A Conversation With…Myself?

"Are you sure you want to tell him Rayde?" Dekrosna asked.

"Yes, he's obviously lost any trust in me at all, and he needs to know that I know what he's going through, doubly." Rayde answered

"Okay, if you're sure." Dekrosna said.

"I'm sure," Rayde finished, "either way, we're gonna have to pick up his training where we left off. You know how to fight too Dekrosna, why don't you join us?"

"Yes, that's a good idea." Ultima approached from where Aster was lying, still unconscious.

Suddenly Scrierea, Leda, and Artemis ran in, "What was that energy surge?" Artemis asked.

"All will be explained once everyone gets back." Ultima turned, "Everyone needs to hear this."

-45 minutes later-

Everyone had arrived and felt the remains of the energy surge that Satre had released in his fight with Rayde, Ridge even tried to heal the warped land, but said it would take awhile to regain its fertility.

"So, Ultima, what exactly happened while we were out?" Sora asked.

Ultima looked up from the still unconscious Aster and said, "Aster has an alter-ego, and a rather dark one at that."

"Well, how did he come about?" Artemis wondered.

"I think I can answer that." Rayde offered, "I was beginning to train him in combat with his swords, but we ran into a problem with his temper, he was hacking and slashing at me, but couldn't actually land a hit. I think he felt as if I was toying with him and that got him angry, that added to the frustration he felt when he couldn't hit me built up and, he changed."

"I had Dekrosna stop time so that he and I could deal with him." Ultima continued, "We got him to identify himself as Satre. He told us that he appeared to help Aster, not to take control of him; I don't think that he is necessarily evil, just dark and misguided. He's astoundingly more powerful than Aster, as he had Rayde working to keep up with him."

"I was trying not to hurt him, Ultima." Rayde turned, "Had I really been trying, he would've had a much harder time with me."

"I understand that, Rayde." Ultima said, "But nonetheless, we must be careful with him now, if something starts to anger or frustrate him, back off; we don't need Satre to appear again, he could just the opening Rogue needs in order to bring him to the dark elementals, and out task would then be exponentially harder, am I understood?"

Everyone nodded their agreement and dispersed throughout the temple leaving Ultima, Dekrosna, Rayde, and Scrierea with Aster. As Aster began to regain consciousness, they were immediately by his side, "Take it easy Aster," Ultima coaxed, "Take it slow."

"What…happened?" Aster asked, still lying down.

Ultima was about to speak when Rayde raised his hand, "I think I should take it from here, I caused this mess, and maybe I should clean it up."

Immediately the weather in the room and the land surrounding the temple began to change, it was temperately cool with green grass and leaves, now it began to get wintry with flurries of snow beginning to appear and the leaves on the trees beginning to fall.

Rayde looked questioningly at Dekrosna who answered his unspoken question, "It does this occasionally, changing seasons with the land outside, even though time moves faster in here than it does out there."

Rayde shrugged and continued, "Aster, although I may not be related in any way to you, we have something in common."

"What would that be?" Aster asked in annoyance.

"You have an alter-ego in your heart, another side to you, or rather another soul." Rayde shifted into a sitting position, "Now here's where the familiarity is; I have two separate souls residing in my body, you've heard on mentioned already no doubt."

"Kaze?" Aster asked in interest.

"Yes." Rayde smiled, "Kaze is an evil purple dragon who tried to take over the world with creations that he tricked me into making, Dekrosna knows them as The Golem and The Destroyer, the earth was rich in magic in those days, the early days of humanity."

Aster nodded, "You said you had two, right? Then who is the other one?"

Rayde sighed, "The other one is named Xaider, a wolf spirit whose mission was Human genocide. He destroyed every Human city he ran across, but avoided the Elven and Dragon cities because he knew that they possessed the magic to destroy him. He managed to completely destroy several Human cities before he set his sights on what was the largest Human city at the time, Narris. Fortunately for us, a white mage appeared that day and helped us to seal him away; the catalyst was a one-year-old human boy. The downside to that is, that Human boy, was me."

Aster's eyes were wide as saucers when he heard this, he thought that Rayde was just a pompous warrior that thought that he fought like crap, but he suddenly felt sorry for him.

"This is where things are different," Rayde continued, "Throughout the course of my life; I had to move the two spirits to my mind, where I have complete control. When they were in my heart, they posed too big a threat because they could take control should my will falter, so I had to move them. But Kaze was a different matter, he was completely removed from my body, and I had to reseal him in my body but this time, I made sure to seal him in my mind so that he couldn't take control."

"Now that we have that explanation out of the way, we need to find out what kind of soul resides in your body, and I can do that with you." Aster perked up at this, "Don't worry, there's no pain involved, all that will happen is you will enter in your own heart and we'll look for your friend trapped within you."

Rayde took his hand and placed it on Aster's forehead and began to concentrated, "Relax and focus on your heart, the very essence of your power." He did so, and blacked out.

--In Aster's Heart—

When Aster came to, the first thing he noticed were the changes to his body, in fact he wasn't human any more, he was a dragon. His eyes were still their sharp green, and the silver scales that were on his wings were also all over his body. The membranes of his wings were light blue, as were his four horns, underbelly, claws, and tail blades.

Then he thought, Wait, tail blades?

He looked his tail and saw two light-blue, crystalline blades on either side his tail. Along with the end of his tail, they resembled a trident. Then he saw the spikes on his back, he moved his paw and tail along his back and found that they ran from his horns, he looked again and saw that they were slightly darker than his horns. His horns were straight except for a single corkscrew towards the end, before ending in a sharp point.

He sat on his haunches and looked about and for the first time noticed how dark his heart sky looked like a swirling void of silver and black, with several platforms, some connected with bridges and some not. He continued looking around until he saw two temples directly adjacent to each other, one silver, and the other ebony.

Then he noticed Rayde, who was decked out in light crystal armor. The helm looked as if it was the head of a wolf, and his gauntlets looked like canine claws. His lower half, however looked reptilian, and was a slightly darker green. Aster especially noticed his feet which looked so much like his hind feet.

"I see you live up to your name in your heart, huh?" Rayde said, "You can only be the Diamond Dragon if you look like that in your heart."

Aster nodded and tried to speak, but got a growl instead. He tried again with the same result.

"Try speaking with your mind." Rayde suggested, "You may be a Dragon that can't speak normally and thus uses telepathy."

Aster nodded his large head and did as he was told, Can you hear me now?

Rayde nodded, "It looks as if your heart exposes a person to their very core, it showed both Xaider and Kaze through me."

Yes I noticed, but I suggest we start moving, I don't know how long the others will wait. Aster said.

"Yes that would be wise," Rayde agreed, "Well, this is your heart, where do you suggest we start looking?"

I suggest those two temples up there, Aster said, Something is telling me that the black one is where we'll find Satre.

Rayde nodded, "Can you fly? It would be much quicker if we flew over there."

Naturally. Aster then took off while Rayde was still forming his wings.

Aster and Rayde landed by the black temple five minutes later and made their way to the door. Rayde tried to get through but suddenly a barrier with arcane symbols appeared and he rebounded after running into it.

"What is this?" Rayde asked, "These are symbols I've never seen before."

Aster's eyes began to glow silver, That is because they are of an ancient arcane language; for some reason, I can read them.

Aster read the spell and Rayde began to chant it, the barrier seemed to weaken, but it didn't disappear. "I think that you are the one who must remove it, I can't without killing myself."

Aster nodded and chanted the spell that was shown on the door and it immediately weakened. He reached out his paw and it destroyed the barrier.

"Looks like I'll have to teach you magic as well, Ultima and Dekrosna know their fair share of magic as well, so they'll teach you along with me. Shall we continue?" Aster nodded and they continued.

For the next fifteen minutes Rayde and Aster walked through the halls of that temple, dispelling five barriers along the way. Finally they reached a large stone door with at least triple the arcane symbols as the other barriers. The most noticeable thing was a large keyhole with three slots in the middle. Aster looked at his tail and saw that the keyhole was a match for his tail, so he began chanting the ancient language on the door until the keyhole began to glow. Aster took his tail and inserted in the keyhole and turned it 180 degrees until it clicked with a giant echo. The door opened tor reveal a large dome-room. Rayde and Aster began to walk forward until Aster hit a magical barrier that shocked the life out of his foot.

He recoiled quickly before his foot became numb, and then noticed the large glowing circle that was binding something in place. He and Rayde looked toward the center of the circle and saw a dragon that could've been Aster's twin, except his color.

This Dragon was Charcoal grey with black wing membranes, horns, spikes, underbelly, tail blades, claws, and eyes. He was shackled to the floor with chains of light that clasped around each of his ankles, his tail and his neck. Each of the chains were coming from a prong in the circle's design. To top it all off, he was trapped behind a cage of light that began where the twelve prongs of the circle ended.

Hehehe, so you did come to seek me out didn't you? He laughed.

"I take it you're Satre." Rayde stepped forward.

Yes, you know me as Satre, he confirmed, but your friends, the Quartz Dragon and the Topaz Phoenix, also know me as the Obsidian Dragon.

Aster stepped forward, Who put you here like this?

Well that depends on which seal you're speaking of. He moved his head and another, smaller circle appeared glowing a dark blue. The dark blue seal, was you, a simple four-pronged seal that would keep me in place and keep you in control. That is until your heart is thrown into chaos and the seal weakens. The four-pronged circle disappeared. This infernal white seal is exponentially stronger; it is a twelve pronged seal. This seal won't even let me move without sapping my power from me. Your phoenix friend put this on me when he chased me to the deepest reaches of your heart. The cage and chains are all features of this seal. Also, no one can get to me without getting rid of the seal, lest they be spellbound with me. He grinned maliciously at Aster.

"Are you after Aster's downfall, and a body of your own?" Rayde asked.

Hehehe, you obviously know nothing about me, and even less about him. Satre laughed, Begone from me, ask your friends about me, they will know.

Satre's laughing voice filled their heads as they began to feel themselves being pulled away until they suddenly blacked out.

--Back with the others—

Aster awoke with a start to see that the entire meadow was covered in snow, and the trees were bare, except for a few evergreens, but the beautiful sight did nothing to comfort him from the creepy and chilling feeling that he got from having talked with Satre.

Rayde awoke too, but he was as calm as ever, he looked over at Aster and asked, "Are you okay Aster?"

Aster paused while looking at Rayde, and then said, "Oh, that's right, I have to speak with my mouth now, hehehe. Yes I'm fine, just a little creeped out."

Rayde then got serious, and turned to Ultima and Dekrosna and said, "You two, we need to talk about a certain matter."

Alright! Another chapter done! Firstly, I wanna say Merry Christmas to all of you, my readers. Secondly, I wanna know what you thought about this chapter, it took awhile, but I finally cranked it out, so lemme know!

-Ultima