The second part to my story, it is now up and actually on time too, I'm getting better. Won't say much more, I'll let you get on with your reading.
I once again do not own Level 5 games or the rights to any of their spectacular games. All I own are the quotes and the people speaking them.
"I can tell you that as a dancer I saw much in my life but I can promise you one thing. In all my years I have never seen a better assassin or fighter than one who was once a dancer like me. Think about it, you are so centered on the person's moves and driven in grace that you never see the blade coming until it's too late..." - Ikari, one of the seven Sin's Temptations dancers, 5250 ADW (After Dogma War)
He remembered the first time she danced for herself…
A couple of days passed since witnessing Kara dance, and they had finished their journeying through the rest of the evil, hateful desert and into the much cooler Nordia Tunnels by early evening of the same day. They had all agreed to spend a night in the monster riddled tunnels and start off again in the morning after advancing further and further in the darkness. After making sure that a fire had been lit at Yulie's behest, they had all slept through a rather uneventful night, the sounds of shuffling and the soft drips of water reverberating through the caves. By morning, everyone had left and cleaned up the camp and had left no trace of even being there not long afterwards and set off once again on their mission.
Finally, weary and tired from the countless battles and skirmishes along the way, they had finally reach the so-called "great" city of Balandor and upon sighting it, Caesar really didn't see what was so great about the city. True it was large and certainly imposing but it had nothing on Greede. His city rode on the back of a Demithor after all and it had electricity something that he doubted this city would ever have. He was even sure the woman wouldn't be as attractive as Greede's, nor the food as delicious or the residents as polite. Leonard and Yulie, on the other hand, seemed to be excited to be returning home, almost running through the gates when they came within view.
Shrugging and following them inside the rather overly large gates, Caesar crossed his arms casually behind his head, impatient to finish what he had come for so he could go home. Leonard would stop occasionally and chat to what looked like old friends, Yulie never far behind, asking questions one would expect to hear from one who had been gone from the only life he had ever known. Interestingly though, after the first greetings and questions about family life and the like, they would always ask where the house with the blue roof was, the only info any of them had to go on. Caesar was actually kind of vaguely surprised, he would have thought that Leonard would have at least known where Medius lived, the guy had grown up here after all. The fact that he delivered wine would have had him figured that he knew where everyone person lived and what time of dink they all preferred.
Yawning for effect, he took a side glance at Kara who stood fidgeting restlessly, it seemed that she was even more impatient to get on with their mission than even Caesar was. As he dimly wondered why, he took in her form with golden eyes. Ever since the night he had seen her dance, he didn't see Kara quite the same way again. He began to even notice small things, the way held her head higher than the others and how she always seemed to stand with better posture than Yulie who had a slight slouch at all times.
Even the way he watched her fight was different now. He would notice that while the other's simply wielded their weapons, Kara seemed to be a part of hers. He had begun to see this in greater detail when they had been fighting a particularly large and therefore doubly smelly Svlyian Savage Troll. If the small pine tree it had used for a club hadn't almost knocked him out, the smell most certainly would have. As it was, his helmet had protected his head from being knocked clean from his shoulders but it hadn't stopped the ringing or the now fist-sized goose-egg that had begun to form. Amazed that he had even survived the hit, he had sat out the rest of the battle with his back against the cool, damp wall of the caverns and their silent friend frantically casting Heal and praying that Caesar wouldn't pass out. Thankfully, that had never happened and the stars that had begun to dance to a Albanian beat has slowly vanished, leaving him only a little sore and with a headache that he couldn't even begin to describe.
His make-shift doctor returned to the battle field soon after it was confirmed that although Caesar's head hurt, a lot, he was in no immediate danger of death or the like. It was during this time that he had been able to watch Kara fight without being distracted by a blade decapitating every few seconds. It was then that he realized how much like dancing her fighting really was. While the others would strike relentlessly at their foe's wart covered trunk-like legs with reckless strength in their blows Kara would balance her attacks evenly and input the same amount of precision and strength into each slice she made.
He had begun to notice the way her hips swayed as if in slight rhythm to an unheard beat, anticipating any unforeseen attack; that with each slice of her deadly-sharp blade Kara would give the slightest turn on her heel, able to jump away and land a second blow without pause; the different forms her arms would take with each attack she laid on the gargantuan monster in front of her, raising or lowering in just the precise movements. Kara fighting was quite literally the dance of death and destruction, and Caesar had never until that moment seen a dance more graceful or deadly as that which he was being bared to witnessing.
Even now, Caesar could still see the fight clearly and perfectly in his mind even though his head still rang from that thrashing the troll had given him. He let Eldore shake him from day dreams though when he was told that they had managed to locate the blue-roofed house. Sending on last glance towards Kara, who in turn glared suspiciously right back, he walked on, curious at where the mystery man actually lived.
As it turned out, neither Caesar nor Kara had had to wait long, after a few minutes' walk they had arrived at the house, which was actually placed on the same street as Rapacci's Wines and only a few doors down. At the revelation of this information, both Leonard and Yulie turned red with embarrassment, sheepish that they had both worked next door to the man who held all the answers and had had no clue about any of it.
Eager to be finally donen with this tiresome errand, he watch in anticipation as Leonard knocked roughly on the door. No one answered. Confused he tried twice more and had been eventually stopped by an older woman who had informed them that Medius had died just last year. Well, that's great. That means I came all this way for nothing? Fortunately it turned out that the man had a son, Setti, who if they were lucky had been told all the secrets that his father knew. Unfortunately though, the guy had went and gotten himself lost in a cave just to the south a few days back, looking for rocks of all things. Sour about how things were turning out, he was going to give the guy all the rocks and dirt he could want if it turned out that after they found him that he knew nothing at all.
So mumbling under his breath about how nothing ever seemed to go his way, he followed the rest of the group out of the city and into the plains, dreading the extra leg of the unexpected journey, aware that the entire time Kara's eyes had been on his back, both suspicion and anger reverberating from the unseen gaze.
For a reason he even wasn't all too sure of, Caesar found the gaze sort of comforting and accepted it without qualms for the couple of hours it took to reach the Waterfall Cave that Setti had allegedly gone to. Praying that Setti really was in this cave, he hoped that nothing too exciting would happen. He really just wanted it to be quick job, go in and find the petrologist, get out with limited fighting, and hope to anyone that was listening that Setti really did know who he was; and about the knights of course.
Of course, to Caesar's great chagrin it wasn't that easy, it never was he had had to remind himself countless times. After fighting through a swarm of monsters, he had to grudgingly admit that if Setti got lost here and was still alive, than he must have been either one really brave geologist or one extremely stupid nerd, if he was still alive that is.
A few monster swarms passed through and they defeated them all without any thought or qualms and although these guys were easy it was getting annoying. And then there was Kara, who seemed to fight harder than she normally did, as if eager to reach Setti or worried about his welfare. Both thoughts inexplicably made Caesar actually jealous and he couldn't understand why. Sure Kara was smoking hot and really nice on the eyes, but that was it. She didn't mean anymore to him than that, but if that was so than why did he watch her every time she fought, wanting to see her dance again.
Caesar ignored them as he went on trekking through the dark tunnels, Yulie giving a slight whimper in front of him every now and again, always hoping and praying that Setti would be just around the next corner or in the next tunnel so they could finally leave and get back into the sun's warmth and light. To everyone's great joy, they found Setti in the last room of the cave, thankfully alive and seemingly unhurt. Well, that was at least one problem solved, now they just had to deal with another, the three large trolls that were chasing Setti down, wanting to desperately smash their wooden clubs against the unprotected petrologist's head.
Oh come on, you have got to be kidding me. While ready to smack the guy's head as it was, he couldn't just let him die so with a word from Leonard, he ran forward to save the poor sap, ark at the ready. It was apparently unneeded, before they could even hope to reach Setti though, another Knight was already there, stopping the club in mid-swing from braining the guy and pushing the troll back with a single swing of its sword.
While Caesar was thankful for another friend in battle, everyone else wasn't. All the other's faces held looks of anger and hatred, all except Kara's, who had gone mysteriously missing from the group. Caesar shrugged it off, deciding that she had most likely back tracked down the tunnel to go to the washroom or something. Before he could do more any more than think, Leonard had transformed into his White Knight and had rushed the other's darker knight in combat.
From beside him, he heard Yulie yell at him to get in the fight and help Leonard fight the obviously called Black Knight. He didn't see why he had to; the Black Knight had just helped them save Setti's life after all, didn't that make him a friend? Evidently not, he was the one who killed who killed Balandor's King and Cisna's father. Still, it didn't feel right to fight him, there was something about the way he fought that seemed almost familiar.
Nonetheless, not wanting to argue a losing battle with Yulie, he let his Dragon Ark circle his waist and connect with a loud snap. He felt that odd sensation come over him once again as he transformed into the much larger and much less human being, the uncomfortable invasion of the privacy of his mind and the sense that this is what he was meant to do, the whole reason he had been born.
Before he knew it, he was in the bright armour of the Dragon Knight and had locked his spear against the Black Knight's sword. It was possibly the unexpected second attack, but the darker coloured knight stepped back , but with that step he noticed something, instead of bracing himself to push back as most people would have done, he had angled his foot just a bit. It was a move he had seen used before, the night Kara had danced in Albana. Right away he jumped back and deflected the strike that had been meant for one of the vulnerable areas of his armour, the space in between his helmet and chest plate, a killing stroke for any lesser man but for the knight certainly a severely damaging one.
Even though the Knight's portrayed no emotion, he could tell that the person inside was shocked, if the lack of movement soon after was any indication. It had been that person's plan to jump back out of the stalemate and strike while his guard was done, one that Caesar shouldn't have known about. Once again, Caesar wondered who the person inside the armour was and why they felt and acted so familiar. He had no time to think more on the subject as Leonard had rushed passed him to continue fighting their mystery foe.
A few more minutes passed and just when the fight was just about ended, the strangest thing happened, an odd coloured light had begun to leave their armour and instead of making him more tired as Caesar had assumed, he actually felt stronger than he had ever before and surprisingly rested considered the circumstances. In the deep recesses of his mind, he heard something from Eldore about how the Knight's were starting to resonate with each other, making themselves and the two around them stronger.
It was during this resonance that Caesar began to realize something, he could feel the Black Knight's pact-maker, and judging from the quick startled look, the Black Knight could feel Caesar's also. Leonard seemed not to notice a thing, using his newly regained strength to fight the Black Knight. Even years later, after the war had ended he still wasn't too entirely sure how he was able to do that. It might just have been one of Larvayne's abilities, like DragonSight but that wouldn't explain how the Black Knight was able to see into him as well. It may well have been similarities between the two Knights, both were able to fly and they certainly looked much less nobler than the White Knight Wizel. It may have also been the fact that he was able to anticipate the Black Knight's moves or the connection he didn't realize he had at the time with her, but he knew one thing, the dual amounts of fear and anger that continually seeped from the Black Knight was definitely recognizable, that coupled with the slight grace of fighting, which he had to admit that in an armour this size was commendable, felt distinctly like Kara.
Or at least, he assumed it was her, just because the person felt like her didn't mean a thing, and the fact that Kara had just happened to disappear right before the battle was a complete coincidence. Caesar didn't believe that for one moment but he refused to just readily assume that this was Kara in a suit of magical armour fighting with them to the death, his life as the mayor's son not allowing him to recognize that without the proper proof.
Before he knew it, the fight was over and the Black Knight had stretched its wings and flew off through the conveniently placed hole in the cavern's roof. Now that the fight was done, he allowed himself to change back into his normal, and albeit much more debonair (or at least he thought so) form, and spoke with Setti, complementing him on his ability to even still be alive. From behind him, he sensed Kara return and looked her way for just a moment, the thoughts of the battle still filling his head. The way that the Black Knight had fought had seemed so like Kara.
Innocent before proven guilty remember, innocent before proven guilty.
As he followed Setti out of the cave and back to his home in Balandor, although he didn't understand why, he had decided that even if Kara was the Black Knight and she really was trying to kill them, he felt fine about it, like it was a part of her personality that he just had to accept. And instead of feeling hatred and betrayal like one would expect, he actually felt sorry for her and decided then and there that no matter what happened he would support her and if the other's found out and decided to simply be done with Kara, he would protect her, with his life if need be.
After all, even though he had sensed within the Black Knight an obscene amount of anger at them all, there had also been fear, both for about what would happen to her if she didn't finish her assigned job and fear about what would happen to her if she did.
Don't worry Kara, no matter what happens and what choice you decide on, I will support you until the end, whether it be by your hands or not.
Cheesy ending I know but yeah, you know the drill. Constructive criticism greatly appreciated and I will see you all tomorrow evening, midnight...ish.