I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Count Draco von Schneider, and Kenji Okamura

When our surroundings stabilized, we were in a room even more beat-up than Aglis. And that took some doing.

"So this is the Law City Zenebatos," Albert mused. "I've long wished to see it."

"Of course you have, Albert," Ryan said. "If you live long enough, one day you'll learn more than your brain can hold, and your head will explode. Such are the hazards of being a scholar."

We exited the teleporter chamber, and saw before us the ruins of the once-great city. But it was not motionless, as one would expect. Instead, there were automated units moving around, going about the business of passing laws that no one ever knew about.

There was a sound of wings nearby, and a large, ray-like creature floated toward us. "I am Coolon. Do you want to have wings?"

"This must be the 'wings' Savan mentioned," Dart said.

Rose frowned. "Dart, I have business in Vellweb. We will have to delay our search for the Signet Sphere here."

"Business…?" Dart looked puzzled, then looked up. "The lost Dragoons Shirley mentioned!"

"Yes. Stopping Zieg is important, but I can't leave my old friends trapped between life and death."

Dart nodded. "Of course. Will you need assistance?"

Rose shook her head. "Just Ian. We can handle it."

"Alright. We need supplies anyway, so we'll stop in Deningrad while you continue to Vellweb."

Why me? I wondered. Admittedly, we fight well together, but I would think that she'd bring Dart, if anyone. I'm not even from this world, and Dart is the first of our group she met.

I tabled my concerns as we climbed aboard Coolon and headed for Mille Seseau.

* * *

After a stopover in Deningrad, Rose and I continued on to Vellweb. We landed outside; the terrain inside was too rough for Coolon to land. Once within, it took only half an hour to reach the base of the Tower of the Seven Dragoons.

Even as it came into view, I could tell something was wrong. There was someone near; I felt eyes on me. This was confirmed when we got to the tower itself.

A figure dressed in black dropped in front of the entrance, laughing. "So it's you, Ian Takahari. I knew you would come here again."

My face drained of blood. I knew that voice, and hated it. "Temae! Fugiri rakugosha kakushigo!"

Rose glanced at me. "You know him?"

I nodded, furious. "Hideo Suzuki, rogue Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi."

"I thought you said there were only four of you left."

"I said rogue Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi. This particular ninja was cast out years ago, by my father. He suffers from lycanthropy, and rather than attempting to contain it, he gloried in it, killing every full moon."

Rose frowned. "Lycanthropy?"

"In plain language, a werewolf. Worse, the kakushigo learned to transform at will, and our clan began to get a bad name from his activities. Suzuki is one of the reasons the ninja hunters were formed. Eventually, my father, who was then leader of the clan, cast him out, with the warning that if Hideo ever returned, he would be killed on sight. Somehow, his exile apparently took him here. Now, I suppose he wants vengeance, since I am the son of the man who exiled him." I drew Arashi-Jisan. "Now it's time to finish the job my father began."

"Don't try to tell me to stay out of it. I won't. Your problems tend to become everyone's problems."

I sighed. Guess she's right. "Fine. But use Doragon-Adauchi. Rapiers have been known to break when faced with a katana."

Hideo laughed again. "Through chatting? I thought you wanted to fight, Takahari."

"Bring it on, traitor." I held my katana in a low guard position, then leapt over Suzuki's first strike, a leg cut. I retaliated on the way down, trying a slice that would have opened him from left shoulder to right hip, had he not blocked it.

The impact knocked me off balance, and Rose took the offensive, slipping a blow past his guard and opening a gash on his left arm.

"Two on one? Shameful, Takahari. Simply shameful." Hideo's next attack glanced off Rose's armor.

I flipped back to my feet, catching him in the chin in the process. "The one who fights fair is the one that dies."

"And I thought you ever-chivalrous Takaharis fought as you lived. Honorable, to the last." He hit me with a kuji spell that sent me high into the air, forcing me to drop my sword at the same time.

With me temporarily indisposed, Hideo turned his attention to Rose. "You're new to the katana, aren't you? And you thought you could defeat someone who's trained with them all his life?" He began to change, shifting to his wolf form.

"I don't need to defeat you," Rose replied. "I just need to keep you occupied long enough for Ian to finish you off."

Suzuki looked up at that. I had recovered midair and drawn Migi-no-te, while he was neither fully human nor fully werewolf. He was vulnerable, and I used the opportunity to land on his back, kick him away, and rebound, landing easily on my feet.

I walked over to him, sheathing the Masamune and retrieving Arashi-Jisan. "One thing you never learned, Hideo. The Gekido Oni Art was always the best." I brought the blade back, preparing for the killing stroke.

Hideo looked weakly up at me. "You know… what will happen… when you kill me, Takahari."

"I'll take that chance. Goodbye, outcast." I swung my katana, and Hideo Suzuki's head bounced away, while a fountain of blood gushed from his severed neck.

I whipped the blade through the air, shaking loose the blood, and sheathed it. "What did he mean?" Rose asked.

I stared at the corpse. "When a werewolf dies, he becomes a vampire. That's why my father didn't kill him. Because of this, one day I'll have to deal with him again, and he won't be this easy. But it had to be done." I looked at Rose. "Why did you insist on helping? You never interfere if it's not your problem, and this problem wouldn't have effected anyone else for a long time yet."

She simply looked at me. "I think you know."

I suppose so… Some things, no matter how deep you bury them, always come back to the surface… But it never occurred to me that Rose felt the same. Of course, for millennia she thought Zieg, her fiancé, dead, and now he's changed beyond recognition. She abandoned her love long ago. I slowly nodded. "I guess so." Man, Ryan and Karen are never gonna let me live this down. Of course, if they say anything, I'll simply kill them. Fortunate that neither of us is the emotional type.

Rose put a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, let's go."

I breathed deeply. "Yeah. We've got souls to free."

We climbed the stairs to the top of the Tower, to the walkway connecting the seven smaller towers. There were only four we needed to check; of the others, Shirley had already left, Zieg was still alive, and Rose was with me.

I felt uneasy, as we walked. I again had the feeling we were being watched, but this felt different. Curious, rather than malevolent.

There was a soft voice nearby. "So you are the vampire hunter, Ian Takahari." I spun around. A youthful-looking female vampire stood there. "There's no need for that," she said, as I reached for my sword. "We mean no harm."

"You're a vampire. That makes you a threat." I had hunted their kind for years, ever since I first encountered Draco von Schneider.

"Yet you have a vampire with you, don't you? Not all vampires are what you think. Those of this coven don't drink the blood of humans; only animals. Can you really fault us, when we are not vampires by choice?"

I nodded grudgingly. "Point. I suppose von Schneider turned you?"

The vampire nodded. "Yes. Realizing what we had become, we fled here, and established this coven. But we are older than you think; we are from your world, originally. But the barriers between the two worlds are easily permeable, and centuries ago we came here. There are more of us now than there once were, as some have joined us by choice since then, since vampires are immortal. But we are not the kind you hunt, Takahari. Any who violate our rules are put to death." She glanced at the towers we were heading for. "But you are here on business. Be about it; all we ask is that you not forget us. We don't wish to be hunted any longer."

"When we return to our comrades, I'll send one of them to you. Kenji Okamura is also a vampire hunter, but he can't exactly hunt them any longer when he is one. Till we meet again."

The vampire nodded and left, while Rose and I continued to the tower that had once belonged to Damia, the Blue-Sea Dragoon.

Once within, I was startled by the appearance of the room. It was as if we had gone back eleven thousand years; the tower appeared not to have changed since Damia's death, all those years ago.

There was a flash, and Damia herself appeared before us. "She looks young," I said to Rose, voice low.

"Yes," she replied. "She was fifteen back then, younger than Meru. Half-human, half-mermaid, she matured faster than full humans, and fought well."

"I wish we didn't have to do this."

"But we do." Rose stepped forward. "Damia… do you remember me?"

The girl looked up. "Rose? Of course. It hasn't been long."

Rose sighed. "Then you don't remember…"

"Remember what?"

I walked forward. "The battle of Kadessa," I said softly.

Memory apparently returned to Damia then. "That's right… I'm dead, aren't I? And you're here to send me on?"

Rose nodded, looking relieved that Damia understood. "Yes. I'm sorry."

"I know. But it must be done." Damia held up her hammer. "Let's go."

The battle was mercifully short. My blade cleaved through the handle of the hammer, then Rose's rapier pierced Damia's heart.

"Rose… thank you. Will you be there?"

"Someday, Damia. But there are things I must attend to."

"I know. Goodbye, Rose…" There was another flash, and then the room was just an empty old ruin.

We headed for Kanzas's tower next. This, I was looking forward to; anyone who took that much pleasure in killing did not belong in our world.

I didn't bother speaking when we entered. I simply drew my blade and attacked. He hadn't practiced in eleven thousand years, so it took exactly two moves to defeat him: I chopped once to relieve him of his hands, then pulled back and sliced, decapitating him.

"Just how skilled were all the people he killed during his lifetime?" I asked Rose.

"Apparently less skilled than you. Most he killed even faster than you killed him." She thought a moment. "The next tower was once Syuveil's. There he studied life, and the matter which concerned him more: death. That's probably what's holding him here. With Mayfil active, Syuveil will have seen a world of darkness ahead of him, a place that has always terrified him. We must send him elsewhere, if we can."

Syuveil was studying his books when we entered. "Rose. It's been a while."

"Yes, it has, Syuveil. How are your studies?"

He sighed. "I have learned all there is to know about what lies ahead of me. The darkness beckons; I do not wish to go."

"That is what has been holding you here?" Syuveil nodded. "Then control your own destiny. Follow the path of light, not dark. You don't have to go to the darkness."

"Then help me. Set me free."

I drew Arashi-Jisan. "Very well, Jade Dragoon. We will set you on the path." I lunged, swinging my katana at his spear. In ninja training, I had fought with and against every edged weapon made, and knew the sword to be the best. A properly sharpened blade would cut right through a spear's haft, leaving the spearman helpless. That was exactly what I was attempting.

But unlike Kanzas, Syuveil's skills had not entirely atrophied with the passing years, and he dodged my strike. But someone who wishes to be defeated usually gets his wish rather quickly, and Rose's rapier appeared through his chest.

"Rose, thank you," he wheezed. "I see… the light…" And he vanished, leaving his chamber as empty, open, dusty, and dead as the others. That only left Belzac, Kongol's predecessor.

Belzac was speaking softly as we entered. He smiled when he saw Rose. "Ah, Rose. You have come. And brought a friend." He didn't appear concerned by the fact that he'd never seen me before.

"Belzac… there isn't much time." Rose said.

He nodded. "Yes. The subjugation of Kadessa will begin soon."

"You don't remember, either." Rose had difficulty speaking. "You're dead, Belzac. All of you."

"Shirley, too!?" Belzac's face took on an expression of horror. "No! I don't believe it!"

He charged me, thus scaring the daylights out of me and showing that there was indeed something more terrifying than a charging Giganto: a charging Golden Dragoon. I cart wheeled out of the way, then shifted to Dragoon form. There was a spell that I wanted to try out.

"Most people don't realize that diamonds also make excellent focusing crystals for lasers. Let me show you how wrong they are! Diamond Cannon!" As the Earth Dragoon, Belzac was weak against magic, and the enormous energy blasted ripped into him, fatally injuring him.

He smiled slightly. "Thank you, Dragoons. Now… I go… to be with Shirley. Farewell." And with his passing, only two of the Dragoons from the Dragon Campaign remained.

Author's note: Two updates in as many days. Fastest I've ever written.

If you're wondering why the Lost Dragoons went down so fast, my reasoning is that their skills wouldn't be in top shape after so many years. Besides which, a real swordfight doesn't take very long.

This chapter's translations: "Temae! Fugiri rakugosha kakushigo" roughly means "You! Dishonorable outcast bastard".

Anyway, read it and let me know what you think. ~Solid Shark