Old Home; Unfamilier Faces (LW, closed) [FINISHED]

[Lady Vader]

LV led LW down the new halls. LW had been there breifly after the new Palace had been built, but she had not seen the many detailings and remodelings that had come after she had gone. As it were, many more security features had been implimented.

They stepped into one of the lifts that took them to the level where the Masters and Elders had their quarters. There LV showed LW to her old room, which LV had kept clean, knowing that her old freind would be back.

They arrived at the room and LV let LW enter first.

"Everything was kept as you left it, save for there isn't a foot of dust on everything."

[Live Wire]

As Live Wire surveyed her old room a strange sense washed over her. It was all she could do to keep from dropping to her knees. She knew the return would be powerfully emotional but this was like she had found herself again. Of course not all of the memories associated with this room were positive, at least not anymore.

She walked around and let Ariel go explore her old room. Almost absentmindedly she found herself walking to the balcony window doors. She touched the doors and flashed back to a rainy night a long time ago. Shocked she pulled herself away. If walls could talk indeed. So much had been imprinted here.

Turning back to Lady Vader she motioned for her to sit down. LW leaned her head back on her chair and sighed before she began to speak.

"A lot has changed since I left and yet I think this place will always be home."

She looked over and made sure Ariel was out of the room before she continued.

"To answer your earlier question....no she doesn't know. I've never told her because I wasn't sure how it would effect her. Not having stability for the past few years was hard on her and I didn't want to do anything to make that worse."

She could see that LV understood.

"I guess I have two reasons for being back and I don't think I have to name them for you. One I know right where he is...the other I'm going to have to find. I tried to locate him while I was gone but only heared rumors. He's the one person in the universe who can disappear as well as I can."

She knew Lady Vader knew who she was talking about and she really didn't understand why she was avoiding saying his name.

"Have you heared anything since Gav left?"

[Lady Vader]

LV's expression hardened slightly, before smoothing out again. The name didn't sit well with her, yet for her friend's sake, she let her emotions lie dormant.

"Through TSO's spy network, rumors have it he had joined a dark side group. It was small for the most part, started by," she paused again, stiffling a scoul, "De'Ville."

She stopped speaking for a moment, feeling the sudden need to go wash. She continued none the less.

"Not much was known of this group. Recently, there has been rumor that the group no longer exists, and in it's place are several smaller groups, one of which Gav has been reportedly seen in the company of."

LV shook her head.

"Aside from that, details are sketchy, and we haven't done much research into the matter. But since you have returned, I can have a small team of our spy network track down where Gav is. He may be able to hide as well as you, but there is only so much a person can hide. We will find him if that is what you wish."

[Live Wire]

DeVille....That was a name she hadn't expected to hear. The rivalry between her and her former apprentice went back many years. It had been so long that the reasons for the fued no longer really mattered. Now there was just a blind hatred, revenge didn't even enter into it. DeVille hated her and she hated DeVille...it was as simple as that.

"I don't want to drag TSO into my personal fights. That is not my purpose for being here. This is my cross to bear and bear it I shall. I don't even know what I will be up against when I find him. If he is anything remotely like the man I onced loved and we fought alongside I do not even dare to speculate."

It was difficult for her to talk about but she had been silent for far too long.

"After his 'death' he never was quite the man I once knew. He fightened me but I kept quiet about the changes because I believed by doing so I was saving him. Now I think I was mistaken. I chose to side with the man I loved to the detriment of others. Thats a mistake I won't make again."

LV looked at her friend curiously. There was apparently much that had been kept from her.

"I don't even know what I will be getting myself into. If it is as you say and Gav has indeed allied himself with this woman then he will be dangerous. If something happens to me I am going to need someone to take care of Ariel."

She could see LV was uncomfortable with this but LW had lived from day to day knowing that this one could be her last. She did not fear dying. One did not walk the path of the dark side without consequences. Her life was clear evidence of that.

Gav was the one person she was drawn too, but he was dangerous, unstable and still she had clung to him. If she let him he could still consume her. She was very well aware that if anyone would be the end of her, it would be him.

"I still believe in my heart that there is something I can do for him. I refuse to give up on the fact that Ariel could one day know her father. Perhaps I am a sentimental fool. I've never denied that part of me still loves him. However this time if I can't save him....I will kill him. If it comes down to my destruction or his I will do everything in my power to destroy him."

Her eyes changed again and flashed a bright yellow but this time they stayed yellow as hatred and anger welled up inside of her.

"People will pay for their past actions and I will make them pay."

Slowly her eyes returned back to their cold blackness.

"As for the other one I have things far more sinister for him. Morgan," she spat out the name angrilly "will learn that you never toy with a sith and live. I have a plan to make him and this new wife of his pay..."

Her grin was cold and sinister.

[Lady Vader]

LV had suspected as much what LW had said about Gav, though it was not her place to speak of any of it. And it didn't surprise her in the slightest that LW wanted to do the finding of Gav on her own, without involving TSO. She had always been like that... putting TSO before herself. It's what made her one of the most loyal members of the Order.

As for the name she mentioned towards the end, LV hadn't known much of the fling LW had, but from what she mentioned, she guessed it was one of GJO's more infamous Jedi.

"Do you mean Morgan Evanar?"

[Live Wire]

"Yes"

That was the only word she could say. Morgan Evanar, jedi master. The history between them was almost as tumultuous as the history between her and Gav.

"I know you didn't know much of what went on other then the fact that I vouched for him. But there was a lot more going on."

She paused unsure if she should say it...

"He asked me to leave TSO. To leave the sith, not for the jedi, but for a life with him. I have to admit I considered it. I almost did it."

She looked at LV waiting for her reaction

[Lady Vader]

LV nodded her head slowly as a slow sad smile spread on her lips.

"And yet you didn't. You are the dark side, my friend. It's too much a part of you, and took deny yourself that would be to deny yourself of life." She looked at LW. "And if there's anything I know well about you, is that you're a survivor."

But the idea of toying with a Jedi tugged at her, and she wondered what her sister of the dark side was planning. Her visage took on a mischievous demeanor.

"So... what were you planning, exactly?"

[Live Wire]

Her plan was not fully formed just yet. She wanted to hurt him bad, as bad as he had hurt her. Her eyes closed in thought. This is what her life had come too planning the eventual demise of the two men she had loved in her life. Yes the path of the dark side did indeed come with a high price.

"Morgan is married to the Jedi better known as AmazonBabe, though her name is Rie Evanar-Mystt. I have a plan to lure her away under the guise of coming to the assistance of an old friend. Naturally this will all be a trap. Once we have Rie we will have Morgan. He is fiercely loyal and will come after anyone who has his wife with a vengeance."

Her mind wandered briefly and before her eyes played back for her were snippets of events that happened in this room. It was as if the dark side was reminding her why she was here, why she came back. People who thought the sith were all dark brooding masochistic loners would have crapped their pants if they could see what really went on inside these halls. The camaraderie, the fellowship, the fun that had nothing to do with beheading Jedi. LW snapped out of her reverie and saw that LV was giving her a strange look.

“I'm sorry. Being back here, in this place, it does strange things to you. My whole life has been here and I guess I'm feeling a little…contemplative. With Ariel getting older I find myself wanting to tie up these loose ends in my life. Morgan, Gav, and I guess even DeVille have haunted my life for far too long and I’m ready to take care of it. I want to move forward. Gav once told me he didn’t want this life for our daughter that he didn’t want her going through the pain that her parents had. But I don’t think he ever really understood…what we did to each other we did to ourselves. The dark side had no hand in that. That was the stupidity of two people.”

She let out a sigh. She hadn’t meant for this to become a therapy session.

“Enough of this crap. My first order of business is to go after Morgan. Like I said I don’t want to drag everyone into this. However if you’d like to accompany me on this one I would love to have you at my side.”

[Lady Vader]

LV smiled. "You know I'm always up for a good fight. Besides, I've heard much of this Morgan Evanar. It would be interesting to cross sabers with him."

She took on a contimplative look before leaning forward slightly in her seat.

"You know... I've had a Sith amulet in my posession for some time now. Happened upon it while on Nar Shadda, in one of those dank little sops in the lower levels."

She sat back again.

"I wasn't sure what kind of amulet it was until I consulted our library and found it was used to lure Jedi to the dark side." Her face took on a mischievous look. "It might be useful for you in hurting Evanar."

[Live Wire]

LW's eyes narrowed as she mulled over the possibilities of this. Her laugh rang out through the suite.

"It's perfect!"

She jumped up from her chair and started pacing as the ideas began to form.

"What better way to exact my revenge than to lure his unsupecting little wife to my clutches and turn her to the dark side. The high and mighty Jedi Morgan Evanar married to a sith. Lets see how much he loves her after that!

Arrogant jedi thinking their way is the right way and that the rest of us are victims that they need to save! I would have loved him despite his affiliations but he just couldn't handle being with a sith woman. Well lets see how he handles it now."

She turned and faced the balcony doors remembering that night he had walked out on her. He said he loved her. She believed he did but the only reason he wouldn't be with her was because she was a sith.

"Oh the beautiful irony. He left me for some jedi now I will make sure she becomes everything he dispises!"

[Lady Vader]

LV hadn't seen her freind so animated in a long time, and it sparked an excitment in her. LV couldn't help but smile. It had been so long since they'd hurt a Jedi. It was time to do so again.

She began to think of what LW had spoken of earlier.

"First we must find a bit of this Jedi woman's past. Find a name that she would be attached to... that she would follow." She tapped a finger against her chin. "Who could we have impersinated to lure her to us..."

[Live Wire]

LW frowned in thought.

"There was a woman..."

She paused going through her memories.

"Jade....YES! Thats it! Some time ago a bounty hunter named Sanis Prent captured a young former jedi woman named Jade Fire."

Catherine was practically ecstatic as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

"She became Vader's pet project for awhile as he tried to turn her to the dark side. Jade was once the padawan of that jedi woman. There is no way she wouldn't come to the aid of her precious former padawan. Once we have her we can successfully turn both!"

[Lady Vader]

LV leaned even further into her seat, steepling her fingers as a slow dark smile blossomed on her lips.

"Delicious."

She looked at the ecstatic Sith standing beside the balcony window. LW was practically sparking at the seems with energy and delight at the unraveling of the plan.

"We can begin as soon as you wish. I may have some other matters to attend to while you deal with the mundane details of the plan, but I will certainly be there for the grand finale."

[Live Wire]

"That is fine I understand you are busy. This is after all my fight."

She rubbed her hands together in delight.

"I am going to see if I can't locate where Jade is and start to put things in motion."

Her last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place and the tips of her fingers were practically crackling with energy.

"The jedi and his wife will fall"

[Lady Vader]

LV stood.

"Then let me introduce you to the amulet."

She looked over as Ariel came bounding out of the bedroom into the living room where LV and LW had been chatting, followed by a bouncing Iesis. LV smiled. "Iesis will watched your daughter while we deal with business."

[Live Wire]

LW smiled as she saw her daughter playing the the cat. Those two had always been fast friends and it was good to see the bond was still there.

LW followed LV out of the room into the depths of the palace. Few came down here and it had been ages since LW had been to the lower levels even when she had been a resident.

[Lady Vader]

LV led the way onto the main floor into the library. From the library, they went to a far corner where an old dusty door stood locked. It was a stark contrast to see the ancient ornate wodden door, covered in a thin layer of dust, protected by high-tech security protocals and locks.

The electronic device scanned LV's eye, reading the individual print, and opened for her, allowing them access down a long set of stairs. Reaching the bottom, they walked down a single hallway leading from the stairs, lined with doors. Each door was identical to the one they had come to, with identical security protocals.

LV stopped at one near the center to the left, indistiguishable from the others. It was only by memory that LV knew where to go. Following the same steps as before, the door opened for her, spilling them into a small chamber.

In the center of the chamber stood a stone pillar about wasit high, a single light shining down on it. Encased in a security feild rotating a floating amulet on top of the pillar. It was very much the same design as where the Sith Holocron stood in the center of the library upstairs, save this pillar wasn't as ornate.

Waving her hand at a certain point on the pillar, a holographic covering disappeared revealing a control panel that would read her palms markings and identify her. Removing her glove, she pressed her right hand on the panel. It glowed a bright blue before turning green. The feild around the rotating amulet hummed off and LV reached in and plucked the maulet from it's resting place.

The amulet was a simple design, circular in shape and hollow, with swirls going from the center to the outter ring. In the center where the swirls met was a single red jewel that pulsed with dark magiks.

She handed it to LW.

"The Sith Talisman of Ensnarement. It should come very much in handy for what you propose to do."

[Live Wire]

LW gasped as she took the talisman. She knew that they existed but had never been in the presence of one. She could sense the power that it contained, sweet seductive power. This indeed could bend the will of the most powerful Jedi. It was very rare that LW was in awe of anything but this had her captivated.

An evil grin spread across her face. "Indeed. This will be the Jedi’s undoing."

LW wondered exactly who knew that LV was in possession of such a powerful object. She doubted it was information that was entrusted to many.

"Is there anything special I need to know about it?"

[Lady Vader]

LV shrugged.

"To a Dark Sider, the talisman functions the exact same way as a concentration amulet, assisting the user in focusing his or her concentration more easily to achieve a desired effect, and allowing them to tap into greater amounts of Dark Side energies." She took a breath. "But to a Light Sider its a whole different story. Sith Magicians of the past had taken notice to some Jedi using Sith Talismans to serve the Light Side of the Force, and to counter this undesired misuse of their devices, they devised a way to charge the amulets with dark magiks designed to instantly lure a Light Sider to the Dark Side of the force upon wielding the object."

She extended a finger, caressing the edge of the talisman as LW held it. "This became an effective deterrent for misuse of the talismans by the Jedi, and thus were soon outlawed for use by Light Siders."

She looked up at LW.

"But we're not Jedi, and we can weild it in any way we see fit."

[Live Wire]

LW's mind was already plotting as she looked at the talisman. There was an idea forming in the back of her mind as she ran through scenarios. Yes...this would be perfect.

"Excellent. Now all I need is one final thing and we will be ready to proceed."

She knew the jedi could not resist using their powers to help others and she was certain that one way or another she could get that horrid jedi woman to use the talisman.

[Lady Vader]

After leading LW up our of the grey hallway, and locking everything up, the pair walked back up to LW's room where Iesis was still playing with Ariel.

The scene was somewhat comical to look at as Iesis lay on her back as the small child pretended to maul the giant cat. It wasn't something you saw everyday. LV smiled and made a mental note to give Iesis a special treat afterwards.

She turned to LW. "Let me know if you need any help with anything." She pointed to the talisman now hanging around LW's neck. "And don't lose that." She smiled and winked, knowing full well the Sith woman wouldn't be losing one of the important tools to her plan.

[Live Wire]

LW smiled. "No need to worry about that"

As she watched Ariel finish playing with Iesis a sense of relief washed over her. 'Yes', she thought to herself, 'returning was the best thing for both of them'.

Turning back to LV she put a hand on her friends shoulder. "I can't thank you enough for all of your help."

LV smiled as if to say don't worry about it. She called the cat over to her and took her leave. Ariel ran up to her mother and hugged her. LW couldn't remember when she was that young when she didn't carry the scars she did now. Shaking it off she chided herself for dwelling on the past. Right now it was time to move ahead. Now it was the time for Retribution (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36193)