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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1983801" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 136: First Date with Destiny - No One Told Me She Had a Twin...They were coming. Dropping down with the feeling of death radiating through the Force. Anger...at...Shadow? Why?! What had she done? No...not just her. It was him. Akan. That was why. He was proof that Shadow was different. Individual. Everything all of them were not. Everything she shouldn’t be. And Nine just stood there. Stood there grinning at...at him. She was looking straight at him, and it was soul wrenching. There was something very wrong about that clone. In her eyes, Akan could see the same dangerous look that Shadow had, but there was more. Much more. This Nine was a very different creature than Shadow was.    But that didn’t matter now. What did matter was that it felt like it was taking an eternity for those clones to reach them and tear them all to pieces. And they would. Akan knew this. But why was it taking so long?! He hadn’t done anything...or...no. The Force. But the Force wasn’t going to matter in a few seconds! Nothing would. These clones were going to kill them! And he was just standing there!! But what could he do?! This was just like what had happened to Mare! And he was just standing around again, not doing a damned thing! Why did he always have to freeze up at times like this? Weren’t Jedi supposed to be able to deal with things like this? But he wasn’t a Jedi...not anymore...but...he was still a soldier. And again, he should have been trained for this kind of thing! And yet they were still falling...still falling and he was still standing there!    They were all about to die, and it was taking an eternity to die. It was taking an eternity and he was being useless through it all. Waiting. Waiting for what?! Why wasn’t anyone else moving or doing anything to stop this? But no...frozen there, slowly moving like the clones that were now only a couple of meters above. He tried to say something to Shadow through the link...but nothing happened. It wasn’t working! Why was everything so...wrong?! So alone...and he couldn’t move...couldn’t do anything...they were all going to die...they were going to kill him. Kill Shadow. Kill them both. And it was his fault. His fault for not acting. For standing there and letting it happen. For not acting! Just like before! Nothing had changed! He was the same! He really hadn’t grown at all!! Why couldn’t he stop acting like such a child?!    The questions rolled on in Akan’s mind, again and again and again. Every second for him, he saw the clones drop a few more centimeters. Closer and closer. More and more the questions drove him to the inevitable breaking point. And when it broke, the Force itself shuddered. It was a literal psychological snapping, the questions and uncertainty driving up the fear, anger, and all the other bottled up emotions within Akan. They had been there for years, waiting. Growing. And then they exploded out. The slowed time reverted itself back to normal in a horrific scene. Akan wasn’t even sure what actually happened. There was a deafening noise resembling a sonic boom but much more primal in some strange way, and then a rush of invisible energy.    Shadow was the only one to actually see what happened, and that was probably because of the link. Just beside her, Akan was standing looking panicked and tortured. Then, out of no where, a violent ripple shot out in all directions from him. The first effect of it was that the floor under Akan collapsed in on itself, violently cracking as the ripple spread. It was the next half second that the ripple caught her, and she held her ground just long enough to see the rest. When it slammed into the falling clones, Shadow knew what was about to happen to her. They were all flung up with an extreme amount of force. That was when she could no longer hold against the force still tearing at her, and Shadow lost her footing. Somehow, she had the clarity, speed, and strength to shield both herself and the Voort’s from the brunt of the wave. It was probably the only thing that kept them alive, because the next thing Shadow knew her spine had cracked from slamming into the glasteel window behind her. Pain wracked through her tail(which hit first), and she was held there for a moment before it faded away. When it faded, Shadow fell face first onto the floor.    There were only two other thud noises. Beside her. The Voorts. While her body tried to ignore the pain, she quickly reached out through the Force. They were alive. Unconscious, but alive. And then she looked up. Most people in that situation would have looked up slowly, trying not to see what was there...but Shadow didn’t. She could feel it, and didn’t fear it. When her eyes took in the carnage, though, even she was shocked by it.    All of the tanks were cracked, with most having huge gaping holes and the bodies within littered with the glasteel. If they weren’t dead already, they were The entire room was stretched slightly in a spherical shape with Akan in the center. Standing there. Standing there and breathing hard. Shadow looked up more. All the way up, it looked the same. The same except for the bodies. The clones that had not been turned to a gooey mess from the force of the...the whatever that was were dug into the walkway grates and even some of the tanks. They were all dead. Dead. And they were only alive because of the link. If not for that, she would probably be a part of that window...and the Voorts...considering how fragile human bodies were, she didn’t want to think about that kind of mess.    Shadow looked down again. She looked past Akan and knew that Nine wasn’t dead. Nine was, however, against a clone inside a cloning tank right behind her. But she wasn’t moving. No...no the leg just moved. Alive...alive...but...but what had just happened?! Slowly getting to her feet, Shadow watched as Akan began to shake before collapsing to the ground. Through the link, he felt odd. Different. Yes, he was exhausted from whatever he had done...but she had a very bad feeling about it all. Maybe he hadn’t been ready for this at all. He should have stayed behind. But now it was too late for that. Now they all had to deal with the consequences.    That’s when Nine laughed. Shadow’s body remorphed though still having phantom pains, she took a few stumbled steps forward. Nine, though, got up without trouble, still laughing and a proud smile on her face. One back on her feet, she dusted herself off and stretched, “An interesting boy. Nearly killed me. I will have to remember that for later, though. I am very sorry, Three, but I can’t kill you right now. I would love to, and I’d especially like to give your little pet a beating but its no fun with him unconscious. Perhaps another time. Ket sends his regards.”    Arrogantly and slowly, Nine walked right up to Shadow, looking down into the younger clones eyes, “I would suggest that you leave this place, Three. Stay in this little corner of the galaxy and do what you will, but stay out of my way. This is only one Marix BlueIce. Remember that.”    Shadow was more stunned at the fact that one of them wasn’t dead from that than she could ever have been at what had occurred with Akan. Nine didn’t kill her. WHY?! And why did she let Nine just walk out like that?! At least the second one had an answer. The answer was in the form of a groan. A groan that was so very familiar that for a moment, she thought it was her own. Shadow made sure of this before finding that I was from behind her. She spun around to see the source.    Kneeling down in center of the first cloning tank, which actually looked different than all of the others, was a figure. Obviously the figure looked like Shadow. In fact, this one wasn’t the same age as the other Alphas. This one was the same age Shadow was. Though she had very long hair, Shadow could tell easily. There was another groan, and then the clone looked over her shoulder to see Shadow. Theirs locked. There were only two differences between them. Shadow’s scar and the other’s long hair...well, and the fact that Shadow was wearing a morphsuit and the other wasn’t wearing anything, but as usual, an Alraxian didn’t take notice of those things. For a long moment, they simply stared at each other. Then...    “You damn life stealer!” the other screamed(in Alraxian, and it was much crueler in that language too) suddenly, diving out of the cracked tank right at Shadow. Claws extended and Shadow was suddenly pinned to the ground, hands around her neck and claws ready to dig in. The attacker was breathing heavily, a snarl on her face and pure hatred in her eyes. A hatred completely unlike that of the other clones.    “Marix!” Shadow gasped the words more than spoke them, and the two silvery purple eyes above her showed surprise.    Around Shadow’s neck, the grip loosened just slightly. Then, her mouth former another snarl and Marix BlueIce growled, shaking Shadow violently, “What have you done to my life?! What have you done to me?!”    “I don’t want your life!” Shadow gasped again, realizing that Marix was going to kill her after that answer. One thought snapped into Shadow’s mind. It might not even work, but she had to try, “Wait! You can’t kill me!!”    That got a very violent growl out of Marix, and her claws started to dig into Shadow’s neck, “Why shouldn’t I kill you, life-stealer?!”    With the claws digging into her neck, Shadow could barely speak. There was no way she could get a sentence out like this. Using every ounce of effort she could, Shadow croaked, “...nothlit...!”    The claws retracted from her neck. A moment later, Marix sat up, looking around the large room quickly. Her eyes locked onto Akan’s body. Locked onto the tail. Her eyes widened before she looked straight back down to Shadow, “How could you come here?! You knew I would kill you!”    “Had to find you!” Shadow said quickly after her neck was remorphed and healed. Her voice calmed, slightly now, “You can...can kill me later. But I had to find you. I had to...”    That kind of honesty was something Marix would never have expected out of a...a clone. And that was obvious in the indescribably surprised look that was on Marix’s face, “What happened here?”    Still laying on her back with Marix right there, Shadow nodded back to Akan, “He did. But...but there’s only two of us left.”    “What is it that you came here for?” Marix said, glaring downward with an impossibly accusing look. If Shadow’s life still wasn’t in such danger, she would have grinned. Marix had the exact same way of getting straight to business so that things would be done with as quickly as possible.    But Shadow also knew that hesitating would be stupid, so she answered quickly, and truthfully, “I just had to. I still don’t know why! You were...I didn’t even know for sure if you were alive. I...I’m not good with words.”    The accusing stare didn’t go away, but Marix did move so that she was no longer pinning Shadow down, “You want me to keep your nothlit alive, don’t you?”    Slowly sitting up and looking the other direction from Marix, Shadow nodded, “What happened to him was an accident. He shouldn’t be punished for my sins.”    On cue, Akan groaned. It was actually more a whimper than a groan, but the fact that he made a noise was all that was important. Quickly, Shadow spun around to look at him. She would have moved over to help him off of his face, but for some reason she was afraid that moving might provoke Marix to...to kill her. To kill the both of them. So she tried something else. [Akan...?]    His arm moved slowly, pushing him over onto his back. [What happened?]    [You...you know how I told you not to bottle up all your emotions...? To let them strengthen you and use them instead of keeping them inside...?]    Akan half sat up, and managed a nod even though his eyes weren’t open. He probably didn’t know that two identical pairs of eyes were watching him. [Uh-huh...]    [Well...you just proved why it’s a bad idea. Listen, we’ll talk about this later. Right now...um...open your eyes.]    Akan opened his eyes. Akan blinked. A lot. He sat up completely and leaned forward, looking like he was trying to focus his eyesight. His mind realized that he wasn’t seeing double, because if he was, the second Shadow would be clothed. That thought caught up with him. Akan yelped(weakly), and went a deep red all over before staring very intently down at the floor. He didn’t see the two other Alraxians exchanged looks. Quietly, Marix asked, “He is always like this?”    “Yes...” Shadow shrugged helplessly, “Marix...is it at all possible to delay what you have to do until after we leave this place and I can tell you everything I know?”    A pause. A long silence. Akan glanced up in that time, realized that the second Shadow was still naked, and quickly turned right back to the floor again. Finally, Marix asked another question, “It is important?”    Shadow just nodded, getting to her feet and walking over to help Akan up. Halfway over to him, she turned around and said to Marix, “You probably should get something to wear or he’s going to be walking into walls.”</blockquote>

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