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Always, Push Forward
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 8:48 PM | Message # 16 |
 Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
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| Kima did not care for Daneira, she knew that, as much as a droid could care anyway. Of course, she understood why, the astromech was loyal to Karth, and always had been. Dani stood silently for a moment, watching the two of them, before she approached and dropped down to one knee in front of the droid.
"Kima...I promise you, nothing will happen to Karth. I would throw myself into the jaws of a Rancor to save him, you know that. He will come back." Dani murmured almost inaudibly to it/her. She briefly rested one leather gloved hand on the droid's top before she stood. There was no mention of Dani coming back, because if something went wrong, she would make sure that he at least got out. Like he said though, they were not going to get caught. It was, whether Karth heard her low tone or not, a testament of her own loyalty to him. She had let him die once, and she was not going to let that happen again.
Daneira pulled the hood of her coat up after she stood, covering her braided, raven locks. She did not even afford Karth a glance as she checked the blaster holstered to her hip, as well as the one tucked into her boot at her ankle. The rusted hilt of her lightsaber still laid in her dresser drawer, destined to go untouched for the time being. There was no way to repair it, so there was no sense in bothering with it.
"Are you ready?" She finally said, her gaze still not meeting his. Whether Karth knew that her empathic abilities made it easy for her to feel almost every second of his turmoil of the past week, she did not know. It was not something she wanted to try and talk to him about, because he would just close off to her even further. Daneira did not want that. She had nightmares too, nightmares that made her scream and wake in a sweat. That, she did not tell him either. "Do you have the holocron?" Of course he would have it, she thought, admonishing herself silently for asking such a stupid question.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 9:11 PM | Message # 17 |
 Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| "Right here," Karth answered with a pat on his belt.
Kima, while still a droid and very much just a collection of data stored into a singular memory, had never been subject to a memory wipe in over two decades. Karth had built the droid from salvaged parts shortly after the start of the Clone Wars, and upon going into exile he had been unable to part with it, wanting a companion to keep him company for the rest of his life. He had told himself that routine wipes on his only friend were unnecessary and almost cruel, and so the little droid had developed quite a temperament in all these years alongside him. Its response to Dani's assurance was unconvinced, but accepting. Kima answered her with a low, droning beep of sadness, acknowledging the matter as settled.
Karth unstrapped himself from the co-pilot's seat, bringing the Caecelia down for a smooth landing inside a pristine, white docking bay. All around them, dockworkers hustled about, setting up fuel lines and scanning the ship's interior for contraband, standard Imperial procedures. Karth knew them well enough to know that the rank and file grunts they were likely to encounter wouldn't recognize them by likeness. After all, the notion that the Empire had allowed to traitorous Jedi to slip through their iron grasp and escape into the Outer Rim? That might inspire the lesser peoples under its rule, and they couldn't have that.
"Besides," Karth cut into the conversation with a smirk as he pushed out of the chair and spun about to face them. "You're coming with us."
"Dwoo?" Kima inquired, incredulous. It was so used to being left to guard the ship, the notion of an excursion both fascinated and terrified it. Karth, smiling dropped down ot a knee and procured the small holocron from his belt, motioning for Kima to open its storage compartment. Upon compliance, he deposited the artifact into a small holding slot and patted the droid affectionately on the head. "I'm not going to risk you getting caught with the ship again, once was enough. But if something goes south, it's better you have this on you and vanish into the crowd, okay?"
The droid didn't seem to like the notion of abandoning them to their fate, but Karth's gaze was stern. It acquiesced with a low whistle.
Satisfied, Karth turned to Dani and looked her up and down, as though she could somehow be dressed poorly. "I have to find a holonet terminal," he intoned, careful to not let his eyes linger for too long as she prepared herself. He had heard her solemn vow and chosen to brush it aside, if only because he didn't want to even think about the notion of her being lost to him again. It was for that exact reason that he already kept her at arm's length. Their bond meant he could feel every subtle lilt in her mood, and he knew better than to worsen the situation by acting protective.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 9:42 PM | Message # 18 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| After a brief hesitation, Dani let out a low sigh. "That is a good idea, Karth." She finally admitted to him as she adjusted her gloves. No, as he would have noticed, she was not dressed poorly at all; rather in a pair of dark leggings and boots, along with a slouchy white sweater and a hooded coat. It was nothing out of the normal, either, so she would not stand out.
As she moved past, she patted Kima on her metal cranium absently and gently. The truth was that she had always liked the droid, but she had never had one of her own. Dominic had one, but it was damaged and Dani was not the type of person who could get it to work again. Fixing things was not really her forte, at all, so the inactive droid was stuffed into one of the cargo compartments in the hold, where it had been rusting for years.
In the cargo bay, Dani stood and held the lever to lower the ramp, and let the bright light and cold air of the bay rush into the ship. She was relatively unbothered by the bay workers going about their jobs as she walked down the ramp and presented their falsified, but highly legit looking paperwork to an official. As he nodded approval, Dani stuffed the folio back into her pocket and looked back for Karth and Kima.
He probably knew where he wanted to go, however, she did not.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 10:59 PM | Message # 19 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| He could sense it easily enough: the hesitation, the doubt. Never mind the fact that Karth, in his prime, had been one of the Order's most prolific telepaths. And never mind the fact that the two of them shared a bond that, however weak it now was, had never fully vanished. No, her consternation was plain enough in her tone of voice and the slight slouch in her shoulders, the lull in her step. His very presence had to be tearing her up inside, he decided, and a twinge of regret shot through him. He had dragged her into something he had no right to drag her into, and now they were once again shackled.
"After you--" he cut himself off from the gesture as she moved past him, making her way down the ramp to handle customs as they approached to confirm their identity. He cast one last glance back at Kima, who responded with a beep, and then he made his way towards the cargo hold.
Karth plodded down the ramp after her, his steps measured so as to allow the slower droid to wheel into place beside him, Kima's photoreceptors darkening as they adjusted to the exterior light. The docking bay was intimate, one of a good hundred that ran in a ring concentric to the spaceport proper. Each bay afforded new arrivals a view of the vast, sapphire ocean that ran out onto the horizon. Morning sunlight streamed in through transparisteel windows above them, casting the entire city in a warm orange. If Karth hadn't known any better, he might have declared this a lovely city. The far-off sight of a patrol of stormtroopers making their rounds, however, quickly dashed that thought from his head.
"Enjoy your stay," he heard the customs agent offer as he and the dock guards turned to leave. Something told him their stay, brief or no, would be anything but pleasant. He planned to open up a lot of old wounds on the surface of Dubrillion.
"Can probably find a holonet terminal inside the spaceport," he started, offering her a small smile.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 11:00 PM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 11:20 PM | Message # 20 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| His smile, oh that smile, however brief it was, she had missed that familiar grin. At the same time, that smile nearly tore her into a thousand pieces. They had been reunited for sixteen days, seven hours, and twenty eight minutes, according to the silver chrono that she had on her wrist. Sixteen days, seven hours, and twenty eight minutes where he had held her at bay, at the end of his untouching arm, with few words and even fewer glances, and absolutely no smiles. It made her happy, for even the briefest moment, to see the grin, but it hurt her heart so deeply that she could feel the heat of battle rolling over her pale flesh. Involuntarily, she shuddered.
"Yeah....yes. The spaceport should have such facilities. I could use a few supplies also, so I can pick those up while you do that, if you like." It would give him time, and her the space to breathe for at least a few minutes while she had supplies sent to the ship. Daneira took a moment as they walked out of the hangar bay to wrap her soft scarf around her neck, partially covering her face from the biting air outside, and made a short mental list of what they would need. Karth liked Kaf, so she would get the real stuff, not the instant crap that was half stale in the back of the galley cupboard. The list was short, and fairly simple, so she was convinced that she would not forget what was needed.
"I can meet you there, unless you want me to come with you." Dani said, pausing again, as she finally let her ocean blue gaze meet his dark eyes. "Supplies can be picked up on the way back later, as well." It was fairly obvious that she was unsure of what to do, or even where she stood with him at times, so she was trying (perhaps too hard) to let him guide how things went, so that he would be comfortable. After all, it was his holocron, and he wanted to open it, so she did not want to take control of the situation.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 11:43 PM | Message # 21 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| Uncertainty washed over her, clear as day, and he fought back the urge to reassure. There was a time that even a hint of turmoil radiating off her would have brought him no end of concern, but they were different people now. Karth only kept her at a distance because he knew, deep down, that he couldn't allow himself to remember what they had. Just looking into her eyes was hard enough, without having to remember the pain of her death keeping him up, every night, until the liquor had run its course and he could finally have a dreamless sleep. It was the only way to block out the memory entirely, to forget her. He had come so close to finally achieving it, too...
And then she had waltzed back into his life, and the course of his destiny had been altered. This is where they were, now, and he knew they had to make the best of it, regardless of the pain between them. Karth's demeanor softened, for a moment the love he still held for her allowed him to reach out and touch her arm, to place his hand on her shoulder as he forced himself to meet her eyes. He wasn't even sure what he sought within them, limpid and blue as a sunny sky, but in them he found the courage to not push her away again. Without even realizing it, his thumb brushed aimlessly along her coat.
"Your hair is doing that thing again."
He felt a twinge, just at the edge of memory. Those words, accompanied by the soft patter of rain outside a nearby window, the feeling of a warm body wrapped around his and buried in satin sheets. Like a knife, it twisted deeper the more he dwelled on it. Ixtlar. Their apartment.
"Once this is all over, we're gone. Both of us..."
"No, I think we should stick together," he answered her quietly, dropping his hand down after a brief moment on her arm, his hands finding his pockets as he turned himself away, forced his attention elsewhere. Fire flashed in his mind's eye once again. "The average grunt might not notice us, but we're marked now. No sense separating in case we have to get out of here in a hurry." An excuse just to have her close by? Perhaps. The chances of them being discovered this far into the Outer Rim were miniscule, at best, but he felt compelled to keep her closer than he would have felt even a day ago.
It was a start, at least.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Monday, 11 Jan 2016, 0:23 AM | Message # 22 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| Daneira nodded as she stared at him. Was what she felt real? He touched her, and she nearly shattered again, but she managed to pull herself together as he made his decision. "I feel that is best as well." She admitted after he pulled his hand away from her. "Perhaps we can stop for supplies on the say back. If there is time." When he turned away, she let out a low sigh and glanced to Kima, before she turned away herself and started outside.
Dubrillion- she had never been there, so she was not sure what to expect. It was beautiful, with the sun rising over the city, but she was not made for winter as was obvious as soon as she stepped outside. A groan passed her lips and she pulled her scarf tighter around her with her gloved hand. Briefly, she felt bad for not having anything warmer on the ship for Karth to wear. Some of Dominic's old clothes might have been stashed in a closet, but she had not taken the time to look.
Thankfully, Karth was right, and no more than a hundred steps out of the hangar, there was a holonet cafe, of all places. "Will that do?" She asked, when Karth and Kima would catch up with her. She wasn't sure what he needed a holonet terminal for, but that was just convenient for him.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Sunday, 17 Jan 2016, 9:23 PM | Message # 23 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| Several hours later...
It had done well enough, as it turned out.
Dubrillion was a planet dotted with contained, white-walled cities; and the terrain beyond was lush and temperate, ideal farmland. As they had sped along in a rented speeder, Karth's thoughts had been occupied by the notion that in a past life, he and Daneira might have settled down here. Of course, these days his thoughts were often pre-occupied with the 'might' and the 'maybe' that accompanied any thought of the two of them. Twenty years of lost time was quite a bridge to be made, and he was far too stubborn to take any step off the ledge before the bridge had been built. He was never much of a risk taker, after all.
The journey to the tall, white-spired manse had been a quiet one; with Karth offering little in the way of stimulating conversation, but more than happy to listen to her. His mind was elsewhere, but attention could still be spared to hear her thoughts on the matter. In regards to the questions of where they were going, he had told her that soon it would all become clearer. He wasn't sure why he kept their destination so enigmatic. Perhaps he was afraid of what they would find upon reaching it, and he did not want to make any assurances. Either way, the compound grew larger as they approached, its silhouette dominating the landscape and blocking out the afternoon sun. It possessed an aged, ethereal sort of beauty to it. Unlike most of the buildings on this planet, it was constructed out of a gleaming white marble, seemingly hewn directly from the side of the mountain in whose shadow it stood.
There were no guards, no fanfare to greet their approach. The gate that once might have barred their entry now sat rusted and overtaken by nature, and the further into the courtyard they went, the more it was revealed to them that time had taken this place back. Nobody had lived here in a very, very long time. The compound itself stretched on for a kilometer at least, looking more and more like a small academy than a manse, with offshoot buildings ringing around the central, towering structure. Shredded banners fluttered in a seaward breeze, a rich maroon in color and embroidered with a golden insignia: a hand reaching for the sky, with the hilt of a lightsaber held aloft to green a rising sun.
Daneira might recognize it from the latticework of Karth's holocron. The mark of the Cairne Family of Dubrillion.
Their speeder came to a stop in a courtyard with a still fountain in its center, the waters having fallen silent. Nervously, Kima whistled something to the equivalent of a binary sigh before lumbering out of the speeder with the aid of the droid's aging propulsion jets.
"Looks abandoned, buddy," Karth assured the droid as he climbed out of the speeder, the vehicle powering down with a gentle whine. His boots made contact with the marble, and a rush of emotion shot through him. This place churned with the faint echo of the Force. It was distant, but very much there, a place untainted by the Emperor's ministrations. He took another step forward, towards the fountain, and again he could feel the Force. It stretched beyond this place, into the mountain that loomed above them. But it felt so far away, all the same, as though it were but a shroud that would vanish if he were to reach for it. What was this place?
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Sunday, 17 Jan 2016, 9:26 PM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Monday, 18 Jan 2016, 7:47 PM | Message # 24 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| Daneira was equally as silent on the journey. There were many things going through her mind, especially thoughts and feelings about Karth. Much like him unknown to her, she wondered similar things that he did- she could imagine them settling down on Dubrillion at one point. They could have had a life together, without the unbearable pressure of the Jedi Order. They could have had a family. She watched him as he drove, and remembered the last time she had seen him clean shaven and so seemingly determined. It had been a long time ago, almost another lifetime ago. There were moments when this whole situation still did not feel real, perhaps it was a bad dream...or a nightmare.
When they stopped, and Karth climbed out of the speeder, she followed, albeit more slowly. Much like him, she could feel the echo of the Force. Daneira was not sure if it was a disturbing, or an exhilarating feeling. It had been exciting when she was young, during those days at the Jedi Temple, those years that she spent as a Jedi, but now she was not so sure. "I am a little rusty, Kima, no pun intended, but I do not sense anyone else here." Dani told the droid, trying to reassure her as Karth had, not that it would do too much good.
Dani could not help but wonder if Karth felt what she was feeling, and decided that it was time for them to begin to communicate better than they had been the past couple of weeks. "Karth..what is this place?" She finally asked, as she gazed at the tattered banner that hung in the courtyard. There was an idea in her mind, of course, but she was not one hundred percent positive that it was the Cairne Family crest. "Is this Silas'....it is, is it not?" She then worried that the memories would be too painful for Karth, not that the memories of Silas and Atrya were wonderful for her either.
She supposed, however, that if Karth wanted to come here with the holocron, he had an idea of how to open it. "It is beautiful...." Dani finally said moments later, despite the run down appearance of the place
Message edited by Daneira_Farris - Monday, 18 Jan 2016, 7:54 PM |
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Thursday, 21 Jan 2016, 11:30 PM | Message # 25 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
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| He had felt it. The entire trip there he had felt it. That slow, smoldering ember of doubt that burned in the darkness between them both. And now that they had arrived and stepped foot on hallowed ground, there was this singular, precipitating need that ate at him. Karth knew that he couldn't avoid Daneira forever, though he had done a respectable job keeping her at arm's length up to this point. But hanging between them now was an opportunity, one he would be a fool to ignore. Dani was extending an olive branch, a chance at normalcy between them. Karth might never be able to love her as he once did, but she was helping him.
She still feels something for you, a voice in his head spoke. Don't turn away from it.
"It is--was--his home." Karth answered her quietly, taking a few steps closer to that silent fountain and peering into its waters. Somehow, even after decades, they were still crystal clear. "His family's home. Silas never spent much time here, I think it belonged to his brother..."
There was an obvious pain whenever he spoke his Master's name, but the true extent of which, Daneira couldn't infer. The one secret that he still kept from her, that he would take to his grave, was what truly happened in the depths of Bellassa's parliamentary building. His Master had been lost that day, and the wound would forever be too fresh in his mind. And unlike Daneira's wound, which had been ripped open and left to bleed all over again, the dagger that his Master's death had left within him still remained. And now the wound was gnarled, healed-over improperly, and left to fester. A dark kernel rooted at the center of his soul, twisting deeper every day.
"And yeah," he commented quietly, turning to face Dani as he grabbed hold of that olive branch. "It is."
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Friday, 22 Jan 2016, 8:22 PM | Message # 26 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
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| There was not a day that went by that she did not think of Atrya. There was not a day that she did not remember what happened on Belassa. When she was not having nightmares about the battle on New Plympto, it was Belassa, or the end of her trials that plagued her ability to sleep. No, she did not know all that really happened on Belassa between Karth and Silas, only because she was devastated and had been pulled away from the cold and lifeless body of her own Master. In the end, the Jedi Council had decided that Belassa, the disaster that it was, had been a part of Daniera's Knight trials, despite the outcome.
Daneira found herself next to the lifeless fountain as well, before she met his gaze. She knew it had to be hard for him to be in this place, but she also knew that there had to be a reason for it. "It is a shame that it was left abandoned to become so run down. " Then another thought occurred to her. "What an academy it could have made." She said, though it would have been markedly different from the academy on Coruscant, which to her would have been preferable.
She cleared her throat and looked away from Karth a moment later, before she stepped away and moved around the still fountain. The water was clear, which Dani felt was odd, considering that by now it should have been filled with grime and dead, fallen leaves, and weathered from age. Dani rested one knee on the edge of the fountain ledge, and leaned down before she touched the crystal water with a fingertip, and watched the ripples cascade across the shallow blue water.
"So what are we doing here?" She assumed it had to do with the holocron that he was keeping so close.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Friday, 29 Jan 2016, 9:38 PM | Message # 27 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
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| "He had nobody to leave it to," Karth answered solemnly, watching her with hawkish eyes, peering up at her from beneath his furrowed brow. Her fingertips echoed in the fountain, the ripples tracing outward-unimpeded-to the marbled edge. And there was an almost... resonant quality, to the sound the water made. Like it was singing to them, just at the edge of hearing, ethereal and not entirely of this world. The Force, torn asunder as it may currently be by the rise of the Sith, remained untouched here. And with every passing moment spent on the grounds, their souls could only feel more at ease.
The Force never forgot them, no matter how long they tried to turn away from it. It might be a distant memory now, faint even as it flowed through every fiber of their being, but it was never truly gone. Karth, indescribably moved by what he felt, here, let his gaze trail upward to the center building that loomed before them, columned and archaic like the rest of the smaller buildings here. This place was very old, indeed.
"And after he--he died, I guess it was just... forgotten." He added, the serenity in his tone wavering in the face of the crushing reality that he was the reason for it.
This place, beautiful and forgotten by time, had been left to nobody because of him. That dark, knotted seed in his gut threatened to sprout. Again, he felt the all-encompassing, tidal surge of sadness he had felt that day. Images of this place flared to life within his mind's eye. Whereas Daneira saw only ruins, Karth witnessed a moment removed from time, a fragment of what this place once was. A child, bright blonde and no older than three, was standing before several robed figures, flanked on either side by regal, boorish elders, a man and woman both. They forced the child away towards the robed strangers, despite the tears in his eyes and the frantic pleas to stay. The child's wails echoed in his mind, hammering away at him...
"Dweeereeet?"
Kima's inquiry snapped him back into the present, the vision abating as quickly as it had come, and he was again in that ruined courtyard. Sobered, Karth turned to the little droid and shook his head, shakily answering the question Daneira had posed to him. "We're--" he started, wiping a gloved hand across his forehead to try and stop the cold sweat. "We're going to see if there's any trick to opening this holocron. It was his, and I don't know anyplace else we might look for answers besides the place I imagine it came from."
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Wednesday, 03 Feb 2016, 0:01 AM | Message # 28 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| Several Hours Later...
Dani had separated herself from Karth. Her justification had been that the compound was large, and they could cover more ground if they split up. While there had been some hesitation on her part, and she sensed some on his as well, she had gone and gotten herself lost. The corridors were maze-like at times and grew darker the further into the building she got. As Dani had said when they were in the courtyard, it was beautiful, and the inside was no less lovely despite the run down and dust covered surfaces. If there was a trick to opening the holocron, she certainly had not yet come across it, or anything that looked to be even remotely helpful for that matter. Of course, Dani had not expected to just find a book on a shelf with the title; "Holocrons: what are they, and how to open them". That would have been too easy. Instead, she continued to search for any kind of clue that could help Karth
Karth. A sigh escaped her lips as she thought about him again. His distance bothered her so much, that she almost wished that he was actually dead. It had taken years for her to cope and come to the best terms that she could with the loss of him, and the loss of what they had. For years she blamed herself, and felt that if she had just been a little more insistent, maybe they never would have ended up on New Plympto. Maybe they would have come here, and had a life...maybe a family together. But now here they were, thrust together again by some unknown fate...by the Force...and it was like the expanse of time and their deaths still kept them apart.
Daneira grazed her fingers across the spines of dusty tomes, and the gilded letters glinted with a hint of the past against the aged leather. An unlabeled, oxblood leather spine caught her eye, and she tipped the book out with her fingertips only to find no title on the front as well. She pulled the book from the shelf, and a plume of years worth of dust spiraled into the air. The pages crinkled, crackling with age and wear as she opened it. Handwriting? Odd. Dani dropped the book into her messenger bag before she started back to try and rejoin Karth. Maybe, whatever was written would be of some use, but she was unsure.
As Dani walked back the direction she had come from, the corridor started growing more dim. It was not pitch dark, but there was barely enough light to see, and while she felt she was going the right way, there was an uncertainty and a sense of foreboding growing in the back of her mind. The smell of fire filled her nostrils, burning fuel, and melted plastic. The sudden noise was deafening, the roar of tanks and ringing screech of blaster fire assaulted any sense of security she had left. Within a moment, she felt a hard and sudden jolt, followed by absolute silence. The roar of battle had stopped, and the damp, mildewy scent of the run down compound was all she could smell again. Dani immediately put her hand to her stomach and lifted it for only a brief moment and saw wet blood glint on her fingers in the dim light.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Monday, 23 May 2016, 0:56 AM | Message # 29 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 54
Status: Offline
| Fear is the bane of truth.
The voice was faint, just on the edge of Daneira's hearing. But if or when she might turn to look, she would find herself alone in that corridor, with the blood and the smoke and the smell of corpses. It came from everywhere around her and yet from nowhere, as still as an untouched pond but quaking like thunder. It was as though it radiated from within herself, but any soul-searching would be for nought, she would not find answers there. With every step she could feel her pulse beating in her eardrums, gushing in sickening tandem with the blood she had felt.
And then, like a dream, it was gone, and the scene around her shifted. The corridor became an island, far away and somewhere she had never known. The blood on her hands was gone, the wound erased. The smell of death was replaced with the brisk scent of an ocean, churning and powerful. Waves crashed against a rocky cliffside, harbinger of death that spilled away from the stone and in their wake left a black... nothingness.
She saw him, then, standing at the cusp of the cliff. His long, ebony hair whipped quietly in the wind, his maroon cloak drawn around his shoulders. Her Karth, younger than he was now, a spitting image of the man she had loved all those years ago. Another lifetime away.
You cannot save him, you realize this.
The voice again, soundless but ever-present.
His is the failing of so many. To allow the hands of fate to stretch out from the abyss and wrap tight around his throat.
Your failing, young one, is to believe you can save him. That you are not destined to lose each other to the tides of fate.
She was floating, then, suddenly face-up in the water beneath the cliff, falling endlessly into that void as she could only watch, horrified, as Karth leapt from the precipice and plummeted down towards--and through--her, vanishing into the ether. There was silence for what felt an eternity, and then again she was in another place, another time. The halls of the Jedi Temple, resplendent in their complacent glamor. A shrine to arrogance that would some day come crashing down at the hands of someone equally twisted by fate.
* * * "Where am I?" The young man asked unto the void.
Right where you need to be, said the voice in his head.
Karth stood in a room that was spine-chillingly familiar. A circular antechamber, cold as ice, wired from floor to ceiling with switches and cable. He took a step forward, crossing over the red-skinned corpse beneath him, her wounds still smoking from where his lightsaber had cleaved her in two. The blue light cast the room in garish, angular shadows that seemed to writhe and mock him, twisting their way downwards towards the hunched, mumbling form of an older man.
"What... is this..." Karth asked, his teeth gritted. Silas Cairne knelt on the floor before him, his head pressed into the durasteel as he rocked and wept, muttering about all manner of things.
You know what this is. The voice taunted. It is your failing.
"I don't want to see anymore," he pleaded, voice strained as he spun about, eyes trying to find focus on anything in the damnable darkness. But all there was now was blackness, and the man prostrated before him. His bloody, twisted muse. Silas Cairne reached out a shaky hand, bony and gnarled, and Karth was suddenly then on his knees. The hand brushed against his cheek, and his blood ran cold.
"K--Karth..." Silas managed to choke out, his eyes white as snow as they rolled back in his head.
"R-read... please... You must see. You must... see... the truth..."
He screamed. Nothing happened. He tried so hard to scream, to make a sound of any kind. To prove that he was dreaming, that he hadn't somehow made his way back. Nothing came. The memories hit him, the visions. The doom of the galaxy and what was to come, a grotesque mosaic of death and decay, a cycle of rebirth and more death. An inescapable black hole of suffering, damning the galaxy for eons to come. He screamed again, and found that the void swallowed it, stealing away any breath in his lungs. He was thrust backward by a terrible force, thrown onto his back, and all went black...
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Thursday, 26 May 2016, 9:20 PM | Message # 30 |
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Officer
Group: Users
Messages: 33
Status: Offline
| It was the stuff of nightmares; watching Karth "die" again, being unable to help him. She was useless to him, no matter where she turned or what she did. He would always, always die. Dani squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that the visions would be gone when she opened them again...
But they weren't. The Jedi temple. Of course she knew it all too well. She had grown up there, she had grown up there with Karth. As her thoughts turned to him again, she tried to refuse the gruesome images of his death. Ah yes, her mind wandered back to the temple as she meandered down one of the silent corridors. It struck her as odd, for a brief moment, that it was so quiet and that there was no one around. Suddenly, she heard a familiar peal of laughter, faint and echoing down the hall. She turned her head, and for a split second, she could have sworn that she saw two kids; both dark haired, running around one of the corners.
Of course that would haunt her. A happier time for them. A time when there were no worries or cares for either of them. A time when they were the best of friends, before the war and the death, before the love and the soul crushing separation. Idly, Dani turned and followed them, seeing the faint ghost-like outline of the young duo as they ran down the hall, happy and carefree. She saw the girl reach out her hand, and take the hand of her friend to keep them at the same pace.
Silently, Daneira watched them, and was envious of the happiness and innocence the two shared. She turned away, determined that she did not need to see any more. When she turned, she heard the familiar whirr of a lightsaber activating behind her. No. by the time she turned back around, she saw the young version of herself watching as her friend slumped to the ground while she deactivated her lightsaber.
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