And now, for something completely different.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

Night falls on a dead planet.

Out in space, the desolate orb looks inhospitable. But not nearly as much as it does from the ground. A small-looking ovoid speck of red and other dusky molten colours decends into the planet's atmosphere - what little there is of it - and a splinter of rusted grey with an orange glow emanating from the tail end follows it.

The ovoid comes closer, revealing itself to be not any shorter or smaller than a rancor - if a rancor could fly. The splinter is now more than just a shard of metal; it is merely a simple one-man Headhunter with more rust and plain durasteel skin than paint. The ovoid, roughly egg-shaped yet with smooth nubs and bumps surrounding is, is traveling fast yet has no other features. No weapons emplacements. No com antennae. No engines strapped onto the back or sides.

There is a fortress on the planet beneath the two spacecraft. An old fortress. Maybe it was once a beautiful palace. Maybe it was once an impregnable dungeon. No, it was never beautiful, the pilot of the egg craft thought to himself. Nothing that bleak could be beautiful to anyone with eyes and a conscience.

It had beauty in it's own way - in the same way that a rancor had beauty. The beauty of forboding. Of imminent danger, of peril and wildness. It was not, however, the kind of beauty observed only through the eyes.

Active lava flows crisscrossed the dead landscape surrounding the aged evil of the ruined castle. No... not ruined. Just old. The immense black gates at the forefront stood out a little from the rest of the architecture. They felt newer, though they did not look much like it. The climate must quickly wear everything down to the same appearance, the pilot observed. Probably to slag, in the end.

The ovoid craft slowed smoothly and quickly to a repulsor-guided landing on the scarred, dead terrain. Not too far from the gates. Not too close. Behind it, the Headhunter imitated the bizzare ship and also landed. But the cockpit was empty.

The enormous egg - it had a proper name, which was The Shell - split soundlessly open on one side, near to the ground. A ramp split seamlessly out of the pebbled texture of the hull and touched the blasted rock of the planet's crust. It was getting dark outside, but the inside of the ship was darker still, lit only by the dim and inconsistent glow of electronic equipment and computer displays. A dark figure rose, blocking out even the glow of blinking electodes to anyone who was watching from outside. The pilot coalesced into a tall, lithe humanoid in a long black elementcoat as he stepped slowly down the ramp. The creature was wearing a pair of deeply black-tinted goggles, as well as black tunic, black boots, and black gloves. The gloves were clenched into fists.

As soon as his foot - the walk was undeniably masculine - stepped off of the ramp, it folded back into the hull. No more display lights. The exterior of The Shell was seamless once more.

Without a pause, the pilot glanced at his Headhunter and, assured it had landed and was on standby, raised and opened one gloved hand - No, not completely gloved. The first two fingers were bare, as was the palm - to reveal a small metallic device he was holding. Pressing a stud on it and sticking it into a deep pocket somewhere on his black clothing, the folds of his long coat swirled about him and he continued on towards the gates.

The landing had put him far enough away from the gates that a solitary lava flow lay between them and himself on this path. Striding up to it, he unconcernedly leaped five feet up into the air and ten feet forward through it. The molten rock flowed on unabated behind him as the gates rose before him.

[Lady DeVille]

A shadow might have been seen from the ground, a shadow on the walls. But who could see a shadow at night on a black wall?

A stranger approached the gates, a newcomer. Yet the ship landed meters away from Bast was familar to the shadow. Yes, Sith Master Banestone had lost his leg to her once. But this one...this one was not Banestone.

De'Ville watched the pale one approach the gatesfrom her perch high above. What is his purpose here? A trap from the Order perhaps?

[Karhtzen Shaed]

He was at the gates. A shadow that cast no shadow visible in the dim night.

Not visible to any human, anyway.

The gates shone with a pale black luster in the dark to his eyes. The night had barely started, and so he kept his goggles on. He rose a partially gloved hand - his left - and smashed it against one of the gate's mighty doors.

BOOM.

The sound split the night, loud and ponderous but not getting far before the ravaged planet soaked it up like it did all life. The fist rose, swung harder.

BOOOM.

Again.

BOOOM.

It felt like trying to knock the last supporting strut out from the old, heavy stone roof of a building you were in.

[Lady DeVille]

He heard a whisper in the wind. "Why are you here....from where have you come?"

De'Ville did not speak to his mind, but let the Force carry her words to him.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

There was not much wind that night, yet the words seemed to be wafting down from somewhere up in the fortress as if they'd been blown on the breeze.

He had never heard the voice before in his life, but he recognized it anyway. He had been shown it before, instructed on the one that bore it.

He lifted his thin white face up slightly, as if to look at his greeter, and spoke.

His lips did not move.

<I am here to learn better how to pain those I hate most. I am here to help, if I may do it by causing pain to those I hate most. I do not require much, merely... direction. And you already know who - if not where - I have come from>

His hand, poised for another knock on the forboding gates, fell softly back to his side.

[Lady DeVille]

The whisper came again, slightly stronger this time. "Who do you hate?"

De'Ville leapt off the wall, and landed in a crouch in front of him. She straightened slowly, facing the man...if man he was. "Who do you hate?" She sensed pride in his emotions, but there was no fear.

There should be. Her eyes centered on his dark goggles, awaiting his answer.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

She was shorter than he'd expected, somehow. Though not short for a human. Perhaps it was because he himself was over two meters tall.

He slid a thumb from his right hand up, pushed it against the bridge of his goggles and slid them up to his forehead. The eyes this action revealed were startlingly colourless, the irises white even in the dark, though rimmed in black.

De'Ville had seen many stranger things, though.

His demeanor still oddly quiet and calm, he spoke again. His voice was not very deep, but it matched his quiet demeanor.

"I hate all those who took from me my life. In most cases, this means the Jedi... Lady De'Ville."

Even in the blackness, she could see his features and eyes well enough from this distance. His fingers seemed perpetually clenched over his palms; but other than his eyes and skin tone, he seemed human enough.

[Lady DeVille]

If she was surprised he knew her name, she did not show it. "The Jedi are worthy of hate, yes. For many reasons."

De'Ville did not elaborate, taking a few minutes to study the eyes of the man in front of her. Strange indeed. Her thoughts, as always, were hidden behind mental blocks; the blocks being her only mastery of mental abilities.

She circled him, moving away from the gate and completing a turn around him, arriving back in front of the closed gates. "Many seek entry to Bast. Not all succeed." She pushed a hand out towards him, and he found himself flying backwards away from her.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

He was briefly surprised to find himself flying through the air. He should have expected something like this, though. Well, he was still young. He would learn.

His thoughts finished before his flight did, and then he landed hard on his back, skidding slightly backwards over dead ground. He continued his momentum into a backroll, landing on his knees and then straightening.

<I seek entry to Bast>, De'Ville's mind told her he said.

The strange mongrel continued easily to his feet. His fingers had never unfolded.

<I will succeed>

He was unsure as to how to proceed in this bizarre conversation. He had expected combat of some sort, but mainly he had only known what planet they were on when he had begun this journey. The fortress had been simple to sense once he was in orbit - the Dark Side was particularly alluring here.

He tried closing the distance between himself and De'Ville again with quick, long strides.

OOC: Looks like I *didn't* have to make "just one more post" last night.

[Lady DeVille]

She stopped him in his tracks, gripping his legs tightly with the Force. "Many seek to enter. Few succeed."

De'Ville walked towards him, the towering gates looming behind her like a forboding mountain. There was a slight click in the growing darkness, and then a snap-hiss as a lightsaber pierced the gloom. It illuminated his pale face, causing his strange pupils to dialate.

In the murky light shed by the jaded amethyst blade she could see a tube of some sort at his thigh. Near the top there appeared to be a lightsaber pommel, but it was longer than any single bladed saber she'd seen before. Double saber?

"If Banestone actually told you anything at all, you would know I hold no love for him. Yet, you recieve the same chance as others. Pass me, and you will gain entrance. To what end, I do not know. My siblings will decide your fate." Seven feet away from him, and twelve feet in front of the door she stopped, striking a low defensive posture as she released his legs.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

<The ship is not proof enough that I have come from Banestone? The Sith would never willingly have parted with it>

Well, if it was a fight they needed from him to admit entrance, he'd give them a good one. He placed his freed left leg forwards and bent his right leg slightly in a half crouching stance, the top of a hooked lightsaber pommel glinting from almost at his hip in the pale amethyst light of De'Ville's lightsaber.

Smoothly, the top five inches or so of handle rose from the black sheath. He grasped it in his left hand.

<My name>

Raising the saber hilt out of the long holster, it came free and he grasped it in both hands, fingers slightly splayed in a strange fashion. The top - well, most of the entire thing, actually - of the lightsaber handle appeared to be latticed like Swiss cheese, and solitary sharp hooks like teeth stuck out an inch on each end.

<Is Kar'h't'zen Shaed>

Snap-hisss. A crimson blade shot out of the handle, but it was alone. The red light of focused energy shone through each hole in the lightsaber handle, shining between his fingers in places. The only place it did not was in the first five inches of pommel, where the long blade was powered and focused from. The other ten inches of so of handle apparently had no guards over the open latticework to prevent the blade underneath from dedigiting it's user.

Shaed took his left hand off of the hilt and spun the saber in his right, then tossed it with a roll into the air. Catching the spinning handle with practiced fingers, he approached De'Ville once more.

[Lady DeVille]

The dark haired woman was impressed by the blade, but she didn't show it. "Perhaps you stole the saber after knifing some unfortunate Jedi in the back. You handle it well, but lets see how you do in combat, Shaed." She twirled her own saber as he approached, but waited for him to make the first move.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

Shaed smiled thinly, apprehensive but determined not to show it in any way. He had, after all, never fought against any more than one style of lightsaber dueling. This would be interesting, and unluckily may end up with him dead if he wasn't up to these Dark Jedi's standards.

De'Ville was now only about ten feet from him. Shaed's two-handed grip on his saber pointed the blade tip towards her left, but as he took another - larger - step forward he suddenly flipped it towards her right as he traded his hands' positions and stabbed forward at her shoulder.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville anticipated his move by a change in his sense, and moved swiftly, raising her blade to intersect his. There was a popping sound as the two energy blades rubbed each other, the two Force users both pushing, trying to get an edge on the other.

As the smell of burnt ozone filled the air, she found the edge she needed, and shoved his saber aside. As her arms moved, her feet also went into motion, stepping closer and hooking her foot around his ankle. The hopeful fell backwards, and she stepped up again to finish him off.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Though there was no interruption, each battle participant was suddenly aware of another person watching them with a curious eye from several floors up.

The Dark Jedi Hobgoblin contemplated the fight- so often had he been the one to test for entry. But his skills had reached a point where he had to use great powers in each conflict if he wanted to continue improving them. To fight someone who was less than an apprentice would probably be fatal to them.

But that did not mean he would not hold the newcomer to lesser standards than those who had come before him.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

Unexpected again.

As Shaed fell backwards towards the broken ground again, his left hand let go of the saber hilt and instinctively thrust out behind him to hit the ground first.

With not-quite-human prowess, that arm absorbed the shock and smoothly stopped his fall once it touched the broken earth. His other arm still held the saber aloft in some shattered semblance of a guard position.

This one was fast. Much faster than the only other Force user he had ever fought a duel like this with.

De'Ville's lightsaber had swung back from pushing his away, and now had been grasped pommel up by her to stab at him as he lay.

Only he wasn't laying. With a burst of rage summoned by the unexpected prowess of his opponent, Shaed split his fingers two and two with a gap in his lightsaber handle's protective framework directly underneath. Very precisely, he caught De'Ville's violet blade with that revealed portion of his own red blade and struck it just hard enough to make it miss his body and plunge into the ground beside him.

At the same time, he canted the lightsaber blade upwards to slash more or less in the direction of the arms holding De'Ville's blade.

She was definitely quick.

De'Ville blurred upwards in a Force-enhanced jump, avoiding his blade entirely. Not only that, but she simultaneously slashed her lightsaber through the crusted ground back up towards his tilted body, still most of the way to the end of a fall.

He couldn't think of anything better to do at that moment, so he Leapt as well, fueled by the Dark Side. His legs tucked in as close to his body as they could as they - and his torso - revolved around his left hand, still pressed against the earth. His somersault took place just after De'Ville's, so fast were the two directing and redirecting their attacks.

So it was that she had just landed and cut through the air - Shaed's long black elementcoat was strangely stiff and almost clung to his body - with her saber, when his feet hit her in the sternum and launched her backwards.

Kar'h'tzen pushed against De'Ville with the doublefooted kick, revolving his feet back over his head and then pushing off with his left hand so that he was once more fully upright. He whirled around.

...Only to sense something... someone...? else. Near. Sweat popped out of various facial pores. It seemed to know him implicitly. Not in a personal manner... it just seemed strong enough to know things that he wished it did not. Somehow.

Perhaps this was why not many people ever came back from trying to seek the Dark Jedi.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville grunted from the kick, and felt the air leave her lungs as her chest compressed from the force of the blow. She gasped for air momentarily, recovering her balance and wits, and then she held up her right hand, palm towards the sky.

She chanted no dark runes, although certainly she might have said something to induce fear in her opponent. Most chants in the ancient Sith tongue sounded so evil they struck terror into those who heard it and did not understand. But for the power she was about to unleash, no spell was needed to unleash it. A roiling ball of Force destruction formed above her hand, seemingly full of a dark light.

It glittered in the darkness between storms, and she hurled it at her opponent, guiding it towards his life sense with a push in the Force. De'Ville laughed, anticipating his death.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

Force Destruction. Something he was familiar with.

Unfortunately, that only meant he was familiar with running from it. His use of the Force as a shield from it was much too weak to be of any use.

Shaed - rashly - tore a large molten gobbet of lava from the nearest flow (which was by now very close again) with the Force. It had an ungainly shape, but he hurled it against the roiling sphere of Destruction deperately.

The glob of lava intersected with the ball of Dark Side power, and exploded. Most of it was consumed in the collision, but it sprayed drops of lava viciously as it died - most of which, more unfortunately still, flew in Shaed's direction.

The lanky hybrid turned his coat back to the unexpected shower, small gobbets of lava slashing against the ornate black material and steaming down it in defeat. Shaed drew one of his hands out of an inner pocket, apparently having clutched some unknown new weapon or shield during the unlikely weather. A chance of scattered lava showers from the northeast, he dryly thought to himself.

Then it started to rain.

Acid.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville readied her saber to deflect the lava, but the drops that came towards her landed harmlessly a few feet away. She noticed the strange properties of his cloak, however, and wondered if perhaps there was more to this stranger than met the eyes.

Of course, there always was.

And then it started to rain. De'Ville felt a sting as a drop of acid fell on her arm and burned through her clothing, and then she errected a Force Shield to protect her from above. She twirled her saber, and Shaed made his next move.

With lightening quickness he withdrew his hand from his cloak (which was also deflecting the rain from him) and three objects came whirling towards her. She deflected one with her saber, and cried out in amazement as her saber died upon contact with the object. The other two hit her in the body and arm, but did little damage. They were shruikens, but made of cortosis from all appearances.

Mostly harmless, except to sabers. She thumbed her saber on again, just in time to block a stab from Shaed. He grunted with the pressure he was exerting on her, and she smiled grimly. "The Force is with you, Shaed. But, is it enough?"

She heaved and their sabers unlocked as he stepped backwards. Throwing out a hand, De'Ville yanked his cloak from him with the Force.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

The small shuriken-like discs of cortosis worked well, but Shaed was not close enough or fast enough to have used the distraction to it's best advantage. He had yet to develope a cortosis weapon that could actually kill without a great deal of luck.

His long, black weatherproof coat was suddenly yanked off deftly with the Force. He reacted immediately by tossing his lightsaber in the air to avoid cutting it up, and thereby to avoid revealling that the designs spread over the coat were also made of cortosis. But perhaps she had already guessed something like that. Maybe it was just to prevent his taking more surprises out of the cloak. She was quick in more ways than one, then.

Deftly catching his lightsaber's long and dangerous handle again, he became aware of a burning sensation in his shoulder.

And the odor of burning garments and flesh. The acid rain!

Frantically, Shaed heaved at the air above with what Force-erected shields he knew how to make. He could not just track and Move each individual drop, nor block them all. He tightened his focus to as small an area above his head as would keep him relatively safe, yet that would also not tax him too much. He could do this.

His left shoulder continued to sizzle quietly, and sting. He grabbed at his protective goggles and slid them back down over his eyes as he spit at the smoking wound on his left shoulder, wondering if that would help it any.

All of this took place quickly, but De'Ville still was pressing her attack on him. Blade crashed against blade, while the corrosive raindrops sizzled and hissed as they splattered the landscape around them.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville bashed him backwards with her saber, finding it hard to use much finesse against this one. His attacks were brutal in their force, as if he were used to fighting a much larger, less flexible opponent. Gripping her saber pommel two handed, she forced his saber up and kicked him in the stomach.

Shaed wheezed and fell backwards, struggling to hold onto his saber. Through the half light of the storm, De'Ville saw the affects of the acid on his skin, especially on his arms. He had a weak Shield above his head, but his arms were exposed, and the rain had eaten through his clothes and had started bubbling the pale skin underneath.

She pushed towards him more, but at the same time feeling the strain of keeping her own protection intact. This would end soon. How it ended was up to him.

Shaed was regaining his feet, and she stabbed at him with her saber, a quick move intended to get the job done.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

The pain was improving at a fast pace.

Yet but a memory of a much deeper pain. The one he must never forget. And always avenge.

Again De'Ville stabbed at him, fast and hard. Again he knocked her lightsaber blade away. His breath was coming in quick, hoarse wheezes and starting to rattle slightly with the continued efforts. He knew how to use the Force as an ally for so many things... and yet so few.

The bitter rain kept avoiding his shield and biting into his arms. The strain of just keeping his head unscathed was not helping his end of the fight at all.

Again came the purple saber. Again the red blade found it and turned it aside before it found it's mark. Shaed had switched to fighting defensively without noticing it, he realized belatedly. That meant a losing battle. He had no idea whether De'Ville was as exhausted as he, or whether she still had her fuel cells fully charged and was toying with him.

The pain was good, though. Good for rage. Good for strength...

His white eyes glittered, unseen, beneath his goggles. His stomach ached, he hadn't been set to receive a kick. Focus. Control. Bend the Dark Side to your instructions.

Shaed skimmed the night sky with his senses briefly, found a few drops of acid on their way down in a tight cluster. Followed them down, under De'Ville's shield and off on her left somewhere. Grabbed them back up and hurled them into her face.

Tried to, anyway. The Dark Jedi intercepted half of the droplets with her lightsaber, which flared and crackled as it ate through them. The other two she merely flicked away with the Force, having seen them coming.

Shaed had clumsily attacked her with a sweeping cut from his lightsaber on that same left side, so her lightsaber easily intercepted his despite the distraction. But Shaed was no longer vertical... he had swung the blade with his left hand, and was standing on his right hand as he brutally double kicked her in the right side, in the shoulder and right above the hip.

[Lady DeVille]

The woman felt the impact on her side, and was thrown sideways as the stranger came off his hand and to his feet again. De'Ville skidded on the rough ground, skinning her right arm on the mixture of volcanic rock and dust. Acid seeped into the scratches from the soaked dirt, clinging to her arm in the form of mud and stinging like hell.

"Frell it!" She parried a blow from Shaed, and gained enough time to scramble to her feet. He was coming on stronger now, a strength born out of what appeared to be desperation. Lilaena darted around a blow and blocked another, twirling around behind him and forcing him to switch feet as he turned to face her.

As his weight shifted, she kicked him hard in the knee, causing him to lose his balance and stumble. He still kept upright, which was impressive, but not for long. Shaed lunged at her, saber flashing, but still off balance. De'Ville felt the Force within her, and as their sabers intersected she caught his weapon with the edge of her own, and twisted the blade around.

His arm twisted as he struggled to keep the saber in his grasp. De'Ville leapt at an angle, using her saber as a central point in a modified no-hand cartwheel. Throwing her body into the air, and sustained with the Force, she kicked out, catching his angled arm with her booted foot.

There was a sickening snap in his forearm and then her other foot caught him in the chin as she completed her spin. Shaed's saber dropped to the ground as his hand spasmed uncontrollably. De'Ville brought her saber around for one final blow.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

Shaed's broken arm shot waves of pain through his body that his brain never felt. It was easy enough to send out through his Force sense that it was disabilitatingly painful, though. He knew enough of pain for that small trick, at least.

His spasming hand clenched, unclenched - not enough to expose the palm - clenched again uncontrollably. It was up in the air, as if it could ward off De'Ville's impending blow.

She snorted at the pathetic hopeful. She'd cut him up bit by bit, starting with that hand that was spastically annoying her. Shaed lay moaning on the ground, drops of acid hitting him all over, now - hand still up, waving in the air. Her violet lightsaber blade swung casually to bisect it.

She had a slight sense of foreboding, and then her blade was cutting through the material of his glove. No. Wait, it wasn't, it had... gone out...?

A long-legged kick struck her in the jaw, disorienting her before she thumbed her lightsaber blade back on. And then suddenly, impossibly, a red blade flared into existence a centimeter away from the back of her head, cutting through and evaporating her short black hair as it lengthened, and then swung down slightly to cut through another swath of hair.

De'Ville's own lightsaber was on, turned on by her reflexes if not her own conscious thought. But it was pointed in entirely the wrong direction to do anything.

Shaed was crouching awkwardly at her feet, one arm hanging lamely at his side - the other raised and pointing his lightsaber at De'Ville's head.

The only part of Shaed's body not shaking with effort was that one arm.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville felt the blade impossibly close to her head, and reached with the Force, shoving it away from her. It didn't move much, but she held it away as she stepped forward away from it.

"Enough!" Her head was colder now, patches of hair missing, and adding to her fury. Calming herself, De'Ville forced his saber down. "Deactivate it, and I will protect you from the storm."

He obeyed, the saber going dormant and flying towards his outstretched hand. De'Ville extended a shield around them, and they walked to the gate, where there was an overhand from the wall where they could shelter momentarily.

The acid burns on his arms and body were not severe, yet, but they would need to be treated quickly. De'Ville looked at him, seeing how visibly exhausted he was. Yet behind those inpenetratable goggled, she could feel his pride.

"Remember this: you live because I allow it. Yet you have proven yourself worthy of entrance to the castle. Where you go from here is not up to me. Not entirely." She turned to the gate, opening it through some means he could not detect.

Turning back to Shaed, she shot him a hard look. "I will take you as my apprentice. You have much to learn still." And then she slipped inside the castle into the darkness within.

[Karhtzen Shaed]

The darkness within the castle was, if possible, more black than the light-devoid pitch of night. Because it was dark to more than one of Shaed's senses.

They walked in together, Shaed and his new master... for now. He did indeed have many things to learn.

The darkness consumed them together as the gate swung heavily closed again.