One thing preventing me from updating…………….. SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except characters not included in Legend of Dragoon!

Chapter 8:

Rose glared at the young teenager before her before deciding to nicely repeat her question. "Where is Leora, Lavitz! TELL ME RIGHT NOW! WHERE IS THAT LITTLE-"

"You don't know anything about her!"

"I know that she is the cause of Zeig dying . . . again!"

"It's not her fault!" Lavitz shouted at Rose, tears streaming down his face. This seemed to catch Rose off guard.

Without even thinking, Lavitz dove into Shana's arms. He felt her arms automatically encircle him and he felt comforted. This Rose woman didn't have any idea what the heck she was talking about. She didn't know why Leora had turned into a selfish, obsessed girl. Some great evil was controlling her, and Leora doesn't even realize it until the evil is finished with her. Rose just doesn't understand.

"Lavi . . ."

Lavitz snapped his head up and stepped out of Shana's inviting arms. This Albert had just called him by the name his Albert called him.

"Lavi, please explain what is going on around here. It would be nice." Albert smiled at him, wiping some sweat and blood from his face.

Lavitz fell on his knees. "Is that you?"

An eyebrow raised, "Uh . . ."

"Are you really Albert?"

Albert nodded. Then his face took on a serious look. "Lavi, please tell me what is going on. I . . . we need to understand so that we can help."

"I don't know what's going on."

"Like the seven deaths you don't!" Rose shouted.

Albert turned to her, "Watch your language and calm down. Lavitz may not know what's going on. Think about the prophesy we read Rose.

Rose blinked, and then understood. The beauty of this destruction will be accompanied at first with two man of the dead, both shall regain their time of wanted accomplishments. One will know most, one will forget.

Rose simpered down a bit, and chose to glare at a hideous statue instead. Wait a minute . . . a statue?

Rose slowly walked away from her companions and stared at the statue that seemed to appear out of no where. The strange thing was, this statue looked really familiar. Her gaze shifted slightly too the left, and there was another statue. It took her a moment to realize that the second statue was . . .

"Zeig?" Albert questioned in confusion.

Rose didn't respond, she just kept staring at the second statue in shock. Why the heck was she here, and how did she get turned into a statue? She was suppose to be in her home at Evergreen forest . . . at least . . . she thought she was . . .

Shana stepped up behind Albert, Lavitz holding her hand. "Rose what are you staring at? They're just statues . . . of Zeig . . . and . . . MERU?" Shana rushed toward the Meru statue, "MERU! WHAT"S GOING ON! MERU!"

Lavitz jumped back from the shrieking woman and covered his ears. He watched with one brow raised as Albert simply scratched his head and put his hand on his hip. Lavitz smiled brightly, this man was Albert alright! Who else had such a funny position of thinking, and have their chocolate eyes turn into a normal brown color? His thoughts were cut off as a bright light cut off his thoughts. He watched as a faint blue color came from the statue of the weird looking girl. Suddenly, the statue cracked, and in its stead was a teenager that looked to be around sixteen to eighteen years. She had light blue, white shimmering hair that seemed to glow, and crimson eyes that looked at the group wearily, with a light smile on her face. Her choice of clothing was . . . interesting. It looked like an armor plate with a huge ribbon to cover her lower body. He noticed there was a rather large hammer strapped to her back and made an immediate note not to mess with her. It took him a moment to realize what this girl was.

This girl was a wingly, which probably meant she was older than him by at least a couple of centuries.

"Rose? Albert? Shana? Is that really you?" The wingly spoke with an even bigger grin on her face.

Albert and Rose simply stared at her for a moment, and then the wingly just jumped on them, grabbing Shana in her embrace as well, "I missed y'all"

Shana smiled, "Meru, this is a grand surprise. I'm so happy. How did you escape from that statue . . . how did you get here in the first place?"

Meru, the wingly, scowled, "I was walking through here because I could feel this valley calling to me. When I got here, some girl with red hair was begging me to save her. Before I could ask what, she told me to run away. Well, of course I didn't, because I am the best fighter there is." Meru struck a pose, twirling her hammer until she fell off balance. "Hee Hee. After that, I got turned to stone. I've been fighting for a couple of months for freedom. When I heard Shana's voice, my dragoon spirit activated . . . I just kinda snapped out of it."

"It seems like you've had quite a scare." Albert smiled down, pulling him and Rose safely away from Meru's death grip. "Rose . . . let's go . . . stare at that lovely piece of rock over there." Before Rose could protest, he carried her away bridal style again.

Rose glared at him, "You really like carrying me, don't you."

He glanced down at her and grinned, taking her aback for a moment, "Yup."

"I'm going to kill you."

"You can try."

"Seriously."

"You know, usually, you would have killed me by now." Albert dipped his head closer to hers slightly and gave her a teasing smile, "You must really like me a lot."

"Go Albert! Get her tiger!" Meru was jumping up and down.

Albert placed Rose down and simply walked away. She paused for a moment and then noticed him turn around and jog back towards Meru, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN GIRL WITH RED HAIR!"

It took Rose a moment to realize what the heck Albert was talking about. It hit her like a bag of hammers. Leora was being controlled.

(((((((((((((( Back in Deningrad &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Dart shot up like a bullet and shook Miranda harshly, "What do you mean she's in the Valley of Corrupted Gravity? She can't be there on her own! It's too dangerous."

Miranda gently pried herself out of his grip. "She is with Rose, Albert, and some teenager."

Dart paced around the throne room. This couldn't be right. Shana . . . what was she thinking? She could have told him that she wasn't going back to Seles. If anything happened to her . . . He would die. She may not realize it, but she was his life. Shana loved him with all of her heart, and she asked for nothing in return. All that Shana ever wanted for him was for him to be happy. Always and forever she did everything for him. Gently, he fingered the box in his pocket.

Inside of it was a ring. One of the other reasons he had gone to Deningrad. He was going to ask Shana to marry him, if he could find the silly girl.

"Dart?"

Dart looked up only to see Miranda too close for comfort. He immediately leapt back and nearly fell out of the window. He did not like the way Miranda was looking at him. No siree. Silently he begged Soa to get this woman away from him but she just kept getting closer, he supposed she thought that he was still "on the market" Heck no! Dart was Shana's man. Forget "accidentally" falling out of the window. He turned away from the blonde and jumped.

"DART!"

He turned his head toward Miranda and just waved and ran away. He didn't need her help anymore, and he certainly didn't want some crazy woman who wanted him for her . . . desires to accompany him.

Dart fingered the box in his pocket again. His determination to find Shana made him speed up a little. He had to protect Shana, even if she didn't need it anymore. She didn't need to fight anymore. That was his job, well, it was going to be, once he got the stupid ring on her finger.

-------- Valley of Corrupted Gravity )))))))))))))))))))0

Albert could remember now. A girl he and Lavitz used to be friends with. How could he forget someone as special, yet dangerous as her. He could remember how she first walked up to them with a sword thrust into her chest. He remembered when she told them about her being a dragon, and how much evil could influence her. Without thinking, Albert began to punch the ground repeatedly.

"Woah! Down boy! Yeah! The girl with red hair was asking for help! So what?" Meru tried to make him stop and looked close to pulling out her hammer and giving him a few good smacks.

Albert stopped but continued to glare down at the ground. "How could I forget Leora?"

Lavitz snapped his head up, "You remember her?"

"I thought she had died." Albert slowly turned toward Lavitz, "When you left to train to become a knight her father sent her to Donau, right towards the bandits. It was said that she was slain. All that was left of her was her mangled body. The only reason her body was identified was because of her hair and the tattoo we forced her to get." He slowly rose to his feet and looked up to the chunks of rock floating in the sky. "Her body disappeared before it could reach Bale."

Rose glared at Albert, then Lavitz "You didn't tell us this before."

"I didn't think it was important." Lavitz and Albert said at the same time. They looked at eachother and then burst out laughing.

Meru stared, "Uh, Shana?"

"Yes?"

"Who's the kid?"

Shana twirled a strand of hair with her pinky and bit her lip. "That's Lavitz."

Meru's jaw dropped, "But we saw him dead in Mayfil! Why would he be a teenager anyway? Huh? I mean, we need a MAN to help us fight. Not some little . . . oh hello Lavitz! I didn't know you were staring at me . . . or listening . . . oh dear. Hey look! A birdy! I'm gonna go talk to the birdy! Be back in a flash." Meru ran away with Lavitz in hot pursuit screaming something about not being little.

Shana chuckled and shook her head. Meru was still as amusing as ever. That was a good thing to know. She turned towards her other two companions. "What are we going to do about Zeig?"

Albert kicked the statue. Then he whacked it across the head with his spear. When that didn't work he took off what was left of his boot and chucked it at him. Nothing happened. He shrugged, "That's all I can do."

Rose had to repress a snort. Calmly she walked towards the Zeig statue. "ZEIG! WAKE UP!" Nothing. Rose shook her head, "Maybe Kayrie really did kill Zeig."

Shana blinked, "Kayrie?"

"We'll explain later, we must leave now." Rose began walking towards where Lavitz and Meru were fighting, "Someone is heading here and I really don't want to know who."

TWO HOURS LATER

A figure with dark silk wings gently glided to the ground. A flash of black blinded hiding monsters momentarily before they could see a man clad in red armor begin to walk about the valley. (A/N: If you can't guess . . . it's Dart.)

"SHANA! WHERE ARE YOU?" Dart shouted, running around through the valley, not knowing that he was trekking towards the spot where the statue of his father stood. He wasn't really paying attention to where he was going anyway. All he cared about right now was making sure Shana was safe.

Dart stopped abruptly when he saw a figure. He didn't know who in their right mind would travel through this place alone, but maybe this person had seen Shana. As he got closer, he saw it was a statue and his hope faded. Then he noticed this statue looked rather familiar. It was a statue of himself.

"Who would carve a statue of me?" Dart wondered aloud, "It looks like me . . . but there's something a little bit different about it."

A red flash blinded him momentarily before he saw an angry version of himself stomping toward him, "YOU MAY BE MY SON BUT I LOOK NOTHING LIKE YOU, YOU GOT THAT!"

Dart blinked. Once, twice, "Uh……. Father?

Zeig froze, "Opps."

R&R people! I am so sorry for being such a slacker! I will update on this and other stories as much as I can. But, if you read this chapter, you can see that I'm a tiny bit rusty. Hey! Practice makes perfect!