Okay. This fic resulted from a dream that I had a few days before writing this. In fact, I'm going to tell it as I saw it in my dream, including where I was. I myself wasn't directly involved with the action, so my opinions and whatnot won't interfere with the action. It will be held in first person, however, and I cannot be seen by anyone else. Angelus is in her level 3 form, and Caim is his young self. I don't clearly remember it all, but I will try my best to recount it as accurately as I can.

This is a one shot. I am NOT continuing this.

Dream

I stood inside a giant corridor, gazing at the cream-colored brick as the midday sun shone through the many holes of the ceiling. There were dark stains throughout the hall, many still fresh, that I recognized as blood. My attention was torn from the bloodstains when a figure turned a corner and began to run directly at me. It wasn't until he passed me that I realized it was a very bloodied, wounded, winded Caim.

I gave chase after him, following him through the maze of halls, rooms and dead ends. We finally arrived at a grand hall, where the battle damage to the castle's roof was irreparable; only a few sparse wooden rafters interrupted the sun's cheerful light. Caim ran to a bloodied hulk near the back of the room, where the rest of the ceiling lay. I made my way towards it and found that it was breathing.

Caim stopped in his tracks as he panted and stared at the bloody hulk. "Angelus…?" he asked tentatively between gasps.

As I wondered how he could speak, rhythmic footsteps chanted behind us, from the corridor we used to enter. We turned to see a legion of unknown soldiers crowding into the archway, and Caim drew his crimson sword from his sheath.

My perspective changed to an aerial view, and I overlooked the battle. Caim thrust himself deep within the throng of attacking soldiers, hacking and slashing in a crazed frenzy. The soldiers, inhibited by the small breadth of the stone archway, could only attack two or three at a time, so most were killed before they could even surround Caim. Soon enough, all the soldiers were dead, most lying in or around the archway entrance. He turned to stagger back to the bloodied bulk -Angelus- and repeated her name. "Angelus…?"

As I returned to my earlier spot of perspective, in front of Angelus and Caim, the dragon slowly lifted her head to take a glance at him. However, she was weak, and her head flopped back to the ground with a grunt. I turned my attention to the rest of her, which had been fettered and mercilessly shackled to the tiled floor. Her chains and injuries were far worse than when the two first met.

Without another word, Caim trotted to the back of the dragon, where all the chains seemed to be anchored by one large, thick nail. He bent over, grabbed the head of the nail with his gloved hands and began to pull. Angelus slowly turned her wounded head toward him as far as the restraints would allow and snarled softly.

"It's too deep, even for your stubbornness," she commented quietly. "You should get out while you still have a chance."

"Shut up," was Caim's grunt of a reply as he continued pulling on the nail. Angelus' snarl became more apparent.

"You know there are more coming, Caim," she growled. "If they find you here, alive, they'll imprison you, torture you, and in all likeliness, kill you." Caim took a slight pause from his pulling to glare at the dragon. "You know your strength is giving out. The worm that broke our pact may be dead, but the fact remains that we are no longer bound. You and I are weak, too weak to take on this foe alone. If I die, then you can still escape."

"SHUT UP!" he cried as he leaned on the large nail with shaking arms and hands. He took a lingering look at his dragon, one of her elegant horns broken in half, the rest of her body covered in her own blood and chains, and took in a breath. "I am not about to leave you here like this."

Angelus was not about to back down either. "Leave, damn you!"

"NO!"

"Stubborn mule!"

"Suicidal drama queen!"

The dragon's tail, or at least the part of it that was not restrained, hurled itself at Caim, hitting and tossing him into the far wall. He sputtered up a bit of blood upon landing on the ground, but he would live. As he struggled to pick himself up, Angelus turned her grand scarlet head back towards the entryway. A lone, haunting note lingered in the blood-filled air, floating through the corridors and halls. Angelus snarled. "Those are their war horns," she hatefully whispered. "They're getting close." She turned back to her human, who had managed to stand and was now leaning heavily upon the indented wall. "You don't have much time. LEAVE."

Caim shook his marred, bloody head slowly. "Never."

Fire built within her open maw, her frustration getting the better of her. Angelus was not about to let his stubbornness lead him to his death. As she spoke, a hint of distress filtered through her normally scathing tone. "If you don't leave now, then they'll kill you; doesn't your feeble mind understand that?!"

Caim spit out a bit of blood almost rebelliously and clutched his aching side. A bit of his armor had splintered and dug itself deep in his skin. "I'm not about to abandon you here for these vultures! I. AM. NOT. LEAVING."

The fire that had been building was released at Caim, or at least at the wall a few feet above him. The debris of the crumbling wall came crashing down, and Caim had to throw himself at the floor in order to dodge it. Angelus saw her chance and lashed out at her human with her open jaws, snatching him up off the floor. As she rose as far as she could go with the restraints cutting into her, Caim wriggled nervously in her grasp. The dragon's hold on his middle was surprisingly gentle, despite the fact that she was about ready to kill him herself.

"What… what are…?" He turned this way and that, trying to unravel Angelus' plan before he was eaten. He finally turned to look into Angelus' pure pearl white eyes, and she growled. "What are you doing?" he asked anxiously.

"Making you leave," she replied quietly, and, before he could muster a reply, flung him again at the far wall with every last once of strength she had. His body collided with the stone with a hard crash, which shattered the remains of his back armor, and fell to the floor with a sickly thump, face down. After the shards of his broken armor and chucks of stone clattered to the floor, Angelus exhaled uneasily. He wasn't moving.

Almost as if on cue, the horn sounded again, this time much closer than before. The rhythmic chanting of footsteps came closer, heralding her doom. This legion of soldiers was much larger, almost twice the size Caim had fought off. Angelus flinched. If she hadn't thrown him, he would have been killed for sure.

As the soldiers surrounded her and steadied whatever long range weapon they possessed at her, a lone pair of footsteps echoed throughout the dilapidating hall. A few men made way for a tall man with shoulder-long, light brown hair. I could automatically tell this man was the authority of the mass of soldiers. He surveyed the bodies Caim had disposed of, and then his gaze rested on the Union general himself. The Leader strode victoriously over to the fallen Caim and kicked him with one of his illustrious boots. When Caim made no move, the Leader chuckled.

"Well, Dragon, what a fiend you are," he began with a boisterous, booming voice. "You even killed your former pact partner."

When Angelus made no move to respond, the Leader smirked triumphantly, and turned back to the prostrate Caim. He leered at the body, and after several minutes of musing, kicked the body again. "What a waste. Here he is, a man bound to a magnificently powerful dragon. He would succeed in his quest, if not for his attachment to his dragon." He poked the limp body at his feet with the point of his illustrious sword with his illustrious hand and laughed his illustrious laugh. "He could have escaped if not for this affection! What a moron! What a dimwitted cretin!"

As he laughed, the rest of his platoon laughed along with him. They didn't notice Angelus' nostrils flare with anger. The Leader turned back to the scarlet dragon, ambition written all over his illustrious face. "But now, thanks to my sorcerer -who would have been my second-in-command if not for your former partner- you're free from the imbecile on the ground. You're no longer held back by the sympathetic bastard."

Angelus glared long and hard at the Leader. "…And what is your point in all of this?"

"Is it not obvious?" The Leader scoffed. "I wish for you and I to make a pact! Together-"

"No."

The Leader was taken off guard by the dragon's sudden response, and his illustrious smirk fell into an illustrious scowl. He glanced from Caim to the dragon and back again, and scoffed. "I see. You were attached too."

"…"

The Leader strode back toward the arched entryway, contemplating on what to do next. After sulkily musing for a few minutes, he declared, "I have no use for a dragon that will not be mine." He raised his hand a few inches above his head, and with it raised every weapon in the room. "Kill it."

His hand flew down, and the crossbows, bows, and spears fired.

As her head flopped to the floor, the Leader escorted his troops out of the hall, somewhat put out that his potential pact partner was now useless. A few moments after his departure, Caim stirred from his spot on the cool tile. He had been unconscious since Angelus threw him into the wall, but the tremor resulting from the dragon's head colliding with the floor awoke him. Tentatively, he tested his neck and back first, to make sure that they weren't broken. After pushing himself to all fours, he saw Angelus, a new pool of darkened blood forming around her head. He took in a sharp breath, and cried out, "Angelus? Angelus!"

With his shaking limbs, he staggered and crawled to her, finally toppling a few inches away, his shirts beginning to soak in her blood. He placed a quivering hand on her arrow-ridden head, his eyes tearing up as he did. Angelus only grunted in response to the touch, unable to do much else. And as the dragon lay dying with her human stroking her mangled head, the Leader's troops could be heard singing of the dreaded dragon's demise.

…………

And that's where I woke up.

I've already told this to silver thorns, but I felt that it would be appropriate to post this, since it is so Drakengard-driven, even the horrible ending. I was tearing up as I woke up in my bed. It was awful.

Ja!