"ITS A BIRD, ITS A PLANE... oh wait, it is a Bird... Woman... Thing..."

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

Solan smiled and watched as the shadow her shot up too, mimicking her exactly as a large metal hammer also entered its hand, though this was not the same. It seemed to scream fear and pain. As the Embodiment of Rage, Solan knew it contained the emotions Fear, Anger, Hate, and Love. With each of these emotions they were intensified with every passing moment. Solan took that moment to shout up at Morrigan. "BY THE WAY, TRY NOT TO THINK."

 

[Vanir]

"Don't think? Easy enough."

My mind went blank, and the shade went sailing through me, and I didn't even feel contact. I spun around, and tried to bop the shade one with the hammer. It didn't work, and I went careening off when the shade's return shot hit me.

"That hurt, you queen!"

I folded my wings and dropped back to the shade, and the hammer just passed through her again.

"How. do. I. hit. her?"

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

"How do you hit it? Oh, you don't, nor could -you- ever hit it... watch out." He had been distracting her by talking, the hammer coming down on the word watch rather than after. Its heavy head coming down like an avalanche from a mountain. He simply watched as she would need to figure out how to destroy such a thing. Though, he decided to make this a bit harder. "I lied, you are a freak with wings, not even close to beautiful."

 

[Vanir]

"Of course I'm a freak with wings. It's why I'm beautiful."

I dodged to the side as the shade sent another hammerblow that probably would've hurt even in a dream like this. I decided to try something else. The hammer in my fist changed back to the ball of fire, and the fire was now veined with lightning. My enjoyment? Happiness? Ego? Whatever it was, it circled my right hand like a glove, and I grinned at the shade again.

"C'mere so I can smack you down, imitator."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

He smiled at her words, 'Shes stronger than most, both mentally and probably physically considering all the larger she is...' The Shadow her seemed to now carry two hammers now, one in each hand. It grinned and shot forward, slamming both down on where Morrigan stood. Solan in truth had no control over this apparition, but it was fun to see someone struggle against themselves... he had done this very this very training before and now he was going to give her the full brunt of the training. With that the shadow her split itself. One was pure anger, one was pure love, one fear, and a fourth sadness. Each carrying wicked looking blades or hammers.

 

[Vanir]

Four copies of me, each one etched with a face like a mask in a play. One looked absolutely untouchably angry, one looked like it was crying, a third one had a permanently shocked expression, and the fourth had an expression of warm affection.

I decided that sadness was going to be the first to die. I needed more power to confront my anger, and sadness was easily the emotion I felt the least.

"You're mine, tearful one."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

He smiled as she said that and immediately her anger and love shot forward to strike at her, bringing their shadowy weapons down on her while he watched them. Problem was she could not confront one emotion with two more coming to find her, she would have to face them all, she just hadn't realized how yet, and he would wait to see if she could realize it.

 

[Vanir]

The lightning around my hand stretched toward the tear-faced shade, but two more blocked it from reaching her. So it was all four, or nothing? Fine.

The lightning arced again, this time to envelop me. I saw memories of the times where I was most afraid, an orphan running through the forest. The time when I was most angry, a hunter sticking his spear through the lung of Agamemnon. The time when I felt the saddest, Agamemnon's death cries echoing through the forest-city. And the first time I felt real love, when Agamemnon played and laughed with me, Aurum always close behind.

Now, the memories flared into points of light that burned around me. A glowing capsule caught fire around my body, and I couldn't see a thing.

It freaking hurt. The fire burned and blinded me, the lightning across my hands was now out of control and arcing everywhere, and I couldn't breathe from the pressure of the aura on my chest.

"What the hell is this thing, Solan? What did I do to myself?"

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

He went wide eyed, shaking his head. "Oh no, this isn't good, shes focusing on the emotions and dwelling on them..." He walked towards her and without hesitation stuck his hand into the fire, then his second, and grabbed her shoulders. Then he would scream out, and slowly all the pain and emotions she was consumed by transferred to Solan in the form of a primal essence. No Memories, but the ideas and feelings were enough to nearly cripple the man in pain as Morrigan was ejected from Solan's mind, and when she found herself standing in the real world, Solan would be on the ground shaking and twitching.

 

[Vanir]

And now we were back on the grass. Solan was spasming on the ground, screaming slightly. I ran over and tried to help him up, but his skin burned to the touch. When I touched his mind, it was still blank, but there was something... dark creeping through it.

"Solan, where are you? I can see you, but your mind's not there..."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

He weakly looked at her and stared for a few seconds, eyes distant as his body continued to shake. He looked like he was pleading though, for the memories to stop before he shut them tight and stopped shaking completely. In that moment his own emotions were ejected as a telekinetic wave, uncontrolled and volatile as it was aimed to get rid of everything going on in his head, fueling the wave with raw and powerful emotion.

 

[Vanir]

If I hadn't been able to fly, the wave of raw power that came out of Solan's mind would have sent me crashing to the ground about ten meters away. I landed next to Solan, and shook him.

"What happened? I couldn't sense you for about thirty seconds. Did my memory really do that much damage?"

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

"No... its not as simple as that... i took on all the emotions of your past, primal ones, not just the memories. It mixed with my own memories and the two created a void that just went deeper as the memories collided... so many dead. All those dead, how did you stay sane seeing that... did you even feel that, it was... horrible. To feel the pain of so many at once."

 

[Vanir]

"Who says I stayed sane? I spent three years wandering a burned-out wasteland, killing any Republic soldier I came across. The goddess avenging her people, their rage incarnate. I even have a theory that the Republic created a void in the Force around that area... Colors were being leached, my mind was empty, and I couldn't speak to Aurum. It was what you just saw. The emptiness would have killed me, but I ended up on a ship, filled with dead soldiers who had suffered the same fate as my city. I took control, escaped, and crashed into a Moross Star Destroyer. I was never sane until I began to wander, Solan. And then my shattered mind began to mend."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

He watched her and found himself understanding her for a moment before crossing his hands on his lap and staying sitting down. With his eyes scanning over the woman before nodding slowly. "Im sorry to assume, the best way to heal is to let things out... both figuratively and physically considering the thing that just happened with me. Tell me about the day, im here to listen."

 

[Vanir]

"Well, the first day was just a couple of guys who came to 'study' our city. They were allowed access to most of the city, except for some parts of my palace. A couple days later, they broke into the hall that held the more intelligent of the birds I'd summoned. Including Agamemnon. He must've talked to them, because they came out screaming. A day later, they threatened me, and two days later they'd come to kill Agamemnon. They burned him. He screamed for so long, I couldn't sleep. I could've forgiven them the death of my King of the Wild, but they just had to torture him.... Seven days, Solan. That's how long he stayed alive. He was strong enough in the Force to survive, but I could never find him."

I blinked back tears as I was talking about it. I'd never gone into much detail before.

"They came back after that. To accuse me of Sith Sorcery. I killed them, obviously, but they'd already reported back to the Republic. There was a task force there within three days, and they didn't even try to make contact. They dropped a firebomb, and it destroyed a whole sector of the city. A couple hundred people dead in under ten minutes... The fire spread that fast."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

He looked at her closely and saw her holding back tears as he had done the same a million times, holding his breath he sighed and touched her shoulder with his right hand, speaking in a soft, kind voice that flowed out and tried to calm her. "Hey, go ahead and cry, there is absolutely no reason to hold back the emotions that i just felt, you have to let everything out if you want to get better, everything. Plus when you cry, you get through the sadness faster and holding it in just makes things worse as time goes on." He kept the same smile and let her know he would simply listen and wait for her to react to his words and his hand on her shoulder, being there for what ever would come out.

 

[Vanir]

"I don't like to cry about it... The death of my planet bothers me, sure, but the only death that really, really shook me was Agamemnon. He was almost like a father to me. That's why I consider Aurum my brother, cause he's the son of the King of the Wild. A rather intelligent line of birds, apparently."

I wiped my eyes dry, and sat back to lean on my hands.

"It wasn't the death that bothered me. It was the destruction. They aren't the same thing, in my mind. The people who lived there were nice, wise, and mostly good people. But even if they died, somebody could have known their history, and rebuilt the civilization. The history that was carved into the trees, written in myriads of volumes stored in houses and buildings. It all burned that day, and nobody could fight against the ships that came. The largest weapons we had were little more than sniper rifles. Old ones. There was no way to attack, and no collective will to. The Republic destroyed my planet utterly."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Morrigan"]

He listened and shook his head at that. "How can you not be sad, not feel grief from such a thing miss. I don't mean to overstep my boundaries but that is not healthy. What i mean is things are just too horrible to not cry. You must feel pain for all those that died, can't you cry for any of them?"

 

[Vanir]

"I was never in tune with the people so much as their history. I was kept shut in a palace, free to wander within, and only rarely actually allowed to go outside the grounds. And even that was to parade me around as an idol. I didn't know another life, so I just shut up about going outside and talked to the minds I could feel around me."

My smile turned crooked now.

"I can't cry for those I never really met, Solan. I can feel compassion, rage, and sympathy for them, but never the actual overwhelming sadness I felt when avian friends died. I hardly ever even touched the minds of the individuals in those crowds. It took me almost five years of wandering in cities to put the mental blocks up that would allow me to do so without being overwhelmed. But that was after I left, of course."

[member="Solan Charr"]