Dust to Dust

[Dot.Hack]

Dust to Dust

I used to feel joyful inside,
Carrying hope and promise and pride.

The feeling I can’t with words describe,
But I intend to now inscribe..

How hope has fled,
love has died.

It was all just a cruel lie,
tears of crimson is all I will find.

Life is pain, selfish, cruel.
But no more will I be a fool.

Without love, life is a desert.
Only by experience, this you may assert .

Never felt like this..
For life, love is the oasis!

And I am dying of thirst.​

Rezlus finished his musings, a light breeze casting his robes of ebon midnight adrift as he stood stoic as a statue. His crimson eyes searched the sands of the desert world of Tatooine, as if the piercing orbs could see beyond the heat and desolate sands. His ghostly strands of hair, silver mixed with raven, moved silently around his pale visage. He could nearly sense the cave he had heard tales of from the dying scavenger he had met upon his voyage across the universe as he pursued his daunting task. Somewhere in the sands that time had neglected was a cave that held one piece of the puzzle.

The man seemed a shadow among the landscape of stone and dust. As he brushed some of his hair away, he pressed a button on the black datapad he withdrew from his robes; light metallic clinks from the jewelry and equipment he carried. The Necrophage began to ascend, hiding in orbit until it's master returned. As the ship vanished from view, one eye following it, he began to move deeper into the jagged canyon. Silent as the grave he walked, a storm of emotions roiling beneath the calm surface. He joined the Sith Order, but he always walked the shadows alone.

He had joined and left in the same day, seeking the freedom to move about the empire without hindrance. Of course he was interested in what they could teach him but the fact remains this opportunity was just too good to pass up. And if it turned up to be false...well all he had lost was a few days and some sweat. For hours traveled the weather worn path, barely discernible unless you were seeking it and marked with nearly imperceptible markings left by the Rodian scavenger.

But now thirst was crying out for his attention and he found an outcropping shielded from the merciless suns of Tatooine. He moved to the shade, letting the only slightly cooler air surround him; feeling more at home among the shadow. He sighed, realizing his eyes were closed and opened them to find hours had passed. His body had slept while his mind had never stopped. Tired. Always tired. Sleep never came and the nightmare of life never ended. But if he could succeeded in his quest...maybe he could wake up. His voice was an echo, the whispers of a dead soul. "Where are you...watching me from the skies we used to soar? Are you with them? Are you happy? Are you angry? Will you hate me if fail? Will you hate me if I succeed?"

"I suppose it doesn't matter...as long as you are with me again. I hate this. All of this. All of it. It has no purpose, no substance. All I ever had was stolen from me. And the universe shrugged. Such apathy. Such an resounding sense of nothingness." He crouched along the edge of the outcropping, eyes dull and distant. Behind him? The wings of a fallen angel spread out wide before engulfing him to only show his face. "The world is a stage and we are the fools prancing about it for the king."

 

[Wolf]

"Damn," Nakoma thought to herself as she sat high atop a cliff that overlooked a picturesque canyon. She held a cloth in one hand and in the other, a blaster with a chrome finish. Blood was spattered across the smooth surface of the gun, leaving tiny crimson reminders of the woman's cherished sin. As she sat polishing the weapon, the scene from just an hour beforehand replayed through her mind like a favorite holo. It was a simple scenario, really: someone had stolen from the Hutts, a price was placed upon his head and the terms excluded 'alive' as an option.

A gust of wind swept over the land and kicked up a great cloud of dust, some of which blew right into the woman's golden eyes. She dropped the blaster and rag beside her thigh as her hands shot up to rub the irritation from the windows to her soul. "Kriff!" she seethed as the particles grazed her corneas. After a great deal of cursing and tears, Nakoma's eyes were red and irritated, but free of the debris that had temporarily blinded her. She lifted the blaster in her left hand and the cloth in her right, and again began methodically wiping the polished chrome surface.

The surrounding arid landscape offered little comfort to the raven haired beauty. Deep within her a storm raged on. While she was a cold blooded killer, a Cartel Enforcer, she was also a Jedi Knight, a Guardian of the galaxy. She divided her allegiance between the factions and lived a secret, double life. While the Jedi had good intentions, they had gone into hiding. They had been the strength for the weak and the voices of the voiceless...but now ran from the Sith in the name of self-preservation. It was for this reason that Nakoma had taken matters into her own hands. From within the Cartel, she was able to dole out justice.

It was in the name of justice that the olive skinned woman took took contracts and carried out bounties. Her theory was to reform where possible and eradicate where necessary. The Cartel wished to decimate rival slave traders for instance...Nakoma took pleasure in simply wiping out more scum from the darkest recesses of the galaxy. Under this tangible visage of poetic justice, Enforcer was authorized and Knight was justified.

"Where are you, Andros?" the Guardian thought to herself as her eyes narrowed while looking toward the twin sun sky. Here in the wasteland of this endless sandbox she had completed her job and now waited for the pilot of her personal transport to swoop in and retrieve her. "Please hurry!" the words slipped through her mind, tinted with impatience. All she wished to do was board the luxury craft and take a shower. She hated the sand. It managed to find its way into every crack and crevice imaginable.

Just then a small disturbance...a ripple of darkness in the Force lapped like a wave upon the shores of her consciousness. Nakoma stuffed the polishing cloth into a small pouch upon the heavy utility belt around her waist. She pushed herself up from the gritty ground and stood with a thumb on the pulse and a finger on the trigger. Her gilded gaze scanned the cracked and calloused land for a figure that she sensed yet could not see. She took a cautious step toward the edge of the bluff, setting her amber eyes in the general direction of an unfamiliar Force signature. It was somewhat surprising to know that there was someone...or something else out there in the uninhabited reaches of Tatooine.

 

[Dot.Hack]

"Insect." Rezlus said with cold indifference as he flowed under the Tusken Raider's wild horizontal swing. Wings of midnight spreading out wide under the weapon's arc and striking the other two charging at him from his sides in their chests with enough force to send them flying. He spun fast and low, his right leg sweeping out as his wings snapped to his back accelerating the spin. Knocking the attacker he had just dodged to the unforgiving sands. These three had tried to ambush him an hour after he had left his shadowy refuge. His cross guard saber still hanging at his hips as the black chrome gleamed in the dying light of the burning suns. As if begging to be released.

But these beings weren't worthy of his time truly, nor his blade. It had been too long since he had fought with his fists. He swirled back up, kicking dust and stinging sands into the face of all three but with their masks it was little more than a momentary distraction. He kept momentum and swung his right leg upwards from the ground in a wicked arc to strike the one on his left. The point of his armored foot slamming into the right side of the creature's neck with a sickening crack; crumpling to the ground, lifeless. The man sighed, "I gave you a chance to feel. Now you will perish and the universe will not even notice passing."

The one on the right howled and screamed something in it's native tongue. It was hard to understand even for Rezlus, but something along the lines of 'Offworlder slayed kin!' Even if that wasn't the the direct translation, it seems the corpse was related to this one in someway and he could feel the pain in it's shrieking tongue; the anger and sorrow. And it meant nothing to him. Crimson eyes dull as the Tusken Raider charged to avenge the fallen. Like water he flowed around the wild, savage strikes. His right hand suddenly on the being's throat. His face an inch away as he squeezed hard enough to take it's breath away and prevent all action. "Gaze into the void..creature...you follow your kin."

Whether it understood or not was besides the point. He crushed the Raider's wind pipe and tossed the lifeless thing aside with his impressive strength. Turning slowly, wings spreading, he looked over his shoulder at the smaller and now only living of the three. His face shadowed by ebony and silver bangs. Crimson eyes alight in the twilight. It dawned on Rezlus...this one seemed like a child. Which means he most likely just killed it's parents or it's siblings. Either way it's sorrow, hatred, and fear was heavy in the air. "Run or fight...it means nothing to me. Though."

"Perhaps I should release you from the torment of this life. End the pain you are feeling." Rezlus turned to fully face it. Wings spreading wide, an angel of death ready to reap another soul for the all engulfing void of the nothingness beyond this life. The visage before him must have decided for the cowering Tusken as it turned and ran. But..."You can't outrun death."

It had only ran a few feet before Rezlus wrapped an arm around it's neck, lifting it from the ground. Wings flapping softly as he hovered over the sands gently stirring from the displaced air. He squeezed a bit, preparing to snuff out another life. But sensing...something close by. "It comes for us all."

 

[Wolf]

Suddenly two shots from a blaster rang out with no warning. The bolts made a home in the skull of the young Raider reducing his flailing body to limp, dead weight. To the Crystavian's right stood a woman with an outstretched arm, smoke rising from the barrel of the chrome weapon. Her arm dropped to her side as she set her golden eyes upon the crimson pair belonging to the stranger. "A kindness," Nakoma's telepathic voice muttered into the mind of the man.

A gust of wind blew through the shoulder length raven colored wig that kept hidden the Knight's waist length locks. From her lips painted red to the exposed olive skin of her belly, Nakoma looked nothing like a typical Jedi Knight...and that was just the way she wanted it. With great control, she concealed her identity deep within the Force. "Who the hell are you?" her words were carried into the Cyrstavian's mind upon somber tones.

She sighed quietly as her gilded gaze shifted from the man's face to the lifeless heap that now lay upon the ground beween them. "And what the kriff are you doing" she added, her voice heavy with disgust. Shaking her head, the Cartel Enforcer holstered her blaster and closed the gap between her and a boulder beside cliff of rock and sand. It offered enough shade for the woman to escape the intense light of the dual Tatooine suns.

As Nakoma lowered herself to sit upon the boulder, she tilted her head to the side and inspected the stranger. "Well, Sith...what is your name?" It was obvious the control that Bogan beheld upon the stranger's very being. If the Knight would have ventured a guess, she would have assumed he was an Acolyte. She had been obvserving the mysterious man from a distance while he single handedly slaughtered the Raiders with little to no regard for their lives. He was full of the fresh hatred and anger that the Imperium force fed all of its members.

"Water?" the woman questioned as she pulled a clear bottle from the satchel slung over her shoulder. She then tossed it over to the darksider to quench the inevitable thirst caused by the arid landscape that swallowed up nearly every living thing that set foot upon its gritty sand. Without hesitation, the Enforcer unscrewed the lid from her own bottle and lifted it to her parched lips. She tilted her head back, allowing the cold liquid to slide down her throat and relieve any hint of dehydration that may have been present.

"This sure is an odd destination for anyone to seek out...especially here in the wasteland. What's your story?"