Hey guys, Naintarlow here, with the newest chapter.
I could give you guys excuses but why bother? Stuff happened, I got distracted but in the end you guys still got a new chapter so everything worked out. Right?
This time the theme is dungeons—and much more, it's a semi-crossover with my other work The Force Shall Set Me Free, a star wars crossover. Check it out, it's good stuff and if enough people review I might post a new chapter for it.
Other than that, I have nothing to say. Sorry for the wait, I still have 3 other prompts to write, keep the spirit of KArgo alive. Oh, and of course please 'gib review' in the words of a certain cat.
Day 4 Prompt: Dungeon
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...or at least in its virtual replica...
Darkness, the absence of light, where the eye could not recover any information about its surroundings. For generations, almost every living being feared the darkness: the monsters, the secrets, and the tragedies hiding inside it, waiting for the right moment to grab you and reel you in. And once you are in the darkness, there is no escape, not without the dark leaving its mark on your very soul.
If you are not careful, you will lose your way and be forced to wander for eternity. If you are not prepared enough, your cooling corpse will be the last thing they will find of you. If you are not brave enough, you will never take the first step needed to escape.
Not that long ago he was the same. Just an ordinary kid, afraid of the dark and the unknown. But when you were confronted with a being that could be only classified as the ultimate form of darkness and made the choice to stand defiantly of it, your views change. If you survive the encounter that is.
Now, the dark no longer made him nervous. It brought him comfort and a sense of belonging. Because he survived something so much worse than whatever else might hide in the dark. Because he saw the worst parts of himself and embraced them for the sake of power. So that nothing else could stand in his way anymore.
His power stems from his connection to the dark side and this very connection grows stronger every day, with every battle. With every life that he took for the sake of his own, he grew stronger, in the truest way of evolution. Peace is a lie, there is only-
"Yo, Ki-bou. If you're done with your probably edgy-sounding sith monologue to let your inner roleplayer out, can you help me with this one?" A high and slightly frustrated voice, that would normally sound much more smug and amused, interrupted his innermost thoughts, completely destroying the thread of thought that he spent thinking up. What a waste.
A pair of red eyes, the colour of fresh blood, opened and glared at the owner of the voice who stood with her hands on her hips, not relenting under his gaze.
Argo the Rat, also known as the fastest smuggler in the known regions of the galaxy, smirked at the glare that wasn't even enough to make her blink. Her smirk was all but an invitation to try harder—but she had faced down enforcers of the slimiest Hutts, self-righteous knights of Zakuul, and even a terentatek, all by herself. It would take more than a simple Sith Lord to intimidate her into doing anything she didn't want to do.
Even if the sith in question was none other than the one who earned himself the title of Darth Hadúr. Or, maybe it was because he was himself that she was willing to be this defiant, enjoying the annoyed look in his eyes.
In the end, it was Kirito who broke the battle of wills between them. Silently declaring it invalid, he stepped away from the wall he was leaning against and slowly walked over to his temporary partner's side.
The two of them were in a small and dusty room—a sort of resting chamber, filled with a few slabs of stone perfect for sitting or even lying down. It was quite a nice place to get a breather or two... if you ignored the distant cries of dead sith lords, the constant growling of various monsters created by dark-side alchemy echoing from everywhere at once, and the myriad skeletons and rotting body parts thrown around them carelessly.
Most people would have been horrified, unnerved, and probably scared a healthy amount, yet neither Kirito nor Argo reacted to all of that. After all, this was Korriban.
And by their standards, that scene was rather tame.
"So, what's the problem?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, as he stood next to the Rat. She was almost plastering herself against a wall that bore a mosaic of some sort of gate, randomly pressing spots on it, frowning as nothing happened despite her efforts.
They were in a hidden tomb on the far side of Korriban, where not even the Empire maintained a constant presence. That showed in the half-mad would-be Sith prowling around and hunting everything that moved, the large infestation of terentateks, and other nightmare-inducing monsters. Not to mention the force ghosts of long-dead sith lords, who tried to drive every sentient being insane, control them or just troll them for the fun of it.
And no, they weren't here because dark, abandoned, and deadly tombs were the prime vacation spots for Sith Lords, at least not according to Evil and Mean, the Sith Lord's weekly magazine.
If he really needed to pick a vacation spot, then he would have chosen either Alderaan for its luxury, or maybe Rakata Prime for the whole exotic feel. But definitely not Korriban.
"What do you think is the problem?" Argo bit back a bit snidely as she crouched down—probably trying to find a hint of a trapdoor, a spot where the air moved, anything. Yet her frustrated groan told him that she had no such luck.
Despite being intended to be a virtual game, SWTORO had very few traditional quests. There was the odd fetch or 'kill x enemies' sort of missions, but they were rare and far between. Most of the time, the system simply 'judged' the actions you took during a period of time and periodically awarded a certain amount of experience and money, plus an item or two if you were lucky and accomplished enough.
It made sense: most players were either cowering in safe zones, not interested in quests, and the others fought constant battles against the Eternal Empire, following no proper storyline but experiencing the closest thing to a full-blown war.
Back then—in the beta and the first month before the game became a trap—ordinary quests, main storylines, and even campaign quests were much more common and utilised. But with Valkorion's arrival, almost every aspect of what was once a game changed drastically.
This was one of the few genuine quests that the game still had to offer; a survivor of the purge, if you will. Even then, it wasn't as if there was much support from the side of the system—meaning they had to figure out most things by visible clues, no journal or panel to review the quests' info to help them.
Argo found it by happenstance while looking into some other things, and Kirito was quickly brought into the fold when all leads pointed toward Korriban. From there on, it was a rather busy three days, running around the planet, hunting down various monsters and artefacts, eventually leading them to uncover the location of this hidden tomb, and then the key to actually enter it.
It was an absolute pain and he contemplated giving up several times, but Argo was stubborn as usual and he didn't wish to break his word after giving it to her.
And that's how they ended up in this tomb, stuck in front of the entrance to their final location, unable to proceed.
"Then stand aside and let me take a look," he said gruffly, though he was considerably gentle as he pushed the smuggler aside so he could get a proper picture of the situation.
The wall that stood in their way was as old as every other part of the tomb. The paint that it might have worn once was all but peeled or faded away by now, yet the stone under it held as strongly as ever. Say what you want about the Sith, but if they knew how to do one thing really well, it was building a lasting monument of their power. By the information they scraped together, this tomb was supposed to be almost four thousand years old—yet it was still more sturdy than some of the newer buildings made by the Empire's citizens.
According to the tablet they found in the stomach of a particularly old and vicious terentatek, the hidden door should be somewhere around this mural, on the wall facing the tunnel that led them here. Yet, no matter how much he looked, there was no hint of any hidden door or even a trap—the latter of which was a surprise, considering that several of them almost took their lives on the path leading to this chamber.
With a huff, he soon gave up. If Argo, who was much more specced toward things like spotting hidden things, was unable to find anything, he would have very little luck. No, if he wanted to get through this, he needed to think of some alternative.
He was thinking of trying to brute force his way with a particularly powerful force push—though he had no idea if it could destabilise the whole tomb—when he noticed a few faded characters on the edge of the wall.
Narrowing his eyes, he walked closer to the corner and observed them. They were rather old and hard to make out, but they definitely looked like ancient sith writings, the kind usually found on important artefacts. From time to time, someone could find them on walls of old sith tombs, especially on Korriban, which was the birthplace of the sith.
Usually, they meant nothing and had no relation to the tomb or quest in question, simple decorations made by the devs. Yet, to every rule, there was an exception. He had heard of at least one group who ran into a dungeon where the ancient writing on the wall was the key to a riddle they needed to solve to advance.
On that same thought, this could be a key to solving the question of the hidden door. Provided someone had the skill to read it.
As he focused his eyes on the almost-unrecognisable script, the letters took on a blue silhouette that made it easier to make them out. After a few moments, new letters appeared right under them, this time in a language he could understand without needing a translator.
Grinning victoriously, he walked back to the wall that hid the entrance and waved his hand over it, concentrating on the careful and precise use of force in the mechanism hidden inside. For a long moment, nothing happened… until he heard a loud click, and the entire wall began to slide to the opening, opening up the way forward.
"How did you do that?" Argo, who was watching him rather impatiently, suddenly was behind him, amazement shining in her eyes before it quickly switched to annoyance. "Couldn't you have waved your hand around before I had to spend thirty minutes unsuccessfully trying to get through?"
"Even if I did, nothing would have happened," he huffed in response, stepping through the opening, one hand holding a deactivated lightsaber in case any surprises were waiting. With none coming, he looked back at her. "You needed to manipulate the force in a specific way, and the instructions were on the side in ancient sith. Guess it's lucky you dragged me along," he added with a smirk, before he turned back and led the way into the dusty and dark tunnel, Argo trailing behind him.
Judging by the grumbling behind him and the half-hearted kick at the back of his leg—which he hardly felt because of his armour—she wasn't quite happy about his cheekiness.
Well, she better deal with it. He wasn't here to make nice, he was here to repay a debt he owed to her.
"How do you even have the skill to read ancient sith? I thought that was a skill more fit for inquisitors who usually find a way around obstacles, unlike you, who just brute-forces his way through," she spoke up a few moments later, pondering more to herself than to him.
Kirito didn't offer an answer, only marching forward with a face carved from stone. A few old droids activated upon their approach, pulling out ancient vibroblades and clumsily charging. Not even bothering to pull out his second blade, he activated the one in his hand and quickly sliced the droids to bits, with Argo shooting those that were farther from them.
Of course, that was nowhere near enough to deter Argo when she really wanted to find out something.
"Don't tell me you learned it from Sakuya?" she asked. When no reply was immediately shot back, she took his silence as an answer. "You sly dog. And here I thought you were just fucking around like rabbits—but here you are, secretly learning the Jedi's carefully guarded knowledge. I am so proud of you." She presented him with a massive smile as she all bubt bounced in front of him, her grin practically splitting her face in two.
There was a small twitch on his face at the mention of his previous lover, but no more than that. Instead, Kirito remained stone-faced, resembling a Jedi more at that moment than a Sith that he was supposed to be, much to Argo's disappointment.
"Man, you're no fun. And here I was waiting for the juicy details." She deflated with a pout, but followed behind Kirito nonetheless—and he still refused to answer her.
The Sith Lord had bigger matters to deal with than Argo's need for gossip or whatever that was. Well, it was excusable in his mind, and that's what mattered.
Ever since they entered the inner sanctum there was a visible change in the air. No monsters appeared, no traps activated but the tension was higher than ever.
No, it wasn't simply tension.
It felt like his blood was boiling, crying out for blood to be spilled. Every little thing, every little motion from the bones cracking under his boots, to Argo's breathing served to annoy him and he was finding it hard to not snap at her—or at worst attack her for simply existing. It was definitely not normal.
It was not just his anger. At the mere mention of Sakuya, he remembered the passionate night they spent together, and he suddenly felt so pent-up that the more Argo talked, the more he imagined simply shredding her clothes and taking her right then and there. By this point, his eyes turned red and he had to clench his fist tightly, less he lost control and did something he will regret.
In this world, in SWTORO, the Force mechanics were rather interesting. Instead of commands or motions, most of the Force powers worked on the 'will' of the player, as well the focus and imagination on what they wanted to accomplish. Furthermore, depending on the alignment of the player, as well as to what they want to accomplish, the system somehow even manipulated their brains: those of the dark side becoming more violent and passionate, while, on the other end of the spectrum, the light side made them… empty, for lack of a better term.
His partner apparently had no such problems, or she was much better at hiding it. She was walking in front of him now, taking him over when his attention wandered away, no longer chatting about whatever came to mind but keeping an eye out for traps and any other surprises that she had a much better chance to spot in time. Though, out of the two of them, he had more of a chance to survive if they did walk into one.
If only her hips weren't moving so hypnotically, he'd have had a better chance of keeping a lid on whatever was going on with him.
"Something's wrong here," he said with gritted teeth, trying to focus on something else but the posterior swaying in front of him—with little success.
If he at least had enemies to focus on, he could have channelled all that pent-up energy to maim and destroy them. Without that, his traitorous brain could only fantasise about destroying the ass of the smug little rat with him.
"Yeah, no enemies in sight, no traps waiting. Maybe the hard part is over?" she mused at his words, but both of them were far too cynical to believe that.
This world threw more than enough surprises at them for them to lower their guard. They had lost more than their fair share of comrades over the smallest mistakes. The only reason the two of them were both here and alive was more down to luck than skill. That was just how this world operated.
Another bout of silence fell between them, as they advanced forward in a corridor that never seemed to end. Idly, Kirito noticed that the ground wasn't completely horizontal. Slowly but steadily, they were heading deeper and deeper underground. What trial could await them in the end, that was the question he would like to know the answer to.
"So, how come Sinon isn't with you? You usually stick together like peas in a pod." Argo spoke up once again, looking back at him mischievously. Kirito found it hard to resist the urge to throw her to a wall and wipe away that cheeky grin with a moment of ecstasy.
It required the patience and willpower of a saint, but he was able to clamp down on the urge; though he was already gritting his teeth so fiercely that if it was the real world, he would worry about them breaking. As it was, the way his fingers drove into his palm already sent small bites of pain that, instead of clearing his head, only enhanced the heady feeling that overcame him.
A small part of him recognized that it was way too powerful to be something harmless or natural, and most probably had something to do with the dungeon they were raiding, but he simply couldn't spare the brainpower to ponder on that.
He let out a slow breath, trying to calm down, when he noticed Argo looking at him questioningly, and he realised he hadn't answered her yet.
"We're both solo players," was all he said by way of response, not wanting to continue this line of discussion. And he definitely didn't want to start thinking of said Mandalorian bounty hunter out of her armour.
"Doesn't stop you from teaming up ninety percent of the time," she shot back. He only shrugged, as if saying 'what can you do?'
"We work well together, and sometimes safety is in numbers."
Argo's unimpressed look told him that this wasn't enough of an answer—and unless he wanted her to annoy him until he lost control of his jumbled emotions, he might as well indulge her.
"Mandalore's mask had been found," Kirito said, after a long pause and yet another turn, still nowhere close to their destination. "It activated a sort of grand quest, and most players with Mandalorian origins—or those who were adopted by one of the clans—are in a mad hurry to decide who will be the new leader."
"How come I haven't heard about it before?" the information broker asked, her eyes narrow as she regarded him suspiciously.
Kirito felt himself tense, his instincts urging him to answer the distrust with violence, but thankfully cooler heads prevailed. It came close, though. Much closer than usual.
"Don't ask me. They kept pretty quiet about the whole thing, I was just lucky to be near Sinon when she received the notifications," he answered, trying to appear nonchalant.
In truth, he suspected that something even more serious was going on in the background, but he could do nothing but mope about it. He trusted his occasional partner in crime to ask for his help if it ever came down to it. Until then, he went and worried about his own things.
From the unimpressed sounds Argo let out, he knew that it wasn't enough to placate her.
"Why are you so interested in the female players who I work with occasionally?" he quickly asked with a raised eyebrow—partly in curiosity, partly trying to divert her attention.
Argo didn't even bat an eye as she instantly answered, a cheeky grin on her face. "So I can seduce them, have a night of passion that will drive them wild, then join forces and seduce you with two beautiful hot girls and get some extra action with them." There was no hesitation or any other tell to suggest she was joking. She sounded completely serious.
Kirito, no matter how aloof he tended to act, still almost missed a step and fell on his face, from the sudden shock of Argo's statement. He didn't know if he was more surprised by the context of the statement, the straight face with which she delivered it, or just the timing of it all. Maybe all three.
"What?" he found himself asking rather dumbly, even stopping for a moment.
Sure, there were small signs that might have been Argo trying to subtly tell him that she was interested in him—or, at least he thought so, in further retrospection. But he was a man, incapable of noticing signs like that in the first place. Plus, this death game—despite what some might think—didn't make for an ideal place to find romance.
Hence why he was caught off-guard by Argo's master plan of pulling him into a threesome of all things.
"Oh, come on. I tried seducing you myself, but you're denser than a Jedi on drugs when you slip into this roleplay mindset of yours." She punctuated her barbed complaint with a huff. Her hands moved to her waist as she turned around to face him. "I mean, hello, I gave you ample opportunities to have this—and yet, somehow, despite being a Sith and being all about passion, you were colder than an iceberg on Hoth when it came to me."
She gestured at her body rather exasperatedly to emphasise her point, and Kirito struggled to keep his attention on her face rather than the rest of her figure. The rather tight clothes this petite smuggler wore didn't help matters, not with the strange carnal urge he felt getting stronger the deeper they went into this tomb.
"So, your response to that was trying to seduce any woman connected to me, and then make it a threesome," he said. Kirito was a bit hesitant, but his voice had a tinge of strain to it, the mental pictures not helping his current predicament.
Presently, he was just thankful that armoured Sith trousers were solid around the crotch too, ensuring his erection wasn't visible at all. He had no idea how he would even start talking himself out of that one.
"Well duh. What straight man could resist such an offer, with two beautiful ladies pawing at him?" Argo asked, her disbelief of such willpower reflected clearly in her voice. "I would be even willing to throw myself into wearing Leia's metal bikini, if you want to go for the «ultimate nerd dream» so much," she said with much drama, crossing her arms in quite exaggerated motions.
Kirito wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, but her crossed arms managed to highlight her breasts to his already lustful eyes.
Another wave of desire buffeted him, almost causing him to stagger. That wasn't normal, he was very much aware—but, for the life of him, he couldn't see what could cause it. Usually, dark side artefacts that could cause debuffs and other unwanted effects were rather easy to identify. Say what you want about the Sith of old, but subtle was not part of their vocabulary. At all.
See, who the hell makes an object called the Crown of Hate, but is actually a staff that can shoot lasers—and, even when it's not used, it shines with all the colours of the rainbow, occasionally releasing screams of all the tortured souls that were sacrificed to make it? The last effect occurred quite frequently, such as whenever the user tried to sit down.
He was rambling in his mind. Again.
Kirito shook his head, trying to clear it without much success. Whatever was affecting them kept making it harder and harder to think. If it wasn't his lust or desire for bloodshed clouding his mind, it would simply refuse to concentrate on what was at hand. He hadn't encountered anything of this strength or intensity in other tombs he'd descended into—at least nothing on Korriban, which was considered a starting planet and a noob training ground.
It didn't make any sense, having something so powerful as to pull a high-level Sith Warrior, whose dark side mastery should be enough to grant at least a decent resistance to mind-altering effects, so easily. Lower levelled players would have been instantly overwhelmed, their minds almost literally crushed by an outside force with their lacking defences. It was unavoidable—but, most importantly, unfair.
At least as long as you viewed this world as primarily a game.
"...well, there's Klein too." Argo's mumbled words shook him out of his thoughts.
They both stopped walking—the smuggler with her back to him, doing something with her hands that he couldn't see. Around them, there still wasn't even a hint of any enemies, the cause of whatever was messing with his mind, or even their destination. Just a long, endless corridor, exactly like five minutes before.
"I mean it would make sense if he leaned that way, what with the almost friendly banter between them—that's unheard of from Kirito. Or Diavel. That fierce rivalry may be hiding an equally passionate forbidden love. Oh, I can see it," she murmured with a higher-pitched voice, her hands cupping her face as she seemed to be lost in her own little world. "I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of BL, but I would love to see them go at it all nude—maybe even end up sandwiched between those gorgeous, rippling muscles..."
He could only stare at her dumbfounded, his brain not really registering her words—or, rather, it flat out refused to. At least it told him that whatever started messing with his mind wasn't directed at just him. Though, he would have preferred at least one of them relatively level-headed at this moment.
"Argo," he spoke up, sounding a bit gruff as he narrowed his eyes.
The information broker didn't react to his words, continuing to mumble to herself, sometimes having to block her nose lest blood came out. Well, if any blood would drip out or not was up to debate, since most injuries in this world almost instantly cauterised themselves—even with vibroblades, for some reason—hence, Kirito hadn't seen anyone bleed since he first logged in.
Plus, despite all the stories about Sith bathing in the blood of their enemies and eating the marrow of their rivals' bones, he wasn't keen on discovering if SWTORO had a bleeding feature or not.
"Argo. Snap out of it!" He was just shy of yelling as he stepped over, grabbed her arm and shook her.
He might have been a tad more forceful than needed, but his mind was a mess and it was hard enough for him to think with the anger and lust clouding his senses. At this point, he was still stuck between either wanting to choke Argo with the force, thereby satisfying his inner Darth Vader, or just strip her down and take her there.
Unfortunately, he wasn't alone in being stuck in a rather problematic mindset—as he learned when he finally got a good look on his current partner's face.
Her face was flushed and bright red, her eyes hazy and unfocused. She was even panting heavily, looking as if she had just finished a whole marathon. Or… more like she was in heat, as a perverted corner of his mind supplied.
"Ki-bou?" she asked, sounding dazed as she tried to focus her eyes on him. It felt as if she only noticed his presence just now, his words earlier just flying right through one ear and out the other.
"We are getting out of here," he growled, tugging her by the arm as he turned around and started walking back.
The silence around them unsettled him. What was the point of whatever was affecting them? No other traps or monsters appeared, who could easily become real obstacles in their current state. Yet nothing happened, only them slowly losing their grip in reality. That definitely meant something far worse was waiting for them at the end of the line.
And while he would have been all in for facing whatever enemy awaited them head-on, he would rather do it by himself, considering the circumstances. Of course, as always, life had other ideas.
He felt a bit of resistance from Argo, but he simply thought it was her still being a bit dazed and thought nothing of it. Which was why he got the surprise of a lifetime when she tore her arm from his grip, and of all things, kicked him in the shin. Like a stubborn little kid.
Ignoring the fact that he wore armour and didn't even feel it, he felt quite frustrated by the kick. If his head was clear, he would have been able to handle it like the mature, adult man that he was supposed to be. No, even with his usual temperament, it was only a fifty-fifty chance that he would be able to keep a lid on his temper.
With present circumstances? There was never a chance.
"What are you doing?" he snarled as he turned back to her, his face set into a look that fit her current attitude—a look often given to misbehaving children.
"You always act like that. The big, bad Sith. Always taking charge and telling people what to do. Well, I won't have it. I won't have you ignore me again," she responded, grabbing onto his arm and very deliberately pushing it into her breasts, as she practically draped herself over him. "I'm a woman, you know. I have needs too."
"What?" he asked dumbly, his eyes inadvertently following the pair of orbs that were squished against his arm, feeling his last shreds of concentration slowly slip away. He shook his head, trying very hard not to focus on it anymore. "Whatever, we have to get out of here before anything bad happens, so let's go."
"What if I want something bad to happen to me?" Argo asked rather coyly. Apparently, even the concept of shame had left her in her current lust-filled state, as one of her hands began to roam over his chest plate, trying to find the clasp that held it against his body.
"What?" He sounded like a broken record, but he couldn't help it. It was a pretty significant change from the Argo he knew, who only teased and never really ventured into the realm of anything really happening. Other than her having fun teasing people into submission, that is.
Unnoticed by him, her other hand opened her menu behind his back and quickly put in a couple of short commands.
"Don't play coy. I want you to take me, right here, right now," she said, her eyes practically begging him to give in.
He was taller than her, especially in his armour, so she had to raise her head into his eyes. The way it stretched her neck, the lustful and promising smile on her face, it made a picture that excited a certain part of him. A lot. Not that he would ever admit it—he had a certain pride and reputation after all.
"Stop this nonsense. We don't have time—"
Whatever else he might have said, it was lost as suddenly Argo's form was swallowed by blue light for a moment, blinding him.
As his eyes cleared and he blinked out the spots from his eyes, he looked back toward the smuggler and instantly felt his jaw drop. Argo still stood there, holding onto him—only, her clothes had changed. Gone were the light but durable clothes suited for a smuggler, with her broad hat that looked like it came out of an old western movie, that stylish leather jacket over a top that showed an ample amount of cleavage, and the certainly tight-fitting pants.
Indeed, she was wearing none of that now. Her slightly tanned skin, her lithe, corded form—it was all bared to the world, her modesty only slightly protected by a metallic rendition of a bikini. One so iconic that anyone who dared to claim themselves a fan of Star Wars would recognize it at a glance.
Even then, it barely covered anything or protected any modesty, since the rather small design directed all attention to her small but firm breasts, pushed up by the metal design, and to her wide hips that were on full display, even with the braided gold wires of the bottom piece trying in vain to hide them.
Currently standing in front of him was a rather beautiful woman, wearing the wet dream of every Star Wars nerd from the ages of thirteen to sixty. She rocked the look and she knew it.
"You really had a whole set of this metal bikini on hand, just to seduce me?" He found himself asking the question in a stupified murmur, as he tried to tear his eyes away from her breasts. And her abs. And thighs.
It wasn't working well.
"If I want something, I will get it. No matter what anyone has to say about it," she stated rather forcefully as she pulled him towards her, allowing her whole body to get as acquainted with his own as possible. "Now shut up and take me already." she demanded, her impatience winning out.
The black-armoured sith just stared at her for a long moment, his mind in a massive debate as old as mankind. To be horny, or not to be horny. It was already a losing battle in normal circumstances; add in a Sith artefact that somehow made his emotions even more chaotic, and the end result was no longer up to debate.
He suddenly let out a loud barking laugh, throwing his head backward, which echoed down the long corridor. An uncertain expression appeared on Argo's face as the laugh continued for a whole minute before it slowly died down.
When he lowered his head, his red eyes practically burned through her as they looked into her own pair, the smuggler shivering instinctively. If it was from the cold, fear, or just lust, even she couldn't tell.
"Guess the old Sith knew what they were talking about," he stated in a low, rumbling voice—as if something deep and primal awakened in him. His mouth slowly curled into a smirk that promised many things. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion."
With that, he advanced on her and Argo offered no resistance.
-0-
At the end of the tunnel, a massive stone tablet acted as a door and the last obstacle that led to the heart of the tomb of Darth Oberon, one of the first and probably most insane Sith to live and make their impact on this world. With a simple wave of the approaching Sith's hand, the door slowly began to move to the side, disappearing into the wall and leaving the way clear.
Kirito was not impressed with what awaited them on the other side.
Arguably, Sith weren't really into the tasteful internal decorations. Usually, it's either the bones or body parts of their enemies displayed with a dark and gloomy atmosphere, or simply treasures and expensive things hoarded over from dozens of worlds, all of them taken forcefully with a lot of killing. So, expecting the tomb of an old Sith to be any different—aside from the wear of thousands of years spent with no air circulation or any cleaning and of probably being ransacked around fifty times in the last year alone—was simply just not possible.
All of these didn't come as a surprise to either veteran player.
The twenty-foot-tall rancor standing guard in the middle of the chamber was a bit more of an unwelcome surprise. Now this beast was clearly larger than its usual brethren, and with bony protrusions protecting its features and immense horns on its head, it was clearly warped by the dark side for who knows how long. Maybe even centuries.
Any other time he would have marvelled at how the NerveGear managed to recreate such a lifelike replica of one of the most memorable things in Episode 6. He would be shaking, not from nerves, but sheer anticipation at the fight in front of him and the possible loot he might get.
But now? Now, he felt only impatience, annoyance, and the furious urge to destroy whatever got into his path, so he could smash even the memory of Darth Oberon and his idiotic artifact into dust.
"You know, after everything, I either expected this chamber to be empty or something a little, well, more impressive," his partner commented from beside him, sounding just as done with this whole thing as he felt.
Instead of answering, he simply grunted noncommittally as he used the opportunity to eye her from the corner of his eyes.
Instead of the slave bikini, she was back in her usual gear, including a large hat that reminded him of a cowboy, that she used to hide her eyes and most of her face from his view. If one looked at her now, it would be rather hard to notice she had hastily dressed herself up once the both of them could think a bit more clearly. The wonders of being in a game, where they could equip a new piece of cloth with a single swipe of their fingers.
Though, the ability to quickly equip their clothes didn't mean that her hair wasn't even messier than normal, nor that the small love bites he couldn't remember leaving on her neck and collarbone weren't visible. Seeing them gave him the urge to check his own neck, but he knew better than to raise any attention to it.
Once again, he was wearing his usual black armor, though his chest piece sported a set of scratch marks at various points and his black coat was nowhere to be seen. His arms were crossed in front of his arms and he quickly looked away when the Rat turned her attention to him.
He heard her let out a frustrated sigh, but didn't react to it. Instead, he just eyed the Rancor that was growling at them—it could do nothing else because it couldn't fit through the door. So, unless they came closer, it could only snarl at them with a clear threat of violence. Plus, they were far enough away to not draw any real aggro on themselves yet, so the enormous beast wasn't out for their blood quite yet.
But that didn't mean that he preferred what lay ahead to the conversation they needed to have.
"So… we're really gonna pretend nothing happened back there, huh?" Within that moment, Kirito was shocked to notice a faint tremor in her voice. Argo was, for all her teasing and playing around, actually worried—maybe even embarrassed—about what had occurred between them minutes earlier.
She wasn't alone in that regard. But he sure wasn't any more eager to get this conversation over and done with, either.
"Do we really need to talk about it now? Can't it wait?" he asked back, his eyes almost pleading the Rancor in front of them to do something and change the subject. The abominable monster decided not to heed his silent cries, content in lowly growling at them, like an oversized guard dog.
"Knowing you, if I don't press you now, you're gonna disappear on the nearest shuttle you can find off to literally who knows where—even go missing for weeks or months on end—until you're sure that I completely forgot about the whole incident," she replied dryly. Of course, he couldn't offer anything in his defense; she was probably right. "What're ya gonna say, you didn't like the sex?" A small grin filled her face as she raised thst question, her usual teasing nature taking over any embarrassment she might have felt.
Honestly, he would simply rather they didn't talk about this whole thing. It wasn't like he was ashamed of having sex with Argo—after all, he would be lying if he said that she didn't feature in a few of his dreams before. It wasn't even that he was embarrassed about doing it in the middle of a dungeon. He and Sakuya, for the short time they were together, did it in much more questionable places than this.
The only thing that really bothered him was the loss of control. Despite being a Sith, he knew his limits, he had his lines that he was not willing to cross. But that artifact? It forced him to go down a path that he didn't want at the moment, succumbing to unwanted urges. Even with his resistance and willpower, he was only able to stave it off for so long. And that simple fact terrified him like nothing else.
Because he had to wonder, what if next time he did something much worse than fucking a close friend of his silly, like an animal in heat? What if next time he killed a comrade? What if he went even further? Would he be able to turn back?
Argo took his silence for what it was and let out a frustrated breath. Knowing Kirito, once he decided to close up and just ignore the world around him for whatever reason, there would be no stopping. Heck, if they tried to push the issue well past a certain point, he tended to disappear altogether.
Like how he went AWOL for three whole months after what happened at Ossus.
"At least tell me you enjoyed it. Girls have pride too, you know." Too bad Argo wasn't one to use much tact, despite her work as an information broker. As expected, his answer was nothing but silence, prompting her to sigh. "Any idea what that was, and why it made us…?" she trailed off, trying to find the right word.
"Hornier than a nymphomaniac with a vibrator stuck in her twenty-four / seven for a whole month, yet wasn't allowed to cum even once?" He filled in the gap she left with a raised eyebrow and the barest hint of a smirk.
"I don't know how you came up with that mental image, but I am judging you," she deadpanned back—though, inwardly, she was pretty happy. At least he was joking, even if it meant they still ignored the main issue.
Baby steps. That's how you handle Kirito, whenever he's angry, happy, horny—or just any mood, really. He was delicate like that.
He just shrugged his answer, turning back to eye the rancor with narrowed eyes. Argo was about to try and question him about the whole issue again when he softly spoke up.
"It's probably a dark side artifact that's supposed to stir up our emotions, our passions. Since most dark side users—both in the game and in lore—mostly focused on negative feelings, given that those came easier and allowed more of a power boost… I think the device was supposed to amplify those darker feelings, to force the approaching party into a mad state and probably kill each other. Once its effect was fully achieved, by completely surrendering to our passions, it powered down.
"Though, it might be just trying to recharge itself," he added in the end, his mouth settling into a frown at the thought. As some small comfort, his grip on his lightsabers tightened.
Argo had a sort of disbelieving look on her face, one which made Kirito force down a snort. It wasn't every day that someone could see the infamous Rat stupefied.
"Lust is an emotion too, you know. We're kinda lucky that you were so thirsty after me that it never had the chance to influence any other emotions in you," he continued, a cheeky grin filling his face this time. The joke took his mind away from his biggest worries for the time being.
He was inwardly pleased by the flush that took over her face for a single moment, before she forced it back down and let out a faux-annoyed huff.
"Well there's no use denying that, is there? No wonder I got so easily influenced, making you notice someone ready to jump your bones is harder than teaching a chimpanzee the alphabet!" That mental image caused him to choke on air, and though he tried to cover it with a cough, the damage was done. When he looked back to her, there was a massive victorious smirk on her face.
After all, the Rat always needed to have the last word in everything.
"Let's just get it over with," he grumbled under his breath, activating his two lightsabers and taking a stance, both blades held in a reverse grip.
And if anyone wanted to point out that his stance mimicked a certain video game's main character, who was the clone of the main character of the previous title, well, he could always introduce his lightsabers to them. After all, the stance gave really good bonuses, and afforded him a variety of attack combos and tactics that otherwise would be much harder to pull off without serious drawbacks.
Not to mention, it was cool as heck… not that anybody would ever find him admitting it aloud.
An eager grin slowly worked into his face as he stared down the Rancor, who in turn seemed to sense his intentions and growled in response. Nothing mattered now: not his worries, not the awkwardness, nothing at all. All he had was the fight in front of him, his two lightsabers, and a lot of pent-up emotions that needed to be let out through plain, senseless violence.
That was what he lived for. That was what suited him the best.
He heard the sound of a gun's safety being flicked off behind him, as well as the faint buzz of a personal shield generator powering up, as Argo stepped next to him. In her right hand, she held a small blaster pistol—a model that he knew had quite the punch to it, despite its rather concealable size. It was the main weapon of any smuggler worth their name and class.
While most players tended to go wild and dual-wield pistols of this size, or even heft a pair of more robust ones, Argo went down a slightly different route. In her left hand, she was playing with a vibroknife; the metal, while ordinarily no match for lightsabers or even thicker hides or armor, was a sneaky and deadly weapon in her hand, thanks to various tricks like the ultra-high frequency it vibrated at, which came from the power cell built into the grip.
Argo took the term backstabbing criminal and made it into her own fighting style. And a damn effective one at that. Few could survive the Rat's first attack if she got a drop on somebody.
"Guess I have no choice but to back you up," she commented, with an amused little smirk and a wink flashed in his direction. "Try not to slow me down, now, Blackie."
"I hate that nickname."
"Yeah, well, I also like my partner wearing condoms and not biting into my nipples so hard," she snarked right back without hesitation—and once again, Kirito had nothing to riposte with.
As if sensing their conversation had finished, the Rancor stomped forward, letting out a challenging roar. From the corner of his eye, he saw Argo wince at the amount of spit that flew out of the mouth of the beast. Of all things, why did Kayaba have to recreate saliva to this insane extent?
Yet, despite the instinctual shiver that ran through his spine on seeing the large globs of spittle sail through the air, nothing could break Kirito's eager grin as he roared back in answer and changed forward. It was time for the main event.
After all, peace was a lie.
-0-
"Is that it?" Kirito, for once, really tried not to let his disappointment show—with very little success. The words slipped from his mouth as two of them looked down at the contents inside of Darth Oberon's sarcophagus, the Rancor's slowly cooling carcass tossed into a corner by a simple gesture from the Sith.
Back then, when the game was really a game, it was natural to complain about unlucky drop rates or just plain useless gear rewarded after a tough fight or questline. Since their reality became this ever so vast world, there was far less complaining from the players. After all, most of them were thankful to stay alive in the first place, with every little thing having some use to increase their chances of living.
That was that. But when the effort put into it didn't match the reward to such a drastic degree, he couldn't help to let out his inner gamer, with all his toxic long-winded rages.
"It's not that bad. I can at least sell them for a reasonably good price."
Argo may have told him that, but the way she winced as she pulled out one item after another told another story. Like him, she was quite the prideful one, although that pride in her case mostly extended to her information network and her capabilities as a top-notch smuggler and pilot. And there would be a cold day in hell before she ever admitted that she overestimated the possible fruits of their labour in completing a quest.
Raising a skeptical eyebrow, Kirito looked at the literal dump of various items before them. Half of them were broken and little more than pure trash, their value not even a thousandth of what they would have been worth originally. The remaining items ranged from low-level common items that they could find and sell with a lot less trouble, a trinket whose item description yearned to lead someone down another possibly long quest chain, and a mask that depicted a smiley face of all things—though, in pure Sith fashion, it was black and had blood pouring out of the eyes and mouth.
It wouldn't have been so cringeworthy if its stats hadn't been absolutely useless to the point of being more of a hindrance at their level than anything. Seriously, who gives an item a +10% 'Cheeriness' stat? What was Kayaba smoking when he made this whole mess?
The only thing of real value was the dark side artifact that was responsible for their earlier bout with each other. As he guessed, its main purpose was to amplify the powers of the dark side—and as an unintended side effect, it also amplified the raw emotions that were the source of these powers in the first place. According to what they learned from investigating the chamber, it was Oberon's true masterpiece, born from decades of research and thousands of sacrifices… yet, in the end, it resulted in nothing but its creator's death when the effect of the artifact spurred his apprentice to betray and kill him. Why they chose to bury it with him instead of doing anything else was anybody's guess.
Someone clearly found a large amount of personal amusement from describing in perfect detail how he was stabbed and electrocuted by his apprentice while he was sitting on the toilet. The more he learned, the more Kirito feared Kayaba's intentions with this whole quest.
Even ignoring the ridiculous lore, background, and the portrait of Oberon—who had a warped look on his face as if it was painted while he was dying on the toilet—looking down on them, it would have been a valuable find and more than worth their trouble. It could have been called even a game-changer, if they could use it to aid their war against the Eternal Fleet.
Too bad it was an Immortal Object, and its removal, or even trying to take control of it, was impossible to all but the gamemasters. Which, evidently, neither Sith nor smuggler was.
He gave one last resentful glare to the full-sized portrait of the insane Sith—then, without another word, he grabbed Argo around her waist, lifting her up and throwing her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The information broker was so shocked by this rather out-of-character action that it took Kirito exiting the burial chamber before she realized what was going on and feebly began to squirm in his grip.
Too bad that the difference between their Strength stats was way too much. Kirito was a tank, a Sith Warrior whose main tactic relied on very simply brute-forcing his way through the opposition. True, he used two lightsabers in dual-wielding and was required to have almost equally high Dexterity, but Argo still stood no chance. And that was even without him actively using the Force to raise his strength even further. Unfortunately for her, the smuggler players' main tactic when someone was attacking them was to be not even the same star system by the time the attack reached their position.
"Let me go, Ki-bou, and give me my treasure!" she complained. But, no matter how much she tried to hit, her tiny—if rather muscular—arms made no noticeable dent in his armor, nor sent him to his knees with the sheer power behind them.
He wasn't even grunting in pain, even after the mighty Argo showed her displeasure with him. So unfair.
"There is nothing here, and you know it. Let's just get out of here, before anything else that could possibly be irritating decides to show up," he told her with a stern dryness to his voice. It didn't look like he had any trouble carrying the rather small woman, even as he had to maneuver through the uneven ruins.
"You don't know that! There might be a treasure for us to find—just have to solve the secret!" She tried again, hoping to affect his greed for new gear or unique items, a trait he shared with her.
However, in this particular case he was way too fed up to let his gamer instincts influence him, and he continued walking forward without hesitation.
"If there is, it's not worth it. I have had enough of this place for a lifetime. End of discussion." There was a rather forceful weight to his voice, and so Argo eventually gave up. Even then, he could still feel her pouting at him, regardless of when he couldn't see her face. The occasional kicks of her leg from the front reminded him of that fact.
Still, Argo knew that it was a lost cause. It was only her pride that kept her from freely admitting as much. Nonetheless, it was quite soon that her occasional squirms stopped as Kirito continued walking forward, through that insanely long corridor once again. Thanks for nothing, Kayaba.
"Hey, Ki-bou." She suddenly spoke up, her voice rather low and solemn.
"What is it?" he asked back, feeling a strange sense of peacefulness as he carried her through the ruins: no enemies, no traps left to slow him down.
Despite what happened earlier, the disappointment of the rewards, and his general angry disposition, he felt almost nothing significant at the moment. No immediate worries came to mind, nor did he get the urge to fight and kill something. Like his emotions had simply drained away.
He imagined that was the state of peace that Jedi were aiming for, and in turn that that's how those holier-than-thou Jedi Masters might feel most of the time.
It was boring as fuck.
"Want to fuck on the ship on our return trip?" This peace was obliterated by his whiskered partner's shameless question that almost caused him to fall on his face.
"Sure," he agreed immediately, chuckling to himself as they left the final resting place of Darth Oberon behind.