I do not own Legend of Dragoon or any of the characters.


Epilogue: Alright

Rose pushed herself up and sighed, walking into the bathroom to get cleaned up. It had been months since they'd stopped Melbu Frahma and had ended Soa's plan. Months since they'd saved the world and all gone their separate ways. And yet, despite that, still she looked into the mirror and saw only herself letting Zieg go, allowing him to sacrifice his life for the whole planet. She sighed, washing up and relieving herself before heading back to her room to get dressed, putting on the simple, dark blue dress she'd chosen the day before. She'd been wearing a lot of dresses recently. She owned several, and even though she owned clothes closer to what she had always preferred, namely, pants and a shirt with long sleeves, more and more she'd found herself drifting away from that style of clothes.

As she finished getting herself dressed, she stopped, staring at her bedside table. There was a ring resting on it, the one Cade had given her at Fletz. That night felt like a lifetime ago, but the memory of him giving her that ring, and of her giving it back, were still torturously fresh in her mind. Even now, the moment her eyes fell upon it, tears began to well up in her eyes and slide down her face. But not only from the memories, but from the fact that it was there. She hadn't seen it since she'd given it back. Even in the months that she and Cade had been living together in the home he once shared with his mother, she had never once seen it. Just as Cade had never once brought up any possibility of them starting a relationship again, or done anything to attempt to. In fact, with the exception of small, meaningless conversations, they only spoke to each other if absolutely necessary, which it often wasn't. Entire days, sometimes weeks, would often go buy without either saying a word. So what the ring was doing on her nightstand now brought up only one possibility in Rose's mind. He was gone.

She snatched up the ring and immediately called out for him, but received no answer. She began to search their home, starting with his room, growing more frantic with each room he wasn't in. Finally, she sprinted outside, tears flooding down her cheeks, but stopped as she reached the clearing. He was there, training himself with his sword, the one Lloyd had returned to him before going to Deningrad to face justice, though from what she'd heard, all Lloyd had faced there was Wink in a white dress.

Rose stared at Cade as he worked, drilling himself relentlessly with the sword, using floating spheres of Magic Energy as targets, the spheres fading each time they was struck. She didn't understand what was happening. He hadn't so much as looked at his sword since they'd gotten there. The Divine Dragon's eye that he could have easily used as the core for a new magic sword was hidden under the floorboards, out of sight and out of mind. For him to now be actively training himself with the sword couldn't possibly be a good sign, and it was that that drew her toward him.

She stopped a few feet behind him as he finished the most recent group of spheres, and he lowered his arms to his sides, continuing to face away from her. "You're training again."

"Yes," he said, not unkindly, but not as warmly as he had once spoken to her.

"Why?" She asked.

He didn't answer.

She stared at her feet, her heart feeling as though it were beating crushed glass through her veins, and tears rolling thickly down her cheeks. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

For a long while, he remained silent. Then, finally, he spoke. "It was never supposed to be me here. I was meant to be the one to sacrifice my life. You should have been with Zieg now. You could have been happy if you were with Zieg. You wouldn't cry yourself to sleep at night, or have nightmares of letting him go. You wouldn't be suffering if it had been me instead of him."

"That's not true!" Rose said, taken aback and feeling as though her heart were imploding. "Cade, I..."

He formed more spheres, beginning his drills again, but she stepped forward, stripping the sword from his hand and casting it away, stepping in front of him to force him to look at her, only for her eyes to widen as she saw the tear streaks down his face, and the hollow, almost dead look in his eyes. How long had it been since she'd seen his eyes? Since she'd even looked at his face? She found she couldn't remember. It may not have happened once since they'd come here.

She took a shaky breath before speaking, fresh tears falling down her own cheeks as her heart ached so badly that it felt like her legs might give out from under her She injected as much force and as much surety into her voice as she could muster, which was saying very little. "I will never wish that it was Zieg here with me instead of you! I wouldn't be any happier if you had died! Yes, I loved Zieg, and yes, I probably always will! And I miss him every day! But that doesn't mean that I don't love you, or that I wouldn't be in just as much pain as I am now if it was you who was killed! Zieg may have been my first love, but he wasn't my only love!"

Cade's eyes fell to the ground, but she cupped his cheek, lifting his head until he was looking at her again.

"Zieg chose to sacrifice himself in your place because he knew that it was what I would choose even if all three of us had survived," Rose said, voice cracking up rapidly as her left hand took his right. "Zieg is my past, not my future. Not because he's dead, but because I have you! You are my future, Cade. You are the man I would have chosen if things had worked out the way we wanted them to. Please, don't leave me. Please forgive me for...everything! I love you, Cade. Please, stay with me. I can't bear to lose you."

Cade stared at her for a long while before dropping his gave again. However, as he did, he stared at her left hand, the ring he'd given her a lifetime ago adorning her finger proudly. He stared at it in silence before looking back up to her, seeing her smiling for the first time in a very long time.

"You made me a promise when you gave me it," Rose reminded him. "Do you remember? You promised to never give up on me. To never stop doing anything you had to for me to smile. I'm not ready for you to give up yet. I'm still holding you to that promise."

Cade's eyes began to fill with tears again before he leaned in, Rose meeting him halfway with a sob equal parts happy and relieved. Cade held her tightly, allowing his tears to flow as he kissed her, Rose doing the same as they both drowned in each other. Eventually, kissing turned to holding each other as they both cried in joy and relief from months of suffering in silence. Then, they were kissing again, this time progressing rapidly, both desperate to prove to one another that their feelings for each other hadn't changed.


Cade stared up at the clear blue of the sky as he held Rose tightly, Rose clinging to him equally, neither having bothered to get dressed yet. Neither spoke for a long while, before Rose finally broke her silence.

"How long?" Rose asked.

"A few days at most," Cade said. "There's something going on in Serdio."

"A shadow?" Rose asked.

Cade nodded slowly. "Sort of. Not like before. Nothing as powerful, I don't think, but it's not good. I saw shadows, but an army of them, not one all-consuming one."

"We'll have to find the others," Rose said. "We might need them."

"They all retired," Cade said. "Albert's married to Emille and they're ruling Serdio together. We might be able to get Albert's help, since I'm sensing it in Serdio, but we can't guarantee it. Dart and Shana both moved back to Seles and they're living a quiet life. And I think Shana might be pregnant. I've been trying to control my visions, but the images I get are kind of vague and blurry. Meru's touring the human world with Guaraha, but they'll both agree to help no questions asked. We might be able to find them in Lohan, if I had to guess. She seemed really interested in the hero competition Dart took part in."

"Miranda will probably help if we ask, and Lloyd might," Rose said. "You'd probably have to return the armor for him to be useful, though."

"Fuck him," Cade said. "That armor's mine."

Rose laughed, then kissed the side of his neck. "And Kongol and Haschel are in Rouge, and Haschel's teaching Kongol martial arts and how to read and write. Kongol will join us no questions asked, too."

Cade nodded. "This might be a long one, if it really is an army."

Rose nodded, then sat up, shifting over on top of his hips. "It doesn't matter how long it is, as long as you're still with me at the end."

Cade smiled and nodded, sitting up and kissing her. "I'll always be right here beside you."

"And I'll always be right here," Rose smiled. "But there's one thing I want to do before we possibly go to war."

"What?" Cade asked.

"There's one specific dress I want to wear before I put my armor on again," Rose said.

"You mean..." Cade trailed off, eyes widening, and Rose nodded, smiling.

"Only if you want-"

Cade kissed her hard, holding her tightly. "Marry me. Please."

Rose smiled and nodded, kissing him again, only to lift her hips and use her hand to guide her into him again, sighing shakily as he filled her once again.

THE END


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