Disclaimer: I own nada and I'm not making any money from this!

Author's Notes: Big-honking Defiance spoilers. This was written for MarmaladeCat's *announcer voice* Legacy of Kain Fan Fiction Challenge-enge-enge-enge.... ^^

If you read, please review.

This is a somewhat AU version of the conversation between Kain and the EG at the end of Defiance.

My challenge, which I chose to accept:

A different take on the scene when Kain and Elder God spoke at the end of Defiance, as if they had more time to discuss things.

Must Include: Raziel and the Hylden

No Mention of: Umah or Vorador

Distribution: Ask before taking, and give credit if you link, please.

~~The One Pulling the Strings~~

When 'Moebius' spoke, Kain knew something was wrong. The soul felt different, and the Time Streamer never gave up an advantage unless it gained him something, but instinct honed by centuries of sword fighting carried him up, slashing out with the Soul Reaver to draw a wet line of blood across Moebius' chest. Kain extended his arm, plunging the blade through paper-like skin and aged bones. Right into the heart. The thrust was so powerful that a good three inches of the Soul Reaver were imbedded in the fallen stone behind the Time Streamer.

Kain glared darkly at the old man. "Do you so enjoy death?" Then he noticed the eyes- blind white before, now glowing with unnatural light.

"Yes." It was Moebius' voice- and yet, not. The Time Streamer's body faded- wizened flesh and ancient robes transmuting into azure muscle and white bone. Raziel's eyes narrowed in pain as the Reaver began to glow. Under their feet, the ancient stones of the citadel trembled, and were ignored.

"Raziel?" he whispered. "No!" Kain pulled the sword back. He hadn't thought. All that time spent to avert this very thing, and now-

Raziel grabbed his arm. The slowly fading talons were still powerful, even losing corporeality, he held Kain still. "Yes- this is-" he gasped.

"-No, Raziel-" he didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear that he had been unable to find another solution because no other existed, even as he felt it to be true.

He wanted to pull away, but just as it had happened in the Sarafan cloisters, just as it had been in Avernus, the pull of the sword would not be denied, and this time- Raziel was aiding it. His only struggle was to finish the message he so wished to deliver. "The Soul Reaver," he wheezed, "- pure of all corruption- this, is what is for. This-" he reached out to cover the gaping wound in Kain's chest, the wound he had created, "is what I am for-"

Energy flowed out of Raziel's sword arm- his own manifestation of the Reaver blade, always life-taking, now healing- a pure, pale gold mist. Kain covered the skeletal hand with his own, looking down, astonished, as the blade drifted inside him- Raziel's soul, and that of his slain brethren, rejoining his soul for the briefest of moments. What had once been his, and he had given his sons, connecting once again.

"The two, become one- both- Soul Reavers, together-" Raziel faded even further as the Spirit Reaver left him, passing through Kain before joining once more with the blade, "and the Scion of Balance- is healed."

And he was healing, Kain realized. The torn edges of his flesh began to knit together. The mist flowed through him on its way to the blade, infusing his aching body with new strength- the emptiness left by his missing heart was wiped away, cleared as if it had never been- had never needed to be.

"And I-" Raziel gasped, forcing his soul to halt, to stay from the sword just long enough- long enough for this, "am not your enemy," he cried. "Not- your destroyer!" his voice grew weaker, there was little time. "I am- as before- your right hand," he needed to make Kain understand. All the conflict, all the strife they had endured. Raziel had cursed him, fought him, killed him, yet here Kain was- as he needed to be. Raziel fought the insistent pull of the Reaver for these moments- he needed Kain to understand, "your sword," that this was his choice.

"No, Raziel," the barest protest. Kain did understand, but he wished to take it back. He grabbed the blue, trial-worn shoulder. After all his efforts to avoid this travesty, they were once again trapped by fate. The words he'd said in the Chronoplast chamber came back to haunt him, When I sacrifice my children to the void- I can do so with a clear conscience. What a liar he was. "-this can't be the way."

But it was, and they both knew it. With his last wisp of energy, Raziel looked up. "And now you will see- the true- enemy..." Between one second at the next, he was gone. White talons and raven hair all turned sapphire in the moment before he transformed- a being of pure spirit, willing captive of the steel and bone prison designed for him- destined for him. Redeemer and destroyer- the Soul Reaver.

"Raziel-" Kain stared for a moment at the blank stone, then at the Reaver, as he pulled it free from the rock. The blade hummed with new energy, willful and angry in the past, it was calmer now than his memories of the blade. Was this the edge of the coin at last? Kain stared at the blade which flickered quietly in his hand. How had it come to this? Raziel had known something he did not- he had sacrificed himself for a reason. Kain heard a shuffling noise- the sound of a gigantic form stirring and resettling. He turned, and saw.

The Elder God lay in all its grotesque glory, undulating against the walls of the spirit forge. Gargantuan eyes with their misshaped pupils fixed upon Kain, the tentacles with their suckered undersides climbed up the walls, having scarred the stone over centuries of slow defacement. The smoother tentacles rose and moved sinuously over the floor, through the air. The creature had a look of contemplation about it.

"So, you have fulfilled your destiny at last."

Kain's eyes narrowed at the voice- it rumbled through the core of him at a volume that was nearly painful. The creature's tone held satisfaction, and was somehow familiar. The Reaver shuddered in Kain's grasp- enraged as it had not been moments ago.

"The Scion of Balance, invincible against any assault, armed with the prophesied Soul Reaver," it intoned, the words punctuated by the slight rumbling Kain had noticed earlier. "Now, Kain, you may embark upon your true destiny."

"You are the Oracle," Kain murmured, finally managing to place the voice. This was the creature who had so willingly led him to Raziel in Avernus, and this was surely what Raziel had meant when he named the 'true enemy'. The Reaver- its pure state, had given him sight beyond even a vampire's acuity.

"I am, and once more in service to the vampiric ruler of Nosgoth," the voice was matter-of-fact, heavy with satisfaction. Kain still knew not to trust it.

"And my 'true destiny'?" he asked of it. The creature had its own agenda, that much was certain- but what was it?

"You already know of the murderous beings who killed your ancestors- the Hylden are a plague upon Nosgoth, the beings who smote you and stole the Reaver when you were but a fledgling. They ensnare the souls of humans and vampires alike- corrupting and transforming them into demons. The Hylden fueled the rage which allowed Raziel to rob you of your heart. They stole into the circle and overtook your maker Mortanius, forcing him to kill Ariel and create this entire murderous cycle of existence." The creature's voice grew more indignant as it went on. In Kain's hand, the Soul Reaver trembled in rage. "Now, do you see? This is your destiny. The Hylden are the source of Nosgoth's corruption."

"Yes, the Hylden," Kain mused. "The 'unfortunate consequence' that will be 'dealt with in time'?" The tentacles stilled, as if in shock, at his words. "The 'small price' for my death?" Kain smiled, bringing the Reaver close, and grasping the flat of the blade in his talons meditatively. It quieted under his hand. "Yes, I see very well. I had always known that somewhere behind Moebius lay the cause of all this, and I would not find it so difficult to believe that the Hylden were given aid in their endeavor as well. After all- you gave me passage through time, and Raziel his way to and from the spirit realm. What is trans-dimensional travel to a being capable of that?"

The ground rumbled again- louder this time. The Elder chuckled darkly. "I am the origin of life," it said pleasantly. "The devourer of death. I am the hub of the wheel- the purifying cycle to which all souls must be drawn. And now you, Kain, will also be consumed by fate."

Kain shifted into a battle stance, moving the Reaver out before him. "Your wheel will shatter upon my sword before I allow it to ensnare me. Did you think you could beguile me as you did Moebius?"

"Certainly not, I know your distrust. Moebius was a child when I took him as my servant- frightened and angry- and so very willing to destroy the vampires who had stolen him from his home. Raziel was even easier to convince- so consumed with hatred for your crimes against him that he accepted my guidance without question, even though he had known my true form from the beginning.

"But you, Scion of Balance," it said mockingly, "I knew you could not be influenced as they were. I only wished to postpone your leave-taking." The rumbling of the walls around them grew even louder, shrugging dust and dry earth from the broken stones. Kain's eyes widened as he realized what the creature meant to do. He sheathed the Soul Reaver and moved his hands- gathering enough power to teleport back to the forge's entrance.

One of the tentacles, moving faster than he would have thought possible, snapped forward, hitting Kain's chest with the force of a dozen telekinetic blasts. It slammed him into the wall, and the force of the impact threw him to the marble floor. Kain looked up, and rolled to the side just before another tentacle struck where he had been with enough force to crack the pale ground. Kain rolled gracefully to his feet and drew the Reaver, then stood perfectly still, waiting for the next attack.

The tentacles rose, tips waving menacingly back and forth. "The madness of the demon dimension could not take you. But there will be ample time to curse the futility of your actions." The building shook again- dislodging bits of stone and a storm of loose soil from the walls. "You and your Soul Reaver will spend an eternity here, buried beneath a mountain of rubble."

Kain glared. It was trying to stall him again. "Your words are heartening." He stepped forward, slashed at the tentacle which angled towards his chest. The Reaver screamed in elation and jumped to meet each attack. "For you would not fear us," a thrust into the deceptively innocent appendage lying across the ground, "unless we could truly do you harm." He punctuated his words by cutting into the creature, severing thick limbs with each step closer.

"No!" It shouted indignantly. "You are nothing!"

"False God," Kain growled, slicing a tentacle in half with a two-handed strike. "This is the end. The final turn of your wheel."

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You may have noticed that this fic is called Puppet Masters- plural. Well, the second challenge I was given will fit well into the 'chapter two' slot for this fic... once I write it.