Ladeeda… hmmhmmhmm… Rawr. I have returned, with more strangeness! XD

My dad was reading one of my reviews for this, don't ask me why, and he says, "This person went off, didn't they? Sure had a lot to say." So I says, "I don't care. It's a review." Then he goes, "What's OOC mean?" Hehehe… my dad was talking about one of the reviews from RedCrow1120. (Laughs) The really long one.

I awoke with a pounding headache and the feel of something gritty against my cheek. Slowly, I became aware of the sound of crashing waves. I sat up, and looked around. I was on the shore of a beach, at night. The sea was rough, and an immense full moon shone on the horizon. This I stared at. It seemed many times larger than it should have.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn't back on the Destiny Islands. Then I wondered, 'So where the hell am I?' My next immediate thought was of Ansem.

"Ansem?" I called, cupping my hands about my mouth. "Where are you?"

"Over here!"

I headed towards the dunes. Ansem was standing on top of one, with his back to me, calling my name. I called his, and he turned. I bounded over the sand and leapt into his arms.

"You're alright," he whispered. I didn't say anything, just embraced him tighter. He had been tense, I could feel it.

"Where's Sam and the others?" I asked after a while.

"I don't know. I don't think the ship survived, but I'm almost certain Sam did," he said, nuzzling his face in my hair. I said nothing.

"Do you think we should go find her?" I asked.

"Probably. After all, we have no means of getting off this rock," Ansem replied. So we set off over the dunes.

Shortly we saw a flickering light on the shore. I perceived it to be a fire, a rather large one. As we drew nearer, I saw Sam's crew grouped forlornly around it. Sam herself was sitting a ways away. We made our way over to her. She was sitting with her knees drawn up under her chin, staring at the ocean.

"Hello, Sam," Ansem said cautiously.

"It's gone," she said.

"What?"

"My ship. The Bloody Revenge. It's gone."

Ansem and I looked at each other.

"It didn't survive the crash. Shattered when it hit the sand." She idly traced patterns in the sand with her fingertip. "We salvaged what we could. My crew is burning the rest. I and my crew of over a hundred are stranded. They relied on me, and I failed them."

"Do you know if the world's inhabited?" I asked.

Sam gave half a shrug. "Dunno. Too dark to look into that. I'll launch an expedition at first light." She fell silent.

Ansem and I, realizing she wasn't going to talk further, wandered off towards the dunes. We sat together on one overlooking the pirates.

"Now what?" I asked. "Sam's without a ship, so we're stuck here."

"I don't know." Ansem heaved a sigh, and put his arm around me. I leaned against his side. Gradually I fell asleep.

Later, I woke up. It was still dark. Ansem had also fallen asleep, and I was snuggled up to his side. He stirred, and woke as well. Seeing me awake, he twined his fingers in my hair.

"How long have we been asleep?" I asked.

"Hell if I know." He stood and stretched. The pirate's fire had burnt itself out, and dark shapes on the shore showed the sleeping pirates.

"I wonder when it'll be morning?" I said, half to myself.

Ansem looked around. "I recognize this place now," he said. "This is Eien no Yoru, the world of eternal night. Somehow, their sun was destroyed, throwing the planet into eternal night. The inhabitants left for other worlds, and Eien no Yoru was declared a dead world. No one lives here now."

I turned back towards the pirates. They were gone. Only the ashes of their fire remained.

"Where'd they go?" I said. Ansem turned and looked. His surprise mirrored my own. "It's like they just disappeared." A roaring noise filled my ears. I looked wildly around. Men on loud, four-wheeled vehicles began circling us. They all wore helmets with mirrored visors, pulled down so we couldn't see their faces. There was no way out. Or was there?

"Ansem," I said urgently. "Is there any way I can give myself wings, or fly, or something?"

"Yes, the same way as you did the claws. Why?" he replied.

I ignored him, and felt for the dark power. This time, I envisioned large, black dragon wings. With a horrible noise like tearing cloth, leathery wings tore out of my back. It hurt like hell, and I could feel blood running off of them.

I heard Ansem call my name. I wrapped my arms around him, and took to the skies, my wings beating hard. For a while, I struggled to gain altitude, then little by little I rose into the air. One of the men took a crossbow and leveled it at us. I shot off into the night, my wings flapping frantically. Even so, I felt the crossbow bolt nick my wing.

I flew as fast as I could. I could hear the men below us, their machines shattering the night's tranquility. The entire planet seemed to be made of nothing but sand, and I despaired of finding a place to hide. Then Ansem spotted a mountain range. I desperately flew towards it, uncomfortably aware that my wing strokes were getting more and more laboured.

Finally, I landed on the lip of an extinct volcano. Or rather, fell. My landing wasn't a landing so much as a fall. I dropped Ansem, who hastily got out of the way. I lay on the ground, exhausted. After a while, Ansem signaled me over to the inner edge.

"Look," he said, pointing into the crater. I got shakily to my feet and stumbled over to the edge. I peered in and gasped.

An entire city seemed to exist within the crater. The buildings were made of a shining white stone that I knew to be marble, or something similar. An immense dome rose from the middle of the city, and a tattered pennant waved from the top. The streets were lined with a rough-looking yellow stone, and empty stalls lined the streets. The entire northern section was composed of gardens and trees, some of which had tree houses in them, much like the giant one on Destiny Islands. Everything had a thick layer of volcanic ash on it.

"Surprised?" Ansem asked. I nodded, and he laughed. "After some of what I've seen, nothing surprises me anymore."

I looked around, and noticed a flight of stairs leading down into the city. I headed over to them, drawn to the city by its sheer size. I heard Ansem following, our feet scuffing in the soft ash that seemed a foot thick. The stairs were immensely long, and curved with the volcano. As we walked, I noticed large cracks in the earth, partially destroying part of the city. When we finally reached the bottom, I thought I heard music. I turned towards the nearest building, but the sound had stopped.

"Did you hear that?" I asked, my voice echoing strangely.

"Hear what?" Ansem said, looking around.

"That music," I said, feeling a growing sense of confusion. It started again. It sounded like someone was playing a mandolin, or some other stringed instrument. I raced towards the sound, leaving Ansem far behind. I stopped in front of a house, and pushed the door open.

A girl was sitting on a table, plucking at a mandolin. I stood watching her, and jumped when she looked up. She stared at me for a second or two, and then her face turned to bone, her clothes became ragged, and she faded away. I tried hard not to scream. Wishing fervently that I had a sword or a dagger or something, I slowly moved through the house. The house was only a few stories tall, and I soon found myself on the second floor.

A chill pervaded the area, and I found myself shivering from more than the chill as I approached a closed door. I laid my hand on the knob, and yanked it back. The knob was icy cold, so cold it burned. I pulled my sleeve over my hands, and grasped the knob again. The door opened soundlessly as I looked around.

Toys lined the walls. Under the ash, I could detect a few splashes of color on the walls. This had been a child's room. I advanced, and my foot struck something. I looked down. A diary. I picked it up, and brushed the ash away. I opened it, and read the last entry:

Dear diary,

We have to leave today. I don't want to go. But my parents say I have to. I like it here. They say I'll be just as happy in Traverse Town, but I doubt it. They won't let me bring my mandolin.

I don't know why everyone is so concerned about the rumblings. They just seem like ordinary earthquakes to me. But that doesn't matter. We have to leave in just a few minutes. But I won't leave. I'll kill myself if I must, but I won't leave…

I shuddered. Almost involuntarily, I looked towards the corner. I saw the gleam of a skull, and a skeletal hand. I approached slowly, and saw a child's skeleton. It clutched a mandolin tightly, and the head was tilted as though in pain. A thick layer of ash coated the bones, but I was still able to discern that the girl's clothes were the same as those I had seen on the specter below.

I stuffed my fist in my mouth so as not to scream. I reached out to touch the mandolin, but it crumbled under my fingers, as did the bones. I backed up, and dashed out of the house. I raced over to the next house, fearing the same, but this one was empty, as was the next, and the next. Then I ran over to the dome.

There were great rents in its surface, and pieces had fallen off entirely. I saw hundreds of strange lumps around a ship. I moved closer, and discovered these to be bodies, trapped forever in ash. I backed away, and whipped around. I ran through the streets until I came to the cracks in the earth. I stared at them, and the shining rocks surrounding them. Obsidian. I picked up a small chunk, erratically edged and razor-sharp. The people had not been driven away. They had been killed, by the very volcano in which they lived.

I darted to another house. I slammed into the door, and pushed it open. Several skeletons were grouped together around a table. For a moment, I saw what they had looked like while they were living, and the vision seemed to blow away, closely followed by the skeletons. I went to the next house, and saw the curled form of a dead cat, still in the lap of its owner. The owner's hands were poised as though they had been petting their beloved cat. The specters of these also hovered around before dissipating with the body. That was the last straw.

I screamed, the sound echoing through the buildings till it seemed I would be deafened by my own cry. I ran blindly through the streets until I found Ansem, bent over a body.

"Ansem!" I gasped. He looked up, and rose.

"Lokii, what…?" he started to say. I slammed into him, and held him tight, sobbing fitfully. "What is it? What did you see?" he asked. I didn't answer, just pressed myself closer to him. He didn't say anything, just stroked my hair.

"Ansem… they…" I whispered.

"I know. The ash covered them before they had a chance to escape, preserving them perfectly," he said. "It happened thousands of years ago. I thought the story about their sun seemed fishy to me. If their sun had exploded, they would have been destroyed as well. The world is so dark because of a massive volcanic ash cloud."

"No, their ghosts," I said.

Ansem gave me a sharp look. "Ghosts? Impossible."

I shook my head, looking up at him. "No, it's true! I went into a house, and saw the ghost of a child, playing a mandolin! And there was another… an old lady petting her cat."

"What house?"

I pointed to the house nearest the steps, where I had seen the child.

"That one there," I said. Ansem looked at me strangely.

"Lokii… there's no house there," he said, frowning at me. I stared at him, then where I thought the house to be. It flickered, and faded. The building was nothing more than rubble. I rubbed my eyes. The rest of the city followed suit, disappearing into piles of marble and ash. I shook my head, and went over to the ruins. I stared at them.

"No… there was a child's skeleton here! It was holding a mandolin!" I cried. The ruins seemed to spin, and everything went black.

A/N: O.o;; Yep. It's official. I've lost control of my fic.

The city in the volcano was inspired by such ruins as the Aztec ruins, Macchu Picchu, and any other well-preserved ruins in odd places. The fate of the inhabitants was inspired by, duh, Pompeii. Sorta. Rawr. Note to self: Add the Ramones to my list of music I shouldn't listen to while writing. Yep, yep, yep. Rawr. Fear my weirdness, which is bound to increase. Rawr. Kamikaze watermelon! (Fanfare) Wheee! Splat!

Oh yeah! Did anyone catch my little homage to Castle in the Sky when I was describing Sam's ship some three chapters back? I totally forgot to mention it in the author's notes. o.o;; (Laughs) It's bad enough I keep quoting Hayao Miyazaki's movies at random moments, now they're worming their way into my fanfics! Help!