Fear's Womb: A Hiding Place

[Lady DeVille]

The Sith Infiltrator My Vengence cooled down as a woman walked down the ramp into a driving rain. The acidic rain was repelled from her by a Force shield that she had constructed around herself, and the woman walked unfalteringly towards the looming castle.

It was not far to the front gate, and she had been there before, although in much worse shape. De'Ville drew the dark blue cloak around herself, the hood up and half covering her face as she approached the stairs. The child within fluttered, and she did nothing to calm him, all her senses and concentration prepared for whatever test the Fold might send her way.

[Jeseth Cloak]

The sky was lit with all the colors of the planet's three suns. They were setting, leaving behind a red and orange glow as they sunk away beneath the horizen. "You've waited for this day." The gates were closed, there was no one in front of her or behind her. She gazed up to the top of the gates to see Jeseth standing there, looking up at the sky. He was watching the suns retreat. He'd been there for quite a while, waiting for her.

The voice had been unmistakably his. "...or maybe not. I brought you here for a reason you know. I didn't just do it out of the kindness of my heart. I could have left you there to die on Corellia... but I insisted that you leave under my custody. You and I have a common goal - the same goal that all of us here at Bast have: Control... Of everything; Balance.” He smiled and leapt down from the gate, landing with his knees bent. He had taken the thirty foot fall with a grain of salt. He didn't seem hurt at all. "Do you want this, De'Ville? Not even death can break the bond forged here. I know that from personal experience."

[Lady DeVille]

She nearly smiled at the fall he took from the top of the gate, remembering a time in Coruscant where she had jumped from an aircab. That memory brought Garrett back into her mind, and she shoved the memory away with effort, locking it behind a door in her mind.

"I have waited, without knowing what it was I waited for. I felt it here when you brought me." De'Ville brushed at her face as though she brushed a fly away, although no insects lived on the surface of Vjun. In her womb the child fluttered, and she paused, looking back at the Ambriel male who faced her.

Her eyes flashed momentarily, remembering her altercation with the Sith Darth Bhaal. He had proclaimed her a Master of the Force. And yet, sometimes the Force still mastered her.

Control she craved, control over the Force, control over her life..and finally control over those around her. She had claimed a great deal control over the Force, and her life had been her own since she had left the Empire's clutches. The control of others still evaded her.

"Bast is the sanctuary I desire. And the bond I will bear, even in death."

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Then the test shall be a duel. A Force duel." Jeseth turned and walked away casually, arriving at the edge of the landing pad after about a minute. She could easily knock him off with a gust of power, but he also easily fly. "Do you accept?" He was far from her, but his voice projected well. "there is to be no physical contact, and no use of light sabers!" He unclipped both of his and tossed them a great distance away. They clanged against the gate and rested there, waiting for the Lady De'Ville's to join them as members of the audience. "The challenge will begin once the last sun has set."

Behind Jeseth, the last sun was nearly set. De'Ville had about ten minutes to prepare herself, as did Jeseth. He spread his wings briefly. The air clapped around him loud enough for De'Ville to hear. The sky was growing darker.

Nine minutes.

[Lady DeVille]

"I accept your challenge Cloak." Her voice was hard, and determined. I will not lose. She removed her saber hilt from her belt, the krayt dragon tooth feeling cold against her palm, and tossed it towards the gate, where it settled down quietly next to his two sabers. She turned back to him and stepped down off the step she was standing on.

Cloak was far away, and she targeted him in the Force, as the sun sunk towards the horizon. He spread his wings and just as quickly folded them behind him again, making a clapping sound which carried to her ears from across the landing pad, about sixty feet away.

She stretched briefly, ticking the minutes away as the setting sun dipped lower and lower. Three minutes. De'Ville cocked her head to the side. He was awfully far away, but not far enough to escape the Force. Drawing on her anger and fury, of which she had plenty, needing only to remember the Casino Royale, De'Ville prepared her first attack.

One minute. She eyed the sun, and stared at the figure of Cloak. The one who sat on the Council of TSO. The Council that should have been hers. Her eyes narrowed.

The last ray from the second sun left the sky, and she threw a hand towards Cloak, sending a small sphere of Force destruction hurtling towards him. He would easily counter it, and so she also manipulated a rock from behind him, the fist sized chunk of granite hitting him square in the back between his wings.

[Jeseth Cloak]

The rock shattered as it struck Jeseth, the Force completely tearing it apart. He watched as the sphere that De'Ville had sent at him continued to edge it's way closer, and then quickly put up a hand to intercept it. The ball of destructive energy ricocheted away, erupting a good distance behind him. The blast sent him tumbling forward, but he rolled back to his feet easily enough and raised his hand at her. De'Ville could feel her trachea closing in on itself with crushing force, and her body was beginning to rise up from the ground at Jeseth's accord. One of his hands was kept up in her direction, strangling her as he was lifted off the ground as if he was physically doing the job himself.

His other hand was sparking with the beginnings of something. She could feel energy draining out from around them both.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville drew into herself, focusing inward and drawing air into her lungs, dragging the molecules beyond the choke hold Cloak had on her. The hold on her neck tightened, and she gurgled slightly, struggling against the levitaition he used against her.

Without air she could not speak... De'Ville gasped for oxygen, and a strangled word or two escaped her lips. She closed her eyes, and made a swirling motion with her right hand.

Cloak was caught off guard as a sudden gust of wind blew up around him, surrounding him inside a churning cyclone of dust which quickly picked up debris from the landing pad. His hold loosened on her, and she gasped for a full breath of air, continuing the chant she had started.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth used his wings to shield himself from the small storm and continued his attempt at crushing De'Ville's trachea. If she died, so would her child. A casualty of war. The energy rippling around Jeseth's hand began to glow brighter, shining through the dust and debris. He dropped her from his place up in the air and extended his other hand, sending tentacles of lightening snaking her way. The distance between them had closed to a mere thirty-five feet, and that didn't give her much time to react. She was still being suffocated.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville choked on her breath of air as the grip on her trachea increased again, slowly squeezing the life out of her. She plummeted to the ground as Jeseth released her body, and she managed to stop herself from slamming into the platform with the Force.

Lightening snaked out from his hand towards her, and she held out a hand erecting a Force shield which took the brunt of the attack before it failed a minute later. Meanwhile, De'Ville's storm also faltered, the winds disappating as the chant could not be continued.

De'Ville fell to her knees behind her shield, and concentrated, her eyesight beginning to fail. Using telekinesis she manipulated the misfire saftey on the aft guns of the My Vengence, sending a volley of green bolts towards Cloak. At the same time, her shield failed, and De'Ville stood calmly, her lungs screaming for air.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth's eyes had fixed on De'Ville, who seemed to be close to unconsciousness. He could almost hear those bones snapping inside of her neck... and then it came. A flash of green that reflected in his eyes. He released De'Ville and jumped back, dodging two bolts, but a third caught him in the side, and another struck his other shoulder, sending him flailing back against the ground. He concentrated on the turret and snapped it away from it's turning mechanisms, allowing it to fall limp like a dislodged joint.

His teeth gritted together as he felt the burning spreading across his body. There was blood leaking into the thirsty dust-covered floor at an alarming rate. He placed his right hand over the wound on his side and uttered some words that De'Ville could understand only with her translation talisman. His wound began to fester and puss oozed out. There was a madness in his eyes driven by the only kind of pain that could reach him anymore, and then the afflicted area of his body ceased bleeding, a disgusting mesh of skin and infected tissue holding the blood back. His clothes were ruined, but they were the least of his worries.

It took Jeseth another few seconds to regain his composure and crawls to his knees, watching as De'Ville too was regaining her balance. There was a loud creak and a groan... metal tearing and breaking behind De'Ville.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville gasped for air, rubbing her throat with her left hand as she dragged herself to her feet. Dampening the pain with the Force, she looked towards Jeseth, and held out her hand, a large glowing orb of destruction brewing over her palm.

Cloak crawled to his feet, and she steadied herself, then looked behind her to the sound of metal rending.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth was watching De'Ville's palm beginning to glow, energy wrapping around her hand. Behind her, he continued to bent and twist the inner workings of her ship through the Force. As she turned to face the moan of metal twisting around metal, she was met with a massive explosion. Her ship erupted into a billowing cloud of smoke and fire, shrapnel flying at her and striking her along her back and side, flames licking at her flesh as she was launched forward just in time to avoid any further damage from the heat of the explosion. The winged Dark Jedi closed his eyes, held up one hand to the sky and began to chant something alien and intricate.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville was launched forward from the force of the explosion to her left and behind. Tucking into a ball, she landed as softly as she could, simulaneously releasing the destruction from her palm.

It raced towards Cloak, who had his eyes closed. Flames licked at her clothes, and she threw her cloak off behind her, getting to her feet.

[Jeseth Cloak]

The destructive sphere made its way closer as Jeseth continued to chant, his figure fading out of vision just as it struck him, sending him flying back. The shadows and the night darkness seemed to cling to him like elastic as he yelled and hit the ground, seeping into his own shadow. All around De'Ville Jeseth's presence was manifested, like thousands of eyes were watching her. She could hear him breathing from every shadow and crevice.

Within the abyss, Jeseth held a hand up to his chest, nurturing his wound. It was below freezing... there was no sunlight, no warmth... only the Dark Side. He got up to his feet where he had struck the ground and quickly made his way closer to De'Ville, the wound in his chest growing thick with frost and ice. He couldn't feel his hands and wouldn't have much longer before he started to lose consciousness.

De'Ville felt several ice-cold tentacles slither around her legs, another six of them creeping out from the darkness. Jeseth kept his fingers up, using them to manipulate the various immense fingers that were advance upon the pregnant women.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville looked to where she heard Cloak's yell, and saw nothing. The darkness on the landing pad was incredible...and then she could feel Cloak all around her. She cast about, trying to pinpoint him, but was unable to.

Suddenly she felt an ice cold grip on her legs, and saw several blue/white tentacles slithering out of the shadows and wrapping around her legs. De'Ville gripped two with the Force, wrenching them away and ripping them in half. She initiated a pressure wave in the Force, resulting in an incredibly strong Force push which cleared the area around her body.

She spoked softly, as if to herself, and then shouted once, holding her tingling hands above her head. Quickly bringing them down in front of her, De'Ville loosed a fury of lightning into the tentacles.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth leapt to avoid being thrown to the ground by the sudden wave, and succeeded in landing behind De'Ville. He could spend no more time in that cold and dark nothingness. His fingers were frozen almost to the point of being unmovable, and his face was paler than it ever usually was. He allowed De'Ville to uselessly wrangle with the tentacles before her, and closed his eyes and uttered a single word. The darkness rippled and fell back to it's usual state: Unmoving, placid...

She could feel one remaining source of cold... It was near her neck and behind her. The cold erupted into a stream of heat and anguish as Jeseth gritted his teeth. He had taken advantage of the split second of silence and confusion to unleash a fray of lightening. His hands weren't very far from De'Ville's back - just far enough to avoid physical contact.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville fell forward from the attack of lightening, an overwhelming fear rising inside of her. The fear instantaneously turned into fury that Cloak would seek to injure her child, and she shoved him away with the Force, throwing him up against the stairs behind her.

His attack was not as strong as it might have been, as his former trick seemed to have weakened him. She got to her feet slowly, and pinned him against the stairs with the Force.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth struck the staircase, the back of his head bleeding from the impact. Everything was blurry, and the lightening went off in different directions, losing its focus and finally dying away. He took in a deep breath, frost still falling from his hair and eyebrows. He looked as if he was made out of ice... and felt about as heavy and fragile, too. A hand came up, tearing away from De'Ville's hold.

<font size=5 color=white>FLASH!</font>

A blinding flash of light erupted before her eyes, painting her field of vision completely white.

[Lady DeVille]

She couldn't see anything except white afterimages which teased and danced in front of her vision. De'Ville closed her eyes and looked through the Force, feeling where Jeseth was, and his condition.

It was not good. For him, at least. De'Ville smiled, and released his body, instead grabbing his throat with the Force. But instead of constricting his trachea, she pinched at his carotid arteries, slowing the flow of blood to his brain, while not stopping it completely.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth attempted to make a run for it, but suddenly he felt light headed, and his entire neck was lit up with pain. His hands cramped up and he turned around to make a grab for De'Ville's child with the Force. His empty eyes lost their usual cold twinkle, and he fell to his knees, sliding forward and onto his hands and knees. Everything was going black... but there was still time to strike one last blow where it would her most.

He closed his eyes, allowing the darkness to take him, the Force guiding his mind's eye into the recesses of her womb. There Jeseth sparked a thousand images to the child, sending it into a tantrum of kicks and punches. Perhaps De'Ville would never know what the winged Dark Jedi had done. Jeseth's hands slipped out from under him, and he collapsed into the darkness.

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville watched her opponent sink to the floor, and then she frowned, her womb seemingly to small for the child she bore. The baby was doing calistenics inside her, a good sign, because it meant he was not injured from her battle, but it was abnormally excited.

She laid a hand on her protruding belly, sending calming thoughts to the three months along child, while releasing Cloak from her grasp, allowing blood to flow freely again. Cloak stirred slightly, and began to regain consciousness.

Once the child had settled down, and Cloak was stirring, she spoke aloud. "Let me pass."

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Very well... you have earned the right to enter, Dark Jedi." He spat some blood to the ground below him, crawling to his feet and pulling both his sabers to his hands from across the landing pad. He clipped the weapons to his belt and tried to recollect his thoughts. Things were a blur. "You'll have to show me how to create those spheres... they are quite... effective." He coughed up a bit more blood, wiping his mouth quickly and making his way into the castle. He'd have to dive into a bacta tank. Most of his injuries were near fatal...

[Lady DeVille]

De'Ville nodded, and walked past him, ready to head up the stairs. Her back ached from the lightening attack, and her legs were cold from the tentacles, making it hard to bend her knees.

Drawing abreast with Cloak, she stopped. "I trust we will have a chance to spar again." He looked to be in bad shape, but she looked back behind him, and at the smoking wreckage of her ship. Frell. Looked like she'd be stuck there a while, at least until she could get word to Capt. Michel Delving.

She walked up the steps, and through the vast doors, entering Bast.