More confused angst! ^_^ golby's good for that..

So how do you react when you realize your own father and the people you actually idolized to some degree are singlehandedly responsible for completely ruining your life before it even had a chance to start? It's easy- you don't. You just sit there and stare.....angry, hurt, confused- and a thousand other things- while glaring at the only culprit present. Klu Ya looks away from my glare, head bowing...a soft sigh escaping his lips.

"I am asking you to-"

"Don't ask me a damned thing, Klu Ya."

The paladin freezes- fitting, considering how cold those words were to even my own ears. He looks up at me with eyes more befitting a kicked puppy than a legendary paladin, but I only smirk in return, looking out over this dream-desert again. So this was the history of my mother's world- offically ruined and messed up by the Lunarians when it should have been allowed to die...

"You really ARE a damned arrogant bunch, aren't you Lunarians? You make humans look humble."

The dream around us wavers and fades- by my willing this time. So the mystery of the balance has been brought to light after HOW much beating around the bush? And now I know it's source. But damn if I am not ready to throw my own father off the highest cliffs I can find....

"You're no better than Zemus, Klu Ya."

Oh now THAT hit quite the nerve. Klu Ya's eyes widen, anger flaring bright in them....so that's what I look like when I'm angry, eh? No wonder even FuSo Ya had balked just a bit over the past years when I'd truly lost my hold on it...

"How dare y-"

"That's MY line, Klu Ya. How dare YOU play these games with your own children? You KNEW about all of this from the start- and did nothing. You had to have known! Instead of acting- you chose to stand behind the scenes and simply watch Cecil stumble about trying to stop me when you knew I wasn't even the real danger!"

And that gives him a pause. A very visible, shocked one. He hadn't thought I'd put that together, eh...? I did warn him I was the brighter son....

" 'Man of Darkness' is what Zemus called me...but if he was YOUR opponent- that meant my role hadn't been handed down to me yet. He was still as much the champion of darkness as you once were of light. You knew that. And you didn't even try to point Cecil toward Zemus. This isn't adding up, Klu Ya. You were puppeteering Cecil even as Zemus was playing puppet master with me...why?"

The paladin looks about the emptiness now surrounding us...eyes closing. I either hit a nerve or I'm completely misunderstanding things. Personally, I'm voting on the former....

"Because I had hoped to bring about the Final Balance by placing Cecil and yourself in opposition rather than Cecil and Zemus, Golbez....no, not like that- let me speak. Zemus was a terrible creature- ones such as him are WHY we have always thought the balance to be Darkness and Light conflicting. Many could not handle the knowledge of what they now were because of the past ones..and it drove them mad. Zemus hated the world for making him into it's Dark champion when he had descended to it. He thought if it were erased as it should have been back then...he would be freed."

The dream shifts around us now- taking on a scene I knew too well. Zemus in his crystaline, frozen prison, glaring at the world through a scrying spell...though he seems younger in this. How long ago HAD this started between them...?

"We would not allow him to do so however- for it was feared it may well shatter the balance completely if he undid it's focal point. This one small world has already been the centerpoint of much trouble in existance in general. Kick it away and those problems will fall from where they've barely been kept in check and scatter acrossed this and all other realities...perhaps killing the tree for good. Existance is a frail, easily ruined thing... So we locked him away rather than battling as we normally would have. Zemus did not wish to fight the Paladin- he wished only for the world's death. When you were born...he truly went mad. He stold you from FuSo Ya, thinking to deny the world another champion even as it had been denied him- but soon realized that each champion's potential was greater than the one before it. And that he chose to utilize- changing you from the future champion into a weapon to carry out his wishes and be freed from the cycle."

The scene fades into darkness once more- leaving me simply looking at the paladin. I think...I can see where he's going with this....

"...you intended for Cecil to be the one to release me- then together we were to defeat Zemus. And then I would come into my own while already allied to Light's champion. Is that it, Klu Ya?"

"....Yes. I did not plan on FuSo Ya getting involved...we had agreed, years ago, that when the time came, he and I both would not interfere. You could say we both failed to keep that promise..."

"COULD say? You DID. It would have been a clever plan, Klu Ya, had you kept in mind we were people, not puppets..."

The paladin winces again at that- I'm getting good at making him uncomfortable it seems- then looks to me with soft, pleading eyes.

"I was doing only what I thought best, Golbez...I know you won't forgive me but please don't turn your back on this.....If the balance fails this time, then everything will be undone."

"I have one question more before I leave you here, Klu Ya. What is the Dark Moon I saw?"

"...it is the very rage of what you represent, Golbez...it is Darkness' own heart, taking revenge for the mockery of the Balance. It is Light's anger as well, shown by it's refusal to banish the Moon. None of these realities had to die...but if the people will not restore the balance, they will pay for their neglect. Your reality is the final one....The other you did all he could to prevent the moon's rising in it."

I consider that- even as I push the dream away. There is no farewell, no sudden last minute regret...if we survive this mess, then perhaps Klu Ya and I can settle our own differences. But until then- I will treat him as he treated me. A tool to be used and discarded at my convienance.

And I awaken....to chaos. People screaming in the courtyard below, and my brother and Palom both in the same room before me- but looking out the window up at the sky. I don't need to look to see what is there. I don't need to.

"..and so darkness' own heart has decided to descend on us now, eh....?"

Startled eyes turn my way- a dry smirk greeting their stunned looks- and past them...

The birth of the Dark Moon......

(Continued in: The Rise of the Dark Moon)

Well you all knew I had to get to this point sooner or later. ^_^