Subject: [FF] Panzer Dragoon Legende [Semi-Orig] 8/8
From: Michael White
Date: 8/14/1996, 9:45 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com, fanfic@fanfic.com

  	Lowering my arm from my eyes, I saw the awesome end result of the black
dragon's apocolyptic hellstorm. Where three huge mountains once stood, all
that remained were slagged craters. Lava bubbled up into one of them, but
not the one we had been in. The surrounding mountain range had been parially
melted, and for hundreds of kilometers around, rockslides and avalanches
occured. The heat was positively oppressive, but still we drifted in to
inspect what used to be the cavern where we had dueled with the black
dragon, just to be sure.
	I gasped as I saw the broken body of the black dragon lying amidst the
rubble, its yellow throat marking still glowing dimly. Setting down on the
warm but tolerable crater floor, I dismounted and walked over to the black
dragon's body.
	'It doesn't matter...' the black dragon sent to me weakly. 'In a few
years... I'll be back... and I'll kill you... you all. So finish it... do
what you came to do, boy... do what your father did... kill me, and live out
your species' imperative for blood and destruction...'
	I raised my laser cannon, lining the glowing mark on the Kouriheat's throat
up in my sights. For a very long time I stood there, agonizing over what I
was about to do.
	"No."
	The black dragon raised its head slightly to look at me. 'What do you mean
'No?' It is your destiny, or whatever that rot about the Prophecies teaches
you. I'm Evil, you're Good, right? White knight against the black dragon...
even after seven thousand years your legends never change...'
	"The color of my armour and of your hide doesn't matter," I replied,
lowering my laser. "You're no more the personification of evil than I am of
good, and you know that. If this cycle of revenge must end somewhere, let me
be the one to break it. I'm willing to forgive you, black dragon, if you'll
only abandon your mad quest."
	'Your forgiveness means nothing to me...'
	"If that's true, then shoot me," I challenged. Finally, after all this
time, I saw that this conflict would never end until one side extended the
olive branch, so to speak, to the other. If doing that meant laying my life
on the line, then so be it. "I know you still have the power, even in your
current condition. I, who have hunted you for months, am willing to end it
all here, peacefully. If you can honestly say that means nothing, nothing at
all, then kill me right now."
	The black dragon lifted its head from the rubble, swinging it around to
face me. For a long time it scrutinized me as I stood there, laser hanging
limply at my side. 'After all I did to your species... you'd just forget it
all?' I nodded. 'You are a fool...'
	The black dragon opened its mouth, and I was prepared for whatever might
come, when suddenly dozens of azure beams slammed into the black dragon's
throat. Screaming one final time, it fell dead upon the rocks, the glow from
its throat marking gone dark. Spinning to confront the blue dragon, I
dismissed my anger before I could say anything; what was done was done. I
had been willing to sacrifice my life for peace; the blue dragon had
sacrificed peace for my life.
	"That's it then..." I said to it quietly. "Let's go..."

	"No!"

	I spun to face the voice, but was brought up short by the sight of a laser
pointed at my chest. The black dragon's rider, burns over most of his body,
was standing - barely - next to the pile of rubble he had just dug himself
out from.
	"Hold, friend," I said to him calmingly. "I have no quarrel with yo..."
	"I am not your FRIEND!" he shrieked back. "And I have a quarrel with YOU!
Both of you!"
	I eyed him cautiously, uneasy about the mad look in his eye. "I assure you,
we have never met bef..."
	"No, but you know my family well enough!" he replied, starting to sound
hysterical. "My older sister... that ABOMINATION got her killed a few months
ago! And you... YOU... you murdered my baby sister in cold blood!!!"
	My mouth fell open as I recognized this man; it was the young man I had
seen in the black dragon's vision, the brother of the blue dragon's previous
rider. But me, killing his sister? I'd never... wait... that Mechanian
Dragoon... it couldn't be! Could it?
	"You shot her down," he said, starting to cry, "murdered her in the air...
we both wanted vengance for my older sister's death... and now I shall have
it!" He snapped up his laser, and began to depress the firing trigger.
Before he could, though, a blue-white beam hit his hand, demolishing the
laser, and reducing his hand to a charred stump. Screaming in agony, he fell
to his knees. "NO! My revenge... it's all I have left! I won't let you take
it from me!" He tried to charge at me, but stumbled and fell of his own
accord long before he even reached me. "My revenge... revenge... sisters...
forgive me..." He lapsed into unconciousness, finally falling silent.
Pitying the scarred young man but unsure of what to do about him, I mounted
the blue Kouriheat, and together we soared into the sky, victorious after
our long struggle...

	It was all over. And it was just beginning.


	The next five years were ones of pure bliss. The Empire had finally routed
Mechania, smashing their sick Kouriheat mutation facilities, but those
concerns were far removed from where we were now. My Kouriheatan friend and
I spent our days in the northern settlements, and I finally came to realize
that the inhabitants of this region were by no means primitive; quite the
opposite in fact. They were keepers of a great deal of knowledge from before
the Ntario disaster, and even before the Ripping. They had intentionally
divested themselves of technology such as airships so as to make them low
priorities on any would-be conquerors' agenda. Since we couldn't attack all
of the Empire, we pledged ourselves to defending these remaining reservoirs
of knowledge.
	I shared with these people the story of mankind's history, and regaled
their children with the tale of our adventures on more than one occasion.
Bards now sang of our deeds, and word had reached me of a grand legend being
written in our honour. I sort of shrug those kinds of things off; they
weren't why I had undertaken this quest, but that somebody appreciated it
was sure nice to know.
	I never did settle down with the wife and family that was so valued in
these settlements. I don't know... I guess I was just a free spirit, not
really meant to be tied down to anything. When the sky was yours to command,
it was kind of hard to keep your feet rooted to the ground. Money and
lodgings were never a problem; as unsolicited defenders of the north, we
were always treated to the finest meals and best accommodations in whatever
settlement we visited. I had finally come to accept the Prophecies for the
rubbish that they were, although several of them did contain some measure of
truth...
	... I'd never fully adjust to those winters, though.

	On more than one occasion I visited that abandoned city in the mountains,
and visited what my Kouriheatan friend pointed out to me as that female
dragonrider's grave. I wished that I had known her; she seemed to be the
type who really believed she could make a difference in the world, a rare
type of person these days.
	To this day, I have never found out her name...

	Life was good.

	Nothing good lasts forever.


	I remember my reaction upon hearing the news; First despair, then a sort of
weariness, and finally an unbreakable resolve to take up the fight again.

	The black dragon had been reborn.


	The next month was filled with familiar battles against familiar foes, as
the Empire once more sought my death with the black dragon at its side. We
had returned to square one, but I tried not to think of that - it tended to
make me despair against ever truly winning - and instead focused on the task
at hand.
	It was upon my return to Zhao that I learned their mutual objective; the
Empire had discovered a black tower in the Eastern Sea.
	".... a tower in the ocean where much of our technology is stored ...."
	Many weeks later I located that tower, but was driven off by a mammoth
Empire fleet, nearly at the cost of our lives. Chased west, we ultimately
wound up in the S'rah regions not too far from the crashed Mechanian airship
where it all began.

	Appropriate, I suppose.

	High in the skies over where the golden desert met a mountain range, I once
more danced the deadly ariel ballet with the once-again riderless black
dragon, trading lethal salvos of light.
	Dodging a steady barrage of fire, we dove. I looked for an opportunity to
pull up and mount some sort of counteroffensive, but the black dragon was
giving no quarter. Gritting my teeth as the side of a mountain rushed up at
me I fired into it, creating a gaping hole into a sort of cavern below.
Thanking whoever controlled lucky breaks we dove for it, soaring into the
opening and down an artifical-looking grotto. As I entered the grotto, I
noticed two things just below our ingress point: a crushed Marlack, and a
young boy...
	Looking around, I was shocked to discover that I recognized much of the
architecture in here as being from that Mechanian airship! Had someone
buried it inside this mountain? I was jarred from these thoughts as a
massive energy pulse whizzed by us. Recognizing it, I swore, brought us
about 180 degrees, and shot past the black dragon who had followed us in,
soaring out of the grotto seconds before a massive fireball erupted behind us...

	Minutes of intense combat had resulted in a few hits scored against the
black dragon, but nothing really significant. Out of the corner of my eye I
saw that boy I had seen inside the grotto; he had been blown clear by the
fireball onto a ledge of some sort, and was just now coming around. Briefly
thankful that I hadn't been indirectly responsible for the death of an
innocent bystander, I returned my attention to our duel.
	Diving to the canyon floor, we once again had to juke sideways as another
energy pulse shot by. It detonated against the desert floor, creating
immense shockwaves that sent us spiralling upwards. Regaining my grip on my
dragon, I looked up...



	They say in the moment before death, time slows to a crawl.



	That wasn't the case for me.



	The angry red beam that leapt from the black dragon's throat curved
straight and true, punching straight through my chest and exiting out my
back. In that instant, my whole world flashed crimson as a numbing pain
seized every portion of my body above the wound. Below it, I felt nothing;
the blast had vaporized my spinal column just below my heart.

	I watched the black dragon soar past me and vanish off into the distance as
we just hovered there. The expression I had seen on its face was
indecipherable, but I could've sworn I saw a fleeting trace of... shame?

	So this was to be my death. Clutching my chest in an instinctive but futile
attempt to stop the bleeding, I scanned my feelings. No regrets, save for
that I would be leaving my friend to deal with the black dragon alone. I
knew it would happen sooner or later, be it death in combat or of old age,
but I wished I could've been there longer.. to stop the black dragon... to
save my world... the world... humanity...

	I felt myself slipping away; it was like the offer of comforting sleep, of
rest from the pain... Slowly, inexorably, I began to embrace it...
	Then something jarred me back into the realm of the living; I recognized
the forces that now flowed through me. Somehow, my Kouriheatan friend was
keeping me alive as we descended towards the mountain ledge. The reprieve
was only temporary, however, as I felt more and more of its transferred life
force, spirit, or whatever, leaking from my broken body. Looking up as we
landed, I spied that same young boy, obviously terrified but rooted where he
stood by this awe-inspiring sight. I almost smiled... so much like myself...
so long ago...
	Something about this boy was... different from most other humans. Through
my link with my dragon I felt he had a different... 'texture' to him. His
mind was more... malleable, more receptive than most.

	This boy was a dragonrider.

	Not wasting time marvelling at the coincedence or debating what to do, I
reached my arm out pleadingly to the young man, trying to control the
convulsions that began wracking my body, and trying not to crash to the
ground. 'Please... take it...' I implored him mentally, lacking the strength
to speak.
	After what seemed like an eternity, he touched my armoured gauntlet, and we
connected...

	Using my dragon's psi-powers in a way I had never concieved of before, *I*
sent the young man through that purple-white tunnel of suprasensory input.
*I* projected the image of the black dragon flying towards the tower I had
seen. And *I* spoke to him...
	"Don't... let him reach the tower... My dragon... knows the way..."
	The brief link ended, and I felt the transferred life force from the blue
dragon leaking away at a fearsome rate. Death was near, and I managed to
draw enough breath to implore the young man one final time.

	"... please ...."


	The power the blue dragon had given me rushed out of my body in a cloud of
yellow energy motes, seemingly spiralling off into the desert breeze. I
closed my eyes one final time and slipped off the blue dragon's back,
collapsing face-down on the surface of the ledge...


	'Yara, I'm so sorry... I... what the black dragon said back then, you have
to know it wasn't true...'
	"Shhh..." I answered, grateful for this brief opportunity to say goodbye.
"I know how you felt... I know why you did... what you did... Carry on for
me, my friend... remember... me... Goodbye..."
	For the first time, I heard my Kouriheatan friend's voice affected by, and
even filled with, emotion. 'I... I will... Farewell, my friend....'

	... and then ...




	I speak to you now from a realm I cannot describe with a thousand volumes,
even though it is simpler than any I have occupied before. The afterlife?
Heaven? Those are concepts too steep for a simple dragonrider like me.
	I know a little of the events after my death; the boy, accepting my
mission, has gone off to face the black dragon. The outcome is uncertain,
but I hope for his success.
	A disturbing scene comes to me from the rebuilt city of Genos. The scarred
former rider of the black dragon has ascended to Emperor as his bloodline
decreed, embracing a legacy his parents attempted to forsake by fleeing to
the north. He seeks vengance for what was done to him and his sisters, and I
fear others may come to pay for my actions.

	A question which comes to me often is 'Was it worth it?' All that effort
for five years of peace from the black dragon - even though death and
destruction continued throughout the closing days of the Empire-Mechania war
-  followed by an even greater threat than the one that I faced before.
Every stime that question comes up, I answer yes, even though it did earn me
an early grave. For inasmuch as I brought a measure of peace to the planet,
I discovered a bit of peace in myself, I found a place for myself in this
mad world, and, for a brief span of time, actually made a difference.
	My only regret now is being seperated from my Kouriheatan friend. I hope
that one day when the black dragon finally sees reason the blue dragon will
finally permit itself rest, that somehow we will be reunited.

	After all of this... he is still with me.

THE END

									- MW
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