Abandon humanity, One step at a time (FT, Open)

[Michael Kenmore]

Kiele was alarmed at Kara's mind link with the Aelosian. He jumped up from his seat.

"I'm sorry, but this has got to stop," he said. "Stop now! You must understand, you all, that I am taking orders from others, and I cannot do anything but obey those orders. As much as I'd like to release you to your respective worlds, you must understand that my orders are to detain you. I do not know what more is to be done with you, but my own orders are clear!"

His gold-green eyes flicked to each person in turn rapidly. This mind link thing was very, very possibly a bad thing.

[Aelosia]

In the forest...

"Who...who took me down? Can't...remember", mumbled Laethe as Kara started to speak. "You, you are not Death? The Dark One...What Dark One? Came with me? I brought darkness to your world? I am sorry, I can't, I can't understand you". The elf seemed to be extremely confused and disoriented, although at least she stopped crying as soon as Kara spoke to her.

As the woman stood, Laethe felt a sharp sting of envy and desperation, and even more despair when Kara offered her hand to the elf, as an offer of helping Laethe into her feet.

"I failed. Already. Come, we need to stop him.", she said, as if pleading to Laethe for help. For help! Pleading to me for help! When I am now, I am...

Another single tear came out of Laethe's eye and rolled down her cheek as she saw Kara with pleading eyes filled of sorrow and shame.

"You do understand me, right?", said Laethe after a short sobbing. She placed her hands over her tighs, and rubbed them with her palms slowly, sobbing again. "I can't stand up. My legs...I...I can't feel my legs...", she said, interrumpting herself with a short yet piercing wail of pain and grief. "I can't stand up. I can't help you. I...I...Am...So, so sorry. Just...Just go if you must", with those words, Laethe started to cry again...

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Inside the Hiveship...

The soldier didn't refuse, although resisted the contact for just a second.

He saw the bright flash, and then entered what seemed to be Kara's mind, or something similar. Or a place she created just for meetings like this one.

The scenary was beautiful. It was a scene than any elf would had liked, and that the soldier in particular loved. It brought him memories from other times. Happy times. Memorable times. Times during which it was worth living and figthing for.

"Apologies are given. I linked your mind with mine and allowed you access to it. This is a very large risk for me to take, to set up this meeting place so deep within myself, where nothing can probe or see unless I allow to. But, I won't lie to you," said Kara into his mind, he guessed. Although psionic powers were recognized and used periodically in Aelosia, to common people like the soldier this was a completely new, enlightening experience."I have exposed myself significantly to you by allowing you to come here. I hope I will not regret my trust. So, why are you so interested at me?"

The soldier slowly nodded. "Apologies are not accepted. No need for any. You have made me...Happy once more". Then he addressed the question. "I...I need you. We...We need you. I have a favour to ask, and I have everything to give. My life, if you need it. Those above me promised you could help. Those above me told me they would help you so you can help people like me. People like...us"

Then out of sudden, for sure projected by a deep, strong and completely overwhelming emotion inside the soldier's mind, an image appeared in Kara's vision.

It was a bed in a dark room, with something lying above it. A face, a face of someone young. A face of a little elven child. Yet it was covered in silky white blankets from the neck down, and sinous tubes of the same material from the soldier's armor could be seen coming out from beneath the blankets, maybe attached to the small, emaciated body of the girl, and into a series of exotic looking machines that pumped, pinged and whistled. What was wrong with her, wasn't clear, but there was a feeling of extreme despair coming out of the image, and for sure the projection wasn't intentional at all.

"They told me to find you, and to bring you with me", added the soldier, who was now standing right next to the bed, not clad in armor but dressed in a skimpy blue robe, and with a bloodied bandage that covered the left side of his head, in his uncovered eye an infinite look of sadness and pleading. "They said...You could help".

Then suddenly he broke the contact, after hearing the Wraith's warning. "It...It is fine. It is forbidden, it's ok, I didn't mean to...", he said to Kiele as he turned to see if Kara was well after the sudden break up of the psionic link, himself feeling dizzy....

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In the camp...

The thing that once were a drow now looked at how Kara's creations melt and dissolved into ashes.

His tendrils could only reach the spider man and the worm before everything was destroyed. His fury at how she had spoiled his efforts made him grow considerably. It was a being of sheer, pure and unique hatred and wrath, and such emotions only made him stronger, and larger.

Fool! So much perfect work, all for nothing. Everything wasted! Why did you do that, child?, the booming voice directed at Kara was only hate, revulsion and fury. We could had done great thing with them, child. Great things! We could have taken this world, and then other and another. Now we need to start again A perverse and sinister feeling of joy was there, hidden somewhere. Now, now we will start again. Now I will find you, and force you to work for me as a slave, if that is what it takes for you to cooperate. I will capture you, torture you. Make you mine!

He nodded to the Spiderman and the Worm, and started to walk, tracing the track left by Kara's avatar, closely followed by the flesh homunculi. Noone will protect you, Kara. Noone!

[Solar Communes]

Kara concentrated fully on the connection with the soldier for a while, doing something that would be closely described as "queueing" all other things she was hearing, sensing and feeling on the surface from Laethe and the upcoming enemy. She looked at him. He was nervous, it would soon become clear that something was happening, something the man could not stop but, she still did not understand why they needed her. At least at that moment she has forgotten the implications of what she was forced to do, the mission she failed to accomplish.

"I...I need you. We...We need you. I have a favour to ask, and I have everything to give. My life, if you need it. Those above me promised you could help. Those above me told me they would help you so you can help people like me. People like...us"

Her sight was overwhelmed by the vision, Kara could feel the pains of that... father. The small kid, sick, severely sick. Kara sensed the despair, but her mind still couldn't fathom why they were hoping she could do anything to help. Why not look for a doctor, it was too unreal to think about it. The entire coincidence. Maybe he was mistaking her for someone else. It was not right, not at all.

"They told me to find you, and to bring you with me" the man appeared in casual clothes next to what Kara believed to be his child, "They said...You could help".

"I am not a doct..." it was pain. A strange pain, a suffering Kara has never experienced before. It was something really painful, something like the sensation being lobotomized without anesthesia. The connection was too deep, Kara allowed him to go way too deep to avoid probing attempts, in a way, it was like connecting a wire deep into a brain and then quickly and forcefully yanking it out what happened. As soon as the soldier broke off the link Kara, inside the hive, raised her head and placed both hands over her ears. She was in a deep pain, agonizing. A brief scream echoed through the room, then she felt only a vast emptiness. The self, in beings like her, was not indivisible, and a part of it was lost. She was no longer in pain or screaming, but clearly confused:

"I can't remember why I came here in the first place,..." Kara tried to remember the memories of what happened before the asteroid crashed on the surface of that planet, but she couldn't, "I can't remember who I am." She listened to the dark one, hatred, a primal, grim hatred of her, he wanted revenge because she ruined whatever twisted plans that being had. She knew what she has done but no longer understood why, that was ruining her. It was like if she did not exist before that day. A fragment of her very self either lost forever or dormant within the soldier without his awareness of it.

"He is coming!" Kara suddenly shouted, "he wants to seize this world, he was one of the four! He wants... it wants..." a shiver ran down in her spine, "it is coming for my soul!"

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"Who...who took me down? Can't...remember... You, you are not Death? The Dark One...What Dark One? Came with me? I brought darkness to your world? I am sorry, I can't, I can't understand you"

Kara sighed but tried to understand Laethe while hoping to get the scholar back to her feet. Her desperation would soon increase as a part of her was lost, but she tried to listen, listen attentiously to the woman laying down, wounded. The dark elf, Kara had no idea on how to face that one, only that there was more than just flesh and bones to him. Laethe was clearly still desperate and sad.

"You do understand me, right? I can't stand up. My legs...I...I can't feel my legs...I can't stand up. I can't help you. I...I...Am...So, so sorry. Just...Just go if you must."

Kara sighed, it was clear that he was coming for her, but she couldn't abandon that person there, yet she listened to the hatred, to the monster within that being.

Fool! So much perfect work, all for nothing. Everything wasted! Why did you do that, child?, the booming voice directed at Kara was only hate, revulsion and fury. We could had done great thing with them, child. Great things! We could have taken this world, and then other and another. Now we need to start again A perverse and sinister feeling of joy was there, hidden somewhere. Now, now we will start again. Now I will find you, and force you to work for me as a slave, if that is what it takes for you to cooperate. I will capture you, torture you. Make you mine! Noone will protect you, Kara. Noone!

Kara was very nervous, it was clear he was coming and standing there wouldn't help. It was painful to see the suffering and be unable to do anything about it, or afraid. And the mere thought of slavery made her tremble. Although her memories were gone, the unsurmountable desire for liberty still persisted. The idea was more abhorrent than anything, it was sick. She felt a hatred, a strong combination of hatred and fear over that thing formed as soon as the world "slave" was mentioned.

I am not a doctor... I, I don't even remember who I was. She approached the wounded lady, both afraid and daring about what her mind was thinking, "Feel... if I could feel it, I could know how to fix it, or I could kill her" Kara tried to stop trembling, and for a moment it worked, she said in a calm, soothing voice:

"Laethe, stay put, I... I am a doctor. It is going to hurt a little but something is coming, one evil that among the four of you, and he hates me, I need you to leave." Kara too a deep breath, and then tried to do something that was deemed impossible for someone who did not study medicine. She gently placed her hands over Laethe's right arm and tried to sense her body. The heartbeats, the bones, the veins, the nerves. For the moment she could see them, while she felt the approaching threat, "I need to do it." Patiently she "looked" through every nerve, every part of Laethe's body, and eventually spotted the broken parts, the inside wounds. Concentrating deeply, Kara observed the unbroken pairs and then unleashed it.

Any sinew that could be broken was merged, any muscle, the shoulder was relocated, and every nerve, every cell was brought back into what Kara assumed to be the healthy condition from here quick analysis. It almost certainly was a quite painful, if perhaps effective healing method, but hopefully, now that Kara was over with it, the pain would cede and Laethe would finally be able to run away.

"Laethe," Kara then said, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her to stand up," I am sorry but you need to get out of here! Warn the others, do anything, don't worry about me! I will hold him here as long as I can."

Kara then looked towards the forest. She knew he was coming, and he would not be alone. The very things she created to protect her would now turn against her. Fortunately she had where to run in case things got worse, but if that body failed to defend itself, her fate would be completely at the mercy of the Wraith, which was neither a pleasant idea. But Kara was ready to face it... even with much of her own identity lost.

[Aelosia]

"I can't remember why I came here in the first place,..." said Kara shortly after the link between her and the aelosian soldier was broken. "I can't remember who I am". Being overall ignorant of psionic matters himself, the soldier didn't even had a clue about what had happened. His own lack of experience regarding mind links had led Kara into the unfornate incident that left her "split", or "splinched", as aelosian psions used to say.

"He is coming!" Kara suddenly shouted, "he wants to seize this world, he was one of the four! He wants... it wants..." a shiver ran down in her spine, "it is coming for my soul!"

The aelosian courtier opened her eyes wide when Kara shouted. It was disturbing to see her like that. It seemed like she went mad. The soldier himself was astonished and surprised, he didn't have a clue about what happened to Kara, and why she was behaving like that. Yet, a tiny piece of her desperation slipped past into the piece of Kara's essence thathe was holding now, and he felt how afraid she was, and he suddenly felt drenched incold sweat, and overcome with fear and impotence. Whatever it was what was threatening Kara, it was truly fearsome. He almost started to cry out of fear, barely managing to control this weird feeling of empathy towards the woman he has just met. Is this human a psion so powerful that she can project her feelings unto me even after a link was broken?

The courtier bursted towards the Wraith sitting in front of them "Do something! She seems to be clearly losing her grip or something!". Diplomat and everything, amongst most of her flaws was the fact of being unable to shut up, specially in this kind of situation, where her words could be seen as if she was ordering Kiele around.

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Laethe saw how desperate Kara was, and for a moment, she thought that Kara was going to leave her there, to turn tail and run from whatever she was running from.

Yet she turned and watched her. She leaned on her and placed a hand over her arm, mumbling thatshe was a doctor, that she was going to make her hurt. That something evil was coming.

Yet, her own desperation from her damaged spine was taken the best her trained mind to offer. She was now a paraplegic abandoned in a foreign planet, a hostile planet, with a human stranger as only companion. It was a desperate situation, and as such, Laethe was too desperate and to solve the puzzle in Kara's words.

Yet, something truly miracolous happened. She felt how the damage done to her frail bones and nerves was healing. Somehow, she was regenerating it! She felt how the energy flew into her from Kara's hands, and started to mend her broken body. She felt how as an architect, Kara explored and repaired all the damage done to her spine. She felt how her legs twitched and trembled as the nerves connecting her spine with her lower extremities recovered their links and started to work again.

And then the pain overcame her. For Laethe, it was like an invisible hand was twitching and twisting her interiors. It was like being caught inan industrial press and shaken. Her nerves, when repaired, sent alarms to her brain that they were moved and manipulated in ways they shouldn't be. It was unbearable, Her eyes rolled back to the back of her head, and she felt like losing conscience for a moment right before she screamed to the top of her lungs, a scream that managed to keep her awake during the few extremely painful seconds.

Then everything was back into place and repaired. The nerves just realized this and stopped sending the alarms signals. Laethe was covered in sweat, and from her eyes many tears came down due to the intense and sharp pain. Yet she was good now. She flexed her toes, her knees. She was...repaired? It was weird that verb was the first word that came to her mind. The proper term was "healed", yet somehow, inside her mind, the word that resonated inside was "repair", as if she was some kind of machine, and Kara was some sort of organic mechanic.

"Laethe," Kara then said, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her to stand up, successfully for the complete surprised Laethe, who was able to stand, and to sustain herself on legs thatwere completely dead just a minute ago" I am sorry but you need to get out of here! Warn the others, do anything, don't worry about me! I will hold him here as long as I can."

Laethe was of course first interested in how...How have Kara repaired her? How was she able to heal grievous wounds like those she had in her body? Was she a doctor as she said? Were the doctors of whatever civilization or race she belonged able to do this? She felt the psionic power in Laethe and was amazed to find such immense potential. It was so...Vast and abundant...

"No", she said, shaking her head. "Whatever is chasing you, we will face it together. I do owe you my life", Laethe said, opening her mind to their surroundings.

And then she felt it. She felt the darkness. She felt chaos. She felt the evil emanations from a corrupted being. A daemonic presence. Old, perverted, cruel. An ancient.

She closed her mind'e eye and looked at Kara again. "Kara, what exactly is chasing you. What are you waiting here to come? Why do you say it is one of us?"

[Michael Kenmore]

At the courtier's outcry, the already disturbed hybrid did the simplest thing he could possibly think of. He shot Kara. Slapping his hand to his stunner blaster's holdster, he withdrew the small, organic-type weapon and fired a large, blue blast into Kara. And then he fired a second blast, somehow thinking she might be harder to take down than a normal human and that it'd be better to treat her as a Wraith.

The blaster had been designed to only render human targets unconscience, but after the shooting Kiele briefly wondered if he had just overstepped his bounds.

[Solar Communes]

The sensations of something dark trying to gaze deep upon the soul, the sensations were overpowering, numbing Kara's control over her phyiscal bodies. It was cold, dark, alien. Like a huge claw constricting around the neck, like a blade piercing through the heart. She knew it was there, yet its physical form was not yet there. In fact, with all attentions focused elsewhere, she would be too late to react onboard the hiveship when she saw for a brief moment the bolt of electricity.

Pain, a sharp, terrible pain, for a small fraction of a second, Kara felt like if burning alive. Electricity, they perhaps knew it or just a coincidence, that they have struck right on one of the weaknesses of her kind. The pain soon was added with anger, yet, Kara was shaking, trembling. She saw the thing aiming one more shot, in spite of the fear and suffering. A small part of her own body where the shock struck burnt into a crisp and the smell of it was quite obvious. Grimacing, she struggled hardly and rolled through the fleshly floor just in time to avoid getting a second shot. Her eyes gazed at Kiele's gun, and then, Kara, without words and still struggling, began to raise her hand towards the organic shock gun. The burnt region of her torso however, it looked dead, there was no visible healing and her vital signs seemed to have vanished as soon as the shock came to her. Microscopic tendrils rapidly extended from the palms of her hand and wrapped around the gun, as Kara attempted to manipulate it and twist the organic components of the gun in a way that would completely jam it, still trying to recover her voice. However, it was difficult to voice out anything amidst the reflexes of the shock's pain and the awareness of that vile being racing for her soul.

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Kara was about to answer Laethe and attempt to convince her to leave when she felt the pain from her other body, and as a reaction, fell on her knees over the forest. Weakened by the shock and by her complete lack of training to face what was coming and its psychic torments, Kara struggled to stand again, and with a grimace, looked at Laethe, trying to endure the reflexes of the pain. She attempt to utter some words, but was muted by the impact of the shock and psychic assaults that began to happen. Kara's fears were far greater now that it was clear none of the places she was at were safe, and that sooner or later she would have to forsake one of the bodies. She still struggled, and finally, managed to barely utter:

"Leave... please... this is not my real body, I am not in any danger.... here."

It would take a time for Kara to recover from the shock, if nothing finished her off until then.

"Get... out! Save yoursel..." the psychic storm muted Kara. It was a long time since a lone psych would have such an encounter again.

The last psychic of the Confederation who had a meeting with a similar threat possibly may still be alive today, if the closest thing to Hell in slavery to Chaos could be called a life. It was coming. It was coming, and in both sides, Kara's situation was getting even worse than it already was. She was too weak and frightened to answer Laethe what was coming, or to give any answers to anyone right now.

[Aelosia]

When Kiele shot Kara in the middle of the chest with a strange panic gun, the courtier seemed relieved. Not so the soldier whose features twisted into a grimace of desperation.

He jumped from his chair and with arms wide open and showing the palm of his hands towards Kiele, stood between the wraith commander and the fallen Kara, as if placnig its body to cover the human now lying in the floor.

"Don't", he said, apart from his lips his body entirely motionless, knowing that he was mere inches from getting blasted too. "Please, don't"

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"Whatever it is, I am staying with you", said Laethe to Kara. "You look too weak, first just lie here and rest. You took care of me, now it's my turn", said Laethe gently pushing Kara into the ground.

As soon as Kara rested in the ground, Laethe turned to the woods, and opened her mind's eye. If there was something sentient coming for them, she would be able to perceive it with her psionic senses. She wondered about the many things that happened since they left the caves. The insect, then the planes. Then someone sneaking on her and breaking her back against a tree. And then Kara, a flesh mechanic by nature, yet simply a human. Simply a human? She said this is not her real body

She directed a last glance at Kara. Was she some form of avatar of something else? Was she a psychic presence possessing that body? Yet to Laethe's mind senses her essence seemed to be...so real. Whatever Kara was, this was her chosen form or her real one.

Then the chaos wave hit her like a smith's hammer in the mid of her forehead, caving her skull in, almost shattering it. Laethe felt dizzy as the sinister shock went through her mind and ravaged her brain and her nerve system. She felt how both her ears and her nose started to bleed and how the tiny blood vessels in her hands started to burst out of the pressure. Yet somehow, she fought back.

She was trained enough as to resist the initial onslaught, yet whatever it was; she wasn't as prepared to face it. This psionic presence could only respond to one thing, something that for most elves was both a myth and a reality. It was almost overwhelming, yet after the initial shock, she liberated her inner reserves and stood firm inside her mind, retaining her essence.

The dark elf stepped in the clearing where both Kara and Laethe stood, closely followed by Kara's creations, attracted to their life force as flies would be attracted to carrion. In his hand the coilwhip flashed as a controlled lightning, sending crimson energy streaks to the nearby trees. Both the spiderman and the huge worm advanced several steps towards them, to finally stop just a few strides in front of them,

"So, you both are acquaintances now", said the dark elf with a slight smirk. "I was hoping to have taken care of you earlier", he continued pointing with his lips at Laethe. "Serves me well for not finishing what I started". His psionic presence was twisted, a presence of sheer cruelty and pain.

Laethe held a hand in front of the Dark Elf, raising it slowly as her knees bent, placing her entire body in a balance of both readiness and relaxation. The palm, slowly turning a violet color, was facing the Dark elf, while the other hand quietly went to her waist.

In her face, her features relaxed, her lips turning into a calm, quiet smile. "You were a cultist. I should had know better", was the elf's only response.

The dark elf grimaced wildly, his features shifting to unnatural postures. "Alone, we would be matched, but with my toys, dear, you are doomed", said the drow as he gestured towards the spiderman and the worm, who slowly took another step towards Laethe...

Laethe calmly closed her eyes, and projected another wave of her psychic force, designed to protect her both herself and Kara from the debilitating influence of the chaotic wave emanating from the Dark Elf. "It is a cliché, cultist. But you, you shall not pass", she said, remaining peacefully motionless.