Kakuto Ryu

Ryu's eyes narrowed with suspicion. In his mind, she was either preparing some sort of ruse, or she was deeply in over her head. He doubled back toward her, pacing around her with a suspicious look on his face. "Before your leap off a cliff to a possible horrible demise, you should probably exhaust other options. Are you sure that there is not an easier path down? Is the cliff top such an awful place? Could you call an aircab? From the sound of it you came from a full service luxury mountaintop and you're leaping to escape boredom." Ryu snatched the datapad from her hand. Still pacing around, forcing her to turn to keep her eyes toward him, he turned it on. Who is this Amedeus anyway? And how did they find me so quickly? Ryu wondered to himself, uncertain if he should know the name or not. He scanned the message contained within the datapad between frequently stopping to make sure Aziza wasn't springing some kind of trap. Frustration, confusion and annoyance flashed across his face as he read through it. He ran his hand across his head, the persistent headache seemingly growing worse by the second. He tossed the datapad back at Aziza, "He must be joking. He wants me to take you as my apprentice." Ryu sighed. He was thinking an assassination attempt was less and less likely, as her behavior just didn't strike him as particularly well engineered to achieve that end. Which meant that the young woman before him may actually be telling him the truth, and in a way he found that to be the most disturbing of all possibilities. She came from a place of wealth, power, and luxury, and had come all this way to speak to a dirty hallucinating lunatic in the middle of a stinking swamp, because of what he could offer her. He was genuinely annoyed by the idea that anyone would choose to be like him when they could live any life they wanted, and a part of him was in fact starting to worry for her. He had fragment of memory, a vague recollection of seeing Sith Apprentices used as cannon fodder during an attack, sent in as a first wave and torn to pieces when other options and better strategies were surely available. He could recall watching them be cut down and passing their broken bodies, but what disturbed hm most was what he recalled feeling. That it was good to see the weak had been purged from their ranks. Ryu thought for a moment about what to do, before ultimately deciding on the same thing he does for every problem he encounters. He fights them. He struck a combat stance in the ankle deep muck, his feet spread apart and his hands raised in front of his chest. A straight line was drawn from the center of her chest to his, and along it he placed open palms, ready to strike or defend. His face grew cold and his eyes narrowed. His body was still as a statue, except for the new mechanical hand which randomly jittered in different directions. "I don't think you're cut out for the Sith, and I don't think I will permit you to go any further. You should turn around and head back to Iziz, and take the first transport back to your clifftop cage. "

"Oh, I see. You weren't content just having unlimited dominion over her dinky little backwater planet. Having power and luxury didn't give you the challenge and adventure you want so you hit the road and decided to to join the Sith. Live hard and die young huh? Maybe if you don't end up coating the interior or a Sith Crematorium you'll rise just high enough to earn daddy's respect?" Ryu's tone was thoroughly mocking at this point. In the distance the first glimpse the manor's exterior came into view, a large old stone fortress barely holding back the encroaching swamp from all sides. "A person like me doesn't get to ruminate on whether a risk was worth while. Risks are taken in lue of imagination or better sense. You end up where the struggle to survive takes you. That's not something some spoiled aristocrat would understand, I'm sure. I bet you haven't taken a real risk in your life, or at least, not one that has truly hurt you." Ryu turned around, halting and facing Aziza. He stood straight, tense, his legs bent. He did not raise his fists to Aziza yet. Emaciated and bony he hardly seemed as imposing as he once was but it belied a sense tension and practice to his stance. "I had you made for some kind of minder or assassin, somebody to keep me in line or take me offline, but you don't have the disposition of either. You're no Sith. You're not even a very good messenger, evidently trekking across the galaxy with no idea who you're looking for." Ryu raised his arms as he sarcastically revealed himself. "You have found the mighty Kakuto Ryu. I hope your task really was to deliver a verbal message, because if you're here to kill me you should think carefully about your next move. I don't think you're prepared for the world you've stepped into."

Ryu continued navigating the forest, never turning back to Aziza. He was soon nearly knee deep in brackish mud, trudging slowly forward. "Nope." Ryu said, dismissively. He didn't know enough about his own history to comment on it at this point, and so he chose to remain obstinate in the face of he questioning in lue of revealing his loss of memory. It was a weakness, and he would not expose it. He had forgotten much of how the Sith worked, but flashes of memory danced hazily through his head. He could remember many aspiring Sith. If not by their names, then by their faces. And by their sorrowed death masks. He knew that few survived their training. "You're a bold one, I'll give you that much. Seems like an awfully dangerous path, if the only thing you can have trust in is that you can trust no one. Knowing that the hornets mean to sting you is only so useful when you've angered the swarm." Ryu climbed atop a fallen tree that blocked the path, stopping to examine the leaches that had latched onto his legs. He took a moment to pluck them off one by one, exposing a slightly bleeding bite to the filthy swamp water. He seemed annoyed. "What is it you hope to gain for this risk? What could possibly be worth subjecting yourself to the casual cruelty and constant peril of working with the Sith?"

Ryu looked over his shoulder before he boarded the taxi, taking a last glance at the statue. He grimaced when he realized it had turned to face him. Nope, still crazy. He let out a sigh and climbed into the vehicle, providing coordinates for a swampy bit of forest in the middle of nowhere. He glanced at his stoic companion before having his attention drawn to his mechanical arm. He pried open a service panel and was poking around on the inside, trying to see if he could identify whatever was horribly wrong with this cursed thing, spending the ride in silence. Immediately after they had landed Ryu got out and began to hurry away the driver. Once he disappeared off in the direction of Iziz, Ryu spoke. "Sorry for landing out in the swamp, Miss. Can't very well take a cab driver straight to a Sith's hidden death fortress can we? Might get us all killed." Ryu began his barefoot trudge in the direction of the coordinates Nyrys had given him, turning his back to Aziza and leading the way. "You can never be too careful working with the Sith right? Wouldn't you agree? Say what do you do for the Sith anyway?"

"There is a bit of resemblance isn't there..." Ryu turned his back on the statue, reassured that he wasn't just imagining it. She was looking for him, but did not recognize him. He considered sending her the wrong direction and bailing, but he didn't like his odds of staying ahead of her. He decided to foster confusion. "I'm Mudd Thundersun. And I have seen the man you are seeking, Kakuto Ryu you said? But wouldn't you know, he just left the city. Said he was heading to some hidden facility outside of Iziz. I was contracted to install refreshers out there but I don't have a ship, or credits..." Ryu trailed off, glancing at his feet. "...or shoes, really. So why don't we make a deal, I'll give you coordinates to where you can deliver your message, and you give me a ride out huh? You look like one of them fancy city folk, I bet you got yourself a real nice speeder or something we could use."

My Lord? His back toward Aziza, Ryu scrunched his face in disappointment. He paused for a long time, unsure what to do next. She called me, 'My Lord?' what does that even mean? How much influence do I have here? Who the hell am I and what has happened since I was imprisoned? Ryu eyes caught on a figure in the distance. His pupils dilated and his heart began to pound as he noticed the 20 foot tall man in armor, swinging a hammer downward with an expression of psychotic rage. Exactly as it had appeared in his hallucinations. He forgot about Aziza for a moment, and wandered closer to the statue. He couldn't be sure that the statue was real, and not just another figment of his imagination. It seemed real, but he had a strong expectation that it would move of attack him at any second. When he finally turned back toward his pursuer, he recalled the question that she had posed. "How I feel is none of your business..." Ryu clutched his forehead again, the new arm feeling somewhat like a constant electrical shock dealt directly to his nervous system. Frustrated that his attempt to pass by unnoticed was evidently so useless, he began to bark back questions. "...Who are you? What do you want? And.... What do you know about this statue?"

Ryu slipped on the generic, state issued one-size-fits-all pair of baggy black pants. The legs barely passed his calf, but it was better than nothing, he figured. He dropped the comm into his pocket. He watched the woman Nyrys had indicated with a sense of dread. For a moment it had seemed like they were going to leave without doing anything to make sure he didn't just run, but apparently he had been appointed a minder. Ryu grudgingly made his way down the stairs from the landing pad, passing by hordes of confused hospital staff bringing patients back into the hospital as he made his way out. As he approached the front door he identified the wandering woman from before, apparently led here in much the same way Nyrys and Delta had. Word of his reappearance was spreading quickly through the Sith Empire. Ryu was unsure why his appearance meant so much to the Sith, but his notoriety was clearly significant. Ryu emerged from the front doors of the hospital, trying to look anywhere but directly at Aziza, He rubbed his temples, half to hide his face, and half because the feedback from the shoddy mechanical arm he was given was making his skull feel like it was going to split open. He thought maybe if he pretended not to know she was here for him, she wouldn't recognize him and he could pass by undetected.

Ryu listened to the case they made for rejoining the Sith. The specter of his former self, the sadistic demon that stalked the shattered halls of his mind; that was who they came here looking for. They wanted a weapon to crush their foes with, but they had found an emaciated drifter with a broken mind. He had little interest in being used in this way, yet he could see little option but to agree to their terms if he'd hoped to leave this place. Ryu watched as the white armor clad specter walked around between his visitors, unnoticed, unreal. He watched the figure in white lift up the female Sith and toss her off the roof. He watched with a mild sense of terror as body plummeted down the side of the building and splatter on the ground. He blinked and found the specter gone and the Sith still standing where she had been before. The hallucinations were getting worse. Apparently his subconscious was making a suggestion as to how he might escape this situation. Dagon you say.... The name he heard a face he had seen in the dark recesses of his mind, but the details were still hazy to him. He avoided the subject, certain that saying too much would expose his condition and risk a change of heart followed by an execution. He couldn't avoid his past anymore. He would have to face it. "You wanna be friends? Fine. Why don't you show me what good friends you are and find me some pants and equipment?" The wind on the top of the building combined with his hospital gown did not leave him with a great deal of modesty. Ryu tossed the broken bed rail over the edge of the building, then raised his arm as if direct them forward. "Lead on."

Ryu ruminated on the words, unsure how to respond. The Sith he had fought was the Dark Lord? And He had Survived? And now they wanted to make friends because he did such a good job of it? This all seemed like nonsense, deception. His knowledge of the Sith order was still hazy at best, but the idea that he might have earned their respect by surviving a fight with the Dark Lord rang true. Ryu knew that he was once a Sith, and for all anyone else knew, he was still the man he was back then. Perhaps the way to survive this situation was to go along with it, feign memory of his past and let the Sith treat him as a lost brother. At very least, it seemed more possible than bludgeoning a platoon of soldiers to death with a bed rail. He watched the soldier approach. If Ryu was going to have to fight him, he would have to do it at close range. And so as Delta crossed the roof to approach him, his hands up in a gesture of surrender, Ryu stood still. He still suspected a ruse, but at least at close range he would would be able to counterattack when the situation turned hostile. "What exactly do you want? Do you really mean to say that you evacuated a hospital and stormed it with a legion of soldiers because you wanted to be my friend?"

Ryu's blood ran cold as he heard a man call out from below, accusing him by name of scaring the staff. "Yes, they're running from me, not the armed death squad that surrounded the building." He wished he had something, anything he could use to slow down the one advancing behind him. Or something to help him ascend faster. All he could do was run toward his uncertain escape. When he finally breached the final door to the roof though, his worst fears were realized. There was no aircraft he could escape with, just an empty landing pad and the perilous fall that surrounded it. Ryu ran toward the edge, looking for any nearby path he could fall to, but saw nowhere he could drop that he could survive. He facepalmed his clunky metal hand for a moment, before turning to face the door he had come in from. He took a deep breath and spread his feet apart, assuming a low stable stance. He was sure that his pursuers could not be far behind, and were likely still in earshot. "Well, you got me cornered now. But you know what they say about cornered animals. I don't know who you're here to avenge, but consider carefully whether or not you're willing to die to have that vengeance." Ryu caught a glimpse of the specter of his past self, sitting above the doorway and sharpening a knife. Despite his lack of equipment, he felt certain that if pushed he would succumb to the madness that had driven him on the Goliath. "I doubt it's worth what it'll cost.."

Ryu's eye shot open with a gasp, the dull pain of consciousness resuming. He was still on the medical bed, where the droid had left him. His chest still felt like a pincushion. As he moved to get up he heard a loud metallic clank, becoming aware of his new mechanical arm for the first time. As he stabilized himself he moved the new arm, and with it got a sort of "buzzing" in his nerves that traveled up his shoulder and took root in his brain. It was a sort of awful feedback from system that connect it to his nerves, static from something not grounded properly. As he went to move it around he was immediately struck by how sluggishly it responded. It was a bare framed metallic arm, the exposed articulated parts having no synthetic skin or external casing to speak of. Ryu sneered and slumped his head. This was only vaguely preferable to not having the arm. But at least I can open jars again. He thought. He stood up slowly, wondering where exactly he was. He had passed out on a ship. Was he still on the Goliath? He recalled feeling the ship enter and exit hyperspace, and seeing a different planet when he had blown a hole in the side of the ship. No doubt the ship had retreated, and he found himself now deep in Sith territory. He walked toward the door slowly, every step he took radiating waves of pain through his injuries. When he reached the doorway to his room he slumped against the wall, sweating bullets. He thought about Jedi and Sith he had been fighting. The power that overwhelmed him then had subsided now, leaving behind only the fragments of memory that he had gained from his other self, and the bitter knowledge that in the end he had betrayed both sides in his maddened frenzy. No matter who lie beyond that door, it would almost certainly be an enemy, seeking revenge for the blood he had spilled. He found himself with nothing, no weapons, no clothes except for a hospital gown, and in a weakened state while facing an approaching foe. Again. Armiena had taken pity on him due to his ignorance the first time, but he had ensured that nobody would see him as being innocent this time. Ryu pressed the button to open the door, and was very shocked to find it slide freely. He really expected to be locked in, given the circumstance. He peeked out into the hallway to find the hall in a state of abandonment and disarray. There was not a soul in sight, and everything seemed dropped in a state mid use, like the inhabitants had made a mad dash to leave. It was a hospital, he gathered, by the variety of medical tools and sensors he saw laying around. He walked past an overturned food cart, stepping in still warm food. He felt a deep sense of confusion. He noted blue skies out the windows, assuring him that he was indeed on a planet now. In the distance he heard a few footsteps, and a door seal shut. He wondered toward it cautiously, clutching his gut with his mechanical arm while bracing himself against the wall with the other. Eerie Silence followed him while he peeked around every corner, into every open and uninhabited room. When he came to the door he though he had heard close, he opened it cautiously, revealing a lift in a transparasteel shaft. From the elevator shaft he had a wide open view of the surrounding area: a large open campus surrounded by other buildings. When he examined the campus his blood ran cold, He saw a stream of doctors, and nurses running out, escorting or carting out patients to be sorted at a picket of armed soldiers, who dotted the building's perimeter. He saw others who seemed to be closing in on an entrance. He ducked behind the doorway and stood flush against the wall, hyperventilatilating for a moment, cursing his fate. "...Betrayer..." Ryu winced, hearing the voice of the demon echo in his head. He began to strategize, desperately trying to imagine a scenario where he survives the strikeforce, and coming up with very little. Only that he needed a weapon, and that if they were below, and that his only option was up. A hospital seemed like a poor place to find a weapon. He began to hobble quickly down the halls, ducking into a patient room to tear the safety rail off of a bed to make a crude cudgel. He stopped at a map and began to study it for a possible escape route. He couldn't take the elevator, he would be spotted immediately in that open transparasteel elevator. He grimaced at the prospect of cornering himself at the top of this building, but he was certain they would have the ground level covered shortly. On the map, he found a staircase on the interior he could climb, and on the roof he found the indication of a landing pad for ambulance speeders. If he was lucky, he hoped, he would find one parked at the top. Ryu hobbled through the halls to the staircase, then set about climbing upward along the long twisting path to a desperate escape route.

Ryu found himself in a dark room, laying on the floor in the fetal position. It was unclear how long he had been there, but it felt like weeks. His eye stared unblinking into inky blackness, his mind filled with an equally empty catatonic void. In the distance he spotted a man who seemed to appear under a freshly activated spotlight. Ryu recognized him, though he was covered in a mask and black robes.immediately as Exodus. "Exodus..." Ryu croaked with a dry voice, a vague sense of hopefulness in the name. He got up slowly, and began approach the lone man, when two more lights clicked on near him. Under them were two more men, One was white White haired in, in the robes of the Krath, the other in plate armor. "Dagon... And Tethyn!" Ryu quickened his pace, though it did not seem to make his approach any faster. More lights kicked on, revealing more black robed figures. "Abaddon... Jareth... Raynuk... Karma... Furion..." Ryu stopped as the motionless figures seemed to surround him. Suddenly furious disdainful voice erupted from behind Exodus's mask. "TRAITOR." Ryu hesitated, trying to recall the events that had brought him here. It was hazy now. He could barely remember anything after boarding the Goliath. "FAILURE." Echoed Dagon's voice. "DESERTER." Added Tethyn. "PATHETIC." "NAIVE" "WEAKLING." "INCOMPETENT" "FOOL." Each figure added recrimination to fray. Ryu clutched his head, trying to process the guilt he felt. Armiena appeared just next to Exodus adding her own judgement. "Monster." Finally, they all cried out once more, in unison. "BETRAYER" And with that, they all burst into flames. He watched the robes on the figures around him be peeled away by fire, exposing charred flesh which quickly erodeded their bodies. They repeated, chanting now. "BETRAYER. BETRAYER. BETRAYER. BETRAYER." Exodus stepped forward, extending a hand with apparent intent to choke Ryu out, but by the time it reached his neck, they were just blackened bones that gripped him. "Betrayer...." ------ Ryu woke up on an operating table, his arms and legs tied down, with a medical droid elbow deep in his open gaping chest cavity. It's droning mechanical voice gave kurt instructions. "Remain calm. You have not been authorized for anesthesia. Increases to your heart rate will accelerate your bleeding out." Ryu screamed in horror as he felt the mechanical arms digging through his intestines and applying crude patches to his exposed organs. He tried to break free, but found himself helpless to do anything but watch as minutes turned into hours, as droid rearranged his insides and shot cauterizing lasers at internal wounds. When it finished with his body cavity, it went on to probe his limbs, stabbing him with narrow mechanical claws, which reemerged seconds layer holding pieces of shrapnel, sealing the wound again before dropping the piece into an alarming full tray. When the droid went for the final piece, it stabbed directly toward his heart, sinking between his ribs. He felt the mechanical glance his heart, a sickening pain that made him nearly vomit. When it emerged, it dropped a silver crystal above the pile. Between his screams he stared at the jagged blood covered crystal, watching as instead of landing atop the other bits of shrapnel, it flew into his palm. He gripped it tightly as the last wound was sealed, and the droid said its final report. "Five Major hemorrhages sealed. Twenty-seven minor hemorrhages sealed. Seventeen broken bones fused. Thirty fractures patched. Seventy pieces of shrapnel extracted, most apparently from old injuries. One stock mechanical arm installed. Arkanian life form stabilized. You will live." The droid hovered into a corner, then was sucked down a chute to disappear from the room. The restraints released, leaving Ryu to shrink into the fetal position while quivering in pain. He wanted to get off the table, but he lacked the strength to. Instead he stared into the crystal, washed in maddening agony. In his mind he could still hear Exodus's voice, echoing his nightmare. Betrayer...

"SUFFERING." Pt 2 Armiena struck a cord with Ryu, drawing the Ryu that had dreaded who he truly was back closer to the surface. The man was sure that this suffering was his own doing, his punishment. And in that moment he knew who and what he truly was. A monster. One who drank deep of the power of this manic rage, one whose only friends were the homicidal maniacs who valued the supreme strength if offered without question, Those who were prepared to live with the immense suffering that it would bring to everyone around, as long as they should live. The friend he would kill her for was another monster. A creature of hatred without mercy or love in their heart. That is what the old Ryu, the specter from his nightmares, was. That is the only kind of person who could call him friend. Those who learned to love the suffering, for it was the only constant in their world. Seeing this, he wanted to stop. To help her escape. Maybe even go with her. He wanted to save her life and get her back to her Padawan, Genesis, and try to make up for all the pain he had caused. But he couldn't stop. It was too late to go back now. That part of him didn't have control anymore. He had given in fully to the Dark side, to the memories of who he once was: the specter who walked the land like a hurricane, bringing sorrow and ruin upon all he came in contact with without thought or remorse. Not because that's what he wanted. But because that's what he was. The Dark Side was a powerful addiction and he had drank too deeply of it to stop now. So as Armiena pressed her hilt to his chest, having had the path to a killing blow but not taking it, Ryu felt a renewed sent of anguish. If she had killed him, she might have been spared him the profound torment he was to endure, both in this moment and for the rest of his days; having to watch as his fury exceed his ability to be to maintain control, having to live with the fact that he will have betrayed all who might have called him friend, and that he could never know true companionship for none would ever be safe in his presence. Because it was already too late. The red blade of transcendence emerged from the back of her chest. Ryu's anguish manifest as a horrible psychic scream, a mournful cry of anger and agony that went on continuously. The walls and floors vibrated, slowly at first, then faster and violently, until the whole side of the ship shook apart, sending her into space along with large mass of twisted steel. He stood on the precipice, his location fixed by the force and his mouth agape. He cried out in agony even as the area depressurized and he was forced to the silence of space. Left standing in empty space, he watching her body drift away. He walked slowly back toward the nearest pressurized door, tears and blood evaporating into clouds of gas and being sucked out into the ether as he moved. As he opened the door he found the red knights staked out to greet him. They were immediately sucked into space by more than just the room depressurization, as Ryu willed them to simply be out of his way. When the door closed behind him, and at last he was truly alone, he collapsed from his many wounds, and fell unconscious, drifting in the corridor.

(( Final Round. OVERTIME: Kakuto Ryu VS Obsidian Knight )) "SUFFERING." Ryu’s arm was blown to pieces by the maelstrom, throwing him back and sweeping him away, only to find himself wedged in an upturned deck plate and buried under even more wreckage while the final moments of the duel played out. He watched as Armiena cut down Exodus, In the last remaining rational vestiges of his mind, he saw her containing her glee in the moments leading up to the death blow, and in those seconds he felt anguished, his paranoid mind interpreting as a sign that he had indeed been betrayed--a sense that struck home when lightning pierced Exodus’s body, and the opportunity to reconnect with what was potentially the last remaining person that he had a bond with. The force storm ended with a jolt as the ship swirling object fell, and he lost sight of Armiena. He lost consciousness for a few seconds, his body riddled with gashes, his bones cracking and organs hemorrhaging from the many impacts he’d endured. He would only have a few minutes of consciousness left. He faintly heard Armiena calling his name, followed by the sound of many bootsteps. Her sudden desire to learn Ryu’s location was answered with a clanking at her feet. It was the lightsaber she had loaned him. The strap that had held it to his wrist was torn. Under the rubble she could hear motion as he worked to free himself. His arm only barely peeked through. Though dissipated, he could still feel the swirling of Exodus’ maelstrom, the motion of his storm echoing thunderously in the force. He could feel it turning around him, and empowered by the profound grief he pulled it inward, letting his spirit become a hurricane of rage. Ryu’s arm disappeared below the wreckage, then burst through again to knock over a large wall panel that had been resting on his skull. His robes were torn to shreds, and the ghostly white figure was now painted entirely in streaks of his own blood. His right eye was filling with blood, a broken artery in his eye washing the sclera in red, meanwhile they gaping socket in his left still shone with a dim spark. He looked at Armiena with a new grotesquely twisted expression, crying blood and showing unbridled sorrow and agony on the right while steeming with psychotic rage and flickering sparks from his socket on the left. Empowered by his desire to avenge Exodus and the echo of his murderous intent, He extended his fingers and the Legendary Transcendance floated to his grasp, Exodus’s own blade acting upon the Dark Lord’s final will by both drawing the very life force from Ryu and, at the same time acting as a focus for the echo of the Maelstrom that would empower him. “I… Remember Gala now… This man, he stood beside me, against you, and those who stood with you. Echos of that day live in this blade, and affirm that they were not just my own fevered hallucinations. He was my brother… and you used me to kill him. You’ve deceived me to kill my Brother… Was this your plan all along? My final punishment, to have me help you hunt down the last of my family, Oblivion having already been dispatched at your hand. Oblivion never returned, did you know that? Would you do that to me again? Deny me the last of those who I loved as brothers, before killing me or consigning me back to the dark pit you pulled me from?” Ryu was shaking with rage, bits of the ship beginning to drift upward as his will to be free began to manifest subconsciously in the force amid his surging power. No longer able to contain it, he thrust his left shoulder into the air and let out a primal scream, which vibrated in the force and made the very ship around them vibrate with his intensity. Coalescing the residual energy of the maelstrom, he pulled down a massive bolt of force lightning, concentrated and focused, yet brief, hammering down from the ceiling directly onto Kakuto Ryu and splitting at his flesh. The shape of a huge monstrous claw was faintly visible in the flash of the lightning, his crude wreckage arm reforming once again. Spliting from Ryu, it surged throughout the ship setting electrical systems ablaze and short-circuiting panels while arcing between the Sith Soldiers and stunning them long enough for him to make his final stand. The lightning must have had far reaching consequences to the ship, as now the artificial gravity abruptly failed, and objects were beginning to drift around the room, dimly visible among smoke, fire, and arcing panels. "GET OUT!" Ryu’s shout was at once a demand and a plea as well, his fractured mind simultaneously begging her to just leave and becoming bent on driving her out of the ship--through the walls and into space. She would escape or he would see her dead, if she didn’t kill him first. He still had doubts in his mind, but those doubts were so quiet now behind the drumming, and worse, the psychotic screams of rage that filled both his mind and his lungs. "GET OUT!" With Both Hands he began to pry the floor panel that had been pinning him up, sparks dancing through the debris that held the shape of his arm by the power of his will. A massive sheet of steel broke loose with a crash, nearly the whole width of the room and at least as long. "GET OUT!" Weighless but inert, Ryu kicked off against exposed ship innards below and began pushing the massive slab, slowly at first, then faster, then at a sprint, until he could barely keep up with it. Smaller debris followed closely behind, caught in a current of the force that was amplifying impact of his effort. Each time he imparted his force onto the wreckage he drifted randomly, alternating between the ceiling, walls and floor as he bounced off his target and then heaved himself forward again. The big object was not difficult to move in Zero G, but had a lot of inertia, and required a great deal of force to gain momentum, becoming harder and harder to stop with each push. Ryu threw his force arm into the floor far ahead of him and used it to pull himself forward rapidly as he kicked off to try to catch up with the wreckage one final time. His lightning hand and stretched out and snatched a force hammer, having been knocked loose from one of the soldiers that he had shocked with his initial volley and drawn into an ever increasing cloud of debris propelled forward at Armiena. Twin Crimson blades erupted from Transcendence, his body spinning as he twisted the blade through the wreckage and cut it into smaller, but still formidably large pieces. “GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!” Ryu shouted, spinning around wildly and swinging the hammer at different pieces deck plate and other debris, shouting his furious demands every time he launched one forward. The pieces of wreckage flew at such velocity that they threatened to tear open the side of the ship upon impact. Close behind the volley, a final swing of his hammer aimed at Armiena herself, with the lightsaber ready to follow up. ((One And done. Thanks for playing with me. No hard feelings no matter what happens.))

"Anger leads to...." As Ryu charged in he could hear Exodus taunting him, his whispers coming in loud even over the relentless drum. “Was his mind truly lost to madness?” Ryu was virtually certain that he had. The lines between reality and his hallucinations had blurred. “ Had the Jedi deceitfully led him to slaughter, and turned him into a doltish marionette for their games?” Ryu didn’t have much time to ruminate on the words, as no sooner than he had been called a dolt did get struck by residual shrapnel from his own grenades. He had overestimated the size of the room they were fighting in, and Draygo’s ability to control the explosion, and in so doing felt the bitter sting of metal shards passing through his left side. One passed through his calf, while another embedded in his skull and a few small shards peppered his left shoulder. It came as a stark notice of how unhinged he’d truly become, too lost in his own madness to comprehend the suicidal danger he put himself in. Even so, despite the intense pain and wounded leg, Ryu’s fervor only intensified. The Red blade intercepted his green one, locking together with a shower of sparks. He hadn’t whiffed the strike entirely as he had before, and though he could get the fearsome Sith to concede ground, he was still not able to make contact. The smoke thinned from compression wave of the grenade, smoke escaping from gaps into adjacent areas. In the mingling lights of their blades Ryu at last saw his opponent, encased in black armor with golden inlay, his helmet fierce visage of wolf. “That is...King Exodus, Brother.” Exodus’s visage felt terribly familiar to him, the fearsome Sith was reminiscent of the dark specter that haunted his mind. And yet, he was distinct. It seemed more likely that the man who stood before him was in fact the successor to that dark legacy. The last word echoed in his mind, growing louder and louder until it was a scream. “...Brother...” In a flash of light, Ryu found himself in a Jedi temple, back to back with two companions, in combat with Jedi. They were three against numerous Jedi, fighting back to back. With him were the two Sith Ryu had sent with Dagon in the earlier vision. They were Exodus and Oblivion-- the white haired apprentice. Lightsabers blazing, they fought furiously against stacked odds. In this moment he felt a sense of kinship with the two he fought alongside of. They were his brother, his equals, those he had revered above all others. They, along with the unseen Dagon, were his first and only kin. Ryu watched a lightsaber blade erupt from Oblivion’s back, felt a sharp pain of anguish running through his chest. As the Sith fell to the ground, his slayer was revealed. Though he did not recognize the faces of the other Jedi, he knew this one instantly. Armiena Draygo In the shock Ryu was mortally wounded by a blow to his chest. He fell to the ground and watched Exodus, only to see him be cut down last as his consciousness faded away. He awakened later in a Sith temple. It’s obsidian walls felt familiar, like it was his home. His and his allies’ bodies were on the floor, arranged in a triangle, having apparently been resurrected by a dark ritual. Ryu stood first, then Exodus. But Oblivion did not rise. He remained motionless. His soul did not return from the force, and his death had been made final. Three brothers had become two. The despair he felt in that moment washed over him, and followed him to the present. All this Ryu saw in the flash of light that connected their sabers, reeling in disorientation the moment after. Ryu saw Armiena close in beside him to try to strike Exodus, but they were both stopped by a sudden explosion. The force erupted from the Sith, creating an omnidirectional wave that shattered Ryu’s bones, tore his flesh and sent him flying ahead of ribbons of blood. The compression wave contorted the very ship around them, buckling the structure and demolishing panels along the surface of the walls. Ryu stopped at a wall, smashing his spine into it with such force to leave a dent behind. He slid to the ground and slumped in anguish. It had become clear that he was hopelessly outmatched in his current state. I can’t defeat him. As Ryu sat bleeding on the ground, his gray hair, flesh and robe each being tainted with streaks of red. His back to the dent in the wall, he saw the malicious spectre appear in front of him, clad in his usual white armor. Ryu knew that this hallucination represented the man he was before his memories had been erased, a terrible demon. I will fight for you. It is the only way to survive. The vision held out his armored hand. If I submit to his control, It would bring back a monster. Would I even exist as I am now? Or would he obliterate what I am now and take my place? For all I know, he may turn his blade on Armiena. Armiena... Was it really her who killed my brother? Is it really my brother who I am helping her to fight now? Would she take them both? Am I being used to kill my kin? Or am I being manipulated now, by Exodus? Is he trying to use me on someone who has shown me mercy despite the beast I once was? Or am I just lost in a fever of madness, and my foe is not Exodus? Are these really my memories coming back? Or Illusions? I can trust nothing to be real. I can trust no one to be my ally. I am only sure that if I continue to fight like this, I will not survive. I am free from my prison, but I am cornered, bound, and alone even still. Ryu looked up at the man in the skull mask, extending his hand to grasp the Spectre’s. I submit. Ryu’s face twisted unnaturally, his expression going asymmetrical as his mind was a real sense torn in half. His right eye and mouth showed anguish and horror, a miserable weeping moan punctuated by genuine tears. And yet, the left side of his mouth was a hideous grin, gritting teeth in anger, beastial and fierce, yet joyous in malice. His left eye lid slid open, revealing an empty fleshy cavern inside his skull. In the center of his eye flickered a tiny spark, which grew in intensity until sparks erupted from his socket and showered his cheek. Broken wreckage from the grenades and Exodus’ force attack began to lift up around Ryu, starting with pieces closest to Ryu. As he rose to his feet the effect branched out. The five throwing knives on his belt were lifted into the air, along with shards of electronics, exposed wiring and arcing electricity from damaged panels. Even the blood that poured from Ryu’s flesh got swept up and began to dribble upward into the air instead of caking his robe. The debris floated aimlessly until another spark, like the one in his eye, formed on the crest of his left shoulder. A spark of electricity erupted and set fire to the tried off sleeve that hung where the severed arm. As it continued to erupt in electricity the floating objects began to draw toward where his left arm would have been. Jolts of lightning traveled along paths that resembled his arteries and terminated where his skin would have been, creating a ghostly image of the arm in the flashes of light.The floating objects began to crudely smash together, starting at his shoulder massing to form an arm out of random shards of metal, blood, and lightning. It was not a mechanical arm, but rather a crude facsimile held together by the force alone. Ryu let out a howl, a horrible layered moan that was at once agony, terror, laughter and rage. He hunched low and threw his new arm forward. The pieces scattered and reorganized, absorbing more of the debris and becoming looser, streaks of lightning passing through large gaps and seeming to hold it all together. About half way between Exodus and KR, the five knives embedded in the durasteel floor, each representing the last segment of his five fingers. It had become grotesquely disproportionate in length and size relative to his body, but the shapes of bone and blood vessels were still visible in the patterns of electricity. Ryu pulled himself forward with the arm, launching through the air like an arrow. As he sailed directly at Exodus’, he pulled the force arm back in towards his body, shrinking it as pieces drifted clumsily in orbit of his body. He twisted in the air, igniting the saber behind him as the force heaved the pieces of his will-powered arm toward Exodus, a knife fingered hand made of twisted metal reaching to grab at Exodus’s chest. A surge of lightning arced the pieces and escaped aimlessly bathed Exodus’s area, ignoring whether Armiena was in the path or not, and growing narrower as he closed the distance between them. He swept the green blade forward, his hideously contorted face mouth still wailing monstrously as he moved to try to slash toward Exodus’ neck. ((3))