Phalomir stirred, the effects of the Claw still ringing in his mind. He reached a hand to his forehead to help steady himself, and as he scratched at the base of a horn he slowly realized that in the state of consciousness he was in, he shouldn’t be able to scratch his horn.

“What strangeness has happened here?” he asked himself.

He looked down at his hand. It appeared solid, yet he knew that he had not re-entered his body. Yet he certainly seemed to be in some sort of solid form, for he could not see the rocks through his hand…

Rocks?

Phalomir slowly moved his eyes upward. He was sitting on a flat, rocky ground at the top of a small hill. Around him were many rocks of varying sizes, scattered throughout the surrounding ground. The sky was dark, yet not quite a nighttime sky. No stars shown in the night, no moons, no sun… no shadows. Yet a light was cast from somewhere. He glanced about the hillside, then was awed by the vast stretches of rocks and hills stretching out in all directions, reaching across the countryside until the hills gave way to mountains in the distance. Further away, volcanoes spewed out red smoke and fire, strange silhouettes against the bizarre, liquid sky.

Phalomir blinked, his eyes catching movement all across the horizon. He tried to focus but had much difficulty in narrowing his vision. It was if the hills themselves moved, then he realized that he was watching hordes of… something… moving along the ground in many directions in the distance.

Where was he? What had happened to Jharmeen? Had she indeed used the Claw as he suspected? But why, what had possessed her to do….

Possessed!

Sudden realization shown upon him, is eyes growing wider with every passing second. He sat back with his hands upon the ground, and he noticed the cold, odd texture of the dirt… or whatever substance this was. It was all at once rubbery, spongy, and liquid, yet still remained solid.

He again glanced to the sky. Upon closer examination, he could see it twisting and writhing in a horribly familiar way. Yes, he was in the black river, he had to be. Or at least, he was in the realm to which the black river led.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of shifting stone behind him, and he spun around quickly to face whoever.. or whatever… had come to visit.

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

Entirely way too much of it, in fact.

That is, I think it did.

Khaandon alone really knew how long I sat hunkered where I was, hugging my knees and staring off into, well, into utter strangeness. Yet that strangeness was horrifyingly familiar; well did I remember my last visit here when I had tried to wrench Flac from Roan’s clutching claws. That hadn’t been pretty at all, and at least I had someone at my back who had managed to get me out.

But now…

I jerked a little as stark realization slammed into me. I was in this alone. Who was there to come help me? Rhua? I had serious doubts about him poking in for a fourth quarter rescue. While the scientist had proven stalwart enough against more common physical foes, I read the message his body had been screaming out when we first peeped over the rim of that canyon and looked down into the hellish blackness I now found myself in.

I shook my head again.

Nope, I thought miserably to myself. It just ain’t gonna happen; Galen ol’ kiddo, you might just as well face it.

You’re in this alone.

And so I had just sat there, a huddled lump of despair, lost in my own personal fog while time dripped on all around me. It wasn’t until an insidious, creepy kind of movement coming from… somewhere caught my eye that I raised myself from my gloom long enough to take another quick gander around myself.

Off in the distance there seemed to be a softly whispered movement, like a sand-crab sidling along an ocean shore. I squinted, strained, and stood up.

Let me amend that thought: like a million sand-crabs sidling along an ocean shore…

Rushing memory bore down upon me, bringing with it topsy-turvy images of scorpion and snake and bipedal imp, of dagger-claw and dripping fang, of a blackness beyond the mere darkness one finds between galaxies highlighted with the most brilliant and meaningful of ruby reds…

Oh no. Oh dear Khaandon, no…

Where were those thing going, those demons from hell? For certainly that’s where I was, once again: hell; I’m such a lucky duck about these things. And if that were the case, I'm so lucky, most certainly they would of course be coming my way.

I jerked my head at my own ridiculous non sequiteur. No time for that; time to… go.

Which I did. As rapidly as possible. Across the weird non-ground beneath my feet, past strange non-rock and toward a distant red glow just over the horizon. Every so often I took a nanosecond or two to glance over my shoulder; good.

No one on my heels, at least not yet. I might have time to get away.

To where, Galen? Where the hell are you going to run?

Exactly… I answered myself as I just kept at it, the strange timelessness of the place letting me travel on and on without really knowing how far I had traveled at all, or how long it had taken me to get there. Such concepts really have no meaning, I guess, in situations such as these.

Thus it was that I came upon a low rocky kind of ridge, but without slowing down one whit just continued on. Now both hands and feet were working in synchronization as I kept moving up and up, nothing other in my mind but a vague notion of how and when I would alter my body position smoothly enough to descend the other side while not losing any momentum. I almost fell on top of him, I was scrabbling upward so fast.

Something not quite stone slid downward as I screeched to a halt, there on the apex of that little ridge. Panting, I just stood there a fraction of a second, while he turned the most brilliantly green eyes I have ever seen upon me.

I crouched, suddenly aware that I had no weapon. I reached for a non-rock then, but caught myself. Truly, I didn’t know if that hesitation was to offer myself as a possible friend in this horrible place, or if it was because the thought of that weird material actually sitting in the bare-skinned palm of my hand just gave me the heebies.

“Who- who the hell are you?!” I finally managed to gasp and fell silent, adrenalin pumping, ready at the drop of a hat to fight this Sith or flee from him altogether.

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

Recognition slammed into him. Yes, this was Galen, Jharmeen’s sister. But how, here? Wherever here was… And which Galen? For if this was still the same timeline he had found himself thrown into then she would not know who he was, as was apparent by her question.

“I am Phalomir, of the Sith,” he said, a smile forming. “And by the gods, please tell me you are truly Galen Jhin'Dar or I shall be forced to smash my head upon the rocks below to escape this madness.”

[ 01-26-2004 10:13 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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

That is to say, what was waiting.

So I just tensed instead, feeling ready to explode at the slightest provocation, all the while wondering just who the hell this guy was and how the hell he knew my name.

Fear battled distrust, and a sudden thought struck home; could he be a plant sent here by Roan to—

To—

Now, there was provocation for you. Without thinking, I leapt to my feet, turned, and began scrabbling back down the slope I had just managed to top, rising panic lending my descent added impetus as I slipped and slid, half-falling, aiming for the relatively flatter ground below where I could just take off and run.

Demons be damned anyway; I just couldn’t go through that again. I just couldn’t.

I’d rather be dead.

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

But this was different. Phalomir saw something in her eyes before she turned, something that reminded him of pure… terror. This was not the Galen he knew, yet he felt this was the Galen he should be looking for.

“Do not fear,” he called out. “I travel with those who are trying to help you! Lancaster, Stanza, and – Shayla!” He thought of mentioning Jharmeen, but refrained at the moment, recalling the information she had shared about her relationship with Galen. After all, he was trying to stop her from running away, not add speed to her feet.

“Please, I have much to tell you…and to ask.”

A chill ran unexpectedly though him, and an instant feeling of despair tried to worm its way into his mind. Surprised by the sudden shakiness in his voice and the words it conveyed, he called out.

“Do not leave me alone here.”

[ 01-27-2004 01:27 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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

Oh all right, maybe not quite in that order. As a matter of fact, I was so blinded by sheer terror that I really didn’t pay any attention to the fact that I had hit flatter ground. The abrupt change in slope was jarring to say the least, and the loose non-scree laying about was in fact why my feet went skidding out from under me to begin with.

So there I was, forced out of “fight-or-flight” by gravity; it was only then that the sheer gravity of the situation truly slammed home, right about the same time that this guy’s words came into my ears.

He knew Jasyn? And Matt?? And—

And.

Me.

Putting my hands behind myself, I craned my head up and back. There he was, standing up there, something of a woebegone expression on his fearsome face.

At least I think it was.

I relaxed just a smidgeon. Drew in a couple of deep breaths. Raked the weird stuff beneath my fingers in preparation of climbing to my feet, opened my mouth…

And stopped, a million tiny goose feet beginning to march up and down my spine.

“Wha-?” I half-whispered, jerking my head this way and that as the step increased in tempo.

There. In the distance; no wait. Not distant at all, not at all….

They were coming, razored tails poised to deliver venomous blows, red eyes, drooling fangs and all.

They were coming.

Fast.

I turned my head back to the Sith, my mouth an open square of silent entreaty, and just sat there, quite unable to get up.

[ 01-27-2004 02:25 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

“Imps,” he said, not pausing to wonder how he knew that.

He looked back to Galen, who remained frozen in place. He scowled and started down the slope, quickly reaching the bottom. He extended a hand and held it out before her.

“I understand that you do not trust me, and under the circumstances I can not blame you. But if you are indeed who I think you are, then we are both unwilling visitors in these lands, and we have much to discuss. But we must first escape this horde of unfriendly creatures. Please, work with me?”

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

I stared at the towering Sith a fraction of a second longer as my last feeble defenses tried to stay my hand.

It could be a ruse, you know, just to get-

But that was utterly ridiculous. If this was all a ruse to get me to go with this guy, horns be damned, just so that I would finally be… be-

Well. It was too elaborate, too convoluted, too...

Ridiculous. After all, why all this when the demons could quite easily kill me, end of the story?

Battling to reduce my terror to a more manageable fear, I gulped, stuck out my hand, let his large and warm one envelop it, and scrabbled to my feet, staring up into his green eyes all the while.

“Well,” I mustered, trying to remember what he said his name was. Phal-something? No matter; I'd catch it later.

“It looks like I have no choice but to trust you. I’d really love to know just how the hell you know who I am, but hey, you know. Priorities, right?

“Umm-“ I trailed with yet another quick over-the-shoulder glance. The writhing, flailing, drooling and terrifyingly silent horde seemed to have covered an impossible distance in only a few seconds; Roon’s Treasure, but this place had some weirdness to it when it came to time.

“Any ideas how to avoid being turned into demon chow?”

I nodded behind myself, then took an involuntary step closer to my unexpected and Khaandon-please-make-it-be-so savior.

[ 01-27-2004 02:53 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

“If I knew that my magick would work here, I may be able to shield us for a while. But I am not even sure where here is, or if my powers came with me. Even so, I am not that strong. Not to hold back an entire horde of imps.”

Again that word. He sighed, confused, yet allowed grim determination to enter his thoughts.

“Well, I might as well try to buy us time to run, maybe I can hold back the first few for a moment… get ready to bolt for that rocky area.”

He drew in a deep breath and called upon his Sith magick. A tremor passed through his middle and shot up through his chest. His eyes widened.

This is very different he thought, as the silent blast of translucent energy surged from his palms and struck the first wave of the advancing creatures, splintering spiny exoskeletons and splattering gore into the air. The force thrust through row after row, clearing a wide path through the parade of nightmarish beings until Phalomir gasped and let the power ebb.

Phalomir stared in shock at the path of destruction, the air still alive with the falling of mangled body parts. The remaining creatures stopped and stared in turn at Phalomir. Then, almost in unison, the nearest monstrosities turned and fell upon the hapless victims of the Sith’s power, devouring what was left.

Phalomir grimaced and turned to Galen. His hands tingled with electricity. He shook his hands, trying to clear away the electrical feeling, and glanced back at the strange, grotesque scene. He felt a strange sensation of… pride.

“That was unexpected,” he croaked. “But I suggest we take advantage of the break and make a hasty exit now.”

[ 01-27-2004 08:50 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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

My gaze dropped to his hands, then returned to his face.

“Umm—yeah,” I finally managed, letting a shaky grin cross my face.

“You lead.”

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

“Very well,” he said. “Try to keep up.” He winked and took off in a full sprint towards the rocky outcroppings next to a hill rising in the near distance.

His long strides carried him the distance in a short time, but to his surprise Galen was not far behind. He turned when he reached the rocks and was nearly elated when he saw the opening to a small cave hidden behind them. He dashed quickly inside, allowing a small bit of magick light to shine from his hand and verify that the cave was empty. Galen came panting through the opening, and he immediately threw a magickal barrier across the opening.

“There,” he said, catching his breath. “That will keep out any wandering creatures, and hopefully anything else we don’t want to meet. At least for a while. It will also make the hillside appear to be unbroken, hiding the cave. We should have a little time to talk now.”

He looked at Galen, who was still catching her breath but appeared as if she had a lot to say.

“Let me explain. No, there is not enough time. Let me summarize. I am Phalomir, Dark Lord of the Armorer Clan of the Sith. I am also a sorcerer, as you may have guessed. I was travelling with the people I mentioned in an attempt to find you. Clues led us to the Black Canyon, though you may know it by another name.”

He drew in a deep breath.

“We were travelling in a Sith warship, and fell victim to sabotage. In more ways than one. I was somehow sent here, and the rest you know.”

He looked into her eyes, softening his expression.

“I know your sister Jharmeen. It was she that initiated the search. I understand your fear, she has confessed many things about her past. But believe me, we experienced much together and she has undergone a dramatic change. When I have more time I will tell you all.”

He sighed.

“There is indeed much you need to know. And I will tell you. But first, your turn. What happened to you? How did you come to be here? Where do you think here is?”

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

I slumped against the rocky wall behind my back; ok, so it wasn’t quite rock, but I wasn’t about to quibble trivialities at this point—and just stared at him. Without really realizing it I was shaking my head, had been practically from the outset of his dissertation as my own mind sprang into action, reaching into every little nook and cranny of its being, bringing forth image after image after image.

I refocused clearly upon him again, in time to catch his closing, polite queries. So he wanted to know how I got here, ey..?

Which time, buddy?

My mouth opened to reply, but nothing came forth for a moment. Instead, I just wrapped my arms about myself and slid down until I was sitting on the rocky not-quite-a-floor beneath us. There I pondered the last three years of my life, wondering myself where I should begin.

“Like you, I find there is, ahh—much to tell,” I finally started, groping. “But not now.”

Yeah, Galen. Save it for oh, I’d say about a week from now, when we’re going nuts from being trapped in here, starving, dehydrating, and anything but anything would be a welcomed salve.

I jerked my head again, scowling at myself. This wasn’t like me, to keep on lapsing like this; I must be tired or something. Then I looked up into his face, which seemed softer and more trustworthy now, and finally gathered my scattered thoughts.

“I—I’m not quite sure how I got here this ti- er, how I got here,” I opened again. “I was camping with Rhua Ki…”

I trailed again, grimacing to see the puzzled look on Phalomir’s face. Took in a deep breath and tried again.

“Ok, a member of your race, a nasty canasta of a bastard going by the name of Roan took me and—and sent me somewhere. Some cell; I didn’t know where that was but at the time I thought it might have been Kamino. He was always sending somebody or other to Kamino…

“Anyway, I thought it might have been there because these Kaminoan scientists were there, and they took me from my cell, and into the lab, and—and, well I don’t know what they did.”

I paused for breath, surprised to realize this.

I’ll have to ask Rhua about that, I promised myself, then continued.

“Anyway, one day the Kaminoan who was my gaoler came, only he acted, well… different, somehow. It wasn’t too much longer after that that that he freed me, and we managed to leave the lab, and when we came out we were on this desert world, so it couldn’t be Kamino now, could it?”

Another pause. More self-scrutiny. Onward, you ol’ soldier you.

“We traveled a day or so in the desert, then came to the lip of a canyon. Down inside it was… well, this weird black something, like a rip into another dimension or something. I wasn’t quite sure about it, but Rhua – that’s the scientist dude – was petrified. We were staying well away, and were camped for the night, and—and—“

I trailed yet again, my frown dissolving into a grimace of terror as a terribly familiar pair of turquoise eyes came from nowhere to haunt my soul.

“He came,” I whispered, hugging myself even harder. “He came for me again, and I must have panicked I don’t know but I kinda remember sliding and jumping and falling down a slope or something and cutting my hand on a rock and then…

“And then I found myself here.”

I paused for breath, raising my hand in front of my eyes. Lo and behold, just as the surprisingly renewed memory had revealed; dried blood streaked from a wicked looking cut.

Oh but that’s going to leave a scar...

“I know where this is, though. I’ve been here before—“

Before my dwindling courage closed my throat entirely, I went quickly on.

“It’s Hell. And evil lives in it. And there’s a valley here, too; something Sith; the Valley of Kings? No, that’s not it… the Imperial Valley? No, wait.

“It’s the Valley of the Dark Lords. And there’s a lot of power in it, too. I don’t know where it is though, because I don’t know exactly where in this hideous place we are.”

I stopped with that and just looked up into his face, waiting for him to explain things further and make it all better for me.

[ 01-28-2004 04:34 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

“He came? Roan? Recently?” he said quietly.

“I find that most disturbing,” he spoke up. “Since I killed him some time ago. We truly are in Hell…”

A little niggling squirmed in back of his mind. “And I must confess, many things in this realm seem somehow… familiar. Such as the Imps, but I cannot explain it. But then, there are many things in my life I cannot explain.”

He looked back to Galen, the decisions he was trying make showing on his face.

“I will tell you things that will seem very strange, but considering where we are perhaps they not seem so strange after all. I am from the future, perhaps as much as 100 years, or as little as 20 or 30, I am afraid I do not know exactly. In my time, I was Dark Lord of the Sorcerers, happiest being in the universe. I had a powerful dominion, a beautiful and loyal wife, and a wonderful young son. It was all ripped away from me, first by an invading race, then by a plot to use me to change history. I lived in another timeline, one where events and people were similar but not quite the same. You see, in my time, you were my sister-in-law.”

He coughed.

“As far as I can tell, I was part of a plot to somehow alter the future invasion. A ‘friend’, Thoran, and his master – who we lovingly call The Master – were the architects of this plot. I was sent back in time and spent 4500 years in a crystal. I was freed, lived inside someone else’s head, and eventually was restored to my own body. Now I have discovered involvement from the old triad, including your friend Roan and Aelvedaar, the current Dark Lord of the Sorcerers, whom I believe to be my great-grandfather….”

He scratched his head and looked up.

“Did you follow all of that?”

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

Er—would be his sister-in-law.

Maybe…

Oh Jharmeen, what is it with you and these guys? First Aelvedaar, then Lord Recinis, and now this one too?

I pulled back from the direction in which those thoughts were leading, and looked up at Phalomir.

“I suppose I could tell you a tiny bit more, too,” I said slowly, since we seemed to have a commonality. Well, a couple; but one of the primary ones being that we had a common enemy in Roan.

And Aelvedaar, too? I never trusted that guy... and this dude thought he was his grandfather?! Be that as it surprisingly may, the sins of the father do not necessarily wash down to the son; for a strange reason I found Phalomir more and more trustworthy by the minute.

And my hunches were seldom wrong.

I let out a quick exhalation and spoke up quietly, this time doing my best to marshal my thoughts to keep from wandering off onto any further tangents.

“My whole experience with the Sith began when my dad and Jharmeen and I were out on a dig; dad was a xenoarcheologist, and he was fascinated by the Sith mythos…”

On I went, pouring it all out: how Jharmeen went into that cave and came out… not herself. Her killing dad. Trying to kill me. Me hiding, her leaving me there to die alone on an unknown planet. My discovery of the ancient hangar, learning to operate the Sith fighter. Crossing paths with the bounty hunter, Sorben Tarnus, crossing far more dangerous waters with him in the form of Desolist, Gravin Dark and Darth Wicked. Discovering my pregnancy, leaving Sorben to protect him from those who wanted little Darra for her innate abilities…

I stopped there and chewed on my lip a moment longer. How much did this guy know of the All? Better yet, how much should he know? Pursing my lips, I decided to forego the better part of valor and briefly told him as much as I knew of this weird power she held. After a moment’s pause, I went on and told Phalomir of her relationship with Aelvedaar, or at least as much as I knew of it, and the knowledge that her children would be born with the innate ability to use that strange power she had.

How or why, I hadn’t a clue.

I then went on, the whole nine yards, my brief entanglements with Admiral Actar, meeting Terrin Danner, marrying him… going to Sullust, Roan’s attack upon me in the hot springs, how who I thought was little Darra being ripped from me practically at the moment of her birth, and by such a demon as we had just thwarted. My constant hunt to find Darra, finding her, losing her, Roan’s persistence in chasing after Jharmeen and myself, how he took the child Jharmeen had borne by him to Kamino to have advanced in age, how we, Sorben included, had gone there to try to rescue her.

A pang ripped my heart as I told him of leaving Terrin, entangling yet again with Sorben who seemed to be hanging around with Actar a lot. Finally I ended with our going to the restored K’eel Doba yet again to look for Darra, this time in the company of Matt and Jasyn…

…only to end up taken once again by Roan and imprisoned wherever in Hell’s Seven Circles that it was he had put me.

“That’s pretty much it,” I finished, letting out a sigh. Roon’s Treasure, but it all sounded like something out of a holovid. I’d be laughing too, it was all so fantastic, but for the fact that I knew it all to be absolutely true.

I looked up at Phalomir, cocked my head, and let my eyes narrow a tad.

“So you’re my brother-in-law, huh,” I commented, looking him up and down again.

“You sure about that; Jharmeen did spend quite a lot of the last three years trying to kill me, you know, and when she wasn’t it was Roan. She almost married him…”

I dwindled to a stop then, seeing rising hurt and anger turn Phalomir’s green eyes olivine; wiping my hands upon my Sith suit—

Gads. Was I still wearing that old thing?!

--I got to my feet.

“Ok, bro, story time is over. Any idea how the hell we’re going to get out of here and back to… to…

A grimace.

“Er, back to the real world?”

[ 01-28-2004 05:34 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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

“As for that whole brother-in-law thing, do not feel obligated to consider me so. That was in another time, another reality. Since then I have found my life clouded by mystery, conspiracy, and bitter irony. All I’ve wanted to do since discovering my unwitting participation is to bow out of this grand plan, to settle down with the woman I love more than anything, and start again. At every corner something has interfered, and even as I finally found the love within her for me, I am snatched away. She was so afraid of falling in love, of losing someone. I promised her I would never leave her on her own…”

Phalomir thought back to the last memories of being on board the Sith ship. What had happened, exactly? A faraway look crossed his eyes as he spoke.

“Jasyn and I were looking in the storeroom. We had come out of hyperspace too soon, and instead of the Korriban system – where we think you were – we ended up in the Corona Novadis system, just as the sun went nova. It was all caused by someone, probably Aelvedaar. You sister used the All to place a shield around us while we waited out the blast. In the storeroom, looking for food, I came across a bomb just about to go off. I wrapped my magick around it and contained the blast, but…”

He grabbed at his chest, feeling a memory of the fire.

“Something was not right. It was more than just a fire, much more. There was something else in that blast, something sinister, like a presence, and it tried to… to… take me. I fought it as best I could, keeping it trapped inside a shell of magick, pouring every ounce of will into it. Then Shayla found me and took the fire away, freeing me of the pain. Like an idiot, I was so relieved that I dropped the magick, allowing the presence to escape… I had no memory of it until just now.”

He eyes snapped wide open and stared directly into Galen’s.

“The presence! It has my lady! That must be it, that is what has happened! She was suddenly very cold to me, uncaring. When I studied her eyes I was reminded of a time when I faced demons from the Black River…”

Phalomir saw the blank look on Galen’s face. He took a moment to relate the story of his father taking him the Black Canyon, the meeting of the oily man-thing, and the coming into his innate abilities.

“It was that look in her eyes that reminded me of the tar man. I used an ability I possess to send my consciousness out of my body, free to roam without physical limitations. I sent myself into her quarters to ascertain if my suspicions were founded, and she saw me. She used the Claw to send me here. I must get back to her, I promised her that nothing would take her away from me…”

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

“Buddy, I’m afraid you’re in for a rude awakening,” I replied, placing my hands on my hips and widening my stance a bit. “Because sure as there’s treasure on Roon it looks like somebody already has, doesn’t it?”

Further thought along that line and my forehead wrinkled in a scowl. Unthinking, I stepped out from where I was standing next to the weird non-rock and started pacing, letting my peripheral vision work for me so I wouldn’t smack into Phalomir while moving restlessly about the confined space we were in.

“Ok, I can accept the fact that it might be that Aelvedaar guy behind all this; like I said, I never really trusted him.”

Flashback to a buried, ancient and very empty city on a world completely unknown to the galaxy….

“He always seemed so… apathetic, or something, easy to give in, I dunno. Something just didn’t jive with how I remember him acting in accordance to the situation everyone was in at the time.”

I shook my head again and paused, turning to face Phalomir again. His green eyes seemed to somehow glow eerily from the shadows in which he was standing; I shuddered a little bit—

What is it with the eyes of these Sith?

--and went on.

“All that aside though, I really can see him behind all this, or at least having his fingers deep into the pie. But what I don’t understand is how R—Roan is yet involved.”

A pause. A gulp. A strengthening of suddenly shaky voice.

“You said you killed him some time ago, yet I am positive he was up there.”

I waved a hand toward the ceiling, then with a grimace stopped in mid-wave.

“Er—out there, up there. Up where I was camping with Rhua—“

Another pause as yet another tangential thought arrowed home: Rhua. Is he ok? Did he manage to evade Roan, or was he in on all this somehow? No, that made no sense at all; think ol’ girl, think…

I gave my head a fractional shake, then sent an inquiring gaze upward into Phalomir’s eyes.

“How could Roan have chased me here if you killed him like you said you did?”

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

He looked up sharply at Galen.

“And I would be grateful for the chance to kill him again. Villainous scum such as he does not even deserve to live in Hell. And soon Aelvedaar will join him in oblivion. Jhameen…”

He squeezed the rock in his hand, the strength in his fingers pressuring the weird stone. Instead of bursting, the rock oozed out between Phalomir’s fingers. He looked down in disgust and dropped the stone onto the cave floor where it slowly reformed into its original shape.

“Yes, she has been taken away. All I can do now is try to get back to her and free her from whatever evil has taken her. I believe the best place to start is to find this valley you spoke of. Have any clues as to where it might be?”

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

“Weren’t you listening, Phal ol’ buddy?” I said, the rueful tone of my voice softening what might easily be mistaken for a snipe.

“Not only do I not know where that valley is, I don’t know where we are. As far as I know, it could be right outside that entrance—“

Pause to point toward the mysteriously blocked opening to our little sanctuary.

“—or on the other side of—of—well, wherever we are.”

Frowning, I crossed my arms and started leaning back against the weird rock; it was then that I noticed the gelatinous oozing of the rock Phalomir held in his hands. Putting a foot behind me to balance, I jerked back upright, the army of geese beginning to march up and down my back once more.

Pushing away the shudders trailing on the wings of those geese I started moving around the cave. I had first thought that it was a simple chamber; however, its farthest recesses were hidden in shadows inkier than night. I crept up to the very edge of a particularly oily looking shadow, and peered off into that darkness.

“Hey, Phal,” I said, craning my head and squinting. I turned to him then.

“Ya think this might go anywhere? I mean, ya think there might not be a back wall to this hole in the rock we’re in? ‘Cuz if not, in order to get outta here we’re gonna have to fight off the madding crowd outside, ya know…”

With that I fell silent, turning around to peer hopefully into the shadows at the back of the cave once again.

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

“I doubt the crowd outside will be replete,” he said, “even after such a meal. If this cave indeed leads somewhere, then we should at least explore the possibilities. Let us take a look.”

Phalomir peered into the oily shadow at which Galen was staring. His eyes, normally very good in poor lighting, could not see into the darkness. He called upon his powers and let a trickle of light flow from his palm, casting a beam at the shadows directly in front of him. He aimed the beam at the darker shadow.

A loud screech blasted from the shadow, taking Phalomir by surprise. He inadvertently increased the energy flowing from his hand, and the light intensified. The shadow seemed to wrinkle and contract, and a pair of glowing red eyes appeared from the center of the darkness, beaming back at Phalomir with an intense hatred. Again the shriek came, and then the entire shadow collapsed backwards, revealing a long tunnel. The shadow flew along the wall of the passageway and disappeared into the darkness beyond, the shriek eventually fading.

Phalomir looked to Galen.

“Yes, it goes somewhere,” he said. “You lead.”

[ 02-01-2004 09:47 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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I bit off the epitaph before I could go on and say anything demeaning to my companion, if such a thing was in fact possible to do, that is.

“Yeah, well… you’ve got my back,” I muttered, then stepped out. It might have been purely my imagination, but there seemed to be a horrific chill in the air right about where the edge of that oily whatever-it-was had lain, hiding the passage now stretching out who knew how far with a cunning that was almost brutal. I shivered, but kept going, one hand grasping instinctively for the blaster I no longer was wearing.

Sheesh, it all just keeps on getting better and better doesn’t it, Galen ol’ girl?

Ahead, the passage twined and writhed through the rock, seeming to change direction even as I watched. The weirdly rubbery outcroppings seemed to elongate, reaching out to snag at our clothing as we—or maybe I should just say I-- crept along. The sound of my footsteps echoed hollowly yet in a strangely muffled manner, as if the strident sound of rock ringing against rock had been somehow wrapped up in cotton wool.

Behind me came the sound of Phalomir’s booted footsteps, a sound that should have been comforting at the very least. Yet not even that could lessen the racing of my heart, nor chase the parading flock of geese from my back, nor entice the tiny hairs on the back of my neck to laying flat once more.

A dimly disturbing sound came from… ahead. I froze, crouching, hand once again flying to nonexistent blaster. My very skin seemed to be trying to crawl altogether from my body…

“Did you hear that?” I whispered, letting one foot slide backward until it struck against the tip of the Sith’s shiny boot. I jumped, clutching myself more tightly.

“I hope you’ve got some more tricks up your sleeve; I think we might be having company….”

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“Keep moving,” he whispered. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Phalomir stepped backwards, a long stride to put more space between him and Galen. He steadied himself and scanned the dark areas above Galen with his keen eyes, keeping the light trained on her. She took a step forward, then another.

The dark shadows directly above Galen moved with lightning speed. Phalomir yelled instinctively and brought his other hand up to bear on the movement, a bright red light blasting from it. The light struck the moving shadow and froze it in mid-motion, a shriek cut off before it began. The shadow fell to the ground in front of Galen, frozen in red plasma.

Phalomir stepped closer to Galen and gently grabbed her shoulders.

“That won’t hold long,” he said. "We should move on."

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“I- uh, I think we should keep going this way,” I stammered as I pushed off and came to a light stand, eyeing the red-encased black thing warily.

“What is that thing, anyway?” I whispered as I inched around it.

“And what in Hell’s Seven Circles did you do to it, anyway? It's-- hey!” I interrupted myself, then letting my mouth drop open in wonderment that I should take so long to come up with the obvious.

"Why don't you use that red-power-thingy you seem to have and zap us the hell out of here? Seems that would be the easiest, now...

"Wouldn't it?"

[ 02-02-2004 12:18 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

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“To be honest, I don’t quite what that red-power-thingy is exactly. I have powers, and one of them is an energy blast like I used on the imps. However, it has never before been that powerful, and I am slightly concerned as to what this means.”

He moved to follow Galen, stepping on top of the red-encased thing on the ground.

“This, however, concerns me more. I placed a shell around it, a containment energy. Again, this is more powerful than what I am used to.”

He stopped on top of the red shell and bounced on it.

“This is quite sturdy. Most interesting.”

He stepped off of the thing and smiled at Galen, his emerald eyes sparkling warmly.

“For now, let’s keep moving. Our friend here was blocking this passage from us, maybe there was a reason beyond just annoyance. If I need to, then I will call up the red-power-thingy.”

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“Yeah—sure,” I finally said, cocking a brow at him. “Just as long as it’s you calling upon it, and not the other way around!”

Muttering to myself about the simple reliability of a blaster, I continued on through the winding and rough-floored passageways, my eyes everywhere looking for shadows that were not such, the geese on my back alert for sneak attacks from behind.

At length the little pool of light we were following, that cast from Phal’s hand like some sort of biological lantern, revealed a dim splotch some distance ahead of the now-straight tunnel. I paused then and pointed.

“Looks like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel after all, er—figuratively speaking, that is.”

I didn’t allow Phal to reply but stepped out, hurrying to get out of our claustrophobic surroundings. While the darkness of the hell which lay without wasn’t really that much more comforting, at least I didn’t feel as if the air about us would suddenly develop teeth and try to swallow us whole.

“It’s about time!” I cried out as finally, blessedly, I burst from the opening that had grown to a proportion to just accommodate my height. Phal would have to stoop, I suppose; and what about those horns….

I froze, then backpedaled madly, slamming into the soft richness of the following Sith’s robes.

“I—I don’t believe it!” I yammered in a deathly whisper, plastered to Phalomir and staring straight ahead into sheer horror.

There, sitting quite calmly upon something that looked like a boulder, was none other than my old nemesis, Dark Lord Roan. He stared at us with turquoise eyes that seemed to veritably glow, his sensual mouth curled in a cross between a snarl and a sneer.

That by itself wasn’t what had sent me recoiling in terror. But—

I gulped, clutching Phal’s robes.

“Terrin—he’s got Terrin!” I choked, burying my face against the awful image still floating in front of my eyes: the image of one great clawed hand holding my husband by the throat, pinning him against the rock like some sort if hapless speciman…

One very much still alive.

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“Lord Roan,” he said. “I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to see you. Is it truly you or are you just a bad memory?”

Phalomir felt the terror and pain inside of Galen. He wrapped his arms around her, shielding her from the scene in front of them. The sneer disappeared and was replaced by a solemn frown. Phal felt the heat rising within him, along with the power of his Sith magick, accompanied by something else he could not quite identify. But the combination felt… good.

“Haven’t you caused her enough pain? What do you want?”

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