Riding Stars isn't all that you make it out to be... (Cyrstal/open)

[Fiend]

:: I stepped out of the back door of the bar and continued to walk down the alleyway. I knew hse was soon to follow, she had been for some time. She'd been following my trail for a little while and I was becoming quite bored of it. I liked to toy with people but this was getting annoying. I had paid people to kill her just to see what had happened and they hadn't come back yet, I had paid people just to mess with her, slow her down, whatever but they hadn't come back either. It was amusing there but the lack of action was making it boring.
I turned the corner and reached the dead end I knew was coming. It was a dead end in the alley yes, but it was also the dead end to Cyrstal Starrider. I had a few plans and their was no bad end to them tonight, or at least one that I could forsee. I twisted my shoulders and in a glance motion, my jacket came off of my shoulders and my bare chest hit the currents of city air.
The armor that should have gone over my chest hung behind me from my waist and on my arms were the slightly shimmering and glossy gauntlets I had made. They were fitting but very protective, cortoris and a few other metals were forged into it and they had been heated with fires powered by my darkside. The metal reeked of the darkside and the blades that protruded from each knuckle didn't sing for the lightside either.
The blades were fashioned so that I could hold something with ease but that they were still usable. They weren't too long but in close quarters were deadly enough. A few other gadgets I had been sure to bring with me for the game I had planned for the jedi also. I flexed my hand and heard the tink chinks of the bending armor and then looked up to the direction she would come from. Anytime my sweet... I laughed for a moment, my shrill metallic laughter ringing down the city night.::

[Crystal StarRider]

Her gait was measureable as the Jedi Knight embarked on her quest to locate Fiend. Her blond tresses were glowing radiantly under the city lighting, following the dark signature which bore the brand of death. His hired assassins fell victim to her blades, speedily meeting their fates while staining her soul with each killing, yet it could not be avoided...such is the aftermath of war and the plague on a Jedi. Pale blue eyes targeted the Sith. Crystal's face remained stoic as she ingested his vile image...

There is no emotion...There is peace...

So many times had the young Knight mentally recited this code, meditating on its meaning before an impending altercation as she prepared herself for a battle, training her thoughts on no one but the Darksider in her midst.

.."Sith..your tour of destruction has come to an end,"..she clearly articulated, her voice free of emotion, standing like a foundation of justice.

Her sister Aura had always imposed her warnings over Crystal's overconfidence, yet Crystal was a Rogue at heart, possessing an unorthodox method of dealing with the Darksiders. Her hands were still, poised ready to grasp the twin lightsaber hilts hanging from her belt, patiently awaiting Fiend's decree, inviting a challenge to seize this evil incarnate, intending to arrest future heinous exploits upon the vulnerable populace.

[Fiend]

:: I laughed at the woman who stood before me. Her thoughts, more like a program rolled off her like water. A jedi code that was supposed to increase their focus on the force. How pathetic. She would learn though, by tonight, she would learn the true way to focus on the force. Peace was only achieved by death, because the rolling waves of life never left anything untouched. She lied to herself it would seem and no emotions were only found in those who didn't breath anymore. It was impossible, even robots ended up feeling emotion, but the dead couldn't.
I stood there for a moment, my shoulders shaking in silent laughter. I stared into her eyes for a moment longer before stepping closer. It was my turn to give away something, even if she hadn't intended to let her "code" slip. I stepped forward and my eyes blazed red, black lightning searing from the tips like tears in the wind. The bare skin in the back of my shoulders began to hiss and bubble as I tapped into more and more of the darkside than my physical body would allow. Barely visible tendrils of black smoke and wisps of darkness began to roll off my body as I took another step closer. My gauntlets lightly clinking to gether as I took strides like a cat. The stance reeked of arrogance and ambition but I was one to back such things up. My white hair slightly moved in the wind that Crystal only felt when I took a step closer to her. I smiled and my red irises seemed to be screaming a silent message to the rogue jedi.::

Know Crystal, that the force cannot be channeled through the dead. Only life, emotion, blood can channel the force. Yes it moves through everything but passion drives the pwer we wield. You search me and seek to put me down in your holy righteousness. Well I come to sunder your divine sight and show you the path of humbleness. I'll show you the gates of Heaven and explain why they are really the gates of Hell. The only paradise we seek to retain is the Savage Garden. But really that retains us. We are captives in its hold and the twisted beauty it bestows upon our lives are the crack of dawn and the set of the sun.

:: The darkness rolled off my tongue like a bitter flavor. I quite liked it, throwing the darkside out of my mouth in verbal speeches such as these. In fact my words could've taken shape and become a wall at the moment because the air had become so thick from it, it was hard to breath.
I made no motion to attack or reach my weapon. I wanted her to absorb it and then I would take my chances. My back arched slightly, the pain was incredible but I'd felt worse...::

[Crystal StarRider]

The rapture in scourge and wrathful excruciation; so was the objective of the Darksiders. Baneful emotions barren of restraint, free to wander throughout an infernal soul, condemning its host to a permanence of putrification, intertwined in warped conceptions, waging an enduring campaign against the virtuous of heart by malignant intent.

Crystal's objective was clear, as was her standing as a Jedi Knight, sentinel of justice. She felt his scrutiny boring through her thoughts, as she deterred further probing with a mind block. The Jedi code; so many had chosen it as a target of folly, one to scoff at, yet it anchored a Jedi's centralization, the drive for knowledge, and harmony with the Force. While the Jedi were capable of emotion, the code is what is instrumental in controlling the negative side of fear, fury, and hatred, motivated by an unbridled passion for vengeance.

Her adversary had declined to issue an attack, yet Crystal knew it would eventually commence. She felt a verbal exchange was warranted.

"You slip inside a fabricated life of a famed singer, tantalizing your admirers as the incubus, spreading your canker upon naive followers. I have never witnessed such barbaric carnage as the one of which you had orchestrated in the arena," she spoke candidly in a dauntless bearing.

She ambulated ahead till they were a mere meter apart. The blood red eyes of the hellion in direct contrast with her topaz blue orbs. It reminded her of the blazing sunset, drowning the azure sky till twilight beckoned forth the lucent stars, nestled in the vastness of space. She again voiced her mind.

"You perceive I am young, weak and inexperienced, unlike my sister Aura, yet I may surprise you Sith. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Crystal StarRider of the Noble Warriors of Light. We are always prepared to attack if it will deter the deaths of the pristine denizins. I will ask you this once. Will you cease your immoral ways?" Crystal sensed his amusement at her prowess, but was unintimidated at his stinging presence and heavy armory.

[Fiend]

:: My arms lifted into the air and draped as if I was a marrionette, my arms lifted by unseen wires. My head tilted to the side as I listened to her speak and a wry smile tiwsited itself upon my synthetic face. I loomed and seemed to be taller than I was for a moment until I waited for the instant when she blinked. The moment she blinked, she was mine. Her azure eyes were shut an the mechanical working of the human brain was in process. She could create her mind blocks all she wanted by she would have to stop breathing to keep me from getting in.
I felt a satisfying snap when I surged the force through men and slit the moment control of Crystal's nerves. She was blind to it all now, her senss were down and only until I was finished would she know what I had done, knowing by her own force senses, temporarily stopped, she would think I had held time.
I flew forward, I couldn't attack her while I did this but I could move. I circled her for a moment and looked her up and down as my feline-like stalking gave me a view from every perspective. I stood behind her now and I let my hold on her sense go suddenly. Her eyes opened now and I watched as the pupils dilated and she realized I didn't stand before her now.::

Are you prepared now Crystal? Will I cease my immoral ways? I am a conductor of souls Crystal, you cannot stop the music I create in the name of the Garden. You stand no chance against the cacophony of my symphony! You shall not ask if I stop my ways again, you hold no sway o'er the darkside that it would ever turn to you to pay an ounce of its attention. My plans have already been set into motion, you cannot run from the tide of darkness that will cover this galaxy! You can either stand on the solid ground I offer or be washed away in its unstopabble destrution. I will only ask you the once... join my journey to the Garden and its twisted beauty, or fall before me and serve the Garden and I in death and beyond...

[Crystal StarRider]

Revolving around, a single brow lofted posing hint to caution, Crystal canted her head to the side, feeling out of place as the effects were slowly wearing off, while she summoned the technique, Force of Will.

"Your music is the messenger of deception and greed, to quench an insatiable thirst for raze at the expense of the innocent. Whether I stand a chance against your powers which indulge the Darkside, is of no consequence to me. If I should secure my demise in my trial to dispel you, then so be it. There is no death..There is the Force.

Crystal then filled her lungs inhaling deeply, as she exhaled to gain her bearings, sensing his dominance in the Darkside may be far beyond her reach to match. The Jedi Knight quelled the fear churning in her mind, locked with his all consuming gaze.

"I shall neither flee your corrupt and perverse foundation at arresting it, nor drown in the congested polluted sea of stolen souls of which you so proudly navigate. I shall join no one except my fellow Jedi in our noble crusades. I only serve the oppressed and ones of morality and ethics. Your overconfidence shall be your downfall...pawn of evil... I see you leave me no choice in the matter."

Crystal unhooked her twin light saber hilts sequestered to her belt, depressing the hidden niches. Upon activation, two plasma beams of emerald casted their electrifying green hue, washing over her form like a forest canopy in springtime's dawn.

"Arm yourself," she said with the uncompromised tone of a seasoned warrior.

[Fiend]

Why?

:: I smiled slowly, I didn't need to draw my weapon until it was meaning I really was in trouble. So far I wasn't. I put my hands in a way that it looked as if I was offering something but only the metallic clink of my gauntlets could be heard.::

Assure yourself in your beliefs Crystal for when your demise is met, you shall learn that I will govern your death and that your soul shall be bound eternal... So lay your wepaons against me, try me, anytime.

[Crystal StarRider]

"You shall not capture me in your web of deceipt by tempting me to attack like a hellbound Darksider. I will be on your back like a trained raven ready to divert your approach if you dare to lay a vile hand on another soul. If you so wish a battle between us, it is you whom shall cast the first invitation of clashes," Crystal retorted, keeping her emotions at bay.

[Fiend]

:: I nodded. Well she wouldn't fall into that hmmmm? There were other ways. I waited until she blinked and then pulled my mind trick again. I laughed as I cantered closer to the jedi. I opened up her ears and whispered lightly into her ears.::

Follow the shadows StarRider! Follow them or you'll lose me...

:: I closed them off again, she wouldn't actually register it until I unstopped the entire thing, it would seem to her again as if I had stopped time but the words would hit her as if out of a waking dream. I ran then, past her and into the open streets.
I turned the corner and grabbed the first person I encountered. I slit their throats in a snake like motion and then snapped their entire head off, blood few cross the street. My moment control over Crystal would have stopped by nowand she would soon enter the street, drawn into my carnage. I grabbed a stunned woman and slit her down the middle of her breasts. Blood was slung across the street as I rolled in a dance like motion. I landed in front of another and my bladed gauntlets tore into another stunned bystander. Within seconds, blood was rolling down the street and into the drain now. I laughed and licked one of the blades off my gauntlet. It wasn't the blood, but the pain I tasted.::

Well Crystal? Will you defend the rest of them or let me kill them?

:: She would be turning the corner... NOW::

[Crystal StarRider]

"Blasted mind trick again," Crystal scowled, shaking her head, racing to the scene teeming with gore.

Her eyes targeted the prone bodies spoiled in blood, her sabers falling in suit as the young Knight swiftly closed the distance between them.

"Your time of slaughtering mortals has come to an end! Prepare yourself scoundrel of abomination!"

The Jedi Knight was caught up in the storm of anger, as her emotions were running wild, making her vulnerable to her adversary in the process. Arching her right saber in a backhanded motion, her left held before her lower body, she navigated it towards Fiend's right trapezius muscle, intending to angle it sharply at dissecting his heart and collecting his foul life with a just termination.

[Fiend]

:: The saber came at me, the blade driving at my bare skin. I turned and pivoted to emerge into real combat. Sending the assassins had been fun but contesting with the problem itself was so much funner. My gauntlets could brush aside bare saber attacks and asI moved my arms spun in a windmill motion, pushing the glowing beam of light away from me long enough for my hand to whip around and draw out my red saber. The glowing red blade splashed across the already darkened street.::

You were too late to save these, this bloodshed before you and yet you, a knight of creation, seek more? You come at me to kill? Amusing that it is what you "fight" to stop.

:: My back ached from the burns across it but was far from cose to being finished. I pivoted on my steel soled heel and brought my sabr into a round house slash at the woman. Black electricty crackling from the blade as it slung through the air. My eyes flashed red as it came from my right and headed to diagonally cut her in half.::

[Crystal StarRider]

"Scourge of blasphemy," Crystal murmered as her left saber was dipped downward, vertically, to offset the cogent angled strike to her left side, delivering a shimmer of luminous sparks whilst the blades met in conflict, parrying it away past her left as the Knight then danced to her right for added distance.

"You expect me to stand idle at this murder scene encompassing us, riddled with your acquired war trophies of a cold blooded killing spree? You have been found guilty of taking innocent lives. The verdict stipulates I must stop you at any means afforded to me. Unfortunately killing a Darksider is a necessary evil at times in the life of a Jedi, if all alternate means have been exhausted, as it has evidently been so here. If to destroy the bringer of death saves the lives of others by your sinister hand, then so be it. I am a warrior of Light, sworn to uphold justice in the galaxy. You are the instrument of oppression and carnage."

Upon saying that, Fiend allowing her time to debate with him, finding it utterly amusing, Crystal moved on the offensive. She was molded in concentration, as her left arm hoisted her saber hilt, stepping again to her right, taking a back handed swing to his left rear flank following a 90 degree rotation.

[Fiend]

:: I stepped back and rotated to meet her attack. I knew all of Dios' fighting styles, sword arts that dated millinieas ago and then some. I moved as if I was in a dance, the words from Crystal's mouth had been only the beginning of the tempo to the sword style "The March of the Dead," a fatal style that resulted in death if not finished right because of the twist and flash of the sword that could end up in my stomach if I didn't do it just right.
My spurs sparked across the ground and my jacket whipped around as I pulled both arms into the block. My torso twisted to the point of straining as I pulled my saber back from the attack and brought it into "March of the Dead."
The red saber hissed as it was brought in a full circle around my wrist and then as it switched hands and came forward at Crystal, the red point of the beam splashing black across it as lightning raced through it. The execution was what mattered. I couldn't finish it until the attack missed or struck home. My eyes flared and I snarled as I drove myself forward with the force. My bare skin began to hiss on my back again, my own black blood seeping down my spine.::

I am the master of oppression and carnage, they do my bidding as you soon will too!