Work Text:
He comes out of the dark.
I sense him.
We are connected,
he and I.
Some kinship
I cannot name.
He should be like me.
He chose a different path, and so,
he is a traitor.
He slams into me.
We stagger back, dancers
lost to a bizarre struggle.
I know him.
We've been here
before, wrestling, caught
in this act.
Before, there was no urgency,
a play of motions.
Now, it is a matter of death.
The ground falls away
below our feet.
We are caught in the current,
a river tossing us, puppets
at another's will.
Tumbling over, the world
spinning.
When the land rights itself once more,
I launch myself across the
water, across the
slippery stones
before he can rise,
before he can come at me.
My blade comes down.
He meets it, shoves me back.
"You had your chance to be
one of us."
I come for him.
Again, and
again.
Pitiful creature.
Fear in his eyes.
Backed against a rock.
"You chose the
wrong side."
He is slow,
weak.
I am
unyielding.
His body knows the pounding
of my fists.
He falls to it.
Below the water.
Below my hands.
I can see his face.
The mark upon it.
So... familiar...
Brother
He is drowning beneath
the weight of me,
cannot fight
the weight of me.
His life is slipping
away from him.
Brother
Just a moment more.
His eyes flutter,
close.
My grip slackens,
hesitates.
He is
dying.
I am
killing him.
Brother
I cannot do this.
I must.
He is my enemy.
He is…
Brother
The world fades out,
away, the fabrics of time
refracting some visions. They flash,
blurred, unfocused.
Faces I know.
Faces like mine.
Brothers
I do not hear
the shot. It
slams into me.
I fall forward,
away from him.
Brother
The current grabs me. I
cannot fight it dragging me
down,
beneath,
over.
I am falling.
I have fallen before.
'When have we ever followed orders."
I raise my blaster.
Take the shot.
A cable snaps.
I am lost to gravity’s pull.
Blood rushes to my head.
Through the din, I hear
voices calling.
Their voices.
Wretched.
Brothers
No one calls
for me now,
through the rushing water pressing
me down.
Present.
Past.
I twist to face the plunge, to meet it.
I find shelter in a metal structure.
Water rushes up to meet me.
The ground catches me in its hold.
The rest is darkness.
Pain.
Hands drag me
from the wreckage. I am
too broken to resist.
I drag myself
onto the rocks, cough up
water,
bile,
what was before.
I can go no further even as
they fly away.
Escaping.
Leaving me.
Brothers
I don't know
when I rise again.
The sky is bruised,
purple blue.
I was someone once.
Only a
shattered memory,
forgotten dream.
No more.
I am someone new.
Someone else.
Stronger.
Better.
No longer
Brother.