Hey, this one is up about an hour late but the fact that its even up still part isn't the most exciting but I wanted to do the scene in the wastes and then decided that I would quickly summarize the rest up to the point where they reach the entrance to the temple. I had even been thinking about doing half as what Kara had been doing during the time but it's about Caesar's memories of her, and he wouldn't know anything about those, they really didn't have a whole lot of time for taking seeing as Shapur was stabbing her and what not. As it is, I am practically falling asleep at the computer as we speak so I'll hurry this up.

Still not mine. Deal with it.

"All dancer's have a certain flaw in them, they crave attention. They will almost always prefer to dance alone so all of the attention is on them, even if the result is them being ostracized and given an empty stage to dance on." - Avarice, one of Sin's Temptations seven dancers, 5246 ADW (After Dogma War)

He remembered the first time they danced on a different stage…

Immediately the next morning, they all set off for Sinca Village under Setti's guidance. The other's seemed to trust him, but Caesar didn't. As if the fact that he hadn't died in the house fire that burned down his house in Balandor hadn't killed him was fishy enough, there was just something else that he couldn't put his finger on but was just so obvious it was absurd. He let the curious discrepancy rest for now, just as a watched pot never boiled, if he thought too much on the subject, he would never figure it out until it was too late.

First though, they had to get through the Van Haven Wastes, a place of death and empitiness, lacking the beauty that the Languish Desert had offered with its exotic plants. Nothing grew in the wastes and only the most suicidal and hardiest of beasts could stand to live there. Caesar sauntered forward, his arms behind his head, trying to hide how hard the wastes were affecting him. They way the wind blew and caught sand up in powerful torrents reminded him so much of Albana, the first place he had watched fascinated as Kara danced and where he had first begun to notice her for something else other than the amazing body she had.

"Caesar!"

Then again, maybe he wasn't hiding it well enough. The next second that took place destroyed that thought. He felt Leonard place a hand on his shoulder and turn him around angrily. Caesar realized then what he wanted to talk about, and he didn't blame him one bit. He had just hoped that they wouldn't ask too soon out of respect for him but he understood why they demanded to know now. He had known who Kara really was and hadn't told them a single thing. They probably felt betrayed as he did when she had left him only yesterday.

"Why? You must have known about Kara, you would have seen through her with your DragonSight."

Caesar answered hesitantly. "Yeah, but…"

Yulie butted in before he could even finish, much less figure out what he was going to say. "Then why did you keep it from us?"

Because it was so obvious who she really was that an eight year old could have seen through her charade? But none of you would have guessed even if she had started to dance around with a sign saying "Hey! I'm the Black Knight!" taped to her chest would you have? You really must all be as naïve as Kara suspected you were.

Leonard spoke again. "She killed the king of Balandor and you knew that!"

"No! You're wrong!" Caesar's voice began to shake as he remembered the events that had taken place a few nights back but he could still see it so clearly it was like it had happened only a few seconds ago. "I can promise you, it wasn't her! All you and Yulie and Eldore saw was black armour, Dragias' black armour it was. But I tell you it wasn't Kara behind that mask. It was somebody else."

He heard the gravelly voice of Eldore grate against his ears. "What makes you so sure?"

Because I knew her, knew her better than any of you did. I was the only one who took any time at all to understand her and what she thought. To you, Kara was only a teammate, a comrade for the time being, to me she was an actual person, more real to me than anyone I've ever known before. I knew her, and this isn't like her, it isn't something she could have done. And because I loved her.

Unfortunately, he knew that wasn't going to hold up very well so he went for a far more believable answer, a slight lie but it sounded truthful enough that he might even be right. If he was wrong though, then the only person it would come back and hurt would be him.

"Kara was made to believe that she was General Dragias, not long before you first met her back in Albana."

"But why would anybody go through the trouble?"

"If I had to guess, they had wanted to assassinate you Leonard. Except, a pact-maker has the power and reflexes of a knight, so not just any old assassin would do. They needed somebody who was Leonard's equal if they were going to succeed in killing him. So, they found Kara to do the deed, but they were taking an enormous risk in doing so."

Yulie looked towards him, caution and an eagerness to know more evident. "And why was that?"

"The knights might begin to resonate. Kara is the pact-maker of the Black Knight, if she and Leonard came together, maybe the old memories would be awakened. Maybe they would even join forces like in the old days. So to prevent that, they implanted a false memory inside her mind, something that would put her and Leonard at odds."

Either they didn't know about the silent connection the knights could make, or they had just been lucky that it had only spread to me and Kara alone. Things would have ended differently if Leonard had received the connection as well, she might be dead by now or she would have killed us not that soon afterwards.

"That's just ridiculous." Leonard still sounded unsure and Caesar swore for it. He had hoped that Leonard and the others would have been convinced by now.

"Kara isn't a killer Leonard. She's not. She couldn't bring herself to kill you," the next words came out in a whisper and then firmed again. "…or me. Even though Grazel ordered it."

"So Grazel's behind it all."

"Yeah, he's behind the whole terrifying charade."

He's behind the whole reason Kara doesn't want to stay with us, her friends. The reason she couldn't stay behind with me.

The rest of the conversation passed by in a haze, he remembered mentioning something about there being different Dragias', each one revealed and wearing the armour for the purpose needed at the time. And then when he had had said that it was one of these different parts that killed King Valtos, Leonard had demanded an answer. Since he couldn't honestly give a reply to that, he had said so himself. Saying that even his DragonSight couldn't see through everything, some people had the power and will to block it.

People like Eldore for one.

"Alright," Leonard had dropped the subject for now, but he could still tell that he wasn't to entirely convinced and would most likely speak to him privately later on. "Come on, we should get to Sinca Village now."

Most of thier day long journey through the wastelands was more like a dream to Caesar, every grain of sand reminded him Kara and within the shadows, he saw them sway side-to-side in the flickering sun's light like one of her dances. Every moment he looked over at the others, he expected to see that little glare she seemed to reserve only for him and every time they battle one of the waste's beasts he looked over to watch her fight in her own mesmerizing way, she was never there. It was like he had lost something important and he kept expecting to find it in his hand. The only thing he noticed was the dry dust gathering at their feet and resting on their boots and armour, even Setti's.

It was like someone had dumped a bucket full of cold water on him. Setti's boots. That was what had been bothering him yesterday, considering the long climb through the meandering chasm there hadn't been a single speck of dust on his boots. And if he was to take Osmund's words seriously, Setti hadn't arrived long before they had, back from Thamus Rock. There had been no time to clean to the boots. There was only one explanation of how he could have gotten up there untouched. An air ship. He had flown in on an air ship and the only one who owned one of those was Grazel. From there it only made sense that Grazel was really Setti in disguise. A damn good disguise though.

Glancing back at Setti over his shoulder, he pushed back the feeling he had of just pouncing the guy and beating the living crap out of him. Everyone already thought of him as nuts as it was and they would just associate the attack with the pain and anger of Kara's betrayal. He would need to find a good time to talk to them later.

Right now, all he could be bothered with was finding a way out of the Van Haven Wastes and finding the village before he disregarded his plan of waiting to attack and just go for it.

A few hours later, well into the evening, they had finally reached Sinca Village. Caesar was content with that, with all the appreciation he held for Albana now, he had forgotten how much he absolutely loathed the miniscule rock particles that could cause him so much discomfort. The first thing he had noticed though was how much disrepair and utterly ruinous the village was, he couldn't hardly believe that such a downtrodden place could hold the answers he was looking for, both for the Knights and for his past.

"But that's strange, it feels so familiar."

Caesar had to agree with Yulie but he wondered why. The place felt oddly familiar to him too, but that was understandable. He was a Knight pact-maker after all but Yulie wasn't, so why did she feel like she recognized the place as much as she did. As far as he and Leonard were concerned, Leonard more so, Yulie had been born and raised in Parma Village, orphaned thanks to the fire a few years back when she was seven that had killed her whole family as well as most of the other villagers. Even in far away Greede, the news had managed to reach there as well as his young ears.

That night had been busy to say the least, after setting up camp in what looked like to Caesar the village square, or at least that was what it had felt like to him, there wasn't a whole lot to declare otherwise or an affirmative to his assumption. Setti had later left the group, mentioning something about looking around some more, Caesar taking this opportunity to immediately told the others what he had discovered. To his surprise Eldore had agreed with him, he had found something off about Setti as well. And as much as he didn't like or trust the old geezer, he was glad to have him on his side. With the confirmation from Eldore, Leonard and Yulie and instantly agreed to a little plan of deception, trusting the old man too much than what Caesar cared for.

Setti had returned later, and they all pretended not to notice when he had fallen forward in sudden pain, only to regain balance later and join them by the fire. There he had started his tale, about the four babes and one youth that had been found in the newly created Dogma Rift seventeen years ago by a missive earthquake. People had thought them some sort of gifts from God and had raised them in this very village.

Caesar had silently snorted here. Some gifts we were. I doubt that a mentally sick child, a couple of clueless and anti-social babies, and me were wonderful gifts. Well, maybe I was the perfect baby, but what about the other baby. The fourth one, what happened to it?

The armour from the White Knight had been found with them, making them over ten thousand years old, Caesar didn't believe him there, he certainly didn't feel ten thousand years old. Heck, there were some days when his father had sworn he was only nine with the way he acted. Leonard, and Kara too, the latter of whom he had to admit, looked damn fine considering she was a good ten thousand years old. That would explain why he had found that the village pulled at a few memory strings for him but that still didn't explain why Yulie remembered the village also.

Kara and I used to play here, we used to live here. We had grown up together as friends and family. What happened?

Not soon after announcing that fact, he had claimed that Eldore was the one who brought them all together and was hoping to use the knight's power to further himself and get what he really wanted, whatever that was.

Caesar had soon advanced on Eldore, cracking his knuckles and although acting his part quite well, most of it wasn't acting. He had never liked the pompous old man, he was too secretive for his own good and was able to hide from his DragonSight. There were days, most of them in fact, that he really had wanted to hit the guy, just to get him to shut up and stop speaking his cryptic mumbo-jumbo.

Eldore had then taken that as his cue when Leonard had started to yell him to leave, a bright blue diamond light surrounding him before he disappeared from sight. Caesar's DragonSight was still able to sense him though, just because he had vanished didn't mean he had actually left. The man was just invisible to eyes, the only reason his DragonSight was able to see him was because since he could see into the others, the place where Eldore stood was like a black hole, like there was nothing there.

No one had missed, the sneaky grin though that appeared on Setti's face the moment Eldore vanished. Everything was going to how he had planned.

And, more importantly, it was going to how they had planned it also.

They had woke up bright and early the next morning, ready to journey towards the Dogma Rift, which only took about most of the day to reach, where they had been discovered not all that long ago. Since in the space of ten millennia, seventeen years was like a micro-second. Even from the distance they were, the temple was certainly imposing, it was hard to believe that everything had started there, and that there was still one Knight left for Grazel to get his greedy little hands on.

But if Grazel's there, than that means Kara must be there too.

Just that thought seemed to put a skip in his step, running forward ahead of the others, eager to reach the temple entrance. He had cut through the monsters like a hot knife through butter, pushing ahead until Setti had ordered their stop at a fairly non-descript area to stop for the night, mentioning that they needed their rest. No one had believed him for one minute. They all stood huddled in their tent, armour and weapons at the ready, anticipating any plan he might have.

They needn't had to wait long, soon after the sun had set and the moon had come out, a large group of the Magi soldiers had appeared, ready to play with them. To his disappointment though, Kara was not among them, and neither was Dragias. Caesar and Leonard emerged from the tent, weapons in hand and Yulie and their more ninja-like comrade following soon after. The look on his face had been mild surprise at the knowledge of that but it had quickly become priceless the moment Eldore appeared beside them.

From there, Caesar was only glad to take the reins, bragging, oh how he did enjoy bragging, about how he had seen through Grazel's disguise as Setti and how they had planned for it, using the knowledge that Setti (or Grazel, he couldn't be bothered to think of which) had given them before setting their trap.

Hah! That was for lying to Kara you slimy little snake. Take that!

Unfortunately, they hadn't planned for everything as a newly transformed Grazel laughed at them as destroyed the gound at their feet, sending them inwards to a hidden tunnel below.

They had all landed none worse for the wear when a loud stomping had begun to reverberate through the dark tunnel. From out of a hidden path they couldn't see in the dark, Yulie whimpering beside Leonard when she realized this, came a fantastically large creature. From the bright light source in its back it had lit up the whole cavern, much to Yulie's evident relief, and showed the monster to be a Pyredaemos but it looked a little odd compared to the one he had heard from Leonard.

'You better all watch it. That's a Pyredaemos Rex, and it's much stronger than its fire-breathing brother."

Caesar groaned at Eldore's words. That was just what they needed right now, a fight with some over-grown lizard to help prevent them from reaching the temple. Thankfully though, thanks to the use of their ever powerful Knights, the battle had ended quickly, with a fascinating light show upon the lizard's demise, and they rushed out of the cave, using the still glowing crystal as light as they followed the path out.

Not long afterwards, they had finally reached the temple's entrance and the sight of it made Caesar's stomach churn. Inside was the Sun Knight, more powerful than all the others combined, and with them would be Kara, ready to fight them to the death, to protect her dear brother if need be.

I promise you Kara, I will get you out of there. I will save you from yourself, even if it kills me in the process.

There, it's done. Like I said not the most interesting or exciting chapters but I got it done. And yay! Reviews! Now I feel all good and mushy inside. I promise that the next chapter will promise more excitement. Here's the topic so you can even see for yourself:

He remembered the last time he danced completely for her...

Also, I don't need any info on why Yulie rocognizes the village. i've seent the cutscenes on Youtube, I actually know every single secret and spoiler for that game, I think I may have actually possibly ruined it for me, but I'm not going to divulge any of it. Not one bit. If you're curious, go look it up for yourself.