Corpus Rahkshi

IC: Kuma

Kuma fell to the ground and pulled his staff into a defensive stance. Being spoken directly to drove Kuma to a deeper and more terrifying rage than he had ever been at before. "Some would call it justice. But I say you are right. But a Turahk of all should know that there are many things more terrifying than death." Kuma also awoke with the rise in lucidity in this beast. But Nightmare's powers kept him too terrified to wrest control from his Makuta instilled instincts, protecting the Matoran though they were.

IC: Xara - Hallways.

I didn't know what to say. We'd started this, when Tridax had made us attack Phantom-on-the-Water for that assignment so long ago. And everything had spiralled downhill from there.

We'd kill some of theirs, they'd killed some of ours. I wasn't surprised that they'd attacked, to be honest. The only surprise for me was that they hadn't done it sooner. 

"I.... I need to.... go...." I stammered weakly, turning away and starting to walk back towards my dorm. This was all our fault.... mine, and the other rahks.... we'd brought it on ourselves. 

IC: Melody-Hallway

Melody couldn't watch any more, she turned and headed away.

IC: Nightmare

"Oh? Yes of course." He Said, Knife in hand. "So, now your not focusing on Choking me, I'd imagine that Stab wound in your leg hurts. "Oh yes, And I would not kill you. I'll let Shock and Sir Pyromaniac do that for me." He now Stared into Kuma's eyes, Nightmares Eyes were filled with Rage, Insanity, and Confusion. Yes. Confusion. "Now, I'll be needing that knife back." 

IC: Mortsia

Mortsia could not bear any of the suffering, the pain any more. Speaking in a slow, quiet voice, he said,

"Why do we fight

Those that are different?

Is it really right?

Why cause maleficence?

For we are not monsters

Nor are they invaders.

Yet the fighting happens faster

And there are less evaders

Of pain, of suffering.

Death has its grip of iron

Locked on us, and we start shuddering

But we take lives like we are a lion

Murderous and proud

And not just one, but a whole crowd.

So we must change

And A pact we must arrange."

OOC: That took way long to write. *insert tongue smiley face here due to mobile*

IC: Sidonas - Crawler

This whole time, Sidonas had been zoned out, focused on Recoil's well being. Someone would need to snap him out of it.

IC: Fang - Crawler (Team Backstab)

He gingerly took the blade and ran his hands across it, feeling for the damage. Then his eyes settled on the small nick in the edge, and he frowned. He just stood there in the doorway, rubbing at the hole like he could just will it away before remembering Kat was still there and awaiting his response.

He hadn't been able to be there for her on Nynrah, or in the last fight. And here she was offering a chance for him to come.

But he was starting to learn he couldn't be there every time. Booster or no, he was not prepared to take on a hoard of Visorak. His help would only hinder them.

"I... I think it would be better if I stayed," he sighed. He stepped back inside before he could have second thoughts.

IC: Exxan - Backstab (Jungle).

"Cao?" I continued on through the forest, looking for Caotchouc. 

IC Kat:

I smiled, He was learning his limits. 

"Alright, Get rested up. All of you coming, ON ME!"

I took flight, keeping just above the treeline, so as not to attract predator's attention.

"Keep an eye open for other students!"

IC: Era - Backstab.

I took to the air, following Kat's voice. 

OOC: Bunnying Alpha is allowed. Just in case. Cuz I'm going to sleep now.

IC: Alpha/Doublecross

I followed. I would have to get that answer later.

IC: Punch+Counterpunch+Uppercut/Punch's Mind

No one would ever think to know what was going on in his mind. Everyone simply knew was that Punch was slightly mentally unhinged. But there was more.

The three consciousness woke up, sorta, in a pinkish-blackish area that would probably be seen as the insides of a Kraata's brain. But no one really knows. The three beings—one of red passion, blue hate, and green innocence—stared at each other.

~What's going on?~ asked Upper.

~Full sleep is the only time in which we can somewhat converse with each other and even battle.~ replied Punch.

Punch was immediately kicked across the room by CP. Counter then walked up to him and grabbed Punch by the throat.

~YOU BRAKAS!~ screamed Counter. ~I told you not to say anything!~

~I told you already. I, we, had to tell the truth.~

Punch was immediately slapped.

~But if you told the truth, Shield would kill us.~

~He wouldn't. He would understand. I tried my be-~

~BUT YOUR BEST WASN'T ENOUGH!~

~STOP IT!~

Both Punch and Counter looked at Uppercut. Uppercut looked at them in both fear and anger. Of course, since he was new to being a fragment of the body's mind, he still couldn't believe it himself.

~You need to talk it out,~ said Upper, ~without trying to kill each other.~

~We don't die kid,~ Counter laughed, dropping Punch. ~You still don't realize this yet do you.~

~We are just personalities,~ said Punch.

~But we are individuals!~ continued Uppercut. ~With opinions, speech, and style.~

~But we still share the same body. That's why we begged for our Makuta to split us. But they declined, saying it was too risky to have two unstable halves running amok. They only wanted one.~

Punch sat in a cross-legged position.

~But we could never fully agreed that we could heal...~

They spent the rest of their unconsciousness in utter and deep contemplative silence.

Their body lay there in silence as well, yet his eyes were open. And still shifting from red to blue to green. He was unconscious, but those that looked at him, Punch seemed to be staring.

Staring at them.

And he would continue to stare.

And stare.

And stare.

And stare.

And stare.

IC: Fang - Crawler (Team Backstab)

After hearing Kat fly off, Fang wandered back to his bed. He desperately tried to ignore his near murderer lying on a nearby bed, and the tiny Kraata barely clinging to life on another. But he couldn't drag his eyes away from Recoil and the thief. They were looking better after he had all but melted them. Still, Recoil seemed to be asleep, with her companion keeping a faithful vigil. He looked almost dead.

Fang stepped over and shook his shoulder. "Hey, they're going back to the village," he told the Rahkshi carefully. "They could use all the help they could get. I'll keep watch."

OOC: Talking to Sidonas (whose name he still doesn't know...)

IC: Captured Matoran - Hallways.

Taking one last, forlorn look at his friend's corpses, the sword-wielding Matoran made a run for it, hoping the rahks wouldn't follow. The other survivor, meanwhile, was lost in the maze of corridors, still terrified and confused.

OOC: Open for interaction...

IC: Deadeye

"L-l-legion?" Deadeye asked, almost whimpering.

IC: Rider

"I'm fine, what's going on?"

IC: Kuma

No, don't think of it as other, know it is you, own up to your actions and control them. The rage began dissipating and the old Kuma begsn to surface. "You will pay Nightmare you Piraka. Oh how you will pay." He pulled the knife out of his leg and threw it out a window. "Fetch. It'll be fine.". With that he ran off to the lost Matoran, reached down to pick him up and run towards the causeway.

IC: Nightmare

Nightmare laughed at what Kuma said, about him paying and all.

"So, now to get my knife." He said, doing exactly that.

IC: Sidonas - Crawler

Sidonas snapped back into all that was around him. "Oh! Hello there, I apologize for zoning out." Sidonas stood up and turned to face the Rahk. "Oh, hello Fang. Yes, I guess I should go assist in any way I can. Just that in my way back here I was attacked by the same madman who was holding your friend hostage. He and his compatriot tried to take my life, probably because I called him a coward, but only a coward threatens the life of an innocent in the manner of which he did. Anyways I will do what I can to assist. Just need my arm dealt with quickly." As Sidonas spoke, he seemed a little unbalanced, unfocused, and kind of unnerved in a way. As he went to Suvak to get his arm dealt with so he could head out, he turned around and looked at Fang again. "And Fang? name's Sidonas by the way." At with that Sidonas went to Suvak. "Just need my arm fixed. Heading out to assist afterwards."

Sidonas hadn't realized that he had left a few notes and sketches on the sword he planned to construct where he was sitting.

IC: Revenge-Hallway

"Wait!" He called out to Kuma, runing to catch up with him.

IC: Captured Matoran - Hallways. 

One of the Rahkshi tried to grab him and he lashed out with his sword, screaming at the monster. They'd just murdered two of his friends, and their kind had killed countless others. He didn't want to be next....

IC: Mortsia

Mortsia followed Kuma, chasing the bloody matoran. Then, he had an idea. Calling out, he said:

"Oh, we need one thing

A Rahkshi of Slumber!

Before we do even more hating

Before we make a blunder!"

OOC:  A Rahkshi of sleep you say?

IC: Booger-Hallway

Booger left his room, looking for the one who had token his fingers.  He spotted something odd and walked over to it.  "Hey shrimpy?  Where is your Kraata?"

OOC: Booger interacting with the Matoran who is alone.

IC: Lost Matoran - Hallway.

He cried out, spotting another Rahkshi moving in for the kill. There were so many of the karzing things.... everywhere.... what was this place? With shaking hands he raised his disk launcher, unleashing a freezing Kanoka at the creature...

OOC: Which matoran was that one?

IC: Vitesse

Vitesse Slowly stood up- and promptly collapsed. She slowly stood up, and went to Palma's office for help. She remembered Lucid, but she could not possibly face her again. Why now? Vitesse thought. She couldn't help but see the dead matoran she had tried to help. Why do I kill everything?

OOC: It was the one no one was interacting with, he is shooting Booger.  I am pretty sure.

IC: Booger-Hallway

Booger jumped backward and off to the side.  "Hey! No need to shoot!"

IC: Snake - Halls

"Wait here a sec." I say to the other two, heading for mysterious noises of fighting further down the corridor, teleporting to get there faster and--

 --"Whoa!" A...yep, a bloody matoran has just literally bumped into me. I teleport back a metre, holding out my hand in front of my but resisting raising my weapon - this little fella looks terrified outta his  mind.

IC Vaalku

What? Matoran were attacking?

Arrrrrgggghhhhhhhhh

At this rate he'd never get the metal done. Vaalku took the now half-melted tools and put them in the water to cool, making sure to remove the cold metal first.

IC: Fang - Crawler (Team Backstab)

Fang was too tired to listen to the constant stream of words that poured from the thief's mouth, though he did cast a wary glance towards the Rahkshi he had mentioned, now unconscious on a nearby bed. He just turned back to his own bed mid-conversation and sat down on it, trying to keep his eyes open for if he was needed.

IC: Torch - Nynrah

"Let's go...there's a pretty tiny village near here that I'll burn down. With this open terrain, we'll be able to fly off if things get tricky."

IC: Shock

"Sounds good. I'll decapitate any matoran I see and take their mask. They have to be worth something..." Shock said, grabbing his sword. He then headed out of the hole.

Phogen nodded and contented herself with gazing out the widow of the cable car, watching the city pass by. The fact the she was going home finally came slamming into her like a freight train. Home. The library, the empty dorm wing, the causeway, Phantom-on-the-Water, Omega and the Twins and Snake and Hoto... And Exxan, who seem to stick to the forefront of her brooding for some reason.

He even almost (and he emphasized almost) missed the slop in the refractory, and the drabness of the halls. It was home. Phogen really had not realized what it meant to have a home, let alone be homesick, until he had experienced it. With time to contemplate on it now, it was a little odd. A twinge of dread that the first impression of many in the school would be functioning off of would be the horror stories Jayar apparently heard shot through him. Phogen liked having a positive image and power. In this case, perhaps a surprising capacity for good would be the best image to present. To prove the horror stories wrong.

Still, weakness was not something Phogen tolerated in herself. She would be ruthless in assignments. Well... Perhaps 'efficient' was a more fitting term. But outside of them, she would be the model of a good student. No picking worthless, ethos-destroying fights, reprimanding her employees for poor behavior, rewarding those that performed well, etcetera etcetera. Still, an esoteric discussion of moralist follies was nothing unreasonable.

He was brooding specific designs of grand success when the cable car slid to a stop at the top of the line.

IC: Nightmare

Nightmare retrieved his knife, and went happily Back to the Gym.

OOC: Nightmare open for interaction.

IC: Hoto - Malebranche

Hoto leaned out the window as the cart shuddered into motion and just felt the hot wind rushing through her headplate. No one seemed very eager to say anything. Hoto found herself wishing once more she could just see their faces, get a clue into what they were thinking, but there was nothing. Were they still angry at each other? Were they just thinking? Or were they just enjoying the view she couldn't see?

These worries occupied her own thoughts all the way back to the fifth tier. As the cart suddenly stopped, she was still as clueless as before. She almost wished she hadn't been hanging on so tightly, and she could just fall into Jayar's arms once again, and he would tell her everything on his mind.

But they all filtered out of the cart silently. Hoto couldn't take it any longer. She suddenly spun back to the two with a wide grin and snatched up their hands. "Come on, let's go meet Grossh," she burst out, even as she started dragging them along back to the workshop.

IC: Kuma

Kuma parried the blow with his staff and jerked back to pull the Matoran's sword out of his hand. He then reached down to scoop up the Matoran.

IC: Raith - Dorm

My mind leaves this place.

The grey room blurs, flowing into empty, silent darkness...I have the sensation of falling, falling through the blackness as a wisp of smoke, intangible as fog...I feel nothing, just desolate emptiness...emptiness around me, emptiness within me...I am weightless.

Light etches itself across the soundless dark, defining my form with sharp, flickering shadows before enveloping my world completely...The acute dazzle softens to become silken ambient luminescence, emanating from every point around me simultaneously.

Now I stand in impenetrable whiteness, stretching away unto infinity, the floor indistinguishable from the space around me, the soft light unvarying and unchanging...Around me is the subtle sound of my own breathing, amplified to fill the unending space, yet still a whisper.

I listen to the breathing, calming as a peaceful sea...I look up, and see...myself...hundreds, thousands, millions of forms identical to me, in a neat and uniform row that stretches out on either side for as far as the eye can see in this hazy, blank space...their shoulders rise and fall in unison as they breathe with me.

I take a tentative step towards the dusk grey shapes ahead of me...my footsteps ring loud and clear in the sea of quietly regular noise, as if the white floor is cut marble...I take another step, almost wincing as the sound of my footfalls cut through the space like a knife.

As the beings get closer, I realise that they are not identical in every way...small changes, a scratch or dent there, a brighter eye or sharper claw here, define them...One carries Whisper’s Bane around their waist while the other’s is strapped to their back.

I stop as I reach the row...They stand too close together to push through, and look as unmovable as statues...they stare straight ahead with sightless gazes...the first layer, my own voice tells me - that which the world around you sees at first glance.

I reach out slowly, my hand impacting the doppelganger...it shatters, ripples centred on my finger reducing it’s form to fine particles of glass where they impact, which float in the air as if gravity means nothing.  

As I move my hand a certain distance from the miniscule shards, they freeze in the air, as if paused. Shatter them. What others believe you to be at first is of no consequence. The ripples have, moving ponderously slowly as blurs through the air, begun to strike the other Raiths, turning them too to dust.

I push through the floating fragments of mirror before my nerve fades, noting the waves of destructive energy increasing in speed exponentially as they rush towards the infinite horizon...Looking up once more, I see another line of grey shapes.

When I’m closer, the echos of my footsteps still fading, I examine the fragile clones...These are more unique, the differences more obvious...The armour of some are distinctive in every way from their peers...I recognise some as the many aliases I’ve clad myself in over my time.

The second layer - the identities you impose upon those who believe they know you...I stagger towards the figures, the weight of what is happening beginning to dawn on me...My entire life, I’ve fabricated layers of personality and identity, hiding my true self...But now, I have lost my true self behind them…

Break through the veneers you have created, discover yourself and live as that being...But what will I find when I reach the real me? And how will I know that it is not merely another forged covering? When the time comes, you will know.

My confidence growing, I swing Bane at the facsimiles, splintering them into countless slivers in a second...As the fractures surge outwards, I realise that the ends of this row are in fact in view, if only barely.

I stride forwards, searching for another row ahead of me...The invasive whiteness before them fading, they come into my sight...I frown - this row’s ends are too in sight...In fact, they are so close, this tier so short, that I could walk straight around it. I attempt to do this, pacing to the left--

--I stop, for there is no alternative: I have stepped directly into a wall, identical in shade to the floor and the presumed sky - completely impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins...I check and, as expected, the row has walls perpendicular to it at both of ends, forming a path between them.

Wearily, I begin to walk along this invisible wall towards the figures, my clawed fingers brushing against it to attempt to trace it’s shape...Eventually, I have assembled a mental image of this structure: the space I was previously in, indeterminable in size, must be enclosed by the same barrier...At this point, the walls on either side begin to get closer and closer until they are but metres apart.

Presumably, this enclosed path continues to get thinner and thinner past this row of Raiths, but there is only one way to find out...Walking forwards once more, I shatter the row of blank stares, looking away as I feel something inside me die.

This is the third layer - those minds which you reveal to beings who think they truly  understand you...I step forwards, trying to ignore the echoes of the slowly imploding figures...Do not sympathize with them...they were invented, just like the rest, no matter how real they seemed.

And there lies the problem: where do I draw the line between what I have created, and what I was created with?...Surely all beings invent their own minds to an extent...I am still walking, and I realise that the ever-present noise of breathing around me has grown in volume…

I've also noticed that the space around me is gradually fading to a darker shade, something which disturbs me...This must just be a dream, but what I do here will have very real consequences...I walk on further, but no figures are coming into sight, while the space around me becomes more and more murky.

In this lessened light, I cast faint blue shadows on the walls, although there is no visible single source of the illumination...I can see now that the walls themselves have been closing in since I first noticed them - there are now less than three metres between them.

Eventually, five figures, standing in a neat row, come into view, their line’s width equal to that of the path itself, as before...I step closer, my black heart pounding, my breathing and the breathing of the space deafening in my ears…

Each body, once again breathing in unison, eyes staring straight ahead, are tainted with a different shade, although their forms reflect my own precisely...Crimson, blue, violet, emerald and, at the end, one form that is simply darker than the rest...The fourth layer - the personas and emotions that you believe to be yourself.

I stop.
Even the way you think, and the way you think of yourself, is fabricated by another part of your mind, just like the rest...But...they are me...No, shatter them, shatter the illusion, find your true self. I...can’t.

Do not be weak. That voice...that is the voice that faced me before I embarked on this journey, the voice that willed me to not abandon my old ways, to not be weak...Yet it is also the voice that has guided me this far...it comes from the dark figure at the end of the row.

“You.” I spit. “You have goaded me on, forced me to stay with my old ways, ways of deception and trickery where I hide in the shadows, not showing my true self to anyone, not even me!” As I speak the red figure to the left flares and grows in size.

No, you must not act like this! You are hanging on to your old self, the one you created to hide, the one that stands before you - be free of them, or they will consume you! I turn my inner gaze on this voice, the voice of the being that has been my guide on this journey. “And what are you?! Just another entity I have conjured up! You are nothing!”
No, I am the person who knows you best…

The voices grow louder, the breathing around me intensifying...in rage, I slash at the dark Raith, fractures covering it like a cobweb...It stares at me, smiling, before crumbling...the red Raith swells like an ulcer as anger consumes me, raising its weapon with dead eyes.

“No, you must be calm! Please, Raith!” The voice of my guide comes from beyond this row, and...finally, I know what I must do...I let my emotions flow out, I let my mind clear...For the first time since my creation, my imitations of minds leave me. The remaining four statues disintegrate as I open my eyes.

Tears cloud my vision as I stumble along the tunnel, the dark blue walls so close that I can touch both at once, the flickering light painting them with a million faded shadows. I am here, I am home. I look up. The tunnel ends in front of me. Huddled against the wall, insubstantial as mist, is myself.

“I knew you’d find me.” she whispers.

I can’t speak for a second...there is almost nothing left of her.

“I’ll look after you.” I murmur back. I take her hand. She smiles, and melts into me. We are one. The blue world darkens and blurs…

...and I awake.

IC: Vlad / Infirmary

After what seemed an eternity of moving carefully through the endless useless hallways Vlad entered the Infirmary. "Palma!" he called out desperately. "Zere is a Matoran who is in great need of healink!" With cautious slowness he lay the Matoran on the nearest empty bed, especially gentle with his mangled neck.

* * *

IC: Jayar / Fifth Tier

"Okay then..." To resist entirely matching Hoto's grin was an impossible feat, but Jayar's smile was not as wide as it might have been. Himself on one side, Phogen on the other, and Hoto in the middle, holding both their hands... It was altogether too accurate a representation of the strained loyalties between them to be entirely comfortable. Through Hoto he was unavoidably linked to Phogen, not only in the current physical sense. Trying to escape that could only end unpleasantly.

So was there even any point? He could not imagine he would allow anything to separate himself from Hoto, and if continually rejecting Phogen's manipulative offers of employment threatened to bring about that separation...

It was this chilling thought, most of all, that kept a twinge of doubt in that half-present grin. Because he really had no good answer to that. He just followed along after Hoto, grateful at least that for this moment they were together and she was happy... even if Phogen was here too.

IC: Booger-Hallway

 

Booger jumped backward and off to the side.  "Hey! No need to shoot!"

IC: Matoran with Launcher.

The Rahkshi's terrifying battle cry made the Matoran back off, shaking where he stood. He fired again, reloaded and fire again. He had to get out of here, before he wound up getting killed next....

IC: Kuma

 

Kuma parried the blow with his staff and jerked back to pull the Matoran's sword out of his hand. He then reached down to scoop up the Matoran.

IC: Matoran with Sword. 

Being much smaller than the Rahkshi, he easily ducked under the Rahkshi arm and hacked out at the monster's knee, trying to bring the killer down. 

IC: Booger-Hallway

Booger dodged the first disk successfully but he almost lost his balance. His leg lashed out and the second disk hit him in the leg, freezing his knee solid.  "Hey, Get back here!  No shrimp is going to beat up me!"  He began to limp after the Matoran as fast as he could.

IC: Revenge-Hallway

Revenge angled his launcher at the Matoran.  He shouted at Kuma, also hoping to get the Matoran's attention.  "Just knock him out so we can get him to a safe area!  We don't have time to be gentle!"

IC: Kuma

Kuma parried the Matoran's blow easily and jerked back his staff once again with enough force to pull the Matoran's sword out of his hand with the hook at the end of the staff.

IC: Matoran with Launcher.

He kept running, unable to see a way out. 

______________________________________________

IC: Matoran with Sword. 

Of course, Kuma's weapon was made for disarming Rahkshi, not beings less than half his size with weapons much smaller that his. The Matoran slipped his sword out of the hook before it could be yanked away, and stabbed it at the Rahkshi's gut. 

IC: Revenge-Hallway

Revenge shot a Zamor carefully aimed near the Matoran's feet, intending to knock him over without hurting him too much.

IC: Booger-Hallway

Booger kept on limping.  "Wait up you little!" But the Matoran rushed around a bend and was gone by the time Booger got there.  "Aw come on!"  Booger turned around and started waddling towards the Infirmary.