"Please keep struggling" said the man named Falcon. "I want you to get free. It would give me a reason to carve you up."

"Don't scare the poor kid" said the big brute Corinth, walking into the room.

"Ah, stop ruining my fun" argued Falcon.

"Shut up, both of you!" yelled Loki from the side. He was stitching up the last of his deep cuts. Drake still wondered how Loki survived the fall off of a cliff. He was badly cut, but it seemed that he had no serious injuries. It boggled the mind.

Drake looked off to the other side, and saw his "friend" Waskim enter. He was holding a book with some writings on them. He handed them to Loki, who read through them quickly.

"These tell of the City-State's defenses" said Waskim. "As surveilled by several of our ninjas. Each of the states is listed here. I hope it helps" said Waskim.

"It does" said Loki. He turned back to his stitching, and Waskim looked angry.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" asked Waskim impatiently.

"What?" asked Loki, calmly.

"I was supposed to be accepted into the Temple of the Silver Moon now!" said Waskim.

"I'm afraid I can't do that" said Loki, standing. "You see, I would, but technically I'm not acting on the Temple's authority. You see, every military orginization has its rogue elements, and I am one of them. I need these for personal gain, not the spiritual enlightenment that I would feel when achieving something for the Temple. Highland would pay dearly for this information. . ."

"But what does that do for me?" asked Waskim, exasperated. "I had hoped to join the Temple to ensure my survival when they conquered all."

"Too bad" said Loki, faking a smile.

"Damn you!" yelled Waskim. "I bust my butt, and almost get caught, just so you can get rich quick?"

"Yes" answered Loki, flatly.

"No" said Waskim. He charged at Loki, intending to hurt him, or worse. But Waskim never reached him, as a sword had stopped his forward motion. It went in, through his gut, and came out the other side. Loki watched Waskim as he fell to the ground, a surprised expression on his face. Then Loki pulled the sword back, swung it forward with one hand, and cleaved Waskim's head right off.

Drake watched as his old friend died, and when some blood spattered on his cheeks, he threw up on the floor. Loki laughed coldly, and licked Waskim's blood off his sword. Falcon chuckled a bit, and Corinth just sighed.

"Ha!" laughed Loki. "Weak stomached, boy?"

"You jerk!" coughed out Drake. "I swear, if its the last thing I do, I'll kill you!"

Loki laughed even louder, walked over to Drake, and kicked him hard in the stomach. Drake doubled over, and grimaced in pain.

"I seriously doubt that" said Loki. "In your position, I don't think you'll be able to do anything to me."

Loki kicked him a few more times, and seemed to be enjoying it. He kicked him once more for good mesure, and then returned to his stitching. A few of his cuts had re-opened.

Falcon approached Drake and looked down. "You could have saved yourself some punishment by keeping your mouth shut" he said.

"Screw you" said Drake, spitting out some blood.

"Wrong answer" stated Falcon.

He kicked Drake once, but as he did so, another man walked in the room. This man silently approached Falcon, grabbed him by the neck, and chopped him once in the chest. He let Falcon go, and the man fell to the ground, out of breath.

"We are supposed to keep him intact" said the man. "We need him to get to Long."

"Yes, sir" coughed out Falcon.

The man turned to face Loki, and scowled at the man.

"I don't approve of your treachery to the Temple" said the man. "But I need your help in this matter. So I'll forget about it. But remember, I found you on the verge of death. And I can always put you back there."

Loki nodded solemnly to the man, and he walked off. Loki then swore under his breath, and spat in the man's direction.

"Watch out, Loki" warned Corinth.

"Shaddup" saidLoki to the younger man.

"No, really" said Corinth. "I've heard that some pretty bad things happen to people that cross Lyonel Kingsley."

Long walked out of the Buddha's chambers with a solemn gaze on his face. Yin was waiting at the door, watching it like a hawk. When he saw Long emerge, Yin approached him.

"Is he. . .? asked Yin.

"Yes" said Long, nodding slowly.

"Damn" said Yin. "Now we'll have to burry the body, and get his son here. We can't let anyone know of the deception. . ."

Long swung his fist right at Yin, and caught him on the jaw. The man fell, and then looked up at Long, surprised.

"What was that for?" asked an enraged Yin. He sprang to his feet, grabbed Long by the shirt, and picked him up.

"That was for the blatant disrespect toward your friend" said Long. "He always thought of you as one."

"I can't help but to" said Yin. "I took on a large responsibility when I accepted this position. I need to take care of this. If I let personal feelings get in the way. . ."

"Then you'll be human" said Long. "You may not be a good head-instructor, but at least you'd be human."

"Shut up, you worthless rat" said Yin, dropping Long to the ground. "I don't need to take orders from you."

"Yes, I know" said Long, smoothing his clothes. "He had the consideration to think of you before he died. He expects me to take you with me. He says that your skills are being wasted here. I guess that he shouldn't have thought about you, because he was being a bad Buddha, and a human."

With that he walked off, not knowing where he would go, but just getting away from Yin Chiong.

Drake vaguely watched the Silver Moon people moving through a half-shut eye. His other one was completely shut, from the beating he had suffered from Loki and Falcon.

They were preparing something, that much he was certain of. Loki and Falcon were sharpening their weapons, Corinth was shadow-boxing, but Lyonel, as usual, was nowhere to be seen.

"We'll take the quarters around here to start, and then we take the mess hall. From there, we'll have access to the grand hall, and the rest of the temple. We'll split up into two groups. Corinth, you and Falcon will take the dojo. Myself and Master Kingsley will search for Long, bringing the boy with us. The rest will be battlefield descisions. We must do this with no mistakes" said Loki.

Quarters? Mess hall? Grand hall? In his condition, it took Drake a few seconds to put it all together, but then he realized what they were planning: A take over of the temple!

"And then, to cap it off, Corinth, you'll use your Rage rune to burn this place down" added Falcon, chuckling.

Drake saw Corinth smiling widly, and then he patted Falcon on the back. "And then our mission will be over, and we'll be able to do more important stuff" remarked Corinth.

"And I will sell out the City-States and become filthy rich" said Loki. "And when I seperate Long's ugly little head from his body, I will have no loose ends."

"Just remember that we had nothing to do with this" said Falcon. "I don't want to have to answer to any of the masters for treachery. I have a career of perfect service to the Temple."

"Yeah" added Corinth. "We needed to do this to accomplish our mission. We don't want to have treachery on our records. Then we would probably be killed, and I don't like the idea of me dying."

"Don't worry" said Lyonel, walking into the room. "I won't tell. All I want is death. Not just Long's death, but this little runt's death." He said motioning to Drake. "That little wench, Wakaba's, death. And all of these little ninja wannabes' deaths, simply because they are connected to Long." He walked away, back down the hall he had come. "The operation starts in two hours, be ready" he called over his shoulder.

"We will be" called Falcon after him. He turned to Loki and Corinth. "I am really starting to wonder about that guy."

"Yeah" added Corinth. "What the heck is so important down that hall."

"Don't know and don't care" said Loki. He went back to sharpening his blade. "Just be ready."

Just before Drake slipped back into unconciousness, he realized that he was powerless to stop these guys and that he couldn't warn anyone. He just hoped that they would be ready.

Long kept wandering. He didn't know how long he had been doing it, but guessed it wasn't for very long. For one reason or another, he wound up at the dojo. Why, he had no idea.

He saw a group of trainees off to one side, sparring with each other, and he smiled. They were full of hopes and dreams. Too bad thought Long. When they find out what kind of a hell-hole the world is, those dreams will evaporate in front of them.

He turned and saw a punching dummy, and began working it over. He lashed out with all of his rage and anger. Kicking, punching, kicking, punching, over and over. Finally, with a cry of rage, he called for the power of his rune, and lashed out with a punch.

"KILLER RUNE. . . SHOW ME YOUR POWER!"

The punch carried his fist right through the dummy. His fist came out the other side. He pulled it back, and saw that it was slightly cut by the wood. He rubbed it to soothe the pain, and then he looked all around him. The trainees had stopped their exercises, and were all staring at him. He shrugged it off, and walked out, looking for somewhere else to go.

"Wake up, boy" said a voice.

Drake felt some cold water splash onto him. He woke up, and tried to spring to his feet, but felt they were still bound together, and he couldn't get up.

He looked up, and saw himself looking up into Loki's disfigured face. "It's time to go" he said.

Drake just looked away, and ignored him. "Fine. If you want to be difficult" added Loki. He cut off Drake's bounds at the feet, and hoisted him up to an upright position. Drake just slumped back to the ground.

"I can be very persuasive" said Loki. He unsheathed his sword, and expertly swung it down at Drake. One of Drake's toes rolled away from his foot. Drake cried out in pain.

Long walked down a hallway, and found himself at a dead end. He was about to turn around when he heard a loud cry of pain coming from behind a wall.

"What the. . .?" he asked to himself. "That almost sounded like Drake."

He puzzled over that, and went to inspect the wall.

Loki dragged Drake to the door. Falcon was in the lead, and he pressed the door in a certain spot. Lyonel nodded, and Falcon pressed harder. The door opened to reveal a very surprised Long.

"Get him" yelled Lyonel.

Falcon charged at Long, who ducked under a very fast slash with his claws. Long then jumped backwards, and started retreating very quickly. Falcon charged after him, not worrying about any other threats. Corinth followed close behind, followed by Loki and Lyonel, who walked calmly toward their destination.

"Maybe those two idiots will tire him out enough for us" said. Lyonel.

"They are also acting as a fine diversion" added Loki.

They kept walking along, following after the other two, knowing full well that they would fail.

Long kept up his retreat. He took a quick glance backwards, and ducked under another slash from Falcon. But, when he turned back, he didn't notice that the wall jutted out a bit at this corner, so he ran full bore right into the wall. Luckily it only stuck out a bit, so it just clipped (and probably seperated) his shoulder. The impact spun him around.

He tried to avoid another of Falcon's attacks, but couldn't, and it caught him in the ribs. He felt down around there,and his hand came up bloody. But, he had no time to think of that, as Falcon slashed out at him again. Long jumped backward to avoid it. . . and hit the wall.

Falcon chuckled at this turn of events, and came up with an uppercut. It cut Long's chest, and he jumped backward down the hall this time (not into the wall), and rolled backward. He came up in a combat stance, but sighed in disbelief when he saw Corinth join Falcon.

"You guys just keep coming" complained Long.

"And you never know when to die" said Falcon.

They charged at him one more time.

Yin paced in front of the Buddha's chambers, wondering what to do. Long had raised a good point. The Buddha, no, Cao was his friend. And to be a good head-instructor was to be a bad friend. He could choose one or the other. Duty or Emotion? That was his problem.

He was still contemplating this when he heard a yell from down one of the halls. "What was that?" he asked to no one in particular.

Several students came from the other direction to check it out, but they didn't have to, as they found out what that was.

Long came backing out from the hall, ducking under slashes from claws, and blocking punches and kicks. He was fighting against two other men. One large and muscular one, and one small, yet muscular, one who had claws attached to his fists.

It only took a moment for it to register to Yin, but when he figured it out, he rushed to Long's side to aid him. He punched out with a right and connected slidly with Corinth's side. The big man doubled over, and then turned to face Yin.

The students rushed in front of Long to protect him, but they were soon cut down by Falcon. He sliced and diced them, and they were soon lying on the floor, all dead. Long shook his head in disbelief, and began again to duck in and out of Falcon's attacks.

Meanwhile, Yin wasn't giving Corinth a moment to breathe. He foolowed up from his original punch with a kick to the face. Then a kick to the leg, and then a kick to the gut. Corinth stayed doubled over, and Yin kept on pounding him.

Long ducked in and out of Falcon's attacks, but then he thought of something. Using alot of his remaining energy, he flipped up over Falcon, landed behind the man, and grabbed one of the ceremonial swords off of the wall.

Now, Long wasn't the greatest with weapons, but if the situation called for desperate measures. . .

He blocked one of Falcon's strikes, and then kicked out at Falcon. He connected with his left arm, and took that momentary break to hit him with an elbow in the face. Falcon spit out a broken tooth, and then punched out with his claw. It went right into Long's ribs. A gasp left Long's ribs, and he collapsed to the ground. He slid off of Falcon's claws, and lay there on the ground.

Yin connected with one final kick to Corinth's face, and the man went down, unconcious. He had a broken nose, a fat lip, and a bunch of bruises and probably broken bones all over his body. Yin turned to Falcon, and saw Long on the ground, surrounded by blood. He was still breathing, but Yin could see that it was shallow. He also saw one of his students peaking out from down a hallway. He recognized it as one of the healing specialists. But the student was too afraid to move to Long because of Falcon. Yin sighed, and the let out a battle cry, and charged at Falcon.

Long could see his whole life flashing before his eyes. All the training, all the battles, all the good times, all the bad times, everything. He knew that he was dying. He glanced down and saw blood all over his body.

'Don't give up, Long' he heard from inside his head. He opened his eyes, and saw his uncle, Elias, standing there with Cao, the Buddha.

'You can't die' said Cao. 'Remember what we talked about? You are too important to die.'

'Listen to him, Long' said Elias. 'Fight, Long. Fight to survive.'

The two men disappeared, and Long's vision of the room was restored. He saw Yin engaging Falcon in combat and hoped that he would fare better than he had.

Then he suddenly felt restored. He felt soothing water dripping around him, and saw that someone had cast Kindness Drops on him. He looked above him, and saw a student standing there, casting the spell. Long jumped to his feet, and felt that his wounds were healed, and the blood on the ground was gone.

"Amazing" he muttered. He picked up the sword from the ground, and turned to face the two fighters. Yin was slowly being backed against a wall. That was a bad thing, as then he might not be able to maneuver as well. Long charged.

Falcon turned at the last second. . . and saw Long's sword pierce his chest and come out the other side. Falcon's breathing stopped (his lungs were pierced) and he fell to the ground. Long stood over the defeated man, and dropped his sword to the ground.

"Thanks" said Yin.

"I owed you" said Long.

They just nodded, and then stood there silently. That was when all hell broke loose.

A huge ball of fire burst through the ceiling. It crashed into the ground near the door, and the student there was immediately incinerated. Long and Yin dove to the floor, and were hit by the heat wave. But it passed them over. They rose to their feet, and saw a pure white dragon floating overhead. Yin looked furious.

"Did you enjoy that?" asked a voice from the side. Lyonel and Loki walked into the room smiling. Loki was dragging Drake by the wrists, and the rune on Lyonel's hand was glowing brightly. He looked slightly tired, as the summoning had taken alot out of him. "Lyonel here wanted to show me what his run did, and you happen to be the perfect test subject." Long became furious at the sight of Drake.

Long gulped, and Yin grabbed the sword off of the ground. He had a feeling they would need it. "It won't work" said Lyonel. "The dragon's hide is impenetrable from things such as that."

"I've got an idea" whispered Yin to Long.

Long nodded slightly, so that the others wouldn't notice.

"Do you know how to do the Star Lightning Kick?" asked Yin in a whisper. Long nodded. "Then get ready to do the Fighters Combo. It should knock that dragon down, and then maybe I could get a good swing at it's head." Long nodded again.

"Are you ready to die, Long?" asked Loki, snarling.

"Didn't you know?" asked Long of Loki. The other man looked puzzled. "I never die. Now Yin!"

Yin dropped the sword, and nodded.

"Fighters Combo!"

They leapt up to the dragon. Long performed the Star Lightning Kick, and Yin did the Star Fire Punch. Then they both did 360' spin kicks along the dragon's chest. Then they fell to the ground, the dragon let out a low grumble, and fell along with them.

When they hit the ground, they rolled out of the way, and they just avoided the falling dragon. But unfortunately, it didn't avoid the temple. It crashed down onto it, and he fell through it. The dragon's body left an imprint in the ground before it disappeared completly.

Long and Yin got up. That was when the ground shook. "Oh no!" yelled Yin. "The temple!"

They ran over to the temple, but were met by Loki, Lyonel, Drake, and an unconcious Corinth. Long couldn't see Falcon anywhere. He guessed that they had left him for dead.

"Going somewhere?" asked Loki.

He blocked the way with his sword in hand. When ever they tried to get by him, he slashed out with his sword.

"But the students and instructors are still in there!" pleaded Yin.

"I know" said Loki. He swung his sword at Long, who had gotten too close for Loki's liking. "They'll die. They should be noticing by now that the doors are stuck."

"NO!" yelled Yin, and he charged at Loki. Loki spun and lashed out with a kick that would trip Yin up. It connected with Yin's heel, and he fell onto his back. Loki then put his sword to Yin's throat.

"I still haven't decided if I want to kill you yet" said Loki. "Don't press your luck."

Yin squirmed as the temple fell. It collapsed, and then it started sinking through the ground, and through the cliff. Long watched it tumble to the depths of the valley between the mountain.

"I'll kill you" shouted Yin in a blind rage.

"Not likely" said Loki. "Consider your position. I don't think you're in a position to make threats."

Long looked around for any way to help them in this situation, but saw nothing. Maybe this was the end. Maybe there was no way out. Maybe he wouldn't live to "face destiny" as Cao had said he would. Maybe he should just stop thinking negatively, and kick some ass.

He leapt into the air, and kicked out at Loki, who was caught by surprise. Loki went one way, and his sword flew the other way. Long landed, then he turned his attention to the tired Lyonel. He lashed out at him, but Lyonel blocked it.

Behind him, Yin jumped to his feet, and approached Loki. Loki couldn't find his sword, but he could do without. Loki attacked Yin. They battled furiously. Yin connected with a strong kick to Loki's mid-section. Loki doubled over in pain, and when he snapped back up to a fighting position, his eyes were glaring deep blood red.

On the other side of the cliff, Long was fighting Lyonel. Lyonel was naturally the better fighter, but he was tired from the summoning, so Long had a bit of an edge. Long fired off a few combos, and many of his attacks were getting through.

Meanwhile, Yin was getting pummeled. Loki was firing off laser bursts from his eyes, and they were burning through Yin's clothes, and scarring his body. He was being thrown backwards by these hits, and as he was preparing for one final high powered blast to Yin's face, he suddenly felt a nagging pain in his back and chest. He looked down to see the tip of his sword jutting out from his chest. He turned, and saw Drake kneeling behind, smiling. His face was bruised up, and he had bloody cuts everywhere, but he was smiling nonetheless.

"That was for Waskim" said Drake.

Loki felt even more pain in his back, and then saw that the sword was jutting out even more. Then it shot out some more. Yin then kicked him in the head after kicking the sword, and when Loki turned to look up at it him, he smiled as well.

"That was for my students and friends" he said, spitting out blood.

Loki was about to say something, anything to insult them further, but felt that his throat was full of blood. Then he wanted to give them a nasty look when he died, but he couldn't move anything anymore. And when the darkness came, he cursed the world silently for not allowing him to kill Long, and become the rich man that he wanted to be.

Yin looked to Drake, then he remembered about Long, and saw that he was locked in a heated battle with Lyonel. Then something stirred off to the side. Two fire arrows shot into Long, and he fell to the ground. Yin turned to see Corinth standing there, holding his right hand up high. His rune was glowing.

Lyonel was smiling from this brief respite. He walked over to Long calmly, and then looked down at him. He kicked him in the chest. "Now I can finally be rid of you. Die, you overgrown monkey!" As Lyonel reached down and was about to snap Long's neck, a lightning bolt hit him. He was blasted back to the edge of the cliff.

Corinth looked shocked, but he just picked Lyonel up, and noticed that the odds were aginst them. The one who fired the lightning bolt walked out of the shadows. He was wearing a cloak and had the hood pulled down. He had blue hair, and sky blue eyes. He had two deep scars on his face that ran in an "X" pattern above his eyes to just below them. He looked very determined.

"Damn" said Corinth. He ran full speed past them all. Yin tried to stop him, but collapsed from the pain of Loki's blasts. The man who had saved Long just stood there and watched them go. Then he approached Long and saw that he was still concious. Drake and Yin crawled over to Long, and the three of them looked like they had just gone through a war.

"How're you doing, Long?" asked the man.

"Radcliffe?" asked Long weakly. Radcliffe nodded. "Why are you here?"

"It's a long story" he answered. "You guys should rest, get fixed up, and then we can talk."

"Okay, but just answer me this: Did you get the temple?" asked Long.

"No" said Radcliffe. "And that's not the problem. This whole situation has just got alot worse."

"Why?" asked Long.

"Highland and Jowston are at war" answered Radcliffe. "And this is just the moment that the Temple of the Silver Moon has been waiting for."

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"Long Chan-Chan" and "Suikoden 2" are (C) Konami This chapter was posted on August 24, 2000