Dolen was content to allow the moment of silence, each to their own thoughts, but stirred himself as Sedder spoke again. "Only one thing is amiss," he asked lightly, "And I had nearly come to despair carrying the list which I had begun to develop." Dropping all semblance of levity, he gently prodded, "What do you feel to be out of place?"
"... There is another me in this galaxy," Sedder said, frowning deeply. "That should not be possible... It had to have happened during the Time-Change when the different timelines were merged... He's with the Chaos fleet..."
Dolen closed his eyes, mind spinning and dodging about the twisted logic of what Chaos had, was, and might do, the evolving likely chain of events proving more than a bit disquieting. "Lord Sedder," he responded, "They may well seek to place you, or at least your duplicate upon the Empire's throne. It would follow logically from all that they have done to this point."
He falls silent for a long moment, tracing the thought a few steps further.
"Yes," he continued, eyes opening to look across at Sedder, "You have influence enough in your home that those of your people remaining would certainly follow without question. As for the Empire... Hmm, placing one of human and elf decent in such a position might well appeal to both factions there as well, or at least be seen as the lesser evil to a civil war. It would procure the time to continue their corruption of both places. Not only that, but have this other you suspend the exile of the Death Dancers? It would gain them a powerful ally in that regard as well as support from other factions. I think that matters may indeed be even more pressing than we had feared."
Sedder frowned deeply. "That is insane... I would never agree to such a thing... but who knows what this other me might do... If nothing else, it does not appear that he has the same knowledge of what the future would have been that I have. I had opposed them from the start, and because of that he was distrusted at first as he just appeared from thin air during the Time-Change... They did not know what to make of him... He's on the main ship of some group called the 'Night Lords' apparently..."
"Word Bearers, Night Lords," Dolen muttered, "Matters seem to get better and better each time I pause to remove my helm." He took a deep breath and expelled it, then turned a suddenly very thoughtful gaze upon Sedder. "Despite what they may plan, it would do us well to make haste and make certain that they fail. Setting their false god upon the throne would be disastrous in the extreme." His own logic haunted him for long moments more.
"There's only room for one Sedder in this universe," he muttered darkly. "I must deal with myself myself. I know what he's capable of, and I have a few new tricks up my sleeve I doubt he has thought of yet."
"Tracking them hither and yon shall serve us little purpose," Dolen proposed, "We know ultimately where they must needs end, and that would be the seat of the Empire itself. Speeding there would be our wisest course, I believe, that you may confront your other self." Preferably in very public display and view, he thought privately, the logic coalescing into a slightly more viable plan element by element.
"They are, in fact, already there," Sedder said, storming to his feet and heading for the door.
Anderos, a bit puzzled, climbed to his feet as well and moved to follow Sedder out of the room. "Are we leaving now, then?" Anderos asked.
Sedder said, "No, we're leaving yesterday."
Dolen rose swiftly and follows with typical fleetness of foot, his helmet returning to its proper place on the run. That the enemy was already there was not in their favor, but Chaos just might not expect opposition to appear from such an unlikely vector and at the worst possible moment. He could feel his blood rising, and he began to hum a gentle, mournful tune as he caught up with Sedder.
The people in the corridors were strangely motionless as they return to the docking bay. The motionless denizens of this place did not surprise Dolen in the least, not with all that he has seen in recent times and what he has begun to suspect Sedder was capable of. Dolen' tread was light and energetic as they made their way to the landing bay and settled into the ship, the faint dirge-like tune seeming somehow out of place in comparison to his seemingly fey approach to the coming events.
Sedder was barely inside the ship before he started telling Theodore to fly them out of there and set in a course for the planet Toronto. They took their seats and took off. Were someone to ask, Dolen would reply with a quiet, enigmatic smile that the song was part of the Path. Each of Iyanden's living ghosts had one that was unique to them, one which continuously evolved and spoke of love and loss, pain and remembrance, all the things which reminded them of home and the reasons for which they fought.
Sedder didn't even bother to tell Theodore to get the cloak up. Weaving through the asteroids was very easy when the asteroids are completely and utterly still. Then once they were clear of the rocks, Theodore opened another wormhole and headed directly into the heart of Imperial space, and they entered into it.
Sedder didn't bother sitting down, pacing the cockpit nervously, fingering a small shiny stone in his hand absently as he did so. "I know what I have to do... I have the advantage... He does not appear to have trained in Chronomancy..."
Dolen watched Sedder with the faintly indulgent bemusement common to any veteran soldier faced with one suffering from pre-combat stress. He interrupted his melancholy meditation at length and spoke with imperturbable calm, "Remember for what you fight, Lord Sedder, and it will give you strength. Beyond confidence, beyond bravado, beyond experience, there is the greatest inner strength of all. Know your ghosts, embrace them as surely as they would you in life, and you will feel the power of their emotion flow through your veins, mingling with your own."
Sedder sighed, staring at the ground, clenching the stone tightly in his palm. "I will do what I must." The ship emerged from hyperspace over the planet of Toronto. The time bubble was still in effect around them, and the massive fleet seemed motionless in orbit of the planet. "So many of them..."
"You need only focus your attention upon one of them," Dolen quietly reassured, "I suspect that there may yet be more waiting to see the outcome of events before deciding upon which side they fall. In the end, it will sort itself out I am certain."
Not that it would do it immediately of its own accord, he knew, but with a hand to guide that vengeance at the Chaos spawn? Oh, very possible indeed.
The time bubble only lasted long enough for Theodore to guide the ship to the surface of the planet, and people were already starting to move in slow motion as they do so. The mirror Sedder, wearing a stylish blue-lined black robe and a goatee, because he could, appeared to be unaffected by the temporal distortion, however.
"Ah, this is the imposter who has made my life so difficult of late!" said Evil Sedder.
Dolen was calm and prepared as they land, stepping out of the ship several steps in front of Sedder this time, not willing to risk a stray sniper's shot when matters may be coming to a critical point. He stopped as the twin made its presence known, foregoing the rifle in favor of the sword which was also new, perhaps for dramatic flair or, more likely, at the prospect of needing a non-draining source of destruction.
He snapped smartly to attention to one side of Sedder, the blade snicking neatly into place at his shoulder, but made no other move and spoke not at all. The stage was set, the audience was waking from its slumber, and now the auxiliary decoration was in place.
Sedder addressed Dolen, Anderos, and Theodore, "I'll deal with my double. Cover me." He then leapt into the air, hovering in midair and glowing golden wings bursting from his back as he began to radiate with light. The other Sedder grinned momentarily and likewise transformed, into a black shadow demon.
Dolen grinned wildly beneath his helm as the two chose their forms. He could not have wished for a better symbolic display of both sides in the coming fight. His attention wavered for only the briefest moment, however, as he drew the pistol with his other hand and stood to, ready to do precisely as ordered. This was not his home, nor was Sedder his commander, but some commitments spanned farther than others.
As the effects of the time distortion faded, Chaos Marines were starting to realize something was going on and that they should probably be attempting to shoot at something, and the funky glowing angel-thing and the Eldar were as good a target as any. A battle of light and darkness commenced in the sky above them, however, as the Sedders faced off. Magic filled the air as each flung spell after spell at one another.
Dolen might wish once more for reinforcements, but the thought did not cross his mind at all as the forces of Chaos began to move once more, there was no time. Eldar were, by nature, agile and quick, and nothing proved that better than the headlong sprint which brought him within range of those who dared fire at Sedder above. Those firing at he and Anderos would continue to do so regardless, pistol and sword would make certain the others did the same. Or died in the trying.
Anderos likewise whipped out his own blaster and proceeds to fire back. Although he was more a diplomat than a soldier, he seemed to know his way around a gun as well as anyone. Several enemy shots dented the Darknova slightly, though, but failed to actually hit them.
Grace and beauty in all things, that was the essence and soul of the Eldar, and it carried itself well into the art of war as well. They did not have the massive counter-tempo of Wraithlords trodding the ground, nor a cacophony of jet bikes screaming past with flashing Bright Lances, but that changed nothing whatsoever to Dolen' tempo. Blade and gun flash repeatedly, parry and thrust, dodge and weave, all to a distant mournful tune.
No comrades to wade with him, which worked to his favor for the moment, the gathering of marines getting in each other's way more often than not as he ducked beneath the swing of a power fist and laid open the armor in its bearer's side, or leapt above the arc of a tracking rifle, its rounds tracing his route and doing more damage to their own troop. Yet others tried to back away and resume their aid for their charge, to no avail.
He did not need to win this day, only to delay those below which might seek to stop Sedder or distract him from his battle. Were his soul to be lost in the battle, then he might go to Slaanesh's grasp in peace, his self-proclaimed purpose and debt paid.
The Sedders circled one another, seeming to be in a momentary stalemate as each counter's the other's magic smoothly. But it was, in fact, only a ruse as Angel Sedder waited for his opening. And then... He held up the stone. There were flashes of blue light. Everything seemed to slow down for several minutes as something... happened. Blue light and lightning crackled in the air.
And then there was a massive flash of brilliant light, and he knew only white nothingness.
An indeterminate amount of time later, the four of them found themselves somehow back on board Theodore's Darknova, sitting in hyperspace, Sedder laying on his back on the cockpit floor in his half-elf form again, unconscious. Theodore was definitely thankfully out cold as well, and Anderos was slowly waking.
Dolen pushed himself halfway up, blearily looking around and trying to make sense of what happened. The last thing he remembered was looking into the very large barrel of a fusion cannon, and then...
"Lord Sedder?" he called out, seeing the man nearby, then crawled over to the unconscious form when he didn't stir. "Sedder?" He gently shook the other's shoulders.
Sedder groans softly as he felt Dolen shaking him, blinking slowly and putting his hands to his head. "Ugh, shoot me now," he moaned, clenching his eyes shut again.
Dolen exhaled the breath he'd been holding and chuckled lightly. "You seem not to be destined for that fate so soon, Lord Sedder." He took inventory of his own aches and strains, grimacing as he noticed the prints marked in gore that he left on Sedder's clothing at the touch. "We are alive and, seemingly well for the moment, though one needs must wonder..." He stood, looking for some sign of just what happened.
Sedder grimaced, opening eyes his eyes again to looked up at Dolen. "You don't understand... No... This wasn't supposed to happen this way..." He closed his eyes again, shuddering a bit. "Cannot... must not..." He continued to babble deliriously.
Anderos stood up and looked down at him, and said, "What's wrong with him?"
Wariness and concern dispelled any trace of gallows humor at the incoherence of the half-elf's speech. Dolen removed his helm and tossed it aside, kneeling beside Sedder and reaching to lift the man to a sitting position.
"What is it?" Dolen pressed. "What should not have happened this way?"
Unease curled its chill fingers along his spine, never an uncommon thing when recently engaged against Chaos. The worst was to be expected more often than the best.
"There ... is a ... way..." Sedder slurred. "Find... Aviel." Then in a flash of blue light, Sedder went completely motionless, frozen in time in a form of self-imposed stasis.
Anderos frowned deeply, and muttered, "What the..."
"Aviel?" Dolen asked in confusion, to no one at all as Sedder stepped outside the normal stream of time. He rose slowly, stepping away from the mage in reflex, and looked aside to Anderos. "I have no idea, but..." His expression shifted from confusion to grim, and he edged around the pilot's chair to roughly shake Theodore. "Awaken, wastrel! The Laughing God is truly cruel at times, for I find myself needing information that you may possess."
Theodore woke up and made an inappropriate comment which he probably thinks is witty but was really slap-worthy. Dolen was in no mood for levity, nor disinclined to oblige the fool's self-apparent destructive tendencies, and he struck the man backhand twice.
"There is no time for your games, jester," he grated, "Lord Sedder is in need of aid, and should you prove incapable or unwilling, then you shall be considered his enemy and treated accordingly, do I make myself absolutely clear?"
"Okay, okay," Theodore said, rubbing his face. "You needn't have done that. What do you need me for?"
Anderos stood back, looking over the frozen form of Sedder in concern, then glancing over toward Theodore.
Releasing his hard grip on the buffoon's arm, Dolen indicated the frozen form of Sedder. "Moments before he slipped into this state he spoke in babble, crying against something which was not supposed to happen, and then revealed a name that he thought might assist him in some way. Aviel, was that name, what do you know of it, or who might be persuaded to part with such information?"
"Aviel?" Theodore said. "Oh, yeah, she was that weird winged woman who was on the Eyes a while ago... What about her?"
"Do you perhaps," Dolen bit out with considerable restraint, "have anything more useful than identifying the name? Did any information come into your possession as to where she may have gone or what she was planning on doing? Even an idea of where to go or who to speak to in order to find such information?"
He was not ecstatic regarding this turn of events, the sudden change of focus from broad to narrow was unsettling. That Chaos was still in motion was undoubted, that he could do anything regarding it without the powers of someone akin to Sedder? Highly improbable, and thus his return must be paramount.
"Where she went?" Theodore said. "I don't know. Maybe she went off to find Asura and Kalli. I haven't seen her in some time. Not since she was up on the bridge of the Eyes chatting with that one fellow, what was his name, Magnus the Red? Something like that..."
Dolen expelled a sigh, forcing a measure of control and discipline to return with a conscious effort. "Then determine where we are," he spoke levelly, deliberately calm and polite, "And a least-time course to return us to the Eyes of Truth that we may speak with this person."
The other names mentioned were likely to be of little use, lest they were to mysteriously appear at their destination. One step at a time.
"I don't know where we are... Somewhere in the Ethereal Plane, but we're not in a wormhole... This thing isn't designed to work like that... where's Tarna when you need her..."
There was a bit of a shimmer in the air in the back of the cockpit, and a woman wearing a black leather Death Dancer ninja suit with a pink katana at her side appeared. "Oh, there you are, hey."
"I care naught what must be done," Dolen replied sternly. "Do whatever you must to ascertain that course and pursue it with all speed," he paused and considered the nature of pilots as a whole, and continued, "I am also under no illusion that you would find it against your nature to bypass safe procedure to make all haste in the doing, and I am inclined to indulge that tendency at the moment."
He might regret that later, but that was for another time, now all that he could do was wait and see to small things while those familiar with this place do what they must.
"I shall return to the cargo hold for now," Dolen said. "Seek me out as soon as our status changes."
The world and its oddities were proving less startling to him as time passed, the appearance of the woman eliciting only a greeting nod as he stepped away from the pilot.
The woman blinked in confusion and said, "Wait, what's going on? Where are we going? I only just finally found you guys..." She went over to Theodore, gave him a hug and a kiss, and took the co-pilot's seat.
Dolen looked at the woman, taking in the greeting with an inward shudder of horror at the familiarity with the madman it displayed, and replied simply, "Chaos walks, Lord Sedder has been stricken and requires aid which only one named Aviel may provide, and I..." He looked down at the streaked gore and scarring which mar the elegant lines of his armor, and says, "I am going to attend to the one thing which makes any sense here. Find what I need, pilot," he said in parting, and glided out with not another word.
