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 Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:28 pm
How long had it been since he had been hospitalized after the battle with Themis in the alley? Super Sailor Taranis couldn't say. So much of his life had been wrapped up in battles since the moment he had set foot back in Destiny City. He came back with murder on his mind, with the death of his girlfriend spurring him forward. His plan was one of self-destruction. He would destroy Linarite, and then he would simply disappear.
But that was before he felt the warmth of Dani in his arms again, before she cupped his face in her hands and told him I'm here over and over until all the sadness in him had been cried out.
So why did he still feel lost?
It hadn't hit the senshi of sand until he saw Queen Serenity of the Silver Millenium at the ball. So many nights had been spent cursing her for abandoning them all. So much time had been wasted planning for a world without her. Was she... her? Or was she gone? Taranis just wanted an answer. He could handle it if she wasn't there, but if she was going to drift in and out of his life, as absent-and-then-present as his father, Taranis was going to have some serious problems.
Perhaps that was why he was back outside in the dark of Destiny City. A heavy fog licked the benches and low bushes of Destiny City Central Park. Normally Taranis avoided this place at night; it was a hotbed of activity. So why was he here now? He could hardly remember. Cerulean eyes fell to one gloved hand. He flexed it and watched as the mist wove in and out of his fingers, like it was trying to hold his hand.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:34 pm
"The killer returns. I'm surprised you had the nerve to come back to Destiny City, after your picture was all over the papers like that. At the Ball, no less! You're either really brave, or really dumb, and considering how easy it was to eliminate your little girlfriend, I have to say the second." The mist was not her doing, but General Linarite was taking advantage of it well. In the foggy night, the only thing that would have given the young woman away was the glowing red orb hovering in the curve of her staff, bobbing as she moved it back and forth hypnotically.
"You really have to get your priorities straight. You could have had me at the ball, had you tried harder. But you got involved with Castor, and he stopped you so that my queen helped us all get away with the prize. That has to sting too, doesn't it?" In the light of the street, Linarite and her nasty little smile emerged to stand for everything Taranis hated. Even at her tiny size, every inch of her was of the Negaverse. Cruel, cold, and calculating.
Why she was here now could hardly be a mystery, she had a job to do. A job that included killing senshi, and Taranis had started to make it personal. He looked like he was fixated on her, and that was a problem. Problems had to be solved.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:41 pm
Taranis turned suddenly. He hadn't felt her aura. He still didn't feel it now. Eyes fell to her wrists, and he saw the horrific bracers that had hidden her signature from them the night that Magellan died. As soon as he saw them, they disappeared back into the mist. His eyes moved to the glowing red orb instead. He had seen what it could do at the Ball. He'd have to watch it.
The words that fell from her mouth were, unfortunately, distracting. "Castor is a fool who was tricked by you -- but he'll kill you. And if he can't do the job, I will." The threat sounded hollow in the empty park, in the surging mist, in the echoing emptiness.
In spite of himself, Taranis took a step backwards. "I'm not afraid of you," he said, suddenly.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:47 pm
The laugh was horrible. Not horrible in the way that really made hair stand up on your arms, but horrible in the way that it was almost too cliched to be real. Every villain in every animated movie ever had laughed the way Linarite was now, head thrown back to send it towards the stars. "Oh Taranis, don't be as gullible as Castor, please! You're going to make my lieutenants look bad, if you're all so very trusting." Stepping closer, fingers plucked the daisy earrings from her ears and looked at them with fake doe eyes.
Her voice was exaggerated sweetly and distressed. "Castor, I love you! I can't kill you, I need you!" The earring was tossed back over her shoulder without any regard for the Senshi of Hail who had given it to her. The ball flew out with a quick snap of her arms, audibly wooshing through the air to connect solidly with Taranis' knee before he could even react to the fact she had moved. "It makes me sick. But oh, I got so much information, and while he's hamstrung mooning over me, it lets us kill so many more of you." Thoughtful, Linarite leaned on her staff.
"Really, you should thank him. Except, I am going to kill you, so you will never see him again!" The laugh sounded hollowly on the street as Linarite advanced, murder in her eyes. Things did not look so well for him now!
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:54 pm
Somehow, this was worse than he had imagined. The Linarite he had met in battle before was cocky, but not quite this completely self-assured. He watched with narrowed eyes as she mocked Castor and threw away a gift from him. Castor was an idiot. He had put everyone in jeopardy because of the whims of his p***s. And yet, Taranis felt rage boiling in his gut to see her mock him so openly.
"Listen," he hissed. But it was cut short. The red orb flashed out, and in just a few short seconds, Taranis had collapsed to the ground, his vision hazy. Gloved hands bit into the dirt, and he struggled to stand. It was too hard. His arms and legs were jelly. The senshi of sand collapsed again, this time on his stomach.
His hands swirled, trying vainly to summon up his magic. He would not -- could not -- go quietly. But the words to his attack did not come to his lips. He could not remember them. His nerves were so shot that nothing came to his mind except an image of Dani crying at his funeral.
Dani, and no one else.
An elbow worked to prop him up so that he could stare up at the hollow eyes of the girl with the silver staff. "You are nothing. Serenity will come back. Serenity will destroy you, no matter how many of us fall first!" The statement was so blindly idealistic that Taranis almost didn't think it had come from his mouth.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:05 pm
The staff came out to hit Taranis in his chest as if he were a ball on a pool table; Taranis, corner pocket. Standing over him, Linarite leaned her petite weight on his body and shook her head very slowly. Every strand of blue hair flowed through the misty surroundings, and somehow...grew longer? What had been a coat looked as if it were melting into a silky gown, gems glittering in the strands of silver winding around the general's head. Her eyes had gone black as the truest darkness, incisors lengthening ever so slightly into vicious points.
"You just do not understand, do you Parker? You're just a weak little boy, chasing after a queen that is very much dead and gone, in the name of a princess who has vanished entirely. You don't even have the power to keep me away from those you love." The orb glowed next to his face, and Dani's smile beamed out - she was having dinner with her family. "Sailor Magellan seems to have recovered beautifully." It faded, and those inky eyes focused on him again.
"I am greater than Serenity, greater than Beryl, and only Chaos can stop me. What ever made you think that a weak little senshi like you ever stood a chance?" It happened strangely, all at once. The orb flared again with its blood-red reminders, and as she drew the staff away Taranis' power left him exposed, helpless.
Human.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:14 pm
Parker.
The sound of his name from those lips stopped his heart dead in his chest. She knew. She knew. How was that possible? How was any of this happening? The night that he had spoken to Castor... had the senshi of hail gone straight to her? Had he tried to kill her and failed? Was he even alive? Taranis tried to remember the last time they spoke, but he couldn't.
Then there was Dani -- beautiful, sweet, unknowing Dani.
His fingertips twisted in the wet grass. It was the only feeling he had in his entire body. Then there was something else. A cool lifting, like the mist was rising -- but it wasn't the mist. It was his henshin. Without his consent, it abandoned him too, leaving one very frail and scared Parker Damhnait crumpled at the feet of one of the most powerful Negaverse agents he had ever met.
It was too much. Despite the pain, Parker leapt to his feet. Civilian or senshi, he would take her down. He would stop her from hurting the people he loved. He would fight. "We are weak alone, but strong together!" he shouted, one fist sailing forward toward her jaw.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:31 pm
It didn't land. The mist blurred and Parker's momentum took him right into the waiting arms of the creature that was no longer precisely General Linarite. Her eyes held his in their eternal depths, the evil and malevolence contained within the true horror. Fingers slid effortlessly into the chest of the Hillworth graduate, blackness flowing into him as well, gripping his heart and turning it into something impure and cruel. It stripped him of his ability to feel those pure and sweet feelings that Dani had originally pulled from him.
Instead, there was just the monstrous woman holding him close and whispering like ice against his ear. "I am going to make you something greater now, and you will thank me for it. I would say that you will love me for it, but there will be no more love. You are going to crave the power of others' lives, and it will make you more than you ever thought possible. Like it made me." No longer concerned about his aggression, if she had ever been, the bluenette released her new toy and let him fall as he would.
"Welcome to Chaos."
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:45 pm
His arm did not strike, but was instead absorbed. As Linarite slid her hand deeper into his chest, Parker was overcome with a sudden coldness. It did not stop at his skin. It sunk to the bone, chilled him so thoroughly that he was short of breath and panting. He waited, breathless, for the chill to lift, for warmth to come back to his fingertips. Such mercy did not come.
Instead, that coolness grew deeper, like a sinkhole gradually widening, until Parker felt ripped open. Slowly, the fibers of his being resewed themselves, stitch by painstaking stitch, until the boy who had been the senshi of sand twisted into something else altogether. The words in his ears were cold, too, but he felt resistant to them. The fear that had gripped him before was gone, and now, in its place, there was a feeling of unspeakable power.
Linarite released him, and Parker took a knee before her -- except he was no longer precisely Parker. His clear blue eyes hollowed to beady red points. A growing blackness licked up his arms until it settled into a long cape of darkest night. The terror that he knew he should be feeling was replaced with a sudden desire to destroy, a desire that was different than his old need to kill the Negaverse. This was just a thirst for mayhem, a stomach for destruction and blood.
A wicked grin broke his lips. "I live to serve," he whispered. The voice was gravelly, both like him and so utterly alien that it created a whisper of fear in his chest. "I am more than I was before." His head bowed to her, and he extended one hand upward, the black gnarled gloves quietly waiting for her hand. "Thank you." A chilled hand landed in his own, and the corrupted boy closed his fingers over her hand like he was about to escort a Queen to her throne.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:54 pm
This was the true power of the Negaverse, the power that the senshi should fear, should try to never be drawn into. They could take you at any time, at any place, and turn you against those you loved. They could turn you into a monster. Sailor Taranis, Parker Damhnait, was now simply a shell of the senshi he was. There was nothing home inside other than the fierce need to consume the purity of Earth.
Linarite, for her own part, was exulting with the power of her new situation. It had grown out of simply the urge to come up on top and had blossomed into a power to be reckoned with. There would not be anyone to stand in her way now, not even Beryl, not even Castor. She was the power, and she was the glory, and Parker would help achieve that for her.
Now, there was nothing to be afraid of but her.
"I did say you would thank me, didn't I? Now I have made you strong, and with that strength will come the understanding of why we do what we do." The orb on her staff had somehow grown with taking his power, and it opened a portal onto that happy street. Pulling him through it by their clasped hands, Linarite stood outside of Magellan's house, saying nothing.
Waiting.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:04 pm
This was evolution. This was the next level of existence. He didn't want to be a better person; he just wanted to be stronger. Yes, this was where his life was destined to go. All of the anger and bitterness that had poisoned his life from his mother's death onward had prepared him perfectly for this role. Parker Damhnait was never meant to be a hero. He was supposed to be a villain. This was what was expected, this was what he was supposed to do.
Surging through the orb on her staff, the boy found himself on a very familiar street, even as he saw it with very different eyes. "Dani," he whispered. Something burned hotly in his brain. "This is Dani's house." Linarite's hand was heavy in his own. He released it quietly, eyes fixed on the dimly lit window of Dani's bedroom.
Taranis watched her shadow cross back and forth past the closed shade. She was waiting for someone. Was it him? Why were they here? Realization hit him heavy in his chest. Black, bottomless eyes turned to Linarite. "No," he said quietly. "No." The word gained more power.
In his chest, he could feel something tearing. The tip of his black cloak glimmered a golden cream. His black, silver-spiked boots flickered: brown, black, brown, black, brown, black. His voice quivered. "No," he said, again, louder. A tiara glimmered gold on his forehead, then flickered back to its silver and black. His skin crawled, great swelling lumps buzzed up and down his arms like there were bugs there trying to break free.
Taranis staggered backwards. "NO," he said again. One eye flashed cerulean, then again dissolved into ebony. Pale glittering shoulderguards appeared, then disappeared. He let himself sag to his knees, gripping his head with both hands and shaking out the forces that worked on him.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:15 pm
"Yes." It was casual, like she were answering a question instead of ordering a man to go and kill the only thing he truly loved in this world. "I do believe this is the house that I was told about, the house of the girl who you loved. Learn this lesson, Parker. Kill this girl, and there is nothing in this universe that will be closed to you. I will not be denied." Blackness focused on the struggling young man, seemingly unconcerned with the flickering changes. Corruption never did hold so strongly until the first death, and that was why it had to be fast.
Normally, they could just kill whomever was nearby, but Linarite would not have it so. Somehow she had failed in killing Magellan, and was going to rectify that situation as soon as absolutely possible. That time was now, and the best revenge was for her to see the face of the boy she loved as her star seed was once more ripped from her pretty chest. The Lina creature would have her revenge, her pet, and her path to greatness.
Parker didn't realize that now, more than ever, he was being tested.
Impatient, unwilling to lose now that she'd come so far, the dark creature reached her hand into the man's back and poured yet more blackness into his soul. He would not get away from her. It coated every inch of his being, head to toe in the inky corruption that made him half a monster. "Kill the girl. Now." It was amazing that she had been wrong, while taunting him, and it was why she was so adamant to keep this turned senshi.
Even now, he resisted. 'Kill me instead.' He pleaded in that awful gravel voice. Over and over, Parker begged her to kill him as his body dragged ever closer against his will towards the front door of his true love's home. Linarite simply laughed again, that Disney Villain laugh, and smiled almost childishly.
"No."
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:26 pm
When Parker woke up in the stiff hospital bed of Destiny City Memorial, his hand flew to the IV and ripped it out. A spray of blood stained the crisp white of the sheets. Next, a tray of silver, metallic pieces went soaring into the air, each one landing at a different space across the room. His bare feet kicked out at the nurse as she raced to his side. One blow landed in her stomach, and she went wheeling against the wall.
A buzzer was pressed, a light began to flash.
His throat was thick and stretched from screaming, but he didn't stop. Parker thrashed so fiercely that he re-injured his set ankle. The bandage around his damaged ribs came loose, and he tore at that too, hands pulling and yanking until the bed was covered in loose strips. Two feet touched the floor. He sagged from the bed, but his legs were not strong enough to hold him.
Parker collapsed in a heap, chest heaving, and eyes racing. In the back of his mind, he heard a woman call out, "He's going into shock! Quick!" Hands covered him, something pinched in his neck, the darkness set in once more until all his rage reduced to the single twitching of his left arm. In the last moments of consciousness before the sedative took hold, Parker remembered the last moments of his nightmare, the frantic look in Dani's eyes as his hands closed on her throat and the rising laughter of Linarite behind him, like a broken record, doomed to repeat forever.
And then he finally went still.
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