The battle in space roars on. The people of Dark World and Bingo can see the battle as if it were far away fireworks. Kain's fleet, led by Shadow, fires relentlessly onto Transmetal's colonists. The pilots of Bingo swerve left and right to avoid the shots, while taking pot shots of their own. Shadow can be seen on the bridge of the Romanian Nobleman. His frustration is plainly visible. He can't figure out what to do. The Colonists are giving a fight that he thought was impossible. "How can I break them?"

As Shadow's thoughts scramble for the answers, Kain's thoughts are a little more interesting...well, not really. Kain's thoughts are of the new menace that is coming. Though the source is unknown, Kain has never been one to back down. Ever since his days as a boy, his creation into this world, he has been an honor-driven fighter that would never back down. Those days were gone now. He found that most of his thoughts turned to Tifa half the time. The other half of the time they were on Shadow. How he despised Shadow. Shadow, the man that had gotten life the same way Kain had. Kain's views of the events are a little different than everyone else's. His mind, deprived of the moral posturing that most people make their relationships on, sees only one possibility. He is the original.

Tifa wonders the country in order to find some reason for her admiration of Kain. He is a power-hungry warlord that thinks nothing of anyone but himself. Why did she think fondly of him? It didn't make sense. She has to make her search fast. She can't let Kain take on the new force alone. She searched and searched for Kain's background, but all it said was "and thus, Kain appeared." Around her searches, she found three other names. Nothing important about them, just the mention of them. The first was a boy that had died long ago. His name was Damien. The next was Shadow. The final name was that of a girl. The girl is not much younger than Kain. Her name is Kylie. That is whom Tifa is visiting. Kain is twenty years of age now. The girl is nineteen. She may know something about Kain's past.

Kylie lives in a small, abandoned church. The steps are cracked and the door is unhinged. Tifa walks calmly into the most humble abode. Tifa's white skirt picks up much of the dirt and dust all over the room. Her sparkling, blue blouse reflects what little light there is in the church. She goes into the confessional. There, she finds a young woman. The woman is reading an old bible, one from the Catholic faith. She takes a step forward. At the creek of the floorboards, the woman jumps to her feet, ready to run. Tifa looks at her. "Kylie?" She nods gravely.

Transmetal's ship is flying around the battlefield, firing at anything that will stand still long enough for the nuclear lasers to charge and fire upon. All he seems to care about is having fun in this battle. Nuclear lasers scorch the sides of the minor ship. A group of Kain's fighters block Transmetal's path. Instead of dodging the group, Transmetal unleashes a flurry of smart bombs that blast the fighters into oblivion. He casually continues on his path as if the obstruction were never there.

Tifa sits with Kylie at a table next to the pews. "How do you know Kain?"

Kylie's face reddens with anger. "Kain is the bastard that stole my best friend from me. He killed Damien. He almost killed Cheese and I. Shadow got away all right. Not even Kain would have killed a ten year old boy." Tifa sat there stunned. Kylie knows Kain from that long ago? She even knows who the elusive Damien is. This is the break Tifa has been waiting for.

"Where did Kain come from?"

"The depths of a distressed mind can bring forth the most unholy of beings. Kain is a demon that has purged its maker of all life. The energy it took to bring Kain into existence almost killed him. Then, when all was said and done, Kain found him to be a distraction. Kain hated him for no apparent reason. He killed him. He killed..." Kylie's sobs muffled her voice too much for Tifa to hear the rest. Tifa took Kylie into her arms and soothed her. Eventually, Kylie's sobbing would stop. Then, Tifa could continue to find out about Kain's past.

Shadow can be seen yelling at a deck officer to start firing at the enemy and not Kain's fleet. He is interrupted when the radar man burst through the door screaming. "Sir, we found a ring of deadly organized nuclear unidentified transport ships!"

"...D.O.N.U.T.S?"

"Yes."

"You're joking, right?" Shadow can't believe Kain actually has the ability to stomach these ignorant fools. Shadow turned to the radar. They're right, he thought to himself. Those are definitely dangerous weapons. Shadow now hated the fact that Kain didn't come up. He knew Kain would know what to do. Kain got the desire, the ambition to rule, but he also got the strategic abilities. Shadow is no fool about strategy, but he isn't as good as Kain. He would have never been able to take over the Resistance like Kain did. Through that group of trusted militia, Kain would become the sole person to rule Dark World. Shadow finds himself envying Kain. Kain found himself as a full man. He did what his heart told him to do. Shadow would never feel like a true man unless he did the same. He didn't want to admit to Kain that he needed help. Kain would lose all respect for him. That is, if he had any for him now.

Kain sits at his radar station, monitoring the progress of the unknown fleet. "Damn it! They surrounded all of the ships up there. Dark World and Bingo are both surrounded. They even cut off our communications." The machine in which sends and receives messages sits next to Kain. He sent a message to the unknown fleet an hour ago. The message read: Stop now or we will be forced to retaliate. Kain still waits for a response. He will wait only for a little while longer. Soon, he'll have to act. The messaging machine suddenly burst to life. A coded message from the unknown fleet is arriving. Kain gets his men to work on decoding the message. The message is in binary, so it isn't hard to decode. Kain thinks to himself, these people must not be strangers, if they know binary in this symbol structure. He looks at the decoded message. "Yarr...my god..." Kain's eyes are wide and unmoving. The unknown fleet is no longer unknown. Kain decides that it's time to act. If he is to save the world from the terror coming, he has to act now. He runs out the door of the castle. He stops after three steps. A strange noise is echoing through the distance. Kain looks up. Barbie Boy suddenly lands on the ground at Kain's feet. Kain stares, wide-eyed, as Barbie Boy struggles to get up. "Barbie Boy...just the guy I wanted to see."

"Don't hurt me." Kain grabs Barbie Boy's arm and heads off to the town Tifa went to. "There's a fleet that is coming toward Dark World. It sent us a message that stated: Yarr." Barbie Boy immediately understood...which is no small feat for Barbie Boy.

"So we're looking for a way to get into space to combat them?"

"No space is the easy part, we're trying to...how did you get out of the disc? Never mind, I'm looking for Tifa so we can talk about potential action."

"Who's Tifa?"

"Oh yeah, you weren't here for that. Tifa is my wife. She rules by my side."

"You got married?" Kain's frustration is apparent.

"Yes, now listen. I need you to go tell Tifa that I'm going to the Romanian Nobleman to tell the fleet what to do. I'll make an alliance with Bingo so that we may have a chance. This isn't a threat Barbie Boy...this is our annihilation. Go now. There isn't time to talk about strategy." Barbie Boy runs off to find Tifa. Kain sits down and ponders for a moment. "When I was fifteen, if they asked me if I would consider putting myself into danger in order to save this world, I would most definitely have said no. You changed me Tifa. Survive." Kain gets up and leaves. Moments later, A shuttle blasts into the atmosphere. Kain is on his way.

Kylie has finally started to calm down. Tifa's chest is drench with tears. Tifa still needs to ask her more about Kain. Before she can, Barbie Boy runs into the room. "Barbie Boy!"

"Kylie?"

"Hi."

"I'm looking for someone named Tifa."

"That's me."

"Kain's gone to the Romanian Nobleman to stop the big fleet thing." Tifa gasps. She runs out of the room. Tifa races toward the castle. She hopes that she isn't too late. If she lets Kain go there, he might die. When she gets to the castle, Kain has already gone. Tifa curses at her legs for being so slow. She yells at the guards to get a shuttle ready for her to go to the Romanian Nobleman. Moments later, she is on her way into space. She takes time to think, If only I could have asked Kylie more about Kain. I might have found out why I think so highly of him. Then, it hit her, she felt highly of Kain because she grew to love him. The marriage is no longer an alliance to her. She is now in the marriage for keeps. She guessed Kain probably felt the same way, which is why he didn't have Tifa come with her. Of course, he would be too proud to admit it. When did you change so much Kain? Was it I who had the impact, or is it that you're finally amending the mistakes you've made. Kain, I'll be there soon. Tifa's ship rockets on toward the Romanian Nobleman.

Transmetal is still firing at basically nothing in particular. He is laughing and having fun. Suddenly, a red flash screeches through the battle. The Romanian Nobleman's Bloodlust Cannon fires at the Colony Flagship. The Flagship retaliates by locking into a beam tug of war with their G Cannon. Transmetal sits in space and stares at the beam struggle. He would've liked to be a part of that. He continues to stare at the struggle until a shuttle catches his eye. "That's Kain's shuttle. I thought he was up here already. He tricked me! Damn it!" A button bleeps in Transmetal's control panel. He presses it. A screen comes down to reveal Kain's face. "Transmetal, I need to speak with you, now."

Tifa gazes into the heavens where she is following Kain. She keeps thinking of what Kylie said. "The depths of a distressed mind can bring forth the most unholy of beings. Kain is a demon that has purged its maker of all life." She couldn't make sense of it. Kain is a demon? No, Kain is far too human to be some devil. He makes mistakes just like everyone else. Though, Kain isn't like everyone else. His ability to learn and adapt from battles is awesome. Transmetal's abilities were much like Kain's. Transmetal's origin, however, isn't mysterious. He was once an employee at Electronic Boutique. After he was fired for running through the store, he became a soldier in the Resistance. The same Resistance that Kain took over in order to become the leader of the world. Transmetal fought along side Kain for peace. Kain obviously had other intentions. But why did Kain go? He doesn't have to save the world. All the happenings made Tifa think more and more about Kain. When she thought about Kain, she thought about his origin. The mystery of it made Kain a much more appealing guy. She wondered how long her fondness for him would last.

Dark World is decaying rapidly. Barren wastelands cover much of its surface. In one of these wastelands, lands a ship that looks much like a Hawaiian shirt. This ship is followed by another, and then another, until twenty-four ships land. Out of these ships storms an invading force hell bent on taking control of the castle of Kain. Aligned in formation, they march off toward their target. As long as they still breathed, Kain's empire would fall.

To Be Continued...

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