Ark entered the cottage. He remembered it all too well; he grew up in this house, though it was a copy. In the original house, where he now stood, his friend Elle tried to kill him because the Elder said that he was a threat. A lot of memories, but now his clone lived here.

‘Sit down,’ he said. ‘Please.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Ark said. ‘I prefer to stand.’

‘SIT!’ Ark sat down on a chair, a bit scared of his clone.

‘I know everything about you. You are the clone. You are Dark Side’s Ark, not I. You lied.’

‘So you know. It’s about time. I mean, it would be a shame if my original form is not as clever as I am. Not that you are, but still...'

‘Why?’

‘You mean, why I lied? Because Dark Gaia told me to. I am his right hand. In me lies his faith. The plan was that Light Side would destroy Dark Side. To do so, the Master copied this village, and switched me with you. Light Side in a Dark Side world. But my Master forgot an important thing. People have an own free will. A person cannot do things that fights every thing he believes in. The Master realised that when you entered the first Tower, and changed his plan, but he failed.’

‘So, you meant to do this? Then I should be able to do the same. Yet I didn’t.’

‘No. That is because I am not a human being. My body is. I am not. I took over your copied form, and then spoiled his mind. It was hard, but I succeeded. When he died, I completely took over his body and destroyed his soul. But the body was bound to fate, and I would not be able to live again until Light and Shadow were bound together. When you defeated Dark Gaia, my Master, I was alive again, only for several minutes. In that time, I managed to bring my body back to live again, by a very complex spell. It worked. The world was doomed to die. Dark Side would take over, although I knew it would take time. And it happened.

Your role was to die in battle. Light Side would be defeated, and therefore not strong enough to refuse a melting with Dark Side. You were too strong, and all failed. If I’d live again, Dark Side would have another chance.’

‘What are you, if you are not human?’

‘A Dark Knight. Every millennia, a Knight is born and another Knight dies. Both Light and Dark have a Knight, they represent their Master and Mistress. You are a Light Knight. Your clone was, until I took his body.’

‘I see. And the Knight had a child.’

‘Though he is not yet blessed by Dark Side, he is strong, stronger then you are, and wise. He will be able to defeat you. But not yet. You see, I will leave you alone. For just a little while, until my child is blessed. After that, we will hunt you, and then kill you. Be warned. Do not ask why I do this. You better be happy to live. It is your destiny.’

‘I have no destiny.’ Ark looked up. He looked in his clone’s face. It was a cold face. There was a sound in the kitchen. A delicious smell entered the living room. Meilin walked in.

‘Who was that, Ark...?’ She dropped her pie. Both Arks saw her. ‘What is going on? What is this?’

‘Meilin... How could you...’ Ark asked, the Light Side’s Ark. There was no answer. ‘It’s me. I am Ark. Your Ark.’

‘This is not happening.’ Meilin ran away.

‘Wait...’

‘You wait,’ the other Ark said. ‘She is the mother of my child, and she has no idea what is going on.’

‘You don’t love her!’

‘Do you?’ Silence. ‘Don’t use such arguments if you don’t love the person yourself.’

‘You are so not human.’

‘Do you believe in God? Sorry. It is not a matter of believing, but of knowing he does not exist. I mean, we both know of the existence of Light and Dark. So there can not be another god.’

‘What’s your point?’

‘You created heaven and earth, people would say. The Christians, Moslems and Jews all believe in one single God and the Devil, who is in my perspective a god as well, though he is not. Therefore, you cannot be a god. You would be an angel. A fallen angel. I am a demon. The angels fall first.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You have lost this battle. If a Knight looses a battle, he will die, everything humans know of him will be forgotten. You have not yet lost enough to become a Fallen Knight, but time is ticking. You will now leave my house. Farewell, Ark. Maybe it won’t be necessary to kill you.’

Ark left the cottage. He ran away. As fast as he could, as if he was frightened, but he wasn’t at all. It was to get rid of his anger. He bumped into Meilin. She screamed, and to make her stop, Ark placed his hand on her mouth.

‘Be quiet!’ he whispered. ‘I’ll explain everything to you if you stop screaming.’ He removed his hand.

‘What are you?’ Meilin asked.

‘I am Light Side’s Ark. The one you met in Louran, the only Ark you knew. The Ark you last saw in the Lab Tower of Beruga.’

‘How?’ Ark told the story in a short version. He told her everything Roy and Ark told him, and she tried to understand, but still asked several questions. ‘But my son... I will not let you kill my son...’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘If you do, it won’t be of any use. He is the last normal human, so he will return in me, to die again in my body. Then, from his dead body, he will be reborn. It won’t do any good.’

‘Does he love you?’

‘Of course he does! I’m his mother.’

‘I meant Ark.’

‘I don’t know that. He says he does. But... you didn’t like me, did you?’

‘It’s not that I didn’t like you... I thought you were nice, but you had those brat-like days... Sorry to say that...’

‘I should’ve known. If I weren’t that naďve, I’d realise that Ark didn’t love me back then. But I was all alone!’

‘Twenty years have passed since I left the surface world. Now I’m back, and I must fight a boy who is my age, and is my own, in a strange way. Things are so complex. I don’t know if I’d be able to do so. I mean, though the father is Dark Side, I could be his father.’

‘He looks like you,’ Meilin said softly, weeping away a lock of hair from Ark’s face

‘Then he looks like his father. That is not me. And don’t touch my hair.’

‘What is the matter with you?’ she shouted. ‘Did you not miss me? I bloody helped you back then, and this is your way of saying thanks? You’d be nothing without me, Ark. And you bloody know that!’

‘You should have known that that man was not me!’

‘Fine. Tell me how in the name of god I was supposed to know that. I bet even you don’t know that.’

‘I disappeared, as the legends foretold I would. everybody knew. I was not meant to return. That should’ve been my only destiny. I guess even I don’t escape from fate...’

‘But you do. Legends said that you would disappear for ever, but yet you came back. So... I don’t know what is going to happen now. But I do know this: if you hurt my son, you will suffer more then you ever did before.’

‘Innocence reborn once more...’ Ark mumbled.

‘What did you say?’

‘Innocence reborn once more. If your son is innocent, he will be reborn. Like you said. But what are you going to do now?’

‘I honestly don’t know,’ answered Meilin.