Inseperable

[Kad Har'rangir]

The bolter cracked off, shattering a sternum and launching him backwards, she didn’t see his body hit the ground and kick up a small cloud of red dust, another had stepped forward, her beskad aiming to cleave through her collar bone. She brought her own blade up the impact jarring through her arm, the bolter ran out again, point blank range at her assailants femur. They toppled sideways, the bolter rang out again shattering the t-visor and spraying the ground with gore.

Pain lanced through her spine only to be dulled a money later, she didn’t have time to feel it, didn’t have time to be weak. She spun, beskad aiming to draw a from his hip to his shoulder, but he’d leapt back. The bolter came up instead, and clicked empty.

“Frak!” She tossed it aside and settled her gaze properly on the last one. Another t-visor, another set of beskar’gam stained black and gold. He was almost twice her size.“You killed my family.” His voice was hoarse, trembling with emotion. She didn’t know him, but then she didn’t know any of them that came for her here, on the Field of Blades.

“Yeah, Yeah.” she spat a mouthful of blood to congeal with the dust “Tell me something I don’t know.” She didn’t wait for him to respond, stepping into the fight with a certainty that belied the wounds she bore. Their feet kicked up tiny clouds of red dust and their blades singing as they clashed again and again. She pushed him backwards with a flurry of attacks, he stumbled over another of her victims, leaving his guard wide open. She stepped in seizing his breastplate with her left hand, while her right drove the beskad deep into his armpit. A clunk told her he’d dropped his blade and she yanked her own free, letting him fall with the river of red.

She left him to die alone, continuing the journey she’d been on the moment she’d set foot on this forsaken dessert. Time had no meaning here, and she was certain she’d killed the same person more than once. All she knew is that Jasper was here, probably farming, if such a thing was even possible. That was the life he had wanted, that was the life he should have had, would have had if it hadn’t been for her.

A trail of blood followed her, she should have been on her knees days ago, but the laws of life weren’t the same in the Netherworld. The force fed her, kept her going. One foot in front of the other in the heat. She could see a field of wheat swaying in a soft breeze...but that couldn’t be. Could it? She lost her footing and fell to her knees. For a moment she stayed there, watching the mirage before her. A few more steps and she could touch it. She forced herself to her feet and staggered. One foot in front of the other.

There was someone in the field. She reached out to the sheaf in front of her, leaving blood behind her touch. She blinked. It was real. She’d found it. Her vision swam and she blinked trying to make out the man in the field.

“Jasper?”

 

[Ordo Darnuhoy]

"They aren't ready." He said to the being beside his yaim as he slowly ran a fine stone along the edge of a sickle blade.

"Is anyone ever ready when the time to act arrives." The hazy being replied.

"We like to think so," he said as he looked up at the big blue sky and bright sun. "But we like to think a lot of things when it suits us."

"And you, Farmer?" It asked in it's ethereal female voice, "Are you ready?"

"Ready?" He said as he stood with the tool, "The only thing I'm interested in being ready for is this harvest."

"I'm afraid the situation has changed, Netherbane saw to that." It replied.

"No, I'm done. I'm here waiting for my family and that's it." He replied.

"Family is more than blood." The being said without a hint of mockery.

"...Cute." The big man replied.

The being began to flicker in and out of existance as it walked beside him through the field. With each stride the blue of the sky faded until the endless haze of the Field of Blades took over. He stopped to question the being but saw only a sad smile before it winked out of existance.

"Die!" He heard a voice scream as what looked like a cloaked Sith tore through his still ripe wheat and barley.

He looked up as the crimson lightsaber arched down at him.

"No." He said flatly as he moved and swung with the sickle. Blood sprayed his field and he sighed. He was getting tired of being fethed with. Well and truly tired.

"Jasper?" A voice said strained.

"By all nine hells." He groaned as he began walking toward the voice.

And there she was, not who he was expecting, but she was there all the same. He dropped his tool and moved through the wheat toward her. They really had to stop meeting like this.

"Yeah, Jasper." He said as he bent down, scooped the woman up in his arms, and walked toward his small mud brick yaim, "Let's get you patched. You're bleeding on my damn field."


[member="Kad Har'rangir"]

 

[Kad Har'rangir]

Bloodied fingers clung to the front of his shirt as he carried her, afraid that if she let go he'd become another mirage, another vision to be swept away by the burning winds. "They said I would never find you." she whispered, eyes fluttering closed as they passed the threshold into the cool shade of his yaim. She felt a mattress beneath her, an alien sensation after so long. Her hand remained firmly clasped to his shirt, refusing to let him go. It didn't matter if she was bleeding, she was already dead. They both were.

"Ori'vod..." she began softly forcing grey eyes open to look at him. "Ni ceta..." tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. "Ni ceta...for all of it, for all the suffering, for all the pain."

She let her eyes slide closed, her fingers loosening their grip slightly before she jerked herself awake again.

"Please don't leave me."

[member="Ordo Darnuhoy"]

 

[Ordo Darnuhoy]

He could feel her hand clasping his shirt like a small vise. There was pain in her voice, her eyes, her presence a muddled mass of feelings. Disbelief first, fear, regret, sorrow and hope; all there in a confused miasma so palpable he could almost taste it. He didn't know how long it had been, time was too strange here, but from her reaction it must have been a long time for her.

He laid her on the mattress and sat beside her so she wouldn't have to let go. He had learned that this place was inherently psychosomatic, she would regain strength as soon as she believed she was better. It was strange and most had to be destroyed outright to reform whole but they retained nothing then. That was why so many were stuck in the same loop of actions.

"Ori'vod..."

He hadn't thought he would ever here that voice say those words again. The strange caretakers of this place had let him have peace, let him have the Manda. He had hoped to bring his family here but he had never known if it would be. She lay there, sorrow filled eyes forced open to look at him and he couldn't help but feel the tears swell. He must be truely getting old.

"Shhh." He said his deep voice hushed and calm, "None of that matters now."

He leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers and pulled her into the huge valley between his big old arms.

"I won't leave you, Ori'vod." He said quietly though he could feel the Manda tugging in that old familiar way, "I never did."

He held her in silence for a while and slowly pressed his relief, calm, and happiness over being with her though their bond and found it had been weakened but unbroken. They might finally be happy and free together. This time they could be at peace together...but why had the blue sky broken. He would have to hope things could be better.


[member="Kad Har'rangir"]

 

[Kad Har'rangir]

She couldn't recall the last time she felt such relief as he hushed her apologies and held her close. The last time he had held her, had been just after he delivered Galeth...after a fight. One of many past and probably many more to come. Yes despite it all, despite their disagreements, they stood together always. He had died fighting for her, fighting a man he had seen as a son. She'd always asked too much of him...

Fingers held fast, as her eyes closed feeling the calm an happiness he bled through their bond and letting it flood her. It was a strange feeling, to have security. After a life time lost in Sinner's Rue, reliving the worst of her life and nightmares made reality she'd struggled across the Blood Wastes and crossed the River of the Dead to fight endlessly to be here.

Here in this moment.

Here with family.

She was safe, and so for the first time since Ra had broken her, Mia let herself sleep.

[member="Ordo Darnuhoy"]

 

[Ordo Darnuhoy]

He busied himself with things that were familiar while she rested. He could feel the Manda slowly healing and changing her, though he wasn't so academic as to understand what the Manda did, he could still feel it. He shook his head as he realized the galaxy was done with her yet.

"Can't you just let the woman rest?" He asked empty air, "Hasn't she done enough?"

"She's choosing this, Ordo." A voice replied, "She chose to find you, she chose to fight contentment. It's been so long since she's seen peace she refused to accept it when it was offered."

"Can you blame her?" He whispered back.

"I don't blame, Ordo, you know that better than most." It replied, "But you and she are bound, like twin stars, where one burns so must the other."

"So, I'm not done either." He said.

"I'm afraid not, Ordo." It said, "You have another role to play, another part in the true battle, though which part is still up to you...and her."

He didn't answer. His jaw tightened as he clenched his teeth, the muscles in his jaw balled and relaxed over and over as if he was chewing a meal that was too hard to swallow.

The being, whatever it was, was there somewhere, retreating from him but not gone. He made his way to the door and looked out at the once ripe wheat already starting to go to seed. A heavy hand rubbed the back of his neck and he began making some food, though he knew it wasn't real. It was the spirits way of maintaining normalcy, an attachment to habits that was deeper than flesh.


[member="Kad Har'rangir"]