Disclaimer : I do not own Suikoden characters, worlds, or anything pertaining to Suikoden. All I do own that pertains to this is this story itself and whatever original characters that may crop up.

Chapter One

Home Sweet Home

He didn't really know if it was light or dark, day or night. That sort of awareness just seemed to be washed out, turning all the colors of this world ashen-grey. The trees, the leaves, the muted sound of running water, the rock they had marked with their weapons...everything was so colorless, so bled out. A blur of flickering shades. He could barely register the words...the precious last words...that were being spoken to him, as he watched the Beginning begin again. The sword and the shield merged, forming patterns and colors...yes, there were colors in them...that he didn't even recognize, bonding with power greater than he knew existed. All this he saw and felt, yet he did feel nothing. Nothing but emptiness. Helplessly empty pain. He watched as the Rune's power grew, escalating to impossible heights as what was broken long ago was again joined as one, and found himself breaking. The last words, the precious yet empty words, that he would remember to the end of his days; a wane little smile that he knew to be the last; bright eyes that seemed to---no, they didn't seem to, they really did---lose their light with every second. They seemed to tell him, to assure him, that it wasn't his fault. All this had to happen anyway, he could do nothing more to stop it than stop the sun from setting. It was part of a gearworks universe, a tragedy integral to the whole melodrama. The only mistake he made was loving his sister and friend too deeply, clinging to them too strongly, that when the time came for them to slip away the pain was unbearable. Jowy and Nanami were most of the reasons he was in the war. He had hoped to the last minute that at one point they'll be together again, and when it was all over, the world threw all his hopes back at him. And he was sick of it. He was sick of it all.

The eyes---they were beginning to cloud---reassured him again and again, but he could find no solace. It was all his fault anyway, even if it was not. It was his fault the moment he decided to take that fork in the road, a lifetime ago. He was watching a friend, one that means more than a nation, die. And he was powerless to do anything. It was like that when his sister, who meant more than the world, died for him. He was losing another piece of himself, and all he could do was watch as that life slipped away.

The broken pieces could never be put together again. Nor will the gashes they left in him ever heal.

The grave for the King of Highland would be a small one, near their meeting place. He dug it himself, deep enough to ensure that wolves and other hungry animals wouldn't be able to defile it, and inconspicuous enough to hide it from casual eyes. Highland was bitter, and he wasn't sure what would happen to the grave of the boy who, in most people's eyes, led the country to defeat. It was Jowy's intention, for him to be the evil king and Riou the valiant hero, though that didn't make him feel any better about it.

Riou stood up; blinking away the tears that he promised will never come. He will definitely hold on dearly to this peace. It cost him too much for it to be otherwise. Then he said his farewells.

Another destiny was awaiting him.

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Kyaro. The place of so many memories, Riou thought as he stepped into the rural little village. It was quiet and peaceful, like always, except that now it was tinged with despair and resignation of someone unsure of his fate. Like himself, then and now. Had he really grown up here, and had this place really expelled him out, branding him for life as a traitor?

No matter. He was there for an unfinished business, and the hero was eager to get it over with as soon as possible. There's no point in lingering in places that give you only regrets. Besides, judging from the looks some of the neighbours were giving him, it wasn't likely that he could come back any time soon.

Riou needed to say goodbye. Not only to his home, but to his memories, to his favourite places, to a part of himself that he would leave behind forever. He needed those goodbyes...to confirm that he had nothing left here, to make sure that there'd be no past to drag on the future. He had to make sure that the naïve boy from Kyaro had no place inside Riou the hero anymore, otherwise he wouldn't be able to handle the days ahead of him. It would be painful, but it must be done. He knew it, but he had to come here for his heart to really accept it.

Walking at a brisk pace, Riou followed the familiar streets toward the only place he'd called home, passing the empty monument that was the Atreides family estate. That house and its fineries had overawed him when he was a boy, but now it seemed so...vacant. Some kind of sadness/emptiness loomed over it and, as he thought back to the day when Jowy's father expelled him from the house, it was unlikely to be lifted. The family suffered a 'traitorous' son, disowned him, witnessed his rising to the throne and saw him brought down the country. The thought of it saddened him, to know that all the old misunderstandings between Jowy and his family was never reconciled. Adding to that is the new 'misunderstanding' that probably shamed the entire household.

They deserve the truth, someday, but now is too risky, Riou conceded as the he ascended the small hill leading to his Grandpa's home. I'll send something---something to explain everything, someday. If I tell them now, I might as well throw the peace out a cliff and let all we've done go up in a smoke.

Then he was over the hill, looking at the old house with mixed feelings. "Home sweet home," Riou whispered as he approached the entrance. It hadn't changed much: a bit more run-down than the last time he saw it, and there were some ugly holes in the ceiling. But otherwise, Genkaku's house was just as he remembered it. There was that place he and Nanami used to train, and there's that place where Grandpa would sit, an amused smile perpetually on his face. The sight of this place brought a lot of memories to Riou; so many that he didn't know what to do with. Some of them he didn't even know were there; it was buried too deep in his consciousness. But here he felt he could remember everything, the sound of laughter, the smell of wet grass after a rain---

Riou stood basking in the memories for a while before walking to the door and entered the house. Inside, it was dusty, but everything remained in the same place he'd left it. Nanami's pottery experiments, his old room with all the left behind personal effects, dried supplies of food in the kitchen---which brought a wry smile to his lips as he remembered his sister's veritable cooking skills---remained untouched. It certainly seemed that either the burglars leave the house alone, or there's nothing to steal, or simply because being burglars in Kyaro wasn't all that profitable.

He went through the kitchen and out the back, visiting the grave of his grandfather. Riou knelt and uttered the familiar prayers, wishing that his words would somehow reach the body that was Genkaku's.

When was the last time I came to see you, Grandpa? He mouthed silently. I've been through so much...there're so many things I'd never even thought of in my wildest dreams. Or my worst nightmares. I've...changed, and I don't know if it's for the better. I've lost Jowy and Nanami. I couldn't do anything. I know what I should do, but I don't know if I'm ready. I don't know if I can. At least I still had you before when Nanami left on one of her temper spells, or when Jowy went with his father on trips...but now I'm alone.

I wish you were here...

Riou considered indulging himself a bit more, but quickly decided that it was enough for one day. Any more and he'd find himself wallowing in self-pity, and he didn't want that. He would need every bit of his sanity intact in the days to come.

Goodbye, grandpa.

The next stop was the Unicorn Brigade building. He didn't spend too much time there, since the place made him uneasy. Wonderful times were here, as well as painful times. It was over quickly and then Riou went to the place he reserved for last: The old tree, where all his childhood dreams and magic castles lie.

Standing under that tree, Riou could feel the wind playfully messing his hair, its soft, familiar touch brushing his skin lightly. Up in the distant mountains where it originated, that wind was harsh and bitter. Here, on a faraway hill, it was merely a pleasant breeze, pulling him toward the plains spreading out before him, promising grand adventures, worlds he'd never seen.

Which was, desperately, what he needed to say goodbye to the most. Even after the war, quite an adventure enough for any sane person, Riou still felt that tug. That pull, that promise, that the wind told him years ago, and it never left him. Some part of him still longed for the vast world, the great wide somewhere, and he couldn't do what he must do until he laid that yearning to rest.

"I'm sorry," Riou said to no one in particular, except maybe those distant mountains, as he stood there tracing the familiar contours of the wood absently. "It's all over."

It's over. That's it. How one get one's self to believe in that is another matter. The wind tousled his hair again, and Riou felt like he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, to just throw away those memories, such as they were. He had come here to leave everything, yet he found that the yearning wouldn't let go. Once he'd set his eyes on his old dreams, that nostalgic longing adamantly refused to let him go. He still couldn't shake away the need to see the world beyond. It was hard to let go of the single remaining dream that they all shared together. That was the unspoken promise between him, Jowy and Nanami. To see the world for them, laughing together, crying together, sharing in all their triumphs and pitfalls---

I want to be free.

And the war then flashed through his mind. The bloodied fields of the dead and the dying, the shouts, the screams. The people giving him their confident smiles, placing the weight of their dreams on his shoulders—

No.

Torn, Riou ran his hand along the old hiding places in the wood where he'd tucked away all his 'secret' possessions, in his and Jowy's secret fortress. He'd come here earlier in his adventure to pick up things and left nothing behind, so he was surprised when his hand found something there.

A Rune. The mark said it was the 'Hunter's Rune', though he had no idea what it does as of yet.

And another thing – a small picture, meticulously hand painted by what must be Highland's finest artist. Of three familiar persons, two boys and a girl, laughing under the very tree it was hidden in. Riou felt his eyes beginning to blur, despite his self-promise about the tears.

Jowy, you sly snob! You'd known it all along…all along…

Managing to tear his gaze away from the picture for a moment, Riou glanced at the world and its allure. Somehow, that reminder of happy times struck a cord somewhere in him, and he finally realized he could never go back. There was nowhere left to go to.

That made it easier.

"Goodbye to you, too," Riou whispered, hoping the wind would carry it to that somewhere that had waited for him for so long. The only dream he could share from now on would be peace, and Riou fervently wished that it would last.

He was going back to the castle, to another life.