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Legion of Balance

[i]“Finding me must have taken quite some time.”
	“It wasn’t that hard.”
	“I'm sure.”[/i]

I couldn’t have found him on my own, so I got some help from one of his old friends. Michael, his name was. A Seeker, or at least he had been, until Legion took all his objects. Now he was just a man. A man with a grudge.

Which was precisely why he decided to help me.

At first he thought I was a Seeker, but then I told him. I told him about my task, my purpose. I told him about the yin and yang, the evil and good. I told him I was the Balance He didn’t believe me at first, but I convinced him eventually.
	
I convinced him with a bribe.

He wanted the Apple.

And if he led me to Legion, I would get it for him.

[i]“What do you want?”
	“I want you to reconsider your goal, Legion.”
	“What goal? ...oh, bringing them together? No thanks.”
	“But you will end everything!”
	“That’s the plan.”[/i]

Michael had grown a beard by the age of 15, and it seemed as though he had never shaved it. I knew that he grew it to cover the scars on his face. Michael was a violent child. For most of his young adult life, he had fought someone daily, and although murder was not yet in his list of sins, he had come close all too often. His actions helped tip the scale for the worse. Hopefully, once I'd got him the Apple, he’d use it for good. I doubted it, but my hope equalized the doubt.

Michael led me to the subway station, where three homeless men sat around a small fire made in a burning barrel. Michael walked up to one and asked very politely if he could talk to Legion. The homeless men stood up, produced weapons, and began beating him. Michael took a few blows before he put all three down with some unknown style of martial arts. They were all dead within moments, necks snapped in half. Michael could finally add murder to his list.

[i]“I can’t let you bring them together.”
	“You think you have the power to stop me?”
	“I have more power than you think I do, Legion.”
	“We shall see.”[/i]

Amazingly (or, rather, very cliché), the men stood up again, bowed to Michael, and allowed him to pass through a gate that had opened up on the wall behind him. He called back to me that I was to do the same. So I did. Calmly did I take down each Hobo in turn, only to have them stand back up, bow, and open the gate for me as well. I walked through; Michael was waiting on the other side.

Before us was a massive cavern. Unholy decals weaved their way into the blue rock, which seemed to glow slightly with an unearthly hue. The bridge seemed to stretch an impossible eight or nine kilometres towards the huge front doors of a fortress. Its walls were carved with giant gothic faces, all of which had giant crystals emitting a yellow light from their eyes. The huge stronghold itself was made from the same eerie blue stone in the cavern... in fact, now that I mention it, it seemed the fortress itself was built into the massive cave wall. It was truly extraordinary. Michael pointed to the door, asked me, “Can you get us there any faster than walking?” I nodded, grabbed his hand-

-And we were there.

He flung the doors open, creating a thunderous echo when they collided with the walls on either side. Michael was definitely stronger than he looked. He hid behind a pillar and whispered to me, “Well, go on. Call for him.”

“Legion!”

I heard swift footsteps from somewhere inside the mansion; they kept getting louder and louder.

[i]“So, what? You’re just going to kill me, Balance?”
	“You’re just as cocky as Jack.”
	“Don’t you [/i]dare[i] compare me to him!”
	“Struck a nerve, did I?”
	“That man ruined my life!”
	“He has a tendency to do that. Yet your own words are naught but hypocrisy.”
	“Enough! You think you’re so powerful? Fight me!”
	“With pleasure.”[/i]

He came towards me. He wore a sort of leather armour and a golden cape. His facial features were straight cut. He was easily seven feet tall, and his body looked rock solid (though it might have just been the armour). He had white-blonde hair, his fists were the size of watermelons, and somehow in his godlike features, he had a satanic darkness bout him. The whites of his eyes, although still white, seemed to radiate pure darkness. His mouth looked like it was the maw of hate itself.

We trash-talked each other for a moment before the impurity inside him took control and he began to grow extremely violent. He began yelling, began taunting me; it was only a matter of time before he struck me. His blow alone sent me reeling backward; he was easily the strongest man I had ever encountered. I didn’t know if it was from ages spent focusing his physical strength, of if his Object’s power had strengthened over the eons. Either way, this man needed to be balanced.

[i]“You’re not so tough, Balance.”
	“I can get better.”
	“Then show me!”
	“Tach-Falsh Tonah!”
	“What the Hell is that in your hands?”
	“It's called a Tach-Falsh Tonah, a spirit bomb.”
	“What does it do?”
	“Well, that depends.”
	“On what?”
	“Whether or not you have any soul left.”[/i]

I gathered a Tach-Falsh Tonah in my hands. It was a glowing blue orb, about the size of a cantaloupe. It’s a gift from the Gods, either destroying evil or converting it to good. Either way, when I threw it at Legion, the ball struck him in the chest. When it did, I swore I saw some of the darkness leave him, but it could have just been the shadows. Legion buckled over, clutching his chest, and began cursing. When he looked up, the stern and unbreakable expression that had dominated his face moments ago had softened up a bit.

Yet I could still feel potent evil inside of him; I could still feel his impurity and his lust for the Objects' power. But there was less. Significantly so. Maybe all I did was remove the evil at this moment, temporarily suppressing the darkness within him. Still, I had done what I set out to accomplish. I had found Legion, and now I could keep tabs on him, and balance any unbalance he caused. Michael hurried me out the door, ecstatic about what I had just done. We left, but not before I swiped an apple out of Legion’s sash. He made a grab for it (it was nothing short of amazing that he still had the energy), but missed and fell flat on his face.

As I passed through the gate where the homeless men were, I heard a sound that made Michael shake with fear, one that would have made my old self cower in a ball.

I heard Legion’s hate-filled roar.

[i]“Come on! Let's go!”
	“Michael, calm down! He isn’t going anywhere.”
	“You don’t know him like that! Look! He’s getting up! Let's go!”
	“But your Object -- there we go.”
	“To Hell with it! I don’t want it anymore! Let's go!”

“That was close, Balance.”
	“Not really. Now then, here’s your Apple.”
	“Thanks. You do realize you just pissed off the most powerful human being on the planet, right?”
	“That’s quite a contradiction.”
	“Whatever you say man. Listen, do me a favour, and never ever look for me again, alright?”
	“Agreed…  Oh, and Michael, one more thing.”
	“Hmm?”
	“Don’t go back there.”
	“Oh, trust me, I wont.”[/i]

Object # of 538
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