*stares in disbelief* This is the last part to revise . . . WHOOHOO!!!!

Deriick: *glares at the insane author from the couch* Some of us are trying to sleep you know?

Ore: I know. Just happy! And needing mucho sleep. *yawn*

Niela: *rolls eyes* Then finish this up and get some sleep.

Ore: . . . good idea . . .

/. . . denotes thoughts or that a certain word is emphasized. . . /

*. . . denotes mindspeech. . . *

. . . denotes flashback or vision. . .

The Fate of Destiny

Part Four:

Dream of Fire

She never moved under Dart's unbelieving gaze as he circled around her, his voice filled with awe. "So you're the new Dragoon of Darkness . . . It's amazing how much you look like her."

She leaned slightly back, distasteful of his close proximity to her. Her movement only got her closer to Terran, who stood defensively behind her, prepared to back up her story. Inwardly, she grimaced. There was no way she could get any space to herself, everyone seemed to be closing in on her, watching her with disbelieving eyes. "Haven't we already gone over this?"

"Yeah," Now Meru was hovering above her, restored to nearly full health thanks to healing potions. Darkened circles under her eyes and the faded light from her wings led Rose to believe that she wasn't fully recovered. "You told us about who you are, it's just a shock that-"

"I look exactly like this Rose, who was the Darkness Dragoon before me, and was killed in the battle with Melbu Frahma!" Her temper was wearing thin. They were taking too long musing over the same thing when there was something much bigger at stake, plus they were a little too close to the truth for her liking. It was strange hearing of herself through the mouths of others, their mournful little sighs and fond memories of her. "You already explained this to us and I've heard the story more than once."

"Well, sorry!" The Wingly flew farther up into the air, miffed.

Rose tried not to grind her teeth together. She knew them so well, but now they had to learn all about her again . . . and for the sake of the world she couldn't tell them who she was. "We're spending a little too much time over the fact that I look like the old Darkness Dragoon. Aren't you wondering why you are here?"

Ewren, slightly distanced from them, tucked his chin into his chest, his body shaking with laughter held back. She did not like him, this new Fire Dragoon. There was a certain aura about him--of furtiveness and secretiveness--that put her on edge, even if one of those traits was very much her own. /Or maybe he's just too self-assured for my liking./

Shrugging, Haschel wiped his forehead with one of his hands, "We were all summoned here."

"Yes, we were. That was obvious," she was harsh to them, defensive, "but who do you think summoned us and why?"

"The Dragons." Ewren came closer, a smirk plastered on his face, "The Dragons are the ones that guided us to this place to see an Awakening."

Rose could not stop the expression of shock from appearing on her face. She thought that someone might have had a clue as to why they were here and why, but she had expected it to be only a vague idea coming from one of her old comrades. "How do you know this?"

He blinked innocently, as if he had presumed that everybody would know this and was becoming aware that this was not so. "My Dragon told me."

She frowned. Could it be that Ewren's Dragon was awake already? It was likely, considering how much activity that its Dragoon Spirit had received in the past year or two. The constant switching from person to person more so than any of the other Dragoon Spirits could have allowed its Dragon to become aware of what was going on. Her recent acquirement of her Dragoon Spirit had awakened her Dragon enough that she often invaded her thoughts, even if it was sleepily.

Speaking of which . . . *Not very happy having a someone sharing your mind, are you?* The soft, feminine, whispery voice invaded her mind, teasing her.

*Just what I need. I think of you and you have to pop up! Leave me alone!*

There was a snorting sound, followed by the voice, *For now, but don't expect to get away so easily when I'm completely awake.*

*Which is something I am not looking forward to, no matter how much Endiness depends on it.* But her Dragon was already slumbering once more.

"Hang on a minute here." Miranda raised her hands, attracting everyone's attention to her, "What's this about Dragons and the Awakening? The dragons are dead."

Rose shook her head, gazing out the corner of her eye at Terran. He had better be prepared to back her up or he was going to be meeting the sharp point of her sword. "You are right and wrong. The dragons you are thinking of are dead, but those dragons aren't the ones that Ewren is referring to. He means the Dragons of Old."

"What?" Shana laid a hand on Dart's arm, doe-brown eyes wide.

"It's a long story, but it also explains why we are here."

Leaning forward, Albert cupped his chin in his hands, successfully ignoring the insects and smell of the Marshland, something that everyone had been trying to do. He was the fourth one to succeed in that way, Rose, Ewren, and Kongol were seemingly already immune to the area. That what it looked like anyways--if Rose could have her way, she would have obliterated the place in seconds. "Then explain. I imagine these Dragons of Old were the ones who . . . um . . . communicated with us?"

*He's a smart one, glad to hear the others are becoming aware.* The Dragon again, always butting into her business.

She nodded, so the other Dragons were slowly waking up as well. That was a good sign. "This might take awhile . . . I suggest we start moving towards Seventh Fort -- it shouldn't be too far away -- while I explain." She cast a scathing glance at Ewren, "If you have anything to add, please do so . . ."

He shrugged, "You know more than I do, I am quite sure."

"Fine, I'll begin."

*****

In all legends and tales of creation it is said that Soa alone created the Divine Tree that gave birth to all life on Endiness.

This is not true.

It was, perhaps, Soa's idea to create Endiness, but She did not create it alone. The God and Goddess of Tiberoa, Ilthin and Perli, the Goddess of Mille Seseau, Crena, along with other nameless Gods and Goddess' helped Her. But there was the Unnamed God that helped Her more than the others. He worked beside Her, gaining Her trust, until the day She found out His true intentions.

This God had been planning to make Endiness a completely different place than what She wished it to be. He had slowly corrupted some of the seeds of the Divine Tree, including what was to be the 108th fruit. She brought along fellow Gods and Goddess' to punish Him for this betrayal, but He was prepared with other Gods and Goddess' that were on His side. A war between these divine beings quickly commenced.

The Unnamed God had created several creations that were not born of the Divine Tree. His most powerful beasts ruled over the other monsters. He called them Wyrms and used them to distract and attack Soa and Her allies. They were powerful beasts--not even close to the power of the Gods--but powerful enough that the Unnamed God gained the upper hand. There was only one thing She could do and that was to create other beasts to fight back. She did so, creating one for each of the Wyrms, twelve in all, intelligent and powerful enough to match the Unnamed God's monsters. She called them Dragons.

This war was hard fought, but eventually Soa came out the victor. She could not destroy the Unnamed God, only trap him within a cage of her own power. When this happened, the eight Wyrms that still roamed Endiness and the beasts that followed them, disappeared, sinking beneath Endiness' soil to sleep until their God was freed.

Soa knew that one day the Unnamed God would escape His bonds, so She created a weapon and hid it. There is only one way to get to this weapon and that is by using a crystal disk known as the Eternity Key. It is both a map to this weapon's hiding place and the key to open it.

As one last precaution, She sealed the eight surviving Dragons away, for She honored what they had done, but could not let them roam Endiness without worry. The Dragons gave part of their power to Her, creating eight stones that She used to make more dragons out of. When the 105th fruit broke open, She picked eight dragons to carry these stones. These stones later became known as Dragoon Spirits, and through their carriers, the Dragons use their powers to this day.

It is said that one day the Unnamed God will begin to break loose from Soa's bindings, and that when this happens his beasts will arise once more. These will be known as the Awakenings. During this time the Dragons must be found by those who carry the Dragoon Spirits and together they shall resist the Unnamed God. They will be Endiness' only and last hope.

*****

Kirri watched the hustle and bustle of Lohan, his eyes tracking the people who dashed about frantically, looking for a familiar face. He didn't recognize anybody. For the fifth time in the hour, for the thirty-fourth time since he had woken up that morning, and Soa knows how many times since he had begun his journey, he cursed his best friend's disappearance.

The people of Isren had gone into a panic when it had been Meirra and Terran had not returned home. Meirra's mother going as far as to have a nervous breakdown. It had been suspected that someone had kidnapped them . . . at least that was the general consensus of the people, but Kirri didn't think that was true.

Terran was too good of a fighter to be taken away . . . at least alive. Kirri knew this without a doubt -- they had fought together more than once. And Meirra . . . well, once he would have thought that she could have been snatched away without much trouble, but since the accident and her attitude change, he seriously doubted that. Both of them had left of their own free will and he was going to find out why.

So, several days ago he had left Isren, leaving a note saying that he was going to bring Terran and Meirra back. He had managed to track them all the way to Lohan, not that it had been hard. It was the most logical place for them to go to gather supplies. But now that he was here in Lohan, he had lost them. He had checked every shop, but there was no clue to where they had gone.

He bowed his head, letting his whole body relax. He relaxed a little too much in fact for the two sheets of paper he held in his hand, fluttered out of it, caught in the wake of a passerby. Kirri jumped into action, fearing that he would lose it and never find it again. He caught one piece before it even touched the ground, but he couldn't find the other. He cussed under his breath. /Of all the rotten luck-/

"Excuse me, sir. Is this yours?" Kirri looked down to find a girl of about twelve holding the missing sheet of paper.

He took it from her hand triumphantly, "Yes, it is! Thank you!"

"It was no problem, sir." She curtsied, "It's a very good drawing. I recognize that man from a couple of days ago."

His eyes shifted between the girl and the drawing he had done of Terran. Kirri had an artistic touch and Terran had been his model more than once because of their friendship. "You what?"

"That man, he stopped by the blacksmith's shop with a girl to pick up some armor."

"You do?" Kirri showed her the other sheet of paper, "Was this the girl? Do you know where they were heading?"

The girl nodded, a bright smile on her face, "Uh-huh, that's her. I think they went in the direction of the Marshland, if that helps any."

"It helps more than you realize." He cupped her face in his hands and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing off. The girl blushed, watched him leave, and went to tell her friends of the handsome young man who had kissed her.

*****

Meru skipped along next to Miranda -- well, it wasn't exactly skipping since the Wingly never touched the ground, but it was close enough. "Would you stop that? You're giving me a headache!"

"All right," she stopped her erratic fluttering, "is that better? You don't have to be so crabby."

"Very much so." The blonde woman glanced over her shoulder, frowning as her eyes encountered the three newcomers to their group. "What do you think of them?"

"Them? Oh! Them." The Wingly twirled, a large grin coming over her delicate features, "That Terran-guy is pretty cute-"

Miranda snorted.

"And that Meirra-chick is just weird. It's like Rose all over again."

"I know." She cast another glance over her shoulder where Meirra stayed a little ways behind the rest of the group. "I would swear that she was Rose, if I-"

Meru cut her off, obviously not wanting Miranda to finish that sentence the way it was going. "If we hadn't heard from Terran's own mouth that they grew up together!"

"Um, yes." /If Meru doesn't want to go there, I won't. I would rather not think about her death either./

"Now Ewren. He's a strange one. Cute, but I don't know if I like him." She giggled, but the smile faded from face. "Do you really think that this Unnamed God is coming back? Is the story that Meirra told us true?"

"I believe so . . . I just wish I knew how /she/ knew this."

"Oh, weren't you listening? Meirra's Dragon is awake -- more so than ours -- and it gave the information to her. Or at least where to find the information. Turns out Isren has a library filled with books that can't be found anywhere else."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Albert kind of went off the wall at that . . ." Oh, was that what had caused him to shout in glee and act for several seconds out of character? Miranda had no longer been concentrating on the conversation at that point, only trying to get a feel for the three newcomers temperaments. "Wonder what we are going to do about this God though . . ." The day's events were wearing on Meru; she still wasn't fully back to her bouncing, cheerful self even after the Healing Rain she had been given, and the news of a new endangerment to the world wasn't helping her any.

Miranda sighed, slapped a insect that had landed on her arm, and smiled weakly, trying to lift the Wingly's spirit. It seemed odd that she would be doing that, Meru was usually the overly-hyper one in their group, while she was -- as much as it irked her -- the bitchy one. "That's why we are going someplace decent to rest and figure that out. Anything would be better than here!"

"Why, what are two fine ladies such as yourself doing up here all alone?" Ewren had approached from behind them and he slung an arm over Miranda's shoulder, grinning like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Being the vanguard for everybody else, perhaps?" She glared at him with icy blue eyes, "And would get you get your hands off of me? Now!"

Ewren lifted his arm up, "Don't be so defensive, sweetheart. I'm just wondering why in the world you're up here in this dangerous position and if you might need a little extra protection."

Miranda slowed her steps down for a second, her blue eyes taking on a sheen of iciness, "We don't need your 'extra protection.' Try Kongol and Haschel, they're the rearguard. They might need your help." She stalked away, catching up with Meru, and leaving Ewren by himself.

Meru giggled, "He was hitting on you."

"I know that," she cast a glare backwards, "and I don't care. He's an asshole and he's hiding something."

*****

The screams stole into the night air. The village stank of burned flesh and black columns of smoke curled into the sky, nearly indistinguishable from the dark. Mothers cradled children in their arms as they desperately ran from their doom. A monster's roar caused them to move all the faster.

It was a scene of chaos.

A scene of death.

All caused by the giant beast that had placed itself in the middle of the village. Blood red scales gleamed along its body, all edged in black. It was snake-like, long and sinuous, quick-striking, and a sharp-pointy head. Two leathery wings lay on its back, closed, and held tightly to its body. Two black fangs shimmered dangerously and when it opened its mouth, it let out a streak of red light that burned everything in its path, like fire.

As a young man watched, the beast fired a beam of that light at an old woman and little boy who had gotten within its sight. The light cut through them, burning away their flesh bit by bit as they screamed in agony. Even after the light had left them they still burned, hair afire, and sightless eyes scorched by the heat.

Still they lived, crying out in pain.

After an eternity, they fell, the flesh burned off leaving blackened bones. A mere mockery in death of what they had once been in life.

The young man took several steps back, gagging. How had he gotten here, to this horrid place of destruction and death? One moment he had been asleep in a bed and now he stood here. This couldn't be real. He did not want it to be real.

Yet, he knew it was.

All of this havoc and devastation was real someplace on Endiness. Deep in his heart he knew that this was not just his imagination producing nightmares for him in his sleep.

The beast turned its head, searching for more prey. The young man's green eyes filled with fear. It was looking right at him with dead gray eyes. But he was not what it saw. Its prey was the girl only a few years younger than the young man, hiding behind a barrel. The beast struck . . .

And time froze.

"This is the Red Wyrm. It has Awakened." A red-head woman dressed in white appeared from behind the beast.

"What?" The young man backed up even further in shock, "Who are you?"

"An old acquaintance of Rose's."

"You're the one that . . ." The young man never finished his sentence, his hand going to his chest only to feel cloth, not the armor he had been expecting.

"Yes, I had your armor made for you." The woman closed in on him and pulled something up that hung from his neck. "I, also, left this for you to wear." In her hand lay a crystal disk, shimmering with red, orange, and yellow. The colors reflected from the still fires around them.

"What is it?" His hand closed around her own.

She shook her head ruefully, "You already know. You've heard the story of why it was created."

"I have, but what does it lead to?"

The woman dropped her hand, bringing his with it. "A weapon that could save the world. You know that, too."

"What weapon?" He frowned as she turned away, "Don't leave without telling me! You have given this to me and I demand to know why and when I have to use it!"

"I-" The woman stilled and sighed, "It has been given to you for you now play a key part in what is to come, you are the only one that Rose can trust at this time, you will not act too hastily in using it . . . and you will be the least expected to be carrying it." She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "As for when you must use it, that is for you to decide, but never leave Rose's side. She is the only one who can use the weapon."

"What weapon does it lead to?"

"You are full of questions, aren't you?" The woman laughed lightly, "You will know the weapon when you see it, but it has never been named." She started to fade from view, "I am sorry, my time is up. Your dream must continue now."

"You mean that you didn't send me this dream?"

Even as she faded away, she bowed her head, "No. What you wear around your neck gives you these dreams. Every time a Wyrm Awakens, you shall have a dream of it. And every time a Wyrm Awakens, you have that much less time left. This is the second Wyrm to Awaken." And so she disappeared . . .

And the girl screamed.

The young man whirled, breath catching in his throat, watching as the Wyrm opened its mouth and caught the girl between its jaws right next to him. Its obsidian fangs pierced her body, one through her shoulder and the other through her stomach, and from their tips they dripped her red blood to the ground. She struggled for a moment, still fighting to live, her dark-blond hair streaked with black and red, and her gray eyes shimmering with tears and pain.

For one second it was as if she could see him as she reached out a hand, pleading for help. Biting back a sob, the young man reached forward, yearning to give her comfort, their fingertips nearly touching . . . and then the girl's hand jerked as the Wyrm crunched down harder on her dying body, her bones cracking as they surrendered themselves to be shattered. The girl let out a wail, wordless and heart-breaking as her life was reaped from her.

The young man fell to his knees, like the girl fell from the Wyrm's mouth as it lifted its head to the sky and bellowed out its triumph. The girl was shattered, torn, broke to bits. Splinters of bone were apparent all over her body, most covered in sickening red, while others glistened deadly white. Her gray eyes were dull, but the last traces of terror still could be seen in them.

She was dead.

The Red Wyrm still roared.

Terran sat up abruptly on the straw mat that was his bed for the night, his hands clenching his blankets so hard the knuckles were white. Sweat dripped from his face along with tears as the dream still played within his mind.

It had happened in reality. That girl had died . . . she wasn't a figment of his imagination. His hand reached up and pulled the crystal disk out from under his thin cotton shirt. A spark of horror rose up in hm when he realized that everytime time a Wyrm awoke he was going to have to go through the same thing.

He let the crystal disk slide out from his trembling hands. At least he would have a sense of how much time they had left . . . and how powerful the Wyrms were. In all, he did not fear carrying the Eternity Key.

He just wished that he had asked the red-headed woman how to make it work.

He wished.

*****

*Soa is trying to catch Me off guard.*

*What do you mean?*

*This woman . . . the one the others are shocked by. She is here by Soa's will, that I am sure of.*

*They all are.*

*I know that, fool, but this woman is different. I have suspicions that she is not who she says she is. Soa is trying to scrape one by on Me. I can't have that, not at all, but I do have you after all. And no one suspects anything, do they?*

*Not as far as I know. They don't like me, but they don't suspect anything.*

*Good. Keep an eye on that woman . . . and the young man who accompanies her as well.*

*As you wish . . . but I'm still expecting my reward after all of this is through!*

*And so you shall receive it. So you shall.*

*****

TBC . . .

*wipes forehead* Well, I'm done with revising. Yea!

Yinyl: *from under a pile of blankets on the floor* Now go to bed! You're driving us all nuts!

Ore: Heehee . . . sleep be good. *rubs eyes, yawning* But before I go to sleep, let it be known that part 5 is halfway completed and expect it to be appearing within a day or two . . . that is if I get to a comp with an internet connection during that time.

Deriick: *still glaring from his couch* That is, expect it from her in a day or two if she gets her butt in bed immediately. If she doesn't . . .

Ore: *yawn* All right, all right. Muses are so tempermental sometimes. *crawls off for bed*