In the Graveyard (open)

[Makoto Neo]

<center>
<font color=#FF0000>
Stone Sour
-Bother-

Wish I was too dead to cry
My self-affliction fades
Stones to throw at my creator
Masochists to which I cater
You don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on,
I won't let go 'til it bleeds

Wish I was too dead to care
If indeed I cared at all
Never had a voice to protest
So you fed me <smallfont color=#FF0000>-Censored-</smallfont><smallfont color=#FF0000>-Censored-</smallfont><smallfont color=#FF0000>-Censored-</smallfont><smallfont color=#FF0000>-Censored-</smallfont> to digest
I wish I had a reason;
my flaws are open season
For this, I gave up trying
One good turn deserves my dying

You don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on,
I won't let go 'til it bleeds

[Solo]

Wish I'd died instead of lived
A zombie hides my face
Shell forgotten
with its memories
Diaries left
with cryptic entries

And you don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on,
I won't let go 'til it bleeds

You don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on:
I'll never live down my deceit
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</center>

The Graveyard streched on for miles. Each tombstone shouting out to the world of a fallen comrade, family member, or such. Neo stood somewhere in the mass, a unmarked tombstone perched infront of him towering over a slight uprise in the grass.

The particular stone, among a row of three, notified the Sith of his mother. To the left, his father, and to the right his sister. All dead on another world, and brought to this lush one for the sole purpose of being respected among thousands of others.

Taking a single white rose from the folds of his obsidian robe Neo crouched down and placed the flower at the foot of the stone. He had already done similar to his father and sister.

Respected.

"Why do I even bother.." he mummbled, turning his gaze to the sky above, "It's not like I'll ever see 'them again.."

[DarthHERA]

A voice, cold and unfamiliar came to Makoto Neo from out of the crisp cool air.

The shadows and crypts hid the outline of the speaker, just as the force cloaked her presence from the greiving heart.

"Dont mourn for those who cant hear it. It serves no purpose whatever."

She watched him with luminescent blue eyes as he straightend and looked toward her, just as she had done so for the past half hour. She had watched as he placed the white roses on 3 graves and could see in his face the emptiness he was feeling. He was a solitary figure that had caught her attention because he was darksider. And his compassion had raise her curiosity.

Her voice was matter-of-fact, yet cutting.

"It only reveals you to be weak."

[Makoto Neo]

His ruby red eyes narrowed at her comments, slightly angered.

"And why would one who hides in the shadows care about my problems?" Neo barked, half growl and half spoken.

[DarthHERA]

Bemused, Hera continued to boldly look the stranger over.

"Hiding?" She shrugged and remained where she was. "If you like."

It didnt matter to her if he thought she was hiding - she had nothing to prove.

Her calm exterior belied the power that boiled in abundance through every pore of her being. From the subdued way she spoke, to her silent body language - the Sith Master exuded a lethal aura about her that only a fool, or a very rash individual would ignore.

"It's not so much that I care persay, but that your inner thoughts are so readable, that were I an enemy, you would be severly exposed."

As Makoto looked to where the voice was coming from, he could see Hera leaning lazily against a life-size Angel Statuette that graced the cornerstone of a grave.

"No...my problem right now is trying to decide if I am indeed "not" an enemy."

[Makoto Neo]

Neo's gase dropped to a lifeless stare, the growled edge of his tone dispersed. "For one to be termed an enemy, they must attack or induce a psychological instability which would name them as a hazard. At this distance, there is the possibility that you could slay me here and now.."

He turned torward Hera slightly, "But that notion is up to the carrier, not the victim. Eh?"

[DarthHERA]

"I suppose."

She pushed off from where she was leaning and walked in measured steps towards where Makoto was.

There had been a shift in his manner - he was not quite so aggressive as he had been when she first spoke. Sith, they were always so anti-social - no wonder they were always fighting.

She offerend no explanation as to why she was there, or why she had engaged him as she had. If he wanted to know, he'd ask, and maybe she'd tell him. Maybe not. She was still making up her mind about him.

She took a moment to read the grave headstones, surmising that Neo was a close relative of those interred.

Her eyes were frank, and emotionless.

"Did they die well?"

[Makoto Neo]

He followed her eyes to the graves, "No. They did not. Military casualites," Neo replied, cautiously at the first.

"War victims, 'pose to be protected by the Jedis.. tch."

[DarthHERA]

A scoffing "hmmpf" was all the comment Hera made regarding the protection of the Jedi. She held the righteous lightsiders in contempt at the best of times...but felt those who trusted their safety to them even more contemptible.

To say so would just be cruel.

Instead she turned her sharp gaze towards Neo.

"And I suppose you seek revenge? retribution of some sort for their deaths?"


ooc: so sorry for my late reply, Makoto.

[Makoto Neo]

Shining ruby coins of eyes glanced at Hera before back down at the tombstone, a deathly silent book marking the passing.

"Revenge? Nay, Retribution... Yes. I want two jedi heads for every one of my kin lost, but I must develope my skills further before doing so," Neo responded, cracking his thumb loudly before turning away from the graves and walking through another row. More names from the war, none of his kin nor his concern.

"Do you have greivances against those brats?"

[DarthHERA]

"Greivances?"

Hera eyed Makoto coolly.

"Depends on what you mean by that. Do I hate them and find them a blight on the galaxy, yes. Do I feel they meddle and pontificate in affairs that are not their concern? Yes. Do I have a personal, intimate reason for hating them? The answer to that is Yes, too. But a story for another place and time. As for retribution..."

She lazily took in the weapons Makoto carried, and continued pointedly.

"... 2 Jedi heads for every one lost to you...that is quite the undertaking. Jedi heads are not easily come by. Especially for a....knight"

The way she said the last word "knight" was a guess as to his rank. The stand of his bearing, his boldness...lent themselves to a calculated guess as to this mans ability.

Hera waited to see if Neo would correct her.

[Makoto Neo]

"Perhaps, but my rank is nothing. Just a title," Neo responded, confirming the guess. He knew that the cause was futile at the present state, for Neo had been a sniper - a fighter of distance - rather than infighter.

"You are right, jedis heads are hard to come by. But one less of the weaklings in the world for every wound is well worth it, I care not of my family anymore. Never did, I respected. I never loved."

[DarthHERA]

She understood where Makoto was coming from. Retribution involved honor, not just revenge. Duty was as good a motivation as any. After all, the end result would be the same - the depletion and humiliation of the jedi.

"True... as you say, rank can be over-emphasised, if one thinks a title alone credits them somehow. Ability is what really matters."

She began to slowly circle Neo, her cool blue eyes connecting to his own ruby ones in sublte challenge.

"Would you care to see just what you are capable of?"

[Makoto Neo]

Neo's eyes narrowed, ruby gems inbedded in white. "What are you implying, a challenge?"

[DarthHERA]

She smiled disarmingly, "If you like"

[Makoto Neo]

Neo relaxed, shifting to face Hera. He drew no weapons and held a standstill, old western style one by the looks. Out in a graveyard in the dying light, two opponents with none else in sight..

"You draw first."

[DarthHERA]

"Thanks!"

Lifting one hand and using the force, she called Makoto's lightsaber from his side, and caught it easily in her hand.

Igniting it, she smiled at him.

"Is this what you meant?"

[Makoto Neo]

"Sure, sure. Close enough." Neo smiled himself, inserting his thumb onto a latch in the middle of his palm. He rolled his jacket sleeve back haphazardly, revealing a bright platinum cuff on his wrist. Neo flicked a switch on the top of it. A thin gold metal sheath lept out onto the back of his hand. He bent his middle and ring fingers up, and two gold ringlets slipped over them. He then bent them down, far, in a ward against the evil eye. A ghostly pale rapier blade slid out with a hiss of metal against metal. He kept his fingers down until it reached the length of about two and a half feet, and then popped them up and slipped the ringlets onto his pinky and index fingers. Two smaller sheaths popped out of the central one, pointing at angles, and each released a smaller blade about five inches long.

Neo repeated again with his other hand, adding a direct duplicate of a swordbreaker to his already present one.

"You want another saber, eh?"

[DarthHERA]

ooc: Just so I have it right - you have a 3-pronged blade on each hand right?"


*************************
Neo was an unsual looking fellow. His physical features were not exactly run-of-the-mill and Hera was curious about just who and what he was. There were many different beings in the galaxy, and she hadnt come across one that looked as he did. A spar was always a quick and efficient way of finding out about a person, she'd always found.


She rolled her wrist once, twice, three times - admiring the saber and feeling its weight. The light energy beam tracing brilliant arcs in midair.

Typically, a males' lightsaber was heavier than that of a females, the grip wider - a larger, bulkier weapon in general. This was true of Makoto's saber, but it was no less graceful because of this.

"A beautiful weapon" she said admiringly, "but you are right (she said looking over Neo's now extended swords) cold steel is often a nice change"


She disengaged the lightsaber and placed it to rest on top of a headstone next to her.

Touching the Morphal Crest that sat about her waist and looked like a type of belt or accessory, Makoto watched on as it changed from its solid state into a deep rich liquid. Unwrapping from about Hera's waist, it reformed itself into a long curved blade, and re-solidified to the exact image Hera held in her mind. The Sith now held a long, broad scimitar sword in her hand.

The Morphal Crest (http://pub8.ezboard.com/ftheacropolisfrm22.showMessage?topicID=61.topic)wa s a living creature who's morphing capabilities had been subdued by, and were now loyally subject to Hera's domination, connected by her mental link with the creature. In its hardened state it was like a rock-like metal and could change, and would change, as Hera commanded it to.

She did the same with the curved blade as she had with the lightsaber, rolling her wrist, getting the feel of the weapon.

Turning once more to Neo, she gestured with the blade for him to engage.

[Makoto Neo]

ooc; Yes, one two and 1/2 foot blade in the center of two smaller blades.

***

The transmogrification of the belt into a stable scimitar let curiosity creep onto Neo's mind for a brief moment. The stability of the material was unlikely, but like most things in the world, Neo had doubts to his own thinking. Sliding his boot’s until the heels touched, Neo erected straight with his right arm folded over his stomach and the left arm behind his back.

A cold chill ran down his spine, somewhere in the back of his mind he doubted the difficulty of the task Neo had thrown himself into, before he channeled the force into speed boosts. Neo narrowed his eyes before releasing the built up charge into a forward dash. He dropped his right arm down to his side and bent the left up mainly to keep the stones in tact.

A mere fakir dash. Nothing more.

[DarthHERA]

Hera angled her blade defensively, lifting the butt end higher than the point so that its crescent shape curved protectively about her body in an arc.

Makoto's use of the force dash was well executed, and he was upon her before she could do much else. The clash of steel against steel echoed as Neo's blades caught her own and slid along it a little as he knocked her backwards to the ground.

Falling back with the momentum of Neo's charge, Hera got her feet beneath him, and pushed upward, flipping him up and over her, to land on the hard ground behind her head.

Rolling onto her stomach, she lunged forward, slashing at Neo's side as she did so, dirt and soil flying in disrespectful disturbance of the cemetary grounds.

[Makoto Neo]

It seemed before Mako knew what happened, he was facing the sky. Then the silvery flash in the dying light caused him to jerk away, he kipped up to his feet before quickly jabbing twice torward Hera with the wrist-cuff blades.

Not waiting for retailiation, he lepted back twice and went into a defendable position; right arm out and bent slightly, left arm pulled back close to his face..

[DarthHERA]

One of Neo's quick jabs had just caught her arm, just above the elbow, and made a neat crisp slice into her flesh. A thin red line appeared followed by tendrils of red fingers as the blood began to drizzle down the curve of her arm.

Standing, Hera locked eyes with her opponent. With her free hand suddenly thrust forward, the fingers of which splayed open, stiffly as a surge of force power surged through them and out towards Makoto.

She raised her hand a little, and correspondingly Makoto was raised about 1 foot off the ground - his arms and legs involuntarily unbent and spread-eagled to match Hera's hand - as she used the force to hold him in a form of incapacitation.
The force of the darkside was powerful and she felt a rush as she wielded it.

Stalking closer, the one hand held steady, she brought the tip of her scimitar up to within inches under Neo's chin , but careful that it didn't touch him at all.

Narrowing her eyes critically, she asked him as he hung suspended in mid-air.

"What type of being are you, exactly?"

[Makoto Neo]

Neo growled, straining against the invisible bonds.

"Jesus Christ, isn't it obvious!" He spat, glaring down while tugging fruitlessly, "I'm a Canis Lupus, Now Lemme down!"

[DarthHERA]

Her lip curled in displeasure and she intensified the force holding Makoto, pushing his arms backward painfully and arching his chest forward.

"If it was obvious, would I have asked?"

Her tone was steely.

"You could be lupine, garou, or just plain wolf...One cant always tell just by looking."

Neo could feel his shoulders threatening to pop from their joints as Hera showed no intention of releasing him yet.

[Makoto Neo]

Neo let out a pained growl, his lips peeling back in a snarl. There wasn't much else to say about the subject, he was part wolf part homo'sapien.

"Augh! I'm half and <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont>ing half!"

[DarthHERA]

"Now we're getting somewhere.."

Hera's tone had returned amiable again.

It was deceiving though, she was still very much in a fighting frame of mind.

She tossed Makoto backwards, flinging him to crash into a stone statue of a winged angel with outstretched arms.

[Makoto Neo]

Neo yelped when the statue halted his flight, dropping onto all fours. Weakly standing to his feet, He figured that he had bit off more than he could chew.

Holding his right arm out, Neo concentrated and drew the force down into his left one. He needed to stall for some time, somehow...

[DarthHERA]

She could see Neo's attempt to regroup his control, or rather could feel it. There was a distinct shift in the force energy surrounding him. He was strong, but inexperienced. Hera could see he had determination, but for now, she had failed to inflame any anger he held within. If she did this, she suspected he would prove much more formidable an opponent.

They were only sparring, it was true. It was not a life or death encounter, but any fight could turn deadly, and one should always battle with that in mind.

"You are calm, too calm Neo."

She took a dagger from her bootsheath and closed the distance between them.

"Dont you hate me...even just a little?"

Her hand struck with the quickness of a lightening strike, nicking a nice slice across Makoto's cheek.


"Hm?"

[Makoto Neo]

Neo stood firm, his canine head cocked away from the strikes path seconds before. His eyes quivered slightly before holding fast on Hera's own.

"Nah... not yet..." He spoke, eyes in a calm deathlock, "It takes more than a few knicks and bruses to get me angry. Try harder, Darlin'."

[DarthHERA]

He had barely ended his last word when Hera hit him hard - a back handed cuff against his face, her fingers wrapped in a fist around the hilt of the dagger.

"Im not your 'Darlin"

She backed up a step, her eyes beginning to spark angrily.

"Now are you going to show me you can fight, or just make pleasant conversation?"

[Makoto Neo]

The strike was strong enough to force Neo to the side. Recovering quickly, the wolf-kind cracked his neck to the left and put on a smirk.

"I was hopin' for a chat," Mak spoke, "But I guess that'll have to wait!"

Instantly he channeled the pent up kenetic force around his fist into powering his legs. With a quick duck and takeoff manuver, Neo darted forward torward Hera with a low slash with the right blade and followed through with a high speed round house kick.

Expecting a dodge on both, Mak ducked down to a crouch and swept with a outstreached leg at Hera's own legs....

[DarthHERA]

Hera did infact duck both the slash and the kick, but was not fortunate enough to avoid them both.

The end of Neo's foot managed to still clip her, and that, coupled with his leg outstretched as he crouched, combined to knock her off balance.

As she fell backward, she swung out widely with the scimitar forcing Neo to have to jump backwards some distance, or else have his belly opened up for him.

[Makoto Neo]

Neo fell back, barely missing for a cleave in two by the schimitar. The wolf curled his body and kicked up into the air with his legs effectively launching him into a kip.

Mako brought both of his hands up in a cross, heading back with double steps. He could feel the force evelope him like a cloak, a silken cowl drapped over his whole form..

[DarthHERA]

Getting once again to her feet, Hera strode toward Neo.

She spiked the end of her blade into the ground, it swinging hilt-end up from out of the cemetary earth.

Her eyes now had a wildness to them that had no calming. She was done playing tackle-toss. It was time to hurt Makoto.

The Sith knight felt the sheild of his force energy ripped through with a power greater than he had here-to experienced. It tore apart as if taken to with a jagged blade, leaving him feeling exposed and naked to her fury.

Hera reached forward with the force, bypassing the weapons criss-crossed over Neo's body and struck inside his chest. Cold steely fingers of darkness wrapped around Makotos heart, and contracted about it.

He felt a suffocating, drowning sensation as Hera squeezed - a shooting pain that travelled up his chest and down one arm. Instinctively he tried to gulp in breath.

Hera had a hardness to her gaze, an untouchable veneer of agression and cruelty.

"Shall I kill you now?"

And she intensified her grip.

[Makoto Neo]

Neo clutched at his chest and sunk to one knee. It felt like his heart would explode, killing him within seconds, and breaths came in short gasps.

Killed from the inside, intolerable.

Neo wairly stood to his feet, stumbling forward a couple of steps with shortening breath and rising anger before sinking back down to his knees. It seemed impossible to make it to Hera with the deathlock on his internals, but the wolf-kind was determined to go down with a large bang.

Unable to keep enough pressure on the thumb triggers of the wrist cuffs, Neo let the blades slide back into the sheaths. With only one option left, he reached past the duster and drew out a black hilt - customed lightsaber hilt - and thumbed the switch on.

'I'll die after you, ladies first.. you know,' He silently spoke, mustering the last purge of energy to launch forward with vigil. His eyes briefly filled with a glow of malevolence and transfered into the crimson saber he weilded.

Neo struck out with a horizonal cross about stomach height, then danced on his heels for a diagonal hack before he collapsed down to his knee again. The pain began to become too great..

[DarthHERA]

Neo's blade was in hand within a split second, and Hera's hold on him wavered slightly as she was forced to evade his sudden lunge, upsetting her concentration.

He was proving tenatious, and finally she had gotten some kind of angered response from him. He had skill, and would not give up. That she respected.

She recovered quickly casting a resurging grip on his heart which now felled him from his knees to crumple onto the ground.

His breath was shallow, the pain gripping his chest making any sound but angry growls possible from him. His arm relaxed and the crimson lightsaber now lay still in his open hand.

Hera stood over him, watching as consciousness threatened to leave him.

"You cant beat off such an internal attack of the force using physical means. You have to fight the force, with the force."

She watched as his eyes, still shining with defiance bored into hers. And she smiled.

Neo felt the pain recede, the hold break and vanish. A rush of air filled his lungs.

Hera moved back a few steps in caution as he began once more to move.

[Makoto Neo]

Neo felt relived when Hera dropped the hold, and slowly grasped the sizzling, humming saber as he drew himself to his feet.

"I'll take note of that next time, Mi'lady," he replied, given in a respectful tone, before clipping the saber back into his coat. He felt the strength rolling into his muscles again, temorarily drained from the lock.

Once more he drew in the thumb hooks on the wrist cuffs and sent the blades back into their respective locks. Cracking his neck to the left and back to the right, Neo was ready for round two..

[DarthHERA]

Hera plucked her scimitar from the ground. As her hand touched it, the Morphal Crest once again became liquid in form. It wound its way about her waist and then reformed into its solid shape of before to look much like a belt or adornment of some kind.

She walked a little closer once more, alert, but not threatening.

Her eyes dropped to Neo's hands, where his blades had reverted back and were now not to be seen.

"I like those weapons. Did you create those yourself?"

[Epyon]

A figure emerges from the shadows with spikes coming from his elbows and shoulders.

::Yes I did::

:: You like::

:: Well I like yours. So lets say we fight and the winner gets the others weapons, deal::

[DarthHERA]

Both Neo and Hera turned their heads to look at the newcomer.

Hera watched Epyon move from out of the darkness and was unimpressed.

"Us against you aren't such good odds" she countered smiling cruely. "Just who are you, anyway, who wants to loose his toys so quickly?"

[Epona Rhi]

Quietly watching from a short distance away, the small cloaked form watches intently at the melee going on between the woman and Lupine. Then as things got interesting, another form walked out of the shadows. This one a bit cocky.

[ hmmmm...This could prove more interesting than I imagine ]

The cloaked form stays silent and in the shadows as full lips curl into a smile, and slightly long nails very softly drum on either elbows within crossed arms.

She then decides to make herself known and steps out off to thier right side. Pulling the hood back from off her head, she stands there in the light. Her purple colored eyes going between the three in front of her.

"Now don't let me interrupt you..... I'd love to see him back up the trash he's talking."

[DarthHERA]

ooc: was anticipating Neo to post - sorry for delay


"Interupt?" Hera's gaze shifted from Epyon to Epona, who had now stepped from the shadows. "Not at all. Our spar is done."

Hera turned to Makoto.

"This is a busy place."

[Makoto Neo]

"Yes, a real nightclub party around here," Neo replied to Hera, narrowing his sights on the two newcomers. One boasted about Neos own construction beloning to himself, which was not truth within a heartbeat of itself.

Neo frowned. He set a ruby stare at Epyon, "It is anonymous, can you back up your tounge?"

[Epona Rhi]

She stood there eyes on the two that were having it out earlier. She kept a small smile on her face as her eyes switched from the Lupine and Hera.

"I guess he's lost his tongue. Most braggarts do when they are faced with them "putting thier money where thier mouths are" if you will."