Retreat, Retreat! Dear Goddess Have Thy Child Retreat!

[Lord Ghoul]

Hot tears spilled onto his shirt, melting into the fabric. Mikhail's stomach twisted as they wet his skin. They burned him, igniting embers of anger and passion inside his chest. Flames rose, hissing and popping behind wide blue eyes. He held her tight as the stream of words rushed from her mouth. Confusion etched his brow, then he pulled back as she offered something to him. He glanced at the little wooden box in her hand, taking it in one of his own, before cupping her face in his palm. He gently traced just beneath a scratch on her cheek.

"Neither are you," he whispered, voice trembling with emotion.

Looking her up and down she was all cuts, bruises and mending bones. All this from falling off a cliff?"I'm here now. It's ok. Who did this to you? Was it that Darkseeing seer?"

His eyes moved down to the box she'd given him. There wasn't a bone in his body that would rather be staring at a box than her, but it seemed important to her. She looked like she wanted him to open it, so he did. A dark band of metal sat inside, crowned by a crimson shard of a corusca gem. He frowned at it, then looked back at her with a piercing stare. His fingers gently tangled in her hair, playing with the silken strands.

"What's going on, Andra?"

@[member="Anders Sivas"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

"Guess we're both gonna live forever. Not allowed to die."

I feel the fool for putting him through the brand of the hereafter he's locked in. Half mad and half relieved, Mikhail is the model of a taken man and the idea of it is seeping through my skin, bone and marrow into some finer degree of who and what I am. His hand on my cheek settles a dwindling fear that had mutated in my chest - a fear that my affection was as others saw it: one sided.

"The ring should keep you alive. I took part of the Corusca Gems and paired it with Nihil Smokestone. I imbued the gemstone with my healing ability, paired it with a homing signal that will alert me when the ring powers up. It should activate if you're in mortal danger." With help from the Sorcerers of Rhand. I still can't stomach it, the surging bile in my body rises only to be cut down by the emotional fragility available in @[member="Mikhail Shorn"] 's eyes. His cerulean gaze cuts into me and as he strokes my cheek and holds me firm I radiate with the simple fact that I am loved. It's a horrifying thought, what love does to many. For me and mine, it makes the lengths I sought worthwhile. "I still need to home the ring onto you. Bond it. Then it'll be complete and you won't have to die. It should only work on you or me. I tied it to our DNA."

His finger lights on a scar, it puckers and fades. For him my natural affinity still seems to function. "No, the Darksight Seer was like, a hundred and fifty years old. He was ancient and brittle and he kept saying that he saw me coming and that I needed to open my hidden eye and see what he was seeing but it was pitch black. It was the Sorcerer that did this." I motion to the cuts and bruises. "Every time he opened his big mouth to talk, he threw me around the temple ruins. I'd broken my shoulder during the fall and he kept grabbing it, trying to get m-hh. Trying to get me to go down to the lower crypt and . . . he wanted me to kill him. The Seer. Said his visions were failing, and if I wanted their help to save you I had to kill the Seer. The Sorcerer creeped me out. Kept calling me his 'little empty child'. Said I was supposed to come back with you, but I told him no way." I leave the revelation to hang across our limbs like cords of wet washing, my watering eyes cast down to the floor I slip my cheek off his hand and put it back on the crook of his neck.

"Ah, Bosses?" Bucket's hand taps on the corridor wall. It holds a draping piece of the purple cloth in its other hand. "Gilbert and Cluck finished analyzing the fabric the Rhandites wrapped your Smokestone in. Andra, do you recognize this?"

As Bucket holds up the fabric it unfurls. My heart leaps, my jaw shuts. The chersilk is a good twelve years old, dotted and furrowed in the fashion of the time on Naboo. A regnal robe reminiscent of the robes Padme Amidala wore during her tenure as Queen. "It's mine. That's. . . that's one of the robes I wore on Coronation Day! When I . . . when I became Princess of Theed."

My lips curl, I glance up at Mikhail half frantic. "How did he get it!? I left it on Naboo! I left everything with my parents, Dad didn't let me take anything with me I wasn't supposed to, I was supposed t . . I don't like this. I don't w-- no one's that sick minded. I just wanted to keep you alive!"

Bucket's one central eye points at Mikhail. "I'm sorry, Boss but there was a handwritten note in the dress. 'Named for her grandfather, Andra Hadar. Consecrated Abhayaradha, Princess.' We lost her signal when she fell off the cliff. It was like she didn't exist. What kind of power does someone have to have to be able to hide people from sensors? Where did you go, Boss?"

 

[Lord Ghoul]

Shorn struggled to keep track of the influx of information. He felt like he was standing beneath a waterfall with his a mouth open, trying to get something to drink. Mikhail let go of Andra and massaged his temples with the heel of his palms. Way too much information for a guy who had to spend a lot of of his attention on not blowing stuff up with his mind. There was also a high likelihood that he had some ADD.

"Hang on, let me get this straight. You went to go get me a present of this nihil smokestone. You got there, fell off a cliff, got tossed around by some Sorcerer dude, who also apparently has some of your old clothes? I think my creep scanner is off the charts." Mikhail breathed deeply to avoid insta-crushing something with the Force. Power roiled through him, an inferno begging to be released. He tasted bile.

"And what's all this about the ring? I love it Andra, it's beautiful, I just don't know why you felt like you had to rush off and get it right now and cut a deal with some creepy-ass guy to get it. Unless....."

Mikhail took a step backwards, eyes moving rapidly, studying the floor and walls as he puzzled it out. Bit by bit, the pieces snapped into place. A shuddering breath left him.

"He said I would die, didn't he? The Darksight Seer? He said I was going to die."

The raven-haired man swallowed hard, then reached out and gingerly grabbed Andra's hand. "I have been running from destiny my whole life, Andra. Don't let their mumbo-jumbo get to you. Self-fufilling prophecies suck." He licked his lips, "But if you feel like you need to do this, then go ahead. And... thank you."

[member="Anders Sivas"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Mikhail's mind isn't moving as fast as my mouth. Thankfully he's chosen a Mentalist for a lover and I pull into myself to pull an aura of patience into the air. To settle my own nerves and by virtue of that, his.

"It was my prophesy first." My voice wobbles. I pull my glance from the ring to [member="Mikhail Shorn"]'s face. "You were up against six? Maybe seven. You took three of them out, but the others got ahold of you. They ripped your helmet off and this Dark Sith Mentalist grabbed your head. I never want to see it again. I wasn't there. Or if I was there I was dead. There was a body at your feet I didn't recognize. I couldn't see it, but the Darksight Seer could. He didn't tell me who the body was, but he did tell me he'd seen you die. Now you won't."

Mikhail's hand is warm and mighty. I pull him away with me to the meditation sphere and take a seat. Holding both his hands, I make sure the ring is snug on Mikhail's finger and exhale. The sealed room takes on the fragrance of roses and spice. It twists around us as I hold his hands. "I can't look back on life and see your gravestone gathering moss. If there's something tangible I can do I have to do it. The ring will save your life. It will always save your life, given enough time to power up. The first surge is immediate. Any subsequent surge after that will take a few hours before it's ready to respond."

Don't leave me alone, I say to the air around us. My eyelids grow heavy, the Corusca gem in the ring begins to glow. I add to it my envy, my presence and my emotion. I curl into it the essence of Mikhail, into the Smokestone I surge Mikhail's mental fabric that I might see through his eyes and hear through his ears when the ring powers up. Across the stars I will see these images. Hear these sounds.

It must work. Goddess please, tell me I didn't leave Jared for a casket. Across the white face of the sphere's interior, a new vision plays for Mikhail's eyes. It's the self same battle, the dogpile of Sith, the Dark Mentalist gripping the sides of Mikhail's head. Mikhail screams and falls. Twitches. In a wash of red, he gets back up. The Dark Mentalist dies screaming as his limbs are removed from the rest of him with wild twists of Mikhail's Telekinetic gift.

He gets down on one knee, puts his hand on the ragged bundle beside him and pulls it into his arms. It's me, and I'm barely breathing. I quake and moan as he helps me to my feet. The vision cuts out as the ring continues to fill the room with the warmth and light of a Master Healer trained in the Jedi arts.

 

[Lord Ghoul]

He let her lead him to the meditation sphere, head still buzzing with the info download. Lots of people tried to kill him before, why was this going to be any different? The answer sat before him, holding his hands, pouring a tidal wave of energy into that ring. Her vision said he would die. What vision? When did she have that? Anyone else in her place would have immediately received a scathing array of cutting questions. Oh, he still wanted to bombard her with them, but he stopped himself. Mikhail was getting better at that, at control. She had that effect on him.

"Now you won't."

That's what made him pause. Sure, she hadn't told him, but she went out there and fixed it. Now everything was fine. Right? He breathed evenly again. No reason to be mad. Well, that's not strictly true. He was still pissed about her getting hurt. And it sounded like he needed to pay some Rhandites a visit. Vivid imagery of a pile of broken bodies sent a ripple of pleasure through him. Nope. No reason to be mad at all. He could fix things too.

Shorn watched the vision in silence and with riveted attention. When it came to a close his eyes moved to Andra, watching the way she was so focused on her task, watching the bruises and cuts fade from her body, watching the way her breath caused her chest to rise and fall. An abrupt rush of desire flooded his senses, spurred by relief that she was, you know, still alive.

"Hmm, so we're sealed in here? No Rhombus-Face interruptions? Well, I know at least one way to say thank you." A curving, toothless smile snaked across his face, "Mandatory sex break."

He attacked her softly, not caring that she might not be completely done with her spell. Cold, pale hands grasped her and pulled her close. The smell of rose petals, sweat and crushed stone overwhelmed him. Fingers rushed through the silken, amber strands as he kissed her sweetly, breath hot on her cheeks.

[member="Anders Sivas"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Have I started [member="Mikhail Shorn"] on a mission to purge the Rhandites of the bastard who hurt me? For a moment I quiver, my head tilts. Unseemly images coat Mikhail's conscious mind and the roar of pleasure rumbles down my spine. My lips part in a delightful circle, I pout and honeyed green eyes peer up at the man who has come to fill my days. "Promise me you won't go alone. Let me come with you." I want to see it.

I want to see what Mikhail would do to the creep-tastic weirdos of Rhand. Maybe through it all I just want Mikhail to be safe and valued. As the threading of the ring continues, I am unaware of Mikhail's gaze on me. The pop, pop, pop of my right shoulder is a trigger sound in the back of my mind, telling me the flesh is finally knitting back in place. My right hand jerks, fingers curling into his hand. A large 'snap' coats the small sphere and fades off as the bruising visible all the way to my collarbone drifts paler and paler off my skin.

"No rhomboids or any other geometrically shaped interruptions. I'm the only one that can open that door."

His voice strokes across my mind and body like chersilk and a cool breeze relieving me from the summer's heat. Mikhail is a man of passions and magic, he's a twisting, grasping, breaking wretch who has found redeeming moments in my bower. I can say only that I forgive him endlessly, for my love has no end. By the time it registers that his hands are pulling me close, I gasp and open my eyes as the light cast by the Corusca gem coats the sphere in a haze of reds and pinks. I moan and coo into his kiss, hands sliding along his arms to the front of his shirt.

He ought not to be wearing one at a time like this. I slide body-close to my lover, legs curling on either side of his hips as he lifts me to take another kiss on his mouth. "Can't say no. It's mandatory. I love mandatory."

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