Ask [Ithor] London Bridge is Falling Down

[Malou D'Amaris]

Ithor. It was a beautiful planet with its massive jungles and modern floating cities, but today its skies would be painted with ash and fire.

Draugr was leading the main assault elsewhere in the capital, but Malou would not be joining him there. She had been given the task of sneaking around and placing bombs around the city. When the signal was sent, she would be able to remotely detonate them from a safe location. So far things had gone smoothly, and the Mirlukan only had one more bomb to put into place. London Tower. It was essentially the point of all communication for the Capital city, so if the Sith could take it down, Ithor would be severed from the galaxy until emergency commsystems were up and running.

Almost there. The hissing of her lightsaber was dulled as she cut through the blasters of two Ithorians who had come to challenge her. With another two swings, off went their hammerhead-heads. Malou only had her one saber, for now, though the other was on her person, under her armor.

tag: @TWD26

 

[Aran Drast]

Muse
​

So much death had occurred across the galaxy, from the return of the Mandalorians to the attacks on Yavin and beyond. So many lives had been ruined in the conquest of unbridled greed and power. It was ironic that the Sith sought to control the galax by any means, even if it meant being the king of a pile of ash. There could only ever be one true leader in such a system, everyone else was a mere pawn for the person at the top.

Andraste had created the Sith and the Ancient Empire and her family -- his family -- had gone on to rule for hundreds of years, impeding on the galaxy and freedom. Aran was only partially aware of his family's legacy, the name held little meaning in these days, but the truth would always be there. Perhaps if it had not been Alais that had fallen, it would have been another, but the fact would always remain that it was his family that had brought the Sith upon the Galaxy -- it was burden he had to carry.

Aran had been on Ithor preparing for a Shadow's Mission. Clad in his black combat armor and the grey tunic over top, he was prepared for an expedition against the Syndicates, but that battle would not come. Death had arrived in the skies over Ithor, and slowly battles began to rage across the planet -- including this very city.

He couldn't leave them behind, it wasn't the Jedi way. In truth the Shadow had never faced one of his ancestor's creations. He wasn't sure how he felt about the thought of it all. There were doubts and a bubbling anger inside of him, something that caused the force around him to feel uneasy and heavy.

He would follow through the streets of the City, doing his best to track the Sith, but it was mostly a game of catch up. He had not been able to stop her from placing the other bombs, and he would only finally reach the location of her presence as she reached what appeared to be a large tower. His amethyst eyes watched as the figure cut down two Ithorians as they tried to defend their home world.

His hood would drop, showcasing his thick brown hair, with the streaks of white that clung to his front bangs. He had a youthful gaze, one that betrayed his status as a Knight. His deep purple eyes gazed upwards as he watched the woman, his hand reaching for his blade and pulling it from his side. With a click, the blade would snap with a sharp hiss...causing a deep blackish purple color to omit from the sword.

He had come up from the street and would still be approaching from behind -- approximately 20 meters away from where she was. His eyes lowered a bit as he positioned himself in his Form X stance, his knees angled slightly and loose as he placed his blade directly in front of himself. "Hello There..." He calmed himself, all of that anger and anguish seemed to simmer inside, but it would defuse through his legs with a relaxing tingle. He would try his best to not let those fears get the best of him. He was a Jedi not the legacy of his name.

tag: @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

There you are. Malou turned before the man opened his mouth to speak and let his eyes rest upon the vertical slit of red that ran down the front of her helmet. It was hard to hide from a Miralukan.

"Hello." Malou thought about not bothering to respond, but the word just fell out of her mouth. Why was it that opponents would greet one another? She didn't care at all about him other than preventing him from stopping her. Was he going to say, "You don't have to do this!" and ask her to rethink her decision? No... He was in the position to defend. Did he think she would make the first move?

No. Malou simply gathered the Force around her and drew it into her body for the time being.

tag: @TWD26

 

[Aran Drast]

The Jedi may have appeared to be in a defensive stance, but this was merely an act of balancing himself, not employing too much of one or the other. He had expected her to begin the fight, as many Sith would have. But, this was no regular Jedi, the thought of redemption for her did not cross his mind at this point. A Shadow's focus was to match the Sith and bring an end to their darkness.

Form X focused on keeping the feet agile and light, always moving and never extending. If she so thought he would call out to her, she was wrong. Instead he would reach out with his left hand as he pushed forward to close the gap. As she was busy channeling the force, he would clench his hands in hoping to sweep the force from behind her and pull her off her legs and towards the ground. Even if she didn't get pulled forward, it would break the concentration of her channeling of the force. His lightsaber was drawn forward in front of him, his hands loose as he moved towards her -- prepared and probing his attacker. She would feel the turmoil inside of him that was being simmered through his movements.

tag: @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

Malou felt the Force push her from behind, but instead of resisting it she moved with it, using it as a boost to her movement as she too moved forward toward her opponent. She could see the turmoil—the confusion, the uncertainty—in his movements, but he would find no emotion lining her sleeves. Her face was almost completely covered, and the plating of her armor masked the fluidity of her movements. Though she was deeply hurt, the nice thing about growing up as nobility was learning to mask your emotions through thick and thin.

They were standing in the midst of the city no more than fifty meters from a building on several sides. Many of the buildings were already damaged by Sith bombers, so rubble dirtied the ground around them. Concrete chunks, wooden beams, and broken, charred plants. Quickly, Malou used her free hand to grab any piece of rubble in the area no more than a pound and raise it up into the air chest-height with the Force. She stopped moving, staying ten meters from Aran, and sent the pieces his way bit by bit toward his face. They shot towards him, not all at once, creating a series of small projectiles he would need to fend off.

While he was assaulted by small, sharp rocks and bits of buildings, Malou's saber would be held diagonally at her side with a firm grip. If he ran through the rubble before she was finished, she would send it all at him at once and bring up her saber to defend herself.

tag: @TWD26

 

[Aran Drast]

There may have been doubts in his legacy, but there were no doubts in the way he moved -- Form X required the user to be in sync with themselves and the way their body moved, never extending too far one way. As she rolled into his force pull, he had never stopped moving as she came forward, and thus would continue to close the gap.

When she came to a stop and reached out, she did nothing to hide this display, making it clear to the Shadow on what her intentions were. Perhaps she was testing the Knight, musing to see exactly what his skills were. While she had initially been ten meters away, using the time it took to pull the debris into the air, Aran would close onto her, bringing his blade up and angled back, slashing at the debris as it came, never stopping his feet as he moved forward.

As he sliced through the last bit he would have fully closed in on her, his blade rolling in his hand, he would track her, shifting his body if needed to follow any movements she may had tried to do as he cut through the rubble. He'd step forward with his lead foot towards the exposed side of the Sith, his back foot prepared itself in anticipation. He'd aim his blade forward, using the energy and movement to hopefully draw her forward to stretch the blade across her body to meet the defense, if she didn't he'd have a clear strike against her upper shoulder and forearm.

His backfoot curled and was hinting that he would continue to move after the attack. His teeth sneered as his wrist curled. If she moved to fully defend against the strike she'd find that he'd twist his wrists to the side so that the angled down swing would shift into a side posture that would aim directly towards that side's waist. His eyes never left his opponent's body, as he was prepared to disengage and reengage, never attacking or defending for too long.

tag: @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

He had gone through the rubble attacks, so Malou's blade rose up to defend herself. Her left foot slid back to both steady herself and prepare to back up should he get too close. He quickly thrust out his lightsaber toward her left shoulder, but with her foot already prepared to move back, she pulled back her right foot, then left foot again, and made enough space in between them to fall back further than Aran's reach. Heat would rise in her chest as she did this, fiery anger to replace her otherwise calm disposition. Unless he moved to follow her, he wouldn't be close enough to strike.

Both of his hands were on the hilt of his blade which meant his whole body would be extending to reach her. If he tried to follow through to strike at her, he would no longer benefit from a solid stance. Regrdless, Malou would take this opportunity to strike hard and fast against his blade, pushing forward just enough to take control of the situation as hers pushed vertically against the side of his and followed through with her body to force him off balance to the left. Her free hand would cross underneath her extended arm and towards Aran. The heat that had risen in her body from before shot out as fire in a burst of inferno. As she did this, she would continue to push on his saber, pushing down to expose more of his body to the flame.

tag: @TWD26

 

[Aran Drast]

Muse
​

The Sith had good footwork, her steps would draw back, causing Aran's attack to not be in optimal range to land, but he had already prepared himself for his next move, by having his back foot curled and ready to go. He wouldn't continue pushing forward like she might have guessed, but instead would pull back from the engagement by using his back foot to push backwards while he pulled his blade back towards his chest to defend and would release his right hand as he did so.

Since his eyes had never stopped focusing on the Sith, he could see her chest rising up as the force around the pair swelled. Aran's teeth clenched as he raised his right hand close to his side and would call out on the force, pulling a piece of plaster from the right and drawing it inwards. Since he had pulled back, she would have to move forward, allowing time for it to be pulled in towards him. His left wrist would twist to meet the angle of the woman's blade as it came forward as he rooted himself into position.

As the embers from her hand came forward, the plaster would wedge between themselves and her hand which had just raised. As the flames came pouring out they would hit the plaster debris, causing the heat to billow and fan around tit with a heavy intensity. Even he could feel the intensity of the flame from his side of the defense, but she would no doubt feel the flame pushing back against herself, due to the nature of being so close together. Since her saber was engaged with his own and pushing against the blade, and her hand was currently engaging a flame attack, and their closeness -- there would be a near improbable chance of dodging his next move. His defensive plaster would begin to char black with flames, and he would push it forward towards her waist with a violent intensity, hoping to literally impale her through her armor or catch it ablaze, she'd have to disengage, allowing him to pull back more and raise his blade in a defensive stance.

"Your darkness is why you'll fail and die."

tag: @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

The moment the bit of plaster raised from the ground, Malou was ready. Her Sight allowed her to see in 360° all around herself all at once and at every angle. Instead of holding hard against his blade, she would strike it with a heavy hand, hoping again to throw him off balance, then retreat it to her defense. As the piece of plaster came to block his torso, she would drop her hand so that the flame was aimed towards the ground and the Jedi's feet. If it hit the ground rather than his shoes, it would still spread forward and latch onto his clothes and the bottom of his cloak if he did not quickly make space for it.

If he chose to move the plaster to protect his feet, she would rush forward by placing a foot against the plaster and forcing it down. She would stop spraying fire, but the slap of the plaster against the ground would cause the already-exsisting flame to billow towards him like a wave as the plaster crumbled under her feet. Her lightsaber arm would move to defend against an attack of his saber, and push his defense down and away from her body if it came. Her free hand reached forward, fueled by the Force, to deliver a blow to the man's helmeted head with the lower palm of her hand. If it connected, the Force would impact into the helmet and cause the man to fly backwards a few meters. If not, the Force would still push out against him.

If he chose not to move the plaster, she would cease the fire after a few moments. In order for the plaster to have protected him from the fire in the first place, it would have to be orientated with its face towards her. The impact of the plaster would smack against her armor, but it would not impale her as intended. The force of it did cause the plating of her abdomen to crack and push into her under armor, forcing her back a few steps and likely leaving a nasty bruise. The impact would cause the plaster to break into pieces to fall to the ground under her, though before they could, she gripped them through the Force and shot them toward his abdomen as she made space between them. He would need to take the time to quell the fire, which would give her a moment to reorientate herself.

There it was. "Don't preach to me. We'll all die one day," she responded cooly. There was a falter in her voice she couldn't quite rid herself of. Her master's death had been so recent, and here he was speaking of death. Why wouldn't he just leave? If given the chance, she would strike him down, but she didn't have to.

tag: @TWD26

 

[Aran Drast]

Muse​

The Jedi Knight's lightsaber had been engaged in defense with Malaou when he had begun to back up, he could feel her trying to push him off balance as the strike would come towards his blade, and he would lighten his hand a bit, allowing the blade to take the strike as he moved, and use her momentum to help fuel his backpedal. Since he had already been disengaging when he threw the plaster, the hand that aimed down towards the ground would flame the area around where he once stood.

The impact of the plaster would strike her and would begin to crumble, and his eyes never left his target. His saber had already been raised and he would simply angle his blade to cut down the debris that were aimed directly towards his abdomen, just like all trained Jedi had been instructed to do. He could feel the tension in her, the subtle falter of whatever mask she was using to hide her true self behind.

His lightsaber was angled in front of his body, his hand loose and ready, as he moved to the left and backwards. His purple eyes peering deeply at his opponents as he raised his brow. "You aren't listening to my words..." His words were probed at her as he kept his blade ready and defensive. "Your people slaughter millions, and see it as nothing -- a cult of death, who fight for the dreams of another. What has death given you, has it brought any fulfillment to your heart?" His words cut at her through the air of their silent battlefield, as dust and debris swirled around them in the distance.

This world had already been attacked, the very spot they fought in, the two dead Ithorians who laid among the rubble were symbols of this mass form of death that slowly began creeping across the galaxy like a tumor, and what for? In the end this planet was of no real value in the end, the Sith attacked because their core intrinsic value was built on conquest, and without it they'd turn on themselves.

"There is always another way..." These words were true, but it required recognition and acceptance of one's own failings and mistakes. It was something he himself struggled with, it was what made them alive. There is no death, only the force.

tag: @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

While he spoke Malou used her hand to brush off any remaining plaster off of her abdomen. She felt a pang of irritation spark through her as he continued to preach, though she had told him not to. What did he think he would gain from this?

"I don't expect you to understand." She didn't. There was no part of her that had ever wanted to convince Ruzaan to see the way she saw. He wouldn't compromise on his morals, and neither would she. Just as the Jedi across from her wouldn't compromise on his either. So when she said that in response to his questioning, there was no malice or sharp edge in her voice. Just a statement of fact.

Another way? She agreed. "Of course. You can always leave." Her free hand lowered to her thigh as her saber hand prepared her saber angled in front of her. Her hand gripped the waiting saber tightly and pulled it out, then with a snap and a hiss the weapon's bright yellow blade sprang to life. It crackled and flared next to the red one she had already unsheathed.

Malou was going anywhere.

tag: @TWD26

 

[Aran Drast]

Muse
​

The Drast wasn't preaching, it was simply the truth -- whether or not she would choose to accept it was her own failing. Her ignorance was flung in his direction, it was something he knew all too well. All he had was an understanding and the burning embers of what remains of his family's legacy. "My family created your legacy." That was all he said, she should have been able to pick up the rest.

He only needed to see her hand move down towards her saber, and since she didn't move towards him he'd raise his blade and angled it as if he was ready for war. "Then you and your order will die."

tag: @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

Then she and her order would die.

See? Even the Jedi knew peace was a lie.

Something dark began to broil under the surface. No, she reprimanded of herself. She needed a clear head on her shoulders. Rage certainly had its power, but she needed this fight to not be messy. The building she needed to get inside was only twenty-some meters behind her, but she needed to get rid of him first.

Malou took one step back, braced herself, then began to sprint towards him in the direction he had begun to back up in. Just before she got within striking range, she slid over further to her left and attacked from slightly off the front. Her sabers came up and slice down from his right shoulder down to his right hip (her left). Immediately after she would shift back then more to her left, then slice again with both blades diagonally, but coming up from her right to left from his hip to his right shoulder.

tag: @TWD26

 

[Aran Drast]

There could never be peace with those who chose to kill, if he left at that moment -- she would continue on to destroy te city they found themselves in. She wouldn't stop, and that was why she would have to be defeated; to give into unbridled rage in hopes of appeasment, that was the real lie -- Adan knew that. The Jedi Knight had never taken his eyes or blade off from her direction, as she came into a sprint he would angle his body to continue following her. She brought her twin blades towards the direction of his right shoulder and had them angled to cut downwards towards his hip level.

Adan would twist his hands, allowing the blade to flip horizontal and would push upwards so that the flat end and center portion of his blade moved to meet the woman's strike, causing the blade's to snap and hiss as they made contact at the center. Using that momentum he would push the attack upwards, disabling her attack and exposing her before she could try to step back for that horizontal attack. Both of her hands had come down towards him and thus would be pushed upwards momentarily and would need time to quickly readjust.

The Jedi Knight would not waste anytime and instead would drop a hand towards his side, his fingers ready and would twist the saber in his right, causing the saber to swing quickly and precisely into her unarmored left, in aim of severing it completely from her body before bringing his blade back towards a defensive position close to chest. With the snap quick perry, it would be extremely difficult to have her saber come down in time to meet that attack.

tag: @lizziie

 

[Aran Drast]

The Jedi knight's strike quickly moved through her wrist, slicing through the bone and sending it to the ground, and causing that saber to fall. The pain would no doubt hurt and would cause her to stumble backwards from their position. He'd use that time to quickly reach out with his free hand, pushing out with the force to send her flying back into the rubble with a heavy and forceful push, hoping to knock her out of the fight for good.

Since her hand was removed she'd be most likely drawn to the feeling and loss that it caused, to not properly defend herself from it. Whatever plans she had that day were coming to an end here. This had to be done, peace could never be achieved with someone like this.

tag: @lizziie

 

[Malou D'Amaris]

She miscalculated the time it would take for him to turn to meet her advances, so when she struck at him and pulled back to strike again, he was able to throw her off and twist his saber past her own. The familiar smell of burnt flesh entered the air, and it wasn't until her severed hand hit the ground that Malou was aware of what had happened. Before she could react, a push of the Force sent her flying back into the rubble.

My hand. She pulled up her arms to brace her head and became explicitly aware of the missing limb. Shock kept the pain at bay for now, but her heart rate increased exponentially. I need to get out of here. The thought seemed so calm in comparison to the panic settling into her body. She hit the rubble hard, but her armor helped to lessen the blow. Malou stayed still for a few moments, then rose to her feet. I need to leave. Leave the bomb.

She went to grab it from her pocket, only to realize she had no fingers to grab it with. The pain began to rush back to her, and as she threw the device away from her with her other hand, her teeth clenched down in agony. I need to leave! I got three of the four planted.

"Ah!" A quiet, pained sound left her mouth as she stumbled out of the debris and began to make a run for it away from the Jedi. She held her missing hand in her other, doing her best to bite away her pain into her teeth. She did her best not to think of the limb she could no longer feel attached to her body.

// Exit Attempt

 

[Aran Drast]

Aran had never stopped moving from his position after tossing her into the rubble, and would move towards her. She laid in the rubble, and then rise to her feet. She had spent more time trying to reach down towards her side, only to have to switch hands. This meant her saber was out of her hand, and she was completely defenseless at that mere moment.

He'd reach his hand up, his fingers twisting ever so slightly as he would force a heavy set of pressure against her run down armor, twisting against the already bruised portions. His eyes spotted the bomb in her hand and he would send her flying back with another force push as the device went with her.

Even if she had went running away, she was defeated and her true plan had been revealed to the Jedi. He'd turn, taking her lightsaber and strapping it to his belt. He could see the Ithorian Defense team arriving to try and put a stop to the Sith, but he simply shook his head.

"She was trying to place a bomb, move through the city and find if there are others." The Jedi knight would turn to look back, his eyes narrowing slightly as she vanished into the distance. He had prevented the bridge from falling, but there was still much to be done.

tag: @lizziie

//Exit allowed.