Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Tales. Nope, nothing.

A/N: This is a story base off of a challenge from Minnane in the TOS pairing forum. This is AU, in which I made up the universe they're in…with that said, hope you enjoy!

Rose of War

Prologue

Inside a radiant garden, well-attended flowers were blooming and the fresh dewdrops, shimmering underneath the soft sun, casting the leaves another layer of brilliance.

"You're growing up to be a beautiful flower," a young girl was kneeling by a pink and red daffodil, smiling gently as she fingers its petals. Her hair shined a luminous blonde, soft as silk. With an eyes equally bright as the sapphires, her white and blue dress accentuates her face that still showed the expression of an innocent young girl, with a tint of ignorance.

She stood up from her spot, looking over atop of her. A glass ceiling that concealed this paradise from the outside world, an overall thin protection for such delicacies that resides within.

She closed her eyes. This place…this garden…was under the same circumstance as herself. To be so well-protected by those that cared for them, yet the perils of the outside was unavoidable and inevitable. Such a weak shield, however loving, was bound to break at any given time.

That was why she'd decided. When everything comes to its due end, she will go out and do what she must, no turning back, no regretting. It was for the sake of everyone, everyone that protected her thus far, everyone that loved her, everyone that deserves living.

It's for the sake of every crew members aboard the ship of Iselia.

"Colette!!" a young teenage boy of seventeen, brunette-haired and vigorous, ran up to her. He was dressed in a simple dark shirt with a trench-coat in the color red, and had a strange goggle encircling his neck.

Colette snap out of her thought process, and turned to face her friend. She gave him a genuine smile.

"Lloyd!"

"What're you doing here? It's time for dinner," Lloyd said peering at the daffodil behind his friend. "Ah, the daffodil you rescued!"

Colette nodded happily at Lloyd. "Yup! I though it's not going to grow again because it had been out in the space for so long…good thing it went through!"

With a grin, Lloyd scratched his cheek. "Heh, guess it's the right choice to bring it on board, huh?"

"Yup!" Colette said lively. Then she noticed the look in Lloyd's eyes that said something else then the mere happiness in seeing the surviving flower.

"What's wrong, Lloyd?"

"Well," all of a sudden the boy fidgets, swinging his arms behind his head. "It's just that I wish I could show you the outside. You never come down from this ship."

"That's okay, Lloyd, I always look out the windows when we docked at the ports," Colette said, "I see different faces, different scenes, different buildings. That's enough for me."

The eyes of the boy showed sadness, a pain that was understood by all the members of Iselia.

When Colette was still a young child, the space settlement of Iselia was caught in the cross fire of the war between the humans and the Desians. The survivors came together inside the only spaceship they had in the territory at that time, and thus made the ship their new home.

From that day on, the citizens of Iselia began their lives as traveling merchants, exchanging goods with each port in different colonies. They didn't have the luxury of thinking that the government of Palmacosta would grant them another land, because the politics cared much more for the war then the scarce population of Iselia. Besides, they found it to be safer on the flight. When there goes the first sign of trouble, their home was the safest and quickest getaway.

Even though they had the years coming safe by gathering inside their movable headquarter, one was the exception. She was never allowed to go outside of the ship, out to the public, or anywhere else for that matter. That person was Colette Brunel.

Lloyd never fully understood why she was so special, why she couldn't enjoy the outside like everyone else. He once asked Phaidra, Colette's grandmother, about the reason behind it, but the only answer he ever got was that she was a unique child, and that her exposure to the outside world would harm her and bring her ominous dangers.

Eventually, as the time passes by, Lloyd figured that his childhood friend had some kind of illness or peculiar physique that made her unable to breathe the outside air. The others' attitudes seems to conform with his theory as well, so he ultimately took this idea as the hypothetical truth to her mysterious confinement.

"Don't look so sad, Lloyd," Colette said, her eyes laughing softly, "I'm fine, as long as you bring back some flowers."

"Oh, right," Lloyd thought, fingering his goggles. "The flower you mentioned…'rose,' is it? I think Palmacosta might have them. Want me to check for you?"

"Oh yes, please!" Colette's eyes lit up with joy, "I'd love to see them!"

"Rose, huh? That's the flower we used to have back in the days of our settlement," Lloyd mused, "those sure are hard to come by anywhere else."

Colette nodded. "It's one of the flowers that are unique to the territory of Iselia. My grandmother used to export them across the boards. It's sad that they were all destroyed on that day…"

"That day" was commemorated by the rest. It was the day they fled from their beloved soil, twelve years ago.

"Yeah, but since Palmacosta is opening it's trade route with the Te'thealla System, maybe they'll have some on their side," Lloyd said once again, "if we can grow them here on Iselia, we can make that into our business."

Just when Colette was about to answer, a voice came from outside the entrance of the garden.

"Lloyd! Colette! Where are you guys?"

Following the childish voice, a child about the age of twelve, appeared behind the sliding door. White haired and bright eyes, he was wearing a practical t-shirt of light blue, with a black cotton sweater on the inside, completed with a tilted cap and a complacent knee-length shorts.

"I knew you guys would be here," he said with his hands on his waist, "c'mon, the meal's ready."

"Oh right, sorry about that, Genis," Lloyd said looking over at Colette, who smiled in return.

"You cooked today, didn't you? Then we wouldn't want to miss that!" Lloyd said, laughing as he walked out with his friends.

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Prologue End.

A/N: Oh how I suck at describing costumes...if anyone's having trouble imagining them, please do tell. orz

So…good? Bad? Continue? Tell me what you think, thank you : D