Long Journey back

Soul Calibur II based – couldn´t play the third one...only got an X-Box...and not (waaaaaay not) enough money to buy another console...dammit!

Disclaimer: Not mine. Obviously, otherwise you´d have noticed some major differences concerning some people...

Raphael woke up. His eyes snapped open as he recalled what just happened. The Azure Knight...Soul Edge. What was going on? The last thing he knew was that Nightmare had beaten him, then everything went black. He was still in that chapel Ostrheinsburg. The green forest, the white walls, the giant organ, even the massive hole in the floor... Sunlight came down through shattered windows. It looked quite peaceful. Odd. Totally odd.

Wait! Back to thought 1: Azure Knight! What did happen to him? Normally Raphael expected to be dead right now. There was no chance he could have survived this, but he was still alive. Something must have happened while he was knocked out. Raphael looked around. There! A figure huddled in the corner! Quickly Raphael grabbed his rapier which lay next to him. Who was this? Carefully Raphael took a few steps closer. What was he doing? Could this be a vicious trick by Nightmare – but why should the Azure Knight trick him? He was already defeated, that would make no sense. But no Nightmare here made no sense either, so...Raphael didn´t know what to think of all that. He was happy to have survived, but the strange feeling did not leave him. He decided to examine the situation first. Meaning looking who this was.

The figure – it was a man – looked like he was sleeping. No muscle moved, Raphael had a hard time detecting that the man was still breathing. One of Nightmare´s victims? Perhaps..but it made no sense, like everything here did. Raphael crept closer until he stood directly in front of the figure. The stranger didn´t seem to acknowledge his presence here, but his eyes were wide open. He was just looking into nowhere.He looked deepy frightened. Raphael waved his hand quickly before the stranger´s face. Then the man looked up at him. It was Nightmare?...Had been Nightmare?Raphael was stunned. If this was Nightmare, all the stories the French heard about him were truly false. He heard of a cruel and merciless robber, who murdered everyone he saw, who sold his soul to the Devil himself, who should be a tall man with muscles over muscles, looking like one of the ancient gods. Raphael had expected nearly everything beneath that helmet. But not a teenager. He had a mane of long blond hair, blue eyes and a scar in his face. He looked at Raphael as if the French noblemen was the first human he ever saw. No trace of the pure evil being he was once was could be seen. He looked pitiful. The young man tried to make himself even more smaller, pulled his knees up to his chest and simply looked terrified at Raphael. Raphael spoke: "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The stranger opened his mouth hesitantly, but decided otherwise quickly and closed it with no sound emitting. He buried his head on his folded arms and pretended he was all alone here.

Raphael hated to be ignored, but the young man looked like he saw in the deepest pits of hell. "He was clearly afraid of me", thought Raphael. "I wonder what has happened here. And to where the Azure Knight went with Soul Edge." It seemed to him, that only the stranger could help him, so Raphael went on questioning. "Who are you? Can you tell me what happened here? Can you help me?" Raphael spoke with a soft voice, the least he could use was an even more scared man here. "Go away." was his only answer." I don´t think I will, unless you answer my questions." The man raised his head and looked directly into Raphael´s eyes. "I´m a demon of hell and lingering here will kill you. Leave, before it´s too late. If the sword is what you seek, it is no longer, so don´t bother and go home." "So you do know about Soul Edge...what do you mean?" But the young man ignored him and Raphael was close to lose his temper. He got here to find Soul Edge, to create a better world for his Amy and all what was left was a teen who refused to answer him."Look," he said barely covering his anger, "could you tell me at least where Nightmare is? I´m going to track him down and take the sword form him if I must."

That seemed to have an effect on the teen, although not a pleasent one.
"Don´t mention his name, don´t mention him, don´t call the Devil by his name or he will come...don´t speak of him..."

The teen raised his hands and pressed them against his ears, he shut his eyes, tried to shut the world out while he was still talking, "Be still! Don´t say it... leave!"
His voice went higher, he began to shake and curled himself in a ball. "Leave, just leave..." he begged.

"Not unless you tell me what has happened!", Raphael demanded.

He grabbed the teen´s arm „Tell me!" this had startled the teen. "You...," he began, "you fought with him, he defeated you. then there was fire and shadows everywhere and a ..thing that was aflame came. They fought, Nightmare won easily, the thing exploded, there was more fire and a sword fell ..out of him. Nightmare grabbed it, laughed ... then you moved, managed to stab him into his side, he wanted to kill you, then he lost control, the sword was stabbed...there was light everywhere, then everything went black, and then I was here and you woke up. That´s all."

Raphael knelt until his face was on the same level as the teen´s. "And who are you?" he asked. "Siegfried."

That was the only word the teen said to him, then he fell silent again and shut the world out. So this was the man behind the mask of the Azure Knight. Raphael had heard stories that the sword drove you mad, posessed you, but he never belived. If he did, he certainly hadn´t been so dumb and searched for this thing. But it seemed that there was a true core to those stories. Raphael looked at the teen. Soemthing overcome him..Concern. He couldn´t just leave the teen here. This place was notorious for Soul Edge, people would come here to search it and find Siegfried if he stayed here. And he couldn´t just leave him behind, that was not right. Innerly, Raphael cursed his soft spot for children. First Amy and then this teen. He stood up and offered his hand to Siegfried. "Coming?" he asked. Siegfried watched the hand in amazement. Obviously he wasn´t used to friendly people. "Why?" he asked. „Because, " Raphael started, "I´m an adult and you´re barely more than a kid. Don´t say otherwise, I mean how old are you...18 at top of guessing scale? Besides I traveled through whole Europe and my daughter would kill me if I came home without at least something. And I can´t just leave you here at this place, it could ...crumble anytime and you would be buried and then I would be responsible for that, and, too bad , I got a concious and no one can say that I leave poor children at an evil castle here. So, come on already!"

Shyly Siegfried raised his own hand. Raphael grabbed it and pulled Siegfried to his feet.Once again, he was surprised. One wouldn´t notice it, but Siefried was ...not so big as you would think he would be. Nightmare was impressive, looked frightful and you simply had to fear him. But..Raphael thought...if Siegfried was inside that armour all the time, that means...Nightmare wasn´t taller than 1, 70m!!?? Boy, that guy sure had a talent for appearing bigger than he was. Way bigger. Raphael noticed another thing. Siegfried wasn´t wearing anything but a pair of trousers. He must have discarded the armor, Raphael thought. He could understand that, but it was pretty chilly up here. A thought crept in his mind. Not only he was taking a teen with him, that looked like he had experienced the worst thing that could happen to one, he even wore pretty much nothing. Really great, he was giving the village people even more to talk about. They looked at him, because of his noble fashion, his accent, his sword, his expensive horse, his attitude, he came to find a weapon and would come back with a nearly naked boy instead. Reeeeally great! But it couldn´t be helped, he had already decided. "Come, we´re going to find something to eat and something to dress for you." he said. Siegfried looked at him unbelievingly.

Comment: At least tell me it was crap . Review!!