The Robin's Song

This game. This soundtrack. These feels. I just can't help myself. I wrote this entire thing while listening to Id – Dilemma, I recommend it to set the mood.

So this was it. This was who she really was. A liar, a traitor, and the cause of the world's destruction. She was Grima, and even though she wanted to deny it, the girl standing before her was all the proof she needed.

Her other self smiled, a quiet, cold smile, so unlike Robin's. "Yes, I see you understand," she said. "There is no escaping destiny, Robin. Everything that's happened, all of this, it was all predestined. Nothing, not even time travel, can change that."

"You're wrong," Robin said, her voice echoing in the emptiness. "History has changed. I will stop you."

"Robin" laughed mockingly. She shook her head, a patronizing smile on her face. "So young. So naïve. The truth is right here before your eyes. The future you know will come to pass, no matter what you do. Your actions are all in vain."

"No!" She shouted, a fierce note of determination in her voice. "You have no power over me!"

"Oh, but don't you see? I already have you in my grasp. Your body bows to my every whim. One wrong move, and your so-called friends are dust." She raised her hand and cast it down sharply.

Robin fell to the ground with a cry. Try as she might, she could not stand against the power that held her captive. And as she lay there paralyzed, a tiny part of herself started to wonder.

Had anything really changed? Emmeryn had died, the Shepherds were facing certain death, and Grima had risen again. Despite all her protests, maybe her future self was right. Maybe it was all for nothing. How could she fight herself?

She struggled to break free, expression contorted by pain. "Why?" She asked, desperation sinking in.

"I chose the winning path, Robin. Will you do the same?" The other Robin said. "You doubt me now, but believe me when I say that I know your heart better than anyone. We are not so different, you and I. We are one and the same, and your choices will come to match mine."

Robin grit her teeth. "I don't understand. Why would you serve the fell dragon? I would never make that choice."

"Ah, but you already have, Robin. And you'll do it again," she said. With a whisper, she added, "All on your own."

That sent a chill down Robin's back. Would she really abandon her friends? Turn her back on everything they had given her? Submit to this twisted version of herself and bring about the end of the world? She shook her head. "I refuse to believe that," she said.

"Robin" stared down at her, a cruel look etched onto her face. In a quiet voice, she said, "I wanted power, Robin. I knew I was destined for so much more than those pathetic Shepherds could ever offer me. My loyalties were never truly with them. And oh, did I fool them. I chose to bide my time, lying in wait for the perfect opportunity. The idiots never realized that while I secured their victory with my tactics and strategy, I was carefully laying out the plan that would tear them all down."

She turned away and slowly circled around Robin as she spoke. "They were all so stupid! Innocently believing that I was on their side. They never imagined that I would be their undoing. And when the truth was revealed… oh, you should have seen their faces!" She said as she laughed, a gleeful look of malice on her face. "Yes, I can still see it now. The betrayal, the shock, the anger…"

She leaned close to Robin's ear. "The heartbreak," she said.

"No," Robin said, quietly at first. Then, "No!"

The girl in front of her smiled. "Oh, yes. He was devastated, of course. The most foolish of them all, the prince of fools. Such an easy man to manipulate, the trusting idiot."

"How dare you," Robin said, still struggling to stand up.

The cold smile returned to her face. "Oh, that's right, isn't it? Did you love him?" She said.

"I would never betray him!" Robin said, some of her strength returning to her voice. "We swore to be something better than this… we swore to save this world."

"A heroic endeavor, I'm sure," her other self said with a look of contempt. "Such honest actions mean nothing, Robin. When all is said and done, true power is all that really matters. And once you're out of the way… well, now won't that make things so much easier?"

"No!" Robin shouted.

"Do you hate me, Robin?" She asked, a different note in her voice. "Do you despise me for what I've done to you? You did this to yourself. Ironic, isn't it? Because guess what."

"Robin" knelt down and looked her directly in the eyes. The eyes were the same, but they were not hers anymore. They regarded each other, seeing nothing but disappointment in what the other had chosen to become. In barely a whisper, she said, "I am you."