The Purification aboard the Wailing Choir

[Huka]

In one fatal moment, the entire CCS-class battlecruiser Wailing Choir fell into chaotic disarray as loyal Covenant soldiers battle against unsuspected traitors, the heretics have taken the moment to reveal themselves and murder their former brothers like the serpents they are.

One even fabricate the foolish thought of assassinating Inquisitor 'Muramai in his bed, whilst his guards were busy trying to execute those who tried the same attempt onto them.

However, the seemingly vulnerable Inquisitor have skewered his would-be assassin, and is now fully armoured, and he and a small lance of his Swordsmen of Suban marches through the ship, performing the most radical of inquisition; Purification.

No questioning, no mercy, no compassion, just savagery unleashed as all who are deemed heretics are immediately executed.

As Til is to see this to be finalized.

[darthsloan]

Former Major L'Sae Fulthamee
Now L'Sae Fultham
With Seren and Zera as they evade the combat.

It is unknown how the mutiny began, but L'Sae had his suspicions. Some how his journal leaked out to the rest of the crew or so he thought. Regardless of if it did or not, the mutiny had provided him with the chance he needed to leave the covenant. He was done with this lyrical nonsense of salvation, and many of the others on board the ship thought so to obviously.

He had asked his learners to come with him, to leave it all behind. Despite their loyalty to the Covenant... they were also loyal to L'Sae, so they agreed to go with him. They were attacked by both heretics and loyalists. L'Sae wasn't surprised in the slightest. It was so chaotic it was hard to tell who was heretic and who wasn't.

Despite the difficulty the eventually got to the hanger, where one lone phantom remain docked.... but.... something was entirely wrong, yet so familiar.

[Huka]

As one of his black-armored honour guard cut another Heretic with a beautiful swipe of his blade, Til stepped into the main hanger, untouched by blood as his guard took the glory.

He simply observed with his hands behind his back as his breathing wheezing out of his respirator. The ship's light beamed off his bone-white armor, centering into the dark furrows of the markings that decorated it, and his purple underrobes had a radiant shine.

Looking about, he saw the dead of the condemned or the faithful scattered about, and simply shook his head. "With all of this death, life will spring anew." Til mused before walking across the upper level and noticed movement. Looking down, he saw three sangheili; one major and two minors.

With a very detail-seeking eye, he knew who they were. One of his swordsmen growled and moved to kill but the Inquisitor lifted a hand, keeping him from moving out of line.

"Keep going, secure the area, no one enters." He ordered in a whisper, and they did as commanded, splitting up.

Keeping his eye on the Major, he watched as they seemed to plan a escape. "L'sae, what are you doing?" He asked, softly but a growl underneath it.

[darthsloan]

L'Sae's head dipped when he heard the voice. It would seem they would not escape this easily. L'Sae knew the voice by heart. It was his teacher, Til. L'Sae chuckled slightly out of amusement. It felt good to hear from him again... even in the direst of circumstances. Seren took a step back out of fear while Zera just stood there unfazed. L'Sae admired her courage.. but her courage was blind. "We must start anew Teacher. All aboard this ship are destined for death, but not me or my learners Seren or Zera. We will start a future away from here Teacher. Away from all this war, death, and worry. We are of a warrior race yes, but not for the sake of war. We fight for honor and nothing about this is honorable."

L'Sae turned to see his Teacher to show him how much he has matured. There were several visible scars throughout his body, but the most apparent one was the one over his right eye. "I know you don't approve Teacher, but what other choice do with have?"

[Huka]

Til listened to L'sae but remained still like a statue. Looking at his subordinates, not doubt his students, Til felt memories running in his skull. Memories that made his hearts bleed.

After L'sae was finished, he slowly nodded before walking slowly, making each step audible with the room silent as the starlit void just outside of the shields.

Walking down the middle catwalk of the room, still looking at the three, feeling a similar emotion that he felt when Rakath and Legra spoke of their desertion. But as he looked at L'sae, the Major was still short but he was certainly grown.

"So..." Til said, his throat suddenly dry, and he swallowed before continued, "You will leave your brethren as they fight for the preservation of this Covenant and its ideals?"

Looking at the evident fear in the male Minor and the defiant courage in the female, Til felt pride for his student and his selection of pupils. He really hoped it this wasn't going to end as he thought it would.

[darthsloan]

"No... I can never leave my brothers... my sisters. As long as I fight for them, they are with me. I want to fight for the good of OUR race Teacher. Not the Unngoy, not the Kig-yar, not the Jiralhanae, not the Prophets. This does not mean I side with the Humans, for I don't fight for them. I fight for you and all of the Sangheili."

Seren seemed to calm down at L'Sae's words and Zera loosened up a little. She had been tense the whole time. Maybe deep down she knew something bad was going to happen. Maybe this is acceptance? Perhaps. "What should I do Teacher?"

[Huka]

Til exhaled at his student's question and looked to the stars to his side. As if looking for a answer in the ocean of stars and black void, he closed his eyes, his mind conflicted with two sides;

The former warrior in him wanted L'sae and his students to leave and hide amongst the stars, but...the Inquisitor he is now wanted to take all them captive and interrogate them till all of their sins were confessed and execute in a cruel sense of mercy.

"Once I believed myself to be a true warrior of Sanghelios, and more importantly, Muram, but it seems in the accursed desert of Artifice, I have been cursed and thrown from grace. Ever since then, I have lost my honor, my lance, my brothers to this madness. I can't tell if I am a noble warrior of the Covenant or a mad hound.
As a Minor, I have always wished to know how the hierarchy thought, and see if I could change things for the better, but Fate had a cruel twist when I finally made it to a status that worthy of command." Til said, mostly to himself, as he felt emotion entering his heart again, and he placed his clawed hand on his mask.

Pressing a few tusks to the internal controls, he pulled the mask off with a hiss of escaping air, and revealed his horrible face, burnt and scarred, the narrow slit of one green eye looking at them, as the other was a explosion of green, purple, and red.

"I am sorry, my student. With the loss of the most closest to my heart; Rakath was a near-father to me in my younger years and Legra...Legra was a brother. I don't know what I can expect of you. What is your ultimate intends?" Til asked, his voice harsh with past injuries and irregular with his respirator.

[darthsloan]

"My intends....", He said allowed becoming lost in thought. That was the question wasn't it? What was he going to do? L'Sae wanted to fight... but he did not wish to take part in this.... cleansing of the human race. How did the Covenant choose that race to be wiped out? It was troubling mystery.

"I intend to leave the Covenant and find a new world, untouched by Covenant or Human influence. I want no part of this... this endless slaughter. Why did we ever fight the Humans? I answer this: it is because the prophets declared them unholy and of heresy. I have spent the past few years pondering this... and now know you can only trust a certain few in my life. The prophets are not gods... but flesh and blood. It is flesh and blood that makes us all impure and imperfect."

L'Sae found it hard to look at his teacher. There was a rising fear in his chest. L'Sae understand too well that what he said could have him condemned as heresy. There was a chance that he would not be killed, but the chances grew slimmer down the ranks. Seren and Zera seemed to share his fear. He continued but his fear could be heard in his voice, "D-Do you condemn us Teacher?"

[Huka]

Emotionlessly, he looked at the other two, and simply replied, "I can not condemn those with a clear heart if they can't speak of their own minds."

Putting his hands behind his back, Til looked expectingly at L'sae's students, and asked, "Do you believe the same thing, young ones?"

[darthsloan]

L'Sae looked to his learners who had been watching the conversation. The didn't really know how to respond to him and it took them a few seconds to come up with an answer. They believed in L'Sae. Almost at the same time they answered, "Y-yes... we do. Wherever he goes we will follow"

L'Sae clicked his mandibles grimly as he now knew the truth. "They are loyal students Teacher... but they should not go where I must go, at least not yet. I have taught them much... but there is only one thing to teach them. Zera... give me one of your knives."

Zera was reluctant to do so but she gave him one of her many long, bone knives crafted from skeletons found on the battlefield. It was extremely sharp, and can rival the knives of humans. "The final lesson is sacrifice. They have to learn to sacrifice to further the progress of those they hold dear. If we just go Teacher.... you will be held accountable, but if I were to fall by your hand while my learners escaped... the punishment will be less if any. Do you understand what we must do Teacher?"

[Huka]

Til closed his eyes and a cold chill entered his form. He loved his student like a close nephew, he thought to hurt, and still wished he have died long ago to not carry this pain, but he is alive and continues to carry the burden. Dropping his mask to his side, He looked at them with a sad look. "I believe I do, my dearest disciple, but to hear your grown wisdom. Tell me and your student this sacriface. A final lession for them perhaps." He said, his voice seemed off than his usual demeanor.

[darthsloan]

"It is quite simple Teacher" He said with grim amusement, raising his voice so his learners could hear. "I must be able to die to further someone I care about. If I don't I have no honor. Right now.... I will show an example for you Learners. Do not mourn my passing my students, for I will always be with you in your minds, hearts, and teachings. Through this I take your burden as mine so that you may live more fruitfully."

L'Sae dipped his head down sadfully. He hated to give up everything, but that is why it is called sacrifice. He held out the blade to Til, for him to use this moment. "I sacrifice myself Teacher... so that my Learners may live. Do you accept Teacher?"

[Huka]

Til lifted a hand to one of his pauldrons and unclipped a chain that kept his cape on his back. Doing the same thing to the other, he allowed gravity to pull it off his shoulders, and grabbed his mask in its fur. He was quiet while doing it. "Do you believe a sworn Inquisitor would allow heretics of any kinds to just walk away from a Purification. That wouldn't be fair for all the others I have already cleansed." He said, without any real threating or kindness. Pulling his old glyph-decorated plasma rifle from his hip holster and tossed it in his pile, along with his utility belt.

[darthsloan]

L'Sae chuckled grimly at this and kept the knife. His teacher was insane... brainwashed even. He couldn't believe this was happening, but it did anyway. "Then I must teach you something as well teacher. It is something you seem to have forgotten. Honor with your true self must be obtained before you are able to honor or obtain honor from others. Do you forsake your honor to your duty? They are similar but honor comes first Teacher. In this way you condemn me.. and it seems my sacrifice is not needed." With this he readied the knife, showing his new skill he had obtained over the past few years.

[Huka]

Despite keeping a emotionless face, a uncomfortable aura suddenly pulsed from Til at this insult.

It is a great, and often fatal, deed to insult a Sangheili's honor. "You wish to teach me about honor? I will speak plainly when I say you wound me deeply." He said, pulling one of the six curveblades from his lower back.

Bringing it to the light, it shone with the magnificence of Xirsas craftsmanship, a precious gift to him from cycles ago.

"We shall see how this lesson will go. Don't disappoint me!" He growled before somersualting though the air and vanished in mid-air.

[darthsloan]

L'Sae clicked his mandibles as his Teacher did so. Could he not reason? It had to come to this, it was inevitable. No matter how much reasoning he did, Til was duty-bound, not honor-bound. He had vanished and could be anywhere. He signaled his learners to go now silently with the wave of his hand.

Despite their reluctance, they obeyed and entered the phantom they were already close to and made it so no one else could use the grav lift to enter it. L'Sae stood at the ready with the knife ready in his hands. It was a skill that he had been working on lately, and its a skill that he had grown quite proficient in. To his right he saw a distortion in the area in which he saw, but it had disappeared as quick as it came.

[Huka]

Moving in random directions, his footsteps silent, and watching his former student. Til was somewhat disappointed when L'sae actually thought that he wouldn't notice his students boarding one of the few phantoms in the room. He could have easilt killed them but he want to test him. Suddenly appearing from the right, Til thrusted the handle of his curveblade at L'sae's face.

[darthsloan]

L'Sae was alert. Alert enough to see Til coming at him from his peripherals. He was smaller than most Sangheili, so it was easy enough to duck and dodge Til's attack. L'Sae could not however bring himself to counter attack his teacher. He felt regret for what he was doing by fighting his teacher. Instead he put a little distance between him and Til with his hard breathing calming down to normal. "It is true that students do take after their teachers."

[Huka]

After L'sae dodged his little attack, Til wasn't even close to be impressed yet. "So it seems." Til said before lunging again, thrusting his curveblade forward at L'sae's chest with incredible speed.

[darthsloan]

L'Sae knew now that there was no going back. His teacher had lost all sympathy with him as shown through his actions. His teacher was fast, but so was L'Sae. L'Sae was able dodge this by twisting his body although the knife did graze through his armor. At this range L'Sae was limited in option and chose to slash at his teacher's side.

[Huka]

As L'sae escaped Til's thrust with a simple graze, the experienced swordsman quickly noticed the incoming slash. Acting quick, he twirled his blade to make the two curveblades lock, and he lifted them up high to keep either one of them from harming the other, meeting his student eye-to-eye.

"I expected better from you. Are you scared, child? Do you worry about your...students." Til said, his voice low and rapsy. "Or are you worried about me?"

[darthsloan]

The words hurt him deeply, but yet he was right. He was worried about his students and his teacher. He believed he would go insane with grief and sorrow if his students were killed, but he felt he would be lost forever knowing that his teacher had been killed. That sounded humorous in his head, because he knew it was unlikely that he would prevail in this fight. "It would seem that is my deadly fault..... I care too much for both my students and my teacher"

[Huka]

Til's face seemed to soften, continuing in a low whisper, "And so you see the greatest weakness of the teacher role. Those who would not care about their students and their lives are no teachers at all, but tamers training mongels, and you are no mongel."

[darthsloan]

L'Sae felt his hand shake from the pressure the two were putting on the knives. He found it.... ironic that his teacher was still giving him lessons despite the dire circumstances. He chuckled quietly in amusement, "It seems that you will never run out of things to teach me."

[Huka]

"Be careful of your emotions and attachments, your enemies will use it against you L'sae. It is a deadly weapon to yourself and enemies. " Til whispered moving his good eye to the door where his swordsmen went in before leaning in, "Will you remember that?"

[darthsloan]

"I will teacher", said L'Sae. Something was eery about this, and so he kept himself on guard. His teacher was stronger than he was from years upon years of service to the prophets. He noticed him looking over to the door but he pretended not to see.

[Huka]

"Good, I expect you to make me proud, L'sae." Til said before looking directly into his student's eye, "If not, I will correct my mistake personally and leave nothing behind, do you understand?"

[darthsloan]

L'Sae thought he understood, but there was more to what he said than what L'Sae heard. It was a clue, a hint of sorts, yet he hadn't figured out what it was quite yet. "I-I understand. I will make you proud teacher."

[Huka]

"Good." Til said before he suddenly moved his sword with a flick of a wrist, throwing L'sae's weapon away, punched him lightly enough to make his head jerk to the side, feeling the confused Major's weakness, grabbed him, and tossed him over to the floating phantom. In a moment, he started to walk towards L'sae slowly.

(OCC: sorry for the obvious godmod, it is to making this part less confusing and more quick)

[darthsloan]

((OOC: XD I would have liked for you to tell me first but then again I wasn't here for you to tell me anything. It's fine because I was getting confused with his intentions. I doubt L'Sae would have been able to foresee this.))

It happened too quickly. First he was locking blades with his teacher, and then he was on the ground next to the phantom. The side of his face stung slightly and he was stunned, but otherwise he was fine and was able recover himself. He lacked his weapon and Til didn't. He was tempted to run into the phantom and flee with his students... but would that be considered cowardice?