United Once More:
A Fictional Reunion Between Kain and Raziel

by Kreliana


     After confronting Kain for a second time, this time in the Oracle's Cave, Raziel is forced to retreat due to Kain's overwhelming power.  The dazed Raziel sat in the bowels of the Elder's chamber as he contemplated his journey, no, his entire unife that he's had until now.  Everything that had been given to him, and taken away, was done by Kain's hand.  "Taken from me..." Raziel thought,"What has Kain really stripped me of?  While it is true that my physical body is destroyed, what Kain has done to me has made me more powerful than I've ever been."  Love, hatred, truth, lies, friendship, deceit; Raziel's mind was a searing pool of thoughts by this time.
     "I had faith in you..." were Kain's words spoken to him moments ago.
     "Faith...in me?  Why" Raziel pondered these words and tried to come up with an answer.
     "Hurry, Raziel,"  the Elder's voice echoed from the shadows of the Spectral Realm, "Kain won't wait forever."
     Yet another thought came to Raziel's mind; the Elder.  Since the beginning, the Elder has been ordering him around saying Raziel do this, or Raziel do that, even worse was: Raziel kill your brothers.
     "My brothers, how could I have let him possess me to destroy those
who were once my most trusted allies?" pangs of guilt went through Raziel as he recalled moments of sheer bliss of fighting alongside his brothers and Kain. He recalled the destruction of the human kingdoms and the thrill of watching
them die by their hands.  Those feelings were now replaced with the agonizing guilt of fratricide.
     Raziel by this time had fully recovered his strength.The Elder spoke to him again, "As my agent, Raziel, you are beyond death." Raziel was enraged when he heard this.
      "Your agent," he yelled," is that all that I am to you?  A little errand boy that is here to do YOUR dirty work?  I didn't ask you for any of this!  Do you really think that I enjoyed spilling my brothers' blood? Do you think that I enjoy this pitiful looking body?  I would rather be in oblivion with my clan."  Before the Elder had a chance to reply, Raziel had stormed out of his chambers through the warp gate and returned to the Oracle's Cave.
 
     Once again, Raziel pushed the doors of Kain's clockroom open.
      "Have you come to face your destiny, Raziel?" Kain said as he stood nonchalantly before him; Kain had been waiting for his return.
     "......Yes....my Master." Raziel stooped onto one knee and bowed before Kain, just like he did on the day that he was tossed into the abyss.
     "Hahahaha...Good.  I'm glad to see that you've finally come to terms. Now come, there is much to do."  Raziel followed Kain around the room passing countless starry portals until he reached the one he had been looking for.
     "This way," Kain pointed toward one of the portals before making his way through it.
     "Wait, Raziel," the Elder's voice came to Raziel one last time,"I see that you are Kain's slave once again..." Raziel briefly interupted the Elder to tell him,"I am not his slave, I am his son."  Raziel then made his way into the unknown.  He found himself on a platform that had the infinity symbol on it.  Once again, Kain was waiting for him.
     "You're making me impatient, Raziel.  I can't wait around for you forever.  Anyway, This is infinity, the place where all time meets and bacomes one.  Just about anything can be accomplished in this room.  Before we go anywhere, I have to change you."  Kain then pulled out the Time Streaming Device.
     "Change me?" Raziel was confused and had no idea as to what Kain was talking about, but before he was able to understand light shot out of the Time Streaming Device and enveloped Raziel.  Pain shot through his body, the
same kind that he felt when falling through the abyss, yet he felt more than just pain.  He felt bone structure going through his wings.  A bottom jaw, tongue and lips all graced his presence one again.  The pain forced Raziel to
his hands and knees, but when he opened his eyes, he saw flesh surrounding his body once again.  His beautiful face, body, and features had been restored. Raziel was on the brink of crying at the sight of his original self.
     "Th..thank you Kain, but how and why did you restore me?"
     "How is an easy answer.  As I said, this room is where all time becomes one.  Past, present, future.  It all meets and melds here.  I simply took your old body from the past and melded it with your current, well, former state. Thus you were restored.  Why I did it is a bit more complicated.  You are the key to restoring Nosgoth's balance."
     "How am I the key to restoring Nosgoth's balance?"
     "Allow me to explain.  As you know, centuries ago I chose to damn the world, allowing it to decay and die off."
     "Yes, I know that, but what point are you getting at?"
     "I am growing sick of your interuptions, Raziel.  Anyway, after I damned the world,  I came here to see what the outcome would be if I let the world flourish and not die.  To my surprise, I found a way to heal the world without having to martyr myself.  If I could send myself back in time, and martyr my present self, I could restore Nosgoth.  But, the moment I destroy myself, my soul will fade into the Spectral Realm, and I would be locked in limbo for eternity.  I would never be able to return to the present time because I would not be able to return to my physical body.  This is where you come in, Raziel.  When the Soul Reaver was destroyed, that was confirmation to me that you were no longer a material being.  Your principal residence is in the Spectral Plane.  If we swap bodies, for a short time, I can send you, in my body, back in time to set things right.  If you destroy my body back then the pillar will think that I've been destroyed and will be restored.  Your soul will still shift planes, but since you reside in the Spectral Realm, you will be able to return to the Material Realm once my body has been destroyed.  Once you have shifted back to the Material Realm, you can return to this room."
     "How can we switch bodies?"  Raziel asked. Kain smiled and let out a little laugh.
     "It is amazing how quickly you forget, Raziel.  Do you remember the spell that we learned 100 years before your execution?"
     "The Soul Steal?" Raziel asked for confirmation.
     "Yes, that spell rips out your opponents soul and replaces it with your own.  If we use that on each other, we will inhabit each other's bodies.  You must then take my body into the past, destroy it, and restore balance."
     "One last question, Kain, how will you get back to your body, you can't stay in mine forever."
     "When the Soul Steal is done, there's a split second in which there is no soul in the body at all.  I will go back to that small amount of time, pull my body out and bring it to the present time, and then use the Soul Steal on it.  Then, I will re-inhabit my body, and you are free to return to yours.  Also, take this," Kain handed Raziel a letter,"Give this to me when you travel to the past. It is instructions as to what is going on, and how I want the future to be shaped."
As Raziel took the note, another thought crossed his mind,"But Kain, how will the young you know that it is you who set this all up and not one of his enemies?"
     "Good point.....here take this with you," Kain then ripped Vorador's ring out of his ear and handed it to Raziel.
      "Kain, will this actually work?"  Kain looked at Raziel, annoyed by his constant asinine remarks.
      "Of course it will work," Kain growled,"Now get ready, we'll use the Soul Steal on each other on three..."  Raziel stood across from Kain in a perfectly straight line as he readied his magic.  Fear and anxiety coursed through them as they prepared to venture into each others' bodies.
      "1.........2.......3!" Kain yelled as magic flew out of their arms and into each other.  The feeling of being ripped out of your body, and the sensation of inhabiting another; the two hadn't expirienced this in a long time.
     "Go Raziel, and take the Time Streaming Device with you, for without it you  cannot return here."  Kain speaking to him from inside his body sent shockwaves through him; some were surprise from seeing Kain in his body, and some were disgust from knowing that it was Kain in his body.

     Using the Time Streaming Device, Raziel went back in time to the moment when Kain damned Nosgoth.  He made his way through a time warp and watched carefully to make certain that he didn't miss the correct time.
     "There it is!" he yelled as he jumped through the gate.  The warp spat him out in an area near the pillars, their he saw the young Kain.  He was on the brink of damning Nosgoth.
     "Stop!!" Raziel screamed.  The young Kain looked at him with fear and drew the Soul Reaver. "I'm not here to fight you, Kain.  I'm here to offer you an alternative."  Raziel then handed the young Kain the note that the older Kain had given him.  Young Kain looked at the note and the more he read it, the more shocked and surprised he became.
     "How do I know that this is real?" Kain asked.  Raziel handed him Vorador's Signet Ring.  That was all the more proof Kain needed.  He then circled around his future body, and stared at himself, amazed at what he would become.
     "You, inside of "me", your name is Raziel?"
     "Yes, you are to give me the Soul Reaver, and I will destroy this body with it, thus the Pillar of Balance will be restored.  Then, you are to follow the instructions on this note, step-by-step, in order to completely restore Nosgoth itself."
     "All right," Kain said as he handed the hilt of the Soul Reaver to Raziel.  Grasping the blade, looking at it in its former self, Raziel turned the blade upside down and plunged it through his heart. He gasped as he fell onto the ground, writhing in pain, and within minutes was unconscious.

     When Raziel woke up, he had shifted onto the Spectral Plane.  Even there, he could feel balance being restored.  Kain's plan had worked.
     "My mission is complete," Raziel thought as he shifted to the Material Realm.  He saw the Time Streaming Device on the ground and greedily picked it up,"Now, I can go home."
Raziel then activated the Time Streaming Device, and returned to the place where all time meets and becomes one.  Already, Kain had ripped his body out of the past, and was currently making use of it.  Suddenly, the ground started shaking violently.  Kain and Raziel fell onto their knees due to the impact.
     "The past has been changed, we are feeling the aftereffects; the world is being restored!" Kain yelled with much delight.  Then all at once, the rumbling stopped.  They looked at each other as if to say, "What now?"  Finally, Kain gave the order to go outside, so Raziel trailed behind Kain.
     As they exited the Oracle's Cave, they were in awe at what they saw; a bright and beautiful Nosgoth.  The vampires were no longer the foul creatures that they were, for they too had also been restored to their former selves.  Even more startling than that, Raziel discovered that the humans were living symbiotically.
     "Kain, why don't the humans fear us?"  Kain looked at Raziel and said,"That was part of my plan.  Now, we have no more need to hunt.  Some of the humans,  like our worshippers, will give us portions of their blood, in turn we spare their lives and keep order amongst them. Of course, the suffering, dying, and the criminals are killed off completely."
     "Amazing, I never thought that you'd be the type for creating a Utopian society.  I thought you hated mankind."  Kain let out a little laugh at this,"Utopian society? Ha!  Raziel, you know me better than that.  I do hate humans, but they are necessary for our survival.  I have only created a way for them to grow in numbers so that we won't have to struggle to survive."  Raziel was a bit disgusted that Kain's acts were selfish, but soon shrugged it off.

     Later on, Raziel decided to venture into his territory.  He looked upon the walls of his stronghold with delight, for it had been restored beyond its former beauty.  All of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks.  In front of him, mingling with some humans, were the winged vampires that were the Razielim.  His clan had been restored.
     "My...children," Raziel whispered.  Tears swelled into his eyes as he saw his beloved clan again.  As he walked further into his territory, both humans and vampired alike gave a subtle bow as he walked by to show respect and loyalty to him. 
     Weary from his travels, Raziel sought his chambers to seek rest.  Two Razielim pulled open the doors of his quarters to allow him entry.  He gave a nod to both of them as a way to thank them the, they let they door quietly shut behind him.  The tears that he had fought back were now streaming down his face as he went to pull the stone of his coffin free to climb inside.  As he went to sleep, the tears subsided, and a faint smile crept on his face.
 

The End

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