Kain paced the chamber impatiently. How many minutes had it been since Raziel's body had dissapated into the Spectral Realm? Three? Five? Ten? In his entire existence, rarely had Kain been so aware of the passage of time. Seconds passed like years. The few moments it was taking for Raziel to compose himself and return to the Physical Plave seemed to stretch as long as his reign as Nosgoth's ruler had.

"Or will do," remarked Kain to himself. But he was no longer even sure of that any more. He and Raziel had made several changes to the timeline recently, and he wasn't sure that he could reliably foretell what the future may have in store. He had known that there was a great risk in his plans, chief among them the fact that he could not completely control what the result of the changes would be. He had been careful, of course. He had prepared strategies, countermeasures, compensations for the dealings of Moebius and the dark powers that controlled the Time-Streamer. For years before he cast Raziel into the abyss, and the thousand years between that event and his son's return, he had continued to plan and consider. He had thought that he had taken every conceivable obstacle into account, or at least as much as it was possible.

But he had overlooked something. The damned Hylden. Kain cursed himself for forgetting about them. True, it had been several millenia since he had stopped their return to Nosgoth, so long ago...but that should have made him all the more wary. The Hylden masquerading as the lord of the Sarafan had taunted Kain moments before his death, warning him that one day the Hylden would return. Kain had promised that on that day, he would stop them once again. The Sarafan Lord had simply retorted that he would not live that long.

Had all of this been part of the Hylden's plans? Had all of his careful planning simply been part of his enemies' own strategy? Was he really that easy to predict?

The tiniest of ripples moved through the air. Anyone who wasn't looking out for it would not have noticed it. Kain easily recognised it - a shift between the Physical and Spectral Planes. Raziel had finally returned.

"The Reaver..." Raziel moaned, sounding more depressed than Kain had ever heard him before. "It's still with me. How? How will I ever escape it?"

"Raziel..." Kain had very little practice at giving reassurance. "We stopped you from being absorbed by it once. We can stop it again, and next time, we'll ensure a permanant solution."

"I think not, Vampire."

Kain and Raziel both turned around. Kain wasn't sure whether to be delighted or dismayed. He'd hoped to get himself and Raziel out of the stronghold before the Sarafan came upon them, but at the same time, he had a lot of frustration to work out, and tearing Moebius' throat out would help a lot.

"Moebius. Congratulations." Kain sneered. "Or at least, congratulations to your masters for their brilliant move - we all know that the puppet never makes the play."

"You'd be suprised, Kain."

"But I'd advise you to wait on the celebrations. As you and your fellow minions have so often advised Raziel here, while I exist your twisted vision of a perfect Nosgoth remains out of reach - and I'm far from buried yet."

"Oh, but your existence is at an end...at least, your existence in Nosgoth." Someone walked into the room to join Moebius and his Sarafan bodyguards. Raziel didn't recognise the woman, but Kain knew her immediately.

"Azimuth."

"I'm flattered the almighty Kain remembers me."

"Most odd. You would only have been born a few minutes ago, when Vorador slaughtered your predecessor. Which leads me to believe that there was more than one willing pawn within the Circle I destroyed."

"What brilliant deduction." Azimuth chuckled. "Far too late, of course."

"Perhaps not." Raziel muttered as he got up, baring his claws. "From what I undertsand, Kain will kill the both of you in a few centuries as a mere fledgling. With him far more powerful now, and with me as your enemy too, I'd say that your chances here look slim at best."

Moebius laughed. "Of course, you could say that as Kain kills us a few centuries in the future, our survival here is assured."

"You could say that as we've changed the future several times, your deaths may just have been rescheduled, Time Streamer." Raziel spat.

"I'm afraid that no one will be dying today." Azimuth said. "However, the two of you are about to be...removed."

Kain started forward as Azimuth chanted in an obscure language. Runes of blood, previously hidden from sight somehow, manifested around the chamber. There was a painfully bright flash of light, an almost unbearable sensation of heat...

***

Suddenly, it was night, and outside. The air was crisp, and there was a distinct lack of Sarafan knights surrounding Kain and Raziel.

"What..?" Raziel looked around. "This...where are we? I've seen no architecture like this anywhere in Nosgoth!"

Kain also examined the surroundings. "You're right. This isn't normal Nosgoth style. It reminds me..." Kain trailed off.

"Yes?"

"It reminds me of a city I once stayed in briefly, a place called Meridian. Except that this place is more...clean. Less decrepit. But you are right - there is a style to it that does not fit any civilisation in Nosgoth."

"But we must still be in Nosgoth! This hardly looks like a demon dimension or similar!"

"I do not believe so. Azimuth...the Dimension Guardian. She must have sent us to another Dimension! This place seems compatible with Nosgoth - a physical dimension, nothing at all like Hell, or the Hylden's realm. Hmmm...Raziel, you could shift into the Spectral Realm. Maybe it will reveal something about this world that could be of use."

"Assuming this world has a Spectral Realm." Raziel grumbled. His body shimmered, and he started to fade. But then he returned to his physical form. "What..?"

"What is it? This place really does have no Spectral Realm?"

"It does, but it feels a lot harder to get to than that of Nosgoth. I might be able to reach it with some time and effort..."

"Later Raziel. We have company." A group of four people, three men and one woman, had turned into the alley. All four were wearing formal suits of a style neither Nosgoth native recognised. The man heading the group made a gesture of disgust.

"Eeerrghhh. I've seem some damned ugly Nossies in my time, but these two redefine ugly!"

"Especially that one!" The woman grinned. "Hey, honey, your face so bad that you have to wrap a towel around it?"

Raziel growled. "It's been a bad day for me, mortal. Don't tempt fate."

"Mortal?" One of the group retorted. "For a bunch of Nosferatu, you're damned unobservant. You lounge in the middle of an area belonging to the Brujah Clan and you expect to see a roaming gang of humans?"

"I do not recognise your Clan, "Vampire", nor am I one of these Nosferatu that you speak of."

"Yeah? Then what clan do you belong to? I can't think of many that have members that could shatter mirrors like your face would."

"I am Raziel, Brujah, and I was the progenitor of the Razelim."

The leader Brujah looked unimpressed. "Everyone's heard of the Brujah, Mr Raziel, but Razelim? That's a no-account backwater bloodline, I'll bhet. And what about you, Greenie? You one of his Razelim?"

"Hardly. I have no clan. I need no crawling minions to hide behind."

"Oooooh, big mean Vampire! Then who'se the Vampire that needs no clan?"

"I am Kain."

There was a long pause. Then one of the Brujah laughed. "Caine? Yeah, right. If Caine really was around and awake, I'm sure he'd be found lurking in a back alley chatting with some sewer rat like your friend there!"

Kain chuckled. "At least you've heard of me. Such a shame that your insults have worn my patience down." With that, he let loose an energy bolt that blasted through the chest of the Brujah gang leader.

"What the HELL?!?!" The gang stood dead still in shock. Pulling out a phosphorus gun was one thing - they'd have expected that. But a lightning bolt from the hands? The gang wasn't sure that anything short of an Antediluvian could pull of a trick like that. Before they could pull themselves together, Raziel had pounced one another of their number and plunged a claw into his chest. The remaining man felt his Auspex-enhanced senses flare up, and he watched in disbelief as they told him that the ugly guy with the towel, and apparently only half a face, was pulling his friend's soul from his body and consuming it!

The female Brujah had just pulled out a gun when Kain used the Spirit Wrack spell he had discovered so long ago to eliminate her. The sole Brujah finally got his mind back together enough to turn and run...but too late. Raziel was behind him, and was activating the Soul Reaver. The Brujah backed up, and was promptly picked up by Kain.

"Now then, Brujah, can you give us a reason not to have you join your friends?" Kain taunted.

"Acckk...gnnn..." The Brujah tried to speak as Kain increased the pressure around the throat. "What...are you...? You gonna...kill Luna...?"

Kain paused. "Luna? Is this Luna in a position of power?"

The Brujah felt the pressure decrease slightly. "Julian Luna...he's the Prince of this city..."

"Prince of a city?" Kain scoffed. "I've ruled an entire world? Still, if we are to learn about this world, a Prince will be as good a place as any to start. Very well. Go to your Prince. Tell him that Kain is coming."

Kain threw the Brujah down the alley, where he hit the concrete hard. The Brujah forced his battered body to get up, daring to look back for one final glance. He was amazed to see the Vampire claiming to be Caine walk over to one of his dead friends and cause the blood in his body to shoot straight up into his mouth! He didn't want to see any more, but instead turned around and fled the scene.