Sorry about such the long inbetween.

Yaoi means GUY with GUY!

Yuri means GIRL with GIRL!

And

Straight means GUY with GIRL! Or GIRL with GUY!

You have been Warned ! Now that we're all on the same wavelength here, let's start the story!

1) thoughts = ' insert thoughts '

2) mind speech is italics

3. (X) is pov change and or time jump

Ch,8: The Waking of a Dream

"Ernest….I'm sorry…I have to leave you. You're…bound to find someone much more worthier than me anyway." Gareas said smiling and pulled Ernest into a gentle embrace.

"Gar"

"Promise me Ernest."

"Promise what?" Ernest asked closing his eyes and relaxing in Gareas' arms. He always felt relaxed and at peace when he was with Gareas.

"Do not ever turn anyone down, thinking I'll come back."

Ernest's eyes snapped open. He looked around sitting up and noticed he was sitting on a rock in the middle of no where. In front of him their backs to him was Yu, Clay ,and his brother Erts. Where was Gareas though? Where was his knight?

"Where is he?" Ernest demanded getting to his feet. He tired to take a step foreword , but instead fell back wincing.

"Prince Ernest!" Yu yelled running over to him quickly. He helped Ernest up letting the prince use him for support and had got him back onto the rock.

"Where is he?" Ernest asked again through gritted teeth. The embrace he had felt in the dream was to real, the words so common from Gareas' mouth. His fears would be put to rest if he could just at least see Gareas.

"My prince…" Yu started frowning, but stopped when Erts put a hand on Yu's shoulder.

"Please. Allow me." He said in a calm voice and he walked over to his brothers side.

"Ernest," he said soothingly getting onto his knees and taking Ernest's hand in his own. "Gareas is gone…he fought off a monster so Clay and I could run…."

Ernest paled and his hand went limp. Gone? Did they mean he left? That he was still gone fighting the monster? Or was he….?

"No! Where is he!" He screamed out tears streaking down his face. "Tell me where he is! I want to see him with my own eyes!"

"Brother there is-"

Erts was cut off by a loud shriek from the dragon.

(X)

Zero flew head on at the dragon stopping only a few inches in front of it. The dragon and Zero ended up in a staring match both of them silent silent. Neither of them refusing to back down, Zero realized he needed to try a different approach.

"Please. We're sorry for waking you up, but…don't hurt my friends. We didn't mean to." Zero said quietly trying to sooth the dragon.

The dragon kept it's gaze on Zero and then looked down to where the frilled lizard was at. Zero followed the dragon's gaze and noticed that Gareas was losing his fight against the giant lizard.

"GAR!" The brunette screamed and wasted no time. He flew down at top speed completely forgetting about the dragon.

"You idiot." Were the only words Hiead muttered before wings of light came out of his back and he flew off after Zero.

(X)

"The Legend cannot be destroyed

Though it can be forgotten

And it can be lost

But it will always live…even

If it's just dormant in another."

"Wha…?"

Gareas slowly opened his eyes staring up at the two people. One a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, Leena, his Leena. The other was a man with spiky blonde hair. He was reminded of Dart, but it wasn't him. This man was much older.

"We're appearing to you, because we feel you must wake up." The man said walking over to Gareas. "If you don't wake up soon, than something bad will happen."

Gareas stood up more or less ignoring the man, his mind more on Leena than anything else. He smiled at her and hugged her.

"I've missed you so much…"

Leena smiled at this wrapping her arms around Gareas tightly and winked at the blonde.

"I told you he would choose me over you." She rested in Gar's embrace resting her head on his shoulders. "I missed you too."

"Am I dead? Do I finally get to rest with you?" Gareas asked, his voice pleading.

"Snap out of it! If you do-"

Gareas cut the man off letting out a loud scream. The dream shattered and Gar started to take notice of what was happening. The frilled Lizard had stabbed him in the stomach with one of it's long claws and was ready to rip his stomach out, when Zero came flying over slamming the lizard head first into the rock.

The frilled Lizard let out a loud growl and turned quickly to face Zero baring its' fangs. It was to late though. As the lizard turned it was met with one thing-

"ATOMIC MIND!" Were the last words the Lizard heard before hundreds of sparks of lightning shot down from the sky and slammed into it taking the lizard's life.

(X)

"What a pity. Thought you said those lizards were strong." A teenage boy with waist long hair, his body hidden in the shadows next to a desk that was also hidden in the shadows said.

"That was a minor lizard. We still have many stronger ones worth sending out." A man sitting at the desk commented.

"I see…."

The man snickered a bit pushing his chair back pulling the boy onto his lap. The boy jumped a bit, but slowly started to relax.

"Do not worry about such things yet. The lizard did as it was ordered to."

The boy nodded closing his eyes and fell asleep.

(X)

"Is that zero?" Clay asked in shock staring at what was in fact Zero.

"I think so…" Erts said with a frown on his face. "What is he wearing?"

Clay shrugged.

(X)

During this whole time the dragon hadn't moved. It was currently trying to decide what to do. Dragons by oath were to obey dragoons. Though, none of these people had it's own spirit and the one that had ordered it to awaken had the dragoon spirit closest to it's own. Which one should it listen to? The one that wanted peace or the one that was demanding it to attack?

Just as it was ready to make up its' mind, a Winglie flew past him and dove down to the human and dragoon. Seeing the Winglie caused the dragon's blood to boil and every second its' hatred grew.

(X)

Zero staggered back a bit not quite sure what was happening to him. He fell back, almost going over the cliff, but Hiead caught him before he took the fall.

"For a hostage. You sure as hell cause me a lot of trouble." Hiead growled pushing Zero to his feet.

Zero went foreword again and was back leaning on Hiead in seconds.

"You!" Gareas started to get to his feet ,but stopped short grabbing his stomach and staying put. He could barely move and was losing blood fast.

The dragon growled loudly. Winglies were the enemies. This Winglie was touching the Dragoon and therefore, he must be taken of.

The dragon flew down growling loudly, claws out ready to strike Hiead down the minute he got close enough.

Zero's eyes widened seeing the dragon swooping down and grabbed Hiead pulling him down onto the ground.

"HEY!" Hiead screamed, but was cut off by the dragon's loud shriek.

Zero frowned looking up at the dragon.

"I thought we'd made a deal…I thought the dragon was going to leave us alone…" Zero said frowning his vision going in and out of focus.

"Zero!" Gareas called out, but he to was in no condition to fight. He was losing blood at an alarming rate, and Zero was all out of energy. They were at Hiead's and the Dragon's mercy.

Hiead closed his eyes and got to his feet letting Zero fall to the rock. He looked up glaring at the dragon and got ready. This dragon no matter how strong was not going to attack Zero. He wasn't going down without a fight.

He thought it over quickly and then started muttering a spell as the dragon started to descend about them again. As it flew down a bright light started glowing from his hands and surrounded the area. A shield went up blocking the dragon's attack.

The dragon let out a loud scream of pain as it slammed head first into the force field.

"I'm not letting you pass..." Hiead whispered and the force field strengthened. The dragon tried harder to break through it, but couldn't even get close. Growling one last time it flew off. Reinforcements weren't to far away.

(X)

Hiead let the barrier drop and he walked over to Zero slowly pulling him to his feet. He looked over to Gareas who was currently on his knees holding his stomach and bleeding.

"If you want help, Donau isn't to far from here." He said without a hint of emotion and picked Zero up.

"Hey! Don't….leave…Zero alone!" He growled trying to attack Hiead, but couldn't even stand up.

"I wouldn't talk. It will kill you faster. I would go get that wound fixed." He threw Zero over his shoulder and vanished.

"GAREAS!" Ernest slide down the side of the cliff and ran over to his knight. 'Gone my ass,' He thought to himself as he ran over to Gareas and kneeled down next to him.

Gareas looked up his vision breaking a bit ,but for a moment it focused on Ernest.

"Ernest…" Gareas stared up at him for a minute.

Ernest smiled at him nodding and took his shirt off. He pushed Gareas back a bit gently and wrapped his wound with his shirt adding pressure.

(X)

"Please, just relax." He said soothingly and pulled Gareas to his feet. "We're going to take you to Donau. You can heal there, okay?" He said his voice filled with fake courage. He had lost so much already, he wasn't losing Gareas too.

"Ernest…"

Erts, Yu, and Clay climbed down after Ernest a few seconds later and together they helped carry Gareas to Donau. They took him to the healers where he was treated and the wound cleaned.

Ernest had to go out and get another new outfit since his was stained with blood. He walked back into the healers house wearing a completely black robe save for the top. That part of the robe that covered his chest was dark blue with odd symbols sewn into it. The sleeves to the robe were a dark blood red that went to his elbows. From his elbows started a black leather gauntlets that went to his hands leaving only his fingers uncovered. Around his waist was a single black belt with a gold sphere like object placed into it. The sphere was cut into 6 different pieces, but all placed into a small plate to be held together. He kept the black boots since the robe seemed to cover them and they were comfortable enough to keep traveling in.

"Prince Ernest you look wonderful…" Yu commented as Ernest walked in and took a seat down next to Gareas' bed.

"Thank you…" Ernest said quietly looking at Gareas' sleeping form. He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt out of place being here. Maybe because it was his fault that Gareas was hurt.

Zero too had gotten hurt, because of Ernest. If neither of them had come with him to Fletz than they'd be fine.

What was done was done though. And because of it, Zero was kidnapped and Gareas was in a near death state.

Still, somewhere in the back of his mind, Ernest had thought something was different about the way Gareas had called out his name. It could have been his imagination, but he had thought he'd called it out like one would a friend, not a lover.

Ernest let out a small sigh and rested his hands on his lap. Why did it hurt so much to think he almost lost Gareas, when all Gareas seemed to do was play mind games with him?

"Perhaps love is stronger than anything else…" Ernest whispered.

Yu frowned taking this as his cue to leave and walked out of the healers.

(X)

Erts sighed resting against Clay in the small cliff like area that over looked the sea. There were hundreds of different types of flowers all over this area, and a nice white balcony that you could look out over to see the boats that were lined up at the docks.

"Clay…" Erts asked closing his eyes and resting completely against his boyfriend.

"Hmm?" Clay asked. He had taken notice that Erts had been very stressed lately. He shifted a bit pulling Erts onto his lap and wrapped his arms around Erts' waist protectively.

"I was just wondering…do you think Zero's okay with that guy?"

Clay thought for a moment then nodded.

"Actually. He's probably more than okay. I would be more worried about the state of Hiead's sanity rather than Zero's health." Clay said nodding again.

Erts laughed at that and snuggled up closer to Clay. This was real. This place held no weird spells around it. Somehow in the middle of a desert, the city of Donau had kept all of it's greenery.

"I'm glad we can finally relax a bit…" Erts said sighing happily.

"Me too." Clay replied.

(X)

Hiead watched as Zero lied on the ground shivering badly. He knew the desert got extremely cold during the night, and it was just about sunrise, but he had the feeling that while all of Zero's energy had been drained from his forced dragoon transformation, that his immune system had abandoned him.

Zero's whole body shook and he let out a loud sneeze. He looked around sitting up a bit and rubbing his eyes. His gaze fell on Hiead and stayed there.

Hiead stared back cursing his luck that the human had gotten sick. He stood up and walked away from Zero heading towards some path.

"H, heachoo! Gah!" Zero winced rubbing his nose. "Darnit!" Zero screamed and realizing he was freezing started rubbing his arms and legs. "Don't leave me here! Damn you!" He screamed sneezing again.

Hiead came back a few minutes later having ignored all out of Zero's complaints and laid some wood down onto the ground.

"Hey….th, that's not going to work…" Zero said still shivering. For some strange reason he felt extremely cold.

Hiead looked up glaring at him.

"Why not?" He asked bluntly.

"I, I'm too cold. I n, need a b, blanket….o, or s, something." He said between shivers and stood up trying to warm himself up.

"A blanket?" He asked folding his arms across his chest. "Why the hell do you need a blanket when I'm getting you a fire?"

"D, Damnit Hiead! Unlike you, I, I'm human. And I, it's really, really c, c, cold!" He got out looking around. "Th, there's snow here anyway! W, why d, did you bring us h, here of all places!" he demanded looking around.

Hiead thought for a moment then nodded.

"Come on. I have an idea." He picked up the wood he'd collected and headed to a small cave like structure that was big enough for the both of them and a fire to be set up, no wind to hit them, and the snow wouldn't be falling on them either.

Zero quickly followed wanting to get out of the cold as fast as he could. Even though they were there in a matter of minutes, it still wasn't soon enough for him. He ran into the cave at top speed jumping around trying to get his blood to flow and then all of a sudden stopped and sat down.

Hiead stared at him and lit the fire.

"You mean if I light a fire you shut down?"

Zero stared at him through half closed lids. He'd already used up all his energy trying to get some warmth back into his body. That wasn't working though. He got in front of the fire as close as he could without getting to close to the entrance of the cave or getting burned and sat there waiting for his body to warm up.

Hiead noticed quickly that Zero seemed to be losing himself. He noticed also that Zero seemed to be showing signs of freezing to death in his sleep. He couldn't have that though. He had bigger plans for Zero now that he knew the boy was a Dragoon.

He walked over to Zero and just as Zero started drifting off into a slumber that had killed so many others, he sat down and wrapped his arms around Zero pulling him over to himself. He muttered a few words and the flames in the fire crawled out of it and came up surrounding Zero as if they were his clothes.

Slowly, Hiead felt Zero's body begin to warm and though Zero was no doubt still sick, he at least had kept him alive. Hiead too now, was able to fine some peace in sleep while the flames and his magic did all the work.

(X)

Yu sighed walking through the small city of Donau. The city of flowers. This city looked more like a garden than anything else. Completely green, all different types of flowers with all sorts of colors everywhere. A beautiful place where kids could be raised in peace.

And yet, as Yu walked down the streets looking from one flower garden to the next, he couldn't help but feel left out. He wanted badly to be with Prince Ernest, but knew it would never happen. Not now. Not with Gareas in the picture.

So what could he do now? Where would his life take him? For the first time then in a week, he was able to think about his little sister and the princess as well. The women had of course, gotten away safely, but still. Yu wondered if they were fairing alright. Did they even know that the prince was still alive?

Yu's train of thought was cut off as he slammed into someone and they both hit the ground.

"Sorry!" A familiar voice called out. Yu opened his eyes and stared at the boy on the ground in front of him. It was the same one he'd ran into just like this at the castle. "Oh hey. I saw you at Fletz castle." He said grinning and got to his feet.

Yu nodded getting to his own feet and started dusting himself off.

"I ran into you. Sorry." Yu said and started to walk off down another path.

"Hey…you know. Running into each other once is common, but twice? In two different cities. It's a sign." The boy said grinning. "We're destined to meet."

Yu rolled his eyes and kept on walking completely ignoring the boys comment.

The boy pouted and ran after him.

"Hey wait up! You're a knight right? What happen to the castle at Fletz anyway?"

Yu stopped dead in his tracks his eyes widening. He unsheathed his blade and turned to look at the boy running over to him.

TBC