driftfleet | ( he looked at me like i was stupid, i'm not stupid )

These souls have been here for hundreds of years. They came from Xerxes, from Riviere, Cameron, Wellesley, Aerugo, and any other poor country that ever got in Father's way. You can't just quiet them. This is all they are now.

[And if Ling is lost in this... well, Greed doesn't think there's much hope of dragging him back out of it. Once a soul has been converted to energy, it can never go back to what it used to be. That's something that all Homunculi know.]

[Ahsoka's expression seems to soften, then. So many souls, all shadows of what they once used to be... it's so sad.

She takes a few steps forward and reaches a hand out to one. Do they have mass? Do they have names? Personalities? Memories...?]

[What is might be empty, but once was is still stained upon their soul. To look at any individual might seem like the same at once, until she begins to peer closer. From a single soul comes the outline of a man. His hair is golden, but his eyes are white and empty. What was wailing is in fact the same words being repeated over and over:

Please stop. Please stop. Please stop.

He is trapped in that moment between life and death and though he cannot escape it, he seems to notice her attention. Desperately he tries to claw at her, urging her to pull him away. His hands take on physical form, enough to try and begin to claw at her as if to pull her into the torrent as well.

Greed watches impassively.]

[It's like the worst kind of nightmare fuel imaginable. Even worse because she's connected to the Force. As it grabs her arm, she feels their torment magnified a hundred times.

Horrified, she leans away and instinctively reaches for her lightsaber-- but of course, it isn't there. This isn't even real.

Stop! Get off me!

She yanks her arm free, but another soul already crowds her.]

[Suddenly, it occurs to her: if the souls are brought forth by her proximity, maybe she could find Ling that way. But... there's too many of them here. For her to stand here and try to go through them one by one-- it would take an eternity...]

[Ahsoka's mouth settles into a determined line as she pulls the Force around her once more, like a security blanket. Then she looks back towards Greed.

I'm going in.

And then without further ado, she does exactly that. Ahsoka Tano dives in to the mass.]

[Greed follows at a distance, though he does not seem to see what she does. But as a consequence of Ahsoka learning to see the souls for what they really are, so too does Greed's past form begin to appear. He takes the appearance of his original self. This is the original Greed who like these other souls has also lost his body.

But where he is passive, the other souls are clawing. They seem to instinctively know they have her attention now. They close in on her, each of them distinct and different. But where Greed might appear a whole person, these souls are thin, with empty eyes and not a shred of clothing. Some are old and some are young. What they say to her varies from one person to another, though it is always with despairing urgency.

Help me, one says. I don't want to die, screams another. Mama! comes the cries of a small child that pulls at Ahsoka's leg. All of them swarm her, wanting to drag her into their suffering if they themselves cannot be pulled free. Among them there are hundreds and the further she wades in, there are only more and more to replace them.

But none of them are Ling. Look wherever she might, he will not be found among those souls desperately trying to crowd in on her and fight for her attention.]

[There is so much suffering here. Suffering and pain. It's wretched. Ahsoka's never seen anything like it on such a scale before, not in all her three years of war. The weight of it is immense. Ahsoka clenches her jaw and keeps going, pushing through. But the throng only gets thicker as she goes, and their cries are threatening to overwhelm her. She hasn't come this far to give up, but it would be... so easy...

No. She won't.

She gathers herself again, mustering for a second wind. Maybe she's approaching this wrong. She feels the Force around her and, instead of drawing it into herself again, she sends it outwards towards the clamoring souls. A pulse of calming energy, imbuing it with light and warmth and whatever happiness she can dredge up. She might not be able to end their suffering. But maybe she can give them a brief reprieve.]

[It may be meant for the other souls, but they represent a part of Greed's whole. He may have learned to live with their torment, but he's never experienced their calm before. His entire existence he has learned to ignore a deafening roar such that he never paused to think about it. The sudden absence of it feels strange. Perhaps she may have only reduced it to a murmur, but it is staggering.

In the outside world, he touches his forehead, stunned. Speaking both inside of himself and on the outside, he asks:]

What the hell was that?

[Peace. Knowledge. Serenity. Harmony. The Force.

It's the mantra Ahsoka murmurs to herself every morning when she wakes up, and every evening before she goes to sleep. The mantra she murmurs when she's having trouble, when she doesn't know what to do. An abridged version of the Code. It brings her back to herself, balances her, reminds her of the things she has and the things she yet strives for. Because no matter whether she's a Jedi or not, she still has the Force. Nothing the Council can say or do can take that away from her.

The least she can do is give a little bit of that comfort, that warm embrace of the Force, back to those who need it.

Now that things are calmer, she presses on.]

[The displaced souls watch on with doleful yet empty eyes, swaying in their crowded throng as the stranger passes through. But for those mournful souls who are calmed, there are still those who are filled with anger and rage not so easily calmed. Where before they had been pressed back by all the others, there is now nothing to hold them back. They were fighters in life who had resisted Amestrian oppression until the very last.

It's Greed who intercepts them, creating a shield between himself and Ahsoka. They are thrown back with brutal blows. Greed is more than a match for all of them, but that's not the real problem. It is a dangerous struggle because souls without bodies are merely energy to be spent and this struggle risks them being used up. Much as Greed might want to find Ling, he did not want to burn up his stone merely in her defense.]

Hurry it up, stripes. These assholes aren't going to stop getting up until they're burned up.

[But those are only a few among a greater number. It's still easier for Ahsoka to move through the souls. There are the angry ones, the now passive ones, there's Greed himself, and then there's one that does not need the influence of the Force to be still and silent.]

[Ahsoka's heart jumps in her throat. There, she thinks. That's-- that's got to be him. Surely. Surely.

Her pace picks up, slowly at first, until she's running. As much as anyone can run, when they're still technically both sitting on the floor of some distant room far away, anyway. But she runs. Not out of worry for Greed, or the other souls, but because she isn't sure how much longer she can keep this up. Exerting this much influence over this many souls and still holding on to her sense of self in here is draining, and simply being here is mentally terrifying and exhausting. If she doesn't find Ling soon, she's afraid she never will. So she runs.

Ling!]

[As she closes in on that individual soul, the shadow of what was reveals that it is indeed Ling Yao. But unlike the others that have become emaciated shells of their past selves, this Ling is full and healthy, but in a kind of trance. Even in this state of spiritual energy, he somehow seems asleep. He does not respond to her calls. Instead he simply remains adrift.

Greed throws off yet another angry soul before following.]

Did you find him? Is that him?

Edited 2016-03-25 01:25 (UTC)

[She turns back to Greed. It's him. But he's... asleep, I think.]

[So his attention slips. If that's Ling, then was he so docile? So quiet? So Greed steps in to carry his fallen comrade. Will he be roused? Can he wake him? It reminds him all too much of what became of Alphonse. Was it possible Ling was merely asleep? Was that even possible for a soul?

But while Greed looked after his only real friend, those angry souls he had been holding back struck once more in force. They ignored Greed and were suddenly upon Ahsoka.]

[Ahsoka cries out, taken by surprise, but she tries to maintain her focus.

Ling! Ling, damn it, wake up!

As yet another torrent of souls threatens to drag her under, she grits her teeth and stretches an arm out towards Ling, trying to reach him.]

[He doesn't. Whatever power the Atroma has, it trumps anything that exists within the stone. But she does get Greed's attention - though it's too late.

All of the other souls who had been brought their moment's respite are suddenly returned to their previous state. So they begin to wail once more, their desperate cries for release merged together in a howling symphony. Like water rushing into an empty space, they suddenly swarm around the both of them cutting Greed entirely off from her. Briefly he's aware of her presence inside of him and the next, he doesn't know where to look for her. It's a miracle he maintains his hold on Ling.]

Ahsoka! Get out, dammit!

[He can't find her in the stone, so back on the ship drifting in space, he reaches out to shake her physical body hoping that will be enough to bring her back. But even that is hard when his head is suddenly spinning with that new and fresh chao drowning out rational thought.]

[No response.

Ahsoka's pulse and breath are still there, but... no matter how hard he shakes, she doesn't even stir. Not even a bit.]

[No.

Dammit. This wasn't how it was supposed to go down. He had barely expected her to be able to do anything, but to become lost in that torrent... it had been a miracle to even find Ling, but to find her now? He didn't know if it was even possible.

He made another futile attempt to bring her back, but it was no use. She wouldn't move or respond. That meant her soul was inside the stone and for as much as Greed might have learned from his father's alchemy, he still had no idea what the implications of that might truly mean. A body couldn't truly survive without a soul, could it?

Not for long anyway.

Stooping, Greed scooped up her body into his arms and went to the only person he could think of that could help.]

( he looked at me like i was stupid, i'm not stupid )

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1/2

no i lied, 2/3

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