Disclaimer: I do not own Grand Chase, nor do I own this song. All I own is this story.


Here I'm standing
In the night

I stood facing Kaze'aze, my sweaty palms trembling as I held my staff tight, cowering behind it slightly. Kaze'aze let out a booming laugh, shaking me to my core. It took all my strength to stay there and look her in the eye, and not run as far as I could from this damned castle. I took a deep, steadying breath, and pointed my wand at her.

"Savor that laugh, Kaze'aze, for it will be the last one you'll ever have."

Kaze'aze laughed more, a high, ear-piercing cackling that edged away at what little strength I had built up. "You think that you, one, sole, little mage, can defeat me, Kaze'aze, the Queen of Darkness?"

Her words pierced through the lies I told myself. I was alone here, utterly alone. Not one of my friends had made it this far. I had watched them all die, painfully, for me. Dieing so that I could go on, that I could come face to face with Kaze'aze, and defeat her once and for all. They sacrificed their selves. What if I fail? Will their sacrifices be for nothing? My mind started going on a horrible tailspin down, my strength diminishing to dust before me very own eyes.

I was shocked when I heard Elesis' voice in my head. "You stupid little magey! If you think that you can't win, you won't! You need to have faith, believe that you'll win or you'll accomplish nothing! And I don't take kindly to sacrificing myself for nothing!"

My crescent wand
The only light

I smiled. She was right. For once. Knowing she was still with me made me truly believe I could do this. My staff lit up with power, and I looked at Kaze'aze with a new light in my eyes. "Kaze'aze, I know I can beat you. I'm stronger than you'll ever be!"

"You fool! Then you'll die, just like every one of your dear friends before you!" Kaze'aze shot her hands out at me, sending a blast of dark power towards me.

Alone against my darkest fear
But I sense my friends are near

I didn't try to dodge. I knew it would be pointless; there was nowhere to dodge to. Instead, I gripped my staff tightly, closed my eyes, concentrated as hard as I could, and sent everything I had back against her, my white power clashing with her dark power. From then on, it became a struggle of will. She would push, and the darkness would come closer to me. I'd push back, and the light would force the darkness away from me.

She threw her hands in a flinging motion, and I felt my resolve weaken. I can't do this. She's too strong. The thoughts made me flinch, and my white magic ball receded, letting Kaze'aze's dark magic ball come closer.

I'll draw from each the power I need
Evil Queen we will defeat

I was awaken from my thoughts from a hand being placed on mine. I looked beside me, and saw Lire. I gasped, but she just smiled. "You mustn't give up. All of Bermesiah is counting on you. Don't let yourself think negatively, just counter her." She was stern, yet kind with her words. She gripped my arm with one hand, and with the other, placed her hand atop mine, granting me her strength.

"Thank you, Lire." I closed my eyes, took another deep breath, and pushed, with all my might, back at Kaze'aze. She growled, but didn't let up.

Give me the strength
To carry on

We were in a sort of reverse tug-of-war, Kaze'aze's face in an awful grimace, Lire's face reflecting one of pain, and mine one of hopelessness. I was running out of energy, out of strength. I tried my best to keep my mind solely focused on defeating Kaze'aze, but it was hard. Tears were streaming down my face.

I felt a hand wipe them away, and turned to Lire automatically. But she was looking to the other side of me, with her gentle smile back on her face. I followed her gaze, and saw Ronan standing there beside me. "Don't cry, Arme. You can do this! You're a magician prodigy; this should be nothing for you!" His kind voice warmed my heart.

Kaze'aze's dark magic got closer. Closer than it had so far. I gasped, as my thoughts suddenly became not of my own will. I was back at Hell's Bridge, Elesis and Ronan the last two remaining friends at my side. Ronan turned to Elesis and yelled, "I'll distract him, then you go in for the finish!"

Elesis nodded, and turned to me. "When I get close enough to him to deal the final blow, cast Stone Curse on him. I'd like to see how he deals with a taste of his own medicine!" She gave her trademark smirk, and charged after Ronan into battle. I stood back and casted Firebolts, healing Ronan and Elesis when they needed it.

Ronan ran around Gardosen, making sure to keep Gardosen's focus on him. He got close to a ledge, with what seemed like a bottomless pit below it.

"Now, Elesis!" the Spell Knight called out. Elesis charged at him, and I casted Stone Curse. Gardosen quickly became trapped in stone, and Elesis charged up a mighty swing, aiming to break him right in half while he was still stone.

Unfortunately, the plan backfired, and he broke out right before Elesis hit him. The Knight's attack hit him square in the back, and Gardosen fell forward with the momentum. Ronan was still between him and the ledge, and wasn't quite quick enough to get out of the way. Gardosen fell over the ledge, and took Ronan with him.

Someone screamed. It was a few seconds before I realized it was me. I ran over to the ledge, but Elesis was quicker than I was.

"Ronan!" She called down. When I got to the edge, I saw that Ronan was still there, hanging onto a small ledge with one hand. Gardosen was no where to be seen, but that didn't seem important at the time being. The ledge wasn't strong enough to hold all of the Spell Knight's weight. He was going to fall.

"Ronan, hold on! We'll get something for you to grab onto and pull you up!" Elesis sounded hysterical. She turned towards me, "Quick! Go find something! Hurry!"

I had never seen Elesis cry before, but right at that moment, there were tears pouring out of her eyes. She didn't bother wiping them. I went to stand up and follow her orders, but stopped me.

"There's no point, Elesis. There's nothing around here. I'm going to fall." He seemed so calm, knowing death was only a few mere minutes away.

"No! You can't die! I can't lose you too…" Elesis' voice faded away.

With all our love
We can't go wrong

Ronan let out one last gentle smile, directed at Elesis. "Elesis, promise me you'll remember one thing for me." He said quietly.

"Anything!" The Knight cried out hysterically.

"I love you. I'll always love you. Please, don't ever forget that." He closed his eyes as he finished his last words, as the ledge finally crumbled away, and he fell. Down, down, down, we watched him fall in horror.

Elesis was too shocked to even say anything. She just starred, wide-eyed, at the place Ronan was last seen. After a few quiet minutes, she chocked out "I love you too." And burst into tears, sobbing louder than I'd ever heard someone sob before. I hugged her, and cried too. We sat there, crying for a while; I wasn't sure how much time went by.

Elesis finally stood up, a new look of determination on her face. "Come on, Arme. We have an Evil Queen to take care of."

I snapped out of the painful memory, the whole thing only taking up a few seconds of time. Ronan looked at me, a sad look on his face. "I asked you not to cry." He said, softly. I sniffed, nodded, and looked back at Kaze'aze. She had a wicked smile on her face.

"You haven't won yet, Kaze'aze!" I called out to her, and swung my staff in a wide motion, gathering my strength behind it. I had new resolve now, too. I would win.

Only together
We face the fight

"Good girl, Arme! You can do this! Do this for all of us!" Elesis yelled. I turned back towards Ronan, and saw Elesis standing beside him, hand in hand with the indigo-clad Spell Knight. I giggled at this, and quieted when Elesis cast me an evil glare. The Knight and the Spell Knight put their hands over my own. I felt new strength surging from them, and weaved it with my own. Kaze'aze started to struggle.

"You can't win! You're all alone! You'll never be able to defeat me!"

"You're wrong, Kaze'aze. I have my friends here beside me. And we will win! For all of those who can't fight for themselves, for all those that had their lives end too soon because of you, and especially, for every person close to me who you've killed! I will fight!" I felt stronger with every word I said. It was hard to believe I'd ever thought I was going to lose.

Nothing to stand
Against our might

"You don't know what you're up against!" Kaze'aze screamed, throwing more power into her attack. I flinched back, it was strong.

Arms caught me as I was pushed back. "Need some extra help?" Ryan's voice rose over the beating of my heart in my ears. I simply nodded, too exhausted to say anything more. Ryan drooped his arms around my shoulders, and put his hands on top of all of ours.

"We're all together, nothing can stop us." Lire said softly.

"You're right! We're invincible!" Elesis laughed.

"If we were invincible, we wouldn't be here right now." Ronan chided.

"Well, maybe we aren't invincible, but we sure are strong enough to defeat Kaze'aze!" Ryan's smile leaked into his words.

We all nodded, and put our strength into my staff, and from there, to my giant ball of light. Kaze'aze growled, and a giant dog appeared behind her.

"This is my true form! Watch, and be obliterated!" Kaze'aze cackled, her voice getting louder and louder. My ears began ringing.

"We're not afraid of you, you evil witch!" I screamed back at her.

Give me the strength
To carry on (carry on)

"You're not? Too bad." Kaze'aze shot a huge fiery ball towards us. The fiery ball, plus the dark magic, was getting to be too much to hold out, and I felt my thoughts slip away again.

I was back at Kamiki's Castle, with Lire, Ryan, Elesis, and Ronan by my side. We had just defeated the traitor, Elena. I collapsed to my knees, sad to see such a great magician go. Ronan had put a hand on my shoulder, telling me there was nothing we could have done differently. Elesis and Ryan were arguing which way to go next, when suddenly Elena stood up. I gasped, and Ronan put himself in front of me. Elesis and Ryan were the two closest to her, yet both were so caught up in their argument that neither noticed her.

"Hehehe… You think I'd die that easily?" Elena said in an eerie voice. Elesis and Ryan both noticed her at this point.

"I thought you would be easy to defeat… I guess I'll have to show you my true form after all…" Elena started laughing, but the laughing soon turned to coughing. She was coughing up blood. I had to turn away, I couldn't bear to watch her go through this pain. I heard a loud crack, then a "Look out!" shouted by someone.

I was shoved backwards by Ronan. I turned to look just in time to see Elena- no, it was no longer Elena. She had turned into Kamiki. I turned just in time to see Kamiki swing a chakrani at Elesis. She stood there, dumbstruck, unable to move. She was almost hit with a fatal blow to the head, when Ryan pushed her out of the way just in time, taking the hit for her. He flew backwards, smashing into a tree, hard.

Lire screamed, and tried to run over to him. Ronan caught her arm, and pulled her back. "Lire, if you go over there, you'll be killed too!"

"No! He's not dead! He's not dead!" Lire was in hysterics. Ronan pushed her at me and told me not to let go of her until she calmed down. Holding her still was hard, but what was harder was watching Ronan and Elesis fight Kamiki on their own.

They were holding their own, but they were purely on the defensive.

"We have to retreat!" Elesis called out.

Lire seemed to sober at this, and looked up, with a fire in her eyes. "Leave this to me. You all need to go ahead and find Kaze'aze. I'll take care of the traitor."

I'd never heard Lire talk with such malice and hatred in her voice. I was stunned. I let go of her, afraid that if I didn't, she would make me. She stood up, grabbed her bow and her quiver, and marched over to Ronan and Elesis. They looked at her like she was crazy, but neither dared to argue against her. They were both too worn out and too shocked to think of a proper response.

Elesis motioned for me to follow them, and we left Lire behind with Kamiki.

"This is a battle she has to fight. Arguing with her will be futile." Ronan tried to reason to himself. Elesis just nodded, sadly.

"She won't lose, she can't lose! Not when she's like that! She's like a whole new Lire, she'll catch up to us soon, don't you worry!" I spoke out, naively.

Elesis smiled, nodded, and we ran off towards Kaze'aze's castle again.

We had been so hopeful, but our hopes had been crushed when we met up with Kamiki again in front of the Temple of Fire.

With all our love
We can't go wrong

I snapped out of the awful memory. Kaze'aze was winning, and she knew it. The four people beside me looked strained. I was sweating heavily. Kaze'aze sent another fireball at me, but this time I countered it better. I shot a lightning bolt at it, and it divided, going around us. The heat was horrible, but it was better than going right through it.

We stood, pushing back and forth at each other, neither getting very far in any direction.

Kaze'aze smiled, and threw a small ball of black energy at me. I didn't notice it until it was too late, and it hit me.

I was back with Elesis, standing in front of Kaze'aze's castle. We fought through countless monsters, slowly climbing to the top of the castle. When we were almost there, a boy, clad in blue, with silver hair, and black eyes, stopped us. He told us he was Kaze'aze, and Elesis laughed.

"You? I mere little boy? Kaze'aze? No way!" She burst into hysterics.

The boy's expression didn't change. I blinked, and he was gone. "Uh, Elesis…"

Elesis tried to calm herself, only lightly successfully. "Oh… Yeah?"

"That boy… He's gone."

Elesis turned to look where he was before. "Whoa, and he was just there! Can he teleport? Is he a mage too? Oh wait, dumb question." Elesis' ramblings were only to make up for the fact that she had let her guard down. I normally would have teased her, but right then, I didn't have the will to.

A kunai was flung from somewhere above us. Elesis nearly dodged it. The boy dropped down silently, and as quick as he disappeared, he started fighting Elesis. They sparred together while I tried to shoot firebolts and lighting bolts at him. He dodged them easily, and tried to trip Elesis into them. After I'd hit her for the third time, she yelled at me to stop with the magical attacks, and save my mana for healing.

I watched from a safe distance as the two fought. The battle seemed fairly even, the boy making up for a lack of strength in his amazing speed.

Only together
We face the fight (face the fight)

The battle lasted for some time. Elesis slashing at him, and chasing after him while the boy flipped around acrobatically, throwing kunai at the Knight. He got a good gash in her leg, and she stumbled to the floor. She barely dodged the boy as he flew at her from a ledge on the wall.

"Elesis! Let me heal you!" I ran over to her, preparing my mana for a cure.

"No, Arme, stop!" Elesis yelled at me. I didn't listen. I kept running towards her.

I had gotten to where she was and was just about to cure her when I heard her scream "Look out!"

I looked up, seeing the boy diving down at us. I uselessly threw my arms up above my head to deflect the attack, when Elesis pushed me out of the way. She almost successfully dodged the attack herself, but got a deep cut in her side.

She collapsed to the floor. I screamed, and in my rage, casted Meteor. Big meteors began to fall from the ceiling. The boy tried to dodge them, but the sheer number of them was just too much. He got hit a few times, collapsing against the wall. I ignored him and turned back to Elesis.

"Elesis, hang in there! Cure!" I shouted, tears leaking from my eyes.

"There's… No point… Arme…" Elesis coughed. "I've… Lost too much… Blood…" she breathed heavily, holding her side. There was so much blood, everywhere. It made me feel faint, but I managed to fight it, sending every bit of mana I could into my cure.

"Arme… Stop. You need to save your mana… For Kaze'aze…" Elesis was becoming quieter, her breathing shallower.

"No… Elesis… No! I can't… I can't fight her alone!" I sobbed, hugging Elesis.

"You can… I know you can… Make us all… Proud…" Elesis went limp in my arms. I started hiccupping, unable to comprehend what just happened. Elesis, the undefeatable, invincible Elesis, just died in my arms. I cried.

"Please…" I heard a weak voice from across the room. I looked up, and saw the boy. He was bleeding heavily; he wasn't long for this world. "Please…" he said again.

I made my way wearily over to him, I wasn't sure if it was a trap or not. When I got to him, I knelt down in front of him. His eyes were no longer blank. They were now a deep, cerulean blue. The most beautiful color of blue I had ever seen.

"I can't heal you. I'm sorry." I told him, feeling bad that there was nothing I could do for this boy, either.

"It doesn't matter. Go. Go through that door." He pointed at a door, hidden within the rocks of the wall. "Kaze'aze… Kaze'aze is through that door. Defeat her."

I nodded, I didn't ask any questions. I went through the door, and came face to face with my darkest fear.

Nothing to stand
Against our might

I snapped out of the memory. I wouldn't let her continue to sap my strength by making me relive the most horrible moments of my life. I felt a new strength awaken inside me, and I reached to it. I felt it pulse inside me. It wanted free, it wanted to be put to use. I granted its wish.

My ball of light became blindingly bright, yet I could still stare at it without problem. I felt my four friends beside me, lending me all of their strength. Ryan, his bravery. Lire, her will. Ronan, his courage. Elesis, her heart.

I felt all their strength, all our strength, and I swung my staff one last time, as hard as I could, towards Kaze'aze.

"No, no! This wasn't supposed to happen! I was supposed to rule the world! No!" Kaze'aze screamed as the light engulfed her.

With all our strength
The battle's won

The light died down, and Kaze'aze was no longer standing across from me. I collapsed to my knees.

With all our love
We can't go wrong

I looked around, but I didn't see Elesis, Ronan, Lire, or Ryan anymore either. My hands started shaking on my staff. Maybe they'll come back still. Maybe they're just waiting for me outside the castle.

We have the strength
To carry on

But I knew it wasn't true. They were gone, truly gone, and I was alone, utterly alone. I collapsed completely to the ground, laid on my side, and cried.


A/N: This is just some random story I thought up while listening to the same song over and over again. The first Grand Chase fic I've written, and the first songfic I've ever written. Please read, review, and enjoy! Criticism welcome. I have a hard time ever thinking up an idea to type into a story, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd be glad to hear them and write them into a story. I love writing stories, but I never have any ideas. Please help! :D

-Barrows