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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1902212" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 90: FearIt was dark. Very dark. So dark, in fact, that the word did not convey the level of darkness correctly. Akan could not even seen the fringe of hair over his face. He could feel the hair resting on his nose and cheek annoyingly, but could not actually see it. Such a negligible distance and he still couldn’t see anything but black. Not even fluctuations in the black like when one closed their eyes. Just black. It was mentally terrifying, yet the sound of movements was helpful. At least they lessened the lonely feelings.    Probably directly across from him, there was a constant, low growling noise. That would be Dark. One. Movement to his...left? Or was the right? Think! Eyes are still looking forward so that’s definitely right. But what is forward when everything’s black? Who cares! Its left for now. Or was it right...? The movement shuffled again. Left. Definitely left.    “Who is that?” he asked to nothing, not even hearing an echo. Instead, his voice sounded so flat that Akan barely recognized it.    “Akan? Where are you?” that was...Jen’s voice. Had to be. There was another sound from behind him, a slow and slightly shaking breathing. That had to be Light. Half of the way to identify this was through the link, though it was almost as strong as with Dark, making it strangely confusing. It had been enough to separate thoughts that were his Dark’s from his own, but at least that was finally settling into one telling of two events...or...two tellings of...no. No. Do not think of that again. Accept and ignore it.    Akan turned to look towards where he thought he heard Jen’s voice. Other than the sound of his feet moving, he couldn’t tell that he had moved at all. Sounding just as disoriented as he felt, Akan said, “Um...here. Not sure where that is but...I’m here.”    “I think I’ve found a wall,” Jen responded after a few moments.    That confused Akan a little more than he already was, “What do you mean, you think you’ve found a wall?”    “It means that I’m not going to walk along this until it stops being a wall and fall on my backside,” Jen said quickly.    That got a short laugh out of Akan, “Right,” he paused, spun around to look towards the quietly breathing noise ‘behind’ him, “Light? You alive?”    “...‘m here...” sounded her answer, which would have been barely audible if not for that awkward way that sounded traveled without traveling.    “Dark?” Akan asked, not needing to but deciding it was worth it anyway. The growling hadn’t stopped, but simply got a little louder. It was probably the best answer he’d get out of her for now. Alright. So from the sound of it, he was in the center of a room that just might have one wall. Great, “Jen, can you keep talking?”    “About what?” she asked idly.    Akan focused on the sound and carefully walked towards her, “Anything. Just don’t stop talking.”    “Um...well...” Jen continued to make sounds like that, but at least it was something. Akan was finding it slightly difficult to walk without seeing his feet, and nearly tripped a couple of times. By the time Jen had started babbling on about nothing in particular, Akan found a something. Walking with his hand out in front of him had been smart, mainly because it meant he didn’t slam into anything and surprise himself. But it soon because obvious that there might have been a better idea.    “...and it was a strange red color. I’m not really sure why it was — mmph! Nn! Mmphff!” Jen’s talking was cut off when Akan’s hand nearly plowed through her. He stopped in surprise at running into something, but for some reason didn’t move his hand from her face. So, muffled, Jen said, “Moo oor and.”    “What?” Akan was even more confused by that, but then his mind caught up and he quickly did as she ordered. Moving his hand. He took a careful step forward and to the left so as not to walk into her, and then reached out again. Akan was relieved when his hand found a cold metal instead of Jen again. There were worse places he could have put his hand than her face, and no matter the excuse about the dark, he knew it would never be something he’d live down.    “What is this?” Jen finally asked, her voice lower as if she was trying to hide her words from Dark.     Akan shrugged. It took him a moment to realize that even he could barely tell he’d done that, and found his voice again, “I don’t know...”    “Face your greatest fears,” Light’s voice surprised Akan, as she’d been so silent that he’d not expected her to say anything else. None of them responded to this, but it wasn’t that they didn’t try. Instead, something seemed to hit them. Not as much a literal hit as a mental one, though just as strong. Jen sank to the floor, her eyes closing but that doing nothing to stop the constant flow of images through her mind. Alderaan. Over and over she watched that holovid of the planet’s destruction. Repeating again and again and again. Endlessly intertwining with flashes of her family, all dead because of that one act. One order. Sometimes, other images would find their way in. Images she didn’t recognize, but equally disturbing. The most common was Landau, with a shocked look on his face. But it was gone as quickly as it had come, and she found that she was clinging to herself to try to shake off the images. Make them go away.    The others had similar experiences, though different enough in each case to be equally tormenting. Light saw the Darkwing, replaying the death of that young child in her hands. She saw what could happen if the Darkwing returned, images that were unimaginable in their grotesque and painful details. She also saw, interestingly enough, all of Dark’s deeds. Watching the slaughter of the hundreds of Topsiders. Dark saw the opposite, all of Light’s actions. It was odd that kindness could hurt someone in such a way, but Dark found herself impossibly trapped in hatred for the things she was seeing that it was impossibly horrible to watch them continue. The images that played through Akan’s mind were nothing new to him. He watched Mare die again and again, just as he replayed in his mind before falling asleep, and just as he dreamed of it nearly every single night. Yet despite all of this, it still haunted him. To make matters worse, he saw happier images of the two of them together, only to be torn apart by watching her X-Wing burst into flames.    How long this lasted, none of them could tell. It could have been only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. When Akan’s view of the world around him returned to the pitch black nothing, he was amazed to find himself relieved. But this was a tactic of breaking that was simple. Allow a brief period for the subjects to recover, and then attack again. How long would they have? Or would he have? From the sounds of it, the others were still seeing things. Growls and curses from Dark’s direction and whimpering noises and soft cries of pain from Light. Next to him, Akan noticed that Jen had found his arm. Her arms clung to him tightly, and her nails dug into the morphsuit and his arm like claws as she wept and tried to force the images away. But Akan noticed that Jen seemed to calm slowly, her grip on his arm loosening but not going away.    It was a few careful moments before he felt something on his shoulder. When he felt his shoulder getting wet, Akan assumed it was Jen’s face. Not sure what to do, he simply sat there and tried to ignore the fact that he wished he had a shoulder to collapse on. When he spoke, he found himself saying words that he didn’t even believe, “Its alright...its over...don’t think about it...”    “Why do this to us?!” Jen asked into his shoulder. Well, more demanding than asking, but the idea was still there. He had been about to say something equally cliched, but there was a rather loud cry from Dark’s direction. That silenced all of them, especially that there was a scratching noise to accompany the newfound silence.    In a forced, and hate-filled voice, Dark said, “Damn you all...I don’t deserve to be with you weak fools!”    “You’re just as vulnerable,” Akan said, not realizing he’d opened his mouth until it was too late.    Surprisingly, Dark didn’t launch at this insult to kill him. Instead, she simply growled dangerously without another word. It was Jen who spoke next, whispering in hopes that only Akan would hear, “They...they should be like you, shouldn’t they?”    “Like me?” Akan asked, raising an eyebrow that no one could see. Distantly, he was still worrying about the lack of anything and wondering if more torture was waiting them in a few minutes or seconds.    “Whole,” Jen clarified. It then made sense to him, and he nodded. Though she couldn’t see it, Jen could feel the movement, so he figured that words were necessary at this point. Or at least, not to Jen.    He only allowed himself a couple of seconds to compose his thoughts before speaking out louder, “You two can’t keep this up.”    Interestingly enough, this got a growl from both Light and Dark, though Light’s was much less intimidating. He tried again, but this time recieved silence as a response. There wasn’t a chance to push the subject, as a moment later the images returned to all of them. This time though, they were more graphic, painful, and forceful. Akan did not handle them as well as he had before. It was not hard to break the mind of someone who was tearing themselves apart on their own. Though intensified for all of them, it seemed to end sooner than before. Seemed to, at least. Still, time was impossible to tell.    Akan found that he was shaking slightly, hating the images burned in his eyes from the back nothing. As they all slowly recovered from the second assault, Jen found herself feeling strange. It was impossible to describe what was strange, but there was something off. Wrong. Different. Still clinging to Akan, she mumbled a few words that didn’t really make any sense even to her.    Somehow, Akan composed himself and forced the shaking to stop. Inside, he was still losing it, but at least he was showing a stronger ‘side’ to help Jen. Quietly, and stuttering slightly while trying to keep his voice steady, Akan said to her, “It’ll be alright...we’ll get out of here...just hold on a little longer...we’ll get out...”    She didn’t respond. But again, there wasn’t much time before they lapsed into the past and the future and the present all at once. Again and again, seemingly endlessly the cycle continued. Each time, the short pause in the anguish took up seemingly less and less time. It was possible that it was the exact same length of time, only they continued to see the images afterwards for longer periods. Either way, it didn’t change the overall effect. How many times this cycle repeated, they didn’t know. Akan had lost count after seven. Jen lost count after nine. Light hadn’t even been counting, just trying to avoid the inevitable truth of needing to merge with her Dark. This fact was becoming even more torturous than the images. To willingly become one with everything that was wrong with her! And to have no choice! NO! There was a choice! She didn’t have to, and she wouldn’t! Light would not have found it ironic or even funny to know that Dark’s thoughts were similar. Dark, however, was only tempted by the power. Half a living being was just that. Half. Akan had proved to her that being whole was easily stronger. But still...that weak Light would only slow her down.    And then, a light appeared. It was from the center of the square room they sat in. Light was not far at all from Akan, and Dark was directly across from her. Jen clung tightly to him still, though she was looking up towards the newfound light. The room was a small box, probably no larger than fifteen by fifteen meters. On Dark’s side, there were deep claw marks along the walls and ground, along with slight hints at blue blood. Light’s side was more simple. She was curled up against the wall, tail flicking around with no traces of movement other than her tail and her shaking body. Akan and Jen were pretty much in similar shape to Light, though they had been lucky enough to have physical proof of not being alone in the room.    Slowly and carefully, they all stood up. Dark was the only one without shaking feet, but that was probably from force of will more than anything. And maybe the fact that her claws were dug into the wall still. Light inched her way closer to Akan and Jen, not liking how close she’d ended up to her Dark. Both Jen and Akan had managed to steady themselves on their feet without too much trouble. Images still flashed through all of their mind’s occasionally, but thankfully they did not have the same powerful effect as before. And then a door opened. The dark robed figure stood there blocking any exit, looking out from the empty looking hood at the mall.    “See...” Akan said shakily to Jen, “Told you we’d get out of here.”    Jen smiled weakly, and then surprised him. It took her a moment, but she stood up on her toes and kissed him gently on the lips. Setting back down on her feet, she said, “Thank you.”    Even if Akan had been given time to figure out what had just happened, he wouldn’t have succeeded. So perhaps it was a good thing that the dark figure stepped away and many of those four armed monstrosities plowed in to drag them off somewhere else. All of them were too weak to fight back, and were easy to pull down the corridors to wherever it was. And then they were dumped into a small, circular room. No. They all weren’t. Only the Alraxians were. Akan had tried to get to his feet to protest this, but the door had slid closed and he simply fell against it and sighed.     Jen was carried back to that large, domed room. When she was dropped to the floor in front of the robed figure, she looked up to try to see some kind of detail. Still none. It was driving her mad. The robes were as black as that room had been!    “You feel that...don’t you?”    Feel what?! Jen would have asked that if she could have found her voice. Somehow, she couldn’t speak, though. Her mouth would barely even open. So she was forced to think on those words. Feel that? Feel what...? Jen did notice that something was odd. Almost a split of sorts within her mind. No, not a split. That was more what Akan and Shadow had experienced. This was fundamentally different on a thousand levels. But there was something...something unique. Yes, unique was the best word for it.    “Soon you will be ready.”    And then, she finally saw into that robe. One arm reached out, and a strange hand extended out from the confines of the black. The hand was three fingered and clawed, with rotting greenish colored flesh covering it. The wrist and hand were so thing that it worried her, and she suddenly started wondering if this really was Sadrak. But if not him, then who was it they’d chased all the way out here?! What was it? She was left with this question when a heavy hand of the Force hit her like a wall, dropping her into the most peaceful black Jen had experienced in what seemed like an eternity.</blockquote>

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