Pax RP

((I may reedit parts, however the main body of this story is finished and will be going up in pieces ))

On Ana, Swix had disappeared. Not only was she not around causing havoc at her own or The Collectors convenience, she just hadn't been around for at least a week, maybe more.

She wasn't on Ana, because she'd gone to her own homeworld called Dea, a world of dualities that coexisted fairly peacefully with each other, except for when there was a reason to argue.

Such a thing seemed to be going on right now, the woman noticed as she walked past a neutral ground village, where one of the leaders of a nearby Evil settlement and the leader of the Good settlement she'd have to pass before she got to the Sacred Grounds were meeting. Funny, it hadn't been like this when she'd first arrived, something must have happened since, though she'd heard no mention of what.

The Good leader looked up, perhaps sensing her intense stare, and after she smiled ironically at him turned back to the other leader and started making even more energetic gestures. So it was like that was it? The woman shook her head and continued on past the plain, neutral area. She'd stop and argue with them both, but she had more urgent matters to attend to. Far more, nor could she afford to stop since her chauffeur had decided to mess around with her and dropped her off a mere few days before what must happen, happened.

ES's world was a lush, green world, very similar to Ana or Earth. As well as the alignment specified settlements whose sizes ranged from village to city there were only a few differences. One was that the wildlife here looked entirely different, the predators were nastier and the gentle creatures, even more so. The other was the lights arcing up from the centre of each dwelling place, marking them out as specifically for certain groups. Blue-green for Good, yellow-purple for the Neutral zones and dark red for the Evil ones. It was familiar, yet it didn't quite feel like home. Truly, that was back on Ana, wherever Fade and Furnace went-not that she'd ever tell them.

Swix stopped for the night halfway between the two villages, she'd reach the Sacred Grounds within the next days travel.

She found firewood fairly easily, started a campfire and illuminated the eyes of a predator that hovered above her head, before it took a step forwards towards her. It was a type of saber toothed cat, a spotted tiger like creature that was roughly seven foot tall and twice that long. ES took a few steps back to fully bring her tendrils out, grinning at the beasts snarl. "Now" she said with anticipation "this is more like home"

She never got the chance to have her dangerous dance with the big cat though, because something flew through the air and hit it in one of it's glowing eyes, killing it instantly.

"Oh" Swix said with a disappointed tone in her voice as the creature collapsed in front of her, getting a glimpse of a rather nasty looking metallic barb as it went.

"Nice shot" she yelled, pretending to be pleased at her sudden rescue.

"Nice shot? Nice?" came the indignant reply "That was better than just nice! That was one of the most amazingly impossi-Gah! Let go!" the bragging, young male voice suddenly stopped bragging as ES's tendrils found him, rapidly coiled around him and dragged him into the light so she could see him better. One of the tendrils held an arm down, another was coiled around his neck and the young guy was desperately pulling at that. From what she could see, the kid was younger than her by at least ten years, his war an almost white blone as well as being messy enough to stick up at odd angles on his head, he was fairly scrawny-so whatever he'd used on the predator clearly didn't rely on muscle mass-and his clothing, like hers, was torn. He wore earthy brown and green however rather than black, and his eyes were pale green in the firelight.

"Why are you following me?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry" the kid croaked "I just wanted to see you"

"Why? You all should know why I'm here by now. You know it's forbidden to interfere"

"I'm not interfering! You haven't even reached the Sacred Grounds yet. I just wanted to see if the rumours were true! I was going to go when you got there. You're infamous you know"

"Infamous?" Swix repeated surprised, and lowered the guy a little "Why would you be interested in seeing me if I'm-you've split haven't you? Which morality? Lie to me and this gets ugly"

"Evil, I swear. I'm on your side" the kid said, his eyes lighting up at her threats in an oddly worshipful way

"Put me down" she raised an eyebrow at him "so I can tell you why I'm so thrilled to meet you properly"

She gave him a warning, sceptical look but let go of him anyway.

"Alright" she said, gesturing to the fire "join me for something to drink"

Swix walked over to the fire, to the opposite side of where the predator had fallen, and sat down on a blanket she removed from her red bag. She didn't offer the kid the option of sitting down though-not until she'd removed two tankards that had themselves been removed from the Horn and Halo, aod was in the middle of pouring the liquid from a bottle into them. That's when she noticed he was still standing up and just staring at her. Oh he'd moved next to the area she planned to sit down in but then he'd just stopped there.

"Stop staring at me like that" she told him, as she moved to fill the second tankard "you're making me nervous"

The kid didn't say a word, but the next time she turned around he was examining everything but her-and he still hadn't sat down. ES held one tankard in each hand and so ran a tendril over her face in exasperation, thinking that this kid clearly wasn't all that good at this.

"Gods, just take your damn drink" she snapped, shoving it towards him with such force that some of it's contents sloshed over the edge "and sit the hell down on the blanket"

The guy started, then turned and glared at her. ES found a small, evil grin tugging at the sides of her lips at this reaction. It was nothing more than what was expected, yet this time it was also nothing less.

The two glared at each other until he relented, took the proffered drink and sat down next to her with a sigh.

"So" ES asked after taking a long drink "you got a name? Or do I call you Scruff?"

"Name's Drul" the younger guy answered, taking a mouthful and making a face "Eurrgh. What is this stuff?"

"It's called iced tea"

"... this doesn't taste like tea"

"No, it doesn't, does it? It's been mixed with peaches. I suppose that's why it's more refreshing than our tea"

"Never heard of that. Kind of sounds like something someone would call their pet"

"Of course you haven't heard of peaches. It's not a drink from around here"

"Ah! So the rumours are true! You did go offworld"

"There's nothing unusual about that. People go-"

"You went offworld after gaining a great power from somewhere. Disappeared, came back, showed your abilities off and then disappeared again. Until now. Now you're back and all the leaders are panicking that your Evil morality will win over and you'll tip the balance. And because of this-"

"You want to know how I got it so you can do it yourself, right?" she asked, then took another gulp of the liquid.

"Actually I already found the ritual you originally used" Drul answered, pulling out the ancient, horribly familiar sheet

ES suddenly started choking on her drink.

Drul stared at ES choking in shock, apparently some idea he'd had of her had shattered at seeing her choke. He didn't help though, much to her great relief.

"Wh-where did you get that?" she spluttered before the fit of choking had even stopped.

"I found it" Drul answered, with a puzzled look on his face "right where you left it"

"I never left that anywhere. When I used it, I took that into..." she stopped, as realisation dawned on her. The last time she'd seen that ancient sheet was the first time she'd met The Collector. Since she'd never wanted to look for it since, she'd never noticed it's absence The entity must have removed it when she'd failed the Test... and dropped it back where she knew someone would find it. Now this idiot had.

"Drul" she ever so slowly drawled "just exactly who else have you shown this to?"

"Oh everyone who cares to look, I have the original. One of the Evil village leaders even made copies"

"Copies... you made copies..." she repeated, as though by doing so she could make the words somehow untrue. Her original plan of grabbing the sheet and tossing it into the flames before he could react evaporating. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? Do you? You think I've got power? This is nothing, nothing compared to the entity that granted it to me"

Druls eyes lit up, and ES realised that what she'd said was probably not the best way to dissuade him "So I should-"

"No, you shouldn't . You should burn that, every copy that's been made of it and forget it ever existed. Because shortly after I've recombined I won't be coming back, ever. Do you understand?"

"Not really"

"Do you value your freedom kid?"

"Of course I do! And don't call me kid! I'm fifteen!"

"Well, you won't have much if you use that. There are important things that sheet doesn't mention. She will eat you alive"

'What a wonderfully barbaric idea' a silken, sultry, unwelcome voice rolled around ES's mind.

"She" Drul repeated, staring at ES in an odd way "you said she"

"Got a problem with that, kid?" Swix snapped, determined not to stop calling him that until he got what she was trying to tell him, whilst trying to ignore The Collector in her head at the same time. Drul glared at her again and took a deliberately long pull of his drink as he tried hard not to make a face at the taste.

"No" he eventually replied, wiping his chin with a forearm "why should I? Does the creature which granted you this power that you don't want to share-"

"That is not why I asked you to burn the copiies or the original" ES snapped, surprised that she gave a damn what this kid thought.

"Well, what is it then?" Drul snapped right back, waving his tankard and what was left of the contents around so energetically that what remained came splashing out "Why do you have to keep dancing around the issue? What important things are missing from these instructions and what was all that about valuing freedom?"

Swix looked sideways at Drul, then turned around with her back to the fire and stared into the darkness so she could think better.

"I'm dancing around it because it's not an easy thing to talk about. Even for us" she eventually said, slowly, and heard Drul settle himself down next to her. "What that paper doesn't tell you is that the entity that you get this power from will subject you to what she calls a Test as soon as you enter her realm, to determine whether she let's you go free or whether she keeps you there forever" Swix told him, then put up a hand when she heard Druls intake of breath, to stop him asking another question "And no. No I can't help you with any hints about it" She felt C's feeling of approval. She couldn't tell him that, because the physical embodiment of evil had just forbidden her from doing so.

"But you're here" Drul said eventually "so you must have passed the Test"

"Hah" ES snorted humourlessly "that's another thing it doesn't tell you. If you pass the Test you get your freedom back. But the only way to gain the power it talks about is to lose"

She finished, she hoped he might start to get it now.

"So" Drul spoke up again, sounding a bit disappointed "you failed? Then how are you here now?"

"I'm here because she allows me to be" ES answered, deliberately missing out the part that she begged and pleaded and generally amused C so much that the entity offered her the deal "because I made a deal with her so that I could leave for a while. My time's almost up. So you see, I won't ever be coming back"

'That's enough Swix' C's voice once again echoed in ES's mind, this time with a warning tone. "and now because of that deal I can't even tell you anymore"

ES stared into the dark some more, thinking of things she ought to do when she got back to Pax, when she finally noticed the sound of scratching behind her. The woman turned around to see Drul scribbling something down on a pad of paper he must have been carrying around with him. "What are you doing?" sihe asked, frowning.

"I'm jotting down all the extra bits you just told me" Drul told her "that way if any of us want to use it we can be more prepared for it"

"Did you hear anything of what I just said, kid?* she snapped *While you're at it, why don't you just jot down that anyone who uses this after reading that is a moron who'll regret it as soon as they find out... " she stopped, not because she wanted to but because The Collector had just taken over her tongue and stopped it from moving. Apparently, this was something C really did not want sharing with anyone here.

"Your deal?" Drul asked as he stood up. She nodded. "Well, I'd best be getting back to the village that made the copies and bring these amendments to them"

"You're a damn idiot then" ES told him, C's hold on her tongue relaxing. "You'll doom us. We don't need that sort of power to grow in the dark. We did fine without it before"

"And now we can do better" Drul said, after staring at her incredulously "thanks to you"

The younger Drul started walking away but Swix snagged him with a tendril before he got too far.

"Give me my tankard back" she snarled, snatching it off him. Then almost as an afterthought, threw the kid into the trunk of a very solid tree.

When the kid hit the tree, his breath was knocked out of him and after a few cracks of possibly broken, probably sprained bones slid down it whilst ES simply watched him impassively, polishing off what was left of her drink as she waited for him to stand up again.

When he finally did push himself up, coughing, she put the tankards back in her red bag as though this was a perfectly ordinary picnic.

"I thought you'd be pleased" Drul finally voiced part of the reasom he was so disappointed when he got his breath back. Swix leered at him from where she was sitting comfortably. "You told me something I never wanted to hear" she informed him.

Drul glared at her some more, ES just stared at him steadily back, a shadow in the dark, made more eerie by the firelight. Eventually he had to give up and look away.

"You're not what I expected" he said, sounding disappointed again. This time Swix really didn't care what he thought.

"You don't know me, kid" she said, watching him turn his back more warily this time. "You should never meet your idols"

She watched him limp away until he melted into the shadows of the night, thinking 'Great, now I have two problems'

'Actually Swix' cane C's silken voice again 'you've only got the one. Forget about destroying the copies your friend over there has distributed. I won't allow you to get rid of them. Your world has such a lovely variety of characters I'm going to enjoy what will happen here. But of course you won't be on this side to see it then. Such a shame. I'll make sure to bring you regular updates when you're here with me'

'Why are you here C?' Swix thought to the evil entity, now unpacking more sheets and a pillow, so she could go to sleep soon. She didn't fear the beasts of the night here, not just because she could handle them but because the one Drul had killed would warn most of the others away.

'I know that tomorrow is going to be a big day for you so I came to see how you were getting on. Can't I come and watch one of my favourites? Shame on you for asking'

Swix shrugged, mentally and physically. She knew enough to know that when the entity didn?t want to tell her something there was no point in continuing to ask.

So the humanoid concentrated on making herself a bed, and trying her best to sleep in it.

The next day started out more smoothly than the last one had ended. ES awoke after a fairly pleasant dream, and picked a breakfast as she made her way through the forest to the last settlement before the sacred grounds. Breakfast consisted of a type of dark orange berry that grew on thorned vines scattered everywhere, coiling around young and old plants alike.

The evil woman found herself, strangely, thinking of Coolpikaaa, and how amusing the little hero might find all of this.

Swix arrived at the shining city with the arc of light at it's centre, and approached the gates.

The guards in their beautifully crafted armour both extended their arms over the gate to prevent her from passing through. She grinned at the sheer futility of it.

"Excuse me" she said, addressing the tallest one closest to her approach.

"You shall not pass" the guard told her, probably a standard statement when they saw someone of her inclination. Still, ES rolled her eyes at it, and them.

"Oh don't worry I'm not interested in entering your pretty little settlement" she told them sarcastically "and even if I was you couldn't stop me. No, I came here to ask you to give your leader a message. Tell him-or her-that even if this side of me proves to have grown more I won't ever be coming back once I've recombined. So you needn't worry about me tipping your precious balance either way"

That done, she started to walk away and didn't even wait for a reply from them.
"Hey, uh, Swix, right?" she heard one of them calling to her, and turned around to acknowledge his correct assumption. "are... you hungry?"

"No but, I haven't had much luck hunting anything since I got here. I have plenty of fluids, not so much food" she told him "why are you asking?"

"I remember when I went to recombine" the guard told her wistfully, lost in a memory before he pulled a brown paper bag out of a pack he'd had resting on the wall behind him. "I was starving when I reached this spot and there wasn't enough time to hunt before I had to reach the Sacred Grounds. So here" he tossed the bag over to her and she caught it, looking thoroughly confused. "What is it? What's this for?"

"Well, it was my lunch but you'll need it more than I do soon I'm sure. Call it a random act of empathetic kindness"

"I... see" the woman said, even though she really didn't, then turned and started walking away again without even a thank you.

She didn't hear them again until she'd passed the settlements halfway point, yelling at somebody called Raes to come back.

Swix eventually reached the Sacred Grounds when the sun started to go down in the sky, it would be twilight by the time she reached the centre, where her other half should also be. Before her there was a sign painted on every tree that ringed around the area, always with the same symbol-that of a grey figure eight lying on it's side. The symbol for infinity.

The woman stepped through the line of trees and into the Sacred Grounds, she probably wasn't the only one in here either but those who were couldn't interfere with her as much as she couldn't interfere with them. It meant she could relax a little more, in the place where their ancestors had come to do the exact same thing she was about to. Their legends told them this was where the first two of their kind split for the first time, and where they had recombined again at last, one ending up with the good morality winning over and the other with the evil.

Ahead stretched fields bursting with long grasses and trees dotted here and there in a random pattern. The field sloped upwards as ES walked further inside, and headed for the highest point she could see. She didn't know how, but somehow she knew that that was definitely where she needed to go.

Almost to the top now where the trunks of the trees began to cluster closer again, Swix opened up the guards freely given lunch and started munching on a meat sandwich, she barely noticed the rustling behind her because she was making so much noise with the bag and even if she wasn't, wouldn't have paid the noise any mind anyway.

The woman finished the contents as twilight set in and she finally reached her destination. The top of the hill in the centre, surrounded by vegetation that grew closely together-with a crack in the top separating one side of the hill from the other, not quite narrow enough to jump across and deep enough to cause serious injury should one fall.

Waiting for her on the other side of this hole in the ground was her other half, of course. Her moral counterpart was dressed almost exactly the same except that her clothing was white, and not torn on the bottom. Good Swix even had a fire going, and was sat stoking it when her darker half showed up. The lighter of them looked up and smiled warmly at ES when she saw her.

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up" she said, standing up and brushing specks of dirt off her dress.

"You know as well as I do what happens if we miss this"

"Of course"

"So... any idea what we're supposed to do now?"

"I don't know, nobody ever mentioned what we're supposed to do when we meet. I'm guessing whatever we feel we should do"

'Well, obviously I can't touch you because there's this great hole in the way"

"Yes. Because I don't want ours to turn into a fight, and I know you would be quite happy for that to happen. I want this to go right"

ES didn't say anything, just glared over the crevice at her counterpart. She wouldn't say it but she actually agreed with her lighter half.

"What we feel we should huh?" she repeated, tilted her head and thought about what she should do. Until she realised thinking would do less well than feeling. "Hmmm..."

The evil woman then decided she knew what had to be done, and revealed the full extent of what The Collector had done. ES brought out all four of her dark tendrils, the extra limbs pulsating disturbingly as they pumped blood through their insides. Then came the rest, the covering of her entire body in darkness that had nothing to do with the absence of light, concealing every part of her except for the eyes.

A few centimetres tall, much smaller versions of the limbs that extended from her back popped up on hands first, then slowly spread over the rest of her body. Around her that same darknesse seemed to taint the very air that got too close.

Before the evil woman, her other half was doing something similar with far less horrific resuts, GS glowed with some sort of divine energy when ES finally looked up. Oddly enough, the both of them looked as though they belonged, stood there in the twilight.

Only then did that 'something' they'd both been drawn to this spot for happen. Although they didn't touch each other, the very air around them seemed to crackle with energy. The darkness that surrounded ES and the shining light that surrounded GS streamed forwards from the two halves until they met in the centre, swirling around each other, intermixing. ES felt a tug forwards that had nothing to with physical contact, everything to do with spiritual. Of course, that made sense, that their spirit should intermingle before the rest of them followed suit. However that happened.

In the centre, the swirl became larger, but ultimately in this reconnection the darkness overpowered the light. She could see it from here, the glow of goodness became reduced to speckles of brightness inside the black pool.

Then the evil part of this spiritual joining travelled along her other halfs light threads, until they met the physical body of her good self.

GS watched it touch her torso and then smiled up at her exact opposite as tiny pinpoints of light started lifting off her, floating over towards her evil self. 'Well' she said, whthout a hint of fear one might expect from her, if they were another species watching "we shall be whole again. As we should be"

ES started laughing at this in triumph, perhaps just a little relief thrown in, with her arms opened wide to the sky. At least some things were going her way.

She didn't hear the rustle of someone behind her, nor the pad of a panicked runners feet.

Not until the owners yell of "No! I won't let this happen!" did she realise that there was somebody here who shouldn't be... And that somebody pushed her off the edge of the cliff and into the great crack in the ground.

Taken unawares ES fell, forwards and downwards into the crevice where she knew she wouldn't die but she would be terribly hurt. Perhaps hurt enough that the recombination would reverse. At least she'd still be alive, they both would, as one but they'd forever know they had been cheated by someone who'd interfered.

She'd seen the look of shock and betrayal on her counterparts face before she'd been pushed as well, her good self had clearly seen her attacker and knew who he was. That just made this all the worse.

Then, suddenly, she stopped falling as she felt a yank on one of her flailing tendrils of darkness, because her lighter half had lunged forwards to grab it before she became a broken body at the bottom of the cliff.

ES swung precariously from the end of her limb, only now seeing that GS had camped above an overhang.

There was nowhere she could get a purchase even with her extra limbs.