A/N: Alright

A/N: Alright! First full-length fiction! Anyways, this one was written with the fantastic help of Fieothan! Fieo gave me all sorts of help. Editing, Making sure I stayed in character, keeping the plot straight… You rock Fieo! Thanks!

This takes place in the years after Defiance. Contains SPOILERS for the game, just a warning.

Disclaimer: Amy Henning, you are god. I own not what you do! –Bows-

On with the fiction!

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The dirt path ahead of him was bathed in moonlight as it wound into a sharp corner. Already he could hear the calls and mock war cries of the young ones that awaited his arrival. The trip had been a short one, but it had not been without its perils. The humans had not taken the rise of the new pillars as well as he had hoped. Some groups of fanatics looked as though they were on the brink of erupting.

Kain rounded the corner into the clearing that held the Pillars of Nosgoth, which were again white and holy, as they had been intended. He could see the little moving shadows, each somewhere close to the pillars that had chosen them at birth. He moved his yellow eyes over each of the new guardians, finding only one to be missing.

"Kain!" A voice from above him rang out loudly.

Kain looked up just in time to step out of the way of a young boy whom had been waiting for him in the last tree on the path. The boy landed and stood up, looking rather small compared to Kain. The boy looked only around the age of fifteen, and bore the symbol of the Time Pillar on the sash he wore on his belt. His skin was pale, as though he never spent any time in the sun.

"Must you, Pelin?" Kain crossed his arms.

"Sorry... It's hard not to when I know your coming..." The boy admitted.

Kain stared at the black-haired boy for a moment before he answered.

"Just because you know when I will be here dose not mean 'wait in a tree and try to scare me' "

Pelin looked at the ground for a moment, then looked back and flashed a toothy grin at Kain. His fangs had gotten much longer in the last few weeks. It had only been a month since he was turned, but his fangs seemed to suggest that it had been much longer.

Kain rolled his eyes at the boy and carried on toward the circle of Pillars, followed closely by Pelin. As they neared the rest of the young ones, a few of them looked up. A young girl, dressed in black and red and leaning on the Pillar of Death watched Kain's every movement, paying little mind to the shadow he seemed to have acquired.

Kain seemed to notice the redhead quickly and called the young girl on it.

"Something you wish to say, Sly?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Ohh, nothing..." She said as she looked away "Only wondering about food."

She only seemed at be around fourteen, but her face said that she was wise beyond her years.

"I have brought some with me, though not all I would have liked. Enough to keep you until Vorador arrives." Kain pulled some oddly coloured vials from the pouch he had been carrying on his belt and gave one to each of the young guardian's who had been turned.

"How are the food stocks, Keena?" He turned to face another girl, standing in the center of the stage that the Pillars appeared to rest on with a brown haired boy.

She looked up at him, brushing a piece of dirt from the green sash, baring the Nature symbol she wore on her right shoulder onto the boy.

"Fine really... We have enough to last us another week or two." She informed Kain well the boy next to her glared. He bore the symbol of Dimension on his shirt.

"Sorry Renik." Keena giggled before turning back to Kain.

"Good then." Kain made his way toward the Balance Pillar in the center of the row. The thrown he had built in it still remained, but on a lesser level. He pulled the Soul Reaver from his back and settled into the large chair, leaning the sword as he always did.

The young ones where soon back to what they had been doing before Kain arrived. He watched them play, run, and shout. They were as they were intended to be, young and pure. He hoped to maintain the pure statues, and thus keep the Pillars from being damned.

He looked around one more time, ensuring that everyone was in his or her place. When he found that all were in said place, he nodded to himself and relaxed. The trip had been a success and all was well. Now if only he knew what was keeping Vorador.

"Don't bother worrying over him," a voice rose from the sword, as its blue glow grew slightly more intense, "I would feel more sorry for who or what ever is holding him up at the moment, assuming anything is at all."

Kain glanced at the sword. "Yes, I'm guessing you'd be right Raziel. He is rather relentless in his attacks, providing he isn't just taking his time." Kain took a moment to think back on the trip that had just been taken.

"The Humans seem to be more and more frustrated since we've made our comeback." He said while seeming unnerved, " I wonder what they plan to do."

"I really can't tell you much. It's hard to observe anything when you are trapped inside a sword." Raziel's voice was starting to fade out as it normally did when he grew bored with conversation, " Self-suicide, to damn ones self in to this tiny prison. I've grown quite fond of it though." The swords glow faded out a bit and Raziel's voice vanished. He never did seem to like chatting for a long period of time, but he popped back in randomly at his own pace, which was often enough.

Kain remembered clearly what had happened when Raziel has sacrificed himself for the good of Nosgoth. He had been imprisoned in the sword, but granted Kain the sight required to destroy the Elder God. He watched the glow of the sword fade slightly, still thinking on the subject when a small voice shook him from his memories.
"Scion?"
Kain had been so preoccupied with talking to Raziel that he had become oblivious enough about his own surroundings for one of the young boys to sneak his way up to the arm of his chair. The boy was the youngest out of all of the children, he was eleven and still human. He was too young to understand what was really happening, and so he could not choose for himself weather or not he was ready for a huge change in himself yet, the vampire transformation.
The young boy just stared up at Kain from the arm of the chair with his emerald green eyes beaming, waiting for a response. As soon as Kain's mind registered what had been said to him, he gave a simple reply.

"Yes, what is it Teek?"

"I was just wondering if everything was alright," Teek said timidly, "You look like you're upset..."
The little boy was chosen by the States Pillar as its Guardian. He was always timid and rarely ever spoke loud enough to be heard. He was always watching though, and he noticed immediately when someone was not their normal self.

A slightly irritated sigh left Kain's lips, though it was not directed at Teek. He nodded at the boy.
"Yes Teek, I am fine. I was revisiting a memory." He looked skyward for a moment, reflecting again, but quickly stopped and looked back to the boy. He decided that distracting himself would be the best thing at the moment.

"And you? How are you feeling?" Once in a wile He felt the need to strike up a conversation.

"I'm fine, Sir." Teek answered with his hands held behind his back. "Things seem to be normal around here, but I guess you saw that already, knowing Pelin."
Teek glanced over to see what Pelin was up to. The other boy seemed to be trying to play leapfrog with a bug of some kind. Teek just giggled at him and the smile that was normally on the boys face returned.

Kain nodded slightly. He looked up to see Pelin as well, who quickly stopped playing with the bug and grinned, sliding back toward his pillar. Kain tried not to grin, but let it slid for the time being. These children were often just too funny.

Sly had moved away from her pillar and was speaking with Keena about something. The Nature Guardian seemed to be doing a lot of agreeing with the Death Guardian. Kain wondered what they could be talking about, but shrugged it off.

He glanced at the forest, then back around the circle. The issue involving the human's reactions to the new Pillars was still in the center of his mind. He worried silently that a new section of Seraphim could be started. If the humans wanted them gone to badly, it could be his old history all over again. He and Vorador had to make sure that did not happen.

A yell shook him from his thoughts.

"Pelin! Get off me!" Renik's voice could be heard from under Pelin, who had fallen off the Time Pillar and onto Renik.

Kain shook his head. 'That one always gets the bad end of things...'

"He should be glad it was not Zack!" the brown haired boy beside his chair grinned, "Zack is heavy!"
"Zack is what now?"
Hearing his name had summoned the Mind Guardian. He was transformed when he turned fifteen and so his appearance had not changed much since then. His jet-black hair, yellow cat like eyes, and fangs gave away the fact that he was a vampire. He looked heavily built for a fifteen year old, and he housed a lot of power but Zack had always been good for an intelligent conversation and not a fight.
"Should not talk about people behind their backs, Teek." Zack said with a smirk
"I wasn't!" Teek's arms were waving wildly, "Or I didn't meant to, or, I'm sorry!"
"It's fine Teek," Zack patted the boy on the head, "I was only joking."

Kain looked over at the young Mind Guardian and nodded slightly, as if to greet him. By now, Pelin and Renik were too busy play-fighting to even bother thinking about the rest of the world. Kain watched them from the corner of his eye, making sure Pelin didn't go over board. This was easy to do as Renik was still human, and Pelin was not. A quick glance at the sky reminded Kain of something.

"It's two hours until day break..." He turned his attention back to Zack. "You know what that means."

"Yeah," Zack responded, " I do."
The boy looked up at the sky and glared at the direction that the sun would be rising from soon. He sighed while trying to not look too disappointed and turned to the rest of the Guardians.
"Would you like me to get them together then?" Zack asked while placing a hand on Teek's shoulder.
Teek looked up at the sky quickly and then back at Kain, and then to Zack. Sunrise meant that the other four who were vampires would have to go and hide again. Most times that meant the humans had to go to sleep. Bed Time, how Teek hated that word.
"Do we have to?" the smaller boy whined, "I don't feel tired."

Kain sighed slightly.

"Yes Teek, you have too, and that would be a wise choice, Zack." He said as he yawned slightly, " It will start to get light out very soon."
Fledgling vampires could not stand in the sun for long, and thus the small ones needed to be shielded from the light. Kain had them sleep during the day, and stay awake during the night. Kain himself did not keep a specific schedule. He needed much less sleep then the children did. The children would likely be disappointed that it was time for bed, but it would pass come nightfall tomorrow.

"Alright then," Zack said almost sounding disappointed himself, "I'll go start the others."
The boy jogged off leaving Teek behind with his pouting face, a face that looked more unimpressed then it looked like a pout.
Zack ran to two of the girls who had been talking quietly back and forward and got their attention. Leena and Ariea were the Energy and Conflict Guardians. Leena had hazel brown hair but was transformed. Ariea was not, but her hair was jet black. Ariea's eyes were still a human colour though, a hazel brown, matching Leena's hair. The two were often chatting with one another and were always seen around each other. If you saw one, the other was often not very far behind.
Zack seemed to get his point across as Ariea and Leena both looked to Kain and nodded to Zack. The boy ran off to Pelin while Ariea and Leena walked their way over to Kain. The rest of the small Guardians soon followed with Zack bringing up the rear.

"Good," Kain said, "Now that you're all here. It's time for bed. The sun will be up soon." He glanced at the small fortress to there left that slightly resembled a windowless mausoleum. He looked back to the children, most of which were still staring at him. "Well? Go on. Get to bed." An unimpressed look crossed his face.
Pelin moved toward the stone home, followed closely by Renik, Keena, and Sly looked to one another before shrugging and heading in. Kain started to walk himself. He figured he would get his own day's sleep, to keep him going later on.

Zack started to heard Teek towards the building, but Teek did not want to go and was making it just a little hard for Zack. Leena and Ariea did not seem to have a problem with going to sleep though. The two just kept on chatting, smiling, and laughing. Those two were always happy as long as they could talk to someone, and it never specifically had to be each other either.
"Heading off so soon?" A recognizable voice called to Kain from over his shoulder.

Kain turned around, knowing the voice instantly.

"The same time as every night," he crossed his arms, "Why, has something changed, Vorador?"

"That depends. Do you count a rally and a riot as a reason to keep you going?" His tone was as sarcastic as ever, "Or perhaps the few humans that I caught sneaking around this very place, and far to close to the tree line for Pelin's safety, to be a reason."
He did not seem impressed, less so then he normally was in fact. When things like this happened he tended to look more hostile then just irritated.
"I'm actually amazed you did not catch them yourself," He almost growled, "There were close enough to your own location."
"Safety First," the sword's glow was back again as Raziel's voice emerged from it once again, "But you also have to remember that we don't have the same kind of hearing that you do, Vorador."
"I find that no excuse."

Kain had not really been expecting to hear from Raziel again, but he did not question it. "They were not on or close to the path. I would have seen or heard them. " He looked toward the trees.

"What direction?" He questioned flatly.
'How in the hell did they get this close?' He thought to himself.

"Right there," Vorador pointed out towards the east section of the forest, "The closest village to this place. A bit too obvious for you though, wasn't it?"
"I hate to say I told you so," Raziel's voice came again, "Well, actually I don't, but I have told you to watch that area before."
"It's a good thing someone did." Vorador said with his voice still dripping in disappointment.
Although the children could not hear Raziel, and neither could most anything else in Nosgoth, Vorador and Kain could. The children generally dismissed it and thought them both crazy for the first little while until they noticed the swords unnatural glow when Kain claimed it was talking. Raziel only made himself present when he felt like imputing something on a conversation, or when he got bored of listening to every one else chatter, so he generally put his two cents in.

Kain rolled his eyes, making a face that could be perceived as saying 'That was far to obvious'. He kept his eyes on the tree line. Vorador was right, that was far to close for the children's safety. He knew that having the humans this close could only spell danger, but they were not about t leave the Pillars.
"Yes, obviously I should have listened to you." Kain's voice fell two notes, sounding singularly unimpressed. "Humans that close can only spell an attack, or something close to it. We'll have to cut them short." This statement was followed by a low mumble about history and the stupidity of humans, far to low for the children to hear.

"I think you are a bit late. I'm one step ahead of you on getting rid of them," he said almost smugly, "The trespassers are dead, or as good as it if not completely dead yet.
The presence resonating from the sword changed slightly. The glow dropped and the feel of the presence turned to something that gave the impression that Raziel was not amused by this new development.
"You do realize," the sword stated, "That killing them off, if their friends ever find them, will lead to another all out war. Right?"
"I assure you, they will not find their fallen friends," Vorador stated with a grin, "I took care of that as well."
Raziel's annoyed presence grew stronger. He was clearly not liking where this conversation was headed.
"Something tells me that I do not want to know."
"No, you don't."

"Nor do I." Kain grimaced slightly. "I suppose we'll have to keep a close eye on that area, and the surroundings from now on. Guard the children more closely as well. I do not like where this human problem is heading, we're going to have to find something t do about it."
He looked up at the children. Most all of them had stopped and were looking at Kain and Vorador. Kain raised an eyebrow at them.

"Well, why are you not inside?"
Pelin and Renik turned to one another, taking off for the stone-hold. Zack pretended that he was never listening and kept his head low as he continued to escort Teek with him as Leena and Ariea tailed behind him. Keena and Sly followed, but at a more lax pass. They had caught some of the conversation, and the girls were sure life was about t get a bit more complicated.