I'm no Jedi (ahsoka_tano) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-10-16 01:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, ahsoka tano, li-ming |
Those who want to rule are often the ones that shouldn’t.
Who: Ahsoka and Li
What: Waking up with a disembodied head
When: recently
Rating: PG-13, nothing gory
status: complete
Li’s dreams were heating up. Caldeum had been corrupted by Belial, and it made her intensely angry to see the state the demon lord had instilled upon the magnificent city. She was going to thoroughly enjoy eradicating Belial’s evil from her home. But of course, she’d spent some of the recent adventures in the sewers of the city, where they found Leah’s mother, the witch Adria, and she gave them the next piece of the puzzle. In order to destroy all evil, they needed the Black Soulstone, which was the creation of Zoltun Kulle, a very powerful Nephalem and part of the Horadrim.
However, his crusade against evil had driven him mad and the Horadrim had killed him, beheaded him and buried his body parts in different places. Li went on a quest to find Kulle’s head. In order to gain access to the Black Soulstone, they needed Kulle. So it had been through an oasis in the desert and to a hidden ruin where Li found his head. Leah summoned his spirit using the head, and Kulle had just told them what needed to be done, that he needed to be made whole once again and then he would give them the Black Soulstone.
Li woke up with a pit in her stomach. She knew this wasn’t going to end well. Not at all. Working with a madman never went anywhere good. Though if they could trap the souls of Belial and Azmodan within the Black Soulstone, they could destroy evil forever. Li supposed that outcome was worth the risk.
She yawned and sat up stretching a bit. She started to get out of bed and proceeded to yelp in surprise. Kulle’s severed head was sitting there. It looked like it had been freshly severed despite the fact the man had been dead for over a thousand years in her dreams. Though it wasn’t bloody, so there was no bloodstain to be found anywhere. Kulle was bald and had a long beard that some may have called a wizard’s beard.
Maybe Li’s dreams were leaking a little. Or maybe the Force was granting her visions of something that might or might not come to pass. Whatever it was, Ahsoka’s dreams were swamped in darkness and fire, and at the end of a long staircase stood Li, crackling with power and filled with darkness. Ahsoka’s lightsabers ignited just in time to block lightning.
The spell evaporated and Ahsoka groaned, rolling over and pulling her pillow over her head. “Five more minutes…!”
Except that was an alarmed sound she’d just heard so she sat up. And then yelped in surprise too. “What the hell?!”
Li stared at Kulle’s head, almost expecting it to move, or for Kulle’s spirit to appear and start blathering away at her. She shook her head and glanced at Ahsoka. “That is apparently what dream thinks is a gift.” She got out of bed, moving towards the head carefully. “I did not kill him.” Just in case Ahsoka thought it was someone Li had killed.
“A head. A very well preserved one.” Ahsoka reached out with the force, trying to determine if there was anything… alive in it. It paid to be careful and she’d seen stranger things. She wasn’t mad at Li, or even accusing.
“Magic. He has been dead for over one thousand years. He holds the key to eradicating all evil from my world once and for all.” Despite how much she loved the thought of defeating the demons once and for all, Li knew the chance of actually succeeding in that was slim. But she would still strive towards it. There was nothing alive about Kulle’s head. Magic was present, the spell that kept it from decomposing, but that was about all there was.
“He looks really good for being that old.” Ahsoka instinctively pulled her sheet up to her chest. She wasn’t exactly wearing anything and she almost felt like the head was looking at her. “As long as he doesn’t start talking I think I’ll be okay.”
“I don’t think he’ll start talking.” Oh look, a couple contractions finally made it into English! Though Li hoped Kulle wouldn’t start talking. Hopefully his spirit wouldn’t show up. She was also naked, but not caring about it as she dared to pick up Kulle’s head. “Do you have a sack or something to put this in?”
“That’s a good thing, I think.” She really was taking this well. A perfectly preserved head just...sitting there. Staring at her. “But I think he’s looking at me, the pervert.” Still keeping the sheet around her, Ahsoka slipped out of bed. “I don’t have any head sacks. I’m not one of those adventurers in like, D&D who has specially crafted bag to carry body parts in, but we have a heavy duty garbage bag and we can shove that in a canvas bag I have.”
“The stories I’ve heard of him, he was insane, though very powerful.” It wasn’t the best feeling holding a man’s severed head in her hands, but Li was also oddly fascinated by it. Death didn’t phase her, and neither did gore, even though the head wasn’t gorey. “That shall work. At least then we can’t see him.”
Ahsoka nodded, disappearing into the other room and coming back with the garbage bag. She foofed it open and held it up for Li to dump the head in. “What are we going to do with a severed head that won’t get us arrested?”
When the garbage bag was opened, Li put the head inside it, then took the garbage bag and tied it up. There, that would keep them from having to look directly at Kulle. “I will keep it. With the way things from people’s dream worlds show up here, Kulle may one day be needed to help with locating the Black Soulstone.” Though Li hoped that her dreams didn’t spill over into this world. It was bad enough fighting the lords of Hell and their demons in her dreams.
“Maybe we could find a vault to place it in, or something like that?” It was an offhanded comment, Ahsoka felt a lot better now that the head was out of sight. At least it didn’t smell. It didn’t smell like anything at all. That must be the magic. “If you need to locate the Black Soulstone, that is bad right?”
“I could see if Zatanna has a place to store it in the Guild.” Come to think of it, that would probably be the best place for Kulle’s head. “Actually, the Black Soulstone is a good thing. In my world, soulstones had been forged ages ago to contain the essence of the lord of Hell when they were killed. Most of those soulstones have been broken, essentially destroying the soul of the demon lords with them. The Black Soulstone, however, was designed to hold all of the souls at once. We need this soulstone as we fight Belial and Azmodan, and then we plan to destroy it, which will destroy all evil forever.” Except nothing ever seemed to go to plan, and Li didn’t like the feeling that something horrible was lingering in the near future.
That was definitely a good place to store a magical head. Ahsoka rubbed a hand down one montral, staring at the bag as she listened to Li explain the Black Soulstone. She frowned. “Something like that never goes according to plan. Why do I have a bad feeling about it? It sounds like a trap.”
“I have a bad feeling about it. At least here I do. In my dreams, it’s difficult to tell.” In the dreams, Li was more preoccupied with getting rid of Belial after he was ruining her home city. She set the bag down outside of the bedroom before coming back into the bedroom. “Belial, the Lord of Lies, has taken over my home in my dreams. I am determined to destroy him and free Caldeum from his grasp, whatever it takes.”
Ahsoka came up to Li, hugging her lightly and resting her hands on her waist. “I know you’ll be able to defeat him.” Lord of Lies sounded very Sith-like. It seemed appropriate for her girlfriend to wrestle with her own dark siders.
Li returned the hug, hands resting on her shoulders. “At least I’m not the only one who thinks so,” she replied with a smirk. “It’s not easy to find him, he’s hiding, of course. But I have a theory as to where he’s hiding.” Namely she was starting to suspect that Emperor Hakan, the child, was Belial’s mortal host.
“Where is he hiding? What kind of being is he? I picture someone slimy and old and wrinkly who talks too much with sweet words.” Someone like Palpatine, like the Emperor.
“I am beginning to suspecting he is possessing the body of the child emperor, Hakan. Emperor Hakan has been extremely two-faced in my dealings with him thus far. Perfectly ripe for the Lord of Lies to be possessing him.” Which only spoke to the fact that the real Emperor Hakan was never coming back. Demonic possession in her world was a one way road. Anyone who was possessed, died. No if’s, and’s or but’s about it.
“That’s terrible.” To possess a child? What became of that child, of who he was and who he could be. Ahsoka didn’t know, and she was bothered by it. “That poor child.”
“It is the way of demons. They don’t care about that sort of thing. They only care about ruling my world.” Hakan’s soul was certainly lost, if it was true that Belial had possessed him. It only made Li angrier to think about it, about all the lives that were ruined because of demons. Though angels were no better in her world either.
Tyrael was the best of them, though he had been the Archangel of Justice before he had chosen to Fall. He knew that humans were the only hope for Sanctuary, and he had given humanity a chance when so many others were ready to destroy them.
Ahsoka kissed Li’s temple. “Those who want to rule are often the ones that shouldn’t. They want power, they crave it and it doesn’t matter who or what gets in their way. They leave suffering in their wake.” She made a dismissive noise. “I hated politics. I hated how the Order got wrapped up in it. But I guess that’s still better than this Belial guy.”
“Most anything is better than demons trying to take over anything. Though angels don’t exactly have a good reputation either in my dream world. The only one who seems to actively give a damn is Tyrael, and he gave up his wings and became mortal because he crossed some imaginary line that the angels had drawn when humanity came into existence.” Li shook her head. She didn’t know what was worse, demons trying to destroy the world of Sanctuary and take it for themselves, or the angels not giving a damn and doing nothing to intervene.
“Life is not black and white. It’s full of grey areas.” That had been one of Ahsoka’s hardest lessons. She’d had to learn that good was not always right, and evil was not always… evil. “That sounds like the kind of thing you’d have to give up to defeat ultimate evil.”
“This is why we also need Kulle’s help. He may be insane, but his creation is our best hope of eradicating evil. Tyrael said that he was willing to give everything for a chance to defeat evil. And I am also willing to make any sacrifice necessary for defeating it.” Li would give everything, including her life, if it meant she stopped the forces of the Burning Hells from destroying her world.
Ahsoka let out a little sigh. She knew what that was like. She understood it on a deep, spiritual level. “Ever wonder why people like us don’t get a happy ending? It’s like our endings are to make other peoples’ endings the happy ones.”
“The heroes don’t always get the happy ending, but instead ensure others do. I would rather ensure innocent people got their happy endings than get one myself in my dreams.” Li had absolutely no romantic interest in anyone in her dreams. She was solely focused on her destiny. “But this life is different. Here, we can have that happy ending.” She looked up at Ahsoka, her hands sliding down her arms, then back up to Ahsoka’s shoulders.
Smiling, Ahsoka locked her hips against Li’s, leaning her head down to give her a light kiss. “I like the idea of being your happy ending. I like the idea of having a happy ending.” After Order 66, Ahsoka had been lost. Even after the rebellion, and the Ghost, she’d been lost. Anakin being Vader hadn’t helped that feeling. Li grounded her.
Li smiled, returning the kiss as she slipped her arms loosely around Ahsoka’s neck. “So do I. I like the prospect of being able to live here without the trappings of our dream lives.” Fulfilling destiny was all well and good, but Li wanted more than that out of this life.
Ahsoka searched Li’s eyes, feeling a sudden intense flooding of emotion and...possessiveness. It was a very un jedi-like feeling and part of her relished it. Did she want to risk the dark side? For Li, the danger was worth it. Before she said three words she’d regret, she kissed Li, hard.
Even though their relationship was still new, Li still wanted to relish in it, to keep Ahsoka close. Having a connection like this with someone else was amazing, and she wanted to continue to nourish it. She returned the kiss, tightening her arms around Ahsoka’s neck.
“Kick him under the bed,” Ahsoka murmured, biting Li’s lip lightly and backing her towards the bed. “I want to be reminded of what it feels like to be engulfed in the light.”
“He’s in the other room,” Li murmured back. When her legs hit the bed, she fell back on it, pulling Ahsoka with her. She smirked at her, giving her another kiss. “Then let us bask in the light.”