�VARGAS!� he shouted with such tremendous force that a huge avalanche of boulders descended from the overlying mountain face onto the very person whose name he had just intoned. With deft skill and an eye for precision, the smaller of the two managed to avoid the peril of the falling rocks while Sabin made use of the distraction, vaulting into the air and onto the large beasts which had begun to charge once more. Wrapping his massive arms around the necks of the two beasts, he twisted sharply to the side and a pair of sickening cracks resounded through the valley with the snapping of their necks. The crumpled carcasses of the ferocious beasts fell to the ground in a heap.
Vargas jumped high into the air and grappled bare-handed onto the side of the mountain where the newcomer had stood, flipping himself upwards acrobatically onto the ledge and landing in a loose, fighting position, bouncing from the ball of one foot to the other and keeping his hands at shoulder height.
�Ah, Sabin. My old friend,� Vargas spoke down to the man, obviously not intimidated by the previous display of power. �Is it really you? Have you come to exact your final revenge?�
Sabin looked at the other man with consternation etched across his brow and sorrow plain upon his face.
�How, Vargas? How could you have perpetrated such a cruel, murderous act? What insanity drove you to it?� Beneath the flood of words, the trio below could distinguish barely restrained rage as it ebbed and flowed into the conversation. �What possessed you, teron, to murder your own father?�
�My father?!� Vargas spat, with a sullen grimace, �My father! I have no father! The ungrateful vermin that we called Master chose you, teron," and he used the familiar greeting with a spiteful hiss, "as his successor, instead of his own flesh and blood!� Boiling hatred and loathing spewed out with Vargas� every word, like so much pus from a festering boil. Suddenly he quieted, dropping his head upon his shoulders. �He shunned me, Sabin,� Vargas seemed to almost beg of the other man now, �He shunned� me.�
Sabin leapt up onto the ledge and walked towards him with his hands outstretched in compassion.
�How you are wrong, dear friend! If you only knew, Vargas, how much your father appreciated your fine spirit and how dearly he held your counsel.�
Vargas raised his head once again, fresh anger emerging from within his twisted soul.
�If he truly understood me, he would have named me next in line, my friend,� and he spat the last word out venomously, turning aggressively to Sabin and suddenly lashing out, using his fists with blinding speed and, unknowingly, discarding his final chance for salvation. Immediately, Sabin reacted and countered the attack with ease and just as rapidly, turning his attention entirely to defending himself.
�Don�t do this, Vargas,� Sabin pleaded futilely as Vargas continued his onslaught with no sign of stopping, sweat pouring from the faces of both combatents. Locke wondered from far below how their immense physical exertion could be sustained for such an extended period of time
�Your father loved you with all his heart," Sabin tried once more, beginning to show signs of fatigue. "Listen to me, damn you!� In an effort to get the other man�s attention Sabin launched himself backwards into the air, whirled his hands in front of his body, brilliant light gathering within them and then erupting as a single, powerful beam toward Vargas. Caught off-guard by the attack, Vargas was struck dead in the chest by the blast and inhaled deeply as the breath was knocked out of him. He stood frozen with the impact, eyes wide in surprise and he turned his face up to Sabin.
�He� he already taught you that?� was all that came from his mouth before his eyes glazed over and he fell forward onto the ground, dead. Sabin landed lightly onto his feet and stood there, shock pasting his feet to the ground.
"No," he whispered in quiet disbelief, staring at Vargas' body laying in a heap upon the groung. "What have I done?"
He slowly walked over to the dead body of his once valiant training colleague, knelt down upon the rock of the cliff and took the dead man into his arms, weeping silently at the loss.
Without looking away from Vargas� face, Sabin answered., the tears still coursing down his cheeks, falling silently upon the face of the man who once was called son and friend.
�His soul was too corrupted. The force of the holy blast took more from him than I could have imagined. He wasn�t prepared to defend it." Still looking down into Vargas' closed eyes, he said with a great sigh of despair, "I killed him, Edgar.�
Sabin looked up at the mountain-top, breathed in deeply and sorrowfully and then began to sing a deeply haunting tune, one which rang true within the souls of those listening. Although none understood the words of the song, they all felt a serene connection through it with each other and with the earth around them. For a moment, everything was at peace and the great whispers of the world around them ceased to exist. Only Sabin's mighty baritone, carried along the winds that had swept through the mountain passes for ages and ages, touched their minds that moment and they all drank deeply of both his strength and his sorrow.
With the end of the song, Edgar shook his head to clear the many images that had been swimming through it during the singing. He looked up to the ledge where his brother had been and saw him standing there alone. The body of Vargas was gone.
�Big brother?� Sabin wondered aloud as he stared keenly at his brother, a small smile playing across his lips now, lightening the lines of his angular face. With ease, he leapt soundlessly from the high ledge onto the ground before them, a small tremor traveling away from the site of impact and he walked across to them. Towering easily over them all, Sabin seemed just as ferocious as the monsters that were about to attack them earlier, yet he also seemed as gentle as a newborn fawn.
Locke grinned in obvious amusement at the two men, so different in appearance but still so similar in spirit. �The brothers are united, once again,� he spoke aloud, �ready to fight side by side.�
Edgar walked up to his brother, stood before him for just a moment, and then the two locked themselves in such an intense embrace that Terra clasped her hands over her mouth to hold in her own emotion.
�Brother�� Sabin breathed the word softly as the tears streamed down from his eyes once again. �It is good to see you, after all these long years.�
Edgar pulled away from the embrace and took in the sight of his long lost brother. He smiled openly at him, and clapped him loudly on the shoulder as Sabin did the same to him, an old greeting which was full of brotherly love.
"Come, Sabin," Edgar said as he looked up into his brother's face with love, "for there is much we must discuss."
