onepassingnight | Our planet found peace through death

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Our planet found peace through death

The desert is hot, a dry heat begging for relief, at least a drink. The world is turned to sand and dust, broken only by the dim, hazy horizon. Dust even coats the objects carefully uncovered and laid out, almost as quickly as they're brushed off. Even this deep pit, dug too well to be natural, provides scant shelter.

Lethe's scarves and veils keep her from breathing dust, even if they result in the eerie impression of a shroud. She works carefully at one corner of the dig, where she's patiently unearthing a small object. When it's free, she meticulously brushes away the dust and dirt.

"Come closer," she invites, "And see something from a place that was lost."

(ooc: not quite evented, though bad luck may show as things go wrong at the dig. feel free to find artifacts not just from her world, but from the other character's world as well.)

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The Master Chief does not remove his sights from the head of Lethe. Impervious to the heat and the sands covering them beneath his sealed armor, he does not flinch the least with the sand that blows around them.

The countless worn structures that reminded him of the stone temples of pre-hispanic american civilizations... And of structures he remembers seeing on Delta Halo.

For once, this all does not matter to him.

"Where is Mercury."

If Lethe is surprised by the sudden interruption, it doesn't show. She puts down the object she'd been holding, stands up, and turns to face John.

Even if she were a more tender-hearted person, she'd have no good news to give him. As it is, she is simply matter-of-fact. She has been preparing for the day Galaxia will be challenged by Sailor Moon, and as such, she knows the ones holding out against the force of the shadow galactica. The ones from the solar system that still has many star seeds to take.

"She defies Galaxia-sama. She probably already met the fate reserved for people foolish enough to do that."

"Worse to serve her."

John was a mortal that had defied madmen and their followers. Even as he knew it was Chaos who controlled Galaxia, the Spartan expected no less from Ami.

As the guide of the death, Lethe may be his only trail to her. He walks closer to her. His crosshairs do not waver.

"Where. Is. Mercury."

"There isn't any choice about that." The words can be heard as a taunt, she's well aware; but it's also the simple truth of her own life. They'd had nowhere else to go and no choice but to follow.

Her eyes drift to the crosshairs and their implied threat. It's enough to make her answer, though she still has nothing he'll want to hear. Telling him becomes her own little form of revenge.

"If she's already been defeated, she doesn't exist any longer. Her star seed will be with Galaxia-sama. It would have been better not to be involved with her and to avoid regretting her loss."

His body tenses inside his armor. Only by the smallest motions in his arms betray him. His fingers resist the temptation to kill her then and there. He stays silent.

I don't leave my own behind.

There is only one element that still marks her as a target with information, preventing her from being part of the countless other sentients he had killed while in service.

The ruins that look far too much like those he had seen on the rings.

"Then, why are you showing me this?"

"So you'll understand it's hopeless for you," comes the cold answer as Lethe glances away, across the barren landscape and its precious few unearthed relics. She gestures, taking in everything at once. "This is what remains of a planet at war."

"This is probably all that's left of Sailor Mercury by now." Dust to dust, nothing to nothing, even power deserting the empty vessel that once held it.

"I know what a glassing is like."

He replies coldly against the taunts. He does not succumb to his emotions - to the taunts. Too well had Mendez trained him to only let them reinforce his decisions, but not to give in to them. Some alien enemies have this tried in the past against him.

Just as well, he had heard too many times from a similar entity about hopelessness - just to reveal to it the key to its' end. Similarly, the Spartan and Mercury faced an abomination capable of crossing worlds... And survived.

From behind his HUD, pretending to keep his eyes on her, his sight spots something too familiar. Marked beneath a column as smooth as polished onyx, there is a symbol almost sunken beneath the white sands.

It feels too familiar.

He shakes the tip of his MA5C towards it, prepared to follow her.

"Check it."

He swears he has seen it before.

Somewhere.

What? After their standoff, Lethe is almost surprised when John's attention shifts, and her eyes follow naturally to the object half buried in the desert sand. It has some meaning to him?

How strange, then, that it should be here, amid the ruins of her planet. Their dreams have merged and melded, however either of them may dislike the fact. She steps forward, always conscious in the back of her mind of the weapon still ready - and the unlikelihood of getting off her own attack before it struck.

Begrudgingly, she goes to the object, but pauses before reaching for it, a short distance away still.

"What is it?"

He pauses. He expected Lethe to know... but seems to know just about as much as him.

"You said this was from a place once lost."

One civilization comes to mind, along with Mercury's tales of her own ancient civilization prior to mankind.

The Spartan steps forward -- when the entire desert around the ruins begins to drain, but refraining itself from even taking the human or the senshi. It all seems to drain around a gleaming, massive sphere at least a hundred meters wide. Around it, several inert figures with seemingly detached limbs await, taller than the Spartan.

He takes a tentative step towards the silvery mass. He expects to sink, but the sand holds his weight. Every further step he takes towards the sunken artifact is held with a supernatural strength, acting as stairs as the silvery sands of every abandoned step get back in place. Not a grain of it clings to his metallic feet.

The area around the massive sphere glows to his eyes, but not as much as Lethe.

Forerunner.

"This is the planet Lethe," she answers. It tells so much more than the simple words: the planet Lethe, Sailor Lethe, her own planet. This is all that remains of her home: a place once lost.

She's interrupted by the reaction of whatever artifact she's uncovered, which even she steps back from. What is it doing? What is he doing? Does he intend to let it draw him in? His fate is no concern of hers, she reminds herself; but does this object have such power?

"This never belonged here," she says, eyeing it now.

His visor turns to her, locked. If this was her home, but she wouldn't even know of things like this... Ever since these dreams got him in contact with Ami, they had turned stranger.

"There was something like this in Earth." His Earth. "We never knew until now."

But he remembers Mercury. She knew of not only her world, but her planet, and her element. Lethe may know more about it. If there was a link... He would need to know.

"What killed everything here?"

"Here?" Lethe repeats the word as though it should be obvious. It was always fated. She gradually loses her nervousness (not to say fear), and looks back across the dead and buried landscape.

"It was war. And in the end, this was the peace that came of it." And when that came to pass, what else was she to do, but become who she is now?

Rings killing all sentient life in a galaxy to make peace. The same kind of peace Lethe always seems to cherish for. No war. No life. Only an inhospitable wasteland.

His breathing inside of his armor turns more noticeable."

"Sides?"

Cherish? Maybe. As long as it's peace, she's stopped hoping for more. Peace is good enough, even if it's this peace, or the peace of a tyrant queen, Galaxia.

Sides.

"This planet was always at war with planet Mnemosyne. My sister and I could no longer stop it, and both planets became too unstable."

Not the Forerunner. Not the Flood... Their dreams merged -- The annihilation of all of a world's life for peace as the common element.

"You almost killed yourselves to extinction. Then Galaxia came."

"That's right." Something - pride, maybe - wars with honesty, and honesty wins. "There was going to be nothing left, and we went with Galaxia."

She might mean that Galaxia was the final blow, or that she was the saving grace from a world that was dead anyway. Both are, perhaps, true.

"Your solar system will be no different," she says, taking John's interest in Sailor Mercury to mean he's from the same, even the same planet. "There won't be resistance."

His head turns when Lethe confesses surrendering to Galaxia, and turns into a glare as she hints that Ami's world -and his world- could be next--

"There will be."

He knows of the power of Galaxia. But to succumb would be surrendering. Not an option for the likes of a Spartan.

"They tried 'peace through death' if you want to know." He points at the ruins. "It was not a choice they took lightly. If you think people will follow someone that would, you're wrong."

Silently, as their attention is set on eachother, some of the statues begin to shift slowly. The sphere's inner edges give a soft orange glow hidden by the desert sunlight.

It's rare for Lethe to say more than she has to; perhaps Mnemosyne is rubbing off on her, just a little, because she turns to John now, losing her intimidation while his weapon stays at rest.

"Galaxia-sama is the strongest in the galaxy," she says. Does he really think there's a power to match that? "There's nothing to stand against that. And once she rules, there will be order through the galaxy."

She stays oblivious to the statues and the growing glow as she faces him.

Edited 2012-06-15 22:32 (UTC)

"Do you know how many times I've heard that?"

Some of the statues' eyes gain an orange glow.

"Every empire falls. And she will. -- When Chaos lets her go, or is killed."

Their hands materialize blades of hard light. They stare at the intruders.

"There are no unstoppable forces in this universe. There are no immovable objects. Everything gives if you push hard enough."

The cryptum shoots upwards. The Spartan turns his sight and weapon towards the source.

Seven creatures over ten feet tall that had awaited a hundred millennia awaken in fury.

In blurs almost as if teleported around, the leader bolts against the intruders.

[The moment it happens, John no longer has Lethe's attention - no, the creatures have it all. This place may be sand and dust - not worth protecting when it's already dead, she'd probably say if it were anywhere else - but this is planet Lethe. This is the place tied to the star in her heart, for as long as that star seed still exists.

She doesn't hesitate for even a moment.]

Galactica Myosotis Alpestris!

[Her bracelets gleam in the light, brilliant gold, and the full brunt of the energy of her attack barrels straight for the charging leader.]

It's leader opens its' helm by its' sides to reveal an imprisoned entity -- and is thrown back several meters, holding its' own chest in pain with its' shields out.

But curls. From it's back, a levitating drone bursts out. The knight once again charges against Lethe, firing... But as long as its' shields were out, the Drone sends a light of energy to its' front, materializing a shield of hard light, akin to the remainders of roman centurions prior to the dark ages.

Likewise, the Spartan fires against the creatures, but he does not forget about Lethe -- Whenever if he killed her, or the... things that were coming out, he'd have to see.

His entire body whirls to fire around the pillars, taking note of their distance and their lines of fire. Right now, his attention focuses on the closest one. Let him see if Lethe can take out the rest of them--

The machine jolts to its' right -- then the left -- and front.

It tackles the Spartan, it draws a blade.

[Lethe's only defense is the bracelets themselves, which absorb some of the blasts, and the protection afforded by her uniform - luckily, stronger than it seems, having held up through many battles before now. She notes that the comrade of Sailor Mercury has little concern for her welfare.

But the creatures are actively opposed to it. She keeps her attention on them, attacking again and again, over and over, a long chain of desperation as she fights to defend herself. (Mnemosyne- where is Mnemosyne? Not here. Safe?)

It turns out, she is strong; she holds her own and even takes out her first creature with a fierce joy. But it is doubtful whether she can take them all on at once.]

From the edge of his HUD, the leader of the pack de-materializes in a mist of blue. The leader is taken out.

The edge of the blade almost hits him -- The Spartan dents the groin of the machine before kicking it to his back and hurling himself against it, drawing his Blaster as he approaches. He vanishes the shields of the machine before it teleports to his back.

The Spartan reacts with a hand over its' head and a knife below its' throat. He grabs the right "hand" of the machine just as it vanishes... and the massive weapon reshapes in his very palm to better fit him.

He turns towards the rest. These things were strong... Too fast. Way stronger than Elites and Brutes. What were they?

The Master Chief runs to his side to assault the enemies focuses on him, and not Lethe. He tosses a grenade--

One of the drones catch it, levitate it below them as if it was a toy. And hurl it back against Lethe and John.

Lethe attacks, not the enemy this time, but the grenade itself; the force of her attack blows it back towards its source, a power struggle that keeps the thing in the air somewhere between them, now gaining ground, now losing.

She can't do this for long without leaving herself vulnerable to the other creatures.

She's certain these aren't senshi, but there is a very slight chance they still have star seeds; all life in her world does: each planet and star, each person, each senshi. So when she finally abruptly releases her power from the grenade, she raises her arms with her bracelets - and aims them at her foe. Golden lights shoot from them, ready to extract the star seed, if it has one.

It was a wise movement by Lethe -- The shrapnels pierce through two of the figures by being too many fragments for the drones to catch.

As the Spartan fires against the unshielded remnant, he sees the treacherous senshi use another sort of attack of golden light... But beside the brief shock of the machine, it is not affected. Even the Master Chief is surprised.

They are not organic. Implanted thoughts and memories of ancient warriors into cases of metal, now bound to the defense of their cryptum.

It won't turn well. He focuses on destroying one of the unshielded targets, but the other two engage the Spartan and Lethe up-close -- once again thundering their way towards them.

The sphere is opening. He comes to understand what were they doing. They were winning time for the artifact to open.

He tries kicking one of them away to run towards the element. Whenever if they'll focus on him, or on Lethe, he doesn't know. He just needs to get close -- whatever they protect, destroy it before it kills them both.

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Our planet found peace through death

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