Ummm...This is the inevitable post defiance fic. It's kind of a sequel to family matters. It, in my opinion, is long, dull, and repetitive, with a few gems buried under all the crap. If I get bored, randomness may ensue

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The inevitable post defiance fic

The elder god brooded beneath nosgoth. It had many names, but that was the label Moebius had used, and was now how it referred to itself. It was distinctly irritated at the moment. Moebius was dead and beyond revival, and, not least, now purified and unlikely to blindly obey. Kain had escaped his grasp, and Raziel had entered the reaver despite all his efforts. The time stream would prevent him changing his actions, so now his only hopes were beyond the era where he'd raised Raziel, where three strong cards were his to play. He could wait. Being the hub of the Wheel of fate meant a wide range of possibilities.

A sluagh named Ragl wandered over to the remains of Hunter's den, despite his every sense telling him to flee. He had been unfortunate enough to have devoured a ridiculously stupid soul lately, which was also curious, and an unfortunate tendency to assume the traits of their food meant that Ragl was wandering over to Hunter's den. His inner self was expecting his life expectancy to be all of two seconds.

What had attracted him had been the shifting of debris in hunter's pit. It had imprisoned a renegade servant, which had escaped through the vessel of another servant who'd been devoured by the first servant? That was almost beyond the capabilities of Ragl's recent sustenance to understand, and Ragl's core raged at his shell, trying madly to get it to flee. A few days afterwards, the prison had collapsed, and now some debris was moving, painfully slowly. A few hours later, a shard of stone fell aside as Hunter spoke.

"I applaud your efforts, Raziel, but you cannot escape without a bearer. It was most unwise of you to refrain from being absorbed. Even now your energy is failing"

A strange, flickering coil materialized in the spectral realm. A clarity that Ragl instantly knew would not last fell over the apparition. It projected "You think me so foolish? I imparted to Kain the fragments of his soul. It was unnecessary to sacrifice mine also and I have no wish to end. Invisibility is useful, and now I am open for the retrieval due to telekinetic bolts."

"Indeed? Who will retrieve you in the spectral plane? You have merely condemned yourself to an eternity of immobility. Kain will be a problem in future, but your rebellion is over."

The coil tried to respond, but lapsed into "Kill kain kill wheel of fate kill kain kill wheel kill kain kill Melchiah kill zephon kill Dumah kill Rahab Kill Turel

Killmoebiuskillkainkillwheelkillkaiwheekikainwheel

Kill all! Kill and Devour all!"

Then it screamed, so profoundly it knocked Ragl flat. Amused, hunter said "If you manage to escape, please do. That would nourish me until the end of existence."

Ragl, who was beginning to think his most recent meal had been a cat, inched closer. Hunter's awareness shifted, and detected him.

"Ah...An inspired choice of bearer, Raziel. Perhaps you may irritate me yet. Servants? Attend.

Archons materialized. Ragl raced for the coil, hoping it could help him defend himself. No sluagh could escape an archon once it knew his soul resonance. He plucked the coil from the ground-and it snaked up his arm and tried to devour him. Ragl fought back with his own soul devouring skills, and the coil was forced to withdraw or be consumed. But it remained clamped to his arm, and Ragl launched a counterattack, absorbing the buried knowledge until he found a useful trait. Force projectiles kept the archons back, and Ragl was able to flee. The building he was in was large and ornate but he eventually found his way out. And accidentally ran over a cliff in his rush. He caught a ledge halfway down and his arm snapped off, but the impact slowed him enough that he landed on another ledge twenty feet further down. Devouring a passing soul, he regrew his arm, and, as the flying archons approached, prepared to jump over the edge of the ledge. But the coil attached to his armnot the one that had snapped would not allow him to move, and Ragl noticed another soul materializing, newly dead, beside him. He decided he couldn't escape the archons in this plane, and broke the primary rule in sluagh society. He reached out to the soul, but instead of devouring it, displaced it, and inhabited its former vessel, using his soul energy to repair it. There was a pause, a shifting sensation-and Ragl screamed. He was blind.

Sluagh see by measuring the soul energy around them. In the spectral realm, there is always soul residue, but in the material realm, there is only soul residue where there is life. So sluagh would be able to see if they were standing on grass, but Ragl had landed on bare rock. If there's any major holes, pm me.

Then, sensing life, He looked up to see a cloud of bats converging on him, attracted by the scream. They stood on something, probably the ledge, and formed a being with so much soul energy it hurt his eyes. Nowhere near as much as Hunter, but still a creature to be wary of. By the time he was finished thinking he had been flung against the rock face and had a sword to his throat to his surprise, he found he could see the sword, because it was imbued with a soul of some sort, similar to the one in his coil. The creature said something. Ragl didn't understand, so he ran the sentence through the vessel's thought processes, which came up with "That is the wraith blade. How did you come by it?"

Ragl searched his vessel's brain, unused to having a physical form. With difficulty, he found the functions that governed the vocal chords and responded "sdkm, trglvtjl kn-iujp'm."

"A beast. Evidently trans-planar. Who removed the blade from the tentacles?"

Ragl tried again. "Irlan Masse Crum."

"Hmmm...It speaks Archaic Meridian. But... 'random nonsense spoken'?"

Unsure if Projection would be of use in this plane, Ragl had not tried. Abilities could have unexpected effects in planes they weren't designed for. But the creature was obviously preparing to cut him down, so...

Who are you?

"Kain."

I know the name. This coil clamped to my arm desperately wants to destroy you.

"Indeed? Strange...he was absorbed due to his own choice."

He? The soul in the blade was known to you?

"Yes. He tried to destroy me several times, then didn't when he had the chance, then ripped out my heart, then had himself absorbed so I could hurt his...benefactor."

His benefactor? You speak of Hunter?

"I do not know that name."

Ragl thought. What had the coil called it?

Wheel...of Fate?

Again, he was flung against the rock face. "What do you know of that entity?"

He destroys sluagh, for we deny him sustenance. That is all. We can irritate his servants, but he is invulnerable. He was hunting me, because I robbed him of this coil, and I escaped by animating this vessel.

"So...the wraith blade binds itself to a passer by to escape the wheel of fate. Yet the creature has little power, and will be an unlikely ally. How do I progress from here?"

It was at this point that Hunter, having courteously waited until they had finished their conversation, cut in.

"He cannot escape the wheel lightly. You cannot even do that. Be wary of free will, kain. Paradoxes form all too easily."

A half dozen archons materialized. Kain dissolved into bats, some of them carrying Ragl with surprising ease. The archons capable of flight followed.

Congrats for reading my first stab at post-defiance. Sorry about resurrecting raz, that was a sadly necessary beginning to the fic. It's a shame to nullify his sacrifice, but that's how it turned out. Violence lovers, fear not. This reverts to 'kain wanders nosgoth killing all in his path' mode soon.