*Save My Tears - Chapter 2 - Of Night and Deception*
A Legend of Dragoon Fanfiction
Written by Rap's (RaptorJNB@aol.com)
Notes:
Well- this is the second chapter! YAY!! Hope you enjoy! as for these little poetry like dedications at the start of every chapter, they are just my mini creations. Crappy huh? heh. ^_^ Sorry this is short... but will have the third chapter out far quicker then this one! death to me and my lack of time!
----
If ever frail...
Our eyes with tears.
To learn in but a single moment;
The meaning we share.
And need.
--- Save My Tears: Chapter 2 ---
"And just where in all the seven HELLS have YOU been!?"
Lloyd honestly expected as much. Drifts of silver hair gently crossed his vision as the Wingly turned. Quietly regarded the cold, steel like eyes of Emperor Doel. Anger and disapproval were things he had learned to recognize as common in the tall Sandoran. Sharp, distraught emotions that neither he, nor any other was able to understand at a glance.
"In thought." Lloyd answered quietly. His voice a mellow, calming overtone to the slight trace of hostility that ebbed in Doel's own words. "I apologize, your majesty."
An annoyed sound.
"Funny, how you manage to evade my questions so gracefully. You may keep your mysterious facade... but do not practice it's nature when time is of importance."
"Yes, highness."
"Bah." And Doel gave him a long, irritated look; the gentle shadows around them tracing his stern features. "Stop being such a peasant oaf and come. Diaz has been awaiting your arrival a good three hours now. See to it you save such formalities for he alone, if the man decides to share words with you."
Lloyd didn't take the breath to respond, and so simply followed the Emperor of Sandora as he began quickly down the bleak hall around them; deeper into the solid obsidian maze that was the Black Castle. He... could not say he enjoyed this place. The darkness of it. Each spanning hall and rafter was a gloomy, if not also morbid addition to the city of Kanzas itself. It was a place shrouded in eternal night; where the walls seemed to throb with sorrow.
~As did Rose...~
Rose.
Lloyd closed his eyes a moment, remembering.
Why had she left so quickly? He could visualize her smile. Something that seemed rare yet beautiful over her ghostly features. Speaking with Rose had come easily. Fluidly... as if indeed he had found another whom shared his resilience and passion. Someone who... who perhaps could understand. Someone who knew more then her meager years granted.
She couldn't have been over 25 in age, at most.
But when the afternoon had come, and travelers began to file within the small tavern they had occupied... she became nervous. Upset and pained. It was a mix of emotions he saw warring behind her intelligent violet eyes. Tearing her apart nearly with how strong he could sense their presence. As word of Neet's destruction had come drifting on the lips of those around them... it had worsened.
Perhaps she had lost a dear friend in the fires? Family? A lover?
In either case, before he could do more then simply touch her arm and ask if she was alright, Rose had left. A beautiful shadow of black and violet armor that had drifted lightly; yet urgently away from his troubled gaze and out into the forests beyond the tavern.
Soon after, he had also left. For Serdio.
But still, her presence was with him. Never before could Lloyd remember a face in such vivid detail. Never before had he remembered, and *wanted* to remember someone who was little more then a stranger. Just a woman, with raven hair and glowing eyes.
Rose.
And again, his mind said the name. Rolled it upon his thoughts like a memory to be cherished.
Rose.
"You really *are* off in your own little world today, aren't you?" Doel growled from ahead of him. Lloyd snapped his eyes upwards to regard the man, his black and red armor seeming to glow under the unholy, purplish light that guided each hall. Doel still continued walking, not expecting an answer regardless of Lloyd's silence. The Wingly brushed an errant strand of silver from his eyes and felt a tender sigh pass over his lips.
Up ahead, a power radiated in earnest. It was a throb of raw essence that did not escape his senses. A strong presence that could only be Diaz.
And all at once the hall they traveled opened into a lavish foyer. The deep, creeping shadows of before were gone now, replaced by bright lamps that carried the distinct scent of a fragrant oil. Perhaps Gardenia? Jasmine?
~No, it smells more of Roses. Heavy and sweet.~
Above and below the walls were a light peach, with ever so often another gloomy hallway branching from it's vibrant width. Up traveled a staircase, like liquid gold, and suddenly Lloyd found his eyes scanning the features of a beautiful stone figure. She, who had been Doel's wife, and was erected this shrine. Could such beauty even exist in this place?
And, moreover, could it be designed by a man who was bent upon disillusioned victory? Prosperity from war, death, and hate? Glancing at the Emperor of Sandora, and watching as his steel eyes softened to gaze upon the statue of his cherished Karina, Lloyd supposed that even monsters could love.
Either way, not long after these speculations had run their course, again darkness struck his eyes and the mammoth throne room of Kanzas loomed into view behind two golden doors.
Standing at it's center was the tall, stern figure of emperor Diaz. He, who dressed in the cloaks of war, seemed little more then a fall of crimson cloth.
"About time." Came two curt words. Thick and emotionless, as always.
"I apologize, Emperor." Lloyd began almost instantly, feeling his body move to bow in one deep slide of his back. At his right, Doel did similar, and together they stood. Diaz was the only man upon the face of Endiness for whom the tall Sandoran would ever kneel to. But that was because Doel believed that Diaz could bring about a better world, as did Lloyd himself.
The only difference was that his version of this supposed 'utopia' would come to be. Not Doel's, who was corrupted, and would be dealt with in future years. For now, he served a purpose. By using him, they could attain his nephew. Or, more accurately, the Moon Gem.
Lloyd felt his mind whirl at all the things that would come to be. Plans and tactics and actions drifted within his mind in a sudden flash.
~Rose.~
Lloyd blinked, surprised. Whatever did she have to do with this?
~She was so distressed... and when she left, her eyes had become sudden shadows. I am worried for her. Is that why she has once again stole into my thoughts?~
"And what of Basil?"
Lloyd shook himself alert. He hadn't even realized a conversation had begun some minutes ago...
"Trembling." Doel said without humor. "As you predicted, the country split almost directly in half after Carlos fell to my blade. With Serdio divided, and a portion of it now under my reign, thousands are at your disposal, lord Diaz. My nephew is a child. There is nothing that stands between you, and what you wish to attain.
"With the exception of age." Lloyd put in quietly, picking up the discussion. "Albert cannot be separated from the Gem at 8 meager years. The stone could suffer a great loss of energy, as the boy's life force alone is not enough to establish it's power. Albert will need to be at least in his early twenties before we can make a move towards his abduction. By then, the Gem will have absorbed enough of his vitality to be removed."
With a slow nod, Doel ran a hand through his short black hair and gave a sigh. "That's a hell of a long time to wait..."
"In which." Diaz said thickly. "We shall whittle Basil down until they've barely legs to stand upon."
Mechanically, Lloyd felt himself nod. Diaz was a man of honor. A man of worth. He would truly bring about the peace of Endiness. However, just as with the dragon campaign some 11,000 years ago, blood would be spilt in the struggle for a pure world. Each life would be a sacrifice appreciated... for indeed, there was no other way.
~No other choice.~
The Black Monster. Lloyd wondered briefly if she felt the same way.
***
"I had no other choice!" Rose whispered to herself. Again; and then again.
Echoing within her mind were simple thoughts, really. The traces of conversation she had happened to overhear while seated quietly next to Lloyd; her hands clutched around her glass and eyes sweeping to the floor. She remembered the Wingly reach out an arm to touch her shoulder... and then suddenly, as if the meager contact had burned, she shrunk away from his gaze and headed straight for the door.
Rose could not remember when she had stopped running... and yet here she was. Back against a massive oak and her knees drawn up to her chin, the Dark Dragoon began to hear voices run the length of her spine.
"Did you hear? by god, hundreds died..."
A woman sobbing.
"My brother and Niece! Both of them had been on visit... !!!"
Rose closed her shimmering violet eyes.
"It was that goddamned creature! That unholy demon!"
"The Black monster..."
"Who else feeds on the blood of the innocent?"
Feed!? She did not *feed* on the blood of the innocent! She drowned in it! Crimson rain that splattered her skin and stained it red. Falls of human fluid that ran down her arms and chest and legs and hands... burning. All of it so hot and fragrant as it dripped steaming to the ground! Rose hated it more then she had ever hated Melbu Frahma, Faust, or even the demon virage. Gods could weep an ocean of blood ten times over, and yet they would not even scathe the amount she had drawn by sword alone in a simple 11,000 years.
...Simple?
Perhaps a true hopelessness then engulfed her; for Rose could not even begin to understand why she threw back her head at the thought... and laughed aloud.
~Simple? I am prone to call this existence SIMPLE now? Am I truly loosing my humanity!?~
And then, blinking once into the cool dusk, Rose gave a morbid smile. So, she actually figured there was humanity *left* to loose, did she? One leg unfurled from it's taunt position; drawn deep into her chest, and she stretched it languidly in front of her.
Humanity indeed.
Rose swallowed her thoughts, crushing them in a mental vice that had grown stronger with dedicated practice. Yes. She had killed again. She had slew the men, women and children of Neet, and there was nothing she could do to change both this and the workings of fate. End of the damned story.
~Until next the moon glows red, and 108 years has once again come to pass.~
The time would flash by like hours, Rose knew. Best she sleep now and prowl upon the night. The future would come soon enough. It always did.
~And *he* seemed to understand that. Such intelligence. His gaze, full of blood, was no stranger to the threads of true pain.~
Rose blinked.
Lloyd? Is that where her thoughts, in wanting to forget, now drifted?
Surprised, the Dark Dragoon sank against the heavy wood at her back and breathed deep the scent of pine, decay and wildflowers. Earthen forest smells that comforted her mind and body with the aroma of all things natural. Pure. Rose wished dearly that she had not left him in that sudden toil of emotions. The few hours spent with Lloyd had set her at ease in a way that she... could not entirely describe. It may have been his aura alone... the confident, passionate glow of a truly determined heart. What was he striving to reach? Ideals made of gold and Silver seemed to burn within his crimson gaze. She had not seen a man with that much dedication in over... well...
~Zeig. Only in Zeig can I remember a gaze such as his.~
But then, she *knew* the drive behind his soul. Lloyd was a man in which she could recognize the such, but his motives remained a mystery to her curious insight. As a slight wind drifted up through the branches above, Rose tilted her head to watch the fading sky and let out a trembling breath.
She would admit that it had also been an unnerving experience of sorts. Meeting him. Anyone who could so quickly sweep her troubled mind into yet another dark corner was a person that indeed Rose should be wary of.
Lloyd had simply smiled.
And she had smiled in return, hadn't she?
***
Rose had... smiled at him. Yes, he remembered that.
Lloyd squirmed restlessly against the soft bed beneath him. How many hours had he lain awake now, simply staring into the dark room around him? It seemed a fragment of eternity, and his ruffled silver hair lay witness to such frequent tossing about. With a sigh of sorts, both arms came up and rested lightly above his head. Crimson eyes flickered as the city lights outside flashed their dull reds and purples and yellows. Did Kanzas ever sleep?
It didn't matter, the Wingly supposed. The capitol of Sandora wasn't what was keeping him awake. Sometime after his meeting with Diaz had ended and the sky turned from blue to black... he had returned to his temporary quarters within the black castle. Lloyd hadn't bothered to do more then lock the door behind him, and slip wearily onto the mattress in his room. Nothing but a bed, a small table, and a reading light. It was rare Lloyd stayed overnight in this dreary place. He preferred the purity of a quiet forest to the buzzing, endless mechanical sounds that drifted throughout Kanzas day or night.
~Rose, your keeping me awake.~
And it was just that. It was Her. It was all he could do to try and clear his mind from the pained expression that had drifted over her face those many hours ago. Again, he remembered reaching to touch her shoulder, the way she pulled away from his contact- and then all but ran from the tavern.
~Your keeping me awake because I worry for you. A raven haired warrior of whom I hardly even know.~
Lloyd rolled over and buried his face within the pillow that greeted him there. It smelt of old things... not unclean, but musty.
~You were so haunted. Everything about your aura radiated sadness.~
His platinum hair glowing white in the lights from outside, Lloyd grimaced into the dull cream colored sheets. He did not have *time* to spend being concerned about this single memory! But she had been so very *like* him in ways Lloyd simply couldn't explain. Even his zeal to locate the mysterious black monster was something faded in light of her presence. All he wanted was to meet her again.
~I should be planning. Resting and building my strength. Preparing for the tasks ahead.~
But Rose simply would not leave him.
~I cant THINK like this!~
He didn't want to be *thinking* in either case! He wanted to sleep!
~So haunted. So sad. So... very beautiful.~
And where in the hell had that last thought come from?
Lloyd twisted out of his bed in one short, almost violent movement, and went to pacing. Back and forth, muttering silent curses upon the dreary lukewarm air. Fine then, he'd stay awake. He'd perhaps walk down to the training room below and joust with a few of the peon Sandorian soldiers who felt they had something to prove. Maybe afterwards he would go to discuss politics with Emperor Doel... but then the man was sure to be at the foot of Karina's shrine... kneeling upon one knee as he thought and thought and...
Lloyd stopped. Sighed.
~This isn't getting me anywhere. Lay down once more and just TRY...~
Five minutes afterwards, -she- again drifted amongst his thoughts. When Lloyd got up once more, this time it was to fasten his belt, straighten his clothing, and exit the room. Not until he was well outside Kanzas, feet quietly navigating the soft forest floor, would Lloyd then realize he was searching for Rose.
Unbeknownst to the distrought Wingly, A figure cloacked in red had watched silently from the towers above. Followed Lloyd with gaze alone as the man quickly left the city.
He chuckled.
****
Um.... you like? ^_^ Please tell me what to improve!! luv yas!!