Duel That's Just Life

[Zaavik Perl]

Every part of him was convinced he'd kill her. As she inched closer, he screamed. It was a primal, untamed sound of malevolent fury. Hatred was nearly euphoric in the way it empowered every inch of his being. Totally enthralled by the intoxicating power, his unequivocal loss of control was a fact totally beyond his awareness.

The Wolf was loose.

Metal glimmered against the strobing illumination lightning. Every nerve in his body warned of fear. He commanded his arms to move, intent on taking the weapon for himself. They wouldn't obey. Uncontrolled volts coursed through his arms, paralyzing every muscle from his arms to shoulders. In the storm he conjured, his stygian exhilaration, he didn't notice the pain. Until now.

The point of a dagger was the last thing that eye ever saw. A devastating shockwave of pain rippled down from his skull to his gut. The pain was so intense that Zaavik couldn't scream. He couldn't even move as blood gushed rapidly, blinding his other eye and filling his mouth with a coppery tang. Even breathing was difficult behind the pain in his head.

“This. Isn’t. Over.”

Zaavik grabbed back blindly, one hand on the fabric over Allyson's shoulder, the other seizing a large wad of her hair. His heels clicked together, activating the knife in the sole of his boot. He gripped tighter, unable to see, teeth grit in front of determined, pained groans. A quick half-step back gave his legs space although they were still locked up above. As hard as he could, he swung his foot forward. It made a sound, like a large stick being swung as it cut through the air.

Impact with the left side of Allyson's abdomen made the dual sound of metal into flesh, as well as a meaty thud. He held onto her as he pulled his foot away, letting the blood cascade onto the dirt. With one forceful yank, he threw Allyson towards the floor by her hair before falling onto the ground himself. Slowly creating a pool of his own essence beneath him.

Another aftershock of pain erupted through him as he forced the blade out of face. No hesitation, just one reckless pull. It made the bleeding worse, but now he had the weapon. His limbs were jelly from pain and voltage combined. Dagger gripped in his hand, he dragged himself slowly toward Allyson. "Y-yeah it is-" he rasped through his agony.

"I'll finish it."

 

[Allyson Locke]

//: Zaavik Perl //: Taiia Locke //:
//: Death & Rebirth //:

How could she forget his boot knife? Allyson remembered how excited Zaavik was when he decided to start using them. She teased him, laughing at how silly it was to have a boot with a knife. Fun time for the memory to flash in her mind as her flesh gave way to his blade. Her guard fell, and Zaavik threw her down and away from him. The dirt kicked up into her face when her body dragged against the ground. Groaning, she could feel her belly start to fill with blood. A hand clasped against her side as she began to work her way back up.

Stopping, she looked at him, the dagger in his hand. As his words touched her ear, she grinned. “Then do it.” It was probably the worst thing Allyson could have said to him. Zaavik was beyond his own control, and goading him would only make things worse for her. Warmth filled her hand, and she desperately attempted to hold herself together. “Do it, Zaavik, kill me.” Allyson coughed, feeling her body start to sag. With whatever energy she still had, the Corellian began to channel the force into healing whatever damage he caused.

Even with the healing, she was in agony. Just when her life was starting to look good again, she had to hunt him down to try and fix him. For a brief moment, Allyson let her mind trail to thoughts of a certain Knight Obsidian, apologetic for leaving her so soon. Her eyes settled on his form as he slinked towards her; Zaavik was on his last leg as well. Allyson didn’t know if the Zeltron really was going to kill her. At the beginning of the fight, she knew he wouldn’t kill her - but now? Zaavik was a wild card.

She laughed, remembering the memory of his installation of the boot knife again. It brought joy and reminded her of the good times. Her breathing began to labor after the laughter, and her head hung. Everything hurt, and she knew she didn’t have much longer.

“Zaavik.” her voice calm, quiet, and commanding. A voice he would have heard only a few times in his life. “There’s a coin. An old Imperial coin, I gave it to Aradia when….” She coughed; blood was starting to come up, rejected by her stomach, nowhere to go. “When I was in the Empire. Make sure she gives it to you. My father gave it to me, and I don’t have any kids to pass it on.” Allyson laughed again; she had one - but that was another lifetime. “I was going to give it...give it to you. A family heirloom or whatnot.” Allyson moved enough that she was propped up on her knee.

“Goodbye, Zaavik. Survive, I’ve always been proud of you.”​

 

[Zaavik Perl]

“Do it, Zaavik, kill me.”

"Don't rush me," he snapped back. Zaavik had made it to a knee upon the halfway point, and eventually to a low stagger in the final stretch of his approach. Grasping fingers thrust forward, a metallic blur that became an enclosing impact on Allyson's collar. His grip tightened as he impelled the blade toward her. Stepping in for momentum, his knee buckled from the weakness in his limbs. He brought her down with him, meeting the ground as one combined thud of flesh.

Scrambling to keep control, Zaavik pinned Allyson with a knee, grasped her throat and lower jaw with an artificially tight grip. All of his weight pressed down atop her at specific pinpoints, creating a painful restraint. The knife spun into a reverse grip between his fingers before he rose it underhand for a final plunge. Cascading from the hole in his face, blood dripped onto Allyson from above.

In the struggling and scrambling, he missed almost all of what she had to say.

“Goodbye, Zaavik. Survive, I’ve always been proud of you.”

All but that.

Muscles hesitated at the peak of a prepared stab. One wide, bloodshot eye twitched above a bloody face that couldn't remain still. Grit teeth bared behind a quivering pair of lips turned heavy breath into loud hisses and wispy sputters. Proud of him. Praise was fleeting as electrum. Always been proud of him, she said. It prodded at something human behind the shroud of calamitous dark that had overtaken him. That duality struck his features with turbulent changes in expression. Tears streamed down one side of his face while blood continued from the ghastly, indifferent cavern beside it.

Conflict became being. Every notion, every intent, began to eat one another alive in their desperate attempts to claw forward into action. A vicissitude of hatred and remorse twisted his gut into a painful knot of bladed wire. The hand that held the blade above them began to visibly tremble. Hisses and sputters became stifled cries and sobs caught between pain and hatred. Zaavik screamed. A low, thunderous bellow with gravel that kicked in the back of his throat. The knife came down fast, singing as it sundered the air itself.

Resistance, needle-like perforation, then a sudden stop. Zaavik sagged forward, head hung down beside Allyson's. A firm penetration into the dirt just inches shy of Allyson's eye held Zaavik's clenched fist aloft. Blood drained like a faucet off his visage, pooling to soak his former master's shoulder. Abrupt downward motion had made his head pound with pain beyond his threshold. At that moment, he nearly surrendered, collapsed like a child into his mother's arms. It even sounded like he was crying through a jaw still locked betwixt conflict and anguish.

Finally, Zaavik fell to his right side, rolling once down a slight incline. He lay on his back, shoulder less than a foot from the figure he nearly snuffed out. Pain returned with the motions. Aimlessly, his surviving eye pierced the sky, indifferent to the rain that began to inundate them.

"I ha-" Breath. "I-" Sob. "I hate y-"

Everything blurred, then faded to a cold black. From the moment that knife plunged into his skull, Zaavik had been fighting a war to remain conscious. He finally lost.