The Fog of War

[Gildarts]

Ghosts of the Past

Part 1, Drink Away Your Sorrows
[spoiler]

Wandering amongst the swamp, Christa has fallen into a somewhat symbolic "slumber." In any case, I didn't want this part directly in the thread, so I opted to place it here, and I will attach a link to the beginning of the thread in the Saga. The following has some things to do with her brother haunting her deepest subconscious.

[/spoiler]

A rip in her backpack let all the contents spill out. With a huff, she reached down for the bottles, now soaked in goopy mud.

"Now... What is a girl who can't get drunk, trudging around with stacked bottles in the Swamp of Sadness? Doesn't it, y'know, weigh you down?"

Silence came from her hesitant parted lips as her eyes skimmed over the man who the fog had revealed.

"What, no hello for your brother?"

"You, were no brother of mine." A subtle scoff as she rose from her crouch, "Mine died years ago."

"Yeah, no thanks to you," he antagonized "Hah don't worry, of course, I'm not bitter."

"Choices can end a man's life before he even decides to live." Her righteous words rationalized her thought, but far from justified her actions all that time ago.

"So can a bullet to the chest, but then, you know that better than anyone. Now about the booze," his ghost stooped down and lifted up the bottle, emphasis on the very tangible swish of his wrist that caused a contained splashing noise within the glass. Her own eyes widened, he was dead, he couldn't possibly be real. But then.. This was the Omniverse. The same Prime who had dragged them all here, could have done it again. Suspicion and doubt touched her mind as she realized that this reality was growing more and more lucid.

"Ah, I see that caught your eye, sis. Don't worry, I won't steal your booze, scout's honor." The priest held out his hand and with a scrutinizing wink, offered Christa the bottle. In her hands she grasped the smooth chill of glass and very real mud smeared against her palm.

"Just don't drown." He quipped.

His priestly image flickered and he reappeared to her side, "So, we gonna go find Omni? Or are you and I just going to have a nice chat? That is, if he even exists."

"Tch." Christa was, for once, wordless.

"Now, where's that witty retort I know and love? Don't tell me after all of this time my sister has finally gotten soft? Booze'll do that to you, sweetheart."

Fierce eyes landed on him. "If you weren't already dead I would kill you, again."

"Oh, sassy, I like it. Not sure dearest Katia is a fan though." The false smile on Christa's lips suddenly fell, disheartened. Slowly, he withered her defenses away...

"Swamp getting to you yet?" He asked. "Y'know, everyone has pain to kill. It's just too bad you can't drink it away. Oh, and speaking of which, too bad about that soldier... Abner was it? Not that you care, imperial sith and all, though you'd probably say he got what was coming to him. Eh?"

"He didn't deserve it." She retaliated with an edge in her tone, her brother had pressed the right buttons and he knew it.

"You're not real." She bluffed after a while of rolling around in the slop and getting nowhere.

"Then you know what this is. And you realize how inescapable it is... C'mon sis, why don't you just give up? You gave it a good go, after all."

She tossed an annoyed glance, her expression flat with determination. "You know how long I've spent on this. That is not an option."

The priest laughed haughtily, brandishing his badge of entitlement with the same scorning wrinkles of amusement that crinkled around his eyes.

"Oh you mean, how you've spent this past year trying to reach someone who may not even exist, with a completely unrealistic wish. Even if he does exist, and you find him, why would he ever help a secondary like you?"

"I don't have an answer for that. However, I can only hope he will listen to reason." She held her pistol firmly in her hand.

"Better yet, instead why not admit to yourself why you are really trying to find the genie? The truth you are so afraid of. It can't hurt, after all, no one can hear you in here." His voice tempted her.

"No!"

"Selfish, selfish girl..." Her brother tsked to shame her. "Fine, if you don't have the balls to say it, I will. It is, of course, no surprise you seek Omni. You want a new life, to wipe away the old. All those atrocious memories of being tortured by those Empire scum. Why not wish for a clean mind with better memories instead of Katia's life? You have nothing to lose, everything to gain. And you know as well as I do that you want to forget it all."

"I have a debt to pay."

"Don't you owe it to yourself first to find happiness? Even Martha told you to live a little. And she's a housewife of all things. It's my job as a priest to assure you she's in a better place. Heaven is pretty nice, though I'm not sure it exists at all here."

"That's because you went in the opposite direction."

"Touché, Christa dear. But what do you expect will happen IF Katia returns? Do you think she could ever respect her sister when she realizes just the monster you have become?"

"Shut. Up."

"Heck, deep down you know she never loved you, she only ever needed you in place of a mother. So what then, makes you think she would love you now, after killing all of those innocent people and if she ever found out about..."

"Shut UP." She simmered. This was personal, this was family. And Christa made the same mistake again when she held up the gun to her brother –the priest's– chest.

"Oh come now, you know not even Omni could wipe all that sin from your soul. Not even all of Neptune's Ocean's-"

"I don't give a damn." She shot him through. His apparition flickered.

"Anywho, I wonder how your body is doing? After all, you did fall asleep in the Swamp of Sadness. I wonder if it has anything to do with what is soon to come eh, Christa? But then, you know I can only hope."