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and things in this fanfic are probably owned by
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don't sue.
True Form
Dekan lay bleeding before Kain. The two were still up on top of the mountains north of what had been the great city of Baron. Now though it was the rubble of a minor Armageddon.
Kain did everything that he could to stop the bleeding that seemed to be coming from everywhere on Dekan's body. Kain stopped and looked down at Dekan; he looked so frail and weak, though Kain knew that now this boy had become a man. Not only because the wind had accepted him, but also Kain could feel a presence around Dekan that he had not felt in so very long. Kain's apprentice was now a Dragoon. He now knew the vows, and what the vows meant. This was a great day for the entire world, for another warrior of honor could know roam its surface once again.
Kain knew that the boy would pull through; he knew it for the same reason he knew that Golbez wouldn't be under the wreckage of the Black Tower. One person had told Kain once that Kain's intuition was one of the best they had ever seen, and thankfully they were right.
"Young Dragoon." Kain started. "I will continue to train you till the day that you decide to train yourself or that you become true Dragoon. I pray though for this world that that day comes soon, for the world will need all of the help it can get in order to completely throw away the remains of this vast tyranny." Dekan coughed below him and as he coughed a leaf came out of his mouth and was spit out onto the ground. "Good that means your health is returning. You will be so much stronger when you wake then, then, you will be able to best a thousand of the best of the Guardians Dark Knights. But, you must retain your innocence Dekan, you must protect yourself from... from... from sin."
* * *
Dragging Phantine and Naxos behind her, Dawne moved through the infinitum. Soon she felt herself nearing Baron, but even here in the infinitum, she could sense something was wrong with her destination. As such, Dawn moved down towards where she had remembered Kain and her room had been. Nothing was there though. Not the room, or the hallway, or the building itself. Dawne moved through this phantoms path down to the street. The street itself had been ripped apart, and there was rubble all about it. She could also sense large holes that had formed from something besides fallen debris. She then moved to the Tower and found that it had been completely destroyed. Dawne could feel the anarchy and chaos of the people still alive in the city; it was at this point that Dawne started looking for Kain's aura.
Before, when she was in the infinitum, she could always make out Kain's aura. This was because his was like a small sun, next to the candles of normal people. Though Dawne could feel the sun she could also feel that it had moved to the mountains to the north. Dawne dragged her two friends behind her as she moved with intense speed to where she knew the small sun would be.
Off in the distance she could make out the glowing fire, she knew who it was. Besides this, was a smaller fire, though it was almost as bright as Kain's. She had seen this aura somewhere, it almost looked like Dekan's, but that was impossible. At this point Dawne had a feeling that the Guardian and Kain might be dueling, or something and she decided to reform each of her friends' bodies on a cliff ledge near the two brightly glowing auras.
Dawne took her two friends with her, though she dreaded this part of the "traveling" because this brought an end to beauty, an end to glory, and an end to the calming peace.
Their three bodies formed standing on that cliff ledge the exact same way the had been standing back in the Tower of Babil. Dawne looked down and was filled with a joy, she motioned over towards Phantine to come over and look at what she was now seeing. It was miracle.
* * *
Kain was watching over Dekan, though that wasn't what was occupying his mind anymore. Kain knew that Dekan would pull through especially with the rare medicines that Kain had been able to find within a half-hour of looking.
He was now thinking on what he was going to do about the world. It would surely be thrust into chaos without the one central and omnipresent authority figure. Kain knew though that he could not let that happen, he knew that he had to do something, the only problem was figuring out what.
Kain decided that it would be best to put himself in a meditative state to ponder this, though as soon as he reached his first level of calmness, a voice cried out from above him. "KAIN, KAIN."
Then, Kain heard another voice saying. "KAIN IS HE ALRIGHT?" Kain abandoned his thoughts and stood up to see his two allies who he knew were above him.
"DAWNE, PHANTINE, GET DOWN HERE SO WE CAN TALK WITHOUT SHOUTING." With that the two of them nodded their heads, almost in unison, and began to walk down a narrow path to where Kain and Dekan were. Kain barely even paid attention to Naxos coming down the path as well.
As soon as Phantine could, she ran to greet her precious; she hugged him till Kain thought the limp body of his would turn blue. "You know," Kain said, "That may not be the best thing for him, in his kind of condition." Phantine couldn't even hear Kain; she was far too wrapped up in the joy of her Dekan.
"How did he get here?" Dawne whispered to Kain as soon as she could.
"I'm not really sure. All that I know is that for one, he is now a Dragoon; he was able to understand the oath. And second the wind carried him here, the same way that it carries me from place to place. That is really all I can tell you, for that is all that I know."
"Light! You sound like a philosopher." Dawne said with exasperation.
"Do you wish me to apologize?" Kain asked. Though all he received from Dawne a look to freeze water on a summer's day.
The four of them sat and waited for Dekan to awaken, there was little conversation though, and for the most part either Phantine, or Dawne was asleep. And most of the time both were. The entire time though while they waited for Dekan, Naxos only looked down at the cold earth.
After about three hours Dekan finally awakened from his near-coma like rest. "When did everyone get here?" He asked as soon as he saw Naxos, Dawne, and his precious Phantine.
"A few hours ago, though you were asleep then." Kain said in a cold voice.
Phantine looked down at Dekan and then began to cry, and then she hugged him, though he was still lying on the ground. Then she whispered in his ear, "I knew if I made you promise that you would keep it." And at that, they both giggled at what had just been said, and then they kissed.
At this point the other three members of the party began to look away and Kain said to Dawne, who had waken up when Phantine did. "This is just like with Cecil and Rosa. I swear some nights in the inns that we stayed at... well I leave the rest to your imagination."
"Hmmm, I read the books on those two like almost everyone inside of the summoned monsters realm. I heard that he was a Paladin of the Light of the Dawn, and sworn off of those types of things. That's why him and Rosa never had children."
'They never had children?!?!" Kain said in a silent exasperation. "Rosa was pregnant when I left to... to... find myself. Was that history that you read created before or after the rule of the Golbez?"
"Golbez... what do you mean Gol... Golbez is the Guardian!?!?"
"Yes he is. I think he killed himself with white meteo, but I'm not sure. I plan on checking with all of you, when everyone is well rested."
"You can't take him by yourself, oh almighty Dragoon?"
"I like to have insurance if you don't mind. Besides, if there is going to be a finale battle, everyone in the party is supposed to be involved. Don't you think?"
"Sure why not. Anyway I think it was made after. Though I'd have to check."
"Good that means that Cecil and Rosa's bloodline might still be out here somewhere." With that knowledge Kain could feel a renewed hope within him.
* * *
Later that day Dawne took the party to Mist in order to rest up and celebrate in their victory. While in the city everyone in the party talked about what they had done, and how hard victory was to achieve, and how good it was that Golbez was probably dead now. Though for almost all the time that the party was resting up, Naxos never said a word. No one thought this abnormal though and because of this Naxos stayed in his room, waiting, watching, and scanning for something. Though everyone but Kain was oblivious to it.
During the afternoon, Kain went up to Dekan's room to talk to him. "What's wrong Dekan? Usually you try to put in a word or two here and there."
Naxos only looked at the wall ahead of him; he looked to be in some kind of trance. "Naxos!" Kain shook him by his shoulders, and suddenly, Naxos looked directly at Kain. With that Kain looked into Naxos' eyes. Suddenly Kain realized that they were no longer their normal color. Now they were as black as ebony.
"Do you want to guess where I got my new self, Kain?" Naxos smiled and laughed, almost maniacally. "The same place you did, 751 years ago. He he he he he." Kain did not have his armor on, nor was he carrying his spear. The only weapons that he had now were his fists and his words.
"Naxos, is Zeromus inside of you!"
"No."
"Is he controlling you!"
"No."
"What did he do to you then."
"He gave me a blessing," Naxos said calmly and with an air of superiority. "He opened my eyes Kain. He showed me how foolish you were to not keep his blessing." Naxos paused and looked Kain directly at his soul. "He gave me so much power Kain, Power just like that of your past master, he didn't die. Did you realize that yet. Want to guess where he is now?"
"In the rubble in Baron!"
"No, good guess though, because that is where his former shell is." Suddenly Dekan's voice deepened considerable. "Hello Kain, miss me."
"How did you, what the hell is going on? You're controlling Dekan, aren't you!"
"Don't you get it yet Kain? Zeromus isn't a person. I am nothing that can be described, though for your puny brain I will try." Naxos, or Golbez, or whomever he was, paused for a second to collect his thoughts and then continued on. "Zeromus is like a personality that moves from person to person. I was introduced to the moon when a former shell of mine crashed with an asteroid on that red moon that was yours. Zemus went out to investigate a life form inside of an asteroid that he had just fallen. And guess what happened Kain, Zemus got, infected, if you will. Then after noticing the perfect place to control right down beneath the red moon, Zeromus used the Lunarian's ultra-powerful mind to infect a person down here, on Earth. That person was Golbez, Kain. Then I used that shell's powers to control others without moving into them, this is how I controlled you Kain. Though after I noticed I was losing the war here on Earth I moved back to Zemuses body, though I still had minor influence over Golbez's. Then that Lunarian somehow took away my control from Golbez. Then, after a while, you seven came up and tried to kill me, and you did. Though at the moment of death, I moved into Golbez's shell again. You were all such fools; I can't believe none of you figured it out. You want to know something else though Kain; when Zemus died, I allowed myself to form into the energy that makes up a "Zeromus" that is my most powerful form you know, though not too many are willing to trust something that looks like that. Then when I was hit by the crystal's power, I turned into what I was originally. Can you imagine a whole race of us, just like that? So many are out there, in this Galaxy, Kain. And you cannot do a thing about it, because I am going to kill you. Good night Kain." Kain leaped through the ceiling of Dekan's room in the inn, and the wind carried him up.
Suddenly Naxos leaped up through his room also, and reached Kain's height and said. "Flying is such an easy thing to do Kain, but you fly such an easy way, this time I may just infect you, so that I can figure out how to ride the wind like you do." Kain was as close to real fear as he had been in a long time, and he dove through the air to a small green field, Kain didn't need to look back to know that Naxos was following him.
Kain landed and bounced off of the Earth and then he turned to see Naxos make a perfect 10-point landing. "Don't fight it Kain, just let me put you to sleep."
"I will not let this world be enslaved by you Zeromus. I am true Dragoon and I am destined to die if necessary to save this world."
"Save it from what, order? Remember our conversation before, that is the thing that our race brings Kain, order."
"Zeromus, I am a creature of order, just like you. But even I realize the evil that your 'order' is creating."
"Good and evil are irrelevant Kain. All that is necessary is order." The air around Naxos then began to turn red in fire. "Kain tell me which body to you think is more powerful, this one, or yours."
Kain did not even dignify that with a response. Instead, he leaped through the air and the wind sent him every single ounce of itself that it could to him to fly towards Naxos. And then Kain formed his raging inferno again. And Kain hit Naxos with the force of a freight train.
Something comparable to an atomic weapon went of when the infinite force hit the immovable object.
Kain bounced off of Naxos and landed about fifty feet away. Kain had expelled all of his energy, all of his power, all he could do now was lay in that field and hope that the raging inferno had Naxos, or was it Zeromus; Kain was too tired to think about those kinds of things.
A shadow loomed over Kain, and Kain knew whose shadow it was. "That was a magnificent effort Kain, really and truly. This time though I'm not going to try to kill you with white meteo, or allow my rage to explode, or..."
Suddenly three figures appeared out of nowhere, behind Naxos. "What the hell is going on?!?!" Dawne shouted.
"Zeromus, in Naxos." Was all that Kain could get out.
"What!"
"Who?"
Naxos talked in his own voice at the arrival of the three "Don't believe Kain, he uhhhh, slipped and on a rock and..." Then his voice went back to a much deeper one. "Oh screw it, now the three of you get to die, as well."
Dekan leaped over Naxos's head and next to Kain. "Drink this Kain, Naxos said as he handed him a small glass tube." Kain did drink the Elixir, and within seconds Kain stood up and he had regained his power. Then Dekan handed Kain the White Lance and Dekan took out his own spear. One made of the purest silver. The two then leaped across to Dawne and Phantine and all four took their own battle stance against an evil of the greatest magnitude.
"Fools!" Dekan shouted at the party and then Dekan's body collapsed, and a spirit could be seen escaping from it.
"It went to find someone else." Kain said. "It's like a parasite, it transfers itself into host bodies whenever necessary. It gains knowledge from those host bodies and takes on their personality most of the time." Dawne then ran over to Naxos to see if he was all right.
"Naxos, Naxos!" She yelled at him, though whether in rage or in sorrow, not even she could say.
"I'm fine, I've got a head ache, but... That thing, where did it go?" Naxos asked with a calm rage.
Suddenly a black fiery, apparation-like form appeared above Naxos. Kain knew that he had seen this thing before. "This is Zeromus's purest form," Kain said silently to his party. "It cannot be harmed, even by the full fury of a white meteo. That violent hateful energy seems to heal it almost. The only weapon against it is the purest energies of the crystal."
"Fools! This planet is mine!" The form in the air screeched. "I will not loose for their are always more people, and every single one of them is a possible host for me. Don't you realize that you cannot win?"
"Those who write
reviews shall be karmicly rewarded."
-Kain DeLuman