The journey to Nathan's home took another hour once he, Nathan, and Rourkie had returned to the van. They travelled back inside the city, Julian sitting up front this time, between Nathan and Rourkie, idly watching the road as he tried to avoid thinking about the troubles the day had presented him with.

It seemed that, every time he had thought that things couldn't become much worse than they already were, events had conspired to prove him wrong. Julian resolved not to think in those terms again.

Rourkie and Nathan concentrated their chatter on anything that wasn't to do with their current predicament; recent football scores, local news, movies they had seen in the last month, anything except demons and chaos drivers. Julian wasn't sure whether they were doing it for his benefit, or to allay their own fears and worries, but he was grateful for the more 'normal' topics of conversation.

By the time the van pulled up in front of a house deep in the suburbs on the opposite side of the city to where Julian lived, the sun was already beginning to set, one or two overzealous streetlights flicking on in anticipation.

The house was not much larger than Julian's, which was to say, not very large at all. It could have housed two people fairly comfortably, though, and the area seemed to be pleasant and well kept, as did Nathan's garden, although it was little more than a grass-filled square in front of the house, bordered by a low brick wall, standing no more than a foot proud from the floor, and a plain concrete driveway, which was currently occupied by a blue estate car, fairly well kept but a little dirty, the registration plate showing its age to be a few years.

"This is it," Nathan gestured one hand towards the house while opening the passenger door of the van with the other. "This is where you'll be staying the next few days."

"Looks nice," Julian smiled as he unbuckled his seat belt. He looked across to Rourkie, who was leaning forward, his hands resting on the steering wheel as the vibrations thrummed though it from the engine. "Rourkie, I never got chance to properly thank you for helping to save my life earlier."

Chuckling, Rourkie glanced across to Julian. "Like I said before, kid. Don't worry about it. We've got to stick together, and you'll probably get a chance to return the favour someday."

"I hope I don't have to," Julian smiled wryly. "But I understand." Shuffling across seats, he hopped down out of the van and idly dusted down his trousers as Nathan looked back inside the cab.

"Want to join us for a drink inside?" Nathan asked.

Rourkie appeared to consider the offer for a moment, humming quietly to himself. "Nah, I'll skip it if you don't mind, Nayth. Got a few things to take care of, savvy?"

"Sure," Nathan smiled. "Take care of yourself."

"Always do," Rourkie grinned and nodded as Nathan closed the cab door securely. The van drove off quickly, Rourkie waving once through the windscreen as he pulled away, leaving Nathan and Julian in the middle of the road.

"Come on, then, Julian." Nathan started towards his house, fishing in his pockets for the keys. "Let's get inside. I imagine you're hungry!"

"Starving," Julian confirmed gladly.

**********

The heavy wooden from door of Nathan's house stood inside a little alcove and faced out towards the street, the number thirty-two in bold brass numbers displayed two-thirds of the way up the middle. The top of the door had a small semi-circle of glass recessed slightly into it, warped in a deliberate way so that no detail could be seen through it, save that it was dark inside.

Unlocking and opening the door, Nathan led Julian inside, kicking his shoes off as he did and placing his jacket on the coat rack at the bottom of the stairs. The stairs led upwards immediately to the side of the front door, beyond which could be seen the bathroom, illuminated gently by the light reflecting up the stairs as Nathan switched the hallway lights on.

Julian followed suit and removed his jacket, taking a moment to look around the hallway as he hung it up next to Nathan's. The décor was done in a warm cream colour, tinted just slightly with a little yellow. On the opposite side of the wall to the stairs was a fairly large mirror, framed in a gold coloured metal. Other than that, and the coat rack, the hall was bare of other features. Half way down the hall there was a doorway that led sideways into the lounge, while at the back, behind the stairs, was the combined kitchen and dining room, which Nathan now entered.

"Go make yourself at home in the lounge, Julian." Nathan's voice echoed from the kitchen. "You like pasta?" He added after a moment.

"Sure," Julian replied as he entered the lounge. The walls here were a light green, contrasting against the sofa against the back wall, just behind the back door, which was a deep blue. Julian sat down and looked at the pictures adorning the wall, including one rather large painting taking pride of place in the middle of one of the walls to the sides of the lounge, depicting a blue dragon in full flight above a beautiful array of cloud tops. Julian smiled at it and shifted his gaze again to look through the large front window, half covered by blue curtains, which matched the sofa, where darkness was continuing to fall outside.

In the corner of the room, just below the level of the window, was a rather modest sized television, standing dormant and accompanied by a DVD player in the wooden storage unit below. To the side of it, Julian noticed a free standing rack of DVD movies, which he browsed briefly before sitting down. Nathan seemed to enjoy a wide variety of mostly action, science fiction, and comedy movies, most of which Julian thoroughly approved of. He moved back across to the sofa and sat gently, listening to the sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen.

Nathan appeared moments later through the door way and switched the lights on, illuminating the room more clearly and causing Julian to realise just how dark it had become over the last few minutes. Closing the curtains, he turned to his friend and smiled. "Won't be long, just hold on a few more minutes."

"I'll survive," Julian smiled. He sighed and added, "Thanks for letting me stay here."

"Don't worry about it," Nathan shook his head slightly. "It's nice just to have a visitor. Plus, after spending so long watching you before you Awakened, it's nice to finally get chances to know you better personally."

"You think my place will be okay?" Julian asked, trying to hide his concern, but unable to avoid it tainting his voice slightly.

"Try not to worry about it," Nathan smiled. "There's nothing there for them to find, what they want is inside your head, right? So as long as we keep you safe, there's no trouble."

"I guess you're right," Julian nodded. "Still makes me feel uneasy, though. I mean, will I ever be able to live there again? After all, if they decide they don't want, or realise that they can't get what they were trying to convince me to tell them, then I just become another threat to be eliminated, don't I?"

"True," Nathan mused, "but we have ways around that. If we didn't, I'd expect us to have an even tougher time of life."

"What sort of ways?" Julian asked, looking puzzled.

"Mainly through giving you the means to defend yourself, which mostly means we arm you to the teeth and teach you how." Nathan sighed and shrugged a little, looking up to the large painting on the way. "It's one of the more traditionally warlike parts of this conflict. Once you've proven yourself against them, they generally back off. I mean, they outnumber and usually outgun us, but if they sent a tactical squad to raid a single house and kill one Awakened individual, it would risk raising a lot of questions. Questions that they aren't able to answer just yet. The demons are powerful, yes, and they have a lot of influence in various places, but they couldn't make something like that simply disappear so easily."

"But what about Thursday night and Friday morning?" Julian argued. "Twice I was shot at in the full view of the public, and twice they covered it up seemingly without a trace!"

"Don't be so sure about that, Julian," Nathan frowned slightly. "I was surprised they managed to do such a good job on the Thursday night, given the scale, but with Kershaw getting injured during the incident at the Angel, I'm not sure how much they managed to do. I would advise against going there when you return to work." He paused and thought for a moment. "Besides, one gunman with a handgun would be an easier memory to cover up that a whole squad of demons with automatic weapons, right?"

"I suppose so," Julian nodded in agreement. "I'm just still struggling to learn the little intricacies of being who I am now."

Nathan lowered a hand and patted Julian lightly on the shoulder. "That's why we're here, Julian. We'll get you through it." With that, he walked back through to the kitchen to continue preparing the meal.

As promised, the meal arrived soon after, and Julian and Nathan settled down to enjoy an evening of browsing through Nathan's DVD collection, still both desperately avoiding any talk of the demons, the secret war, or the chaos drivers.

Eventually, after a few hours, in the very early hours of the morning, the decision was taken to turn in for the night. Julian remained in the lounge to occupy the sofa, and Nathan supplied him with random spare items of bedding and a couple of pillows before leaving him for the night. Julian was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.

**********

Julian wasn't quite able to put his finger on what the variation was, but somehow the dream felt different this time. As he turned the chaos driver over in his hand, he tried to figure out what was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Something was wrong. Or, perhaps, he mused, something was right that had not been right before.

The location and the things happening around him felt very real, but then, they had felt that way right from the very first time he had experienced the dream. He knew the setting of the dream was drawn from memories of his previous life as Kyarth that had been locked away, and he knew that they told the story of his death; those were both things he had known for a long time.

Then, suddenly, it hit him. The fact that he could remember so clearly the previous times he had lived this dream through, it felt as though a veil had been lifted from his mind. His memory of the events within the dream felt so much clearer now as well, he knew exactly what he was doing there, and exactly how dire his situation had been.

Julian realised at that moment, the thought dropping into his head like a piano from the top of a ten storey building, that he had not been, as he previously had thought, one of the last heroes to stand in the war. No, he had not been one of the last, he had been the last. It had all come down to this, this one lacklustre encounter, which he knew was destined to claim his life. He also knew now that the demons he was about to face were the last of their kind as well. He had called them here, or at least, he had let them find out where he was, so that they would come looking for him.

The battle itself came as it had done before, Julian stepping out into the adjoining street between the towering silver buildings and striking down the demons with the power summoned from his chaos driver, killing each one with almost graceful ease, until the final demon, the last of their Architects, was felled. Just as had happened before, with his dying breath the demon Architect delivered the attack that would kill Julian, striking him square in the chest.

Julian sighed sadly, the weight of thousands of years of memory bearing down up on him. It was over yet again, and now he knew for certain, the war had had no winners; the last hero and last demon had struck each other down, ending the war in a draw. The two sides of light and darkness, called in equal strength to fight the war that Fate itself had ordained, had proven to be just that, equal down to the very last individual. Perhaps that was why the battle now continued in their current lives, Julian considered vaguely as he stood in the ruined street, death all around him, perhaps Fate demanded a winner be declared, and had redrawn the battle under a very different set of rules? He dismissed the idea, deciding he had no solid proof of Fate's true motives, and there was little point trying to second guess it.

"So now you know the truth," Kyarth's voice echoed from behind Julian. Julian moved, intending to face his former self, but was stopped as Kyarth commanded him. "No, don't turn around. Not yet."

"Why?" Julian asked bluntly. "What have you to hide from me now? We are the same, there can be no secrets between us anymore."

"True enough," Kyarth agreed, the smile he wore on his face evident in his voice. "But I want to know first, do you believe you are ready to know the rest of the truth?"

"The rest?" Julian almost stumbled over the words. "I thought I knew everything I was supposed to now? What else could there be?"

"Just one thing, but it is a major thing." Kyarth chuckled to himself. "I guarantee you, if you had known before now, you would have doubted yourself, and everyone else you have been involved with. That is why they haven't told you, I am sure that Nathan wanted you to figure this out for yourself."

"I don't understand," Julian shook his head, somehow resisting to turn around on the spot right there and then.

"Of course you don't," Kyarth said gently, like a mentor guiding his pupil, or even a father speaking to his son. "Julian, you've been seeing this world, this battle, through my eyes, but it has been shaped and coloured by your own perception. You have always played out this battle as you, not as me. Don't you remember what you once looked like?"

Julian thought back, searching for any images or any indication of what Kyarth was referring to. But through all his thoughts, there was only Julian, as he was now. "I can't remember anything else," he finally admitted.

"Do you want to know?" Kyarth asked, almost forebodingly. "Are you ready to accept whatever you see when you turn around?"

To be continued...