freedomliveson

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

A politician for a mother. That must've been an interesting home life. He could envision Aria trying to bludgeon her way through her mothers discipline with rebellion only to be sentenced to her room with sharp rhetoric. It was amusing, which was a welcome distraction from the incessant inferno. And to see, no, to feel how much Aria cared for her mother was touching(it was hard to hide emotion from a Jedi, especially one who was emotional himself). When she directed the conversation back to him, he answered:
"Oh man, I've thought about this a lot. I got it narrowed down to two choices: a professor at a university on Coruscant or something related to the SIS. Always was a sucker for spy books." He chuckled.
"Honestly, there are times where being a fisherman on Alderaan sounds wonderful. Just anything to get away from all this." He shifted his back on the trunk to make sure his lower back didn't fall asleep. Cause that's what he would need right now.
"And I'm sorry about your mother. Be happy you got to know her, though. The Jedi aren't very accommodating when it comes to informing us about our parents. It was a miracle that Lysa and I weren't separated, to be honest. Normally they don't let siblings train together." He cleared his throat, fully aware the subject of Lysa might still prove to be a bit...awkward. Sometime soon they would clear the air about Lysa permanently, but now wouldn't be the time.

Speaking of time...

"We should probably keep moving."

-------

And that they did, but not for as long as Yerbol expected. The duo had trekked another few hundred yards when they encountered an extremely tall rock face that jutted into the air in an endless ascension. There was an entrance in the wall, a square portal that led into a dark recess reminiscent of the tombs of Korriban. Enshrined above the doorway was the carving of a light saber blade pointed to the earth. On the blade was an inscription that Yerbol had read aloud:

"The final path. Ascend, conquer, overcome and you will be a member of the reverered Order."

There was a chill coming from the entrance, wafting invitingly towards the duo. Of course, there were some negative connotations with the cold, but at least they could fight spindly corpse looking monstrosities. Couldn't fight a volcano.

The Knight looked to Aria with a nod.
"Let's go become true Sith."

Promises left on the sand(megatrash/freedom)

"Gotta have faith." He smiled back, watching her eyes close. Justin wanted desperately to do the same, but what he had seen on their excursion here was so mindblowing, so utterly shocking that the memories danced in front of his eyes repeatedly, reminding him that there was a small group of humanity that had purposefully hid themselves from the rest of their kind so that they could save themselves. He sat on the ground, knees up. Scratching, clawing, biting their way through existence only to fall by the wayside, hoping that the generation afterward would have it better. Cowards. All of them. Bloody cowards. He could hear Ryken's voice bouncing around his skull, booming:
"Never lose faith in humanity. He never did, even after they nailed Him on a cross. He kept believing that they were worth saving."

"No, they weren't, Ryk. Never have been." His hands balled into fists, knuckles turning white, teeth grinding. He wanted to shriek, feel his soul rip out of his lungs, leave this sick, twisted world. His eyes darted from the ceiling of the cell to the wall across from him to Cam who-

Who was sleeping so peacefully.

His fists uncurled. Her ebony hair rose and fell gently with her upper body, lips slightly open. If she knew he was gawking at her while she slept, Cam would have more than likely voiced her utter disdain, but thankfully she wasn't aware of what was going on. He moved closer to the bars separating the duo. She was peaceful, more peaceful than he had seen her since they had met. And he would admit to himself that she was indeed a very beautiful woman. He laughed lightly at what Cam would have thought of THAT sentiment. She was modest, pragmatic and pretty jaded when it came to men, so maybe she would shirk the thought...or maybe she would've actually liked hearing it. Probably would've liked hearing it from Smooth soldier-boy Sam.

Oh shut up.

_______________

Justin had managed to close his eyes for what felt like a brief period of time when he was awoken by a clutter of voices echoing towards them. He opened his eyes to find a rather tall, reedy man looming in front of their cells flanked by two women, one with greyish-white hair...
"Why am I not surprised?" He snorted a laugh as Avery shook her head.
"The deceit was a necessary one. We needed a better plan to attack Omega and you both delivered it splendidly." He cocked a brow.
"So those tribespeople...earth mother and all that-"
"We exploited their weaknesses. They needed food and water and we needed a number of settlements out of the way, Omega being foremost." He rose from his seated position, jaw clenched.
"Made innocent people mercenaries." Avery uttered a deep, throaty laugh.
"Innocent? They were cannibals. You should be thanking us. If it wasn't for us, your people would have eventually become food sources." The tall man interjected:
"Let's not carry this along any further. We need to have them prepped for genome extraction."
"Genome whatnow?"
"We brought you both here for a very, very specific purpose." The other woman grinned broadly.
"You two will do nicely for the next batch of experiments."

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

"Even if they had known, do you honestly think they would've told us?!" Yerbol exclaimed angrily, collapsing to a seated position, back against the tree.
"They're not about communicating every little detail, rather let you find out about certain things on their own." He shook his head.
"Sometimes, Aria, sometimes...I don't think this whole 'Jedi Knight' thing was the best choice in the world." He flinched at the thought, but knew that he was giving voice to thoughts that had come through his mind at many a time.
"Using the Force is a gift, yes, but what has it actually done for anyone else? We sit on our pedestals and proclaim that the Way of the Light is true enlightenment, but that doesn't help a Republic trooper staving off a Sandworm on Tattoine or hungry urchins on Nar Shaddaa." Wiping some sweat off his forehead, he continued:
"And you know, you're right, it doesn't seem possible. To use the Force without alignment, but who's to say it can't be done? Who's to say that maybe the way to end this sickening war between Force users is to challenge the very way we think about utilizing the gifts we have." He blew out a sigh.
"I'm getting way too philosophical for the kind of heat we're in." He chuckled, resting his head against the trunk.
"I've never wanted water more than right at this very moment. Never going to take those small water fountains outside the training rooms for granted again." The ground rumbled, spurts of orange red launching itself from the volcanoes in the far horizon, magma careening down the sides.
"Well maybe I'd take this heat over instant death. Thank the Force those volcanoes are over there and not here." He thought for a brief second, due to the luck they've had recently, that a volcano would open up beneath the tree and swallow them alive. At least it would be quick...

Realizing that the heat was scrambling his thoughts, he refocused, eyes closing to center his mind. They just needed to keep moving forward, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. But he had to ask:
"If you didn't have to walk this path, not have to put up with the politics of the Sith academy and the power hungry acolytes...what do you think you'd do with your life?" He smirked.
"You'd be a phenomenal lawyer. You're feisty, intelligent and if you didn't win your case, you could just electrocute the other guy."

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

No worries at all, my friend! Take your time :)

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

He followed Aria outside and went the way opposite from her, scrutinizing the pillars. A few moments later, Aria called out that the text from the pillars were shifting and read the message that Yerbol could now read as well.
"It's a testament to how powerful the Force flows through here. I could think of what both our respective Orders would gain from studying a place like this...the scholars would have a blast." His companion suggested following the coordinates located on the pillars and scavenging as they went, to which he nodded.
"We've gone this far, might as well keep moving ahead." As Yerbol took a couple of steps forward, he chuckled at Aria's tease, but then realized there was something to what she had said.
"I think you may to be onto something. About the energy part, mind you." The Jedi pointed a finger at the ruined pillars.
"How is it that we both were able to read the inscriptions on the pillars, that I managed to read the writing above the hallways in the temple? The Force seems to be working with both of us, irrespective of our alignments. I would think that on a Sith planet I would be immobilized due to the dark energies, but I feel more alert, confident." Another few steps forward.
"Did you ever read up on studies of the Force? I don't mean how to manipulate the Force through Light or Dark channels, but just raw Force..." His right hand twirled in the air until he landed on the right word.
"Power. I came across some things in the Archives, tales of Force wielders that were just that: wielders. They refused to align themselves to the Sith or the Jedi, choosing to walk their own paths. I brought some of this to my Masters attention, who balked at the idea." He chuckled.
"The Masters can be a bit too...traditionalist for my taste at times." Up ahead lay a tree lined path similar to the one they had come across on their initial excursion to the temple, prompting Yerbol's saber hand to go to his belt. Wildlife chirped, buzzed and flitted, but no bursts of cold could be felt, no chilling howl resonated. Maybe those were guardians of the Temple? In any case, he would need to plug the coordinates into a nav unit.

Which he didn't have.

BUT there was a path in front of them.
"Let's keep moving. Here's hoping we can figure out where the makers of these trials are."

____

It was hot. Blindingly, oppressively, bone crushingly hot. Starting off in a dark brown tunic and thick wool pants was a terrible idea.

The trees on the path were less sparse, more shrubbery and grasses dotting the paths. In the farthest distances were plumes of smoke rising from volcanoes that jutted out of the planet's surface, contrasted with mountain peaks capped with heavy layers of snow. They seemed to occupy a valley in between the Temple and whatever lay ahead, said valley now seeming to be set ablaze by the suns. He cursed vehemently, leaning against a tree to get some shade as he dropped his tunic to the ground, a sleeveless off-white t-shirt soaked in sweat. In a violent motion, he ripped the sleeves off, his boulder-like shoulders and impressive arms covered in a slick sheen of sweat.

It was hot.

"Let's...let's stop for a moment, shall we?"

Promises left on the sand(megatrash/freedom)

Never again will my posting delay be that long again, my friend! Sorry for that. I've been roleplaying Star Wars and Witcher stuff, so I've been hardcore sci fi/fantasy for the past couple of weeks and it was difficult to transition back into post-apoc, but I'm good now xD

Promises left on the sand(megatrash/freedom)

He wanted to respond to Cam's question, seeing as he had been thinking along similar lines, but things were so muddled at this point that even if he were able to discuss his thoughts freely, it would just be conjecture. Justin inched closer to her on their shared seat, rotating his wrists against the grain of the ziptie until his right index finger found the back of Cam's hand. Prodding her led to a small smile, the scout muttering:
"At least we're still alive to find out the truth, right?" Thankfully the pilot and co-pilot seemed distracted enough with responding to a squawking voice every few seconds with chatter that Justin couldn't make out over the roaring engine and spinning rotors above them. They would have to be content to see where fate would take them. He hoped that fate would be a lot nicer to them than it had been over the past seventy two hours.

Doubt it.

_________________

He had closed his eyes for what seemed like a flickering moment when he felt the helicopter's legs hit the ground, jarring him out of a restless slumber. Their captors issued them both out of the vehicle, jabbing the ends of their assault rifles into their backs to press them ahead. The sun was beginning to make it's descent, obscured by swirls of puffy white clouds here and there to grant them some relief from not only the heat, but squinting(so they were facing west...). Trudging forward, Justin examined his surroundings warily. The helicopter had landed on a grassy knoll that, as they proceeded down upon, gave way to a tree lined path that featured birds chirping obnoxiously, squirrels skittering about the ground gathering morsels of food, insects buzzing...
"How is this possible?" Wildlife managed to survive the plague that afflicted human sources of food, but those same wells of water and crops that humans relied upon were also counted on by the rest of the animal kingdom. How on earth were they able to survi-

Bubbling. Gurgling.

They were led across a wooden bridge that was built over a stream, the foamy water cascading pleasantly over rocks and dirt, uplifting sediment. Farther along the bank were ducks, geese, all sorts of fowl drinking and swimming, calling to each other.
"Where are we?" Justin turned to one of the guards, who jabbed him along, not responding. His heart raced.
"Just tell me where, please, this is...this is..." Up ahead the trees disappeared, allowing them to see it. Justin's jaw creaked open, surveying the tall, gleaming walls, the wide entrance gate which stood invitingly open, the people visible just beyond, bustling, creating. There were fields next to the walls with crops as tall as he was. Beyond the fields to the east and west were trees ladled with fruit, bursting at the seams. He had to stop, he just had to.
"Move!" Justin turned his head, brow furrowed.
"And you're keeping all this to yourselves? When you could actually be helping humanity dig itself out of extinction?"
"Shut up!" A harder jab this time. The other guard chimed in:
"You'll find out why you've been allowed to see this soon. Taking you to lock up."
"What happens after that?"
"Dunno. Above my pay."

They were escorted around the right side of the wall alongside the fields, stopping at an iron grate that slid open at the behest of a guard mounted on top of that specific section. The air in the corridor was cool and damp, a refreshing change of pace. Walking a bit further, the traditional look of jail cells took over, the duo shoved into separate cells next to each other before commanding them to turn around. Their zipties were cut, but that proved useless being locked away.
"Someone'll be back to get you both."
"When?"
"Dunno. Above my pay."

As their boots clicked down the hall, Justin peeled his shirt off, shooting an apologetic smile to Cam.
"Figure if we're going to be here, might as well as not marinate in my own sweat, right?" He leaned against the rear wall, sighing.
"You doin ok?"

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Thanks! Tried to make it a bit twisty

Yeah, something like that. I leave it in your more than capable hands to set us off in the right direction

Promises left on the sand(megatrash/freedom)

Gah, I'm so sorry for not responding! I've been thinking about a number of directions. Will decide on Sunday and get you a post then :)

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Well, I tried something a little twisty...let me know if you like or dislike.

HA! Those conversations are going to be intriguing xD