Mishap of Fate

[Amelia Vex]

Ashas Ree
Ashas Ree system

This entire endeavor was just another get rich quick ploy by Amelia's brother, Thane. Ever since their father died, both siblings had jumped from one planet to the next, one system after the other. Sometimes they even had to leave a system running for their lives because Thane had upset one crime lord or another. He was the bigger brother, and he was supposed to be the responsible one, but Amelia felt as if she was taking responsibility for him. So many times had Amelia had to pack up her things in a hurry and leave all because Thane was chasing after a dream or running away from something.

It seemed as if every other week it was a new dream, a new adventure to be had. If it wasn't for the fact that they had no one else but themselves, then Amelia would have left Thane a long time ago. But because she was all in had in the galaxy, Amelia felt as if it was her duty to stick by her brother thick and thin. Besides, he hadn't done too bad of a job rising Amelia since she was four years old. In fact it could even be said that Amelia was Thane's only success, a testament even to the potential Thane had locked away inside himself. If only he could access it, and embrace it then he could be anything he wanted to be and more. But Thane was a man driven by his dreams, a man who saw the horizon as a challenge that needed to be accepted a won, a man that didn't realize that the horizon would never be won and would always be that little bit out of reach.

Thane's latest hair brained idea was to dig up old and ancient artifacts, and sell them to upper class collectors for over the top and stupid princes. The siblings worked a lead a few weeks ago, and got wind of something in the Ashas System. From what they had been told this particular artifact was worth its weight in credits, and would set both Amelia and Thane up for life. As with every thing however, there was a catch, and the catch was that no one truly knew which planet this golden egg was located. The only information Amelia and Thane could find out was that it was located on a planet in the Ashas system. Ever since then the siblings had gone from one planet to the next digging holes, and exploring ancient ruins.

Every planet thus far had turned up empty, and the last planet in the ship was a hellish place, full of nothing but sand and rocks. The siblings had spent the better part of a week on this planet, and Amelia had just about enough and wanted to call it a day. So she sat on the edge of the hole her brother had dug, and yelled down to him in a frustrated tone of voice.

"Come on Thane, please, give it up already will ya? We're never going to find this thing. We've been suckered into a myth that is a lot of pantha poodo."

"Not yet sis, not yet, we're close can't you feel it? Smell it on the wind? There is something here. I know there's something here"

Amelia rolled her eyes and gestured her hands up in the air with a snarl as she pushed herself up to her feet, and walked away a few paces with her arms folded over her chest. She hadn't been so worked up over Thane and his never ending optimism then she would have perhaps been better prepared for the hole she mistakenly fell through. But in the state Amelia was in she fell through the hole completely taken off guard, and with a loud thud she hit the floor of the ancient room and blacked out. The ancient room was musty, and thousands of years old. It seemed as if the siblings would get that pay day after all.

End of part one

[Amelia Vex]

Part Two

Ashas Ree
Ashas Ree system
A few days later

Amelia awoken with a start and a deep breath and as her eyes adjusted to the dim light in the musty and dusty room. She saw her brother, Thane, come toward her and he took her by the shoulder in a reassuring fashion.

"Shh it's alright sis, you're okay. You banged your head pretty hard when you fell through that hole in the ceiling."

As Thane mentioned the hole in the roof of the room. He pointed upward, and Amelia followed the pointed finger until her eyes came to rest upon the hole. The distance from the roof to floor was quite high, and Amelia was amazed she didn't break anything or get an even harder knock to the head. But as she looked back down upon herself, Amelia padded herself down with her hands, just to be sure that nothing was broken or missing. As Thane watched his sister he stood back up with an ominous chuckle.

"You always were indestructible sis. Do you think you're strong enough to stand up? I've got something to show you."

It was then that Amelia noticed something different about her brother, he seemed...strange. Amelia couldn't quite put her finger on it as she slowly pushed herself to her feet. Once on her feet Amelia noticed an odd kind of light within Thane's eyes, a kind of tint that she had never seen before. Without saying a word Thane turned around, and led Amelia over toward a highly decorative wall. The wall depicted dark things, death, destruction, planets being destroyed etc. In the center of it all stood an ominous and sinister hooded figure. As Amelia took everything in, she hugged herself with an eerie and intense shiver.

"Okay I'm official creeped out...I don't like this place at all. Let's get out of here Thane, please?"

As Amelia turned to pack up their stuff in preparation to leave. Thane reached out and grabbed her wrist, rather tightly and strongly, much stronger than Amelia thought him capable.

"We're not going anywhere, sis. We're so close to the price. Don't you get it? This is what we've been looking for...here is where we will find the thing that will set us up for life."

Thane's entire demeanor seemed tense, sinister, and almost aggressive. Amelia had never seen this side of him before, not even when he was angry or upset. With a weak and shake nodded Thane smiled, a rather dark smile, and let go of Amelia wrist. He then turned back to look at the wall with a confident nod, before he then stroked a hand down the center of it, as a lover stroking the one he loved.

"Grab the digging equipment, and start digging at the bottom of this wall."

Every fibre of Amelia's being was screaming at her to run, run as fast and as hard from this place as possible. But her brother didn't want to leave, and Amelia wasn't about to abandon him, especially in a creepy and dark place like this.

End of part two.

[Amelia Vex]

Part Three

Ashas Ree
Ashas Ree system
One Week Later

A week had passed by for the siblings, but to Amelia and her brother Thane, it felt as if they had been down in this old ruin for months. At first Amelia didn't really notice that much wrong. Thane was acting a bit strangely, over emotional, and even intense at times. But Amelia put that down to the fact that he was obsessed with finding this artefact. Even in their youth Thane was a bit on the obsessive side, and wouldn't let something go without either giving it a good try to obtain it or until someone else took it away from him. Amelia had never seen him this obsessive before, however, it was like he had changed into a totally different person within a matter of days, and all he cared about was finding this artefact.

So much so, Thane rarely slept, rarely eat or drank, he just went from one hole to the next, one wall to another. For the first few days Amelia begged him to let it go, and leave with her. But each time he refused, and had even got violent on the last few occasions. That was another thing Amelia had never seen in Thane before. It wasn't a violent or aggressive man; it was never in his nature. Hell, Amelia thought he wasn't capable of a malicious act or thought. But down here in this ancient ruin, Thane was someone else entirely, and that scared Amelia to her core. She wanted to leave, every part of her mind and body was screaming for her to get out and run. But Thane was kept Amelia here, she couldn't and wouldn't leave him, he would do the same if the situation was reserved.

After the first few days Amelia started to notice strange things about herself as well. She felt agitated, and on edge all the time, almost as if it was her time of the month, only more intense. It was then that Amelia started to feel all kinds of negative emotions, angry, hatred, jealous, creed etc. It was almost as if someone was pumping her full of emotions, but only giving her access to her negative emotions. Amelia couldn't remember the last time she felt happy or overjoyed. She just felt angry, all the time, and her brother's obsessive behaviour wasn't helping either. Thane had now gotten to the point where he was mumbling to himself, all the time, even on the rare occasions when he finally fell asleep. He would lie there, next to Amelia, and mumble random and incoherent things. Some nights Thane even woke up, rather suddenly, and woke Amelia up then forced her into digging a hole or break down a hole. When the hole turned out empty or when there was nothing revealed from behind the torn down wall. Thane would shout, scream, and pace back and forth like a man possessed.

Amelia had gotten to the point now where she didn't care about her brother, anymore, in fact, she didn't care about anything. At first all she cared about was getting out of here with her brother. But now, after a whole week down in this ruin, Amelia felt nothing but anger and hatred. She had even started to mumble under her breath, but unlike Thane's incoherent non-sense, Amelia's words were more definite, more controlled for some reason. Without even realizing it Amelia began to speak in a language that she had never heard before, and when her brother asked what she said, Amelia would just smile, shake her head, and brush him off with a lie.

Whatever was down in this ruin was starting to change the siblings in a way neither of them realized. It had already gotten to the point of no return, and whatever it was that had infected them, was now too engrossed within their minds that it didn't want to let go. The only question left now was which one of the two would come out the strongest?...

End of part three

[Amelia Vex]

Part Four

Ashas Ree
Ashas Ree system
One Week Later

It had been two weeks since the brother and sister duo had found this ancient ruin, and things had only gotten worse for the part. Thane, the brother, was even more deranged than he had ever been. He hadn't slept for days, and his not stop mumbling had turned into full blown incoherent rants. Night and day he would sit in the corner of the duty old room, rocking back and forth, every now and then whispering that it was here. If Thane wasn't doing that then he was digging yet another hole, in a floor that was so full of holes it was a surprise the entire place hadn't collapsed in on itself. Most of the walls had been torn down as well, and lay in ruin all over the place. The only wall left alone was the decorated one with the hooded figure in the center. Neither Thane nor Amelia wanted to destroy that wall for some reason. It was almost as if something complied them to treat the wall like it was the most precious thing in the entire world, and they did just that.

While Thane was on a ranting session. Amelia pretty much ignored him, and sat in front of the decorated wall, just starring at it with wonderment and adoration within her eyes. Neither sibling had noticed that both of them now had a strange kind of tint to their eyes, Amelia more so than Thane. Amelia's normally crystal blue eyes now seemed to have a soft red shaded glaze to them, with just a small hint of blood orange around the pupils. Like Thane, Amelia had taken to ranting, only her words were more in focus, and was in a tongue nether of them knew or understood. Also like her brother Amelia rocked back and forth where she sat, almost as if she was a monk or a person of faith worshiping at what they idealized and adored.

Neither Amelia nor Thane had any idea of leaving this place any more, in fact, if someone was to try and drag either of them away from this place they'd most likely get extremely violent to the point of being homicidal. Whatever was happening to both of them, Amelia seemed to handle it a lot better than Thane. He was more like an insane man possessed by a single idea, where as Amelia was eerily calm, yet boiled with all kinds of negative emotions, emotions that most species would try to repress or ignore. Amelia seemed to embrace these feelings to the point where she had almost become like some kind of feral beast. The only thing that kept Amelia from killing her brother was the strange feeling that she wasn't allow to yet. Again, something complied Amelia not to take any violent action against Thane, unless he provoked her into doing so. Thus far Thane had pushed Amelia close to violence, but neither one of them had taken that final step, and until one of them did. A strange kind of stale mate hung in the air between the two siblings, and for the most part they ignored one another, and went through the motions when it came to finding the artefact they had came here to find.

Today however Thane seemed to be more worked up than normal, and he kept screaming at the top of his lungs that he knew where it was, like some many times before he was wrong. Normally he'd rant for a few minutes then disappear into a corner. But today Thane decided to go off in an intense rage fuelled fit that saw most of the siblings remaining supplies destroyed in one single swipe. Amelia just closed her eyes, and increased the pace of her rocking as she tried to ignore her brother while she sat in front of the decorated wall.

"Nonononon where is it!!!!!! Where is it!!!! Its here I can hear it calling me, urging for me. It wants me, no it NEEDS ME! I can hear it calling...calling never stops calling!"

Thane carried on destroying things, and shouting incoherent non-sense between the sounds of destruction. Then all of a sudden Thane came to an abrupt halt, and stared wide eyed at the decorated wall.

"That's it....that's it the one place we have yet to search."

It was then that Thane grabbed a nearby hammer, and walked slowly toward the decorated wall. It was at that point that Amelia opened her eyes, and froze solid, as if she could sense what was about to happen. Slowly Amelia rose to her feet, and turned toward her brother in one fluid motion, like a lioness warning off a rival mate.

"No Thane, I can't allow you to destroy something....something so beautiful and pure all for your petty creed."

Silence then fell upon the ancient and dark room. The siblings stood starring intensely at one another, Thane with the hammer gripped tightly in his right hand, and Amelia with a concealed knife up her right sleeve. The tension between the two siblings had reached breaking point, and it was now time to see which one would come out on top Amelia or Thane?

End of part four.

[Amelia Vex]

Part Five

Ashas Ree
Ashas Ree system
Two days Later

The ensuing fight went on for hours and hours. At first, both siblings used their fists, and only did minimum damage to their bodies and faces. But as the hours drew on, both siblings tried to outdo one another when it came to viciousness and malice. Thane started by throwing rocks, and blunders at his sister. Amelia returned in kind, and threw things like large rocks, and even metal tools toward Thane's body. After the harmful objects were threw at one another. The siblings would revert back to their fists, each hand to hand fight getting more relentless and vindictive. Eventually both of them tired out, and retreated to opposite sides of the room to recover and rest. Neither one slept easily, however, always keeping a mistrusting and harmful gaze upon the other. A few weeks ago both Amelia and Thane, happily, slept peaceful in the same room, sometimes in the same bed together. But now both of them were hell bent on destroying the other, it was only a matter of time before one of them succeeded in that task.

By mornings first light the two siblings would go at it again, punching, scratching, and even biting. Then again they'd retreated to different corners of the room to lick their wounds. Both Amelia and Thane were starting to get frustrated at the stalemate they seemed to be trapped in, so both of them, started to gather up all the weapons they could find. Amelia even fashioned some of her own out of the raw marital at hand, just to try and get the upper hand over her pathetic, and greed brother. It was then the two siblings went at it again. This time they stabbed, kicked, head butted. The most recent fight was the most violent and aggressive. By the end of it both of them came out blooded, battered and badly wounded, Thane more so than Amelia.

Night came and the two warring siblings retreated back, once again, in their side of the room, and watched the other like a hawk. Sometime during the night Thane felt unconscious, mostly from the pain from his wounds or the heavy amount of exhaustion upon his body. Amelia too felt drained and almost lifeless. But there was something here that enraged her, empowered her, almost as if there was something in the shadows watching the pair, and encouraging Amelia every step of the way.

When Amelia was sure her brother was fully unconscious, and unresponsive to touch. She decided that enough was enough, and it was time to end this fight right here and now. So while Thane lay on the ground too weak to even stay awake. Amelia walked over toward his limb body, and stood over him for a moment, with a blooded knife gripped firmly in her right hand. A few weeks ago Amelia would have never imagined herself here, on the edge of killing the man that had raised her ever since their parents died. Thane had sacrificed so much in order to keep his little sister safe from harm. Granted, more times than not, he got them into trouble and they had to move onto a different system or planet. But Thane's heart was always in the right place, and he always did what he thought best for himself, and Amelia.

That deep connection, a deep bond that went beyond friendship, beyond anything anyone could imagine, meant nothing to Amelia now. All that she was concerned with, all that her body and mind craved was his death and destruction by her hand. With one quick motion, Amelia done the deed, and watched her brother's life blood flow out from his neck. The corrupted girl didn't stop there, however. After the first fatal strike, Amelia preceded to butch her brother's lifeless body. Eventually there was nothing left but a brutal array of colour upon the floor, walls, and over Amelia's face.

With the deed now done. Amelia stood over the remains, listening to the sound of the blood drip from the tip of the knife within her hand. After a moment her eyes seemed to glow a red tinted yellow colour, and she turned away from her handy work, and upon the decorated wall that had caused so much frustration and pain. Even now Amelia saw beauty within its fine craved works. It spoke to her in away unlike anything else she had ever encounter. Amelia had killed her own brother, her last remaining family member, to make sure that its beauty remained intact.

But with one quick motion Amelia smashed the wall inward upon itself, as if she was possessed by some unseen force to do so. After the dust settled, and the remains of the wall remained at peace upon the floor. Amelia peered into the hollowed out column, and looked upon a small square like object that seemed to glow pure crimson red. The glow cascaded over Amelia's face, as she reached inside, and took the ancient holocron into her hand. Almost as soon as the holocron touched her skin, it activated, and started to so Amelia images of all kinds of things. It even started to project what appeared to be instructions all over every surface.

After a full night and day studying the holocron's teachings. Amelia packed up what was left of the supplies, as well as the holocron, and made her way to the surface where their small cargo ship remained untouched and unnoticed. Once on board the ship Amelia took off from the planet, and set a course out of the system. She then jumped into hyperspace, with a destination brunt firmly into her mind, like an engraving on a stone. The planet and what happened upon it now nothing more than a distant and clouded memory within Amelia's mind.

End of part Five and End of first Chapter