--quite literally--

--and moved the ship towards the clearance. Reflexively, Jasyn held his breath as they passed through...

...and was more than merely thankful that in moments later they were safely on the other side. No sooner did they pass through then did the monitor flash once more, indicating that the tractor was once more fully in place.

Let's hope getting out will be that simple, a little voice whispered.

Jasyn ignored the thought, and turned his attentions to the navboard which was in front of him. As K'eel Doba loomed closer and closer, he reached for the controls to pull up data concerning the planet. Immediately a computerized mapping popped up, clearly indicating a few spots where the ship's computer picked up absolutely...

... nothing.

Jasyn frowned darkly. "Kriffing hell..." he said under his breath ominiously. Then he turned towards Dash. "Are those what you sensed?" he queried then, pointing towards the "holes" in the mapping on the monitor and quieting to hear just what the Jedi might reply.

--------------------

This was the advantage over the Empire, before me. Simply make myself seen for a few brief moments and slip away to where I then know the ship to be.

For style alone, I orb to the very projection of the large, forward bridge window.

I know not if I was seen, where I ended up was anyone's assumption.

"Move!" she yelled back at Panthar as her own feet scurried for the Sith transport. Somewher in the distance, Shayla could hear the faintest sounds of massive footfalls.

That only prompted her to move more quickly. The second they cleared the hatch of the transport, Shayla slapped down a control, causing that same hatch to close securely behind them.

Only then did she take a breath. "That was close..." she muttered, suddenly feeling entirely vunerable. Her eyes flicked to Erik and rested there a moment...

...and then she realized she couldn't escape the truth of the issue which was pressing heavily upon her heart despite how she wanted to deny the fact it needed to be addressed. "If we are going to protect ourselves," she started, trailing a moment as her eyes turned vague. "We're going to have to make ourselves lightsabers..."

[ 10-07-2003 10:30 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

--------------------

...which was beginning to stretch out into entirely too lengthy a one.

Meanwhile, from the belly of the ship a pair of TIE interceptors ravened out, screaming soundlessly toward the laced tractor beams which obediently dropped for them mere nanoseconds before impact would have occurred. They flicked back on in their wake, mute energies trying vainly to warm the incredible chill of the space around them.

The TIE's raced after Vindicator, offering themselves as escort of sorts, keeping to their order that the ship not be let out of Imperial eyesight for a second. And all around, the stars glittered with a cold sort of hunger, watching while these insignificant events played out before them.

--------------------

Jasyn just scowled. "Have I mentioned I have a bad feeling about this?" he then growled, eyeing the interceptors himself.

Matt shrugged. "Well, at least we have a modicum of protection," he replied.

"Protection or serveliance, take your pick," Jasyn responded darkly. Then, deciding he really didn't want to take the time to see if the holes in K'eel Doba were what Dash had sensed, he began to continue with, "Just lock on the biggest one of those nothings and..."

Before Jasyn could finish, a red light...

...one which he hadn't ever seen before...

...began flashing urgently on the navboard.

"What the...?" He started, glancing over to Matt. Needless to say, he didn't like the look which was growing on the red-headed man's face. Nor did he like his buddy's next words.

"That's the life-sign indicator," Matt spoke up, then reaching to the navboard to key something in.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this?" Jasyn said, eyeing Dash and not particularly liking his look either. He glanced back to Matt, whose hands were still at work. Then suddenly he froze where he was, staring at something on the navboard close to the pilot's seat. "Mind sharing this with the rest of the class" Jasyn insisted.

"It would appear..." Matt started, "...that we have suddenly acquired a fourth human life-sign aboard the ship."

"Oh Hell," Jasyn growled, springing to his feet and grabbing his blaster from his holster.

"Wait," Matt spoke up, "Maybe we should wait til we are on-planet to deal with this. There's not very far to go in here if trouble arises."

Jasyn fiddled with his blaster trigger thoughtfully, then turned and sat back down reluctantly. He looked towards the now-nearing planet of K'eel Doba, and to the sides where their escort remained.

And idea flashed into his mind.

"Matt," he spoke up then suddenly. "You might want to let our...

... escort know about our new...

... friend aboard the ship."

Matt turned a moment and eyed Jasyn thoughtfully, then nodded, turning back then to the navboard and reaching for the comm unit. "Yes," he replied then, "Maybe we should..."

[ 10-08-2003 06:37 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Jasyn Lancaster ]

--------------------

But he did not. There was nothing, absolutly nothing, to show that this creature had been anywhere near this spot. He could sense it, though! The "scent" was right there, overpowering his mind, intoxicating his now-ravishing hunger. He should have been mere yards from his prey. Yet he could see no sign of it.

Exhausted, frustrated, and dispairing, Ragorian slumped to the ground. The exhaustion from Romanus' body, coupled with his own insane hunger for spirits, was eating away at him. He could see no way out of this trap, save death.No! he raged at himself. I have fought death for too long to let it catch me like this! This will not be the end for me! IT...WILL...NOT!

This last silent shout came with a scream of frustration from Romanus' mouth, and something more. An explosion of power from Ragorain's pent-up spirit, a manifestation of his rage and stubborness against death, of his will to live. This wave of energy came pouring out of every availible space it could find, Romanus' pores, throat, nose, and eyes. As it emerged, the land around it cracked and crumbled from the sheer force of it, shattered by Ragorian's pure will. Romanus' body, already exhausted fro mthe relentless pursiut and worn-out from Ragorian's use of it, slumped, barely able to contain this last explosion.

Shaking, Ragorian turned Romanus' head to look at the result. The land around him was crumbled, cracked, and haphazard, as if an eathquake had passed through. As he surveyed the scene, Ragorian's eye caught on something. At first glance it only seemed another ditch created from his burst of energy, but as he looked, he realized it was a hole. A hole, hidden underground, leading downward to some hiding place. Slowly, a smile crept across Romanus' battered face. Ragorain focused his senses into the hole, and to his delight, found it to be the source of the spirit's scent. He had finally found his prey.

Slowly, Ragorian raised Romanus' aching body to its feet, shambling down the hole, the smell, and his hunger, growing stronger with each step.

[ 10-08-2003 07:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Blade of Chaos ]

--------------------

The hall had been apparently abandoned for many years, judging from the cobwebs and dust. However, Phalomir did see several boot tracks that could have been made within a few months. He carefully walked further into the grand entryway hall and marveled at the relics mounted on the wall, along with fine woven tapestries and brilliant sculptures of past heroes of the clan. There were also many bare places along the walls, as if several items had been removed, and several large shelves stood empty.

Phalomir reached the end of the hall and reached for the lone door. The tuk’ata outside gave a long mournful howl, freezing Phalomir’s hand just shy of the door. When the sound ceased he bowed his head slightly and pushed the door open gently. It gave with little force and Phalomir stepped through.

The door opened into a smaller, though still vast, hall. The remnants of a cooking ring lay in the near corner, and a torn fur was on the floor nearby. Phalomir entered into the center of the hall and looked around at other signs of life. It was obvious that someone had dwelled here after the temple’s abandonment, but not for some time.

A shuffle further down the hall caught his attention. He straightened and flashed the lights from his eyes in the direction of the sound. The light illuminated the figure of large man, standing over 6 feet tall, long flowing blond hair streaming down over the bright white robe he wore. Phalomir choked back his surprise and took a step towards the man.

“Who are you?” Phalomir asked.

“You know who I am,” replied the man, his voice sounding angelic in the echoes of the hall. “That is why you are here.”

“I do not know you,” said Phalomir. “How could I? I have never been to this temple.”

“Yet you know me nonetheless,” answered the man. “It is why you have come into my temple -- to issue the challenge. Are you worthy?”

Phalomir swallowed hard.

“Challenge? I seek no challenge. I seek only the Finger of R’lous.”

The man smiled. “And you shall need it to face the remaining challenges… assuming…”

--------------------

I could have been, though....

A smile quirks my lips as I behold this wide-eyed brethren of mine. The tattoos of clans lay silent on his face, quietly accusing me just for my non-being, I suppose, demanding something.... Well I know of what was spoken, even though the Others disdained the logic involved therein.

And lo, as though in answer to an unthought prayer, here he arrives... and speaks to a shade of what once was.

"The challenge is severe," I state in flat monotone, one the moment deserves, even though inwardly I sigh with relief so great as to bring the fringes of unwanted laughter to it. The clan shall not be forgotten, shall not stand alone, but shall unite to the whole in defense of the All. The Others, in their wisdom, were wrong.

I cock my head to one side, letting the soft white light flow from me, bathing this one and pushing away the shroud of darkness which I have lived within too long.

I blink.

"Can you take it from a shade? Can you wield the weaponry necessary? Can you defeat that which cannot die, that the Finger of R'lous shall recognize it's true Master?"

My eyes grow vague and turn inward then, and I stiffen. My mouth drops open to let forth hollow approximations some might yet call words.

"If Warrior you are, you know how to kill.

"If Sorcerer you are, then you have the skill."

I fall silent then, blinking back to something close to personal reality and I look at him. I smile then, letting him wonder at the mysteries of which I speak, while even as the words drip from my lips the answers dance so plainly before my eyes.

Yet in his greenness I see puzzlement. This shall never do, for though his vison is clouded mine sees with crystal clarity.

This is the One.

"Release me from this bondage, and take the Finger as your own."

I hold up an appendage pale with death yet scintillating with light, and smile upon both him and it.

And in particular upon that which now passes for what once was a hand.

[ 10-08-2003 11:13 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Master Rean ]

--------------------

He had not come here to kill anyone… especially one who seemed so dead already. Who was this man? This… human? No, something was strange… though this man appeared human, he had the feel of a Sith… of a Dark Lord… the Finger?

Phalomir stepped forward slowly, watching the hand the man had lifted, the index finger shaking and raised accusingly at Phalomir. Soft white light glowed from all around the man, though a strange dark shroud with the feel of death surrounded him in the distance, as if waiting. Another step, Phalomir drew closer still, close enough to catch the odor of years of decay, as if he had stepped suddenly into a dense forest during the hot, moldy season after the rains.

The man’s quick smirk betrayed his movement. His hand flinched and from nowhere appeared a strange cylindrical device with a long flat point at the end. Phalomir had time only to dive to his knees as a bright spark of electrical energy blasted forth from the end of the device, sailing over Phalomir’s head and sending something crashing to the floor in the distance behind him. A surge of innate magick leapt from Phalomir’s internal energies and as he rolled to his back a vivid shard of emerald materialized in his hands. He brought the strange mystical shard up like a sword, slicing the hand that wielded the device from the glowing man. The hand and item flew into the air, and as the man staggered a step backwards, Phalomir quickly stood and sliced the air savagely above the man’s shoulders.

The hand, still clutching the device, landed on the floor next to the wobbling man, whose eyes grew pale and distant. Phalomir’s hands trembled in readiness, but the man only allowed a slight smile to pass his lips, closed his eyes, and allowed his head to nod backwards, tumbling to the floor. The body still stood, then began to sway until could no longer support itself and it too toppled.

Phalomir stood, still ready, until he realized what had just transpired. He took a breath, the first in several moments, and the shard of energy dissipated. He fell to his knees and stared at the item in the clutch of the dead hand. At first it resembled a dagger, but the hilt was far too large and the blade more looked like a four-cornered spear tip. Red jewels lined the blade and hilt.

Phalomir cautiously reached for the item and slowly pried it from the dead fingers, which now seemed more than dead. He held the item in his own hands, and the body of the man slowly sank into the stone floor of the temple.

Phalomir stood slowly, letting his breath return, and gazed at the device. He was only dimly aware of the sounds of stone scraping and falling beyond the door which allowed him entry to this part of the temple, and vaguely heard the rap of clawed feet pounding quickly on the stone floors, but snapped to attention at the fierce growl and snapping of the tuk’ata as it howled its rage into the hall. Phalomir turned and the lights from his eyes fell upon the beast as it stood at the door to this hall, trying desperately to break the stone frame which prevented it access to the prey within.

--------------------

But in the end, there it is.

That portion of the Unity which shall bear out over all dissent... being that portion which shall give me surcease at last from eons of cycles of Lordship. For unknown to my brethren is that which has given the Dark Lordship of my clan its knowledge and strength, its artifice and its art. The weapons do not come merely from the mind and the heart and the soul, but from somewhere...

Other.

And it is this other my brethren had come close to commanding before, earlier, then, from whence I had come to not now, but before. Time, again, laughs with evil glee, but at long last I can burst out into my own refrain and laugh back into its face.

The Curse is lifted. It has passed to another. May he come to embrace the horrors of eternity as a lover.

I am sure he is wondering at the smile which lights my fading eyes as I succumb, at long and weary last, into the shadows, eyes which have enough spark to note his careful approach before the world tips topsy turvy and tumbles me toward blessed release.

But before all fades into everything I see the tattoo of my clan alight upon his forehead... and I know indeed I am truly blessed as he is now cursed. If nothing else, the beasts shall recognize this in him, and pay homage.

As once they did to me.

[ 10-09-2003 12:06 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Master Rean ]

--------------------

I've gone mad, simply.

Waiting no further, I take myself from my cozy perch to the warmth of the starship's engine bay.

With great ease, I orb in minimizing detection.

My palm surges with great power in which can only be described as a controlled plasma overload. With the agility of a Greek god, and the speed of force lightning, I strike the sub light propulsion like crackling of rumble and thunder.

--------------------