Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun...

sure it's lame, but i like things to be simple.

Chapter 1: The Resolve

A night sky shrouded in smoke, the wind blew once more giving birth to the dancing flames that scorched the town. My sight covered with blood and my ears filled with the scornful cries of the townspeople, I chuckled at them as they began realize their own helplessness. At the very heart of the massacre, I watched them abandon everything they once taught among themselves: justice, kindness, mercy, and everything they proudly claimed they stood for. Now, before my deathly gaze and my sword tainted with their blood, they ran for their lives carrying with them as much valuables as their strength permitted and leaving behind their wounded friends with whom they've spent their lives around. Though my own heart was blackened and cold, the sight of it still sickened me so much that it hurt. I thought to myself that people like them don't deserve to live, that I was going to dye this town red with their blood and let the fear in their eyes and the cries of their death tend to my wounded heart. Tightening my grip on the hilt of my blade, I cocked a malicious grin and allowed my instincts to flow free. I desired for a crimson night.

Everyone had underestimated his resolve. No matter how hard he tried to express himself to his friends, given his reputation, his claims only fueled more laughter and childish giggles. It was hard for them to accept the idea that the Isaac, who first started the entire journey to shape the destiny of Weyard and Alchemy, would grow tired of peace and tranquility and in turn set off to find answers to many questions that ran continued to through his head. At first he thought he could deal with the curiosity and that it would subside over time. To his surprise however, time only added to his curiosity and more and more thoughts formed in his head. Eventually simple harmless everyday questions slowly evolved into more well-though, complex questions that involved much deep thinking, self exploring, and awareness of the surroundings. Ultimately, he even questioned the actions of the Wise One itself.

The numerous questions that lacked answers, the friends whose unyielding trust in him left him unable to rely on anyone but himself, the excitement of traveling around Weyard once more compared to that of leading an uneventful life in the peaceful town of Vale, and the desire to shape his own destiny instead of leaving it in the hands of the Wise One; these reasons are why he had left Vale discreetly leaving only a note to his parents. But unbeknownst to him, the reasons that he had formed in his head were mostly in part due to the power of the Mars Star that amplified both his physical and mental growth.

Sitting atop the pile of rubbles that remained of the town, Isaac surveyed the destruction he had caused the night before. The town that was only recently built was so horribly wrecked that even the land upon which it was built was ruined. He had leveled the entire landscape. Not a single building or structure of any sort had survived his fury. The fallen hero hopped off the rubbles and landed on his two feet, which caused a large amount of dust to spread outward away from where he stood. Slowly he lifted his right hand and gathered a great amount of psynergy. As his hand glowed a brilliant gold, he unleashed a huge earthquake that began to swallow the entire town whole. Every trace of the town's existence would be swallowed up as well. Isaac looked around the town one last time as everything around him continued to sink and gave a look of disgust.

He was mad at himself. There was barely a hint of red anywhere. The crimson night he desired never came to be. The human heart of his still prevented him from taking any lives. It was this conscience of his former self that he despised. He thought his resolve would allow him to break himself of the morals he grew up believing in, that his desire to take control of his own life could not be stopped merely by the guilt he felt when the time came to finally take away a human life. No, instead his pitiful resolve only brought him far enough to ruin their homes and scar his own name forever without regret. As the last bit of rubble was buried far underneath the surface of the earth, he hoped that his weakness and hesitation would be buried along with it.

I had him backed against a wall. The poor, weak, and pathetic peasant who was trembling from head to toe and pressed against the wall of his own house could not even muster the courage to beg for his life. As I raised my most treasured sword: Excalibur, blood slowly streaming down its blade, I closed my eyes and spent a short moment to mentally prepare myself for what's to come. It was time I take a step forward and claim an innocent life - something I had never knowingly done before. Just as I opened my eyes and focused on my prey, the terror of death had gotten the best of him as he sank to the ground in despair. The veins in his eyes were so visible and so numerous, tears flowed down his cheeks, and his iris reflected that of my once brilliant sword dyed in a dark red. Behind all that though, I saw so much fear that it was as if he was staring into the face of the grim reasper himself. To my surprise, fear was actually all that I was able to see. The greed that everyone had in their eyes as they scurried away had disappeared from this man.

I wondered to myself if the extreme fear of death itself was the only thing capable of washing away the greed that coursed through every human heart. If that was what it took to wipe the greed away, was it worth it? The terrified person before me has been reduced to sitting motionlessly as the fear of death ate away at his mind. It was almost as if he was in a vegetative state. He no longer trembled, he no longer cried, instead he just sat there too afraid to move, too afraid to speak, too afraid to even look at me. He was an eyesore. I felt as if he didn't even deserve the escape to death. I looked once again to my Excalibur stained with blood. Although the sight of it gave me a false sense of satisfaction for being a cold hearted killer, the inescapable truth of the matter is that the blood came only from light wounds I inflicted upon the guards of the town. Looking back down at the cowardly figure, I felt there was no sense in taking his life. He wasn't even worth killing anymore in that paralyzed state of his. Unlike a real demon, I did not lust for the sight of blood nor did I savor its taste.

Having buried the town beneath the surface, Isaac turned around and slowly walked away. He draped his torn cloak over his shoulders and looked back at where the town was once last time. "Pathetic." he whispered to himself with a great sadness in his now glimmering eyes. As he took a deep breath and considered the events of the night before, he started to question his own actions. Was what he desired worth inflicting so much pain and misery among the people he once risked his life for? Should he quit before it's too late and live for the sake of the world rather than himself? Would he end up having to cross swords with his best friends? There was a serious doubt in the very corner of his mind that was telling him that he had been led astray. Yet another part of him, a much larger and almost forceful foreign part, urged him to continue to walk down the path of blood.

Isaac looked to the sky and among the clouds he saw the face of a man whom he now realizes is much more deserving of life than himself and yet he took it away with his own two hands: Saturos. A great man who journeyed around the world for the sake of his friends, Saturos laid down his own life to light the beacon atop the mars lighthouse in order to save his town. It wasn't just Saturos either. His companions: Menardi, Karst, and Agatio all fought for the sake of their loved ones and had their lives taken away as well. The Wise One had sent Isaac on a journey to unknowingly claim four innocent lives as if he was saving Weyard from destruction. Those memories were scarred into him, burned into the deep depths of his mind by their smiles of satisfaction, and even now it continues to haunt him in his dreams and occasionally during his wake. Had he realized the facts sooner, the four of them could've been friends - great friends.

Kraden had once told Isaac that the Wise One is a being that they mortals can not possibly comprehend. According to him, the Wise One had indeed a good reason for making Isaac, Felix, and their companions do what they did. But the excuse that it "works in mysterious ways" was no good enough for Isaac. Not nearly enough after all that he had to put up with. Every day Isaac would sit down and relive the nightmares again, trying to figure out what went wrong, why he had to be so stubborn, why he didn't ask their reasons for attempting to unleash Alchemy into the world, or even why they bothered to go out of their way to spare lives if what they really wanted to do was destroy Weyard. He never once gave it a thought until it was too late. The fact that the Wise One had sent him on the quest for reasons incomprehensible to humans didn't help ease the pain. The facts remain that it was under his leadership that they were forced to a halt, it was under his ignorance that they fought, and it was under his blade that they lost their lives. For the answers to his anguish, he would continue down the path he now walks, fully aware of the violence that will ensue, because until the, his mind will never be at ease even in death.

Er, i didn't really intend to end the chapter here, but due to the lack of time, i had to cut my first chapter short. bummer XD