Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.
Basically Weeping Angel Robin. I like this idea, but it's a challenge to write.
Everyone else thinks the statue is strange, but Chrom likes it. The statue depicts a girl with a longcoat with her eyes closed, but the hair is made of bronze, the skin is marble, and the coat is grey stone with gold highlights. It's a curious choice of materials, rather than just using one the artist used four different kinds. The girl also has a normal levin sword on her belt. The Prince thinks all this is very unique
Why there's a statue in the middle of this empty bandit camp is beyond him, but Chrom thinks it doesn't detract from the quality of the work. The statue seems to be in perfect condition and it's very life-like. The quality is truly astonishing.
"What should we do with it?" Lissa asks curiously.
"We leave it." Frederick scoffs. "We have no means of transporting it."
"Come on Frederick, we're not that far from the village." Sully chuckles. "It can fit in our supply cart, we'll pick it up tomorrow on our way home. Besides, the captain seems to like it."
Chrom won't deny that. "I do think it's well made. Besides, maybe the bandits that used to camp here stole it or something. We could try to find who it was taken from."
The knight rolls his eyes. "It is your call Milord…"
"We'll come back for it then." The prince says, patting the statue on the shoulder. He blinks in surprise, touching cloth rather than stone. "This is an actual coat…"
"Really?" Lissa asks, she pokes the statue in the stomach. "Huh, so it is. Wait…" She reaches up and tentatively touches the cheek. "Okay that's freaky. It totally feels like skin."
"What, so it's a mime now?" Sully snorts, stomping over. "One way to find out. Hey girl! Move or I'll punch you!"
"Sully!" Stahl scolds.
"Not doing anything huh?" Sully continues when the statue doesn't move. "Here ya go then!" She reels back a fist and jab it into the statue's stomach. Nothing happens, so she shrugs. "See? Just a statue. Maybe it feels like she has skin, but I'll bet it's just silk or something over stone. That damn well felt like punching rock."
"Can we not punch the statue?" Chrom sighs, smoothing out its coat. "Let's just go back to Southtown. We'll pick it up tomorrow."
"Yeah yeah." Sully snorts. "Hey, do you think that's a real levin sword though? Should we-"
"We're not stealing the sword." Chrom says firmly. "This statue belongs to someone, we're not taking their stuff until we have tried every possible avenue to find the owner."
"Fine, fine… but we're passing up a fine weapon." The cavalier grumbles.
The Shepherds start walking down the path back to the main road, and Chrom gives one last glance to the statue. It feels wrong to just leave it here, but they need the cart to transport it…
...and the prince swears it was looking straight ahead just a few moments go, but the statue is looking down the path after them. It must be a trick of Chrom's mind, the statue must have always been looking that way.
###
"Lissa!" Chrom hollers. The moan of the new walking corpses surrounds him, and the prince is dodging swipes from axes and spears with every step he takes. "Lissa!"
He doesn't understand; why did a giant eye appear in the sky? Why did it drop these monstrous undead on the town? More importantly, where is Chrom's sister?!
"Chrom!" Lissa's shrill voice catches his attention, and his head whips around to the forest. The blonde-haired girl is backing away from one of the creatures in fear, and is forced to dart into the first. Chrom curses and gives chase, he wants to help the other Shepherds but Lissa has no weapon, they'll have to fend for themselves.
The prince starts his desperate race through the forest, chasing his sister through the light of the full moon. Even with the glow, he's navigating mostly by light bouncing off the creature's armor and weapon as it runs. The trees block too much light to see reliably, and Chrom stumbles more than once.
Suddenly the creature halts in place. Chrom is too far to see what happened, but the undead is flailing at some unseen attacker. Getting closer, the prince can see the monster is impaled by a jagged sword thrumming with electrical magic. Lissa, no longer hearing the creature following her, stops running and turns around. Her face is white with fear, but seeing the creature disappear into smoke prompts her to cautiously make her way to Chrom.
The prince, on the other hand, is staring in disbelief (and no small amount of fear) at the person that killed the undead. The statue from before stands there, perfectly immobile with her sword outstretched. Her eyes are open, and at this point Chrom can see that she doesn't have sculpted eyes but two black holes where eyes would usually be.
"That's terrifying…" Chrom breathes, stepping away from the statue.
"Is that the same statue?!" Lissa shrieks. "Did it just stab a zombie?! Oh gods!"
"I-It's not moving now though." Chrom stammers. "And I swear it moved it's head when we were walking away from it before… can it only move when we aren't looking at it?"
"Gods, gods, gods…" The princess is starting to hyperventilate. "I was prepared for brigands, maybe seeing some blood, but not zombies and killer statues!"
The prince exchanges a glance with his sister, they both realize what they just did, and instantly looks back at the statue. Sure enough the statue has moved, it's sword is now by its side and it has taken a step towards them, free hand outstretched
The two of them do the logical thing people do when confronted with something completely terrifying: they get the hell out of there. The siblings run full speed back to the town, zombies be damned. The entire way back they throw glances behind them, half expecting to see the killer statue chasing them through the woods.
###
With the combination of zombies and killer statues, the Shepherds ride all the way back to Ylisstol in one trip as soon as the undead are dealt with. Needless to say they're all about to fall over, but Chrom and Frederick move to speak with Emmeryn as soon as they arrive.
If she hadn't gotten reports from other sources about the zombies, Chrom is almost positive his older sister would assume he was drunk from the way he can barely keep himself upright out of sheer exhaustion.
"I've heard nothing of statues, but we have received reports of these undead creatures all across Ylisse." Emmeryn says grimly. "The council has named them 'Risen', and we will be holding an emergency tomorrow to discuss them. Get some rest Chrom, we have long days ahead of us."
Chrom gratefully makes his way to his room, pausing only to bid goodbye to Frederick (who needs sleep himself) and collapses in his bed.
###
"Gaaagh…"
Chrom startles awake at the sound of someone gagging. He scrambles for Falchion, rolling out of his bed onto the floor and holding the holy sword in front of him.
An assassin is leaning over his bed, body suspended by the levin sword through its chest. Blood drools from the man's mouth, dripping onto the sheets, and a dagger slips free from his lax fingers.
The statue standing behind him is as silent as ever, but has its head turned towards Chrom and stares with empty eyes. The blue-haired boy had almost convinced himself he'd imagined seeing the thing a week ago, but here it is.
"Y-Y-You f-followed m-me…" Chrom stammers, his hands shaking as much as his voice. His eyes flick to the door, noting that it is in fact open. He can run right now if he needs to. "Wh-What do y-you want?!"
The statue- no, it can't be a statue. Clearly it's alive. Chrom is certain it can't move so long as he keeps looking at it. There's no guarantee it can communicate at all, and the prince doesn't want to look away to find out. However, he also can't ignore the fact that someone just tried to assassinate him and this thing quite possibly saved his life. If it has information, Chrom needs to let it speak.
Still trembling, Chrom slowly closes his eyes. "Wh-What do you know?" He asks, tensing in fear. "Why are you here?"
The prince hears the ruffling of cloth and a sickly 'thump' as the assassin's body slides off the levin sword. A soft, musical, echoing voice whispers: "Emmeryn is in danger. Go Chrom…"
Chrom doesn't waste time. He has little reason to disbelieve this thing after it saved his life, even if it terrifies his. He scrambles into his armor and barrels down the hallway, making a mad dash for Emmeryn's room.
The sound of combat rises from the hall in front of him. It seems the thing wasn't lying. Chrom runs past his teammates, already awake, fighting off more cloaked assassins. Sully is dueling one of them sword-to-lance, and Frederick is gallantly blocking the entrance to Emmeryn's room by fighting off three of them at once.
"Hah!" Chrom shouts, stabbing one of Frederick's attackers in the back. "Frederick, what's the situation!?"
"Assassins in the castle Milord." The knight grunts. "However, we have obtained a few new allies, including a thief with orange hair. Don't stab him by accident."
"The others?"
"A taguel woman and a blue-haired boy with a mock Falchion." Frederick says quickly, gutting yet another assassin. "According to the boy, there is a sorcerer by the name of Validar leading the attack."
"Are all the Shepherds here?"
"Yes Milord."
"I'll find a few people to stay here and guard Emmeryn, the rest of us will go take the fight to Validar." Chrom grunts.
The prince spends the next few minutes running around the few adjacent hallways gathering the Shepherds. He recruits Kellam, Ricken, Maribelle, Virion, and their new ally Panne to guard his sister. The remainder of the Shepherds form up into a tight squad and march through the halls, following Marth's lead as he navigates them through the hallways to Validar's position.
"So, you're still alive Prince?" A lanky, grey-skinned man sneers, hoisting a Waste tome. The cavaliers surrounding him level their lances, preparing to charge. "No matter, I'll deal with you myself!"
The Shepherds scatter to avoid the charging cavaliers. Federick is the only one who doesn't seem to car, and unseats one of the lesser knights with a solid swing of his lance.
Validar quickly proves himself a dangerous foe, his Waste spell nearly tears Vaike's arm off when the blond-haired man tries to fight him. Miriel distracts the man with a barrage to fire, and the two mages start to duel as Lissa heals up Vaike.
"Your demise is nigh!" Miriel shouts. She sidesteps another blast of dark magic and pulls a massive fireball from her tome. The mage hurls the ball of fire at surprising speeds, blasting the sorcerer with scorching flame.
"No…!" Validar coughs, taking a few staggered steps backwards. "This is… wrong! It was- ack- all... written!"
"A foolish notion." Miriel huffs, readjusting up her glasses. "The future is shaped as a consequence of past and current actions and decisions. While it can certainly be predicted, it is never certain."
The man snarls, and despite his injuries pulls a small pendant out of his cloak. It flashes once, and Validar vanishes in a puff of smoke.
"Dark magic teleportation…" Miriel muses, unphased by her opponent escaping. She quickly pulls out a notebook and quill, seeing as all their opponents have fallen by this point. "Fascinating. Mother was correct, it is possible…"
Chrom shakes his head and sighs in relief. He's just thankful everyone is alive and well.
###
The Shepherds barracks may look to visitors like it has new decoration, but the Shepherds themselves know better. That's no statue, it's their tactician.
Robin is strange. She doesn't need food, drink, or sleep, and moves silently despite her heavy cloak. She's extremely tough, with bronze weapons straight up snapping against her body if swung hard enough.
She can't normally fight due to the whole 'being seen means she can't move' deal, but her silent movement, extreme speed, and monstrous strength means she functions as a terrifying assassin. She can't take part in large battles, but can scout and eliminate targets extremely efficiently at night.
Most Shepherds avoid Robin though, despite now knowing she's an ally the girl still scares them. Only Chrom makes an effort to spend time with the tactician (which is difficult due to not being able to look at her) be that through allowing her to bounce ideas off him or playing a game of chess.
They may have gotten off to a rough start, and the Shepherds are still wary, but Chrom is thankful to have Robin's help. Her tactician knowledge is invaluable, and the prince can't disregard that she's saved both his life and Lissa's on two separate occasions. In time he hopes the other Shepherds will get over their aversion just like he did.
This is a fine chapter. No real comment here. Not my best, not my worst, just good.
Okay, so since people keep repeating ideas in the reviews, I'll give you the current list of valid requests/suggestions (in no particular order): Blind, Mind Control, Gunslinger, Vampire, Grima, Pirate, Repeating Amnesia, Taguel, Kleptomaniac, Druid, Steampunk, (Phantom?) Thief, Old, Dancer, Mimic, BBW, Kitsune, Lamia (and other MGs), Medusa, Slime, Time Travel, and Valmese.
I, of course, have my own list I'm not showing you of about 25 more ideas beyond these. I want to keep those a secret to surprise you, like with this chapter.
Cortega: Yeah, Scorin suggested that before. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how to tackle it.
omegazeroinfi: Maybe, but it's all about how you write it. Besides, these are all AUs, I don't stick strictly to the script of the original game. Events happen out of order, some people show up earlier or later or just have altered personalities. I just need to make a good story out of it, it doesn't matter how much an advantage he has, this isn't about gameplay balance after all!
Kweh Viola: Not a bad idea… but it also doesn't really fit the kinds of stories in this collection. You might have to settle for normal thief Robin.
ScorinVoidseeker: Possibly. The Male Robin stories do end up feeling a bit less impressive sometimes.
Politics are fucking hard to write. It took me a while to figure out how to do that. Research was a lot more helpful for 'traits of Albinism' than searching up 'how to undermine the church'.
If you want we can talk, but I'm not sure what there is to straighten out. I make these stories up as I go, I have no plan going into them. I can probably think of something for dancer Robin, but I don't think I can make it as interesting as some other ideas (due to my lack of skill, not that it's a bad idea). Dancer Robin is at the bottom of my list so to speak.
That's a curious combination. Do your best!
WarriorofLight12: We won't be getting a continuation though, at least not in this collection. I want to keep this consistent and clean, so each idea gets one chapter only. I'm kicking around the idea of a separate story to do multi-chapter ideas though, so maybe it'll make a reappearance there.
I only promise to consider; in the end it comes down to my writing skill and some ideas just don't mesh with me no matter how good they are.
Yeah, F!Robin is cuter. I'd use her all the time, but I felt it would make this collection to repetitive to have romance every chapter.
I remembered to put '12' at the end of your name this time.
Maxis the Mercenary: Would you prefer just that she can petrify or that she actually looks like a medusa too?
Speedrunner Robin makes no context in terms of the collection. Too meta. Sorry.
XenoEmblem4TW: I'm not doing bird Robin precisely because of how absurd it is. I don't do funny stories very well, my strength lies elsewhere.
I choose Kitsune then.