Fire from the outside had stopped; ground forces didn't have us in their
line of sight any more and air forces didn't want to risk killing the black
dragon and vaoprizing the Imperial Palace to get us. I held my fire as we
circled the black dragon and landed in front of it, making sure to situate
ourselves some distance away from it. For a long moment we stared at one
another; I was shocked to see the other dragonrider - a redheaded young man
no older than myself - had a hatred burning in his eyes that rivaled the
black dragon's.
	"I would speak with you!" I shouted out, unsure of whether the black dragon
or the young man would reply.
	'What reason would I have to talk with you, *human?*' the black dragon
replied telepathically. I was about to reply when I sensed something; the
blue dragon was transmitting thoughts and experiences to the black dragon
much as it had to me on numerous occasions. Although I only had indirect
access to these images, I got the gist of them. First came images of humans
and Kouriheat working together prior to the Ripping, then the actions of
numerous humans who denounced the Tantuk's attack on the black dragon,
followed by - to my surprise - images of the two of us, the blue dragon and
myself, on our pursuit of the black dragon, and of the bond we had formed.
	"I will never reconcile with you!" The black dragon's rider screamed,
raising a laser cannon of some sort. I was prepared to open fire when the
black dragon whipped the man's laser cannon out of his hands with its tail,
causing him to fall meekly silent. Slowly, I lowered my own cannon, unsure
of what would happen next.
	'Speak your piece, human, but make it short. I weary of the endless chatter
of your species.'
	"Black dragon, I understand your hatred for humanity," I began. "I, too, am
greatly angered and shamed by the actions of my fellow man. But surely we
can find some other solu..."
	'You think your PITY and your SHAME will reciprocate for the loss my kind
has suffered?!' the black dragon shot back. 'You HUMANS are the source of
all this death and destruction. Your removal will end it.'
	"But you are the one behind the destruction now!" I replied. "Are you no
better than those you destroy?"
	'I am defending my people from your merciless onslaught. Did you not,
yourself, once witness a young Kouriheat being slaughtered and do nothing
about it? When you returned home, did you do anything to halt the butchering
of our young?'
	I balked as the black dragon's words struck home. Obviously our brief link
the last time I had visited the Imperial Palace hadn't been just one-way. "I
was wrong," I said finally. "I did not know..."
	'And so ignorance is an excuse? Unacceptable. Thousands of years ago your
kind knew of our deeds to help you, did you *accidentally* allow that
knowledge to slip away? You raised your children to hate and fear us, to
hunt us for sport. Is it any wonder why I desire to be rid of you?'
	"The other Kouriheat seem to think..."
	'The other Kouriheat are fools!' the black dragon shouted mentally, cutting
me off. 'They believe we can return to the old days before the Ripping, as
you call it. Even you must know that is impossible. Undoing seven thousand
years worth of persecution and hatred is impossible.'
	"What of the humans then? Were they not your allies?" I asked, desperately
searching for any point I could make. This dragon had had seven thousand
years to justify its actions to itself. What hope could I have of convincing
it otherwise?
	'You are a changed species,' the black dragon replied. 'It is true that
prior to the Ripping I had many human allies... and even friends... but...
but they are long dead. You are no longer the same type of humans they were.'
	"We changed once. Could we not change again?"
	'I am not willing to wait the decades, centuries, or millenia it would
take,' the black dragon replied wearily. 'Your people have had a seemingly
endless amount of time to change of their own accord; they have not done so.
Humanity's death is all that will solve this situation.'
	"You're talking about genocide..." I said quietly.
	'How is that any different from what humans visit upon the Kouriheatan
people every day? I tried to work with you... but the endless bickering and
infighting amongst your people... I couldn't get anything done like that,
and in the meantime conditions deteriorated all around us. Perhaps I may
have worsened things with my proclaimation of Kouriheatan superiority - no
matter how true it was - but things were headed in that direction anyway.
Then my ousting by my own people... At that point I was enraged, but had the
Tantuk not hunted me down and killed me... I would've never acted.'
	"You killed your own people in retaliation against the Tantuk," I said
softly. "Don't you see? You've become what you proclaim to hate; a killer of
Kouriheat."
	I sensed a flare of anger from the black dragon, but it quickly died away.
'The end will justify the means. You think if I do nothing the situation
will rectify itself? Look around you. Surrounding us is not a peaceful city,
but a base of war. Your people cannot live without conflict. I intend to
give it to them.'
	"We do not all fear the Kouriheat!" I shouted, sensing that the black
dragon's interest in this discussion was waning. "Look at myself and my
Kouriheatan friend! Does this not prove to you that we can live together?"
	'HAH!' the black dragon barked derisively. 'Even your oh-so-noble blue
dragon here is an example of the subversion of our species, no better than I
am. Do you think it told you the whole story regarding its past?'
	I felt a familiar force seizing my mind, the force of the blue dragon,
trying to tear me away from what the black dragon was saying. The black
dragon wouldn't let me go, and for a few moments I was in excruciating pain
as my mind was the focus of an intense mental tug-of-war. Finally, the blue
dragon released me and I clutched my chest, gasping for air.
	'You see?' the black dragon asked smugly. 'It fears the truth. Do you want
to know the truth, little human?'
	"*The* truth, or your truth?" I challenged, although I will admit to some
consternation over the blue dragon's actions.
	'The truth, through my own eyes. Even you must know forgeries of memories
are impossible.'
	"Very well." I sensed my dragon cringe at my acceptance; what did it have
to hide? More, had I just irreparably damaged the bond of trust we had formed?
	'As you may or may not be aware, I am over 11,000 years old by your
calendar. Your *friend* here claims that such a long life has corrupted me,
made me bitter and singleminded. If that is true, then it would hold that
the same applies for the blue dragon, for it is in actuality over eight
thousand years old.'
	I sat back heavily in the armored saddle as images verifiying the black
dragon's words entered my mind. I saw the blue dragon soaring over the
then-vital city of Pacano, I saw it visiting one of the huge artificial
satellites in orbit around Earth aboard a Kouriheatan starship... these and
many other images flooded my mind, and then ceased suddenly.
	'Do you know the reason the blue dragon, and indeed most Kouriheat, require
dragonriders in order to commit any kind of act of aggression?' the black
dragon asked. 'By nature, most Kouriheat are peaceful creatures. It is only
by tapping into your *hate*, your *anger*, your amorality that they can
bring themselves to kill. Years of being hunted by the humans removed this
restricition from me, as they gave me effective lessons in how to hate, but
your supposed friend still has this constraint. Don't you see? You, and the
countless dragonriders who came before you, are merely pawns in the blue
dragon's obsessive quest to see me die. You are a pawn, your *father* was a
pawn when the blue dragon took the form of a red dragon, you all toiled
under the pretense of saving your species, when this Kouriheat knew that the
very best it could hope to accomplish was a stalemate, a pause of a few
years in the endless clash of two immortals. I almost pity you foolish
humans for throwing your lives away for such a worthless cause. You do not
believe me? Fine. See the truth through your so-called friend's own eyes,
and by doing so realize your own blindness and stupidity.'
	The inky black tendrils of the black dragon's mind-force gripped me once
more, and I saw the blue dragon, riderless and armourless, flying over the
mountains of the northern regions, obviously looking for something. Far
below I could see a figure mounted on a Yuffa dashing through a rocky
crevice being pursued by an almost sandworm-like creature. Whoever it was
led the worm on a merry chase, which nearly ended in tragedy as the worm
leapt out of a snowdrift to attack. The Yuffa rider was quick, though, and
not only managed to dodge but also put several crossbow shots into the
worm's thick hide. I watched the wounded worm tunnel underneath the snow and
come up directly under the Yuffa, dissolving its entire underside with its
acidic venom. Leaping clear, the rider rolled in the snow and came up
firing, putting all four crossbow shots into the worm's head. Head shaking
at the corpse of the worm and the Yuffa, the hunter turned and began to walk
back to the city in the distance.
	The scene shifted slightly; the blue dragon was standing before the hunter
- a brown-haired young female - much as it had with me, offering the aid the
young woman. She accepted more readily than I would've anticipated and
together they flew back to the city.
	I gasped as I recognized the settlement; it was the same abandoned city we
had flown over on our approach to Genos. Instead of getting a hostile
reception like we had in Thuth, the blue dragon and its female rider were
welcomed openly. Did these primitives not even hear of the Prophecies?
	Another scene shift; the blue dragon was now asking the woman to accompany
it in its hunt for the black dragon. After speaking with several other
people - a stern- but loving-looking man, and dignified woman, a
perpetually-angry looking young man, and a young girl; her family, I assumed
- she agreed, and together they took off after the black dragon.
	The next few scenes came very fast as they were of limited importance. I
saw the blue dragon and its rider head south to take on the forces of
Mechania and pursue the black dragon. After decimating a Mechanian fleet
they spotted the black dragon and gave chase. They succeeded in wounding the
black dragon, but then something horrifying took place.

	Dodging blue-white shots, the black dragon dove to the neutral village far
below, smashing into one of the homes. It then began literally shredding the
family inside with its teeth in one of the most brutal, sickening acts I
have ever witnessed. Diving in a rage but unable to fire because of the
black dragon's proximity to the civilians, the dragonrider seemed intent on
ramming the black dragon, perhaps hoping to force it from the house back
into the air. At the very last possible second, however, the dragon shifted
focus. It almost happened faster than I could track, but the black dragon
raised its head and lunged forward...

	Half a second later I saw the horrific end result. The black dragon had
indeed been thrown clear of the house, but impaled on its razor-sharp teeth
was the limp, bleeding form of the female dragonrider. Gasping out in
despair, I watched as it dropped her body contemptuously in an open street
and soared off into the distance.
	One final scene shift; a short time later, I saw the blue dragon
confronting me in the deserts near Thuth.

	'You see?' the black dragon said as the link ended. 'Your *friend* values
not your life, but rather the capacity to kill that your presence grants it.
When you die it will merely find another. And another. The cycle will never
end, and the contribution of your life will never be recognized and never
amount to much more than a moment's pause in this giant struggle. Should you
succeed, what awaits you then? The Empire will never let you live for the
death of their Emperor, and Mechania begrudges you your life because of your
indirect link with that female and the havoc she wreaked with their fleets.
You are a fool, human. Accept your fate now, and at least you will not die a
total idiot.'
	I didn't know what to think. All this time... the blue dragon had withheld
the truth... had committed a lie of omission. "Is it true?" I whispered to
the back of the blue dragon's armoured head. Its silence and the wounded
emotions I felt from it confirmed it. For a very long time I sat there,
mimicking the silent and defeated posture of the black dragon's rider,
processing the various emotions of betrayl and hurt that swam through me.
Was I a fool for taking up this quest? Was the blue dragon every bit as mad
and obsessed as the black dragon was? Was all of this worth the three or
four years worth of peace it would bring?
	'Well, human?' the black dragon goaded, obviously enjoying this. 'Do you
now realize the insignificance of your life, not only to me and to events,
but to the blue drag...'
	"No," I replied quietly. No matter what the black dragon had said, no
matter what I had seen, something still felt wrong. If learning to hate
humans had permitted the black dragon to kill without need for a rider, why
had hating the black dragon not permitted the blue dragon to do the same?
The only reasonable conclusion to draw was that the blue dragon *didn't*
hate the black dragon, that it was indeed doing this for the benefit of both
our species, as I had assumed for this entire quest. "No, you're wrong. I
don't believe that the blue dragon doesn't value my life," I sensed
something snap up in shock inside the blue dragon, a kind of surprised
appreciation. "Why else would it have gone out of its way to save my life on
more than one occasion when it could've easily left me to die?"
	'Dragonriders are rare. And even still, what of its withholding the truth
from you? The mistrust it's shown? Do you condone that?'
	"No," I admitted. "It was a mistake. But it is in the past now. I am
willing to forgive, and to move on in the hope that this incident will
strengthen the trust between us in the future, not weaken it." The link
between myself and the blue dragon surged with a kind of grateful pride, and
I smiled, patting the Kouriheat on the neck. I felt something else, a
long-held shame slipping away replaced by a firey determination. At that
moment, the link between myself and the Kouriheat opened to its full
potential, and I gasped at the sensation. Our two minds were essentially
joined as one, and I had full access to the blue dragon's innermost feelings
and thoughts, something it had naturally declined to share with me before. I
sensed that my summations were indeed correct, that the blue dragon did care
for me, as it did all its previous riders. After a moment of exploring this
new connection, I returned to the 'real world' and the black dragon's
reaction. I had chosen my words very carefully, drawing parallels between my
situation and the black dragon's.
	'You are a fool...' it replied, but with much less anger than I had
anticipated. 'Your father was a fool...' I felt its - and my own - anger
mounting. 'Your species is made up completely of fools. Only in death will
you accomplish anything useful, and I will ensure that comes to pass!'
	We leapt back and into the air as the black dragon lunged forward. I
returned fire, amazed at how this new link felt. I actually felt as if I was
both myself and the dragon, that our bodies had been grafted onto each
other. These were my wings cutting through the wind, my legs nearly scraping
the surface of the Imperial Palace as we dove out of the throne room. It was
the most exhilirating experience of my life!
	I was jarred back into reality by a near-miss from the black dragon. Firing
over my shoulder I drove it off, but we too were forced to disengage as the
ships above us opened up. Only this greatly increased agility from our
strengthened link permitted our survival as we wove in amongst the buildings
of Genos, dodging countless laser shots. Obviously the Empire now found the
survival of Genos - and the lives of the now-dead Emperor's personal
servants - to be of secondary importance to our deaths.
	Pursuing the black dragon through this sky set ablaze we managed to get
several shots into its thick hide. Its rider, however, returned fire with a
steady stream of yellow laser pulses. I still wondered who this man was and
what his stake was in this, but his function was obvious; he was merely a
form of gun emplacement on the black dragon's back.
	Firing and dodging, firing and dodging was meeting with limited success.
Numerous attack runs by destroyers and countless flitters had come
dangerously close to nailing us, but so far we remained unscathed.

	Against a force this large, though, no lucky streak lasts forever.

	From high above, a battleship fired a huge slavo of red laser shots. Most
missed.

	One didn't.

	Clutching my left shoulder I screamed in agony as the crimson fire slammed
into and overwhelmed my armor, sending waves of pain coursing through my
body as my flesh burned. I felt the pain being echoed by my dragon as our
link shared all our senses and feelings, including those of injury. As I sat
there momentarily stunned, I felt a kind of anger welling inside the blue
dragon. This anger intensified as another laser shot hit the Kouriheat's
tail, mildly wounding it. The anger tapped into... into a reservoir of
incredible power that I sensed had been building up for many, many years.
Another shot clipped my leg and I screamed again, and I felt that anger and
that energy intensify into a white-hot nova... Even though it was on the
opposite side of the Kouriheat's throat from where I sat, I saw the
phosphorescent marking on the dragon's throat shining impossibly bright,
building towards a catacylsmic release....

	At that moment, the sky was filled with a light so intense I had to shield
my eyes lest I go permenantly blind. I sensed what was going on rather than
witnessed it; hundreds, then hundreds of hundreds of white-hot beams
streaked from my dragon to every Empire vehicle in the area, decimating them
in a hellish fire the likes of which I would never see from it again.
Thousands of people died in that instant, consumed by the cleansing fire
that annihilated airship, landcrawler, and flitter alike. For many long
seconds the deluge endured, and then as suddenly as it began, it stopped,
and my link with the Kouriheat went terrifyingly silent.

	Out of the corner of my eye I watched the wounded black dragon limping away
with its still-alive rider on its back. We could not give chase, however,
because the blue dragon was unconcious... or perhaps even dead.
	We drifted slowly to earth, crashing ignominiously in the deserts south of
Genos. Frantic and concerned, I leapt off my fallen friend, ignoring my
wounds, and limped around to its front. Collapsed on the sand, its eyes
stared unfocusingly into the sky. Fearing the worst, I lifted the
Kouriheat's head up. The glowing marking on its throat was dim, dimmer than
I had ever seen it before, but it was steady, and as I watched it, it grew
faintly brighter.

	My friend was alive.


	Three days later found us in much better shape; my injurys had been wrapped
and were on the mend - they were only flesh wounds to begin with - and the
blue dragon was up and about, seemingly returned to normal. I was still
somewhat overwhelmed with the display of power it had shown; not a single
Empire aircraft or ground vehicle within 100 kilometers had survived. The
Emperor's flagship, the recipient of over a thousand homing shots, had
crashed into the Imperial Palace, totally demolishing it. The flagship was
more disabled than destroyed, and I expected it to be salvagable. That was
not, however, my primary concern; the black dragon was still alive.
	The following day we resumed the hunt. The black dragon seemed to be moving
at a sluggish pace when I saw it fleeing the slaughter over Genos, not using
the incredible speed boost I had seen it use on occasion. We flew over Genos
now, a city largely in ruins due not to our attacks, but rather the crashing
hulks of so many demolished airships. The whole area was littered with
broken hulls and husks of landcrawlers. As we passed by, a looming Land
Defender toppled over, pulverizing a section of Genos' blemished marble
walls. Wondering vaguely what effect this devastation would have on the
Empire and the war with Mechania I urged my dragon to go faster, and we shot
southeast in pursuit of the black dragon.

	A day and a half later we flew over the Layan mountains, searching
intently. At the speed I had seen the black dragon travelling, we would
catch it any time now. If I were the black dragon, I'd be waiting in any one
of the countless caves and crevices below, waiting for us to pass over so it
could mount a surprise attack...
	Banking hard left and diving to the ground, we barely dodged the
green-white energy streamers that shot from a canyon betwen two large
mountains. Plummeting straight down, we saturated the area with blue-white
fire, blasting up plenty of rocks but otherwise not accomplishing much of
anything. Pulling out, I saw the black dragon attempting to flee into a
deep-running cave system. Determined to finish this, I urged my dragon into
the caves in hot pursuit.

	Stalactites and stalagmites whizzed by us as we dove deeper into the
mammoth caverns. Firing sporadically, I had yet to connect with the black
dragon as it used all the terrain for cover. Once, it almost lost us as it
faked us out and we headed down a side passageway, but a little backtracking
and a speed burst put us right back in the thick of things. The black
dragon's counter-fire was abbreviated and misdirected, perhaps owing to its
still-visible injuries.
	As we continued to trade pot-shots, we passed into a absolutely gigantic
cavern. Quickly scanning the area, I noted that the only way out was the way
we had just come in. The black dragon obviously noticed this too, because it
had turned to face us.

	It didn't take a genius to realize that this was the final battle.

	For a long moment we both hovered there, the monstrous black dragon
dwarfing myself and the blue dragon. Injured though it was, the black dragon
was still a formidable opponent. Our only advantages - speed and agility -
would be greatly curtailed in this enclosed enviroment. In a sense, we were
both fighting crippled.
	The stalemate did not last for long; firing a curving yellow homing shot
from its mouth, the black dragon started the contest. We had execute a full
barrel roll from a hover to avoid being hit. Exiting the roll nose-down, we
dove a bit, picking up momentum as I returned fire. Several of my shots
connected, causing the black dragon to yelp out a bit, but otherwise having
little effect. Returning fire with a series of harsh yellow energy waves, it
blew out countless stalagmites on the cavern floor as we dodged and wove,
trying to use the terrain to our advantage. The problem with that strategy
was that the black dragon wasn't exactly the subtle type; it didn't mind
bringing down a whole mountain range to defeat one opponent.
	Shooting straight up to the ceiling as an intense beam slagged a good
portion of the floor, we hammered away at the black dragon once more. For
several minutes we rocketed desperately around the mammoth cave, blasting
away at one another. We took a few hits, but dished out worse than we got.
Both of us were still vital, but the black dragon seemed to be growing more
and more frustrated with every passing moment. The cavern, however, had seen
better days; most of it was slagged, and the air was quickly becoming
unbreathable. If the fight lasted much longer, we'd have to retreat lest I
pass out from lack of oxygen.
	Putting a salvo of laser shots into its hide, the black dragon let out a
bloodcurcling screech of pain comixed with a burning anger. It started a
counterattack when I stitched it again. A second counterattack was also
thwarted as I nearly brought a stalactite down on its head. Letting out the
most fearsome, frustrated howl I had ever heard, it spun on me harshly, and
I saw a mammoth charge building to some sort of horrific release.

	My dragon screeched at me; this wasn't going to be your average laser shot.

	Rocketing through the cave system towards the surface, we missed rock
formations by millimeters as we build up a suicidal amount of speed. Behind
me, I could sense an energy building up at least on par with what the blue
dragon had released over Genos.

	We had just exited the caverns when the whole mountain range blew up.

									- MW
  /---------------------------------------------------------------------\
 /"The secret sits: we dance around in a ring and suppose, but the secret\ 
|            sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost               |
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