MsFicwriter

I just got Fallout 4 and am kicking myself in the head. It barely runs on my PC. GRRRR

VOID: A DARK FANTASY RPG What will a man give for his soul? Enjoy it while you may, But when the Void does call for you, Its price you'll have to pay. In a fantasy realm where souls not only exist, but can be bought, sold, traded, extracted, and even altered, the whole world is for sale. Five luckless, hard-scrabble types, struggling to make ends meet, will soon meet their end in the Void. Each of them has made a bargain with it, whatever it is, and have promised to serve in dark and everlasting space beyond the grave. Serve whom? In what capacity? None of them wanted to know, at least not at first. Now, their time is drawing near, and they're experiencing nightmares of the worst sort. Each of them has one last chance to escape the Void's terrible pull, due to a gift from a tavern keeper at the Eleventh Hour Inn. Will they succeed in conquering damnation? CHARACTER SHEET NAME: Tatyev FANTASY RACE: Human CLASS/OCCUPATION: Amanuensis/Scribe to priests of Vii, God of All AGE: 25 WHY'D SHE BARGAIN WITH THE VOID? To gain knowledge and truth WHAT'S HER NIGHTMARE? She sees what the Void actually IS, but not the capacity in which she'll serve within it. APPEARANCE: As a young Maureen O'Hara WHAT'S HER GIFT FROM THE TAVERN KEEP? A golden dragon egg

Per'dra, free of her nightmare at last, sensed an uneasy shifting of the ground beneath her feet. It was as if the planet itself was being bled of life, bled of everything that made it more than just a solid mass in space. The Entity may have been weakened, but it was far from dead. The Jedi turned to see her allies grappling with their own fears, and being freed from them, but not all had broken their enemy's hold. What can I do? She noticed Corsail and Light talking. Closing her eyes, she meditated for a moment and sent a refreshing, clear mental energy toward both of them in a wave. What both of them needed now was not more dark obfuscation and confusion, but a sharp taste of the reality that the Entity was trying to warp and destroy. Remember that in dreams, everything makes sense, even if it makes no sense in conscious life. This is but a nightmare, and naught more. Awaken!

Free of her nightmare, Per'dra turned her attention to the man she loved, Jedi Code or no. Zarev. Can you hear me? That image you're fighting is not I. It's an illusion from the Entity, and I have a theory on how to dispel it. Say this: Hypocrite, beguile me not. Liar, deceive me not. Traitor, betray me not. Murderer, slay me not. Try it. NOW.

Jedi...Per'dra Yllari... "Who...who is that?" Weakened and thoroughly spent by the dark energy of the Entity, she barely had enough strength to speak. HVALT. The one you struck down. "If it's really you, release me. I can't break this monstrous mentophage's hold on me. Are you a Force ghost? Prove it, before I lose my mind altogether." You must release yourself, with my help. "How? If I could have broken free through my own power, I would have." Remember - not only what you have done, but who you are. You served the Light, and I died for the cause of Light. You made a mistake, and tried to hide it. Face up to it in its full form, young one. Per'dra thought back. Close quarters. Smoke. Strobe lights. One chance. I had to take it, or the target - you - would have eluded me forever. I didn't know that your boss, that Twi'lek spacer, was the real spy. I had to act. You REACTED. You could have spoken to me. "I know, but I was afraid of...blowing my cover. Again, I'm sorry, but I don't know how to make amends. I've been trying to, but how come I've failed?" You blocked out the memory, and covered every single one of your tracks. Confession cleanses the soul, Jedi. Do so. "To my superiors? My Masters?" And the one you love. You may lose him, and everything you now have, but better that than to lose your life and soul. The Jedi never kill their prisoners, and they will spare you execution. "What will my sentence be?" Most likely exile, and the marking lash, three dozen times. Not death. If you had only admitted what you had done, right after you had slain me, you might have been spared. "Instead, I lied and inveigled my way into a web of deceit, with myself as the spider and the fly." Yes. Even now, you have a choice. Either do what justice demands, or die a quiet death and let this Entity claim you - a life for a life. This is not the way of justice, however, but vengeance. However, no one will ever know that you perished with your honor stripped away. You will have paid your debt with your own blood, but what good will that do either of us? None. Choose now. Your heart is slowing, and will stop soon. "Enobarus Hvalt," she said out loud, amplifying her voice through the Force, "I've slain you, and now you've returned to save me - your murderer..." Per'dra collapsed in a dead faint, but her pulse began to quicken again.

As the dark energy from the Entity filled Per'dra's body, Enobarus Hvalt continued to speak from beyond the grave. All around her, the young Jedi saw her comrades in the thrall of - Wait. They're fighting illusions, so that means... "I am?" said Hvalt. "Hardly. If I were a phantom, I wouldn't be able to do this..." He wrapped his ethereal hands around Per'dra's throat and began to squeeze. Fortunately, that snapped her out of the deadly trance in which she had her caught. She stood up, picked up her sabers again, and prepared to attack. "You're going to kill me twice?" the Republic Captain asked, and howled. With all of her remaining strength, Per'dra charged at the hallucination.

((NOTE: I will carry this idea over into the next chapter. Per'dra has another secret besides her love for Zarev, a much darker one. She's been blocking it out this whole time, but the Entity will remind her of it via her nightmare.)) It can't be. It simply can't, she told herself. You're dead, Captain... "Dead?" said the figure directly in front of her. "You only wish I were, Jedi." Before Per'dra stood Captain Enobarus Hvalt, formerly of the Republic, now deceased. Neutralized or terminated might be a better term, at least if Captain Hvalt's state were properly listed in the Republic archives. As it was, his death was classified as a homicide, as yet unsolved. His assassin, highly skilled at stealth, had been so remarkable at concealing her tracks that she had managed to hide the truth from her very own mind. Until now. "It was a mistake," she stammered as her team's fight against the Entity raged on. "I was sent on a mission to find a Sith spy within the Republic networks connected to our Order, and I was certain it was you. Forgive me." "Forgive?" sneered Hvalt. "That is for the living, which you are, and which I am not. You cut me down without a second thought, not having made the final connection that one of my superiors was the traitor, and the mole. You were so convinced by the 'evidence' my superior planted, and here you are, trained in the ways of the Force! You are supposed to be just, yet you aren't. You are supposed to be moral, but morality flew out the window of your consciousness long ago. Most of all, you are supposed to be of the Light, but you yielded to the Dark Side when you hid your guilt from your Masters." "I..." All the strength rushed out of Per'dra's muscles. "I admit it now." "Then surrender yourself. You have not paid the required price for murder, but now you will. Deactivate your lightsabers, and drop them on the ground." She did. "Now, kneel and let me fill you. Let me take the life you took from me." Per'dra knelt, and the nightmare coursed into her body like a flood of poison. Force, if you accept me, I am yours. If not, I am sorry for all time.

Per'dra, thrown back by the massive shock wave that the Entity emitted, decided to use a few of her own. In order to do so, however, she fell into a deep active meditation state. Focusing her thoughts, she sent a pulse outward from her mind, which grew stronger and stronger in tune with her heartbeat and adrenaline.Take this; take this; take this; take this; take this and die.

Per'dra cut down her last strike team member and stared into the depths of space. She could see it, hear it, smell it, almost taste it. She sensed Zarev near, and implored victory.

A flash of dawning horror coupled with rage entered Per'dra's mind. Should have known better. Attack! Thus she did, spinning into action with her twin silver lightsabers and the Force behind her. Subtlety was usually her strength, but she had no time for that. She gave the Entity's controlled soldiers a magnificent display of techniques that Jedi were taught to respect and fear. Still, the onslaught continued.

Write, write, write - and that's an order. ;-) I haven't had many new entries in the CEC lately, and I'm its resident reviewer.

Despite the pain in both her temples, which throbbed like the heads of jellyfish, Per'dra laughed to the point of hysteria at Varik's joke. "Right! Let's all take a vacation, maybe to some other galaxy than this one!" She couldn't stop herself. In the throes of trauma or distress, such reactions were common in ordinary people. For a Jedi, however, it was known as a failure of will. Such was this ingenue's mental state. All things considered, however, it was pardonable. The Galaxy will bow to me! Her guffaws ended in a high-pitched choking sound. She had heard It again. Oh? she took the risk of thinking back. Only if I kneel first, fiend.

...I need everything... The Entity's message reverberated within her mind, and she decided to risk revelation. "I can hear it," she blurted out unceremoniously, "and I can't block it out. I don't think the Entity KNOWS I can hear it, but if it does, I'm fried." A sweat-soaked tendril of hair fell in her eyes, and she shoved it away.

Per'dra squared her shoulders. "The sooner we vanquish this thing, the better." Still, beneath her brave words lay more than a twinge of fear. If she could hear it, what was to say that it hadn't already made inroads into her consciousness? If it had, what would happen? Would she turn against every one of her allies, including the man she loved? Would she cause the entire mission to fail? She had a lightsaber, and if worse came to worst, she decided, she'd use it on herself.

"It's the Force," Per'dra replied evasively. "So many lives are being either subsumed or consumed by the Entity that it's hard to keep my mind and emotions in balance. If you don't mind, would you please double-check the shield capacitors? I can't get a good read on them with all the fluctuations."