Sleepless in Tatooine (ooc: sibling rivalry)

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville tossed and turned in her bed, trying to get comfortable. The dry heat of Tatooine's desert never relented, not even during the 'night' they had in the binary system. She lay still, sheets sticking to her sweaty body, as she thought about why she had come to the planet.

She had met someone in a cantina...De'Ville smiled, and remembered fighting Thrawn on the planet, before she had known it was Thrawn, and the battle with the krayt dragon, so many years ago as a stormtrooper. So many memories... She grimaced. Banestone was part of those memories. She'd never fought anyone who outweighed him. And didn't want to, either.

De'Ville threw off the sheet, and let the Force cool the air around her. Being pregnant was tough. She hadn't thought it possible, but she was really unbalanced most of the time. She placed her hand on her stomach and touched the child with the Force. It was too small to feel physically, but it would grow. De'Ville winced at the thought of pushing something the size of a watermelon out...and turned over again, yearning for sleep.

She needed her rest.

Dream Sequence

De'Ville stood by the bar in the Black Hole at TSO, ordering a tequila sunrise. To her consternation, Banestone, the Sith Master stumped in the door. She grabbed her drink and headed for the back of the bar, trying to hide.

Ever since she'd gotten lucky in a spar and removed his cybernetic leg from his body, he'd been avoiding her. And now, it appeared, he wasn't anymore. De'Ville attempted to appear invisible, which of course, didn't work. He was heading right for her table.

[Banestone]

*Strangely, the parts of the bar were fuzzy and... indistinguishable in the dream. As, after all, she didn't know it was a dream at all. Banestone was rather sharp-edged in contrast... not a detail of him was lost, from the sheen on his smooth black alien skin to the malice glimmering in his red eyes.

The noise around the room quieted as the Sith Master approached... no words were spoken, which De'Ville thought strange, before the alien suddenly ejected the lightsaber from his left cybernetic arm and ignited in mid-air as it shot eerily toward her*

edit~ personal pic needs to be within 30k limit.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville knocked over her drink as she jumped onto the table, evading the lightsaber which seemed to float slowly, and then sped up, slashing through the chair where she had been sitting. The Sith knight blinked, and backflipped off the table, saber flying to her hand and igniting in a smooth motion as she landed on her feet.

"Banestone." She spoke the words, and frowned slightly. The huge, seven foot monolith towered over her, more than she had towered over Solo when they had fought. But, they hadn't fought. Not yet. The fuzziness left as with a gust of wind, and left the room sharp in her vision.

Their lightsabers crashed together with the odor of ozone. De'Ville grunted. "What do you want?!"

[Banestone]

*The dark Sith's black lips parted in an evil grin, revealing teeth that seemed sharp... as they'd never been in real life, just as he'd never seemed that amused before by anything she could think of at that moment in time. His answer was cold and chilling enough though, even as the faint heat from the lightsabers touched her skin.*

Your head.

*Startled at the casual brutality he was grinning at, she didn't have time to react as a wave of invisible Force energy swept her off her feet and into the back wall*

[Lady DeVille]

Her body crashed through a table, but she barely felt it in the surge of adrenaline that accompanied battle. With a cry of rage, the Sith leapt to her feet, wanting to carve the smile off of the cyborg's cold, dead lips. Her lightsaber in her hand, De'Ville gathered the Force into her, and initiated a pressure wave strong enough to rock the huge alien backwards.

He stayed on his feet, moving relentlessly forward. As he attacked, De'Ville blocked his saber thrust, and ducked as his lightclaws slashed over her head. She threw herself down, somersaulted between his legs, and stood behind him, facing the metal and flesh of his back. In her sudden rage, De'Ville slashed at his torso, intent on severing him from his CPU forever.

[Banestone]

*Not even turning around, Banestone kicked out backwards, connecting with the butt of De'Ville's lightsaber and popping it out of her hands. Then, as she reached back to call her blade back with the Force, he remained facing away from her... taunting her? Re-igniting her saber, De'Ville narrowed her eyes at the obvious attempt to mock her abilities. She swung the lightsaber in a flash and crackle of energy, much higher this time, at the left side of his neck.

Banestone snapped his left forearm up, igniting his lightclaws and... stopping the blade bare inches from his flesh? Then she flew backwards again as she was Force Pushed yet another time, and stopped as she hit a wall.

Lady De'Ville sucked in air as she staggered forward, away from the wall, and tried to stand again in a defensive posture... she still had her lightsaber, though she couldn't remember holding on to it through the push of the Force. She hadn't been blasted backwards that hard in quite some time; though what concerned her more was that she hadn't sensed any buildup of Force energy in Banestone or anything... he was brimming with his Dark Side powers now, though, she saw clearly. She was, too, and feinted with her lightsaber at him as she started hurling glasses and pitchers full of liquids of dubious heritage at his head.

A vicious snarl came from Banestone as he seemed to see each one of the projectiles coming and, ignoring her feint entirely, threw them each aside with the Force or swatted them aside with his durasteel left hand. Then, as she began to sweat in her bed, the Sith surged toward her, weilding his lightsaber like a battle-axe as he swung at her neck.

Knowing she didn't have a chance in Hoth of deflecting that lightsaber blow, she gathered the presence of mind to duck instead... under his swing she then kicked out at his right side as hard as she could. Lurching back slightly as he regained his balance from the missed baseball swing, the kick seemed to not affect him in the slightest... his breath ringing in her ears like a bull's snorting, she scrambled to put some room between herself and he again, as he trapped her lightsaber for an instant with his own and kicked her in the stomach...

Cold with terror for her unborn ba... her... shaking her head in confusion, DeVille tried to shake off the kick and get her air back as she continued trying to keep Banestone off of her with Force-thrown debris from the bar. Back in her room, the occupants of adjacent rooms began to rouse as the sounds of also Force-thrown, breaking furniture came from her own.*

OOC:
Dangit, you blocked me on AIM! I thought you went to bed, so I started writing this... and I had to edit it after I posted and saw your post... and whine whine whine... blah blah blah... anyway, nevermind. :8^)
/OOC

[edit]
Our personal pics are size limited, now? Hm. Time to get a new one... too bad.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville gasped for air and kept the barrage of furniture crashing on and around Banestone. The huge durasteel and muscle creature drew in within himself, and then exploded outwards with a pressure wave, sending the broken bits of wood and metal flying back against the walls. A flying table leg abruptly stopped in front of De'Ville's face as her hand reached up and caught it.

The woman shook her head as if to clear it, and dropped the leg as Banestone approached again. His red eyes gleamed in the dimness of the bar...between the two of them they had broken nearly every light in the room. Time slowed to a crawl as a mist enveloped their feet, creeping up their legs.

The cyborg lunged forward, lightsaber extended to jab through her sternum, but De'Ville knocked it away with her own weapon, which seemed to be sliding through thickened jelly. As she leaned into her defensive thrust, she used the Force to lighten her body as she turned a flip, using the lightsaber handle as a pivot point.

De'Ville kicked Banestone in the side of the head with the Force adding strength and power to her whole leg. As her left leg came over her head as well, she caught the master Sith in the nose with her heel, and then landed neatly on her feet. De'Ville threw herself to the ground, evading a slash of his extended lightclaws, and somersaulting away from his feet.

She came out of her roll in a standing position, the mists nearly overpowering her vision. Red eyes mocked her, and De'Ville yelled with all her might, gathering the Force around her as a shield. Molecules solidified around her and his lightsaber hit the Shield, breaking it, but stopping his attack. A steady pounding noise broke through her consciousness, but her opponent wasn't making the noises, and there was nothing she could sense that might be making it.

On Tatooine, her neighbors were yelling at her to quiet down.

[Banestone]

*The Sith Master leaned closer... slowly... then he started to fade away as De'Ville's point of view of the bar started shaking strangely, and then completely faded to black as she woke to find someone shaking her shoulder to rouse her.

Sweat glistened on her brow as she blinked the spiderwebs of sleep away as fast as she could...*

What in...? What is it?

*The servant who worked for the provider of her room for the night cringed back, gesturing to the broken fragments of her room about her... there was a strange smell, and his eyes glowed almost like - ah, it was just a slimy little Jawa. Still, De'Ville mused, there was at least a little gratification for waking her coming his way. She wouldn't kill him for waking her up.

The Jawa scurried out of her room, satisfied that his task was complete and he could return to his own mat again and finger the small, shiny treasures he'd collected while it was still daylight.

Lady De'Ville sat back against her pillows, still finding her breathing rate elevated... a damned NIGHTMARE. She's been having a friggin, damn nightmare, that was all. She must be slipping in her control... she never feared her dreams. Still, it was some time before she returned to the cosy nook under her covers, adjusted the uncomfortable weight of her belly, and drifted back off... to sleep... to.... dream. Dream? Oh no... she was in the bar again. Or was it? It was so dark... only a faint background light provided any illumination, but she was holding a lightsaber handle still, and there was... there was still... the presence...*

Welcome back.

*The cold words rang out uncomfortably close to her head, and she skipped back a step as suddenly two points of red and hate opened up in the air and added to the light in the room, revealing it to be not a room but instead the surface of some reddish, long-dead planet. But Banestone was there. Waiting for her, his own weapons in hand but similarly unlit again.*

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville skipped backwards, igniting her saber once again, and touching her stomach with her other hand. It's just a dream. Wake up! But there was no escaping him.

She was not far enough along in her pregnancy to really be showing, but the slight swell of her belly was gone, and she could not feel her son in the Force. Dust swirled around her feet as a sun peeked over the now distant horizon, sending heated rays across the deserted plains. She assumed a defensive position in her confusion, staring at the black figure before her.

Swathed in black, Banestone caught the light from the sun and devoured it, casting a lengthy shadow that reached between them for her feet. Without a wasted movement, he reached up, unclasped his cloak, and let it fall to the ground, a wind picking it up and carrying it away. His durasteel shone dully in the dawn, and the woman's breath caught in her throat. The cyborg was magnificent, and deadly.

De'Ville drew the Force into herself, forming the waves of Destruction in front of her in a roiling ball of fury. With a hoarse cry she sent it hurtling towards the black skinned alien.

[Banestone]

*Banestone unwrapped his hand from around the skull of his lightsaber handle, letting it float in midair on a whisp of Force energies. Raising the black, three-fingered appendage to greet De'Ville's destructive blast, he smiled softly as it enveloped him - but only for an instant, before fading as it's awesome Dark Side energies where absorbed. For the most part.*

It burns, De'Ville... but it feeds a flame far more terrible than your own. I hope that, even after all this time, you've not forgotten my... speciality?

*All this time? Did this mad dream know that she knew it was just a dream, and not taking place in the present? Was it... more than a dream, or just the presence of herself being more alert that was making this nightmare seem more real? De'Ville shook her head in confusion, and no small amount of fear. But it was just a dream. A conjuration of a restless imagination. No reason to be afraid... right?

But real or not, suddenly the huge dark Sith was literally glowing with red light. The uneven swirls of rank, Dark Side power pulsated around him madly as they coalesced into the biggest ball of Force Destruction De'Ville had ever seen... in real life or in dreams.*

If you died in a dream, De'Ville... would you wake up, do you think?

[Lady DeVille]

The energies around Banestone were incredible. She had been stupid. Banestone's abilities with Destruction she had not forgotten, but in her alarmed state she had mislaid the information in her mind.

His words chilled her. She had to do something to distract him before he unleashed the attack. De'Ville didn't dare get any closer than she was, but running away would be suicide. Repeating its only a dream, its only a dream, in her mind didn't seem to help much either.

But it was a dream, and she was the one dreaming it. De'Ville reached down, pulled her vibroblade out of her boot, and threw it with Force enhanced accuracy at the alien. It shot from her hand and flew towards his glowing eyes faster than the human eye could track. With the same thought, De'Ville found her armblades strapped to her forearms, murderously sharp, and gleaming in the half light of dawn. She spun her lightsaber, and readied for his attack.

[Banestone]

*The lightclaws flared and slashed at the incoming vibroblade, reducing it to an inactive shred of wire and metal before it smacked against Banestone's reinforced head. De'Ville could see the slight strain on him as he kept his hold on the maelstrom of Destruction to do it, though.*

Ah... you're so much better at things when you begin to realize what's going on.

*His outstretched arms begin to shake*

Not that you do.

*The broken hillside around the Sith Master flares crimson, and to De'Ville the sun appears to be charging at her like a mad bantha... the Destruction had been unleashed.

Knowing her only hope is to not get hit, in a matter of milliseconds De'Ville erects the strongest Force shield she can, while at the same time flies straight up with a Force-enhanced leap... it might have completely worked, but the planet suddenly seems to have a different gravitational pull, and she doesn't leap as high as she had hoped.

The top edge of the Destruction blasts away her shields, charring the bottom half of her clothes and hell alone knew what all to her skin underneath. De'Ville tumbled forward in the air, maintaining enough mental control still to land on something other than her head... her shoulder and side impact on rough, stone-encrusted dirt and grass, and she side-rolls in a direction that hopefully led away from the other Sith.*

[Lady DeVille]

The woman flipped up to her feet, hair flying about in the sudden wind. With surprise, she realized that it was long again, as it had been the first time she had fought the Sith Master. De'Ville ran straight at Banestone, ignoring the pain in her lower body and adding to her speed with the Force.

Before he could ready another blast of Destruction, or krasst knows what, she was vaulting over his seven foot head. De'Ville twisted in the air, and grabbed his head as she fell towards the earth, yanking him backwards. The cyborg stepped backwards to steady himself, but his neck was wrenched as she held on, slamming against his back. The blades strapped to her arms dug into him, she could only hope she was actually doing some damage.

De'Ville brought her legs up, and kicked off backwards from Banestone, turning in the air and landing on her feet. "You're right about one thing, I don't know what the hell is going on. But I'm also much better than I was when we last met."

Recalling her sabre to her hand, the Sith activated it and jumped up, spinning and slashing at the overgrown alien.

[Banestone]

*Banestone didn't seem to be feeling any pain from the neck-wrench yet, but that often was the case as Force-users usually blocked or shunted all physical pains when fighting. He greeted De'Ville's jumping spin with an outstretched palm, slamming her with precise flows of the Force to spin her around further than she had intended... she tried to adjust her slash as she suddenly found herself facing away from the huge Sith in midair, but a sweep of lightclaws deflected her lightsaber and then she found the back of her head being held in a thick, three-fingered embrace. Oh bloody ashes, she thought as she tried swinging her lower body to lever herself out of the grip...

Her feet impacted somewhere unseen on the nether regions of the other Sith, and he growled throatily in surprise before throwing her down by the head at the ground. His right shoulder seemed to be bleeding pretty badly when one of De'Ville's armblades had cut into it earlier, but it didn't slow him down as he plucked his lightsaber back out of the air, ignited it, and swung at the definitely slimmer, and likely more lithe De'Ville.*

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville rolled away from Banestone's feet, head ringing from the intense blow on the ground. She sensed - and brought her saber up just in time to block the crushing blow from the alien. His strength pushed her down hard on one knee, and her muscles strained as she felt herself being crushed to the packed red dirt.

I am the power of Hate. Lilaena gritted her teeth and pulled the Force into her, reaching out and and pinching a nerve in Banestone's back, causing his arm to spasm and relent enough for her to beat him back and scramble to her feet.

[Banestone]

*The big alien faltered, his arm acting strangely, before he pinpointed the cause and, switching his lightclaws off, engages his saber with De'Villes and then rings a blow off her head with the durasteel appendage to interrupt her connection through the Force to that nerve... it seems to work, for now at least.

Now De'Ville attacks with both armblades and lightsaber, feeling the Dark Side power of hatred. Banestone matches her blow for blow, the two going at it hammer and tongs; lightsabers against each other and durasteel fist and foot against armblades.*

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville was empowered with the Force. It augemented every movement she made and reinforced every muscle as she went at it with Banestone, tooth and nail.

"Dream or no dream, you're going to regret this." De'Ville rebounded off his durasteel fist, and spun around, her saber flashing under his feet as he left the ground to evade.

He chuckled, a sound she had never heard before, and nearly took her head off as she came around for another slash. The woman backed off as he took a step towards her. "You may be the power of Hate, but I am Hate incarnate." His red eyes bored into her skull, and De'Ville gritted her teeth.

He must have a weakness. She lightly spun her saber in her hands, and pointed it at him. With a banshee scream she thrust her hands out, initiating a pressure wave that knocked the Master right off his heavy feet. Running up, she avoided his arm reach, and chopped down with her saber at his head. "Die."

[Banestone]

*De'Ville could almost visualize the saber's blade slicing through Banestone's face, it was so close... but suddenly a blast of freezing wind that near instantly chilled her to the bone rocked her backwards as she took in her new surroundings. Flat terrain with a few mounds and slopes, all blanketed in white; sub-zero weather... it had to be one of the outlying Hoth planets, or else a good imitation of one.

The Sith Master was nowhere in sight. Whether he'd slipped away during her momentary distraction or just vanished, she couldn't say. She did note with great dissapointment that she knew she hadn't hit him with her lightsaber as intended, though. Seething as she froze, she spun sparks of air and blocked the freezing gusts to warm herself up, and moved toward the nearest mound of snow.

The mound exploded toward her in a shower of ice and motion, and a heavy booted foot kicked her square in the chest, knocking her flat onto her back and doing something probably bad to her ribs. Banestone's eyes gleamed red with malice from the swirling eddies of snow*

It's hard to kill a dream, isn't it? Especially when... you aren't the one in control of it.

*The foot returns, in search of her head, but De'Ville rolls forward to evade it and does a slight somersault as soon as her balance is over her feet. Throwing her lightsaber at Banestone upside-down in midair made for an impressive feat if it was accurate, and it was... the monstrous Sith took the blade in his right shoulder, though he caught the hilt before either the blade did more damage and passed through him completely (hilt and all), or before De'Ville could recall it.

Disigniting it off viciously, Banestone slammed the offending handle into the holding space in his left arm, where his own blade usually stayed.*

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville gasped for air in the freezing air, momentarily losing control of the kinetic manipulation around her as the cyborg stuck her saber hilt into his durasteel armour. She backed up, hand on her ribs as breathing became very difficult. "What do you want?"

She scooped up a handful of snow, melting it into a solid sphere of ice and chucking it at his head with the Force. With a slash of his lightclaws he deflected it, sending icicles flying everywhere. "Why aren't you killing me?!" Enraged at her seeming helplessness, De'Ville felt energy crackling behind her fingers. She yelled, and directed a stream of lightening at the black alien's body.

[Banestone]

*The electricity courses over Banestone's hulk, sending sparks and an interesting smell into the air, but nothing to his protected circuitry and little to himself. Stung like the devil, though.*

I've told you already what I want... and I'm just not killing you yet. Be patient, it'll come.

*Banestone gloats in self-assured confidence, as De'Ville considers her next method of attack*

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville backed up another step. "You won't be getting my head, Banestone. So sorry to disappoint." His gloating was grating on her nerves. "All that you can do is ruin a night's rest for me."

She closed her eyes momentarily, and used the Force to activate the special switch on her saber as it was held in his armour. The amythest blade snapped on.

[Banestone]

*Banestone's eyes widen slightly an instant before De'Ville depresses the switch... then stares as his durasteel arm sprouts a lavender rod of energy that shoots from roughly the bottom of his forearm, near the elbow of his bent arm. Cybernetics fry from the inside, and his lightclaws flicker and sputter out, cut off from their energy source. The expression on his face could be said to contain amazement at the unexpected move... it could also be said to be rapidly growing darker with anger at himself - for lack of foresight - and his opponent*

Ooh... De'Ville... you'll pay for that one, definitely...

*The industrious Lady De'Ville is not much of a stand-around-and-wait type of person, though, and is at the moment launching herself at him with a banshee scream and armblades extended towards his chest. As she jumps at Banestone to use his distraction to her advantage, she realizes almost too late that she wasn't quite fast enough... she twists her lower body forward, planting both feet into his chest and somesaulting backwards just quick enough to evade her own lightsaber blade, still sticking out of the Sith Master's mostly non-functional arm. The purple saber cuts a furrow through one armblade and a few layers of skin on that arm, but De'Ville did at least avoid dismemberement.

As she lands on the ground easily, poised for battle, Banestone brings back both lightsabers wide to his sides and then violently sweeps them both in horizontal arcs that had the potential of each cutting through half of her midsection, ending with meeting each other in the middle. De'Ville took the obvious route of escape and jumped... planting both feet in a vicious double kick into Banestone's exposed and unprotected face.

She hears a crinkle of something quite harder than cartiledge crumpling behind his nose, but the rest of his head seems to remain unhurt - reinforced with durasteel, she remembered in the split second before she fell back to the ground, Banestone with his arms crossed as the sabers had passed underneath her.

The dark Sith's nose began to drip something, and he snarled as he brought both red and purple lightsabers scything back in the arc, uncrossing his arms in the reverse of the last lightsaber attack he'd made. De'Ville, just now having landed, rolled under the monstrous alien's legs, diving behind him as the twin blades of energy burned a swathe of snow away from where she'd been.

Her rapid successes suddenly halted as a breath-takingly heavy foot landed on her legs, keeping her from getting up or turning around... she hacked an armblade at it, but the honed edge did nothing to the two-toed naked durasteel appendage. Banestone pivoted, placing all his weight on that foot and De'Ville's legs as he spun to face her again... though the unfathomably deep snowbank absorbed most of that weight, it did at least manage to wedge her legs into the snow rather deep and tightly.*

I'll disturb a lot more than your beauty sleep, traitor.

*Using a touch of the Force surprisingly gentle for one so enraged and powerful, Banestone deactivates De'Ville's lightsaber - still hidden in the recesses of his ravaged arm - and brutally mule punches her in the back of the head, using his sophisticated cybernetic arm more like a club now. Some of the fight leaving her with the blow, Banestone then steps off of her legs, using the Force to twist her upper body towards him as he then switches off his own, bloodred lightsaber. Stepping in towards her, he flips the hilt over with practiced ease and smashes the wickedly toothed skull handle into her lower face, splitting a lip and shredding flesh.

Back in De'Ville's rented - and ravaged - room, her face begins to bleed*

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville licked the blood from her smashed lips, and used the pain to fuel her anger, blasting the snow away from her with a pressure wave. Banestone was splattered with snow and caught off balance as the snow opened up in front of him.

Gathering the Force she leapt out of the crater, somersaulting and landing painfully on her feet. Dream or no, she was beginning to get worried about her unborn son. "You call me a traitor?" She spat into the snow at her feet and Banestone recovered his balance and began moving towards her again.

Her head had been rung like a bell, and she would have bet a rib or two were broken. "I made the mistake of caring what happened to TSO, and see what it got me? I'm banished, by the very people I once adopted as family. Bah-" She backflipped over and away from a punch that would have knocked her out...permanently. "Don't believe propaganda, Banestone. I would have thought you smarter than that."

She took a moment, and checked her notched armblade. It would hold, for now. Stumbling back again, she pulled with the Force at her lightsaber caught firmly in his arm. It didn't give. Bloody ashes.

With a heave at the Force, De'Ville spun the air above her head, creating a mini cyclone. With effort, she set it down in front of her, between herself and the Sith master, and enlarged it as much as she could. Since she was learning this skill, it wasn't very big, but was enough to catch the other Sith off guard. The cyclone gathered snow into its gusts, and De'Ville sent it careening towards the cyborg.

[Banestone]

*Banestone snorts none-too-gently through ichor-smeared lips*

You think a little weather will stop me? ...We're not in Kashyyyk anymore, De'Ville.

*Still, the cyborg Sith didn't encounter weather of this sort very often. The snow blurred his vision, though he already was observing everything through the Force, anyway. Thw swirling winds made it difficult to keep his balance... not enough that he wasn't prepared for De'Ville's attack through her own maelstrom, however. Clubbing one armblade aside clumsily with his wooden left arm, he catches the other carefully, but with great pain, in his right hand - between saber hilt and palm. With incredible Force-enhanced strength, he twists and snaps the topmost part of the honed blade off, reducing the blade to something that extends little further than De'Ville's own hand.

His hand deeply cut, he slings the now-red shard at De'Ville's face, barely missing as she nearly gives herself whiplash to avoid it. The cyclone falters, blowing itself to pieces and soon becomes no more than another part of the raging Hoth-like winds. The Sith Master made no motion to calm any weather around himself, as he considered such actions unneccessary and a sign of physical weakness... especially when one held the Force.*

Oh, I believe in nothing, De'Ville... nothing but the truth. And my truth is just a little different from yours... you'd think that you would have expected a banishment, or worse, from what you tried to pull over your precious adopted family.

...I'd have thought you smarter than that.

*De'Ville's fist broke itself on his jawbone, so distracted was he with talking*

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville leaped backwards from the hulking monster before her, and supressed the pain in her hand and wrist with the Force. Ashes, it feels so real. Bloody real for a dream. Something in her hand had broken, although the bone had not punctured the skin.

Her cyclone dispersed into the existing winds, and she flexed her other hand as the combatants stood apart. "I did what I had to do. The ends justify the means, dear brother." She used the familiar name scornfully with him, once part of that 'family' she had trusted. Trusted as much as she could have trusted any group of people. It wasn't much, but it was something....and now it was gone.

De'Ville circled around him, stepping lightly on the top of the churned snow. The beast with no past. He had been an object of awe once for her, but no more. A stab of fear hit her in the heart and she faltered.

The baby. Pierce. Banestone had nothing to lose. He had nothing to gain, either, but she didn't really understand his reasonings all that much. Maybe she couldn't beat him, couldn't give all she had to a fight anymore -because there was too much to lose now.

Bloody ashes, this is a frelling dream! De'Ville channeled her fear into anger and threw herself in blind rage at the nightmare.

[Banestone]

*It was said that the Sith, like certain base animals, could sense fear. Perhaps this was so - not through any connection to those animals and the Dark Side, of course, it was just that the Dark Side fed so well off of fear that it sought it out as eagerly as might a vornskyr seeking prey that would be easier to subdo, small minds clouded with the haze of fear. Fear made one weak, Banestone noted. That was well, for he himself had never known it nor ever supposed he would. Malice was the only emotion he knew well... malice and chilling apathy.

The cyborg worked his jaw around gingerly in the synthetic dream as De'Ville spoke. She was right, to a point. The ends could justify the means. However, since she'd never reached her ends... the means, of course, were left very unjustified. Very open to retribution from one who'd unfortunately not been there during them. His body was getting quite some headache for sustaining the dream so long... he'd better end it soon.

Just then, De'Ville attacked again, fear of Banestone and her own frailty fueling her rage and prompting her to action... also, she hadn't been getting much sleep, lately, Banestone noted with a little humour.

Weapons faded out of the dream from around the huge Sith. Lightsabers, lightclaws, holdout ones for which he doubted he'd ever have a use... all vanished subtly, though De'Ville's fragments of armblades remained. He had no need of weapons anymore, for he was Sith. He was strong.

Using the Dark Side merely for the enhanced reflexes and skill it afforded him, Banestone bent half-way forward to meet De'Ville's onslaught, letting her close enough to stick him in the chest with an extended armblade before planting his massive open hand into her stomach and chest, raising her of of her feet (her still in motion towards him) and forcing her to mock-somersault over his head as he threw her onto her back, stunning her momentarily.*

Even dreams can hide echoes of reality. You forget that you are just a human, and a weak one now at that. And you might never understand me.

*De'Ville raised herself on her arms, blinking pain and dizziness away as suddendly something closed around her throat, hauling her off her the snow... and then her feet. She struggled fiercely, sending gouts of lightning at her opponent, lashing out with pinpoint Force-guided accuracy with powers and limbs and flashing blades.

Rage set in.*

For your crimes, or for your failure - I do not care which you choose to believe - you shall now pay the price in full.

*The bright, snowy world of Hoth was looking strangely dull. She was unable to get oxygen into her lungs, through her bloodstream to her brain. She hadn't taken a breath in preparation for being strangled. She tried to cram air molecules past her crushed throat, but they wouldn't fit. The red eyes were so dim, so hatefull.

Fear set in.*

You are weak. Even in a dream, with nothing reasonable to fear, you are weak with fright. You are even too weak in anger. You entertain illusions... as you always have. You have always pretended you could win. Win at anything. Beat anyone. No matter what the facts stated... I have known this of you since our first spar, De'Ville. It is a failing of yours.

*So dim, so very hard to see... her lashing outs were more like flailing, now. Her head hurt. She was so tired. For some reason, even her rage was beginning to slip away, so exhausting the effort of holding it seemed. Air. There was air freezing her without, but she couldn't let it in or force it in. So hard to think. The world was black.

Panic set in.*

The price you must pay, though, is not what you fear. It IS that you fear.

*The other Sith's words were so hard to hear. Why couldn't he just leave her be? So... tired... even her pain was fading, she couldn't feel it anymore, at least.

Death was setting in.*

And with this... you will fear. . . e v e n m o r e . . . . . .

*The world died. Or was it she died? De'Ville didn't know. Didn't care. There was something on her face, though. Warm, sticky... blood? What? She suddenly blinked open her eyes, the half-light of dawn streaming through the cracks under her door, glistening off of the sweat and blood streaming down her face*

[Lady DeVille]

Lilaena lay still for a moment, panting for breath. Unconsciously she touched her son with the Force: he was fine. In the dim light of pre-dawn she saw that her bedding was crumpled up on the floor, and everything in the room that wasn't bolted down had been upset.

I'm alive. Her first conscious thought was one of tired disbelief, and then relief came flooding in. It had only been a dream, after all.

She sat up, and groaned in pain. Several ribs were protesting the muscle strain on them, and De'Ville lay back down with a gasp. No dream I've ever had was like that. And yet, it had not been real. Somehow her mind had been completely convinced of the reality of what had happened to her...and it had actually caused injuries.

Nothing that a dip in the old bacta tank wouldn't cure in a day. The dark Jedi fingered her face, feeling the swelling and the blood. Nice.

More carefully now, she sat up, swinging her legs off the edge of the bed. And paused.

He was there. Or, perhaps, there was nothing there at all. She shivered, suddenly cold, as sweat dripped off her nose. A dark presence was clearly making itself known, and that meant only one thing.

He was actually there, on Tatooine, with her.