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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1927103" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 104: Save Me Once...Save Me Twice...Shadow took a few careful steps back, eyeing this...this...thing that was approaching her. It wasn’t Landau. It couldn’t be. It was some beast that had stolen his likeness. A familiar face grafted onto a horrible body. This hulking beast could never have even resembled the man who had been her friend. Yet Shadow still felt it was Landau. Despite everything she tried to convince herself of, this beast was Landau. The dead friend brought back as a disgusting monstrosity. Though this had the chance of revealing the origin of the creatures which fought against the Topsiders outside, Shadow didn’t think of it. Instead, her mind raced about what to do.    It had been ordered to kill her and was looking intent on following through with this. The obvious course of action was to defend herself and defeat her enemy. Yet...yet it was Landau. How could she kill him? Fight him even? He had been the one human who she’d learned to trust, possibly even care about, since the death of Max so many years before. It had been so long that she’d nearly forgotten it. And then her thoughts crashed into reality. Or rather, reality crashed into her.    This came in the form of Landau’s fist. One of the four arms of that thing hit Shadow hard across the face, sending Shadow skidding across the well polished floor of the chamber. With only her natural instincts guiding her at this point, Shadow got to her feet the second after her body had stopped moving. Landau was already upon her again, reaching in for another heavy strike. This time, Shadow wasn’t there to be hit. She ducked low under the strike, then spun to the side and jumped back, looking to Landau with a pleading look on her face.    “Please don’t do this...” Shadow said quietly, not even realizing that she was speaking her thoughts aloud. Of course, this wasn’t the only thing she had lost focus on. Her attention was on this Landau-thing, and even Jen and the robed Sadrak were no longer within her attention. It was as if they were all in a different world entirely as Shadow tried to figure out what to do.    But no answer came from Landau. He only approached again. This time much faster, and dove in swinging three of his four arms. Shadow had trouble dodging, but managed to get back and out of his reach in an awkward series of rolling and twisting. Her body was moving without even attempting to ask the brain what to do. This was because the brain was lost. She couldn’t kill a friend. It was unthinkable. No matter how much training she had gone through, Shadow couldn’t kill someone like Landau. He was a good human...a friend...and...and he should be dead from what they had been told. Jen had killed him. Shot him in the stomach. Yet there was no blaster mark on this creature’s twisted body. Only that haunting face. Closing in...getting ready for another strike at Shadow and obviously taking advantage of her indecisiveness.    And then something else happened that Shadow had not expected. She had quieted the link between herself and Akan to make it easier to focus on what she was doing. It wasn’t gone, but just weakened slightly so that all those surface thoughts and other things wouldn’t pass through and distract either of them. But the link suddenly came back, flowing in like an ocean crashing through a weak dam. In only a second, a thousand thoughts and images raced back and forth between Shadow and Akan. Just as these did, Shadow felt a sudden, extremely sharp and vivid pain in her right hand. For a panicked half second, she thought she’d lost her hand and tried to remorph it. That action soon proved impossible, as her hand was still there. Yet...yet...pain! So much pain, and it didn’t feel like a phantom pain that usually flowed through the link. It was so real...so...    Shadow’s thoughts were cut short again, this time not from the link, but from Landau. Two arms grabbed her shoulders, picked her up, and then through her across the chamber. Shadow hit the ground hard, gripping her right hand and trying to fight back the new pains streaking through her spine from the fall. Again, she slid across the floor until her body hit the wall. She stopped just in time for another, even more vivid pain wracked her body. With her mind still racing to understand why her hand was so pained, Shadow suddenly felt a stabbing pain through her back, then up through her chest. Involuntarily, Shadow let out a loud cry of pain. Her eyes closed for a half second before she looked down for the reason for the pain. No wounds. Nothing. No...hand was still there. Chest was still in one piece...yet it hurt. So much. Like...like...and then she traced it back to Akan. This wasn’t a conscious effort, but occurred because of a feeling that ran through the link. Shadow saw Akan’s vision of...children?! What the hell kind of thing was he doing?! Akan was nearly dead and the damn idiot was seeing kids!    Another pain shot through Shadow’s body, and she immediately knew its source. Again, it was Akan. The direct pain from whatever it was in his chest was suddenly pulled away, but not without one last horrible damage. Her second heart suddenly felt a violent pain and nearly stopped in the process. He’d lost his second heart...hand...and there was still a phantom pain from his chest. And his mind was fading...Shadow connected these and forced herself to ignore the pain. Eyes opening just in time to see Landau reaching down for her again, Shadow started moving. With the speed only desperation could provide, Shadow ran. She ran past Landau. She ran out of that chamber. She ran through the corridors that led to the exit of this underground maze.    Her mind had locked onto the fading light of Akan, and she just ran to it. Nothing else mattered anymore. Not Jen, or Sadrak, or even what had occurred to Landau. All that mattered to Shadow was Akan. He was dying. In fact, he was already unconscious and slipping away. There were only a precious few moments left before she would follow. And in a flash, Shadow was outside again, getting out those last steps and seeing a sight she’d never imagined.    All across the sands, she saw those creatures. Thankfully, none of them had Landau’s face, and they were all half his size. But still, they sent a pang of remembrance of what was inside...her mind focused through it to the next sight. Bodies. Hundreds of them were littered across the sand, leading to a point where her senses met with the link. Surrounded by a small number of those horrible four armed creatures, Shadow saw Akan. He lay face down in the sand and unmoving, a blood coat of blood around him and over his back. Those around his body had obviously not expected anyone to come from behind, and this gave Shadow an easy approach. The ancient lightsaber of her family was drawn and ignited only a step away from the first of the creatures. They heard the snap-hiss, and spun around just in time for the first to lose its head. Two more fell in one clean, horizontal strike at chest level. Then, as Shadow’s body started to feel the pains of Akan’s fading life, she saw sword swing her direction. It did not shine in the light, and Shadow barely managed to raise her lightsaber in defense.    The metal blade was sliced in half, and Shadow watched the blood-stained blade fall into two clean pieces. That was the sword that had dug into the wound Shadow could see in Akan’s back. The one still leaking a large amount of blood. Her eyes locked with this creature, and a free hand reached out to her left. Her mind had acted without notify the rest of Shadow, and the Force called Akan’s own lightsaber(minus the hand that held it) to Shadow’s free hand. She caught it in mid thrust with her own purple-bladed weapon towards the creature in front of her. As her weapon thrust straight into the upper chest of the thing, a second snap-hiss was followed by a short and swift strike to lop off the thing’s head. Now holding two blades, Shadow made quick work of the two remaining enemies before turning her attention to Akan’s body. The two lightsabers were deactivated and at her side just as she knelt next to the dying Alraxian.    But she didn’t pick him up. He was going to be dead in a matter of seconds, and she would follow. There was no way for her to force a morph on him to stop the bleeding and heal the internal wounds. At least his mind had allowed him to lose consciousness to avoid feeling the pain that Shadow could feel. There was an option. There always was, even if sometimes it meant heavy sacrifices. Last time, she’d given up a life as an individual and much more than Akan still didn’t know about. This time, at least, little would change. It was a good thing he was face down, as it made things much easier and took less time. Her hands came to rest on Akan’s shoulders, and Shadow allowed their bodies to merge. With Akan’s body and mind s subdued and silent, it wasn’t a challenge at all. In fact, it felt strangely good to take back part of herself again. It was odd, though, because she could still feel Akan’s mind. It was faded, distant, and on the brink of nothing.    As Shadow stood up, her body whole for the first time in a long while, she couldn’t believe that it felt wrong. Shouldn’t she feel good being whole again? No, this wasn’t the time. She allowed a part of herself to keep Akan’s mind alive, which was a difficult task as it was trying to do the natural thing and simply merge with hers. While she planned to give him his own body again, if his mind merged with hers, that would be impossible. So she kept him ‘alive’ in a sense that couldn’t be described in Basic. Even Alraxian had trouble detailing what she did, as it was not a common occurrence. Not yet, though. Ignoring the hundreds of creatures that were already converging on her, Shadow started running again. This time, back. Back into the facility below. Back down those corridors. Back to Jen...Sadrak...and Landau. No longer alone this time, though. And despite Akan’s current state, somehow it helped to give Shadow the determination that was needed to deal with what was there. She would fight. There was no other choice. If she didn’t, the thing that Landau had become would kill her. But that wasn’t what bothered her. Akan would die. She was responsible for his life. It wasn’t something she took lightly, and later she would no doubt question the choice of going back to that chamber to deal with Landau...no, not to deal with him. To free him from whatever that bastard Sadrak had done. And then...then Shadow didn’t know. There was too much going on now to think too far ahead anyway. Because of this, she wasn’t even sure that she would live through the day. At least Shadow wasn’t having to explain that to Akan anymore. Whatever was left of his consciousness was lost in other things.</blockquote>

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