[ChicletPrime]

Voyage of the Outcast: 8

• oh great. well, forest. and the white mist of terribleness again.
  
• Dr Zayne, are you here again too?!?
  
• countless waves of both strong and subtle forces swirl through my heart.  at this rate, my liver to going to turn to crystal next, then my spleen and pancreas, and before you know it, i'll jingle when i walk.
  
• i deduce that Xavier has to be here too, i just have to find him.
  
• a meteor flies through the sky, trailing fire.  oh. i remember shooting stars. Xavier, did you want to come back here again? did you want to come back here with me?
  
• feels like the meteors are guiding me apparently. well, when in rome...
  
• Xavier! I can't see you! where are you?
  
• "my heart surges, overwhelmed by the surrounding chaotic energy. energy fluctuations pull at my heart to where I struggle to breathe. meteors streak down, falling into the expanse where the lake meets the sky."
  
• oh, please don't collapse here. isn't this where you died in this lifetime?
  
• Xavier, annoyed and angry: "I am not interested in playing hide-and-seek". whoosh, lightblade arc sound. "Come out."
  
• oh, Soren. i believe that Xavier has, in fact, disposed of 'old friends' when necessary.
  
• eh? Soren: "You haven't changed even after all these years. Still afraid of Starfall Forest."
  
• so this dreamscape is from Xavier.
  
• Xavier: "As if you're any different. To you, the ends always justify the means."
  
• hang on, that's what Mr Dude said right at the very very beginning in my promotion class when I became a Hunter!
  
• Soren: "I used my life's work on you. I did everything I could to help you pass through the Deepspace Tunnel. And what did I get in return? I was abandoned, trampled on, turned into an outcast in this time and space!"
  

this is me, blinking my eyes a whole lot and squeaking where nobody can here me. gimme gimme gimme! moar! c'mon Soren, give up the secrets in your anger and pettiness.

• Xavier: "Those were the 'rewards' for your choices."
  
• and he blinks to Soren, sword posed to kill
  
• oh, man. he jedi'd himself, its just a figment, not the real guy.
  
• Xavier: "Then why did you dodge?"
  

Goddamn, Xavier. You are so bad ass.

• a beam of light descends and the apparition is sliced in half.  ouch.
  
• fantastic. the apparition felt pain, which means it and his body are still connected somehow. which means ours are. we're phased into whatever this place is, but we're not lost.
  
• and we try to help and fall again.
  
• Xavier's flurry of attacks continues, and there's no room for counterattacks. Nothing is out of the ordinary in terms of his appearance, yet....
  
• YET WHAT
  
• his usually serene sparks of light scatter and fly chaotically, as if out of control - agitated or consumed by something--
  
• Soren: "you can kill me... but what about herrrr?"
  
• what.. what about me? i'm just on the ground, overwhelmed and trying to breathe. come over here through, i have a knife with your name on it somewhere.
  
• a meteor falls into the lake, casting light upwards. a silhouette with a hunter's uniform swirls upwards in glitter and flakes.
  
• yas girlfriend, dats you. the other you. the one he lost here, in this stupid forest, in the middle of this stupid lake.
  
• its a trap all right, but a trap designed very exclusively for Xavier.
  
• ..his unfocused eyes resemble a frozen lake --cold and empty."
  
• (snap out of it!)
  
• WHA?!
  
• "It can't be her. She's not a sacrifice."
  
• what the heckity heck?
  

that ... that was startling. VERY STARTLING. Xavier, why the hell are you suddenly channeling Rafayel?

• /big wide eyes
  
• Xavier: "I will... put an end.. to *everything*"
  
• and off he charges, forgetting or not even realizing that i'm right here
  
• aaaand he injures the unreal enough that it finally dissolves and the energy fluctuations calm down. maybe i can stand up now! do something useful, like walk.
  
• ooooh, maybe not. "Xavier continues to head to the center of the lake, his expression cold and his movement stiff. Its as though an invisible force is pulling him along."
  

• that, Mr Anderson, is the sound of.. inevitability.
  
• oh no Xavier, please don't do this. whatever this is going to end up being. i have a really bad feeling about this, like, real bad.
  
• "a planet that uses.... to survive... doesn't deserve to be saved."
  
• oh. oh my god. please don't tell me that the reason i died in that other life was to sustain those who needed the energy to keep their own.
  
• and Xavier walks, trailing light through the darkness. the expression on his face!
  
• (SNAP OUT OF IT!)
  
• I'm right here!
  
• and he collapses but i think he saw me.
  
• "You can't stay here.. run... otherwise you'll... as well!"
  
• [R]esonate?
  
• FUCK YES
  
• /channels everything into it. don't you dare dissipate into stardust just because you saw an illusion! if you're gonna unchain your atoms out of grief and fear, you... well, you can't!
  
• Xavier: "It's okay. Starfall Forest.. will stop once it has enough power... it will... I couldn't... I didn't protect you before. At least.. it chose me this time."
  

oh, i feel like crying.

• yeah, those were the important words. "enough power", huh? i'll show it fucking power.
  
• /smashes button called "Aether Core"