Author: Alright.you guys are very demanding about things that happen in MY story, but you are the fans. And by the way why does everyone seem to like Dart so much.I really didn't like him that much, yet every time I mention Bellana.everyone growls because she killed Dart. Well who cares.

Yes.there will be more Dragoons soon, probably in the next chapter. And I will also add veterans because every good epilogue story needs a veteran from the previous adventure.

If anyone has tips about the last level in Sonic Adventure 2 (the conjoined one) please share it with me.I need the help.

Chapter 5: The Tainted Warrior

The two warriors clothed in crimson stared at each other swords drawn prepared to battle. The moment stood as a blink in time, nothing seemed to move, and for a moment nothing seemed to exist besides the two warriors and the eerie moon that hovered above the battlefield. Rey looked the other warrior in the eye, waiting for the first move, as the opposing warrior did the same. Neither wanted to make the first move, but neither opened their mouth in order to tell the other to do so.

Off in the background, some of the rubble of the ruins of Furni re-settled then eventually fell apart. The quiet crash of the rubble served as a cue to both warriors, and the moment of stillness ended. Both warriors broke from their fighting stances and charged forward with incredible speed.

The two swords at once and both Rey got his first good look at his opponent's face. The face seemed almost dying, very malnourished, the tints of green were slight but there.

Rey had learned from Kamuy never to drop his guard, so he kept close attention to the fight, and little on the man's face.

Both Rey and the other warrior pushed off with their swords at the same time and jumped back a few feet. They wasted no time charging again. Rey charged with his sword above his shoulders until he was almost in his opponent's striking range, then he brought down his sword with all his force, only to be met by the other warrior's blade coming from the opposite direction. The man easily stopped Rey's attack, and pushed his sword back above his head and stabbed with his sword looking for an easy victory. Rey side-stepped quickly to avoid being impaled on the blade and slammed his elbow into his opponent's jaw.

The man stepped back a little to recover and regain himself, but Rey was already charging. Rey's sword was held out in front of him because he knew that trying to gather strength and give up speed would not help him now. His opponent regained himself right in time to notice the blade. He placed one leg firmly behind the other, dropped his sword, and caught Rey's blade as soon as it came close enough.

"Heh," he said "Your gonna have to do better than that"

"Shut up" Rey said, after recovering from the shock of the power this man possessed.

Rey tried to force the blade through the warrior's grasp, but it didn't help. The warrior was just too powerful for Rey to face in a one-on-one fight of pure strength.

The warrior popped a grin and moved both his hands tearing it from Rey's grasp. Both warriors now unarmed, Rey's opponent crouched down, kicked Rey's legs from underneath him, and grabbed his own blade. He spun around to make it look fluent and ended up back on his feet, with his sword to Rey's throat. Rey laid on the ground dazed that the warrior could move that fast and pull off that kind of series of events that quickly.

The warrior taunted Rey with a grin.

"So, not much of a destiny, I guess" He mocked

Rey was past trying to come up with a smart aleck comment, at the present time, he was wracking his brain for a solution to his current problem.

"Nothing to say?" The warrior asked "well, then you can die. A shame though, you had so much potential"

He brought his blade back and prepared to thrust it through Rey's neck. Rey sighed silently in relief, he was hoping his opponent would do something like this.

Rey kicked one of his opponents legs, causing him to lose his balance, in the split second of time it gave him, he rolled over until his belly touched the ground, sprawled to his feet and barely avoided having his left leg dug into by his quick recovering opponent. Rey scrambled over to his sword, and picked it up, turning on guard expecting to see his opponent charging at him. To Rey's surprise, the other warrior had resheathed his sword and was clapping mildly.

"Good," He said "I didn't expect to kill you that easily. You had me fooled for a second into thinking that you had just given up and prepared to die"

Rey said nothing, trying to concentrate solely on the battle, he knew that his opponent was still a threat, and could probably have his sword unsheathed and at Rey's throat if Rey dropped his guard even once.

"Oh." The warrior mocked "nothing to say, then let's get down to business"

The warrior dropped his smile and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small red sphere with perpendicular bone rings.

Rey accidentally dropped his guard in astonishment as he got a better look at the orb.

The warrior held it out so Rey could see it plainly "Look familiar?"

"A-A" Rey staggered "A Dragoon Spirit?"

"Yes.." The warrior said "and no. This my friend, makes your pathetic spirit seem like nothing more than a regular red ball. This.is a different kind of spirit!"

With that, the warrior raised the spirit high above his head and let out a loud battle cry. The spirit began to glow even though it was not as bright as Rey's. Flames began to pour out of the spirit and spiraled to the ground making a cone-like shape all around the warrior. After the flames had made the outline of the cone and hung in that shape for a while, the flames began to grow, slowly and steadily until the flames fully hid the warrior in them.

Rey watched in shock as the cone slowly shrunk all around the warrior. After it had shrunk small enough, Rey heard something he did not expect, the warrior began to scream in agony as the flames wrapped around his body like a second layer of skin. The screams turned Rey's stomach inside out as he heard the warrior bellow with every fiber in his being. Rey's surprise continued to grow when the warriors flame cloaked form began to rise in the air. Wings of fire exploded from his back, and the flames got slightly larger on his chest, arms and legs like armor. Flames grew in his right hand forming the outline of a well built sword, a little more jagged than the previous one.

The warrior let out one last mighty bellow, and the flames that consumed him exploded off of him all around 3 yards in every direction. Rey turned around to shield himself from the flames, and let them rush over him quickly and not as painful as he expected.

Rey turned around after the flames had passed and stepped back in awe. The warrior he had seen was now covered in armor very different than what he wore as a Dragoon. The warriors hung in the air on frayed blood-red wings, and was had armor of the same color along his body molded in the shape of bleached bone. His pupils glared with a bright crimson that seemed to stare right through Rey.

"This" he said with a smirk "is a Bone Dragoon spirit"

Rey took in all he could of the warrior and took a deep breath.

"A Bone Dragoon huh?" Rey said trying to fake some confidence "then let's test it against an original"

Rey pulled the spirit out of his pocket, and sent a quick thought to Bartham.

Hey Bartham, he thought to his ally can we do this?

I do not know. Bartham replied never before have I seen such a being, I have nothing to base his strength on, but his experience seems obvious, this will be no easy fight

okay then Rey thought and then swallowed hard.

He held out the spirit and let go as t began to levitate in the air. The familiar light washed over his body and cloaked him in the armor of the Red- Eyed Dragoon. After the light died down, Rey took another look at the Bone Dragoon, he raised his weapon in to a fighting stance and prepared to fight once again.

The moon still hovered in the air watching over the two Dragoons braced for combat. They stared each other down again much like before.

This time, the Bone Dragoon wasted no time to start the duel and rushed towards Rey with incredible speed. Rey was ready for this ad retreated backward into the air. The Bone Dragoon changed his angle to realign himself with Rey and charged towards him with his sword off to the right. When he swung for his attack, Rey stopped it cold with his own blade shocking the Bone Dragoon.

Rey stopped his retreat and continued to struggle against the Bone Dragoon in mid-air. Rey stared back into the crimson eyes, the Bone Dragoon seemed so confident that it kind of startled him. Rey pushed forward with his blade and knocked the Bone Dragoon back and off guard a little bit and charged forward prepared to strike again.

The Bone Dragoon was ready for this and dodged off the right in order to dodge a blow that would have removed his shoulder. He brought his arm across his body and swung back-handed using the momentum from the large motion. Rey recovered and blocked it with the blunt side of his sword using both hands so that the strike wouldn't knock the blade out of his hands. The Bone Dragoon followed up with a sturdy inside kick to Rey's head, knocking the warrior off balance. He then followed it up by bringing both hands above his head, and hammered Rey to the chest with the hilt of the sword.

Rey lost control and began to fall out of the air gaining speed with each passing second. Above him he could see the Bone Dragoon closing in, and below was the ground ready to meet him dead on. Rey struggled to catch some of the wind in his wings to stop his descent, but the air was moving by too fast for him to do so. With nothing else to do, he spread out his wings trying very hard to keep them out and began to gain speed quickly.

As the ground began to close in, Rey made a short mental prayer to Soa, and turned his body enough to catch the passing wind just barely turned along the ground missing it by a foot. He had now gained both control and speed, and turned back towards the Bone Dragoon.

Using the speed, he folded his wings and hurled himself at his opponent like an arrow, and began to cork-screw with his sword out in front of him. The Bone Dragoon stopped his chase right away, and smirked to himself ready to dodge to the right and cleave the boy in two.

Rey closed in on the Bone Dragoon and continued to build up speed hoping to impale his opponent on the blade armor and all.

Time seemed to slow down as Rey got close enough to the warrior. His fear mounted when he saw the warrior move to the right and raise his blade above his head. Rey let fear and instinct take him at once and as soon as he got about half way by him, Rey outstretched his foot, and implanted it right in the Bone Dragoon's shoulder before he could attack.

The Bone Dragoon fell to the ground, right into the ruins of a building which collapsed on him. Rey stopped his movement and leveled out looking towards the pile of rubble that buried the warrior. He landed down on the ground and folded his wings again, preparing to power down.

That was easy enough the thought to Bartham

Wait Rey Bartham warned I fear that this fight is not yet over

What do you mean he began to argue didn't you see what just hap-- Rey's own thoughts were cut off when he saw some of the rubble shoot away making room for a large fireball that was coming right at him.

Rey moved his upper body slightly and twisted himself so that he only felt the heat of it. The fireball went on, grabbing Rey's gaze and exploded against and pile of rubble reducing it to ash.

Rey returned his gaze to the pile of rubble which had buried the Bone Dragoon.

Rey heard the battle cry that had been familiar to him before erupt from the pile. A dim red light seeped it's way through the cracks of the rubble, and gave Rey proof that his opponent still was ready to fight.

Rey braced himself again, waiting for his opponent. The battle cry pulsed louder for a second, and a huge explosion erupted from the rubble sending it in all directions. After the dust had cleared, the Bone Dragoon floated there with his sword in the ground blade end down.

"Okay," He scowled "Now I'm mad"

He stretched his arms and legs out wide and began to hum silently. Flames began to appear out of nowhere and swirl around his hands and moved it's way down his arms, chest, legs, and head until it swirled around his body. They eventually coated his body much like in his transformation except this time he didn't scream in agony from the burning.

The flaming form landed on the ground and pushed forward towards Rey with great speed. Rey kept his cool and raised his sword to a fighting stance.

When the flaming figure flew close enough, Rey stepped to the right and swung with all his might right at the head of his opponent. The blade collided with the flaming figure right at the head, but bounced off with ease with enough force to knock the blade out of Rey's hands and 2 yards away.

Rey turned around, making sure that he kept his opponent in front of him.

The flaming Bone Dragoon stopped and turned preparing for another attack. At this point Rey had almost panicked and began to frantically dart left and right, up and down, to avoid his opponent.

Bartham Rey called out in his mind what do I do?

Rey Bartham called back think about it. In order to appropriately fight against magic, you need to use magic.

But, Rey thought as he flew up a couple feet to avoid contact with his opponent. I've never done it before, how can I match his power?

You must have faith in the power that you possess Bartham lectured power to change for the better and help those in need, that is the power you must trust in, and you must trust in yourself. You can do this!

Rey swallowed hard and dodged again. Okay, I'll try

He dropped down to the ground and planted his sword, blade down, into the ground.

"Here goes nothing" He said to himself.

He turned his body so that his left side faced his opponent and his right hand was curled into a fist a couple inches from his thigh. He spread his legs to shoulder width and began to concentrate.

Okay He thought to himself Bartham said that I just have to concentrate on fire

The Bone Dragoon stopped like normally, but instead of going back for another attack, waited to see what the youth was doing.

Rey focused hard, believing in the words of Bartham and focusing on the element of fire. He shut his eyes and imagined it swirling around his fist. Soon he felt his hand get warm, he opened his eyes to see a small spiral of flames leading to his hand. He focused it all at once and it coated his hand, he didn't summon anymore because he remembered that Bartham had said to be know his limits.

The Bone Dragoon smirked and called out "Let us test our magic against one another!" With that he charged forward again, aiming for Rey's chest ready to end this fight.

Alright, here goes Rey thought to himself. He held on tightly to the ball of flame coating his hand.

The Bone Dragoon closed in, and Rey realized that it was now or never.

Rey turned his body and punched with all his force using his flame coated hand. "Inferno Punch" He cried out. His fist collided with the face of his opponent and exploded sending flames in every direction.

The Bone Dragoon met the impact and immediately went soaring in the opposite direction from the impact. He flew 10 yards until he hit the ground and skidded another 2 and lay on the ground sprawled out, and powered down.

Rey stood dazed, from both the realization that he had used magic and that he seemed to have defeated the Bone Dragoon for real. He let go of his link to the spirit and his Red-Eyed armor disappeared as he fell to his knees as the spirit fell gently to the ground. Rey pocketed the Red-Eyed Spirit and got up. He grabbed his sword and walked towards the un-powered Bone Dragoon, barely able to hold his sword.

He approached his opponent and noticed that his face had fully blackened and began to blister from the blow. His entire face was charred that pure black aside from the goldenrod pouches of puss that dotted it all over. He opened his eyes but looked beyond Rey.

Rey turned around to see the moon pulsate unevenly, he turned back to the warrior.

"Yes" the warrior said while still looking at the moon "I understand"

Rey was puzzled for a second, and in what seemed like a split second, the warrior slipped his foot underneath Rey's causing him to fall. Before Rey could hit the ground, the warrior managed to get to his feet, he executed a well aimed chop right to Rey's neck. That was all Rey saw as darkness overtook his perception, he could feel his consciousness slip away but couldn't do a thing about it.

The Bone Dragoon transformed again, as if he had taken no damage at all, and picked up the youth.

"I must admit" he said to the unconscious body "you are stronger than I expected, I cannot wait until our next fight"

With that, he flew into the distance.

Author: Alright, Rey has finally fought with the guy in red. And if you haven't figured it out, this is why the fan-fic is called "The Darker Side of Good". Sorry it took so long. And there WILL be more characters, promise, as a matter of fact, one is coming up shortly ^_^.