Hello once again, my fellow ff.net readers! It's the fifth chapter of "Walking Through Dream". Reviews are completely welcome.

And on a side note, Christmas was great. I ate turkey, got fat, ate ham, got fat(ter), and opened presents. It was great. I also received a new PS2 game, called Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Very different from your average RPG, and a whole hell of a lot harder too. But a good game, if somewhat short and grim.

If I don't watch myself I'll ramble on. It's now...

"SHOWTIME!"

Chapter Five

Choices

Maxi looked at the wise man. His eyes were determined, but they were also weak. He was still in great pain.

Maxi had been found by a fisherman on the coast of a village far from Nightmare's castle. Even today he had trouble locating it on a map. He'd been here for two years. Too long.

Too long by far.

He missed them. He missed Kilik and Xianghua. Kilik had been the yin to his yang, his best friend and his exact opposite. Where Maxi favored drinking, womanizing, and rowdiness, Kilik was sober, chaste (Maxi had once asked him if he was a eunuch), and calm. They complimented each other perfectly.

But it was Xianghua he missed most of all. She had seemed pure, perfect. An angel, almost, a being so much greater than any mere human. Maxi, gazing at her from the middle of all his human flaws, had wondered that such as her would grant such as him the gift of her friendship. He'd journeyed mostly for revenge, but partly to repay her. To repay her for being so much more than him and yet still caring for him.

He'd watched her as they'd traveled, watched her from the darkness of his soul (much as he joked about it, it really was dark. Thievery, while not as dark as many sins, was still dark). Watched her perfection. And he had fallen in love. They'd talked on many nights together, so many starry nights... When the journey was over, he'd hoped to ask her to marry him. He'd promise anything. He'd change his ways, pay back everyone he'd stolen from, stop drinking, all for her.

But then again, he'd never reckoned with Ares.

The battle with Astaroth hadn't gone on much longer after Kilik and Xianghua entered the nightmare reality of Inferno. The finishing blows were being struck even as the first blows there were being made. Astaroth was a huge creature, a monster even by the standards of Inferno, but Maxi was a man fueled by vengeance. His nunchuka, a creation by one of his dead crew members named Fatibal, whirled in the air time and time again. The wood of the weapon slammed into Astaroth, breaking unholy bones and sinews bound by magic, crushing organs that should not exist and a mind made for evil. Astaroth's struggles ceased under the unending rain of blows from his opponent, and finally Maxi stopped over his dead form. He was panting, gasping for breath, and filled with the realization that he had done it. The bastard was dead. His crew was avenged. He fell back, sitting down on the ground. He heard no sounds of battle behind him, and briefly wondered about it. His tired mind decided that his friends must have entered a separate room to continue their battle with Nightmare. Maxi got up, meaning to join them.

It was at that point the ground opened up. He had heard something scream at him, something that felt like air rushing around him. He'd fallen down, down into that pit, down into the abyss. The crevice was just big enough to swallow both him and Astaroth's titanic corpse. He'd fallen, certain he was going to die...

And the next thing he knew, he was waking up in the home of a fisherman, propped up on a bed, with a great commotion going on all about.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He remembered a voice, soft and lovely, a voice that faintly reminded him of Xianghua. But not of Xianghua herself, but rather something about her... A voice telling him that something would happen soon, something he had to participate in. To watch, and listen.

But that may have just been his own dazed dreams.

Maxi had laid in bed for some time after that; two months, give or take a few days. His body had been hurt and broken in so many places... He wondered where he had gotten them. It certainly wasn't from his battle with Astaroth. He guessed he'd received them from his fall, but that explanation never sounded quite right in his mind.

His wounds had been such that he could not move without great pain, and he certainly was in no condition to travel back home. So he had stayed here, helping the villagers who had been so kind to him, and listening to the news brought by sailors. The town was by no means big, but many ships would stop by for a bit of fresh fruit or drink. Sailors sat in the bars and talked, and Maxi found many interesting things in their conversations. Most was useless to him, but some was priceless. One such gem was the fact that Nightmare was dead. Another was that Kilik and Xianghua were alive and back in Asia. He was glad. He knew they thought he was dead, and felt no anger at them for deserting him. After all, they thought he was buried under the rubble of Nightmare's castle. How could they know he was alive, when even he didn't know how he had done it?

His idyllic (if rather painful) life here had been stopped two days ago. Sailors talked of an great giant of a man, wielding an enormous axe. A monster who had slaughtered an entire village, then dissappeared. A single man, who had left on a hunting trip, survived. He'd returned just in time to see the monster behead his neighbor. He'd run off, yelling his tale to all who would listen.

Maxi had heard this from some Spanish sailors, and knew it was Astaroth. He didn't know how, but the monster lived.

And that meant his journey was not over yet.

He had came to this wise man (who lived near the village in a cave by himself, and came in once a week for supplies) to ask for strength. He was so weak he could barely move. But he had to fight.

And the wise man had said that yes, he could heal him. But the cost was high. Maxi had to give up something, sacrifice something, to heal himself. Something precious to him.

And Maxi had only one thing left like that.

His memories.

" Wise one," Maxi said, his voice almost unaccented now (two years in the European fishing village had driven his Japanese accent below the surface), " I have only one thing left in me. One thing precious to me."

" What, warrior? What precious thing do you have?" The old man looked on the youth in front of him, noting everything about him with his ancient eyes.

[ You are young in body,] he thought, [ but old in the heart... maybe older than I am.]

" My memories. My memories of a journey, long ago."

" Memory. A precious thing, indeed. But are you willing to do it? To give your memories up? You won't remember even having these memories, much less what they were. Are you sure?"

Maxi thought for a moment. Kilik, Xianghua, all they had shared... could he forget them? Could he really forgot all about them?

" Wise one," Maxi began, looking down and tears standing in his eyes, " these memories are all I have left. These memories are what has kept me going, the hope that's let me live here. The hope that one day, I will heal enough to go and find my friends again."

He sighed, and the old man closed his eyes and bowed his head. [ Yes,] he thought. [ You are far older than me, warrior.] The old man raised his head when Maxi continued. " But I know now that a hundred years won't heal me. I'm too badly hurt. I've barely recovered my ability to move in two years. And I'm not healing like I should. Time's not recovering me."

He looked up at the old man, and his eyes blazed with part of the fire that had kept him going two years ago. " And this may be my last chance to find them. If they hear about me, alive and well, fighting Astaroth, then they'll come. Xianghua, and Kilik. They'll come running if they hear about a battle between a giant and a Asian. They'll know it's me. Alive, and well. And if I don't remember, so what? They'll help me. They always did. It's what we all did on that journey... picked each other up when we fell down. And I have to trust in that."

He put his arm on the old man's shoulder. " I want to kill Astaroth. But I want to find my friends. And if, to do that, I must forget everything... so be it. My soul will remember."

He nodded to the old man. " Just let me remember Astaroth. Let me remember to fight him, and kill him. That's all I ask."

" I will, warrior," the old man said.

And light filled the cave.

************************************************************************

"The Raving Fool", tavern in London, one hour after assassination attempt.

Kilik sat on the end of the bed, staring at the glowing crimson fragment Siegfried held in his hand. Ivy sat next to him, staring at the fragment. Kilik could only shake his head in wonder.

" How?" he asked them. " Xianghua and I killed Nightmare (he didn't notice Siegfried's slight twitch when he said that) and Inferno with him. How can it still exist? How?..."

Siegfried glared at the shard, all the hate and pain in his soul bared at it. Although he'd thought he would prove weak against the shard, having been possessed by it and it's brethren for so long, it was just the opposite. His sheer hatred of the shard, of all that the Soul Edge represented, was more than enough to drown out it's voice in his mind. He thought it would be different if there were more shards, but was secretly (and grimly) pleased that he could fight off the effects of even one shard.

" What if Inferno escaped?" Siegfried said. He didn't look in the monk's eyes. He couldn't let this monk know that he had been Nightmare. That brought up too many questions... too many shames. He was ashamed of what he'd done, ashamed of all he'd been. And worse yet, how many people, once knowledge of who he was got out, would take into consideration that he had been possessed? How many people, their parents or lovers or children killed by him as Nightmare, would forgive him?

" I don't see how," Kilik said, then a thought came to him. Xianghua had been acting very strangely after the battle...

Ivy said nothing, merely stared into the shard. It was calling her, whispering to her that she could find her father just by taking up this shard, could find what she'd always faintly missed since that rainy night so long ago...

Siegfried saw her face gain the slack, wide-eyed expression he knew all too well and clenched his hand shut tight, focusing all his hate and mental will on the shard. The shard, faced with all the righteous hate and anguish of a tortured soul, lost it's power and retreated into itself. Ivy snapped too, and looked at him.

" A voice," she choked out thickly, as if half-drugged or asleep.

" I know," Siegfried said. " Don't listen. It promises everything and nothing. Block it out. Think of hope, hate, love, anything at all. Just DON'T LISTEN."

Kilik looked at Siegfried. How did he know so much about the Soul Edge? Kilik decided to file that for later reference. Shrugging, Kilik said, " Where are you guys headed?"

Siegfried pointed to a bag in the far corner of the room. " To collect a bounty, then... well, I don't know for me."

Ivy looked up. " Navare. I'm heading to Navare, in Portugal. After that, I'm going to Valencia, Spain."

Siegfried looked at her. " I thought you said you didn't know where you were going after we cashed the bounty."

She looked at him, her voice oddly toneless. She still couldn't believe how easily she had almost been duped by the shard. " I didn't know whether to trust you or not then."

Siegfried nodded. " Fair enough. But the Scarabs might try again, and I can't think of any more bounties I can pursue here in England. What if I joined you?"

She looked at him, and nodded. " That would be fine. You saved my life. The least I could do is let you accompany me."

He nodded, feeling oddly relieved in his heart and soul.

" And as for you," she said, turning to Kilik, " what are you going to do?"

" I'm going back to Asia," Kilik said. " I have to tell Xianghua about this. She's the only one who knows where the Soul Caliber might be. But if the Scarabs attack you again, I can get more information. Would you mind if I came along as well?"

She shook her head. " No. That would be fine by me. Just let me pick up some supplies after we cash in the bounty, and we should be able to head to Navare in a day or so."

They all nodded to each other, and set off.

- There you go. Happy New Years, and good school years to you too.