Eternal Heavens
Disclaimer: I'm poor, so don't bother suing. I only own my
original characters. Hell, I don't even own some of them, heh.
I don't own any of the Tenchi, Pretty Sami, Tenchi Universe, or
Shin Tenchi characters that might (re: will) make an appearance.
I just hope I use them better than what is about to happen to
them.
Authors Forward: I'm really really sorry about this Mr. Lucas.
Actually, I'm not...not after Episode 1 anyway. ^_^ This is a
very large chapter. As such, I must ask beg and plead for those
of you that actually read this fic (all three of you) to give me
hell on every single little detail you possible can so I am a
writhing mass of pain after your C&C. You can't beat that! An
open invitation to kick someone's ass! ^_- kthardin@yahoo.com is
the email addy! You know you want to do it! Heh, heh, heh. I'd
also like to thank Sethra (thank you THANK YOU!!!) for her
prereading and especially for talking me into something
(well...it was her original idea too ^_^) that I really am
surprised I had the ballz to do in this thing...trust me, you'll
see it in a bit. You'll also note some additional material and
some corrections concerning the previous version I posted on the
FFML.
Revelations
-Mystery and Madness
<Opening Theme - Sophie B. Hawkins - As I Lay Me Down to Sleep>
<BGM Robert Miles - Dreamland>
Jagged bolts of purple-blue lightning struck from the
heavens, crashing all around a solitary figure. Briefly, they
lit the being's dreaded features in the dead of the night.
However, it was not enough to make out more than a basic shape
before the illumination faded...only the eyes could be seen
glowing a faint crimson in the darkness. The being tilted his
head upward, and smirked as the heavens continued issuing their
rage at the very existence of this creature, yet not one bit of
it's electrical fury dared to touch the Mad One.
<Disturbed - Conflict>
Adding to the heavenly venom, the winds, whose force
rivaled that of the fiercest hurricanes ripped and tore past the
man. They shredded and emulsified great chunks of what was now,
only scorched and blasted ruins. Yet even it would not...or
perhaps could not...dare issue their wrath directly upon the
being.
Having resided in a magnificent mountain many miles high,
and many more wide, the ruins used to be a mighty fortress, built
to withstand forces short of what would tear this world apart.
For all that was worth, it now lay in ruin. The only testament
to its passing being the forces of nature now raging across the
planet, yet seemingly scared to touch the one whom it held
responsible for this tragedy.
The earth itself rumbled under the figure, as it tried to
adjust itself to the loss of one of its grandest creations.
Great fissures opened, others closed, the surrounding mountains
moved and were forced to change, as it made it's own displeasure
known to the figure now staring skyward. Suddenly the Mad One
stopped, and looked forward.
The Mad One began to walk with a slow, deliberate pace
toward another, far larger person struggling to rise. A flash of
lighting struck the ground just behind him, revealing the severe
lacerations and burns that covered the man's flesh.
"C..c'mon...you monster!" he croaked out.
The smaller being quirked an expression of amused disbelief
at him as the man assumed a stance for fighting.
"Monster? Me?" the Mad One asked, sounding genuinely
puzzled. "After what this family has done?" The Mad One's gaze
glanced off the man for a moment. "Though, I did hear that your
latest victims made good eating."
The Mad One's attentions turned back to the sky, and
quipped, "I'm the monster here? Wow! Isn't that fucking self-
righteous..."
The man of the Y'tak watched as the being started to ramble
on in the insanity the legends told of this mad god as having.
Now was probably the best chance he was going to get to strike
this demon down. Only problem was, just as he started to move,
he found himself rudely disabused of the notion when a hand
closed around his jaw. The eyes of the Mad One, those strange
discomforting eyes, which normally revealed the ever-changing
starry universe, met his own up close and personal. He hadn't
even seen this being move. It was said those eyes would be the
color of blood when the Mad One was angered, and if so, the Mad
One must have been furious. Those eyes were glowing a bright
blood red.
"...of him!" the Mad One finished, roughly twisting the
man's head to an angle it was not meant to be at. The audible
snap this would have caused was lost in the thunder that echoed
around the Mad One.
The man dropped to the ground, lifeless now and forgotten.
The Mad One resumed staring up into the sky, oblivious and
untouchable.
"Come now. You can figure it out."
Waiting.
--------------
"The mistress wished to be left alone, Matori."
Matori's green eyes blinked, and her tattooed face scowled
in a slight anger at those words.
She stared at the door, encrusted with crystals that glowed
with their own internal fire, and arranged in the complex
patterns that were the symbol of their family of G'ky. Turning
from the ornate door that led to the study of her lady, she faced
the grim visage of one of her oldest companions. How could he
possibly suggest that she leave her mistress be in her time of
crisis?! Matori was the girl's protector, her instructor, and
handmaiden. Matori's very existence revolved around the care and
upbringing of her lady, and that meant being there for the girl,
especially at times like this.
"Hotsuma," she spat, "The mistress is in no condition to be
left alone!"
"Indeed not," he almost agreed, "But what do you plan to do
about it?"
His tone left little in the way of doubt as to what he was
implying her intentions were. She almost felt...shamed. Had it
been the wish of her mistress, she'd have gladly let the girl
share her...weakness...with Matori. And to be honest she had
indeed been there for just that reason. Yet, he dared imply so
openly that the mistress would be so frail as to require her
to...
Raising his hands in surrender, Hotsuma tried forestalling
any possible conflict. He knew that wouldn't be prudent,
especially with their mistress so close. "I did not say it was a
bad thing." His tone strangely never betrayed contempt, unlike
so many others (her parents especially seemed most disappointed)
when the subject of the girl's lack of emotional control came up.
The girl's problem was a decidedly Untetranian trait. A throwback
from their more primitive days when their passions ruled their
judgment; keeping them from their true power.
"However," his eyes flicked toward the door and he inhaled
deeply through his nose, "can you not smell it?"
"What's..?" and then she too caught the scent gently
wafting from the study. Not a scent in the traditional sense of
the word, though that was present too. The most overpowering
aspect of this pheromone was the smell of energies changing both
subtly and profound, heralding something so terrible that
Matori's already pale skin turned argentine.
"How long has she been this way?" she managed to force out
in a terrified whisper.
Hotsuma shrugged his broad shoulders, causing a few of his
long blond locks to bounce, obscuring his blue eyes. "A day at
most. I doubt she even knows what's happening." After a
moment's pause he added, "Yet." He walked past her, his sky-blue
trench coat brushing against her lightly causing her to jump.
"Go inside if you must, Ch'kai," he called out from behind her,
"but if you do, a shoulder to cry on might be the least of the
humiliation you will be subjected to."
The mistress' Ch'kai! Damnit! She knew well the ignoble
duty to which she had been consigned by the mistress' late
parents. Why did he have to rub it in like that?
Or warn her, a part of her noted. He didn't have to tell
her, and she was so preoccupied with...what she had been about to
do...that she hadn't even noticed the veritable Utar pit she was
about to stumble into. It was...doubtful that she'd have to
fulfill her duties in that regard considering recent events.
Still, it'd probably be up to her to find a suitable replacement
for the Mistress' needs. Normally, it'd be easy, but Matori knew
that her Mistress was too delicate to simply grab the nearest...
Damn, this is going to take some work, she realized. And
here is not the place to be considering whom her new Ch'kai
should be.
She'd thank Hotsuma for his help later. After she put a
bit of distance between her and...
The door to the study slid open soundlessly. Matori stood
ramrod straight, and whatever pallor she might have retained left
her in that moment. Were it possible for Matori's raven tresses
to lose their darkness, she was certain they would be even whiter
than the hair of the girl who was emerging from they stygian
depths of that room.
A girlish voice called from within dreaded hollow void of
that place, "Matori..." The sound froze Matori in place with the
dread of a fate that might be a bit worse than death.
--------------
The girl stared at her little hands. Hands so weak and
frail they couldn't even be counted on to take care of herself,
much less anyone else. Hands now covered in her own blood where
her very own nails had dug deeply into them. The wounds were
closing now, and would probably be healed within the hour.
Biting her lip hard, a new crimson flow issued from her
mouth. Almost without thinking her hands clenched back into
fists, reopening those wounds. She tried vainly to keep her
tears from falling as they flowed unchecked onto the forgotten
reports and various data storage mediums. It trickled down the
table, mixing with the blood already spilled like a miniature
waterfall, dropping to the smooth brown marble floor below.
"Indeed, it will not happen again." he had said.
Drip.
Their bodies...falling to the floor.
Drip.
Because he had cut their heads...
Drip.
Their blood pooling around her.
Drip.
She looked at her hands again. Bleeding still.
Drip.
Her blood pooling around her...their blood...her blood...so
much blood...
Drip.
<Disturbed - Numb>
"WHY?!"
She knocked over the table before her, scattering its
contents over the room. Not satisfied, her psionic power flared
from within her. The desk was reduced to shreds as she screamed
her question again. The room had been soundproofed at her
command when she had entered it a week ago. It might have been a
foolhardy decision, for if an assassin found their way into this
room, it would be days perhaps before anyone broke inside and
found her body. Yet she had wanted...needed to suffer her
humiliation in private, away from the shamed eyes her vassals and
servants would have, had they seen their mistress like this.
"WHY?!"
The words of the Emperor rang in her mind, "My first
command to you is to complete what your father was incapable of."
"WHY?!" her power spewed forth from her in a torrent of
liquid orange energies. Every bit of that flowing cauldron of
death seeking to devour and consume something...ANYTHING! If
only to satiate the fire now burning inside the girl.
The room's brown marble walls had been covered with the
portraits of the heads of the family from long before. A bed had
lain to her right, used often by her parents when they had worked
in this very room into the late hours of the night and early
morning. Towards the door there had been a simple round wooden
table surrounded by two fluffy and overly comfortable couches
that had been decorated by her mother's favorite fur blankets.
All of which now were caught up in the girl's psionic hurricane
of pure hatred and fury to be torn and emulsified until nothing
recognizable remained.
"Or you will suffer their fate."
"WHY?! I'M NOTHING! WHY?!"
She screamed her question into the darkness, her fists
hitting the walls over and over, and her powers lashing out at
anything and everything around her.
As suddenly as she started, she collapsed into a corner
sobbing, still crying her question. Knowing no one would know,
and even if they did, no one really cared.
In time, her sobbing subsided, leaving behind a strangely
numb feeling. Empty. Like her stomach, though it did not rumble
for lack of being filled. She couldn't even remember when she
last ate or drank anything. It was better than feeling like she
had been gutted and filleted with a dull knife.
She had smashed the bones in her hand on the nearby wall
until they were nearly unrecognizable lumps of flesh. Honestly
she couldn't tell which hurt more: pulverizing her hands or her
body resetting and healing them. She glanced at the walls about
her, covered in her skin and blood. They had been designed to
protect the master of the house, and as such, were made of
materials that could withstand heavy bombardment. Had they not
been, it's likely they too would be part of the wreckage around
her.
Her ruined hands brushed by something on the floor.
Torturously she forced her broken fingers to grasp it. Her eyes
stung with unshed tears, their depleted water supply finally
exhausted, as she brought the small box into view. It was a
small hologram generator, used for personal messages and
pictures. She had been using this one to review the visually
recorded data that was only a small part of the collected
information that related to the 'incidents' that had been
occurring in their empire over the past eight hundred years or
so. It had been lying there where her parents had last left
them, before they were summoned into the presence of...
Their heads falling from their bodies...their armor ringing
out as they dropped...
Quickly she clenched the device, which sent a spike of pain
through her diminutive form, and banished the image of her
parent's recent execution in her mind.
In specific, it contained the data crystal that had been
used to fully record the incident of her parents with the oracle
of Tel'eran. She'd already been over it a thousand times it
seemed. It was the only bit of evidence they had which linked
the disturbances, the disappearances, and outright massacres that
had been occurring. No other evidence had turned up that might
point to anything, except the monks' vague words.
Why did she feel so strongly that THIS was the answer? Her
parents had felt this as well, yet they had been investigating
the sites or wreckage of whatever was left. Nothing had been
found despite the expertise and equipment employed in the search.
Not a goddamn thing had been found to blame for it! How then
could they prove the oracle's words? How could they even find
out what 'it' was?! Eight hundred years! And she was certain
that she had the answer right here!
Not that it was likely she could do anything even if she
did puzzle out whatever had eluded her father and mother. She
could barely match the weakest of their servants in combat, much
less something that could make entire families vanish without a
trace.
She looked about her at the room that had been destroyed by
her power, and here she was close to exhaustion. With the
strength she should have had the whole fortress should have been
in shambles. Either of her parents could have done that with
ease, and yet she could barely summon the power equal to the
weakest of their race.
She was a failure.
She looked nothing like any woman had in her family at her
age. They were all strong and pretty when they were young. Her
platinum blond hair hung loosely about her scrawny body, and she
realized she probably resembled a drowned rodent at that moment.
More so now, she amended. Nothing like them.
Failure.
Watching her parents butchered as they stood in obeisance
before the Emperor. Him making her the...the...the...HEIR, and
assigning her father's awesome duties to her. Powerless to even
think about stopping him.
Failure.
Everyone had said it often enough. Even now, the nobles in
the empire knew, not thought, KNEW she was not going to succeed.
It was impossible! How could she, as weak and pitiful as she
was, possibly accomplish what her great father and mother could
not?
Oh goddess!
The suffering that was inside of her had returned, without
warning and with a vengeance. She found herself huddled into a
fetal position on the floor being wracked with a new bout of
choked, tearless sobbing.
Mother! Father! I've failed you again!
Crying softly, she thumbed the 'on' switch to the recorder.
She actually relished the pain the motion caused. Anything other
than the terrible anguish within her.
The now familiar images of her parents standing before the
grizzled and soddered monk clad only in his brown robe obediently
sprang up. "Look within," he told them. "For within is the only
place you'll find the answer to the author of this end!"
Within! Within what?! My parents searched within
everything! Within every world! Within every ship! Every scrap
of metal and found nothing!
"Nothing..." she whispered between gasps for breath,
"Nothing..."
Darkness slowly claimed her as exhaustion finally took its
toll. She hadn't slept since entering this place, and she
welcomed the oblivion it was now delivering unto her...if only
for a little while.
------------
<Disturbed - Meaning of Life>
It was not the void of absolute nothingness she so
desperately wanted. Instead she found herself in a twisted sooty
landscape of dust and sand. No life existed in this place; all
the trees and bushes were knarled and stripped of their foliage,
barely clinging to existence in the raging sand storm. It was
impossible to see how big the area was; in fact it was surprising
she could see anything at all. The sun's rays could barely
penetrate the polluted air, which colored everything a shade of
dirty orange. It was almost the same color of her aura, she
realized.
Her knees gave way beneath her, and she found herself face
first in the sand below. The barren and lifeless desolation.
The knowledge that she was now alone in the infinite. The loss
of all hope. Truly, this was the mirror of her heart. Even
here, in the realm of dreams, she could not escape the nightmare
her life had become.
"Look within. For within is the only place you'll find the
author of this end."
The storm continued to rage around her, yet somehow she
still heard the words of the monk...before her?!
She glanced up, taking care to shield her vision from the
onslaught of sand and dust, to see a figure in a robe of browns
and greys. She couldn't begin to discern any features within the
absolute night inside the hood. Only his eyes were visible, if
indeed the figure before was a 'he.' It sounded like a man
anyway.
The eyes though, it was like they glowed with all the ever
changing starry universe inside them. Looking into true
infinity, she found herself shivering at just how small
everything about herself really was when compared to the vastness
of all that is.
"Where? Within where?" she tried to make herself sound
assertive...commanding, just like her mother and father. They
were always in control. Somehow it came out as more of a parched
whisper. She tried again, harder this time, only to find herself
not making any sound at all.
No! she tried to scream, I can't be heard! No! Please, I
need him to hear me!
The harder she tried, the less sound was made and the more
she feared he'd never understand and so she'd never have the
answer. Ignored, like she had been by those that she had been
told were her peers for her entire life. So it was surprising
when the man, or phantasm, or whatever he was raised his arm and,
with a finger of dark and bloody bone, pointed behind her. She
looked over her shoulder and saw a path open in the storm. There
at the end, an impossible distance away, was the center of this
chaos. A maelstrom of hatred and sadness and regret. Its size
reminded her of the time she first walked outside a starship and
looked upon a world from outer space orbit. She felt like...that
impossibly large gas giant might fall on her and that everything
but her and that world was spinning out of control. The
experience had been both frightening and exhilarating; her heart
had been beating so fast she was surprised it hadn't burst from
her chest. This, however, was just plain frightening, but as
before the thumping in her chest was nearing beats per second of
a ray of light.
"Within there?" she asked in disbelief.
She could barely withstand the fury of the storm where she
was. There was no way she'd be able to get any closer without
being blown away.
She knew it! Doomed even before the start.
"I can't..." she trailed off. Why bother? Better to just
give up now. Let the storm consume her and leave nothing left.
No more disappointing people. No more...
She suddenly found herself flying through the air, pain
exploding through her face where she had been struck and her back
where she had landed. In shock she looked at the monk whose eyes
now glowed with an angry blood red.
The message was clear. Pain, not death, but PAIN at his
hands or take her chances trying to reach that vortex of misery.
She was not allowed to lay down and die.
No...no...it's not fair. Just...just go away...let me
al...
Her thoughts were interrupted as once again she was sent
sailing through the air. She noted absently, as she hit a rather
large rock knocking her left shoulder out of place, the monk was
making sure that she was heading in the maelstrom's direction
whenever he struck her.
He walked slowly toward her, his eyes glowing as if they
were the very heart of Hell's fire. It didn't take a genius to
figure out his intent to continue.
One way promised pain and then death. The other promised
only pain. Real tough choice there. With all the will she had,
she levered herself up to her feet and stumbled into the
direction of the rotating monstrosity.
She managed a sigh of relief, it really didn't seem her
tormenter minded the pace she was going at. Just so long as she
was heading that direction.
She couldn't see it anymore. The path he had shown her had
long since vanished. But she could feel it. Feel it in her soul
how the cyclone ravaged everything, the same way her own emotions
were ripping her apart. Indeed, they were very much alike, this
swirling nightmare of hatred and regret and what now lived in her
heart.
She half walked, half crawled for what could have been a
few minutes or a few million years. Time within this desolate
place held no meaning. Only one foot in front of the other,
pushing on through the sand, rocks, and wind, mattered. The
storm raged stronger the closer to it's source she got and it
battered her body without mercy. She had lost her clothing a
long time ago, and with it the little protection it provided.
The sands came at her in waves from the wind, stinging her naked
form with their little particles of regret. The winds themselves
felt of nothing but fear. The rocks and trees that had broken
free and now traveled within the cyclone's fury beat her
relentlessly with jealousy, anger, and disappointment. Or were
those the sand and wind?
She couldn't tell; they came at her too fast to tell the
difference between them anymore, the shear force of which
threatened to knock her off her feet at every moment. As it was,
she could barely inch along. Strange, she expected to have
caught up in the wind and torn apart by now. It wasn't like she
had power enough to stop it, and yet; all it was really doing was
impeding her forward motion. Oh and beating her body with its
inhuman despair. How could she forget that?
But she didn't dare stop. She knew that though she walked
toward her inevitable oblivion, that a monster, who had promised
worse than that, still walked behind her just waiting for her to
fall again. He had made it clear that she was not to stop for
any reason. Apparently falling counted in that regard she had
found much to her regret.
When will my strength give out finally? she wondered. When
will I no longer feel? Why am I denied release? Why was I made
only be weak and to suffer? Why did he pick me? Why me?!
And why am I not moving? She glanced down. Oh. I'm on my
knees. Why...
She actually managed a curious glance behind her before the
darkness she so longed for rushed to take her.
Had she been looking the other way, she might have seen
herself fall into the calm of the eye of the storm.
<Disturbed - Dropin' Plates>
It was quiet; far too quiet. Only the sounds of her
breathing, the rushing of blood through her veins as her heart
pumped it, were heard. Nothing, not wind, not sand, not anything
else.
That's not right! Find out what's up! You've rested
enough! Up and at em! some small part of her seemed to be
insistently yammering at her.
Grudgingly she regained what passed for consciousness
within this...hallucination was the only thing she could think of
to label it. Either this or real life, she really wasn't looking
forward to either one.
Yet the quiet bugged her still. There was something...off
about it.
Oh yeah. The hurricane. Why wasn't she still in it? Or
at least buried in the sand, her flesh stripped from her bones?
She tried to push herself up, but only succeeded in flipping
herself over onto her back.
The sky...it's...bright...sky-blue!
A giggle formed in the back of her throat, quickly growing
into a chuckle, until finally becoming hysterical laughter.
"Blue blue blue sky!" She laughed until her sides burned, and
tears streamed down her cheeks.
Then she laughed some more. It felt good somehow. It
felt...light, yes it felt light. Nothing seemed heavy anymore,
not her parent's death, not the mission she was given...not even
the fact she was and had always been doomed to failure. It just
didn't feel like it mattered as much right now.
"Disappointing. I'd thought you'd have gotten here
sooner."
"Huh?" She tilted her head backward and rolled over so she
could see straight. There was the demon that had tormented her
through her torturous trek within the storm of despair.
Presently sitting upon a throne of stone, he, if indeed it
was a 'he,' was still completely covered by that dirty brown
robe. Try as she might, she could still see nothing of his face,
just those strange, scary, and yet entrancing eyes that seemed to
encompass the entirety of the cosmos within them. They shifted
and changed as he moved ever so slightly, focusing in on a
different scene, yet still showing the whole of everything.
This time however, he was not alone. There, perched on his
shoulder, was what appeared to be something akin to a very small
reptile. It's scales were entirely a bright shiny golden color,
so far as she could see, 'til it shifted slightly revealing a
deep crimson on the underside of its wings. It seemed to be able
to keep its balance quite well with only two feet, its claws not
even digging into the monster upon which it rested. She could
discern however, that its wings, while folded comfortably around
it like some sort of metallic cloak, also covered another set of
arms that hung loosely at its size. A black forked tongue snaked
forth from its elongated mouth every couple of seconds to sample
the air's flavor, and possibly, she thought with a shudder, her
own. Spines covered its head, but rather than a method of
attack, these seemed to be more a form of protection. The spines
pointed backward along its serpentine neck, giving both its head
and upper neck a kind of armor. It had a tail that was wound
tightly around the demon's shoulder, which she surmised was
probably why it was able to keep its balance so well with only
its feet. At the tip of that tail, she could see it was covered
in long spines that retracted into the main body of the tail and
sprang forth again in a rhythmic pattern. She'd almost equate
the action to a nervous tick, were it not for the way its
absolutely obsidian eyes that seemed to be carefully weighing
her. Not yet judging her, but certainly considering the girl
before it. Considering her for what though, was a question her
mind tried to shy away from...and yet she felt it was nothing
threatening. Only curious.
Slowly, she managed to push herself to her knees. It took
her a moment to steady herself on her good arm. She sucked her
lower lip under her fangs, dug the claws on her toes into the
ground beneath her, and, with a mighty heave, pushed herself to
her feet. That done, she reached around her left arm with the
intent of resetting her out of place shoulder only to jerk back
suddenly in pain when she felt something cut her hand.
Glancing at her wound, she looked at her left arm wondering
what could have done that, only to jump slightly, startled. This
proved to be a bad idea, her legs were barely holding her up and
were already wobbling. Coupled with her sudden motion she nearly
found herself face first on the ground again.
After she steadied herself she looked at what cut her.
There, on her right arm, protruded a set of dual bone-like blades
that arched from the backs of her forearms and curved well past
her elbows, but not quite to her shoulders. Experimentally she
formed a fist, and found by tensing the muscles in her forearm,
she could almost bring her new attachments to a right angle.
Biting her lip she...
I have fangs?!
In panic, she touched her face, then gave herself a look
over.
My hair...it's black! I have...claws...what?!
"What's happened to me?!"
The being rose from his seat, unconcerned with the girl's
distress. "What does it matter?"
"You! You did this to me!"
If possible, it seemed he blinked under that cowl. "Me?"
He glanced at the wyrm upon his shoulder and asked, "Me?" He
shook his head, "No, not I."
Not I? she repeated silently. Then how did...what did...
"Yes, yes, yes, I know!" he shouted suddenly. "It's not
like I do this on a regular basis!"
Who...is he talking... "Okay, so speak up! Why did you
summon me here? I suppose I could have ignored it, but it's not
like I get called every single day."
She glanced around, looking for someone else.
Strange...the storm was...gone. In fact there appeared to be no
evidence it had happened at all. Nothing but this dirt brown
landscape all around her, and the demon standing before her...his
chair had vanished. There appeared to be no one else. Was he
talking to her?
"Me?" she ventured.
"I don't see any other whacked out, don't you dare say it,"
the dragon looked away innocently, "psychos around here going
through their very own handy dandy, do it yourself, money back
guarantee, hallucination!" He glanced about himself. "Do you?"
The dragon on his shoulder began twitching slight. She
felt he was...laughing?
"How did I...how did I..?"
"Summon me?" he ventured a guess. She nodded. "Well,
Hell! You're the one with the connection to the universal
awareness...you tell me." She looked at him in confusion.
"GAH!" He threw his arms in the air in frustration. "Fucking A!
Why do I always get the thickheaded kids?! Why couldn't you send
me some people that know at least something of the fundamentals?!
Why did SHE have to be...oh wait, yeah, that's why we're doing
this I guess."
Is this monster crazy?
"Grade A certifiable, girl!" he replied cheerily. "I even
got the papers to prove it...somewhere."
How did..?
"Quit thinking so loud. Kinda hard on the ears, you know?"
Okay, think here a moment.
"Don't think too hard now. Might strain something." A
small ember of annoyance began forming in her mind. "Anyway,
when you figure it out, let me know, k?"
Absently she noted he sat back into that stone chair...that
wasn't there a second ago?! Transporter...no wait! He said...he
said this was MY hallucination, oh he must be...
"BZZT! Nope! Sorry, you summoned me, but I ain't part of
your sorry ass delusion here."
Her eyes narrowed. "Why should I believe you?"
Even though she couldn't see it, she could feel him
grinning, "Why don't you figure that out?"
Right, well, it didn't look like she was going anywhere.
Now why would she...how did she...oh yeah. He mentioned
something about the universal awareness. What was that?
"It's that thing you've been feeling. You know, when you
do something and you FEEL so strongly about a course of action
concerning it? That's it," he shrugged and somehow sunk down
into the stone as if it were as soft as a cushion, "Everyone has
it to some degree. All races have different names for it. The
sixth sense, intuition, the site before site...you get the idea
right? Just some people, like you for example, it REALLY loves
to mess with. Talkative little bitch, isn't it? Occasionally,
it'll even make collect calls when you're in the right frame of
mind...like now I suppose. And here I thought *I* was nuts!"
She swore she could feel the drake laughing again. He
glanced at the dragon and muttered, "Bastard."
Well, if he knew that why didn't he just tell her...
"Sorry, don't know why. That's why I asked you, remember?"
Alright, supposing he was to be believed, not that she had
any other source of information, she had summoned him...but why?
Why did she feel the need to...
No wait, that's not it. She shook her head, absently noting
her legs were no longer shaking under her. I was...I
was...watching that holo vid. That vid where I felt...where I
felt...
Where I FELT the answer lay!
"Look within," she repeated. "Look within, and you'll find
the author of this end."
Almost as if someone were talking to her, she FELT
strongly, that she really did have the solution to her dilemma.
And that she was staring right at it.
Look within, the monk had told her, not just her parents,
but also HER in particular.
Within herself! Her feelings would lead her to the answer!
There wasn't ever any evidence to be found, only by seeking the
truth within herself was she to find any clue as to the fate of
all those of her people that had been mercilessly cut down.
Her hands closed into fists, her new weapons coming to a
ready position, "I was told...to look within..."
"And that you'd find the author of this end. Yeah, you
said that before when I kicked your ass across that desert of
yours. I suppose I could have let you die, but then I'd never
have found out what the hell you were doing wallowing in anger
and guilt like that." He looked her up and down. "Seems you came
out of it a whole new girl," he chuckled.
HOW DARE HE LAUGH! "You...my parents...you are the
reason...all my people...my fellow Tetranians...you...!"
With a sharp jerk, her arm snapped back into place. She
rushed to him, hardly noticing the incredible speed she was
moving, fully intent on gutting him with her new weapons. She
screamed furiously when she passed right through him, having
found the demon insubstantial as the air itself. Her momentum
sent her tumbling across the ground, until she dug all four sets
of claws into the earth below, still managing to slide a great
distance before she stopped.
"Oh, you summoned me over THEM?!" The granite throne, upon
which he still sat, was now turned toward her, "Well, yeah...they
all kinda have to die you know. I mean, they really really
pissed me off...they ate my favorite frog awhile back. Totally
had to do the entire unknown genocide thing on em. Heh Heh Heh."
Her vision tinted the familiar orange color of her aura as
her powers manifested themselves. She did not care that her
energies continued to grow well beyond her known limits. Hardly
even caring when she came to the point that she should have been
reduced to her component particles. The only thing she knew, was
white-hot searing hatred of what lay before her.
This man...this MONSTER is killing MY people! HE is the
reason the Emperor killed...killed...
"Now, now," he mockingly soothed her. "You're not going to
get anywhere here, you know. This is just your cool little trip
through Dementia's realm, but tell you what," he leaned over and
whispered conspiratorially to her, "if you really want to try and
take me out, come to the Y'tak throneworld. I'll tell you all
sorts of secrets when you get there. Things that will tear the
very sanity from your soul. Things about your people and your
parents...especially your father."
"What do you know of my father?!"
He grinned, or at least, she thought he must have been
grinning, "He's not the kind of guy you think he was." He
settled back in his chair with a chuckle and waved dismissively.
"I'll be waiting for you, but only you, so don't try to bring the
entire empire with you, eh? I'd really hate to have to kill them
all right then." His eyes glinted green for a moment, as his
body and voice started fading. "Though I wonder...what's a little
weakling like you think she can do against something like me?"
Then he was gone, and she found herself on floor of her
parents...no HER study, she corrected herself with a vengeance.
Vengeance being exactly what she had on her mind now. Yes, she
was weak, yes she had no power to speak of, but now she
knew...SHE KNEW what had consumed the lives of her parents and
those of her people. And she'd be damned if she let it get away
from her now.
She used the wall as a prop and pushed herself to her feet.
She had never felt such anger and hatred before, and could only
imagine what expression was on her face right now. Truthfully,
some would probably think such Rage didn't fit on such young
features. She found it suiting her just fine.
It felt good...to hate.
Using her power to clear a path through the wreckage of her
room, she made her way to the door, which obediently opened at
her approach. There she made out the fleeing form of her
faithful servant, Matori, in mid flight from the room.
"Matori," Matori stopped dead in her tracks, frozen like
those in cryosleep. Strange, the child thought, she could
actually smell FEAR from her lady in waiting. She couldn't harm
her handmaiden, nor would she if she could, for she was rather
fond of Matori. Why then did she fear?
No matter, the girl decided. There were things that needed
attending to.
"Face me."
Matori slowly turned, her normally pale face growing whiter
by the moment 'til finally she gazed upon her mistress. She
couldn't help but gasp in shock when she finally beheld the girl.
The young lady stifled a bitter laugh, for she knew she must look
like she had been through a meat grinder.
"My lady?" Matori inquired timidly.
"Have Tsugaru prepare a ship and have Hotsuma assemble a
squad of our most powerful fighters."
Matori shivered, this cold, commanding gaze...the rage, no
don't think about Rage, she told herself quickly, the hatred on
her face...that voice. Goddess! What did the Emperor really do
to her? "My lady, why do you want to...?"
"Just make it happen, Matori. We leave for the Y'tak
throneworld when preparations are complete."
Matori bowed low in deference to her mistress, hoping to
hide the terror in her eyes from the girl, "Yes, of course my
lady." Why does she want to go there? And so soon? Has our
lady been driven mad?
"And Matori?" the fair skinned woman with the tattoos on
her face glanced up. The girl nodded in the direction of the
study behind her, "I seem to have broken a couple of things.
Have someone clean that mess up."
--------------------
Matori sighed pleasantly letting the steaming water rain
down upon her nude form. She ran a washcloth between her ample
breasts and back over her cherry red nipples still hard from her
recent exertions.
Yes, this is the way to relax, she thought blissfully. Sex
and then a nice hot shower. All I need now is a massage to make
it complete.
But she knew she couldn't afford the time it would take.
Her present bedmate was an excellent masseuse, but she had
already taken more time than she probably should have with this
exercise. Her mistress was in a quite unstable frame of mind
right now, and she needed to be there in order to quell the
demons inside the girl should the need arise. Her companion, who
was now stepping behind her into the shower, had convinced her
that she still needed to take care of her own requirements before
she, herself, went mad. Others could look after the girl for a
time, and would call her if need be. Still it would be best if
she were there.
His hands caressed her lithe form, moving up her legs and
around her well-rounded bottom, lingering there for a momentary
squeeze. Matori's washcloth dropped to the floor already
forgotten. Sliding up her sides, his hands grasped her breasts
to move them in little circles. She gasped and leaned back into
his embrace, her ivory skin flushing red at his attentions.
"I need..." she gave a cry of half pleasure and pain when
he swept aside her shoulder length hair and his teeth suddenly
sank into her shoulder, "to get back..." One hand left her
breasts. Moaning in protest, she felt it trail down her well-
toned abdomen, "to check on..." His hand trailed further down to
rest on her raven clad womanhood.
"You're still too tense," Hotsuma told her with a grin.
"You'll do her, and this mission, no good if you do not take care
of yourself. Despite our control, you know we still have needs.
And I'm not convinced yours are met yet." His fingers had long
since parted the warm wet flesh between her legs, and entered her
most sacred of places.
Taking her ragged panting as agreement with his assessment
he proceeded to make her lovely body shudder with orgasmic
abandon.
His smile shone with an unholy radiance as her luscious
water soaked body quivered under his ministrations. It wasn't
the pleasure her curvatious form could give him that really got
him off, though that was not to say he didn't enjoy that. It was
the power he now held over Matori that truly excited him. At
this moment, he could ask her to do anything and everything, and
she would...no questions asked. All he had to do was keep going.
Not that he would ask her to do anything, but the fact he could
was an aphrodisiac far more potent than any drug or pheromone
that could possibly exist.
He really wondered who said these passions were a
hindrance. Sometimes they could be very fun indeed.
--------------------------
Matori glanced at the diminutive form of her mistress, who
sat in the chair next to the Admiral of her star forces upon the
bridge of the personnel infiltrator. She couldn't help but note
the slightly startled glances Tsugaru gave the mistress if she so
much as blinked. Though most of the bridge crew, she noted, did
the same thing. Not that she could really blame any of the men.
The area was practically stifling with the scent of one who was
well and truly into the Rage. Only her mistress was not aware of
it, she simply sat there glaring balefully at the view screen.
That, on the other hand, wasn't surprising. After all, the
mistress was the source of it.
"Checking up on the lady, Ch'kai?"
Coming from behind her, Hotsuma's deep voice, as usual,
held a hint of mocking superiority, but this time it held more.
A sense of actual concern, and a probing for information, which
caused her to bite back a retort at the hateful title. Besides,
he had just done her a tremendous service, not that she hadn't
done the same for him on occasion. It was very hard to be
annoyed with him right now for any reason.
Perhaps he did have a need to know, all things considered.
"She just sits there. Except for meals," to which Matori was
actually thankful her mistress was eating again. The girl was
devouring the equivalent of her own body weight in food a day.
"She even sleeps there, when she can. Sometimes I can smell her
anger, overpowering what is going on within her. They feed each
other I think. Whatever we're heading toward, her loathing of it
is beyond reason."
"What are we heading toward, I wonder? Does she even
know?"
Matori nodded, "Yes, she knows." She could feel the
question already forming from her companion. "No, she only says
'He's waiting.' What 'He' is, she will not tell me. She hates
'Him' though. That's good enough for me. We'll destroy this man
and be done with it."
Hotsuma smiled behind her.
So, the mistress has not told Matori what this is really
about, he chuckled to himself. I wonder why? More, I wonder
what Matori would do were she to find out? Perhaps that is what
our lady is taking steps to avoid.
His grin faded and he turned to walk back toward the
berthing where his soldiers were housed for the trip.
I wonder if she's right though? And if she is, how did she
find out?
Of all his questions, that last one sent chills through his
body. It implied something he had feared about his mistress for
some time now. The way she sometimes knew the true nature of
some things even before she had it explained to her. The way
that even when she was clearly overmatched she could still dodge
a blow, sometimes even strike back. She could prolong the
battle, and thus, her inevitable defeat. Could this answer have
come from her strange ability? If so, how far does it now reach?
What is she really?
"Hotsuma."
So she finally grew tired of her vigil.
He didn't really fear his mistress, even now in her present
condition, he didn't fear her. Even with that...intuition of
hers, she had not the power to do him, or any soldier on this
ship, harm. He kept telling himself that when he turned to face
her.
"My lady, how can I be of service?" She was such a scrawny
little girl, he noted for the millionth time. He occasionally
entertained the thought that his former lord might not have been
her sire, though the odds of that were nonexistent. The late
lady was nothing if not faithful to the equally late lord.
Within the past couple of days he'd also seen more than enough to
prove that her father's blood did indeed run through her veins,
if only in spirit.
"I wish to test myself."
"Are you sure? Your time in the regen tanks has healed
you, but..."
"I will see you in the gym," her tone brooked no dissent.
So...commanding.
Hotsuma would have smiled if that would not have angered
her. At least she's acting like the lady of a house, rather than
a scared and timid little animal afraid to come out of the burrow
because the sun might be too bright..
"Now," she clarified.
"Yes, my lady," he bowed low. It wasn't like he had to
fear for his life during these bouts as he had done for her
father when he was the same age. As for the other complication,
he doubted that would pose an issue. She wasn't even aware of
her own condition, and none had the courage to tell her. If they
were lucky, and she survived this little venture, it might pass
her notice completely for her first time. Even if that were the
eventual end, as Matori already figured out, the furies inside
her were feeding upon each other. It was giving her great
strength of will and incredible focus upon this new purpose.
Perhaps it would give her power enough that she'd give him a mild
workout this time.
Gesturing forward, he allowed his lady to pass in front of
him and lead the way. She proceeded onward in the metallic
corridors of the ship. Coming to the entrance to the gym, she
stopped before entering.
Her back still turned to the man behind her she asked,
"Tomorrow we reach the planet of Y'tak, Hotsuma. Are your men
ready?"
This time Hotsuma did smile, "You insult us, my lady."
She glanced back, "Do I?"
"We'll know soon enough," he replied with a shrug.
----------------
Tsugaru, admiral of the G'ky star forces, cast another
nervous glance toward the girl sleeping in the chair beside him
upon the bridge. Her slumber was anything but restful; not with
the way she tossed and turned. If only she'd retire to her room
where the beds were soft and her current condition wasn't putting
every single man on the bridge on edge. She wouldn't, though.
She wanted to be right there, watching...waiting, until they
finally arrived at their destination.
He only hoped that the Y'tak wouldn't blast them out of the
sky before he had a chance to explain their unauthorized presence
so close to their throneworld. Families in their empire didn't
take kindly to such intrusions. After all, the heirs to the
families resided on these worlds. Anything that could be a
threat to their lives, such as the unauthorized troop transport
they were in, was to be dealt with immediately and without mercy.
And even with the power contained on this ship, it would be
unlikely they'd survive it if the Lord or his Lady of Y'tak were
to take matters in their own hands. No one on this ship had
power enough to match the head of such a prestigious family.
Especially, he glanced at the girl again, not our lady who
should have it.
The only thing that would save her is that she is now Heir
to all of Tetran, and had the backing of the Emperor, himself.
To attack her was to attack him, and he had a slight problem with
those that dared such an act. Often times they found themselves
dying...quite painfully if he had time for it.
Of course, none of that would even matter if Lord Y'tak
shot first and asked questions later. That would be it, and off
Tsugaru would go, straight to Hell, for no other reason than his
mistress had a bug up her ass!
"Navigator reports that we are coming up on the Y'tak
throneworld," announced a voice from within his mind. "Ten
minutes 'til we drop out of hyperspace."
Sighing brushed back his long brown hair and casually began
to straighten out his green jumpsuit. Better to meet the Lord of
Pain, and master of The Mad One looking somewhat presentable, he
thought glumly.
"Acknowledged," he sent back, "Inform me when we are about
to arrive."
Barely hearing the telepathic reply, he made ready to wake
the girl beside him. Her eyes were already open, however, and
she was staring intently at the bridge view screen.
"We're almost there."
How did she..? "Yes, my lady. The Navigator estimates
roughly ten minutes until we reach their world. Might I suggest
my lady we drop out of hyperspace on the outskirts of their
system and contact..."
She cut him off quickly, "The Y'tak will not be able to
answer you. Bring up a map of their world."
"My lady, are you so..."
Her blue eyes bored into him, "Bring. Up. The. Map."
He nodded to the operator on the console to the left of
him. The map flashed up on the view screen.
"Land there, just outside the mountain range on J12," she
commanded.
"We'll die before we get there."
A slight creasing of her mouth graced her features, the
first thing he'd seen akin to a smile from the girl in weeks.
"Not before we get there, no." Suddenly she turned her full
attention to the screen. At the same time the Navigator informed
him they were about to reenter normal space. He wondered how she
possibly knew? There was no way for her to have picked up on
what his Navigator was sending to him, so how?
Further speculation was curtailed as the blue-grey of
hyperspace gave way to the familiar black sheet of night, with
its pinpoints of starry light in the background. There, taking
up much of the center of the screen, was the world in question.
Everyone braced themselves for an attack...which after a
few moments was obviously not going to come. And in a few
moments more, everyone on the bridge could see why.
"Sensor report!"
The tech behind Admiral Tsugaru shook his head, "Nothing.
Too much interference from below. It'll take some time to cut
through the electromagnetic irregularities in the atmosphere."
A world that was supposed to be green and lush, now lay
grey and lifeless. Its crust had broken open over most of the
world, and the bright orange blood of the planet seeped out from
its wounds, belching ungodly amounts of smoke and ash into the
already scorched atmosphere. Lightning, so powerful it could be
seen from the orbit they now resided in, leapt from cloud to
cloud and to the planet itself, tearing out new and bigger chunks
of earth and rock. This was to say nothing of the atmosphere
itself, which seemed to be fighting itself every which way.
Furious storms rose up, and died just as quickly all over the
continents and seas, not seeming to be able to gain any momentum,
but contributing to the overall chaos that ravaged the landscape
just the same. It was almost as if they had come to a world when
it was being ravaged by that unknown enemy instead of after
the...
Oh no.
"Prepare to land."
He looked toward the girl in disbelief, but her face held
no trace of anything other than a terrible resolve.
"My lady," he acknowledged. He closed his eyes and sent
his awareness to every person on the ship, "Prepare for
planetfall. All hands, make ready and buttress the shields.
General Hotsuma, at three-thousand feet you may begin." The
spectacle below on the planet was breathtaking, true, but the
combined might of those on the ship could compensate for it with
laughable ease.
As if the planet were as calm as a babe in its sleep, the
ship drifted down through the storm and heat with nary a scratch
on it, gently touching down on the surface below. Even before it
had landed though, figures from within had jettisoned themselves
from the ship and now drifted below, enveloped in light of
various shades. As each landed they created a defensive
perimeter around the ship, stretching some five hundred feet in
any direction surrounding the vessel.
A hatchway from below the ship opened, and some fifty men,
covered in dirty brown, yet form fitting armor, literally flew
down below creating yet another protective barrier within the one
already protecting the ship. This one, however was for the three
who flew within the mass of men. They were dressed in armor of a
similar style to the soldiers, yet colored in a shimmering blue,
and flanked a third, much smaller girl who also wore the luminous
ultramarine raiment. Yet, aside from the fact she was quite a
bit smaller than the three who surrounded her, the only other
notable difference was that her long, platinum blond hair had
been caught in the wind and blew wildly about. Other than
Matori, none seemed to really notice this. As for Matori's
thoughts on the subject, she kept them well hidden as she tried
vainly to take her eyes off her lady. It was almost as if she
were seeing something about the girl for the very first time, and
whatever it was, it compelled her utmost attention as the girl
gazed about the shattered landscape.
<Disturbed - Fear>
"HEY MAN! WASSUP?! WASSUP MAN?!"
"SCATTER!"
The girl barely had time to register Hotsuma's warning.
She quite suddenly found herself nearly a mile away from the
exploding wreckage of the ship she had emerged from, cradled in
Matori's arms.
Similarly other explosions occurred from all around the
former defensive perimeter, destroying her troops left and right.
The familiar feel of psionic energies and the lights of the
weapons of focus sprang up all around her, as her troops fought
back against their unknown assailant.
"WHOSE YER DADDY?! YOU WANNA KNOW WHO YER DADDY IS, HUH?!"
That voice...it's the same as my dream! the girl realized.
The soldiers had no idea where the attacks were coming
from, and were blasting at everything around them. They were
hitting nothing but air and dirt to their dismay. The girl tried
to extend her senses just as those around her were likely doing,
but found nothing just like...no wait.
"THERE!" she sprang from the arms of her handmaiden and
fired off a force wave at a spot in the sky behind her. Though
it didn't seem to have any power to stop whatever it was, all
felt the disturbance of her wave hitting something far more
substantial than air and stone.
Having been discovered the thing dropped straight down into
the center of her troops, creating a large crater on impact.
Everyone turned in its direction, beholding the being for one
shocked moment.
The girl could only discern two things within that span.
The impossibly dark clothing it wore, and the eyes into which all
the starry universe was reflected. It was more than enough
confirmation for her.
It only whispered, yet all heard its voice, "It's me.
That's right. I'm yer daddy."
The moment passed; the remaining soldiers focused their
will upon the being in the newly formed crater. Its landing zone
became the epicenter of a conflagration of power that could have
obliterated the planet many times over; focused instead on that
one little point. The air warped and twisted around as the
forces unleashed sought to annihilate all within its sphere of
influence. Colors of every shade imaginable filled the impact
zone with an every shifting symphony of illumination. And the
sound, the tortured shriek of reality being torn apart, deafened
even their resilient hearing.
Unscathed, the being strolled out of the combined mettle of
nearly a hundred Tetranian warrior wills, looked about itself at
those that had attacked it...
And smiled.
"Shit! Run!"
Not even needing Hotsuma's warning, Matori grabbed the girl
and flew toward the nearby mountain range hoping to find cover
from what was about to happen. She didn't spare any thought to
discern where the others went or what was happening to the
warriors amidst the screams and explosions. It wasn't hard to
imagine, considering what she had just witnessed.
Having broken the sound barrier many times over, she found
herself instantly at the spires of rock. Slowing down as much as
her fear allowed her to, she wove her way into the labyrinth of
peaks and jagged rocks hoping to find someplace to hide.
"We can't...we can't fight that! No one can fight that!"
Matori babbled on and on.
The child in her arms was squirming quite madly. Matori's
grip was far too hard, and the girl felt her ribs beginning to
pop. Fortunately, Matori found a cave to settle down into, and
hoped that the living nightmare she had seen would just forget
about them and move on. No matter how ludicrous the idea would
have been to someone a bit more in control of her faculties.
Inside the cave she loosened her grip on the girl, but did
not let go, no matter how much the child commanded it of her.
That monster would not get her lady. No, never, never, never!
"MATORI!" the woman shook her head, "What was that? What
are you talking about?"
Reflexively, Matori pulled the girl to her, "Don't worry.
He won't get you! He'll never get you! Never!"
The blonde haired girl rolled her eyes. Matori continued
her panicked ranting and hugging, while the girl tried to take
stock of the situation, weathering the smothering of over-
protective mothering Matori was issuing upon her. Whatever was
out there had scarred the life out of her handmaiden, and the way
she kept talking told the girl that Matori knew exactly what it
was.
The cave hadn't run that deep, and the girl could still see
the outside clearly. Rain started falling without any warning,
and her limited infrared vision picked up that the temperature of
it was nearly boiling. This was confirmed a moment later as the
drops almost completely evaporated when they hit the ground
outside the cave. How rain was even falling like that was beyond
her. In any event, she'd have to wait until her servant calmed
down enough to get information out of her. Honestly though, she
didn't care what that thing turned out to be. She just wanted to
take head and crush it in her fists...slowly; feeling its skull
and brains ooze between her fingers.
-------
<Disturbed - The Game>
The being smiled and blinked out of existence. Reappearing
directly in front of one of the warriors of Y'tak in that same
instant, the man was barely given time to register what had just
happened before his body was torn into a thousand tiny shreds.
Only a thousand tiny pieces, the perpetrator of the act was a
perfectionist after all. Be it love or mass murder, there was a
work ethic to be followed here.
Beams of energy colored in all the shades of the rainbow
and usurped forces of nature lashed out where the being had just
prematurely removed one of their number from the Great Wheel of
Life. They hadn't even the time to think they might have gotten
him before another of their number found himself with a large
hole where his heart used to be. Not to mention his stomach,
liver, and a good portion of his spine, but at that point he
wasn't really counting much of anything anymore. Again the beams
of power lashed out where the thing had just been, only
succeeding in turning the body of their former comrade to ash in
mid fall. By that point, their assailant had already delivered
unto another of their number a similar fate. He didn't even
bother to wait the split second required for the survivors to
home in on him and make their attempt to stop him before sailing
past two more and tearing their heads from their shoulders.
Slowing in mid flight, the being charged the heads with energy.
Twisting in mid air he lobbed one of them at a group of fighters
behind him, killing a few, and scattering the rest. Completing
the turn, their attacker lobbed the other at the survivors
killing a few more. The entity laughed ruthlessly at their
feeble efforts to try and destroy it as he picked off a few more
with carefully placed shots.
Realizing they were being overwhelmed, the remaining few
fighters took to the air in every direction, hoping that at least
a few would survive. They got no more than a few miles, before
an invisible force wave, ripped through their psionic defenses
like so much tin foil...they fared no better.
"Well, I suppose that was an acceptable workout," their
executioner chuckled to himself. "Now, that takes care of the
small fish. Where are the other four...ah!"
Hovering over the rubble of what used to be a super
mountain, and home to the Y'tak family, two figures could
scarcely believe what they had just seen. Hotsuma in particular
was quite disconcerted.
"But Lord G'ty said he'd made peace with him. The lord
said he'd not attack us again. This isn't right...this can't be
happening..."
Tsugaru grabbed Hotsuma by the shoulders, "Is that what I
think that is?!" Hotsuma barely inclined his head in an
affirmative gesture, "How?! HOW?!"
"I don't...I don't..." He suddenly stiffened. The enemy
had just spotted them, and was waving at them from his position
nearly fifty miles away, "Get ready! He's just..."
"Hi."
Neither saw or felt the man move. There had been no
energies indicative of teleportation of dimensional warping that
would suggest faster than light maneuvers heralding his approach.
Yet there he was, floating in front of the pair before they could
even discern he'd made the trip. Tsugaru released Hotsuma and
floated back for his first real look at one who had brought them
across the Andromeda Galaxy. The man waited patiently, arms
crossed, and lips curling into a cruel smirk as Tsugaru finished
his inspection.
Hotsuma made ready to speak, but the man raised his hand
and closed off the General's vocal cords. This had the added
effect of removing his ability to breath...not that it was such a
bad thing, for Tetranians could exist for quite a number of hours
on a single breath of air. Still it was quite discomforting to
have it forced upon him.
"I know, I know. You're probably thinking 'Hey, didn't Lord
G'ty do something about our worst nightmare?' and I'd have to
reply 'Well, yeah, but that was before recent events.'" The man's
sadistic smile deepened. "Then you'd have to ask about what
recent events, and I'd have to make up some bullshit excuse, like
you ate my frog a few hundred years ago," he started chuckling at
that, "or something of that nature." He lowered his hand; Hotsuma
took a shuddering breath. "But take heart. You're going to die,
and it's going to suck...and probably hurt a lot too."
The pair put their backs to each other and assumed a ready
stance, faces grim. The man scratched his white beard and
sighed, actually seeming regretful as he looked at the two doomed
men before him. Looking upward he struggled with some inner
decision, arriving at some sort of conclusion.
"How about this. Since I'm feeling like someone probably
SHOULD stop me, I'll give you both," he paused and argued
something with himself for a moment, "ten seconds. I stand right
here and won't fight back. I can feel the power to destroy a
planet and more within each of you; unlike the red-shirts I just
walked through. Maybe together, you'll have a shot." He folded
his arms over his shoulders and drifted back a bit. Lightning
flashed around the hovering demon and scorching hot rain began to
fall, as if in heralding in someone's trip to the fiery abyss.
"So kill me," the smirk returned to the being's face, "If
you can."
--------
"...if you...can..."
"What was that, my lady?"
The girl shook her head, "I don't know. I just..." A wave
of vertigo hit her suddenly, and she slumped back into her
handmaiden's arms.
"Lady? What's wrong?"
<Disturbed - Voices>
She saw her General and Admiral breathing heavily, arms
lowering from what had been an all or nothing attack.
"So that was it, huh?" She felt...disappointment. Regret.
Sadness as Hotsuma flashed toward her, and her arms stopped his
strike, locking his arms across...her chest? Wait...what?
For a moment she felt the attention taken away from
Hotsuma, and directed at her. He...she? smiled, "Finally gotcha!
Watch this, little one." A quick shrug and she felt the bones of
her General's arm snap like so much cheap plastic.
Hotsuma screamed. She screamed. Pulling away from her
servant, she grasped her head trying to keep the images away, but
still they came no matter how hard she tried to stop it. She was
forced to watch as Tsugaru tried to make a quick escape from the
monster, only to see through the demon's eyes, as he ruthlessly
shot the feeling man down with energy directed from his eyes.
"Damn. I just nicked him," she watched through his eyes as
Tsugaru plummeted into the ruins of the mountain below, "Guess
I'll have to get him here in a minute. After I dispose of this
one, of course." She felt his amusement, coupled strangely with
that sense of despair she sensed moments ago, "So tell me, girl.
Do you enjoy what you see? Shall I kill this one slowly?" She
shook her head no as hard as she could. "Quickly then? I
suppose, since it is a lady asking..." She felt the demon let go
of her General...then catch Hotsuma's head between his...her?
hands and twist quickly.
She screamed again, "Please stop!"
"Stop?" he asked in disbelief, "It's too late for that
girl." She felt his amusement bubbling over into laughter, "But
you know, as entertaining as this is, I really want to get down
there and beat your Admiral until he is kinda dead. Watch me
now...I think you'll find this quite interesting." With that she
felt herself speed toward the ground.
"YOU BASTARD!!!"
"I am aren't I? I really am. Oh look, there's your
Admiral."
Tsugaru struggled to get to his feet. She could see a
massive burn across his back, the wound had fortunately
cauterized. Not that it mattered. His armor had melted right to
his skin. Tsugaru slipped in the mud and rain, falling again to
the ground. The man who had her mind entrapped stalked over to
her stumbling Admiral and lifted him from the ground by his neck.
Odd, she noted, Tsugaru's feet still touched the ground.
This man must be quite short.
The monster brought Tsugaru close so his eyes might look
into her Admiral's, "Run."
Flicking his wrist, he sent the wounded man into the
rubble. Inside that same hand a glowing ball of light formed.
Casually he lobbed it in the general direction of Tsugaru's
hapless flight into the ruins. Through him, the girl sensed
Tsugaru blasting his way out the other side. He was already
trying to find cover in another area before the energy ball
struck and destroyed where he had been.
"I beg you! Stop it! I'll do anything! Please, what do
you want? I'll do it! Just quit!"
Matori, realizing what was now going on, tried to enter her
lady's mind. She was rudely tossed back on her bottom a moment
later with the distinct impression of a warning not to do that
again or she'd wind up lobotomized. Helplessly, Matori could
only watch as her mistress was put through whatever Hell the dark
God desired.
The man snickered, "I want you to see Tsugaru die. Just
like you saw Hotsuma." He glanced down to his other hand where
she could see he still had a firm grasp on the distended neck of
her murdered General. "That's what I want, little one."
She felt him...shift himself in reality to hover on a perch
above Tsugaru's temporary haven. She felt his amusement as he
kicked some rocks onto the Admirals head. Tsugaru looked back
up, terror flooding his features.
"How ya doing?"
Her Admiral ran, trying to weave a complex enough pattern
through the destruction of the Y'tak's mountain home to lose his
pursuer. Coming to a small canyon, he dove inside, there to
wedge himself into a small cave in the hopes the man hunting him
had been led astray.
"You know, you're not making this very difficult."
In panic Tsugaru turned, trying to force his way deeper
into the interior, but only saw the two star filled eyes in the
inky blackness.
"If you can't make the effort, I suppose I'll just have to
kill you now. Nothing personal."
Tsugaru tried to scream, but found it rather hard without a
throat. With this being's eyes she saw him fall in the darkness,
clear as day. Tsugaru's blood pooled around the demon's feet,
the heart not yet realizing that the rest of him had expired.
She felt the man's sense of...satisfaction. "Was it good for you
too?" she heard him whisper to her in parting.
The Goddess damn you! The goddess damn you to the black
pit of Hell you crawled out of! she cried into the void of her
mind, but to no avail for he was no longer listening.
She, however, was now aware of her surroundings. Most of
all she was aware that Matori's motherly embrace, which she found
herself surrendering to however unwillingly. The monster's
forced link had drained her considerably and she was too weak to
do more than moan a protest. Matori pretended not to hear it.
In a few short minutes, much of the girl's former strength
had returned. She had not forced Matori to let her go.
"I saw him. I saw him kill Hotsuma and Tsugaru," she
managed to say. Matori nodded as if she had known all along that
was happening. "I feel him out there. Somewhere," Matori
stroked the girl's hair, examining the threads with her fingers.
Such fine fair hair. So fine that to even try to put it into any
style would split every end she had. "He destroyed the Y'tak
like they were nothing! Our own fighters, Hotsuma,
Tsugaru...nothing! Who...what the Hell is this monster!?" She
suddenly forced herself away from Matori's embrace so she could
look her servant in the eyes, "You know! Tell me!"
"He is..."
"Pardon me, you mind if I come in a minute? The rain out
there is a total killer. Heh, killer..." A sharp crack of
lightning behind him silhouetted his features in the doorway; the
resulting thunder heralding his arrival like the trumpets at
doomsday. Matori put the girl behind her quickly, glaring
hatefully at the short figure walking towards them. "Oh, by the
way: I should probably return these to you." He tossed two
bodies onto the floor. Hotsuma's neck leaned at a ninety-degree
angle to the rest of him. Tsugaru stared at the ceiling, his
eyes still pleading for mercy in death. The tiniest trickle of
blood flowed from where his neck had been only minutes before.
The young girl bit her lip and started trembling.
"If it's any consolation," he cocked that maddeningly
superior grin the girl had begun to truly loath, "they died like
the little bitches they were. But then you know that, don't you
girl?" he laughed gently.
"Get away you son of a bitch!"
The aforementioned son of a bitch, blinked, then focused on
Matori as if he had just noticed she was there, "Oh! Did you
want me to wait outside? I realize you're the girl's Ch'kai and
all, but I had no idea you were fulfilling such duties now..."
His grin widened considerably when the girl behind Matori
digested his words, "Oh wait! She wasn't supposed to know that
her parents meant you to do that for her, was she? She wasn't
supposed to know that you were there to make her young body cry
out in..."
"Matori?"
Matori risked a glance back toward her mistress. There she
saw in the girl's pained a question. Please, she seemed to ask,
please say he's lying?
Tears formed in her own eyes when she realized her lady
could see the guilt within her soul.
Turning back, Matori's defiance had not, despite the
monster revealing to her mistress her secret shame. "I won't let
you have her!"
"My dear woman, just how do you plan to stop me?"
The girl behind Matori not so much as blinked before her
handmaiden sprang forward and had the being pinned to the cave
wall. With that same motion, she felt Matori's psionic energies
wrapping around her and then throwing her forcefully from the
cave with a telepathic shout of, "RUN!"
The man looked genuinely surprised, and then started to
laugh.
"I won't let you kill my lady!" Matori shouted fiercely.
"I'm told the most dangerous place to be is between a
mother and her child. It's been so very long since I've seen
those feelings in any of the race of Tetran. I'd begun to believe
they had finally been eradicated," he smiled gently, a touch of
sadness gracing his bearded features, "I'm truly grateful they're
not, but that does not change what must now happen," he grabbed
the arm holding him down. Within it was power capable of
shattering mountains when focused. Perhaps it even held the
power to devastate a world, should woman with the tattoo of
triple hash marks upon each cheek employ her very life to fuel
her ability to change the universe about her.
Like an aluminum can, her arm crumpled in his grip. Her
resulting scream of pain was silenced as he backhanded her
through the opposing wall. Matori careened past the cave wall
and through the ground, cutting a groove nearly a mile long
before her momentum wore off.
Her vision blurred in and out of focus as she tried vainly
to stand and take stock of her injuries. Pain lanced through her
chest at every motion leading her to believe that probably every
rib she had was now broken. Her left arm was totally useless
after what was done to it. Her right one was out of place but
useable. Further analysis was not practical, the man in the dark
form-fitting suit of clothing was already near.
Reaching her, he bent down and touched her face, tracing
the lines of her tattoo, in a familiar gesture, "You know my own
mother, at least the one who raised me, had these. They mean
you've been through training at the Re'tarain abbey, and that
when you choose your master, you will follow them to the end.
Most think it's that when your master is chosen for you, but we
both know that's not the reality of the training." He pulled a
black handkerchief from nowhere and wiped the blood off her face,
"I can tell...you really didn't need these to be devoted to that
girl, did you?"
"Won't...let you..."
He continued on, smiling gently at her continued defiance,
"With everything she had, she was devoted, much like you. And
like you she didn't need a stint at the abbey for it. That's
such a rare thing in a people who prize power above all else."
He finished wiping her face and tossed the kerchief over his
shoulder. It disappeared in a puff of smoke. "So before you
die, I think it's only fair that I tell you a secret. It's just
a little one, but I think you'll find it...most enlightening."
-----------
"Whoooaaa..." Weaving and stumbling like a punch-drunk
boxer, the girl stumbled to the nearest wall in the bunker she
had been tossed into.
When her head finally cleared she was able to take note of
her surroundings. It was actually a cargo hold, probably left in
the Y'tak storage bays to be sorted out or shipped out before
they were destroyed. Not quite filled to the brim, but still
well stocked. She looked back at her landing site, where
something had cushioned her fall. There, amidst the broken
plastic crates, were dozens of squashed emergency food packets.
"Saved by food," she managed a bitter laugh at the
absurdity.
It wasn't hard to trace her entry point back to its origin
via the destroyed containers. The rather large hole in the side
was a definite give-away as well. She'd have to get out of here
and...
"MATORI!"
The girl sped out of the cargo hold, realizing as she did
so, that she had no idea how far her handmaiden had actually
tossed her.
"Hey there!"
The girl's blue eyes narrowed in anger, her initial plan to
take to the skies forgotten in the face of the owner of the voice
who just greeted her. Turning to her side she saw him perched
upon some rocks that used to be part of someone's room. For some
reason she felt that same hollow sensation she felt when her
parents were killed. For him to be here, meant that...
Before she completed the thought he tossed to her feet.
"Matori!" Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. She
bent low to look at her handmaiden's face, "Oh goddess!"
Matori's eyes fluttered open and looked at her mistress.
Her hand reached up to touch the girl's face. Her mistress
grabbed that hand in her own and brought it to her cheek, weeping
openly. Matori smiled, a single tear of her own trailed its way
down her cheek.
"My...little...lady..."
And then Matori was no more.
"She died well," he told her. The girl placed Matori's
hand across the chest of her handmaiden's armor, without pause
the girl did likewise with Matori's other hand.
Sleep well, the girl told her silently. I'll be with you
soon.
"As well as anyone could." Jumping from his perch he
landed softly and walked toward them. "You should be proud. She
loved you dearly...oh wait...that's right, Tetranians don't love,
do they?"
The girl turned her gaze of pain and sorrow upon the man,
letting it blossom into full-blown hatred. Now more than
anything else, she wanted to hear him beg for mercy before she
ended his miserable excuse for a life.
He considered the waif of a girl before him, so thin and
weak it seemed as if a stiff breeze could blow her over. He
chuckled at the irony, "So tell me, how do you feel right now?"
<Disturbed - Stupify>
"I...I HATE YOU!!!"
He stood, arms open invitingly; that cocky maddening grin
settling on his face. "Then why don't you do something about it?"
A forward speed strike toward his midsection with her fist,
focusing all her psionic energies into a single piercing blast.
Her instructor would have been proud. Even now her technique was
flawless. However, even Matori could not hide the disappointment
that her power and speed would never go past that of the weakest
of their race. Never more so did she feel the lack as she did
now. The man stepped to the side, his elbow slamming into her
back, sending her right to the ground.
He kicked her into the air and caught her by the chin.
"Have you figured out who I am yet? I mean, I've given you
enough hints by this point."
She'd never been hit quite that hard before, it took her a
moment to work through the pain to formulate an answer. "You
are..." He cocked his eyebrows expectantly, "You are...DEAD!"
Her hands came around, focusing the energy she had left, she
slammed them into either side of his head. The resulting
explosion blew her eardrums out. Fortunately she'd had enough
foresight to clench her eyes shut.
"Not bad child," she heard in her mind, "Not quite the
answer I was looking for though," Clearly he was unscathed, as
always. It was like nothing could hurt this
maddening...maddening...
"Ah, I see you've figured it out. Now, say it."
Hotsuma and Tsugaru...they'd been scared. They knew no
fear, even when faced with death, but this being scared them.
Matori was in tears when she'd recognized him, promising to keep
the monster from destroying her. Family after family had fallen
to this dark being's scourge. She remembered now, stories of
this happening before...a very long time ago. Her father told
her these stories, for it was he who had tracked the one
responsible down. The one with those eyes that seemed to
encompass all of starry space. The one who her father described
as the madness the Tetranian race unleashed upon themselves. The
destroyer, the ravager of worlds! The left hand of the master of
Hell itself! Chaos raged in this dark god's mind and soul, with
no way to tell what he might do from one moment to the next!
"The Mad One."
A genuine smile graced his bearded face, "That's right."
She felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, and
she knew right then just how bad it really was. This was the
nightmare of their race, brought to gruesome unholy life before
her, grinning gleefully at her realization. But wait, didn't her
father...
"Ah yes. I did promise you I was going to talk about your
father, didn't I?" Casually, he tossed her into a nearby
embankment of debris, cracking a couple of her ribs when she made
an impression in the junk. "Heh, you came all this way to avenge
your parents and your people...well, mostly your parents, but
tell me, what else did you know about them?"
He blinked from view, appearing in front of her before she
registered him disappearing the first time, "Didn't you ever
wonder why they never had you eliminated? Why you, a pathetic,"
Pain exploded over her face as the back of his hand struck.
"and weak,"
Another slap and more pain, she felt a trickle of blood
seeping from her busted lip.
"failure of an heir were suffered to live?"
He grabbed her neck, roughly jerking her from indentation
in the rubble her body had made on impact, "Funny, and I got this
from Matori's mind, your personal servant. Your...Ch'kai."
A slightly nauseated expression came over the girl when she
remembered what Matori had confirmed in the cave.
"Yeah, that surprised me too. But then, I looked a little
further and found out why. Turns out, she was to keep you under
control, without robbing you of your precious virginity. It was
so you could be a gift to their lord and master, the very one who
robbed them of their noggins."
A diabolical laugh escaped his lips, "That one little
special wound that does not heal, the one that you'd have had
inflicted right now, had your parents allowed nature to take its
course."
He leaned close and whispered in her now healed ears, "You
feel it don't you, the burning Rage, the white hot passion inside
you? That's why they call it the Rage, you know? All control is
lost, and the need to FUCK takes over. Normally you'd be riding
some poor sap's bologna pony, but had your parents had their way,
you'd have had Matori's head between your thighs."
He shuddered. "And to think, she loved you as a daughter.
The knowledge of that duty must have been Hell."
He let her drop to her knees, watching as she processed
this new information, the look of betrayal on her face growing
deeper every moment.
There was no way! Would her parents had given her to...had
done that to her and Matori? It was imposs...
"Matori herself confirmed it you know," he reminded her
gravely. The smoldering agony of the truth flared through her,
anew. She already knew his words to be fact, but now his words
have given them an unholy, inescapable life that she could not
deny no matter how much she might have wanted it.
"Why are you here? Why are you doing this?" Why are you
doing this to me? she finished in her deepest thoughts. She
remembered too late, that he could hear those too.
"Why? I told you, they ate my frog!" He paused at her
shocked look, "Oh alright, I can't back that up. I told your
father a few thousand years ago, after he discovered what I had
done, and why I had done it."
The girl managed to struggle to her feet, a bit of distance
away from him. Her body's natural healing abilities were
bringing her back to a semblance of normalcy the longer the man
talked. Maybe if he talked long enough, she'd have one more
shot. Fortunately he seemed too absorbed in his explanation to
notice her stray thought.
"I...convinced him, that unless I was given cause to do so,
I'd never go on another hack and slash." He smiled at the girl.
"That changed about eight hundred years ago. And do you want to
know what changed, girl?" He vanished, and reappeared behind
her. "Your parents were married."
"What does that have to do with anything?" she found
herself asking.
He walked away, seemingly puzzled. "You know, I didn't
understand either. But after what happened back then, it was all
over. You all had to die," he chuckled.
"So now that you know that, tell me, what do you think you
know of your father specifically?" An amused smile played across
his lips.
"I know enough!" she cried spitefully, "I know your actions
killed him!"
The smile was matched with equally cruel laughter, the
laughter of a joke finally realized.
"No," he paused for effect, "I am your father."
The words echoed within the bowels of her very soul,
sinking down deep where they played slowly over and over within
her consciousness.
"No," she already knew her denials were in vain, "NO! It's
not true! That's impossible!"
"I think you already know it to be true."
And she did. In every fibre of her being, every single
particle of her existence cried to her the truth of his words.
She was the daughter to the demon tormentor of their race!
She screamed her denial a the sadistic joke her race, no
the Mad One...no the whole fucking universe had made of her life!
He laughed. The cruel joke of her life was little more
than the amusement for this dark lord of destruction! Oh what
irony, to be the failed progeny of her parents, and the powerless
daughter of this hell spawn.
"It was so easy girl. I'm told it's well known practice
among gods. Your parents provided the raw material, and I...I
added just a bit of myself. I took what would have been a
genetic mutant, a power beyond belief, and augmented it further
with a piece of me. It's a big galaxy after all, and I certainly
could have used the help with its systematic annihilation. My
daughter, SUCH A DISSAPOINTMENT!"
The Mad One lashed out in fury, striking the helpless girl
with a white wave of power. Her body was thrown through several
layers of the former Y'tak home, impacting what had been the
nearly unbreakable seat of power from which the Lord and Lady of
this family had ruled.
Her consciousness was fading. She struggled with all her
might against the darkness, and only with shear force of will,
fighting through the excruciating agony her body was in, was she
able to stay awake. She knew her time was over now, but she'd
meet it head on. Like her...like Matori.
Betrayed by her parents, they had hurt her far worse than
this. To be used by the tyrant that executed them, she supposed
it was a fitting irony.
Her own hand maiden, the only person who really cared about
her, was to be...Ch'kai to her...and then Matori gave her life so
that the girl might live a few seconds longer.
To find out that she was daughter to the destroyer of her
people, only to be called a disappointment again...just like she
had been called all her life. All her fucking life!
Weak!
Pathetic!
She just wanted it over! Wanted it to end, wanted
everything to end! Burn it to the ground and then burn the
ground underneath leaving only ashes behind!
"Look at you," he commented; fading into view, "On your
knees like a little bitch! A failure for both sets of parents!
A weakling genetic freak, who cries for her mommy, cause she
couldn't save her. Couldn't even save herself."
He strolled over to her as casually as could be, not even
bothering to hide the contempt. Even now, at her death, it
seemed like things just couldn't resist one last jab at the
parody of existence her life really was.
She wanted did want it over, yes.
A bitter smile played across his lips, "It's over, Yuugi,"
and he struck.
But most of all, she really really wanted to kill this
motherfucker.
Snap.
The blow was caught.
"NEVER!"
<Disturbed - Down with the Sickness>
Her return strike found its mark across his chest. His
clothing ripped like yesterday's newspaper; his skin and blood
faring no better.
Her hatred and anger grew stronger, grew maddening in its
intensity. The feeling of wanting to KILL washed over her like a
crimson river of the blood she wanted to bathe in. She had been
poked, and prodded, and pushed, and driven past every limit until
the only thing left within her mind was the need to lash out at
all creation. A primal instinct awoke that was hell bent on
survival, and that meant the death of all that could possibly
threaten it...starting with the one who killed her Matori! Her
'father' would pay dearly for that, and for everything else he'd
dared do to her.
Something deep and terrible hidden inside of her had broken
free of the prison she had always kept it in. Had someone else
been present, they might have heard an audible snapping when all
sanity was driven from her.
An inhuman scream tore itself from inside of her sounding
like all the torments of the damned and doomed souls spewing
forth from the pit of Hell. The sound became a thing of
substance, surrounding her in a neon orange battle aura, which
grew to cover the whole of the mountain. The planet shook in
protest at this new force. Already weakened by the Mad One's
attack, it simply broke apart, spewing lava and the energies the
girl was channeling through herself.
Rising to his feet, the Mad One clutched his chest,
surprised the girl had managed to harm him. Surprised further
still when he felt a hot liquid seeping between his fingers. He
pulled his well-tanned hand back, and studied the glowing crimson
flow upon it. A pleased laughter suddenly burst forth from him.
"Yessssss...that's the way girl! FEEL the Rage! Let it
consume you!"
The girl screamed still, feeling a sensation somewhere
between oblivion and ecstasy as things shifted and mutated both
inside and outside her body. Blackened claws sprang forth from
her hands, ruining the gauntlets she wore. Her feet emulated her
hands, and the boots of her armor met the same fate as the
gauntlets. Her newly grown fangs dug into her lips as dual
blades of bone sprang forth from each forearm, causing the arm
guards to fall away like a newly shed skin. An explosion of pure
psi force issued forth from her. It blasted the rest of that
constraining protection from a body that had grown too large and
full for it to contain.
The clouds that had been pouring down rain had been pushed
to the side by the girl's unchecked will. Sunlight streamed
forth to the desolate land, but its illumination failed to rival
the glow of Yuugi's aura, which now contracted about the girl,
for she was done with her change.
There now, Yuugi stood, fists clenched and tears
evaporating as they were shed. Her long and full obsidian
colored hair writhed like a thing alive about her as the flame of
her aura pulsed and throbbed in a dance all its own.
The Mad One walked forward and appraised the newly
transformed girl. Her underclothes hung in tatters upon her
young body; her cobalt blue eyes were filled with nothing but the
desire to issue death upon the man waking toward her. His
laughter was filled with a strange sort of satisfaction, "Indeed,
you are everything I could have hoped for. If only you could see
yourself. You are beautiful!"
He held his hand toward her invitingly, "Join me. Together
we can plunge this empire into chaos, and take our revenge upon
those that have done those terrible things to us."
He looked down suddenly, seeing her fist buried in his
abdomen. Her solid blue eyes looked up into his, glowing with
the furious heart of a blue quasar.
"Fuck you!"
The irony...he hadn't seen her motion.
Before he could stumble back, her follow up roundhouse sent
him sailing through the wreckage. Just the same way he had sent
so many others. Chuckling, he recovered his footing only to fall
on his knees coughing up blood. Holding out his hand, a staff of
light appeared in it, which he used to push himself to his feet.
"As you wish."
She blinked into existence in front of him; he barely
managed to block the blades on her arms before she decapitated
him. Smiling slightly, he blurred from her view.
If at all possible, her frown deepened as she tried to
discern where he was. Her senses were all hyper extended in this
new body. She planned to use them to their fullest to tear
that...THERE!
The blades on her arms and the staff of light met as she
swung her arm back to block his strike. Shifting her arm down,
she caught his hand. With a mighty heave he was sent sailing
into the air, with her in hot pursuit.
He barely managed to parry her flurry of attempts to slice
him to ribbons. Realizing he was only delaying the inevitable,
he again blurred from her view. Only this time, Yuugi followed,
determined not to lose him this time...no matter the cost.
In the air, warping the dimensions for speeds that made
faster than light maneuvers paltry by comparison, they weaved and
twisted around each other in a courtship of blood and death.
Quickly realizing neither could gain the advantage this
way, the Mad One tried a different tactic. Dismissing his staff,
he brought his hands before him, and focused his powers upon the
girl. She rammed into his attack, with little care of the
consequences.
The burning cauldron of her own energies struggling with
his, burning what was left of her clothing away and searing her
flesh nearly faster than her body could replace it. Still she
struggled on to the source of the opposing force. Closer and
closer did she come, with the fury of power she was fighting
becoming stronger and more desperate. Every moment, she was
proving something to him and especially to herself. He might
have had fury, but she had more. He might have been desperate,
but it was nothing compared to the hatred that filled her now.
She could see his eyes now, those strange star filled eyes,
filled now with something else. Not fear. Even in the face of
what had the power to kill him, he held no fear. Only a sense of
longing, a sense of invitation was present in those mysterious
pools of light.
Her blades struck, cutting through his chest, and into his
black heart. Everything seemed to stop at that moment.
The Mad One floated to the ground, followed by Yuugi behind
him. He looked down at his chest, where his heart had been cut
in twain by her blades.
He laughed.
Yuugi turned to see him on his knees, clutching a wound
that was healing, but would not be swift enough to save this dark
god from her wrath. She walked around and looked him in the
eyes. Again, there was no fear. There was only satisfaction,
and a strange fatherly affection.
Did he want to die? Did he really want her to kill him?
Was this the true purpose to which he had created her?
He nodded. "We all must die sometime. Even we gods. Your
destiny will be great and fraught with many more twists before
you finally fulfill it." He chuckled, enjoying some private
joke. "You'll be a beautiful woman, my daughter. Passionate and
strong!"
Her fist drew back of its own accord, preparing for a blow
that would wake her people from their nightmare.
"Tell the Emperor, when you see him next, that he failed.
Then ask him why."
She could hear his laughter carry on, even after his head
shattered under her blow. On her knees, next to the body of the
Mad One, her tears fell, joining the rain that was now free to
fall. She felt her body return to its more natural state, but
even so, she could feel that the change had left something of
itself behind. Regardless, it was there waiting still, a part of
her she could always call upon when she needed.
She cried there, in the rain and mud, for a very long time.
----------
A rather disheveled bearded man, in sooty black clothing
that was clearly the worse for wear, appeared at the bridge of
his starship. "Ooohh...you, know that girl can really hit!"
The drake, perched on the captain's chair, looked at him
funny.
"No, that was it. The Mad One is finally dead. Other
matters will require our attention now."
The drake looked back to that view screen where he could
see the girl, naked and sobbing in the pouring rain next to the
body of her fallen foe.
"She'll be alright. There's enough food and water there to
keep her alive for years. And the emergency beacon that was in
her ship is still intact. She'll be off the planet in a month,"
he explained patiently. "As for the rest, my daughter is stronger
than she thinks. She will recover. And be far more powerful for
it."
The dragon turned back to regard the visual of Yuugi on the
planet.
"And besides," he said with a smirk, walking to the view
screen, "We'll see her again."
He kissed his fingers, and touched her image, "Be well, my
child. It won't always be like this."
<End Theme - C.W. McCall - Wilderness>
End Notes: You think I might have to pay The Disturbed royalties
for this chapter? ^_- I can be found, as always at
kthardin@yahoo.com
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