Realisation

[Illidan Stormrage]

Orion twisted his neck, feeling a satisfying pop releasing a tense knot. Eye downcast, he shuffled to the edge of the fountain. His gloved palm rested on the rim of the stone basin, his stern reflection rippling and blurred as the spray of water cascaded onto the surface. He scooped a handful of water and threw it against his face. How he wished for a cool breeze to wash over him.

Bested by a mage. A damn practitioner of tricks.

His rage bubbled beneath the surface, but something held it back. An icy hatred smothered the mind numbing fury he would normally experience. Not only had he lost to a sorcerer, but he'd been killed by him too. Yet somehow, he didn't care. He couldn't.

As he listened to the tinkling of water against water, it came to him. It wasn't because death was meaningless in this realm, or that he soothed himself with thoughts of revenge. It wasn't because a mage was beneath him (he was, but that was beside the point).

Orion wasn't himself. However he arrived here, not all of him had come with him. His once great power, enough to shatter worlds and obliterate civilisations, had been reduced to something akin to a child's strength. The years of experience, training and gains, had largely been robbed from him.

So how could he be mad? How could a shadow of a saiyan be upset with defeat? He was a stock standard soldier engaging in battles meant for elites. Here was a saiyan stripped of all that made him a saiyan.

Orion focused on the wavering mirror image of himself, a shaky representation of the real thing in more ways than one. It stared dispassionately back.

He pushed off the basin, spat in the water, and trudged into the deep white nothingness.