A storyline requested by an anonymous user
Inside his throneroom, Emperor Walhart was pondering recent events. Not only had the Ylissean forces defeated his own forces at every turn, his strategist, Excellus, had been discovered as a spy for the very evil cult that he had been working to dismantle and destroy the whole time. His anger welling up, Walhart crushed the note containing the information about Excellus's true nature, that he'd just received that morning, in his hand. His face was nearly as red as his armor was, the man was practically steamed with fury.
Walhart sighed, releasing not just breath, but his rage too, somewhat. He knew that getting pointlessly agitated would serve him no good and only bog his mind and cloud his thoughts. He needed focus, he had two enemies that needed dealing with. The fool Excellus, and the army of Ylisse. But if he executed Excellus now, he'd lose his tactician. No matter how much of a fool he was personally, Excellus had proven to be rather cunning when it counted. It would be a considerable loss, and at this point of the war, too much. If only he could find a suitable replacement for the soon to be dead bastard.
Walhart then thought of Ylisse. They were not as well-equipped as his own army, yet they continued to win. There was only one explanation for this seeming impossibility, their tactician. Her name was Robin, as Walhart recalled. She was said to be a brilliant mind on the battlefield, and it showed throughout the war. An idea formed in Walhart's mind, as he recalled a spell used by a previous Valmese ruler a long time ago. A way that he could kill two birds with one stone.
His plans beginning to set in motion, Walhart ordered his mages to begin prepping, while the emperor had his generals called into his throneroom. Yen'fay, Cervantes, and even the rat Excellus needed to hear his plan.
Soon, Walhart had all three men standing before him in his throne room. The conqueror explained the situation his new plan to them, detailing a new 'weapon' that he intended to use against the Ylissean army in the upcoming battles, and hopefully turn the tides back in their favor. However, the emperor kept the details of his methods a secret from them for now.
"..." Yen'fay remained as quiet as ever as he listened to his king, not an ounce of emotion on display.
"Hmm, I see!" Cervantes huffed, stroking his beard with a smile.
"Y-Yes, indeed! Quite the incredible strategy, my lord!" Excellus chimed in, rubbing his hands together greedily. Always the follower, he grinned and nodded in quite the overblown fashion along to Walhart's plans. "B-But, if I may ask, what exactly is this key weapon of yours, my lord?"
Walhart scoffed at this inquiry. He'd never liked Excellus from the start, but now, fully aware of the power-hungry, fat man's true nature, Walhart could hardly bare to even look at his disgusting underling.
"... Robin." Walhart finally answered after a poignant pause. A small smirk formed on the corner of his lips.
"Th-The Ylissean tactician!? That R-Robin..?!" Excellus stammered out in a sudden panic. For all his shortcomings, Excellus was a smart man. Even one such as him could tell when he was being threatened, and Walhart's sudden declaration of bringing the enemy's tactician, the brilliant and fair Robin to their side, did not bode well for him. Him being their current tactician and all. "W-What could she-"
"Silence!" Walhart demanded, his voice boomed nearly loud enough to rattle the pig-like man's bones. As if that weren't enough, Walhart's striking glare in Excellus's direction looked very likely to be quite the literal dagger into him.
Cervantes, couldn't help but let out a short chuckle at the clearly exposed man's current state. He and the rest of the Walhart's top officials had been briefed on Excellus's betrayal, so it came as no surprise to him and Yen'fay that he was going to be replaced. If anything, seeing that fat bastard get the boot was a more than welcome change! However, what neither of them expected was that Excellus's replacement would be none other than the clever young woman who had guided their most recent enemy armies to several victories over them. He thought it was an exceptionally cunning play if it could be pulled off.
Though Cervantes and Yen'fay remained quiet and watched the king's next actions with a calm to be expected of their high status, Excellus whimpered and started to sweat. With a disappointed shake of his head, Walhart continued, "Robin has proven herself to be capable of commanding armies with less manpower, and less capable armor and weaponry, to great success. Success that she won over you, Excellus." The man in question whined. Walhart raised his hand, a signal to his soldiers to apprehend his now former general. "She will be twice the tactician you ever were, you swine! For your crimes you will be punished with death."
"M-My lord!" Excellus begged. But it was too late, his former allies grabbed him. Walhart's mind was made up, and with a snap of the blood-red clad king's fingers, Excellus was made one head shorter by Yen'fay.
"Hmph." Cervantes scoffed at his former 'comrade's' messy demise, but paid him no pity. If anything, he wished he could've been the one to sever the disgusting man's head.
With a smile, Walhart rose from his throne.
"Come with me now. I believe a demonstration of how we'll procure our new ally is required." Walhart told them and lead them out of the room. Cervantes and Yen'fay let go of the corpse of Excellus and followed the leader out of the room.
In the main entrance of the castle, Walhart's mages were casting the spell. It was six of them forming a small circle and performing some sort of magic ritual. Dark magic combined with light magic that flowed out of their hands and twisted together down to the floor, creating a circle of sorcery that bared some resemblance to the magic known as "rescue".
"Watch and wait, our new arrival will be here shortly..." Walhart told his generals ominously.
Meanwhile, in the Ylissean camp, the Sheperd's leaders had gotten together to discuss their next move in this war against the Valmese. Chrom, Frederick, and the others were carefully planning what course of action they could take to win in an upcoming battle. Although they had won every battle so far, it seemed that each one was more difficult then the last, and if their information was correct, this next fight would be the most challenging one they'd take part in yet. All their strategizing had made little headway, for they were without their most genius mind, that of the female tactician, Robin.
"Sorry I'm late, guys..!" Robin exclaimed as she stumbled into the tent. Her long, white hair put up into two long twintails as usual, but looking like it was done in a rush job as they were not exactly even this morning. Robin herself was wearing her usual attire, only missing her signature heavy black coat, but that was only because she was fumbling to put it on.
"I have to admit, I was a little late getting up this morning.." Robin yawned, trying not to look bored or anything like that, but it was a result of her lack of sleep over the last few days. She pulled her coat on and entered properly. If the rest of the Sheperd's didn't know any better, it would appear that their tactician had only just woken up. However, none of them had any grounds to call her out on it, as all the recent fighting had taken quite the toll on the whole lot of them. So it was let slide, and the meeting continued as these things normally did.
Over the course of the discussion of strategy, Robin couldn't help but feel something odd. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It almost felt as if someone was watching her from afar, really far. The ominous feeling only escalated through the meeting, until it got to the point that Robin couldn't think of anything else. It was like she'd been suddenly struck with a horrible headache that she couldn't just ignore.
"So if we position our archers here and then.. er, Robin?" Chrom asked her in the middle of his speech, noticing his tactician's obvious distress.
"I-I'm sorry, Chrom. I don't know what's come over me." Robin admitted, rubbing her forehead.
"Gods, I hope you're not getting sick on us. That's just about the last thing we need right now." Frederick said.
"Frederick, please." Chrom shushed his friend. He focused on Robin, who looked to be in a bit of a bind in a way that he'd never seen her like. He put his arm around her shoulder. "Hey, if you need to take a break, by all means, do so."
"Thank you, Chrom, but I can handl-" Robin started to say, but suddenly was cut off by the loud sound of dark magic swooping into the room. It rose from the ground under Robin in the form of a circle just wide enough to entrap her whole body. The black and white swirl of magic then lifted itself upwards and created a wall around her completely, cutting her off from her friends.
Acting almost instinctively, Robin tried to summon forth a magic attack of her own to counter this evil sorcery, but quickly discovered that she couldn't use her magic at all. She gasped at the loss, but then tried to pound her way out, to no avail. Robin cried out for help as a last resort, but then noticed that her vision and hearing were starting to fail her.
Outside the circle, Chrom and the others had almost immediately jumped to Robin's aid. Slashing at and otherwise trying to brute force the circular magical wall down, but that proved useless. Magic was called in, but also was ineffective at dealing with the unknown menace.
"Robin!" Chrom shouted, desperately trying to cut down the mysterious magic barrier, to little effect. It started to fade away.
Inside the circle, Robin shouted back at him for help. His words calling for her, and his face full of worry, were both the last things she heard and saw, respectively, before her world was plunged into one of darkness and without sound...
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