Post by Lady Zahra/Jules on Dec 3, 2005 1:05:20 GMT
Joyful Deception
Written by: Kelly (Kyra) and Ranka
[/b]Written by: Kelly (Kyra) and Ranka
Selae had known how to impersonate others for many years. Life with the Ebonclaws had shown her that much. Raviel had created a biosuit to mimic that of Ranka's lost love, Cortana. She didn't know much about the woman, but from the memories she touched in Ranka's mind long ago, she was able to do a decent job. Surely enough time had passed between them as to create a few changes in the redhead to account for small discrepancies. The real problem was the voice. Focusing upon the image of the woman and the man Ranka had become, she tried to pull what them what the voice might have been like. The time when she and Ranka had spoken somewhat cordially, he had reacted to her differently than before. Suspicious, she had read his thoughts and discovered one of the many secrets he had hidden. Selae didn't know the full story, but she did know the woman had left him. Her leaving had ripped a hole through his soul. It was this piece of knowledge that sparked the fire for Selae’s perfect revenge.
Having finished the ensemble, she was ready for anything. The ship sensors alerted her of her approach to the planet she had visited only a few times before. Nem'vaar stood peaceful and quiet in her viewer. "Soon, Nem'vaah, soon I will have my revenge." She disguised her own presence in the Force while beginning the long descent. A satisfied smile was on her face as she couldn't wait to see the face of the great Nem'vaah Master, Ranka Darkbroode.
************
Arael once again desperately tried to get ahold of Tweeto as another wave of contractions moved across her back and abdomen. Damien was in an important council meeting...one that she knew should not be disturbed unless in the gravest of conditions. She had waited for a time hoping the contractions would subside. It was not the first time she thought she was in labor. At least twice, she had been rushed to the medical wing only to discover it was false labor pains. This time it seemed different. The contractions were increasing in frequency and intensity. She closed her eyes and put a hand over her stomach as her other hand braced herself against the wall. "Answer, Tweeto!"
Beep boooreeep.
"Tweeto! Oh, thank the stars I've reached you. It's time."
Bo reeep? The excited sound of chattering was heard in the
comlink.
"Tell Damien I'm on my way to the medical wing."
Waiting until she heard the affirmative, she moved out into the hallway where friends from the Order had gathered to assist her. Damien knew
the chances of him being able to get away immediately in these circumstances might be difficult. For this very reason, some of his padawans were given the task. Though they were not ready for some missions, he had assigned them another one important to him. The birth of his son.
****************
She landed far enough away from the Temple as to not alert him to her presence. Stepping out of the ship, she straightened her clothing and ran a hand through the red hair. Moving her gaze to the Temple standing in the distance, she saw the moonlight framing it against the darkness of the night sky. It was almost as if nature knew what was coming and was setting the perfect setting for her. With determination fueling her, she began the long trek to the massive doors to the Nem'vaah Temple. Selae knew that slipping up in the least, would only result in her death. She would have to be cautious.
It was another night on a world he had come to know as his home. The moon was shining brightly upon the horizon in the sky devoid of all imperfections. All that could be seen was the thick blanket of the dark night casting a constant haze on the ground. Only the pure light of the moon reflected upon the ocean, from which the sound of the waves crashing against the ancient hills could be heard.
The wind was flapping the cape of his coat in a soft, nearly gentle breeze though his hair was shielding his emerald eyes from the world. Even through the comfort of the night, he could not find himself at peace as war was dividing the galaxy not by systems, but by individuals. The force was standing at the very edge of a bottomless pit from which there would be no escape. There the madness of the fall would consume it just as madness had consumed the hearts and minds of those who could feel it.
Turning around, he went back within the old temple of the Nem'vaah, as his thoughts wandered elsewhere. The Nem'vaah Master marched towards the central hall, where the majestic stained glass hovered above his head. The moon filtering through was casting countless stars across the room. These stars soon began to form shapes of unspeakable complexity and beauty. He sat down as his thoughts continued to draw him away from the room. One thing prevented him from falling into the peace the night offered. His voice cut through the quietness of the halls, "There is a disturbance in the force..."
It was then that he could hear the doors to the Temple open and the sound of footsteps echo in the hallway. The redheaded woman's face was half covered by her flame red hair concealing her identity. Her eyes took in the Temple as if seeing an old friend again. Pain leached from her very being as she walked through the halls slowly. Watching her, one would think of a tortured soul walking through the past once again unable to rest.
When the woman reached the hallway where he was standing, she froze in her footsteps as if seeing a ghost. Uneasiness and a sense of relief washed over her features as she saw him. It was Ranka. She said nothing as she just stood there for a long while watching him. So far the biosuit had helped hide her presence as Selae from him. Still she had to focus hard upon maintaining the illusion and trying to act the part of his lost love.
Had his senses left him? Had madness so cruelly overcome his mind that he now was to be haunted by the ghost of his love? He couldn't think
nor speak. Standing as rigid as a statue as the sight of this angel slowly...inevitably brought tears to the Dematri's eyes.
Water he thought. He remembered her promise to him as she was being taken away: to go into a world from which the notion of eternity was different from the Dematris’ own ideals…a place where he might have spent a lifetime living without her as she stood in a timeless space, a perfect world without what made it perfect to her eyes.
Even through the barriers of the dimensions that the force broughtbetween them, their love could not be contained. His angel's love was being brought down upon his entire world as the tears she shed for him, fell as rain upon the temple. For now the sky began to respond to the feelings within his heart as the cloud poured out its contents upon this fateful reunion.
The tear dropped, as did the first drop of rain...
"Co.... Cortana?"
Though still far away, he could sense the tears filling her own eyes as she hesitated for a moment but then took a step towards him. Slowly another step forced her closer as her voice seemed to catch in her throat. When she finally was able to speak his name, it was more of a whisper, but he still could hear it.
"Kel..."
The name was ancient for she plucked it from the well of memories of Kyra's past within these halls with Darius, a long departed Nem’vaah Master. He had always called Ranka by that name…Kel. It seemed almost fitting to call him that again.
The rain beat harder against the stained glass window casting a peculiar shadow upon Ranka's form. The dark shadows where the raindrops fell were etched across his face and fell down it just as the tears fell from his eyes. Selae almost leaped for joy on the inside at the pain she could feel coursing through him.
"It's been...such a long time..."
Too long a time had passed to have remembered the day of their parting clearly. Yet, every moment without her had been another moment suffering in silent agony, another moment dying. In sadness which he could not hide, all he remembered was the pain, the torture, and the nightmares...the love...
For the first time in an eternity, the Nem'vaah simply stood speechless in front of another being. However this was not just any being, but none other then the one for which his cold heart beat once again... Tears came down his cheeks as he cried in silence, yet he wasn't shameful about his own inability to contain his emotions now. Never would another have neglected his feelings in such a time. Thus, he felt no shame.
He walked to her slowly stopping only when there seemed to be no separation between them. His arms pulled her tightly against him, without a word. Instead, he simply wished to hang onto this moment of silence as if to finally realize all of it was not the works of a mere illusion, but a reality. The same prayer he had uttered each day, a prayer for them to be brought back as one, was finally answered. What once was a dream was now becoming reality.
He could not define his emotions. Never had he felt such relief, love, and sorrow. Never had he found a moment of joy in the past millennia without her.
A whisper, so gentle it became nearly inaudible finally escaped his lips. If they had not been so close, she would have heard nothing but a gentle wind, or sigh, escape his mouth.
"I love you..."
*************
Once the meeting had been adjourned, Tweeto came rolling into the room beeping angrily at the other Jedi that passed him. It seemed that the droid was refused to enter the hall and had been held up for the entire time until the meeting had ended. The droid had tried to reach his master by his comlink, but it had been turned off for some reason.
Damien looked up to see Tweeto coming towards him and rose from his seat. “Tweeto. Why are you here and not with Arael? I specifically told you to stay with her in case she ne-“ He was cut off as Tweeto replied in frustrated beeps and whistles. “She is? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Damien grabbed his cloak and pulled it on as he rushed out of the council chambers.
**************
It was hard for Selae to keep on this train of thought. Her own mind
seemed to race with the joy of the reaction she was receiving from him. Never before had this man broken down to the degree that he was at that moment. It just showed that he was a man after all…just as any other...and that he had a weakness. It was this very weakness she was using against him to destroy him. Just as he tried so many times to destroy her, she would turn his emotions against him.
The doppelganger Cortana closed her eyes as she felt the warmth of his body near her. Soft sobs escaped as he held her. One would think that the memories of the past filled her mind...memories of the two being together. Yet, there were no such memories, only an act. A well conceived and planned act too.
Though she hated it, Selae pulled upon the love Kyra had for Kit to fuel her feelings. The woman’s love for Ranka must have been strong to illicit such an emotional response. The arms of the redhead wrapped around Ranka as she laid her head against him. Her voice when she replied was so quiet and tender. "It really is you. I had hoped to find you here but was uncertain. I have been gone for so long. There are times I wish I hadn't left..."
He could tell there was more to what she wanted to say. Selae needed to be given a clue. She only knew the woman had left him behind. What she didn't know were the circumstances or the reason for her leaving. Was it out of anger or something else? She didn't really know how to respond. It was this uncertainty that made things all the more exciting...especially being so close to him. One false move and he could and probably would rip her to shreds to find the truth.
His thoughts were as incoherent as the waves of the sea crashing against the shore from the storm raging outside. Unable to hold his normal demeanor, he found his emotions getting the best of him. So many memories once held back were now flowing as freely as a river. The current was changing with every breath, every heart-beat as she saw the images from ancient times within her own mind. Beyond what her mind or imagination could conceive, she was forced to simply watch as the events of his past unfolded before her. She heard and saw the many Dematri marching in lines, forced into labor at the hands of the
Sith. With the yell of one of the slave, the dark world was being put to flames as the people were slaughtered. Ranka’s father was the first to be killed before his innocent eyes of a child.
The cold chill of Rhen vaar then seemed to be running through her veins as it had been through his own. As his eyes looked upon her, the emerald jewels glistening in the moonlight instantly broke her free from all the nightmares he was reliving. He laid his hand on her cheek, which she took in her palm. Once again, she felt herself being sent back into his mind against her own will.
She was standing in this same room enlightened by the light of day. A younger Ranka was kissing Cortana. As their lips met, she felt herself quickly being pushed into another vortex through time as the violent hiss of lightsabers clashing like the thunderous wrath of the gods erupted around her. The world around her was being plunged into a deepening chaos as if the earth itself was dying, stumbling on itself.
A heart-breaking yell of rage echoed throughout the destructed plains. The voice was one she knew far to well. It belonged to the Nem'vaah. "Nooooooo!!!"
Falling back to the present, the silver haired being was still standing before her. He kissed her hand as she brought her gaze back to his eyes of jade. In their depths, she found herself being transported back in time again to this same nightly environment of the temple. A blue haze was drawn over the perfect face of Cortana as she slapped the Dematri across the face. The burning sensation non-existent as the dimension shifted around them. The doppelganger then found herself at the top of the hill over the ocean, seeing a Ranka she had just seen moments ago, with tears in his eyes. She held his hands tightly before letting him go, and fell towards the shifting waters.
I love you…these words echoed in her mind.
Words couldn't come as the visions flooded her mind. She had lived the pain and suffering he had kept inside. Selae began to understand some of what made him who he was. Yet, many questions still were there to be answered. Why had Cortana slapped him? What was the battle with the lightsabers....finally, and most importantly, what was it that had driven his former love to the point of casting herself into the waters?
Inside, she could feel Kyra deeply responding to the pain Ranka had felt. It wasn't that much different from the pain that she herself had felt. Why was it that he wasn't driven to madness or even the dark side?
Selae could care less about such things. Before her simply was an enemy and this was her time of revenge. She was determined to have it too. Cortana took a step back away from Ranka with a haunted look on her face. Such pain filled her eyes as she shook her head in disbelief.
"That night...I remember now." Her words were a little more confident and filled with anger though her mind still reeled from the visions.
She swallowed hard as if trying to swallow a large stone in her throat. Before she could go too much further, she needed more information. The strain of keeping up the illusion was starting to wear upon her too. The time to move against him would have to be soon, yet she had to hold it out longer. The longer the trickery lasted, the greater the suffering would be. What kept her going was the satisfaction she would have in his rage at her imitation of his one true love...the love he never could get over.
He turned away, as if he was being consumed by an unspeakable guilt. He dared not to look her in the eyes as the memories filled his thoughts. Images simply flew by in the fraction of an instant, forming unrecognizable events as the terrible sound of thunder erupted outside. The vicious light cast itself across the entirety of the room. Ghostly shapes were making their appearances within the light. All eyes were gazing on her within the time the lightning enlightened the temple of its electric light. Their stares were as cold as the Nem'vaah, terrifying under the circumstances she was in. She recognize some well though others simply spoke from another time before hers.
She could see Darius near his ancestor Tamir, which she recognized by the many statues erected in honor of his name. Near them, in the shadows was Exar Kun, whom she had faced in the past, his gaze as judging as the one of the Nem'vaah from which she was spared
for the moment. She could see a man holding a majestic Staff carved in ways impossible to forge and an equally beautiful amulet, which held the darkest of aura around it. Beside him stood a warrior holding a dark sword carved again by apparently the same hands into shapes that seemed to defy the natural order of things.
It is then she saw Devlen, his brother from now which the resemblance was remarkable, holding a Dematrian weapon she well recognized. His features were focused on the true Cortana. The scene, she realized, was being laid out behind the Dematri. She could see the specter tense the muscles in his hand as he slowly pulled the trigger and - ... The light ceased.
"It wasn't your fault Cortana... You cannot know how deeply saddened I am of never having been given a chance to tell how much I am sorry..." came Ranka’s voice through the confusion.
Lightning struck again as he turned around, other shapes being formed from which she did not recognize a soul save one. The same woman she shared the thoughts with, Kyra, was standing behind the Dematri. In a disturbing echo, she was crying out his name.
The expression on the Nem'vaah's face quickly changed as if something more horrible then these events from the past was about the occur. Taking a weapon directly from where the ghost stood, the darkness claimed once more its rightful place within the ancient walls. "Kyra...?"
"Kyra isn't here right now." The creases in the cheek deepened as her lips curled up into a smirk that said it all. She took a step towards him so the next flash of lightning could catch her face completely. Before him he saw the face of Cortana, yet the voice and the previous expression spoke of only one person...Selae.
A deep chuckle rose up from her throat as she watched his face become a flurry of emotions. Seeing the calmness and sorrow fading away, only anger was etched there now. She enjoyed watching the picture of this change in her mind over and over again. It was the moment of recogning now.
"So much sorrow in your life but not nearly enough to teach you a firm lesson. The Sith destroyed your family but left an important part behind...” her cold voice mocked while her eyes narrowed. Selae’s voice then dropped into a more menacing tone. "...You."
Her features lighten again in the next flash of light. "Finally, I have tasted the lips of sorrow of the great Ranka Darkbroode. Can't say I'm that impressed either. Cortana was a fool."
His eyes widened as if he wouldn't allow himself to believe what he
had just heard and seen. Looking at her with his Emerald eyes from which the radiance of hate grew so deep, the usual chill was being replaced by the flames of anger. Burning with hellfire, he plunged ever so deeply into the abyss of torment and deepening hatred for the hypocrisy that damned him to this hell...her.
Her lightsaber sprang to life as she heard the first of many detonations. Without truly knowing what was happening, a series of explosions occurred around her. The old marble shattered into countless shards as in an apocalyptic event she blocked the storm of projectiles thrown at her the best that she could. She began to back away the best she could from the erupting volcano that was the fury of the Dematri until her back was against the wall. She was trapped within the mist of dust from the gunfire.
The menacing sound of a metallic weapon being pulled out of its sheathe
quickly showed that the Nem'vaah had no intentions of playing games with hera any longer. In the darkness, she simply heard the constant
rumbling of the thunder outside, as well as his steps, which echoed so painfully loud in her ears. His very presence seemed to overwhelm the very aura of the temple itself. The usual whisper in his voice changed to an oppressing yell from the resonance of the hall. It was as if the force was screaming the end of things to the imposter. The dark side was filling his every breath as the outraged being approached her.
"So be it Selae... You shredded my heart until now... Until now there is nothing left to destroy. You wished to see what forged my past, then I will show you exactly what you want to see; a tortured and twisted vision from other times!"
A quick reflection from the moonlight came as her only warning as the blade sliced through the air with inhuman ferocity towards her. His yell of rage pierced the silence fueling his attack against her. Acting by instinct she simply ducked and ran for her life as a thin layer of dark metal cut her hair of flames. The metal of the blade sliced through the wall of ancient rock in a sound even more terrible then the raging storm outside.
Escaping the mist, she ran and risked a look back to see an entire section of the wall being thrown against the other, crushing the very structure of the temple. Out of the cloud of dust came the Nem'vaah with his eyes burning of deep flames. Ranka’s anger was boiling through his veins making his steps echo against the torn floor of the cathedral as he walked towards his prey.
As she ran down the hallway, laughter fills it and echoes off of the stone. One would almost think that this was more than just a fight for her life. To Selae this was a dangerous game, but still it was a game.
Bullets had pierced her body in a few places but her robes hid from his
sight the damage. The biosuit offered some protection against the attack, but it wasn't enough to stop the bullets from moving beyond. She rose above the pain using it to fuel her in fighting him. THIS was what she had waited so long for. This was a battle to end all battles. She waved her free hand as she ran and tapestries ripped off of the wall and were flung backwards to try to obscure his view as she made her way towards a series of doors. The lightning flashed only to show him red fabric falling down for when they hit the floor she had disappeared. The hunt was on now.
To be continued in Chapter 4
