After their 'disagreement' in the park, the rest of Pierre's day proved altogether more sombre.

Upon returning to the townhouse he found Maka had retreated to her bedroom, choosing not to leave it for the rest of the evening.

Indeed, at dinnertime he ate in abject silence in the now somewhat repaired remains of the dining room, that just days ago him and Maka had first eaten breakfast in.

In the later hours of the day he sat quietly in his study on the old leather armchair (Which he had partially fixed after Maka's destruction of it when she had first appeared).

Usually she would join him in the study, sitting on a small wooden stool as she read books or made jokes distracting him from his actual work - But tonight the small wood lined room was silent but for the ticking of the wall clock.

Eventually night drew-in and Pierre made his rounds of the large place, turning out all the lights for the evening - With only thin streams of the exterior streetlamps lighting the house's large rooms.

At that moment the old building felt very - Empty - As he reached his own room, a small enough affair next to his study on the third floor - He couldn't help but feel the walls seemingly swallowing him claustrophobically, as he struggled to fall asleep.

"You Can't Go."

Grumbled a truly gravelled, inhuman voice.

"Let go of me Golem! That's a damn order you hear, let me go!" Yelled a man's voice back desperately.

Gem Havler, the owner of the voice, struggled restlessly against the large, round and stone-crafted arms of 'The Golem'.

The 'creature' was one of many new traveling companions him and the Lady Aardig had gained recently. There were others - The jester-like man, who was a whirlwind of daggers in combat.

The young Magi women who kept claiming to be Aardig's apprentice (Though Aardig herself fiercely denied this) - The golem, a hulking almost 8-foot mass of rock and mortar with two hollow-flaming eyes and strength enough to match its imposing appearance.

In all there were ten in the Lady Aardig's travelling party now, a far cry from the days when it had just been her and Gem, or even when they had been just been the five of them.

Of those ten companions, seven now lay dead around Gem's feet.

Yes it had definitely been many years since that carefree day when Aardig had thought Gem was conspiring with her Father to stop her adventures....

How they had all laughed back then - Now the Sword Master, Legendary Archer and Loyal Manservant who been there that day, all were dead alongside their newer party members, here on the field of battle.

It had happened suddenly, word from the King that an invasion force five or even ten-thousand strong was on the borders - Aardig's group had arrived to reinforce the battle lines and for a time it had worked.

Around each of Gem's fallen comrades lay a few dozen or even hundred corpses of enemy soldiers - Men stabbed with their own spears, others with arrows easily piercing through the cheap armour of frontline footman - Some burned to a crisp by Magi abilities or slashed in the neck by throwing knives.

But ten people, adventurers or not, can only do so much against an army of thousands.

What is a hero, against a military?

And so one by one they had fallen until they were just three; Gem, who stood clutched in the Golem's firm grip, his side bleeding profusely and his left arm at an odd angle from broken bones.

The Golem, missing large chunks of its construction, barely enough left to stay standing upright. And finally, the third member, their great leader and mistress - St Aardig herself.

She stood a little ways ahead of Gem, the golem and the cadaver's of the dead - Atop a small, slightly scorched rise in the land, her red cape and brown, shoulder length hair fluttered in the strong winds - Against a backdrop of the setting sun.

In the air, the heavy smell of trodden dirt, the metallic scent of blood and bodily decay.

In front of her two things:

A cacophony of screams and a typhoon of gleaming swords.

The swords flew through the air as though being held on marionette strings - Reflecting brightly against the setting sun as lines of light darting all across the skyline, like tiny bolts of white lighting - It was impossible to tell if there were a hundred of these blades or a thousand, as they danced across the battlefield in front of Aardig.

They cut and sliced and maimed and soared and stabbed and struck again and again and again and again.

The army before Aardig, thousands of men just below her on the far side of the little hill, fell one after the other.

Men desperately grappling over the corpses of their deceased friends, others thumbed backwards piling the bodies two or three high.

Scream after scream, slice after slice - The swords-danced through the sky, mercilessly killing man after hapless man as though they had minds of their own - Aardig's power pushing to its greatest extreme as she simply stood there atop the hill watching, willing the swords to fight on her behest.

One hand rested against a single stationary blade planted into the ground before her.

"Let me help her damn it!" Gem roared trying to break free of the Golem's hold on him.

"Vice-Commander, Your Power Has Been Calculated As Inferior To Those Around Us."

The golem rumbled flatly, almost in monotone.

"Inferior?! Are you saying I'd just get myself killed if I tried to help her!?"

The golem looked around itself at the other fallen adventurers of the party, then down at Gem's wounds - "We Can Not Help Her Now. You Can Not Help Her Now."

Gem eased his struggling, staring up at Aardig's silhouette as tears formed in his eyes.

He knew it was true, he knew he was by far the weakest member of the group - If the others were gone then he could surely do nothing but get in the way. Yet still...Something new caught his eyes amongst the storm of blades in front of Aardig, her hair.

At its tips the brunette was beginning to change colour, to grey out, then whiten.

"Oh God, she's pushed too far! Abused her power too much!" Gem exclaimed mortified.

Slowly, as the screams of the battle continued, the young women on the hilltop began to change. Her skin grew paler and her hair, all of it now - Began to turn.

A few more minutes later and at last it ended as quickly as it had started - Ten thousand or more men laid dead, piled in mounds of their own rotting comrades.

Standing above this massacre, like a sentinel atop the hill was the Lady Aardig - Her hair a mesmerising pure white, her skin alabaster - Her eyes deeper than ever before, an abyssal crimson-red.

"It's Over." The swords fell lifeless from the air, back to the ground as the chunks of unearth metal they began as.

Aardig collapsed to her knees, supporting herself with both hands wrapped to the hilt of her final sword, her hair and cape still billowing in the wind - As silence finally settled over the scene.

And then one last scream broke through the air - One more soldier rose from the endless mounds of dead, charging up the hill with a weapon raised overhead and a deep frightening revenge in his eyes.

Gem moved fast, the Golem finally releasing him - He grabbed his own blade, ran straight past Aardig's crouching form and in a single flush movement cleaved off the final attacker's head.

"Now it's over!"

Glancing around to look for any other enemy survivors, Gem spotted Aardig smile her thanks for the last-minute rescue before falling over completely.

He ran to her side, before skidding to prop her head against his lap before it could hit the ground.

Her eyes, her now deep red eyes - Fluttered open.

"Nice save old friend." She grinned.

"Ha, that's rich coming from you. I think my one kill will struggle to match your count for the day!" Gem laughed hoarsely with little mirth, brushing some of the pitch-white hair out of Aardig's eyes - "Don't try to talk, you're injured. That was bloody stupid you know, using your abilities like that."

Aardig smiled again, raising a shaky hand up to caress Gem's cheek; "Are the others ok?"

Gem swallowed hard, considering his response but then something else unexpected happened - Aardig's hand fell limply to her side, her eyes rolling shut.

"A-Aardig what's wrong!? Aardig!!"

Gem looked up, searching for help but there was nothing - Literally.

Around him it was all gone, the corpses of friend and foe alike, the Golem, even the sunset.

He stared down at the girl on his lap, reached for her wrist - Her pulse.

It was gone.

"No, n-no no you can't, you can't die here. Someone! ANYONE!!"

There was no reply, the very ground seemed to of vanished. Gem found himself in an endless void with only Aardig and himself left - A dead Aardig.

"No, no, no, no - No this isn't how it happened, you abused your powers but you lived through it right? You don't die here, Aardig? I remember you living through this battle! Aardig please!!"

"Please Don't Leave Me All Alone, Not Again....."

And then even her newfound corpse began to fade away, to a place he knew he could not follow.

Pierre juddered awake in his bed, the pale light of the moon outside his curtain.

He did not bother trying to write this dream down, he could remember it all vividly and he knew it was false.

"Yes a nightmare. I was there, she survived that day, became the Sword-Dancer or Slayer or whatever 'they' called it - Yes exactly..."

Pierre suddenly rose his hand to feel his face, it was wet with an outpouring of tears;

"I-I'm crying? Why the hell would I cry over a, a silly little dream, adults don't cry about stupid 'nightmares' I-... I-i... I don't want to be all alone again...."

****