Season 2, Episode 16 (#166 Overall) - Mojo Addresses His Audience, Part 4 of 5

Stephanie couldn't believe Aaron was going to face this behemoth all alone., "This Is Too Much...," She thought as she **** herself to her feet and prepared to join Aaron on the field of battle., "I Have To Help Him!" Using the tree to steady herself she was about to rush to Aaron's side when she saw his face... He was smiling. It wasn't a happy smile nor was it angry, shy, or fearful... It was one of pity. Aaron looked at the titanic creature before him as though he were gazing upon a prisoner about to be put to ****.

Stephanie had seen this face many times in the past on the many battlefields that they had walked together and it frightened her now as it always did. She knew that Aaron only made that expression when **** was certain.... His Enemy's ****. There is a very good reason why animals bare their teeth but it is something else entirely when a Son of The Elder shows his in such a unsettling manner... It is something few have seen and fewer can imagine... even those who were able to remain out of its path were never truly the same after as their very souls twisted and withered under its weight. Few things embodied the overwhelming and unconquerable fury of The Elder as The 'Face of ****' did.... It was a sight that Scarred The Living and Tormented The Dead. She had seen what happened to those whose gaze met Aaron's when he wore that expression and she had seen hardened soldiers claw their own eyes out, bite off their own tongues or succumb to madness and kill themselves and sometimes others in many macabre and horrific ways but all of them Brutal, Cruel, and Inhuman.

As a Proud Son of The Elder it was beneath him to look up at his opponent even if they were considerably larger than himself so instead Aaron extended his Astral Senses and looked down at his foe from above as one of his lineage should. Each of the huge beast's five unblinking eyes were trained on him as its head shot forward and its humongous maw opened wide and loosed a bone-rattling roar that split the earth, set the air ablaze, and seemed to claw at the very sky overhead.

Stephanie felt her legs give way as she fell to her knees in the snow, dropping her shield as she covered her ears to try and block out the beast's roar, her eyes squeezed together painfully tight.

Aaron was still smiling as he flicked a large chunk of decaying flesh from his shirt without looking which had been dislodged from the beast's teeth during its attempt to intimidate him. When the smile finally left his face and he spoke Aaron's voice was as Cold and Final as The Grave., "Look upon me Moorwen... Look upon The Face of your ****."

The Moorwen's eyes narrowed then widened in stunned realization that the tiny pale creature in front of it called it by name.

The Moorwen snarled, showing off its long rows of gleaming dagger-like teeth but Aaron's face betrayed no emotion as he stood there as still and unmoving as the statue of some Greek God.

"Are you surprised?," Aaron asked the towering creature., "Are you surprised that I know what you are?"

The Moorwen tilted its head questioningly., "Do not play dumb with me creature...," Aaron's toned darkened., "... I may not have met your ilk before but my Brothers and Sisters know of you and what they know... I Know."

"It has long been thought that your kind were extinct!...," Aaron said calmly, standing barefoot on the freezing ground, snow falling all around as The Moorwen growled menacingly.

"... If You're The Last One Then They Soon Will Be.," He stated as The Moorwen towered over Aaron's unflinching form, staring down at him with hate glowing brightly in it's Alien Eyes.

"Why? You want to know Why?...," Asked Aaron.

The Moorwen snorted in conformation.

"... My kind have very long lives and even longer memories. I remember things that happened long before the birth of this universe and I have seen things that have yet to happen. Having never laid eyes on you before this night I bare neither you nor your race any malice but it seems that a few of my Brothers and Sisters do...," Aaron stated solemnly, his head bowed low as he stared at the dirty, blood stained snow at his feet., "... I feel their Anger... their Rage... in my blood.... I can hear them whispering earnest prayers for your Life in the back of my mind... I...," Aaron hesitated as he lifted his right hand and slowly made a fist., "... I have the strength but not the heart to deny them their...," As Aaron's fingers closed into a fist the air began to hum and the ground groaned under the weight of Aaron's obligation as reality itself began to fray at its edges where it came in contact with his fist, revealing an endless expanse of white where neither Darkness nor Deceit could exist. It was Pure 'Truth' made Manifest and Pure 'Power' Incarnate., "... V..."

Aaron didn't get a chance to finish as The Moorwen's dense bio-organic flesh rippled in rolling waves of living metal that began to twist and distort forming two huge lumps on its back that rapidly dissolved into a pair of massive cannons that materialized out of its shoulders. A split second after this hidden arsenal appeared, The Moorwen fired a volley of Volkswagen-Sized Spheres of Highly Compressed Plasma that came barreling at Aaron at Mach Speed but he didn't move... Instead he set his feet and held out his hands as the first ball of plasma struck then another and another and another, each merging into the first transforming the volley into a small blazing sun but despite the heat, the radiation, the blinding white light and the immense kinetic and gravitational tidal forces involved Aaron did not move an inch. As his fingers pierced the dense outer plasma layer the look of disdain on his pale face grew and his eyes outshone even the small sun in front of him. The enormous ball of Destruction rippled like water.

"... I was going to say... Vengeance!," Aaron finished then with a roar that split the clouds in the sky and made all three moons tremble and shudder within the inky black, Aaron ripped the sphere of dense burning plasma in two, causing it to disperse with an unsettling hiss. Aaron held up his hands, a thick plume of smoke rising from his blackened skin but it wasn't long before the burnt flesh returned to its previous pale luster, the charred bone retreating beneath steely muscle and his claws disappearing back into the tips of his fingers.

"I knew the moment I reached out with my senses and felt your skin...," Aaron said calmly as he took a deep breath., "You're no half grown pup."

"But it doesn't matter.," Aaron stated before tapping his right temple., "Your life ends here because I can hear one voice rising far above the silent din of a thousand mournful voices... louder than all the rest. I can see what happened as though I were watching it happen right in front of me."

Aaron closed his eyes and took a deep breath., "It was a dark moonless night and it was snowing when I... I mean my Brother left to hunt, leaving his wives and children in what I... He.. thought was a safe place but when he returned...," Aaron's lips quivered., "... He discovered the destruction of his camp... Lifeless, frozen bodies torn limb from limb and painted in brilliant hues of purest white and deepest crimson. Our once beautiful and vivacious wives now cold and still, gutted and empty. The resulting storm of intense emotion was almost more than his mind could weather but the sight of my Brother's wives torn to pieces and half-eaten, their bodies or at least what remained scattered about the camp like dust in the wind was only a small part of a vast unfolding tragedy because in the very next moment I... He...," Aaron hesitated as if he were having difficulty separating his life from the person he was talking about., "... We remembered our children and that... is when the true despair began."

The Moorwen's armor plates bristled and luminescent patterns conveying amusement flashed across its skin in nuanced shades of green, red, orange, and purple but Aaron barely noticed, lost in memories of a past long before he was even born.

"Upon examining the torn and mangled remains of our beloved wives he found that our offspring had been taken... Most likely...," Aaron's face paled even more and contorted in disgust as he struggled not to retch before continuing., "... Eaten."

The Moorwen's mouth twitched.

"We searched and we searched and none of us shall ever forget what we found. Our children barely a year old... some broken like garish pottery while others were ripped to shreds like cheap cloth. The souls of a thousand and one generations howled in fury, screaming for blood.," Aaron paused, opening his eyes. A vast field of endless and deep red bloomed in Aaron's eyes as the silvery moonlight overhead met his soul in a chilling embrace before being consumed by the molten gold of his irises and his face took on a stern expression., "It was so very faint at first... We could barely hear it over the thundering drumbeat of our unquenchable thirst for blood but just like the first drop of a neverending rain the sound quickly swelled into an ocean of sensation and emotion..."

Aaron paused, a look of profound dread on his pale solemn face as if he would rather not remember what happened next., "... It was a loud, piercing and mournful cry and before we knew it we were scooping up the surviving child in his hands...," For the first time, Aaron met The Moorwen's gaze., "... For one such as you, you cannot possibly imagine what is like to be born frail and weak... aware of everything but without the strength to act or to warn. When my Brother Rungec cradled the only surviving member of his most cherished offspring... its tiny body racked by sobs of despair not from its broken and bleeding body but from the horror of seeing its Mothers torn to pieces while it could only watch. Brother Rungec could feel its sorrow, each sob a orichalcum nail driven deep into his immortal soul. I saw it... All of us saw it... Those foul creatures of shadow and steel attacking the camp reflected in those small trembling eyes."

The Moorwen snorted derisively but Aaron paid it no heed as he resumed speaking., "As the sobs began to ebb it became obvious to me, Rungec, and to all of us watching that another child of The Elder was about to breathe its last and the stars weeped with us but the Man I am proud to call my Brother would not yield even unto the certainty of Sure ****."

"He attempted what few of us have ever been capable of...," The resolve in Aaron's eyes hardened., "... With not a single thought for himself he reached deep within his own body and broke his soul beyond repair. My Brother...," Aaron spoke the last word with reverence., "... Took the resulting wellspring of power created by burning his own lifeforce and **** it into the veins of the infant child he so gently cradled in his clawed hands. However, You can not fill a broken cup and alas the life we gave to our son left him faster than we could give it...," Aaron's body trembled not from the cold but from the raw emotion overtaking his senses., "... In the end despite my Brother's best efforts we were **** to watch the child succumb to its most grievous injuries. You cannot possibly imagine what it is to look down into the eyes of your own dying child and realize that for all your power, all your determination... there is simply nothing you can do."

The Moorwen scratched the ground softly with one of its four forelegs and snorted.

"Yes, It is almost over...," Aaron said as he tapped his temple., "We searched and we searched, My Brother and I... After three days we were nearly rabid with Bloodlust when the scent of our prey found its way into our nostrils. The time it took my Brother to catch up to The Moorwen that slaughtered his Family could be measured in a few scant Human heartbeats. There were three of them and when our Brother set eyes on them he descended into Madness and when he awoke nearly a week later...,"A grave smile spread across Aaron's lips and The Moorwen for the first time in its long life knew what it felt like to be prey., "... He found himself naked and on his knees in the snow covered in the blackened blood of his foes with their flesh between his teeth and their innards adorning his claws. The three Moorwen had been torn to pieces, their guts ripped out and their limbs broken. The surrounding area where the bloody battle took place once a lush and fertile forest was reduced to a blighted swamp where nothing could live or even set foot."

The Moorwen tilted its head like a dog who just heard a strange sound.

The pale features of Aaron's face took on a darker and more stern countenance., "Do not play the dumb animal with Me! I am one of the few beings in this World that knows just how smart you are.," Aaron tapped his temple.

"I can feel you trying to push past my telepathic blocks but it won't do you any good... Stronger telepaths then you have tried and failed."

The Moorwen exhaled forcefully, melting the thick blanket of snow on the ground.

Aaron laughed but it was obvious that there was no humor or joy in it., "I can hear the question forming in the back of your mind... Why did I tell you that story?" Aaron's face flattened into an emotionless wall of unfeeling stone as he spoke., "The reason is simple... I wanted you to know why you are going to die."