A Dead Man's Remnants

[Lucianus Adair]

It was far from the comfort of home-that-was, but it was a fair sight better than being cooped up in a tin, surrounded by the inhospitable, airless cold of space.

Where [member="Blackthorne"] had been at a loss as to what to do, Dahn had thought to try his hand at a little illusory concealment; to no avail, as he had a long way to go to sufficiently obscure much of anything beyond sleight of hand. A small trinket was one thing, but an entire lean-to was another matter entirely. He went bone still a moment, feeling the approach of uninvited guests. And there went Dahl, with the yelling. How many times had he told her to let him do the talking? It wasn't worth mentioning now. The damage was done.

He walked out and looked up to where she was, giving her the very particular glare that said he was going to forgo repeating himself and hope a look was enough to get his point across, futile as it was with her focus elsewhere. Letting it go, Dahn levelled his gaze at the poor sod that had the misfortune to be at the other end of his sister's threat, and those that had come with him, a his lips curling.

"I'd listen to her, were I you. She isn't one to miss."

Nor was he.

 

[Subject 37]

Sven blinked a few times, looking up at the two figures with a slight grimace on his face. His eyes wandered between the two of them as he considered the situation, his lips turning into a slight scowl.

Overtly, he wasn't really fan of jungle born wildlings that pointed weapons at him, mostly because of past experience on places like Dathomir and Kashyyyk. For a second he thought about just leaving, not wanting to deal with all of this, but he knew that Sable would be rather disappointed. So instead he simply let out a sigh and stepped forward, his half dozen men quickly falling into step behind him and spreading out.

"Go ahead." Sven said simply. "See if you can hit me."

They probably could, but as he took another step forward the dozen men behind him raised their rifles."Of course, I'm betting I can hit you more."

Sven had faced down SIth Lords, Jedi Masters, and Mandalorians, two kids with bows didn't really faze him all that much. His hand rested at his side, one palm on the hilt of the short sword he kept on the small of his back, the other resting on the handle of his disruptor.

 

[Blackthorne]

Ohhh...

A challenge.

Dahl's scowl deepened and without nary a second thought she let her arrow fly straight at [member="Sven Talith"]'s head before making quick work to move to cover while nocking another arrow. To her credit - if Sven managed to dodge - the man standing directly behind him would need to dodge as well or risk having an arrow sunk into his chest. Armor notwithstanding, of course, she'd not exactly taken the time to consider these variables.

Shoot first, ask questions later. Watch out for blaster fire.

PEW! PEW! PEW!

Really watch out for blaster fire.

Dahl waited for a pause in the volley before strafing out from behind the stone wall, letting fly another arrow. And then another. Then slipped back into cover, giving a quick glance around for her brother.

[member="Greyhide"]

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Blackthorne"] | [member="Greyhide"]

Sven didn’t dodge the arrow, didn’t have to. The hand that had been resting on the pommel of his sword quickly went wrapping around the hilt, fingers latching and blade pulling free from it’s scabbard with a loud ring. A flick of his finger placed the sword between himself and the arrow, quickened reaction time allowing him to deflect the arrow just in time.

His men of course, reacted instantly. Blaser fired rained down onto the trees where the girl had been standing and towards the boy too, though Sven hardly paid them any mind. He took a step or two back, then pulled something from a clip on one of his soldiers chests.

”I don’t have time for this.” The assassin said in exasperation.

Sable had wanted this ruin, and he wanted to give it to her. That really ended the discussion as far as he was concerned. ”Burn it.”

Sven told his men as arrows rained down. One of them struck a man in the knee, another in the chest, though the armorweave vest prevented it from piercing too deep.

His wife wouldn’t really care if there was a view, and trees grew back eventually. For now he was far too tired, and far too old to be chasing a pair of wildlings through the forest. It was much easier to simply burn the forest to the ground. The ruins would still be there, and this way they’d create their clearing just a little bit faster.

Sven popped the cylinder he’d pulled from the man’s chest, throwing it against one of the trees. It popped, and then suddenly burst into a bright burning flame, the incendiary grenade instantly reacting to the foliage around them.

His men quickly followed his actions. Pulling their own grenades and tossing them into the forest.

 

[Lucianus Adair]

Nothing more was said, save for a sharp curse when the blaster fire started, and for a single sliver of a beat, the thought of shanking [member="Sven Talith"] or any of his men (but really, him most of all) came to mind, but he had a modicum of sense and it was stronger than any half-cocked impulse. For all the countless times he admonished his sister for what caused most of these things to happen, his righteous belief in following his head, rather than the overboil of his emotions, would cost him this time... and not for the first time, either. He knocked and let fly, like clockwork, as he moved to get out of the way of the volley, but his reaction was a tad too slow.

"KRASST!"

A hand went to where the bolt struck and seared right through leather, tore through skin at his left shoulder. That he didn't drop his bow was a testament to having learned something from other times something similar had occurred, and his evasive momentum didn't slow, but now he was diving out of the way into cover, and coming to a crouch for a scant second, before dropping onto his rear. There he remained, probing at the fresh wound, until a wandering glance caught Dahl slipping into cover; his gaze morphed into a glare, and it was enough to pull him to his feet. Only a scant moment after [member="Blackthorne"] returned to cover and started looking around for him, did his back hit the surface next to her, a grunt uttered from between his teeth on impact.

"Well, this sure is nice," he ground out, teeth clenched, his attention divided between his shoulder and his newfound anger, "just look at what you made me do, Des!"

When she didn't respond fast enough, he only got louder and angrier-sounding.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"

Never mind that the forest was burning.

 

[Blackthorne]

Dahl, meanwhile, was a little busy nocking arrows and letting them fly, still intent on rending someone injurious despite the fact that she now saw the men wore reinforced uniforms. She managed to sink one into somebody's eye but whose eye it was would be anybody's guess. She didn't stick around in view long enough to find out.

Probably not the big guy.

"Burn it."

FRWOOOOOOSH!

Definitely not the big guy.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"

O_O ... ;=_=

"What do you mean ME? LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE YOU DO!" she gestured at him, then gestured at his shoulder, "DO YOU EVER NOT GET SHOT?!"

The girl's jaw jutted out to one side as she quickly checked the status of the invasion party; incendiary bomb thrusters engaged. Wide green eyes watched as one of them landed over near where she had the pelts strung up to dry. The hides went up in flames faster than a cat drenched in gasoline. Dahl shot off an arrow at the one responsible for the destruction of property before having to duck back behind the stone wall to avoid a blaster bolt to the face.

She shot her brother a dirty glare, eyeballing his freely bleeding shoulder, "STOP GETTING SHOT. IT'S REALLY PRETTY SIMPLE."

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Blackthorne"] | [member="Greyhide"]

Flames began to rage all around them, the brush, the trees, all of it quickly igniting in sweeping flames. Vines carried the blaze from tree to tree, setting the surrounding forest alight with a roar of heat.

Sven watched the destruction quickly spread.

Arrows still struck his men, a few of them fell, but he hardly seemed to pay them any mind. His blade was still in his hand, every now and again one of the wooden bolts would fly towards him and he would strike it away. A part of him gave thanks to the increased reaction his genetics gave him, another part cursed the ill-luck that they seemed to carry. As the blaze began to set into the forest around them Sven and his men began to advanced onto the ruins themselves. What cover the forest provided was quickly torched away as fire took the forest, loud snaps of branches falling and crackles of bark curling ringing out all around them as the soldiers moved forward in tandem.

Sven was the first over the wall.

He bolted forward, moving with a speed much faster than a man that looked his age had any right to. He sprinted forward, bounding over the wall just as an arrow flew past his head. His eyes briefly caught the glint of the durasteel edge, a frown settling on his lips as he rolled over the ruined stone and quickly came to a stand.

In a quick fluid motion Sven drew his blaster, unloading three bolts in quick succession towards the two wildlings.

 

[Lucianus Adair]

If there was anything he could do with little to no advance thought, arguing was it, being to siblings what breathing was to most. That he pulled Dahl close without another word, with the injured arm no less, spoke to his priorities in the face of danger and the thirteen years thus far that he'd spent acquiring and honing his skills. His teeth gritted against the pain - not much of a resource, not yet - and Dahn planted one foot forward in a firm stance, thrusting the second of his hands ahead. From there bloomed a bubble, enveloping the both of them in a fraction of a moment.

"Stay close," he urged through his teeth, while each of the three bolts pinged off the surface of the bubble, deflected in unpredictable directions, "and get a feel on him."

Eyes locked on the interloper, and Dahn's anger redirected. His lips closed around the grind of his teeth. A long breath hissed out of his nose.

"Who are you," he said, words flat and even, "and why are you here?"

A beat.

"Who. Sent. You."

[member="Blackthorne"] | [member="Sven Talith"]​

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Greyhide"]

"My wife." Sven said as he moved forward, his blaster still raised.

He'd fought enough Jedi in his days to know what he was seeing. A bubble of protection, perhaps one of the most obnoxious abilities in the force that actually existed, also one of the few that could stop him from doing something. The force couldn't effect him, but these things were...well they weren't exactly made up of the force. He couldn't really say what they were, but he knew that he couldn't just step through them either.

A bother that had nearly cost him his life once or twice.

Sven stopped a few meters away from the kids, slowly being joined by the remaining soldiers. A few of them had arrows sticking out of them, either in their armor or somewhere in their flesh, though none of them seemed all that bothered by that fact. Their rifles quickly went up, pointed at the bubble of protection. None of them seemed to be in any mood to deal with the children, and for that matter neither was Sven.

"Now." He instructed. "Lower the bubble."

They were going to die anyway. Might as well make it quick.

 

[Blackthorne]

"I can't," Dahl hissed at her brother, "he's not-"

PEW PEW PEW

Force Bubble was one of Dahn's specialties, not one of her own. Dahl's expertise - if it could truly be called that at this point in their life - lay in the more ... organic of things. Sensing creatures, people, other Force Users. Beast Control. Plant Surge. Using the Force to empower her own body ... those were the things Dahl was good at. Those were the things she'd exceeded the standards set by her parents.

It was one of the things that was failing her at this very moment.

The other soldiers she could sense in general terms. None of them, so far as she could tell, were Force Sensitive, though she'd been fooled before by her own ancestor.

This man pointing his blaster at them, however, was not registering at all. As if he shouldn't even be there. A ghost - no, even ghosts had a presence.

"FETH YOU!" the girl spat.

Haw, haaawwwwwww.

A three-eyed raven came to perch on the wall over the heads of the twins, leaving a trail of wispy black feathers in its wake.

 

[Subject 37]

Sven couldn't help but smile at that, if only because the inside of the protection bubble made this all more...comical for him. Slowly he lowered the Blaster. There was no need for him to keep the weapon raised, not when there were twelve soldiers standing behind him that were doing it for him.

He took a few steps forward, and then slowly squatted down to look the twins in the eye.

The amusement playing across his face was more than a little obvious. This situation...well a couple of children in the woods attempting to kill him, both of them obviously force users, both of them at least somewhat trained, it was funny. Not to mention unexpected.

"I've killed enough Jedi to know that this thing can't last forever." With a free hand he picked up a small stone off the floor and tossed it at the bubble. "You'll eventually get tired, it'll fall, and then I'l kill you."

He shrugged. "I can either make that slow or fast."

Probably the latter no matter what in truth, he wasn't a cruel one.

"My wife wants this place." Sven told them. "And I, as the loving husband, am obliged to give it to her."

Simple as that. "So come on out children. It will make things much easier."

 

[Lucianus Adair]

Jedi? Child? He held his tongue.

He had what he needed. It wasn't much, but it was enough to go on. Where Dahl was often the brawn, Dahn was the brains, and with his sister's return that she couldn't get a read on this guy, two things occurred to him: 1) the overwhelming majority of his force-borne abilities would do squat - a curse issued within him at that - and 2) the guy, the abomination had no command of the Force, either. While his sibling spat, and they were offered nothing more than control over the swiftness of their ends, every little bit of relevant information coalesced.

Again, he issued a long breath out of his nose, "or," he started, "you take us to her." Dahn effected a smile of his own, thin and touched of faint condescension. "You see, I've got at least as much figured of you as you do of us - there's nobody that sends someone else into a decrepit old force temple, but another with the Force at their beck and call."

One side of his lips lifted and curled.

"I believe your wife would find us of more use alive."

 

[Blackthorne]

"What-" Dahl hissed at her brother, punching him soundly in his wounded arm, "what are you doing?!"

 

[Subject 37]

The amusement didn't fade form his face. It was probably true. Two force using children running around the surface of a planet, poking through ruins? That would likely interest Sable to no end, if only for a few moments to see what she could do with them, but...well they had shot at him, or rather the little girl had. It wasn't like he'd ever really felt his life was in danger, but he was annoyed enough with the situation as a whole that he was considering his options.

"She might." He admitted.

This was going to be fun. It was clear that the boy was the more reasonable of the two, the girl seemed to just be a little bundle of rage. It was funny enough, but he wanted to push the envelope as it were. His men of course didn't care, they knew better than to quesiton him or Sable, even with a few arrows in them.

"But." He began with a smile. "You shot at me. Injured my men, probably even killed one of them."

He glanced back to count. "I'm going to need an apology before I'm even willing to consider any other option besides cutting your throats."

Behind him there was a loud pop and then the crashing noise of a tree splintering and falling down. The flames were still ravaging the forest around them slowly beginning to clear the area as it left behind nothing but burnt remnants.

 

[Lucianus Adair]

He grimaced, an unpleasant grind of his teeth sending a shiver through him, a hissing breath sucked in where possible, but he kept his eyes where they were. His smile returned, forced into being, and he breathed out through his nose. For a scant moment, he considered making his dear sister apologise, but she was not possessed of the civility to do so, and besides...

"I apologise for my sister's utter lack of forethought, and her penchant for 'shoot first," a slight cant of his head replaced a shrug, between the injured arm and the bubble with the other, "feth the questions'."

Far be it for anyone to stop her once she got going. He did what he could, "she has a long way to go before she learns civility," or sometimes he just dug right in. "As her keeper, it's unfortunate I wasn't able to intervene sooner."

Though it hurt, he didn't fear it, and jabbed Dahl with a sharp elbow.

"This incident could have been avoided."

 

[Subject 37]

Sven smiled.

The answer was a nice one, but it clearly wasn't enough.

His bright amber eyes stayed on the boy for a few moments as he gave his apology, attempting to slip his sisters responsibility out of the conversation entirely. It was clear that he was the more intelligent one, or perhaps just the one that was a little bit more concerned with staying alive.

"That was nice." Sven said, and then slowly turned his head towards the girl. "Now you."

He gave her a happy smile.

 

[Blackthorne]

The growing fury of Dahldesa Shamalain towards her brother was not only visible on her face, but palpable on the air. It was an acrid, heated sort of taste. Like having a handful of hot coals shoved into your mouth. Dahl momentarily considered this as retribution for her brother, but even she had her limits as to just how much pain she'd inflict upon him.

She liked to believe that line didn't exist but experience told her it did.

Instead the beastly young woman turned her rage upon their foe, lips peeled back in a snarl of severely lethal fanged teeth.

"BITE ME!"

And then she unleashed a Force Blast that would send not only the wall behind her and her brother scattering into oblivion, but the men standing en guard behind Sven flinging further back into the ruins.

No one noticed the flock of disfigured ravens collecting in the trees around them, red eyes glowing, feathers dissipating into thin air as they dropped from the flying creatures.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Blackthorne"]

The men behind him went flying back, stumbling and tumbling through the air, landing with heavy thuds and the snap of branches. There was a loud crack and a groan as one of the men behind him struck what appeared to be an already dead tree. A branch went crashing to the ground, though Sven didn't turn back.

Instead he swayed slightly as the force wave went rushing over him, appearing to effect him as more of a gentle nudge than anything else.

He smiled slightly at the little girl, his fingers still tight around his blaster. At times he felt amount of admiration for what his father had done to him. He was a freak of nature, true, unable to have children and likely to die before he ever turned thirty, but the gifts bestowed upon him by Moridin's experiments were more useful than anything in creation. The force was like a gnat to him, there, but no real threat. The only incarnation of it that could hurt him was lightning, something this girl either didn't know or care to use.

"Cute." He said with that same smirk.

Slowly the Assassin rose, glancing back towards his men.

"Temper tantrums won't get you far in life." He checked the charge on his blaster, ensuring he had enough to execute both of the children when the time came. "Not that it will matter in a few minutes."

This had already taken up far too much time.

 

[Lucianus Adair]

This wasn't the way to get what she wanted in life. He wanted to smack her, a fist to clean her chrono, but... that blast was the end of his bubble; his shoulders slumped, his arm fell, head bowed and hair fell over his eyes, as it shattered into shards of Force energy, and dissipated. A breath he'd been holding eased out of him, and along with it, a whisper of words tailing on the ruckus of unnatural birds. His hands curled into fists.

"...and you wonder why mother didn't name you?"

Three parts pity, one part disdain.

"Because I don't, Des. I don't."

 

[Blackthorne]

"SHUT UP EOR," he didn't understand she was doing this for both of them. This was their little home away from home. Their safehaven. Their place to call their own. Dahl recognized an invading party when she saw one - knew when pretty words and flowery gestures wouldn't work.

That's what her instincts were screaming right now. Or maybe it was just the rage. The rage of a hybrid wildling boiling uncontrolled in the body of a girl that also recognized she would never be great enough to overcome her mother's shadow. Three parts fury, one part desperation.

Dahl pushed herself to her feet properly, hunched in a display of aggression against this very strange threat; a man who was not phased by the Force, who could not be felt within it. It wasn't right-

Feather.

Wasn't natural.

More feathers.

Bird. Three birds. Ten birds. All black and decaying, beady red eyes looking through her soul. Dahl hissed at one as it landed on the ground nearby. Swiped at another as it flew past her head. She hit it and the thing exploded into a surge of feathers and dark energies. Suddenly the birds swarmed, coming from the ruins and the trees, flying frantically all around them, slashing at the girl with beaks and claws. Dahl set loose another blast of energy only to watch it rebound by releasing further black essence. She staggered back towards her brother, hunkering down to shield him from the chaos.