Drink Death's Water Free

[Jaxton Ravos]

[member="Darth Odium"]

"I have no idea." Jaxton said, as the thought of his body suddenly came back to him. "This place. Time is infinite, yet instantaneous. We could have been in here two minutes or two years."

"This place . . . it is wrong. Why did you come here Ket Vistas?"

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]


Ket? Yes, that was his name....it was beginning to feel like a distant thing.

"This....was a mistake." He said as he looked at the man and remembered the history, he had been over eager. Seeing the woman in the pool made him forget his true purpose. This place would be his grave...or would it?

"I should have never touched the pool...it was not my place. I need to get back. I have work to do." The spirits tied to his own were begining to press out on him and it took effort to hold them here.

"I know what I have to do." He said as he dove back into the pool and into his own body.

His head broke the surface and he began to climb out of the pool and dress.

 

[Arage Bao]

Experimentation, only through tries would he accomplish that which he sought.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

He blinked and the world shifted around him. Color drained, black and white filled his eyes, his breath turned into mist and his body grew cold. Again, here. This wasn’t exactly what he had pictured, this was… not this place again.

The silhouette sighed and was about to dissipate from the dimension, until it noticed two others here. It tilted its head and a shadowy brow raised itself up in a question.

‘Am I interrupting something?’ the shape asked his acquaintance [member="Darth Odium"] and some guy with huge dreadlocks - [member="Jaxton Ravos"]

Another blink and he saw them bathing together. Well, that was something he really didn’t want to have burned into his retina. The contour sighed once again, mentally shaking a fist at the humor of the Galaxy.

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

[member="Darth Odium"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

Jaxton watched as the Nautolan disappeared, to be replaced by an older man.

"No." Jaxton said, and promptly disappeared, going back into the real world. Or perhaps leaving it. He wasn't entirely sure. Putting his clothes back on he looked over the Nautolan.

"So what happens now?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"] [member="Darth Odium"]

Well, that piqued his interest. He was old and these days few things made him as interested as the clear signs of ascension. Ovmar blinked and color drained back into the world, he found himself on a planet, a planet that seemed to radiate maliciousness and display the sheer amount of eagerness it had for wanting to kill him.

Not a pleasant place.

Again he saw those two guys, oh boy. They were radiating something else entirely, or perhaps it was the same thing, just in a different spectrum.

The Ovmar kept his silence and waited.

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

Odium stood and slung on his pack as he looked at the pink man. A smile parted his lips and his silver pointed gave met the man's. With a surprised looked he pointed back at the water then used the force to run for the woman's speeder like he stole something.

He ran and jumped through the open window of the still runing speeder and jammed the thrusters while yanking the yoke back. Juvenile perhaps but he would aim for the font of power.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

MEANWHILE (BUT NOT REALLY)

I'm guessing a time-based Force nexus ran into my time-warper father right after I, uh, took a shower in the nexus. And I'm already a little iffy when it comes to temporal stability.

The speeder's gone. My clothes, thankfully, aren't. They're really my first clue that I'm not in Chaos, because it's perfectly dark, it's perfectly cold, and there's no gravity. Once it feel the clothes, though, it clicks. I've been in a derelict before.

This isn't the Role Model -- my pretty pretty ship is probably still where I left it, a few hundred metres of jungle away from that pool in the cave. Wherever and whenever I am now, it smells totally different, like a blend of spice and sweat. Gross but hot. I stretch out in the zero-gee and feel nothing. Irritated, I strip off my boots and throw one to give myself some momentum in the other direction. Slooooowly, I drift across the compartment I can't see. I chuck the other boot for a little more speed; it hits my toe and sends me into a gentle spin, so when I hit the bulkhead, it's my back that makes contact first.

I find a panel; it wakes up at my touch. This ship's not dead, it's in storage, locked waythefeth down past emergency power. No lights, no reactor spark, just a fuel cell somewhere. Might not even be enough to start the reactor, whatever ship this is and wherever I am.

I check the date -- feth. It's a good five weeks ago. At this point I haven't even left for the Maw yet. I think about preventing it, but decide against it. No big moral quandary there, and no real practicality concerns. I was right beside someone genuinely nasty. Now I'm not. Winning.

I reactivate gravity and basic door systems, but anything beyond that is locked down for now. I make my way through a couple of random passages and eventually find a viewport at the edge of the ship. Starlight warms me a little, or maybe it's psychosomatic. Past the transparisteel, or glasteel, not sure which -- it's high-grade, whatever it is -- I see other powered-down ships of all shapes and sizes. Or rather I see their silhouettes, just drifting against a starscape. There's no sun in the picture. Whatever kind of storage depot or trophy lot this is, it's far enough from a system primary to be very secure. Not a sign of life. The viewport is panoramic, and the whole room smells like sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll, more or less in that order.

I head back to the terminal, ignoring a very unsettled feeling -- it's like I'm back in the monolith in the Chiloon Rift -- and spend maybe an hour rewiring things until I get some rudimentary access going. At some point I find my boots.

The ship's a Huttese Ootmian-class frigate, modified into someone's caravel, then repossessed and stored by someone with too many toys. By the time I see the nameplate, I already know what it's going to say, why I'm here, why I feel like time is seriously messed up, and who I'm going to inconvenience once I get this thing up and running. Or who I'm going to have inconvenienced. Feth grammar.

The nameplate reads Garden of Unending Delights.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

[member="Darth Odium"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

The Nautolan it seemed could not speak in the physical world, and began eyeing him oddly, before pointing to the pool and promptly running in the other direction. The move distracted Jaxton, but only for a fraction of a second. He was running towards the speeder. Jaxton immediately bolted after him.

Unluckily for Odium Jaxton's specialty was in physical enhancement, primarily Force Speed. Along with his athletic prowess he was probably one of the fastest men in the galaxy. To the point where his current training involved wearing a 225 kilo jump suit to slow him down. Right now he wasn't wearing that jump suit. And though Odium distracted him that only meant he needed stride to catch him.

Tackling the Nautolan a meter and a half before he reached the speeder he brought him to the ground with a physical force that nearly made the two bounce.

"I don't want to fight you if I don't have to. What is this place? What do you want?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"] [member="Darth Odium"]

Ovmar pondered and then shrugged. Ain’t his problem, instead the former Sith Lord moved back into the clearing and started to simply walk. His senses extended themselves across all directions, sensations tugged at him but he ignored it, instead he simply kept on his travel time.

It wasn’t clear if the former Sith Lord had any purpose in his walking, or if he was simply wandering around. Always the question, ain’t it.

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

The Nautolan wriggled under the heavy pink man and groaned...on the inside.

<<There is a fountain a powerful nexus.>> Odium said telepathically, <<We are going to change because of the pool and because of the darkside I at the very least have weeks at most before it kills me....us. If we don't drink the knowledge from the pool will consume us.>>

Odium, Ket stopped struggling. He had made the Jedi grandmaster believe he was just a padawan surely he cpuld convince this man to let him go. Right?

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

[member="Darth Odium"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]

Jaxton felt a bit invaded as the thoughts of the Nautolan greeted his, but he supposed it was just the mute's way of talking.

"This pool, this fountain. Together what will they do to you? To us?"

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

To lie or not to lie. That is the question. Odium could lie and say it would cure them but in this instance he was ever so slightly....afraid. He looked back as best he could.

<<I don't know.>> He said, <<Buy us some time to think of something better.>>

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

[member="Darth Odium"]

He doesn't know. Though Odium wasn't exactly a man to be trusted he could feel the honesty in his thoughts. The Pool he bathed in was a Nexus, something he'd never seen or heard of before. Beyond that he had never heard of any nexus granting an experience like that. To think it slowly corrupted them? And that another dark side nexus was supposed to be a cure? Jaxton wasn't sure he could accept that. He shouldn't have bathed in the pool. He didn't know what was real or not anymore. But he knew that this place? It wasn't for him. Or anybody.

Keeping force applied with his body and left arm Jaxton pulled out a lightsaber from his belt and put it up next to the Nautolan's right hip, before igniting it. If Odium didn't stop it one way or another the plasma blade would start at his hip and cut through his body diagonally, hitting through a few organs, including his heart, before exiting through his shoulder. If the place he traveled in before was the real universe than all he did was free Ket of his physical form. If this place was real then he would remove a Sith Lord with a power the galaxy didn't need to see.

That was, if his killing blow worked as intended.

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

<<Hate me!>> Odium thought at them now embracing his own emotions, <<See me for what I am and Hate me!>>

"I. Hate. You," she growled and glared at him in the darkness, her eyes struggled to stay focused as her energy was sucked-out. She stumbled forward, falling to her knees in front of the sith. She hated him.

"Ket!" Ryan cried, voice weak and raw, "I hear you... I hear your agony... and your sorrow... and your loss..." Korr's breath was ragged.

<<You don't hate me now>> Odium said as he tried to stab the woman with her bloody dagger, << but you will jedai, you will.>>

....

<<If you want him go if not don't. >> he said simply to her before looking to the man.

<<This place will be my tomb but will a Jedi force the woman to go against her will? Enslave and imprison? Go she is free to do as she pleases. I have no interest in wither of you.>> he said casually despite his missing foot, <<Or you could kill me now. I'm unarmed, injured, helpless. You could strike and end my misery here.>>

He looked at the woman bathed in blue light. He could feel her now her feelings and thoughts as if they were nearly his own. Was this what it was to have a companion, a friend? He looked at the ground and back up before putting his stump down and begining to slide deeper into the catacombs.

<<Release me of life embrace your victory. Look how I've cut her and choked her. Will you let me live to hubt her again? Will you Jedi?>>

He said to Quinn alone.

<<Can you feel me? Can you see that I can help you give you power set you free? What would he do but cage and try and force you to change to a house pet? I don't want to see that...do you? Find me, learn from me, be my companion.>> he asked softly, pleading.

His eyes flashed white at the sudden memory. The weight of the man and his strength were immense. He tried to think to decide on a course as his eyes began to glow.

<<You came.>> He spoke after a long silence, <<I dreamed you would.>>

He did not know what to say or really how the bond had taken hold but he did know he could sense her. He knew her intimately but knew nearly nothing as well. He waited and finally smiled.

<<What will you do with your weapon?>> he asked, <<Will you kill me now? Now that I'm bound to you alone?>>

.:I could no sooner cut off my own hand:..:You changed me in the tunnels. Your memories are all here. Will you accept me, teach me or will you sacrifice me to the shadows?:.
<<I have already Accepted you.>>

His breath became ragged as his thoughts began to transcend space and time. Perhaps Quinn was all he wanted after all.

"I am yours," she said.
<<You should have killed me in the tank.>>
“I kill now, You. Stubborn."
“You want me talk pretty one day?”
<<I like how you speak....Are you afraid?>> He asked his calm exterior holding back his darker emotions like a dam holds a torrent.
"No. I do not fear,"::But I am wary. I am wary of what it will take to go after what I want. I am wary that the longer I stay with you, the more my wants will change.:: "You, eat. And why you holding back?" She referred to his unspoken emotions. ::I know you but do you know what you really want?::
<<I hold back>> he thought about his words carefully, <<I hold back because I want you, and if I have you, I won't let you go.>>

His hand reached to his rarely touched saberstaff.

He stood slowly and reached for her his large hand sliding around her slender waist. He pulled her closer not forcefully but still with desire in his eyes. His lean muscular body touched hers as he reached up and brushed her tattooed check with the back of his olive fingers. He admired her for a moment that he wished would not end before he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. His one hand still around her waist while the other held the side of her head. His desire for her company and affection strong in the bond they shared and showed a side that he had buried deeply as he could. He held her kiss for as long as he could lips pressed together firmly before he slowly pulled away.

<<Do you still ask why I hold back?>> He said finally not letting her go.
“Then don’t let go me,” throaty-basic escaped her lips as she captured Odium’s mouth again with as much fierceness and passion as she showed in battle.

His fingers enclosed on the weapon as the ache the memories caused in his chest began causing a lump to form in his throat.

<<My master,>> he said to her mind, <<She gave me the Marks of the Dark Lord and they took the shape that suited me.>>
"I want to kill her." Her back was to the nautolan as she gathered her clothes. "Your master."
<<of course you do.>> he said, most people did these days, <<but why, to what purpose. A goal without purpose won't be as satisfying Quinn. What is the purpose in her death?>>

He walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders and ran them up and down her arms as if warming her or just trying to keep contact he wasn't sure.

<<Power with out purpose is useless.>> he said as he leaned near her ear, <<don't waste your anger and passion for whims.>>

Did he have a purpose?

"You not free," voice was heavy with undertones of barely-checked emotion. "You can't...see,"
<<I may not be free.>> he said, <<but I see far more than you think. You want my master dead. Why? Do you know? Or just feel?>>
"You are nothing but game to her. She will throw you away like trash." Her fingers dug deeply into the muscles of his arms. The hem of her shirt slipped-up her back as she leaned in closer. Heart pounded furiously in her chest as the wind intensified into an audible-roar. Oduim's books rattled on their shelves.
"You see but can you? Will you always be willing sacrifice for her?!"
<<I will not always sacrifice for her, but I would for you.>>
"Then prove it,"

He had failed her.

He stepped to her side to move around her and head north toward the black temple of Erida. Alarm already rising in the force, someone had sensed them.
"Odium," she stalked behind the Nautolan, "who is Rosa?"
<<She is Isolda's newest toy.>> he would say to her mind as the details slowly drifted back to his mind. <<Why do you ask?>>
"You feel strong for her. Why?"
<<I hate her for being too much like me.>> he admitted.
Was that it? Did looking at her remind him of what he was and make him want her in anguish?
<<Train and grow so you can kill her too.>> he said, <<I have no intrest beside her breaking further.>>
"Her death will not set you free,"
"What if I could take away your hunger? Would you take the chance?" Three quick, angry-steps closed the gap between them. Lean-shoulder dipped low as she went so shove past him. "Or will you choose to be slave forever?"

Anger, pain, regret and longing filled him as his saber unclipped.

<<Why do you want me set free?>> he asked, <<what does it matter?>>
"Answer me first."
He looked into her eyes his muddled hateful mind partly enjoying her anger, and some strange alien part of him felt...hurt? Why? Was it because she was upset? It seemed so.

<<Yes....I would take the chance...for you I would.>> His said.<<I would walk away and leave it behind for you.>>

He reached up and brushed her hair lightly from her tattooed face and took the moment to enjoy her fiery strong eyes and the way the jungle air left a sheen on her mocha skin.

"You're all I want." He said in a raspy whisper, <<The galaxy can burn.>>
"You ask me why." Plain-lips clamped closed in thought before finding the right words. "I feel for you. You are my weakness."

She felt freedom in saying it aloud, admitting it. But she also felt shame. "But I am here to serve you. Do I dishonor you in this?"
<<Quinn, I...you are my weakness as well.>> he said as he reached for her hand, <<I don't want you to serve me.>>
He looked her in the eyes his emotions turning to a tangled mess he didn't even fully understand.
"I love you, [member="Quinn Vos"]." he rasped.....

He loved her...and he had just tossed his life away. He had to say good bye. He had to tell Ryan Korr to care for her. It couldn't end yet. He had to see her one last time, to ask her to forgive him.

He let the force explode from him in an effort to push the man back so he could kicked himself up to his feet. His Crimson blade would explode to life as he would hopefully turn toward his opponent. He didn't want power anymore. He didn't want to be Sith nor Jedi nor Dark nor Light. He just wanted to say good bye.

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

[member="Darth Odium"]

Just before Jaxton could ignite his blade an explosion of power threw him from the nautolan, towards the Pool. Ket, or Odium as he went by now, would turn to face him with one end of a saberstaff lit and in hand. But he would see nothing. Hear nothing. Feel nothing of Jaxton or where he went. Jaxton was not a pro when it came to the White Current, but he knew enough to immerse himself and play a couple of tricks. Running towards Odium the Nautolan would see Jaxton appear right in front of him, opening with an impossibly fast downward diagonal slice on his left shoulder. But the truth? Jaxton was just a half-step behind 'himself', aiming a lunge at the Nautolan's heart.

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

Odium watched as the man sprung from nothing and brought his blade crashing down at his shoulder like a raging waterfall. Odium stepped his left foot back and leaned his left shoulder back to avoid the blow. His right swung his blade up at the jumping pink giant of a man in an effort to rend his upper and lower body in two.

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

The Nautolan had evaded Jaxton's stab, but Jaxton had managed to hold the illusion of his 'second self', but just barely. Odium went up to swing and bisect the fake-Jaxton at his torso, still a bit in mid-air, and Jaxton ducked downwards to dodge the blow, right around his head. The image of Not-Jaxton would fade as Jaxton left the White Current, for he wasn't skilled enough in it's usage to hold it up for long. Odium would be in the beginning, maybe middle of his swing as Jaxton used Force Speed to slice horizontally into Ket Vistas, aiming to bisect him through the middle of his torso.

[member="Darth Odium"]

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

Eyes filled with the galaxy of stars he watched as the image simply disappeared. 'Phase?' Was his thought as he caught movement in his peripheral vision. He could do little. He pulled his slice up short and turned his head as the man's blade drew near his body. His left hand rose to push the man away with the force...

...and stopped as the blade, the man's blade passed through Odium's waist. His face just a moment before was a twisted angry thing but now his face paled. His mouth opened and closed mouthing words that would never be heard. The saber in his hand died as it fell from his hands. Slowly he fell to his knees and the light of life faded from his eyes as if his soul was gone before he hit the ground. Black whisp of smokey substance began seeping from his wound as his body simply slipped apart. Screaming, spirits of the dead erupted from his cooling corpse and scattered in all directions until it was suddenly very quiet, and eerily still.

He shook his head as if he had seen a narrowly evaded fate while the force push moved toward the man.

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

The edge of Odium's shirt were sliced through, mayhaps even a body hair or two, but the Nautolan's Force Push managed to knock Jaxton out of position and harm's way. Considering it was an instinctive push and not really a channeled one it didn't throw him too far, but it was far enough that Jaxton needed to gain ground to get back into saber range. Swiping his left hand he channeled the Force to use some telekinetic force. Jaxton was never really a good telekinetic, but he wasn't aiming for power. Instead he took dirt, grass, mud, whatever else was on the ground and flung a decent-sized clump of it to the Nautolan's eyes, aiming to blind him or at the least block the strike with his hands. In another second he'd be back in saber range of the Nautolan, going for a simple diagonal swipe to gain some power from gravity. It would towards his right shoulder, going down towards his left hip.

[member="Darth Odium"]

 

[Darth Odium]

[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

The debris shot for h8s face and he turned his head to the left to protect his eyes. His heart pounded in his ears as he decided to continue his turn. His left hand grabbed the long hilt of his double bladed lightsaber as he dropped to a knee facing away from the man. The bottom emitter of the staff pointed at where Odium assumed Jaxton's gut would soon be and activated sending the crimson blade launching out to meet the approching man.