I Promised

By E.G. Noguez

Disclaimers: The characters in this story are the property of Sony (I could never come up with such a great game and characters) and not mine. So please don't sue me I don't have any money, really!

Background: This fic is based on the PS game The Legend of Dragoon it takes place after the Dragon Campaign and is based on what I think would be Rose's first experience as the Black Monster. I made this fic up out of my own head, although I used the basic information from the game, but what is presented in this story is my creation.

Author's Note: This is my first ever fan fic based on my favorite LOD character, Rose of course! So seeing that this is my first fan fic I would like to have feedback on this. Please no really bad insults about it, I might get mad. My e-mail is one hundred and eight years, the Moon That Never Sets glows blood red and the moon child will descend upon the earth to give a holy blessing… So they say.

They have forgotten the true meaning but I haven't.

So now I am forever cursed to protect them.

Following orders I got out my dragon spirit and became a dragoon. The thick, heavy armor made each step even harder. I was not to think about it, to complete the mission, and most importantly not to leave anyone alive but how could I go through it I couldn't.

She almost ran away when a thought popped into her head, I promised everyone, I promised Zeig, Rose thought to try to motivate herself. It worked and she kept going.

At last she arrived at the little town. She looked up at the blood-red moon, the Moon that Never Sets it was named; the sign that indicated the Moon Child had been born. Somewhat hesitant, she walked into town. Her shoes made no noise but her heart thumped so quickly that Rose was almost afraid it would give her away.

The whole village had celebrated its birth the day before, the birth of what they had thought was their savior in reality their death. The Moon Child had been born to a young couple. They were very happy since it was their first child together. Rose had seen them from far away when she had been sent to look for the Moon Child. She was told it would be in that town. When she first saw the young couple together she was reminded of her and Zeig.

Zeig had once held her like that.

Zeig, the only love of her life now gone.

She had once felt love like that, had been held like that and had been kissed like that although for Rose it felt so far away now almost like a dream.

Rose shook her head and snapped out of her old memories; she had to focus on her mission.

As Rose walked into town she remembered the house on sight. It was a tiny cottage near a cornfield. In the day it had not looked like much and it did not look like much in the night either. The tiny little cottage did look very homely and inviting that Rose almost forgot why she was there. She shook off those thoughts and started to focus on her mission again.

Ok, let's get it over with.

She threw a Burn Out at the door to quickly burn it down. Paying no attention to the fire she slipped through where the door had once been and stepped inside the cottage. The fire from the burning door lit up the little cottage allowing Rose to see every corner of the cottage. A little table stood in one corner of the cottage, very old but still sturdy enough. As Rose looked around the room she noticed the young man come out of a little room in the back of the cottage. He was still in his sleepwear and was still trying to fully awake. He blinked and rubbed his eyes several times before he finally opened his eyes wide.

That was when she saw it, his eyes...

they were Zeig's eyes...blue and sparkling.

Zeig…

She had last looked into Zeig's beautiful blue eyes when they had announced their engagement to Emperor Diaz. It was just before their last battle in the Dragon Campaign that Zeig had proposed to her. She could still remember how he had looked at her when he proposed his eyes were shining brilliantly, full of joy, happiness and love for her. Rose returned his gaze with her own love-filled look. All they had to do was win the Dragon Campaign and they would be able to get married unfortunately no one survived except for Rose

But Soa didn't even allow me that. He took Zeig away from me in that battle, he took everyone from me.

Rose's heart raced at the thought of Zeig. I have to get a hold of myself. With reluctance, Rose shook the image of Zeig's eyes out of her mind; she had a mission to do.

I promised him I would.

Returning to the present Rose gazed at the young man in front of her. He stared back at her surprise and fear in his eyes as well as in his voice.

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!?"

The time to act is now.

Quickly Rose ran towards the young man and slashed him across the chest with all her might. The young man was instantly knocked down; he crumpled before her like a piece of paper. Falling on his side, Rose could see that his chest was bleeding. His white sleepwear was stained with his blood. Not taking in any of this she continued into the room the young man had come out of. It was a tiny bedroom with a single bed and a drawer on the side of the bed, which held an oil lamp. She surveyed the room and saw the young woman sleeping peacefully on the bed. She held a tiny bundle of cloth close to her chest. This is it. Rose knew exactly what it held, inside that bundle was what she had been sent there to kill. The Moon Child.

Slowly, she uncovered the little bundle. As she uncovered the bundle she saw the Moonchild. When the Moon Child came to Earth it took the shape of a human, in this case a baby, but what was not known to those people was that this was the weapon of their demise if she failed they would all die.

Do it, it is your duty you promised them, are their deaths to be in vain?

No, I can't let all their deaths be in vain. I must do it.

Yet as she looked at that tiny innocent body, with its chest moving up and down gently, her thoughts began to race, her conscience returned. She couldn't bring herself to do it.

I can't do it. I can't take an innocent life even if it means we will all die.

But what about your friends and Zeig? A tiny voice in her head said.

Yes, for Zeig and the others I will.

Her hesitation caused the young woman to awake. She slowly opened her brilliant green eyes, and as she saw Rose she screamed. Surprised, Rose stumbled backwards and fell. Without a moments hesitation the young woman grabbed the little bundle and ran out the door.

Swiftly, Rose got up and headed for the young woman. She was stopped by the young man. He was still bleeding but he was determined to stop her.

"Whoever you are, I won't let you harm my wife and child," he said holding a broomstick like a staff. His blue eyes, though full of fright, glowed with courage and determination. Rose was taken aback by his look that she almost hesitated to fight him but them she remembered her promise. She cleared her mind and let the darkness guide her movements. Her hand was on the handle of her rapier, which she hastily unsheathed in one swift motion. She struck his throat and his chest. He fell to the floor, dead.

Rose's mind was occupied by the direction in which the young woman had gone so that she did not look back at the young man with Zeig's eyes.

Rose ran through the town until she came to its center. She did not know which way the young woman had gone. She heard footsteps behind her and quickly, she turned around and saw a mob of men wielding weapons. Apparently, the young woman's scream had sounded the alarm. It didn't matter to her; she knew she would have to kill them eventually. Stopping down, Rose got out many daggers and muttered the astral drain spell on them. She threw them at all the men who were in the front of the mob. She felt a great surge of power run through her entire body as she sucked the life out of the men. The remaining men she killed with her rapier. At the last man, she held him up by his throat.

"Where is the Moon Child?" she grumbled in a voice cold and desolate, too unlike herself.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he muttered. His eyes flickered with fear and something else, which Rose recognized as defiance.

Angered by his insolence, she spoke to him even more angrily and coldly than before, "Don't play dumb, you know who I am talking about. The young woman who ran through here with her child."

Even through his fright, he smirked at her smugly and answered, "She's gone, and she made off with her daughter. Kill me, it won't matter you'll never find her. "

That was the last straw. Rose roughly threw him unto the ground got out her rapier. She slashed him repetitively until she knew for certain he was dead. She was standing in a ground completely full of dead bodies. Their blood was streaming on the ground and plenty of it had gotten on her armor.

Rose flew up to get an overhead view of the town. As she looked at the far end of the village she spotted the young woman running into a barn. Immediately, she swooped down to the barn's entrance. She turned the barn's handle but found that it was locked. Powerfully, she kicked open the barn door and stepped inside. It was a dark place, tiny and dank. Roses eyes flickered throughout the room for the young woman and the Moon Child. As she stepped past a horses stable she heard a soft whimper, she turned around and looked inside. In a corner, she saw many women, young and old, with children groping unto the women's nightgowns. Letting her darkness-dragoon spirit consume her in its darkness, she took out her rapier and killed them all.

After the massacre she still could not find the Moon Child. Vigilantly, she searched the barn from top to bottom. She did not see her anywhere. When she got to the end of the barn she stumbled on something on the floor. She bent down and cleared the hay in the area. She felt something cold and hard, it was round and made of metal. A door handle. She pulled it upwards and opened it. It lead to a secret underground attic. She swiftly jumped inside and found herself in a dark room that reeked of moisture and animal feed. Her eyes searched every corner of the room until they rested upon the young woman who was still clutching her child as tightly as ever. She was in a corner, huddled up against it as if for protection. Her eyes were full of fright and her mouth was a little opened in her shock. She stared straight into Roses eyes as if pleading with her. She held her child tighter to her chest, and whimpered in her fright. Rose took out her rapier and raised it high above the young woman's head. The young woman turned her shoulder towards Rose, one last attempt to protect that little bundle of life.

A vain effort she thought.

Just as Rose was about to strike her, the young woman looked straight into her eyes again and with her last second of life she asked, "Why?"

Rose had completed her duty. She slowly took off her dragoon armor and cleaned off all the blood and gore with water from the town's water well. Panting from exhaustion, she took out lots of Burn Out and Gushing Magmas from her pouch and threw them in every building in the village. She walked to the entrance of what had once been a thriving town and stared while it burned to the ground.

At last her conscious self returned, and she saw all of their faces once again.

She couldn't get them out of her head. She remembered the young maiden who had vainly tried to shield her own child from her attacks with her body, how her eyes had stared at her and how with her last breath of life she had asked her, why? She remembered the brave, young, man who fought her to the death for his wife and child though he was scared and defenseless.

He had blue eyes. Zeig's eyes...

She couldn't take it anymore and she fell onto her knees and began to sob uncontrollably. All of actions were sinking in and she cried until she felt she had expelled all of the tears from her body and could no longer cry.

"Why? Why me Soa?!? Why didn't I die along with everyone I cared about? Why was I spared? What sick plan do you have with me?!?" Rose screamed out at the top of her lungs, still on her knees she hit the ground as hard as she could. It helped, a bit, it took her pain off of her emotional pain and made her focus on physical pain, which she was knew how to heal. Rose looked at her fists, now bleeding from where she had hit the ground with all her strength. She also caught a glimpse of her rapier, which was now lying on the ground, crimson with innocent blood.

Life for me is not worth living. I lost my friends, my love and now I am forced to become a murderer.

Rose contemplated the action of killing herself as she held her rapier near her stomach it does not matter now. I have no family, no love as those that I killed did.

"No you can't," she heard a voice say behind her. Quickly she turned around. There in glowing white light was the beautiful figure of the white dragoon, Shirley. Her red hair made her white skin seem pale. Even in death she is still beautiful she thought.

"Shirley?" Rose said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes Rose, it's me. I know it hurts but you cannot kill yourself they need you everyone here needs you, you are their savior, their protector from Soa's plan."

"I am not their savior nor their protector, I am just a murderer."

"No Rose, you are the only one who can do this duty."

She sighed and put down her rapier on the ground beside her. "You are right. I must live to rescue them even if they hate me for it." As she spoke she looked at her rapier, shining from Shirley's light, the blood crimson red.

"Yes Rose." Slowly Rose gazed up to look at the white dragoon, she saw her smiling and then she was gone.

"Look for me the temple where we will meet again," Rose heard Shirley's voice in the wind.

Rose found herself lying on the ground on a hill overlooking the village, her sword next to her. It was only a dream…yet it felt so real.

Deep down Rose knew it was not just a dream. She looked out onto the hills, pink from dawn's light. The breeze blew her raven black hair on front of her face, it feel cool against her face.

Slowly, she forced a smile, something she had not done since Zeig's death. Shirley, thank you.

She picked up her rapier and wiped the blood on the grass, as she finally, put it into its sheath. Gradually, Rose got up to her feet and walked away.

I promised them that their deaths would not be in vain, now I must fulfill that promise, even if I must lose my soul in the process.

I promised.

THE END