Post-Defiance Fan Fiction: Mirrors of Balance
By: Dragonaia
Summary: Takes place at the end of Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Kain is presented a quest by a mysterious nameless and formless entity to discover a way to kill the Elder God. His journey takes him through a dimensional gate where he encounters an alternate Nosgoth, free of the God's parasitic influence.
Disclaimer: The Legacy of Kain games belong to Eidos, not to me, much though I may wish it. The OOC involved in this fic belong to me however, Kainen/Katherine, the Voice, and the few secondary others. My retribution with be swift and horrifying.
Author's Comments: There is no SI. If you read it long enough you will realize why. This fic came about because I was always wondering why the Elder God would go to the trouble of banishing the Hylden. I mean, wouldn't that just mean less for him to eat? This story was my way of explaining it to myself, and also presents a version of Nosgoth without an Elder God to screw over its history. It's rated T for physical violence. There is no sexual content and never will be because if you knew the plot you would know that is a perfectly and horrifyingly offensive.
Chapter 1: The Voice Speaks
Kain stood on the precipice, gazing down at the valley below. The view still saddened him, although he had seen it many times before. Though previous trips through the time-streamer had left him disoriented, he had but to look at the newly crumbling pillars to know exactly when and where he was. The Guardian Pillars had shattered, the Hylden been released, and the newly-revived Janos Audron possessed. The rule of the Sarafan Lord was just beginning. The world around Kain was writhing in an agony of chaos, and here he stood, the now-purified Scion of Balance thanks to Raziel's noble sacrifice, and he was supposed to be remedying it. For the first time in his ancient existence he was utterly lost.
Though still worn from his battle with the Elder God and in need of a good feeding, he decided it would be prudent to get his bearings and settle on a course of action before doing anything else. As always, the Pillars were a good place to start. On a high bluff overlooking them, Kain considered the sight thoughtfully. Where was he to go from here? Had Raziel's sacrifice freed him from the parasitic wheel of fate? What other tricks did that loathsome invertebrate have in store for him? And the most important question of them all was: How in the name of all things holy and unholy was he to slay a soul-eating monster whose body ran the entire length of Nosgoth herself? If he was still human he'd have needed a strong drink right about now.
The sun had risen to its mid-day peak when Kain was awoken from his contemplations by the appetizing scent of human blood and the sound of hard leather boots scrambling for purchase on rocks as they made their way towards him. Thanking the fates for this small bit of good fortune, Kain wasted no time in misting back into the shadows of a rock overhang and wrapping his form in a thick blanket of shadow. As always, the vampiric hunger won out, but Kain was still not ravenous enough to ignore the implications of finding so convenient and negligent a prey item here. Ariel's haunting of the pillars had driven most humans away, which begged the obvious question of why this one was venturing so near.
While Kain was conscious enough to ask himself that question, he was too hungry to care about the answer by the time the hooded figure cleared the lip of the final slope and came into view. Kain had the briefest glimpse of pale flaxen hair as he yanked the human's rough woollen hood from its head and drove his fangs into its neck. The hot liquid bursting into his mouth only heightened his appetite and he was not satisfied until he had drawn out every single drop of heart-blood out through the jugular. Licking the dark life-blood from his lips, he dropped the lifeless corpse to the ground, his hunger sated. In fact, he felt completely sated… unnaturally sated, as if he had just consumed a month's worth of blood in one go. It was the strangest phenomenon he had ever experienced in a long time. Had he evolved another Dark Gift without realizing it?
His growing unease and confusion was only heightened by the fact that the body had vanished without a trace. Where there should have been a body there was nothing, not even a droplet of blood or a stray hair. The only reassurances Kain had that he had not finally succumbed to madness, was the clear trail of boot-prints, the scuffed ground where the body should have lain, and the strange heavy feeling of being completely satiated.
"How is that…." Kain began aloud, taking a cautious step backwards, but the question was interrupted.
"That sure took you long enough Kain," a voice said in annoyance. "I expected you to jump me twenty minutes ago when you first became aware of my approach. Your instincts seem to have been dulled by the years old vampire. Surely you're not finally beginning to feel your age?"
Kain growled in anger at the jibe and looked around. His yellow eyes narrowed as he searched for the mysterious voice's source, but it was in vain. There appeared to be nothing to see. "Show yourself coward." He drew the Soul Reaver, the eye sockets glowing faintly blue with Raziel's protective spirit.
"Now, now Kain," the Voice clucked disapprovingly. It sounded almost as if it was standing right in front of Kain's face, but the space was empty. "There's absolutely no reason to be rude. After I went to all the trouble of hauling that mortal shell all the way up here to provide you with the sustenance you require. I even damaged the meat suit to put the scent of blood in the wind and whet your appetite. You needn't be ungrateful about this. I've come to give you the guidance you seek." The Voice had a strange sexless quality to it, and even as Kain licked the last traces of blood from between his teeth, he was inexplicably unable to tell if it had come from a male or a female.
"I believe I've had enough guidance to last be a lifetime thank you." Kain answered bad-temperedly. "And I've had enough experience with disembodied voices to last me several more. Show yourself or be gone. I do not have patience for these games of yours. What are you and what do you know of my quest?"
"Much Kain," it replied, "I know much. I've been watching the actions of both yourself and the son imprisoned in your sword there since the very beginning, even jumping through the Time Streamer and spatial vortexes behind you when I could. You are quite an interesting specimen to study Scion. Your existence has been of very keen interest to me."
"I'm flattered," Kain said dryly. "But you still haven't answered my questions, and I refuse to deal with something I cannot see. So I will say this for the last time: Show yourself!"
"Temper, temper Kain," the voice clucked disapprovingly. "I will show you my true form at your insistence, but it will not answer any of your questions and will probably only succeed in confusing you even more than you already are. I will apologize in advance for this. Behold the majesty of an unfettered soul Scion, for as things stand you shall not be fortunate enough to see one again."
Kain didn't even have time to shelter his eyes before the air in front of him suddenly ignited in a brilliant ball of iridescent light. He had the briefest glimpse of shield-sized globe of radiance swirling like an orb of shimmering water, before closing his eyes and turning them away, though it did little good, the light penetrating right through the closed lids. Sweltering heat pressed against his body, causing beads of blood-sweat to trail down his torso. He raised the Reaver up to protect himself and was amazed to see that while the blade absorbed a little of the light, lessening the intensity to his vampiric eyes, it was still not enough. Within moments the blade too was as satiated as Kain. Somehow, the vampire instinctually realized what he was looking at; the very essence of light and spirit made physical.
"Please," Kain found the word slipping from him before he could choke it back. Self-preservation and natural fear overrode his empirical pride just long enough for two more words. "Please stop."
"Certainly," the Orb replied smoothly and with no little smugness, though the tone conveyed no hostility. The light dimmed until he was able to behold the Voice without its aura, a blue sphere of rotating semi-liquid, semi-gaseous energy. "You had only to ask Scion. I would be honoured to answer your questions to the best of my abilities. I am not quite sure what I am… or rather what I was. All I am certain of is that I am an ancient spirit, a lost soul, and that I am quite possibly millennia old. Long ago I forgot everything about my former existence, which brings me to why I am offering you my assistance.
I would have come forward earlier in your adventures, but that seemed unwise considering that would mean I would have to tell you about the False God and his parasitic Wheel. You had to see that for yourself. It is not something most people can be told about, only experienced.
One of the few things I know for certain about my past is that the Elder is even older than I am, and considering I can remember the arrival of the Vampire and Hylden races upon these shores, that is a very long time ago indeed. I believe it was the God who took most of my memories from me, but I can still distinctly remember running from that vile invertebrate's tentacles to avoid being spun into its so-called 'wheel'. It took a piece of my soul with it, but I managed to escape. I've been drifting the ethereal and material planes thither and yon for a while now, always careful to stay away from that abomination's methods of detection, using secret dimensional pockets and slipstreams. I have become adept enough at it to put Azimuth the Planar to shame, but I digress.
I have come to you Kain, because I believe I may have found a way to kill my enemy, but I lack the physical body with which to retrieve the method, and to execute it properly. I require your help."
Throughout the Voice's cryptic narrative Kain had held his tongue, carefully considering everything it said, but at that last his spine straightened angrily and he growled his distaste at the entity. "You need me to do your dirty-work for you," he snarled furiously, "Why am I not surprised?"
"Technically no," the Voice replied blithely, not the least bit disturbed by the vampire emperor's ill-humour. "I need you to find someone else to do my dirty work for me. You lack the patience, the experience, the technical skill and quite frankly the finesse to do what is required. As for why I am approaching you, well there are several reasons. Some of which include that the purified Reaver allows you to see both the Elder and me, you were already endeavouring to complete the same task and could possibly get in my way if I left you uninformed and unfettered, you are one of the few who could convince them to come, and that bringing those people here requires the direct assistance of the Guardian of Balance."
"I am glad you find me suitable for your purposes, but I'm afraid I must refuse your generous offer." Kain sheathed the Soul Reaver solidly into his harness and began to turn away back down the hill. He'd walked no further than a few steps before he was seized by a feeling of nausea he hadn't experienced since he was human. He stopped dead in his tracks, bending over a little and trying to keep from passing out.
"All I ask is that you hear me out Kain," the Voice persisted and loosened its spell little by little, allowing the vampire to clear his head. "I will make it as brief and concise as I possibly can. Have you ever wondered why the Elder ordered the Ancient Vampires to banish the Hylden? It didn't make sense. Surely that would just mean fewer souls for him to consume with an entire race trapped in an alternate dimension. I can tell you why he did it, and it had very little to do with religion. You don't have to believe in the Elder to have him devour you.
The Hylden were making great progresses with their sciences, and it wasn't long before they discovered the presence of the Elder God beneath Nosgoth's deceptively tranquil surface. They didn't realize what he truly was of course, but they feared him, feared what they guessed he was doing. And as all three of us know, your sword included, their guesses were correct. Before they even had an inkling of the gravity of the situation, they were experimenting with ways to kill him. It was then that the Elder God recognized the Hylden at last as a threat to his existence. He ordered his loyal followers, the deluded Ancient Vampires to exterminate them. You are already familiar with the results of that particular action. The Hylden were banished, the Vampires cursed, and the Pillars were raised. What you do not know is that in the last few hours before their banishment, the Hylden scientists had perfected a method to kill the false Elder, and the dimensional rift they were cast into was a last ditch effort to prevent them from using it. Buried deep within a glacier in the Northern Mountains, past the hollow remains of Dark Eden, you will find a buried Hylden stronghold, with the secret to destroying the Elder God encapsulated within."
"And you want me to seek out the secret for you?" Kain asked cynically. He began to feel sympathy for Raziel, always caught up in someone else's manipulations and being ordered about like a piece on a chess board.
"No, I do not. I already told you," If the Orb could have let out an exasperated sigh it would have. "You would be a Vampire trying to break into one of the original Hylden fortifications encased in ice. That would be suicide even under the best of circumstances. Even were that not the case, you would be ill-equipped to manipulate the technology. Fortunately, I know of a place where there are people with experience in similar technology and even how to defeat creatures like the Elder. I simply wish you to retrieve these people for me."
"And what if I refuse?" Kain crossed his arms stubbornly across his chest.
"I am not forcing you to do anything for me Kain. It is your choice. If you do not wish to assist me, then all I ask is that as Balance Guardian you use your influence over the Pillars to open the dimensional gate I require. You needn't step through it. I will simply try and find another way to obtain the aid I require."
"Why do you need a dimensional gate?" Kain asked, reluctantly interested. Even if the Voice was treacherous, it was certainly a compelling orator.
"The being I require is not from this dimension. The dimension I speak of is free from the influence of the Elder God and creatures like him. The inhabitants learned not long ago how to defend themselves and have proven to be extremely efficient at it. I warn you Kain; it is not a place you would feel comfortable, nor would you be entirely welcome. What I propose is a quick trip, there and back, and then returning the being back were it belongs when this whole affair is over. It is that simple."
"That is all you require from me?" he couldn't help but be sceptical.
"Yes."
"Who is this being I am to retrieve?"
"Why Kain," the Voice laughed, "You are to retrieve yourself."
Kain blinked in surprise. "I don't understand. I am here. Is this another case of time manipulation?" He was extremely uneasy about this now.
"No," the Voice corrected him, "Not you as you are now. He is an alternate you, born to a different place, a different universe, but a parallel one. He is your doppelganger. You will notice many similarities between you, but many differences as well. We cannot keep him away from his home for very long; like you he is a Balance Guardian after all. That would be too dangerous for his world, but he has no love for beings like the Elder, and if you ask him correctly he will quite willingly assist you, vampire or not."
"What do you mean 'vampire or not'?" Kain asked. He had not anticipated this turn of events. "He is human then?"
"Yes," the Voice replied simply.
"And he will know how to defeat the God and his Wheel of Fate?" Kain was obviously unconvinced.
"Yes."
"You truly expect me to agree to do this?"
"Well I hope you will," the Voice said, "You may not understand completely now, but once you get there you will."
Kain chuckled darkly. "And how do I know you aren't lying? This could just be a plot of the false God to get me out of the way, seal me away like you claim he did to the Hylden."
"I'm made purely of spirit, Kain," it seemed to feel the answer was evident. "I am incapable of lying. I am emotion made visible. You would be able to tell. And even were that not the case, you have no idea what to do. Isn't it worth the risk if there's even a small chance I'm telling the truth?"
Kain said nothing, considering the matter thoughtfully. The spell the Voice had cast on him was a powerful one; the strange being could have easily killed him. This seemed a little elaborate for a plot when other methods would have been so much simpler. There were less convoluted ways to assassinate someone. The warm pulses sent out by Raziel inside the Reaver strapped to his back encouraged him to listen to what the Voice had said. If Raziel agreed, then it was decided.
"Very well then," he said at long last. "I accept your offer. How do we begin?"
(Please Review. I'll continue more quickly if I get some support. I hope I did Kain's character justice, though my sister says it sounds a lot like him.)