So NV RPG Epilogue: Vanguard of a New Era (conclusion)

The rags shift, but no one arises or answers you from there.

A voice says, "Yes, it's your mother." It is a croaking sound, a male sound. It comes from behind you.

 

I turn around.

 

You see your father powerful masculine figure, chained to the wall as you remember him, eyes milky white, slight steam coming out of his mouth in ragged breaths. "Hello, daughter...." he utters in a deep, gutteral voice.



You realize that if this is a dream or vision, it must be a composite of several things, as part of the room is your mom's cell, and the other part is your dad's cell.


Do you really check to see if you have weapons with you?

 

No Axia does not check for her weapons. "Hello Father."

 

"Do you know where you are?"

 

Axia looks around and smiles. "I am aboard the Crucible Thorn, I appear to be on Ilum, back in the caves where you and my mother were held by the Sith, or various parts of them at least"

 

bump

 

(cough, cough)

 

"Well, what do you think caused that?" your Father says, his tone slightly condescending.

 

Axia shakes her head. "I wouldn't know...father. Undoubtably something to do with that storm my ship encountered. Beyond that I could not say. who are you truly and what is it you want?"

 

"You may not be on your ship anymore Axia... you might be blown into a million atoms, your nice silver ship along with you... and now this may be all you have left. Who am I? I am your father, of course. What do I want? Tira? Would you care to elaborate?"


The bundle of rags stands up. It is indeed your mother, but as you saw her when she was in the clutches of the dark side. Her eyes on lit up with it's power, but her body seems frail and gaunt. "Oh..." she says, "I think our precious daughter knows the answer to that."

 

Axia looks from her mother back to her father. She takes a deep calming breath and begins to face whatever this latest trial is. She had hoped to find some relative peace from these particular types of trials but apparently it is not to be. "No. I am still aboard my ship. Had it been destroyed and I along with it I would have become one with the force or simply ceased to be. Ilum was destroyed. So this is not Ilum. It is obviously an illusion of some kind. You, father, were never this coherent on Ilum until forced to sacrifice yourself to save me. You only appear as my father." Axia turns to the image of her mother with the calm of a Jedi. "And you only appear to be my mother. As for what you want I couldn't begin to imagine. I only know what my parents may have wanted when they were in the state that you two present yourselves in. But you are not my parents. My mother...survived Ilum and turned away from the dark side. You are not her." Axia turns to the image of her father. "My father embraced the dark side until the last moments of his life where he sacrificed himself to save me and in doing so redeemed himself. So your game will not work. Reveal yourself and tell me what you truly desire from me."

 

Another voice speaks up, and your blood freezes.

"Well, you think you have all the answers, don't you?"

You turn slowly to face the third wall of the room, where this familiar voice is coming from. You can't help but gasp.

Out of the shadows walks Petra Blakkwing.

She is wearing the last thing you ever saw her in, and she looks battered and bruised, with scorch marks on her. It's as if she sustained all the wounds you inflicted on her, yet stayed in one piece, and stayed alive. Inspite of this terrible appearance, her movements do not seem debilitated.

 

Axia swallows heavily. She closes her eyes briefly and thinks of the calming infulence of her master Depa Billaba. "No. Quite the contrary. Had I all the answers I might have been able to save the woman whose image you wear. You are not Petra Blakkwing. I know becuase I killed her. You cannot manipulate me in this manner. The woman so easily manuvered is no more."

 

"Oooohhh, big words. It wasn't so long ago that you were killing people for just lying to you. Remember when I cut the tongue off of that kid? That was nothing compared to what you did to try to bring me back. Don't remember? Maybe they can jog your memory..."

She looks past you to the 4th wall of this place. You hear echoing as if from a distance, horrible wailing, crying. The sound of Fear, Suffering and Death. With it a wave of the dark side hits you, and you start to sense lives being snuffed out in pain.

Do you turn and look?

 

oog: Talon, you are an evil, evil GM. Im begining to think Petra is a Marvel or star Trek character (meaning, she never dies). please post soon. You're killing me with this.

ig Axia knows what she will see behind her and her blood runs cold. She does not wish to turn around and see the deaths she caused on Naboo, not while they were happening.

All Axia saw was the aftermath and only from the air. At the time she did not care, in fact she reveled in the power she had wielded and celebrated it with the tattoo of Petra that is still on her back. Axia does not want to see the suffering she inflicted now, all these months later...

Yet the recorded words of Master Yoda come to her now. Words spoken so simply and yet held such an important truth for Axia when she heard them. "Fear is the path to the dark side..."

Axia knows that not facing what lies behind her is born of fear. A Jedi does not run from her fears. She faces them and becomes stronger. With that Axia slowly turns around...

 

You turn slowly around, and you feel as if nothing in your training, nothing in your life, could have prepared you for what your eyes see.

You see countless people arrayed before you, as if the fourth wall of this room lifted up to allow a great horde of people in. Men, women, old and young, from all races they stand before you, looks of horror and fear frozen on their face like death masks. Their eyes hollow and accusing, they stare at you. You hear the screaming of husbands watching their wives die, and you see the look on their faces. You see the agony and horror contorted on a mothers face as she holds her lifeless child in her arms. You see a child tugging on the lifeless forms of her parents, trying to wake them up. A small child crying in confusion, holding a stuffed animal limply, standing alone with death all around them. Scene after scene from Naboo is played out before you, nightmare after nightmare.

These people did not simply die in an instant, you realize with new horror that their lives ended in pain, confusion, fear and suffering. You cannot bear to continue to watch, yet you cannot look away. Plucking out your own eyes would be better than to continue to witness this hell.

You notice that somehow, this crowd of dead, dying, and soon to be dead is not just standing still, but they are inching towards you. The ones closest are even trying to reach out to you, but not to harm you, but as if they are pleading. Close to you, an elderly lady, kneeling by her dead husband, reaches out, and in a soft, sobbing voice, chokes out, "Why? Why did you do this to us?"

Then it hits you. You didn't just end countless lives by channeling dark side powers you had little understanding of. That was what you always thought, but now, you realize that the death was not absolute. Some died, while others lived. Some children survived, while their parents died. Some parents survived while losing their only child. Husbands lost wives, sons lost fathers. The chaos and darkness and suffering only just began that day, but had been growing in the lives of the survivors ever since.

Now you truly realize what you did, what you caused, what you were party to.

You have never, ever, felt like you do now. The remorse, the regret, the guilt, the shame- it all comes crashing down on you.

"You are a monster..." a voice says.

You realize the voice was yours.

______________________________________________________



Give me a will save.

 

you might want to roll high on that, by the way.

 

13+6=19 let me know what that means and Ill post Axia's reaction, unless you already have something else in mind. (thanks for posting btw, more please)

 

What you hear, what you see, what you feel... like a tiny black hole in the center of your being, the darkness sucks away the light inside of you. You feel the darkness creeping outward from that point, spreading through you like a poison. You feel physically ill. You fall to your knees. Was this your destiny? Is it futile to fight anymore? What little good you have done in your life seems like nothing compared to the atrocities you have committed. The word resonates in your mind again. Monster.

You feel the darkness like a poison seep through you. It is sickening, yet somehow familiar in it's ugly corrosive power.

Add 2 Darkside points.

 

And by the way, what is your wisdom score, and how many total DSP's does that give you? Are you tainted? Fully Dark? Still in the light?

 

My wisdom is 14 and with those two dark side points that gives me a total of 7, half my wisdom score. So I believe I have to do a will save now.

16+6=22

I dont understand, why did I get 2 dark side points, I didnt do anything.

 

Oh, you did plenty.


Just go with it.




You succeeded on your will save, you remain tainted.


You feel something alter in your psyche, and how you relate to the force. Is it the Dark Side, or is it the Darkness in your own heart manifesting? Is there a difference? Is this what your Master was trying to teach you?

 

Axia slowly rises to her feet and turns away from the carnage and suffering she inflicted on Naboo. How could she ever atone for the suffering she inflicted on all those people? In anger, anger at her inability to control seemingly any aspect of her life Axia wipes tears that threaten to spill down her face away from her eyes before they have the chance to fall. "You!" She barks pointing at Petra. "What is it you want?!"

Could I have been wrong all this time? NO! That will make all my sacrifices in vain, I refuse to believe that. Why? Is that really so hard to believe.

Axia takes a step towards the image of Petra. "WHY!?" Axia screams at her, just floating on the edge of hysteria. To have gone through so much and be right back fighting these temptations again is nearly too much for Axia. "WHY!??"

 

"Why Axia, I just want you to be true to yourself. Stop lying. Stop pretending. Embrace the destiny you know is yours." Petra says, a look of pity on her face.


Your mother, standing, looks at you. "Axia, Axia, Axia. Join me. The galaxy is free of the Emperor, and free of Darth Vader. It is ready for us to rule it, as Mother and Daughter....

Behind her, on the wall, an image materializes- not quite a hologram, not quite a screen. You see the blond boy you saw in your vision once. You hear a horrible, twisted voice say, "So be it, Jedi." Blue lighting flys towards the boy, who falls on the floor, blue lightning coruscating around him. He is in tremendous agony.

Suddenly the perpective changes. the view shifts to the ceiling, blue lightning flying towards it and everywhere. Then the view changes as if you are falling, and Vader is looking over a ledge at you, getting smaller every second. Then there is a blue explosion.

"You see," your mother says. "Vader betrayed his Master at the end. But he did not survive, which leaves the Son of Skywalker alone, and vulnerable."

Roll intelligence.