Featured Author OCS:

AWESOME AUSSIE GURL-Isabelle Smith and Roderick "Rocky" Aarons
Realms of Destiny- Dez Xerxes and Cyrus Afsaneh
Hikari-Angel143- Carmina Sanchez and Bryan Train
Lucas Bane- Lucas Fedrick and Clare "Red Death" Clyde
The UndyingCrystal- Viktor Vadin
Flame Dragon Suda- Joshua "Juuda"
Noxis- Colin Cortez
Pikpixie03- Rally Nightshade and Jasmine Kairos
Zalger248- Shuyan Chao and Tony Lambda
Kiako Ornitier- Kiako Ornitier

ACT TWO

Chapter 28: Dez versus Bane

~Opening Theme: "See who I am" Within Temptation~

Night had fallen on Bikanel Desert as the remnants of Gammon's machina burned on the horizon giving the deep moonlit horizon a fiery gloss. It was appropriate for the timing.

Lucas I loved you like a brother but I cannot forgive you for this, I can't forgive you for taking the life of our friend and sister. Rally Nightshade, this battle is for you. I pray in the next life that you can find it in yourself to forgive me for the things I've said to you.

Power seemed to explode from every pour of Bane's body. He gave off a black aura that covered his form in the shape of a demon with long curved horns and spreading bat wings with crimson red electricity exploding from the lining of the battle aura.

The skies above obeyed his will, clouds gathered, storms brewed but I didn't care. All I wanted was for his heart to stop beating.

I relaxed my entire body gripping Kel's beam katana in my right hand. My mind was cleared my body though it felt limp and powerless, welled with reaction speed and spunk. My muscles itched for the clash of steel and blood.

"Cosmos made you one of Kel's chosen because the both of you shared a connection." I started.

"That fool had a connection with my other half...he had no connection to me." Bane grinned showing his devilish teeth that reminded me of the jagged edged teeth of a shark.

"I kind of feel sorry for you Bane. Born out of Lucas' hatred and darker emotions you know nothing of friendship or even what it means to genuinely care for someone or something." I said and I meant every word of it. "Your existence is a sad one."

"Are you sure that's what you want your last sentence to be?" With that said Bane's battle axe morphed into a grotesque glowing red claymore which he gripped with two hands.

I stepped down and twisted myself, in song my sundress spun upward. My spin gave me a momentum boost that allowed me to suddenly appear in front of Bane. My sudden speed also surprised him but not enough for him to forget himself and position. He swung his claymore down and met my beam katana with a clash.

I felt the pain rush through my palms and penetrate to my elbows, pressing down on me. I quickly leaped backwards and he dashed at me swinging the claymore at high speed from right to left. I held up my the beam katana vertically blocking all of his frantic right to left slashes.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

"You feel sorry for me? Big talk you're still an amateur!" He said holding up his right palm creating that dark orb again. "Blasphemy Incarnus!"

I held up my right palm gathering pure light matter above my palm as well, the light formed into a rotating cube cerulean cube with a golden orb within it. "Omni Shock"

Both of our orb strikes collided creating a mixture of dark and light explosions. As the dust cleared and the fiery heat disappeared I found myself using the beam katana to cut through smoke screens and dust. The Beam Katana is surprisingly powerful and very light, it's much lighter than my wonder shears and definitely easy to swing and maneuver. I wonder if Kel can make me one of these things.

"Peek a boo!"

Suddenly I felt a dark presence above me, it was Bane he rained down beams of crimson energy that towered around me. "Oh!" I phased out and appeared flying backwards, my back heel tripped over a tall dune hill and I went sliding and falling backwards. Bane slammed down onto my chest pressing the wind out of me and using my body as a wave board as we both slid down the side of the dune hill.

I slashed at him swinging my sword over head but he flipped backwards in mid air then came back down swinging his claymore down to slice me in half.

Using my light energy I held my left palm towards the sand and shot an orb of energy from it causing me to boost up and flip backwards dodging Bane's slash. It was now my time to go on the offensive, I shot myself into him like a bolt of lightning and slashed downward. WHAM! Our blades collided once.

With that I let go of the beam katana, I knew I couldn't match him in sheer power so I let the sword go which caused him to helplessly freefall forward. With that I created another cube of energy in my right palm. "Omni Shock!" I collided my orb into his chest causing a light explosion.

He went flying backwards and I threw myself above him once again holding up both of my hands this time and creating two more orbs of light energy. Just as I was about to slam them into him I felt a sharp gripping pain in my stomach. I looked down to see that I was stabbed, Bane's sword pierced my body and blood was welling up from the back of my throat.

"No..." I felt myself slipping from conscience but I couldn't stop. I clenched my teeth and forced my soul back into my dying body making the light orbs appear over my palm again.

"What?"

I clinched the orbs and both of them created spears of pure light energy which I used to stab Bane through his chest, on through the heart and another through the dead center of his chest. Bane's sword was still in my stomach and my vision blurred but I know just two stabs with some spears wouldn't end it with him.

Bane stood up with the spears of light through his body, every time he tried to grab the spears they would push his hands away.

Both of us were on equal grounds with that our conscientiousness both fading.

"I can't die here...I can't lose to a weakling like you..." Bane coughed biting back his own blood.

"You're going to have to...die here..." I said dropping down to one knee. My body was giving out on me, my strength was being sapped faster than I thought and my vision was almost gone. It was spotted with red. "I can't...lose...for Rally."

Bane's body began to glow with darkness I could see him through my weakening eyes, he was powering up for another blast. " I will not fade...ever...ever again! I will never fade! I AM LUCAS BANE!" He exploded releasing a massive crimson beam from his body. "Bane's Ballad!"

I focused all of my being into just my right hand.

A bright white light exploded from my palm like a white flame. "White Right Spear."

I flattened my palm making it into a sort of spread as I focused my fingers forward as the crimson beam came like a train with headlights. The beam struck my palm and split into five different rays around me as I launched myself forward cutting through the beam. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed as I got closer, closer, closer... until I cut through the beam entirely and smashed my palm through Bane's chest.

Blood splattered behind him and onto my face.

I didn't stay up long enough for me to see him expire, I didn't even know if he did expire...after I cut through him. My eyes rolled to the back of my head and I...blacked out...

Am I dead?

Is it all over?

Was it all just one really horrible dream?

"Huh!" I opened my eyes suddenly feeling a jolt from my heart. I was lying down on a soft white bed, tucked in safely with bandages wrapped around my stomach. My body was seemingly paralyzed. I couldn't lift a finger. "Oh...my head." I closed my eyes. Before I could relax my eyes popped open again. I looked around the room I was in, there was a huge window behind me and I could see only a little of it. The ceiling looked metal and there was a banister just in front of my bed.

I was on deck of the Gullwings ship, the Celsius. I remembered this room, they had beds here above the bar.

"R-Rally..." I said silently closing my eyes.

"What?" I heard a familiar voice, it was her voice. But I convinced myself it was just a ghost and closed my eyes to pray it safe passage. "WHAT?! YOU CALLED MY NAME IDIOT! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"

My eyes popped and I looked to my right. Directly one bed across from me, Rally was lying down in bed glaring at me. "Rally...you...how...I...waaaaaaaaaaaa!" I cried immediately upon seeing her.

"Heh heh...I'm always fine...I told you that." She smiled.

"Raaaaally..." I cried. "I would get up and squeeze you right now but..."

"Yeah this paralysis is a bitch." Another familiar voice sang in my ear.

I looked to my left in surprise to see Lucas lying down in bed, he had a lot of bandages over his body as well. "BANE!" I narrowed my eyes.

"No! No! No! It's me...Lucas...not the Bane guy. Ahahaha...you killed Bane. Now I'm the only one that's left possessing this body...he's someone I won't miss. Thank you for...literally exorcising my demons, Dez." He said to me.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaa!" I cried again while looking at Lucas. Then I cried again looking at Rally. "(sniff) (sniff)...S-So...H-How are you guys...?"

"Cosmos." They both said at the same time.

"And what about everyone else?"

"Well everyone else is having a victory party in the bridge right now. I had to knock Brother unconscious so he wouldn't come here and try to molest you in your sleep." The sound of hollow footsteps bouncing off the walls filled my ears as Kel appeared walking up before my bed. "Gammon and the rest of the Xelo Collective is finished. We got the Blitz Sphere back and alls well that ends well I guess."

"You defeated that huge machina?" I said.

"Hey, I'm freakin' Kel." He shrugged as if that were a plausible explanation.

We all shared a quick laugh together but this ending, something was wrong with it. It seemed...a little too convenient. A little too sweet. Just as I thought this, suddenly Lucas and Rally stopped laughing. I looked on my sides seeing that they were now sleeping? Just like that? "What's going on?" I looked at Kel who simply stared at me with his arms crossed. "What?"

"It's about time we talked Dez." Kel said.

"Talked? About...what?"

"About your role in the Conflict." Kel replied.

I raised an eyebrow. "I...I said I don't know...we've already talked about this. I just showed up here and..."

"No I already know what your role in the Conflict is." He replied and with that my eyebrows jumped again.

"You...how?" I asked.

He looked down at his shoes. "Cosmos...she's really worried about something. And she just told me all of a sudden. Something that's suppose to happen in the future or something like that."

So she didn't tell Kel what she told me. That he might...no he WILL one day turn from her to fight for himself. Still something I can't see happening, Kel is too much of a Hero Ham time to leave Cosmos.

"What is my purpose in the Conflict?" I asked anxiously.

Kel hesitated a bit. He looked down at his feet. "You're...The Gate."

"Th-The gate? What is that?" I asked.

"The catalyst that connects all four dimensions, The Real Dimension, The Fantasy Dimensions, The Demon Dimension and the Dimension of the God Dragon that oversees all." Kel said crossing his arms. "The reason you disappeared just before the Conflict would end was because you created the portal for which Shinryuu was to appear back on Gaia after I killed Lecter."

"I...still don't..."

"You're a human portal, you're the gate that Shinryuu uses to connect himself to the Conflict." Kel explained.

"I-I'm a portal? But...But what does this mean? What does this...am I...am I even still me?" I looked up at him.

He simply stared at me, silent...without an answer. "Say something Kel...tell me that...tell me I'm really me!" I cried as tears streamed down my cheeks.

"I...I...don't know..." He crossed his arms and looked down at his feet again.

Once the Celsius had returned to our house in the Mi Hen high road, I had recovered enough to move on my own. Everyone tried to go back to life like nothing happened. Back to cooking and smiling like everything never happened at all, the only one who couldn't go back to how things were was me. Who am I now? Am I really Dez Xerxes?

Did Shinryuu create me using Kel and Lecter's memory or am I just some clone of Dez Xerxes?! Does Dez Xerxes even really exist?

That night I gathered my belongings and I left while everyone was still sleeping. I needed to be alone, I didn't want to stay with them anymore. I didn't want to continue living a lie, I needed to find some kind of way to speak with Shinryuu myself.

As I was passing Rin's Inn, I spotted two shadowy figures standing in waiting for me. As I got closer I noticed the figures...were Izzy and Cammy. They both stood there with packed bags with Carmina's Chocobo Chick, Chocolate Parfait.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked keeping a straight face.

Cammy and Izzy both smiled. "Where are you going?"

"Aha...I'm...going to find myself." I shrugged.

"Hm...after the battle against the Xelo Collective, we both decided we still have a long way to go...so...mind if we tag along. We can get some serious training done on the road." Cammy said with a smile.

They were both so innocent, I couldn't tell them no. Besides, looking for myself sounds like a really lonely trip. "Alright then...but before we set out...there's something about me that you both should know."

End of ACT TWO

Author's Note: This is the ending of ACT TWO, so now we find out that Dez is more than just a Guardian of the Conflict. Lucas has been stripped of his other half, Lucas Bane. And this is how Izzy, Dez and Cammy ended up traveling together from the beginning like how Kel mentioned. Next update we go back to the present!

Review Reply to Lucas: "You're leaving on July 24th? Well that's fine. I can promise you this story will be over before June is up. In July I'll start the Trilogy NMSI3."