“Raziel, you do realise that neither of us, or anyone else for that matter have a clue to Kains new identity or dwellings, it is a seemingly impossible task at present”. I stirred through my thoughts and recalled the vision, the place seems familiar, but Iam still confused as to the exact location of that building. Then it came to me, the machines! I have seen machines like those before, but where? 

        I exited my clan territory once again, and tried to remember those machines, and where I saw them, wait, now I remember, that lab place where I met Gudeath, the machines. 

        I returned to oracles cave and made my way back to the starry portal in the time chamber, I didn’t need Moebuises help this time, I could harness the powers by myself, it was easy enough. I summoned the portal to the last world I visited and focused on the land itself to make the process faster, I then stepped through the silver gate-way and experienced the same strange sensation as I did before, as Moebius said last time “It will not be a pleasant sensation, but there is no other way”.

        I landed in the exact same spot as I did last time, near a pit of quick sand that last time, nearly claimed my life. I evaded the deadly sand easily this time, my wings gracefully carried my through the air and I began to gain more and more height until I could see most of the landscape, I directed my attention to the research facilities of Dr Roystene. I made the short journey effortlessly, manovering around the different air currents and thermals, making sure I didn’t allow the breeze to control my direction and put me off course. I soon arrived at the lab, this place still angered me, the memory of the bastard who once lived here, tormenting life forms of both other spices and his own. I quickly controlled my anger and landed swiftly on the ground, I lost my footing a little, but with a couple of extra down pulls on the air, I landed safely.

        After settling my wings, I entered the building, it was slightly older now, in Nosgoth, six days had passed, but in this world, almost five hundred years had passed! The old building was starting to crumble and decay, so I decided to make my investigation of the old place in hast, I didn’t want it to cave in on me. I began to search, I found an old file in a draw, and I carefully removed it and began to read. It had many photographs of the Drs experimental subjects, I closed the file immediately, the pictures were disturbing. Near the drawers, were several bookcases, perhaps one of the books had information about different places with machines like the ones in my vision, I began to sift through the many books, there were so may of them, it would take my weeks to search through all of them! 

        Suddenly, I was confronted by a short “flash” vision; I had a vision of a book, a golden one moving out of the bookcase on its own, the books title was “The genius of me” by Dr K. Roystene, the vision faded, and then I came back to reality. I began to quickly search the books for the one I saw in the vision, I found it. It was gold in colour and had several tears in it, I quickly removed it from its placing, it only shifted a few inches from its placing, I didn’t know why. 

        The bookcase made a creaking sound, then it cracked in half, I backed away, a blast of dust burst out of its walls and blinded me, when the dust cleared I was able to make out the shadow of a darkened room. 

        I flapped my wings a little to help clear the dust from the air, I could then see clearly inside, a label on the entrance of the room read: 

        CRYO-STORAGE.

        I wasn’t sure what it meant; I stepped inside and stared at the strange surroundings. The white room was full of large glass cylinders, most of them contained weird life forms, and others were empty. I stared at the containers for a few moments, then continued to make my way through the room. I soon came to a couple of large containers, both of them had plaques underneath them, one read Gudeath, the other read Renegade. 

        Before wiping the frost from Gudeaths container, I already knew that it would be empty, it was, I sighed, remembering the loyal wolf creature that sacrificed himself along with Uriko so they could help me destroy Kain.

        I looked at the other container again, “Renegade, I wonder if this one is empty as well?”. I started to wipe the frost from the glass to find out if it was occupied or not, I stopped the motion of my hand when two round objects reflected the light of the room, I staggered back from the sudden glimmer and knocked against a control panel, the machine began to make a strange noise, then, Renegades container started to illuminate, the black screen above both containers lit up, words began to scroll across it, reading: REANIMATION SEQUENCE ACTIVATED, CRYO-CONTAINMENT UNIT 2 ACTIVATED. I stepped back again, the container opened and mist poured out of its doors, fogging the floor completely, then the round objects that startled me last time lit up yellow, they were eyes.

        A growling noise emanated from inside and a shrouded creature emerged from the fog, it stepped out onto the cold stone floor and looked at me, eye to eye, challengingly. I stepped forward this time, if this creature was a threat to me, then it would be best to destroy it, the eyes of the creature flared again, and it took another steep closer to me, until it completely revealed its true form. “Who are you?” Spoke the creature violently, I frowned in disgust, this animal had no respect for me, at all. 

        “I will not be spoken to in that tone, even if you have no idea of who I am, but answer your question I shall, I am Raziel”, I answered calmly. The creature ruffled its fur and bared its teeth, “I will speak to you as I please Raz, you are not the boss of me, and I lead my own life now, Iam no longer the servant of humans!” I chocked dryly, “Human? Iam not a human, Iam far more superior than those creatures” I replied. The creature smirked, “Of course, I should have guessed you’d be one of those “things”, and what’s this? Are you some sort of bat thingy?” She was talking about my wings, this time, I was offended. “Look creature, do not mock my heritage! Iam a vampire, a highly evolved lieutenant!” The creature smirked again, then replied cool and calm, “Nice wingspan, you’ve got to learn to control that anger of yours, I couldn’t, and look where it got me, isolated in that tank like a fish! Hmmmm, looks like my brother hasn’t got the chill yet, I wonder where that big idiot is anyway” As the creature talked, she was looking at Gudeaths container, was Gudeath her brother? 

        I interrupted her daydreaming, “Listen lady, creature, wolf…. whatever you are, Gudeaths gone, he, sacrificed himself to help fight in a war, he, he was a loyal friend”. Renegade snorted and laughed, “Ha! I knew that fool would fall for something that would lead to his demise! And another thing, Iam not a wolf! Hell no! Iam more superior than one of those mongrels! Iam mostly fox DNA, and I’m proud of it thank you!” She whipped her tail in the air and began to walk away.

        She must be another lycanthrope cross breed, she was the complete opposite of Gudeath, stubborn, irritable, untrusting and over confident. 

        “Where are you going?” I shouted after her, she turned round and snarled at me “None of your business! I’m going to see how much has changed since I was in that hellhole!” She then ran off, towards the many trees surrounding the area.

        Fine I thought to myself, it was a mistake to release that animal! I calmed down, and then flew up into the sky, I decided to go to the Uriko shrine and ask if they had any idea of the place I saw in my vision. 

        When I got there, I was shocked with what I saw, the entire shrine and master tower had been destroyed, and all that remained was rubble and death. I did not know who had committed this crime, upon further inspection of the area, I found decaying flesh and bone, it was the remains of Urikos people. It was a good thing that Uriko was not still here, she would have gone hysterical over this sight, I kicked aside some of the stones, there was some writing etched on a rock, it stated that a strange being came to this world and massacred most of the people, the rest of the writing was worn away with age, something I did not have to worry about, but I still had to be careful, this world wouldn’t allow me to shift to the spectral realm, so I had to be cautious here. 

        Without warning, a vision violently forced itself into my mind, it showed that building again, the machines and then… Kain. I knew it was him, even though it didn’t look like him, he was fiddling with a machine. Connected to the machine was a large glass cylinder similar to the ones in Roystenes lab. Then I heard him speak in his original voice, “Ill show that traitor, he will never know what hit him! Lets test your strength shall we? Raziel son, you’re about to fight one person whom you will meet your match… yourself!” The vision faded once again and I was left wondering what Kain meant, myself? How can I fight myself? 

        “You are one crazy vamp!” I turned round to the voice, was someone mocking me? Renegade stepped out from behind a tree, “Its only you” I replied sarcastically, Renegade sneered, she had a dead hare in her hand, she brought it up to her head and stroked it lovingly, then sunk her teeth into the creatures side, I looked away. “Must you do that here?” I asked, disgusted. Renegade smiled through her bloody teeth and took another chunk out of the hare’s body, then threw it at my feet.

        “Get that thing away from me!” I shouted violently, Renegade frowned, “I thought you “things” drank blood, I thought you would be grateful for that offering” I bared my teeth, “You witch! How dare you! Iam not a “thing” and secondly I don’t drink that disgusting substance”.

        Renegade was enraged, “Well what do you eat then! Vegetables? Hmmm? Are you a vegetarian? You weirdo” I shot back my answer “No, I don’t think that’s any concern of yours, I cant see how you were related to Gudeath, he was nothing like you! You have no compassion for any living thing do you?” Renegade turned away before replying, “So what, who cares? It’s a weakness. Gudeath was the reason I was frozen in that stupid cryo-tank, I would always pick fights with him, and soon, I became so vicious that my queer creator locked my in that tank, I nearly tore out that bastards throat you know” Renegade finished her sentence with a sarcastic laugh and then ran off. 

        Fool, I thought to myself angrily. I continued to look for clues in the remains of the shrine, I found nothing, but the description on the stone I found gave me a good idea of who it was. “Maybe I should look for another area in which life dwells, perhaps someone saw the thing that did this”. I was just about to take off to look for more humans, when a strange instinctive warning stopped me, “Something’s coming…. here, now”, I spoke silently.

        A portal opened a few yards from me, and a person emerged from it. Before I could see the being properly, I quickly took note of the co-ordinations of the portal itself, then I was not prepared for who emerged from the portal, I stood in my position, shocked. The person who stepped out of the portal was…. Me. 

        “So this is what Kain meant when he said I would fight myself!” I said dryly, the apparition turned to face me, then grinned in a way that made me feel unnerved, he walked over, slowly and unveiled his wings, they were EXACTLY the same as mine, except the colour of the membrane that stretched over the wing bones, grey with a merging of black at the top.

        His eyes were not green either, but a greyish blue. But every thing else was the mirror image of myself, then, he spoke. “Ahhhhh, brother. It’s an honour to finally meet you. For the first, and last time. Lord Kain sends his greetings also, but I must say that Iam surprised as much as you are, we are more alike than I had ever imagined” He bared his fangs as Renegade had previously, it’s a bad habit to get into, very primitive. 

        I stepped back, “I have no brother! In case your lord hadn’t already told you, I destroyed them; the only unknown location of my only other “brother” is Turel. What do you want?” The vampire came closer still, then stopped only a few inches away from me, then replied. “I thought you had already figured that part out, I was created and sent here to destroy you, you are the weakest of the two of us, souls cannot sustain you for long, but blood, that gives you the power of our dark gods!” The “clone” picked up the dead hare that Renegade had been gnawing on and squeezed some of its blood onto his hand, then drank it. 

        My anger grew again, “You are wrong, you are just a copy! An empty shell created to serve your master! You may resemble me, but you are nothing like me” The clone threw the hare down and slashed his clawed hand across my chest, the wound quickly healed. 

        “Enough of this!” I shouted, I then returned the favour, the slash marks on the clone healed faster than mine though, the apparition laughed and leapt into the air, his wings were a flash of grey and black as he tore through the air with grace and agility. I leapt into the air after him, but he wasn’t flying away, he began a series of aerial attacks, slashing and trying to knock me from the sky with violent kicks and jabs. The clone was not prepared for my recently acquired skill though, the lightning weaver. 

        I concentrated on the power, it grew and grew, the foolish clone had no idea since it obviously was unable to detect waves of energy. Even though I was building up my attack, I under estimated the clone and it caught me around the neck and sunk its fangs into my right arm, I howled out in pain and anger then unleashed what energy I had managed to summon onto the clone, the voltage ran through him, knocking him from the sky. He fell onto the floor, his wings out stretched and hair stood up on end from the electricity.

        I landed a metre or two next to him, the clone raised its head and hissed at me, it remained silent and scrambled off into the brush, he wouldn’t get far. I decided to give chase to see what it did next, but I did not allow the clone to know that I was there, so I followed it by air. I then heard another voice, I landed in a tree and silently watched what was going on below, the clone had sat down and was talking to someone, I narrowed my eyes and was able to make out the shadow of Renegade. 

        She was talking to the clone. I could just hear what they were saying: “Raziel? Is that you? What happened? Did you let someone beat you up? How pathetic! Wait a minute, you look like him, but your scent is different, who are you?” The clone replied, “I don’t have a name, all I know is that I was created by my lord Kain, I was sent here to destroy Raziel, I just encountered him now, but I wont loose next time!” The clone broke out into a mad laugh then silenced again. Renegade turned her attention to the clones damaged wing. “What did that thing do to you? Electrocute you? You look a mess! Your hair is all freaked, but I kinda like you”. The clone seemed surprised at this comment, “Heh heh, well Iam a better looker than that creature that I represent. What’s your name by the way foxy”. Renegade chuckled and introduced herself, “Renegade, I think you should have a name, and a life” The clone looked surprised again. “Life? What do you mean, a life?” Renegade began to go into her life story again, “That’s right, life. Until I started doing things my way, I was a servant to my creator, just like you”. The clone was all ears to Renegade, he was learning from her! 

        Hmmmph! She’s all respectful to a copy of me, but she treats the original like dirt! I decided to leave them alone and get back to what was important, finding Kain.

        I then remembered the portal that the clone came out of, the co-ordinates. My suspicions must be correct, the co-ordinates must be the ones to Kains lair, I decided to test them out. I opened a portal, this one looked slightly different to the portal I used to come here, this one was indigo, it swirled into itself which was quite hypnotising. I shook of its effects and was about to step through, I was violently shoved out of the way by something, I got up from the ground just in time to see the force which stopped me from entering the portal, it was that clone. He flew through the portal and was quickly followed by Renegade! 

        Why would she want to go with him? She had no reason to, and I thought that the clone was sent here to try and destroy me, this was all very confusing. I called after Renegade, “Where are you going! You have no reason to enter this portal, get out!”. There was no reply; they had already gotten to the other side of the portal. Great, now what. I jumped into the portal after them, I hoped to catch up to them and get an explanation as to why they went into the portal. The portal was different than the last one I created, it wasn’t a painful experience, and the journey seemed to proceed much faster than the last. 

        I soon arrived at the other end, this new world was similar to Nosgoth, but with all the technology from Urikos world, I gazed up at the towering machines that surrounded the same building I saw in my visions. Before I could proceed into the building itself, I was stopped by a familiar voice. “And just where do you think your going?” I turned around to face the owner of the voice, it was Renegade. I spread my wings in a threatening gesture, “Why have you come here? What business do you have here? You have no right to use my portal like your own personal transport!” she laughed then replied. “I have come here with my friend here, Zircon, to destroy Kain, you can watch if you want”. From above Renegade, hovered the clone of myself, he glided down and put a hand on Renegades shoulder, then spoke. “Ahhh Raziel, don’t worry yourself about loosing to me, I have opened my eyes to reality, and now I realise that Iam only a pawn in Kains game of revenge and so I plan to destroy him and lead my own life, I couldn’t have realised that from myself without the help of this charming young creature”. Renegade broke into a little giggle again; I rolled my eyes, charming? If she’s charming then you might as well say that vampires love swimming, which is an unlikely event to occur any time soon. 

        I stepped in between to two to end this blindness, “Now look, Its my destiny to destroy Kain not yours. I don’t need help, nor do I need a crowd of watchers. I give you one last warning to get out while you still can, and Renegade, who’s Zircon?” The clone pushed me aside, “Iam he, I choose the name by my own will, Kain never gave me one, he may have gave me life, but he never gave me a life to live. Leave us be, Kain is mine!” Zircon took off into the air again and shouted down to Renegade to come on. “Get back here! You don’t have a chance fool! If I was able to bring you down as easily as I did, then Kain is sure to do the same!” Zircon took no notice of my warnings; Renegade ran behind him, they were leading each other into a dead trap. I decided to follow them, I leapt into the air after them, it’s a good thing the elder restored me when he did, these wings are a great advantage to me.

        I followed the two into the building; it was incredibly similar to the sanctuary of the clans, the machines got more and more complex as I went deeper into the building, I stopped when I heard voices emerging from the main chamber, I could hear Zircon and Renegade talking to someone, it sounded like Kain, but different. 

        I hid in the shadows and watched the confrontation of Kain, Zircon and Renegade, I stepped further into the room to find out what Kain looked like since his soul had attached itself to another being, I was shocked when I finally saw the new identity of Kain, it was his “younger” self. I stood there, amazed and confused, it was him alright. I shook the emotion out of my mind and listened to the conversation, first, Zircon confronted Kain, “You bastard! You used me! You couldn’t be bothered to go and do the job yourself so you put together the next best thing…. me” Kain was seething with rage, I could sense his power growing, my “other side” was going to get the shock of his life. Kain replied in a violent tone, “Yes, that’s right. I didn’t want to risk the possibility of being defeated again, so I sent you to test him. Its obvious he was too much for a child to handle”. Zircon unfurled his wings and ploughed towards Kain in blind hope of actually inflicting any damage, this poorly timed attack was quickly evaded by Kain who drew his weapon at his creation, the soul reaver! “The soul reaver! But how? It’s impossible! I have it with me here as the wrath blade!” I whispered to myself, I looked down at my arm, the spiralling energy of the blade glowed brightly in the shade of the room. I looked at Kains blade again; it was defiantly the soul reaver. 

        Before I could make any further inspections of the sword, Kain swiped the blade over Zircons back, severing one of his wings clean off. Zircon screamed in agony and dropped from the air onto the floor, blood drowned a fraction of the room and Kain knelt down in front of him and spoke, “That’s the punishment for trying to destroy your creator, I will do away with you after you’ve had the pleasure of watching me destroy your fox friend over there” He was looking at Renegade. 

        Renegade was too shocked to move, she dropped to her knees and whimpered like the animal she was. Kain stood up and began to move towards her, slowly. Kain picked up Renegade effortlessly by the neck and looked her in the eye, “You seem very familiar, or maybe you just remind me of that mongrel that Raziel destroyed. It doesn’t matter now, because I’m about to do the same to you” Kain rose the soul reaver above his head; he was going to decapitate her! I couldn’t watch any longer, I had to step in, I was just about to, when Zircon shouted at Kain, “Stop! Don’t! Destroy me, let her go, please. There is no point in me living if I cant fly. Do what you will to me, but let her go…” Kain seemed surprised at this offering; he turned his head and faced Zircon. “Why do you defend this creature? Don’t tell me you “like” it!” Zircon shakily stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth, his strength was building again, his wounds were healing and the gaping hole that used to be a wing joint was beginning to close. “So what if I do, Renegade did more for me than you ever did, she gave me a name, a life and an identity. All you ever gave me were orders!” Zircon rushed at Kain again, this time by foot, Kain dropped Renegade and un sheathed the soul reaver again, this time however, the damage inflicted was devastating, the blade sliced through Zircons chest, it had absorbed his soul, his time was up. Zircon dropped to the floor and exploded into a cloud of dust, Kain turned to face Renegade again and laughed. 

        Renegade was both upset and over whelmed by murderous anger; she reverted to all fours and leapt at Kain in a similar fashion to her brother’s attacks. She caught Kains arm and sank her teeth into it fiercely then took a chunk out of it and jumped towards the darkness, unfortunately, she leapt in my direction and tripped on my foot causing both of us to go flying. We landed into one of the many machines, Renegade looked down at me, “Raziel! You’re here! Help me get him!” I shoved her off of me, “Stay here, your no match for him, let me do this alone, it’s my destiny”. Renegade growled at me again, “N-NO! I have to avenge Zircon, you saw what Kain did to him!” She attempted to barge past me to confront Kain again, but I stopped her. “Stop it! Listen to reason, you saw how powerful Kain is, don’t let him do to you what he did to your friend. Zircon sacrificed himself so that you could live! Don’t make that sacrifice meaningless by blindingly rushing into a battle you can’t possibly win! Stay in the shadows, Ill deal with him”.

        I must have finally gotten through to her, she nodded and winked, “Good luck, save a chunk of him for me!” I cringed at that thought, “Err…. sure, just don’t move”. I stepped out of the darkness and eyed Kain angrily; he froze and put the soul reaver down from its high position. “Raziel? You’re…your old self again? But how?” I smiled coldly, “Yes, the elders powers were fully restored, and as a result, he restored my form, and if you haven’t also noticed, my wings” I spread them out to their full span, angering Kain in the process. “Perfectly formed wings, so easily detachable” mocked Kain, as he talked, he rocked the soul reaver in the air; he then drew his attention to my soul reaver, the wraith blade. 

        “Lets test the power of the soul reaver, if you haven’t yet noticed Raziel, you made a portal that travelled back through time, you stand in the sanctuary of the clans, this is Nosgoth. The machines are brought here from the world we fought our last battle, they are very useful to me. You may have also noticed that my soul founds its way to my past self, very convenient, isn’t it?” I raised my blade, as did Kain. We circled each other until Kain made the first move, he rushed at me, our swords met each other, I could feel the repelling energy on both blades, I manovered around the second blow and Kain swung the his soul reaver at my head, the tip of the blade just missed my face. 

        I japed with my blade at Kain; he dodged it again and continued to swing his sword wildly at me, I used my wings this time, I flapped them carefully, avoiding Kains enraged swipes. I hovered in the air and Kain stared at me angrily, his eyes were full of rage. “Ill make sure you’ll never be able to do that again!” with those words he jumped at me, it surprised me that he could jump that high, he swung the sword at my wings, but I was able to lower them just in time, Kain returned to his fighting stance on the ground and I rushed at him with everything I had. 

        My attack caught him off guard, he slammed into one of his machines and slumped to the floor, I had broken most of his ribs. 

        “You… fool! You think that you’ve won!? That barely touched me!” Kain started to get up again, this time I decided to use more than fighting skills to attack him. Before I was about to charge up the lightning weaving ability, I noticed Renegade pointing outside the window; she had a smile on her face. “What? What is it? Outside?” Renegade returned to her hiding place in the darkness, what could she mean? I then understood what she meant; it was getting light outside, which meant that the sun was coming up. Since Kain was in his young self, then surely he must retain the weaknesses of a young vampire, if I could only get Kain outside into the sun light, then the battle would be a lot easier. 

        Without warning, Kain leapt from his position and brought his blade across my left wing, the soul reaver went right through, leaving a large hole in the thin membrane of skin. I was in great pain, I dropped down, and I landed violently near a window, Kain laughed, “This is too easy! Now you see that the tables have turned and now it’s my turn to destroy you for the last time! Did you actually think you’d win? Heh heh heh…. Of course you did, other wise why would you be here in the first place” Unknown to Kain at the time, was the fact that someone was taking advantage of the event in time and sprung out at him, it was Renegade, she clawed at Kains hand and took the soul reaver from him, Kain turned round, his back facing me, I saw my chance.

        I spring-released my right wing and knocked Kain through the window, the glass shattered everywhere and Kain was left clinging to the frame of the window. I stepped forward, and looked down. Kain saw the sun coming up from behind the cliffs that surrounded the abyss, his eyes were wide with fright, the fright of knowing that being in his young body brought life threatening disadvantages, the disadvantage of death when exposed to sunlight.

        Kain returned his gaze to me; I stared down at him, no sympathy to his predicted demise. “Yes Kain, the tables HAVE turned and might I add that they have turned to MY advantage” with those last words, I kicked Kains hands from their support, Kain fell, Nosgoths sun beat down onto the land, and Kain. 

        Before even hitting the ground, Kain burst into flames and only charred remains touched the floor, the wind brushed over the ash and carried it over the rocks until nothing remained. Only the glint of the sun reflected over Kains earring, reassured me that this was finally over.

        A black soul rose from the remains of the ash, and I drew it in, it filled me with power and energy, as I consumed the soul, the hole in my left wing healed up. I turned away from the window, and faced Renegade. “Are you…alright?” I smiled, “Yes, thanks for asking”. I then opened a portal to Nosgoth, present Nosgoth. “Hey, where are you going?” asked Renegade, I turned away from the portal, “Back to Nosgoth, in my time. Do you wish to join me?” She smiled and nodded, “T-Thanks, you know what, you’re not bad, for a thing that is” I sighed. “Thing?” Renegade frowned, “Sorry, I meant to say vampire” I smiled. “That’s more like it, come on”. I lead the way through the portal and soon we were back in Nosgoth.

        Renegade made something of herself, she was asked by the humans of the citadel to become their guardian, she accepted and became a legendary lycan-guardian “slayer”. Moebius started living in oracles cave again, and made a living out of selling visions to passing humans. And as for myself, lets just say that I became the one that brought a new start to Nosgoth, an era of peace.