A steelbridge to nowhere.

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He smiled at her comment, remembering the faint joy of her frustration. Or perhaps he recalled the way it pleased Reverance and despite himself, Gabe enjoyed the nuance of the irritation as well. She may have owned Reverance and him at one point, but those notions now rested on the shoulders of the Wrath now.

Gabe stepped right as the beast charged burying his shoulder towards empty air. With the air of nonchalance, like dancing to a beat he knew all too well, his gaze moved towards an object that registered out of the corner of his eye - the floating several eyeball. He felt a sharp pain across his eyebrow as he instinctively stepped back, staggering. In hindsight, his peripheral, when distracted, made note of the blur of gold. But it didn't register, the circular arch of the spear backhand catching him just above his eye.

He extinguished one blade as he stepped back, nearing the edge of the breathing maw of hungry zombies and assailants. Blood coursed down the armored fingers as he looked up towards the cult leader. Ygdris had taken shots against him but to no avail, which meant he had enough capability to handle ballistics.

“Haaaaaaaaaa Undoer! Primordial Leviathan! I seeeeeeeeee you!” The Avatar belched as he turned over the spear, drawing a serpentine tongue across the bloodied shaft of the spear. Gabe watched, eyes narrowing, as he watched the wounds on the beast heal - skin forming tendon sutures, hopping across the gash, latching unto flesh, and pulling shut.

Gabe ignited the blade and tossed it upwards with telekinesis, smacking the floating eye and cutting it into half pieces that bounced against the sandstone wall before falling to the ground. The blade returned to his outstretched hands as he crouched, the Avatar reeling back in apparent pain and cacophony.

“You!” The shrill of his voice turned deep and resonant. “You empower me!” The Avatar moved slow and with each step, seemed to grow in size. The skin of the beast squirmed, pulling up the Avatars back to his neck and then his head. Inch worming up, it engulfed the figures face, taking to the same healing process as before - merging beast and man together as the head began to breath.

“Look, it's happening!” Came from one of the balconies. “Very soon, very soon indeed!” Another yelled joyously.

Gabe took in a deep breath as he looked forward, the Avatar approaching five meters in height. The zombies, once hungry and swelling, seemed to step further back - as if in fear.

"Well..." Gabe stated, somewhat taken back. "Can't say I expected that."

The beast began his approach, the spear looking now like nothing more than a toothpick in his swelling claws.

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

So perhaps ‘a plan’ was too generous, but it was better than ‘no clue at all’, and so for all intents and purposes… yes. Aver had a plan.

How to move across the battlefield – any battlefield, even rickety wooden stands set up to watch zombies tear into each other – was second nature to the merc. Her footwork made for impeccable timing even as she ascended the stairs cutting the lodge down the middle. A cut here, a push there, Aver kept the grasping hands of the other cultists at bay with sharp retaliation.

“So determined, ehh?” the mass of rotting flesh spoke down on her. “You think quiet will save you, Horned beast?” His welts of lard shuddered with laughter and he reached into his gaping, toothed maw, deep, deeper… and pulled out his tongue. It writhed in the grasp of a mangled hand, like a living thing, except long, so long, and spined and… she knew that.

It was a poor imitation of an amphistaff, tensing at the command of the creature, then dropping limp like a whip in his clawed grip.

A chance glance to her pineal feed revealed that Gabriel below wasn’t having much luck with the Avatar. Fused with the severed head once sewn to his shoulders, the creature now towered over the Marshal with the absurd proportions of a giant. Its sole red eye peered down on the man below, alive with glee.

Before her, the flesh gnawed with rot snapped through the air. A toy. A plaything. Her foe giggled now, robbed of speech by his own hand.

Aver stepped to the surer footing the stands offered and began to tease the creature closer. If she would fight against tipped scales, she would at least choose her ground to stand on.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

With every step, the chasm shook beneath the weight of the Avatar. Gabe’s eyes moved towards the ceiling of the pit, dust and debris curtaining away from eroding sandstone. The zombies had all but vacated the lower pit, clinging now to the walls and toe of the chasm like breathing corduroy. The first attack came towards Gabe with a great speeder than he anticipated, striking a fearsome stab towards his midpoint.

He moved out of the way just in time, flicking one lightsaber out to deflect the attack away and attempt to open up an area for attack. It didn’t work, the spear not budging from its trajectory. Instead in spun in his direction and he bent back as he strafed right, the spear cutting over the air above his head.

His aura grew fierce with defiance, arcs of orange bowing and bending from the emitter as it trailed up his arms and across his chest. The air he breathed in felt like fire, making him all but blind to the crimson rivulet that pulsed and oozed down the length of his face. Calling the force to him, he disappeared in a flash and appeared, once more, running behind the beast as he dragged both beams of energy across the Avatars legs - severing the Achilles tendons.

The Avatar fell to his knees, letting out a long howl that shook the world around them. The nostrils breathed in, exhaling steam. And if Gabe looked hard enough, he might have seen embers deep within the monster's snout. Reappearing before the Avatar, he jumped high and descended like a meteorite, with every intent of bringing the beams down onto the head of his foe…

The large hand moved like lightning, brown clawed fingers curling into a fist and punching towards Gabe. His sabers made purchase but it seemed to have no affect as he was sent sailing into the upper walls of zombies. The mass moved to avoid him and he crashed hard into sandstone, forming a Gabe-sized divot, before sliding down to the toe before.

He coughed, knowing the kinetic impact gel was blown out in a single hit, as he fell to his knees and knew something was broken. He just couldn’t place it, not with the force body coursing over him.

“Ohhhhhhh Undooooer!” The Avatar screamed as he struggled to try and stand. Instead, he clutched the spear. “Doeeeeesss that hurrt? We willll make it bettter!”

And then, he released the spear like a missile.

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

Cut down to size, Aver whispered, and her mouth split into a grin.

Perhaps this brother had some edge to him as well – a matter of choice, not ability. Reverance wielded his sharp edges with zeal; Gabriel withheld them, keen but sheathed. If he could spar with the Avatar and live… she would not stand in his way.

Mostly because she had a problem of her own to deal with. It loomed above her. The old wood creaked as its bloated feet slugged forward, leaving a trail of viscous brown along the stairs. It dragged the bleeding tongue behind it, like a child might with a blanket.

Back ached from the impact earlier. Knees bent. Sa Sevai in her right, Echthros at her side. The thrum of the sea of flesh below. The whistle of a spear through the air.

All of these things, in a single moment. Life without would be so dull. Yet from this, it ever stemmed – without life. Combat was ever one false step away from a swift and final death. But in its embrace, Ygdris filled her lungs with breath, and her heart with blood, and her eyes with flame.

As the whip-tongue snapped forth, so Aver moved. A dance, back and forth, her stride sure only because she had no other choice. Half, full, back again— took a knee, let the whip slice the air above her head. The Queen in her hand came down at an angle, cleaving deep into the leg of the monstrosity.

And it didn’t come out.

Her features froze and she sprang, away, out… too late. Its knobby fingers closed around her torso, yanking her upwards and away from her blade.

Worse yet – from her.

Even now, she didn’t speak. Instead she coiled in its grasp as it slowly brought her up and up and up, laughing with the chant of the masses below. His nails split as Aver buried her arm through the rotting flesh, chunks of putrefied tendon hanging off her in ribbons.

But it didn’t stop. It didn’t stop.

Still it lifted her higher, right above its gaping maw. And when she looked down, all she could see were the blackened teeth and the twitching root of a hungry tongue.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIHOV07XoDQ​

The words, spoken through her mind, pierced through the veil of mental blocks that would have confined and prevented any other. But she had been given the keys, once, and it seemed that they would always work. Though, admittedly, the support was something that helped instead of hindered. In this fight, they were on the same side. Far removed, but near all the same.

There were a thousand alternatives to the events that would unfold. 999 of them involved Gabe getting speared in some fashion or another and the other 1 involved Aver, the faintest of hypotheticals, cutting herself free from the clutches of the globulous cult leader that threatened to consume her in the near future and blasting the spear from its trajectory. But it was a shadow of a thing, one that he knew was never to unfold. Largely because it was entirely unreasonable. So instead, he resolved to mitigate the damage as best he could.

Stepping forward, the lightsaber flicked upwards in slow motion as the spear neared. Grazing across the tip, he deflected it upwards and to his left. So instead of hitting him dead even, it avoided vital organs and pierced the space between his shoulder socket and pectoralis muscle. Letting out a clenched yelp, the other blade flipped up and chipped the spear half down the middle before it cut through armor and flesh and armor again, burying itself deep in the sandstone behind him.

Gabe winced as he felt fleeting strength attempt to flee him. But this was the alternative he chose and he took some comfort in that. The lightsaber in his left hand fell to the ground, deactivating, as he lost the feeling in the fingers. Leaning forward, he barred his teeth as he lumbered forward, sliding across the spear as it dragged through his body, until the chipping was behind him. With a flare of his right hand behind him, the saber severed the spear and freed Gabe, leaving a component still sticking out from both his chest and his back. It was a quick response, one that might not have been expected. Just like this…

He deactivated the saber and pressed a foot against the wall. Gripping the buried spear with his right hand, he pulled it from the wall and used the momentum to run towards the Avatar. There was something special about the spear, Gabe had felt it from the moment the Avatar gripped it. The Avatar snarled and swiped low, Gabe jumped high, kicking off the hand. In a flash of golden light, the spear found purchase first at the snout of the beast. With the force of the jump, it dove deep through the nostrils and cut through the back of the head. Falling back, the beast wailed as it smacked against the sepulcher. And standing over him, Gabe pulled the spear out before plunging into the remaining eye of the Avatar. The beast released gurgling sounds and rasps together. Gabe stabbed the head once more, for good measure, as felt the energy siphoning away him, removed from one of the sabers.

No...you're not dying here.

He turned, taking a single step down the stairs. Using the turning momentum, he flung the half spear as hard as he could. Up and towards the balcony. His aim: the jostling neck of the cult leader that held Ygdris hostage. His vision was blurring but he didn’t need it. He had a beat on the man’s aura and he would know Ygdris, unconcealed, even amidst a thousand people.

Following the release, he staggered to almost a kneel as he caught a hand against the step. All around him, zombies were wailing and running towards him. But their legs were dissolving, turning into black pitch. And above them, the ceiling was rumbling and roaring and threatening to fall in on them.

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQJnhOnOkN4​

They experienced more between these few, sharp breaths than most people did in their whole lives. In those heart-spaced beats, the universe flared around them – a black quilt of stars unraveled in all its majesty. She could walk all the way to the edge of the wheel and turn around to see it form the spire she would one day scale.

No… I’m not.

The creature moved, and time shattered again into countless pieces as the broken spear shred bubbling muscle. But it was not its neck.

It gurgled its rotten laugh and swiveled towards the kneeling man. The golden lance had gone clean through the knotted remains of a malformed bicep, and the strength of its grip faltered before even it knew.

Aver was quicker.

With a great roar she pulled her hands free, CERS and fury firing through her limbs as she broke one finger, and then another. The beast stumbled at the edge of the stand, and even as the yellowed bone began to knit back together, the mercenary was already moving.

She only needed so much freedom. Reaching down, pulling up – phrik boots found purchase against a jagged claw and she shoved off, out of its blood-slicked hand. It grasped after her, blind flailing hindered by the bar of metal pierced soundly through its arm.

Aver grabbed onto the spear, resolute as they unclipped something from her belt. Though her shoulder screamed with pain, the woman ground her teeth and held on through the arc. Releasing a bated breath and her vice-grip at the same instant, the merc flung herself into the air above the creature.

With a twist from the hips, she hurled the object at its gaping maw…

...and crashed heels over head into the pit of writhing remains.

But even as flesh melted into viscous tar around her, as it stuck to her plates and tried to pull her under, Aver grinned still.

It was a thermal detonator.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0YxeTjFn70​

He watched, teeth bared as his right hand moved to the edge of the spear that was just barely showing protruding from his chest. Bloody fingers wrapped around it but a sound mind stopped any further action, knowing that withdrawing the item might spell his end from blood lose. Before him, the massive cult leader was freed of the burden of Ygdris - forcibly. She plummeted to the pit with him and in that instant, the thermal detonator ignited. The air filled with the squeals and wails of the other cult members, the world below being showered with the debris of an overripe monster that had the bad habit of eating explosives. Gabe covered his eyes, hearing the splash of bits as it smacked against sandstone and zombie goo all the same.

Hazel eyes lifted to Ygdris as she landed in the zombies, their mass of black and tan tar reaching up to her plates of armor. If he could recall properly, she wasn't exactly on speaking terms with the force. Not in the way that most Sith were. Though she was never really Sith, not in philosophy or practice. Her only relation, many years ago, was selfish desire. He wasn't sure if that was different now or just different in these moments.

He let out a grunt, wincing, as he pulled the other saber to his usable hand and ignited it. The orange hum came to life as he stepped down the final step, now ankle deep in the cesspool of the dead and dying. Obviously labored, he stepped forward, as the orange arched across his body and he found the strength to use his left hand. It hovered out and flexed as he took steps. One after another, like wading through sticky mud, until he was near Ygdris. Closer than maybe she was comfortable with, but it was needed for the next step.

He slashed downward at the soupy messed, severing the tendrils that stuck to her plate, as he held his left hand out in front of her. He wasn't sure there was much left but with the force, he knew there was a way. "The weakest point of the repulse is at the center..." He stated quietly, blood seeping from the wound as he moved his hand. A fist near her stomach, he outstretched his fingers, sending a massive shockwave outward. The pulp of the zombies, soup and muck, flung outward like an exploded paint can. Hitting the sand stone, it dripped downward and from the ceiling as the sphere around them was freed of any entities. His hand shook as he looked down at it, listening to the rumble of the chasm above. "We don't have much time left."

His hazel eyes darted towards the corridor they needed to get to. Taking a step forward, he moved in that general direction. Constantly flexing his left hand, he tongued the tooth ache like an idiot who couldn't feel the pain of a particularly significant injury. Cause he couldn't.

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

The kinetic gel under her armor hardened like a freezing lake from the point of contact. Aver jerked against the ground, back arching with the travel of the shockwave outward.

“Karker,” she grunted, low under her breath. As the force slammed her down, she used it to roll back to her feet again, near-on flush against the man. So many words at the tip of her tongue, but… no time.

She had a choice – roar with wounded pride, or keep her damn mouth shut and attend to something far more important.

So she simply held his hazel gaze, left hand snapping open to call Sa Sevai back into her grasp from the bloodied remains of the creature. Untouched by virtue of alchemy, Queen brought a steady weight to her stance that helped anchor her in the moment.

Aver moved past him towards the other corridor, and said nothing at all. Her stride was long, if only to bring her quicker to the remains of the undulating black mass. It still bubbled up shapes and forms, but they were a fading memory – hands with too many fingers, faces with too many eyes.

Echthros came alive in her right, darker still than the rising wall of rot.

“You go first,” she forced out, holding the ebb of mangled flesh at bay. “And you better start running.”

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He nearly snorted as he waved the sabers around, slapping the ooze away with the kiss of electric orange. Lifting his view towards the ceiling, the planet itself rumbled and moaned for their removal. As he moved, he could sense her incredulity with every step and breath. It was almost as if he hadn't done anything to save her life. The thrown spear or the repulse itself. Not that he was regretting any of that but he forced a healthy dose of mental shrugery. The thought of appreciation was a bit removed from the sort who killed without second thought and took what they wanted. Teaching Ygdris to appreciate something from Gabe was likely as difficult a task as teaching a castrated bull how to play hop scotch.

Hobbling into the tunnel, he peered over his shoulder as he watched the cessation of the movement of the zombie goo.

Breathing in, slowly, he turned in towards the tunnel and found a solid looking piece of wall that was elevated from the pit below.

Exhaling loudly, he pressed his back against it and slid down, leaving a solid trail of blood in his wake. Yeah, this was good spot. He could rest here, no problem.

"Yeah, I'll get right to that running bit..." He wondered if Kark was as prevalent in her word choice before or if it was just seeing an uptrend while in his presence. He kind of hoped for the latter.

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

The second he moved past her, the mercenary began to retreat after the man – odd in and of itself. But she trusted him to be as stubbornly upstanding as his twin was not, and thus by extension, that he would not stab her in the back. An odd balance, indeed.

Rocks and debris were already beginning to plummet upon the bloodied arena, splitting wood and bone with the same familiar crack. Wetter sounds followed as stone ground flesh against dirt – her steps quickened then, and she turned around as the black tar failed to lash out again.

Yet she found him not five, not ten paces ahead. She found him slumped against the wall, wallowing in his wounds. Blue eyes flickered over to the spear in his shoulder. Without a shred of doubt, Gabriel Sionoma would die. If he wasn’t crushed by the landslide, he would suffocate – and if all else failed, the man would simply bleed out.

Despite time licking at her heels, Aver stood there and looked upon the man, upon his fragile flesh.

“Yeah, you will,” she spoke with finality, and sheathed her blades. Though her back ached, though her muscles screamed of fatigue and though her mind railed against itself, Ygdris took one more step and lifted the man from his heroic self-sacrifice.

“I didn’t tell your brother I ain’t gonna kill ya to leave you here to die.”

Aver ignored the burn in her legs, the sting in her spine, and ran.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

​He closed his eyes only for a moment, just long enough to breath and take in the noise of destruction around him. All of this over a stupid export and import law on Sulon, all of this because he had something against the Higgins estate. Seemed small when he considered things, when compared to whatever it was that was going on beneath the surface of this planet. What was going on here​? With the small amount of time they spent here, he acquired such a small measure of information.

​Leviathan

​Undoer

​Horned Beast...Ygdris​.

​He opened his eyes, the words of her statement ringing in the distant past as he looked up. All he could see was the helmet of her armor, the passing tunnel ceiling like a racing a train, flash of lamps that hung above.

Why would she care about him? Reverance is alive.

​He pressed outward with the force, wrapping a bloody hand around her neck to alleviate the weight of carrying him. He couldn't recall her being this strong before, had things really changed that much? What had happened to her?

​The force exerted an outward pressure, stabilizing the tunnel in blinking intervals that followed their progression. He grimaced as each jostle irritated the spear, lodged in his chest, and he stretched outward, fingers gingerly touching the edges of the wall.

​"The next left..." He closed his eyes as he retracted his arm. "Don't take it. Turn right. There should be a flight of stairs near there...we should be able to make it topside from there."

​[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

Battle took a toll on the body that she’d long learned to ignore, for better or worse. When you were waist-deep in bodies and ruins and still had half a city to take, there was no time for breathers. Your enemy wasn’t gonna give you a break just ‘cause you asked for it.

And an angry planet? Even less.

Her lungs were on fire. Armor and muscle and bone, all told – Gabriel wasn’t no featherlight category either. CERS was on overdrive, and she could barely hear him stumble over words with the blood roaring in her ears.

No time to question it. Either he was speaking true, or trying to do a last karking good deed and bury them both.

Rocks cracked behind her, and the suffocating smell of wet earth filled her nostrils as she made a mad dash for the right corridor. For a long while it was nothing but the crumbling soil beneath her feet and the growing rumble of the tempest following hot on their heels – until it wasn’t.

Light at the karking end of the tunnel.

Aver would’ve laughed if she had any breath left.

Muscles all cramped up, she just held onto the man and ascended the damn stairway to heaven.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

​He felt her flicker, like a candle in a strong wind. She was a stubborn as he recalled, hot headed and with a heaping of temper, but she was also determined. The very characteristics that made her supremely frustrating to deal with on a personal level, made her a particularly significant asset in a fight or sticky situation. He felt broken in her hands, the ribs that were cracked just like the time he had been smacked against a locker for getting too close. Or was that Reverance?

​The spear moved with every step as they ascended and at this point, he couldn't tell whether the spear was imbued or poisoned, or if he simply had lost too much blood. Whatever it was, it was progressing as she ran. Pressing the indicator on his wrist, he hoped that Daegon was still alive and capable of receiving the position. With the way the world was crumbling around them, they would need a speedy egress.

​With one hand around her neck, the other fell to his side as he grabbed the lightsaber. Focusing, like a conduit, he took in the fire of breath as he focused. Perhaps he was spent, physically, but his spirit and mind were as stubborn as hers - if not more so. His intent was to pass, through touch, a sense of resolve and valor. The same power that Jedi used to overcome old age, she could use to mount the last stairs. He realized that she wasn't as perceptive to the force as others, but this was something he was giving to her and he wasn't taking no for an answer.

​::GABE!::

​The voice rang out from the communicator on his wrist.

​::I got your position and I'm sweeping by. Looks like chet hit the fan down there, world is coming apart. Had to take flight before the building below us fell over.::

​The message was full of static but was relatively clear, given the state of things.

​::Whatever you are doing, best hurry up! The speederport is shearing apart!::

​[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ7W3JvZBJQ​

Every fiber of her body was fire. Her lungs were cracking against her ribs. Her legs were blocks of duracrete; a thousand shards of glass splitting her open each time she pushed off and up and out.

Sound came and went, drowned out by the drums of her heart, by the roar blood. In-between, she could hear the rumble of a world set to consume them whole, reaching earthen fingers after its fleeing prey.

With the breath of soil hot on her neck, Aver reached too far, breath escaping her chest with a desperate lunge – her boot caught against the clip of a stair, and the ground came rushing in, jaws open wide—

second wind soared through her limbs then, so white it burned. Ygdris couldn’t see anything anymore, senses overtaken by the flood of power not given – power cast upon her, with no preamble, no permission. Lungs filled with new air; with fresh air, the stain of smoke, the heady weight of a humid jungle.

In the wash of his blinding presence, Aver could only make out the pale silhouette of a vessel, hovering unsteady above the cracks spreading like lightning through the building below. Was she even seeing with her own eyes anymore? Was this the fleeting after-image of staring at the sun for too long? Was it the Force – how Gabriel saw the world?

Or was she too far away to understand?

Aver jumped over the unstable blocks of duracrete. Boots slammed deep dents in the hoods of ancient speeders as she forged a new stairway, higher still. The pilot dipped lower, tilting the open hangar, and the merc cried out from exertion – she flung the man aboard, watched him slide a red trail through her vision.

The force jostled the shuttle away, and as the Marshal left her arms, so did Aver stumble as borrowed time caught up with her failing body. Her shoulder scraped over the roof of the garage, peeling off the black paint. She turned, coiling over herself as she barely stood from the roll. On wobbly legs, Aver made it to the edge of the roof, looking down, then up.

Her mouth was full of iron and salt. Her hands were shaking – she couldn’t even feel anything below the waist. But kark that. Her mind was clear for the first time in months.

Red lips split into a red grin, and Aver defied.

With a roar brimming with life, brimming with, yes, love, Ygdris leapt on faith alone.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

​He grunted as he hit the interior metal plates, sliding and rolling over. Scarlet ribbons traced across the durasteel as he winced, feeling the spear nearly flush across his back and protruding more significantly now from his chest. Any clots that were formed were likely compromised now, meaning that the bleeding would begin again. More so, than before.

​::Gabe, is everyone on?::

​The ship maintained it's position as he shook his head, scraping his wrist across the ship floor as it moved to his mouth. He shook his head.

​::No. Not yet.::

​He grunted as he stageredd upward, feeling lightheaded as he found his ship legs. Moving, he traced the low ceiling of the hangar bay as he approached the opening and looked out. It was then that he saw her jump and for all the depth perception that blurry vision could offer, she wasn't going to make it. She was going to hit the bottom of the ship, deflect off the metal, and plummet to the world below. It would swallow her whole, leaving nothing but the memory of her presence on this planet. And how she saved his life.

​He reached out, a gunslinger with wounded hand drawn from the hip, as telekinesis clutched on to her. The other hand gripped the inner bar for stability as he focused, the world becoming a desensitized haze of dull reflection. Pulling, hard, she'd reach the inner hangar with more speed than what she started with. Perhaps she'd be angry about that, inconvenienced by ego and his growing inability to control his use of the force. Gabe hoped so. But he also hoped that they could move past this. He was tired.

​Wrist moving from gripping the metal bar to sandwiching wrist between plate and bar, his arm was locked in - just in time. His knees hit the ground as he let out a breath, feeling the raw expenditure finally taking it's toll. He rolled over as his back hit the interior wall. Open hangar window looked out just inches from him, giving preview to the crumbling speederport below. His hazel eyes lidded as he looked towards Ygdris before a bleak darkness took him.

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

The world rushed past. A sky full of black debris – a sky full of black clouds, corralled together like cattle to slaughter above them.

And the rain would be red, red, red.

Her legs didn’t obey anymore. No strength left, muscles spasming from fatigue that no amount of Force or cybernetics could hold at bay.

Too far. Not far enough.

There came no flood of memory. No flashes of remembrance, of moments plucked out of time and delivered before her mind’s eye for a final breath of enjoyment. No reprieve before she was smeared six ways from Benduday across the ruins of Steelport far below.

No—

a sudden grasp, forceful but for its quickness, tugged her forward. Sluggish reflexes and a body unwilling to move any longer landed her back-first against the edge of the gaping hangar. Breathless, her hand shot out – and it was with pure willpower that Aver managed to lock her fingers around the bar and pull herself inside.

Silence.

The few standing buildings below collapsed over themselves in a great belch of white smoke. The shuttle shook, turning to the darkening firmament.

:: Gabe? I felt something – everyone on? ::

The merc pried open her clouded blue gaze, drawing a stuttered breath through bared teeth.

:: Gabe? ::

She fell forward, drawing the Marshal’s wrist to her mouth. “Captain Vyrgg,” she grunted out. “I’m the last one.” Didn’t know if it was true or not, didn’t care. Nobody would make it out in time, and if they waited any longer, they were all dead.

“Get us out of here…” Aver paused, gaze flickering over to the limp form of the man – like an insect pinned for display, “...to the best damn healer in the Alliance.”

Ygdris would live. It was going to be an agonizing ride as her body put itself back together, but she would live.

Kark you, Gabe.

And so she reached over, slamming a bacta shot into his torn shoulder. It would be enough.

It had to be.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​