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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3434807" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 448: Dark to LightImmediately, reflexes that Marix had drilled into Tobias from a young age reacted. Despite his body’s best efforts to freeze in place through fear, his reflexes took control and threw him to the side. Tobias rolled across the hard, stone floor of the ancient temple, coming up to a knee and looking up through the darkness. He could not longer hold his concentration to use the Force to see, and so was looking at a pitch blackness...with the faintest image of a figure moving.    There was a glint of metal for a half second through the black and something in the Force screamed at Tobias. He did not resist it, and dropped to the floor in a forward roll. At the end of it, he pushed himself up to his feet...coming into contact with something solid. He hit the object, which felt like the body he expected it to be, a full second before he was close enough to see that it was, in fact, Ket Halpak. The much taller Alraxian was glaring down at him with a look of surprise, and in another second, he was on his back with Tobias on top of him, pinning him down as best he could manage.    To the side, a clang of metal...the sword that Halpak had held as it dropped to the stone and, hopefully, out of reach. It was a struggle to hold an Alraxian adult down, especially for a human, but somehow, Tobias was managing it. His knee was dug into the larger being’s stomach, pushing hard enough that too much movement was likely causing a great deal of pain, making it that much easier for him to hold Halpak’s arms down.    “Finish it,” the words were spoken by Halpak. They were no longer just in Tobias’ head and possibly not real. They echoed in the room. Tobias could feel them...the air that was moved by them...something had happened here important and he’d missed it.    Or had he?    It was then that Tobias finally seemed to hear the words that were spoken rather than the sound, itself.     Finish it.    Yes.    That was what he came here to do...to finish it.    When Tobias released Halpak’s left arm to put a hand around the man’s throat...he didn’t notice the struggling had stopped. But when he place his hand around the neck of this evil person who should have already been dead...seconds away from letting his hand morph to form long claws that would end his life...Tobias stopped.    He stared down at the face of this man...seeing the biological evidence of his paternity...in the face shape...things he’d seen in a mirror here in front of him, and now, smiling.    And then, slowly, Tobias stood up. He let out a few long, deep breaths, calming himself from a rage that had been building almost out of no where, then looked down into the darkness to where he knew Ket Halpak was, “I don’t have to finish this the way you want me to. My father finished that a decade ago when you were killed. I can do nothing to harm you now...except for this.”    Tobias took a very short moment to get his bearings, then turned, and walked in the darkness to the corridor that would lead to the exit of the temple. He should have been afraid...terrified, even, but he felt...felt...there wasn’t a word for it. Not in Basic or Alraxian.    Admittedly, it took a great deal of effort for the walk to not become a run. There was still a heavy presence bearing down on him in all directions. A sense of danger...distant but watching. Waiting, even.    “Have they taught you nothing?!”    The voice echoed down the corridor at Tobias, or rather, past him. It took a moment for him to realize just how close the words had been. He spun around, looking into the darkness and, of course, not being able to make out anything. But even in the black, his eyes could detect movement. The slight hint of grey that darted across his vision was accompanied by an almost screaming feeling in the Force.    The air moved next to him, but not before Tobias’ reflexes took a hold of him again and he ducked low. The strike came close enough to him that he was able to see, very clearly, a sharp-clawed hand pass over him. Still crouched low, Tobias naturally looked upwards...and saw two bright silver eyes glaring down at him.    The Force screamed in his head again, and Tobias didn’t fight it, finding himself rising up some and stepping to the side as another claw struck at him. But then, to his surprise, something caught him in the back...hard. He cried out in both shock and pain that was cut off when his face hit the stone wall on the other side of the corridor. Tobias’ head felt light and he had a feeling that, if it wasn’t so black around him, his vision had gone blurry, too.    He managed to stumble back a couple of steps as he reeled from the sudden pain. Tobias lost his footing, then hit the ground hard, his head snapping back and adding another sharp pain to it all. Before his head could stop spinning, a large, very powerful hand wrapped around Tobias’ neck and, through the darkness, a face appeared...Halpak’s face...    “Never turn your back on your enemy,” Halpak hissed at Tobias through sharp fangs.    Tobias could feel the hand being tightened around his neck. He couldn’t even cough, but through the pressure, somehow managed to cry out, “You are...not...my...enemy!”    The pressure stopped.    Ket Halpak stared down at Tobias with a look of shock on his features, but he seemed unable to say anything, or even move. Still not moving, either, Tobias found himself speaking anyway, “You...used me...manipulated me...you killed...thousands...but...but you are dead. You...died before I even knew who you were,” slowly, Tobias found that he was having less and less trouble speaking, “No matter what you do...I am not afraid of you.”    And then he was alone.    Tobias lay there, staring up through the darkness as he lay on his back, head still hurting on both ends. For a few minutes, he didn’t move, unsure of...of...everything. But slowly, as he decided he wasn’t in the best place to sit and think, Tobias crawled up to his feet. His head was spinning still, but with a hand on the wall as before, he started the slow walk to the small light at the end of the corridor.    When he finally stepped out of the Temple, the both Yavin and its star were high in the sky above him. He looked up to the huge gas giant and its star, then back down to the jungle and lake in front of him. It was all slightly out of focus and he couldn’t help but notice that none of it was sitting very still, either.    “Tobias.”    For a very short moment, Tobias thought it was Halpak again. But then he managed to identify both the voice and its direction, and slowly turned to see the blurry form of Master Ral standing only a few paces away. But the movement made Tobias’ head spin even more, and he finally lost his balance completely.  He failed at an attempt to catch himself but, by the time he hit the ground, the blood loss had been too much for him and Tobias finally blacked out.((Well, you guys beat me. I've been working on a series of sketches for all of you who keep reading this...headshots of every single cast member through this story. The plan was to have them done by the time this thread reached 20k views...and...well...you beat me.So now that you guys were too fast for me, I guess I'll have to work even faster. So far, three pages are sketched, with about 20 people on them so far. Another page is half done, and one is completely finished, even with colour. Soon...I shall post them. Will try to get an order of appearance thing going, but they are a bit random in the groupings.))</blockquote>

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