Fallen Star (IC) - FLASHBACK

[Huka]

Snarling at this,Til ripped his mask off, revealing his horribly scarred face. "Do you see what this war have done to me!?" He roared. "I have once had love and respect for everything. I have revered both what we share but then...I have lost my allies to the antithesis of the Forerunners, to traitors, I lost every strand of compassion for things when my closest 'friends' turned their backs on me and the Covenant." Til cried, his eyes burning from the closeness of crying but then his very demeanor changed to something darker. " I care less for the humans anymore. Heretics are more...enjoyable prey."

[kartoffelfogel]

"Do you truly not see?" Legra said. "You lost one eye and now you are blind to everything?"

"The truth has been staring you in the face, but you are too busy trying to destroy it to see it! That mask is meant to hide you from the world...not hide the world from you!"

Legra now approached Til, and the curveblade flickered across his former friend's abdomen.

[Huka]

Widened his eyes grew wide at this, Til looked at the curveblade and noticed liquid sizzling off its blade. "Why did you leave?" Til asked, the inside of his throat thick as tears fell. Looking straight in Legra's eyes, he asked again, "Why did you leave us?"

[kartoffelfogel]

"I left...because I saw truth, and it beckoned me to follow it."

Legra deactivated the curveblade. It winked out, and Til's blood sizzled on the Temple floor--hallowed ground, upon which it was forbidden to spill blood. As if it mattered anymore.

"You could say I saw the light by looking into the darkness. Til, you lost an eye on this world...but you are as blind as if you had lost both."

"You know me well...and you know that I would not have betrayed me people for no cause. I may have forsaken honor...but the truth, the compassion and the courage that form it still course through my veins."

He turned, and leaped to another painting, this one closer to the window.

"Let that wound scar over, Til. Our battle was meant to be here...but you were never meant to defeat me alone. I will make sure that we cross paths again...but until then, I have what I came for."

Legra leaped out the window.







A Phantom rose up, and upon stood Legra.

It swooped away from the Temple, headed toward Tavise and Rakath.



OOC: Sorsa, Huka, this is your last chance to stop us from getting away with the painting. Z, Kenny, hurry!

[Huka]

Just as Legra started to leave, Til jumped far, switching his glaive for one of his spears, and landed on the window sill. "Legra!" He howled before throwing it hard. He heard a thick thunk as the spear stabbed into the Phantom's hull.

Seeing it fly over the trees, rage built up in his body, he have been insulted in the most personal of ways, and he have foolishly let him escape. With a inhale, Til released a earth-shaking roar, "Legra!!!" Leaning against the window, he felt his wound on his stomach.

he will pay for this.

When he turned to find some easy way out, he was surprised to see a Moonbeast, its visage too familiar and too sudden. He caught its throat but the force of the pounce thrown both of them off.

Roaring in anger, Til felt gravity pull him down the side of the temple while trying to fight off the beast. Punching it in the face, the furious Inquisitor spun their bodies around till he was on top, and slammed his energy dagger-edged fists into the beast.

If he was going to die, it will follow him. Unaware at first, they bounced off boulders, both slamming on the rocks hard, spinning on each landing.

Til coughed as blood splattered out of his mouth and they finally fell into the lake. The moonbeast floated away dead but Til was broken physically and mentally. His vision wavered in the water but he could see a large serpentine creature moving in the way. He could barely feel his limbs, his most of his ribs were broken, and his back felt outworldly.

Trying to focus, he could see the light illuminating in its body. A eel. When their eyes met, the eel made a silent hiss with its long mouth and its lights flared into electric fury.

Will the Moonbeast Queen's sting ever leave me, those were his thoughts before the eel lunged at him.

Over the water's surface, lights would be seen flashing with discoloration of blood following.

[Spartan 999]

Special Operations Inquisitor Sorsa 'Xirsasai

[/center]

Sorsa whirled at the sound of an echoing roar, quickly followed by a low snarl typical of a Moonbeast.

"Til, status?" The Inquisitor said over the COM. Nothing but silence responded. He checked the small marker on his HUD that showed where Til was; it was moving down erratically. "Damnation."

Sorsa started running, focusing on speed rather than stealth, though his footsteps were still quiet. He jumped over a small dip, using a low-hanging branch to swing across.

In just under a minute, he reached the lake bank. He skidded to a halt, his feet digging long dual gouges in the ground. He looked around, then tensed when the water several meters out seemed to boil, indigo coloring the water. Odd lights flared, seeming to dart around rapidly; almost like a hunting animal playing with its prey. In the middle of the miniature maelstrom, he saw the small waypoint that showed Til. He swore, ripped off all of his weapons save the energy sword on his arms, then sprang into the water.

Sorsa sealed his helmet just before hitting the water, then started paddling furiously to Til. After a few seconds, he saw the outline of a glowing serpent or eel-like creature. It was strafing around an unmoving Til, occasionally biting and slamming Til with its tail.

Rumbling furiously, Sorsa swam even faster. Luckily, the eel wasn't facing him by the time he actually reached it. His hand shot out, and he grabbed the eel's tail by the tip. A shock went through his body, making him jerk suddenly.

Snarling silently, the eel attempted to whip Sorsa around; not an easy task, even for a rather large creature. It attempted to bite Sorsa, but received a kick to the eye for its trouble. The eel reared, teeth gleaming from the light of the electrical current running through its body.

Sorsa bellowed in anger as he flicked his hand, the dual prongs of an energy sword flaring in the water. He slashed at the eel, cutting off the last meter of its tail. Utterly confused by this sudden turn of events, the eel hesitated in its pain. Taking advantage of this, Sorsa lunged at the eel's head, then cleaved its head in two with a stroke from his sword.

Sorsa deactivated his energy sword, then swam to the unconscious Til. He grabbed Til by the armor, then worked on swimming back to land.

He grunted as he pulled himself out of the water with one hand, the other holding Til over his shoulder. He put his foot on a small outcropping, then used it to boost himself fully onto land. He laid Til on the ground, one hand pulling off his badly cracked and damaged helmet. He leaned down to listen if Til was breathing, but found he was not. He took off Til's chest armor, then placed both of his hands in between and slightly under each heart.

He paused for a second, lifted his forearms while curling his hands into fists, then slammed both down hard. Til jerked from the force, but remained unconscious. Growling, Sorsa slammed his hands onto Til's chest again. No response. He pounded Til's chest a third, fourth, then fifth time.

"By the gods, Til, WAKE UP!" Sorsa roared as he slammed his clasped hands for, hopefully, the final time.

[Huka]

Special Operations Inquisitor Til 'Muramai

Til's body jerked from Sorsa's pounding but no reaction. His eyes were wide open but his good eye was glazed over in a very narrow slit. His mandibles were wide open, showing his inner mouth just as agap, thick blood slowly dripping out of it.

The exposed parts of his body was nearly mutiliated from his fall and the eel attack, bruises and broken bones could be seen under the skin, it was hard to tell if his skin was black or brown from the discoloration of his skin and tattoos.


Yet, as Til's body remained still in the realm of reality, his soul was elsewhere, in a vast desert, thick with blowing sands. He looked around, confused, fearful, and anger. He seemed to have been walking from a long time now, he knew he must have died because he just remembered seeing the eel attack his body before this. Yet...he felt alive.

Despite the signs, Til knew he was in the Hulian Desert, forced to make the spiritual pilgramage to the Temple of the Ancestors before being accepted to true death or end up one of the trillions of trillions of grains of sand that consist this sea of sand.

Trying to shield his eyes from the painful sand, he tried to walk over a dune, but felt a unusual-but familiar-pull of some kind.

"Til." A voice called. His name was being called. Looking around, he found no one anywhere near him, but the voice still called him.

When suddenly he felt something grab him. Looking down, he saw a skeletonal hand gripping on his naked foot. Trying to pull away, he found himself frozen as another hand flew out of the ground, followed by a skull with infernal eyes. "Til, my only treasure."

Fear gripped Til stronger than this fell creature, completely terrified as the rising corspe rose from the dune, climbing itself up to meet him face-to-face, beaming red eyes to his own discolored eyes.

"Til, my precious jewel." The corspe mourned, its claws on the Inquisitor's neck, seemingly to inspect if it is talking to the right person. "You have your mother's eyes, but your soul just as corrupted as my own."

"W-What are you?" Til stuttered, despite the corspe's words. "Fallen Child of Muram, listen to me." It said with a deep voice as the sands seem to whirl around them like a whirlpool. "I am your forerunner, your beginning, and if you continue to walk the path, your end."

Til looked at the corspe as if it was speaking a different language of another species. His mandibles shut tight to somehow avoid the sand as it started to stick the ancient bones of his captor and stitch into flesh. Closing his eyes at this disgusting nightmare, he never imagined the afterlife to be like this.

Deciding to face this torment like the warrior he taught to be, he forced his eyes open to meet the face of a very familiar Sangheili, who bore the hallmark traits of a Muram clansman, well...what covered most of the skull as the right side of its face was still a skeleton. Its fiery eye meeting Til's eye, but when he made the mistake of looking at the other eye, he found the living side of its face looked remarkingly like his own...before the Great Hunt, but its eye was bronze instead of green.

"I am your father, Til, and this is your end if you continue to feed your weakness that burdened you." The mocking demon hissed.

* * * *

Til's mandibles clicked and cracked before blood popped out of his mouth and his pupils widened into small ovals. Inhaling, the Inquisitor breathed raggedly, and gripped his naked chest, while trying to make a scream. He felt his ribs were dislocated in many areas, his lungs felt like they were on fire like before, refusing to make a sound and his whole body felt horrific.

Noticing a presence, he weakly turned his head to find a very worried Sorsa looking down at him. Brotherly love felt his damaged hearts, at least Sorsa still stayed by his side.

Painfully lifting a hand, he tried to grip Sorsa's arm to ensure him he was alive and to somehow form words to get the false artwork that Legra have stole, but unimaginable pain took his senses, and pulled him away from consciousness.

[Spartan 999]

Special Operations Inquisitor Sorsa 'Xirsasai

[/center]

Sorsa sighed heavily when Til lapsed back into unconsciousness. He let himself lean back, so he was sitting on the ground. Til's chest rose slightly and steadily. His wounds were serious, but given his resilience, Sorsa knew Til would survive.

He became aware of a dull, throbbing pain coming from his left arm. He took off his armor there, the pain spiking when he touched his skin. Burn marks crisscrossed his arm, due to his holding on to the eel's tail. He hadn't realized just how badly he had been hurt at the time. The pain likely wasn't permanent, but it would hurt for many days, if not weeks.

Putting thoughts of his own injuries out of his mind, Sorsa rose to his feet. He walked to the edge of the trees, his eyes looking for a specific type of moss and leaf. Luckily, he found a sizable patch of moss and several of the leaves he sought fairly quickly. He made his way back to Til, his arms full of plant material. He kneeled beside his brother, then worked on bandaging his wounds.

The moss worked as a pad, while the long, tough leaves made excellent bandages and slings. He worked rapidly, having had some training in the area of healing, though admittedly not much. He looked over Til's wounds; shattered and broken ribs, a cracked spine, a fractured forearm...not to mention all the lacerations, bruises, and puncture wounds.

A few minutes later, he examined his handiwork. Til now looked like a half-Sangheili, half-plant creature, as most of his body had been bandaged by the strong, supple leaves Sorsa had found. He had managed to staunch almost all of the bleeding, and he had created a makeshift sling to be used with Til's fractured arm.

[Huka]

As Zqai and the majority of the lance lunged at the traitorous Rakath and his beast, one of the ferocious Sangheili's comrades, a officer named H'Da turned in time to see a flying plasma grenade. Rolling to the side, he warned the others of the explosion, but two were killed in the explosion.

Growling at this sneak attack, he flared his energy sword, and primed his own grenade. "Traitor scum, taste a true holy flare!" He roared, throwing it into a cluster of rocks. The explosion sent pieces of gravel everywhere but it served its purpose.

The light flashed, showing wavering heat, and knowing full well what it was, the Special Operator lunged with a bloodthirsty warcry.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

The Special Operator was caught off guard as one of the Covenant soldiers tackled him into the ground. Thankfully the energy sword had missed Tavise as he readied his own. Quickly getting up, the Sangheili looked at his foe. The painting was still hidden and safe but Tavise wasn't. He attempted to lunge with his energy sword at the man who had attacked him, hoping to get the man off guard.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

Growling, H'Da parried the incoming sword, and spun to the side, keeping his eyes on the Heretic. Roaring, the swordsman wavered his sword, waiting to see if the fool will strike again.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

The Sangheili rolled to the left and prepared to strike. Though feeling confident after his last battle he made a slightly risky but good move. The Special Operator lunged while crouched attempting to stab the other Elite's legs or waist.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

Clicking his mandibles in disregard of this former Special Operator's attack, H'Da flipped over the lunge, and made a quick slash to the Heretic's exposed back.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

The attack by the other Sangheili hit him, but didn't effect Tavise's
performance as he stood back up. His shields were now gone and their was a small scratch in the back of his armor. Spinning around he made a few quick jabs with his energy sword hoping to get the Special Operators shields down too.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

Striking the Heretic in the back but no cutting through his spine like he would have hoped, H'Da just barely landed when he turned to jab at the Special Operator continuously.

Defending himself with the flick of his wrists and small movements whilst stepping back with each attack, the Sangheili blocked most of the strikes when one jab was quickly replaced by another that cut at his shoulder.

Snarling, he unholstered his plasma rifle, and unleashed a short burst of plasma.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

The Sangheili was struck lowering his shields to half before he dived to cover. Reaching a large crate he stood behind it while he regained his lost shields. Unsheathing his needler, Tavise peeked out and fired half a round at the Covenant soldier.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

Growling as a trio of needles popped against his shields and a fourth stab into his arm, H'Da snarled before running to the side, vanishing from view as his camouflage shrouded him.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

Exiting his cover, the Special Operator looked around and saw no one. Relaxing himself thinking his foe had fled, he looked over to the landing pad. Still no signs of the Phantom.

"Damn" Tavise muttered, looking around.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

Following the Heretic, H'Da decloaked as he tackled him to the ground with a snarl. "I have you now, Heretic scum!" The officer roared as he thrown a fist down on him.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

Snapping his mandibles at the man who tackled him, Tavise tried to get back up but was hit by a punch. The Covenant soldier's fist would have probably hit the Heretics sharp teeth as Tavise grimaced. With one hand free and one hand being layed on by the enemy Special Operator, Tavise activated his energy knives. He hoped the one underneath stabbed his foe while he swung the other knife at the man's head.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

Yelping in pain as the one of the Heretic's energy daggers stabbed into his side, H'Da refused to allow the Heretic's incoming dagger to come to his face.

Activating his energy sword, the officer angled it to catch the incoming arm between his plasma blade, as he stared in the Heretic's eyes, and gripped the stabbing arm, pulling hard to pry the dagger out of his body.

"I am going to enjoy dragging your body to Inquisitor 'Muramai to pry every last secret out of your corrupted mind." He hissed.

[kartoffelfogel]

OOC: Huka, you double-posted...let me guess, you thought one didn't post right? Pick one, delete the other.


Huntsmaster Legra 'Adantee

"There he is!" Legra shouted as he clambered into the inside of the Phantom. The pilot gave a confused look, until Legra rushed over and pointed out Tavise. The pilot nodded, and changed course.

There stood Tavise...under attack!

"Can you shoot his attacker?" Legra asked the gunner.

"Not without shooting him as well!" the answer flew back.

"Very well. Then we must simply sweep him up with the Gravity Lift."

So saying, the Phantom careened toward Tavise...

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

As the Covenant soldier blocked one of his attacks, the Special Operator deactived the blocked energy knife and attempted to grab the hand of his foe that wielded the energy sword. Just then he heard the sound of a phantom. Looking up while still strongly applying strength to grab the sword, Tavise saw the nearby phantom. The Heretic headbutted the other Sangheili, while also attempting to run his sharpened helmet spikes into his foes eyes. As he did this he used his free hand to try to push the other Special Operator back before speaking into his comms.

"Legra! Get down here and secure the painting! That's all that matters!" He yelled, trying to take the energy sword for himself while still pushing the Covenant soldiers.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

As his helmed head met with the Heretic's, H'Da growled, shaking his head to focus. Feeling his arm being grabbed, H'Da snarled as he flicking his arm in a attempt to cut the Heretic's arm off, and jumpped back to recover, not before hearing the heretic's words.

The painting...

Jumping to a comfortable distance, the Special Operator looked around a moment to find this painting, but returned attention to the Heretic.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

As the energy sword was swung it slightly touched Tavise, bringing his shields down a small amount. When the other man got up Tavise grunted and did so too. Activating his energy sword the Special Operator looked at his foe for a minute. This needed to end soon, or the painting may be found. Still holding his energy sword with his dominant hand, the Heretic stealthily touched his plasma pistol. He hoped his enemy wouldn't notice it as Tavise raised his energy sword. Staring at the man he started charging up a plasma pistol shot. Suddenly while hopefully remaining unnoticed, the Special Operator fired. Immediately after he ran towards the other Sangheili slicing his energy sword.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

Seeing the energy bolt, H'Da slid to the side quickly, feeling the plasma slice through the underside of his thoracic cage, his energy shields died, which angered the Special Operator.

"How dare you!" He managed to say as the Heretic lunged to strike.

Angling his body, H'Da gripped the lunging sword arm, using his own sword to keep the Heretic's sword away from him, and kicked to trip and flip him over.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
In The Air

Seeing his attack had failed, the Special Operator was going to try to slice his foe again before he was tripped. As soon as Tavise was in the air, he attempted to kick the other Sangheili in the chest with one foot and in the face with another. Then as he landed he made a few large swings with his energy sword at the hopefully stunned warrior.

[Huka]

Special Operations Officer H'Da

When H'Da was about to impale the Heretic into the ground where he belongs, he was kicked in the chest and face, knocking him back abit.

Starting to tire abit, he recovered in time to block against a couple slashes, but the Heretic's strikes were becoming more powerful and fatiguing each hit, until finally H'Da's sword was knocked out of his hand, and a final cut sliced his chest.

Inhaling raggingly, the officer had his shaking hand over his wound, feeling the searing pain, and looked at the burnt blood on his hand.

Looking up at the Heretic, his eyes burned with hate for a second but he exhaled, and fell over on his side.

[Kenny]

Heretic Tavise
Pavillion

Relaxing now that the battle was over and he had killed the Covenant soldier, Tavise looked around. Everything seemed finished as he strolled over to the painting. He decided he would not pick it up until necessary for it would not be spotted. All that remained was Legra picking Tavise and Rakath along with his... pet. The Heretic sheathed his energy sword and looked up at the phantom, awaiting departure.

[kartoffelfogel]

Huntsmaster Legra 'Adantee

The Gravity Lift swooped over the Tavise and the painting, and they were hurled into the air.

Legra extended one hand to catch the painting, and the other toward Tavise. He grabbed the Sangheili by a limb, and hauled him onto the Phantom.

"Apologies for the rough treatment--we decided to put the Gravity Lift up to its highest setting. For speed."

"Pilot!" Legra commanded. "Take us back for another pass...we must pick up Rakath and--wait, is that a ba'knwa?"