In the Devil's Lair (LD and Hawkins Grime)- Complete

[Karl Valten]

For the first time in a long while, Inquisitor Karl Valten felt out of place. He strode down a polished synth-marble surrounded on either side by some of the most opulent houses on Imperial Center. This was the domain of the wealthy, near mansion dwellings fashioned in the form of classic architecture millennia old, completely separate from the levels below. Several of the buildings even boasted lush gardens alien to the city-planet outside of artificial parks and green houses.

Karl kept an eye on Coruscant’s elite as he meandered down the path. Bodies donned in the latest upper-crust fashions and extravagant regalia trickled around him in the gloom. His own dress helped him blend in somewhat, replacing his blood red Inquisitorial tunic with a long dark grey overcoat. But with the encroaching velvet of night, many began retiring to the privacy of their domains. It was a strange position for the Inquisitor,

Even stranger was that the Grand Inquisitor of the Empire would choose to live here. It had taken Valten days of searching the Inquisition archives for the location. He’d finally found it logged under a false name; he had had to ask one of his slicers to trace the link back to Tear.

So now he stood before the Grand Inquisitor’s house, an off-white abode with the look of a small Thyferran seaside villa. Entering the home of one of the most powerful men in the Imperium uninvited may bring a swift death on the head of the unfortunate idiot. But, Tear had been missing for months, and Karl needed information hidden inside.

Heading up the path towards the door, Karl scanned the yard, searching the installed security systems. There was sure to be something, but with the apparent duty of the Grand Inquisitor to maintain some semblance of gentry, he doubted it would be a threat.

Valten halted at the door, a quick glance back showed no curious onlookers. He slipped an optical cable from inside his overcoat, he connected one end to the manor’s security console and the other hand moved to the base of his skull. The final receptor fit tight with the tiny socket connecting to the Inquisitor’s neural implant.

A moment later the door latch clicked as the locking mechanism shut down, the system having Karl’s serial identification as a high ranking officer. He quickly stowed the cable and stepped into the blackened foyer, making sure to lock the door behind him.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Dusk was falling all around as the man entered the house. A high powered pair of macrobinoculars zeroed in on his back from the top of a higher building as the door closed, and then a light flicked on in one of the windows. The windows were a type of transparisteel, but etched to make them impossible to see though while still allowing daylight to enter. Nearly impossible to open from the outside, too.

Nearly.

The macrobinoculars were put away into a knapsack, which was then stuffed behind a boxy coolant system that was nearby on the roof. The security system employed by the villa below had been throuroughly analyzed two weeks ago, and the house had been staked out for thirteen days. There had been no activity until tonight.

There was a soft click as a grapple gun was fired, the projectile flying at high speeds down towards the second story of the house. It imbedded itself into the outer wall with a soft thud, one that would be barely noticeable to someone inside unless they happened to be standing directly on the other side of the wall. The vibrations caused were just barely within the normal limits of loud speeder traffic, and tripped no alarms.

The line was secured, and Lilaena De'Ville slung a zipline grip onto it, holding on tightly as she jumped off into open air.

[Karl Valten]

Valten paused for a moment, taking in the entry hall. The front door is massive, solid wood, but it was probably just paneling around a heavy plasteel plate. His boots click along a polished brick-red Acamarian quarry tile floor into the grand entry hall. Before him, an exquisitely carved grand staircase curves up to the second and third floors. Above, a pair of chandeliers reflects their rays in a mirrored wall behind the stairs. The stair treads are carpeted with the same champagne-colored carpet that seems to adorn the adjacent rooms. The Inquisitor catches a glimpse of a sunken living room through an arched entryway to his left as he passes up the stairs. A hologram projector paints the scene of a Mediterranean shore on the far wall.

But Karl passes by without exploring it, oblivious to the slight thunk on the far wall. He moves swiftly up the staircase, better not to spend anymore time than needed in the house. The slicers would have a hard enough time altering the security cams without him prolonging the stay.

The Inquisitor stops on the second floor, glancing around at the various doors, wondering which path to take. Lining the inner balcony is a series of display cases bearing some varieties of artifacts.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Squeezing the handle controlled her rapid descent, and Lilaena dropped lightly onto a balcony in front of a pair of large transparisteel doors. She slipped a thin card between the two doors, sliding it upwards until it caught the latches. The alarms would sound if the contacts were broken along the hinges, but the Jedi reached out with the Force to fool the circuits.

After a minute of standing with her hand on the latch, everything was ready and she turned the handle. The door opened with a slight click, and she stepped inside, into what appeared to be a bedroom.

[Karl Valten]

Karl filed past a wall display mounting a suit of ancient sith battle armor, he couldn't help but draw similarities to the white shells worn by storm troopers. As worthless as those sodliers where, the Emperor still molded them in the image of the darkside's resplendent past. Valten wondered where Tear had gotten ahold of this kind of relic.

The Inquisitor pushed open a dark mahogany double-door, spilling light into the darkened room. His hand reached for a glow panel switch, but found nothing among the shadows.

"Lights." In the back of the room a synth-fireplace sparked to light, red and gold flames bathing the room in a soft, flickering lumnicence. At least he'd found Tear's private study. A string of beaufets lined the far wall, holding alcholics and fine artifacts and a bookcase spanned the entire length of the opposite wall. But, Karl filed past the tomes and displays to the large desk in the rear cornor.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena stepped lightly through the bedroom, the double doors out to the balcony closed tightly behind her. It was dark now, the taller buildings around the villa blocked out the setting sun, but her eyes adjusted quickly to the gloom. The air smelled... old. Like no one had lived in this house for months.

But he was here now, and that was all that mattered. Hand on her lightsaber hilt, Lilaena cracked the door to the hallway and peeked into the hall. She sensed no lifesigns immediately present, but one could never be too careful about droids and the like.

[Karl Valten]

Karl pulled back the padded chair, setting himself down without a sound. The surface was immaculate and free of papers datadisks, as if Tear had been planning his absence for some time. Karl gently slid his hand over the desk’s smooth surface, in the lower-left corner he found a slight depression, barely discernable from the rest of the wood.

Lightly pressing down on the location brought a low hum. From the back of the desk a short panel extended bearing with it a holoprojection unit. A half meter screen flickered to life in the air before Karl.

State password for vocal recognition.

Karl pulled a small recorder from his overcoat and held it to the microphone that had appeared from the panel. “Ta’sath Bala Te'nar” Duplicating the Grand Inquisitor’s vocal patterns had been child’s play, but those three words had taken weeks to discover. Karl couldn’t even decipher the language with the help of the INQ mainframe.

But at least it got him in. The screen shifted, giving him full access to Tear’s restricted files. Valten leaned forward, completely focused on his task, fingers flew over the floating holo-keys. He opened an archived search, looking for a single word: MOIRAE.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The hall was clear, and the Jedi slipped out of the bedroom. The house was eerily quiet, but she knew there was someone inside. The Grand Inquisitor would soon meet his demise at her hands.

Stealthily she crept down the hall, stopping at the next door. There was something living inside - the Force rippled around it and revealed it to her. Lilaena wrapped her hands around her lightsaber, then let go with one hand, extending the other in front of her with her palm out towards the closed door. There was no noise from the room, but the Inquisitor was inside, of that she had no doubts.

Eyes narrowing for a moment, Lilaena concentrated, focusing at a point on the door. The Force trembled for a moment around her, and then a focused blast of telekinetic energy blew the door apart. At the same time she leapt into the study, activating her lightsaber, and ready to cut apart the being inside.

[Karl Valten]

Karl had connected himself to the slate, recording the ceaseless scroll of information pouring ‘down’ the hologram to his implants for later review. A flashing icon caught his eye and the inquisitor ran his hand over it. A second screen bearing the house layout shimmered to life.

Unknown entry detected. Red blinked at the front door, trailing up the stairs and to the study. Frell, the security system had picked him up anyway. He’d have to slice it out of the archive. Valten moved to close the screen down, but paused. A second set of red suddenly flashed in an area Valten knew he hadn’t traveled. The trail led straight to the study.

Even as the inquisitor slipped a hand under his coat for his disruptor and moved to stand, the heavy doors flew off of their hinges. A body leapt through the opening and a sound punched through his mind, a sharp hiss that he knew all to well.

Karl found himself face to face with a lightsaber wielding woman. He trained his own illegal weapon on her. A moment passed before he realized that he vaguely recognized this adept. He strained put a name to the face.

"Nice entrance. You adepts all have the same style, it gets boring."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

He was talking, but Lilaena was momentarily frozen in shock. This was not the Grand Inquisitor. But who else could gain entrance to his secret home?

With a twist of her free hand, she yanked the muzzle of the disruptor to the side, attempting to pull it out of the man's hand, or at least cause him to shoot the wall. A lightsaber could not deflect blasts from disruptors, but the heavy energy draw of the weapon meant that each power pack could only power five or so shots. So you had to hit what you were aiming at relatively quickly.

While she pulled at the disruptor, the Jedi darted closer, her lightsaber slashing down on the back of the computer, causing an impressive explosion of sparks directed towards the man on the other side of the desk.

[Karl Valten]

The inquisitor’s eyes narrowed, she was hesitating, there was confusion on her face. Shock and…disappointment, she had not been expecting him…which meant she was here for Tear. Anger boiled to the surface, this filth was an assassin.

Karl sneered at the intruder as his finger tightened on the trigger. But he felt the weapon jerk outward. Only his enhanced reflexes kept him from completely discharging the disruptor.

The lightsaber wielder lunged forward, but if the woman thought this’d be an easy fight, she was in for beating. Valten let the momentum of the gun carry him to the side out of the saber’s path. He felt his connection to the computer snap, cutting off his feed of information and sparks from the blade cleaving through the machine sprayed across him.

“NO!” He needed that, only the Grand Inquisitor knew their identities. He had to have it. Valten hit the ground, rolling through the impact to a crouch. He whipped the gun around, and this time did pull the trigger, not caring whether he hit the assassin or not.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She had not intended to strike at him first - he was too far away and had the desk between them, which is why she had struck at the computer first. He ducked out of the way of the sparks and then lunged forward, disruptor firing.

Lilaena threw herself to the ground, shoving the desk with the Force and slamming it against him, throwing his aim off.

[Karl Valten]

“nnngghhh” Karl found his aim throw once again as the heavy desk slammed into him. The emerald beam from his disruptor burned a hole through the near wall, its lethal energy ripping wood and plasteel atoms apart.

The Inquisitor gripped the front of the desk with his free hand and pushed off the ground before with what little leverage he could find, landing rather haphazardly on top of the desk before it could pin him to the wall.

The coat was constricting his movement, he’d have to lose it, but he need to hold the assassin up. His eyes traced the scar on her face to her eyes, the familiarity struck him again.

“I didn’t think that a Jedi would reduce herself to such …dishonorable actions.” She had to be a Jedi, or at least used to be. His sources had tracked rumors of the Sith Order to Corellia and the outer rim, and no recent adepts would have access to a lightsaber, let alone training with one.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She raised an eyebrow, but would not let him trick her into conversation. The disruptor had to go. With a squeeze of her hand, the Force constricted around the weapon, starting to crush it.

Oh, what the frell. "There is much that is unknown about the Jedi, Inquisitor." Not the Grand Inquisitor, but she did not doubt that this man belonged to the same vile organization. She twirled the lightsaber with one hand, flourishing it in front of her. He wasn't going anywhere.

[Karl Valten]

He felt the pistol begin to compact in his hands, if only he'd brought an electro-weapon this would be going much differently. With a flick of his wrist, the gun skittered across the floor.

At least he had her talking now. "But we knew enough to hunt you and your kind down..." Karl dropped to the floor, removing his arm right arm from the coat. A smile played across his face. "...without much effort I might add."

Removing the coat revealed the form fitting body armor hiding underneath, as well as his collection of knives and daggers. Valten slowly drew an elongated vibro-blade from it's sheath, holding the miniature sword horizontally in front of him.

"The Jedi are dead, your time ended when the Republic fell. Accept it."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena leapt at him, her anger fueling her reflexes. Master A'na Eldhil had taught her how to channel her emotions into useful avenues. All this man was doing was giving her resources to work with. His knives did not bother her at all, unless they were a specially forged steel created by the long death Sith Empire, her lightsaber would triumph over them with little trouble.

No more words. She swept her lightsaber towards him, planning on disabling the vibroblade he held in his hand. But he was fast, faster than she expected, and he not only dodged her strike but the blade flicked out and sliced through her tunic. A thin line of blood appeared underneath, but he had barely scored her skin.

Lilaena did not acknowledge the pain, and spun her lightsaber to reverse the direction of her swing, angling down at the midpoint of the vibroblade.

[Karl Valten]

When she struck, he was ready. A normal humans reaction time is roughly around three hundred milliseconds. Karl may be a human, but he was far from normal. In his eyes, the Jedi moved like syrup.

Still, she wasn't acting like a Jedi, the rage on her face was overwhelming, even to his force-numb mind.

The sight of blood flooded his body with adrenaline, as he ducked under the glowing saber. He faded back twisting the vibro-blade to receive the strike. Naturally, the energy-sword easily sliced through the metal blade, boiling the surface of his wrist guards.

Twisting aside, Karl threw out one end of his coat to ensnare her blade-arm, before spinning towards her with a savage thrust from his severed weapon.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The coat hampered her right arm, but as he thrust the shortened vibroblade at her she reached out lightning-quick with her left. Lilaena grabbed his hand, yanking him off balance and squeezing his hand painfully around the handle of the blade. Still shaking off the coat from her lightsaber, the Jedi kicked the man solidly in the stomach with a booted foot.

[Karl Valten]

The wind escaped Valten's lungs and he fell backwards, crashing into a bookcase. He hadn't been ready for that quick of a counter-attack. Karl cursed himself he shoudn't have expected anything less from a trained force user.

"But then, again, you're not really a Jedi are you. A Jedi would have kept her dignity....there is no emotion, there is peace." With a twitch of his wrist, the broken blade flew towards her. Karl leapt forward, reaching for a pair of daggers at his waist.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lightsaber finally free, Lilaena batted the broken vibroblade out of the air with her purple blade. His words didn't bother her, he obviously had no idea what he was talking about. A half forgotten memory stirred in the back of her mind, but she didn't have time to dwell on it as he leapt towards her, two daggers in his hands.

She sidestepped his attack, and jumped on top of the desk that she'd moved earlier. "You cannot win, whoever you are. With words, or actions." Lilaena held a hand out in front of her, palm facing out, but keeping her lightsaber ready to deflect a thrown dagger should one come. "I could end your life right now. But I won't if you can answer me this: Where is the Grand Inquisitor?"

[Karl Valten]

So he'd been right. Valten let his arms fall to his side, his eyes staying locked on the Jedi. She was probably right, without an electro-weapon or lightsaber he couldn't fight at one hundred percent.

A smirk crosses his face "I don't have to win." The daggers twirled in his fingers, threatening to fly. "Go ahead, kill me if you want, another will replace me." He had no idea where Tear had vanished to, but she didn't have to know that. Karl spread his arms wide, inviting an attack.

"You're not getting anything from me adept."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Fine." Lilaena remained where she was, but thrust her hand out towards him once more, throwing his body backwards against the decorative cupboards that lined the wall behind him. Glass smashed as liquor bottles popped apart, spraying their contents everywhere.

[Karl Valten]

Pain shot through Valtens back as he smashed through hardwood and glass bottles. In a blink of an eye he was slumped against a broken cupboard. The strong scent of spilled alcohol assailed his nostrils and his body burned from the impact.

A groan escaped his lips as shake of the head restored his vision a bit. He focused on his opponent. "Hehe, you want him badly don't you?" Karl set a hand out to steady himself, he briefly felt a familiar metal surface in the debris.

"Why go through all this trouble, you can't stop us yourself?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"That's a matter of opinion." Behind her the fireplace roared to life, casting frightful shadows from her silhouette.

Lilaena stepped forward, lightsaber at the ready, to finish off this bothersome man. Afterwards she'd have a go at what was left of the computer and then torch the house.

[Karl Valten]

Karl tossed a piece of wood off of him with a free arm, laughing softly.

"No, it's impossible, you'd need help....have help" The inquisitor spoke to himself as much as he spoke to the Jedi. His eyes elevated to her figure.

She looked like a demon with the roaring flames angrily dancing at her back. It was a pity, if she‘d could have been an excellent asset to the Inquisioriate. No, he was letting his ambitions get in the way of his duty. Someone was helping her, no one could have found the Grand Inquisitor's home without access to highly restricted databanks.

"Traitor." The whispered words slid off his tongue with disgust and rage. Valten snarled at the avatar of death before him, shooting to his feet. From the debris, the inquisitor lifted the damaged disruptor, aiming for a killing shot.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

As she began to swing the saber towards him, the Inquisitor's arm came up, disruptor in hand. Lilaena managed to slightly alter the direction of her blow, and sliced off the business end of the disruptor as he pulled it up into view. If he pulled the trigger the weapon would most likely blow up in his hand.

Carrying her motion through, the Jedi pivoted on her left leg and kicked at his head with her right foot.

[Karl Valten]

Damn, why did she always break his weapons? At least she had redirected her strike and the blade passed in front of him. Time to force her on an even setting.

Even as her leg began its motion, the useless disruptor fell to the ground. Valten exploded forwards raising swinging by her foot and deflecting her shin with a forearm. The Inquisitor rushed within her saber arc with a flurry of punches in an attempt to force her to drop the weapon and fight hand-to-hand.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

He blocked her kick, and then followed through with a couple quick punches to her arm and wrist. Her lightsaber was forced from her hand and disengaged as it clattered to the ground. The Inquisitor continued to swing at her, short controlled punches with a lot of power behind them, and she took a fist off her face before she got her hands up.

Blood swelled up and trickled down from a cut on her cheekbone, and Lilaena blocked his next punch with her forearm. Shooting her right hand forward she tried to smash the heel of her palm into his nose, but he grabbed at her hand, deflecting her away. Changing tactics, Lilaena gripped his hand and yanked him forward and off balance, slapping her left hand against his ear.

[Karl Valten]

Karl stumbled forward from the unexpected move and stars exploded before his eyes an open-handed strike land against his temple. The inquisitor dazedly shifted his arm to parry to inevitable follow up hit.

He felt a punch glance off his blocking arm. A moment later another fist drove hard into his diaphragm. Air violently escaped his lungs as he stepped back arms crossed defensively over his chest. A powerful, booted impact sent him sliding back.

Talking a deep breath, the acting grand inquisitor straitened. A perverse smile flashed across his lips at the sight of blood running down her cheek.

“Who are you working with?” A hand flew to the few remaining knifes he had left.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The knife he was reaching for slipped out of its sheath, cutting his palm as he tried to grab it. It clattered to the ground as Lilaena released it. "I work alone."

Her green eyes flashed in the firelight, and the blood dripping down her cheek rolled down her face and to the floor. As the Inquisitor reached for another knife, she twisted to face what was left of the computer system with her arm extended towards it. As she made a fist, the CPU crunched in on itself, and sparks showered out over the desk.

[Karl Valten]

“Witch.”

Valten hissed between his teeth from the cut running along his hand and clutched the limb to his tunic. The word slipped out under his breath. Hate boiled in his eyes matched by the same fire in her eyes.

Hate turned surprise as she turned, crushing the computer core, and all the information he sought with it. All his work turned to ash in a second. The fire flared again and Valten straightened fists clenched tight. Blood dripped from his wound, but he didn’t feel the pain, only the rage.

“You’re lying.” Karl lunged forward, forcing her towards the collapse wall. After he got a name out of her, he’d cut her apart piece-by-piece.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

He charged her, throwing her back towards the shattered shelving unit with surprising strength. She caught herself before she crashed into the wall, but he slammed into her again, and the Jedi stumbled and went down. Pain shot down her forearm and up into her shoulder, and she looked down to see a shard of wood sticking into the back of her arm just above her elbow.

"Does the Empire care about the truth these days?" Lilaena shot back at him, just before he fell upon her, knife in hand. She blocked the first, wild blow.

[Karl Valten]

Pathetic, without their force powers or lightsabers Jedi were as mortal as everyone else. She turned his blade arm away, he pushed forward feeling a lance of pain in his ribs from a hasty punch from a bleeding arm.

The Inquisitor took the blow through clenched teeth and pinned her hard against the wall. With his free hand he gripped the shard of would at her elbow and twisted, driving the stake deeper.

“Truth is control, milady, and with truth, we conquer.” Karl drew his knife arm back. “Veritas vincit, Jedi.”

[Hawkins Grime]

"Enough."

The voice was raspy and dry and behind it followed a sense of frustration and bitterness. In a creeping wave of heat, the sudden humidity made the environment something annoyingly beneath unbearable. The figure didn't fit the voice though. A tall slender man in form fitting armor stood in the door way; his face was perfectly sculpted in a way that it couldn't be real. The eyes set in the face were clouded and bloodshot; pearl white teeth were grit in an attempted smile.

"Unless you want your brain to boil in your skull like soup, Imperial, I... implore you to refrain from raping the woman."

His voice was losing its refinement. But the tide of anger was rolling forth with every word.

Why was he always the one waiting, watching, then following?! Finally, she'd bitten off more than she could chew. This Imperial would have had her if not for his appearance. The increased anger seething from Grime was directly proportional to the heat he was creating. The paint on the walls peeled as he stepped across the threshold.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The Inquistitor started at the sound of Grimes' voice, and Lilaena took full advantage. From her position against the wall she kicked the man's legs out from under him, and generated a wave of kinetic energy that rippled out from her like a tsunami. The wall behind her blew out into the hall, and she took a moment, in the center of the maelstrom, to pull the wooden shard from her arm.

She threw it to the ground as papers and plaster floated down around her, and nodded at Grimes. He'd managed to hold against her onslaught with a small telekinetic push of his own, but the Imperial was not so lucky. "Burn the place to the ground."

The Dark Jedi walked through the rippling heat that emanated from her apprentice, towards the windows that had blown out. Alarms had no doubt been tripped, they would have to make a hasty exit after Hawkins torched the villa.

[Karl Valten]

Karl found himself hurling through the air once again, but this time an explosion of pain wracked his entire body as he was hurled through a damaged wall. The newcomer had distracted him just long enough.

Valten skidded to an aching stop in a darkened room with his head resting close to a display pedestal. He reached a shuddering hand out to raise himself off the ground, but a sharp pain tore through his ribs. Broken most likely.

The Inquisitor gave his body a look over. He gentlemanly clothes hand been all but shredded, leaving the light plates of his carapace armor showing. Several hair-line cracks ran along the armor from his impact and shards poked into the nightmare body-glove underneath. He owed his life once again to Inquisitorial technology.

He grabbed the pillar, pulling himself off the debris littered floor and coughed up blood. An unearthly heat washed throughout the house, had to be from the other adept….He’d been close, very close, could see the pore’s on her face, the scar over her eye.

Scar? The Inquisitor’s eyes flashed, the familiarity rushed back to him. A static filled image of a Delteon spaceport formed in his mind.

“De’Ville.” He grimaced, pulling a com-beacon from his beat up armor. These damn heretics were not getting away. He jammed a thumb down on the button.

[Hawkins Grime]

"Burn the place to the ground."

Grime stood at the window as De'Ville made her exit. His bloodshot gaze turned towards the Imperial recovering his dignity from the floor like some dog. Grime didn't care if the pitiful dredge lived or died, everything would burn eventually, peeling back like the paint on the wall and with the smell of burnt ozone. As he stepped up and through the window, the tide of rage tossing in the abyss of his soul rose to meet the peak of the freezing bastion in his mind.

=======

The whole room was covered in blood. Burnt flesh, rotting flesh, he couldn't even smell it anymore. The blood forever ran into his eyes and it never went away. He drank it, the blood. And he breathed it. Like a fiery acid, it ran along his skinless corpse as it hung suspended over his audience. And how they laughed.

=======

The air went from hot to broiling and then from seemingly nowhere came the explosion as terminals, documents, and the walls set aflame. The flames rushed in every direction as if alive with a burning passion to consume everything.

With a heavy clunk, Grime landed outside, his anger subsided for the moment after releasing so much of it; he stood stiffly. He glanced back at the building which would be solidly burnt to the ground in moments then back to De'Ville. It took him a moment to clear his dry, and now most likely bleeding throat and then to point ahead of her.

"Master..."

He pointed to eight Crimson guard that appeared in their path ahead of them. Either the alarms he had set off or the Imperial had called them in but that didn't matter much now. They all had force pikes and advanced with steady intent. Hawkins teeth were already clenched in pain but he grinded them now as he stepped to her side.

"You... meant to leave this behind?"

He held out her recovered lightsaber, a sneer on his face. He wasn't capable of using one well enough, even with his force abilities; he was still too clumsy in his own exoskeleton. He would be asking to be amputated and thus preferred his own balanced vibrosword. And she was worth more in a fight with a lightsaber, why shortchange the odds.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She did not glare at him, or give him any glimpse of meekness. Instead she merely took the lightsaber from him and activated it. The crimson guard before them immediately rushed forward, pikes flashing out towards her, the largest threat.

Lilaena was tired, but the Force purged the weakness from her body as she stepped into the midst of the guards. She flowed from one fighting stance to another, lightsaber flashing relentlessly. One guard fell, then another. She felt Hawkins taking care of two of the eight, his vibrosword moving faster than one might have thought possible given the cumbersome exoskeleton he occupied.

A third guard fell to the ground as she lopped off his head with a spinning strike, and the Jedi continued the stroke around, slicing an opposing pike in half.

[Karl Valten]

Burning heat washed over Karl’s bruised form as the flames raced to consume the mansion. But a cooling sensation passed over him as his body glove change temperature to counteract the sizzling heat.

The Inquisitor shuddered, pulling a syringe from a concealed pocket in his carapace. His last resort, but without it he wouldn’t be getting out of here in one piece. Valten clenched his eyes shut, jabbing the needle into a pulsing vein in his neck and pushed the plunger down all the way. Two full doses of combat stimulants coursed through his body.

Energy filled his muscles, clarity and super-human awareness flooded into his mind, but most of all, the pain subsided to a distant throb. The Inquisitors eyes flashed open, filled with a renewed vigor. Flames stretched into the chamber and cast a glow on the pedastel he leaned against. Karl laughed when he saw the object through the glass he stared at.

A gloved hand shattered the case and grabbed the weapon inside.
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In the front yard, a chaotic melee ensued between the crimson guard and two rogue adepts. The Inquisitorial soldiers were trained to fight jedi, but were severely outmatched. Two guards faced off against the sword wielding pyromancer while the others left alive advanced one of the most wanted people in the galaxy. Electrified force-pike tips sparked off of energy blade and sword met polearm.

A flash of motion erupted from the window above as Valten stim-enhanced body flew out. A glint of steel appeared in his fingers, the inquisitor’s last knife. He focused on one target in the battle, and the shiv flew out before he even hit the ground, making a beeline towards the distracted Lilaeana.

He landed in a crouch, motioning towards the disarmed guard. “Get in the house, recover everything you can. I’ll finish this.”

[Hawkins Grime]

The hype held nothing true to what the Crimson guard proved themselves to be in actual combat. De'Ville had dispatched enough in a breath's time that it even made Grime jealous. His longsword went up, catching the polearm off handed. He couldn't sense the awe of the guard but he could see it in the guard's stance as he shuffled to compensate for being the weaker combatant. Trying to retract his weapon proved useless as the polearm was somehow caught in the twisted handguard of Grime's sword. The other came in to stab at him, the force pike buzzing with electrical charge. The pike was less than half a meter and closing before Grime unleashed his biding rage. The pike slowed as the momentum was halted and then reversed. A blast of heat exploded from Grime as a rusty growl escaped his thin, pale lips.

The attacking guard hit the ground on his back, his mesh robes were sizzling and his plates beneath were heated that the scream coming from the helmet was anything but that of comfort. The other stood his ground, a grunt of pain as he withstood the blast of heat and held firmly onto his trapped weapon. They were trained in the Echani martial arts style, Grime had almost forgotten that rumor as the guard kicked out. Grime's other arm snaked around and suddenly held the extended leg in the cradle of his arm. With the slightest movement, the sword's hilt was untangled from the staff and the blade came down with a furious speed. The leg was removed and blood skewered across the pavement and quickly pooled beside the writhing body. The projectile from the surprisingly reemerged Imperial went skidding across the floor beside De'Ville; Grime's blast having knocked it off course.

Grime turned from his writhing victims and his bloodshot gaze returned to Valten who's eyes resembled that of some starved dog.

"Let me..."

He coughed roughly and turned his head to the side and spit clumpy blood on one of the bodies beside him.

"...handle the bureaucrat..."

And he didn't even need a lightsaber.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena looked up, and then kicked a force pike up into the air and snagged it with her left hand. "Enjoy yourself."

With the guards taken care of (except for one who'd run into the burning villa, which was rapidly crumbling from the intense, unnatural heat of the flames), she pulled a small remote from a pocket in her jumpsuit. She'd had their speeder hooked up to a slave circuit, and recalled it to her position from the rooftop across the canyon from them. It would take a minute or two for it to arrive.

Lilaena turned to keep an eye on the fight between her apprentice and the Inquisitor.

[Karl Valten]

Bureaucrat? Valten might have taken offense at that in the past, but he was well beyond that. He marched forward with confidence, his mind drawing in every detail. The inquisitor’s muscles almost hummed with the energy coursing through them.

“Lilaeana, you want the Grand Inquisitor for your little crusade.? Give me the name of whose assisting you and I might tell you where he is.”

Valten stopped short of the pyro-adept. Something trickled into his awarness, something about this newcomer that was…off. Perhaps it was the red eyes, or the blood he had spit out.

The Inquisitor extended an arm, twirling a stocky baton in his hand. Gloved fingers played along it’s surface and the thing extended into a staff.

ZZZZTTTTTTT Violet arcs of energy sprang along the weapons length, lethal lightning spattering about in a mockery of a lightsaber. The electrostaff was a unique one, not like the frail-looking ones used by inquisitorial soldiers, but a vicious device granted to the Emperor’s Hand.

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime sighed as he stepped forward, his elegant longsword to his side. As if this singed puppet still had some fight in it, it drew out another toy. Grime knew an abyss of torment and pain that devoured his passions from the depths of his subconcious; what could one more buzzing toy of delictable torture accomplish?

Hawkins had no force enhanced intuition or the ability to read minds so he had no prophetic insight into the Inquisitor's movements but Grime was a formidable foe besides this lacking factor of his force abilities. He'd slain enough without his 'malevolence made manifest' but he didn't consider himself honorable enough that Hawkins would prove such a point to this man.

"You can close that deal on your last breath. I suggest... attacking now or... would you prefer to melt alive where you stand?"

With every step that closed the distance between the two, the Inquisitor could feel the temperature increasing and the air growing thicker. Grime's eyes were misty red now, the friction in the air was merely a sign of his mounting rage.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

“Lilaena, you want the Grand Inquisitor for your little crusade? Give me the name of who's assisting you and I might tell you where he is.”

She was watching with something close to joy as Grime advanced on the man, but his words echoed in her head. He was Imperial scum, however, and an Inquisitor at that. Every word he spoke was twisted, and could not be taken at face value.

As Hawkins gave Valten his options, Lilaena shook her head. "If you knew where he was, you might. But you do not." The speeder pulled up along side, and she stepped towards it, turning her back on the Inquisitor and his poisoned apple.

[Karl Valten]

Waves of fire and ice ran played across the Inquisitors flesh, the burning heat from that thing’s aura combating the cool breath of the hybrid body-glove beneath his armor. He could already feel the device failing, but his eyes remained on the retreating back of Lilaena De’Ville.

His gaze slowly shifted to the advancing freak of nature, unscathed, unharmed, and fresh to the fight. Through his drug induced second wind, Karl’s wounds throbbed. Doubt and fear never once came over him; Valten had evolved beyond those petty emotions. But where his will steeled, his body ailed. He couldn’t win this, not against a fresh adversary and not in his condition.

But this fight had neither been his nor theirs to win.

In the distance gradually crescendo of wailing sirens steadily drew closer. Local authorities and emergency response teams racing to a blazing mansion of Coruscanti elite. Even now doors swung open and shouting residents approached the collapsing building.

Defiant hate pierced through the damned spawn with red eyes and the Inquisitor held his ground.

“Even demons like you have nightmares.”

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime could hear the shouts and sirens and knew the pathetic man wouldn't even be able to discover how useless his little zapping toy was. Lucky him. And De'Ville wasn't one to bother with any more public appearances than was absolutely necessary.

"Does it comfort you... to think we have something... in common?"

Grime was still something of a distance out of range from Valten but his low voice could be heard clearly over the cacophony around them. The heat continued to rise even still as Grime's emotions sought to overcome even the perfected face of white stoicism.

"Let me share a demon's nightmare with you... Something to remember me by, then."

The heat made a crushing peak as the mental struggle to withhold the tsunami of devised hatred, pain, and utter disgust with existence was relinquished. This was nothing of a drawn out process either. Occuring in a flash of seconds that could've lasted forever for Valten, who was able to experience Grime's second acute talent as an adept, a mental onslaught was launched at the Imperial.

-------

Suspended by chains, supported by incredibly uncomfortable poles that dug into the muscles of one's back, blood dripped like rain upon the ground from Grime's/Valten's body. Fresh strips of flesh hung on the racks off to the side as blurred images of people moved to and fro. The pain, the unholy pain was there in existence, in merely continuing and doing what the body was designed to do, the pain was granted unrelenting. The drugs that were constantly flowing into the body via IV maintained a constant mental state, regarldess of physical condition, which by now was near the end of the torture session. A gloved hand reached up and withdrew the knife protruding from one of the kidneys.

-------

Grime had already turned away and started towards De'Ville upon releasing the rush of raw suffering. The heat was gone, the cool winds of the night coming in place of it and blowing the smoke of the fire up into the evening. He coughed again, raising his free arm to his synthetic lips as blood splattered on the plate of armor and sizzled from the hot surface.

Hawkins could see the crowd on their way from a distance and would be glad to be away from here. He had overexerted himself that the death of the Imperial might've have provided momentary satisfaction. Debilitating him would have to do for now yet Grime was mentally exhausted and spent from holding back his frustration. Everything seemed so much more aware only because it bothered him in direct proportion.

"I do not intend... to delay... you any further... Master."

The last part was bit off harshly as Grime approached De'Ville and the speeder.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She nodded, waiting just long enough for him to sit down before she accelerated and drove away. The speeder was a rental, and she wasn't worried about being followed. The emergency personnel would be preoccupied with the fire, the bodies, and the Inquisitor for the first few moments, and that was all she needed to get lost in Coruscant night traffic.

She throttled up, the speeder flying into a stream of traffic, and felt a stab of pain in her arm. Lilaena looked down, and noticed that she was still bleeding from the wound above her elbow. Then she looked over at Grime. "Good job. You have increased your control exponentially, and you have shown yourself able to use it in a combat enviroment."

The speeder dipped into another skylane, veering off in another direction, before changing directions again. Just in case.

[Karl Valten]

Five hours later

“….Inquisitorial authorities have released information regarding the nature of a uncontrolled blaze that devastated a portion of the Crystal Rise district.….”

Every holo-caster and flat-screen within several city sectors of the sight of confrontation blazed the new broadcast on every level. The sight of the female reporter faded to a scene of a collapsed and thoroughly charred mansion and panned to several other dwellings suffering scorch marks and partial collapses.

“…scattered testimonies of witnesses claiming to have observed a brief battle between Imperial soldiers and a pair of fugitives have been confirmed.”

The reporter’s voice took on a grave tone, a hollow and disturbed look on her face. She took a deep breath as if a nightmarish story had come to life. Citizens took notice, focused with rapt attention.

”This incident has not been a freak occurrence, but a calculated terrorist effort to collapse several square kilometers of the Crystal Rise tower structure! Inquisitorial forces intercepted terrorist communications minutes before what could have been a catastrophe. “

The feed switched in on the mutilated corpses of seven royal guards. A collective of gasps rang throughout the broadcast zone. Looks of horror appeared on the faces of thousands. Everyone knew of Inquisitorial soldiers, but the royal guards were the Empire’s finest. Heroes in every sense to them.

”An Inquisitorial squad lead by the acting Grand Inquisitor himself arrived in time...” She paused swallowing a lump in her throat. It was a trap, the terrorists are now recognized as being assassins of the former so-called Jedi temple…..

A mindless horde absorbed the revelation with a shudder. For most, the Jedi were a myth; evil, heartless murderers possessing superhuman powers created in the arrogance and chaos of the Old Republic.

The Inquisitoriate had done well to bastardize their image.

Only one soldier and Inquisitor Karl Valten survived the trap, both currently in critical condition. But because of their sacrifice, millions of lives have been saved.

A pair of holograms appeared, recordings of the adepts taken from the dead guards’ helmets.

One of the terrorists is Lilaena De'Ville, already among the top wanted people in the Empire. Guilty of Terrorism against the empire and its citizens, murder of every degree, and grand treason. She is an extremely powerful sorcerer capable with an unknown range of powers.

The second terrorists identity is unknown, though a testimony from the surviving royal guard label him as a sadistic pyromancer.

Both are considered armed and extremely dangerous. If seen, citizens are under orders not to approach and report directly to the authorities. Any information leading the capture of these barbaric criminals carries a reward of up to five hundred thousand Imperial credits…..

The voice droned on highlighting the ‘horrible’ events that had taken place as Inquisitor Valten watched the news cast from his suspended position, the haze of bacta tinting everything a subtle shade of pink. Beside him the royal guard he’d sent into the flames floated unconsciously, skin covered in burns.

Valten’s own wounds had been worse than expected, he’d lost a significant amount of the blood and several burns, but the worst weren’t visible. His broken ribs had torn into his organs causing internal hemorrhaging. It all meant nothing to him.

A stream of bubbles swirled in a torrent from his muted laugh. The words of a scorched datapad burned in his mind, the only thing salvaged from the inferno.

……


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Mordeci-Prakith
Setra-Carida
Ligelia-Kuat




[FIN]