Underneath A Blood-Orange Sun

[Matsu Xiangu]

​

[SIZE=12pt]Skye[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]No-Man's Land[/SIZE]​

​

As their ship soared through space that same hum and creak that had accompanied them on that very first day lulled her to sleep…

[SIZE=12pt]And inside her eyes opened on a sky swept in purples and grays, broken by the most strange sun she’d ever seen. It reminded her of a planet – a large swamp rock who’s name escaped her (and how long had she been at his side, traveling and learning – the shaper, not shaped) – that she’d seen with Krius what may have been months ago for all she knew. But this was no swamp. There was nothing but the field she found herself in, grass extending for what seemed like ages in all directions split down the middle by a river. She had her toes in the sand, her hair loosely framed around her face, her nails lightly running along the middle of her throat as she watched the water rushing through the little slice of nowhere. It was peaceful and for a while she had been craving a moment’s respite from the buzzing in her head.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She almost had it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]But almost as soon as she found a moment of quiet she felt him behind her. Ever since that day on the cliff – the day she’d heard the screams of those whose lives she held in the very palm of her hand only to silence them in an instant – being in his presence had been…harder. There was no ease, no give – there was a sharpness in his eyes that she hated. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Her body stiffened as he came closer behind her, perhaps feet from her back. She did not turn her head to look at him. She wouldn’t.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Do you remember that day, on Ossus?” he asked, his voice at once comforting and disturbing. She wondered if he was inside of her head again but instead of being angry she was…sad. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“I do,” she answered quietly, her voice almost carried away by the breeze.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“I heard you.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]There was a quiet menace in his tone that filled her with dread. He came closer, so close she could practically feel his touch. There had always been an assured quality to his mannerisms that she liked, but in that moment he felt like something that would crush her.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“I heard you,” he repeated, quieter this time, his fingers snaking in to her hair. “And I will set you free,” he finished, that cold distrust she kept feeling from him coming full bloom in to hatred. His fingers tightened at her scalp and took hold, her knees hitting the sand as he pushed her head underwater and held her there.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Please.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]No.[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]I would have loved you.[/SIZE]​

​

She awoke with a snap, flying off the mattress, cheeks flushed with panic and her heart beating butterfly-light against her chest. There would be no sleep for her.

It had been coming harder and harder lately, doubt and worry plaguing her deep in to the endless hours when she should have been drifting peacefully. Everything had changed when he’d shared that vision – his vision – of the Galaxy and her mind had not immediately clicked in agreement. A lack of sleep mixed with the very thing that made restful nights elude her (I don’t agree I don’t agree I don’t agree) was causing an awful, buzzing pressure that seemed to chase her. And worse…she thought she could see that change behind the way he looked at her. Praise seemed hollow as if he was unsure he could truly be satisfied with what he was seeing.

It couldn’t go on that way.

Lifting herself from her bunk, she ran her fingers through her hair to push it off her face. She had grown to know the ship just as well as its true owner and she found Krius directing their flight down to whatever planet called them next. She had no qualms about where they went – as long as she was with him and they continued to shape (the shapers, not the shaped!) she was happy.

She had been happy.

She sat next to him, looking through the viewport at the mountains below. Any other day that would have taken her breath away.

“What is this place?” she asked quietly. She found that faced with him she couldn’t begin to admit…admit…not yet.

[member="Krius Syonis"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

The final destination for Matsu Xiangu would by Skye; right on the edge of the galaxy. The Outer Rim.

Krius held the yoke gently of his scavenger ship (how he hated that word) and gently brought the craft down through the atmosphere and over the picturesque planet itself. One that was rich with life and vibrancy, it made his heart swell to see such a place still in existence in a galaxy ravaged with decay and conflict that had touched its very surface decades ago.

At one point the golden orange sun would shimmer over dark blue waters before cresting across green trees that swept for miles before rising up the giant snow-capped blue mountains that overlooked all below, even the clouds at times. It was full of beauty, and there was no better place to take her.

The second he could rid himself of the old ship he had taken from his father to get something of his own, more streamline and less bulky, he would certainly feel purged of the past. All that remained was...Matsu. Matsu Xiangu. Thankfully the flight path ahead was slow and free of danger, because at the thought about her, he suddenly became distant and lost himself in thought; flying on an autopilot in his own head.

From meeting a wide-eyed Force user on Utapau under 2 months ago to then take to exploring the cultures and secrets of the galaxy in an attempt to better their understanding of their power, and each other, Krius was now facing a dead end. And he knew it.

This girl, this creature, was strong with the Force. He had seen her explore the secrets of the past and use them to devastating, satisfying effect in the present. Her understanding of what it took to control a birthright such as the Force had impressed him. Not as a "teacher" but as a mentor; a guide in a dark world to help her see the light within.

No Jedi or Sith codes, no rank progression, no meditation. Just pure, satisfying Force development as a partnership to become a singular force to be reckoned with.

But more than ever he knew she was doubting him. Not doubting...fearing?

Was she fearing him? Or his path?

He couldn't be sure, but he felt a pit inside that was swallowing him up, and that was a weakness he had sworn never to have in his campaign forward to be something great in the galaxy.

From crashing waves in the Ossus sea that reflected his roaring anger, to the wild hound on the moon of Bogden that mirrored her animalistic rage, Krius and Matsu had been brought together for a reason, but now he felt that reason had dissolved before them and now a singular, more fateful end was upon them both, and it would be he that...

"What is this place?”

Her soft voice broke him back to reality in a heartbeat, and he silently cursed himself for doing just what he tried to let her not do. Cut himself off from his surroundings. Batting his eyes quickly to regain his focus, he gently flicked his head to look at her with a soothing smile.

"This, my dear, is Skye." He nose-dived gently towards the lightly snow dusted base of one of the many mountain ranges, peppered with a handful of tall trees and a steaming lake bubbling gently along.

"The warm rivers run through rich green fields as you can see, the giant trees touching the sky when the snow capped mountains take over reaching to the heavens. BUT don't let the beauty fool you. This is a planet rich with Force history and will be a good place to end our travel before taking our first steps into the galaxy.

With little effort, he steadied the ship and brought it down gently besides one of the rivers which ran from the mountains down into the depths of the planet itself. Krius flipped a number of switches automatically and killed the engine, resting his hands on his dark fuchsia jumpsuit, covering his black bodysuit to keep him warm.

"Care to accompany me to finally find your calling with the Force?"

Another charming smile.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRUf8zjBbd8

When he smiled at her she could for a second forget, for a blissful moment, that things had changed. She could pretend that he still held the answers in his hand – that he was still offering them on a black marble tray, lines of white streaking through its dark surface and just waiting for her to reach out and take the key. All the answers.

As he painted a rich picture, bringing to life the simultaneously vibrant and stark landscape quickly rising beneath them, she had one last fleeting moment of escapism.

"Care to accompany me to finally find your calling with the Force?"
Anywhere, anywhere.

She smiled in answer, enough a curve for her canines to peer from her mouth, before getting up and walking back towards the room she’d come from where she kept her meager things. “Of course…I’ll meet you out there,” she answered, disappearing to put on something warmer.

Funny, as reality crashed back around her with the light sensation of the ship landing, that the little slip of a girl should be afraid so suddenly. Since Krius became her mentor she had learned much and changed in many ways…but she would always be the seeker, would always chase the thrill with a doggedness bordering on alarming. She was not familiar with fear and not because she felt immortal, but because to her fear was useless. Oh, she’d heard it said that its use was preservation, a biological safeguard from doing idiotic things. But for Matsu, fear was a roadblock from true experience. She knew the pounding of her heart, the dilating of her pupils, the sudden sharp intake of breath through her nose as her mouth opened in a growl. To miss those was to miss living. She would rather die in the carelessness of doing than live in the grip of fear.

So why, looking at Krius as she walked down the ramp to join him on the planet’s surface, did she feel so afraid?

It is not him you are afraid of.​

It is not having him that is your horror.​

Emotion.​

The world was quiet save for the light hiss of steam and the water’s running, the light snow and the giant mountains to their left swallowing up all other sounds. The sun did not seem to reach where they were standing, hiding behind the rocky peaks and bathing their surroundings in blue, the crowns of the trees to their right glowing fire-bright in yellows and oranges. She was glad for the jumpsuit she’d zipped up under her usual loose, airy coverings – even at the base of the range it was bordering on bitter.

There was a feel to the place that spoke of what it had once seen, large swathes of the ground seemingly just finding their regrowth. She could only imagine the moments that the place had seen, the battles between two sides, both so convinced of their righteousness that they would kill for it. More waste…

It reminded her of Ossus.
War torn.
Rebuilding.
Change.
She couldn’t hold it beneath the cage of her teeth and her tongue and her heart and her mind and the (buzzing is killing me going to make me explode) frailty of a slip-shod bet of reassurance.

“Krius,” she said, her voice tremulous though she swiftly squelched that wavering. (Now, now or never, girl.) “Tell me what the Galaxy in the future looks like. As you would have it.”

It was the very first time she’d ever asked for such an explicit answer to the thing driving the wedge further and further between the two in her mind. She wasn’t scared so much of the answer – to her, all could be fixed. They didn’t need to agree on everything.

Did they?​

​

[member="Krius Syonis"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Right now, standing upon Skye, he was standing on the brink of his own inner drive. Right now it seemed that the galaxy had stopped breathing and moving in order to give him the quiet he needed at this, the most crucial moment in his adult life.

The crucial moment that would decide the direction he went in, and also that of Matsu travelling with him. Skye was much like his own conscious; to one side it was beautifully monstrous, hidden with mortal danger, and on the other it was serene, tranquil and at peace.

This charade of thinking, of plotting and planning, couldn't be kept for much longer. Krius had a war to finish with those who had drawn blood first, all those millennia ago, casting crimson essence of not just his fellow brothers and sisters on the battlefield, but also his mother only years ago. Now he was waiting for the moment to strike, like the most dangerous of predators upon those unaware of the shadow he was hiding in.

Breathing slowly, cool vapour escaping his mouth as he did so under the bitterly warm gaze of the sun, Krius rested his hands on his hips, the warm fuchsia jumpsuit zipped up tight and secure. She finally joined him, and what a question she asked as she did.

Why was she asking this. She should already know the answer.

A small pocket of irritation bubbled away inside him. He closed his eyes, taking in the essence of the planet to quell the frustration of continuously having to assure her of what he was doing and why.

You should be standing with me Matsu. Not behind me.

"Matsu. May I ask you something? Why are you not on my side? You know what my future will look like - it will see an end of those beings who want to destroy us out of fear, and also of those who think they are something greater to enslave us. Jedi. Sith. Sorcerers. Royalists. All of them pathetic."

Krius kept his voice calm, because he was calm. He wasn't angry, just...blunt?

"Everything I've done, I done for you. To unlock your power. To make you embrace it. You've come a long way from that wide-eyed girl on Utapau, believe me. I'm so proud of you."

Raising his hand from his hip and turning his wrist, he manipulated a small heap of dry snow to blow out towards the horizon.

"You're just starting to scratch the surface. Think of how much further we could go, together. This is our time. Our age. We are the future. You and me, Matsu. This galaxy, it...it will be ours."

His pause spoke volumes. He didn't turn to face her because he knew at that very moment, if he did, he wouldn't see the reaction he was so desperately praying she would show.

It could have been ours.

The pit in his stomach grew.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

A question with a question.

She listened to him quietly, every twist of his words barbaric in her ears.
Why are you not on my side?
Oh and that pause when he said the Galaxy could be theirs…it said more than his words.

She wanted to disappear. She wanted to go back to those first few weeks after Utapau when he opened his hands and inside she saw a lotus and inside that lotus bloomed promise and violence and satisfaction, knowledge and adventure and love and conquest. She wanted it all back, when none of these questions absorbed her and that lotus did not appear so very wilted and tired with the spread of his palm.

Why are you not on my side?
Why are you not on my side?

Like daggers. How could he think that she was not on his side? After all that time, all she had shown him, all she had done for him…she was determined to follow him to the ends of the Galaxy and perhaps beyond. She had done everything he had asked, but in this she wavered. What she wanted was to speak her piece, to air that which festered in the back of her mind so that it might be put to rest and they could get back to the way things were.

Will you still be proud of me Krius?

“I’m on your side. I’ve never stopped being on your side. I just…” She paused, trying to collect thoughts that were suddenly fluttering bird-wing fleeting against the inside of her skull. “I don’t see the point. I don’t see the point in the preemptive extermination of beings that could be useful simply because they follow a certain ordeal. Are they not entitled to free will? The Sith may not agree with you. The Jedi may not agree with you. The Sorcerers and the Royalists may not agree with you. But why eradicate them? To feel safe?”

To her, that was wasteful.
And that wasn’t a word she associated with Krius.

She took a few steps forward, closer to the edge of the river steaming through the snow they were standing in, though not quite near it yet. Her dream rattled lightly along her mind. She did not know what she wanted to hear him say or what would fix the seemingly unfixable place they suddenly occupied.

“I just don’t agree,” she said softly. Terribly. Finally. What had she been doing all this time?

It could have been ours.​

[member="Krius Syonis"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

He didn't dare move when he heard her voice, because it felt like any sudden movement would cause his inner foundations would wobble and he would fall into nothingness. Here, rooted firmly on crisp ice before the inspiring planet before them, he was in control. And that was most important; staying in control.

She softly spoke to break the silence; that silky voice that at one time had enticed him to make love to her and to do everything possible to make her something special. Now, she sounded wary and questioning. Krius didn't oppose questions or opinions, it's what made their kind great by inspecting that world around them, but he wasn't ready to hear it from Matsu.

But why eradicate them? To feel safe?

This angered him. Why was this girl picking away at the very path he had placed before her months ago? Why now? What had happened since? He had done nothing to make her doubt him. And there was no-way his path had been weak; it was something many people would kill to be part of, it had just been Matsu who had been accepted first to her luck.

Turning his head with a frown upon his face, he saw her lost in thought as she ambled forward and once more voiced the confusion bouncing around in that frustrating, over-active mind of hers.

I just don't agree.

He tilted his head back and gave an exhausted sigh.

"What do you MEAN feel safe? I don't NEED to feel safe, because I'm not scared of what's out there, unlike you Matsu." A violent finger stabbed outwards to the blood-orange sun, starting to come down to paint the landscape something rather dreamlike before them.

"Do you not understand why I am doing this, why I am taking you with me? Matsu, it's not about following an...ordeal, or even about being right. It's about survival. And those Jedi and Sith and whomever else out there with their tricks, their farcical Codes and rules and whatever are threatening our survival right now because of what they do to people like us. They enslave, abuse, manipulate and corrupt us."

He mirrored her, walking slowly forwards a few feet away from her by her side, and she never once met his gaze as he glared at the body that he once had nothing but adoration for, now dangerously turning to annoyance.

"How much devastation have we witnessed together that scars our galaxy from the constant battle between our own kind, vying for who is stronger and more powerful? It's this on-going war that needs to be stopped, and I intend to stop it because I know this is just touching the surface of what support lies deeper out there."

His fist clenched, and then relaxed. Clenched. Relaxed.

Clenched.

Relaxed.

"And free will? When has that ever made someone great? Never. Don't be so damn narrow minded Matsu, you're better than that. If you don't want to THINK for yourself anymore, you'd be better of with the Sith. They'd manipulate you wonderfully and tear out everything I've helped you develop about your free-will. Never forget what I've given you Matsu. NEVER."

Clenched.

A small laugh escaped his lips as he linked his hands behind his back, looking over the planet. His fingers were twitching together, fidgeting to try and distract his thoughts.

Matsu Xiangu. I loved you. Why is this galaxy taking you away from me. They are striking another blow; attacking me and taking everything I hold close.

"You don't know who you are anymore. You want the galaxy to accept you? You want ME to accept you?"

His dark eyes flicked to her.

"You can't even accept yourself."


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWKrtzLNmwI

It seemed, to Matsu, that she was standing at a crossroads. One path led to her right and the other to her left.

To the right lay the path of least resistance. She could leave behind all the doubts. She could just throw them to the wind and forget every whispered insistence that her mind could conjure, just walk away from them and follow Krius anywhere. It might take him time – and perhaps a very long time – to look at her without that contempt she saw in his eyes now. But eventually things would return to the way they’d been for the last few months. She could be happy. They could be happy – enjoy the promise of each other’s company, make love, create a world the way Krius saw it…the way Krius saw it. To follow that path meant to accept all the things that plagued her at night and just let them be. It meant accepting his ideals with none of her own in the mix.

Or the path to the left…on that path, there was no Krius. If she walked that way she chose her convictions. She chose her heart and mind over following him blindly. She forged her path in the Galaxy, one that did not keep her up at night with her brain buzzing and her heart hurting. But she left behind all that she’d known and done and grown to love in the past few months. She left him behind. A sadness so overpowering it threatened to bring tears to her eyes clawed up her throat, made her muscles weak, nearly had her shaking with it. (Please, please…I don’t want any of this, I just want it to be like it was!)

There had been times she wondered if she would share her true feelings and he might stop. He might think and perhaps see her side of things. She thought maybe she could merge those two roads she was staring at now and walk a new path with him. One where he did not have to be out of the equation and she did not have to bend down under his ideals.

But he was nothing if not determined.

“You want the Galaxy to accept you?
You want ME to accept you?
You can’t even accept yourself.”

Like knives. Every word drove deeper in to her flesh, cutting her to ribbons. She knew that tone in his voice – she’d heard him use it countless times on their stops in more inhabited planets. It was the voice he used towards those who were lesser, those who disappointed him merely by existing. And there she was, on the receiving end of such disgust. There was no anger bubbling right beneath the surface…just sadness, brimming and unfathomable and bottomless.

But there was a thin bead of agitation in there, feeding off his hands
clenched
relaxed
clenched
relaxed
clenched
relaxed
and she ran her tongue over her fangs slowly as she watched them from the corner of her eye, a primal response to his irritation started to mount in her.

She laughed, quietly, a sad thing, a dark thing.
And it was only then she finally dragged her dark eyes to meet his.

“That is why I’m saying all this to you. I know myself. I know what I want. I know I want you but not what you stand for.” A pause, a flash of anger. “You tell me free will has never made anyone great, but then tell me to think for myself. You tell me others will manipulate me but what do you call what you’ve been doing to me? Guiding?”

She took a few steps forward, wanting out of his immediate vicinity. She could feel rage right beneath her brainstem, threatening to explode. Her feet sank slightly in the sandy edge of the river and for the briefest moment she thought of her dream. How he came up behind her and…

“I am thinking for myself Krius. And you don’t like it,” she spat, venom.

When she had met him all those weeks ago in Utapau (and she, so doe-eyed, a sick beast of a creature with primal urges untapped, her motivator, her way not to give in when the Dark Side took hold because it was her nature and not anger that powered her), he had seemed a God. She had thrown him like a rag doll and yet he still held her within forefinger and thumb, the man who knew just what it was that welled inside of her and showed her how to unlock it. She missed him.

Force, she missed him.

(Please, come back. Don’t do this to me. You’re killing me. This might kill me. I would follow you anywhere if you would please, please just hear me out.)

[member="Krius Syonis"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKhIBDApbeo

For the first time in a while, longer than was normal anyway for them, Matsu finally met his gaze as they both stood before the steaming river, at the base of the looming mountain. The frosting of ice and snow glinted like diamonds under their boots, a surreal mix of wintery conditions to one side mixed with what looked like the start of spring on the other. If there was one planet that could capture the emotion and conflict he was feeling now, then Skye would be that.

Warm or cold.

Life or death.

He couldn't do anything but listen to her words and they struck him as nothing but distorted views from a girl becoming blinded by the galaxy as a whole. She wasn't focusing on the NOW. She was focusing on the WHAT IF.

By latching onto him as one who wanted to be guided and giving herself totally, that was what it meant to follow Krius Syonis and she had wanted it so badly. He could remember the words he had spoken in the depths of his ship like it was yesterday...

All you need to decide is will you stand with me and let me unleash your gift to the galaxy and become a Goddess.

Show me what to do...

Now Matsu was rebuffing his guidance. Fighting the very things she swore to follow. She was becoming too conflicted within her own head and she wasn't speaking clearly. She wasn't strong enough to follow him and devote herself to what she could become.

His eyes slowly closed and he drew a deep intake of breath from the planet around him. It flowed through his body and relaxed his muscles and focused his mind; sharp and alert. The bottomless pit swirling inside his gut was closing up now and it was obvious what he had to do. For a moment it felt as if Krius's physical state was just a shell and he was looking down on himself from above, floating in a dreamlike state and praying that the world would stop turning, just for a moment, so he could go back and see where it had all gone wrong.

He wanted to scream, but he had more self-control than that. No-one, as far back as he could remember, had gotten under his skin as much as Matsu had. Maybe it was her age, younger and more... naïve, but she had proven that this path was not one she would follow as much as Krius had believed.

She was turning her back on their future together and at one time it would have looked glorious, now it appeared stagnant and fake. Fake. Just one big horrible lie.

SHE was just one big horrible lie!

Why??

A single tear suddenly came from nowhere, rolling down his left cheek, tracing his jaw and then falling into the crisp snow below him.

My Goddess. You are not ready. You never were. I was fool to think you were.

Krius ground his teeth, his jaw muscle tensing visibly. He took slow, steady steps forward towards Matsu, standing on the soft bank of the river, the waning sunlight coating her in a warm glow. His heart thumped, his head was spinning. Cold eyes looked her up and down from behind, taking in the exotic beauty of the girl he would have killed for, and she would easily have relished him doing so.

"Do you remember that day, on Ossus?" Krius asked, cooly.

Her head seemed to rise sharply as he looked on, dark hair blowing gently, teasing him.

"I heard you."

The doubt. The fear. The resentment. All of it had been spoken blindly to him from inside her mind. Gently he placed his hands on her shoulders, a firm grasp that could have been interpreted as a protective, reassuring gesture in a moment brewing with positive uncertainty.

"I HEARD you."

His right hand drew over the nape of her soft neck, fingers entwined with her hair slowly curling into a violent grasp. He yanked her head back sharply so his mouth could be teasingly placed by her ear.

"And I will set you free." The calmness of his voice oozed like poison.

With no room for emotion to get in the way of his vision, he easily over-powered Matsu with his strength and dragged her downwards as he dropped to his knee, taking her with him like a doll in the blink of an eye. As a monster would do to his victim he pushed her head down into the water, gripping her hair wrapped grotesquely in his fist and fingers.

She was submerged, the panic evident in the erratic splashes.

He held her there, his face set like stone, eyes glazed over in a blind rage.

"I loved you."

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She could feel the rise of emotion in him – anger, betrayal, sadness. It was the sadness that hurt her the most and she refused to look back. She did not want to see the look on his face, remember that confusion and hurt for the rest of her life. As the breeze slowly tossed her hair around her face she crossed her arms over her body, brought a hand up to run her nails over the front of her throat absently, and closed her eyes.


[SIZE=12pt]With her eyes closed she could, for a moment, leave. She could think of when they’d gone to Ahani – a chance to see the destructive barbarism of the Hutts, their petty criminal infighting that led to nothing, gained nothing – and the first night they landed. She could escape and think of that look on his face when she’d been so certain of him, that hope, that emotion that in Krius passed for affection. They stood there in the desert with the breeze just bringing in the chill of night, the landscape a tapestry of sand and bruised purples on the horizon filling her head as she wondered where the rest of their lives were taking them – because this was only the beginning, right? And he wore a knowing half-smile that she would kill to see one more time…please, just one more time.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She knew the ending now.[/SIZE]

“Do you remember that day on Ossus?”​

Her eyes snapped open when she heard his question, a thrill of pure fear shooting up her body when she heard the question from her dream. She’d never had precognition like that before. She almost didn’t believe she’d heard him right. She raised her head, still refusing to look but every nerve in her body screaming of the danger behind her.

“I heard you.”​

When his fingers slipped around her shoulders she tensed, her breath coming in a shaky half-step as she kept her head straight forward, her eyes shifting to look at his fingers curled on her pale skin.

“I HEARD you.”​

She knew the ending now.

“And I will set you free.”​

Everything felt like slow motion as his fingers, twisted in to the roots of her hair, pulled and dragged her to the water as if she were nothing in his grasp. The sand absorbed the impact of her knees, grainy and rough between her fingers as she pushed off against the ground to struggle against his hold. The water, once her face was pushed beneath it, was freezing and she couldn’t help but scream against its icy bite, water rushing in to her mouth and her eyes and her nose and her ears and she was deaf and blind and she couldn’t breathe she couldn’t breathe she COULDN’T B R E A T H E –

And just when it might have been over the singular, abject horror of what he was doing to her cut through every panicked animal instinct.

He is killing me.​

Anger. Anger like blue-hot fire poured in to her. He was killing her. She would have given him everything, EVERYTHING and he had his hand on the back of her head and he was shoving her deeper, drowning her. Drowning her because she’d dared to admit that she was having second thoughts! He would discard her so easily after all she’d promised.

What she did to him then made a mockery of the push she’d given him that very first time on the ship flying away from Utapau. From her body came a repulse in the Force so strong that the ground gave way beneath her, dirt and snow and sand blasting from around her body in a crater and throwing Krius away from her to skid back in to the snow by the ship. She lifted herself from the ground and spun to stalk across the length of the hole she’d created, strides wide and hunting, climbing its edge and appearing over the lip with her high, fine features twisting in animalistic rage. Her dark eyes were shot through with yellow, hair wild and color high on her cheeks, her breathing heavy from the energy of what she’d just done.

“You would KILL me, Krius Syonis?” she called across the distance, her voice…hateful.

She stalked forward off the lip of the crater, raising her hand again to bring down all that hatred in a swooping blast, shaking the ground around him and blowing up more of the earth. (The power to bring down a SHIP, locked in that slip of a body…)

“I wonder how long it would have taken me to realize you’re mad,” she mused aloud, staring at him with utter contempt on her face as she raised her hand again, drawing her fingers towards her palm as she began tearing screws and bits and ends off ship – scavenging the scavenger for loose, sharp ends. “You would see me dead for one word of uncertainty. After all I’ve given you,” she said, rage bubbling over again at the sheer tragedy of him.

She screamed then, a hunter’s cry, a teeth-bearing expression of promise as she yanked her hand back and let every screw and edge and dangerous piece of shrapnel she could wrench from his craft fly breakneck through the air towards the man who would drown her.

She could hear them whizz
one
two
three
over and over and over past her ears and she didn’t care where they went. Let them push right through his skull and paint him backwards on the snow, pink and pieces of white and dead, dead, DEAD because it would be her and not him at the end.

She watched blooms of blood spray, the sharp ‘thwack’ of splitting skin causing her to tilt her head and roll her eyes back in her skull, a noise like ecstasy pouring out over her tongue.
KILL HIM.
KILL HIM!
Whether she would regret the decision to draw him like fine art across the landscape of Skye, only the next day's sun would know. But the sadness was burnt away in her fire.

And then she dropped everything, stalking towards her prey with that yellow bloom in her eyes and death in the set of her face.

[member="Krius Syonis"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Krius worked with Matsu's desperate thrashing in the cold water, a feeble panic that would soon give way to peace. She couldn't be a danger to herself anymore and the misguided path she tried to follow would thankfully implode. His hand gripped her soaking wet hair, keeping the force there to hold her down as he simply looked out towards the horizon and waited for her to be still.

Such a waste, but it was enjoyable while it lasted. There would be another Matsu out there somewhere for him to find.

And then he felt it, coursing around him, at first it caused the earth to shake beneath his knees, and the water started to ripple violently. He his came down at the feeling of a powerful magnetism pushing his hand upwards from Matsu's sodden hair, and all he could do was let go before it came - the sudden eruption of a darker Force energy that catapulted him back from the one he thought so much weaker than he.

The implosion seemed to come from beneath him and he was thrown backwards as if being pulled by a strong wire. Shockwaves kicked up the snow, dirt and water and the ground fell away from the riverbed, creating such a wide crater than the landscape was scarred; another wound from a battle caused by those gifted with Force. Krius landed on his side, sliding across the ground and disorientated from the blast.

The cold of the snow was felt on his hands and the back of his damp hair as he caught his breath, eyes darting around for the next attack. And then she called. She roared!

She's going to kill you. Get up.

Pushing himself up from the floor, Krius raised his head to see Matsu cresting the crater, her body speckled with dirt and damp from the water. Her face was contorted into an animalistic display of hate, determination and lust. Finally - he was witnessing the warrior he knew she could become. Only now it was too late, for she was turning on him.

Krius fixed his eyes on her, the rage boiling inside him and the lust for death and destruction rising. She dare attack him? HIM? Krius Syonis? The man who had taught her everything she could come to bear on him now? She was stupid, foolish and blind.

The earth spat up at him, causing him to shield his face and maintain balance as she tore up the ground before him with the Force as her attacking weapon. It was beautiful to finally witness. The birth of Matsu Xiangu. It was just not going to last long.

Letting her have the moment she would always remember, Krius could hear the groaning and creaking of the metal behind him on his ship, the claw-like fingers of Matsu pulling and contorting it to use against him. Turning his head to see the bubbling frame of the old ship buckle under her power, Krius began to advance towards her, his fingers splayed as he called upon the Force to attack her.

The first bolt ripped through his thigh, and it hurt.

The second, third and fourth slammed into his back, embedding into his skin and tearing the flesh like soft fruit.

His mouth curled in pain, the bullet-like force of bolts and screws and twisted metal struck him like a thousand daggers at once. Next, his head was hit by more of the makeshift weapons that caused his mind to whine in a piercing cry, not clear to Krius if it was his own cry or simply his head.

Fragments whistled past him as he collapsed onto his knee, and then down as low as he could, covering his head with his arm. Shaking from a mix of anger, fear and pain, Krius didn't need to look to know he was bleeding from his head, his face and other places. His free eye focused on Matsu before him as she perversely recoiled with a grin, seeming to saviour the destruction she was causing.

Show her. Show her your power. Make that little queen suffer and break her. Never make her forget your name. Ever.

She began to walk towards him, the deathly yellow glint in her eyes could be seen as a true embodiment of corruption by the Dark Side. Her anger and hate had made her invincible. Or so she thought.

Blocking the pain he felt to avoid death coming towards him, Krius didn't take his gaze of Matsu as he used his torn muscles to get back up on his feet. He only prayed the image of his blood stained body was as powerful an image for her to see so that she wouldn't forget what she had become. A monster. A beautiful, untamed monster. A monster who had to be silenced.

Break her.

Krius snarled and shot out his hand without hesitation. He let out an enhanced blow with the bubbling Force inside him to knock Mastu back, the brief pain in her face signalling the shock. Once more she was not aware of her surroundings and it would be her undoing. Each move was painful with the embedded metal in his muscles, but the sheer will of crushing the one who has betrayed him over-ruled the pain.

Stalking towards her without time for retaliation, Krius raised and violently pulled down his arms. This caused a rain of loose rocks and debris from the mountains above them to cascade over Matsu, peppering her with gravel and hopefully rocks that would hit her, wound her and bruise her body.

His rage increased and standing feet before her, his hatred was at it's highest. He was not going to let this day be forgotten. He didn't even want to speak to her, she wasn't worth it; she was only worth suffering.

Reaching down to her, Krius latched both hands onto the side of her dirt and blood matted hair, pulling her upwards to hold her face before his. Both covered in the scars of their own power struggle, but Krius knew that power wasn't just about what was on the outside. His thumbs dug hard into Matsu's soft temples and his head shook gently as he bore into her mind with the Force seeping through his hands and into her very head. Blood ran down his face, gushing gently from a wound to his head that his pressure was causing to flow more.

He tore through her memories like they were all junk, bombarding her with distorted, nightmarish visions of those she held close inside her very soul full of hate, mistrust and lies.

Corvanni IV. Home. The rape of my mother by my father who I thought loved us unconditionally. It was my fault, why didn't I stop him? Because she deserved it, that's why. She didn't love me so she only deserved the pain he brought her.

All those I encountered on my travels mocked me, doubted me behind my back. Laughing at me. Friends and family, all amused by my pathetic ambition and frail mind.

Krius Syonis, a man using me for sex and pleasure, and even that was disappointing to him because I can't please him. He never loved me and it was my fault for being weak - I was never good enough to be loved by anyone, not even him.

Isley Verd, a man simply embarrassed by my lack of understanding. Abusing me, scorning me, cutting me. The best thing he ever did was let me go for my own sake.

My body riddled with scars, wounds and mutilated skin, my face nothing but a mask to cover the ugly truth of what I am inside.

The Force is the reason my family hate her. I am a freak, and when my Mother said she loved me, she said it out of FEAR and DISGUST and I know why.

And one simply using me as a tool for greater goals; Jared Ovmar, and I will always be dumb enough to be blind to it.

I am a whore. I am weak. I am nothing but disappointment to my family. And myself.

I should be dead.

Images of death, of fire and of pain were imprinted on her fragile mind, bending and twisting the memories she had and filling it with hatred, mistrust and fear.

Krius saw the wonderful expression Matsu wore and it was clear her mental state was already taking a turn for the worst. To accompany that, he brought up his knee into her solar plexus, holding the girl up by the sides of her head as she crumbled into him.

Next, the man who guided her snapped his hand over her small throat, feeble nails tried to dig into him as he did so. He squeezed harder. HARDER. And then let go. Matsu fell to the floor.

Krius spoke to her, directly via her swollen and tender mind.

Did you really think you could kill me Matsu? You NEED me.



[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

As he lifted himself from the ground, half-bent with the riddled marks she’d left in and across his body like puzzle pieces, she smiled. Oh, a monster – a half-mad, lithe beast of a woman fuelled by incessant wonder! In that moment she was beautiful, experiencing true anger and hatred for the first time in her life. She could feel power the same power she’d always had but in a new form, racing speed-demon through her body, coursing in her blood, fresh under her fingertips.

She wanted him on his knees.
She wanted him to beg.
We could have walked away.

But he was on her within seconds, a whirling crescendo of retaliation she hadn’t expected. At first she was blown back, he hands scrabbling for purchase as she lifted herself from the ground with a grim determination on her face. She was glad he was fighting back – it would make watching his last breath that much sweeter. But then almost as soon as she had her feet back under her the mountain began to tumble towards her. She lifted her hands, pushing upward and throwing all her power in to the shield in the Force, managing to avoid the more scattered, small bits of the debris but collapsing as several particularly large pieces broke through and pummeled her, covering her head and taking the brunt of the assault on her arms and back. She thought she felt a rib snap and a sharp, piercing gasp of pain came through her with the crack of bone.

And then his hands were clasped vise-like around her skull, fingers pressing in to her temples with a painful strength. She reached up, prepared to claw his eyes out with her fingernails when –


[SIZE=12pt]Oh…oh, that didn’t…her mind began unraveling, a kaleidoscope horror of all the things she knew weren’t true. They weren’t true…THEY WEREN’T TRUE THEY AREN’T TRUE SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE PLEASE IT’S NOT REAL PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. And she knew they weren’t real…but were they? Had her Father done that? And when she thought about it, had she really left Isley Verd in the dust or had he let her go with a small sigh of relief that it was one less annoyance for him to take care of? When she met Jared Ovmar had she been so blind?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]And tears in her eyes, tears welling up around those black and yellow irises as she saw the look of disgust on HIS face, THAT face, the one that haunted her dreams. Disgusting. Pathetic. Barely able to fill her use. A freak. Unloved. Unworthy. Weak. Whore. Stupid. Worthless.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]No, no NO N O Force, no…it’s not real.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]He’s inside my head.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]He’s inside my head.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]He[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Is[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Inside[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]My[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Head[/SIZE]


It was at that moment she shook herself awake, that anger flaring anew at the thought that he’d managed to worm his way in to that place that was meant to be hers.

“Get out,” she flung at him, twisting her features again and spitting in his face, distracting him for a moment and reaching out with her mind in return, planting a shard of pain right in the middle of his brain and throwing herself behind it even as the images he planted plagued right at the back of her brainstem.

I don’t need him…​

Do I need him?​

Maybe…I should be dead.​

[member="Krius Syonis"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

The pain eating away at his wounds was starting to swell, the sharp pieces of metal throbbed inside various muccles in his legs, back and even his head. Krius was surprised he wasn't dead, but it did feel like he was dying. Not unlike Matsu before him, as she wasn't to die; not today. She was to learn and to suffer.

He looked at Matsu, that animal snarling at him, her face a broken image of the beauty she once conveyed to him. She was shaking, and Krius knew she was on the brink of imploding into violent madness. He had given her so many warnings about the delicacy of the mind under the Force but she still wasn't listening.

Madness, as you know my dear, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push...

Her words hissed like a snake and the spit hit Krius like venom. Although the real poison was again inside his brain as she struck him mentally. His teeth ground together and he brought up his hand to grasp the pulsing sting, the sharp stabbing of his most valuable organ being stamped on by Matsu Xiangu.

Buckling forward, his eyes began to fill as he clenched every portion of his mind closed to stem the pain. Reaching out to Matsu with the darkest of deception, his voice broke.

"Forgive me...my Goddess..."

And it stopped - for a moment. It was enough. His eyes closed in relief and he didn't dare think about what Matsu was thinking or feeling but it was time to break her like he quietly promised he would months ago, but she just didn't know it at the time that this would be the final lesson he would give her.

A...

He knelt before her, breathing heavily, shoulders hunched and face bloodied and dirty. Krius shut out the entire galaxy and focused on the girl before him. She was ready to kill him, but she was weak enough not to. A feeble smile crossed his lips.

...little...

"Th-thank...thank YOU. Thank you. Matsu. My love. MY LOVE. I'm sorry." He stumbled over his words. What a performance. He nodded slowly, not in acceptance of his lie, but acknowledging what he had to do.

...push.

With the deepest, darkest memories he could find inside his mind of the hurt, anger and death he had seen growing up, Krius summoned everything he could of the gift inside him and opened himself to the power within. The Force bellowed from his body and struck Matsu mentally - yet she wouldn't have even felt it. The deadliest mind-form Krius knew was easily applied to Matsu as he had already used it before, and she had proven to him her mind wasn't strong enough to repel it.

Her deep, empty eyes stared at him and he quickly began planting the final seed to break her. She would see a vision unlike no-other, and the best thing about it was Krius didn't even have to move - just enjoy it.

The atmosphere above them clouded with an eerie red and purple infusion of colour, twisting clouds and small pockets of gas explosions danced above their heads.

Skye turned all the more darker and the ground started to tremble beneath her.

The once heavenly mountains turned into hellish volcanoes, erupting small fountains of red lava and dust into the sky above, boiling and hissing with the pressure inside.

Krius stood up and his body started to solidify into grotesque molten rock, his eye sockets burning and his skin cracking. The fire devoured the earth around him.

Spoiler

The figure didn't move, but around them bubbles of fire and smoke belched from the ground, as Hell was about to consume the entire planet.

Smoke jetted from the ground, fire spat upwards around them and the clouds turned putrid black.

"The darkness you wanted for so long will consume you at last Matsu Xiangu!" His voice bounced around the entire planet, a terrifying and deafening noise.

"You have nothing left to live for - it is time you gave yourself to the true form of Krius Syonis!"

The figure before her quickly returned to embody a human Krius once more, surrounded by violent tremors and smoke, the planet now raining ash from the sky and screaming from within its boiling core.

"You will always remember my lesson, Matsu. If you play with fire, you will get burnt!" He twisted his fingers and curled them into a fist.

Orange fire slowly erupted from under Matsu's nails on her left hand. The flames slowly started to eat their way up her slender fingers, turning them black and destroying the bone to ash, the skin melting and bubbling on her as the blood orange flames danced up her skin towards the wrist, eating away flesh and not showing signs of stopping.

Krius implanted the most nightmarish of events, intensifying the pain and torturing her very soul with the darkness penetrating her mind. He grinned as a cool breeze blew around them, sparkling white snow beneath their bodies dotted with the metal from his ship topped with a clear atmosphere above.. The peaceful planet of Skye looking wonderful to him this very moment. He would hate to see what Matsu was experiencing.

Because seeing the emotion on her face and feeling her mind break was worth more than anything else.



[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

A second.

A second was all it took, somewhere between the satisfaction of feeling the ghost of the agony she was inflicting on him and the sound of weakness in his voice, for her to let her guard down. As he asked for forgiveness she let up on the pain in hope – in desperate, pleading hope – that she had stopped him long enough for him to see it did not have to be this way.

She wasn’t too weak to kill him.
But she was weak enough to think for even that one second she could trust him.

That was all it took.

All the sudden everything changed – no thunderclap, no shaking ground, just the hushed silence of the clouds rolling in and darkening their world in shadows that gathered in the hollows of his cheekbones, making Krius gaunt and imposing as he stared up at her. She did not think he looked away even when the mountains gave way somehow to lava. It was right then she could have saved herself, that nagging sadness that something so cold and beautiful had suddenly betrayed its natural stoicism for the wildness of fire tipping her off that something was not quite right. But instead he stood – and that was when it was truly over.

Perhaps the changes were sudden and seemed impossible but what did she know as the man she’d followed for months suddenly burned away before her eyes – husk, cage, the ruined framework of something she was not sad to see go! The ground opened up beneath them, swallowing itself as his voice nearly shattered her, screamed in the very center of her brain too loud too LOUD TOO LOUD, holding her hands over her ears and squinting her eyes nearly closed, in an attempt to soften that supernaturally loud boom (like thunder, like a force of nature ripping her in half). When it stopped she looked up and she wished she hadn’t – oh she wished she hadn’t as he looked, for one last sweet second, as he’d been at his best in what seemed like a past life for her now. The planet roiled behind him, smoke and ash dusting his shoulders, control etching his face even as he twisted his fingers in to his palm and her arm burst in to flame.

Nothing felt quite real.

She looked down, her dark eyes watching at first in fascination as orange light burned underneath her fingernails. It caught wildly however, like her bones were matchsticks and her flesh was tinder, the orange flames licking across her skin and revealing bone – black, charred, ruined – that within seconds followed suit in disintegration. Fascinating, fascinating! There was no pain and she’d never imagined she’d get to watch something like it. So what if she were losing the…panic. Terror. It wasn’t just the limb – the fire was unstoppable, hungry, eager for as much of as it could consume of her and if she let it continue it would burn right up her shoulder, over her chest and neck, up towards his brain. There would be nothing left of her! He’d kill her as surely as she’d kill him and that rage was back, red-hot and so overwhelming as if to make her wonder if the planet could even match the tumult in her thoughts.

She wouldn’t let it end like this.

She raised the hand not burning alive and pulled hard, the whining protest of his ship greeting the air again as she pulled something – anything sharp and big – from its hull and in to her hand.

I’ll stop it. I’ll stop this right, just need to get it off. If the fire is off it has nowhere to go, no path on me to follow and destroy me! Beautiful, beautiful, once I get this off I’ll destroy him, finish the job some twist of the Force worked on his burnt body and lower him screaming feet first in to the molten pools. Yes, yes, I’ll kil—what’s that noise?

It seemed unearthly at first, out of place.
She stopped in her sawing, the piece of shrapnel halfway through tendon and muscle.

The sound was screaming.
Her screaming.

She looked down and there was no lava, there was no volcano, there was no roiling bruise of a sky. And…oh Force, oh FORCE what did he do to her…her left arm was mangled hideously, flesh clinging to the bone by little more than sheer will, her ugly hack job bleeding over ivory and out on to the snow. Screaming, screaming, SCREAMING in pain in fear in rage in absolutely agony in disbelief how did this happen how did he do this he got in my head and I couldn’t stop him and now he’s ruined me, he made me do this to myself I’ll kill him I’ll KILL HIM DESTROY HIM WATCH HIM ROT AFTER PEELING HIM IN STRIPS I WILL—

So many things she would have done.
She slumped over, strength leaving her muscles as she poured out on to the ground, her screams turning to whimpers as the cold snow cradled her cheek.

Her dark eyes gazed out around her, watching red grow in an ever larger circle around her body as she bled out. The breeze whipped her jacket around her small, broken body as she turned her eyes to look up at him standing above her – as motionless as she was. It was completely silent save for the wind, the snow sucking up all sound. She was dying. She was dying because he had reached inside of her and…it was unspeakable. He’d betrayed her at a level she could never have imagined and she broke at that truth. She shattered.

She watched herself pour out on the pure white drifts – blood and hopes.
She knew the ending now.

[member="Krius Syonis"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

He stood, yards from his conquest, watching her. His chest rose slowly with his deep breaths. There was nothing but peace around them on Skye as the wispy clouds moulded around the mountains above them as dusk drew ever closer.

Krius was still as he began to witness the extent of his assault on Matsu's fragile mind. He hadn't foreseen her actions coupled with her deliriously cool outer exterior. As he was distracted by the sharp sliver of his ship rolling across the snow to her, he followed it and watched with fascination.

How much could the Force affect one person? It was certainly something he had never explored before. The mind-form was showing that, without even breaking a sweat, bar avoiding a brutal confrontation as she had given him, the mind was the most powerful weapon given to mankind.

The girl took to her arm with the metal as if she was hacking away at a tree, violently digging down into her flesh and severing the veins and nerves. Krius swallowed gently at the horrific display of what mind-form could really do to one as weak as Matsu and he couldn't tear his eyes away from the hypnotic scene before him.

Her scream was something that sounded like a young child waking from a nightmare. entwined with that of an adult who was fuelled with rage. It was bellowing out from Matsu as she collapsed to her knees, the metal embedded in her mutilated arm. Blood spat from her open wound onto the white snow, steadily bleeding outwards. Bone was visable, barley, amongst the crimson soaked flesh and pulpy muscle that the metal was embedded in.

Krius found he was smiling softly at what his control of the Force had done. He had broken Matsu Xiangu in an overtly nightmarish display of what real, untamed power could achieve. Matsu would never have survived long enough to understand this, and her death was now inevitable before him with nothing but the elements to comfort her.

Walking forward as her eyes rolled erratically in her skull, her body convulsing in shock as she tried to confront him and her mutilated arm drained her of life, Krius couldn't quite believe that this was the same girl who had sworn nothing but devotion to him months ago. How quickly the weak could fall, and how much he had learnt because of this.

Kneeling down beside her, Krius looked at the blood coating her frost covered clothing and the pain he was in vanished for a moment.

"Do not fight death Matsu. Embrace it. It's the only thing left for you now."

He couldn't be sure if she was in a state of mind to hear him and focus on him, but he didn't care. He had won, and proved how powerful he was. He wiped away a sliver of fresh blood still running from the open wound on his head, a sharp fragment of a bolt or screw teased his fingers as he gently felt around the area. He had to treat this, and fast.

Looking down to the broken shell of Matsu, Krius drew his blood stained fingers down her exposed cheek, touching her soft skin one last time and smearing his life-force down her face. He turned her beautiful face towards him, filling him with nothing but contempt.

"There was a prophet on Hapes, where I grew up, that once preached about being an invincible figure because he had something no-one else had. His mind. He preached about changing the galaxy with the power he could inflict on others, to bend them and break them at his will. He saw through other people's self-doubt, fear and lies to exploit them for his own gain."

Looping his hand behind her cold neck, snow crunching beneath his fingers around her matted blood-stained hair, he held her in his palm. Literally.

"No no, stay with me. He came to realise that no matter what anyone else said or did to him, in the end he could only depend on one person. Himself. And you have just proven why he was right. You betrayed my trust and you let me down after I gave you my everything."

His voice spoke quietly through gritted teeth, fingers latched onto her skull as he bore into her very soul with his words.

"I hope death comes for you slowly and you lie here and remember what I did to you, I hope the very last thing you remember is how EASY it was to break you and how painful it was. I never truly loved you Matsu, and you will be forgotten the second I turn my back on you as you die here. Alone, as you were when I met you."

Her head dropped to the snow as he pulled back his hand, easing up from his knee slowly, the pain eating into his muscle.

"Say my name like a scripture. Keep my heart beating like a drum. Because it's all you're going to have as company to see you into death; the things that make up what could have been yours forever. Me."

He turned from her and carefully walked back to his broken ship, knowing that he had serious work to do on the craft at the spaceport of Skye before leaving the planet. Not only that, his wound would certainly need seeing to and be painful to treat; a lasting scar from the girl he broke and reminder that death was in the hands of an external force he had to protect himself from.

Krius Syonis turned his back on Matsu Xiangu and left her lying in the blood-stained snow to die; angry, afraid and alone.



[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She thought she heard his voice from far away – some place detached, just one step outside of her existence. Maybe it wasn’t even really happening. You know that feeling sometimes when you’re sure in a moment of relaxation you hear the drone-hum of conversation in a place that should be empty? She felt like that now, like someone was interrupting something she found far more interesting.

No, no, stay with me.

She hated that voice. She hated the slimy crawl of something she suddenly found entirely repulsive in the sound of it and as she focused on how much that sound ground in to her very marrow she picked up on some of what he was saying. Barbs, words like poison – having to wound her further even when he’d already taken everything.

“…the things that make up what could have been yours forever. Me.”

Had she not been right on the verge of blacking out, her eyes rolling in to her head, she might have laughed. Oh, she would remember his name, and she would remember the sound of his heartbeat in her ears late at night...but as he turned and walked away with a stiff limp she knew it was so if she ever had the chance to meet [member="Krius Syonis"] again she would repay him, ten-fold.

But the chances of that were slim. She could see nothing but red then, the snow long stained as she watched Krius’ scavenger lift shakily from the ground and carve a hesitant path through the sky. He wouldn’t make it far with the amount of structural damage she’d caused. Maybe somehow she’d get help and then make it in time to catch up with him and…

She tilted her head to look at her arm and immediately had to look away, the sheer messiness of the wound more shocking than seeing her arm completely gone. Tears sprang to her eyes, the silence and isolation of the place leaning in around her as a minute passed by, another…and all the time growing more tired. It was another whole minute before she realized she was alone. She would remain alone, and she was about to die. Almost without thought her mouth opened, a wail uncharacteristic of her wrenching out from between her teeth.

It was not how she had imagined dying.
She'd kill him.
She'd kill him.
She'd kill h..........

She watched the spot where Krius’ ship disappeared over the mountains as the black fog at the edges of her vision finally took over, shock pulling her in to unconsciousness and towards a slow, quiet, nameless death.

 

[Connor Harrison]

It sure was cold above Skye, but that didn't bother Kail. He'd faced worse in his years as a mercenary. He embraced the chill that made him remember one thing: he was alive. Breathing steadily, he watched the moisture escape his mouth turn to nothingness in the cool air. He brought up his hand and rubbed the back of his neck, easing the taught muscles that helped carry his backpack for explorations such as these. Supplies were important when traversing a planet, but did they have to be so...heavy at times?

Looking across to the horizon as the warm sun crept behind the mountain peak that seemed to surround the planet, Kail stood firmly upon one of many crevices carved from years of erosion and galactic wars that had taken chunks of the mountain away. The snow was sprinkled generously around him yet it was a picturesque site below of the peaceful greens, oranges and blues below. The galaxy was a kaleidoscope of colour to this merc; emotions carved out of what nature had intended for each planet. His home on Tatooine, a burning orange and yellow, couldn't be more removed from a world as beautiful as -

- his head snapped left, eyes fixed onto nothing.

The wind carried across a blood-curdling scream that seemed to echo off every mountain and rattle inside his head. It was a woman, and that was a scream of fear.

An ice-cold shiver crept up his back as he slowly turned to where the scream came from and steadily, without a sense of urgency, walked carefully across the precipice before him. Heavy boots kicked away shards of rock. Tough hands gripped onto shards of the mountain that helped him balance. He made his way down a few feet in the opposite direction to where he wanted to be.

Looking down over the edge of the mountain, or rather from another wide cavern etched into it, Kail could see figures. A woman surrounded by blood and lying in the snow obstructed by another, a man, leaning over her. A ship was battered and standing by yards from them.

Crouching down, the young merc watched intently at the obvious accident in front of him, his breath slow and calm. He chewed his cheek gently as he frowned, feeling nothing but curiosity. Resting an arm on his knee, he saw the man stand and slowly hobble away to his ship. The girl lay bleeding, and was still. Flicking his eyes upwards, Kail watched the battered ship take off, kicking up snow beneath the engines, and slowly flying away from the mountains and heading away from whatever had gone on moments before.

Kail, you damn obsequious...idiot!

The Wampa was coming towards me, stained with the blood of a Rodian torn in two seconds before as...

I pushed backwards in the snow as hard as I could, reaching for my blaster and fighting the flurry of blinding snow as the bloodcurdling roar embodying death was about to claim me...

An explosion kicked me up and over as a blaster bolt rang out and dropped the Wampa and the pack following behind in a mix of snow, dirt, flesh and blood.

The vomit was a mix of pain and frustration, and yes, fear. Firm hands pulled me up and the words came thick and fast. I had been saved. Just.

Death will not take you son, not today!

He had been saved once on a harsh planet and given the chance to live when he didn't deserve it. Why should this poor girl be devoid of the chance he had on. She was not an enemy and not an assignment. She was alone and facing death, just like Kail had been. Her time was obviously running out.

Edging down carefully a few more dangerous outcroppings above the girl, he expertly powered across and down, a zigzag motion, to hit the ground with in less than 30 seconds. Walking towards the girl, he could see the grotesque wound inflicted on her that had turned the white snow to blood red. The arm was mutilated and bloodied beyond recognition. Quickly scanning his surroundings, it was like she had been the victim of a fight or some freak accident. A large crater spoiled the river gurgling erratically into the ground surrounded by spoilt earth and rock and fragments of the ship he had seen were scattered all around. If her accomplice had been involved and gone to get help, Kail knew he would be too late to do anything. To survive, you had to act quick.

Looking over her lifeless body, Kail knelt and was as gently as possible as he cradled her in his arms, carefully supporting her arm by turning her into him before pushing up on his feet to stand with all his effort, letting out a grunt as he balanced himself.

She was bloodied, beaten and so small and weak. Whatever did this was not his concern. What was his concern was giving her a chance, as he had been given. The nearest spaceport was only a speck down in the valley by the large river that ran from numerous smaller ones up in the mountains that converged into one.

Save her. Compassion will keep your humanity intact Kail.
Save her.

Holding her close, it would take a little time to reach the spaceport and leave her in the hands of those who could help her. He would slip away before anyone dare question him and would easily forget what had gone on here.

If she was worthy and strong, life would be granted.

If she was weak and Kail had made a mistake, she would die.

He started the long and hurried walk down from the mountains and across the valley to the spaceport which nestled peacefully underneath a blood-orange sun.


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]