The Water Temple

[Zilfer Of Shadows...]

Jik piloted the ship with the defeated sith team down, there seemed something solum about the ship, as it submerged into kamino's water and jik piloted it back down. Archos hadn't emerged from his room, and Hatori apparently hadn't woken up yet form the trama of the incident. Dred Akunin had the supplies however to help speed along the healing process, of those caught in the blast, however With Ignotus left behind Jik assumed him for dead, but Dred akunin didn't seem to care or show any signs of discontent as he went about his bussiness on the ship.

Archos emerged from the back room finally when they landed and when Jik opened the hatch he was the first one out soon followed by Jik, he knew this probably wasn't going to be good, Kamisori didn't look like the person who excepted failure so easily.

"Well, i assume he already knows about our failure, knowing him." said jik aloud half expecting Kamisori to come morphing in out of the shadows any minute now.

[Odan Thos]

Selene looked at the young boy and laughed.

"You can not be my grandfather. He may have left when I was three years old, but I know he was not as young as you."

Selene put her head against the wall, trying to shake the illusion that Kenshi was projecting. It however did not go away.

"Anyways, I know much about my father and uncles. It was my Grandfather... You, that is clocked in myth, legends, and lies of my uncles and father."

Selene did not know why she as still talking to the illusion. But something about it seemed solid, real and it was this that kept her talking.

[galaxyheart]

"No! This isn't right! You're not Ryuu!" Gala screamed at the man who resembled Ryuu.

Gala jumped up with her dagger in hand and ran at the man as if to stab him in the chest. She stopped mere seconds before she made contact. Her head bowed and tears appeared in her eyes.

"This isn't right." she continued to say but she new she wouldn't be able to kill the man as long as he looked like Ryuu.

[Cain]

Ryuu's face twisted with anger at Gala's sobs, "Can you not even bring yourself to kill me? Kill or be killed... this is the way of all life, and thus... the way of the force. If you lack the will to do what you must..."

Just at that moment a horrible shrieking sound echoed through the forest and all around the too. The woman's scream was silenced suddenly by the low hum of a swinging lightsaber in the distance.

"...then you will be destroyed."

Ryuu ignited his lightsaber and an evil smirk came over his face...

___________________________________________________________

"And what evidence has led you to believe that what your uncles and father told you were lies? I suppose you figured a man as righteous and powerful as Lucias was incapable of such things. Tell me though, who told you that Lucias was a righteous and powerful man? Was it not the very uncles and father you've come to detest so?"

Lucias paced back and forth, gaging Selene's responses to what he was telling her.

"What if I told you that Lucias was no great warrior... just a snot nosed punk with no future who was lucky enough to have pity taken on him by a vagabond who possessed a stolen power. A power which he shared with this boy for no other reason then petty revenge and war."

[Odan Thos]

Selene thought on what the child was saying, it was true that what she knew of her grandfather was passed down from her father. She was just to young to remember anything but the feeling which her grandfather invocted in her as a baby.

"You are right that I am not sure about my grandfather, but the stories my father pushed onto my people where contradicting in nature. One side was a goodman that respected all life while the other was much racist."

Selene paused for just a second; but it was a lifetime in her eyes. What if her father was right, what if he was doing what her grandfather really wanted. Could she have been looking for a goodman, someone different from her father. What if that was the man they created, what if it was father like son.

*"Daughter like father. If only you could see that at the time. Father was doing the right thing the entire time. I could see that, why not you."

Selene could see a person in a eligant evening dress. She walked with grace and stood up straight. She looked like Selene, but something about her demanded respect which Selene seem to lack. She looked into the ice cold eyes trying to understand who she was looking at. Selene could sense something familiar in the women she was face, almost as if they had meet before. She continued to stare as the women in the evening dress smiled with a devishless delight.

"You do not remember me do you. All those years I have made sure your father loved and respected you. He was a strong man and needed a strong daughter. I was such a daughter."*

Selene shock herself back into conciousness. The boy was still pacing back and forth.

"Petty revenge which lead to the end of a tyrant, a monster."

Once again Selene realize she was only selecting the view of her grandfather which was good. She needed to open up herself to the possiblity that he was not the person she held all other up in comparation to.

*Selene was sitting on the floor this time, hands in her face. She wanted to stand but when she tried her knees would not hold her up.

"Let me deal with this. I dealt with this type of problem before. My faith is strong, let me be the anchor that holds your beliefs in place. Do not let this thing falsify everything that you ever knew to be true."

Selene wanted to believe in something as strongly as she did before. This elegant version of herself seem like someone with the strength to uphold such a conviction. But at what cost.

"It was what father would have wanted. I had made him so proud of us all those years ago, but you had shut me out. Let me help you, let me be the light that guides your heart through the darkness and into light of our grandfather."

The elegant lady held out her hand. Selene held back for a second, before extending her own hand and grasped the women which seem to be stronger then her. The lady pulled her up and to Selene's shock she did not fall down. The lady slowly turned around, as if to leave when Selene put her hand on her shoulder.

"What gives you your strength. I need all the help I can get in these dark times."

The women turned around and pointed right at her heart.

"I have faith in myself, I know who I am. Until you find that, you well only stumble through life."

Selene eyes widen, then lowered when she started to think that maybe this person was right, maybe she had no self-identity. Selene took several breaths, before speaking softer then she had ever before.

"Help me. I want to be able to stand in up for my believes. I want what you have offered."

The women nodded and walked over. She placed on hand on Selene's forehead and the other on her heart. Within a few second the women's hands started to glow until finally in a flash of light Selene was left alone. She looked around, she still felt the same. Then she tried to bring herself back into focus on the real world, but the room did not change. She tried again, but realize that to her, this was the real world.*

Lady Nyx open her eyes and looked at the child. There was something different behind the eyes, something which was not the Selene of before. Her ice blue eyes ripped into the child, pulling away his defenses as if they where layers of an onion. They dug deeper into his soul and mind.

[Cain]

"Tsk tsk..." a voice said to Nyx from within the boy's mind, "It's not nice to pry into someone's mind, young lady."

The boy suddenly liquefied and changed shape into Kenshi.

"I see that your eyes are serious now... this is good. I don't think I need to remind you that you're still being tested..."

With a big smirk Kenshi's eyes shifted to Gala who was unconscious in the corner.

[Odan Thos]

Lady Nyx looked at the girl on the ground for just a second.

"It is only a human. Hardly worth the time of a shadow guard of my skill."

She noticed the knife as a possible threat, so she would play it safe. Reaching behind her back she for out of the shadows a six foot long spear. The weapon had a look of an ancient weapon wielded by a master of spear combat, having details as fine as words carved into the shaft which read. "To Fight a Shadow Guard is to Fight a Phantom" in ancient Luminos. Lady Nyx flipped the point around and walked over to the girl. While standing a good distance away she thrust the spear towards the girls chest. It was time for Lady Nyx to take her proper place, no more weakness of Selene.

[Cain]

Kenshi smirked as Lady Nyx finished off the girl. At least one of his subordinates had the capacity to awaken their inner strength.

"Hmph... looks like you pass," Kenshi said softly, "You are ready... to learn the truth..."

With those words Kenshi liquefied into a puddle on the floor and the cell door slowly creaked open for Nyx. Kamisori stood on the other side.

"If you want to know the truth about your grandfather... then come with me," Kamisori said as he walked off down the hall...

[Odan Thos]

The spear faded back into a shadow and vanished. She quickly turned around to fallow Kamisori. She did not really need to hear about her grandfather, she had all the confidence in her perspective of him. It was this ability to have confidence in her beliefs which allowed Lady Nyx to maintain control. What she really wished to begin her training, to wield the power which her father would have not taught her. To elevate herself above the other Luminos and become in essence a God as her grandfather.

"I am willing to listen to anything you wish to tell or instruct me in, my lord."

Selene would be flipping out if she knew the Lady Nyx was making such a deal with the devil, but she was looked away. She would remain that way for a long time because her lack of confidence in herself.

[Cain]

"It is good that you have such an open mind," Kamisori responded, "for had you been as unwilling to listen as your lesser half, you may have found it more then difficult to handle what it is I have to tell you."

Kamisori stopped and turned to Nyx. His skin gray and rotten and his heart still beating on the outside of his chest.

"Your grandfather Lucias... was no god. In fact his power, that which you call the power of the Luminos, was not even his own. Lucias was a child... an orphan left to die. In the time which your grandfather lived, those who did not follow the rules of the Samasu were considered trash... but those who could not even fight were lower then trash..."

The sun grows lower and lower in the sky over Chinine as a young man and his father hike through the forest. The boy, with white hair and blue eyes, follows behind his father intently. His father is cloaked in black robes which were common among the Kumori. He had dark hair and eyes and his face bore the scars of many battles.

"Why can't we rest, father?" the boy complain from behind, gasping for breath under the weight of the pack on his back, "It's starting to get cold..."

"Quiet down, Lucias," his father responded, "you're not ready yet..."

"Not ready yet..." Lucias repeated, "what more do I have to do?"

"I'm not sure what more you can do... you may have to go before the king as you are."

Lucias' father stopped in place, his head hung low. Lucias stopped as well, trying to think of something to say in order to fill the silence... but no words came.

Later that night the two sat close to a fire. Surrounded on all sides by wilderness and blanketed overhead by an endless sea of stars.

"I'm sorry I've disappointed you father," Lucias finally said, warming his hands by the fire, "I know I am not strong enough to join the Kuragari. But this weakness is my failure... I will go before the King tomorrow."

"I couldn't ask you to do that..." His father said slowly shaking his head.

"Please Father... if I try and run then yours and Mother's lives will be in danger... not just mine. This is how it has to be."

His Father was silent. Lying down and throwing his blanket over himself he didn't say another word. Lucias sat with a hollow expression on his face as he stared into the flames. King Anemos was a ruthless warlord. All of the Samasu were required to enlist in the ranks of the Kuragari... Anemos' elite warriors sent to every corner of the galaxy to claim land and riches for their King. Those who were not strong enough to pass as a Kuragari... were simply sacrificed to weed out the "weaker elements". If Lucias did not enlist his parents would be killed. If he did enlist then he would surely become a sacrifice. The choice seemed easy to Lucias as he drifted to sleep that night...

The next morning Lucias awoke to the smoldering remains of their fire and an empty blanket across from him. His father was no where to be found. Lucias quickly gathered up his things and headed back to Kankage village. Drums. Drums beating loudly... the sound was coming from Anemos' Sanctum.

On ancient Chinine the Kumori village was known as "Kankage". This village was ten times the size of the loose collection of rubble that sits on Chinine today. At the center of Kankage was a massive pyramid structure known as Anemos Sanctum. It was here that the King preformed his blood sacrifices. Lavish spectacles of greed, lust... and murder.

Lucias threw a cloak over himself and blended into the crowd. The drums from the top of the sanctum thumped as the many sacrifices were marched up the long stairway that lead to Anemos' throne at the top. Lucias watched as some twenty of them were forced to their knees before the dark king. Anemos wore spectacular black armor, covered in spikes and twisted metal. His cape was tattered and ripped and his helmet concealed his face, bearing two large horns like that of the devil himself.

Standing from his throne, Anemos held an odd looking black katana to the sky and began chanting...

"I am that which grips the heart in fright, hearkens night and silences the light!"

Over and over he chanted this while the Kuragari in the crowd below chanted "Kill! Kill! Kill!" to the beat of the drums. Lucias' eyes widened as he recognized two of the sacrifices on the sanctum to be his mother and father. He struggled to push his way through the crowd, but it was too late.

The sacrifices began to scream wildly with terror, grabbing their skulls, seeming to collapse under the weight of their fear. It looked then as if the blade in Anemos' hand was drawing their souls from their bodies. Their force power was being ripped from them, the more they screamed the faster their bodies decomposed. Anemos let out a loud roar as the corpses of his victims were then cut apart by several Kuragari, allowing their blood to flow down the steps of the Sanctum. This caused the crowd to roar as well.

Finally making his way through the mob, Lucias dashed for the Sanctum steps but was quickly pulled back by one of the men behind him.

"I don't think that would be very wise, boy."

"Shut up! Those were my parents! I was the one who was supposed to die, not them!"

"Do you want to avenge your parents or do you want to become the main course of this blood orgy?" The man asked, "Because if you wish for the latter then by all means charge that Sanctum."

"What kind of a Kuragari are you?" Lucias asked of the man who was also cloaked in black robes like him, "I threaten to kill your King and you just stand there dishing out advice?"

"Heh, well for one thing, IF I was a Kuragari, I doubt I'd be too worried about you killing the King. Lucky for you I'm not a Kuragari."

"Then what are you?"

"Come with me..."

The man led Lucias away from the Sanctum and back into the wilderness. There he removed his Kumori robes and revealed two large white wings.

"Are you... an angel?" Lucias asked, looking at the man in awe. He had long dark hair and blue eyes and a scar under his left eye.

"Far from it," The man answered, "My name is Luster, I've come to this planet in pursuit of... a certain man who it seems is connected with this Anemos of yours."

"What makes you think that?"

"The blade that Anemos uses for his ceremonies. I've seen it before. It is an artifact of great power that was doubtlessly given to him by the man I am pursuing."

"How do you know Anemos didn't kill this man and take it from him?" Lucias asked.

"Hahaha," Luster laughed, "Even with the blade... Anemos could never kill Jack. No, I assume Jack abandoned the blade, thinking it was the source of his curse only to realize that without it's power the curse would become even more unbearable. Anemos probably found this blade and used its power to become King."

"Curse?" Lucias asked, "What curse?"

"It's a long story..." Luster answered, "but I have no doubt Jack will be seeking to reclaim the blade. We cannot allow him to do that. We have to get to Anemos first."

"Why would you need me?"

"Hmm... maybe I wouldn't," Luster answered with a smile, "but there's something about you. When I first came to this planet the stench of hatred and death was overwhelming. Somehow you've managed to resist all of this... you truly are something special, child."

"Me... special?" Lucias asked, hanging his head low, "I am a failure. I wasn't strong enough to save my parents... and I wasn't even strong enough to withstand the hatred you speak of. Had it not been for you my anger would have gotten the best of me back there."

"And yet here you are," Luster answered, "You will find as I have that you cannot conquer hate with hate. Only the light can balance darkness..."

"Your grandfather's power was not his own. He was nothing more then a lost child. The power that gave rise to your people was the power of the blade. A power that even now rests with a man called Alex," Kamisori explained, "If you should wish to become the god your grandfather was... then you will help me retrieve this blade from the half blooded Luminos-human who now wields it."

[Odan Thos]

Lady Nyx looked a Kamisori coldly. He was good, he was trying to manipulate her by calling on her Shadow Guard nature.

"Well, you are just as good as the council. Appealing to my training and the good book. I however wonder what your desire for removing the blade from Alex."

She did not say she had already meet the man yet. She was more concern with understanding his desires rather then just be manipulated by her own desires.

[Cain]

"What does it matter?" Kamisori responded in a very cold matter of fact tone, "You wish to become as powerful as your grandfather, I have told you how to do this. If you were a wise Sith you would not trust my intentions on this matter, but if there is one thing you can trust it's that you will never be what you desire to be if you don't help me... So you see, it doesn't matter to you what I want with the blade. Asking you to help was more of a formality, in reality you really don't have much of a choice..."

[Odan Thos]

Lady Nyx looked coldly at him. She was not an idiot; should he wish her eliminated it would be difficult but most likely in his skill level. Immortality was still her greatest gift and she would not let it go to waste because an Intangible felt she was getting in the way of his greater goals. His secret forced her to stay on her guard, and prepare to act at a moments notice.

"If you wise to maintain your secrets go ahead, I am not unfamiliar with superiors keeping secrets. I never was planning to help, just do not mistake me for a so called Sith. The Sith view of the Force is to limited to agree with. I expected you, an ancient been would also see this."

Lady Nyx continued to fallow behind Kamisori. While she listen to him, she maintain a connection to her surroundings, knowing where every shadow. She plan to keep all her bases covered.

[Cain]

"Hahaha... a point of view is only limited if you're narrow minded enough to have blind faith in just one," Kamisori explained, seeming to derive some humor from Nyx's quick tongue, "The Sith ideal, like all views, has its share of truths... Trust is not something you need nor is it something I expect from you. Loyalty however... this is a different matter."

As the two of them reached the main hall Kamisori turned back to Lady Nyx. The walls in this room were made of thick glass. Only the infinite blackness of the sea floor was visible through them.

"You are strong, there can be little doubt of this. But against Tenkai you are little more then a nuisance... these "Shadow arts" your father taught you; these only scratch the surface of the power you could hold. You are interested in this power, yes?"

[Odan Thos]

Lady Nyx looked at him. She had always knew that the Shadow Arts where a lost among her people, but even as a lost art she was considered on of the best.

"Of course I desire to learn more about my strongest abilities. I would rather have the skills not to be killed by the hieratic Luminos."

Lady Nyx looked around the room, something screamed to her as one of the most dangerous in the temple she has been in yet. She maintained her focus about her surroundings and her new master.