The end plays out just as she knew it would; blood rain and corpses piled high. The only discrepancy is Val's role in it. She’d been confident at first, prepared. Lynn slipping away had thrown the plan into disarray. Val was meant to be there for the birth. For the end. For the beginning. Would he understand that it was through no fault of her own?

Doubtful. There is no room for excuses when it comes down to the only thing that matters in the world. Failure is failure, whether it's through fault of her own or not.

When she finds herself in the quickly collapsing mines, she isn’t surprised. She braces herself for the consequence of her failure, for a death that doesn’t come and soon, she realizes, it’s morning. It's morning and she's alive, save for scrapes and bruises and a headache that won't stop. It's morning and she's more uncertain of her path in life, more fearful of the future, than she's been in a long time.

The light streams in through a crack in the rocks; she's near the surface, spared in a pocket of safety amongst rubble. As far as she can tell, the whole mine has collapsed save for the section she sits in. It's luck- Or a sign that something is looking out for her. Is this forgiveness? Or is she being kept alive for a punishment worse than death? 

She knows she has to face it, either way. She knows that there's no turning back now, no giving up. She pushes boulders out of her path, cautiously, careful not to cause another avalanche, until she's able to crawl to the surface. It's eerily silent; she knows without searching that she's the only survivor.

But, then she sees it on the horizon; the inky blackness of swarming insects, nanites- of nightmares and pleasure both nearly incomprehensible. It's familiar. It's like coming home.

Tears well up in her eyes and the only reason she even notices is because of the way they make the dry mud, caked to her cheeks, turn back into a liquid. Hope swells in her chest. If this entity, this emotion, is here to punish her, she welcomes the exquisite agony that she knows only from her dreams.

There had been a flash, a wave and when Alex turned around he was standing somewhere else entirely. The Green Man had been displeased but curious. Still in a rage over the imminent destruction by humanity when they had been gathered into a dark fog. The deity was otherwise quiet, keeping to itself as Alex tried to figure out what was happening.

“Am I dead?” He asks aloud, but receives a very strong feeling of ‘no’ from the Green Man, so if he’s not dead then where is he? There’s no way he could have survived a nuclear blast, but then again until a few weeks ago he wouldn’t have thought he could have survived being eviscerated, with his guts pulled out and his body hung up to be made ‘an example of’, so his intuition couldn’t really be trusted when it came to otherworldly things. Alex begins walking through the foggy forest, which is disturbingly quiet. It’s not natural, which is something both of them agree on. There’s no animal sounds, no wind, and the moon emits an eerie unnatural light. Alex keeps moving forward, on edge as he keeps looking around for any sign of life.

Eventually he spots a change in lighting, a ways up ahead but there it is. Alex moves faster, approaching what looks to be a campfire. If there’s a fire then that means someone had to of lit it, right? He’s careful in his movements, wary of coming across someone with the Project or .  .  . he’s not sure what to expect at this point but he’s going to be careful about it. There’s a vague amusement from the Green Man when it comes to his caution, but Alex ignores it.

There’s someone leaning against a tree, gazing at the fire with a distant look in his eyes, but he doesn’t seem dangerous, and he’s not wearing an Eden’s Gate cross, which is good enough for Alex.

What about my portrayal attracted you to my blog? What made you stay?

    It’s been a while since Staci’s been around a calendar. It’s been a while since he’s stared at a clock or his phone. All things that got taken from him when he got taken by the Project. Time wasn’t on Staci’s side anymore. He couldn’t prepare himself for the inevitable. He couldn’t prepare himself for that special night of the month, when the moon was full and his memory went a little blank. All he had now was instinct. Instinct that came to him those days, warning him of the coming storm that would hit that night.

    It was hard to escape the storm. Especially when he was stuck inside some cabin off in the middle of the woods with a man who was...sort of a stranger to him. They were recently acquainted with each other, becoming allies out of circumstance, and then soon Staci found himself trusting Miles. Miles just wanted to help, wanted things to get better, wanted Staci to be safe. Staci understood that. Staci wanted people to be safe too.

    Which is why he needed out of that fucking cabin.

    His skin felt like it was crawling from the inside out. Something was there, something Staci knew what it was. Staci knew that creature and knew it like it was all Staci was. So Staci knew it was impatient. Staci knew that he was pushing his luck by staying inside right now. From the bed in his room, Staci crept up, hands shaking in the pockets of his sweatpants. With a brief look outside the window, he saw the sunset plastered across the skyline.

    All he had to do was speak to Miles. Just ask. Just get out of there. Just step out of his room. Just step into the living room where Miles was. And just be gentle with his wording-- “I need to leave. I need to go outside.” 

    The ship’s jerks and rattles were finally beginning to smooth out. The jump to hyperspace had not been kind to the ship itself or the two people on board. After all, the vessel was merely a loan, an old junker Lynn managed to haggle her way into for this impromptu mission. She was made to promise she’d return the rust bucket in one piece, but she was beginning to think it might not even get her and Miles home as it sighed and creaked against every maneuver. 

    Entering Korriban’s atmosphere would be hell. Although, Lynn could only imagine that would be the least of their worries. 

    Even after all these years, the planet’s status remained a mystery. Lynn tried desperately to reach out to her connections, to pull whatever information she could on the planet and its former cult, but no one knew anything. Some were even convinced the planet itself was a myth, a legend passed on by fearful Jedi who knew little of how the galaxy worked. Of course, Lynn didn’t listen to them. Korriban left its mark on her. That planet and its self-righteous inhabitants took her childhood. And she could still feel its power. 

                                             It was as real as the air she breathed. 

    Now it loomed outside the ship, red as blood and blanketed in shadow. There was nothing good about this place. It reeked of evil and pain, and it seemed to breathe its horrors into Lynn, her chest heavier as they drew closer to the planet. 

“You ever go down to the Henbane?” Ruth knelt next to one of the cages, but not close enough for the slobber from the snarling of the judge inside to get on her face. Dark eyes lifting gradually from it’s face to the man near her. “There’re people down there called angels. They been dipped and manipulated and changed by bliss. And once you get to that level of addiction, there’s no detox.” 

She pushed herself up and pulled her service pistol, loading it with hesitation. It looked like she wouldn’t have his help with this. Not with the way his eyes seemed to get even bigger and sadder just at the sight of these wolves wanting to take his fingers off.