I don't own The Legend of Dragoon…all I own is the Onyx Death Dragoon, Keita, and the other OCs in this fanfiction. It's been a while since I updated it but I feel like it needed to be done. There may be some tense changes that are unintentional. This will probably be the only chapter out for a while yet but this fic will be done…even if it takes years. Feedback is greatly appreciated but no flames please.

"Siyamak is…dead…" Keita confesses to her father, head bowed low in shame.

King Errigal's face takes on a shade of deep scarlet, a vein popping out of his forehead. Keita braces herself for his harsh reply, taking a few steps away from the throne.

"DEAD? Foolish girl! I want you to attack the Serdian troops with your dragoon spirit now! Fight them until you die! Don't bother coming back unsuccessful if you're alive," he snarls, standing up and marching out of the room.

"Yes father…" Keita whispers, turning to leave.

"Keita, don't do it!"

Turning around Keita sees her father's advisor, Chester running towards her.

"Keita, your father hasn't been the same ever since the demons came to Nissil! He was already a corrupt man but he has been having meetings with the demons more and more frequently! I think the demons are planning something big, Keita. You should leave Endiness while you still can, you're young!"

"Why would the demons have anything to do with my father's lust for domination?"

"Ever since the moon fell…things haven't been the same. The demons that came here after that…they are different from other demons I've encountered. I sense something sinister about them, Keita."

"Chester!" Errigal calls from his chambers.

"Coming, your majesty!" Chester replies before turning to Keita once again, "Get out of here before it's too late…our kingdom is doomed."

"Our kingdom isn't doomed, Chester," Keita replies before leaving the castle, clenching her fists. "I will not let Nissil fall."

Dart smiles as he takes Shana's hand, leading her into a waltz across the battlefields. The Nissilian troops had ceased their advance earlier in the day and the knights decided to throw a little party over the dragon's defeat. Through a tent flap, the king of Serdio sighs, remembering how he and his former wife Emille use to dance. The stars shine brightly, illuminating the camp as a lone figure flies towards them, stopping on the outskirts of camp. Shooting Dart a worried look, Shana points to the figure approaching them. A flash of black light engulfs the figure and Keita returns to normal, holding up her hands to show she is unarmed.

"Do not attack me. I wish to speak with your king," Keita says calmly, waiting for a response.

"What is your business here?" Dart asks, not trusting her at all.

"To help you win the war."

"How do I know we can trust you?"

"You can't but," Keita says as she reaches a hand under her shirt, revealing her dragoon spirit and holding it out to Shana, "she can hold onto this and if I try something suspicious I will be without a dragoon spirit."

Nodding wordlessly, Dart leads her to Albert's tent.

"Wait here," he instructs, entering the tent.

Keita nods as Shana watches her.

"Why do you want to help us?" She asks out of curiosity.

"I was blinded…the truth was right before me the whole time…The kingdom I grew up in is going to fall due to my father's corruption…I don't want that…Nissil is…a wonderful place and I can't let it be destroyed! My father must be stopped!" Keita replies, not noticing that Dart and Albert had already come out and heard all of that.

"Your father…does that mean?" Dart asks, eyes widening.

"My name is Keita, princess of Nissil…it is an honor to formally meet you all," she says bowing. Keita never curtsied as her father raised her more like a son than a daughter.

"Dart."

"Shana."

"Albert, King of Serdio. What is it that has caused you to turn yourself over to Serdio?"

"It all started when The Moon That Never Sets fell from the sky…" Keita says, taking a deep breath and sitting down on a log. "Nissil has always had a demon or two as we are very open minded when it comes to what species one is…but after the moon fell out of the sky new demons came to Nissil…They sought out audiences with my father…a month after these meetings started my father sent his troops to attack Serdio. It is more than obvious to me that there is a connection between the demons and my father's decision to go to war…He has always been a corrupt man but…more so than ever as of late.

Serdio has the advantage now since Siyamak has perished…but that will not stop my father…he will continue sending troops until there are no more troops to be sent and since our capital is in the sky it is hard to get to so there will not be a way to quickly end the war unless…someone shows you how to enter the city and the castle. This is why I'm here…I will get you into the city and into the castle. My father must be stopped…even if that means he must die."

"Oh your father won't be the only one to die, princess…" A voice calls out from the bushes, causing her to get up and unsheathe her katana. "You will die too for what your family has done to my family!"

Suddenly a man sprang forward, unsheathing dual swords and charging at her. He had tanned skin, tall, lean, and had angry brown eyes. He swung his swords forward, attempting to slash her across the chest but Keita jumps back, hitting his swords away with her own.

"Shana my dragoon spirit!"

Shana tosses her the onyx stone and Keita does a quick transformation, her armor encasing her just as two slashes hit her across her chest and abdomen. She was grateful the armor protected her from getting cut.

"Stop this at once!" She says, blocking all of his attacks but with a bit of effort, this man was certainly strong. "Killing me won't solve anything!"

"Perhaps not," the man says, lowering his weapons, just now noticing that the other three had drawn their weapons on him as well. "But someone has to pay for my brother and my sister's deaths!"

He goes to attack again but Dart attacks him this time instead, only to be stopped by Keita.

"This is between this man and myself, lower your weapons and stand aside," Keita says as she fights with the man, eventually being able to disarm him.

"Fine…" the man says panting hard, lowering his head. "Kill me then. Kill me just like your god damn troops killed my siblings!"

Keita had withdrawn from her dragoon transformation and stays in her normal armor. "Killing you would be a waste of time! Can't you see that I don't want any more people dying? This is why I'm here at Serdio's camp! I want to right my father's mistakes! Besides, I'm sure your siblings would be so thrilled to know that you died for nothing! Go do something with your life and make them proud…this war will be over soon."

"Don't you even want to know how my siblings died, Keita?" The man asks, looking at her with a hateful glare. "Your father drained all the body from their bodies. They were guards at your castle. One night they didn't come back. Your wonderful father at least had the courtesy to return the bodies to my parents. He told us they died from poison. He said someone had sent all the guards working that night poison in their food. My parents were smart enough to call a doctor in from the clinic. The doctor reported there was no blood to be found in their bodies and no trace of poison. The doctor said there were tiny but deep cuts where the blood was trained…almost like they were being sacrificed in a ritual. We know the rumors of the demons! Your father sacrificed their blood for something!"

"Nissil…is conducting blood sacrifices?" Albert breathes in disbelief.

"How awful!" Shana says in agreement.

"That would explain why my father's youth seems to have returned to him…" Keita murmurs, running a hand through her hair. "He was getting a bit weaker…he is fifty now and old age is starting to kick in…but lately…he has been training with the knights and he seems to have gained a lot of energy and strength…I know that demons can…strike deals…My father must have…oh Soa…I never thought he would be this much of a monster! Forgive me for not seeing what he was doing sooner…I will make sure to put an end to his madness…" She says, gazing to the young man.

"I don't believe you. You're his seed after all. How do I know you this isn't some façade to lure everyone into trusting you?"

"She's not doing that…I can tell that she sincerely wants this all to end," Shana says, stepping next to Keita.

"Hmph…I still don't trust her so I'm going with you all to make sure you kill the bastard."

"Very well…" Keita says, not liking how coldly he said that last sentence. Even though her father was corrupt and committing evil acts…he was still her father and she loved him. The father of twenty years ago, the one that would sit her on his knee and read her poems still lived on in her mind.

"What's your name?" Shana asks, looking over the new member of their small castle-raiding party.

"Killian," he says gruffly, sitting down on a log. "So princess, care to tell us how to get into the palace?"

"It's Keita," she replies coolly before telling the group how they would sneak in and where the secret passages in the castle were.

…

"Well…you all look like soldiers of Nissil though…you may want to keep your helmet on lest you be recognized as king," Keita says, looking toward Albert.

He nods to her and in the middle of the night, the five of them leave the Serdio campsite, only telling the head knight what they are going to be doing. If word got out to others something might slip to Nissil if any of those soldiers got taken captive. The king of Nissil was known for torturing the truth out of war prisoners.

"Princess Keita! You know your father does not want you returning unless you have defeated Serdio!" A guard in charge of the airship says to her.

"I am aware. I am just going to survey the enemy formations from above," she says passing by the guard. "These soldiers here are going to help me raid the troops."

"How does this ship operate?" Albert asks, fascinated by how it seems to fly through the air. "And how does your city stay afloat like that?"

"Honestly, I don't know how the ship works…but the city stays afloat from wingly magic. Nissil is very diverse in species. Winglies live alongside of humans and we're all treated equally. My father use to be a good man…he treated the winglies well and in return they helped him build his city like this."

"A good man Soa's right testicle!" Killian snorts from the other side of Albert.

"I know why you say that Killian…and I really don't blame you," Keita says softly, "but my father was a good man at one point in his life."

She walks away from the two of them, hiding the pain in her eyes. She stands alone for the duration of the flight up to the city.

"Dart! The view is so beautiful…" Shana says as she looks out over the deck of the ship. "I'm afraid I'll fall though…"

She blushes faintly as she feels his arms wrap around her middle.

"Then I'll just have to catch you…" he whispers into her ear, giving the side of her neck a soft kiss.

…

"It would be too obvious if we just walked in there. The guards know not to let me into the palace…my father's last words to me were to defeat Serdio and come back alive…or to come back in a casket. Come, I know a back entrance," Keita tells them, leading them through a few alleys until they reach the back of the castle.

She finds the back door to be abandoned for the moment.

"Since our city floats and most of our citizens are happy the back is normally left unguarded. This way," Keita says as she leads them into the castle, being careful to avoid being caught.

She stops outside a small wing of the palace. "We should come up with a battle strategy…my father no doubt has demons with him too."

She leads them into her room. "No one ever comes into my room and they think I'm still out fighting…"

They notice that her room does not have many things in it and there are many dents in the walls. There is a chair by the window and a coffee table in the back of the room. A few shelves were pushed up against the walls, one has many books on it and the other has various divination objects and a few musical instruments. They also notice a few house plants in the corners of the room for decoration. There's also a trunk she keeps under her bed that none of them notice, full of toys her father gave her when she was a child.

"Don't you have fancy dresses and jewelry? I thought princesses had a lot of stuff," Shana says as she looks around the spacious room.

"My father never spoiled me with dresses and jewelry…what I have of that is stashed away in the closet…I wouldn't have a use for such useless stuff anyways…and I wouldn't be able to practice my swordsmanship with a bunch of junk anyways."

"Well what the fuck are we going to do now that we're here? Clearly we're not going to be talking about the objects that are or aren't in the princess's room," Killian says, leaning against a wall.

Dart glares at him for a moment while Shana murmurs a "sorry".

"The demons fight with magic but in order for them to use some of their magic they must sacrifice those around them…if they don't have anything to sacrifice they'll fight with weapons…the demons I've seen in my father's company hold frighteningly huge weapons and when I saw them spar they move faster than any human…they will be hard to take down even in dragoon form…" She says with a sigh before taking a book out from the shelf. "This is all the information I have on demons and how to fight them."

With that being said she opens the book up and they all begin to look through it, searching for anything that gives information on a demon's weaknesses.

…

"There are intruders in the castle…" A figure whispers to the king. "I sensed them a few minutes ago…but I can't tell where they are."

"Intruders? How did they get here? Someone from the inside must have helped them…" Errigal snarled, "Have the guards search every room."

"As you wish," the figure says, eyes flashing red.

Well Chapter 2 is done...look for Chapter 3 within the next few months! Reviews please! Also, if anyone's interested I may do fanart of Keita, Killian, and Siyamak and put it on my deviantart account. I'll have the links for that if I do put artwork up. Thanks!