From the Ashes - Part Two

Posted on Sun Mar 8th, 2020 @ 2:46am by Commander Ethan "Hardcase" Duval & Post Captain Plataea "Phantom" Lasky

Mission: Mission 75: Through the Looking Glass
Location: Various Locations - USS Dreamcrusher
Timeline: 0400Hrs - April 4th, 2392

If one could have seen Plataea Unal and Jefferson Duval when they were grappling, it would look like the two of them was frozen in place, both sets of feet were on the floor as they both were standing there motionless. Duval was wearing a pair of shorts whereas Plataea was wearing naught but her skin.

Meanwhile, Jefferson Duval was being held as a prisoner in his own subconscious, by the echoes of his now long-dead wife, a Vulcan female named T'Nae who was the alternate version of the T'Nae who was married to Jeffery Duval in this universe, in the other universe, however. T'Nae was overweight and an over-controlling simpering bitch of a Vulcan.

Plataea knew of the issues that Duval had dealt with as she had been trying to help him while she had been stuck during assignments while leading a team that consisted of a Gorn and all of her children, all of whom were adults and trained in the combat skills of death and destruction.

Now she faced her ultimate battle as she regarded the image before her of T'Nae, the woman was wearing Starfleet general issue body armor but as this thoughtscape was created from elements of her own mind which she imprinted on Jefferson Duval's mind. She had a serious advantage here.

"Plataea..." came a call on the wind. "This thoughtscape... Its not real. If your will..." the voice faded before it was cut off by a loud scream.

"Okay.. That will be enough of that.."

Plataea raised an eyebrow. "Somehow I expected to find you around here T'Nae, still controlling everyone's waking thought and emotions are you.?"

"He is mine... He will always be MINE!" the Vulcan responded, her voice full of sound and fury as her reason broke down. "You cannot have him.." the Vulcan added as the skies began to cloud over. "I will drive you from this place."

"This place... Look around you T'Nae, this place is dying... If this is a reflection of Jefferson's mind then he deserves to be free of you." she paused as she smiled, a rather large looking blade suddenly appeared on the ground before her as if conjured up by her thoughts alone, that was when she realized that as this place wasn't real, she could do anything, she went for the blade and before T'Nae could react, Plataea plunged the blade through the Vulcan woman's chest before she yanked it out before swinging it over her head before she bisected the Vulcan woman's head from her shoulders.

T'Nae toppled to the deck, now quite dead from the stab wound alone but it was the fact that Plataea had severed her head from her shoulders. Suddenly the wind started to blow, gently at first before picking up speed and before long it was a hurricane like gale forced strength wind that picked up dust and the grit from the ground, as if washing the thoughtscape clean of everything.

Plataea plunged her blade into the ground as she got down in one knee, before a rather large bunker seemed to deploy from nowhere. "The thoughtscape is reacting to my wishes." she said softly aloud, as if to hear herself think over the howling of the wind.

The wind ceased a moment later, before Plataea looked up to find herself facing a thirty foot tall version of T'Nae. Plataea smiled as she lifted her new weapon, a surface to air missile launcher, she then pulled the trigger four times in quick sucession as all four warheads went live and flew at the massive version of the Vulcan woman, all four impacted, exploding in her abdomen, the second blasted a gaping hole in her chest, the third impacted with T'Nae's head and shattered it, the fourth missed and went wild.

The figure of T'Nae suddenly crumbled to the ground, as the ground suddenly opened up, swallowing Plataea whole before the hole suddenly filled itself in, and the ground suddenly restored itself like nothing was ever amiss.

T'Nae meanwhile was locked with Plataea in a battle for the future of Jefferson's mind as the two women grappled with the other with claymores, except these two were the size of space scrapers and their weapons strikes shook entire planets.

"You cannot have him... He is my slave... Now and for all time.!" T'Nae raged, her voice booming with force enough to shake stars and shatter planets.

"Thats where you are wrong T'Nae... see your dead and you need to die as well." as she lifted her blade over her shoulders, T'Nae brought up her blade but Plataea swung first, she caught the other woman's blade and the two began to swing wildly at the other with wide, sweeping strikes, one errant strike from T'Nae bisected a moon in half with a clear cut strike that was sheer beauty to watch had it not been to dangerous for either combatant.

Suddenly the two found themselves in a saberlock, as both fought for domination of the contest before them. T'Nae used her superior size as she began to exert domination over Plataea but suddenly Plataea broke the saberlock as T'Nae was forced back a few steps which on this scale were the size of entire solar systems.

Plataea swung her blade in a long loop before she reversed it and did a second long loop, cutting inside T'Nae's guard and slicing off both of the Vulcan woman's hands. Plataea smiled as the overweight Vulcan fell to her knees as the Halanan caught the second blade in her left hand, hilt first.

She brought both blades to the Vulcan's neck. "Time for you to depart T'Nae..." and with that she brought down both blades onto the sides of the Vulcans neck, severing skin, muscle and bone. In one smooth motion she cut off the Vulcan's head and her body crumbled back to the dust from whence it came.

Plataea looked down as she let go of both blades as she found herself standing on a flat surface again, except this time the blackness of the skies began to part, revealing bright daytime skies beyond.

The Halanan turned as she began seeking out where Jefferson was located, her goal now was to free him from the prison that T'Nae had created out of his own mind. "Jefferson?" Plataea called as she took a moment to look around.

There was silence other then the soft howling of the wind. Plataea sighed softly to herself as she took a moment to think. 'Wait a second... This is a thoughtscape which means nothing here is as it seems.' Plataea smiled as she closed her eyes.

She opened them a moment later to find herself inside the hallway of what looked like a series of jail cells. All of them were empty as Plataea started walking down the hallway towards the very last cell. Jefferson Duval was lying on the bunk with his eyes closed.

"Jeff.." Plataea spoke his name while she regarded the malnourished and shrunken man before her.

The human opened his eyes as he turned his head to regard her. "Torilla... What are you doing here..."

"Rescuing you." The Halanan responded lightly, before she picked up a pair of bolt cutters that appeared before her, she then snipped off the lock holding the bars together. "Are you fit to travel?"

"Try and stop me."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Plataea said in a rather playful tone of voice. "Come on."

Suddenly there was a voice over the intercom that sounded. "We have an escaped jail break in progress.. Two prisoners in solitary, they are to be eliminated at all costs." It was T'Nae's voice.

"I understand now." Plataea responded. "You need to banish her from your mind.. I can only kill her again and again.. but she is a part of you. Only you can banish her forever... and break the cycle."

Duval nodded. "Lead on."

Plataea turned as she made her way down the hallway when the first two police guards came at her, she smiled as she mentally threw them aside, they both went crunch into the opposing walls with sickening force, before both slid tot he deck, either out cold or dead. Plataea couldn't stop to check.

Plataea smiled as they exited solitary and turned left, their next stop was the Wardens Main office which would be buried in the back of the building.

After fifteen minutes of fighting their way to their destination. Both Plataea and Duval were both wounded before they reached the Warden's office. "You ready for this?"

Duval nodded, a soft growl at the back of his throat. "Yep.."

"Alright... Lets do this.." and with that Plataea opened the door before ducking back to evade the incoming gunfire which T'Nae doubtless had on her person, then over two dozen ballistic rounds came through the door, missing both her and Duval who had slunk back the other way.

Once both of them heard a series of clicks. Duval smiled as he charged into the room where he found T'Nae standing there with two semi-automatic weapons around her feet, along with over three dozen spent bullet cartridges.

Plataea followed in silence as T'Nae desperately tried to reload her weapons. Plataea smiled as she watched Duval bulldog into the Vulcan woman but she knew he couldn't take her alone so she dove in to assist. The two of them were able to subdue T'Nae as Duval lifted a knife before he stabbed her once in the chest which honestly didn't do anything before he slashed her diagonally across her right ear.

She howled in agony. "Ohhh... You animal!" she roared in rage and pain before Plataea's fist arrived, silencing her arguments and pleas with brute force.

Plataea began to strip T'Nae of her gear and then her clothing. Duval growled as he grabbed the unconscious T'Nae by the throat. "Jeff.." Plataea said quietly, effectively halting him before he could do anything to T'Nae.

"Now I know you'd like nothing better then to rape her into next week, doing to her what she'd done to you but... think about it... You need to be free of her... Not abusing her the way she did it to you."

Duval let go of the Vulcan as he let out a sigh. "Your right.."

Plataea smiled as she regarded T'Nae. "You do need to kill her though."

Duval smiled as he drew back his fists and with that he went to work, beating away at the Vulcan woman's body, venting his anger and rage into his blows into the insensate Vulcan woman before he reached down and grasped her neck with both hands as he began to strangle her, before he yanked violently to one side.

There was a loud, wet snap as T'Nae expired on the floor, before she seemed to crumble into dust but where as normal dust fell to the ground, this dust seemed to fly into Duval while he seemed to grow larger from the malnourished man that Plataea had freed into the large muscular man she recalled from times gone by.

"Jeff..?" Plataea inquired softly. "I felt her.. departing."

"She's gone.. Her presence is fading... My mind.. is my own once more.." Duval responded softly.

"Good.." Plataea rose to her feet as she regarded him. "Then my work is finished.. I'll see ya out there in the real world..." and with that she faded away leaving Duval to himself, alone in his own mind as he always should have been.

Meanwhile out in the bedroom of her quarters. Plataea blinked as she felt Duval release his hold on her. "Mmmmmm.." before she lifted both hands to her eyes before she rubbed them.

Duval sighed softly. "It seems... your words were... well chosen.."