Do you see what I see? (Llevana Helas)

[Figure In White]

Korriban
After The Bombardment

The rubble was mostly cleared as Leos walked among the debris within Korriban City. Many of those who had died had already been cleared away and buried, and others had been picked up and situated for ease of identification and to await arrival of any family. Those without it probably had already been buried. The Jedi had sent people to help in dealing with the aftermath, but they weren't being as responsible as they should have been. To his knowledge, the woman responsible for this atrocity was still at large, and he highly doubted that she would ever receive the punishment she deserved. Not until the Reformation got their hands on her.

Leos sighed and shook his head, moving out of the afflicted area and heading into the heart of the city itself. During all of what had happened there, the Sith forces had never really gone into the city. A few had, but the majority had stayed out, fighting in the open landscape. The city should never have even been considered for targeting. But this was why the Reformation existed. Because of this kind of crap.

There wasn't much to see here. Most of those that had survived the ordeal were still living within the city itself. They would rebuild and get everything back to the way it had been, free of the Jedi control and their manipulation to turn the people of the Caldera against their ways. He settled on a bench within the city's main square, pulling a book from within his robes which he opened to a marked page. Today was meant to largely be a day away from everything. He was around if anyone tried anything during the rebuilding, but he wasn't there to play games or work.

The book was ancient, though appeared to have been rehabbed. It told the story of Naga Sadow, though only in bits and pieces. Much of the original tome had been destroyed, which was unfortunate, but he would learn from it what he could, considering the ancient Sith Lord had been one to utilize his skills in Illusion crafting to great extent. Leos had read the book before, but he was still sure he'd missed something within it.

It was a dark day, but not enough to stop him from enjoying the book.

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

She found the desolation almost comforting.

Back when Thirty Two had come under attack, from the forces behind the Eclipse, it had been a time of terror. Of death and decay. A time without resources, where the sick suffered in vain and the strong sought to keep together what little remnants remained of their small civilization. The memories still roused her from her sleep even to this day, what little sleep she got, and yet despite all of that, despite the horrors it had been, walking through the rubble strewn streets was like walking down memory lane.

This was far from the land she had known. It was infertile, there was no sinking abyss, or thicket, just red peaks and endless wastes. The ruins reflected it well, though there were faint signs of durasteel too. Like the great metal beasts of old. Llevi still hadn't adjusted to the sight of those.

How long had passed since the Resistance gave her wings, since the stranger had found her drifting aimlessly through space, she could not say. Only a few suns had risen since they'd arrived on this scorched world, though. Part of her still expected to see the odd Eclipse, but the more sane part of her brain realized that they were gone for good now.

Her gaze lifted from the ground, which held tell tale signs of its bombardment in the form of scattered shells and the occasional lifeless body, to pierce through the cool air. This land - Matsu had called it Korriban? - was odd indeed. While the sun beat down relentlessly, it seemed as though little of its warmth reached those who wandered upon it. The individuals she had met, and there were so very few of them, were as pale as the corpses of District Thirty Two, and even now, even with the sun in its summit, she felt frightfully cold.

The sound of crunching stone tore her from her thoughts, and Llevi turned half circle to glare at the noise. Had they found her already, those monsters who had been her peoples undoing? Come to finish the job? Those bug-eyed, long nosed psychopaths...

Stupid girl, do you know nothing? You are like a pintsized needle in an oversized haystack out here! Why would they waste manpower on the likes of you?

Oh good, so Mr Know-It-All was back. What a joyous occasion this was.

"Oh, shut it."

Finished with her bickering, Llevi rolled her eyes before really looking at the source of the noise. More of the same guards she had witnessed when they first landed, surveyors of the damage apparently. One of them happened to be dragging a body from the rubble. Her young eyes seemed keen with interest as she watched them drag the corpse away. From the looks of it a little boy.

Like the Eclipse, it seemed as though there were people in the Galaxy who killed indiscriminately.

Why that was a comfort, she didn't know. Maybe it was just nice to know that they weren't alone in their torment.

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

A green finger flipped the page to the next. And the next. And the next. And so on as he read through the book again. There was nothing new here and it didn't take him long to get through it because he remembered the lines of text so well. Each sentence was beginning to become repetitive to him and he eventually slammed the book shut in frustration at the fact that many of the pages were missing. Sometimes he wished it were possible to commune with the ancient Sith himself, but Sadow had been lost for ages. Speaking to him now would require a holocron, and Leos had no idea where such a thing could be, or even if Sadow had one.

Tapping the book against his thigh, he looked around and spotted a curious young girl poking around in the damaged area of the city not too far off. Tilting his head, he regarded her curiously. She was not a local, but she wasn't a Jedi either from what he could tell. She seemed rather on the jumpy side to be completely honest. He hadn't noticed any spirits hanging out when he'd walked through, so he doubted it was that.

Curiosity was bound to get the better of him. This was inevitable with Leos. Whenever something drew his attention he couldn't help but following through on it. Standing now, he walked down the way at a casual pace, doing his best to avoid looking directly at the girl, the book still clutched within his fingers as he approached. She was young, and seemed entirely out of place here. There was an air about her he couldn't quite place, a presence that seemed unique but familiar. He couldn't put his thumb on it, but he worked it around in the back of his mind as he came up behind her, aware this could potentially cause her fright to have a Sith looming over her.

"What do you see?" he asked her.

He could see that she was staring at the boy, but he wasn't asking her to tell him literally what she saw. It was more what she saw when she looked at the damage and assessed it in her mind. The girl was sensitive to the Force, so there was more to this than what was seen with eyes. Feelings. Emotions. The Force flowed through everything, and in death its absence could be as wrenching as if it were screaming at you from without. Torment. Sometimes the Force was a tormenting tempest. For her, she did seem troubled, but he had to ask questions to find out why. So for now he held the book in his hand and regarded the body they were pulling out of the rubble rather than looking at her.

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

Llevi was not clever or worldly enough to even feign surprise at the sound of the voice from beside her. She did not look upon the green skinned being with fear or prejudice, she did not see a Sith or a Mirialan, just another being stood within the ruins of a civilization. Was it weird to see others around after what felt like an eternity alone? Of course, but it had felt that way when the Resistance came to liberate her, and when Matsu had appeared within her small ship, so why would this be any different? She sensed no threat, saw no ill intent.

So she turned her head to the left, just enough to take in the new found stranger without having to completely tear her gaze away from the body, and mulled over the question in her mind. What did she see?

"Death, Destruction... Corruption, Loss. Son, Brother." Her eyes narrowed just a touch, as though drawing what she could from what little of the body that was visible. "Unprovoked, Indiscriminate... Impersonal." Whoever had done this had no bone to pick with the inhabitants of this City... Which meant there were likely higher powers involved, no? Like how District Thirty Two had suffered due to the Monsters of the Eclipses' dislike of the Resistance's movements. The bombardments had come after the Elders had banded together.

She fell silent, she did not speak the other things on her mind, she did not seek to find out more about the stranger at her side, nor did she so much as acknowledge him with her gaze again. She simply stared on as the body was carried away on a stretcher toward the billowing smoke of pyres in the distance.

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

"Yes. All of those are true."

Well, he couldn't say for sure that the boy was someone's brother, but it was clear he was someone's son, and the rest of what she said rang true. It was entirely likely he'd had siblings. That being said, her answer somewhat surprised him. He'd expected fear from her at his presence. If not fear, then perhaps anxiety. And he'd expected her to merely say that she saw a dead boy upon the ground. Instead, she spoke more in depth of what it was that she saw. She saw beyond the visual and into the realm of feelings, the realm of the Force. Intent. Lack of care. She saw what happened here for what it really was, even though he was certain she'd not been there.

"The forces of the Jedi rained fire down on the city from above without reason. Several thousand people died for no reason. This is as war has been in this galaxy for thousands of years."

He stepped around her and waved his hand in the direction of the disappearing stretcher. It would disappear from view, wrapped in a cloud of illusion. He reached further, extending himself and drawing beads of sweat to his brow. The area around them soon would appear as it had before it had been destroyed. The buildings still stood as they had then, tall and proud. People stood staring upwards in the streets, looking up at the flashes of light dancing in the dusky clouds above them. He didn't have the strength within him to recreate the ships up there. That was too far for him to reach.

In fact, this was the first time he'd ever done such a thing on this scale. He could feel it draining him, but he pressed onward partly to test himself, and partly to exhibit for her what it was that had happened. He was recreating it based on recordings and images of what the place used to look like, and embellishing a little bit for effect. As they stood there, numerous blasts of energy rained down through the clouds, slamming into everything around them. She would feel nothing, as he wasn't projecting physical manifestation, just visual, but she would see the buildings exploding, people's bodies being turned to ash. She'd hear the screams and see it all, until she was once again standing in the shattered ruins of the city.

He staggered once, but righted himself.

"That is what happened here. That and what you said. It was callous, unbidden, destructive, painful, useless, and numerous other things. Most of all, it was unnecessary murder perpetrated by the very people that say they're here to bring peace to the galaxy. And now?"

A green hand waved around them.

"Now this is life here."

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

As he came to agree with her deduction, a second body was already being pulled from the rubble - distinctly female and just as small as the previous. A brother indeed. Her eyes narrowed just a touch, gaze torn from the boy who was already far from the ruins to who she could only presume to be a sister. For whatever reason this did not invoke anything within her. No sadness or feeling of loss, she was completely apathetic. They were bodies, corpses, nothing more. She had seen this so many times in her short life that she had become more than indifferent toward it.

Slowly, though, it all began to fade away. Even as she watched them pull her onto a stretcher, she saw their presence disintegrating. The buildings around them grew, the rubble disappearing, until all that remained was a clear cut version of the City as it had been intended to be seen. A lot of red and orange rock, bits of durasteel framework here and there, the general hustle and bustle of life the likes of which she hadn't seen since before her Grandpa was taken. The memory stung, and she pushed it from her mind before it could become anything significant.

The man at her side was talking, though she did not understand the significance nor the meaning of some of his words. It was as though he had snuck in parts of a different language to his speech and expected her to immediately understand. Her confusion was palpable, but more so than that the lack of understanding toward the Order he had name dropped and blamed for the destruction.

When the bombardment started though, when the stars began to fall here as they had back in District Thirty Two, an unhindered spike of fear ran through the young girl who stepped back with an appalled expression. Her bottom lip trembled and her hands instinctively rose to cover her ears. It was too familiar, too real, and she was confused as to how it could all be right there before her where previously ruins had stood. "Eclipse" she muttered with pained tone, "Stars... Falling Stars..."

It was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, returning the City to its newfound state of destruction. It was then, and only then, that she uncovered her ears. Then and only then that true understanding entered her gaze, and she looked up at the stranger who no doubt towered over her with furrowed brows and intrigue.

"How?" How had he done that. How had he brought to life not only the downfall of this City but her greatest nightmares in unison? For the moment she completely disregarded the message he had been presenting her with, the story he had been telling. All she saw was someone who had performed magic before her eyes, who had given her a vision so real that she felt she was back amidst the Eclipse as the stars fell around her and the people along with it.

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

She said something about falling stars, and that's when it hit him. The reason she didn't react to him towering over her, the reason she stared at the dead all nonchalant: she didn't know. She had no understanding of these things. Of course at first his mind told him that certainly couldn't be possible. Here was a young girl on Korriban, a world that was a burial ground for dead Sith and that had recently seen catastrophic battle. How could she not know what this place was? How could she not know that the light raining down from the sky was turbolaser fire from a capital ship? She was certainly old enough to know, so how could she not?

But even as his mind said it was illogical for her not to know, he knew that she didn't. When the illusion faded away, and she asked him how, he understood that she was asking how he'd done what he'd done. One who knew of the Force, one who knew of Jedi, Sith, and the others like them, would understand that he'd used the Force to do this. She did not. How in all of creation had this girl gotten to be on Korriban, and why? He could have asked her that, but he felt her question was more important in the moment.

"The Force."

He reached out with it and lifted a small bit of broken stone that had been ripped from its home as part of one of the buildings. It rose without being touched, and hovered over in front of her. She was sensitive to the Force, he could tell just by feeling her aura, but it was entirely possible that she didn't know what that meant. This was quite possibly the strangest encounter he'd ever had in his life, and yet he felt like it was an important one all the same. This young girl was an anomaly. She hadn't reacted to his mention of the Jedi and what they had done here. It was almost as if she was disenfranchised to the pain they had caused.

Could this girl possibly fit the definition of tabula rasa? He'd never met someone who didn't have some sort of prejudice in them towards those who practiced the Force. It was... weird.

"Do you know what the Force is?"

He figured he should start by making sure. Just in case she came from a world that didn't know what it was.

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

Now, Llevi was no stranger to the Gifts of the Eclipse. She had made use of them during pinnacle moments in her life, she had saved lives and she had taken them, a fact which stuck with her and at times left her reeling from nightmares, she had influenced the minds of others, she had obliterated them too. Sent them into mush, until their bodies crumpled to the floor.

But this was something else entirely. The way he had produced from ruins the great majesty of the City, the way that he had perfectly replicated the falling stars which haunted both her waking and sleeping hours... Her brows knitted together in confusion. Was this something that she could do? Could she make something from nothing? Have the greatest fears of another painted before their eyes?

The confusion was replaced with wonderment. The things she could have done to the monsters back on Thirty Two had she known this sooner...

But just as her hopes were beginning to peak, the strange green man dashed them against the rubble. The Force? So it wasn't something the Eclipse could give her? Her expression dropped, almost as quickly as the stars had, and she fidgeted with her hands at her sides. Then again... That word did seem similar.

"The... Force?" Llevi could swear Matsu had mentioned a similar word back within the giant metal beast, when she had been pushed and tested to near breaking point. When Llevi had used her gifts...

Slight understanding passed over her expression, as she turned her head and stared right up at the stranger oncemore. She regarded him oddly, taking in everything there was to see about his outward appearance. The way he held himself, the expression on his face, the slim nuances that made him who he was.

Her hand reached out toward the levitating rock, and she gave a very slight nod of her head.

"The Eclipse" she stated, running a hand beneath the rock. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and while she was unable to simply lift anything into the air as the stranger had when she exhaled a sharp breath several pieces of debris were sent flying away from her. It was a firm reminder of how the end of her people had come to be. Those she had spent so very long protecting, fallen at her feet... Her doing, not the monsters.

Was she the monster?

Llevi winced ever so slightly. While the subtle influencing she had done back on Thirty Two had been natural, she hadn't even realized she was doing it, this was something else entirely. Her hand lifted to press against her temple, and her nose twitched uncomfortably. Maybe it was worth practicing instead of leaving it to chance next time?

"Gifts... Monster."

She wasn't alone in this, though. Had they been born to the Eclipse too? This stranger and the woman who had rescued her from the void? Her Grandpa had told her that those born when the Eclipse was out were special... But she had never expected anything like this to come from it.

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

Her world, wherever it might have been, must have been far different from any he had ever experienced. Of course he knew what an eclipse was, they happened on worlds with moons sometimes, but she seemed to be equating that with the Force, which made little sense to him, an he surmised that there was some context he was missing. Of course he didn't even know how she'd gotten to be on Korriban in the first place so there was a lot of information that he was missing. Regardless, her confusion wasn't unwarranted given that her upbringing must have been vastly different. He could see she could touch the Force, though, from her reactions.

When her hand reached out, he gently let the rock fall into it. He'd noticed the debris getting pushed away from them with a simple exhale and devised that the girl might be a telekinetic of some aptitude, but that wasn't what she was interested in. It was what he'd shown her that interested her the most.

"The Force can allow you to do many things. One of them is to craft illusions."

With that, he would reach out to her and craft an illusion about the both of them as if they were both within a space of pure darkness. Beneath their feet a pool of rippling water that they could walk upon, but would never make them feel wet. It was only the two of them now. Even people who happened by them wouldn't see them. This was their space now. She would probably be confused at first, but then again, maybe she wouldn't considering what he'd shown her before. It wasn't really all that different except before had just been something to see. Here they were separated from everything that was around them.

"You see this darkness around us? It's not real. I created it with the Force and the vision of it in my head." He tapped a slender finger against his. "I then projected that outward to surround us. Even people who pass by where we are standing will not see us. It requires that you master control of your mind, and learn to project it outward. No easy task, but with practice it can be learned."

He moved toward her and reached out to touch her shoulder.

"Doing these things does not make you a monster. How you use them, though, can."

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

While she turned the rock over in her hand the world around them shrunk into one solid state of darkness. She could feel the rippling tide of the abyss beneath her feet, and through the black only the pair of them were visible despite the lack of light. How this was possible she did not know... But the previous surprise was no longer present. If anything it had been replaced with awe.

The simplicity of their surroundings was a welcome breath of fresh air. It allowed all of the intricacies she had yet to come to terms with float away into nothingness, providing her with a moment of serenity unalike any other.

He was speaking, the only true sound aside from their breathing to break through the illusion, and so it was with great displeasure that she looked away from the void to give him her full attention. It felt strange to be absorbing knowledge like this, to have this unknown individual be so open about the way he used his abilities. There was more, though... His words provided her with a hopeful insight, that perhaps one day with enough effort and practise she too could replicate this odd talent.

It wasn't until he stepped closer and lay a hand upon her shoulder that Llevi was brought tumbling back from her thoughts though. She jumped just a touch, instinct taking over as her hand shot up to grasp his wrist for all of one second. How many times had such intrinsic reflexes saved her life?

She swallowed her discomfort, unnerved by the contact he'd so innocently provided, and removed her hand without a word. Instead she turned her sights away and mulled over his final statement. Had he known what she had unintentionally done back on Thirty Two, he would not have been so quick to dismiss her monstrous tendencies. But he didn't know what lay in her past, what horrors she had fled, and as much as she could she would keep it that way.

Closing her eyes, the young girl inhaled a breath through her nose and began to focus. There had been a time, so very long ago, when she had envisioned great beasts within the Wastes of her home. Almost tangible, despite the knowledge that they were not in truth there at all. Each detail perfect, each movement precise... She would watch them for hours at a time during their most isolated periods. But that had not been a projected imagination, they had remained within her minds eye - nowhere else - so how was it that this man could paint them before not only his own view but hers too?

Her face scrunched up in concentration, before her eyes opened to find... Nothing. Still the same blank slate which had existed around them before she had even tried. A grunt of frustration escaped her, and the water at their feet tremored its support.

"I... Can't" she breathed, finding her voice somewhat constricted with the strain. Why was he showing her this if she had no hopes of replicating it?

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

"You can. Don't say you can't."

She was trying hard to touch the Force at will. What her intention was, whether to lift the rock or craft a new illusion he could not say, but it was clear she attempted something. No, he knew nothing of this girl, that was true, but it did not stop him from being curious enough about her to teach her something. She wasn't from here but possessed a certain potential he could not ignore.

Lifting his hand, he waved it and the illusion changed. They were no longer inside of a pure inky blackness, but floating in space. Stars raced past themonth, planets swirling about them. It was easy to craft such illusions. Her mind was completely open to it as she was amazed by the trick. She was young, so he assumed that had something to do with it. That plus her obvious lack of galactic experience.

"Focus your mind. The Force will come when you call for it. Reach out and grab it."

Her grabbing of his wrist didn't bother him. When she'd done it he'd seen that it was clearly reactionary. He removed his hand from her now that they were in space, and walked around a bright yellow star as it passed them. He would disappear from her view, though she'd still be able to hear him speak.

"Find me or remain trapped here."

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

Clutching onto the pebble provided some sort of grounding, a tangible source in an otherwise empty domain. She did not release it back into the aether, nor did she attempt to lift it, she clung to it as though it were a liferaft and used it as an object of her focus. Like a lens, to draw in all of the power available to her and direct it in one straight motion.

If only it were so easy to harness it.

He was encouraging her now, but to do what she could not say. Did he know that she had been attempting to altar this odd reality he had placed her within? Perhaps. He did seem rather astute, after all.

Her face scrunched up, and for a moment she did nothing more than study the intricacies of his face. Strange skin, broken by harsh black shapes. Unlike anything she had seen back on Thirty Two where all had looked like she.

I wonder what he is...

Had something caused that? She had seen many different things here on this dusty world, but none with skin as green as the planes.

He was speaking to her again though, and so she blinked and hastily tried to cast such silly, childish thoughts from her mind. Focus, yes, of course. Inhaling a breath she attempted once again to reach for the gifts passed onto her by the Eclipse, noticing in that instance that the void around them had changed.

No more just an inky backdrop, instead filled with a whole cacophony of astral beings. It was as though she was sat in that funny little tincan again, before Matsu found her. Floating amidst the stars.

It took her breath away.

The man did not seem content with staying put. When a large star passed them by he stepped around it and out of view. For a moment her breath caught within her throat, and a very real fear gripped her core. Where had he gone? Why was he leaving her here?

Would she ever escape on her own?

His voice returned just moments later, however, reassuring her of his presence yet also goading her on. Presenting her with a challenge.

As much as she enjoyed their present location, it was not somewhere she wished to call home. And yet as she tried to step forward, toward where he had wandered, she found herself moving no closer to that yellow star. As though stuck in a loop.

Panic overtook everything else. All sense was thrown out the window for what felt like an eternity, though in truth the tunnel vision lasted just a few short seconds.

Snap out of it, girl. To say you survived genocide, your survival skills are sorely lacking at times!

Grumpy. A voice in the silence, a guiding light in the dark.

Never had she ever been so grateful to hear him echoing about her head. Snapping her from the grim void of her mind.

Shakily she finally managed one step forward. Like a toddler walking for the first time, she was uneasy and slow going. But it was a start.

Walking through the vision, the illusion, of another proved to be far more difficult than one might have imagined. At least for this particular girl.

[member="Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

He watched, hidden within the folds of the vision. She was struggling, but that wasn't unexpected. It wasn't as if one could walk into a whole new world of the Force and instantly pick up on its intricacies. He had no doubt that it was going to take her quite some time to manage to make her way beyond the vision, as she needed to do. As it was, he was no longer within the vision. She was alone in it, and he stood back among the ruins of the city, watching her as she attempted to navigate the illusion that he'd crafted for her. While she moved within the vision, she never took a step outside of it. The beauty of such things.

When he'd said for her to find him, it was more than just her wandering. She could walk among the stars for all eternity and never find him. He wasn't there to be found. Eventually her mind would no doubt determine that to find him again, she had to overcome the illusion that had been placed upon her. She couldn't simply accept the reality around her, she had to break it. Leos was teaching her something, not just showing her things. He had no obligation to do so, but he felt the desire for it. Now she would either learn, or she'd be stuck within the illusion forever, her body trapped in a near stasis in reality.

He sat down on a piece of rubble, only allowing his eyes to peer into the illusion and keep track of her. He said nothing further, as he'd seen her visibly relieved at hearing his voice. She would have no such comfort from him any further.

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

Onward through the darkness she stumbled, though in the back of her mind she knew that something didn't feel quite right. Where once there was a beacon of hope calling to her, a pull she felt, now there was ... Nothing. Void, emptiness. As though she had been abandoned.

Had she been?

Several agonizing steps, and still she was no closer to her goal. The darkness swamped her vision on all sides until just the yellow star remained. But the more steps she took toward it, the less right it felt. Every bone in her body told her it was futile. But it couldn't be, she had just seen him walk there.

And he had told her to find him.

If that was the only way out of the darkness, then she would do as he bid. She had to.

One more timid step, and the star was all that she could see. Her feet felt as though they were caught in quicksand. Her tongue fared no better, and when she attempted to call out there was little more than a croak in place of words.

All she had to do was circle around the star... He'd be there, on the other side. And then she could leave.

[member="Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

But he wasn't there.

She'd get around the other side of the star and find nothing but darkness. No mysterious green-skinned man to welcome her. No help. She was well and truly alone in the realm of shadow, though in reality he was right there with her, watching her. He wouldn't leave her inside forever. If she really couldn't find her way out in the near future he would pull her out of it. No sense in leaving a girl trapped inside of her own head. On Korriban? No, some other Sith would find the poor child and take advantage of her in ways that were less than wholesome, undoubtedly. Most of the lesser Sith were utterly moronic in their carnal compulsions.

Leos had his moments of such, but usually when there was a purpose behind it. Shaking his head, he focused back on the girl, making sure she remained wrapped within the illusion until the point at which she figured out that to escape she was going to have to release herself from the notion that he was within the illusion within her. She would have to expand her mind and understand that what she saw wasn't real, push back against his invasion of her mind, and break free of what it was that he was doing to her. She could do it if she tried. He wasn't pushing insanely hard to keep her wrapped in his little play realm simply because he wanted her to learn something from it, he didn't want to make her cry, trapped in shadow forever.

He wasn't a monster.

Not really anyway.

He leaned over towards her and brushed her hair lightly before moving his lips towards her ear to whisper, "Think beyond what you see."

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

On and on for what felt like an eternity, though in reality was little more than a few minutes, until finally Llevi was on the other side of the star. At least, she thought she was on the other side. It was hard to tell, given that the great ball of burning gasses was remarkably spherical. And there was nothing else to gauge her location by.

Abandoned yet again, little one... All alone in a barren world. Remind you of anywhere?

As Grumpy's words made themselves known, Llevi found the edge of her vision begin to prickle and swirl, the darkness pulling away to reveal scenes from a land she had sought sanctuary from. Where the stars fell and tore through their homes, and terrifying beasts came to steal away the children and return with withered beings sapped of their youth.

One step back, as her mind took over with its horrifying reminders. Then another. Until soon she was running, fleeing in the opposite direction from the star into the void. Yet still the scenes of Thirty Two pulled at the edges of her reality.

"Stop it" she cried, when she eventually ground to a breathless halt and hunched over, hands pressing to her temples in search of a reprieve. "I don't want to see it!"

Believing herself alone, her speech seemed to improve vastly, the near mutedness clearly a byproduct of unknown company. Of course her yells didn't halt the visions. Whether or not they were tearing into the illusion itself could not be said, if Ignus could see the beach where the last remnants of her people perished - under her untrained hands - if he could see the beasts, or the stars, or the destruction.

At some point she had dropped to her knees, and now she knelt there with her hands covering her ears and tears streaming down her face. Over and over and over, the fate of her friends replayed in her mind.

"I was trying to protect them!"

Wasn't that all she'd ever done? Wasn't that all any of them had ever done? Those final kids of Thirty Two...

[member="Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

Hmm. This was an interesting turn of events.

Rather than escaping the illusion, she'd turned its contents upside down. He saw a strange world he'd never seen before, a beach, and he saw her. He saw her struggling with her power, and trapped people on the beach, and he saw them wiped out. Thoughtfully, he lifting his hand to tap his thumb against his chin as he stared at the girl. Tears were running down her cheeks outside of the illusion now. One thing he hated was to see a woman cry. It was worse when it was a young girl. Honestly he should have told her to suck it up. Her tears couldn't change the past. Nothing could, really. It would be better for her to take to heart what she'd learned in that moment than to cry.

But he couldn't bring himself to do that to her. Sometimes he definitely did not fit the bill of a Sith.

Instead of allowing her to suffer, he reached out and pulled her from the illusion, and then took her gently by the shoulders to pull her into a hug. She was broken, and not in the way that would lead her to becoming a powerful Force user. If she remained suffering over the past, feeling as though she could have changed things, she would never progress. She would be mired in place. And she was young and had much time ahead of her. It seemed truly heartless to leave someone with such potential stuck where they would never prove themselves to be anything more than their potential.

"Waste not your tears, young one. Let go of the past or it will haunt you forever."

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

Even when the illusion around her was dropped, even when she was pulled from the edge of the Abyss, inside her minds eye Llevi's worst nightmares remained alight.

Her shoulders hunched as each sob shook her body in lament for the lives that had been lost. All of her people, but mostly for those final friends. They had become like a clan unto themselves by the end, a family that was stronger than blood could ever have been.

And in trying to save them from the beasts, she had inadvertently snuffed them from existence.

She felt a tug back to reality in the form of an unexpected embrace, and for a moment she clung to the sensation. Used it as an anchor to pull herself from the pit of her mind.

It had not been long since she left that world of torture. There had never really been a grace period with which to reflect, to categorize within her mind, to let go.

From the moment they perished she had fled for survival, into the thicket, for she had killed some of the beasts own in the action and feared the consequences.

Even when she was found, picked up by the Elders, she was hit with yet more bumps in the road, and the loss of her Grandpa...

Then the Galaxy was made known to her, and she left in some silly little tincan to float within the vast void, only to be picked up by the faceless woman.

And now here she was. The culmination of all her experiences had been placed heavily upon her shoulders, far too much for her to bear.

The tears were gone, though her shoulders continued to shake. Fatigue, weariness, set in in place of upset.

Finally she pulled back from the green skinned man, looking down in shame as she hastily wiped her face clean of any reminder of what had just taken place.

She had failed his task. Where did that leave her now? Matsu would not be happy.

"I'm... Sorry."

[member="Ignus"]

 

[Figure In White]

"Why?"

She said she was sorry, but he wanted to know why she was sorry. Certainly she'd failed to free herself, but in the exercise she had discovered that her demons still haunted her. In time she would come to realize that if she was ever going to move forward in her life, she was going to have to move beyond the experiences of her past. Leos had killed people too. Not people he'd cared about, but he'd seen people he cared about die. The people that had taken him away from Mirial had killed countless of his fellow Mirialans, and for that he had killed them. Just the same the Primeval had committed genocide against his people and he was in the process of hunting them too.

Perhaps that was the key to all of this. She blamed herself for what had happened, but ultimately that reality had been placed upon her by the hands of someone else. If she could deal with that someone else, perhaps she could get her mind away from the past. It was an idea of sorts, but he didn't know where she was from or how to get her back there.

"Tell me more about your world and what happened to it. Who attacked you and what did they look like?"

If she could give him details, he could figured it out. It might help her to actually face her demons, rather than run from them. He could certainly keep her safe if it came down to that, so there was little risk of harm coming to her. Naturally it depended on whether she wanted to face them, if she wanted to conquer her past, but he would try to persuade her to do it if she resisted. It was, in his eyes, the only way she was going to get over killing her people as she had. Sometimes vengeance was the best medicine.

[member="Llevana Helas"]

 

[Lief]

She lifted her head just a touch, regarding him solemnly. As always when in the presence of another, she found that her tongue did not move the way it ought to, feeling heavy in her mouth. Just how was she ever going to get by on broken sentences that didn't make sense? How in the world was she to explain District Thirty Two to a foreigner? Who even knew if that was its real name... That was simply what they knew it as.

A very subtle pout pulled at her lips, and she tore her gaze from him to the surrounding area. Rubble remained, and she realized only now that she was back in the City. It felt... Strange. Like she was too exposed. Not a sensation she enjoyed.

She stepped away dubiously, tentative, and glanced around herself with discomfort. How long had they been stood here in the street?

When someone almost walked into her, she leaped from her skin and found her feet leading her back to the side of the green skinned man.

"Failed" she finally said, in a hushed tone, addressing his first question. The second would not come as easily, she realized. Did she even know the words to explain it all?

[member="Ignus"]