| abstract
| - The call of the desert is more than just wind. The howling rattles the desert sands, and a call drifts from a place on a ledge: a tunnel is the beacon from whence the call comes. Inside, there is darkness, and the cold. Lightsaber clasped tightly to his belt, Anakin Skywalker makes his way slowly through the wilderness and up the ledge, following the call into the tunnel. Green eyes stare out from a ragged hood with intensity, uncertainty, and an enveloping calm. His eyes close for a moment, sensing a dark, familiar presence -- but this time the lightsaber does not leap into his hand. Instead, he smiles calmly. "Come to fail again?" "Anakin...?" The familiar voice rings out through the crooks and crannies of the tunnel-- reverberating throughout the space and lost in the sway of dank... It is a female voice, and a voice that Skywalker would know so, so very well... "Maddy!" Anakin calls out, instantly relaxing. "Where are you? What are you doing here? You got away?" He looks around wildly, trying to follow the source of the voice, excitement in his gaze. "I... got away," the voice replies, unseen for the moment-- shadows passing across the gleam of the crystal stalagmites. "I've missed you, Anakin..." Madison says, smoothly. "Why... didn't you come and get me?" is the question next, before Madison reveals herself-- perched atop a smooth crystal outcrop. Her head is tilted, and her hair long and beautiful, black as the night; clad in a dress. "I was all alone..." Anakin's eyes brighten as she steps out, rushing towards her. "I tried... I fought one of your captors, a woman with a force pike. I spoke to Obi-Wan but he said I wasn't ready, I had to do my trials first. I'm on my Trials ... If I succeed, I'll become a Knight! You know what that means..." He smiles happily, a smile that turns slightly quizzical. "You look ... different today," he murmurs, noting the rare long hair and the /very/ rare dress. "What's the occasion, babe? Usually can't get you in a dress unless someone's gettin' married!" Madison regards her attire, bright eyes then shifting to Anakin; a hand moves to grasp at her hair, gently, tugging a lock forward and over her shoulder, fingers fiddling with the ends. "I... just felt like a change," a smile, lackluster. "Being... away," she murmurs, glancing at the ceiling. "I've been thinking about a few changes..." Anakin steps closer to her, moving to wrap his arms around her and pull the woman close. "I missed you. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you ... I failed you, and Obi-Wan, and everyone." He blinks. "What do you mean ... changes?" A stricken look flashes through his eyes for a moment, a deer-in-the-headlights moment that is gone as soon as it came, with a more urgent: "What changes?" . Nodding sagely, Madison wraps her arms around Anakin, her chin resting on his shoulder. "Everyone fails," she whispers, turning her lips toward Anakin's ear. "Everyone, Anakin. It's not so bad to fail, you know," she remarks, so gentle, so soft. "In fact, sometimes it's better to fail. There's so much to gain, by failing," coos the woman, the purple satin of her dress whipping at her knees with a gust of wind drawn through the cavern. "Oh, nothing specifically. Change is just a good thing. Maybe you could use a change, Anakin..." Anakin stiffens at the words that come from her lips to his ears, looking at her uncertainly. "Maddy?" he questions, voice timid and low. "Maddy, don't talk like that. You know those things aren't true ... I mustn't fail, I have to succeed. To fail is to fall to the Dark Side, to give in forever. There is no turning back ..." His green eyes focus pleadingly on hers, searching there for ... something. The fear begins to churn in his belly, not fear for him but fear for her. "Are you alright? You aren't ... you're talking funny. You're talking nonsense," he says, shaking his head. "Did they hurt you? You would never say such things ...." he pulls back, hand dropping to hers. Madison's expression changes from placid, calm... to befuddled. The ghost of a frown dims her brow, and she blinks lazily. "What's wrong with the Dark Side, Anakin?" the woman purrs, a slight cant of her head. "I mean... no one ever said what was wrong with it, you know. They just said it was bad but didn't say why... maybe /they're/ the bad ones, to discount such a power..?" A pause, followed by a giggle. "They didn't hurt me... see?" she says, showing her arms and stretching her legs, her bare collarbone. She takes his hand, holding it, patting the back of it tenderly. "I just did a lot of thinking, and thought maybe... it's time for a change. For both of us..." Anakin recoils from her, eyes wild as he looks her up and down. His voice becomes grim, and certain. "You know what's wrong with it, babe. It's the opposite of everything I've ever struggled for ... what I've worked my whole life to achieve. Order. Justice. Decency. What /you've/ fought for every day because of what happened to you on Nar Shaddaa ..." He takes a step away, eyes falling for a moment to her collarbone. He looks stricken, but says nothing, murmuring: "What change?" Madison chews her bottom lip, her hands placed palm down on the crystal outcrop she sits on. She swings her legs, feet dangling a bit to an unseen piper's tune. Her toes wriggle, chin drooping slightly as she nods her head. Her hands slide backward so she leans, head tilted as pale green eyes peek heavenward. "Well," she says, grinning of a sudden. "I think everything we've been fighting for is a lie. There's so much injustice, Anakin," she whispers, faintly. "But /we're/ the injustice, now. But we don't have to be, my love," she says, hope riddled throughout her tone. "It's ... easy. We just have to make the change." Excitement glints across her visage, one hand moving casually to her side. "Let's fight for the /real/ justice and peace, and decency and order. We've been fighting the wrong way the /whole/ time..." "Maddy would never spread such lies," Anakin says, pulling away from her. "She would know these things are not true. She would stand with me, not try to bring me down. Not try to make me fail ..." His eyes stray once again to her collarbone, the collarbone that is bare of the tattoo that is dearest to him. His gaze finds her eyes for a moment, finding not the bright vibrant gold-flecked green but pale, different, alien ... He steps away, vehemently shaking his head. "You're not real. Just another trick." Wounded. Perhaps mortally; at least, that's what her expression speaks. A sudden sadness sweeps across the Lady Guard's face-- eyes on Anakin-- unmoving, unblinking, unwavering with an unruly measure of pain. "I'm not real?" she says, quietly. "/I'm/ not real? Do you... know, what they put me through?!" Madison cries, tears brimming on her lashes and breaking forth-- marching a warpath down her cheeks as they leave the angle of her jaw, and patter upon the satin of her dress, turning it dark. "They /tortured/ me," she spits, her lips in a flat, colourless line. "They beat me... all because of you!" Maddy booms-- wind howling through the tunnel and whipping up her hair in its wake to produce an unsettling visual. "I called out for you, over, and over, and over again," seethes Madison through gritted teeth. "And what? You didn't come. You were with the very people who hurt me. But that's okay," she giggles, the tears sparkling on her cheeks but... a vicious smile forming on her lips. "My rescuer made me /strong/ Anakin... so very, very strong..." The hand that slipped to her side, withdraws a black cylinder. "Oh, lover," Madison coos, darkly. "Why do you wound me so?" Madison depresses the button on the object-- a red blade bounding forth with a hot, darkling glow...
* COMBAT: Madison ignites her red lightsaber. “You aren't real," Anakin murmurs, his eyes narrowing. "Your eyes are different ... your tattoos are gone. Most of all, you aren't Maddy. I know her better than any other in the Galaxy; you are not her. She would never say such things. She would never ... try to hurt me so. She would never succumb to lies. I will not be turned by an apparition!" He steps away, turning his back to the shape. "Oh, I'm /very/ real, cherry-pie," Madison hisses, standing up on the outcrop with a venomous smirk. "Let's see how /not real/ I am..." Madison rolls the lightsaber in her hand, the waver of red shadow across the white crystal, stark and bitter. She leaps at Anakin's form-- the lightsaber held in both hands as it arcs downward-- aimed to cut a burning swathe of flesh across her beloved's body.
* COMBAT: Madison swings her red lightsaber at Anakin Skywalker!
* COMBAT: Anakin Skywalker ignites his purple lightsaber and tries to parry!
* COMBAT: Anakin Skywalker tries to parry with his purple lightsaber, but Madison's red lightsaber hits and vivisects him. The familiar phrasing coming from Madison's mouth causes him to turn, eyes widening. "Maddy--" But then a blade is coming towards him, and instinctively he grabs the hilt of his lightsaber and ignites it, raising it in vain defense of a deep gash across his chest. He falls to one knee, eyes squeezing shut in pain. "I will not fight you," he chokes. Madison lands light upon the ball of her left foot, then the right, striding across the crystal and pausing. There's a long moment of quiet from her, the grin moving from her lips and being replaced by a pout. "Anakin," she says, reaching out a hand-- the other still holding the lightsaber. "I'm... I'm sorry..." she squeaks, bottom lip quivering as her eyes fill with tears once more. "But... I don't know... how else to help you see. Don't you want justice? What about peace, Anakin? Can /we/ have no peace? There's no other way," she whispers, kneeling down in front of him. Her hand lifts, touching his cheek even in the pain that he radiates, rended by her own hand. "If you... do this... if we go to the Dark Side, Anakin... we can have all the things we ever dreamed of together. There wont be any war anymore, there wont be hurt... don't you want that? We'll have the power, Anakin..." Madison says, so quietly, for his ears only. "Join me, babe. We can make them /all/ pay for keeping us apart..." Madison smirks over Anakin's shoulder, only seen by the winds... "The Dark Side ... will never bring peace! It will /never/ bring justice!" Anakin says, his voice raising slightly but remaining deathly calm as his eyes meet hers. Eyes that strengthen his knowledge that this is not Madison, this is not real -- for her eyes are not those of the woman he loves, eyes he knows so well, better than anything else. "I will never fall, I will never give in. You are not the woman I love, this I know. She would never say such things, never strike me down." His lips curl. "Leave me. I will not succumb. I can sense you ... you are not my fiancee." Silence from the gentle lips that rest dangerously close to Anakin's ear. Those lips curl upward in a grin, which move to a smile, and then veer towards a cruel smirk. "Such a shame," Madison murmurs, breath hot against the Padawan's ear. "A shame, shame, shame, shame for you." The words roll off her tongue like poison, intended to sting, yearning to scathe. "So, so strong," coos the Lady Guard, running the pads of her fingers down Anakin's jaw as she leans back-- the lightsaber still held in the other hand. "Yet /so weak/," she hisses, drawing the lightsaber backwards as the hand upon Anakin's jaw attempts to grip the back of his neck. "I love you," she cackles, attempting to thrust the red hot blade through Anakin's heart.
* COMBAT: Madison swings her red lightsaber at Anakin Skywalker!
* COMBAT: Anakin Skywalker parries Madison's red lightsaber with his purple lightsaber. "No you don't," Anakin replies calmly blade lifting to catch the red as it comes down to him and force it away. Still he does not retaliate, remaining on his knees. "You aren't my Maddy. Begone!" Madison's hand slowly turns into a shade: the darkness creeps up her arm and neck, to her face, which finally drowns out in eerie blackness. The entire figure drifts away, spilling backward with a wave of dark, until it pauses several yards away, and takes form again. There it becomes a mirage of a lush planet, settled by simple people, on the outer rim. It changes to a waterfall, water spilling into a peaceful pool. The mirage fades and the darkness drifts away, retreating with the wind. As Madison disappears, Anakin lets out a colossal sigh of relief -- finally sure. He shakes slightly, more disturbed then he let on, as the purple blade descends into his lightsaber. Shakily, he rises to his feet.
* COMBAT: Anakin Skywalker puts away his purple lightsaber.
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