Post-Defiance Fan Fiction: Mirrors of Balance

By: Dragonaia

Disclaimer: The Legacy of Kain games belong to Eidos and the Silicone Knights, not to me, much though I may wish it. The OOC involved in this fiction belong to me however, Kainen/Katherine, the Voice, and the few secondary others. My retribution will be swift and horrifying.

Author's Comments: The alternate dimension is a modernized world very similar to ours. I included a Kain-perspective voiceover in the beginning because someone asked me to, though I switched back to normal narration for the remainder. I also could not help but have Raziel still sentient within the sword. As much as I love Kain's 'conquer-the-world' attitude, he's my favourite character and I would have missed him.

Chapter 3: The Alternate Realm

As I stepped from the portal I beheld something that even my old eyes had never seen before. Beneath me lay a field of glittering lights and towering spires, each one glowing from inside with thousands of points of luminescence. Such was the strength of the illumination around me that the streets seemed to be bathed in the full strength of daylight though no sun was present overhead, and the clouds burned in reflected radiance. The roar of engines and other mysterious machinations reached my ears, a rising cacophony of sound that put the most ferocious thunderstorm I'd ever heard to shame. Meridian indeed, that place could not even compare.

I was standing on the roof of one of those high buildings, the surface flat and covered in a thick layer of gravel. A few feet from where I stood was a house built of glass containing a patch of wild greenery, and next to that was a ramshackle shed from which I could detect the sleeping coos of pigeons and other small birds. Several metal projections stood up out of the roof, including what I assumed was a door to the lower levels of the building. I approached the edge of the roof, peering down at the streets far below. Tiny spots of colour streaked up and down the broad roads, and throngs of people traveled the walkways, the bright notes of mindless chatter and strains of music travelling all the way up to this high vantage point. It was chaos of movement that put me more in mind of a beehive than any city I had ever seen before.

My hand traveled cautiously to the hilt of the Reaver. The Voice had told me that this place was more 'wholesome' than Meridian, but I would not have survived to this great age if I took every scrap of information tossed to me at face value.

"What a wondrous place," Raziel's familiar cultured voice commented from behind his shoulder, snapping him out of his contemplations. He had to restrain the urge to jump. "It is a pity our stay here must be so brief. I would have liked to see more of it."

"Raziel! You can see all this?" Kain asked in shock. The blade had never spoken to him before in the past few hours he'd been contained within it.

"After a manner of speaking," Raziel replied, the eyes of the Reaver pulsing with each word. "I think that because I entered the blade willingly the effect was slightly different than if I'd been forced into my destined prison. In addition to the abilities I've apparently garnered, I can only hope that I might be able to avert the madness as well."

Kain nodded absently in relief. It alleviated his guilt somewhat that Raziel was still himself, although the wraith was undeniably still trapped within the blade. He suspected that the spirit's original madness had been derived from the extended periods of solitude, so this newfound ability to speak might go a long way to preventing that.

He was about to delve deeper into that point with Raziel when there was a loud screech of metal and the door to the roof opened.

"Are we feeding Mr. McCrae's birds Joseph?" a little girl asked happily, bouncing through the door and holding it open for the teenage boy following behind her, a large burlap bag thrown over his shoulder.

"No Allie," the boy answered, readjusting his load awkwardly. "But you can still look at them. I'm just going to empty this birdseed into the feeding bin for the old guy because he can't carry these things up the stairs anymore."

Neither human seemed to notice Kain as they approached the wooden hut, the girl throwing open the lid of a barrel so the boy could slit the bag open with his pocket-knife and pour the seed inside. Growing bored with the process and unable to catch sight the sleeping birds within, the little girl soon lost interest and began to explore the rooftop, tapping on the glass of the greenhouse before finally noticing Kain.

Her eyes went round with fright and she backed away from the vampire slowly, reaching the boy and tugging on his pant leg. "Joseph," she whispered urgently, "Joseph there's a vampire over there."

Kain said and did nothing. The reaction of these two humans would help him a great deal in determining how to proceed with their species while on his quest here.

"Allie," the boy answered, "I'm too busy to play with you right now. Be careful or you're going to pull my pants off. Stop it."

"Joseph I mean it," the girl insisted in her shrill panicked whisper. "There's a ugly weird-looking vampire over there. He's staring at us."

The boy lifted his head and finally beheld the fearsome vampire emperor. He gaped openly. Kain waited patiently for the boy to scream, drop what he was doing, grab his sister and run for the door. He did none of those things.

There was no mistaking the scent of fear coming from the two humans, but the boy only finished emptying the bag, and with shaking hands folded the empty burlap into a roll, took his sister by the hand, and carefully led her back to the door. Once he had pushed the girl into the threshold, he turned back to Kain.

"Would you like me to leave the door open for you sir?" he asked nervously, bowing his head a little in the vampire's direction.

"You aren't afraid of me?" Kain said instead of answering the question. The strange reaction to his presence had made him curious. He flashed the boy a cruel smile, fangs glinting clearly in the light pouring from the doorway.

"I'm very afraid of you sir," the boy answered, trying to encourage his sibling to go down the stairs. But she was having none of that, too curious to leave. "But the CVC gave a talk at my school a couple months ago, and they said that there are three rules to surviving an encounter with a vampire, especially the really old ones like you." Kain blinked in surprise. It was strange that an ordinary human would be able to tell the difference, particularly one as young as this. "The first rule is to be very, very polite. The second is to do what they tell you to do just long enough to get away. The third and most important rule is to never run, and never to act afraid, because that might make you prey."

"Wise advice," Kain replied, turning the words over in his mind. "Who are the CVC?"

"The Centre for Vampiric Control and regulation," the boy was extremely uncomfortable as he answered. "They regulate the goings on between our kind and yours. How come you've never heard of them?"

Kain's hunger clawed at his insides suddenly, reminding him that he needed to feed. The two human children smelled delectable to him, but even at the height of his depraved empire, they were too young for him to be feeding on. The Voice's warning was still fresh in his mind, and even if it hadn't been, he knew that an assault on two mortal children would do little to encourage the goodwill and assistance of the natives.

"Are you hungry sir?" The boy's tentative question caught him off guard.

"What?" he asked in surprise.

"Surely you're not offering to feed him, are you boy?" Raziel's shocked words echoed from over his shoulder. The vampire's head whipped around to glare at the skull hilt of the Reaver.

"Oh my god Joseph," the little girl murmured in excitement. "That guy's sword just talked!"

"No," the boy stuttered, terrified now. "No, I'm not offering, but I figured you weren't from around here, so you didn't know…."

"Didn't know what?" Kain growled bad-temperedly. He did not like it when someone pointed out his ignorance.

"I'll show you," the boy answered, hurrying across the rooftop to point at something in the distance. His sister followed a few seconds after. "See that white circle on that building way over there, with the red cross on top of it?"

"Yes, I do." Kain spotted the glowing sign quite easily.

"Well," the boy tried to gesture his sister back into the stairwell, but she ignored him, staring up at Kain in fascination. "That's a blood bank," he glanced over at Kain's confused frown. "A vampire feeding station. Every human in Nosgoth gives a blood tithe a couple times a year to the hospitals and to help feed the vampire population. Only kids and pregnant women are exempted. It's kind of like taxes, and mom says that if you do it more often than you have to, you can actually get a rebate. Dad went last week to make this month's donation. If you go there they'll give you whatever you need. Information, food… whatever."

"Blood as taxes?" Kain repeated the question to himself in amusement. "What an ingenious idea. So if I go there I'll be able to meet with others of my kind then?"

"We've even seen them go there in the daytime," the girl spoke up.

"There are places for the fledglings to hang out until the sun goes down and they get caught too far away from their dens, though people are legally supposed to let them into their houses in emergencies," the boy elaborated further.

"Your people are governed by vampires?" Raziel asked.

The boy was justifiably startled when the Reaver spoke to him again, but he was too scared not to answer the question. "No, the government's mostly human as far as I know."

"How strange…" the imprisoned wraith said to Kain, but he was not listening. Hunger was driving him forward now, and however willing to answer his questions these two humans were; he was going to have to feed… and soon.

"Thank you for your assistance little humans, but I'm afraid I must be going now," Kain made as if to jump from the roof ledge.

"Wait Kain," Raziel protested. "The portal, tell them to stay away from the portal!"

"That's right," Kain glanced around the dark rooftop. The swirling black vortex was hard to make out at this time of night, but he finally managed it. He looked at the boy. "There is something dangerous up here on the roof tonight, though I shall endeavour to be rid of it as quickly as I can. Is there any way to lock the door you came through?" He wouldn't want any of these foreign humans running loose in his Nosgoth.

The human dug into his pocket and displayed a length of keys on a chain. "My dad's the superintendent of this building. He'll be mad at me, but I can probably loose his keys for a few days."

"Good," Kain nodded in agreement and he leaped from the ledge, reasonably sure he would be obeyed. The taste of blood was singing in his mind now, and nothing was going to deter him from sating his hunger.

He used telekinesis to slow his fall and landed lightly on his cloven feet, the tips clicking on the strange, moulded, and black rock-like substance beneath him. The alley around him was dirty and piled high with garbage, but he'd seen main roads in cities in his own dimension encrusted with so much waste it threatened to pour into people's homes. Nearby was the insistent pulse of a strange sort of music and besides the human filth; he could detect many different vampiric scents on the breeze. It appeared the vampire population in this city was flourishing.

"Be careful Kain," Raziel's voice warned cautiously, "Keep track of your bearings. It seems like it could very easy to become lost in this place. Are you even sure where you're heading?"

"I made careful note of where I am supposed to go Raziel," Kain replied bad-temperedly, his patience wearing thin. "Are you going to keep up this commentary throughout our entire quest here, or is it possible I might be graced with some silence tonight?"

The sword reluctantly fell silent, though it obviously did so resentfully. Something very amusing suddenly occurred to Kain and he laughed under his breath.

"What?" Raziel said crossly, knowing that he was the brunt of the joke.

"I can't help but find it humorous that you would go to the trouble of speaking to a couple of random human children, but throughout my encounter with the entity you said nothing. Why is that?"

"You didn't see what I saw Kain," the wraith's tone was warning. "I don't think it knew I was there or it might have tried to disguise itself. It was immense Kain, its presence easily large enough to fill the basin the Pillars are built within. Not nearly the size of the Elder of course, but still alarming. I was most afraid for your safety when you attempted to bait it."

"So you think it was lying to us then?" Kain asked immediately.

"No, quite the contrary actually. I think it was trying not to intimidate you. Evidently it knew enough about you to know that sort of tactic would not work well. The light display was just that, a harmless display. Despite what I could see with my wraith eyes, I received the same impression you did. It was both telling us the truth and very desperate. Although there was one other thing I picked up on that you did not."

"What is that?"

"I'm also fairly certain that the entity was female."

Kain's head snapped around to glare at the Reaver. "What on Nosgoth gave you that impression, and how is that relevant?"

"I'm not sure why its relevant," he could almost hear the shrug in Raziel's voice. "But that was just the impression I received. The sort of arrogance it spoke to you with, the way it played at your ego while mocking it at the same time. It just seemed female to me. I'm not sure exactly why I thought that, but I did. Perhaps it will be useful later on."

"I can hardly see how that-" Kain's disparaging remark was cut off by the sound of smashing glass and cries from the alley further behind him. Some sort of fight or brawl was taking place outside of what appeared to be a tavern, the loud screeching strains of music pouring from the open doors. Now that was something he was most familiar with. Despite his hunger, Kain allowed himself to be drawn to the source of the commotion.

The tavern doors had been ripped off the hinges, and a human wearing a strange sort of cloth armour sat up, shaking the debris off him. Kain instantly recognized the symbol of the Saraphan Order emblazoned on the man's back. Perhaps this place wasn't as idyllic as the Voice had let on. Another human bearing similar armour ran out of the doors, concern written on his familiar elegant features.

"Rahab you idiot," the human Raziel said in concern, standing over his brother. "Are you okay? Mom will kill me if I got you hurt."

"I'm fine," the dark-haired hunter laughed his brother off. "That son of bitch kicked me harder than I expected."

"You're lucky you didn't crack your head open." The human Raziel frowned down at his sibling.

"I'm lucky I'm from a hunter bloodline." Rahab waved him away. "Did you see where those fanged bastards went?"

Kain regarded his former sons from his place hidden in the shadows. They were far different than he ever could have anticipated. Both spoke with the same alien sort of slang as the children on the rooftop, and they seemed to lack the zealous fanaticism they'd possessed as Saraphan Priests in his Nosgoth's history. The reference to a 'hunter bloodline' was also unfamiliar. It appeared that in this Nosgoth these two members of his brood at least were physically related, not just by a religious brotherhood.

"It's an odd feeling to see myself and not feel the paradox threatening," the wraith Raziel commented absently from his perch.

"It must also be a relief to see a human version of yourself that is not a evil butcher and murderer, is it not?" Kain replied to the statement with a wry smile.

"I do not find that very funny at all Kain," Raziel snapped back with ill humour.

The last few bits of door were kicked out of the threshold by four hulking vampire fledglings, each one furious and menacing. A crowd of mixed humans and vampires followed behind them, dressed in outlandish clothing and chattering amongst themselves as they watched the fight taking place in the alleyway.

Smiling broadly, Rahab grasped his brother by the arm and hauled himself to his feet. "What's the matter boys? Did I offend you or something?" he called out at the advancing vampires, moving to block their path.

One of the vampires gave an inarticulate roar and rushed at him, fangs and claws bared for the attack. Rahab was bodily picked up off the ground and tossed several meters in the air, crashing back into a solid brick wall with a thud and a small shower of red dust. There was a hoarse cough and the human Rahab stood up, rubbing his back stiffly, although otherwise visibly unharmed.

'Now that wasn't very nice," he said, stepping back alongside his brother.

Kain leaned unconsciously forward. Now this was very different. Even the best human vampire hunter Kain had ever seen, Malek the Conflict Guardian included, would have been hard pressed to recover that quickly. The hunter's strength encroached on the vampiric. The other thing that struck Kain as distinctly out of place was that neither Raziel nor Rahab were armed. They wore leather straps that were obviously meant to hold a large variety of weaponry, but which now hung empty. He knew that it had to have been done deliberately.

"Damned Saraphan!" a young female fledgling hissed at them furiously. "Why do you trespass where you clearly aren't welcome?"

"I don't see any signs posted," Raziel answered contemptuously, "And there are no laws to prevent hunters like us from walking into whatever clubs we want to."

The vampire who'd struck Rahab gave another howl of fury and tried to launch himself at the hunters again, but his fellows threw their arms around him and pulled him back just in time. He snapped his sharp white fangs in the air as if eager to reach the Saraphan's throats.

"You look like you want to kill me Tanner." Rahab smiled maliciously at the struggling vampire. "You do, don't you?"

"Leave it be Tanner you idiot!" another fledgling yelled at the one who was fighting to get at the hunter. "They're just baiting you! They're fishing for evidence to get a hunting permit!"

"Damn right we are," Raziel was glowering imperiously at the hostile crowd standing around him. "Son of a bitch has received three warnings for assaulting hunters, and five for attacking civilians. You're an accident waiting to happen Tanner. What's wrong with trying to get a jump-start on something we're eventually going to end up doing anyway? Most people would consider us being responsible in our duties."

"Except that you're overstepping your bounds again Saraphan brat." A voice called out authoritatively over the heads of the crowd. A flash of revolving red and blue lights streaked the sides of the overhead buildings and a loud wailing siren went off, sending most of the crowd, mortal and immortal alike, scattering or running back into the bar they'd just come from.

The vampire who stepped forward now Kain could see was only slightly younger than Raziel had been before he'd fallen into the abyss. Beside her sat a man straddling a long husky bi-wheeled machine, the blaring siren cresting its rounded metallic nose. Words were painted in black across the machine's sides, 'Coorhagen City Police Department'. Both human and vampire were clad in matching black and grey uniforms, cloth armour, leather accessories well oiled and shined, and silver and bronze badges pinned to their chests. But where the female vampire bore a longsword in addition to the strange compact weapons strapped to her hips, a dark black helmet covered the man's face, only his eyes visible beneath the glass visor. He reached forward on the machine and pressed a button, turning the siren off. It did not take a great intuitive leap for Kain to guess that they were the town guard.

"Hello Rastha. It's been a while," Rahab approached the woman fearlessly.

"Indeed," the vampire answered coldly, "It's been a long two hours since I last saw your handsome faces. What brings you all the way out here at this time of night?"

"Nothing much," Rahab smiled and shrugged. "Just out for a taste of the night life you might say."

"Very funny," Rastha answered with an aggravated roll of her yellow eyes. "Hand it over."

"Hand what over?"

"The camera, hand it over." She opened her palm expectantly.

"We don't know what you're talking about." Raziel made to stand between his younger brother and the vampire. "Quit harassing us lieutenant. We disarmed like you asked us to. You've got no good reason to be bothering us anymore."

"Saraphan," the vampiress stared at each hunter levelly in the eyes, enunciating her syllables slowly to make herself very clear. "If I do not have that camera within the next fifteen seconds, I will be arresting you both and dragging your bigoted asses back to the station. Once there, I will personally perform the full body cavity search, and I will not be gentle." She lifted her three-taloned hands in demonstration. "Have I made myself very clear?"

The Saraphan brothers exchanged a darkly rebellious look before Raziel reached up to his collar and removed a small black device, placing it reluctantly in the female's hand. "There. Can we go now?"

"Be my guest." Lieutenant Rastha stepped out of their way and gave a mock courtly bow towards the main road. "And I better not see you boys again tonight, or for the next week. You hear me?"

"Yes ma'am."

Both hunters started out reluctantly for the main street. "Pushy bitch," Rahab muttered rebelliously under his breath. Raziel responded with something equally offensive back.

"You kiss your mama with that mouth?" Rastha called out after them. She was ignored.

Her human partner sat up and pushed his visor away from his face. "Crazy-obsessed Saraphan freaks! I don't know why their behaviour is even considered legal. We should have locked up the whole bunch of them years ago. Keep them from propagating their bullshit."

"Now, now Crai." Rastha ran her claws wearily through her long black hair. "Let's not be too hard on them. You know the Bloodline hunters can't help themselves. They're born, bred and raised for it. What makes them good hunters also makes them assholes. It's not their fault. We still need their skills whether most vampires want to admit it or not, so we've just got to learn to deal with the young hotheads like those. They'll mellow out eventually."

"That's awfully generous of you, considering." Her partner answered diplomatically.

"I've survived as long as I have because I'm a realist. I learned to see the big picture centuries ago." Despite the casualness of the topic of conversation, the vampire was alert, her eyes searching the alley around her and her ears perked. More than once Kain was sure he'd been found, but her eyes would look past him and move on to something else. She could sense something.

"You okay?" the human asked, noticing his partner's uneasiness. "What's the matter?"

"Don't worry about it." Rastha turned back to him. "You go after those two Saraphan. Make sure they don't stir up any more trouble. I'm going to hang back here and look around for a bit. I'll see you in time for the next shift tomorrow."

"If you insist."

"I do."

"See you tomorrow then." The human kicked his engine to roaring life and reluctantly turned his strange machine around, speeding out onto the road and alert for any signs of the young Saraphan.

"All right," Rastha stepped into the centre of the alley, hands travelling to one of the weapons on her belt. "I know you're there. Come out, come out wherever you are vampire." Every step took her closer to the vampire lord and his wraith blade hidden within the dark curtain of shadows.

(A couple additional notes. I introduced a few fairly integral concepts that will be explained more in depth in the following chapters, including bloodline hunters and the CVC. There are also some hugely major historical differences between the dimensions. Rastha is not a main character though I do like her. If you have any questions or comments, message or review please. Also, are my chapters too long? If people review I feel beholden to write more.)