All That Remains: Trio

[Darth Acera]

Hoth


It was as though she had stepped back in time. Back so many years ago when all had begun. When the three of them had become just that; three. They had started a long road together, paved with hardship and strife, love and loss. It had been a path not easily trodden, yet the three of them had done just that. And even though one of the trio had left, had struck off in fear, the fact remained that the three souls who found their beginning upon the snow-swept and cold-ravaged surface of Hoth were thus destined to reunite there for the second and final time. Perhaps it was fate. Perhaps.

Was it some sense of nostalgia that dictated the now abandoned Echo Base as their place of meeting? It had been nothing but a desolate waste when they'd dug and carved it from the snow and rock, creating a fledgling outpost that had become so key during the Rebellion's offensive against the Empire.

Now though, it was a shell. An empty husk that held no life.

The once-flickering tactical screens of the control room were dim and lifeless, the wide hangar quiet; where once maintenance crews and pilots had overrun, now only the broken remains of old fighters sat, their bodies and parts too far beyond repair. They had been left in the evacuation to freeze. The corral that'd once held the taun-tauns used for border patrol was devoid of life, fence panels askew and fallen into frigid disrepair.

It was as a ghost town - full of memories yet no one to remember them.

Except for the two who now strode through the empty expanse of the main hangar bay.

"It has the same look to it as when we were first here," the woman spoke with a tinge of dry humor. Her hands, clasped at the small of her back as she kept pace with her companion, seemed to clasp one another in silent anticipation.

[Darth Decepis]

A gale blew in from the yawning expanse of the hangar door, bringing with it a flecking of dry powder that clung to their robes. Acera's master walked a step behind her, finding the nostalgia somehow less endearing.

"Sentimentality."

There was no judgement in the observation. The visage beneath the Lord of the Sith's cowl wore a frown, but he so often did.

"If you find meaning in it, so be it. It is an End to Things. And once concluded it shall be a Beginning."

Beyond the Sith, there was only the faint howl of wind in the distance.

"He won't come."

[Darth Acera]

At that she paused, half-turning to regard her master with a sideways look that bordered on reproach. Ever mindful of her own expression however, the elder Lupine merely pursed her lips as she angled her head away to look before them, her thoughts everywhere and nowhere. She pulled in a long breath of cold air, exhaling through her nose as her halted pace came to a complete standstill. Shoulders hitched back, Acera let the ghosts of this abandoned place surround her.

"He will come."

Her tone was a solid one, sure and steady as she blinked.

"He will come, and I will ensure that he never leaves."

[Darth Decepis]

The cowled face smiled at last.

"Then his is more foolish than I thought. So much the better."

Fleeting, the smile once again faded from a face long-accustomed to a countenance more sinister.

"You had this chance once, Acera. Schwartzweld. Now you can correct your failure to me."

[Darth Acera]

She chose to ignore the words seemingly thrown at her, choosing to rather keep her eye on a fixed point along the far wall, lost in her own thoughts and musings. What would transpire this day was something that both had worked toward. It was something that he had begun so many years ago when first making his true self known. Her body and soul sang in unison, sang that wailing siren call of the ambition that he had fired within her. For as much as she had given to him, he too had shown the same intent to further her own desires and aspirations into a form of continuance. For as much as their children were the heirs to the Sith, so too were they Lupine. Her people would once more stretch out, free from the bonds of the extinction that had wiped away their ancestors. They would put to heel every being that had sought to wipe them from the galaxy, and rise to their rightful place at the head of whatever was to come.

It caused a phantom smile to tug upwards at the corners of her lips, and Acera felt her awareness blossom as her Master's words - from so long past - struck with such crystal clarity in a singular moment of realization.

I am you when you are weak.

Words spoken on this very planet. Words spoken that would not be understood until this moment in time. Words that she only now understood the true meaning of.

The Sith mistress pulled in a breath as if for the first time, her lungs drinking deeply of the air around them. She finally turned on her heel to look at the one who had been so relentless in his pursuits. Her single eye held a passion given new life from her sudden epiphany, and her words were soft.

"What I am now was not what I was then."

[Darth Decepis]

He could feel her last hesistation, her last defense fall. Her faith in her friends, in the Jedi, and in redemption were replaced with the determination of resolve necessary to make all of her desires come true herself. That was the secret of the Sith; their very nature was power above all. To seek power. To hold it in your grasp. To make yourself powerful to pursue it forever. There was no end. And her pursuit would one day bring her to try and destroy him.

She would either succeed, or he would find yet another to take her place.

And again, Darth Decepis smiled.

[Zem Vymes]

(OOC: Continued from Stealing from Poseidon (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?23246-Deception-Stealing-from-Poseidon))

The view from the abandoned hangar led to a vista of flat frozen plains and the blinding white of unmelting snow set against the midday sun. There were more than a few sad tales on Hoth of those who braved the relative warmth of day on the inhospitable ice world, only to lose their way in the brilliant glare and succumb to the cold nonetheless. The austere beauty of intense unblemished white demanded every ounce of respect as the deathly chill of the place.

So it was that a silhouette of an approaching figure drew close to the hangar's opening without heralding his far-off approach to watching eyes. Though the shrouded figure knew those who expected him had other means by which to see, his approach was not as a small form over a horizon, but rather a shape made manifest from the unyielding white. First appearing as a haze of blue, and with each step came more clarity. Only once his snow-besotted robe had crossed the threshold within did his silhouette appear opaque and black against the frozen beyond.

Zem Vymes drew his hands free from the wide sleeves of his Jedi robe where they had previously sheltered from the cold, and carefully reached to his low-hanging hood. A deliberate motion drew back the cover, sending dry white flakes that had sought purchase there to scatter in the faint wind of the hangar's entry. Within lay flat and unremarkable darkness, made more murky by the transition from the brilliance of outside. Neither form nor figure ahead could be seen, but again, there was no mistaking the feeling.

Slowly, he walked the remainder of the distance.

[Darth Acera]

There was a change to the air. A change that carried with it a scent so familiar despite the time apart. It crept along like a slow wave until reaching the two Sith, bringing with it a confirmation of the Mistress' proclamation. She had said that he would grace them with his presence, and she had not been misguided in her assertions. She knew the man who had come to meet them. She knew him so well. His insistence that her salvation could still be attained was something that called to him; it beckoned him to return to the place that the three had come together.

Three. They had come together as such, but only two would leave at the end of this.

The Master and the Apprentice were not a far distance off; their forms standing like two statues at a ruined panel that had once been a corral.

Darth Acera turned to the shape, her body so deceptively calm as she regarded Zem-El Vymes.

She smiled a poisonously sweet smile.

"Come, join us," her voice was - though spoken in low tones - carried by the eddies and currents of the Force across the distance separating them.

"We were just speaking of old times."

[Zem Vymes]

All was silent but the wind in the distance and the sound of his boots on the neglected floor. The darkness in his sight peeled back as his eyes acclimated to their surroundings. There were two, but of course, there always were two.

"I remember the old times."

Zem said, his eyes taking in the place they now stood. He knew of exactly what she spoke, even as her voice called to him oily and fouled with his influence.

Him

The shadow

The man in black

Even now he stood motionless beside his thrall, holding the invisible strings of his apprentice.

Zem's boots stopped, and his hands rested at his sides.

"Back then, you were different."

[Darth Acera]

At that she turned, facing him at least partially. She let her eye run over the shape of him, let her eye take him in. Was it some long-gone desire to see him as he was now, juxtaposed over what he had been so many years ago? She supposed that it was, and with a half-hearted hmph the Lupine turned back to look upon the emptiness of the taun-taun hold. It spoke such volumes to her; it spoke of the empty promises that he'd made, and the void that he had once promised to fill, yet did not.

Her smile, though unseen, became something of its' own. Inviting yet hateful, both dragged into one emotion and given life.

"Back then, I was different," she mimicked, her voice soft and lilting.

"Back then I was so much less."

[Zem Vymes]

Zem's eyes flicked at the Shadow but for a moment, and then back to his friend.

"Lie."

The Jedi Master canted his head towards Acera's master.

"Every lie you tell. And more lies on top of them. And now you've gone and started believing them, and you wouldn't even know what truth looked like through all that darkness."

Gravel settled in his throat as his jaw set square.

"I aim to make you see again."

[Darth Acera]

"Zem-El."

Her tone was level and solid as she slowly turned to face him fully, the corral now at her back. She looked upon him; not in any derision but rather her eye seemed to carry a stern warning. The Lupine folded her hands at the small of her back beneath the robe she wore, hands locking as she took a step forward. It was a slow gait. An almost lazy pace that took her from her Master's side and brought her closer to Zem.

"You seem so insistent upon this notion that I need to be saved from perfection. That I must be freed from the only one who has stayed so faithfully at my side when none would."

Slowing, Acera halted her forward motion to stand before the Jedi.

"Sol Iman thought the same as you," her voice was like a serpent, carrying through the air between them like tendrils of poison to wrap around her old friend. Her head dipped only slightly so that she could look up at him from the tops of her eyes. That normally serene broken gaze had become a vehicle for hate and derision; for rage and deception; for disdain and such dark passion.

"Do you know where he is now?"

[Zem Vymes]

Zem's eyes narrowed slightly, crows feet creasing at their corners. She'd called him a name he'd not heard in a long time.

"One...with the Force."

He knew her black deeds. Knew what she'd done in the darkness in the name of all that was promised to her. She'd sold herself for too dear a price to pay. Zem didn't have to guess what for. His eyes met hers with a tinge of sadness, but no less resolve.

"And you mean to show me the same fate? Unlike Sol Iman, I probably deserve it."

The Jedi spread his hands.

"If that's the person you have become. If that's all that's left of you, then I'm here. But I sense what you haven't let go. What stayed your hand on Schwartzweld. What stayed your hand on that starship."

Zem shook his head.

"No. You won't kill me. Because you know this is wrong. You know he..."

His eyes flicked to the shadow.

"...is wrong."

[Darth Acera]

At that, a feral grin broke her features, and Acera gave a sharp laugh that seemed to echo in staccato beats all around them, given life beyond life by virtue of the emptiness around them.

Her hood hung limp upon her shoulders, her blonde hair falling freely like the still body of a wild beast. She took a step back then, and half-turning, the Sith afforded Zem an unobstructed view of her master; her mate; her all.

Slowly she shrugged the black cloak from her shoulders, ever mindful as she began the meticulous task of folding the dark cloth.

And when she spoke, her voice carried across the short expanse to the one who had kept her safe; kept her his. She had given him so much, and he in turn. A promise of life, a promise of her people to flourish once more. To break free of the gate and be unleashed upon the galaxy like an army. And in so doing, it ensured his own immortality so much further, granting him all that he wished and beyond.

"Tell me, Love, are you 'wrong'?"

[Darth Decepis]

The banter between Acera and her former master and lover disinterested Decepis. It was simply his apprentice's way of goading her enemy. The Lord of the Sith searched within Vymes to discover its effect, knowing how the Jedi Master had once fled from a confrontation in darkness. The wavering he'd sensed in Vymes long ago was gone. He was resolute in his foolish stand.

Frowning from beneath his cowl, Decepis responded to his apprentice.

"He will not be swayed, Acera. Destroy him at once."

The time for talk had passed. The Lord of the Sith required profession of faith by means of blood alone.

[Darth Acera]

The smile of a predator was returned to Zem, her diseased gaze washing over him like an oil slick, intent on damage, destruction, and rotting decay.

"There is your answer," came her only response as fingers brushed the jointed hilt clipped to her leather belt.

"You ran from the Dark once," the sabre at her side fell easily into her grasp, though remained deactivated.

"Are you so certain that you do not wish to do so again?"

[Zem Vymes]

Zem's saber hand tightened in a fist as the sound of two cracking knuckles filled the silent tension of their showdown. The fingers spread, drawing slowly apart as the hand descended like a setting sun below his belt, coming to a state of rest just beyond the contours of his lightsaber.

"I came back to keep my promise. I won't run."

In the gulf that separated them, Zem's narrowed eyes met Acera's mismatched pair of feral orbs. While he sought out her intentions through the force, he also studied the face he knew so well. The face that was now worn by some other Thing that he would draw from her like poison from a wound. The silence between them was a herald of the coming storm. Potential energy balanced on the razor's edge, with only a whisper to call down oblivion.

[Darth Acera]

She seemed almost almost jovial. Happy, as she let the folded cloak fall to the snow-covered ground at her feet.

Even her cheshire-cat's grin was whimsical, and as she sidestepped, the pale yellow of her blade sprang forth from the sabre now in her hand. It spread wide with the motion of her arms as they went out, encompassing everything around them while at the same time allowing him sight into all that she'd become; all that she had grown into.

"Then I am here," she grinned evilly before stopping, her arms lowering suddenly as her features became hardened and full of tense hatred. As night was to day, so too now was the face now that had just moments before been so mockingly happy. The blade of her weapon lowered even as her body angled slightly, giving him a leaner target while affording herself the benefit of a ready strike.

"Show to me this light that you insist I am unable to see... "

[Zem Vymes]

The action was quick, and the torrent unleashed. The saber was in Zem's hand and was already in mid swing before the blade was even activated, a snapping swat up her side meaning to wound at mid thigh. The blade was slapped away with the Sith's own, and Zem used her commitment to the defense to pivot his swing for a counter to remove her weapon hand at the wrist.

[Darth Acera]

It was all so common; so formulaic as they set upon one another; a thrust here, and a parry there. All so mechanical and contrived. And yet, it was so much deeper than what the surface showed. They studied one another, watched and reacted with acute timing and curiosity to see what the other did to counter. It was a dance that was so familiar, so lock-step. It was the stage in which each felt the other's bearings, decided on future probings.

Twisting about, Acera let her blade swing wide in a parrying strike that sent her adversaries own sabre away from her body.

Standing opposite one another, the Lupine allowed a mirthless grin to fall upon her features even as she moved inward, her weapon coming up in an underhanded swipe.

"I feel I must congratulate you on your handiwork," she spoke, her voice like stinging acid, "... taking the arm of my apprentice for a trophy must have been such a noble act for you... "

[Zem Vymes]

Zem crowded forward as he met her saber low, using his leverage to pivot their locking blades away from center. He pressed her still, hoping that the distance closed would make her defense of his blade untenable, and force her backwards. Amid the angry din of lightsaber blades screaming against each other, the two combatants leaned nearly intimately close.

"That pitiable amalgam of wires and flesh? My only regret is that the blade didn't take his head. Larger mercy than you've ever extended that wretched creature."

And again Zem pressed forward to unseat her locked blade.

[Darth Acera]

His closeness she drank in, and pulling one hand away from her blade, the Lupine wrapped it around his neck in a malevolent show of horrid affection. She clutched at him, all the while keeping his blade at bay lest he angle it inward.

Her lips brushed against his earlobe, whispering poisonous words of silk and satin.

"What I do with mine is none of your business, Old Friend."

A taunt, and satisfied with the stiffening of his own body - however slight it was - the Sith Mistress pushed away to dance out of his reach for only moments before skip-stepping her way back into the fray.

Once more into the breach.

Two friends; two lovers; two souls that'd once been so joined as to be one...

[Zem Vymes]

Zem pivoted, turning his back to Acera as he drew his saber high over his shoulder to swat her incoming counterattack before it made good. The pivot lent him momentum he needed to send a kick planted squarely into the Sith Apprentice's middle, further widening the gap between them and allowing him to close the distance, which he did with a chopping strike designed to keep her on her heels.

[Darth Acera]

His blade was deflected, and she back-tracked to allow him ground as their battle brought them beneath the rusted fuselage of an abandoned X-Wing; panels long gone and circuitry hanging loose. Snow-covered parts lay scattered, disturbed and dislodged from their resting places by booted feet that held no cares as to the peace that'd just been disturbed.

The Sith halted then, her body tense like a coiled snake, and she glared at her adversary like a hungry animal, scenting the blood pumping in his veins. It caused a cruel smile.

Her sabre was almost lazily twirled about even as her muscles let loose, and her body surged into terrible motion as she sprang forward to meet him once more in a flurry of pale yellow, a dizzying kaleidoscope of intended dismemberment and death. And yet, there was more that she wanted, and darting inward the Lupine let her body swell with power as she barreled into Zem, one hand clutching the neckline of his tunic in an iron grip as she pushed against him, slamming him into the forward landing strut of the old snubfighter.

[Zem Vymes]

At once, she had the upper hand, and Zem worked to rebuff her assault as she pressed her blade ever closer. Even in the deep cold, a bead of sweat formed on the Jedi's forehead as he watched the nexus of blue and yellow blades drift ever closer to his face. His face stony with determination, Zem's eyes only broke contact with the killing edge of the snarled weapons to see a broken laser cannon barrel wrench itself free from the ruined X-Wing, and hurl itself at Acera.

[Darth Acera]

She could sense the cannon as it was pulled free, and Acera gave a snarl before pushing away from Zem, their blades coming apart and her body twisting away. Like a roiling storm she reeled back, her sabre swinging out in a wide arc to cleave the cannon in two as it passed by unobstructed. Both pieces hit the snow-covered ground a short distance from them, gouging into the hard-packed surface and sending up a shower of white powder before tumbling to a stop.

"Come now," she hissed, her voice serrated with disdain, "... I know that you are better than this."

Her mind stretched out to him, spanning the short distance like hungry tendrils of seeping doubt to wrap around him as her free hand rose, fingers hooked like talons as they curled inwards, the leather of her fingerless gloves creaking with the motion.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem's breath came ragged in a puff of steam as the Sith's embrace found his neck. He could feel the darkness of her intent assailing the gates of his willpower, even as she hoisted him off his feet. Zem's throat struggled against the embrace, a breath escaping in a gravelly growl as he flung his lightsaber like a spear at his opponent. The blue blade whirred by, missing her dead eye by the slimmest of margins and searing at her cheek and a lock of hair as it sailed past, breaking her hold over him.

Zem hit the ground with an open palm striking as he landed on a knee, commanding the force into a maelstrom to send the snow around their feet into a focused blizzard.

[Darth Acera]

Staggered, the Sith clapped her hand to the side of her face, a pained growl escaping through clenched teeth as she felt the seared flesh, cauterized and burning with the acrid stink of a scent she'd come to know so well. It assailed her senses as it always did, and the Lupine stumbled back only slightly, rocking onto her heels before hunching forward like some monstrous beast. Her hand fell away to reveal the ugly line marring her face.

"You..." contempt dripped from the word, and Acera called to his thrown blade even as his wintery creation enveloped them both, snow whipping about in angry curls and gusts.

Both were blind, and yet neither were unable to truly see, and as the metal of his sabre hilt slapped into her palm she thumbed it back on before letting out a gutteral cry, her body heaving in barely restrained rage as she flung the blue blade like a throwing knife into the maelstrom of ice and snow around them.

[Zem Vymes]

Through the whipping snow, the two severed pieces of laser cannon hurled forth at Acera. Zem's commandeered saber met one in a shower of sparks, but the other was hurled unchecked directly into the Sith's side.

Zem saw the sparks, falling to the ground as his lightsaber sailed in what would have been a killing arc, plunging into the side of the decayed X-Wing. He scrabbled to his feet, wrenching the hilt free from the hull, a glowing ring of molten metal in its wake.

[Darth Acera]

She bore the brunt of the cannon's impact, her body knocked back another few steps as she absorbed the collision with a macabre silence, jaw clenched and teeth grinding. It was certainly no deflected blow, but the Sith fed upon the pain that it had brought, feeling as the Darkness swirled wildly about her in frantic ripples, bolstered by the sudden influx of emotion so twisted. Chest heaving, she pulled upon the dark energies all around, calling them like a cursed siren intent on using them in horrid fashion. In fact, her entire form seemed to draw in the invisible blackness, and the very air about her pulsed as if alive.

"Kots!"

The Lupine spoke in the ancient Sith dialect as if it were her own, and gave the sharp order for her old friend's created blizzard to break. And break it did as she swept the knife edge of her hand out in punctuation of her command. As if a sea was parting, the self-contained gusts of snow broke in two halves, widening in the center as a clear path was forged from Sith Mistress to Jedi Master.

She smiled the smile of a predator; the smile of a monster bent on death and destruction. The jointed hilt of her sabre shifted in her grip as the pale yellow blade was given a tight, circling twirl.

A step forward then, and Acera stalked toward him through the corridor of snow and ice that she'd blazed before her.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem, now recovered, took off after her, a full sprint as she met him head on in a clashing of blades. The brilliance of their conflict illuminated the icy cavern. Luminous lightsaber flares picked up in the glittering ice around them. Locked as they were, it was more wrestling match than a feat of swordsmanship. He pressed his blade close, and she returned in full. The battle ebbed and flowed in inches as their blades howled in energetic dissonance.

"That Sith blasphemy on your tongue...they're not your words!"

Through the din, even shouting seemed small. The Jedi Master leaned in, driving a knee to her middle, his off hand grabbing at her tunic to take her to ground.

"And not your ancestors words, either!"

[Darth Acera]

"You know nothing of my ancestors," she spat back, fighting against his greater weight as he pushed into her, intent on driving her to the snowpacked ground.

And still the Lupine strained, resisting his efforts with a valiant show of solid footing and bunched muscles. She grinned almost maniacally at him, their faces mere centimeters apart and illuminated by a brilliant mix of clashing blue and yellow. Each vied for supremacy, and each held the other to task. It was a show of power, Jedi against Sith. Light against Dark. They'd come together as they had been meant to, as the once master and once padawan. Even in this moment she conceded to fate this one victory, that this meeting was destined. Since the first moment they had met, through the Clone wars, through the Purge, through their time on Schwartzweld, their time on Nan'ss'u'mek, and their time with the fledgling Rebellion. They had shared a bed so many years ago, and now they shared the battlefield upon which both struggled against the other.

Or perhaps it was indeed the will of the one now watching? His will that'd turned two hearts in on one another into a terrible collapse?

Whether it was truly one or the other she would ponder on at a later time.

Acera's left hand snaked up then, along his arm to splay slender fingers along the side his face.

"Kintik Chwuc," she intoned in a sharp, guttural growl.

The words seemed to come alive in the air between them even as her fingers became a conduit for a soul-blackening fire that held no quarter, threatening to burn away all that it touched.

She felt him jerk in surprise, and like hooks her fingers pressed in further, keeping his head in her grasp.

"Feel the pain I bore," her voice was nothing but a snarl.

"... the pain that you did nothing to stop!"

[Zem Vymes]

"Errr...aaaaaaaggghh!!"

The unnatural sith magics did their dark work, and the fire Acera brought forth surged where she held fast. In agony and unable to press his assault, Zem flung himself backwards, his lightsaber flailing from his grasp. As he tumbled, he pressed the burning side of his face hard in the snow, where it extinguished with a hiss. Slow to rise, the Jedi stumbled to his knees, the right side of his face red and raw from the fire with which she had assailed him. Zem's breath came out in ragged measures, but his eyes showed the unbreakable resolve to his enemy, signaling the fight was far from finished.

He reached out with both hands, holding Acera fast with all of the might he could command through the force, and with bared teeth, fell across his back and threw his hands over his head. Lashed under his invisible tether, the Sith Apprentice hurled like a missile into the derelict X-Wing's fuselage, crashing with a force hard enough to unseat the fighter from its rusted landing struts, causing it to fall to the ground with a thunderous din.

Zem stumbled to his feet, not looking back. He ran for the door that would lead him to Echo base's command hub, his lightsaber trailing through the snow behind until it caught up with the Master, who palmed it once more.

[Darth Acera]

The impact would have broken a lesser being.

As it was, her body screamed horrid protests at the violent crash into the X-Wing's underbody, and though silent, her eyes clenched shut in agony as she fell once more back to the ground. Her sabre had been dropped, and her muscles protested in agony as she lay with her back skyward, still beneath the abandoned snubfighter. Each joint and tendon screamed their displeasure, and the Lupine let out a groan as she pulled her head up, a diseased, yellow eye watching the sprinting form of the Jedi Master as he retreated, the direction he was taking to the command hub unmistakable.

She could still remember their small cadre carving that very control room out of the snow. So, so very long ago.

A cough, and Acera spat a stream of blood out onto the snow.

Slowly she willed her body up. Like a marionette she rose, each jerking motion made as if her limbs were on strings, and as an afterthought she called her sabre to her waiting hand even as she took her first stumbled step forward.

A sideways look to her master was soon enough followed by a renewed surge of energy as she huffed a breath out through her nose. She lifted an arm, swiping at the thin trickle of blood from one nostril with the back of her leather-clad hand.

Pulling on the Darkness that pulsed all around, the Sith set off at a lazy lope, her shorter stride in no hurry. She would inevitably catch up to her quarry. She would overtake him and she would flush him out.

[Darth Decepis]

Following at a distance, the shadow moved in turn, pale yellow eyes never blinking beneath his dark cowl as he watched the duel unfold intently.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem retreated into the shadows of the command hub. The long-destroyed nerve center of Echo base that once bustled with dozens of officers and technicians of the Alliance, trying to carve out a living in the wastes and to evade the Empire. The lights here were dead. The terminals smashed. The boards where entire sectors worth of star traffic were plotted now stood mute witness to the ravages of time.

Keeping his lightsaber extinguished, Zem continued his retreat, feeling her presence approaching. He stilled his mind, drew within himself. He would not be drawn out. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction.

[Darth Acera]

Her already slow jog became an ambling walk as the Lupine neared the empty, darkened doorway that led into the control center. There was no sound from the inside, but even so her memories brought forth the constant chatter that had once pervaded the room beyond. There was never a break in the low din that had once filled the air, even when the night crews were tirelessly tending to the duties of their shifts. It had been so alive in those early years, and despite the years that'd passed, there was still a sense of that old life to be felt within the rough-cut snowpacked walls.

Acera took a step, passing over the threshold made up of an insulated conduit and on into the hub. So dark and silent. So very peaceful in its' own way.

The yellow of her sabre cast so many dancing shadows about her, illuminating portions of control modules and tactical stations. She knew that her old master intended not to be goaded into revealing himself, but the cruel grin that found its' way to her lips had other desires.

She reached out with her mind, letting her own inner darkness radiate outward like a choking fog moving through a city.

"I do not need the Force to know that you're in here," her voice was as malevolent silk.

"I can smell you."

[Zem Vymes]

Peace.

Serenity found Zem's face. The tension eased away as his eyes closed in the dark. The steamy puffs of his breath in the cold slowed to near nothing. He could hear her. Feel her. He could feel those that came before, their echoes in the heat of the moment frozen within the force as immoveable as ice in this eternal battlefield.

These too slipped from his mind. Slipped into the embrace of the force. Discord became order, in the heart of things. Doubt became resolve. He did not hide in this place. Here, Zem Vymes found strength.

She would come for him. He knew this. He'd always known.

And he would be ready for her.

[Darth Acera]

And still, there was no movement.

Moving another step inward, the Sith looked about as if in a trance, taking in each flickering shadow that the light of her sabre produced.

"I remember the last time that we were in here, Zem-El."

And indeed she did. There had been such activity, such neverending constants of orders and commands thrown about. They'd been two Jedi, thrust into the breach of a fledgling rebellion. They had thrown themselves so selflessly into a beginning war. There had been no knowing that that very same war would tear them apart, yet they'd bulled ahead with only the thought to right the wrongs. To wrest peace from so much chaos.

And now that very same drive was what brought them here now.

Acera knew that the 'peace' would only be achieved through the fulfillment of her own Master's desires, and that the continuation of her people hinged upon his ascension. Zem Vymes had fled once before, and she could not trust him to stand his ground even now.

"We were so young," her yellow blade swept to and fro as she stepped to the side of a tactical station. The once-illuminated glass screen jutting upwards lay dormant and quiet.

"... we were so naive."

And still she wove her way through the hub on a path that was meandering yet full of purpose.

"Tell me, what shall I tell my daughter when she asks of you?"

[Zem Vymes]

She would not unseat him. She would not tear the resolve from his heart and allow grief or rage to do their work. Eyes still closed, only the twinge of his brow betrayed the Jedi Master's intent, speaking with an even tone cast through the aid of the Force, so that the source of his voice could not be ascertained in the darkness.

"More important, what will you tell her when she asks of yourself?"

He could feel her presence. Her resolve was every bit as immovable as his own. He would not back down. There would be an opening.

[Darth Acera]

Despite his voice coming from seemingly everywhere and nowhere, the Sith halted her forward movement, a low chuckle escaping her lips.

"She will know that her mother and father have given her the galaxy to play with as other children play with simple toys."

Spoken with a malice bourne of the Dark, Acera let her words seep outward into the dim and black command hub, illuminated only by her own sabre.

Her blade tracked up then, the tip running lazily across the control panel of the console that she stood beside. The sound of it scoring through unused, frozen components and metal sheeting was satisfying in its' own way, and she kept her eye steadily ahead, her peripheral vision showing her the muted sparks that her action was causing.

"I think," came the malevolent sing-song of her voice, "... that I will tell her you met your end on a fool's errand."

Another evil smile as her next words flowed so freely, letting him know that the terrible consequences of their last meeting had not been enough to keep her from bringing into the galaxy another heir to Darth Decepis' legacy.

"My son too, will know of your misguided intentions as being nothing but futile acts meant to keep him and his sister from greatness."

[Zem Vymes]

Zem hung his head in darkness, sadness deep in his heart. Even now, she couldn't see. So blind behind the Dark Side's shroud she was.

"Another son."

The Jedi Master's eyes opened.

"He will use him as he's used you. Can't you see this? Your son - his heir, is a tool to destroy you. Loklorien, search your feelings."

[Darth Acera]

The sabre's tip seemed to pause, and taking another step forward Acera let her blade swing free, swiping a path through one of the many glass tactical stations that had once, so long ago, been alive with light and life. The path her blade took through the glass melted into liquid just as soon as it solidified once more, only now into two pieces. The top half fell effortlessly to crash upon the console it once belonged to, and the sound of it shattering into so many pieces filled the air around them.

"My son... "

Two words spoken with such terrible joy and hate.

"My son will be the harbinger of his father."

The butt of her hilt was flipped, and she let the blade take a lazy path through whatever it wished. Nothing could deny it - not metal or ice.

"He will be the harbinger of me. The father of a new generation of my people."

She stopped then, standing before a station that she knew well; it had been the very station that patrols were monitored from. The beacons that each rider had taken with them on those long perimeter checks fed directly into this console. She glared down at the silent, dark, and dead controls that had once held so much life; had once kept all of those who'd gone out into the snowy wastes on a life-saving electrical tether.

She clutched the hilt of her sabre anew as her voice growled out a final sentence.

"I'll not see mine and my Master's desires unfulfilled."

[Zem Vymes]

Her words were poisoned. Her motives were hijacked by the evils of Sith teachings. She was a slave to her own self-aggrandizement now, and Zem tried to find something within her now to hold fast to. Something of her true self.

"Perhaps you won't."

Zem's eyes looked above to the ceiling of the command center. Hairline fractures in the ice, likely formed years ago, could faintly be seen here and there.

"Soon you'll be dead, alongside your master and myself."

Finally throwing back the veil of his secluded meditation, Zem reached out, pouring his will into the tiny fissures in the ice shelf above them, throwing them wide to bring the entire thing down on their heads.

[Darth Acera]

There was a moment frozen in time as she tensed her body, feeling his strength as he called upon the Force. Called to those small cracks and lines above their heads. At his beckon they grew, and narrowing her eyes, the Sith pulled in a sharp breath as she felt her chest tighten.

She drew inwards, whispering venomous incantations as her own presence in the Dark swirling into itself, pulling each eddy and wild tendril of the Force with it. Like a black hole she existed, consuming the ethereal powers that wove through life itself.

A moment later Acera pushed her awareness outward, and like a raging storm her anger blossomed. It spread like some rampant disease, pulsing up to meet the crumbling ceiling and hold it in place.

"I am so much more than I was all those years ago," she repeated through grinding teeth, fingers tightening on the hilt of her saber as she stepped forward in his direction.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem unmasked at last, sprang from his hiding spot, the thrum of his blue lightsaber blade brilliant against the dark as he clashed with her. Driving with all of his might, he pressed his attack in the aim to break her focus and to bring the ceiling down upon both of their heads. Yellow clashed with blue in brilliant thunderous staccato, sending sparks showering as they skewered ancient equipment in their tumult. Here and there, icy spall rained from the roof above, cascading off long-dead computer terminals.

The Jedi Master met his enemy force against force, but could not shake her determination. Could not break her hold over the invisible bond that kept them both alive, even as they both sought to end the other.

[Darth Acera]

They met each other blow for blow, and Acera grinned evilly as she pressed her attack. Her movements were swift and fluid as she pulled from the emotions around her, channeling them into her advances. Her body was like a conduit for every dark and decrepit Sith Magic that her Master had taught her. Every ounce of devious and malicious intent was given life with each swift stroke of her blade. The Lupine was like a ravenous beast, intent upon disemboweling its' prey, and her body's motions were testament to the twisted desires she harbored.

But, even she knew that her ability to continue the battle while holding the ceiling from crashing down upon them was not infinite. With steely resolve, she batted Zem's own blade to the side while bulling forward, crashing into him and sending them both through an open doorway. They careened into a corridor, slamming into a snowpacked wall even as she released her invisible hold in the command hub, and the ceiling fell in.

[Zem Vymes]

Knocked clear from certain destruction, Zem swung at his enemy with a wild strike, his saber scoring deeply into the wall as the avalanche from the command center sent a spray of icy debris into the corridor. The Jedi whirled about, disengaging his lightsaber as he threw both hands toward Acera in an explosion of the force, exiling her from the hallway in no uncertain terms to give Zem further room to advance on her, and to bring the fight further into the long-dead rebel base.

[Darth Acera]

Her body skidded along the hard-packed ground, and one hand went out, clawing fingers scrambling to gain purchase so that she could slow her momentum. She growled, feeling her body feed upon the dark energies twisting madly about her, and as she slowed, the Lupine heaved a great breath from her lungs. Her sabre, now silent and disengaged, was clipped to her belt as she rose ponderously to her feet, each muscle and bone protesting in the agony of a Change that was held tightly reigned in. Sinews snapped, tendons flexed, and her entire being was alive with so much conflict. So much passion. So much hate. So much utter rage.

She was a madbeast, a creature so carefully cultivated to destroy.

Darth Acera had truly become the monster that her Master had spent so many years sculpting.

Short puffs of breath were expelled from her nostrils even as her two forms warred with one another, vying for control of her body. Both desired blood and each demanded satisfaction. Her body had become a macabre playground as she stalked forward after Zem, her gait steady at first. Her entire being became a thing in a state of flux; neither woman nor beast, but rather a creature between. A Demi. A nightmare.

Acera's pace quickened into a lope, and as she plunged further into the remnants of so long ago, she let out a snarl that shifted into a sort of roaring cry that seemed to freeze even further the already frozen walls around them all.

[Zem Vymes]

He could feel the conflict within her. So bound up in her hatred that the beast within rattled her frail and fragile cage. As she retreated into what was once the flight briefing room of Echo base, Zem was determined to press on. He wouldn't relent. She would either confront him, or she'd confront her demons.

One seat, then two, rattled from their metal tethers that bolted them to the floor. They wrenched free suddenly, raining down upon Lok as the Jedi Master stalked ahead. He severed another pair from their perch with his saber, a shower of sparks flaring up as they too became missiles directed at his enemy.

As Zem ran across the backs of other seats to approach her at the front of the room, his hand reached out to an ancient control, switching on a holo emitter in front of her, causing her to be enveloped in a disorienting star map.

[Darth Acera]

Like some terrible display she came alive, her body twisted and turning in the throes of a Change that demanded so much while at the same time becoming overlayed by the images of stars and the planets that orbited them. She was a beast that had become beholden to the basest of desires, fuels by so many dark passions and needs. The monster within warred with the woman above, and Acera swung her blade to catch each chair that flew at her.

The images danced over every contour of her leatherclad frame, and the yellow saber swept in quick strikes to deflect the onslaught that was sent her way. She crouched low, affording a smaller target as her very core seemed to tense, her muscles bunching in anticipation as Zem cut the distance that separated them.

Unwilling to wait any longer, the Lupine Sith ducked low beneath a chair, letting it sail overhead even as she sprang forward, unleashing the torrent of energy that had been so pent up inside. Her free hand went out even as she vaulted into the air, intent to meet her old friend halfway, and she called upon the Force in a terrible strike. A wave of energy blasted its' way out from her fingertips to meet the Jedi head on, carrying with it every malignant undertone. And so close behind it, she followed to once more crash into him. She pushed body against body, saber against saber, even as the two tumbled down to the ground.

Taken to the basest of of her primal instincts, the Lupine straddled him and delivered a sharp jab to the bridge of his nose.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem braced, weathering the brunt of her torrent even as the chairs around him were wrenched free in the wrath of the hurricane. His momentum halted, however, and when Acera was upon him, she drove him back against the carnage in his wake. Furious saber strikes were met in quick succession, tangled blades exploding into a shattered chair harness as they fought on relentlessly.

She took him to ground, driving hard at his nose and bloodying the Jedi Master. Zem blinked the stars from his sight, holding her tight even between their locked blades. He pressed against the onslaught, teeth bared as the detritus around them began to levitate in the air from the raw power invested in the exchange. Eventually gaining purchase again, Zem drove a knee hard into her middle, then forced her apart with a blast to find his feet once more.

[Darth Acera]

Acera let out a quick breath, the air from her lungs forcibly sent out with the knee to her gut, and as she felt herself once more propelled away, the Sith turned her body into the trajectory that she'd been sent. Like some creature with nine lives she landed, feet wide and one hand upon the ground as the other held her saber in a backwards grip at her side. She grinned like some evil cheshire cat, knowing something existed beyond the veil of what was immediately visible.

And like a coiled serpent she sprang forth once more, her path taking her into yet another clash with her old friend; with the man who was now a Jedi Master. She met his blade with a ferocity that gave no quarter. It allowed no amount of mistake, and was something that was a fury all its' own. Her form fell into that old familiar; into the old motions of Juyo. And yet it was so much more wild, so much less contained. It was something so wholly new and feral that her strikes were nearly blinding, her motions swift and fluid past what one could hope to discern.

And through it all, through the death by a thousand cuts, she maintained a free hand, reaching out when the moments provided to rake a sharp claw along the tender flesh of Zem-El Vymes.

He would pay in blood for his past transgressions; for his abandonment; for his inability to protect and shelter.

Darth Acera was like a roiling storm, merciless and unforgiving as she pressed inwards. She gave him nothing but what her mind deemed deserving, and to that end her body carried out the punishment.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem lost ground to Acera's primal application of Juyo, the timing of it new and unorthodox. In the midst of her strikes, she lashed out, scoring him with rakes of her nails. Bloodied but undaunted, the Jedi Master continued to meet her assaults, giving her ground as they left the briefing room down yet another forgotten corridor into the bowels of the abandoned base. The neglected lights above in the corridor they fought flickered, casting eerie tricks of light as Zem continued to give ground...continued to give ground...continued...

...and in an instant, he had her, timing her saber strike to land where he predicted, jamming her strike downward with a cleave of his own that sent her blade plunging deep into the ice floor below, he brought his free hand about for a fierce backhand, which a half measure later came about in the opposite direction to crash against her temple in a closed fist. Zem pressed close, twisting about to turn behind her as he inverted his saber in an attempt to stab through her heart.

[Darth Acera]

Jarred by first the backhand, and then the swift return of his fist to her temple, Acera hissed out a breath that held a string of curses. She felt his body move in close, felt his breath, glimpsed the determination in his eyes. His intentions spoke loudly through his gaze, and the Sith moved in tandem with him, twisting her torso even as her body seemed to fold down, her motions fluid yet erratic all the same. She was like a beast having scented the most enticing of prey, and there was precious little her victim could do to turn her away. Even as she fell into a crouch as the blade of Zem's saber stabbed into the air where she'd just been, her body was moving into her next strike.

A leg came up and out, kicking with savage ferocity to catch him just above the left knee with the heel of her boot. A split second later her crouched body reeled about, the yellow bladed saber swinging about in a wide arc on a trajectory that would take it through his ankles.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem braced hard, planting the blade of his saber downward into the ice to halt her advance, checking into her shoulder with his own to break the lock and continue anew. They traded blows, the pace slowing somewhat as the battle lengthened and they jockeyed for dominance with an eye for endurance. Now the strikes were strategic and judged, careful acts of violence to make best use of their energy as they tired. It was becoming clear that this battle wouldn't be ended in a quick and decisive action.

As the Jedi advanced and the Sith gave ground in the tunnel, they at last entered a yawning, cavernous room dominated by a long-cold reactor superstructure. Icicles formed on railings and reactor bulkheads, accentuating the chill of the forgotten place. The two duelists found themselves working up a winding catwalk that traced the countours of the durasteel beast. The occasional wide swipe of tangled blades bit into supports and railings as they ascended the colossus.

[Darth Acera]

Each strike was met with a block, and every action met with a reaction as the two battled relentlessly. Acera gave ground and Zem-El eagerly took it. She let him push the flow of their duel, all the while with evil written across her features. A cruel smile, illuminated in yellow and blue, met the Jedi at every moment.

The yawning cavern that held the reactor allowed for echos of the clash to reverberate all around, and the old catwalk that wound up and up groaned beneath them, protesting at their weight and sudden movements.

Another step back, another block, another explosion of angry showering sparks as the two blades careened through a handrail on one side before arcing up and over to slice through the rail on the other side. Acera was patient despite her furious barrage of saber strikes, and it wasn't long before she levered her weapon against his, holding it to the side even as she swept in close, pressing against him and bringing a hand up to close crooked fingers around his throat, fingertips digging into his skin in order to cut off his air supply.

What she had done at the beginning of their battle she chose now to finish with her own hands. To feel his final breath, and to feel with such tactile sensation his death.

"Eyah seh maat," her words were whispered, her voice deceptively soothing as she spoke in the ancient Sith language once more, "... shu kor huaan."

She bared her teeth, muscles trembling beneath skin in an instinctual desperation to Change. Still, she kept the monster within barely in check. She could feel the inverted crosshead silverbrand at the small of her back burn in a sort of remembrance; anticipation of her victory.

When Acera spoke next, it was in her own tongue.

"{It is time to visit the Gate of Souls, Zem-El.}"

[Zem Vymes]

Again, she spewed sith bile at him, the oily sound of it on her lips like poison that had soaked into the quick of her. It was only too clear to Zem that his friend was gone. Too far twisted by the dark side for him to bring back. Zem hung to that hope, but he'd come to this place knowing that there were two ways to set this right.

He could feel the killing hold on him, and with every ounce of strength he had, Zem pressed back his blade against hers. Not to push it away, but rather to turn it back inwards, returning to a dangerous path that would remove her hand from her arm should she persist in trying to wrench the life from his throat. Her grip slackened as the cuff of her sleeve turned to vapor, and the Jedi Master kicked free from her, leaping over the catwalk and across the chasm to the reactor itself, where he clung to a tenuous outcropping. Securing his purchase, Zem turned back, and with the wave of a hand, he wrenched free the catwalk from the icy cliffs, tearing it down to the chasm below.

[Darth Acera]

With a snarl she was in the air, the catwalk she'd been standing upon twisting in a screech of protesting durasteel before falling the long distance to crash upon the snowy ground far below and send up a cloud of powdered snow.

Her trajectory brought her across the opening, and she landed precariously a short distance from him. She latched onto any handhold her free hand could find, and Acera huffed out a breath, watching as her quarry began to ascend further.

With no hesitation she followed suit, scaling the reactor like a mad beast, hand over hand, up and over to close the distance between them even as both traveled ever higher.

"I can smell your defeat," came her the taunting call, "... can you?!"

[Zem Vymes]

Zem ignored her taunts, climbing further up the superstructure of the reactor, which now lead to the priming coils for Echo Base's massive ion cannon. He could see Acera gaining on him, and as he passed, he raked the blade of his lightsaber against the most obvious means of ascent, shaving off sections of durasteel outcropping and leaving only jagged contours of semi-molten metal for her, which would force her to come to him by some other indirect path. He climbed once more, and again sections of the catwalk were ripped free behind him, flung across the face of the reactor below as he climbed through the workings of the priming coils themselves.

[Darth Acera]

Acera dodged to the side, flinging her body away from the destruction meant to dislodge her, and she reached out to grasp at any hold she could find, fingers scrabbling at the durasteel plates of the reactor and bringing her further upward.

She was a madwoman, uncaring for the cauterized outcroppings as she grabbed them; she could feel the burn and the sting of melted metal, yet still pressed upwards, chasing the Jedi like some hellhound intent on dragging her prey down to the depths of every hell of the galaxy.

She was so close. She could smell his sweat...

The Sith was nearly to him, and with one final explosion of dark energy, Acera launched herself up. She reached out to grab a secting of the priming coil and pulling herself in above him.

There was a moment when both combatants froze, him looking up, and her glaring down with a hungry, toothy maw of a smile.

[Zem Vymes]

Their sabers met as they ascended, a desperate fight for dominance as both Jedi and Sith continued to climb through the heart of the long-dormant ion cannon. Blue against yellow clashed with thunderous din, their glow and showering sparks casting the only light in the desolation around them. Zem swiped wide of his opponent, a priming coil severed in the process. He reached for it, climbing higher until they climbed now in parallel, exchanging blows all the way.

Now in the superstructure of the cannon itself, Zem leaped from his perch, finding solid footing along the base of the enormous gun's barrel. Above he could see the faintest etchings of light that shone through the ion cannon's spherical hull. He met Acera once more, blades locking fast as they vied for dominance, walking the tightrope path down the barrel of the immense gun.

[Darth Acera]

Grim determination fueled her actions now, gave life to the rage that spilled from her like a roiling storm of emotion. Acera was relentless as she pressed on, her saber meeting Zem's in a constant, staccato beat as each vied for victory in their terrible duel. Her Juyo had become a mix of primal power married with precise discipline, and as the two continued along the length of the ion cannon's barrel, the Sith redoubled her efforts as though a wellspring of new energy had poured into her. A revitalized fury coursed through her, gave her strength a new ferocity that set upon Zem like a wild gale.

Further they traveled upward, nearing the opening that would put them outside in the harsh Hoth environment.

Darting away from him, her hand came up, fingers splayed.

"{We end where we began, Old Friend.}"

Her fingers curled inward then, as her hold on the Force solidified and her command of the aether was obeyed.

And from the base of the barrel, a sound could be heard. Barely perceptible at first, it was a screaming that twisted in the air, growing in volume. Metal wrenching itself free, bending beneath the power of her sheer will as the sound of sheering bolts came as a sharp accompanying beat. Durasteel groaned and cried, but for the moment still held aloft the massive barrel of the ion canon.

[Zem Vymes]

They ascended the summit, whipped by fierce icy blasts of wind as they climbed into the sunlight. Atop the ion cannon's barrel, they dueled in precarious balance, now with nowhere else to go. It would be decided here, and it would be decided now. Weary and bloodied, Zem slogged on, matching Acera's strikes with grim determination on his face. As her saber strike swept wide, he brought a hand to her wrist to stop it, and she reciprocated in grappling his own saber arm. They fell against each other in desperate stalemate as the wind buffeted them, threatening to nearly dislodge them from their perch and cast them to the ground below.

[Darth Acera]

They had reached the edge of the cannon's barrel, and Acera planted herself solidly. Or at least, as solidly as the snow-swept and ice-covered durasteel would allow. It was a delicate feat that both accomplished, and as she felt their bodies come together, wrestling for control and the upper hand, the Sith took a certain satisfaction from the raw and tender flesh of the side of his face that she'd touched. She took joy in the blood trickling from his nostrils. She was nearly content with the state of him now, so worn to the ground that only his misguided sense of duty and misplaced hope kept him in this fight.

With a surge of power she brought her saber hand - wrist still in his grasp - up and over to crash against his blade once more. It was a calculated move, and with his blade held down by her own, Acera released his wrist to close around the lower jointed half of her saber hilt. A click, and the hilt came apart into two pieces.

Like lightning she pulled the bottom portion free, exposing a silver blade - serrated on one edge and smooth along the other. Sith runes ran along its' length, their message of dominance almost glowing through each mark.

On Kestus Minor, she had used a blade to incapacitate him; to slow his reactions.

Here, she moved to kill.

The Sith blade seemed to sing as it was twisted within the small space between their bodies, milliseconds before she pushed forward, the blade sliding easily past roughspun cloth and through the soft flesh of his stomach to bury itself to the hilt in his midsection.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem faltered mid struggle, mouth agape. His grip loosened at his blade, the saber hilt tumbling from his grasp, skittering over the hull of the ion cannon and to the precipice far below. The Jedi Master's shaking hands drew the killing weapon from his body, letting it too fall away as he looked at his friend. His bloodied hands grasped at her tunic, not out of a desire to continue the fight, but something more desperate. An unrequited demand for something more powerful than hatred, he embraced her tightly, gasping a ragged breath.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this!"

The emotion on his face was grief and agony, a hot tear defying the raging blizzard around them. He met her unyielding eyes. Eyes that were once so familiar, now changed drastically. A bloodied hand reached up to her face, and faltered.

"You were everything to me Loklorien! I did all I could to keep you from this darkness!"

His legs betrayed him, and Zem slid down, clutching to the hem of her tunic in his shaking grasp. He looked up at her.

"I...loved..."

His hands fell away from her, and Zem Vymes fell from the precipice, far below to the snowy drifts.

[Darth Acera]

She watched him fall, a strange look on her face even as her saber fell silent. So much had been spoken with so few words, and his partial admission had brought to life something that'd been buried for so long...

She crouched down, peering over the edge. A solitary click sounded within the gale of wind and snow, signaling her saber being placed once more to her belt.

Her head angled, her mind trying to parse his words even as the core of her being brought up so many old feelings. So many pure feelings.

She frowned.

And in the next moment, Acera began to let herself slide, to slip from her once stable foothold. She slid over the edge of the cannon, calling upon the Force to guide her descent, and when she landed far below, her impact remained as the smallest of arrivals. She could see the body a short distance away, and like a predator advancing upon its' prey - knowing the end was near - she was respectful at least of the quiet that was necessary.

Acera crawled through the snow, an arm reaching up, her hand traversing the length of Zem-El Vymes' chest to cup his chin with slender fingers and turn his face to her.

"What did you love," she whispered.

[Zem Vymes]

Blood stained the snow, and one of Zem's crimson-slicked fists clutched fast to the epicenter of his stab wound. The other hand reached pleadingly up to Loklorien s'Ilancy, trying to find her own. He blinked unfocusing eyes in her direction, trying desperately to speak, his pallid lips only making the motion of 'y' as he fumbled for her hand to hold.

[Darth Decepis]

The driving snow revealed another familiar presence approaching. The cowled Dark Lord of the Sith applauded softly.

"Good, Acera! Good!"

He closed the distance, standing beside his apprentice to look dispassionately at the broken specimen at her feet.

"At last, the end. Look upon what you have done."

Darth Decepis at last smiled, an expression devoid of mirth as he watched the Jedi Master languish before them.

"Finish it."

[Darth Acera]

"I'm not done!"

The appearance of her Master had suddenly become a nuisance, and the Lupine turned an annoyed eye to him, as if his very presence needed to be brushed away.

She turned back to Zem, her eye moving up the length of his body, past the hand that clutched so desperately to stem the tide of blood spilling from his middle.

One hand had turned his face to her, and now, the other snaked in to cup his face, bringing it so close to hers.

"Tell me now," she whispered...

[Zem Vymes]

"y...y....."

There was no sound to his words. Only the lips willed to move.

"...you..."

[Darth Decepis]

Baleful eyes gleamed yellow within the shadow, and he would not be denied a moment longer.

"Kill him! NOW!!

[Darth Acera]

"I'm not finished!"

Acera would not be denied, and as she kept her hold fast.

He had only loved her...

There was a spark of flickering life that flared within, snuffed out just as quickly and her features fell into a stoney countenance. Her body moved then, and the Sith swept up to face her Master.

"What is done, is done," her voice, though trembling, was resolute.

She let a breath out through her nose, shaking hands moving up to clasp together in a sort of penance.

"He is dying."

[Darth Decepis]

"What is done, is done"

The Dark Lord heard her words, and the meaning within them. Even now, she hesitated.

"You are mistaken, Loklorien s'Ilancy."

His hateful countenance fixed on her, his scowl unmoving.

"You are finished."

A mere flick of his hand was all it took to draw her up into the air, her limbs wrenched violently, stretching taut like an abused marionette. A single accusatory finger pointed from his robes, a torrent of sanguine red lightning lapping eagerly across the distance between them, driving into her heart before forking violently through every extremity of her body. Tendrils of crimson raked her face, arcing as they snapped into her eye sockets.

[Darth Acera]

It was like the most delicate of agonies, the energies that he fed into her body so precise and wicked.

She could feel herself lifting into the air, each limb pulled and manipulated by her Master like some simple puppet. Her back arched in an instinctual reaction and her entire body bowed, her head flinging back as she let out a scream which filled the air and extended so far beyond.

She had done all that he'd asked... all that he'd desired...

She had given him not one, but two children, two little ones to carry his legacy into the future, to go before him, to herald his coming...

Acera fought against the power flung at her, fought the sudden and torrential energies of her mate's horrid betrayal...

[Darth Decepis]

The hand at Decepis's side clinched into a fist, shrouded by the sleeve of his robe. The lupine's limbs splayed, and her shoulders dislocated with seemingly no effort. He kept the other hand fixed upon her with its single accusatory finger leveled in her direction.

"It is clear to me now. You are not the apprentice I seek. You never were."

Again, crimson lightning raked through s'Ilancy's body - her very bones illuminating with horrible energy beneath her skin.

"You are no different than the other fools who came before. A tool and nothing more. Unfit to take your place at my side!"

Decepis's baleful expression twisted into a snarl as Loklorien's legs broke in unison at the ankles, and arms at the wrists.

[Darth Acera]

She cried out, a horrid voice that lanced through the daylight sky and met only by the windswept snow.

A last scream, and her head fell forward as her eyes fell pleadingly upon her master, her body breaking beneath his fury.

"I am your servant," her voice was week, feeble, and trembling even as the pain that coursed through each part of her body fired anew, bringing with it so much agony.

"I've given you all of myself," it was an accusation then, flung down at him as she gazed at him, her eye pleading and begging, desperate for him to end his tirade of whatever shortcomings he felt her to possess.

Any other words she might've had were cut off as she threw her head back once again, feeling as his power tore at her, stretching her body past what it could cope with, beyond the boundaries of any being.

[Darth Decepis]

At her words, Decepis smiled.

"Yes, you have. My son."

His tortures relented a moment and he held her in mid-air. The Dark Lord wanted to see her face. He wanted to see how complete her failure truly was.

"He is strong. Stronger than his mother."

Decepis spat that final word out with disgust, his frown reappearing.

"You let yourself be deceived. It is time for you to understand your failure. I have more planned for Markos than you could possibly imagine."

[Darth Acera]

"No!"

With a surge she felt her body buck against the invisible hold that her master held over her, and she let the Force pulse with her emotion; so raw and unchecked, it was the emotion that was unfettered; the connection of a mother with her child. It was something that the Force magnified and sent outward. It was the base emotion of a Lupine that rippled outward to take all in its' path.

"He is MY son!"

Desperation fueled her then, and Acera fought against her Master's hold, painful as it was. She was possessed, a woman so singularly bent to protect.

And the Force conveyed that fact in terrible fashion, pulsing out from her body like a tidal wave of destruction, sending up a shower of snow and ice in its' wake as it spread outward like ripples in a lake.

"You leave him alone," her voice, though strong, still trembled.

[Darth Decepis]

He felt her rage and anger. So raw and exquisite. It held such potential. Such a waste. Eyes closing amid the maelstrom, they opened again when his torments began anew to quell her.

"No, Loklorien. You are mistaken."

His cowled yellow eyes gleamed malevolently. A possessive hand grasped into a fist.

"He is mine!"

Approaching his failed apprentice, he watched her hang before him, a knowing smile on his face.

"And when the time is right, I will bend the unnatural forces of the Dark Side to my will, and my spirit will take possession of what rightfully belongs to me. Through your son, I will rule the galaxy for another thousand years!"

Cruel laughter sounded, and Decepis no longer looked at Acera, instead looking to the sky itself.

"At last, I can see the true failure of Darth Bane's teachings. Master and Apprentice, there is no longer need for such things. The Sith will endure forever through my will alone! And I will take what I please to rule forever!"

[Darth Acera]

Horror fell across her features then, as her Master's words spanned the short distance between them. Acera looked down at him in dawning realization as devastation and betrayal became written so plainly on her face. All that she'd done for him, every sacrifice that she had made for him, each moment that she had placed his needs above her own. And still it'd not been enough.

Held aloft now, the Lupine wrestled within his grasp. She cried out in pain, each movement its' own agony. Her Master, her mate, her everything... he was relentless, his cruel punishments nearly tearing her body apart.

"You can't do this," her voice was choked, and tears had formed to run down her left cheek.

The Sith let her head fall forward then, her body broken, and her mind raked with the merciless claws of her Master's words.

"Stop this," came the soft, begging sob, "... please stop this now... "

[Darth Decepis]

"You can't do this"

"Stop this... please stop this now... "

The Dark Lord of the Sith heard her words. How small they sounded. Desperate whimpering from one which should know better, searching for mercy where she knew none would be found. While he had never intended to willingly surrender his gifts and power to her, he never expected her to revert to begging. She had thrown aside everything that made her powerful.

He complied with her wishes in his own way, allowing her to collapse into the snow beside the Jedi. Decepis walked away from the pair, pausing before he was out of earshot.

"Die knowing that there was nothing you could have done to prevent this. Embrace your destiny."

The superstructure of the ion cannon far above began to buckle, sheared by a powerful unseen force. No longer able to fully support itself, it slowly began to succumb to gravity's pull, a violent wrenching of screaming durasteel howling over the din, as Decepis left the two duelists to be crushed beneath it.

[Darth Acera]

Embrace your destiny.


She lay shattered in the snow, her mind and body crushed by her Master's betrayal. She blinked away her tears, unable to wipe them from her cheek as her entire being had become nothing but a husk, nothing but a broken vessel. Cast aside like some spent power cell, Acera closed her eyes tight, her jaw clenching as another wave of pain fired through her body. She let out another sob, only now fully understanding the deception that had been played to her. The soothing words that he had spoken to placate, the tenderness that he had shown to her, the love that he'd claimed to have for her. All of it had been so many lies, so many falsehoods told to keep her in his thrall.


Embrace your destiny.


The torturous screeching of twisting durasteel and sheered metal reached her ears, and Acera opened her eyes to gaze up. It was like slow-moving beast, the cannon. What pitiful few supports that still strained to hold it aloft bent, warping beneath the sudden weight redistribution before breaking entirely.

In her mind's eye she watched as so much of the past played out before her, each word and action, each decision that had been made that'd ultimately brough her here, to this moment in time. There had been such wonderful moments that she'd once treasured - their hearts now rotted and turning to dust. Each memory had been a lie. Everything had been so calculated by Dan. The Man in Black. Darth Decepis. Her Master. Her husband. If he had twisted a blade into her chest and carved out her heart, it would never hurt so much as what she now felt.

She saw her daughter, so happy and full of life. She saw her son, so new to the galaxy and so innocent. She saw Dan, smiling as he leaned down to place his lips upon hers in reassurance that all would be well, and they would be together into eternity.

So many lies, so much treachery.

Acera screwed her eyes shut once more, even as the thunderous echo of the cannon drew closer.


Embrace your Destiny.


She could feel Zem's essence, slowly slipping away even as her own mind caved in upon itself.

He had loved her. Through it all, he had held fast to her, fast to her soul. When she could not see it, he had always held nothing less than love.

And in a last single act, the Lupine stirred, crying out as every muscle and bone, every tendon and ligament screamed in agony at her desperate motion. So much of her had been made useless, and yet still she pressed on. Through the pain she fought, and in those last few, precious moments before the ion cannon crashed atop the both of them, Acera flung herself atop the Jedi Master as if to shield him from the oncoming mass.

Her broken body braced as much as it was able, each movement causing so much lancing pain to sweep over her. And then silence. The rush of displaced air pushed against her back, and she knew that it would be over in mere seconds. As her tears fell on his cheek, she brushed her lips against his ear, whispering her last words.

"I'm so, so sorry... "