[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/ZzZKBrJ.png[/img][/center] [hr] As the ragtag group of criminals, low lives, and general neer-do-wells reconciled, Jesse relaxed, somewhat at ease as the scum of the earth gathered around him. He leaned back low against the computer terminal, using the barrel of his revolver to keep his head propped up in a somewhat upright position. He frowned as he listened to the others speak. Henri, Taka, Scar, and Call each seemed to have something to say, normal enough, but another voice he couldn't quite put his finger on joined in on the chat. He was almost certain he didn't recognize the voice, and he couldn't really tell where it was coming from. Jesse frowned, tapping lightly at his ear with a free hand while he passively watched the others. [color=brown]"We didn't do anything to him. He did it to himself. Started to go on about 'voices in his head' that drove him mad. He put one of his guns to his head, we tried to stop him and he turned them on Max and me. Jumped us like animals, then his head blew up like a ripe watermelon against concrete, as you can see. The fucking feds weren't lying."[/color] Callum said, recounting the tale in brutal detail. Jesse frowned at this story, and rubbed at the base of his neck nervously. Following Callum's direction, since he was as lost as the others, Jesse jumped aboard the transport. On the thankfully short ride to the location of the artifact, Jesse sighed with frustration. [color=hotpink]"Damn feds. They just send us out to some icy asshole of a planet to get fucked over by some mind-control artifact thingy? Like we're some kinda "Self-Destruction Team"?[/color] He complained, turning a laser cartridge over in his fingers. On their arrival in the cavern, Jesse took note of the bodies scattered across the floor, but paid them little heed. He was far more focused on the artifact, the source of all their trouble. He frowned, looking up and down the pillar on which it was perched. Walking just a few paces in front of Callum, Jesse stumbled back when the artifact assaulted his mind with an onslaught of ringing and light. Jesse felt sheer agony ringing out through his ears, and took it as a cue to push on further. As he approached the artifact, he felt an intensely powerful urge to raise his pistol to his own head -a feeling he had to put all of his effort into as he fell to his knees. On his knees before the artifact, Jesse felt his mind race through images he had tried so hard to forget. It seemed every time he had been hurt took this opportunity to resurface. In amazing clarity, as though being taken back to the moment, he relived the pain. Fifteen lashes across his back. Stabbed in the shoulder. Shot in the knee. Jesse rose up higher. Head smashed through a table. Arm twisted too far back. Broken nose. Jesse was now on his hands and knees. Overdose on stardust. Head smashed through a TV. Shrapnel in his eye. Jesse shakily rose to his feet, and leveled his weapon at the artifact. Somehow even clearer than the others, he was taken back to the moment -the moment she left him. [color=deeppink]"...never want to see you again."[/color] Jesse let out a gurgle of a shout as the last vision hit, sending him back down to his knees. [color=hotpink]"Never want to see you again... Never want to see you again... Never want to see you again..."[/color] He repeated, over and over, hands clawing at his own face before his voice broke, falling into a wheezing, desperate laugh. As the ringing subsided into a steady pulse, Jesse lowered his hands to look back up at the artifact as he stood onto shaky feet. [color=92278f]"Primitive creatures of flesh, bone and blood. Have you come here for death? I brought these you see before you here, ended their fragile existences. I toyed with their thoughts, twisted their speech and deified myself before them. They discovered this artifact, aspired, begged to learn more. I gave them what they seeked, it was too much for simple minds. I absorbed their memories, accumulated their rumination to then cleansed this world of further filth. Now you have come, all of you of ill repute and sin. All of you failed mutations and creations. You stand, now kneel before me."[/color] Spoke the artifact. Jesse frowned, as his cybernetic eye put a highlighted outline around the artifact, and a label reading "Asshole". Breathing heavily, jaw hanging just slightly ajar. [color=hotpink]"Blah blah blah, blah blah. You going to make us kneel, or just try and talk us to death?"[/color] Jesse spoke, dipping down to grab his revolver. In one fluid movement, he took a pivoting step backwards, cocked the revolver, leveled it, and fired a single shot at the artifact. Bloody red light flooded the cavern for just a brief second as the weapon disharged.