Legacy of Tython: Battle in the Gnarls

[Just Matt Now]

The sniper shots rang out, penetrating the hull of the dropship and destroying anything that was underneath. The ship, having already taken damage from Vixur's lightning, was on the fringe of complete annihilation, though to add insult to injury more blaster fire had been shot. The blaster fire, being least effective,seemed useless, the dropship careening off from the sniper fire. The Anzat was able to deflect any fire that threatened his life away with his saber. Jumping off as the ship descended, the Anzat landed not too far from Noster.

The annoyance of his destroyed dropship was overlooked by the taunting of the Jedi. Their first victory in the short fight and they get overconfident. Vixur landed in time to hear the zeltron Jedi, "Got to keep up, Sith," then immediately after heeding his snarling comrades order.

Vixur smiled before engaging the muscles in his legs with the force, taking off in the same direction as Noster. The Anzat, as well, now a blur of the forest. To cover their escape, the remaining Imperial soldiers took aim, and fired at the Jedi, concentrating on allowing their Sith leaders to get away. As Vixur ran, he checked his pack, the toxins were still with him. His movements were quick, he and Noster running side by side through the thick forest that would impede the path of any normal soldiers. His reactions were just as quick and amplified by the force.

Moments passed, and the two Sith would find themselves at the river. Their task would soon be completed, their arrival much before the Jedi could manage if they decided to chase them. Though if they did manage to follow them directly, the chase would have taken much longer to reach the river.

 

[Rom]

Alistair landed with a grunt in the center of four Imperial Soldiers, looking menacing in their armor and glaring down at him with blasters raised. "Surrender, Jedi scum!"

Alistair merely looked up at them silently, his saber held loosely in one hand while his eyes grew wide and his lower lip trembled, making him look for all the world like a harmless family pet begging for attention. He reached out with his mind and brushed against Von's shield, sending a simple message 'Go on ahead, I'll catch up once I've handled these poodoo heads.' The padawan struggled not to fall flat on his face as one of the Soldiers, a woman judging by the shape of her chest piece, actually let out an, "Aww... look at him." before looking out and making eye contact with his fellow Padawan.

Blue met blue and he smiled slightly before calling out, "Remember the forest on Teta, Von. Follow those Sith, I'll join you when I can." And with those words the Padawan launched into action, telekinetically activating the switch for his dual-phase saber and jumping out, spinning in an arc with his now 6ft long blade extended out from his body at neck level with the stormtroopers ringed around him. four heads hit the mud followed by their twitching corpses and it took all the Kushiban had not to throw up all over himself as he ran forward, the greatsword pointing back and over his shoulder as he ran towards the second group who were firing after the Zeltronian as she vanished into the woods. The long gold blade flicked out once, twice, thrice and the other soldiers fell without a sound to the ground.

Again the Kushiban pushed away the urge to vomit, the Padawan nearly gave in to the overwhelming desire to lay down and rest for a moment after his exertions, but he could feel his fellow Padawan racing alone across the forest hot on the heels of the Sith, and he knew that he could not leave her alone with those two monsters. Alistair silently deactivated the saber and clipped it into place before dropping onto all fours and disappearing in a golden blur, leaving afterimages as he practically flew across the ground towards the two dark energy auras and the one light one standing in fierce response. This run through the Force wouldnt take long, and he would arrive less than a moment after Von did.... he could only hope that she would sense him coming and wait, his bright aura pulsing and beaming like a beacon as he fell deeper into the Art of Movement, using his force attuned senses to figure out the fastest path forward.

"Hang on Von, I am coming right behind ya!"

 

[The Kyzer]

Caught in the throes of her dilemma, Von's eyes darted back and forth between the fleeing Sith and her endangered comrade. She easily blocked the few shots that were sent in her direction as she contemplated her next action.

Go on ahead, I'll catch up once I've handled these poodoo heads.

Von was a bit startled by the Kushiban's telepathic message, but she managed to keep it from showing on her face. After sending another telepathic-empathy acknowledgement, Von turned to give chase to the Sith. Deactivating and clipping her lightsaber back on her belt, Von breathed in deeply, drawing on the Force, before launching into the jungle after the Sith.

The Sith were fast, but so was Von. She heard Alistair's quip about the forest training on Teta, and smirked slightly. Rising up, Von took to the trees. True, she lost a little ground, but she strove to make it up by twirling through the branches. She thanked Master Ashara's teachings as the Padawan immersed herself in the Force. The branches seemed to create a pathway to Von's eyes as she wove between the branches, leaping at times over twenty foot gaps just to grab a single handhold to swing up another few meters before dashing onward.

Von could feel her old training kick in as the Sith were but prey to be hunted. Pushing herself to the limit, Von was a blur of movement. Reaching with her mind's eye, she located the twin dark figures in the Force, and realized that they weren't even remotely attempting to conceal themselves. This could only mean one of two things: A)They thought the Padawans to be too far beneath them in skill and power to worry about or B)they planned a trap. Von decided to go with option B as it was a much more likely and safer choice.

Alright then, she thought, I guess I'll just have to spring the trap.

The Zeltron-hybrid sensed out the river ahead, a powerful stream of water that was truly alive in the Force. Just to be safe, Von sent a new tele-empathic message to Alistair, broadcasting a feeling of wariness in his direction to warn him of a possible trap. Then she elevated herself higher in the trees, sometimes standing on the tips of their trunks at times. If she looked down, Von would see that she was at least twenty-five to thirty meters up, but she didn't need to. The Force told her the distance, and soothed the fear of heights away before it had a chance to take hold.

Once she reached the point where the trees met the river, Von leaped out and above the water, prepared to descend upon the Sith like a Drayberian hawk swoops down upon its prey.

 

[Butler]

In his element, the hunted was in fact the hunter. As he ran, he began to fall behind; ever so subtly drifting back behind Vixur only by inches at a time. Like beacons, clear spells of stained red drops in a pool of white, these two could not be lost. By design they were followed, followed away from soldiers and troopers alike. Events couldn't be playing out better for these two Sith. And Noster knew exactly how to gain an even greater advantage on Vixur's behalf.

Noster vanished...

Suddenly the branches upon which Von landed snapped just as she landed onto it, with precise timing for her to fall twenty-five meters; Noster suddenly present below to the right. He did not wait to see what happened. He darted back into a run, and vanished again.

When the Jedi reached the river bed, wide and raging towards a more rocky and shallow fall to the left, Noster would not be there. Not yet. Not in front of them. It was here that their mission would come to fruition. Here was the widest river that fed into the larger ocean, branching out into nearly all continents. Here was a shatterpoint for the world of Tython, a center for both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Here, the waters that nourished and began the great cycle would turn on itself and this bountiful arboreal. Here, poison would take and infect all that was once bright and decay a land that was burdened by the Jedi who chained it to their fate. Their loss would be shared, felt by the Force on such a grand scale as to wound any who would empathize with its pain. The Jedi would feel shame, they would hurt for their loss this day and for as long as Tython lasted in its perversion. And Vixur, and Noster, would be names long remembered by every Jedi who knew these lands once beautiful and lush. For the mark of the Sith would brand their victory into life itself.

Witness pain.

 

[Just Matt Now]

Vixur and Noster were one in the same. Each one of their thoughts, their actions, played out in order to aid the other. Their mission was set forth to them, and they both had acted solely towards that objective, their focus only slightly taken away by the defending Jedi. The Anzat stood at the riverbed, feeling out all of the players, Jedi and Sith alike, until he could no longer feel Nosters presence. He knew that the Imperial soldiers would die, their sacrifice was important however. They needed to die in order for the objective to be complete, unfortunately they could not use the dropship as a means for transportation, they would not be able to follow the force sensitives through the forest alone. Therefore the Jedi's destruction of them had to have been planned.

This left the other Jedi to fall to the trap. Nosters presence vanishing in thin air, not even a war brother able to feel him out. Though it was no matter, his actions done to let Vixur continue on his mission. Running along the riverbed, using the force to strengthen his muscles and make him as if he were a blur. The running water right beside him, the sound of the river growing louder and louder until the edge was seen...

The Anzat raced to the waterfall, the waves crashing beneath loud enough to muffle his own footsteps from himself. He knew that he had all the time in he world, then they could finally focus on the Jedi. The Anzat reached for the pack, the vials of toxins that it contained was just barely enough. The clear liquid contained in the vials poured out once Vixur released the cap. The toxin was now a part of the river and a part of the ecosystem, a plague that would effect the entire planet and come to slowly but surely destroy it. Vixur balanced himself on the slightly wet stones that protruded from the fall. He could not hear anything but the crashing waves. Peering over the edge he wondered what would happen if he were to fall, though then threw the thought away. The Jedi would be upon him soon, his focus now unto them. Vixur knew that Noster could feel it in his blood, the plan they had set had been enacted and completed.

 

[Rom]

Alistair panted hard as he ran through the forest, leaping and scrambling over branches and fallen logs, using his natural affinity with running through trees and his long experience to quickly catch up to his fellow Padawan as he skirted a slightly wider path, the force guiding his steps. Of the two, he had always been faster; proven during their long runs with Master Ashara on Empress Teta before the war came to the core. The forest was his home and the Force his guide; he flew through the woods as if he had wings riding a gale force wind; he should emerge from the forest right behind her.

He came flying out of the trees and skidded to a halt on a large boulder overlooking the river and the waterfall it fed into, his dark eyes burning into the Anzati that stood at the edge, looking over with satisfaction. Von had fallen, and was recovering to her feet with a look bordering on anger at whatever had caused her to trip from her attack, and Goldclaw was nowhere to be seen. The Living Force was crying, a soft keening sound that shattered his heart and twisted at his soul as it gained in volume. All around him and far below him, the feeling of decay came to his mind, piercing his shields and lashing his mind as everything just.... started to die. The Force railed against the decay that burned into the lifeblood of Tython as it started spreading rapidly through the waters passing beneath him and spreading out into the world, a sharp feeling of loss and pain the likes of which Alistair had never fathomed before. Grabbing his saber into one paw, the Kushiban glared at the Sith, a fierce growl building up within his small chest.

"....What have you done? WHAT DID YOU DO??!!!"

His fury pulsed through the Force as his golden fur slowly started to streak with red, appearing as if gaping wounds had suddenly opened on his body. Black eyes slowly shifted into red, and an audible growl began to fill the air, along with a thrum of deadly intent that rang out in the Force, something that would give even a Sith pause. Alistair began to move his paw, looking as if he was twisting and twirling some sort of invisible conductors baton, his force presence quickly expanding and spreading out all around him, centering into the very air around and above in a large sphere that engulfed the Sith. All of his concentration was bent on what he was doing, his eyes never once leaving the satisfied smirk on the Anzat's face.. a smirk that was slowly starting to fade. He muttered under his breath as he quickly began to manipulate the very air and water molecules surrounding the river, the densest amount in the area surrounding the Sith Acolyte, prodding them into motion and making them increase, drawing energy from the dying world around him. "Move faster.... faster.... faster... FASTER" It was beginning to get extremely hot around the river, and it had nothing to do with the sun beating down on them from on high


With a wordless shout of loss and grief, Alistair unclenched his paw and his presence vanished from the air around the Sith... and in a sudden roar of wind, the area all around the Sith superheated, the forced warming of the air flying out of control as Alistair let go of his concentration and let the molecules quickly spiraling into a superheated mass that swung high, burning the air that the Anzat was breathing in and covering the river in steam as the water suddenly boiled. Alistair threw himself backwards with a cry, his own skin burning from the immense heat of the steam even at the edge of the controlled field. The effects of Alter Environment not being tightly controlled wouldnt last long; the flowing water and high winds pushing the heated air out and away from the location, but it had served it's purpose. There was no escaping the very air... and Alistair was out for vengeance.

The symphony of life on Tython was slowly fading... and there was nothing he could do about it beyond making the architect of that sudden silence pay.

 

[The Kyzer]

"Echuta!" Von spat as she fell. It felt like she fell through a vat of viscous gel as time seemed to slow momentarily. Calling on the Force, Von sought a way to save herself, and found it lurking in the form of a tree snake. Ripping it mostly from it's coiled position on a branch, Von grabbed the startled reptile's body just behind the head so it couldn't bite her. The snake was tremendously strong, and managed to slow Von's descent somewhat, but eventually....she ran out of snake. The serpent's slick scales allowed the creature to slip out of its captor's grasp, causing Von to fall the last ten meters. Her super-dense bones and muscles allowed her to escape injury, but it was still very jarring to land that hard.

Angrily regaining her posture as she rose, Von saw that Alistair had already passed her by, and was moving to confront the Sith standing by the waterfall when she felt it. A scream and cry through the Force. The sound of a planet, one full of life, dying. Von felt the white-hot flare of anger well up within her once again. It had happened before, but she'd always managed to suppress it. But now? Now she didn't care. The fury of her Kushiban ally only fed into the burning furnace that had replaced her heart. Alistair's own pain fed into Von's fury, something that normally would worry her, but not today. Not now. The Sith had just murdered Tython, and there was nothing she could do about it.

You can kill them, a voice echoed from within her mind, You can make them pay for what they've done!

Von felt a piece of her mind split-off from the rest, encasing itself in a bubble of protection while clinging to the Light of the Force. The rest of her, though, burned with the fury of the Dark Side. While Alistair's anger was pretty focused on the Sith standing on the edge of the waterfall, Von's hate searched for a target.

She knew that the other Sith had to be nearby, and was simply cloaking himself. She'd felt him disappear before. While Von probably wouldn't be able to find him, she really didn't need to. Tapping into her racial abilities, Von broadcasted emotions all around her, the radius being about a hundred meters, via her Zeltron telepathy. The emotion was fear. Mind-crippling fear. She made sure to protect Alistair in a bubble where the broadcasting fear didn't enter, but she made sure to blast it at the Sith in front of the Kushiban with all of her might.

Then, drawing her lightsaber again, Von ignited it menacingly.

"Come to me, dark one," she said to the jungle around her, "I know that you are here. Lurking like a coward. Show yourself so that I might cut you down in judgement for your actions!"

Then Von drew in the Force malevolently. Instead of the calm immersion in the cool ocean of the Force, Von angrily churned the ocean into a raging sea of fury as she pulled it to her. This did nothing to quell the malicious inferno that burned within her.

"Face me!" she cried.

 

[Butler]

He twisted and writhed in his dungeon of silence, shadow bearing down death and decay like a cloud of toxins feeding his desperation - his vengeance. Vixur had granted Noster a reprieve, a high like he'd never felt before in the wake of their spreading vile. And it was not instantaneous. It was a slow turn, a churning of life into suffering. Over the duration of a day would this planet discover its hell in new ways over and again. It would explore its rot, its expulsion of every nutrient that once granted it benevolence and beauty, that would last for years and years to come. Vixur and Noster, in an instant, had become the destroyers of the Jedi homeworld. And these Jedi would watch it happen.

Fear.

Not many things could force a smile out of this face, etched by the edge of a blade for achievements and failures both since his youth. But this attempt of a Padawan in a lapse of emotion curled a corner of hidden amusement. Yet this only spurred confusion and anger, in bewilderment of a hypocritical prime in his midst; standing upon a pedestal that mark the grave of all his ancestors and countless other species who suffer under the Jedi's influence.

Noster turned out from behind a tree trunk some ten paces behind Von. Black-gloved right hand sitting upon the long silver hilt at his side, he looked up from under the ebony veil of long silky strands with a certain disdain and frustration. He would not explain himself to the Padawan, of how he had specifically trained to resist fear and how he drilled himself in the resistance of mental assault. The Jedi had no right to know of his people and the word which did not even exist in translation; fear. But Noster had a right to know why. He needed to know why the Jedi chose to subjugate restraint and suffering on those around them while they lived under the banner of "do as I say, not as I do".

"Why, now, do you fumble with our ways," he quirked his head with sadness for his first kin and anger for their loss, "like a child...?"

His left hand, a claw of golden rust, hung unassumingly before his thigh. In his resistance to the Padawan's mental barrage, his own stealth was shed completely.

"Judge then," he challenged with his affected and still foreign Basic, "that you would uncover your own sins."

He stood as a beacon, drawing all that this Padawan had to expel and feeding off of it. That which was wasted, as the Jedi did practice, Noster would harness. His muscles throbbed with craving. His teeth sank into the saturated air, gnashing patience and control into his inner circle. He would saver this victory and free his people's torment again. Eden had been wounded far greater than this fool who played at righteousness. Trading blows of vengeance was a game Noster was far more practiced at. The Dark side, Mountain's fire, breath your wrath through me now...

 

[Just Matt Now]

The Anzat nearly levitated above the waterfall as the air around him started to heat up and suffocate him. Though quick to throw up a defense, once the heated air was felt around him a barrier was formed to close off as much as he could. Holding his breath, he knew that burns would soon encumber his mobility and movement. He had to think fast, for this Jedi would seek vengeance and retribution for the Sith's atrocities. Suddenly this gave Vixur an idea, one that would take into fruition once he got himself out of this mess.

Vixur's force barrier was holding up, though his breath was of the most concern, as no air was getting into his lungs he was essentially suffocating himself. With what ability he could muster, and taking few short breaths to minimize the burns on his throat, the Anzat began to push and pull the air around him through the force to create a whirlwind of sorts.

However on a pleatue just below the fall of water, there stood the two Imperial soldiers who had survived the crash with Noster and emptied their toxins into the water. With good visibility of the fight just above them, they opened fire on the Jedi, if anything hoping to take away his concentration and break the Sith free.

Vixur would not pass this opportunity, once he was free he would send his whirlwind of heated air towards the Jedi and retaliate his own move.

 

[Rom]

Alistair growled under his breath and tore the whirlwind apart, manipulating the swirling air currents to coalesce the superheated air into a gusting blade of wind that he sent whizzing down the cliff face towards the Imperial soldiers, knocking one down into the rapids and pulling him away while scalding the other soldiers skin through the small breaches in the armor. "You... you murderer. You snake! You poison this world and then seek to turn it's elements against it's defender? Fool! You toy with things that you do not understand!" The Kushiban was furious, his black eyes smoldering as he gazed into the eyes of the Anzati. "You will pay!"

And with that cold promise, Alistair leaped forward over the river as the wind whipped the steam and hot air away and over the cliffs, his lightsaber burning a bright blue as he hopped from rock to rock and brought his saber around for a strike at the vampyrs midsection.

 

[The Kyzer]

“It is your own sins that will be unveiled, Sith,” Von seethed as the Sith before her appeared from the shadows, “That they might be cleansed by the bite of my saber is your only salvation!”

The Sith’s apparent disregard for the fear-inducing aura should have worried the Padawan. Instead it only enraged her further. How dare he feed on the basest of feeling? All she could sense from him was a crushing hunger…a need to destroy life. He was beyond redemption. His destruction was the only choice available to her.

“I would ask your name, dark one,” Von jabbed, drawing on her Zeltron telepathic emotional-persuasion to plant the seeds of doubt in the Sith’s mind at the same time, “So that I may write it on your tomb, but only people have names. No, you are unfit for a name. You are a mindless beast, only capable of serving your own base needs. A crippled-nerf has more to offer to the galaxy than you, beast, for at least it is capable of serving others while living, just as it does in death. Your worth is only in your own destruction.”

The Padawan pulled on the Force viciously after cutting off the flow of her tele-empathy, causing her muscles to ache in growing anticipation. Then she dashed forward, allowing her own immense strength and that of the Force to propel her to new extremes as she seemingly floated above water and soil. Her blade was a solid ribbon of light as she brought it up from her side to directly overhead. As she brought it crashing down toward Noster’s skull like a Corellian Sand Tiger pouncing on its prey, Von engaged a powerful technique she’d discovered during her training.

Where as normally a Force-user made a motion like a wave to channel their telekinetic Force powers, Von now utilized her entire body as the focus, allowing the Force to flow through her like a crack in a ruptured incinerator releases fire, her fury only enhancing the torrent further. The blast of telekinetic force was only amplified when Von converted her massive amounts of kinetic energy from her dash to raw Force energy using Tutaminis before adding that to the mix.

Again the basis of Djem So flowed through her mind.

Control, Dominate, Win

 

[Butler]

Noster felt a pit in his heart, doubt that she had planted. His right heel lifted and toes slid back underneath him. Then, she dared to challenge the merit of a name. She couldn't possibly know how much a thing mattered to one of his kind, how Audroti once took it away and inadvertently discovered Noster's regard for it. His people, and even moreso his specific and cursed line within the clan, were of great and holy meaning to him that she enraged him nearly beyond control while in his state of accomplishment and invigoration. But the pink skinned woman was effective with her tricks, so effective that she canceled out her own strategies. The anger she inspired in him, bubbling up and shaking his skull tense, worked against the doubt; too hot to cool.

So he stood the same, planted but further motivated towards her death.

He watched as she suddenly bounded towards him, him holding his tongue as he did best. She leapt into the air with a palpable power building through her. So Noster ducked into a twist, down behind the tree which he had just earlier emerged from; which snapped and toppled from her attack as she landed.

Noster continued around, back up to a stand, and ripped her from her landing with a vicious and sudden Force Pull that would interrupt her landing turn-around back towards him and smash her pretty face into the base of the splintered tree trunk.

His golden claw the retriever, his left hand, was complimented with his gloved right which, if his Pull succeeded, would ignite one red beam straight into the tree and through her chest as she hit it, then sweep the blade left and out of the tree with a rotation of the hilt from hand to hand that managed to ignite the second beam in the process.

With both ends ignited, he circled left around the Jedi and continuously rotated the double-bladed hilt from hand to hand before him with a teething sneer.

"You will ask for my name Jedi," he began with rose-heated cheeks, "But you will not hear it."

 

[Just Matt Now]

Talk, that was what the Jedi were good for. Vixur listened in return, though nodded his head in disapproval, as if the Jedi sought such approval. The time it took the Jedi to speak and act, was the time needed for his throat to heal itself. The burned tissue on the inside of his esophagus had been all but regenerated. Unclipping his blade and activating it, the sound of it's humm just barely heard over the loud crashing waves from the large waterfall. They had used their environment, now it was time for the duel.

Taking up his Makashi stance, Vixur prepared himself for the oncoming fight. His master had instilled a style of Juyo in him, one that he had adapted very well to. The Anzat studied the small creature, studied his movements, studied his action and reaction and how he ran. A very agile being. Though Vixur was also agile.

As the blue lightsaber struck at him, it was clashed with his crimson sword. The clash was not long lives, and soon met with a kick-push over the edge of the water fall, infused with a small telekinetic blast.

 

[Rom]

Alistair let out a cry of fright and hollow rage that was drowned out by the roar of the watefall as he was kicked bodily away from his foe, tumbling through the air and away from his Sith foe. As he fell away, the nimble young Kushiban twisted himself and flicked his saber into it's dual-phase blade and pulled hard as the 6ft long golden blade flicked out and aimed to draw a line down the Anzati's chest, that if hit would slice through armor and cloth like a hot knife through butter but just barely miss flesh, the tip gouging lightly into the flesh of his enemies hip. His aura flared frantically in a call for help as he fell, his lightsaber deactivating and sliding into his holster just before he clipped a rock jutting out from within the waterfall, an audible crack resounding as a flare of white-hot pain tore through the Kushiban's mind and left him nearly unconscious from pain, his leg angled and twisted in the wrong direction.

Still he fell, the wind whistling in his fur as he seemed to move in slow motion. The world around him was dying; even now he could sense the taint spreading through plant and animal life like a wildfire, the song of the Living Force wavering and cracking as it went. Alistair could only let out a sob as he saw the fast approaching rapids and rocks waiting below him, and then the world blissfully turned to black.

 

[The Kyzer]

As Von slammed through the tree, she felt nothing but the white hot anger at her opponent's trickery. When the Sith reached with the Force to pull her back the way she'd come, the angered Jedi spun around, using the Sith's telekinetic energy to do so, before planting herself firmly in the Force and in the material sense stubbornly. The Sith's saber hissed malevolently as it ignited into the tree where she should have landed.

Hearing the dark man's words, Von drew the corners of her mouth into a tight-lipped smile, one that was created by the formulation of a plan of attack.

"I will not hear it, dark one," Von began as she reached into the Force again, her fury spilling out into her words, "Because the living cannot hear the DEAD!"

Von's Force-given strength was channeled into her leg as she stomped violently on the fallen tree trunk. Hundreds of splinters flew into the air as the tree split in two. First, Von's sheer will turned the cloud of splinters into a storm of shrapnel, one that would make landfall on Noster's face. The Sith could easily deflect it, only to find himself face-to-face with the lower-half of the tree Von had broken.

Von rushed forward, her blade mere inches from ending the life of this dark warrior when a call echoed through the Force, and was intercepted by the small part of her mind that had encapsulated itself in the Light, giving her pause. It wasn't verbal, or even fully understandable to most beings, but Von was a Zeltron, or at least mostly one, and not only that, but it was a call from an ally, one that she knew well.

The word welled up from deep within her mind, and broke through the surface of the raging sea that was Von to echo loudly.

ALISTAIR CALLS FOR AID!

These words alone generated by the distress of her comrade and her own heart broke the sway of her fury, if only for a moment. Suddenly, the anger diverted from this dark man, and focused on the Sith that stood at the edge of the waterfall. Alistair's presence descended rapidly away from her, and she deduced what had happened. Von's righteous fury at this turn of events was only equaled by her need....her need to save her friend, her only friend.

"Alistair!" she cried as she bounded off with a speed unmatched by any she'd produced before. The Sith who'd struck Alistair was in her way, but not for long. With a powerful blast of telekinetic energy, Von shoved the man aside, and dove off the edge of the waterfall. Alistair's aura suddenly dropped, and Von was only barely able to sense his life force from the rapids below.

"There!" she thought as her senses locked-on to the little Kushiban's tumbling body. He'd lost consciousness, and Von was in danger of slamming the rocks as well, but she merely shoved herself with the Force slightly to alter her course. She landed in the water with astounding force, but the sound was only drowned by the rush of the waterfall. She hit the bottom of the riverbed hard, but her super-dense structure took the brunt of the impact with only a bit of complaint.

Alistair's body bounced in the rapids around rocks and fallen trees, but Von swam after anyway, heedless of her own peril, and grabbed the little Padawan by his tail.

"I've got you!" Von yelled to the unconscious Alistair, hastily swimming toward a fallen log that bridged the rapids. Grabbing on to a dangling branch, the female Padawan held on with all of her might while repeatedly sending waves of thought to rouse her friend.

Awaken, comrade, for I need you!

 

[Butler]

Having already begun to circle left around the Jedi, and thusly the tree, Noster saw the Jedi's kick from its inception and his disappointed grimace twisted into agitated retaliation.

She blasted the tree into a shattered form, and Noster reacted in one swift torrential motion: He twisted the saberstaff up to his right temple as all exploding debris collected against the Barrier like a billow of cloud, his left claw turned in as the artist's tool-brush as he pivoted clockwise into the bulging mass and around to answer her attack when she then decided to leave him, allowing the Jedi to pass him on his left, and carried the momentum of the shredded tree-blast and hurled the woody-shrapnel into Von's backside just as she took off.

She would not be deterred, but she would feel the sting of her own attack upon her back later ...when her mind had settled.

Noster watched her leap over the edge, before his gaze refocused on Vixur there. Thought escaped him for a moment, as he had not expected the Jedi to run; even if it was not to flee their attack. But purpose returned to mind. He impatiently rotated his staff over to his left hand and pressed the ignition button, retracting the back beam and leaving just one. Then, with one look of the eyes, a flicker of frantic necessity like an unquenchable fire for war in a moment's decision to taste it, he looked to Vixur and decided that he simply could not let them go. And he was off.

They had succeeded. These two had poisoned the water and sent the entire ecosystem into a violent tailspin. They could go, leave as heroes. But their fight had only just begun in Noster's eyes. He could not leave it at that. He could not simply let them run away. Noster wanted blood.

So Noster sprinted back the other way, through the trees and down the hill away from the waterfall and the river below. He was hungry canine, supernaturally bounding through and between trees down the hill. He did not yet focus on what he looked like in the Force, whether others see his signature or not. He had to first take the long way around. And as he did so, he pumped the dying and the decay of life's shriveling agony that was this world's initial torment and fueled his anger; feeding his muscles and mind for the focus of one ascended. Rejuvenating and invigorating was this experience, like nothing he'd ever felt before. Yet he could not enjoy it without the Jedi to subjugate and demoralize at his feet. So he pushed on, with but one thought...

I will destroy you...

 

[Just Matt Now]

Vixur was not prepared for the dual phased saber to reign terror on his armor. The elongated blade cut through his armor and the clothes underneath, breaking them apart so that they fell on the rocks around his feet. The clothes underneath was lifted by the wind, however still on his back. His full chest was now uncovered to reveal a line of blood about a foot long from his chest to his stomach. The saber had broke skin, though not enough to cause any bother to the Anzat as it would soon heal itself.

After his shock had settled he looked for the Jedi. Surprised to see he was not still atop the waterfall, he sensed out. Looking over the edge he saw the Jedi's body limp, falling down parallel to the blue rapids in a free-fall to a certain death. Vixur smiled, though his senses still aware, he felt the other Jedi coming his way. Her intent was clear, she could feel it as clear as he could that her ally was on the verge of death. Her Force blast was easily dodged, now especially that he was less encumbered by the mass of armor. As the female Jedi dove off the waterfall, albeit foolishly, Vixur was quick to use telekinesis to send one of his fallen throwing blades into the woman's thigh.

Clearly they though the Sith as fools, but when he saw Noster eye him as she jumped off, he knew what he wanted to do. They had accomplished their mission, though they would make these Jedi pay for their actions. Vixur began his sprint back through the forest, back through where they had come. He felt Noster, he saw his path, but chose a slightly different one. Vixur left the remnants of his armor, he did not need them and could always finance another. Now more nimble than he had been during this fight, he reached the dead soldiers quicker than expected. Up the hill he ran, sprinting towards the remaining two dropships.

"Get this thing in the air now!!" He commanded as he jumped in the cockpit next to the single pilot. He motioned with his hand for the other dropship to follow.

"Sir, where are we headed?" The pilot's voice was shaky, it had been some time that they were waiting for them.

"I will show you." Vixur said, he could still sense Noster and the other Jedi, although the small Kushiban's presence so low he could not sense it. The two dropships roared to life as they headed for Nosters position.

 

[Rom]

Alistair groaned as he slowly regained consciousness, the pain from the rapids buffeting his broken leg nearly tossing him back into Oblivion until the frantic telepathic messages of his companion burned into his thought and forced him awake with wide eyes and a gut-wrenching cry of pain as the past few moments of falling and slamming into debris hit him like a freight train. The tiny Kushiban turned his head against the pain and bit through his lip, bright red blood running down his fur before being swept away by the roaring water, joining his blood to the taint of the dying world. Scampering up her arm and collapsing on her head, Alistair reached down and without taking the time to consider how much this would hurt jerked his leg sideways against the thick branch they were secured too, forcing the broken limb back into it's proper setting with another high-pitched shriek of agony.

His vision swam and for a moment he very nearly fainted again before the comforting energies of the Force washed over his body like a warm salve, soothing his pains and restoring energy. He heard the soft whisper of the once breathtaking orchestra offering him words of instruction and encouragement, of warning about the malicious pair of Sith gazing at them from the top of the waterfall who so far were content to watch the pair of them fight drowning. His fury blazed within his small chest before being put out by what seemed to be a mental snout thwap from the Force and the silent realization that he had been treading perilously close to the Dark with his actions. Taking a deep breath and centering himself, Alistair smiled softly and sat up on his makeshift perch, his back paws digging into Von's robes as he haltingly pushed himself up onto his feet.

"Von.... thank you for being here with me. You're a good friend."

To most who did not know him at all, the words would come off as cowardly or make him seem to be a defeatist; all who knew the young Padawan were aware that it was simply a warning that he was about to attempt something reckless, foolish, or some dramatic combination of the two. Alistair bared his small fangs savagely at the Sith as they began to move, one splitting off and the other preparing to leap down towards them. His arms began to twist and turn as he worked, his whole being focused on his titanic task. All around them the water started to fight the current, swirling around them as if forming a whirlpool around the pair that rapidly began to churn faster and faster, the water from down the river pulling to join them while the waterfall flowed into the heart of the whirlpool, causing a great vortex of water to rise beneath the pair and push them skyward in a swirling tower of water. The water came up to Von's waist and actively moved to hold her steady, seeming to form semi-solid places for her feet and locking her into place.

"Now, when I give the signal I'm going to send us whizzing down river and you need to grab the debris trailing us to keep the Sith off our tail, just like we practiced on Teta!"

Looking down at the Sith approaching from the waterfall, taking smug satisfaction in the shocked face, Alistair waved jauntily and then made a rude hand gesture before sweeping his hands forward the gathered water and the vortex thundering down river in a tsunami of water, flooding the shore and leaving the Sith behind with an echoing cry from the Padawan.

"TALLY HO!!!!"

 

[The Kyzer]

Feeling a swell of elation from her friend's reawakening, Von smiled broadly as the little Padawan crawled atop her head in spite of the pain in her lower back and right thigh, where a knife from one of the Sith had buried itself.. Her mind was then assaulted by the pain that Alistair radiated from his leg, and felt another swell of anger and rage.

They hurt my friend!, the rage inside her cried, ignoring her own pain.

The rage built and built, until Von heard Alistair's words of thanks. Suddenly, the angry inferno quelled like a savannah fire smothered by a summer rain.

"You too," Von softly replied, her modesty-fueled embarrassment at having someone thank her was only equaled by her joy. It was the first time someone had ever honestly thanked her for anything...or called her their friend.

Suddenly, the Force swirled around Alistair, and the water followed suit. When the whirlpool appeared, Von simply marveled in her friend's skill. As the water partially solidified around her legs, holding her up as the whirlpool became a cyclone of water, Von smiled broadly. She quickly pulled out the knife in her leg, and slipped in her her belt. Her only meager skills in Healing allowed her to stop the bleeding, but only barely.

...just like we practiced on Teta!

The Zeltron-hybrid nodded and immersed herself in the Force again. It was a calm sea again, the previous storm of emotion having abated, and the rush of cool soothing energy filled her again, reinvigorating her somewhat.

"I can handle that," Von said with a dark smile as she turned to face away from Alistair towards the waterfall and the two pursuing Sith like a rear-gunner in a starfighter.

Reaching out with the Force, Von hurled random objects, like fallen tree branches, bushes, and random rocks at the pair of Sith, until something caught her eye and a new thought formulated in her mind.

The riverbed, Von thought as she turned her focus, closing her eyes to meditate as Alistair carried them along.

The river was filled with tons of rocks and stones, large and small. Von first lifted a dozen or so fist-sized and hurled them at the Sith who'd thrown the knife at her. Then she picked up a pair of rather large stones, about a meter or so across each, and used them like symbols at the Sith she'd been fighting, attempting to slam them together with him caught in between.

Von also threw a plethora of pea-sized pebbles at both, turning the erosion-smoothed stones into bullets flying at subsonic speeds.

 

[Butler]

His boots were ablaze with the haste of vengeance, the burning bleed of self inflicted volition. His hand blasted the limb of a crooked tree into a shredded shrivel of flailing wood as he flew past. The teeth of his boots sank into the earth as he slid ducked down under another branch, then sprung both feet tucked up under tail carrying him over the next; landing into the sustained sprint of an intelligently paced predator. His eyes looked through the trees that tried to swing at him, tried to impede his chase; yet he continued with a counted breath, the red plasma of his lightsaber streaking a trail behind. He had strayed from the riverbed by now, forced to curve back around in his erratic escapade. Yet now that desire, those marked men, were escaping him.

The bushes broke open, Noster's black body bursting through them and those crossed branches ahead like a concussion grenade embodied; then landed boot after boot into that still suffered sprinting pace along the river bed. The water had already lifted around the two Jedi as they were being carried away. There was no time to take in this skill, no time for respect or appreciation to take this cautiously. He continued after them.

An exercise in will and endurance, Noster's mind fought against the Zeltron's as stones were taken off course just enough to miss him as he ran past. Next he managed to delay the two symbols from crashing together by not even a second's hesitation so that they smacked together just behind his head as he raced along the opening plain, the shrubbery gradually fading from the water as they neared the larger body of water up some distance ahead where the toxins had already begun to show itself in the discoloring purples once green. Malice and distortion was fed into the very souls of all life here, now even manifesting visually in its most basic stages. And Noster only felt stronger. Instead of concentrating on his surroundings, he began to consume the current of torrential winds into his personal space; thus he was rushing through an unnaturally forming air current that normally only existed in the highest of inner atmospheres, raging over itself in twisting turbulence as a living shield of this world's agony - swatting and smashing projectiles away and around him, past him as he kept pace with the fleeing Jedi.

But he could not reach them. And he could not keep this up long.

He could think of nothing to reach them, nothing to give him the power to seize that which escaped him now as he was nearly untouchable in the act. What a waste. All this power he felt from a dying world, all this defensive force and he could only watch as they slipped away. He had to follow them. Every last step towards the end, he would be there. He would force them to their limits, to not let slip one mistake, or he would be there to take them. Like the father of all beasts of the sea, freakishly fowl and furious, he could only destroy them if they were within his domain. So he followed, glaring at them with unflinching eyes cold as the dead sea, and made them see what haunted them even in their sleep long after they had gone from this place. They would remember this stare, his gritting white teeth bare behind pale cut and carved flesh. For he would hunt them across the ends of the galaxy, in their most precious places, and in their very dreams...