When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.

[a_time_slip]

"We still have to complete the mission?"  Janie asked, surprised.  Giovan was gone- Lynn had taken care of that.

"In the absence of your supervisor, you will be required to complete the report and take charge of the team."

"I quit?  Did you miss that part?  My days of this are over."

"We have yet to receive a resignation letter which would begin the processing of offboarding you."

"I-  this is my last mission, and recon is all we're doing.  Anything else wouldn't be successful"

---

Her new team was filled with optimistic agents who were all excited to be part of something with a decorated leader.  They all heard about Oceania, but most thought it was either a conspiracy or that it was an exaggerated rumor.

Janie knew better, and also knew that she needed to complete this as quickly as possible.  Fasni was a very rural place, filled with xenophobic natives who'd stop at nothing to get rid of outsiders.  They were simply to map out the town and record the abandoned palace that stood guard over the area.

The palace was said to hold details about Fasian resources, something that had been a mystery for many years.  It's where they currently stood.

She still didn't want to be leading this group, but she had no choice.  The agents all readied their weapons before entering the building.  Janie would make sure that the final mission was the best she ever completed.
 

Comments

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Someone manifests in one of the darker underground chambers in the palace. On looking around he can feel them. Their enthusiasm, professionalism, their esteem for their leader. Solus snorts, disappearing again, and re-appearing to look around himself. To see if there's still a power supply, if the palace is completely in darkness, where the exits are, the barricaded windows, the broken ones.

It doesn't take long before he has a complete feel for the place.

And then he senses her. Her.. Janie Taylor.

Janie Taylor Malcolm. Janie Malcolm. The demon god can sense her names changing and receding in the ether. He also notices she's the most reluctant to be here.

With every reason, if she but knew it.

[a_time_slip]

"Shall I start recording, Captain?"

She'd briefed the entire team twice, and this over eager youngster still had questions. She knew he was excited but that was no excuse for not listening.

"Officer-no. Kid, because that's what you're acting like. This is the alpha team, we do not have room for stupid questions. If you remember your orders, follow them. Otherwise, turn around and go back home."

The young man nodded, and began to activate his equipment. She hadn't once spoken with that much authority during training.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

A chieftain can move around in spirit form. When he was the sun god, Solus would warm a room like shafts of sunlight. Now, the heat in his veins is like the fires of hell; uncomfortable, prickly and with a sense of malevolence. As he passes through rooms and halls, a thick black slime starts to ooze from the very walls themselves.

He's aware of this, and it'll be interesting to see how long it takes a bunch of over-educated cubs to notice. He watches each team member, taking stock of how many there are, where they'll be deployed, who will be alone, who, if anyone, will remain with the team leader.

[a_time_slip]

The twelve team member take a look at their leader, before splitting up. four of them are recording (each paired with a heavily armed team member), and after donning special video glasses, they wait for the order to deploy.

Two will guard the entrance, while two remain with Janie, watching the progress of the team and ready to assist if the time came.

"The temperature is rising" Noted one of Janie's guards, as she made sure that the equipment was operational.

"Captain." The young man who annoyed Janie wanted to bring her attention to the walls. "do-"

"Another question like that, and you're going back." She sighed a bit, and adjusted a setting on the flat video panel in her hands.

The officer kept his mouth shut, deciding to try collecting a sample. Maybe next time he'd get to guard her.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

He'll wait. Solus re-solidifies in a chamber next to the team, giving them time them to deploy around the building. The two guards will be first.

[a_time_slip]

"I know you're all a good team." she began. "We'll be done quickly. Go on now."

Encouraged by her brief words, the team started out.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Once the two at the entrance are left alone, Solus appears in the shadows, a few feet away from them, his teleport glow a faint orange.

All he does is step forward into the partial light, studying the pair and not interested in what they're armed with. Not in the least. All he's concerned about for the moment, are quantum teleport dampeners.

[a_time_slip]

"Stand back." The agents ordered, raising their weapons. "Identify yourself. This area is currently closed and being investigated."

The male on the left focused a bit, realizing something was off.

"Medgers. He's not standing back. Look at him. Use the focus."

The pair held their weapons up, not sure what to do since the situation should not even be possible.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Solus is still only in partial manifestation. it's the point, during teleport where the body looks solid enough, but it is not. The four - now five - higher gods of Kaldoa are expert in making such tiny shifts rapidly.

"Identify myself." He seems amused, and indeed, is. "I am so hungry." Solus informs the one called Medgers.

[a_time_slip]

"We will not hesitate to use our weapons." The other spoke out confidently.

"Jones... Call the Captain, she'll know what to do." He took steps back, until he hit the wall. "Jones! Call her. Don't you know who that is??"

"You're an idiot if you expect me to stand down while you cower in a corner. It's not going to help you get promoted."

The A team was supposed to work as a seamless unit, personal issues never getting in the way of a mission- but that normally took years to establish. This team had only been together a few months and their previous leader would set members against each other. Jones and Medgers usually behaved like brothers.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

"Jones. You're annoying." Solus flings up a hand, white flame leaps from his fingers instantly reducing the poor man to nothing but a small pile of hot ash.

"He hesitated." Solus points out. No weapons having been discharged yet, and one man already dead.

[a_time_slip]

Medgers didn't hesitate. Once he saw the other man get incinerated, he turned to run inside, fumbling with his comm in one hand,

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Unimpressed, the Demon God teleports swiftly, materializing directly in front of the man. He ignores the comm.. instead he fully materialises, placing his open hand on Medger's head.

The first impact this has on the prey, is paralysis.

The second... Solus swiftly drains the living energy from the man, feeding on the life-force itself. Or soul. Or Spirit, whatever one wishes to call it. It's fast, it will result in the skin losing colour, turning ashen grey, then the eyes, white. Staring. It hurts like being burned alive from the inside, but the victim seldom even has the time to scream.

It's been over five centuries. Solus Kaelen is not yet at full power, and he's starving.

[a_time_slip]

The comm dropped to the ground the moment that Solus' hand touched Medger's head.

"Medgers?" called a voice, belonging to one of the two agents seated with Janie "Report your status."

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Idiots. They make it so easy. Solus picks up the discarded comm, Medgers stares back with white eyes, his skin grey - with something of a slight shrivelled appearance.

"You should come and see this." He suggests into the comm.

[a_time_slip]

The unknown voice sent the two agents into a panic. They were ready to call the rest of the team back before going out in full force to save the two guards.

Janie shook her head name instead choosing to send one of the drone cameras out. She ordered the rest of the team to continue.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Smart. Much better. From what he's heard of Janie Malcom, she's intelligent, and a decent leader - pity she has such morons under her command. Solus has burned the second body by he time the drone unit arrives. There's only ash, and that black ooze dripping from the walls.

He re-materialises in a small chamber, which contains a team of two, the armed guard and one recording. They scarcely have the chance to turn and see him, let alone call for help. There's a soundless explosion of light and fire, as Solus turns the eight-by-eight stone room into a furnace that would melt steel.

The inferno subsides quickly, leaving him unharmed. But the room is left scorched, not even a trace of ash, and far too hot for anyone to enter.

[a_time_slip]

Janie looked at the screen, at the ash and the black ooze dripping from the walls while trying to figure out what happened.

"Camera two is out captain. Shall I send one of the team-"

"No. Try their comms, tell the others to continue. Review the feed to see what, if anything went wrong. Was anything about a black slime in the li- Nevermind. Veda, review the feed, Ashi, try the comms and tell the others to continue."

She stared at the scene outside once more before changing her mind. "Send them all back! Now!"

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Teleporting away from the chamber of the furnace, leaving all still and silent, apart from the sizzling of the stone, Solus appears in a corridor, down which two of the team are running after being called back. Summoning a sword, he cuts the one with a camera down, slicing across the agent's belly.

The armed guard opens fire on the demon, he de-manifests, reappearing behind the agent, to force the sword into his back... at the same time, Solus brings the palm of his hand down on the man's head, draining what's left of his life energy.

He repeats his pattern and swiftly burns the bodys, teleporting to another corridor, searching for more of the team trying to find their way back. Six dead, six left... not including Janie Malcolm.

The black slime is gradually transforming into dark red blood on the walls. It's as if the stone itself is bleeding.

[a_time_slip]

"Camera three." Janie said, watching the pair on screen, running back to the room. "Camera fou-"

She went silent as the camera fell to the ground. She couldn't see all that went on, but she knew that the team needed to get out of there now.

"Tell them to hurry. Tell them to hurry!!! Camera one."

The one called Veda noticed the walls bleeding. "Captain."

Janie watched the other team running as quickly as possible, and didn't want to take her eyes off the screen. This was happening again. Her team was dying before her eyes.

"Captain." she repeated "The walls..."

The captain looked where Veda directed, and her face went ashen.

"Start packing up what you can. When the remaining team gets back, we're leaving."

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

"Two by two." Solus mutters to himself. "Why does that sound familiar?" And he hurls a sheet of white flame down the corridor - two more agents, rounding the corner are caught in the blast. One is killed instantly. The second, a female is thrown against the wall, badly burned.

She looks up at Solus, weakly trying to speak into her comm "Captain... he looks human... he's.. CAPTAIN! Her dying scream might be heard over the comms as Solus feeds.

He needs more. Solus is expending energy, he's still partially weakened, for a Chieftain, from his time in Guln. This is not a hunt for food, but he'll need more energy. He ALWAYS needs more.

[a_time_slip]

The screams visibly affected Janie. She turned the comm on, to communicate with all of the remaining team members at once. Two were with her and the other two were on their way back.

She was fairly certain they wouldn't make it.

"Juni, I'm sorry I was short with you earlier. Windor, Veda, Ashi... All four of you are exemplary agents. I'm fairly sure we won't make it out of here. Teleport out of here if you can, while you have the chance."

Janie wouldn't leave her post, not until she was able to recover the bodies or confirm the absence of them.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

The last two outside of Janie's location, are hurtling down a set of stone steps, unable to use their teleports. Solus can block those, whether man made tech, or a lesser teleporting life form.

The first arrives at the bottom of the steps and stumbles to the ground, to find herself looking up at Solus Kaelen, he stoops swiftly, grabs her ankle as she twists and shouts to her friend, who draws his blaster and shoots. Solus de-manifests for a second, reappearing solid and shooting flame at the agent. He's killed at once.

The girl makes the most of her chance to leap up and run, shouting into her comm for help.

Solus could block that tech as well... but he wants Janie Malcolm to hear her team dying. He appears directly in front of the fleeing woman. All the remaining three people will hear, is her short, dying scream.

[a_time_slip]

The entire room went silent as they listened to the latest team member die.

"Leave!" Janie shouted, to the remaining two "You'll die if you stay!"

"We're not leaving, Captain." The one called Veda turned off the comm, and the video screen. "The mission is not yet finished."

"Are the two of you mad? I appreciate the loyalty."

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Leaving Janie the last one alive is deliberate.

Solus doesn't want to alert Phoenix to his presence, and lose the chance to find his grandson. What he wants, is the angel to be distracted, angry on behalf of his friend, or friends, get to work on finding out who's attacked them. That should leave the boy alone at times. Or give Solus more chance to dig around and find his whereabouts.

He materialises in the room where Janie and the last two agents are located, staring directly at Janie. He remains partially in spirit form to avoid being shot, but looks real enough.

"I'll let these two go." He tells her. "If you give me something I need."

[a_time_slip]

"What do you need?" she asked, willing to do almost anything to keep her agents alive.

She had to bite back her anger- her rage to do so. The two remaining agents aimed high energy blasters at Solus. The weapons were large and cumbersome, but some of the most powerful handheld weapons around.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

"A little piece of your soul." He hisses. And is lying about letting anyone leave here alive. Bar Janie.

[a_time_slip]

"Are you serious? Take what you need, but you can't have a piece of my soul because souls? They don't go into pieces. It's an all or nothing deal and I've worked far too hard to keep what I have. You didn't come all of this way for that. What do you really want?"

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

"Black mark. Veda pays." Solus flings up a hand, palm toward one of the mortals in the room, he solidifies and a stream of white heat shoots from his palm - it reduces the agent to nothing but ash in an instant.

"I don't like disrespect." He informs Janie. "Life force, spirit, soul. Call it what you will, but I'm hungry!"

The black ooze running from the walls turns a dark red as he raises his voice.

[a_time_slip]

It's at that instant that Janie realizes the situation is completely hopeless. The last agent, Ashi, is trembling as she holds her weapon up.

Janie wants to tremble. She wants to cry and hide somewhere, protect the child she's carrying. She wants her agents back, she wants to go home and listen to Lynn go on and on about some tween idol or even go back to trying to clean the blood stains out of her Jonas Brothers night shirt.

She can't, however. She's standing in front of Solus, everything else around them completely still. Even the trembling agent is standing like a statue. Time itself has stopped.

"I am no ones meal. If you're so damn hungry, go somewhere else and leave me the fuck alone."

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Solus can feel the power in the Time Traveller. He hasn't experienced their race yet, but he can feel her mortality, the effect on time around them... and the potential for a decent energy source.

"I could enslave you. Keep you.. like cattle." He darts a look toward Ashi as he speaks, and approaches her.

"That won't work." He indicates Ashi's blaster, and as she hesitates, he raises a hand and knocks it away from her. "But cattle are stupid, slow, boring. They lack... joy-de-vivre." Saying that, he places a hand on Ashi's forehead, almost paternally, and swiftly starts to drain her.

[a_time_slip]

"I'm the last" she said, realizing what he spoke of. It was a lie, however. Her Mother, her father- her children. The race would continue to grow.

When he walked over to Ashi, Janie lost it, and barreled towards him. She tried pushing him away, knowing full well that it was hopeless.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Ashi falls to the floor, pale, her eyes not yet fully white. Though she's already dead.

"I hadn't finished." Solus snarls, grabbing Janie and slamming her against the wall. "Someone needs to teach you when to leave things alone." He grabs at her , the palm of his hand over Janie's skull as his fingers twine into her hair.

[a_time_slip]

"Is that all you got, Nancy boy?" Janie tried fighting him off. She wasn't going to go down easy.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Solus moves her away from the wall, about a foot, and slams her back again. Janie is far smaller than his six foot two, and Solus has the strength of a demon.

"I know what Ravenhead did to you.." He sneers at her, and starts draining Janie's energy. "All I want is some of this excess life force."

She's strong, so very strong this immortal. Solus cares little if she's the last of her kind, he can't kill an immortal. But they're so much more sustaining than the alternative.

[a_time_slip]

She wanted to insult him further, but getting thrown against the wall made that impossible. She looked at him, refusing to show any sign of weakness, tears only welling when Ravenhead is mentioned.

The pain from getting slammed against the wall only seemed to get worse as he drained her energy.

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

Janie is luckier than the mortals. She'll be weakened, her skin will look uncharacteristically pale, but she'll be intact. Solus takes what he needs and lets her slide to the ground, still conscious, and takes a step back.

It's better. But only time and decent feeding will restore him to his full power. He does consider taking her.. as fodder. But that's not the purpose of his visit.

Finding his grandson is the priority. "Is it frustrating? Special Agent Malcolm?" He asks her. "I know so much about you, yet you haven't the first idea about me."

[a_time_slip]

"You killed my team." she accused "They... have families. Why? Why did you do this?"

[cursedsun.livejournal.com]

"Death is their only future." Solus is dismissive of any mortals. It's where their destiny lies, as far as he's concerned. The only choice they have is where they end up, and even that's not their conscious decision.

"They're the lucky ones, and they're too retarded to see it." He walks away, de-materialising into the ether, leaving her there. To her own destiny.