Something was calling him.

It started off as a tugging, interrupting a comforting dream he had been enjoying. When he woke up to full consciousness, the tugging became a gentle pushing, cajoling him to get up.

Dart sat up in bed, sitting still for several seconds. The pushing became more insistent, like a voice pleading with him. Not for help, but almost for company.

Silently, Dart slid out of bed, careful not to wake up his beautiful wife. She looked so peaceful as she lay on her side. It had been rare for her to get such a heavy sleep; Shana had been bothered by constant insomnia for the past two weeks.

Grabbing a pen and piece of paper off the desk, Dart quickly scribbled a note.

Shana –

I was restless tonight, so I decided to go out for a quick flight. Don’t be worried if you wake up and I’m not there. I’ll be back by dawn. I love you.

Folding up the note and placing it on the wooden nightstand, Dart started to leave, and paused in the doorway, staring at the sheathed sword, Claymore. Whatever was calling him didn’t seem to be hostile, and it had been a while since he had needed to wield his blade against anything but monsters. But more often than not, it was safer to bring a weapon. Dart grabbed his sword and left the house.

Seles was quiet tonight. All the candles were out, but then again, it was past midnight. Dart put one foot in front of the other, walking, quickening his pace. He didn’t even know where he was going. But the calling was guiding him, persuading him to clasp the Dragoon Spirit of the Divine Dragon in his hand.

Silvery armor snapped into place and seven wings burst out. Dart took a deep breath, feeling the magic coursing through his body. It had been a long time, almost two years, since he had to call on the Dragoon Spirit.

But it felt so good to spread wings and fly. The warrior pushed off the ground and blindly followed instinct, soaring through the night to wherever it seemed to feel right.

When he finally arrived, he was surprised.

"Here?" he whispered to himself.

The Divine Tree, the harbor for when the Moon That Never Set fell, the place of the last battle, had transformed completely. The last time he had seen it was in grief and agony, when Rose and his father had sacrificed themselves to save the world. At that time, the Divine Tree had been a mushroom of fire and inferno.

Yet now it was an oasis. Moonlight glimmered off the water, and Dart felt something almost like complete peace. The voice had stopped.

"I know you’re here." Dart called out. His voice echoed off the small valleys and ridges, through the tree branches and lapping waters. "I’ve come already. Where are you?"

Silent footsteps told him to turn around. He knew there was no need for the sword.

"You heard me calling you." Rose’s words were a statement and not a question, yet they still held some uncertainty.

"Yes."

The female warrior sighed, walking over to one of the branches that drooped from the Divine Tree, serving as a small tree itself, and sat down, leaning her back against it. "Is Shana all right?"

Dart walked over to sit next to her. "Yes. She’s been having some problems sleeping lately. Is that your doing?"

Rose sighed again, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. "I’m sorry. I was trying to call out to you. But ever since death, my mind has been a bit… weak. Shana’s sensitive. She must have felt my mind groping around and been disturbed by it. When you see her again, tell her I am sorry."

This didn’t seem like the Rose that he knew. Dart studied the woman sitting before him for a while.

She was still tall and slender, with willowy limbs and skin that would be pale even without the moonlight. Her dark hair was wet, as if she had surfaced from the waves, sleeking back against her head. She was still dressed in the violet armor with the golden Amazon-like designs, with the boots of different lengths, but the demon headpieces were gone, and more importantly, so was the heavy Dragon Buster that she used to have attached to the belt at her hips.

"You look different." Dart commented.

Rose opened her eyes and turned to look at him. The corners of her mouth seemed to lift slightly, the closest thing to a smile he had ever seen from her. "I’m dead, Dart." She told him, as if he could have forgotten. She tilted her head, her smile widening slightly. "It is so amazing, to think that the Divine Tree, the location of our final battle, has now turned into this paradise. The last time I saw this place, it was a fiery hell. I hated it with my last breath."

Dart smiled. That was the Rose that he knew.

She continued talking. "I guess everything changed for the better after I died." She stated.

Oddly enough, Dart didn’t feel uneasy when Rose brought up the incident of her death. She didn’t look deathly, not shrunken and weak like they portrayed in the stories. Maybe her skin was a bit more translucent, and maybe her eyes did seem tired, but that wasn’t because of death. Death was a change in the physical state. Rose’s change seemed more to be an altering in the state of her mind.

"Are you all right?" Dart queried.

Rose smiled again. "I’m tired." She answered. "Being dead is hard work."

"Is it…I mean…"

"Are we conscious in death? Or do you just go out and be gone?" Rose’s smile turned to a smirk, an expression Dart was more familiar with. "It depends on each person. I’m not sure. I don’t know everything. But I…I see my friends down there."

"Damia and Shirley and the others?"

"Yes."

"My father?"

"…Yes." Rose tilted her head back again.

"Is there something wrong between the two of you?"

"There are some…things we need to work out. Like the incident with Claire, for example."

"Do you hate her for marrying my father?"

Rose considered his question for a long time. "No. No, I don’t think so. If she didn’t, you wouldn’t be here, Dart. And I’d still be a cold woman with a heart of stone. Besides…if Zieg chooses Claire, I won’t do anything about it. I love him too much for that." She seemed to shake herself. "But enough of my life after death. How is everyone else doing?"

"They’re doing great. Albert and Emille got married. They’ve got a son now, the prince of Serdio and Tiberoa. The countries are going to be united forever. Meru is introducing the Winglies back to the world outside the forest. Some of them are excited, some are frightened. But I guess it’s going pretty well, considering the eleven thousand years of spite. Miranda’s helping the Queen. Deningrad has been rebuilt. It’s even more beautiful than before. Kongol is Haschel’s student. Haschel is trying to teach him how not to use brute strength for everything. He also teaches him how to read. You wouldn’t believe how smart and civilized Kongol has become. They tried to get him a suit, but the tailor didn’t sell a size so large. You should have seen the flustered look on the poor guy’s face when he began to measure Kongol."

Dart realized he was describing everything in great detail for Rose. Perhaps it was because he was afraid that the afterlife would be lonely and dreary, and Rose would need little details to keep her mind alive. But on any occasion, the female warrior smiled at his words.

"They seem very happy." Her words were warm.

Dart still couldn’t help but believe that there was something he was missing, an answer he wasn’t receiving.

Rose lifted her head to stare at him, and held up her hands.

Dart gasped, only to realize that it was the glare of his Dragoon Spirit against his red armor that made Rose’s hands look bloodstained.

The Darkness Dragoon shifted slightly. "I have…had to pay penance for what I have done."

Strange. Rose did not strike him as the religious type.

"Every person that I have ever killed. I had to talk to them. I had to explain everything and apologize. They were…not quite as forgiving as I had hoped they would be."

"You had to speak with every soul that you killed?"

Rose nodded, her face looking into the distance, smoke-colored eyes unfocused. "Why do you think it took me so long to contact you?" her smile was sardonic. "I have…killed many people."

Dart lightly touched her arm to make her look at him, and when she did, he held up his hands. The moonlight reflecting off his armor made his hands look just as bloodstained as hers.

"We’ve all killed, Rose." He told her.

"Killing to save them doesn’t justify the death itself." She replied quietly.

"But—"

She held up a hand to silence him. Her hands were so pale, like a dove, and bare of their gloves. When had she stopped wearing her gloves? "Please. It’s something I must know for myself."

Respecting her wishes, Dart stayed silent.

After a long moment of silence, Rose finally spoke. "You know, I don’t like being dead."

"I’m sorry."

"But it’s not as bad as everyone thinks it is. I still get to see everyone."

"Do they mind being dead?"

"Hmm?" Rose gave him a quizzical look. It still surprised him to see emotions on her face. "Oh, no, I meant, you and everyone."

"You can see us? There’s some portal underground, or some magic mirror that lets you see into the living world above?"

Rose glared at him in contempt. "Why did you say underground? Do you automatically assume that when you die, it’s under the earth? That where your body lies, you stay forever? Don’t listen to all the legends, Dart." Her hands curled into fists on her lap. "There is no truth in them. The stories that they say, about zombies and demons rising up from the darkness underneath the dirt and coming out to slaughter people. That’s a load of crap, okay? There is something after death, but only if you want to make it so. Death doesn’t always symbolize being buried six feet into the darkness. It is not like never being able to see the light again!"

Dart blinked. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you like that."

But the Darkness Dragoon had tucked her legs up to her chest, her elbows resting on her knees with her chin cupped in her hands. The posture looked dreamy, like a child fantasizing about knights and princesses. But Rose’s stature was tense and coiled, like a mountain lion ready to spring, more like the dark maiden he had known two years ago. She had never been the dreamy type. He had never seen her daydream before. In all the times that she stared into space, she merely seemed distant, reserved.

"Rose. I’m sorry. I apologize if my words offended you." Dart tried the polite approach. "Rose." He laid a hand on her shoulder, tenderly.

But when she turned around, her eyes weren’t full of the hate or scorn or annoyance that he thought would be there. Instead, her titanium-colored eyes were full of the one thing that he had never seen from her before.

Tears.

Rose, the untouchable stone maiden, the cold Darkness Dragoon, was crying silver tears that trailed down her pale face. Like a little girl. Why?

"Rose?" Dart sat very still until she took a deep breath and looked at him full on.

"I did not mean to do that. I am sorry." Her words were stiff, the warmth gone.

"Rose, I’ve never seen you cry before. Obviously, it’s something bad. Was it something I said? About underground?" Dart’s voice was gentle, like the tone he used to console Shana when she woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares, or like he used to comfort Albert’s son when he scraped his knees.

The woman dragged her hand across her eyes and nodded. She took a deep breath and stared directly into his eyes. "I am afraid of the dark."

It seemed almost like a silly concept. The darkness dragoon afraid of the dark? Impossible. Rose was a tough woman, unafraid. She stood proud in the face of death, moved in lethal swiftness on the battlefield. Wielder of the Dragon Buster, master of the Vassal Dragon Michael, guardian of the darkness, Rose…was afraid of the dark.

And yet it seemed oddly befitting.

"Surprised?" She asked.

"Not really." Dart admitted. "When I was a kid, I set the curtains on fire. Mom was furious, but I was terrified. I really didn’t like fire. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid of your own element."

"It’s just…I don’t like the dark. It symbolizes my eleven thousand years of loneliness. I became a dark person to keep myself in solitude. The darkness seemed to be the only thing in the universe. To get away from it I could only reach for more. I used to look at all the happy couples laughing and holding hands, and I’d think, ‘not for me’. I kept myself behind a barrier of darkness. In time, I grew frightened of the barrier. When you are around something too much, you become scared of it."

"True." It was all Dart could say.

Rose looked into distance, studying the Moon That Never Sets. "Life is so fragile. The littlest event can change everything."

"Like if you hadn’t been in the forest that first day, none of our journey would have happened."

"If Meru hadn’t come with us to save Lynn, we wouldn’t have gotten the Dragon Block Staff."

"If my father hadn’t been spelled, you wouldn’t have been the Black Monster."

She paused. "If Lloyd hadn’t killed Lavitz, Albert wouldn’t be with us and Serdio and Tiberoa wouldn’t be united."

Dart looked at her. "How is Lavitz?"

"Why do you ask me this?" Rose replied without turning her face from where she was studying the dark horizon.

"I thought you would know."

"Because I am dead?"

"Because you always know everything. Are you trying to provoke me into a fight, Rose?"

She sighed. "No. I’m sorry. I don’t like being dead. I used to be a fighter. Now death makes me useless." She shook her head. "Anyway, Lavitz is fine. He’s glad you went to visit his room after the final battle."

"He saw me?"

"I told him." Rose smiled. "Surely you saw a dove fluttering on windowsill?"

"That was your reincarnation?"

"My temporary bodily form. Soa and the guardians of the underworld allow me to Know as a reward for my sacrifices. That’s how I see you."

Dart thought for a moment. "Why did you sacrifice yourself?"

"To save a world that my friends died for." Rose answered automatically. His question confused her. "Why?"

"And what if the world was destroyed? What would happen?"

Rose gave him a strange look. "We would all die."

"And how would that affect anything? This planet is just one out of all the planets in this system, which is just one system out of hundreds more. Our very existence is insignificant. We don’t matter."

Rose threw her head back, arched her throat, and laughed.

Dart blinked. The laugh echoed across the empty plains so that anyone awake would wonder who had laughed with such genuine mirth.

When her laughter faded, Rose lowered her gaze from the stars to the man sitting beside her. "This you tell me, Dart? I have lived far longer than you have. This I have already known since the beginning of my time." She paused, becoming somber again. "I took that into consideration before I became the Black Monster. Is my virtue worth it? Should I really live with all that guilt just to save a tiny little insignificant planet?

"And then I realized…yes, it is. It is worth it a hundred times over. If I were to start off my life again, I would become the Black Monster again. Because this world was taken back by my friends. They sacrificed themselves for it. I fought alongside them. I knew their honor and virtue and innocence. They fought to save this world. So I would do the same. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t affect anything in the major plan of whoever is ruling this chess board called life."

Dart nodded, as if finding her answer satisfactory. "Exactly. That’s the conclusion I came to. It doesn’t matter if we don’t mean anything to Soa. It doesn’t matter if our lives are useless. What matters is that I am here. Nothing changes that. I’m here, and I can change the fate that Soa gives me. People wonder about existence and life, but I don’t care. I am here, I can feel emotions. Who cares if we really exist or not? I can feel pain and I can feel joy. That is enough for me. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not studied and analyzed. If it is, then it becomes nothing more than another word in the books."

Rose smiled at him, and for the first time he realized she was truly happy. No longer did her past keep her distant and afraid. "I never did understand your passion, Dart." She said. "It was something that never introduced itself to me. But it’s what keeps you going. Never lose it, Dart."

She stared at the brightening horizon and stood up, dusting off the dirt and branches that didn’t even stick to her. "I should go back now. My time here is almost up."

"Wait." Dart grabbed her hand, and pointed at the horizon. "You see that?"

Rose looked. "Yeah. It’s called the sun, Dart."

"It’s a symbol. Whenever you’re afraid of the dark again, Rose, just think of the sun. Know that within every darkness, there’s going to be a light. You won’t ever have to be afraid again."

Rose stared at the rising sun and then at the man whose passion had always confused her. Her eyes were watery again. "Thank you, Dart." She whispered softly, and she leaned in and kissed him. Then she let go of his hand and backed into the water. "Goodbye."

"Take care, Rose." Their partings were casual, as if they would see each other again tomorrow. Maybe they would. Maybe they wouldn’t. Life and its future were unpredictable. And Dart meant to keep it that way.

The slim woman smiled again and turned. She kept walking, until the water reached over her head.

Dart almost cried out, afraid. But she barely disturbed the surface, and he could imagine seeing her smile. The moonlight flickered, the Dragoon Spirit flared, and the shade of Rose the darkness dragoon was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note: Whew! I think I really went out on that one. What did you think? I’m sorry that I gave Rose such a common fear, but it seemed right for her to be afraid of the dark. Poetic justice, for the reason I explained in the story. Flames are welcome on this one. It was meant to be a short story, but then I just kept typing and I couldn’t stop myself. And I love talking about philosophy, so I had to add that in here. Please tell me what you think.

By the way, does anyone know who that guy on page 33 of the Legend of Dragoon instruction booklet is?