Private Impromptu Spelunking

[Resh]

Resh shook his head vigorously, refusing to acknowledge what the shade said. It snarled, "You're nothing but a brat! A child running from his responsibility. His destiny. Without me, you will never be anything else."

"I don't need you. I never needed you."

"Please. The truth will catch up with you sooner or later. When it does, will you embrace it, or will it bring you down kicking and screaming?"

Resh bore his fangs, and reached for the shade's belt. He stole his ebon-hilted saber, igniting the read plasma through the shade's arm. All it took was moving the blade over a few inches to lop off the arm entirely. The shade looked surprised at first, then laughed.

"I!" Resh hacked at the other arm.

"Don't!" He swung again.

"Need!" Again.

"You!" Again.

He couldn't tell when the laughing had stopped. He could still hear it in his head. By the time Resh finished, what was left in front of him was hardly discernible as a humanoid form. Resh looked at the red blade, dropping it immediately and scooping up own hilt from the mess.

Resh ran from the fire, into the darkness, "Anyone?! Eloise?!"

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

"Anyone?! Eloise?!"

Eloise turned in the direction of the voice. Resh's figure was a blurry watercolor, a smear of red and gold and brown and tan on a black canvas. Without so much as a moment's hesitation she started running toward him, still screaming his name like her life - or her sanity - depended on it.

But the caves weren't done with her yet. Even as she closed the distance between them, the vision changed once again.

A fissure split the earth beneath her feet. She stumbled and fell forward, only to be caught by a pair of strong arms.

"Resh?"

It was Resh, about ten years older and a few inches taller. He held her tightly against him, as if he were afraid to let go. All around them the ground was tearing itself open, and from the widening cracks she heard... screaming. Millions of voices cried out, in pain or fear, she didn't know.

And then, it stopped. The voices were suddenly silenced, and everything was quiet. "I don't understand," Eloise said, looking around at the fractured landscape. "What is this?"

"The future," the older Resh replied cryptically. "Our future."

---

In reality, Eloise hadn't moved from the spot where she had fallen. Pain awaited her when she awoke, but she would be glad to be rid of the visions.

The dryax had tumbled into the pit with them, and it too was awakening. It had been badly injured by the impact with the cave floor. Whimpering in pain, it struggled to move broken limbs, claws feebly scratching the stone.

Resh​

 

[Resh]

Resh ran through the darkness but couldn't penetrate it. The shadows blanketed everything like an immovable fog. Resh couldn't even tell if he was really moving, but he kept pushing toward the faint presence of a friend that drove him on. He might have been running for only a few minutes, or maybe even hours. Time seemed to hold little meaning here.

Then, suddenly, the presence seemed to flare, and he burst out of the darkness with Eloise laying right there in front of him. He looked around in confusion, noticing the incapacitated dryax not too far away. Resh almost started towards it, but stopped. He needed to check Eloise first. "Hey!" He knelt down and shook her shoulder, "Eloise? Eloise? Are you okay?"

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

The steady embrace of the Resh in her dream was abruptly replaced by the real Resh shaking her shoulder. Eloise gasped awake, then started coughing. "Wha... What the fuck...?"

Everything hurt, especially when she tried to move. Slowly but surely she peeled herself up off the ground, checking for injuries. Her chest ached when she breathed; maybe a cracked rib? She had a split lip, a chipped tooth, and a bad case of whiplash. Oh, and her head was throbbing. Add a possible concussion to the list.

"Yeah," she answered Resh anyway, grinning at him. "What about you? Did I slow your fall enough?"

The whining of the dryax finally reached her ringing ears. She turned toward the noise and immediately went into combat-ready mode, rising to her feet despite the pain and reaching for her lightsaber... Only to find nothing hanging from her belt. She had dropped it during the fall. "Have you found my lightsaber, by any chance?" she whispered to the Pureblood, keeping her eyes glued to the wounded monster.

Resh​

 

[Resh]

Resh smiled back at her, though it twisted awkwardly when he realized the damage she had sustained. That wasn't a pleasant fall, and yet Resh hadn't even realized he got off relatively easy when compared to her. He looked down at himself when she asked, patting himself down in search of some hidden injury. His had plenty of scrapes and abrasions, a pretty big bump on his head, and a bum leg. But otherwise, he was alright. "I think so. Thanks."

The sound of the dryax made him turn around again. As they took in their surroundings, he was repeatedly distracted by the creature. Eloise asked about her lightsaber, "…Huh?" He was looking at the dryax again when she asked, then scanned the cave floor half-heartedly, "Oh. Um… No, I never saw it."

After a few more seconds he dared to step closer to the creature. It shifted slightly as it registered his approach, but couldn't actually get up. "It's going to die," Resh assessed, "…You're a healer, right?" He asked sheepishly.

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Resh appeared to have only a few minor bruises and scrapes. Good. One of them ought to be in relatively decent shape, if they were going to get out of here alive.

He was little help when it came to finding her lightsaber. While she fumbled around in the dark, trying to find the weapon, he kept an eye on the dryax.

"It's going to die," Resh assessed, "…You're a healer, right?"

"Yeah?" she muttered. Her fingers brushed against something solid and cylindrical, but when she grasped it it turned out to be just a piece of the stalactite that had fallen from the ceiling. She tossed it away irritably. "Why, do you need me to heal you?"

Resh​

 

[Resh]

"No." Resh responded quickly, pointing to the beast beside them, "I want you to help me heal him."

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Eloise stared at Resh in disbelief, pointing a finger at the monster. "That thing almost killed us, and you want to heal it?"

Yes, she realized as she looked into his stupid, sweet face. Despite everything, he still felt compassion for the dryax's suffering. No wonder the Sith who created him to be the next incarnation of their Sith Lord had condemned him as a lost cause. If she hadn't lost her lightsaber, Eloise would've just put the poor fucker out of its misery. She turned her face away, shame and the old feeling of inadequacy bubbling up in her, but she sighed and pushed those emotions down.

"All right, fine. I'll do it." She tentatively approached the dryax, watching its every move in case it tried to put up a fight. But it seemed resigned to its fate. "The vergence... Does it feel clear to you?" she asked. She wasn't sure if Resh had experienced any visions, but it seemed like they had defeated the darkness in their dreams. That would make calling upon the Force to heal much easier.

Resh​

 

[Resh]

Resh nodded, "He's just an animal. The vergence is hurting him, scaring him. He doesn't know any better." The pureblood approached it with more comfortability than Eloise, kneeling beside the incapacitated dryax and laying a hand upon its head. It shifted slightly, but did not or could not react any further.

"Yes. We came to the right place." While Eloise healed, Resh began to connect with the dryax differently, using the Force as a translator between himself and a creature who might otherwise never understand his intent. It gradually seemed to calm in response, "Is it clear to you?" He asked Eloise.

Eloise Dinn​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Still cautious, Eloise knelt beside the dryax, resting her palms on her thighs. "Sometimes I wonder if vergences are all in our heads," she muttered, blowing a strand of purple hair out of her face. "Yeah, it's clear." Or as clear as it'll ever be.

She concentrated on the dryax. Though she had used the Force to heal others hundreds of times, she never quite got used to the feeling. Like being plunged into cold water, it did you good but it was never a comfortable or pleasant experience. The dryax reacted with a sudden howl, its struggling renewed. "Keep it calm," Eloise ordered Resh, her focus tightening on the creature's wounds.

Resh​