Abandonment - 10.045

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The Mando'ade were pleased with their fleet of ships. They numbered seven now, including the large Hammerhead-class ship they had built from pieces with their own hands. It was theirs. And with the addition of other, stolen vehicles, they had room for their families. They could take what they wanted from the galaxy.

It was good.

Mand'alor stood on the bridge of the Haran, hands clasped behind her back. It was all pointless. She was mining the arse-end of the galaxy for corusca gems and coming up with bits of glass. Pretty enough, but ultimately just a distraction. This - all of this - was a distraction from her purpose.

How long had it been? A month since Woostri? And how long since Callidus had contacted her? Many months. He was content to leave her to rot with the Mandalorians, finally having rid Onderon of their presence.

Of her presence.

Malleus turned and walked off the bridge, heading toward the hangar bay in the belly of the ship.

[Bretak]

Bretak was taking his meal when someone messaged him on the comm. He frowned, and answered. "Speak."

"Al'verde, Mand'alor is leaving the fleet."

"Explain." He wiped his mouth and stood, pulling his helmet on.

"She required a starfighter, and says she is leaving. For good."

Bretak frowned. "I will be right there." To be honest, the only surprise was that this woman had not left the Mando'ade sooner. He had expected it every day, and as time went on he almost believed that the dark one was one of them. He had sent his son to learn with her apprentice, A'den... his heart felt pain at the thought. They had not returned to the Mando'ade in nearly a year. He assumed they were dead.

As he made his way to the hangar, he began to run, if only to witness what would happen next.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She stood outside the starfighter, an X-Wing that had seen better days but had been acquired from a Tatooine junk yard and fixed up. Malleus reached up and took off the helmet of her armor, letting it drop to the durasteel deck plating with a bang. The Mando'ade in the hangar all turned toward her at the sound.

The breastplate went next, crashing to the deck, and she was stripping off the arm and leg armor when Bretak showed up. He stood silently, witnessing.

When she was down to just a grey bodysleeve and the armored boots, she stopped, looking her second in command in the eye. "They are yours now." His helmeted head inclined slightly - perhaps it was a nod.

Malleus stepped out of the boots and climbed barefooted into the X-Wing, her lightsaber the only item she brought with her. Minutes later she was free of the tiny fleet, and headed toward the Hapes Cluster.

[A'na Eldhil]

He will pay for ignoring us. He thinks he can just send us to harry the borders and cause trouble, as if we are accomplishing something? Better to find a starkiller and just destroy Coruscant. Blow the damn thing up, the Empire and all it's leaders in one fell blow.

He is not as strong as we thought child. Or he simply intends to leave us out, while playing house with his lover and child. What a mistake. He will pay.

I will make him pay, and I will take his power. You are weak child. You lose your master and pretend strength while clinging to her last words. And the next authority figure that comes along soon has your slavering devotion to his every whim. Pathetic.

A'na Eldhil flexed her fingers, staring out at the sworls of hyperspace as the starfighter made it's way through the deep of space.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The Transitory Mists eventually revealed it's secrets, the Hapes Cluster unfolding in front of the canopy of the X-Wing. Malleus took a moment to plot the hyperspace coordinate for Terephon, and stared at her hands. They were white and cold, her bodyglove not sufficient protection in the life support of the fighter. It was designed to keep a pilot alive in space, so she would not freeze to death, but sans helmet and gloves and boots the cold was getting to her.

She drew within herself, deep in the warmth of the hate growing there, and ignored her body. The stars of the cluster stretched into lines and the X-Wing slipped into hyperspace.

[A'na Eldhil]

Terephon. A dreary, murky planet, suitable for exile. Is this why he chose it? To isolate himself from his apprentices, to give himself a sanctuary for deep thoughts and dark purposes.

The speeder raced across the moors, the fog swirling in it's wake.

The house is as we remember it. Imposing. Quiet. Where I was born anew through their incompetence.

Malleus kicked the door in, the double doors swinging on their hinges as she stalked inside. The Force called to her in her rage. The manor was empty. She stalked through the hall into the library, sending the books and datapads to the carpets with the Force. She moved on, like a hurricane contained in a bottle, the interior of the house no match for her anger.

A petulant child. This may get his attention, however. And yet... to really get his attention... Anxia.

Anxia. Malleus carved the name into the wood paneling and left the empty house behind her.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She felt almost droid-like as she went through the motions, getting clearance for landing on Hapes, and piloting the starfighter down. She was not an accomplished pilot, but her movements felt more self-assured than was warranted. The X-Wing settled softly on a landing pad in a starport, the name went through one ear and out the other. Irrelevant. It was all irrelevant.

Traveling the Mists had been surprisingly easy as well, considering her lack of skill. When she tried to think about the journey there was nothing but blank space in her head.

Anxia.

Malleus stalked through the capital, Ta'a Chume'dan, her feet still bare and getting filthier by the minute as she walked, as if her body were just a temporary shell and needed no taking care of. Her lightsaber hung on her hip, perhaps the people around her thought it was a flashlight. Perhaps they didn't. No one stopped her.

Callidus.

The palace loomed ahead of her. When had she gotten so close? Malleus' hand tightened on the hilt of her saber as she found herself at a door, female guards stepping forward to stop her. Beyond was surely the Star Throne and Anxia, somewhere inside. They were trying to stop her.

Her lightsaber ignited.

[Darth Callidus]

In the stone archway that was the sole entrance to the monumental Fountain Palace (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Fountain_Palace?file=FountainPalace.jpg), a dozen royal guards lowered their pole-axes towards Maellus. Twelve women dressed in blue and gold, proud, the sun glistening against their armour and the points of their weapons.

“Halt!” one of them barked, in native Hapan. Her eyes were full of fierce and righteous anger.

Behind Malleus, something slithered up over the edge of the black basalt cliff overlooking Ta'a Chume'Dun: a living, breathing shadow that slowly congealed into the shape of a man.

“Sssleep,” the shadow hissed, one hand outstretched, and the guards crumpled to their knees with a clatter of metal against stone.

They'd barely hit the ground before the shadow raked his claws through the air and the Dark Side lashed around Malleus's throat, dragging her back towards him.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She gave into the pull, angling her lightsaber so it extended to her side, and pushed off with her feet, twisting her body in the air so she faced him. "Callidus!" She felt rage - why? - and pulled at his shadowy body with the Force as if to cause him to meet her halfway.

[Darth Callidus]

The shape of him solidified as he vaulted towards her, Callidus's ghoulish mask forming out of the shadows. His lightsaber snapped to life as he crashed into her, the blades meeting with a shower of sparks. The death's head mask was translucent over his features, a hint of his true face visible: lips curled into a sneer, white eyes full of fury.

[A'na Eldhil]

I take full control of her body, my gathered energy potent enough to wear her as a glove. Malleus' face is blank, just hate in her eyes as I duel him, her mouth panting for breath as we fall into the forms of Vaapad. He brought me forth from the dream, my energy always attached to my apprentice by the thinnest of threads... I haunted her, driving her to greatness.

She fails me again, seeks comfort with another master. And the boy - THE BOY! Such a failure and now a triumph of willpower. I see myself in him, my lessons.

I will teach him another.

Malleus parried his lightsaber, her movements slightly odd but fluid enough to hold her own. She thrust wildly, the Dark side surging through her like a torrent, stronger than she had ever been. Callidus blocked, their sabers locking bringing them face to face, two masks.

[Darth Callidus]

Two blades locked in a stalemate, Callidus pressed to push her back towards the palace. He felt her hatred, as strong and pure as it had ever been, and yet – her face was a void of emotion, even as she struggled to hold him back.

High on the battlements above, figures in blue and gold cried out in alarm. Callidus took a step forward into his apprentice's guard, his eyes fixed to hers.

“Don't make me destroy you.”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

His eyes met hers, and for a moment there was confusion in her face. She pulled back, guard falling slightly, then as if a curtain was pulled over her face the confusion vanished and she thrust her hand out. The Force billowed out from her, buffeting Callidus back toward the edge of the cliff.

Her lips peeled back in a sneer, her voice... not her own. "She is mine to destroy."

[Darth Callidus]

Callidus recovered without a beat and saw just enough of the ripple across his apprentice's features to realise what was happening. He should have known that it would not be so easy to rid Lilaena De'Ville of her demons (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?21826-Out-of-the-Shadows-8-326). She was broken. More than that, she was a liability.

Figures carrying long rifles took a knee in the embrasure's above: the Fountain Snipers. One of them loosed a bolt. Callidus spun his saber in a blur of light. The shot ricocheted back at Malleus, as more laser-fire rained down. Guided by the Dark Side, he moved faster than the sniper's eyes could process, catching the blaster bolts only to knock them at his sleep-walking apprentice.

“Anxia,” his voice seared through the walls of the palace right into the mind of the one he sought.

[A'na Eldhil]

I laugh inside, deflecting the bolts with ease. He seeks only to distract me, to force me to keep my distance.

Anxia, he calls. She doesn't like it but can't define why. What a fool she is. Still chaste? And now her first school-girl crush. Somehow it makes infuriating sense. My fingertips crackle, dark energy forming in my palm only to be released at him like a shot from a gun. The Destruction with explode on whatever it impacts.

I seek not to destroy but incapacitate. To...take over a more worthy vessel. She leaps toward the gate with a roll, staying away from the edge of the cliff.

[Razielle Alastor]

At the octagonal gaming table that dominated the center of the Queen's Drawing Room, the sunlight reflecting off the Kamarian-crystal chandelier above cast prismatic reflections upon the glossy backs of the stacked playing cards. They went untouched tonight, as did the now cooling cup of floral tea that had been set to her side. It was not an unfamiliar sight for an evening, the present group of people clustered around the drawing room, each engaged in their own pursuits. Far from tired, Razielle had been about to play a few hands with Lucianus, but something unsettling had come over her and she had never picked the deck up. Nearby, his little pupil, Beatrix had just fallen asleep on a couch with her head resting against Lira, who had been reading quietly to her. The only person present in the room not seated and indulging in some pastime, but rather standing about like a piece of Per'Agthra, was the Chume'nor captain installed at the double doors.

Razielle's feeling of disquiet only continued to increase, yet she remained still. The only outward showing of her mental unrest was her fingers, worrying at the amulet suspended around her neck.. She was conscious of her very attentive Chume'nor and the fact that someone had just brought him a message, which he said nothing about but his face had grown a little.. sour. She had no intention of leaving her seat to go and ask him, but had been about to call him over to determine the source of his pinched expression when darkness crept through her, like ice water spilling into in her veins. It began in the fingers of her left hand, which twitched reflexively, right before the voice she least expected to hear put her into action.

Callidus..

"Mars.." One syllable, but both Lucianus and Lira responded to the name at once. Razielle was not speaking to her daughter's tutor, or the courtier he sometimes chose to be. Her meaning would be understood, Lucianus too would have detected the disturbance.

"I think I'll take our queen to bed.", Lira said automatically, sliding the limp little girl into her lap. She could move her fast and, more importantly, without waking her. She headed toward the doors leading into the royal apartments, and the bed chambers beyond.

Rising from the cushioned seat, Razielle fixed an uncompromising stare upon the Chume'nor. "Stay with them. I am holding you personally responsible for them.", she indicated the retreating form of Lady Terranova, her tone did not allow for any protest. Anywhere she might go, the Chume'doro were also stationed about. The regent was well protected, and yet she was only regent because Ishara was without a head.

When it was just the two of them, Razielle gave up her pretense of calm and turned to Lucianus. The courtiers disliked most of her non-Hapan favorites, they did not understand why she would choose to keep such people so close. They considered them all to be unjustly favored, lucky to be in the regent's esteem. Not so. She was the lucky one. Lucianus stayed because he chose to, not because she commanded him. She did not need to say anything. She had to go, and he would keep Beatrix safe, that was understood. She stopped only long enough to retrieve her weapon, keeping it tight in her grip as she moved.

Anxia did not need cover of darkness to move through the Fountain Palace unseen. Her pretty exile had afforded her with plenty of time to learn how to do just that. There were ways that were known to some, things that the Chume'nor had shown to the queen regent for her safety, and things that she had discovered herself. She knew where to go. She could feel it. The main gate opening onto the crags above her city, Ta'a Chume'Dan.

She moved faster, faster...

She did not bother with skulking about in black robes, not in her own city. Her gown was blindingly white, as was the hooded cape she pulled over her dark hair, emerging from a side door tunneled into the black basalt, beside the main gate. Above her sniper fire continued to rain down, glittering golden uniforms were sprawled useless as puppets on the ground, and before her..

Her master yes, and Malleus. Right there before the gate of the Fountain Palace, half dressed, filthy and common as ever, clearly assaulting both their master and the palace. Her master's blunt weapon was becoming a bit of a problem, and apparently was here to kill her. Anxia ran a tongue across her teeth, and stepped forward into the chaos, eager for the chance to be set free upon something for a change. Bolts flew. Anxia gestured and tore free and piece of a fallen female guard's chest plate, it rotated around her as she moved forward with purpose, deflecting fire as it came her way.

"No further..", she confirmed, curling her hand around her weapon, beneath the folds of her cloak. She had ideas about how to proceed, but Malleus was her master's to deal with, she waited, hanging onto restraint with the sweaty tips of unwilling fingers.

[Darth Callidus]

The snarling, seething energy swallowed blaster-fire as it careened towards him. A moment from being consumed by unnatural flame, Callidus rippled away. At one moment in the path of the Destruction, within the blink of an eye he was further away from the palace but no longer in the spheres path. The energy field slammed against the cliffs edge, searing through the black basalt and spitting molten rock onto the rooftops far below. The blast of the impact gusted hot against his back, his cloak and robes whipping around him.

A huge blaster bolt punched into the ground to his right. Callidus's eyes snapped upwards, where he saw the turrets of the palace's gun emplacements swinging their sights onto the three Sith, the Foutain Gunners adding to the Fountain Snipers ranks.

Every minute their battle went on was a minute too long.

The Sith Lord called out to his faithful apprentice.

“Destroy her.”

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She arrived, blazing white like a hero, and De'Ville spun on her heel, facing the new threat. Rather than wait for the Sith to approach, she went on the offensive immediately, leaping forward as a wall turret targeted where she'd been. The ground exploded behind her as she slashed high with her saber across Anxia's face.

[Razielle Alastor]

Despite the fact that the two Sith apprentices had never bonded as sisters, as Anxia and Creas (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?14917-Night-of-the-Hunter-(closed)) had done, Anxia had long ago resigned herself to the knowledge that Malleus too served their master's grand design. So obediently, she had worked with her fellow apprentice. It was true, she resented Malleus, begrudging her every moment she could move about the galaxy freely, engaged in some purpose. One luxury that even the regent of Hapes could not afford. Hapes. Anxia had gained much from the Consortium, and sacrificed much for it, and she would be damned if she was going lose it all now to the indiscreet insurrection of Malleus.

Destroy her. Callidus wanted this. That was all she needed to hear, and it became an objective to be met.

There was a dark bond between master and apprentice, she drew passion and strength from his very nearness. It mingled with the anger that her role in the Consortium could potentially be threatened, and her eagerness for the sudden ability to loose her pent up aggression. She did not fear, she not not move. The gentle Hapan breeze tickled the trailing sleeves of her angelic gown. As the turret fire exploded on the ground just behind them, Anxia's weapon likewise exploded to life, rising upward to defend herself in a sudden flash of violet light, completing the action along with a powerful shove of the Dark side, right back toward the ground that was fast beginning to crumble away beneath them. Gravel, debris and unconscious royal guards all flew backward toward the cracking basalt foundations.

[Darth Callidus]

While his students battled, Callidus turned his attention to the face of the Fountain Palace. More guards were clustering on the battlements. In-between the shrieks of blaster fire, he could hear their captains calling out orders in Hapan. Dozens of them jostled for position, dozens of witnesses.

Callidus vaulted into the air, cape billowing wide behind him like hideous wings. His boots grazed the stone archway above the palace's main entrance for an instant, before he launched himself higher, onto the parapet of the battlements.

Two guards cried out in shock and were silenced as Callidus scythed his saber through the air, cleaving their heads from their necks. As he jumped down from the defensive wall, the Sith thrust his empty hand out to the left and a massive shock-wave crashed into the ranks of the Fountain Snipers there, hurling them over the edge of the wall. A sniper fired at him from behind and without looking back, Callidus twisted his saber into a reverse grip and bounced the blaster bolt back to its source, the shot striking the riflewoman between the eyes.

“Stop in the name of the Queen!” a voice shouted as Callidus surged along the narrow length of the battlement. He snatched at the air and a guard was torn three feet off the ground, suspended just long enough for the Sith's saber to split her from naval to crown. Callidus gestured aside as if shooing a fly and the body hit the ground with a crunch, a matter of feet from Anxia and Malleus.

[A'na Eldhil]

Her body becomes harder to control as she fights me, a deflecting block executed sloppily as Anxia goes on the offensive. If I can just touch her...

It would be a good way to get Lilaena's hand cut off, if she were to reach forward now. We fly backwards as Anxia shoves, but I push back on our own body, feet skidding to a stop before we reach the crater. Lilaena is reading my intention, but I press her down and pull on her anger. She is angry at me now, but I use it anyway, picking up a nearby body with the Force and throwing it at Anxia. We follow with a spinning attack, lightsaber low and then high as we twirl in our deadly dance.

[Razielle Alastor]

The situation was quickly becoming harder to contain, even with her master eliminating a majority of the witnesses. It had already gone on too long, each additional moment only served to damage more of the foundation of the royal palace, releasing huge slabs of lava rock to crash down to Ta'a Chume'Dan below. The prolonged discharge of weapons fire, and the unconventional cause of it, was information that could even now be traveling to the ears of the regent. Her. She had no choice but to finish Malleus quickly, and return.

The body was thrown at her with all the discipline of an angry toddler with a broken toy. Anxia still remained rooted to her position, still unwilling to give an inch of ground. The Dark side was with her, guiding her shoulder to roll backward, and her hips to twist as the bulk of the body passed her by. The followup spinning attack from her opponent however, showed much more finesse.

Anxia would stop and admire it later when Malleus was dead.

She gave up her position to propel herself up and backward, gracefully done as if unseen hands had lifted her up on a gust of air, floating her to set her back down gently, several feet away. If Malleus wanted to consider it a retreat, let her bask in her glory. Let her keep coming right where she was being led.. The Hapan's had already been given enough of a peek behind the curtain. It was time to end the show.

A section of wall above them was collapsing, owing to the ground slipping away beneath it. Reaching out with her left hand, Anxia gestured, pulling on the whole unstable segment. It gave a groan of warning, but little resistance as steel, rock and all came crashing toward Malleus. Crushing her would be timely, but Anxia was not counting on it. As the wreckage crashed all around her and dust was kicked up, she moved forward with her lightsaber in hand to finish it.

[Darth Callidus]

The strench of burned flesh and hung over the palace walls like a pall.

Vaulting over the battlements, the ground cracked beneath Callidus's feet as he landed in front of the palace gate. His back to the huge door, he felt guards swarming towards it – and so threw a hand out behind him, the Dark Side hauling chunks of shattered masonry and lifeless bodies alike into the doorway as an inelegant but effective barricade.

Ahead, shrouded in a cloud of dust, the blades of his apprentices twirled and flashed like an electrical storm.

“Lilaena.” His voice filled her thoughts, trying to tease out any part of her that might be able to regain control. He stood just outside the edge of the dust cloud, his hood thrown back to reveal his face as the horned monster (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?21826-Out-of-the-Shadows-8-326&p=364716&viewfull=1#post364716) of her nightmares.

[A'na Eldhil]

HE calls and she bucks against me, straining against her skin as the wall comes down on us. I thrust outward with the Force, creating a bubble of safety in time to save this body I am in.

We are buried alive, but the debris surrounding us is not so thick that I cannot break free. For now, however, I remain in relative safety, concentrating. The trance comes easily, and the guardswomen that still remain on the walls feel alive. Connected. Of one purpose.

They target the two Force users, the aid of my Battle Concentration coordinating their blaster bolts, and driving the pair away from the palace.

[Razielle Alastor]

Anxia had stopped picking her way through the wreckage when it became dense with heavy support beams and smoldering metal debris between her and the spot where Malleus had been. The remains of the destroyed wall were not the problem, she would have carved through them with her lightsaber and dragged the body out for verification given the chance.

Problems arose when sudden warning slithered up her spine, instinct tipping her backward as a blaster bolt would have impacted with the side of her white-cloaked head. The remaining Fountain Snipers had renewed their efforts to eliminate the threat, and something was giving them back the exceptional aim they were noted for, even against their own uncommon defenses. With both hands wrapped around her lightsaber, Anxia easily deflected the next bolts away from her, sending them speeding back with her best wishes. When one of the shots she knocked back at a guardswoman missed, she reached out with the Dark side and just yanked the woman forward. The guard fell the distance impaling upon one of the upright beams, sending out a spray of blood which Anxia made sure to shield herself from, lest the pretty Regent get a little dirty.

Her master had joined her, demonic and terrifying in his anger with his apprentice, who was alive somewhere under that wall for all they knew. The wreckage was starting to shift.. sliding backward toward the crater that had been blasted into the black basalt, courtesy the Fountain Gunners turret. Backward toward the cliffs beyond.

Anxia tilted her hooded head a fraction toward her master, but she already knew he'd agree. Lifting a gloved hand from her side, she started to shove.

[Darth Callidus]

Even through the cloud of dust and debris, the Fountain Snipers aim was true. Two bolts tore smoking holes through Callidus's cloak as he stalked toward his prey. Another pair caught him on the shoulder, pitching his torso forward as if he had been punched twice in the back – but the Sith Lord's step didn't falter. As the smell of burnt flesh reached his nostrils, he thrust clawed fingertips at the heap of wreckage ahead of him.

“I will bury you alive, A'na Eldhil,” his voice boomed into her mind, unobstructed by Lilaena's now broken mental defenses. The Dark Side hit the broken stone like a shock-wave, smaller fragments spraying away into the air while larger chunks gouged at the ground as they tumbled backwards towards the cliffs edge.

“And you will spend the rest of your wretched existence trapped inside this.. broken shell of your own making.”

[A'na Eldhil]

I hiss, feeling my temporary shelter/prison sliding as Callidus and Anxia leverage their strength against it. My cocoon of safety is being crushed, so I am forced to withdraw my assistance to the guards, concentrating on keeping Lilaena's body from being mushed to paste. When I hear the first stones tumbling off the cliff behind us, I scream, the Force rippling out from our body like a tidal wave, the rocks shifting and spraying out in all directions.

Suddenly freed, I see Callidus near, and leap over the still tumbling stones, stretching for him. The mask is just an illusion, beneath it is flesh, I will have him and his power and then the galaxy will tremble.

"Salemescro," the name is hissed between clenched teeth.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville felt her body reaching for Callidus, the essence of A'na straining against her skin. Her dead master was careless, ignoring lightsabers and blasters as she charged, to wrap up the Sith lord in an embrace.

No!

Lilaena clawed up from the deep, biting into the foreign presence with frenzied savagery, and in her inward struggle her body lurched to a stop.

[Razielle Alastor]

It was like watching a mythical demon refuse to be dragged back down into Hell's depths. Just when Anxia was sure the crazed apprentice would be put down, Malleus sprung free from the cage of debris, lunging for their master. From within the other Sith, Anxia sensed something. Something slippery and dark, cold and revolting. A sickness that seemed to want to expel itself, retch itself free from her body like an infection, And her hands were reaching for Callidus.

Without hesitation, Anxia reached for the steel beam the still bore the impaled body of the Fountain Sniper. Glaring at it with the anger she bore her fellow apprentice, the beam lifted into the air, rotating around. With direction from the gloved hand unburdened by her lightsaber, she angled the beam for the center of other woman's unprotected chest and then pushed, unrelenting as the force of a machine, designed for the purpose of cleaning the debris from the cliff side, and over the edge.

[Darth Callidus]

Malleus froze.

The fury and hunger in her eyes was gone in an instant, replaced by panic and confusion. As if she had woken from a nightmare to discover that the real world was far more terrible than anything that her imagination could conjure. Had she won the battle against the spirit of their long-dead master, or was this a fleeting moment of lucidity?

It didn't matter. It was too late now, much too late.

Callidus stood alongside Anxia, channeling his power into a shadowy shell that protected the two of them from the dozens of blaster bolts screaming down from the Fountain Palace battlements.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She felt the hardening of Callidus' heart as he turned from her and protected Anxia, and then the beam slammed into her chest. Ribs cracked and broke. She was swept over the edge in an instant, the light in her eyes fading as she fell.

[Razielle Alastor]

Anxia did not want that to be the end. She wanted to pursue. Vault over the side of the cliff, follow the body to make sure it stayed dead. One pass of her violet blade through that soft neck and her master could add another head to his collection. The excitement of such a deed flashed in her violet eyes for only a moment. The continual blaster fire raining down at them from above reminded her that there were other priorities to see to as well. Still... She hated to leave it unfinished, not when her master's apprentice-gone-mad had come after her at least, maybe her daughter as well. One last rage filled shove encouraged the remains of the ruined wall to follow the body, crashing down after it.

Turning away from the sight, she shot a look of disgust in the general direction of her own Fountain Gunners. It had not been their efforts that had held back the attack. They would have been a temporary deterrent at best, no match against the Force. In the end, what they had accomplished was to destroyed their own foundations, along with who knew how much of the city below.

Safe within the shield of her master's design, she marched back the way she had come. Still, those on the other side of the gate were working to clear the barricade of rubble and bodies from before the gate, in an effort to push through. Passing it she nodded her head in the direction of the black basalt walls the palace was built upon, and the tunnel she had emerged from. Once they were within, from outside, it would be nearly impossible to detect, but that was not a chance she would take either. The entrance had been exposed and it must be destroyed.. but not until they were inside.

[Darth Callidus]

A pause.

Callidus did not move, empty eyes fixed on the spot where only moments ago Malleus had stood.

The ground shook beneath his feet as bolt after bolt punched into the ground. There was no moment of silence to mark Lilaena De'Ville's fall, no sigh of relief and laying down of weapons. To the figures amassed on and around the Fountain Palace, the threat remained.

Callidus pushed his senses outward, stretching his awareness over the edge of the black cliff and down into the drop below. The Force shivered with the panic and fury of thousands of minds, looking up at him from the city below. He had worked in the darkness for so many years, his power concealed beneath a polished façade. This – this was how it felt to be seen, to be feared.

For an intoxicating moment, the feeling gripped him, caught his breath in his throat -

A beat - and Callidus exhaled. There was no time to dwell on it.

He sharpened the focus of his minds eye, searching for any sign that Lilaena had survived.

“We are all that remains,” A'na had told him, once. “The three of us. We are... pallbearers and the weight we carry is too much for any one of us to bear alone.”

“She isn't strong enough,” the boy said.

“And what is your strength compared to mine, Salemescro? If she is weak to you, then what are you to me? We are Jedi. Our strength is not measured by the bruises our fists can leave behind.”

The boy said nothing, sullen as he averted his white eyes. A'na looked away too, at the small sleeping shape on the cot to their left. “Her spirit is stronger than you think.”

He felt – nothing. Frowning beneath the misty illusion of his mask, Callidus turned from the cliffs edge. Anxia stalked ahead, white cloak streaming behind her. With a wordless gesture, she indicated how she had stolen out of the palace. As they reached the turret, the deaths head mask became translucent over Salem's features, though the hollows beneath his eyes looked no less deep or dark in its absence.

“Get to the vaults beneath the palace. Take guards with you, kill them, then lock yourself inside.”

[Razielle Alastor]

Anxia turned back to look at her master for a moment, stood over the edge of the cliffs, over the destruction of Ta'a Chume'Dan. Even the perpetual light of the Hapes Consortium could do nothing about this shadow. He could not be dispelled, or chased away by their pitiful glitter. This shadow would only grow to cover them all...

Stepping into the black interior of the tunnel running beneath the palace, Anxia stopped in her tracks to look over her shoulder, toward the sound of his voice. She didn't say anything, not quite trusting herself to speak her anger was still so great, but there was a definite question in the displeasure written on her pale face. For a moment she thought he might not join her. Perhaps intent on the very same goal she'd just entertained? A head. The gruesome turn of her thoughts was stilled a moment later when her Callidus did follow a step behind her.

It was going to be a shame to lose this exit. It was quite cleverly concealed to look like any other section of the black basalt, but it was also not a risk she would keep now that it had become exposed. Reaching the end of the tunnel presented them with a dead end. Pressing her hand to a pressure sensitive point, the wall slid away with the sound of stone grating against stone, putting them in a service corridor. She was where she should be. From here she could find an ill-favored security detail and the vaults.

First, the passage.

The rock was naturally porous, relatively soft as mineral went and already it had been bored into to create this corridor through to the outside. It would not take much effort to collapse the entire length of it, but the sound would draw more guards to this location, so they would have to do it and then be gone, or lose more of her... people.. Stepping into the light, she pulled the hood from her head. Stretching outward with her senses she could detect where the tunnels natural weak points were.. Soft, unprotected, like flesh exposed beneath inferior armor. Gritting her teeth with the strain of her fury, she attacked those same points sending reverberations into the stone, causing it to crumble beneath her will.

[Darth Callidus]

A guard chanced down the corridor to their left and cried out in surprise at the sight of the two robed figures. Callidus snatched at the air. The Force locked like a vice around the guardswoman's throat and tore her into the air. She had time enough to make a strangled gasp before Callidus gestured towards the collapsing tunnel and tossed her underneath the collapsing rock. Huge chunks of black stone bore down on her, her polished helmet and breastplate caving inward and cutting into her flesh. A wet crunch sounded as her nose broke and then she was gone, buried beneath the rubble.

The woman's horror at the moment of her death was palpable, a flash of fear that Callidus breathed like air. It mingled in his chest, coalesced with his anger, and the Dark Side surged through him stronger.

The claws of one hand reached out towards the tunnel, their work was almost done.

“I'll finish this. Go.”

[Razielle Alastor]

Anixa heard and would obey, but it was not what she wanted.

What she wanted was to step up to his back and to press her body close to Callidus, to better feel the sensations rolling off him in potent waves. This was not some training exercise completed in the jungles of Iziz in the dark of night, a taste of things to come. This was her master brought to the light of the Consortium, his power exposed, his wrath made manifest upon his polluted apprentice and the Hapan's alike. She did not want to leave his side, she wanted to wrap herself around him, and bask in the emotions empowering them both, let them fill her. Consume her.

She allowed herself no more than the brush of her fingers across his back as she passed, a wordless promise.

Chume'la Alastor donned an expression of consternation, putting a bit of a stagger in her graceful steps as she made her way with fearful haste deeper beneath the palace. Rounding a corner placed her in the path of a squadron of Chume'doro.

They were not her Select Commando's, the Queen Mother's Sons that she knew each of them by name and face, but nonetheless each of her Hapan Royal guard had given their oaths to both herself, and Beatrix. "Erenada! You have no equal, and I have no life beyond you. My eyes, my hands, my heart, and my blade will kill and die in your service."

Each of the tall, strong, capable women before her had so sworn, and she would make sure they made good on their promise to die for her..

"Erenada!" The Major of the squad came forward, motioning for two of her officers to follow her and form a protective flank around the Queen Regent.

"We are relieved to find you unharmed, Chume'la. Ta'a Chume'Dan is under attack, you must be brought to safety. Users of for'ta may even now be inside the palace walls." The Major informed her as she was ushered along in their protective circle toward the sealed vaults of Per'Agthra.

"I know..."

There was a bright illumination of violet light. The sounds of shouting, confusion, blaster fire...

And then nothing.

[Darth Callidus]

The sound of blaster-fire no longer echoed along the corridors of the Fountain Palace, replaced instead by the calls of guardswomen and men alike. Callidus stood perfectly still, listening and hearing it all as if he were at shadow at their heels. What he heard was nothing short of chaos.

Silent steps carried the Sith Lord further into the palace. He halted at an intersection in the corridors, hearing the clatter of footsteps as a dozen Chume'doro came towards him. Bearing golden swords and pole-arms, their eyes were full of fierce fire.

Callidus took a step backwards into cover. He grasped the Force in both hands and then, releasing it as if it were a pair of grenades, sprung up to the ceiling. The Chume'doro passed beneath him, aware of the shadow clinging to the crystalline light-fitting some twenty feet above.

He moved unseen, unheard. The Dark Side coiled around him like a cloak, pushing away the eyes of those who had the misfortune to cross his path. If they caught sight of him it was only for an instant, before their eyes and minds recoiled and they charged on in search of their phantom foe.

He found the throne room abandoned, save for two women guarding the monumental doors. Both had their swords drawn and were talking in quick, hushed voices. Callidus stole into the space behind them. He reached around the body of the first, grabbing hold of her wrist and twisting her arm. She gasped and as she sucked in the breath, Callidus slid the tip of her sword up beneath her ribcage with a wet crunch.

Suddenly aware of a shadow where there had been no one before, the second Chume'doro staggered backwards with both hands locked on the hilt of her sword, knuckles white. Callidus shoved the body in his arms away. Dark blood soaked through the royal blue of the dead guards uniform.

The doors to the Queen Mother's throne room were designed to be opened by many hands. An intricate mechanism built into the palace walls demanded that guards both within and without were present to allow anyone to pass into or out of the sacred chamber. It was an elaborate lock and some said that the master locksmith who had crafted it had been executed once his work was complete, to ensure that no one would ever know his creations secrets.

With hands spread wide and fingers splayed, the Sith Lord pushed his palms against the doors to the Hapan throne room and though he did not smile, he felt a cold sense of satisfaction as the doors swung inward. He turned his head just enough that she could see beneath his hood and she gaped at what she saw.

Hollow white eyes stared back at her.

“Come,” he commanded and she obeyed.

***

Later, when the panic had subsided, the doors to the throne room were opened once again.

A captain of the Chume'doro took a step inside and gave a silent signal for her sisters to join her. The women looked up and down the length of the huge hall as if they were seeing it for the first time. Ordinarily, courtiers and guards alike would crowd along the walls that lead to the dais upon which the royal throne stood. Without the throng of servants and admirers, the hall was cavernous in its emptiness and the throne seemed a great distance away.

The throne.

Even from the opposite of the room, they could see that it was not unoccupied.

A woman with dark hair and pale eyes. Her palms lay on the arms of the throne as she sat upright and rigid. Her posture was regal, her head held high. Her chin angled upwards, revealing the long deep cut to her throat. Her helmet still sat atop her head, but the metal had been warped and torn into a hideous crown. The twisted metal dug into her skin, thin red rivers spilling down over her face and joining the blood overflowing from her neck.

The golden hilt of a sword protruded from her abdomen, pointing upwards.

The Chume'doro captain covered her mouth with a hand, holding the other up to stall the guards behind her. Her eyes tracked downward, from the grotesque arrangement to the floor.

There before them, carved into the stone and glowing like hot coals, were two words.


MENTIRA'N CHUME

Translated into Basic, they read:

QUEEN OF LIES