She woke with a start. There was an excruciating pain in her chest and head - tugging and pounding her at an unimaginable level. She vaguely remembered the past events – which was enough to not want to relive them just yet. The most important question right now though was where she was.

When she opened her eyes, searing light blinded her. Bright and warm, the sun sent its rays through the open window. Dust flakes danced in the streaks of light. Alarmed, she looked around the room and took in the surroundings.

The room was tiny and sparsely furnished. There was only one table with a massive candleholder of rusted iron placed in the center and a wide bed, which she found herself in.

She traced her fingers gently across the long, worn nightgown she was dressed in.

The flash of pain brought her back from her reverie again and she tried to escape the torment by shielding her eyes. That was when she realized the carefully tied bandage around her head. Someone had brought her to their home and took the trouble – for who knows how long now – to attend to her. Just as she was wondering who that might be, the creaking wooden door beside her was opened hesitantly.

"Lady Oscar!" She heard the pleasant voice exclaim immensely relieved.

"Rosalie?" Oscar cried in surprise and tried to sit up in bed.

"No! Please don't even try that!" Rosalie went by her side immediately and stilled her in time. "The doctor told me you must avoid physically exerting yourself," she told her responsibly and studied the pale face of her involuntary patient with concern.

"What happened to me?" Oscar wanted to know and held her breath when the pain in her chest began to flare again. With a hesitant and sorrowful glance at Oscar, Rosalie began to recount the events.

"When you and your men attacked the Bastille, the supreme commander gave his people the order to aim at you exclusively. Consequently, a bullet hit you in the chest and another just missed your head. It grazed your right temple however. The following shots didn't hit you only due to the surprisingly fast reaction of a soldier from your troops, who threw himself upon you..." A tight lump formed in Rosalie's throat. The past events were too painful, as Rosalie herself had fought to storm the Bastille.

"Which soldier do I have on my conscience?" Oscar wanted to know, deeply dismayed by the bitter truth of what Rosalie had just told her.

"Jean," Rosalie whispered, looking down at the floor. Oscar could not say anything more. The wish to be able to change the past to keep Jean from his intervention overpowered her. He should not have sacrificed himself for her.

Jean has been in her regiment since her very first day as Commander of the French Guards. He had had so many dreams and extraordinary courage. As the riots in Paris began, he was not afraid to give his consent freely to the people's actions. Like all his fellow soldiers, he belonged to the middle class and knew for sure he wouldn't fight against his family. Unlike Oscar, who had hesitated for too long to make a decision, and now regretted it to this day.

"But Jean would not have acted as he did, had he not been completely certain that you would save his family," Rosalie added when she saw the fallen expression on her friend's face. She didn't say this to mitigate the guilt that Oscar felt for Jean's death; it was also the truth. Rosalie knew Jean's last words, in which he declared that a Commander had to survive. So Jean's last will has been fulfilled: Oscar was alive and the doctor was quite positive in regard to her recovery – concerning the injuries from the battle, at least. She has been shocked immensely by learning that Lady Oscar suffered from the dangerous lung disease.

"Jean was a brave man, braver than I'll ever be," whispered Oscar defeatedly.

"Stop it! Don't pity yourself. Jean has made his decision and he has done what he did for good reason, because he expects you to continue to fight. The former French Guards and the people need you! Likewise, you would have sacrificed yourself for him. For each one of Company B, if you could. Tell me if I'm mistaken." Rosalie spoke softly but confidently to her. She was now gaining momentum.

Oscar then became aware of how different the adult Rosalie was from the one she had known. Since her departure from the Jarjayes' mansion, a lot of time had passed. Rosalie seemed to read her thoughts and feelings effortlessly. That scared her, because so far she had thought there was only one person to know what was going on inside her.

"I haven't achieved anything."

"Oh, Lady Oscar, but that's not true! An hour after you were wounded, the white flag has been hoisted at the Bastille." A small smile appeared on the soft features of the young woman.

"So you've made it."

"No, we have made it."

Oscar gave a choking laugh and regretted it immediately as new pain churned in her chest at that action.

"I did not make anything. I have been unconscious."

"You mustn't blame yourself for that! You are like a symbol, like a quiet fire that ignited the power of your soldiers' minds." Rosalie watched Oscar lovingly, but soon her inner turmoil showed on her face again. "Excuse me, I have not even asked you how you are feeling."

"Oh Rosalie, I'm fine. Please don't worry! Surely you have other problems apart from taking care of a single person," she reassured Rosalie.

"You spent more than three weeks in bed without consciousness. Even now, the wounds haven't healed completely. I think it's the least I can do for you. After everything we've been through together. You accepted me willingly in your house and your family... I was so happy while I was with you." Rosalie liked to recall those times she had lived at the mansion with Oscar.

"Now please take it easy on yourself. You need to sleep a lot to regain your full strength again soon!" Rosalie admonished in a soft tone and pulled up the covers. Then a thought crossed her mind and she laughed softly. "By the way, the nightgown suits you well."


In case you were wondering; this is an AU storyline picked up after the events in the anime, has been completed with 32 chapters and was originally written in German. It is the sole work of Anne, DKrisi and Fastcaranbethrem over at the German anime and manga site Animexx (PN me for the link if you want to read it) and was written down from 07/16/2003 to 05/15/2005. At that time it had been one of my most favorite RoV fanfictions, so I decided to give it a try and translate the wonderful story into English so that everyone can enjoy it. Comments are very welcome as encouragement, for I've never worked on such a long story before. Are there even RoV fans still out there? *shouts out to you*

If you happen to be the writers of this fanfiction, I hope you will approve for I had no chance to find a way to contact and ask you about this. Please PN me if you ever happen to come across this! Needless to say, this story doesn't belong to me but to those wonderful minds that created and put it in words. I shall forever be thankful for that.

2013/05/07: Many thanks to my beta Joanna Euphrasie for revising this chapter (: *hugs*