Last Time In Reawakening...... Well...read it and see. And Now: Reawakening of Heroism, part 3 In the shadowy depths of the palace of the newly self-proclaimed owner of Beryl's tower, the Fenix Knight met with his shadowed master, again, only a blazing red eye showing through the darkness. ".....you are a sniveling coward. You have no right to live! Now, go back and find out what is going on, eliminate the Phoenix lineage for all time! Or I will eliminate YOU!" his master told him. "Yes my master, compliance follows, Although I can't condone my sorrows, Of betraying my giver of life, I wish upon myself all and strife."The Fenix Knight rhymed out. "Cut the rhyming nonsense and GO!" The Fenix Knight turned and vanished through a dark portal..... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ohh...." John groaned, he'd hit his head harder than he had thought. He tried to get up, eyes still closed, but he couldn't move. *That fight drained me more than I perceived.....at first.* He thought. He struggled again, and realized that he was weighed down from his arms and legs, pressure being exerted. He was splayed out on his back, he realized, and he had reverted to human form. "No! Several thousand years, I'm fine, but now, now I'm captured! After I get my memories back, after everything that happened! This..." He opened his eyes, the sun shone down on him through the tree branches. He wasn't a prisoner of the Negaverse. "But who then?" As if in answer to his question, Chris, still in his Neptune Ninja outfit, stepped into his line of vision. At the sight of him, John's blood boiled. This was the source of all his pain, if he removed him....but wait, that wasn't true. The Negaverse, and their armies, THEY were his pain! Then why did he feel such hatred toward-? Not time to think about that now. He would get even, but right now, he wasn't in any position to even stand. "Now," Chris started, "let's talk rationally." "I do not call you having an advantage over me, standing as you are, 'rational.' Let me up, and we will talk. Not before then." John defied him the fear he wished to hear. He kept his voice calm, and collected, which is exactly what Chris was not right now. Chris sighed, this wasn't going to be easy. "Let him up." Terra entered his line of sight, and waved a hand, a tremendous pressure was lifted from his body. He stood quickly and surveyed the scene, Chris, Mina, Terra, Rei, Darien and Serena were still in their transformed states. Chris watched him carefully, betraying no emotion either. "I said we would talk. Even though I tried to kill you, has anything I said since I met you here been untrue?" Still his voice was calm, but the sentence about his being untrue was said more accusingly than the rest. But Chris silently admitted that, even though John tried to kill him, he hadn't lied to them yet. He started to speak, but Mina cut him off. "I only want to know one thing!" Mina stalked up to John, malice in her eyes, "What right do you have, a person I don't even know, to steal me, literally take me by force, away from the man I love and profess that you love me and we belong together? Answer me that!" Obvious anger was in her voice. At this point, John, the brave, powerful, eloquent Phoenix Knight. John, the man who took on Chris, and almost succeeded in taking him down for good. John, who kidnapped this girl in the first place, did something no one expected. He dropped to his knees in front of her, clasped his hands together, and begged for forgiveness. "I beg of you, please forgive my completely uncalled for behavior. There is no way that I can ever make this up to you. I tried to kill Chris, and even then, when I now realize, when I killed myself again, you took me in, you helped me regain my previous self, and most of all, you helped me realize what horrors I'd done. I was not thinking, I could not distinguish the future from the past, in effect, I was still living the way I had. If any of you can find yourself to forgive me, for any of my selfish actions.....please......" All present, The Sailors, Tuxedo Mask, and Neptune Ninja, stood awestruck. What did he mean? He apologized? Their minds all shared one thought: He sounded sincere, but still, no apology could ever erase the harm he may have caused. "Huh? You're APOLOGIZING? AFTER ALL YOU'VE DONE?! Uh..." Mina stuttered. "How completely touching this might, But I came here looking for a fight!" The sinister voice and poetic speech of the Fenix Knight came from behind a tree. "You again, you rhyming freak.....I'll give you something to rhyme about!" Chris spoke angrily as he emerged from behind the tree, his bat wings outstretched. "C'mere you screwed up proxy!" He charged the Fenix Knight, who simply drew his sword and held it so that Neptune Ninja would have impaled himself did he not change course or stop. He chose to stop, and jump back. The Fenix Knight touched a spot on his armor and it instantly formed itself into a shield, which attached itself to his left arm. "You think that I you can take down? I think this outcome will make you frown." Their swords clashed as the others stared, just watching. Everyone except John. "You came for me, didn't you? That's the reason you were created....your master tried to clone me using his twisted magic.....you cannot clone me with evil, and he should know that by now! PHOENIX POWER!" Again, the cocoon of fire around him, his wings grew from his back, the flame solidified into his armor, and sword. He then drew the broadsword. "Now fight the true equal of you, as well as the more experienced the superior warrior...ME!" John mocked him, drawing the Fenix Knight's attention away from the Neptune Ninja, long enough for Chris to get a slash in with his Moon Sabre, the blade merely nicked the black shield, the it regenerated the spot Chris' blade had taken away. The Phoenix noticed this and came to a realization. "So I see that Doppler is still outfitting troops with his own body." John returned the sword to his sheath, instead drawing a silver stiletto dagger from his boot. on one side was embedded a sapphire in the hilt, blue as the sea, in the other side of the hilt was a ruby red and bright as fire. In the base was a pearl pure as light. "That puny dagger can hurt me naught, I don't even think you ought, To try to take away my time, Although I have the time rhyme..." The Fenix Knight recited. Still the Sailors and Tuxedo Mask took no action. Why? The Phoenix Knight didn't care, he knew he could take this joker himself. Well, he THOUGHT anyway...if he tried to hit him with some type of water spell...he was down. But, as far as he could see, all the magic he had was twisted fire spells.. "Buddy, you just signed your death certificate." John launched himself at the Fenix Knight, and though he dodged, the Phoenix Knight's dagger still grazed his armor and pierced it. "Neptune Ninja, weak spot on his left flank. Aim there, I'll take his shield out of the picture..." Chris was confused: Even though the Phoenix Knight had apologized, he still did not trust him. But, now, he was trying to SAVE him. "Weird." In the back of his mind, Chris still had some suspicion, but right now, he was only angry at the Fenix Knight. So without thinking, he slashed again at the Fenix...hitting the part that PK has grazed, this time the blade broke the armor, cutting a slit though the Fenix Knight's left side. "OWWW!!!!" He looked at the Neptune Ninja with malice and contempt of a thousand evils. "How you hurt me I don't know, But it's time to end this show! The space around me warped and swirled, As my plan is now unfurled!" The Sailors and Tuxedo Mask disappear as the area around them blackened until it was as night, but they could still see. Ahead of them, behind The Fenix Knight, stood an army. The creatures that it was composed of were not human, most definitely not living. Undead minions of some long-ago experiment. "The living dead...products of failed experiments by the Necromantic Lords of yore...." The Phoenix Knight said, transfixed. "Necromantic Lords? Living dead? Weren't they-?" Chris remembered vaguely some legends from before the Silver Millennium, and mention of such abominations, but here? Now? "It-I will have to explain later...right now, I have a feeling that this is an invasion force..." With that, he replaced the dagger in his boot. He held his arms in an X position, palms facing outward, he began to recite a poem and glow an unearthly shade of white. "Virtue is the key to winning, Though our chances are but thinning, I call the powers from on high To come and cleanse the evil nigh!" -------------------------------------------------------------- Intrigued yet? Well, so am I! It has been a pleasure writing this for you, as the next one will be the end of this 4-part miniseries. As always, questions, comments, or ideas go to Darkfireblaze@Compuserve.com