I Will Find You (Kaeshana/OP)

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Eyrecae looked at her with shock. "Shari...the green girl? Your maid? You...killed her?!" Her hand gripped her hammer tighter, then relaxed.
"Well, I know better than anyone what it's like to have a murderous rage in your mind. It doesn't excuse it, but I understand, and you told me at least. Poor thing. Though, if this is hell, can we die at all? Or are we already dead? Don't know, don't care. Anyway, where are Tegs and Galina? This place is one big sandbox by the looks. I've not found anyone to talk to. Or fight. Come on, can you walk?"

 

[Anya Venari]

[member="Coryth Elaris"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

The Queen was finishing a meeting with her newly reformed council when Coryth appeared. She headed over to the Jedi.
"Mistress Jedi, is there anything you require?" she asked with a smile. 'Master' Jedi was right out.

~~~

Meanwhile, back in the magic hut, Galina's nervousness was finally allayed when Chesna reappeared and came to sit beside her.
"Hey there, it's OK, Auntie Chesna's here," she said with a smile. "Don't worry, we'll get through this. Your mother's been through worse places, so have we all. Here." she offered Galina some fresh looking water.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"]


Siobhan did not even seem to notice when Eyrecae's grip on her hammer tightened. Perhaps she simply did not care at this point. "They're not dead!" she all but screamed before finally managing to calm down somewhat, taking a very deep breath. "I don't know whether we're dead, though I doubt it. I don't feel any differently. For some evil purpose someone is breaking down the walls between reality, but it does not matter. I don't know where they are, but I'll find them. I must," she spoke vehemently. Stepping away from Eyrecae she limped across the dunes, though she had no clue where she was going. "Let's go."



"What do you think Tegs will say when she learns the truth?"


"Or will you suddenly give in to a rage and attack them as well? Good thing Eyrecae is here and can rip your head off if you lose your mind again."


"You haven't changed. You can't."


"It goes right to the roots rotting your soul. You're a rabid dog who should have been put down years ago."


"Why don't you just do everyone a favour and stay in hell?"


Disembodied voices from the ether, then spectral shapes manifested. Soldiers who had perished on Roche and Gehenna, Eldorai rebels, those Jedi she had killed whilst being possessed and manipulated by Darth Shadow, casualties from Bespin and Eriadu, even those Eldorai who had perished on Kaeshana during her outburst, finally Shari, pointing an accusing, spectral green finger at her, her eyes alight with unrestrained loathing and hatred. It was a massive crowd of ghosts whose voices showed no sign of falling silent. "You killed us. You brought us here!" Siobhan walked on, not trying to blot out the voices. She just walked on as if possessed, uncaring of anything else. She was past the point where the voices would stop her. She would simply walk on until she collapsed or found her family.

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

Galina wrapped her arms tightly around Chesna, not at all wanting to let go of the woman, as she scooted as close to her as she possibly could. Slowly she reached out and took the glass from Chesna and took a small sip, trying not to think about what was happening, and what would happen to them all before it was over. "Just ..." She sniffled softly, "Don't ... want ... to lose anyone else. Lost too many already. No more."

[member="Anya Venari"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Eyrecae gave Siobhan an encouraging slap on the back. “Well, I’ve got nothing better to do, so let’s wander around a desert a bit!” she said flippantly.

It was unclear if she had any visions or guilty people blaming her. If she did it didn’t seem to faze her as she whistled a jaunty tune as they walked.

“You know, Sio, you should get the nano-bot treatment. I bet that cute doctor-man would help you out. It’d make these injuries of yours that much easier to deal with.”

Aware she would likely not be getting a positive reaction she walked on in silence for a moment.
“You know, these ghosts are pretty annoying. All pointy and accusey. They should get a life, huh? Huh? Eh, never mind.”

 

[Anya Venari]

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]
Chesna held the girl and patted her back. Without the Force she could not calm her as she usually did, but still she was there, reassuring, friendly.
“Shh, Galina, it’s alright. I’ve got you. I’m not going anywhere.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"], [member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]


To be fair, Eyrecae had only been awake for a very short while after having been sleeping for 25, 000 years. Admittedly she had wanted to slaughter unarmed women and children on Tabaqui, but fortunately the little mental struggle in her mind had sort of stopped that from happening. So unless stuff had happened before Raik'aro used her as his guinea pig, she probably did not have much to feel guilty about!



Anyhow, unfortunately Siobhan was not in a chipper mood. She had sort of moved on from being self-loathing to just being a cold automaton. In other words, she ignored the angry spirits. Did she feel guilty about a number of things she had done? Sure, but they mostly related to almost attacking Tegaea on Naboo, being at least partially at fault for Kaelin being able to capture and torture her wife and killing Shari. To be fair to Siobhan, she had had no control over herself when she brutally killed the maiden.


Moreover, as far as she knew there were no other portals to the underworld. However, she had entered it in the knowledge that she would have to kill someone and that it could be an innocent. It would have been the easy way out if she ended up taking out her rage on someone heinous. Such as a Vong or a Sith. Beyond that, she mostly felt guilty about failing her family. The dead of Roche, Gehenna and other battles? Not so much. War was hell and all that.


She gave Eyrecae an annoyed glare, but said nothing, just walked on. Part of her wondered whether the tears in the barriers between this world and the other might result in the dead suddenly flooding the world of the living. A truly terrifying thought. Hopefully Ghostbusters would be around to send them to the underworld. Anyhow, they walked on and presumably would at some point end up at the hut. When? This writer cannot say since they have no clue where the pair actually is.

 

[Coryth Elaris]

Coryth tiredly rubbed at her eyes, "I'm fine, thank you." No she wasn't. "Just haven't been able to rest since the events started. Getting drawn into things that I didn't want or expect to. I only need rest, but I suspect I won't get that any time soon at all." If only Coryth knew she'd soon be drawn to Sullust, to manage affairs there, soon to be badly injured.

"You sent for me?" She asked softly, the exhaustion oh, so clear in every last movement of Coryth's body.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | [member="Anya Venari"]

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

"I just ... want to go home." Galina said longingly, missing the Villa very much. Breathing in deeply, she did her best to calm herself. Right then and there, she missed Chesna's magical powers, and their ability to soothe her fears. Soon enough she buried her head into Chesna's shoulder, "Promise, you won't go anywhere? I don't want to be alone. Promise?" She asked still sniffling a little as she clung tightly to the woman.

[member="Anya Venari"]

 

[Anya Venari]

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

“I promise I’ll never leave you alone,” Chesna said. She gave the girl a kiss on the tip of her nose. “So, let’s talk about something else, hmm? How about you tell me something about you I don’t know, and I’ll do the same for me?”

She moved them into a more practical position, sitting in front of the fire, arm in arm so Chesna wouldn’t be scared.

 

[Eyrecae Alzari]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Over yet another dune they went, and there, below them, was a river of dark water and a small hut of old construction.
“Well, if they’re not there then at least we can get some rest before continuing the search,” Eyrecae commented.

The landscape was unreal. Eyrecae was not much of a geographer, but she was pretty sure that swampy marshes and distant forests didn’t fit alongside deserts.

But then, another part of the Netherworld was a literal plain of blood, and another was filled with giant engines, so perhaps incompatible landforms were not their biggest problem!

Either way, as they headed down the hill they came to the shores of the black water they saw a familiar figure on the porch…a familiar firemane….

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Eyrecae Alzari"], [member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]


Not so long ago Eyrecae's write made a point about saying that you do NOT need rest in the underworld! Then again, this netherworld is terribly weird anyway. What with incompatible landforms. Or the fact that the price for going through the Dathomir portal is...being terribly sad until you explain the reason to a random person.



Anyhow, on with the plot...Siobhan saw the firemane. It was very familiar. For the first time since Tegaea and Galina had vanished, she felt something like a surge of hope. So now there was no stopping her. Ignoring Eyrecae and everyone else as a matter of fact, including the angry spirits who seemed to have nothing better to do than impotently rant a lot instead of doing something useful, she raced down towards her wife. "Tegs!" It had not all been in vain. Siobhan looked and felt like hell, but that did not matter because she had found her wife again and she had the feeling her daughter must be close by as well.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | [member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]

Tegaea was in a rather moody state on the porch. Her expectations of attack had been fortunately wrong. So after pacing around with her oar she finally sat down on the railing and cursed the Force, deities and those who thought they were deities and other things not relatable in a PG-13 setting.
She’d gloomily noted that the house seemed to regenerate. When she picked a splinter out of the wood it came back in an irritating way, right into her leg! She was about to give it a good beating with an oar out of frustration when she saw a vision.

There she was…Siobhan! And Eyrecae too, but she wasn’t too worried about the lunatic demi-goddess.
“Sio!” she cried, dropping the oar and running over to almost tackle her wife. She realised it could have been a vision, but it seemed a little too real to be a vision. For a start a vision!Siobhan wouldn’t likely be missing an arm or have a broken helmet. Plus she smelled a bit. Some of it nice, but most of it sweat, and a vision version probably wouldn’t do that.
Even if it was a vision she didn’t care.

“Oh Sio, Sio, Sio!” she cried, a bit giddy with joy and relief. She kissed and hugged her tightly before pulling back a bit. “You’re hurt!” she said, almost accusingly.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"], [member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"]


"Building dropped on me. Had to cut off the arm because a pillar was lying on it...I'm...sorry, love," Siobhan said, sounding unusually meek and submissive. See, even in the underworld Tegaea was good at being the dominant Mistress Valora! If she had been capable of crying, if her eyes had not been constructs of metal, Siobhan would have cried tears of joy right now.


"I thought I'd never see you again! Are you hurt? Where's Galina? Is she safe?" she hugged Tegaea, seemingly clinging and holding on to her for dear life, before releasing her, looking a bit embarrassed. "Err, sorry. I was so scared when you two vanished...Adril came to me. She told me you'd been teleported into the netherworld, it's been happening across the Galaxy. Coryth thinks...Akala is involved somehow." Siobhan had not directly said it, but since Tegaea was a smart cookie she'd probably be able to decipher that Siobhan had not vanished with them, but found some other way to come here.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
“Adril, huh?” Tegs asked sceptically. However, they had been teleported to hell and she’d heard suspicious voices, so perhaps dead people were wandering around again. If they were that’d be extremely awkward and annoying too.
“Come inside, Chesna and Galina are both in here!” Tegaea said, getting over her suspicious thoughts.

Eyrecae was left outside alone. She snorted. “Why thank you, Tegaea, good to see you too! Why yes, I will come inside, thanks for offering!”
So she stomped up the stairs and went in anyway.

 

[Galina Kerrigan-Alcori]

Galina managed to feign a smile. "Okay." She said quietly. Her thoughts drifted back to Sigma, trying to find a happier time but really for her ... her happiest times were now with her family. The family that took her in when she had nothing at all.

"When I was on Sigma, just in the rebel army... Every night, was so afraid that I'd never come home. Wasn't the youngest on the lines, so I found myself caring for a set of twins. Singing them to sleep." A sigh passed as she leaned more heavily into Chesna. "Used to make trinkets for them, out of what I could find ... Just toys more or less, anything to distract them from what was happening." Closing her eyes, she sighed again, "There came a night that we were attacked, spies snuck in...."

Another breath, in and out slowly trying to keep herself calm as she could, "I had a blade in hand. He was going to kill the twins. I couldn't let that happen." The redhead admitted softly, "And he is dead now. I don't know if the twins are still alive, but I hope so." Speaking softly as she somewhat relaxed against Chesna. Her ear pressed against the woman's chest listening to her heartbeat, steady and strong. That itself was going great lengths to keep her calmer. "Never did anything like that before. Never." It seemed Galina had probably been the strong one, for far longer than anyone her age ever had a right to be. "Was not last time either." The guilt dripping in ever last word. She loathed what she had needed to do back then, but in order to survive it had been required of her.

[member="Tegaea Alcori"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"], [member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Siobhan picked up on her wife's scepticism and felt just a bit defensive. "She appeared to me as a ghost. Like...Obi-Wan does in the movies," she responded. This one totally supports the idea of Adril Tythorin properly coming back to life. Imagine the love triangle!



She sighed a bit when Eyrecae stomped up the stairs. As annoying as the primeval Eldorai was sometimes, Siobhan could not help liking her, possibly because she saw a kindred spirit in her. Unfortunately for Siobhan, even her family, which was governed by dynamics that resembled a matriarchal tribe, was not totally shiny and happy! However, all these thoughts vanished from her mind when she entered the house and found Galina along with Chesna at the fireplace.


Siobhan had not heard most of Galina's words, but heard enough to act. She shuddered a bit at the awful story. It hurt her deeply that her daughter had experienced no joy and so much suffering before she was saved from that awful island. She would get her out of the underworld, by any means necessary. Even if Galina ended up hating her for it. Siobhan might deserve hell, but her daughter did not. "My poor girl. You did what you had to do, to survive. You're so brave," and with that Siobhan rushed towards her daughter and pulled her into a hug. Well, as much as she could given the fact that she only had one arm left. If she had been capable of doing so, she would have cried right this moment, instead she just tried to hold on. "Mummy's here. I'm so sorry."

 

[Coryth Elaris]

[member="Elpsis Kallikora"]

A cruel smirk formed upon his lips as his daughter turned to face him. Seeing her fears so plain on her face, the slight shaking of her hands as she clung to the weapon for dear life. So much of this he was enjoying, his little one in so much terror and agony just at his presence alone, his voice.

He took a single step forward, looking to revel in her fears.

And it was then that she seemed to get her nerves in order and brought the shotgun level with him. Didn't she know he had mastery of the force, that he was so incredibly powerful and she was .... nothing.

He had attempted to reach into the force to snap the shotgun in two but ... nothing, it did not respond to his call.

The round hit dead on target with him tumbling onto his back. It was then that he heard it, his voice screaming in agony. It was such a strange thing, the last time he'd screamed like that had been when Siobhan Kerrigan worked to torture him for what he'd done to Coryth. It was most unpleasant to say the least. And even now it still didn't seem like it was him screaming, as he was so used to being the one in control. The one with the power, and here .... for whatever reason he seemed powerless without the Force to back him up.

"You whore!" He finally managed as he rolled upon the ground trying to put some of the flames out. Reaching out he grabbed a large stone and hurled it at the redhead, only moments before she managed to bash him with her shotgun. Blood was everywhere, down his shirt, spilling onto the ground below. "Just like your mother, a whiny pathetic whore!"

Rolling onto his hands and knees he sought to crawl away, towards another pile of stone, hoping for more weapons against her, as he realized he suddenly was without the force.

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Coryth Elaris"]


"Better that than a sick monster! Who's pathetic now, arsehole?" Her rage was rising, but she could not deny the feeling of satisfaction she felt at seeing her father fall and evidently be in pain. He was not a god, no matter how much he might think he was, nor was he invincible. There was no reason for her to be scared of him. At least not here, not now. He was just a man, a monstrous one who had to be put down like a mad dog. He was not her father, he would never be.


As he crawled away she cocked her shotgun, a shell popping out. For just a moment it seemed like he might succeed in crawling away, then she fired once more. BAAAAM An eight gauge shell popped out intent on making polite conversation with his left knee. BAAAAM A second eight gauge eagerly shot out after the first to similarly make close and intimate acquaintance with his second knee. Smoke billowed out from her weapon. Crude, primitive, as Xerexes undoubtedly thought it was, but terribly effective.


"Welcome to mundanity. Y'know, how the ninety-nine percent live! Not so how and mighty without your fancy powers anymore are you?" she all but spat the words, pure scorn and venom dripping from her. Unwilling to give him a reprieve, for she had only just started, she quickly moved to link up with him. Holding her shotgun in one hand, but keeping a firm grip on it in case he tried something, she brought up a combat booted foot and moved to ram it into his kidneys. Fighting dirty? That's the only way Elpsis fought, for she happened to be a combat pragmatist. Besides, Xerexes definitely deserved it.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Galina Kerrigan-Alcori"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Chesna was listening to Galina’s story. She nodded sympathetically when the girl finished. “You never think it’s possible for you to do until it’s done,” she said softly. “My poor Galina. I will tell you something about myself…I like the colour pink a lot,” she whispered conspiratorially. Seemed she wouldn’t be giving out any major revelations easily!

Meanwhile Tegaea gave Siobhan a look, the sort she always did when her wife seemed to break the 4th wall. “Movies…never mind, that’s fine,” she said briskly. The less talk about Adril the better!

This writer can well imagine the angst and drama, and whilst partly intrigued, is probably happier if Adril stays dead.

As they entered Galina and Siobhan embraced and the heart-warming nature of things threatened to overwhelm the gloom and angst.

Eyrecae entered and pulled off her helmet. “Huh, your traditional cabin in the swamp. Could use flowery curtains.”