Note : Most persons
places and things in this fanfic are probably owned by
"So you want to know where the crystals are, you think
that will solve all of the world's problems. Just deactivate the crystals and everything becomes peachy." Tal took a pause from his tirade. "Moron, the crystals will only remove the
fog from the peoples minds, and right now I'm wondering if that fog still in
your minds."
"Tal, I don't care what you have to say about our plans
all that I want you to do is to tell us where they are." Dekan pleaded.
Tal took a good long look at each member of Kain's
party. Looking from eye to eye his
resentfulness began to dissipate. "All
right fine. I remember thinking like
all of you are when I was younger. Wanting to save the world from the 'evil' guardian." Tal took in a breath looked in upon
himself. "It can't be done though."
"Anything is possible." Naxos said. "You just have to
find out how. And we think the way is
through the crystals."
"The crystal of Fire is on the top of Mt. Ordeals." Kain looked at Tal with questioning. "You see they have built some kind of a
reactor on top of the mountain. Found a whole awful lot of energy there a long
time ago. Had to take down some kind of
a shrine of mirrors to build it. But,
it's their now." With that Kain could
fell the rage within him growing and growing.
"That was the place of Cecil's rebirth as a
paladin." Said Kain quietly, the words
coming out of his teeth.
"Relax, Kain. We'll deal with that later. Right now I want to know where the crystal of Shadows is." Dawne said.
"The crystal of Shadows is in the very center of
civilization as we know it."
"Baron?" Phantine
said questioningly. Tal slowly nodded
his head, now his betrayal of the Guardian was complete and he knew it.
"Dekan, Phantine" Kain nearly barked out. "Go find Bladea and tell her we need to get
to Eblan, they do have an areo facility there don't they?" Dekan nodded his head and without thought,
hesitation or doubt Dekan and Phantine did as Kain asked.
"What can you tell us about where the crystals are housed
Tal?" Dawne asked.
"The crystal of fire is down deep in the bottom of the
mountain, they use the fire generated from it purify the energy collected. The crystal of Shadows is in the Guardian's
Palace, I never actually saw that crystal. But, from what I understand it is somewhere up high, like a tower or
something."
"Thank you Tal. Your information will help to defeat the Guardian, I am sure of
that."
"Kain, do me one favor though." Kain nodded ready and willing to do whatever the old man asked of
him. "Don't let anyone know that I, or
anyone else here had anything to do with whatever it is that you're doing. If it was ever found out that this 'mighty
resistance movement' really just did nothing and hide. People would laugh at us, better just not to
mention us at all, whether you succeed or fail."
"If that is what you wish, than that is what I will do
for you Tal. Though, when we do
succeed, I will come and tell you all so that you can enjoy a free world just
like everyone else." With that Tal gave
Kain a smile and a silent thanks.
"Naxos, Dawne go get Phantine and Dekan tell that we are
leaving, and the sooner the better." Naxos and Dawne both nodded and exited Tal's office.
Kain looked at Tal and said. "If I didn't know any better, I would have said you were
Cid. Only, just about a foot
shorter." Kain nearly laughed as he
said this. But, Tal was filled by the
compliment and nodded his head in thanks once more.
* * *
Walking along the beach that would eventually led them to
Eblan, Kain looked at the people with whom he is traveling with and silently
said to himself. "They are different
from those who I traveled with before. But, occasionally, that can a good thing."
Dawne spun around. "Talking to yourself again?"
Her hearing surprised Kain. "Yes, though I wouldn't necessarily say again."
"I apologize all perfect one." Dawne said giggling at her own sarcasm. At that Kain shrugged his shoulders and looked down again at the
ground on which he was treading.
Dawne slowed down so that she could walk next to
him. "Did you really enjoy your old
companions so much that you spend almost every free moment you have thinking
about them?"
"Not just my companions Dawne. Everything and everyone that I was forced to leave behind. I
never even said goodbye to any of them, I just disappeared of the face of the
Earth. I regret that whole
heartily." Kain said, almost with emotion
on his breath.
"I'm sorry I didn't realize." Dawne said sympathetically. "Although I think something that might help you would be to talk about
it."
"I don't talk about things like that Dawne. I am a warrior, a True Dragoon. I am without emotion, without feeling,
without any real remorse."
"Well then I must say I'm sorry for you." She said pausing in thought then
saying. "Wait, I've seen emotion in
you. I have seen the pride in your eyes when you watch us battle. I saw the sadness when we entered that
wrecked control room in the tower. I
have even seen the fury of rage burning in you when you have battled the
undead."
"You are correct Dawne; about one thing, rage. All the others a wear as a mask, so that
people believe me human."
"Now you're just full of yourself, and I don't believe
you for one second. Living without
emotion, that's horrible. Not to
mention inhuman."
"I really don't care whether it is inhuman or not, I
never really liked humanity to much to begin with. And living without emotion is not a horrible thing. It has allowed me to forget, and to always
remain in perfect control of my actions and thoughts."
"Forget what? What are you trying to forget?"
"Nothing. Nothing, now look we are not going to talk about this any longer."
"All right, but Kain." She griped his arm in order to make him stop and look her in the
eye. "You may think you've killed your
emotions. But, they aren't dead, not
yet at least." With that the two
continued on their walk with the others. Dawne sped up so that she could talk with the others in the lead,
leaving Kain alone with his thoughts.
"When ones emotions of sadness, despair, and hatred grow
to large and outnumber too much the emotions of happiness, hope, and love. That person should abandon emotion all
together." Kain said to himself,
quoting something his old master had told him once.
"Kain!" Dekan shouted. "Come up hear we want you to tell us what we're doing. We're tired of you leaving us in the dark
like this. We want to know."
Kain sped up to catch up with the rest of his party. "All right, here is what I've figured out
for now, and know that I don't have any details down yet." Kain paused in order to collect his
thoughts. "First we get to Eblan and we
use the money and fake I.D.s that Bladea gave us to get through the
areo-facility. At that point we split
up into two groups, one group is going to be Dawne and me, the other group is
of course Dekan, Phantine and Naxos. Dawne and I are going to Baron to retrieve the crystal of shadows while,
you guessed it, Dekan, Phantine, and Naxos take a cruiser to city or town close
to Mt. Ordeals, then get into the facility and get the crystal of Fire. I won't be able to help you at all so just
know that some, or most, of what it is that you are going to be doing is going
to be improvisation." Dekan and Naxos
both nodded their heads; Kain could see right away a potential problem. "After the crystal is retrieved Naxos can
communicate that with Dawne telepathically. Then Dawne will come pick you all up bring you all bring the crystal
back to the tower, and if your done before me then you get to come and help
me. Otherwise Dawne and I will be
waiting for you in the Tower for a signal." Kain paused to let it all sink in. "Any questions."
"Yeah." Dawne
said. "Why don't I just teleport us to
those locations. You've been their
before Kain, so by linking up with you again we can teleport their." With that
Kain looked down and shook his head.
"First, if someone sees us teleporting to either of these
locations then we could possibly get caught and I don't want any of us having
to kill innocent bystanders just because they have seen us. Second, in order to have a pretty good
chance at not being seen we would have to teleport in far ways away. Because I know with Baron there are a lot of
small towns surrounding it. It would
take us nearly a week to walk from where you would have to teleport us in from. And the same is probably near to the true
with Mt. Ordeals. It's just faster
taking air cruisers in the long run. Plus we don't want to tire you out too much." Dawne nodded at Kain realizing that indeed using her skills at
this situation was not the best idea. "Any other questions?" Dekan, Phantine, Naxos and Dawne all looked at
each other, but no one said anything. "Good."
* * *
Deep within the center of Eblan the party had taken up
temporary residence at a small inn, not cheap, not expensive place that had
been almost eager for the business of Kain's party. After everyone had put their gear down in the two connected rooms
that they had purchased for the night Kain told them he was going to take a
walk.
In the very center of the great city was the original
Castle of which Kain had been in once before, though then it was a ruined shell
of its former glory. Kain walked up to
the gate of the great castle and heard a voice calling him.
"Sir, sir, in order to get in you have to buy a
ticket." Kain with murderous calm about
him looked to where the voice had come from. "Sir, tickets are four coins apiece. Would you like one or not?" Kain
walked up to the woman behind the glass screen. He took out four coins from his pocket and dropped them into a
metal bowl carved out at the bottom of the glass. The woman behind the glass looked at the coins and then pressed a
button, which made a ticket appear from a slit in the metal on Kain's
side. "Please take the ticket, and have
a nice time while your here!" She said
far too cheerily for Kain's taste.
Kain took the ticket and entered into the castle. "This used to barely be an oasis." Kain said to himself as he looked at the
green grass growing everywhere. There
were thousands of flowers inside of the huge gardens. Obviously something had caused the soil here to loose its
aridness.
Kain entered the Throne room of the Eblanian royalty and
was blocked by a velvet rope from reaching the actual throne itself. Behind him he heard two guards talking. "I'm telling you it's true. Look around; I personally have only seen
maybe 13 people in here today. This
place ain't turning no profit anymore."
"No it ain't," Said the other. "But, this is a historical location they can't just bulldoze it
down just cause it ain't making no money."
"Oh I wish that were true, but to be honest, money is key
to everything in this world now a days. And if the Guardian can make more money by having a mega-mall here well
then there is going to be a mega-mall here pretty soon."
With that Kain was washed over by digestedness. This place was probably over fifteen hundred
years old. "How dare they, how dare
they." Was all that Kain could
think?
Kain exited the old castle and did not look back. "Ignorance is bliss, and knowledge is
pain." He said to himself. "Thus, to forget is to remove pain."
* * *
Kain's party together entered the areo-facility and after
purchasing tickets they went to a cafe style restaurant and each ordered a hot
beverage. "Jasgian, A relatively large
city on a peninsula just north of Mt. Ordeals." Phantine said. "Sounds
like fun."
"Any place with you is fun, Phantine." Dekan said to his partner. The rest of the party turned a deaf ear to
the two and their comments. No one else
enjoyed seeing the joy that these two felt towards each other. It reminded them of their own loneliness.
Kain watched as two 'Paladins' walked by the table. One of them stared at his face for a good
ten seconds and then moved on. "You don't think?" Dekan said.
"No, it's not possible that he could recognize Kain from
a mental message sent from either Mist or Giott City." Phantine said. "It's not possible."
"Anything is possible." Naxos said.
With that everyone, except Kain, gave Naxos a sour
look. Though they all knew that that
was just part of his personality.
"Did you hear anything about a tram or something that
could get you from Jasgian to Mt. Ordeals." Phantine asked everyone.
"Yes I asked." Said Naxos. "But unfortunately
there isn't any kind of public transportation. Apparently everyone knows about the mountains themselves, but no one
knows that there is any kind of reactor, or power plant, or whatever it is,
there."
"There is a road though which leads into the Mt. Ordeals
Recreational facility and park. Though
the park is only the Northern half of the forest and the foothills of the
mountain." Dekan said, trying to show
everyone that he had as much knowledge, if not more, then Naxos.
Suddenly a voice from on high called out to
everyone. "Transport number 571, Eblan
to Jasgian, will begin loading passengers in 10 minutes, again flight 571. Thank you very much and have a nice
day." With that Naxos gave a sneer at
the women's fake happiness that had been exhibited over the loud speaker.
"Time to go, Kain." Dekan said. "We don't want to
have to buy three more tickets. I tell
you, those things are just far too expensive.
"All right, well then I guess we'll see you later. And don't do anything that's going to get
you killed, all right." Dawne said
"Don't worry, we'll think of something once we get there,
just like Kain instructed us to." With
that, the two girls hugged one an other and Kain shook the hands of Dekan and
Naxos.
"I would tell you good luck. But, I don't believe in it." Kain said in place of good-bye. Though Dawne nearly laughed at it.
After the three had left Kain looked at Dawne and
said. "What was so funny about that?"
"You're too serious. You just have too..." Suddenly
ten 'Paladins' entered into the cafe.
"That's him," The one from before said to everyone. The entire group strained their eyes looking
at him.
Then one said. "Possibly, but I wouldn't bet on it. Come on, the game's on and that guys just trying to get on with that
cute girl their, leave 'em alone." With
that the 'Paladins' left though when Kain looked at Dawne, he expecting to see
relief on her face though instead he saw her thoroughly reddened.
"What's the matter, are you embarrassed by something or
what?"
"Just a passing thought, that's all."
"Those who send
reviews shall be karmicly rewarded."
-Kain DeLuman