On Sapphire Wings

Chapter Eleven

"Dark is the light.

The man you fight.

With all your prayers, incantations.

Running away, a trivial day,

Of justice and deliverance.

To whom was sold, this bounty soul.

A gentile or a priest?"

**

Wink's hands shook as she held the oily violet potion to Lloyd's lips, and she cursed her fear. She tried to focus her mind on what she had to do, but the was a gentle itching in her back where she was sure she was going to feel a razor-sharp tendril glide effortlessly through her and impale her. She wasn't used to the heat of battle, and she felt helpless.

Worse still, Lloyd wasn't awakening. The color had barely even returned to his face, no matter what potion Wink forced into him. And his chest wasn't moving. If he didn't start to breathe soon, he would be gone.

Wink glared into the sunlight and shook her head. No, she wouldn't let him die!

Thinking back to her training, she leaned over him and felt his wrist for a pulse, then bent close to him to insure that he wasn't breathing. Still nothing.

Without thinking, she locked her lips unto his and breathed into him, then went back to listening to a pulse, to no avail. She tried again, and still there was no result.

She briefly wondered if his windpipe had been crushed, but she shook the thoughts from her head quickly.

She bent again and tried a final time. There was a long silence, and her heart fluttered in panic as she ticked away the seconds, and then a strange inhaling gasp brought a brilliant hope to her mind. Below her, Lloyd gave a nearly non-existant moan and she realized that her lips were still gently resting on his. Embarrassment washed over her, and backed away, a little too fast.

"What's happening?" He asked.

Wink blinked, and then said, "They're fighting the worm."

"It's not dead?" He started to get up. "Ah!"

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

"Try and relax." Wink suggested, ignoring how ridiculous it sounded. "I'll make sure the worm doesn't come near us."

Lloyd looked at her a moment, then lay back and nodded, staring up at the sky with the thoughtful eyes of a warrior. Wink, ignoring all thoughts and feelings, turned her head to gaze once at the fighting going on. She shivered at the sight of the blood being drawn, and wiggled a little closer to her fallen comrade.

Confusion washed over Albert as he gazed up at the mystifying woman in black dragoons armour. She was not Rose, but a dark-skinned Tiberoan woman with slanted eyes that seemed both dark and incandescent, creamy and gleaming, and full of something higher than human minds could comprehend.

Even if she wasn't Albert's old companion, the eyes were the same as he remembered them.

"Who are you?" Albert asked, better words failing him as they so rarely did.

"I'll explain later." She cried over the noise of the fight behind them. She reached out a hand to him to help him up, and the feel of her skin was like cold marble, but he took it anyway.

The two turned towards Rachesis, who was busily trying to pluck the winglies out of the sky while simultaneously batting Miranda and Dart away.

The Dark Dragoon gave Albert a quick look, then lifted into the air and dove towards Rachesis.

The worm turned, but it was too late.

Black magic surrounded the dragoon, and she held her arms to her chest, focusing the ebony force. Then she lashed out with a delicate hand and the dark energy surged towards Rachesis, tearing through his hide like water and then wrapping around him and constricting. He writhed in agony and collapsed to the ground, convulsing and moaning.

The dark woman approached it, and it laughed morbidly. "Drrragonmasta…"

"What do you want?"

"Da mens, they's bringing 'im back…" A growl. "But 'e will kill you…'e kill everyone – that is of Soa's command. Dey promise Rachesis blood, power over slave-humansss! Dey promises freedom!"

"Who does?" The dragoons voice was soft and harsh at the same time, and Albert was chilled at how much it resembled Rose.

"Dere ist no freedom…dey's all lia's! All o' dem!" Rachesis growled again, low and mournful, and made a strange sound, like a sigh. "You need kills dem! Dey's at Rouge, dey's kill your friendsss!"

Albert walked up behind the mysterious woman, and Dart and Miranda did the same. Rachesis' body was beginning to shift strangely, and after an odd moment where the worms body seemed to break the barriers of reality, it was no longer a horrific monster, but a long, sinuous dragon that hardly seemed to reach the size of Albert's leg.

"What the hell?" Dart demanded. "It's a dragon…"

"What happened to you?" Wink asked gently from behind Albert. It looked at her, and its huge eyes fixed on her, pleading for her mercy. It's scales shimmered in the beating sun of the mid-coast, the light dancing off it's golden hue.

"Thhhe drrragonworshippers, they slaveses me, they tells me to keel you, then they turns me into a monsta..." It held her gaze, and muttered. "Keel me…"

Wink stood up from beside Lloyd, and walked over slowly, her eyebrows raised in pity. "Why?"

"I iss suffer…is a slave."

"We'll get you help!"

The small creature shook its head, and then hissed. "I helps you…"

Then it began to glitter as a bright light surrounded it, brighter in colour then even its shining scales. The magic seemed to hang in the air like mist for a moment, then it began to fade even as Rachesis did.

A tiny golden orb took it's place.

"The Gold-Sun Dragon…" The Dark Dragoon observed in slight disbelief. "I thought it was a rumour…"

"Okay, we're gonna need some explaining." Dart muttered up at her. At the same time, Wink spoke up.

"Shakahna! You're alive!"

"I'm not Shakahna." The woman said as she radiated the arcane black light. "Shakahna is in Mayfil. I'm Rose."

Lloyd, unable to move, listened intently as he stared up at the sky. He regretted hearing that Shakahna was dead, but that wasn't the most important thought in his mind right now.

"Who's Shakahna?" He heard Meru ask.

"She's a friend of mine." Said Wink, sitting down beside Lloyd. He grunted as she put a hand to his back and carefully helped him up. "She was at Deningrad during the collapse."

"Yes. She was trapped under debris during the collapse." As Lloyd saw the woman, he realized that, though she wore the same clothing and looked the same as he remembered her in Deningrad, something about her eyes was different. They had a sort of harsh sadness now. She looked at Wink. "She tried to come after you when she saw you leave, but she only made it to the coast before her wounds were too much for her.

"However, just before she fell she found these on the shore." Rose held up two dragoon spirits, one black and one crimson. "When I – passed on – I still had a sort of linking to the spirit, and when it rolled onto her dead body, I was able to inhabit it."

"Like a ghost…" Kianako muttered.

"Yes." Rose nodded curtly. "I wouldn't have done something like that normally, but I knew that there was something wrong and that I would have to help you."

She looked over at Dart and handed him the Red-eyed Dragoon Spirit. "Zieg sends his regards."

Dart stared at the stone a moment, before putting it into his pocket.

"Unfortunately, what Rachesis said is true." Sorrow flashed across Rose's face. "Rouge Island was attacked."

Horror crossed the faces of the dragoons.

"Are Haschel and Kongol okay?" Miranda demanded.

"No. They were badly injured and may die soon. When I left Mayfil, they were nearly gone. We don't have much time left to help them."

They camped out at a small spring not far from where the encounter had taken place. All throughout the camp, faces were grim and full of nervous emotion, and not many words were said.

It was not long after the sun had set when Dart approached Lloyd where he sat apart from the others. His face was no longer full of the open resentment, and had a sort of defeated factor to it.

"Lloyd." He muttered. "I don't need this, and I want you to have it."

The wingly watched as Dart withdrew the Divine Dragon spirit and slowly gave it to him. As soon as the cold stone of the orb touched Lloyd's fingertips, the overcoming feelings of power, hostility and rage entered his brain, and the familiar muttering of the dragon stabbed into his thoughts. However, he no longer found it as enticing as he once had.

Dart watched him stare down at the object, and as soon as Lloyd looked up at him, he spoke, firm and serious. "Rose gave Wink Rachesis' spirit, and I don't want her to get hurt because of it, okay? If you have this, you might be able to protect her a little better."

Lloyd paused. "Why are you doing this?" He asked suspiciously.

"Don't think that I trust you." Dart said slowly. "But I know that she cares about you a lot, and I think that if you two both have dragons on you're side, you're more likely to be able to help us."

"…We'll try…"

There was a moment where the two of them stopped to think about it, and then Lloyd spoke, just as slowly and measured as Dart had.

"Does something about this seem familiar to you?"

"Yes." The man admitted. "I wondered if anyone else had noticed."

"I don't know how it will help or hinder us, but it's important we stay careful."

Dart looked at him a moment, then said. "I heard that Wink fried a person in the forests with some sort of magic?"

"Yes…"

"Blue?"

"Yeah."

The other man took a breath. "Shana did the same, just after I got her back from Hellena. And not long after that she got a dragoon spirit too…"

"What are you implying?" Lloyd asked.

"Shana's not the Moon Child anymore – but does that mean there isn't one? As long the virage embryo still exists, so does the Moon Child…"

"That's why you want me to watch over her?"

"Yeah." Dart scratched his neck absently. "I've been thinking about it a lot, and I don't want Wink to have the same trouble Shana did."

"I won't let her."

"Alright." Dart turned and walked away, towards his friends.

Lloyd folded his arms over his chest and stared up at the sky, wondering if a fate could really repeat itself.

And if it did, what would it do to Wink?

A/N: Short chappy, but it sure came out fast! Ya, kinda pointless. Oh well.

50 review milestone! Yay! And hey, Shakahna's back! Too bad she ended up dead, originally I wanted her to be like, the replacement dragoon for Rose, but everybody seemed to want Rose to be brought back, so I decided to make a compremise. Ya, I know, it kinda sucks, but I DID manage to bring Rose back without doing a ressurection fic! =$