The Paradox Wave drifted gently down from the heavens... unfolding across the sky like a thin cloth of invisible and weightless silk. Its size was unknown... and unknowable. The word 'size' itself was ludicrous when applied to a thing that did not exist. A mere trio of the Wave's many dimensions were so monstrous that the minds of most men could never contain them. And what the ignorant would call its 'size' grew larger with every passing instant as it radiated outward from the Event.... The Event that, like the Paradox Waves that it had spawned, did not exist. Yet.

The Wave glided effortlessly across the heavens like a feather... or a thought. An ever-expanding thought birthed from a nonexistent brain, traveling like an ocean wave across creation. Most of Its tremendous energy was gathered in a arched crest that roiled and sizzled with intangible fury. Men who looked up at the sky as It passed, saw nothing save the odd twinkling of a few new stars, or the curious emptiness where other stars had once been. And when the Crest passed, the sky returned to normal... or as normal as the sky got on Iffrean. The Wave brushed the planet's upper atmosphere... kissing it gently with crackling lips of invisible fire. And with that kiss, It pierced the concentric shells of the planet's magical and magnetic fields... penetrating them without a single ripple or disturbance to signal Its arrival.

The air did not part to allow the Wave to pass. There was no need... for the Wave's existence was debatable at best... and was, from a three-dimensional standpoint, impossible. It was, after all, a Paradox. And as such, it passed unimpeded through solid and liquid... gas and energy.... moving like a wraith across the clouds. It left no wind in Its wake as It descended toward the surface... but yet the subtle breezes that passed though It carried away an intangible eeriness... a wrongness that neither man nor nature could comprehend. They could not comprehend it, because the Paradox was not of man OR nature. Nor was It some as-yet undiscovered opposite of either. Its origin... Its path... and Its meaning... transcended them all.

When the leading edge of It touched the ground, there were no quakes and no explosions. No giant chasms or craters yawned open to protest Its intrusion. No mountains sprang forth... no rivers changed their courses, or turned to blood. The oceans did not boil. The earth did not yield up its dead. The plagues of the apocalypse did not spontaneously appear to swallow the whole of mankind.

At least... not THIS time.

The Wave poured Itself upon the surface of Iffrean... spreading slowly across the world with all the explosive fanfare of a leaf falling into a bottomless pit. It's mighty crest drowned mountains and swallowed armies. But no one... not the most powerful wizard or the most insignificant gnat... noticed its passing.

But the wave noticed THEM.

Multitudes of beings passed underneath Its roiling blanket of power. Princes and paupers... insects and dragons. Most did not exist to the Wave...They were to the Wave what the Wave was to them: Nothing. Not even an anomaly to be noticed or an impediment to be overcome. But there were others. Those who had touched the timestream. Those who had Eternity in their blood. Those who transcended three-dimensional space... as the Wave Itself did. These resonated with an energy similar to the Wave itself, and they felt Its passing as an odd chill... or a brief, unnatural imbalance in the world. Some reached out with what power they had and tried to grasp It. Or comprehend It. They failed... some painfully. Some fatally. But there were others that the Wave touched. It touched them because they had touched It. They were those who had played.. or WOULD play... some part in the Wave's creation. Those who would act in the times leading up to the Event. And those who would be present at the End That Was The Beginning...

To them, the Wave's touch was something more tangible. Their own importance to Its creation drew out tiny sparks of Its energy... condensing it around/within them like the leaves drawing water out of the morning air. But it was not dew that they encountered in the Wave's wake... it was something... else...

---

Warlord K'Sano's fortress... and a good portion of the ground upon which it had once sat... hovered several miles in the air, poised over the gaping crater that had once been K'Sano's capital city. The fortress walls were cracked and shattered... the once-impenetrable structure hung like a fractured egg in the sky. K'Sano stood on the edge of his highest tower... highest REMAINING tower... and looked down at the dark things toiling far below. Shadow creatures... demons... monsters and slaves... all summoned by K'Sano's power to rebuild the city. They worked quickly and tirelessly. They had no choice. Those that DID tire, were killed and served up as meals to those that did not.

Things were going very well. The city would be rebuilt within a year. And then....?

K'Sano wondered what kingdoms he would have to 'annex' in order to secure another population to replace those decimated in the cataclysm. Or perhaps he shouldn't even bother with human subjects... Especially when they were so fallible and delicate-

K'Sano froze.

He froze an instant before the Wave hit... pre-warned by some infernal sense that something was about to happen. Yet he had no time to raise his shields or summon what remained of his demon-armor. All he could do was turn his head skyward and watch as the sky peeled back and darkness poured down upon...

...him?

Where was he? He was no longer in his fortress... and the sky that had just been torn asunder was certainly not Iffrean's.

"What is this?!" The Warlord muttered. He looked around, and saw the planet falling to pieces. A mountain range in the distance vanished... as did the ground beneath his feet. The planet...whatever planet it was... cracked in half with a sound too loud to be heard, yielding K'Sano's startled form up to the storm of flying boulders and boiling lava... all being swallowed by a surging darkness that swept over everything.

A glimmering sphere of yellow energy surrounded the Warlord's body, protecting him from the apocalyptic fury around him. K'Sano started... because the activation of his magic came not by his command. And yet he felt his mouth opening... he felt his arms rising and the power pouring forth as he cast layer after layer of protective magic around himself. And then he looked through eyes that he could not control... stared up at the sky... as the darkness that HAD been the sky.

He was searching. IT was somewhere in that darkness. Somewhere... hiding...

A boulder the size of a continent smashed into him.. .and shattered harmlessly against his shields. K'Sano blinked.

When had he become THAT powerful?

...when...

Yes, that was it. He was not only in another place, but another TIME as well. He was attached to some future version of himself. But how had this happened, and WHAT was he... this FUTURE he... doing?

And suddenly, everything moved. The 'future' Warlord was pulling back. Retreating?

No. No, this was something else. The remains of the world... and of several others... whizzed past as the time-lost Warlord sat helpless within his own future.

He had been too close.

He was looking for something, and he was too close to it see it. Distance...

K'Sano... both of them... gasped as the darkness that had destroyed the world began to take shape. It seemed to span several star systems, yet it moved as quickly as a....

...shadow?

And that is what it was. A shadow cast by some fading light of Creation... cast by the TRUE shape of that which he had come to see. The Destroyer. It was moving across the universe like a juggernaut... and it was so powerful that its SHADOW was destroying worlds. But what WAS that true shape? What WAS the Enemy... the Destroyer...

K'Sano looked-

The Warlord screamed atop his tower... shaking his fists and shouting in angry howls.. He was back. He had come back to the present... to his OWN body... but he had returned BEFORE his future self could glimpse the Destroyer! He was THERE... he had been a mere instant away...

K'Sano jumped into the air... and rose above his tower. He looked down and saw he Wave slowly spreading across Iffrean. He saw it not with his eyes, but with that fraction of his power that resonated with an energy close to the Wave's. Then he turned his power skyward and traced the path that the Wave had taken into Iffrean's plane of existence. It had not come far... neither in space NOR time. Perhaps there was more to be learned at its origin.

The Warlord raised his hand and let it fall through the air before him... his glowing fingertips tore a jagged, bleeding hole in the fabric of reality. He stepped into the hole and was gone from existence. An instant later the hole closed... and below, the Wave continued onward...

---

"Rennan!"

The urgency in Warrynt's voice bypassed Rennan's usual hour-long struggle from sleep to wakefulness. The alchemist had learned that, when Warrynt shouted in such a manner, it was best to go from 'sleep' straight to 'panic.'

"WHAT!? WHAT!?" Rennan shouted as he sat up. The campfire was still burning strong and bright... thanks to the special concoction he'd used to treat the wood before igniting it. Rennan could see Warrynt plainly... standing over him, his stern face outlined by the orange flicker of the flames.

Only... it wasn't Warrynt.

It LOOKED like Warrynt... but it clearly was not. He had the same face... the same 'is it time to kill something?' expression that Warrynt always had. But this man was clean-shaven and moderately well-dressed... in CLEAN clothes. 'Clean' was a word that neither Rennan, nor the REAL Warrynt had had any familiarly with since that awful business with the invisible dragon. They'd been on the road for months... but THIS man looked like he'd just stepped out of some calm city street. He even SMELLED clean!

Rennan cast a quick glance to the other side of the campfire, where the real Warrynt slept. There was no one there. Either something bad had happened... or something bad was ABOUT to happen. Either way, Rennan felt the sudden urge to be elsewhere.

"Rennan!" Warrynt said imperatively. "What are we DOING here! Where are we? What happened to MONTFORT?"

"Uhhh...." Rennan crawled slowly away from the man. One glance told the alchemist all he needed to know. There...hanging from Warrynt's hip.... was the scabbard and unmistakable hilt of the Siege. Real or not, this Warrynt still wielded the cursed sword. And if he had lost control of his mind... as it did appear, from the questions he was asking... then Rennan was likely very close to an unpleasant death. "M-m-montfort?" he stuttered... buying himself time. Perhaps there was a potion he could use to stun-

"What magic has brought us here?!" Frowning, Warrynt looked around and grasped the Siege. He didn't draw the infernal blade... but he stood ready.

"Ummm... no magic. J-just a lot of walking. Those tentacle-things killed the horses... remember?"

"The league!" Warrynt demanded "Where are they!? BLAYMORE! KULTRA! TO ARMS!!"

"Wh-wh-who are you shouting for?"

"The LEAGUE!"

"Uhh... what league?"

"The League of Heroes! Don't you remember! ZOUNDS, man... are you BEWITCHED!?"

"...please don't hurt me..." Rennan squeaked. "...please..."

Warrynt squinted at Rennan, as if just truly noticing him for the first time. Then he scowled. He scowled deeply. His knuckles tightened on the Siege.

Rennan tried hard not to wet himself.

"This...." said Warrynt. "...I remember this place. We have not yet been to Montfort together, have we?"

"N-n-no."

"We have not yet formed the League? Not yet battled December's minions? Or the Old Gods? Or K'Sano's demons?"

"D-d-demons?"

"It is worse than I thought! MUCH worse! Our enemies have cast us adrift into time! This must be the Warlord's doing! Or DECEMBER'S! To ARMS, Rennan! Our enemies await us anew... in MONTFORT!"

"Uhhh... M-montfort is still a l-long way away."

"Perhaps they spy on us even NOW!"

"Oh, hell-"

Warrynt drew the dreaded Black Blade free of it scabbard.

"BEHOLD THE-"

And then he was gone. Rennan watched it happen... saw it with his own eyes... and he still didn't quite believe it. Warrynt had vanished. No flashing lights or shimmering fields of magic... not even a 'POOF' or a 'POP'. He just vanished.

Rennan heard someone gasp. He turned suddenly and saw Warrynt... the REAL Warrynt, sitting upright by the fire.

"Ummm..." Rennan began.

"I just had the strangest dream," said Warrynt. "I was in Montfort... and there were all manner of strange people there..."

"Not as strange as the one who was just here," said Rennan.

"Eh?"

"Never mind," said the alchemist. "Go back to sleep..."

---

The Wave rolled through the forest toward Montfort, descending upon the town like a tidal wave of world-ending proportion. Its mighty crest was like a pillar of divine fire set on its side... terrible and unstoppable...

But not a single leaf of a single tree fluttered at its passing.

The Wave felt this place. Montfort. There were many here who would become a part of Its birth. Many who would play a part. And beyond that, the place ITSELF seemed to be of some importance, as if the town were a nexus of some kind. Yes, this was an important place. It AND the place that lay beneath it. Almost sacred, they were.

Yet, the Wave rolled over it just as it did all the others.

Intangible energy surged down the Montfort streets, penetrating the thickest walls and most complex wardings as if they did not exist. It did so by virtue of the fact that IT did not exist. Not really. Not yet. Most of the beings it encountered knew nothing of Its passing. But others drew brief sparks from the Invisible Storm...

---

Lara.

Lara who's family name was lost even to her.

Lara who has stolen the name 'Maxwell,' just as she had stolen everything else from the man she sought as her mentor. Now she haunted his mansion like a ghost... or worse: like a little girl playing dress-up in a world where everything was still too big her Even her life.

Her Life. Had she stolen THAT, too? How could she believe otherwise? How could she... a common thief... deserve to live while everyone else had died. Died in those horrible, horrible caves... where they should never have gone in the first place.

It had been a nightmare from the beginning. For all of them. A nightmare from which she was the only one to awaken. The rest were still down there... trapped in those caves. Yes, they were dead, but did that mean they weren't suffering? Did that mean they weren't desperately trying to claw their way out... to drag their tortured corpses up through the hells to which they'd descended? And what would he... they... find when they reached the top? They'd find a thief and a traitor who'd sealed the exits and trapped them in forever. Damned them. Damned them ALL.

She saw their faces. They flew past her in a whirlwind of screams. She saw them dying...

Williams. Red. Slick.

...one after the other...

Zackery. Juzh and Vithor. Borris.

..falling like dominoes...

Thurg. Drayn. Cole and Hendrix.

...even the ones that should have lived...

Thonia. Rath. Krycek. Malyk.

Sutton...ohh, Sutton. He had almost made it. If it hadn't been for her...

And Dokan.

He had to be dead. He HAD to be.

...had to be... Because if he wasn't... then he was still ALIVE down there. Down there with...

He was dead. All of them were dead.

All gone... with nothing left but the echoes of their screams in her mind. But the echoes weren't alone. They stirred up other things... horrible things... things with claws and teeth. Things that slithered and lurched and spat fire. Things that could dissolve a man in his clothes and spit copies of him back out to claim his friends. Things that feasted on the rotting dead... that lay eggs inside of men, or drained men's souls while turning them into monstrous slaves. Things that should not exist, even in nightmares... but they DID exist, just a few miles from here. Just a few days travel.

A few miles... straight down.

And buried with them was a city of dark gods.... gods that had taken the weakest among them and transformed him into a terror that still gave Lara nightmares.

Nightmares like the one she was having now.

Enough of this foolishness. Time to wake up.

Lara opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling for a long moment before trying to move. She was covered in sweat, but she hadn't woken up screaming this time. That was good. Maybe that meant she was finally beginning to...

The ceiling suddenly began to warp... bulging downward toward her like the stomach of some grotesque pregnant THING.

"...no!" Lara tried to move, but the bed grabbed her. The sheets wrapped tightly around her ankles and wrists...they pulled her limbs down into the feather mattress as the bulge in the ceiling took on a horrible shape.

Princeton Park stared down at her... looking not as he was in the beginning, but as the monster remade him in the city. His sharp features were stretched across the hugely distended head. He/It smiled at her... eyes glowing with an inner fire. His lips peeled back, and his jaws parted.... exhaling a stench that reeked of insanity and death.

"DID YOU THINK IT WAS OVER, LITTLE GIRL!!!!" The Cthrain hissed at her. "IT ISN'T!"

"...its a dream... its a dream.... its a dream..." Lara repeated the words like a mantra. "...its a dream... its a dream..."

"WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE WHAT MY DREAMS LOOK LIKE!!!!!!"

Lara screamed as the Cthrain's mind entered her own... expanding to fill every iota of her consciousness with images of her friends dying over and over and over and over and over...

"AAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Lara sat up in the bed and threw back the covers. The cloth was soaked with her sweat, and her own scream still echoed in the room. She looked up. The monster was gone. It had never been there, except in her own tortured mind.

Lara got up and slipped her feet into her slippers. She donned her robe, deciding to spend the rest of the night studying in the library. There would be no more sleep. Not tonight. Probably not tomorrow night either. She kept glancing at the ceiling as she dressed, as if expecting something to appear there. Nothing did.

"...just a dream..." she told herself as she reached for the door. "...just a dream. It's over."

She pulled the door opened, and stifled another scream as the figure standing in the hallway turned toward her.

"You damned fool! It's NOT over!" the woman warned. Her voice was almost a scream. "It's NOT OVER! They're still down there, and THEY'RE COMING!"

Lara's muscles tensed. Her attention darted in a dozen different directions while her eyes remained fixed on... nothing. The stranger was gone. But there had been no magic that Lara could sense... none that her expensive wards could detect. How had the woman gotten in? Who was she?

And why... why had she looked so much like Lara?

---

Blaymore stood motionless on the street.

Motionless.

The very concept seemed alien to him. He spent so much time moving, running, acting... Standing still seemed like a waste of precious seconds. Moving was, after all, the only thing he seemed to excel at. So why stand still? Why stop? Especially this seemingly purposeless pause that he found himself in now.

He didn't know why he had paused here... he just did.

Something felt wrong.

His black boots made no sound as he walked slowly from the center of the street to the shops lining one side. The shops were closed. Blaymore detected no movement within them, or in the dark alleyways between them. No one was watching him. No one was here but him...

...AND the two people on top of the building across the street.

They appeared suddenly, as if by some intangible burst of magic. The two figures were both dressed identically: Hooded black robes, with black boots, shirts and leggings underneath. Their hoods hid their eyes, leaving nothing but the lower quarter of their faces exposed to the moonlight. They circled each other on the rooftop.... speaking words that Blaymore couldn't hear. They paused. One man reached into the sleeve of his robe and retrieved an object... a small cylinder, too thick to be a wand, and too short to be anything else. But as he held before him, the cylinder elongated into a full staff, and then pulsed with a fiery glow... as if the staff had a raging inferno trapped inside of it. The other fighter retrieved something from his belt... another kind of weapon. Blaymore couldn't see what it was. He didn't need to. He recognized the robes... the hoods... the way they moved...

"Ysuin." Blaymore mouthed silently. "In Montfort... "

There was a loud crackle of lightning from the second Ysuin assassin... and then they both vanished, leaving Blaymore alone once more.

"They aren't supposed to be able to do that," said Blaymore.

"Listen To Me!"

Blaymore turned toward the shout, and saw... himself?

The man had appeared not three yards away from him, wearing a tattered blue robe that had, at one time, been the same color as Blaymore's. It was faded and dirty now. The edges were shredded, and the fabric was worn completely through in some places. He wore a cloth around his face as Blaymore did... although the stranger's cloth was stained brown with blood. The stranger's posture was slumped... his body weighed down with weariness and pain. The eyes peering out from the blue hood did not glow and flash different colors as Blaymore's eyes did... there was nothing but a curious darkness. He looked like a half-dead Blaymore that had just run through hell to get here. And perhaps that what he was.

So maybe it was time to send him back.

Blaymore drew his scimitar...

"LISTEN!" The false-Blaymore spat. His words were hurried and urgent... almost desperate. "You HAVE to stop it!"

"Who are you?" Blaymore growled.

Suddenly the figure began to fade. He blurred suddenly, then snapped back into focus... then blurred again. As he continued to speak, his warning faded in and out along with the mouth that uttered it.

"NO! Can't hold.... listen! Explosion... Montfort... alchemists... new element... bomb! ...cloud of anti-magic... fallout... entire world! destroys everything! League of Heroes... failed... all dead! Only YOU... speed... an anomaly in the timestream... paradox... into the past... prevent... destruction... only hope... trust... enemy... true nature... before its too late... cataclysm... end of the world!!! You HAVE to stop it! You HAVE to STOP-"

And he was gone.

Blaymore stared into the place where the stranger had stood... and no matter how many 'detect magic' spells he cast, he could find no remnants of any kind of magic. But there HAD been something there.

Hadn't there?


---

Theesa Lemay slept peacefully... only mildly aware of the change in energy sweeping across the room. Her consciousness did not sense it at all. She was dreaming. It was a sweet dream of her and December on a barge of ice. The fact that such an event had actually happened a few months ago was of no consequence. Nor was the fact that no one but HER seemed to notice the massive storm sweeping toward them from the horizon. She hooked her arm around December's frozen bicep and held him close, letting the waves of cold wash harmlessly over her. The gem she wore around her neck kept the cold from her skin... much as the REAL gem she possessed did in the waking world. She pointed at the disturbance on the dream-horizon.

"What's that?" she asked.

"What is what?" the dream-December replied.

"The storm?"

"I do not see a storm."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

"But, if you DID see a storm... you'd tell me, wouldn't you?"

Theesa didn't know why her dream-self asked such a ridiculous question. But such is the way of dreams.

"No," December replied. "I would not."

"But I see it for myself!"

"No. You do not."

"But there it is! Right there... coming right for us!"

As if in response to being pointed out, the storm roared toward them suddenly... devouring the miles between itself and the barge in only a few seconds. Theesa felt the sharp wind on her face. Her long hair... much longer than it was in real life... blew back from her head like a golden curtain.

"There is no storm," said December.

"But it's HERE! How can you say it isn't! You're not making any sense!"

"It is not my purpose to make sense. After all... this is YOUR dream."

"But you DO see it, don't you!?"

"No. The way is clear."

A sudden gust of gale-force wind told otherwise. Theesa felt herself being blown back across the deck. Her hold on December was the only thing that kept her from becoming airborne.

"December!" she cried. "You have to turn the boat! The storm-"

"There is no storm."

The next gust of wind was not a gust at all... it was the sustained blast of a hurricane, sweeping Theesa completely off of her feet. Her fingers dug into December's arm as her feet left the frozen deck... and she flew behind him like a flag or a cape attached to his immovable bulk by a tenuous thread. The boat rocked violently beneath them, and huge waves swept over the deck, threatening to swallow the mighty vessel.

"DECEMMBEERRRRRR!" she screamed. "Help meee!"

"Help?" December turned his head to the side... he couldn't turn it enough to face her, as she was now behind him. "Why would you need help?"

"THE STORM!"

"There is no storm," he said calmly.

"Help meeeee..."

She felt her fingers slipping, but when she screamed for help, the roar of the storm swallowed her voice... just as it would soon swallow HER. With her other hand, she reached for... anything...

...and clutched nothing but wind as her grasp gave way.

The wind carried Theesa up away from the frozen barge, spinning her wildly and tossing her in several directions at once. In one instant the water was above her... and in the blink of an eye, it was gone altogether. The world became a wasteland of wind and sky and ice and debris... all of it spinning around her like a tornado. The sound of it was like an explosion stretched out to fill infinity... and then rolled up tightly and stuffed into her ears.

Faster and faster it went. Higher and higher. Her mind called out for December because her mouth could make no sounds. The wind tore the words from her before they were even half-formed. The wind tore at her clothing... her hair... her body. Her arms and legs were outstretched not because of any desire for them to be so, but because she lacked the strength to pull them in. She belonged to the storm now, and it seemed intent on pulling her apart.

"...dream...dream...dream..." she repeated. But her thoughts were scattered by sound and fury of the hellish wind. She couldn't tell herself that it was a dream. She couldn't tell herself anything. Her mind flew open at the charging storm. Its power poured into her, spinning her mind with a violence even greater than that which tore at her body.

There was a sudden flash of... pain? She couldn't tell. She could not name it; all she could do was let it wash over her.

It came again. A flash of something intruding into her scattered thoughts... Like the knock of an impatient guest. She opened her eyes, realizing for the first time that she had closed them some time ago. Ice and debris swirled past her flailing body at incredible speeds, turning everything a frightening shade of gray...

...everything except her hands, which were glowing like beacons. Her fingers had curled into fists, and the glowing increased as she stretched them out into the wind.... touching it...

...touching...

The storm changed.

It was still there... of that there could be no doubt. But she could no longer feel its violence against her body. Its uniform gray darkened into something almost black... something dotted with splashes of a color brighter than anything she'd ever seen. She couldn't hear the roar of its voice, but she did hear something. Not the single voice of a storm, but many, many voices... a thousand thousand conversations all blending into a blanket of sound that rose and fell around her as the flashes of color came at her. One of them swept past her face, and, for an instant, she saw:



-FLASH-

"Something has occurred in Bephal. Something of much importance."

"What is it?"

"Its nature is unclear, but, apparently... it has much to do with me. I must go-"

"No! Send someone else!"

"I do not expect you to understand."

"But its DANGEROUS! The thing I felt... its... its dangerous and it wants YOU!"

-FLASH-



...it was gone, and the world turned black again. But before Theesa could comprehend the scene that had unfolded before her eyes, another one came:



-FLASH-

"You tell 'em! You tell 'em that the Night's Bloom is BACK!!!"

-FLASH-



...who was that man? Theesa was sure she'd never seen him before. But-



-FLASH-

"Ever hear of a man named 'Silvermass'?"

"Dangerous. Very dangerous."

"You know him?"

"No. Never heard of him. That's why he's dangerous."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"Some'ting has returned."

"Really? Ya think so? Well... judging from the fact that we're NECK-DEEP in ZOMBIES here, I'd say a LOT of 'tings' have returned!!!"

-FLASH-



...the future. Theesa was seeing the future! Some... someTHING has co-opted her own ability to read the past and was using it to send her visions of:



-FLASH-

"Looks like this guy is bringing back every enemy the boss has ever faced. Heh... this oughta be fun!"

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"DECEMBER was in there!!! And ZADE!!"

"Nobody's in there now, miss... anybody that was in there when that thing went... they're dead now."

"But... but... the CHILDREN!!!"

-FLASH-




-FLASH-

"...did... did we get 'im?"

"Destroyed. Sent to a place where there is no return. Now we must concentrate on you-"

"...it's okay. You're... safe now... now... I can go..."

"I will not let you die, Zade."

"...doesn't... doesn't look like you've... got a lot of choice..."

-FLASH-



Was that ZADE?! But what-



-FLASH-

"It appears that your enemies and mine have reached a stalemate... as have the two of us."

"Seems that way. Each faction is either unwilling or unable to act directly against the other. So they act indirectly... in secret... through spies and intermediaries. There's a word for that. Back in the military, we called that a 'cold war.' And do you know who wins a cold war, December?"

"He who has the power to persevere-"

"Wrong! The game goes to the side that's willing to commit the most depravity... to slaughter the most innocent people... to go to ANY length to achieve its goal, no matter what the cost. THAT'S who wins."

"Then, by your own definition, your Tower Guard has no prayer of survival."

"Don't be too sure."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"Look at this."

"What is it?"

"Money. Records of transactions... December has been sending money to New Venyce. To help rebuild the flooded city. One guess why he's doing that..."

"So he can appear to be the great humanitarian. I'm not buying it-"

"No, he's up to something. I think he's LOOKING for something... something buried in that city. He's paying people to find it for him."

"What do you think it is?"

"I have no idea. But we need to find out... it could be the key to getting rid of him once and for all."

-FLASH-



Theesa reeled at the flow of images through her mind. They were coming faster, now. Too fast for her to react... the visions began to blur together in a continuous stream of images:


-FLASH-

"Good evening Mr. Lemay... I have been expecting you."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"Where've you been!?"

"Hell. Had a lot of fun, too... but I'm back now. Hey... is this Montfort?"

"Yes. It is."

"Oh, my mistake. I guess I'm still in hell, then."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"It's happening more and more now. Not so much in Montfort... but everywhere else. All over the world, these terrible events are taking place with increasing frequency. Look at New Venyce! Look at Bephal! Monsters! Rampaging gods! The Warlord! Innocent people are being threatened by things they have no HOPE of battling without outside help. Someone has to do something!"

"Uhh... by 'someone'... you mean us, don't you?"

"Yes."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"He's right, friend. I've seen it with my own eyes. The world needs help... now more than ever. ."

"Yeah, but why US!? Why does it have to be US!? YOU'VE got a cursed sword; HE can run really fast, and I'M a shape-shifter! What good is THAT against the forces of nature... or a flood... or somebody like K'Sano!?"

"It's better than nothing..."

"I'll be sure to have that engraved on our tombstones... 'they were better than nothing.'"

"So you'll join us?"

"Oh yeah. You guys wouldn't last a DAY without me! So what do we CALL ourselves?"

"The JUSTICE LEAGUE of MONTFORT."

"Blaymore, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard you say. No, wait... SECOND most ridiculous. No, wait... third..."

"The League of Heroes."

"Yes, that's it!"

"uggh...You guys are making me sick..."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"I bet you're regretting this whole 'be a hero and save the world' thing right about now aren't ya."

"No."

"No? Well... give it time..."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"Oh. THIS guy."

"You know that thing?"

"Yeah, we've tangled before. His name's Bothal... invincible god of rage and destruction... something like that. Hey, watch me go kick his ass!"

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"Now THAT'S a big explosion."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"This atrocity must not go unpunished. Silvermass and his minions will pay a thousand-fold for every drop of innocent blood they have shed."

"What're ya gonna do?"

"I shall unleash a hell upon them the likes of which this city has never seen. Summon N'Doki. And... Eric Hood."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"How can you be so CALM!? Do you know who that IS out there!? It's... its the WARLORD! The WARLORD is HERE in Montfort, and he's ROYALLY PISSED! Do you understand what that MEANS!"

"I'm fully aware of the situation, Lovvorn."

"Then HOW can you just STAND there!? You should be running and screaming like the REST of us!"

"Do you think the Warlord's arrival in Montfort is something for which I have not prepared? Do you think I have no means of containing this situation, and turning it to my advantage just as I do everything else?"

"But... but.. it's K'Sano!"

"Indeed it is. And that is precisely why we must act now... swiftly and decisively... before the Warlord becomes aware of the trap into which he as just stepped. He will be made to regret ever setting foot in my city."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"Is this the thing you saw?"

"NOOOOO! TAKE IT AWAY! TAKE IT AWAY!"

"I'll take that as a yes."

"What is the meaning of that drawing?"

"This? Just something out of a nightmare... the nightmare to end all nightmares. I thought they'd all been destroyed along with their city, but I guess not."

"You are speaking of Park's expedition."

"Yes."

"And that would be...?"

"The most dangerous and evil thing you've ever encountered. They're called Cthrain... and one of them is loose in Montfort."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"I am Admiral December Chyrnomir of the UPR battlecruiser Principality. I request an audience with local authorities concerning a matter vital to our mutual survival. To whom am I speaking?"

"Yourself, apparently."

"What? Who-"

"I am December. Of Montfort"

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"There is but one man in this world that I fear. And that man, is NOT the Warlord."

"So you'll help them?"

"Help my enemies destroy the most powerful mortal on Iffrean... if he can still be CALLED a mortal...? Yes. It appears that I have no choice..."

"But you ALWAYS have a choice, December. Isn't that what you've always said-?"

"Not this time. If they act against the Warlord without me, they will fail. And then there will BE no choices... for anyone... ever again."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"The December you knew is no more."

"You've said that before. You were wrong then. You're wrong now."

"Can you not see what I have become?"

"And that means what? I'm not worthy of you any more?"

"No... it is I that am no longer worthy of you..."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"Don't you understand... I've SEEN it! I have SEEN THE END! It's destroying everything, one plane at a time... and OURS is next! You cannot stop it! I hit it with everything I had... and it didn't even NOTICE me! It shrugged me off like... like a FLEA! Our only hope is to ESCAPE! If we go far enough, we can last another few years before-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa.... let's back up and start over. Maybe you can begin with telling us just who the hell you are!"

"Who... who am I!? You don't recognize me!?"

"Ummmm... that'd be a 'no.'"

"You FOOLS! I am WARLORD K'SANO!"

"Yeah, right. Tell us another one..."

-FLASH-



-FLASH-

"This is where it ends."

"It can't end!"

"It can. It is."

-FLASH-


...the images came even faster... too fast for Theesa to resolve them into separate vision. They all became a blur of people and places... sounds and snippets of conversations. And soon, even THOSE were too fast. They melted into streaks of color... and the colors bled together, forming a uniform field of white that still rushed past, faster and faster and-

-FLASH-

Theesa sat up in the bed and inhaled deeply... not to gasp or scream, but to feed her air-starved lungs. She'd been holding her breath. The visions had come so fast that it felt as if she were drowning in them. But the things they had shown her... glimpses of things to come. She felt them fading from her memory as most dreams do upon awakening... she desperately tried to wrap her consciousness around them... to preserve them. She managed to retain only a few... but those few were enough to send her running from the room in search of December....


---

December was not asleep. He was sitting upright in his chair, staring at the door as Theesa burst into his study.

He did not seem all that surprised to see her.

It was in that moment that Theesa realized two things... first, was that she'd forgotten her gem that allowed her to resist the cold that December radiated. The second was that it was unusually cold in the room... even for December. Theesa's skin felt as if it were about to crack and fall off of her body.

She backed away from the door.

"D-december?" she said tentatively.

It took a few moments for him to notice her. He tilted his head to look at her. His sky-blue eyes flickered slightly, and Theesa knew that something was wrong. December hardly ever showed emotion... even with her. But this... Theesa had NEVER see this before. The look on his face... the tightness of his lips.... the slight quiver of his jaw...

Was he... afraid?

"December?"

December didn't reply with words. Instead, he gave a shallow sigh and looked at her... his eyes pleading for her to come to him, yet warning her away at the same time.

"It happened to you too, didn't it?" she said. "You saw something-"

"I had... an unexpected visitor."

"Who?"

"No one you would know."

"But who WAS it!?"

"It was no one..." he said. His voice was strangely reminiscent of something Theesa had heard before.

"December, we're in danger! I saw something in my dreams... something TERRIBLE!"

"It was just a dream," he said quietly. "There is no danger."

The words backed away even further. His voice was the same as the man in her dreams. The one that had stood beside her and looked at the hurricane on the horizon. Who had SEEN their doom his own two eyes... and then declared defiantly:

"There Is No Storm."

---

The Paradox Wave continued through Montfort... and across Iffrean. Then, having swallowed the planet and leaving naught but the most fleeting traces of Its passing, It moved out into space to engulf other worlds. It would touch them all before It was done. And after It would come another... just as others had come before. Like ripples in a pond, they would come... stronger and more frequently... silent harbingers of a thing that was not yet made, but was still in the making...

[End?]