Netherworld Ninnies Ought Never (Beth)

[Baiko no Kaho]

Sanctuary wasn’t such a bad place to camp out, Baiko decided. Peeking out of the window in the small but cheery kitchen, Baiko poured hot water into a teapot. It was worth the time to create from clay, and with the several other improvements the deceased Echani-Kiffar made to the Netherworldly cabin on the lake known as Sanctuary, she settled herself to becoming the only comforting waystation for souls drifting through to their inevitable end.

Who knew purgatory needed a mother?

@Beth Cadera did, the moment she came into the Netherworld. The death smacked Baiko in the face, and the ghostly Atrisian-raised woman rushed to get to the soul of her darling granddaughter in time. The Netherworld was a place of horrors and dangers, but if one knew the routes, like those @Aditya Fitz-Kierke taught her when Baiko first arrived.

Leather curtains, with cut outs of flowers Baiko remembered hung on all the windows, and after a particularly dangerous foray into the Garden of Thorns, Baiko livened the place up with some house plants.

“Beth’ika, have you found the tea?” So what if the tea was made of dried roses from the thorn-road? And bits of flora she found along the garden? One must make due, and it wouldn’t do at all to be uncivilized in death.

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Hell wasn’t as bad as people made it to seem. Or, at least, that’s what Beth kept telling herself. The tall woman stood outside the small cabin by the lake of Sanctuary. What a fitting name, Beth thought. Of course, she had heard of it through the tells that her mother told. And Aditya, during her brief time knowing her biological grandmother.

When she came here… Rather suddenly. Beth didn’t remember much – she was on Tanaab. Cleru had left. The others went into battle. Something about her water breaking, and then the pain… Gods, the pain was so much. How one would ever want to have children knowing that, she’d never know.

And so, the stress of it all killed her. Literally. But hey, at least her stretch marks were gone. That was a serious plus, right?

And her soul seemingly roamed, lost, until [member="Baiko no Kaho"] found her. Her grandmother who was sliced in half by [member="Darth Carnifex"]. Well, Beth knew death couldn't be quite so bad if she was with her, then. And that guilt she had at leaving... Some closure, too. Either way, they ended up at the cabin by the lake. Beth shook her head to clear her thoughts as she opened the door, shutting it quietly as she walked into the room with a basket full of dried roses and various other flora that was about in the garden. “I did, Granmama,” she said quietly as she moved into the kitchen with a smile.

“I wonder how well this will taste,” She commented somewhat suspiciously as she unloaded the flowers from the basket. "Probably better than the other one we tried..." Beth shuttered at the last bit of ingredients that really didn't mesh well.

 

[Baiko no Kaho]

Finding [member="Beth"] was the single most powerful moment of hope Baiko knew in the tireless purgatory of the Netherworld. She refused to return to the Force, refused that peace so easily found if she were to only face the Light which called to her. No. Achani and Azure needed her.

Gray needed her, no doubt. He was always hopeless without her, if he told the truth. Bumbling about, her blind husband. Yet, as more and more dead crossed their paths, Baiko gleaned that not all was well with Mandalore. It was good, then, that Beth came. They could finally reconnect, and the news both comforted and worried the Fallanassi.

“Ugh. Let’s forget the other one happened. My sensibilities are still reeling from experiment 62.” Baiko laughed sordidly, shaking her head as she set the tea down. She set the kettle down, pouring the hissing, boiling water into the tea pot and setting about scattering the dried flora into the broth. There. Hopefully this would be it, then.

“I was thinking we could make a small journey, my dear. Perhaps the Oasis, where we could… we could look upon our living? A bit of a beach holiday, where it’s warm?” Baiko was careful to broach the issue of leaving Sanctuary. Outside this one safe haven, the Netherworld was far more dangerous for the dead. Still… something niggled at her.

Little did she know that someone else was coming down the road.

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

"I only wish I could!" Beth replied with a quiet laugh. Her green eyes hovered over the tea kettle - listening to the hiss of the water. Her eyes danced outside the window, looking upon the fairly depressed looking landscape. If [member="Baiko no Kaho"] hadn't found her... But more worringly, why hadn't she been called to the Force? She was always told she was so close to it. Yet, here she found herself - not in the sweet embrace of the Force nor in the warm and beautiful Manda.

Nope, Bethany Adelaide Cadera-Australis went to hell.

It'd be funny, if it wasn't her life now. Her hands instinctively moved to her now slim and nonexistent belly - how long had it been since her babies were born? She remembered the pain... Gods, how awful. But when she woke up, staring at the red sky, she no longer had a belly. Although, truth be, she guessed she didn't have a body at all now.

"The Oasis?" She glanced towards Baiko with a perked brow, a little nervous about leaving Sanctuary. But the chance to see [member="Cleru"]? The twins? Mom and dad? Adara and her brothers... She took a breath. It took a moment, but she nodded. "Yeah, I think that would be a good idea." Maybe a chance at some form of peace. "I wonder how they are doing," she commented quietly.

 

[Baiko no Kaho]

“Me too.” Baiko groaned, looking into the teapot they so lovingly crafted from the clay outside. Yet, why had [member="Beth"] not gone to Manda, or the Force? Secretly, Baiko investigated in piecemeal.

Why was Beth there? Who held her there, as Baiko was held, in stasis or desire? The possibilities were scant, and more diabolical than Baiko wished to admit. When she was alive, she foresaw certain powers and pretences in the youth of their family, but no. It couldn’t…

Aditya was delivered from Death, stripped out by Darth Prazutis… perhaps… perhaps there was more than one good reason to be dead in the Netherworld after all.

“Right! Let’s to it, then. Just the two of us. We’ll take the low road, skirt around the garden of thorns, and reach the blood plains before we get noticed.” Already the routes Aditya showed her opened to her mind. Those first days of being dead, with Aditya near, were precious and extolling. Comfort in old friends.

“I do too.” Baiko sipped the next in their batches of tea, wrinkling up her nose. “Eu-oo?”

Her face smoothed and Baiko pouted.

“Huh! You know? This one isn’t so bad. I think we’re on to it.” Yes, even if they were in Hell, they could at least have a decent cup of tea. Just as the duo finished their preparations for the trek to the Oasis, a hefty THUD tore at the ground beside the dock.

Baiko leapt to the window, raising one of her swords stolen from the Field of Blades. Her hand tightened on the hilt as she peered around the window pane…

… to see a lump of grey-black fur raising his great gurlanin maw to sniff-snuff at the air.

“… Tuulu!?”

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Beth leaned against the cabinet as her green eyes watched the kettle boil. The water hissed - there was something different about it. Different about it being here instead of in the world of the living. Or perhaps, and most likely, she just hadn't adjusted to her reality yet.

It hadn't been that long, and who knew how things were above them. Bad? Good? Somewhere in-between? Beth would never admit it but being here... It wasn't safe, but at least the stresses that existed there didn't quite follow her. She looked towards [member="Baiko no Kaho"] as she spoke. "Let's do it," she said with a smile. Without Baiko, Beth would've been lost to whatever happened to people down here. There was plenty of horrors - told by Yasha and others about their experiences in this... Area? Universe? Whatever. "I think we can do it without getting caught."

Beth frowned at Baiko's reaction. That wasn't a good sign for their hell-tea... "Aw, no," she muttered as she took a sip herself. Her face wrinkled up, but relaxed after the initial taste. "We are! The aftertaste really isn't bad. We have to be pretty close." Or maybe she was just desperate for a good tea...

A small scream escaped her lips at the suddenness, and rather loud thud, that occurred beside the dock. This area was supposed to be safe-ish, right? Beth grabbed a knife as she peered through the window. Her eyes widened, "That's... Tuulu?" Beth dropped the knife as she quickly ran out towards the Gurlanin. "Tuulu?!" She exclaimed, pausing in front of him to process what had happened.

She was glad to see him but... He was dead? How did Tuulu die? How could he had died? He had always been there...

 

[Baiko no Kaho]

“Beth!” Baiko lunged out after [member="Beth"], as the new ghost rushed for Tuulu. There was always a bit of discombobulation, or hesitance with the newly deceased, yet Tuulu…

He was Yasha’s perpetual shadow, the one being never to leave her side. Hesitant to connote the true dangers of his death, Baiko raised her sword and watched the horizon.

“Get him to the dock!” Sanctuary was the safest place in all the lands of the Netherworld. Little more than a rickety house (before Baiko got to it, a bit of elbow grease and a mother’s ingenuity, let her tell you) on a still lake, it held the only safe space of the beyond. The dock was its’ boundary,

“Beth!” Tuulu bellowed, rolling onto his paws as he thrashed and snarled. Darth Carnifex’s visage was replaced with a far kinder one, the familiarity of Beth’s concerned but gentle face enough to ground Tuulu in his whereabouts.

“Yasha’s in danger. He did it, the Sith. He waited until she gave up the Mantle, then the Sith attacked en masse. Yasha went to confront him. He let her go and she still refused to let someone else handle that battle.” Tuulu growled and shook the fog from his ectoplasmic skull. “Your fething brother thought he’d play hero and jumped in the way… I always knew an Australis would get me killed.”

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Beth didn't even process [member="Baiko no Kaho"] yell for her. Her mind raced with so many mixed emotions and thoughts. He was here, someone else besides just her and Baiko. He knew what was going on back in the real... Is that the right word? She wasn't even sure. But just as the initial joy of seeing him, the realization of what it meant quickly brought her emotional high down.

"T... Tuulu, what are you doing here?" She said softly with concern as she dropped to her knees, placing her hands inside his fur. It was still weird how things felt in this realm, even this.

"Let's get to the dock, hurry, it's too dangerous," she muttered as she began to pull him towards the dock as quickly as possible. "We're coming," she yelled back to Baiko. It was dangerous. Too dangerous to stay.

Beth's green eyes widened as she heard Tuulu tell the story of what was going on above. Yasha was in danger. The Sith attacked Mandalore..? Her brother... She paused, "You saved him," she whispered as she continued to pull him to the dock. "I... Maybe it isn't so bad. Yasha isn't here, and... No one else in our family has shown up." She glanced to Baiko, her eyes wide with shock and to be frank, confusion.

What did it all mean? Now more than ever they needed to get to that thing where they could see their loved ones.

 

[Baiko no Kaho]

“Carnifex… least I bit him.” Tuulu spat with his new spectral form, finding some modicum of discombobulated satisfaction at the rush. Death felt… odd. Less destructive than he’d imagined, but empty. Unclean. [member="Beth"] ’s hands in his fur reminded him of a long forgotten sensation, a kindness paid by the children he watched over for Yasha’s sake.

Always for Yasha’s sake.

While he sniffed around and limped over to the dock, one impression stuck in Tuulu’s mind. Cassiopeia wasn’t here. Her spirit followed him from life, but found hopefully the folds of her son’s paradise. The Manda had her, as it should.

There was no Manda for Tuulu. Not until his mission was complete. As he and Beth made it to the dock, Baiko watched the skies. What kind of joke! The day they decided to… heaving a sigh, Baiko waited her charges and searched for… dashed if she knew. Something more significant than a tea pot.

“Course I saved him. I was under Yasha’s orders.“

“Yasha wouldn’t cross here. Not according to Aditya, when she returned to the Netherworld on her death, she went to the place they spent the most time. The Blood Plains, on the way to the Oasis.” Gathering Beth and Tuulu inside, Baiko poured Tuulu a cup of tea, sipping on her own in an attempt to figure out what to do next.

“This tea is terrible.” Tuulu grimaced through a pause in his lapping up of the hot liquid. Baiko glared. He shrank down and lapped up the tea until his cup was empty. “… grows on you…”

Waiting for Baiko to turn around, Tuulu’s canid face contorted and he shook his head at Beth. Nope. This batch didn’t do it either.

“Are you ready to leave? Beth and I were going to the Oasis to see our loved ones, are you fit to travel yet, or still discombobulated? If Yasha and the others are in danger, we can see that, too.” The deeper truth remained in Baiko’s eyes: She knew she could never survive the trip without Beth by her side. She’d grown to depend on her granddaughter, as hopefully Beth depended on her. Leaving either behind felt… wrong.

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Beth carefully let her own spectral hand rub through the fur on Tuulu's head. They were on the dock, safe, although the flicker and strange lights from afar showed how close they were to a dangerous moment.

No one else had shown up, at least not yet. That meant they were probably okay, right? Or they went into the Manda... But Beth didn't go. Tuulu didn't go. Well, she wasn't surprised she didn't go. She had excepted to become one with the Force. It made sense that that's what would happen...

But they were here and they had to figure out to live in this... For eternity. Eternity...

Beth almost scoffed. Believing the best in everyone, she figured he'd have saved her brother even if Yasha threw him to the wolves. Oh mom... Beth hoped she was okay, her metaphysical heart throbbing for a moment. "That... That makes sense," she commented as they made their way into the cozy shack.

Beth stayed, mostly sitting on her knees next to Tuulu as she scratched his ear. Following in [member="Baiko no Kaho"]'s lead, she glared at Tuulu's reaction. They had spent so much time trying to perfect the tea. She gave up at Tuulu's head shake. They wouldn't be able too. There just wasn't any good plants in this hell.

"I'm ready," Beth commented as she stood up. "If what you're saying... We need to go as soon as we can." There was no way she was going to let Baiko go past the little safety of the shack by herself. She managed to survive without her, but with Beth here... Well, Beth knew she would be royally screwed if it wasn't for Baiko. Before or now, she needed Baiko.

And... The reality was that Beth's spirit probably would've given up if it wasn't for her grandmother, who swept in and saved her. Beth reached out and squeezed Baiko's hand.

 

[Baiko no Kaho]

The road was too well tended to trust. Baiko wove @Beth and Tuulu through acres of hidden paths, most cut by Aditya during her tenure among the dead. Tuulu walked skittish along, new dangers and shadows and noises and smells the hallmark of a new caution in Yasha’s stalwart guard. His fur brushed against Beth, and Baiko half wondered whose comfort would be greater in the proximity. Beth’s, or Tuulu’s.

Her sword half poised out of its’ scabbard, Baiko snuck to a high bank, where she pressed her back into the sod.

“The Blood Plains. You can smell them, can’t you? Stronger stench than Gray’s laundry basket, I tell you.” She looked to Beth, her forehead furrowing. “It… won’t be long to the Oasis… Just a bit over the Plains and…”

A commotion on the road. Baiko twisted to lift her eyes to it, gaze widening.

“No… NO!” Tuulu launched onto the road, attempting to gnash out at the spectral body of the Sith Emperor as his ‘ghost’ flickered in tandem with Yasha’s armoured body seeping blood from multiple scattershot punctures. She gasped for air which no longer filled her lungs, breath stuttering as her chin wobbled from where the wolf-helm was blown away near her jaw, and throat.

The ghostly image began to thicken and clear, as the injuries from Kaine Australis’ cherub shots spilled. Yasha’s mouth opened and closed, lungs stuttering.

The Emperor held her close, whispering tender words in Epicant… as his wounded arm readied his sword.

“Tuulu!!” Baiko launched over the barrier to view the scene of Yasha’s death, each drop of her blood running down to the pools of blood which rained perpetually from the Plains. "Yasha... what did he say? BETH! Did you hear what he said!?"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Bethany was still surprised by how tended the roads were in the netherworld. Of course, when Baiko explained that Aditya had cut many of them out when she was in hell. Oh, how she missed her lost grandmother. How she missed all of her family... Her dad, her mom, her children.

Her hand gently moved through the spectral hair on Tuulu. "Tuulu... I... Before we get there, do you know if my babies okay? Is Cleru there?" She asked quietly on their walk. A hidden fear that they didn't make it. A fear that they weren't being taken care of.

Beth gave a chuckle at Baiko no Kaho 's comment. "It's gods awful," she exclaimed after a moment. "The tea sucks, it smells bad... Ugh." She huffed a little before she her face became more worried, more concerned. Her ears even fell down, worry.

She should have known something was wrong the second Tuulu's fur wasn't in her hand anymore. But her own eyes were drown to what was unfolding on the road before them. Was this... Was this what was really happening? "Mom," she whispered as her jaw dropped. Dad's shots split, piercing into her adopted mother's body as the Dark Lord of the Sith held her close, a sword preparing for the final, fatal blow. Her hands went over her mouth as she watched it happen. Is that what was happening in the universe of the living? A vision of what was happening? Some twisted hallucination from the Plains?

Beth stared at the scene, her eyes watering as spectral tears dropped down her cheeks. "What? He... He said, 'everything will be alright, my love. Trust me.' What does that mean? He... Stabbed her. What does that even mean? This can't be real," the word vomit finally ending as she stared at the blood that trinkled into the large pools of blood.

"We need to get to the Oasis," she whispered quietly, her heart beating hard in her chest.