As the world fell into the sea, the lives of religion, of morality, and often, of compassion sunk to the depths along with it. On this island he now called home, that held no resemblance of the grand, aristrocratic European culture he once knew, Antony often felt lost in this world.

His family had learned to adapt to an ever chancing landscape, and he had done his best to follow suit. However, there were still times, late at night, when he would ponder the fate of the world, and wondered when the day would come when the sea would follow the small mass of land surrounded by the rolling waves.

Now, as he knelt in the Temple of Talias, praying to the only God he knew, Antony felt the weight on his shouldlers lessen, but as always with those that neared immortality, it was always there. It was not unbearable, but merely nagging, reminding him of his own delayed mortality as he spoke those long forgotten prayers. Some would laugh and mock him, holding to his old ways so, but sometimes, it was all that stood between him and insanity.

Antony Piers was a man in command of his thoughts and emotions, but even the great can stumble sometimes.

"Our Father, which art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
in earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen," he whispered, his head bowed as he knelt on his knees.

Lifting his eyes, he looked to the open skylight above him and sighed as the warmth of the sun's rays shined down upon him for just a moment.

"Keep them, Lord...My children, my Mendecants that need my guidance in the fight to save this fading world...And bless her, my Father, the one in which my blood runs, though she does not know..."

He bowed his head once again in thanks, in solemn reverence and remained so as he let the forgiveness he asked for wash over him, and the destiny written upon his soul unfold.

It seemed a day for reflection as the sun sank so slowly behind the clouds. The shadows called to him of days gone by, keeping their secrets of the land they covered. None could so that Drake Morpheus did not have his secrets too.

As he approached the Temple Talias, he heard a voice, with a shade of Britain in each and every syllable. Leaning in, his natural curiosity the cause of it, Drake heard the final prayer and quirked a brow.

"Keep them, Lord...My children, my Mendecants that need my guidance in the fight to save this fading world...And bless her, my Father, the one in which my blood runs, though she does not know..." he heard that familiar voice say. His Mendecants...It could be only one man, once his enemy and now his ally. Oh how the tables do turn...But who...whose blood doth run in Antony Piers' veins, Drake wondered as he stepped into the sanctuary with hardly a sound.

His shadow lengthened across the floor as he watched the older man with genuine reverence. Though cross words and threats had passed between them once upon a time, Drake could do nothing but respect the noble hunter and his legacy.

Rather than speak and make his presence known, Drake knelt beside Antony. "Lord..." Drake heard him say, and was quietly surprised that any called upon that name anymore.

Though soundless, Antony could feel eyes upon him, and a figure's presence beside him.

Silencing his prayer, he looked to where a shadow grew and saw none other than Drake Morpheus. There was no greater being in this world who conjured such mixed feelings within the mind of Antony Piers.

The prodigal son of a sworn enemy, Morpheo, he knew not what to make of this righteous descedent who had fought so hard to prove his integrity in the face of a man, who, for centuries, would have rather seen him cold and dead, sinking into the depths of the Dark Seas.

Now, his sentiments toward Draco were somewhat softened...He held the heart of his rebel daughter, after all. Raelin's sworn true love, he could hardly believe all he had given up, the alliance he had made, just to have the raven-haired investigator by his side once again.

"Beware those who with silence enter..." he mused aloud, a fitting greeting for two such men who had only come together for the greater good of the world.

Hardly friends and no longer enemies, a civil word was hardly spoken where some undertone did not linger.

"Beware those who with silence enter..."

Drake turned his gaze upon the older man by his side, but for the moment, only nodded in response. Beware....Yes, beware. Beware that your 'daughters' are falling in love. Beware that this world no longer wants us. Beware that evil lurks around every corner. Beware, beware, beware...

"And befriend those who respect the silence of the Lord..." he supplied after a short period of silence.

He could see that a friendly chat would never pass between them, but just the same, Drake respected the Mendecant Superior far more than the old man would ever know.

For years, he respected the stone cold tactics with which Antony Piers ran MSI, but now, even moreso, he respected the pride that both men were forced to swallow, only to become alliances. And all for one purpose, to spare one heart.

"Do you think, that now, after years of dueling, that perhaps we might share a civil word, Antony, without the undertones of revenge and disdain?"

As the battles of Dark and Light raged on, Drake found himself tired of battling those whom he was rumored to be working beside. He was tired....so tired.

It never failed to rival him, the stoic composure that Drake Morpheus possessed. It was unnerving, at times, if only because even Antony's level-head sometimes disappeared in the presence of his enemies.

"And befriend those who respect the silence of the Lord..."

Considering the statement, Antony gave a nod, then smiled, but only in sheer amusement. "Silence of the Lord...And what do you care of prayer, Morpheus?"

Antony looked away then, back to the heavens. As a boy, this Temple would have been filled with iconic symbols...With crosses and rosaries, offering plates and grand clothes of the richest purple, the purest white...But now, it seemed that the days he used to know had slowly slipped away.

Now, he sat in a temple of stone beside a man of dreams and knelt on knees of sacrifice with a look of accepted destiny on his face....

"Do you think, that now, after years of dueling, that perhaps we might share a civil word, Antony, without the undertones of revenge and disdain?"

Antony could nearly hear the exhaustion in Drake's voice, and this caused him to turn his head, to regard the other man for a moment, something akin to sympathy creeping in. Yes, he had been there before.

"And for what purpose, Draco? Do you think it's even possible, that two men, so ready to dislike and disregard one another could ever push away the crevasses we've created betwixt ourselves?"

In truth, the Mendecant Superior did not know if it was even a remotely possible aspiration to hope for. Decades upon decades had left Antony and Draco at odds....Would it be possible for anything else to pass between them now?

Drake scoffed as he rose to his feet. It never failed...In all their years as fueding beings, Antony had never been willing to forgive...As if the wrongs of Morpheo weere done against Antony himself, and not the entire world.

"Silence of the Lord...And what do you care of prayer, Morpheus?" he heard him ask and could only shake his head, It would never change...

"Ah, you've caught me red-handed," Drake replied, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "You saw through the facade...I'm a heathen of the worst degree." Leaning down toward the man, he lowered his voice to that of a conspirator, something foreign flashing in his eyes. He was tired of the judgments passed on him by the Mendecant Superior when all he did, Drake did to right the wrongs of those before him. "It's even been said...that I've made a deal with Lucifer himself."

Straightening his frame, he took a step back, the portrait of composure once again. A sardonic smile took his face as he held his hands out, palms turned upward, and moved his shoulders into the most innocent of shrugs. "Ah...but now I remember. That was your rumor, wasn't it, Piers?"

"And for what purpose, Draco? Do you think it's even possible, that two men, so ready to dislike and disregard one another could ever push away the crevasses we've created betwixt ourselves?" said Antony, Drake's given name rushing past the man's lips with practiced ease. Draco...Draco had morphed as the times changed, as the world crumbled, as the star of his birthright crashed into the ocean depths.

With the evidence at hand, the animosity that hung so heavy in the air, Drake's expression turned solemn as he slowly shook his head. "No...I think it'd be a futile effort because you cannot forgive the past, just as I cannot forget the future that will come. Do you know that with our dying breaths, we will be fighting? Despite the alliance, despite the agreements and words of bond...when it all comes to an end, you and I will be fighting, whether the rest of the world is in peace or not."

Drake Morpheus' flair for the dramatic only brought out more annoyance from the mind of Antony Piers...And in a temple, at that!

"Ah...but now I remember. That was your rumor, wasn't it, Piers?"

Finally, Antony stood to his feet, a smirk coming to his lips. Could this be considered sacrilege, joking such a way in a temple once reserved for the holiest of holies?

"It may have been...Somewhere between you idolizing the Pagan gods and searching for the Holy Grail in the backstreets of Downtown London..."

"Do you know that with our dying breaths, we will be fighting? Despite the alliance, despite the agreements and words of bond...when it all comes to an end, you and I will be fighting, whether the rest of the world is in peace or not."

It was the quite believable scenario when he thought of it. Placing his hands behind his back and turning to face Drake, Antony tilted his head, regarding the other man. "Now that...That is something I can believe," Antony said with utmost sincerity. "We have reasons plenty to feud, Morpheus...Reasons that will not level this playing field, reasons that number far greater than a few angles and demons..."

Glancing around, he looked back to Drake once more, then walked for the doorway of the temple, intent on leaving. "If we must continue this, then let us not desecrate this place moreso than the world has already done."