's the telltale sign that she's proud of something. "Perhaps you'd prefer to hear it from ROBIN directly?"
Robin walks out of the room, and there are a few notable changes. The mouth now clearly has a hinge on either side, and even as he walks Robin is clearly testing the new addition. It's a bit unnatural to watch Robin's new mouth open far wider than any human could manage, and on the inside Chrom can see a small, flexible, wooden protrusion, apparently acting as a tongue. "Oh… ahn… Com…" Robin says, his voice having a slight echo.
"It may take a while for him to learn to use his new additions." Miriel coughs. "But they are functional! I also took the liberty of modifying his joints. They are more nimble now, better adapted for swordplay. I did not expect anyone to be teaching him such a thing, but it is heartily encouraged for research and practical purposes."
Chrom is overjoyed, and spends the next three hours trying to get Robin to speak a proper word.
###
"Chrom."
The echoey voice is familiar by this point, and the prince looks up from his papers at Robin. "Yes Robin?"
He knows Robin isn't actually asking for anything. The golem has a tendency to say something just for the sake of getting a reaction. Miriel thinks it's practicing and making sure the words mean what he thinks they mean.
Chrom sort of wishes it wouldn't say his name so much though. It's by far the most common word Robin utters.
The golem stares at Chrom, his blue gem eyes unblinking as always. He doesn't say anything else and turns back to the window, watching the Shepherds fight. The prince rolls his eyes and goes back to his paperwork.
###
"Thrust, parry, sidestep, parry, riposte!" Chrom says, instructing Robin through the drill. The prince's own practice sword swings and blocks in time with the calls as the two go through the scripted fight. "Overhead, thrust, parry, strike, double!"
The shorthands aren't what the military would use, they're a system of Frederick's own devising. It's much simpler and easier to follow, and encourages improvisation and quick reactions. The vague commands like 'strike' and 'parry' make for personalized responses. That's not to say Frederick didn't ever teach Chrom to parry, but Chrom's way of doing it is different from Stahl's (who flicks his sword quickly as the strike is about to land to deflect it, rather than catching the blade with his own like Chrom does).
Robin opts to abuse his golem body, having no fear of fingers being cut off, and often blocks with his sword in one hand and grabs the enemy's weapon with the other. If they weren't doing a drill Chrom would have been disarmed after Robin's first parry.
In normal combat Chrom is much faster, and Robin is still yet to beat him. However the golem is approaching the level where Chrom is considering taking him on a mission. Risen are starting to run rampant, and an extra man would be quite useful. Robin's tactics are solid as well (though they're yet to see field use) and a skirmish with some weaker Risen would be a perfect time to test out his abilities.
Chrom proposes this to Frederick and Miriel, who both agree a test can be allowed.
###
Robin has enough mastery over speech to give simple commands, but relies more on the written plans he makes beforehand. They allow the golem half an hour of observing the Risen to make a plan, and Robin scribbles frantically the entire time. In the end they don't get to see most of the notes the golem makes, but the map it created is impressive. There are small arrows all over the map, noting strategies and backups, but Robin explains in broken words that the main strategy is just a long-range barrage of arrows and spells with Frederick, Kellam, Sully, and Stahl acting as a wall if they charge. The rest of the Shepherds will wait until the Risen charge those four, and then flank the monsters in a pincer.
The Risen are weak enough that the Shepherds could have all just charged and killed them without effort, but they follow the plan anyways. Virion, Miriel, Ricken, and Robin himself shoot down the Risen, and when the creatures charge the wall the rest of the Shepherds jump in on the flanks, effortlessly killing the monsters.
The fight goes well enough that they agree to let Robin act as tactician again, and from then on Robin trains his tactical skills on small roving bands of Risen using whatever Shepherds are available. The plans are usually simple, but it is noticeable how Robin makes an effort to diversify his plans and not use the same ones over and over. In this low-stakes environment the golem is testing, being creative.
That being said, Robin is cautious. The instant something seems to be going wrong it reverts back to tried and true strategies to prevent serious injury to the Shepherds.
###
"Good morning Chrom." Robin says flatly. The golem follows the prince as he moves to the training grounds.
"Morning Robin." Chrom greets. "I've got a big announcement today, can you get everyone to the training grounds for me?"
"Yes."
Everyone assembles in front of Chrom, sitting on logs and benches or leaning against the wall. The prince clears his throat and speaks. "Emmeryn has tasked us with a diplomatic mission to Ferox. Now, this mission is strictly voluntary-"
"Me!"
"I'm in."
"Count me in Captain!"
"I shall accompany you."
"The Vaike is ready to go!"
"I-I want to come to…"
Chrom smiles. He never expected anything else. "Good. We leave tomorrow, so anyone that needs anything should get it today. That being said, take today off. We've got a long march ahead of us."
The prince dismisses everyone, and they leave to go do various things. Stahl mentions buying tonics, Lissa chatters excitedly with Sumia about all the books they'll need to keep from getting bored, and Miriel murmurs something about new opportunities for science.
Robin, however, has a question. "Am I to stay here?" He asks, monotone as ever.
"I…" Chrom frowns. "I don't know. You're doing well, and it's not like I'm worried about you dying, but in the end it's Miriel's call. I don't have authority over you."
Robin nods, showing no other reaction.
In the end, Miriel allows Robin to come along. It's a learning experience, as Robin's stone form has trouble with mud and sometimes gets stuck. He fares a lot better in the snowy terrain due to not feeling the chill.
The battle at the Longfort was unplanned, but Robin had a strategy for it anyways. He calmly gave orders to brute-force one side and hold off any attack from the rear by using the stairs as a choke-point. He abused the fact that the Shepherds actually had mages to barrage the armor knights without ever getting closed to them, and even defeated the commander by sniping her with one of his own lighting bolts.
The guards let them in after that, apologizing profusely.
###
The loud "crack!" of something splitting stone grabs Chrom's attention. His head whips around to see the berserker standing over Robin lying unresponsive at his feet. The golem's head in broken, shattered into pieces by the man's hammer.
The berserker is killed within seconds. Falchion's point sliding straight through the man's chest. The prince mercilessly slaughters the nearby foes, calling for Miriel.
The mage responds quickly, running over while throwing out fire spells. She quickly kneels down next to the golem, grimaces, and picks up the blue gems that were his eyes and removes the smaller yellow ones from his hands.
Chrom stands over the two as Miriel forces the body apart, removing a large purple orb from Robin's chest. The prince knows that the purple orb is Robin. If the orb survives, Robin's 'mind' survives and a new body can be made.
Miriel pockets the gems and flees to the backlines. Chrom turns Falchion on the plegians once more, determined to end this quickly.
###
"Unusual." Robin notes, twisting his new arms. The upgraded design of his body allows for more human-like movement rather than the stiff but efficient movements of before. His face is also redesigned, having functioning eyelids, hidden hinges for the mouth, and carefully sculpted mirrors overtop his eye-gems to give the appearance of actual eyes. "I have many aesthetic additions."
He looks less like a statue and more like a stone doll. The look is uncanny, but Chrom thinks it's a big improvement. The golem now has makeshift hair created from strands of silk which add to the doll-like appearance.
There was little changed about his combat capabilities. Miriel admitted that such modifications would require reprogramming his gem to accept more inputs, which had a significant chance of erasing his memories. She left it to Chrom to decide and there was no way the prince was going to erase his friend, even to improve him.
And yes, Chrom would unabashedly call this golem his friend.
"Chrom, what are these additions for?" Robin asks.
"We realized that there's a good chance you'll continue to function past wartime." Chrom explains. "So we wanted to give you an appearance that's more… human. Well, you look more like a doll, but it isn't as off-putting as the statue look you had before."
"Existing in peacetime? What will I do then?" Robin asks curiously. "I don't have a protocall for such things."
"You'll have to choose for yourself." Chrom shrugs. "You're pretty much done being changed from now on. Miriel has no plans to order you around anymore, you're too independent. It's up to you what you do after the war. There are some things that might be problematic, but I'm sure we can work around them."
Robin falls quiet, thinking. Chrom doesn't disturb him during the walk back to the barracks.
###
The war ends with Gangrel's death. Peacetime follows, and everyone returns to their homes to enjoy time with family. Robin stays at the castle, spending lots of time in the library reading various books. History and any sort of craft (smithing, woodworking, etc...) seem to be his preference, maybe because they contain practical information.
The golem does still read literary books ('story' books if you prefer), but admits to Chrom one day that he can't wrap his head around romance novels. If he does go for a story book, Robin usually sticks to mystery.
In short: the golem doesn't have a goal or job in peacetime, he contents himself with reading and learning. Robin often spends days inside the library, having no need to eat, drink, or sleep. Whenever he drops by, the library workers often tell Chrom of the strange questions Robin asks about simple concepts like 'happiness', or how they'll find him in the same place for an entire week with only the shifting stack of books to indicate any change.
Chrom is just glad Robin found something to do.
###
"From Valm?" Emmeryn asks with a frown. "That does not bode well…"
"Unfortunately." Rami says with a grimace. "We spotted their warships approaching weeks ago, at this very moment they should be hitting shore. I was sent to request Ylissian aid against the incursion."
"We will provide it of course." Emmeryn says immediately. "The Shepherds will return with you while I organize the army."
"Of course, thank you Lady Emmeryn." Rami says, bowing.
Chrom rushes to summon the Shepherds, and they assemble within two days. Maribelle is the last to arrive, riding over from the dukedom of Themis. By the time Maribelle has arrived, the Shepherds are ready to march.
As the last supplies are loaded and everyone is doing last minute checks, Miriel pulls Chorm and Robin aside.
"Captain." The mage says, pushing up her glasses. "Before we leave, there is something- someone I must introduce you to. I was hoping she could come along with us."
A girl, only coming up to Chrom's chest, peers out from behind Miriel. She has white hair, blue eyes, and a cloak similar to Robin's.
The slight glow of her eyes from the gems behind the lense is the only giveaway that she isn't human.
"Allow me to introduce the Military Operations Research Golem Advisor and Notable." Miriel says dramatically.
"But you can call me Morgan!"
Morgan's name turned out better than Robin's. Overall, I like how Robin's questionable emotional state is shown. You never know if he's emoting or not. There's probably a lot more complex moral questions I could address here, but that's not really my style.
Zero kami no mu: You're more than welcome to make a suggestion, but there isn't a guarantee I'll put out a chapter for it. Some ideas I will just have difficulty making a chapter out of due to my own inexperience.
UmiNight Angel Neko: I should have just made this a compilation of random fire emblem short-stories and not just based on Robin because I would love doing more with that idea. Maybe I will one day…