A/N: I finally got the courage to post this. I'm SOO happy!! I hope you all enjoy it and I've gotten up to the third chapter written, so I'll post up a new chapter every week or two weeks. I'm very proud of this story and I hope you can all appreciate it. Please leave a review! I seriously live off of reviews!! I love getting 'em. So please review!!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters pertained within the context of this story. If I add my own original character along the way I'll let you know. But all the characters in this story so far belong to Squaresoft (lucky devils . .^_^')

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The Roads of Fate

By: Sora

Chapter 1: A New Adventure Begins

"Yo, Rose! Dinner's ready!"

The sun was setting over Seles, turning the clouds a golden red. Behind Rose the sky was dark. 'Just like my past. . . I wonder if I'll ever be able to get rid of it.' She thought wearily.

"Hey Rose did ya hear me?"

Rose sighed as she turned around, leaning the opposite way on the balcony rail. "Yes, I heard you Dart. But did it ever occur to you that I might have decided to ignore you?" She said raising an eyebrow at him.

Dart choose to ignore the comment. Instead he walked over to the balcony rail, leaned next to Rose, and stared out at the setting sun as it passed behind the mountains. "What were you doing up here anyway? You've been up here for three hours."

"Thinking."

"That's it? You're not going to elaborate?" he turned his head to the side and looked at Rose.

"Can you give me a good reason why I should?" She glanced over at Dart.

"Tch. Fine . . .well, Shana sent me up here to tell you that dinner was ready. So, come down when you're hungry." He straightened and would have left had Rose not stopped him.

"Dart, wait." She stopped. Dart had turned around and was looking at Rose. Why did she call him back? "I want to bring him back. I've been wandering around these last five months with nothing to do but think about my past. And I realized that I want to find a way to bring him back."

Dart was just staring at her. Then he laughed. "Rose, I hate to be so casual about this, but you're going to have to be more specific. Who do you want to bring back? Lavitz? Lloyd? Certainly not Melbu Frahma." The look on her face told him the answer to that. "The only other person left is my father." Her eyes became pained for a split second. Then they returned to their normal, or at least regular, expressionless selves.

Dart noticed the change. 'So it is him' Dart thought to himself.

Rose shook her head slightly, almost as if she was thinking 'No. That's silly'.

"Nevermind." She said walking towards him. "Forget I said anything. It was stupid." She was already through the doors leading into the house. "Are you going to come or not Dart?"

"Yeah, sure." he said uncertainly. 'What's going on with her?'

Rose was already out the door and halfway down the stairs by the time Dart had gotten into the hallway. 'I wonder what that was all about? And why is it that Rose only seems to loose composure around me? Perhaps it's because I look so much like my father.' By this time Dart was already in the dinning room and at the sight and at the smell of the food that Shana had prepared all brooding thoughts fled his mind.

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After dinner Dart and Rose helped Shana clean up. Dart cleared the table and Rose helped Shana with the dishes.

"Its really nice to see you again Rose." Shana said handing her a dish to dry.

"Thanks."

"How long do you think you'll be staying?"

"Are you that urgent for me to leave?" Said Rose, as she dried the next dish Shana handed her.

"Wha-? No of course not. You're welcome to stay here as long as you like. I don't mind. I'm sure my parents won't either."

"Your parents? They still live here?" She said placing the dish in the dish holder.

"Of course. You didn't think that Dart and I lived here alone did you?"

"No. It's just that I haven't seen them around. That's all."

"Oh. That's because they're out of town right now." She sighed. "It's taken me five months to convince them that its safe for me to be left alone." Rose was looking at her questionably. "After I came back mom and dad wouldn't let me out of their sight. They were afraid I was going to be kidnapped again."

"Oh."

Shana and Rose continued cleaning the dishes in silence.

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Dart couldn't sleep. It was past two and he had gone to bed at midnight. 'Why can't I quit thinking about what Rose said earlier? She told me to forget it. But what if she can really find a way to bring my father back from the dead?' He got up. 'Rose seems less cranky at night. Maybe I can get her to tell me more about it. If she's even awake.'

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Rose had heard something. She just knew she had. It sounded like it was coming from her room. She sat crouched on the roof near the opening that lead into her room, the Dragon Buster crossed over her shoulder. 'Whoever that is, is going to get a rude surprise.' The dark eyed woman thought.

"Rose, are you in here?"

She let out the breath she had been holding. It was only Dart.

"I'm up here." She had no idea why but she enjoyed talking to Dart. Had it been anyone else, she would have just ignored them. 'How strange that he's not asleep at such a late hour.'

"I wanted to talk to you. You have a minute?" He said coming up the ladder and onto the roof.

"I guess." She said getting up from her crouch and walking to one side of the roof.

"It's about earlier."

Rose didn't even bother turning around. "I told you to forget about it." she said gruffly.

"I know. But I can't. If you could possibly find a way to bring him back-"

Rose cut him off as she spun around to face him, her eyes flaring with anger. "Well, I can't! So just forget about it!" She turned her back on Dart and sat down on the roof, staring up at the stars. A few moments passed before anyone spoke. It was Rose's voice that finally broke the silence. "Dart there are a lot of things in my past which I had to do, even though it hurt. Not just physically but emotionally as well."

"Like killing the moon child." He said softly.

"Yes." She said sadly. "I hated killing all of those innocent people, but I had to. It was my duty as a dragoon and it was my duty to the memories of all of the friends I had lost in the Dragon Campaign to become the Black Monster. But I didn't have to tell you my feelings earlier. Now that I think about it, telling you I wanted to bring Zeig back was a bad idea."

"But if you could would you?" He said coming to sit next to her.

"Huh?" She looked startled. Either to find him sitting next to her or by his question, he didn't know.

"If you could find a way to bring him back, would you?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes. I would. Where is all of this leading?"

"Do you think Albert would know?"

"Albert?"

"Yeah, do you think he'd know how to bring my father back to life?"

"Maybe. Why?" Rose was staring at him. Why was he so interested in helping her? All she had done was expressed how much she missed Zeig by saying she wanted to bring him back to life and here he was trying to find a way to help her accomplish it. Why did he seem to care about her this much? She had killed his mother . . .It took Rose a moment to realize he had started to speak again.

" . . .going to Basil anyway, just to visit Albert, and since you're here maybe you could come with me. That way you'd be able to find out if Zeig can be brought back to life. So?"

"Let me think about it."

"Alright," he said getting up. "Good night Rose."

"Good night." Rose sat there for a few more moments, thinking. 'Somehow no matter how hard I try, I always end up loosing my composure when I'm alone with him. I don't understand it. I can't even pretend around him. My feelings always show on my face and I can't prevent it. In the beginning I could hide my feelings underneath a mask but now. . ' "I've grown to soft over these last five months. Maybe I will go with Dart." Said Rose, standing. "Besides, I could use the challenge."

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:: THE NEXT MORNING ::

"So Rose, have you decided to go with Dart?"

"Wha-?" She lamely responded as she stepped off of the last stair. She looked at Shana. "Dart told you?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't he? Its not like it's a big secret or anything. Dart has been planning to go and visit Albert for quite some time now. Do you want some breakfast?"

The Dark Dragoon paused for a moment before finally speaking. ". . . . Sure."

Shana led Rose into the kitchen and handed her a small loaf of bread and an apple out of the wicker basket sitting on the island in the center of the kitchen.

"So are you going to go with him."

"Shana?" Asked Rose, her mouth half full of apple. She swallowed before continuing. "You said 'Dart' earlier. Aren't you going to come too?"

"Huh? No of course not. Dart can take care of himself."

'I never doubted that,' thought Rose.

"Besides, someone has to stay here and help rebuild Seles."

"I suppose you're right." Rose had finished the apple and took a bite of the bread.

"So have you decided?" said Dart coming through the doorway. Rose had turned around at the sound of his voice.

"Hello Dart."

"Hey Shana. So?" He turned to Rose.

"I've been asked that a lot lately. But . . .yeah, I think I'll go." 'Why not? I don't have anything better to do.' She added silently.

"Cool. Is it alright if we leave this afternoon?"

"Um, yeah. What time is it?"

"A little after eight, " said Shana glancing out the window.

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Rose and Dart spent the rest of the morning getting ready, while Shana was in the kitchen getting a couple of travel-worthy meals prepared for them. Although, throughout the morning Shana was shoving back her fears. She wasn't worried about Dart's safety. Why should she be? He was a Dragoon, anything that came across his path along the way he could handle. She knew that. But what she was worried about was Rose going with him. Alone. She told herself it was foolish to think that anything could happen between the two. But she couldn't help it. She kept having this strange feeling that something was going to happen along the way that would cause those two to become closer. However, what scared her most was that if her feeling was right, she had no idea how close they would become.

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A/N: So how'd you all like?? R&R please. I'll post the next chapter soon. ^_^