RPG - Stolen Bride (Page 6 of 8)

The sky was aflame, breaking into a thousand different pieces. The pressure contuining to increase, slowly pressing down on their heads. He couldn't imagine anyone that couldn't feel this, even non forcers.  Mistake, dumb mistake firing that.  His temples beginning to ache. Still, didn't stop him from aiming at the Jedi.  Holding the handle in both hands, leering.
"What was that you just fired?"
Kane shrugged, The figure holding a hand to his chest for a moment. Now that he thought about it, he didn't remember the face. Scarlet blade and all, Sith Warrior...what the hell was going on? They were after a bunch of Jedi, not some wannabe Sith. Trying to save some Twi'lek or kill someone. It all ended up blending together. Kill someone to save someone, save someone to kill someone. Roll the balls in one hand to make them look better, toss them around till they're in your perspective.
He fired, blowing away all the doubts. Black wave cutting into the man, knocking him backwards, lightsaber blowing apart. Ripping into a thousand pieces. Eight shots left...
The 05 was burning, four minutes before it'd be of any use. Over heated. He made sure to hang onto the knife. Rushing around collumns towards the west side, two women walking away from a man's corpse.
The suppression was getting ridiculous. A dark blue sky set alite cutting away the haze above that. He tapped his chest for a second, breathing in deeply. He'd never seen a blast last this long, and it was getting stronger while it was at it. A small blue torch coming ablaze beside his head as he waited.

Heri stood tranfixed and unsure what to do. She'd never seen anything like it. Mia stepped forward and Heri caught her arm before she could move any closer. "I think we're much safer staying here." The senior Jedi stated.

Mia stopped, "What about the others?"

Heri tried to hide her concern but she'd always had a soft spot for Dash. "We can't do anything for them if we step inside that zone."

Arcuse pulled a thermal detonator from his pocket. "Do you think this will help?"

Heri shrugged. "Somehow I have the feeling that violence will only beget violence."

Kar'bil tried to hold his nerves in check as Dash started upon HUN. Kar'bil already had his blasters in his hands.

Blink was holding her head in pain. Whatever she'd be doing seemed to be affecting her badly.

Outside the dome, Heri stood with feelings of overwhelming dread. Sathik and Arcuse were trying to find a way into the action but so far they hadn't.

With baited breath, Mia charged the dome.

((No worries, I dig cybernetic arms. BTW, can we say for continuity that the saber you took was Dash's spare. I gave it to Heri a few posts back.))

Heri charged after Mia, somehow the two Jedi were able to penetrate the dome. Heri's attention was diverted from Mia as she watched Dash crumple to the ground and she screamed in rage as his arm was taken like a trophy. Heri swallowed and centred herself. She would not give into hatred or rage. But her heart pounded and bleed with agony at the damage done to Dash.

Heri felt Mia's hand touch her arm. She nodded at her fellow Jedi. Mia ignited her lightsabre and Heri ignited both the blades she had, the one borrowed from Dash and the other taken from the Fist.

"How could you do this?" Heri demanded, her voice more commanding then she realised.

HUN looked up. "It's what I am."

Heri took a deep breath, "Can't you simply leave?"

"I wish I could." The HUN replied.

Mia spoke out, "Can there be a peaceful resolve?"

Both Jedi waited with bated breath.

Finally, the dome barrier had begun to dissolve...whatever strange energies had propelled its unnatural size and power began to fade away against the sun, lighting the arena in the green-tinted glow of Nal Hutta.

HUN stood motionlessly, watching the combatants slowly come together before him; on one side, Heri, Mia, Arcuse, Sathik, and Kar'bil...Kane slowly moved to HUN's flank, and to everyone's suprise, the bleeding figure of Tal Rith...broken, but still standing.   Between them lay the unconscious Dash, one arm less than he had the day before.

Mia repeated her question forcefully. "Can there be a peaceful resolve?"

With smoke still rising from his burnt torso, HUN replied.  "And what...do you have to offer?" 

Heri scowled.  "You've taken enough, monster.  Are you unsatisfied with the arm of our comrade?"

HUN looked down at his new hand, clenching it firmly, slowly wrapping it in the burnt bandages that covered his body, until it could barely be distinguished.  "You make...a good point."

He grabbed the coughing Tal Rith by the scruff of his neck, carefully hoisting him onto his large shoulders.  "I had hoped...to face the one you slew tonight, Jedi."  He almost seemed to laugh behind the mask.  "Be grateful that this warrior has slated my bloodlust this morning." And finally, he did laugh...a cold sound, ancient and full of memory. "We will meet again soon." 

And slowly, with Tal Rith clinging onto his back, with Kane at his side, the trio walked off into the dense fog that had yet to rise from the arena, leaving the unconscious Dash and mutilated form of Moa on the duracrete behind them.

((I think they're both dead, no worries))

Dash slowly got to his feet wincing and breathing heavily. His charred stump uselessly flopped at his side.

Beads of seat collected on his temple. His remaining fist was clenched so hard that blood had begun dripping from the palm. Heri took a step forward to steady him, but she was shoved back roughly by a surge in the force.

"This isn't over you kriffing sithspawn!" Dash screamed into the fog. "I'll find you! I swear by the stars that I'll kill you. I'll kill you! Do you hear me?"

His companions just stood a few feet behind him not quite knowing what to do.

The warrior's mouth began foaming and his body started seizing up with uncontrollable convulsions.

"I-I'll kill you!" he hissed and sputtered. His voice was barely above a whisper now. "Do you hear me Hun? You're d-dead..."

He turned to Heri and she released the lightsaber allowing it to fly back to his hand. Dash began stumbling and coughing into the fog.

"Don't follow me," he called back to the others through the unbearable burning in his head. "I beg of you don't follow..."

((Moa is definetely dead, he was "obliterated"...but I want to work with Tal Rith's character a little bit.  He's hurt bad, but it's not impossible for him to have jury rigged a simple solution to a punctured breath mask (plugging it somehow).  Sorry that I seem a bit out of continuity, I'd just like to build up this character some more before he dies.))

Heri stood and watched Dash go. She wanted to follow, but took his advice. Instead she closed her eyes and called upon the Force. She sent soothing waves out to Dash, but was unsure if they'd affect him or not.

Mia went to check on Kar'bil and Blink. Both seemed okay but Blink was pretty shaken up.

Arcuse and Sathik were grumbling about missing the action, however they noticed that Tal Rith was struggling away. "Shall we put him out of his misery?" Sathik asked with glee.

Arcuse shrugged. "Seems a waste of time."

Sathik sulked. "Damn, didn't get to shoot anything."

Mia turned to them. "I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure you'll get your chance."

"In the mean time can we please find my fiancee." Kar'bil stated.

Sathik slapped his forehead in mockery. "I'd forgotten about her."

The Hutt's home was vast, but Heri knew the way to the holding cells. She'd used her "bug" to get the layout of the building. The Twi'lek princess was in one of the lower more secretive levels.

Kar'bil's anxiety was plain to see, he was figetting with his weapon as Mia tried to calm him. Sathik and Arcuse took the rear.

Heri lifted her hand in a stop gesture. She sensed an ambush, a few mortars sat hidden in the shadows. Heri ignited her lightsabre and threw it, with guidance from the Force she destroyed the mortars. As the last one exploded a party of twenty emerged.

"Great," Sathik grinned, "Fresh Meat!"

Dash hobbled over to the red mist of blood. Through the haze he could just make out a smoking figure. It wasn't HUN, so the rogue continued on his way to pursue his quarry. His lightsaber was gripped tightly in the sweaty palm of his remaining hand. It gripped the metallic blade tighter as his mind supplied him with gruesome scenarios of him punishing his enemy.

"Stop..." said a voice through the smoke.

Dash came to a halt and slowly turned on the spot.

"I... sense... force... in you..." the voice said in between gasps for air.

The figure stepped forward from the gloom to reveal the grinning face of Tal Rith, the breathing mask hanging uselessly from his mouth.

"I... found... force... in me..." said Tal Rith raising a pair of shaking hands. "Prepare... to die..."

And for the first time Dash saw the circle of blackened, mangled bodies surrounding Tal Rith. Then without warning, the bounty hunter's body was rocked by a surge of force lightning. Dash raised his eyes and arm to the heavens as the hate and energy overtook him.

The old man stood at the edge of the chasm...a massive hole in the cavern wall that plummeted into grim darkness.

"This is your new home, Kel Dor."  The old man grinned, the wrinkles on his face spreading out to reveal his rotting teeth.  "Not an easy road to follow...but then, no one ever said becoming a Forcer would be simple."

"Master...I feel afraid."

"Good!" The old man exclaimed.  "Do not turn from your fear...from which the Force stems, Kel Dor.  You must trust me here..." The darkness seemed to grow deeper.  "Embrace your destiny."

And there was only...the abyss.

------

The world was twisted between colors, edges shattering into each other and the ground replacing the sky, over and over again...in the eyes of Tal Rith, breathing mask now gone...all energy provided by the wellspring of Force that had erupted in him, which broke out from beneath his fragile alien skin in sudden bursts of blood-red lightning that cut across buildings and tore any unwary sentient limb from limb in a sanguine explosion.

Jedi...heretics... Tal Rith could barely discern the form of Heri in his twisted vision, yet...felt her presence within his newfound Force.  Harnessing the energy, the pure hatred and pain growing within, he opened his alien mouth...erupting into a massive bolt of Force lightning. 

Heri barely managed to twist and avoid the blast, the electricity burning past her arms and face.  She rolled, picked up speed, and activated her lightsaber, zeroing in on Tal Rith's position. 
A second bolt blew past, singeing her hair and leaving a choking ozone taste in the air, yet she still maneuvered closer...close enough to strike out at the dark creature.

Tal Rith summoned another burst of lightning...yet this energy remained static in his hands, glowing eerilly against the nearby buildings.  Small bolts occasionally burst out to meet the ground and nearby objects, and Tal Rith advanced to face Heri, a painful grin across his burning mouth. 

Blade and claws met, clashing against each other in tiny explosions.  Heri swiped vertically, Tal Rith grabbed the coming blade with one arm, punching hard towards Heri's face with the other. 
Heri dropped the blade, falling on her hands to kick out at Tal Rith's undefended chest...sending him reeling backwards, allowing her to draw her lightsaber back into her hands with the Force. 
Tal Rith's glowing eyes became furious.  "You.......will burn, ......Jedi."
With an angry roar, he charged once again.

In and out of consciousness, Dash observed the ensuing battle.  Both were equally matched...Heri more skilled in combat, but unexperienced with Tal Rith's unique abilities.  Bursts of lightning, Force blows, cutting into buildings around them and creating a pile of debri that grew beneath them as they continued to fight.
Claw met blade, and blade met claw. 
It seemed as if Tal Rith was getting the upper hand...one blast of lightning winged her, sending the Jedi spinning into the alleys below, while Tal Rith jumped after her, arms extended in a deadly embrace.  Heri met the ground, rolled, and brought her lightsaber up...
...to intercept the alien.  Tal Rith had no time to avoid it. 

The blade dug a few centimeters into the Kel Dor's chest, sweeping upwards across his face vertically.  Tal Rith fell backwards, Force energy glowing within the deep wound. 
"Jedi......."  Tal Rith managed to choke.  "It is.......not over....." 
Slowly, Tal Rith rose to his feet.
The cut had torn him open from navel to nose, a deep, cauterized gash...yet the alien still lived. A random burst of lightning cut through the skin of his cheek, cutting across to Heri, striking her on the face.
Heri staggered, caught completely off guard...yet quickly composed herself and turned to strike....but the alien had dissappeared. 

Lightning faded in the distance as Tal Rith ran back to the shadows from whence he came. 

Heri deactivated her blade...feeling the side of her face.  A burn, zigzaging up the side of her cheekbone and into her hair...
Slowly, with her heart still beating a mile a minute, Heri approached the recovering form of Dash.