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[Goose]

George knew his was discovered, but instead of flying down to introduce himself, he just sent a thought to all their minds.

[I am George, I go where the wind takes me. I knew some of those great leaders that have been killed by the so called bandits, and the world us much worse of without them. ]

That was enough to reveal for the moment. These men were not going to harm him, but he still liked to keep his distance.

[Phoenix Reborn]

Dante spoke.

"Well, I think we are four unique individuals that have the ability to do away with them. That is if we work together"

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

"Yeah, your right." Ken agreed with Dante. "However, I feel as if we are... incomplete somehow. Perhaps others will join us when the time come."

Ken's ears seemed to twitch. Turning around, he heard someone over the hill.

"Someone's here." he spoke.

Raiyu disapeared into the boy as Ken ran over to investigate. He gasped as his eyes met the sight of a man far down the road. Running over, he found that from the looks of things, the man had been bleeding for a long time. A red trail was behind him. However, he wore the recognizable uniform of an eporue soldier. He was barely crawling.

"What happened to you?!" Ken asked the man, kneeling down to help him.

The soldier looked up at the boy, his eyes partially clouded.

"... Please... warn... everyone... they're... coming..." the words barely escaped the man's lips.

Ken didn't know what to do, so he just said the words he thought best.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure everyone knows." the boy said.

"Thank... you..." the soldier exasperated with his dying breath.

His body went limp as the blood loss finally took his life.

"Do you even know what he meant exactly?" Raiyu asked, making himself visable.

Ken shook his head.

"No, but even so, I wouldn't him to die with regret in his soul..." the boy answered solemnly.

[Phoenix Reborn]

Dante walked slowly to Ken's side. It was quickly becoming night.

"Ken, what did he say? What was it he told you?" Dante said. Kain was now behind Dante, approaching the corpse.

---------

"What happened here? I didn't hear anyone say dinner was served..." Kain spoke as he began to rub his hands together. His eyes were fixed on the dead body before him. He craved blood badly.

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

Raiyu disapeared again into Ken as the child glared at Kain.

"No, you are not to have his blood. Have a some respect."

Ken then turned to Dante

"He said five words. Please warn everyone they're coming." the boy told.

Footsteps could be heard from behind him.

"I'm afraid we can't allow to do that." a voice spoke.

Ken whipped around and looked to see a group of men, each holding swords.

"You, you did this!" Ken growled.

"And if we did, what of it?" the same thug who spoke before said with a sadistic grin, "If he got away, we'd lose the element of surprise, and we don't want that!"

The group consisted of only a few bandits from what Ken saw.

"Your a scouting party." Ken put simply.

"How perceptive of you. But even with a few of us, we can still kill you. I dought a child, a noble, and the pale fellow over there could stop us!"

The bandit drew his sword and rushed forawrd.

"That's where your wrong!" Ken declared.

The boy quickly ducked, avoiding a horizontal slash. Then grabbing the dirk strapped to his boot, he shot upwords, stabbed the bandit in the chest, and kicked him away.

"Normally when I fight, I give my opponent the chance to back down. However becuase of your acts, I won't show such mercy!" Ken spoke, the anger showing itself in his voice.

[Phoenix Reborn]

Dante threw his jacket up. The bandits, being as predictive as they were stupid, stared at the jacket as it fluttered in the evening breeze. Dante drew his straight-sword which burst into flames as soon as it touched the night air.

The coat fell back down to the ground. The dense bandits watched it until it touched the ground. Dante could not see Ken nor Kain, they had most likely made there way around back taking others out.

As soon as the coat lay limp on the ground, the glow of the blade attracted their looks. With a swing of the sword, three of the bandits in front fell. Dante jumped into the sky with a trail of fire blazing behind him. He started picking people off from the sky, sending them too into the air.

-----------------------------------------

Kain, as soon as Ken went on the offensive, he too launched himself into the action. He drew the Soul Reaver again, slicing through the bandit crowd with his superhuman speed.

The Soul Reaver started to vibrate lightly. Kain jumped into the air to give himself a moment of time. He aligned it to the Ground and plummeted back towards the soft soil below him. He plunged his sword inthe ground, which caused a cataclismic earth quake around him, sending bandits into the air and in every direction.

[Goose]

George wasn't really in a position to help in the direct combat, but he was able to see a lone bandit backing away to stay alive. Immediatle george swooped down from the tree and went for the mans eyes. The bandit was helpless as the bird destroyed his vision, and once the man was on the ground writhing in pain, he went for the stomach, slowly making a meal out of his catch. This was better than Rabbit any day.

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

Most of the bandit scouts were killed within the minute. Ken stood over one of the last of them, the same dirk in hand.

"Tell me what I need to know, and I promise I will end your life quickly. No lies." the boy spoke.

The bandit was badly wounded, and was in agonizing pain.

"Okay, okay. I'll tell you everything you want..." the bandit said patheticly.

"First, how far away is the army?" Ken demanded.

"It's five days from here... Please, kill me now..."

"Not yet."

Ken's eyes practically drilled into the bandit.

"This is my last question. Is your army the same group of bandits who destroyed Taiyo village eight years ago?"

"I- I don't know. I joined just last year..."

Ken brought his dirk into the air.

"Very well, I shall keep my promise then."

Giving a short battlecry, he brought the dirk down and cut off the bandit's head. He then stood up and turned around. His eyes were different, but they weren't that of Raiyu's. Actually, the wolf demon himself was feeling nervous. Ken's eyes held a deep hatred and terrible memories which had been buried under the veil of a young boy.

[Goose]

George took a break from his meal to stop and make sure there wasn't anything else that needed to be killed. The boy was just severing a bandits head from his shoulders, after getting the required information out of him. That was one deeply disturbed boy, nearlly as disturbed as himself. Meh, its good to have a little madness inside of you, it keeps your spirit alive.

[Phoenix Reborn]

Dante landed oin the ground with a sodt thud as Kain fed on multiple bandits at once. They were not speaking to give the boy a moment of silence.

Dante saw his coat, lying on the ground in a pool of blood from the slain bandits. He snapped his fingers and with a flash of fire, the coat disappeared and reappeared on Dante with not a single stain on it. It looked brand new.

Kain finished his feast of blood and wiped his mouth with his arm. His eyes were now a blazing red. He had not had such enjoyment in some time. He wondered to himself, however, if it was wrong to enjoy the death of others so much.

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

As Ken stood there, flashes came through his head of a time long ago.

~“Please, I beg of you! Take me, but don’t kill my son!”~

~“Ken… run… save your mother…”~

~“It’s no use you foolish child.”~

~“Ken… young one… promise me… promise me you’ll stay alive…”~

The boy's heart felt like it was being ripped appart by those memories. However, he shoved those memories back and concentrated on the task at hand. Walking over to the dead soldier, Ken picked him up.

"I'm going to bring him to the town gaurds, so that they may give him a proper burial. I don't care if they don't believe I heard his last words. Once I'm done, I'm going to go through the forest to the army and see if I can decrease their numbers before they get here. You do whatever it is you want." Ken stated, walking of towards the town.

[Phoenix Reborn]

Dante remained solemn until he knew the boy was out of hearing range.

"Poor kid..." he said. Dante had gone against the promise he made to himself about staying out of people's minds. He had eavesdropped on the boy's memory. He had seen what he saw so many years ago.

"I have to keep an eye on the kid. He doesn't know the stregnth of the power of vengeance. If we are not careful, it will consume him in the worst way." Dante said to Kain.

---------------------

Kain looked completely befuddled by what Dante was saying to him.

"What are you tal....." Kain was interrupted by Dante.

-----------------------

"We must keep watch over him no matter what. Just keep an eye on him and keep him protected." Dante demanded.

Dante turned around and headed back towards town, following the young boy which was now far in the distance.

------------

Kain followed silently, kicking dead bodies out of his path as he walked behind Dante.

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

The boy had soon enough reached the town and had given the soldier's body to the guards for burial. He told them what he heard the soldier say, that the bandits were close. However as he suspected, they were sceptical.

Ken walked outside the town and into the forest, just as he said he would.

Raiyu remained silent. He had never seen the boy so concentrated on killing before. For once, it seemed the two had switched the roles of peacekeeper and blood-crazed warrior.

In a way, the demon supposed it was his fault that the child had no one to have from his old village. Raiyu could have easily protected both the boy and his family before they got slaughtered. However, he also thought, if his family knew Ken's body held host to demon, would they not except him?

Ken himself was so concentrated on what he would do, he failed to noticed the other's he had met earlier were now following him.

[Phoenix Reborn]

Dante hovered above the ground, creating a dim orange glow beneath him. He did not want to disturb the boy from his deep thoughts. He simply followed.

------

Kain, before entering the forest, relized although he was agile, his weight still might make noise on the forest floor. He stood outside the forest.

Kain closed his eyes and lifted his hands to the sky. A eerie squeking noise came about as his body as it began to disperse into small bats. Thousands of them.

Kain's body was no longer whole, but had become thousands of bats hovering over the forest. He flew above the forest, keeping Dante and Ken below him.

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

It had been many an hour as Ken walked through the forest. Eventully however, it became dark enough that stopping would be the best course of action. As the sun touched the lip of the horizon, Ken a small fire going, and was nibling on a loaf of bread.

Raiyu leaned against a tree in his spiritual form, carefully studying the boy.

'Ever since the fight with the bandits,' the demon thought 'some bad memories have resurfaced, that I know.'

As Ken stared at the growing fire, another memory came before his eyes.

~The bandit raised a sword with holy markings along its blade. It couldn’t be, could this murderer possibly be a paladin?!?!

Once again, the boy called upon his courage and charged the man.

“Hmph.”

As Ken swung the rusted sword at the bandit, his opponent merely side-stepped as the child’s balance with the blade became his enemy. While the child was spinnning out of control, the man took advantage of the moment and gave a large swipe.

Ken cried out in pain as blood flowed from his side. The child curled up crying, the wound feeling like it was burning with a thousand flames. The bandit came up and prepared to bring his sword down on the young one.

With desperation and maternal instinct combined together, even with the arrow wound, the boy’s mother wouldn’t let her child come to harm. In her last bit of desperation, she threw herself over Ken. The bandit’s sword pierced her back.

The 9-year-old no longer felt his pain as he saw his mother’s eyes begin to glaze over.

“Ken… young one… promise me… promise me you’ll stay alive…”

The sword was pulled from back, and she fell to the ground, laying on her side. Ken’s eye’s began to water again.

“M-mother?”

The bandit raised his sword again.

“How noble. It’s almost a pity her sacrifice dosen’t mean a thing.”

The child’s blood spittered on the ground. Ken was forced back a couple feet, a gash now on his chest. However, even with the burning pain, the young one took up the rusted sword in his hands. Giving a battlecry, he once again charged the murderer who had killed his parents.

“Futile.”

The bandit smacked the rusty blade out of Ken’s hands with his own sword and gave another slash at the child. Ken couldn’t take it anymore. He had been the lucky the first few times, but now nothing could save him..

“It’s time to die, insect.”~

Ken flinched, his hands guiding themselves to the two scars on his chest and torso.

Raiyu was being more observant. He noticed Kain and Dante awhile back.


'Why are they so interested in Ken?' the demon wondered.

[Goose]

George was now flying through the air on a thermal. It was such a beautful day. Pity there had been a fight. The boy was now feeling the pain of many a time ago, and was barely holding on. There was not much George could do about that, except wait until it came the time to talk. George was good at talking, when he wanted to be.

Seeing the boy go through these memories brought back a few of Georges own. He was a very old man. He had seen his great grandchildren die of old age, yet he remained alive. He remembered the joy of having a family. Everything would seem to be in perfect place.

George remembered his one true love. Her name was Josephine, but Jo for short. She had been a lively one. They had met while George was walking in the park one day. He wasn't the most graceful person in the world, and he was reading a book at the time, so inevitably, he ran into her, and knocked her down. He was so apologetic, and asked her if he could ever make it up to her. She just looked at him with fiery eyes, and told him to "$#Q@ OFF!"

It didn't matter how much he tried, he couldn't get that girls face out of his mind. He had to do something about it, so the next day, George went walking where he had been previously, and saw her again. She was walking as if she didn't have a care in the world. He wondered how to best approach this situation, should he absently minded run into her again, and try his luck? No, she'd try to beat the crap out of him, and by the look of her, she problably could. He tried a different idea, because he could manipulate the wind, he went to a little abondoned shack, that provided enough cover for about three people, and hid there.

All of a sudden, the wind started to pick up. It was at first just a breeze, but soon it turned into a father fierce gale. He saw people trying to find cover, but they weren't able to handle the strength of the wind. Only one person was able to survive, and that was the girl. She had a little help of course, but she didn't seem to need it much. She ran into the shack, and slammed the door shut. She saw the man that she had told where to go the day before, but she didn't care, she was out of the wind. Thats how they met, the storm went on for a while, and it included rain and hale. Jo was a mighty fire user, and she was the toughest girl he had ever met. He was in love. Anyway, they did get married in the end, and have 4 kids. The kids were nice kids, as most kids are. They grew up and had more kids, and so forth.

But for every nice moment, there was an equal moment of complete hell. He had fought his whole life to protect his family, and to protect the principles that he held so high. Honesty, Hard work, and fun. But there were people out ther ein the world who were corrupt and lazy, and the worlst that he had come across was his old Childhood enemy. Kleegh. Kleegh used to just lay about and make life for others miserable. George had once trusted the boy, but that was the biggest mistake he had ever made. He would filch money, mercy or whatever else he could manage out of George. George being the nice guy he was, happily gave it, until he saw what Kleegh had become. After a huge falling out, the two went separate ways for years. Until one fateful day, when Jo was with child. Kleegh had come accross some guys who didn't like him, and wooldn't let him filch off them, and he owed them quite a bit of money. He ran back to his home town, and went to the first house he could find, This is where Jo was home alone. He broke the door down, and saw that the house was occupied, but he didn't care. He just found a random object, and knocked her out cold. He stole everything that he thought would be worth a bit, and ran out of there as fast as his legs would take him. When George got home, he saw what had happened, and he was beside himself. He prpped up his wife, he dind't care about what had been stolen, and got her onto the bed. He quickly called the village doctor. Jo was going to be fine, but the baby was dead.

George went for a walk later that day, and he went into as remote a place as he could find. This is where he used to come as a kid when he was sick of village life. He had a rock that he would sit on. He did this, and on this dreaful night, he sat down and cried. He cried for the life of his child that had been taken away. He cried with the grief the only a father can have upon losing a child, and not even being able to do anything about it. He later found out that it was Kleegh that had done this, and swore that he would one day make the man pay.

Kleegh was dead now, he had just been walking along one day, and a Hawk swooped down at him, knocked him out with unusual force, and pecked his eyes out. The Hawk then proceeded to eat the mans heart, and then left the rest for the other animals to find.


George could understand the hate that this kid had inside him, and he hoped that it would not eat him up whole.

[Phoenix Reborn]

The bats that were Kain landed on a single branch in a nearby tree. They landed one on top of the other, until eventually it became the form of a man.

The darkness of the bats began to take on features of skin and a face. Kain, now fully reformed, leapt down from the tree and let his eyes readjust to the light of the fire of which the Ken sat beside. He sat down, feeling the warmth of the flames. He leaned back against a tree and surveyed the man, as well as his spirit companion leaning against the tree across from him.

"It would be best to get some sleep. All of us. I will stand guard for the night." Kain said as he pulled the Soul Reaver from behind him because it was making him extremely uncomfortable.

He laid it down beside him. His eyes were wide open. He was a creature of the darkness, so his eyes could see for miles upon miles even in the forest.

-----------------

Dante leapt up into a tree near the fire soon after he arrived. He sat on a rather large branch as he gazed into the flames below.

Dante clenched his fists and released them. A silvery vapor rose from them and then descended onto the fire. The blaze became a kool blue. From it emanated a ray of white light. Dante had put a sleeping spell on Ken. It would put him into a dreamless sleep so he could rest.

"Sleep well, young one. You will need it in the upcoming days I fear."

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

Raiyu approached Kain and Dante, taking a glance at the hawk in the sky who had followed Ken as well.

"Well, I was wondering when you would be showing yourselves." the demon mused.

Raiyu walked up to the boy who was sound asleep.

"He buried his memories a long time ago when his parents got killed. Though I suppose it's natural if one wants to avoid pain..."

Raiyu sat down by Ken.

"Sometimes, I wonder what might have happened if the bandits never attacked his village. Maybe I would have stayed the way like most demons were."

Riayu looked over to the others.

"Have you ever thought about that? About how things that could have been, that could have happened if something different happened in your life?"

[Phoenix Reborn]

"I believe that is what has brought us all together. None of us are what you would call normal. I believe our tragedies and even our faults in life have brought to this point in time." Dante said from the branch above Raiyu.

Dante turned his gaze onto the starry sky. A shooting star lit up the sky for a brief second before returning to its dark purple hew.

-------------------

Kain, still gazing at the now-blue fire, opened his mouth to speak.

"I was killed by my own peers. I was then brought back to life as this... vampire... to be a pawn to higher powers. The reason my world is deteriorating is because of me. It is because of my faults that my land is dying." Kain said, not flinching or showing any emotion at all.

----------------

Dante also spoke to explain his life in more detail.

"I am the sole survivor of the elder gods from my realm. I was made a god by the first god. There were a totasl of five gods. They became power hungry and started to fight each other to obtain more power. My realm was completely destroyed. I am the only one who survived. The gods killed each other, and everything collapsed." Dante said.

His eyes glazed over as if he were showing deep emotions. Dante forced them to immediately regain their composure.

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

Raiyu's nose twitched, picking up the familier scent of a demon. However, it didn't smell quite right. Naturally, Raiyu wanted to investigate.

Started to get up, he stopped when he found that Ken, in his sleep, had grabbed a handful of Raiyu's hair and was using it as a pillow. Raiyu had found this out accidentally. Biting his tongue to keep from yelling out loud, Raiyu sat back down.

The wolf demon's ears were perked up, trying to find any noise, but wasen't having much luck. Whoever it was, this person was good at keeping quiet. Raiyu then wondered if whoever it was could smell him. He knew that he gave off his own scent when he seperated from Ken.

He wanted to know if any of the others noticed anything different. However, Raiyu didn't want to give away the fact he knew someone was here to the intruder.

[Phoenix Reborn]

The fire, which was now back its normal orange after putting Ken into a deep sleep, flickered in the slight breeze. Dante's head, which he had buried into his sleeve in meditation, suddenly sprung up.

He saw Raiyu straining his ears to hear something, and then he felt the prescence of another, but not human. He leapt from the branch and disappear in a small flash and puff of smoke.

He reappeared not to far from the fire, behind some bushes. He hovered silently above the ground. He saw a hooded figure below him staring through the bushes, trying to spy on those near the fire.

"Seeing anything interesting?" Dante boomed, anouncing his presence to the stranger below.

[Goose]

Sometimes George wished he was an Owl. They saw things better at night. On the other hand, he was very happy being a Hawk. There was something out of the ordinary going on, and even from his vantage point in the tree, he could barely make out the figure. It didn't really matter, because Dante seemed to have it all under control.

[Phoenix Reborn]

Kain, who was wide awake, noticed a small bird up near the canopy area. He grinned and then mumbled something to himself.

"It looks like Dante doesn't get to have ALL the fun..."

He immediately stood up and looked over at Raiyu.

"I shall be back in just a few moments. I'm going to meet our other... friend..." and with that, he turned into a cloud of floating mist. He drifted upwards in the branches of the trees.

He closed in on the bird, which was now easily seen as a hawk. HE came closer and closer until he was right around the hawk. He then took form again on the same branch the bird was perched on.

"Hello... what have we here?" He asked, glaring at the hawk with a slight smirk forming on his face.

[Goose]

[Its me, you prick] George thought to the vampire. Sometimes people were stupid, and undead people were even worse.

[Shouldn't you be out trying to help Dante? I'll stay here and keep watch, dawn is approaching so soon my sight will be back. By the way, does garlic actually do anything to you?]

ooc: I've been here the whole time, read above!

[Ken the Wandering Soul]

Raiyu growled as Ken hung onto the demon's hair, the boy restrainning him even in his sleep.

"Damnit! Why do I get stuck with the brat when those three get to check out the intruder?!" the wolf demon practically snarled.

Turning his head at an angle that felt comfortable, he watched.

Right now Dante was over the stranger, and Kain was giving George a hard time.

[Phoenix Reborn]

"Well, isn't that unique... A bird that can think." Kain said to the hawk.

"We know you are here. Come down to safety, and rest. As Dante said, we will all need it." Kain said, simply to give tyhe bird a hard time.

ooc: i know you were there, just doing something to have a bit of fun