[Author’s Note: I released it a few hours early. Enjoy!]

Aaru …

For the first time in years, I had finally see snow fall from the gray skies. Nothing surrounding me but the naked trees that bare no leaves and was only coated lightly in the white blankets of winter. Ahead of me was a road that had no beginning or no end from this bench where I lay. A road that was covered with snow and ice. Someone had stood in the distance in the middle of this road covered in the blankets of winter. It was a man with his back turned at me. His dark napoleon cape blowing in the gentle wind, seeming to dance so flawlessly. A man I know far to well. I ran towards him shouting his name, but no words would form from my lips. It only seemed that he was moving further and further away as I tried to reach him. He turned around, and smiled. He smiled and stretched his hand forth… to save me. “Come with me, Aaru.” His gentle voice was carried into the wind. I reached my hand towards his… and it seem that he just drifted away into the unknown abyss that had covered this land. This land of trees and snow, and the road that never seems to end or begin. There I had stopped running, not really going anywhere. Nor did I make tracks in the snow. And at that moment the world seemed to stop with me. For the first time I had begun to feel cold, and had seen my breath in the frozen air. The blood in my veins was no longer warm, and my heart has sculpted itself into ice. The snow seems to fall endlessly here in this place. “You look like an Angel.” His voice echoed around me, almost heavenly. “I want you here, with me… forever.” The voice said.

I held myself tightly, shivering in the cold and I whispered into the silence of the wind.

Distortion of reality
Restoration of love
Both so far yet so close.
It’s cold, not having you around.
I look towards the skies of gray.
You are no longer visible to me.
Your face is now just memory.
Fatality is like a ghost in the snow.

… Rogue

It was dreams that had become realities and realities had become into dreams. A dream that made no noise and there were people all around cheering for this man I never knew. He saved my life. I was lifted into his arms as everyone gave me fame for his heroic acts and saved the people in the boat from the clan of thieves and from the clan of Balrogs. My eyes were as closed as though they were open. Seeing everything and not being able to hear their cheers. I saw this man’s lips move to words I didn’t understand. I saw him look down at me as he walked, cradling me in his arms. He smiled at me, and again he moved his lips to words I didn’t understand. He was the man I never knew. But he saved me.

Blood spoke from his wounds that were ripped into his flesh by the claws of Balrogs. This man became weary from his epic battles to save these people tonight. He was slowly dieing from the injured placed on his body. He displayed his Maple Identity card and I had read his name. He was surely the man I never knew.

The rain fell from the dark clouded starless sky and if felt so wonderful to feel the rain touch my skin. The atmosphere cold enough to keep my satisfied however this chief bandit was cold and used his cape to keep me warm. He walked towards the five star hotel to retrieve a room for him and myself. He’s heroic action quickly spread across the continent and paid no money for the room.

As he arrived to the room, he opened the door and gently laid me on the bed. My eyes close as though they were still open. Unconscious but able to interpret everything that was around me without a sound. He closed the door of the room and collapsed on the floor. Unable to hold his composure, the wounds on his body were fatal and I remember nothing more.

Several weeks had gone by since what had happen in Orbis, and the Chief Bandit was forever known as a legend. But no one knew his name because I kept his identity with me. Tenan, Ms. Fire, and Braven came to visit me in my house in Orbis. Tenan had provided for me after he left my house in Ellinia. That fight we had, the words that were said. Seem to do nothing but go one ear and out the other. My voice wasn’t heard to him, and to him I was still a child. His student. His wife, Ms. Fire, was always with him. Always smiling. Always radiant as usual. As I felt as though I was just a red rose in their sea of white snow. I did not belong.

I couldn’t belong to Tenan as my heart intended to be, and my father saw it. Braven, my father, was envious sometimes of Tenan because he was happily married. But the thought came to my mind. Where is my mother? What happened to my mother? My father was never there for me, but I had always wonder where was a mother to this? My mother?

“Aaru?” Tenan spoke forth handing me a bottle of pure water. I hadn’t said anything; I was lost in deep thought of all the events that had occurred in my life since I left Maple Island. “Are you ok?” he wanted to know. Ms. Fire clung onto his arm and rested her head on his shoulder and looked at me with a smile. Her smile seem to be a triumphant one, everyday she looked at me the same way she always did. At some point I believe she disdained me. It was because I knew Tenan first, and yet it was because of her that Tenan left me to fend for my self when no one was around to protect me. At those times I felt alone, thinking of the more negative things such as my parents leaving me. Rogue leaving me. Tenan leaving me. Who was left that I could count on? That Chief Bandit that saved me?

“I’m fine.” I said to him as I looked at Ms. Fire then turned away.
“That was a true Hero! Man, people caught it on Fraps! And it’s all over the TV!” Braven said. I could never get around to calling him father. Not now, not ever. “Just shut up about it, it’s old news.” I said as I placed the pure water down on the table and left there unopened. I headed towards the door taking a soft sigh. “Ms. Aaru… where are you going?” Ms. Fire wanted to know. “I’ll go to any place my feet takes me.” I said to her exiting my own house. I didn’t really much cared of it. It was just a place for me to rest my head at night and pamper myself in the morning.

I had traveled to a secluded place in Orbis, a place where clans/guilds and legalized and anyone could join in. I had sat on the steps of this large building and went though my backpack and I found the Chief Bandit’s identity card. I held it in my hands reading his name. “Lex” it had said on the card. “Lex Aeterna.” Someone had exited the building and looked towards my direction. I’ll never see you again will I? I started to cry for no reason, curled up into a ball as I held my legs close to my chest. “Why me?” I said to myself. “Why does so much pain exist inside of me?” I questioned myself. The person stopped walking and looked at me. It felt as though he should have said something to me, but instead he let me be and went about his business. As if he had seen nothing.

Several moments later, Tenan appeared before me, alone. He placed his hand on top of my head and patted a bit. “Because I found you.” He said. I looked up at him and smacked his hand away, wiping the tears from my face. Tenan sat next to me and sighed softly. “Go Away, I hate you with everything that holds me together as a person!” I said to him scooting away from him. “I know.” He said to me in his calm voice as he looked forward towards uncertainty.

“Forgive me for ever putting you through so much stress and heartache, Aaru. I know I am a pathetic man that had used you in so many ways that it would be wrong to consider myself to be a righteous man. I’ve hurt you as a person, as a friend, and as a woman that was in love with me. I now understand that you are not a little girl. And the night I heard that it was you that was caught by those Balrogs. I was scared… that I was going to loose you. You are precious to me… and never forget that. And it’s not just because you are an Ice Lightning Wizard that can use meditate, but it’s because you are my friend. And my daughter whom I raised.”

I sat there on those steps next to him feeling no emotion from his words. I had stop crying at this point and my heart felt cold with ice and the blood in my veins grew with hatred and with love of this man. And all this time… I was just a daughter that he had raised. A daughter he never hand. I rose from my spot and walked down the steps. I felt Tenan’s eyes watch over me as I reached the bottom. I turned and I found him staring at me with a very serious face he could ever had. “Take care… Little Aaru” he said waving at me. I walked off as I waved my wand at him. This might just be the last time we will ever see each other again.

I had begun to walk towards the station, buying my ticket to go to Ludibrium to train alone and hunt down Rombot. Ms. Fire ran towards me down the terminal and stopped me. “Ms. Aaru!!” she had yelled from a distances. I stopped and looked at her, holding my ticket in my head. “Here… take these.” She said handing me her white calaf as she wore a dark anakarune. “I want you to have this.” She said with a soft smile. “Don’t… worry about it, I’ll find my own.” I said to her… “Please, take this, Ms. Aaru. As a token of my friendship. And a remembrance that we were once friends.” She said to me with a slight frown. I took the white calaf from her hands and held it. I looked down towards it and saw an arcstaff and a cromi there. “I don’t see why you have to leave… Ms. Aaru.” She said to me. I turned my back on her and kept walking and she walked along side of me. “I’m leaving because I need to start a new. I want to become stronger so that one day… I may kill you, Tenan, and my father. And find the Chief Bandit that saved me.” I said to her. She stopped walking and looked at me with tears filling up her eyes. “I understand your hatred towards me… but please bring no harm to Tenan.” She said crying. I had gotten on the train, waiting for it to depart. “Because… no matter how you look at us, as if we’re a happy couple. He’s always thinking of you. He loves you far more than me. And I’m envious of you.” She said to me, wiping the tears from her eyes. “You know him as the man I never knew. You were close to him when I couldn’t be. He protected you with all his love and his heart and put his life on the line just to make sure that you’ll come back to him at night. He’s never done that for me. Not even for our child.” She said crying as she ran off.

I watched her leave as the train departed from station. I looked at the things in my hands and bagged them into my backpack. “You and I were never friends.” I said to myself. The train ride to Ludibrium was silent. I enjoyed the view as the clouds floated by. Shortly after we had arrived at the station. I headed straight towards Eos Tower and started to train and fight.

Everyday was the same thing, training and fighting, and also making a living for myself. I had recently bought my own house in Ludibrium, which was located near Eos Tower. But one day I was climbing down the outside of the tower and a mixed clan of mages, archers, and thieves stopped me. One of them was familiar and he had recognized me. “Hey… aren’t you the little B*tch that tried to attack me on the boat several months ago?” he said to me. “Leave me alone” I said to him climbing down the ladder. He jumped down from the top platform to the bottom. “Now… you got a lot of guts to fight up against a man like myself.” He said yabbering about his ‘glory’ days when he ‘beat me up’ I arrived at the bottom of the platform and walked off. “Shut up already.” I said to him. One of the archers became angry with me and launched her arrow that pierced my hand. “You will learn how to respect our wonderful leader!!” she said. It was obvious to me that she was in love with him.

Another arrow was launched and pierced my shoulder. The archer girl yelled at me. “APOLOGIZE!!!” I looked towards her, snatching the arrow out of my hand. “I don’t have to apologize, so please just back off and leave me alone.” I said to them calmly, holding back a lot of screams and tears. “YES YOU DO!!!” she yelled at me as she launched a double shot of arrows! One piercing me on the shoulder and the other on my side. I had winced a bit since the pain was always there. The Thief laughed as he remained still, holding the archer girl from behind as he larger clan was at ease.

I retrieved my fairy wand and charged it with 10,000 volts of pure energy in it. I had released the stored energy into lightning, which struck the archer girl, the Thief and several others. The Thief became angry and gently pushed the archer girl aside and ran towards me. He took out his Sai’s and attempted to stab me on my neck. I teleported behind him and smacked him upside the head with my fairy wand, kicking him on his back. “I’m in no mood to fight, please get out of my way.” The archer girl became angry, and launched several arrows towards me. I quickly configured my wand from lightning to ice and quickly made an Ice Wall to stop the arrows. The Thief rose again and used haste. I summoned my fairy, which blessed me with her guardian’s dust.

The Thief ran towards me and pushed me from the side of the tower and jumped after me. I landed hard on my back and rolled over before he could land on top of me. I climbed a little bit down a ladder and jumped down to the next platform. The Thief ran after me with anger filled in his eyes as anger. His guild watched the fight from a safe distance and claimed that someone in black was coming up the tower.

I ran towards the dark figure and stopped in front of him. “Please remove yourself from my path” he said to me in a mild voice. I couldn’t move myself upon his request. He had looked so much like the person that saved me from the Balrogs months ago. Thoughts ran through my head thinking Is this Lex? and Of all places why would he be here?. I stared at him as he just looked forward, finding it bothersome to even look up to a weak person like myself. I opened my mouth to say something, but no words could come out, I just kept remembering what happen on that boat. At that moment, time seemed to stop ad everything stopped with time itself. I, for some reason, wanted to die. What good is my life if I could never find the man I love for so long?

The Thief noticed that I stopped and he stabbed me from behind, his Sai stabbed through my body. Entering from the back and exiting from the stomach. “There, now you die for real.” The Thief said as he pushed me off the side of Eos Tower. The dark figure grabbed me by the arm and tried to lift me up. “Now’s my chance to kill a high powerful person! This will surely make my guild love and fear me!” he said under his breath. The Thief kicked the dark figure on his head. “That’s for trying to kill me on the damn boat last time!” he shouted as he looked up at his clan waiting for their praise. And the praised him, the adore him and begged them to kill him. “I love it when my clan cheers me of to make someone die.” The Thief kicked the dark figure extremely hard on the head that he lost his grip on the side of the building. The Thief watched us fall to our death and waved to us good-bye. “DIE DIE DIE!!!” the little sadistic archer girl chanted! And everyone in the guild cheered for the Thief.

The injury I had received from the Thief had no pain. I felt no pain. I was use to such pain that it now became second nature to me. The pain of loosing someone, the pain that could nearly end my life. The pain of always being alone. I wasn’t alone though, this person had been the same Chief Bandit that had saved me months again. He held my arm as we fell from the side of the tower. It seemed that we fell endlessly. He pulled me up towards him as we fell and held me close compressing his arm around my wound to stop the bleeding. I truly felt no pain.

“Lex.” I said softly in his ear as we were falling towards our death.
“You finally remember my name.” He said to me. I smiled as asked him what he meant by it. “I asked if you remembered me while I carried you to the hotel, you looked at me as if you didn’t understand.” He said.
“I don’t remember… you.” I said to him, feeling noxious and weak from the blood loss. He revealed his Angel Betrayal and stabbed it to the side to the tower, slowing the falling process down. We had stopped by a nearby platform and jumped towards it using his powerful haste, retrieving his Angel Betrayal while doing so. I showed him his maple identification card as he gently landed me on the floor. “So that’s where it went.” He said taking it from my hands. He firmly pressed my injury and gave me a piece of his medicine and unagi. “In a few hours you’ll feel better.” He said, staring down at me.

I ate the medicine and unagi and sighed softly as I closed my eyes wondering why was that clan after me. “You’re as beautiful as Rogue said you were.” He said. I quickly lunged up, holding my injury tightly wincing a bit, and looked at him. “You know Rogue.” He nodded and smiled. “There you go you have some life back in you.” He said caressing my cheek.

“Rogue is my master. I sever and learn under him.” He said softly as he tried to lay me back down. I hesitated at first and remained sat up. “Where is he, take me to him!” I said trying to stand up but all I could do is stumble over and fall. Lex laughed at me for a moment. “So adorable.” He said to me as he relaxed eating an apple. He tossed me an apple, “their your favorite, so please eat up.” He said. I sat next to him as he and I both watch the sun set from the side of the Tower. “We’ll camp out then… I’ll take you too him.” Lex said reassuring me. “Now for the mean time, you can rest your head on my lap while I sing you those old maple lullabies.” Lex sung to me as he stroked my hair, just as Rogue did back in Maple Island

I couldn’t fall to sleep that night knowing that I’ll see Rogue again. Lex rested his back and slept covering his eyes with his blood nightfox. I remained still and thought of so many things to talk about with him. How the years has went by and I wanted to know how his life was. But then my heart began to sank, what if he’s married and bares lots of children I thought, or maybe this Lex person is lying to me about him? Or is he really Rogue in disguise. Thoughts flared my mind and gave me butterflies at the thought of even imagining myself to gaze upon his face once more…
My only fear was, will he still remember me from Maple Island.

Take me to Rogue, please!

-Aaru