Morbid Melodies: Hölle Hölle Hölle

"Excuse me?" Tess asked with a voice laced with venom. She turned around, her face nearly contorted with anger. She wasn't surprised to see the change in terrain. In fact, she thought she should add to it. A crimson sky rolled over the area, with black tumultuous clouds adorning it. The quaint table set up fell through a crack in the splitting ground, and rocks reverbrated against the slate gray expanse of land every time Tess took a step forward. Gnarly naked trees with vultures upon their boughs appeared while the screeching of that black and gold dragon thundered from all around. The craters spat out molten fire, and the air became dry. Stifling. Almost unbearable. 

Tess stepped through a curtain of smoke and stopped inches in front of Rip. "Me? Naive? That's funny, coming from the sniveling and ironic imperial defeatist," she said darkly. Her voice became flat, almost monotone."You got one thing right- you can't judge me. Not with your sordid history. Have you ever done anything worthwhile in all the time you were supposed to lead your so-called people? In fact, name one good thing you've done in your life. No, name one person you haven't lied to or betrayed. No, no, wait- name one person you've loved and they have actually reciprocated such a base emotion back at someone like you." A wicked smile unfurled upon her face and grew larger at the effects her words had on the bespectacled woman.

"Did I hit a sore spot? Oops. Maybe next time you'll learn to listen to Tessy. She asked you to trust her, and now you have turned her into one of your science experiments. You wanted to see if she was lying? Well, no need for any introductions, eh?!" The woman bent over Rip and snatched from her hair the velvet ribbon that held it in a low slung ponytail. "I'll be taking that back, thanks," she said, not caring if any strands were ripped out. "This isn't hers to lend freely." She slowly and deliberately tied it around her own hair while keeping her dark eyes upon Rip's.

"Right before she, well, 'fell asleep,' she was very upset," she said in an undetectable tone. "You didn't answer the nagging questions she had asked you. Even if you don't bring her back, I'll be here. I'll always be here."

After she tied the ribbon into a loose bow, her eyes narrowed. Of course, she did know who this was. Interesting how her other half had found her and became... intimate... with her. Tez held out her hand. "Well, isn't it nice to see you again, Major. Thanks for abandoning me on Dressel, by the way."

Manical laughter came from the mouth of the sinisterly grinning woman. She was rather amused by how fast and how far this situation was escalating. She pushed Rip away, rejecting her futile attempt at connection. "You really think this is a joke? A charade? A farce?" she inquired, hungry eyes refelcting the darkness enveloping them. "You think I'm that useless girl play acting? She doesn't have it in her to even pretend to be me. No, Major, your wish has been granted. Here I am, your lovely little Tez- an upgrade from the older and outdated model. Happy as a Scatalpen, friendly as a Felucian Spore Plant. I'm all you have now. I'll be damned to go back into idleness, watching that pathetic wretch whiddle down our lives hiding from me. She can't escape. It's her curse and burden. It is mine also, but I'm more accepting than her. I wouldn't mind sharing if she wasn't so damn scared all the time! Why doesn't she just embrace what we have!? Why doesn't she utilize our combined strengths?! She's so stupid! What do you even see in her?!"

More bellowing in the distance, but this time it sounded as if it came from everywhere and nowhere all at once. It personified the fire burning inside of Tez, just as trapped and alone as Tess. She handled it much differently, though. She refused to live a life defined by the unknown, and strove to experience the little time she had the exact opposite as Tess did. There was just so much out there! Why waste the opportunities at hand?!

"Well, as much fun as it is here, I'm out of here," Tez said with a vague sense of cheer. She surveyed the area, but it was very unfamiliar to her. She tried to make a flourished exit, but was unable to muster the energy to do so. "Hold on. What is going on? Why can't I use my--" her brow furrowed as she locked eyes with Rip. "What is this place? Where am I? Why can't I use my Force abilities here?"

A look of abject scrutiny was passed from Tez to the woman with the enigmatic monicker. Was Major being serious right now? She didn't at all appear to be inept in any way, so why was she having a difiicult time understanding Tez? Even if it were shock, she should have shaken it off by now. She got what she wanted with her parlor trick, so what more did she want? As the idiom goes, it appeared that the darling Major had bit off more than she could chew. Whatever she was doing or experiencing was beginning to become annoying. Not only that, but this introduction had been disappointing- when she met Major, she seemed so vibrant and malicious in achieving her objectives. Any opposition was met with a blow: either from her ridiculously large musket or her meticulously white gloved fists (or so she had heard). Tez was so incredibly intrigued by the infamous woman she felt she just had to track her down and meet her. After an extensive amount of planning- it was difficult to not be in control of one's body for days on end- she was able to sneak on to Dressel. She hoped to become some sort of protege, or even an officer, and was willing to prove herself in any way she could. However, there were set backs. A dead sister. A broken chest plate. Enlisting in a Fascist army. The plan had failed and she was stranded, surrounded by deplorable figures in gray. But through some demonic miracle, they were seemingly reunited. Except, these circumstances were not living up to her prior expectations. Major was in front of her once more, but this was different. Sickening, even. Instead of asking her to be her cut throat apprentice, she was asking her if she was her miserably weak girlfriend. No plan is without its set backs, it seems. Maybe she could salvage it from the ether it was cast in to. Perhaps she could just edit it a bit. Re-work it and improve it.

"Have you stopped listening to everything I've been saying?" Tez asked coldly. "I thought I made it clear who I was. Let me reiterate for you, since you're obviously confused. I. Am. Not. Tess. Please stop addressing me as such and do me a favor- how about you give me some answers? I really don't like repeating myself, but I'll do it just this once as an exception, okay?" Tez cleared her throat, trying to keep the tension that was rising at bay. She didn't have time to waste being trapped here for however long she and Tessy had planned. In fact, they wasted enough time as it was. Who knew how long she had this time around?! It was time to pick things up where she left them. 

"Right. So first off, I want know what it is we're doing here. This is some Force construct, isn't it? That's why I can't really do anything except stand here and philosophize with you, right? Secondly, how do we get out of here? I have some business to attend to. Oh, and thirdly--" Tez cut herself off and swiftly punched Rip in her stomach, causing her to double over with the blow. Before Tez could explain herself, she felt a ripple in the atmosphere. This minor shift gave away the final missing piece to her internal theories. "Ah, I see," Tez said in an appreciative awe. "We're not physically here, are we? This is all mental. I don't fully understand this, but I know there's more to it than I can see. You're the one in control of this realistic dream. Tell me, are we hiding from someone or something? Where are our bodies? Huh. I was able to split in a different reality? How interesting. Wait! What about outside?! What's going to happen to me if I leave?!" Tez grabbed Rip by her shoulders to hold her up. Shaking her gruffly, she sputtered out many thoughts garbled with just as many questions, threats, and demands. She felt her plan begin to disintegrate all over again. Could she make it rise from the ashes next time around?

Eventually, all her words just became noise.

Mouth agape, covered in a mysterious black fluid, Tez sure was a sight- that is, if A: one was able to see in the dark, and B: one was there with her. Tez was alone in every sense of the word, it seemed. Major had spontaneously combusted, taking with her the enviornment and atmosphee. She was the queen of this void, with only herself to reign over. Her mind became as empty as the expansive wasteland, only able to mutter incoherent curses.

After several moments, Tez was shook off the dazed stupor she was trapped in. She wiped her soiled hands on the sides of her pants, and used her jacket sleeve for her face. "That was a great trick!" she called out to the darkeness. "I know you're still in this place with me, otherwise, I wouldn't still be here- we'd be outside with my fist in your face!" She began to take steps, akin to a lioness on the prowl. "I'm going to find you, Major. You can't hide forever!" 

With her final exclamation, Tez took the initiative, thinking herself clever by thinking up a homing beacon to find Major. To her utter dismay, a jabbing and debilitating pain entered her frontal lobe. She screamed in anguish, falling to the ground with her head in her hands. "What are you doing to me!?" she choked out through gritted teeth. "Just let me out, damn it!"

"Shit," Tez thought profanely. "Technically she's right, but she is missing the fundamental core concept of this situation." Tez became less reactionary and more confident. Though Major had her points, Tez was still, somehow, not totally to blame in this scenario.

"Oh, Major," Tez said in a condescending way. "May I remind you of something? How is it that you think I 'escaped' my duties as a soldier in your regiment? That is no easy feat, and you know that. Did you stop to think before torturing me in this hell-hole that your girlfriend- ugh- is the one who deserted the camp? Do you forget what happens to us? I didn't leave my position; Tessy woke up and fled the first second she got, it seems. She should be the one punished, not I. I was aiming to be a good little girl in your army of freaks and weirdos with aspirations of grandeur. I was going to be your star, and now I'm back to square one. Oh well. If anything, YOU aided, abetted, and laid with a traitor. Look who's the pot here. How will you punish yourself, Ma'am? Ooh, can I watch?"

"I don't give a damn what you think of me anymore," Tez said, still kneeling on the ground. She shifted herself to sit fully on her bottom, crossed her legs, and rubbed her temples. "I lose no matter what. This is a trick question. No answer I say will satisfy you. I say I'm better, you'll disagree and, I don't know, blow up in my face again. I say she's better, and I admit defeat while ultimately lying to myself. I know she's not better than me, and... I know that I'm not, can never be, and never will be better than her. But one thing is for certain- we need each other because we make each other better." Tez sighed, resigned to confess the things that plagued her which had always been kept stored away.

"I give up, okay? My, our, lives were spent living in an isolated nightmare. Despite all of the nonsense we've endured, we've been each other's only constant. Only we understand each other's torments. I've always given her hell, but I know that she can forgive me. I just want to help her live. She's so scared all the time, but she never lets that on. She hides behind this fear, and I admire her for that. She's not pathetic. I am. I'm the one who's always running away, starting fights out of no where. It's not an attention thing, though. I feel cheated. Why do we have to share our hold in the world? Why can't we have our own?! What nonsense is this, this pseudo-siamese... I don't even know what to call it. Tess is... my sister. My scared kid twin sister who's just trying to cope. I'm the bratty rebel who doesn't know what they're doing or why."

Tez sighed. She didn't feel worse, nor did she feel better. No burden was lifted, no light shed upon the predicament. Tez propped her head on her hands, elbows on her knees. "There. You win, Major. Do with me what you will. I was never really here, anyway. If you actually are the science genius they say you are, just separate us. Smother me. Abandon me. Spare Tessy. She's just trying to survive. She doesn't need me messing up whatever chances there are for her. Heh. Look who's the imperial defeatist now."

"Define 'hope,'" Tez requested in an uninterested voice. "What kind of hope do you think appeals to someone like me? There isn't enough in this or the next lifetime that could convince me that something good will happen. This whole thing will end in tragedy, Major Shepardt, you'll see. One of us will be drenched in tears at the conclusion after the curtains have been cut. Silence will roll over the dumbstruck audience because the lot of them didn't understand anything that had happened. The lights will dim, they'll stumble out, and the painted one-demensional scenery will be torn down by faceless hands. Nothing was there all along. The woman left on stage will fall through the rusted trap door before gasping her final breath." 

Tez let Major leave her hands on her shoulders, but they came off when she shrugged. "I'm not depressed, just realistic. Can you conjure up a flask of scotch? I would do it myself, but you know, one aneurysm a day is enough."

"I wasn't intending to get drunk, " Tez scoffed. "I like the taste, obviously." Tez's eyes looked up to meet Major's, and waited for what felt like an eternity, which was about fifteen seconds. "Fine. Don't do it," she snapped with a sigh. "Is there anything you wish to discuss while I'm trapped here with you? Questions? Comments? Complaints?"

"Tasty?" Tez asked with a raised eye brow. "Who the hell would use 'tasty' as an adjective for describing alcohol? Dreadful. Ugh, sorry. I've been cooped up for quite some time, so I'm a tad cranky."

Tez undid her ribbon and ran her fingers through her hair. She yawned while shaking out her tresses, getting accustomed to being awake again after the lengthy period of being dormant. "I see some things," she answered, sounding half bored. "I can hear what's going on if I actually pay attention. Unlike Tessy, I try to utilize our situation as best I can. If I concentrate enough, my awareness allows me to see what she does with her time with our, you know, body. Otherwise, I let her have her time. This period though has been interesting, so I've been paying attention to your affair like an old woman with a soap opera. I may not approve, but it intrigues me."