Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Title: Forgotten Memories

Author: The Rogue Shadow

Genre: PG-13

Rating: Drama/Humor

Disclaimer: I don't own the Disgaea. It would be pretty freaking cool, but I'm much more satisfied playing it. It would take too much effort to manage it and such. Only thing I really wish for is that I'd be in on the loop about their latest stuff. For those who don't know, Nippon Ichi owns it and Atlus is the company that translated it to English. Thank you, sweet beloved companies! You brought this dood much happiness!

Summary: This is a what-if fic that takes place before the events of Disgaea. What if Etna knew Laharl since they were kids but neither one of them remembers anymore? What if he found her in her time of need, helped her, and they became the best of friends? What if they got married and had babies together? O.o How was that for an attention grabber? Well the story is basically something around those lines... Except for the third what-if... that one is just... (thinks about it) Actually... Hm... (pause) Nah... Anyway this summary is pretty much for entertainment purposes and holds no purpose within it whatsoever.

Ages: This will be so you can get a basic idea of what their going through at what age. Hopefully it will help out in this story, making it more understandable.

Laharl - 900 demon years old, making him about 7.2 human years old

Etna - 1057 demon years old, making her about 8.4 human years old

A/N: To those who review, you may be interested to know that I will post responses to the reviews in the same chapter you reviewed as. So say you review for this lovely Chapter 1, I'll type in a response to it at the end of Chapter 1 and update it. Replacing the text for chapters won't show up as a new update on FFN, so check my profile to see if I updated the chapter. If you don't care then I just wasted about 20 seconds of your time. Wanna read something better than all of this? Well let's get on with the story!!

Chapter 1: No Rest for the Wicked

- Laharl -

My eyes slowly open as I wake up to the sound of someone crying.

Cripes. It's only like six in the morning and I start out by listening to sound of someone giving up on life because it's too hard for them.

I continue listening and I realize that I won't be getting some sleep anytime soon.

Much like the sound of a continuous drip, it is soft and doesn't occur much but still bugs the hell out of me. After a little more listening, I realize that the sobs I hear are that of a little girl's.

I blink once and sigh. With a mighty heave, I slide the top of my coffin off and sit up.

"I might as well go and see what all the fuss is about since I'm already up."

The sobs are echoing off the walls of the dark corridors in the castle. Since it's still early, there's still no sun begging to come through the windows and irritate my eyes.

I look around my room and grab my sword lying on the floor, next to my coffin.

My old man prefers to use a lance because he says it is easy to use and it has a great reach. I'm certain that there's more of a reason than just that. I bet it's something really lame like he thinks he looks cool with it. Oh well, what do I care? I use swords and I'll continue using them.

I'll make my own mark in life thank you very much. I'm not going to be someone who grows up into a magnificent and powerful overlord, only to be compared to my old man.

"It's not like they haven't started all ready. All those teachers and trainers who said things like 'Well your dad knew this stuff when he was your age' or 'Not bad. A few hundred years more of training and you'll become as strong as your father.'"

I start to snarl at the mere thought of it.

Stepping out of my coffin, I quickly rush through the corridors as if to leave those annoying thoughts in my head behind. As I follow the sounds of that girl's sobs, I realize that I'm heading deeper and deeper into the castle.

This area is the vassal's work quarters. I walk through this section like I owned the place. Technically I did, but what good is technically? I'm just the son of the king. Nothing more.

I stop where I am, frozen at the thought.

"...Damn it!"

I continue to rush straight on, as I hit my head on the side a few times to get rid of those thoughts.

God this always pisses me off and the source of those thoughts aren't exactly something that I can pummel into oblivion. I mean I can, but I doubt it would be recommend. Even demons need a head that works properly.

By the time I pull out of my own musings, I reach the room where the sobs are coming from.

"About time..." I grumbled.

I blink with realization as I immediately recognize the darkened room. This is the kitchen where the vassals cook all of the food that is served within the castle. The lights are no longer lit so I feel against the wall until I find the candles used to lighten up the place. I reach into my brown shorts, searching for a match.

I can't find one, though I didn't really expect to the first place. Why would I even carry a match? Times like these those human inventions would really come in handy. They somehow mastered the ability to harness electricity and use it to generate light. Light bulbs, I believe they're called.

I smirked at my little reference.

After all, it's not like I'm ignorant of other races, despite how weak they are. It's a future Overlord's job to know how advanced other races have become. Then again I only learn this stuff because I'm forced to. I'd much rather be fighting and on my way to becoming the strongest ruler in all the Netherworld.

Now where in hell can I find some matches? I peer through the darkness as if searching in it would help me find some. My fingers graze the base of the candles and they come across a box. I blink to myself and berate myself for missing this before. I pick up the box, pull out a stick, and light up the match.

- Etna -

My sobs come to halt, as I become aware of the candle that was lighted.

What now? Don't tell me they came back. I don't know how long I've been hiding in this kitchen away from those other demon kids.

I am an orphaned vassal whose only job is help out with the other vassals' jobs. I suppose I should consider myself lucky getting a job in the castle. Otherwise, if I were out there I could be turned into a slave, a punching bag, or even the mistress of some old perverted demon.

I've been called a lot of things while growing up. Orphan. Bastard. Wench. Loser. Too many things that I don't even want to remember. But that's not even half as bad as what they do to me.

They think they can walk all over me because the king took pity on some demon girl lying outside the castle gates, halfway to death. They say that if I even stir up the slightest bit of trouble, the king will kick me out for being so insolent. Or at the worst, he'll have me beaten and tortured for taking advantage of his kindness.

He didn't seem like the type of demon who did that, when he lifted me up and told me everything would be all right, but then again there were a lot of things that weren't the way they seemed to be.

Crap, footsteps are coming closer. No... no more. No more name-calling. No more punching or kicking. No more taunting the little demon girl who has no family or friends. Just leave me alone!

It was too much. I didn't want to go through that again. With that in mind. I did the only sensible thing I could think of. I wiped away the tears streaming down my face and hid inside one of the cabinets.

- Laharl -

Strange... the sobbing all of the suddenly stopped. I walk towards the middle of the kitchen and I take a look around.

Nothing.

I narrowed my eyes.

Either that girl vanished without a trace or my mind is playing tricks on me. Last time I checked, people don't just disappear and my head is pretty much in tact, save for that little beating I gave it while walking through the halls.

Might as well look around. This girl woke up me up and I'll be damned if I just go back to sleep after all of this.

I continue walking till my foot almost slips from beneath me. After catching my balance, I look down to see a little puddle of water. There are also little drops of water around it. If I had to guess, I'd say that these were her tears.

I grin.

Well, well, so much for disappearing without a trace.

I crouch down and take a good look at it.

Jeez, she sure can cry a lot. I wonder what kind of stuff she went through. Not that it matters to me. Why should I care if someone is suffering? That someone interrupted my dreamless sleep.

I narrowed my eyes.

"When I find her I'm going to..."

I blink.

What will I do to this girl, who woke me up? Beat her black and blue? Nah... It's no fun if the girl can't even fight back. Force her to scrub the entire castle? Nah... That's too cliché. Jeez... I'm going to have to think about this one. Well, whatever it is, I'll make sure that she'll pay.

I peer even closer to see that some of the tears smeared toward the cabinets.

I grin.

"Well now, let's see what's behind cabinet number one..."

Leaning forward, I reach out to open the door.

- Etna -

This is it. When this boy finds me, it'll be hell all over again. Why do I have to go through this stuff? Wait... why should I have to go through this? What gives him the right to do this to me?

I can feel my fear being smothered out by anger. This boy must think that he's Overlord of the freaking world. Well he's not!

I narrow my eyes.

If he thinks I'm going to wait here like a good little girl and till he finds me and makes me suffer, he's got another thing coming.

We'll see who gets the last laugh.

I tense up. The door to the cabinet creaks open.

This is my only chance.

Letting myself take in a deep breath, I move into a crouched position. Ready... Set...

The door finally opens.

Go!!

"Prepare for the ass kicking of a life time!!"

I charge forward and knock down the body of the one who opened the door. The boy gave a yelp of surprise as I make contact. I hear a sword clatter, as I push myself off of the floor.

Just as I thought, another boy looking to hurt a defenseless girl.

As I wait for the dizziness to pass by, I realize that the boy isn't moving. Maybe he cracked his head and died when I tackled him down. I narrow my eyes and smirk. Serves him right.

I can now feel joy rising up within me.

"This is it. This is where my whole life turns around. From now on, I will be the one who beats up the boys, not the other way around! I, Etna, will no longer cower before anyone! Let all those who once picked on me, now cower and beg for their lives!"

I look down at the boy's body.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah! Behold everyone! Let this fool be the first of many examples, that I will..."

I pause and feel my blood run cold.

All my joy seemed to fade away to nothing in that very moment. In this candlelight, I am now able to recognize just whom it was that I had tackled down.

"Ohhh shit... I just killed the king's son..."

A/N: Well that was the first chapter. How did you guys like it? I must admit I'm rather disappointed as to how few people still hang around the Disgaea section. Even so regardless of that, I'll do my best to find motivation and update. However, I will say that reviews will most definitely motivate me far faster than anything else will. Well... either those or threats. (sweatdrops) Heh heh...

- Response to the Reviews -

Neo-Cooler:

Cool, my first review! I must admit that I like Laharl and Etna pairings too. I suppose that's obvious though with the story I'm making. I don't even know what motivated me to make it, but that's all in the past. I appreciate the vote of confidence too. Those kinda things are quite important to authors such as myself. Thanks for the comment about the chapter titles. I don't know where you are now but hopefully you're still reading even if you don't review.

the threntner:

More chapters I shall make! So there's nothing to worry about there. Making them fast however... well... (runs off before Etna can attack and pummel)

Kei-kun:

Thanks for the compliment. I'll try to update quicker if I can get through my thick head. Heh heh...

dan heron:

Etna is probably one of my most favorite characters in video gaming RPGs. There are many things such as her attitude and style that can lead off into hundreds of fanfics would people actually make them. The reason she's depressed is because this is when she was still a kid. Though I still need to input the age for everyone... Sheesh... I remember her talking about how the king saved her as a kid so I thought it would work out alright. Hope you enjoy chapter 2!

Alex:

Thank you. Continue I shall!

Angel-wing2:

Yup! Go Laharl and Etna! Dunno what 'imho' is though... Heh... I do like Laharl and Flonne but that works out too well in my eyes. Also, there's so many fics of those two in the Disgaea section. That's one of the reasons I'm making this I think. In order to balance out the others or something. I dunno... Wish me luck on making this into a good one!

Who Knows:

No problem. It may take a while, but I will definitely update. Unless I decide to utterly give up on this fic. But c'mon! What are the chances of that? (thinks about it) Not high I hope...

DragonAlex:

Heh, thanks a lot. I do love Etna and Laharl since in my opinion they make the most interesting couple. I've seen Flonne and Laharl ones too and I like most of them. Their relationship seems too... easy. Like not many problems would arise. I can think of a few good ones but those are fics that others will probably make in the future. I hope you continue reviewing!