Chapter Text
Robyn didn't know what happened, next. Not until after it was over.
All she knew was that she was losing composure, hurt to the quick by Morgan's rejection, and then suddenly, she was nowhere.
No… no…
She was in hell…
She was lying on her front, her body weighed down by her Grandmaster robes and weighty tomes – but also by something else.
Behind her stood a figure, one cloaked in midnight. She knew who it was.
She knew where and when she was, now.
‘When did you decide to die, Robyn…?’
The voice echoed like light within her skull, and she groaned weakly, trying to get it to stop.
All she knew was that if she died, Grima promised to spare everyone else.
She couldn't let them die…
‘Grima is lying to you,’ the voice said. ‘They will die, the moment you give your power to him. But you will not. So why do you still intend to let yourself die?
No, that was true: she wasn't going to let herself die like that, not in any way that would be useful to Grima…
Was the voice Grima…?
‘No,’ the voice answered, seeming to actually speak over another voice, one that spoke familiar words.
I have no more solutions left… her thoughts answered, weaker than how she felt.
I have no more tricks up my sleeves, no more plans or schemes or anything…
All I have is my life…
Is that even enough…?
Then, she heard something else – a third voice, one beloved and familiar.
The sound of her name, screamed out desperately.
Again.
Then again and again…
Her name.
Robyn.
Chrom's voice.
Robyn stirred, hearing the way his voice broke, the way his voice strained…
Then, another voice.
Lucina…
“Come back! Please, my love! Come back!!”
Her voice was broken and uneven with terror, and it was the exact opposite of what she wanted.
And then, she understood.
She was going to die, yes.
Of course.
Which meant...
I can’t die here, Robyn realised. I can't die under his boot.
I must die.
But only once I'm certain the others will live.
A flash of power streaked through her, beating in time; a steady, increasing rate, growing with each breath.
She heard her wife's voice, and felt another flash. The voice behind her spoke, but it was nonsense.
The second voice broke in, ‘Here? It was here?’
Yes, she answered, both to the voice – and her own heart.
It was here.
They believed in me.
They trusted me with their lives.
I cannot betray them.
My life is the only one that does not belong.
‘That's not true.’
But it was too late.
Robyn raised a hand – and broke the spell.
As soon as she'd been given Robyn's consent, Tiki reached out, her power flowing through the tent, and it rippled out from her – from both Robyn and her – and that power flowed through Lucina and Morgan at the same time, both caught in those waves.
Tiki held them close, protecting all three, before using her deepest powers, ones she hadn't used in years, ones so old that she often wondered if she'd forgotten how…
Now, they poured from her as easily as her name did, and easily, she used it to open Robyn's heart and soul, and reveal what could not be seen by Lucina and Morgan, at last.
The only way for them to understand was to actually experience the choice from within her boots.
It had been Tiki's voice that had asked Robyn those questions, and when Robyn finally responded, both Lucina and Morgan felt their hearts crack.
I do not belong.
I never did…
That was why.
From the start, it was all she needed, all she'd ever asked for: a way to save the world without Chrom's help. Even without her full memory, she still knew her duty. She knew she had to somehow stop what she could no longer remember, and that Chrom was her only chance.
But she knew.
Because of who she was – who her father was – she knew she could never truly belong with anyone, let alone anyone from the Royal family of Ylisse.
Even when she'd married Lucina, she'd known that she didn't really deserve her Prince's heart.
That in every other circumstance, Lucina hated Robyn, and Robyn deserved that hatred, no matter what.
Despite the fact that she'd never even done a tenth of what her future self had done, Robyn had convinced herself, without any doubt, that she could never deserve what she had been given, because she felt that she'd never earned any of it…
Therefore, to die was the only way to balance it all out.
She was being her most honest when she assumed that everyone would easily forget her; would pretend like she'd never existed; would likely feel relief that she was long gone, and the world was finally safe; would lose no sleep once certain she would never return, would likely sleep better, now, that they knew it for sure...
Who was she to deprive the world of its rightful peace?
Especially if she deserved none of that peace in the first place?
That was the truth.
And it was a truth everyone – including Robyn, herself – hated
Robyn didn't awaken on the back of her nightmare, ready to give her life up, at last.
Instead, she awoke in Lucina's arms.
She was lying down, tucked in bed, but Lucina was atop the sheets, holding her to her chest.Tiki was still on the floor beside her, her hand now atop Robyn's right, where it lay upon her lap.
Robyn tried to raise her head, but she groaned, feeling a sharp pain between her eyes, and she laid back with a gasp, covering them and lying back.
Lucina closed her eyes and leaned down, pressing her lips to Robyn's forehead. Robyn focused on her, and slowly, with Lucina's help, she caught her breath.
When she opened her eyes again, Robyn saw that Morgan was still there, shocking her. Even worse – he'd been watching rather closely – and his face was turned to hers, especially once she made it clear that she was awake, and…
She blinked; was it just her imagination, or did Morgan look… less angry…?
“Cosmic Eyes…?” Lucina murmured gently, getting her attention, again. “Are you okay?”
She honestly didn't know. Her eyes fell on Tiki, and she saw the dragon slowly shake herself awake, her eyes opening slowly as if from a deep sleep. She even yawned, pulling her hand free of Robyn's to try and cover it.
“What did you do to me?” Robyn asked, her own eyes narrowing. “Why did you make me feel… that?!”
Tiki finally opened her eyes, and for a moment, all she did was simply look at Robyn, her expression so mixed with emotions that there was no way to tell how she really felt.
And yet Robyn didn't look away.
She couldn't.
Not without answers.
Tiki smiled, then, before nodding and pushing herself up to her feet. She wobbled for a moment, before she laughed lightly and put a hand to her forehead, smiling wider.
Morgan got up quickly and offered her his chair, and her smile shrank a little, especially once their eyes met, and she saw fear within Morgan's. She reached up and touched the top of his head, gently, before nodding and sitting down.
Morgan moved backward, instead sitting at the foot of the bed, at Lucina's feet.
Robyn didn't like any of it. “What did you do…?” she repeated. “And why…?”
“I just needed to know the truth, Robyn, so that I can help you, in the best way that I can, and that you need,” Tiki finally confessed, propping her cheek up upon one hand, her other being used to rub the sleep from her eyes, one at a time – and more than once. “Marth was worried, and now I see why. She had good reason to.”
Robyn couldn't help it; she started to cry, her eyes searching Tiki's. “Why would you do that to me?” she whispered. “Why did you make me relive it, instead of just searching for the memory and showing it…?”
Lucina answered, however. “I asked her to,” she said weakly. “I needed to know the truth, Robyn. I needed to understand why you left like you did. And that could only be done through reliving it – otherwise, you'd find some way to hide it, still. To relive it took away your choice.”
Robyn glared at her, hurt. She would have told the truth, especially if Tiki had asked…
Wouldn't she?
Especially now, with how sad and worried Luci looks…?
Could I…?
Morgan spoke up, then, though he hid his face in his knees. “I did, too, Mama. You promised me you would never leave me, again. You lied to me, too. And we're sick of it.”
Robyn closed her eyes and sniffled, for a moment overcome to silence. She felt Lucina start to stroke her hair, and she sobbed, just once, before burying her face into Lucina's shoulder. Lucina gathered her closer and kissed the top of her head, keeping her eyes closed.
“But now... We understand why, now.”
Robyn's head jerked up, her eyes going to Morgan, but he remained hidden. She tried to sit up, reaching out to touch him with shaking fingers, but he didn’t see it; her hand fell back into her lap, useless.
“Mama, Tiki showed us what you had to do. From your perspective," he finally confessed.
Robyn went still, then. She went as rigid as a marble statue of herself, her eyes dimming and widening with horror. She felt her blood grow cold, felt her face drain of every drop of it, and she shook her head, her hands falling limply into her lap.
“No,” she pleaded. She looked up at Lucina, then back to Morgan, before finally looking back at Tiki. “Why?! What did you do?! How?!”
Tiki was completely unaffected by her anger. If anything, it encouraged her to keep going in the same way.
That was the idea: to get Robyn to come back, completely.
And if one had to do that through slight deception and a whiff of betrayal, Tiki knew that one had to be her, alone.
So she explained.
Robyn felt deeply violated, her tears worsening once Tiki finished explaining and relaxed, her eyes closing once more. She even leaned against her arm, looking about to drop asleep.
No one noticed it right away, as Robyn's tears immediately caught both wife and son.
It was no surprise then that, once Morgan was hugging her, too, Robyn's tears worsened to wails, feeling painful dismay course through her.
She’d never wanted anyone to know that.
Ever.
She’d planned to die with that information, had hoped for it, because she knew it would help nothing and make no one happy. She couldn't help how she felt, and didn't want to get into fights about something she couldn't control. Her tears were of painful regret, of deep betrayal, and of near hatred.
Tiki wasn't offended; Robyn hadn't been honest to begin with.
If she had, Tiki reasoned, I wouldn't of had to be so mean.
She sighed, hearing Robyn's tears but knowing that there was nothing she could do, save wait until Robyn had calmed. She let her mind drift and her powers quiet, and the voices around her became soothing hums.
“Robyn…” Lucina whispered, leaning down and nuzzling her wife's cheek with her nose.
Robyn moved away, hiding her face deeper within Lucina's shoulder.
“Robyn, please…”
Morgan, however, felt his old resentment rise up.
Yes, his mother's pain had also pained him, and deeply. Such a decision hadn't been made lightly, and even though he claimed otherwise, he'd known it from the start. But it served to anger him further, reminding him that she still had picked death over happiness.
And he rose, about to lean over the bed and pull Robyn from Lucina, to shake her, to yell at her and demand she be sorry, knowing she wasn't, knowing she never would be…
But…
Instead, he just dropped down onto the bed.
Instead, he remembered how crippling Robyn's doubts had been, how terrified she'd been, and how no matter what, even if she failed, she would die, and that was that…
And he realised that he could never be that strong.
It wasn't weakness that made Robyn chose death.
It wasn't cowardice, like she, herself, feared.
It wasn't even selfishness, a stubborn need to “protect” her loved ones from a “painful” truth…
No, what threw Morgan down was the simple fact that, now, he knew Robyn was not infallible, like he'd always hoped. She was not immortal. And this new timeline, this new life – his, apparently, if all went by what the Heroes said about their future and the one they lived, now – would not change that.
He'd been angry because for a moment, this blessed gift, this impossible miracle, had actually made him believe she was immortal, just for a moment.
He then became furious, because even though he could never admit it, Robyn could and would still die, some day, and it didn't seem fair: the fact that Robyn had to die not just once, but twice, and be forced to live with all that that entailed.
If she was resurrected this time, surely it meant that she always would be…?
She knew she would come back, didn't she?
Why else would she agree, and break out hearts like that…?
Those angry fragments had served as his rationale.
Now, however, they shamed him.
Because now, he knew.
And it made him fall forward and land, face-first, into Robyn's knees, his arms going around her blanketed shins. He clung onto her, and as soon as he registered how she felt, he burst into tears.
He was sorry.
He was, but he was stil angry. He was still angry, of course.
But no less sorry…
Robyn's voice went silent upon hearing this, just as she pulled her face from Lucina's shoulder. She turned around and saw him there, and she leaned down and touched the top of his head, her fingers going into his hair. His scalp was hot, and sweaty, and made his hair damp and smell puppy-like; his voice was broken with sobs and his body shaking from the force of them.
Lucina hesitated, her eyes going to Tiki – resting her cheek on her hand and dozing silently against it, smiling faintly – before returning to her wife and son. She pushed herself up a bit, leaned over, and wrapped an arm around Morgan, then her other around Robyn.
Morgan snuggled closer, moving into Robyn's lap, and both helped bring him between them. As one, they hugged him.
And for that moment, they cried as one unit, one family, united by one painful truth. With it came doubt and fear, future nightmares and daymares, and in response, each were healed with this doubly-sourced reassurance and love.
They accidentally forgot about Tiki – something she would tease only Lucina about, later – but she didn't forget about them; the sudden silence, one broken by sniffles or hiccups, had woken her up, the sudden lack of white noise alarming her.
Tiki jumped awake, her hand dropping from her cheek as she straightened her posture and raised her arms, stretching slowly and with closed eyes. She then yawned, before turning back to the small family – and smiled.
“Are you alright, now?” she called softly, asking it of all three.
Of course all three jumped, but only Lucina was able to raise her head; Robyn and Morgan were both crybabies compared to her. She smiled weakly, and Tiki grinned back.
“Good,” she concluded softly. She paused, then murmured, her cheeks flushing pink, “Marth, may I stay here in Ylisstol for a few weeks?”
“Now?” Lucina spluttered out. “Of course!”
Tiki raised her hand, however. “No,” she admitted. “Later, once things get better, more stable. Can you keep in contact with me, so that I can visit for a while?”
“I would love that,” Lucina agreed tearfully. “And I know Morgie and Cosmic Eyes would, too.”
Something confirmed when both nodded without looking up.
“In that case, I shall take my leave, now. I'm very fatigued,” she decided, pushing herself up to her feet.
Tiki hadn't even finished one step before she found herself embraced by all three humans, in various degrees of tears and coherence. She giggled and hugged back, her heart warming even more, more than she thought possible.
“Thank you,” Lucina whispered.
“Anytime, Marth,” Tiki agreed, meaning it. “Anytime.”
It was a promise she would keep.