The Darkness had never left the Msster entirely, he had said so himself...

Stretching out to the globe with one hand, shayla then literally touched the portion of the image which showed the Master, connecting there, searching and seeking until it found something familiar, and something to command. For no matter how much one thinks he or she can control the Darkness, this is never so.

Bring the Son, and kill all the others, it whispered darkly to that of itself which was yet in the Master. Kill them now.

[ 06-11-2007 10:50 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Shayla Stargazer Petrolu ]

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A dark hiss echoed in his mind, an inky blackness that he at once recognized.

You? But you had left me, rooted out by the collapse of the Tower…. How, why?

The command came reverberating through his head, crystal clear and full of power.

Bring the Son, and kill all the others. Kill them now.

The Master cringed, his hand flying to his head to keep it from exploding. He felt his magic welling up as if to cast a spell, and he felt at once powerful and helpless. He glanced again down the hallway at the innocents regarding him, and fought desperately to control his hand as it raised towards them.

He fought harder, but he could not stop the involuntary rise of power within him. A gurgling sound escaped his lips as he fought for the will to hold back the blast readying itself.

“Run…” he whispered, sharply sounding off of the walls. He sucked in a breath and shouted with a fury. “RUN NOW!”

Whether the innocents were able to move, he could not know. He held the power back for a few seconds more but could no longer control the magic. Something dark and powerful forced its will upon him, and he screamed in frustration as the bright blue lightning shot arc after arc into the end of the hallway, filling the air with ozone and dust as rocks crumbled where the blast struck.

I began to ascend the steps up into the temple.

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"I don't know who we can trust but each--" I began when my words were nipped rather abruptly in the bud as Phalomir's daddykins put in his appearance. I froze, squinting a little as I peered into the darkness; was he raising a hand in greeting?

It seemed like he was trying to get our attention; what the blazes--

"Run now..."

The words impacted even as the hand I thought was raised in greeting proved itself otherwise. Well, actually, I'm not into precognition or anything, but there was something rather sinister about how he just stopped where he was and hollered that out to us.

I didn't stop to think about it in a committee; nor did I ponder on what the true purpose of that raised hand could possibly be. All I knew, quite suddenly and absolutely, was that it boded no good; and sure as gandyraks froze in headlights I didn't think we'd be able to run from whatever he was going to do.

"Down!" I screamed, reaching out and slamming Link to the cobbled stones at our feet, belly-slamming myself next to her and then quickly rolling on top of her furry body. I hunched over her, burying my nose in her fur, cradling her head in my arms as I tried to protect her from-- from what?

I didn't wonder long. My unvoiced question was answered as something whizzed and crackled overhead, filling the corridor with radiant electricity, every so often reaching a tendril of itself down to twang me on my leg. But thank the Fates the majority of it went elsewhere; presumably he thought we had taken him at his word and had hot-footed it, trying to escape, and had thus aimed along a plane about a meter or so above the ground.

I bunched myself into Link as hard as I could and prayed he'd not notice that we were laying there like so many granite slugs...

At length the awful discharge ceased, and unnervingly enough, the sound of choked weeping wafted into my ears. Drawing in a shaky breath, I dared to raise my face and squinted down the corridor once more.

There he was, on his knees, head bowed, crying like a baby. But I didn't stay put long enough to wonder why. I just leapt to my feet, my blaster suddenly materialized in my hand, and shot the bastard where he hunched.

He toppled like cordwood; I took a quick gander and discovered my blaster was set to stun. Quickly remedying the fact, I took careful aim once more, but something inside me made me pause.

He had called out for us to run. Was that to warn us, or to herd us? That just didn't seem right...

I wavered, said as much to Aaron from the side of my mouth. "What's your opinion, pal, what's to do now?" I finished, then refocused on the Master again, waiting to drill him and send him to his own Happy Haunting Grounds if he so much as moved one muscle or peeped one little word further.

[ 06-18-2007 11:50 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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...which means a few things to me. He's got a terribly sick sense of humor, he's insane..."

Pausing mid-sentence, Aaron's eyes defocused. He chewed his lip introspectively, as if debating over something in his head. "Or his body is not fully under his own control."

Quieting once more, Aaron frowned, his look darkening. "Phalomir #1 already said that Stargazer was possessed by something..."

His eyes arrowing into the still form of the Master, Aaron finished with, "...what if she's not the only one? He was after all the one proposing to get us out of here back through the Darker Realms."

[ 06-19-2007 04:42 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aaron Barnes ]

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Small, insignificant, weak, being. You were given a gift...

...and you don't even accept it.

Snorting in derision at that, Shayla continued to watch the interplay proceeding. The Darkness within whispered another command to the Master.

Giving the Son will set you free...

...but only when you bring him to me, and finish them...

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The muscles in my jaw tightened then as I clenched them, taking careful aim at the toppled figure.

At least he's out, he won't ever know what hit him... The thought crossed my mind, dragging me into the realms of justification for the taking of another life, when something gave me pause. I slid my eyes down, directly into the widened pair of Link.

She was giving me a look of utter astonishment.

You didn't think I had it in me, did ya, kid? I thought as I pulled back a touch on the trigger... only to...

Stop.

I sighed, let the muzzle lower to the stony floor at our feet.

"I can't do it; if he's under the possession of something, to kill him now would be plain murder," I admitted through clenched teeth. Indeed, that wasn't all that was clenched; I felt like every cell in my body was on edge, ready to act, waiting for the Master to leap to his feet and attack again so my instinctive reaction would be considered self-defense and I could feel good about killing him. But he didn't move; he just remained curled on his side, like some gigantic larva.

I sighed again.

"But we can't just leave him laying there either," I observed. "I mean, if you're correct and something is possessing him, it's clear to me that something wants us dead. So if we leave him he'll only just track us down again. At least this way we know where he is."

I paused, now turning a thoughtful gaze down at the unconscious Sith Lord. Cocking my head a little, I nudged him with the toe of one boot.

"What do you think, Aaron?" I asked.

"Which one do we hand over our lives to? If either?

"Or do you think we stand a ghost's chance in hell of getting away from either one of them... to go where? We are stuck here, and these are the only two with the ability to get us out of here again. Even if--"

I shuddered.

"Even if it's through the Dark Realms again, or whatever they're called."

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Link didn't like the idea of trusting her life to either of the two, not Yaoksi or Aaron. But Phalomir 2.0 and his dad. Looking around for a better option a plan formulated in my mind. Link pulled out two small blocks and took a quick look at the ceiling.
loose but durable... it might work.

"Rather then deciding who to kill or who to turn our life over to wouldn't it be more important to find Phalomir 1.0 and Thea. We can leave these two I'm pretty sure I can collapse the ceiling on these two without killing them."

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...of who to trust. All I do know is that my partner, who would just as soon kiss a womprat than trust a stranger, entrusted the lives of his wife and his adoptive daughter to these people...

...and he died. Only to somehow be brought back to life by them. And I think he might have had something to do with it," Aaron thought aloud, nodding towards the quiet Phalomir. "But that is not our Phalomir, I don't think. And the Phalomir that was ours was going to take us to him," he continued, now indicating the Master.

He sighed again, feeling very uncertain. "But then, what if he wasn't really the real Phalomir either?"

Aaron shrugged, shook his head. "I don't think I answered our question. I just wish that there was some way out of this under our personal control. But I'll give you this, if Terrin, of all people, trusted the Phalomir we came here with, which seems accurate judging from the fact he was at some point with him and others on K'eel Doba...

...well maybe we should too?"

[ 06-19-2007 08:13 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aaron Barnes ]

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"Are you certain you could do that? Collapse the ceiling, and not kill them?" I shot back.

"And are you certain this would hold them? Remember, Phal's dear ol' daddy just got finished shooting more energy toward us than I want to think about; who's to say he wouldn't be able to get himself out from under something as simple as a pile of rocks and rubble?"

I let my eyes slide to Aaron.

"And how do you know that Phalomir is the correct Phalomir? The one Terrin trusted? Has he been with him every waking moment? Always? Continuously?

"No, we don't know for certain; dammit, but everything just got that much more complicated with the discovery of those clones."

I paused, rubbed a weary hand through my hair. Thought of all we'd gone through; wondered how in blazes we were going to get out of this one.

My poor, poor Devil...

I puffed out a breath of air.

"I seriously don't know what to do, but I do know that we've got to do something with him."

I nodded to the still form of the Master.

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Aaron pursed his lips, then frowned. "It's too bad we can't do as much. Without killing him we have no idea what he is capable of if and when he finds us again after we do whatever it is we decide to do to him." Aaron snorted then, his look darkening once more. "And Vader thought he had something to worry about with Luke Skywalker back in the day when he tried to carbon-freeze package him for the Emperor..."

Aaron trailed, pursed his lips. "Hey, what about that freezing unit we saw back there, with the clones...?"

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"That sounds like an idea," I admitted, pausing a moment longer to consider it further.

"At least this way we'll know he won't be able to reanimate himself... but what's to say that whatever it is that might be possessing him won't do it?"

I scratched my head. It was beginning to ache something fierce.

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

Link quickly checked all her equipment and all of it seemed in good working order.

"If we can find one even if its online I'm positive I can get one online. And it would hold them better then the mountain of rocks idea I had. If we can't find another way off this planet we can always unfreeze him later and force him to take us back through the darker realm."

[ 06-19-2007 09:12 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Cel ]

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Rather, his clone. Walking and breathing, but how could this be?

He paused, the pain growing worse. His balance giving way, he allowed his weight to shift so he could fall against the wall. He closed his eyes and turned his back to the wall, breathing deeply to take his mind from the strange pain.

But an even stranger sound brought his mind back. His eyes flashed open, the crackling sound of lightning in the distance rattled in his ears. He began walking towards the sound, quickly, back the way he had come. Without thinking about it he found his feet running, and within a few moments he was breathless and sagging to the wall once again.

But he could hear voices, Aaron and Yaoksi, and the little white furred creature. But no other voice. Thea stirred again in his arms, and he struggled to breath deeply enough to move.

“Y-Yaok--” he stammered, moving around the corner.

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"We've already found an empty storage unit, one that a clone used to occupy. Now, if you could get it working again..."

I nodded encouragingly at her, and lifted my eyes to Aaron. I was just in the process of opening my mouth to say, "Let's get him there as fast as we can!" when who of all people should come staggering around the distant corner but Phalomir, still clutching Thea.

That is to say, one Phalomir...

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He held her up and out from him.

“Please,” he continued. “My side…”

Phalomir then noticed his twin lying on the floor, and the pain grew worse.

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

"Oh, hell," I finally muttered as I holstered my blaster and ran toward the sagging Dark Lord, giving the silent form on the stone floor wide berth as I did so. Coming up to Phalomir I quickly snatched up the still slumbering Thea, then moved back to join the others.

Never once did I let my eyes leave his injured form. For some reason, call me overly cautious, I didn't believe he was as injured as he appeared.

When I regained the imagined safety of my companions I stopped, shifted Thea in my arms, slid my eyes to Aaron for a moment to see if he had anything to offer.

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Phalomir indicated his twin, then noticed the Master lying further on.

“Very strange indeed,” he said. “I do not understand this at all, but you must know that this is a clone. But why is the Master here, and unconscious?”

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He arrowed a suspicious look at the sagging Phalomir then. "Your Father told us to run, then tried to fry us," he responded, casting a side-long glance Yaoksi's way. What happened to you?" he queried, arching a brow. "And how the hell are there two of you here?"

[ 06-19-2007 10:09 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Aaron Barnes ]

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"And furthermore, what I'd like to know is which of the two of you is the real Phalomir, if indeed either one of you is.

"And how you're going to prove it."

I gripped Thea more tightly, and studied the leaning Phalomir from beneath lowering brows.

"You'd better come up with something good, because we've already figured out what to do with your dear ol dad, and won't hesitate to do the same to you."

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“I do not know who the ‘real’ me is,” he said. “I do not know if there is a real me. But I do know that I am, and I am Phalomir. I am the same person as I was years ago, and I remember a full life. There are many questions still unanswered in my past, yes, but I am not controlled by any dark thing. I intend to free my Lady Jharmeen from its influence and hope to return you safely to your friends.”

Phalomir winced then.

“If I can figure out why I am in pain. And what do you intend to do with the Master?”

[ 06-20-2007 09:07 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Phalomir ]

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Phalomir held his side tighter, the pain becoming almost unbearable but trying to not let it show on his face.

“Then I heard the crackle of the lightning again, and had enough of my faculties back to come and investigate. But I see the Master here now, so I do not quite understand what has happened.”

Phalomir looked directly at Aaron.

“I am the real Phalomir – or as close as any of us can know, assuming there is a ‘real’ me. I have been Dark Lord of the Armorers for some time, and can relate to you many adventures with your friends. But trust me or not, we are stuck here until we find a way out of the Elseness and it would do me little good to deceive you. If I wanted you dead or injured, you would have been such long ago.”

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He trailed a moment, frowning, then added, "...I hope. Why would your own clone blast you? After all, I thought clones were supposed to be indentical copies of the original. Is blasting stuff in your way your usual mode of operation as well?"

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"Further, how do you really know you're you? I mean, speaking of SOP, isn't it usual that cloners place memories into their creations? How do we know your memories are the real McCoy?"

I shifted Thea again, squinting slightly as I studied this rendition of Phalomir... be he real or imitation.

Something about what he was saying, about his entire demeanor, was leading me to believe he WAS the real McCoy... but we had to know for a fact.

"Considering what your dear ol' daddykins just did to us, what do you suggest we do with him?"

Without giving him any indication of the fact I casually drew my weapon, juggled Thea a bit as I reduced it's energies to stun once again, and gave the silent form another blast.

Just for good measure.

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