Disclaimer: The author claims no ownership of these characters. He simply wishes to write them in peace. This story also contains MASSIVE spoilers for the A ending of Valkyrie Profile, and may very well be so packed with enough sugary sweetness that you may start having problems. Read at your own risk.

2nd Disclaimer: In case you missed it this first time, there are SPOILERS here.

An endless field of flowers...

A memory of long ago. Another time, another place. The Wheel of Life turning, ages passing before my eyes. And nothing seems to have changed. I may very well be a child again, running through endless fields of green. And through it all... bliss. Peace everlasting, life free of worries and pain...

A child will trust the world around it, for that is the nature of its existence. The price of age and wisdom is the loss of innocence, the lost of trust. I suppose that means I was forced to grow up earlier than most, in the midst of this harsh land.

I stand in that same field, years later... and still it feels as if it were simply the next day of that time long before. The wind still blows a cloud of petals into the air with each passing breeze, the sweet but deadly fragrance of the weeping lily saturating the air. The sun sets in the background, leaving only a brilliant splash of light upon the sheer faces of rock... a flash that seems to set them aflame...

The Gods must have cursed, or perhaps blessed, this place... it seems that history itself, or at the very least my own personal history, revolves around this place. Perhaps the history of others as well.

It is said that weeping lilies will only grow where a God has fallen... in sorrow over such a passing, if the legends are correct.

"All of these years and nothing has changed. It's like a piece of the world held in stasis, forever unchanging," I murmured, looking off into the fog-shrouded distance. It seemed odd talking about this place to anyone besides Clair... but perhaps my companion would be able to understand what I felt here.

I feel a flash of pain as I look at her, a bittersweet ache of the heart rather than any physical pain. The Valkyrie... my savior, and my curse. For almost as long as I have known her she has projected an aura of detachment, a sense of distance from the world around her, but now... there is something else. Something familiar, but just beyond my reach...

No one who has seen her could dispute that she was more than a mere mortal. Beauty that could only be described as divine, a sense of perfection and grace, of absolute confidence, that no human could attain. I glanced at her for a fleeting moment as she knelt down, gently lifting one of the glowing white lilies from the ground. She smiled as she ran a delicate finger around the edge of a petal, her silver eyes taking in the beauty of this place.

Humans did not often come to this place... the deadly fragrance of the weeping lilies ensuring the sanctity of this valley for all time. But nothing seemed to be out of place... perhaps a reward for braving the dangers to arrive here. Even Valkyrie, with her sky blue armor and feathered helm, seemed to belong here. She was beauty and power melded together, righteous wrath tempered by a boundless compassion. A goddess with the wisdom of ages, and a simple innocence that seemed ever so familiar...

She looked so much like Platina... was it that very resemblance that made my heart ache so? Her hair was like quicksilver, liquid moonlight spun into a single braid that spilled down to her waist. Her eyes were a silver-gray, shining with that same intelligence and devotion. Except for the differences in age... but it was impossible. Perhaps Clair had been right after all...

Thinking of Clair brings up a momentary flash of guilt... she had been correct, after all. I had forced her to live with a ghost, a memory that she would never be able to compete with or touch... Platina's ghost had always watched over my shoulder, a constant reminder of my weakness... my failure.

"Really... it amazes me that you mortals have such fascination with the passage of life, and the changes it brings. But I suppose that is what gives your own existence definition," my companion replied, her voice very soft as she looked out towards the mountains. That voice did not quite match the mental image that I held of her... either of the images. The first time that I had met Valkyrie was when she appeared as a human woman, no more, no less. The second time was in her more official capacity, at the time of my own death...

"We have very little else in this world, Lady," I responded in a similarly hushed voice. That was consistent with my other mental image of her. Platina would have appreciated the beauty of this place... and even if she had not, she would have sensed that a moment had arrived between us. But... "Nothing has changed here..."

I don't think that I could have been any vaguer with that statement... but how can I say anything more than that? Part of me wonders that I even dared come to this place. But my heart aches when I look at her, the old familiar pain.

But... a God?

They look the same... heaven help me, but they both look almost exactly the same. I have to know the truth, I have to know what has happened to Platina... and to Valkyrie...

This must be more than mere coincidence... surely fate would not be so cruel as to offer this temptation, this one sparkle of hope, simply to snatch it from my fingers...

The wind races across the meadow, a light zephyr that teases at her silver hair. I pray that she does not notice how nervous I am, standing here with her... that simply being in her presence is enough to make my knees turn to water and speech nearly impossible. But I have brought her here, and I must follow this to its conclusion...

"This is the place that we came to... more of a place that we stumbled upon, as we ran through the forest," I said, my voice barely more than the faintest whisper. I knew that she could hear me... I just feared the consequences of remembering the past, should I be overly bold in speaking of it. The memories come regardless... the sense of fear, exhaustion. And then came the terror, and the pain... the sense of incalculable loss that we suffered on that day. "But Platina... she breathed in the pollen of the weeping lily and... she died...

"It was my fault... if I hadn't brought her with me, then none of that..." Again the pain took me, robbing me of speech. What can you say when someone dies in your arms... your friend... your love? There are no words, especially when her semblance is standing beside me, an angel of glowing light...

Was I mad? Certainly it was a question I could not ignore... Valkyrie had asked me that very question several times as I sat pondering my fate. I simply did not know how to tell her how I felt, to describe my feelings. Not until we came to this place.

I have never been one to suffer flashes of intuition. But in this time, in this place...

"May I ask you a favor...?" I said quietly, turning to face Valkyrie. "Would you please remove your helmet?" She hesitates for a moment, with a look of... anxiety? Whatever the emotion, it passes in a flash as she reached up to unfasten the straps of her helm, and pulled it from her head.

I could not have been as shocked if a thunderbolt had fallen from the heavens and struck me down. What had been an uncanny resemblance was now something undeniable. The fresh beauty of a young girl might one day have blossomed into the radiant beauty of the woman who now stood in front of me.

"You look exactly like her..." I whispered, my voice subdued, almost reverent. I raised one of my hands slightly, driven by an unconscious desire to touch her, to physically confirm the impossibility which I saw in front of me.

"Like that girl, Platina?" she asked me, a note of fascination in her voice. Her eyes had narrowed slightly, her head leaning to the side as she watched me. All I could do was nod slightly, not trusting my voice.

She smiled after a moment, and took a single step towards me. That was enough... she had not moved away, had not rejected me as obsessed, or crazed, or lost within my own tormented mind...

"I know that it isn't right, to feel this way about a complete stranger..." Mad, I must be mad...! She's a Goddess, and I must be nothing in her eyes, a piece of dust... a mortal. "...but nothing has changed. I still love her.

My life must have hung in the balance in that moment... I dared not even breathe for fear that it would destroy the fragile balance that hung between us. At some point I had moved even closer to her, until we stood were so close that we could touch each other. Close enough that the scent of the wind and rain that I always associated with her teased at my senses. And still she was silent as she gazed at me... thoughtful, as if she searched my soul... or her own.

She raised her hand, still silent, and gently placed her fingers on my cheek. Feather soft, her fingers gently pulled me towards her as she leaned against me. And her silver gray eyes searched my own for a moment...

I don't think that I could describe the moment when our lips met... how does one describe ecstasy, or absolute bliss? My knees buckled after a moment, and we both slid down into that sea of flowers, never once breaking that kiss. Almost reflexively I wrapped my arms around her as we landed, cradling her against me. The breeze washed over us, mixing in the heady fragrance of the flowers with the small of clear wind and sunshine. Of all of the outcomes of this encounter that I had passed through my mind, this had never...

Valkyrie broke the kiss almost reluctantly, her fingers sliding down my cheek in a tender caress. Something caught in my throat for a moment, and when I did speak it was in the gentlest whisper, my face buried in her silver hair.

"My Lady Valkyrie..." I said, not willing to trust myself to say anything more. What can I say now...? What can I promise, that reflects what I feel in my heart?

She placed a fingertip over my lips, quietly silencing me before she spoke in turn. "Don't make any promises, Lucian... we still serve Odin, and the final battle looms ever closer on the horizon. We can never forget that, regardless of anything else. You are still an Einherjar... and I still a Valkyrie."

And... does that also mean that we can be nothing more? Valkyrie? Platina...? I won't accept it... I will not accept it! Even if it kills me, I'll find a way... I swear it...

***

Lucian...

When you look at me, you see a semblance of your lost love.

But love can not exist between Men and Gods...

None the less...

I hope that you shall survive, Lucian... that we shall have a chance to meet again.

I think that I would like to know you better, in the future.

Dear Lucian...

Authors Note:

To be honest, I simply love the interplay between Lenneth Valkyrie and Lucian as you progress through the A ending of Valkyrie Profile. This is probably my favorite relationship in any RPG that I've played so far, even beating out Fei and Elly in Xenogears... and that is hard to do in my book. Perhaps it is the voice acting, or how well written it is. Or perhaps it is because that they react like people, in a Romeo and Juliet style tragedy, two houses feuding and never permitted to join. Regardless, I hope that you enjoyed the story! Comments are most welcome.