She had to stop him. If Soul Edge were to claim a new host, she was certain the Gods and more importantly Sophitia would never forgive her.

Cassandra Alexandra had been following Siegfried for several days. When she had asked local villagers about a blond boy in Armor, they had pointed towards the village she was now dashing through. The sounds of battle grew closer and closer. Cassandra tightened her grip on her Short Sword and Shield. She began to mentally prepare herself for battle, how she would use her superior agility to dodge the youth's giant Zweihander sword and end his quest- and his life along with it. If that was the price of saving the world from another Knightmare, so be it. Besides, she had a personal debt to the bastard. Her head was still sore from that headbutt.

Cassandra found herself before the gangplank of a pirate ship anchored in the deserted town's port. The Greek let out a small gasp when she felt the presence of Soul Edge just a few feet away. And Siegfried was fighting someone, so…

Her stomach knotted. It was worse than she had imagined. Siegfried and some other opponent were duelling over the cursed sword. Instead of cornering the German in a deserted village, it was possible she would have to take on a reborn Azure Knight by herself. Were her skills up to the task in such a grim scenario?

She decided on a plan: Instead of attacking both Siegfried and his opponent and risk them uniting against her, she would wait until one finished the other and then attack the victor in his weakened state. She would kill Siegfried if he vanquished his opponent and likewise if the roles were reversed. It made no difference to her. Actually, she would get a little more pleasure out of executing the twisted German.

Cassandra waited by the plank, trying to judge the who was winning by the grunts and screams of battle. After a seemingly endless amount of time she risked a look on the ship deck. Siegfried was standing with his back to her, then for reasons she couldn't fathom dropped his giant sword to the ground with a dull thump of iron on wood. She didn't notice that Soul Edge's presence had vanished.

Her eyes widened. She could hardly ask for a better target- unaware and unarmed. A silent prayer to Zeus, highest of the gods ran through her mind as she ran to him, praying that he would blind the senses of the evildoer so she could close for the killing blow. The Olympian must have smiled upon her. Cassandra thrust her sword with it's silver blade into Siegfried. It buried itself up to it's hilt in him, penetrating his armor, going between his ribs and into his heart.

His visions of world conquest thwarted, the insane swordsman gasped and fell onto his stomach.

"Take that, Siegfried Schtauffen," She taunted. "It is a bitter ending for you to perish here, so close to your goal of reclaiming Soul Edge and again wreaking terror across the innocents of this world." She had no pity (Cassandra…) for him or anyone else who sought the sword for their own twisted desires. She watched with amusement as he struggled to turn over; to see who had triumphed over him, no doubt. She watched until life had faded from his blue eyes then turned to leave. She considering the fastest route back home to Athens (Cassandra.) when a pile of metallic debris caught her attention. She moved over to it and picked up what looked like a shard of a broken sword. The odd markings, the smell of old blood, was it…?

She turned back to regard the body of Siegfried.

"Did you do this?" she asked aloud.

Nobody answered. She ran over to where Siegfried lay-

(Cassandra!)

The voice of her sister brought Cassandra out of her daydream. She turned away from the window she had been looking out of to find a very angry Sophitia glaring at her.

"That's three times I've had to call for you! You're like Narcissus, except instead of your reflection, you're in love with your laziness," her older sister reprimanded. "Have you forgotten that Alexandros' order needs to be done by tonight? Five dozen loaves in a few hours is a labor that would challenge even Hercules. Come on!" Cassandra cast her eyes on the floor, nodded and followed her sister to resume her job of kneading bread dough. She purposely avoided looking at the golden-brown rolls fresh out of the oven. The color made her uncomfortable.

"Cassandra?" She looked up at her older sister, though it was difficult to see her as the sun had gone down several hours earlier. The two were walking home after finishing work. "I noticed that…you've been different lately." Cassandra nodded- a safe, neutral response. "Before you left to destroy Soul Edge," Sophitia continued, "you were the most dependable person I knew. But since then, you've changed." Cassandra kept silent and tried to guess where her sister was going with this. "You told me the blade was destroyed but you never told me exactly what happened."

And Cassandra wanted to keep it that way. She was piecing together an excuse when one presented itself to her: they arrived at the fork in the road where the two sisters parted paths- Sophitia naturally shared her home with her husband and children while Cassandra lived with their parents.

The younger sister feigned a yawn and said: "Sophie, it's late, we're both tired and it's not exactly a topic for light conversation. Perhaps tomorrow." Sophitia sighed- since having Pyrrha and Patroklos, Cassandra had noticed a shortening in her sister's patience- and seemed to be preparing to demand an explanation, but then thought better of it. Instead she placed her hand on Cassandra's shoulder.

"Cassie, I'm not stupid. I can tell that something that you don't want to tell even your sister about is bothering you. I guess then the only way I can help you out is with advice, so here it is: Don't be afraid to ask the gods for guidance. I can tell you their words helped me out more than once when I searched for Soul Edge. And I have a feeling that subject has to do with what's on your mind." Sophitia smiled. "Good night."

"Good Night," Cassandra returned. That night, she had a dream in which she was fighting the legendary hydra monster. Every time she cut off one of it's heads, two more grew in its place. She eventually killed it, but it had been oddly reluctant to fight her.

Author's note: You may wish to read the prequel, Black Requiem. With only 6681 words and seven chapters, it's a fairly short read.