A/N (Aroihkin's Notes) / Chapter originally written on 03.08.2004. Re-polished on 01.12.2006 for the arowrites dot net archives.

Review-replies can be found now on arowrites dot net.

Formatting repaired on 04.13.2010 -- thanks, ffnet, for eating all my scene-dividers sometime in the last four years!

05.02.2010: All scene-dividers have been eaten, again, on all of my stories. I give up. Please just go read this story on arowrites dot net where it hasn't been made incoherent; I am unable to keep up with this site's stupidity.

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Requiem for the Dream
( entry 01: humanity saved )

"--and that is all, Lord Galcian." the messenger finished, his voice a little cracked by nervousness. His head was down, and his right fist was held to his left shoulder, kneeling through-out his report before the throne in proper respect. Jade green eyes watched the messenger squirm just a little--impassively, dully, as the powerful man seated next to him took in the news.

Lord Galcian had a thoughtful look to his features, staring at the wall over the messenger's bowed head as he mulled the news over. He was perfectly fine with letting the man shiver and gulp while he thought, as he always took time in his work; not enough to be considered indecisive, certainly, but never rash either.

Ramirez, too, thought about the routine check that had just been confirmed, ignoring the dull throb of his left hand. The remains of the Valuan capital had been searched carefully by the New Reign's military, years ago, and all survivors had been executed on the spot. Including one Admiral Alfonso, the Silvite remembered without regret. The egotistical man's head had been presented to the ever-careful Lord Galcian by Ramirez himself.

Despite Alfonso's lack of competency in the old order of things, the new Lord had not wanted to gamble on the boy finding some grain of ability and organizing a rebellion. After all, for all his lack of skill, the First Admiral of Valua had still been an icon of the old way of things. That alone qualified him as a threat, right along with the likes of the Blue Rogues... who had also been wiped out thoroughly.

Wind Mill isle, the base of Dyne, had been visited a second time--and this time... well. This time it had been blown up completely... spilling a surprisingly large underground area full of pirates and their families into Deep Sky. The Silvite had witnessed it himself, calmly, impassively, from the bridge of the Monoceros.

A string of giant drums of gunpowder bombs had been licked at by the burning buildings, and one shot... just one shot... from the Silvite's own flagship had set them all off in a chain reaction. An unstoppable progression of rumbling, fiery explosions that would have left the late Admiral DeLoco in tears of joy. They had been powerful enough for Ramirez to feel them through the warship he stood inside of, tremors shaking through the air and metal between him and the chaos.

The hollow island had shuddered, trembled, and then cracked messily down the center. That chain of house-sized containers had continued... relentlessly... until the land itself had finally crumbled in upon the screaming, bleeding, terrified humans hiding inside. And then that last, fatal barrel had gone off on impact, like the ending note to a war song, and the entire island had fallen apart... racing for Deep Sky with the remaining humans in tow.

Crescent Isle had been visited as well, and similarly destroyed... as had all known bases of pirates both Blue and Black. There simply was nothing more to be found of any of those bases, they no longer existed. Nothing could have made Ramirez think twice about what he was doing--not the shrieking of the children, not the howling of pets, not the sundering of the ground.

Anything his Lord asked of him, he would do without doubt, without hesitation. Ramirez's loyalty was--and had always been--completely unquestionable.

That had all, however, been many years ago. The wounds of the world were still fresh, but healing smoothly under Lord Galcian's iron control. There was no more greed--for the act of selling anything had been banned, no more stealing--for no one had much to gain and too much to lose if they were caught, and no more... evil. Ramirez straightened slightly, bolstered by a new wave of pride in being able to help Lord Galcian's world come to be... as he always was whenever he thought about it.

Lord Galcian was the world's new God. He controlled their food, their supplies, their rules. Through Zelos he controlled the very weather... every aspect of the people's otherwise-misguided lives... leading them as the stupid cattle they really were. Any uprisings were squashed, the very sun was denied to those regions who allowed for crime in the smallest forms for weeks at a time.

Human kind had, invariably, learned to bow before him, learned to grovel. The Soltisian Armada's carefully-chosen spies only confirmed these facts further and further with every passing day.

Ramirez was content to serve this man, who had brought about the new order where humans did not have the choice to be evil. They did not have the opportunity to exercise their corruption... and someday, someday... they would no longer even need this iron-grip guidance. It would be their new nature, their new way of life, without so much as a blink. They would know no other path but to continue in Galcian's image of the new world.

They would learn to live and breathe under his ways, as Ramirez strived to do himself every day. The Silvite lowered his eyes in thought as his Lord... his God... summoned the next messenger of the day's long list.

Humanity had finally been saved from itself.

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Skies of Arcadia Legends belongs to someone else.
All here that is not found in the canon... is mine.
Never steal if you value your spleen.