Smoke drifted from the dark fur along his shoulders and spine, and heat rolled from him in steady waves that distorted the air above the reinforced plating. The molten scar along his cheek pulsed faintly beneath the fur, a jagged line of hardened fire marking where steel had touched him and been answered.
“Aerik?”
The name struck the bond between them, and the surge that followed carried no clarity with it. Rage moved through the connection like a living thing, tightening it rather than soothing it. When he turned toward the sound, the fiery light in his eyes held no recognition and no restraint.
The name struck the bond between them, and rage surged through it instead of recognition. When the great black wolf turned toward the sound, the fire in his eyes held no softness.
Irina stood within reach.
He lunged.
The distance between them vanished in a single surge of muscle and weight. One massive paw swept toward her shoulder with enough force to break bone if it landed cleanly. His jaws followed the motion, snapping toward the same shoulder in a brutal bite meant to tear rather than test. Heat rolled from his breath, and smoke trailed in the wake of his movement as the Rainmaker thundered again behind them.
The battlefield pressed inward from every direction, and movement closed around him without distinction. A militia soldier rushed him from the left with a raised rifle, and the wolf met the charge with raw force. A paw struck the man across the chest and sent him crashing into the railing hard enough to bend metal and silence breath. Shouts rose around him, but they did not slow him.
A Dark Trooper advanced through the smoke with vibroblades extended, and Aerik seized the machine by its helm before driving it down into the platform with enough strength to crater the reinforced plating beneath it. The wolf followed without hesitation and punched through armor and circuitry, pinning the droid in place as sparks and smoke burst outward.
The air thickened with the scent of burning metal and scorched insulation.
Through the smoke and chaos, the crimson-armored infiltrator remained ahead, still between the wolf and the cannon. The scent of scorched metal and ozone cut through the air, sharp and familiar, and the memory of her blade across his face burned beneath the scar that marked him.
Muscle coiled again beneath smoke-laced fur as the wolf tore free from the droid and surged forward. His paws struck the reinforced platform with enough force to dent plating beneath them. Smoke streamed behind him as he closed the distance without hesitation.
He committed fully.
Mass and momentum carried him into a violent shoulder-first collision aimed at her upper body, jaws snapping toward her shoulder in a savage attempt to seize and tear.
Then a series of things transpired that would change the course of the battle for them all.
First - it was a familiar female voice, calling out Aerik’s name. It was enough to stop Skadi and make her turn around, and what she saw froze the blood in her veins.
A giant black wolf, wreathed in smoke and fire…?, in the place where Aerik had once been. Things clicked into place in her mind instantly, but some things were still a mystery. Aerik…had transformed…into a wolf. Like how his father, Gerwald, could.
But whatever this was…was different from what she had seen from Gerwald.
Something far more primal, far more…dangerous. Abyssal, even. She couldn’t quite describe it, but in the moment that didn’t matter - because Aerik, or the wolf that he had become, was now attacking his own allies.
Chit. Chit chit chit!
The black wolf took down Irina, and seemed ready to rip and tear her to pieces, before he was attacked by others that redirected his focus. Across from him was a white wolf - she didn’t know who the feth that was, but she hoped they would at least help.
The black wolf with eyes like molten fire, turned her way. There was no recognition of allies in that fiery gaze - just death.
Quite suddenly, the situation dissolved into a fight for survival of a different sort. The cannon no longer mattered - not with a violent and rampaging fire wolf on the hunt. Agony tore through Skadi’s heart, the pain that came with the realization that she would have to defend herself against someone she considered her pack mate, a friend, an ally, a comrade…perhaps more than that even.
The black wolf lunged - not for her, but for the red armored woman behind her. Still, Skadi was in the direct line of attack, and if she didn’t move right now, she was going to be seriously injured if not outright killed.
So she dove to the side, off the platform, and abandoned her post. She landed hard upon the rain soaked jungle floor, and rolled with the fall. She had a moment of indecision - did she stay and try to figure out what was going on with Aerik, or did she go to tend to Irina - the girl who hated her? Golden eyes drifted over the magnificent form that was now Aerik, and her decision was made a heartbeat later. Skadi scrambled to her feet and bolted towards the white wolf and where Irina lay injured.
The scent of blood hit her senses as she all but skidded to a stop, dropping down on her hands and knees as quickly assessed the wounds. They were deep, and blood poured freely from the wound, and in dangerous amounts. Skadi reached a hand down and pressed it against the bleeding wound, in an attempt to add pressure to stop the flow of blood.
“I need compression bandages right now!” she snapped, to anyone close enough to hear her. “Do not fight me, girl. Or you will lose your arm, or your life.” Skadi growled down at Irina as she continued to apply pressure to the wound in her shoulder.
When primal fury rippled through the bond, there was no recognition, there was no Aerik. There was only the wolf…the demon. She took a breath, small and sharp, a quiet sob slipping free because there was no escaping what came next. Against him, she had nothing, and even if she didn’t she wouldn’t be able to wield it.
I love you.
His paw slammed into her shoulder with enough force to shatter bone, his teeth closing around her a moment later, sliding between weak joints, puncturing the joint with a sickening pop. Her armour gave across her chest his teeth biting into flesh before something slammed into him and he released her, his attention drawn elsewhere.
She drew a breath, eyes wide with shock as she stared up at a sky filled with fire. For a moment, there was no pain, there was just sorrow, and an understanding that settled in her stomach as to why he had been so desperate to keep her away.
The rainmaker cannon shuddered again, the vibrations bringing her back to her body with a wave of agony. She tried to sit up, but hands pushed her down, pressing against the largest wound in her shoulder, drawing a scream from Irina as her vision swam and a familiar voice cut through to her. Her uninjured arm came up, seizing the front of Skadi’s armour.
“Skadi…” she whispered, panic in her voice. If Aerik hurt the people around him he would withdraw from both of them. He had to be stopped. “Skadi, you have to stop him. Freeze him. The cold makes him weak. Go!”
She pushed weakly, trying to shove the dark haired valkyri away.
For a moment a torrent of flame and frost danced over one another as Torvald snapped his jaws towards the back of Aerik’s neck. The heat in his mouth was enough to burn him, blood flowed from his jaws, a combination of Torvald’s and Aerik’s.
He concentrated as best as he could as his eyes found Skadi.
Hit him with something cold! I have a hold of him now!
The snarling and growling filled the air as their heads thrashed and their claws raked over each other, the white wolf’s coat now stained red, some patches now burnt. Torvald did not care for the pain, he let it fuel him as he continued his assault to subdue the frenzied wolf pup.
The scent of Irina’s wound hung heavy in the air when Torvald struck.
The white wolf hit him with crushing force, and the impact drove Aerik sideways across the reinforced platform. Claws tore through metal as he fought for footing, but frost crashed over him in the same instant. The cold was not surface frost. It was invasive. It struck through fur and into muscle with violent precision.
Steam erupted where fire met ice.
Torvald’s jaws snapped toward the back of his neck and found purchase. The bite did not merely wound. It anchored him. Frost poured from the white wolf’s maw and spread along Aerik’s spine, racing beneath the smoke-laced fur that had moments earlier burned with unchallenged heat.
The effect was immediate.
The fire that rolled from his body faltered as the cold bit deep. Flame sputtered along his shoulders and guttered where frost took hold. The molten scar along his cheek flared once and then dimmed under the creeping chill.
The black wolf roared and twisted violently, trying to throw Torvald free. His claws raked down the white wolf’s flank and left smoking furrows, but the strength behind the strike had shifted. The cold did not slow him by degrees. It stole from him.
Frost crawled along his ribs and into his chest. Breath left his jaws in heavy bursts of steam that no longer burned with the same intensity. Smoke thinned along his back as ice crystallized against black fur.
He tried to surge upward and crush Torvald beneath his weight, but the motion lacked its earlier dominance. The cold reached deeper with every heartbeat. It did not soothe. It did not calm. It suppressed.
The bond with Irina pulsed wildly between them, but even that rage fractured as weakness crept in. The heat that had surged unchecked now met resistance at every turn.
Torvald tightened his hold.
Aerik’s claws slammed against the platform in a desperate attempt to regain leverage, gouging deep trenches through reinforced plating. The strength was still immense, but it bled away under the frost. Flame flickered unevenly along his fur instead of rolling outward in steady waves.
Another surge of cold spread from Torvald’s jaws.
This time it cut through him.
The black wolf thrashed once more, jaws snapping in defiance, but the fire that had consumed him no longer ruled the moment. Ice spread across his shoulders and into his spine, and the great beast’s movements grew heavier, slower, no longer unstoppable.
Torvald did not overpower him by strength alone.
He froze the fire out of him.
The panic in her voice was not something the Valkyri could brush off, however. It made her grow still as golden eyes fixated upon Irina’s face and absorbed her words. The cold…made him weak? It could stop him? Irina tried to weakly push her away, but Skadi held her position a moment longer as a memory resurfaced.
It had already been hinted that Aerik was vulnerable to the cold; they had mentioned as much in their unfortunate situation that had started with Irina and Skadi trying to kill each other in Aerik’s apartment back on Dromund Kaas.
Skadi looked up and spied one of the remaining men that had been with Torvald and Irina, coming upon the scene. “Anyone with a medikit, come aid her! She has deep wounds to her shoulder and heavy bleeding!”
She didn’t wait around once someone else could take over; instead, she was turning around to bear witness to the brutal fight between the two wolves, white against black - frost against smoke and fire. And she beheld with her own eyes the very weakness that Aerik carried within himself.
The cold breath and wind that the white wolf had brought with him was affecting Aerik, slowing him down, dimming him.
She saw her opportunity then, and she didn’t hesitate.
“TORVALD! MOVE!” She roared, her only warning to the white wolf, as she reached in deep and pulled on the last of her Force energies, before extending both hands before her and unleashing what looked like crystalized mist or frosty snow that cascaded over and around the black wolf, hardening into a layer of frosty ice.
And then, Skadi felt her awareness drop out from underneath her, and the world swayed around her - before she collapsed to her knees, utterly exhausted - the fight and the heavy use of her Force energy finally taking its toll on her.
She just hoped it was enough - because if it wasn’t, then they were all in danger.
Skadi’s power did not descend gently. It came in a surge of crystallized mist that carried the bite of deep winter and the weight of exhaustion behind it. The cold did not remain on the surface. It drove inward. It wrapped around muscle and bone and forced the fire within him to contract.
Ice formed along black fur and hardened in seconds.
The smoke that had rolled from his shoulders thinned under the frost. Flame sputtered unevenly and then faltered where the cold pressed hardest. Steam erupted in violent bursts as heat met ice, but this time the frost did not retreat.
It spread.
Torvald’s hold anchored him in place while the freezing surge cascaded over his back and along his ribs. The molten scar along his cheek dimmed as frost crept across it, turning the glow into a dull ember beneath forming ice.
The black wolf thrashed once more, but the motion lacked power. His claws scraped against metal without carving the same deep gouges. His jaws snapped toward the air in defiance, yet even the heat of his breath diminished under the suffocating cold.
The weakness was not subtle.
The cold cut through him where fire had once ruled unchecked. Strength bled from his limbs as frost locked along joints and tightened across muscle. The heat that had warped the air around him withdrew, compressed inward, and then fractured.
The transformation began to unravel.
Fur receded beneath spreading ice. The massive frame that had towered over the platform shuddered and shrank as smoke dissipated into nothing. The predatory line of his spine collapsed inward, shoulders narrowing as muscle lost its monstrous breadth.
Torvald’s jaws found less to hold.
The ice cracked as the great wolf’s form folded in on itself, and where black fur and flame had stood, flesh re-emerged beneath frost and blood. The molten scar along his cheek remained, but its glow dimmed to a faint heat beneath skin now exposed to the air.
Aerik’s body hit the reinforced plating hard.
Steam rose from him in uneven wisps as the last of the fire bled away under the cold. His chest rose once, sharply, as breath forced itself through lungs that no longer burned with dominance.
Then the strength left him entirely.
The apprentice lay sprawled against the dented metal, skin pale against scattered frost and streaked with blood, the transformation fully broken.
Consciousness did not linger.
Darkness took him as the cold finished its work.
