What lays beyond

[Dredge]

There was no road to redemption, no path to salvation, no stairway to heaven. At least there wasn't for a fallen Yuuzhan Vong that had bleed the galaxy of billions. Dredge. A single name that struck terror into the spines of people around the Galaxy, a name that meant certain death was coming your way atop a pale horse. The man was rage and fire, cruelty and malice to all those who dared stand in his way. But this was before he had died, before his life was taken on Myrkr and he was forced to live in the mind of a Mandalorian warrior. Before he was able to see what life was like on the opposite end of the spectrum, to have a family and to understand what love was. It made the overlord feel and know what he had done was wrong, that he had been the villain this whole time and no matter what he could never take that back.

But what he could do is visit those who he had wronged, find those he had tortured and broken and try to tell them how sorry he was. He knew that they would never forgive him, hell some might even thank him. But regardless of how that went down this was something he needed to do not just for them but for himself. He was a literal ghost of who he was and now he had all eternity to sit and lament over the lives he had taken.

So the first one was [member="Vishune"] the woman he had twisted and turned to the dark through torture and subjugation. He needed to find her and with eternity at his side he tracked her down to her home planet of Legos, the system with a hundred moons. With his spirit drifting through the force his shade stepped down on the planet of Diathim and his hand extended out to feel for the woman's presence to see if he could sense her whereabouts and find her exact location.

 

[Slot 9]

Ilanthria had once called this place home. Among her own kind, the Angels of the galaxy. The day was bright, as was the night. The stars unfolded like an ocean in the deep sky. Each moon gave of it's own hue of color. To any normal person, this place would seem extremely beautiful with the glowing Diathim and the general atmosphere they created on their homeworld.​

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Vishune didn't care for any of it. The sight of other Diathim almost hurt her glowing orange eyes. It was pitiful to see them, so blissfully unaware of their ignorance. She was the first to see a higher purpose; A higher understanding. As she meditated deep within a dark cavern, she decided that she would be the one to show her kind their true potential.​

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[member="Dredge"]​

 

[Dredge]

[member="Vishune"]

With his ethereal hand settling down on a single location the ghost felt her, he felt the pain and hatred that was his former student. It was something that had always been laying beneath the woman's skin, but he was the one drag it out of her. He was the one who had forced her to become what she was today and he could feel the lingering essence of his own hate and power. So locking on to that he closed his eyes and moved through the pathways of the force, roads that stretched as far as the eyes could see in a metaphysical world that was with no limits.

Walking that path he came to the mouth of the cave, this was it. This was how he had lured her in to that cursed sewer where he broke the angel of light. He was seeing things from the other perspective now and he hated every second of it, it caused his stomach to turn and made him feel sick before he realized something. That it was only a phantom sensation, that things such as pain and sickness no longer existed for him and that what lay ahead of him was something he needed to face.

So stepping forward he drifted through the cavern fading in and out of visibility before he phased behind the women meditating in her cavern. Looking at her dark beauty he gazed at the monster he had helped unleash. She would probably be able to sense his presence but to the eyes he was still invisible, he was only a shade still and had not learned how to speak with the living quite yet. So what he did was simple, moving towards the wall he sat down next to it and leaned his back on it and simply watched the woman in her cave.

 

[Slot 9]

Through the writhing void of darkness and anger, Vishune could sense someone. They felt very familiar... But also different. She made no move to investigate. If they approached her, she would act. Until then, she didn't care.​

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[member="Dredge"]​

 

[Dredge]

[member="Vishune"]

With his back against the wall Dredge had to will the force somewhat to keep him from phasing through the wall and looking like a fool. He had learned how to make his body not phase through objects when need be, it took focus and some dedicated practice but he had done it. Dredge's ethereal ghost like aura that pulsated around him felt like a wound in the force. A deep saddening hole of regret and pain, something that was ripe with the darkside. But it wasn't that of rage, of hatred that one could feed off of. It was that when felt made one feel the burden of taking the lives of countless beings.

"I don't know where to begin." He said to her his voice unable to reach her ears.

"I did this to you, I helped create what this is. I turned something so beautiful and pure and twisted it into what I was. Into a monster...." He said his last word lingering.

"Maybe it was always there, maybe I was just a tool to unleash you. Maybe we're just cursed people." Taking his ghostly hand he ran it down his face rubbing at his cheeks and eyes on the way down.

"The force made me hurt you, made me twist you into something you never wanted to be so in return what you are could haunt me after death for eternity." Placing the back of his head against the wall he let out a small laugh to himself as he stared up at the darkened cavern ceiling.

"Or maybe I'm just a god forsaken landfill of unfortunate events that culminated into a storm." With that he stood up to walk over and kneel to the woman.

With his eyes welling up slightly he kneeled down besides the woman and placed his hand on her neck to let it slowly glide down her her shoulder, a sensation of touch that if it were real would be of healing and atonement. Willing up what was left inside of him he placed his head to the side of her own with his scared and tattooed forehead against her temple and uttered two words.

"I'm sorry." and by some effort of the force, some miracle those two words echoed softly against the walls of the cave for the woman to hear.

 

[Slot 9]

The presence approached her. Her glowing eyes opened, glancing about the darkness. But.... there was no one there. How could this be? A cold sensation touched her neck, gliding down to rest on her shoulder. The same sensation also came to the side of her head. And then.....​

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Vishune stood up very suddenly. Her head turned from left to right as her gazes darted in every direction. It was his voice. He was here. She knew he was here. But where was he? She wanted to see him.​

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Master..... Dredge.....​

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In this moment, she actually had a very small bit of an expression on her face. One of surprise. One of longing....​

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[member="Dredge"]​

 

[Dredge]

[member="Vishune"]

Dredge's face twisted with surprise when the woman shot up from her seat, he heard his ghostly words echo off the walls from his deepened voice. He had made contact somehow and she had heard him, she had actually heard him. His metaphysical heart raced with excitement and he spoke loudly to the woman.

"Vishune! Listen to me! I need to tell you something!" But unlike last time there was no echo, there was no voice that radiated off the walls, only silence.

He fell back into that defeated pose and his shoulders slumped as he realized that he was back to square one. Maybe he just had to speak to her calmly, he was still new to this ghost thing and had only awakened from being a shade after a year of darkness and hiding in his own self pity. Stepping over around her he faced the tall Diathim and had to look up at her. Out of his armor the overlord was only six foot two compared to the added height the armor had given him. But this was his given form. Traditional Yuuzhan Vong priest robes that clung to his body and bare feet that could not be worn by the earth beneath them.

he looked up at the beautiful monster and saw himself in her, saw that hatred and anger that he had felt for years. What he had left her with when he died, he felt so sorry for her and what he had done. In truth she was the closest thing he had ever had to experiencing what love was, a twisted version of it that entailed destroying those beneath you but he had cared for the woman. Now she was just... he just didn't know. Reaching his hand up to her face he cupped it around her cheek and willed some force into it so she would be able to feel the familiar touch of his thumb gently stroking against her cheek.

"You were always my favorite. You didn't deserve this, you deserved so much better than this cave." he said to himself his voice silent and eyes beginning to well up with tears as he touched her.

"My sweet Vishune, my fallen angel." His voice once again bounced off the walls and the words he had just uttered the woman could hear.

 

[Slot 9]

As her eyes continued to search through the cavern, a hand... An invisible hand came up to touch her face. It was his. It was the way he had touched her when she had first awakened. It had only been once. But she remembered it like it was yesterday. And then his voice again.....​

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Vishune let out a very faint gasp. Her hand rose to her face, as if she thought she could feel him. Her eyes widened a little. What was this? It didn't feel like him... But at the same time, it did. And what was happening with her. The sudden turmoil in her chest made her glare slightly into the dimness.​

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But perhaps the most perplexing thing of all was when a single, blackened tear slipped from her eye. Her lips parted. A single syllable. a single word. Spoken in a voice that sounded like soft chimes in the breeze.​

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"Dredge....."​

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((OOC: ;-;........ DAMMIT! He needs to come back!))​

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[member="Dredge"]​

 

[Dredge]

[member="Vishune"]

Dredge couldn't feel her touch, he couldn't physically feel anything. He could remember the sensation, he could remember the feeling of her soft skin and her lush lips. He wished that things could of been different, he wished he could of known her for who she was before he twisted her into this reclusive monster. He felt what could of been love at this moment, a love that he would never know or never be able to have in his hands. And maybe it was better that way, maybe it was what he deserved. He deserved it, after all the love he had destroyed he knew he deserved to never know her touch again.

But his spiritual heart sank when he spoke, his eyes filled with tears and for the first time in the history of this galaxy. The ghost of a dead Yuuzhan Vong Supreme Overlord cried. His non existent tears and cries softly echoed across the walls of the cavern until he could bring himself to speak, the force flowing through his words.

"It's me Vishune, shhhh it's me." His words echoed again as his palm extended and his hand rest against her cheek.

"I'm sorry Vishune, I'm sorry for what I have done to you. Not just for abandoning in death." He said to her his other hand moving up to grasp at her other cheek so he held her head in his hands.

His body began to flicker slightly and the force his body was extending wasn't coming from all that was around him, it was coming from himself. He was a physical manifestation of the force and he was feeding off himself in order to speak to her, it was weakening him but he kept going because this was something he needed to say.

"I'm sorry for everything, I'm sorry for trying to kill you, and I'm sorry for what I did to you in those sewers. I know you were always beneath the Angels skin, but people like us. Sometimes." he paused.

"Sometimes it's best we stay buried. When eternity stares at you, don't end up like me having to look into the eyes of the mistakes you've made. It hurts, especially when you love them." He said his voice starting to haze in and out of the cave.

(( We'll see how things play out lol))

 

[Slot 9]

In all the time she had existed, Vishune had never uttered a word before. She had never cried for anything, nor had she longed for someone. But though her mind was clouded by confusion and anger, there was a part of herself that knew there was something more. Something more that she had yet to fully realize.​

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Ilanthria had feared and hated Dredge when she had known him. However, she had been spending almost a year seeing through the eyes of another. The darkness could be opaque at times. But in this moment, all of Vishune's senses and emotions were being experienced by the other half as well. In this moment, for however long it lasted, they were one whole person.​

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Dredge was... Sorry. Sorry for what he had done to Ilanthria. Sorry for leaving Vishune behind. Even though his voice was faint, echoing as a whisper through the cave, she could feel the deep emotion behind his words.​

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Vishune could only speak his name again.​

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"Dredge...."​

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His presence was beginning to weaken. She could feel him starting to fade away. No.... No he couldn't leave her here. Not again....​

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[member="Dredge"]​

 

[Dredge]

[member="Vishune"]

Dredge could feel his astral body begin to phase in and out of reality, out existence itself. Maybe it was the right thing to do, just simply stop existing. Maybe then he would know some semblance of what peace was, maybe he could just be one with the force and meld into it. But with all these thoughts Dredge knew he couldn't do that, there was still so much to do and so many people to apologize and try to atone to. Vishune was only the first and she gave him the strength to go on, maybe when this was over he could return, a new name a new life. A life with her, he knew he could never lay claim to the light and would forever be a creature of the darkness. But he just didn't know about her as well, he did need her and he didn't know how any of this worked out. So with his power he focused enough of it just to the point where he wouldn't fade out of existence and thought of being real. Of existence and reality.

With his body phasing he pushed himself into reality so that his body appeared as a blue shimmering force ghost. He didn't have the energy for words, it was hard enough to maintain this form much less speak. So he didn't need to waste that time with petty things such as that. Besides the two of them had never been much for them when it came to their relationship.

With his hands extending to her he grabbed the woman by her waist and stoop up on the tips of his toes to press his ethereal lips against her own real flesh and blood pair. He couldn't feel the sensation, and to her he knew it would feel cold and a sensation that would be felt through the force. All that mattered though was this moment right here, that he did care for this monster he created and that he longed for her as much she him.

 

[Slot 9]

There he was. He was standing right in front of her. Vishune's eyes stared down at him, unwavering and bright. She felt him pull her closer. The frosty sensation on her lips....​

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Her chest burned. It wasn't out of anger. It was... Sadness. Her hands came up to cup his ethereal face. She tilted forward slightly so that her forehead made contact with his own. All she could feel was cold air. But she could still look directly into his ghostly blue eyes.​

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Their time was short. Both Vishune and Ilanthria knew this.​

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Even though the encounter would end, just for this moment, the broken Angel was healed.​

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[member="Dredge"]​

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((OOC: *blows nose and offers you the box of tissues* ))​

 

[Dredge]

[member="Vishune"]

Dredge's shade looked up at the tall Diathim and into her eyes, the silent ghost kept her close to him and began to flicker in and out as he stared at her. He wanted to tell her that it was going to be ok, that he'd return to be with her again. And maybe he could, but deep down Dredge didn't know if he really deserved any of that. He had robbed so many of this chance why did he deserve another? So all he could do for now was look up at the woman and give her a soft smile, a smile that would say he'd stay here for tonight and just have his presence be near her.

Besides, it wasn't like he was going anywhere. With the amount of energy he had spent he couldn't move on for a while until his spirit had rested and he grew strong once again. So with his small smile he faded out of view and he collapsed back into the ethereal realm of the force. The shade gasped for air and soon after sat back and rested against the wall of the cave. He was spent but he had at least learned that he could control the force someway while as a ghost.

He'd have to atone for what he had done to others before figuring out if he could truly come back for Vishune. Maybe he could, but for now there was only rest. Only time to ponder about his mistakes and the life he had wasted.

((We can time skip for tomorrow))

 

[Slot 9]

Vishune did not sleep that night. She instead had spent the entire night meditating. Knowing that Dredge was still there, even if it was only through the Force, was comforting to part of her being. The rest of her being was angry. What it was angry at was anyone's guess, however. The dark aura that surrounded her had weakened when she was with him, but now it had returned to it's complete murky strength.​

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She sat on her knees with her head bowed and her hands folded in her lap. Energy radiated so much from her that many stones from the cavern floor had began levitating and floating around her. The daylight was just now peeking through the cave's entrance a ways away from her.​

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The raw strength of Vishune's single emotion would drive any normal person crazy. But her anger only made her crave action.​

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[member="Dredge"]​