There was little Kaili could do but nod. She didn’t want to face this, but if now wasn’t the time she wouldn’t ever know when that time would be. Time was that these caves had forced greater women than herself to face that which they had feared more than anything else, and in most circumstances they had come out on top of it. It wasn’t much of a consolation but in the end it was the only thing that Kaili could tell herself to make it all seem like something she had to do. The figure in the center of the chamber didn’t look all that intimidating from a distance. Perhaps that was what scared her the most. The feeling in her gut told her that this was something she had to go through, the feeling in her mind told her it was something to run away from.
Yet as if on instinct she would find the sound of her boots reverberate around the chamber as one foot placed itself before the other. The echoes grew louder and louder for each step that she took and the closer she got the more her eyes widened ever so slowly at the sight of who stood before her. It was Kaili herself. It was like looking in the mirror, it had her scars and marks, her eyes and everything down to the shape of her entire body and silhouette. It was looking into a mirror, the thought of which made the young girl scoff. Was this a joke? Was this supposed to be her greatest fear? Her brow perked and arms crossed as she stepped up to the figure to look at it. It was herself but dressed in dark robes with white details. It was cute. Kaili felt the sting of disappointment soar through her body, fuelled by the growing sense of frustration at what she had expected of herself.
“Is this it?” Kaili asked herself with a frown and a shake of her head.
“Am I supposed to be afraid of-”
Before the girl could finish her complaint she’d feel the cold hands of her ghost self as it grabbed a hold of her upper arms and tore them out of their crossed posture. Its mouth gaped wide open in a manner akin to that of creatures of her worst nightmares to let a thick tar-like smoke erupt from from her throat and lips to cloud Kaili’s mind. The girl entered a state of shock as images began to flash before her eyes. A sense of death and destruction, monsters and droids and desperation filled the room while a slow creeping feeling of loneliness started to overcome her entire being. Kaili wanted to fall to her knees but found herself petrified and it only got worse for each scene that blinked before her. The imagery grew more and more clear for each segment that passed through her mind until eventually she could see it all as clear as day. There were burning fields, the sound and images of men and women screaming in terror as they ran from machines that cut them all down one after another like the animals that they were. The momentary glimpses offered no respite in a world that Kaili had never seen before.
Darkness overcame her and the feeling of anger and hate grew more intense. The scene shifted to a hooded figure at the top of a pile of corpses issuing commands to its loyal metal servants. The sound of fire crackled accompanied by the sound of blasters and slugthrowers in the night. The tyrant’s hand lowered and a second of silence passed before the ominous sound of a snap-hiss reverberated throughout the entire vision. A blue blade erupted from the cloaked figure’s silhouette as a set of amber, distorted and dark glowing eyes set on Kaili. The saber in the figures hand was raised in preparation for a strike at her before it came cutting down with the familiar hum of a lightsaber.
Before the blade was able to touch her Kaili felt herself finally falling to the floor with a loud thud. Panicking she threw a quick couple of glances around the room to see where she was. All evidence pointed towards her being back on Ilum again. The image of herself had let her go, her back had cuaght her fall and yet Kaili kept her eyes focused on her own image of herself in a terrified stare. It pointed at her, and without a lack of control Kaili would feel it all over again as memory after memory resurfaced.
An image of Maila rose from the ground to stare at her. Kaili raised a shaken hand in an attempt to reach out and grab at her dead friend but before she could even react it was smashed into the vision who proceeded hunch over in pain as its hands began to crack open with the dripping of blood. Kaili’s eyes looked down upon her own hands as they too were slowly drenched in blood much as they had during the shipcrash. Maila had died in her arms, been the first experience the girl had experienced with death.
The vision took its first step towards Kaili as the hundreds of souls of the mass grave she had investigated with the Galactic Alliance rose out of the floor as well. Kaili tried once more to grasp one of them, but yet again she found them phased into the vision’s shape who proceeded to fall to her knees in pain. Its entire body proceeded to split her skin like the bark of a tree while Kaili felt her heart sting in misery, in pain for a moment before a sense of hollow fear seized her in full. Eyes glanced at the white details of the visions robe to stare itself blind as it slowly began to shift into a deep crimson color.
The vision took its second step towards Kaili as Allyson rose from the floor.
“No!” Kaili screamed and desperately tried to to claw her way towards her lover’s shadow with no success.
“Please, no!”
But it was too late. The image of Allyson closed its eyes. A flood of crimson tears began to pour down its cheeks and Kaili would feel her own cheeks do the same. She tried to desperately claw her way towards Allyson once more but it was as if something beyond her control kept her down on the floor. The shadow of her love smashed into the vision with an explosion, yet unlike the other shadows it caused Kaili no pain beyond that of her tear ducts inability to hold anything back. Ungraceful sobs and panicked heaves for air gripped at Kaili as the vision nearly fell over in pain while grasping at its own face. More crimson trickled on down its features as it took its third and final step towards Kaili. A dripping hand reached in under its robe to withdraw a cylindrical weapon from within. The snap-hiss from the vision echoed through her mind once more at the sight of the blue blade that erupted from her vision’s lightsaber.
“Wh- who are you?” Kaili’s breath shook.
“I am you.” The voice chuckled with a deep, corrupted and unnatural clang as the lights of the cave brought attention to its tormented features.
“The real you.”
“No…” Kaili whispered under her breath.
[member="Théodred Heavenshield"]
[8]
on't screw up
