The Hand that holds the Fist away [complete]

[Salem Ave]

<center><u>The Cruxshadows - Breathe</u>

God is silent, only eyes from where I stand
Sunday's eclipse the monumental scale of man
Life leaves us parentless in a world I do not love
There's no casualty for what I'm thinking of...

And I am the face you see within the mirror
And I am the hand that holds the fist away
And I am the dream forgotten in the morning
And I am.....I am.....

We are the faith of your tomorrows
Let us breathe, let us see, let us be...
We are your prayers engulfed in sorrow
Let us breathe, let us see, let us be...let us be...

Oh God I only need to see,
to share this light,
to make this hope,
to make it me...

Life may leave us, stretched across the soul we buried
Sundays moving slower when the loneliness sets in
And if our children die, before we reach our own demise,
Then life is blacker still, blacker than the blackest fire.

And I am the face you see within the mirror
And I am the hand that holds the fist away
And I am the dream forgotten in the morning
And I am.....I am.....

We are the faith of your tomorrows
let us breathe, let us see, let us be...
We are your prayers engulfed in sorrow
let us breathe, let us see, let us be...let us
be...

Oh God I only need to see,
to share this light,
to make this hope,
to make it me...

let us breathe, let us see, let us be...let us
be...

***</center>

Trudging step after step brought him no closer to his destination. Both physically and metaphorically speaking, he was walking the same track of land repeatedly, watching the ever-familiar scenery pass by. It seemed like it had been almost a day now of searching, and either the land was all immensely similar, or he was indeed pacing around in circles.

On occasion he would cough, a throaty sounding wheeze that didn't seem quite right passing his lips - something in the atmosphere was irking his throat, causing a tingling in it.

That, however, wasn't the only thing nagging at him. Something in the back of his mind was doing a little jig to try and draw his attention to something. As of yet, however, the item or person that he sought remained illusive. Whatever it was, he'd either never encountered it before, or if he had met it, he had not done so for a good deal of time. The irk took its tole fairly quickly on the young vampyre and piqued his curiousity, though his own body did not permit him to go in search of the source.

Instead, he sat down upon a malformed outcrop from a rock surface and stared down at the cracks in the stone below his feet. The black cloak her wore curled in around him as he closed his eyes, the darkside encompassing him once more in a tight blanket; as if it were lovingly guarding its child. Thus as it coiled around him, it became more aware of his needs and wants, and ergo expanded its field of perception to the extent that his searching for what - or whom - ever became apparent to anyone in the near radius.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth bent his knees as his back arched downward from the tree in which he stood. He was watching Salem, wondering what - if anything - had brought the Darkling to this place. Memories came and went as Jeseth pondered on Salem's purpose, though most of them were tatered and frayed remnants of the beastial creature he had reverted to before his recovery.

"So," Salem could sense a sudden presence which had been there all along, concealed amidst the fabric of life and destruction that surrounded him, "here for anything in particular?"

[Salem Ave]

Timbre and tone caused his ears to almost literally prick upwards as his head rose upwards. The voice and presence now akin meshed to become something more than just a vague recognition, but an instant realisation of who had been watching him all along.

The quills of black hair he bore fell back out of his eyes as he turned to look towards the point which the voice had originated from - a tree, at the base of the cliff surface. Up within the branches was perched a man whom he both respect and feared, but also held in contempt for his disappearance. Cloak had been his Master, and his presence had vanished from all known locations some time ago, leaving the Apprentice without guidance; and more frustratingly, without reason.

"Ssseeking rrresolve and enlightenment."

Nonchalant, he flicked his gaze back down the worn ground.

"Though it ssseems I have inssstead found sss-omething far more interrresting."

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Resolve and enlightenment are purely relative..." Jeseth leapt from the branch on which he stood, landing carefully before Salem while using his wings to control the sudden fall. "Come now, you're not bittered are you? I've provided you with an opportunity to attain resolve, as my master did to me. I was also abandoned, a mere Jedi Padawan when I went off to seek my own path. Surely you've learned something..?" The Dark Jedi met the gaze of his former apprentice.

[Salem Ave]

His eyes were drawn first to the wings that Jeseth bore. Those that had once borne him into the air as a child now remained shrivelled, lifeless stumps on his shoulders, serving only to weigh him down and create an unsightly deformation.

"I have learnt that as unfaltering as I may be in my ssstudies, I prrrogress no further -"

Salem's hands came to clasp in his lap, cloven fingers-come-claws lacing with each other.

"Purpose, for a darksiderrr, is rare."

[Jeseth Cloak]

Salem felt his blood pounding through his veins, as if the rest of the world fell away from him. "Then allow me to share with you the purpose I've found." Slowly, Salem's flesh began to stain with spots, most of them red or green. His blood was rushing to pierce through his skin, and for a split second there was a stinging pain. The rest of the world came into focus as Jeseth placed a hand on the man's shoulder, and his blood stopped its violent and illogical rebellion. "Rise, and walk with me."

He moved away from Salem and began following a shadowed trail from the clearing they stood in. "I sense that something has changed within you since last we met... but what?"

[Salem Ave]

The bubbling pain he felt rippling at his skin seemed to come and go in a split second, leaving dampened patches on his cloak where the crimson had reached the surface and indeed small pools in his palms. As he stood to walk with Jeseth, he brushed his hands down against his cloak sleeve to remove the residue.

“Change? Yessss...”

Salem knew immeadiately what he spoke of. It was a most curious change he had undergone, one that was limiting and yet freed him all at once.

“The Coven, I ssssussspect you have hearrrd of them…” he did not wait for a response, “They have embrrraced me as one of theirrr kind.”

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Interesting. I attempted to unravel their past once, but they were less than cooperative when I embarked upon their world. Is it pleasing... to have been cursed with their blood?" Jeseth's tone seemed serious, not mocking or contemptuous. Salem had been following him for a few minutes, and everything was growing darker. The trees all seemed to bend towards the ground, forming a tunnel of solid vegetation that was several layers thick. It began to get moist and uncomfortably hot. Light was all but a distant memory as Jeseth continued onward, not requiring much in the way of light to guide himself.

Vines, leaves, and thick shrubs began to carpet the floor... They had wandered into what seemed to be a cocoon. The structure did not appear at all natural... the walls had become covered in rot and mold.

[Salem Ave]

“Currrsed? I would not call what I have been given a curse, more of a blessing. I have acclimated myself to it easssily and it ssstrengthens me each day.”

His eyes wandered as they appeared to enter some form of shell, a cocoon of sorts, only one that’s life had appeared to be drained long ago. If it were not for his indifference to physical expression of emotion he would have quirked an eyebrow at the unusual change of scenery.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth stopped at the end of the tunnel, a sphere of death and decay forming around him and Salem. "This is truth... Death: It surrounds us, penetrates us, binds us together... You say you've come no further in your studies? I think you've lacked proper motivation." Jeseth's words seeped into the porous walls around them, and suddenly Salem felt that Jeseth was gone, as if all along he had been merely a whisper.

Salem was now alone, and he noticed that the foul smell surrounding him was the scent of this immense plant-creature's digestive juices. He reached down for his saber, but it too had left him. Jeseth must have taken it from him when he had touched him early.

It wasn't dead, it merely fed off death and rot. The tunnel from which Salem had emerged now closed tightly, burying the man in the center of more than one hundred feet of foliage, rotting wood, bark, and animal flesh. From an outside view, the creature seemed to have suddenly bloomed, an immense flower growing from the top of it and spanning four-hundred-feet into the air, and above the canopy. Jeseth leaned against a particularly large tree and watched, wondering whether Salem would have a sudden epiphany of understanding, or his life force would simply fade from the universe.

[Salem Ave]

It was a literal trove of decay. No matter which way he looked, his eyes fell upon death and its remnants. Flesh and ichors meshed with rancid rotting vegetation, to produce a revolting smell that would have sent any ordinary humanoid running on their heels. A deep sensation of homeliness filled Salem, however, and a perverse one at that. He may not have been ‘blessed’ for a long duration of time, but already he felt contented within the embrace of death. Though it appeared the planet was flourishing upon his pending demise, he was not about to give in to its temptation of release, and pushed himself upwards, using a hard-wood branch for leverage.

Once upon the bough, he surveyed what was around him through the thick curtain of degrading leaves and barred timber. It was not long, however, before there was a protest, and he was propelled back downwards by a branch, no less, to the mossy floor. As his palm passed across the texture underhand, he could feel the life-force of the organism swelling and decreasing, like the beating of a heart. The blackening hub pulsed under his weight and he could feel its dissent as clearly as in any other life form he’d ever come into contact with.

Once Jeseth had taught him how the weak willed could have their minds reigned and pulled into one’s control; Salem was beginning to think that this teaching might play a part, albeit small, in this task. If he was to remove himself from the thing, then he had to remove its source of energy, its soul. How was he to do this? Why, by giving it what it wanted, of course – Death.

His palms firmly down against what was beneath him, the young vampyre closed his eyes and began to channel the darkside through him. It sept out through his pores, eager to do his bidding, and permeated the inner layers of the towering plants pulp-like flesh. On the outside, it wilted momentarily, then struggled to regain some of its former luster.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth raised a brow. The immense creature was beginning to fade away, turning a darker and less natural shade of green. The bloom upon the top of the creature pulled in against itself, one of the petals falling away and blanketing the forest. Sunlight refracted as it made its way through the translucent tissue and spread through the forest, now having been tainted a shade of purple and blue. It would seem that perhaps Salem was doing something correctly thus far.

Inside the beast where Salem now continued to struggle, small vines began to reach out around his arms, drenching his skin with some kind of putrid liquid. For unforeseen reasons, Salem was unaffected by the poisonous bile, yet that did not stop it's acidic properties from eating away at his flesh very slowly. They attached to his legs and thighs, then began to move up and around his neck, attempting to form a thin but resilient layer of tissue around his mouth, intending to smother him.

Salem's will had bent most of the tiny vines to wither away upon contact, but they were shooting up from the ground at such an alarming rate that Salem's concentration was simply not sufficient to deter them all. It seemed as if a million serpent tentacles were now preparing to strike, moving in unison and breaking the calm of the stagnated air around them.

From where Jeseth stood outside he senses the animal's anguish. It was preparing to uproot itself in its attempt to put a stop to whatever “prey” was now tormenting it from within. As the creature pulled more and more of its roots from beneath the soil, Jeseth noticed that it was now teetering slightly. The loss of the enormous petal had put the animal out of balance.

[Salem Ave]

The stifling vines ensnared him quickly, whipping at his face, causing the apprentice to squeeze his eyes shut – he would not need them to see, for the Force would guide him. Though as it held him, he felt its strength lessen. Whilst attempting to stop him, it had to divert its cause from keeping its balance. The vampyre struggled and shook at the leeching plant as much as possible in an attempt to keep it occupied, the pain for his searing skin allowing the Darkside to flourish within him. As a reply, the plant wretched one arm outwards and pulled his head down so that his body doubled over; though this resulted in its creaking forward.

Outside, another leaf fell as its attempts to rebel faltered – causing the death of another limb. It seemed though that these were only peripheral organs, and that with its power regained it would be able to revitalize them. What was the nexus of the being was the pocket in which Salem was trapped.

With each point of contact the vine tips made, they were repelled. On the surface of his skin Salem exerted tiny bursts of dark energy, causing the plant to shrink away momentarily. Of course, this drained him as much as it did the plant, but had a more severe affect on it than him, as it wilted further.

It was time for a large push – literally. Salem strained and let out a large burst of energy, causing a sudden lurch. The plant rocked forwards and allowed its grip on Salem to briefly lessen as it tumbled forward. The Sith flew from the floor into the inner wall of the plant and smacked against the damp tissue before rolling downwards, the pain the plant felt radiating into his mind.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth watched as the plant faltered, then came tumbling down onto its side, still slightly alive but in the thralls of death. The ground shook beneath his feat, and it would have seemed as though a tremor had erupted from within the earth. Dust and leaves kicked up, and the remains of the animal now seemed to be still, only occasionally moving as if in longing for the life it had once cherished so much. Jeseth shielded his eyes from the dirt that hovered in the atmosphere and spat a leaf out of his mouth.

He watched as the mouth of the creature, the round mass that had served as a small entrance for Salem, now loosened and parted, rotted juices spilling out onto the ground and leaving a putrid stench in the air.

[/i]Well done,[/i] Jeseth thought to himself, taking a step inside the fleshy cocoon. One of the root-tentacles lashed out at him and fell dead before it had made contact with his skin. He found Salem there, slightly injured and tangled in tiny vines, but able to get by on his own two feet. "Interesting." The smell emanating from within the creature was fouler now than it had ever been. It's stomach lining began to fall away slowly as it released its decaying victims, some of them resembling primitive humanoids.

"As I said, you merely lacked the proper motivation to advance in your studies." Jeseth had no expression upon his face as he spoke, and wondered if Salem would attack him for making him subject to such deception. The Knight tossed the Apprentice back his lightsaber and kept eye contact, wondering what his next move would be. It fascinated Jeseth to watch how other species reacted to emotional states of mind.

[Salem Ave]

With a snatch at the air he caught the saber and gave a brief glare at Jeseth. On one hand, he would have liked to have lashed out at the man, but he knew above all that it was idiotic to 'bite the hand that fed him'. He simply nodded, and spoke in his traditional indifferent manner:

"It appearrrs sss-o, Master."

Pulling himself from the wreckage of the plant, he stood up fully and narrowed his eyes as he cast a glance back at the being. A slight hiss passed his lips before he turned back upon Cloak with an expectant stare.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth grinned briefly, then drew and activated his red saber. It snapped, hissed, and then fell onto Salem's shoulders with a burning fury. The winged Knight's hands blurred as he cut into both of Salem's clavicles, rendering his arms useless (for the moment) and forcing the apprentice to collapse to his knees. "I grant onto you the title of Knight. It's long overdue." The red saber deactivated with a deadly whisper, it's appetite quenched.

"When you're ready, find me." Salem had turned his head up in time to notice that Jeseth was gone. His presence lingered, yet became more and more remote with every passing second, until it too had vanished. Nightfall had come upon the newly Knighted vampire eagerly, smothering him comfortably. There was nothing more for the planet to offer him, it seemed, except perhaps a scampering meal somewhere in the distance.

[Salem Ave]

The apprentice – no, Knight – grimaced as he leant forward, the pain from the cuts at his shoulders filling him and blurring his conscious. For a moment he strained to hold onto his vision, though it faded as the ache and searing overcame him, toppling him to the floor with a thud. There he lay for some hours and just as the sun began to rise on the planet, could be seen to be skulking inside of a small craft, to depart back to the Sith Palace on Corellia …