Christmas Special: Dawn of a New World

AU-Destiny: Skyfall (bears no connection to the timeline in the story and this is purely a family moment)

NOTE: LIKE THE LAST SPECIAL, SPECTRE IS KNOWN AS 'NERO' OR 'SPARDA'.


1927 Hours, December 25, 2724

Pendragon Residence, Red Veil Territory, -OMITTED- Location (Earth)

"Daddy!" wailed a little girl, cupping her hands over her mouth as she stepped into a room looking for someone.

Her emerald eyes full of curiosity and innocence fluttered around the room scarcely decorated with swords and bladed weapons on the walls and helmets on shelves from what she was told were 'legends to him, both his friends and family.' One of the helmets looked very old that somehow survived the test of time for thousands of years, another so scary that she dared not to look at it, and then one that she saw frequently whenever that someone came home. That was until she found what she was looking for. On the desk close to the door was a form taking a nap, lightly snoring over some paperwork of sorts and head resting on his arms. "Daddy, mommy's waiting! It's Christmas, and Auntie Light and Uncle Leon are coming!" she tried nudging her father awake with her tiny hands, but to no avail.

She pouted and poked her father in his cheek. Nothing. Again, she shook her father's arm to the same result. Then, an idea sparked in her head. Looking up towards the shelves and towards one of the helmets that was barely collecting dust, she tip-toed over some scattered papers that were important to him. Careful not to crumple them under her feet the child tried to climb up on a drawer, using the handles as steps for her hands and feet. In due time, she was with eye level with one of the helmets on the shelves. Her father's helmet. Scratches weathered this black and red helmet that looked fairly new and fresh from the forge, the smooth swept-back visor pulsing with light like a scanner and ridges along the jaw like vents for breathing. Two horn-like ornaments decorated the sides of the piece of armor, giving a dragon-esque appearance both cool and intimidating. But it didn't scare her like the other one. Keeping her balance on the surface of the drawer, she reached for the helmet. As soon as she lifted it from the shelf, she expected it to be very heavy based on its appearance but it was surprisingly heavy enough to hold with one hand.

Wow, daddy's stuff is so cool! Her thumbs ran across the surface of the helmet's visor, the light reacting to her touch and creating a new pattern to go around the fingers. She giggled at the mesmerizing light as it changed from red to blue, and then a gray color. At first, she wanted to put it on but then what would her daddy say? Frowning at the thought of him being mad at her, she kept it in her hands. A small shape that was hidden on the shelf caught her eyes and she reached for it. Oh no! The moment she reached for the small shape, she had let go of the helmet in one hand and being the child she is she had clearly underestimated its weight. A small yelp left her lungs and she lost her balance on the drawer.

But she felt the warmth of arms catch her before she hurt herself, dropping the helmet against the carpet. Peeking an eye open, she saw who stopped her from falling.

"Honestly Rose, if you wanted to wake me up the best thing you could do is dump a bucket of water on me or get Neo to bark or howl in my ears." Sparda smiled softly, cradling her like she was still a newborn instead of being a physically four-year old child. By the Traveler, how the years flew by since she was born… She was truly a blessing from the Traveler. To him and Vesper.

Rose grinned innocently. "You're awake, daddy!"

"What were you doing with my helmet, Rose Alexandrea Pendragon?" he saw her smile turn into a frown and her eyes looking down on the floor. Realizing what she was looking at, he picked it up and put the helmet in front of her. She took it and hugged it like it was a stuffed animal, hiding her face.

"I'm sorry daddy. I thought I could wake you up with this on…" Rose anticipated her daddy to be angry at her. Instead, she felt his hand run through her brown hair and ruffle it up a bit.

"It's okay. Next time, try to be more careful with yourself," he put her down on the floor, straightening her dress and setting the helmet on his desk. She still didn't look at him and he gently turned her head to face him. He gave a warm smile. "Look Rose, that helmet can take the damage. You can't. And believe me, you're much more precious to protect than my own armor. Cheer up, you said it was Christmas, right?"

Rose felt that sadness lift from her soul and looked at her father in his steely blue eyes. Taking her father's words, she cracked a smile and nodded eagerly. "Come on! Mommy's waiting downstairs!"

"There's no need to come downstairs anymore, Rose."

Rose's eyes widened and ran straight for the door, where someone was leaning on the frame of the door. "Mommy!"

"Merry Christmas, my princess!" Vesper laughed as her daughter leapt into her arms and spun around. After that, Vesper nuzzled her nose with her daughter's before she faced Sparda. "I see you're awake, honey. Had a nice nap?"

"It was better than spending an entire night and morning doing paperwork for the treaties between the other factions and not spending time with my beautiful wife and daughter," Sparda teased. "You know the job of being leader of the Dark Knights and undoing the Cyphers' deeds takes the life out of me."

Vesper frowned slightly and took her daughter in her arms. She saw Rose try to suck on her thumb and wagged her finger, tutting at the same time. Rose pouted before her mommy gave her a freshly baked cookie and happily scarfed it down. "You know you have Lightning to help, right? You're both Pendragons."

"Sadly, she's still hunting down the remnants of the Cyphers for their crimes. She just doesn't have the time to play politics and treaties and be there to babysit Rose when we're out. Besides, her trying to remedy the relations between Red Veil and Perrin Sequence isn't her strong type."

"And the Tower?"

Sparda looked over at his desk for the paperwork. "We're getting there. There's just a few issues we need to have a compromise for," Before he knew it, Vesper shushed him with a finger and the two looked lovingly in the eyes. "Although one day of not doing treaties and compromises can't hurt, right?"

"Well, you more or less have about five hours to enjoy Christmas. After all, you did take a nap for the entire afternoon."

"Yeah! And we opened our presents without you, daddy!"

Sparda raised an eyebrow. "What's that I hear?" he approached his daughter and took her in his hands. "You opened your presents without your daddy?" he grinned devilishly and started tickling his daughter. "Did you?"

Rose's laughter was music to their ears while she was trying to resist her father's tickles. "N-no, daddy! Stop! We didn't!" in the midst of the moment, Vesper tried to hold back her laughter but it was futile and she burst out giggling.

"Well, Rose was a little impatient and she opened one of her presents. Behind my back, even!"

Sparda stopped tickling Rose and lifted her into his eye level. "Which one did you open, Rose?"

"Are you mad at me, daddy?"

"No." It was then that Sparda noticed something different about his daughter. He felt something soft, like cotton or silk. One good look at her and he saw it. Rose was wearing a black scarf that was red on the inside but it was too big for her. "Isn't that scarf a little too big for you, Rose?

She shook her head. "It's not a scarf, daddy!" she fumbled around with the scarf and let it fall. By the Traveler, it was big for her! "It's a cloak, daddy!"

"A cloak, huh? Who gave it to you?"

"I did." Vesper spoke up, who started to redo the cloak into its scarf-like form albeit more comfortable for her daughter than it was. "I thought it would help when she would play out in the snow. I guess I made it a little too big."

"At least you get something for effort," Nero joked and he saw Vesper stick her tongue out at him. "At least it's not too big."

She went up to her husband and kissed him on the cheek. "That's better."

He smiled. "Well in that case, you forgot something from me," he walked over to the shelf where his helmet once rested and reached for something. "Merry Christmas, Rose. I got something for you from my travels to the City. Sorry I didn't have the time to wrap it."

Rose's eyes widened when he presented it to her. She took it in her hands and looked closer. It was red like her namesake with a slight tinge of pinkish-orange, but she couldn't hold it in one hand. A black ball was in the middle of her present and she touched it with her finger. The gift shuddered on contact and the center of the ball lit up, a turquoise glow revealed in dead center of the ball. Rose gasped happily and it hovered before her, whirring and scanning her.

"A Ghost!" she heard about them from her daddy, how they were the counterparts of the Animas Crystals and A.I the Dark Knights use to help them fight. "Thank you daddy!" she hugged her father, Ghost hovering in front of her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Sparda chuckled and hugged his daughter before setting her down on his chair. "Take good care of it, okay? Since it's yours now, you can name it." He saw Rose put her hands together and the Ghost hovered over her cupped hands like a Mote of Light or snow globe.

Rose brightened with joy and looked at her new Ghost, which had tilted slightly to the side in curiosity. It was like a spark of familiarity came between her and the Ghost, one like they were siblings or knew each other. "Hikari. I'll name you Hikari!"


Merry Christmas, everyone! I apologize if this came later than expected, but I hope you enjoyed this short family moment! See you in the next special!