(a/n: Yep, I'm very late on the chapter update. I'm so sorry, but I guess that's what happens when I try to juggle several fics at a time! Thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed!)

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Chapter Five: Blue Rose

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How lovely are thee,

Blue rose.

Like the crisped lips of winter.

Haunting, consuming,

Blue rose.

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The mass of people overwhelmed him, and he stumbled slightly into a woman. She cried out as dozens of flowers escaped her grasp, and fell to the floor. Red rose petals were strewn across the silver floor, like droplets of blood that would forever remain.

" I'm sorry," she said, her voice trembling as she bent over to retrieve her fallen flowers. Wordlessly, Lloyd grasped her arm and gently touched her chin with two fingers. As if time had frozen, he moved her face towards him, and millions of thoughts ran through his mind.

The search is over.

What to do from here?

Questions will be answered...

Does she remember?

Meru...

" Wink." The name sounded so close to him, and he wished to repeat it over and over. The woman herself was as surprised and abashed as he was. She seemed to be searching for words, but settled on bursting into tears and clutching onto him. Lloyd hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arms around her and holding her close.

" It worked..." she whispered into his chest. " It really worked."

Lloyd could feel his heart beating quickly, as he realized that the search was over. He remained with her in his arms, silent tranquility overcoming the commotion in the palace. For the moment, it was simply them. Together at last. His fingers reached up to touch her golden hair, and he was surprised to feel a flower nestling in the prepped locks. Opening his eyes, he could see the blue rose.

" Why did you call me back?" he suddenly asked. Wink pulled herself from him to only cast down her sparkling blue eyes, and begin to breathe heavily.

" I know death may have come as peace to you..." she whispered. " But I must admit that I called you back not only for my own selfish intentions, but also for the protection of humanity."

Yet Lloyd was prevented from asking her more; Meru appeared from the balcony, and was looking worriedly from him to the Sacred Sister. When he caught her eye, she smiled sadly and nodded, as if saying her farewell, now that he had obtained his goal. Lloyd remained frozen, taking in the sight of Meru walking toward him, smiling, then walking past him. There was no glance back.

" Was there any problem with the revival?"

Wink's elegant voice broke the trance of Meru's departure, and Lloyd calmly turned his attention back to the beautiful Sacred Sister.

" No."

" That is good. Then will you care to listen to what plagues us?"

Her expression was so serious, so solemn that he could feel a cold exterior building on the frost that already lined him. Her fragile beauty had been kept preserved for the time he was gone, but whatever light she had carried had been extinguished.

" Yes."

" You seem awfully cold to me," Wink said, suddenly, saying what Lloyd felt about her, yet in context to him. " Your smile fades when you are away from the wingly girl."

It's because she needs me to smile, Lloyd thought, Her happiness only emerges from others. How can I crush a spirit like hers?

" That is not of concern, is it?" Lloyd asked. " You brought me back, and I must accomplish what you will me to do. I am in debt to you."

" Ridiculous. You saved my life a countless number of times. I had, truthfully, been waiting for you when you left the city, praying for your return. My prayers were not answered, as I learned you had been killed. You deserve to live, Lloyd." With those words, her hands covered his and they stood together. She was a perfect match with him, being not even an inch beneath his shoulder. Her eyes, crisp like rain, appeared to see through him, and he couldn't help but to feel intimidated by her. But this was slight.

Now her eyes narrowed, and she bit her bottom lip in worried fashion.

"Lloyd, it is nearing. I can feel it. I wish I could have explained everything to you, but it is coming."

"What are you talking about?"

Wink stared at Lloyd for a moment, hesitating with something inside of her. Then she turned on her heels darted. As a bolt, Lloyd followed. Wink was fast for someone in a gown, but Lloyd easily caught up to her. She didn't even glance at him as she continued to run, but her speed became greater as a cry of a man was heard. They traveled down several sets of stairs to the cellar, where a figure was lying in a pool of blood.

Albert clutched his side, attempting to stop the blood from flowing. Wink gave a slight cry and knelt beside him.

" We are too late," she whispered. " Majesty, you must not allow the Otherworld to take you!"

" How did you know that he would be attacked?" Lloyd demanded, looking from the king to the sacred sister. Wink refrained from answering. " If you won't tell me, that is fine. But to save this man's life, you must get Miranda from the quarters on the second floor."

" No!" Wink finally looked at Lloyd, her eyes wide with fear. " I will not risk her life as well!"

" Are you implying that whatever attacked Albert may well be still here?"

Albert let out a groan, and knowing that Wink would not leave his side, Lloyd ran out of the cellar to the possible place where Miranda would be. He didn't care if the girl was endangered; if the creature did attack Miranda, then Lloyd would have the chance to see what it was and destroy it. On his way up, Lloyd smashed head on into Shana, but didn't bother to help her up. He could hear her faintly complaining about what a rude person he was, but couldn't care less. If it was up to him, Shana wouldn't even been graced with life at that moment.

Lloyd clambered up the last set of stairs in time to see Miranda fighting with one of the guards. She was on her way to punching him when Lloyd disrupted the moment.

" You again!" Miranda lowered her fist and placed her hands haughtily on her hips. " When will you leave?"

" Shut you mouth, and listen to someone for a change. Albert has become wounded and although I can't care less, Wink wishes you to heal him with the Moon Stone."

Miranda instantly pushed past Lloyd to reach her sister in need, and humbly, Lloyd followed. Shana was once again trampled in the process. Once in the cellar, Miranda pulled out the Moon Stone and willed it to heal the king. In a moment, the blood had stopped flowing and the wound had shut. Everyone, minus Lloyd, let out a sigh of relief.

" What happened?" Miranda demanded, the look of aggravation on her face. "It's not everyday that someone gets attacked in this palace!"

" It is as I feared..." Wink said, lowering her head. " A creature born from the blood of the fallen has come to us. It is driven by its desire for the Dragoon Spirits."

Albert nodded. " It has the Jade spirit now."

" But what of the others? Can I trust them to be safe?" Wink asked, turning to Lloyd as if he had the answers. Suddenly, Lloyd remembered their conversation from a few minutes ago. She had brought him back alive to challenge the creature.

" It's a waste of time to rely on me, Sister Wink," Lloyd said, turned to the door. " I have no spirit, so the creature will not be after me. The rest of them can fend themselves."

" A wingly man can do many things!" Wink insisted. " They won't be able to protect themselves...only you.

" Stop placing your trust in me!" Lloyd demanded, facing Wink in a flurry of anger. " I was never the hero, only the nemesis! If you must, send me back there, but don't rely on me!"

" Hold it, hold it!" Miranda held out her hand and closed her eyes. " Wink, did you really summon Lloyd back to our world?"

" Yes, but I had no choice! Man cannot defend themselves against this creature. Lloyd, you and Meru had withstood this monster before, I sensed it. It was after Meru's Dragoon Spirit."

Thinking back, Lloyd remembered the creature that had attacked the both of them in the Emerald Forest. It was no wonder that Albert had no chance against it. Perhaps Wink was right about Winglies being the ones who sustained enough power to battle the creature. Humans were frail, and weak.

" I better go warn the rest then..." Miranda said, holding out a hand for Albert to take. " I'm not sure about Haschel and Kongol's spirits, but I'm confidant that Dart and I can handle ourselves."

"Yes, of course you can..." Lloyd muttered, turning the other way.

"Where may Meru be?" Wink asked before she followed the others up the stairs. Lloyd suddenly stiffened and his breath became unsteady. Last he had seen of her, she was leaving the palace. After the slight argument they had, and her seeing him with Wink, she would not have hesitated a moment to leave the palace premises.

"Why are you not answering?" Wink's hand rested on Lloyd's shoulder, but the sensation of it only caused him more aggravation and worry. The creature had departed after snatching Albert's spirit, and the next closest victim was Meru. It had to be her. Together, they could fend the creature off, but alone...she was vulnerable. Last time it was pure luck that the creature's talons didn't rip through her abdomen and into her gut.

Without another moment's thought, Lloyd swept past Wink and ran up the stairs. He barreled through astonished guests, and pushed aside Dart before the annoying man could open his mouth. As he exited the palace, he could hear footsteps behind him. For a moment he suspected Dart, who never did learn of minding his own business, but as he turned 'round, he saw Wink, quite red cheeked and out of breath.

"Go back," Lloyd ordered, sighing. "You're only going to get in the way."

"I can't let anything happen to you," Wink answered, clearly stubborn.

"Women..." First it was Meru, and now her. Not that he minded that much about Wink, she was a lovely woman. But something was certainly different now that he had encountered her after death. As they ran together to find Meru (he would have preferred to fly, but leaving Wink alone was risky), there seemed to be an air of awkwardness between them.

They continued to run until the sun set, and decided to stop at a nearby town. Wink was clearly exhausted, and Lloyd was beginning to doubt the path he had chosen to take. There was no possible way Meru could have made it so far in that short of time. Now Lloyd was beginning to wonder where she had run off. It was true that Winglies could fly fairly fast; perhaps she had flown over the sea to the Emerald Forest. That would have taken quite a short amount of time.

"I worry for the young girl..." Wink said as she pulled off her slippers. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, and winced as she examined her feet. Lloyd could see from the fireplace where he stood that her feet were calloused and bruised.

"You shouldn't have come with me," Lloyd said, walking to her. He knelt beneath her feet and took one foot into his hand. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out a Healing Potion and poured it onto each of her feet. After, he was ready to get up but Wink placed her hand on his shoulder, willing him to remain sitting.

"It seems as if I'm the only one to witness your compassion," she said, smiling rather sadly. "It always made me wonder why."

Lloyd was silent, the answer out of his grasp. There was simply something about her, something that caused him to want to care for her. She seemed rather hopeless, unable to focus on herself. If only she stopped thinking of others...then she wouldn't be always in trouble, needing him to come and rescue her.

Was that what it was, then? Lloyd, her protector, her knight. No one else needed him the way Wink did, not even Meru, who insisted on keeping her independence despite being an attractor of trouble. He thought back to the visions he had when in the Otherworld. Wink was the ray of light that kept him sane, and had been the one to bring him back. Yet as he looked to her, her lips smiling and the fire placing a glow on her already red cheeks, he failed to bring forth any kind of feeling. Perhaps Meru was right; Wink was an obsession. He had been driven to find her, and now that he did, there was nothing else for him to do.

What would happen after the creature was defeated? Would he announce his love for Wink...or what he perceived as love? He didn't know what love was, everyone he encountered in his life was either in his way or part of his plan to reinstate wingly domination. Even Wink was. It wasn't until she stood before Dart's blade that he understood everything that he had done.

He looked at Wink again, and suddenly it began to dawn to him what his feelings for Wink may be. Unwilling to accept truth, he stood up hastily.

"I am going out."

The night sky eased him, and he willed to forget everything that had happened. He remembered how simple his concerns were when he was with Meru. The girl dismissed all except life itself.

Lloyd continued to walk through the barren streets, contemplating on where to go next. What if he was too late for Meru? A sharp intake of breath was held for a moment, and then released as if he were letting go of his troubles. His eyes focused on the ground as he wondered whether it would be all right for him to leave Wink and find Meru at this very moment. She would certainly be hurt, but as long as it was emotionally and not physically, he could live. Feeling self absorbed as he had used to be, Lloyd hastened his pace towards the item shop and entered the dim lit shelter.

The items shop was fairly large and had a colorful assortment of stoned magic and potions for battle and healing. Ahead of him was whom he assumed to be the shopkeeper, a middle aged woman with flaming hair. Other than her, there was a dark cloaked figure examining the potions on the left side of the room. At Lloyd's arrival, the shopkeeper's green eyes lit and she stood from the wooden stool.

"May I be of any service to you?" she asked, obviously taken by Lloyd. Deciding to ignore her, Lloyd made his way to the stones, wondering if the shop kept Tracing Lunars. Those milky white stones had the power to track anyone in mind, and he hoped that it would be help to him in finding Meru. As he began to walk to the left side of the shop where the stones were aligned quite nicely in a glass case, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Quickly he turned, thinking it was the infatuated shopkeeper, but was surprised to meet with large amber eyes.

"My, I never thought I would see you here," Meru spoke, smiling grandly. It was no wonder that he didn't recognize her when he entered the shop; she had taken down her hood, but the dark cloak did seem out of character on her, yet flattering. Lloyd was abash, but finally blinked and hugged Meru. She let out a startled gasp, and demanded that Lloyd release her.

"What has gotten into you?" she demanded, attempting to straighten her cloak so that it swept behind her.

"Why did you leave?"

"I..." Meru looked around, then noticed the shopkeeper staring at them with interest. Silently, she grasped Lloyd's wrist and pulled him out of the shop and to the fountain in the middle of the town square. There she sat, while Lloyd stood, expecting an answer. "I left because your mission was completed. It was Wink you were searching for, was it not?"

Lloyd nodded somberly, and Meru averted her gaze to the water behind her.

"But you had no right to leave without word."

"You saw me leave before your eyes." There was a tremble in her voice, but Lloyd could not tell whether tears were to come, for Meru refused to look up. He sighed, wondering why Meru had become so romantic. He had liked it better when she was tittering about and whining. Now she seemed so forlorn.

"You mustn't take this so seriously," Lloyd said, and instantly, Meru's eyes met his. Those amber eyes flared but died down as quickly as had been ignited.

"Yes, I mustn't..." She was once more looking at the water in the fountain, occasionally dipping her finger in and swirling the crystal water. Lloyd suddenly became angered from Meru's tone of defeat, and he reached down and grabbed the hand out of the water, then yanked her upward. Meru ended up against him, startled, and he unsure of what to do or why he had pulled her so close.

When Meru attempted to pull herself away from Lloyd, he wrapped his arm around her waist, making it physically impossible for her. She stopped struggling long around to give Lloyd a questioning glance.

"Why are you acting this way?" Lloyd demanded, glad that for once her eyes never moved from his. "You're being ridiculous. The girl I knew never spoke in such soft tone, or accepted whatever anyone told her to do. She was defiant...and yet you have been behaving strangely recently."

"Well, perhaps I have grown up!" Meru stated, her voice barely above a whisper yet still angered. "Although I doubt you would acknowledge that fact. I doubt you even believe it!"

Lloyd abruptly let go of Meru and she stumbled slightly.

"Let's drop the subject then. It's none of my concern." Lloyd began to straighten his gloves, seemingly not caring about Meru any longer. She was right about Lloyd not believing her statement about becoming mature -she hadn't. She was playing some strange game with him, one that he didn't have time for. All he needed was to protect her, listen to her mindless chatter, and everything would be fine for the time being.

"Then why did you follow me?" Meru asked, placing her hands on her hips. Now Lloyd looked up and narrowed his eyes.

"Why else? I was worried about you."

He turned to walk the other way but Meru placed her hand on his shoulder, and then leaned against him. With her head resting against his back, she sighed and slowly drew her arms around his neck.

"I wish I could tell you everything..." Meru whispered. A long silence followed, Lloyd keeping his hands at his sides while Meru held onto him.

The sound of Wink's voice broke their reverie, and Meru instantly detached her arms from Lloyd.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize..." The Sacred Sister's eyes were wide with surprise and she was flustered with embarrassment. Lloyd shook his head, answering that she hadn't interrupted anything. For a moment, a flash of pain crossed Meru's features, but it passed and was replaced with an artificial smile.

"Well, now that you both know that I'm safe, I should be going back to the Forest."

"Not so fast," Lloyd said, and grabbed onto Meru's wrist. "There's a reason we came to look for you."

"Meru, do you still hold your Dragoon Spirit?" Wink asked, walking up and standing next to Lloyd. Meru nodded slowly and was about to reach into the bosom of her dress when Lloyd stopped her.

"Wait, don't bring it out."

Confused, Meru slowly lowered her arm to her side and gave a questioning look to Lloyd. He sighed in responce and after quickly stealing a look at Wink, began to explain the events and revelation that occurred during Meru's absence.

"So, you mean to tell me that this creature cannot harm Winglies?" Meru asked, once the explanation was finished. Lloyd nodded. "Then why have you gone through the trouble to find me?"

"Remember when we were attacked in the emerald forest?"

"Of course...yet that time, I was physically marred."

"It seems that because of your delicate age, the creature is able to damage you, although it is unable to kill you directly," Lloyd said, much to Meru's anger. She puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms in hostility.

"So I am weak," she stated. Lloyd simply stared at her with unaffected eyes, while Wink glanced nervously from both winglies.

"I'm sure that's not what he meant at all," Wink said, her tone shaking slightly from the prospect of a potential argument.

"That's exactly what I meant." After Meru and Wink both partly opened their mouths in shock, Lloyd continued. "Meru, you always overestimate your abilities. This time, though, you cannot win by pure luck. If the creature manages to--"

"I don't have time for this," Meru said, cutting off Lloyd. "In fact, I have a wedding to attend."

"Whose wedding could be so important as to risk your own life?" Lloyd asked with frustration. After taking an almost hostile step forward, he clasped his hand on Meru's shoulder and exerted pressure on it in anger. However, Meru was far from intimidated by him. With a mix of fire and tears swelling in her eyes, she grabbed onto Lloyd's wrist and forced his hand off of her.

"Mine."

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(a/n: Once again, sorry for the long chapter update! But now that summer is coming, I have time to work on this fic and update regularly! Suggestions are appreciated!)