27.

A chance for Hope

Golbez was breathing heavily. Morrison's last Dark Wave attack had hit him with full might and had forced him near to a corner of the room. His opponent seemed to possess an amazing amount of life force and strength that he had been able to use the Dark Wave attack over and over again. However, as Morrison now came closer, Golbez noticed that the other man was breathing fast and was showing the first signs of exhaustion. Still, the Dark Knight was far from quitting and had even enough strength left to mock the other:

"You're a hard opponent... You just don't want to go down, do you? Maybe steel will break your will - forgive me, I meant "your bones"…" he chuckled and attacked Golbez with his two-handed sword.

The black wizard backed away - what looked like a cowardly act was in truth another try to provoke Morrison into unleashing another Dark Wave attack. However, this time, Morrison did not fall for it, and Golbez had not much room to run to anymore, as he had been trapped in a corner.

"So finally you cannot run away anymore…" Morrison snarled. "That you try to run away from your true self does not mean that you can run away from me as well. Let's end this!"

Golbez didn't answer him, but prepared for dodging the attack with his own sword, but froze, as he heard a loud explosion in the room behind the door. Only a second later, the wooden entrance was blown out of its hinges by a great explosion, magical sparks and dust filling the air.

"Cecil…" the eyes of the black wizard filled with worry and he turned his head, looking at the now open door, but was unable to see anything due to the dust.

"You fool!" Morrison shouted. He used this moment of carelessness from Golbez and raised the sword to bring it down upon the other's head.

Whirr!

Suddenly something metallic buzzed through the air and buried itself deeply into Morrison right hand - not even the Dark Knight could hold the sword raised high up with only one hand, and thus had to let it fall to the ground. Swearing, his gaze went to the shuriken which stuck in his hand. Like a wounded animal, he turned around slowly to search for the thrower.

"Ha! Bet you didn't expect me!" Edge shouted. He was grinning, though his face was still pale and he had to get supported by Yang and Rydia. Behind them, Kain and Rosa were entering the room.

"Golbez?" Rosa shouted, looking first at Morrison, then at him: "Are you all right?" Her voice sounded hoarse and anxious.

She got no answer, as another magical explosion came from the direction of the great hall, shaking the room.

"Cecil…" Rosa's voice trembled and before anyone could stop her, she was already running towards the open doorway at the end of the room.

"Wait! You can't go alone!" Kain tried to go after her, but was thrown back by a well known dark force - Morrison's Dark Wave.

"Now I can finally end what I've failed to do last time…" the Dark Knight panted as he stepped towards the long haired blond fighter who was lying on the ground, holding his wound.

"Damn…" Kain hissed with a pain-distorted face, "This cursed attack..."

"It's no curse…" Golbez remarked calmly. "It's the best thing our "friend" could do!" He smiled, and approached Morrison's from behind, monopolizing all his powers for a final spell…

~*~

"You can never beat me!" Mallack smiled down upon Cecil. The whole body of the Paladin hurt - although he had been able to block several spells with wall, Mallack's magical resources seemed to be endless here, next to the black stone, while his own white magic powers weren't strengthened.

"You're so weak! Why did Dawn choose you?" Mallack jeered at him. "Of what use are your Paladin powers or the crystal to you right now?"

"I really have no chance against his magic... Maybe I can provoke him into a fight man to man…" Cecil reached for the crystal in his pocket and held it high up.

"I don't need the crystal to fight anyone..." He glared at Mallack and threw the bright shard away with a swing of his wrist. "However, you seem to need the magical powers of the Black stone to fight me… Maybe you were right and Dawn left you because you were weak, after all!" he mocked the other through clenched teeth, inertly regretting that he had to use such a lie. "Dawn, forgive me…"

Mallack's face went ashen with cold rage, his dark green eyes sparkling even more deadly. Then, a wild smile twisted his features. "I'll show you who's weak and who's strong..." he boomed and took the axe into his right hand. "Raahhh!"

Cecil jumped to his feet, and blocked Mallack's axe just in time with his sword Legend, although the magic attacks had weakened him. "I cannot give up now..." Drawing on his last reserves of strength and combining all the sword skill he had mastered during the years, he quickly pulled the sword back and dealt Mallack's upper body a powerful horizontal blow. With a loud, screeching noise, the lower half of Mallack's black breastplate fell to the ground, finely severed by Cecil's weapon.

"Nice move, Paladin… But what will you do without a sword?" Mallack hissed as there was another sound of metal falling to the ground. As Cecil looked down at the blade in his hand, he saw to his horror thatLegend had broken in two and the remnants of the blade in his hand had lost their holy shine.

"The armour was made with the help of the Black stone and was protected by its powers. Seems that it was too much even for your Lunarian sword…" Mallack smiled triumphantly.

"Legend… It broke... It was supposed to be indestructible!" Cecil couldn't believe what had just happened and took a step back, the broken sword still in his hand.

"Starting to getafraid? If you just hold still I might decide to quicken your death just a bit…" Mallack chuckled, though in his eyes there was only hate.

"I'm defenseless now. Mallack is still protected by the upper part of his armour and he still has his weapon and can use magic…" The Paladin realized the bitter truth. "But still..."

"I'll not die without a fight," he hissed.

"As you wish!" Mallack took another axe-swing at Cecil, which the other could only dodge barely by ducking. The next attack he could block with the remnants of his broken blade, but the following one hit him at the shoulder. Mallack's blows did not lessen--each new one seemed even stronger than the first, and Cecil could do nothing but try to dodge and defend them as good as his strength would allow it. His opponent had meanwhile driven him towards a wall of the room and aimed his next attack for the Paladin's neck. Cecil let himself fall to the floor and rolled off sideways, but as he was back on his knees, he realized that his move had been a mistake, as it left him completely defenseless.

"So this is the end. Dawn and Jonas died for nothing... My promise to Rosa - it was an illusion…" Cecil thought gloomily, head hanging, hopelessness making his soul feel heavy. He let go of the broken blade in his hand. "There's only one thing left to do…"

He felt Mallack stepping closer and raised his head, determined to look into the other's eye while receiving the final blow.

"Cecil!"

The Paladin's head swung sideways - Rosa was standing in the doorway of the hall.

"Catch!" she shouted. Something silver flew through the air and landed next to the Paladin.

"For Dawn," Rosa whispered.

"Now you die!" Mallack's voice thundered, not caring for Rosa's presence, and he brought the axe down on the kneeling Paladin before him. Still looking at Rosa, Cecil quickly grabbed for the silver rapier at his side:

"For Dawn," he repeated the words of his wife, then turned around and thrust…

"Wh...what…" Mallack's axe landed only some inches away from Cecil. With big eyes, the leader of the Dark Paladins stared at the beautiful silvery blade which had buried itself from below through the remnants of his black breastplate and deep into his heart. Still kneeling, Cecil pulled the weapon back with his last strength and Mallack slacked down to the floor, staring at the Paladin's hand and the blade in it, which was red with blood.

"This…this is Dawn's rapier... Silver...mixed with crystal dust... It was a present from me...bought it from a Mysidian merchant…" Mallack coughed, the colour slowly leaving his face. Suddenly a look of utter despair and sorrow replaced the mad glimmer in his eyes and for the first time he looked vulnerable - and lonely. "She even gave you that, Paladin… Why did you have to get everything...and I nothing... Except death...through her hand..." he brought forth with his last breath and fell to the side.

"Is...is he dead?" Rosa whispered, but her question was drowned out by loud noises coming from the room Morrison and the others were in.

"I need to help Golbez! You stay here, Rosa," Cecil jumped to his feet and stormed out of the room as fast as his wounded state would allow it.

It was no small surprise for the Paladin to find out that all his friends had assembled in the room beyond, and what even more surprised him was that Morrison was lying on the ground, not moving. Rosa, who had followed him despite his request, held a hand before her mouth in shock as she saw her father.

"Don't worry… He's only unconscious," Kain was slightly out of breath. "As he was about to cut my throat, Golbez caught him from behind with a "Nuke" spell. Rydia and Edge threw in their magic as well, and he was down rather fast..."

"Yes, he was weakened due to the hide-and-seek I have been playing with him…" Golbez grinned. "So, shouldn't you try using the crystal, Cecil?"

"Try using the crystal?" Edge repeated the words not without sarcasm. "Wasn't that your line before the fight of Zeromus as well, Golbez? So what can the crystal do to help us, this time?"

"It seems that it is able to break the power of Mallack's spell… It was the thing that broke his control over Golbez, as well…" Cecil explained while he searched for the crystal, only then remembering that he had thrown it away.

"The crystal shard is here," a soft voice said behind him. "I picked it up," Rosa was holding the shard in her open hand, regarding her husband with an earnest, but somehow also curious expression.

"She probably wonders how we can ever fix the mess I've brought the two of us into…"

"Thank you…" Cecil whispered and bowed his head - he was feeling too ashamed to look his wife in the eyes right now. "Let's hope that this works…" He knelt down, put the shard on Morrison's chest and laid the limp hand of the man over it, clasping it with his own two hands. The Paladin took a deep breath and closed his eyes, concentrating only on the crystal to bring it to life. The shard started to glow stronger and Cecil could feel how it filled not only him, but also the body of Morrison with warmth, dragging away the black magic forces Mallack had instilled in the other. The Paladin's eyes snapped open.

"And?" Rosa asked anxiously.

Morrison suddenly stirred slightly, his hand still clasped around the crystal. Then he opened his eyes, a blank look in them as he looked into Cecil's face. "I… I know you from somewhere… Are...are you a knight of Baron?" he asked hoarsely.

"Yes… Yes, sir. I'm from Baron…" Cecil replied, in this moment not caring for his title of King or anything else than the fact that the spell over Morrison seemed to have broken. Behind him, Rosa started to weep silently.

"Father…"

The grey haired man raised his head a bit, and his once dead eyes were suddenly full of concern, but also confusion. "That voice..."

"Father! It's me! Rosa!" Rosa knelt down next to her husband, and fell around Morrison's neck, only strengthening the confusion of the man by her words.

"Father?" he asked weakly and his forehead creased. "My head hurts… I can't think straight…" 

"Maybe the Black Stone is still clouding his mind…" Cecil said softly, though he also feared that Morrison was still suffering under a possible amnesia he had had before Mallack manipulated him. Still, he didn't want to upset Rosa even more. He carefully loosened the crystal shard out of Morrison's hand. "I'll go destroy the stone."

He stood up, without protest from Rosa who was still weeping at her father's side, and returned once more to the room where he had fought Mallack. As he made his way to the dais in the hall, the Paladin's gaze fell on the black clothed figure that lay on the floor on his stomach; his head turned sideways; a small red puddle being visible on the tile next to his upper body. For some reason, Cecil felt forced to step closer - just then he noticed that Mallack had gripped Dawn's rapier with his left hand. Cecil remembered that he had let the sword fall as he had left the room - Mallack must have grabbed for it with his last breath.

The Paladin knelt down next to the man to get a better look of the other's face: Mallack's now dead eyes were wide open and there were traces of a transparent fluid on his face.

"Tears…"Cecil noticed quietly and a terrible sadness suddenly surged through him - sadness about the senselessness of all that had happened.

"Why, Nathaniel? You could have had everything together with Dawn… But you wanted more than that and thus brought tragedy upon so many people. And in the end, you lost everything… A lifetime of study, of hardship, but also of love… Just wasted for nothing… Have you recognized this in your last moment?"

"So he is finally dead…" Kain said next to him and pulled him out of his brooding. As Cecil turned around, he saw that all his friends, except for his wife, had followed him into the hall.

"Rosa's still with her father…" Rydia told him.

Cecil nodded and slowly stood up, facing the Black Stone on the golden pedestal at the end of the room.

"Mallack is dead, so all there's left to do is to destroy the stone… Whatever effects that action will bring with it…"

"As we're already talking about effects…" Golbez's dark voice held his brother back. "I think that it was only another lie of him, but I just thought that you should know it, anyway: Mallack told me that I'm the reason why the moon has changed its orbit... He told me that the black stone and my powers are of the same origin and draw to each other somehow… Mallack created the portal which brought me here with the help of the stone. I don't think that anything will happen to me if you destroy the stone, but--"

"It means that Mr. Destroyer won't be able to return to the moon so easily…" Kain grumbled.

"I would help, but I have no idea what exact kind of spell Mallack has used and without some amplifying power, it is probably impossible to teleport someone over such a great distance…" Rydia remarked.

"Maybe we shouldn't destroy the stone right away, but after we have found a way for Golbez to return to the moon," Edge proposed. "Though that means as well that we can't break the spell over Mallack's hypnotized victims…"

"If we can break the spell after all…" Kain prophesied doom.

While the friends were still talking about what to do, Cecil had approached the dais, a strong look of determination on his face. No one had noticed him, except for…

"Cecil!" Golbez had followed him. "It seems that your friends, especially Kain, are worried that I might not be able to return to the moon if you destroy the crystal…" he said, smiling quizzically.

The Paladin faced him. "I thought that this was mainly your worry…" he replied, nearly reproachful.

His brother raised an eyebrow. "Well, regardless of what your friends want or what I want, we need to decide if we shoulddestroy the Black Stone right now. And we do not know what the effects of its destruction will be… But when I look into your face, Cecil, I get the strong impression that you do not trouble yourself much with these questions. That's so unlike you…"

"And it is unlike you to question my motivation in such a way, Golbez…" Cecil replied, very calmly. "You noticed yourself that this whole fight, until the very end, was no fight of "good" against "evil" as it was against Zeromus. With Mallack's death nothing is solved as it was back then… Even if the destruction of the Black Stone breaks the spell over our people, we can never forget that it was also our fault that things came this far… And a lot of things happened that cannot be undone…" He got very earnest. "But what I want...is at least a chance to make things better again, a chance to prevent that someone like Mallack will ever get control over others again…" His eyes darkened with grief and guilt and he cast his gaze to the ground. "A chance for me to get some peace of mind. And a chance for her to rest quietly… The destruction of the stone might bring us this chance and that's why I will destroy it, regardless of the effects..."

The Paladin faced his brother again: "And about you… I know that you want nothing more than to continueyour endless sleep - that's at least what you told me… However, I guess you will still have to bearus a bit longer. In destroying the stone right now, I'm only doing what you always have told me to do: I'm putting the greater good over you, brother…"

With these words and leaving a nonplussed Golbez behind, Cecil turned around and climbed up the steps to the dais.

There was something about the Black Stone which was repulsive, its aura trying to drive Cecil back with a dark force, but the fact that he was not alone in his struggle in his mind, and the warm crystal in his hand, the Paladin was not afraid. He carefully brushed over the polished surface of the black stone with his fingertips and a dark wave shot through his body, but it was not too painful - something seemed to protect him. Closing his eyes he laid one hand flat on the black stone, ignoring the dark images the object sent into his mind and clasped the crystal tightly in his other hand.

The shard started to shimmer strongly, bathing the whole dais in a faint light. The dark images in the Paladin's mind got stronger, pictures of unspoken evils, but also pictures of very familiar ones, pictures of Zeromus. Cecil suddenly did no longer know if these images were his own ones, or had to do with the stone, but before the somberness of the scenes overwhelmed him, the crystal seemed to vibrate in his hand and his mind was bathed in a glaring light - or was it some inner force in himself that calmed him? He didn't know…

"Cecil… The crystal--" a voice said behind him. It was Rydia who had approached the dais together with the others. "It works! The Black Stone is getting smaller!" As the Paladin opened his eyes, he saw that parts of the dark stone had already crumbled to dust... However, there were also sparkling particle lying on the ground: dust from the crystal, which had become very small as well...

"It seems that this crystal will not "survive" the destruction of the stone… That means "Goodbye Serpent Way" unless the Elder has a hidden crystal stock in his closet… " Edge frowned.

"Yes… Imagine what will happen if this shard is the last? All other crystals are on the moon! Aren't we dependent on its powers?" Kain wondered.

"No. We are not," Cecil said without hesitation, and closing his eyes in concentration again, combined his powers with the crystal once more. The light around the dais got stronger and stronger -- until he suddenly noticed that his once hand was touching air. As he opened his eyes, he saw that the Black Stone had completely crumbled to dust - his hand was empty, the sparkling dust covering his skin the only thing that was left of the crystal.

"It's done…" he said softly.

"Oh man!" Edge burst out. "We shouldn't have done that. I should have taken the Black Stone with me... I could have gotten all the girls I want with that… Rydia--no wait... That was only a joke! I only want you, you know that… No? Don't hit me! I'm injured!"

While the friends behind him started to chatter and joke around, as if they wanted to forget the nightmares of the last days as soon as possible, Cecil was still facing the now empty dais. He knew that everything was far from being over, but that the destruction of the stone had been a start, at least. He then noticed that Golbez was standing next to him.

"You know, Cecil…" he said, his eyes directed on the empty dais as well, "I don't think that you have chosen the greater good over me by your action. Maybe, for once, the greater good and my interests...were at least similar…"

It was then that the first real smile in a long whilecrept over Cecil's face.

"That's right… It's definitely a start…"