The Restoration: Part XXVI

The skies in the World of the Second Merge had completely blackened by the time Cecil, Faris, Lise, Cara and Butz battled their way to Forcena's city perimeter. The gates had already been closed tight against the tide of shadow monsters coming in from the southwest and southeast. Arrows from the castle archers had rained down on the field as the five joined King Richard, the castle guards, and the Knights of Gold, who'd already brawled their way into the melee.

Had they chanced to look upward, they might have seen her soaring overhead, thought Lenna. It had taken her and Lucca far longer than they had planned to find the city; by then their companions were already fighting against the tide. Now, she sat on her bed, staring out the window, from which she had a perfect view of all the empty houses that lined the main road that ran down the centre of Forcena. All the inhabitants of those houses – men, women, children and fortune tellers alike – were barricaded in the castle throne room, protected by three Knights of Gold. That was where Lucca had told her to go before rushing back out to join the fight.

But Lenna didn't go to the throne room. She couldn't. Sitting in there, no windows to see through, only the Knights' word that everything was under control... that didn't seem acceptable to her. Something had awakened in her aboard the Epoch, thinking about the rest of the group struggling against the tide of shadows sent by the Mastermind, and now she wanted nothing more than to be a part of it. Even watching from this solitary window in in her small, lonely chamber was better than huddling with the rest of the villagers, useless and helpless, waiting for the inevitable.

She doubted that the Knights even knew she was in the castle at all. All the guards were outside fighting – another little fact that made her feel all the more useless herself. Even staring out the window at the carnage she could not see, living vicariously through what she imagined must have been happening outside, was better than nothing.

The inner workings of her mind made it worse. Slowly, very slowly, odd memories were returning to her. The taste of a Hiryuu plant, whatever that was. An enormous tree in the middle of an ancient forest. Fluffy white creatures with pink wings. The ghostly image of a man in blue robes, with a distinctive, ornate helmet.

Her mind lingered on this last image. The man wore a cape and a regal suit of armour beneath robes of Tycoon blue. She knew it was the blue of Tycoon, and yet she had not yet seen the kingdom for herself. The colour... the man. These were surfacing from her mind itself. These were the memories she'd been waiting for. This was what she'd spent the last week searching for.

She thought about the man again. She knew it was someone she'd shared a close bond with, maybe closer than anyone else she'd ever known. There was something elusive about him that was escaping her, though. There was a detail she was missing. She couldn't figure out what it was.

Another memory came to her. Butz... the man she had been introduced to that very day. Memories were coming back of him. She remembered the Hiryuu plant now. She remembered traversing a bed of poisonous plants to get to it, and she remembered Butz subsequently being afraid to climb onto the dragon's back because of his fear of heights. She giggled to herself at the thought. Butz, the man who'd boldly fought off a group of goblins for her, the very same man who later rescued both her and Galuf from several more, afraid of heights. The notion was so--

Her train of thought immediately halted as she realized what had just flooded into her mind. The goblins... she remembered the goblins. Sneaking out of Castle Tycoon, and the meteorite, and Galuf – Galuf! Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she thought about him. How could she have forgotten Galuf after everything he had done for them? It was he who alerted them to the threat posed by Exdeath, he who had rescued them from the evil wizard's clutches when they'd travelled to his world, and he who had nobly sacrificed himself to save their lives in the Elder Tree. And she remembered all of this, and every detail of their journey together, as if very slowly awakening from a deep sleep.

And there was Cara. She was Galuf's... granddaughter. Yes, that was it. She thought about what Cara had said on their way to Rolante about Galuf... a powerful wizard. That was the Galuf she remembered, too. And she remembered how Cara had shared her own affinity for the hunter's spirit. The two had always been kindred spirits, sharing their love for Hiryuu dragons, the pressures of nobility, an uncanny understanding of nature, and of magic.

Magic...

She looked down upon her arm. There was a long scrape there, hidden under a makeshift bandage she'd made from a scrap of her tunic. She'd earned it on her way out of the Ancient Library and hadn't noticed it until her flight in the Epoch. Faris had said she could use white magic... why couldn't she remember that?

She thought about Faris. Her sister. She knew that now. She remembered every moment they'd shared as they'd come to the understanding of Faris's hidden identity, every sisterly embrace, and the few weeks of peace they'd shared ruling together in Tycoon before... before everything. And she knew that they were still sisters, still the same two women who had fought side-by-side for their kingdom and their world. And yet... and yet she, Lenna, was a different person now. Almost all of her memories were there now, every experience, every feeling. But now there was another Lenna inside her, the one she had lived as in Lise's world.

It seemed that way now. It all seemed different. Now there was Lise, and Duran, and everyone else she'd met since she'd been flung into this strange new world. It was hardly as if she had crafted an entirely new life in the last week, but there was still something that she'd miss about listening to Lise's stories, or watching Duran and Angela's verbal sparring, or hearing Hawk crack a joke.

Again, unbidden as always, the image of the man in the blue cloak came to mind, this time in a ruined city, with Faris standing beside her. She began to remember what she'd been thinking, what she'd been feeling, standing there and looking upon the man she'd thought was dead. She'd said something... Faris had, too... she'd called him something. What was it?

Her pendant felt heavy against her chest. She took it in her hand and looked at it, gazing deeply into the blue jewel set against the gold upon which was engraved her name. How beautiful it looked, she thought. She'd never really taken in its magnificence, but now that she could remember its precious value to her, she found herself captivated by it. She turned it over. Lenna Charlotte Tycoon. She remembered the significance of the name Charlotte now. It had been her grandmother's name. Her mother's mother, a fierce woman who had died in battle when Lenna's mother had been very young.

She held the pendant up to her eye. The man in blue had been wearing one like it that day. The pendant, and the helmet... and the words she had spoken to him...

“Father...” she whispered.

As though a lock had finally been opened in the last crevices of her mind, a flood of memories washed through her brain, and she felt the tears finally begin to fall as she remembered her father, the brave Alexander Highwind Tycoon, and the day he left upon the back of the Hiryuu... the day that the wind stopped, the first meteorite fell, and everything began. She thought again of the ancient, ruined city, following the illusion in her father's image, her mind filled with questions. She remembered being in the crystal chamber in the ancient, flying fortress and only being able to watch as he sacrificed himself to free her and her comrades from Exdeath's magic.

Wiping her eyes, she looked back out the window. The scene had changed now. A great, bulbous shape was rising into view over the city walls, a shadow creature much bigger than any of the others. When it had risen high enough, she could see that it stood on a single leg, its four gangly arms reaching quite far out on either side, and its round body housed a single, red eye that stared down upon the battlefield that she could not see.

She then looked at her arm. Slowly she began to remove her blood-stained bandage, wincing as she unravelled it, revealing the long gash on her arm. She tossed the fabric aside, and then sat staring at the wound for a long moment. It wasn't deep, but it was long, occupying half of her forearm, and it throbbed with pain each passing second she stared at it, unaccustomed to the feel of the damp castle air.

Another few moments passed. Then she brought her left hand to her right forearm, her palm hovering mere centimetres from the surface of the wound, and closed her eyes.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then her arms and fingers began to tingle as she felt the magic she held within her begin to act. She did not see the blinding yellow-white light that filled the room, nor did she see the answering blue-green glow that surrounded her wound, but she felt the dull pain begin to fade, and when she opened her eyes a moment later there was little more than a light scar where the wound had been.

She stared. White magic. It was all suddenly far more real than any of her memories could have made it.

She looked out the window again. A dark, purplish beam of shadow energy erupted from the bulbous eye of the huge monster, and she saw a cloud of dust and earth stir from the ground below. High above the wall, she saw Lise darting around on Flammie, striking at the creature with her spear. At the same time, a large silhouette in the shape of the Gigantes appeared overhead; Duran and Angela had returned to join the fight.

She turned from the window to the nearby wall. Upon it, along with a few other weapons that decorated the otherwise dull brown brick, was a long, elegant spear. The shiny steel of its head glinted in the light of the bedroom's solitary torch. She remembered the nights she passed in Forcena, lying awake and simply staring at it, resisting an unknown compulsion to take it from the wall and leap into the night.

And now she knew where that compulsion came from.

Without sparing it another thought, she ripped the spear from the wall, opened the window and leaped deftly from it toward the rooftops of the deserted Forcena homes, tracing her path to the carnage.

"She can't take any more of this! We're going down!!"

Mid dashed across the steadily collapsing deck of the Enterprise, trying in vain to keep himself upright long enough to reach his grandfather at the bow. He stumbled once again, his palm shooting out to prevent himself from falling face-first onto the hard wood of the deck. He got to his feet again, only to hear a blast from above him and find himself assaulted by a hail of chipped wood. He looked up and saw part of the propeller spinning off into the distance, hurled away by the blast.

The second large shadow beast had come out of nowhere. It had taken the form of a huge snake, coiled up on the ground and blasting shadow bombs from its serpentine mouth. With no ammunition left to hurl at it, the Enterprise had been retreating toward the castle when it finally succumbed to the barrage. Now it was losing altitude alarmingly fast, and the only surviving members of the crew were Cid and Mid themselves.

Mid finally reached the bow, where Cid was holding tight to the railing, his face unnervingly calm. “Grandpa! Didn't you hear me?”

“Yes, I did, and this is no time to panic.”

“But we have to abandon ship!!”

“And go where?” Steadying himself as another blast shook the deck, Cid turned to his grandson. “Somehow jumping off the deck of a ship on its way to a harsh impact on the ground doesn't seem any safer to me.”

“But Grandpa--”

“That's my last word, Mid. I don't know about you, but even if I do die here and now, I'll have died fighting for this world and that's good enough for me.”

Mid opened his mouth to say something else, but bit it back and reluctantly grabbed a hold of the railing, clutching it tightly. The bow took a steep dip downward, the distant ground growing larger by the second. Facing as they were toward the castle, Mid could pick out the ranged fighters still firing down upon the field from the battlements, the brawlers still out in the field, and the group that had gathered by the main gates, forcing back the tide. Terra was in the middle of this group, fighting under the cover of blasts of ice from Shiva and the arrows and spells sent from above.

The ship rocked once more. Mid felt the ship rotate in its descent. As they were almost staring into the belly of the great shadow snake, Cid said, “you know, Mid, I don't think I've ever told you how proud I am of you.”

A black-and-purple shadow bomb began to form in the snake's mouth as its red eyes stared them down. “Is now really the best time to talk about this?” said Mid, yelling over the noise of the carnage, feeling the sweat on his hands.

“Why not?” Cid replied as the bomb grew larger. “I might not get another chance.”

“We'll make it,” said Mid, gripping the railing tight. “We'll make it.”

No sooner had the words escaped his mouth than the creature let out an angry hiss and released the shadow bomb from its mouth. It flew through the air at a blazing speed, making a beeline for the two men trapped on the deck of the Enterprise.

“Grandpa, watch out!!” Mid yelled as he grabbed Cid and dove out of its path just in the nick of time. The bomb exploded ferociously against the deck, and the two felt themselves forcefully hurled into the open air, Mid gripping his grandfather's coat, and the ground still uncomfortably far beneath them. The wind whistled by them, and Mid found himself unable to even scream as he sped toward the ground and his inevitable death.

And then, from out of nowhere, the scaly black of a dragon's back and wings erupted from the south, swooping beneath them and catching the two of them on its back.

Mid coughed, winded from the impact, and looked around. “Wh- what...?”

He couldn't even begin to tell where he was or what he was sitting on. He saw stars fly past his eyes one minute, unsure for a moment whether they were real or whether he'd just hit his head harder than he'd thought. But then he saw the ground, and then the sky again, and he knew he wasn't imagining things.

He was staring down a long, scaly neck that led to a massive head and a pair of brutally sharp white horns. The scales that lined the neck bore a closer resemblance to blackened steel than anything natural, but their shapes were too filled with natural beauty to be something crafted of artifice. On either side of the massive creature was an equally massive wing which arched out beautifully and gracefully, rippling slightly in the wind but keeping its body utterly still. Behind Mid was a long, scaly tail which dipped out of sight every so often, offering him an unpleasant view of the shadow snake, still coiled upon the ground.

As the creature turned, he happened to catch a glance of Baron’s front gates, where he saw Rydia staring intently up at them, almost as if concentrating. In a moment of clarity, he understood, though he could scarcely believe his own eyes.

“…Bahamut?”

The dragon let out a deafeningly mighty roar and inched lower and lower toward the ground and the castle. Mid looked at the shadow snake again and saw it hiss – at least, he thought it hissed, though Bahamut’s roar had robbed his ears of any credibility – at the loss of its prey. At that, he was swiftly reminded that he was not alone aboard Bahamut’s back, and quickly turned to Cid’s prone form next to him. “Grandpa!”

Cid did not reply. He lay on his stomach, his glasses lost and his eyes closed. Mid turned him over. His head lolled back and blood seeped into his white hair from a cut on his forehead. “Grandpa! Can you hear me? Say something!” When his grandfather didn’t reply, he pressed his ear to his chest. He heard and felt a heartbeat, and sighed with relief. Cid would need medical care as soon as they reached the castle, but he was at least alive. They were nearing the castle now, and it wouldn’t be long until they touched down.

Then he saw Rydia look back out toward the field, her eyes widening, and just as abruptly Bahamut turned in midair, moving far faster than he had been and forcing Mid to hang on to his scales for fear of being thrown from his back. What was he doing? Why weren’t they going to the castle? Then Mid looked back out at the shadow snake and felt his breath catch. An enormous shadow bomb was forming in its outstretched mouth, and its red eyes were staring straight at Bahamut and the two men on his back.

He then noticed a faint white light growing from… somewhere. It took him several moments to figure out where, but it was growing brighter and larger by the second. He then realized that it was coming from Bahamut’s enormous jaws. He couldn’t see it clearly, whatever it was, but it was giving off such a powerful light that eventually Mid had to shield his eyes. Even as he did so, he couldn’t help wondering whether it would be enough. Sensing the danger, he ducked down, guarding both himself and his grandfather with his arms.

The snake released its shadow bomb at the precise moment the luminescent fireball flew from Bahamut’s jaw.

For Rydia, watching from the ground and seeing the two projectiles inch closer and closer, time seemed to slow a little. Bahamut’s flame lit the battlefield, and for a moment it was as if they were fighting in midday. The shadow creatures on the ground backed away from the light leaving some of the melee fighters standing alone to watch. Rydia couldn’t tear her eyes away as the two neared each other, and she poured everything she could into it, giving it as much power as she could. As they met, she couldn’t even blink.

She let herself breathe again as the shadow bomb was swallowed and utterly obliterated by the light. It blazed on toward the shadow snake, which let out a final, defeated hiss as it awaited its impending, inevitable doom.

The concussive explosion that resonated across the battlefield as the fireball made contact with the shadow snake was possibly one of the most unusual things Rydia had ever experienced. It was at once so incredibly and unbearably bright that she almost couldn’t watch, and yet riddled with darkness that seemed to try and suck in the surrounding luminescence. It grew larger and larger until it was nearly half the size of Castle Baron, and then at once began to shrink in upon itself, finally disappearing with another loud bang.

As the dust, earth and swirling particles of darkness receded, there was nothing left of the snake but a crater in the middle of the emerald field.

Rydia was almost oblivious to the jubilation around her. The monsters had retreated for the moment, and so each of her allies had given in to this triumph, however small, and their relief. Terra, who’d been fighting beside her, patted her on the shoulder. Even Edge was grinning. Still atop Bahamut’s back, she could see Mid literally jumping and whooping for joy.

Terra smiled at her. “Nice catch,” she said.

Slowly coming back to reality, Rydia grinned with relief, mentally willing the dragon to return to the castle gates. “Thanks… I wasn’t even sure Bahamut would answer. He’s been gone for so long.”

“Gone? What do you mean?”

“Bahamut lived on the second moon, the one that left our world after Zeromus was defeated,” she replied. “I didn’t know whether he would return.”

Terra shrugged. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Cid and Mid are still alive thanks to you.”

“Uh, I hate to interrupt,” said Edge, “but does Bahamut look a little different to you?”

Rydia frowned, turning from him to the dragon as he drew nearer. In all the excitement she hadn’t taken any time to really look at him, but as she did now she saw that Edge was right. His scales were a darker colour than she remembered, closer to black than the midnight blue she was accustomed to. His horns, which had once framed his head in almost a crown-like formation, were now ivory white and further apart. His belly was a different colour, too – yellow instead of white. And now that she thought of it, the brilliant white flame he had created was something she had never seen him do before.

“What can it mean…?” she said aloud, more to herself than either Edge or Terra.

“He does look different?” said Terra.

“Yeah,” Edge replied. “He’s a different colour, and his head looks different…”

“Maybe it had something to do with the merge?”

“Maybe,” murmured Rydia, “but there’s something else… something unfamiliar…”

“Unfamiliar?”

“It’s as if I’ve never summoned him before… but I don’t know how that could be—ah!!”

Rydia doubled over, her breath coming in short gasps, as if she’d been punched in the stomach. Terra was at her side in a moment. “Rydia! What’s wrong? Rydia!!”

“I…” She was having trouble breathing. Something clutched at her heart, pulling at it. “Something’s… something’s happening… I… I don’t…”

“Rydia, focus!” Terra knelt, looking her in the eye. “Stay with us. Tell us what’s happening.”

“It’s… it’s like he’s… being taken from me… I can feel something pulling at him, inside…!”

“Taken?” Terra was taken aback for a second, but she recovered quickly. “Rydia, tell me what you mean! Can you stop it?”

“I’m… trying… it’s too strong…!”

“Rydia…!”

“NO!!”

Rydia’s tear-streaked face jerked upwards toward Bahamut, contorted with physical and emotional pain, and Edge and Terra gasped out loud as they saw what was happening.

Starting from his tail, Bahamut was beginning to disappear.

“Oh-h-h no…” said Edge.

“Cid and Mid are still up there!” cried Terra. She spun around to Rydia. “You have to hang on! You have to keep him here! Just a few more minutes!”

“I’m… trying…!”

Terra looked back into the sky. Bahamut’s disappearance was beginning to slow as it travelled up his tail, and for a moment it looked at if it would reverse. But it wavered and didn’t last long, and began to move with vengeful speed across the dragon’s torso.

Rydia had fallen to her knees now, both of her hands outstretched longingly toward Bahamut. “Please…!” she cried, trying with all her might to fight this unknown force, but it was in vain.

Bahamut was gone.

“No!!” Terra cried.

Rydia, for her part, could barely see through her tears and through the pounding in her head. All her efforts had been worth nothing. Bahamut was gone. She felt defiled, as if something dear to her had been stolen away. She tried to see clearly and think clearly through the smokescreen of her mind, but even staying conscious was difficult.

But she saw the two falling dots in midair that were Cid and Mid, and she knew she couldn’t let herself stop. She just couldn’t. Calling forth every ounce of the little remaining strength she had, she called upon her summoning powers once more. She couldn’t bring Bahamut back, but she realized that she didn’t have to.

Go, she told them.

Out of the sky swept a pair of graceful, beautiful sylphs who flew like a blur across the grasslands. Their gossamer wings carried them out, farther and farther, toward the two falling men. Rydia felt herself fading in and out of consciousness, saw the sylphs flicker in response, and willed herself to stay awake, just for another minute…

With mere seconds to go, the winged women snatched Cid and Mid up by the arms, blasting back into the sky.

Rydia felt her weakened face pull itself into a relieved smile. She watched through bleary eyes as the fairies lowered the two men gently to the grass, and the last thing she saw was them vanishing back into the night as she finally let herself slip from consciousness.

Duran had been charging headlong at the enormous, cycloptic shadow creature, utterly deaf to Cara’s warning cries, and as such he didn’t even see the approaching blindingly white flare approaching from behind him. As such, the massive explosion sent him flying backwards, and he instinctively covered his head with his arms as he landed face-down on the grass some distance away.

The deafening blast had seemingly come out of nowhere, and even as he felt the dirt and grass raining down upon him and saw, out of the corner of his eye, the odd, expanding ball of light and darkness, he wondered to himself whether he was imagining and, in the event that he was not, what had just happened.

Eventually the blast faded and Duran was left with dazed spots before his eyes and ringing ears. Tentatively he lifted his head from the ground, waiting for the whirlwind of dirt, dust and shadow to settle. Even as it finally did, it took him a moment to realize that the creature he had been fighting was no longer there. All that was left was a large crater in the grasslands.

“What…?” he said aloud.

He then noticed a pair of boots next to him, and then a hand, and finally Cara’s face and long, blonde hair staring down upon him and offering him help to stand up.

He accepted the hand, groaning as he felt the beginnings of bruises forming on his torso where he’d been thrown to the ground. As he glanced around, he saw that Cecil and Lucca, who had been helping him in his attempts to take down the enormous… thing, were already brawling with groups of the smaller ones. It seemed as if he was the only one caught off-guard by the blast. He was beginning to think he’d missed something.

He noticed he was no longer holding his sword, and he noticed it a few feet away. Walking over to retrieve it, he looked at Cara over his shoulder. “What just happened?”

“I tried to warn you,” Cara said. “We got a little help. Look for yourself.”

She pointed upward, and Duran followed the direction of her finger. When he saw what she was pointing at, he stumbled and nearly fell back to the ground. Above them was the enormous shadow of a… dragon? Yes, it was a dragon, and a powerful one too, from what he could tell on the ground. “What is that thing?”

The dragon chose that precise moment to let loose a great roar, and so when Cara responded he didn’t hear what she said. “Ba-what?”

“Bahamut.”

He spent a moment staring blankly at her. “Well, I’m glad we cleared that one up.”

She rolled her eyes. “Bahamut was known in my world as the King of Dragons. He’s an Esper, actually, although he’s so powerful I forget that sometimes.”

“Oh… Wait, Esper? As in, those creatures you can summon?”

“That’s right.”

He gawked at her. “You mean to tell me you brought that thing here?!”

She shook her head. “No, not me. I could never summon Espers as powerful as Bahamut is.”

“Then who…?”

She watched as Bahamut began to dip toward the ground from the sky, seeing the figure on its back, and pointed. “There, look for yourself.”

Duran turned just in time to see the dragon swoop gracefully downward toward a pack of the shadow creatures, forcing them to scatter as he skimmed mere feet from the grasslands. From atop his back, wielding a long spear, the figure leapt high into the sky – far higher than he would have thought humanly possible – and was momentarily silhouetted against the slowly-returning starlight. Bahamut soared back upward and promptly vanished into the night.

The spear-wielding warrior, meanwhile, dove down upon the shadow creatures, impaling two of them on the first descent and mauling down another three with a few subsequent, lethal jabs of the spear. It wasn’t until one of Angela’s fire spells lit up that part of the battlefield that Duran was able to recognize who the stranger was.

“Is that Lenna…?”

Standing beside him, Cara nodded. “That’s the Lenna we know… the Lenna we fought beside, anyway.”

“What—she’s supposed to be inside, where it’s safe!”

Cara couldn’t stifle a grin. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Duran. She might just have handed the battle to us.”

“All the same, I’ll have those guards’ heads for this. I…” He trailed off as he watched Lenna at the centre of the melee, suddenly captivated by her ability. “Where did she learn to fight like that?”

“She does look pretty elegant when she’s at it, doesn’t she? That’s what I always respected about the dragoon’s style… it takes fighting almost to an art form.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it. Even when I was travelling with Lise… There’s just something different about it.”

Cara glanced sideways at him. “Duran, you realize what this means, don’t you?”

He almost didn’t hear her. “Hmm? What, what do you mean?”

“Lenna’s gotten her memories back.”

Duran’s eyes widened slightly, and he looked back at the commotion around their newest arrival. “Well, I’ll be damned…”

“Watch out!!”

Cara tackled Duran out of the way just as a shadow wolf, who had been stalking up on them with a group from behind, launched itself at him. The wolf hit her instead, its claws and fangs digging into her leg, and she cried out in pain before the two of them landed roughly on the grass a few feet away.

Duran came to his senses immediately, springing back onto his feet and shredding the monster with a single swipe of his sword. Holding it at the ready toward the menacing little pack of wolves, he stood protectively near Cara. “Are you all right?”

“My leg,” she moaned, clutching it tightly.

“Can you stand?”

“No, I can… agh… barely move it…”

Duran cursed under his breath, partly at this news and partly at himself for his lapse in attention. “All right, then we’ll do this the hard way.”

“Duran…” She spoke slowly, warningly, as she noticed several more groups of wolves converging on them from two other sides. “Duran, just get out of here, get back to the group. Leave me here, I’ll be fine.”

Duran laughed out loud. “Good, you got that out of your system. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Well, it seemed like the polite thing to say,” she said, wincing at the pain in her leg but willing it away as she readied her magic.

“Sorry, chivalry isn’t quite dead yet. You said you could do magic?”

“Way ahead of you.”

He nodded. “Good. Can you cover me?”

“I can try.”

“That’s all I ask!”

He could say no more, because the first of the shadow creatures were upon him. He heard Cara launch a blast of fire at the unseen enemies behind him, but paid little attention as he focused on keeping the ones attacking from his side at bay. He plunged his sword into the first, lopped the head off a second, kicked a third away that was getting too close. Three of them swarmed at him at once and he brought his shield to bear, but one managed to get a bite through to his ankle, and he cried out and stepped back, bringing swift justice to the offender.

Another two were upon him, but they fell quickly to his sword. Still, there were far too many of them and he knew that they would eventually be overrun without a little help. In the moment of reprieve that followed, he called back to Cara. “See if you can keep them off me while I try something!”

“Is this really the best time to be taking chances?!”

“If this works it might save both of our skins!”

“Urghhh…. Just make it quick!”

Duran wasted no time. He held his sword before him and closed his eyes tightly, trying something he hadn’t thought would ever again be possible. He called upon the power of Wisp and the remnants of the powers he had wielded as a Paladin, and channelled all of it into his sword. He opened his eyes in both astonishment and awe as he saw the power do its work: his weapon began to glow, faintly at first, and then stronger and stronger as the Saint Saber spell took effect.

He held it at the ready once again, noting with a certain satisfaction that the monsters were already beginning to shy away from the brilliance of it. Wielding the weapon with heightened confidence, he swept it around and began to hack at anything dark he could see in a series of movements that could almost have been described as a dance. The light-endowed sword cut through the creatures like a hot knife through butter, and coupled with Cara’s magical onslaught, the herd of wolves began to thin out.

Duran spotted some more coming toward them – they were like vultures, he thought to himself – and backed toward Cara. “I think I can keep them off us long enough with this to get you back to the gates and get that leg looked at. Let me help you stand!”

She looked wary. “Come on!” he said. “It’s the only way we’re going to make it out of this!”

Finally she nodded, taking his arm and wincing as he pulled her to her feet, her arm over his shoulders. He held the shining sword out like a ward in front of him as they began to limp toward the city perimeter. Most of the monsters stayed away, wary of the weapon Duran wielded, although he had to slice his way past one or two as he broke through the main lines.

Then Cara, who’d been looking behind him, cried out. “Duran, look out!!”

Duran jerked his head around in time to see the pouncing wolf, but knew he wouldn’t be able to stop it.

At that moment, an indiscernible blur slammed into the wolf’s side, ploughing through it and a few other wolves that happened to be nearby. As Duran allowed himself to breathe again, his eyes followed the new arrival. It took him a moment to recognize Lise’s green tunic, and he sighed with relief at the extra pair of hands. “Lise, your timing is amazing. Come on over here, she needs help.”

Lise dusted herself off, keeping her spear warily aimed at the shadow wolves. “Quick thinking with that Saint Saber,” she said. “What happened to your leg, Cara?”

“A gratuitous act of altruism,” she replied through clenched teeth.

“I won’t ask,” Lise replied as she took up her other arm, her spear clutched in one hand. “You two saw Lenna?”

“Yeah,” said Duran, keeping an eye out for more shadow monsters. “I couldn’t believe it.”

“I’m still in shock… I guess I never really got it through my head that she was that powerful.”

“She still is, thanks to you,” said Cara, wincing again at the pain in her leg. “In any case, if you get me back to the perimeter, I could use her help now.”

“We’ll make it,” said Duran. “We’re not licked yet.”

They stumbled awkwardly back across the field as the carnage continued around them.

Yang was the first to return to the castle gates as the battle entered its lull. Nearby he saw Mid stumbling along, supporting the weight of his unconscious grandfather. He had already been halfway there when Bahamut had mysteriously vanished, and had nearly been bowled over by the two sylphs that came to Cid and Mid’s rescue, and so he was wary as he walked back across the field, almost certain that there would be more surprises.

He broke into a run when he saw Terra and Edge crouching next to an unconscious Rydia beneath the battlements.

“What happened?” he panted as he came to a halt by their side.

“We don’t know,” said Terra. “I think the stress of all of it was too much for her.”

“All of what? What was it that happened?”

“We don’t know that either. Just before Bahamut disappeared, she said she felt like he was being stolen from her. She tried to fight it, but… anyway, we’re all okay now, that’s the important part.”

Yang’s frown deepened. “Stolen? Do you think it could have been the Mastermind’s doing?”

“I wish I knew.”

They heard footsteps and panting nearby and turned to see Mid, who had been joined by Captain Biggs, supporting Cid between them. “He was knocked out when we were blasted off the ship,” he said breathlessly. “We need to get him to the throne room.”

“We moved the triage out of there when the creatures broke through,” said Edge. “Get him to the west tower basement. That’s where Rosa’s holding out with the rest of the villagers and the wounded.”

Biggs saluted. “I’ll be back shortly. Looks like we’ve got a moment of reprieve anyway.”

“Don’t take that for granted,” said Yang. “For all we know they were just startled by Bahamut. They could come back at any moment.”

“Right you are, sir. I’ve told my guards to spread the word to the other fighters to stay out on the field just in case.”

“Good. Run up to the battlements on the way back to tell them to stay at the ready.”

Biggs nodded and then disappeared inside with Mid and Cid. Terra watched them go inside. “I hope Cid’s okay,” she said, half to herself.

“I’m certain he will be,” Yang replied. “We need to focus on what’s happening out here.”

“I know.”

“Ughhh…”

Yang and Edge immediately joined Terra at Rydia’s side. “Rydia!” Terra said, gently shaking her shoulder. “Rydia, can you hear me?”

“Ugh… I… mmph…” Rydia’s eyes fluttered open slightly, and for a moment she looked dazed. “Wh-what happened? What—” She let loose a sharp intake of breath. “Cid! Mid! Are they—ahhhh…”

She’d tried to sit up and winced noticeably, putting a hand to her forehead. “Slow down,” Terra said, putting a hand on her back. “Cid and Mid are fine. They just went inside. You saved them.”

Rydia breathed deeply, and a weak smile of relief crossed her face briefly before the full recollection of what had happened came back to her. “I… I’ve never felt anything like that before. It was… violating. I don’t know why he left me.”

“Don’t think about that now,” said Yang. “Everyone is all right. We’ll get down to the bottom of it when this is all over.”

Rydia nodded weakly. “I’ll stay and keep fighting… ugh…”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” said Yang. “You need to get inside and rest. I’ll take you inside in a minute.”

“But I don’t—”

“Rydia, Yang’s right,” said Terra. “You won’t do us any good in this state.”

“I can take her inside,” Edge offered.

“No,” Terra replied, “I’ll go. We’ll need you out here if anything happens.”

“You can fight as well as I can,” Edge insisted, “and I know the castle better than you do. I know where the basement is.”

“Any more of this and I’ll go myself,” Yang muttered.

“Terra!”

Terra turned back out to the field. Sabin was a short distance away along with Baron’s chief engineer Cid. “The monsters are all gathering way out there,” he called. “I can’t tell what they’re doing.”

Terra looked. Sure enough, the shadow creatures were amassing far out onto the plain, almost beyond her field of vision. She could see any details, only masses of darkness moving about indeterminately. “What are they doing?” she muttered.

Yang and Edge looked as well, and Edge glanced from them up to the sky. “Look, you can see some stars now. Way out there, past them.”

“Here too,” said Yang, looking directly above the castle. On the distant horizon to the east, they could see the first glimmer of dawn, too. “We’re almost through.”

“It looks like the last of the darkness is surrounding those monsters,” Edge said. “That can’t be good.”

“Keep alert,” agreed Yang. “We could be looking at a desperation attack.”

“Yeah…” Terra watched and waited for a moment. Then she shook her head. “We should get Rydia inside. I’ll—”

“Hey down there!”

Terra looked upward, to the battlements. “What is it, Edward?”

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing out there?”

“We were just talking about that. We think it might be some kind of last-ditch attack.”

“What do you think the bigger ones are?”

“Bigger ones?” Terra said to herself before turning around again. Edward was right: three – no, four – larger shadow monsters were forming across the group of creatures. They weren’t anywhere near the size of the bull or the snake, but they were large enough to make her nervous.

“Uh-oh,” said Edge as he helped Rydia to stand. “I don’t like the looks of that.”

“Neither do I,” said Yang, readying his claws.

Edge noticed. “What are you doing? They haven’t even started their approach yet.”

“One never knows. I’d draw my weapons if I were you.”

Edge eyed him, but silently acquiesced, pulling the Murasame and the Masamune from their scabbards. Terra soon did the same.

“What’s going on?” asked Biggs, emerging from the front gates.

“We don’t know yet,” said Terra. “Get your weapon out and head back into the field. Tell everyone out there to get ready.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She watched him temporarily as he headed back out onto the grasslands, and then her head jerked up as she saw a brief flicker of movement from one of the bigger creatures. “What was that?” said Edge.

Terra couldn’t answer.

Then there was a sudden commotion from up on the battlements. “Arm yourselves!” she heard Edward yell. “Fight them off!!”

“Oh, no…” she whispered.

“They’re throwing them?!” Edge said incredulously.

Neither had a chance to say anything else before the wolves began raining down on them in a torrent of darkness. She backed up with Yang and Edge, forming a protective semi-circle around Rydia and watching the air, striking at anything dark that she could see. Up ahead, Biggs had turned around, noticing that something was going on. “Biggs!” she yelled. “Get the rest of the group in here!”

He didn’t need to be told twice, and she focused her attention on the task at hand. As the melee fighters began to trickle inward from the field, she sent several inside to fight off any monsters that had made their way into the interior of the castle from the battlements. All the while dark shadows fell from the skies, and sweat poured down her forehead and blood down her arms and torso from their claws as she dispatched them one by one.

Edge was battling with ferocity to rival hers. Both swords flashed in the hint of light from the rising sun in the east. He struck down creatures from the air, lashed out at wolves snapping at him from the ground. He saw a group of them land, already running, several yards away from the castle’s entrance and, abandoning his better judgement for a fraction of a second, ran out to meet them – leaving Rydia exposed and defenceless for the few moments it took for him to blaze his way through the small group of enemies.

Unfortunately for them both, it was enough.

Out of nowhere, one of the wolves soared through the gap he’d left between Yang and Terra, slamming into Rydia and knocking her from her feet. “No!!” cried Terra, slashing her way through the wolf and leaving it as nothing more than a cloud of black dust, but the damage had been done. Rydia lay still, a gash across her chest and vicious bite marks on her jaw.

Edge turned white. “Rydia!!” He ran back to her with as much speed as he could muster, coming to a stop on his knees beside her. “Rydia, speak to me! Say something!!”

Rydia did not answer. Air escaped her bloodied mouth in ragged, belaboured breaths.

“Biggs!” Terra yelled to the captain beside her. “Get Rydia inside! She has to get to Rosa, now!!”

Edge barely even heard the order and watched through distanced eyes as the captain hauled Rydia away toward the west tower. “That son of a bitch…” he muttered to himself, turning his ferocious eyes upon the group of monsters so far away. “That dirty son of a bitch…!”

With this final yell, he launched himself away from the castle gates and began running as fast as he could toward the cluster of creatures in the distance. “Edge!” Yang called after him, and then louder, “Edge, no!!”

Edge didn’t listen. His running form grew smaller and smaller as he made his way into the distance. Yang saw monsters fly toward him, only to be cut down by the young ninja in his fury. There were far less monsters attacking the castle now, their attention diverted to the new threat that was headed into their midst.

Yang watched him for another moment, his mind torn, and then sighed in resignation. “That impulsive little…”

Without giving it another thought, he took off after Edge, turning a deaf ear to Terra’s protests. His long, trained strides soon carried him nearly out of sight of the castle gates.

“Shit,” Terra muttered, backing further into the gateway and readying herself for another wave.

Up ahead, Yang had Edge within his sights. “Come back, Edge! Don’t do this!!”

If the young ninja heard him, he didn’t listen. He kept a brutal pace across the grasslands, slashing his way through the straggling monsters he found along the way and the ones that were thrown at him from the army he was diving into.

Yang was trying his best to overtake Edge, but even as his feet battered the ground beneath him, he knew he wouldn’t reach him in time. He was far too close and travelling too quickly. Yang found himself cursing the boy’s impulsiveness, his selfishness, his stubbornness – until, for a moment, he remembered himself at Edge's age, and couldn’t help wondering if this wasn’t something he might have done himself.

“Edge!!” he called once again. “Please!!”

It was no use. Edge was drawing nearer and nearer to the perimeter of the group of shadow creatures. Finally, he penetrated their border, only – and Yang nearly stumbled as he saw this – they gave him a wide berth, flowing like a river to either side of him. And in a moment of horrifying clarity, Yang knew what they were going to do.

They were trapping him. And he was running obliviously right into the middle of it.

Already he saw the gap behind the ninja begin to close. “No!!” He summoned the last reserves of his strength and picked up his pace, tearing into the monsters, sending many of them flying as he pummelled and sliced his way through to the clearing of monsters, in the middle of which stood Edge, swords held out to both sides, the first signs of fear crossing his face as he finally realized what he had done.

Yang broke through the last of the blockade, bleeding from a new cut on his arm, and hurried over to Edge. They stood back to back, each eyeing the monsters on his side. They watched the two humans hungrily, taking in their prize before moving in for the kill.

“You shouldn’t have come after me,” Edge said to Yang, though he had difficulty speaking through his fear of the inevitable fate that now awaited him.

“I know,” he replied.

“Why did you?”

Yang was silent for a moment, and then said, “because I was as young as you once.”

“But now you could die, too. You should have—”

“Sometimes,” Yang said, cutting him off and throwing him a sideways glance, “there are more important things than simply living.”

Edge breathed out heavily, shakily, and then nodded. “And if we die?”

Yang heard the growls of the monstrous mob grow slightly louder. Their time was drawing near. Against this many… Yang knew that they could not both survive.

“Then,” he said, “we die as brothers.”

“Brothers,” Edge agreed.

Another moment went by. The growls grew once more. “Yang?” he said again.

“Yes?”

“…you were right. If we live through this… I’ll never doubt Cecil, or you, again. I’m sorry.”

Despite himself, Yang laughed out loud. “You’re a good man, Edge. Let’s show the Mastermind how badly he’s underestimated us.”

Edge grinned. “You’re on.”

And then the creatures pounced, and there was no more time for words.

Far to the south, Shadow and Janus duelled furiously down the mountainside.

Each clang that sounded as their weapons met echoed deafeningly from rock to rock, piercing the wind-filled air with violence. Shadow hurled himself out of the way, somersaulting down a cliff face as Janus’s blade slammed into the ground where he had been only seconds before. Then Janus was in the air again, leaping after his foe and spiralling downward toward him, the scythe becoming a vicious whirlwind of metal.

Still falling backward through the air, Shadow hurled several tack stars at Janus, all of which were deflected by his whirling blade. He saw one embed itself into the rock face some ways above him, and grabbed a hold of a jutting ledge, swinging himself around it and leaping back upward. He scaled the remaining cliff face and dislodged the star, throwing it with deadly accuracy back at Janus.

By the time it reached its target, Janus was no longer there. Shadow glanced around, trying to spot where he’d run to, only to find him on the ledge below, launching a ball of shadow magic at him. He leapt away from the cliff mere seconds before the ball reached him, feeling the explosion of rock and darkness expel him further into the air.

Hurtling through the dawn-stroked sky, he turned to see Janus leap out after him, streaking through the air on a blazing course away from the mountain.

Of course he can fly, Shadow thought dryly.

He placed his palms together, calling up a lightning spell. Twinkling yellow stars in the air around Janus told him that his foe was doing the same. Wasting no time, he thrust his palms forward and watched the lightning arc out toward Janus, who at the same moment released his. The two bolts met in midair, and Shadow soon found himself fighting to overpower Janus’s spell, the two chains of lightning locked between them, illuminating the surrounding air and threatening to blind them both.

It was Shadow who broke the spell as he realized he was nearing a nasty fall into the forest below him, and he spun around, catching a branch in the canopy, swinging around to another, and vanishing from sight behind the massive tree trunk.

He heard Janus break through the barrier of leaves that formed the top of the canopy, and he heard him speak, still floating in midair. “You fight well for a mere assassin,” he said, “but you and I both know this is futile. I am far more powerful than you ever were in life!”

“If that were true, I’d already be dead!” Shadow called back, immediately leaping to another tree as the one in which he’d been standing was blown to pieces by another shadow ball from Janus.

“Give it up!” he retorted. “Even if you kill me, the master will still have your race for his trophy!”

“It is yours as much as it is mine! The fact that you’ve buried your humanity means nothing!”

“Fool!!” Janus yelled as he reduced this tree, too, to splintered wood. Shadow disappeared behind another. “I didn’t bury my humanity, it was taken from me! Destroyed by a life of upbringing by the Mystics! And I don’t begrudge them that – humans are weak, filthy! It was not simply Lavos who ruined my life, but the pathetic human weakness of emotion, clouding reason and betraying logic!”

“You forget that I, too, thought I destroyed my emotions, obliterated any past I’d ever had, but they are still there, Janus! They will always be there! The longer you keep denying their existence and your remaining shreds of humanity, the faster they will both dominate you!”

Janus laughed aloud. “Oh, so you profess to be all-knowing now, do you?”

He swerved sideways as another tack star whizzed by his ear. “I simply know traitorous blood when I see it!”

“Traitor, am I? And do you consider your slate clean, then? Free of nasty black marks?”

“As compared to yours, yes.”

“And would Baram agree with you, do you think?”

Shadow’s breath caught in his throat, and for a moment he couldn’t reply. Janus laughed again. “Yes, I know all about Baram. Just one black mark on a long list! You say I’ve lost the right to speak of honour? Then you’ve lost the right to preach of treason!”

Shadow, seething with barely-contained rage, was still silent, and Janus chuckled. “You never found Baram in the Spirit Realm, did you, Shadow? All that time spent wandering the Black Expanse, and not once did you come across your old comrade. What did you think you’d do? Apologize? Hah! He’d have seen straight through you just as I do. He’d have seen the man you really are, a weakling who lacked the courage to do what was right, just as you now lack the courage to face the truth about all of humanity! They will all die, and there is nothing you can do to stop it!”

With an angry yell, Shadow hurled himself from behind the tree and tackled Janus in midair, wrestling him down through the blanket of trees. They struggled as they fell, each trying to force the other down beneath him. Branches crashed painfully against arms and torsos. Without warning, another thick branch appeared out of nowhere and slammed into Shadow’s skull. His grip loosened and he fell the remaining few feet, landing in a painful heap on the grass.

Janus landed some ten feet away, stumbling slightly and bleeding from the side of his head, his cloak torn. He panted heavily, but an evil grin crossed his face as he saw Shadow trying to stand. Once, twice, three times he fell back to the ground, overcome by the pain in his head and a wave of dizziness.

Janus chuckled evilly, his breathing still heavy as he walked over to his enemy. “Well… how does it feel, then, Shadow? How sad it is for someone who embraced death so willingly on his first try to fight so hard to do something meaningful and still prove himself worthless.” Shadow tried to push himself up with his left arm, and then cried out as Janus slashed it with his scythe, leaving behind a long gash from which blood poured freely.

He stood over him, kicking him in the side. “Even given this second chance, you’re pathetic! And now Gaspard has sacrificed himself for nothing! Do you hear me? Nothing!!”

Even as Shadow regained his equilibrium, forcing aside the throbbing pain in his head and arm, he looked up at his adversary, a look behind his mask of pure revulsion and disgust, as though he were looking upon the very scum of the earth. “Traitor…!” he croaked.

Janus grinned, revealing his fangs. “I suppose you’ll be seeing Schala again before I do… if you might do one thing for me, thank her. Yes… thank her for luring me down to that palace, giving me this life of power I so richly deserve!”

He raised his scythe up high.

And then a barking sound reached Shadow’s ears, and then a growling, and then the unmistakeable sound of teeth biting to the bone.

“Gaaah!!” cried Janus, dropping the scythe.

Taking his chance, Shadow rolled away, pushed himself to his feet and, ignoring the pain in his arm and his head, drew his knife. Interceptor the dog continued to gnash at Janus’s legs, dragging him farther and farther away, and Shadow began to charge toward them.

And then Janus managed to kick the dog away from him and, wasting no time, blasted Interceptor with a massive jolt of shadow energy. A painful yelp died in his throat as he was thrown away from Janus, landing roughly on the grass, rolling several feet, and finally coming to a halt against a tree, lying deadly still.

“Interceptor!!” Shadow raced across the grass, coming to a halt beside the dog’s prone form, but he already knew he was too late. The eyes were still open, but there was no life in them.

Interceptor, his oldest and dearest companion, was dead.

“No…” Shadow knelt weakly beside Interceptor’s lifeless body, laying a hand atop his back. “Interceptor…”

He then turned. Janus’s expression was one of absolute fury mingled with a hint of triumph at his enemy’s suffering. He held no weapon, but his eyes flashed with menace. He and Shadow locked eyes, the latter breathing heavier and heavier, his heart beginning to pound. He couldn’t form a coherent thought, could scarcely utter a single word. All his anger and grief drove him to his feet, and then he began to run, and then charge headlong at his adversary, letting loose a horrendous cry of rage. “Graaaaahhhh!!!”

And then Janus thrust his palm toward him, and the world went black.

- - - - -

Shadow could not see. He spun this way and that, trying to understand where he was, what was going on. Was he in the Black Expanse? Was this the Spirit Realm again? Had he failed, had he been killed by Janus?

“Ha ha ha…”

He heard laughter. He spun. He couldn’t see the source, but it didn’t go away. In fact, it was growing louder, and louder still. Where? Where was it coming from?

“You!!”

He spun again. A ghostly image of Tellah stood before him, his eyes a menacing shade of red, his features unclear, as though seen through a window of smoky glass.

“I was right about you!” the apparition said, and its voice contained many voices, too many familiar voices. “You cannot be trusted! You cannot redeem yourself for the things you have done! You are a murdering monster! The Coalition has been wrong to trust you, and it will be their demise!!”

“No!” Shadow said backing away, stumbling over his own feet. “No! I’ve done nothing wrong! I’ve betrayed no one!”

“We were wrong to trust you!”

He spun again. It was Leo. “We should never have trusted you! We thought you would help the Coalition, and instead you’ve betrayed us all!” His voice was distorted, almost mechanical. Shadow shrank away. “No! You’re wrong! You’re wrong!!”

“What’s the matter, Shadow?” Terra approached him from another side. “You’re always so dark, so aloof. You never show weakness. Is this weakness we see, Shadow? You’re weak! You’re a pathetic weakling! Stow your emotions away! We don’t care about you!”

“I… can’t…!” Shadow sank to his knees, clutching the sides of his head. His mind was racing, his breath coming to him in short, futile gasps. He tried to rip the scarf from his head, but it just clung more and more tightly to him, refusing to let go.

He mustered his strength and looked up, past all the rest of the apparitions. Galuf was there. “Galuf!” he cried, though his voice sounded like little more than a whisper. “Galuf, help me! Please…!!”

“You cannot be trusted with this, Shadow. We will have to protect her from you now… if you can’t help us, you can’t help her. Nobody should trust a child with a murderer.”

He turned, and he saw that his hand rested atop Relm’s shoulder. “I don’t even know you,” she said, a look of horror crossing her face. “You scare me… go away! Just go away!!”

“No!!” His hands found the ground, which was dark and almost invisible beneath him. What was happening? What was this nightmare?

“Clyde.”

He looked up. “B… Baram…?”

Baram stood with his arms crossed, staring with disdain down upon his former comrade. He was whole. He was not ghostly, his eyes and his skin were normal. But he was pale, very pale, and there were many, many wounds riddling his naked body. “I can’t believe I ever called you my friend. I never would have if I knew what you’d do to me.”

“I… I didn’t…”

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME?!”

The horrible cry echoed throughout the darkness, which began to rumble and shake, and all the ghostly, red-eyed apparitions laughed a great, evil laugh.

“You left me there to their torture! You left me behind! You couldn’t do what was right, you never could! I should never have trusted you!”

“Trusted you…”

“We shouldn’t have trusted you!”

“You don’t deserve our trust!!”

“What could I do?!” Shadow cried. “What could I have done?! You were my closest friend! I couldn’t bear it…!”

“Just as I always thought,” Clyde said. “You’re weak.”

“WEAK!”

“You’re a weakling!”

“I won’t be the daughter of someone so weak!”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

“You should have used your knife!” Baram cried. “Do you see these wounds?! You are responsible! You are a coward, Clyde!”

“COWARD!”

“You’ll always be a coward!”

“Can’t even stand up to his own past…”

“We never should have trusted you!”

“The knife…” Shadow wept bitterly, seeing it lying there just beyond his reach. “My knife…!”

Clyde let out a hearty laugh and kicked it to him. “Yes, use your knife, Clyde! Use it on yourself! Do it again! Go back to the Spirit Realm and cower, you worthless murderer!”

“MURDERER!”

“Assassin!”

“Thief!”

Shadow picked up the knife. Tears clouded his vision, but he could still see the old wood, the hint of rust along the top, the deadly sharpness. It was his same knife, from all those years ago. His knife. The one he should have used.

“A fitting end for someone like you, without the courage to do what’s right!”

“What’s right…” he whispered.

“Coward!”

“Murderer!”

“We never should have trusted you!”

“…never should have…”

“Coward!”

“You’re a coward, Clyde! You should die here, now, where you belong!!”

“GRRRAAAAHHHHH!!!” Shadow cried as he swung the knife firmly into its target.

There was a horrible crunch.

The apparitions quieted instantly. The rumbling stopped. The lingering cries that had been echoing back and for the across the darkness were instantly silenced.

Shadow found his breath coming short. He found that he could scarcely fill his lungs. His fingers went numb. His eyes grew bleary. He tried to will the pain away, but he could not. There was no taking back what he had just done.

Slowly, surely, Shadow released his grip on the blade of the handle, and it didn’t fall. It was firmly and permanently in place.

Lodged in the side of Baram’s neck.

Baram spluttered, blood flowing slowly from the corners of his mouth. His hands fell still. His eyes were sightless. But he was smiling.

Slowly, the wounds across his body began to fade and becoming nothing but clear skin. Soon, they were all gone, leaving only the dagger and the dripping blood. Even his skin was less pale.

“Th—ank… y…” was all he could say.

Shadow, his heart clutching at his breath, almost couldn’t speak.

“Goodbye, Baram.”

- - - - -

The image of Baram had faded into the blackness, and then colour returned to the world. Everything began to come back into his field of vision: the trees, the grass, the sunrise. He felt his arms and legs, felt his heated, tear-streaked face beneath his multitude of coverings.

He then turned to face Janus, who said nothing and stood still, his expression a mask of shock, Shadow’s dagger embedded deep in his neck.

Slowly, Janus sank to his knees, and then the last of the life faded from behind his eyes, and he keeled over sideways, coming to rest, motionless, on the grass.

Shadow stood there looking down upon him for a long moment. The sun was still rising. He didn’t know if there were any more creatures. He didn’t care. His feet were aching. His arm was throbbing with pain. But there were birds singing, and cheerful clouds in the sky. He turned around, saw Interceptor still lying motionless exactly where he had been. He looked at peace, almost as if sleeping, in the shadow of the tree cast by the rising sun.

Slowly, Shadow reached up and, as he had done before in the Spirit Realm, began to pull away the cloths and scarves that had sheltered his face for so long. The brown hair spilled out from within, unruly and unwashed, but free. This was the end. He had finally faced his past and won. He now deserved to show his face to the world.

And to think… Janus had been the one to orchestrate it.

He looked up at the sky. The sun continued to rise. He could see any lingering darkness. Baron would win the day, and another agent of the Mastermind had been eliminated.

He felt almost hollow. Janus’s loss had been, as far as he was concerned, unnecessary. There was a man who, in the throes of his lust for power, had failed to see that he had become that which he had once loathed. And Shadow truly did understand how alone he must have felt… how vulnerable. He and Janus had shared more in common than either one of them would have admitted.

But that was not important anymore.

He turned and walked away from Janus’s body. It was time to bury his friend.