Vengeance Denied

Vengeance Denied
Date of Scene:	12 January 2013
Location:	The Crossroads
Synopsis:	Faruja finally tracks down Riku and there is an exchange of words, and motivations, and blows.
Cast of Characters:	Faruja Senra, Riku

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Riku has posed:
A simple plain with a simple layout. Golden hils stretching out to reach the horizon, the rolling measure of them periodically broken by a slight deviation that forms small pockets of hills and valleys. The wide and well trod roadways are empty of people, dust and leaves being picked up and thrown as a steady wind ruffles the endless waves of golden grass.

Somewhat off the road, in a half obscured valley the glint of light flashes off a moving object and the vague sense of purposeful movement.

Within that obscured valley, Riku stares off into the middle distance. Increasingly the teenager finds himself drifting farther and farther away from populated areas. Just as he seems to be drifting without anchor further and further from any semblance of direction.

Sometimes he will linger here or there but since Hearts Intertwined has had it's.. various issues, and the validity of the Traverse Town has been challenged (although perhaps it has not fully come to light yet)

It seemed wise to move farther afield. There is a very neat and orderly solitude, and he need not be in the town long to pick up another mark request and complete it.

Riku looks at the red jacket in his hands, smiling softly to himself as he places it neatly folded on the grass nearby. It's was only when he was practicing that he found some measure of peace from the gnawing thoughts.

He returns to the place he had stood before, and began the kata again.

Faruja Senra has posed:
The young man had been surprisingly difficult to track down. All Faruja had to go on was a few scattered sightings, made more difficult by how /common/ young human males with white hair were. In this, the Templar tended towards caution. There's been too much death in Manhattan, and he'd not want to make a mistake.

But luck finally catches up with the rat. A sighing of a boy matching the description of Riku heading out into the crossroads. Over hills and valleys Faruja followed small scents and signs and rumors, plus quite a bit of luck. Up atop the hill above the valley that Riku has chosen, the ratling puts a spyglass to his eye. Slowly, he grins. "The Lord provides."

An incantation, and a white light flares up in Riku's little camp. Fading away, the scowling muzzle of Faruja is revealed as he Warps closer, spear hefted over his shoulder.

"My, my, my, 'tis been some time Riku. I see you have at least kept up with your training. Planning on using it against yet another world?" His voice is filled with venom and hate as he stares the boy down.

Riku has posed:
Riku has his eyes closed, going through the motions by automatic muscle reflex. The light of another heart rakes the darkness behind his eyes as he finishes the kata, the shadowblade evaporating from his hand.

He opens his eyes, blinking once or twice as his eyes focus on Faruja. "Hello Faruja." he says softly, his mouth drawn into a grim line. "I am surprised you took the bounty down. I am.. guessing that was Reize? That seems like something he would do."

Faruja Senra has posed:
Faruja watches the blade dissappear. A ruthless person would attack, with his opponent disarmed so. The rat simply lets the weapon shift, soon leaning on it casually as he tries to not devolve into snarling or other more bestial motions. He's going to be a professional here.

"Quite. Say what you will about Ser Seatlan, he is good at smacking one upon the head when they are about to do something...untoward."

Gesturing to Riku with his tail, the rat shakes his head. "Nay. Traitor, murderer, Heretic, Witch, Shadow Lord...all of these things may be true, but until lately you have proven a worthy companion. Indeed, I respected you. I do not know how long you have been plotting in our midst, but it does not matter. No, to have you cut down by mere mercenaries is insulting, and for that you have my apologies."

Sigh. "On that point, what /ever/ were you thinking? Throwing aside the trust of a boy who looked up to you, and indeed loved you like family. Even now, I do believe he thinks there is something in you worth saving. What was so valuable to you that you would do that to a person far better than either of us could ever hope to be, hmm?"

Riku has posed:
Riku looks briefly surprised that Faruja did not simply attack him. He raises his eyebrows slightly and crosses his arms while Faruja talks, listening but expression not changing until it seems the armored rat has said all he was going to say.

As before, he presents that question with the same unvarnished truth that he has given to others who have asked him the same question.

"I failed my friends, Faruja. I failed them. And the only thing I can do for the only one I have left is to protect her. Protect her and wait. Protect her and hope." Riku smiles bitterly. " And Reize is many things, but a beacon of common sense he is not. And Mercade is many things, but aware of the danger? --Aware of the darkness he'd kept company with for so long? --Also no." Riku rubs the back of his head and shrugs. "Of course-- things never seem to end up as they first appear, do they? I should have learned that from stories by now. But I did not know that then. I only saw.." he shakes his head. "I don't think you'd understand. I could show you, but you don't trust me enough for that." he sighs with resignation. "If you are going to try and kill me, then we might as well get on with it."

Faruja Senra has posed:
Slowly, Faruja's expression softens. Hate lingers, but something approaching underestanding dawns on the Burmecian. This one wasn't like the others; he wasn't out for power, or strength, or anything else ridiculous like that. He just wanted to save his friends. That single red eye searches, ears perked for signs of distruth. Faruja finds none.

"Mayhap not. No, I understand very little of you, Riku. 'Tis because you are not of the habit of opening your heart to others. I have misjudged you. You are a ruthless bastard, but in some ways a noble one. Mayhap we are alike, you and I. Nay, keep your dark secrets, I am a Templar. I bask in Light, and seek only to burn away the Darkness." A small pause.

"Indeed, you are the sort of Heretic I hate the most; one who may yet have become something /great/. All thrown away for a girl? I pray she is saved one day, Riku, I truly do. Otherwise, this will be a true waste."

Faruja lowers his spear, legs tensing. He nods. "No single person outweighs that of an entire city. No matter your motives, you must be brought to justice. Kindly die on a Templar's blade. 'Tis an honor you know, and better than dying by stake or noose. Goodbye Riku. Fight well. On your guard, Ser!"

Even in all of that armor, the Burmecian is fast. Charging forward, he thrusts his spear for the boy's chest. Yet, it's just a touch slow. A feint! Ducking down, he'll try to sweep Riku's legs from beneath him!

Riku has posed:
Riku stares impassively at Faruja as he talks, not summoning the shadow blade as the Burmecian charges. He begins to step away from the thrust of the spear only to see it swoop downwards, snapping across the backs of his legs and causing him to thump across the terrain so hard that the air is knocked out of his lungs.

"Do you even hear yourself when you talk?" he asks from his knocked flat position, the words a little wheezing from the blow. " You bask in light and yet you will kill me out of hate and twisted justice?" he rolls to the side and up onto his feet, gesturing to the ground underneath the templar's feet.

Thorns erupt from the soil, the black vines trying to wind around the templars arms and feet as Riku withdraws to give himself some breathing space.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Twitch. The rat grips his spear all the harder as his words are thrown back in his face, already raising the weapon to strike at the boy.

"'Twisted', Riku? I do believe those whom lost their loved ones in Manhattan may yet find your words insulting! 'Tis a Templar's duty to destroy those whom would threaten innocent people. Hateful and wrathful perhaps, but I turn my nature to righteous use in the name of Church, God, and country!" Just as the ratling moves to slam down his spear, Riku points.

Squeak! Limbs entagled, dark throwns ripping and poisoning him, he struggles and writhes in their grip. Jaws snap, eventually pulling himself free of the dark vines entangling him. His blade thrusts the air towards Riku. Light beams seek to fall upon Riku, even as spiraling crescents of energy and swords of lightning assault him!

Riku has posed:
Riku staggers backwards, throwing a hand over his eyes as the light beams pierce him. One of them burns its blinding way across the top of his shoulder, burning a path across his ribs and one hip to score the ground.

Swords of lightning assault him, stabbing out and shattering across a sudden barrier of dark energy that bakes off Riku as he glares at Faruja through his upturned arms. That pompous, overstuffed metal tin can. He staggers backwards as the spiraling crescents batter at his shield, burns appearing across his arms and sides as he fails to soak all of the energy.

He growls faintly in frustration. "Fine. But you are justifying yourself just as much as I am. Except your shaking spears at me with nothing to protect but /words/."

Riku gestures, a black wind slamming across the territory, a dark wind of whispers and doubt and recrimination. A wind of bitterness and despair and desolation. It's also not a wind of deception. It is simply, in magic terms, the equivalent of Riku's earlier words put to a dark and menacing tune. A cutting wind that lashes towards the Templar as Riku surges forwards on the counterattack.

He disappears, reappearing behind Faruja as he attempts to thump them with the haft of a black staff as hard as he can possibly swing, smashing twice more towards the burmecian's ribs before backing away.

Faruja Senra has posed:
"Words? WORDS!? Is that all people are to you, Riku? Mere words!? Sobbing, bereved children are not WORDS! Siblings mourned, friends lost, limbs torn, and the memory of those damned demons ripping apart brave and gallant soldiers and warriors are not simply words! They are pain, suffering, and agony wrought upon those who do not deserve it! I defend the tattered remnants of the country that gave me everything! I follow a Faith that has not only saved my life, but has given a pathetic weakling such as myself some measure of strength to fight those such as YOU! And more than anything else, it has given the chance to bleed and die so that mayhap others will be spared the mind-shattering horror of seeing everything they have ever known or loved torn away from them!"

Bitterness, desolation, and despair assault him. Blood leaks down newly acquired facial wounds, bandages torn to reveal recently re-burnt flesh. The young man flickers, then thrashes him from behind across back and ribs, several breaking. Coughing up crimson, he collapses, only one hand keeping him relatively on his feet.

"Do not /dare/ tell me what I protect. I am a Knight. Without something to protect, I would be nothing."

A hand goes to his chest, green light flowing through him to purge his body of its ailments, and some of his wounds.

Riku has posed:
Riku's ire cools significantly as Faruja's reasons become more personal, and as such, more comprehensible to him.

"What is my death going to bring you, Faruja?" he asks in a calm and resigned voice. "Will it bring back the dead? Will it bring your people back together? --All you are chasing is shadows, Faruja. I destroyed Manhattan because it was the least of many worlds. I would cause the least suffering because it was a world already on the brink of collapse." he gestures vaguely. "In exchange, all the worlds would not suffer the lash I thought it would have to endure." he lowers the staff, leaning on it as he allows Faruja some space. He asks with a hint of curiosity. "But I was wrong. And people suffered because I was wrong, and you have no spear sharp enough that I have not already turned on myself. Is killing me going to give you any peace?"

Faruja Senra has posed:
Riku's questioning of his motives for pursuing the boy has the ratling's tail lashing all the harder, only further infuriating the Burmecian. "No. They are in the arms of the Lord now. None can change that. I do not know what threat you thought you saw, Riku, that warranted the city's destruction. But as you said, you were incorrect. Mayhap if you had TOLD someone about it, then you and I may have worked together to find a way to STOP THE THREAT YOU ARROGANT, FARAM-DAMNED FOOL!"

Holy light explodes around the rat's weapon, red eye seeming to glow in the Light it provides.

"What killing you will provide is surity, and Justice! Surity that you will not do the same thing again! Can you truly tell me that you would not, having done so once, find cause to yet again plunge a city into chaos and death? Justice, that those whom survived by the efforts and DEATHS of valiant people shall not have to fear their world's slayer walking amongst them!"

Thrusting his blade, lightning falls from the sky, slamming down all the harder with the force of the Burmecian's convictions and smash him into the air. Even before it lands, the Dragoon's in the air with a mighty leap, a ball of light shining. As gravity reasserts itself, he plunges, Holy energy crackling about the tip of his spear as he seeks to slam into and send the boy crashing back down.

"Now go to the Lord with your troubled spirit, Riku!"

Riku has posed:
Lightning strikes, bringing with it a terrible moment of Ozone as Riku cries out. The dark barrier /shatters/ on the multiple impacts, staggering backwards with his body smoking. As the burmercian plunges, the tip of the spear punches not so neatly through his armored jacket and pins him bodily to the earth.

Riku cries out in agony from the spear and it's burning light, dark energy beginning to thrash and boil around him as he reaches up to grab the spear. A growing stain appears on the ground, the teenager sinking into it and throwing himself with a wet noise into the darkness. The portal dumps him out behind Faruja again.

The pain separates Riku from himself and his control, leaving him drifting in a dark place where threads of burning red leak through his fingers as he staggers onto his feet. He coughs wetly, the spasm causing another arc of pain to slam into his body. The winds begin to howl as he draws the darkness deeper inside himself, pulling on it as it demands to be pulled. As it demands for him to use it. This stupid, blinded templar saw nothing but the tip of his own nose.

"Well.." then he spits out venomously, his voice harsh and malevolent. "..Then /see it for yourself./" Riku flickers and is suddenly in front of Faruja, and at ultra close range. Almost nose to nose with the templar as he reaches out with a shadowy fist to punch through the templar's armor and place a shadowy claw around his heart. He shoves the darkness at Faruja in a drowning wave of thought and emotion, and bits and pieces start to clatter into place even as the wind comes to a screaming crescendo.

A pillar of ominous purple light in which there can exist no dreams. No courage. No hope. And then a baleful presence. No light or theatrics but a sudden shrieking sense of ultimate horror and darkness. And the knowledge, not only of a wounded child's betrayal that what they thought was the way the world worked turned out to be wrong, --but that this darkness, no matter how shattering, was just a pale.. pale echo from a long distance away. A slumbering titan whose awakening would doom everything.

Not all is darkness and terror. There are pieces that perhaps Riku did not intend for Faruja to see. A young girl on a crystal dais. An empty plane of darkness and a boat and an eternity of waiting, and regret, and recrimination. A moment where Riku's own doubts and pain leak over and wrap the sharp and alien madness.

Faruja Senra has posed:
The teen's grasping hand deprives the ratling of his weapon. Between the stress of his people's strife and that situation spiraling out of his control, the many battles he's fought as of late, and now Riku slipping out of his grasp with his magics, his arm's strength gives out.

This makes it child's play for a talented young man such as Riku to reappear, and thrust that great, Dark power into the ratling's chest. He doesn't even get a word in, only a sickly squelching sound and rending of golden-plated steel. Muzzle, eye, and nose drips crimson as Darkness seeks to inflict its torments upon him.

Though Faruja would never admit it, the experience with Garland saved him. A few months ago, the very much black-and-white world of the Burmecian would have had his mind snapping at the feelings, visions of all that Riku thrusts into his head. Even as barely-healed wounds upon his body re-open, long-held wounds worsen, and his legs give out, he manages to hold onto some shred of what sanity the zealous templar can claim to have. Ever a warring soul, his Light-filled one flickers and rages against that which tries to assault it. Nearby grass sizzles, and dies due to the interplay of dark and light.

No screams, only a nameless look of utter horror, and that of a person desperately trying to not lose their mind. All to be expected. Yet, what may /not/ be expected is the slightest hint of a smirk. It's the sight of the girl, and that empty plane that seems so out of place, that gives the rat enough strength to not fall over utterly and remain at a knee, gasping as the visions fade.

It would be easy to strike the Templar down, so focused on the mental that he can hardly bring any effort to defending himself bodily. A hand reaches to the air, a muttered incantation. Light starts to flare beside the Burmecian. What might be the butt of another weapon can be seen, before the reverse Warp spell sputters out. Faruja is out of concentration and energy to try bringing forth another weapon.

"...I see." Trying to put his mind in some form of order, he at least gets a few words together. "A...fearsome opponent...indeed. I suppose...*gasp, cough*...I should be thanking you." Any further words are cut off, as he devolves into a coughing fit, gauntleted hand stained red.

Riku has posed:
Riku stumbles backwards, head snapping back as the darkness struggles with him when he attempts to let it go. He'll try again. He'll try again and the knight and all those like him will never stop. Riku frowns and fights the impulse to lash out, to finish off the Burmecian.

He's weak. The knight doesn't have the strength to fight back.

Take it. Just reach over and --- Riku wrenches his hand away, taking all the darkness with it. He draws it back into himself with a will, a moment of horror flickering and dying on his face before it shuts down into an grim look of shimmering anger but also exhaustion. It took a lot more to pull back from that.

Riku starts to shake from the reaction, trying to stop but unable to, and slowly his knees collapse and he sits in front of the templar, wrapping an arm tightly around his bleeding side. "look.. Faruja." he rasps in a tired voice, he takes a Hipotion out of his satchel and lays it in the grass between them. "I'm sorry. That doesn't do anything. It doesn't make things right.. but I'm sorry."

Faruja Senra has posed:
Staring horrible death in the face, at least, is something Faruja is used to. Acceptance, that of someone either ready for, or waiting to die for a long time sits on his face. Until Riku yanks back his hand. Surprise. Then confusion. As that hi potion is flicked between them, it all turns to a weak smile of amusement.

"Hah hah hah, aide to your enemy, is it, Riku? So much as you like to decry him, you resemble Ser Seatlan more than you may realize. Well fought." There's genuine respect to a fellow warrior as fatigue starts to overcome him. Crawling over to the potion, he drinks half of it, before tossing it to Riku. Between the pain-reducing sedatives, his wounds, and his own mystical energies spent the rat knows he's in no condition to fight.

The apology, however, has the rat snarling. A claw weakly slashes air. "Cease! Such words are not for me, Riku. Give them to Ser Alexander, and Lady Zia, to the families of the dead Templar who fought for the people of Manhattan, to the displaced children in Traverse Town! They are the ones who may derive some /small/ comfort in them." It's all the rat has left in him. He collapses, muzzle to the side, single eye struggling to remain open as he peers at Riku.

Riku has posed:
Riku shakes his head where he sits on the ground. "A piece of advice then, since you spurned my apology." he murmurs this as he rubs at his eyes, kneading his face with one hand as he slowly pushes himself shakily to his feet.

" Think about what you are fighting for.. and then think of Captain Baigan, and everyone whom I have ever met who would sacrifice themselves for country. For gods. For words." he shakes his head. "Reize sees something in everyone. That's--" he shrugs. "..that's just his way. Don't fill yourself so much to the brim with hate that even he loses sight of it. Don't justify your actions with whatever you chose to name /Vengeance/." he limps away from Faruja, summoning the staff again that helps him to stand as he begins to move away. He stops, and says over his shoulder. "Because sometday-- it'll be you that grieving children will be tracking down. And then where will your gods, and your county, and your people be to help you?" he snorts faintly, and then starts moving away again through the grass.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Faruja's claws tremble at Riku's 'advice'. It all hits too close to home. Really, the exhausted ratling at his essence was that of a knight. Without something to fight for, to pour his violent tendencies into, he'd be nothing more than your common psychopath. A thin distinction, and one the rat couldn't hope to mentally work through. Still so young, he didn't have the maturity or self-reflection.

"Y...You! What do you know...of nations and armies and heavenly things? Damn...foolish...human!" Tellingly, his words may seem half-hearted at best. His eye closes, falling into an exhausted slumber.