Valla wants more than just vengeance (the_nephalem) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-08-05 14:29:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, !trigger warning, ahsoka tano, li-ming |
Who: Ahsoka and Li
What: The consequences of Li's dreams finally catch up with her.
When: Today
Where: Somewhere in the OC
Warnings: Character death via suicide, also standard warnings for fighting demons and undead and such apply
Li had thought that she could handle the demons. They didn’t quite look like the demons she knew in her dreams, but despite the fact they’d only been there for two days, the demons had left Li in a fragile state of mind. Diablo’s voice seemed stronger in her head now, and she even though she saw him walking the battlefield. But it had just been a hallucination.
Or a premonition, but Li wasn’t the type to get premonitions.
Her mental state was deteriorating faster than she’d anticipated, but she was holding on. She wanted to fight, to remain of use to those she cared about and to the people who lived here. Li didn’t care if no one remembered her name after her death, but she wanted to die on her terms. Freya’s spell no longer worked, so she was trying to tread carefully. While she’d told Freya about it, she hadn’t gotten another spell cast. Partly because she doubted that would actually do anything useful for her, and partly because the demons had invaded and she wasn’t going to distract Freya from helping others.
However, today seemed different. There was a different feel in the air, one that seemed almost familiar to her. Li was wearing her Firebird’s Finery armor, and she was ready for a fight. At least until she saw what seemed to be the dead walking. And she froze.
Her mind returned to Tristram, and how the dead had risen from their graves there and attacked the living after the Falling Star had landed on the old Zakarum Cathedral there. It was an ill omen, and in her mind, it only meant that Diablo was returning.
“No,” she breathed. She hurled a fireball at a group of shambling dead. “No!!” She screamed. The fissures within her mind suddenly widened, and she felt her grip on her sanity slipping.
The Force had been loud in Ahsoka's head for weeks. She had her own premonitions though they'd faded upon waking, leaving her feeling confused and worried. The night before the demons came, she'd left her mark on Li. Bites on her throat and thighs, nails down her back and she'd encouraged Li to do the same. As if she'd needed some kind of physical reminder.
And then the demons came and Ahsoka did what she was trained to. They died as anything else did, to her lightsabers, to the Force, to Li's magic. She stayed close to her as much as she could, until finally the demons had been defeated with that massive centaur-like beast.
She'd ducked into a shop to get some bottled water, having gone out with Li on the chance there'd be something else happening, because that was usually what happened.
She sensed Li's terror, dropping the bottles and running towards her. She spotted the undead, eyes widening as she drew her sabers. It was mostly ... people, but there was some kind of undead spider-person leading them, and one of the less decayed undead flung a lance of ice in their direction. Ahsoka blocked it with her saber as she reached Li.
Your time is ending, Nephalem. Your light shall be extinguished today! Diablo’s voice echoed in her head.
“No!” She exclaimed. She refused to die, refused to fall victim to Diablo. But the dead were coming, and she knew it was only a matter of time before Diablo himself made an appearance.
Li startled when Ahsoka deflected the lance of ice as she reached her side. She looked up at her for a moment. That moment was all that she needed to find some grounding despite the fact her mind was losing its grip on reality. Her dream world was blending into this one, and she felt like her blood was starting to scream.
“I will not let you win!” Li stated, holding onto what was left of her sanity in that moment and turned her gaze to the approaching dead. She would fight, and she would go out on her terms, not on Diablo’s. If she didn’t die today, then she’d ensure that he would.
Li’s reaction to the undead and to Ahsoka were alarming, to say the least. Ahsoka’s grip tightened on her lightsabers, but she forced herself to remain calm. There were at least two dozen of the corpses, that large spider creature, and she could feel something large and heavy walking nearby, around the corner. “Give me cover.”
Trusting Li’s magic to not hit her, Ahsoka charged in, cutting through the walking corpses like they were made of paper.
A dramatic shift was happening in Li. The change seemed to be almost instantaneous. Or had this actually been happening for months and Freya’s spell had helped keep it at bay? That was probably the truth of the matter. Li’s sanity was draining away almost as quickly as her heart was beating. This was how it felt to lose one’s mind.
There was no physical pain, but Li’s mind seemed to shatter all at once, especially as she felt the ground shake.
Your time has ended, Nephalem!
However, even as her mind became a victim of insanity, Li still heard Ahsoka’s voice. She held onto it, and as Ahsoka charged at the walking dead, she launched a couple fireballs to give her cover.
“You will not take me, Diablo.” Li said through clenched teeth.
It was the spider-demon that Ahsoka targeted, sliding between it’s legs and slicing a lightsaber up and into its belly. She couldn’t afford to think if it was sentient, or what kind of being it was. It was evil, or at least intent on harming innocents, and as always that had to be enough.
As it collapsed behind her, something large rumbled from around the corner. It was like a fat man, but ten feet tall and nearly as wide, its guts spilling out from a gaping hole in its stomach. It wielded a meat cleaver and meat hook, and before Ahsoka could have a second to feel ill, it swung the hook towards her. She blocked it with the Force, but it still sent her flying backwards. She lost her grip on one of her lightsabers.
Everything was falling apart inside of Li. It felt like a demon had raked its claws through her mind, and she couldn’t quite suppress the cold shudder that ran through her when the thing that was causing the earth to rumble. For a moment, she saw the thing for what it was. But after she blinked, all she saw was the Butcher standing there attacking Ahsoka.
Then it was no longer the walking dead or anything else that was currently actually attacking Orange County. Li saw various demons from her dreams. She couldn’t handle the sight. She let out a scream of anguish and grabbed her head with both hands. She fell to her knees.
Don’t give up! If you do, Diablo wins and you will be lost, just like I was. A familiar voice spoke to Li. Looking up, she saw Leah standing there in front of her.
“Leah?” She asked, not certain if she was seeing things or not. But right now, she didn’t care. Leah was there.
Don’t let them take your mind from you. That is no way to spend your life. You still have strength left. Use it to fight them one last time. Leah encouraged her.
The shred of sanity that lay in tatters in Li’s mind knew what was happening. If she survived this experience, she would never be the same. She knew that she would either become a danger to everyone here, or she would spend the rest of her life locked up for her own good. Neither outcome was what she wanted, so Li knew what had to be done. She would go out on her terms, not Diablo’s terms. She was a hero, and she was determined to die being a hero, not being a villain that needed to die.
Li cast a glance to Ahsoka, then saw where her fallen lightsaber rested. That was her only chance to end her torment, a torment that was only going to get worse from this moment on. Taking a breath and getting to her feet, Li cast a spell that summoned a stationary hydra with three heads that kept the demons busy. She then used her teleport spell to teleport over to the fallen lightsaber.
Release yourself from Diablo’s grasp the way I could not. Perhaps then peace shall be granted to us both. Leah said again. Li bent down and picked the lightsaber up, then she looked back at Ahsoka, refusing to look at the demons.
Ahsoka picked herself up, shaking herself off, but something stopped her from charging at the abomination. Li. She shook her head, calling out Li's name as she saw her fall to her knees. The Force rippled, a darkness unlike anything else she'd ever experienced folding around her fiance.
She remembered conversations with Li. She remembered Li's fears and fervent believe that there would be no coming back from Diablo. And she'd asked herself a hundred times if when the time came she could do what was needed.
Eyes glittering with unshed tears, Ahsoka hesitated, half in a crouch in that moment before leaping, the only sound she could hear the hum of a lightsaber.
The light in Li was being extinguished. She wasn’t going to survive this, and she’d rather die while she had hold of the last shreds of herself than to simply wither away in a cell or turn into a demon and need to be killed by someone else. She looked at Ahsoka for a moment, seeing the hesitation in her lover, but Li didn’t hesitate. She ran Ahsoka’s lightsaber through herself and she gasped. For a moment, everything stopped.
Diablo will not have you. Do not fear the passing, there is peace on the other side. This time, it was the voice of her teacher from Yshari Sanctum. The Sorceress who had fought against Diablo a couple decades before Li had.
“Master,” she whispered as her legs gave way and she fell to her knees, then collapsed to her side. There was still time for some goodbyes, but Li could feel her life draining away. It was starting to get cold.
The scream that came from Ahsoka sounded like someone else's voice to her ears. Everything else fell away by the time Ahsoka had Li in her arms. The abomination, the undead scattering as Ahsoka gathered Li up and jumped them to the top of a nearby building.
Jedi weren't supposed to become attached. She had wrestled with it when they'd first started dating. But Ahsoka wasn't a Jedi, and she didn't want to let Li go. Right now she wasn't the cocky padawan, or the experienced rebel, or the master of the Force. Right now she was a twenty-one year old girl who didn't want to be alone.
"Hold on baby, hold on," Ahsoka knew this kind of wound couldn't be healed, even as she cursed herself for not knowing force healing. She wished for Barriss or another healer, or someone who could help.
Li was only barely aware that Ahsoka had leapt them up onto the roof of a building. All she was aware of was Ahsoka’s arms around her, and how everything was starting to become tunnel vision.
“It’s okay. It’s better this way.” She hoped that some day, Ahsoka would accept that. She reached up and pressed her hand against Ahsoka’s cheek. “I love you. You made me so happy, and I’m happy to have been part of your life.” She just wished that she’d been able to be part of it for longer than she had. “I’ll be watching over you.”
Ahsoka shook her head, for a moment unable to find her voice. Her throat burned and so did her eyes, but she forced herself to look at Li’s face.
“I love you,” she managed, wondering what it meant that everyone she loved either betrayed her, died, or disappeared. Ahsoka cupped Li’s cheek. Later, tonight, she would take Li to the canyons and mountains and build her a pyre. A proper funeral for a champion.
But for now, if she could give Li even a little bit of peace, she would, "We are luminous beings, our bodies temporary vessels to hold our light within for but a brief a moment in time. You're free-"
Ahsoka's voice broke, "You're free."
Li gazed into Ahsoka’s eyes, wanting them to be the last thing she saw in this world. She didn’t know what the afterlife held, but she hoped for peace. And maybe she could see some of her loved ones again from the dreams. Assuming that there was a shared afterlife or something.
She managed a little smile, the cold starting to envelop her. Everything around her started to fade to black. “Free,” she breathed. Her eyes closed, and her hand fell from Ahsoka’s cheek. Her body fell limp in her lover’s arms. Li-Ming was gone, her soul finding peace before it could be fully corrupted and destroyed by the evil that plagued her. Her presence in the Force, which had now been plagued with torment and evil, was silenced. Though before it faded, there was a sense of peace in it.
Carry on for me, Ahsoka.