A/N: I never knew I had an angst story in me, but I just got the Mars Star in Mars Lighthouse, and the scene was so extremely sad!

For Karst

The eye did it. It told us that we lacked the will to go on.

I admit we were a little rash. We had only been defeated in battle once before, so we tried to attack it.

A searing pain swept through my mind, and I remembered no more.

***

Slowly, I regain consciousness. The first thing I notice is pain. I am cut and bruised from all sides.

I open my bleary eyes to see Felix standing over me with a horrified expression on his face, his sword bloody. Dragon blood. My blood.

I begin to recall now, being a dragon, but I wasn't in control of myself. It was the eye. It must have been.

Cold. So cold. We of the Mars Clan of the North are not supposed to feel cold. How can this be?

A fog is beginning to come over me. I know I must be dying.

Death will not take me easily. I am a warrior! I will survive to see the beacon of the lighthouse lit.

I grow colder. When Felix leans down to see if I will survive, I feel his warm hands. I am forgetting now what warmth feels like.

The fog draws ever closer.

The lighthouse is warming. I know that, but I still feel cold. Colder than I have ever felt. What was it like to be warm?

The fog is thickening. In the fog, I see shapes and forms. Saturos, who died at Venus Lighthouse, my mother, who died in an epidemic several winters earlier, and Menardi, my dear sister.

Through the fog, I see a flash of red light. The beacon of Mars Lighthouse.

I smile. I know now it has not been in vain. I take a deep breath, breathe it out, and give up my spirit.

***

Warmth--had I really forgotten how it was to feel warm?

Golden light wraps around me, drawing me back into the real world. I feel the pain come back, but more golden light shoves it back.

I open unfocused eyes. When they focus again, I see Isaac, leaning over me, sweating slightly from the exertion.

So, he has saved my life, despite what I did to him. My eyes burn, but I have not cried for years, and I do not now.

I turn my head to see Felix, having finished casting Revive on Agatio. Agatio was being helped up by someone...Someone familiar.

"Saturos?" I cry, looking then towards Isaac. "So that means...?"

Isaac just smiles and stands aside.

"Sister," escapes my lips.

There she is, Menardi, just as I remember her. She is smiling and has her arms opened wide.

I run to her arms, hug her tightly, like I never want to let go. And I never do want to. I bury my face into her shoulder.

This time, I do cry.

***

Yoshimi: I didn't do that great of a job on this, but I just wanted to get it out of my system. The last part is entirely made up by me, because, when I was planning this, I just couldn't let Karst die. Also, I had wondered why the game wouldn't let you cast Revive on them.

Phil: How did Menardi get there?

Yoshimi: ^_^0 A plot hole, my dear muse. A plot hole I opened up in the beacon of Venus Lighthouse just for this fic. Of course, I'm sure that the Proxian antagonists don't die. Denial springs eternal!