tampered | Log: Complete

Log: Complete

When: January 30th
Rating: PG-13 or R (violence, not sure how much)
Characters: Darth Bane [

good_and_proper].
Summary: Aizen challenges Darth Bane to a moonlight duel. Is he getting more than he bargained for?
Log: Darth Bane stood on the beach, watching the waves roll lazily up onto the sand. The moon was almost painfully bright in the sky above, casting a ghostly light upon everything, making the water sparkle. Despite the darkness within him, Bane could appreciate the beauty of the sight. He stood watching for many moments, his eyes on the water but the rest of his senses extended outward, searching for his opponent. He could feel the forest and it's teeming life as a faint "glow" a few miles behind him, but nothing that would indicate another powerful being approaching. No matter, Bane was a patient man. He could wait.

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There was a sudden tap on his shoulder.

"Bane-san, I can't tell you how pleased I am to find someone so punctual."

Aizen was behind him, one arm tucked into the folds of his uniform and his Zanpakutou at his side. Honey-colored eyes glittered in the moon's light, betraying no hint of emotion, save for his empty smile.

"What would the people say if such a well-to-do young man was late to his own funeral?"

Bane lowered his head slightly and smiled, feeling Aizen's Force presence long before he tapped him on the shoulder. "Why, I imagine his Arrancar would just find a new leader," he said as he turned to face him and took step back, setting himself into an easy posture. "I believe I told one of your lieutenants something about not underestimating one's opponent. I would hate to think my words fell on deaf ears."

Aizen's eyes bore into him as he tested some of his energy against Bane's, engaging in a silent challenge of will without moving.

He smiled at the Sith in an almost friendly manner, "My apologies for not taking the advice, it's just very hard to hear the voice of something so small. Nonetheless, your information has been taken under advisement and dismissed."

The sand parted slightly under his steps as he approached.

Bane stepped back and to the side, slowly moving away from the water and keeping a few yards of distance between himself and the Arrancar. He met Aizen stare for stare, unphased, his hand hovering near his lightsaber hilt. "Come now Aizen, I thought a man of your stature would be above such petty insults," he said. Bane's anger at this one for insulting him flared his power as he watched the man, refusing to lose something as simple as a battle of wills.

"And I thought of man of your supposed stature would be above being affected by such 'petty insults'. Perhaps your insecurity runs deeper than you let on. I would recommend a skilled therapist in your next life."

He stopped a foot in front of the Sith Lord and cocked his head slightly to better study his manner of dress.

"Hm...I wonder what kind of weapon such an insecure man wields?"

Bane simply smiled in return and allowed his Force aura to flare a little brighter, but not bright enough to overpower his. Not yet. "My weapon is the Force, and this," he said, patting his lightsaber before unclipping it from his belt, but not activating it yet. He took a step back from Aizen and assumed a relaxed, non-threatening posture. "Now did you come here to talk or fight?"

Aizen kept his hands folded in his robe as he addressed his opponent.

"I see no reason to exert myself so much to swat an insect. I would rather let it buzz it's way to me and simply dispatch it at my leisure. It's amazing to think you could defeat Matsumoto."

Bane ignited his blue-white blade with a snap-hiss, but made no move to attack Aizen, allowing the hum of the lightsaber to permeate the area. "If you like I can stand here until the sun rises, if a pleasant conversation is what you seek here," he said. "It's no wonder your troops are so angry with you, I would never follow a man who refused to finish what he'd started."

"Really? They're angry? That's so unfortunate. Have they been troublesome to you?" he asked, a look of mock-concern on his face.

He released Kyouka Suigetsu, the blade humming to life. Moonlight glinted off the blade and made his eyes shine.

"You may attack," he said, holding the sword lazily at his side, "And please, do put some feeling into it. I hate for someone to not give their best."

"Their hatred drips off of them like rain on a transparisteel window, it is not difficult to see where it is directed," Bane said with a shake of his head. "You do not understand," he said simply. A quick frown crossed Bane's face as his eyes caught the glint of moonlight off of Aizen's blade. Something is wrong, the Force seemed to whisper in his mind. His face contorted into a mask of rage and he threw his free hand forward, unleashing a burst of Force lightning at his enemy and extending his senses around him, his blade arm tensed and ready.

Aizen took the blast, the lightning arcing through him and finally into the earth. He appeared to smoke slightly, but was otherwise unharmed.

"Well, that was certainly much more than I expected," he said, checking some burnt sections of clothing on his person, "I shall have to send you my dry cleaning bill. White is VERY hard to clean."

He put his sword back in the sheath and put it at his side, then bent low and put his hand over the hilt, preparing to strike.

"Allow me to show you a little trick that some of us know. I'm sure you'll find it interesting. But you'll only get to see it this one time. I'll even slow it down for you to observe."

In a swift motion, Aizen drew and slashed quickly in the air. A split second later, the air pressure shattered around them, a burst of powerful wind heading toward Bane's general location. Underbrush was tossed away and trees bend low by the power enhanced gale moving toward the Sith.

Bane saw the gale coming his way and immersed himself in the Force, letting the powerful energy field course through his body. As it hit his clothing whipped around him in a fury, and he closed his eyes against the sand and rocks pelting his skin. He screwed up his face in what might be an expression of pain, but in reality it was confusion. Aizen's Force presence was... different somehow. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was, but it was there. When the storm passed, he opened his eyes, his robe a bit tangled but otherwise none the worse for wear. He said nothing and simply looked Aizen in the eye, a small grin on his lips and a squint of pain in his eyes, the hum of the lightsaber the only audible noise.

"Ah, Bane-san! So wonderful to see you're still there! I would hate to have though I had blown you to the other end of the beach," he said, readying his sword again, "I suppose it's time test your real mettle, then."

In an instant, he was right in Bane's face, taking a slash at his midsection.

Bane wasn't about to be fooled by the teleportation trick again, and his blade was there to block the cut with time to spare. His blade connected with the sword as he expected and he twisted away, giving the 'saber a quick flourish and stabbing at Aizen's neck in a simple thrust.

Aizen parried the attempt and whirled around to Bane's left side.

"Going for the quick kill. I can appreciate that."

He extended the arm he hadn't been using much from under his robes, firing a mid-level energy kido at the Sith. The concussive blast flew toward his head.

Bane's eyes narrowed and he did a quick back hand-spring, the orb passing within inches of his face before he lighted on his feet, his blade in a ready two-handed grip. He could think of a few retorts to throw at Aizen, but none of them spoke louder then the screaming charge and the upward swing of his lightsaber, aiming to cleave the man in two.

And cleave it did...straight through the illusionary self that Aizen had created during Bane's dodge.

"Well now," a voice said behind his ear, "I wonder, are you seeing things?"

Aizen thrusted his blade forward, aiming to pierce his heart.

There! The Force seemed to scream in his mind as Bane's blade cleaved through the illusionary Aizen, and on instinct Bane dove forward through the image, Aizen's moment of hesitation saving his life as the sword narrowly missed it's mark. He tumbled forward and spun, facing the true Aizen with his blade ready. Or was this one merely an illusion as well?

At that moment it clicked in his mind, the strange disturbance in the Force he'd felt earlier. Bane's eyes had been lying to him, while the Force had been trying to show him the truth. He smirked at the Aizen that might not be. "One must never hesitate when he has the advantage my friend," he said, slicing a ribbon of cloth from his robe. He threw his lightsaber in the air and tied the makeshift blindfold around his eyes, catching the blade as it fell without missing a step. "Now you have squandered it." He raised his weapon in a defensive stance, immersing himself completely in the Force.

"How so? Do you think blindness protects you from me?"

He rushed to him, taking a slash at his legs and sword arm. The maneuver was accompanied by another close range kido. He used a lightning spell, the bolts screeching toward him one after the other.

"Surely, you can't expect me to do all the work."

Bane chose to respond only by growling with rage and swinging his blade hard at Aizen's meeting it with incredible strength and knocking it away. He sensed the energy surge just before the lightning hit him and he raised his hand, managing to absorb some of it and dissipating it into the air before he rushed right at Aizen's aura in the Force, nothing fancy, simply trying to knock the smaller man down with a shoulder block.

Aizen's stance was like a fortress, unmoved by the larger male's strength. His face showed no strain as he looked up at Bane.

"Trying to simply barrel over me? How barbaric. You're no different from a human in your ceaseless ability to judge so much by mere physical size."

He began to slowly step forward against him, releasing his own reiatsu energy in bursts as he went.

"I think I'm growing tired of this game, Darth Bane," he said, jumping back and sheathing his sword, "I'll tell you what. We'll settle this in a swift strike. You may have one attack at me and I will not use my sword."

Bane's expression was one of mild confusion at Aizen's proposal. What was he getting at? Surely he had something up his sleeve, he would either dodge his attack or block somehow. Although Aizen hadn't specified just how Bane should attack...

"Perhaps we should simply call it a draw," Bane said. "You haven proven yourself to be a match for me, and despite your misplaced sense of arrogance, I have proven myself to be a match for your power as well. Extending this battle further will get us nowhere." Though he could not see Aizen, he could sense that the man was making no move to attack or defend himself, so he simply waited for a response.

"There is still one matter, however. The woman you deceived under the banner of sparring and killed. I demand recompense for her death."

Bane's confusion grew. "Decieved?" he said, a touch of anger in his voice. "If there was any deception it was on her part. It was a spar until she threw a potentially lethal blast of fire at me. After that I was in a fight for my life, and I responded in kind."

Bane sensed a flash of anger, though it was faint enough that he couldn't be sure to whom it belonged. He smirked slightly. "What is the girl to you anyway? She is a Shinigami, your sworn enemy. If any recompense should be given, I should be the one to recieve it for doing you a favor."

Aizen's eyes flashed and the entire area grew thick with energy. An crushingly oppressive aura hovered in the atmosphere around them.

"Say that again and I will dismember you slowly and painfully, only to leave you alive and limbless in the forest for the animals to devour alive. That woman is a former close associate of mine. Your words perturb me greatly. Do not think for one instant that I did not have the chance to destroy you many times over."

Bane's smirk widened into a feral grin as he felt Aizen's power growing, and the anger coming off of him was positively intoxicating. He drank it all in, using it to fuel his own power, his aura a dark and terrible thing next to Aizen's powerfully bright energy. "You loved her, that is plain to see," Bane said, his voice deep and resonating with power. "You are pathetic," he said, "If one of my army was ever found fraternizing with the enemy, they would be killed immediately, no questions asked. To think that you, the General, could fall victim to such worthless emotions; it disgusts me." He lowered himself into a combat crouch, the hilt of his weapon near his face, blade pointed at Aizen. "You say you have the power to crush me like an insect, and yet all I have seen from you is talk and inaction. If you are going to crush me then crush me, otherwise I have better things to do."

In a flash, he disappeared, only to reappear behind him. With an unnatural speed, he slashed straight across, gathering his reiatsu around the blade during strike.

Bane's lightsaber came up to block, but only just in time to stop his opponent's blade's momentum.

Unfortunately that momentum had been just enough to dig halfway into his side, and Bane gasped. He grabbed Aizen's blade with his bare hand and shoved it out of himself, yelling in pain as he did, his life's blood spilling onto the sand. He went down to one knee, clutching his ruined side, but when he raised his head there was a smile on his lips. "The interesting... thing... about this city," Bane choked out, coughing up blood between sentences, "is that... death is not permanent," he finished, wincing in pain. I have not lost, he thought-projected to no one in particular, and collapsed face first into the sand, his form limp.

Aizen flicked the blood from his blade and resheathed it.

"Perhaps you will. In any case, your words at least had some affect. I think there are some matters I need to attend to within the ranks of my subordinates."

He bowed to the corpse and left the beach, cursing to himself about "strange light swords."

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Log: Complete

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