Legacy of Darkness

Roisin was fast asleep, but a terrible nightmare grasped her mind tightly. Unable to awake, she tossed and turned.

She was stood in a long corridor, with wooden panelling down each wall, and white lights swinging from the ceiling. The corridor was so endless that she could not see the end, even when she looked behind her, the was no visible end.

"Don't be afraid" Dex smiled, as he placed his hand on Roisin's shoulder. "I'm here" He nodded.

"Where am I?" Roisin asked. Dex walked a few steps ahead and gazed around.

"Honestly, I'm not quite sure... this isn't what your dreams are usually like" Dex pondered.

"I'm dreaming?!" Roisin gasped.

"Well, yeah, I'm here, aren't I?" Dex chuckled. Roisin frowned.

"So you're not real?" She asked.

"Given that I'm fully self-aware, what do you think?" Dex winked, Roisin ran to him and hugged him tightly. "Hells, each time you see me in your dreams, it's usually me" He smiled.

"I just thought you were part of my dream..." Roisin smiled.

"It's the one place where I can actually talk to you" Dex smiled. "You've done so well, and I'm proud of you" He added.

"Thank you, I gotta admit, there's times I've wanted to give up..." Roisin sighed.

"But you didn't, because you are Roisin Luna" Dex smiled. Dex hugged Roisin again, but then turned his attention to the corridor once more.

"What is it?" Roisin asked.

"This place, it isn't from your mind..." Dex's heart dropped as he noticed.

"How can you tell?" Roisin pondered. Dex ran his hand along the wall.

"It's too real, usually in your dreams, things can get kinda... blurry, but here, it's as if we were really here" Dex pondered.

"I don't like this..." Roisin frowned.

"Stick by me, we'll head down the corridor" Dex nodded, as the two set off down the long corridor. They walked for four or five minutes before reached a large window on the wall. The view outside was... confusing, there was nothing out there, no dark, no light, nothing.

"Did they want us to see this? I don't get it..." Roisin sighed.

"This isn't the Underworld at least" Dex nodded. Roisin gasped as she noticed something moving outside. The creature was formless, incomprehensible, just a large mass of... something.

"Come on... we best keep walking" Dex frowned. Roisin nodded as they carried on walking down the corridor.

"What... was that?" Roisin asked.

"I don't know, and I don't think I want to either" Dex sighed.

Almost from nowhere, a man in a suit stood before Roisin.

"You have awoken, but not completely" The man stated. "The fire in your heart must burn brighter" He added.

"Huh?" Roisin grunted, as she summoned her Celestial Crossbows.

"No" The man frowned, he clicked his finger and the crossbows faded, Roisin tried to summon them once more, to no avail. "Use your loss, your pain" The man grinned. "Strike me down" He added.

Roisin shook her head.

"I won't give into those feeling any more..." Roisin shouted.

The man turned to Dex and clicked his fingers. Dex began to fade away. Roisin's eyes burned with fury as she yelled, suddenly Dex snapped back into existence, and his body became engulfed in flame. Dex was not in pain, he wore the flames as if they were his second skin, in a split second he had lunged at the man and struck him down.

"Very... good..." The man coughed, before fading away. Dex returned to normal and hugged Roisin tightly, Roisin was crying, distraught from the thought of losing Dex permanently.

"I'm here Roisin, I'll always be here, I am you and you are me" Dex smiled. Roisin remained silent and just held onto Dex. Slowly, the world around them began to fade, before Dex himself faded too.

Roisin was laid in her bed aboard The Wild Rose, staring at the ceiling, it was still dark outside, but the moonlight shone through the window.

"Was that real?" Roisin asked herself, she sat up and walked over to the mirror. She ran her hand over her face, but as her fingers crossed her eyes, she felt waves of intense heat drifting from them.

"Could it be?" Roisin pondered. "Dex, are you there?" She whispered, but there was no response. She sighed and sat back down on her bed. She watched the clouds pass by the window, before drifting back off to sleep.

In her dream, she was with Ruby and Dex, the three of them had a picnic by the beach in Ishtall, they chatted for hours and hours, until the sun set over the blue seas.