Yeah, this one isn't really a "what-if" story, but most people seem to have to chosen the "sacrifice yourself" option at the end, and I wanted to see if I could write a more bitter ending to the game, so here goes...

Edit: 7/22/13-Author's Notes added. (1)

"Five thousand gold pieces per use?!" Chrom yelped. "But…that's insane!"

Anna simply smiled and winked. "Hey, you're welcome to find another Outrealm gate, if you can find one," the merchant said. "I'll tell you what; if you throw in your Falchion, I'll lower the price to one thousand GP."(2)

Chrom's eye twitched and Robin had to pull him back before Chrom did throw in his Falchion…at Anna's face(3). "Anna, this expedition is for exploration reasons," the tactician said. "It would be a great honor to host this experiment."

Anna thought for a bit. "I'd rather have the gold," she replied.

Robin sighed. There was no arguing with the red-haired Outrealm guardian. They had traveled to different dimensions several times before, but the prices Anna had charged were always a bit more…reasonable. Perhaps if she hadn't known the reason for their trip, she would have charged less.

A month earlier, a rumor had spread that there was a place in the Outrealms that would allow people to see what could have happened had they taken a different path in the past. Chrom and the rest of the Shepherds planned to go to this area to observe the other endings to events. They weren't sure how it would work, or even if it would, but frankly, they were quite bored after the Final Grima War. It wasn't that they weren't thankful for the end of the war, but some of the Shepherds were getting restless. Robin especially wanted to see what would have happened had he chosen to let Chrom deliver the final blow to Grima. He didn't doubt that he made the right choice (Grima was destroyed, and he had lived), but natural curiosity still nagged at him.

Lucina was also anxious to see another path that she almost took. Near the end of the war, she had nearly

killed her husband when she had learned that he was destined to kill her father. She couldn't bring herself to harm Robin, however, and fate was disregarded as Chrom survived Robin's attack. She had learned to forgive herself since then, but fearful questioning haunted her nightmares every now and then.

"Excuse me, coming through," a voice said, as someone pushed her way through the Shepherds. Anna's younger sister, Anna, stood in front of the Anna that ran the Outrealm gate. "Hey there, sis!" Anna said happily (the Anna that had come with the Shepherds, that is).

Anna smiled. "How are you doing, Anna?" she exclaimed. Anna and Anna whispered to each other as Robin and Chrom watched, frowning at the eerie sight in front of them. Anna and Anna were completely alike in every way, their clothes the only defining factor between the two. "Alright, we've reached a deal," Anna said (the Anna that was running the Outrealm Gate, not the Anna that…y'know what? Screw it. I'm calling her Outrealm Anna).(4)

"Finally," Chrom mumbled. "How much?"

Shepherd Anna walked back to her wagon, which she had insisted that she bring along with her everywhere, resulting in stops every half hour to sell something to a passing traveler. She dug inside of the wagon and pulled out a stack of papers bound in string, which she tossed to Outrealm Anna.

"What's that?" Robin asked.

Outrealm Anna pulled the string and showed one of the papers to the Shepherds. "These things are sure to sell like hotcakes!"

Chrom looked at the paper…and screamed. Sumia, Chrom's wife, somehow tripped without walking. Robin facepalmed. Lucina covered her mouth with her hand. Lissa…laughed. Frederick slowly backed away from Chrom. "Frederick…I thought you had destroyed all of the copies…" Chrom said slowly, regaining his composure.(5)

"I…may have forgotten, milord," Frederick said meekly. When Ylisse was at war with Plegia, Frederick had taken the liberty of having an artist draw a picture of Chrom naked and sending copies of it as recruiting posters, insisting that it would boost morale.

Chrom turned to glare at Frederick. "We're going to be eating bear for the next month," he said gravely.

Outrealm Anna carefully placed the posters on the ground next to her. "Alright, you ready? I'm surprised that you didn't bring your whole sheep-herding group."

"We're just making sure that this Outrealm is real," Robin replied. "The rest of the Shepherds will be coming later."

Outrealm Anna nodded. "OK! I can tell you now: it's real. I've used it myself. Many a time I've cursed the time I sold an item for ten GP too low."(6) She sighed sadly at the memory. "Ah, regrets."

Lucina coughed. "Father, we should go," she said quietly, trying to stop Chrom from glaring at Frederick.

"Alright, alright," the Exalt replied. The handful of Shepherds stepped into the green Outrealm gate. Outrealm Anna murmured a few words and waved her hand over some symbols on the edge of the gate. The warriors were bathed in a green light, and with a sound like thunder, they were in a grassy field.(7)

"Well…now what?" Lissa asked.

Robin pointed towards of the middle of the field. "I'd say that's a good of a place to start as any." In the center of the meadow was a tome on a pedestal. The book was lined with gold, and the podium shined like diamond. The writing in the book was that of a language forgotten long ago.

"Well…who goes first?" Chrom asked. His friends looked at him silently. He sighed. "Very well…Robin, you go first."

"Wha-what?" Robin stammered.

"You heard me. That's an order."

Robin glared at Chrom, but stepped up to the tome. He took a breath and placed his hand on it. The book began to glow, and at once Robin felt his spirit leave his body. He found himself in a dream-like zone. There seemed to be no exit or end to the area, and his surroundings pulsed with a greenish-yellow color. The tome was in the center of the room. He then noticed the bubbles. Several bubbles floated around him, each with a different scene. In one bubble he saw himself a king of a foreign land. In other he saw himself as a slave, destined to live his days in captivity(8). In yet another bubble he saw himself being married to Lissa. But there was one specific scenario that he wanted to find…ah, there it was. He saw himself on the back of the dragon Grima, preparing to make the choice that would decide the future of generations.

Robin carefully touched the bubble, and the room suddenly shifted and changed. Robin was now watching the battle again, except this time he was watching himself. "Whoa," he mumbled, looking down at himself. Testing a theory, he reached out to touch Chrom's shoulder. His hand passed right through the man. He called out, "Hello!" and yet no one seemed to hear him. Robin watched Chrom run up to the weakened Grima.

"This ends now!" Chrom shouted. He readied his Exalted Falchion, about to strike down Grima. Robin saw himself tense, but Chrom proceeded to slay the Dark Dragon. "Finally…it's over," the king said.

The scene shifted again, and Robin saw "other" Robin sitting at his desk. He looked over the dozen books scattered around the desk, the dim candlelight barely illuminating his counterpart's face. The man looked weary and old; much like the real Robin was when he spent sleepless nights reading tactic books during the war. Just then, a blue-haired woman walked into the room. "Robin?" the woman asked softly.

"What is it?!" the weary man snapped. "I'm busy."

The woman sighed, as if she was used to such outbursts. "You've been awake for hours now. Can't you put this matter aside for one day? You need your rest."

"What I need is to find a way to stop Grima from rising again, Lucina! And you're not helping, so why don't you and Morgan just go back to your pretty little perfect world, hm?" The man stood up from his seat and pushed the woman back through the door.

"I told you that we would find a way to end Grima together!" Lucina insisted, trying to push her way back into the room.

"IT'S WASN'T YOUR CHOICE!" Robin roared. "You didn't make a decision that doomed a future generation! You have no guilt, no shame!"

Lucina winced at her husband's words. "I almost killed you," she said softly. "Don't you think that my decision didn't fill me with terror every time I saw my father?"

Robin's face softened. He sighed and sat down on the chair, defeated. "You…you're right…I'm sorry…I just…can't help thinking that I could have chosen better."

Lucina smiled sadly. "You made the right choice, Robin. If I had lost you, I would have been devastated. Did you really want to snuff out the last bit of happiness that I had?"

Robin smirked, a slight shadow of his famous expression. "You'd still have Morgan…and Sumia's pies." (9)

Lucina chuckled. "My mother does make some great pies…" The two laughed, not a grand laugh, or a completely happy one, but it was something.

The walls faded, as did the couple, and Robin felt himself moving through time once again. This time, his other self was barely recognizable. This Robin was on his deathbed, his face wrinkled with false hopes, and his hands shaky with the fact of failure. His eyes betrayed a mind that had long given up. The wedding ring on his left hand was dull, its previous luster no longer existent. "Please," he spoke, his voice like hooves on gravel. "Hand me another book."

A woman sat across from the dying man. She had long blue hair, a young face that knew both pain and childlike joy, and shining eyes that projected a genius. "Father," the woman pleaded, "don't continue this. Mother begged you to stop this fruitless journey. It was her last wish for you."

The man coughed violently, the peace of death slowly approaching. "I…I can't…the pain…of choice…"(10) He coughed again, beginning to lose the ability to form coherent words.

The woman walked up to him and took his hand in hers. "Father…let go…please…"

Robin looked at his daughter, regret in his eyes. "Promise me…don't try to…stop Grima."

Morgan smiled sadly. "I never planned to. I couldn't become you, father."

The man nodded slowly, feeling his last breaths. "That…is for the best…Chrom…Lucina…forgive me…" And with that, the great tactician Robin felt his heart cease to beat, and all that was left was a pile of old bones.

Morgan rose from her seat, biting back tears. The door opened behind her, and an older Inigo stepped into the room. "You alright?" he asked, putting a hand on his wife's shoulder.

The woman simply shrugged sadly. "I…I don't know," she admitted.

Inigo looked over his father-in-law. "What a waste(11)," he sighed. "I hope the history books will put him in a bit more positive light. He's to be buried next to Chrom and Lucina, right?"

Morgan nodded. Her husband gave her a quick kiss before exiting to alert the officials. The young tactician stood up and picked up the book Robin had been studying. Legacy. Ironic. Not only for Grima's return in two millennia, but also for the world that Robin had left behind. Morgan looked at the book…and tossed it into the fire pit. She wanted no part in the hell that her father had experience. She would certainly look for a way to prevent the next coming of Grima, but she refused to let that goal consume her. She looked one last time at the dead man, and then left the room.

The room shifted and changed, and Robin was again in the glowing area. The bubbles still floated from here to there. He released a breath that he didn't know that he had been holding. Was that…truly what I could have become? Pushing away my wife and child? It wouldn't be the first time I had overly devoted myself to something…but I had always made time for my family…the guilt…the pressure...could it have been so much that I would have wasted the rest of my life? He looked up. He didn't want to spend any more time in the room for the rest of the day. He placed his hand on the tome, and a bright flash blinded him.

When vision finally cleared, he was back in the grassy field. Chrom raised an eyebrow. "What happened? Didn't it work?" he asked.

"How long have I been gone?" Robin asked hoarsely.

"Uh…ten seconds?"

Robin blinked. "It felt like forever," he mumbled.

"So, what did you see?" Lucina asked.

Robin looked at his wife…and pulled her into a fierce embrace.

"R-Robin…you're squishing me," the princess squeaked.

"Sorry," Robin said sheepishly, releasing her. "I…I made the right choice, that's all I can say."

The group looked at each other. "Fair enough," Chrom said. "So who's up next?" He took a look at Robin. He looked like he had seen a ghost wherever the tome had taken him.

"Perhaps we should wait until tomorrow, milord?" Frederick suggested.

"Agreed," Chrom replied. The Shepherds exited the Outrealm and were soon on their way back to Ylisse.

"Are you OK?" Lucina asked her husband, who had been silent on the entire trip.

"I…I hope so," Robin chuckled softly. "The first thing I'm going to do when I get back to the castle is hug Morgan…and electrocute Inigo."

"Why would you—No," she gasped, her eyes growing wide. "No wonder you're in shock…are you serious?"

"He kissed her, Lucina."

Lucina sat back into her seat, face grim. "Can I stab him after you're done?" she asked.

"Be my guest." (12)

Author's Notes:

1: So, this is a new thing I'm testing out just so that I feel like I'm doing something. I'm going to be adding little Author's notes to my stories (not just this one) to tell you what was/is going through my head as I write these things. Needless to say, there are going to be spoilers for later chapters, but I will not spoil chapters that I haven't released yet. Tell me how you like it!

2: I love Anna. There's tons of situations where she/they can be used to the utmost hilarity. Of course, one Anna also runs the Outrealm Gate. I'm still not sure how or why.

3: Looking back, this is kind of a lame joke. I probably should have just left it out altogether. I would have removed it while putting in these notes, but I've decided to refrain from changing the actual story, since I like to see my progression, or lack thereof, in my writing.

4: I apologize if any of you went insane while reading this part. I just couldn't help myself from putting this scene in my story.

5: Ah, the infamous "naked Chrom" posters. I'm not going to check, but I'm going to guess that there's a fanart featuring the posters.

6: This sentence makes me cringe. It could have definitely been worded better. Furthermore, I think I fudged up the joke. The joke is that Outrealm Anna frequently used the Gate to check other outcomes of her previous business sales (ie, haggling, sales, etc), and is saddened by the fact that she occasionally sold an item for a measly 10 gold pieces lower than what her customer would have paid. I don't think I expressed that joke very clearly with this sentence.

7: I have no idea how the Outrealm Gate is supposed to work, never mind how the Shepherds get to specific worlds, so I pretty much just winged it.

8: ...That would actually be a good idea for a story...

9: I'm pleased with the way this scene turned out. I didn't want to immediately turn Robin into a complete Frankenstein character, so I used Lucina as a sort of counterweight to Robin's obsession. Robin is still a very bitter and distraught man, but he's still able to see reason, thanks to his wife. Once she dies, however, Robin is again consumed by his fruitless desire to destroy Grima.

10: We can only regret the things that we have a say in. I think all of us at one point in our lives have looked back and wondered what would have happened had we done or even said something different. The truth is, most of the time, there is no "perfect" choice. Big choices are scary. Sometimes, even when you did what you thought was best, you look back and second-guess your choice.

11: Reading back on this chapter, I took inspiration from Frankenstein without realizing it. Needless to say, this chapter could have been its own series if I did it in a Frankenstein style, but I don't think I'd be able to do the classic justice.

12: I like mixing drama and tragedy with humor. I've heard that life isn't like a roller coaster; it's like parallel train tracks that feature both pain and joy. I feel bad for Inigo. He's actually sort of an interesting character when you get down into it. But that doesn't mean I'd want him to get involved with my possible futuristic paradoxical daughter.